Nigma (The Waifs of Duldred Book 3)

by Ana Salote

  ‘But she was there and she helped you.’

  ‘More than that; she was the brains behind it.’

  ‘What a girl,’ said Gritty.

  ‘Yes. I had a poor opinion of her till I was out there on the dam and I saw the first crack. Tell her I gave her homage in my mind before I fell. Tell her I’m sorry I mocked the way she walked. I’m not so proud now. It might give her satisfaction to know that I can no longer walk at all.’

  ‘Gert’s not like that. She would feel for you. You’ve suffered bad.’

  ‘I looked at death and I said “no”.’ Ferralee looked at her legs. ‘Perhaps I should have said “yes”.’

  ‘You’re finding it hard?’ said Oy.

  Ferralee bit her lip and nodded. ‘I’ll never want for any thing. People come with thanks and gifts every day. See all the beads and the food there. They even say they want to make me queen.’

  ‘After what you did that would be fitting,’ said Gritty. ‘I’ve never seen anyone more queenly.’

  ‘Not any more. Look at me. I’m sick and broken. They can give me gifts and queenships, but no one can give me my legs back.’

  ‘You can give them back to yourself,’ said Gritty. ‘You could will a log to get up and walk. I’m sure your legs won’t resist you for long.’Ferralee shook her head. ‘For the first time in my life I need help.’

  ‘Well Clair thinks I can help you,’ said Oy. ‘I can’t promise anything. I’ve only done Berd bones before, but I’ll do my best.’

  ‘Clair has a lot to do. I understand. She wants to help those who can be helped but there was no need to mock me by sending a child.’

  ‘Ma’am you’re wrong about Clair. She wouldn’t know how to mock. When I say Berd bones, I mean the race of Berds as well as the flying type. Both of ’em got better. Will you let me try?’

  ‘Come on then, healer.’ Ferralee smiled grimly and gestured at her useless legs. ‘Mend me.’ She pulled her smock up above her knees. Oy unwound the dressings and removed the splints. Underneath, the flesh was discoloured and swollen. A deep sore wept yellow pus. ‘Nasty, isn’t it?’ she said.

  Oy was not shocked; he was interested. He placed his hands on Ferralee’s legs, lingering longer in certain areas. That was all he did. He left the wounds open to the air and went away. By the time he returned the next day Ferralee knew that the poison in her limbs was abating and the bones were mending. Ferralee might not dance again but she would walk and for that she was grateful.

  Oy waited another day to be sure, then they resumed their journey. They passed many Chee returning to their homelands along the gorge. Gritty had only to mention Gertie’s name and everyone was willing to help them. They heard news of Yehvo and Jeffee: they were travelling the length of the gorge bringing the proud history of the Chee to life by teaching the old crafts and traditions. One campfire tale they heard concerned Fettapigi. A child from Dysma had found a package in a shallow stream. Fettapigi stole it from the child. When she opened it, it had exploded turning the hag and her hovel to dust. Gritty thought the story unlikely, but if it were true then Lil would be delighted.

  Another strange tale was told to them many times, but this one confirmed what they knew to be true. The Felluns, fearing that their own race was dying out,

  sent pelicans to steal babies from the Canatic coast. They fed the babies with blood-rich food and splashed their eyes with carnate. The children grew to resemble the Felluns but they were lighter, weaker and less angry by nature. They heard the Chee rumours and realised that they were not true Felluns. When the fighting began they deserted Fellund altogether. The Felluns that were left rallied behind three would-be Fellonas: Bligerine, Gastrict and Guerm, and battled it out.

  Barely able to breed and without Nondul tonics to unblock them the Felluns were likely to die out within a few generations.

  29 Oy Goes Home

  The rest of the journey was uneventful. On the edge of the marshes they were mobbed by kingfishers. Since the death of Bominata their eggs were safe and they had the freedom of the marshes. They would always be grateful to the waifs for that. Out on the scrubluns Chee children ran for the pleasure of speed; they were the hunters not the hunted and all they caught was rabbits.

