October's Baby Read online

  “Humph!” Mocker snorted. “No time. Am occupied with profound compunctions-computations? Construc-tions?-philosophic. How to get lentils in earth without straining back of and mud-bespattering self of, portly peasant, self. Am no wise interested in problems andpeculations of old busybody who would interfere with ponderations on same.” He looked at Nepanthe as if for approval.

  Ragnarson was irritated. Did Nepanthe control Mocker that much? Once he had been a wild-eyed heller, game for any insane scheme Haroun concocted. Bragi met Nepanthe’s eyes across the table. Why the laughter there? He thought, she knows what I’m thinking.

  “What the boss wanted me to tell you was this: ‘In a land of many kings trust no hand but your own, nor allow you the right far from sight of the left. Men there change loyalties more often than underwear. Stand wary of all women, and tamper not with the place, and name, and cloak, of Mist.’ What the hell that means I don’t know. He’s not usually that hard to pin down. But he’s got a stake in it somehow. I guess his girlfriend is in. Well, got to go. Thank you for a delightful meal, my lady.”

  “Hold on,” Ragnarson growled. “What the hell, hey? What’s going on?”

  “You got me, Hairy. I just work for the man, I don’t read his mind. You want to know more, you check with himself. Only he won’t see you. Told me to tell you that. I forgot. He said there’s no way he can help you this time. Did all he could by sending me. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll be getting along. There’s two, three little birds at home might pine away if I don’t get back to them soon.” Refusing to answer further questions, he returned to his pony. The last they saw of him, he was entering the forest at a brisk trot, a bawdy song trailing behind him.

  “You’d think a man like Visigodred could find an apprentice with a little more couth,” Ragnarson said. “Well, what do you think?”

  “Self, am bamboozled. Befuddled by dearth of sense.” Mocker’s eyes flicked toward Nepanthe. One chubby-brown hand made the deaf-mute’s sign for “Be careful.”

  Ragnarson smiled, glad to see the spark of rebellion.

  It did not occur to him that, were Mocker visiting him, he would have seemed as henpecked. Ragnarson was not an empathetic person.

  “Heard from informant Andy the Bum,” said Mocker, returning to Necremnen. “News of Itaskia. Andy waspestilential mendicant always beside entrance of Red Hart, intelligent behind ubiquitous flies and filth. Sometimes remembers old contributor, self, with missives relating Wharf Street South street talk.”

  Mocker was talking as plainly as he could. Must be important. “Month past, maybe more counting time for letter to make tortuous way from correspondent to recipient, Haroun visited Itaskia.”

  Nepanthe caught the name. “Haroun? Haroun bin Yousif? Mocker, you stay away from that cutthroat...”

  Ragnarson wrestled with his temper. “That’s not charitable, Nepanthe. You owe the man.”

  “I don’t want Mocker involved with him. He’d end up using us in one of his schemes.”

  “It was one of those that got you together.”

  “Elana...”

  “I know what Elana thinks. She has her reasons.” Elana was the first real friend Nepanthe had ever had. In a sort of pathetic, desperate way, she tried to secure that friendship by making herself a mirror of Elana. Even Mocker had less influence than Ragnarson’s wife.

  His curtness upset Nepanthe. Usually he was gentle beyond the reasonable. He was secretly afraid of women.

  Nepanthe sulked.

  “What about him?”

  “Was putting finger in nasty place, coming out dirty. Was talking to scurriliousest of scurrils of Wharf Street South. Brad Red Hand. Kerth the Dagger. Derran One ‘Eye. Boroba Thring. Breed known for stab-in-back work. Very secretive. Went off without visiting friends. Accident Andy discovered same. Whore friend, also friend of Kerth, relayed story.”

  “Curious. Men he’s used before. When he wanted murder done. Think-he’s up to something?”

  “Hai! Always. When was Haroun, master intriguer, not intriguing? Is question like Trolledyngjan, ‘Does bear defecate in wilderness?’”

  “Yeah, the bear shits in the woods. The question is, does he have plans for us? He can’t manage on his own. I wonder why? He’s always so self-sufficient.” Faced with a real possibility of becoming involved, Ragnarson’s lustfor adventure perished quickly. “Andy have anything else to say?”

