by J Battle
‘There you go, Garraldi, I reckoned you must be good for something,’ said the Giant, with a laugh so loud and deep that she couldn’t help but smile along with him.
‘Good for something? Well, I don’t know about that. I’ve been good for nothing all my life, have I not, Cavour?’
‘Ay, I’ve heard it said once or twice, or more,’ Cavour answered as he took a grip on his tankard. ‘Make sure he watches his manners with you, my dear, for he hasn’t been near a woman for quite some time.’
‘I’ll be nothing but a gentleman, I assure you, and you can go and ignore my brother for he can be quite fanciful, and I’d be surprised if it hasn’t been even longer since a woman gave him the benefit of her...intimate company.’
Esmereld gave him a quick hard look. ‘A hogshead is all you’ll be getting your hands on here, sir,’ she said, before she turned her back on him and marched across the room.
‘I expected no more, my dear,’ said Garraldi as he hurried after her.
‘Here, Ferrooll, take his ale whilst he’s gone. With his eyes on that girl, he may not even notice.’ Cavour planted the tankard in the middle of the Giant’s already raised hand.
‘It will serve as taster, but no more.’ To prove his point the tankard was empty within a couple of seconds.
With a delicate burp, he wiped his mouth and turned his head this way and that, as if searching for more.
‘It’s so good to have you all back; Father, Mr Cavour and Mr Ferrooll. And to meet your brother, Mr Cavour.’ Alice couldn’t seem to move her smile from her face.
‘Mr Ferrooll, is it? No need for a Mr with me, young lady. You call a Giant by his name and I don’t see why you’d need to be adding anything else on, like.’
‘And Cavour is fine by me, Lady Alice; no need for honourifics with me either.’
‘Honourifics? Is that what he said? Sounds like a fancy word for a Mr, but you humans with your clever little minds, mayhap that’s why you need so many words for the same thing, to keep them busy. I hear humans like to be busy. Is she back with that hogshead? Has it been a long time? Feels like a long time.’
‘She’ll be back soon enough,’ said Richard, giving Alice a quick wink, ‘but are you sure you are up to drinking a full hogshead?’
‘Up to drinking a full hogshead? I don’t know what you mean. When she brings it, she wants to go right back and get another one for sure, I’m that thirsty.’
‘She’ll be a busy girl then, I‘d say,’ said a new voice from the doorway. ‘For she’ll need another two and mayhap a half a hogshead to go with them.’
The party turned as one. Alice smiled and nodded, and then she frowned. Neither Richard nor Cavour knew her, but both judged her worth a careful study. Ferrooll turned his massive head and furrowed his brow.
‘I reckon I heard that voice before, or something like it at least,’ he said, slowly.
Ellaine strode forward with a lightness to her step.
‘Ay, lad, you’re not far from right.’
‘Lad? A little human woman calls a Giant, ‘Lad,’ what does that mean?’
She reached up and patted his shoulder. ‘Even a fully-grown Giant such you are is nought but a child to me dear, so don’t be fretting about it.’
‘Ellaine Woewearer, is that you?’
‘Ay, Ferrooll, and I can see terrible things have happened to you since last we met.’
‘Don’t you go all worrisome about my eyes, I do well enough without them. I have Cavour over there at the table. He pretends to be my eyes, he does, though he’s not near as good as Ben was. Too many words, if you ask me.’
Ellaine bowed to Cavour. ‘Pleased to meet you, sir.’
Cavour looked suddenly flustered at her attention, as if he was suddenly 14 Summers of Age and had never been kissed. ‘I...and...and to you...I’m...pleased.’
‘Ellaine, is that really you? You’ve changed somewhat since we last met,’ said Richard, as he walked around the table.
‘Ay, lad.’ She held up her arms and it seemed the most natural thing in the world for him to step between them and wrap his arms around her small frame.
They held each other for a moment, and the tears were a surprise to him.
‘There, there, lad,’ she said, and she patted his back. ‘You need this, lad, you do. You’ve denied yourself for too long. And it’s mayhap my fault, for I set you on the task and I can see it was a hard road you’ve walked. But, for now, it’s over and you’re with family and friends.’
