Part 13 (2/2)
”What do you think?” Thom asked her, and she gave him a broad grin.
They sat facing each other on a bench at the edge of the battlement, their food and drink settled between them, the sweep of the countryside visible through notches in the ancient stone. It seemed to Mistaya that the battlement had been constructed not so much for defensive as for architectural purposes, and she didn't think it was ever intended for Libiris to be defended against an attacker.
”There really is a throw latch on the door,” Thom advised with a wink, ”and I threw it. Rufus will have to find something else to do with himself until lunch is over.”
”Why is he spying on us, anyway?” she wanted to know.
Thom shrugged. ”Hard to say. I'm sure he has his reasons. It's not just you. He watches me, too. Not all the time, but now and then. I think he does it to feel like he's in control of things. Nominally, he's in charge of my work. Practically, he doesn't have any idea at all how I go about it. The Throg Monkeys don't listen to him, either.”
”The Throg Monkeys are just plain creepy. I wish we had some other help we could call on.”
”I wish that, too. I wish we could do more to put the library back to where it once was. Have you bothered to look at those books you're cataloging? Some of them are wonderful, filled with useful information and strange stories. I love looking at them.”
”I would love it better if Pinch wasn't watching all the time.” She gave him a look. ”I guess I haven't paid much attention to what's in the books. If they're so useful, why isn't anyone reading them?”
He shrugged anew. ”People haven't come here in decades. Not since before you and I were born. Most don't even know about the library. As a matter of fact, most don't even read. They've forgotten how or don't take the time. They have all they can do to keep food on the table. Life isn't easy for most living here in Landover. They have to work very hard.”
She frowned, aware that she hadn't given the matter much thought. ”I suppose that's true.”
He didn't say anything more for a moment, munching solemnly on his food as he looked out across the countryside. ”When I come up here, I like to pretend that all the lands, for as far as I can see, belong to me, and I can do whatever I want with them.”
She laughed. ”What would you do, if you had the chance?”
”Oh, that's easy. I'd give them away.”
”Give them away? To whom?”
To all those people we've been talking about. Most Landoverians living in the Greensward have to work for the Lords because the Lords hold t.i.tle to all the land. Half of what they farm or earn or forage belongs to their masters. They owe allegiance in case of war. They owe fealty oaths of all sorts. They really don't have anything that they can call their own. I'd give them the land.”
She nodded, thinking. ”Hasn't the King thought of this? I heard he made a lot of changes in the old feudal system.”
”He did. More than any King before him. He's done a lot of good. But he can only do so much. If he tried to take the land away from the Lords of the Greensward, there would be a war. Only the Lords can give away their own land.”
”But doesn't the King own this land?” she pressed, gesturing at their immediate surroundings. ”Isn't Libiris his?”
”Libiris is his, but the land isn't. As a matter of fact, t.i.tle to this particular piece of land is held jointly by the Lords and the River Master. It took years for them to agree on using even this small piece to build Libiris. I don't think they've ever agreed on anything since.”
”Maybe they could be persuaded to do more,” she said.
He laughed. ”Why don't you be the one to persuade them, then? A girl who talked with the dragon Strabo and lived to tell about it should be able to deal with mere mortals!”
”Maybe the King could do something,” she suggested impulsively.
He gave her a look. ”You know, I was once inside the castle and saw the King.”
She felt her throat tighten. ”How did that happen?”
”I was with a group of boys carrying baggage for one of the Lords. So I was allowed inside for a bit, and I saw the King and his Queen. I even saw their little girl.”
She nodded slowly, measuring his look. ”How long ago was this?”
”Quite a while. I don't remember a lot about it. I was just a boy. The little girl was just a child. She would be older now. Your age, maybe.” He grinned. ”But she wouldn't be nearly so interesting or pretty as you are, I bet.”
She was suddenly anxious to change the topic of conversation. ”Tell me the rest of how you ended up being sent here as an indentured servant.”
He finished the last of his bread and meat and washed it down with several swallows of water. ”As I recall, the bargain was that you were supposed to tell me something interesting about yourself first. Something other than that story about you and the dragon.”
”That wasn't a bargain I made. That was your condition for finis.h.i.+ng the story-a very unfair condition, I might add.”
He thought about it. ”All right, maybe it was. If I finish the story, will you tell me something else about yourself afterward?”
She stuck out her hands. ”Let's shake on it.”
They shook, his hands strong and firm as they grasped hers. She liked the feel of them-not too rough, but they had seen hard work.
”Well, then?” she asked, withdrawing her hands from his.
”There's not much more to tell,” he said. ”My father sold me into indenture to His Eminence because he felt I might find a better future here than if I stayed with him. There wasn't much work in the village and no one to teach me a useful trade. Or at least not a trade that interested me. He thought that coming here, working with books I could read and studying on my own when I wasn't working, might better serve me.”
”Well, couldn't he have sent you to study with His Eminence instead of indenturing you for five years? It would have been the same thing!”
Thom shook his head. ”His Eminence wouldn't allow it. No one gets to come to Libiris and stay without a reason. His bargain with my father was that if I came, it was as an indentured servant. That was the condition to my apprentices.h.i.+p. When I am done working, I owe His Eminence half of my first five years' earnings in my chosen trade, as well.”
”That's unfair!” Mistaya was indignant. ”He can't do that!”
Thom laughed. ”Tell you what. When you talk to the King about persuading the Lords to give up their lands to the poor people, put in a good word for me, too.”
”Maybe I will,” she declared boldly.
He leaned over and brushed her hair back from her face in a curiously tender gesture. ”You have a good heart, little sister. Whoever you are and wherever you came from, you have a good heart.”
She didn't know what to say. ”I think you have a good heart, too,” she managed.
There was a moment when their eyes locked and time seemed to freeze. She waited, her antic.i.p.ation of what might happen next so sharp it made her ache.
Then abruptly he stood up. ”Come along. Back to work. Rufus will grow bored if we're not there to be spied upon.”
She certainly wouldn't want that, she thought. She felt a pang of disappointment that their time alone together was over. She wanted more. She determined that she would have it.
Picking up their plates and cups, she followed him back through the tower door and down the stairs to work.
It was late in the afternoon, the time nearly run out on their day's efforts, when Mistaya heard someone calling. The voice was so faint and so distant that at first she thought she was mistaken. She stopped what she was doing and listened for a long few moments without hearing anything more. Her imagination, she supposed. A place this cavernous could play tricks on you, deceive you into hearing and seeing things that weren't there.
She had risen to begin sorting through a new stack of books when she heard it again. She stood listening anew, staring off into s.p.a.ce and trying to pinpoint the location. She thought it had come from somewhere back in the Stacks, where the darkness was so thick and deep that it was virtually impenetrable. But there was only silence.
<script>