The Crescent Stone

by Matt Mikalatos

  “That I can do, my dear, that I can do.”

  The Garden Lady tucked Madeline’s blanket in around her shoulders and sat in Shula’s chair. She sat there long into the night, while Yenil played in the garden, and told her everything her friends had been doing in the Sunlit Lands.

  And Madeline closed her eyes and was happy.

  THE END

  THE THREE GIFTS OF THE PEASANT KING

  * * *

  A Scim Legend

  A great while ago, when the world was full of wonders, there lived a wealthy king. He ate from golden plates upon a golden table. The floor of his throne room was polished silver, and his throne was studded with rare jewels. He often threw lavish banquets for his friends. Entire feasts’ worth of food would go to the dogs, for the guests could not eat it all. He was called King Franklin, and he was deeply unhappy, for although he was rich, his subjects looked on him with disdain.

  It came to pass that King Franklin began to hear tales of a strange king in a far country, a man beloved by all his subjects. This Peasant King, as he was called, had neither gold nor crown. But King Franklin decided he must see this strange man who was praised by so many tongues. So Franklin disguised himself as a servant and traveled through the deep forest, over the snowy mountains, and across the wide sea. And he brought with him three gifts for the Peasant King: a fine silk cape, a diamond the size of a man’s fist, and a great disk of gold to fashion a royal table.

  When at last King Franklin found the Peasant King, he was surprised to find him in a humble barn, where he sat upon a throne made of hay. Upon his brow he wore a circlet of holly, and his scepter was a piece of polished oak.

  Franklin, in his disguise as a royal servant, presented the gifts he had brought to the Peasant King, explaining they were from his master, good King Franklin. Then he said, “I have traveled far to ask the secret of your great glory. But I stand before you now and see that a farmer in my master’s land is wealthier than you.”

  The Peasant King stroked his beard and thought for some time. At last he said, “Tell me, O servant, did you see many of my subjects in your travels? Did they seem more fortunate than those in your own land?”

  King Franklin replied, “No more fortunate than those of other lands, though happier in their misfortune. I saw a woman who sang as she slopped the pigs, though she had no apron to cover her dress. A scribe laughed to see his papers blown by the wind. A man whistled a tune when he saw his wagon wheel had broken.”

  The Peasant King laughed to hear this fine report and called for the woman, the scribe, and the wagoner. When they arrived, he greeted them each with a kiss upon the cheek. To the woman he said, “Good King Franklin has sent you this apron from across the wide sea,” and he gave her the fine silk cape. Then he gave the scribe the diamond the size of a man’s fist and said, “Good King Franklin has sent you this paperweight from over the snowy mountains.” Lastly he rolled the golden tabletop to the wagoner and said, “Through the deep forest, good King Franklin has sent you this sturdy wagon wheel.”

  All three went away glad, thanking the Peasant King and praising the kindness and foresight of good King Franklin.

  The Peasant King said, “The glory of a king comes from neither wealth nor finery but from the well-being of his people. Now I shall send you away with three gifts: a flask of local wine, a loaf of thick brown bread, and a letter for King Franklin which holds the secret to the great glory of the Peasant King.”

  Then the Peasant King sent King Franklin on his way. So King Franklin traveled across the wide sea, over the snowy mountains, and through the deep forest. When he had bathed and dressed again in his royal robes and returned to his grand throne room, King Franklin set out the wine and bread and opened the letter from the Peasant King. It contained only these words: “A true king must not pretend to be a servant, but rather become one.”

  So, too, this story bears three gifts: one for the storyteller, one for the hearer, and one for the heart which understands.

  THE ORDERING OF THE WORLD

  * * *

  An Elenil Story

  When the world was young and foolish, the people burned the cities. The oceans, enraged with violence, flooded villages and carried away children. The ground shook, and the sky wept blood. The people cried out day and night for help. And so it came to pass that a magician—the most powerful of his age or any other—set out to repair the world. He had many names, but the Elenil call him the Majestic One.

  The Majestic One spoke, and his word was law.

  “Order!” he called, and all the world stopped to listen. “Stop this foolish violence. Cease this chaos and come to me, for I shall remake the world.”

  But of all the people, only two came to him. The rest fought and tore at one another and screamed their defiance. The names of the two who came to him were Ele and Nala. He blessed them and said, in the ancient speech of wizards and knights:

  I declare ye, Ele and Nala, lords of light

  and guardians of the wide world.

  All shall be under your dominion: water and wood,

  stone and fire, desert and ocean, light and darkness.

  And your descendants shall be called the Elenil.

  And he placed a tower in the center of the Sunlit Lands and called it Far Seeing.

  Together with Ele and Nala and their children, the Elenil, the Majestic One tamed the peoples who warred with one another. The conflict turned bitter more than once, but none could stand for long against the might of the Majestic One or his servants, the Elenil.

  When the war was ended and all had pledged fealty to the Majestic One, he gathered the people, and divided them into seven groups to receive their rewards and punishments and to give each people their own lands and homes so there would be no more war forever. When he spoke, each person heard his voice in their own mind, as if he spoke to them and them alone. First he spoke to the raiders who had harassed and harried the Elenil camps:

  Kakri, desert dweller, eyes touched by the moon!