‘What’s all this? Hugs and kisses and tears? And no-one’s hugging or kissing me?’
Ellaine pulled away from Richard, and the concern fell from her face as she turned to the enormous man who filled the doorway.
‘Whatever are you talking about there, Rootheart? You had more kisses and hugs than you deserve already today, and it is hardly night.’
‘Just saying, my dear. When a man walks into a tavern and finds his woman in the arms of a stranger, then...’
‘Your woman! Your woman? Is that what you called me, you big lump? I’m Ellaine Woewearer and I belong to no man. Not even a big handsome half-giant such as you.’
‘I was only...Hang on a minute, there. I just saw you there, sitting with your back to me as if I wouldn’t see you.’
Cavour turned to face him. ‘Good day to you Rootheart. It is good to see you looking so well.’
‘You left me with that...creature, and you ran off with the Stone.’
‘You seem well enough for all that.’
‘Ay, but you didn’t know that.’
‘We had a plan.’
‘Ay, and did you succeed? Is the Stone passed beyond the reach of man? That’s what you said, or something like.’
‘It is, and it has been destroyed.’
‘That’s good. That’s good. So, why am I still mad at you?’
‘That’s a question, Rootheart, that only you can answer.’
Rootheart huffed and puffed. He frowned and he puffed out his lips. Then he chewed the bottom lip for a while and he scratched his mop of red hair.
Then he sighed and shook his head. ‘Just won’t come to me. I knew I was angry at you for something, but I can’t rightly say what it was.’
‘So, we are friends once more?’
‘Were we friends?’
‘You saved my life, and that goes a long way to making you a friend in my considered opinion.’
Rootheart considered that for a moment.
‘And the Wellstone is destroyed? Well, that goes a long way...to whatever you said.’
Cavour held out his hand.
Rootheart grinned and accepted it. His grin grew wider as he began to squeeze.
‘Argh! You’re crushing my hand, you big...’
Rootheart released him. ‘I’m still a little bit mad at you and I’ll tell you why, when it comes to me.’
Chapter 51 Giants
Just as Garraldi and Esmereld returned with a hogshead of ale, there was a disturbance outside the door of the tavern. Not a fist throwing, sword stabbing, blood spilling sort of disturbance. More of a sudden outbreak of politeness, with lots of, ‘You go first,’ and a smattering of, ‘But I went first last. I went first last; does that make sense?’ interspersed with one or two, ‘Well, I’ll just stand here and wait for you to get thirsty, or hungry; hungry would do it, I reckon.’
Ellaine pushed Rootheart towards the door. ‘Go and help them, will you? Or else they’ll be all night trying to get in.’
Ferrooll began to get up. ‘Sounds like Giants out there, and Northern Giants at that. I’ll have a word to make sure they know how to act near little people. Northern Giants ain’t used to that, you see, and I don’t want anyone getting eaten or trampled.’
‘No need to fret on their behalf, Ferrooll. They travelled with me and they are mostly well trained.’
‘Are you sure? Northern Giants, they can’t be trusted. They’re only interested in food and ale; nothing else.’
Ellaine bit
her lip to stop herself from asking the Giant about his own great breadth of interests.
‘They’ll be fine,’ she said, instead.
With more than a little noise and nuisance, Rootheart guided the Giants into the tavern.
‘What’s this, then?’ said Aarvarn, standing with his meaty fists on his hips and his nose lifted a little higher than was usual.
‘I reckon it’s a Giant,’ said Raarvan, with a shake of his head, ‘unless my ma birthed a fool and my pa raised him as an idiot.’
‘I knows a Giant when I sees one, you old fool, but what’s he doing here, in our tavern? He’ll be drinking all the ale; look, he’s already got himself a hogshead, and I reckon it won’t be his first, and it won’t be his last.’
‘Now, my old friend, remember what we saw on the beach? There ain’t many of us left now, so we should be pleased to see him, we should.’
