[Mkguild] Inchoate Carillon, Inconstant Cuckold (5 of ?)

[C. Matthias]

Inchoate Carillion, Inconstant Cuckold
By Charles Matthias


“This one will do nicely,” the bull Tathom said 
as he pat his hoof-like hand against the trunk of 
a mid-age oak. Twenty feet above their heads, a 
lightning strike had severed one of the larger 
limbs and it dangled in the brush, not yet fully 
dead. “Get this one down and cleaned and we’ll call it a day.”

Michael the plaid beaver hefted his axe, muscles 
rippling beneath his fur and light jerkin. In the 
almost two years that he’d been part of the 
timber crews, he’d developed a bulk and stoutness 
that rivaled many trees. Some days he was put on 
chopping duty, and others on cleaning duty. Every 
now and again when on cleaning duty he’d just 
bite the slimmer branches off with his rodent 
teeth. But he always felt the most invigorated 
when chopping and so he grinned and took a few 
steps toward the tree, turning to one side with a 
lopsided grin. “Do you want the first swing, Lindsey, or can I have it?”

Only Lindsey, the very man who’d helped him 
adjust to life on the timber crews, wasn’t there 
at his side. “Lindsey?” In the weeks since his 
return from the far south Michael had grown used 
to having Lindsey there at his side again. He’d 
spoken of his adventures, but of the last two 
months he’d remained almost completely silent. 
Michael had understood his need for solitude and 
had not pried. But he’d never just wandered away from the crew before.

Michael scanned about, as did several other 
heads. It was the moose Lance who spotted him. 
“He’s down there by the road. How did he sneak 
off like that?” The moose shook his head, newly 
forming antlers shivering with velvet.

The road was a good fifty paces through a trail 
half wood and half scrub. Michael started on the 
trail until he got a good look at his friend. 
Lindsey’s back was to them, but there were three 
other figures down there next to him. The beaver 
recognized them as some of his friends from his 
journey to the south. Lindsey and the tall strange one embraced.

Michael averted his eyes and waved the other 
members of the crew back. “Lindsey’s friends are 
here. Looks private to me. Let’s start on this tree.”

They had chopped halfway through the trunk, wood 
splinters clinging to his tunic, when Lindsey 
returned, quiet like a shadow tilting away from 
the sun. His expression was dour, but that was 
not unusual for the burly Northerner. Michael 
grinned, peach-cream skin poking through his red 
and black fur. “There’s still half a trunk here, 
Lindsey. You want to take a few swings?”

“Aye, thank you.” Lindsey hefted his large axe, 
felt one finger along the edge, and then slammed 
it into the trunk. Splinters scattered, and the 
tree shuddered, groaning as more and more weight 
shifted to the side. “I’m sorry I left,” he added 
after brushing a few chips from his beard. “But my friends...”

Lindsey swung again, and a second time without 
finishing the sentence. Michael rolled the haft 
around in his paws. “Your friends?”

“They had to say goodbye. They’re heading home.”

“Home,” Michael repeated quietly as Lindsey swung 
again. He opened his muzzle to say something 
more, but thought better of it. They’d have to 
visit that tavern in Sawtry later tonight. 
Somehow he just knew they were going to hear a 
story about Habakkuk from their friend tonight. 
There was a look in the bearded man’s eyes, a 
look Michael knew meant a certain kangaroo who’d not come back.

Lindsey felled the tree in three more strokes, 
each one more fierce than the last. Michael 
decided he’d better dip a little bit more into his coin for cups that night.

----------

A paean from the bells!

And his merry bosom swells...

James tapped the cracked bell lightly with the 
hammer as he suspended it in air. The gentle 
throb echoed through the smithy while Malloc 
looked on with approval. The tone was clear, 
sonorous, and breached every attempt at 
description. It pleased Malloc whose grin 
stretched from one ruddy cheek to the other. His 
eyes twinkled like dancing crystals.

“Well, boy, you’ve coaxed a prettier sound from 
that bell then it had fore it cracked!” Malloc 
clapped his hands together and then patted him on 
the arm. “Any time you want to help out, you’re more than welcome.”

James’s eyes savoured the way the light bent 
around the bell’s conical bore. Everything spun 
and twisted, turning with each twist of his hand. 
It weighed only a few stone which made it even 
more comfortable in his three-fingered hand. “I 
think this will be all,” he admitted when he 
finally tore his gaze away. “Thank you for 
letting me do this, Master Malloc.” He smiled to 
the age-regressed smithy and to his wife Emily. 
The rhinoceros clapped her meaty hands together and bleated.

