THE SHERIFF OF HNUT / CH. 4: OLD FRIENDS

Extracts from report of first contact group

On Zerkers and the Zerk:

The Zerk is without doubt a genetically linked normally-dormant capability. It is associated with distinct colouration in females (blue, compared to the normal reds, greens or yellows), and male crests show different physiology and an entirely different reaction to anger (deflating rather than inflating, and different colour changes from emotion).

The latent capability may become active as a result of extreme anger or stress during childhood or early adulthood, in which case the stress reaction includes the release of 'zerker enzymes' which seem to be a hormonal cocktail that speeds nerve conduction speed, as well as muscle efficiency. Those who react to stress or anger with zerker enzymes gain the title / rank of Zerker or Zerkess.

The Zerker in popular culture is a figure of mythic qualities: an unconquerable hero, a genius, a sly stealer of fiancées or even wives, or a dangerous assassin.

There is some truth behind all of these. Typically, a Zerker will not kill his opponent in a duel. Thus although a Zerker's opponent may feel pain, humiliation and resentment, the result of a duel is decisive, the honour system will not permit a rematch on the same subject, and a full blood feud is not triggered.

The normal courtship contract includes the male promising protection to the female. If the male is defeated in a duel over the female's attentions, this term is deemed to have been broken. Thus it is very unlikely that a grudgingly accepted courtship contract will survive the approach of a Zerker male.

The zerker-producing subspecies tend to be more intelligent themselves, and typically prefer intelligent spouses, thus to selected as the object of a Zerker's desire is a flattering thing to many females, and a Zerker suitor is often portrayed in folk tales as the equivalent of prince charming.

This combination means that Zerker males can, almost with total impunity, select their preferred mates without suffering the normal risks associated with interrupting an established courtship, assuming the female does not object. Even if she does object to the arrogant approach of the Zerker, and re-establishes the contract with her previous suitor, then apart from the risks that come from firmly establishing his credentials as a Zerker — a title worn with pride despite the risks — and irritation of a rejection, the Zerker suffers no real loss. Thus some Zerkers feel they can flout convention and operate outside the normal limits of society.

Official fears of assassins combined with a general distrust of Zerkers fed by some immoral individuals leaving a trail of disrupted relationships behind them have led to historic pogroms, attempting to destroy the Zerkers. These have so far failed. Natural blue colouration is often dyed, (sometimes a small patch is discretely left by an unattached female to prove her legacy in case a Zerker comes to town).

Open conflict only stands a chance through overwhelming military force, and a rampaging mob has little chance of succeeding in catching a Zerker. During a pogrom or purge, therefore, a secret attack is organised with whole families being bound as they sleep, and then publicly executed for their race. Thus many Zerker families live in a climate of fear of discovery and try to hide their identity. The rumour of an imminent night raid can of course fuel the Zerk and has led to assassinations.

The permanent solution to this racial tension almost certainly requires an end to the fear-inducing pogroms, and for Zerkers to adopt a strict moral standard of never interfering in established relationships and only using their biological advantages in strict self-defence. This has long been recognised, but deemed impossible.

Some religiously minded villages are said to have formally rejected participation in government pogroms on this basis, with Zerkers there vowing to use their abilities only to defend themselves and others. The impact of the gospel has led certain officials to suggest this model could be applied to the whole populace.

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HNUT, 4PM, BROTHERDAY, 40TH OF AUTUMN

As Dirak and Lenepoli walked along beside the Ut river and into the village hand in hand, various single males looked up, took in the sight of her face, smiling up at his, and of her plumage radiating exuberant joy, and quietly abandoned any plans to pursue her. There was clearly no point unless they wanted to fight a duel with the sheriff, and even start a blood-feud with Lenepoli's family, if a blessing on the couple had been given. They were just reaching that conclusion when there was a crack not unlike the sound of a close lightning strike, although not as loud. If was followed by a gentle rumble. The sky was clear. The couple looked up and onlookers saw the sheriff take some steps away from his beloved and start waving his staff around his head as if scaring birds except there didn't seem to be any. The end of the staff end sparkled and flashed in a most unnatural way as he did so. Some people leapt to the wrong conclusions and grabbed spears.

