"This man's prices are steep," he said to Raym, "but if you find them too steep for you, don't be embarrassed. I'll be glad to lend you whatever the cost is. And my rate, you know, is low." He grinned broadly and gave Raym a hearty slap on the shoulder. This was apparently an old joke between them.
We went on down the hall until Khori opened a door. "Here's the room. And here's the master goldsmith."
He was my brother. Jareth.
I'm not sure who was more surprised, Raym or Lord Khori, when Jareth and I embraced each other, both of us weeping. Raym soon realized what was happening, for I'd told him of seeing both my father and Jareth killed.
"No, Sister, I'm not dead," Jerath exclaimed, laughing through his tears. "See? Here I am! And we thought you might be dead. I was knocked out, you know, and when I finally woke up, there was Father. Bleeding, but awake. And no sign of you. It was pirates, Father says. The man he--"
Jareth looked around and lowered his voice, but not much. "The man he'd been dealing with was a pirate himself. He robbed us. But luckily Father had another purse he'd left at the inn." He hugged me more tightly before stepping back. "Sister, what happened to you? You weren't there, and we thought you were kidnapped or--" He closed his eyes, swallowed. "--killed and, well, you know..."
One of the common superstitions about people of guile is that they disappear at death. Evidently Jareth and Father both gave it some credence.
"Oh, Jareth, that doesn't happen. If they'd killed me I'd have been lying there dead. I was kidnapped, but when the ship got to Maal I got away." I didn't tell him about having recovered Father's money and some of the jewelry. There would be time for that later, if it turned out they needed it, but it seemed to me they were doing well enough now without it.
"But Father? I saw the pirate stab him, Jareth. It looked terrible. I can't believe he wasn't badly hurt, at least."
"A healer came to see him at the inn. He said Father was lucky, Sister. The blade went right through him and didn't cut anything important. Father was angry, but he knew he was lucky. He said he was too old to hope for that kind of luck again, so he decided to go back to Muir Town, where our shop is, and live there year 'round."
"So he really retired. Hard to believe."
"That's a good thing, Vivia, you know. I mean," he added quickly, "it's good that he's resting. And that he trusts me to take care of, well, everything. I've hired a good boy to help me, you know, carrying it all."
"Does Father have companionship in Muir Town?" I asked. I knew what Jareth would say.
"Oh, well, brother Hanal, and his wife, and their five--no, six--children. Father sees them sometimes. He says the children make him crazy."
"And?"
"And there's a lady, you know..."
Of course there was a lady.
We selected the most beautiful of Jareth's rings, gold inlaid with jet in the shape of a bird flying. Jareth wouldn't let us buy it. "It will be my gift to you. I didn't know witches could get married, but I'm glad, Vivia."
Raym put it on my finger when we were alone. "This will be my talisman," I whispered. "I will wear it forever." I laughed. "Until I disappear."
"My love. Don't say it. You'll never disappear."
"I know. I'll stay with my body until it can support me no longer, and then I'll fly away without it. Into the Mystery, where everyone flies at last."
* * * *
When we were back at Raym's cottage, after our lovely breakfast of eggs and oatcakes and tea, I told Raym it was time for me to leave. "Only for a little while," I said. "I need to retrieve Joli and bring her back here, where she belongs. For now."
"Yes. We're her people, and we'll teach her." We'd talked about this, Raym and I. We'd talked about everything, and would again. It was possibly the best thing about being together, or at least the next-best thing.
So I left, this time as a hawk, and none challenged me. I swooped down, thrillingly, to the top of the highest tree in the woods across from Heart Hall, looked around to see that no human was in sight, and landed on the ground, where I reassumed my own form, wearing my pack, wearing my ring.
At the entrance to the palace I identified myself and asked to see Prince Tedor. I was taken to a small parlor and in a minute the boy came in. "Lady Vivia! I heard that you'd gone--" He looked down shyly. "--somewhere."
"I've been to see Lord Raym. We'll be married, he and I, in the spring, in Muir Town, where my father lives. You'll be invited."
"That's wonderful. Just great! I'll be there, for sure."
"Meanwhile, I'm going to take Joli back with me. We'll hire a coach, since it's too cold to walk, really. If you want to say goodbye to her--not forever, I mean, but for a while--send someone to bring her here. No men are allowed at Ladygate, but of course you know that. We won't be going for a couple of days. Going home, I mean."
"I'll send someone tomorrow," he said. "Tell her."
"I shall. And now I need to speak with your father. As soon as possible. I'd like you to go with me, if you will."
"Lady Vivia," he said, "you know I will. Right now. Father doesn't do anything, you know. Not much, anyway. He's reading, probably. We're going to play the royal game later. But you and I can go see him now. He won't mind."
We went along the halls of the palace, and eventually Tedor knocked at a door and called out, "I've brought Lady Vivia from Ladygate. May we come in?"
"Just a minute." In a few seconds the door opened and a tall, middle-aged man greeted us. Rather vague looking but with a sweet smile, he was obviously Tedor's father. He took off his reading glasses. "Lady Vivia? My dear woman, how happy I am to see you. Please forgive me for not--"
"I know how busy you are, my lord. I won't take much time. I want to tell you, first, what a fine young man your son is. And..." I reached into my pack and brought out a small leather sack. From the sack I emptied into my hand a big blue diamond set with sapphires, sparkling in the light from the window. "I have something here that belongs to you. I want to return it now."
Horok's eyebrows went up and he put his glasses back on. I held the Sea Star out and after a moment he put out his hand to receive it. His eyes changed just a little; he was, I sensed, calculating a reward that would keep Raym and me in tea and eggs for a long time. As his hand closed around the diamond, he said, "Lady Vivia, where did you find it? Did...did Harken have it?"
That was as good a story as any, even though it wasn't true, and I certainly wouldn't tell him it was. "Oh, sir," I said, "please don't ask me about that. Where I found it is, well, something that must not be revealed."
I smiled as charmingly and as mysteriously as I could. "Guilish business, you know."
~ THE END ~
About the Author
Mary Patterson Thornburg, aka Miki, was born in California and grew up in Washington (the state, not D.C.). In a previous life, she taught at Ball State University in Indiana. She now lives in Montana with her husband, Thomas, and the requisite trio of cats--Fergus, Zulu, and Spooky. Their back yard is a tangle of lilac bushes, and between their front yard and the street is a caragana hedge her father planted fifty years ago. She's been a reader of science fiction and fantasy for decades, and her writing hero is Ursula K. Le Guin, who towers over those genres in her great gift of invention, her beautiful and lucid style, and her moral wisdom. Thornburg has published short fiction, poems, and literary criticism, and has travelled widely in the alternate universes of her imagination.
* * * *
Uncial Press brings you extraordinary fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Put a world of reading in your pocket.
www.uncialpress.com
le(100%); -ms-filter: grayscale(100%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share
A Glimmer of Guile Page 19