Well of the Unicorn Page 7

  Airar took this in, with a couple of the fishers sitting by the rail dangling legs as they talked and three or four children squealing over a game of men-at-arms with shells of the king crab for shields; then felt the skin draw tight across his face, and down he went again. The second recovery found him lying in a shut-bed, but it was open, with fair Gython sitting beside it and a bowl of fish-broth in her lap. When she saw him move his head, she offered him from a horn spoon. It was spiced and hot; he gave her thanks and asked for her father.

  "Gone." She looked down. "It is no matter. I lost wit, too, the year the quartern fevers came on me. Have you the swaying sickness?"

  "No sickness I. It is what comes with the working of magics."

  "Meliboe the enchanter always used to make prepare a glass of hot aquaviva for him when he had been casting spells. He put one on a little ape that Erb brought me from the Spice Isles, so it became tame to my hand, but it died."

  "Where is this Erb?—Or no: when I try to move my bones hurt. I'll do no more today."

  "That is like Meliboe, too. My mother does not like him and when she heard another clerk was coming, she went to visit my aunt over at Linkoffing."

  "Would it be the same, think you, if she saw the clerk?"

  This time, no doubt; Gython flushed rosy-red. "I—I do not know. My mother's oppositious to all witchings, and wars with father on't. She would even have forbade Visto the house when he asked Meliboe to teach him magic. It seems when I was born they called a spae-wife that said an evil should come on me through black sorcery."

  "It is somewhat my own case. My father Alvar, who has astrology, drew a horoscope at my birth and found I should have a great peril necromantic at about this year of my life, which being voided I should find favor under the stars. But before he could cast the horoscope deeper Count Vulk made his decree against all clerkly practices whatever by us Dalecarles, and so as to the nature and hour of the peril I know nothing."

  "There are those among our islands who would find the law a light thing to break for a kinsman's life."

  "Aye. . . . Are you promised to Visto?"

  "No. He is my speech-friend and seat-mate when there are guestings. But now he will follow you to the wars."

  "I have no speech-friend nor seat-mate neither. All that might be were taxed out and gone away from our ort years agone."

  It was easy for her to flush. "I will sit with you if there is a guesting. It is not just they should unfame you so who only fell on an illness from helping them."

  Here was news from nowhere for your Airar and not so pleasant, neither. "Unfame?" he said, struggling to sit upright. "Who's at it and why?"

  "Oh—my father, Ove Ox-mouth, everyone." She tossed her hands wide so the bowl almost fell. "—That you should be so lightly taken on the road and lose wit over this matter of the spell. They ask a brisker champion for the wars, and some will not go and Visto must quarrel with all, and—"

  "And the fiend take them all for mean, ungrateful— your grace, I forgot they were your people."

  "Be not angry, I beg. You have right and it is for us to cry grace who have been so niggling after you slew the seademon; they mean nothing, but it is but common small talk the more since Erb and Visto are on fire to try your very plan of slaying the creatures by arrow or longspear." She giggled. "But I am a better bowman than any of them. Will you have more broth?"

  "Aye," said Airar with a frown, and then, making his face smooth: "But speech-friends must exchange a gift." He fumbled in his clothes at the back of the lock-bed. "Here, you shall have this small brooch that was my mother's. It is said to be dwarf-work, but I do not believe that."

  "And I have naught for you—nay, stay, will you follow our Gentebbi custom and take but a bit of hair from my head? Your knife."

  Airar praised that as the best of gifts. "But now you shall tell me of how the fisher-syndic's daughter learned archery and wherefore."

  "Oh, no mystery in that. Here in Gentebbi it is the custom for girls to wear in cold weather cloaks lined with ptarmigan down, and I, having no brother, must needs seek my own cloak if I would wear."

  "That says why fair enough, but the how?"

  —So they talked lightly to and of each other till it began to fall dusky, which Gython observing, with a small squeal rose and cried she must prepare meat for her father who would be back from the fisheries; but Airar lay and closed his eyes, thinking it must have been long indeed that he had been without sense aboard the iulia— that Rudr and his band were overbearingly unreasonable —yet not altogether regretful for his wasted day.

