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THEY WERE LED OUT FROM the audience chamber. The silence was taut; they all desperately wanted to talk to each other, but they all saw the more pressing need not to antagonize their guards. The silence, however, gave them the mixed blessing of time to think.
The passage from the chamber led, via some stairs, to the Palace prisons. At the foot of the stairs, the corridor teed off in two directions. As they neared it they heard a small “tut”. This they had come to recognize as a noise of attention and deference from one of the more lowly Stone-folk to their superiors. In this case, Tali recognized the “tut” as belonging to Amber, her “attendant”. Where Dun and Padg had the rather firm attention of Tuf himself as their jailer, it seemed that the Stone-folk viewed Tali as less of a threat, so the relationship she had with her “jailer” was much less harsh. Tali had found that even talking to Amber was possible, once Tuf was out of earshot and enough of Amber’s fears about being caught had been calmed. As Tali was led off down the corridor she started to think about the friendship that was forming; she knew it was a friendship that was important for all of them.
As Dun and Padg reached the door of their cell, the question that was at the front of Padg’s mind finally slipped out.
“What’s the Stone Maw?”
“Where we put our wrong-doers to death,” Tuf said.
The enormity of how different this culture was from their own was coming home to Dun. The most serious punishment for the Bridge-folk was banishment, and even then it was mostly temporary. Most petty disputes were resolved between families, and any misdemeanors that were taken to the Alpha were sorted by facing the people who were affected, who often chose recompense over punishment.
“What kind of crimes face that?” Dun said.
“Only the most serious: murder; kidnap, great theft, despoiling our monuments or tombs. And, of course, spying.”
A sudden thought in Dun’s mind made him go out on a limb. “You don’t believe we’re spies.”
“That is for the Council to decide.” But Tuf’s tone told Dun all he needed to know. Not that Tuf was going to prove an ally, but it was a little reassuring to know someone believed them.
“I should take you to the Maw since you ask,” Tuf said. “It is at the end of the passage.”
Now it had been mentioned, Padg wished it hadn’t.
***
TALI WASN’T EXPECTING to get another clean, but Amber insisted on washing her hair. Amber wet Tali’s hair with water that was pleasantly warm, and then rubbed some kind of foaming bar on it that smelled of pipe-mallow, a flower that Tali knew well as a perfuming agent—sweet and heady. Amber was gentle, as before, but some hesitancy in her hands told Tali that something was up.
“What is your village like?” Amber asked gently.
“Er, well, busy I suppose and a bit chaotic. Always something going on. Friendly, there’s always something that’s happened, that folk like to gossip about. It drives you crazy sometimes since everyone knows everyone’s business. The folk who are about my age, I guess you’d call some of them my friends, are obsessed with men-folk and finding a mate, even though that doesn’t happen for a few ages yet. Sorry, here’s me drifting on. What about you?”
The silence that hung in the air told Tali much of what she needed to know.
“Tali?”
“Yes.”
“Will you be my...friend?”
“Oh, Amber...of course I will.”
“Tali?”
“Yes, Amber?”
“I know where your things are.”
Tali stifled a gasp. Well, aren’t you just the little bag of surprises, she thought.
***
THE LARGE STONE DOOR creaked heavily on what Dun guessed must be massive hinges, opening into an enclosed chamber that his air-sense told him would hold about forty folk standing up.
“This is the room of the Maw.”
Tuf led Dun and Padg, one hand each, into the room. He stopped and placed their hands on what was a large slab at waist height. He let them feel their way around it. It seemed to be quite a similar shape to the stone beds they had been sleeping on, with a roughly folk-shaped indentation running along its top face.
“The condemned lie here. They place their head in the Maw.”
Dun and Padg felt their way along the stone table to the wall where at the head end of the table there was a large cube cut out of the wall, large enough to take someone’s head. There were holes under where the head would go, wider than the with of Dun’s finger and deeper. Dun could smell something that might be dried blood and something astringent that had perhaps been used to clean up afterward. Dun was starting to feel the slow, sick chill of fear. He gulped to try and keep it down and hoped no one had heard him. Padg spoke.
“How...”
Tuf cut him off. “A large stone block sits at the top of the shaft. A lever is pulled, the block falls...” He trailed off for a moment before adding, “It is... quick.”
“That’s meant to be comforting?” Padg was more annoyed than scared sounding.
“I hope it will not come to that.”
“Can you not speak up on our behalf?” Dun asked.
“It is not permitted. I have given my account. Now it is for the council to decide.”
“I’m oddly not comforted by that either.”
***
“TALI, I... DON’T WANT you to... go,” Amber said.
“I have to go at some point.”
“No. I mean, the Council, how they make... people talk.”
“Death sentence? Well, I’m not keen on that either.”
Tali sat on the floor of the cell with her back to Amber. Amber was combing her hair with a comb made from some carved substance that Tali didn’t recognize the feel of. The sensation of it on her skin, through her hair, wasn’t unpleasant. They had been talking for what seemed like a whole span.
“Will it be noticed that you’ve been here so long, Amber?”
“No, it is Shale cycle. That is the time that Tuf drinks at the end of his work. He will be snoring now.”
Tali immediately considered the usefulness of that but decided that a botched attempt at escape would make their chances worse. This required some careful planning.
“The people who talk. What do they say? Is it not going well for us?”
“As it is Shale cycle, Duke Shale presides over the council. For each cycle of meeting it is different.”
“We do something similar at home,” Tali said. “Folk-moots that have a different leader each time they meet.”
“It is the same then. But here each house has allegiances, reasons to cast votes one way or another; vendettas, pacts.”
“And I’m starting to suspect this has some bearing on us?”
“It seems... Duke Shale is trying to sway the council, to bring a quick verdict. Have you called spies and...”
“It’s all right, Amber. Any idea why?”
“No, Tali, no one knows. Many times, the Shale clan has been a peacemaker for alliances.”
“Hmm... but not now, eh.”
“No. Duke Shale will have you executed; I know it.” Amber finally broke down.
“Now then.” Tali gave the Stone-folk girl a gentle pat. “This game’s not over yet. Not by a long reed. Amber, do you really care what happens to us?”
“Yes,” she said between sobs.
“Okay. I need you to help us, then. It will be dangerous for you, and I’ll understand if you say no. Don’t say anything yet, until I’ve explained what kind of a position I’m putting you in, then you can decide if you’re foolish enough to say yes.”
With Tali’s new, more excited tone, Amber’s sobbing stopped.
“Now explain what happens when the council decides to execute...”
As Tali went to sleep, with the plan fixed in her mind, the only missing but vital piece was how to stall the council from declaring their death warrant. What could she possibly say here, in her position as a woman, that would buy them enough time to put her plan into action? She lay back on the stone bed, calmed her mind, and waited for sleep or inspiration to claim her.
