The Bird of the River (16 page)

"There you are, then." Eliss stared very hard at a pattern of ripples and decided they did not signify a submerged unmarked snag. "So ... was your nasty lordship still alive as far as Bluestone?" "It would appear he was," said Krelan.

"Hmmm." Eliss's gaze wandered to the deck below. She was a little startled to see Alder staring up at her, frowning.

"PEOPLE SHOULDN'T CLIMB UP THERE and bother you when you're working," said Alder that night when they had rolled up in their blankets.

"What, Krelan? He wasn't bothering me." Eliss turned over and stared at the back of Alder's head.

"You were talking with him an awfully long time," Alder said, not turning around.

"Look ..." Eliss gazed up at the roof of the tent. She put up her hand and traced the charm Captain Glass had given her, smooth and cool on its silver chain. "Look. I'm growing up. Boys are going to be talking to me. That's the way it is even with normal families who stay in one place. Girls grow up and they start spending time with boys. I'm going to. It doesn't mean I'm going to do stupid things. I'm not. But I like Krelan. He's smart." "He's dangerous."

Eliss nodded in the dark. "I think he is, yes. But we're just friends. You don't remember Uncle Ironbolt. He was before you were born. He was dangerous too, but he was nice. He was good to Mama. He took care of us, until he got killed." "Was he in a gang?"

"He ran a gang. I think. He had a lot of money." "And Mama loved him," Alder stated, with an air of resignation. "Stupid."

"Actually ..." Eliss fell silent as a memory suddenly shuttled out of the dead past. Staring into the darkness with wide eyes, she saw Falena again--so young!--crouching beside her bed, whispering.
Of course I don't love him, I could never love anybody but your daddy. Half my heart died with Daddy. But Uncle Ironbolt has been very kind to us, Eliss. Don't you like this big house, all these toys? I can't protect you by myself but he can protect both of us.

"Eliss, I have to protect you now," said Alder, sounding as though he was about to cry. "And if you're going to fall in love with people who aren't safe ... and
nobody's
safe, I never saw that before but it's true, the Children of the Sun are just crazy, fighting and killing all the time! And what am I supposed to do?" His voice broke on a sob.

"That's Mr. Moss making you think that we're all evil!"

"It isn't! I always thought that. Not that you're evil, just ... crazy. And I never understood why. And I always wondered why nobody else was like me. And then I found out
my
people are. So I'm trying to be one of them. And one of the things I have to do is keep you safe. Because the Yendri don't beat up
their
ladies."

"Nobody's going to beat me up," said Eliss grimly. "Nobody
ever.
And nobody has to protect me. I can protect myself. I always have." She turned on her side and put her arm around Alder. "Listen to me. You're only ten. You shouldn't have to worry about things like this yet.

"You did, when you were ten. And littler. I remember. You were always looking out for a place for me to sleep and carrying me when I was tired and telling me not to be scared. And if I let you get hurt now, what good am I?"

"I won't be hurt," said Eliss, hugging him. "I promise. And, and now we live on the river, you can see other Yendri a lot more and learn more about them, and everything will be fine. Come on. Things will be all right.
We have a place to sleep."

Alder was silent so long she thought he might have forgotten, but at last he answered. "We have a place to sleep
and a warm blanket each."

"We have a place to sleep, and a warm blanket each,
and we had dinner tonight."

"We have a place to sleep each, and a warm blanket each, and had dinner tonight,
and we'll have breakfast tomorrow."

"And who knows what, when summer comes?"

"And who knows what, when summer comes?
And summer is coming soon."

THE NEXT TOWN UP THE RIVER was Forge, and it was a holy place.

Eliss watched in awe as its crumbling towers became visible through the trees. She had never seen buildings so old. There on a ridge was the scar where the ore seam had been worked out, but green had softened the cut lines, and young trees and ferns screened the derelict workings. Below was the town, only a hostel for pilgrims and a tavern now, and the Forge itself.

The
Bird of the River
docked at the old stone quay. Eliss climbed down and looked around uncertainly. Families were clustering together on the deck, here and there, with children fidgeting in their best clothes and mothers fussing over them. She spotted the Riveters and struggled through the crowd to them. As she approached, she saw Mr. Riveter put something in Wolkin's hands.

