Eventually the sloop slowed to a stop and he heard the anchor splash overboard. Then Kulkin spoke nearby. "I'm going ashore. I'll be back after midnight with help and I'll move the boy then. Keep an eye on him. That last dose should keep him quiet till tomorrow, but check every two hours anyway. If any other boats approach, tell them to stand off. No one else comes aboard till I return."
"What about our money?"
"Don't worry, you'll get paid tonight. And keep a sharp watch. I warn you, there's only one reward for failure. Now row me ashore."
Quiet fell on the anchored vessel after Kulkin's departure. But try as he might, Caldar still couldn't move a muscle and thoughts of escape remained just thoughts. His apprehension grew as the hours passed. He had already become used to being aboard the sloop and the prospect of what might come next became increasingly frightening.
A long time later he heard a boat bump alongside. Footsteps clumped on the deck overhead and voices approached.
"We want paying, now," one of the crewmen said belligerently.
"Bring the lad up first." Kulkin's tone was cold and insistent. "I want to see he's alright, before I pay."
Grumbling, one of them climbed down into the hold, picked up Caldar's limp form and carried him across to the hatch. When it came to lifting him out, it became an ungainly struggle with the second man leaning down trying to get a grip of the slack body.
"Careful with him," Kulkin hissed from above. "Go down and help lift him. I'll pull from above. I want him unharmed."
The second crewman lowered himself into the hold and the two of them lifted Caldar easily to the waiting arms above. He was hoisted quickly onto the deck and without a pause the hatch was slammed down and bolted. Immediately there were shouts and hammering from below.
"Quiet, fools." Kulkin's chill voice halted the protests. "Be glad you have your miserable lives. If you make more noise, I'll scuttle the boat and leave you to drown."
The sloop was carrying no lights and the deck was pitch black and slick with rain. Only Caldar's new awareness enabled him to see the hooded figure that stooped over him and cut his bonds, before he was scooped up effortlessly and carried to the side. He marvelled at the man's unfaltering progress over the obstacle-strewn deck and at the sureness with which he handled the inert body down the side and into a small skiff. This was another side to Kulkin, strong, capable and surprisingly gentle. A second figure waited at the oars and took them away quickly over the rain-swept water with a steady powerful stroke.
"Well," said the Tinker in his normal voice, settling down in the stern, "that was simple enough. I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of those two ruffians when Kulkin comes back. Crime only pays when you're successful. Now let's get this lad ashore and hidden away. I know you can hear me, Caldar, so I'll say straight away that this should never have happened. The fault’s mine and Idressin's here. We should have realised that the situation at Hasban's wasn’t secure and been more on our guard.”
The Tinker bent down to check the youth, chest and eye, much as Kulkin had done. “Seminsa,” he said simply, then sat back on his seat and continued his strange conversation with the body at his feet.
“We thought we’d covered your tracks well. Caran told everyone you’d been sent to learn a trade in Suntoren and it seems it fooled them for a while. But when they couldn’t find you, they kept widening the search and from what I can piece together, that boat near Torven really was on the lookout for you last year. By sheer chance it capsized in the storm and there were no survivors. By then the net cast for you was a wide one and it was a long time before anyone went to Norleng to check up on the disappearance of their agents there. When they finally worked their way round to Torven, they picked up enough hints there to point them straight to the farm. Hasban gave nothing away, but it seems Grellek was happy to cooperate.
He was sure you and Berin sneered at him behind his back and treated him without respect. It was you who really got under his skin. So this was an easy way to get rid of you and he probably got paid for it too, 'though I'm guessing it cost Kulkin more by way of flattery than money. It would have been Grellek's job to slip the drug which Kulkin provided into your drink; Idressin says Hasban sent you down some cider that night, which made it all too easy. After that they just walked in and carried you off."
The Tinker looked at Caldar's sleeping face before turning back to Idressin. "I'm inclined to leave the drug to work itself out rather than apply an antidote. We need another day or two ourselves, so there's no hurry."
