3W

3W

This, said hy, was laid on him for want of any other flat place to pitch tents. To this Lael warily agreed, but ever he eyed the ark of God while the two bands shared provender.

Lael told Marsayas that most of his people were newly come to Kemen, and that he knew little of the lands that lay about them, but he led his little migration whither Bat-El willed.

Marsayas said this opened a perfect opportunity to tell a tale, and he assured Lael's company that it was true in every detail, but although it described very foolish men, it was a solemn tale of caution rather than one of mirth, and none should laugh.

Then Marsayas spoke in aside to his own band using a strange tongue. As he did so, Lael made his sons Elam, Jemuel, and Rosh stand nigh to the Ark while the wives of all the migrants seated themselves in a circle between the fire and Lael's sons.

Together with Lael within the ring of women sat Abner and his son Asa, and Josiah with his son Tobiah. But Zethan, Jabez, and his two sons Rimon and Asher stayed with the small flock of animals on the edge of the little plateau to ensure they were not lost over the edge.

"You call this land Haaretz," Marsayas told them, "but we call it simply The Land We Know. Towards the setting suns lies Thalury, the great Western Sea. Ships ply between ports in Sastrom, Alodra, and the Saiph League, and from there they sail up the River Sabik as far as Atria.

"The coast continues north to the ice wall, and bends west to follow the ice. There are many coves and headlands at the foot of the ice and the people who dwell there prospher by trading fish and wares with merchants who come calling in ships. But in many places the ice reaches to the shoreline, and this ice ever cleaves into great floating bergs, such that it is not possible to build a road west to the lands of Gerazan and Rammon.

"But of the coast south of the Saiph League nothing of certain is known, but it is said there is no like band of land, only the Ice, and far away from both the western and eastern shores this Ice fails, and there is a gap of some fifty leagues, though few have ever seen the gap and lived to speak of it.

"From the beginning of days sailors heeded the strict decree of Elyon never to sail nigh to the Ice in the south of Thalury. No captain, drunk or otherwise, dared steer his ship so near to the ice that its upmost reaches became visible on the horizon.