Zypheria's Call (A Tanyth Fairport Adventure)

by Nathan Lowell

  Frank held a mug up to her mouth and slipped a solid arm under her shoulders to help her lift. “Here. A bit of water. Sadie gave you a good dose of rum. Some water’ll help.” His voice sounded like he might be soothing a spooked horse.

  She leaned up and took a few sips. Rum would explain the heaviness in her head, the queasiness in her gut and the sour taste in her mouth. She took another sip.

  “Better?” Frank asked, offering the mug again.

  “’Nough for now,” she whispered, not trusting her voice to speak aloud.

  Frank lowered her gently to the cot and knelt beside her, gazing into her face in the little light that the fire provided. A sadness spread across his face that Tanyth could read even in the near dark. “You had a dream,” he said.

  “Yeah,” she whispered. “Not that dream. Different one.”

  “Bad?”

  She gave her head a small shake. “She wants a rabbit.”

  Frank’s teeth glowed in the gloom as he smiled. “She always wants a rabbit.”

  His amusement made Tanyth smile in return. She lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. “She likes rabbits, and they’re not easy to catch.”

  “We’re spoiling that bird,” Frank grumbled, his smile still gleaming against the dark.

  “She saved my life,” Tanyth said.

  “She’s the reason you think you’re goin’ mad.”

  Tanyth sighed and settled back on her pillow. “That, too.”

  “You can’t have it both ways, you know,” Frank said, reaching out to stroke her cheekbone with one calloused fingertip.

  She looked at him, brow furrowed as she tried to piece together his meaning. “Both ways?”

  He nodded, the movement almost lost in the dark. “She either saved your life, or you’re goin’ mad. Those two things don’t work at the same time.”

  Tanyth thought about that, but before she could come to any conclusions, sleep claimed her again and, pain and all, dragged her down into the dark.

  The moon’s pale light parted the darkness and shimmered on crystal water. Tanyth saw small pebbles rolling, rolling along the streambed, their shadows jumping and tumbling as they moved. A darker shadow that she couldn’t make out lay along the flow, and at first she thought it must be a root, but as pebble after pebble rolled on the shadow, it disappeared. As she watched in the silvery moonlight, the shadows and flickers made it difficult to see but slowly, slowly, the darker shadow filled. A gouge, then, in the bed of the stream. The water pushed pebbles and some rolled past but others fell. She could almost hear the burbling of the water and the faint ticking of the pebbles as they rolled and struck each other. The moon sailed across the sky and slid down behind the trees at last leaving the stream and its curious pebbles in darkness.

  Chapter Three:

  Change Of Plans

  The following days bled together. Sleep came sporadically and Tanyth found herself lying in the dark, her broken arm cradled and throbbing against her chest. Frank brewed endless mugs of willow bark tea, but the constant frustration from trying to use just one hand left her nearly sobbing. When Frank needed to tend to the horses or work with the quarrymen to fill in the muck hole with rock and gravel, Rebecca took his place. Between the two of them they kept her quiet, dosed with willow bark, and as comfortable as she could be with a broken arm and a burning need to be on the road.

  “How much longer before you’re ready to make the first run into Kleesport?” Tanyth asked one evening as Frank cleaned up from their meal.

  He didn’t look at her, but offered a half shrug. “Jakey thinks they’ll have a load in another week. Maybe a little more. Ten days, prob’ly.”

  Tanyth looked at her arm, now wrapped in a plaster cast, and flexed the fingers on the captured hand. The pain had gone down to a bearable level—enough that she was able to refuse yet another mug of willow bark tea as being worse than the pain itself.

  “You could wait for the next trip,” Frank said, filling in the obvious choice for her. He glanced at her over his shoulder as he stacked the clean dishes on the mantel board.

  “Aye, I could, but I need to go on this first trip.”

  “Why are you being so stubborn about this?” Frank’s question carried no heat. He stood with his back to the hearth and curiosity painted his face. “The season’s still early. I doubt that the ships have had a chance to get north yet.”

  That caught her attention. “Not get north?”

