Into The Darkness

Whatever the cause, Ealstan was glad to escape school. He'd grown as sick of Algarvian irregular verbs as he had been of their classical Kaunian equivalents. And besides, the first fall rains had brought out the mush rooms.

Forthwegians were mad for mushrooms - not surprising, when so many good ones grew in their kingdom. They ate them fresh, they ate them dried, they ate them pickled, they ate them in salads, they ate them with olives: they ate them with any excuse, or none, Markets were always full of mushrooms, but Ealstan, like most Forthwegians, was convinced the ones he picked himself were better than any he could buy. Like most Forthwegians, he knew the differences between the edible varieties and the ones that were poisonous; like his schoolmasters, his father had operated on the principle that a warmed backside made blood flow more freely to the brain. And so, armed with a cloth sack, he sallied forth with his cousin Sidroc to see what he could find.

"It will be good to get out of the city," Sidroc said. Lowering his voice, he went on, "It will be good to get away from the cursed redheads too.

"I won't say you're wrong, because I think you're right," Ealstan [..salij.].

"I just hope they let us out. And their checkpoints are still up."

But the Algarvian soldiers at the checkpoint on the west side of to'A seeing the sacks they carried, waved them through. "Mushrooms?' soldier asked. Ealstan and Sidroc nodded. The Algarvian stuck out tongue and made a horrible face to show what he thought of them. spoke in his own language. His comrades laughed and nodded. T didn't fancy mushrooms, either.

"More for us," Ealstan said as soon as he was out of earshot of guard who spoke Forthwegian. Sidroc nodded again.

Before long, the two cousins split up. That way, they would br wider assortment of mushrooms back to the house they still shared. way, too, they wouldn't quarrel if they both spotted a fine one same time. They'd quarreled over mushrooms before, more than

Now they knew better.

Every so often, Ealstan would see someone else digging in a [..fie aid. hey the or at n, a his..He..] the base of a tree. He didn't offer to go and help any of these people.

Some folks loved to chat and share. Rather more, though, were inclined to be surly, to say nothing of greedy. He learned that way himself If a pretty girl came along and wanted to give him a hand, he Might let her.

He laughed at himself He liked the idea, but knew better than to find it likely.

He worked his way north, getting his shoes soggy and his knees dirty.

One of the reasons he enjoyed hunting mushrooms - aside from the plea sure of eating them later - was that he never knew ahead of time what he'd find. He tossed a few meadow mushrooms into his sack, just to make sure he didn't come home empty-handed. They were good enough, but no better than good enough.

Chanterelles were better than good enough. He picked some egg yellow ones because of their fine flavor, and some vermilion ones because his father enjoyed them, even if he himself found them acrid. Then, in some open woods he found a clump of orange Kaunian Imperial mush rooms. He studied them with care before plucking them from the ground; they were related to death caps and destroyers, both deadly poisonous. Only after he made sure they were safe did they go into the sack.

They would be delicious.

And he felt like cheering when he stumbled upon an indigo milky mushroom. It wasn't one of his favorites as far as flavor went, but his mother always clapped her hands when he came home with one because the exotic color made any dish in which she used it more interesting.

Then he came to a stand of trees with oyster mushrooms and ear mushrooms growing on their trunks, especially on the southern sides where sunlight did not reach them. The oyster mushrooms were particularly fine: fresh and grayish white, not old and tough and yellow. He went from tree to tree picking all he could; some grew higher than he could reach, even by jumping. He wondered what Sidroc would bring home - probably a mix altogether different from his.

He was so intent on harvesting those mushrooms, he didn't notice anyone else was picking from the same stand of trees tin they came round from opposite sides of the same big oak and almost bumped into each other. Nearly dropping his sack of mushrooms, Ealstan jumped back in surprise.

So did the other gatherer, a Kaunian girl not far from his own age.

They both laughed shakily. "You startled me," they both said at the same time, with identical pointing forefingers. That made them laugh again.

"There are plenty for both of us," Ealstan said, and the girl nodded.

She might have been a year or so older than he was. Doing his best [.n.] to be too obvious about it, he eyed her figure, which her Kaunian's tight tunic and trousers revealed in more detail than the long, loose tunic Forthwegian women wore. The knees of those trousers were dirty; she come out for the same reason he had, all right.