Robby jerked on Swyncraff, pulling the fellow to him, and grabbed him hard by the ear.
"Ow! Ow! Owie!Owie!Owie!"
"Shut up!" Robby yelled. None of his party had ever seen Robby so angry or assertive. Sheila was shocked at the roughness with which Robby handled the little one, especially now that he was also dodging kicks and bites from the pixie.
"Stop it!" Robby cried, letting go of the ear and drawing his sword. "Do as I say or I'll part your head from your shoulders!"
At this the little one dropped to his knees.
"Yes, yes! Oh, please! I beg, spare me! I'll do as ye say. Anything. Anything ye say!"
"Promise that you will speak truthfully and fully to me at all times!"
"Yes. I promise! An easy one, for we cannot tell a lie, oh that we could!"
"You will answer all of my questions."
"Yes. I promise. If it is in me knowledge, I will tell ye anything. Little though I know."
"You will not try to run away, and you will abide with me until I release you from my service."
"Oh! Yes. I am yer slave," he sniffed. "Please do not harm me, I beg!"
"Do not give me reason to and I will not. I promise," Robby said, releasing the pixie from Swyncraff's grip. The little one rubbed his wrist.
"It is a magic stick, ye have," the pixie protested. "A sorcerer ye are! We've trusted before in one such as ye, to our shame an' grief! He, too, offered life over death in return for service, an' we are cursed for takin' his offer."
"I am no sorcerer," said Robby. "Only an ordinary person, trying to find his way in the world. And, for my part," he went on, sheathing his sword, "I will not hurt you. I will treat you fairly. And, if it is in my means, I will reward you for faithful service."
At these last words, the little one looked up with a mixture of mistrust and hope in his face.
"Men lie," the little one said sheepishly. "Sometimes."
"Yes," Robby nodded. "And to be honest, I lied once, breaking an oath not to do so. I have also, at times, held back the full truth. But this I promise to you: that I will not lie to you, and I will treat you with all honesty and courtesy, as well as I may."
Robby held out his hand, "Are we agreed?"
The little one got to his feet and took Robby's hand.
"Little choice do I have," he said to Robby. "But I have given me promises, an' I'll keep them. I can only trust an' hope that ye'll keep yers."
"Good! What is your name?"
"I am called Eldwin."
"I am Robby, son of Robigor Ribbon. You may call me Robby. These are my friends, Sheila, Billy, and Ibin, of County Barley in the Eastlands. I am from Passdale, a town in that region, too. This is Ullin Saheed Tallin, a lord of Tallinvale, and Kingsman of Duinnor. And this is Ashlord, called Collandoth by the Elifaen. You need not fear any of them as long as you remain in my service. Is it in your power to return our belongings to us?"
"It is not. Yer things are held by others who will not relinquish them."
"Why do you need our things? Do you mean to sell them or keep them for your own use?"
"Oh, no! Nothing like that! It is long to explain."
Robby stood with his hands on his hips looking down at Eldwin, and he realized they had stumbled upon an unusual group of robbers. Thoughts of Makeig and his people ran through his head, making him wonder how they must have acted as highwaymen and how, even among them, there seemed a high sense of honor and loyalty. Perhaps there was more here, too. Robby nodded, sizing up the situation, and he forced himself to calm down. He realized that he would need patience to get to the bottom of all this.
The others of Robby's party looked on, anger and frustration still in their faces, and the impatient Billy was twice halted by Ashlord's gesture from speaking. They quickly came to understand that Ashlord wanted Robby to take charge of this situation. As they listened to Robby and Eldwin, their anger subsided somewhat, though Ullin was already considering how they might manage with only the remaining horses and supplies.
"Sit there, if you wish, and let's talk," Robby indicated a low tree limb. Eldwin held up his hand to snap his fingers and eyed Robby questioningly. Robby nodded, and, with a snap and a pop, the little one disappeared and instantly reappeared sitting on the limb. Robby seated himself on a nearby log so that the two were at eye level, and he motioned to Sheila.
"Could you see what food we may have?"
"There is little left but hard bread and some cheese."
"Then please bring my ration of it, if there is enough, and a cup of water, please." To the others, he said, "Perhaps you will leave Eldwin and me to speak for a bit?"
