"He began to bubble and shake, no sense out of him, the which Alsander quieted a trifle by assurance that all we desired was food and leave to depart, but his manner smelled of tidings, which we sought. A true carle, this Rodvald, for all the fears that made him gnaw his knuckles. He helped us well with food, and great his tidings were, to wit: when Os Erigu burned, all that camp on the shore opposite was racked and overrun by a monstrous outburst of trolls, hobgoblins, and other uneasy things that had been laid away among its stones and beams by old Earl Mikal, that builded the place, who was lover to some witchwife queen that I forget the name on. The laboring carles in their camp ran away, in spite of the sword; all was confusion. Some say Bordvin Wildfang the Marshal was eat up of trolls as he tried to stay the rout by spells, some that he was slain by the Count Vulk himself when that one went mad with fear— or by Sthenophon the Permandene. The only thing sure is that the great Marshal's dead as last year's stockfish, the barons of the northern cities are all called in with their terciaries, the rocks shake as they wrangle with each other to the fall of all. Live Dalarna! Live Carrhoene!"
33 The Coast of Skogalang: Fourth Tale of the Well
THEY ALL BECAME a little drunken after that, but dawn and cold reflection brought not only another ship, a cog down from Lectis, the old city, to join them, but also the thought that the Vulkings had feuded before and their realm not died of it, whenas a certain way to make these enemies put by their mutual quarrels was to present them with a trouble from without against which their factions might unite. The plan was still to winter in Skogalang; all the next day was spent in loading provisions to the greater ships from the galley and burning the latter. The vessel of Lectis had brought some reinforcement and Airar knew their leader for that golden-haired junior who had sat with him at the table of The Old Sword in Naaros long ago; his name was Oddel, Kevilson.
On the day beyond they sailed—down toward the coast of Shalland. Behind fell the rough capes of Norby where they jut to the sea, and each night the argosy hauled in toward shore, but without winning more tidings. The low scores of Shalland were left behind, they passed Vallingsveden's muddy run on a day when it blew storm. A wearisome journey; as might be expected, Alvar's son sought oftenest the company of Meliboe or of the Stassian sisters, but the latter were not easy to separate from their brother, who on the ship seemed to come forth like a butterfly under sun, all airs as though he were commander. Nor was the enchanter of much avail; answered kindly enough when spoken to, but deep in some concern of his own. If Airar stayed waking late, there would not seldom be seen through the wizard's doorcrack the streaks of particolored light, or heard the sharp susurrus which told that spells were made. Once and again, as they lay over in the evening, the older man appeared in the last light and bent a tiny bow with a string made from his own garment against some bird that sought harborage in the rigging. Airar knew of the enchantment; would make the bird a gossip and familiar. Yet none came more than once to the ship, and he could only guess that there might be magics at work against Meliboe's own—as they voyaged down to where the dark wintry rims of Skogalang rose from the shore eastward.
Now as Skogalang comes rolling to the sea under its fur of forest, the coast-towns are these: Diupaa Bramsos, that is called by the Vulkings, Vervilla, since they have a watch castle on the cape that stands forth there; Smarnaravida and The Heyr. None are great and only the second has walls, for the men of Skogalang love no cities. Yet it was considered—Rogai protesting that it made them outlaws in their own land—unwise to run in on any but the first and the last. The Carrhoenes kept close aboard at Diupaa; Rogai went in to find some of the Iron Ring and send word through the woods to Sir Ludomir Ludoomirson that he should rendezvous with them at The Heyr.
The knight was punctual to that rendezvous, coming to the ships on a grey day when bits of ice tinkled among the ropes, and the wind blew cold. Inshore the dark forest came down in waves to the water's edge, pine and black branches mingled; of the town round its wide bay there was nothing visible but a few houses whose builders had desired a sea view, it being the custom of Skogalang that trees grow into the very streets. Out westerly a line of foam broke on the harbor bar, and Sir Ludomir came over the rail hugging fur about him. His greeting was a hand-touch only before he stepped toward the bowels of the ship, where mulled wine and a fire on the roundstone waited. At this moment who should come forth from the forward cabin but mincing Aurareus with one of his bully-boys. (The other Airar had not seen since the fire; suspected Pleiander of having knifed him in that tumult, but had forborne to ask.) The knight looked; fell on one knee, doffed cap, and took the hand to kiss which Aurareus loftily extended.
