To the surprise of many, King SoSheth showed JaRed no gratitude for killing GoRec, though he did excuse JaRed’s father from paying the royal tax for the rest of ReDemec’s natural life. This made ReDemec very happy, but caused no end of grumbling among the common mice, who expected some more notable reward for JaRed. “He killed the Great Rat,” they whispered. “He killed the serpent. Is there anything JaRed can’t do?”
When King SoSheth overheard one such comment, he turned red about the nose, claimed he’d left something important back in the royal palace, and stomped away sulkily on his royal paws.
The stories and songs lasted late into the night—far later than the raisins. Winter, after all, stood not far off, and the king had wisely given orders to keep the flow of food “steady but thin.”
Nevertheless, most of the commoners were still in or near the Great Hall just after midnight when TaMir shuffled to the center. He cleared his throat, and a hush descended on the huge chamber. Even the kits listened, for mouse kits love stories and are always quick to understand truth presented as fiction, as well as fiction presented as truth.
TaMir gazed thoughtfully about the room. He understood the heaviness of the feast. He saw sadness in many eyes. He saw loss and grief. He knew why the mice of Tira-Nor needed to celebrate, and why the celebration could not meet their need.
“ElShua,” he said through a voice thick with age and emotion, “has given me a vision. Just now, in fact, as I rested here among you.”
He turned in a broad circle. A mouseling climbed wearily into his mother’s lap, rubbing his eyes to stay awake.
“ElShua’s garden blooms.” TaMir said. “The Earthpool is large now. It shimmers in the fields of the garden like the night sky, and its depths are filled with many lights. At the edges, wave after wave heaves against the shore, beating its boundaries wider.”
His audience did not understand, perhaps, but neither did they interrupt.
“In the pool, souls shine like stars against a black veil, and when the Great Owl plucks a star from the waters and brings it to ElShua’s side—behold! A mouse, a snake, a shrew. Sometimes, even a rat.”
TaMir paused, waiting for someone to protest, but no one did. He sighed, nodded, pursed his lips. He was looking for the right words, though only adequate ones presented themselves.
“The Great Owl is old and wise and silent, and his flight is graceful. He spreads his wings wide. He turns carefully. He glides as patiently as the moon. His burdens are carried lightly.”
RewHenna, widow of MarSihlu the Builder, nodded, as if to say, Good. And, yes. And, I had thought so. Hoped so. Prayed so. But even so, it is good to hear. Good to say.
Don’t stop, the nod said.
An older mouse began to weep. Don’t lie to me, seer, his eyes said. Don’t offer me something I can’t accept.
But it wasn’t a lie, and there was no reason not to accept it.
“I saw the Owl land like a cloud before the Maker,” TaMir said. “He held a burden in one talon. Held it gently, delicately. Then the Owl folded his wings and lay the burden at ElShua’s feet. And he nudged the burden with the blunt hook of his beak, crooning forward like a mother hen.”
He paused. “It was a mouse. An older mouse. One of us, certainly. Though I couldn’t see the face, I did see the back. It was covered in blood.”
The air of the Great Hall hung thick with hope, longing. Someone sniffed. A mother stroked her child’s head. More mice appeared at the entrances of the hall, clotted the openings, jammed into a circle all around him. There was a sense that something they had long been looking for was almost found.
TaMir could almost hear their minds spinning. He didn’t see the face! It might have been anyone.
“Behold.” TaMir’s voice came as a whisper, yet the words were sharp and unmistakable. “Even as I watched, the mouse stirred! He roused himself, drew life from the air of the garden, and stood. His wounded back … Well. Bloody, But also straight. He stood like a soldier.”TaMir gazed into the eyes of the kingsguard, and each one stood tall. “Then ElShua held out His hands, palm up. Like this. An invitation. And I heard the Great Owl say, ‘So many of your people dead. When will it end, Lord?’ And ElShua replied, ‘When all have chosen joy or sorrow.’”
