The APERTIA triptych

by M J Engh

  "No tidings come from the Islands of Lorran unsought," said Lord Moon. "But it pleases me to seek. And what was determined in Lorran I saw by means of a mirror I have made; as also I have seen the blue folk in their caves beneath Aurin Cliffs, and other things."

  Now for a time they walked on in silence, save for the sounds of the road and the chatter of the children. And at last Poal sighed a great sigh.

  "What grieves you?" asked Lord Moon.

  "I am wondering," said Poal, "to what end we journey, my lord. For you and I have lived our lives thus far without a sight of Aurin Tree, and I think have lived none the worse for that. And what it is to you, my lord, if the Islands of Lorran join league with these strangers, I do not know and cannot well conceive; but to me it is nothing."

  "Your horse's reins are in your hand, my friend," said Lord Moon, "and the South Road runs also north."

  "Doubtless," said Poal gloomily, and he looked at his wife upon Lord Moon's horse. Lord Moon smiled.

  "Here, friend," he said, putting the reins of the gray horse into Poal's hand. "Lead my horse a while. And think of this as you lead: that time out of mind the Islands of Lorran have dealt with none save by slings and arrows from their rocky shores; while these strangers are most skilled in all manner of dealings. It causes you unease, my friend, only to know that the Islands of Lorran lie within a day's journey of the coast; though the islanders have ever held themselves as a rock in the sea, that wrecks all comers but pursues none. What then if they joined league with folk so enterprising as these, your strangers? Would they not be as an avalanche to thunder down the whole slope of the world?"

  "They are not my strangers, my lord," said Poal. And he led the two horses onward.

  Thus for four days they journeyed upon the South Road. At first they saw travelers often enough, meeting some, passing some, and being passed by others. But on the third day the road narrowed and the travelers grew fewer, and on the third night they camped at a town called End, though indeed the South Road went on beyond it. And in the night Poal and his wife spoke together quietly.

  "Have we not journeyed far enough?" said Lorn.

  "Too far, it may be," answered Poal, "but not far enough. How could we turn back now, and Aurin Tree but a day's journey hence?"

  "Most easily," said Lorn. "We do not serve Lord Moon. And indeed, should we go quietly now, he would not know of our going."

  "Indeed none has dominion over you and me," said Poal fondly, "save the Star of Freedom and the Star of Love. Yet Lord Moon serves those Stars as well. Also there is the horse."

  "Which horse?" said Lorn, though in truth she was not much in doubt, having seen the looks Poal cast upon Lord Moon's beast.

  Poal sighed. "Three days and a night," he said, "we have journeyed in company, and not yet given or taken gifts." And very longingly he looked upon the gray horse that stood pale in the moonlight.

  "Doubtless it is well enough," said Lorn, "to look upon Aurin Tree; but to pass it is another matter."

  "Doubtless," said Poal, and he covered his head against the night chill and was silent. In truth he had no wish to speak of certain feelings that were upon him. It seemed to him that a man might well pass Aurin Tree and boast of it forty years hence in distant dominions; for the blue man had found a way from under Aurin Cliffs, though unwillingly. Also he remembered that he had taken much pleasure in the talk of the strangers, and in their goods.

  Lorn nudged him under the ribs. "And what does he intend," she said, "under the Cliffs of Aurin? Lord Moon is a mighty lord, folk say, by reason of his skill and art. But what avail skill and art beyond Aurin Tree? And are not the lords of Lorran also mighty, and the strangers skilled in many arts?" She was silent, and Poal was silent also. He feared she would say to him plainly, "Let us go back"; and he did not know what answer he would make.

  But Lorn laid her head against his shoulder, and said no more. And before day they broke camp and passed on beyond the town of End. Lord Moon strode merrily as to his wedding feast, but Poal went by fits and starts, now fast, now slow, so that sometimes he came abreast of the gray horse, and again trailed behind.

  The South Road here was scarcely a road, but a dry track that ran along the bluffs of the curving shore. Steeper and steeper rose the bluffs, and louder foamed the breakers; and as day rose and spread, the seabirds cried. When they came to the jut of land called Noram Head, with its little beach below, Lord Moon stopped and pointed with level arm to the south-southeast. "It is Aurin Tree," he said.

  They gazed, and Poal saw that they stood here at the base of a point of land, that curved and narrowed like a scythe. Low on the horizon lay its end (if end it was indeed), and there a dark shape showed against the sky.

