Glass Swallow (22 page)

Bel and Rain put the board down on the table, pushing the bowls aside to create a space.

‘Get that thing out of the way!’ snapped Katia. ‘Fey ladies may have their own rules, but here we have one which says that we clear the table for supper.’

‘Ma!’ protested Bel. ‘Rain’s got a present for us. She’s worked really hard on it all week.’

‘And your father and I have worked hard on this meal.’

Rain swallowed her disappointment, touching for comfort the necklace of tears she had rethreaded. This was hardly an auspicious beginning for her presentation.

Mikel came up behind her and put an arm round her shoulders. ‘Rain, where have you been for the past few days? I’ve missed seeing you around the place.’

Peri lifted a corner of the blanket. ‘Bel says she’s been making something for us.’

‘No peeking!’ warned Bel, slapping his wrist. ‘And, Ma, I’m sure it won’t take long. Let her show us before supper.’

Hern stirred the pot. ‘We’ve a few minutes before it’ll be ready. What have you got for us, Rain? You know you needn’t give us presents. We’re pleased to have you with us.’

You may be but your wife isn’t
, thought Rain. ‘It’s just something I made with some odds and ends I gathered.’ She threw back the blanket, revealing the jumble of glass shards on the board.

Peri tried not to show his disappointment: it looked a mess. ‘Um, what is it?’

‘Watch.’ Rain kept her eyes on him as she picked up the twig, lifting the mobile clear so that the pieces hung free. It was like seeing a spell conjure a peregrine falcon out of thin air; what had been a bundle of rubbish transformed into the beautiful shape of Peri’s favourite bird.

‘It’s Rogue!’ he exclaimed in delight.

‘Yes.’ Rain held it up to the fire so that the light could glitter through the glass, enjoying his reaction. Could he not tell she’d made it from her heart? ‘It’ll look better in daylight; the colours aren’t quite true in here.’

‘Fabulous!’ said Bel.

Rosie clapped her hands and reached up to touch it.

‘Best not: it’s delicate,’ Rain told her.

Peri lifted his sister up so she could see the glass miracle from a safe distance.

‘What do you think, Ret?’ Rain asked the Master, knowing that he was used to the best craftsmanship.

‘I like it; I’ve never seen anything like it before. Will you make me one?’ He glanced at his new friend. ‘And one for Helgis too?’

She laughed. ‘If I can find enough pieces of glass. I’ve run out of most useable bits.’

‘Plenty of broken glass in the city, lovey,’ said Mikel, glowing with pride at her achievement.

Finally, Rain turned to Katia and Hern, almost afraid to see their reactions.

Hern rubbed his chin. ‘Rogue’s breast feathers are a bit whiter than that.’

‘Pa!’ Peri exclaimed.

Rain tried to hide her chagrin. ‘Well, I only had a few colours to choose from.’

Hern’s face broke into a smile. ‘But all the same, it’s the cleverest thing I’ve ever seen. You’re sure you’re not related to the fey people?’

Rain realized he had been teasing her. ‘No, I’m not sure. I’m keeping an open mind on the subject.’

‘Thought as much.’

Katia turned back to the pot, releasing a cloud of steam as she took off the lid. ‘It’s very pretty. Not that we’ve room for something like that.’

‘I’ll have it in our bedroom,’ Bel said quickly.

‘No, ours!’ countered Helgis.

‘Of course we’ve space,’ Hern interjected, cutting them off before they started arguing. ‘Look round the room: everyone’s fascinated by it. I can’t imagine anyone objecting if we hang it from the beam by the window here.’

Katia shook her head, stirring the stew vigorously.

Hern took the mobile from Rain’s fingers and climbed on the table. ‘See, everyone, our guest has made us a present. What do you think?’

There was a swell of appreciative words, with a few suggestions that she should make one for the other trades represented in the common room.

‘All right if I hang it down here then?’

‘Aye, if you try and take it away, that’s when there’ll be trouble,’ shouted Conal from among the hunters.

A laugh of agreement rippled among the people.

‘That’s settled then. Peri, get a hook in the beam and we’ll put this up now.’

Much to Katia’s annoyance, supper was delayed as Hern saw to it that Rain’s gift was treated with due honour. But even Katia couldn’t help smiling when the next morning she came in to find their end of the room danced with tiny rainbows as the light sparkled through the mobile.

A
fter this first experiment, Rain was inundated with work. Proud of their foreign glassmaker, the scavengers even ventured into the city to make sure she was kept supplied with the glass shards she needed. Peri set up a table for her in the good light by the common room window so that she did not have to hide away in her bedroom to craft her designs. She became a popular fixture in her corner, attracting callers of all ages to see how her latest project was progressing. People were hungry for beauty in an increasingly ugly world beyond the compound. To find someone still able to make things reminded them that there was much to value in the world and lightened everyone’s spirits.

Perfecting her technique with each essay, Rain indulged her imagination and created a shaggy-haired dog for the hunters, a black bull for the butchers, and even a comical horse and cart for the refuse handlers. Each one hung from the ceiling over the heads of the families belonging to that profession, tinkling gently like tiny bells when a draught blew through the chamber. On each one she etched a swallow, so small none noticed what she had done, but to her it was a promise that she would never forget who she was and what she was capable of if given more than fragments to play with.

