"No thanks," I said hastily. "I"m fine, thanks."
"Pity," said the Thing. "Could be a lot of use to you, I could. Fetch and carry, spot out the way ahead, general guide, guard dog . . ."
"Guard dog?" I said, suddenly suspicious. "You did say "dog"?"
""Course. Don" look like a cat, do I?"
I scrambled to my feet and stared at the apparition. "I"ve seen you before somewhere. . . ."
"Course you have, in the village; seen you a coupla times, too."
I stared across the diplomatic s.p.a.ce that still separated us. Of course he was a dog, how had I ever thought otherwise? But dogs don"t talk. Especially this one. He resembled nothing so much as a sc.r.a.p of rug you might leave outside the door to wipe your feet upon. He was like a furry sausage, a black and grey and brown sausage. One ear was up, one down; there was a tail of sorts and presumably mouth and eyes hidden under the tangle of hair at the front. The nose was there and underneath four paws, big ones like paddles, but set under the shortest set of legs imaginable. I remembered now where I had seen him before: chased down the village street by the butcher, those stumpy legs going like a demented centipede.
All right, he wasn"t a figment of my imagination and he wasn"t one of the Little People, but there was still something wrong. Dogs don"t talk. . . .
"Where you goin" then?"
"To-to seek a new home. My mother died yesterday."
"Makes two of us-lookin" for somewhere, that is. Never had a place to set down me b.u.m permanent-like. Folks is wary of strays."
Dogs don"t talk. . . .
All right, if he wasn"t the Devil himself-which was just possible-and he wasn"t of Faery stock, then this must be magic. A very powerful magic, too.
Surrept.i.tiously I first crossed myself again, then made the secular anti-witch sign, the first two fingers of my hand forked. Nothing happened; he still sat there, but now he indulged in a fury of scratching and nipping, then hoofed out both ears with a dreadful, dry, rattling sound.
"Little b.u.g.g.e.rs lively "s mornin". . . . Tell you what: I"ll just come with you as far as the road-that"s where you"re headed, ain"t it? Keep each other company, like."
"No . . . Yes, I don"t know. . . ." I said helplessly.
DOGS DON"T TALK!.
"Aw, c"mon! What harm can it do? You and I will get along real well, I know we will. "Tween us we"ll make a good team-"
The scream would out. It had been sitting there at the bottom of my throat like a gigantic belch and I could hold it back no longer. It escaped like the tuning wail from a set of bagpipes, only ten times as loud.
"Go away, go away, go away! I can"t stand it anymore! Dogs don"t talk, dogs don"t talk, DOGS DON"T TALK!"
And I ran away across the glade, screaming like a banshee, until there was a thud! in the middle of my back and I fell face down in a heap of leaves, all the wind knocked out of me.
"Shurrup a minute, will you? Want the whole world to hear? Got hold of the wrong end of the stick, you has. Just sit up nice and quiet-like, and I"ll explain. . . ."
I did as I was told, emptying my mouth of leaves and pulling twigs from my hair. The dog sat about six feet away, his head on one side. Close to he was even tattier. I felt like a feather mattress that has been beaten into an entirely different shape.
"Now then you says as how dogs don"t talk. Well o" course they does. All the time. Mostly to each other, "cos you "umans don"t bother to listen. You expects us to learn how you speak, but when we tries you tells us to shut up. Ain"t that so?"
I nodded. I had had nothing to do with animals, except the goat, hens and bees-Mama wouldn"t have a dog or cat in the house: she said they were messy, full of disease, and took up too much s.p.a.ce. Some of the dogs in the village were used for hunting, others as guards, a couple as children"s pets, but I had never heard anything from their owners save a sharp word of command, though I had seen kicks and cuffs in plenty. Certainly no one talked to them.
"We don" only talk, we sings, too. P"raps you heard us sometimes o" nights, when the moon is full and the world smells of the chase and we can hear the "Ounds o" Eaven at the "eels of the "Unter?"
Indeed I had. Some nights it seemed that the dogs of the village never slept, and even where we lived we could hear the howling and baying and yelping.
"Lovely songs they are too," he said. ""Anded down from sire to dam, from b.i.t.c.h to pup. . . ."
"But why," I said carefully, "can I now understand what you say?"
"Now, I could spin you a yarn as fine as silk and tell you as "ow I was the magickest dog in the "ole wide world, and you"d believe me. For a while, that is, till you found as you could talk with other animals, too. No, I won"t tell you no lies, "cos I believe we got business together, you and I-" He nipped so quickly at whatever was biting him that I jumped. "Got the little b.u.g.g.e.r. . . .
Truth is, lady, that why I can talk to you and you to me is all on account of that there bit o" Unicorn you carries round with you." And he scratched at his left ear, the floppy one, till it rattled like dry beans in a near-empty jar.
I was lost. "Bit of a Unicorn?" Unicorns were gone, long ago.
"The ring you wear, you great puddin"! That what you got on that finger of yours. Bit of "orn off"n a Unicorn, that is. Now you can understand what all the creatures say if"n you pays a bit of attention. Din" you know what you got?"
