"You are too generous, Jarl Harald." This pleased him and he smiled. "As it happens, I cannot accept even so much as a single lump of your silver." This pleased him still more. "What I did, I did for reasons of my own. Your freedom is all the reward I seek, and I have that."
"You speak well," Harald said, "but I would be less than a king if I did not reward you. Since you will not take silver, I charge you to name the thing you desire most, and, with all the power at my command, I will obtain it for you."
We sat down together then, and for the first time I felt an equal in his company. The feeling did not last long, however, for very soon the overtired jarl, lost in a fit of yawning, slumped onto his side and drifted off to sleep. I left the Sea Wolves to their death-like slumber, and crept away unseen to make my bed next to the amir's fire.
Although we had planned to move on the next day, we rested instead. The former slaves had spent all their strength in the escape and following march, and few were in any condition to renew their exertions. We might usefully have rested the following day as well, but Faysal, weighing our increased numbers against the rapidly dwindling provisions, suggested that if we did not make some progress, however small, we would soon be going hungry. "As it is," he suggested, "we must go to Amida and replenish our supplies."
This meant a delay, which Amir Sadiq did not like, but there was no other choice. So, setting forth at a gentle pace, we proceeded down the long, meandering trail to the valley floor, resting often. The next day, we proceeded west towards the Amida road.
Thus, upon reaching the road two days later, we turned not north to Trebizond, but south to Amida. Despite the fact that the amir no longer provided for them, many of the former captives preferred to remain close in order to travel under the protection of the rafiq. A few, however, unburdened by any such fears, left us as soon as we gained the road, eager to reach the city.
Though the former captives could not walk fast, nor for any great distance, still we journeyed at a better pace than before. Indeed, over the next days I observed a general improvement in all of the newly freed men, Britons and Danes alike: they moved more easily, and their strength increased day by day. Sure, they were strong men who had survived the mines. Even Ddewi seemed to come more to himself, as if, little by little, he remembered who he had been.
Each day I saw Kazimain, of course, but with everyone so close around us all the time, we had few opportunities to speak to one another, and these were all too brief. We contented ourselves with knowing glances, and hastily uttered words of endearment: not enough to make a man content, but it was all we had.
Then, early on the morning we were to enter Amida, she came to me. Men were breaking camp and saddling the horses, others preparing food. I turned, smiling as Kazimain hurried to where I stood talking to Dugal; one glance at the set of her jaw, and I broke off my chatter. Drawing her a little apart, I said, "You look about to burst."
"The amir says I am to stay in Amida," she told me, her voice shaking. "He intends hiring men to escort me back to Ja'fariya."
The thing had taken me unawares and before I could think what to say, she gripped my arm tightly and said, "He must not do this, Aidan."
"He fears for your safety," I muttered without conviction.
"And I fear for his!" she snapped. Taking in my bewilderment, she bent her head towards mine and confided in a low voice, not to be overheard. "He is not well."
I pulled back. "Not well?" Glancing around to where he sat breaking fast on some bread Faysal had given him, I said, "He seems in perfect health to me."
Kazimain dismissed my observation. "That is how he wants to appear," she said. "He has begun sleeping too long, and too deeply. He does not rise so quickly."
"That is no cause for worry," I suggested. "He is tired-we are all tired. Exhausted. No doubt we would all feel better for a day's rest."
Kazimain's smooth brow creased in a frown. "You are not listening!" she said. "Please, Aidan, do something. He must not leave me behind."
"I will speak to him," I promised. "If that is what you want."
This was not the right thing to say, I quickly discovered, for she stormed away and would speak to me no more.
Upon reaching Amida, late in the day, the amir ordered his tent to be erected a short distance from the settlement, and forbade the Sea Wolves to leave camp. Harald and his men were disappointed, but when Faysal explained that there was no ol of any kind, nor even wine, in all of Amida, the Danemen bore their disappointment more bravely. "Perhaps it is for the best," remarked Gunnar with stoic forbearance; "it will mean more silver to take home to Karin."
