The other men approached. “Have you ever worked flint?” one asked.
“I never could get enough to work,” Stone said regretfully.
“Here you will have all you desire. We import it.”
Crockson gestured to Blaze. “Your son has proved himself. Now it is your turn. Come to the fire.”
In the next chamber was a huge stone and brick structure with a fire inside it. “This is a mountain fire worker,” Crockson announced, indicating Blaze.
“What does a mountain man know about a forge?” the man tending it demanded gruffly.
“I have never seen one, but I know its nature,” Blaze said. “And I know fire.”
“How would you tend this?”
“How hot must the fire be?”
“Hot enough to melt the copper from this ore.”
Blaze saw that there was indeed copper ore in a hopper above the forge. “You will melt the forge before you melt that ore,” he said. “You have to get it closer to the fire.”
The man smiled grimly. He put on giant fiber mittens and pulled at a projection in the upper part of the forge. A stone tray slid out. In it was more copper ore. It was evidently right in the blaze, when in place.
“With the right wood, that might do it,” Blaze said. “But it would be better to blow on it.”
“Have you ever used a bellows?” the man asked.
“No, but I know its nature.”
“Here is our bellows. You tread on it.”
Blaze looked at the device the man indicated. He nodded. “I think that will do it. But one man could not maintain the effort long enough. You need two or three men, to alternate, until the copper flows.”
The man smiled. “Today my assistant is away. I thought I would have to work alone. Now I have you.” He glanced at the manager, nodding. He had seen that Blaze did know fire.
“Only for the morning,” Crockson said. “We must visit the shrines in the afternoon.”
The morning passed swiftly. Blaze loved the forge and bellows; the combination produced the hottest fire he had seen, and it did indeed make the copper flow. This was the kind of work he had dreamed of, and never expected to have. His experience of the city was proving to be infinitely more positive than he had anticipated.
By the middle of the day both Blaze and Stone were solidly committed to their city professions. Neither was eager to go to see the priest. “What does the priest have to do with business?” Blaze asked the copper craftsman. “No one is getting married.”
The man shook his head. “The priest has his nose into everything. He intercedes with the bull god to make our harvests good. We have to humor him by making regular offerings to the bull shrines, and the women to the leopard shrines. We have to have him bless our babies. I could do without it, but who am I? A coppersmith. I know nothing of the ways of the gods.”
“Only men honor the bull?” Blaze asked.
“Oh, no, women do too. And men honor the leopard. But the priest curries favor with the merchants and identifies with the bull.”
Blaze did not pursue the matter. It was clear that the priest had power regardless of the wishes of ordinary folk. That confirmed what he had learned from Seed. The priest was dangerous—unless he lost his power.
Blaze and Stone walked across the roofs to rejoin the women at their chambers. Stone was excited. “They have more good material—they know more about stoneworking than I ever knew. There is much I can learn here.”
“The same for fire,” Blaze said.
“Half the blades I make, I keep,” Stone said. “The others are for the city, to trade for more material and equipment. We shall do well, this way.”
“I get a share of the copper I smelt,” Blaze said. “We can trade that for food or other things.”
“They trade for everything here,” Stone said. “The men told me there are even pretty women who will come to a man every night for a month, for a good obsidian blade.”
Blaze laughed. “That is one thing you don’t need!”
“Yes. But I couldn’t say that, because Seed isn’t supposed to be pretty now.”
“She remains pretty enough, and she is your wife. Say that she wouldn’t like you to spend your blades that way.”
They reached their houses. “We met the neighbors,” Bunny said. “Several boys came to look at the girls.” There was a titter.
“I knew some of those boys,” Seed said. “So I stayed busy elsewhere, and did not speak to them. But Doe and Weasel can do better than those ones.” She lifted her hand to chest height, humorously indicating the rating of the offerings.
