Kta opened his hands, a gesture of entreaty. “You think I lie to you these things?”
“How could I know? I know nothing but what you tell me. So tell me in plain words that I can trust you.”
“I am of Elas,” Kta said, frowning, as if that was accustomed to be word enough; but when Kurt continued to stare at him: “Kurt, I swear this beneath the light of heaven, and this is a holy word. It is truth.”
“All right,” said Kurt. “Then I will do what you tell me and I won’t cause trouble. Only what is the place where; we’re going?”
“Nephane.”
“Is that a city?”
Kta frowned thoughtfully. “Yes, it is a city, the city of the east. It rules from Tamur-mouth to the Yvorst Ome, the sea of ice.”
“Is there a city of the west?”
The frown deepened. “Yes,” he said. “Indresul.” Then he; turned and walked away, leaving Kurt to wonder what he’ had done to trouble the nemet.
By midday they were within sight of port. A long bar\ receded into the shoreline, and at the back of it was a great upthrust of rock. At the base of this crag and on its
gently rising side were buildings and walls, hazy with distance, all the way to the crest.
“Bel-ifhan,” Kurt hailed Kta’s lieutenant, and the narrow-eyed officer stopped and bowed, although he had been going elsewhere in apparent haste. “Bel-ifhan, taen Nephane?”
“Lus,” Bel agreed and pointed to the promontory. “Taen Afen, sthages Methine.”
Kurt looked at the crag Bel called Afen and did not understand.
“Methi,” said Bel, and when he still did not understand, the young officer shrugged helplessly. “Ktas unnehta,” he said. “Ktas, uleh?”
He left. They were going in. Somewhere aft, Bel shouted an order and men ran to their stations to bring in the sail, hauling it up to the yard. The long oars were run out and they dipped together, sweeping the ship toward the now-visible dock at the foot of the cliffs, where a shoreside settlement nestled against the walls.
“Kurt.”
Kurt glanced from his view of the bay to the face of Kta, who had joined him at the bow.
“Bel says you have question.”
“I’m sorry. I tried to talk to him. I didn’t mean he should bother you. It wasn’t that important.”
The nemet turned one hand outward, a shrug. “Is no difficulty. Bel manages. I am not necessary. What think you of Nephane?”
“Beautiful,” Kurt said, and it was. “Those buildings at the top-Afen, Bel called it.”
“Fortress. The Fortress of Nephane.”
“A fortress against what enemy? Humans?”
Again a little crease of a frown appeared between Kta’s wide-set eyes. “You surprise me. You are not Tamurlin. Your ship destroyed, your friends dead, you say. But what want you among us?”
“I know nothing. I’m lost. I’ve trusted you. And if I can’t trust your given word, then I don’t know anything.”
“I don’t lie, Kurt Morgan. But you try hard not to answer my question. Why do you come to us?”
A crowd was on the docks, gaily colored clothing a kaleidoscope in the sunlight. The oars rumbled inboard as the ship glided in, making conversation impossible for the moment. Pan was poised near them with the mooring cable, ready to cast it to the men at the dock.
“Why,” asked Kurt, “do you think I should know my way in this world?”
“The others, they knew.”
“The… others?”
“The new humans. The-”
Kta’s voice trailed off, for Kurt backed from him. The nemet suddenly looked frightened, opened his hands in appeal to him. “Kurt,” he protested, “wait. No. We take-”
Kurt caught him by surprise, drove his fist to the nemet’s jaw and vaulted the rail, even as the ship shuddered against the dock.
He hit the water arid water went up his nose at the impact, and again when something hit him, the gliding hull of the ship itself.
Then he made himself quit fighting and drifted, wrapped in the darkening green of the sea, a swift and friendly dark. It was hard to move against the weight of the water. In another moment vision and sense went out together.