Across the Face of the World (30 page)

Perdu shook his head. 'You don't want to know. Fenni have great hearts, quick to compassion, quick to anger. Suffice it to say that you would not have seen the morning - if you were fortu¬nate.'

'What are you doing amongst them?' Wira finally asked the question that the brothers were keenest to have answered. 'All we knew was that you went missing on a journey to the Iskelsee. How did you end up here?'

'I was bringing home furs from Fanajokull, on the far side of the Plains of Pollerne, but I miscalculated the thaw and the sea ice broke up around me as I crossed Mudvaerks. I lost everything - my dogs, my furs and Jona, my friend. Remember Jona? He was from Hustad under Vinkullen, experienced in the icelands, and I often accompanied him north. The Fenni found me lying on a beached ice floe on the shores of Iskelsee. They nursed me back from the threshold of death; and when I came to myself again I learned that I was a captive of the Fenni, high up in the trackless wastes of the Myrvidda.

'They gave me a stark choice: become one of the Fenni, or die. They would not let me go, for fear I would tell others the true extent of Fenni hunting lands. But I had grown to respect these people, so the choice was no choice, and I stayed with them. I serve as interpreter whenever the Fenni wish to trade with outsiders. I work with them, I live with them, I am Fenni. I have nothing - except everything I ever wanted.'

'There are people back in Mjolkbridge who still grieve for you,' Wira replied gently, 'who still place flowers on your memorial stone. Could you not have contacted your mother and father, your brothers and sisters? Your cousins?'

'Once or twice I tried to get messages out,' Perdu responded, 'but obviously they were not received. I myself can never return to Mjolkbridge, not even for the love of my family. For now I have another family,' he added and, turning behind him, grasped the hand of a young woman, who smiled shyly. 'My boys are asleep. Perhaps you will meet them tomorrow.'

'Well, well!' Farr shook his head, unable to contain himself. 'Who would have believed it! The Wild Man of Vinkullen tamed by the wild men - or should I say wild woman - of the north!

And you've had children on her!' His voice clearly communicated his distaste.

'Don't listen to him,' Wira said. 'I'm glad to hear that you are alive, and that you are happy.

With your permission, that is what I will tell your parents, sparing them the details. Is that all right?'

'Sparing the details? Wild woman of the north? What is this?' Perdu leaned towards the Storrsen brothers, eyes narrowing. 'You boys have been too long feuding with your neighbours. The vidda's too big for your petty provincialism. So you would spare my parents the details of my new life? How dare you! Don't despise what you don't understand! These people are not animals, no matter what the First Men say. The Fenni are a noble people, a proud people, who survive in lands no others can endure. They make the men of Vinkullen look soft by comparison.' Farr sneered disbelievingly at this last statement.

'But they are not of the First Men,' Kurr said. 'They are the outcasts, the losian who did not receive the Fire from the Most High.'

This Perdu was like his fellow Mjolkbridgers in spirit, even though he did not share their looks. 'And who puts that losian nonsense about?' he said. 'Is it not the so-called First Men?

Don't you think it's a self-serving way of thinking about the world?'

'You call us self-serving?' Farr bridled. 'Look at you! Couldn't find a woman who would even look at you back home, so you end up making half-breeds with some slattern from the moors!

Aren't you better than that?'

Both Kurr and the Haufuth had been trying to restrain the elder Storrsen, and both groaned in frustration. Perdu rocked back on his heels as though he had been struck a blow.

'You had better think carefully, cousin, before you say any more,' he said quietly, 'or I might have to repeat the lesson I gave you the last time you set foot in our house. Remember the black eye?'

'All I remember is a bully who enjoyed picking on those younger than himself,' Farr ground out between gritted teeth. 'But maybe things have changed. Maybe you've grown soft while I've grown up. Maybe I could black your eye!' And before he could be restrained he stood abruptly, then threw himself at the older man.

Chaos erupted. Up until this moment the chief and his retinue had been unaware of the building tension, but now they scattered, uttering cries of dismay, as the two men wrestled on the thick woollen rugs. Food splattered everywhere. Kurr tried to intervene, and received a blow on the cheek from a stray elbow as a reward for his efforts. Cursing, he staggered dazedly into the fur-lined wall.

