Yarl Corbie made no answer to this, and after Robbie began rowing again, he continued to sit in silence. The boat grounded at last on the home beach. Together they drew it on to the shingle. Then, still without another word spoken between them, Yarl Corbie took Robbie to the place where he meant to hide the skin.
14. Nicol Promises
Robbie was up late the next morning, what with all the hours of sleep the business of the sealskin had cost him. Breakfast was over by the time he showed face in the but end, but nobody said a word in question of this – which made it certain, he decided, that he had not been missed from his bed the previous night.
Quietly he helped himself to oatcakes and butter. Then, still fighting sleep, he sat munching his late breakfast and trying to remember everything about the instructions Yarl Corbie had given him on their way home from hiding the sealskin.
All the rest of the family, meanwhile, sat around talking and taking their ease on the first day of the holidays, with all of them having turns at telling Finn Learson what these would be like.
“It’s a great time of year, and no mistake,” Peter remarked; and Janet agreed, “Aye, you’ll have your fill of dancing these holidays, Finn Learson, for the whole of Yule night is one big celebration, and it’s the same at New Year and Up Helly Aa.”
“Besides which,” Peter added, “you’ll see something to surprise you at the end of it all, for Up Helly Aa is also the night when all the young men go from house to house dressed up in a sort of disguise, with white handkerchiefs tied like masks over their faces.”
“What’s the reason for that?” Finn Learson asked, but Peter could not give any proper answer to this question.
“It’s just a custom,” he said vaguely. “‘Guising,’ they call it, and the young fellows that dress up are the ‘guisers.’”
Robbie came awake with a jerk then, for it was this very custom of guising, as it happened, which was at the heart of Yarl Corbie’s instructions. Moreover, he realised, Finn Learson was clearly interested in it.
“And how do these guisers dress up?” he was asking. “What do they wear?”
“Petticoats!” Peter answered, laughing. “Long petticoats made of straw, with tall, pointed hats of straw, white shirts, and everything all covered with bunches of coloured ribbons. That’s how daft they look – and it’s a daft name they have, too, for the one that leads all this foolery. The Skuddler, they call him, and you never saw such a wild dance as he commands from all the other guisers!”
“It sounds like an old custom to me; a very old custom,” Finn Learson remarked: and immediately, the warning note in Robbie’s mind sounded louder than ever. Quickly he rose and made for the door, but he was not to get away so easily as all that.
“Aye, I’m sure I’ve heard Old Da say as much,” Peter was agreeing. “But it’s Robbie you would need to ask about such things, for he was always the one that took in everything Old Da said about them.”
Robbie had the door open by this time, but Peter’s words had brought every eye to him, and so he still had to answer.
“I don’t know any more than my Da,” he mumbled to Finn Learson. Then out he dashed before the guilty flush on his face could betray that this was a lie; for fine he could remember Old Da talking to him of the Skuddler and his men. Fine he could remember Old Da saying there was an ancient magic behind their guising, and explaining the meaning of his magic to him.
Even so, he excused the lie to himself, he dared not disobey any of Yarl Corbie’s instructions. And the very first of these had been that Finn Learson must not be allowed to guess the least thing about the magic or its meaning! Running quickly, Robbie made good his escape from the house. The next of Yarl Corbie’s instructions went through his mind as he ran, and straightaway he headed off in search of Nicol Anderson. Nor did he waste a moment in coming to the point with Nicol, once he had managed to track him down that morning.
“There’s a favour I want to ask of you, Nicol,” he began. “If it comes to a fight between you and Finn Learson at Up Helly Aa, I want you to promise me the fight will take place above high-water mark.”
Nicol stared at this. “I’ll not let Elspeth go without a fight,” said he. “That’s one thing I can promise you. But what has high-water mark to do with it?”
“Everything,” Robbie told him. “Finn Learson is a creature of the sea, and so all his power comes from the sea. But all that lies above high-water mark belongs to the land, and so that is where you will be the stronger of the two.”
