CHAPTER I
Waves flung themselves at the blue evening. Low light burned on the wethulks of ships that slipped by mossy pilings into the docks as watersloshed at the rotten stone embankment of the city.
Gangplanks, chained from wooden pullies, scraped into place on concreteblocks, and the crew, after the slow captain and the tall mate,descended raffishly along the wooden boards which sagged with thepounding of bare feet. In bawling groups, pairs, or singly they howledinto the narrow waterfront streets, into the yellow light from open inndoors, the purple shadowed portals leading to dim rooms full of bluesmoke and stench of burnt poppies.
The captain, with eyes the color of sea under fog, touched his swordhilt with his fist and said quietly to the mate, "Well, they're gone. Webetter start collecting new sailors for the ten we lost at Aptor. Tengood men, Jordde. I'm sick when I think of the bone and broken meat theybecame."
"Ten for the dead," sneered the mate, "and twenty for the living we'llnever see again. Any sailor that would want to continue this trip withus is insane. We'll do well if we only lose that many." He was a tall,wire bound man, which made the green tunic he wore look baggy.
"I'll never forgive her for ordering us to that monstrous island," saidthe captain.
"I wouldn't speak too loudly," mumbled the mate. "Yours isn't to forgiveher. Besides, she went with them, and was in as much danger as theywere. It's only luck she came back."
Suddenly the captain asked, "Do you believe the sailor's stories ofmagic they tell of her?"
"Why, sir?" asked the mate. "Do you?"
"No, I don't," said the captain with a certainty that came too quickly."Still, with three survivors out of thirteen, that she should be amongthem, with hardly a robe torn."
"Perhaps they wouldn't touch a woman," suggested the mate, Jordde.
"Perhaps," said the captain.
"And she's been strange," continued Jordde, "ever since then. She walksat night. I've seen her going by the rails, looking from the sea-fire tothe stars, and then back."
"Ten good men," mused the captain. "Hacked up, torn in bits. I wouldn'thave believed that much barbarity in the world, if I hadn't seen thatarm, floating on the water. It gives me chills now, the way the men ranto the rail to see, pointed at it. And it just raised itself up, like abeckoning, a signal, and then sank in a wash of foam and green water."
"Well," said the mate, "we have men to get."
"I wonder if she'll come ashore?"
"She'll come if she wants, Captain. Her doing is no concern of yours.Your job is the ship and to do what she says."
"I have more of a job than that," and he looked back at his still craft.
The mate touched the captain's shoulder. "If you're going to speakthings like that, speak them softly, and only to me."
"I have more of a job than that," the captain repeated. Then, suddenly,he started away, and the mate was following him down the darkeningdockside street.
* * * * *
The dock was still for a moment. Then a barrel toppled from a pile ofbarrels, and a figure moved like a bird's shadow across the openingbetween mounds of cargo set about the pier.
At the same time two men approached down a narrow street filled with theday's last light. The bigger one threw a great shadow that aped hisgesticulating arms behind him on the greenish faces of the buildings.Bare feet like halved hams, shins bound with thongs and pelts, he wavedone hand in explanation, while he rubbed the back of the other on hisshort, mahogany beard.
"You're going to ship out, eh friend? You think they'll take your rhymesand jingles instead of muscles and rope pulling?"
The smaller, in a white tunic looped with a thick leather belt, laughedbeneath his friend's rantings. "Fifteen minutes ago you thought it was afine idea; said it would make me a man."
"Oh, it's a life to make," his hand went up, "and it's a life to breakmen," and it fell.
The slighter one pushed back black hair from his forehead, stopped, andlooked at the ships. "You still haven't told me why no ship has takenyou on in the past three months," he said absently, following the roperigging against the sky like black knife slashes on blue silk. "A yearago I'd never see you in for more than three days at once."
The gesticulating arm suddenly encircled the smaller man's waist andlifted a leather pouch from the wide belt. "Are you sure, friend Geo,"began the giant, "that we couldn't use up some of this silver on winebefore we go. If you want to do this right, then right is how it shouldbe done. When you sign up on a ship you're supposed to be broke and alittle tight. It shows that you're capable of getting along without theinconvenience of money and can hold your liquor, too."
