The Dollmage

Annakey said aloud. “You are the Evil doll. Stay here, buried on the mountain, for I will not have evil follow me.” Annakey began her trek back to the village.

Even in my eloquence I am unable to tell you how Annakey felt at that time. I can tell you, however, that as Annakey began her walk back down to the village, carrying the sheepcote doll, she saw the mayster robins red among the green leaves, and the fulsome bluejays. She saw the fine, manly forest and the lady sky, she smelled the peppernut smell of leaves turning to dust, she heard the chatter of birds and the fall of water on rocks. I can tell you that Annakey’s heart decided to live. I can tell you that Annakey was no longer afraid.

I saw Annakey next standing in my doorway, leaves in her wild hair, and thin and pale as a wood nymph. I had not made her comfortable enough in my house for her to come in without invitation as Renoa did, and so she stood there.

“Manal was ready to go look for you, but Areth came down from the mountain saying that you had promised to marry him. He forbade Manal to look for you. Is it true, Annakey?” Her chest rose as if she would speak, but no word came out. When she did not answer, I said, “When you did not come, Areth told Manal that it was taking you longer to make the sheepcote doll than you had anticipated. Manal insisted upon looking for you, but Areth told him it would be unseemly to go looking for a girl who belonged to someone else. The village elders agreed.”

In Annakey’s arms was the doll of the summer meadow and the sheepcote. She looked at me silently, begging me to see what I would not see.

“Greppa Lowmeadow has announced that your wedding day will take place on the same day that Renoa is named Dollmage. It is strange. I thought you loved Manal.... Ah. This is why you took so long. It is good,” I said, and took the sheepcote greedily from her arms. It pleasured me to look at her work. Somehow it was sweeter, the way a meal is sweeter when prepared by hands other than your own.

“I will add my power to it,” I said.

“There is no need, Dollmage. Can you not see?” She reminded me so much of Vilsa at that moment. Her presumption took all the joy out of my seeing. She had lost her fear of me. Then she said, “Manal believed that I agreed to marry Areth?”

“He did not believe him, until Areth described your breasts to him.”

Annakey clutched at her promise doll. Her head hung, and I could not see her face for her wild hair. “What did Manal do?”

“A strange thing,” I said, looking closely at the sheepcote. I could find no imperfections. “He began to build a house. He is not supposed to build a house until I have built it for the village doll. I will not punish him under the law. I see that his madness is a result of his suffering.

Finally, she raised her head. Her mouth was not smiling. It was clamped shut, as if she were carrying a great burden. I looked into her eyes.What was it about her eyes? I wanted to be pleased that finally her frowning doll had won and vindicated my powers, but what was it about her eyes?

“You say he is building?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“A house?”

“Yes,” I answered irritably, adding, “I have warned him it will fall unless I have made the doll of it first, but he builds tirelessly.”

What was it in her eyes?

“Dollmage,” she said,“Areth came upon me in the mountains and . . . and violated me.”

So. So. That was what was in her eyes: a sadness too deep. You must believe me, I had not wanted her to frown at such a price.

“You must go to the House of Women and ask for justice,” I said at last, and quietly.

She nodded and closed her eyes and I saw her eyelids tremble. “My second promise, Dollmage, was to save my people. The robber people — I know they plan next to steal a woman. Let me help you make a plan to save our people.”

“Make your contest doll,” I said.

“The villagers must be warned,” she said. “None of the women or children should go out alone....Tell them.”

“Common sense tells them that.”

“Please,” Annakey said.

“Very well. I will go to Weepers Stump today” Then my heart reached out to her and I said, “Before you begin your doll for the contest, I have another thing for you to do.”

She had turned away. Now she turned back again.

“Would you leave Manal vulnerable? I want you to make a doll of his house and bring it to me. Who knows what will happen if he continues?”

I could scarcely see her face in the twilight. She knew I had asked her to do this out of compassion for her. “I will do it,” she said, “but you must know, I will not keep my promise to Areth.”

“A promise breaker can never be Dollmage,” I said.

“Why do you say that, if there is no danger that I will be Dollmage?” she asked.

I stammered a moment, and then said, “A promise breaker is in danger of her life.”

“There are worse things than dying,” she said.

“That is why your promise doll frowns,” I called after her, for she was walking away from me. “It frowns in disapproval over a broken promise.”