by Ana Salote
Oy clutched his head. ‘Her yellow was back in Affland all along.’
‘We don’t know that,’ said Alas.
‘If she says that was her yellow, it was. Linnet’s got an eye for colour like no one you’ve ever known.’ Oy got up. ‘We should head back.’
Alas said it was silly to move until they knew what the Felluns would do next. He didn’t think the Felluns would cross the sinking field but he wanted to be sure. They looked for herbs to eat and slept cradled in the roots of cyana trees. Oy regained his strength and no Felluns came.
The Felluns could not see Oy and Alas. Oy and Alas could not see the Felluns. The birds saw all. The kingfishers saw the dogs snouting and whimpering where they could not pass. They saw the Chee hacking more paths through the reed beds. They saw the Felluns driving poles the height of trees far into the mud. They saw the hasty rope bridges fixed to the poles. They saw dogs and men swarm over the bridges. They saw one bridge collapse taking five Chee and a pack of dogs with it.
Six days passed. Alas began to think they were safe. Then they heard the barking. Alas heard it first. It was very faint. Oy hoped that he was imagining it, but quite soon he heard it as well.
Alas turned like a compass with his arm for the needle. ‘They’re coming from that way,’ he said. ‘So we’d better head the other.’ He leant his ear into the wind. ‘No, wait. There’s more: that way and that way. Which means...’
‘There’s no way out.’
Clouds of birds were coming off the marshes and settling all around the eldest kingfisher.
‘Something’s going on,’ said Oy. ‘See how they look to the old bird.’
‘He’s having a strop,’ said Alas.
The kingfisher slowly and deliberately stropped his beak till it shone like blue metal. Every frond of his feathers flattened. With streamlined poise he lifted up from the branch and flew.
After a time the eldest kingfisher returned to his branch. The barking did not draw any closer, in fact it seemed to be fading. The bird’s beak was black, as though it had been dipped in pitch. He dropped to a lower branch in front of the boys and extended his beak towards Oy. Oy touched the black gunge with his finger. ‘It’s blood,’ he said.
‘Not like any blood I’ve seen,’ said Alas.
‘Fellun blood,’ said Oy.
The kingfisher dived. The boys watched his colours waver in the shallows. Up he came, sleek and new. Back on his branch he ruffled his feathers and the sun dried him.
‘See how he looks,’ said Oy. ‘Light and careless, like he ain’t in a strop no more.’
‘The dogs,’ said Alas. ‘I can’t hear them.’
Instead they heard the rising sound of wings and the rustle of branches as the grove began to fill with birds, many of them carrying fish. Thud, thud, thud: a heap of fish dropped at the boys’ feet.
‘I think we’re invited to a party,’ said Alas. ‘Raw fish. I’ve eaten worse.’
‘I don’t know that I can,’ said Oy.
‘Trust me, it’s wholesome food.’
‘It’s animals, not food.’
‘Oy, these animals led a good free life. The birds eat ’em. It’s right and natural. The birds gifted them to us. Don’t be offending the birds and wasting the lives of these fish. If you want to see Linnet again you’ll need the strength to get there.’
Oy nodded. Alas gutted the fish and cut it into chunks. The meat was sweet and white. When they were done they drank from the spring and bowed to the old bird.
‘I don’t know what you’ve just done,’ Oy addressed the bird, ‘but it turned the hunt, and we’re very grateful.’
‘Reckon he knows what you’re saying?’ said Alas.
‘Look at his eyes; he knows.’
The feast was over when six more birds flew in. ‘Late to the party,’ said Oy. The birds settled on one branch together.
‘Those birds are ringed,’ said Alas.
‘That’s the kingfishers from the fort,’ said Oy, scrambling to his feet in delight. ‘I know because I looked after them. It’s Gritty’s doing. It has to be.’ He stood beneath the branch and lifted his hand in salute. ‘You got away, too,’ he said.
All the other birds in the grove gathered around the newcomers. They began to whistle and rattle. The boys walked among the birds.
‘That old one knows what’s happened,’ said Alas, ‘and he’s one satisfied bird. I’d like to think the hunters are gone for good but my feeling says not.’