“You are always welcome back here, Master James.” 
Emily gestured at a small tray of sausage she’d 
just brought for the apprentices and her husband. 
“If you’d like you may have some. You’ve earned it.”

James pondered, but decided his stomach wasn’t up 
to sausage. “Thank you, but not today. I really 
should get going. It’s late and I promised Baerle 
and Kimberly I’d stop by and see if they needed me for anything.”

Malloc and Emily wished him well, protesting that 
he should come back and do more for them any time 
he wished. He thanked them again and carried his 
bell in his left hand back to the Glen commons. 
He wanted to show this to Baerle and Lady 
Matthias, and of course, the children. They’d 
certainly be impressed with what he’d done. 
Fixing the crack had taken a few hours of work 
every day for a week. But it had been well worth 
it. His heart leapt in his chest with every resonant note he coaxed

Lanterns were lit around the commons even though 
there was still enough sunlight to see by. In 
another hour twilight would begin to grip the 
Glen, shadows becoming greater than the few rays 
of light that could penetrate the forest canopy 
beneath which they dwelt. The air was brisk and 
cooling quickly. James thought about returning to 
the Inn and bringing his cloak, but decided a little chill couldn’t hurt.

One of the wagons owned by the rats from Metamor 
was nestled against one of the large roots 
framing the entrance to the Matthias home. A 
liveried man old enough to have been cursed was 
busy tending the horses in the stables the 
knights had built for Charles in January. James 
waved to him and then walked to the familiar oaken door to the Matthias home.

It was very warm inside and smelled of freshly 
cooked bread and nuts. Tea steeped over the fire 
and Baerle was there watching it. James smiled to 
her and then waved to Kimberly who sat on the 
couch with bright face and whiskers. “Oh, James! 
Come in, Goldmark’s brought news.”

The rat Goldmark was stretched out on the couch, 
all four legs sticking out from underneath his 
grey-furred belly. The children were sitting next 
to him, snug between his paws, though little 
Erick was busy trying to stab his hearty tail 
with a little wooden sword. They all chorused, 
“Welcome, Master James!” when he stepped closer.

“And a good evening to you too.” He looked at the 
rat who had on the courier uniform the rat’s had 
designed for themselves. A burgundy vest over 
blue tunic and trousers with boots to match the 
vest. Only at the moment he wasn’t wearing the trousers.

“Ah, James,” Goldmark said with a broad smile. “I 
was just telling Lady Kimberly the good news.”

“Much more cheering then the bad news one of 
George’s messengers brought me earlier!” Kimberly 
said in exasperation. “Can you believe the jackal 
has Charles staying on patrol for a few days more?”

James frowned, ears lowering. He didn’t know 
George at all, except from what Charles had said 
of him and from the fight in the belfry. But it 
sounded like the sort of thing those in authority 
might do. “So he won’t be back tomorrow?”

“Not for another two days,” Kimberly added with a 
long sigh. The children lowered their snouts too, 
then resumed their play on Goldmark’s expansive 
lower torso. The rat with six limbs watched the 
four little rats with broad amusement. But 
Charles’s wife was quick, like her children, to 
smile again, a bright thing that set her 
prodigious whiskers twitching up and down. “The 
good news ­ the wonderful news ­ that 
Bernadette’s oldest boy, Richard, is getting married in a few days!”

James only knew the kitchen mouse by what 
Kimberly had said of her. He hadn’t even known 
she had a son, let alone one old enough to marry! 
“Oh, well, that is good news,” James replied. “I 
guess I should begin assembling our things for the journey to Metamor.”

Kimberly shook her head, casting a quick glance 
at Baerle who poured tea for each of them. James 
followed her glance and watched the opossum a bit 
sheepishly. The lady rat’s voice was elated but 
firm, “No, I want you and Baerle to stay here and 
wait for Charles in case he doesn’t hear the 
news. You never know where he’s going to be when 
he’s on patrol! Goldmark and I will return to 
Metamor with the children tomorrow. I hope 
Charles can meet us there, but if he comes back 
here, you can send him straightaway to Metamor.”

“Oh,” James added, a little more relieved than he 
expected. Surely after travelling so long, he was 
merely delighted not to have to journey again so 
soon. “Would you like me to do anything while you are away?”

Kimberly’s face was almost angelic in its 
brightness. “Just help Baerle keep the house 
clean. I expect we’ll be gone a week. The 
children need to spend more time at Metamor anyway.”

“I love Metamor!” Little Charles piped up in his 
high-pitched voice. His long tail lashed back and 
forth in excitement, the tip tickling one of 
Goldmark’s front paws. The six-limbed larger rat 
shifted on the couch trying not to laugh.

