"I've heard some of those stories, too." Henry laughed. "I always had trouble believing them. And here we are in a new land of our own, and now with news of more new lands beyond. I ought to do penance for doubting."
"Well, skipper, if everybody did that who ought to, you'd have plenty of company," the mate said. "Me, I'm just glad we didn't have a sea fight on our hands."
"So am I. They were thinking about sinking us to keep their secret. If they thought they could get away with it, they would have done it, too."
Smith nodded. "Can't keep a new land secret forever, though. We're likely lucky those copperskinned fellows never sailed east and found Atlantis ahead of us. I think you're right-they looked like men who could fight."
"They did," Henry Radcliffe agreed. "But if they can't work iron…Even the Irish bog-trotters can do that. Turn your back on one, and he'll take a knife and let the air out of you like a boy poking a pig's bladder with a stick."
"No doubt about it," Smith said. "Well, between Avalon Bay and the miserable Basques, we'll have a deal of news when we get home."
Henry looked over his shoulder. The Basque cog was still sailing southwest, away from the Rose. That gave him a better chance of seeing New Hastings again-and it gave the Pattawatomis a better chance of seeing Gernika. He wondered what they would make of the Basque town. He wondered if he'd ever find out.
The pier didn't push out as far into the sea as Henry would have liked. But it was there, and it hadn't been when he sailed north from New Hastings. He was glad to be able to tie up at it instead of anchoring offshore and then rowing in, as he'd done more times than he could count.
A gull strutted along the planking. Plainly, it thought the pier had gone up for its benefit alone. It fixed him with a yellow stare and skrawked at him as he walked past. How dared he, a mere man, profane the timbers where its webbed feet had gloriously preceded him?
As soon as he was walking on solid ground and not on those gull-honored planks, his wife almost flattened him with a hug. After he untangled himself from her-which took a while, because he didn't want to-his father spoke dryly: "I'm glad to see you, too, Henry."
"And I'm glad to be seen." Not having seen Edward Radcliffe for some months, Henry wondered if he'd been that stooped for a while now or if it had happened all at once while he was gone. He didn't know.
"What's it like on the other side?" His father laughed. "Never thought I'd say that to somebody who hadn't died."
"If you want to talk to ghosts, that's your business," Henry retorted. "If you want to ask me…Well, the weather's better there, by God. Seemed like spring all the time."
"It was spring all the time you were there-or a lot of the time, anyhow," Edward reminded him.
"We stayed into summer, and it didn't get hot and muggy the way it does here," Henry said. "And there is a bay with the best harbor I've ever seen anywhere. Avalon Bay, we called it. If King Arthur had seen it, he never would have wanted to leave."
"Yes, but a harbor on a coast with no people on it is like a tree falling in the forest with no one to hear," his father said. "It may be there, but so what?"
"There will be people on that coast," Henry said. "And there are people beyond that coast. I know, because we saw them." He told his father and his wife and the rest of the people who were listening about the Basques and the strange Pattawatomis.
"A new land? Another new land? With people in it, this time?" Edward said.
"Funny-looking people, but people just the same," Henry answered. "And the Basques say the trees and beasts are more like England or their country than Atlantis. They talked about squirrels in oak trees and howling wolves."
"I haven't seen a squirrel in years," Edward said, at the same time as Bess was going, "I miss squirrels." His father added, "They're welcome to the wolves, though."
"I said the same thing, or near enough," Henry answered.
"And who are the strangers?" his father asked. "Did the Basques find the court of the Great Khan of Cathay?"
"I asked them the same thing, and they thought it was funny. It didn't seem that way to me, and it didn't sound that way from what they said."
Edward Radcliffe chuckled grimly. "Believing what Basques say is a fool's game. By Our Lady, sometimes understanding Basques is a fool's game."
"The one who talked to me spoke pretty good French," Henry said. "He said the strangers didn't know the use of iron. One of them carried a club with a stone ball for a head-that argues the Basque was telling the truth. They wore hides. They had no gold or silver ornaments. If they come from the Great Khan's court, ruling Cathay isn't what it used to be. Easier to think this new land lies between us and Cathay, wherever Cathay may be."
"Your children may go to the new land-I expect they will," Edward said. "I might like to see it before I die. But I think my bones will end up here in Atlantis-and that won't be so bad."
He sounds like Moses, wanting a look at the Promised Land, Henry thought, and then, No-for him, this is the Promised Land. He really has got old.
But after a moment, he realized Atlantis was the Promised Land for him, too. He was curious about what lay to the west. He wanted to see it, and more than once. But, having pulled up stakes in England to settle here, he wasn't eager to do it again. As his father said, maybe one of his boys would be, if they didn't find Atlantis roomy enough. Or maybe his brother would…
"Where is Richard?" he asked.
"Out in the woods," Bess said. "As usual."
"He was talking about going over the mountains," Edward added. "I half wondered if you would see him when you came ashore on the west coast."
"So did I. That would have been funny," Henry said. "I wonder which of us would have been more surprised."
More people were coming off the Rose and telling loved ones and friends what they'd done and what they'd seen on the journey around the northern coast of Atlantis. Henry heard several sailors trying to pronounce Pattawatomi. Every man said it differently. Henry couldn't very well complain-he wasn't sure he was saying it right himself. He wasn't sure the Basque had pronounced it very well. Any people that gave itself such an outlandish name probably spoke a language as bad as Basque, too. Henry hadn't thought there was any such creature, but maybe he was wrong.
Then Bess put her arm around his waist and gave him an inviting smile. He suddenly and acutely remembered how long he'd been at sea. "I'm going to have a look at the house, Father," he said. "We'll talk more later."
"Send the children out to play before you look too hard," Edward answered. "Lord knows I had to chase you and your brother and sisters out the door after a few fishing runs-yes, just a few."
Henry remembered that. He'd been puzzled when he was small, puzzled and hurt. Why wasn't Father gladder to see him? Well, Father was, but he was glad to see Mother, too. And Henry was very glad to see Bess. They walked off side by side. In a little while, he thought, he would be gladder still.
VII
P retty soon, Richard Radcliffe would reach the downhill slope. That was what he was waiting for-proof he'd made it into the western part of Atlantis, proof he'd got through the mountains at last.
If only I'd done it last year! He'd been exploring in the Green Ridge then. He hadn't got to the crest and over. And so his brother, sailing around, got to the far side of the new land ahead of him. Richard muttered under his breath. In a way, you hardly mattered at all if you weren't first.
But only in a way. The Radcliffes hadn't got to Atlantis first. By all accounts, though, New Hastings and Bredestown and the other settlements that sprang from their first visit were growing far faster than Cosquer. Richard didn't know for a fact whether that was true; he'd never gone down to the Breton town. The more he traveled through the heartland of Atlantis, the less patience he had for his fellow human beings, even the ones who happened to be Englishmen and-women.