“’Twas well done, Harilek,” he said at last. “I do not know whether Aryenis is the more fortunate in being rescued by you, or you the more fortunate in being able to rescue her. When I was a young man I dreamed of such things as that, but they did not come my way.”
“I have no doubt whatever, sir. The good fortune was entirely on my side.”
“And Aryenis says that you slew the Shamans with new weapons, such as have not been heard of in our country. Have you them with you? I was a lover of weapons ere misfortune tied me to this couch.”
I pulled out my pistol, unloaded it, and placed it in the old man’s hand, explaining roughly the way it worked as I showed him the cartridges.
“Wonderful,” he said. “That little thing which you say is as the miniature of our fort catapults will send those tiny bolts right through a mail-coat and through the man inside. And your man who slew the others, was he armed with this?”
“No. We have bigger ones that slay much farther; indeed, if you have eyes that are keen enough to point them straight, they will slay at over a mile. This is the dagger of which the other is the long spear.”
“Wonderful! Wonderful! Man has yet much to discover.” He handed me back the pistol, watching me reload it, and put it back in its holster.
“Stay you long in our country? If so you must come and see me again. Aryenis knows the way well enough. She has played here since she was a child.”
“I know not. But we stay for the war, and until that finishes in your favour we shall not leave.”
“Then I think you will stay some while. This will be a long and cruel war. Why do you stay for a war which is not your affair?”