After a while common sense rea.s.serted itself; I was pretty wet but Conn was in a worse plight. His cloak now, with all the pieces hacked from it and the cord missing, was more like a tatty head-cape, and he was drenched and shivering.
"Skin is supposed to be watertight," he grumbled, "but I"ll swear this water is leaking through to my bones . . . There"s a village of sorts down in the valley: I can see smoke. Shall we?"
Above our heads the last escort of bats swooped in farewell, and somewhere a buzzard called its lonely: "Ki-ya, ki-ya, ki-ya . . ."
An hour later I was dozy with heat, more-or-less dry and had a stomach full of a thick, meaty stew. The last piece of bread still firmly clasped to my chest, I fell asleep on the rushes.
We found the four stones the very next day, on the edge of the uplands north of the village, and consulted The Ancient"s map.
"North from here, due north," said Conn. "That should be easy enough. Even I know north. Well, that"s three adventures past us and we"re still all in one piece. Allonz, mez enfants! Four to go . . ."
"What"s that?" I asked. The words sounded familiar.
"What? Oh, allonz et cetera? The Frankish words for let"s get going," he said condescendingly.
But I knew, even as he spoke I had heard them before-somewhere. Another of those tantalizing glimpses of another life.
"Don"t you mean: "En avant, mez braves?" " I suggested, and was rewarded by a startled look from those brown eyes, but he said nothing further.
The moors and forests through which our way led were bare, for the most part, of human life, but the cooler, crisp air did not deter an abundance of wild life. Hares, foxes, stoats, weasels; badger, deer, squirrel, marten; eagle, merlin, finch, t.i.t; and the purple heath and heather, crisp, curling bracken and colourful b.u.t.terflies, dingy moths and laden bees. Here I found, in the endless quest for berries and roots, two plants I had never come across before; one, with sticky-pad leaves, trapped small insects much as Puddy did with his tongue, and the other, looking deceptively like a large violet, had fleshy leaves which performed much the same function. Pisky declared the brownish water we replenished him with as "a nice change"; Moglet managed, even with her damaged paw, to find voles and mice. At times voles in particular were almost too easy to catch, running away from us like a brown wave in the long gra.s.ses. Indeed Moglet became rather blase about her new-found prowess, and shared her meals with Corby, so they both grew sleeker and better groomed. Snowy, too, enjoyed the change in diet. Now I only had to provide for Conn and myself and we relied mainly on what I could cull, for we had no bows, arrows or spears for hunting, and did not stay long enough in any one place to set snares.
We made good progress, only having to detour once when a stagnant bog barred our way, a question mark to safety with its green slime lying quiet on ominously inviting open stretches, midges dancing their one-day life above.
The main impediment to any enjoyment was the rain that seemed to fall more plentifully on these bleak uplands, so perhaps it was with a sense of relief that we found the ground sloping away beneath our feet and that one day the rising sun showed us cliffs and the sea.
Again that nagging sense of a thing known and should-be-remembered tugged at my mind. The salty smell, the crash and roar of the waves, the endless shift of great waters, all these I had seen before, somewhere, sometime. Only the steep, black, boulder-shod cliffs were different; the ones I thought I remembered were-white? Cream? Gentler, with sandy beaches, not these pebble- and rock-enc.u.mbered stretches. A summer house by the sea, collected sh.e.l.ls, sea-bright pebbles that faded without the lap of water, the grit of sand between teeth and toes, the salt-harsh cry of gulls- The great gulls wheeled and broke before us, screamed a welcome, and for two days they accompanied us as we traversed the edge of those dark and frowning cliffs, unable to find a way down. On the third day we came to a small river, which afforded access to the beach below. It flowed gently between restraining banks to a large bay, some three miles across at the widest part but narrowing at its mouth to about fifty feet, enclosed by sharply rising cliffs. Here the sea frothed and seethed, eager to burst its bottleneck as the tide receded. The beach around the wishbone-shaped bay was broken with tumbled rocks and boulders but inland the terrain was smooth and low, until it rose behind to the moors we had left. In that fair and gentle valley lay a prosperous-looking village, more a small town, with houses on either side of the river and boats drawn up tidily on the shelving banks.
