3. JUSTICE AND GOOD ORDER

Nat has sent troopers from Dorp, who have arrested us. Dorp it appears has a standing horde (as Soldo did) which it calls its leger. There are three legermen and the sergeant. I gave him two silver cards, and although he will not let us go, it has put us on a friendly basis. I am paying for our rooms at this inn as well, one in which the sergeant, a legerman, and I are to sleep tonight, and another in which Jahlee is supposed to sleep, with Hide and the other two legermen.

Dinner and a bath! The sergeant-his name is Azijin-has been given money with which to buy provisions; I told him he might keep it, at least for tonight. He and his men, I said, could join us at dinner. There was wine, and food that seemed very good to Hide and me.

Nat is a person of importance in Dorp, it seems. We are likely to be fined and whipped. I have tried to convey to my daughter that it might be well for her to leave us, but I am not sure she understood. If she did, she may not agree; and if she tries to escape now, she may be shot.

I will not stand idly by and see her stripped, no matter what some judge in Dorp may say.

As I was writing, she came in to ask for a larger fire. The innkeeper wanted an additional payment for the extra wood, and we began to bargain over the amount. Sergeant Azijin told him to supply it, cursing him and pushing him into the corner. Jahlee got her fire and went away satisfied. I looked in on her just now, and her appearance has improved greatly.

During our argument, the innkeeper stated that he "always" made an extra charge for extra wood. I asked him how long his inn has stood here, and he said proudly, "For six years." We are so new to this whorl that we have not worn out the clothes we brought from the other, some of us; yet we talk and act as if it has been ours from time immemorial. Once I wept when I told Pig what the Neighbors had said. He must have thought me mad, but I was only tired and weak, and oppressed by the stifling darkness. A sorrow, too, pressed upon my heart. It is still there; I feel it, and must keep busy.

Azijin lets me write like this, which is a great relief to me. I have worried that he might read it, but he cannot read. So he says, and I think he is telling the truth. He seems ashamed of it, so I assured him that it is not difficult, and offered to teach him, making large letters on the same paper I took from the bandits and use for this journal.

The wounded bandit Jahlee drained told us we might take whatever we wanted if only we would spare him, which I rashly promised to do. I can see him still: his thin mouth below its thin mustache, and his large, frightened eyes. Jahlee said she had never killed before, but I know it is a lie-she killed for me when we fought Han. We flatter ourselves with our horror of them, but are we really much better?

Rereading that above, I was aghast at my candor. What if the judge in Dorp should read it? I might destroy it (perhaps I should) but what about the other two accounts? How much labor I expended on them, dreaming that someday Nettle might peruse them, as she yet may. I must hide them.

I have done what I could, but the best solution would be to see to it that our baggage is not examined. I must question the sergeant about legal procedures, and ask his men as well-for all I know, they may have more and better information, or be more willing to part with it. Although we chatted together at dinner, I do not recall their names.

Before I sleep I ought to record the notable fact that I have bathed, for which I-and all who come near me, no doubt-am most grateful. On Lizard we washed in summer in the millpond or the sea. In winter, as I washed myself here after dinner: by heating water in a copper kettle hung over the fire and scrubbing everything with soap and a rag.

When I was a boy in Viron, we had tubs for it like washtubs, but longer. Those of the poorest class were generally of wood, those of the middle class, such as my mother and I, of iron covered with enamel. In Ermine's and the Calde's Palace, and I suppose in the homes of the wealthy generally, they were stone, which seemed very grand. Still I have washed myself in them, and it is a finer thing to bathe in the millpond. I intend to pray for an hour or so when I lay down my quill. But if the Outsider were to grant my every wish, I would bathe always in our millpond; and whenever I wished to bathe, it would be summer.

Oreb is back! Drawing the whorls between this paragraph and the last makes it look as if a week at least had passed, I know. It was only a night, but a great deal has happened. News enough for a week, to say nothing of dreams. I will do my best to take everything in order.

I had asked for more firewood, curious to see whether the innkeeper would try to collect for it after what had passed between himself and Azijin. I got it without additional payment, this room became quite warm, and when the sergeant returned I asked him to open the window. He did, and came very near to receiving a cold, tired, and very hungry night chough full in the face. It was Oreb, of course; and he had come to present me with a ring set with a peculiar black gem. I will describe it in greater detail in a moment, if I am not interrupted.

Just now I said that the sergeant was nearly hit by Oreb, who had, I believe, been pecking at the shutter for some time, although I had failed to hear him above the crackling of the fire. I must add that it was snowing hard, myriads of tiny flakes flying before a whistling west wind. "Them at sea Scylla help," said Azijin.

I got a fine fresh fish and a cup of clean water for Oreb. He ate and flew into a corner near the chimney-there is a wooden brace for it there on which he perches-and has not moved from it since. Azijin and Legerman Vlug were dumbfounded, and asked more questions about him than I was able to answer. I expected them to demand the ring; so I suggested they might hold it for me until we reached Dorp, when I would explain the circumstances under which I had received it to the judge and ask that it be returned to me. They examined it very curiously but showed no desire to keep it for me.

It is too large for my fingers, so I put it in my pocket, thinking I would look through the jewelry when I could do so at leisure, find a chain, and wear it around my neck. I was afraid I would lose it, however; it is on the thumb of my left hand as I write this, which answers well.

There is a picture cut into the black stone. I took it to the window, and although the day is far from bright I was able to see that there are lines graven on it, a picture or writing. I suppose it is a seal ring, and the thing to do is to imprint it on wax so the seal may be read.

I talked about Oreb for some time, explaining that he is a pet, that he can speak after a fashion, and that he often goes away for purposes of his own. Before I could get to bed, I had to tell them a bit about Silk and the original Oreb, saying I supposed he must be dead. "On that you must not count, mysire," Azijin told me. "A parrot older than her my great aunt had, and ninety-one she was when on the lander we went. About the old bird often my mother tells." So perhaps this Oreb is the very Oreb that Silk owned after all. It is such an interesting idea that I am glad there is no way in which it can be tested. How disappointed I would be if I found it were not true!

After that I went to bed, as did the sergeant and Vlug. I can only guess how long I slept before I was awakened by a soft hand stroking my forehead-an hour, perhaps.

It was Jahlee. "My fire's dying, Rajan, and the room's getting colder and colder. Can't I come into bed so you can warm me for a minute? I don't dare get in with Hide, he's sound asleep and would kill me when he woke, and you wouldn't want me to get into the troopers' beds would you? But I'm freezing, and I'm afraid I'll freeze to death. Please, Rajan? I'm begging for my life!"