"My Prince and very gracious lord."
"You have our favor."
Now as they sat before the roundstone Meliboe came in. Sir Ludomir took to his feet: "What's, here?" said he. "Sirs, do you admit to your secret councils the dastard of Well and Empire, who touches the unbearable thing? Small wonder your proceedings have fared but ill."
Meliboe sat down without a word, but Alsander spoke for all. "Ill you may call our doings, sir, but there are some of us, and I one, who would say that mauger the castle's loss, the whole mad Vulking rule racks toward ruin after this siege."
"Would you have us throw off those who stood with us when hope was dead?" chimed Rogai, and this was so much Airar's own thought that he could add nothing to it.
"I do not know on that. But of one thing I am very sure — that you will never be able to accomplish high purpose with the help of demons and devils, for these things the Vulkings do use, and we are against them. How shall magics maintain their mastery if they labor one against another? Nay, there's one end to all gramary, and that is to increase the profit of the men of Briella."
Said Meliboe: "Sir, I know you will not hear me, but for these others I do declare that it is the nature of all things beyond the world never to agree; and I hold it no crime nor sin to increase their contentions, the more since all this rule against which we toil is centered in witchery. What!—it was very witchery that brought down Bordvin Wildfang, the great warrior and wizard."
It seemed to Airar that he could recall a day when this magician had left Briella because they would not let him practice the philosophies he now condemned; but he said nothing, for Sir Ludomir had extended a long delicate hand:
"Sir Meliboe, you are a very good sophister; oh, you will make black white. Yet the laws of the Well forbid the practice of your art save in protection, which you will never consent to do as a limit; and the stay of all these lands is the House, and of the House, the Well."
"The Well!" Airar could not restrain himself from exclaiming, who had come to doubt of that great wonder from Argyra's saying; and it must be that he put his doubts into his tone, for Sir Ludomir turned on him like the pivot of a catapult.
"Young sir, I am told that you are become a notable and cunning warrior since last we met, when you were no more than this traitor magician's message-bearer; and great may be your luck. But that luck will decay, I say, unless you have respect to the Well and the rule of the Well that is the world's mainstay, for even the savage beasts pay heed to it.
"Hark you, young sir: my hair is mostly grey, but till it snows and the snow melts, I shall not forget the day when I went thither with our Emperor that is, His Majesty Auraris, for the drinking of his bridal with the Knight of Bremmery's daughter that should sweep away all sins and pasts from them both. He was not a young man then; we must wait by the way in a beechen wood, and it was spring. A she-wolf came out of a thicket to snarl at us. It was marked that she had a bobbed tail and a crop ear and two cubs behind her as we presently saw, but when our lord would have had her taken, his bride said; 'Sweet prince, by whom I shall soon lie in wedded affection, let one woman plead for another, and give me her life.'
"Therefore His Majesty Auraris did no less; he, an Emperor from the golden throne of Stassia, spared the life of the she-wolf. We continued our path; the wolf followed, I d
o not know whether for curiosity or her own love of our lord, with her cubs trotting behind. Since it was the order to spare, there were those of the train who left for her a bone or a scrap of meat. At the gate of the Well all paused but His Majesty and His Majesty's lady, but we saw the shewolf scramble among the rocky slopes to follow round, as though she would not be parted from them. When His Majesty came forth later with his bride, their eyes no less than shining for peace and joy, she told us of a wonder; how as they pledged each other in the marvellous cup, the she-wolf had slipped past to the well edge and lapped from the spring, then lifted her muzzle to cry before those lovers Imperial as in salute.
"Sirs, I do assure you that same wolf was later seen by hunters near the region of the Well, who knew by her signs indisputable, to wit: the bob tail, the crop ear, and the twin cubs. Sirs, it was a moon or more later, that same spring; they saw this wolf run a deer, and the venison caught by its horns in a thicket. But when she reached the deer it turned its head, and that wild wolf, in spite of being thin with hunger and the young cubs beside her, did give a cry as remembering the peace put upon her by the Well, so slunk away and let the hunters take her meekly. Yet you, young sir, who could have to our aid against the Vulkings the wonders of this wonder that can so work on the savage beasts, you would reject this all to consort with this common herb-brewer."
