CHAPTER V
The pretty daughter of the squire, She came a-riding by; Of sunlight was her fine long hair, Of gray flint was her eye.
The Mink he takes her by the arm: "Now you must come with me! We'll dwell a space in the wild wild woods Beneath the great oak tree!"
--Ruck's Ballad of the Mink
Revel saw the lead horse, a piebald brute with hoofs like mallets,coming at him. The squire atop it was leaning down with the manewhipping his cheeks, smirking at Revel as he drove his steed forward.
He made the fastest decision of his life. He could roll and savehimself, for he was quick as a lightning bolt; or he could keep hold ofthe wench and try to preserve them both.
He could never have told what prompted him to decide to save the LadyNirea.
At any rate, he threw himself atop her, clamped his arms tight to hersides, and rolled, not toward the brambles, for it was too late forthat, but to the center of the path. The piebald crashed by, swervingtoo late to clip him; the other horses came at him in a solid phalanx.He yanked her up, gaining his own feet by an animal contraction of body.As the heads of the nearest stallions reached him he slipped betweenthem, holding her steady behind him, and praying to the Orbs (from forceof lifetime habit) to preserve them for the next minute.
Without Nirea it would have been simple; holding her safe behind himwhile two lurching horses passed, that made it the trickiest thing he'dever done. As the squires' legs came abreast, one blink later, he tookhold of one of them which was clad in tight blue breeches, and hauleddown. Then he leaped forward between the horses' tails, twitching thewoman after him with a jerk that almost tore the arm from her body.
The squire in the blue breeches toppled over, howling, and fell on thepath. Revel yanked the Lady Nirea to one side as the mass of them sweptby, and saw with satisfaction a stallion, trying not to step on thefallen squire, take a nasty tumble itself, flinging its rider ten feetahead, where he was trampled by a couple of less cautious nags.
Other horses fell over the first one, and the gentry milled about,roaring bloody hell and death on everybody. The two hounds smelled bloodand attacked the fallen squires, and Blue Breeches raced off into thewoods, one of the ravening dogs at his heels.
Revel made for the other side, the brambles where Jerran haddisappeared. He was hauling the girl behind him. A beef-faced squire ona pirouetting horse loosed off his gun at Revel, who snatched a handgunfrom his belt and fired back. Both of them missed. A gentryman in tanand gold long-skirted coat leaped in front of the miner, the flaredmuzzle of his gun coming up toward Revel's breast.
Revel shot by instinct, without aiming. The man's face turned into amess that looked like squashed raspberries. Revel stepped over his bodyand tried to plunge into the brambles, but he had lost the exact spot,and thorns barred the way.
Then, four feet down the road, Jerran's yellow face popped into view."Here, lad!"
* * * * *
At that instant Lady Nirea gave a wrench and freed herself from Revel'sgrip. He whirled and leaped and snatched down, catching the collar ofthe silver gown. Her momentum carried her forward, but the dress stayedin his hand ripped completely off. He went after her--she was fallingnow--and caught her, though the atmosphere seemed to be composed equallyof gentry and rearing stallions.
Then he turned, carrying her slung over one arm, and managing to reachJerran's anxious-looking head by knocking down one squire and kickinganother in the groin, he dived into the bushes. The Lady Nirea squalledshrilly as the thorns gashed at her soft skin. But Revel blundered oninto the bramble patch.
Jerran led him through what seemed impenetrable thickets, following aroute that must have been marked, though Revel could not see how. Behindthem, the gentry howled and loosed off their guns, but the bramblesdefeated them, for Revel caught no sounds of pursuit. A scream thatthrilled up and choked off must have been the unfortunate Blue Breeches.
Revel looked up, thinking of the globes; he could see the sky in manyplaces through the tangle, but realized that it was probably a thickgreen solid floor to a watcher from above. A god would have to come verylow to see anything moving beneath it.
The woman said bitterly, "For Orbs' sake, at least carry me in somefashion that won't expose _quite_ so much of me to the thorns!" Shepaused and added as an after-thought, "You mudhead!"
He hitched her around and held her curled to his chest, faintlyconscious of the smooth body, but concentrating on protecting her fromharm; he thought suddenly that he was treating her as if she'd been aruck woman, instead of one of the gentry, the loathed and fearedsquirarchy. Was he putting too much importance on the physicalattractions that had made him take her?
Jerran was leading him now along a tunnel-like passage of twined, archedshrubbery that made them stoop low. "It'd help if you walked, Lady," hesaid.
"You may not have noticed it, miner, but I have on just one slipper, andit doesn't have a heel." She scowled up at him. "And when I say oneslipper, I mean that's _all_."
"You look fine," he grinned. "No silk and satin looks as attractive asyour own pelt, my lady."
They traveled for upwards of half an hour, sometimes down forest lanesthat allowed free passage, other times through thickets that rippedtheir flesh and slowed them to a swearing, sweating crawl. Always therewas a screen above them of natural growth, shielding them from thebuttoned sky.
At last before them there opened a huge amphitheater of the forest, ahollow with gently sloping sides, covered by a gigantic roof of twinedwillow wands and twigs. Jerran said, gesturing upward, "That's thebiggest piece of camouflage we ever did! The top of it is planted withgrass and scrub, rooted in square sods of earth cut from the woods'floor in many places. From above it looks like a round hill rising outof the trees. Took us a year to perfect it."
"Jerran, who is 'us' and--"
"Why, lad, the rebels."
Revel stared at the little man. Could Jerran, the straw-colored stringyfellow he'd worked beside all these years, the quiet one who'd preachedserenity and dragged him out of a hundred brawls, could he be a rebel?Fantastic....
