All three of them turned at the sound of boots on the stone to watch the arrival of the proxy hired by the regular worker of the dig to work his claim so that it would not be reallocated by Mallin. The proxy had arrived the previous morning saying the regular minescraper was ill. In spite of Glynn’s determination not to become friendly with anyone, she had been unable to stop herself warming to the down-to-earth, stocky little Lev, with his sharp sense of humour and bent nose. She watched surreptitiously as he knelt down on a small square of carpet, laid his cloak and lantern aside and examined the dig, humming to himself. Absurdly, something about him made her want to laugh. He was unfailingly cheerful and, most importantly, he seemed to be able to talk without expecting any response from other people. Indeed, he was quite capable of carrying on both sides of a conversation all by himself! It was he who had talked of the Shadowman until Teesa had hissed at him to shut up before the legion was sent after them all.
Legionnaires were windwalkers and the internal police force of the island. They wore blue or purple cloaks and trimmings over matt-black body suits. Each of the islands had its own legion which was differentiated from the others by the predominant colour of its attire. The various legions had their own leaders and rank structure, but ultimately each was responsible to the chieftain of its host island.
Glynn noticed that Lev was watching her. ‘I heard you were near drowned in the open water on your way to Acantha,’ he said with a grin that implied it was a good joke to nearly drown yourself.
Glynn tried to smile, but she was worried that Mallin had passed on this information about her and it was now common knowledge. Maybe Solen had talked about her when he was drunk. It made her nervous to think of herself as the object of gossip, though the gossip tallied well enough with her cover story.
Lev seemed to be waiting for some sort of reaction so she touched her throat in vague apology and shrugged.
‘Heard you had swallowed bittermute algae. But I did not think the mute effect lasted more than a day or so.’ Lev’s voice was casual, but Glynn felt herself accused.
Fortunately, just then they heard Mallin approaching their part of the minescrape and Lev returned hastily to his dig. Emptying their buckets and recording the number of stones to keep track of each worker’s haul, Mallin weighed Glynn’s three stones in her palm.
‘You will have to work harder than you have been doing. Plenty more hungry for the pit.’
She was referring to the fact that the turnover of minescrapers was high, and there were always queues waiting to replace anyone who did not measure up. Given how swiftly she had been hired, Glynn imagined initially that work must be easy to obtain in the mines. But that was not so. There were waiting-lists, and most mine workers had proxies like Lev to safeguard their position should they fall ill. This made her swift hire a puzzle until Glynn figured out that it must have been Solen’s message that gave her an edge. She could not, in her wildest imagination, see a lotus-eater like Solen having anything in common with Mallin, but no doubt his post as legionnaire gave him some power.
She mimicked to Mallin that she would work faster.
‘We will see.’ Mallin turned to Lev, who explained that he had only just come in, but Mallin slapped him on the back and said she knew she could rely on him to top the quota.
When she had gone down the next level, Lev gave Glynn a sympathetic look. ‘She knows me,’ he said unnecessarily. ‘But it is no pleasure to me that she does. I have been here too long. Do not make my mistake. Find yourself a darklin and retire.’
‘So easy,’ Teesa cackled, sitting on the other side of the black corridor and unwrapping her lunch from a basket. ‘Easy as finding blue sether on the flatlands.’
Baltic grunted at her and she put some bread into his grimy hands. He stuffed it into his mouth with the peculiar humming noise he made whenever he ate, piggy eyes on Glynn.
‘Maybe so,’ Lev sighed, sitting too, and pulling a bun wrapped in cloth from his pocket. He offered Glynn half. Taking it, she smiled inwardly at herself. To begin with she had been revolted at the thought of eating in the dirty minescrape, but now she sat down with the others without a qualm. She unwrapped her own lunch – a flat sort of pie with a black pasty filling – broke it in four and offered it to the others. Sharing food was common in the minescrape, and it made for variety in an otherwise dreary day. She purchased her meals from a stall in the song cavern each morning.
