Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

RIN-GOREEKIE

The gentle swaying of the cart and clopping of the horses hooves had caused Morii and Lilly to fall asleep. As they approached the small hamlet of Rin-goreekie Lilly woke up with a start, not really knowing where she was or why she was there. She glanced around and remembered that she and Morii were on a mission, sent by Gamray to find out what they could about the ‘unwanted son’. She gently shook Morii’s arm and as he opened his eyes, she put a finger to her lips, telling him to be quiet. Morii blinked a couple of times and nodded to Lilly sleepily, that he understood.

The cart driver, an old Norsonian by the name of Glodsun, was pulling the cart up at the stables of the only inn in Rin-goreekie. He turned in his seat to Lilly and Morii and told them, ‘this here be the stop over for this eve, ye can make yer own arrangements, we leave at the rising of Gamrays son.’

Lilly and Morii nodded and climbed down from the cart. Lilly’s legs and feet were stiff and numb, so she stamped them a little, trying to get her circulation going. ‘What do we do now?’ she whispered to a still sleepy looking Morii. Morii got hold of her arm and led her a safe distance from the cart driver. The few people that were milling around paid no attention to a couple of Noeman youngers, Morii told Lilly they must get a room for the night.

‘Leave the talking to me Lilly, I think I can do a fairly good Noeman accent. I will tell anyone who asks that we are brother and sister, on our way home,’ he added. Lilly nodded. ‘How do we pay for a room?’ she asked.

Morii pointed to his head, ‘with these beads, they are good currency here. The Noeman do use them to pay for services from Norsonian folk. Then, when they come into Bell-da-hallen for the trading fair, folk can exchange them back for goods.’

Lilly nodded to show that she understood and followed Morii into the inn.

Lilly realised that she had never been into a Norsonian inn before and she stared around her while her eyes adjusted to the gloomy interior. They were in a rectangular room with a large fireplace at one end. Five or six tables were placed down each side of the room with benches on either side. There was a covering on the floor of woven bracken and lightin bush sconces on the walls gave off a shadowy flickering light.

Morii clapped his hands loudly a couple of times and a small, round woman appeared through a curtain door to their left.

‘Goodeve master, and what may I be doin for ye?’ she asked.

Morii bowed his head and said, ‘Goodeve my lady keeper. My kin and my own do be needing a room from ye and ye be in need of a bead or three for yer time and yer trouble.’

Lilly had to stop herself from giggling, Morii did not sound like Morii. Morii sounded like nothing she had ever heard. His voice had a strange sing-song quality and he spoke very, very quietly, almost a whisper really.

However, the small woman did not appear to think anything was strange. ‘Yay good master, ye and yer kin shall follow me and yay I should be glad of three beads for me time and for me trouble.’ She turned and held back the curtain for Lilly and Morii. Through the curtain was another room, a kitchen of sorts and really quite comfortable looking. The small woman was in front of them now and leading them to a wooden staircase. At the top of the stairs she opened a low set door, which Lilly and Morii had to duck down to get through.

‘There ye be master, do it suit yer need?’ the small woman enquired.

Morii told her that it did and gave her three silver beads. ‘Will ye be wanting a bit of evefood master?’ The small woman asked.

‘Yay that would please my kin and my own, good lady keeper. May we take vitals down in yer eating room in some short moments?’ Morii asked.

‘Yay that ye may master, short moments I shall be.’ replied the little woman and with that she scurried away.

Lilly was impressed with Morii’s acting abilities and his strange lilting accent. ‘Ye did fool me Morii, I started to think I was with a complete stranger just then.’

‘Yay Lilly, the Noeman do have an unusual way of speaking Norsonian to our ears and that be true.’ Morii told her.

Lilly couldn’t help thinking that Morii’s way of speaking had been unusual to her ears to begin with and now, she realised it seemed so natural that she was doing it herself. ‘Well, ye do it very well Morii, how did ye learn it?’ she asked her friend.

