Tehanu. Part 12

"Like the ones who wouldn't learn," Therru said. "The wild ones." Tenar did not know what she meant, and looked her question. "The ones that stayed in the west," Therru said.

"Ah-the dragons-in the song of the Woman of Kemay. Yes. Exactly. So: which will we start with-how the islands were raised from the sea, or how King Morred drove back the Black s.h.i.+ps?" "

"The islands," Therru whispered. Tenar had rather hoped she would choose the Deed of the Young King, Deed of the Young King, for she saw Lebannen's face as Morred's; but the child's choice was the right one. "Very well," she said. She glanced up at Ogion's great Lore-books on the mantel, encouraging herself that if she forgot, she could find the words there; and drew breath; and began. for she saw Lebannen's face as Morred's; but the child's choice was the right one. "Very well," she said. She glanced up at Ogion's great Lore-books on the mantel, encouraging herself that if she forgot, she could find the words there; and drew breath; and began.

By her bedtime Therru knew how Segoy had raised the first of the islands from the depths of Time. Instead of singing to her, Tenar sat on the bed after tucking her in, and they recited together, softly, the first stanza of the song of the Making.

Tenar carried the little oil lamp back to the kitchen, listening to the absolute silence. The frost had bound the world, locked it. No star showed. Blackness pressed at the single window of the kitchen. Cold lay on the stone floors.

She went back to the fire, for she was not sleepy yet. The great words of the song had stirred her spirit, and there was still anger and unrest in her from her talk with Ivy. She took the poker to rouse up a little flame from the backlog. As she struck the log, there was an echo of the sound in the back of the house.

She straightened up and stood listening.

Again: a soft, dull thump or thud-outside the house-at the dairy window?

The poker still in her hand, Tenar went down the dark hall to the door that gave on the cool-room. Beyond the cool-room was the dairy. The house was built against a low hill, and both those rooms ran back into the hill like cellars, though on a level with the rest of the house. The cool-room had only air-vents; the dairy had a door and a window, low and wide like the kitchen window, in its one outside wall. Standing at the cool-room door, she could hear that window being pried or jimmied, and men's voices whispering.

Flint had been a methodical householder. Every door but one of his house had a bar-bolt on each side of it, a stout length of cast iron set in slides. All were kept clean and oiled; none were ever locked.

She slipped the bolt across the cool-room door. It slid into place without a sound, fitting snug into the heavy iron slot on the doorjamb.

She heard the outer door of the dairy opened. One of them had finally thought to try it, before they broke the window, and found it wasn't locked. She heard the mutter of voices again. Then silence, long enough that she heard her heartbeat drumming in her ears so loud she feared she could not hear any sound over it. She felt her legs trembling and trembling, and felt the cold of the floor creep up under her skirt like a hand.

"It's open," a man's voice whispered near her, and her heart leapt painfully. She put her hand on the bolt, thinking it was open-she had unlocked not locked it- She had almost slid it back when she heard the door between the cool-room and the dairy creak, opening. She knew that creak of the upper hinge. She knew the voice that had spoken, too, but in a different way of knowing. "It's a storeroom," Handy said, and then, as the door she stood against rattled against the bolt, "This one's locked." It rattled again. A thin blade of light, like a knife blade, flicked between the door and the jamb. It touched her breast, and she drew back as if it had cut her.

The door rattled again, but not much. It was solid, solidly hinged, and the bolt was firm.

They muttered together on the other side of the door. She knew they were planning to come around and try the front of the house. She found herself at the front door, bolting it, not knowing how she came there. Maybe this was a nightmare. She had had this dream, that they were trying to get into the house, that they drove thin knives through the cracks of the doors. The doors-was there any other door they could get in? The windows-the shutters of the bedroom windows- Her breath came so short she thought she could not get to Therru's room, but she was there, she brought the heavy wooden shutters across the gla.s.s. The hinges were stiff, and they came together with a bang. Now they knew. Now they were coming. They would come to the window of the next room, her room. They would be there before she could close the shutters. And they were.

