by M J Engh
"Set we a course," said the lord of Lorran to Poal.
In a little time they had agreed upon a course, across the Maw of Aurin and back again. "I do not know your money," said the lord of Lorran. "But I will hazard this jewel upon our racing. With what stake will you match it?"
Now Poal reached into his pockets disconsolately, for he knew well that they were empty. But Lord Moon spoke, saying, "I have heard that the lords of Lorran are not used to hazard stakes so small."
The islander looked darkly upon him, and answered, "What is there to hazard under Aurin Tree?"
Lord Moon smiled downward upon him. "The shadow of that tree lies far upon the waters," he said, "and the word of a great lord reaches beyond its sound. Have we not life to hazard here, and much else?"
Poal looked swiftly upon those two lords. "Name then a stake, my Lord Moon," he said, "to make the race worth the running."
"You have come hither," said Lord Moon to the islander, "to make alliance with these strangers, my lord. Will you hazard that alliance?"
"What is this?" cried one of the strangers at the cave mouth. But a gleam arose in the islander's eyes, and he asked quickly, "Against what?"
"Why, the stake leans both ways," cried Poal. "For if you win, my lord, doubtless you will have your alliance, which pleases you. And if I win, you will have no alliance, which pleases me."
The island lord tucked down his chin like a stubborn horse. "It is not settled," he said. "When I have won this race, I may yet find no alliance."
Lord Moon spoke in his ear, saying, "Be easy, my lord. They are more eager for it than you can be. Did they not seek you out? And see how they buzz like midges, fearing you will lose this race and they their alliance."
"It is agreed, then," said the lord of Lorran, looking sourly toward the strangers. And he entered his boat.
"I know well," said Lord Moon softly to Poal, "that you are one of those for whom the prize of the race is the speed of its running. Yet to that I will add a reward, if you win this race."
"A reward," said Poal, "may be a reward to the giver and a punishment to him who receives it, as I have learned in the dominion of the Star of Wealth."
"Choose then your reward, my friend," said Lord Moon.
"There is naught I would have," said Poal, sighing; "unless your gray horse, my lord."
Now Lord Moon was silent for a little, and when he spoke again his voice was stiff, like the voice of one who would hide a wound. "It is agreed," he said.
Now even the blue folk, or the boldest of them, crowded forth upon the rocks at their cave mouths, to see the running of that race. The Maw of Aurin lay almost still now within the barrier-line of rocks that hedged it from the open sea. Before Poal was well under way, the lord of Lorran shot past him like an arrow. And a wordless cry burst from Poal's lips, for to his heart's eyes it was as if he saw the gray horse fleeing from him, and he bent grimly to his paddling. The water hissed along his boat's side, and when they reached the turn they were almost prow and prow. In the turning the lord of Lorran bettered his lead, for he managed his boat very skillfully, and on the return lap he held that lead, though lessening. But whether he thought too lightly of Poal's skill, and so used not all his own, or whether it was the gray horse that drew Poal like a lodestone, in the last yards Pool's boat sprang forward like a beast struck by the spur, and came thump against the finish rock a moment before the islander's.
"It was well raced," said the lord of Lorran, looking venomously upon his paddle. "Though indeed had I but brought my racing paddle the end would have been otherwise." And he said to Lord Moon, "It is agreed, and the twelve thousand Islands will make no alliance with these strangers or other landsmen." Then he helped Poal from his boat and took him aside, explaining the sorts of paddles and the manner of racing in various waters, all which Poal heard with interest. And the blue folk laughed with pleasure, and slapped their hands joyfully upon the water, and frolicked among the waves, crying, "We race! We race!"
But the strangers now spoke hotly against Lord Moon, and Poal, and the lord of Lorran, so that presently the blue folk crept back frightened into their dark caves. "They are much troubled," said Poal to the islander, beholding the blue folk. "But I will bring a gift to cheer them." And he rose into the air and flew upward, wobbling somewhat, toward the brow of Aurin Cliffs.
All there looked upon his flight with much surprise, and the leader of the strangers cried out angrily to Lord Moon, "He has stolen a belt!" And the historian, biting his lip, groped about him for the belt he had shown to Poal.
