Torin - The Luck Of Brin's Five Part 13

"Blacklock's escort and the Town Watch took charge of them."

"Will they be ... put down?"( 162 ).

I.

"It might be kinder!" said Mamor grimly.

"No!" I shuddered; the idea of a kind death was horrible to me.

"None would do it," said Mamor, "except their own liege. They will be parted ... some sent north and some to the Fire-Town. Murno Pentroy's people will see to it."

Brin led us through the cloth market and the stands for rope-twisting and another place for eating and drinking that we had never visited before.

"Where are we going?" I called. The others laughed.

"To the Sun Carpet, where else?" said the Harper.

"Your friend Blacklock has a turn coming up!" said Mamor.

The press of people at the fair was greater than ever and still their faces were happy, the mood was one of friend- ship. But the light of Esder, strong yet silvery, made them strange, a parade of ghosts and shadows, revelling in some other world. I caught a gleam of Diver's,eyes under his hood as the crowd jostled him.

I drew up to him and took his hand. "How does it really seem to you, among all these Moruians?"

He sighed and shook his head. "Very strange . He threw back his hood and deliberately held up his head. For an instant, as he looked about, I saw what he saw: thin bodies, angular; faces that were long, peaked, shadowed, stripped to the bone or tilted and more firmly fleshed in youth. And the eyes ... wrapping around the head in the way we admired, wide apart, in deep sockets, sometimes skewed to the sides in the look we called Gastil or South-North; eyes wide open, gleaming, or glazed with tipsy-mash and lack of sleep, eyes with thick natural lashes or lashes oiled into spikes, or painted white for the New Year. A flickering, glistening night-forest of eyes.

I tried to imagine a crowd of Diver's people, and I could hardly do it: skins of every color from black to a whitish pallor; blue, forward-looking eyes . . . and what other( 163 ).

colors might they have? Red eyes? Purple? Orange? Short folk and tall and the females oddly shaped; forests of curly hair like a crooked fleece or the wigs of grandees; all the shapes and sizes of Man milling about under a light even stranger than that of Esder, the impossible light of some reflecting dead little world called the Moon. It made me laugh, and I tried to tell Diver what I had imagined.

"Well, you are not far wrong," he said, smiling, "but if I have the colors right, there are no red eyes or purple or orange. Besides, Blacklock's eyes are nearly orange to my way of thinking." So he went on to tell me the colors of the eyes of men, and to point out those that came closest to Earth colors among our Family and the pa.s.sers-by.

We came to the edge of the Sun Carpet, and there was a viewing stand filled with people from the Bird Clan, with a place in the middle for Diver. He put up his hood and greeted the Mattroyan and his child and Deel Giroyan, with an arm bandaged from a hard landing in Gwervanin.

We looked around for Ablo, but he was not to be seen; so we sat comfortably and examined the great dancing floor.

The Sun Carpet is one of the wonders of Otolor; it is not a true woven carpet but a huge tufted rug, made in sections like a flat loaf divided, on wicker frames that can be easily replaced. The colors are red, turquoise, yellow and tan in a waving pattern, with motifs of double circles for the two suns.

Harps and flutes were sounded, and the troupe of skippers who had been performing whisked away. There was a flutter of the familiar black and white; we cheered for Blacklock, and there he was . . . in bright orange, of all colors! Diver leaned down to me and whispered, "To match his eyes," and I laughed until I choked, and Mamor patted me sternly between the shoulders. First of all Blacklock did the triple leap-which meant springing over a series of high frames; then he rode the circle-a wheel with,( 164 ).

foot pedals in the center. In all these feats he was accompa- nied by members of the escort so that the whole perform- ance was finished and perfect, like a dance or lace pattern.

At the end of each feat, he beckoned to the crowd to try the same thing, and certain town grandees or clan folk, includ- ing two from clan Dohtroy who had flown unluckily in the Bird Clan, came forward and performed well. But none were so fine as Blacklock himself, who had a sweetness, aprecision, a gift for pausing and seeming about to topple and coming upright again, so that his audience lau hed andgasped.For the finale, the escort brought on a whole raft of fleece cushions until the Sun Carpet was nearly covered. Black- lock stood alone, and the escort clambered on his shoulders; two stood still, then more clambered up until he supported a rack of six, seven persons, and a little one, Spinner herself, went up and was balanced on the top. ThenBlacklock began to groan and rock like a tree in the wind, and the others with him; and with a final whoop, while we laughed ourselves into tears, the whole structure came toppling down upon the cushions. But more was to comefor Blacklock stood before our viewing stand and gestured; we knew who it was he wanted. Diver climbed down, grinning, and stood in the midst of the Sun Carpet, side by side with Blacklock, their arms linked to make the base for a double rack. Up went the escort, placing themselves differ- ently this time, six, seven, eight, nine, eleven and Spinner was the twelfth. Diver, taking his cue from Blacklock, began to groan, and Blacklock echoed and the whole crazy rack swayed; the crowd hallooed with delight and down they all came. Everyone even Old Gwin was doubled upwith mir"Well, it is childish stuff," she said. "I don't know why I laugh ... except for that cheeky sprig of Pentroy. And if Hunter Geer has shaken Blacklock bv the hand, well, I have had him in my tent and well-acquainted with the Luck of my own Family."

