Chapter 5: Kletta, Thief

She was content to let Baysil be the center of attention as Chief Lasam, followed by several village Elders, advanced to welcome them. Baysil was altogether too trusting; she would watch their backs. Too many covetous glances were being turned their way. There was something off-key about their reception, the way the villagers looked at them; could it be hunger? No, that wasn't it. The children were plump and full of boisterous energy, and the grown-ups looked healthy enough too, but it was plain that Door'm was metal-poor. Tools and weapons were of wood, bone, or stone, and only a few bronze daggers hung at the belts of the chief and his advisors.

"Welcome to village name of Door'm," Lasam boomed, smiling broadly. Though a good head and a half shorter than Nas'nr, he still overtopped Baysil, outweighing him by half or more. Door'm men were all large and brawny, the women almost as much so, with coarse features, oily yellow skin, and bristling shocks of dark hair. They looked well-fed, wearing only loincloths or bark-cloth skirts, and the children, small and sly, wore nothing at all. The villagers quieted their gabble as the chief spoke, watching the visitors eagerly. "What bring strangers to this place? How many come? How far back, they?"

She listened with half an ear as Baysil repeated what he'd told Nas'nr; that they were alone, friendly, and in need of supplies on their journey to Pordigran. She was more interested in the way the other villagers acted, particularly the children with their sly grins. She'd have to keep a sharp eye on their packs, as long as they stayed with these people, but that was all right. She'd grown up with worse, in the slums of Pordigran.

"This place most happy to welcome bright-armored strangers, and help them on way to place, name of Pordigran. Gods look down on all, bless nets of fishermen who help strangers. We make feast," the Chief announced. "Then we talk more. Wife! Take woman of Bays'l while men make talk and pray to Gods. We feast when Old Woman Sun near down from sky."

"You come with this one, name Tahs. Come watch, while make ready for feast." Kletta went with Chief's wife quite willingly. While Baysil talked with the men, she would be finding out things from the women that he would never be able to learn. Foods, and customs, and what Gods they worshipped, to mention only a few.

She sat with her feet curled under her on a rush mat, her pack near at hand and sword close by, while the women prepared the feast. So quiet, so still she sat, that very soon they almost forgot that she was there.

Their chattering voices rose and fell, now soft, now shrill, as they gutted fish and wrapped them in fragrant leaves. Noisy children dashed in and out of the hut, the larger ones scraping vegetables, the smaller ones bringing wood for the fires. Tahs was clearly in charge; she was the Chief's first wife, and didn't let them forget it! The village Shaman's wife, Agesaend, was second only to Tahs, but she could gain no clear picture of the order from there on down. What man a woman was sister to seemed almost as important as who she married.

There was bad trouble in the village; she gathered that much from casual remarks. Something about the nets and the fish-drying racks. She'd noticed that something was wrong on their way into the village; there were too few nets hung on poles, and the drying racks looked to be in bad shape. Almost as though something had flattened part of them. Oh, well. She'd learn what she needed to know soon enough. These village women were almost as bad as men, with their eternal gossip.

"Watch so that fish not burn! Lasam feed you to river-thing if you spoil feast! No matter if you Shaman's sister-daughter, Elii." Tahs rushed over to where a smell of scorching leaves arose, calling the chattering women back to their tasks.

"Fish all right," was Elii's placid answer. She was small for a villager, stocky rather than plump, pleasantly plain-featured. "Be more fish, now strangers here."

"You shut fat mouth!" Tahs glanced over at Kletta, as though remembering suddenly that she was sitting there, but relaxed when she saw that their guest was leaning back against the side of the cooking hut with her eyes closed as though asleep. Her warning was enough, the talk was suddenly on ordinary things; the weather, the crops, and which husband was lusting after whose wife.

"Come now, make ready for feast. Wash, make pretty for men." Aroused from her supposed nap, Kletta followed to the side of the pool made by the stream as it cascaded down the side of the cliff. The women splashed and chattered, giggling and pointing as Kletta slipped out of her grimy leathers to reveal her pale and slender body.

"Here, you take nice bark skirt," Tahs offered when they'd dried off. "Wear for feast."

She refused politely, digging into the depths of her pack for her one tunic. Hanging her pack, shield, and swords from a high rafter in the cooking hut, she declared herself ready to join the men at their meal.

"Women serve, men eat!" Tahs was emphatic on this point.

"This one is guest! Guest does not serve."

Tahs shook her head doubtfully, but agreed to see what the Chief's reaction would be. "Toeyto!" One of the older girl-children scurried at her call. "Run, see Chief! Tell him Bas'l woman want to sit with men."

The girl giggled and ran off. She was soon back with the word that Kletta could indeed eat with the men, and Tahs led the way to the large meeting-hut at the center of Door'm village. The Chief and Baysil sat cross-legged in a ring with the village Elders, and Kletta had to content herself with a place in the outer ring directly behind Baysil. A few of the men grumbled when she joined them, but a withering glare from Chief Lasam quelled them.

Very little was said while the food was being served, the men of the village seemingly intent on the food they shoved into their gaping mouths. Gourds of sour bark beer washed the food down, to the accompaniment of hearty belches, and the meal was topped off by stoneware mugs of some hot, spicy liquor.

"Now, we talk," Chief Lasam rumbled when all had finished eating. "This one named Bas'l great warrior, kill many monsters, go on many far journeys. Place name of Door~m have much honor from visit. Bas'l on journey much favored by Gods, and men of Door~m happy to help. Give Bas'l and his woman food for travel, tell him what way to go."