Chapter One of Clovermead

Chapter 1
The Tansyard Pilgrim

Clovermead Wickward leapt onto the bed, lunged with the sword, and battered a pillow. She laid about her with two-handed swings that sent the dust motes spinning and scratched the oak bedframe's dark polish. She crouched in front of the open window that looked down the thick green slopes of Kestrel Hill, growled a challenge at the cool and lazy autumn breeze caressing her cheeks, and smiled with unholy glee.

Clovermead's flailing limbs radiated an almost palpable energy as she sprang from pillow to bolster and back again. She was five feet tall--she had grown three inches in the last year, and her father said the way she ate, she was like to grow another three inches in the year to come. Her long golden hair, fine and soft as silk, billowed down to her shoulder-blades in unruly tangles. Between her freckles, her skin was white as crystal salt. Her pupils were jet black. Over her wiry frame she wore an outsize woolen sweater and trousers--boy's wear in Timothy Vale, but Clovermead vehemently preferred comfort to feminine style. Her trousers were plain brown, but a bold Valeman pattern of interwoven yellow and blue crescents blazed forth on her new wool sweater. Goody Weft had made that sweater for Clovermead and given it to her on her twelfth birthday.

"Bold Lady Clovermead skewers the spider-priest of Great Jaifal," Clovermead announced to the room. The room was small and sparsely decorated, but, Clovermead noted with some pride, clean and comfortable. She had oiled the dresser and made the bed just last night. Clovermead leapt to the floor and rolled in a huddle under the bed. "The priest's servant-spiders skitter after her. She hides beneath the eight-legged altar--hah! There's a secret entrance to the rear." Clovermead slid out the other side of the bed. A large pile of dust followed after her. "Sweet Lady, I knew I forgot to do something--silly Clo, you'll have to sweep away this mess. Look! A secret passage-way! It leads up--to daylight? No, that's a gem glittering in torchlight! Clovermead, it's the Spider Ruby itself! You've found it!" She snatched a candle from the dresser and held it aloft in triumph. "Time to escape. Where's that trap-door I saw? I remember! It was behind the skeletons." She spun around to face the door.

It was open. A young man was watching her from the doorway of the room. A bemused smile flickered on his lips and Clovermead's cheeks flared strawberry red. It was the owner of the sword.

The man was unmistakably a pilgrim--pilgrims often sported exotic fashions, but Clovermead had never seen anyone so bizarre. His jerkin and leggings were patchworks of horse-skin, beaver-fur, and leather ribbons. On his head he wore a fox-fur hat edged by the fox's face, paws, and tail. He had tied his long auburn hair into a thick braid like a horse's tail and both his cheeks were tattooed from ear to nose with cris-cross blue lines. Beneath his strange accouterments, the pilgrim's eyes were dark brown. Baby fat still lined his square, sun-darkened face and his short, compact body.

Clovermead put the pilgrim's sword back on the bed and patted flat his rumpled coverlet. "I thought you had gone outdoors," she said.

"Evidently," said the pilgrim.

Clovermead flushed again. "I'm terribly sorry, sir. I know I was wrong to look through the keyhole, I shouldn't have unlocked your door, and I oughtn't to have picked up your sword--it's very sharp, isn't it? And heavy! I never realized how hard it is to lift them up--I'm sorry, I'm wandering. Father says I do that too much of the time and Goody Weft says I do it all the time, but Goody Weft--"

"Clearly speaks the truth," said the pilgrim. His oddly guttural accent was half music and half braying. "You are a thief, yes? A snoop? How did you get into my room? Ladyrest Inn has a most excellent reputation."

"I'd never steal!" said Clovermead. "We Wickwards don't rob our guests--I wouldn't even steal a Spider Ruby, not really. Father's always told me never to touch anything that belongs to a guest, or to go into their rooms--" Clovermead turned scarlet. "That came out all wrong. I did go into your room, but I'm not a thief. Don't blame my father, sir, he's always taught me never to lie and never to steal--"

"The innkeeper's daughter has penetrated my refuge, that I was assured was inviolable," the pilgrim said loudly. Clovermead worriedly eyed the stairway behind him to see if her father was within earshot. "She has made merry with my possessions. Her father's honor as host, so carefully built up and hoarded, so fragile, will be destroyed by his darling's daring pleasantry. When I report the truth to him, what will he say? What will he do? He will cry! Great innkeeperly globules of water will scour his face from eye to mouth. He will be distraught to learn to what depths his daughter has descended. Is it so, little magpie?"

