hear. Half the yard heard.”
“Go!”
“Fine, fine. I'm going. Try not to break any of the boy's limbs, eh, boss? If you don't want to marry him, you can't complain when he goes looking for one that might.” Doha left them, pulling a face at Gaguush's back.
“What are you planning to do with her?”
Holla shrugged. “Bring her along. What else can I do?”
“Send her to your kin.”
The Blackdog felt a surge of panic, enough to throw Holla-Sayan off balance, make him lose words for a moment. He stood blinking, confused, before he found them again and could marshal an argument.
“I can't send her off with strangers, not after what she's been through. She barely knows me, and to hand her off to someone else again…Look at her, Gaguush. She's never been out of the mountains in her life. She's terrified.”
“Fine. Take her yourself then, if it's the only way to get rid of her. You can cross on the ferry when we're below Five Cataracts, and cut up to meet us at At-Landi, once you've taken her home. I can manage that stretch along the Kinsai-av shorthanded, this once. But don't expect me to pay your way.”
“Well, no. Of course not.” That was what he had been angling for, Gaguush's order to go, rather than outrage that he asked to do so. And even more than that, time. It would take them a couple of weeks to get to the lowest of the Five Cataracts and the ferry over the Kinsai-av. Time to wrestle the Blackdog into some sort of compliance. ‘Lissa would be far better off with his parents. But he needed more than that.
“But I was wondering—”
Gaguush scowled. “Bashra help me! I suppose you want to take one of my camels?”
He shrugged, gave her a faint, apologetic smile.
“You're more trouble than you're worth, Holla-Sayan. The Great Gods help you if you ever go running off after townswomen again. Expecting me to sort out your problems with your bastards.”
Gaguush's gaze dropped to the goddess, staring up at her, dark eyes wide. She had the grace to blush. “Huh. Well. Don't look like that, child. It's not your fault your papa's a fool.” Her glower returned to Holla. “But I told you not to go running after mountain women, didn't I? Told you you'd only get hurt. They want their men home, ploughing.” Another guilty look at the girl, in case she heard the weight of innuendo that went into the word, beyond merely the herder's contempt for the farmer.
“I know, I know. I'll be sure to take the advice of my elders next time.”
Gaguush's mouth thinned again and she cuffed his ear. Holla just grinned at her, not bothering to dodge because all his effort at her sudden movement went into preventing the dog's reflexive reaction to any threat, keeping his hand from his sabre, or worse. Gaguush had expected him to duck, and blinked at him, uncertain, opening and closing her hand. She looked down at the girl again.
“What's her name?”
Holla shrugged. “She had some mountain name, but I'm through with the mountains. I'm going to call her Pakdhala, for my grandmother.”
“Pretty name,” Gaguush said, wavering between kindness and a tone that suggested the girl did not quite measure up to the name.
“You going to tattoo her for Sayan? You should, if you really want to put the mountains behind you, make her Sayanbarkashi.”
A challenge, there. Maybe she had minded Timhine more than she let herself admit.
Attalissa stared in something like horror at Gaguush, whose face and hands were nearly solid colour, the black and red bands of geometric pattern used by the Black Desert tribes. Much of the rest of Gaguush was similarly decorated beneath her baggy striped trousers and long, loose cameleer's coat. Her dark skin proclaimed a princess's wealth and rank in the desert fashion; she was the daughter of the chieftain of the Bashrakallashi, but a divorce followed by a quarrel with a brother had sent her into exile and the mercenary's life.
“You want to be pretty now that you're a lowlander, to
“Go!”
“Fine, fine. I'm going. Try not to break any of the boy's limbs, eh, boss? If you don't want to marry him, you can't complain when he goes looking for one that might.” Doha left them, pulling a face at Gaguush's back.
“What are you planning to do with her?”
Holla shrugged. “Bring her along. What else can I do?”
“Send her to your kin.”
The Blackdog felt a surge of panic, enough to throw Holla-Sayan off balance, make him lose words for a moment. He stood blinking, confused, before he found them again and could marshal an argument.
“I can't send her off with strangers, not after what she's been through. She barely knows me, and to hand her off to someone else again…Look at her, Gaguush. She's never been out of the mountains in her life. She's terrified.”
“Fine. Take her yourself then, if it's the only way to get rid of her. You can cross on the ferry when we're below Five Cataracts, and cut up to meet us at At-Landi, once you've taken her home. I can manage that stretch along the Kinsai-av shorthanded, this once. But don't expect me to pay your way.”
“Well, no. Of course not.” That was what he had been angling for, Gaguush's order to go, rather than outrage that he asked to do so. And even more than that, time. It would take them a couple of weeks to get to the lowest of the Five Cataracts and the ferry over the Kinsai-av. Time to wrestle the Blackdog into some sort of compliance. ‘Lissa would be far better off with his parents. But he needed more than that.
“But I was wondering—”
Gaguush scowled. “Bashra help me! I suppose you want to take one of my camels?”
He shrugged, gave her a faint, apologetic smile.
“You're more trouble than you're worth, Holla-Sayan. The Great Gods help you if you ever go running off after townswomen again. Expecting me to sort out your problems with your bastards.”
Gaguush's gaze dropped to the goddess, staring up at her, dark eyes wide. She had the grace to blush. “Huh. Well. Don't look like that, child. It's not your fault your papa's a fool.” Her glower returned to Holla. “But I told you not to go running after mountain women, didn't I? Told you you'd only get hurt. They want their men home, ploughing.” Another guilty look at the girl, in case she heard the weight of innuendo that went into the word, beyond merely the herder's contempt for the farmer.
“I know, I know. I'll be sure to take the advice of my elders next time.”
Gaguush's mouth thinned again and she cuffed his ear. Holla just grinned at her, not bothering to dodge because all his effort at her sudden movement went into preventing the dog's reflexive reaction to any threat, keeping his hand from his sabre, or worse. Gaguush had expected him to duck, and blinked at him, uncertain, opening and closing her hand. She looked down at the girl again.
“What's her name?”
Holla shrugged. “She had some mountain name, but I'm through with the mountains. I'm going to call her Pakdhala, for my grandmother.”
“Pretty name,” Gaguush said, wavering between kindness and a tone that suggested the girl did not quite measure up to the name.
“You going to tattoo her for Sayan? You should, if you really want to put the mountains behind you, make her Sayanbarkashi.”
A challenge, there. Maybe she had minded Timhine more than she let herself admit.
Attalissa stared in something like horror at Gaguush, whose face and hands were nearly solid colour, the black and red bands of geometric pattern used by the Black Desert tribes. Much of the rest of Gaguush was similarly decorated beneath her baggy striped trousers and long, loose cameleer's coat. Her dark skin proclaimed a princess's wealth and rank in the desert fashion; she was the daughter of the chieftain of the Bashrakallashi, but a divorce followed by a quarrel with a brother had sent her into exile and the mercenary's life.
“You want to be pretty now that you're a lowlander, to
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