Ozark Fantasy - Twelve Fair Kingdoms Part 9

I'd lose by asking.

"Halbreth Nicholas, do you expect some daring moves from somebody else?"

He knocked out his pipe and set it down, and then he counted out

his propositions with the side of one palm on the flat of the other.

"First," he said, "there's already those trying to scuttle the Jubilee outright. Correct?"

"Correct."

"I think you'll be able to stop that... this Quest of yours is an exaggeration, but it's caught people's fancy, and I believe they'll

come to see what happens next, if for no other reason. Dragons and a tourney in the courtyard at Castle Bright.w.a.ter, maybe?"

I grinned at him.

"Second," he went on, "a.s.suming, as I do think we can a.s.sume, that

there will be a Jubilee, even if one or two of the Families boycott it-and frankly, I doubt that strongly; like I said before, every one of them is curious, and if anything's going to happen they don't want to miss it-if the Jubilee does come off as scheduled, I look for a formal move to dissolve the Confederation."

"Happens every time we meet," I said. "That would be no surprise.""Not exactly," said Halbreth Nicholas, "not exactly. n.o.body's proposed that seriously within anybody's memory. No, what always happens is the move to cut it back to one day a year, and then that's voted down... by how much depending on how the Wommacks are wobbling that month."

"My dear," said Diamond of Motley, "I'm afraid I really don't see

much difference. In effect, that is."

"Oh, there's a difference," he said, "yes, there is. True, that ritual meeting would make the Confederation an empty pretense, a regular little bug of a planetary government and not worth spitting at. But so long as it met even that long, they'd only have one meeting's worth of satisfaction. Bright.w.a.ter'd move to return to meeting four times a year, Castle Lewis'd second, and the vote would go as usual

-seven to five or eight to four. Dissolving the thing, meaning no meetings atall, would be quite a different thing altogether."I felt a chill between my shoulders... not that I hadn't had the same idea cross my mind, but if it came this easy to him there might be many others sharing it.

"You think they could do it, Halbreth Nicholas?"

"I think they'll for d.a.m.ned sure try."

"But do you think they can bring it off? The vote has always gone against them, even on the meeting cutback..."

"But weak votes, young woman, weak votes," he said solemnly. "You can't count on the Wommacks, them and their curse. It may well be you can't count on the Smiths, considering this latest development. If all our neighbors pulled out, I'm not prepared to say you could count on the Motleys or the Lewises, either."

"Halbreth Nicholas Smith!" said Diamond of Motley, so shocked her spoon rattled in her cup. "My dear," he said, "we must face facts. Castle Motley is not self-sufficient, nor Castle Lewis either. If Arkansaw, Kintucky, and Tinaseeh decided to blockade us so that no supplies could be shipped in from Oklahomah or Marktwain, just where do you think we'd be? We can grow vegetables and fruit here, and raise a goat or two, but that's about it. No sugar, no salt, no coffee, no tea, no metals, no supplies for the Grannys or the Magicians, no manufactured goods to speak of. And where do you think our power comes from, Diamond of Motley? It comes from the Farsons and the Guthries, who can equally well cut it off. No law says they have to sell to us."

"Our windmills," she said. "Our solar collectors-and our tides." I tried to imagine the population of Mizzurah managing with its windmills and its solar technology and its tides, with all the huge hulking bulk of three continents cutting off both wind and water on three sides, and it raining or cloudy three quarters of the year or more, and I admired Halbreth Nicholas for not smiling. She was a good woman, was Diamond, but she hadn't much grasp of logistics. "No," he said, but he said it respectfully, "I'm afraid they wouldn't suffice, Diamond. The Lewises, now, they are just pigheaded enough that they might go the rest of us one better!"

"Withdraw from the withdrawal, you mean."

"Exactly. And live on greens and goatmeat, and burn... oh, candles,

for all I know. They might. But not us, Responsible, and I want that understood. I've many families here depending on me and they're not expecting to go back to Old Earth standards and the year 2000.

And I don't intend to ask it of them."

"You'd vote for dissolving, then."

"If it was clear that that was the way it was going-yes. Regardless of how the Lewises might decide. It's not my druthers, young woman, but it's the facts of life. We are dependent on Arkansaw, Kintucky, and Tinaseeh, and there's no way to change that short of

moving the continent of Mizzurah to a new location just off yourcoast. Are your Magicians of Rank up to a project like that?"Moving Mules was one thing; moving continents was quite another; I didn't try to answer.

"Law, but you've made a gloomy day of it, Mr. Motley!" said his wife. "I hope you're proud of yourself!"

I was quite sure he wasn't; in fact, I was quite sure he was ashamed.

He would of liked to hear himself saying that if the vote came to end the Confederation his delegates would be right there at the front telling the rotters to do their d.a.m.ndest and to h.e.l.l with them. Begging the pardon of any ladies present, of course. That went with the image he'd of liked to have of himself. But he was a practical man, and an honest one, and he knew he'd do what went with that. Diamond of Motley was right; he'd made it a gloomy day.

