by K. J. Parker
There’s gratitude, Poldarn thought, loosening the rope tied round his waist and looping it round and under the log. No way he could lift the bloody thing on his own; an excellent chance that when the men up on top started hauling on the rope, the bank would shift, dislodge the hot bronze, and that’d be an end of it – the last thing he’d hear would probably be Gain Aciava screaming abuse at him: ‘You careless, clumsy fucking idiot—’
He raised his hand to signal to the rope men to take the strain. With his other hand he tried to guide, calm, control the log – deluding himself, thinking that’d do any good, because either the bank would come down or it wouldn’t. Who did he think he was, some god almighty? As the log shifted, Gain yelled and cursed at him, which suggested that the procedure was causing him pain. Tough. Pain was beside the point, very low priority. After all, Poldarn could feel the skin roasting off his face and hands, and he wasn’t making a fuss.
(Eyvind, he thought, in the burning house. And the crow. And rescuing Muno Silsny, whose legs had been broken, but who never cried out once.)
And the log moved slowly away, each bump and knot rasping Gain’s broken bone, like a man roughing out a shape in wood. ‘You bastard,’ Gain was howling at him, ‘you’re fucking doing this on purpose – I’ll kill you. This is just because she chose me, isn’t it? It is, you know it is.’ And eventually the log slid off his leg with a bump – a moment of sheer terror, because the jolt dislodged a double handful of burnt mud; Poldarn watched it tumble down the slope, observing every detail of its descent. But no more came after, or at least not yet.
‘Gain,’ he said, ‘shut up.’ He edged closer, a quarter step and then another, like a shy crab. ‘Can you sit up? Can you move at all?’ Gain shook his head. Lazy bugger, he’s not even trying, expects me to carry him all the way up the bastard slope like a babe in arms. Well, he can forget that. ‘Grab my hand,’ Poldarn said, reaching out, ‘I can’t get in close, I’ll have to drag you out.’
‘Fuck you,’ Gain replied.
So Poldarn went in a little closer, and then a little more, until he could get his hand under Gain’s armpit and lift— He could feel muscles and tendons coming to grief in his shoulder and back, because that was no way to go lifting heavy weights, any bloody fool knew that. But he carried on with it anyway, and—
‘Gain,’ he said, ‘what did you mean by that? Who chose you instead of me?’
‘For fuck’s sake,’ Gain yelled at him. ‘Concentrate on what you’re bloody doing.’
‘Who was it?’ he repeated, because even Gain Aciava (assuming he was a liar) wouldn’t tell lies at a moment like this. ‘Was it true, what you told me? Was all of it true, or just some of it?’
‘You bastard, Ciartan. Watch out, you nearly dropped me then.’
Poldarn stopped. If he let him go now, if Gain’s intolerable weight slipped through his grip and slumped back into the powder-baked mud, the whole terrible lot would come thundering down on both of them, and somehow that made it fair. ‘Tell me the truth, Gain,’ he said. ‘Were you lying, or not?’
‘Of course I wasn’t lying, you shit,’ Gain said. ‘For God’s sake, Ciartan, please—’
Oh well, Poldarn thought; and with his left hand he snatched at the rope tied round the log. ‘Pull,’ he shouted, and for a moment he was afraid they couldn’t hear him or something; and then the log began to move, pitifully slowly, like an hourly-paid snail. More dirt tumbled down in his face; damn, he thought; never mind, it was worth a try, but then the log gathered pace as the men on the other end hauled and grunted, dragging Poldarn and his vituperative burden through the filthy dirt, across the face of the slope and up—
The bank did give way after all, and the massive blob of heat did go thundering down. But by then, Poldarn was being helped off his knees by the rope-pullers, people were running up, shouting, calling for stuff. Their hands on his skin were sheer torture and he swore at them to leave him alone. Stupid clumsy fucking bastards, they were only trying to help—
‘Tell Galand Dev,’ Poldarn heard himself say; and he wondered, tell Galand Dev what? What dark and amazing secret had he noticed while he was down there? ‘Tell Galand Dev he’s an arsehole,’ he heard himself say. ‘And next time, to dig a bloody pit—’
Later, they told him he was a hero, but he wasn’t inclined to believe them.