She saw the faces, blurs moving in the darkness outside, as she tried to free the left-hand shutter from its hasp. It was stuck. She could not make it move. A hand touched the gla.s.s, flattening white against it.

"There she is."

"Let us in. We won't hurt you."

"We just want to talk to you."

"He just wants to see his little girl."

She got the shutter free and dragged it across the window. But if they broke the gla.s.s they would be able to push the shutters open from the outside. The fastening was only a hook that would pull out of the wood if forced.

"Let us in and we won't hurt you," one of the voices said. She heard their feet on the frozen ground, crackling in the fallen leaves. Was Therru awake? The crash of the shutters closing might have wakened her, but she had made no sound. Tenar stood in the doorway between her room and Therru's, It was pitch-dark, silent. She was afraid to touch the child and waken her. She must stay in the room with her. She must fight for her. She had had the poker in her hand, where had she put it? She had put it down to close the shutters. She could not find it. She groped for it in the blackness of the room that seemed to have no walls.

The front door, which led into the kitchen, rattled, shaken in its frame.

If she could find the poker she would stay in here, she would fight them.

"Here!" one of them called, and she knew what he had found. He was looking up at the kitchen window, broad, unshuttered, easy to reach.

She went, very slowly it seemed, groping, to the door of the room. It was Therru's room now. It had been her children's room. The nursery. That was why there was no lock on the inner side of the door. So the children could not lock themselves in and be frightened if the bolt stuck.

Around back of the hill, through the orchard, Clearbrook and Shandy would be asleep in their cottage. If she called, maybe Shandy would hear. If she opened the bedroom window and called-or if she waked Therru and they climbed out the window and ran through the orchard-but the men were there, right there, waiting.

It was more than she could bear. The frozen terror that had bound her broke, and in rage she ran into the kitchen that was all red light in her eyes, grabbed up the long, sharp butcher knife from the block, flung back the door-bolt, and stood in the doorway. "Come on, then!" " she said.

As she spoke there was a howl and a sucking gasp, and a man yelled, "Look out!" Another shouted, "Here! Here!"

Then there was silence.

Light from the open doorway shot across the black ice of puddles, glittered on the black branches of the oaks and on fallen silver leaves, and as her eyes cleared she saw that something was crawling towards her on the path, a dark ma.s.s or heap crawling towards her, making a high, sobbing wail. Behind the light a black shape ran and darted, and long blades shone.

"Tenar!"

"Stop there," she said, raising the knife.

"Tenar! It's me-Hawk, Sparrowhawk!"

"Stay there," she said.

The darting black shape stood still next to the black ma.s.s lying on the path. The light from the doorway shone dim on a body, a face, a long-tined pitchfork held upright, like a wizard's staff, she thought. "Is that you?" she said.

He was kneeling now by the black thing on the path.

"I killed him, I think," he said. He looked over his shoulder, stood up. There was no sign or sound of the other men.

"Where are they?"

"Ran. Give me a hand, Tenar."

She held the knife in one hand. With the other she took hold of the arm of the man that lay huddled up on the path. Ged took him under the shoulder and they dragged him up the step and into the house. He lay on the stone floor of the kitchen, and blood ran out of his chest and belly like water from a pitcher. His upper lip was drawn back from his teeth, and only the whites of his eyes showed.

"Lock the door," Ged said, and she locked the door.

"Linens in the press," she said, and he got a sheet and tore it for bandages, which she bound round and round the man's belly and breast, into which three of the four tines of the pitchfork had driven full force, making three ragged springs of blood that dripped and squirted as Ged supported the man's torso so that she could wrap the bandages.

"What are you doing here? Did you come with them?"

"Yes. But they didn't know it. That's about all you can do, Tenar. " He let the man's body sag down, and sat back, breathing hard, wiping his face with the back of his b.l.o.o.d.y hand. "I think I killed him," he said again.

"Maybe you did." Tenar watched the bright red spots spread slowly on the heavy linen that wrapped the man's thin, hairy chest and belly. She stood up, and swayed, very dizzy. "Get by the fire," fire," she said. "You must be peris.h.i.+ng." she said. "You must be peris.h.i.+ng."

