Ozark Fantasy - Twelve Fair Kingdoms Part 10

have. You didn't see a Skerry every night, much less under full

moons at midnight in a Castle garden.

"But you notice they didn't tell the Family," I said. "That's mighty

odd, seems to me. Seems to me that would of been the first thing to do."The girl rubbed her nose and stared down at the floor, scuffing one shoe back and forth. Not only sloppy, but wasteful, too.

"The Housekeeper told us not to," she said sullenly. "She carried on about it till we were all sick of listening-what she'd do if we

bothered the Master and the Missus with it... bothered them, that's how she put it!""Well?" I asked her. "Do you have any inkling in your head why she might of taken it that way?"

She sniffled. "I don't know," she said. "I just know I'm scared. And it's not fair-I already had my share of bad luck.""Ivy of Wommack," I said patiently, "have you given this tale any thought atall? Other than to fret yourself about it, I mean?"

"What way should I be thinking about it?"

"Well, for starters, where do the Skerrys live?"

"In the desert on Marktwain," she said promptly.

"Quite right. In the desert on Marktwain. The only patch of desert

on this planet, girl, and left desert only out of courtesy to the Skerrys. They were here first, you know, and it was desert then."

"Yes, miss."

"And since that's true, and Skerrys can't live outside the desert, why in the name of the Twelve Gates and the Twelve Corners

would one turn up on Mizzurah, many and many a long mile from its desert, and of all unlikely places, sitting on a well brim? Skerrys hate water, can't abide water, that's why they live in the desert!"

Her mouth took a pout, which was no surprise.

"Really," she said, "I'm sure I'm no expert on Skerrys, and it wouldn't be proper if I was, and as to how it got here, my friend

says it would have to be by magic, and she got that from the Senior Attendant, and he's on his way up in the world-he's no fool!"

"Tell me again," I said. "Exactly. What did they say?"

"Kyle Fairweather McDaniels the 17th, that's the Senior, and my

friend-never mind her name, because she wasn't supposed to be out of her bed at midnight, much less with Kyle Fairweather-they say that they were down by the well and they saw the Skerry as plain as I see you."

"Walked right up and touched it, did they? Said howdeedo?""Miss!""Then how did they know it was a Skerry?""Well, miss, what else is eight feet tall and has copper skin, and silver hair as hangs down to its knees? I ask you!"

"It was sitting on the well, Ivy of Wommack, not standing. You go said so yourself. How could they see that it was eight feet tall? And as for the copper skin, a bit of Hallow Even paint will do that- I've

done it myself, and I'll wager you have, too-and a silver wig's easily come by.""They were sure."

"Were they?""They were.""They were out where they should not of been, doing what they should not of done-"

"I didn't say that."

"Well, I say it, missy," I snapped at her, "and I say it plain, and

between their guilty consciences and the moonlight, it was easy for anybody atall to play a trick on them. And more shame to them for scaring the rest of you with such nonsense... what trashy doings!"

"You don't believe it, then, miss?"

"Certainly not. Nor should you, nor anybody else."

She sat there beside me, quieter now, though she'd switched from

wrinkling up the counterpane to wringing those skinny little hands that looked like you could snap them the way Michael Stepforth Guthrie'd snapped my ribs. Only with no need for magic, nor much strength, either.

"Feel better now, Ivy of Wommack?" I asked her finally, and I hoped she did, because I wanted a rest and a read before my supper.

I was willing to finish unpacking for myself, if I could just get rid of this skittish creature.

"You know what's said, miss," she hazarded. I wished she would stop wringing her hands before she wore them out.

"What?" Though I knew quite well.

"That if a Skerry's seen," she breathed, and I could hear in her voice the echo of a Granny busy laying out the lines, "that there has to be

a whole day of celebration in its honor. A whole day of no work and all celebration... or it's bad luck for all the people that know of it. And I've worked this livelong day, and so has all the staff!"

"That, I suppose, is why your 'friends' spread the news around," I said. "Sharing out the bad luck."

"Maybe," she said. "Might could be that's why." "Covering their bets," I said tartly. "If they didn't really see a Skerry, no harm done. If they did, the bad luck that comes from not following the rules gets spread out thin over the whole staff, instead of just falling on the two of them. You think that over, Ivy of Wommack."

She sighed, and allowed as how I might be right, but she didn't know, and I occupied myself with sending her on her way. She'd forgotten all about finishing my unpacking, fortunately, and it took me three minutes to do what she'd left and fix what she'd messed up, and then I stretched out on the bed bone-naked under the covers and took up my most trashy novel.

There was a certain very small, you might say tiny, bit of risk here. For a Skerry to show up on Mizzurah, at midnight, or at any other time, might fit right into some Magician of Rank's idea of an adventure for this particular stage of my Quest. And if so, I was asking for powerful trouble-maybe not right now, maybe not for a long time, but someday it would come-if I didn't speak up and demand the day of festival to honor its appearance.

