Freyas Saga Ch. 09

She made no move for a while, then something entered her face, some frown, and her eyes slowly slid towards him until she looked him in the eye, questioningly.

"Well," he said, "I mean, you have, haven't you? Been through the ordeal, and now you've learned from it, and now nothing can stop you, I reckon."

He smiled brightly, or tried to, but Freya's frown deepened. She reached for the paper and, without looking at it, without taking her eyes from his, she scrawled on it, and held it up to him.

Her words ran down the page in a barely legible scribble.

IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK

"Well, but ..." he said, helpless, "I mean, isn't that what happens, you know ... you pass through the, you know, refining fire, and you come out ... more pure, or stronger, or ..."

She stared at him, and his heart ached, for her face was terrible, like it had been that morning he woke her up, weeks earlier, only now it wasn't pale with rage, but with pain. She looked much, much older, suddenly.

Oh god, he thought. What have I said?

"But ..." he said, and he reached out and grasped her hand and held it. She blinked, finally, and looked down, and wrote on the paper and held it up to him.

NOT STRONGER

He read it and stared at her, aching with pity. She nodded, swallowed, put it down and wrote again, and held it up again, looking at him again.

ONLY BURNED

He felt weak and stupid and his eyes prickled. He rubbed them to stop a tear of shame before it got properly started.

"Right," he said, his throat tight. "I understand."

They sat in silence.

"I'm sorry, lady," he said after a long moment. "I should've known."

All of a sudden, he felt the bench beneath him shivering, just very slightly, and he saw the beer in her cup ripple faintly across its surface. Freya looked up sharply.

"It's Toll!" shouted the landlord cheerfully. "Toll's stirring!" The landlord hopped up on the bar and swung himself across it nimbly for a fat man, and trotted outside. Freya got up to follow and Five went after.

"Who's Toll?" said Five. People were coming out into the street and running down to the harbour. The landlord quickly locked the door to the bar - they had been the only customers.

"You know, Toll!" he said.

"We're not from round here," said Five. "Where's everyone going?"

"Down to the harbour, to see the wave hit!" said the landlord happily, and he set off. They followed.

"What are you talking about?" Five panted as they ran after the landlord. "Who's this Toll character?"

"He's the worm that lives beneath the earth," the landlord explained. "He sleeps, but every now and again he stirs in his sleep and when he does, the sea moves. That's why they build the Sea Wall, to keep the waves out. Toll used to wreck the city every time he stirred, but not anymore. Not since the wall. It's good luck when the waves hit, but it hasn't happened in years. Not since I was a lad. Come on!"

They reached the harbour. People were trying to get to high points to see over the wall, which had been built from a spit of land some five miles east of the harbour into a vast semicircle that enclosed the whole bay, some ten miles out, except for a gap to the southwest where the ships passed through. It was a long, thick, massive, rugged embankment of earth and stone that was so big that it had trees growing on it.

"The wave's coming," said the landlord. "It always happens when Toll stirs. It starts out in the wide sea and then it comes towards us, and then it hits the wall and breaks. It's good luck. You should make a wish on it."

"Right," said Five, thinking that this whole wave business was a load of crap and it was probably going to be a barely visible splash. Freya was watching the Sea Wall with interest.

"They knew what they were about when they built that wall," said the landlord fervently. "It's never seen a wave it hasn't broken."

People high up were shouting excitedly.

"Here it comes," said the landlord, grinning. "Any second now ..."

Five peered as hard as he could, and he could just about make out tiny people on the wall running for boats and paddling away from it as hard as they could.

And then it happened.

Or rather, it didn't. Nothing happened. There was no spray, no splash, nothing, no big drama. There was just a distant cheer, which spread towards them as it became apparent to everyone that the wall had absorbed the wave and broken it. The crowd went wild cheering. The landlord hugged them.

"God bless the wall!" he cried, kissing them both. Freya leaned back from his embrace but did her best to smile politely.

"God bless the wall!" he said again, and somebody grabbed him and they hugged. Five and Freya looked at all the happy, jubilant people, and then at each other. Everyone was shouting God bless the wall!

"Ten years' good luck!" cried the landlord. "Ten years! Come on, a drink for all, on the house!"

There was further cheering, and Freya and Five felt themselves being swept back in the crowd that hastened back to the inn. Five was quite happy to go back, but Freya plucked him out of the crowd and they remained on the quayside in the bright sunlight.

Five looked up at Freya, who was looking out across the bay at the sea wall, thoughtful and silent.

"Lady," he said, "it's not every day we get offered a free drink. And if we don't take up the offer they might think it rude."

