a lot of greasing. When the sail and the tiller could handle things on their own, I kept busy rubbing stinky oil on her back and drying my hands on my face and ears.
With the sloop the man had let us have a couple of long bamboo poles and a few hooks. Our bait was pretty various. Martya had supplied balls of flour and rancid fat. I had added a can of chopped fish and a big can of slimy little animals I suppose must have been newts. I trolled, putting my pole in a socket and changing bait from time to time. Each fish we caught delighted Martya. As for me, I was happy there were not more.
Lake Perilimna is big, irregular, and cold. Really long, too. Martya told me the capital was at the other end. There are bays and inlets all over, and islands covered with trees scattered around. They probably have names, but Martya did not know them and I never learned them. When we had sailed along the coast quite a ways, and had begun to sail back toward the yellow bricks and church spires of Puraustays, I broke down and asked Martya where Vlad’s summer home had been.
She shook her head until her amber curls danced. “I have never hear of this place. It is a tale to frighten children, I think.”
“That man from the ministry of whatever it was seemed pretty serious about it. He was warning us, and trying to do it without putting down his own country.”
“Then ask him! I do not know.”
“If there’s anything like that here, it will probably fill a whole chapter in my book. I can’t just pass over a thing like that.”
We were nearing an island bigger than most of them, and it was like what I said had broken a spell, or maybe cast one. I caught sight of battlements above the tops of a bunch of hemlocks, and I pointed and shouted.
Martya would not look. “What is this? You are not nice all today.”
“A castle! There’s a castle on that island.”
“You will go there.” It was not a question.
“Damn straight!”
“Also you will wish me to go with you, into another terrible place like your house.”
“Not unless you want to,” I told her. “You can wait here on the boat.”
“Then you do not come.…” Martya’s voice was so low I could scarcely hear her. “I will think he has fallen. Somewhere he lie with the broken legs. Perhaps he scream, or lie quiet with the strike of the head. I must come to help. I come, and we are seen no more.”
I said, “I don’t think it will be like that.”
“It will not. I will cut the rope and go fast away. You will see. No! You will not see, because I wait until you are out of sight.”
“Can you sail?”
“Yes! I am the fine sailor. I do not speak of this because I wish to sun myself.”
I dropped the sail. “In that case you’ll have an easy time of it. Only if you just let her drift, you’ll go anyplace the wind takes you, and you could spend tonight out here on the lake. If you try to sail but don’t know how, you’ll probably capsize and drown.”
She did not say a thing to that.
“An American boat would have life vests stowed somewhere. This one doesn’t. I looked.”
“I will not worry for you, and you have not to worry for me.”
“Good here,” I told her, and put the tiller over. Ten minutes later I had our little boat moored to a tree.
The edge of the wood was choked with brush. I pushed through it. As the hemlocks got bigger and the sunlight faded, the brush turned to ferns and moss. The wall of the castle (which I got to pretty soon) was damp gray stone so dark it looked black, big stones only roughly squared but fitted together so well that the placing of each, trying one stone then another, must have taken twenty or thirty men I do not know how many years of patient work. There were no windows, and no doors I could find. I walked along the wall, hoping to find some kind of gate.
A stretch of fallen wall fixed that. Whether it had been undermined by besiegers or just fallen because it was old, I had no way of telling. Whichever it was,
With the sloop the man had let us have a couple of long bamboo poles and a few hooks. Our bait was pretty various. Martya had supplied balls of flour and rancid fat. I had added a can of chopped fish and a big can of slimy little animals I suppose must have been newts. I trolled, putting my pole in a socket and changing bait from time to time. Each fish we caught delighted Martya. As for me, I was happy there were not more.
Lake Perilimna is big, irregular, and cold. Really long, too. Martya told me the capital was at the other end. There are bays and inlets all over, and islands covered with trees scattered around. They probably have names, but Martya did not know them and I never learned them. When we had sailed along the coast quite a ways, and had begun to sail back toward the yellow bricks and church spires of Puraustays, I broke down and asked Martya where Vlad’s summer home had been.
She shook her head until her amber curls danced. “I have never hear of this place. It is a tale to frighten children, I think.”
“That man from the ministry of whatever it was seemed pretty serious about it. He was warning us, and trying to do it without putting down his own country.”
“Then ask him! I do not know.”
“If there’s anything like that here, it will probably fill a whole chapter in my book. I can’t just pass over a thing like that.”
We were nearing an island bigger than most of them, and it was like what I said had broken a spell, or maybe cast one. I caught sight of battlements above the tops of a bunch of hemlocks, and I pointed and shouted.
Martya would not look. “What is this? You are not nice all today.”
“A castle! There’s a castle on that island.”
“You will go there.” It was not a question.
“Damn straight!”
“Also you will wish me to go with you, into another terrible place like your house.”
“Not unless you want to,” I told her. “You can wait here on the boat.”
“Then you do not come.…” Martya’s voice was so low I could scarcely hear her. “I will think he has fallen. Somewhere he lie with the broken legs. Perhaps he scream, or lie quiet with the strike of the head. I must come to help. I come, and we are seen no more.”
I said, “I don’t think it will be like that.”
“It will not. I will cut the rope and go fast away. You will see. No! You will not see, because I wait until you are out of sight.”
“Can you sail?”
“Yes! I am the fine sailor. I do not speak of this because I wish to sun myself.”
I dropped the sail. “In that case you’ll have an easy time of it. Only if you just let her drift, you’ll go anyplace the wind takes you, and you could spend tonight out here on the lake. If you try to sail but don’t know how, you’ll probably capsize and drown.”
She did not say a thing to that.
“An American boat would have life vests stowed somewhere. This one doesn’t. I looked.”
“I will not worry for you, and you have not to worry for me.”
“Good here,” I told her, and put the tiller over. Ten minutes later I had our little boat moored to a tree.
The edge of the wood was choked with brush. I pushed through it. As the hemlocks got bigger and the sunlight faded, the brush turned to ferns and moss. The wall of the castle (which I got to pretty soon) was damp gray stone so dark it looked black, big stones only roughly squared but fitted together so well that the placing of each, trying one stone then another, must have taken twenty or thirty men I do not know how many years of patient work. There were no windows, and no doors I could find. I walked along the wall, hoping to find some kind of gate.
A stretch of fallen wall fixed that. Whether it had been undermined by besiegers or just fallen because it was old, I had no way of telling. Whichever it was,
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