  “Ice. North coast’s prob’ly still icebound. Will be until the Zypheria blows and shoves it out to sea.”

  Tanyth frowned at him. “You’re not makin’ that up to keep me here another month, are you?”

  He shook his head, the truth of it plain on his face. “No. I’m not clever enough to make it up, and I doubt that it would work for long. You’d have the truth of it when you get to Kleesport.”

  “So, the ships are just sitting’ there? Waitin’?”

  “Some are. Some are workin’ the southern coast until the season gets a little further along,” he said. “There’ll be a big rush, in the end, to be the first to make it to North Haven when the Zypheria clears the way.”

  “When’ll that be?” Tanyth asked.

  Frank shrugged. “Not usually a’fore the equinox.”

  “That’s comin’ right up.”

  Frank raised a hand in a calming gesture. “Yup, it is, but not for another week and it’ll be a few weeks after that. Shearin’ Moon or later most likely. I might have time to make two trips before the way’s clear.”

  “Or I could get there and find all the ships goin’ north have gone, if I wait too long,” Tanyth said, watching Frank’s face closely. “Then where’d I be?”

  He pursed his lips but gave a grudging nod. “’S possible. But once the season starts there’ll always be ships goin’ north.” He sighed and looked at her for a moment before turning away to poke at the fire. “Best bet is get to Kleesport before Shearin’ Moon and try to book passage on one of the ships waitin’ there.” His voice carried a ragged edge.

  Tanyth looked at the cast on her arm and considered the problems.

  “I’ll take you on the first trip to town. Should be plenty of time,” he said.

  She looked up and saw he’d turned to face her again, his mouth turned up in an expression that approximated a smile, but the spring of his smile couldn’t overcome the winter in his eyes.

  “Thank you,” she said, feeling the sting of tears herself. She looked away.

  “How you gonna manage?” he asked.

  “Manage?” she asked, surprised by the question.

  He jerked his chin at her cast. “One handed?”

  She twiddled the fingers that stuck out and shrugged. The simple movement gave her twinges. “Didn’t really think about it.”

  “I could go with ya,” he said.

  She sighed. “Frank, we’ve been over this.”

  “That was before you got hurt.”

  “Things haven’t changed that much. The village still needs you here. Who’s gonna drive the wagon?”

  Frank sighed and shook his head, swiping at the back of his neck with a hand. “What if somethin’ happens to me? They’d have to find somebody.”

  “Frank, I don’t even know if Mother Pinecrest is goin’ ta be willin’ ta take me on, let alone you.”

  He gave her a weak smile and flexed an arm. “I can chop wood, fetch water...”

  She laughed. The jiggling made her arm twinge so she stopped with a wince.

  “All right, well if not me, then Becca,” he said.

  “Rebecca?” Tanyth felt at a loss for a moment and then remembered. “Oh.”

  Frank leaned back against the mantel board. “She wants to go. She’d be able to help ya.”

  She snorted a little laugh.

  “It’s not gonna be easy goin’ when you get to North Haven, Tanyth. A woman alone is a target.”

  She snorted again, but with less humor. “Nothin’ new in that.”

 
Frank gave her a little shrug.

  “I could get her killed.” Tanyth’s words were low but sharp and Frank’s expression hardened.

  “You could get yourself killed, too, but I don’t hear ya talkin’ about that.”

  “I’m an old fool, Frank,” she smiled to take the sting from her words. “There’s little enough of my life left to take chances with. Rebecca’s got a long life ahead of her. Riskin’ that...?” She shook her head and let the thought peter out.

  Frank shifted his weight and thrust his hands deep into his trouser pockets, leaning his shoulders back against the mantel. “And how old were you when you started, then?”

  “I was a lot older than that girl—”

  “When you got married?”

  “Well, no, course not. I mighta been a winter or so older.”

  “Well? You risked your life then, didn’t ya?” Frank gave her a half shrug. “What’s the diff’rence?”

  Tanyth’s brow furled in a frown. “Well, I was goin’ off to be a grown woman. To be a wife...” Her voice trailed off.