"Now, hold on to it, and
be respectful,"
Mr. Riveter admonished. Wolkin nodded, his eyes wide. Eliss saw that he was holding a piece of tin cut from one flat sheet of metal, flat figures holding hands: a man, a woman, a boy, a girl. It was supposed to be iron, but any metal was acceptable from poor people. Eliss felt a pang: her family had finally come to the Forge, and she had no offering.

She looked around for Alder. He had retreated to the aft deck, keeping himself aloof from the crowd. Before she could start toward him, Wolkin ran weaving through the throng and shouted up to him: "Alder! Come on! We're going to the Forge!"

"I don't belong there," Alder said. Eliss clenched her fists.

Wolkin gaped at him a moment before yelling, "Well, but there's big frees! Come on! And there's a man who can juggle fireballs!"

That was enough to persuade Alder, who scrambled down and ran off with Wolkin. Eliss stood alone.

"Aren't you going ashore?" said someone at her elbow. She turned and saw Krelan.

"I don't have an offering."

"You can buy them there," said Krelan. "Look, will you go with me? If somebody's looking for me, they'll be looking for me alone. If we look like a couple, I'm sort of disguised."

"All right." Anything was better than staying behind, conspicuously alone. Krelan took her arm and steered her toward the gangplank, where people were crowded together, waiting to disembark. Eliss saw Mrs. Riveter looking around searchingly, -- her gaze settled at last on Eliss and Krelan.

"Eliss, have you got an offering?" she called.

"We're going to buy ours," said Krelan. Mrs. Riveter looked pleased. She nudged Mr. Riveter and murmured something in his ear.

Jostling Eliss were the musicians, each of whom had a cut-tin representation of an instrument in his hands. She remembered now hearing the commotion as shapes were cut from the metal sheet with hammers and chisels, -- if she'd thought to ask, somebody probably would have cut out an offering for her too.
But what would I have to offer?

They stepped ashore at last. Most of the crew headed straight for the Forge, but Krelan tugged at her arm and they walked away in the direction of the tavern. Eliss looked around. It wasn't at all what she had expected. Moss grew on the slate roofs of the buildings, and trailed from the branches of gnarled trees. Almost it seemed more like a Yendri place, except for the smell of the Forge and the distant ringing on its anvil. And a certain quality in the air ... there was a heaviness, the way things felt just before a thunderstorm. The tiny hairs along Eliss's arms, and on the back of her neck, rose. In under the trees, the light seemed filtered and dim, almost like dusk, and the firepit in the yard of the tavern glowed out bright.

"So many trees," she murmured, half to herself. Krelan turned to look at her, bright-eyed.

"You've never been here before?"

"No."

"Come on. I'll show you something." He led her to a great tree that overhung the tavern yard. Firelight flickered on its trunk, gleaming on the places where the boles had been rubbed smooth by the passage of people entering the yard. Grinning, Krelan took a knife from inside his boot. He tapped on the trunk with his blade, producing a metallic
ting-ting.

"Oh!" Eliss stared at the trunk. She tilted her head back to stare up into the branches, seeing now that all the fantastic gnarling, the stiff dense leaves, were in fact cast and welded metal, gray-green with age.

"Then up from the raw earth he summoned,
Quickspringing, the veins of copper and malachite
And five leagues round forged the forest,
His own grove, sacrosanct, unfading--
Don 't you remember?"

"I thought it was just a story," said Eliss, turning, gazing up at the forest canopy. The big trees were all around, stretching back into the forest as far as she could see, with only here and there a thin live tree stretching up toward the light between the verdigris leaves. The same moss draped both the wild and the made trees. "Just, you know, scripture."

"I suppose it might have been," said Krelan. "Originally. But maybe the priests made this place so it would be real. It's here
now
, and nobody knows how old it is."

Eliss shivered. Was this how the gods were supposed to make you feel? She thought of the centuries these trees had seen, never changed by the seasons, never plundered by crows, never affected by disease or fire. Unfading.

"Let's have something to drink," said Krelan. The whole crew had been paid from the proceeds of the big snag, and everyone had a little money to spend. They took a seat at one of the tables in the yard. After a moment a server came out and bowed to them.