Much later still, he woke up out of a confused dream that slipped away before he was finished with it, and deduced from memory and the look of the rafters overhead that he was probably in the charcoal store.
Industrial humour, maybe: where else would you put a partially burned foundryman? Or maybe it was the nearest convenient place for a makeshift hospital. He tried to move his head for a more informative scan, but the pain persuaded him to stay where he was and make do with the view of half a dozen dusty rafters.
‘Ciartan.’ He knew the voice; then realised he knew it from recently: Gain Aciava, the unreliable witness. ‘Ciartan, are you awake?’
‘Probably. Dreams don’t hurt as much. That you, Gain?’
‘Yes. Ciartan, what the hell did you go and do that for? Could’ve killed us both.’
Bastard, Poldarn thought. ‘I saved your stupid life, Gain. Or had you forgotten?’
‘I hadn’t forgotten. Are you all right?’
‘I don’t know,’ Poldarn admitted. ‘Am I?’
‘I think you got burned up pretty bad,’ Gain replied. ‘I know I did, and my leg’s busted where that prop fell on it. Hauling it across me didn’t help much, but I suppose you had to do that. But they’ve sent for a doctor, from Falcata. He’ll be here in a day or so, if the rain holds off.’
‘Won’t hold my breath, then,’ Poldarn replied.
Silence for a while. Then Gain said, ‘Ciartan, why did you ask me if I’d been telling the truth? Didn’t you believe me?’
‘I wasn’t sure,’ Poldarn replied. ‘I mean, I don’t know you from a hole in the ground.’
‘Fine. Well, in that case, you risked your life for a stranger. I’m impressed.’
For a stranger, Poldarn reflected, I wouldn’t have thought twice. ‘You make it sound like it was out of character,’ he said. ‘Was it?’
‘Yes,’ Gain replied. ‘Seems you’ve changed since Deymeson.’
‘Good or bad?’
‘Good. Mind you, any change’d have been for the better.’ Pause. ‘Last time, back at the inn, and afterwards, I got the impression you didn’t want me to tell you; you know, stuff about the past. I probably should tell you; in your shoes, I’d rather not know either. Though of course, I wouldn’t know that I wouldn’t want to know, if you follow me.’
‘Sort of,’ Poldarn said. ‘So in other words I was an evil bastard back then.’
‘At Deymeson?’ Strange question to ask, Poldarn thought. ‘Well, you weren’t the most popular boy in the school.’
‘Fine,’ Poldarn said. ‘Who was?’
‘No one,’ Gain replied. ‘It wasn’t that kind of set-up. Friendships weren’t encouraged, let’s say.’
Poldarn wondered, but let it pass. ‘Who was it chose you over me?’ he asked. ‘Was it Copis? Xipho,’ he amended.
‘Yes. Though that’s not strictly true either; I mean, she turned you down flat, but I never got anyplace with her either. Really I only said it to be nasty.’
‘Water off a duck’s back,’ Poldarn replied. ‘I can’t remember, remember?’
Gain laughed; the sound was familiar, not from recently. From a dream, maybe? ‘You can’t expect me to think of the finer points when I’m burning to death under a bloody great log,’ he said. ‘And I don’t know why I said it. Just plain terrified, I guess, and lashing out because you were the closest. I do that,’ he added.
‘Human nature,’ Poldarn said. ‘So it really was all true, then? I’ve been wondering. Actually, I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I thought it might start the ball rolling, so to speak, and then I’d begin remembering things.’
‘Did it?’
‘You put crows in them, right?’
Poldarn shrugged. ‘Actually,’ he said, ‘I think the crows were there already; they’ve always been there in my dreams, since I was a kid. Probably because of all the time I spent trying to keep the horrible things off the growing crops, hence the deep-rooted symbolism or whatever.’ He took a deep breath, though it was painful. He’d been burned before, in the forge or getting too close to the hearth, but never like this. He thought about Eyvind, and the crow at Haldersness. ‘Back at the inn that time,’ he said, ‘you seemed to know a lot about me. At least, more than I do. And there’s a lot you couldn’t possibly know, unless I told you, or I talk in my sleep.’
