The Dollmage

Chapter 8

I see you tire of this never knowing.

Try to think of me for a change.

You, Greppa Lowmeadow, chafe at the length of my story. Your execution feast is eaten. Give us those baked eggs then.

Renoa worked hard the next day. When I wanted to rest, she said, “No, Dollmage, teach me more.Teach me everything.” Her hands were strong and wise. I announced Renoa’s naming day. The people relaxed a little, confident that the new, young Dollmage would find a way to rid us of the robber people.

That night, three sheep were stolen. Also two saws, a trowel, a ladder, five pitchforks, and a pig.

I took Renoa to the back room where the village doll lay under the sky blanket.

“Why is the sky blanket no longer protecting us?” I asked her.

“You ask me?” Renoa sneered.

I gripped the edge of the table and leaned over it.

“Hide us,” I said.

Fear stopped up Renoa’s mouth as she realized she had not the power to save herself. How could she have known that the story of the village was being made in another place, in broad daylight, and by other hands?

You villagers, in your anxiety and distress, could hardly eat that day, never mind attend to your labors. I do not criticize. It was understandable. A crowd of you came to my door.

“Why do you not protect us, Dollmage?” the fieldmaster asked. There were supportive murmurs throughout the crowd. “The robber people make our lives hard, and one day it will be impossible to stay in our valley. What are you doing about it? Will you let our crops be carried off? Soon it will be women and children.”

“How dare you question me!” I retorted. Bil Brokehoe cowered a little before me, which made me benevolent.

“Forgive us, Dollmage Hobblefoot,” said Norda Bantercross. “We are afraid.”

Everyone fell silent, then. To speak it aloud made it more real. I punished you with your fear for a time, and refused to comfort you. Then, I said, “Renoa will be named the new Dollmage at the next full moon.”

In your fear of the robber people, you had forgotten your uneasiness with Annakey. Furthermore, Manal, who everyone respected, had been talking.

“Dollmage,” said Norda, “we have talked among ourselves and discussed this over the common fire. Annakey has shown her gift, and so has Renoa. Who should be Dollmage? The one who made the sheep that was cooked? Or the one who threw it in the fire? The one who made the cow who was drowned, or the one who threw it in the water? The one who made the sky blanket that hid the village doll, or the one who put it over the village doll?”

In my rage I could not speak. Norda cleared her throat.

“Could it be that God knew in advance of our trouble, that he knew it would be trouble enough for two?”

“Two is divisive,” I said. “There can only be one in a village. The law is clear.”

Annakey spoke from the edge of the crowd. “Do not fear,” she said gently. Her voice was soft, but everyone heard. “We will save you from the robber people. I promise.”

Making such a promise was as absurd as promising her mother that she would be happy. Now Annakey had made two promises in her life.That is two too many. But the people were calmed by her words, as if there were a power in them.

“She can make no such promise,” I said.

“She is not the Dollmage,” Renoa said.

Renoa and I were not willing to stake our reputations and what we took as our good graces with God by risking such a rash promise.

“So, if Renoa is the Dollmage, then we are doomed?” someone called. There came murmurs, then a woman began to freely weep, and her baby to wail. Another woman fainted.

Renoa said sharply, “I will do what I can to protect you, of course, but we are in God’s hands.”

“A contest,” someone said, and I saw that it was Manal.

“A contest, a contest,” took up the crowd.

I saw that they would not settle. “I will do as you say,” I said above the clamor. When they had quieted somewhat, I said, “There will be a contest to which all of you may be witness. Whoever of the two girls can make the best doll, a doll with power in itself, that girl you must support unquestioningly as the new Dollmage. The other will have to swear and promise before the entire village that she will not use her powers again forever, or be banished alone to the mountains. It will be decided at the full moon.”

At this the crowd began to disperse. When they were all gone, Renoa stood before Annakey and slapped her face. Annakey did not back away.

“You had no right,” Renoa said fiercely to her. “How could you promise to save them? Only the Dollmage can save them, and that is me.”

I said, “You have brought embarrassment upon yourself, Annakey”

“I have obeyed your counsel, Dollmage,” she said. “I will no longer be afraid of what is in me. The story of the village will have a happy ending. I have decided.”

I watched her in silence as the welts rose on her cheek. I took a secret comfort in the promise she had made to save the village. I did not hear her practically confess that she had stolen the story of the village from my hands.

“Go away from me,” I said.

