Mara and Dann

  But should they go down into the mist? It was so thick they could not see the path. They decided to stay up in the hut that day, although it was so cold and they dared not light a fire.

  And now Dann pulled up his robe, so that Leta could see how well the scar had healed where she had taken out the coin, and said that since they had nothing better to do, and since he was so cold anyway he wouldn’t be able to feel a thing, she might as well take out the rest.

  ‘They have worked their way to the surface,’ he said: and there they were, five little rounds just under the skin.

  Out came Leta’s bag of healer’s tools and herbs and she had rubbed the place with the herb that numbs, and had nicked out the first coin with her sharp little knife before Dann knew it.

  ‘Are we sure we aren’t going to need to keep them hidden?’ asked Mara, and Dann said, ‘We’ll be with Daulis soon.’

  ‘Why are you so sure of that?’ asked Leta, and they could see her love and her anxiety.

  ‘Because he’ll want to find us,’ said Dann.

  ‘And now don’t look,’ said Leta, and Dann lay back and gazed at the roof of the hut: reeds from the marshes. She took her knife, rubbed herbs on to it, and cut. She eased out, easily, the four coins, and staunched the beads of blood as they welled up. Soon the bleeding stopped. The long scar was mostly white, like a very old wound, and the new raw bits would soon be the same. Leta went out, fetched a handful of snow, and spread it over the wound. She told him to lie still and soon he would forget he had ever had those coins in him. And so Dann lay, on his back, with a wool cape covering the bottom part of him, to the scar, and brought around to cover his chest and shoulders; and Mara and Leta squatted under the other cape, and they chatted and from time to time looked out to see if the mist had lifted. It had not. The coins, five of them, lay on a strip of cloth, shining, perfect, beautiful little things, with their tiny, incised pictures, back and front, of people who had lived so long ago.

  ‘Is there any other metal that could have lived inside flesh for – how long Mara?… well, it’s years now – and never change or get poisonous?’ said Dann.

  ‘Silver,’ said Leta, ‘but it’s not worth much.’

  ‘Gold has always been like nothing else,’ said Mara. ‘I saw that in the Centre …’ and she stopped. She was saying, it seemed in every other breath, ‘I saw it in the Centre.’ She was already earning amused looks, but probably these looks would soon be impatient, even irritated. She said quietly, ‘I wish I could spend my life there, just learning, Leta. You have no idea, no idea at all, of how wonderful those ancient times were, what the Ice destroyed.’

  And Leta questioned her about the medicines and plants she had seen in the museums, and Mara explained what she had seen, and so they entertained themselves that day. At evening Dann sprang up and said his scar was as good as healed. ‘And now, what are we going to do with the coins?’

  Leta said, ‘You could put them with my money. I still have my quittance money almost intact.’

  ‘No, Leta. It is in a bag, and a bag is easily snatched away,’ said Dann. ‘We must each of us have something, in case we are separated. Mara has her gold coin and some small money. Where am I going to put mine? I feel as if I’m back in that horrible Tower, knowing that I would be killed if anyone suspected I had even one gold coin.’

  ‘I think you should put them in your knife pocket,’ said Mara. ‘It’s long and narrow.’

  ‘Which is the first place any thief would look, apart from the other obvious place.’

  Mara cried out, ‘Do you realise this is the same discussion we have had over and over again, all the way up Ifrik?’

  Leta said, ‘Daulis will find us soon. He must.’ She was tearful, then apologetic because of it. ‘I’m only going to feel safe with him,’ she said. ‘I’m afraid of being single. In the Alb settlement they were gathering outside Donna’s house and shouting, “Where is the Bilma whore?” – no, they didn’t know that I had been one, but if you are a single woman, you are a whore. They wanted to get at Donna, so it was “the Bilma whore.’”

  Dann and Mara reassured her, held her, comforted her; but when she said she did not know why but she was so frightened, they had to agree. ‘I don’t know why I feel uneasy,’ said Dann. ‘Has the mist cleared?’

  It had not.