"It is the custom of his people," said Lord Moon, "to take gifts as freely as they give." But he too watched somewhat anxiously until Poal had mastered the flying belt so far as to land heavily by the side of Aurin Tree.
Now in truth Poal had not meant to land beneath the tree, but to fly in triumph to the place where his people and the blue man and the silver horse waited; but the working of the belt was strange to him, and he was well content not to have come against the thorns and ridges of the boughs. So he trod cautiously through the darkness under Aurin Tree, and out into the moonlight, and came at last to Noram Head. And when he had greeted lovingly his wife and his horses, and looked on his sleeping children, and answered some two or three of Lorn's questions, he stooped beside the blue man where he crouched disconsolate, and grasped him in his arms, saying, "Come, friend, your people await you," and touched the flying belt.
In due time, or a little after, they landed upon a rock in the Maw of Aurin. Poal spoke anxiously to the blue man, who hung limply in his arms like one dead. But the blue man opened his eyes and answered with good courage, though somewhat huskily, "I am well content."
Now Poal made sure of the fastenings of his flying belt, and came slowly by hand and foot across the rocks toward the lit cave where Lord Moon stood among the strangers like a spire of marble among storm-switched trees. But the blue man on the rock behind Poal cried out to him to stay, and slipping into the sea rose again beside him like an otter.
"What is it, friend?" asked Poal.
"Yonder strangers," answered the blue man, gripping Poal's garments, "are much angered against you. They threaten to strike you down with their outlandish weapons, and take back this belt. And all the words of yonder lord your friend do not quiet them. They say—"
"Who told you their words?" asked Poal in surprise.
"My people who stand about them," said the blue man, blinking his large eyes.
"Friend," said Poal, unloosing his garments from the blue man's hands, "is Aurin Maw deep?"
"Deep enough," said the blue man; "yet at every tide it is scoured clean by the deep-sweeping currents."
"It is well," said Poal, and he rose into the air and hovered like a seahawk above the very midst of the Maw of Aurin. "Tell your people," he called to the blue man below him, "to tell the strangers that I am come back."
At once there was a stirring within the lighted cave. All within came hastening to the cave mouth or forth upon the rocks, and all looked upon Poal, and many spoke. "Tell them—" called Poal to his blue man, but the blue man spoke hastily, saying, "They fear to strike you down, lest the belt be lost in Aurin Maw." And Poal breathed more easily.
Now Lord Moon, who stood upon a rock before the cave, smiled and turned swiftly to the leader of the strangers. "It seems then that you must bargain for the belt," he said.
"Bring him here," said the stranger. "Give us the belt, and we will give—"
"He serves the Star of Freedom," said Lord Moon, "and the Star of Freedom only. Neither I nor you will bring him hither unwilling."
"Does he not follow you?" said one of the strangers.
"On this journey," said Lord Moon, "he has gone ahead. Yet is he my friend, and may listen to my counsel. And this is my counsel to you, that you offer him a promise in return for the belt."
"We have dealt with him in the past," said the historian, shaking his head.
"What promise?" asked the leader of the strangers.
"A promise of peace," answered Lord Moon. "Make it known to him that you will seek no alliance with the twelve thousand Islands of Lorran, nor with the Star of Battle or his servants, nor with any unpeaceful people."
"It is agreed," said the leader of the strangers, when he had spoken apart with the others. "Call him in."
"There is no need for me to call him," said Lord Moon, looking upon the blue folk.
"They have put away their weapons," the blue man called up to Poal. "Also they say that they will do you no harm. They offer you a promise for the belt."
"It is a good belt," said Poal, sighing, and he flew to the cave with many swoops and curvets, and there presently gave up the flying belt to the strangers, though regretfully.
"For," he said, "it is very pleasant to sleep in peace, and to look with a quiet heart across the sea waves; and truly I have other steeds than this, and one at least a better; yet it is a good belt." And he sat down near the cave mouth, to ponder all that had befallen since he first saw Lord Moon beside the river. And that lord of Lorran, drawing his garments about him, stood also near the cave mouth and looked out upon the sea with dangerous eyes. And the strangers talked in their own tongue, leaning together about the light like plants grown too tall under a roof.
