“Ronia darling,” he shouted, “you were right! There need be no bloodshed. Now Borka will go to blazes faster than his first belch after breakfast, believe me!”
“How so?” asked Ronia.
Matt pointed. “Look there! Look who I’ve just caught with my own hands!”
The stone hall was full of excited robbers jumping around and making a noise, so at first Ronia could not see what Matt was pointing at.
“You see, Ronia darling, I have only to say to Borka, ‘Are you staying or going? Do you want your snake fry back or not?’”
Then she saw Birk. There he was, lying in a corner, bound hand and foot, with blood on his forehead and desperation in his eyes, and around him Matt’s robbers leaped, whooping and yelling.
“Hey there, little Borkason, when are you going home to your father?”
Ronia gave a shriek, and tears of rage spurted from her eyes.
“You can’t do that!” She started to beat Matt wherever she could reach with balled fists. “You beast, you can’t do that!”
Matt dropped her with a thud; there was no more laughter now. He was pale with fury.
“What’s that my daughter says I can’t do?” he asked menacingly.
“I’ll tell you,” shrieked Ronia. “You can go robbing all the money and goods and rubbish you want, but you can’t rob people, because if you do I don’t want to be your daughter any more!”
“Who’s talking about people?” said Matt, his voice unrecognizable. “I’ve caught a snake fry, a louse, a little thieving hound, and I’m going to get my father’s fortress cleaned out at last. Then you can be my daughter or not just as you choose.”
“Beast!” shrieked Ronia.
Noddle-Pete moved between them, beginning to be frightened. Never before had he seen Matt’s face so stony and terrible, and it scared him.
“That’s no way to talk to your father,” said Noddle-Pete, taking Ronia by the arm. But she threw him off.
“Beast!” she shrieked again.
Matt seemed not to hear her. It was as if she no longer existed for him.
“Fooloks,” he said, in the same terrifying voice, “go up to Hell’s Gap and send a message to Borka. Tell him I want to see him there as soon as the sun rises tomorrow morning. It would be safer for him to come, tell him that!”
Lovis stood listening in silence. She drew her eyebrows together, but said nothing. Finally she went over and looked at Birk, and when she saw the wound on his forehead she fetched her crock of healing herb juices. She was about to wash the wound when Matt bellowed, “Don’t you lay a hand on the snake fry!”
“Snake fry or no,” said Lovis, “this wound must be washed!”
And washed it was.
Then Matt advanced. He took hold of her and flung her across the floor. If Knott had not caught her, she would have slid straight into a bedpost.
But Lovis would never let anyone get away with that. And since Matt was not within striking distance, she dealt Knott a resounding blow. That was all the thanks he got for not letting her collide with the bedpost.
“Out, every man jack of you,” screamed Lovis. “I’m sick of all of you. You never do anything but make trouble. Do you hear me, Matt? Get out of here!”
Matt gave her a black look. It would have scared anyone else, but not Lovis. She stood there, her arms folded, watching him march out of the stone hall, followed by all his robbers. But over his shoulder lay Birk, his copper hair hanging limply.
“You beast, Matt!” Ronia shrieked again, before the heavy door shut behind him.
Matt did not lie in his usual bed beside Lovis that night, and where he slept Lovis did not know.
“And I don’t care, either,” she said. “Now I can lie lengthwise and crosswise in this bed if I choose.”
But she could not sleep. She could hear her child crying desperately, and her child would not accept any comforting. It was a night Ronia had to go through alone. She lay awake a long time, hating her father until she felt her heart contract with pain. But it is difficult to hate someone whom you have loved so much all your life, and that was why this was the heaviest of nights for Ronia.
At last she fell asleep, but she woke up as soon as light began to dawn. The sun would be rising soon, and by then she must be at Hell’s Gap to see what happened there. Lovis tried to stop her, but Ronia was not to be stopped. She went, and Lovis followed her silently.