  “You went off to live with a man who beat ya, abused ya, mighta killed ya if you’d ’a stayed.” Frank’s murmur was barely audible over the low crackling of the fire.

  She sighed, his gentle words bringing back a hard reality that she managed to ignore most of the time. “That was different,” she said.

  “How?”

  “Well, it’s what people do, isn’t it? Grow up, get married, have a family?” Tanyth jerked her head toward the door. “That girl out there hasn’t done any of that.”

  “And leavin’ your husband? Takin’ to the road, alone, for twenty winters or more? That’s what people do?”

  Tanyth looked up at his words and saw the gentle warmth in his brown eyes. He surprised a soft laugh out of her. “Not exactly, no.”

  “But it was your choice, right? You coulda stayed?”

  “Yeah, I coulda stayed but I don’t understand. What are you driving at?”

  He shrugged and his mouth screwed into a brief grimace. “It was your choice. You picked your path.”

  “Well, course. Who else?”

  “Then why’re you so dead set on keeping Rebecca from pickin’ hers?”

  Tanyth lay very still on her cot as his quiet words took root.

  Frank let her consider while he fetched the hot water from the hearth and filled the teapot to steep.

  “Is that what I’m doin’?”

  Frank rolled one shoulder and gave a negligent toss of his head. “Seems like. To me.” He leaned back against the mantel again and peered at her through the afternoon’s gathering dusk. “One woman alone’s a target, right enough. Two? Two strong women on a mission from the Mother?” His weather-seamed face crinkled into a smile and mirth danced in his eyes as he shook his head from side-to-side. “Not something I’d wanna tangle with.”

  A soft laugh escaped her lips. “You’re supposed to be tryin’ to talk me into stayin’,” she said after a moment. “Not pointin’ out ways for me to go.”

  The smile remained but his expression turned to sadness. “Is that what I’m s’posed to be doin’?”

  “Well, I thought that’s what you were tryin’ for.”

  He shook his head again. “Yup, well. I’d be lyin’ if I said I want you to leave. That I didn’t think we had somethin’ here worth keepin’.”

  “Frank—” Tanyth didn’t like the pleading tone in her voice.

  Frank held up one hand, palm out. “Lemme finish.”

  Tanyth huffed but settled back on the cot.

  “I’d also be lyin’ if I said I didn’t understand why you gotta do it. Some things in this world are bigger than me, bigger than you even.” He shot her a mischievous look.

  She snickered at his blatant attempt to tease her along.

  “You got a road you got to follow,” Frank said, his voice pitched low. “I know that. It’s part of why I love you. I don’t have to like it, but I do have to honor it. Without it, you wouldn’t be the woman you are and I couldn’t stand the thought that I might be the cause.”

  Tanyth felt the tears starting to sting her eyes and she fumbled for a handkerchief. “Now, Frank Crane,” she said, pausing to wipe her eyes then swipe at her nose. “You got no call tossin’ around words like ‘love’ and ‘honor’ at this late date.”

  He crossed to her and crouched beside the cot, gathering her fluttering hand into his calloused grip. He tilted his head to catch her eyes in his. “Seems like I gotta say ’em now or it’ll be too late to say ’em at all, won’ it?”

  His tone wheedled its way into her heart and she leaned over to kiss his brow. “Dear man,” she said, and turned her cheek to press against him. After a few moments, she said, “I’ll talk to Rebecca tomorrow.”

  “I’d appreciate it,” he murmured.

  With the decision made, Tanyth’s mind started rolling the idea around, probing for flaws, considering options. “We’ll have to outfit her a bit.”

  She felt his brow move under her cheek and she pulled back to see his sad smile. “Yup. S’pose we will.”

  They sat like that for several moments before Tanyth wrapped her good arm around his neck and pulled him onto the cot beside her.

  The tea turned bitter and cold before they remembered it.

  The moon cast its light on the shimmering stream once more. She’d seen it many times before. Each time the moon showed her the same stream, the same clear water and rolling pebbles, always tiny pebbles along the stream bed, along the dark shadow, filling it slowly, slowly. Each dream a little more shadow filled, a little less darkness, but always pebbles in the clear, cool stream. The moon fell below the trees again and Tanyth could hear the clicking of the pebbles in the darkness—always the clicking under the gurgle of the stream.

