“Hail to the Hannegan!” said Marcus the Axe.
“Hail Texark! Next case.”
Pontius felt better after that. Half-awake by now, he knew he was dreaming, but let the dream go on. The fellow’s silly explanation of truth probably had nothing to do with the silence of the first King of the Nomads, but it noisily invoked silence as policy and thus took some of the sting out of Pilate’s remembrance of the first one’s half-smiling gaze, which had seemed to say to him at the time nothing philosophical at all but had expressed an utterly intimate, infinite regress of “I who look at you who look at me who look at you…” His wife Ædrea had been frightened by the same look. It was perhaps sexy, and for that very reason insulting to those whose duty it was to see such scum as loathsome.
“What is truth?” said Pilate to the third King of the Nomads.
“Root for pearls, Texark pig!”
Blacktooth-Pilate had no qualms at all with that one.
He woke up thinking about Ædrea instead—and their coming assignation in a hayloft. A prank. Drowsily, he remembered hearing Brother Gimpus argue that a detachment from sexual passion was the essence of chastity, and that detachment was possible without abstinence. Brother Gimpus was caught naked with an ugly widow in the village who claimed she paid him every Wednesday for the eighth sacrament. “Rest in peace,” Blacktooth whispered against the pillow.
CHAPTER 6
Nevertheless, keeping in view the needs of
weaker brethren, we believe that a hemina
of wine a day is sufficient for each.
CHÜR HØNGAN WAS STILL ASLEEP WHEN Blacktooth started up, fully awakened by hoofbeats, which stopped near the carriage. Then he heard voices speaking softly in Grasshopper. They were talking about Shard’s cows in the pen next to the barn, until something excited them and there was another burst of hoof-beats, followed by the screams of Ædrea. The monk pulled at the edge of the tarp and peered outside. A few flakes of snow were still falling in the faint morning light. There were three horsemen, obviously Nomads. Two of them held the kicking girlsuspended by her arms between them. Shard began yelling protests from afar, and the hunchback ran out with his musket. Blacktooth turned to awaken Høngan, but he was already up and moving, putting on his wolfskins and the leather helmet with small horns and a metal ornament. He usually wore the hat only when mounted. Blacktooth thrust his hand deep into the upholstery and felt the Red Deacon’s handgun. The girl had missed it.
Chür Høngan climbed out the other door and came into their view from behind the coach, yelling at the renegades in the Wilddog of the High Plains.
“In the name of the Wilddog sharf and his mother, put her down! I command you, motherless ones! Dismount!”
Blacktooth raised the cardinal’s weapon, but his hand was shaking badly. The Nomad not involved with the girl lifted his musket, looked closely at Holy Madness, then dropped the weapon to the ground. The others eased the girl onto her feet, and she promptly ran away. The riders slowly dismounted, and the apparent leader fell to his knees before the advancing Høngan.
He spoke now in Høngan’s dialect. “O Little Bear’s kin, Sire of the Day Maiden, we meant her no harm. We saw those cows over there and thought they were ours. We were only teasing the girl.”
“Only a teasing little rape, perhaps? Apologize and leave here at once. You know those tame cows are not yours. You are motherless. You ride unbranded horses. I heard you speaking Grasshopper, so you don’t belong anywhere near here. Never bother these people; they are children of the Pope, with whom the free hordes have treaties.”
The visitors complied immediately and were gone. The incident had lasted not more than five minutes, but Blacktooth was astounded. He climbed out of the carriage. Chür Ösle Høngan leaned against the coach and gazed absently after them as they rode away toward the main trail through a sprinkle of snow.
“They’re Grasshopper outlaws, but they knew you! Who are you?” Blacktooth asked in awe.
The Nomad smiled at him. “You know my name.”
“What was that they called you?”
“‘Sire of the Day Maiden’? Have you never heard that before?”
“Of course. It’s what one calls one’s sharf.”
“Or even one’s own uncle, on some occasions.”
“But motherless ones recognized you? Last night I dreamed of a king of the Nomads.”
Høngan laughed. “I’m no king, Nimmy. Not yet. It’s not me they recognized. Just this.” He touched the metal ornament on the front of his helmet. “The clan of my mother.” He smiled at Blacktooth. “Nimmy, my name is ‘Holy Madness,’ of the Little Bear motherline. Pronounce it in Jackrabbit.”
“Cheer Honnyugan. But in Jackrabbit, it means Magic Madman.”
“Just the last name. What does it sound like?”
“Honnyugan? Hannegan?”
“Just so. We’re cousins,” archly said the Nomad. “Don’t tell anybody, and don’t ever pronounce it in Jackrabbit again.”
Cardinal Brownpony was approaching from the direction of Shard’s house, and Chür Høngan went to meet him with a report of the incident. Blacktooth wondered if the Nomad was entirely teasing him. He had heard claims of the dynasty’s ultimate Nomadic origin, but since Boedullus made no mention of it, that origin must have been in recent centuries. At least he knew now that Høngan was of a powerful motherline. His own family, displaced to the farms, had no insignia, and he had never studied the heraldry of the Plains. Something else that piqued his curiosity about the Nomad was his apparent close friendship with Father e’Laiden, who called him Bearcub. The priest had often ridden beside the Nomad when he was driving, and their talks were plainly personal but private. They had known each other well on the Plains. From fragments overheard, he decided that e’Laiden was formerly the Nomad’s teacher, but no longer dared to play that role unasked, lest a grown-up and somewhat wicked student laugh in his face.
