Long Swan gave a sigh, “Ashim has probably strewn seeds of simony and drug abuse far and wide throughout your villages. Your tolerance of him, if I may say without offense, is a weakness. When he trespassed against you, I let you deal with it according to your custom, but when he trespassed against me, he needed to know we are a deadly force to be reckoned with. Especially to any who tread upon us. He drew first blood. In our culture, we encourage the righteous and we destroy the wicked. We countenance no tolerance for those who hurt or violate others.”
Chief Eyf stood his ground as he looked at Long Swan. “How can my people ever feel safe again with you in our midst? You have demonstrated that your strength is far greater than ours. That is all too evident. What assurance do we have that you won’t turn your violence on us one day and take our lands at will from us?”
“We will never do anyone harm to those who bear us no harm. As I said before, Ashim drew first blood when he violated my bride by abducting her. He has paid the penalty for that. The gods demand it. Your daughter is my greatest treasure and he sought to deprive me of that. So, Eyf, I bid you reconsider this matter after more thought and not in the heat of his moment.”
Even though the sages and sisters were following the conversation intensely, they still warily eyed Turtle Duck.
Chief Eyf responded, “You speak of peace towards us! Then why have you brought this eagle man amongst us?” He eyed Turtle Duck up and down with suspicion, “Is it because you purpose to do us further harm?”
Long Swan attempted to imagine what the Chartreuseans must be seeing when they looked at the fierce eyed sea captain. It was a mistake to bring Turtle Duck with him. But time was short. Turtle Duck had relayed to him that the Wose had finally broken darkness and sent a bird announcing the upcoming attack of the Pitters against the isle and these people had no concept of the violent cataclysm coming their way.
Long Swan attempted to speak calmly. “Eyf, I would never harm you. Let me say with great sincerity, never would I or any of my people harm your people who are so peaceful, I have already given you the reasons, my word is good on that and this man you call the Eagle Man is our friend who is called Turtle Duck. He comes from the Sharaka Tribe of Red Men. He is a gentle man though he be fearsome of appearance. He is only newly arrived on the ship anchored at the river. As I said, we are three parties. There is still another party to join us for we went in all directions and will converge here at the southern tip of the land on this the equal night and day.”
Ysys looked exhausted and weary. “Father, are you listening? Long Swan has always been true to his word. I love him with all my heart and yes, the death of Ashim goes beyond our experience, but, perhaps, their way is healthier. This is after all, the man I am going to marry and where he goes, there I must go.”
Eyf looked conflicted. He glanced over at the sages. “Your ways are very different Long Swan. My love for my daughter is great. I believe you when you say you love her. Perhaps I was not listening with my mind as much as my heart. We’ve had violence of words, but not blood.”
Turtle Duck bowed at the neck. “Permit me if you will, Chief Eyf, I have daughters and I would never suffer them to be violated by any man. We did not begin this. Imagine what would have happened if we had not intervened? Would the Eng-Nesseans forever steal your daughters and children for their perverse pleasures?”
Eyf was taken aback. “You make a convincing point, Eagle Man. This night, we shall think on the things you said.” He turned to Long Swan. “For returning my daughter to my care, I thank you. It is a token of good will. I shall ponder your terrible words to see if I can make sense of them and counsel with my daughter as to her own heart. One cannot turn back the winnowing. If you will now permit me, my daughter has had a long day and her mother is still worried sick about her. I should take her home to ease her mother’s worry. It took all my persuasion to keep her from running down to your camp.”
He bore a disappointed look, and shook his head, which Long Swan took to mean the chief was trapped between his love for his daughter and his people’s reaction.
Long Swan summoned up humility which he was not feeling, but knew it was needful in such a situation. “We will await your judgment on us in our camp. Send an emissary when you are ready to talk. I bid you all good night and swear we will show you only peace. We shall now take our leave.”
Ysys reached for Long Swan with her hand. As he reached out to touch it, a flicker of warm expression crossed her pale green face, “Go in peace, my love. I shall talk to father. I’ve always been able to soften his heart.”
