The leader of the parrots examined the
group. He could see four humanoids but could only sense two and a half elves,
which was puzzling him, but he pressed on anyway.
‘We have waited for
many ages, but finally you have come’
‘Have of us?’ said Potentilla,
‘that is verily good!’
They were sitting in
a clearing in the great Oketian forest while the parrots squawked around them. Viola
tried to ignore her lieutenant and concentrate entirely on the matter in hand. She was wondering where Potentilla had been
taught any of the old tongue, and really wishing she had never been taught a
word of it.
‘Are you sure that
you really know who we are?’ she asked, carefully
‘You are elves and
our lords’ he said, trying to stay still (something that little parrots find
very hard to sustain).
‘Some of us are elves’ said Viola, ‘but some
of us are humans’
The birds squawked
around and there were fragments of conversation. Two things were obvious – first, that they
had no other language than the elven one and second, that they had no idea what
humans were.
‘How long is it since
you last saw any elves?’ asked Viola
‘They lingered long
here after the building’ said the parrot leader, ‘but they finally withered
away many generations ago’
‘How many generations
do you mean?’
‘Twenty of our
generations – which be two thousand returning springs, as close as it can be
told’
‘You live to be a
hundred years old?’ asked Kath, astonished. It had taken her until now to
understand the birds’ elven.
The plump parrot
jumped across to where Kath was standing. He fluttered round her several times
with his head cocked, which looked really rather difficult to do.
‘Who art thou?’ he
asked. Kath was transfixed by the tiny bird.
‘Thou hast no
odour’
‘I don’t?’
‘Only natural things
smell of nature, thus thou must be made, as are we, the Micropsitta. What is thy made name?’
Kath was startled by
both the bird and the question.
‘Kath…’ she said,
‘umm… I suppose’
The parrot nodded,
apparently satisfied.
‘We welcome the tribe
of the Kath’s – may they forever prosper.’
The birds fluttered
around the two apparent humans and greeted them. Dom understood very little of
this (as his mage studies had only just begun) and so he bowed rather formally
and smiled. The parrots, however, seemed
confused as they twirled around him. They started to twitter to each other in
uncertainty, but fortunately they were tweeting too softly for anyone to
understand what they were saying.
‘I think you’re confusing
them’ said Viola, laughing.
The plump parrot
chased the other parrots away – he clearly thought that they were being rather
rude. They made their way into the oak trees behind the party’s head and
continued to chatter, but now they were too far away for anyone to care.
‘How may we serve
thee?’ asked the parrot leader.
Viola stared at the little bird. She had no
idea how to deal with this and so tried a rather formal response.
‘Well, first, we
should introduce ourselves – I am Captain Viola of the Visneorian army, this is
Lieutenant Potentilla, my aide-de-camp, and we have with us Dr Katherine
Fielding from Eth and Mr Dominic Shavosky from Gorodnikov. And you are?’
The parrot cocked his
head to one side, clearly completely confused by all this information.
‘I am Barysomos[1] and these are my tribe, the Micropsitta. What
tasks would thou likest us to accomplish?’
‘Well, you could tell
us something about where we are, I suppose, but we really aren’t your elven
masters’
Barysomos looked even
more confused. He jumped up on to Viola’s shoulder and smelled her again, this
time lingering a little longer. He dropped back on to the ground, hopping and
squeaking.
‘Thou art mistaken –
thou art of their race and thou smellest most sweetly of them. Thou art our
liege lady’
Viola sighed – what
on earth did they mean by that? A small ball of fear began to gather in her
belly.
‘I am not’ she said
firmly, ‘I am a soldier in the Imperial army – we are not of the same lineage’
Kath was standing,
thinking. She waved at Barysomos.
‘Barysomos’ she said,
‘would, you, umm, thou… care to smell Lieutenant Potentilla too?’
The portly bird
looked up at Kath and then up at Viola. He was clearly awaiting instructions.
‘No, don’t’ blurted
out Viola, ‘leave her alone!’
Kath studied Viola’s
face carefully. She spoke very precisely, and in Visneorian.
‘What’s wrong, Vee? How could that hurt?’
Viola looked pale;
she shook her head very slowly.
‘I don’t know – but, nonetheless, I don’t want him to do it’
‘Let’s get on…’ she
said to Barysomos, ‘can you tell us exactly where we are?’
The parrot relaxed a
little; he seemed happiest when receiving direct orders.
‘Thou art on the
skirts of the port of Tamarix, long days now abandoned, but once the main
harbour of the architects’
‘Who were the architects?’ asked Kath, ignoring a sharp glare from
Viola.
‘The first elves’
said Barysomos, ‘those who came to make this world, create its form and then
depart’
‘So – they created it
and then left?’ continued Kath
Barysomos squawked
sadly and lowered his head.
‘Some left, but many
stayed. Even architects come to their mortal end, however, and so then they too
departed ’
Kath had heard some
of this before – in legends of the beginnings of her world, but she had never
before met creatures who claimed to know those who had helped to make it. She
felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle. Viola still looked anxious and
impatient.
‘So, what did you do
to help the architects?’ Kath asked
‘We carried messages
throughout the cities’ replied Barysomos, plumping up his feathers and hopping to
attention.
Viola smiled thinly,
despite herself. She held her hand up gently to the parrot and translated what
had just been said for Dom’s and Potentilla’s benefit. Then she turned back to the little bird.
‘You must have been of
inestimable service to them’ she said, bowing.
‘Mayhap, but the city
fell away many springs ago and now we are without employ. So thy coming is a
great boon to us, my lady’
Viola’s vague fears
began to transmute into something more tangible.
‘I am not your leader
– I told you that… I really am not’
Barysomos forced
himself to be completely still again. His spoke as clearly as he was able.
‘That is not thy
choice, liege lady – the creators owe a duty of care to the created. It has
always been so…’
Viola wanted to shout
out ‘no! This is nonsense’ but then she looked at the parrot sitting patiently
on the ground. She didn’t think that he was capable of telling an untruth. And
then she knew in her heart and in her mind that this was her responsibility. However, and like so many time before, she
had no idea why. She took a deep breath.
‘Yes, of course’ she
whispered
Kath poked her in the
ribs.
‘What are you saying?’ she gabbled in Visneorian, ‘we can’t possibly look after them!’
‘Shush - not now!’ hissed
Viola. She knelt down in front of
Barysomos.
‘The first thing that
I need you to do is to take us to the old north road – the road to
Klethropolis’
‘Why?’ asked Barysomos
‘Because we have to
find someone there’
Barysomos shook his
head; his body shivered slightly.
‘There is no-one
there now’ he said, ‘that city was abandoned even before Tamarix’
‘Well, you may be
right’ said Viola, ‘but we need to go there and see for ourselves’
‘The way is hard. I
am not sure that we can fully guide thee’
Viola turned to look
behind her at the apparently endless oak forest. They could walk through it
quite easily but how would they know where they were going – it just looked
like infinitely repeating patches of vegetation.
‘Well, all I can ask
you to do is your best…’ she murmured
‘Of course, my lady…’
There was silence for
several seconds, and then Barysomos cocked his head upwards into the sky.
‘Before we go out
from here to find the way, can I ask thee a final question?’
‘Yes, of course’
‘Why do you have an
Odonata following you?’
‘A what?’
‘That black dragonfly
that hovers high above us. What is it for?’
[1] Which means
‘heavy body’ in AE
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