  Nondula was forever the same. To step into the woods was to feel at peace. It was difficult to hurry but for Linnet’s sake they must.

  When at last the Sajistry was in sight, Oy forgot how tired and hungry he was. He could not walk quickly enough. Bram took his bag. ‘Go on,’ he said, ‘run.’

  ‘The Lellick,’ said Oy.

  Bram opened the bag and handed Oy a pouch. Oy ran off.

  Gritty and Bram walked as far as the herb stacks, then Gritty dropped her bag. ‘I hope you don’t mind I got to run too. I’ll pick that up later. I’ll see you in the Sajistry.’

  ‘Go,’ said Bram, laughing.

  Ede came out of the Sanctry to see Oy running by. She called to him and he turned back. Ede saw the desperate question on his face and answered straight away. ‘You’re in time,’ she said. ‘Just.’ She hugged him quickly and told him the rest as they hurried to the somin. ‘She was quite well when you left as you know, and she stayed that way for a good while. Then I had to dilute the medicine to make it stretch. She started slipping. The medicine ran out weeks ago. She’s very poorly but hanging on. You’ll see.’ Ede opened the door of the somin. They entered quietly. Linnet was sleeping. Her face was the colour of laundry rinse. The veins in her lids were dark and her lips looked frosted. ‘Her breath’s coming gentler today,’ said Ede.

  ‘She’s only got scraps left to breathe with is why,’ said Oy. ‘Like bits of old rag in the wind. She’s near gone, Ede.’

  Gertie wasn’t in the library. Gritty found her in the dining hall sitting at a table with two Emberds and a number of other Berds. Gritty came at Gertie from behind. Gertie felt an arm across her chest and a head resting on hers. She turned and saw bits of Gritty’s dear face between locks of hair. She stood up and they stood silently rocking each other. Then Emberd called for more bread and Gritty ate with them and they told her how Scriberd had come to Nondula with several cousins.

  ‘You should see what they’ve done with the library,’ said Gertie. ‘Emberd don’t need me no more.’

  ‘Not true,’ said Emberd. ‘We’ve barely started on the archives.’

  ‘Tis true,’ said Gertie. ‘The archives might take a while but you’ll do it just as well with or without me.’

  ‘Good,’ said Gritty, ‘because there’s a library in Duldred that does need you. Got nobody at all to look after it.’ And Gritty began her own long tale.

  Oy returned with a flask, a spoon and a dropper. ‘Linn,’ he whispered. ‘Linn, it’s me. I’m back.’ Linnet didn’t move. He dipped the dropper into the flask and ran a line of liquid along her lips. She did not move. Oy did the same thing again. ‘Come on, Linn. I’ve brought your yellow, just like I said. And there’s enough to make you like new if you’ll take it.’ Linnet swallowed. ‘That’s it,’ he said, running more of the bright liquid into her mouth. She swallowed again and opened her eyes. They crinkled. She looked at Ede and back at Oy. ‘Don’t try to talk yet,’ he said. ‘All you got to do is swallow. Ede can you raise her a bit?’

  Ede put one arm under the pillow so that Oy could use the spoon. He spooned and Linnet swallowed. ‘Can you feel it yet?’ She pointed to her mouth. ‘More?’ he asked. She nodded. After two more doses Linnet’s eyes popped then her body popped. Her back arched violently. She sat up and began rubbing her legs briskly. She moaned with closed eyes. ‘Is it painful?’ said Oy.

  She nodded. ‘Life coming back too fast. Little pins and big needles.’ She kept on slapping her legs and arms. She convulsed again then lay quiet.

  Oy and Ede watched her anxiously.

  ‘It’s alright,’ she said, ‘I’m done. Sleep’s coming. It’s dragging me off and no stopping.’

  ‘Let it,’ said Oy.

  Linnet felt for his hand.
‘And you’ll still be here when I wake up.’