‘It was Sardor that did learn us the art of speaking in other jimes.’ Morii told her. Lilly guessed that ‘jimes’ meant languages and so didn’t bother to ask further. ‘Yay Morii, I have to learn the jimes of French when I am in school. It’s difficult.’

Morii laughed. ‘That be a strange name and that be true. Frenncsh.’ he tried to say and failed.

Now it was Lilly’s turn to laugh, ‘vous ne comprenez pas?’ she asked him in her best French accent.

Morii looked confused, how are ye speaking the jimes of the Noeman, Lilly?’ he asked.

‘I’m not, that’s French,’ Lilly replied.

Morii just looked at Lilly for a few moments, ‘What ye speak is high Noeman Lilly, ye know the jimes all the time and ye speak it as good as I, yay that be true.’

Lilly was dumbfounded, how could that be, did the Noeman speak French?

She shook her head. ‘All I know is that in my land, we call it French, maybe that’s the same as Noeman here.’

Morii still looked doubtful, but had to agree that however it was called, it was the same jimes or language.

They went back downstairs for their evefood. The small woman, who’s name was Haffra, had laid a table in a little alcove by the door. There was thick brown chunks of bread and wooden bowls containing a meat stew.  Morii and Lilly wasted no time in getting started, they were both starving.

While they ate, several people came and went, some bringing in a few provisions for Haffra‘s kitchen, some stopping for a drink of storbvin, some just for a chat with another. Lilly took this all in, it was the first time she had really seen ordinary Norsonian folk doing ordinary things. She had to admit it was rather nice, not being recognised as the ‘Lady Lilly of the Nor-folk, etc etc.’ and being able to just get on with eating or whatever without being interrupted.

When they had finished neither of them felt tired, so Morii suggested that they go for a walk round the hamlet. They had gone a little way towards a rocky outcrop at the northern edge of the village when Morii stopped and said, ‘I be sorry for what I said to ye last eve, Lilly. I meant not to upset ye.’ Lilly cast her mind back to last eve and thought for a moment.

‘Do ye mean about me returning to Norfolk?’

‘Yay, that be it. I meant what I said about ye, but I did not mean to upset ye.’ Morii looked a little embarrassed.

‘Oh Morii, the only upset I feel is for ye. Ye must not think of such things, we need our brains to be thinking of keeping safe with this mission that Gamray has set us on, not worrying about whether we have upset each other. I feel just the same about ye, I do not want to lose yer friendship and I am sure with Gamray’s help all will be fine.’

‘Yay Lilly, ye be true, we will speak of it no more and concentrate on finding this Borgup the smith tomorrow.’

They continued their walk and Morii explained a little more about the Noeman way of life. It seemed to Lilly that they were basically a nomadic tribe, craftsmen and women who liked to sing and dance and tell stories. Morii told Lilly that the Noeman storytellers were well respected in Norsonia and beyond.

‘What is beyond Norsonia Morii? Do ye know anyone who has been to another land?’

Morii, shook his head. ‘Not really. Sardor have been into the wastelands a little way. He was taken when he were a younger by a Noeman trader as he wanted to explore, but he found he could not bear the land with no trees nor water. He came back to Norsonia and he determined then and there to travel in his few books and spoken knowledge instead. I did tell ye before, Norsonians do not like to leave their lands.

Lilly nodded, remembering exactly what Morii had told her.

They had reached the rocky outcrop now and both of them climbed a little way to sit on the rocks overlooking the small hamlet of Rin-goreekie. Morii continued their conversation. ‘Ye see Lilly, there be an old saga that most folk do know well. It tells of a land beyond land, of a place called Ginnungagap. That be what folks have in their heads, the Ginnungagap. It do be told that there be an abyss of emptiness at Ginnungagap and folks that be daft enough to travel to it do never return from it. So most folks have grown old never wishing to leave the safety of Norsonia, just in case they stumble into Ginnungagap by accident and get swallowed up by the abyss, and that be true.’ He sighed, ‘I don’t be one of them, I should love to travel to other lands and to see the wonders they hold.’

