Suspicious Strangers

The newest visitors to appear at the gate appeared on the face of it to pose no great threat. They were human, and there were only three of them. However it was unusual for anyone to emerge from the desert on foot. It was even rarer for two of them to be women. At first the guards had assumed from the strangers' height that they were all men, but as they drew nearer their faces and hair made it clear that two of them were female and apparently identical twins, for having left the desert behind they had their protective hoods thrown back.

The captain of the guard hailed Fred as he approached: "Please state your names and your business in Kassini." "My name is Frederigo and these are the twin sisters Astra and Thesamer," Fred replied, feeling it best to divulge as little information as possible. "Our business lies far beyond Kassini, and we intend to stop here for only as long as it takes for us to buy horses and to replenish our supplies."

The captain noted that the man spoke with an Allarian accent. "What took an Allarian to the Calamari?" he asked. "We rarely see Allarians here, and never before in my experience has one come here from out of the north."

It had irked both Astra and Thesamer that the captain had automatically assumed Fred must be the leader. Now Astra broke in: "Do the Three Kingdoms now claim sovereignty over the Calamari? I think not. What we were doing there is no business of yours."

The woman's accent was unfamiliar to the captain. Few if any Aquilarians had ever reached this far north, and he had never heard one speak. But her forwardness, the confidence - almost a swagger - with which she and her sister carried themselves, together with their height, all reminded the captain of the legends he had heard of a nation of amazons situated somewhere far to the south. "You two are Aquilarians, aren't you?" he said.

1. "We are," Astra said. "What of it?"
2. Fred did not like the way the captain seemed to be becoming increasingly suspicious. In a possibly ill-judged attempt to allay the man's suspicions, he said: "No, they're not Aquilarians."

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