by J Battle
The pain subsided somewhat, and Sam stood up and placed his hands against the cool granite blocks that made up the wall of the dam. The water ran down his arms and wet his sleeves within seconds.
‘I’m just going to say them there words, and I’ll think something like ‘stick together, and don’t ye go breaking on us,’ and I reckon that’ll do for now.’
‘Yes, Sam. That should be fine.’
Sam felt a flush rising in his cheeks at her gentle words.
‘'Ishulf ed ...’
‘Wait!’ the old Mage shouted from half-way down Main Street. ‘Stop; don’t do it. You don’t know what you’re doing there.’
The boys and The Lady turned from the wall and watched as he laboured up the street.
‘I…shouldn’t…have given you the words,’ Evens gasped as he reached them, resting one hand on Sam’s broad shoulder. ‘I’ve thought it over some more, after you went like, and I’ve made a mistake.'
He paused then to catch his breath; his eyes resting on the half-opened bag.
'That wall is nigh on 500 years old,' he continued, nodding all the while, 'and it has been supported by the Magic of one Wellstone after another for all that time, and it hasn't been messed with or changed either. So, you can’t just come along and say a few words and act like you know what you be doing. The Stone likes you, Sam, but you ain’t ready. You’d likely enough just tear the whole thing down about your ears, you would.’
Sam stepped away from the wall, as if it was about to do just as the old Mage had suggested.
Alice glanced from Evens to Sam, and then to the wall.
‘So, Mr Evens,’ she said. ‘You’ll have a solution to our problem, I think.’
He shook his grey head and clasped his hands together; perhaps to hide their shaking.
‘I…well, no…if you allow me to beg your pardon, my Lady.’
‘I see.’ There was sudden steel in her voice. ‘In that case, perhaps you could leave us to go about our business here? There are things that have to be done, and they can only be done by those who are willing to do them. Am I right, Sam?’
‘Y-yes, my Lady. Yes, my Lady.’ Sam nodded as if that might make him feel better about his agreement.
‘Then mayhap we’ll see you later when we celebrate Sam’s heroic achievement here.’ She turned away from the old Mage, her voice frosty with dismissal.
‘No, my Lady, you can’t let him do it. He’s willing, and he’s strong enough, but this needs a subtle touch, and bless the boy, he’ll never be subtle.’
‘My Lady,’ said Tom. ‘I think Mr Evens wants to say more, but mayhap the words are sticking in his craw. So, I can say them for him, I think, ‘cause I can always say words, and I reckon you know that.’
‘What would you say on behalf of Mr Evens, Tom?’
‘Well, I’d only say ‘get yourself out of the way there, Sam, my lad. This is a job for a grown man, not a whelp, big as you are,’ and then I’d say, ‘begging your pardon my Lady, but this ain’t no job for a lady neither, so go and stand yourself behind Sam, there,’ and then I’d say…’
‘That is more than enough there Tom,’ interrupted the old Mage. ‘Let me say the words myself; it will certainly not take as long. My Lady, I’ve said, many, many times, that I’d never lay my hands on that Stone again, but…'
He stopped then, as his eyes studied the wall before them.
'But, if it must be done…' He paused again, as if he couldn't quite force the words out. 'Then there’s no-one else to do it, and so I will, and pay the cost.’
Alice put a gentle hand on his shoulder. ‘Thank you, Mr Evens; thank you so much. I know how hard this will be for you.’
'Hard, My lady? There hardly seems enough letters in that short word to describe what I must do.'
He gave a half-smile that convinced no-one.
'So, Sam. As Tom said, I would have you move to one side, but pay good attention though, for the more you learn, the better mage you will be.'
'I ain't a mage, Mr Evens,' protested Sam, 'and I never will be.'
'Ay Sam, you might think that, but, as you can well see, before the Lady, we have to be more than we can guess.'
The old man knelt before the bag, his ancient limbs bending slowly to the task.
'I reckon I'll need help to get myself back up again.'
Sam smiled and stepped closer. 'Now, that I can do, Mr Evens.'