Lilly thought that Ginnungagap sounded like a bad idea and didn’t blame folk for not wanting to put it to the test. Morii was speaking again, ‘Folk do know that the Noeman travel all over, to places they have never heard of nor could dream of, and they do know that Ginnungagap be just a saga, made up to scare, but they will not change their minds and just go and see for themselves. That be one thing about Norsonians that do make me mad.’ he added rather grumpily.

Lilly smiled. ‘In my land, Morii, people have always explored. They crossed the oceans in small boats, they found new countries and different, interesting people. They had wars and tried to take over the countries they discovered, so it isn’t necessarily a good thing ye know.’ Lilly gave Morii’s hand a squeeze. ‘One day I will go exploring with ye Morii, we will go in search of the Ginnungagap and find out one way or another, ye know if there be this huge abyss or not.’ she told him.

‘Yay Lilly, I should like to explore this world. I want to know about other things, and have stories to tell, like the Noeman.’ Morii agreed.

As the two friends sat discussing far off lands, a small party of horsemen arrived at the other end of the hamlet. Lilly was staring absently at them in the distance, listening to Morii and not really thinking of anything much. Suddenly she shivered. Morii asked her, ‘what is it Lilly, ye have turned quite pale.’

‘Those horsemen Morii, ye see them?’ Morii looked to where Lilly was pointing and nodded. ‘Yay. I see them, six horsemen in grey cloaks have arrived at the inn. Tis an inn Lilly and folks arrive there all the time.’

Lilly was silent for a moment or two. ‘They look so much like the Miramid horsemen that Gamray showed me last night, the ones that stole the children, I told ye about. Oh how I wish I had my telescope, ye know the finding glass, with me.’

Morii stared at the party of horsemen until they had all disappeared from view and gone into the inn. ‘They cannot be from Miramid’ he said, ‘Miramid no longer exists and it was so many turns of Gamrays son in the past.’

‘They are dressed in the same way, I think.’ Lilly said hesitantly. ‘I don’t mean they are the same people, they just look like them.’ Now she felt a bit silly for making such a big thing of it.

‘Come on Morii, lets get back, it’s getting quite dark and I want a closer look at those men. Let’s see if we can learn anything from them.’

‘Yay, we shall return, go in quietly and sit a way from them, see if we can hear what they say.’ agreed Morii.

They climbed down the little slope of rocks and started back into Rin-goreekie, hurrying toward the lights and comfort of the inn.

Morii opened the door of the inn quietly. The place was now full of merchants, travellers and hamlet folk, drinking and mardling. Some laughing at a joke, some playing a game of dice, yet others haggling over the price of aurochs or ground peckers. There was plenty going on in Rin-goreekie inn and Lilly and Morii were able to slip into a seat in the corner just a few feet from the party of horsemen in grey cloaks, completely unnoticed by anyone.

‘I shall get us storbvin, to warm us.’ Morii told Lilly and disappeared. Lilly sat and took in everything that was going on around her. It was, all in all a jolly place. It felt friendly and now that it was dark, the sconces on the wall threw out quite a lot of light, the light from the fireplace added to the overall warm and cosy atmosphere.

Lilly could see the horsemen very clearly from where she was sitting. They did look very much like the Miramid horsemen of a long time past, dark, swarthy with longish pointy beards. However they were chatting among themselves and laughing, they did not look like they were scheming anything and Lilly began to relax a little.

Morii returned to their table with two cups and a jug of storbvin.

‘There ye be, have a little storbvin my kin.’ He put a cup in front of Lilly and sat down, pouring a little storbvin into Lilly’s cup.

He had said all of this in Noeman, (or what sounded to Lilly like bad French) and Lilly had only just remembered that they were supposed to be Noeman youngers.

‘Merci’ she told Morii and he winked. They sat quietly, trying to hear what the grey cloaked horsemen were talking about. After a few moments of listening they could pick out some of the words from the horsemen’s conversation.

They were talking about a meeting they had been to or were going to. Nothing very interesting there thought Lilly, and began to think she really had been worrying needlessly. She took a sip of storbvin and gazed around the room. Suddenly she heard the word Kort mentioned. She looked at Morii, who had also heard judging by his sudden alertness.

