Torin - The Luck Of Brin's Five Part 4

Beeth Ulgan stared keenly at Diver. "Your people havi flown around Torin. You must know there are cities." IJ Diver nodded. They had reports of inhabited placei made some time ago from a great distance. But his peoplo ... the Biosurvey Team ... were not envoys; their, dq was only to discover how well man might live on Torin.( so ) es; )ut ~ an air .

:ion ' he n of was -heir and hadsuch - him harsh : s.h.i.+fthaveplaces people ir duty . I orin.Harper Roy laughed aloud. "Great North Wind! You have nicked a bad soot. The islands are choking hot, full offever and Doison stings.""Perhaps that's another Diviner's tale," grinned Beeth Ulgan.

Diver smiled and sawed his hand as if to say, "more or less". "It's hot."

"Are you under rule not to find other beings?" asked Beeth. Again Diver sawed the air.

"I flew too far," he admitted sadly. "I hoped, always, to find ... others. The s.h.i.+p failed on my second journey."

Beeth Ulgan was pacing now, with her long hands pressed together in an att.i.tude of thought. "Escott Garl Brinroyan," she said formally, translating the name or at least making it easier to p.r.o.nounce, "what have you inmind?""To find my s.h.i.+p."

"Will it fly again?""Maybe not," said Diver, "but it has 'radio', to speakwith mv friends in the islands.""Ha!" said Beeth "I think this maoic is kno n here. Itresembles the voice-wire.""The voice-wire is forbidden in Rintoul," said HarperRoy."Still used in the Fire-Town," said the Ulgan, "and I could do with one now, though the winds know it would take a long wire to reach from here to Rintoul. Ho doesyour speaking device work Diver?""The words travel throuLh the air . . . no wire is need-ed "the way to Rintoul.The Ulgan held up her hands as if she would cry out all"Oh, these things will be known!" she cried triumphant- ly. "This will indeed be what the charts proclaim . . . a three comet year. There are others; there is a great one inRintoul who must know these things."( 51 ).

"The Great Elder?" asked Diver innocently. "Should go to Tiath Pentroy? To the Elders in Rintoul?"

For the first time Beeth Ulgan made an averting sign "No! Winds forbid!"

"Why not?"

"It might mean your life and the life of Brin's Five."

"This Elder would take our lives?"

"If he could do it secretly," said Beeth Ulgan.

Harper Roy protested. "Even the Great Elder is bonr by law; he must follow the old threads. . . ."

"That's true," said Beeth, "but very often he may wea, those threads in his pattern."

"But why kill us?" burst out Diver. "From fear? W1 should he fear a lone man? I come in peace. Why shou this grandee kill a stranger when simple folk have shown x nothing but kindness and love ... when Brin's Five I adopted me without a trace of fear?"

"You bring power and skill!" said the Ulgan. "You bri fire-metal-magic. We might have had all these thij ourselves from Tsagul, long ago. But the Elders, the cla will brook no change in their power. They cannot see way the world must go."

Diver studied the maps and traced on one the cours( the river Datse down to the sea. "Should I go to Tsagx he asked.

"No!" said Beeth Ulgan sharply. "If you found frie there, it would split the world like the blast of a I mountain."

"Besides," said Harper Roy, "it is a bleak place. Mai was there once and did a stint in the mines. Mountain do not care for the place."

"Do not be too sure, Roy Brinroyan," smiled the Di er. "There may be one of your kin well-known in Fire-Town."

The Harper shook his head and began numberi~g ouj on his fingers.( 52 ).

4v~Y.

Id C.

asnggsof P?vnds re-mor folk53 )."No," p.r.o.nounced Beeth Ulgan, "be ruled by me, Diver.

Go with Brin's Five, be patient."

"Where shall we go?" I asked.

"To my fixed house at Whiterock Fold," she said. "And my own barge will take you all downriver."

"Very well," said Diver, "if Brin will go there ... if it serves all the Five well . . ."

"There is one in Rintoul who will weave all these threads into a safe web," said the Diviner.

"But who, Beeth Ulgan?" I cried. "Who will save us?