Evens closed his eyes and held his shaking hands above the open bag. His mouth moved silently as he spoke the words to himself; words he'd spoken so many times before. Somehow, they gave him the courage, and he lowered his hands.
'Aagh!' The pain gripped him so strongly that his body bent almost double and he shook as he fought the Stone's hunger.
'I…can't…' he gasped, his voice no more than a croak.
Sam moved behind him and put his broad hands on the old man's shoulders, and the shaking stopped.
'There…there, Mr Evens. That'll be alright, I think. You can let go now, if you wants to, I'd say.'
Evens turned his head and looked directly into Sam's eyes.
'Thank you,' he whispered, as he pulled his twisted and blackened hands from the Stone. 'I don't know what happened. It's never been so hungry before; not for so many years at least. I can't feel my hands...it feels so strange.'
'Don’t you worry now, Mr Evens. I'll help you up, and I'll hold you up if need be.'
Sam stepped around the old Mage, and he gently took his hands in his, and he seemed to whisper one or two words, and his eyes glowed, and his smile split his face as he healed the old man's damaged digits.
'That'll be fine now, Mr Evens,' he said, softly, as he pulled him to his feet.
Tom glance at Alice and raised his eyebrows, but she only had eyes for Sam.
With one arm supporting Evens, Sam placed his free hand against the streaming wall.
'Go on now, Mr Evens. We'll do this together. You can be subtle, and I don't rightly know what that means, and I can be strong. And together, we'll fix this old wall and make it as good as new.'
Evens leant both hands on the wall, and his back seemed to straighten.
His lips quivered as he began to speak.
'Ishulf ed Pluts nel at forsumd ig nas Kla.'
He repeated the words three times, and each time the wall around their hands seemed to glow, but the light faded almost immediately.
Evens dropped his hands, and the strength seemed to go from his back. Sam caught his limp body and lowered him to the ground away from the damp wall.
'Well, that weren't much of a show, and that's the truth,' said Tom as Alice bent to minister to the old man.
'Will he be alright there, my Lady?' asked Sam.
'Let me see to him, Sam. He's a very old man, and who can say what such a trial would do to him? I only wish that it hadn't been necessary. I hope that this was not his last service to his people.'
Chapter 70 Giants
'Dum de dum. De dum de. Dum dum de.'
Raarvan glanced at his old friend as they tramped along.
'I know that there tune,' he said, 'but there were proper words, I reckon.'
'Ah, mayhap there were, but I don't know them. But that won't stop me singing, see as it won't.'
They'd walked for a day and a half without a break, for Giants don't feel fatigue easily; not when there's a chance of a meal at the end of their trek. The coast was far behind them, and they'd got beyond the muttering of complaints stage as they climbed the hills.
'Hold on there a minute, Aarvarn, with your noise,' said Raarvan, as he dropped his hand on his friend's shoulder with a force that would have felled at Hoarbeast.
'I was just getting to the good part.'
'Ain't no good parts when it's you who's singing. Now shush, and hold your mouth shut if you have to.'
Aarvarn scowled at him, but he still complied.
'Can you hear that?' whispered Raarvan.
His companion tilted his head and put a serious ex
pression on his face, as if that would help him hear.
'I can't just hear them, I can feel them,' he said at last.
'Ay, I can feel them well enough, 'cause they be over the next hill, or the one after that, mayhap. A couple of hundred Giants will shake the ground as they walk, and that's true enough. But can ye hear them?'
Aarvarn nodded and then his eyes locked on Raarvan's.
'They be singing,' he said, his voice all hushed.
'And ye know what that means. If they be walking in a line, and trampling all before them, and they be singing as they go's, then that must mean…'
'King Kelvorn is with them, and he sure likes a singalong.'
'But…we'll have to talk to him, we will. We'll have to lie to his great big hairy face.'
Aarvarn stopped.
'We cain't be doing that' he protested, his eyes fixed on the summit of the hill before them.
'Well, the Lady-woman, she said we'd go hungry if we didn't, and we don't like to go hungry, do we?'
