THE LETTERSEEKER

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

            Toward sunset the wind slackened and shifted back to the west. Dohan put his helm to starboard, the Rose jibed neatly, and Trask followed the maneuver. They worked steadily shoreward amid gentling rollers.

            The anchorage was very like the one they had left, but the headland was more crumbled. The west wind was inhibited by a long sandbar with a backbone of broken red boulders turning rapidly black in the shadow of the setting sun. Itu stirred at the splash of the anchors. He fluttered out of the forepeak and settled on Stoneglow's shoulder just as Lieth drew up in the coracle.

            Iti-shruu! he called out sleepily.

            Liesa laughed, but Stoneglow spoke in soft tones with his lips close to the yulet's ear.

            Then, as Liesa stepped lightly over the rail into the coracle and Lieth pushed off, the bird took flight. It circled the two boats once and disappeared north into the dusk.

            “He will spend the night ashore, hunting before the sun rises,” said Stoneglow to Trask. “I told him we have no rabbit stew tonight.”

            They ate dinner seated on the low benches of the Rose's ample cabin. The topic of conversation, of course, was the race. Trask boasted of his prowess at the helm, while Lieth claimed that the Pride's impressive performance was due to his superior design of the rigging. Dohan gave no judgement, saying only that the Pride was “no common boat.” Of his own part in the race Stoneglow Threescar said nothing. Only Liesa guessed that Stoneglow's trance had anything to do with the boat's speed. But she also was silent.

            Then Lieth announced that he would go ashore to set snares.

            “I will go with you, Lieth,” said Stoneglow. “I would like to see the shore, and I have never watched rabbit snares set before.”

            Lieth stared at Stoneglow in surprise.

            “Very well, lord,” he said after a moment. Then, with great seriousness, “You shall bring your sword, because occasionally there are dune-wolves. And you must stand away when I set each snare, so that the ground will not be too disturbed.”

            Dohan laughed.

            “Dune wolves! The last of the dune wolves was driven into the wasteland before you were born, Lieth. This is a barren strand. You'll be lucky to find a hare bigger than your thumb.”

            “Let me come, too, Lieth,” begged Liesa. Lieth refused, saying that two persons were already one too many, but he would take Lord Stoneglow on account of his never having seen hare traps set before.

            So the two of them went ashore, Lieth and Letterseeker. It was late, but still light enough to see into the shadowed crevices between the glowing ochre dunes. Lieth led the way inland until they were among low sandy hills with a heavy growth of scrub and grass upon them. At first Stoneglow watched him carefully. But as Lieth made him stand away, he finally began looking about him as the younger man worked. He was atop a high grassy rise. Beneath the grey western sky the silver-streaked horizon was just visible over the dark irregular curve of the bar, which, like an onyx coronet, formed the deep wick. Within that arc winked two eyes of burning topaz: the ships' lamps shining just beyond the teeth of the white surf-mew. From the latter came a steady muffled murmur as if some god of the landscape hummed there an evensong.

            A dark shape flew over. Was it a bat, or maybe the yulet? It uttered no cry.

            The salt air of this Broadland coast was sweet. Stoneglow drew it in gratefully, like a draught of spicy ale. He had been happy this day—with Liesa beside him, her face glowing, and Trask, and—the Pride!

            Strange, he thought, how one might find happiness in the bright foreground of time, even as the background swept along with its currents of loss, regret, and need unchanged by the eddies of the passing moment. But more than the momentary pleasure of a day had come to him as he was carried east upon the sea's green back. He had gained also an inner shore of self- knowing that yields a gentle power. And the heady airs of that hard-won strand intoxicated him as might a thimbleful of ambrosia.

            “Lord—”

            He glanced down. Lieth stood there, his blond head glowing in the twilight like a goldpiece at the bottom of an ancient chest. Lord. Odd it seemed to be called so by a towhead youth in the Broadland evening!

            “Yes, Lieth?”

            “I'm finished. We should return before the light fails.”

            “What, Lieth? And our not having seen a dune wolf?” joked the Threescar. Lieth smiled a little, and the two walked side by side back to the coracle where it had been drawn high on the sand.

            As they pushed off through the surf Stoneglow looked back into the northern gloom, wondering if he might glimpse the yulet again—if that had been the yulet. There was no sign of it, but as he scanned the heavens he caught sight of a red star twinkling low in the east.

            “Know you the stars, Lord Stoneglow?” asked Lieth as he rowed. “I see you gazing at them.”

            “I know many of their names,” Stoneglow replied, pleased that Lieth, ordinarily so reticent, was willing to carry on a bit of conversation. “And I know something of how to guide ships by them, given the proper aids. But you do not have such aids here, and the words I use for the stars are not the same, I think, as yours. That star I call Aldebaran.”

