Wizards’ Worlds (30 page)

So dismissed, Tursla went to her own portion of the clan house—that small section
given to her when she was judged more girl than child. She pulled close the woven
reed mats which made it into a private place and sat upon her double cushion to think.

Mafra’s pronouncement would not only excuse her from any moon dancing, but would speedily
put to punishment any speeches such as Affric had made to her, any gesture even from
any man of any House. She would be excused also from certain kinds of work. The only
difficulty she might face at first would be that she could not leave the settlement
island alone from now on. The Filled were ever under guard for their own protection.

She ran her hands down her own slender body. How long before the fact that her belly
did not swell would be noted? The women were sharp-eyed about such matters, since
birth was their great mystery and they were jealous of the keeping of it. Perhaps
she could devise some sort of padding within her robe. Also the Filled often had unusual
desires for different food, altered their habits of living. Maybe she could turn such
fancies to her account.

But eventually the time would come when she would be found out. Then what? To her
knowledge no one among the Folk had ever made a false statement concerning such a
thing. It would strike at the very root of all of their long-held beliefs. What punishment
could be harsh enough for that? Why had Mafra done this?

No one of the Torfolk, Tursla was sure, would accept the idea of a Filling with knowledge.
And Mafra—she, Tursla, had not made the claim—it had been the Clan Mother. Such a
deliberate flouting of custom, just so that she would be left to hold herself ready
for this other action of which Mafra had only given her hints.

A Calling for the purpose of blood. Tursla drew a deep breath. If Mafra meant by that
what Tursla could guess,
then that was a great breaking of custom also. Sacrifice—of a—
man?
But there were no such sacrifices ever made to Volt; a man whose killing might bring
down a doom of ending on Tormarsh and Torfolk. What part would she have?

She could—no, something within Tursla forbade that for now. This was no time to open
that door in her mind which guarded what she had learned from Xactol.

Patience must be hers and this role must be played well. The girl drew aside her private
curtain and arose. What she wanted most was food and drink. Suddenly she was very
hungry and thirst made her mouth dry. She started for the supply jars, intent only
on tending her body, sternly closing down the whirl of thoughts in her mind.

T
HREE
days went by; Tursla spent the time quietly at work with her spindle in her hands,
but, more to her own desires, also with her thoughts. Mafra’s word had been accepted
by the House clan—how could it not be? She was given the deference accorded the Filled,
served first with the choicest of foods, left to her own thoughts since she seemed
to wish it so.

But on the third day the girl aroused from the half trance in which she had allowed
herself to drift as she attempted to sort out and store what she had learned. Much
of what she discovered lay only in hints. Yet she was sure that such hints were only
way markers to deeper knowledge that she must have and that she still could not now
remember. The struggle to do so only made her tense and restless, her head ache, and
sleep hard to come by.

Nor could she summon up any of her dreams. When she slept now it was fitfully, more
like a light doze from which she could be awakened by such a small thing as a sleeper
in the next mat place turning over.

Knowledge was of no help if one could not tap it, Tursla believed with an ever-growing
distress. What lay before her?

Wishing to be alone with that spark of fear which was fast growing into a flame, she
arose from her stool before the loom and went from the Kelva’s House. She neared the
group of women before she noted them, so entangled was she in her thoughts.

Unnanna stood there, the others facing her as if she were laying upon them some duty.
Now her gaze rested on Tursla, and a small smile—a smile which held no kindness in
it—lifted the corners of her thin-lipped mouth.

“Fair be the day—” She raised her voice a little, plainly to address the girl. “Fair
be your going. Fair be the end of the waiting for you.”

“I give thanks for your good wishing, Clan Mother,” Tursla replied.

“You have not spoken before Volt the name of your Choosing—” Unnanna’s smile grew
wider. “Are you not proud enough for that, Filled One?”

“If I choose to spread Volt’s cloak about me and am challenged for so doing,” Tursla
returned, hoping to hold her pretense of serenity, “then there must be a changing
of custom.”