  8 The Isles of Genfebbi: "It Is Not Fair"

  MORNING FOUND YOUNG Airar somewhat recovered, if incompletely his own man yet. The wind had risen during the night and under a grey sky now carried whirls of snow streaming past the windows; from these the ships below in harbor were visible, rocking at dock and anchor, and Rudr, looking forth from his fast-breaking on small beer and oysters, said they would not fish the day—therefore it would be occasion for Airar to disenchant another vessel as he had the iulia. This was flat refused, whereupon the old man fell few-spoken and grumpish, but from his black humor through a day of idleness those with him were saved by the coming of Visto, with Erb and two or three more.

  They bore quivers a-shoulder, having come to the idea that exorcising sea-demons by bowmanry in lieu of book might not be altogether worthless; Erb said it was thought that Airar, being from those uplands whose archers are of note, might tell them a trick or two in the use of that weapon.

  "The wind's too strong for archery," said Airar. There was a half-snicker from among the group, and Visto lowered, but Lank Erb's face was blank as a cheese as he said that had been thought on. There was a long fish-drying shed at the quay that would give cover and space for their enterprise. Gython went with them, gay and chattering; the air was mortal cold, but plucked Airar's heart and spirits up until they came to the shed in question, when he once more found how the small mice of difficulty can gnaw the foundations of a tall plan. The fish shed not only smelt to turn a landsman's stomach; it was scant of a hundred yards long, no distance at all for bowmen, all cluttered with gear, and there were no butts. Airar was in a mood to abandon all, but not Gython, who laughingly rummaged through the amass with Visto till a pile of old fish-baskets was found and then herself drew the first shaft with them as target.

  She hit clap in the clout, but Airar goggled as he saw the first of the men step up; not that his arrow ran somewhat wide, which was a thing expectable, but instead of standing and drawing full to ear, he had come down on one knee, brought his nock only to chest, then pushed out his left or bow-hand, like Gython or any other woman. So now Airar noticed what he would have remarked before had he not been so mazy—to wit, that all their bows were short, like those made from horn by the heathen of Dzik.

  "Let see," he begged, and took arch and shaft from Visto to try his own way. The thing had so heavy a draw that it felt like trying to pull down the moon; this made his left hand tremble at the wrong moment, so that his arrow flew off skintling-wise and stuck to the neck in a side beam, whereat someone laughed and another tried to push him aside.

  "Stay," said Erb. "The man has an archer-trick and no question. It turned badly the now, but I think that was because Visto's bow pulls too hard for him. He shall take Gython's and attempt once more."

  "Willingly," said Airar. "This curst business of spell-casting makes any man weaker than his sister." This time he lined his feet with care, lifted slowly, and drew with the right snap at the height of the lift. The shaft sped sharp, skimming along the edge of the girl's where it stood, and all but splitting it. From the men there was a murmur of surprised applause; Gython clapped her hands together as Airar turned

  "I have heard they draw a bow that way in the north, at Korsor and Stavorna," said Visto.

  "Aye, through all the upland country for that matter," replied Airar. "The hunters that come over the Hogsback from Mariola I have never seen use another fashi
on. For look you, this short draw of yours and the genuflective posture—it is well enough for hitting small animals of the forest and I suppose of the sea, where the skill lies in stalking so close upon them that any shaft will be deadly. But when you deal with wild boar or bear, not less than life lies on striking them down from far. Still more with the slayings of man or sea-demon."

  "But how is your upland draw better?" demanded one. "Continuance not contrivance lifts the 'prentice hand to master."

  "But fixity in folly leaves 'prentice 'prentice forever. Look." Airar put a shaft on string and lifted it to his cheek. "You glance along a line; there's naught to do but lift a trifle for distance or allow for windage to one side." He released; the shaft sang into the target side and side with the other pair.