Furthermore, if a Magician of Rank had teleported a Skerry out of its desert and onto the edge of the Motleys' well, the Skerrys were not going to be pleased about that. Not at all pleased. They'd asked precious little of us, when The Ship landed; just to be let alone. And whizzing one around the planet in the middle of the night was distinctly not leaving it alone as promised.

I tried to remember when a Skerry had last been seen, putting my microviewer down for a minute... not in my lifetime, I didn't think. In my mother's, perhaps; it was dim in my memory. But that Skerry had come walking out of the desert on Marktwain of its own free will, and had walked right down the street of a town on the desert's edge in broad daylight. It had been an honor, and I believe Thorn of Guthrie said there'd been festival for two whole days...

No. I made up my mind. It had to be a trick, played on the Senior Attendant and his foolish lady friend, and no more. For my benefit, perhaps, meant to distract me and delay me if I believed it, but only a trick all the same. No Skerry would cross all the water between Marktwain and Mizzurah and sit on a well in the middle of the night for two young Castle staff to gawk at. And no Magician of Rank would dare tamper with a real Skerry in that way.

I was not going to take any such obvious bait, and that was all there was to that.

I went back to my book.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

I left for Castle Lewis after the hunt breakfast, not staying for the hunt itself on the grounds that I had to hurry, and since that was obviously true no one made more than the objections politeness demanded. Mizzurah was so small, and so heavily populated, that anything but ordinary Muleflight was out of the question, and I flew through a bl.u.s.tery spring day, sedate and proper, and reached Castle Lewis only just before the sun began to go down behind the low hills. Sterling was bored, and so was I, and we did nothing fancy; just came down slow and easy over the broad lawn that spread round the Castle, and waited for developments. The wind was brisk enough that the Mule was shivering, and I got down and took an extra blanket from my pack and began rubbing her down.

Castle Lewis was small against the darkening sky, small and tidy, with a central gate and two towers to each side, and a tower at each of its corners. No frills, no fancy battlements and balconies, just a plain small st.u.r.dy Castle, and I liked the look of it.

The front gates opened as the sun slipped out of sight completely, and three men came running out with solar lanterns-economy here, I noted, and I approved. They'd been well exposed and threw a fine bright light across the gra.s.s, as they should do. One of the men put a shawl around me, very respectfully; one took over the task of rubbing Sterling down, making protesting sounds because I'd started the process myself; and the other stood stiff as a pole, waiting for something.

"Where is that woman?" demanded one of them, and called over his shoulder: "Tambrey! Tambrey of Motley! What's keeping you, woman? Responsible of Bright.w.a.ter at your gate half-frozen, and dropping with hunger and entirely tuckered out, and what are you doing in there, counting your fingers to see if you've lost one? Will you get out here?

I'm not that tired, Attendant," I said sharply, "and not that cold, and not that hungry. I'll last the night" "That doesn't excuse her, miss," he said firmly. "She knows her duty, and she's expected to do it" And he turned his head again and shouted "Tambrey!" and then made a remarkably expressive noise of disgust "It's all right," I said, "never mind the woman. One of you to take my Mule to the stables, and two to see me to my host and hostess- I can surely make do with that?"

But they wouldn't have it that way, and we stood there in the wind while a soft rain began to fall in the deepening darkness, and I knew that I was up against it. The famous Lewis propriety, than which only the Travellers' could be said to be more extreme. I could stand there and drown, for all they cared, I'd not enter their Castle attended by other than a female, and I envied my Mule. At least she was going to be warm and fed and dry, any minute now.

When Tambrey did appear, which to give her credit was not many minutes later, she didn't come from the gates but out of the cedars that bordered the Castle lawn. She was a pretty thing, too, and I couldn't see her being a servingmaid long; her hair was hidden by the hood of her cloak, but her face was perfection, and I was willing to place my bets on the rest of her.

The men grumbled at her, but she paid them no mind at all, and from the way they dropped their complaining I was reasonably certain they were used to that, too.

"Welcome to Castle Lewis, Responsible of Bright.w.a.ter," she said, "and let's get you in out of this damp this minute and a mug of hot cider in your hand!"

Oh yes. I had forgotten. I'd get nothing stronger than cider from the Lewises unless it came from a Granny's own hand and was vouched for as being the difference between my total collapse and my blooming health. And not hard cider, either; it would be the pure juice of the Ozark peachapple, mulled with spices, and hot as blazes, and innocent enough for the baby that still hung safe outside the Bright.w.a.ter church. The Lewises kept to the old ways with a vengeance.

We went through the gates into a small square courtyard, planted with low flowers in neat square beds, and raked paths between them, and on to where the Castle door shone wide and welcoming. In the door stood two I'd heard a great deal of, but knew hardly at all: Salem Sheridan Lewis the 43rd, and his wife, Rozasharn of McDaniels.

"Here she is," said Tambrey, handing me through the door like a package, so that the Lewises both had to step back a pace to avoid me running them down, "Responsible of Bright.w.a.ter, safe and sound! Miss, Salem Sheridan Lewis the 43rd; and the Missus of this Castle, Rozasharn of McDaniels."