"Urson, get your paw off that." Geo snatched the purse away.
"Now here," countered Urson, reaching for it once more, "you don't haveto grab."
"Look, I've kept you drunk five nights now, and it's time to sober up.And suppose they don't take us, who's going--" But Urson, the ideahaving taken the glow of a game, made another swipe with his big hand.
Geo leapt back with the purse. "Now cut that out," he began; but inleaping, his feet struck the fallen barrel, and he fell backwards to thewet cobbles. The pouch splattered away, jingling.
Both of them scrambled.
Then the bird's shadow moved in the opening between the cargo piles, aslight figure bounded forward, swept the purse up with one hand, pushedhimself away from the pile of cargo with another, and there were twomore fists pumping at his side as he ran.
"What the devil," began Urson, and then, "What the _devil_!"
"Hey you," called Geo, lurching to his feet. "Come back!" And Urson hadalready loped a couple of steps after the fleeting mutant, now halfwaydown the block.
Suddenly, from behind them, like a wine-glass stem snapping, only twentytimes as loud, a voice called, "Stop, little thief. Stop."
The running form stopped as though it had hit a wall.
"Come back, now! Come back!"
The figure turned, and docilely started back, the movements so lithe andswift a moment ago, now mechanical.
"It's just a kid," Urson said.
He was a dark-haired boy, naked except for a ragged breech. Heapproached staring fixedly beyond them toward the boats. And he had fourarms.
Now they turned and looked also.
She stood at the base of the ship's gangplank, against what sun stillwashed the horizon. One hand held something close at her throat, andwind, caught in a veil, held the purple gauze against the red swath atthe world's edge, and then dropped it.
The boy, like an automaton, approached her.
"Give that to me, little thief," she said.
He handed her the purse. She took it, and then suddenly dropped herother hand from her neck. The moment she did so, the boy staggeredbackwards, turned, and ran straight into Urson, who said, "Ooof," andthen, "God damn little spider."
The boy struggled to get away like a hydra in furious silence. But Ursonheld. "You stick around ... Owww!... to get yourself thrashed....There." The boy got turned, his back to the giant; one arm locked acrosshis neck, and the other hand, holding all four wrists, lifted up hardenough so that the body shook like wires jerked taut, but he was stillsilent.
Now the woman came across the dock. "This belongs to you, gentlemen?"she asked, extending the purse.
"Thank you, ma'am," grunted Urson, reaching forward.
"I'll take it, ma'am," said Geo, intercepting. Then he recited:
"_Shadows melt in light of sacred laughter. Hands and houses shall be one hereafter._
"Many thanks," he added.
Beneath the veil, on her shadowed face, her eyebrows raised. "You havebeen schooled in courtly rites?" She observed him. "Are you perhaps astudent at the university?"
Geo smiled. "I was, until a short time ago. But funds are low and I haveto get through the summer somehow. I'm going to sea."
"Honorable, but perhaps foolish."
"I am a poet, ma'am; they say poets are fo
ols. Besides, my friend heresays the sea will make a man of me. To be a good poet, one must be agood man."
"More honorable, less foolish. What sort of a man is your friend?"
"My name is Urson," said the giant, stepping up. "I've been the besthand on any ship I've sailed on."
"Urson?" said the woman, musing. "The Bear? I thought bears did not likewater. Except polar bears. It makes them mad. I believe there was an oldspell, in antiquity, for taming angry bears...."
"_Calmly brother bear,_" Geo began to recite. "_calm the winter sleep. Fire shall not harm, water not alarm. While the current grows, amber honey flaws, golden salmon leap._"
"Hey," said Urson. "I'm not a bear."
"Your name means bear," Geo said. Then to the lady, "You see, I havebeen well trained."
"I'm afraid I have not," she replied. "Poetry and rituals were a hobbyof a year's passing interest when I was younger. But that was all." Nowshe looked down at the boy whom Urson still held. "You two look alike.Dark eyes, dark hair." She laughed. "Are there other things in commonbetween poets and thieves?"
