Robert Carter - The Giants’ Dance

‘Morning. Morning…’

Will breathed deep. He seemed to have lost his appetite, and took a little oatmeal. When he had finished it he took up the red fish and studied it again, while its beady little green eye studied him. It was so like his own talisman, yet the comfort he had always got from the green fish did not come from this one.

Now, as he looked up, he saw the harvesters holding out their sickles towards him.

‘Thank you, Master,’ the nearest of them said.

‘What?’

‘For your blessings upon our trade tools.’

He looked back at the man blankly, then he saw that his quarterstaff was propped up behind him and he realized with a bump what the men had taken him for.

They think I’m a wizard, he thought, smiling. A wizard! Would you believe it?

The men would not leave until he had touched each of their sickles in turn and muttered the name of it in the true tongue.

As the last of the harvesters left, a young mother came to him and asked to have a blessing laid on her child.

‘A blessing? Well, I don’t think I—’

‘Please. Just a good word for the babe, Master,’ she said. ‘To keep the horse flies off her while I ties up the corn stooks. See?’

‘You want me to put a good word on the baby?’ Will asked doubtfully. He looked across the room and saw Dimmet watching with folded arms. Will inclined his head, then shrugged. ‘Here. Give him to me. What’s his name?’

‘Rosy,’ said the child’s mother.

‘Oh, yes. Yes…of course.’

Will made a sign on the babe’s forehead, while muttering a spell of general protection against insects. He realized he couldn’t remember the true name for horse flies, so he protected her from wasps and creepy-crafties of all kinds, then he handed the child back.

‘She’ll be fine in the fields, but make sure she stays out of the sun, won’t you?’

‘Thank you, Master,’ the woman said and went away.

But no sooner had she gone than a toothless old woman appeared. She had with her a girl of five or six. When Will looked up the old woman said nothing, but the child smiled the most astonishing smile. She had no more teeth than the old woman, and was also cross-eyed.

‘Can I…help?’ Will said at last.

‘Begging your pardon, Master,’ the old woman said. ‘I brung the daughter’s daughter when I heard you was here.’

Will waited, but when nothing more came from the old woman except an expectant look, he said, ‘What I mean is…is there something I can do for you?’

He watched as the old woman shuffled and then said something to the child, pointing to Will’s staff. Straight away the child put her hands to her mouth and grinned shyly, then she darted forward to touch the staff.

‘Hoy! What’s this?’ Will asked. ‘What did you just tell her? That’s no wizard’s staff.’

The old woman looked suddenly cast down and began to beg piteously. ‘Is there nothing can be done for the poor little one, Master?’

‘What’s your name?’ Will asked the girl.

‘Thithwin.’

‘Thithwin. What a very nice name.’

‘It’s Siswin,’ said the old woman. ‘I’m africkened she’ll never get a husband looking like she do, Master.’

‘Surely it’s a mite early to be thinking of husbands for…ah, Siswin,’ Will said frowning. He was uncomfortable discussing the child’s looks in her hearing.

‘Ain’t there nothing at all can be done against plug ugliness, Master?’

‘Just…wait a moment.’

He thought back to his studies and knew there was something that could be done, if only it was to make the child believe that she was beautiful. According to the magic book Gwydion had given him that usually did the trick, for children had a way of growing into what they thought they wanted to be most of the time.

He took the girl’s shoulders in both hands, steadying her before him. Then he brushed back the hair from her face with his thumbs and put a pinch of salt on top of her head, after which he muttered a spell that was used to untangle knots.

‘Look at this finger with this eye, and that finger with that eye,’ he said holding up two fingers before her. Then he slowly moved his two fingers apart and muttered a ‘let it be’ spell.

‘You are a very pretty girl, do you know that?’ he said solemnly, and the girl nodded.

‘Now will you make my teeth grow, pleeth?’ she said.

‘Don’t worry about them. They’ll grow out in their own good time. They always do.’

Will waited for them to leave and allow him to finish his breakfast in peace, but they did not move.

‘And what about grandmammy? Will her teeth grow out ath well?’

Will spread his hands in regret. ‘Now that I can’t promise.’

‘Say “thank you” to the Master,’ the old woman said.

‘Thank you, Mathter.’

When they had gone Will finished his meal then, alerted by a buzz of voices, he got up to look along the passageway. There was a knot of people at the door of the inn, and all of them were marvelling at the improvement in the girl’s eyes. Dimmet was foremost among them, his voice booming.

Will spoke to Dimmet the moment he came in. ‘What did you tell them?’

‘Oh, ‘twern’t me. Word has just got about.’

‘What word ?’

‘Why, that there’s a wizard in the district.’

Will tried to lower his voice. ‘But I’m not a wizard.’

‘You could have fooled me about that. That was as pretty a piece of healing as what ever I’ve seen. And I’ve seen a fair few healers in my time, genuine as well as the other sort.’

‘But that was just a little helper magic.’

‘Well, that’s it! Folks’ll walk for days to have a touch of magic. Don’t you know that? Many a time when Master Gwydion’s come here there’s been a crowd of folk started to gather outside. One time there was a line stretched halfway up to Lawn Hill. That’s why he don’t never stop in a place for too long.’ Dimmet grinned. ‘I expect he asked you to look after business for him for a day or two, did he? Save him the bother?’

‘What?’ Will said, aghast.

‘You’re welcome to stay here as long as you like, Willand, you know that!’ Dimmet winked. ‘I expect I can handle all the extra customers. And there’s generally a powerful thirst on folk who’ve walked a half dozen leagues or more on a summer’s day in search of a cure.’

Just then Duffred put his head in. ‘There’s a man out here says can he bring his cow in to see the wizard?’

‘No, he cannot!’ Dimmet said and marched off down the passageway.

‘Where’re you going?’ Will called after him. ‘Duffred, where’s your father gone?’

But Duffred only grinned and said, ‘He’s found a mare’s nest and he’s gone to laugh at the eggs. What do you think? You’d better come out here before they start breaking the door down.’

Will groaned, and resigned himself to a long day.

A clamour began as he came to the alehouse door.

‘One at a time!’ he said. ‘Please!’

Duffred and two of his father’s serving men came out and marshalled the folk into a line, saying that if they did not stand quietly and in good order the wizard would not see anybody.

‘What did you say that for?’ Will hissed as Duffred went back inside.

‘Eh?’

‘What did you call me a wizard for?’

‘Oh, they don’t know no different. Besides, you are a wizard to us.’ And Duffred went off whistling.

When noon came, Will hardly stopped to eat. He had not bothered to count but he supposed that over a hundred folk had gone away happier than when they had arrived. He helped them over everything from bunions and hens that refused to lay to pig-bitten fingers and a troublesome toothache. But no matter how hard he listened, or how many signs he placed on heads, still more folk presented themselves.