‘It is only a shrub Congress meeting, Derwyn,’ a yellow-haired young man said. ‘We’re lucky if all the members who’re supposed to turn up, let alone any observers.’
‘I know, Melarn,’ Derwyn replied. ‘You must excuse me. Farnor’s arrival might have given us some prob-lems, but more than once he made me look at things I’ve known all my life and see them with new eyes. Not least here. The place, and what it means to us, as a lodge; as a people, even. I’m grateful for that. It’s made me realize that perhaps we’ve become a little too staid in our ways. People should pay more heed to what happens here. Things haven’t always been so peaceful and orderly, and there’s no special reason to believe that they’ll always be so.’
‘You worry too much, Derwyn. Things have been the way they’ve been for generations. Why should they change? It doesn’t do to go fretting about such matters.’ The speaker was Melarn’s father, Helgen. He was only a few years older than Derwyn, but bore himself as though he were several decades his senior.
Derwyn gave a discreet glance skywards. ‘Yes, Hel-gen,’ he replied, trying to keep the irritation from his voice. ‘But you can’t deny that it was good to see so many here the other night, such interest. The Synehal hasn’t been that full in my memory and it was a splendid sight. It gave me a good feeling.’
‘It gave me indigestion,’ Helgen retorted, patting his chest. ‘All that commotion and disturbance. Outsiders coming in, Marken disappearing; it was a bad business, and we’re well rid of the lad. The sooner things get properly back to normal, the better. You should never have brought him here in the first place.’
‘Indeed.’ The support came from EmRan.
Derwyn held out a hand before EmRan could begin to amplify his objection. ‘I know what you’re going to say, EmRan,’ he said. ‘We all do. You’ve been saying it incessantly, even since the lad left, though what you think to gain by it I can’t imagine.’ A note of anger seeped into his voice. ‘I did what I did because I felt it right. And no one’s offered me a realistic alternative. The Congress agreed with me. The lad’s gone, Marken’s back; and he also agrees with what I did…’ He levelled his finger at EmRan. ‘And the only person who behaved badly during the time Farnor was here, was you. Why don’t you let it drop, for pity’s sake?’
‘Second, if I may.’ Marken’s voice forestalled any reply from EmRan, and his formal tone prevented Derwyn from continuing. ‘We’d all prefer to be in our lodges. I suggest that we discuss what we came here for.’
With some reluctance, Derwyn nodded an apolo-getic acknowledgement. ‘I think we already are, Marken,’ he replied. ‘But you’re right. There’s enough tittle-tattle buzzing through the branches without our adding to it.’ He, too, became formal. ‘I called this meeting because I wanted you to hear what Marken Heard when he was with Farnor the night before he left. And also to decide whether, in the light of what he had to say, we should try to find new hunting trails to the south.’ He motioned Marken to proceed, before his companions had any chance to assimilate this last remark.
When the Hearer had finished, there was a stunned silence. Inevitably, EmRan was the first to speak. ‘You’re sure about all this?’ he asked, frowning. ‘I can’t recall you, or any other Hearer for that matter, ever being so positive about anything before.’
‘Oh, yes,’ Marken replied quietly, despite EmRan’s acid tone. ‘I told you. I’ve never experienced anything remotely like it before myself. And there was much more than I’ve told you, though some of it was vague and difficult to understand, and quite a lot was beyond any words I can find. However, what I’ve told you was clear and beyond misinterpretation.’
EmRan grunted noncommittally. ‘I thought he’d just decided to go on his way,’ he said. ‘So did everyone else.’
‘Well, in a manner of speaking, he did,’ Derwyn said. ‘I offered to let him stay with us, or to help him go wherever he wanted, but he chose to go north, on his own.’
‘It’s as well,’ EmRan declared. ‘They let him in, they can deal with him.’
Derwyn looked at him angrily, but Marken caught his eye with a look that cautioned calmness. With an effort that brought tension to his jaw, Derwyn took the unspoken advice.
‘Be that as it may,’ he went on. ‘Farnor’s decision was his own to make, and he made it. We gave him hospitality and offered him help, so we did all that we reasonably could. What I think we have to do now is decide what to do about the problems in Farnor’s land, to the south.’
‘What!’ EmRan exclaimed.
‘I said, I think we…’
‘I heard you,’ EmRan interrupted. ‘You said some-thing before about opening trails to the south, didn’t you? Now you’re talking about doing something about the problems in his land!’ He slapped his forehead in disbelief. ‘What in Imrel’s name has his land to do with us?’
‘Mind your language, EmRan,’ Derwyn said angrily. ‘This is a Congress meeting not a climbfest.’
EmRan’s lip curled superciliously. ‘Since when were you so sensitive, Derwyn? I don’t know what’s got into you since you brought that thing back…’
Fury lit Derwyn’s face, but he managed to keep his voice measured. ‘Don’t you ever listen to anything, EmRan?’ he said. ‘You heard Marken telling how that young man was pursued here by some evil power. We don’t even know what it was – people, or something else. Farnor wouldn’t talk about it and Marken Heard nothing from them that would enlighten us. But the fact is, they let him in, as you’re so fond of pointing out, and they turned whatever it was back. And, apparently, it was no easy task. Indeed, it left them afraid and unsure. That, to me, signifies that there’s a danger down there that we simply can’t ignore.’
‘The only danger we’ve got is certain parties getting over-excited,’ EmRan said scornfully. He opened his arms and surveyed the others present. ‘Evil powers, for pity’s sake! I ask you. Fireside tales for children. Somehow this outsider’s got in, caused a bit of a commotion, and now Derwyn wants us to start a war. What are we going to do, Derwyn? Raise the levy of ancient days? Launch ourselves like Athrys of old, against this… mystic… evil that’s suddenly appeared from the south? You’ll be seeing tree goblins next.’
His listeners were mixed in their reception of this outburst. Some laughed openly, but more of them frowned at EmRan’s manner. He read the dominant mood and, lowering his voice, spoke in a more reason-able tone. ‘It’s not to be denied that we’re very – parochial – down here,’ he went on. ‘No outsider’s been seen here in generations, and when one arrives – a very strange one at that – we get ourselves in a great stir about it.’ He became affable. ‘Not least me, I’ll admit.’
Derwyn watched him carefully. EmRan in this mood was far more difficult to deal with than when he was ranting and blowing.
‘But if, by chance, we’d had friends from the north or the east visiting, they’d have taken it in their stride. They’re used to outsiders. Some of them even trade with them, I’ve heard.’ EmRan paused to assess the effect of his words. ‘It’s quite possible that there might be trouble in this lad’s land. Forest knows, everyone has troubles from time to time.’ He looked around the group significantly before casually adding, ‘For all we know, he might have been the cause of it, just like he was here. He could be a bandit, a thief, anything.’ Then with an airy gesture he dismissed this notion before Derwyn could protest. ‘But, whatever the case, it’s nothing to do with us.’ He waved a finger towards the surrounding forest. ‘This land is theirs. It’s they who guard its boundaries, who keep outsiders outside. And for their own reasons, when all’s said and done. It’s not for us to go prowling into the fringes, arrogantly thinking we know best, taking on ourselves the job that they’ve been doing since ancient times.’ He looked at Derwyn. ‘I think we should all do our best to forget the disturbance that this lad’s caused. He’s gone on his way – made his choice, as Derwyn tells us – and I think the rest of us should do the same. We should choose to forget him and get back to normal as quickly as possible.’