"Well," complained Urson with a jerk of his chin, "this one here won'tspare a few silvers for a drink of good wine to wet his best friend'sthroat, and that's a sort of thievery, if you ask me."
"I did not ask," said the woman, quietly.
Urson huffed.
"Little thief," the woman said. "Little four arms. What is your name?"
Silence, and the dark eyes narrowed.
"I can make you tell me," and she raised her hand to her throat again.
Now the eyes opened wide, and the boy pushed back against Urson's belly.
Geo reached toward the boy's neck where a ceramic disk hung from aleather thong. Glazed on the white enamel was a wriggle of black with asmall dot of green for an eye at one end. "This will do for a name," Geosaid. "No need to harm him. Snake is his symbol; Snake shall be hisname."
"Little Snake," she said, dropping her threatening hand, "how good athief are you?" She looked at Urson. "Let him go."
"And miss thrashing his backside?" objected Urson.
"He will not run away."
Urson released him, and four hands came from behind the boy's back andbegan massaging one another's wrists. But the dark eyes watched heruntil she repeated, "How good a thief are you?"
With only a second's indecision, he reached into his clout and drew outwhat seemed another leather thong similar to the one around his neck. Heheld up the fist from which it dangled, and the fingers opened slowly toa cage.
"What is it?" Urson asked, peering over Snake's shoulder.
The woman gazed forward, then suddenly stood straight. "You ..." shebegan.
Snake's fist closed like a sea-polyp.
"You are a fine thief, indeed."
"What is it?" Urson asked. "I didn't see anything."
"Show them," she said.
Snake opened his hand, and on the dirty palm, in coiled leather, held bya clumsy wire cage, was a milky sphere the size of a man's eye, lucentthrough the shadow.
"A very fine thief indeed," repeated the woman in a low voice tautenedstrangely from its previous brittle clarity. She had pulled her veilaside now, and Geo saw, where her hand had again raised to her throat,the tips of her slim fingers held an identical jewel, only this one in aplatinum claw, hung from a wrought gold chain.
Her eyes, unveiled, black as obsidian, raised to meet Geo's. A slightsmile lifted her pale mouth and then fell again. "No," she said. "Notquite so clever as I thought. At first I believed he had taken mine. Butclever enough. Clever enough. You, schooled in the antiquity of Leptar'srituals, are you clever enough to tell me what these baubles mean?"
Geo shook his head.
A breath passed her pale mouth now, and though her eyes still fixed his,she seemed to draw away, blown into some past shadow by her own sigh."No," she said. "It has all been lost, or destroyed by the old priestsand priestesses, the old poets.
"_Freeze the drop in the hand and break the earth with singing. Hail the height of a man and also the height of a woman._
_The eyes have imprisoned a vision_ ..."
She spoke the lines almost reverently. "Do you recognize any of this?Can you tell me where they are from?"
"Only one stanza of it," said Geo. "And that in a slightly differentform." He recited:
"_Burn the grain speck in the hand and batter the stars with singing. Hail the height of a man, and also the height of a woman._"
"Well," said the woman. "You have done better than all the priests andpriestesses of Leptar. What about this fragment? Where is it from?"
"It is a stanza of the discarded rituals of the Goddess Argo, the onesbanned and destroyed five hundred years ago. The rest of the poem iscompletely lost," explained Geo. "I found that stanza when I peeled awaythe binding paper of an ancient tome that I found in the AntiquityCollection in the Temple Library at Acedia. Apparently a page from aneven older book had been used in the binding of this one. I assume theseare fragments of the rituals before Leptar purged her litanies. I knowat least my variant stanza belongs to that period. Perhaps you havereceived a misquoted rendition; for I will vouch for the authenticity ofmine."
"No," she said, almost regretfully. "Mine is the authentic version. So,you too, are not that clever." She turned back to the boy. "But I haveneed of a good thief. Will you come with me? And you, poet, I have needof one who thinks so meticulously and who delves into places where evenmy priests and priestesses do not go. Will you come with me?"