Ashlord nodded. "Come," he motioned to Billy and the others, "let us make a reckoning of what we have left to us."
They reluctantly moved away, and Robby turned back to Eldwin.
"Is there a name for your people? What do you call yourselves?" Robby asked.
"Some call us pixies," Eldwin said, glancing at Ashlord. "But we are not. We used to call ourselves Picathians, after the small valley we once called our home, Picathia, a place very far away in the southwest, north of Altoria. But we often think of ourselves as the Forgotten Ones."
"Why? Why are you forgotten? And who forgot about you?"
"Oh, sir! That is a long and sad tale, an' the reason for our sorry way of livin' today."
"Perhaps you will tell me the gist of it? And explain, too, why you treat travelers so meanly with tolls and fines?"
"We make our means by the means we have," replied Eldwin. "It is not how we always lived, an' it is no pleasure to us to live at the expense of others. We were once happy farmers an' herders, accomplished craftsmen an' artisans. As happy as any peaceful people who lived fairly in a fair land. It is cruel, sir, cruel! We stood in stature an' in accomplishment as proudly as any Men, an' traced our lines to the first ships of Men who landed on the eastern shores. Yet, look at us now! We are reduced to a wee an' shabby folk!"
Sheila came and handed Robby a cut of cheese and a hard biscuit along with a tin cup of water.
"That is all that can be spared you," she said. "And the same portion for each of the rest of us before all is gone."
"Thank you," he said to her, accepting the food and drink. She glanced at Eldwin and managed a weak smile as she turned to go. Eldwin watched as she sat nearby and pushed her hood from her head, revealing her entire face to him. At this, Eldwin drew in a sudden intake of air and held it, staring at her for a long moment before blinking at Robby.
Robby glanced over his shoulder at Sheila, then back at Eldwin.
"What is it?"
"Oh, forgive me, sir. But she is lovely," said Eldwin. "If ye pardon me, sayin'. In spite of her unusual manner of dress. Might she be someone special?"
"Yes. She is. This is all I have to offer you. It is not much, and you must soak the biscuit first. But the cheese is good."
Eldwin looked at Robby's offering, held out to him. He looked at Robby's face and blinked again.
"We may have nothing more for some time to come," Robby encouraged. Eldwin continued to blink, somewhat agitated, and Robby saw clearly that Eldwin still feared him, but there was some other emotion in the little one's face.
"I, I cannot eat before ye do so, since yer now me master," he said to Robby. "Though I thank ye."
"As long as you are in my service, you are my responsibility," Robby said. "And you look as hungry as any of us. This is only a trifle."
"A trifle is a treasure when that is all ye have!" blurted out Eldwin. "I should know!"
Robby shrugged and put the food aside. "Then tell me about it."
"Very well. Once, me people were as tall as any of ye. We were, indeed. We lived in a valley, as I said, to the south an' west of here, many, many leagues away. Not a rich people, but prosperous, nonetheless, by reason of our happiness an' the bounty of our work. We managed our affairs an' paid no tribute to any lord or king, yet neither did we take part in any of the wars that raged between the Elifaen a
n' the Dragon Peoples. Our only protection was that we were insignificant in numbers an' our valley difficult to find. Yet, one day, found we were.
"A stranger appeared among us one winter day, a sorcerer or conjurer or some other unnatural bein' he was, callin' himself Bailorg."
At this, Robby's company perked up, and Robby tried to remain expressionless as Eldwin went on.
"He foretold to us the comin' of an army of Dragonkind to do battle in the northeast. He told us that if we placed ourselves under his service, he would see to it that we would be spared, though our lands may be ravaged, an' we would have to leave them for a time. He said that he was a lord among the Elifaen an' yet an ally to Men, too, an' that he had forged a pact with the Dragon King so that he had some influence among the Dragon King's generals. Though his words were soft an' his tongue full of hope, we did not believe him, an' we doubted what he said.