  “Men named vanished, no word to friends or paramours. Seen crossing Great Bridge. Nervous, in hurry. Self, expect communication from old sand devil soon. Why? Haroun is one-man nation, yes, but must justify villainous activities of self to self. Must have associates, men of respected morals. Kingship thing. Must have mandate of, license from, men with values, with judgments of respect. He respects? You see? Itaskian knife swingers are tools, not-men, dust beneath feet, of morals to spit on. Hairy Trolledyngjan and fat old rascal from east, self, not much better, but honorable in mind of Haroun. Men of respect, us. Comprehend?”

  “Makes sense in a left-handed way. An insight, 1 think. I always wondered why he never put the knife work on us. Yes.”

  Mocker did a most un-Mockerlike thing. He pushedhis chair back while food remained on the table.

  Ragnarson started to follow him to the front of the house.

  “Don’t get involved with Haroun,” said Nepanthe.

  “Please?”

  He searched her face. She was frightened. “What can I do? When he decides to do something, he gets irresistible as a glacier.”

  “I know.” She bit her lip.

  “We’re not planning anything, really. Haroun would have to do some tall talking to involve us. We’re not as hungry as we used to be.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.” She began clearing the table. “Mocker doesn’t complain, but he wasn’t made for this.” With a gesture she indicated the landgrant. “He stays, and tries for my sake, but he’d be happier penniless, sitting in the rain somewhere, trying to convince old ladies he’s a soothsayer. That way he’s like Haroun. Security doesn’t mean anything. The battle of wits is everything.”

  Ragnarson shrugged. He couldn’t tell her what she wanted to hear. Her assessment matched his own.

  “I’ve made him miserable, Bragi. How long since you’ve seen him clown like he used to? How long since he’s gone off on some wild tangent and claimed the world isround, or a duck-paddled boat on a sea of wine, or any of those crackpot notions he used to take up. Bragi, I’m killing him. I love him, but, Gods help me, I’m smothering him. And I can’t help it.”

  “We are what we are, will be what we must. If he goes back to the old ways, be patient. One thing’s sure. You’re his goddess. He’ll be back. To stay. Things get romanticized when they slide into the past. A dose of reality might be the cure.”

  “I suppose. Well, go talk. Let me clean up.” She obviously wanted to have a good cry.

  VI) An owl from Zindahjira

  Ragnarson and Mocker were still on the front step when darkness fell. They were deep into a keg of beer. Neither man spoke much. The mood was not one suited to reminiscing. Bragi kept considering Mocker’s homestead. The man had worked hard, but everything had been done sloppily. The patience and perfection of the builder who cared was absent. Mocker’s home might last his lifetime, but not centuries like Ragnarson’s.

  Bragi glanced sideways. His friend was haggard, aging. The strain of trying to be something he was not was killing him. And Nepanthe was tearing herself apart too. How bad had their relationship suffered already?

  Nepanthe was the more adaptable. She had been a man-terrified twenty-eight-year-old adolescent when first their paths had crossed. She was no introverted romantic now. She reminded Bragi of the earthy, pragmatic, time-beaten peasant women of the treacherous floodplains of the Silverbind. Escape from this life might do her good too.

  Mocker had always been a chimera, apparently at home in any milieu. The man within was the rock to which he anchored himself. What was visible was protective colorati
on. In an environment where he needed only be himself, he must feel terribly vulnerable. The lack of anyimmediate danger, after a lifetime of adjustment to its continual presence, could push some men to the edge.

  Ragnarson was not accustomed to probing facades. It made him uncomfortable. He snorted, downed a pint of warm beer. Hell with it. What was, was. What would be, would be.

  A sudden loud, piercing shriek made him choke and spray beer. When he finished wiping tears from his eyes, he saw a huge owl pacing before him.

  He had seen that owl before. It served as messenger for Zindahjira the Silent, a much less pleasant sorcerer than the Visigodred who employed Marco.

