The robber-rat stared past us both, his entire attention fixed on Swift. Like a whisper against my senses, I became aware of the Wit flowing between the two. There was a smile on Swift’s face. He stepped forward, pushing between Web and me to do so. I lifted a hand to reach after him, but before I could do so, Web’s hand fell on the boy’s shoulder. He jerked Swift back, startling the robber-rat with the abruptness of his move. Aloud, he told the creature, ‘Take the cheese and go.’ Then, in the harshest voice I’d ever heard him use, he demanded of Swift, ‘What did you think you were doing? Have you not heard one word of anything I’ve tried to teach you?’
Robber-rat and cheese were gone in a flicker of motion, vanishing through the open window with a flick of striped tail.
Swift gave a cry of disappointment and tried to wrench himself free of Web’s grip. The stout man’s hand held him firm. The boy was angry, mostly I think in response to Web’s visible anger with him. ‘All I did was greet him! I liked the feel of him. I could sense that we would go well together. And I wanted …’
‘You wanted him like a child wants a bright toy on a tinker’s tray!’ Web spoke severely and there was no mistaking the condemnation in his voice as he released Swift’s shoulder. ‘Because he was sleek and swift and clever. And he is as young and foolish as you are. And as curious. You felt him reach back to you not because he was seeking a partner but because you intrigued him. That is not a basis for a Wit-bond. And you are not old enough nor mature enough to be seeking a partner. If you attempt that again, I will punish you, just as I would punish any child who deliberately put himself or a playmate into danger.’
Riddle had sat up and was regarding the discussion with open-mouthed astonishment. It was no secret to anyone that both Web and Swift were part of Dutiful’s Witted coterie. I shuddered to think how close I had come to betraying myself as Old Blood. Even Thick had opened one sleepy eye to scowl at the argument.
Swift flung himself disconsolately into a chair. ‘Danger,’ he muttered. ‘What danger? Is it dangerous that I might have someone that cared about me, at last?’
‘Danger that you would bond with a creature you know nothing about? Has he a mate and kits at home? Would you take him from them, or remain here on this island when we sailed? What does he eat and how often? Would you stay here with him for his lifespan, or take him away from all others of his kind when we left here, condemning him to remain forever mateless? You took no thought for him, Swift, nor for anything beyond the connection of the moment. You’re like a drunk, bedding a young girl tonight with no thoughts for the morrow. It is not a behaviour I can excuse. No true Old Blood would.’
Swift glared at him. Riddle spoke thoughtlessly into the tense silence. ‘I did not know the Witted had any rules about bonding with animals. I thought they could bond with any creature, for an hour or a year.’
‘A false perception,’ Web said heavily, ‘that many folk not of Old Blood have about us. It is bound to happen, when one people must keep their ways secret and unseen. But it leads to the idea that we use animals and then discard them. It makes it easier for folk to think we would bid a bear savage a man’s family, or send a wolf to kill a flock of sheep. The Wit-bond is not a man taking mastery over an animal. It is a joining founded on mutual respect, for life. Do you understand that, Swift?’
‘I meant no harm,’ he replied stiffly. There was no repentance or apology in his voice.
‘Neither does the child who plays with fire and burns a cottage down. Meaning no harm is not enough, Swift. If you would be Old Blood, then you must respect our rules and ways all the time, not just when it suits you.’
‘And if I don’t?’ Swift asked sullenly.
‘Then call yourself a Piebald, for that is what you will be.’ Web drew in a heavy breath and then sighed it out. ‘Or an outcast,’ he said softly. I felt that he tried not to look at me as he spoke those last words. ‘Why any man would wish to remain apart from his own, I do not know.’
ELEVEN
Wuislington
The attachment that the women have to their clan lands is remarkable. They often refer to tales that the earth itself is made from Eda’s flesh and bones while the sea belongs to El. All land belongs to the women of the clan; the men born into a clan may tend the land and help with the harvest, but the women determine the distribution of the harvest and also decree what crops will be planted and where and in what proportions. It is not merely a matter of ownership, but a matter of Eda’s worship.
Men may be buried anywhere, and most often are given to the sea. But all women must be buried within their own clan fields. The graves are honoured for seven years, during which time the burial field is left fallow. After that, they are ploughed again, and the first harvest from such a field is served in a special feast.
While the Outislander men are wanderers and may remain away from their home ports for years, the women tend to stay close to the lands of their birth. In marriage, they expect their husbands to reside with them. If an Outislander woman dies away from her clan lands, extraordinary efforts will be made to return her body to her clan fields. To do otherwise is both great shame and serious sacrilege for the woman’s clan. The clans will willingly go to war to repatriate a woman’s body to her home.
An Account of Travel in a Barbarous Land, by Scribe Fedwren
We were guests at Wuislington at the Narcheska’s mothershouse for twelve days. It was a strange hospitality they offered us. Chade and Prince Dutiful were allotted sleeping space on the benches in the lower level of the house. The Witted coterie was housed alongside the guardsmen outside the walls. Thick and I continued in our cottage, with Swift and Riddle as frequent visitors. Every day, Chade sent two of the guards into the village to purchase victuals. They brought a share to us in the cottage, some to the guards and the rest back to the mothershouse. Although Blackwater had promised to feed us, Chade had chosen this tactic shrewdly. To be seen as dependent on the Narwhal mothershouse largesse would be seen as a weakness and a foolish lack of planning.