A Hawk In Silver Part 3

He stood with an easy grace, tall and lanky, with a mop of fiery orange-red hair. A coa.r.s.e grey cotton jerkin and shorts were belted with a heavy-linked gold chain. His bare arms and legs were covered with a fine red fuzz and his bare feet were splay-toed and claw-nailed. He called to mind an alert wild animal.

"They be human." He glanced at them sideways swiftly and then away. His eyes were lynx-yellow and slit-pupilled. The red hair did not cover his pointed ears.

"Yes."

"There is word from the King, permitting this?"

"No."

He moved supple shoulders as if to say: well, it's no concern of mine. Holly saw beady black eyes and realised there was a small animal riding on his shoulder, under his collar.

Elathan sighed. "The coin is gone; dissolved into air; I know not the reason. It may be the answer is in my b.o.o.b, so I must spend immediate time with them. Do you take these to Eilunieth, and answer their questions; I will join you later."

Mathurin acknowledged that with a careless nod, and did not watch him go. He smiled enigmatically. "Humans in Orione? That is new. Come: follow me."

"Lead on." Chris pretended unconcern; but Holly saw her hands clench into fists, knuckles white.

They came to a tall arched doorway, the curtain embroidered with roses and orchids. Mathurin swept it aside, and they followed him through.

It was a room smaller than her own bedroom; L-shaped; lit by a score of candles. A fire, too small to be anything but ceremonial, burned in the hearth. It did nothing to disperse the rock's bitter chill.

"So you are humans... do you not stand there, but come: be welcome. I am Eilunieth of Orione."

Holly stepped closer to the meagre heat. She saw that Eilunieth was another of these strange beings; a woman of inhuman and ageless appearance, russet-haired and tall and clad in white. When she caught Eilunieth's golden gaze she felt a strangeness that was only dormant in the harper and the sorcerer; and she knew without doubt that these people were of a race entirely different from hers.

"Sit you down." Her voice was deep and friendly. "Fletcher has told me why you have come. You are brave to come, knowing nought of us... We will eat; then answer your questions. Silver! Sandys, is Silverleaf there?"

"She is coming." A boy, black-haired, about Fletcher's age but with the elukoi form. He carried a silver pitcher. "Be welcome, guests."

He put the pitcher down on a low wooden table, and fetched seven silver tumblers from a cupboard. Mathurin pulled up a stool to sit across the fire from Eilunieth. Fletcher seated himself on the grey furs thrown down haphazard before the hearth; after a second's hesitation, Holly and Chris joined him.

Some of the fear in Holly was unfrozen by the fire. While the dark-haired boy poured wine, she studied the room. The walls were smooth grey rock. Two heavy dark wood cabinets flanked the doorway; and above these, not framed, were mirrors reflecting candles in reed-like candlesticks. The opposite wall held the fireplace (another mirror above this) and shelves of plain glazed pottery. She could not see down the other arm of the 'L'-the firelight threw confusing shadows.

The ceiling had been left a rough dome, from which tiny cones of rock hung down. Again, shadows leered and flickered there.

Chris had also been taking inventory. "What is this place?"

"The caverns of Orione, in which is Mirrormere; and I am Keeper of it," Eilunieth answered. "All this was here afore we came, but we made a place in it for some of us. Harper, how am I to tell? There is so much."

Sandys looked up. Holly saw in his eyes that same inhuman serenity and thought, He's never the age he looks-n.o.bodycould be, and have eyes like that.

"It were best, tell one of the histories. I'll fetch the harp."

"That were easier, aye." Mathurin's head was turned away from Holly, staring into the fire and for a second she saw him against the flames, haloed with light. "I'll change it from our tongue to your human speech. Do you listen to me and mark well it is not story nor legend but plain truth."

Sandys came back with the harp, and Mathurin took it and settled it lovingly on his knees, as if it were alive, sensitive. It was not more than two feet tall, of s.h.i.+ny red-black wood, shaped somewhat like a curving sail. Holly s.h.i.+fted closer to the fire and sat up, hooking her arms round her knees. She had never seen a harp played before, though she had heard them.

