did. Tell the crew not to start waving swords and spears. We don’t want to make these folks nervous. Those woods are pretty close to the edge of that village, and I’d rather not sprout a dozen or so arrows while I’m trying to talk to the head-man of the village. Take the Seagull on into the bay, Ox, but we’ll drop anchor a little ways out from the beach. I’ll take the skiff and go a little bit closer and then stop. I expect the villagers’ll get my point. I want to talk, not to pick a fight.’
Ox grunted and eased the Seagull into the inlet. When she was about a hundred yards from the beach, he ordered the crew to drop anchor, and several crew-men lowered Hook-Beak’s skiff.
‘I’ll stay within bow-shot,’ the captain said to Ox, ‘but tell the crew to keep their weapons out of sight – unless things start getting sticky.’ Then he climbed over the side and lowered himself into his skiff. He set his oars in place, rowed in a ways, then stopped and waited.
Several people from the village came down to the beach, and they seemed to be holding some kind of discussion. Then a tall lean man with long blond braids and wearing leather clothing got into a kind of canoe, and the other villagers pushed the canoe into deeper water. Then the blond man paddled out to where Hook-Beak waited. He seemed to be very skilled at it. As he came closer and the men on the Seagull could see him more clearly, Sorgan felt a brief chill. This was obviously a man to be taken seriously. He was quite lean, and his face was hard. It was his eyes, however, that had so chilled the captain of the Seagull. There was a sort of determination there that Sorgan had seldom seen before. When this particular native wanted something, he would obviously go to any lengths to obtain it. Sorgan was fairly certain that it was time to tread very carefully.
‘What do you want?’ the stranger asked. He didn’t sound particularly belligerent, and Hook-Beak took that to be a good sign. He was just a bit surprised that the other man spoke the language of the Maags. That should make things a lot easier. ‘We aren’t here to cause any trouble, friend,’ he said. ‘We’re strangers in these parts, and we don’t know exactly where we are.’
‘This is the Land of Dhrall,’ the other man replied, ‘and this is the Domain of Zelana of the West. Does that answer your question?’
‘I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of Dhrall before,’ Sorgan said. ‘Of course, we’re a long way from home, and that might explain why. Is this Zelana your king, or something along those lines?’
‘Not exactly. You’ll be meeting her before long, I expect. You’re Sorgan Hook-Beak, aren’t you?’
‘How did you know that?’ Sorgan was startled.
‘Zelana of the West told us that you were coming. She said you wouldn’t know much about Dhrall, so I’m supposed to answer any questions you might have.’
‘How could she have possibly known that we were coming?’ Sorgan demanded. ‘We certainly didn’t intend to wander off this far from the Land of Maag.’
‘But a sea-current caught you and brought you here. Wasn’t that what happened?’
‘You seem to know a great deal about us, stranger, and I don’t even know your name yet.’
‘I was just getting to that, Sorgan Hook-Beak,’ the tall man said. ‘I am Longbow of the tribe of Old-Bear, and Zelana of the West instructed me to direct you to the village of White-Braid, Chief of the village and the tribe of Lattash. There are three tribes between here and Lattash, and they’ll build fires on the beach to guide you. You can count as far as three, can’t you?’
‘Of course I can.’ Sorgan was more than a little offended. ‘How is it that you came by the name “Longbow”?’
‘I’m somewhat taller than the other men of Old-Bear’s tribe, so my bow’s longer.’ He held up his bow to let Sorgan see it. He didn’t move it very fast, there was no arrow anywhere in sight, and he was not holding it as if he intended to use it. Both Longbow and Sorgan were being careful not to make any quick moves, since there were probably several dozen arrows pointed at them right now.
‘Nicely crafted bow,’ Sorgan observed.
‘It does what I want it to do,’ Longbow said modestly. ‘It hasn’t yet missed at any range.’
Sorgan assumed that the blond man was boasting, but he sounded so sincere that it wasn’t entirely certain. ‘Just how far south is this Lattash place?’ he asked.
‘As far as a man can walk in ten days,’ Longbow replied. ‘After you pass the fires on the beach, you’ll come to a narrow inlet that leads into a fairly large bay. Lattash stands at the head of that bay, and Zelana awaits you at Lattash.’
Sorgan squinted at the water, making some calculations in his head. ‘I’m just guessing, but I’d say that the Seagull – that’s my ship over there – should make it in three days.’
‘I wouldn’t take much longer, if I were you,’ Longbow advised. ‘Zelana’s impatient, and you don’t want to irritate her. I’m supposed to ask you if the word “gold” has any meaning for you.’
‘Oh, yes!’ Sorgan replied fervently.
‘I wouldn’t know myself, but Zelana told me to say “gold” to you. Have you enough food and water for three days? I don’t think Zelana will let you stop again on your way south.’
‘How’s she going to stop me?’
‘I don’t think you really want to know, Sorgan Hook-Beak. We’ll probably meet again, but for right now you’d better move along as quickly as you can. Things will go better if you do.’
‘Did he have any weapons aside from that bow, Cap’n?’ Ox asked when Sorgan returned to the Seagull.
‘He had a bundle of arrows, and a spear in the bottom of the canoe,’ Sorgan replied. ‘He didn’t touch it, but it was right out in the open where I could see it. I’m pretty sure he wanted me to know it was there. The funny thing about it was that the spear-point wasn’t iron. It’d been made from stone instead.’
‘The people who eat other people in the Land of Shaan make their tools and weapons out of stone, too,’ Ox said. ‘That don’t make me feel none too comfortable, Cap’n. Just the idea of getting et makes me go cold all over.’
‘I don’t think these people are that kind, Ox,’ Sorgan said. ‘The fellow in the canoe seemed to be almost friendly. He knew my name, and he wanted to be sure we had enough food and water on board. There’s a place called Lattash about three days south of here, and there’s a woman named Zelana there who wants to talk with us. Longbow told me that there might be gold involved in the discussion. That sort of suggests that the Zelana woman wants to hire people who know how to fight, and she’ll pay good gold to get them.’
‘I ain’t about to start taking no orders from no woman, Cap’n,’ Ham-Hand protested.
‘Don’t worry about it, Ham-Hand,’ Sorgan told him. ‘You’ll take your orders from me, just like always. I’ll be the one who deals with this Zelana woman. Hoist up the sail, and let’s
