Priests of Ferris

by Maurice Gee

  Nick stopped before him and bowed. ‘I am Nicholas Quinn,’ he said. ‘I visited Morninghall a hundred turns ago with Susan Ferris. Today I bring Dawn the Woodlander. We have a message from Jimmy Jaspers and the Varg.’

  A murmur of surprise, displeasure too, sounded in the Council. Wise One said, ‘In the old days the Varg were enemies.’

  ‘I don’t know about the old days,’ Nick said. ‘It’s now that interests me. I’ve come to help you, and ask for help.’

  ‘A messenger flew ahead of you,’ Wise One said. ‘We know you claim to have important news for all our kind. Because you are who you are, we will listen. But this must be done in full Council. We have sent for the leaders of the other Halls. They are coming now. In the morning we will listen to your message.’

  ‘I can’t wait that long,’ Nick said, but Dawn put her hand on his arm.

  ‘We thank you for your welcome,’ she said. ‘We have travelled far and have little time. But we can wait until the Council meets. Then I pray that you will act quickly.’

  ‘We will act or not, as the Council decides,’ Wise One said. ‘Nothing more can be said tonight. Now you must eat our food and hear our song. The debt we owe to Susan Ferris and Nicholas Quinn, and to Brand and Breeze and the Woodlanders, is not forgotten.’

  So they sat by the fires, and ate and listened. The songs were about heroic deeds, and Nick remembered how once by another fire in this Hall, he had hoped songs would be made about Susan and him. He heard them now and they were unreal. The present, and his task, troubled him. From time to time Birdfolk flew in from other Halls and he felt he did badly in the formal business of greeting and was glad that Dawn was there to say the right things.

  Late in the night they were shown their beds. Nick could not sleep. In three days Soona would be thrown off the cliff. And Susan and Jimmy would face the High Priest, and probably die if he did not get there with an army of Birdfolk. But how was he to persuade the Council? If they were all as difficult as Wise One it could take days.

  He felt better in the morning when he woke and found Yellowclaw and Silverwing by his bed. They had flown back from a patrol in the north and had spoken with Dawn already and learned something of the mission.

  ‘You must be careful,’ Silverwing warned. ‘The Prohibition is a subject painful to Birds. There are some who believe it must not be tested, we must accept. Others will resent outsiders speaking of it. But we will support you.’

  ‘Wise One didn’t seem very friendly.’

  ‘He’s a cranky old Bird. But he is wise. If you convince him he will help you.’

  The Council was held in the Great Hall underneath the Prohibition carved into the rock. Nick read it as he stood beside Dawn waiting for the visiting Birdfolk to assemble. Folk of the Yellow Plains, For your great sins of Pride and Cruelty, Know that ye are locked into your Land. Unless ye be as Humble as the Worm, never shall ye fly outside the Mountains … Yes, he thought, it’s clear enough, but I can see why they don’t understand it.

  Wise One and the ten leaders of the other Halls arranged themselves in a semi-circle in front of Nick and Dawn. The Birdfolk of Morninghall gathered behind in a throng. Nick heard the rustle and scrape of feathers and the sound of clawed feet on the stone. Wise One called for silence. He introduced Nick and Dawn and reminded his listeners of the debt all Birdfolk owed Susan.

  ‘This human boy is Nicholas Quinn. Of that we are certain, even though a hundred turns have passed since he stood in our Hall. He comes to ask a favour – and bestow one. So he claims. We will grant the first, if it lies in our power. The second – it touches on things we prefer not to speak of with outsiders. Yet because he is who he is we shall listen!’ He introduced the leaders – old Birdfolk, male and female, most looking tired from their flight. Nick had no confidence that he would be able to convince them. But he took the floor and in a clear voice told the story of Susan’s return to O. He told of her determination to destroy the Temple, of the waking of Jimmy Jaspers, and the journey to Stonehaven.

  ‘I don’t know where Susan is now, but she must be close to the Temple. In three more days Soona, Limpy’s sister, will be thrown off Deven’s Leap. Susan will try to stop that. She will face the High Priest and tell him who she is.’

  The Birdfolk stirred and rumbled and one of the leaders cried, ‘It will do no good. One girl, whoever she is, cannot bring down the Temple.’