As quickly as that, the situation moved beyond redemption. The hitherto silent clan chief barked out orders and two stocky, broad-shouldered men strode into the tent. At the sound of his clan chiefs voice, Perdu's shoulders slumped ashamedly and he surrendered himself to a brutal one-handed grasp from one of the men. For a moment Farr struggled on, throwing a couple of inef¬fectual roundarms at the Fenni man who had grasped him on the shoulder, then without warning he found himself face down on the floor, with his right arm forced up behind his back. He ceased struggling, but was not allowed to his feet. The only sound in the tent was Farr's heavy breathing.

The Company bowed their heads as knowledge of their perilous position came home to them.

To have been invited into the clan chiefs tent, and then to have abused his hospitality with their foolish fighting, would undoubtedly call dire consequences down on their heads. These were the Fenni. The grace they had extended to the Company would not extend so far as to excuse this insult. Confirmation was all too clear on the clan chiefs grim face.

Moments later, everyone stood outside around the fire. News of the underworlders'

indiscretion drew the Fenni clan from their warm tents, some curious, some indignant at what they had heard. The foreigners had somehow escaped justice earlier in the evening, but now they would be made to pay. There they were, hunched together over in the shadows just outside the clan chief's tent, flanked by the dark silhouettes of the chillan, the clan chief's personal bodyguard.

And there stood Perdu, beside the clan chief, who was seated on a simple wooden chair. The adopted Fenni was obviously in disgrace, though the ignorant underworlders probably had no idea. He would be required to interpret the decision of the clan chief. Everyone leaned forward as the chillan prodded their charges into the firelight.

'The Fenni do not lightly offer hospitality to strangers,' said the clan chief in a surprisingly mild voice, as a white-faced Perdu inter¬preted. 'The First Men of Faltha have not endeared themselves to the Fenni. We who once ruled the world of Qali have been herded into the vidda like wild animals. Yet it is not we who behave like animals in the tents of our hosts.

'If like animals you wish to behave, then like animals you will be treated, and thus the balance the Fenni seek will have been met. So hear my judgement and marvel at the fairness of the Fenni. We withdraw our welcome to you, and shame you thereby. You will be put out of the tents of the Fenni, and must leave the vidda tonight. Your horses and weapons will remain with us, lest you are tempted to do us any injury. Should any of our people see you on the vidda after this night, they have the right to put you to death.'

Kurr groaned and shook his head in frustration, then shot a venomous glare like a poisoned dart at Farr Storrsen. Worse, however, was to come.

'The man Perdu is no longer Fenni. I name him intika, anathema to the Fenni, and close the doors of our tents to him. He may never again sit at our fires or join us on our hunts. His wife and his children remain Fenni, but become the property of the priest, to serve in the temple of Qali.' A cry, suddenly bitten off, came from somewhere around the fireside. Perdu faltered at this point, deathly pale and with blood trickling unregarded from a lip bitten in shock, and could not continue.

Into the silence strode the red-cloaked priest, with arms upraised and the faintest of smiles on his lips. 'I pronounce you intika,' he intoned. 'You are Fenni no longer.' He lowered his arms to point at the distraught man. 'All ties are severed. Begone from among us, underworlder.'

Though the priest's words were not translated, the Company knew exactly what had just happened.

Leith waited for the Haufuth or Kurr to say something to put things right, but the two men remained silent. He glanced at his brother, half expecting him to intervene, but Hal gazed steadily in the direction of the clan chief, his eyes hooded, his expression unreadable. As the foreign words came rumbling from the clan chiefs mouth, Leith fought to keep down a rising panic.

'What are you talking about?' came a shrill voice from imme¬diately behind him. 'What nonsense is this?' Leith turned, and was shouldered aside by Stella, who marched determinedly forward until she stood opposite the white-cloaked chief.

'No, Stella, no!' the Haufuth cried hoarsely, but his words were choked and came out thinly, and the girl did not hear him.