I went off to my room to rest for a while before supper, and found a servingmaid waiting there, pretending-not very skillfully -to still be unpacking my saddlebags and clearing up. She looked eleven, but had the frail look of a Purdy to her, too, which meant she was probably my own age or a bit more, and her hair was falling down from the twist she'd put it in and hanging down around her face. My fingers itched to set it right-I can't abide a sloppy woman-but I didn't know her and I couldn't take liberties.

"h.e.l.lo, young woman," I said, friendly as I could manage in my dreary mood, "are you having a problem with some of those things? What is it, a fastening you can't get loose?"

"No, miss," she said, "I'm managing." And dropped my hand mirror on the floor, smashing it to smithereens. No magic, just plain fumblefingers.

"Oh, Miss Responsible, I'm sorry!" she said, and bit one finger. She'd be chewing on her hair next "I'll get you another one, miss, there's a hundred of 'em down in the corner of the linen room! What do you fancy, something plain? Or a special color? The Missus has a weakness for a nice pale blue, and flowers on the back..."

Her hands were trembling, and her voice was a squeak, and I stared at her long and hard while she dithered about the variety of mirrors the Motleys had to offer for as long as I could stand it, and then I told her to sit down.

"Miss?" "Do sit down," I said, too cross to be gentle, "and tell me what is the matter with you. And your name."

"My name? Is there something the matter with my name?"

She had to be a Purdy; her eyes were wild like a squawker got by

the neck.

"I did not mean to imply that there was anything wrong with your name, young woman," I said, "I just asked you what it might be.""Oh!" she said. "Well, I hoped... I mean, only the Wommacks have women as aren't properly named, and-" t "That's not true," I interrupted, wondering if she'd had any education atall. "I daresay there's no Family on Ozark that hasn't had a girl or two Improperly Named over the years; the Grannys

aren't infallible. The Wommacks just did it more spectacularly than anybody else ever has and got famous for it, that's all."

As they surely had. It hadn't been a matter of naming a Caroline

that should have been an Elizabeth; they'd named a girlbaby Responsible of Wommack, and it had been a mistake. That's a sure way to get famous.

One more time, I thought, and asked her: "Will you tell me your name, then, and what the trouble is?" And if she wouldn't I fully intended to put her over my knee for her sa.s.s.

"Yes, miss," she said. "Ivy of Wommack's my name."

A two. She was properly named. And I was right glad I had not let it slip that I'd taken her for a Purdy.

"And your problem?"

She stared down at the bed she was sitting on and gripped the

counterpane with both hands, silly thing, as if it wouldn't of slid

right off with her if she'd done any sliding herself."Oh, Miss Responsible," she said in a tiny, tiny voice, "I have all the bad luck I ever need, I have more than anybody'd ever need, and I don't need any more, and I'm afraid-oh, law, miss, they say there's been a Skerry appeared!"

Well. That did take me aback a bit, and I sat down myself.

"Who told you so, Ivy of Wommack?" I demanded.

"Everybody!"

"Nonsense. You haven't talked to everybody."

"Everybody I've talked to, then," she said stubbornly. "They're all

talking about it, and they're all worried."

"And what are they saying? Besides just, 'There's been a Skerry appeared.' "

"There's an old well, down in the garden behind the Castle church,

miss-the water's no good any more, but oh, it's pretty, with vines growing all over it and the old bucket hanging there, so it's been left. And they say that last night-there were full moons last night, miss-they say there was a Skerry sitting on the edge-rim of that old well. Just sitting there."

"At midnight, I suppose."

"Oh yes... just at midnight, and under the full moons. Oh, Miss Responsible, I'm glad I didn't see it!"

She hadn't much gumption, or much taste. I would dearly have

loved to see it, if it was true. A Skerry stands eight feet tall on the

average, sometimes even taller, and there's never been one that wasn't willow slender. They have skin the color of well-cared-for copper, their hair is silver and falls without wave or curl to below their waists, male or female. And their eyes are the color of the purest, deepest turquoise. The idea of the full moons shining down on all that, not to mention an old well covered with wild ivy and night-blooming vines... ah, that would of been something to see and to marvel on.

Except there were a few things wrong with the whole picture."Who told you they saw the Skerry?" I insisted. "Who?"And I added, "And don't you tell me 'everybody,' either.""Everyone in the Castle is talking about it," she said. Drat the girl!"Not the Master nor the Missus," I said. "I've been with them these past two hours, and I've heard not one word about a Skerry.""Everybody on the staff, I meant, miss. It was one of the Senior Attendants... he'll go far, they say he knows more Spells and Charms than the Granny, and he's a comely, comely man... he was down there by the well last night with a friend of mine"-she looked at me out of the corner of her eye to see if I was going to make any moral p.r.o.nouncements about that, but I ignored her, and she went on-"and they saw it, sitting there in the full moonlight, all splendid with the light fair blinding on its long silver hair, they said."

"And then they told everybody."

"Well, wouldn't you?" she asked me, and I had to admit that I might