The Corn King and the Spring Queen (2 page)

E
RIF DER WAS SITTING
on a bank of shingle and throwing pebbles into the Black Sea; for a girl, she threw very straight. She was thinking a little about magic but mostly about nothing at all. Her dress was pulled up over her knees, and her legs were long and thin and not much sunburnt yet, because it was still early in the year. Her face was pale too, with flat, long plaits of hair hanging limp at each side, and her ear-rings just shaking as she threw. She wore a dress of thick linen, woven in a pattern of squares, red and black and greyish white; at the end of the sleeves the pattern ended in two wide bands of colour. It had a leather belt sewn with tiny masks of flat gold, and the clasps were larger gold masks with garnet eyes and teeth. Over all she wore a stiff felt coat, sleeveless, with strips of fur down the sides, and she was not cold in spite of the wind off the sea.

A crab came walking towards her over the shingle; she held out her hand, palm upwards, so that the crab walked over it. Erif Der laughed to herself; she liked the feeling of its stiff, damp, scuttling claws on her skin. She picked it up carefully by the sides of its shell and made it walk again, this time over her bare foot. A cloud came over the sun; she threw two more pebbles into the sea, sat up and put her shoes on, then walked back towards Marob harbour till she came to the high stone breakwater; instead of going round with the road, she climbed up it, by way of a chain and ring and some wave-worn places in the stone; she was always fond of doing elaborate and unnecessary things. On the other side, she jumped down twelve feet on to another shingle bank, but she was not at all an easy person to hurt; air and water at least knew too much about her.

She went on more quickly now, and up into the town: she felt as if her father was calling her. Soon she was passing the Chief's house, straight in front of the harbour, looking
square on to the sea, east and a little north, with thick stone piers and small windows. Erif Der wondered if she would like to live there, and thought not, thought it would be cold, thought particularly that if she ever did have to, she would do her best not to have Yersha there too. As she was thinking this, Yersha herself came out of the main door with her hair done high and her mantle caught up on her shoulder, Greek fashion, and two armed guards following her. However, Erif Der was hurrying a little and did not choose to be seen or stopped, so Yersha looked the other way for a full minute, and when she turned again there was no one in sight; that was annoying for Yersha, who hated being magicked at all, even as little as this, and suspected it was done by Erif Der—who was much too young to have any powers really, besides being the daughter of Harn Der, besides going about alone like a street-girl, besides having been chosen to dance with the Chief at Plowing Eve and having—Yersha suspected—spoken with him of more matters than the plowing and the Courting dance! It had been occurring more and more to Yersha, in this last year, that her nephew, the Chief, had not told her exactly all that he had been doing and saying every day. That was bad enough, without having children like Erif Der, who ought to be kept at home and made useful, working magic on her! Yersha hated magic: she could not do it herself, because of the quarter of Greek blood in her that made things too plain and too real to be twisted about in the Scythian way.

Meanwhile Erif Der went on, along the main street of Marob, and across the flax market to her father's house. Harn Der was standing in front of the hearth, jabbing the fire with the shaft of an old boar spear, so that quantities of smoke poured into the room, which was dark enough already. He was a short, thick man with hair and beard that bristled out all ways at once, and a leather coat and breeches. Erif Der stopped and blinked and rubbed her eyes. ‘Well, father,' she said, ‘here I am.' Her father left off stirring the fire and the smoke cleared; when her eyes stopped tingling she could see that her brother, Berris Der, was there too. As usual he had a hawk on his shoulder; equally as usual, he had something in his hands to play with, this time a strip of soft copper that he was bending and unbending, so that sometimes it looked more like a
cup, and sometimes more like a flower, or a snake, or a bracelet. Berris Der was three years older than she was and they were not always interested in the same things; but still they smiled at one another rather more consciously than as simple relations. The girl came and stood by her father. ‘Well,' she said again, looking at the fire rather than at him; ‘you wanted me?'

Harn Der frowned at her. ‘You have to see and to know that it is time for your part in this,' he said.

Erif Der swung her foot uncomfortably, and the corners of her mouth twitched a little; all at once she looked much younger and less magic. ‘Still I don't know how!' she said. ‘Father, are you sure it has to be me?'

‘Little fool!' said Harn Der, more gentle in voice than in words, ‘I shall be Chief of Marob before the end of the year, and remember, that will be you.'

‘But it's so hard,' said the girl, ‘first to marry him, and then to magic him, and then to unmarry him. I think I shall go wrong somewhere.'