            “Aye, you are right, lord,” said Lieth. “Alde-Baran is not our name for it. It is Brrglesh, the sea-jewel that lies in the cask of Artil along with the Seven Diamonds. Strange it must be to come from so far away that the very stars are different.”

            Stoneglow smiled.

            “It is not the stars that are different, Lieth, but merely their names. And to tell the truth, I do not understand why. It seems to me that I have come far enough for the shapes of the stars to change indeed. Yet they are the same as those I learned as a child.”

            At this Lieth fell silent, not knowing whether to think the scarred stranger mad or a wizard. Then they came to the Pride. Stoneglow scrambled over the rail, taking care not to tip the little skiff.

            “Lord Stoneglow, I—” Lieth muttered, then stopped.

            “What is it, Lieth?” Stoneglow peered down at the youth's shadowed face.

            “—Nothing,” Lieth said after a moment, “save that I do hope we snare some meat ere dawn. Good-night.” He thrust the coracle away, gliding silently over the dark water toward the Rose.

* * *

            Preparing to sail again in the morning Stoneglow grew anxious about the yulet. But soon after Lieth brought Liesa back aboard the Pride the owl arrived, carrying a partially eaten rodent, which it finished devouring in bestial fashion upon the foredeck.

            Since there was almost no wind, Stoneglow and Trask left the sail furled and set the two long oars in place. Lieth and Dohan had gone ashore before the others woke, and contrary to Dohan's pessimistic prediction two large hares had been taken. These they dressed and hung to dry. Then they too set their oars.

            The Rose moved more slowly than the Pride under this mode of propulsion. Stoneglow and Trask rested their oars frequently while the others caught up. After about an hour they came to a zone of adequate airs. Liesa got Itu on her wrist then—he was dozing as he stood among the tiny bones of his kill—and put him in the cabin. Trask passed the contents of a water bucket over the deck, rinsing away the bird's breakfast scraps. Then the blue sails went up and both vessels ran east.

            The wind remained fair for the rest of the day, and they made good time, arriving at their destination a good hour earlier than Dohan had expected. The sun was poised above the western horizon as if reluctant to set when they entered a deep cove sheltering a small island. This was where Dohan meant to anchor for the night.

            The island was really the end of a landspit, but its connection with the shore was submerged at high tide. They moved into the lee and sent their anchors to a sandy bottom. Itu rode Stoneglow's shoulder to the Rose that night, sensing rabbit on the menu.

            At dinner Dohan announced that, given another wind as fair as this day's, they should make Esti Bay early the next afternoon. In the morning, as if to make his prediction good, he roused them all before the sun rose. They manned the oars and pulled out of the cove in the grey silent twilight. There was little wind, no mist, and a clear horizon.

            In about an hour they had pulled well offshore. The sun's disk was half-showing in the east when they began to hoist the sails. Then Liesa, who was seated on the foredeck of the Pride keeping lookout, saw the ships.

            “Black ships, Stoneglow! Look!”

            On the horizon to the southeast they counted thirteen, tall- masted, their hulls gleaming ebony in the rising sun's first rays, sails black as night. They were still a long way off but they were headed straight for the cove.

            “Behind us, too,” Lieth called out suddenly. He had glanced west, and there were five more ships, longer ones under oars and moving fast toward a rendezvous with the others.

            “No sails, no sails!” Dohan shouted in alarm. They hauled the half-raised canvas down again and began rowing frantically shoreward. Dohan led them east around the hook of the cove. They pressed along just outside the surf for about a mile until Dohan pointed shoreward. There was a break at a place where the woods came close to the sea. It was the mouth of a creek, deep enough for their hulls with leeboards raised.

            They rowed right in, finally leaping ashore and pulling the boats along until they had them safely hidden against an overgrown bank. The boats well secured, Stoneglow turned to Dohan.

            “What ships are they, Dohan? Did you recognize them?”

            “Aye, after a fashion,” said Dohan. “Black is the color of pirates in these waters. The ships of King Trren have blue sails like our own. They have kept peace here many years, catching and punishing pirates. Still there are robbers and smugglers who ply the sea.”

            “What about Cleva's warning? Do you think the ships are the ones she spoke of?”

            “That I know not. Any black ships are bad business, and there's been no fleet that size near Esti for a decade. Some sour stew is brewing, Lord Stoneglow. My guess is that the ships are coming to rendezvous in the cove. We're in luck. I doubt they spotted us against the land in the twilight. Another hour and we would have been in plain view with our sails calling them like a pair of signal flags.”

            “Then they may be a threat to Esti?” said Stoneglow.

            “Trren has twice that many ships, but those last five look mean and he should know about this. We're stuck here for now. When they enter the cove we may be able to slip away unnoticed. In the meantime, it's my thought we might climb the rise east of the cove and get a closer look.”

