The Dollmage

Annakey had not remade this valley for us. It was too late for this valley. We had to move to a new valley, and with her art, Annakey had found it. It was the very valley I had halfheartedly made for Fedr Rainsayer to find, but mine had been without true art, without belief. This was the valley that would be found, and there was the deer-trod and the nettle, the owl and the wild corn. By her art, we would see it and know it. The sheep in the summer meadow would not feed us until the valley was grown again. They would be left behind to distract the robber people while we escaped.

I wept for my valley. “You sorrow for my poor work,” Annakey said.

“No,” I answered. “It is good. Now make an ending for yourself. Then we must face the villagers and plead for your life.”

She worked a little longer. In the dim light, I could not see what she did. When she was done she took my hand, and led me, blind in the dark, back to the village.

While we were gone, you built little fires on the banks to warm yourselves.You made rude comments about your fires, insulting them, making yourselves feel bigger than the fire that had destroyed everything you had. That night you feasted on roast sheep and pig and chicken, and as you ate Areth talked loudly, telling his own story, and none of it true.You talked and talked, and the more you talked, the more you blamed Annakey. I hid her, knowing if you found her, she would be executed. “I will pray,” I said to her, “then I will return for you.” I walked to the place where the village doll lay charred. Among the ruins I found my husbands ghost doll. I brushed him off and put him in my pocket. Then I went to seek him at the forests edge where Renoa’s bones lay scattered like blown and broken branches. I stooped there a moment to pray. That was when the stranger appeared to me in the darkness. I thought he was a wild man, a man of the robber people.

“Dollmage Hobblefoot,” he said in our own tongue. The robber people do not speak our language.

“I am she,” I said. What was it about the man? Had I seen him before? I peered beneath the beard and long hair that hid his face.

“What has happened to the village?” he asked. “The ashes are still warm. The robber people... ?”

I nodded.

“Did all survive?”

“Only Renoa, Mabe’s daughter, died. Oda Weedbridge is taken by the robber people. Annakey’s life is yet in danger.” I spoke as if to a ghost.

“I know nothing of Annakey or Renoa. What of Vilsa?”

Then I knew him, and you know him, too.

This is my secret. It was Annakey’s father, returned. Not dead. I told him about Vilsa’s faith and love, and about the daughter he did not know. With him I returned to where I had secreted Annakey. She was gone, and I found her bound and beaten, and all of you drunk with desire to stone her.

Now I say, Fedr Rainsayer, come forth!

Ah, Annakey, now you weep. Death by stoning could not make you weep, but this, yes. And how all of you look away, ashamed. A fine greeting it is for Fedr to come home and find his wife dead and his daughter bound by ropes. But I have begged his patience, and he has become a patient man in his travels.

Tell me if I do not speak the truth, Fedr, when I say that the mountains blinded you and your companion as you traveled. You suffered much from hunger and thirst and cold.You could find no passes.You came to great mountains, and sheltered yourselves in caves. You lost track of days and years. In spring you would remember your loved ones, and the promise you had made, and you would move on.

At last you found a valley. It was a beautiful valley It was so much like Seekvalley that your companion, who died on the journey back, thought you had traveled in a circle and come home. You showed him how the mountains were not so high, the river not so twisty, and the rolling hills not so roily. You named it Promise Valley, for those who died fulfilling the promise they made to find new land for your people. The soil is good for corn and melons, and there is plenty of water.

In fact, Fedr Rainsayer, it is just like the valley Annakey made.

I see now that there should indeed have been two Dollmages: one, Renoa, to lead some of the people to the new valley; the other, Annakey, to be Dollmage in Seekvalley. Renoa was meant to run wild, to know the secrets of mountains and trees and rivers and winds.

I see your hearts have changed as you murmur among yourselves. You no longer desire to stone Annakey, but for one.

You, Areth, will you not put down your stone? Will you not? No, Areth, do not strike her, your Dollmage, the one who will lead you to a new valley. Areth! Areth...

So then.

And now.

It is not only Manal that you had to be wary of, Areth, but Fedr also, and now he has killed you. Did you forget that he, too, was entitled to one stone? Fedr has become a wild man, wandering for years among the wild mountains. Even still, your ghost grasps at stones, Areth. Grasp at stones, then, past the time you have forgotten why.