Lord Moon looked upon them all. "Let us go out," he said, "into the roomy night."
So Lord Moon stood forth upon a flat rock, and the lord of Lorran and the leader of the strangers stood one at each side of him. Poal kept alone on the high rock beside it. It seemed to him in his pondering that he had gained much this night, and Lord Moon and the others little or less. For he had passed Aurin Tree, and won the horse of his desire, and flown like a seabird, and raced upon the water like a leaping fish, and talked gladly with old friends and new. But Lord Moon had gained nothing save the promises of the strangers and the lord of Lorran. "And promises," thought Poal, "are no more than wind."
"The sea is calm tonight, "said Lord Moon.
"Indeed it runs quietly," said the lord of Lorran. "And the wind sleeps."
"Not sleeps," said Lord Moon, "but rests. See yonder where it plays upon the water." And he pointed seaward, toward where a catspaw stirred the moonlit waves beyond the Gullet. "Learn we now how quickly it can rouse." And he gestured with his hand, and whistled, as a huntsman might call a hawk, one long rising note.
"These catspaws," said the lord of Lorran, "commonly go a while before a storm; but there is no strength in them. Or so it is among the Islands."
"It seems to come this way," said the leader of the strangers.
"My Lord Moon," began Poal doubtfully, "are the thorns of Aurin Tree so firm-set—"
"It comes," said Lord Moon.
In the Gullet of Aurin the waves spurted high. Within the shadow of Aurin Tree the water glinted suddenly like a field of spears. A cold buffet of wind staggered Poal upon his rock, so that he floundered into the water, and to save himself he clasped his arms around the rock in a loving hug. A great roaring sigh swelled in the air above him, and on all sides the water chattered as it were pelted with heavy raindrops or with hailstones. Then a wave lifted Poal, and he got his feet once more upon the rock, and crouched there clinging like a limpet.
As from far away he heard the leader of the strangers cry out angrily through the rushing the wind. Lord Moon stood with upturned face, and knee-deep in the spray, his hair and garments whipped flamelike about him; and it seemed to Poal that he gazed with a strange eagerness upon the tossing limbs of Aurin Tree.
Like bows the great branches bent and sprang in the gale; but the bolts that leaped from them and fell spattering and clicking upon the water and the rocks were thorns.
The leader of the strangers touched his flying belt and rose into the air, turning his face toward the safety of the caves. But the wind bore him, squawking and flapping like a land bird strayed into a gale, sidelong over the Maw of Aurin. The lord of Lorran plunged into the flashing sea, and struck out for the nearest cave mouth with short strong strokes.
Now a hot pain like the sting of a giant wasp stabbed Poal's shoulder, and with a moan of dread he reached, and felt, and drew out the thorn, pricking his hand in his haste, and cast it into the sea.
But Lord Moon stretched out his hand and took a falling thorn upon his open palm as it had been a butterfly; and as he did so, the wind ceased.
"Now," said Lord Moon, and his voice rang in the new stillness, "we are four dead men." He drew a phial from his bosom, and unstopped it, and stooped and took up a little water in it, and shook the phial so that it glinted with little sparks. "Yet here is life for us," he said, "if we are quick."
Poal crouched still upon his rock, and thought sorrowfully of his people. He felt a great numbness spreading from his shoulder, and a lesser numbness from his hand.
The leader of the strangers came flying back to the flat rock from far within the curve of Aurin Cliffs where the wind had carried him. "Have I not heard," he said darkly, "of Lord Moon and his potions?"
"What you have heard you know better than I," said Lord Moon. "This is no potion, but a medicine." He sprinkled a few drops from the phial upon the wound in his hand, saying, "Thus is it used," and turned to Poal. "Let me heal you, friend."