Unnanna nodded. Her outer pose was one of good will. It was not unheard of that some
maid at her first Filling chose not to announce the name of her partner in the moon
ritual. Though generally it was a matter of common knowledge as soon as her Clan Mother
pro-claimed the fact to the satisfaction of the clan.

“Wear Volt’s cloak then, moth-daughter. In days to come you will have sisters in aplenty.”
There was an assenting murmur from the women about her, an eager assenting.

But Unnanna was not yet through with Tursla.

“Do not go a-roaming, moth-daughter. You are precious to us all now.”

“I go only to the fields, Clan Mother. To Volt’s shrine that I may give thanks.”

That was a worthy enough reason for leaving the place of Houses and no one could deny
her such a small journey. She passed Unnanna and started down the moss-greened pavement
of the ancient road. Nor did any follow her there, for again custom decreed that one
who so sought Volt’s shrine should be granted privacy for any petition or thanks the
worshipper desired to raise.

Volt’s shrine—time had not dealt well with it. Walls had sunk into the ever-hungry
softer ground of the marsh, or else tumbled the stone of their making across pavement,
because no man could put hand to any rebuilding here.

For these were the very stones which Volt himself had laid hands upon in the very
long ago, set up to make his shelter. It had been a large hall, Tursla guessed, as
she traced the lines of those crumbling walls. But by all legend Volt himself was
larger in body than any of the Torfolk.

Now she wove a way between those crumbling walls. Under her feet the earth and stone
was beaten hard into a path during the countless years Torfolk had sought comfort
here. Thus she came into the inner room. Though the roof was gone, and the light of
sun shone down upon what was the very heart of Volt’s domain—a massive chair seemingly
carved of wood (but such a wood—strange to Tormarsh—which no damp could rot). On either
side of the chair stood tall vases wrought of stone and set in them, ready for any
call to Volt, the quick firing pith of those trees waterlogged in the marsh whose
spongy outer bark could be flaked away, leaving an inner hardness which burned so
brightly. Here were no light insects, but fire which destroyed and yet was so brilliant
in its death.

For a long moment Tursla hesitated. What she would do now was allowed by custom, yes,
but only if one was greatly moved by some happening which could not be understood
and from which there seemed to be no answer
in any human mind. Was that her case now? She believed she could claim it was.

Tursla put out her hand, setting her palm flat on the petrified wood of the chair’s
wide arm. Then she drew herself up the one shallow step which raised the seat above
the flooring of that near destroyed hall, and seated herself upon the chair of Volt.

It was as if she was a small child settling herself into the chair of some large-boned
adult. Tall as she was among the Torfolk, here her feet did not meet the pavement
as she wriggled back until her shoulders touched the wood behind her. To lay her hands
out upon the arms was a strain but this she did before she closed her eyes.

Did Volt indeed listen from wherever he had gone when he withdrew from Tormarsh? Did
that essence of Volt which might just still exist somewhere in the world care now
what happened to those he had once protected and cherished? She had no answer to those
questions, nor could any within the bounds of Tor give her more than such guesses
as she herself might make.

“Volt—” her thought shaped words she did not speak aloud—"we give you honor and call
upon your good will in times of need. If you still look upon us—No, I do not cry now
for help as a helpless child calls upon those of the clan house. I wish only to know
who or what I am, and how I must or may use what has Filled me as Mafra swears I have
been Filled. It is no child that I carry in truth; perhaps it is more—or less. But
I would know!”

She had closed her eyes, and her head rested now upon the back of the chair. There
was the faint scent of the tree candles from either hand, less than they would give
off at their igniting. She had seen the Clan Mothers hold such before them and the
smoke had wreathed them around while they chanted.

She—

Where was she? Green grass grew out before her, a fan
which stretched to the feet of rises of gray rock. Scattered in the grass, as if
someone had carelessly flung wide a handful of bright and shining stones, were flowers,
their petals wide, their shapes and colors differing as the shells on the shore had
differed. Above the flowers fluttered moths—or winged things which resembled moths.
Those were also brightly colored, sometimes bearing more than one shade or hue on
their wings.