Who is more powerful than Strangler Tiath? Is it ... is it Blacklock?"

Beeth Ulgan laughed aloud. "Well, you are not far wrong, child. I will not say the name, but it is the one who gives Blacklock-young Murno Pentroy-his wings to fly with."

I had to be satisfied with this. In fact it was many days before any of us heard the name she would not utter ...

but from this time we were aware of the presence of this subtle magician, this Maker of Engines.

Beeth Ulgan clapped her hands and went bustling into the other room again. "There is much to be done!"

We followed and found her kneeling beside the twirler.

The apprentice had sponged down the poor creature and covered the thin body with a blanket, but still it had not awakened.

"What are the twirlers?" Diver asked softly.

"Outcasts," said Beeth Ulgan, "vagabonds. They fly from a sad fate that haunts all Moruians. Do you know what that is?"

Diver shook his head.

"To be alone . . ." said Harper Roy, making an averting sign. "How is it with your people, Diver?"

"Some bear it pretty well," he replied.

I was stricken with fear in case poor Diver felt alone far from his own people. It was such a dreadful thing.

"Cheer up!" I whispered. "You ITM a Family."

I know it!" he said, smiling.

Beeth Ulgan was stroking the MM of the twirler in a certain pattern; the apprentice ausibiblilMd beside her, watch- ing keenly. "Our legends tell of a few spirits, neither good nor bad, who lived among the Moruia,' she said. "Name us some names, Dorn. Show your oisiOoMr's loom teaching."

"Eenath, Vuruno, Ullo and Telve . . ." I parroted game- ly. "All were great spirit warriors and made Families with the clans long ago. Eenath for VToMily, Vuruno for Doh- troy, Ullo and Telve for Tsatroy, RoM, fire-clan that is nc more."

"Good child!" smiled the Ulgan. "rhe legend tells thai these spirit warriors, especially 91 MM, still inspire thes( twirlers. A Leader, once inspired, fthers poor outcast into a skein. Those whose Families - I ave been broken b: death or misfortune, runaway va.s.sals, disgruntled townee or miners. They roam about begging alms and doing thei spirit dance. Simple folk are kind to 4~em."

"What will you do with this one?" asked Harper Roy.

"I must put the poor wretch to use, "sighed the Ulgan. "

know the Leader of this twirling band. He's a wily one, wh plays politics."

She motioned us~ back behind the zurtains of the inn( room and, raising her arms, began a crooning chant. TI apprentice, who divined her will, mok over stroking ti twirler's face. Presently the twirler --e-it bolt upright, and saw that it was a female, no older qo%n Brin, but scarr( and undernourished. As the Ulgan -wooned, all the har, lines left the poor face and the twirler spoke its name, likc sleeper. "Mooneen uto Vilroyan. kyj M#neen, once of Vi Five. Now roaming with the spirit .v--Lrriors."

"Your Leader?" asked Beeth AIM "Petsalee, Host of Spirits."

"You will bear this message to the Leader, with a gift silver," pursued the Ulgan.( 54 ).

d use- ith oh- nocasts n by nees theirDiviner.oy.

an.

e, whoinner t. The ing the t, and I scarred e harsh e, like a of Vil'sa gift Of"Surely . . ." sighed Mooneen, in the same eerie tone.

The Diviner spoke quickly and earnestly: "Tell Petsalee that he will earn praise and riches from the Maker of Engines if he goes straight downriver and plays all towns and villages between here and Otolor. The burden of his teaching shall be: no devil came down from the void but a true spirit warrior, who will bring glory and peace andhonor to the land of Torin."Diver could not follow all this; but as I peered from the light into the darkness, I was struck by the cunning of theWhen the twirler knew the message, she was awakened.

