But they had better thoughts than that. Airar caught how the metal gleam muted by rain spread along the opposite peak. Down the road came a train of carts drawn by horse and mule and bullock, with laboring people and Mictons in them and men pressed from the countryside. As these reached the bridge they halted; the workingmen leaped on the carts and began to heave their burdens to the rocks below—trees with branches, cut down anyhow, clods and stones. It did not need the mind of a master to see what was meant: they'd build a causeway across the neck of rock to reach the castle attainable in no other way. The distance was too long as yet for Erigu's engines to reach them.
The leaders talked of that and what the countermove should be. Mikalegon was all eager for a swift landing from boats among the rocks to break down the nearer arches and so make their work the harder, striking at night when they would not be ware. Alsander was with him. In any trial of war (said he) the first need's to win by surprise a victory however small, which the leaves the foemen uncertain and dreading. Pleiander said nay; if the Baron Catina knew his business, "as I take it he does or no Vulking baron," he'd count on such a move; have engines and arches ready and firepots to throw down by night against any who attempt to spoil the bridge, "and they'll shoot down on our heads where's no reply. All chances of your first victory lies to them."
Now the Earl in his morning-after-drinking mood glowered and shouted he'd not be ruled in the case of his own command by some damned people's parliament; but he yielded. It was decided to send the war-cry of the Ring through the Iron Mountains and all Korosh; the miners, being great friends of Mikalegon's house and knowing well they were sped of Os Erigu, went down. They should be urged not to rise in full arms but in little hill-bands, to harry the Vulkings' trains which would incline them the more to the war through good prospects of plunder. (Alsander brought forward this thought.) Airar said there was none like Rogai of Mariola for quick and secret daring, and besides he was known to all leaders who wore the Ring of Iron he should have the mission. It could be seen the Carrhoene captains liked the plan of Rogai none too well; complained, indeed, how he had sped in Shalland. The Earl shouted them down, which they took in good enough part, perhaps more willing to be ordered than convinced in a matter not their own doing.
The man of the mountains gladly took the task, asking only that the shallop set him ashore northward, at some secret place. "In the Fjord of the Bear?" quoth the scarface captain who had sat by Airar, and then looked as though he might have bitten his tongue out, for as Evadne snickered the Earl bellowed obscenities at him, and the conference broke up.
The Carrhoene girl did not speak to Airar. He wandered near the apartments assigned to the Imperials, not quite daring to ask after the Princess Argyra (after his doing of a night agone), yet by no means unwilling to meet her if chance offered and sq deliver various pretty speeches of exculpation he had planned out in his head. The trouble might have been spared; she did not appear, but the scarface captain did, looking glum as he could be. He touched hands, naming himself Poe— "Or as it will now be put, Poe the Witless, since the fine case I have made of myself with our lord and leader."
"How would that be?" asked Airar, one eye over his shoulder toward where she might come and not deeply interested, but in order to have something to say.
"Slip of the tongue; it's all a man needs here in Os Erigu to turn his futures into pasts. Another might have challenged or the old Earl would have shown me forth for it, but not our Earl Mikalegon. He's crafty; will put upon me in ways, till it's not to be borne and I leave the fellowship of my own free will."
"For mentioning Bear Fjord only? But that's a little thing—"
"You do not know the tale behind it." Now it was Poe's turn to look over a shoulder in search of who might hear. "Hark! It was nigh on four years ago when our lord and leader bethought himself to go up for a few days' fishing in a little decked shallop with one man, and he was from Korosh. I misremember the name— Parten, or something like that. They were sailing up the fjord finely, a good breeze behind and this man at the tiller, when our lord spied a fine bear swimming, and, thinking what a grand thing it would be at the castle yard if taken alive, ran and sought a coil of rope while his man bore over toward the beast. No great trick to drop a loop over the animal's neck; but instead of choking it dumb, the pressure of the rope only roused Master Bear to anger. It swam up the wake of the boat, and the shallop being low-decked, the first thing his lordship knew, here an armed paw came over the stern and then the animal hauling himself up.