Idressin agreed and nothing more was said until a high wall loomed out of the darkness before them. Caldar was still a passenger, and he was amazed again at the Tinker's strength and agility as he slung the body over his shoulder and climbed swiftly up a slimy ladder set into the wall. A man was waiting for them on the quay above with a horse and a two-wheeled cart.
Without a word the two men got in the back with their burden, and the cart set off through shabby streets on a seemingly endless bumpy ride. They stopped in the roughest looking area of all and Caldar was taken through a dilapidated door and up the creaking stairs to a bed.
"Rest now, Caldar," the Tinker commanded. "You've kept watch long enough. Let your body use all its energy to heal itself. Let go, you're in safe hands here and we'll return within two days." With that the two men left and the youth plummeted into a deep sleep.
When Caldar awoke, it was daylight and he was ravenously hungry. He was fed by a quiet poorly-dressed woman, who responded to his queries by informing him that he had slept another day and night since the men had left. They were due back later on that day. Meanwhile he was not to go out.
By evening he was distinctly bored. When the others did arrive at last, he was delighted to see Berin follow Idressin into the room. The third face froze the greetings on his lips; it was Rasscu, his black eyes shining with welcome.
"Nothing to say to an old friend?" The herdsman laughed, as he embraced the boy, then held him off at arm's length. "You've grown. Not as tall as this bean-pole yet," he indicated Berin, "but that's a man's arm you've got there. And a man's look, too. Don't grow up too quickly, Caldar; I'm told it's irreversible. Still, just being around this trickster", he indicated the Tinker, who had followed him in, "would put years on anyone. He’s been lining me up for some secret scheme for months now.”
It turned out that the Tinker had sought out Rasscu in the Easterleng just after Winterturn and told him it was important that he was in Suntoren by spring.
" 'Go and get a job down there' he said. 'I'll probably be needing your help this summer and so will the lads.' He wouldn’t say any more, but it suited me well enough. There's plenty of work, the girls are just as pretty as in the Easterleng and there's a lot more of them. Anyway it doesn't look as though you’re going to need me. I've just heard about your surprise boat trip, but it's all over now, isn’t it? That right, Tinker? Can I go back north again, or should I trust that sinking feeling in my guts that tells me that things are just beginning?"
"He's looking even more enigmatic than usual." Berin commented drily. "That's a bad sign."
The Tinker smiled. "I have to collect one more person to make our little gathering complete. Then I'll explain everything." He glanced at Berin, who was about to launch his next question. "Hold it in for another couple of hours and I'll be back. And don't stick even your noses out of that door. Kulkin will be scouring the city by now and it seems he has the money to buy a lot of help."
"On the boat he mentioned his master," Caldar put in. "He sounded very frightening, but Kulkin didn't actually say anything about him."
"Pity." The Tinker paused by the door and looked thoughtfully at Caldar. "Perhaps if we'd left you in his keeping a bit longer, we might have found out more."
Caldar found the whole episode much more alarming in retrospect than he had at the time. His quick shudder drew a laugh from the Tinker. "I thought Kulkin looked after you very well. A bit heavy-handed with the Seminsa drops, but you can'
t have everything when you're travelling for free." Then he stepped out into the street and was gone.
The others began to swap stories. Caldar learned that Idressin had woken up late on the morning after the abduction and realised straight away that he was suffering from the residual effects of a drug. Then, Berin said, they discovered Caldar's absence and things had moved very quickly. Idressin had gone to the house to see Hasban and an hour later they were sailing down the Lake in the same boat they had taken to Torven.
"It doesn't sound like Hasban to let you take the boat," Caldar remarked.
"I didn't give him any choice." Idressin smiled grimly. "Anyway, Hasban's still got a spark of decency in there and he was genuinely angry when we narrowed it down to Grellek. Not only had his son betrayed a member of the family, however distantly related, he was also throwing away Hasban's chance of making a fortune out of me."
