The Mammoth Book of Historical Crime Fiction (25 page)

“Where we were, they’d have had me down a mine at the first opportunity – Orchil insisted on taking me away at the first mention of it; I prefer sunshine – so did she. But I can remember the amazing things they used to do and my uncles explained to me how they could be done. Maybe we should give it a go.”

“
We
? What have
I
got to do with it? Surely it’s meant to be your stone to prove your stupid manhood or something.”

“Look, it took the three of them ages, they were sweating away all night to shift it by brute force. Wouldn’t a couple of kids managing to do it – using my brain and organizational skills – prove my manhood?”

“Prove your bloody-mindedness possibly – I don’t know; it isn’t exactly my problem.”

“Well, I’d like to give it a try.”

Fearn demonstrated the method of using a lever, supported by a second stone, to prize up a smallish boulder. Though Niav had used slats of wood to loosen the odd flagstone in her time, she had never realized about using the smaller stone to help. She was impressed to discover quite how large a rock it was possible for two youngsters to move on their own with a proper-sized lever. However, in the end they called in the aid of Kyle, Estra and Canya who turned up unexpectedly.

All five of them were flung, laughing, on their backs as the mighty block was finally shifted to one side to reveal an intriguing cavity, lined with what looked like river-pebbles packed round a long, well-preserved leather sack.

Fearn knelt down and pulled it out.

With a muffled clang of metal on the stones, Fearn dragged it over to the others and squatted down to loosen the draw string and peel the bag open.

There was a long soft leather case, with a strap almost like a quiver for arrows, and about the same size, but heavy – a solid strip of metal. A bone handle protruded from the top, wound round with a tight string of what might be human hair – raven black, with gold plaited in. Gently, Fearn slid it out of the casing. It was coated with grease and came out easily.

“That’s got to be the biggest knife I have ever seen!”

“But it’s not flint …”

“No, it’s
bronze
!” breathed Fearn incredulously.

It was the biggest blade of bronze any of them had ever encountered, slender as the finest arrowhead or dagger, but longer than any piece of flint that they could imagine in their wildest dreams. It was ridged down the centre, widening where it plunged into the bone handle. The blade shone, softly golden in the bright sunlight.

Gingerly, Fearn touched the leading edge with the tip of his finger.

“Youch, that’s sharp.”

“You could whistle through a patch of reeds with that one!”

“Reeds, my eye – that’s for killing people!” observed Kyle with relish.

***

Fearn, Niav and Canya were busy displaying the new discovery to Aunty Grizzel in the sunshine outside the weaving-hut. She was looking down the blade with obvious admiration – after Fearn had demonstrated what damage he could do to a discarded mat – when Kyle, Estra and a sweating Uncle Lurgan came puffing up the path.

“What in the world are you thinking of – letting him loose with that
thing,
Grizzel!” he remonstrated. “Surely you don’t imagine that his father will have intended him to retrieve it in such a haphazard, unorganized way. It’s for a man to win in manly ceremony – not for children to play with. If I had known of its existence – and I cannot imagine why I was not informed of its potential discovery by one of his uncles; at least, if Artin understandably would not yet be expecting the time to be ripe – I would have put Fearn into training, composed a suitable ritual … Really, it’s unforgivable!”

With quite astonishing speed, Lurgan had retrieved the scabbard from its resting place across a wool basket, plucked the dagger from Grizzell’s unsuspecting grasp, and belted off back down the path to the river.

To Niav’s surprise, it was Kyle who dashed fiercely after him, followed by Fearn, and they attempted a tackle half way down the steep road. Lurgan broke free from them with unexpected speed and skill and Fearn fell heavily on his back. Kyle made a grab at Lurgan’s kilt and almost had him down, but only got smacked severely in the lip for his pains. Lurgan was away in the coracle as fast as lightning.

The three girls came tearing down the hill to find the two bewildered boys stranded on the bank.

Kyle was not allowed to cross the river the next day and Estra and Canya ruefully told Niav and Fearn that their parents had had the bronze blade securely hidden away by the time they reached home.