‘Easy into the minescrape and hard out,’ Teesa said through a mouthful of pie. Baltic had finished his and now sidled closer to Glynn. She wiped the mine dust off her hands, pretending not to see him.
‘True spoken,’ Lev admitted cheerfully. ‘Gambling away my family’s holding was easy and that is what brought me to this rocky bit of an island. I had drunk too much cirul at the time, but there was no going back on it. A bet is a bet, so I sent my sister to live with relatives, and came here with the last of our coin. And in spite of the gambling that is my only solace, I have earned almost enough to claim back the land I lost, but it has been a hard road back, right enough.’
‘I have heard that before. Leave while you can this time,’ Teesa advised. Baltic reached out to touch Glynn’s boot. She ignored him, hoping he would become bored when she did not react.
‘I have been thinking I might stay on a bit. Earn enough for the land and some over. Then I would be ahead, you see. It would not all have been for nothing.’
Glynn wondered how many goldminers would have given themselves a similar argument for staying with their shafts, and was saddened at the thought of Lev ending his days here.
‘Should have got handfasted long back, but you are an old fool,’ grunted Teesa. ‘A woman would have kept you from losing the holding.’
‘That is true, no doubt,’ Lev said seriously. Then he broke into an impish grin and turned to direct an arch look at Glynn. ‘But who would have me?’
She felt herself blush. Without warning, Baltic launched himself at Lev, snarling like a dog.
The older man pushed the boy away roughly, and Teesa flung her arms around her grandson, kissing him and hissing at Lev to keep his dirty hands to himself.
‘Teach your boy to keep his hands where they are wanted,’ Lev said mildly. ‘The next man might not be so gentle, nor the next woman so forgiving.’
Teesa glared at Glynn. ‘My Baltic would not want one who looked so like a myrmidon she-demon.’ She pushed the drooling Baltic back to their dig and turned her back on them, bristling with outrage.
‘Do not mind her,’ Lev said easily. ‘Or her wild accusations. No myrmidon would come to Acantha in these times and she knows it.’
Teesa snorted. ‘You are here.’
Glynn stared at Lev.
‘Am I a myrmidon then? I was born on Myrmidor, as well you know. It is the spear maids that give themselves to the soulweavers and the rest of us are tarred with the same brush,’ Lev said to Teesa’s back. ‘And I would thank you not to go bandying my sept around in these dark days. A man could be killed.’
‘Should have stayed on your own sept then,’ Teesa snapped, but she sounded less angry.
‘Now how could I, Teesa my love, with the whole world calling me to look at it?’ he said in a wheedling voice.
She gave a pleased snort. ‘You should have taken the loss and year-ended with some maid who was not set on carrying the spear for the Darkfall hags.’
‘It was not in me to stay home and maybe that is truly why I gambled so much,’ Lev said, returning to his own dig with a sigh. ‘I wanted to see the world and the farm bound me. Most people never travel further than a few days from where they were born, let alone from sept to sept. But I wanted to see how other islands look and hear what songs people sing there and what stories they tell. I wanted to see sky sether growing on the Black Tower and bathe in the Iridomi fire lakes. I wanted to feel the red sand winds on Vespi. But, more than anything else, I wanted to sail through the Turin Straits where the water shines even on the darkest night, and
mountains of ice rise from the waves. A man should not die before seeing all the wonders of the world.’
‘And how many of those dreams have come to pass since you left Myrmidor, old man?’ Teesa sneered good-naturedly.
Lev looked philosophical. ‘Ah well. I am not dead. Maybe the Song will gift me with a darklin yet.’
10
Endlessly curious, the Firstmade traversed world after world…
At length, it was drawn back to the worlds made by the Song.
It came at last to Keltor, rejoicing to find there
creatures which had also been formed of the Song,
and in which remained a fragment of that sweetest music
of its own making.
It stayed long, and grew to love the lesser beasts which
dwelt there,
setting no kind above another …
But then Shenavyre was born into the world …
LEGENDSONG OF THE UNYKORN
That night, Glynn sat by the fire in Solen’s fell, staring into the flames unseeingly.