I sat looking at the curl of horn on my finger in bemus.e.m.e.nt. It still looked like nothing more than a large nail-paring, almost transparent. I tried to pull it off but it wouldn"t budge. Indeed, it now felt like part of my skin. I tried again. "Ouch!"
"Once it"s on, it"s on," said the dog. "Only come off if"n you don" need it no more, or don" deserve it. Very rare, these days. . . . Come by it legal?"
I nodded, remembering my mother telling me how my father had worn it round his neck. So perhaps he hadn"t needed it anymore-or hadn"t deserved it. But I wouldn"t think about that. Nor that it wouldn"t fit my mother. But why me? Perhaps I needed it more than them, specially now I was on my own.
Indeed, it had a comforting feel, like something I had been looking for for a long time and had found at last.
"Well," said the dog. "We"d best be goin". Day ain"t gettin" any younger, and we"ve a ways to travel to the Road."
"I"m not sure I want . . . What I mean, is . . ." However I said it, it was going to sound ungracious, but I had no intention of sharing my dwindling rations with a smelly stray dog with an appet.i.te even bigger than mine.
"Come on, now: you needs me. I can be your eyes and ears, I can. Best thief for fifty mile. Nab you a bit o" grub any time; never go "ungry with me around.
"Sides, I"ll be comp"ny, someone to talk to. Nighttimes I"ll keep watch, so"s you can sleep easy. No one creeps up on me, I can tell you!" He put his head on one side, in what I supposed he thought was an engaging manner. "What d"you say? Give us a trial. We can always part comp"ny if"n it don" work. . . ."
Some of what he said made sense, if he stuck to what he said. And I wouldn"t really be any worse off, unless he decamped with all the food. He made it sound, too, as if all the advantages were on my side.
"And just what do you get out of it?"
He hung his head, and I could scarcely hear what he was saying. "P"raps I"m tired o" bein" on me own. P"raps, just for once, I should like to belong. Never had a "ome, nor one I could call boss." He looked up, and there was a sort of defiant guilt in the one eye I could see. He shook his head as if to free it of water. "Got me whinging like a sentimental pup, you has. C"mon, let"s get started; with all that fat you"re carryin" it"ll take us twice as long. . . . Now what"s the matter?"
Just exactly what he had said: that was the matter. The words were carelessly cruel but none the less accurate. He had put into words a fact that everyone- me, my mother, her clients-all knew but never mentioned. The children in the village shouted it out often enough, one of the reasons I hated shopping there, but I could always pretend they were just being malicious. That was one of the reasons the mayor last night would not have accepted me as Mama"s replacement; the reason the kind miller had run out of compliments past hair, smile, teeth and the size of my hands and feet.
The fact was I was fat. Not fat, obese. No, admit it: gross. I was a huge lump of grease, wobbling from foot to foot like ill-set aspic. I couldn"t see my feet for my stomach, hadn"t seen them for years; I had to roll myself in and out of bed, was unable to rise from the floor without first going on hands and knees and grabbing bedpost or chair. I couldn"t climb the slightest rise without panting like a heat-hit dog; had lost count of my chins and got sores on my thighs with the flesh rubbing together.
And I had been unable to stop eating, which made it worse. Surprisingly Mama had made no attempt to stop me: she had even encouraged my consumption of honey cakes, fresh bread and cream after that time I had asked her about a prospective husband- "Missin" your Ma, eh?" said the dog sympathetically. "Understand how you feels; felt the same myself once . . . Are you all right, then?"
We had struggled on for perhaps another half mile when the dog stopped suddenly, his good ear c.o.c.ked.
"Shurrup, and listen."
Gratefully I put down my burdens. I could hear nothing. Perhaps a kind of rustling and stamping far ahead, a sort of cry . . .
The dog was off through the undergrowth like a flash, his legs a blur of movement. He was gone what seemed like hours, but could only have been a matter of minutes, and arrived back literally dancing with impatience.
"C"mon, c"mon! I got us transport!"
"A-a cart? Another sledge?"
"Nah! The real thin"! I got us a "orse!"
Chapter Six "That"s-that"s a horse? You"re joking!"
A creature with four legs, sure, head and tail in the right place but the mess in between-was a mess. From what I could see, shading my eyes against the sun, it was swaybacked, gaunt, hollow-necked, filthy dirty and with a hopelessly matted mane and tail.
"Sure it"s a "orse. Got all the essentials. Needs a bit of a wash and brush-up, p"raps. . . ."
It would need more than that. As I walked cautiously forward, fearing it might run at sight of us, I saw that it wasn"t going anywhere. It had got itself hopelessly entangled in the undergrowth by bridle, tail, hoof and the remains of a slashed girth and saddlebags that had ended up under its stomach. Its eyes widened with alarm as we approached and it made a token struggle against the bonds that held it, only to become more enmeshed than ever.