22 With Forked Tongue
From mouth to ear it ran, like flames down an oily rope and into a barrel of blasting powder. All over the fort there was shouting and running. Why they were shouting and where they were running no one seemed to know. You couldn’t stand around quietly, not when the Nondul had thrown a dart shaped like a bird, hurled it with magical force all the way across the marshes and into the throat of Bominata.
When Gritty heard the rumours a laugh rose inside her. She had seen Oy drop from a place near the clouds and live. He had always been different from the rest of them. The Chee said he could walk on mud Perhaps he really did have magical powers? Now they were saying the sick cart had gone out across the Scrubluns at a tearing pace. Felluns had begun fighting among themselves. More were joining in. The Chee grew bold. They began to move freely in the chaos. The tower was unmanned. Gritty scaled it and watched from its heights as the sick cart came back across the plain. Two groups of riders clashed around the cart which overturned. A heavy blob was thrown from it. The numbers coming out of Fort Offel and joining the fight grew. The blob was forgotten; Gritty stared at it. Was it rocking? Was it trying to roll away?
Fighting broke out on the parapets behind her. Chee prisoners fought Fellun guards. Other Fellun guards fought each other. And then, the wind of wing beats: heavy pouches hung above her, webbed feet paddled the air. The pelicans hovered. They tried to touch down in the midst of the fighting, but it was hazardous and they lifted up again. Gritty stared. In the hanging pouches of the birds she could swear she saw the shapes of babies. It wasn’t easy for the birds to take off with their burdens. Gritty watched them spilling off the parapets, dropping swiftly and making height again with wide, powerful wingbeats. She couldn’t believe what she had seen. She hurried back down the tower. It was time to make her own escape, but there was one thing left to do.
She made for the Saltway but the quickest way was blocked by fighting Felluns. She took a wrong turn and surprised a group of Chee feasting in a cellar and a grain store alive with rats. After that she followed the smell to the pits. There wasn’t time to open every grille or to drop all the ramps. The animals were slow to move at first but understanding quickly spread among them. Heads began to rise out of the pits, and stiff, stumbling bodies. The vaulted space hummed with birds. The jimps came out chattering and alert. They copied Gritty, drawing more of the bolts themselves. She left the bears till last. They were standing, agitated and pawing at the air above them. She went along the line dropping each heavy grille with a clang. She dare not look behind her, expecting to be picked up and eaten at any moment. When she was done she turned around and saw the milling creatures: the birds; the mad, lumbering bears. The jimps were finishing what she had begun. She grinned and ran.
She could hear Ferralee’s raised voice coming from the drill room. It was a good sign. It would be easier if the girls were out of the way. Lil was the only person she wanted to see. She ran on up to the dormerie. Lil was there, standing by her cupboard, packing her bag.
‘Where are you going?’ Gritty asked her.
‘I’m going home.’ It was Lil’s factual voice.
‘How? The main gate is still manned. I saw from the tower.’
‘I go by the front door.’ Lil closed her bag calmly. ‘Dreshes do not sneak, bow or fold. When I came here they tied my hands but I walked in with my head high and that’s how I will go.’
‘Well, can I come? I got to get back to Nondula.’
‘Follow.’ At the bottom of th
e stairs Lil stood transfixed. Where the corridor joined the main passage there was a blur of movement. ‘It’s the animals,’ said Gritty. ‘Oy asked me to free them, so I did.’
They walked towards the animal exodus and stepped out into the passage shielding their heads from flapping wings, while a furry river flowed around their ankles.
‘Back,’ said Lil, flattening herself against the wall. ‘Heavyweights are coming.’
The passage darkened with charging boar, deer, moose and big cats. They saw hooves and tusks and rippling muscle. Then came the bears running at surprising speed. The loping jimps came last. Lil and Gritty followed them to the square.
‘Oh Lor’,’ said Gritty, seeing the havoc that she had caused. The place was full of marauding animals. A moose held a Fellun in the wide scoop of its antlers. A puma clung to the back of a guard. The bears were terrifying. They rushed and crushed and smothered and savaged. Gritty could not watch.