Then Blacklock left the Sun Carpet, and there was a dive for the fleece cushions, which he left as pickings for the crowd; soon there was not one to be seen.

Brin gave us the sign, and we left the stand to go to our boat. I saw, as we left, that the Sun Carpet was being removed to reveal the bare brown earth under its beautiful frames, but I did not realize what this meant until we were some way off, on the western edge of the circle. Diver had come back, panting, from his feat.

"Wait!" said Harper Roy, drawing us to a halt. His sharp ears had caught the jingle of sh.e.l.l bracelets. We turned back at once and huddled together in shadow beside an empty stall; Mamor lifted Narneen to the counter shelf to see better.

There was the same furtive jingle of sh.e.l.ls as the twirlers came to the dancing place, then fire shot up in the center of the circle. Petsalee! There he stood once more, gnarled and long and brown, dipping his hands in and out of the cool flames. There was an enormous host of twirlers-three bands at least-but the Leader was Petsalee, and he began to chant at once in his queer, penetrating voice.

"I am returned from, the dead!"

And each time the twirlers echoed his name, "Petsalee!"

I am returned from the grip of the Enemy!"

I am returned from the river depths!"

I am returned from the black barge of death!"

I am returned from the Strangler!"

I was spared, and my spirit warriors were taken!"

I was spared to do the work of evil!"

I was spared to betray Eenath!"

I was spared to watch by the river!"

The beat had quickened, and the heels of the twirlers were thudding upon the earth; in the shadow we quivered( 166 ).

( 167 ).like a taut thread, knowing too well the meaning of this chant.

"Avert!" shrieked Petsalee, raising his staff. "Avert the evil might of the Strangler!"

"I am purged by the Twirlers' Fire!"

"I am freed by the power of Eenath!"

"I declare the truth to the land of Torin .

Brin turned us all away, and we went through the crowd pursued by the rhythmical shrieks of the twirlers, who spun in ecstasy and fell and rose again. The message they were chanting rang in our ears as we made for the south wharf.

"A spirit warrior fell down!"

"A n.o.ble spirit has come upon Torin!"

"A hero has come, a hero who flies like a bird!"

"A hero is here among us . . ."

There was a large keel-boat waiting, and it bore our Cullin banner from the Bird Clan at its masthead. The captain and two crew members, all out of Otolor, bowed humbly, and we saw the reason: the Bird Clan winnings were safely stowed aboard. The captain handed us a message skein from Fer Utovangan, bidding us a safe journey in Blacklock's name and a.s.signing us a lodging, the house of a wig-maker in Rintoul. We trooped aboard and began to make ourselves comfortable with our own furnish- ings, for the handcart had also arrived. It made me begin to understand what it might be like to be rich: work was done for you. Food had been laden and even flowers in a water frame.

We were about to cast off when a voice shouted, "Hold!

Hold please, I pray you in the winds' name!"

The sailors stood still. What now? I asked and prayed for nothing more to happen. A plump figure in a townee robe was struggling along the wharf with a small wicker travel- ling basket.

"What do you want~" called Brin.

"Excellence ... n.o.ble escort . . ." At last I saw who itwas.

"Garl Brinroyan ... take me with you. I have striven at the Bird Clan every spring for ten years and never served a winner till now. I am discreet and handy and would rather serve a . . . a spirit warrior than go back to my cross- cousin's woodwork shop . . ."

Diver looked at Brin, who smiled, and he said, "Come aboard, good Ablo."

So Ablo scrambled aboard, and the boat was cast off. We set sail into the New Year with a light northeast wind, and overhead a silvery bank of cloud, like fish scales, drifted across the sky hiding the light of Esder.( 168 ).

EVERY JOURNEY ON THE RIVER is different, as I had learned, and our circ.u.mstances had changed. We were rich, we had friends, we even had servants. Slowly, slowly it came to Brin's Five that we did not ever need to weave again; we could, as the Maker of Engines had suggest ed, take land or become townees in some place on the Troon. For three days the adults enjoyed the sun of the New Year, then they could not refrain from putting up the largest of our looms as before, and Gwin got out her lace frames. But the spark of a new life had settled behind the eyes of the Harper, for one.

