Andrus Kivirähk - The Man Who Spoke Snakish

“What’s wrong? Are you feeling sick?” asked Mother. “Your face is so … strange!”

“Nothing wrong,” I replied, breathing in deeply. “I’m going to Tambet’s now and I’ll bring Hiie out.”

Mother and Salme shouted something to me, probably warning me to be careful, but I didn’t hear what they said. A rage was throbbing inside me. It seemed to have welled up from the depths of my body, and I had the feeling that I had discovered some secret cave within myself. Moss that had long lain dry was suddenly struck by a thunderbolt and was crackling ablaze. Into the dark evening sky I hissed a long sibilation that the adders use just before they strike their teeth into the body of their victim with lightning speed. Then I ran to Tambet’s hut.

It was dark and silent there. For a moment I listened at the door, then I leapt in. The shack was empty. There was no Tambet, Mall, or Hiie. So they must have already left. I would have to run like a wolf if I still wanted to save the girl.

I rushed into Tambet’s barn. The wolves were lying there side by side, but at the sight of me they leapt to their feet and started baying. I hissed the necessary Snakish words to them, the wolves fell silent, lowered their heads obediently, and I jumped onto the back of one of them and together we sped toward the sacred grove at breakneck pace.

Yes, they were already there. The flames were blazing. Ülgas was standing in the light of the fire, his arms raised heavenward, and Hiie crouched there like a little crumpled ball, Tambet and Mall like two stone statues a little way off.

On the wolf’s back I charged into the middle of the grove, which was actually a terrible desecration, since animals had no right to enter the sacred grove. Before they could comprehend it, I pulled Hiie to myself on the wolf’s back and hissed Snakish words meaning “run now as fast as you can!”

The wolf rushed away and behind my back I heard Tambet cursing me and Ülgas screaming in an unnatural, bloodcurdling voice. After a little while the noise abated. Along the forest path we raced at full gallop. It started to rain, and soon we were wet through. Hiie was unconscious; she hung limply over the wolf’s neck and was starting to slip downward. I hissed to the wolf to slacken his pace a little. Actually he would have done that anyway; two people were too much of a burden to him. Just at that moment we heard the baying of other wolves behind us.

These were Tambet’s wolves, and he sat on the back of the first of them; behind him galloped Ülgas, and they were gaining ground on us, as my wolf was tired and had to carry two people, while the wolf pack behind us was running without a load. It was clear that they were almost upon us, and I turned my face to my pursuers and hissed to the wolves through the ever-increasing rain a sibilation that would put them to sleep.

But the wolves did not fall asleep, their baying approached ever nearer, and I heard Ülgas screaming, “Hiss, oh hiss, pupil of the adders! These wolves won’t obey you! Their ears are stopped up with wax. You have no power over them!”

Pouring wax into the ears of animals was a disgusting and also dangerous trick, because it would not be possible to gouge out the wax, and in the future these wolves could never be guided in any way by Snakish words; from now on they would be their own masters and would do whatever they pleased. But in his blind hatred of me and his insatiable desire to cut Hiie’s throat, Ülgas was prepared to take this step. My wolf was now starting to stumble and I knew that soon the game would be up.

At that moment there galloped out of the thicket another wolf, which jumped alongside my steed and I saw, sitting on the wolf’s back, Mall.

“Turn left,” she said without looking at me, looking only at the unconscious Hiie, whom I was holding in my arms. “There is the sea. On the shore you’ll see some rocks; hidden behind the biggest one is a boat. Take it and go; then you’ll be saved.”

The next moment she led her own wolf into the bushes and was gone. There was no time to thank her for her good advice, and in the end Mall had only done a mother’s duty. She had never treated Hiie tenderly, but the sacrifice of her daughter was too much even for her.

I directed my wolf to the left and in a moment we were by the seashore.

For me it was a familiar place; just here, years ago, old Manivald the coast guard had been burned for his funeral. I saw the big rocks, and behind me I heard the wolves’ breathing and Ülgas’s fearful yelping. If Mall was wrong or lying, and there was no boat, they would catch me I knew. Summoning the last of its strength the wolf sped across the beach sand, straight toward the rocks.

There was a boat. I threw Hiie into it and pushed with all my might. The boat was sunk deep in the sand and didn’t want to leave the spot. I yelled in desperation, bit my lips hard, gathered all my strength — and got it to move. A moment later we were on the water. I found the oars in the bottom of the boat, and when the wolf pack, with Tambet and Ülgas, reached the shore, we were sloshing away at a safe distance.

Of course the wolves could have jumped into the water and tried to swim after us, but since their ears were stopped up with wax, they couldn’t be given the order, and naturally they didn’t want to voluntarily make themselves wet. But Ülgas and Tambet waded into the water, although the decrepit sage almost immediately stepped on a rock on the sea bottom and went sprawling. Tambet kept on wading until the water reached his chin, then started swimming furiously and far, but it was all in vain. The boat was much faster than the old man, and his bobbing head became ever smaller, until it merged with the darkness. However, we heard Tambet’s voice long afterward. “I’m coming after you!” he screamed. “I’ll find you, wherever you escape to! I’ll bring you back! I’ll catch you!”

iie was sleeping in the bottom of the boat, curled up like a little snake. In the meantime I had started to worry for her and feared that she had been hurt in the escape, but when I looked more closely I saw a faint smile on her face and heard her breathing deeply and peacefully. She was all right.

We were drifting slowly on a completely smooth sea, not a single wave in sight. The rain shower had stopped long ago. At first I had rowed, but then I stopped bothering, since I wasn’t able anyway to choose where to go. I was waiting for sunrise so as to find out exactly where we were.

The strange and wild fury and the hitherto unprecedented brutality that had taken over me the previous night had long since dispersed. I was again the ordinary cautious and pious Leemet, and I was quite frightened to think about the peril I had been in. Had I really hissed Snakish words into the night sky like an ancient warrior going into battle? Where did I take that unexpected strength and rage from? By now it had completely dissipated and I thought with dismay that Mother would surely be worrying and expecting me, and I regretted that I had got involved in this mess.

Dawn finally came. The first rays of the sun were spreading wide over the sea, as if someone had dripped liquid wax into a mirror of water, and at that moment Hiie also woke up. She opened her eyes and looked at me, at the sea surrounding us, and her look contained no hint of surprise or dread. And yet she had been unconscious since the time when I pulled her onto the wolf’s back from under Ülgas’s knife. The last thing she could remember was being in the grove at night and hearing the strange tones of the sage, his arms stretched heavenward. Now she was in a boat with me. But Hiie seemed not to find this odd at all. She smiled at me, sat up, and stretched herself.