The Glass Mountains (16 page)

Rather than try to preserve the meat, we ate fresh whatever we caught. I’d never lived so luxuriously, with a steady supply of fresh food and water.
 

There were problems. My legs, built for sand, sometimes felt strained on the harder ground. And around the lakes mosquitoes buzzed in such numbers that from far away the air looked gray. Watching one gray cloud fly toward me, dampening the sun, I feared for my life. From close up the mosquitoes’ noise made a constant even drone, not like millions of tiny insects, but like a single large one. They descended upon the dogs’ eyes until the dogs screamed, and I, myself beset, could do nothing to help. I started leaving the dogs behind while I went to the lakes alone, my face and head covered with my gown as I peeked out. Apparently the mosquitoes fed on the furrtos, which seemed particularly skittish and red-eyed around the lakes.
 

Because of the mosquitoes, I never bathed at the lakes, just filled my water containers and hurried away. For a while I entertained a notion that I would find a way to make use of the mosquitoes, cook them or something and sprinkle them like seasoning on my meat. My mind, with nothing else to keep it busy, devised plans to overcome the mosquitoes. I fantasized about setting fire to the forest around the lakes, and burning all those insects. Or of constructing a sticky trap out of tree sap. Maybe I could dig a huge hole and throw furrto meat down below, and when the mosquitoes flew in, I’d bury them in dirt and sand. It was all fantasy. I realized that like the sand and heat of Bakshami, the mosquitoes could best be overcome by accepting them.
 

When we neared the Mallarr-Soom Kali border, the dog-faced man—named Panyor—and Tarkahna spoke ever more earnestly and urgently each night. I expected to see more magnificent stone buildings, but instead, one night shortly before we stopped I saw in the distance a section of wall. It was a tall straight stone wall, unadorned, worn only a little in places, and pausing at a forest before stretching into the distance. There were a few buildings as well, maybe to house border soldiers.
 

We stayed near some bushes, the dogs sleeping touching me as they always did now. During each day they frequently looked up at me with adoring faces, and I adored them back. I wanted more dogs. Still, I was glad Shami hadn’t gone into heat during our trip—puppies were the last thing I needed.
 

The ground now was nearly hard, and I could see that in one direction there was a village. I couldn’t stop myself from wandering over to stare. I protectively dragged my things closer to the village while the soldiers who’d accompanied us watched curiously. I’d never seen electric lights before; they were only a rumor in Bakshami. There hadn’t been any at the outpost on the Bakshami border. Each house was like a miniature fortress or castle, the huge ornate doors covered with carvings. At each door, a lamp hung to the side. The sight was so beautiful that I couldn’t believe people slept inside at night, instead of outside where they could see their intricate doors and their amazing lamps swinging in the wind, throwing shadows on the ground, on the steps and on the watching stone faces. Those lights and their shadows made me feel that everything in the world that I could possibly want existed in this tiny village.
 

I ached to knock at one of those doors, to talk to another person, even to one who would wish me dead. Watching the dogs prance together, seeing how the company of another dog had lifted the glumness from Artie—an invisible gloom, the kind I never realized he felt until it was gone—had filled me simultaneously with joy and loneliness. I envied Tarkahna’s new friendship and even envied the queen’s entourage.
 

I became aware that I was being watched as I sat alone, admiring the village. Far in the distance, the dogs played silently, capering beneath the stars.
 

“Nice dogs,” said a bored voice.
 

A young man sat next to me, not handsome exactly but of such confidence as to seem almost insolent. This confidence took my breath away. In Bakshami he might seem immoral. He smiled, not at me but at the dogs.
 

“Have you bred them? I’d like a good puppy.”
 

I looked around, scarcely believing he talked to me. “I don’t speak Artroran so well like you,” I said uneasily. I worried he might be trifling before he harmed me.
 

“Your accent isn’t very good,” he agreed.
 

“Have you been watching me?”
 

“It took you a long time to realize.”
 

“Why didn’t you show yourself?”
 

“To anyone else, I would have been showing myself. Your eyes and ears are as weak as an old woman’s. The whole camp sees us.” I looked back, saw the soldiers smiling with amusement at us. One of them said something to him in Soom Kali and all the soldiers laughed. He laughed, too, suddenly warm. “Look, I don’t mean to insult you. What are you doing out here? You’re so small. You’re like a doll.”
 

“In Bakshami I’m rather tall. Not terribly so, but rather.”
 

“You’re in Soom Kali now, little doll.”
 

“You, on the other hand, would be the tallest person in my old village.”
 

“Me? I’m only average.” He stretched like an animal. He looked wistfully toward the wall. “Where are you going?”
 

“To Artroro first.”
 

“Artroro,” he said scornfully.
 

“They’re the most powerful sector on the planet. Why not go there?”
 

“They’re not so powerful,” he said.
 

Such insolence! “I’ve heard, anyway, but I’ve never been outside Bakshami before.”
 

“Are you going with your dogs and your packages? You should keep a better watch on your things.”
 

“What do you mean?” I noticed suddenly that one of my bags was gone.
 

“Relax. I’m going to return it. I just wanted to learn more about you. I don’t want your precious jewels. Of course if you wanted to give me some jewels, I might help you get to Artroro.”
 

“Why not just steal from me?”
 

He genuinely seemed to be thinking that over, then he smiled brightly. “Because I like you.”
 

