“I do hope you’ll like what he’s got for you. It’s something just to tell you that he’s glad you’ve brought me back. You see, he’s very fond of me really.”
“Then I’m sure I’ll like it.”
We rode in among the trees up to the house and went into the hall, where a fire was burning, and found Paulos sitting on his couch. It was too cold as yet for the lawn. The hall was a big place with one or two bits of really good statuary, showing distinct tracing of Greek craft; some trophies of arms on the panelled wall, and some skins of beasts on the dark wooden floor. There were bears still in the upper valleys in Sakaeland, and a certain number of spotted deer on the lower hills.
“Looking more than ever like the morning, Aryenis,” said he as she kissed him. “The winter always suits you best. You’ve just the skin and hair for furs, child. Now take your cloak off and sit down by the fire while I tell Harilek what you’ve got for him.”
“What you’ve got, uncle mine,” said Aryenis hurriedly.
“I grow old and careless in my speech. I mean what I’ve got.”
He turned to me.
“Harilek, do you wear mail in your country?”
“Not now. Our people used to, but when the noise weapons, as you call them, came in, folk gave up mail, because it was weight for no purpose, since the balls I showed you yesterday pierce it. But in this last war we took to wearing helmets of steel once again, and found some profit in them, since sometimes the balls glanced off.”
I wasn’t capable of explaining in archaic Greek the difference between high-velocity rifle-bullets and low-velocity shrapnel, and even if I had been it would have taken a long time to explain that to a man who’d never seen either gun or rifle.