“Don't worry! A guest is coming!” Lenepoli shouted, seeing the people running. “Visiting wizard.”

“Why is the sheriff fighting off invisible birds, then?”

“He's not. He's helping her see where the village is.”

“What was that noise?” one of the members of the crowd said.

“Me showing off like the teenager I am at heart,” an woman on the verge of being elderly said from behind the crowd that had gathered around Lenepoli. No one had seen her arrive.

She was holding a staff much like Dirak's, and added a shouted “Hey, stop waving, Dirak, I'm here.”

“Welcome to my new home, Thuna!” Dirak shouted back. “Either you were fast or we were slow. We didn't get to tell anyone you were coming.”

“That explains the spears, then. Now, what's this all about?”

“Stretching non-intervention all the way past its illogical limits, Thuna. First, let me introduce the lovely girl who's just agreed to me wooing her, Zerkess Lenepoli.”

“Ah! Do I recognise a witness to your little intervention?”

“You do. I had no idea she lived here though, so I put it down to a little bit of God's humour.”

“And you too know the Zerk, Lenepoli?”

“I didn't recognise it until Dirak told me what it was like, but yes, I ran to comfort my friend and I stepped away from the almost-embrace of an unliked would-be suitor who wouldn't take no for an answer. Both times everyone else seemed to move through treacle. There was another time, too, which Dirak doesn't know about.”

“And so your testimony does make sense, if only we'd recognised it,” Thuna nodded. “I'll quietly pass word around, if you don't mind. It might help in other situations to know that 'a Blue can truly blur', as the saying goes. Now, would you like to talk publicly about growler migration, not to mention upsetting the status quo some more, or shall we go somewhere else?”

“Forgive me, Thuna, first I'd like to show you someone's bean-poles.” Dirak said. Selecting a boy on the edge of the crowd who lived near by, he asked “Rinif, do you have any glue-tree bean-poles sitting around unused at home?”

“Yes, sheriff, think so.”

“Could you run and get one for Wizardess Thuna to look at? I want to see the look on her face.”

“What look on my face?” Thuna asked, puzzled.

“This one is good. Isn't that the perfect picture of puzzlement, Lenepoli?”

“You always were a rascal. Dirak. What are you plotting?”

“I'm plotting to show you a bean-pole, talk you into intervening enough so the people here don't decide to ruin your research project, and/or help you get more data. I'm also wondering what you'd think of me teaching all the kids in the school some fun assessment stuff, along with all the kids that Lenepoli snuck into her reply to my bid for her affections.”

“Hmm. You mean that having set you loose in the world, you're planning to actually share as freely as we are supposed to?”

“I heard recruitment was low, and Lenepoli is the village school teacher. Sheriff is a teaching position, too, in some ways. I'm sure the villagers would be happy to have radios to talk to relatives out in the fields, for instance.”

“Hmm. And the lovely thing about you telling me this in public is that if anyone wanted for some perverted selfish reason to stop you from spreading knowledge, some form of intervention would be required, of a sort that'd be unwelcome by the populace? Am I right?”

“When intervention that would be welcome is so often refused, and a wizard's lack of intervention has become a nasty joke.”

Speaking to the growing crowd, as well as Thuna, Lenepoli added, “The Zerker prayer that we wove into our courtship contract does not countenance non-intervention, but we still hope our children will want to learn as much wizardry as the aliens taught. I have never dyed my plumage, as my grandmother did. Duels which fuelled the hatred of my race are slowly becoming not just unacceptable but illegal in more and more situations. No longer can a duel be called just because of a hastily spoken word or a withdrawn comment. Anger is no excuse for a duel. And so that source of hatred against my race has mostly vanished: look at our village: reds and blues have lived side by side here for generations, and bonded by our love for God, it has always been thus. Even during the purges, it was the deepest reds who prepared dyes for their naturally blue sisters-in-law.