  "Come," said Lord Moon. And they went on.

  Now as they journeyed, the sea boomed upon their right and ran quietly beyond the slopes upon their left. And midway of the scythe of land they saw a figure plodding before them along the track.

  "Who else," cried Lorn, "is so foolish as to seek Aurin Tree?"

  "It is a great curiosity," said Lord Moon. "There are ever some few who journey to look on Aurin Tree (else why this track?), and now and again one essays to pass it, if only to try the truth of the saying."

  As they drew nearer, Poal made out the color of the figure. "How came the blue man before us on the road?" he cried. "Surely he did not pass us."

  "It may be this is another blue man," said Lorn.

  "I have heard of but one blue man on this side of Aurin Tree," said Lord Moon. "Time out of mind the blue folk have dwelt like sea urchins upon the rocks below Aurin Cliffs, eating seaweeds and shellfish, and drinking of the salt sea, a thing that other folk cannot do."

  Thus talking they drew near the blue man. Presently he turned and, seeing them, ran a little way toward Aurin Tree, and paused, and gazed Again, and at last sat down beside the track to wait their coming.

  "Greetings, friend," said Poal, when they were come in speaking distance of him. "It seems you travel like a seabird indeed." And when the blue man gaped at him stupidly, he added, "We have not left the South Road these three nights and four days; and surely you have not passed us on the road."

  The blue man shrugged. "I know nothing of your journeyings," he said. "On the day I talked with you north of the river, a farmer in a cart took me up and carried me across the river and to a town beyond, whither he went to market. And since then I have walked always toward Aurin Tree."

  "What do you intend," asked Lord Moon, "at Aurin Tree?"

  The blue man looked up uneasily at Lord Moon, and rose to his feet. "It is very hard," he said meekly, "for a man to come down Aurin Cliffs without help."

  "Walk with us, friend," said Lord Moon. "It may be we shall help each other. It may be, too, that you have reason to look for other help."

  "It may be," said the blue man. But it was very gloomily that he fell into stride between Poal's horse and Lord Moon's. "I have tidings," he went on presently, looking sidelong up from one to the other, "of certain travelers come to Aurin Tree. And I wonder if you be of their party."

  "We journey to Aurin Tree indeed," said Lord Moon, "but you see we are not yet come there. And we make party with none; for of whatever Stars we serve, the Star of Freedom has greatest dominion over us." And he turned to Poal and asked, "Do I speak wrongly, my friend?"

  "Rightly," said Poal. "But who brought you tidings, friend?"

  "None brought them," answered the blue man. "They came to me."

  Now Lord Moon would have questioned the blue man further, but they had come to the edge of a shadow that lay upon the track; and it was the shadow of Aurin Tree. They stood still.

  "It is very tall," said Poal's eldest child, after a little.

  "Tall indeed," said Poal. "Yet I have seen taller."

  "Then you have been in the Forest of Achrar," said Lord Moon.

  Poal nodded, for in truth he had journeyed through that forest. But he said no more, for though there were taller trees in the Fo
rest of Achrar, there were none half so mighty as Aurin Tree. The bigness of its trunk was such that they might well have camped between its ribs and jutties. The shadow of its branches lay east and west upon the sea. An unwillingness was on Poal to step within that shadow, and he was glad that Lord Moon too had halted his horse. As for the blue man, he stood cringing and eager, folding and unfolding his hands.

  "Where then are these travelers?" asked Lorn. "I see no one."

  The blue man gave a whimpering groan. "Alas, they have gone down already," he cried.

  Lord Moon threw his horse's reins upon the ground. "That," he said, "my eyes must tell me." And he would have stepped forward. But the blue man tugged at his garment, crying, "Beware the thorns!"

  "Are the thorns then so dreadful, friend?" said Lord Moon, smiling upon the blue man.

  "Dreadful indeed," he answered, "and deadly to all they strike. See you not how thick they hang upon the boughs, like barnacles on the rocks?"

  Poal gazed, and saw every twig a-bristle like a hedgehog's back. "What is that to us," he said, "who do not mean to climb Aurin Tree?"

  "That," said Lord Moon, "I can answer. For in my mirror I have seen how at evening twilight the thorns fall like hail. Yet I did not know that they were deadly. Is it a venom in them?"