'No…but…we don't like to lie to the King neither.'
Raarvan shook his shaggy head, and he bent his back a little, as far as a Giant can bend, and then he pursed his lips and blew a low-pitched whistle.
'Right, I've thought on it, and this is what I say. If the King, he goes and sits us down with enough food and ale to fill our bellies after this long trek, and he smiles and says good day and all, then we'll tell him the truth, and that'll be fine. But if he frowns and shouts, and he's all nasty to us, then we'll lie in his face and send him on the wrong way and come back and the Lady-woman will feed us and give us a nice smile.'
Aarvarn nodded as he began to speak, and then he shook his head as the words kept coming. Finally, when his friend had finished, he sighed and dropped his shoulders.
'I don't rightly know what you said there, 'cause I likes words to come in small parcels, but I got food and shouting and food and smiles, so I reckon I'll just agree with you, 'cause you must know what you said.'
'That'll be fine, there, Aarvarn. You just do as I do.'
Together, they climbed the low summit, and the one after that, and a third summit that Raarvan hadn't expected.
Below them, across a wide shallow valley, they could see the line of Giants walking over the land, with the slow drum of their feet and the low tone of their song, (with actual words) washing before them.
‘You’ll be doing the talking, won’t you?’ grunted Aarvarn as they began their final descent.
‘Ay, don’t you worry none about that, not at all.’
Aarvarn nodded and smiled.
Less than an hour later, they were standing in a green dell speckled with yellow flowers which Aarvarn had discovered were not at all nice to eat.
The first of the Giants emerged over the summit of the gentle slope. He was broad and hairy, and his belly wobbled as he walked, and his beard was split into two braids which bounced off his stomach whenever he took a step.
‘Ho, there,’ he said, coming to a stop. ’How did ye get ahead on me? I thought I was in the lead. You’ll be in big trouble off the king, if he finds out, and that’s as sure as a Giant can be, and that’s mighty sure.’
‘Not to worry, stranger. We ain’t part of your group; we comes on our own, we does, and we have sure news for the king, we do.’
The new Giant nodded as Raarvan spoke, with his hands clasped together beneath his belly, as if it needed the support.
‘I’m not sure about this. The king, he said to lead the way and scout out what’s to be found, and now all I’ve found is you, and I don’t reckon that’s what he meant. He’ll be mad at me, he will, so you just scurry off and hide behind a tree or something, and then he won’t know what I did wrong, though I don’t rightly know myself.’
‘We have to speak to the king, because we have an important message for him.’
Aarvarn nodded in time to his friend’s words.
‘No, he won’t like that, he won’t. He likes things the way he says them, and no different. He surely don’t like to be surprised.’
‘What’s your name, there?’
‘My Ma called me Hard, and my Pa, he just called me Son, so my name is Hardson.’
‘Well there, Hardson, it is good to meet you. Now, you’ve got yourself a problem, and that’s no doubt. But we can help, can’t we Aarvarn?’
His friend took a step backwards, surprised to be brought into the conversation.
‘I…yes?’
‘There you go, see, Aarvarn here don’t say much, which is all for the best. Now, what can we be doing to help you?’
‘You could go and hide behind a tree like I said.’
‘Now Hardson, there ain’t a tree in the land that could hide Aarvarn’s belly, and that’s the truth. So, the king sent you to scout out the land and find out what’s to be found. Well, we been where you were going, and we had a look around like, so we know there ain’t nothing to see between here and the sea, not to the south and east at least. So, if the king says are there any towns going that way, then you can just step up and say ‘no Sire, there ain’t nothing worth looking at that way, ‘cause I rushed ahead and searched it already, and I seen with my own eyes, I did, Sire.’’
Hardson scratched his head and scrunched up his broad red nose.
‘I don’t know. He might start shouting. He likes to shout, he does, and I don’t like to be shouted at.’
Raarvan took him by the arm. ’Let’s go and find the king, and if he starts his shouting, then he’ll only be shouting at me.’