There was nothing of Tormarsh in this place. Nor was it, she was sure, another sighting
of her dream land. She willed to move forward and her will gave birth to action, for
she passed, not on her feet step by step, but rather drifted in the air, as might
those flying things.

So Tursla was wafted by her will to those rocks which rose above the grass. Again
her desire lifted her higher, to the topmost pinnacle of the rocks. Now she gazed
down into a greater valley wherein there ran a river. Across that wide ribbon of water
spanned a bridge of stone, and the bridge served a road which ran across the green
of the land.

While on the road, approaching the bridge, there was—

Horse—that was a horse. Though Tursla had never seen such an animal she knew it. And
on the horse—a man.

Her will to see drew him to her sight in a strange way, though in truth she had not
moved from her place on the hill, nor had he yet come upon the bridge. Still she saw
him as clearly as if he and his mount were within such distance that she could put
forth a hand and lay it on the horse’s shoulder.

He wore metal like a silken shirt, for it had been fashioned of small rings linked
one upon the other. Above that a cloak dropped down his shoulders, fastened at his
throat with a large brooch set with dull green and gray stones. There was a belt with
like stones about his waist and from that hung a sheathed sword.

His head was covered with a cap also of metal, but this was a solid piece, not chained
rings. It had a ridge beginning above the wearer’s forehead and running back to a
little below the crown of his head. This ridge possessed sockets into which were fastened
upstanding feathers of a green color.

But Tursla’s attention only marked that in passing, for it was the man himself she
would see. So she studied the face beneath the shadow of the cap.

He was young, his skin was fair, hardly darker than a Torman’s. There was strength
in his face, as well as comeliness. He would make a good friend or clan brother, she
decided, and a worse enemy.

As he rode he had been looking ahead, not truly as if he saw the road, but rather
as if he were busied with his thoughts, and those not pleasant ones. Now, suddenly,
his head jerked up a fraction and his eyes were aware—and they looked upon her! While
a quick frown marked a sharp line between his brows.

Tursla saw his lips move, but she heard nothing, if he had spoken. Then one hand lifted,
was held out toward her. At that same moment all was gone. She whirled away in a dizzy,
giddy retreat. When she opened her eyes she sat once more in Volt’s chair, and she
saw nothing save the time breached walls of his shrine. But now—now she knew! Volt
had indeed answered her wish! She was linked with the horseman and in no easy way.
Their meeting lay before her and from it would come danger and such a trial of strength
as she could not now measure.

Slowly the girl arose, drawing a deep breath, as one preparing for a struggle, though
she knew that the time for that was not yet. He had been aware of her, that horseman,
nor did he in the mind’s eye grow blurred with the passing of moments. No, somewhere
he rode and was real!

In the later afternoon she sought out Mafra again. Perhaps the Clan Mother could or
would give her no
answers, yet she must share Volt’s vision with someone. And in all this place only
Mafra did she trust without reservation.

“Moth-child—” Though Mafra turned sightless eyes in her direction never was she mistaken
concerning the identity of those who came to her. “You are a seeker—”

“True, Clan Mother. I have sought in other places and other ways, and I do not understand.
But this I have seen; from Volt’s own chair did I venture out in a strange way beyond
explaining.” Swiftly she told Mafra of the rider.

For a long moment the Clan Mother sat silent. Then she gave a quick nod as if she
affirmed some thought of her own.

“So it begins. How will it then end? The foreseeing reaches not to that. He whom you
saw, moth-child, is one tied to us by part blood—”

“Koris!”

Mafra’s hand, where it rested upon her knee, tightened, her head jerked a fraction
as if she strove to avoid a blow.

“So that old tale still holds meaning,” she said. “But Koris was not your rider. This
is he whom I told you about—the child of those who would move mountains with spells,
slay men with steel, that naught comes to harm him. He is Koris’ son, and his name
is Simond, which in part was given by that outlander who fought so valiantly beside
his father to free Estcap of the Kolder.”