'Oh, silly Meren!' She laughed, and once more Taita felt the twinge of jealousy.
When they reached the village, Hilto, Nakonto and Imbali were just as happy to welcome them back. As a home-coming gift Bilto had sent
312 I
five large jugs of excellent wine and a fat sheep. Hilto and Nakonto slaughtered it, while Imbali and Fenn prepared dhurra and vegetables.
Later, they feasted round the fire for half the night, celebrating their reunion. It was all so homely and familiar after the weird otherworld of the Cloud Gardens that, for the moment, the menace of Eos seemed remote and insubstantial.
At last they left the fire and retired to their sleeping chambers. Taita and Fenn were alone for the first time since he and Meren had left her.
'Oh, Taita, I was so worried. I expected you to cast for me and I could hardly sleep for fear that I might miss you if you did.'
'I am sorry I caused you distress, little one. I have been to a strange place where strange things happen. You know the good reasons why I was silent.'
'Good reasons are just as hard to bear as bad ones,' she said, with precocious feminine logic. He chuckled and watched as she pulled off her tunic and washed herself, then rinsed her mouth with water from the large earthenware jug. She was maturing with such extraordinary rapidity that he felt another pang.
Fenn stood up, dried herself on the tunic, then threw it over the lintel to air. She came to lie beside him on the mat, slipped an arm around his chest and snuggled close. 'It's so cold and lonely when you are gone,' she murmured.
This time I may not be forced to give her up to another, he thought.
Perhaps there is a chance that Hannah can transform me into a full man. Perhaps one day Fenn and I may become man and woman who know and love each other, not only in spirit but also in body.' He imagined her in her magnificent womanhood and himself as youthful and virile, as he had appeared in the image that the imp had shown him in the pool. If the gods are kind and we both attain that happy state, what a wondrous couple we would make. He stroked her hair and said aloud, 'Now I must tell you all that I have discovered. Are you listening or are you half asleep already?'
She sat up and looked at him sternly. 'Of course I am listening. How cruel you are! I always listen when you talk.'
'Well, lie down again and keep listening.' He paused. When he went on, his tone was no longer light. 'I have found the witch's lair.'
'Tell me about it - all of it. Keep nothing from me.'
So he told her about the Cloud Gardens and the magical grotto. He described the sanatorium and the work Hannah was doing there. He told her the details of the operation on Meren's eye. Then he hesitated, but
at last he summoned the courage to tell her of the operation Hannah planned for him.
Fenn was quiet for such a long time that he thought she had fallen asleep, but then she sat up again and stared at him solemnly. 'You mean she will give you a dangling thing, like the one Imbali told me about, the thing that can change shape and size?'
'Yes.' He could not help but smile at the description, and for a moment she looked bemused. Then she smiled like an angel, but the outer corners of her green eyes slanted upwards wickedly. 'I would love us to have one of those. It sounds like such rich sport, much better than a puppy.'
Taita laughed at the way she had claimed joint ownership, but his guilt was as keen as a razor's edge. The imp of the grotto had put the devils into his mind, but Taita found himself imagining things that were best kept locked away and never spoken of. In the time Fenn had been with him she had developed much faster than a normal child would. But she was not a normal child: she was the reincarnation of a great queen, not governed by the natural order of this world. As swiftly as her body was altering, their relationship was also changing. His love for her was strengthening by the day, but it was no longer solely the love of a father for a daughter. When she looked at him in that new way, her green eyes slanted like those of a Persian cat, she was no longer a girl: the woman lay just below the innocent surface, a butterfly in its chrysalis. The first cracks were appearing in the shell and soon it would burst open for the butterfly to fly free. For the first time since they had been together, the witch in her Cloud Gardens was out of both their minds, and they were occupied with each other to the exclusion of all else.
Over the ensuing days, while they waited for the summons from the Supreme Council, they fell back into their old ways. Taita and Fenn studied from early morning until after the midday meal. In the afternoons they exercised at archery or rode out with Meren and the others to hunt the giant forest hogs that abounded in the surrounding woods. Nakonto and Imbali acted as hounds and went on foot into the densest thickets, armed only with spear and axe to flush the animals into the open. Hilto took them with the lance and Meren sharpened his new eye with the bow, then finished off the wounded beasts with the sword. They sought out the huge old boars, which were
ferocious, fearless and could rip a man to shreds with their tusks. The sows, even though they were smaller, had sharper tusks and were just as aggressive as the boars - they were also better eating. Taita kept Fenn with him, holding her in check when she wanted to race forward on Whirlwind and try her little bow on one of the great boars. They were short-necked and barrel-chested, their hides so thick and tough that they stopped or turned all but the heaviest arrows. Their humped backs, bristling with black manes, were level with Whirlwind's stirrup. With a toss of the head they could lay a man's thigh open to the bone, and sever the femoral artery.
Nevertheless, when a fat sow came grunting and snorting out of the thickets, Hilto and Meren drew back and shouted, 'This one is for you, Fenn!'
With a quick appraisal of the quarry, Taita decided to let her ride. He had shown her how to come in at an angle from behind the animal, leaning out from the saddle to draw her short recurved cavalry bow until the string touched her lips. 'The first arrow is the one that counts,' he had said. 'Go in close and send it to the heart.'
As the sow felt the strike she turned in a single stride and lowered her head for the charge, sharp white tusks protruding from the sides of her jaws. Fenn pivoted Whirlwind neatly and led the sow's charge, drawing her out so that the arrowhead could work deeper into her chest, its cutting edges slicing through arteries, lungs and heart. Taita and the others cheered her lustily.
'Now the Persian shot!' Taita shouted. He had learnt it from the horsemen of the great plains of Ecbatana, and