The rebels were the anonymous elite of the ruck. They were themalcontents of their society, men whose intellects could not swallow thedreary bromides of the priests, who felt savage indignation against thecruel gentry and the bright, all-mighty globes. It was said that theyformed an organization in Dolfya and other cities, these rebels, andthat to them could be laid the sabotaging of the coal and diamond mines,the gentry slain in accidents that looked too pat, and the constant auraof uneasy discontent that pervaded the shebeens and all such illegalgathering places of the ruck.
The rebels were highly romantic figures, but Revel had always consideredthem mythical, for who could think of resisting the condition of ThingsAs They Are? Songs were sung about them over the turf fires, in thesquat little huts of the people, and by vagabonds who roamed thecountryside by night. The rebels went by fanciful names, as rebels ofthe people always do; and the one most sung of, most whispered about, inDolfya at least, was the Mink, who seemed to be a kind of promisedsavior who would come (soon, always soon) with punishments for thegentry and liberation for the ruck.
* * * * *
So Revel stared at Jerran, mouth agape, and repeated stupidly, "Therebels?"
"Aye, lad! Didn't you ever guess?"
"Orbs, no!"
"Why'd you think I kept stopping your fights in the shebeen?"
"Because you were a pacifist."
The small man shook with laughter. "One, there's nothing I love so muchas a good brawl. Two, a brawl might bring the orbs or the gentry to ourhidden drink-house, and that'd be bad. Three, a man who's a rebel mustappear _not_ to be one, even to men he believes he can trust. Four, I'vehad my eye on you ever since I came from Hakes Town, and didn't want youmurdered in a drunken scrimmage. So five, though I hated to do it, I hadto preserve you from raging and quarreling until all that brute f
orceand honest fury could be turned to real account for us."
"I can't take it in," Revel said helplessly. "It's as though the heroesof the Ancient Kingdom that we sing about, Rob-'em-Good and Jonenry andLynka, had met me here. I never believed in rebels, truly, Jerran."
"Why should you? We haven't done anything big yet. We've been searchingand waiting for a leader."
Revel snapped his fingers. "The Mink!"
"Yes, the Mink." Jerran looked at him oddly, head cocked like a smallyellow bird. "He hasn't come yet, but he will."
Revel looked around him. The amphitheater was dim, lit only by thesunlight that managed to creep in from the forest around it; for noillumination fell from the sodded roof. It must be capable of holdinghundreds of men. "How many are you?" he asked.
"Some four thousand and three hundred." There was pride in the man'svoice. "After today, Revel, we shall be uncountable thousands. Now thegods have been torn down."
"Not torn down."
"Torn down," repeated Jerran firmly, "from their false 'untouchable'eminence. You've shown the world that the globes can be slain as easilyas hares."
"They can still rise into the buttoned sky, and rule from there."
"We'll find ways," grunted Jerran impatiently. "False gods that can diecan be lured down by trickery--or we can find a way to go up to thebuttons."
"That's insane," said Revel, and would have amplified it, but at thatmoment the girl spoke.
"When you are quite ready, _Squire_ Revel, I wonder if you'd kindly setme down?"
He had forgotten her, slung over his shoulder like a slain doe. Hastilyhe slipped her off and set her on her feet. She was like a forest nymph,one of those legendary wild women who haunted the trees near towns andlured men to their death; tall and whitely lovely, her stark naked bodyshone against the greensward with a perfection that made Revel's throatconstrict.
Then she doubled up a fist and hit him in the eye.
"You lout!" said the gorgeous creature. "Can't you at least get mesomething to wear?"
"I can have clothes for you in two minutes, Lady Nirea," said Jerran."Man's clothes, I'm afraid. No woman has ever seen the meeting placebefore you."
"Man's clothes--rucker's clothes," she said caustically. "If I'd knownwhat--"
Then her words were muffled by a terrible sound, a noise as of the earthexploding beneath them. Nothing moved, yet they had the sensation ofbeing shaken intolerably by a giant blast of wind. The roar dwindledaway, reluctant to cease, and Revel said, "What is it?"
"Come on," said Jerran urgently, "we'll go to the dome and see."
"The dome?"
"The roof of the sanctuary," barked Jerran impatiently. "It holds theweight of a score of men without quivering. We build slowly, but well."He sprinted away.
"The girl!" yelled Revel.
Jerran called over his shoulder, "If she's fool enough to risk woodslions and the bears, let her go!"
Revel stared at Nirea. Then he chuckled. "No gentrywoman could find herway home from this maze-center. You'll wait." He followed his friend.
They shinned up a tree on the edge of the clearing, and jumped to therim of the dome, which never even swayed beneath their impact. Revel sawit stretch up before him like a grassy hill, and marveled at the rebels'artistry. Shortly they were standing on the crest, and he was clutchingat Jerran's arm.
"Orbs above! Look there!"
On the horizon lay a tremendous cloud of gray-black smoke, like thereeking smudge of a forest fire; above it rose another and more ominouscloud, this tinged with red and of mushroom shape.
Revel was speechless, but Jerran ripped out a curse that would havecurled the hair of a squire's neck.
"The Globate Credo," he said. "You've proved it wrong in one respect,but there's terrible proof of its truth in another." He spat. "If Ifigure right, that cloud's hanging over the eastern quarter of DolfyaTown, where none but the ruck lives; and every soul that lived there isdead as last week's dinner."
"The Credo?" said Revel haltingly.
"Sure. _Vengeance of the gods comes swift and without warning, below thetwin clouds, with a sound of volcanoes._ Nobody ever knew what thatmeant ... till now."