  ‘We must keep guard tonight,’ said Mara. Leta said she would watch with them, but she wasn’t used to it, and fell asleep. Mara and Dann sat on either side of the door, both with their knives out and ready. Listening to every sound, the silence became full of noises, which turned out to be snow shifting on a slope, or the wind tugging at a broken roof reed. They went out to see how the mist was doing, because of the pressure of their anxiety, which made it hard to sit still. The many boulders were appearing and then going again, as the mist blew across the slopes. They thought one moved … decided they were mistaken, tried to fix the pattern of the boulders in their minds, failed because of the shifting mist, stood peering and staring, their hearts pounding. Then the mist cleared, and not far below them the boulder they thought had moved, did move, and a man’s shape was visible for a moment before it disappeared behind a large rock.

  There was a thin, wet moonlight.

  ‘Give me your snake,’ said Dann, very low.

  ‘We can’t have a corpse up here. They’d know it was us.’

  ‘If it is a poison, no one would think it was anything but cold, he died of cold. A knife wound would have guards after us.’

  She slipped off the snake and he sprang the knife and was off down the slope. Mara, her knife in her hand, went quickly after him. One minute she was in mist, the next, the wind had driven it off. She could not see Dann, could not see Kulik.

  Kulik, always Kulik. How strange it was that again and again all through her life there was Kulik, the danger in a place, or in a group of people – her enemy and Dann’s too. Now she thought, I’m going to kill him. I want him dead. This is the time and this is the place. And then never again will I be looking over my shoulder, or see someone I seem to know, and he turns his head and I see Kulik … Meanwhile she could see neither Dann nor Kulik.

  Then, while the mist swirled, she heard loud breathing, and the sounds of feet slipping about and scuffling on stones. The mist parted and she saw Dann and Kulik, wrestling. This was a deadly life-and-death fight, and Dann’s face – but she had never seen that face – and Kulik’s showed they both knew it. Kulik had Dann’s hand, with the snake knife in it, held up well over both their heads, and his other hand was pushing Dann away from him, while Dann was gripping that hand at the wrist, and had his nails deep in the flesh – Kulik’s face was tortured with the pain of it. Their breathing laboured and groaned. And then Kulik tore his wrist free of Dann’s grasp – Mara saw the blood from Dann’s nails running down – and there was a knife in his hand. Mara shouted, ‘Kulik,’ and he let go Dann’s hand that held the snake, and had turned to run, because he had seen her there, with her knife, not more than half a dozen paces away. Two of them against one, and it was clear he knew now that the little snake gleaming silvery in the moonlight was a deadly thing, because he kept his eyes on it, as the main enemy. That face! That scarred face! The bared teeth! The cold, ugly eyes! – Mara was so full of hatred that she could have rushed at him with bare hands, but she threw her knife, aiming at his neck. It struck his shoulder and fell clattering. Kulik came straight at Mara, who was now defenceless. She could see that he was as full of murder as she was. Kulik was within striking distance – all this was taking seconds, the time of a breath. The blood was pouring off his shoulder, and from a wrist. He had his knife in his right hand. Dann leaped to intervene, and was between Mara and Kulik; and now the little snake flashed, just as the mist swirled up, half hiding Kulik, who went stumbling off down into the thick mist.

  ‘I felt it touch,’ said Dann.

  ‘Him, or his clothes?’

  ‘Flesh – I think.’

  ‘Then we’d better move fast,?
?? said Mara.

  They woke Leta, gathered their belongings, and left the hut. It was by then well after midnight. Soon they left the brilliance of the sky and moon and snow behind, and were descending in thick mist, watching their feet on the path, afraid of falling, of losing the path, and perhaps of stumbling over Kulik’s body.

  By the time they reached the bottom of the mountain the mist had gone and the sun was rising. At the inn they knocked at the back door and handed back their thick capes. The innkeeper said they were honest people but he expected no less of Daulis’s friends. Then he said he thought he had seen someone going up the mountain early in the night, but the mist was thick. Dann and Mara conferred, with their eyes, and then Dann told what had happened. He said the poisoned knife had only just touched flesh, but probably that was enough to kill. ‘And,’ he added, ‘I hope he dies. If you think that I have no pity for him – no, I haven’t. It’s not a runaway slave he’s after, but a runaway general, and if he did manage to get me into Bilma it would be the end of me, and of my sister too.’