“But while we who are capable of being zerkers and zerkesses have lived free from hatred, we have also forgotten what it means to be who we are. We do not recognise the Zerk when it comes upon us as a growler approaches. We do recognise the inner calm that comes with the enzymes that cause the outer storm. We do not think this is a slow beast whose horns cannot catch me as I embrace the gift of my genetics and dance around them. Perhaps we think of flight, but we do not think we could defend our slower, stronger cousins and neighbours, if only we carried a light staff or a Zerk-knife. I do not say we should always carry the knife as my grandmother told me of her grandfather's time, after all, duels are rare now. But when we go to collect nuts and berries, and the passing growlers think to collect some of us, should we not go prepared? Is it not right for us to prepare to defend others? We laugh bitterly when we hear sick jokes about wizards not intervening. Dirak apologises for dancing around the questions I asked about if he was the one who saved my friend. He was, but he did not know what I am sure of — that this village has no fear of wizards any more than it has fear of Zerkers. I would fear more non-intervention. Non-intervention of wizards or wizardesses who know that growlers come, non-intervention by those who could defend us from the growlers.

“And to those of us who have grown icy calm in anger and fear, be prepared to intervene yourselves if you can. The Zerk does not always come nor does it always come as strongly as other times, so do not run into danger. But if the outside world slows when you see a growler and you outpace it easily, recognise that the growler may be too clumsy to dance with you, and if it is too clumsy, perhaps you can make it regret thinking of you and your strong cousins as food.

“To the relatives of my lost friends, I can only apologise. We all ran, we all tried to dodge, and I was the weakest of all of us, I thought myself the most helpless. I did not think my dodging might be zerk-driven. I did not think I might have even more speed available, and I had no tool to turn speed into protection. I will not make that mistake again. And I also offer to go and collect nuts and berries with Dirak, when there are not enough men to guard against migrating growlers otherwise. I don't say every day, or the children will never have lessons, but perhaps we could be more organised. And perhaps I should let our visitor speak.”

“Thank you for your speech, Lenepoli, the things you spoke of, the logic of it, makes a lot of sense to me. As Dirak has told you, I assume, I've made my life a study of growler migrations. I've never studied them exactly here, but I can tell you that unless your growlers are unique, the ones that come this year are not the same as the ones last year or even the year before that. They travel on a path, and each group's path is different, and each path takes four years. When I say the same path, I mean that exactly. unless their path is barred, unless they see prey, they will not divert even a step from the path they took four years before. If none came in sight of the village four years ago, it will be the same this year, unless some landslide has diverted them so badly they cannot find their way back to their old path. But if four years ago the pack leader came through the village, for whatever reason, it will return here again, unless it fled for its life exactly back the way it came. If growlers come to a wood where there is prey, where you collect nuts and berries, then you can guess what happens — they return to where the leader fed, and the leader will be the one that found food in that place last time, with a memory triggered by the place. Then all will go that route, and all will go that route every time unless another has a fresher memory of a meal, or they see prey, of course. What this means to you as villagers, is the first growler you must kill is the one who has eaten, the second is the growler who has been closest to your village, or the best nut collecting place. But it also means that if you can make a strong fence, that a growler cannot pass, and which surrounds the place where you gather nuts, or channels the growlers in a certain path, then after four years the fence can be left with some holes. Unless they see food and go through a hole to get it, they will not stray from the path.

“Me telling you this is not intervention, it's education. Me telling you what frequency my trackers work on is not intervention either. But I have not put a tracker on every growler, or even on every tenth pack of growlers. So I would trust a fence more than a radio. Or a group of zerkers and zerkesses, of whom I expect you have more than you think, having watched your faces as Lenepoli spoke.”