How would it be, he asked now and then, if the Family had a bird farm, with a tent or a fixed house or both, whatever they pleased? How would it be if Mamor had a bird-boat to carry the birds from the farm, and the wild birds he might trap in the eastern hunting grounds, near Rintoul? Old Gwin was scornful.

"How would it be if wool-deer grew wings?" she said.

She was still mourning the loss of our spinners. They had gone with the Gulgarvor; a rack had fallen across their basket when Mamor was subdued in the tent; some had died, some had run off. Only Momo, the largest, had had the sense to crawl up the tree, and Old Gwin had coaxed her down again and had her alone in a cage beside her on( 169 ).

the deck. Ablo a.s.sured Gwin that good spinners were to found in Linlor, but she would not believe him.

The mat-loom did not sound at all on this journey; from my usual laziness but because I was sick. Perhaps had a little to do with the motion of the keel boat, whic was greater than that of the barge, or perhaps it was so town fever from Otolor. At any rate I dragged myse miserably from the deck to the hold, so as not m anything, but by the fourth or fifth day I was flat on t box-bed in the hold, burning and shivering. I gaze through a small window over the Troon, and the membe of the Family took turns sitting by me. I had time to thin too much time, and I believed that my sickness was sickness of the mind as well as the body; it was born excitement and violence. I first dreamed here of Jebbal flying machine twisting to earth and of the dark faces of t Gulgarvor.

Up above me, on deck, life went on. Tomar fell ove board and was rescued by Mamor, but not before the litt wretch had begun to swim. Every day Mamor set Tom and Narneen swimming round the boat for practice, to sa himself another wetting. Diver practiced his speech and h woven script and taught Harper Roy the "Song of t Young Harper Fallen in Battle", which, in Moruia became a great favorite in the Harper's song sack, know far and wide.

I can lay out, on paper, three versions of this same son the true words, the sense of it or paraphrase that Diver to]

the Harper, and the words written into Moruian. I do n know that the Harper's listeners will ever have the re sense of this strange, sweet, violent song. A lone harper, young male, setting out for war deliberately, is somethin that belongs far in our warlike past, in the time of th Torlogans and the clan wars. And the loneliness of it . .

"one faithful sword" and so on. But the beauty,sing through very well; who could chose between "wild harp( 170 ).

and "turu geer" or "rorogaban torin-na" and "land of song"?

One line, of course, caused great difficulty; it was impossi- ble for the Harper to sing anything resembling, "His father's sword he has girded on" and when Diver suggest- ed, "His mother's sword", the Harper jibbed at that too. So the young harper went into battle "with weapons bor- rowed from his Family", solving the problems of decency and fire-metal-magic.

Brin and Narneen sat by me one morning, and we spoke of Vel Ragan and Onnar, who were following us to Rintoul in their own sailboat. We were becalmed at the time and thought it must be the same with them. Narneen had a, tale, half-i4nderstood, from Onnar, of Vel Ragan's friend and former liege, who had been a great leader in the Fire-Town, then had been disgraced and dismissed from his work with the Town Five. Tsorl was his name, and he had gone not long before to Rintoul to study some strange new metal, which Vel Ragan guessed must be Diver's ship. But Vel Ragan had no trust for the Elders and the Great Elder in particular, and what he had seen on the river and in Otolor made him fear for the safety of his friend Tsorl. I said this leader's name to myself, after this, for he was called Tsorl-U-Tsorl or Tsorl Alone; he would have no family name at all and not even a nickname, which is valued among ordinary folk. It seemed to me a proud and brave t.i.tle. Could I be Dorn-U-Dorn, ever?

We had left behind the Pentroy lands, and from Otolor we had been sailing through the country of clan Wentroy.

We came, with some work on the capstans, to Linlor wharf, and by now my sickness was lifting. I came up on deck and saw that Linlor was a sweet, welI-swept town, smaller than Otolor but graceful and white, a foretaste perhaps of the townee districts in Rintoul. It lay in the midst of tamed lands and orchards on the west bank of the Troon, which was broad at this point.

There was a tall fixed house not far from the town in fine( 171 ).

gardens; it was the home of the Wentroy Elder, Guno Gunroyan, whose reputation for bad temper and cussed- ness was as great as her reputation for justice and fair- dealing. She was called "Guno Deg", which is difficult to translate, for it means Old Cross-Patch, but it is a term of grudging affection, almost a loving nickname.