"Thank you kindly, Tambrey," said the woman Rozasharn, and the beauty of her voice caught my ear. I hoped she would sing for us, later, if the quality of her speech was any sign of her ability.

Salem Sheridan was another matter. His wife gathered me into her arms as if we'd known each other all our lives; but he snapped his fingers and ran everybody through their drill. Had my Mule been seen to and stabled? Good. And had my bags been brought in and taken up to my room? Good. And was the mulled cider ready in the east parlor? Good. And would Tambrey see to my unpacking? Good -and I was to have extra blankets, mind, it was going to be cold. And would supper be on the table in precisely one hour? Good! And it was all "Yes, sir!" coming the other way. It said something for Tambrey of Motley's ingenuity that she'd been able to find her way past this one and into the cedars-there'd be no sloppy staff here.

I had time only to wash a bit, tidy my hair, and change from my traveling costume into something less elaborate, before suppertime, the cider still burning my throat. I was traveling light, as was necessary; there was the splendid traveling outfit, the blue-andsilver party dress, the gown of lawn for magic, some underclothes and a nightgown, a study black shawl, and one plainer dress that I'd not yet had an opportunity to wear. And that was all.

I held up the last dress and looked it over dubiously; it had alternating narrow stripes of the Bright.w.a.ter green and scarlet, with a neck cut low in front and rimmed in back by a high ruff of ivory lace that would require me to put my hair up. It had long sleeves caught at the wrists with lace-trimmed wide cuffs as well, and the stripes themselves were shot with silver-and-gold threads.

I'd seen nothing like it here; only modest high-necked round-collared gowns without ornament even to their cut. The Lewis crest was a green cedar tree on an azure field, with a narrow border of cedar-trunks russet round, and except for a b.u.t.ton or two that bore that device I'd seen only the plain and the spare. Even Rozasharn, presumably dressed for company, had been wearing a dress of a heather blue with a skirt scarcely full enough to swing with her hips as she walked, and plain little round white b.u.t.tons down its high front.

True, I was a guest. 'tnd true, the conditions on a Quest demanded a certain amount of spectacle, and I had to abide by them. But I could see nothing in the garments that Tambrey had hung for me that would not of looked foolish at the Lewis supper table.

Well, there was my nightgown... it was moss green flannel and had the proper cut and simplicity, and I couldn't see that the Lewises would recognize it for what it was if I could keep my own face straight. I belted it with a narrow braid of gold cord, since it had no proper waist, and added a single silver pendant-a small flower meant, I believe, to represent a violet, but innocuous enough for any occasion-on a narrow green velvet ribbon. Then I used a matching ribbon to tie my hair back simply at the nape of my neck and looked at the effect in the long gla.s.s mirror in my guest-chamber.

My grandmother would of been scandalized, my mother would of fainted, but I was of the opinion that I could get away with it. I only had to remember not to let a servingmaid see me in it tomorrow morning when she brought up my pot of tea. That would have meant the word going out that I'd either been too lazy to change into my nightgown and had slept in my dress, or that I'd been so addled I'd worn my nightgown to supper, neither of which would do.

Kingdom Lewis had just one product for sale-cedar, cut from the progeny of the three seedlings the family had somehow managed to nurse through the whole trip to this planet, and which now they alone seemed to have the skill to grow. Under any other touch the trees turned brown and died, like gra.s.s not watered, but the Lewises had the green thumb, one and all of them, and the rows of cedars grew stately in every spare field of the small Kingdom and all along its narrow roads. Even in the great Hall inside Castle Lewis, a giant cedar grew out of earth left open for its roots in the time of building, dropping its needles everywhere for the staff to sweep up but smelling like heaven, and every windowsill had a small seedling growing in a low bowl.

Nor had they stinted themselves in the use of the timber. The Castle gleamed with it, and the table at which I sat down to supper was a single ma.s.sive slab of russet cut from the heart of an ancient monster of a tree and rubbed till it glowed like coals burned low in a hearth. They had had sense enough not to cover it up with some frippery cloth, either, and had set chairs round it of the same glowing wood.

Me in my nightgown, I drew one up and sat down, spreading my napkin in my lap, and I said, "This table is beautiful, Rozasharn of McDaniels. I've never seen anything to match it." Nor had I.

"My husband's great-great-grandfather made it with his own hands," she answered, "and I do its polishing with mine.""It was a single plank?""That it was; they waited a very long time for a cedar to grow the proper size for this, and while they waited the Lewises ate off plain boards laid across trestles. Then the one tree made this table and all the chairs... and no polish or oil has ever been set to it except by a Missus of this Castle, all these years."

"I've seen a few housethings made from cedar," I said. "Chests,

usually." And I stroked the satiny wood. "But nothing like this."

"Magic-chests!" breathed a child at my right hand, and I turned my head to see him better. He was young, and his chair not tall enough to bring him much above the edge of the tabletop, but not young enough to be willing to submit to the indignity of sitting on a stack of pillows; he made do by craning his neck.