Whistler Read online

  Privv shook his head. ‘A little more serious, I think,’ he said, ‘because about half a dozen of the other Chapter Members – Chapter Members, no less – went lumbering up after him, while Mueran and the others made fairly strenuous efforts to fob off any inquiries by the servants and novices.’

  Leck turned and looked at Privv. He smiled at the curiosity he could feel seeping through to him, and remained silent until she eventually demanded, ‘And?’

  ‘And they came back down again.’

  Leck jumped down from the sill. With a single bound she was on his lap. Her claws dug into his legs and she mewed close to his face, her mouth gaping wide showing all her teeth – vicious, white and sharp.

  ‘All right, don’t lose your temper,’ Privv said tetchily.

  ‘Just tell me what happened.’

  Privv became openly excited. ‘My man’s fairly certain that it was Cassraw. He was given the name by two novices before Mueran got to them. Apparently, Cassraw came out of the Witness House so fast he nearly sent them both flying. And he was staring up at the clouds and raving about something, although they couldn’t hear what.’

  ‘Cassraw, eh?’ Leck mused, intrigued. ‘The ambitious one. The one who got the Haven Parish amid a great deal of clamour. The youngest ever, and who’s had most of his flock up in arms this last couple of months with his stiff-necked preaching about obedience to the words of the Santyth. Do you think he’s cracked under the strain?’ She purred with relish. ‘This’ll put the fox amongst the hens. Come on – tell me the rest.’

  ‘The rest is vague, unfortunately,’ Privv said, looking pained. ‘But it’s just as interesting. Apparently, they all came back safely, Cassraw and the others, and shortly afterwards Mueran told all the servants that they couldn’t go into town last night – in case the storm returned and they were needed, he said.’

  ‘And your man?’ Leck asked.

  Privv shrugged. ‘He’s an institution. He nods and acts daft, then he goes his own way. Besides, they’re not going to dismiss their poor simple privy cleaner for doing what he’s done every night of his life, are they?’

  Leck cooled a little at this reminder. ‘How drunk was he when you spoke to him?’ she asked.

  ‘Not at all,’ Privv replied unconvincingly, just catching the faint, ‘And how drunk were you?’ on the fringes of the cat’s mind. ‘And there’s more,’ he said, ignoring the inference.

  Leck waited.

  ‘He swears that as he was passing the Haven Meeting House he saw Cassraw’s wife getting into a church carriage.’

  ‘Really?’ Leck purred, interest well alight now. ‘Maybe it is adultery, after all. Maybe she’s spreading her… favours… around to further Cassraw’s ambition.’

  Privv frowned. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he said irritably. ‘This has got all the signs of something really worthwhile. A church carriage taking a woman up to the Witness House. Servants not allowed out.’

  ‘Yes, yes. Something to hide. Something to hide,’ Leck chanted. ‘Where shall we begin?’

  Privv thought for a moment. ‘We can see if Dowinne Cassrawen is at the Haven Meeting House where she’s supposed to be, and if she isn’t, then I think straightforward naivety will be our best approach. We can take the trap up to the Witness House. Knock on the door. Bit of talk about some of the things that happened while that cloud was overhead, then ask whether they noticed anything unusual themselves, being so much closer to it than the rest of us.’

  ‘And I’ll sneak in round the back. Find out what’sreally happening.’

  * * * *

  Morem opened the door cautiously. He had been walking pensively across the entrance hall when a vigorous tattoo had startled him and drawn him to the door regardless of the servants’ protocol that it was not the task of Chapter Members to be doing such things. Privv’s bulky form filled the tentative space that Morem allowed. He was standing very close to the door and Morem started back a little, momentarily alarmed. However, a pleasant and open disposition protected him from almost everything and, recovering, he bounced Privv’s unctuous smile back to him with a welcoming one of his own. Gentle and pleasant though he was, Morem was not a foolish man, and at Privv’s announcement that he was a Sheeter, his face clouded a little and he instinctively began to close the door. Privv remembered where he was just in time and managed to refrain from jamming his foot in the shrinking gap.