Ablo took Old Gwin into the town, the pair of them tottering a little on dry land, and found out a place to buy new spinners. We put on new clothes, made from out winnings, for the Harper and Brin had been busy witt.

sewing; they had taken Diver's measure, and he looked ver) fine. In fact our craft and our Family brought inquiries frory the Town Five. Brin had the captain give it out that w( were rich weavers from Otolor come to take up an inheri tance in the delta. Every day hawkers and food-sellers an( flower-sellers came down to the wharf offering us th6 wares, but old habits die hard and we shopped sparingly A wind sprang up after two days, and we made haste t, leave; but just at the moment we were about to cast off Narneen, who had been sitting silent by the mast, ran t, Brin.

"Wait," she said.,"Please wait for Onnar and Vel Ragar I know they are coming!"

"Child, we need the wind!" said Mamor.

"They have news! They have been trying to catch us f( days! Wait ... we must wait!"

"You have been right before," said Brin seriously. So sl~, bade the captain moor the boat again, and we waited.

was no more than two hours when a sailboat hove in sigh far to the north, and came beating down upon the wini Narneen clapped hands with relief.

Through Diver's gla.s.s we saw them, sailing experti, with Vel Ragan at the tiller and Onnar handling the sail '

saw that sailing, in one's own small boat, might be a gre thing; I thought of Valdin and Thanar and hoped they st sailed in their boat on Salthaven. Vel Ragan came scuddh( 172 ).

JIL.up to the wharf and made haste to come aboard. There was rd- something in his set face and fast limping gait that pierced me with fear, the old fear of Tiath Gargan. He spoke quickly with Brin and Diver, then drew into a close discussion with all the adults. Narneen and I crept closeemOry DM.keirand heard at last.6n.forshe It ght, ind;tly, it. Ireat still lingThe news was very bad. The members of the Gulgarvor had been held in the citadel at Otolor, heavily bound and under close guard. But one had a sc.r.a.p of sh.e.l.l in its boot sole and managed to work on a single rope until it parted and freed another. Then, by lot apparently, or some other secret choice, three went free-the omor Meetal, Artho and Alloo-strangled all the rest of the Gulgarvor and strangled two guards and made off. No one knew where they were, but we all knew their purpose: to capture our Luck.

Blacklock and Fer had already flown out of Otolor when this occurred, and the Town Watch, fearing Blacklock's anger, might have hushed up the whole matter. But luckily some members of the Bird Clan escort were still doing guard duty and they made haste to tell Vel Ragan, so thathe might warn Brin's Five.Diver's face had its old harsh look, which I had hoped notto see aaain. " re we ell ahead of them?" he asked"So I trust," said Vel Ragan. "We set out at once, the day after the escape and pa.s.sed no boat on the Troon that might have carried them. All were local fishers, small and untrou- bled. Onnar probed their thoughts if she could."

"What about a glider or a flying machine?" asked Brin.

"Hardly possible," said the scribe. "Even if they couldcome by a glider, it would not take them all"What do vou advise?" asked Diver.7~."Let us make what speed we can to Rintoul," said Ragan.

"They call it the city of peace. Weapons may not be worn and va.s.sals in particular may not appear in arms. Also, there is one there who should know of your presence."

"Do vou mean Nantcreeb?" asked Brin for Vel Rauan was already familiar with our story.

"That is impossible, if you will pardon me, Brin Brin- royan," put in Ablo. "I have heard that the Maker of Engines and even Blacklock himself are as good as exiled from Rintoul."

"I did not mean Nantgeeb," said Vel Ragan. "I will present you to Orn Margan Dohtroy, the Dohtroy Elder on the Council of Five. Margan, the Peacemaker, holds land in Tsagul and the west."

"Why should this Elder meet our Luck?" asked the Harper.

"I think I know," said Mamor. "Do you, Diver?"

"Something to do with the Fire-Town?" asked Diver.

"By no means," said Vel Ragan, laughing, "but for your own protection, Garl Brinroyan. To show that you exist and that a clan member has set eyes on you!"

"You are a useful friend indeed," said Brin, "and we need you in the great city."

Vel Ragan sighed and said: "Any news of the air ship?"

"A little," said Diver. "We have it from a hawker that it lay over here at Linlor wharf for several days and met up with a small boat from Rintoul. But we cannot tell what this means. Could this be Nantgeeb?"

"I think not!" Vel Ragan said excitedly. He cursed under his breath and began to speak, with some hesitation and shyness, of his former liege Tsorl-U-Tsorl, Deputy of the Fire-Town. '

"I believe Tsorl came in that small boat to Linlor to view the air ship. This is bad news ... it means he saw the ship before its capture."

"Why are you anxious for the safety of your friend?"