"Not exactly, sir," said Clovermead gravely. "Father will be unhappy, but he's not the sort to cry. Goody Weft might switch me--she always says Father spoils me rotten and that she has to give me discipline for two. I suppose it won't help Ladyrest if people hear I unlocked a door, but I don't think it'll hurt us so badly. Where else in Timothy Vale are the pilgrims going to sleep? Anyway, sir, I wasn't stealing. I was investigating your effects. I was certain when you arrived this morning that you had a fascinating past. You have that air, you know."

"You cannot trust airs," said the pilgrim, his eyes twinkling. "It means only that my clothes are worn, and that I am no seamster. Little magpie, should I punish you? You do not seem penitent."

"I don't think Father would want you to do anything to me without his permission," said Clovermead, more calmly than she felt inside. She could dive through the pilgrim's legs, scramble down the stairs, and gallop outdoors to the wide pastures and secret hideaways of the Vale--but she'd have to come home sometime, and then Goody Weft really would switch her. "You should come downstairs with me and tell him what I've done wrong. Oh dear, it's only a week since they caught me stealing apple pie from the pantry and I promised I wouldn't make trouble for a month. I'll give you a penny if you don't tell Father. It's all I have in the world. Except the robin's egg I'm trying to hatch, and my books, and my pony Cripple Malmsey, but I don't think you'd want any of those, would you?"

"Sweet Lady, girl!" the pilgrim laughed. "Do you always chatter so much?"

"No," said Clovermead, with dignified cogency.

"I do not think I believe that claim," said the pilgrim. He walked over to his bed, checked his sword for nicks, and slid it into his scabbard. "You do not know how to fight with swords?"

"No," Clovermead said again--but then she couldn't bear to stay silent any longer. "I've always wanted to learn! I've heard ever so many stories from pilgrims, about knights who kill dragons, and about battles, and strange temples, and heroes with magic swords. And the nicest old man with red eyebrows stayed here one winter and taught me to read. He gave me the Garum Heptameron when he left. Have you read it? It's all about the adventures of the queens and knights of Queensmart and the Thirty Towns, and there are seven times seven stories in it, which is forty-nine. The next summer a silly lady with a face like a prune let me have The Song of the Siege of the Silver Knight. Sir, I couldn't stay away when I saw your sword--there aren't any like it in Timothy Vale. All we have is daggers and axes and bows for hunting deer. Sweetroot Miller and I played sword-fighting with pieces of wood, but I scraped her arm and the blubberer threw down her stick and ran home. Now none of the girls will play with me. Not sword-fighting anyway. The little ones play with rag dolls, the big ones are mad about dancing with the boys, and now Sweetroot wants to dance too, and she's the only girl near Ladyrest my age. Dancing's all right, but, oh, I did want to know what it feels like to hold a real blade! Is it a magic sword like the one the Silver Knight had?"

"Alas, no," said the pilgrim. "Sorcer-swords do not exist outside of books, I think. There are enough odd things in the world, O Daughter of an Innkeeper, but not enchanted chopping-knives." The pilgrim looked slyly down at Clovermead. "You would like to learn to sword-fight?"

Clovermead's eyes shone. "More than anything!"

"Really so? Well, magpie, I have tired myself greatly crossing the Chaffen Hills and more than anything I would like to rest and recuperate myself for a few days in your father's fine inn. Shall I make a bargain with your father? I will teach you a little fighting and I will eat and sleep here at his expense while I give you lessons. You will plead my case to him, I will not tell where I found you this afternoon, and in the future locked doors will stay locked, yes? And you will be bruised hard enough while learning to blade-whack, which should be sufficient punishment for you. Is this fair?"