And there they stood, as they had once stood before, each on his own side of Hell’s Gap, Matt and Borka with their robbers. Undis was there, too, and Ronia could hear her screams and curses a long way off. It was Matt she was cursing so fiercely that the air sizzled. But Matt was not going to be insulted for long.
“Can you make your woman be quiet, Borka?” he said. “It would be best for you to hear what I have to say.”
Ronia had placed herself directly behind him so that he would not see her. She herself heard and saw more than she could bear. At Matt’s side stood Birk, no longer tied hand and foot, but with a rope around his neck, and Matt was holding the rope in his hand as if he were leading a dog.
“You’re a hard man, Matt,” said Borka. “And a vile man. I can understand that you want me out of here. But to use my child to get what you want is vile!”
“I didn’t ask what you thought about me,” said Matt. “What I want to know is how soon you’re going to get out.”
Borka was so angry that words were choked in his throat. He stood in silence for a long time, but at last he said, “First I have to find a place where we can settle down out of danger, and that may be difficult. But if you give me back my son, you have my word
that we will be gone before the summer is over.”
“Good,” said Matt. “Then you have my word that you will get your son back before the summer is over.”
“I meant I want him now,” said Borka.
“And I meant that you shan’t have him,” said Matt. “But we have dungeons in Matt’s Fort. He will not want for a roof over his head, so let that be a comfort to you if it happens to be a rainy summer.”
Ronia caught her breath. Her father had thought it out so cruelly. Borka must leave now, at once; otherwise Birk would be locked up in a dungeon until the end of summer. But he would not be able to live there that long, Ronia knew. He would die, and she would no longer have a brother.
She would not have a father she could love, either. That hurt too. She wanted to punish Matt for that, and because she could no longer be his daughter, oh, how she wanted him to suffer as she herself was suffering, and how grimly she yearned to destroy everything for him and bring all his plans to naught!
And suddenly she knew—knew what she was going to do. Once, long ago, she had done it, and in a rage that time, too, but not as beside herself as she was now. Almost as if in a fever, she took a run and flew across Hell’s Gap. Matt saw her in mid-leap, and a cry burst from him, the kind of cry wild animals utter in their death agony, and the blood in his robbers turned to ice, for they had heard nothing like it before. And then they saw Ronia, his Ronia, on the other side of the abyss, with his enemy. Nothing worse could possibly have happened—and nothing so incomprehensible.
It was incomprehensible to the Borka robbers too. They stared at
Ronia as if a wild harpy had unexpectedly landed in their midst
Borka was equally confounded, but he recovered his wits quickly. Something had happened that changed everything; he could see that. Here was Matt’s wild harpy of a daughter helping him out of the jam he was in. Why she should do anything so senseless he had no idea, but he hastened to put a rope around her neck and laughed to himself as he did it.
Then he shouted to Matt, “We have dungeons underground on this side too. Your daughter will not want for a roof over her head, either, if it happens to be a rainy summer. Comfort yourself with that thought, Matt! “
But Matt was beyond all comfort. Like a wounded bear he stood there, rocking his massive body as if to subdue some unbear
able torment. Ronia wept as she watched him. He had dropped the rope that held Birk prisoner, but Birk still stood there, pale and crushed, looking across Hell’s Gap at Ronia.
Then Undis stepped up to her and gave her a slap. “Yes, cry! I’d do the same if I had a beast like that for a father! “
But Borka told Undis to hold her tongue. She was not to interfere, he said.
Ronia herself had called Matt a beast, yet now she wished she could comfort him for what she had done to him, that had made him suffer so terribly.
Lovis, too, wanted to help him, as always when he was in need. She was standing beside him now, but he did not even notice. He noticed nothing. Just now he was alone in the world.
Then Borka called to him. “Do you hear, Matt? Are you going to give me back my son or not? “
But Matt just stood there, rocking, and did not answer.