"Where are we going?"
"Aboard that ship," she said, smiling toward the vessel.
"That's a good boat," said Urson. "I'd be proud to sail on her, Geo."
"The captain is in my service," the woman told Geo. "He will take youon. Perhaps you will get a chance to see the world, and become the manyou wish to be."
Geo saw that Urson was beginning to look uneasy, and said, "My friendgoes on whatever ship I do. This we've promised each other. Besides, heis a good sailor, while I have no knowledge of the sea."
"On our last journey," the woman explained, "we lost men. I do not thinkyour friend will have trouble getting a berth."
"Then we'll be honored to come," said Geo. "Under whose service shall webe, then, for we still don't know who you are?"
Now the veil fell across her face again. "I am a high priestess of theGoddess Argo. Now, who are you?"
"My name is Geo," Geo told her.
"Of the Earth, then, your name," she said. "And you, Urson, the bear.And Lamio, the little Snake. I welcome you aboard our ship."
Just then, from down the street, came the captain and the mate, Jordde.They emerged from the diagonal of shadow that lanced over the cobbles,slowly, heavily. The captain squinted out across the ships toward thehorizon, the copper light filling his deepening wrinkles and burnishingthe planes of flesh around his gray eyes. As they approached, thepriestess turned to them. "Captain, I have three men as a tokenreplacement at least for the ones my folly helped lose."
Urson, Geo, and Snake looked at each other, and then toward the captain.
Jordde looked at all three.
"You seem strong," the captain said to Urson, "a sea-bred man. But thisone," and he looked at Snake now, "one of the Strange Ones...."
"They're bad luck on a ship," interrupted the mate. "Most ships won'ttake them at all, ma'am. This one's just a boy, and for all his spindlesthere, couldn't haul rope or reef sails. Ma'am, he'd be no good to us atall. And we've had too much bad luck already."
"He's not for rope pulling," laughed the priestess. "The little Snake ismy guest. The others you can put to ship's work. I know you are short ofmen. But I have my own plans for this one."
"As you say, ma'am," said the captain.
"But Priestess," began Jordde.
"As you say," repeated the captain, and the mate stepped back, quieted.The captain turned to Geo now. "And who are you?" he asked.
"I'm Geo, before and s
till a poet. But I'll do what work you set me,sir."
"And you?" Jordde asked Urson.
"I'm a good sea-son of the waves, can stand triple watch withoutflagging, and I believe I'm already hired." He looked to the captain.
"But what do they call you?" Jordde asked. "You have a familiar look,like one I've had under me before."
"They call me the handsome sailor, the fastest rope reeler, the quickestline hauler, the speediest sheaf reefer...."
"Your name, man, your name," Jordde demanded.
"Some call me Urson."
"That's the name I knew you by before! Do you think I'd sail with youagain, when I myself put it in black and white and sent it to everycaptain and mate in the dock? For three months now you've had no berth,and if you had none for three hundred years it would be too soon."
Jordde turned to the captain now. "He's a troublemaker, sir, afight-starter. Though he's as wild as waves and with the strength ofmizzen spars, spirit in a man is one thing, and a fight or two the same;but good sailor though he be, I've sworn not to have him on ship withme, sir. He's nearly murdered half a dozen men and probably has murderedhalf a dozen more. No mate who knows the men of this harbor will takehim on."
The Priestess of Argo laughed. "Captain, take him." Now she looked atGeo. "The words for calming the angry bear have been recited before him.Now, Geo, we will see how good a poet you are, and if the spell works."At last she turned toward Urson. "Have you ever killed a man."
Urson was silent a moment. "I have."
"Had you told me that," said the Priestess, "I would have chosen youfirst. I have need of you also. Captain, you must take him. If he is agood sailor, then we cannot spare him. I will channel what specialtalents he may have. Geo, since you said the spell, and are his friend,I charge you with his control. Also, I wish to talk with you, poet,student of rituals. Come, you all may stay on board ship tonight."