" 'One day,' he said to us, 'one day only shall I give ye to decide.' An' he left us in a cloud made of foul smoke an' disappeared from our eyes. That night, word came to our chief men that, indeed, an army approached our valley. We were told that a village not distant from ours was taken, an' all its people were slain or were marched off to the far southern wastelands to be slaves of the Sun King. We were in a panic an' did not know what to do. Some of us tried to flee, but our valley was surrounded by the Dragonkind soldiers. Others wanted to fight, but we had no weapons, no knowledge of how to use them, an', anyway, our numbers were too few. So when the sorcerer reappeared the next day, we had little choice but to give our oath of service to him.
"There was an old crone there, a witch some said, who lived on the far side of our valley. She came among us as we were about to swear our promise to the sorcerer.
" 'Give not yer oath to this traitor of Vanara!' she cried out. 'Enemy of earth an' sky, servant of Secundur! Never shall ye see yer home again! Fie upon his promises!'
" 'Be still old woman!" cried the sorcerer. "Do not speak to me, Bailorg, in such a manner! What choice do these people have but to live in me service, with some hope, or to die by the Dragonkind?'
" 'Hope! Ye speak of hope, yet offer only the choice of slavery an' death! Fight, I say! Fight as others do! Defy this one an' his scaly allies!'
" 'Silence!' roared Bailorg, an' there was a great rumblin' behind his voice, as the thunder rumbles on the hills. There was a mighty strivin' between the two. Bailorg took something from a little sack that he carried, an' when he threw it on the ground dark clouds boiled down from the sky an' lightnin' split the air all around us. So afraid were we that we could not even run away. The old crone, who now appeared as a young woman in flowin' gauze, cried out in a foreign tongue, an' the lightnin' blinded us. But when the thunder rolled away an' the fog lifted, there stood in her place a gnarled, leafless willow tree, its branches bent an' stark.
" 'See the fate of those who oppose me!' cried Bailorg. Of course we were terrified an' gave our oath immediately, just as the Dragonkind army swarmed down over the rim of our valley. But Bailorg kept his word an' stood before the fearsome horde an' spoke with their generals. They spared us, but only so long as we remained in Bailorg's service an' did his biddin'."
Robby listened carefully as he lit his pipe. Eldwin produced one of his own and, with the same burning faggot from the fire that Ashlord had built, Robby lit Eldwin's pipe. They puffed for a moment until the briars were well kindled.
"Please continue," Robby said.
"Of the next months there is not much to tell, except to say that they were cruel an' hard. We were made to wear plain gray sackcloth, so that the Dragonkind would know us to be the servants of Bailorg an' would not slay us. We were made to carry the supplies for the army, an' so followed it eastward across the plain an' then unto these mountains. Many times along the way we crossed over gory fields of battle. Gruesome sights we saw! Our women an' children, too. All of us were beasts of burden, bearin' their foods, pullin' their wagons of arms, an' buildin' fires for them when camps were made.
"Once, on a battlefield within sight of these mountains, I came across a dyin' Eastlander soldier, somehow missed by the slaughterin' lizardmen who surrounded an' guarded us. I stopped to offer him a sip of water from me flask. Me friends stood around so as to shield the two of us from view as I held his head an' gave him to drink."
Eldwin paused, staring into his pipe's bowl.
"I have not spoken of him for a long time," he said. "Some life came into his eyes, an' I believe he perceived the risk we took for him. He managed a weak smile, an' with his last breath he said to me, 'May the blessin' of Beras be upon thee.' An' he pressed into me hand this locket."
Eldwin tugged at a chain and drew from under his shirt a round locket made of gold, enameled with green and blue, and studded with a white gem encircled by seven tiny rubies. Robby recognized it immediately as the same sort his father had shown him on the day he set out for Tulith Attis. On such a little fellow as Eldwin, it seemed quite large and weighty as he dangled it before him.
"Ye've seen one of these before?" Eldwin asked, seeing Robby's expression.
"Yes. Once. It contained within a small braid of hair."
"This, too, though I will not open it unless ye insist."
Robby shook his head, and Eldwin carefully placed it back under his shirt.
"He died. An' we left him as our guards approached to hurry us along. I came to learn that lockets such as this were given to young soldiers in those days by their mothers or their betrothed, as a token an' reminder of the love they hoped would sustain their men an' bring them safely through battle an' back home again. We gathered many such lockets. Not as treasure or booty, mind ye. Oh, no! As a way of defyin' our keepers. Some of us hoped to someday return them to those who gave them, for many have inscriptions namin' the giver. But, alas! That was not to be.
