"But we hadn't reached that part of my story."

"I suppose you couldn't know how important it was. And now, shall we go on?"

"First, will you keep this safe for me?"

He looked at the leather bag, tipped out a few coins, and said, "This isn't the currency used here."

"Not at all?"

"Perhaps farther North. I hear they are more lax about what coins they use."

"We're going North."

"No, Mara, you are not going anywhere."

He was not humorous, or gentle now, but severe. His mouth was tight, his eyes — no, not unfriendly — serious.

And she was in a panic, knowing she was a prisoner again. She wanted to get up from this table and her good breakfast and run and run, and find Dann... And then?

"Mara, between here and Shari there are Hennes, there is the Hennes army. Do you really want to be a Hennes soldier? Believe me, it's not like being an Agre soldier." He pushed over her bag of coins. "No one is going to steal these. By the way, did you know you broke that boy's wrist?"

"Good. He is a thief." And at his look, which was a reproof, "I haven't done all the things I've done to let some little thief take what was so hard to get. When I grabbed this bag up yesterday from among all those feet I could have been killed. Like Han." And, as he sat silent, "Without the money we carried we wouldn't have got far from the Rock Village."

"Don't worry, no one is going to touch anything of yours, seeing what you can do."

"Good. And why did he call me 'princess'?"

"It's a way of flattery. When they want to soften me up they call me 'prince.'"

Here they sat seriously, eyeing each other, because of things that were not being said.

"Are you going to start talking about precious children and mysterious plans?"

"I could, but I've got more urgent things on my mind." "But there is a plan that involves Dann and me?"

"Not a plan. Possibilities. And I think you'd better know I am not interested." He amended this. "I am not the one who is interested." A pause. He added, "And I don't see much point in your being interested yet, because you are so very far away from any place where it matters. Far in time," he emphasised. "And far in travelling — hundreds of miles."

"Well," said Mara, having taken all this in, "it seems to me that being Prince and Princess, all that kind of thing, isn't much use — not living like this."

"I agree. And I want you to know that in my opinion the time has long gone past when it could be of any use, or of any interest. And now, can you go on with your story?"

She went on. When she got to the bit where the Hennes soldiers appeared he asked question after question. What had they worn? In what condition were their uniforms? What were the colours of the shoulder straps? What was on their feet? Did they look well fed? Were they dusty and dirty? How many were there?

She was able to answer in detail. "And they carried weapons I know aren't of any use." She described them. "The Hadrons have them."

"Why do you say they aren't of any use?" She told him. "They aren't obsolete. They are copies of something very old. Very old. Some Hennes soldier with a talent for that kind of thing saw a weapon from an ancient museum. He thought out how to replicate it. Not exactly of course. We don't have that technology. But they do work. Most of the time. At first the Hennes army had the advantage, but then we got the thing too. So we are exactly balanced again. All that has happened is that many more people get killed and wounded." "How do they work?"

"They shoot out bullets. We make bullets. You put the stuff we make matches from into a hole and light it and the bullet is shot out." He was silent, and grim. "I was taught at school that only five centuries after the ancients discovered how to make this kind of gun the whole world was in the grip of a technology that made them slaves. Luckily we don't have the resources or the people. Not yet, anyway."

There was so much information here, and she only understood part of it. She cried out, "Last night you promised I will have lessons."

"Language lessons first."

"There's always something else first." And then, seeing his grave, uneasy look, she cried out passionately, "You don't know what it's like, knowing you're so ignorant, not knowing anything."

"I thought you said that in Chelops you found out you knew more than they do — about certain things, anyhow."

"That's not saying much. And I did know more — but what I really knew more about was not the kind of thing I want to learn. I know about how to stay alive. And they don't. When I look back now they seem to me like children." And now she was weeping. She put her head down in her arms and wept. She felt Shabis's hand on her shoulder. It was a kind hand, but it was also a warning.

"That's enough, Mara. Now, stop."

Slowly, she stopped. The warm pressure on her shoulder stopped too. She lifted her head.

"You will begin the language lessons tomorrow. Today I want you to do something for us. You will tell the officers your story."

"How can I? I don't speak Charad."

"Most of them know some Mahondi. I would like them to know more. You will have to speak slowly, and don't use any long words." "I don't know any long words." "Now don't start crying again."

"Why only the officers?"

"Do you want an audience of ten thousand?"

"You have ten thousand soldiers?"

"In this part of the country, ten thousand. Over in the West, under General Chad, ten thousand. In the North, twenty thousand — that is, centred on Shari. To the East, keeping the Hennes in their place, ten thousand."

"How many people live in all of Charad?"

"Most people are in the army."

"Everyone, in the army?"

"As you know wars are hard on the ordinary people of a country. We found that all the young men were coming to us, begging to be taken into the army. Then the women. We make most of them soldiers or they work for the army in some capacity. You see, with us they get clothed and fed. Soon we found there were parts of Charad that had no ordinary citizens left. The war had been going on for twenty years. Their fields were destroyed, and their animals taken. Soon Agre was all army. Many of them have never seen a fight, or even a raid, or seen a Hennes."

"What you are saying is that the whole country is a kind of — tyranny."

"That's about it." "Who is the ruler? You?"

"There are four of us generals. We rule. And we rule well." "And are the people protesting?"

"Indeed they do."

"So what happens then?"

"What did you do to the poor lad who was going to steal your money?"

"What do they want? If they want a change, what is it?"

"Sometimes we wonder — we four. They call us The Four. They are fed. They are well fed. They are safe."

"And soon you will have your truce with the Hennes. Are they also in the army?"

"No. They have a large, discontented civilian population. Mara, you will get lessons, I promise you. And now we are going to the parade ground. There will be a thousand officers there."

"You expect me to address a thousand people?"

"Why not? You'll manage all right. If you begin now, you should be finished with your story by midday. Don't dwell on the personal aspect. I want you to tell them about the changes in the climate, about how the animals are changing, the scorpions and so on. Describe the setup in

Chelops. Tell them about the River Towns. Some of the soldiers came from there, as refugees. Tell them about the shortages of food — all that kind of thing." He was smiling, and pleased with himself — or her. "My soldiers are the best educated in Charad."

How much she liked and admired him then! And she felt so very much at home with him. And yet he was not like the easygoing, friendly, smiling people that she was sure had been all that she had known in her early childhood. And he was not like Juba, and certainly not Meryx, whom she was seeing now in her mind's eye smiling at her, his gentle, charming smile, which faded as she looked, Goodbye Mara, goodbye — as he turned and went. This man had been a soldier for twenty years, and he never made a gesture, or a turn of the head, or of the body, he never took a step that did not fit exactly into some pattern he had been taught. And yet this discipline of his was nothing like the horrible sameness of the Hennes.