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I didn’t move. I stood with my hands held away from my body, and my palms facing forward.
‘Be still,’ said one of the men. I could understand him, but his words sounded wrong. He stood out from the others as he had dark hair, like the girl. The others were pale brown or blond. At least one of the men behind us must have stepped forward, because Pitr cried out and staggered backwards a pace as his pack was pulled from his shoulders. The pack was thrown more or less in front of the leader, then our hands were pulled behind us and tied there with thin cords that itched and scratched at my skin. Once we were bound, the girl I had chased earlier darted out of the green at the side of the road and snatched up Pitr’s pack.
‘Alyssa!’ snapped the dark haired man, obviously not pleased with her, but she clutched the bag to her chest and gave him an imperious look. He sighed, and seemed to back down. ‘Are these the two who attacked you?’
She nodded, staring me right in the eye and with smile playing around her lips. I held her gaze, and eventually she started to look uncomfortable. I looked away and spoke directly to the dark-haired man.
‘No, she stole my bag and I chased her.’
I got a cuff around the back of my head and a ‘Shut up’ from the man behind me, but the dark haired man raised a hand.
‘Enough. We discuss this later. Follow me. Try to run away and we will kill you.’
I gasped. People got into fights back home, and sometimes the Sherrif had to lock up drunks, but nobody ever killed anybody. Nobody even threatened to. I managed a jerky nod and followed as quickly as I could when he stepped off the road and into the green. It wasn’t easy. My legs didn’t want to hold me up and I was so scared I wanted to be sick. The ground was very different here, and that didn’t make it any easier. There was no path to walk on, just soft springy ground and plants.
Once we were away from the road the smells got more intense and the air felt more humid. If I didn’t look where I walked, I tripped over things. If I didn’t keep an eye out at head level, I got slapped in the face by bits of tree and plant. Not brilliant, but I didn’t think I would get much sympathy from the man with the dark hair. I guessed we had been walking for about an hour when we broke into a space that was open, yet still had a roof of trees way above. It was about forty metres across and there were twenty or so piles of stuff from trees and plants, some with small fires outside. There were people and children standing around, watching us. It was only when we got closer to one of the piles that I saw an opening in it and realised that these were homes of some sort. We were taken to one of the smaller ones and pushed inside.
‘Stay here,’ said the man with the dark hair. ‘Wait.’
The screen that passed for a door was pulled back into place and we were left alone.
‘Let me scootch over and try to untie your wrists,’ I said to Pitr. I hadn’t dared to talk to him or even look at him since we had been captured. I hadn’t wanted to do anything to annoy the guys with the knives.
Pitr seemed to give it some thought about it for a moment, then turned so his back was to me. ‘Go on then, give it a try.’
I swung myself around so we were back to back and started fiddling with the knot that held the bindings around his wrists.
‘So now we break out the back and make a run for it? The walls don’t look too strong.’ I said, as I managed to unpick the knot and free his wrists. He turned and did the same favour for me.
‘No,’ he said. ‘I think the best thing we can do is stay right here.’
We argued in whispers.
‘What? Are you crazy? They said they’re going to kill us.’ My heart was hammering and I wanted to throw up.
‘Think about it,’ he urged. ‘Even if we do manage to break out the back, do you think they just shut the door and left us here?’
‘Well - ’
‘I’ll bet there are at least two people watching us. There’s probably someone standing outside listening, too.’
I glanced at the door. ‘But what will they do to us?’
‘Don’t know,’ Pitr replied. ‘But if they were just going to kill us, wouldn’t they have done that on the path and saved themselves the effort of bringing us here?’
I couldn’t argue with his logic and so we sat, uncomfortable on the hard floor, and waited for what the drone told me was over an hour. There didn’t seem to be anything worth talking about, but the silence made me more edgy. A couple of times I went to get up and pace backwards and forwards, or even I had a half formed idea I was going to yell out the door that they couldn’t keep us here. Both times Pitr grabbed me before I could get up and pulled me back down, hissing ‘Stay put’.
When the door was pulled aside I jumped out of my skin and almost cried out. I kept it down to a quiet squeak and hoped Pitr hadn’t noticed. The dark-haired man walked in followed by two of his men. Behind them came an old man, and behind him was a boy carrying a stool. The old man saw our hands were undone and froze for a second. His expression didn’t change, but then he gave a little nod and carried on into the hut. I wasn’t sure if the nod was to us or to himself.
Dark Hair also saw our hands were unbound, but he scowled. ‘Stand. Spread your arms.’
We did as we were told and the other two men quickly patted us all over our body. I was a bit dubious about this at first, but realised why they were doing it when they found the drones and the crystals. These they took off of us and handed to the man with the dark hair, who examined them then passed them to the elder. I started to protest, but Pitr caught my eye and he shook his head. The boy put the stool down then scurried outside again. The dark-haired man helped the elder onto the stool, then whispered something into his ear before sitting cross-legged on the floor beside him and laying his long knife on the ground at his side.
The old man looked us over, seeming to pay special attention to our hands. I returned the favour. Nothing disrespectful, but enough to see that his long hair was all grey or white, and had been bound behind him in a plait like the girls at home wore before they were married. His face, though, didn’t look as old as his hair. His hands, which were cupping his knees, also looked agile and free from the lumps and parchment skin his hair would have suggested.
‘I am Brytar, and this is the leader of our warriors, Cheln. My granddaughter says you are spies, and that you attacked her.’
‘My name is Pitr,’ he said before I could get a word in. ‘This is my friend, Garret. Your granddaughter tried to run away with our bags. Perhaps she thought someone had thrown them away. We gave chase to try to get them back. We are not spying. We are travelling from one far place to another, and we are just passing through.’
I was impressed. I would never have thought of being diplomatic about it. I wouldn’t have been able to find all the formal words Pitr was using, either – but then he had always been more of a learner than me.
‘But you are not Boreetan,’ said Brytar. ‘If you are not of my people then who can you be other than Go-yen?’
‘May I ask a question?’ said Pitr, then asked it anyway even as Brytar was inclining his head in permission. ‘Do you have Historyuns?’
Brytar and Cheln looked at each other blankly. Pitr pushed harder.
‘Is there anyone who remembers your past, who tells the teaching stories to your children?’
There was a moment more of the confused expressions, then Brytar’s face cleared. ‘Ahh. Bards?’
‘Perhaps,’ said Pitr. ‘Do your bards tell stories of anyone other than your people and the Go-yen? Of a time far, far back when you all first came here?’
Pitr was doing really well and I left him to it. He didn’t need me coming in and upsetting what he was trying to do. Brytar was looking interested, but not convinced.
‘How does that tell me if you are spies or not?’
‘Because our story might remind your bard of something. A very old song that was not to be sung to the people, but that was only to be passed from master to student. Please, can you ask him to come and listen to our story?’
Brytar shook his head. ‘It would be of no use. Our Bard was slain by a Go-yen ambush many days ago. We have no Bard today. ‘