The Novels of the Jaran Read Online Free PDF Page B

trackless plain—had studied in Jeds.
    Under her stare, he dropped his gaze shyly. “I apologize. Forgive me. I have not given you my name. I am Yurinya Orzhekov.” Long lashes shaded his blue eyes. “But perhaps you will call me Yuri.” He hesitated, as if this request were a liberty.
    Tess began to feel dizzy again and, leaning forward, she put her hand on the first thing within reach: his horse.
    “Are you well? We go to camp now. Ilya says you were walking many days.”
    “Yes, I…” In a moment her head cleared. “I’m Tess. Terese Soerensen, that is. But Tess, that is what my friends call me.”
    “Ah,” he said wisely. “Can you mount?”
    Under his stare, not intimidating at all, she felt it possible to be truthful. “The last time I rode a horse was, oh, ten years ago.”
    “Well, then, I will keep the lead, and you hold on. Can you manage that?”
    By this time she had adjusted for his atrocious accent—his vocabulary was decent enough. “Yes,” she replied gratefully, “I think I can manage that.”
    He helped her mount, mounted himself, and led the way forward at a sedate walk. After he saw that she could manage that much, he let his horse ease back beside hers. “You are from Jeds”
    “Ah…yes.”
    “It is a very long way. Many months’ journey.”
    “Yes, I suppose it is.” She hesitated to question him further on geography, for fear of revealing the wrong sort of ignorance. Instead, she chose silence.
    “Ah, you are tired. I will not bother you.” He lapsed into a silence of his own, but a rather companionable one, for all that.
    She let it go because she was exhausted, still hungry, still dizzy on and off. When at long, long last they topped a low rise and she saw below a perfectly haphazard collection of about four dozen vividly colored tents, she felt only relief, not apprehension. A rider some hundred meters distant hailed them with a shout and a wave, and Yurinya waved back and led Tess down into a swirl of activity.
    Their arrival brought a crowd of people to stare, mostly women and children, and soon after a woman whose broad, merry face bespoke a blood relationship to Yuri. She held a child in one arm, balanced on her hip, but when Yuri spoke briefly to her in their language, she handed the child over to another woman and crossed to stand next to Tess. She called out to the crowd, and it quickly dissipated, except, of course, for a score of curious, staring children.
    She looked up at Tess and smiled. It was like water in the desert. Tess smiled back.
    “I am Sonia Orzhekov,” said the young woman. “I am Yuri’s sister, so he has properly brought you to me.”
    “You speak Rhuian.” Tess stared at her, at her blonde hair secured in four braids, her head capped by a fine headpiece of colored beads and leather; she wore a long blue tunic studded with gold trim that ended at her knees, and belled blue trousers beneath that, tucked into soft leather boots. An object shaped like a hand mirror hung from her belt. “I suppose you studied in Jeds, too.”
    Sonia laughed. “Here, Yuri.” Her accent was far better than her brother’s, and she spoke with very little hesitation. “We’ll walk the rest of the way.” She lifted up her arms and helped Tess down. “There. Men can never talk to any end, sitting up so high all the time. Yuri, you may go, if you’d like.” Although couched politely, the words were plainly a command. Yuri glanced once at Tess, smiled shyly, and left with the two horses.
    “But did you?” Tess persisted. “Study in Jeds, I mean.”
    “You are surprised.” Sonia grinned at Tess’s discomfiture. “Is Jeds your home?”
    “Yes.” The lie came easier to her, now that she realized it was the best one she had, and not entirely untrue.
    “So you do not expect to see such as we studying in the university in Jeds. Well.” Sonia shrugged. The blue in her tunic was not more intense than the fine bright blue of her eyes. “You are right. Jaran