For a while as we descended to the beach, I became aware of a curious shifting movement among the rocks, and thought I could hear a strange mixture of sounds: keening, grunting, shuffling, splashing. The smell was less indistinct: a fishy, animal smell, but it was Corby"s keen eyes, perched as he was on Conn"s shoulder, that recognized all this for what it was.
"Caw! People of the Sea-ruddy millions of "em!"
Almost at the same moment came Conn"s voice. "Seals! A great colony of seals! But rather late, I should have thought . . ."
Even as we adjusted to the sight, a boy of ten or twelve, clad in rough homespun and barelegged, rose from behind a clump of gorse to our right and stood regarding us wide-eyed.
"Hullo," said Conn.
The boy"s eyes opened wider than ever, as if he thought us incapable of ordinary speech. "Be you they travellers what are spoke of and expected?" It came out in a rush and in an accent strange to me and hard to follow. "If you be, then I bids you welcome, masters both, and ask that you follow me to"t chief"s house," and he set off forthwith down a narrow track leading to the village, with many a scared, backward look. I almost expected him to cross his fingers against the Evil Eye.
We looked at one another.
"We are travellers," said Conn. "But as to being expected-Or spoken of, come to that-"
"Strange tales travel with the wind," said Snowy. "And, like smoke, they change shape in pa.s.sing."
"Well," I said, "we can only find out if they mean us by going down and asking."
" "What am I?" as the worm said to the blackbird," contributed Corby, gloomily. "Oh, well, don"t say as I didn"t warn you . . ."
So we followed the boy, who kept pausing for us to catch up, as if afraid of losing us, but at the same time he kept his distance, as if afraid of what we might do if we came too close. We pa.s.sed several huts and the people there also regarded us with a kind of wary fascination. The town was well laid out, with straight streets swept clear of rubbish, animals tethered or penned and folk decently dressed. Most of the people were tall and slim, many with fair hair, the men moustached and bearded, some with tattoos on their arms and fingers. As we walked I glanced over my shoulder: we were being followed.
Men, women, children, all had put aside what they were doing and were pacing behind us. At another time this might have seemed menacing, but in spite of the numbers I was aware most of all of curiosity, and almost began to wonder whether we had all grown two heads, though the others looked normal enough to me.
After what seemed a very long walk, we reached a bluff overlooking the river and what I supposed to be the chief"s house. It was a long, low building, the wooden supports curiously carved with serpentine figures picked out in red and blue, the shapes outlined with rows of white sh.e.l.ls. We reached the entrance, preceded by a couple of townspeople obviously come to forewarn of our presence; no leather-hinged door, no curtained flap awaited us, instead two painted panels that fitted into well-grooved wood top and bottom and now slid apart to reveal a dark, smoky interior. I thought it a very good idea for a door and was busy examining the mechanics when someone nudged me forward and I found myself inside, adjusting my eyes to the gloom.
Wooden pillars down each side supported a steeply pitched thatched roof; behind these were stacked trestles and stools. In a central stone fireplace, raised some three feet from the ground, smouldered a peat fire, smoke wisping up through a square exit in the thatch. At the far end were curtained recesses, no doubt for sleeping and stores. Light was provided by stands holding small basins of strong-smelling oil with wicks floating inside, although iron sconces were set in the pillars should stronger illumination be needed.
Beside the fire stood a taller man than the rest, with white hair that curled to his shoulders, wearing blue woollen trews and a fine cloak to match, fastened by a cord drawn through ornamented bronze rings; on his right side hung a short, bright sword and his arms were braceleted above the elbow by golden snakes. By his side stood a tall, dark lady with plaited grey hair and the same strong features as her husband, and behind them lurked three tall boys and a girl, by the mark of their features their children.