I felt quite taken aback. First I wanted to hit him, then I felt drawn to him.
 

“What are you thinking?” he said. “You have a funny look on your face.”
 

I spoke shyly. “You could have a puppy if you wanted.”
 

“Is she pregnant?”
 

“No, I meant when and if she has puppies.”
 

“I don’t accept promises from strangers.” He picked up a lock of my hair. “So this is the fabled Bakshami hair. It’s dirty, but otherwise it’s very nice. I like strong things.”
 

Artie and Shami finally had noticed the young man and ran over growling. The man put out his hand so they could smell him.
 

“They like you,” I said. “Usually I would have to restrain Artie.”
 

“I’m good with animals ... What are you going to do in Artroro?”
 

“I’m going to hire a muscleman to take me to Forma, where my parents are in trouble.”
 

His eyes flashed hatefully for a moment. “The Artrorans have been attacking us once a generation for as long as anyone can remember.”
 

“That’s because you don’t pay them freedom fees. Why not just pay them and have a little peace?”
 

“Our freedom can’t be paid for.”
 

“Do you live in the town?”
 

He nodded. “I work at the border with them—” he nodded at the other soldiers—”but I’m on leave now.”
 

“The town is so inviting.”
 

“How can a town like this seem inviting? All the towns on the edge of the desert are barren like this. But I have to stay. I’m an only child and my father has been dying for three years.”
 

“Where’s your mother?”
 

“Dead. Murdered by an Artroran.”
 

“I’m sorry. Many of my people were murdered by Formans.”
 

“If it’s any comfort, the Formans take many prisoners for servants. I have heard that many Bakshami refugees have become servants to Formans.”
 

“Do you think my parents suffer?”
 

He hesitated. “No.” He was rubbing Artie’s stomach as my dog smiled and waved his hind legs helplessly in the air, a child being tickled. “I’ve never seen such a big dog.”
 

“That’s what everyone says. He was the runt of the litter. That’s why I chose him.”
 

“Why choose the runt?”
 

“Because see what happens when you do. You end up with the biggest.”
 

He seemed to think that over, and he nodded. “Are you hungry for fresh meat?”
 

“Yes! Do you have any?”
 

“I can catch some, and we’ll cook it at my house. We have to hurry. The soldiers will let you enter my town, since they’re my friends. But you need to leave by morning with them. No one can stay at the border more than one night without integrating.”
 

He called out something to Panyor and then easily picked up my load. “We’ll leave the sled here. Take it from me, no one wants it.” We walked past the town to a small woods, where we sat quietly on some rocks. “Don’t move,” said my new friend. I realized we hadn’t exchanged names yet.
 

“What’s your—”
 

He cut me off with a quick stabbing motion. We sat quietly for quite a while, so close I could feel the warmth rising off his body. It made me lean in closer, to feel more of his warmth drifting against my face. It was like when I was a child and would cup my hands, trying to catch rainwater, and I would rue the water that fell between my fingers, and eagerly drink the water I caught. He moved suddenly and I heard a whoosh through the air, the noise almost simultaneous with a tiny cry perhaps twenty measures away. I jumped up, immediately worried for the dogs. But they stood right next to us as surprised as I was. We all ran toward the cry, to a large dead furrto with a knife through its small head. There was surprisingly little blood, which I commented on.
 

“You have to hit them through a certain spot toward the back of the head. That way you can be sure of killing them with as little blood as possible. All the nutrition is in the blood.”
 

It seemed preposterous that he could have aimed so carefully in the near darkness, with only the light from the sky and town filtering through the trees. I myself possessed good night vision but could barely see five or ten measures away in this forest.
 

“Hurry,” he said.
 

We gathered my things again and moved through the town, stopping at one of the lovely lamps. The ornate stone door was perhaps one-and-a-half times as large as the entrances in my old village. He pressed his hand against a metal plate on the door. Then he opened it and we entered.
 

“What is that thing?” I said.
 

“You mean the lock? You don’t have them on your doors in Bakshami?”
 

“No, what does it do?”
 

“No one can get in except me and my father. Here where so many foreigners pass though, we must be careful. This quiet town has seen many murders. Come on.”
 

The high ceilings curved slightly, not quite domed, but more curving than simply slanted. The ceilings hadn’t been carved, but many of the items in the house had been. He turned on an inside lamp, and light danced off the metal vases and boxes arranged throughout the stone room. I’d never seen such beautiful metalwork. One box was covered with shiny blue metalwork almost like lace. When I touched it, I heard soft metallic bells from within the box. They played a childishly simple rhythm, but the effect was pleasing. “My father made that for my mother before they got married. He was the best metal and stone-worker in town before he got sick.”
 

“It’s very beautiful.” I studied the other items in the room, and thought about how much Jobei and Leisha would enjoy playing in this room full of beautiful strange things. Two stone beasts guarded the immense doorway to the next room. The beasts looked so real it was as if they’d been turned to stone, not carved. And some of the rocks glowed almost like metal, so that I needed to look closely to distinguish metal from stone. Embroidered cloth pillows lay on each chair. Even without touching them, I could see the softness in the cloth. “Are all the homes here like this?”
 

“We own beautiful things because of my father, but there are striking homes in every village. But come into the kitchen. My father will sleep for a few hours more. He sleeps most of the day. Shortly before I go to bed, he likes for us to talk until I’m sleepy.”