Eyf tried to look strong, but knew what his daughter spoke was true. “I bid you farewell, Long Swan. Sages and sisters, we will reconvene in the morning. I must now take my daughter to her mother.”
Chapter 18 : Come Together
Mendaka was happy that the day of the equinox had finally arrived. Early in the morning, he left with his crew of Syr Folk, along with Pita, and a couple of Blues to go to the village of Atala. As his crew and Pita’s crew cut off the branches hanging over the trail on the way to the village, Mendaka said to Pita. “Not a very highly traveled trail, is it?”
Pita shrugged. “It is traveled frequently. Things just grow very well here in the delta, especially the kudzu vine. Atala is known as the place of the butterflies. If it weren’t for the caterpillars, our hogs, and our goats eating the leaves, this place would be too thick to even enter. It was here in Atala, about five years ago, that the Chartreuseans came near our village and attempted to engage us in talks from the river.”
“So you have attempted to make peace with them?” Mendaka asked in surprise.
“Certainly not!” Pita said with a frown while he and his men hacked away at the kudzu vine growing rampantly across the path along with the hosts of stinging nettles and bull briars intruding on the trail. “Kletus and his men threatened them sufficiently by sticking out their tongues and beating their chests to drive them back across the big stream.”
Mendaka was puzzled that they had not taken the opportunity to connect and at least talk to the Chartreuseans, but realized how strong some prejudices take root. Looking about, he noticed the jungles were like a large green net. Vines ran through the canopy, and all sorts of large pink butterflies, and numerous blue butterflies, floated through its glades, settling on oversized morning glory flowers. On several tree trunks he saw giant moths.
Coyote was busy looking for a clearing along the river banks, but the tangle was too thick and there were dirt cliffs running straight down to the river that were covered in the rankest of vegetation, so he was forced to return to the narrow path.
Pita stopped mid-step. “You act as if I should have made peace with the makers of monsters. Do you not understand that the old ones knew them to be our eternal enemies? Well, I do. You give them a foot in your door and it’s like letting a dog stick his head in your house. The next thing you know, they’ve devoured all your food and won’t leave.”
“Are you going to feel that same way about us?” Mendaka asked, studying Pita’s reaction.
“No, we like you,” a big smile stretched over his blue face, “and we like your Big Kettle Fellow, all your strange animals, and especially we like the metal things the Govannon showed us how to make.”
“Well, you knew nothing more about these Chartreuseans than you did about us four moons ago. Shouldn’t you have at least listened to what they wanted to say the same way you wanted to listen to us?”
Pita got a surprised look on his face, “Are you saying the Old Ones didn’t know they were dangerous and to be avoided?”
Mendaka pondered for a moment as he and Pita waited for the hackers to knock out a large green briar that had snaked its way out on the trail. “I am not saying the Old Ones did not understand how dangerous the Chartreuseans were, but many generations have passed and change is inevitable.”
Pita opened his eyes wide before slashing into the green briars with his razor sharp obsidian blade. “And d
o you think those Pitters you spoke so evil of have changed?”
“I do not know the Chartreuseans. So I can offer no opinion as to their being good or evil, but I do know that our enemies the Pitters have never sent us an envoy of peace. Peace is a tough crop to grow and should be cultivated wherever it may be found.”
Slowly the jungle gave way to some bare ground where red wattle hogs were grazing in large herds and the village of Atala spread out before their gaze, a half circle of thatched huts surrounded by the customary wicker fencing. Finally, they came out on a grass covered hillside loaded with blue chicory and blue butterflies that rose and fell with the movement of the swine herds. The hogs were unusually large, red, and docile.
As they passed the village filled with children playing, women weaving baskets, and men weeding a large common fenced in garden, the beaucerons came out to investigate. Pita whistled a command and the powerful dogs returned in an instant to the village. Several villagers stopped their hoeing and came up to greet Pita.