“Thank you for the education, Thuna.” Dirak said, “Now, I really want to see your face when Rinif shows you his spare bean pole.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“What's so speci.. oh dear Saviour be praised! It's angar wood! Dirak you're a hero! The last few months they've been trying to make do with other wood, and the things just keep falling apart! Treasure those trees, I beg you!”

“How revolutionary do you want to be, Thuna?”

“Pardon?”

“Let me do a quick poll, please. Farmers, herdsmen and craft workers, I know you value barter rather than money, because money always seems to buy you less than you'd get from barter, and transport fees always end up growing. But just an hour ago, Thuna was in the city, I expect. Or maybe she was somewhere else, it doesn't matter, she could have been in the city, and she's probably going to go back without accepting any proper hospitality, the silly woman, but I'll stop teasing her. Would you like to trade directly with Thuna and her friends? It might mean that some produce was traded to people who are used to paying city prices, or perhaps bartering with things from the city? What would you think of that? What would you think if Thuna and some of her friends came and lived here, among us? If they taught some students here? The city is full of dangers and distractions, so full of worthless ideas from politicians and professional beggars who prey on the gullible and earn more than most working people, that it's hard for a busy person to tell genuine need from false. What would you think of rather than sending sons and daughters to face the daily moral and physical dangers of the city, we accepted some other youngsters to stay here? Here where as long as growlers stay away, the main risks seems to be the inevitable disagreements over romance and getting sunburnt while they help with harvest? It would mean the wizards could meet real working people and not just politicians and who make ridiculous requests, and of course concentrate on their studies without worrying about who might be trying to break into their home this week. What do you think, neighbours? Do we welcome Thuna and some of her friends to come and worship God with us here?”

“How many is some?”

“If all the wizards came, all the students, it would be two hundred, I think. I don't think it would ever be more than half that number.”

“And would they pretend it wasn't their problem if a thlunk fell under a cart, or a grazer escaped into a grain field? Or would they be good neighbours like the Scriptures say?” Pastor Ruath asked.

“Myself,” Thuna said, “I would not see those things as intervening, but of helping. Intervening I would see as using wizardry to push growlers away from all my neighbours' grazers, and so make them run away in panic from the burning terror I unleash. Such a panic might mean that they are so ravenously hungry when they get to the next village that they attack the school. Another intervention would be killing all the growlers that enter the woods here, without thinking of how many fluffies there'd be, eating all the grain in the fields, if the growlers didn't eat three each per day. Intervening I would see as something you might regret one, ten or thirty years later. Something you did mainly because you thought you could, and while your motives were good, it caused trouble you didn't think of.

“The aliens who taught us wizardry intervened, they caused a massive change in our culture that we still feel the ripples of, but they predicted that there would be a momentum of changes, and we would have to stay flexible. I've argued that we've become too rigid, that we've become too aloof from everyday problems, that the mantra of not intervening has become a moral failure. Dirak has just suggested something I've argued in Council we should ask for. I was shouted down because asking was seen as intervention, of using our prestige to get what we might want. Personally I'd love to live and teach here, but don't let me sway you. And if you offer me hospitality, of course I'll accept it, Dirak. As long as it's not in a prison cell.”

“I have blessed Dirak as my daughter's suitor, and I think his library doesn't have a bed in it any more, so in his name offer you the hospitality of our family home, Wizardess. My wife would be here, but she has just slipped away to prepare a celebratory meal.”

“Can I help her while you discuss the changes a bunch of crotchety lecturers and party-loving students would bring to your village?” Thuna asked, “I'm sure you don't need me around inhibiting your discussions.”

“I'll show you the way, Thuna.” Dirak said. “They probably don't need me around either.”

They had gone about ten steps before Lenepoli joined them. “I need to tell mum what you promised me. Thuna probably needs to hear it too.”

“I think you ought to get some advice about what you promised me, and I'm not going to hold you to repopulating to village if it gets dangerous for you.”

“Repopulating the village?” Thuna asked.

“He's exaggerating.”