‘Well, you can be pleased for the both of us, you can, and I’ll be...whatever the opposite is, ‘cause I can count, I can.’
Raarvann chuckled at the very idea. ‘What can you count?’
Aarvarn held up two fingers on one hand and one on the other.
‘That’s three, that is. Three Giants will eat a lot and drink a lot, and the little Lady, she said they couldn’t afford to feed us. And that’s when there were two. Now there’s three.’
‘Well, you’re right as rain on a spring morn, you are. But the Lady is there, and she seems mighty pleased to me, though she might just be smiling at your big silly face.’
‘My face ain’t big. Not bigger than yours anyways.’
‘But you’ll agree it’s silly?’
Raarvann walked forward.
‘Ho there, Giant,’ he said, as he stopped just a few feet from Ferrooll.
‘Ho there, to you, Giant,’ answered Ferrooll, as he stood up.
‘What happened to your eyes?’ asked Aarvarn.
‘My eyes? Why, he’s sat over there on a chair, I reckon.’
That had Aarvarn stumped, until his friend bumped shoulders and whispered in his ear.
‘Oh, I see. What happened to you?’
‘I fought and killed a Trytor, I did, but not before he did this to me.’
‘I heard of Trytors,’said Aarvarn, with a nod and a shudder. ‘Not nice at all. Get him a drink there Raarvan. I reckon he deserves another, for what he done.’
‘Even if it’s the last one?’
‘What? It ain’t, is it? Mayhap you should just get him a tankard then.’
‘There’s plenty of ale to go around,’ called Alice, ‘and this is a time for celebration, with the return of my father, and so many much-missed friends. Take a seat on the floor there, if you will.’
‘Did you hear that?’ said Aarvarn as he bent to lower himself. ‘There’s plenty of ale. Does that mean she was lying when she sent us away?’
‘I reckon she means just for tonight.’
‘Well, we better get drinking then.’
‘I just want to have a quick word with this here Giant, in case he don’t know.’
He took hold of Ferrooll’s elbow. ‘We’ll just step outside for a moment, if you don’t mind.’
‘Mind? Don’t mind at all. It’s a long time since I’ve had chance to speak to another Giant. These little humans are fine, but they speak too quick, and they think too quick with their clever little brains, and it’s hard work to keep right up with them.’
Outside the tavern, Raarvan released his arm.
‘Do you know?’
Ferrooll sighed. ‘I do, and I don’t. I know something bad must have happened, ‘cause I heard the call, but I was too far away to answer.’
‘I heard it as well, and I answered it, I did, and I wouldn’t be here now if not for that big lummox in there, drinking his ale. But, they’re all lost. Every one of them. They just walked out into the sea and were never heard from again. They’re all dead. You hear me? All dead.’
Ferrooll remained still as a rock as he listened.
Then he gripped Raarvan by the shoulders.
‘Who did this? Who did this to us?’
‘Don’t rightly know. Mayhap those little people with their sharp little brains can say?’
Ferrooll turned away, and he seemed to stagger. Then he was on his knees, his great fists clenched with knuckle-breaking force. He sobbed as he threw his face at the hard stone road.
He lifted his head and blood streamed into his eyes before he struck the ground once more.
Raarvan stood above him and his heart was torn open again as he watched the Giant’s expression of grief, but there was nothing for him to do; no aid to be given.
With a sigh and a shake of his head, he left Ferrooll to his pain and bent his head to re-enter the tavern.
Chapter 52 Huldroyd
Huldroyd woke up with a banging head and the taste of a sewer in his mouth. He was hardly surprised to find himself lay half across one of the serving girls, and she sobbed as he moved his weight from her.
‘No need for such nonsense, dear. This is a new order of things, and those soft lords are gone. There’s just us hard men left, and don’t you worry, you’re a tasty girl and I’ll treat you right. I won’t let anyone else use you, so no need to worry.’
She held her body tense as he placed his hand in the middle of her naked back.