"His lordship had not brought a sword, only a little fishtrident, with which his man made a dab at the monster as it came over the stern and began to drive them both in a morris-dance round the mast, with the tiller let go and sails flapping. At about the third round, his lordship's man, not having so much beef to carry, reached the hatch and got it open. They tumbled down together, arse over ears, and one or t'other managed to get the bolt home before Sir Bear could overcome his hesitancy about going down the hole after them. But now they were no better off, for they as good as in a dungeon, the beast lord of the deck, unmindful to continue his swim, and the shallop drifting to and fro.
"His man said later that Earl Mikalegon used such words that he feared lightning from heaven would burn them both to a crisp, and the bear too; but after a time, they began searching the underdeck for weapons. There was a grid or grating at the after part that gave them a little light; from time to time the bear came over to it and snarled at them or tried to reach his claws through after the manner of such animals when they fish. The best they could find for arms was a pair of old fish-knives, not very sharp. Earl Mikalegon fixed them at the end of poles and both men tried to jab the bear through the grating. But the grid spoiled their stroke, the knife did not bite on the bear's hide, and he clipped one of them with his paw, so the pole broke and knife was knocked across the deck, adding to which they could now see that the rope was somehow caught in the deck gear, so that even if the animal wished he could not quit them.
"What's to be done now, lord?" said the man, being in spite of their plight so shaken with inner laughters that he could hardly speak—though he knew better than to make his humor open before Earl Mikalegon.
"The Earl cursed him for a fool and said did he know any magics or spells? The man was a Korosh, as I have said, where all learn a little gramarye because of the Mictons and their troll-raising; he said as much, but also that bears were beyond him. At that his lordship burst out that he'd have the lout's ears unless whatever magic he knew were tried. It was needs must for him, over protest. In the midst of this spell his lordship huffed and grunted so that at just the wrong time the man could no longer hold his laughter and the spell was broke in the middle. I have said it was a trollmagic? It summoned them finely, in the form of nixies, which are a kind of troll marine we have here in the north. They swarmed all over the shallop and garlanded it with seaweeds and pine branches; making a pet of the bear and gambolling about the deck the more Earl Mikalegon roared with fury, for it is the nature of these nixies to joy in mortal misfortunes so they be not grave ones.
"The nixies also kept the ship from coming to land and the two aboard were held awake all night with their gibberings and racket. His lordship was not rescued till next day when some at the castle became anxious of a Micton raid and went seeking him. When the story was known they laughed at Earl Mikalegon from the mountains of Korosh to the Isles of Gentebbi, and he swore a great oath against any who should lower the dignity of Os Erigu by mentioning it again, and woe's me."
27 Os Erigu: Generosity Rejected
HE FOUND her the next day, though, walking the battlement at the sea-face, a step behind Princess Aurea who, when she spied Airar (he could see it from far), turned, drew her sister's arm, and said something to her with a laugh. The golden quean was nearer as they passed; Airar could barely catch a climpse of Argyra's face. He made to bow; Aurea noticed him with the coolest of nods, his dear spoke a greeting he did not hear.
All the night through, the Vulkings had worked under torches that one could see spattering in the tender rain, the carts rumbling as the cargoes were hove down. Pleiander said that far though they yet were from the walls, there should be strengthenings, and Earl Mikalegon had what stoneworkers were in the place to build up a block from the south end of the wall, where the bridge sprang through, to the central baillie, and from thence again to the harbor face, making a demilune. Airar thought the men worked slow and clumsily, showing little spirit for the task to match the fever-pace of Lacia's progress with the causeway. They paused often to take drink, laughing and hooting.
Earl Mikalegon came to that face of the battlements and had one of the catapults loose a stone ball. It fell well short of the enemy work-spot; he growled and turned away. Later the same day as Airar watched, Rogai came to him, dressed in rough clothes like a miner but prancing as a ram, happy in his mission, on which he would set forth the night. Count Vulk's baron had done well with his building (he said) against no opposition; but his men had not begun to tire or hunger; it would be different then.