Lil did not hurry. She paused while a vercat dragged a Fellun off by the ankles. She deviated to avoid a wild-eyed boar. Otherwise she kept on walking, aloof from it all. The Great Hall doors stood open. They walked through. There were no guards at Offelgate or Brawlagate. One gate remained.
As they approached the Fellgate, Gritty grew nervous. The guards stuck to their posts. They had not yet joined the fighting. Gritty felt for Lil’s hand but Lil did not do hand holding.
The guards barred their way. ‘Where do you think you’re going dumb-board and Chee-nip?’
Lil looked down with disdain, and cursed with a demon’s voice. ‘My eyes spit in yours.’ It was like something evil welling out of a pit.
The guards covered their ears. ‘So that’s why they don’t speak. Chain her, then plug her mouth.’
Lil tugged a cord out of her bodice. There was something on the end of it – a black tuning fork. She held it in front of her mouth and spoke again.
‘Don’t – you – dare – touch – maaaayy.’ The tuning fork took the sound and added a vibration that made the Felluns fall to their knees. And again. ‘Don’t – you – daaarre.’ She curved over them like a malignant tree. Gritty clutched her head. The guard cockerels squawked and bolted in semi-flight. The hideous sound pressed the men down and sawed at their innards. The guards found that they did not dare. They only wanted the sound to stop. Lil and Gritty walked past the kneeling guards without looking back. As they drew level with the marshes they saw dogs and men withdrawing. ‘I got to go in there,’ said Gritty.
‘Foolish. You talk like a Chee. You would never find your friends. You would drown first. It is very likely that they are lost or drowned,’ and seeing Gritty’s face: ‘Have sense. You have a sister. I will see you safely back before I go home.’
‘I was hoping you would. You’re as deep as you’re long, Lil. I couldn’t have found the words to describe you. I’m glad my friends will get to meet you.’
‘It’s the flanner way to go meeting and greeting anybody with a hand to shake. It’s not my way. I’ll choose for myself who I want to meet.’
‘Oh, well I’m sure... no I’m not. I’d like to think that you will take to my friends and find them worthy of your acquaintance.’
Lil assented with a slight nod of her head.
Now she let herself think about it, Gritty ached to see Gertie. It was tiring keeping up with Lil’s long strides but she had no wish to slow down. They walked through the night reaching the forest at first light. Lil found a tree straight enough to lean against and rested there. Gritty fell asleep at her feet.
When they were up and moving again Lil began to smile, not a wide or persistent smile, but something slow and internal that showed in her eyes. Her walking was less stiff. The long legs swung along with an easy rhythm.
‘Lil, you seem awful content,’ said Gritty.
‘Hark,’ said Lil.
‘I don’t hear anything except birds, rustling and...’
‘And your prattling voice. I said hark, not squawk.’
Gritty did as she was told, she hearkened, but they were some way into the forest before she got it. ‘Music,’ she said. ‘Every sound here is like music. No grating voices, no smashing grabbing...’
‘Banging, burping,’ said Lil.
‘Ripping, chewing,’ added Gritty.
‘Chattering, yapping,’ said Lil. ‘Fellund is out of tune: far, far out of tune. This place has no need of tuning.’
In the late afternoon they came to the Sajistry. On their way they were seen by many Nonduls. Gritty waved at them happily. The Nonduls smiled in delight, put their hands together, bowed, and said nothing.
Lil met their silent greetings with her own wordless dignity. She looked at Gritty as if to say, that is how to behave.
They surprised Emberd and Per in the library. ‘My word,’ said Emberd, coming forward. ‘Gritty, my dear, and this lady – you must be one of the fabled Dresh. We are honoured.’
There was a thud of books falling and a scream. Gertie ran at them. Gritty and Gertie locked together, lost their balance, stumbled one way and another, got their hair and faces and arms and legs mixed up, pulled apart with wet faces and went through it all again.
When they were calmer, which took some time, the five of them went to Emberd’s office. Lil graciously allowed herself to be introduced. She said very little, but the way she spoke entranced them all. She addressed herself to Per with tranquil chords and to Emberd with brisk efficiency. Then Gritty told her story, a story without an ending.
Aside from what had happened to Oy, the most interesting thing she had to tell was about the pelicans. She knew how silly it sounded, but she really believed they carried babies in their pouches.