  Instead he made his smile even broader and launched into his opening remarks before Morem could decide what to do.

  Morem just about caught the gist of it. ‘The black cloud… a lot of strange things last night… people having vivid dreams… hearing voices, singing, calling out… strange noises… things moving about. The Sheets have been full of it this morning, so I thought…’

  ‘Could you wait a moment?’ Morem managed to interject. ‘I think perhaps you need to talk to someone else.’ And, with uncharacteristic alacrity, he closed the door in Privv’s face and scurried off across the entrance hall.

  ‘I’m in.’

  Privv nodded as Leck’s voice floated into his mind, then he turned around to gaze idly out over the valley, though he saw none of it. He began whistling tunelessly to himself and shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Who would they send to deal with him? he wondered. They wouldn’t send old Morem back, surely – that would be too easy. Perhaps it would be Mueran – nowthat would be revealing. Or perhaps they would send a servant to tell him they had nothing to say. That would be the most likely. He practised his disappointed look briefly, with a view to engaging the servant’s sympathy and starting a conversation. One mustn’t let any opportunity pass by. He had his one contact, but the Witness House servants generally were a stern, self-righteous lot, with a quite inflated sense of the worth of their position and difficult to approach in the ordinary way of things. Still, servants were servants after all – paid retainers. A price could always be found eventually. It just needed a careful ear and a little imagination.

  The door opened quite suddenly, startling him out of his reverie. He turned and found himself looking up at a familiar face. Any hopes of easy progress faded.

  ‘Well, well. Privv, my favourite Sheeter. How nice to see you again,’ Horld said, his voice and demeanour brutally contradicting his words.

  Despite himself, Privv’s smile faltered and he swallowed.

  ‘Oh,’ he said, memories coming back to him of the pieces he had written about Horld many years ago, making wholly unfounded allegations about the blacksmith having destroyed his own forge as an act of spite against his landlord. He had not had the judgement then that he had now, though the pieces had brought him a good deal of fame within Sheeting circles and had proved very worthwhile both financially and professionally. He had continued making cynical innuendoes about Horld’s subsequent conversion to the church for some time afterwards and had only let the matter go when other, better scandals had arisen.

  This was only the second occasion he had met him however, and, admittedly not for the first time in his life, he felt more than a little vulnerable.

  Horld stepped forward, closing the door quietly behind him. He had a powerful presence when he chose and, standing very close to Privv he gave him the full lowering benefit of it. Privv was nothing if not resilient, however. He held out his hand.

  ‘Such a long time, Brother Horld,’ he said. ‘Why, we haven’t met since before you were ordained. You’re doing very well for yourself these days, aren’t you? Chapter Member and all.’

  Habit rather than anything else brought Horld’s hand out to take Privv’s. The Sheeter felt a tremor of alarm as the ex-blacksmith’s great muscular fist closed about his by-now quite clammy hand, and he withdrew it as quickly as he could without actually snatching it back.

  Horld recovered from his momentary politeness. ‘What do you want, Privv?’ he asked brusquely.

  In the absence of any greater inspiration, Privv rambled on about the great cloud, as he had with Morem. Horld looked as
if he had a great deal to say, but when Privv had finished he simply shook his head slowly and said, ‘No. We’ve had no unusual experiences up here. It was just a freak weather condition of some kind. People get over-anxious. Let’s be grateful it didn’t turn into a storm, eh? There’d have been something to get distressed about then. Of course, people read such nonsense these days, don’t they? Good-bye.’ And he was retreating into the Witness House almost before Privv could respond.

  ‘What about Cassraw?’ he blurted out.

  Horld stopped, then half-turned round to him.

  ‘Something to hide, something to hide.’ Leck’s chant resonated through Privv as he read the cleric’s posture.

  ‘Do you mean Brother Cassraw?’ Horld asked censoriously, in his best preaching manner. But Privv had been too long immune to what was left of his childhood encounters with the church to be seriously intimidated.

  ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Forgive me.’ Then, before Horld could turn back to the door again, ‘I hear that Brother Cassraw had an accident yesterday.’