“So that’s it!” Nicol exclaimed. “You’re still on about this nonsense of the Great Selkie!”
“Yes, I am,” Robbie told him defiantly. “But I’m not asking any more for you to believe it. I just want you to do this as a favour for me. And there can’t be any harm in that, surely?”
“No, I don’t suppose there is,” Nicol agreed. “It’s just daft, that’s all. But still, if it means so much to you – all right, Robbie. I’ll fight him above high-water mark.”
Robbie gave a sigh of relief. “Then there’s just one more thing I want to ask,” said he. “It’s about the Skuddler, Nicol; and what I want to know is this. Which of you fellows will play the part at this year’s Up Helly Aa?”
“That’s a stupid question, isn’t it?” Nicol demanded. “You know we always keep that a secret among ourselves.”
“Of course I do,” Robbie admitted. “But there’s another favour I want of you.”
Quickly then, but choosing his words so that Nicol could not guess who had prompted them, he went on to ask what Yarl Corbie had told him to ask. Nicol’s face grew more and more puzzled as he listened, but at the end of it, he said, “I suppose I could manage that – provided all the other fellows agree, of course.”
“Will you fix it with them, then!” Robbie pressed. “Will you, Nicol?”
Nicol frowned. “Why should I?” he asked. “You haven’t given me any reason for it, have you?”
“No,” Robbie admitted. “But I don’t want Elspeth to choose Finn Learson any more than you do, and I know this will give you the power to save her.”
“You’ll have to do better than that,” Nicol remarked, “for that just doesn’t make sense to me.”
“It does to me,” Robbie told him swiftly. “My Old Da explained everything about the guising to me, and so I know it makes sense.”
“Your Old Da,” said Nicol, “was a storyteller! And so how could you tell whether he was speaking the truth about that, or whether it was just something he had made up?”
Robbie thought of Yarl Corbie talking to him as they walked home from hiding the sealskin. There was an easy answer to Nicol’s question, he realised. Because Yarl Corbie told me it was the truth. Nicol would have to believe him then, for no one could doubt Yarl Corbie’s knowledge of such matters. But then, also, what would become of his own promise to keep silent about Yarl Corbie?
“Old Da wasn’t making up any story about the guising,” he said at last. “I know I’m right in that, although I can’t tell you how I do know. And if you do as I ask, Nicol, I know it will give you power against Finn Learson.”
Nicol stared at him. “You really do believe all that nonsense about the Great Selkie,” he said. “You’re convinced of it, aren’t you, Robbie?”
“You know I am,” said Robbie, biting his lip. “And I really do believe Elspeth is in danger from him, which makes it very hard when you won’t even take a chance on doing something to save her.”
Nicol hesitated, seemingly quite impressed by these last words, and Robbie rushed in to take advantage of this hesitation.
“Please!” he begged. “For old times sake, Nicol.”
Nicol suddenly made up his mind. “All right,” he agreed, and even managed a smile on the words. “If that’s what it really takes to put your mind at ease, I’ll fix it with the other fellows – for old times sake, Robbie!”
Once more, Robbie sighed in relief. “Fine, man! Fine!” he exclaimed. “And don’t forget
what I said about high-water mark. Keep above that mark on Up Helly Aa, and be sure you keep Elspeth above it, too.”
Nicol smiled again, as if the whole idea had really begun to amuse him now that he had given in to it at last. His smile broadened until his face was like the big laughing sun it used to be before Finn Learson came into his life; and clapping Robbie on the shoulder, he remarked, “I’ll say this for you, Robbie Henderson. I never met a lad with such a determined streak in him as you have! Besides which, even your Old Da never had such a wild imagination as yours!”
Robbie laughed, thinking he did not care what anyone said of him now that he had got Nicol to fall in with Yarl Corbie’s plan.
“We’ll see who’s right about all this when Up Helly Aa comes!” he retorted, and took his leave of Nicol feeling he could hardly wait for this to happen.
