End

Chapter 8

Nuë set her basket on her hip. Mihel had left her much more money than she would need, and she wanted to go to the marketplace to get blue yarn because she'd run out. As usual, as soon as she stepped out of the room in the morning, Carin, Vassi's house servant, was immediately there, making sure she was well.

"Gold beauty, Nuë," Vassi cried from the morning table in the language Sideans spoke, seeing her, grinning, greeting her. "You are like the very sun itself you are so beautiful."

Vassi called her beautiful whenever he saw her. She knew that he introduced her sometimes as his daughter and sometimes as his niece, because he told her so. For all Nuë knew, Vassi introduced her as his own wife. She didn't speak any of these languages.

"Good morning, Vassi," Nuë said.

"Bello!" Vassi called, seeing the basket, speaking a long string of nonsense words when a man arrived, a large curved sword at his side.

Bello was her guardian, a person almost as large as Mihel and who she suspected was from the barbarian tribes in the south, the Mishtë, a menacing people. He had never spoken that she had heard, not even to Vassi, and he didn't look at her.

But if someone approached her in the caravanserai, Bello would be in front of her in a moment, and he oversaw every transaction Nuë conducted, all with her hands, pointing, holding up fingers.

Only Vassi spoke her language. Nuë avoided the Sideans who came here, going inside when she saw them and not coming out until they left.

#

"How long until you return?" she had asked Mihel in the courtyard. Luta had been loading packs onto the horses, both of them ready to leave shortly after they had arranged her protection. Her chest was aching. She didn't say his name. She was aware Vassi was watching them, aware he could hear.

"I don't know, my light," Mihel said. "Two weeks, maybe. Don't be afraid if it's three or four weeks. It just means we're delayed. No more than four weeks."

She had looked up at him, thinking of the sorcerer, all her fault. She had told herself she wouldn't cry, but she did anyway, Mihel cupping her face, brushing his thumbs on her cheeks. "Don't leave me alone in this world," she said. When it was time, she had stepped away, getting control. She drew herself up. "I'm ready. Go kill this dog."

Luta was waiting with the horses. "Don't fear, little sister. We'll be back soon," Luta said, Mihel mounting his horse.

"Be so careful," she said to Luta.

"What's the fun in that?" Luta said, turning his horse.

Mihel had looked back once before he left the courtyard, his eyes meeting hers. When he was gone and she couldn't see him anymore, Nuë had turned, going into the residence and to her room.

She hadn't come out until much later, after it was dark, when the servant who attended Vassi, a man named Carin, had scratched lightly on the door. He had motioned, inviting her to dine with Vassi, all communicated in gesture.

Nuë had come to the table, her eyes swollen.

Vassi had frowned. "Ah, gold beauty, it hurts to see you crying. You don't worry. He's a big scary person, that one, like a mountain but more unfriendly. Soon he will come to you."

Vassi had sat and talked at her the whole meal in her language, his speech sometimes difficult to understand, Nuë finally smiling and then laughing to hear him speak.

"Tell me how you meet a large person like this one, so unlike your sweet self who is so beautiful and your smile," Vassi had said.

"He came to my tribe," Nuë answered. "I didn't know him at first."

"You knew him from another times before?"

"Yes."

"How does a young beauty like you know an old one like him, sour and a threat?"

"He knew my light," Nuë answered.

Vassi had blinked. "What is the light?" he said, shaking his head.

"My spirit. He has known me before for hundreds of years. I came back to him."

"He brought you from the dead?" Vassi said uneasily.

"No. My spirit came back to be with him. I was born in a new body. He saw my light and found me."

"How long are you gone from him?"

"Four hundred years," Nuë answered.

Vassi was staring at her. "He likes you, I think. Once, I was married. I got away from her," he said. "If she comes back, I would run for four hundred years in the other way to stay alone."

Nuë laughed, Vassi laughing with her.

"Now, you, so sweet when you laugh, gold beauty," Vassi said, "I see why that big threat comes back and finds you again."

After that, except for having supper with Vassi, Nuë stayed in her room. There was a small balcony, and she sat and watched the courtyard and all the people. Vassi was often among them, his big booming voice.

At supper on the fourth evening, Vassi's eyes were sharp on her at dinner. "You're too sad now, waiting for your big scary lover who treats you so gentle. What do you do? What do you like?"

"In what way?"

"Do you sew like a Heltas woman? Do you make a basket to sell in the market?"