“”Is that the bell you’ve been working on?” 
Kimberly asked, pointing with one claw at the 
brass bell dangling from the donkey’s hand.

James blinked and lifted it so all could see. The 
four little rats lifted their heads and peered 
with wide eyes. “Oh yes. I just finished it. Would you like to hear?”

“Oh please,” Baerle said as she set the kettle 
aside and settled on the couch next to Kimberly. “What does it sound like?”

James lifted the bell, and with timorous delight, 
swung downward. The resounding gong warmed the 
air, soothed the ear, and blotted out all thought 
other than the vivacious sonority like a lens 
distorting light. Even the tongues of fire bent 
and cowed before it, flickering blue an gold 
before resuming their brilliant vermillion aura.

Goldmark gaped and blinked, whiskers gone 
completely still. The four children oohed in 
delight, their bodies, so full of nervous energy, 
for the moment stilled into awe. Baerle had one 
paw on her breasts, breathing deeply and 
rapturously. Kimberly clasped her paws together, 
and eyes translated to joy. “Oh my, James! That is so beautiful!”

The donkey blushed in delight, his ears folding 
back along his spiky mane. “Thank you, milady 
Kimberly. I am delighted by it too.”

Their voices broke the eerie calm that had 
befallen them, and the children chittered again 
in playful abandon. Baerle lifted a cup of tea 
and held it out to James. “Will you join us for tea?”

James accepted and felt his chest expand. “Of 
course. Thank you, Baerle.” He sat down next to 
Goldmark and set the bell on the table between 
them. Four little rodent faces, twisted by the 
curve of the bell, stared back at him from the brass.

----------

“Oh this looks like a wonderful vein,” Sho’s 
basso voice rumbled in an ursine purr. Her paw 
stroked down the rocky granite jutting out from 
the hillside as it rose in a set of ascending 
bluffs toward the western edge of the Barrier 
Range. They were on the extreme eastern edge of 
the valley, two miles out from Jetta, but close 
enough that standing on the promontory they could 
easily see the village. An old woodcutter track 
cut through a thin forest filled with young birch 
and pine. But their passage had been the first in 
many years to judge by the clogged undergrowth.

Charles, completely stone, ran his fingers 
through the pearly rock and smiled. This was good 
solid rock with an agreeable temperament. An hour 
more and it would readily volunteer itself for 
the tower. For the first time that day, he truly 
felt contented with helping in Jetta. How much of 
that was due to Sho’s unique presence and 
personality, not being around Saulius, Egland, or 
Intoran, or spending so much time as stone he wasn’t sure.

“There is more than enough here,” he said in his 
empty air voice, “for at least four towers. I’m 
not sure the rock will want to give up quite so 
much, so I’d start with just enough to repair the first.”

Sister Sho Rosewain nodded and ran his paws 
across the vein, claws dragging and delicately 
sharpening against the granite. “This is very 
important, squire Charles. Not just to me, but to 
those who haven’t been cursed. I will not let 
anyone do as Sideshow did; not if it’s within my power to stop them.”

So contented was he by the granite through which 
his arms had sunk up to his elbows that he didn’t 
even flinch when she called him squire. “We’d 
heard rumours of it happening. But I’d never 
known for sure until I met you, Sho. I’m... I cannot imagine it.”

Her eyes darkened as she looked toward the south. 
“And none ever should again.” She then blinked 
and turned to the went, shielding her eyes with a meaty paw. “What’s that?”

Charles turned, jeweled eyes having no trouble 
despite the evening sun shining directly on them. 
He jumped from the rock and grinned. “My friends! 
That’s Guernef and I think Abafouq and Andares on 
his back!” He waved to them as they descended out of the darkening sky.

The welcome he received was not at all what he 
expected. Guernef landed a few feet in front of 
him and squawked angrily, golden eyes burning and 
intense. “Charles! I have warned you about being stone!”

The granite rat fell back a pace as Andares and 
Abafouq scrambled off the feathered back. Even 
they appeared astounded at the severity of the 
Nauh-kaee’s reaction. “I was helping Sister Sho 
here find good stone for her tower,” he replied, 
gesturing to the bear who’d tensed and begun to growl.

“Don’t you talk to him that way!” Sho snapped and 
advanced on the gryphon, claws and fangs 
menacing. “I’ve had enough of monsters bullying 
others and you won’t do it to him!”

Guernef’s eyes became still with avian rigidity 
and truculence. “I have no quarrel with you. Nor 
do you understand. Charles has several times 
nearly lost himself to the stone. It is a 
temptation he still faces and cannot seem to 
resist! I have warned him again and again to no avail.”

