Bradley, Marion Zimmer - Novel 19 (17 page)

 
          
Miranda
widened her eyes, saying innocently, "Didn't you give it to me,
Mother?"

 
          
"You
know perfectly well I did not, child, I have never seen it before."

 
          
"I
think it must have been a gift from one of my kin-mothers," Miranda said,
quickly slipping the chain inside the neck of her frock, "but I have
forgotten which one, I think I have had it a long time. Are you growing
forgetful, Mother?"

 
          
"Don't
be impudent, child," Vaniya reproved, but she smiled. "If it was a
sea-gift you could have said so, Miranda, we are all grown women here! A man, of
course, would not have known its value." She slipped her hand through her
daughter's arm, as they turned to go. "Hold firmly to my arm, the stairs
are
slippery here, and I would not like to see my
granddaughter endangered by carelessness. You should not have come up here now,
dearest."

 
          
"1
wanted to show Cendri the boats—"

 
          
"Yes,
it was a kind thought, but still—to endanger
yourself
so," Vaniya fretted.

 
          
Cendri
heard a gentle voice at her elbow. "May I offer my arm to the Scholar
Dame? It is indeed slippery here; and while it is right and natural that the
Pro-Matriarch should offer her support to the one who bears her heir, I am sure
that she would be most unwilling to see the distinguished guest suffer a
fall."

 
          
Cendri
took his arm, without hesitation; Rhu, from everything she had seen, was the
soul of propriety, and would never make such an offer if it was nat suitable.
She took his arm, steadying herself against the slipperiness of the seaweed
under foot. "The sea-view is beautiful; I am grateful to Miranda for
bringing me here, even if it was unwise to risk
herself
on the steps."

 
          
"The
Lady Miranda is always most kind," Rhu murmured, and looked away.
Suddenly, with sharp perceptions, Cendri remembered the morning, and the
sunrise on Miranda's face as she talked to Rhu, and thought; he loves her.

 
          
And
yet,
on a world where
love
is not much regarded as part of the
social structure, it must be
difficult to love
.
.
.On Cendri's world, and on many
of the worlds of the Unity, love between man and woman served a useful social
bond, social cohesion, establishing mating bonds and making social arrangements
for the care and nurture of children. Serving this purpose, love was respected
and admired, and on many worlds indissolubly bound up with sexuality. But here,
where social bonds and sexuality seemed not to be allied, could love, as such,
exist at all? Even in the Unity, there were some who considered romantic love a
myth...

 
          
"The
Scholar Dame is silent," Rhu ventured, "I had hoped your Companion
would accompany you; I feel remiss, that I have not sufficiently bestirred
myself to entertain him. Perhaps I could arrange a hunt, or some form of
expedition to divert him..." he broke off, turning his head toward the
sea.

 
          
"The tide!"
He leaned forward, touched Vaniya's
shoulder, and said, urgently, "Look at the tide!"

 
          
"What's
this? What's this?" demanded Vaniya, turning around in irritation at his
unaccustomed urgency; then she saw what he had seen, and gasped, "Goddess
protect us all!"

 
          
The
tide had gone far out—far, far out, sinking and sinking as if it were draining
into some bottomless pit over the horizon. Stranded fish were gasping and
dying, squirming ropy sea-things
laid
bare, and Cendri
could see, at the foot of the rocks near the grounded boats of the
pearl-divers, the long, ridgy rows of shelled creatures, thrusting up through
an inch or less of sea-water.

 
          
After
a moment of shock, Vaniya quickly mastered herself.

 
          
"Miranda,"
she ordered, "Get back up the beach—inside We-were-guided, if you must;
but go, go quickly!" She turned to Rhu and said, "Get her to safety,
at once!"

 
          
Miranda
pulled away from her mother's hand. She said, "Send your Companion to
safety if you must, Mother, but I have a responsibility—these are my people,
too!"

 
          
Vaniya
touched the younger woman's swollen body. She said, "Your responsibility,
Miranda, is to her!" She added quickly, to Cendri, "Go with them, at
once! There is great danger
here,
it is no place for
men or pregnant women! Within We-were-guided you will be on high ground."

 
          
Cendri
stared, confused.
"Danger?
In low tide—"

 
          
"It
is not only low tide," said Vaniya, breathless. "It is the tide-drop;
far out at sea the earth shakes, and before long a great wall of water will
smash the shore here! Go, quickly! See—" she pointed, "they have
seen, they are hurrying to the shore! I must stay here at least until I am sure
they are on their way to safety!"

 
          
Miranda
insisted "Mother, my place is at your side—"

 
          
Suddenly
Cendri knew what was happening. She had read it somewhere—that the extra-low
tide, sucking and draining back and back, was the warning—usually the only
warning,
and it was a matter of minutes—of the dreaded
tsunami or tidal wave! She looked uncertainly at Vaniya, understanding
Miranda's qualms; despite her strong presence, Vaniya was not young! Making up
her mind quickly, she took Vaniya's arm, saying urgently, "Take your child
to safety, Miranda! I will stay beside your mother and make sure she gets to
high ground before the water strikes!"

 
          
Miranda
smiled, gratefully; quickly pressed Cendri's hands and hurried away with Rhu.
Vaniya spared only seconds to follow them with her eyes; Miranda leaning
heavily on Rhu's arm as he guided her across the slippery beach and up toward
the hillside at the top of which lay the ruins of We-were-guided. She turned
back to Cendri, accepting her presence without question, and Cendri thought,
yes, of course; I am a young, able-bodied, unencumbered woman; my place, on
this world, is at the center of any danger! She felt frightened, but determined
to remain and prove herself worthy of being a woman in this culture.