            Stoneglow agreed with this plan, so he, Dohan, and Liesa, leaving Lieth and Trask to watch the boats, slipped back quietly through wooded country and then out of the woods among rising sandhills to a ridge that overlooked the cove and the island.

            The sun was well up when the thirteen ships that had come out of the southeast were all anchored by the island. In another hour they were joined by the five from the west—eighteen vessels all told. The last arrivals were long warships with rams at the bows and weaponry upon the decks. One of these separated from the rest at the entrance to the cove and sailed on east, checking the coastline. It passed well off the creekmouth, however, without pausing.

            Dohan breathed a sigh of relief.

            “They've not seen us, then.”

            They watched until the ship turned and was nearly back to the cove. Then they retraced their steps to the Rose and the Pride, unshipped the oars, and rowed as fast as they could out of the creek. Dohan wanted to get well away before the pirates posted lookouts of their own on the hilltops. As soon as they found wind they raised their sails and sped east again.

            No black ships came in pursuit, and as the sun grew hot and the day wore on their excitement returned. Dohan assured them they would be moored safely in Esti Bay by evening. They would have felt far less at ease had they known that they had not escaped discovery. When the black ships anchored, their leader posted lookouts as Dohan had expected. One of these men reached the sandy ridge above the cove in time to see the two small craft, blue sails spread, racing east. This news he rushed to his captain. With a fell glance the captain received that report; but he grinned through his yellow teeth and ordered no chase. To him, but not to his men, this was not entirely unexpected.

            He retired then for a while to his cabin, where he communed in the way that he had learned with the dark mentor who now guided his actions.

* * *

            Swiftly now as they progressed the land grew higher until blue mountains fronted by steep hills crowded the shore. Then Dohan took out a small metal tube and put it to his eye like a telescope; but it had no lenses, acting only as an aid to sighting.

            At last a cleft opened, a narrow V between a near hill and the distant peak behind it. Dohan set his tiller over. The course became northeast. The big hill drew back like a massive green curtain pulled away from the mountain. It was the western outpost of a long bay cutting north into the land.

            “Look, look—fires!” Liesa pointed ahead.

            Inside the bay seven trails of smoke rose skyward along the eastern shore. Three of them came from a group of buildings close by the beach, an outflung settlement, and at the base of the smoke columns were tongues of flame. The rest of the smoke was from the city proper, a mile inside the bay where the hills tumbled down from the mountain to the shore.

            Esti.

            Thick clusters of blue-painted buildings that mounted the hillsides in a complex of rectangles—and of towers! For Esti was a city of towers, and the Letterseeker drew a sharp breath as he took in the beauty of the scene. The pall of smoke drifted before the buildings like a veil drawn over a painting in azure and aquamarine and turquoise. And one tower stood out above all, skyblue and gleaming in the westering sun with hints of glass or crystal, the highest tower in the city.

            North they turned now as they came more than half across the baymouth, bringing the fires broad on the starboard beam. Figures ran about the low structures in a frantic dance. Then one of the columns of smoke was quenched.

            Tension grew among them as they moved deeper into the protected firth. Dohan wore a sour expression but he did not waver from his course, keeping his hand firm upon the tiller and his eye sharp to the shore. Soon they passed the burned and smoking remains of first one ship, then another and another; hulks charred to the waterline, some still at their moorings, others drifting. Blackened debris floated about.

            Trask maneuvered the Pride suddenly to avoid a mast, sooty and broken, that drifted by dragging a tangle of canvas and rigging with it. Liesa gave a stifled cry, covering her mouth with her hand. She was staring into the water where the mast floated. At first Stoneglow thought Liesa was looking at an air-filled sack, but it was a man's body floating face down in the mess supported by a bubble of air that had filled his tunic.

            “War—a raid,” said Trask as the body floated away. “Those black ships! But where is the rest of Trren's fleet? Dohan says the king always keeps thirty or more ships of war here, and I do not see signs that so many have been destroyed.”

            They were the object of attention as they came up to a group of stone jetties at the city's waterfront. A crowd of folk who had been working to clean the area left their tasks and tried to push onto the pier Dohan chose for landing. The crowd was kept at a distance by a tall captain who had a score of spearmen with him.

            Dohan moved boldly in. He lowered sail and eased smoothly to the jetty, the Pride following close after with Stoneglow at the helm. They tied to heavy iron rings set in the stone. Then the whole party, save for Itu, who still slept, leaped onto the dock. They were met by the tall captain and six of his men.

            “ I am Atrax, harbor-captain,” the man announced in a sharp tone. “What is your business in Esti?”

            His glance darted from the Pride to Stoneglow Threescar. The captain was a powerfully built man, dusk-skinned and not old, but with iron-grey hair. His hand rested upon his sword hilt.