  Thou shalt be silenced by sand in thy throat.

  Thou shalt flee to the east, and walk dunes alone

  in sunshine and shadow, eater of carrion.

  Thy sister shall be the crow, thy brother the hyena.

  And so the Majestic One sent away the Kakri, and they live in the desert to the east, beyond the Tolmin Pass. They build no houses and plant no crops.

  To the children of Grom, the Majestic One said:

  How often hast thou dug beneath the walls of my fortress?

  Short of stature, surly and clever, O child of Grom.

  Thy home shall be beneath the ground.

  Thou shalt hoard silver and gold, jewels and precious metals.

  None shall be as skilled with hammer and tong,

  and none more obstinate than the Maegrom.

  So the children of Grom went away to the world beneath the world, and there they remain until this very day. The Majestic One watched them leave, and when they had gone, he turned to those who had fought him in the great southern forests, who had attacked from the trees as archers and bandits. To them he said:

  In Aluvorea grow the mighty trees

  so tall they touch the sun!

  In their shadow thou shalt dwell

  and breathe the breath of leaves.

  Be thou quiet and harmless.

  Thus the Aluvoreans left in peace to populate the woods of the world. They are a gentle race, though some say they have come to love their trees more than people, a great misfortune.

  To those who had been pirates upon the sea, the Majestic One declared:

  Live, thou Zhanin, among waves and currents,

  wind and weather and the deep!

  Forever a wanderer, without a home,

  thou shalt be melancholy,

  Changeable, strange, and lonely as the sea.

  So the Zhanin were swept away like driftwood. They cannot live long when separated from the water. It is a great marvel to see one at the market
of Far Seeing. But occasionally such traders do appear, with strange stories and stranger wares.

  Those who had used magic in their battle against the Majestic One he called human, to remind them they were neither gods nor beings of power but only mortals.

  Humans! Ye shall live upon another earth,

  a people of science and dust.

  Bereft of magic, short lived and passionate,

  there shall still be beauty and wonder among you.

  In great need may ye return to the Sunlit Lands,

  for ye are our cousins and neighbors.

  At last all who remained before the Majestic One were the Elenil, his servants of old, and the most rebellious of the people, who would come to be called the Scim. They were evil things, their hearts filled with wickedness and foul deeds. They trembled before the Majestic One, for his face shone like glowing metal. Indeed, his face shone with a righteous anger, and they feared he would destroy them completely.

  Thou Scim I banish to outer darkness,

  a land as black as thy heart.

  Thou shalt live by eating thy brethren’s scraps.

  Servant of darkness and night, in blackness

  shalt thou dwell, and in that eternal midnight

  may thine outer appearance match thy corrupted nature!

  The Scim wailed and begged for mercy, but the Majestic One stood unmoved. He commanded his Elenil to remove the Scim from his presence, and they drove the creatures south and east to the Wasted Lands, where shadows cling and sunlight dares not go.

  So it is that we say:

  Zhanin on the western waters,

  Aluvoreans in forests dispersed.

  To the east, the Kakri wanders,

  the Scim in deep darkness accursed.

  Humans from magic are fleeing,

  Maegrom in dark earth beneath.

  Elenil rule from Far Seeing,

  in lands by our master bequeathed.

  The Majestic One keeps all in his sight,

  Elenil first in the warmth of his light.

  RENALDO THE WISE

  * * *

  A Scim Legend

  A great while ago, when the summers of this land could still be counted by those with long memories, a man named Renaldo walked the paths of the world. Hated and despised by all he met, Renaldo returned the hatred of his neighbors with vigor.

  Now in those days, the Peasant King ruled. The Peasant King sent out a decree into all the land, telling his subjects that he wished to increase the happiness of all his people, and so he would give each subject a boon of their choosing. Magic or money, fortune or fame, long life or lilies, no request either small or large would be turned away, so long as it be not evil.

  Renaldo thought for eight days and seven nights of what might bring him happiness, but the only boons he imagined would give him pleasure were misfortunes for his neighbors. He knew the Peasant King would not grant him his wish if he said, “Make old Mrs. Gaither’s goats give sour milk” or “Tear the thatch off Mr. Havill’s hut” or even “Take away the tongue of that calamitous child down the lane.”

  The day came for his audience with the Peasant King, and Renaldo dressed in his finest clothes and walked to the woods, where the king sat upon a stone, a sprig of holly wrapped about his forehead. He was playing a merry tune on a simple flute. “This,” said the Peasant King, “is the Flute of Joy. Blow into it and such joy shall fill your heart that you will be at peace with all people and with the world. I have made it, dear Renaldo, for you. For often I have passed by your home and seen you scowling in your chair.” The Peasant King held out the lovely gift, but Renaldo would have none of it.

  “Such a gift is too fine for me,” said Renaldo. “Now, Highness, you said you would grant any boon so long as it is not evil. Have I heard it right? For I would not speak and have you deny me.”

  “I will not curse a person or animal, nor take away their free will, to please you.”