‘Does any other place have a Kort, apart from Bell-da-hallen?’ she asked Morii. He shook his head, ‘not that I know of.’ he whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

They tried to listen to more of the horsemen’s conversation but now they were talking so quietly and with their backs mostly to Lilly and Morii. One of them, the tallest, had one arm propped against the wall of the fireplace and the other five stood around him, their heads bowed slightly toward him listening intently to whatever he was saying. They nodded occasionally and looked around over their shoulders every now and again.

Lilly was trying to think of a way of getting closer, so that she could hear what was being said.

Just at that moment, a small cat walked up to the fire and made itself comfortable by the hearth.

Lilly seized the opportunity and said in Noeman, ‘Look dear kin, look at that pretty creature, may I coax it please.’

Morii caught Lilly’s thinking and replied. ‘Yay dear kin ye may, be gentle though in case ye frighten it away.’

Lilly smiled and nodded and got up from the table. She slowly sat on the hearth next to the cat and made a great show of stroking the small creature.

The horsemen gave Lilly a casual glance and saw a young girl stroking a small cat. They thought nothing of it and carried on mardling. Now Lilly could hear and couldn‘t help thinking it was great to be a kid sometimes - adults mostly didn‘t see ye.

The tall one was speaking, ‘Ye will all have to take the greatest of care, his lordship will not tolerate failure this time. Trock let him down and now we are privileged to be given the chance to prove that we can succeed where that king failed. Do ye all understand? Ye must wait until ye are summoned and ye must gain the trust of some in the Kort. His lordship does not care how ye do this. But it must be done, ye must gain access and be seen to live in the Kort as a good and trusted worker. Yay it will take time, time is not an issue, victory is.’

At this point the horsemen raised their tankards and clanked them together. Lilly felt a splat of storbvin hit her head and decided she’d heard enough for the moment.

Returning to Morii, she had to sit as if nothing had happened for what seemed like eternity. Finally the horsemen drank up and left.

Lilly turned to Morii and said, ‘we need to mardle, now upstairs.’

Morii got up and followed Lilly upstairs.

Once safely in their room with the door firmly closed, Lilly related everything she had heard to Morii. ‘Ye need to mind reach Gamray and let him know’. Morii said at once.

‘Already done, I reached him while we were waiting for the horsemen to leave.’ Lilly told him.

Morii looked at Lilly with real admiration. ‘Ye never fail to amaze me Lilly, yer mind works so quick. That were a real clever trick with the fire lover.’

‘Fire lover?’ Lilly enquired. 

‘Yay, the creature ye stroked, they love the fires.’ Morii replied.

‘Oh, we name them cat, well actually we give them proper names if they are pets. I have one myself, called Ponty.’ Lilly told him.

Morii looked at Lilly questioningly, ‘What is pets?’ he asked.

Lilly thought for a moment on how to answer, ‘a bit like Pel I suppose, a creature that likes to be with humans, live in their home and be friends with ye. Our creatures can’t mind reach ye though, well not quite.’ Lilly was thinking that Ponty could communicate her wishes quite adequately, but it was too difficult to explain to Morii.

Morii was shaking his head, ‘ye folk of the innerwuld be strange and that be true.’

‘Yay that be very true Morii. Anyway, Gamray say’s we are to continue our mission and to be very watchful. He thinks that the ‘unwanted son’ has left Kort and could be anywhere.’

Morii looked concerned, ‘If only we knew his face, we would not know if he were staying here, he could be anywhere as Gamray says.’

It was Lilly’s turn to shake her head now, ‘I think I would know Morii, I feel his presence, or the evilness of him. I’m not sure which, anyway I’d know if he were here. Now we better get some rest, we have to be up at the rising of Gamray’s son. We don’t want to miss our ride.’  With that the two friends shook out the hay stuffed mattresses and spread out the furs on top of them, they weren’t quite Kort beds but they were comfortable enough. Although they spoke no more that night it took both of them a long time before they fell asleep. Each of them thinking about the events of the day and what could possibly happen next.