            “Dohan Firmhand is my name,” said Dohan. “I come from my dwelling three days west where my wife Cleva lies buried, victim of a vision of growing shadows, fire and anger. Now I see that she spoke truthfully, for fire and anger have come to Esti. Never before, Atrax, have I been challenged upon arrival here.”

            “My father who was harbor-captain before me has mentioned your name, Dohan,” said Atrax, “as have merchants who have traded with you upon your lonely strand. But who are these others? You bring with you a vessel of strange design and a man with a foreign air at a time when we are grown sudden wary of strangers.” Atrax nodded brusquely toward the Pride.

            “Boats such as these are common beyond the Salt Islands,” said Dohan, causing Stoneglow to raise his eyebrows slightly. “The captain of this one, Lord Stoneglow Threescar, is a learnéd noble who comes to Esti from the far west upon a peaceful errand. He wishes to exchange information with Quastid the healer for the betterment of Esti and of his own land. I, my sons and daughter here, have entered Lord Stoneglow's service. We will vouch for him before king Trren. But Atrax, we can hardly ignore the devastation here. Whence all this woe?”

            “Pirates, Dohan, ”Atrax exclaimed bitterly, “wild men who entered the bay last night in deep twilight. Some went ashore at the smoker's village south of the city, burning and killing there without mercy. Then they advanced along the waterfront to the city, led by a redbeard giant they called Destroyer and Thrrl, the ghost of Hrrl. While they fought on the land, their ships swept up the bay, using fire arrows to burn many of the king's vessels. My father, old Shatark, saw the flames first. It was he who raised the alarm. But for him things would have fared far worse yestereve in Esti.”

            “And where is Shatark now? I know him,” said Dohan.

            “Alas, the battle here was fierce. My father died defending the docks.”

            Dohan clapped a hand to Atrax's shoulder. “I grieve, then, for Shatark was a doughty man. But know then, Atrax, that Hrrl my ancestor was not red-bearded. This Thrrl can be neither his ghost nor his kin. He takes a brave name wrongly. The feud between my forefathers and Trren's has long ago been laid to rest.”

            “All in Esti know that, Dohan. No one blames those who are the descendants of Hrrl. The king believes the pirates are a gathering of bands from far Eastshore beyond the bight of Shallath.”

            “Can you take us to the king? We have news for him.”

            “The pirates fled during the night, after we mustered enough men to resist. The king took thirty ships and a thousand men toward Shallath, to search for them.”

            “East! Atrax, we have seen that pirate fleet at rendezvous not a day from here in the Cove of Crrnx. They were joined by five ships of war from the west. Call the king back! Light the fires upon the head!”

            “Fear not, Dohan. We are strong here and alerted. But we will light the fires and call back the king.”

            “Tell us, Harbor-Captain,” broke in Trask, “Has any harm come to Quastid the healer in this?”

            “I think not,” said Atrax. “Ellasté Quastidson fought beside me in the battle, and has now gone back to his father's house, where I believe the healer is treating many of the wounded.”

            “We must go to Quastid's at once,” said Dohan. “Lord Stoneglow's mission is of great importance.”

            “Go then, Dohan,” said Atrax, “but let one of your party remain here as a guarantee for the stranger. I may not allow outlanders full freedom now, however peaceful their errand. But this arrangement will be of use to you also, since I will place two men by your boats as guard. When you return, let them know how fares Quastid, for he is a friend of the king and I too would appreciate news of him.”

            “That is fair,” said Dohan. “Trask will remain with the boats.”

            At a sign from Atrax, the soldiers let them pass down the pier—except for Trask, who went without protest back to the Pride. The crowd pressed about them, some muttering disapproval of strangers, some merely curious, many impressed by the fine appearance of Stoneglow's cloak, especially since its deep blue color by chance matched the flags and buildings of Esti.

            Suddenly an old man in dirty rags carrying a crutch he did not seem to use shuffled out in front of them. He was bent and wrinkled and he crouched over so sharply that he appeared a hunchback.     “Beware the evil that comes to Esti,” he cackled, pointing the worn tip of his crutch at Stoneglow. “First the ghost of Hrrl, and now him marked by the Dark One and escorted by Hrrl's own kin!”

            “Out of the way, Ushtorth,” said Dohan gruffly. “Your old brain dwells upon the ages gone, and has more shadows in it than a moonless night.”

            Two of Atrax's men thrust Ushtorth none too gently aside. The man shouted curses at them, but the crowd began to disperse. They knew Ushtorth as a doomsayer whose mind was twisted. But already the rumor was spreading that Dohan Firmhand had arrived from the Weststrand bringing a scarred lord of the Salt Islands who had secret tidings for Quastid the healer.