Ara was younger, with an appealing face that looked both innocent and yet was oddly mature; at times she looked sad. Her black hair was braided down her back, but curls escaped the plait to frame her face. She wore a loose, sleeveless cotton dress, dyed a deep red and embroidered on scoop neck and hem, a narrow leather belt dyed a red to match her dress, and red leather sandals. She was utterly charming, and Piemur did not miss Jayge’s proud and proprietary gaze.
While Piemur ate his way through the best meal he had eaten since he had left Southern, he listened to Jayge and Ara tell of their adventures, occasionally throwing in a question or a comment to encourage them to add details.
“We were hired at Keroon Beastmasterhold,” Jayge told him, “about thirty months ago—we lost an accurate track of time in the storm and during our first days here. We were transporting some expensive breeding stock for Master Rampesi, to be delivered to Holder Toric at the Southern Hold. Would you know him?”
“I do. I remember how mad Rampesi was when he had to admit your ship must have gone down. You were lucky to survive.”
“We very nearly didn’t,” Jayge said, giving Ara a sideways glance and laying his arm across her shoulders, his expression tenderly amused. “Ara here insists that we were dragged to shore by shipfish.”
“Quite likely,” Piemur assured him, grinning at Jayge’s surprise and Ara’s triumphant cry. “Every Masterfisherman worth his knots will agree: Master Rampesi has told me of men falling overboard and being lifted up by shipfish. He’s seen the phenomenon himself, and he’s not given to harper tales. That’s why Fishcrafthallers are so glad to see them escorting a ship out to sea. Means good luck.”
“But the storm was incredibly powerful,” Jayge objected.
“So are they—and quite at home in stormy seas. You’re the only survivors?”
When Ara looked stricken, Jayge answered quickly. “No, but one man was so badly hurt, we never even learned his name. Festa and Scallak had broken leg and arm bones; I’d snapped my wrist and a few ribs; but Ara set us all and healed us straight.” He twisted his left hand to prove the mend, smiling at Ara. “We were quite a sight then, only three good arms and four legs among us, except for Ara, who nursed and fed us all.” He shot his young wife a look of such tender pride that Piemur almost blushed. “We were getting along fine here, even tamed some wild beasts—Ara’s got a gift with animals—when first Festa and then Scallak caught some kind of a fever, terrible headaches…they went blind.” He broke off, frowning at the memory.
“Fire-head, probably,” Piemur said, breaking the silence to relieve Ara’s obvious distress at the memory. “It has a high mortality rate if you don’t know the cure.”
“There is one?” Ara’s eyes widened. “I tried everything I knew. I felt so helpless, and ever since I’ve been afraid…”
“Don’t fret yourself, Look—” Piemur hauled his pack over and pulled out a small vial, which he handed to her. “I’ve medicine here. Instructions on it, as you see. Just don’t go near beaches stained yellow. It’s at its worst in mid– or late spring. And now that we know where you are, I’ll see that Sharra—she’s had Healer Hall training—sends you a record of symptoms and treatment for some of the southern nasties.”
“I hope we’ve found most of them,” Jayge said with a rueful grin, rubbing the scar on his forearm. Piemur recognized the blemish as an old needlethorn infection.
“That’s the hard way to learn what to avoid. I’d say you’d done pretty well here.” Piemur was fascinated with the material of the house.
“We found all this,” Jayge said, his gesture including the house and the buildings beyond.
“Found it?”
Jayge grinned, his teeth very white in his tanned face. He had curious yellow-green eyes, with flecks of dark in them, and a one-sided smile that Piemur liked. “Found the whole settlement. Mind you, it saved our lives. There were appalling storms for weeks after we were swept in here.” He paused, hesitant. “I didn’t think anyone had been allowed to settle in the south, except at Southern Hold. This isn’t part of Southern, is it, and we just didn’t search far enough west?”
“Ah, to be honest with you…” Piemur hesitated only a moment, for Toric could not possibly expect to claim the entire south. “No, this isn’t Southern Hold!” Seeing that his vehemence had surprised both Jayge and Ara, he smiled to reassure them. “You’re a long way from where you were supposed to land those beasts. A long way.” Piemur decided it would also be a very long time before Toric discovered their existence. “Hold hard to what you’ve got here,” he added blithely, and looked admiringly around at the gracious proportions of the room in which they ate. With its wide windows, louvered on the inside, it was unlike even freestanding hold rooms. The inside walls were not of the same stone as the outside and were colored very cool green blue. Jayge had fashioned sconces for candles Ara had made from berry wax, so the room was pleasantly lit. “How big is this house you found?”
“More than we need right now,” Ara said, swatting at Jayge affectionately when he winked at Piemur. Though her figure was not yet distorted, the harper had suspected she might be pregnant again. There was a luminous quality to her eyes and face that Sharra had told him often enhanced the beauty of a gravid woman. “Twelve rooms, but some would be awfully small to house a whole family. We had to shovel out the sand in the front rooms. The walls were filthy; I was afraid we’d have to scrub them clean, but the dirt sort of slid off when we washed them. I haven’t quite got the stains completely off, but now you can see what pretty colors they used.”
“We fixed this roof with slabs taken from the other ones,” Jayge said. “I’ve never seen material like this before. And we shouldn’t have been able to nail it, but Ara found a keg of nails that would penetrate and hold.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Ara went on with an air of confession. “The house is unusual, but the thick walls keep us cool in the heat of the day and warm enough on cold ones. We found the strangest-looking containers, most of them empty. Jayge laughs at me, but I know we’ll find something to tell us who lived here before we did.”
“I’d like to know when you do,” Piemur said. “Did you find those colored fishnets here?”
They both grinned, exchanging glances, and Jayge explained. “We found lots of empty nets stored in one corner of the largest building. It had neither porch nor windows but it did have vents along the roof, so we figured it may have been a storehouse. Snakes and other insects had destroyed whatever was in the crates and barrels and those nets, but the material they were made of seems indestructible.”
“It’d have to be, to last any length of time here in the south,” Piemur said casually, though he was more excited about the settlement than he dared express. The Harper should know about it. He wondered if he should send Farli with a message to Master Robinton but decided that it could wait until morning. “So you’ve fished, and you’ve stock…”
“I’ll have to introduce you to the dogs tomorrow,” Ara said. “We have them against snakes and big spotted cats.”
“You have them here, too?” Piemur asked eagerly. Sharra had thought those cats a local sport—she would be interested to know that they inhabited other parts of the Southern Continent.
“Enough so that we don’t hunt without the dogs,” Jayge said. “And we carry spear or bow and arrow once we pass the clearings.”
“But there’s wild rice,” Ara put in enthusiastically, “and all kinds of vegetables—even a grove of the oldest fellis trees I’ve ever seen!” She waved to the east of the hold. “We’ve floods of wild wherry, and runner and herd beasts grazing in the river valley, a day’s good run from here. Jayge is a good spearman.”