"Welcome, pilgrims. Some wine?"

"Tea, please, and could we see a menu?" asked Krelan.

Eliss looked down at the tabletop. It was bronze, cast to look like rough-hewn wood. She had never in her life sat at a table and ordered from a menu. Krelan's voice had been casual, ordering as though he'd done it a thousand times. The server came back with a chalkboard and held it up for their inspection. Krelan looked at it critically.

"Bring us a new loaf, hot, please, and the honey assortment. With jam."

The server bowed again and retreated. Eliss felt her mouth watering. She reached an unobtrusive hand to the canvas pouch she wore sewn into the sleeve of her tunic, and reassured herself that she had money there.

"This is nice," she half-whispered.

"Hm? Yes, it's nice. You've really never been? I came with my family when I was eight."

"We never came up the river until this year."

"Everybody's supposed to come at least once. Or so the priests tell us. You'll be making up for it now, I imagine, living on the
Bird
. Twice a year."

"Probably." Eliss looked out at the pilgrims lining up before the Forge. There were Alder and Wolkin in line, whispering together. She looked back at Krelan. He leaned back in his seat, watching the tavern's door. For all his ridiculous mustache and shabby hood he seemed somehow poised and elegant, not at all the hapless galley drudge he played on the
Bird of the River
.

The server came back and set out their tea. "I wonder if you could answer a question for me," said Krelan.

"What would you like to know, sir?"

"Is there a way to find out whether a particular person made a particular offering on a certain date?"

"The priests' clerk keeps a record," said the server, gesturing off toward the Forge.

"Thank you. I only ask because my wife's brother--" Krelan glared at Eliss "--has been bragging for the last six months that he came here and made an expensive offering in honor of our wedding, which is why I oughtn't ask him to pay back certain sums of money he borrowed."

Eliss blinked. After a scrambling moment of confusion she thought fast. "Are you going to start in on that again, husband? Gods below, can't you ever let it go?"

Laughter glinted in Krelan's eyes, but his face remained cold. "Money's money, Balicia." He looked up at the server. "Married six months, and thorns in my pillow already."

The server gave a tiny smile and shrugged. "One silver bit, sir."

Krelan sighed and tossed a silver piece on the table. The server scooped it up and departed. Eliss fumbled in her sleeve for her purse. "I think I've got change for my half."

"No, no. My treat. You did marry me on a moment's notice, after all." Krelan poured their tea. Eliss watched, feeling a strange combination of exhilaration and terror.

"So we're going to the clerk to see if your lord made an offering here?" she asked, trying to sound casual. Krelan nodded.

"The question is, how far up the river did he get? At least, that's the first question. Once I know that, I'll have an entirely new set of questions to ask. My compliments on your quick wit, by the way."

Eliss shrugged, blushing. "So ... has it changed much, since you were here before?"

"Well, everything is somehow smaller, of course." Krelan sipped his tea carefully. "Ah. Just ready to drink. Don't wait, -- it tastes best hot. Other than shrinking, nothing has changed, really. Same souvenir shop. Same tavern. Same hostel. Same office and priest's house. And the Forge, of course. A few more bushes growing up there where the iron workings used to be. The ruins down at the end a bit more crumbled and overgrown."

"What did they used to be?"

"Hm? Something to do with the iron workings, I suppose. Must have seemed like the end of the world when those played out, mustn't it? In fact, I remember being a child and reading somewhere that it was taken as a horrible omen, and there promptly followed a series of wars and plagues that left half the cities devastated, because of course the gods wouldn't want us to waste an omen like that, would they? It wasn't the end of the world, though. Life went on. It always does."

"It does," Eliss agreed, sipping her tea. Krelan had been right, -- it was almost too hot, but delicious. "Did you have a lot of books to read, growing up?"

"Books of fables. Volumes and volumes of the glorious history of the Diamondcuts. No stories about
my
family, of course, because we were the Diamondcuts' shadows. My grandfather always said it with a capital S.
Shadows.
It was something to be proud of, being invisible. I thought it was rather unfair, in those days, -- now I see how useful invisibility can be. But what about you? What do people read when they don't have to steep themselves in the bygone glories of their masters?"