Then Borka shouted, “Are you going to give me back my son or not? “
Matt woke up at last. “Certainly I am,” he said indifferently. “When you like. “
“When I like is now, ” said Borka. “Not when summer is over, but now! “
Matt nodded. “When you like, as I said. “
It was as if it no longer concerned him. But Borka said with a grin, “And at the same time you will get back your child. Fair exchange is no robbery—you know that, you scoundrel! “
“I have no child, ” said Matt.
Borka’s happy grin faded. “What do you mean by that? Is this some new mischief you’re brewing? “
“Come and get your son, ” said Matt. “But you can’t give me back my child, for I have none. “
“But I have, ” screamed Lovis in a voice that lifted the crows from the battlements. “And I want my child back, understand, Borka! Now! “
Then she fixed her eyes on Matt. “Even if that child’s father has gone as crazy as they come. “
Matt turned and walked away with heavy footsteps.
Ten
Matt was not to be seen in the stone hall for the next few days, nor was he at the Wolfs Neck when the children were exchanged. Lovis was there instead to receive her daughter. She was supported by Fooloks and Jep, and they had Birk with them. Borka and Undis were waiting with their robbers beyond the Wolfs Neck, and Undis, full of anger and triumph, burst out as soon as she saw Lovis. “That child-robber Matt—I can well understand he’s too ashamed to show his face!”
Lovis was too proud to answer. She drew Ronia to her and was about to move away without a word. She had thought a lot about the reason her daughter had put herself in Borka’s hands, but at this meeting she was beginning to see something. They were looking
at each other, Ronia and Birk, as if they were alone at the Wolf’s Neck and in the world. Yes, no one could help seeing that these two had a bond between them.
Undis noticed at once, and she did not like what she saw. She caught hold of Birk fiercely.
“What is there between you?”
“She is my sister,” said Birk. “And she saved my life.”
Ronia leaned against Lovis and cried. “Just as Birk saved mine,” she muttered.
But Borka was turning scarlet with anger.
“Has my son been going behind my back and keeping company with my enemy’s offspring?”
“She is my sister,” said Birk again, looking at Ronia.
“Sister!” shouted Undis. “Oh, yes, we know what that will mean in a year or two!”
She seized Birk and tried to pull him away.
“Don’t touch me,” said Birk. “I’ll go by myself, and I won’t have your hands on me.”
He turned and went, and there came a cry of misery from Ronia.
“Birk!”
But he had gone.
When Lovis was alone with Ronia, she wanted to ask a few questions, but she had no chance.
“Don’t talk to me,” Ronia said.
So Lovis left her in peace, and they walked home in silence.
Noddle-Pete greeted Ronia in the stone hall as if she had been rescued from the brink of death. “I’m glad you’re alive,” he said. “Poor child, I’ve been so afraid for you!”
But Ronia went off and lay down silently on her bed, drawing the curtains around her.
“There’s nothing but misery in Matt’s Fort,” said Noddle-Pete, shaking his head gloomily. Then he whispered to Lovis, “I’ve got Matt in my bedroom. But he just lies there staring and never says a word. He doesn’t want to get up, and he doesn’t want to eat. What will we do with him?”
“He’ll come when he’s hungry enough,” said Lovis.
But she was worried, and on the fourth day she went to Noddle-Pete’s room and spoke her mind.
“Come and eat, Matt! Stop sulking! Everyone’s sitting at the table, waiting for you.”
Matt came at last, glum and so thin that he was scarcely recognizable. He sat down at the table without a word and began to eat. All his robbers were silent too. It had never been so silent in the stone hall. Ronia was sitting in her usual place, but Matt did not see her. She took care not to look at him either. She only shot one sideways glance at him and saw a Matt quite unlike the father she had known until then. Yes, everything was different and horrible! She wanted to jump up and run away, not to be where Matt was, to escape and be on her own. But she sat on irresolutely, not knowing what to do with all her sorrow.
“Have you had enough, you merry clowns?” Lovis said grimly when the meal was over. She could not abide all this silence.
