Into The Darkness

Annore looked at him sidelong. "Where do you suppose she gets that Garivald grunted. He didn't think of himself as stubborn, exceptins far as a man had to work hard to scrape a living from the soil. "What's dinner tonight?" he asked his wife.

"Bread," she answered. "What's left of last night's stew is still in the po peas and cabbage and beets and a little salt pork thrown in for flavor."

"Any honey for the bread?" he asked. Annore nodded. He grunted again, this time in satisfaction. "Well, that won't be too bad. And the stew was good last night, so it should be good again today." He sat down o a bench along the wall. "Get me some."

Annore had been stuffing guts with ground meat for sausages. She set aside what she was doing, got a bowl and a spoon, went over to the iron pot hanging above the fire, ladled the bowl full, and brought it to Garivald. Then she went back to the counter, tore off a chunk of black bread, and carried that and the honey pot over to him, too.

He broke the bread, dipped some in the honey, and ate it. Anno went back to work. Garivald spooned up some of the stew, then ate another piece of bread. "In the cities," he said, "they make fancy flour so they can have white bread, not just black or brown." His broad shoulders went up and down in a shrug. I wonder why they bother. By what hear from people who've eaten it, it's no better than any other kina."

"City people will do anything to be in fashion," Annore said, and Garivald nodded. People in the farming villages where most Unkerla lived were deeply suspicious of their urban cousins. Annore went on, glad we live in the same way our grandparents did. Why borrow trouble?"

Garivald nodded again. "That's right. I'm not sorry there aren't any ley [..und. med, ount nor..] like a her to started t spied that?" [..t inso at's for the pot: or grunted the stew own on..].

She set the iron pot it to of black [..] Annore then ate flour so shoulders [..y what I kind." said, and erlanters on, "I'm trouble?" n't..] any ley lines close by, or that Waddo hasn't been able to put a crystal in his house. what can you hear on a crystal? Only bad news and orders from Cottbus."  Orders from Cottbus are bad news," his wife said, and he nodded once more.

"Aye. If somebody there could tell Waddo what to do without coming here, Waddo would just up and do it, no matter how hard it was on the village," he said. "Waddo's one of those people who kicks every arse below him and kisses every arse above him."

He waited for Annore to answer. She didn't; she was peering through tiny gaps in the shutters drawn tight against the rain. After a moment, she opened them wide so she could see better. Surprise in her voice, she said, "Herpo the spice man's here. I wonder what possessed him to come in the middle of the rains."

"Some of those people just have itchy feet - they go when and where they choose," Garivald said. "Never could see the sense of it myself-, I've always been happy to stay right where I am." But he finished eating in a hurry, while Annore was plopping Leuba in her crib and putting on her own rain cape and hat. They started to go out together to see Herpo.

Leuba squalled angrily. Annore gave a martyred look and went back to pick up the baby.

Half the people in the village were out to see Herpo. Despite what Garivald had said about not wanting a crystal nearby and about being content where he was, he craved the news and gossip the spice seller had, and he was far from the only one.

And Herpo had news: "We're at war again," he said.

"Who is it now?" somebody asked. "Forthweg?"

"No, we already fought Forthweg," somebody else said, and then, doubtfully, "Didn't we?"

"Let Herpo speak his piece," Garivald said. "Then we'll know."

"Thank you, friend," the spice man said. "I will speak my piece, and then I'll hold my peace. We are at war with" - he paused dramatically - the black people up in Zuwayza." He pointed north.

"Black people!" a granny said scornfully. "Save your lies for folks who believe them, Herpo. Next thing you know, you'll tell us we're at war with the blue people over there or the green people over there." Laughing at her own wit, she pointed first to the east and then to the west.

But a gray-haired man said, "Nay, Uote, these black men are real.

There were a couple of 'em in my company in the Six Years' War. Brave enough, they were, but would you believe it, they had to learn to wear clothes. Their country is so hot, they said, that everybody there goes bar naked all the time, even the women." He smiled, as at the memory o something pleasant he hadn't thought of in a while.

Uote's face looked like curdled milk. "You shut up, Agen! They've idea!" she said. Gan*vald wasn't sure whether she disapproved of Agen having the nerve to tell her she was wrong or of people - especial women - running around naked. Probably both, he thought.