Peri liked to spend his free hours sitting beside Rain, mending his equipment or cleaning his weapons. They got so used to each other’s company that words were not necessary and they would often share a comfortable silence for long periods of time while each was absorbed in their tasks. He liked it best when she accepted his invitation to walk with him whenever there was a fine evening. Then he could touch her, taking her arm as they circled the compound at a slow pace. When he thought no one was watching, he would steal a playful kiss or two, but it was rare they were really alone. As the days became weeks, he had the strangest sensation that the bonds joining them multiplied each day, like the intricate web she wove in cotton to hold the fragile shards in place.

One afternoon in early April, he sought her out, finding her as he expected absorbed in her newest piece. He sat down and began working on his hunting quiver, glancing up from time to time to watch the flicker of her sooty lashes as she examined each shard with care, the chestnut gleam of her hair tied back to keep it out of her way. It had begun to worry him that she still spoke of returning home. He as good as told her every time he kissed her that he cared for her but was still waiting for her to confess her feelings for him. When she had produced the mobile for his family, he had taken heart that she had spent so many hours making a gift surely calculated to please him, but he wasn’t sure if it was a gesture of friendship or something more. Fear of rejection prevented him from asking straight out; he wanted a clearer sign. Did she not wonder if she might want to stay with him in Magharna? Part of him was secretly glad that she had no choice for the moment but to remain where she was. That way he had time to bind her to him as tightly as he felt bound to her.

‘Peri?’ Rain knotted the thread she had been working on.

‘Hmm?’ Peri looked up from the arrow he was fletching with some of Rogue’s feathers.

‘Did you go talk to the fishermen like you said?’

‘You know I did. I took them the fish hanging you made for them: they were delighted. I thought I told you all that yesterday.’

She dabbed at a tiny cut on her fingertip which was beading with blood. Gently taking her hand in his, Peri drew a cloth from his bag and cleaned it for her. ‘You should be more careful: you’re cutting yourself to pieces.’

‘Hazard of the job,’ she said with a shrug. ‘But about the fisherfolk, did you talk about anything else? About what to do? The lawlessness has gone on for over a month now.’

Peri put the cloth aside. ‘I talked to Murdle. He said the city is nearly empty; people have gone out into the countryside to find food, taking trouble with them.’

‘Isn’t it time someone stepped forward to restore some order? The strong might survive this, but what about the ordinary people, the vulnerable ones?’

‘We discussed that, but we really don’t think we have enough men for the job. The fishermen have about fifty; we’ve got almost a hundred; but you know how big the city is: we’d need an army to put down the looters.’

Rain toyed with a pale blue piece of glass, holding it up to the light to check its colour. ‘I’ve been hearing rumours from the hunters. There is someone with enough men for the task.’

‘Oh? Who would that be? Not the Master, because he’s currently running around barefoot with my pest of a brother.’

‘No, not Ret. I was thinking of Krital and the bandits.’

Peri had thought he had got used to the way Rain’s mind worked, but she had managed to floor him with that suggestion. ‘That was a joke, right?’

She put down the glass and stretched her arm behind her head, relaxing her tense muscles. ‘No. In my craft, I’ve learned to work with what I can get. Krital’s a criminal but, think about it: he’s all that’s left.’

‘It’s true that he’s managed to keep the bandits together all this time, but only because they are knee-deep in riches.’

Rain had expected Peri not to follow her train of thought immediately; he was too much of a Magharnan to think the unthinkable as she did. ‘Peri, Krital’s done more than that. He’s set up his headquarters near the old mine on the road to the port. He’s got deputies that report to him, patrols keeping an eye on the land he considers his; he even holds hearings when there are disputes. Sounds like a little government to me.’

Peri rubbed his thumb across her knuckles. ‘Bandits, Rain. Remember them? The people that killed everyone you were with and took you prisoner?’

‘Of course I haven’t forgotten—and I’m not excusing his behaviour or defending his glaringly absent morals.’ Memories of that day cropped up frequently as her nightmares. ‘But I’m thinking what we can do with the fragments that are left, not of what I would choose if we started from scratch. I doubt Krital chose his life as a bandit—he was forced out by the old system. If given the choice, isn’t there hope he’ll take the opportunity to change?’

‘Krital wants me dead for taking you from him, remember?’

She shook her head. ‘Surely he’ll have forgotten all that by now.’

‘I wouldn’t bet on it.’

‘He’s a thug, I know that, but at least he is easy to understand. He will do what he sees as in his own interests. Have you not thought that if nothing is done the farmers will not be able to tend their crops this year. We’ll all starve come winter. What’s the bigger crime: letting people die of hunger or making an approach to people we’d rather not have to deal with? If we can persuade him that he will be better off on the inside of the new Magharna, rather than as an outcast on the road, I think he might help us.’

‘He’s not some misunderstood hero waiting for a chance to reform—don’t deceive yourself that he has a good side.’ Recognizing the slow-burn of panic inside his chest, Peri silently cast around for ways to stop her heading off on this disastrous course. ‘He won’t take any notice of you, so how exactly are you thinking of persuading him?’

Rain gave an awkward half shrug. ‘With this?’ She gestured to the latest design, a horse rearing on its hind legs.

‘Sweetheart, your creations are wonderful, but even you aren’t that good. Krital won’t do your bidding for a bunch of broken pieces strung into a pretty pattern.’

‘No, but it might make him pause long enough to listen to what we’ve got to say. I don’t like him or his ways—frankly, he terrifies me—but we need him.’

‘We?’ Peri stood up. ‘If you think for one moment that I’d risk asking Krital for anything then you’ve got another think coming to you. He’ll run me through and not think twice about it.’