Harn Der answered, smiling to himself a little: ‘What are you afraid of?'

‘Myself. My own power.'

‘You should go and learn power instead of sitting on the beach and doing nothing—like your mother.'

The girl's mouth and bright eyes twisted into sudden laughter: ‘Much you know of learning magic, father!'

‘Would I use you if I knew myself, little vixen? Go, get on with my work! What was the use of Plowing Eve if you will not watch your furrow?'

‘Ah,' said Erif Der lightly, shifting to the other foot, ‘I can tell you that. I think the Chief knows.'

‘I never told you to think!' said her father, ‘besides— it's not so. Tarrik is a fool: he cannot know.'

‘All the same—' she said, then shrugged her shoulders. ‘Well, perhaps he doesn't know. Perhaps he is a fool.'

‘He is not that, then,' said Berris Der suddenly, ‘he is the one of you all that knows what I am looking for, and if father's plan was anyone else's plan I should be well out of it! And remember, if you hurt Tarrik, I shall be out of it!'

‘Oh you, Berris,' said his father, ‘if you don't want to know you shouldn't listen. And—for the hundred and
first time—we are not going to hurt Tarrik. I know as well as you that it would be no good in the end: so long as he is Corn King. If I did not know it, couldn't I have killed him twenty times over and been Chief by now? But that would have been for my harm and the harm of Marob as well. I am not going to hurt the corn. As it is, the Council will see that he goes, gently, for no one hates a madman, and then they will put me in his place and Marob will not be divided against itself.'

‘But I shan't have to stay married to him?' asked Erif Der anxiously.

‘Of course not. You will be the Chief's daughter: to do whatever you and we choose. But listen: when I said Tarrik was a fool, I meant a fool in the way you thought he was wise. He does not know of the plan, still less that you are part of it. And as to the way Berris thinks he is wise, whatever that may be, it will not alter, and when I am Chief, Tarrik can work with Berris and they can both talk about beauty.'

Erif Der shook her head, but said nothing and went over to a chest by the wall; she took out a coat of brown fur, a shade darker than her own hair, and put it on instead of the felt one, which she folded carefully and put away. Then she took a gold bracelet out, and tried it on her arm, first above, then below the elbow, pinching it into place; when it was high on her arm the sleeve hid it, but then, whenever she lifted her hand, it flashed out wonderfully. ‘Which is right, Berris?' she said. Her brother frowned at her and walked out; she hesitated, changed the bracelet to the other arm, and ran after him, caught him up, and walked beside him, a pace behind.

Harn Der looked after them, scratched his head, and after a little walked out into the flax market; he found one of his own farm people, who had been sent down to Marob to buy new milk jars, and was going back with the big red crocks slung over his shoulder; he said that everything was doing finely, the wheat well up, the flax and hemp high for the time of year, and there were two fat calves ready to be killed and sent down whenever they were wanted. Harn Der was pleased, thinking of his crops and his beasts; no one in Marob had better land than his, few had so much of it; and all good, sheltered, and well watered, away from the
sea, but not so far from the town that the inlanders, the Red Riders, would ever come and raid it. In a few weeks he would be going down there with his wife and children, to live all summer in great yellow tents, with the birds and the beasts on the plains all round him, and the sun shining and the crops growing.

But it was more than land he had, and better than gold. Every one in Marob knew him and thought of him always as wise and strong and a ruler of men; the elders had seen him at war, seen him guarding their land against the Red Riders in the days when Tarrik was only a child. A great archer was Harn Der then, and a great horseman; you could see the yellow tassel of his helmet a mile away across the fighting, when things were at their worst, and then back it would come to you and you would know that everything was going to be right and the Red Riders beaten and driven out of the fields you loved. That was Harn Der, and that was Harn Der's eldest son, Yellow Bull, who was making himself new lands out of the swamps to the south of Marob and had built his house there, not in the walled town. Harn Der sighed, and went home again moodily, thinking of his sons and all he was doing for them.

Berris and his sister were out of sight by now; they were walking fast and Erif Der was out of breath and a little angry. She took an odd-looking, small wooden star out of the front of her dress and held it for a few yards, then stopped for a moment, panting, and touched her brother's hand. It's very hot, isn't it, Berris?'