  ‘There’s also Jimmy and Ben. And Dawn and I are going back too.’

  ‘It is not enough. The plan will fail.’

  ‘That’s why I’ve come to you for help.’

  ‘We would help if we could. I speak for all Birdfolk. The Temple is evil. But there is nothing we can do.’

  Nick wet his lips. He looked at these towering feathered creatures. He must make their minds work in ways they had not before. He looked at Dawn for help. But she too seemed overwhelmed by the strangeness of the Birdfolk. Then he saw Silverwing and Yellowclaw in the crowd behind the Council. These at least he knew; and he spoke quietly, to them alone.

  ‘Susan asks for an army of Birdfolk to fly to Deven’s Leap and help against the Temple.’

  The Hall seemed to explode. Birdfolk jumped into the air, beating their wings in fury or disbelief. One old Councillor tottered and had to be held up by his retinue. Another cried, ‘This human boy mocks us. He insults the race of Birdfolk.’

  Nick kept his eyes on Silverwing. She looked back at him evenly, trying to understand, and he smiled at her. Then he remembered what she had said about Wise One. He found the Birdman’s eyes fixed on him, but could not tell whether their glitter was malicious or amused.

  ‘I’ve got some more to say,’ Nick shouted.

  Wise One nodded. He raised his wings and cried, ‘Silence!’ in a voice that was huge for a frail old Birdman. At once the Hall was still.

  ‘This boy is an honoured guest,’ Wise One said. ‘So we will listen. He does not mock us, however it may seem. He may be foolish, and presumptuous. But we are in his debt, and we will listen. Now boy, explain yourself, and you’d better do it well.’

  ‘Yes,’ Nick said. He looked at Wise One now, not Silverwing. ‘That is the favour I ask, an army of Birdfolk. The other favour – the one I bring, is to tell you how to fly outside your land.’

  Again the Hall exploded, and again Wise One cried, ‘Silence!’

  ‘Our thinkers, our leaders, have studied the Prohibition for hundreds of turns,’ he said to Nick.

  ‘I know.’

  ‘And none have found an answer.’

  ‘Yes, I know ’

  ‘We have practised humility in every form. There have been Birdfolk who have given their lives to it.’

  ‘I can’t tell you what the answer is,’ Nick said. ‘It’s Ben the Varg who knows.’

  ‘A bear!’ cried the old Councillor who had tottered.

  ‘The Varg have always known. They read the Prohibition differently from you.’

  ‘A bear!’ His followers held him up. ‘This boy brings a message from a bear! To us, who are Birdfolk! A bear knows the secret! Why, in the old days our fathers hunted them for sport.’

  ‘They remember it,’ Nick said. ‘And I think you should read the Prohibition. It says you are locked in for two things, and cruelty is one.’ For a moment he thought the old Birdman would attack him, but Wise One spread his wings again, and the Hall quietened down.

  ‘The Varg have no reason to trust us. Why should they tell us how to be free?’

  ‘Because the Temple is a greater evil. And because any who learn to fly outside will have conquered pride and cruelty. There will not be many. Some –’ he looked at the old Councillor – ‘will never be free.’

  ‘Then tell us the bear’s message.’

  Nick wet his lips again. This was the hard part. ‘The message is,’ he said, ‘read the Prohibition. Read and understand.’

  Wise One’s feathers stood up on his head – a sign of anger. ‘You think we do not understand it?’


  ‘That’s what Ben says. He says you must stop reading as Birdfolk. He says … ’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You have the minds of creatures of the sky, not of the ground. You must turn your thoughts inside out. You must bring them down, forget your wings. Then perhaps you will understand.’

  ‘Our wings are our lives.’

  ‘I know. I know. But look up there, on the wall. Look what it says. “Unless ye be as Humble as the Worm…” ’

  Wise One turned and looked, then swung back. ‘Nick, this is too hard. Tell us, tell us.’

  ‘I can’t,’ Nick cried. He was almost bursting out with it. ‘If I do, you haven’t worked it out on your own. You’ll be trapped in your land till the end of time. But … ’

  Yes?

  ‘Ben said I could tell you this. You have been thinking of humility. Think instead of the worm.’