  ‘Promise,’ said Oy.

  And he was. When Linnet woke two days later Oy was still holding her hand. After smiling quietly at Oy the first thing she said was, ‘I’m so-oo hungry.’

  For several weeks Linnet ate and slept. Oy baked bread with everything needed to remake her from inside to out, and it showed. The last residues of blue were flushed from her. Her skin peeled and turned pearly. She was fresh as new buds after winter. Her limbs were as round as a child’s should be. Soon there was nothing left of her long illness but a line of blue across each nail and that would grow out quickly. The scholars watched her progress with delight and Per came down several times to look at her.

  Bram had not yet stopped marvelling. He thought Per was the biggest marvel of all. ‘I didn’t know, or guess, or dream that a person could be like that,’ he told Gritty. ‘It gives you something to aim for don’t it?’

  ‘Not me personally,’ said Gritty.

  ‘Nor me I suppose,’ said Bram.

  ‘Oy’s got the seed,’ said Gertie.

  ‘I think he has,’ said Bram, laughing.

  One day Yehvo, Jefee and Trotdog came to visit. Gritty and Gertie were delighted to see them. Jefee was feeling very proud of herself. With Yehvo’s help she had set up a postdog service which carried messages to the remotest manches in the gorge. Trotdog headed a team of dogs and to his intense satisfaction took on the most challenging runs. Elfee was the only Chee who regretted the fall of the dam. She had lost her role as diva and had become nothing more than a widely disliked gossip.

  Soon after that Per told Oy it was time to go to the Kith and meet his grandparents. It was also time for Gertie, Gritty and Bram to make their way back to Affland. So on a day in early juvir, the season of new beginnings, the friends separated one more time. As partings go it was a good one. No fears or worries attached to it. They said goodbye to each other with great warmth and smiles.

  Oy and Linnet held hands and walked over the soft hills and down through Kithvale. They followed the sound of laughing bells into the wood. A little way in a tall man and a woman greeted them. They were old and beautiful.

  ‘Are you lost my lovelies?’ said Inigma, the grandmother of the Kith. She looked at Oy and caught her breath. ‘Our heart knows you,’ she said.

  ‘Found,’ said Inigpa, wide-eyed. He opened his arms.

  Oy went to him. Inigpa reached down and lifted him up. Oy wrapped his legs around the tall man and rested his head on his shoulder. ‘Am I your grandson?’ he said. ‘Am I Vera’s baby?’

  Inigma touched Oy’s face with one hand and her heart with the other. ‘Little Ikriss,’ she said. Oy raised his head and put his arm around her neck.

  ‘Ikriss!’ said Linnet. ‘Well I never. It suits but I’ll stick with Oy if you don’t mind. I always told him he had a ma, you know. A grandma is a step on but in the same line.’

  ‘Come here, little one,’ said Inigma. She drew Linnet to her.

  Oy dropped to the ground and took Linnet’s hand. ‘This is my friend, Linnet,’ he said.

  Inigma and Inigpa faced them like a mirror. Oy rested in his past. Linnet smiled at their future. Linnet was shining whiter than ever, but with an iridescence that showed every colour, like the heart of the nigma puzzle. Oy turned his palms to the sky as though feeling for rain.

  ‘What you doing, Oy?’ said Linnet.

  ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Oy, dropping his hands.

  ‘It’s alright,’ said Inigma. She opened out his hands again and held them upwards. ‘What do you feel?’

  ‘Something dancing, softer than rain. I don’t know what it is.’

  ‘You’ll come to know,’ said Inigma. ‘And now, why don’t you go and play?’

  Oy and Linnet looked at each other with a sparkle in their eyes. They started to move away but Oy turned back. ‘Will you still be here?’ he asked.

  ‘Always,’ said Inigpa.

  So Oy and Linnet walked among the trees looking around them and wondering at the beauty of the forest. Then Linnet broke away and began to run. Laughing, Oy ran after her.

  The End