Blacktooth went to look for his rosary and g’tara in the barn, which was half buried in the side of a hill. Ædrea was not visible, but he could hear the muffled sound of strings being plucked. The floor was swept stone, and a small stream of spring water ran in a channel from beneath a closed door in the rear and out to the cattle pen outside the wall. Above the door was a hayloft. He opened the door and found himself in a root cellar, with a number of nearly empty bins containing some withered turnips, a pumpkin, and a few sprouting potatoes: the remains of last year’s crops. And there were jars of preserved fruits—where could they have grown?—on the shelves. There were three barrels, some farm implements, and a pile of straw for layering vegetables. There was no one here. He turned to go, but Ædrea slipped down from the hayloft and confronted him as he started to leave. Nimmy looked at her and backed away. In spite of the weather, she was wearing nothing but a short leather skirt, a bright grin, and his rosary as a necklace.
He backed away. “Wh-where’s the g’tara?”
“In the loft. It’s more comfortable up there. You can snuggledown in the hay. Come on.”
“The air’s warmer in here than outside.”
“All right.” She came in and closed the door behind her, leaving them in pitch darkness.
“Haven’t you a lamp or candle?”
She laughed, and he felt her hands exploring him. “Can’t you see in the dark? I can.”
“No. Please. How can you?”
Her hands withdrew. “How can I what?”
“See in the dark.”
“I’m a genny, you know. Some of us can do that. It’s not really seeing, though. I just know where I am. But I can see the halo around you. You’re one of us.”
“Us who?”
“You’re a genny with a halo.”
“I’m not—” He broke off, hearing her rustling skirt in the darkness, then the scratch of flint on steel and a spark. After several sparks, she managed to kindle a bit of tinder and used it to light a tallow taper. Nimmy relaxed slightly. She took down two clay cups from a shelf and turned the spigot on one of the barrels.
“Let’s drink a glass of berry wine.”
“I’m not really thirsty.”
“It’s not for thirst, silly. It’s for getting drunk.”
“I’m not supposed to do that.”
She handed him the cup and sat down in the straw.
My g’tara—
“Oh, all right. Wait here. I’ll get it.”
He nervously gulped the wine while she was gone. It was strong, sweet, tasted of resin, and was immediately relaxing. She came back in with his g’tara, but held it away when he reached for it.
“You have to play it for me.”
He sighed. “All right. Just once. What shall I play?”
“‘Pour Me Another Before We Do It Brother.’”
Nimmy poured another cup of wine and handed it to her.
“That’s the name of the song, silly.”
“I don’t know it.”
“Well, play anything.” She flopped down in the straw. Her skirt came up. By candlelight he could see under it. She wasn’t wearing anything there. But something was unusual. He hadn’t seen a girl that way since he was a child, but it wasn’t the way he remembered. He looked at her, the g’tara, the cup of wine in his hand, and the candle. he gulped the wine, and poured another.
“Play a love song.”
He gulped again, set the cup aside, and began plucking the strings. He didn’t know any love songs, so he began singing the opening lines of Vergil’s fourth eclogue to music he had composed himself.
When he got to the words jam redit et Virgo, she made a little puff of wind with her lips and blew out the candle from six feet away. He stopped in fright.
“Pour another cup of wine and come here.”
Nimmy heard the liquid splashing into the cup, then realized he was doing it himself.
“You drink it,” she said.
“How do I get out of here?”
“Well, you have to find the keyhole. It’s not very big.”
He fumbled in the area of the door.
“It’s over here.”
He felt her tugging at his sleeve, gulped the wine before he spilled it, and sprawled beside her in the darkness. “Where’s the key?”
“Right here.” She grabbed what she had grabbed when first they met. He didn’t feel like resisting. They came together, but after a lot of fumbling, he said, “It won’t fit!”
“I know. The surgeon fixed me so it won’t, but it’s fun anyway, isn’t it?”
“Not much.”
She sobbed. “You don’t like me!”
“Yes I do, but it won’t fit.”
“That’s all right,” she sniffled, sliding lower in the straw. “Just come here.”
He had not been so surprised since Torrildo’s advances in the basement. Drunkenly, he feared at any moment Cardinal Brownpony would burst out of the broom closet and yell, “Aha! Caught you!” But nothing like that happened.
When he stumbled out of the barn with his virginity diminished, a smiling Ædrea (semper virgo) sat twirling his rosary, watched him from the hayloft until he crawled into the carriage and pulled down the tarp behind him. The term “against nature“ insinuated itself into his tipsy consciousness. He had never been so drunk.
“Damn that witch!” he whispered when he awoke, but recoiled from the words at once. I am my own witch! quickly replaced them. Help me, Saint Isaac Edward Leibowitz. My Patron, I looked forward to entering that barn—pray for me. I was glad she stole my things. It gave me the excuse I needed to pursue her in pretended anger. The things she stole, I should have given her. I know this now. Why couldn’t I have known it then? I wonder if I knew what I was doing with Torrildo too. I, or the devil in me. O Saint Leibowitz, intercede for me.