 
          
"What
can I do, Vaniya?"

 
          
Vaniya
pointed to a tower built above the cliffs. "Your legs are younger and
faster than mine; run, Cendri, and make sure they have seen—find out why they
have not rung the alarm! Then come back and we will make sure that everyone
seeks higher ground—we will guide them up into the ruins, no wave has ever come
into We-were-guided!"

 
          
Cendri
ran down toward the tower; her feet slipped on seaweed and her thin sandals
were cut to ribbons by the sharp rocks; she ran on, limping and stumbling, and
knew her feet were bleeding. On the steps of the tower she hestitated, seeing
the door swinging open; was anyone inside at all? She could see the bell inside
the tower, but no one seemed near it.

 
          
"I
wonder what has happened to the watch?" said a worried voice behind her,
and Cendri turned to see a young woman with closecut curly red hair, in a dark
pajama suit. "If she
were
there and alive she
would have rung the bell already—come, quickly! If she is in no state to ring
it, we must somehow manage to do it ourselves..."

 
          
Together,
panting, they hurried up the twisting, worn stairs.
Of
course, a
watch-tower
would be the
first thing built in a village given to tidal waves
..
.this one must be
very
old... the woman at her
side thrust the door open, drew a harsh breath of consternation.

 
          
"Look,
it must have been the earthquake this morning, no one thought to come and make
sure she was not hurt..."

 
          
Cendri
felt her throat catch as the woman with red hair pointed. On the floor of the
small, bare room, a woman lay at the foot of an overturned shelf; her skull was
crushed by a heavy pot which had evidently fallen. Cendri saw in one glance
that she had been old, and skinny; blood matted her grey hair at the scalp,
blood spattered her shabby robe, but she must have died instantly. The
red-haired woman went to her side, but Cendri said urgently, "No! We can't
do anything for her! Where is the bell?"

 
          
The
red-haired woman, looking greenish sick, got shakily to her feet. "You are
right—but it goes hard—there, up those stairs—"

 
          
Trembling,
Cendri set her foot on the stairs. They, too, had been damaged by the
earthquake; some of the wooden struts were missing, and dreadful gaps showed
below, but they climbed, setting their feet carefully against the need for
haste, clinging to one another for balance on the rickety structure. They came
out into the open bell-tower, and Cendri saw the ropes dangling from above. She
grabbed them, yanked. She heard the cry of warning as the red-haired woman
grabbed her round the waist from behind, holding her firmly, even so,
the
recoil of the great bell-rope nearly knocked her off her
feet. Above her the great clanging of the brazen sound made her cry out, clap
her hands to her ears as the echoes reverberated, clanged, howled at her. They
swung the rope again, getting into the rhythm of the swing now, hearing the
bell ring wildly along the shore, raising echoes and starting sea-birds,
screaming, from the rocks.

 
          
The
red-haired woman pulled her hand off the rocks. "Now we must go—they have
heard," she said, and pointed below; Cendri, stunned and deafened by the
bell, could not hear, but she could see women and children running from the
houses in the village. She looked, aghast, at the boats marooned on the rocks,
the women stumbling hopelessly toward the shore.

 
          
"Can't
anything be done to save them—?"

 
          
"Maybe
some of them will get to shore," the woman said. "But we must go!
Quickly! The tower is high, but the structure has been damaged by the
earthquake, and if the wave strikes it, it may be washed away!
Hurry!"

 
          
Cendri
needed no urging. They hurried down the stairs, slipping on the damaged stairs,
emerging with claustrophobic thankfulness into the sunlight. Women and children
were hurrying toward higher ground, struggling up the slopes toward the black,
angular loom of the ruins. Cendri ran back toward Vaniya.

 
          
"Come,
you must go, Vaniya—"

 
          
"Why
had Grania not rung the watch-bell?"

 
          
"She
could not," said the red-haired woman, hurrying up beside Cendri.
"Respect, Mother and Priestess, you must come to safety too, your life is
not yours to risk, but belongs to your people! Look, everyone in the village
has come out to safety!"

 
          
Vaniya
let them guide her along, with a sorrowful look at the marooned boats.

 
          
"And
they had just repaired their nets and boats," she said, sadly. "There
will be hunger in the village this winter, and I fear all of
Isis
will suffer if the pearl-harvest cannot be
gathered!" She stood, her head turned to the women making for the shore,
and her lips moved as if she were praying; but when Cendri and the red-haired
woman urged her on, she went with them, stumbling.

 
          
It
is
too much
of a shock for a woman her age... Cendri thought. Yet she,
too, felt an overwhelming dread; would the pearl-divers, the crews of the
boats, make it to shore, or to high ground, before the wave struck the shore,
smashing through the houses and buildings and washing everything out to sea?

 
          
The
path upward toward the ruins was steep, but looked well-traveled, and Cendri
remembered the procession she had seen, her first night in the Pro-Matriarch's
residence, the torches winding along the shore like a garland of lights; they
must have come along this way...She was aware of pain in her bleeding feet, and
of Vaniya's faltering steps, leaning more and more heavily on her; yet at her
concerned question, the Pro-Matriarch said only, "I am very well; I only
wish I knew everyone in the village was as well as I, and as able to reach
safety..."