Crockson came to guide them to the priestly section of the city. “This is routine, but necessary,” he explained. “The men will meet Boro, and the women will meet Lea. Each will make a token offering, and agree to honor the bull and leopard. Once you are accepted by the priest and priestess, you are citizens of the city. Every month you will have to make a new offering, and you will have to attend the big ceremonies, but that is all.”
Blaze just hoped that it would indeed be routine. He would be satisfied if the priest did not see Seed at all.
They came to a roof on which was sketched a handsome outline of a bull. Here was the bull shrine, obviously. It rose higher than the surrounding roofs, and had a hole in the top of the short wall extending up from the adjacent roof. This was the entrance.
Blaze and Stone entered the hole and descended the ladder after Crockson. The interior was fine and clean, the walls plastered white, and the floor solid throughout. On one wall was mounted a statue of the head of a bull. Near it was an altar on which was mounted a large set of bull horns. Behind this altar stood a man robed in a bull-hide cloak, wearing a smaller set of bull horns.
Crockson went to stand before the man. He bowed his head in a signal of respect. “High Priest of the Bull, I bring two new residents.”
“Are they qualified?” the priest asked.
“Yes. They are father and son. The father is a fire worker and the son is a stonesmith. Both have families.”
“Let them present themselves.”
Crockson stepped back and gestured to Blaze. Blaze walked to the horn altar and bowed his head, honoring the ritual as the manager had explained it. “I am Blaze, of the mountains. I bring this bit of copper as an offering for the favor of the bull.” He held it out.
The priest took the copper. He looked bored. “Do you undertake to pay proper respect to the bull, according to our custom?”
“Yes.”
The priest made a negligent gesture. Blaze retreated, and Stone came to stand at the altar. “I am Stone, of the mountains. I bring this obsidian blade as an offering for the favor of the bull.”
The priest accepted the blade and confirmed that the newcomer would also follow the custom. He dismissed them.
“That was easier than I expected,” Blaze remarked as they rejoined the women.
“He knew I wouldn’t have brought you if you weren’t qualified and ready with offerings,” Crockson said. “Nevertheless, you must try never to annoy him.”
Blaze knew how serious that warning was.
A few roofs over they came to one with a leopard sketched on its surface. The women entered this one, while Blaze and Stone waited outside with Crockson. Men, the manager explained, were generally no more welcome here than women were in the shrine of the bull. But the priestess could make an exception if the whim took her.
After an interval, Bunny’s face showed at the entrance hole. “She asked whether Stone and Shrew were married according to the ritual of the leopardess. She says our marriage ritual is not valid in the city.”
Crockson clapped a hand to his forehead. “I didn’t think of that! She is right. There will have to be a wedding ritual.”
Blaze exchanged a glance with Stone. This smelled like trouble. They did not want to call attention to Seed in any way, and this was bound to. “What must we do?” Blaze asked.
“The man must be married in the presen
ce of his father,” Crockson said. “The woman in the presence of her mother.”
“I am Stone’s father, but Shrew’s mother did not come with us,” Blaze said carefully.
“You will have to explain that to the priestess. Perhaps she will allow a substitute.”
Bunny went back down the ladder. In a moment she reappeared. “The priestess says that since there is already a child, the ceremony must be performed immediately. She knows of a woman who may be willing to serve in lieu of Shrew’s mother, if Shrew is also willing. I will go to talk to this woman, if you will show me the way, City Manager.”
“Of course I will,” Crockson agreed, relieved. “What is her name?”
“Almond. Do you know her?”
Crockson concentrated. “Yes, I believe. She had a daughter who was shamed. Yes, she might do it, because she never had a chance to see her own daughter married. She is a sad woman.”
Blaze kept a straight face. Suddenly he knew that the priestess knew Seed’s identity, and was sending for Seed’s real mother. Bunny, excellent at keeping secrets, would let the woman know most discreetly. Almond was about to be much happier than she had been.