  "It is," said the blue man.

  "Thanks, friend," said Lord Moon. "I serve also the Star of Knowledge, and such news pleases me; as also your good will to me, for which I will make what return I can. But the sun yet lacks two hours of going down. Do the thorns fall also by day, that you would hold me back?"

  "I have not seen them fall before sundown," said the blue man. "But we have a saying under Aurin Cliffs, that care is wisdom. It is our custom to creep into the caves about this time of day, lest the thorns fall early."

  "My custom is otherwise," said Lord Moon, and he drew his garment from the blue man's fingers, and walked beneath the boughs of Aurin Tree.

  Now Poal's horse stepped restlessly, and stepped again, and Poal drew in a long breath with a sound like a snake's hiss, for he saw that the beast had trodden on a thorn. "Alas, my joy," cried Poal, falling on his knees, "have I brought you all the length of the South Road to perish under Aurin Tree?" And he found and drew the thorn as swiftly as might be. It was blackish red and something less than a span in length, keen and hard, pronged like a caltrop. Poal thrust it somewhat gingerly into the earth and began to tend his horse's foot.

  "There is no harm in it," said the blue man, peering over Poal's shoulder.

  "No harm!" cried Poal. "You yourself said but a moment since that the prick of one is death."

  "When they fall," said the blue man. "But it is a venom that loses its virtue very quickly. Else were it perilous indeed for yonder lord to walk thus freely under Aurin Tree; for all this ground is strewn with the thorns, and would be thicker strewn but for the sea wind that sweeps them away."

  Poal looked, and saw that Lord Moon stood gazing down from the very brink of Aurin Cliffs, and resting his hand lightly upon the ridged bark of Aurin Tree itself. Now he turned and came toward them, and his look was blithe.

  "They have forerun us by a little," he said, when he had come near. "Nothing could be better. They are upon the rocks that lie about the foot of Aurin Cliffs. And from their scrambling and slipping, they have been there but a short while."

  The blue man nodded dolefully.

  "We must be near two hundred yards above the sea," said Lorn "And if the westward shore is steep, doubtless Aurin Cliffs are steeper. How went they down? And how can they return?"

  "As the seabirds go and return, for all that I can see," said Lord Moon. "They have left their tracks on the thorny ground about Aurin Tree, but no sign of their descent upon the cliffs."

  "If I meant to descend Aurin Cliffs (which I do not)," said Poal, "I would tie a stout rope around Aurin Tree, and so go down and up like a monkey."

  "Rather down like a stone, and up not at all," said Lord Moon. "But I think you would not try your rope, my friend, if once you looked closely upon Aurin Tree. Come now, while the sun still shines, and look upon it."

  Now Poal swallowed once or twice, and squared his shoulders, and paced beside Lord Moon into the shadow of Aurin Tree. But the blue man stayed with the horses and Poal's people at the edge of the shadow.

  To walk beneath Aurin Tree was to walk as it were in a sea-forest. Underfoot was the sponginess of moss and leaves, here and there struck through with thorns (and for all the blue man's saying, Poal trod very cautiously. The air was full of changing shades, that dappled them as they walked with shadowy ripples. Their ears were filled with the cries of seabirds and the rustle of leaves, their nostrils with the smell of the salt sea and the mold. Before them the trunk of Aurin Tree bulked like a watchtower.

  It seemed to Poal a long journey before they came close upon the mighty buttresses of that trunk, and stretching out his hand he touched the cool gray bark. It was furrowed and wrinkled in sharp folds that ran upward, breaking and crossing, till they were lost in the deeper shade under the leaves.

  "Indeed, my lord," said Poal, "it must be a stout rope that would hold upon Aurin Tree." And he drew back his hand. For (besides that thorns grew here and there upon the very body of the trunk) the folds of the bark, where they were split with age and weather, showed keen-edged ridges within, as a cracking scabbard shows the sword edge.

  "As the broadsword to the arrow," said Lord Moon, "so is the bark of Aurin Tree to its thorns. Whether there be venom in these ridges, as in the thorns, who knows? But this is sure: who ties his rope to Aurin Tree had as well tie it to a sword blade."

  Poal gazed upward at the mighty branches that thrust far out above the sea. "The chief limbs also," said Lord Moon, "are sharp with these ridges."

  "A chain, then," said Poal.