  The innkeeper stood silent. He did not like what he heard, that was clear. Then he said, ‘If anyone asks, then I won’t know about any fight. And if he turns up here asking for help I’ll turn him away.’

  ‘There’s probably a dead man on the mountain,’ said Mara.

  ‘If so the snow eagles will dispose of him. And dry bones don’t tell any tales.’

  Off they went on the road west, and before long they saw Daulis coming towards them. Leta stood waiting, and her face was such that Mara and Dann reached for each other’s hands, but what their eyes told each other made them look away quickly and back to Leta, who was in Daulis’s arms.

  The four walked briskly on, leaving the low, wet lands behind, because the road was climbing into hills and fresh airs and breezes. That night they slept, all together, in a room in a house where Daulis knew the people; and before they dropped off, Daulis said this was the last time they would share a room together, because next day they would arrive at – but they must wait and see.

  In the middle of the next day they stopped as they reached the top of a hill, stunned, silenced. In front lay a vast blue, which went on and on until it met the paler blue of the sky. This blue was flecked with little, white, moving crests. On their faces was a salty wind, and salt was on their lips.

  Daulis stood by, smiling with pleasure, and watching how Leta and Dann and Mara stared and looked at each other to share their astonishment, and stared again, until he said, ‘You’ll be seeing the Western Sea every day of your lives now.’

  They went on, with the sea at their right, for they had turned south to climb a long rise towards a large, low spreading house, of red brick, with verandahs and pillars. Two dogs came down to greet Daulis – big beasts, friendly, licking the hands of three newcomers as if to say there was no need to be afraid of them.

  Friendly, handsome, well fed dogs: this was a new thing for them all, and told them that times of famine or even hardship were behind them.

  And now it could be seen that on the verandah of the house were two people, and Dann ran forward shouting, ‘Kira!’ and he bounded up white steps and stopped, staring, at the fresh, pretty woman, who was smiling at him from where she reclined in a chair.

  Mara heard her say, ‘Well, Dann, you’ve taken your time,’ and then he was kneeling beside Kira and kissing her hands and then her cheeks, and then they were in an embrace.

  Mara was looking beyond the two at a tall figure, a man, thinking, But I know him; and saw it was Shabis. She had never seen him out of his soldier’s garb before. He stood leaning forward a little, smiling at her and, it seemed, waiting. She took some steps towards him, and stopped. Her heart was thudding and she was afraid her breathing would stop. He came forward, took her hands and kissed them, and said in a low voice, so only she could hear, ‘This time, Mara, are you going to promise to notice that I love you?’ She had to laugh, and then…But he did not kiss her, only held her and said, ‘Mara, I’ve thought of you every minute of the day and night.’

  A likely story, thought Mara wildly, summoning commonsense to her aid; but then she was in his embrace, knowing that these were arms she had dreamed of, or perhaps remembered, and that, as she stood there, her face against his shoulder, his face on her hair, she was at home.

  Kira said, ‘So here we all are at last. We are a family. We are a Kin. Just like Chelops.’

  ‘You are forgetting me,’ said Leta, and Daulis said, ‘No, Leta, we could never do that.’

  Kira said, ‘Aren’t you going to introduce Leta and me?’ And held out her hand. Leta took it. They all looked at the two hands, the brown one, covered with what seemed like a hundred rings, and the other pale one, roughened, reddened, grubby.

  ‘Are we two going to get on, do you think, Leta?’ said Kira.

  ‘Why shouldn’t we?’

  Kira said laughing, ‘I’m easy to get on with provided I always get my own way.’

  At this Dann said, ‘I’m not going to let you be a bully again, Kira, and don’t you think it.’

  Kira, seeing they were surprised at this brisk marital tone so soon after they had met again, said ‘Oh Dann is such a boy. You’re such a boy, Dann.’ Then, as Dann turned away, frowning, she said quickly, ‘Dann, you know me, come here.’ He did, but sat down only close enough for her to put out her hand to touch his arm. ‘Dann,’ she coaxed. Slowly he softened, and smiled, and they could see how hopelessly he was fascinated by her.

