Later, Niobe sleeping beside him, Sieben sat in the moonlight thinking about the woman in the tomb. Who was she and for what crime had she been executed, he wondered? She was a sorceress, of that there was no doubt. Her killers had gone to great lengths – and greater cost – to destroy her.
Niobe stirred beside him.,’Can you not sleep, po-et?’
‘I was thinking about the dead woman.’
‘For why?’
‘I don’t know. It was a cruel way to die, blinded, chained and left alone in a volcanic cave. Brutal and vicious. And why did they bring her here, to this desolate place? Why hide the body?’
Niobe sat up. ‘Where does the sun go to sleep?’ she asked. ‘Where are the bellows of the winds? Why do you ask yourself questions you cannot answer?’
Sieben smiled and kissed her. ‘That is how knowledge is gained,’ he said. ‘People asking questions for which there are no immediate answers. The sun does not sleep, Niobe. It is a great ball of fire in the heavens, and this planet is a smaller ball spinning round it.’ She looked at him quizzically, but said nothing. ‘What I am trying to say is that there are always answers even if we cannot see them right away. The woman in that cave was rich, probably high-born, a princess or a queen. The medallion I found has two heads engraved upon it, a man and a woman. Both have Nadir or Chiatze features.’
‘Show me.’
Sieben took the medallion from his pouch and dropped it into her hand. The moonlight was bright, and Niobe studied the heads. ‘She was very lovely. But she was not Nadir.’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘The writings on the lon-tsia. They are Chiatze; I have seen the symbols before.’
‘Can you read what it says?’
‘No.’ She passed it back to him.
‘What did you call it? A lon-tsia?’
‘Yes. It is a love gift. Very expensive. Two would have been made for the wedding. The man is her husband, and her lon-tsia would have been worn with the man’s head facing inward, over her heart. He would wear his in the reverse way, her head upon his heart. Old Chiatze custom – but only for the rich.’
‘Then I wonder what happened to her husband.’
Niobe leaned in close. ‘No more questions, po-et,’ she whispered. ‘I shall sleep now.’ Sieben lay down beside her. Her fingers stroked his face, then slid over his chest and belly.
‘I thought you said you wanted sleep?’
‘Sleep is always better after love-making.’
By the afternoon of the following day the group came to the last outcrop of rocks before the steppes. Nuang sent out scouts, and the last of the water was doled out to the women and children. Druss, Nuang and the boy, Meng, climbed the rocks and scanned the bleak, apparently empty steppes. There was no sign of any enemy.
After an hour the scouts returned to report that the Lancers had moved on. The riders had followed their tracks to a water-hole in a deep gully, which had been drunk dry and was now deserted.
Nuang led his weary people to the hole, and there made camp. ‘They have no patience, these gajin,’ he told Druss as they stood beside the mud-churned water-hole. ‘It is a seep, and yet they allowed their horses to ride into it. Had they waited and taken only a little water at a time, it would have fully nourished both men and mounts. Now? Ha! Their horses will have barely wet their tongues, and will be useless to them by sunset.’
Several of the Nadir women began digging in the mud and the gravel below, slowly clearing the hole. Then they sat back and waited. After an hour the small seep began to fill.
Later Nuang sent out scouts once more. They returned an hour before dusk. Nuang spoke to them, then moved to where Druss and Sieben were saddling their horses. ‘The gajin have cut to the north-west. My men saw a great cloud of dust there. They rode as close as they dared – and saw an army on the march. For why is an army here? What is here for them to fight?’