***
Stefan Hayden walked into the forest looking for landmarks. It had been more than twenty seasons since he walked this path into the woods. The trail was well marked with the still familiar signs of the Blackwood People, delicately carved strips of ebony wood pegged to trees or stuck into the ground. Stefan kept walking, not surprised when he saw movement from behind a tree. He must have been under observation for quite some time.
Stefan paused, letting the other get a good look at him. He hadn’t brought any weapons, visible or otherwise. He knew better than to imagine he could come armed into a Sansoussy village. He was counting on the Sansoussy sense of hospitality, coupled with a friendship over twenty seasons old.
The movement stopped, and then, suddenly, a man stood on the path about ten meters ahead of Stefan.
Stefan studied the newcomer intently. “I greet you, Vivek Nayar,” he said formally.
The other man nodded his head in recognition. “I greet you, Stefan Hayden.”
Stefan grinned. “You’ve changed a good deal, Vivek. But then, I have, too.”
The Sansoussy smiled. “Time spares no man, Stefan. Still, changed or not, I would have known you even without the warning.”
“I figured your people would spot me. I was just hoping there’d be someone who’d remember me.”
Vivek laughed. “There are still plenty of us among the Blackwood villages who remember the city man who asked so many questions. Why have you come back to the forest, my friend? I thought your mother’s death had tied you to your city?”
“Actually,” Stefan said, speaking candidly, “this is my second trip to the Sansoussy Forest in the recent past. I have a lot to tell you, Vivek. Could we go to your village and talk?”
Vivek nodded and stepped aside to allow Stefan to walk beside him. A little while later, Stefan found himself seated on a stool in the great room of Vivek’s house. A very young woman brought a pot of tea and two cups; Vivek introduced her as his eldest daughter. She set the pot and the cups on the small table between their two stools and silently withdrew from the room.
“She’s a fine looking girl, Vivek,” Stefan said. “You’ll have to beat the boys off with a stick.”
Vivek grunted with dissatisfaction. “She’s a spring-born. She won’t be able to marry for two more seasons.”
Stefan smiled reassurance. “Two seasons isn’t so long.”
“It is when you’re seventeen. Tell me why you’ve come, Stefan. You know I have no psy sense. Tell me what brings you back to the forest?”
Stefan had rehearsed how he would introduce the subject of his visit. “If you remember, I have a daughter, too. She’s older than your girl—a woman grown. She’s all I have in the way of family, and I needed to find a suitable husband for her.”
Vivek grunted in surprise. “I thought people in the city married—or not—as they saw fit?”
“Often they do. But in Shangri-La, the heir to a Great House doesn't have the same freedom. As my only heir, Francesca needs a husband and family. If I were to choose a city man for her, he might turn out to owe allegiance to another House. Or he might well have his own blade to hone. I needed someone from outside the city.”
Vivek frowned in disbelief. “Are you telling me you came into the forest to arrange a marriage for your daughter with a man of the Sansoussy?”
Stefan paused. He intended to be truthful, but he hoped to put his actions in a light that would make his friend understand, if not condone them. “Not exactly. I didn’t see any point in approaching a village with such a request. Do you know any man who’d consent to marry his descendent to an outlander?”
Vivek shook his head. “Not unless the boy was such as I wouldn’t want for my daughter. If you’d gone to the elders of this village, they would’ve been too polite to laugh to your face, but they would’ve laughed once you left them.”
Stefan nodded emphatically. “Exactly. But Francesca is my only child. I couldn’t bear to tie her to a man who was less than honorable, less than trustworthy—in short, less than a Sansoussy.”
Vivek frowned heavily, his brows pinching his forehead. “But, if you knew it was hopeless, why did you come?”
Stefan twisted his mouth in a bitter smile. “It was hopeless to ask. So I didn’t ask. I came into the forest with machines that helped me stay hidden, and I hunted a Sansoussy.”
Vivek’s face gave no hint of his reaction. “What Sansoussy?”
“I avoided your clan. I had no desire to find the son of my old friend in my net. I went deep into the woods, staked out my trap, and waited. There were five men I saw before I finally found the one who had what I needed for Francesca.”
Vivek’s face could have been carved from stone for all the emotion he showed. “And what was that?”
Stefan ticked off the answers on his fingers. “Long hair that showed he’d never been married, no braid so he wasn’t betrothed, a red bead for a warrior, to protect Francesca, and a sky-gold one for enough psy sense to make him useful but not enough to read my intentions.”
Vivek’s inscrutable look melted into disgust. “In just such a way might I hunt a timber cat—looking for one big enough to use the hide but not too large to kill by myself.”
“I admit it wasn't fair,” Stefan said. “I gave this man no choice at all—only I got more than I bargained for with him.”
Vivek raised his eyebrows. “How?”
Stefan pointed to Vivek’s caste bracelet. “He had a silver bead in his father’s place, so his father was dead. Still, he had two living ancestors—two black beads. The great-grandfather’s had a silver inlay on it.”
“A shaman?” Vivek said in surprise.
Stefan nodded. “Apparently, the old man has remarkable psy sense, because he sent his people over two hundred kilometers from his village and fetched Ran-Del back as accurately as if he had had a map.”
Vivek gave an exclamation. “You abducted the great-grandson of Ji-Ran Jahanpur?”
“He didn’t tell me his great-grandfather’s name, but Ran-Del is a Jahanpur. He’s in the Falling Water clan.”
Vivek nodded emphatically. “Ji-Ran Jahanpur has been the shaman of the Falling Water People for as long as anyone can remember. You’re right that he has a psy sense such as is seldom seen. They say when he had his second Ordeal, the elders awarded him six beads. No one can remember anyone ever having that many.”
Stefan blinked. “His second Ordeal? Why did he have two?”
Vivek stared at him for several seconds. “Why should I help you, Stefan? You abducted a young man of the Sansoussy, a man who had done you no harm. Why should I give you any information?”
Stefan met his gaze without hesitation. Only total candor would do. “When Ji-Ran’s warriors fetched back his great-grandson, they took my daughter with them. She’s there now, in the home village of the Falling Water People. So far they’ve made no move to harm her, but they haven’t sent her home either.
“I need you to tell me what to do to get her back, Vivek. If not for the sake of our friendship, then do it to help the Falling Water People. If I have to take her back by force, someone could get hurt.”
Vivek sat silently, pondering this request. After a moment, he turned his head toward the doorway and waited. A black-haired woman lifted the curtain, ducked through the doorway, and took a seat on another stool.
“He’s telling the truth,” the woman said.
“I greet you, Kanya Nayar,” Stefan said.
She gave him back a cold stare. “Greet me if you please, Stefan Hayden. Be glad that you didn’t steal one of my sons, or I’d kill you myself.”
“Enough,” Vivek said. “If Stefan is telling the truth, then we must help him to get his daughter back without bloodshed.”
Kanya nodded. “Very well, Vivek. But he should hurry. Stefan isn’t sure the one who watches his daughter will exercise patience.”
Stefan glanced down at the three glass beads on Kanya Nayar’s wrist. “Hiram will hold
the line so long as no one is doing anything bad to Francesca—and so long as I’m back in a few hours.”
She snorted. “We won’t harm you, Stefan, much as you might deserve it. I have a cousin among the Falling Water People. I’ve no wish to see them suffer.”
“Nor have I,” Stefan said. He turned back to her husband. “Tell me everything you can about Ji-Ran Jahanpur, Vivek. Start with why he had two Ordeals.”