Shardik

once more turned towards the shore. Kelderek, gazing, could discern nothing on top of the burning pyre. It had fallen inwards at the centre, the two glowing halves spread on either side like the wings of a great butterfly. Shardik was no more.

'Twice,' he cried, 'I followed you into the Telthearna, Lord Shardik. Now I can follow you no longer.' Returning at dusk we see the fires on shore. If one is yours then you're a lucky man. No one ought to be left alone in the dark. If you die, brother, your children shall share my fire.

The paddlers cast off the rope and turned away, making for the shore downstream and an easy return in slack water under the bank. The raft could no longer be seen, but far-off, a point on the surface of the river itself seemed to be burning, emitting smoke and covering the watery expanse with a wide, drifting cloud. We gut the fish and the children spit them to cook. 'Hullo, my son, my tall young zoan tree! What have you got to say to your dad tonight?' 'When I'm a man, I'll paddle a boat like you!'

The pouring smoke was gone. Trees hid it from view. Kelderek, closing his eyes as he turned away, found his soldier beside him, felt his arm under his shoulders and allowed himself to be lifted almost bodily through the shallows to the shore. Tan-Rion called up his men and turned them about to recover their arms. Then they marched away: and the villagers, too, began to disperse, two matronly women shepherding Radu and the other children with them. Yet several, before they went, came forward – some a little hesitantly, for they stood in awe of Kelderek – to kiss his hands and ask his blessing. Any holy man may have the power to confer good luck, and a chance is not to be missed. He stood hunched and silent as a heron, but nodded back at them and looked in the eye each one that passed before him – an old man with a withered arm, a tall young fellow who raised his palm to his forehead, a girl who smiled shyly at the priestess standing near by and gave her the flowers she was carrying. Last of all came a ragged old woman, with a child lying asleep in her arms. Kelderek started and almost backed away but she, showing neither hesitation nor surprise, took his hand in her own, kissed it, spoke a few words with a smile and was gone, hobbling away over the stones. 'What did she say?' he asked Melathys. 'I couldn't catch it.' 'She said, 'Bless me, young sir, and accept my blessing in return.' ' He lay on his bed in the upper room, watching the elastic reflections widening, merging and closing among the roof-poles. Melathys sat beside him, holding his good hand in both her own. He was tired out and feverish again, shivering and numb-cold. There was nothing left remarkable in the world. All was empty and cold, stretching away to the horizon and the blank sky.

'Hope you didn't find our singing out of keeping, sir,' said Tan-Rion. 'The priestess said it would be all to the good if we could manage a song, but the job was to think of something suitable that the lads could sing. They all know 'The Tears', of course.'

Kelderek found some words of thanks and praise, and after a little the officer, seeing that he was exhausted, took his leave. Presently Radu came, wrapped in a cloak from throat to ankles, and sat for a time opposite Melathys.

'They say my father's on his way,' he said. 'I'd hoped he might be here before this. If only he'd known, he'd have wished to be on the shore this afternoon.'

Kelderek smiled and nodded like an old man, only partly taking in what he said. But indeed Radu said little, sitting silent for long minutes and once biting on his hand to still the chattering of his teeth. Kelderek slipped into a half-doze and woke to hear him answering Melathys.

'- but they'll be all right, I think.' And then, after a pause, 'Shouter's ill, you know – quite badly, they say.' 'Shouter?' asked Melathys, puzzled. 'Is he?' said Kelderek. 'But I saw him on the shore.'

'Yes, I dare say he thought he'd better be there at all costs – not that it makes any difference – but he's in a bad way this evening. I believe it's fear as much as anything. He's terrified: partly of the other children; but partly of the villagers as well. They know who he is – or who he was – and they won't do anything for him. He's lying by himself in a shed, but I think he'd run away if he could.' 'Who's Shouter?' asked Melathys again.

'Will they kill him?' said Kelderek. Radu did not answer at once and he pressed him. 'What do you want to do with him?'

'No one's actually said anything; but what would be the good of killing him?' 'Is that really what you feel – after all you've suffered?'

'It's what I feel I ought to feel, anyway.' He was silent again for some time and then said, 'No one's going to kill you. Tan-Rion told me.'

'I'll – I'll come and talk to Shouter,' said Kelderek, groping to get up. 'Where is the shed?'

'Lie down, my love,' said Melathys. 'I'll go. Since no one tells me about him, I must see this Shouter for myself – or hear him.'

57 Elleroth's Dinner

Party When he woke, his Yeldashay soldier was sitting near by mending a piece of leather in the fading light. Seeing Kelderek awake, he grinned and nodded, but said nothing. Kelderek slept again and was next wakened by Melathys lying down beside him.

'If I don't lie down I'll fall down. I'll be off to bed soon, but it means so much to be alone with you again for a little. How are you?'

'Empty – desolate. Lord Shardik – I can't take it in.' He broke off, but then said, 'You did well today. The Tuginda herself could have done no better.'

'Yes, she could: and she would have. But what happened was ordained.' 'Ordained?'

'So I believe. I haven't told you something else the Tuginda said to me before I left Zeray. I asked her whether, if I found you, I should give you any message from her; and she said, 'He's troubled because of what he did years ago, at moonset on the road to Gelt. He hasn't been able to ask forgiveness, although he wants it. Tell him I forgive him freely.' And then she said, 'I'm guilty too -guilty of pride and stupidity.' I asked, 'How, saiyett? How could you be?' 'Why,' she said, 'you know, as I do, what we have been taught and what we have taught to others. We were taught that God would reveal the truth of Shardik through two chosen vessels, a man and a woman: and that He would break those vessels to fragments and Himself fashion them again to His purpose. I had supposed, in my stupid pride, that the woman was myself, and often I have thought that I was indeed suffering that breaking. I was wrong. It was not I, my dear girl,' she said to me. 'It was not I, but another woman, that He chose to be broken and whom He has now fashioned again.''

Melathys was crying and he put his arm round her, unable to speak for the shock of surprise that filled him. Yet he was in no doubt and, as perception began to come upon him of all that her words imported, he felt like one looking out towards an unknown country half-hidden in the twilight and mist of early morning. Prcsently she said,

'We have to return to the Tuginda. She will need a message sent to Quiso and help with preparing for her journey. And Ankray -something must be done for him. But that wretched boy out there -' 'He's a murderer.' 'I know. Do you want to kill him?' 'No.'

'It's easier for me to pity him -I wasn't there. But he was a slave like the rest of them, wasn't he? I suppose he has no one at all?'

'I think we may find there are several like that. It's the unloved and deserted who get sold as slaves, you know.' 'I should know.' 'So should I. God forgive me! O God, forgive me!'

She checked him with a finger held to his lips. 'Fashioned again to His purpose. I believe I'm at last beginning to see.'

They could hear Dirion climbing the ladder. Melathys got up, bent over him and kissed his lips. Still holding her hand, he said, 'Then what are we to do?'

'Oh, Kelderek! My darling Kelderek, how many more times? It will be shown us, shown us, shown us what we are to do!' Next day his wounds were once more cnflamed and painful. He was feverish and kept his bed, but the following morning felt well enough to sit looking out over the river in the sunlight while he soaked his arm in warm water with herbs. The herbal smell mingled with wood-smoke from Dirion's fire, and some children below played and scuffled over their task of spreading nets to dry on the shore. Melathys had just finished binding his arm and tying a sling for it when suddenly they heard cheering break out some distance away on the edge of the village. There are as many kinds of cheering as of children's weeping; the sound tells plainly enough whether the cause be deep or shallow, great or small. These were not ironical cheers of derision, nor yet of sport nor of acclamation for a