Peter Dickinson - Shadow of a Hero

‘But if it happens, can I go? Please? Will you help me persuade Momma?’

‘Yes indeed. You must go while you can, on any basis available. So should your momma. I will tell her so.’

Letta stared at him. He had spoken quietly, but in the same tone of authority he’d used when he’d stopped the argument between Mr Orestes and Mr Jaunis.

‘It may be our one chance,’ he explained. ‘As far as I can see there is no settlement in the Balkans which all the participants could regard as reasonable. In fact there never has been. So fighting will take place, and it may be severe. But for this year, at any rate, everybody is still too shaken and exhausted and uncertain to start on fresh turmoil, so there may for a while be an illusion of peace. After that, who knows? But certainly while the opportunity is there, all who regard themselves as Varinians should return and renew their knowledge of who and what they are. If the festival takes place, they should come to that. If not, they should go as tourists. It may be twenty years before they can do so again.’

‘All right. You work on Momma. And if she digs her heels in I’ll go with Mollie. She’s bound to want to. Do you know she’s insisting on everyone talking Field at Sunday lunch? And Steff’s backing her up. Nigel is not amused.’

‘She has not started to learn Formal yet?’

‘It won’t be long now. And I’ll tell you what. I bet she’ll take it in her stride and when she gets to the Conditional Optative she’ll decide that it’s no big deal, and shall I be not amused!’

LEGEND

The Muster at Riqui

RESTAUR VAX TRAVELLED north and south, east and west through the mountains, and wherever he had not a feud Lash the Golden went with him. At each place Restaur Vax spoke strongly with the chieftain and elders, saying that the time was ripe to drive out the Turks. But each chieftain answered in the same manner, having consulted with his elders: ‘Gladly would we fight the Turks, but we cannot do it alone. We are too few. When others have come to your standard, we will come also.’

‘The Kas Kalaz has sworn that he will come,’ said Restaur Vax.

But the chieftains still said that others must come first. And so they waited, each on the other.

Then Restaur Vax said to them, ‘If all of you swear at one time, then will you fight?’

To that they agreed.

So he sent messages to all of them, saying, ‘Come to the Chapel at Riqui, so that each may see the other swear upon the shoulder-blade of St Joseph, which is there. 1Come on the full moon after Ascension, that you may arrive after dusk and leave before dawn, so the Turks will not know of our meeting. Bring your best men to witness the oath.’

But to the Kas Kalaz he sent word, saying, ‘Come with all of your men, and mules, and much straw and sackcloth, and cords. Be at the Chapel at Riqui on the night before the full moon.’

Moreover word was brought to the Pasha of Potok saying, ‘The chiefs of Varina will muster at the Chapel at Riqui on the night of the full moon after Ascension, and there they will swear a confederacy to rise and drive out the Turks. Restaur Vax will be there, who killed your son, and also Lash the Golden.’

Hearing this, the Pasha gathered his bazouks , seven thousand of them. 2And he set spies on the roads who brought word to him, saying, ‘Indeed, such-and-such a chieftain has left his place and is travelling with his best men towards Riqui.’ Thus he knew that the message had been true.

Then he divided his bazouks into companies and sent them at rapid march north, west and east, to come upon Riqui from all sides, telling the commanders, ‘Find good hiding and wait a few kolons away from Riqui until sunset, and then close in on the place when the moon is a hand’s-breadth up the sky. There will be a full moon to show you your way. Then, at the sound of my side-drum, rush down all together and slay them, sparing only Restaur Vax, that I may slay him with my own hands.’

So it was done, and done well. In secrecy and silence the bazouks closed in upon Riqui and lay along the hilltops looking down into the hollow. There by the Chapel they saw fires, and the shapes of men around, to whom one spoke in a boastful voice.

When all was ready the Pasha ordered his side-drum to be sounded, and the bazouks drew their scimitars and rushed down into the hollow. But when they came near the Chapel they saw that those who had stood by the fires had not moved, for they were not men but dummies of straw and sackcloth, bound with cords, while the man who had spoken to them was not to be seen. (He was Lash the Golden, and at the sound of the side-drum he had run into the dark and hidden in a pit that had been prepared.)

Now from behind the bazouks , seeing them against the light and not themselves to be seen, the chieftains and their best men shot them down, firing swiftly and hotly, so that they fell like barley before the sickle. Then the bazouks lost courage, knowing themselves betrayed, and ran into the dark where the men of Varina met them and slew them with dagger and with sword. Seven thousand bazouks they slew round the Chapel at Riqui, and not one came back alive to Potok. And the Pasha of Potok was slain in fair fight by Restaur Vax, before the door of the Chapel.

Then in the dawn the chieftains gathered to take their oath, and each said to the other, ‘How came the Pasha of Potok here with so many bazouks ? This was no chance coming. A traitor must be among us.’ For Restaur Vax had told them only that he had learnt from a scout that a captain of bazouks had seen one of the chieftains on the road, and had recognized him, and was coming with his company to find what was afoot. For that they had prepared the ambush.

Now, however, Restaur Vax stood before them and said, ‘There is no traitor among us. It was I who sent word of our muster to the Pasha of Potok. His blood is upon all our heads, yours as well as mine, and the Turks will surely take vengeance on all who are here. So whether you choose to swear the oath or not you will do well to forget all feuds and stand by each other in the struggle, or you will all die.’

The chieftains acknowledged the truth of his saying, and all of them in turn swore their oath at the Chapel at Riqui. 3

1At the time of the Phanariote oppression (see here) the bones of St Joseph were removed from the cathedral of Potok, and distributed to a number of holy sites throughout Varina, for safety.

2The numbers are greatly exaggerated. Apart from this, the oral tradition of the Riqui Incident, which occurred on 22 May 1819 and is usually regarded as the start of the War of Independence, has remained remarkably faithful to the facts.

3Restaur Vax never admitted that it was he who lured the Pasha into the ambush at Riqui, but even in his own time it was universally believed that he was responsible.

SPRING/SUMMER 1990

MR JAUNIS AND Mr Orestes were Joint Honorary Secretaries of VIBI, which stood for Varinians in the British Isles and was pronounced Veeby. Letta had once been telling Biddie and Angel about it when Angel said, ‘Veeby? Honestly! Only total wimps would belong to something called Veeby! What’s with the Isles, anyway? Or are there covens of you in places like Muck and Harris? Why couldn’t they call it Varinians in Britain? VIB? I think VIB’s got much more punch.’

‘It means nostril,’ Letta said.

Biddie had been drinking tooth-rot, and choked on it. By the time they’d cleaned her up, Angel was away on something else.

Anyway, Letta had once asked Mr Jaunis how many Varinians there actually were in the British Isles.

‘According to our records, seven hundred and eighty-three,’ he’d said. ‘And six hundred and ninety of them are members of VIBI, a figure which we believe speaks highly of our commitment to our homeland.’