The Luck of Brin's Five by Cherry; Wilder Read Free Book Online

“Cheeky brat! Tewl is the Galtroy’s female partner. They have a pair-family, city style. She has carried him two fine children, what more do you want!”
    Diver took some of this in, grinning. He knelt down, and I helped Tsammet onto his back. She weighed heavily, but he was equal to it. As I went scudding off on my errand, I heard her say to him slowly, as if speaking to a child, “We’ve got a strange thing in the net, up ahead . . .”
    Then I was alone, running on down in the wind, with only the plaited-rope soles of my boots to keep me from slithering off into the valley. I ran and ran until I thought I must be nearly down the mountain, but there was no sign of the convoy. Then I paused, and over the side of the pass I saw the ship in the net far below, almost on the outskirts of Cullin. But the lack of the palanquin had been noticed; four vassals were toiling towards me up the next curve in the road.
    I hailed them, still out of breath, told the tale and handed over Rilpo’s message skein. They were all hefty and stern, with three knots on their tunics; any one of them could have been a bravo who seized me, back in the glebe. Their manners improved when they read the skein, and they went on, cursing, to dig out the litter. I sat idle on the roadside, watching the roofs and tents of Cullin and the cloud shadows moving over the Great Plain. The river Troon, behind its broad groves, flashed gray as metal in the wintery light. Presently there came a sound of singing, and there they were: Rilpo riding now on Harper Roy, Tsammet grinning from Diver’s back and Tewl, striding along, strumming Roy’s precious harp and singing an old mountain air, “Sweet Bird of the Snow.”
    So we all went on down. I walked beside Tewl and looked my fill at a grandee. There was a gaiety, a brightness about Tewl and Rilpo that was all of a piece with their finery. I could almost understand serving such persons, being a loyal vassal like Tsammet. I had an impulse to trust them, to ask Diver to trust them and tell his story and show them his magic and reveal his knowledge of the air ship. But I kept these dangerous thoughts to myself, and we came at last, in the darkness before the rising of the second sun, to the riverbank outside the town.
    The Troon rises on the west face of Hingstull and passes through great falls and caverns, so that it is a sizeable river when it curls round the mountain’s base and is joined by the Stone Brook. Then, beyond the joining place, it curves through the town and on into the Great Plain. We saw the convoy with the air ship in its net, drawn up on the Troon bank where the two waters meet. There was a paddle barge ready and a smaller passenger boat. As we made our way to the riverbank, the vassals in charge of the convoy were preparing to load the ship on the barge.
    Diver was able to set down Tsammet at the landing stage, and all of us pressed closer to watch the loading. No sooner was the air ship laid on the barge than it was covered with vast sheets of canvas and bound with ropes into a great bundle of ordinary merchandise.
    â€œSecrecy,” whispered Harper Roy. “Tiath Gargan will not have it borne through Cullin.” Diver was restless and tense, but he made no move.
    Rilpo Galtroy, who had been speaking to the vassals, drew us all aside. “Friends . . .” he said, “I must charge you all—explain it to your quiet sib if you can—never speak of what you have seen here.”
    â€œYou mean that vessel?” asked Harper Roy. “Where does it come from, Highness?”
    Rilpo and Tewl became still and silent. “You read those crests,” said Tewl. “The Great Elder has expressed a particular need for silence.”
    â€œI will say this,” put in Rilpo carefully. “It is believed that a foreign race has flown from the void and made a nest in the islands.”
    â€œBut we charge you most solemnly. . .