Squatting on Tom Dando’s bunk, with his arms round his knees, was the woebegone figure of Abipaal. His face brightened, through the whiskers, at sight of Arabis.

  “Told him you were Tom’s daughter, I did,” Brother Ianto explained.

  Seeing Arabis unsling the crwth from her back, Abipaal brightened still more. He seemed astonished to be given a bowl of porridge—but ate it with a good deal of enjoyment; the moment it was finished, however, he made his way to the crwth and began plucking at it experimentally; then he brought it to Arabis with such a beseeching expression that even in her sorrow she could not help smiling. She played him two or three tunes and a look of such ineffable satisfaction spread over his face that Brother Ianto said,

  “Lodger for life you have, I am thinking. I do not believe he will go back to Rum with the others.”

  “Why should he, if he does not want to go?” said Arabis. “Welcome he is to stay here.”

  One or twice Abipaal looked hopefully at the Harp of Teirtu, which he had with him in Tom Dando’s bunk. But Arabis shook her head.

  “Learn to play it one day I will,” she told him. “But too soon it is now, see?” And he seemed to understand.

  Then Arabis, looking past him, discovered something missing.

  “Dada’s poem!” she cried anxiously.

  “Not to worry, is it,” Brother Ianto said. “His highness have borrowed it. He is going to have it published up fine, all in white, with gold endpapers. Now I will say good night to you; off to Pennygaff I am going in the morning with Hwfa, Luggins, Mog and Dove; fixed up with them to come and help me build up that old monastery again, I have. But I will see you both soon, I am thinking.”

  A few minutes after Brother Ianto’s departure the Seljuk came to call.

  “Ahem!” he said politely. “Should you care for it, my esteemed young lady, damsel, miss, I shall be only too delighted to take you back with me to Rum and give you an honourable establishment there, in requital for the signal services you have rendered my little tribesmen.”

  “I do thank your worship,” Arabis replied, “most grateful I am for your offer and I will be glad to visit you one day, but I am not wishful to leave Wales at present.”

  And she made the same answer to Prince David when a little later he limped across from the inn and cordially invited her to come and live with him in Windsor Castle, where the Princess of Wales would look after her with every care. But she gratefully accepted his offer to have the “The King at Caerleon” published at his own expense.

  After he had left, Mr. Hughes knocked on the wagon door and stumped in. He looked somewhat ill-at-ease, and his embarrassment was not lessened by finding Owen there, with Hawc sitting on his head, and Abipaal, happily picking out simple tunes on the crwth.

  However Mr. Hughes was not the man to shirk an unpleasant duty.

  “Come to apologize, my dear,” he said gruffly. “Realize now I did you and your good father an injustice when you called at the museum—specially since it turns out the con-foun—blessed harp belonged to you all the time. Harrumph! Heartily sorry for what I said. And”—he boggled a bit but finally brought it out—“same goes for you, too, Owen my boy. Misjudged you. Realize now you acted with great sense and spirit. His highness has said some very pleasant things about you. He is going to send out an expeditionary force to look for your father. What do you think of that, eh?”

  Owen’s face lit up. But his joy was too deep for speech.

  “Hope you’ll come back and live with me at the museum,” Mr. Hughes went on awkwardly.

  “At the museum?” Owen was surprised. “But, Granda, I thought you resigned?”

  “Had a message from the Pennygaff Council today asking if I’d go back.” Mr. Hughes sniffed. “Can’t find anyone else to accept their ten shillings a year, I daresay. But what about it? And you too, Arabis, my dear? Do us good to have you with us, wouldn’t it, Owen—brighten the dusty old place up a bit.”

  His expression was so anxious and pleading that Arabis said warmly, “Indeed, there is kind you are, Mr. Hughes, bach, and I would like nothing better! Then I can be going to school and getting a bit of learning. But in the summertime, mind you, I must be going back on the road, or I will be forgetting where the healing herbs grow, and old Galahad out there will be growing stiff in the joints with him.”

  “And I’ll come with you,” Owen said.

  “And you won’t mind little Abipaal?” Arabis mentioned. “Taken up lodging with me, he do seem to have.”

  “Oh, not a bit,” Mr. Hughes said. “I daresay he will be a famous help in the museum. Right, then, I am glad to have that settled and I will say good night.” Greatly relieved, he creaked away through the snow. Arabis smiled faintly, as she stood in the doorway looking after him. Owen came to join her.

  “You won’t mind living in Pennygaff?” he said anxiously.

  “No, I shall be liking it! And Brother Ianto will be there—the Seljuk have given him a great sum of money to rebuild his monastery.”