After walking for about a mile, Pita pointed down the river bank to another riparian woodland and said, “That is about as close as you will get to the delta without entering the marshlands which are too soft, filled with quicksand, and snake grass too tall to see over not to mention the giant snakes they harbor.”
Mendaka hacked his way down to the river bank and found a suitable place to build a signal fire on the gravel at the edge of the water. To his right and northward ran an impressively long island mid-stream and northward, but to his left he could see the opposite shore across the broad span of river clearly. Gazing over the expanse of clear green water, he saw beyond the center island a column of white smoke arising which he deduced came from the west bank, but it did not appear to be a signal fire. Probably a Chartreusean campfire. He gathered wood and grass and built a fire. He hoped Xelph’s expedition had not been engaged in a conflict of any sort with the Chartreuseans. He did not wish to report back that they were lost or did not make it. While he was building the fire he began questioning the Atalans about other fires they had seen.
The Atalans reported that while they had been fishing they had seen this same fire burning before but at the time it was sending up strange puffs followed by columns of smoke. A wave of relief ran through Mendaka that this was indeed a signal fire and that some of the other party, at least, had survived the Chartreuseans.
After his own signal fire took off, he began to feed green leafy skunk cabbage leaves to the flames, causing a column of thick smoke to arise. He took a blanket from his pack, soaked it in the river, wrung out the excess water and began signaling that they were ready for contact. By evening the signal fire was getting answers identifying the sender as the Lord Prince Arundel, who signed that they saw his signal and that Turtle Duck had launched from their shore and would soon be approaching them by ship. Mendaka ordered Elijah to start recording the meeting of Turtle Duck for the log.
After an hour’s wait, Mendaka spotted the sails of the Overo passing between the long island in mid-river and the bank he stood on. A short time later, they anchored in the deep stream. Turtle Duck and his crew dropped their porter boats over the belly ship and rowed towards them. As Mendaka waited, he occupied time marveling at the island beyond and thought of what a convenient naval port for the south gate it would make.
He turned to Pita and asked, “Who owns that island with the granite cliffs? Do the Ceruleans or the Chartreuseans?”
Pita replied, “You mean Long Island? It’s a no man’s land, for the law says we own everything from the east bank to the deep and they own everything from the west bank of the big stream to the deep in the west. In other words the river banks mark the ends of their land and it marks the end of ours. The river and anything in it is open to anyone.”
“What’s the island like?” Elijah inquired.
“Them cliffs you see be three hundred foot high at least, but see there above they’s some fine oak groves with goodly sized squirrels that make for the best eating. We done spied some of them Chartreuseans pickin mushrooms there before. Don’t bother them when they’s there and they don’t bother us when they’s sees us.” He glanced at Elijah scribbling away to write all the details. “It’s gots all kind of marshes and grasslands where we harvest the wild rice and the water chestnuts that grow there, mostly wooded. Dark growth on the north end of the isle and there’s these big ol’ birds, only they can’t fly. We be callin them oxfinx. They don’t look mean, but they will rake you like a lion if’n you go near their eggs.”
Elijah paused. “Just how big is big?”
“I reckon they stand taller than them mules you have.”
Pita paused, frowning as if pondering. “Y’all been sayin you been lookin for a place for your ships to land here in the south. Long Island is a perfect place to be out of our lands and out of theirs. Atop that cliff is a powerful gushing fountain and flat land to build on. I’d say that is probably the best place to build ja a village.”
“I should like to scout it out in the next day or two. That’s for sure. I’ll have Flammalf map out this island and determine its potential so I can present it to Sur Sceaf.”
As Turtle Duck’s porter neared Mendaka felt the excitement welling up in his breast. Not only was he eager to greet his old friend and hear the reports of Xelph’s expedition, but he was anxious to receive letters from Little Doe reporting on things from home. Right before he left, she told him she might be pregnant again, but he had been worrying the whole time because she had already had numerous miscarriages. As he expected, Turtle Duck was in the lead boat. Mendaka began making sarcastic duck calls.
