"That is essentially three questions."
"Very well," said Aillas. "Tell me how to find my son."
"Ask Ehirme."
"Only that?" cried Aillas. "Two words and no more?"
"The reply is adequate," said Persilian and would say no more. Aillas wrapped the mirror in a cloth and tucked it under the straw pallet.
The time was late afternoon. Aillas strolled out along the Chale, brooding upon what he had learned. At the shop of a Moorish goldsmith he offered for sale a pair of Suldrun"s emeralds, each the size of a pea.
The Moor examined the gems in turn, using a magnifying lens of a sort strange and new. Completing his appraisal he spoke in a studiously flat voice. "These are excellent gems. I will pay one hundred silver florins for each-approximately half their worth. That is my first, last and only offer."
"Done," said Aillas. The Moor laid out gold and silver coins, which Aillas swept into his pouch, then departed the shop.
At sunset Aillas returned to the Four Mallows where he supped upon fried fish, bread and wine. He slept soundly and when he awoke the oubliette seemed a bad dream. He took breakfast, paid his account, slung the parcel containing Persilian over his shoulder and set out along the sh.o.r.e-road south.
By a route remembered from what seemed a previous existence he tramped to the farmstead where Ehirme made her home. As before he halted by the hedge and took stock of the surroundings. As before men and boys worked hay. In the kitchen garden a stocky old crone hobbled among the cabbages, cutting weeds with a hoe. As Aillas watched, three small pigs escaped from the sty and trotted briskly into the turnip patch. The crone gave a peculiar warbling scream and a small girl ran from the cottage to chase the pigs who darted everywhere except toward the sty.
The girl ran panting past the gate. Aillas stopped her. "Would you tell Ehirme that someone at the gate wishes to speak to her?"
The girl looked him up and down in hostility and distrust. She called out to the old woman who weeded the cabbages, then resumed her pursuit of the pigs, in which she now was joined by a small black dog.
The old woman hobbled toward the gate. A shawl thrown over her head, and projecting a little past her face, shaded her features.
Aillas stared in consternation. This crooked old creature: was it Ehirme? She drew close: first a step of the right leg, then a lurch of the hip, and a swing around of the left leg. She halted. Her face showed odd distortions and creases; her eyes seemed to have sunk in their sockets.
Aillas stammered: "Ehirme! What has happened to you?"
Ehirme opened her mouth and produced a set of warbling vocables, none intelligible to Aillas. She made a sign of frustration and called the girl, who came to stand beside her. The girl told Aillas: "King Casmir cut her tongue and hurt her everywhere."
Ehirme spoke; the girl listened carefully, then, turning to Aillas, translated. "She wants to know what happened to you."
"They put me in an underground dungeon. I escaped, and now I want to find my son."
Ehirme spoke; the girl just shook her head. Aillas asked: "What did she say?"
"Things about King Casmir."
"Ehirme, where is my son Dhrun?"
A moment of incomprehensible warbling, which the girl translated: "She doesn"t know what has happened. She sent the baby to her mother, out by the great forest. Casmir sent out a party but they brought back a girl. So the baby boy must still be there."
"And how will I find this place?"
"Go up to the Old Street, then east to Little Saffield. Here take the side road north to Tawn Timble, and thence to the village Glymwode. There you must ask for Graithe the woodcutter and Wynes, his wife."
Aillas looked into his pouch and brought out a necklace of pink pearls. He gave it to Ehirme, who accepted it without enthusiasm. "This was Suldrun"s necklace. When I reach Troicinet I will send for you, and you will live out your years in comfort and as much content as may be possible."
Ehirme produced a low quacking sound.
"She says that it is kind of you to make the offer, but that she does not know if the men would wish to leave their land."
"We will settle such affairs later. Here I am only Aillas the vagabond, and I have nothing to give except my grat.i.tude."
"So it may be."
Late in the day Aillas arrived at Little Saffield, a market town beside the River Timble, built all of ocher-gray country stone. At the center of town Aillas found the Black Ox Inn, where he took lodging for the night.
