I waited.
'Townkeeper Trefor of Hybra has requested a junior master now that Ainged has remanded his post and seeks the Way of Ignorance.'
My entire abdomen twisted in upon itself.
You are fortunate indeed,' Manwarr said, 'for Hybra looks upon Deep Lake. Years ago, in the time of the Fifth Colloquium, the Master Vollod brought us, all the junior scholars, to the precipice to behold the eels.'
My stomach sank further. Eels were the last thing I wanted to hear about. Hybra, where I would be schoolmaster to the offspring of foresters and trufflers. Hybra, a town so small it barely needed a gliderway.
'I remember now what he said when the sun split the crevasse and the light spilled like an arrow onto the waters.'
I forced myself to nod.
'A true Dzin image renders insights beyond speech.' Manwarr was always like that, spouting forth platitudes that were so obvious that they'd have been as threadbare as the Abbo's ceremonial sash.
I reminded myself to consider that the obvious could yet bear truth, even though I could not always see such.
'In Hybra, you will have the time to consider the life you have not led. I would suggest, Tyndel, that you devote yourself both to your duties and to your garden.'
'I shall endeavor to follow your advice.'
'Through disappointment, through the eye of the needle, lies shradda.' Manwarr paused, and, in a way, his words were fresh, recalling the definition of shradda - 'faith,' perfect faith in the triumph of true ignorance. 'Did you know that Abbo Sanhedran was once schoolmaster in Danber? It has not even a gliderway, not even to this day.' A brief smile followed.
'I did not know that.' I didn't, but perhaps times thad not changed that much since Abbo Sanhedran had been young. I felt Manwarr was letting me know that a schoolmaster in Hybra could become one of the eight masters, perhaps even Abbo.
'I expect you'll be wishing to share your good fortune with your family. Come see me after you're settled in Hybra. It's not that long by glider - less than an hour.'
With his dismissal, I walked slowly, reflectively, back to my room, back to the narrow pallet bed and the desk and scriber that I would leave to another.
There, Hywk came upon me as I packed the two black duffels that contained all I had, all I needed. He had another year, or more, at the Hall.
'The aquacyan wears well upon you, Tyndel.'
'An aquacyan robe is an aquacyan robe.' A safe enough platitude, and true.
'I wish you well on your posting. When you get where you're going, let me know.'
'I know where I'm going, but not where I'm destined.' I offered a laugh.
'The road not taken can be walked another day.'
Hywk's words told me he had an idea that I wasn't sure whether to be pleased or not. But I didn't want to tell him that I'd been sent to Hybra, not after suggesting almost arrogantly earlier that I might have been considered for the undermaster opening at the Lyceum at Leboath.
'Perhaps even in the soft mists of morning.' At least I had not been tasked to one of the floating cities.
'Or the fullness of evening, when the heat has fled.' Hywk always grinned when he talked about evening, and most of Henvor knew why. That may have been one reason he had lingered so long under the tutelage of Master Juab, the inscrutable. 'I'll be late for my session. Do let me know.'
A warm and crooked grin, and he was gone, and I needed but to add the last items to my bags. Then there wasn't much else to do but carry the duffels down to the gliderway above the river. I had up to three weeks before going to Hybra. That was the custom, and I hadn't been informed otherwise.
The orange ball of the morning sun was golden and near noon-high by the time I stood and waited for the next glider south. The glider was empty, and, after easing the duffels into a locker, I sat on the polished and curved wood of the first seat under the reflective overcanopy and watched the river as the glider carried me south toward Leboath, Wyns, and eventually Mettersfel. The faintest odor of ozone permeated the glider, a sign of impending maintenance.
The narrow grassy lawns that flanked the river near the center of Henvor, and Teford, since Teford was on the west side of the Greening and Henvor the east, quickly gave way to the marshes, the tall grasses, and the lilies. A huge blue heron stalked, darted his beak, and came up with a silver fish before the taller rushes to the south blocked my view.
A single-sailed tillerboard slid northward in the light breeze, a blond and white-skinned figure guiding the fragile craft more toward the pleasure docks at Teford and away from the eastern shore.
The late spring air flowed around the windscreen and caressed my face, and I watched the Greening, the occasional boaters, and the scattered dwellings between Henvor and Leboath. Older and smaller than Henvor, Leboath sits on a low plateau overlooking the river, and the glider slipped uphill toward the first boarding point on the north side.
As it slowed, I glanced at the smooth-faced green bricks that walled the antique waiting platform, bricks still unmarked, unvanquished by rain and weather, yet exuding age, and at the hard-finished and polished oak timbers that comprised each corner post and supported the roof. The design proclaimed the age of the timbers, as did their mellow aenous shade, but like most structures in Dorcha, the platform and its roof had been well built and better maintained.
A woman in a green tunic and trousers boarded at the north stop in Leboath, as did two couples, younger than I. The couples sat in the rear, but the woman sat across the aisle from me.
'On holiday, young master?' The white-haired woman's eyes sparkled as she settled herself and the glider eased at half speed toward the midtown stop. 'You must be a teacher.'
'Not yet. I'll be going to my first position after I see my family.'
'Teaching is important, especially for the young.' She snorted slightly. 'Too many worry about being great masters in the Halls. You do, too. You've got the look. You'll be great someday, but not in the way you expect, I'd bet. In the interim, teach the young the best you can. That's anyone's true legacy.'
'The dye is scarcely dry on my gown,' I protested, half smiling.
She smiled. You've the marks of greatness, but what kind is too early to say.'
Marks of greatness? For a junior scholar master headed for a small Dorchan town?
You smile, but I've seen my share of greatness over the years, and it's not a blessing. The only difficulty is that escaping greatness brings an even greater curse.'
Was she one of the superstitious single-god believers? I nodded. Your words are stamped with the imprint of truth.' Safe enough to say.
'All words bear some truth.'
The glider stopped once more, in mid-Leboath, and two men and three women boarded silently. All five, plus one of the couples in the rear, got off at the next stop - the south platform of Leboath, a roofless stand set in an extensive Barren Isles garden with maze hedges and topiary shaped like fantastic birds with fanned tails. Outside of that one garden, I'd never seen such an image.
I did not speak as the glider accelerated southward, but watched the river once more.
'Good day and bright skies.' The white-haired woman in green nodded as she rose to debark at Wyns. 'And to you.'
'Thank you, young master, but at my age we take any day and whatever may be in the skies.' The warm smile and soft tone further disarmed her words.
Two more stops in Wyns added more passengers, and the glider was nearly full as it whispered away from the south boarding point in Wyns. I withdrew more into my own thoughts. A teacher's post was certainly honorable, but what would I say to my father?