  Horld looked straight at him, his face unreadable. ‘Where did you hear such a tale?’ he asked.

  Privv shrugged. ‘One picks these things up,’ he said blandly.

  Horld nodded understandingly. ‘I’m sure you do,’ he said. ‘What an interesting profession you’ve chosen for yourself.’ And, though he did not seem to hurry, he was suddenly through the door and quietly closing it.

  This time, reflexes took Privv forward before he had time to think and the heavy door closed painfully on his foot. It did little to ease his distress that Horld gave the door a good push as though perhaps the hinges might have jammed, before apparently realizing that it was Privv’s foot that was causing the problem.

  ‘Dear me,’ he said in a voice noticeably lacking in regret. ‘You must be more careful. You’re going to injure yourself doing things like that.’ He looked at Privv. ‘Did you want to ask me something else?’

  Then he opened the door to release Privv’s foot.

  ‘Brother Cassraw,’ Privv said, through clenched teeth. ‘I believe he had an accident last night.’

  ‘Ah. The titbit you… picked up,’ Horld said. ‘I can’t imagine where you heard about that, but it’s quite true. Brother Cassraw went for a breath of fresh air yesterday after a long meeting of the Chapter, and unfortunately, the light being rather bad, took a bit of a tumble. He’ll be sore for a day or two, but if it’s likely to be of any interest to your readers you can certainly reassure them that nothing serious has happened to him.’

  He laid a hand on Privv’s shoulder, as if to turn him gently back on his way down the mountain, but Privv held his ground.

  ‘He went out when the thickest storm clouds anyone’s ever known here were overhead?’ he exclaimed, his eyes too wide and eyebrows too arched.

  Horld nodded. He was reluctant to bend the truth any further and was well aware of the fact that in resisting a powerful urge to throttle this individual, he was being too easy with him. Leaving his hand on Privv’s shoulder he risked another step towards perdition, however.

  ‘Brother Cassraw’s a vigorous and inquiring individual,’ he said. ‘Ever curious. While we were content to watch from shelter, he wanted to be amid it all. And the clouds were a remarkable sight from up here, I can assure you. He presumed that the worst he might suffer would be a wetting, so off he went.’ He shrugged as if that were the end of the tale, but Privv’s silence and his enthralled and expectant face lured him into continuing. ‘When he’d been out rather longer than we thought he would, we became a little concerned and a few of us went to look for him. We met him limping down.’

  Before Privv could provoke him into further admissions, Leck’s voice floated into his mind. ‘I’m getting nothing here. They’re all too busy preparing a meal to be gossiping. I’ll tell you what though, these people eat well. Some way this side of pious frugality for sure.’

  Privv did not reply. ‘Could I perhaps have a word with Brother Cassraw?’ he asked Horld. ‘I’m sure my readers would be interested to hear his… impressions of the clouds as seen from up here.’

  ‘No,’ Horld said categorically and a little too hastily. ‘I’m afraid we’re in the middle of a meeting right now. Perhaps you could go down to the Haven Meeting House and make an appointment to see him. I’m sure he’d be happy to speak to you when he has the time.’

  ‘I’ve just been there,’ Privv retorted. ‘But there’s no one there except a housekeeper. Apparently his wife was called out urgently last night.’

  He felt Horld’s hand closing about his shoulder.

  Something to hide, something to hide.

  Suddenly, like a rasping saw-blade, a hissing, in-drawn breath cut across his growing elation. He felt the hairs on his neck and his arms tingle and rise. Then his nostrils were full of intense and heady scents, his ears full of strange, exaggerated sounds and his mind full of utterly alien images. Instinctively his hands came up to squeeze his nose and rub his neck violently to shake off the sensation. But Leck’s powerful and fearful response to something would not leave him.

  He began to sway unsteadily.