The five children – who so nearly bordered on not being children – were completely bereft. Aunty Grizzel was quietly furious. For once, Niav and Canya agreed with Estra in hoping that Aunty Grizzel would have decided to pour a few appropriate libations to deities who might take an active interest.

***

It was a pivotal moment, the point at which childhood dreams came to an end. In respect of Estra and Canya, in particular, Helygen decided it was time for them to concentrate on adult occupations – they must knuckle down and think of the future. Kyle and Fearn were kept apart for almost a week.

Estra, like Niav, was perfectly content, in fact most enthusiastic, to take up an adult role in helping with the family’s responsibilities for care and healing, but they both had trouble with trying to pretend that any of the local male talent raised the faintest flutter in their breasts. One would not have known what Canya felt about any of her young admirers; she was incapable of being unkind to anyone, so never voiced her feelings to anyone on the subject.

Kyle and Fearn were a different matter. Niav felt that Fearn was quietly seething – she did not know when he would break out, but she knew it would be well-planned when he did. In due course, Fearn built his own, small hut, further up the ridge, but still had a way of turning up at meal times, or bringing his washing along to be dealt with alongside theirs. However, his bed – on the right-hand side of the fire – that had been Diarma’s before him, remained empty.

Kyle was a mystery. He stayed at home, but he seemed bewildered that he had attacked his father. He didn’t come over to the west bank so often. Maybe he had never expected Lurgan to take the action he did. Maybe he feared that Fearn might feel betrayed by him and take appropriate vengeance – in other words, maybe he remained the suspicious, if slightly larger, stoat that he always had been.

***

No one could have suggested that, down by the river, there was any lack of opportunity within the seasons of the year for young persons to show their interest in members of the opposite sex.

Winter and summer, there was a whole succession of ceremonies to celebrate life, death, and, with special reference to the young, fertility. Even in the heart of winter, two hazelnuts, representing a would-be pairing, could be placed side by side in the embers. If they burned together slowly, it was said to bode well, but if one was seen to pop away across the ashes from the other – things were not held to be so good, and much laughter would result. Niav never had a nut which would stand still, while a Canya nut would smoulder away next to any suggested candidate. Niav never heard of anyone placing an Estra nut in the embers at all – maybe they would have been too nervous.

As spring arrived and the catkins on Fearn’s alder tree sprang into life, the boys and girls put strips of bark with their own signs on into adjoining bags. All the girls dreamed of drawing Fearn, all the boys dreamed of drawing Canya. No one ever gained any sign that they were likely to get satisfaction.

Eventually, even Niav had to acknowledge the fact that she had followers. She found it difficult to separate the image of these young suitors from the little boys that she used to watch silhouetted against the sunset as they dived off the flat rock by the traders’ landing point. She agreed to be courted by the least offensive of her suitors, but was very unsure about it. She had sincerely never realized that she was so sought-after. Aunt Grizzel started piling things up as bride-gifts.

***

So, one fragrant bee-hummingly radiant afternoon while Aunt Grizzel was busy, dealing with a difficult birth along in the settlement, Fearn came to find Niav in the weaving-hut.

“Are you going to get betrothed?” he asked.

“I expect so; don’t you like him?” said Niav.

“No, he’s fine. It’s just that I think I should be going to find my father. But I would like to know that you are settled before I do.”

“How could you find him? He could be anywhere.”

“Oh no! I know where we came from. I don’t forget things.”

“But you came in a boat. You don’t have a boat. Are you going to build one?”

“No, I don’t need to. Mother came from a headland in the west. It’s called ‘The Place of the Great Worm’ – all the smiths get their copper there. I will just wait for him to arrive. Anyone could go there on foot if they wanted to, but ore and suchlike are heavy stuff, so metalworkers go by boat – you must have realized that. I only need to follow the setting sun; it’s perfectly simple.”

“You are going – just like that?” Niav stared at him wide-eyed.

“Well, I came to say goodbye. It’s more than he did.”

“But we always expected him to come back.”

“Did you now?” said Fearn. “How little you knew him.”

“You were only a toddler – how could you have appreciated subtle nuances like that?”

“But I was not stupid. Small children are not always stupid. Besides I get much more information out of my uncles than they think I do. Or maybe they are just testing me to sort out how much I can work out for myself. Anyway, I aim to leave tomorrow.”