"I can weave, but I don't have a loom," she said.

The next day, Nuë found Carin at her door, carrying a big awkward loom, Nuë exclaiming to see it. It was larger than any one she had ever worked on, but the principle was the same. Nuë went to find Vassi, who was having breakfast with guests. She saw it and stepped back, trying to fade away.

"Gold beauty!" Vassi cried, seeing her, gesturing her in. "Come and sit, meet these good people."

Nuë came in, nodding to them, feeling self-conscious being introduced to three men. They sometimes spoke to her, but only Vassi knew her language, and he translated. When Nuë had a chance, she leaned forward, smiling. "Thank you so much, Vassi, for the loom. It's beautiful."

Vassi beamed at her, reaching over and patting her hand, saying something to the other men, who nodded.

She stood up, nodding to them, meeting their eyes. "It was nice to meet you."

"They don't know how I ever get one so sweet with me in my house," Vassi said to her, laughing, seeing the mens' faces. "I tell them you're my niece."

After that, Vassi called for her whenever he had guests.

#

Nuë went with Bello to the market for yarn, finding beautiful colors, smiling at the merchants.

Vassi came over, speaking to the merchant and then to her. "I tell him he doesn't cheat you because you don't know any language," Vassi said. Vassi turned to the merchant, issuing forth with a long string of words, the merchant glancing at her and nodding. "He's giving you good price." Vassi said, seeing others, yelling the way he did, and off he went, his voice booming across the space, his arms spreading wide, greeting them.

Days went by, a week since Mihel and Luta had left her here. Nuë sat at her loom, watching Vassi in the courtyard. It did help to give her something to do. She sang Sidean songs, working the crossbars, pushing the wedge with her foot. She was making a traditional Sidean tapestry, woven shapes in bright colors with birds and horses.

She turned one day, hearing something, to find Vassi in the doorway, Carin behind him. Nuë rose, but Vassi waved at her, assuring her. She sat down again.

"Carin is here because I'm in your room, you see? I was worried you don't come out. We scratch at the door, but you are singing, you don't hear. I listen sometimes to your song down there where I can't hear it so good. Let me see what you make for all this time you work."

Nuë nodded, motioning, Vassi coming and looking at the tapestry, only partly finished.

Vassi's eyebrows went up. "This is very nice. I like this very much. Very nice, you make this, it's a thing I like. You keep working."

"Thank you, Vassi," she called after him as he left.

"You're welcome, gold beauty who is sweet," he called back.

#

On her ninth day here. Nuë was crossing the courtyard toward the marketplace when she felt it, crying out. She found herself on her knees, looking at her wrists, which were burning, the blue glowing, and then it was gone. She was staring down at them, terrified they might fade as if they had never been there.

Mihel. She didn't know what it meant, but it didn't feel like it was a good thing. She got up, staggering, and Bello was there. She looked up at his face and he went sideways. Nuë's vision going dark, not seeing anything around her. She was confused, lost in the lights.

"Gold beauty," someone said.

"I can't find them," Nuë said, panicking. "They're not here."

"What is not there?" Vassi said, alarmed.

"The threads, Vassi!" she cried, sitting up. "I can't find the threads."

"What threads? What is wrong?" Vassi said.

Nuë could see again, coming back from wherever she had been, the confusion fading. She was sitting on a couch, Vassi over her looking worried, Bello watching.

"You're back in your mind, gold beauty?" Vassi said a little warily. "Bello is carrying you back here. What happens?"

"I don't know," Nuë said, breathing fast. "I can feel him, Vassi, sometimes, when his feelings are strong. Things that happen, when he's hurt. I think I would know if he--" She couldn't finish. "I think that something happened to him," she said, her voice wavering.

"You don't know that," Vassi said.

Nuë put her feet over the side. "I want to go and to find him."

Vassi reached out and touched her hand, Nuë looking at him. He smiled at her. "You like me, right, Nuë?"

She was surprised. "Yes, Vassi. You've been kind to me."

"What do you think that big threat you marry will do he comes here and you're off finding him alone? You think he sits for wine and smiles or you think he will turn my insides so they are on my outsides?"

Nuë opened her mouth, thinking of Mihel. She leaned back. "All right, Vassi."

Vassi nodded. "Let me tell you what to do. You say to yourself that he is good until you know something else."