Silence was complete. Mathurin played.5 The Well of the Silent Harp A flicker of notes like fire: Mathurin plucking harpstrings, thumb and finger; hands moving in sweeping arcs. Holly, amazed, found her throat tight and tears waiting on the pain-ful sweet music that pierced her.

Then he quieted the strings until they were a low accompani-ment to his words.

"On a time long past," he said, "we left Faerie, that great Otherworld kingdom, and journeyed to Earth. We, the elukoi; and our close kin, the morkani; and the Starlord leading us, at our demand. Five of our great Houses of Faerie travelled thus, and the rest the King left under regent in the White City. For we did not know, then, that as the stars and the worlds changed, the way back would be lost to us. And now we are exiles here.

"And we made our first home-but this was in the morning of the world-and builded the city of Caer Ys, in the southern islands. And that was a great city, and proud, and carven beyond the art of mortals. Fair was Ys: but in a day one woman destroyed it utterly. Tanaquil of the House of the Hawk called to her the timeless darkness that dwells cold at the ocean's floor; called up the heart and soul of the hungry sea; called to her Rak-Domnu, Mother of Bitter Waters. Then, for she hated us, Domnu whelmed the islands of Ys.

"She looked for none to escape that ruin. Yet three s.h.i.+ps of the elukoi sailed north out of destruction, and Oberon of the House of Raven was at their head. To him had come the Lord of Stars, Fyraire; to guide, to warn and to free his people. And against the Starlord not Tanaquil, no not Domnu herself might prevail."

No music from the harp now, only a deep throbbing of the lower strings, like a bell tolling under the sea.

"Since that time they still war against us; Tanaquil and the House of the Hawk, and Domnu of Bitter Waters; bound in one fate by oaths that even the Sea may not break, that breaks all else. And Tanaquil we call Seahawk, and her accursed House are morkani, 'born of the sea'. For we are elukoi, 'beast-friends', who of old were great. But now we are sundered and in exile from Faerie-for the Lord of Stars has never come again...

"And the White City is out of our reach forever."

The last chords faded. Holly came back from visions of drowned cities to the candle-lit room, where the elukoi sat, as still as carven stone, and as remote.

A white s.h.a.ggy-coated hound with silky ears, one red, trotted in and went to Fletcher. A tall elukoi girl followed, carrying a tray of plain glazed platters piled high with fruit. She set it down before the fire.

Holly caught her eye and smiled, liking her at first sight. Tall, with a waterfall of s.h.i.+ning silver hair and delicately pointed ears, she had golden eyes in a vixen face. Holly could not have said just how old she was.

They ate. Holly had picked out an apple, biting into it with little thought. The flesh was crisp-fibred and burning sweet-or was it sour?-or something differing from both?-she could never decide. The taste was outside her experience, but after the first bite she was greedy for more. For pounds, for boxes, for whole harvests of these strange fruits.

Chris wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, staining both with juice. She looked suddenly at Mathurin. "How much of all that was true?"

"All."

"Well... how long ago, then?"

Eilunieth put in softly: "Long and long. The ice has come and gone since then, and the patterns of the stars in the sky have changed."

"And you still fight? After all that time?"

"Oh, yes, Christine. Still. Now it is Tanaquil's daughter we fight, the Seahawk; and her folk dare not leave the water, which is Domnu's protection."

"But you," Holly said, "why hasn't anybody seen you?"

"We have our hidden places; the caverns of Orione, and Brancaer, our city. It is many hundred years past that we made our law: to stay within such boundaries and to have no traffic with humans. I think no word of us survives, there."

"But still at war," Mathurin echoed, "even over so small a thing as a coin."

Holly rubbed the plasters on her arms. "It was them from the sea, they sent the gull?"

Eilunieth inclined her head: an inhumanly graceful move-ment. "When Master Elathan comes, we shall disclose what place the coin came from; also, why it had value. You were attacked direct, they tell me?"

"I'll say-!" Chris launched into a vivid account, and Holly let her talk. She found herself on the twilight edge of the group and stood unnoticed. She walked back into the shadowed end of the room.