“Start with twins and work up to quadruplets, she said,” Dirak said, “I'm no expert but I sort of thought it wasn't up to either of us.”

“Boys...” Lenepoli said, dismissively. “They always think it's all up to random chance.”

“I did too,” Thuna said. “Not that I ever found myself a suitor. I think I must have frightened them away.”

“My grandmother said it's never too late to find love.”

“Is this the one who had quads?” Dirak asked.

“No, that was mum's mum. Dad's mum remarried about ten years ago. She lives in Qnut, and always has done. I expect she even knew your grandmother.”

“I guess so. She's still alive?”

“Very much so, last I heard. Why did she leave?”

“She was an only daughter, he an only son. Their parents knew there was officially a blood feud between the families, but neither wanted to fight, neither told their child because of their faith. But not fighting is not the same as ending the feud. So when they were told, my grandmother and grandfather, each brought up to hate blood-feuds, offered each other their lives has husband and wife to settle the feud. Thus I know there is no blood feud in the sight of God, whatever people may say. How can there be as I am of both bloods? As part of what their courtship bargains, he offered his declaration of all blood-feuds as a work of evil and she did too. The parents were ecstatic, and blessed the union. The traditionalist priest of the village chased them all out as heretics. I will not dishonour them by being party to a blood feud.”

“Grandmother has told me of that event; she was your grandmother's friend, and also declared she'd be no party to a blood feud. I'm sure she will be pleased to meet you.”

“What will you do, if you have a daughter and her blessed suitor is killed in a duel?” Thuna asked.

“Arrest the killer as a murderer and send him to court for trial. A duel is no excuse to kill under law now, as I keep telling people.”

“But a blood-feud is?” Thuna asked. “An unregistered blood feud is not. A registered blood feud is an admission that the law has not provided a solution, and is only permissible after all legal solutions have been tried for five years. The world becomes safer.”

“I hadn't realised. There will be an excess of boys.”

“There will be different sorts of duels, I expect. It's already happened in some places. Contests against risk rather than one another. There will still be a place for deadly competition, I think.”

“And if someone came and tried to take Lenepoli from you?”

“It has been five years since resisting kidnap or preventing rape was classed as a duel.”

“Ah. I am behind the times.”

“So are most people. The changes in the law are rapid. Perhaps too rapid.”

“And we are not blamed?”

“It is not wizards who take such decisions, Thuna, it is parliament, in which wizards take no part.”

“But we do make information known.”

“Of course. We're all educators.” Lenepoli said, as they entered the house. Her mother came from the kitchen. “Mama, I formally present my accepted suitor, Dirak grandson of the pair driven from Qnut for marrying across a blood-feud, and who saved Shashana.”

“And may I know what won your heart, dear one?”

“Many things, mama. But, oh mama there is so much to tell! Dirak spoke to me of the Zerk, and I have experienced it, the inner calm when all around is chaos, I did not know, so I did not do all I could have done, but I am Zerkess. It makes sense of so much. And glue-trees are not just a bit like angar wood, they are angar. But the contract: as well as company and protection, and good opinion, Dirak offered to listen to my criticism and teach me all he can teach me, not just all the knowledge of an apprentice, because any may be taught that, but he will try to get permission to teach me all he knows, so we may be equal in knowledge, and true companions in all things.”

“There are not many who would find those things nearly as appealing as my daughter, Dirak. You chose your offering well.”

“I think I chose Lenepoli well, for she desires what I have long felt I had to offer.”

“Will you hold him to breaking his promise if I teach you, Lenepoli? If you are as interested in wizardry as it seems and if you have talent, it would be yet another reason to come to this beautiful place. And no one can stop me training someone.”

“Maybe that's wise, even if its not so romantic,” Lenepoli admitted. “As school teacher I know that sometimes teaching can be frustrating, after all. Thank you, Thuna.”

“But what did you offer in return, Lenepoli?” her mother asked.