TaMir closed his eyes, willing them to receive the blessing he offered. But did they understand? Did they hear? Could they believe the mouse of TaMir’s vision was really their own loved one, their own husband or father or friend? Would they realize the vision was only a foretaste of something that had been repeated since the beginning of time? Would they recognize the Maker’s heart in the story, even if the mouse TaMir saw wasn’t their own dead, but a certain someone?
He didn’t know. Didn’t know how to tell them. Didn’t know how to end the story.
Mercifully, a kit spoke. “But Master TaMir,” the high, squeaking voice said.
TaMir opened his eyes. NuFal, son of FalKirq the Quick gazed up at him. Innocent. Hungry. Pleading. “Who was the mouse you saw in your vision?”
He saw the same question repeated in the eyes of the others. Was it FalKirq? Was it RuMin?
Tell us. But don’t lie.
TaMir exhaled slowly. He knew who the mouse of the vision was. He had known by the posture, though he had not seen the face. He had recognized the gaudy stance, the quicksilver leap into the Maker’s palm.
In his mind, he watched as a broad smile stretched across ElShua’s face.
The mouse saluted grandly.
It is, said the mouse, an honair.
You may wonder how JaRed became king of Tira-Nor. After all, ElShua said he would be king, and everyone knows ElShua does not lie.
But the how of JaRed becoming king of Tira-Nor is not to be found in this book (although, if you know where to look, it may be found in another). As TaMir told JaRed, the how of life is what makes life interesting, though it always comes in a way you don’t expect, and long after you’ve been told the what.
Yet there is one more part of the story to tell here.
One night soon after the feast, but long before JaRed recovered from the loss of his mother, he awoke in his private chambers to the presence of another mouse.
“JaRed,” the mouse said.
JaRed blinked. “Horrid?” Could it be? His brother had always called him Runt, never by his given name.
But it was true. Horrid knelt just outside his sleeping chamber, trembling. “There is something I must tell you. When Mother died … her last words …” He paused as though searching for the right thing to say. “I didn’t know what she meant until the day you killed GoRec. But now I do.”
JaRed leaned forward. “Tell me,” he said. He had not known Mother had thought of him as she died.
“You must promise to listen to everything I say first,” Horrid said. There was something in his voice JaRed had never heard, something that sounded like pain.
“All right.”
Slowly, as though feeling his way over unfamiliar ground in the darkness, Horrid spilled the story of how he had betrayed JaRed’s anointing to King SoSheth.
“And now it cannot be undone,” Horrid concluded. “The king hates and fears you, and it is my fault. And this is what I came to tell you: I’m sorry. Instead of helping you, instead of helping my family and my fellow mice, I have only created a more deadly enemy. I do not deserve your kindness or your friendship, JaRed. But will you forgive me anyway?”
Now, I hope you will not think too little of JaRed if I tell you that, for just a moment, he found it very difficult to say, “I forgive you, HaRed.” But in the end he did say it, and afterward he realized that it had not been so very hard a thing to say after all. And he found himself thinking, in spite of everything, that he might actually come to like HaRed.
Someday.
The End
Naming of Mice
By tradition, the mice of Tira-Nor take their names from the parent of the same sex. Male children are named for their fathers, females for their mo
thers. Names are made by combining a new syllable with the first one or two syllables of the parent’s name. The new syllable represents identity and distinction; the old represents community and tradition.
Thus were ReDemec’s sons all given his identity, Red, in addition to their own: KeeRed, BeRed, MaRed, HaRed, JaRed. ReDemec’s lone daughter was named after her mother, EeShawna, and given her own identity, Kah, which means “life.” The name seems to imply that her ability to bear kits has passed to the next generation.
Experts believe the naming traditions of Tira-Nor were intended by TyMin to hinder the building of powerful family clans, which would weaken the city’s sense of community. However, by the time of the events of this book, the mice of Tira-Nor were no less political than those in surrounding colonies.