"It is," said Clovermead, and solemnly shook his hand. His fingers were supple and strong as oiled leather. "I'm Clovermead Wickward. What's your name, pilgrim? I think I heard you say it when you came in this morning, but I was rereading the Heptameron and I didn't pay any attention to you till I saw what you looked like. Pardon me, that sounds rude. It is rude, but it wasn't meant rudely, if you see what I mean."

"In my land we have a saying," said the pilgrim. "A man should not care if a bee buzzes in his ear or if a child babbles at his feet."

"I don't think I care for that saying," said Clovermead. "The tone is very superior, very lofty. It sounds very silly coming from a young man who can't be that much older than I am. Did people say that a lot to you when you were younger? It must have been very annoying to hear it from grown-ups on a regular basis."
The pilgrim grinned and the blue crosses on his cheeks crinkled. "It was infuriating. Miss Clovermead, I am Sorrel of the Cyan Cross Horde. I am from the Tansy Steppes, and therefore a Tansyard. I have lived through seventeen winters. Does that answer all your questions?"

"Of course not," said Clovermead. "I have dozens more! But I'll save them until I've gotten Father's permission to sword-fight with you." She dashed out of the room and downstairs. Sorrel blinked and chuckled as she disappeared from sight. Then he took a leisurely minute to check that all his possessions were where he had left them, locked the door, and headed downstairs.

The great dining hall took up more than half the space of Ladyrest's ground floor. Its floor and walls had been carved from sturdy lengths of oak. To the right of the kitchen door sat a huge stone hearth surrounded by four rocking chairs. A dozen long tables, each accompanied by a pair of low benches, occupied the rest of the room. Afternoon light glowed through four huge, square window panes that could have come from nowhere nearer than Glaziers' Street in Queensmart and imparted a dark-honey hue to the dining room's polished timbers. Every part of the hall was immaculately clean. A score of iron sconces around the walls held torches ready to be lit when night came.

As his daughter fervidly summarized Sorrel's proposal, Waxmelt Wickward cleared the dirty dishes that a patrician pilgrim had left on the table at the end of his late lunch. Goody Weft cheerfully sang a shearing song in the kitchen as she washed the dozen pots and pans she had used for lunch. Clouds of steam billowed out from the kitchen.

Waxmelt Wickward was a little man--inches shorter than Sorrel and not much taller than Clovermead. His thin gray hair had receded halfway up the temples of his round face and he sported a mustache and a small pointed beard, both neatly trimmed. His face was smooth, except for the lines of delighted laughter that had creased his forehead as he watched his daughter grow. Faint worry glimmered almost perpetually in his soft eyes. He was stout around the middle, though not quite fat.

He quietly piled the dishes in the crook of one arm, whisked them to the kitchen, and came back into the room drying his hands on his apron. "My daughter says you're the best swordsman north of Queensmart," he said dubiously to Sorrel.

Sorrel shrugged. "Men with swords have chased after me and I have not died. I was a boy not so long ago and I remember how to be gently trained. These are my qualifications, Mr. Wickward. I can only add to that my desire to eat more of your most delicious oatmeal and fried lamb chops and my rapturous craving to sleep many nights on your soft mattress and pillows. My little money cannot satisfy my desires, so I must hope that you will take my services as payment. I will be most happy if you say yes. I assure you, this Ladyrest is a lovelier inn than any I have seen in all the lands of Linstock."

"Goody Weft cooked the oatmeal," said Waxmelt modestly, looking pleased in spite of himself. He coughed and tried to look stern. "I've heard that all Tansyards are horse-thieves."

"It is the noblest sport," Sorrel acknowledged, humbly dipping his head. "But Clovermead is not a horse and we do not steal from our hosts. You have heard that too?"

"Ye-es," Waxmelt reluctantly agreed. "But I hear all sorts of stories about Tansyards. You're the first one I've met. Not many of you come out of your Steppes."