In the morning he set off along a lane which followed the River Timble north, in the shade of poplar trees along the riverbank. Crows soared over the fields, notifying all who would listen of his presence.
Sunlight burnt through the early mist and warmed his face; already he was losing the haunted pallor of his captivity. As he walked an odd thought pa.s.sed through his mind: "Some day I must return and visit my twelve good friends..." He uttered a grim sound. What an idea! Return into the dark hole? Never... He calculated. Today Zerling would drop the bucket with his rations. The bread and water would remain in the basket and the poor underground wight would be deemed dead. Zerling might perhaps report as much to King Casmir. How would the king react to the news? An indifferent shrug? A twitch of curiosity as to the father of his daughter"s child? Aillas smiled a thin hard smile and for a s.p.a.ce amused himself with possible directions of the future.
The landscape to the north ended at a dark loom across the northern horizon: the Forest of Tantrevalles. As Aillas approached, the countryside altered, to become ever more thoroughly steeped in time. Colors seemed richer and heavier; shadows were more emphatic and showed curious colors of their own. The River Timble, shaded under willows and poplars, wandered away in stately meanders; the road turned and entered the town Tawn Timble.
At the inn Aillas ate a dish of broad beans and drank an earthenware mug of beer.
The way to Glymwode led across the meadows, ever closer to the gloom of the forest, sometimes skirting the verge, sometimes pa.s.sing under outlying copses.
Halfway through the afternoon Aillas trudged into Glymwode. The landlord at the Yellow Man Inn directed him to the cottage of Graithe the woodcutter. He asked in puzzlement: "What brings so many fine folk to visit Graithe? He"s but a common man and no more than a woodcutter."
"The explanation is simple enough," said Aillas. "Certain grand folk at Lyonesse Town wanted a child brought up quietly, if you get my meaning, and then they changed their minds."
"Ah!" The landlord laid a sly finger alongside his nose. "Now it"s clear. Still, a far way just to veil an indiscretion."
"Bah! One cannot judge the high-born by sensible standards!"
"That is a basic truth!" declared the landlord. "They live with their heads above the clouds! Well then, you know the way. Don"t stray into the woods, especially after nightfall; you might find things you weren"t seeking."
"In all likelihood I"ll be back here before sunset. Will you have a bed for me?"
"Aye. If nothing better, you"ll have a pallet in the loft."
Aillas departed the inn, and in due course found the cottage of Graithe and Wynes: a small two-room hut built of stone and timber, with a thatched roof, at the very edge of the forest. A spare old man with a white beard worked to split a log with maul and wedges. A stocky woman in a homespun smock and shawl tilled the garden. At Aillas" approach both drew erect and in silence watched him come.
Aillas halted in the dooryard and waited while the man and woman slowly approached.
"You are Graithe and Wynes?" asked Aillas.
The man gave his head a terse nod. "Who are you? What do you want?"
"Your daughter Ehirme sent me here."
The two stood, watching him, still as statues. Aillas sensed the psychic reek of fear. He said: "I haven"t come to trouble you; quite the contrary. I am Suldrun"s husband and the father of our child. It was a boy named Dhrun. Ehirme sent him here; King Casmir"s soldiers brought back a girl named Madouc. So then, where is my son Dhrun?"
Wynes began to wail. Graithe held up his hand. "Quiet, woman, we have done no wrong. Fellow, whatever your name, the affair is one we are done with. Our daughter suffered a great anguish. We despise with all our hatred those persons who brought her pain. King Casmir took the child; there is no more to say."
"Only this. Casmir locked me in a deep dungeon, from which I have only just escaped. He is my enemy no less than yours, as someday he will learn. I ask for what is my right. Give me my boy, or tell me where to find him."
"This is nothing to us!" cried Wynes. "We are old; we survive from day to day. When our horse dies, how will we take our wood to the village? Some winter soon we shall starve."
Aillas reached into his pouch and brought out another of Suldrun"s possessions: a wrist-band of gold set with garnets and rubies. To this he added a pair of gold crowns. "Now I can help you only this much, but at least you need not fear starvation. Now tell me of my son."