"Our masters, set upon us by Bailorg, drove us into the mountains, many miles north of here. That was long before the Galinots were in those lands, an' few lived in these parts other than the trolls, who were friend to no one, Dragon, Man, or Faerekind. The deeper into the mountains we came, the more often we were raided by the trolls at night. But they were clumsy an' unorganized an' seldom posed much of a threat to the Dragon soldiers. Meanwhile, the armies of the Elifaen, with Men among their ranks, constantly harassed us, layin' the most cunnin' ambushes an' traps, but rarely meetin' the Dragonkind in open battle. An' so we pressed eastward.
"It snowed, an' all the rest of that winter we moved through the mountains. Some of our people froze to death for lack of shelter. Some slipped an' fell to their death, for there were few roads back then, an' we made the paths we took. We were fed the vilest gruel, askin' not what it was made of. But it sustained us, an' as we neared the edge of the mountains, our burdens were lighter because the food an' supplies ran low. Up until then, more slaves joined us as more were captured. But as we cleared the mountains, the Dragonkind took no more prisoners, an' those of us under the protection of Bailorg fared better than the others who were taken, for only we who wore the gray sackcloth were given anything to eat.
"By late winter we came to a place called Dalefath where there was a bridge over a river, which Bailorg called the Peninflo. We crossed over the bridge into a wood where we were put to work cuttin' down trees an' haulin' logs. This was cruel work, an' whips were used to prod us into haste, even though we were weak. Many of me people died from exhaustion, or broken bodies, or sometimes broken hearts.
"They made us take the wood to the edge of a plain where I saw that other armies had joined ours, an' where there a great industry of buildin'. There were smithies an' armorers everywhere an' carpenters at work in many places. The smoke from the forges an' camp fires was as thick as the ringin' of anvils an' the thuddin' of mallets. Some of our logs were used to feed their furnaces an' others to build engines of war. Rams were made, shod with iron, towers, an' ballistas, too, an' many other things, all in preparation for some awful battle.
"One day, I was
made to carry some of these implements far forward, an' I saw, at the far side of the plain, a great fortress on a steep hill, an' before it a mighty battle ragin'. At the base of the hill on which the fortress stood an' all around its walls were the devices that we by our labor had built. I saw tall towers out of which streamed flamin' arrows thick as rain upon the fortress. There were hordes of Dragonkind, thousands an' thousands, advancin' with long pikes, the shafts of which we had cut from saplings in the forest. Ballistas an' catapults launched deadly missiles through the air, red with trailing fire. Missiles that our own hands an' sweat had provided.
"With one eye, I watched me task, an' with the other the strivin' of the Dragon armies against those who defended the walls. I saw a tumult of armored horsemen pour into the Dragonkind ranks, an' with great slaughter they drove deep through line after line of attackers. Behind them came red-cloaked footmen, wieldin' swords an' lances and battleaxes, hewin' through the Dragonkind as wheat before the sickle. Great confusion fell upon the battlefield, an' the vile engines of siege were torched an' the towers overturned into ruins. I was hurried away with me keepers an' the other men of me people who also assisted. Though I was terrified, me heart sang in delight at every Dragonkind that fell. It seemed we were in a general retreat, an' in the confusion I an' the others with me were blocked by convergin' lines of Dragonkind at the edge of the plain. It was there that a great moan was heard risin' from the battlefield behind us. Turnin', we saw Dragonkind upon the walls of the fortress. They were fightin' the defenders an' throwin' many over the walls to be dashed on the rocks below. By some vile device, they had anticipated the moves of the defenders an' counterattacked, an' by some devious means must have breached the gates of the fortress. All was lost. Me an' me friends wept as the most horrible massacre began.
"I was made to retell what I saw when I reached the camp of me people that evening. Hardly had I ended my story when Bailorg appeared an' took away half our number, while the rest of us were set to buildin' wagons an' repairin' packs to hold the booty that was to be brought away. That night we worked, amid the sounds of revelry most vile, for many prisoners were taken for sport. I'll never forget that night, an' I still have nightmares about it.
The Nature of a Curse (Volume 2 of the Year of the Red Door) Page 40