  “Desolation and despair,” Mocker groaned. “Felicita-tions from Pit. Self, think great feathered interlocuter maybe should become owl stew, and tidings bound to leg tinder for starting fire for making same.”

  “That dwarf would be handy now,” said Ragnarson. Both ignored the message.

  “So?”

  “He talks to owls. In their own language.”

  “Toadfeathers.”

  “Shilling?”

  “Self, being penurious unto miserhood, indigent unto poverty, should take wager when friend Bear is infamous as bettor only on sure things? Get message.”

  “Why don’t you?”

  “Self, being gentleman farmer, confirmed anti-literate, and retired from adventure game, am not interested.”

  “I ain’t neither.”

  “Then butcher owl.”

  “I don’t think so. Zindahjira would stew us. Without benefit of prior butchery.”

  “When inevitable is inevitable... Charge!” Mocker shouted the last word. The owl jumped, but refused to retreat.

  “Give him a beer,” said Ragnarson.

  “Eh?”

  “Be the hospitable thing to do, wouldn’t it?” He had drunk too much. In that condition he developed a childish sense of humor. There was an old saw, “Drunk as a hoot owl,” about which he had developed a sudden curiosity.

  Mocker set his mug before the bird. It drank. “Well, we’d better see what old Black Face wants.” Bragi recovered the message. “Hunh! Can you believe this? It says he’ll forgive all debts and transgressions-as if any existed-if we’ll just catch him the woman called Mist. That old bastard never gives up. How long has he been laying for Visigodred? Tain’t right, hurting a man through his woman.”

  Mocker scowled. “Threats?”

  “The usual. Nothing serious. Some hints about something he’s afraid to mix in, same as Visigodred.”

  Mocker snorted. “Pusillanimous skulker in subterra-nean tombs, troglodytic denizen of darkness, enough! Let poor old fat fool wither in peace.” He had begun to grow sad, to feel sorry for himself, A tear trickled from one large, dark eye. He reached up and put a hand on Ragnarson’s shoulder. “Mother of self, long time passing, sang beautiful song of butterflies and gossamer. Will sing for you.” He began humming, searching for a tune.

  Ragnarson frowned. Mocker was an orphan who had known neither father nor mother, only an old vagabond with whom he had traveled till he had been able to escape. Bragi had heard the story a hundred times. But in his cups, Mocker lied more than usual, about more personal things. One had to humor him or risk a fight.

  The owl, a critic, screeched hideously, hurled himself into the air, fluttered drunkenly eastward. Mocker sent a weak curse after him.

  A little later Nepanthe came out and led them to their beds, two morose gentlemen with scant taste for their futures.

  THREE: The Long, Mailed Reach of The Disciple

  I) A secret device, a secret admirer

  Elana rose wondering if Bragi had reached Mocker’s safely. How soon would he be home? The forest was a refuge for Itaskia’s fugitives. Several bands roamed the North Road. Some had grievances with Bragi. He took his charter seriously, suppressed banditry with a heavy hand. Some would gladly take revenge.

  She went to a clothing chest and took out an ebony casket the size of a loaf of bread. Some meticulous craftsman had spent months carving its intricate exterior. The work was so fine it would have eluded the eye but for the silver inlay. She did not know what the carving represented. Nothing within her experience, just whorls and swirls of black and silver which, if studied overlong, dazed the mind.

  Her names, personal and family, were inset in the lid in cursive ivory letters. They were of no alphabet she knew. Mocker had guessed it to be Escalonian, the language of a land so far to the east it was just a rumor.

  She didn’t know its source, only that, a year ago, the Royal Courier, who carried diplomatic mail between Itaskia and Iwa Skolovda, had brought it up from the

  ‘capital. He had gotten it from a friend who rode diplomatic post to Libiannin, and that man had received it from a merchant from Vorgreberg in the Lesser Kingdoms. The parcel had come thither with a caravan from the east. Included had been an unsigned letter explaining its purpose. She didn’t know the hand. Nepanthe thought it was her brother Turran’s.

  Turran had tried Elana’s virtue once. She had never told Bragi.