"Welcome, travellers all," said the chief. He, too, used that strangely accented speech-they clipped the hard sounds short and drew out the soft ones-but he spoke, majestic and slow, so that it was easier to understand him than the boy earlier. "We have much to talk of, you and I. My name is Ragnar. My wife, Gunnhilde, and I welcome you to our house and our town of Skarrbrae. You must rest yourselves and eat. When the sun is low we shall speak again."
He clapped his hands and hot water and towels were brought. Conn and I retired to separate recesses, where I luxuriated in a clean body once again.
When we emerged, stools and a wooden trestle were set in front of us with great wooden bowls of some fishy broth, strips of dried fish and a coa.r.s.e bread. There were also bowls of goat"s milk and a refreshing herbal brew, in which I thought I detected camomile and feverfew. Snowy and the others were not neglected either, and while I wondered at why (to them) a pony was allowed within doors, a great pile of hay was set in front of him; Corby was given fish-guts, Moglet the same with goat"s milk, and I crumbled a paste of bread into Pisky"s bowl. Puddy stayed quiet in my pocket after a snorted: "Fish!" I wasn"t worried, as insects had been plentiful during our journey.
Stuffed full, we were led to a pile of rushes on which were spread fur rugs, and, perhaps because of the food, or the gloom, or simply because we were dry and warm and welcome, we all dozed off for a couple of hours. When I awoke, torches were being lit in the sconces along the pillars and Puddy was sitting three inches away from my nose, a wing and a leg of some large insect sticking out of the corner of his mouth. His throat moved up and down decisively. As I watched the bits disappeared, and he burped.
"Disgusting!" I said.
"Each to his own," said Puddy. "Anyway, I didn"t think you would like it marching down the back of your neck . . ." and he crawled back into my pocket, where I could feel him hiccoughing quietly.
"Serves you right," I said.
Corby came up and looked me in the eye-one of his to both mine. "Does one c.r.a.p inside or out?"
I rose to my feet. "Those who wish to c.r.a.p," I said carefully, "c.r.a.p, to use your expression, outside." I looked down at my pocket. "And those who c.r.a.p in my pockets, or sick-up because they"re too greedy, get their mouths fastened together for a week!"
"Want to . . . the other," said Moglet. So did I, so we all went outside for five minutes.
When we returned, Ragnar and his wife were waiting for us and invited us to join them round the replenished fire. Everyone else had disappeared, and I judged the serious part of the business was about to start.
Ragnar nodded at us. "You may wonder," he began, "why it is that you are looked-for: but perhaps you know?"
I glanced at Conn, who shook his head. "No, we do not know how it is that you expected us," he said slowly, choosing his words carefully. "We are on a journey that means much to us but, I should have thought, little to others. Yet are we grateful for your welcome and hospitality, and if our appearance in your part of the country means that my friends and I can help you in any way, then I think I speak for us all when I say we will do our best." He glanced round at us all, receiving our agreement. "But may I ask why you need us particularly and how you knew that we should come-if, indeed, it is us you expected?" He sounded doubtful.
Gunnhilde took up some embroidery. "It is a combination of a need and a legend. The need I shall come to later, but I a.s.sure you it is very real." Her husband nodded gravely. "First, the legend. Our people have lived here for many generations. They say that folk from the northern lands were wrecked on this coast during a great storm; the survivors scrambled ash.o.r.e and settled among the fisherfolk who already lived here, in a village much smaller than you see it now. The marriage of different peoples and variant skills brought both peace and prosperity to this part of the country; we had the sea for fishing, our friends who visited us every year-"
I looked at Snowy: the seals? He nodded.
"-sweet water from the river, good earth for crops and the uplands and forests for hunting and timber. For many years we prospered-I speak of a time before I was born, you understand-but a wise man, a shaman as we call them, who once lived and died here warned of a time when the sea should boil, the fish flee and our friends come no more to visit us. Then, it was a tale for children but even so his words were remembered, for who knows what the G.o.ds have in store? My mother"s mother told me of the prophecies when I was a child and I remembered. But unlike some prophecy it was not all doom: there was a promise of deliverance also." She glanced at her husband. "You tell them, for you know the words as well as I."