‘You do, actually,’ Gain interrupted. ‘At least, you always used to, don’t know about nowadays. But we could never make out a word of it. Foreign language, or just plain gibberish. We reckoned it must be what they speak over where you came from.’
Poldarn thought about that. ‘Figures,’ he said. ‘All right,’ he went on, ‘so here we are. Looks like we’re going to be here some time.’
‘Unless the Falcata doctor kills us,’ Gain said. ‘I’ve heard it said that folks over that way are so damned tight that they only go to the doctor when they can’t stand the pain any more. So all the doctors have to take other work, to tide them over between terminal cases. Some of them are clerks, some of them run stills or make perfume, some of them are carpenters and joiners – handy with a saw, I guess. Butchers, too, and there’s one who’s supposed to make a good living in the glue trade, boiling down bones and hides. Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.’
Poldarn hoped that in this instance Gain was lying. ‘Hope it rains a lot, then,’ he said. ‘Meanwhile, we’re stuck here, just you and me. I guess you’d better tell me all about it.’
‘About what?’
‘My life,’ Poldarn said. ‘I get the feeling it’s about time I knew.’
Silence. Then: ‘Are you sure?’
‘No,’ Poldarn confessed. ‘But I do know that for the next week or so I’m not going anywhere, so I can’t suddenly lose my nerve and run away. Can’t even move my hands to cover my ears. I figure it’s the only time I’m liable to hold still long enough to hear you out, if I haven’t got any choice in the matter.’
‘That’s not a very good reason.’ Gain sounded doubtful.
‘Fine. What else are we going to talk about? It’d be crazy to survive all that just to die of boredom.’
Gain laughed. ‘You were always a kidder, Ciartan. Nobody laughed much, though, except the Earwig. He thought you were a scream. Must’ve shared a sense of humour that the rest of us didn’t get.’
‘Tell me,’ Poldarn said.
He counted up to fifteen while he was waiting for Gain to answer. ‘All right. But if you want me to stop, just say stop.’
I first met you (Gain said) on the day before term started, third grade. I’d been back home to see my family, special compassionate leave because my sister was getting married. I ran into you on the road; long story, can’t be bothered with it now. But I told you about Deymeson, suggested you might like to come along, see if they’d take you. Actually, I didn’t think they would. For one thing, you were too old – you’re two years older than me and the rest of us, so at the time you were, what, eighteen, we were sixteen. But either you were young for your age or the other way about; once you’d been there a month or so you’d never have guessed we weren’t all the same age.
Well, they started you off in third grade. You had to cram all of grades one and two, it was a hell of a scramble, but you managed it all right. This probably sounds like I’m trying to be funny, but back then you had the most amazing memory; you only had to hear something once and it was in there for good. We all reckoned it was to do with your people all being these thought-readers. That really freaked us out when you told us, by the way, we were all convinced you could see inside our heads, what we were thinking. But you told us you couldn’t, and we decided to believe you. Well, it was that or kill you and stash the corpse under the groundsman’s shed, and we were only third-graders.
Anyhow, you picked it all up pretty damn quick; the theory side of it, I mean, the bookwork. The practical stuff, drawing and fencing and all, you were a complete natural; I think that’s why they gave you a place. Essential religion, see? Someone who can draw that quick by light of nature must be a hundred miles closer to religion than someone who’s had to learn it all painfully slow in a drill hall. Anyway, after a few sessions of private coaching you were a match for any of us. You weren’t quite the model student, you made mistakes and there was a lot of stuff we all took for granted that you simply didn’t know, stuff about the Empire, how things work here. But you were always a length or two ahead of the rest of us – Xipho excluded, of course. She was top in every damn thing; worked all the time, nose stuck in a book or extra sessions in Hall, hours and hours of practising draws and cuts. Because she was the only girl, you see; not in the whole of Deymeson, but in our class. Put her under pressure to be the best, I assume.
