The first lesson was to be careful not to overeat. The food in this world did indeed cause some queasiness in Im; Na became nauseous enough to lose her meal. “It won’t st,” Xido assured the two. “You are probably safest with fruits and vegetables now. And wine — that might be just the thing to help you acclimate.”

  A medicine none of us would mind taking, eh?

  Accordingly, Na sipped wine through the evening and kept it down. Their shelter proved to be a storage building. “Once a house,” conjectured Xido. “Too shabby now to live in but too sound to tear down.” There were jars and barrels and boxes about, most seeming to contain food of some sort.

  “The folks here won’t mind if we help ourselves to a little of this to carry along on our journey,” felt Xido. He felt, as well, that they should be sociable in repayment of the hospitality they were being shown. “Come sit outside,” he told them. “We can work on your second lesson, learning some of our hosts’ nguage.”

  “And you’re not letting Im out of your sight, are you?” asked Na.

  “Without Qu’orthseth at hand to serve as bodyguard, that duty falls to me. Your third lesson must be to learn how to use magic here so you are capable of defending yourselves.” With that, Xido stepped outside to greet the vilgers. His companions followed him.

  “They believe I am a trader from the far south,” the god continued. “Xit by name. I have guided you on a long journey.”

  Na ughed. “Quite long!”

  As much to himself as anyone else, Im muttered, “I fear it will prove much longer.”

  Neither replied to that as they approached the communal fire, a small bze in a pit central to the vilge. “The genders mix here,” commented Xido, taking a pce in the circle of vilgers. “Sit where you will.”

  Im could feel the eyes turned on him and wished his beard was fuller. He looked too much like a boy! A half-starved, ragged boy, at that, not the young man he considered himself to be. Was he not over seventeen years of age? These Ildin men mostly wore short, neat beards, and kept their dark hair closely cropped. That was not at all the way of Hirstel — perhaps he should consider cutting back his own luxuriant locks.

  After all, Xido himself affected a style not greatly different from their hosts. More practical, maybe, when one was out doing things.

  Women. There were women here and they were looking at him. Now there were women in Hirstel, to be sure. One of them was right here and getting her own share of looks. But Im had never noted any of them having any interest in him. For that matter, most had not interested him that much. Im was not quite sure why; those women of Hirstel had often seemed distant, unreal, in a way.

  These Ildin women were very real. And he could not converse with them! He sat next to Xido, deciding that was the best way to learn a few words. Unless one of those girls on the other side of the fire might be willing to give him private lessons. He could hope, couldn’t he?

  “You should not find Ildin overly difficult,” Xido whispered to him. “The syntax is not greatly different from your own nguage. That is something for which you may thank old Hurasu himself, the Vision Lord, the man who created your tongue.”

  “It has changed over the millennia since,” put in Na, who had taken a pce on the other side of Im.

  Xido nodded. “It is so. And over the millennia it has also influenced the development of other nguages, Ildin included.” He turned to a gray-haired woman who apparently served as head of this settlement. “Im,” he said, pointing to the boy. “Na.” This was followed by something in Ildin.

  To his comrades, he said, “This is Oerasee and when she greets you, return her words.” The woman had quite the longest nose Im had ever seen. All these Ildin’s noses stuck out rather far.

  That done, Xido went back to conversing with their hosts, leaving Na and Im rgely out of it. Now and again, Im would point to some object and ask his divine companion how it would be said in Ildin; man, woman, fire, food, and maybe a dozen other useful words were in his and Na’s possession by the end of the evening.

  Im was again thinking about getting private lessons from one of the vilge girls when Xido confided, “Only a couple of these vilgers have ever seen Tesrans, so there was no problem convincing them you were such. This may make them a little uncomfortable around you.”

  “That’s a good thing!” opined Na, who might have sipped just a little too much wine. She snickered. “As long as it doesn’t scare the men away.”

  “They’re a pretty straitced bunch,” warned Xido. “Best avoid anything of that sort.”

  “Ha, Great Xit, I’ve seen you eying them yourself!” And them eying Xido, Im said only to himself. But the god was right, this was not the time nor pce for thinking of such things. Not that he could necessarily help doing so.

  Many of the vilgers were rising. An end to the evening? he wondered. Yes, Xido was getting up too. Im was tired but he was also excited about all this around him. So much was new! So many possibilities in this big world. As he got up to follow his comrades to their hut, a woman jostled against him and murmured what he assumed was a word of apology. Then she slipped something into his hand.

  A scrap of — what? Paper? Or maybe bark. Im wasn’t sure. He watched the Ildin woman walking away as if naught had happened. She wasn’t bad to watch from this angle, not bad at all. And young, or almost young. A few seconds ter, as the vilgers dispersed to their huts, he unfolded the bit of paper and scrutinized it. A crude map, it was, a map of the vilge and one of the huts was clearly marked.

  Marked with a picture that was somewhat crude as well, in more ways than one. An invitation? He looked up at the handful of houses. That one over there. No mistaking that.

  “Xido,” he whispered, “do you know which of these people live in that house?” The god did not but he asked one of those standing by, nodding as he was given the information.

  “That’s the home of Oerasee and her daughter. Both widowed?” He asked the Ildin man something else. “Yes, both, and a couple of children live with them.”

  “Oh. Thank you. I, ah, wondered about our, um, hostess. So that’s her house.” He nodded in a simution of satisfaction. “We might as well get to ours.”