The robbers got up, muttering, and made off as quickly as they could to their horses, now standing idle in their stalls for the fourth day running. While their chief was doing nothing but lie in Noddle-Pete’s room staring at the wall, they could not go out and rob. It was too bad, they thought, since this was a time when more travelers than usual were passing through the woods.
Matt left the stone hall without having spoken a single word and was not seen again that day.
And Ronia rushed out into the woods again. She had been there for three days, looking for Birk, but he did not come; she could not think why. What were they doing to him? Had they locked him in so he would not run off to the woods and be with her? It was hard, just waiting and knowing nothing.
She sat by the lake for a long time, and the glory of spring was all around her. But without Birk it brought her no joy. She remembered how things had been before, when she was alone and the woods were enough for her. How long ago that seemed now! Now she needed Birk to share everything with. But he did not seem to be coming today either, and when she had waited until she was tired she got up to go.
Then he came. She heard him whistling among the fir trees and rushed to him, wild with happiness. There he was! And he was lugging a big bundle with him.
“I’m moving into the forest now,” he said. “I can’t live in Borka’s Keep any longer.”
Ronia gazed at him in astonishment. “Why is that?”
“The way I am, I can’t put up with nagging and hard words forever,” he said. “Three days are enough for me!”
Matt’s silence is worse than hard words, thought Ronia, and suddenly she knew what she would do. What was unbearable could be changed! Birk had done it, so why shouldn’t she do it too?
“I’m going to leave Matt’s Fort, too,” she said eagerly. “I will! Yes, I will!”
“I was born in a cave,” said Birk, “and I live in a cave. But can you?”
“I can live anywhere at all with you,” said Ronia. “Especially in the Bear’s Cave!”
There were a number of caves in the mountainsides, but none as good as the Bear’s Cave. Ronia had known about it ever since she first began to wander here in the woods. Matt had shown it to her. He himself had sometimes lived there when he was a boy. In the summer. In the winter bears used to sleep there, Noddle-Pete had told him, so he had called it the Bear’s Cave, and that had been its name ever since.
The Bear’s Cave lay near the river, high above it, right between two roc
ky cliffs. It could be reached only along a ledge of rock on the mountainside, which was narrow at the beginning and felt perilous, but just outside the cave it widened to a broad platform of stone. There, high above the rushing river, you could sit and watch the morning rise in all its glory over mountains and forests. Ronia had done it often. Yes, you could live in that cave, she knew.
“I’ll come to the Bear’s Cave late at night,” she said. “That is, if you will be there?”
“Yes, where else?” said Birk. “I will be there waiting for you.”
Lovis sang the Wolf Song for Ronia that night as she had always sung it at the end of every day, whether glad or sorrowful.
But this is the last night I’ll hear it, Ronia thought, and it was a hard thought. It was hard to leave her mother, but still harder no longer to be Matt’s child. That was why she had to go out into the woods, even if it meant she would never hear the Wolf Song again.
And it was to be now. As soon as Lovis had fallen asleep. Ronia lay in her bed staring into the fire as she waited. Lovis was stirring restlessly in her bed, but at last she was still, and Ronia could tell from her breathing that she was asleep.
Then Ronia crept out of bed and stood for a long time gazing at her sleeping mother in the light from the fire.
My darling Lovis, she thought, perhaps we will see each other again, perhaps not.
Lovis’s unbound hair was spread out over the pillow. Ronia stroked the red-brown tresses with one finger. Was it really her mother lying there looking so childlike? Tired, too, and lonely without Matt beside her in the bed. And now her child was going to leave her as well.
“Forgive me,” Ronia murmured. “But I must!”
Then she stole silently out of the stone hall and collected her pack, well hidden in the costume chamber. It was so heavy that she could scarcely carry it, and when she reached the Wolf’s Neck, she flung the bundle right at the feet of Tapper and Torm, who were on guard that night. Not that Matt cared about posting guards any more, but Noddle-Pete did it with great enthusiasm in his stead.
Tapper stared at Ronia. “Where in the name of all wild harpies are you off to in the middle of the night?”
Ronia, The Robber's Daughter Page 8