We saw her dressed in a cloak and given silver, then sent out into the night-light. Beeth Ulgan called us back and for the first time introduced the apprentice, whose name was Gordo Beethan-Gordo, Beeth's helper. No Five name, or if he had one he did not use it. Again, I wondered about living with a teacher instead of a Family. The Ulgan was explaining: "Gordo is a Witness," she said. "The only one registered in Cullin. Ask Diver if such thinj exist in hisknowledge.We had already tried to explain this way of sending messages to Diver. He understood fairly well what we meant but seemed to doubt if it would work. He admitted he was thought-blind himself but not all his folk were so. Afew had the power to link minds. He asked now, could it beshown?The Ulgan could not do it. "One must believe," she said.

Gordo looked smug; he valued his powers. I was sleepy andiealous.I will link minds with the Witness," said Beeth Ulgan.

"Then, when he calls, far off, at an appointed time, I hear and speak through him, while he is entranced. His hearershear me sneak."At that moment there came a musical rapping sound from deep inside the house; Beeth Ulgan's big silk and wood clock was striking in her clock room. Long before it echoing wooden notes had died away, Diver knew whal engine it was and asked to be shown. The clock made m( sleepier than ever; I had lost all the hours of total darkness which the mountain folk use for their best sleep; the Fa'

Sun had been hours in the sky. The apprentice, Gordo began curling up by the stove in the outer room in an ol, blue sleeping bag that might have been one of our ow weave, for we supplied the Ulgan with much of ht furnis.h.i.+ng. I went back into the inner room and fell aslee on the fine cus.h.i.+ons.

Suddenly I was wide awake; Harper Roy had gone. I fc a stab of alarm although the place was warm and beautifi I was alone. Then I heard a murmur of voices and s2 Diver, quite close, talking with the Ulgan. One of P Family was there ... I was safe. The Harper, I knew, h, gone to fetch the others from the cave at Stone Brook; th would join the Ulgan's barge outside the town at the ri, junction, according to the plans we had made. So I wo back to sleep and half woke, once or twice, to hear Di and Beeth Ulgan talking away, companionably, about st and engines, like two ancients, yarning over their 12 looms at a spring fair.The two suns were s.h.i.+ning and the sky was so clear it seemed to stretch all the way to Rintoul. The cold ate our bones as we crouched on the wharf; the weather clear and cool as the Ulgan had predicted. We s.h.i.+vere our cloaks and waited, behind a stack of wool bales: E and Dorn, alone. The wharf was not busy. We had seen Petsalee, Leader of the twirlers, bundling his b& gled flock into a shabby old bird-boat, all lime and cages, for the journey downriver. The Pentroy officer there and a couple of va.s.sals to hustle the twirlers o, town. Now these va.s.sals hung about, two huqdred( 56 ).

re its away, chewing bara seeds against the cold and spitting out what the rinds.

e me There was a step, and Gordo loomed up beside us. He ness, spoke without looking down. "Barge coming. Be ready."

e Far There was a churning of water and the Ulgan's barge, a ordo, cheerful, flat-bottomed fool of a boat, painted in bright n old colors, swung slowly up to the wharf. Diver, struggling own with his cloak, muttered, "Hope this works."

f her "Have no fear," said Gordo. He stared at me boldly and asleep said: "Are you strong enough, hill-child?"

"Strong enough to break your magical head!" I snapped.

I felt Gordo and I picked up the prepared bale, which weighed ut,ful; as much as a tree trunk, and walked towards the barge. Far d saw to my left I saw the va.s.sals staring; I concentrated on my of my load. Then, just as I was sure they were coming to , had investigate, Beeth Ulgan in a gorgeous robe strolled onto k; they the wharf with an entourage of town grandees. This party e river captured everyone's attention, Gordo was on the low I went gangplank, so was 1; the load was crus.h.i.+ng me to death, but r Diver I breathed out hard and lasted until the clear deck s.p.a.ce was ut stars reached. The wool bale lay at our feet, and the muscles of ir lace- my legs were twitching with relief.

Gordo grinned; he did not seem such a bad fellow.