I halted a few feet away and spoke soothingly, using the words I had heard the villagers use to their workhorses, for I had never had cause to deal with one before and wasn"t quite sure how to begin. The horse showed the whites of its eyes, as well as it could for the sticky tendrils of bindweed that clung to mane and ears.
"Speak to it nicely," said the dog. "Just like you would to me."
"You mean-it can understand me?"
"O-mi-Gawd!" he said. "Din" I tell you about the ring? "Course it understands, but it"s a bit scared right now and may not listen. Nice and easy, now." He walked nearer. "Now stand still, "Orse, and "er ladyship "ere will see to you. . .
"Get away, get away! I"ll kick you to death-"
"You an" "oose army?"
I had understood this plainly enough, so I walked up to the horse more confidently and stretched out my hand. It made a halfhearted snap, but seemed quieter, though it still trembled till the branches and twigs which held it fast shook like wind-troubled water.
"Look," I said, "at my finger. I wear the ring of the Unicorn and that means we can understand each other. All I want to do is help. If I release you, will you promise not to run away till we have talked?"
It looked at the ring, at my face, and back at the ring. The shivering stopped, and I gathered it agreed, though I heard nothing definite.
It took a long time, and I was sweating as much as the horse by the time it was released and stood free. I picked away the last of the bramble and bindweed, and tried to comb out the worst tangles from mane and tail with my fingers.
Standing free it didn"t look much better. There was a long gash across its rump where someone had tried to slash the girths that held the now-empty saddlebags, but these had only loosened, not broken. I slid them up from under the belly and restrapped them.
"There, that"s better. . . . Stand still a moment and I"ll put some salve on the cut and the graze on your shoulder." In my belongings, dragged along behind as I followed the dog to his ""orse," was a pot of one of the apothecary"s favorite healing balms, a mixture of spiderwebs, dock-leaf juice and boar"s grease. I smeared some gently on the broken hide, and found another gash on one hock, which I treated the same way.
"There," I said, standing back. "Near as good as new. . . ."
"I thank you, bearer of the Ring," said the horse. It had a soft, gentle voice, quite unlike the dog"s raucous voice. "I am in your debt-"
"Then you can help us carry "er things," said the dog, who had been remarkably quiet during the last half hour or so, not surprising when I found he was chewing on the rest of the cheese I hadn"t packed well enough.
"Thief!"
"There was ants on it . . . All right, all right! Won"t do it again. Well, what about it, "orse? Gonna "elp?"
The horse glanced from one to the other of us. "I don"t know. . . ."
"Of course I can"t ask you to help if you belong to someone," I said. "That would be stealing. Is your master hereabouts?"
"All gone, all gone . . ." It started shivering again. "I ran away."
Obviously some disaster. "Calm down! Well, if you don"t belong to anyone, what did you plan on doing, boy?"
I was interrupted by a loud sn.i.g.g.e.r from the dog. "Blind as a bat, you is! "E"s a she. . . ."
I felt as though I had been caught in a thicket with my drawers down, and apologized profusely.
"My name is Mistral," said the horse, "and among my own people I am a princess. I wish to go back to where I came from, of course."
Anything less like a princess of anything I had yet to see, but I hadn"t had much experience of horses. "And where was that?"
The horse hung her head. "That I do not know. They stole my mother when she had me at her side, and would not leave me to escape. She told me of our people, of how we lived, and of my inheritance. But she died, they killed her with overwork, and I was sold as a packhorse. That was a year, two, ago. All I want now is to find my way back to my people. . . ."
"And you have no idea where that is?"
"No, except that south and west feels right."
"Well," said the dog, "if"n you goes on your own you could be picked up by anyone; best you can get from that is "eavier burdens or a knock on the "ead for the glue in your bones and a tough stew or two. Then there"s wolves if"n you"re thinkin" o" goin" the long way round. Now we offers you a bit o"
protection-like, a step or two in the right direction, reg"lar food and all in exchange for carryin" a light load for this lady. What d"you say?"
"And you go south, south and west?"
The dog must have seen my mouth open to say we had decided nothing like that, for he jumped in before I could say anything. ""Course we is! With winter comin" on, "oo"d be idiot enough to go north? North there is snow, west there is storms, east there is icy winds, so south we goes. Right, lady?"
Weakly I nodded. Put like that it seemed like the only road to take.
"Right," I said. "And-and if you agree to come with us, then I will care for you as best I can and try and put you on the right road for your home. Is that fair?"
"Without you I should probably have starved to death, or worse," said Mistral. "I accept. And now, perhaps, we should load up. The sun starts to go down."
Indeed it was well past its zenith. Hastily I started to pack our belongings on the horse, only to be brought up short by her patient explanation of weight distribution, top-heavy loads, etc., so the light was already reddening as we set off. Even then she seemed curiously reluctant to go the way I wanted, the way the dog a.s.sured me led straight to the High Road.
"We"ll have to go past there," she said. "There, where it happened."
"Where what happened?"
"Yesterday . . . sun-downing. Men, horses, swords. Panic, fighting, blood . . .
No, I can"t go that way again!"