Airar roused himself from thoughts of what the cut timbers there on the growing causeway might mean (too many for engines of war) to wish the Mariolan godspeed, and turned again to the castle's lower court with some thought of seeing, if not Argyra, then Meliboe, invisible since the night of the cup of war. Instead it was Aurareus, pacing with one of his bullies—Balinian, Airar thought his name. The Prince did not seem in a good mood, and neither did his companion, who looked away after a headmovement to indicate he had heard Airar's greeting of the day. The young man would have passed without more; the Prince seemed at the rim of doing likewise, when taken by another thought he turned, and in a voice dripping with honey bade Aivar's son have no shame for his oath over the cup. It was an acceptable sign of love for the House Imperial, however overspoken:
"Though if you are a gentleman armigerous, as some claim, I doubt you would make names to be bandied about, except those of enemies. It is a gentleman's joy ever to hurt only those he hates."
"I pray you, make mine apologies," said Airar, "for it seems I stand under her avoidance."
"You are to call me graciousness. They're not needed. She's your partisan—and will see you herself, even though her taste in colors is all gloomy hues, like a peasant lass of Scroby. Our sister seeks to fix attention by other means. Has she told you how she swore to die rather than wed with Sthenophon? I perceive she has— already! I is danger; we fear for you." He laughed on a high note.
What to make of such a farrago? Airar said nothing at all.
"But do not despair. Our sister, Master Airar, is not taken too seriously at court, even by herself. But tell us— are you in comfort? We will say so much for this Earl here, that we will let him be hanged with a silken rope when the time comes, for that he has given us a splendid apartment with service us befitting, so there is even space for our friends." His graciousness waved a hand, Airar answered that he was already well lodged, and the interview ended.
The day dragged into another and another, while the Vulkings brought their loads (but they had still a long way to go with their causeway) and tempers shortened in the castle. There was word by a little ship of what passed in the Isles of Gentebbi; Bordvin Wildfang himself had gone to Vagai, cancelled the charter, made a slaughter of those contrarious, and was building a castle. Alsander said twothirds of war and all of victory lay in knowing how to wait with patience till occasion ripened. Over mugs of ale one evening clever Pleiander thought aloud how a big trebuchet might reach where Vulking catapults would not and annoy this trespass of the enemies. Two-three of Earl Mikalegon's men were dispatched northaway up the coast to get timbers—"Not that I've confidence in't as plan," Airar heard the Star-Captain say low-voiced to Evadne, "for before we build the thing we'll be at handgrips. But 'twill sweat them finely and leave a sense of something done, which is the crucial point in sieges."
Airar would have harked to more, for this seemed to him of importance, but Evadne had caught how his ear was cocked, and turned to ask how progressed his suit for the cat of the Empire? and had he stroked her fur as yet? Clear he was one of those moonshine lovers who'd touch nothing else unless a girl raped him. She laughed at the blushes he could not hide; and as he turned away, he saw that Meliboe the enchanter was crooking a finger, which he took to be a sign for privy speech. The old man left the table somewhat early and as Airar came from the smoky council hall to the paved court with its rows of huts over beneath the wall, here the warlock was, pacing under the starshine, hands behind back.
"Young master," was his greeting, "you are more to me of trouble than of gain; yet if 'twere I gain nothing, I'd trouble with you still. A mystery."
"That has been said before," quoth Airar, somewhat roughly, for he felt alone, by all avoided, ready to nip his best friend; "but if there is something new I will hear it."
"Tsa, patience built the spider-web and spiders can catch wasps, young master, I have been at much trouble for you." He took a few steps. "I do not know if your luck is strong enough to bear the weight you put on it, but since you point the road, I can but furnish the horse. I have undertaken certain matters for you and it has not been an easy task. If you knock at the door of her apartment tonight, no less than Princess Aurea of the Empire will receive you."
"And what use that? I have been received by His Grace of Salmonessa."
"Nay, nay, no tempers. Aurareus turned as he is, and the old man doddering, she's the true head of the House."
"Well, then?"
"Well, then, if you desire your fancy-girl, fail not the rendezvous."