  Chapter 7

  ‘For pity’s sake, cat, what are you doing?’ Privv cried out silently as Leck’s screaming emotions swept through him.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Horld’s voice reached him through the uproar, faint and distorted, as though the speaker were far away. And the tall figure of the cleric framed in the door to the Witness House seemed to be at once near and yet distant, standing at both ends of a long, howling tunnel. Somehow Privv managed to nod by way of reply but he could not speak. Whatever Leck was reacting to, her response was threatening to overwhelm him utterly.

  Privv took a deep breath. He must exert every ounce of his will to reach into the cat’s mind and calm it, or he would be swept along totally by its now ravening animal nature. Bad enough when this happened in private, but here…

  The consequences didn’t bear thinking about. He must resist while he still had some semblance of his humanity about him.

  Yet he had no inkling of what was happening. On the rare occasions when this had happened in the past it had been as a result of Leck’s reaction to being unable to escape the unwelcome attentions of a dog. But this was not the case now, Privv knew. The emotions engendered by such incidents, though powerful, were not as bad as this. And too, they were quite distinct: loaded with massive, visceral violence which the deeper reaches of his humanity could at least appreciate. He was usually content to let them ride for fear that any interference on his part might mar his partner’s ability to defend herself. But this was different. And he was being drawn further and further in.

  He felt Horld’s arms about him, supporting him.

  No, he cried out to himself. Not here. This mustn’t happen! Yet even as these thoughts came to him, others, scheming and ambitious, arrived with them. He was going to get inside the Witness House. He was going to be the centre of some confusion as the Brothers fussed about him. Opportunities were opening.

  But these compensations were like corks in a buffeting ocean. And Privv was drowning. Images whirled and twisted through him as his mind fought against Leck’s fearful insistence.

  ‘Cat!’ he screamed desperately through the inner mayhem, hoping that the simple call might distract her, but the sensations did not even waver and, abruptly, a deeper part of him was awake. When he reached out again, his will was brutal and cruel. This was now a conflict with the unalloyed animal ferocity of his partner for control of the common ground of their psyches, and in such circumstances there could only be one leader. Thus menaced, his own primitive nature rose to the fore, worse by far than any animal’s.

  ‘Enough!’

  The command, laden with savage meanings far beyond anything in the word itself, hurtled through the mysterious by-ways of their joining. Leck’s spirit bridled against the impact with her own screaming rage, filling Privv’s mind with a spitting fury of glittering teeth
and claws. But it yielded before this greater menace nevertheless.

  The whole incident had lasted perhaps only a few seconds but, as the uproar began to recede, Privv found that he was being almost carried by Horld towards a long bench-seat at the opposite side of the entrance hall. He had a fleeting impression of Morem somewhere also. I’m inside, he thought jubilantly, momentarily forgetting what had happened to bring him there. Then Leck’s rage returned.

  ‘Don’t you ever do anything like that again,’ came a blistering outburst.

  Though sorely tempted, Privv managed not to respond to the anger. Leck had been downed completely and that which was human in her would not only need to abuse him, but could be allowed to with impunity. He let Horld sit him down on the bench.

  ‘Are you all right?’

  His own question to Leck coincided with Horld’s and the words resonated unpleasantly in his head. He raised his hand gently to fend off Horld’s inquiry, saying softly, ‘A moment, please.’

  ‘Leck, what in the devil’s name was all that about?’ he demanded.

  Unexpectedly he received no further abuse. Leck was icily calm.

  ‘A good word, devil,’ came the enigmatic reply. ‘I need to think.’

  ‘But…’

  The word echoed back to him through a special silence. Leck had withdrawn. Privv, head lowered so that Horld could not see his face, grimaced. Leck had been deeply disturbed and her language had been hung about with images that he could not begin to interpret. He reached out, more gently this time.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ he replied. ‘What’s happened? Has something threatened you?’

  Still there was no reply.

  Privv swore inwardly but had neither the strength nor the desire to launch another assault on his partner. Something very strange had occurred – something the like of which he, and, he suspected, she also, had never known before. But he could not go chasing about the Witness House to find out what, and he knew well enough that he would gain nothing by badgering her. Besides, rare opportunities were opening up for him here. Horld was still leaning over him, his face genuinely concerned.