  ‘Riddles. Riddles,’ the old Councillor cried. ‘I’ve had enough of this. I’m going home.’ He stormed out of the Hall with his followers behind him. But Wise One never moved. He kept his eyes on Nick. ‘Is that all?’

  ‘I can’t say any more.’ And he could not bear the eyes of the Birdfolk on him. He broke through the throng into the open and climbed to the rim of the hollow. Dawn ran after him and stood by his side.

  ‘You did your best.’

  ‘They’ll never understand. They’re up themselves too much.’

  ‘I think they will. But not in time. It’s hard for them. If you can fly you only think of flying.’

  ‘I know. Let’s find our things and get out of here. Maybe they can take us to the pass. I want to get to the Temple.’

  Before they could move two Birdfolk launched themselves from a window in the Hall and glided down to them. They were Silverwing and Yellowclaw.

  ‘We have been talking,’ Silverwing said.

  ‘Everyone’s been talking. But nobody’s going to do anything.’

  ‘Nick, wings are all now. Would you expect a Stoneman to come out in the light?’

  ‘I suppose not.’

  ‘Then don’t be too hard on us. All the same, we have talked. We see the difference between Birdfolk and worms.’

  ‘What you ask is hard. Crawling in the ground,’ Yellowclaw said.

  ‘I don’t ask. The Prohibition tells you what to do.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Will you come?’

  ‘We’ll try. That’s all we can say. But two of us will not be enough. We will see if any others understand. Wait here. It is a matter for Birdfolk now.’ He drew one claw-tipped hand out of the feathers on his breast – an action that always made Nick jump – and laid it on his shoulder. ‘You have done more for Birdfolk than you know.’

  He and Silverwing went down to the mouth of the Hall and talked with Wise One and the Councillors. Nick and Dawn saw an angry movement amongst the Birdfolk, heard shouts of rage. Wise One took a long time calming everyone down. Then there was a discussion, sometimes voices raised, and Birdfolk flapping away, or standing sulkily and coming back.

  ‘It’s as bad as parliament,’ Nick said.

  At the end, Silverwing and Yellowclaw walked apart and waited on the rim. And Birdfolk began to join them – first one, then groups of four and five, until there were forty. They were male and female both, and mostly young, but two or three were giant warriors like Yellowclaw.

  Wise One came slowly up the slope to Nick and Dawn. ‘There is your army. I hope it will be enough. Others will come, but they need more time. As for me, I am old. I will never fly outside the mountains. But my son is there, and his son. They will tell me what the world is like.’ He smiled at Nick and said, ‘You know that we must ask for help from the Stonefolk? Never have two races been further apart – in the sky and under the stone.’

  ‘They will help.’

  ‘I hope so. Now, we must prepare. Time is short.’

  The Birdfolk armed themselves and gathered supplies. Nests were brought for Nick and Dawn. Late in the morning the ‘army’ – more than fifty Birdfolk now – left Morninghall and flew south. Wise One and several Councillors, and warriors who had not decided, flew with them. Two of these carried Nick and Dawn. Late in the day they stopped at a place high in the mountains where caves angled into eroded cliffs. Nick and Wise One entered one of them and stopped at the margin of the light. ‘This is where Birdfolk and Stonefolk talk. There has been no need for many turns,’ Wise One said. He raised his voice and called into the dark, ‘Stonefolk. Hear me. I am the Wise One of Morninghall. I come to ask your help.’

  No answer came and after several minutes Nick began to move impatiently. Wise One placed his hand on his shoulder. ‘They cannot be hurried. They will come.’

  It seemed hours later that a voice whispered far away in the dark, ‘I am here. Ask your question.’

  Wise One spoke with care, sending his voice softly down the cave. ‘There has been a Council in our Hall. We have heard a messenger from the Varg and have looked at our Prohibition differently.’

  ‘With what result?’ said the voice.

  ‘We have understood it.’

  ‘It has taken you a long time, Birdman. Why do you come to us?’

  ‘So that you may guide us. We would be as humble as the worm.’

  Silence filled the cave. It seemed there would be no answer.

  ‘They are deciding,’ Wise One said. ‘Perhaps they will help, perhaps they won’t.’