Wynes hesitantly took the gold. "Very well, I shall tell you of your son. Graithe went into the forest to cut f.a.ggots. I carried the baby in a basket, and set it on the ground while I gathered mushrooms. Alas! we were close by Madling Meadow, and the fairies of Thripsey Shee worked a mischief. They took the boy and left a fairy-child in the basket. I noticed nothing till I reached to take the baby and it bit me. Then I looked and saw the red-haired girl-brat and I knew that the fairies had been at work."
Graithe spoke. "Then the king"s soldiery arrived. They asked for the baby on pain of death, and we gave them the changeling, and bad cess to it."
Aillas looked from face to face in bafflement. Then he turned to gaze into the forest. At last he said: "Can you take me to Thripsey Shee?"
"Oh yes, we can take you there, and should you make awkwardness, they"ll give you a toad"s head, like they did poor Wilclaw the drover; or give you dancing feet, so that you"ll dance the roads and byways forever and that was the fate of a lad named Dingle, when they caught him eating their honey."
"Never bother the fairies," Wynes told him. "Be grateful when they leave you in peace."
"But my son, Dhrun! How does he fare?"
Chapter 18.
WITHIN AND ABOUT THE Forest of Tantrevalles existed a hundred or more fairy shees, each the castle of a fairy tribe. Thripsey Shee on Madling Meadow, little more than a mile within the precincts of the forest, was ruled by King Throbius and his spouse Queen Bossum. His realm included Madling Meadow and as much of the forest surrounding as was consistent with his dignity. The fairies at Thripsey numbered eighty-six. Among them were: BOAB: who used the semblance of a pale green youth with gra.s.shopper wings and antennae. He carried a black quill pen plucked from the tail of a raven and recorded all the events and transactions of the tribe on sheets pressed from lily petals.
TUTTERWIT: an imp who liked to visit human houses and tease the cats. He also liked to peer through windows, moaning and grimacing until someone"s attention was engaged, then jerk quickly from sight.
GUNDELINE: a slender maiden of enchanting charm, with flowing lavender hair and green fingernails. She mimed, preened, cut capers, but never spoke, and no one knew her well. She licked saffron from poppy pistils with quick darts of her pointed green tongue.
WONE: she liked to rise early, before dawn, and flavor dew drops with a.s.sorted flower nectars.
MURDOCK: a fat brown goblin who tanned mouseskins and wove the down of baby owls into soft gray blankets for fairy children.
FLINK: who forged fairy swords, using techniques of antique force. He was a great braggart and often sang the ballad celebrating the famous duel he had fought with the goblin Dangott.
SHIMMIR: audaciously she had mocked Queen Bossum and capered silently behind her, mimicking the queen"s flouncing gait, while all the fairies sat hunched, hands pressed to mouths, to stop their laughter. In punishment Queen Bossum turned her feet backward and put a carbuncle on her nose.
FALAEL: who manifested himself as a pale brown imp, with the body of a boy and the face of a girl. Falael was incessantly mischievous, and when villagers came to the forest to gather berries and nuts, it was usually Falael who caused their nuts to explode and transformed their strawberries to toads and beetles.
And then there was Twisk, who usually appeared as an orange-haired maiden wearing a gown of gray gauze. One day while wading in the shallows of Tilhilvelly Pond, she was surprised by the troll Mangeon. He seized her about the waist, carried her to the bank, ripped away the gray gauze gown and prepared to make an erotic junction. At the sight of his priapic instrument, which was grotesquely large and covered with warts, Twisk became frantic with fear. By dint of jerks, twists and contortions she foiled the best efforts of the sweating Mangeon. But her strength waned and Mangeon"s weight began to grow oppressive. She tried to protect herself with magic, but in her excitement she could remember only a spell used to relieve dropsy in farm animals, which, lacking better, she uttered, and it proved efficacious. Mangeon"s ma.s.sive organ shriveled to the size of a small acorn and became lost in the folds of his great gray belly.
Mangeon uttered a scream of dismay, but Twisk showed no remorse. Mangeon cried out in fury: "Vixen, you have done me a double mischief, and you shall do appropriate penance."