It was not towards home he turned, however, but towards the schoolhouse; and he went roundabout, so that no one would realise he was headed there. Cautiously he knocked on the door of Yarl Corbie’s own but-and-ben, and when the door was opened to him, he slipped in as quiet as a shadow.
“Did anyone see you come here?” Yarl Corbie shot at him.
Robbie shook his head, “I came round the back of the hill,” he explained. “And it doesn’t seem as if I was missed from home last night, either.”
“Good!” Yarl Corbie told him. “And what about Nicol Anderson?”
“I’ve spoken to him,” Robbie answered triumphantly, “and he’s promised to do what you want on Up Helly Aa.”
“But you didn’t let him guess that I was behind the idea, did you?” Yarl Corbie asked.
“No,” Robbie told him. “I put it to Nicol exactly the way you said I should.”
Yarl Corbie rubbed his hands and went back to sit in his chair by the fire. “That’s fine!” he declared. “That means nobody can possibly guess I’m mixed up in this, and so now I can really plan. Come here, boy!”
15. Yarl Corbie Plans
Robbie went over to stand beside Yarl Corbie’s chair, but he moved unwillingly, for he had never been inside the schoolmaster’s house before, and he could see things there which made him uneasy.
There was a human skull standing on the window-sill, for instance, and this skull seemed to be grinning at him. From the rafters above his head dangled bunches of dried herbs that gave off a peculiar, musty odour. A book lay open on the table, a big book with pages so yellow in colour that he guessed it must be very old.
Moreover, these yellowish pages were covered with writing that was all back-to-front – mirror-writing, in fact, and he remembered Old Da had told him this was the kind of writing wizards used for their spells!
“Closer, boy, closer!” Yarl Corbie said impatiently. “Walls have ears, they say, and this is only for the two of us to hear.”
Obediently Robbie came closer, then gasped, as Yarl Corbie shot out a large hand to grip his arm. In growing fear he looked down at the dark and beaky face upturned to him, and Yarl Corbie grinned at the expression he wore.
“You’re still frightened of me,” he said softly. “And that’s good. It means you’ll continue to keep your mouth shut about me, doesn’t it?”
For the life of him, Robbie could not say a word then. He simply nodded, and Yarl Corbie went on, “Now listen. The important thing for you to do on Up Helly Aa, is to keep Elspeth in sight. Where she goes, Finn Learson will go – depend on that; and so you must never take your eyes off her.”
“But she’ll be visiting back and forward to all the neighbours, the way everyone does then,” Robbie protested. “I could easily lose sight of her in the darkness when that happens.”
“If you do,” said Yarl Corbie grimly, “you’ll lose her altogether, for you won’t be there when Finn Learson tempts her away with him.”
Robbie thought of how very dark it would be in the dark hours of Up Helly Aa, and in spite of himself, he began to shake.
“The trows will be out on Up Helly Aa,” he whispered, “and you know it’s on that night they have their greatest power. Supposing I meet with some of them when I’m trying to keep Elspeth in sight?”
“You’ll do as your Old Da taught you,” Yarl Corbie told him. “You’ll cross yourself and say the words they hate to hear.”
Robbie stared in dismay at this, for nobody dared go out alone on Up Helly Aa however much they were blessed against the power of the trows. Moreover, he remembered, it was always young folk like himself that were in special danger of being stolen away to the strange, secret mounds where they had their homes. Yarl Corbie was still talking, however, and so he had to force himself to listen.
“The next thing for you to remember,” Yarl Corbie was saying, “is this. Only the Skuddler can save Elspeth; and so, the moment that Finn Learson acts, you must act too. You must find the Skuddler. Also, if anything happens to make Nicol fall short of the part we hope he will play, remember that you still have the knowledge which will give you the whiphand over Finn Learson; for only you can tell him that his selkie skin is in a different hiding-place, and only you can lead him to it.”
“But if I go alone with him to that place,” said Robbie in even deeper dismay now, “there won’t be anyone to stop him getting the skin back and then doing what he likes with me!”
“Yes, there will,” Yarl Corbie told him. “I will be there.”
“And you won’t let him harm me?” Robbie asked fearfully.