Hardson allowed himself to be led up the hill as the strange Giant seemed to know what he was doing, which made it much easier.
Over the next hill, they found a large group of Giants, standing more or less in line, because it's hard to make a Giant stand still where you've put him, unless it's before a large pile of food.
'He wants to speak to the king,' said Hardson, as they drew closer.
A large, round individual standing in front of the line shook his large head.
'No, no; you don't want to do that, you don't. Not today, anyways. He's not in a good mood today, so come back here tomorrow and you might have more luck.'
'We can't come back tomorrow. We's busy people and we can't be hanging around waiting on the king.'
'Well, if you say so, and it's your neck on the line, he's just over there. You can see him and hear him if you like, because he's not a quiet Giant.'
With Hardson dropping back behind Aarvarn, Raarvan led the way.
'Greetings, Sire, ' he said, when he was a few yards from the king, and then he struck himself a glancing blow on the forehead with his fist.
The king turned and glowered at him. He was big, even for a Giant, with long braided hair and his full beard glistening with gold.
'What do you want?' he snapped.
'Who are you?' he grunted.
'What's he doing, hiding behind you?' he bellowed.
'Sire, if you please, my name is Raarvan, and this here behind me, he's Aarvarn, and behind him, that's your scout.'
The king pursed his lips, and then he frowned, and then he was back to glowering.
'We've travelled a long way, we have, and we're fair tired out, and hungry and thirsty, we are…'
Raarvan fell silent for a moment to give the king a chance to come up with a generous offer of ale and food, but none was forthcoming.
'We came from the south and the east, we did, and there ain't much of anything that way, and that's for sure, and that's why we surely could do with a bite to eat.'
The King stared at him for a long moment, and then he shifted his gaze to Aarvarn, who'd stepped out of line at the prospect of food and ale.
'So, there be no food that way? And you've travelled for days without a bite or a drink?' His words were slow and ponderous, as if he was lining them up one by one.
'Yes, Sire, and we're about to faint with weakness, we are.'
'So, when did you eat last, would you say?'
'Well, Sire, let me think. We left the main body of the percussion seven days ago, and we'd just had a good bite then, and we haven't had any food since, have we Aarvarn?'
Aarvarn lowered his head and gave it a shake, followed by a nod. 'No..yes…I don't know. What was the question?'
'See there, Sire, his brain's been addled by hunger, and it weren’t much to start with.'
The king nodded and scratched his impressive and regal belly.
'Now, stranger, I see you friend there, and I reckon he's a messy eater, 'cause there are stains aplenty on his blouse there. And I know my stains, I do. I can see two-day old gravy stains on his left, and that be the juice of a roasted cow on his right, and I reckon that won't be older than two days neither.'
Raarvan studied the stains on his friend's clothes, and he had to nod, for a Giant does know his stains.
'Yes, Sire, you have sharp eyes there. But, you see, he weren't with me on the south east, no he weren't. 'Cause, he were in the south west, and that's where he got himself fed so well, and we met just over yonder hill, and came along to tell you what we found, and I told you what I found, and now he'll tell you what he found, won't you Aarvarn?'
Aarvarn hadn't followed all of the words, but he knew a question when he heard one, so he nodded gravely, to show that he agreed, with a quick shake to follow, just in case he wasn't meant to agree.
'Tell him, Aarvarn, about that city you found, full of people who wanted to give us food and ale.'
Aarvarn looked blank for a moment, and then he frowned.
'I thought we weren't meant…'
'That city on the south west, along the coast road, in a westerly direction. That's what you told me, anyways.'
'Oh…to the west. Oh yes…I remember now. It were very nice, it was.'
'And they had plenty of food?' The king stepped closer.
'Yes, Sire. More than enough. Could feed us for a month, I reckon.'
'And why did you leave then, if there was so much food?'
'Because, Sire…because I didn't want you to miss the town. I didn't want you to go the other way where there ain't nothing, no town, no lake, no Lady-woman; nothing.'
The king reached out and dropped a heavy hand on his shoulder.