The Shattered Goddess. Darrell Schweitzer
his name shall be Mystery.”
“Let him be called Ginna. In the speech of the hill people the word means ‘mystery.’ Ginna ne Ai Hanlo.”
“No! Never! That cannot be!”
Tharanodeth grew angry. “What makes you so sure of what can and cannot be? I rule here. For the last time, no harm shall come to the child. I do not think him dangerous. If anything, he intrigues me. Now, if I were not as patient as those who sing my praises claim, you might not be safe from harm much longer. Have you considered that?”
Hadel’s moustache quivered. His eloquence fled away. He was barely able to speak at all.
“I... only mean... I mean to say, that is, that I mean—meaning no disrespect—that if this... ah, unusual infant bears Ai Hanlo in its name, well, it isn’t proper. I mean you don’t know where the boy is from, and he might be of low birth actually. I mean—”
“You mean. So be it Just Ginna then.”
The Rat made the gesture of Blessing Received and backed out of the room, his head bowed, bumping into the doorway as he did. He was glad to have accomplished something, even if the squirming intrusion would have to live. It irked him to settle for second best.
CHAPTER 2
Like the Child
As the days went by, Kaemen turned out to be a veritable monster, the terror of his nurses, ill-tempered, foul-mouthed at an astonishingly early age, and wholly lacking the grace and moderation of his father. His teeth came in early. He learned how to use them. It nearly cost an old woman a finger.
Like the child, so shall the man be was a proverb of Randelcainé. Despite his name, tie was not the bright hope of anyone.
Ginna was ignored for the most part He was not brought to meals with the high-born children of court, nor did he eat in the kitchen with the servants. Occasionally someone would leave scraps by the door of his room. He was not even taught how to keep himself clean until the stench disturbed Kaemen.
All were forbidden to enter that bare room. Rumor had it a deformed monster was kept there. Once the boy learned to walk, this was to his advantage. He was properly shaped, if undersized, filthy, and pale for want of sunlight. When he wandered about he was often not recognized.
At first the only places he knew were a few musty rooms, a corridor, and the entrance to Kaemen’s nursery, beyond which he was not permitted to pass. He often heard cries and shrieks coming from the nursery, dishes crashing to the floor, and the bare feet of the servants padding back and forth. Those same feet would kick him whenever he tried to investigate, so after a time he learned to keep to himself.
There was a girl who came to play with him, who said she would pretend to be his big sister. She was very big, twice as tall as he. He didn’t know her age, all ages being unimaginable, but she was much wiser than he. She taught him many new words, and how to count on his fingers. He decided he was most happy when she was around, and wished she would be around always.
But then she came no more. Months later he saw her in the hall, straining under a yoke from which two buckets of water hung. A massive woman twice her size walked behind her and glowered. He called her name, but she turned her face away. He never saw her again.
One day a bird came to his window, stood between the bars, and began to sing. It seemed to Ginna that tins song was even more beautiful than any the girl had sung, and more mysterious for not having any words. This was surely the most wondrous creature he had ever encountered.
He stood on a stool and reached for it, but it vanished into the unknown blue void beyond, and then he had a new desire. He wanted to go where it had gone, away from things familiar.
He was three and a half then. He had heard of a world outside but knew nothing about it, and he was aware of his ignorance.
At the end of a certain hallway there was a huge door, too heavy for him to open. It was always kept shut, but sometimes someone was careless. Occasionally he caught glimpses of a stairway on the other side of it, spiraling down into someplace he had never been.
When the young prince bawled that his bathwater was too cold that night, and swore that he would have everyone flayed alive when he was a little older, Ginna saw his chance. There was much scurrying about, and two burly men came through the door with a new tub of steaming water. In their haste they left the door open.
Ginna found the steps too large for his short legs, so he went down backwards like a man on a ladder, dropping from step to step.
He knew he was in a tower from the way he was going down, down, farther than he had ever imagined he would go. The stairs curved away above him until he could no longer see the door. He had truly ventured out of his world.
* * * *
At last the stairway ended. There was a damp stone floor at the bottom, which was cold beneath his feet. A lantern hung from above on a chain, driving the darkness away from a doorway. Over this were two portraits of the same woman, but in each she was different. In one she wore a long black gown sprinkled with stars, and held a serpent in either hand. Lightning flickered above her head. At her feet was a boiling cloud in which hundreds of writhing figures were visible: homed men, serpents, toads with the heads and claws of lions. He had never seen such things. The girl had told him about many animals and described them, but these went well beyond the range of her descriptions. Many were just shapes to him.
The other picture showed the lady in brilliant white, astride a dolphin. Or Ginna thought it was a dolphin. It looked vaguely like a fish, and he had seen a fish before, swimming in a bottle being taken into Kaemen’s room. He was able to guess that the bright thing in the lady’s right hand was the sun. In the left was a tree.
He liked the lady of the second picture more than the other. He smiled at her. He pressed his hands together, as he had done so many times before, and opened them. A bubble of light floated up where the lady could see it. The girl had always seemed happy when he did that He hoped the lady would too.
* * * *
Just then the whole place was flooded with light. Someone had opened the door.
Ginna tumbled back and looked up at the most mountainous individual he had ever beheld, who peered down at him impassively from beneath a winged helmet He had a red moustache and a beard as big as a blanket
“Well, by The Goddess, what have we here?”
Ginna spoke a few of the words he knew, but the man didn’t seem to understand.
“You belong back upstairs, not down here.” The giant bent over to pick him up, and he stared, not sure whether to be afraid or not. To please the man he made a glowing ball which floated into his face.
The man recoiled before it touched him.
“Witchcraft!” he gasped, and backed away hurriedly.
Ginna had wondered many times before why no one else made lights in his presence, but he’d assumed they were too busy, or didn’t think him worth the bother. After all, they ignored him in every other way. It was the natural order of things, as far as he was concerned.
But now, for the first time, he understood that he was not like the others. Perhaps he was the only one who could do the thing.
Alone once more, he closed and opened his hands, and watched the light bubbles rise, then slowly drift to the floor. A draft from beneath the door made them roll in the air.
A while later he made his way back up the stairs. Fortunately the upper door was still open.
* * * *
Two years passed, and a serving woman came for him in his room and led him down those stairs again. It was an astonishing journey through many new corridors, and he caught glimpses of rooms vaster than any space he could imagine. There were pictures on the walls, often of the twin ladies, sometimes of men in winged helmets and armor, with battles going on in the background. He wanted to stop and look at everything, but 5ie woman dragged him on. Thick rugs