Yarl Corbie loosed his grip on Robbie’s arm, and rose to his full, lean height. His eyes went to the table and the book of mirror-writing lying there, and softly he said, “I’ve already told you I want my revenge on Finn Learson, and now I have found the very spell to let me do that. And so now also, you can be sure of one thing. When Finn Learson comes out of that place where the skin is hidden, he will not be able to harm anyone, ever again.”
Robbie backed a step. “Why?” he asked fearfully. “What – what kind of a spell is it?”
“One that I mean to be as big a surprise to you as it will be to him,” Yarl Corbie answered, lifting his eyes from the book to let them rest on Robbie. “And now, until Up Helly Aa that is all I have to say to you.”
There was something so cruel in Yarl Corbie’s look then, that Robbie was much relieved to hear this. Nervously he backed even further; and once again, as soon as he was out of the door, he made for home with all the speed he could muster.
His mother was baking when he got there, and the house was full of the smell of freshly made Yule bannocks. Elspeth was at the byre door, hanging up a charm to protect the cattle from the power of the trows at Yule, and he went obediently to help her with this when his mother told him to do so.
Robbie’s heart was not in this matter, however. Nor could he take an interest in any of the things that had always before made the Yule holidays so exciting for him. All he could think of now, in fact, was the end of the holidays and Up Helly Aa, so that all the days before then began to take on the feeling of days passing in a long and seemingly endless dream.
There was one thing, however, which stood out from the dream in which Robbie now moved, and this was the change that each of these passing days seemed to work on Nicol and Elspeth.
Nicol, of course, had been growing steadily more sullen before that time; but gradually now, he became so grim and scowling that people could hardly believe he had once been a cheerful, easy-going man. Elspeth, too, no longer laughed or sang as she went around the house; and the quieter she became, the more often her eyes took on a certain trance-like look that made her seem like a sleepwalker wandering about in broad daylight.
It seemed to Robbie too, that the times this trance came over her were always those when her eyes met Finn Learson’s gaze. And then, he noticed, Finn Learson would smile his secret little smile. For a moment, also, the young and handsome appearance of his face would slip aside like a mask, and another face would look at Elspeth – a watchful, old, and cunning face that held her fascinated, the way Tam had been held fa
scinated on Finn Learson’s first night in the house.
A great dread of these moments began to creep over Robbie, and very often he wondered why everyone else was so blind to everything that seemed so clear to himself. The truth of the matter, however, was still so far from every mind except his own, that no one saw anything at all remarkable in the situation.
Nicol’s grimness and sulking, they argued, was simply due to jealousy. A young girl like Elspeth, with such a decision ahead of her, was bound to be absent-minded. As for Finn Learson, everyone continued to find him so pleasant and polite that they could hardly be expected to guess at the uncanny presence lurking behind the charm of this manner. It was quite the opposite case, in fact, for none of them could fail to mark that he quite put Nicol to shame with the way he refused to be upset by Elspeth’s decision about waiting for the end of Up Helly Aa to make her choice between them.
At the Christmas and New Year celebrations he danced with her as light-heartedly as he had ever done. Nicol, on the other hand, sat scowling in a corner without even trying to persuade her to partner him; and this led Janet to speak up quite sharply, for she still had a soft spot in her heart for Nicol. Besides which, as she had now begun to realise, the debt that she and Peter owed Finn Learson did not mean she was really happy to see their daughter wedded to a foreign man who would very likely take her back with him to his own country. And so, by the time it came to the New Year, she was ready to tell Nicol, “That’s no way to get Elspeth to decide in your favour – sitting there with a long face on you while the other fellow does all the courting!”
“Aye, you’ll have to stir yourself if you really want to win her,” Peter added to this remark; but Nicol remained stubborn.
“I courted Elspeth before Finn Learson came,” he argued, “and I’ve courted her since then – well enough to let her know I would be good to her and she would be happy with me. Now she must decide for herself without me running after her and staring into her eyes the way he does.”
A Stranger Came Ashore Page 9