Check a moment to regain temper. "What hour?" asked Airar, Alvar's son.
"Ha, it begins to bite, does it? Say a turn of the glass from now, when Earl Mikalegon has drunk himself senseless and is borne off to bed, and the others are busy with their dancing girls. You know the where?"
"The green-thatched house at the base of the baillie in the angle. Look! One can spy the light from here."
"I have your look to say you have reckoned the number of steps thither. Knock then, and make your treaty; I'll attend."
Airar had twice to take a water-easement while the time wore, and was not even then sure of his hour. Once from up behind the hall there came loud voices as one sought rest, and a torch or two threw off little rivulets of light. When he tapped, the glow within went dead. "Who comes?" said a voice, and he knew it. "Airar of Trangsted," and it was indeed she, with a friendly hand-touch, too much of friend and not enough of else. She ledthrough a shadowy small room, calling to Aurea that all was well. He heard the clink of stone and iron; the sister-princess had stood to strike a lamp, but sat as Airar entered, he managing some kind of bow.
"Welcome, Lord Airar," said she, all graciousness, and offered a hand, at which he went warm all over, not knowing whether to touch or kiss.
"No lord," said he and kissed. It was the wrong thing; he could tell by the slight movement round the flawless lips.
"Would you sit? What I have to say is somewhat long." The golden princess looked round and, as at a command unspoken, Argyra whisked through a door and away.
Aurea watched her go, then leaned forward with both hands clasped round her knees and to Airar's astonishment her face melted human as could be: "The old wizard is your embassy. I did not know you were so well thought of in Dalarna. You would benefit us by your counsel."
"I—I thank you, bright lady." (It was a phrase he had caught from Rogai.)
The mouth flicker again, and what should he have said? "What think you of—our friend?"
"Earl Mikalegon? He seems true enough?"
"Aye, when he cannot help being so. His free companions had overthrown him in a breath had he not given you shelter, with so many fighting men and the captains of Carrhoene to aid him in tlus war. But as for other matters— did you know he takes your man Visto to the Black Tower?"
Airar felt his face flame. "Every man is free at Os Erigu, I'm t
old, Visto not less than the rest."
"Ah, Master Airar, for each freedom you have someone who pays with a loss, not so? One day your Earl will go to walk the ridge of the moon, whether in these combats or by a mere staw-death—and what then -for Os Erigu and all its freedoms? There's a flaw in all this Earl does—had you not marked it? So with his continuance; there's no heritor, nor is this place of the Empire, where it could be adjudicate without battle. I fear many will lose freedom before another coronet leads the free companies and many lose life in trying to set their peculiar freedom over those who wish the dignity."
"I do not think I shall trouble about that as yet, bright lady."
"But I shall. That is—" she checked in mid-speech, and Airar, wondering inwardly whether this were real or a manner, looked expectant. "No matter. I suppose it was done in a moment, for those who overheard, and not really true."
"What not true, bright lady?"
"That you swore on the cup they drink in this place to have my sister by fair means or foul—enrolling yourself companion of Os Erigu. I do not see what withholds you now. Use your means. You're in some sort a captain here, and we your prisoners to order as you will."
Airar felt himself go cold and warm but steadfastly enough answered: "Part of it is not true by any name. There was naught of fair or foul in what I swore nor of membership in this free company. I did swear to follow her to the world's four corners, but in all honor and affection. I—I'd not have her other than freely and to wive."
She placed one finger on her chin and the other knuckles beneath it. "High and romantical. You do not lack for wings to fly from your little lordship of Trangsted to the House Imperial. Are all Dalecarles like that? I remember one Sir Ludomir Ludomirson of your land when he was at court, a very stiff-necked man. Still—" she sighed "—the daughter's daughter of the Knight of Bremmery cannot say too much on that, and the old wizard declares you one of the most destined of men. But you swore also, as I am told, to let Dalarna out from under the rule and tribute of the Counts Vulk, our deputies. If that's held to, why, you make yourself my foe—when I am wedded and my puss of a sister would be my foe as well should you win her."
Well of the Unicorn Page 24