He took her to a road which skirted the forest. At a crossroads he fashioned a kind of pillory and affixed her to this construction. Over her head he posted a sign: DO WHAT YOU WILL WITH ME and stood back. "Here you stay until three pa.s.sersby, be they dolts, lickpennies or great earls, have their way with you, and that is the spell I invoke upon you, so that in the future you may choose to be more accommodating to those who accost you beside Tilhilvelly Pond."
Mangeon sauntered away, and Twisk was left alone.
The first to pa.s.s was the knight Sir Jaucinet of Castle Cloud in Dahaut. He halted his horse and appraised the situation with a wondering glance. ""DO WHAT YOU WILL WITH ME,"" he read. "Lady, why do you suffer this indignity?"
"Sir knight, I do not suffer so by choice," said Twisk. "I did not attach myself to the pillory in this position and I did not display the sign."
"Who then is responsible?"
"The troll Mangeon, for his revenge."
"Then, surely, I will help you escape, in any way possible."
Sir Jaucinet dismounted, removed his helmet, showing himself as a flaxen-haired gentleman with long mustaches and of good aspect. He attempted to loosen the bonds which confined Twisk, but to no avail. He said at last: "Lady, these bonds are proof against my efforts."
"In that case," sighed Twisk, "please obey the instruction implicit in the sign. Only after three such encounters will the bonds loosen."
"It is not a gallant act," said Sir Jaucinet. "Still, I will abide by my promise." So saying, he did what he could to a.s.sist in her release.
Sir Jaucinet would have stayed to share her vigil and a.s.sist her further if need be, but she begged him to leave. "Other travelers might be discouraged from stopping if they saw you here. So you must go, and at once! For the day is waning and I would hope to be home before night."
"This is a lonely road," said Sir Jaucinet. "Still, it is occasionally used by vagabonds and lepers, and good luck may attend you. Lady, I bid you good-day."
Sir Jaucinet adjusted his helm, mounted his horse and departed.
An hour pa.s.sed while the sun sank into the west. At this time Twisk heard a whistling and presently saw a peasant boy on his way home after a day"s work in the fields. Like Sir Jaucinet, he stopped short in amazement, then slowly approached. Twisk smiled at him ruefully. "As you see, sir, I am bound here. I cannot leave and I cannot resist you, no matter what might be your impulse."
"My impulse is simple enough," said the ploughboy. "But I wasn"t born yesterday and I want to know how the sign reads."
"It says: Do what you will..."
"Ah then, that"s all right. I was fearing it might be either a price or a quarantine."
With no more ado he raised his smock and conjoined to Twisk with rude zest. "And now, madam, if you will excuse me, I must hurry home, as there"ll be bacon tonight with the turnips, and you"ve given me a hunger."
The ploughboy disappeared into the evening, while Twisk in disquiet contemplated the coming of night.
With darkness a chill crept through the air, and an overcast blotted out the stars so that the night was black. Twisk huddled, shivering and miserable, and listened to the sounds of the night with fearful attention.
The hours pa.s.sed slowly. At midnight Twisk heard a soft sound: the pad of slow footsteps along the road. The footsteps halted, and something which could see through the dark paused to inspect her.
It approached, and even with her fairy vision Twisk could see only a tall outline.
It stood before her and touched her with cold fingers. Twisk spoke in a trembling voice: "Sir? Who are you? May I know your ident.i.ty?"
The creature made no response. In tremulous terror Twisk held out her hand and felt a garment, like a cloak, which when disturbed wafted forth an unsettling odor.
The creature came close and subjected Twisk to a cold embrace, which left her only half-conscious.
The creature departed along the road and Twisk fell to the ground, soiled but free.
She ran through the dark toward Thripsey Shee. The clouds broke; starlight helped her on her way, and so she arrived home. She cleansed herself as best she could then went to her green velvet chamber to rest.
Fairies, though they never forget an injury, are resilient to misfortune, and Twisk quickly put the experience out of mind, and was only reminded of the event when she found herself large with child.