I was right-tapestries. All artist, Holly became absorbed. The subject was the fall of the sea-city, Caer Ys. Here were high white towers... old sailing-s.h.i.+ps, canvas bellying in a storm-wind... beast-people fighting... the island, and an immense dark tidal wave dwarfing it... a cruel female face- shocked, Holly recognised it; it was identical with the face on the coin. Tanaquil Seahawk? And down in this dark corner... not seeing clearly, she reached back for a candle, then bent down and peered closely.

She drew back as if stung! There were dark silks here, black and purple and blue; in a coiling pattern that reached out for her. It might be abstract-or this might be a beak, and those eyes and those claws or tentacles. Whoever had woven it had only suggested a form, but it was vile and loathsome. She felt it pull with a dark and endless strength; and held back. It was putting pictures in her head: bloated spider, thick wiry hair, looping slimy tendrils, razor-edged scales...

Eilunieth's hand was warm on her shoulder, calling her back. Holly turned; saw that Elathan had come in and the others were round him. She met the woman's tawny gaze."You should be careful." A finger traced scars under the cloth. "You especially, she has touched you. No-there is little danger, if you keep your mind from her. Go back now."

Elathan hailed Eilunieth.

"I have found no answer yet. There be books I need that I have not here; but I must find the answer, and quickly. Lady, is all told?"

"Our history. I am minded also to do this: take them and show what part that coin played. Is that well, think you?"

A scratching sound came from the corner of the room and Holly saw a bird perched on the back of Eilunieth's empty chair. It cawed nastily; dark, glossy and twice the size of a crow, though similarly ill-omened. A raven. Then it spread the untidy fans of wings and tail, made a short glide to Eilunieth's shoulder and cawed again. She answered in a strange tongue, breathy and liquid.

The elukoi language? Holly thought. Then she said cauti-ously: "That would explain how you got a cat to attack us, yes?"

"What you think; that is true. I understand her speech, and she knows the meaning of the elukoi tongue; so though it may be we cannot speak each other's language, yet do we understand each other right well. Tarac bids me recall the laws of Oberon-but this is Orione, not Brancaer; and I am Lady here." She stepped gracefully between them. "I will take you now to Mirrormere. Follow me."

Fletcher and Elathan came with Holly and Chris. The pale wine had warmed Holly; she didn't notice the chill in the pa.s.sages.

"Can you talk to other animals?" she asked Fletcher curi-ously. There was a strange mood on her; she was past doubting anything.

He nodded. "There are few we cannot speak to. You should come to Brancaer... they live with us. They are not animals.

They are... people in different shapes." He saw the others had drawn ahead. "Come on; let us get down there."

"Down? How far underground are we?"

"Not far. Most of it is on a level with the lower river-bed but Mirrormere is lower than that."

They went down a narrow stair cut in the rock, into pas-sages narrower and smaller, but still well lit. The air was still and heavy. At a narrow curtained arch Holly hung back, nervous.

"There is no danger. Enter."

They beheld Mirrormere.

This was no carven room but only a rough cave, narrow at the arch but widening ahead. The uneven floor and sheer high walls were blue-grey stone, alternating with sheets of clear rock crystal. Veins of crystal sang and flashed with light in the high-vaulting roof. Where the cavern widened and ended was a pool, very deep, nearly a well. The surface was three yards across, almost circular, save where it met the wall. Tall tripods of black iron stood around it, supporting foun-tains of candles. The saffron flames were tall and still, but the light and the surface of the water were in constant movement.

"It's like being inside a diamond..." Holly whispered. Tinkling sounds echoed in the crystals.

A raised ledge surrounded the pool. Elathan and Eilunieth were bending over it. The Lady turned, cat-graceful.

"Come see. Here was your coin."

Sunken in the ledge was a single glittering row of coins, edge to edge, all round the pool. Near Eilunieth one s.p.a.ce was filled by a blank rough new-forged disc.

Holly knelt by the pool, stone rough under her knees, Chris leaning over her shoulder. The light stained the underside of their faces with rainbows.

Coins set edge to edge-here a hawk pouncing, a raven with head c.o.c.ked sideways, a spray of leaves and berries that she recognised as rowan, a beast-man's face, Tanaquil, tall towers and spires... the pool's light ran like water in the silver metal.