"Sir—" began Airar, hardly knowing what would come after the one word, and from the side of his eye seeing Meliboe's lips twist to laughter amid his straggle-beard. But before more:
"By God!" said the lord of Os Erigu and his fist banged down as he stood up. "By God! Men keep close from tidings in Skogalang. Reverence for your principles, sir councillor, but for your knowledge, none. Did you not know, indeed, that it is precisely against this rotten House we war, that sells its daughters to Briella's bed and sends its androgyne rat of an heir to be a Vulking spy?"
Sir Ludomir looked like a man who had been struck across the face. "Sir Earl, I am your guest and my knightly duty forbids me to challenge you here, but if you will come to land I may say words that will not be wiped out in blood; to wit, I would say that you lie."
Said Airar to tall Erb: "My honor to the Princess Argyra, and will she join us here for a litte space? You
must say that Sir Ludomir Ludomirson is here."
For a brief moment there was no word in the cabin, as Sir Ludomir shivered and pulled at his fur. A light step and she came; the old knight knelt. "Rise," said she, "and sit. I am glad to see my father's councillor. Does all march well with you?"
"Well enough, since I have met your eye. But they do tell me of Stassia things incredible."
She smiled. "They are probably good truth. Was it that my sister was affianced to Count Vulk, and that I would have been taken by Sthenophon of Permandos, but for Lord Mikalegon and the sword of Master Airar?"
He caught breath. "Most gracious lady, I do not question you, but I am of the Council and this touches me nearly. Whose thought could that marriage bond be?"
She shrugged. "The Council's, at Vulk's own suit; the Scroby barons and Sons of the Well. My father—my father—"
"His Majesty is reverend with years and should have good advising from those he has maintained so long."
"There was an embassy with a hard-faced, red-haired man, Vanne, Vanness—"
"Vanette-Millepigue, the Red Baron of Naaros," said Rogai and said it with a snarl.
"I thank you. That would be it. I do not know all the ins and outs, Sir Ludomir, but only that my sister was so affianced, and Aurareus and I to accompany her."
The knight bowed, face working like that of a man who hears the thunders of a tilting world. "My duty, Madame. Lord Mikalegon, I offer you my touch and half of an apology. But upon this matter of the Prince of the House, I make none apology. It is the office we must serve, and should the man be mean, the more our high chivalric duty bids us uphold the place."
"May I withdraw?" said Argyra.
"Gracious lady, withdraw or stay as you will. Nothing in the counsels of its subjects is secret from the members of the House." But when she had gone, he turned a face of death: "A grave and terrible thing has been done here, and I cannot see to the bottom of it. Oh, for the wings of a hippogriff to fly beyond the sea and summon these false councillors who counsel to an Empire's fall."
Said Meliboe the enchanter: "Sir Ludomir, you will not believe my good will, but believe my information. When last I was called to Briella, this thing was already moot—the Count Vulk's plan, since it had reached his ear that the Imperial succession might fall into a female line from such an heir. The Marshal opposed, and not a few of the Vulking Council; you know the old custom of these folk, that they will never have honors hereditary. I know that the Baron Vanette-Millepigue was to be trained in the spells of asisdras and sobrathim that he might draw the Imperial council to his will, while for those who were Sons of the Well and immune to such magics, there was another enchantment, to wit: that of gold. Such was the plan when last I learned it, but all would have been put aside for a time by the revolt of Mariupol and the war of Salmonessa."
"Why, this is treason most damnable," said Sir Ludomir, "though no more than was to be expected from Vulkings. Small wonder I was not summoned to Stassia when these things were in debate." He pulled a lip. "But I do marvel that the council delegates of the Twelve Cities sent us no warning. They were ever friendly to the Dalecarle kindred. Would they be taken in this baron's wizardous snares?"