  With a forefinger she traced the ivory letters. The top popped open. Within, on a pillow of cerulean silk, lay a huge ruby raindrop. Sometimes the jewel grew milky and light glowed within the cloudiness.

  This happened when one of her family was in danger. The intensity of light indicated the peril’s gravity. She checked the jewel often, especially when Bragi was away.

  There was always a mote at the heart of the teardrop. Danger could not be eliminated from life. But today the cloudiness was growing.

  “Bragi!” She grabbed clothes. Bandits? She would have to send someone to Mocker’s. But wait. She had best post a guard all round. There had been no rumors, but trouble could come over the Silverbind as swiftly as a spring tornado. Or from Driscol Fens, or the west. Or it could be the tornado that had entered her thoughts. It was that time of year, and the jewel did not just indicate human dangers.

  “Ragnar!” she shouted, “come here!” He would be up and into something. He was always the first one stirring.

  “What, Ma?”

  “Come here!” She dressed hurriedly.

  “What?”

  “Run down to the mill and tell Bevold I want him. And I mean run.”

  “Ah...”

  “Do it!” He vanished. That tone brooked no defiance.

  Bevold Lif was a Freylander. He was the Ragnarsons’ foreman. He slept at the mill so he would waste no time trekking about the pastures. He was a fastidious, fussy little man, addicted to work. Though he had been one for years, he wasn’t suited to be a soldier. He was a craftsman, abuilder, a doer, and a master at it. What Bragi imagined, Bevold made reality. The tremendous development of the landgrant was as much his doing as Ragnarson’s.

  Elana didn’t like Bevold. He presumed too much. But she acknowledged his usefulness. And appreciated his down-to-earth solidity.

  Lif arrived just as she stepped from the house.

  “Ma’am?”

  “A minute, Bevold. Ragnar, start your chores.”

  “Aw, Ma, I...”

  “Go.”

  He went. She permitted no disobedience. Bragi indulged the children to a fault.

  “Bevold, there’s trouble coming. Have the men arm themselves. Post the sentries. Send someone to Mocker’s. The rest can work, but stay close to the house. Get the women and children here right away.”

  “Ma’am? You’re sure?” Lif had pale thin lips that writhed like worms. “I planned to set the mill wheel this morning and open the flume after dinner.”

  “I’m sure, Bevold. Get ready. But don’t start a panic.”

  “As you will.” His tone implied that no emergency justified abandoning the work schedule. He wheeled his mount, cantered toward the mill.

  As she watched him go, Elana listened. The birds were singing. She had heard that they fell silent when a tornado was coming. The cloud cover, just a few ragged galleons sweeping ponderously north, suggested no bad weath
er. Tornados came with grim black cumulo-nimbus dread-noughts that flailed about with sweeps of lightning.

  She shook her head. Bevold was a good man, and loyal. Why couldn’t she like him?

  As she turned to the door, she glimpsed Ragnar’s shaggy little head above a bush. Eavesdropping! He would get a paddling after he brought the eggs in.

  II) Homecoming of a friend

  Elana sequestered herself with her teardrop the rest of themorning. She held several through-the-door conversa-tions with Bevold, the last of which, after she had ordered field rations for dinner, became heated. She won the argument, but knew he would complain to Bragi about the wasted workday.

  The jewel grew milkier by the hour. And the men more lax.

  In a choice between explaining or relying on authority, she felt compelled to choose the latter. Was that part of the jewel’s magic? Or her own reluctance to tell Bragi about Turran’s interest?

  By midafternoon the milkiness had consumed the jewel’s clarity. The light from within was intense. She checked the sky. Still only a scatter of clouds. She returned the casket to the clothing chest, went downstairs. Bevold clumped round the front yard, checking weapons for the twentieth time, growling.

  “Bevold, it’s almost time. Get ready.”

  Disbelief filled his expression, stance, and tone. “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “They’ll come from the south.” The glow of her jewel intensified when she turned the pointed end toward Itaskia.

  “Send your main party that way. Down by the barrow.”

  “Really...”

  What Lif meant to say she never learned. A warning wolfs howl came from the southern woods. Bevold’s mouth opened and closed. He turned, mounted, shouted. “Let’s go.”