"I--"

"You're not listening," he said. "You don't know. Waiting is not easy. This is what he asks you to do. While you wait, you don't know. Soon, you will know, but not now. Why hurt before you need to? Why hurt if you don't ever have to?"

Nue exhaled, nodding.

#

The days passed, and Nuë tried. When she first got into bed at night was always the worst time, lying awake, wondering if Mihel was somewhere thinking about her. She couldn't feel him. She hadn't felt anything from him since her bracelets had burned.

Exactly two weeks from the day Nuë had come to stay with Vassi, she was in the courtyard in the early morning. Bello wasn't with her because she was just going out for a moment to get water from the well and she hadn't told anyone she was doing that. It seemed silly to go wake Vassi so he could find Bello when the well was right there in the courtyard in front of the residence.

She looked up as a large group of Sideans came riding into the courtyard, bringing horses, seven men. They would be trading them, she knew. She saw their colors. They were from Palite tribe, nobody she knew. Nuë abandoned the bucket and walked quickly back toward the residence, but they saw her.

In a moment, she was in the center of horses. A tall Sidean man dismounted, approaching her.

"Fada tribe," he said, his eyes on her throat. "Where is your husband?"

"He's away. I'm waiting for him here," Nuë said.

The rest of the men dismounted, surrounding her.

"I heard about you," another said. "You are half-Heltasian. You're not married. You are a punal."

"I'm not a punal," Nuë said, her chin raising. "I'm married. You don't come near me. My husband left me with a protector."

"You lie," the tall Sidean said, striding toward her.

Nuë stepped back, drawing her knife. "Don't touch me," she said.

They were all around her. One of the men who had dismounted walked forward and reached for her and Nuë yelled, stabbing at him, the knife catching his hand, the man hissing, drawing it to his chest.

That decided them, three others closing in from different sides. She swiped for one when he came for her. He jumped out of the way. A second grabbed her arm from behind, jerking her around. Nuë turned, yelling, burying her knife in his shoulder. The man cried out, stumbling back. The knife was jerked from her hand. A third Sidean grabbed her hair from behind, pulling it, yanking her back.

Nuë screamed and then Bello was there, his great big curved sword, scattering the ring of Sidean men, yelling. The Sidean man had released her, Nuë staggering, the men circling both of them now. She was breathing fast, her heart pounding. Now Bello was in the ring with her, two against seven, several of the Sideans drawing their knives. She didn't have hers anymore.

"What is going on here?" she heard Vassi roar in the language spoken by Sidean. Vassi came striding out of the residence, still in his nightclothes, a long gown with faded stripes and sandals, his shins showing. He hurried over, Carin behind him.

"It doesn't concern you, Vassi. This Sidean woman cut one of us and stabbed another. We'll take her now," the tall Sidean said in a fury, pulling his knife and facing her, speaking to her. "Get on the horse. We'll churn you under us on the ground, punal."

"You don't say this to her," Vassi exclaimed as Vassi's guard arrived, armed, six of them behind him.

The tall Sidean's eyes darted to Vassi, to the guard, and then to Bello. He spoke to Vassi. "She's Sidean, one of our people. She's a punal, Vassi. She has no collar and no husband. She can have no protection. We have the right to take her."

"Even she has no husband, I don't give a woman for you," Vassi said, his syntax suffering even more from temper, his face red behind the beard, approaching the tall Sidean, the guard following behind him. "I don't care she is Sidean or any collars she has. But she have a husband. He trusts me to keep her safe. He's a huge threat who would squash you like a piece of horse shit on the trail. You come here, to my house, take a woman under my protection and attack her?"

The tall Sidean's anger cooled and he looked wary, his eyes darting again, the other Sideans looking unsure. He backed away, the rest of them breaking their ring, clustering together with him. He put away his knife, the other Sideans doing the same. "We heard about her, Vassi. All Sidean know her. A demon came to her tribe and lay with her."

"The demon is the husband, stupid Sidean idiot," Vassi cried. "He leaves her with me while he goes kills someone. You see the blue on her wrists? Do they remind you of something?"

The tall Sidean looked at Nuë's wrists, the blue lines like ifrit lines. The Sideans looked unhappy now. Nuë was breathing fast, so angry. The tall Sidean stepped back more, gesturing at her. "We don't take you then," he said to her.

Nuë's eyes raked his form. She drew herself up. "You disgusting person. Filthy criminal. Dog. I told you I was married. You are rude, dishonorable persons, each one of you. You make me ashamed to be Sidean. Maybe I will tell my husband the demon about the men of Palite tribe. Maybe he will come and kill all of you, too, skin you alive and make you scream."

