Out of the Darkness

He closed the door behind her. The constable walked off. Would he have helped me like that if he’d known I’m a Kaunian? Vanai wondered as the cab started to move. She shrugged. No way to know, though she had her doubts. One thing she could do now, in the near-privacy of the cab: renew the spells that kept her and Saxburh looking like Forthwegians. With luck and a decent caravan schedule, she wouldn’t have to do it again till they got to Gromheort.

“Supper soon,” Elfryth told Ealstan, as if he couldn’t have figured it out himself from the savory smell of chicken stewing with onions and mushrooms. His mother smiled at him. “It feels good, having one of our babies back in the house with us for a while.”

“Babies?” Ealstan said. “Just because I’m toddling around. .” He could walk, but was glad to have a cane in each hand to help bear his weight. Then he smiled, too. “I wonder if my daughter’s toddling yet.”

“She’s what? About a year old?” Elfryth asked. Ealstan nodded. His mother sighed. “I wish I could see her. I hope Vanai paid attention to your letter.”

“You’re not the only one.” Ealstan’s tone of voice made his mother laugh. His ears got hot. “I mean …”

“I know what you meant,” Elfryth said. “If anything goes to show you’re not a baby any more, that does. That and your beard.”

“I was already wearing a beard when I, uh, left,” Ealstan said. Ran away because I was afraid I’d killed Sidroc, was what he’d meant there. He grimaced. I wish I had killed him. Then he wouldn‘t have killed Leofsig, and Leofsig was worth a hundred of him. A thousand.

Thoughts like those were probably going through his mother’s mind, too. She’d been there when he and Sidroc fought. She’d been there when Sidroc smashed Leofsig with a dining-room chair, too. She’s been through a lot, Ealstan realized-not the sort of idea he was used to having about his mother.

She said, “It’s a lot thicker now, though. It was a boy’s beard then. It isn’t any more.” She hesitated, then added, “It reminds me a lot of your brother’s, there just before-” She broke off. She’d been thinking of Leofsig, too, then.

Ealstan limped over to her and leaned one of his canes against his hip so he could set a hand on her shoulder. He’d gone off to Eoforwic and Conberge had got married, but his older brother would never come to the house again. Elfryth smiled up at him, but unshed tears made her eyes brighter than they should have been.

Someone knocked at the door. “Who’s that?” Ealstan and his mother said together. She went on, “I’ll find out. I can move faster than you can these days. Stir the chicken, if you please.”

“All right,” he said to Elfryth’s back. She was hurrying toward the entry hall. Ealstan plied the big iron spoon.

“Aye?” his mother said at the door, in the polite but distant tone she used for commercial travelers and other strangers.

“Is… is this the house of Hestan the bookkeeper?”

Chicken utterly forgotten, Ealstan hobbled toward the entry hall at the best speed he could manage. He was halfway there before he realized he was still holding the stirring spoon, not his other cane. That had fallen over. He hadn’t noticed.

“Aye, it is,” his mother said doubtfully as he rounded the corner. “And you are-?”

“Vanai!” Ealstan said.

“Ealstan!”

Somehow, his mother got out of the way as they rushed to embrace each other. Ealstan couldn’t squeeze her so tight as he wanted; she had Saxburh in a harness in front of her. For a glorious forever that couldn’t have lasted more than a minute and a half in the real world, Ealstan forgot everything but his wife. Then the baby started to cry and his mother said, “Well, I don’t suppose I need an introduction now.”

“Oh!” Ealstan didn’t want to let go of Vanai; the arm whose hand still held that serving spoon stayed around her shoulder. But he made himself turn back to Elfryth. “Mother, the quiet one is Vanai, and the noisy one is Saxburh. Sweetheart, this is my mother, Elfryth.”

Before Vanai could say anything, Elfryth did: “Powers above, Ealstan, don’t leave her standing out in the street like a peddler.” She darted forward and took the duffel bag Vanai was carrying away from her. “Come in, my dear, come in. My husband and my son told you you were welcome here, and they both have a habit of meaning what they say. Do come in.”

“Thank you.” Vanai took Saxburh out of the harness and set her on the ground. The baby stood easily. She hadn’t been able to do that when the Unkerlanters hauled Ealstan into the army. “She wants to run around,” Vanai said. “She didn’t have much of a chance while we were on the caravan car or in the cab.” And, sure enough, Saxburh’s wails stopped. She looked up at Ealstan with big, dark eyes shaped like his own.

“She’s beautiful,” Elfryth said.