Jarvit

Jarvit Ch8 P3

A simple meal was laid on the desk in the Interpreter’s office. Tiatra led the Eorl Kenwal and Garth into the room after the end of the devotions.

         ‘Tell me how it is here Executioner,’ whispered the Eorl and he glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone was following them in.

         ‘We have placed our trust in the Interpreter, but you have not been named. Silvinatra will join us, she is weak but recovering well. You are well rested?’ she looked him up and down. He looked as weary as yesterday and was in the same clothes.

         ‘We were not so lucky. The people seem ill at ease and suspicious. Every inn we tried told us they were full, though I did not believe it. In the end we slept with the horses in the barn,’ he sank into a chair and pulled a piece of bread apart. He sank his teeth into it as though he had not eaten that morning. Garth also applied himself to the food. Silva had been brought in and was made comfortable on a low sofa. Then the Interpreter and Ciara joined them having finished their duties in the Hall. The huge door to the office was closed and the six of them sat looking at each other.

         Tiatra began and explained for the Intrepter’s benefit, without revealing Ciara’s true status, who they were and how they had come to Gilgothan.

         ‘You are welcome my Lord Eorl Kenwal,’ the Interpreter said when she learned his name.

         ‘Thank you Interpreter. I am sorry we bring with us such danger,’ he inclined his head to her.

         ‘I am honoured that the Worthy saw fit to bring you here. If we prevail then it will be an honour for this Hall to be known as the one that gave shelter to the Hearer and her companions in time of need. If we fall then not one Hall will be left standing and what we do here will never matter. You have arrived at the turning of the season for us. The snows fall earlier than across the plains. Before Miss Silvinatra is fully recovered I expect the town will be closed in and the hills around us made impassable. I hope this may bring a period where you can rest free from pursuit. I have never asked for bad weather before from the Sprightly but I do so now.’

         ‘To ask the Sprightly for anything can bring mixed blessings,’ said Tiatra.

         ‘Indeed, it is so,’ the Interpreter agreed.

         ‘Excuse me for asking Interpreter,’ Eorl Kenwal leant forward, ‘but I would know why the people seem so anxious and what tidings you had of our coming and why we were asked if the mother of the Hearer was among us?’ His tone was anxious.

         ‘Of your arrival I knew nothing until you entered these walls yesterday I assure you. No news from Simmon has reached us for some weeks now. I think that is what makes our towns folk so ill at ease. Those who have left here to visit Simmon have not returned and no one from that town has arrived. Trade has ceased. We were well aware of Lord D’Braggatio’s struggle for political power and I think our town elders are concerned about that situation. But I am sure they were not aware that he was again looking toward the destruction of the faith in the Worthy. We certainly had no idea that the Great House would be destroyed. There are spies in the town assuredly. Such people thrive in an uncertain atmosphere, but no rumours of anything you have told us has reached here before yourselves,’ she drank from the cup before her. ‘As for us expecting the mother of the Hearer. Well, that was rather foolish of us. The mother of the next Hearer is always the current Hearer. So I suppose we were in expectaion of your arrival Hearer.’ She bowed her head to Ciara who silently acknowledged the tribute. But her eyes spoke fire to Tiatra.

         ‘So you were advised by some one in a roundabout way that the Hearer was coming,’ Eorl Kenwal said with eagerness.

         ‘I suppose so now that I put it together that the mother of the Hearer is the Hearer. Yes, we were.’