As the number of headmen increased, the Heathen lords realized they were being outdone. There was some hasty whispering among them. I am not sure that all of them believed Kankredin to be their enemy. But the will of Kars Adon was a powerful thing. All the Heathen flags dipped together, stood, and dipped again. A great shout went up. “Hail Hern Adon! Hail Hern King!” Arin tells me this is the custom among the clans. So, when the last headman went on one knee, both sides were pledged to Hern. I think Hern was near tears, because he scowled so.
After that our King was buried by the lakeside and mourned properly, although the grass was being covered in water while the mourning was done. I saw Aunt Zara among the wailers, but she would not come near us. But Kars Adon was carried up to the head of the falls and buried where the smoking waters of the One’s source run across the green turf. Tanamil said it should be so. I can see the grave beside me as I weave. I look at it often and hope that we will be able to complete his dreams for him.
Before we came up here, I overheard Tanamil whisper to Hern, “Why did you promise them talismans? There is no way to keep a man’s soul in his body.”
“Yes, there is,” said Hern. “If the man himself believes it’s going to stay there. That’s how I kept my soul when Kankredin tried to get it. I’m sorry, Tanamil. I had to say it. Give them all mud pies or buttons—I don’t care—but make them something, please!”
Duck, who was standing by, burst out laughing. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s make mud pies.”
“Later,” said Tanamil. He was very worried. “Hern,” he said, “I went down the River last night and saw Kankredin. There was no way I could stand against him. Don’t underestimate his strength. I went away. I knew he could take me, and the One, too, through me. The same goes for you, for Duck and Tanaqui, and for Robin most of all. You must take care.”
“It’s no good taking care anymore!” Hern said, and stormed away to talk to men about weapons.
“Well,” said Tanamil, looking up the length of the falls, “we must make what defense we can. Mallard, can you make nets?”
“I made the best nets in Shelling,” Duck said. Nothing will ever make Duck modest, but he does make good nets.
“These will be spellnets,” said Tanamil, “as strong as we can make them.”
“Let me help,” I said. “I can make nets, too.”
“I think you can,” said Tanamil. “But only you can weave, Tanaqui. Please go and weave again, as fast as you can. And for the One’s sake, leave as little out of your tale as you can. We do not know what small thing may be needed to complete the web.”
So I climbed up here to the smoking spring again. Robin came with me. She and Jay arranged for my loom to be dragged up, too, and all my wools. I hope I shall have enough. And here was a strange thing. Robin had Gull with her, and the Young One. When they had placed my loom on the turf, she took out Gull to give him to me. And he crumbled to a mound of red earth in her hands.
I cried out with horror. “Robin! Has Kankredin got him?”
It is true Robin knows things. She was smiling at the handful of earth. “Of course not,” she said. “It means he’s back, just as Tanamil promised. I think the same will happen to the Young One when Tan
amil’s unbound.”
“Then why isn’t Gull here?” I said.
“Hush,” said Robin. She poured the earth carefully into the spreading pool of warm water and whispered so that Jay could not hear, “Don’t be silly, Tanaqui. What do you think would happen to Hern’s plans if Gull came along? Gull’s older.”
I see Robin is right. My grandfather has sent Gull somewhere else. He has done it to show me that he keeps his promises. But I long to see Gull. Duck and I have decided we shall go and find him if we win against Kankredin.
What Tanamil said so frightens me that I wonder all the time what I have left out. Should I say that I have a corn on my thumb and three blistered fingers? That my eyes ache, and my neck? Should I say how cold I have been in the mountain wind, these last two days? I have been weaving with such haste that I make mistakes. I had to unpick how I saw Kankredin and his glassy mages and weave it again because Duck and Tanamil distracted me when they came over the edge of the falls.
Robin has arranged for a tent to be pitched here and for people to bring me food. I think she left the cats here, too, hoping they would amuse me. But they will play with what is left of my yarn and with the shuttles and bobbins. I have had to ask Jay to take them to the camp.
Except when he did that, Jay has stood guard here the whole time. He is not courting Robin anymore. He has seen her with Tanamil, and he looks at her regretfully. But he talks cheerfully enough. “A man with one arm is not much good for fighting,” he said, not, I think, altogether truthfully. “I shall stay here and make your last defense, my young witch.”
“I don’t think I am a witch,” I said.
Jay said, “What do witches do if they don’t weave spells?”
He is standing on the edge of the green turf at the moment, looking intently down at the fighting. It is mostly from Jay that I get my news. Everyone else is too busy. But I must have news. It must all go in my weaving.
8
Before I started to weave again, I called my mother to ask her how I should use the bobbin of glistering yarn. Duck had the Lady. I had to call without. I called, and Mother came. She dragged herself over the edge of the falls into the warm pool beside Kars Adon’s grave. When I saw how ill she was, I knew Gull was right when he said she is the River. Kankredin is killing her. She looked as ill as Robin did before Tanamil came. And she was not clear to see either. She sank down in the pool, and I could see the grass through her.
“Mother!” I said. I forgot about the bobbin.
“You mustn’t worry, Tanaqui,” she said. I could barely hear her. “I’ve wanted to go down to the sea and join your father for a long time now. Open the way for me, so that I can go.”
She was fading all the time she spoke, and when she had said that, she melted from my sight entirely. Oh Mother. I do not know if she is dead or not. If it was not so urgent to weave, I would sit and cry. I feel as I did when I was small and fell in the River in the Spring flood. Before my father could pull me out, I had been rolled against the Shelling jetty nine or ten times. It is blow after blow.