"Of course he's honest!" Clovermead burst in. "And he must be an excellent fighter! I've read the whole story in the Heptameron. The Tansyards were gallant warriors who struggled for their freedom, even after the legions of Queensmart had subjugated the Thirty Towns and Selcouth and the Astrantian Sands and made the Cindertallows of Chandlefort do homage to the Queen. The Tansyards refused to submit to the Empire and against all odds they annihilated four Imperial legions and captured their banners. Then Queen Aurhelia swallowed a bitter pill to her pride and gave up trying to vanquish the Tansyards. Isn't it true?" she appealed to Sorrel.

"Most certainly, Miss Clovermead, but it was in my great-great-grandfather's time that we sent the legions fleeing back to Queensmart. Great-great-grandfather was an esteemed warrior, of whose glory the Horde sang many songs, but I have no such deeds yet to my name. Mr. Wickward, I can transform your daughter from an untrained girl to a rank novice. Will that be an acceptable trade for your hospitality?"

"It's a foolish idea, Mr. Wickward," Goody Weft bellowed from the kitchen. "Don't encourage that daughter of yours in her mischief. She'll lose an eye."

"You said I'd break my neck if I climbed onto the roof, and I didn't!" Clovermead yelled back.

"Ninny's luck!" Goody Weft retorted. "Mr. Wickward, it's a scandal how you indulge her. Tell her no for once!"

Clovermead gazed imploringly at her father. Waxmelt looked into her face, sighed, and glanced apprehensively at the kitchen door. "The answer is yes, Goody," he called out. He flinched as a pot crashed loudly to the floor. "This isn't just a treat, Clo," he continued softly. "You need to learn how to defend yourself. All the pilgrims say the fighting's terrible in Linstock--isn't that true, Mr. Sorrel?"

"It is a devastated land," said the Tansyard somberly. "The soldiers of Low Branding raid near Chandlefort, the soldiers of Chandlefort raid near Low Branding, and all of Linstock has become fire and blood. The farmers pray to Our Lady for the Empire to come back and keep the peace, but they know that the legions will never again march north from Queensmart. The Empire is dying, dead, and Chandlefort and Low Branding squabble over Linstock like vultures over its carcass. I hear there are more such wars in Selcouth and the Thirty Towns. You are lucky here in Timothy Vale, with the Chaffen Hills between you and the soldiers."

"I thank Our Lady night and day for their protection," Waxmelt said. "Mr. Sorrel, I think Clo should learn how to defend herself, in case our luck runs out and the soldiers ever do come this way. Clo, you understand you're not playing a game?"

"Yes, Father," Clovermead said. She was a little awed at how serious her father had become. Then she grinned. "You'd better not wait a single minute to start your lessons, Mr. Sorrel. You never can tell when a cruel and bloodstained soldier might decide to wander by."

Waxmelt laughed. "She won't give you any rest till you teach her something, Mr. Sorrel. You might as well start now. I'll come outside and watch." He took off his apron, folded it neatly, and hung it on the back of a chair.

Goody Weft came and looked through the doorway of the kitchen. She was a tall, rangy woman in a black dress, whose plain bony features lit up with a look of indignation as she eyed the apologetic Sorrel, the cringing Waxmelt, and the ecstatic Clovermead. "It's an absolute disgrace," she announced--then wheeled back into her domain. Loud despairing commentary followed the three outdoors.

Sorrel looked around him. Ladyrest Inn, two stories tall and larger than any other ten buildings in the Vale, hulked on the crest of Kestrel Hill. Around the inn were a smoke-house, a barn, a yard piled high with firewood, a small apple orchard, a stable, and a midden where hairy, snuffling pigs rooted at the garbage. East of it were the mill, the bake-house, and the handful of steep-roofed log cabins that constituted the hamlet of Grindery, the largest settlement in Timothy Vale. West of Ladyrest ran the rough granite flagstones of the Crescent Road, that ran from the Imperial city of Queensmart north through Linstock, the Chaffen Hills, Timothy Vale, and at last over a winding pass threading the Reliquary Mountains to its terminus at Our Lady's shrine at Snowchapel.

