Chapter 365: 365: Conversation or Threat?
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"Water," Mardek said. "Not a trick. I drink first."
He took a sip and then set the cup by the gap. Miryam looked at it. She was not thirsty. The tunnel had been cool. The air here was dry. The smell of reed and men and old leather made her nose twitch. She did not drink.
The Friend sniffed the cup and sneezed. It turned its head away and pressed closer.
Mardek did not frown. He took the cup back and set it aside. "Will you do something for me," he asked.
She did not answer.
"Open your hand," he said. "If your palm is clean I will loosen two more knots."
She lifted her hand. It was dusty. Her small palm had a scratch where the mesh had bit. He did not flinch. He nodded as if to say that is the right answer too.
He pinched another knot. The gap grew a little. Sun reached her face. She blinked.
"I am going to ask one rude thing," he said. "Then I will not be rude again today if you help me. I have a stone that tells me stories when it tastes a drop. If I take one drop from your finger, I will know what I need to know. I will not ask from your arm. I will not take from your face. I will not make you bleed like a butcher. One drop and then you can sit in the shade and listen to my stupid jokes."
He lifted his other hand. A small carved thing sat in his palm. It was like a beetle made of dull red crystal. Its legs were thin. Its eyes were two chips of black stone. It did not move. It smelled like iron.
Miryam thought of a story Luna had told her about old queens and old blood. She had not liked that story because it made her chest feel tight. She looked at Mardek’s eyes again. They were bright and easy.
"NO," she said.
Mardek did not show anger. He put the beetle in his pocket without looking at it. He shrugged a little.
"A fair answer," he said. "Then we will do this another way. We will walk with this basket together for a little while. We will let the sun be less rude. We will talk about small things. I will not chase your name. You will not touch the wind. If you try to run, my men will trip and fall on you by accident and my spear will make you cry. We do not want my spear to make you cry. Spears sound very silly when they make someone cry."
It was a joke. It was a good one. She did not laugh. The Friend made a sound like a tiny sigh.
Mardek stood. He gestured. They lifted the dome again and walked. They did not hurt her. They did not shout. They did not tell each other how clever they were. They moved with the patience of men who have walked dunes in heat and know that haste makes graves.
The dome stopped at a low ridge that broke the wind. A small awning of canvas went up. A skin of water hung in the shade. Mardek crouched at the gap again.
"Your friend is handsome," he said. "If I offer a date, will it bite me."
The Friend bared its teeth in a very small way. Mardek pulled his hand back by the same small amount.
"We start with bread then," he said. He broke a piece from a small flat round and set it near the gap. The Friend sniffed it and did not take it. Miryam was wise here. She thought for a few seconds and then decided to do what the ant man asked her to do. So, she took it and tore it in half. She gave one half to Friend and ate one herself. It was dry. It tasted like heat and cumin. It tasted like a camp that has moved many days.
Mardek watched her chew with a quiet face. He did not lick his lips. He did not stare at her mouth. He looked at her eyes. He let the silence stand between them like a post you tie a rope to.
He spoke at last. "You made a good tunnel," he said. "You ride the sand like someone born with a handful of it. The wind likes you. The ground answers you. You are not from the marsh. You are not from the green. You are from here. You live near. The shape of your cheek tells me stone. The way you do not flinch when the wind makes the canvas snap tells me cliff. You live on a slope."
Miryam looked past him to the line of the horizon. The mountain was a low tooth far away. If she rose she would have seen it. Here she saw only its idea.
Mardek followed her gaze. He nodded again without smiling.
"Me too," he said. "I live near. For a while."
He stood. He did not look at her when he spoke to the nearest scout. "Send a strip to General Vorak with the marks we set. Tell him we have a clever fish, whole and breathing. Tell the others to keep their nets clean. Tell Skall to stop shouting at the mud. It is a poor use of voice."
The scout trotted away with a reed case. The desert swallowed him without chewing.
Mardek crouched again. "I will not hurt you, for now," he said. "I will not bind your hands unless you try to break the basket. If your parents are near and are not a complete stone, they will feel that you are not in danger and will not run their head into my spear without thinking first. If they are wise, they will talk before they try to break my nose."
He waited for a small answer. He did not get one. He still did not blink. He looked like a man who could wait while a dune moved across a field.