Pita looked over at him bemused and surprised, and then started laughing. As the first porter boat landed Mendaka heard Turtle Duck cursing. “You son of a bitch, this is the greeting you give one of your best friends?”
Mendaka could not stop laughing until Turtle Duck jumped ashore.
“If you ain’t the sorriest looking bastard I’ve ever seen,” Turtle Duck exclaimed. “I don’t know how that pretty wife of yours can stand to look at that ugly face day in and day out.”
“Well, at least I only cause one woman misery. That covey of yours must keep a slop jar near their bed just to peek at that booger mask for a face you have.”
The two embraced and slapped each other on the backs while they laughed together.
Coyote came forward, attempting to maintain formal protocol for meeting, “Os-Frith! Hail and well met, Turtle Duck.”
Pita appeared curious about their interactions. “I can’t tell if you two are the dearest of friends or the worst of enemies.”
Turtle Duck’s eyes widened at the sight of a Blue Man. “That’s because we’re a little of both.” He reached out his hand to shake Pita’s. “I am Turtle Duck, Captain of the Overo and come to rid you of this scurvy crew.”
“I am Pita Blufre, Chief of the Ceruleans and this is Kletus, Chief of Atala. I ain’t never seen a boat the size of yourn.”
“She is a real beauty, that’s for sure,” Turtle Duck said with pride.
Glancing behind him, Mendaka saw the Blue Men were also in awe of the large ship.
One of the Atalans remarked, “Pita, how come this here giant boat has them large white wings. Can it fly?”
Before Pita could answer, another one said, “It looks like a giant bird of sorts. Maybe that’s an oxfinxs on the front of it. How’d they do that?”
Pita declared, “Please allow us to give you our greeting. Clearly, you are a great chief.” Pita nodded his head at Kletus. Out of the blue, Kletus clapped his hands and a large group of blue Atalan men came out from the bushes, dressed in white lavalavas and did a stomp dance with roars and shouts while slapping their thighs and beating their chest fearsomely. Pita whispered into Mendaka’s ear. “This is called the Haka. Ain’t it great!”
“It is very much like the Sharaka War Dance. It would make a great pre-battle presentation. Pita, you must teach us this dance.”
While
Pita along with his men walked up the shoreline for a closer look at the belly ship, Turtle Duck gave an update on Xelph’s expedition and encounter with the Chartreuseans. Mendaka reported his stay amongst the Ceruleans. The most shocking news was that Long Swan had married.
Mendaka laughed aloud. “She must be one hell of a beautiful woman to shake Long Swan from his impossible resolve.”
“She is, but I really didn’t have much of a chance to get to know her, she was so shaken by the fact that Xelph had slain her previous lover.”
“I won’t believe any of this until I hear Long Swan declare it from his own lips.” He laughed once again. “I can only imagine what Surrey and his bride-covey will say. You know Lana has been trying to marry him off to Brekka for the past two years.”
Turtle Duck said, “Well, now he has his faery-queen, but that could still happen.”
Mendaka clarified, “It is more likely that the north wind will blow hot than that fiery redhead would ever be anything less than the faery-queen.”
Turtle Duck grinned. “I’ve done seen about everything, so not even that would surprise me. First green men and now blue men. God made all nations of seven bloods, but where did these strange folk come from? Do you think Surrey is going to believe the messages we are sending back with the pigeons? Methinks they’re going to think we’ve all gotten into some goofy mushrooms.”
“Believe me! If you think green and blue skin odd, they find our red skin and white skin just as interesting. I’m sure the green and blue people come from one of the seven mothers somewhere. And, besides, I have a feeling nothing will surprise the Syr Folk anymore. Before we send a pigeon to Surrey, we will need to know more of the possibilities of an alliance with these folks. So far they have considered us as guests and have been very accommodating. What about the green people? How did you find them?”
The Bok of Syr Folk Page 31