"Indeed I do, for it was a tale to fright children into the dark imaginings of the night. We learnt it as it was told, in verse, so that no meaning should be lost by later mis-telling or exaggeration. It goes thus," and he straightened his back and delivered the lines in a deep, sonorous voice. I didn"t think much of them as verse; they didn"t even rhyme, but some of the words started with the same letters, so it had a kind of hypnotic beat to it, wrapped up as it was in symbolism and metaphor.
"And in that time: the token of the terror shall be thus: The people of the sea shall come: and bring forth their young that year; And the young that year shall be great: and their melody music the meadows.
But for jealousy of their joy: evil shall bring forth evil e"en greater And the sea shall boil: and bring forth a beast to despoil.
Men shall starve and women too: and children cry from hunger, And the sea-people and people of the sea: shall keen and cower, While the great White Wyrme: shall devour the dead and despoil the sea . . ."
He paused. "If it were only that, then we should be lost indeed, for that which was prophesied has indeed come to pa.s.s-more of that later. But the prophecy speaks of a deliverance, and this is where I believe you were sent to help us." He cleared his throat.
"But this shall last only so long: then from the south shall come the seven; A wight on a white horse: holding for help in his arms The moon and stars for measure: and the stars shall be green as gra.s.s Blue as a babe"s eye: red as rust and clear as river running.
And the seven shall strive: and the White Wyrme shall wither.
And behold! all shall be: as before and better.
Then the people of the sea and the sea-people: shall gift and guard them, For they go with the G.o.ds: and shall take the road west with weal . . .
"So, that is why we have looked for you, for now is the time of our greatest need, and in your company there would seem to be at least part of the promise of our deliverance. A man on a white horse, that is clear enough, but the prophecy foretold of seven. I count but six-"
"Seven," I said, and plonked Puddy on a free stool.
There was a moment"s silence and then Gunnhilde laughed and put aside her sewing.
"Seven it is, seven. We are lucky husband, for in them the prophecy does come true!"
I wriggled on my seat. "But the bit about the moon and stars?"
Ragnar frowned. "That I cannot see, but there must be an answer . . ." He glanced at his wife but she was staring at Puddy and then picked up Pisky"s bowl.
"Green as gra.s.s: the moon," and she threw back her head and laughed.
"Under our noses, husband, other riddles to be read, I fancy . . . And you and you and you," she pointed to me, Corby, Moglet, "must hold the other "stars?"
I lifted Corby"s wing and Moglet"s paw and pointed to my stomach. "And there is another tale. But it hasn"t been written yet, "cos it isn"t finished."
"The riddle is read," said Gunnhilde. "Husband, call them to prepare a feast!"
Amidst the bustle, the uproar, the feasting, the smiles, I caught a mutter from Corby. "First part"s easy, all feasting and fal-lals and what-a-pretty-bird: I"ve an idea the second part will be more difficult . . ."
It was not until the morrow that we realized just what we had let ourselves in for, but that evening it was indeed all "feasting and fal-lals" for it was obvious the townsfolk were sure we were the answer to all their prayers. We ate and drank our fill and were entertained by their songs and dances until the small hours. It wasn"t till all was quiet that I began to wonder what was in store for us. Then I remembered the verses and fell asleep uneasily wondering about boiling seas and great white worms which, together with the cheese I had eaten earlier, engendered weird and disturbing dreams. Twice I woke in a cold sweat, only to be soothed to sleep again by the gentle breathing of my companions and a sort of mournful lullaby that seemed to come in time with the distant rush and suck of the sea.
The next morning Ragnar, with about fifty interested townspeople in tow, took us down to the beach, and there, restlessly milling and turning, were about two to three hundred seals. They were of all ages and sizes, male, female and pups, and seemed to have little fear of humans, allowing us to walk amongst them on the rocks and the greyish-black sand. They became excited when they saw Snowy and gave soft hooting sounds and groans and I realized they were telling him something, recognizing that he was one who would understand. There were more of them bobbing about in the bay, seeming to stand on their back-flippers in the water eyeing us with curiosity.