The altercation with Teesa had frightened her, though Lev had smoothed it over. She felt she ought to leave Acantha while the going was good, but it was taking so long to amass anything like the three hacoin she would need just to get to Fomhika. Maybe she should try to find a job on a ship; that way she would not have to worry about money to travel. Though it seemed as if Vespians only hired Vespians as crew. Perhaps she could secure a second job. The mining left her bone-weary, but she could endure anything for a short time.
The trouble was, with or without money, she still had no idea how to go about getting home.
She heard footsteps and looked up to see Solen enter. It was very late and she had extinguished the lanterns, so he did not see her. She was relieved that, for once, he was not falling down drunk.
‘Ah, father, did you ever wonder what you were doing?’ he murmured, tying the door flap behind him. He sounded tired and depressed.
Glynn coughed apologetically.
He stiffened and turned to face her. He was far enough from the fire for his expression to be indistinct, but reflected flames flickered in his slanted eyes.
‘You are up late,’ he said finally.
‘I couldn’t sleep …’ Glynn felt suddenly dreadfully uncomfortable. Sometimes she forgot this was Solen’s home. How he must loathe having it invaded like this. ‘I … I am thinking of finding a place of my own,’ she said impulsively.
She had not thought it through, but once the words were said she felt it would be for the best. She had a job and money. There was no reason for her to impose further. She would begin speaking in the mine, then she could simply ask Lev about accommodation on Acantha. Or maybe she would ask him instead about casual employment aboard Vespian ships. She started to rise.
‘Wait,’ Solen said, his tone finely balanced between a request and an order. ‘Stay a moment longer. I would like to speak with you.’
That’s a change, Glynn thought, but she held her tongue and subsided back into the cushions, wondering what he could possibly want to say to her.
Solen sat down on one of the cushions, and the firelight illuminated his oriental features. Sitting still like that, head slightly bowed so the shadows lengthened downward, he reminded her very much of Wind, and she felt a rush of longing. She bit the inside of her mouth and reminded herself forcefully that, nevertheless, he was not Wind.
He looked up, meeting her eyes. He did that very rarely and Glynn hoped her expression was enigmatic.
‘I have been a bad host, I know,’ he said.
Glynn frowned. Was this to be an apology?
‘You saved my life,’ she said in a carefully neutral tone, ‘though, as you said, it was not something you would ordinarily do. You made it possible for me to get work. I’m grateful for your help.’ She was surprised to find a hard, hurt edge had crept into her voice.
Solen looked away into the fire. ‘Do not misunderstand. I am … I am what I must be. What I need to be.’ His voice sounded ragged, and Glynn wished she could see his expression properly. She had no idea what he was trying to say.
‘If you aren’t happy …’ she began tentatively.
He gave a humourless bark of laughter, and brought his eyes back to her. ‘You cannot know the depth of my unhappiness, Glynna. My life is saturated with it. The last time I was happy was the day I brought you up to Acantha. For a moment I truly forgot myself in sharing your pleasure at that flight, and in remembering my own first windwalk. You … intrigue me. I have never seen anyone other than Vespians as calm on the waves as you. And here you have worked in the minescrape, uncomplaining, though it is hard dirty labour. You endure so gracefully. If you could know how I wish …’ He stopped, staring so hard at Glynn that she felt half mesmerised.
‘You can change,’ she said, having the confused notion that somehow she was making him regret his aimless existence. ‘You could try to … to drink less.’
He laughed so savagely and seemed so far from his usual indolent self that Glynn wondered suddenly if something bad had happened.
‘You pity me,’ he said softly.
‘I … I don’t understand you.’
‘Nor I you. Your words are so strange sometimes. And your mannerisms. I can not tell which sept you belong to. One minute I am sure you must be a myrmidon to be so bold, and the next I feel you cannot possibly be a spear maid. Right now, in this dimness, I wonder if you are real at all. Who are you Glynna-vyre?’
Glynn’s throat tightened. Solen’s moodiness was beginning to remind her eerily of Wind’s behaviour the night before he died. A wave of nausea broke over her.