'Why are you talking about punishing this man?' she challenged, pointing at Perdu. 'What did he do? He only defended himself. It is that man there who should be punished!' She spun on the balls of her feet and pointed straight at Farr. 'What happened here is his fault, nobody else's, and if you can't see that, then your people need another leader! Punish him, and let the rest of us go!' She folded her arms and stood her ground, staring straight at the clan chief.

One of the chillan stood directly behind Perdu, as though holding him up, which perhaps he was, Leith thought. The shocked man made no move to translate what Stella had said, which was just as well - they were in enough trouble already - but apparently her intent had been understood, for the clan chief rose out of his chair and stepped forward until there was only a few feet between them.

'You will be silent until I have delivered my judgement,' he said quietly, but in a voice that carried over the crackling and popping of the fire. Perdu translated automatically in a monotone which matched the mood entirely. 'The underworlder who has offended us with his fighting in the tents of the Fenni has forfeited his life to us. We offer him this choice. Either he serves us as a slave on the vidda for the rest of his life, or he will be put to death at sunrise in a manner of his choosing. He will now be taken to the place of waiting, where he will make his choice. Hear the judgement of the Fenni and be glad, for it restores balance to the vidda.'

'We hear and are glad!' thundered the reply from a hundred throats.

Several things happened at once. Farr sprang forward, but was seized by one of the chillan and dragged away shouting. Stella went deathly white and fell to her knees, her hands on her head and her wide, frightened gaze fixed as much on herself as on the strug¬gling figure disappearing towards the tents. But most piteous was the reaction of Wira, who fell to the ground in what seemed like mortal anguish.

Rough hands were laid on the Company and they were dragged to the outskirts of the tented camp. Both Kurr and the Haufuth tried to reason with the Fenni clan chief, but Perdu, overcome with grief, could not translate for them. In a scene of confusion, Leith found himself trying to argue with three men who could obviously not understand him as they half pushed, half dragged him to the top of a steep, snow-covered slope. He continued to struggle until the moment they pushed him over the edge, where he fell, rolled, tumbled and then slithered to the base of the slope to join the others. Their last glimpse of the Fenni was of a line of figures, backlit by the moon, turning and receding from sight.

* * *

'You played your part well,' the white-robed clan chief told his red-robed priest. 'I am pleased you guessed my intent.'

'They will return to free their comrade?'

'Undoubtedly. They will attack before dawn, believing that their friend will choose death rather than a life of servitude. Our actions have served their purpose - our people still have faith in us, and will continue to respect our leadership - but we have not harmed the underworlders.'

'But surely they cannot now pursue their enemies? To do that would have required our help!'

'Be at peace. I have made provision for this. Warn the guards to be alert. There must be no injury incurred in what is to come, or I will have little option but to carry out the substance of my decision.'

'We have two choices only,' the Haufuth said wearily. 'We can abandon the pursuit and return home, or we can try to take back what is ours.'

'What we forfeited, you fat buffoon,' snarled Kurr, who was seemingly in the grip of an uncontrollable anger. 'Remember that. Focus on that! Remember who it is we have to thank for our present situation! And I refuse to go on some death-cursed venture to rescue him from his just punishment!'

'Perhaps we could consider—' began Wira in a conciliatory tone, but the old farmer cut him off.

'The Storrsens have no right to speak here. I do not want to hear your considerations! What right you had to speak was lost when you could not restrain your loudmouthed fool of a brother!'

'Kurr, that's hardly fair—'

'You are right! It is manifestly unfair! But not as unfair as the situation we now find ourselves in!'

'A situation which you are only inflaming with your talk, my friend.' The Haufuth took a deep, settling breath, and faced the ruin of his expedition squarely and realistically. 'The problem, you see, is that we would probably not survive the journey back to Windrise without food and horses. And even if we did, what help could we expect from the inhabitants of that cursed town? More than likely, those we bested down in the Valley of Respite would seek us out and attempt to take their revenge on us. 1 do not think we could prevent them.'

The travellers huddled together behind a snowdrift at the bottom of the valley, trying to keep out the cruel night wind. The shock of the events of the last hour rendered the three teenagers silent, leaving the conversation to the four older men, at least one of whom was finding it difficult to think rationally.