“I will accompany him in his travels, for how else can he give me the protection he has promised? I have promised to feed him and to eat his cooking when he wishes to cook, I passed on your blessing and the freedom of this house, and I asked God to bless us with many children to preserve our people's genes, and we wove the prayer of the Faithful Zerker into our acceptance, and then Dirak asked me how many children I planned.” She shyly cast her eyes down at that.

“And she spoke of her plans to repopulate the school, if not the village, so she plans to help me make a home large enough to hold a small college of wizardesses.”

“Don't exaggerate other people's plans, Dirak.” Lenepoli chided.

“I thought they were our plans now, beloved?” Dirak laughed, “Lenepoli spoke of starting with twins and her last few clutches as being quadruplets. I don't know quite how serious she was, nor do I quite know how we'll feed so many hungry mouths, but as I thought all such matters were in the hands of the Saviour, I will not be cross with my beloved if she cannot fulfil her offer. Nor will I advise her to keep it if it does somehow depend on her choice and it is unhealthy for her.”

“And you think you can raise that many and teach and study at the same time? Daughter you're even more daft than my mother! But you know why you're an only child, and my regrets. I'll certainly do what I can to help.”

“Thank you, mama. Dirak prefers the idea of daughters, by the way.”

“But... is it really possible to choose how many children? And whether they are boys or girls?” Thuna asked in confusion.

“To some extent, yes.” Lenepoli said, “It takes some care with timing, and the right herbs to pick gender.”

“Ah, and I know someone who studied herbology.” Dirak said.

“And it'll take a lot of patience and perseverance from you young man,” her mother added, “you're going to need to take her away from any distractions and keep her thinking the right thoughts for a long time, not just enjoying each other's company.”

“How long a time?” Thuna asked.

“According to my mother — I was one of four — dad was dancing with her and feeding her titbits for six hours before they couldn't restrain themselves any more.”

“That sounds like more patience than I've heard of from the average youngsters, not that I'd know.” Thuna agreed, wistfully.

“You've never married?”

“No. There was someone I thought might turn into the right guy, but... he left the college when we were still apprentices, and he wasn't a believer anyway.”

“He got thrown out?” Lenepoli asked.

“No, he got called home, which was somewhere near Qnut, but I never did know where. His elder brother had been killed in a duel.”

“And he had to take on the farm, or take part in a blood-feud?”

“Probably both. I don't know.”

“Just... you know villagers and gossip. But I heard a story a bit like that from an elder in a church two or three villages away. Was an apprentice, then his big brother was killed in a duel over his beloved. 'come home restore the family honour' etc, except that by the time he got home the other boy who'd been wounded in the duel and lost first his crest, and then his life to an infection, and the idiot of a bride-to-be had admitted that actually she'd been lying to both, and hadn't spoken to her parents about either, and neither lad had sought to discuss anything with them. Hence the whole matter was more a brawl over a floozie than one of honour.”

“Ouch.”

“And both families declared blood-feud on the girl?” Lenepoli asked.

“No. Her father publicly plucked and burned her plumage, and gave a third of his family farm to each family. So the guy who's now an elder needed to help with the expanded farm.”

“What happened to the girl after that?” Thuna asked.

“She died bravely, actually; defending a couple of children from a growler.”

“What's the elder's name?”

“I don't remember, I'm sorry, and I can't remember the village either. But Ruath probably knows. I do remember that the ex-apprentice never married, if you want to restart the relationship.”

“He's a believer?”

“Very much so. Yanak, Yenek, might something like that be his name?”

“Yanek,” Thuna said. “Oh, I've met Yanek,” Dirak said. “He saw my staff and said something about leaving one unfinished in the hands of a good friend, but he wouldn't elaborate. He also said he might come over and talk sometime. He probably heard your arrival, Thuna.”

“You think I should go and upset his happy life, don't you?”

“I think I've been planning to take Lenepoli for a little trip to see her friend Shashana in Gorp, and Tnut is sort of on the way, now that I'm not hiding my past. Might we invite Shashana and husband to the meal?”