That’s beside the point. You were good. You got on well, but truth is, the faculty didn’t like you much. Basic stuff, really quite silly. Like, when you first came you had this weird accent you could have spread on new bread, and they didn’t like that. Couldn’t place it, for one thing, which drove them nuts. Being you, of course, you got rid of the accent in about two weeks; but they remembered even after you’d learned to talk normally. There were other things too. Attitude was a big one. There again, you were pretty quick to learn how not to get people’s backs up, but even so they remembered you as the snotty kid, the one who always knew best and answered back. And I think how fast you picked things up spooked them a bit. I remember eaves-dropping when Father Tutor was talking about you to one of the others; he said it wasn’t like you were learning at all, more like you knew it all already and it’d temporarily slipped your mind, and all they were doing was jogging your memory.
Yes, straight up, that’s what he said – maybe not word for word, but the general idea, anyway. And now you mention it, the other one, I think it was one of the research fellows; anyhow, when Father Tutor said that, he went a funny colour and changed the subject double quick. That’s stuck in my mind, because he took it so big.
So anyway, that’s how you were in those days. Smart, no two ways about it, but not the teacher’s pet, and not Mister Popularity. Don’t get the wrong idea, the rest of us didn’t hate you or anything. But it was a strange set-up at Deymeson, because of the year-ends. You know about them, don’t you?
Well, it’s very simple. At the end of each year there were tests: loads of written and oral tests on theory, but what really mattered was the practical, because that was when we all lined up in Hall and Father Tutor announced who was paired with who. And we were all holding our breath, because the test was drawing and cutting, sharps not foils. If you were still alive at the end, you went up a grade. Coming second earned you a rectangular hole and a wooden box.
You bet it was a crazy system, and the gods only know what prompted people to send their kids there. I mean to say, how could you do that, pack your own kid off at the start of the year knowing he only had a fifty-fifty chance of coming back? And to keep on doing that, every year for six years. But my parents, the gods forgive them, they were up for it; in fact, my dad sold a third of the fields and half the herd to keep me there, and he was so proud, the day they wrote to say I’d got a place. I can’t understand people.
So anyway, that’s why friendship was something of a vexed issue. We never used to talk about it; it was understood, somehow. It’s amazing how quickly kids can get a handle on difficult stuff like that, where grown-ups would talk and talk for years and never get close to coming to terms with it. Mostly we put it at the back of our minds; like, we never forgot about it entirely, but we found a way of living in spite
of it. You can’t stop kids making friends, like you can’t stop beans climbing beanpoles. But all the other kids in the world, they’ve got friends and they’ve got a best friend. Not at Deymeson. Instead there were gangs, I suppose you could call them that, or clubs, or whatever. Ours was the Crow’s Head Gang; you chose the name, after a carving on top of a pillar we always stood under in Chapter. You always did have this thing about crows. Point is, it wasn’t like other kids’ gangs, where A is best friends with B, good friends with C and D, gets on all right with E,F,G and H, doesn’t really like I and J much but puts up with them because J’s best friends with C – well, you get the idea. In the Crow’s Head, we were all friends with each other equally, or at least that was the theory. That way, come year-end, it wouldn’t be so hard . . .
What screwed that up, of course, was having Xipho in the class. There were, what, a couple of dozen girls in the grades at Deymeson, compared with a couple of hundred boys. Bad news. I swear, I’m sure they only arranged it that way to cause trouble, because anything that made life more difficult was good for our education. And, inevitably, at any given time out of those two dozen you’d get ten sluts, ten ice maidens, a couple who didn’t like boys, if you get my meaning, and two who somehow managed to stay just about normal. Looking back, I feel sorry for them. It must’ve been hell on earth for a girl at Deymeson.
Xipho – well, she was the iciest of them all. God help you if you tried it on with her; and you did and so did I, and so did every poor fool, and all of us thinking at the back of his mind about year-end, and getting the brush-off, reckoning, well, probably for the best. Except you; maybe because you were from outside, you hadn’t had time to think about it like we had, or – well, you were always different anyhow. But you kept on and on at her, it was quite embarrassing at times; and Xipho – Xipho didn’t like you at all. I mean, no one ever knew what she was thinking, so when she told someone to get lost, they’d be thinking, Maybe she really likes me a lot, but she can’t handle the thought of year-end, so that’s why. But not in your case. Even if everything had been normal, like on the outside, she’d never have touched you with a ten-foot pole, unless maybe it had a sharp point on the end. And you could never see that. Strange, for someone who could read minds. Or maybe you just liked really, really difficult challenges.