‘What is the matter?’ Solen asked. ‘You are shivering. Are you cold?’
‘You … I …’ Glynn took hold of herself firmly. There was no point in letting this strange conversation continue. She decided to tell Solen her made-up history to see if she could carry it off. Surely it would take his mind from his worries, whatever they were. ‘I wanted to tell you, I have begun to remember things about myself. I think you will be happy to hear that I am Fomhikan.’
‘What have you remembered?’ As she had hoped, his voice had sharpened.
‘Just … just bits and pieces really. I lived on a farm in the hills on Fomhika. My job was exercising racing aspi.’ She had learned about the aspi racing stables from a man at the Porm cavesite market. She had overheard him talking of his sister who had made year-end contract with a Fomhikan aspi-breeder.
Solen nodded encouragingly. ‘That would explain your physical strength. Go on. What else? Your family?’
‘My parents are dead,’ Glynn said, unable to stop a quiver in her throat. ‘They were killed in an accident. The man who owns the farm is a relative.’
‘His name?’
She thought fast. ‘That is one of the things I do not remember. But I think Glynna is a shortened version of my name.’
‘It should not be hard to find out who he is. There are not so many racing stables, and only one missing you. If this man owns racing beasts, he would have coin enough for your passage home.’
‘I will not ask him for it.’ Glynn turned to the fire because she did not like lying and feared her face might give her away. If Solen called her out she would simply confess she had made the whole thing up and had wanted to test it out.
‘Why not?’ Solen asked. ‘The cost of a passage to Fomhika will be nothing to him.’
‘My uncle is one of those Fomhikans they make jokes about, who cannot plantsing.’ She had, in fact, heard several such jokes. ‘That lack runs in my family. I myself am tone deaf. It was when I tried to sing in the minescrape today, it all came back to me,’ she improvised. ‘Someone told me I could not be Fomhikan with such a voice and I remembered. It doesn’t matter to me that I have no music in me, but my uncle wears his lack hard because he thinks people laugh at him for it. He is always talking of his dignity and of how important it is to be respected.’ She hesitated, flicking the Acanthan a swi
ft look to gauge his reactions. He was listening intently, but it was impossible to tell what he thought. ‘He will be furious with me over this business with the coracle. You see, Carick was right. I was swept out to … to the great water. I was not drunk. I was casting and I just fell asleep. Before I knew it …’ She shrugged. ‘He will not believe I was sleeping. He will jump to the same conclusion as Carick did and assume I was drinking. He will feel I have made us a laughing stock and he will want to make me pay for it. So I have made up my mind not to go back.’
‘What will you do?’
Glynn had not thought this far ahead, but recklessly she plunged on. ‘You need not worry. I won’t be staying here on Acantha. I want to travel. I have always wanted to see the world.’ Lev’s words floated into her mind. ‘The … the sand winds on Vespi, the fire lakes on … on Iridom and the shining waves in the Turin Straits. A person ought to see how other people live before they die.’
Solen stared at her as if transfixed.
‘What … what is the matter?’ Had she gone too far?
‘That is quite an ambition for a Fomhikan aspi-breeder’s helper,’ he said.
Glynn shrugged and made herself hold his gaze. ‘I have no plantsinging ability so why shouldn’t I travel? Being unable to plantsing, I always felt out of place – as if I was not truly Fomhikan. There was an emptiness inside me that nothing in my world would fill. It made me restless to see if there was somewhere in the world that would stop the emptiness. Now that I have begun my travels by chance, I wonder if it is not fate giving me a shove.’
Solen sucked in a breath of air and expelled it forcefully. ‘Glynna, you astonish me. It is passing strange to hear my own boyhood thoughts spoken by you.’
It was now Glynn’s turn to stare. ‘You felt like that?’
‘I grew up here with my life stretching forward like a paved path, neatly shaped and bordered. A good worthy life, and though I had everything and was well-loved, there was an emptiness in me, too. A longing for … something I could not name.’