SoSheth, the first outright king of Tira-Nor, exempted himself from the tradition by naming his son JoHanan. He apparently anticipated fathering a stronger, more powerful male and wanted to reserve his own name for his imagined successor. It was rumored that he intended to name this would-be second kit SoSheth.
Glossary
The Commons: The largest section of Tira-Nor. Home of the commoners who make up the city’s majority. The Commons is the shallowest level of the city, the section closest to the surface. In recent years it expanded downward as the population of the city increased and the need for additional chambers grew more urgent.
ElShua: The soft-spoken Creator. The Maker of the universe and Ruler of all living things. The name literally means “who whispers,” indicating that the Creator speaks quietly and with great significance. To a mouse, a whispered message is more important than a shouted one. But the greater implication of “who whispers” is that of nearness. Since a whisper cannot be heard from far off, ElShua must be close at hand. A more complete and accurate translation might be “He who is so close He need only whisper to be heard.”
The Families: A section of Tira-Nor reserved for the upper class.
Gate: An entrance into, or exit from, Tira-Nor. A hole in the ground protected on the inside by a series of guard chambers and booby traps. The twelve gates of Tira-Nor are named for their locations around the city. Because Tira-Nor is a city of multiple layers, its gates vary in depth, size, and complexity.
Glowstone: A phosphorescent rock used by the mice of Tira-Nor to light the tunnels and chambers of their underground city.
The Great Owl: Death. To mice, he is an agent of ElShua, though one greatly feared. It is significant that mice see death as a nocturnal predator shrouded in mystery. The Great Owl comes in darkness, unseen and unheard. He is rarely anticipated. A vast number of conflicting myths and fables surround the Great Owl. Some mice, most notably the seers, claim that a literal spirit being—swooping on outstretched wings as white as snow—descends to bear the souls of the dead to eternity.
The kingsguard: The personal bodyguards of the king of Tira-Nor, and the elite fighting force of the city. Also, the section of Tira-Nor that houses the kingsguard warriors. This section of the city encompasses and connects all others, somewhat like the hub of a wheel. From the kingsguard level of Tira-Nor, it is possible to get to any of the other sections.
Lord Wroth: The god of the rats, prairie dogs, weasels, and possums. Many mice believe Lord Wroth to be a real spirit being, while others say the power of the legend of Lord Wroth lies in the fact that the rats believe it. Rat theology describes a great number of different gods acting in various ways with different forms of life. Thus the rats worship Lord Wroth, the mice of Tira-Nor follow ElShua, the mice of Cadrid follow Kalla, the white mice of Leer and the serpents of the Known Lands serve SeeEqueq. Although the rats seem to comprehend the mouse ideal of a single Creator, they greatly resent it—possibly because they believe it to be true, but don’t want it to be.
Militia: Volunteers and conscripts. Mice who are unaccustomed to the disciplined life of a soldier are, in times of dire need, taken into civilian military service to defend the city. The militia is usually commanded by two or three officers of the kingsguard.
SoSheth: The first king of Tira-Nor, anointed by TaMir some twelve seasons before the events of this book. TaMir later revoked the blessing of ElShua he had previously given to SoSheth, and from that point on SoSheth never esteemed TaMir, nor the God TaMir claimed to serve. It was also at this point that So-Sheth began to act strangely, and many in his service noticed that he became volatile, short tempered, and unpredictable.
TaMir: The seer who anointed SoSheth—and later JaRed—king over Tira-Nor. Marked from birth as a seer by his all-white fur, TaMir was dedicated to ElShua by his mother and trained under RuHoff.
Tira-Nor: Literally, “the city of promise.” Generations earlier, according to stories handed down by the elders, ElShua drove the ancient prairie dogs from the city and gave it to the followers of the mouse TyMin, founder of Tira-Nor.
The Ur’Lugh: The personal bodyguard of GoRec, king of the rats. Most of the Ur’Lugh were destroyed in the Battle of JaRed’s Fang, as it came to be known later.
Runt the Brave: Bravery in the Midst of a Bully Society (Legends of Tira-Nor) Page 15