  The blizzard had blown itself out. Overhead, a clear moon rode among stars; downhill the roofs of Nant Agerddau gleamed silver, and beyond lay the Fforest Mwyaf like a wide white counterpane. From inside the wagon came a musical plunk, as Abipaal tightened a string and tried it.

  They stood silent, listening. And heard above them the gentle sighing murmur of the Whispering Mountain, the voice of Fig-hat Ben talking in his sleep.

  Then Fig-hat Ben shall wear a shroud,

  Then shall the despoiler, that was so proud,

  Plunge headlong down from the Devil’s Leap;

  Then shall the Children from darkness creep,

  And the men of the glen avoid disaster,

  And the Harp of Teirtu find her master.

  Don’t get left behind!

  STARSCAPE

  Let the journey begin …

  From the Two Rivers

  The Eye of the World: Part One

  by Robert Jordan

  Ender’s Game

  by Orson Scott Card

  Briar Rose

  by Jane Yolen

  Mairelon the Magician

  by Patricia C. Wrede

  To the Blight

  The Eye of the World: Part Two

  by Robert Jordan

  Jumper

  by Steven Gould

  The Cockatrice Boys

  by Joan Aiken

  Dogland

  by Will Shetterly

  Ender’s Shadow

  by Orson Scott Card

  Orvis

  by H. M. Hoover

  The Garden Behind the Moon

  by Howard Pyle

  The Dark Side of Nowhere

  by Neal Shusterman

  Sister Light, Sister Dark

  by Jane Yolen

  Prince Ombra

  by Roderick MacLeish

  White Jenna

  by Jane Yolen

  Wildside

  by Steven Gould

  The One-Armed Queen

  by Jane Yolen

  Jumping Off the Planet

  by David Gerrold

  The College of Magics

  by Caroline Stevermer

  Deep Secret

  by Diana Wynne Jones

  City of Darkness

  by Ben Bova

  The Magician’s Ward

  by Patricia C. Wrede

  Another Heaven, Another Earth

  by H. M. Hoover

  Glossary of Welsh Words

  achos dybryd foul crime

  ach y fi denotes courage

  adwr coward

  adynod wretches

  agerdd steam, vapour

  amgueddfa museum

  arabus witty

  bach little (feminine: fach)

  bachgend da good boy

  bara brith currant bread

  barbwr barber

  bendith en mamau fairies

  blaidd wolf (plural: bleiddiau)

  caer, castell castle

  cariad love
, sweetheart

  ceffyl horse

  ceidwad custodian

  crwth instrument like a violin

  crwydrad vagabond (plural: crwydriadau)

  cwm valley

  cwpwrdd cupboard

  da chwi I pray you

  da iawn well done

  derdri the deuce

  Dewi Sant Saint David

  diafol, diawl the devil

  diod hudolus magic potion

  does dim dwywaith there’s no doubt

  driag dragon

  drwg wicked

  duw lord (exclamation)

  dyn man

  ellyll ghost

  eryr eagle

  ffiloreg fiddlededee, nonsense

  ffloring florin

  fforest forest

  gafr goat

  gini guinea

  gorynnog pimply

  gwalch falcon

  Gwalchafed Galahad

  gr man

  gr drwg devil

  hai how alas

  haihwchw hullo

  hatling mite, half a farthing

  hebog hawk, falcon

  herwhaliwr wretch

  hwch, hwch denotes surprise or dismay

  hwhw noise made by owl

  hwt get along with you

  Ilysiau cwsg poppy

  llysiau dryw agrimony

  lobscows stew

  marchalan elecampane

  marchruddygl horseradish

  moddion medicine

  mynydd mountain: y mynydd sibrwd the whispering mountain

  nant brook, glen

  Nefoedd Fawr great heavens

  os gwelwch yn dda if you please

  osey cider

  pa herwydd why?

  perfagl perwinkle

  persli parsley

  perwraidd liquorice

  perwy perry

  picws crumbled oatcake in warm buttermilk

  prydydd poet

  rheibiwr pillager, enchanter

  rhywbard rhubarb

  suran sorrel

  synamon cinnamon

  telyn harp

  Tylwyth Teg fair people, fairies

  twrch boar

  uchelwydd mistletoe

  wbwb alas

  wchw denotes distress

  wynwyn onions

  wystrys oysters

  y bwci-bo the devil

  y mae ofn arnaf i I am afraid

  ystraffaldiach wretch

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  THE WHISPERING MOUNTAIN

  Copyright © 1968, 1996 by Joan Aiken

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

  A Starscape Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

  175 Fifth Avenue

  New York, NY 10010

  www.starscapebooks.com

  eISBN 9781466820593

  First eBook Edition : May 2012

  First Starscape edition: May 2002

 


 

  Joan Aiken, The Whispering Mountain

 


 

 
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