Just north of Ladyrest, the Road descended suddenly along the slope of Kestrel Hill to the ford through the cold, swift Goat River, then rose to meander in the middle distance past vast flocks of sheep, thick grass, and very little else. Besides the cabins of Grindery, there were no more than six score shepherds' huts scattered through Timothy Vale. The Vale itself was an emerald stringbean of verdant, hillocky pastures. On either side of the Vale, the land rose precipitously toward firs, bare rocks, and finally the savage white tips of the Reliquaries. Except for a few hours around noon, one set of peaks or the other cast jagged shadows across the Vale's precarious aisle of habitation. Year-round, sharp winds plunged from the Reliquaries' heights to chill the Vale.

Sorrel shivered as he led Clovermead and Waxmelt up to where Ladyrest's firewood yard abutted on Kestrel Hill. His tatterdemalion jerkin was far too thin to protect him from the Vale's autumn breezes. Waxmelt blew on his hands and rubbed them briskly together, but Clovermead bounded unheedingly through the cold. Only her red cheeks registered the impact of the chill.

With Waxmelt's permission, Sorrel took the inn's axe and chopped each of two long oak branches roughly into the shape of a sword. He then took out his knife and whittled them till their hilts were easy to grasp and their blade-edges thin but not sharp. He gave the lighter sword to Clovermead and walked with her and Waxmelt to the top of the hill.

"Try to hit me," said Sorrel.

"Yaah!" screamed Clovermead. She rushed at him with all her might--and found herself flat on her back, her sword lying some feet away.

"Are you hurt, Clo?" Waxmelt asked, not very anxiously.

Clovermead picked herself off the grass and patted her arms and legs. "No, Father. My fingers tingle and I'm out of breath, that's all."

"Out of breath and still talking--only you, Clo," said Waxmelt. He grinned, and Clovermead stuck out her tongue at him. "Mr. Sorrel will think you have no manners. Sir, I don't know fighting, but that looked nicely done. Would you like cabbage stuffed with lamb sausage for dinner?"

"I salivate ecstatically, Mr. Wickward," said Sorrel with a low bow and a lick of his lips. He looked curiously at Waxmelt. "I think your voice reveals that you are not from the Vale. You are from someplace south, yes? I think you are like me, not yet accustomed to this horrid cold?"

"I'm from Linstock," Waxmelt said flatly. "I came to the Vale twelve summers ago, when Clo was just a baby."

"That is so? From where in Linstock do you hail?"

"From where Clovermead's mother lies buried," Waxmelt said. He was scowling now. "There was fever that year and she was weak after giving birth to Clo. I left her grave behind me and I've never looked back. I don't like to think about Linstock."

"I beg a thousand pardons," said Sorrel. "I sorrow for your sadness and I will ask you no more questions."

"It's nothing," said Waxmelt. "Don't bother yourself further." He nodded a farewell to Sorrel, ruffled Clovermead's hair, and headed back to Ladyrest.

Sorrel turned to more basic lessons once Waxmelt was gone. He had Clovermead hold the sword in her outstretched arm for three minutes, then had her hold tight to the hilt while he slashed furiously at the blade. He made her lunge, duck, jump, and leap backward while holding the sword as a shield in front of her face.

"Let's fight," Clovermead begged. "I can do these exercises later. I want to be in a battle!"

"As you wish, Miss Clovermead," said Sorrel. "We shall have a single combat! We will try to tap at each other's bodies with our blades. Please do not aim for my head, and please do not try to skewer me well and truly. If I hit you ten times, I will win, and if you hit me once, you will win. Yes? Then we proceed!"
Clovermead immediately leapt at Sorrel and rained down furious blows on him. He parried them patiently and waited for her to exhaust herself. When she was panting, he shifted to the offense. He moved slowly and let Clovermead see exactly how his sword swept and thrust. The oak sword hit Clovermead ten different ways and left behind only light bruises.

Their bout ended as the sun set. Sorrel and Clovermead sat down on the side of Kestrel Hill, near a patch of pine forest that bulged down from the Eastern Reliquaries. Their oak swords lay by their sides in the tall grass. The two of them dripped with sweat.