‘You should be grateful I chose you. The other girls have been passed around from one to another, and some of my men, they are animals, if I say so myself. You were lucky to get me, I tell you. I may have used you vigorously, but I have no...unnatural tastes, if you like.’
She muttered something into the pillow.
‘What did you say there? Speak up; I won’t bite...much.’
She lifted her head and turned her face to him, exposing her swollen eyes and bruised cheek.
‘It ain’t natural to take a girl without her saying she wanted it. Not natural at all.’
‘You might say so, my dear, but you are alive and resting in a nice soft bed. You’ve had worse nights, I’m sure you have, now, flip yourself over there onto your back, I’ve a morning stand that needs attending to.’
She moved then, with surprising speed, up onto her knees and clawing at his face with her nails before he could act. One nail ripped his eye and he howled as he knocked her from the bed.
She rolled immediately to her feet and set off across the room. He would have chased after her, but his legs got caught up in the blankets and it took a moment for him to extricate himself.
Thinking she would be long gone, he raced to the balcony, and found her standing still as death before the low rail.
The tangleweed had engulfed the garden and was already creeping onto the balcony.
‘You stupid, ungrateful...’ he stopped as his hand touched her shoulder.
‘Come,’ said a quiet, seductive voice within his head. ‘Come, now.’
He opened his mouth to say something, but he found no words.
‘Come,’ the voice was insistent.
The girl reached out to the rail and leapt over, and her pale naked body was lost within the dark embrace of the tangleweed.
‘No,’ sobbed Huldroyd, and he would have turned and ran from the balcony, if he had anything like the strength to do so.
He leant forward and he gripped the rail, determined that he would not release his hold, no matter what the voice would bid him do.
‘Come,’ said the voice, and he smiled, for it was his mother, and it had been so long since she was prepared to speak to him, and now she was calling him to her breast.
‘I’m coming, Ma,’ he gasped, ‘and I’m sorry.’
There was a sudden sweet joy in his heart as he jumped from the balcony.
Chapter 53 Woewearer
Ellaine smiled at the Giants sitting on the floor just beyond the table. It was a rare sight, she thought, to see such creatures gathered together within the world of man.
‘Ay, it soothes my heart, it does, to see them there,’ she wh
ispered, and she took out her pipe for it seemed the situation deserved her best pipeweed by way of celebration.
‘Will you take a smoke there, Richard?’ she said, with a smile and a twinkling eye.
‘That’s very kind of you...Ellaine. It is most strange to see you changed so much.’
‘For the better, would you say?’ She fluttered her eyelashes as she teased him.
‘Not for me to say, not when I can see the eyes that big young fellow has for you.’
‘Ay, you’re right enough for a bag of sweet onions, you are. He’s quite lost his heart to me, he has, and his passions, well, I’ll say no more on that.’
‘Only for the best, I’d say.’ He accepted her pipeweed and bent to the task of filling his pipe. ‘It’s a terrible business, what happened to the Giants. What is behind it, do you think?’
‘We’ll talk about this again, my dear Lord, but not tonight. Tonight is for a celebration of well-met friends and family, and there’s is no need for hard words, or to wrack your poor broken head with difficult thoughts.’
‘My head is well on the way to healing, but you are right. For tonight, we can forget. Tomorrow morn, we’ll have a meeting, you and Alice, and the Giants, for I expect they will have a part to play, and the mayor as well, and one or two of his less intellectually dumbfounded council men.’
‘You have little respect for the council?’
Richard drew on his pipe.
‘That is a fine weed, if I may say so. The council? I have all the respect they deserve.’
Ellaine drew on her own pipe, and she seemed to hold the smoke within her lungs for an age.
‘Ellaine, are you well?’ asked Richard, disturbed by her staring eyes.
She shuddered and exhaled slowly, with her eyes closed.
Richard touched her shoulder. ‘Ellaine?’
She shook her head and she opened her eyes, but she didn’t appear to see him.
‘We have...we have...we don’t have the time!’ She stood up abruptly, dropping her pipe onto the table. Her eyes scanned the company, as if she had quite forgotten who was there.