“It'll be over before you're back, if you go to Gorp via Tnut. If you don't cross the river here, the next ford is almost in Qnut.”

“I expect he's going to cheat and make a boat by wizardry, or something like that, mama.” Lenepoli said.

“Or just fly, if he remembers my lessons on that,” Thuna said.

“I wasn't sure I was supposed to make it that obvious how much I studied, Thuna.”

“Just make sure you let me check your maths if you plan to travel by bubble.”

“I certainly hadn't planned to. I'll need to make the emitters for one thing, since I didn't bring any with me out of the lab. But certainly I will let you check my maths.”

“Good. If the village meeting says no, you're just going to keep it a friends-and-family affair, aren't you?”

“Urm, I was thinking we'd just teach apprentice level stuff, and send them to the city if they wanted to study more.”

“You're think you're going to send convinced Zerker interveners to the city? Oh no, my brave ex-student. Until the city wizards change their attitude, You're going to have a balancing pole of ideas here, a second school teaching everything you know. In exchange for all I've taught you, and will teach Lenepoli, I require you to do that, whether the villagers accept outside lecturers and outside students from the start or not.”

“You think I should set up a competing school?”

“You said it yourself, the non-interventionists cannot intervene in what you do here by their own precarious and cowardly logic. They may have cast you out, but the vows you took to teach what you learned had no get-out clause. By all means start slow, but you have an oath to keep, young Dirak.”

“I hear and obey, teacher.”

“Good lad. Now, go see what Lenepoli thinks of flying, and tell me the way to Tnut.”

“Let us accompany you, Thuna. Yanek's home isn't in the centre of the village after all.”

“And they don't get visitors?”

“Not ones who arrive out of nowhere.”

“I don't arrive out of nowhere. I arrive out of somewhere which is a long way overhead, but all right, I'll let you make the reintroductions.”

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TNUT

“Yanek! Do you know Lenepoli from Hnut? I now court her, as well as shake her up with rusty flying skills.”

“Congratulations! And this brings you here?”

“No, but I no longer hide who I was, what I learned, before I intervened and got thrown out of the college, and we had a visitor this afternoon. You may have heard her arrive in a thunderclap; my old mentor, Thuna.”

“Thuna? She mentored you?”

“And just lectured the half the village of Hnut on the migrations of growlers, but that's beside the point. She wanted to meet you.”

There was a rush of air, and Thuna stepped out from the centre. “I've come to carry you off for a private chat, Yanek, if you don't object. Sorry I left it so long, but you never did tell me where you came from.”

“And I didn't write either. I've often regretted that, but thought five, ten years later...”

“I was bound to be happily married? No. You?”

“I never met anyone who could compare to you. It actually works, then?”

“The number of times I have to say an old friend gave me the idea... they still think it's my personal trick. Dirak, just to settle it once and for all, Yanek gave me the idea of the travel cone.”

“And it's surprised many an apprentice, I can tell you,” Dirak said, “Especially the way she then makes it plain that she's been invisibly listening to your conversation.”

“That bit is my invention. But anyway, Yanek, may we talk?”

“Certainly, Thuna.”

“Want to go somewhere by cone, or foot?” she offered, “Cone is a bit hard on the knees sometimes, not to mention the stomach, and you'll have to be indecently close to me and hold tight to this lovely staff you gave me.”

“And you don't mind me being indecently close, Thuna?”

“I've missed our talks, Yanek.”

“I've missed our talks too. But all I've got to talk about now is farming and village life.”

“That's OK. I'm thinking about taking up village life. Dirak is thinking of opening a second school in Hnut. The village is just talking about whether they want outsiders to be allowed in, or if it's just Dirak teaching their own kids.”

“What will the council think about that?”

“He's been thrown out, which means they have even less authority over him than they have over you. I'm going to call them all sorts of names if they think they can intervene in a village's decision.”