Then, leaving Payindah and Firoz to follow us, with the others carrying our kit, we returned to the house.
CHAPTER XIII
WE JOIN WITH KYRLOS
When we reached the house again, we found Aryenis by the fire in the hall, having clearly removed the desert from her skin and hair, for she was looking even prettier than before. She and Kyrlos went off together, doubtless to talk over her adventures.
When our kit arrived, we followed her example, steaming ourselves in boiling water in the bathroom attached to the guest-chamber, a little room floored with red tiles around a sunken stone bath. The Blue Sakae are great believers in cleanliness of person and clothes, and this taste was by no means confined to the upper classes, despite the coldness of their winter climate.
It was good to soak the desert sand out of our systems, and feel our sun-dried, wind-hardened skins expanding once more under the soothing influence of clean hot water.
The evening meal was a rather more ornate edition of the midday one; but we did not sit long over it, for Aryenis pronounced for an early bed, and the other men drifted away quickly, so that Kyrlos and Stephnos alone were left. We sat over the fire drinking our wine for a space, and it was clear that Kyrlos had matters he was more anxious to talk of than mere commonplaces about our adventures and the customs of the Sakae, concerning which Forsyth had been asking him numerous questions.
Six days with Aryenis had accustomed us to the strange accent and unfamiliar idioms of their Greek, and we never had any more difficulty in talking with the educated people.
Finally Kyrlos plunged into the matter which was evidently nearest his heart.
“And now, my guests,” he began, “if it be not venturing discourtesy, I would know somewhat of the reasons which brought you into this land of ours where no stranger has come for centuries. Aryenis has told me something, but I would hear more from your own lips, more particularly since she spoke of wars in your land, and there will shortly be such war in this country as has never been. Wherefore came you hither?”
“We are three travellers, Kyrlos, who came seeking new scenes, for—as your daughter has, perhaps, told you—some hundred years ago a relative of Wrexham’s came to the gate of this land of which our people have no knowledge.”