She did not know how she had known him in the dark outside. By his voice, maybe. He wore a bulky shepherd's winter coat of cut fleece with the leather side out, and a shepherd's knit watch cap pulled down; his face was lined and weathered, his hair long and iron-grey. He smelled like woodsmoke, and frost, and sheep. He was s.h.i.+vering, his whole body shaking. "Get by the fire," fire," she said again. "Put wood on it." she said again. "Put wood on it."

He did so. Tenar filled the kettle and swung it out on its iron arm over the blaze.

There was blood on her skirt, and she used an end of linen soaked in cold water to clean it. She gave the cloth to Ged to clean the blood off his hands. "What do you mean, she said, "you came with them but they didn't know it?"

"I was coming down. From the mountain. On the road from the springs of the Kaheda. " He spoke in a flat voice as if out of breath, and his s.h.i.+vering made his speech slur. "Heard men behind me, and I went aside. Into the woods. Didn't feel like talking. I don't know. Something about them. I was afraid of them."

She nodded impatiently and sat down across the hearth from him, leaning forward to listen, her hands clenched tight in her lap. Her damp skirt was cold against her legs.

"I heard one of them say 'Oak Farm' as they went by. After that I followed them. One of them kept talking. About the child."

"What did he say?"

He was silent. He said finally, "That he was going to get her back. Punish her, he said. And get back at you. For stealing her, he said. He said-" He stopped.

"That he'd punish me, too."

"They all talked. About, about that."

"That one isn't Handy." She nodded toward the man on the floor. "Is it the. . . " . . . "

"He said she was his." Ged looked at the man too, and back at the fire. "He's dying. We should get help."

"He won't die," Tenar said. "I'll send for Ivy in the morning. The others are still out there-how many of them?"

"Two."

"If he dies he dies, if he lives he lives. Neither of us is going out." She got to her feet, in a spasm of fear. "Did you bring in the pitchfork, Ged!" " he dies he dies, if he lives he lives. Neither of us is going out." She got to her feet, in a spasm of fear. "Did you bring in the pitchfork, Ged!" "

He pointed to it, the four long tines s.h.i.+ning as it leaned against the wall beside the door.

She sat down in the hearthseat again, but now she was shaking, trembling from head to foot, as he had done. He reached across the hearth to touch her arm. "It's all right," he said.

"What if they're still out there?"

"They ran."

"They could come back."

"Two against two? And we've got the pitchfork."

She lowered her voice to a bare whisper to say, in terror, "The pruning hook and the scythes are in the barn lean-to."

He shook his head. "They ran. They saw-him-and you in the door."

"What did you do?"

"He came at me. So I came at him."

"I mean, before. On the road."

"They got cold, walking. It started to rain, and they got cold, and started talking about coming here. Before that it was only this one, talking about the child and you, about teaching-teaching lessons-" His voice dried up. "I'm thirsty," he said.

"So am I. The kettle's not boiling yet. Go on.

He took breath and tried to tell his story coherently. "The other two didn't listen to him much. Heard it all before, maybe. They were in a hurry to get on. To get to Valmouth. As if they were running from somebody. Getting away. But it got cold, and he went on about Oak Farm, and the one with the cap said, 'Well, why not just go there and spend the night with-" " .

"With the widow, yes."

Ged put his face in his hands. She waited.

He looked into the fire, and went on steadily. "Then I lost them for a while. The road came out level into the valley, and I couldn't follow along the way I'd been doing, in the woods, just behind them. I had to go aside, through the fields, keeping out of their sight. I don't know the country here, only the road. I was afraid if I cut across the fields I'd get lost, miss the house. And it was getting dark. I thought I'd missed the house, overshot it. I came back to the road, and almost ran into them-at the turn there. They'd seen the old man go by. They decided to wait till it was dark and they were sure n.o.body else was coming. They waited in the barn. I stayed outside. Just through the wall from them."

"You must be frozen," Tenar said dully.