They had intercepted a south-bound ferry that afternoon and the next day the Tinker had come aboard also. Berin had not seen much of them on the journey south, which they seemed to have spent discussing plans in the cabin. His own fears for Caldar had been held in check by calm assurances from both men that his friend was alright.
Caldar shook his head as he turned to Idressin. "I don't understand how you even knew where I was."
“We were lucky.” Idressin pointed at Caldar’s chest. It took the youth a moment to remember the amulet which hung there inside his jerkin. “That thing around your neck helped us to keep track of you all the way.”
"But . . ." Caldar began, then he came to an abrupt stop, when another thought struck him. "The ferry. When did the ferry arrive in Suntoren?"
"This afternoon," Berin replied. "We collected Rasscu and came straight here."
"But that's impossible." Caldar's amazement was turning into a great knot of fear in his stomach. He looked at Idressin. "You came aboard Kulkin's boat two days ago."
"Possible. Impossible. What makes you so certain?" The tutor's voice was gentle. "I thought you'd learned something at least in Norleng. The world is full of infinite possibilities and their existence isn’t limited by your denial of them."
"What did you do?" Caldar persisted, only half hearing Idressin's words. He was sure that a simple answer would allay his fear and tension. "You can't be in two places at once."
Idressin laughed and swiftly enacted a little scene of a person lying on the ground with his limbs bound while another stood and watched him. Caldar was in turmoil. His head acknowledged what the tutor had just reminded him of, that he himself knew it was indeed possible to be in two places at once. But the uncannily accurate reenactment of something which Idressin could not have seen merely served to increase his fear.
He looked up and found the tutor's calm gaze resting on him. "What is it that feels so threatened? Your preconceptions? If you've decided you already know everything, then the world and I have nothing to teach you. Let go of your fears and learn. There's no need to reject anything, the new or the old."
Idressin's words and the kindness in his eyes worked a total change in Caldar and he relaxed, even joining in as Berin and Rasscu swapped stories of the last two years.
Part Two.-.The Great Highway
Chapter 11
Foreasmuch as they had obeyed the commands of the Gods that they should become the stewards of all living things upon the earth, the Gods granted unto Attir and unto Shuin a boon. And they said, "In your own image have ye made us. Grant us one thing thing more, that we shall be immortal even as ye are." And the Gods answered, "Mortal ye were created and subject to death must ye remain. Ask of us another boon." Then said Shuin, "Give us then thy knowledge." For she believed that by the knowledge of the Gods they would know all things, even to the secrets of eternal life.
For two days and two nights the Gods were silent. On the third day they gave to Attir and to Shuin an Eye, saying, "This is Seff'Hmwy, the Eye of the Gods. By its use ye shall perceive the whole world even as we perceive it: the earth and all that is in it and the firmament and all that lies therein, even unto the ends of the world. Know all things which ye shall see with the Eye to be very truth." And again they said, "All things."
And Attir and Shuin took Seff'Hmwy and went into a high mountain. And by use of the Eye they saw as it were in one place all the creatures and living things upon the earth and they were amazed by the number of them. And they looked further and the earth itself was laid bare before them from the very roots of the mountains to the uttermost deeps of the sea and they wondered at the vastness of it. And a third time they looked and they beheld the heavens, wherein the earth was lost among the stars like a speck of dust in the endless sands of the desert, and they were afraid.
Then Shuin said, "This is too great for us. Among the stars even the Gods are as nothing. Let us look at ourselves." And they looked a fourth time and saw themselves, two beings who shone bright as the Gods and bestrode the earth like giants. And this vision pleased and comforted them, so that they must look again. And the fifth time they looked into Seff'Hmwy that they might see themselves once more, they perceived two small creatures, dark of mind and lame of body, beings mired in ignorance and confusion. And long they looked, not believing that they saw themselves.