They're not the same, she realised, these have got lettering-or some have, anyway. And mine was better made. Older, I guess.

The continually ruffled surface of the water shot facets of light across the cave. Holly couldn't see the bottom of the pool; only a dark shadow there.

"What does it do?"

"I will show you." Taking up a long-handled snuffer, Eilunieth set about extinguis.h.i.+ng the candles. They died, sending up thick coils of pungent white smoke. When the last candle was put out, the cave was not dark. Brilliant white light spilled out from the pool itself, sparkling like the sun on the sea. Holly breathed in sharply, and let it out in slow wonder.

Behind them in the shadows, Elathan said, "Two things Mirrormere will do. The pool preserves things, so long as they be immersed in it. The other-you will shortly see."

The pool was quietening. Soon it lay smooth as a pane of gla.s.s. Holly, peering down, saw what stood on the crystalline floor.

"It's a harp, a proper one-I mean, full-sized."

"There is the Harp of Math, which has lain there since we brought it on the s.h.i.+p Brandhu from Ys's ruin. It is one of the three oldest things in the world."

"It's beautiful." The water had a smell, she found, like lemonade or ice or snow; it stung her nose. "Does the water preserve the coins?"

"No. Over them I have placed binding spells."

"The other property of Mirrormere is this." Eilunieth stretched her hand out over the water.

On the still surface images gathered. Houses, hills, trees; seen from above, clear and minute. Cars moving in the streets and people walking, coloured lights along the seafront; the East Hill, Surcombe centre, Birchdale Junction... Holly gripped the ledge: eagle-winged, falcon-sighted, suspended a mile above the coast.

"Thus we saw you Sunday," Elathan explained. "It is the eye of the Hollow Hills, our surest defence in the war with the sea. They cannot take us unaware. That is why we must dwell here, as well as in Brancaer; so may we guard both places."

Eilunieth's face was sombre. "Here is what I guard. The well of the silent harp, the eyes of the elukoi..." Holly looked again at the join in the circuit. "I got a question. The coin belongs here, but I found it in the Old Town-how come?"

"That," Elathan was grim, "is the heart of the matter. And I do not know."

"Mathurin Harper came to me, discovering that the coin had gone. I made whole the Well, then, using it, searched out the missing coin-" she turned to Holly "-and we sent the boy Fletcher to you, for he may pa.s.s as human where we maynot. And so we have watched him, even tonight, and his bringing you here, which was needful. For this is unknown, and in the unknown lies danger."

"Suppose somebody took it-?"

"But we do not come among humans. And they may not come to us, save that we wish it..." She and Elathan seemed almost fearful. She said, "Children of Earth, you be cold here. Shall we go?"

Holly cast a last look at Mirrormere. As Elathan relit the candles it lost its smoothness and rippled with inner convul-sions. Dappled diamond light flickered.

"I'm with you." Chris s.h.i.+vered. "It's nippy down here."

Eilunieth linked arms with the two girls and they began walking up to the higher levels. Holly was conscious of her warm dry palm and the p.r.i.c.k of her nails; but something else troubled her. Something about the images in Mirrormere...

Elathan said suddenly, "These girls must come with me to Brancaer, and that soon."

Eilunieth eyed him narrowly. "Now hear me-we have broken laws, you and I; for it is not written that the Children of Earth should enter Orione, or see the ancient mysteries of the Well; and though there is little that they can say that would be believed, least of all should they go to Brancaer."

"Needs must, Lady. For I may not bring out of the city the things I want; that is, grimoires and treatises, star-maps, natal charts, and the like. Therefore must they come into the city, where I may question them, and haply I may find what befell the coin. For look you, what may reach in to us, unknown, and break a coin; that may break more: a cavern, a city-and then where were we? Lost as Ys."

"There may be matter in what you say..."

"There is. What befell the coin: that chanced while these girls had it-so it's like they have seen somewhat, even if they recall it not. And that in turn may tell what breached our defences..."

Holly interrupted: "Are they of now, those pictures we just saw?"