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 You have foreigners in your troupe.
 Yes, saõ jura Meslar. Taguiloa lifted his eyes just enough to catch glimpses
of Maratullik s hands. At the word foreigner, the fingers twitched toward
closing, open-ing again slowly and reluctantly. At Taguiloa s mild and
noncommittal answer the fingers stiffened into claws. Taguiloa sweated some
more. Trying to play safe was less than safe in this game. Should he amplify
his answer or would that further antagonize the Temueng? After a few moments
of harried thought, he elected to wait for the next question and see how a
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more extended answer af-fected those hands, hoping all the time that
Maratullik didn t know how thoroughly his small and delicate fingers betrayed
him.
 Why?
Taguiloa shifted from foot to foot, let his nervousness show a bit more,
disciplined his voice to a dull monotone.  Three reasons, saõ jura Meslar. He
spoke softly, slowly, choosing his words with care, his eyes flicking, careful
not to look at the hands too long.  First, saõ jura Meslar, when I was
younger, I made tours through the Tigarezun with my master Gerontai and I have
taken notice of how eagerly the countryfolk greeted exotic acts and how well
they reward those that please them. He winced inside at the pompous greed in
the speech but the fingers were relaxing; he was conforming to expectation.
 Second, saõ jura Meslar, making a tour such as this is very costly especially
in the beginning; aside from their other talents the members of the troupe
excepting the children have contributed to outfitting us and will have a share
in what-ever we take in, the foreigners of course taking a much smaller share
than the Hina. Glance at the hands. Almost flat out. Good. But don t overdo
the boring bit. Or the greed.  Third, saõ jura Meslar, though this will be of
little importance to you, it carries a high weight with me, there are my own
aspirations. I seek to blend tumbling, juggling and dance into something no
man has seen be-fore. The music I found to accompany this new movement was
also a blend, a music from M darjin drums, Rukka-nag daroud, Hina flute, a
music that is sufficiently different to be intriguing, sufficiently familiar
for the comfort of the listeners. It is an exciting music, saõ jura Meslar,
all who have heard it agree. He bowed again and fell silent. Watch what you
say; he s far from stupid or he wouldn t be where he is.
 Tell me about your foreigners. The women first.
 They are honored by your interest, saõ jura Meslar. Taguiloa cleared his
throat.  I know only outlines, saõ jura Meslar, I must confess it, I wasn t
interested in their life stories, only their coin and their skills. Harra
Hazhani is Rukka-nag from far out in the west somewhere, you will of course
know of them. She came to Silili with her father, he died and left her without
protection or a place to go and a limited amount of coin so she needed a way
to earn more. The customs and strictures of her people forbid her on pain of
death to sell that which is a woman s chief asset and besides she was a
foreigner, only the perverse would pay for her. However she is an excellent
dancer in her way and a musician of considerable talent. The other woman is
called Brannish Tovah, she is Sujomann, out of the west too, from up in the
far north somewhere, she says winter nights last half a year and the snow
comes down until it s high enough to drown mountains. I needed a seer who
could also dance and she came well recom-mended. She s bound to the wind by
her god or so she said, goes where the wind blows, said she lost a husband and
two children to ice and wolves, has a brindle boar hound she says is her
familiar and a street child she picked up who has something to do with helping
her in her rites and acts as crier to call clients so she can read for them.
Like the Hazhani woman, she is forbidden by custom and her in-dwelling god to
seek congress with men not her kind. Were she to be forced, she is bound by
her god to castrate the man and kill herself. That tends to reduce the ardor
of any who might find her interesting. To speak truly, saõ jura Meslar, I was
quite pleased when I learned these things. Having women in a troupe is always
a tricky thing, can lead to complications with the countryfolk if they
consider themselves free to supplement their incomes on their back. The
M darjin drummer is a boy about ten or so, hard to tell with those folk. He
has no father or relatives willing to claim him, though how that happened is
not clear to me. I did not bother to probe for answers, I was not interested [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]