Evadne barked a laugh: "Dog-smellers!" said she, and Evimenes: "Old sir, save for the Phyladeans who hate us and Dalarna, too, the Dodekapolis marches no longer in the council of the Empire. They are under this People's Party, that will own duties to the Well, but none to the House."
"Ha, is it so? The mists clear a little, but only toward the past. What's to do? You leave me terraced to the ground, in a world unknown."
"Sir," said Alsander, "it was our thought to winter here in Skogalang, while you and Master Rogai through your Iron Ring seek tidings of how passes the feud of the
Vulkings in the north. We plan for no longer, since we are somewhat disagreed, and all hangs by the circumstances of our foes. But we brothers are still persuaded that we shall do down these men of the Mountain till we beat them in a battle, and for that, there's no hope but in our armored riders of the Twelve Cities. We brethren say then—raise what force we can here, but not to fight here. Come to Carrhoene; many from the Dalecarle factory there will join, set us free from dog-smeller rule, and we're your own men for this great campaign in the north."
"A fair offer," said Sir Ludomir, "but what's the price? Who pays your riders?"
"I did not mention price. This is alliance," said Alsander, but he colored under his dark skin, and the knight turned to Rogai:
"Your word also?"
"By no means, now. Rouse the forest-masters of Skogalang. We shall have the castellas of the whole province before they're ware the wolf is running. Slip northeastward, rouse the Whiteriverdales, cut all the passes southward, draw in force from Vastmanstad, and make our own war in the woods as King Argimenes did in the silver years."
"Being not unhelped by soldiery from the Lacias. We do not fight rash heathen now;, without troops regular it will be less than easy to counter these hard Vulkings that make a life of war," said Sir Ludomir. "I do find these plans infect with day-dream. Has any a sounder thought?—But halt here; I perceive these are the bones of schemes already picked clean, and so far nothing's lost. Is it still your fixed determination to plot and plot for the ears of this magicman that has already betrayed two former masters?"
Silence. Then Airar said: "For my part, it is."
"I will stand with the young master," growled Mikalegon, and Rogai: "And I."
"Then someone must yield, and for concord, 'twill be myself, though I fear this will end ill." He made the sign of religion and shivered lightly as though the chill gust from without had stirred his bones.
Now Meliboe lifted his head, who had sat
looking down, modest as a milkmaid since his first speech. "You do no wrong, sir knight," said he. "For I know the thought that is at the back of your own mind without hearing a word about it, so that to exclude me would have gained you nothing but the ill will of many. It is that all here do but peck and tickle round the heart of the whole matter, the said heart being the tie that would bind the House to Vulk, make it an Empire of Vulk. Ah, if that succeeds, all's sped with you; he would maybe poison the very Well, as he has already poisoned lives by closing the lyceums, taxing out the free farmers of Vastmanstad, setting slaves to curb the wool-staple of Mariupol. You have right, sir knight: whatever else is done, you must go to Stassia instanter, seek a full council, put down those bewitched and bribed, cancel the contract of this iniquitous marriage. But you have also wrong: if the war-spirit of these young Dalecarle masters be broke, all's lost. It will then be no distant day when the armies of the red triangle march in the High House of the Empire. For your war-plan you must look to Master Airar; I have taken his divination and you will surely never find another so lucky in all he does by the sword."
Sir Ludomir hawk-shadowed his eyes: "Hand clips marvellous close to hand, it seems—but have you a war-plan then, young sir?"
"Nay, sir," said Airar, flushing, "nor can have. Do we not know too little for true planning? But this I know: that after we burned the Permandenes at Bear Fjord, our enemies could not move by sea. We could make a new Os Erigu in the Isles of Gentebbi, from whence move south to Carrhoene, west to Stassia, north to Dalarna, as occasion serves."
All now approved this plan after little more discussion, save that when Erb said Marshal Bordvin would have sadly eaten out those islands, the vote was still for Skogalang till spring. One ship should take Sir Ludomir across the Blue Sea and so they rose, with Meliboe touching Airar's arm for a word as they left. "Hark, young master," said he, when occasion came; "I know better than you that your plan's no plan—a lip-answer to keep clap-jaw quiet till time's womb gives birth. It was well done but fear Gentebbi."
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