her arm and bobbing his head to her.
‘Please, Dalla, won’t you take a little stroll with me? Oh, by the gods who live in the Moon, I’ve dreamt about you every night for weeks.’
‘Have you?’ Dallandra shook her arm free. ‘Then maybe you’ve been drinking too much Eldidd mead before you go to bed. Try taking a herbal purgative.’
‘How can one so lovely be so cruel? I’d die for you. I’ll do anything you say, fight a thousand Round-ears or ride along to hunt down the fiercest boar! Please, won’t you give me some quest? Something dangerous, and I’ll do it or die all for your sake.’
‘What a lard-head you can be!’
‘If I talk like a madman, it’s because I’m mad all for the love of you. Haven’t I loved you for years? Have I ever looked at another woman in all that time? Haven’t I brought you gifts from down in Eldidd? Please, won’t you walk with me a little way? If I die for lack of your kisses, my blood will be on your head.’
‘And if I get a headache from listening to you babble, then the pain will be in my head, too. Cal, the alardan’s full of prettier women than me. Go find one and seduce her, will you?’
‘Oh, by the gods!’ Calonderiel tossed his head, his violet eyes flashing with something like rage. ‘Doesn’t love mean anything to you?’
‘About as much as meat means to a deer, but I don’t like to see you unhappy. We’ve been friends for ever so long, since we were children, truly.’
Just seventy that year, Calonderiel was a handsome man, tall even for one of the People, towering a full head above her, his hair so pale it seemed white in the summer sun and his eyes as deep-set as a dark pool among shade-trees. Yet Dallandra found the thought of him kissing her – or worse yet, caressing her- as repellent as the thought of biting into meat and finding a maggot.
‘Besides,’ she went on, ‘how would your pack of friends take it if I chose you?’
‘They’d have to take it. We threw knuckle-bones to see who’d get the first chance to court you, and I won.’
‘You what?’ Dallandra slapped him so hard across the face that he reeled back. ‘You beast! You gut-sucking sheep-worm! Am I supposed to be flattered by that?’
‘Of course you are. I mean, aren’t you glad to have four men all ready to die for you?’
‘Not if they dice over me first like a piece of Eldidd ironware.’
‘I didn’t mean it like that!’
‘Horse turds.’
When Dallandra started to walk away, he grabbed her arm again, bobbing his head and ducking before her like a bird drinking from a stream.
‘Please, wait! At least tell me this: is there someone you love more than me? If you do then I’ll ride off with a broken heart, but I’ll ride.’
‘Since I don’t love you at all it wouldn’t be hard to find someone I loved more, but actually, I haven’t even looked. Why don’t you believe me, you cloud-brain? I don’t love you. I don’t love anyone. I don’t want to get myself a man. Plain truth. No more to say. There you are.’
Rage flared in his eyes.
‘I don’t believe it. Come on, tell me: what can I do to make you love me?’
She was about to swear at him, then had a better idea.
‘I’ll never love any man who isn’t my match in magic.’
‘What a rotten thing to say! What man’s ever going to match you? That’s a woman’s art.’
‘It doesn’t have to be.’ Dallandra gave him a small smile. ‘A man could learn it, too – if he had the guts, and most of you don’t.’
This time, when Dallandra shook free and walked on, Cal stayed behind, savagely kicking at a tuft of grass with the toe of his boot. She hurried on to the lakeshore, where Nananna and Halaberiel were sitting in the long grass in the shade of a willow tree, their heads together and talking urgently.
‘I’ve asked the banadar to do us a small favour,’ Nananna said. ‘Concerning yesterday’s vision.’
‘Of course I’ll go look for this man, Wise One. I’ll take my escort with me, too.’ He thought for a moment. ‘Let’s see – The last of the Round-ear merchants is still here. I could ask him if he’s seen anything of a stranger.’
‘No,’ Nananna said. ‘I know this is only making your task harder, Banadar, but I’d prefer that you speak to the Round-ears as little as possible.’
Halaberiel shot her a troubled glance, then nodded his agreement.
‘Take Cal with you, will you?’ Dallandra broke in. ‘I want him out of my sight.’
‘Oh, now, now.’ Halaberiel gave her an infuriatingly paternal smile. ‘He’s a decent boy, really, if you’d only give him a chance.’
When Dallandra crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him, Halaberiel hastily looked away and made the sign against the evil eye with his fingers. Although the evil eye was only a myth, most dweomerfolk found it a useful one.
‘Very well, Cal will ride with me,’ Halaberiel said. ‘Now, about this Round-ear we’re fetching, can you give me a sign to look for, O Wise One?’
‘Come to my tent after dark. I’ll give you a riddle to ask him, too, just to make sure you’ve cut the horse out of the herd of cows.’
‘Good.’ Halaberiel rose, bobbing his head at her. ‘Shall I escort you to your tent?’
‘No, but thank you. I think I’ll take a bit of sun.’
Nananna waited until the banadar was out of ear-shot before she spoke.
‘And why are you breaking poor Cal’s heart?’
‘I don’t love him.’
‘Very well, then, but there’s nothing wrong with you finding a nice young man to keep you warm in the winter.’
Dallandra wrinkled her nose and shuddered. Nananna laughed, patting Dallandra gently on the arm with one frail hand.
‘Whatever you want, child. But a cold heart may find it hard to work magic as it grows older and more chill.’
‘Oh, maybe so, but I hate it when they hang around me, yapping like dogs around a bitch in heat! Sometimes I wish I’d been born ugly.’
‘It might have been easier, but the Goddess of the Clouds gave you beauty, and doubtless for some reason of her own. I wouldn’t argue with Her now that you have it.’
That night was the first in what promised to be a long series of feasts. Each alar made up a huge quantity of a single dish and set it out in front of their tents – Dallandra stewed up a vast pot of dried vegetables heavily spiced with Bardek curries – and the People drifted from one alar to another, sampling