"Good luck!" he said. "See you at the Spring Fair."

lear that I sat down on the deck, and he skipped back onto the ate into wharf. He flicked up the gangplank and shoved it aboard.

er was The barge heaver, a st.u.r.dy figure in a checked sailor's vered in hood, pushed off with the pole and went back to working s: Diver the paddle wheel. Beeth Ulgan raised her staff in a gesture had just of farewell, and I managed to wave back politely, like her bedrag- deckhand. The barge swung out onto the broad blue gray and old waters of the Troon and went slowly, easily, towards the cer was south. I sat there feeling for the first time the sensation of rs out of floating on water in a boat. The water spread between the dred feet barge and the wharf; there was a sundering, a breaking of( 57 ).I.

ordinary ties. The figures of the Pentroy va.s.sals looke smaller already. Then, with a slight curve of the bank, tf houses hid the wharf from view.

The flap of the stern tent flew up, and I was embraced c all sides. There they were ... Brin, Old Gwin, the Hari er, Narneen dancing about like a mad thing. Diver crawl( out of the wool bale. We stood all together on the deck ar shouted with triumph. The Great Sun blazed in the eaE and the Far Sun shone overhead; we were setting out on oi journey under a clear sky.

"But where ... ?" I cried.

"Here, of course!" said a familiar voice. The barge heav threw back his hood, and it was Mamor.( 58 ).

IS.BRIN SET UP MY ENEMY, the mat-loom, on the open deck, but I doubt if I completed ten rows of leaf pattern in all the time we went downriver. It was just so good, so new, to be moving on the water. I fell into my sleeping bag the moment Esto went down and woke early, with Esder's thin light silvering the broad stream. Mamor let me be tillergrip; Diver and Brin took turns at the paddle wheel. Old Gwin and the Harper turned to and washed our linen as if it were already spring. We were travelling light: most of our new work had been left in the cave at Stone Brook for Beeth Ulgan's factors to collect and market. Narneen sat in the stern catching fat water flies for our spinners and chasing the flatbills from our fis.h.i.+ng nets with a green branch.

Down in the city I have seen plenty of tame flatbills in ponds and watergardens fed every day on cultured worms.

But they cannot match the marvellous wild creatures wholive in the Troon north of Otolor. The big ones, the Totofee, are golden brown with dull green webs; they roll and play and chase each other from morning to night. They thought nothing of taking locusts from our fingers over the side or chasing across the deck, two or three at a time, with a peculiar snuffling noise from their broad bills and their tails slapping on the boards. Then there are two smaller varieties, the common Narfee and the striped Utonar. 'A saw them swimming in lines, their heads just breaking tf surface of the water.

Diver came across the box of wood paints for decoratir the barge and painted a frieze of flatbills on the lid of t cargo locker. His artwork was to spread over the face Torin too quickly for our safety. It must have been abo this time that one of the townees in Cullin found h drawings in the cave at Stone Brook and had them copie( with notes in Brin's own written script. Perhaps Beet Ulgan had a hand in this; she has never denied it.

Mamor was the only one of our Five accustomed to boat he was the child of river people, far away on the Datse, tb river that leads to the Fire-Town. On the second day b and Diver broke out the mast from its long slot on the dec and raised sail. The barge lumbered along faster, but it wa very clumsy. It was a matter of watching for channels shoving off from banks and shoals, shouting a warning ~ other craft; there were not many at this time of year. W, pa.s.sed villages and hamlets on either bank where we h~ made spring and summer camps in other years. What - pleasant thing to sail past a track you trudged on, 0~ before.

Diver sat with me at the tiller, and we saw a herd wool-deer, outside Nedlor, where the banks rise up al there is a hanging bridge over the river. The shepherdi were having a hard time cramming the silly creatures i4 their high-walled fold. Every so often a wool-deer broke free and went leaping and bounding to the edge of the, C overlooking the river. Then the shepherds moved in Wi their catch-nets on long flexible poles and brought straggler in by catching its "hands" and its strong tail. Ci, wool-deer were unshorn; their coats become so thick ly can sink an arm up to the elbow in the lovely fleece. T was a herd of pied cross-breds, and their colors were blA white and tan. Diver laughed and told me some more a~j( 60 ).