  Visto said, "I will just try it," and stepped forward, bow in hand, but he was awkward with his feet and cocked his head over to look along the arrow so that the bowstring clipped him shrewdly behind the ear, arrow flew almost straight up and fell with no force halfway along the shed. All laughed, but it was another kind of laughter than before and Gython said, "Now we shall have no more accidents like that, but you shall show me how to place myself, friend Airar."

  He had to reach round her shoulders to place her hands for the long draw. The touch of her body against him was pleasant, and her arrow, though by no means so good as Airar's own, ran true enough to be accounted a good shaft. So now the others in turn must be shown the new manner, and this lesson in bowmanship was followed by all with much merriment and profit till Erb at maybe his third try suddenly caught the hang of it and drew deep to the head. There was a rending crack and his bow split across; the arrow flew wide.

  "What's now, young master?" he said, contemplating the two halves dangling from their string. "Where was the fault that cost me a good bow?"

  "None I could see but in the bowyer who gave you a weapon too brief for such usage."

  "Ah." Erb cocked his head a little aslant and his Adam's apple climbed up and down. "I wondered there might be somewhat like that in't. Now harkee, young friend. I'm heartily beside you in this; it will do our folk no harm to learn a new skill, especially those who are to march under the Winged Wolf with you, where the skill may be their saving. But bows that will stand the treatment you give them, have we none in Vagai, nor is this wintry weather fit for cutting wood to make them. I just say wait till some of the ships go over to Naaros or Mariupol and bring back seasoned woods or bows ready fashioned for the purpose, and while we wait, you just make after those sea-demons best you can with your clerkship."

  So it sat thus, the whole a trick to force Rudr's will upon him, thought Airar as he trudged up the steep street with Gython and Visto, snow blowing thicker round them now, or gathering more than ankle-deep in little drifts against buildings. They two were in a cheerful mood and Gython crowing over the design of a snowflake that caught on the back of her mittened hand. Said Visto when Airar would not be tempted from his glooms: "Come, my friends, a truce to repining. What! You are held the equal of Meliboe and the greatest spellcaster that ever came to Vagai."

  "Aye; and unfamed for what comes of casting. Spells, spells—who ever heard of a golden name that was gained through bugs and bogies?"

  Gython bent to look from behind Visto's face. "There's this same Doctor Meliboe. All men think well of him, and has a heart of gold, how kindly he has kept sea-demons from us these years."

  "Heart of lead." They had reached the door and stood between its pillars. "He downed and daunted your sea-demons only by conjuring up things more horrible, which in a sense they feed upon as soon as they become familiar, returning after each ejection stronger than before." Airar gestured with both hands. "His curings are like a sirensong, of which one must have forever more, yet have but one end, which is death; and nigh mine he had."

  "Crave grace." Young Visto touched his hand. "If I may offer service—"

  "Nay, no matter. Naught to do now but stew it through, with this lack of bows and all."

  He followed Gython through the door to find Rudr sharp enough because his noon meal was unready, and little wishful to see her so blamed, tried to distract the old man with talk of magic, sea-demons, and the other ships of the fleet. The end of that converse might have been foretold— out came the story of Meliboe the enchanter's doubledealing which Airar himself had hardly realized till he began to talk on it, with the foul things the magician had put aboard the vessels. Now Airar found himself pressed into promising that he would lay protections on all the skonar-ships of the fleet as he had on Rudr's own iulia. The prospect was little pleasing; nor were matters helped any by the arrival during the afternoon of a woman with a lined severe countenance and a tongue that seemed to wag double, who said that her house was overrun with a plague of rats and would have Airar give her a spell to drive them out. The more he tried to put her off, the longer she talked; and louder to keep her quiet he finally inscribed a bit of parchment with certain names of ill omen, as An gat, Huard, Utesitorion, with a picture of the unhappy bergamot flower, telling her to soak it at midnight in the fat of a hog and leave it in a fall-trap.

  When she had gone Gython made a face and ran out her tongue, but the master-fisher, in good humor, laughed on Airar's countenance of disgust. "Just see now," he said, "why Erb the Lank's all for wars."