Charles backed up against the promontory and 
shoved his tail inside the welcome stone. It did 
a great deal to calm his jagged nerves. “I am not 
giving into the stone. I’m using it to help a friend.”

Sho had stopped her advance, a little uncertain, 
but still kept a fierce snarl fixed on the 
Nauh-kaee. Abafouq had one hand on his side as if 
that were going to hold him back. Andares watched 
with intense scrutiny, eyes flashing back and 
forth between them with each breath. But the 
gryphon’s fiery denouncement of a moment past 
faded into his more typical avian distance, yet 
losing none of its intensity. “If you are not 
giving into the stone, prove it by returning to flesh.”

The rat felt an impulse to disappear within the 
rock behind him, but knew immediately such was 
foolishness. He stepped forward and willed 
himself to return to flesh. His heart sagged in 
his chest and he felt heavier if it were 
possible. “You see, Guernef? It is something I 
can do, and I am not tempted by the mountain 
anymore. I don’t want to be a mountain, Guernef. I want to be a father.”

“I believe him, Guernef,” Abafouq said as he 
gently ran one small hand along the Nauh-kaee’s 
feathery mane. “I can see things in stone you 
can’t. It doesn’t look like it has the hold over him it once did.”

Guernef narrowed his eyes, leonine tail lashing 
back and forth, wings alternately spreading wide 
and folding along his back. Andares steadied the 
wing on his left and smiled faintly. “Your friend 
speaks rightly. Charles has been very responsible 
in his use of stone since Marzac was defeated.”

Very simply, the Nauh-kaee squawked, “It still tempts him.”

Charles wrapped his paws around the vine at his 
chest and shook his head back and forth. “I can’t 
be a father if I’m a mountain. I’ve already lost 
one child, Guernef. I’m not going to let this take the other four from me.”

He felt a hearty paw on his shoulder and saw Sho 
there towering above him. She had to bend down to 
even reach him to comfort him. “I believe you, 
squire Charles. And I thank you again for your 
help. You have no idea what it means to me.”

Charles smiled to her and then looked to his 
traveling companions. “I know you worry for me, 
Guernef. And I thank you for that too. I wish I 
could cool your anxiety, but I can only promise 
that I am not tempted by the stone anymore. It 
is, just a part of me, but not the most important part.”

“I do not wholly believe you,” Guernef replied in 
cool tones. “But I must trust you. You have been 
my friend and I am yours. But now that we must 
part, I find you stone again. You frighten me, Charles.”

“I apologize. But I haven’t been full stone in a 
long time. I only consented to help Sho find good 
rock for her tower. Nothing more.” And then the 
important of the gryphon’s words struck him. “We 
must part? Where are you going?”

“Home,” Andares replied. “For I, the Åelfwood. 
For Abafouq and Guernef, the mountains. We may 
return someday, and I hope that we do, but there 
are many things we must do, many things we must return to.”

Charles patted Sho’s paw with one of his own, and 
then walked to each of his friends and gave them 
a firm hug, one deeper and more heartfelt than 
many ever shared. Even Guernef he embraced, the 
acrimony of a moment gone. “You will all be 
missed. In a way, I wish we could still be traveling together.”

“As do I,” Abafouq admitted with a long sigh. 
“But life continues and we must return to ours.”

Andares had no more words that he could share, 
but Guernef offered one parting command. With 
eyes level, beak tilting ever so slightly in his 
direction, and ears folded back, the Nauh-kaee said, “Be a father.”

Then, with the sun dwindling in the sky, Andares 
and Abafouq climbed on Guernef’s back and the 
trio disappeared back to the north. Charles 
climbed onto the promontory so he could watch 
them, but the trees to the north were too tall 
and he soon lost sight of them. He sighed, and 
slipped off the rock, being careful not to let 
any part of himself glide through it.

“Well,” he said to Sho who only just now looked 
as if she realized what it was she’d been talking to, “shall we head back?”

The bruin, blinked a few times to rouse herself 
form her shaken stupor and nodded. “Next time you 
come,” she suggested as he remounted Malicon, 
“bring your children with you. I’d love to meet them too.”

His smile was faint but real. “I will. Thank you, 
Sister Sho, for giving me something real to help with.”

As evening settled in and the already cool air 
took on a chill, they started their return to 
Jetta. No more words passed between them on their journey.

----------

May He bless you and keep you in His grace and love,

Charles Matthias


!DSPAM:4e67e71725062366718218!
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.integral.org/archives/mkguild/attachments/20110907/5723d6db/attachment-0001.html>