Poal did not feel the drops upon his thornpricks, for he was sodden with the waters of Aurin, and all his arm and side indeed past feeling. But in a little he felt the blood begin to flow again within him, and the numbness to fade. Meanwhile the leader of the strangers, whose face was as a hovering cloud that threatens but does not burst, held out his arm to Lord Moon, and Lord Moon sprinkled from the phial upon a thornprick there. The lord of Lorran had turned back when the wind fell, and though he was struck with two thorns, and the smallest man of the four, he had not ceased to swim until he reached the flat rock and drew himself out upon it. Lord Moon sprinkled the bright drops upon his wounds very quickly.
"Let us go in once more," said the lord of Lorran. "I would rest a while before the ebb."
So in a dark sea cave the lord of Lorran wrapped his garments about him and lay down to rest, and Poal beside him. But Lord Moon sat talking with the blue folk through those hours of night. And much they told him of their lives and customs, and taught him as best they might the manner of their speaking together in their hearts, though afar. But of this he could learn but little, being himself not a blue man.
Now when the dawn made light the sky and water, that had lain heavy like poured pitch within the shadow, the lord of Lorran rose up, and sniffed the air. "It is time," he said.
Then all they made themselves ready and bade one another farewell, each in his own fashion. "We shall not meet again," said that island lord. "But I shall remember our racing."
"It was well raced," said Poal.
The leader of the strangers looked gloomily upon the islander, and his lips loosened and tightened as those of one who would speak but cannot. And the strangers gathered all their gear, counting their belts carefully, and flew upward to the brow of Aurin Cliffs. The lord of Lorran drew tight the fastenings of his boat.
Then a blue man tugged at Lord Moon's sleeve, saying, "You have brought me home past Aurin Tree, and I would do you good. These strangers have promised peace, and yonder islander has promised that his islands will make no alliance. Yet promises are but words, and words are but air, and air is but wind, and—"
"And against the wind naught can stand," said Lord Moon. "Fear not, friend, for a medicine may heal more than flesh, and what gives may also take. We four have gained our lives, but we have lost a power that some find useful."
"What power?" asked Poal uneasily.
"The power to break a promise," said Lord Moon.
"It is well," said Poal, when he had considered the matter. And he said, "Surely we have all gained under Aurin Tree. And it may be, friend, that your people have gained most of all, for you have learned to come forth and take pleasure when hitherto you have crouched fearful in your caves."
"Indeed it is pleasan
t," said the blue man, "to race and sport in the midnight waters. Yet we shall not do so henceforth. For see how you have all been wounded near to death, for all your outlandish arts and skills."
"Never comes such another wind," cried Poal, "unless indeed this lord return to call one up. You need not fear."
"What has come once may come again," said the blue man doggedly.
"And care is wisdom." Nor could all Poal's talking change his mind.
"In truth, my friend," said Lord Moon, "it is hard to turn a man from his custom." And he stirred the waters of Aurin with his paddle.
"The sun rises," said Poal, "and the tide ebbs." And a great eagerness came upon him to tell his wife and his little children all that had befallen, and to look again upon the silver horse.
Very brightly in the dayshine Aurin waters glittered as the wave-of the tide set seaward. Poal felt the water all awake now and moving, that had lain quivering like a beast asleep when he raced against the lord of Lorran. The three boats ran in line across the Maw of Aurin, and one by one sprang through the welling Gullet. In the outer sea they parted, the lord of Lorran paddling steadily toward his islands, while Lord Moon and Poal turned northward along the high shore.
It was a more tedious journey north than south, for the current was against them, and when they came at last to Noram Head they found Lorn and the children awaiting them very anxiously. And that was a glad meeting.
So they journeyed pleasantly back toward the town called End. Lord Moon looked cheerily enough, and talked with a good will of the blue folk and many matters else; but now and again he fell silent, and gazed sidelong at the great gray horse. And at the town called End he bade them farewell, saying that he would spend some few days there in talk with townsfolk and travelers. "For," he said, "surely there is much to learn in a town with such a name."
But Poal traveled on, northward upon the South Road, with his people and his two horses. Yet after a little he turned back. And when he had found Lord Moon talking with none, but sitting silent and alone above the sea, he put the reins of the gray horse into his hands. "It is not a gift, my lord," he said. "The horse is yours, and cannot be otherwise."