fisthts; e he eck was els, 9 to We had at a oncerd of p and herds es into broke he cliff in with ght the il. The ick you ce. Thisa strange place on his world where the wool-deer leap about with no wool and the fleece comes from a more docilespecies.It was that same day, in the evening, as I rode in the bow, going tillergrip for Mamor, I spotted a boat ahead ofus. It moved oddlv in the ater"What is the matter with that craft?" I asked Mamor"Stuck on a sandbank!" We were under sail, so he had Brin reef it in a little as we steered closer. The river was broad and shadowy at this point, with a clear, deep channel between two bars of sand so high and dry they were likeislands.The water flowed swiftly through the channel, and I fought with the tiller. The stranded boat was not a baraebut a keel-boat, old and brown. It was caught up by the stem, and the bow swung free in the channel. As it moved, the keel sc.r.a.ped from side to side across the bar. Mamor hailed and hailed avain but there ere no siuns of life.I caught sight of Narneen, crouched by the door of our tent, hands to her mouth in fear. I shared her fear; there was something dreadful about the ouiet old sh.e.l.l of a boat,swinging lifeless on the bar."Dorn!" It was Diver coming to help reef sail"That looks like the twirlers' boat."I recognized it then: the filthy old bird-boat that the twirlers were hustled aboard at Cullin. I slackened my grip so that we entered the channel badly; Mamor seized the filler and eave me a shove. "Watch out!"He maneuvered more skillfully, and we drew level, awayfrom the swinging bow.We could see aboard now; the deck was empty .

tangle of broken cages sc.r.a.ped and rattled as the boat moved with the current. Not a sign of the twirlers or the boat's crew. We were all watching now, crowded to the low"What crew was aboard?" asked Brin( 61 ).

"Captain and one or two sailors . . ." said Diver, "old fellows in whitish clothes. Do you remember, Dom?"

"No . . ." I whispered. "Two sailors helped the twirlers go aboard."

"Na-hoo the bird-boat!" Brin hailed them in her fine, mellow voice, seldom raised. Then we joined in, piping and calling, with the Harper making a melodious descant.

"Na-hoo the birder ... Brown Keel ... you there, the bird-boat!"

"Vano deg!" boomed Mamor, and we laughed uneasily at his joke ... it means something like "big, cross, old bird".

Then Diver filled his lungs and set the whole river ringing from bank to bank with his strange cries. "Coo-ee!

Ahoy the bird-boat! Ahoy there!"

There was no reply; the boat was derelict, deserted.

Night was coming down, and we all felt the same uneasi ness. Old Gwin urged Mamor to move on and made averting sign.

"We must search," said the Harper. He cursed the twirlers under his breath and Old Gwin rebuked him saying they were holy creatures. No one wanted the searching the bird-boat. The Harper gritted his tee gave me his instrument, but Diver laid a hand on hi "I'll go and take Dorn," he said, "in case I n interpreter. "

I looked at Brin, and she questioned with her eyes: W afraid? "I'm ready." I was afraid, but game enough Diver for company.

Mamor timed it nicely; he inched his barge pole alonth left sandbank and slewed the barge around as the bow the bird-boat swung towards us again. Diver and I lea across the thread of water and landed in a heap on the lime deck. We picked our way across the boards, slippiV~ over old tackle, a leather boot, a bunch of blue feathers from a twirler's cloak? Diver paused, head erect; even thought-blind could sense it. He gripped my arm.( 62 ).

Ct on't come anv further 17.

"I know," I whispered. "Death ... dead persons. Go on." Slowly he bent down and lifted the worn leather curtain that covered the ooden cabin housing. He shonehis light down into the blacknessthey at ird" - river o-ee!erted - asi- theed the d him, tas'k of eth and is arm - need a.n.a.long the bow Of d I leaped n the limed ipping over eathers - - ct; even one armThe cabin was larger than I had expected, a bare brown hold, with the ribs of the vessel showing through thread- bare hangings. No twirlers, alive or dead, only a torn blue cloak to show that ten or fifteen pa.s.sengers had been aboard. Then the circle of light rested on a tabletop, a rough thing made of a wicker bird cage upended. There were three of them, two slumped forward, one upright.