‘Yes, I suppose,' said Berris vaguely, slowing down, and took off his coat as he walked and trailed it from his hand till it dropped. ‘Very hot,' he went on, and began pulling at his shirt, and, ‘very hot,' his sister echoed, looking at him gravely. He pulled the shirt over his head and his felt cap dropped off with it; there was a brown line at the base of his neck where he stopped being sunburnt. The belt went with the shirt; he started just a little at the chink of the clasps falling on the road, but he was looking at Erif Der. Still walking slowly, he stepped out of his loose trousers. ‘So hot,' he said again, and there was a film of sweat on his skin. He pushed back the hair from his forehead, and suddenly behind Erif Der there seemed to be a face staring at him, two, three faces. He stared back at them. They were
opening their mouths to say words to him, his sister faded and they came real, and all at once he noticed, first, that he was really quite cold, and then that he had nothing on and all his clothes were straggling in little heaps down the road where he had dropped them.

He stood and swore at the starers till they ran—they were all poor men, and he, in spite of everything, Harn Der's son. Then he went up to Erif Der; she had her mouth tight shut and her cheeks pink; she tried to look him in the eyes again, but he was too angry for her now. Tick up my clothes,' he said.

‘I won't!' said Erif Der, getting pinker.

‘Yes you will,' said her brother, and got her by the two plaits. She screamed and hit out at him, but he swung her away by her hair. Tick them up,' he said.

She went and got them without a word, and threw them down at his feet; she was too sore and angry to cry. ‘You beast, Berris!' she said, ‘I'll make you sorry for that!'

Berris recovered his temper with his trousers. ‘No, you won't,' he said, ‘I can always pull your hair and you can't always magic me, so it won't do you any good in the long run.' She kicked his coat and said nothing. ‘Little goose,' he went on, ‘what did you do it for? Suppose Tarrik had seen?'

‘Well, let him!' said Erif Der. ‘Let him! Then no one can say he didn't know what I can do!'

‘Oh,' said Berris, ‘so that's what you're after. My belt, please. No, pick it up. Pick it up! So you want Tarrik to know?'

‘Tarrik does know! I'm going home. I shall tell father you hurt me!'

Berris caught her by one arm: ‘Baby! You come with me to the forge. Come and blow the fire for me. Erif, I'm making something—something exciting. A beast. Come on, Erif.'

‘Is Tarrik going to be there? Is he? Let go, Berris!'

‘Very likely. Erif, you are shiny when you're so cross. There, that's better. Are you coming?'

‘I won't answer till you let me go.'

He dropped her arm. She rubbed it against her cheek for a moment, then nodded and went down the street towards the forge.

Berris Der unlocked the door, taking a little time over it, because he had made the lock himself and was proud of it: the key was like a little stag with mad horns. He left the door open and unfastened the shutters from inside. Erif Der went to the fire and raked away the earth that had been banked round it the evening before: it was still alive and stirred redly under her breath as she fed it with dry chips. She leaned to the bellows. ‘Why have you got to do that?' asked Berris. ‘Can't you make the fire obey?' Erif Der shook her head: ‘I don't know enough about fire,' and she turned her back on him to get a purchase on the bellows handle. Berris was at another of his own locks now; it was on a great oak chest, bound with forking straps of silver-inlaid bronze. He took something out, and laid it carefully on the embers, which throbbed white and red with heat under the bellows. After a time he called her to look.

She stood away from him, watching. There was a small, queer, iron horse, twisted and flattened, biting his own back; he was angry and hammer-marked all over; his mane shot up into a flame; his downward jammed feet were hard and resisting; the muscles of his body were ready to burst out. Berris Der laid him on the anvil and began hammering to a rhythm, one, two on the horse, three with a solider clink on the iron of the anvil. The horse twisted still more; fresh hammer marks beat out the old—the substance seemed less and the movement more; every moment he became less like the tamed horses of fenced pastures; and more like something wild in the mind, beaten madly by the violences of thought. The glow died out of him. The blows stopped suddenly; he was back in the fire, and his watchers at work, thinking of him. Then again the anvil. Berris chanted in time with the hammer, tunelessly: ‘Horse, horse, horse.' At a point of the fantastic he stayed, the hammer half raised. ‘Well?' he said. She came nearer, tracing the horse shape half unconsciously in the air with one finger. ‘I see,' she said. ‘I expect he is the best thing you have done?' ‘Yes, but how do
you
know?' ‘Not any way you'd like. Ask Tarrik.' Her brother did not answer, but stayed still, his lips pursed, watching his queer little horse as it lay there with the light on it, the centre of the forge; he made the movement of
touching it, but could not really, because of the heat in the iron.