Some porpoised up and down, showing off, others with mouthfuls of seaweed were tossing their heads from side to side, threshing the water, exactly like a housewife beating clothes on stones in a river-another way of drawing attention to themselves, I supposed. All seemed jolly, a gathering of wild animals grown tame and choosing to live in close proximity with man, but there was an unease, a restlessness, a frustration that communicated itself as surely as the ever-moving sea.
Conn questioned Ragnar on their lameness. "Are they always like this?"
"Not always, but at the moment they have no choice; they are restless because they know the time has long pa.s.sed this year when they should be at sea.
Supplies of food are running low, both for them and us, though we have given them what we could." He paused. "You see, we have an arrangement with them; oh, nothing that has ever been written down by us nor agreed with them: one cannot speak with animals."
I opened my mouth, but Snowy nudged me, and I closed it again.
"The way it works is this: every year the seals are allowed to come to our beaches and have their pups, and then they mate again. During that time we leave them unmolested. Then, when autumn and winter comes we go forth to hunt them, mainly for their skins, for that is our only surplus for trading. By then they are out at sea, and it is an even battle between man and beast. Even then, we do not hunt indiscriminately; each spring the pups are counted. Of these a third will not survive their first year, from natural causes. We only cull a half of the number of adults of the number remaining, the population is kept more or less constant. There are enough pelts for us and enough fish for both man and beast."
I looked at Ragnar with new respect: a little different from Lady Adiora"s method.
The tide was retreating now, making a noise on the pebbles like someone clearing their throat and then spitting. Ragnar waved to the townsfolk not to follow us further.
"We shall go on alone," he said. Alone? Where? Echoes of last night"s dreams made my heart beat faster. "Of course there may be little to see: if the creature has eaten recently he may not show himself. But if we stay quiet and tempt him a little, then perhaps-" He beckoned to one of the men, who ran back to one of the huts and reappeared with some strips of dried goat"s meat.
"Ah, yes: this should do it."
With the chief leading we made our way round the bay to the southernmost tip, climbing steadily all the way and pa.s.sing through a small flock of horned sheep, almost indistinguishable from their goat-brothers, so unlike the low- slung fatties Brothers Peter and Paul tended: still, I supposed the brothers"
sheep would have been hard put to it to find sustenance on these harsher uplands, while Ragnar"s sheep looked fit and well on their poor diet. More evidence of how careful husbandry had made this such a prosperous place. I supposed The Ancient would have a "c.l.i.tch" for all this: "Difficult to tell sheep from goats when both wear horns"?
At last we stood on the edge of the cliff, the breeze from the sea ruffling Moglet"s fur and s.n.a.t.c.hing at my mask. The sea foamed and raced beneath us and some twenty feet away was the opposite cliff, crowned by an immense slab of rock that reared precariously over the edge with what looked to me like a dangerous tilt.
"The Look-Out Stone," said Ragnar. "The highest point around. We use it for spying out shoals of fish, for posting a beacon if anyone is overdue and, of course, for spotting the forerunners of the seal-cows in April. But there is a suggestion for building a tower on this side instead: that rock can sway dangerously in a high wind and we"re not sure how firmly it"s anch.o.r.ed." He sighed. "It seems we can have little use for either till the Wyrme is destroyed.
When the seals whelped this year we had promise of good hunting, for there were more than usual and we only took the born-dead or injured as we always do. Then the Wyrme came, and they could not escape. They lost about twenty cows and pups, before the males arrived looking for them. They only got in by dint of numbers, a mad rush on a high tide. But now of course the beast knows where they are and also knows a ma.s.s exit will leave the pups behind.
The cows will not risk the pups and the bulls will not leave the cows . . ." He sighed again. "And it is not only them, it is us also. We have tried to take to the boats and carry on our fishing but the Wyrme overturns them and anyone who swims is immediate prey. We are trapped and the seals are trapped! This is why we welcomed you, knowing that, through you, the second part of the prophecy would come to pa.s.s." And he began to recite.
"And the seven shall strive: and the White Wyrme shall wither.
And behold! all shall be: as before and better."