  Chapter Four:

  Preparations

  Tanyth surveyed the pile of goods arrayed on her small table and shook her head.

  “What’s the matter, mum?” Rebecca asked, her hands twisting together in front of her body.

  “Is that what you think you need to take?”

  Rebecca frowned at the array of clothing and gear. “You said to bring everything I thought I’d need on the road, mum.”

  Tanyth smiled and nodded. “Indeed, I did, and it’s prob’ly just as well.” She eyed the clothing in particular. “Ya know you’re gonna have ta carry all this, don’t cha?”

  A flash of surprise blinked across the younger woman’s face. “I thought we were ridin’ on the lorry.”

  “Only as far as Kleesport.”

  “Well, yes, but then we’ll be on a ship for North Haven.”

  Tanyth nodded to grant the point. “But after that it’s on our backs or left behind until we find Mother Pinecrest somewhere up in the Lammas Wood.”

  “Oh.” Rebecca looked crestfallen. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”

  “You could stay in Kleesport, ya know,” Tanyth said, offering the girl a way out.

  Rebecca shook her head. “No, mum. I’ve been in Kleesport and there’s less for me there than here, I think.”

  Tanyth grinned. “Well, there are more men there. Single men ya might fancy once you get to know ’em.”

  A pink flush crept up Rebecca’s neck and she shook her head. “Well, be that as it may, mum, I want to go find Mother Pinecrest with you.”

  “Why?” Tanyth asked.

  Rebecca shrugged in the offhand way of youth who don’t want to answer difficult questions. “I’ve never done anything half so excitin’, mum. In all my life, I’ve always ever done what people said I should do. Now...” she paused to shrug again. “Now, it’s different. I wanna do what I wanna do. And besides, you need my help, mum.” Rebecca nodded at the cast on Tanyth’s forearm.

  Tanyth grimaced inwardly at Rebecca’s unconscious echo of Frank’s comment. “Very well, but you’ll have to cut this pile down to somethin’ you can carry on your back. Where we’re goin’, there may not be much in the way of road
and the only pack animal I count on is me.”

  “Why’s that, mum?”

  “What? The pack animal?”

  Rebecca nodded, eyeing the pile of clothing dubiously.

  “Have to feed ’em, care for ’em. That takes silver and time that I gen’rally don’t have. If I carry what I need, I don’t have to worry about takin’ care of some poor beast.” Tanyth paused for a moment to consider. “And it’s a lot easier to pass as an old man without the added incentive of havin’ a pack animal that somebody might take it into their heads to steal.”

  Rebecca looked up with a frown. “An old man, mum? You?”

  Tanyth grinned and thrust her good hand deep in the pocket of her trousers. “You don’t see me wanderin’ around in a dress, do ya?”

  Rebecca looked down at her homespun and then over at Tanyth, eyes squinting as if seeing her for the first time. “You don’t look like a man, mum. I hate to tell ya.”

  The right side of Tanyth’s mouth curled up in a grin. She crossed to the hook beside the door and, with her back to Rebecca, straightened out her clothes, fumbling to button the top of her shirt one-handed. She slipped into her wide-shouldered, cloth coat, settling the left shoulder gingerly over the sling that held the cast against her chest, and letting the left sleeve hang. She pulled her hat off the peg, tugging the brim down over her eyes. Last she took the staff in her right hand and turned to face the young woman again. She stood with her hips shot to the side and leaned forward on the staff.

  Rebecca blinked several times, taking in the transformation. “Somebody who knows ya wouldn’t be fooled, mum.”

  Tanyth smiled and tilted her head back to see out from under the hat brim. “I’m not worried about them. It’s the stranger on the road who might think an old woman might be easy to rob or even have a bit of sport with. Those are the ones we need to worry about.”

  “That why you keep your hair short, mum?”

  “Partly. Partly ’cause it’s just easier to care for on the road.” She felt the length of her hair. “Reminds me, I should clip off a bit of this before we head north.”