Borne Aloft

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 43501

The litter-bearers carried Astra in a westerly direction along a rough track, leaving the river (which ran roughly north-south) behind them. She assumed that the distance would not be far, since the settlement would surely not be located more than a mile or two from its pear orchard. Besides, she would be quite a heavy burden to carry any distance. She had protested that she was quite capable of walking, but for some reason the men had insisted that she should use the litter. It seemed that the concept of a surname was unfamiliar to them, since they called her "Black Zari" rather than "Zari Black". She did not bother to correct them. In fact she thought that their version had a certain ring to it.

The men were reserved, but they treated her politely. She was happy enough to go with them. She hoped that she would be provided with a hot bath, soap and perhaps a brush, with which she might be able to get rid of the remaining tar. She also badly needed clothing, of course. And if they were willing to give her some supplies for her onward journey, then so much the better.

She hoped that they would not insist on providing her with an escort out of their territory. The one snag with her lie was that, if her memories of the geography of the region were correct, the North Terel sea was roughly east of here, whereas her real homeland lay roughly west. But she imagined that their territory would be a fairly small one, so that should not prove a major problem.

Astra thought it unlikely that a message from Gilder concerning her escape would have reached this remote region. Even if it had, she was confident that she no longer fit the description of the redheaded woman who was being sought. She would make sure that she would not wash the tar out of her hair, even if that was possible, which she rather doubted. Instead she would see if she could get her hair cut short, for she could not leave it as it was.

It sounded as though she would need to make a favourable impression on this "Granny", who she assumed must be the senior person in the settlement. She was confused by the mention of alchemy, though. Why should her views matter to these people concerning a subject that must surely be fairly obscure, since she had never even heard of it?

  1. They soon arrived at their destination.

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JH

7/18/2004 1:54:02 PM

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