‘The Felluns steal rivers,’ said Gertie, ‘and people. Why not babies?’
‘Why would they?’ said Gritty.
‘For the same reason,’ Lil answered, ‘they haven’t got enough of their own.’
‘The Chee said that some babes didn’t look like Felluns, so they had to be disfigured. I didn’t believe it,’ said Gritty.
‘Is that what’s wrong with Bominata, do you think?’ said Gertie. ‘She can’t have a child.’
‘I believe it is,’ said Lil. ‘I think and hope the whole cursed race is dying out.’
‘Wickedness can make the newest thing old, and purity can make the oldest thing young. Babies are young and pure,’ said Per.
They waited for him to finish the thought but he left it there.
The way Emberd saw it, the adventure had become very complex. Two of the leading figures were missing and a rebellion had come into it.
Per quoted Perfullus on purity. Lil seemed to know what he meant, but no one else did. Gertie chipped in with the bad news that Linnet could do nothing but breathe and that was no longer easy. Lil said she must be going and she wished them luck. Per said she should stay and rest after walking all night, and he promised that a smith would fix her tuning fork.
Lil flinched. Her hand went to her chest. ‘How did you know?’
‘Forgive me,’ said Per.
‘You mean no offence, child-eyed as y’are. A warped fork is shame to a Dresh. I mostly keep it hidden.’ She pulled the fork out of her bodice.
‘The warp is slight,’ said Per.
‘There’s in tune and there’s out of tune. No betweens. It happened when the Felluns caught me. I wedged myself too far into a crack. I don’t forgive them.’
‘You will stay the night, Lil, won’t you?’ said Gritty hopefully.
‘I shall want standing room, among the rocks, under an open sky.’
‘I know just the place,’ said Gritty. ‘I should think you’ll like it so much you won’t want to go anywhere – not for a while anyway. And there’s lots of people you should meet. There’s Ede and all the scholars and Linnet. Linnet will be amazed, and...’
‘And I won’t stay another minute if you keep chatting like a Chee at daybreak.’
‘I’ll be quiet.’ Gritty kept quiet for at least ten breaths. �
�One more thing: can we go and see Linnet now?’
‘I’ve had enough meetings for one day,’ said Lil.
‘Just one more, please,’ said Gritty. ‘She’s sick so she won’t trouble your ears much and I know she would love to see you.’
With a sigh Lil agreed.
‘Be prepared,’ said Gertie as they walked along. ‘She’s a sad sight; her body has forgot how to do anything by itself, even sleep. She don’t always know you because her poor mind is so tired.’
When Lil saw the low door she changed her mind about the meeting. She said she would wait outside. Dreshes never stooped.
Gritty could see that argument would be useless. The two girls went in. Ede was there, rubbing Linnet’s arms and legs because the blood, left to itself, would give up moving.
‘I see Gritty,’ said Linnet.
‘Only a dream,’ soothed Ede.
‘She looks real.’
‘I am real,’ Gritty stepped forward.
Ede turned and opened her arms. ‘Welcome back.’
Linnet struggled up from the bed as though it drowned her. Between them they propped her up. As Gritty told her news, Linnet’s dull eyes began to clear. ‘I’ll need a fresh smock,’ she said. ‘And my hair – can someone tidy my hair?’
‘What for?’ asked Gertie.
‘For when he comes back.’
Gritty looked at her lap.
Linnet went on. ‘You said the dogs was called off, didn’t you? And their queen, she’s finished – good as – so he’ll be back.’
‘I’m sure he will.’
‘I hear a but.’
Outside, Lil listened and decided that inside was something worth stooping for. She bent in two parts and went in. Her face tightened with the insult to her body till she got to her knees and straightened her back.
Gritty started to introduce her, but Lil told her to be quiet. Linnet and Lil were meeting in another way. Linnet watched the colours and the changes in Lil’s eyes. Lil hearkened to Linnet’s tune.
After a while Lil told the others to say goodnight; she would stay with Linnet. Linnet agreed. The girls sat outside watching a thin moon and listening to a sound they would not soon forget. It was Lil singing a lullaby.