Bunny turned to Blaze as she climbed out of the hole. “Stone must enter, for the ceremony. And so must you. For this purpose it is permitted.” Then she set off with Crockson, expressionless.
They climbed through the hole and down the ladder into the shrine. This one was far more cozy than the other; beautiful woven tapestries were hung on the walls. Between them were sculptures projecting from the walls, not of bulls but of human breasts. On another was a picture in relief of two spotted leopards facing each other. And one of a goddess, her arms and legs spread wide, her long hair streaming sideways, as if blown by a powerful wind.
The girls stood in one corner. The priestess stood before the leopard panel, in a robe that fell open to show parts of her torso from breasts to thighs. Blaze realized that she represented fertility, so she showed her fertile attributes. They were impressive. But perhaps unsurprising, considering her position. She was, after all, the one who had selected Seed for her beauty, and she had certainly selected well. An impressive body was perhaps the prime requisite for this position, though it was evident that intelligence was required to hold it for long.
Blaze had no guide to protocol here, so he used what had been appropriate for the bull shrine. He went to stand before the priestess and bowed his head. “I am Blaze, of the mountains. I am the father of the husband of the woman Shrew.”
“Look at me, Blaze.”
He lifted his eyes to meet hers. Suddenly he felt increasingly uneasy; he had never seen such a calculating yet understanding expression. She seemed to know everything about him, fathoming it through his eyes and his mind laid open behind them.
“I will discuss arrangements with you in a moment,” she said, and looked away. In that manner she dismissed him.
Blaze stepped back, and Stone moved up to fulfill the ritual. Then Lea addressed the others. “I will meet with Blaze in the next chamber. Be seated here. Advise me when the women return.”
The girls, including Seed, settled on their panel. They made a little circle around Tree, who enjoyed walking from one to another, being hugged, and released. Lea ducked through a portal, leading Blaze to the other chamber. This one was evidently a storeroom; the decorations were more subdued, and there were a number of statuettes of the hugely endowed goddess, both sitting and standing. As symbols of fecundity they were extremely apt.
“Sit, Blaze,” the priestess said, taking a stool. Her robe fell farther open, showing her body to his view almost as completely as the naked statues. Blaze sat, fearing what was on her mind.
“I am gratified that Seed found such a good family,” Lea said. “I see that she has a good son, a good husband, and a good love. It would have been better if the three were together.”
This was even worse than he had feared. “We call her Shrew,” he said lamely.
“And so will I, for now, for her identity must be concealed. You have done well in this respect. Is her son yours, as well as her love?”
Seed would not have told her that! The woman had fathomed it herself. It was impossible to avoid the issue. “I do not know.”
“We must retain that doubt. Do you understand why?”
“My son must never know.” He hoped she would not betray that secret.
She smiled. “That, too. But I have a more crucial reason. If Seed’s life is ever threatened by the priest of the bull, tell him the boy is his.”
“That might be true,” Blaze said miserably.
“But only if there is no other way.” She shifted her position, crossing her thighs and folding her robe across her body. She seemed not to care whether anything showed or failed to show. “I mean to use Seed as the final element in the destruction of the priest. The city has suffered the loss of one citizen in five in the past season, to the swamp fever, and he is surely liable for that. When it turns out that he blamed a fertility maiden falsely, he will be done for. I could not make the charge secure, three years ago, but now I believe I can. All I ask of you is that you protect Seed, preserving her anonymity until I can make my move in a few days. Then I will unveil her, and she will testify, and the priest will be discredited and probably killed. Thereafter she will be restored to favor, and indeed may become a priestess of the leopard.”
“That would be good,” Blaze agreed, not thrilled.
“And all secrets will be kept.”
He knew she was threatening him and bribing him, with the same information. He hated being caught, but knew the snare was tight. He had to do whatever she required. “All kept,” he agreed.
Lea rose and moved to the portal. “Bring the boy,” she called.