  "That would better serve," said Lord Moon. "And it might be that the Star of Poetry's armorers could fashion so mighty a chain. But here is neither chain nor rope. It is otherwise that the strangers have descended."

  "They have come on foot, it seems," said Poal, following with his eyes the traces upon the earth. "Though when I knew them they cared little for walking."

  "It may be their liking has changed," said Lord Moon. "Or it may be for the same cause that I left my ship at Seacape. Those who choose to meet at Aurin Cliffs do not publish their meetings."

  Poal rounded a great pier of the trunk (stepping carefully, for the thick roots that wormed and burrowed all about the trunk were ridged and spined also) and stood upon the brow of Aurin Cliffs. He shaded his eyes against the dazzle of the outer sea and gazed downward.

  "Too near is as good as over," said Lord Moon quickly, and with a hand upon Poal's arm he drew him back.

  "It is an ill prospect," said Poal, steadying himself gingerly against the trunk of Aurin Tree. He drew his breath hard; for from the brink of the cliff was a clear fall of a furlong to the waves below. "Nevertheless," thought Poal, "I did not come so far only to be made dizzy and then turn back." And, choosing his ground carefully, he went upon all fours and peered over the edge like a stalking hums cat.

  At first he saw, as before, only the rush and foaming of the waves. Then he noted the rocks that stood as islands amid the surf, all smoothed and cupped and hollowed from the gnawing of the water. And then he saw the strangers upon the rocks, scrambling like seals at play. But clearly they were not playing.

  Of the face of the cliff beneath him he could see nothing; so that, though he flattened himself against the earth and dug his fingers into it, it seemed to him as if he hung in mid-air above the sea. But on the left, and a little way on the right, the cliffs curved inward, showing him their faces; for Aurin Tree stood not truly at land's end, but on the landward cusp of the great crescent that was Aurin Cliffs. Into the hollow of the crescent, and the shadow of Aurin Tree that lay upon it, the waves hurtled in confusion, breaking and plunging like a charge of horsemen ambushed upon both flanks. Across the open mouth of the crescent rose a wild
hedge of leaping foam, for there the waves shattered their main force against a broken line of rocks that stretched from one cusp to the other. Within, they surged among lesser rocks and ran clashing into the dark holes at the foot of the cliffs. Peering down, Poal saw that the strangers were passing one by one out of sight beneath him.

  "I saw but six," said Poal, getting to his knees. Lord Moon already knelt beside him.

  "And I as many again," he said, "when first I looked down. They are going into the sea caves." He rose and reached a hand to Poal. "The sun is very low."

  Poal shivered. "It is time, then," he said, "to choose our campsite."

  "Yes," said Lord Moon. But he stood yet gazing upon the sweep of the cliffs. "Look well, my friend," he said. "See you anywhere a way to the foot of Aurin Cliffs?"

  "Not here, certainly," said Poal, "unless it were by the chain we spoke of. Nor anywhere else upon the face of the cliffs, for they are everywhere far undercut, and cracked and flaking from the waves. Nor at the ends of the cliffs, where those great rocks stand in the sea like a ruined breakwater, for there the face is sheer and the surf is very fierce. I see no way, my lord."

  "And how by sea?" said Lord Moon.

  Poal shrugged. "I am no seaman, my lord," he answered, "as you yourself have said. But to me it seems that the very fish must have a hard journey from the open sea to the foot of Aurin Cliffs."

  "Nevertheless there is a way," said Lord Moon. "It is by the Gullet."

  "The Gullet?" said Poal, and he laid a hand wonderingly upon his own.

  "So the blue folk name that gap between the two tall rocks by the nearer end of the cliffs." And he pointed. Poal looked, and saw the gap in the foaming line.

  "Safe passage, it may be, for the fish, my lord," he said doubtfully. For it seemed to him that the gap was scarcely wide enough for any boat, and the waves struck slantingly through it and frothed against the farther rock.

  "Do you not see," said Lord Moon, "how all this broken water within the curve of the cliffs, which the bluefolk name Aurin Maw, is as a cauldron, and that gap the spout where through it must fill and drain? How think you your blue man came thence? At ebb and at flood the tiderace sets through the Gullet like a mountain stream in spate." He looked upon Poal, and their eyes met. "And it is thus," said Lord Moon, "that you and I shall journey tonight, my friend—if you are willing."