"Doesn"t he know any nice cheerful little ditties?" muttered Corby. "Anyway, he"s missed out that bit about the road west. And gifts . . . Fat chance! Looks as if we are trapped as tight as the rest. After all that mumbo jumbo can you see "em saying "Bye-bye, thanks for trying and all that?" No, we ain"t going north, south or east, let alone west-"
"Well, then," said Snowy, "put your tongue back in its beak, where it belongs, and use your eyes and your cunning brain to see if you can come up with a solution! It could be your turn, you know."
There it was: "turns" again. Moglet"s turn, Corby"s turn- "Watch," said Ragnar, who of course had heard none of this by-play. "Down there, in that wide cleft in the base of the opposite cliff where the water is calmer . . . That"s where he rests and watches and waits." And with that he tossed a strip of goat"s-flesh out as far as he could.
Nothing. We watched the meat sink slowly in the clear water beyond where the tide was racing out, until it touched bottom some twenty feet down.
Ragnar took another strip of flesh; I was still gazing at the first and the water appeared to be cloudier, as though something had stirred the grey-black sand.
Ragnar flung the second piece.
A gull, a yearling with less sense than it should have, flung itself seawards in a dive after the meat; they touched water together and for a moment I believed the bird had won, but there was a boiling beneath us, a great rearing and with the speed of my thought bright blood sprayed between great sharp teeth, teeth like a hundred bone needles, and the blood became the darker colour of the sea and there was a white, grey-tipped feather floating and nothing more . . .
The air was filled with the screaming of sea birds: gulls, guillemots, tern, as they rose from crevices in the cliff upwards from the sea, and the harsh cries of raven, crow and cormorant who banked and wheeled from their perches on the rearing rocks. Bird mingled with bird, and screamed with fright and mourned with despair and watched the feather as it slipped, alone and broken, away with the ebbing tide. Black and white, grey and grey, and the birds calling and Corby answering and trying to fly from my arms on one wing only, and me clasping him tight to save him from further harm, and the stone in my belly hurting- And then Snowy called, loud and clear. What had been senseless flight settled into a pattern, rising and falling like the midsummer dance of gnats over a pond, and the voices softened and fell quiet. Corby ceased struggling and lay quiet too, except to say in a small voice: "Those are my brothers-if only I could fly!" I could do nothing save stroke his untidy feathers in sympathy.
Conn nudged me. "Did you ever see anything so fearsome, Thingumajig?"
Down there, some five feet below the surface, its body undulating with the unseen currents, was a great white worm-like creature. Despite the distortion of the water I could see quite clearly; I suppose it was not a true white, more a grey-tan colour but the green water gave it luminescence. At first, horror made it a hundred feet long and twenty wide at the least, but when sense rea.s.serted itself I suppose it must have been about eighteen to twenty feet in length, including a flat, splayed, scooping tail. It was segmented, but the sh.e.l.l seemed to be soft, judging by the ease with which it arched and bent its spine; there were two vestigial suckers on the foremost segment behind the head, and double gills like fringed curtains. The head itself was the most frightening of all: it looked much as an eel"s but the eyes were positioned much closer on the top of its head and the mouth was wider and set, as far as I could see, with a triple row of the fearsome, needle-sharp teeth.
I shivered. "Do you-" I said, "do you think it is the only one of its kind-or- or could there be others?"
"Well," said Conn. "The sight of that little monster does bring to mind a tale I heard once, told by one who had returned from seas on the other side of the world. He said it had been narrated to him (and I cannot vouch for its veracity, mind, though one of his longer tales about a great grey beast like a mountain with an extra arm in the middle of its head I do know to be true, for my friend Fitzalan had seen such) but, as I was saying, this traveller had been told that in a sea as warm as new milk, a seaman had fallen overboard and by chance bobbed up again where a lucky rope had saved him. But he had come aboard quite mad, babbling of a great forest of worms such as this one, waving beneath many fathoms like a field of sun-white grain. All thought him touched and suspected a knock on the head had addled his brains, but he insisted and it was all written down by the captain in his log."