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If Yim-Sin had fared so, then what had happened in the Valley? But the Valley had safeguards, intended to protect, even from themselves, those who dwelt there. Would those safeguards have turned outward to save them from this?
I went back to the van and gave orders to the kasi. Then I took into my arms the girl-child I had found still alive, and to her I sang a small song to give her sleep for a time and open the deep place within her as refuge for her terrified spirit. When I laid her back within the van, Jorth raised his head and looked at us.
"What has happened?"
I gave him the truth of what I had found here and told him that death might now run before us.
"Why? Who?"
"Neither can I tell you. My only guess is that some enemy would come upon Oskold by way of the Valley."
"But I thought that the Valley, its roads, was sacred, untouchable."
"In war the gods are forgotten or outraged. It is often so."
"But would the plainsmen do such a thing just for a chance at a sneak attack upon one lord?" he persisted.
"I have thought that also, but I have no answer. There were fires out on the plains last night. I can only believe that this is not merely an invasion of Oskold's land but a conflict which has spread far more widely, perhaps already laps with fire and blood across the whole land. For what I have seen here there is not sane reason. Outlaws might act so, but there is no outlawed band large enough to take a town—and with Osokun and his men dead, who are the outlaws?"
"But we go on—to the Valley?"
"I have sworn to you an oath," I replied wearily. "What I can do to restore to you something of what has been taken, that I shall do. And the answer is in the Valley."
"You propose to give me Maquad's body?"
I was not surprised at his words. He was not stupid, and the fitting of one thing to another to make the right sum was not difficult. "Yes, if you agree, Maquad's body. In that you can go to Yrjar, I with you. We can tell your tale, your ship may be signaled, they will return."
"Many it's in that," he commented. "Tell me, Maelen, why should you give me Maquad's body?"
"Because," I said dully, "it is the only one possible."
"No other reason? Not that you wish Maquad to live again?"
"Maquad is gone. Only that which held him has life still—after a dim fashion."
"Then you separate man from body, you Thassa." I did not know just what he was trying to say.
"You are Krip Vorlund," I returned. "Do you feel yourself less Krip Vorlund because you now dwell in another outer casing?"
He was silent, considering this. I hoped it was the right answer to direct his thinking. If he believed the body did not matter as much as that which was within it, then the exchange would not be so hard for him.
"Then to you, your people, it does not really matter what body you wear?"
"Of course it matters! I would be one lacking in wits to declare it otherwise. But we believe that the i
"A Thassa!" he corrected me.
"And is that not the same?"
"No!" his denial was sharp. "We are far different. As Jorth I have learned that a residue of the original inhabitant, as you would say, still dwells in this body and that it can influence me. Will it not be the same if I try another switch? Will I not be Krip-Maquad rather than Krip Vorlund?"
"Does barsk or man rule in Jorth?"
"Man, I hope—now—" But his answer was a little hesitant.
"Would not then Krip Vorlund be Krip Vorlund no matter what body he dwells in?"
"But you are not sure—"
"Is anyone," I burst out then, "to be sure of anything in any world under any sun?"
"Except death."
"Is death then a surety for you off-worlders? Do you believe that is just an end and not a begi
"Who can tell?" he made answer. "Perhaps we can not demand any unqualified reply to any question we are moved to ask. So, you offer me a body more akin to my lost one. You say, take and go to Yrjar, tell your story, and ask for the return of that which is yours. Yet it would seem that we must deal not only with our own affairs, but with, a war lying between us and Yrjar."
"Think, Krip Vorlund, have I ever promised you that this would be an easy thing?"
"No," he agreed. "Nor can you either promise me a body—if those we trail now have used the Valley as they used Yim-Sin."
"The Valley has safeguards the village did not. It is able to protect those who dwell there, and it may be there is a good defense against these raiders as well. I have offered you the best I can, Krip Vorlund. No one, man or Thassa, can do more than that."
"Agreed, What will you do with this child?"
"If the Valley is still intact, Umphra will care for her. If not, she goes with us."
For the first time, he appeared to note the loss of the rest of our company, for he asked:
"Where are the animals?"
"I have sent them to where I hope my people will find them. If not, they will be free to roam as they choose."
Fora while he was silent, and then he said, "Both our lives have been changed by that walk we took together in the fair of Yrjar. I would not believe this story had I not lived it."
"Stuff for the weaving of a legend," I agreed. "I have heard it said that if you dig far enough into any old tale you will unwrap at least one small kernel of one-time fact."
"Maelen, what was Maquad to you?"
I was off-guard and perhaps he had sensed that. The sudden shot brought the truth from me.
"He was the life companion of my sister by birth, Merlay. When—when he went from us, I thought she might follow. She still turns her face from the fullness of life."
"Tell me, would that alliance be again in effect did Maquad return?" His second demand was as sharp as the first.
"No. You would wear Maquad's body, but you are not Maquad. Looking upon you, however, she might be moved to accept the truth and awake once more from dark to light." There it was, my poor frayed wish spoken into words at last.
"But would your people know I was not as I seemed?" He appeared not to have heard the ending of my speech.
I smiled wryly. "Do not think you can hide your true identity from any Thassa, Krip Vorlund. They would know you at meeting. And, I must tell you this also, they will not approve of what we would do. I defy all our Standing Words when I give to you Maquad's dwelling, even for a short space of time. They ca
"Then why—?"
"Why must I do it? Need you ask that, off-worlder?This tangle is of my snarling, mine must be the unraveling. I am pledged by the strongest oath of my people to see that you have all aid within my power. I ca
He asked me no more, and I was glad that he meditated upon his own thoughts. For I was busy in my own mind. I had told him the exact truth. He would wear Maquad's body and he would not be Maquad. But just as the beast influences a little the human in-dweller, so would the shell of Maquad influence him. And this off-worlder was sensitive with esper power.
Maquad had been a singer of the second degree. He had been searching for knowledge to lead him higher when he was slain in four-footed guise. The animal of his exchange had been young, not used before, and so it lapsed after a period of violence into a cataleptic state which no mind-send could reach. But the beast portion had not, could not, reach all of the human brain, just as the human could not entirely possess the animal. There was a residue left in Maquad, if not the same Maquad of his memories, of more—Even the Old Ones do not know the full extent of changes so wrought. In all our history there was never a case of a human's return to a human or Thassa body not his own. Suppose, just suppose, that in Maquad's body that residue would awake and influence– I could not be sure, but even a part-Maquad might brighten Merlay's days for a space, draw her back to us again!