Kith and Kin (3)

Nondula, Ch 10 (3)

Gertie urged Alas to go back and search for another way into the fort. Alas was more than willing but there was no other way. The tumbling trials were scheduled for the full moon. As the time shrank Gertie kept up her objections. She spotted Gritty bentover the spring close to their cabin, and crept up behind her. ‘I know you’re avoiding me,’ she said. Gritty looked up, her chin shiny with water. She raised her hand to silence Gertie but Gertie pressed on.‘No, I got to say this. You like the idea of adventure and risk and the dancing all bundled up together. It’s the way you’re made, and you have got some common sense, but over there in Fellund you don’t know what you’re going to find. You’ll have no one to ask or rely on; you’ll have to decide for yourself what to do. And I don’t know –’

‘You don’t know if I’m up to it.’

‘You just ain’t never been tested in that way. These are ruthless people. From what I can see they got no pity in ’em. You’re just a girl. Once you’re in there it won’t be moving fast that keeps you alive, it’ll be what’s up here.’ Gertie tapped her head.

‘And you think I got nothing up here.’ Gritty splashed her face and walked away.

The smallest Nondul dancers offered to go. They darkened their skin and hair with nut shells and xanthus oil. They covered their eyes with lizard scales, but when they blinked the scales slid and stuck to their cheeks, and even in disguise they had an air that was unmistakably Nondul. With her hair darkened and plaited Gritty could pass for a northern Chee. When they practised tumbling, Gritty always managed one more twist, spin or somersault than anyone else.

‘All of you are better dancers than me,’ she told them, ‘but none of you will win prizes for tumbling. I’m the only one with a hope of getting in there.’ The scholars conceded, but Gertie would not. ‘I have to do this, Gert, it’s my jenie,’ Gritty appealed. ‘I know I ain’t nothing like as bright as you – nobody is. But I got to grow up some time. We can’t always be together.’

‘Don’t say that.’

‘I just got a feeling that this has to be, and if these are our last days together... for a time, oh, don’t be cold with me.’

Gertie fell into Gritty’s arms.

Gritty was sad but excited. She skipped six levels of dance and joined in the elevation class. The Nonduls had a way of staying in the air longer than was natural. It took years to perfect but Gritty had the beginnings of it. Her jenie burned.

Gertie willed the moon to keep its face in darkness, but it turned its fatness to her and blazed stubbornly. Soon it was time for Gritty to leave. Ede laced her into a Chee-style dress. Her middle shrank in and in and in. ‘Am I ready?’ she said.

‘You need beads,’ Ede said. ‘The Chee always wear beads. They make them out of anything.’

‘I made some for you,’ said Gertie. She put the tiny twisted pearls around Gritty’s neck.

‘Gert, it’s beautiful. What’s it made from?’

‘Snail shells. I found ’em in the dry leaves under the hedge.’

‘They’re so pretty and mini.’

Emberd gave her paper and ink just in case she found a way to get a message out. ‘One more thing,’ he said. ‘You need a stamp like mine.’ On his papery hand, just below the thumb was a B pricked out in bumps. You need a C for Chee. You’ll have a life scar but you can’t go in there without it.’

‘Do it,’ said Gritty.

Ede made a crescent of dots in Gritty’s skin with a needle. A rub of briar juice brought up the bumps.

‘Now you’re ready,’ said Ede.

‘I hardly know you. You ain’t my little sister,’ said Gertie.

‘I never was – littler than you I mean.’

‘I’ve changed my mind,’ said Gertie. ‘I want to come with you to the border.’

‘Gert, I can’t leave you there. I’ll need my wits keen and straight.’

Gertie couldn’t speak.

‘Right, I’m moving.’ A quick embrace and she was gone. Gritty’s heart ached but when she reached the border she was smiling, just as she had smiled when she drove the cart from Duldred with the wind in her hair.

‘Just like that, she was gone,’ Gertie told Linnet. ‘I got a hole, a real bad hole. We ain’t never been apart. You know how I feel don’t ya? Just me and you now.’ Gertie climbed up on the bed and they sat with their arms round one another.

‘And Alas,’ said Linnet.

‘Alas, he’s hardly ever here. Always off scouting and looking for trouble. Let’s read shall we, take our minds off things.’

Gertie read to Linnet until Alas came in, full of restless energy. Oy and Gritty were beyond his help now, but the Kith was not. The place had touched him deeply. It must be protected somehow. He could think of little else.

After a few days an answer came from the most unexpected source.

‘There is something we can do about the Kith,’ Linnet told Alas. ‘I think I got one more adventure in me.’