  “Not even to make a goat’s milk sour?” Renaldo asked hopefully, for the bleating and stench of Mrs. Gaither’s goats truly vexed him.

  The Peasant King laughed and said, “Truly not!” and played upon his Flute of Joy. The whole wood filled with dancing and laughter. The birds sang, the rabbits danced, the foxes stopped their hunting and smiled. Renaldo only frowned.

  “My wish, then,” said Renaldo, “is to see the coming death of every person in the land.” For he thought to himself, To know the death of a person is to have great power over them. Besides, it might please him to see his neighbors and enemies and be able to say to himself, But six months more and that one shall be gone. But a few years for that one. Ha! She shall be no bother after next Thursday.

  The Peasant King stopped his playing, and the whole wood fell silent. “It is not an evil gift,” said the king, “though it is requested with evil intent.”

  “You have given your word,” Renaldo reminded him.

  “Indeed,” said the Peasant King. “I shall grant your wish and something more: not only the time of death shall you see but also the cause.”

  Elated, Renaldo bowed low to the king and walked backward from his presence. The joyful playing did not start again until Renaldo set foot upon the road, which was a great relief. He hurried home to try his new skill.

  He came first to Mrs. Gaither’s thatched hut. The stench of her goats grew ever greater. Just last week he had convinced her to move her flock to the east side of her property, for on the west side their stench lived always in his nostrils. She complained that the east side was craggy and dangerous, but every day he wheedled and complained until she at last relented.

  The old woman came out of her hut, and the moment he saw her, Renaldo knew her death. In two years’ time she would take her goats out in the rain and slip upon the craggy rocks of her eastern property and break her hip. She would die within six weeks, weakened and alone.

  “Serves her right,” Renaldo said to himself, “for keeping such filthy animals.”

  He continued on to Mr. Havill’s hut and knocked upon his door. For many years he and Mr. Havill had feuded about their property line. The great stones separating their property would move in the night, sometimes because Mr. Havill moved them and sometimes because Renaldo moved them. Neither could remember the true property lines any longer. Renaldo saw his end too: just one year hence he would catch a sickness during a storm. His poorly thatched roof (which Renaldo often called an eyesore) would not keep out the rain, and he would die feverish and alone.

  “Serves him right,” Renaldo said to himself, “for taking such poor care of his home.”

  He continued on to find the loudmouthed child who shouted and screamed day and night, sometimes in joy, sometimes in anger. The boy shouted whether happy or sad and could neither keep his opinions to himself nor his voice low.

  Renaldo gasped.

  The boy, a child of only seven summers, would die in one week’s time.

  And he would die trying to save Renaldo from drowning in the pond.

  Renaldo liked to swim on crisp summer mornings, and next week he would sink from a leg cramp. The boy would charge into the water to save him and would succeed, but at the cost of his own life.

  No more would Renaldo hear the boy’s booming voice as he chased the geese. No more his disappointed cries when his mother called him to dinner. Never again the echoing crow of the boy emulating the morning rooster. All this because the boy would try to save his melancholy neighbor, the one who barely said hello and often complained that the boy was too loud.

  Renaldo’s heart broke as if struck by a great hammer.

  Renaldo hurried to the pond and stared at the cool, placid water, and it was there that he saw his own death—sitting in a chair upon his porch many years hence, bitter, angry, and alone.

  He hurried back to the Peasant King and begged for another audience. He fell on his knees in the great king’s presence and cried, “O Majesty, take away this curse! Give me instead a new boon!”

  “What bo
on is that?” the king asked.

  “Majesty, I ask only this: let the boy live a long and happy life. He does not deserve to end his life in such a way.”

  The king gave him a look of great pity and said, in the archaic way of knights and kings, “Stay thou out of the water, Renaldo.”

  Renaldo thanked the king and hurried home, determined not to swim in the pond that week. But was this enough to change the boy’s future? He saw the boy and was relieved to see him living until the age of twenty-three, when he would die in battle. There was time to work on that, but for now he hurried to Mr. Havill’s house and, in a flurry of activity and without a single complaint, rethatched his roof.

  Then he was off to Mrs. Gaither’s house, where he told her to live a long life and move her goats back between their houses, which she did.

  That night he sat upon his porch, smoking his pipe, when the Peasant King came along, playing his flute softly in the moonlight. The Peasant King sat on the porch with crossed legs and did not use a chair, for the Peasant King would not sit on a chair fashioned by the hands of a living being.

  “Has your boon brought you happiness?” the Peasant King asked.

  Renaldo thought on this for a time, puffing upon his pipe. “We have more in common than we have differences,” Renaldo said at last. “In the face of death these grievances with my neighbors seem petty.”

  “A wise observation,” the Peasant King said. “You and your neighbors shall all be better for it. Now, I think, this flute is yours . . . for it requires a loving heart to play it.”

  Renaldo accepted it gladly, and in the years to come he became known as Renaldo the Wise, for he seemed to know the greatest needs of his neighbors, and all who knew him lived long and healthy lives. Many were the nights when Renaldo sat upon his porch and played his flute, and the people of the village shed their cares and kicked up their heels.