“What about your blade?”

“Oh, I plan to be getting my blade.”

Niav could just imagine the scene – oh to be an insect on the Lurgan family wall! “And what about Canya?”

“What about Canya? She could have anyone she wants, why would she want me? Besides, Estra would take it very badly. You know as well as I do that that’s who Lurgan proposes to pair me off with. I do not propose to come in the way of anything that Estra feels she is entitled to – it could ruin your life. Best to be elsewhere, I feel.”

“How perceptive of you. Well if you are so sure, what can I say?” Then she paused for a moment – if she didn’t ask him now she never would.” I need to know something about Artin that you might be able to help me with.”

Fearn raised a perfect eyebrow.

“It’s about the death of my parents. You seem to be able to remember a whole lot more than a toddler might be expected to, so it’s worth a try. I am told it was a good three years after my parents were drowned that your father reappeared like magic and people started to suspect he could be a demi-god. He never seems to have told anyone how he got away, or, if he did, there is some reason why no one one will tell me. Did you ever hear him talk of an escape, or maybe he said someone tried to kill him …?”

Fearn pondered for a minute. “Maybe – but I don’t remember details. Someone did try to kill him – but he went back and faced them out. In other words, yes, but I don’t know if it was here. He can make himself unpopular all over the place I am told.”

“Surely he wouldn’t have brought both of you back here if it was dangerous?”

“My mother is dead, my father is gone – end of story!”

Niav was stunned – all these years and he could have been harbouring doubts and terrors just the same as hers. “We are probably both being as daft as Estra,” she said, almost crying. “So that is that then. Is there anything I can give you to remember me by? I take it you won’t be back either.” Niav felt blank inside.

Fearn smiled, a smile like dark sunlight, and for her alone. “Now just imagine me,” he said. “With my hair the colour of honey, and, if you wish it, a crippled leg – though, as Aunty Grizzel pointed out, that wouldn’t notice if we were lying down. Or maybe think of me as him, reflected deep in jet – just to say goodbye to him, you understand – because, quite honestly, I don’t think he is going to come back this way, and I would like you to be happy for once, if only at second best.”

***

When Aunty Grizzel found them hard at work in her bed, she laughed till she wept. “Children, children, I do hope I am interrupting you before a truly delicate moment. Oh, but if you could see yourselves!” she cried. “A beast with two backs – and four wings! Really Niav, didn’t you think – couldn’t you guess? I hope nothing irretrievable has happened yet?”

“When would I get to see my back? Why did you never tell me?” screamed Niav in unbelieving shock.

“I’m going tomorrow,” laughed Fearn, who undoubtedly had been aware of the hidden interest of Niav’s back. “I don’t suppose there is anything that I can do for you, too, before I go?” He paused as he did up his belt.

“Arrogant bastard, like father like son!” yelled Grizzel. “We didn’t want my poor brother to know. So many years of marriage and no child – what else was your poor mother expected to do, Niav? Taunts of infertility get anyone down – men and women alike – and particularly when you are meant to be a healer.”

“Exactly – I’m sure that my father was merely trying to repay the hospitality that he had received – I’m told that it’s his way,” countered Fearn, still laughing as he laced up his right moccasin.

“Viper!” retorted Aunty Grizzel, flinging the nearest thing to hand – a wooden milk dipper, which Fearn avoided with a backward leap that took him smacking into the dresser and nearly dislodging Aunty Grizzel’s heavy scrying bowl. The drum and rattle bounced noisily across the earthen floor.

“Well, Niav,” Grizzel sighed, suddenly looking her age, “When I delivered you and saw that birthmark, your mother and I thanked our stars for you being a girl. For the normal reasons of decency, it would probably remain well hid, if we could only steer you past the baby stage. I know your mother had reassured Artin as much. I don’t know which one of them had had the bright idea in the first place – mutual lust is my suspicion, but then I’m over-suspicious by nature.

“Anyway, between us we were coping very well till one morning my brother Diarma popped his head into the hut just as we were bathing you. We didn’t think that he had noticed anything.