  Soon they were sitting around a big table in a room where windows overlooked the Western Sea, where the sounds of the sea accompanied their talk, and from where they could see a little spring that became a stream and rushed and bounded down the hill past the house, widening into pools, narrowing again, finally bursting down a low cliff into the sea: water into water.

  On the table was not much more than bread, vegetables and cheese.

  This was their situation. The house was large, and in good repair – the recently dead uncle had kept it so. Squatters had moved in, but left amicably when Shabis arrived. There was enough food in the storerooms to keep them going till the harvest. There would be a time, not of hardship, but of being careful, till the farm could be brought back to what it had been. The fields grew maize and corn, barley and cotton, sunflowers, melons and squashes; grew, too, grapes; and there was a grove of ancient olive trees that supplied the oil that stood in a big jar on the table. There were goats, the minikin relatives of the enormous milk beasts of the south. Soon they would have fowls, for eggs and for the table, and when there was enough money, would buy a couple of horses.

  Now there was a general accounting.

  Mara slid her hand under her gown and brought out the cord that had on it one gold coin, which she laid on the table. Dann set out his five gold pieces. Leta fetched her bag of coins from her sack, and said, ‘My quittance money.’ Shabis said that he had arrived with very little, and laid out a handful of small money. Daulis said that his contribution was the farm. And now they looked at Kira, with her heavy gold earrings, bracelets, rings. She was about to take off her bracelets, but Shabis said, ‘Keep them, we’ll know where to come when we are short.’

  Kira smiled, her lids lowered.

  And now, the weapons.

  Dann showed his knife, and Daulis produced a knife and a dagger. Shabis had his General’s sword and small gun, which he said did not work but frightened people. Leta had a knife. Kira shrugged and said she relied on other people to defend her. Mara showed her knife and slid the poisoned serpent from her upper arm, and it lay glittering on the table as if it wanted to be admired for its workmanship.

  Then she said, most passionately, ‘I shall never wear that again. I never want to see knives and daggers and weapons again.’

  ‘My dear Mara,’ said Shabis, ‘what sort of time do you think you are living in?’

  She slid back the snake.

  ‘So what dangers may we expect now?’ asked Dann.

  ‘At the m
oment, probably nothing much. But as the Centre weakens and dies, the authority of the Tundra government will weaken too. Already we see lawlessness in places where people have learned that the Centre is – what it is.’

  Now Daulis showed them a big room full of weapons of all kinds – not merely knives and daggers, but swords and lances, and the bows and arrows that had intrigued Dann, axes, and many different kinds of guns, which Mara recognised from the Centre.

  ‘All stolen from the Centre,’ said Daulis. ‘In the last hundred years or so the things pilfered from the Centre have found their way all over Ifrik.’

  Dann said, ‘Pilfer is a funny little word for stealing sky skimmers and road hoppers and guns and sun traps!’

  Mara said that what she wanted from the Centre was to go there, spend time there, and learn.

  Shabis said, ‘But Mara, you have farming skills and they are needed here.’

  ‘And besides,’ said Daulis, ‘you two had better keep your distance from the Centre, at least for a time.’

  ‘But every day it crumbles a little more, it is disappearing. As soon as I can I’m going there. I am. I must.’

  ‘Meanwhile we must all know how to use at least some of these weapons. There are always madmen and thieves and people who enjoy killing to be reckoned with.’

  Mara looked at Dann. He was looking at her. Both were thinking, they knew, of Kulik, who might not be dead. And Mara was thinking that now, just as often before, vague and possible dangers were taking a definite shape – Kulik, who was going to haunt them both – because of their uncertainty. Into her mind’s eye came a picture: a skull among the boulders on the mountain, rocking or tumbling as the winds blew or as crows trod the bones looking to see if they had missed something; the skull turned its face to her and she saw the terrible teeth-bared grin that had been in her childhood nightmares.

  She said, ‘Do you think we should have some kind of guard?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Dann. ‘I’d feel easier.’