  A new voice came out of the dark – older, furrier, yet somehow more sure of itself. ‘How do we know that Birdfolk will not kill and plunder again when they fly outside the mountains?’

  ‘You do not know,’ Wise One said. ‘I do not know. Yet I believe any who pass this test will have greed and cruelty burned out of them.’

  Silence again. Then the voice said, ‘It is possible. Who is the one with you?’

  ‘Tell them, Nick.’

  ‘I am Nicholas Quinn,’ Nick said. ‘I’m Susan’s friend. She is at the Temple with Jimmy Jaspers and Ben, the Varg. They sent me with a message to the Birdfolk. We’re going to destroy the Temple. At least, Susan is. If she can. But we need the Birdfolk to help. So please, show them the way. If you don’t, we’ve got no chance.’

  ‘What will you put in place of the Temple?’

  ‘Nothing. That’s not our job. We’ll leave it for the people of O to decide.’

  ‘You think they will choose something better?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Nick said. ‘I don’t know anything. All I know is that the Temple’s bad. They’re going to kill Limpy’s sister the day after tomorrow.’

  ‘And so we must save her. Yes. An innocent child. The reason is good enough, and the risk justified.’

  ‘So you’ll help?’

  ‘We will show the way. But know, Birdman’ – he spoke to Wise One – ‘it is hard. The worm lives in mud, not in stone.’

  ‘We know,’ Wise One said.

  ‘Some will die. Others will go mad.’

  Wise One made no answer.

  ‘Well?’

  ‘I will tell them,’ the old Birdman said. ‘Where will Nick go to wait?’

  ‘Down the mountain on the other side there is a gorge, and a river bursting from the stone. Beneath the fall, a cave. There is the place.’

  ‘Dawn will find it,’ Nick said. ‘How long will it take?’

  ‘All this day and one of your nights.’

  They went out of the cave and Wise One told the Birdfolk what the Stoneman had said. None dropped out, and several of those who had been undecided joined the band.

  ‘They see the sky on the other side,’ Wise One said.

  Yellowclaw and Silverwing came to talk with Nick and Dawn. It was hard to tell what they were thinking. Only in their eyes was there any fear, but they spoke of practical things – food and weapons and place of meeting – and made a formal goodbye when Wise One called them. Then the Birdfolk went into the cave, tall and proud, their feathers flashing in the sun. To Nick it was as if they were being
drunk into darkness. Colour became grey. Red and green, blue and silver, purple, yellow, orange; a rainbow, an iridescence, streamed into the cave, and light went out. He could not bear to watch it, but turned away and went down the hill and joined the Birdfolk who would fly the nests and weapons and food higher into the mountains. When he looked again only Wise One was left, standing by the cave.

  Through the rest of the day, as he and Dawn climbed higher, as they crossed the pass, and waved goodbye to shrinking specks in the sky, and climbed down to the bush-line on the other side, he thought of the Birdfolk deep in the mountain under them, turning in caves, shuffling in passages, with their great wings useless by their sides. He thought he felt some of the pain they must feel.

  Dawn led the way down through the bush, almost as quick in the dark as she was in daylight. At midnight she found a place to sleep. They unstrapped their nests from their backs and ate some food. Nick went to sleep with the distant roar of a waterfall in his ears.

  That was the sound they followed in the morning. They worked their way along the foot of hills and entered a gorge, and found the place where the creek broke from its underground passage and leaped fifty metres down a cliff.

  ‘We’ll make a fire,’ Dawn said. ‘They’ll be wet and cold.’

  ‘Won’t the priest patrols see the smoke?’

  ‘They’ve all gone to the Temple for the Miracle.’

  They hunted for dry wood and hauled it into the gorge and built a mound on a shingle spit down from the fall. Then Nick crept in behind the water, through spray as wetting as rain, and waited by the cave mouth. It was only a narrow split in the rock. The larger Birdfolk would struggle to get through. He went into the dark a little way and listened for some noise, but the sound of the waterfall was too great. ‘If you can hear,’ he said, ‘tell me when they’re coming.’ Then he waited hours in the dark, crouched and shivering. At last, from far away, a whisper came, drifting like a filament of web. ‘The Birdfolk come.’ Nick ran outside. ‘Light the fire,’ he cried to Dawn.