"It was cold." He held his hands to the fire as if the thought of it had chilled him again. "I found the pitchfork by the lean-to door. They went around to the back of the house when they came out. I could have come to the front door then to warn you, it's what I should have done, but all I could think of was to take them by surprise-I thought it was my only advantage, chance. . . . I thought the house would be locked and they'd have to break in. But then I heard them going in, at the back, there. I went in-into the dairy-after them. I only just got out, when they came to the locked door." He gave a kind of laugh. "They went right by me in the dark. I could have tripped them. . . . One of them had a flint and steel, he'd burn a little tinder when they wanted to see a lock. They came around front. I heard you putting up the shutters; I knew you'd heard them. They talked about smas.h.i.+ng the window they'd seen you at. Then the one with the cap saw the window-that window-" He nodded toward the kitchen window, with its deep, broad inner sill. "He said, 'Get me a rock, I'll smash that right open,' and they came to where he was, and they were about to hoist him up to the sill. So I let out a yell, and he dropped down, and one of them-this one-came running right at me.

"Ah, ah," " gasped the man lying on the floor, as if telling Ged's tale for him. Ged got up and bent over him.

"He's dying, I think."

"No, he's not," Tenar said. She could not stop shaking entirely, but it was only an inward tremor now. The kettle was singing. She made a pot of tea, and laid her hands on the thick pottery sides of the teapot while it steeped. She poured out two cups, then a third, into which she put a little cold water. "It's too hot to drink," she told Ged, "hold it a minute first. I'll see if this'll go into him." She sat down on the floor by the man's head, lifted it on one arm, put the cup of cooled tea to his mouth, pushed the rim between the bared teeth. The warm stuff ran into his mouth; he swallowed. "He won't die," she said. "The floor's like ice. Help me move him nearer the fire."

Ged started to take the rug from a bench that ran along the wall between the chimney and the hall. "Don't use that, it's a good piece of weaving," Tenar said, and she went to the closet and brought out a worn-out felt cloak, which she spread out as a bed for the man. They hauled the inert body onto it, lapped it over him. The soaked red spots on the bandages had grown no larger.

Tenar stood up, and stood motionless.

"Therru," she said.

Ged looked round, but the child was not there. Tenar went hurriedly out of the room.

The children's room, the child's room, was perfectly dark and quiet. She felt her way to the bed, and laid her hand on the warm curve of the blanket over Therru's shoulder.

"Therru?"

The child's breathing was peaceful. She had not waked. Tenar could feel the heat of her body, like a radiance in the cold room.

As she went out, Tenar ran her hand across the chest of drawers and touched cold metal: the poker she had laid down when she closed the shutters. She brought it back to the kitchen, stepped over the man's body, and hung the poker on its hook on the chimney. She stood looking down at the fire.

"I couldn't do anything," she said. "What should I have done? Run out-right away-shouted, and run to Clear-brook and Shandy. They wouldn't have had time to hurt Therru."

"They would have been in the house with her, and you outside it, with the old man and woman. Or they could have picked her up and gone clear away with her. You did what you could. What you did was right. Timed right. The light from the house, and you coming out with the knife, and me there-they could see the pitchfork then-and him down. So they ran."

"Those that could," said Tenar. She turned and stirred the man's leg a little with the toe of her shoe, as if he were an object she was a little curious about, a little repelled by, like a dead viper. "You "You did the right thing," she said. did the right thing," she said.

"I don't think he even saw it. He ran right onto it, It was like-" He did not say what it was like. He said, "Drink your tea," and poured himself more from the pot keeping warm on the hearthbricks. "It's good. Sit down," he said, and she did so.

"When I was a boy," he said after a time, "the Kargs raided my village. They had lances-long, with feathers tied to the shaft-"

She nodded. "Warriors of the G.o.d-Brothers," she said. "I made a . . . a fog-spell. To confuse them. But they came on, some of them. I saw one of them run right onto a pitchfork-like him, Only it went clear through him. Below the waist."

"You hit a rib," Tenar said.

He nodded.

"It was the only mistake you made," she said. Her teeth were chattering now. She drank her tea. "Ged," she said, "what if they come back?"