"I haven't been so tired since Gaffer Miller's ram chased me into Goat River," said Clovermead. She took off her sweater. Her shirt beneath was stinking and damp. "Phew! Fighting's just as much fun as I imagined, but I hadn't realized there was so much hard work to it. It's easier to carry two buckets of well-water, or bathe a cat. Still, I think I see how it ought to be done. Tomorrow I'll be much better--don't you agree? I think I'm a natural warrior. I'll be as good as a Tansyard within a week!"

"Miss Clovermead, you are as skilled with the blade as any Tansyard with one afternoon of training," said Sorrel. "In five days you will be as good as any Tansyard with five days of training. No, I do not speak the truth entirely. You are a marvelous quick learner. Your parries improve most rapidly. But do not expect to perform miracles, nor to spit ten champions before sunrise."

"Hmph," said Clovermead. "Father always said I should have high expectations for myself, and high expectations are certainly a lot more fun than low expectations." She sat up, plucked a hayseed, and put it between her teeth. Her eyes widened. "Gracious Lady! What a huge bear. I've never seen one come so close."

Sorrel lifted his head. "Where do you see this bear, Miss Clovermead?" he asked.

Clovermead pointed to the near edge of the pine forest. There a white-furred bear squatted on her hind legs. She was enormous--sixteen feet high and six feet thick. Her hoar-white claws were three inches long. She yawned and revealed teeth even longer than her claws, and sharp as razors. She steadily inspected the two of them and sniffed gently at the wind.

"She has found me again," said Sorrel. His teeth began to chatter. He got to his feet. "Miss Clovermead, it is time for you to return to Ladyrest. You will please walk directly to the dining room. I must bid you farewell for a little while."

"I don't understand," said Clovermead. She spat out her hayseed and stumbled to her feet. "I know she's large, but she won't hurt you if you stay out of her way. She's just a bear."

"Times are changing," said Sorrel. Now his hands were shaking. His eyes darted from the bear to the Ladyrest stable. "Miss Clovermead, you should know that I am a coward. I am always fearful and I run very often. Now it is time for me to run from this creature. I will go to my sweet mare, Brown Barley, and I will gallop away from your fine inn and, if Our Lady smiles, I think I can make the bear lose my scent. Please make my excuses to your excellent father. Ask him my most weeping pardon that I must abandon his scrumptious lamb sausage and cabbage, and inform him that I will return when it is dark. And please do not tell your father about the bear. He will worry about your safety and he will require me to go away. He does not need to worry--she is only chasing me. Even if she discovers some days from now that I have returned here, and she comes back, for now she will only watch." Sorrel fixed his eyes on Clovermead's with wistful urgency. "Please say nothing. In a week I will be gone."

"I wish I could go with you," sighed Clovermead. Her eyes blazed. "Danger in Timothy Vale! How wonderful. Of course I won't say anything, Mr. Sorrel. Father's a fuddy-duddy who raises a ruckus if I'm out of sight for an hour! He's just not reasonable. I wouldn't mind if the bear did come looking for you. I'd fight at your side against her."

"I will remember your kind offer," said Sorrel. He bowed to Clovermead with the utmost dignity. His eyes skittered back to the bear and his adam's apple jerked.

"But please, Miss, now go."

"I won't tell Father," said Clovermead as she left. Then she ran as if a pack of wolves were yipping at her feet. Partly she ran for the pleasure of running and partly with a prickle of real fear to speed her on her way.

She slammed the dining room door shut behind her and scampered to press her nose to the window. She watched Sorrel jog to the stable and a minute later she saw him on Brown Barley, cantering north on the Road. The bear got to her feet and padded after him. She was an avalanche in fur.

"This is my first real adventure," Clovermead told herself solemnly. "I must treasure it. Funny, I always thought bears seemed nice. I wonder what that one's name was?"

Something roared in her mind and Clovermead suddenly knew the answer to her question. "Boulderbash?" Clovermead asked herself curiously. "Of course, Boulderbash. It suits her perfectly. How perfectly gargantuan she was!"