Seed came, leading Tree. “Let me look at you,” Lea said, putting her hands on Tree’s little shoulders and turning him around. She tousled his hair. “Oh, there is a bug,” she said. “Let me get it out. Hold still, I fear this may hurt.” She ran her fingers through his hair, to the scalp. “There it is.” She made a pinching motion.
Tree jumped, then cried. He ran back to his mother.
“I am sorry,” Lea said. She squeezed something quickly between her fingers and threw it into a nearby pot. “Sometimes they cling so. But it is best to get them out, so they can’t suck the blood.”
Seed looked at Tree’s scalp. It was bleeding from that spot. “Thank you,” she said faintly. “I did not know.”
“We shall say nothing of this,” Lea said. “I’m sure things will be all right.”
They returned to the main chamber. Soon Bunny returned, with another woman of her age. “Almond has agreed to serve, if you agree to allow it, Shrew,” Bunny said.
Seed looked at the woman, and her knees seemed about to give way. “Oh, yes,” she breathed.
“Perhaps you should embrace her, to lend realism to the pretense,” Lea suggested.
Seed almost threw herself at her mother. They hugged each other with such abandon that the girls were surprised. “It would fool me,” Doe remarked.
“She has always been good at deception,” Bunny said.
The girls looked at her, not understanding. Then Doe, who had become quite close to Seed, looked thoughtful. Blaze hoped she was catching on only to the half of it.
They proceeded with the ceremony, which was similar to the mountain one, but without the challenge to Seed’s appearance. Then Almond departed alone, wiping away her tears, and the others returned to their chambers. The day was complete.
The next two days proceeded well enough. Bunny went alone in the evening to visit Almond, to thank her for assisting in the ceremony; they could not risk having Seed do it. Instead Seed, affecting nonchalance, took a pot out to the courtyard for dumping. Blaze was returning from his day at the forge, and kept a wary eye out. Indeed, he knew that the two women had arranged their trips to coincide with his return, so that he could watch to see if any of the other folk crossing the roofs were suspic
ious. A light rain was starting, and the sky was darker than usual for this time, because of the cloud. Most folk were hastening to get under cover.
Everything was ordinary, with one exception. One man was watching Seed intently. Was it just because she was a pretty woman, even when she was trying to mask it? Blaze wasn’t sure. They had done their best to conceal Seed’s identity, so that the priest would not be warned, but if the city manager had by chance made the connection to Seed’s mother, there could be mischief. One passing remark to the priest, by a man who thought nothing of it . . .
Blaze reached his chamber and stepped beyond it. “Stone,” he called in a low voice. “There may be something.”
Stone quickly climbed the ladder and joined him. “I see nothing.” Blaze realized with mild surprise that the lad had, at age seventeen, filled out into a fairly robust young man. Marriage had been good for him. The surprise was that Blaze had not taken the trouble to observe this before.
“The man beyond the courtyard. If he tries to sidle around it to join Shrew, one of us should be near.”
They separated, going at leisurely paces toward the two ends of the courtyard, as if thinking of urinating into it when the woman departed. The man did start moving around the courtyard. Blaze, looking mostly elsewhere, moved to intercept him. But the man moved more quickly, slipping by ahead, and running to catch Seed. He had something in his hand.
Blaze broke into a run, chasing the man. “Seed!” Blaze cried, forgetting himself in his concern. Seed turned—and saw the stranger bearing down on her. She screamed and tried to get out of the way.
The man caught her and lifted his arm. Now Blaze saw the knife. He launched himself, catching the man and blocking the arm before it could descend. Seed dropped to the roof and scrambled away.
The man turned on Blaze, thrusting with his knife. But Blaze had one of his own. He used it as he would when slaughtering a goat, slicing the blade swiftly across the man’s exposed throat.
The man looked surprised as his blood gouted. He made no sound. He couldn’t, after that cut. Then he collapsed.
Isle of Woman (Geodyssey) Page 24