The tall Sidean looked alarmed. Nuë turned, walking away.

"No," the Sidean called after her. "You don't tell your husband things about us. We didn't know that."

"I will tell him," she heard Vassi say. "You better hope he doesn't get mad. He's a demon and will pinch your head off with one hand. You're not welcome here anymore. This caravanserai is closed to you."

"But we are meeting a buyer--" another of the Sidean men said.

"Not here," Vassi said.

Nuë was shaking when she got inside, flicking her hands, trying to release it. When Vassi came in, she turned to him. "My husband will repay you for all this trade you lost because of me. I can pay you now. He left me money," she said.

"Come with me, to my table," Vassi said, gesturing. "Come and sit and forget them, gold beauty. They are flies buzzing. They are stupid fish with nothing in their mouths, always chewing."

Nuë blinked and then she was laughing, covering her mouth, Vassi looking surprised. "I'm sorry, Vassi. It's funny, what you said," she tried, not able to stop for a time. It was a reaction to what had happened, she knew, but she still felt better.

Vassi was grinning. He gestured to the table again. Carin brought watered wine and dried fruit, bread and cheese.

Nuë sat, feeling herself becoming calmer. She realized she had lost her new knife. The men from Palite tribe had taken it with them. "I am lucky, Vassi, that my husband chose you as my protector. You are an honorable man."

"Don't tell anyone this," Vassi leaned forward to say. "People think I'm a good person and they take advantage of me."

Nuë laughed. Bello appeared. Nuë rose and faced him, nodding to him. "Thank you, Bello. Thank you for protecting me."

Bello looked at Vassi, who translated. Bello looked at her. She was surprised to find he had very nice eyes, a deep brown. He nodded to her once, turning to Vassi and saying a string of words, the first she had heard him speak. Then he left. Nuë craned her neck, looking after him, her eyebrows going up. She looked at Vassi.

"What did he say?" she said.

"Bello says you are fierce like women he is coming from," Vassi told her, shrugging. "He almost never says things."

#

A few nights later, Nuë arrived for supper and there were several men there. Vassi was dressed in his best garments, as he did when his guests were important for his trade. She didn't recognize where they were from. They had strange clothes, strange mannerisms. Their skin was very light, their hair the same, their pants strange, their shirts. She came and sat, nodding to them, and Vassi made introductions.

They had brought an interpreter with them who spoke the language of Heltas. Everything anyone said had to go through a couple of languages to get to her.

"These are men from Onadie, across the sea," Vassi told her. "They come far to trade with people here. They are rich. They are important people."

"It's nice to meet you," Nuë said to them. "You're right to stay here. This is a good place, clean and orderly. Vassi is an honorable man."

Vassi beamed translating that, looking happy. One of the men spoke, gesturing to Nuë, and then another spoke as Carin served food, a feast for Vassi's guests.

"They want to learn the Sidean people in trading for their horses," Vassi said when that had wound its way to her. "They hear Sidean women are so beautiful but not so light with skin and their hair."

"My father was from Heltas," she said back to them through Vassi, which went to Vassi and then to the interpreter and then to the men. "But I was raised in Fada tribe, the Sidean people. Now I am with my husband, whose people live in the mountains."

Vassi translated that, the men speaking again, something coming back. Vassi shrugged, turning to her. "They have heard legends of the beauty of the Sidean women when they are dancing. They ask to see you dancing."

Nuë was surprised, looking at the men, who looked encouraging, interested. They didn't seem impolite. She looked back at Vassi. She leaned in, speaking to him only. "Would this help you, Vassi? It would please them and so they would look favorably on you?"

Vassi shrugged and nodded a little wryly. "It would, gold beauty. I want them to remember this place and think to come again, to stop here when they trade."

"I will do this for you," Nuë said, pleased to repay him after all Vassi had done for her. "But I can't dance without music."

Vassi seemed happy for it, pleasing her more. "Then we will get musicians." He turned to Carin, a long string of words.

After that, they ate the meal, pleasant, the strangers speaking to her, asking her about the Sidean people, about their horses. When they were done, Carin came and spoke to Vassi.

Vassi turned to her as Bello came into the room behind the musicians. "There is a drummer and a thing played with a stick but not the same as for your people," Vassi said. "Can you dance like that?"