But Freya started walking, off in a different direction entirely, towards the spit of the land from which the sea wall curved around like a protective arm, holding the sea back from the harbour of Memike. Five sighed, and followed.

It was a long walk, taking more than an hour, but the wall gradually became closer and closer and the city was left a few miles behind them. It was quieter out here; there were a few houses but the most significant sign of life was the military post and defensive wall where the sea wall met the land. Clearly, it was prohibited for normal mortals to go on the wall. Freya walked up to it. Five followed, footsore and sweaty.

A man in the uniform of the Memikan city guard emerged and viewed them with the face of an expert cardplayer.

"Morning," said Five, giving a friendly wave, although it was past noon.

The man nodded very slightly, looking them both up and down.

"Lovely day," said Five.

Freya stood for a moment, giving the man a friendly smile.

"God greet you, strangers," said the man.

Five glanced at Freya. She was looking at him, and she pointed to the wall and to them, and raised her eyebrows.

"We were just wondering if it were possible to have a look at the wall," Five said.

"No," said the guard.

"Ah," said Five.

"Only those given the freedom of the king may walk on the wall," said the guard. "I myself am forbidden to."

"So how do you keep people off it?" said Five.

"Anyone trying to pass this gate without the freedom of the king does not get far," said the guard. "Anyone landing further down the wall soon discovers that the wall has its secrets."

"What," Five said, "you mean, traps and such?"

"Aye," said the guard.

"Nice," said Five.

The guard seemed to relax, perhaps because Freya was standing and looking at him with what Five realised with surprise was a smile; she had shifted her weight onto one leg and had one hand on her hip, and it was working on him, the fascinated attention of a tall, good-looking woman. He stepped out of the shadow of the guardhouse and tipped back his helmet slightly.

"Aye indeed," he said, "I have stood guard here for fifteen years, and in that time I have seen pirates and others try to cross the wall on foot. You will see, on the seaward side, the embankment is a shallow curve, and it is not hard to step off a boat and walk up it. Only on the landward side is it a vertical drop. Well, when those corsairs reached the summit of the wall, you may be sure that they thought themselves great fellows; but I have seen, with mine own eyes, the very wall swallow them up! Like that! And they were not seen again!"

He snapped his fingers at them, his eyes wide, to convey to them the strangeness and terribleness of it. Five was rather chilled to think that the wall actually somehow ate people, but on glancing at Freya and seeing her look of all-too-appropriate wide-eyed horror, he realised that whatever she really thought about this story, she was laying it on for the benefit of the guard.

"Aye," said the guard once more, with satisfaction. "There are those who think Memike just a trading port full of inns and adventurers, but this city has a secret life, and it looks after its own. The elders saw to that."

"The elders who built this wall, you mean," said Five.

"The same," said the guard. "They had mastered arts that we have forgotten existed. But their work endures. That is why it is an honour to guard their work."

"You do your ancestors credit, sir," said Five. The guard nodded. He looked Five up and down.

"You are from the north?" he said.

"We are," said Five.

"Your lady is too high-born to speak to the likes of me?" said the guard with a slight edge. Freya gave a charming smile and shook her head.

"She's taken a vow of silence," said Five patiently.

"Very fitting, in a woman," said the guard, and bowed to Freya. Five caught the glare as it flitted across her face and reflected that the guard would never know how close he'd come to a beating, at that moment. Then Freya glanced at him, and stepped back.

"Well," said Five, "we will return to the city. Everyone's celebrating the stirring of Toll."

"Toll," said the guard, suddenly serious. "Yes. I will tell you, strangers, since you are strangers, they in the city may rejoice when Toll stirs, but out here, it is no laughing matter."

"Really?" said Five. "Why?"

"Because when you have seen the sea rise, as I have," said the guard, "and seen it not stop, but keep rising, all to within maybe two men's length of the top of the wall, before it subsides once more - every time that happens, you pray that the wall will hold, and do not mistake me, I am a god-fearing man, but ..."

He left off, helplessly, turning and looking at the guardhouse.

"You wonder, each time," he murmured. "You wonder. And then the wall holds, and you realise that the elders, god bless their name, knew what they were doing."

There was a silence. Freya looked like she was keen to go. Five cleared his throat.

"Well, no doubt they did," he said. "We won't keep you any longer, sir. Health to you and yours."

"And to you and yours," said the guard. "Enjoy your stay in Memike."

He nodded them, stiff once more, and went back into the guardhouse.

As they walked back, Five dearly wished to sit down and have a cool beer. He looked up at Freya.

"What was that about, then?" he said. "Just having a look at the town defences?"

***

Freya ignored him.

One thought nagged at her all the way back to the city.

What were the elders doing when they made me?