And Shuin said, "This Seff'Hmwy is a snare of the Gods, made to deceive us. We have seen ourselves and truly we are exalted even as they. They would bring us to humble ourselves before them and to this end have they changed the vision of the Eye." At her words Attir was wroth. He seized Seff'Hmwy and cast it down that it brake in three pieces. And he threw the pieces far off one from another, so that they might never be found all three and made whole again.
Then did Attir and Shuin descend the mountain and they were content, remembering only the fourth vision of Seff'Hmwy, that they were equal to the Gods themselves.
The Breaking of The Eye of The Gods - from The Song of Fawmin
Esparan: Suntoren
Berin was happily giving Rasscu an exaggerated account of Idressin's harsh teaching, when the Tinker walked into the room followed by a small figure, cloaked and hooded. All eyes were on the newcomer, who stood dripping just inside the door: then the hood was abruptly flung back to reveal a face the boys remembered vividly. It was Tariska, an angry Tariska, whose eyes widened in surprise at the sight of Caldar and Berin, then resumed their flinty look.
"So this is your collection of political refugees, is it?" The scorn was clear in her voice as she surveyed the room. "Or is it you two gentlemen who are in need of my legal help?" She looked enquiringly at Idressin and Rasscu.
Seeing the complete bafflement on Rasscu's face, her expression hardened as she turned back to the Tinker. "So what's this all about? I know these two and I can’t imagine them mixed up in anything sinister. But you tricked me into coming here with your story about a group of fugitives who needed legal help. Why? There must be some reason for dragging me out to this hovel at this time of night."
The Tinker looked at her seriously. "These people do indeed need your help, although they're not yet aware of it. I brought you here because we have to discuss something tonight which concerns us all and that includes you. So I suggest that you put aside the automatic suspicion they breed into you in the Law School, until you've heard what I have to say."
He indicated a vacant chair and Tariska unwillingly sat down, keeping on her wet cloak as if ready to leave at any instant.
"I'll go and see if I can find us something to eat in the kitchen," the old man went on. "It will save time if you get acquainted with each other while I'm gone."
The boys quickly introduced Rasscu and Idressin, then began to ply the newcomer with questions. Their patent eagerness to hear about her life overcame Tariska's initial reluctance and she began to recount her experiences at the Law College. She was enjoying Law and it was clear that she was doing well. She was at the top of her class and was already highly regarded in the profession as one of the brightest future prospects. She had also come to like Suntoren despite it
s poverty and crime.
"There's a vibrancy to the life here. The Esparan Council meets in Suntoren, and all the important decisions about Lake affairs are made here. I used to think of Misaloren as a big city, now I realise it's a little country town in a backwater. With the Great Highway nearby, there are people of all races down here: Ferrenstiki, Dendrians, Belugis, Trinta, even Borogoi sometimes. They seem to bring a much bigger world with them and in this city I feel part of it."
In turn the boys gave her a quick outline of the last two years, including Caldar's abduction and rescue; by the end she had resumed her rather haughty look of suspicion. "If you expect me to believe . . ." she began, when she was interrupted by the Tinker who had quietly returned to the room.
"We expect nothing, which is more than I can say for you, young lady." Tariska rose and turned towards the door. "Go on. Your father would not be proud of you. He's always prepared to hear a thing right through before he makes any judgements about it. What was it he used to say to you? ‘Lazy minds like quick judgements’."
The cloaked figure had checked at the mention of her father. Now she turned with a look of astonishment on her face, fumbling for words. "How d'you know that? How d’you know what he said to me?"
Rasscu put in sympathetically, "It's a bad habit he has. You'll get used to it."
"I hope not". The girl's retort was swift; but without waiting for a reply from the Tinker, she slowly sat down again.
The Tinker handed round the simple fare the housekeeper had prepared in the kitchen, but took none for himself. While they ate, he sat down and remained silent until they had finished.
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