  "His wife?" asked Airar.

  "Sister. She'll never let un have nor wife nor leman. Ehah, boff, many kinds make a world, and we've seen that kind oft before—want you to gut every fish in your cargo at market and then buy a sprat. Women do be so, even of a man's own house. Now my girl Gython here, she's just after me in this archer-affair of yours, no worse nor better than Dame Ervila, and I must promise to send a ship to Mariupol for bow-staves."

  "Not Naaros?"

  "A piece too much of gate-close and house-search there now. Red Baron's like to come smelling round Vagai if he found us buying war gear, and no mind in me to test the strength of our charter against him."

  The next morning came frosty and clear. Airar went down early to the harbor with Rudr, and all the fleet put out but one of the skonare on which there had been especial trouble of men fingered by sea-demons. The task was hideous bad, only a little less so than that of the iulia before, but now he had some skill born of experience and drove off with far more readiness the gibbering shapes that crowded round his figures. Neither did he fall altogether senseless when the grey wall of his protection rose; but that was slight assistance, for at the end his muscles seemed to melt, he fell to the deck and lay for a long time like a drunken man, mind perfectly clear but quite blank, unable to form any thoughts of his own, accepting the splash of water against the planks and the occasional footfall overhead as soft clay takes an impress. Some of the skonara's people were moved to come a-hunting him in spite of the strict word he had given contrary. He could not speak, and when they haled him up the hatch the light hurt his eyes so much he closed them and thus overheard the babble of his bearers.

  "Shall we take this flabbid veal off and give it to Gython or hold un here till recovery?" said one.

  "Oh, take un on, we'll none of un aboard," another.

  "Did you go to a's archery business, Sewald?"

  "Aye. Mind the leg there. Pretty enough with the maid's bow, but could not draw Visto's."

  "There's one that draws the ill lot here—with the maid, and Rudr so anxious to wife his daughter among the mainland magicians. If maid she still be."

  "You talk like a running stink-pool, Ove. What! Would you not give a thousand solvars to lift Queen Kry's curse after seeing your brother fingered? Never heard of the girl, maid or no maid, worth more."

  (Ove; that would be Ove Ox-mouth, the blubber-lipped lad who cast eyes on Gython at the time of the bow practice, and tried to draw close to her. But she would touch him not at all, no more than a slug.)

  "And you bark like a seal in heat. Let old Rudr do what he will with a's woman-cattle. 'Tis this matter of the fifty that cramps my guzzle. As well call in
the sea-demons and make them members of Vagai. There have not been fifty fingered in ten years."

  "Oh, as for that, old master's sharp. Knows that once he gets his magic-man in bed with the wench, war's forgot."

  "Aye, well forgot. What need we for wars, with our freefishers' charter and fifty leagues of sea between us and Naaros?"

  There was a week of the work and Airar misliking it more as he went on, though never again so heavily beset with shapings as on that first day he threw his protection round the iulia, and coming to recognize what forms the conjurings were like to take and what attack make on his pentacle. There came a certain pleasure indeed in countering their approach, like that of driving shaft clean into a bounding deer on the rise of his spring; though he had to pay for it each time after with an hour or two lying supine, sometimes conscious of what went on about him, sometimes not, with feebleness all the next day so that he seemed to live in sharp passage between sun and shadow.

  Gython was piteous kind to him that day of the first skonara, though he was somewhat unresponsive to her gay chatter, wondering whether Rudr meant in fact to set them together and how it would be to live and love with such a one. The thought sent singular tremors, not altogether unpleasant, running the line of his backbone; for the moment he abandoned himself to it, and it was not till another day and a fuller recovery from his befuddlements that he reached considering what would be the price of this lovely and generous girl—to live forever among the small concerns of these free-fishers, making spells against rats, ill spoken of by all but women. Or could he, perchance, win her from there, once the primary step were gained—if she willed, if she were not bound to Visto by something more holding than formal betrothal?