She did not move. “I must learn what I can from you.”

I took a deep breath. “Well,” I said, “now there must be a contest. Renoa, you may begin now to make your contest doll. Annakey, for your presumption, I have work for you to do. It will keep you too busy to attend the village dance tonight.”

Ribb Wifebury had wanted to build a potting shed in his garden. I made it, and placed it in the village doll, in the center of the Wifebury garden, beside the sundial in the middle of the long daisies. I set Annakey to cleaning up the mess I had made in my creation, and to add Ribbs muddy boots beside the chopping block. I went about my business. When I returned in the evening, she had cleaned up the mess, as well as dug up a bucket of rutabagas for breakfast. I hid my pleasure and surprise, until I saw what she had done with the potting shed.

Besides the boots, she had made for the potting shed doll a miniature coil of rope, a broom, an ax, a workbench, and a bag of seeds. There were tiny seedlings on the workbench, and for the garden, most marvelous of all, bees. Almost invisible they were. Tiny bees in the garden—they would make the Wifebury garden the most luscious in the valley. How had she learned to do such beautiful work?

I did not know that she had also found time to make the doll of a house for Manal, a warm house for winter, a cool house for summer, a sound house to last the life of a man.

“It is marvelous,” I said, touching the tiny seedlings that lined the window of the potting shed.

“Thank you, Dollmage,” Annakey said. She was glowing with joy to be free finally to do dollwork.

I looked at her long, then. Could it be that she was winning my heart? How different they were: my Renoa, who tamed deer and fed hawks from her hand and knew the mountain as well as the valley; and Annakey, who loved hearth and home and all the art of it.

The miniatures she made worked their magic on me, and I said, “Annakey, you have done enough today.You may go to the dance.”

Annakey smiled. “Thank you, Dollmage.” She went to the cupboard and took out of it a lovely little cake, decorated with icing flowers. “I made this for Renoa, so that we might be friends. I will give it to her at the dance.”

“Why do you do this? Renoa struck you,” I said.

“If I were to make the village story, it would be with all of us at peace together,” she said firmly.

I was too concerned about the robber people and too enchanted by potting shed bees to be overly annoyed that the frowning doll I had made for her was not working still. I listened at my window to the music and the laughter.

The dance was a ploy. Our people are born into the promise that we will not kill, unless it is to defend our children. Since the robber people had not taken a child, we could not defend ourselves from them in that way. Still, we were not born into a promise to be afraid. Fieldmaster Sodder had declared that there would be a dance that night so that the robber people would see that we were not afraid.

Even though we were.

The common fire lighted the village and the music filled the valley as Annakey approached the dancers. The ones who had loved her as boys now loved her as men. Miller touched her arm and spoke to her, smiling. Tawm Herson twirled her gently and asked her to dance. Miller watched her with resigned eyes as she made her way over to Renoa. He knew she would never love him.

Is it not so, Miller? Is that why, in spite of your love, you have a stone in your hand? If you cannot have her, you would that no one has her. In thinking this way, you have broken every promise you were born into. Put down your stone.You, at least, will take no part in Annakey’s execution if I am unable to persuade the rest.

Annakey gave Renoa the cake she had made for her, smiling and saying something kind.

Renoa did not smile, and because she did not, neither did her friends. Renoa’s story maker was so powerful that others submitted to it and allowed themselves to be mere characters in her world. Once they were in her story, it was difficult to escape, for if they did they might disappear.

Of course Manal was there at the dance, waiting for Annakey. He saw her take the cake to Renoa and offer it to her. Annakey’s hair was disheveled from her work, but it framed her face even more beautifully. Her frock was thin from wear and a little too short, but that only allowed him to imagine more fully the narrow hips beneath.

Now, you must understand. To be loved by Manal was not a small thing. He had a self-promise of which he was deeply aware and which he honored above all other promises. Manal had promised himself that he would have a great love. This self-promise was Manal’s only flaw in an otherwise perfect man, a man of spare promises. The promise to love is the biggest and most generous and most terrifying promise of all, and we all know what trouble it can cause.

And so, when Manal fell in love with Annakey, it was like an earthquake. Though it appeared as only a quiver on his lips, a momentary rocking on his feet, it changed everything. Like an earthquake, it made waterfalls where none before had been, hills to rise and valleys to fall. Poor Manal.You see why he cannot help that he must try to stop as many of you as he can if you stone his Annakey. You see why he must die trying to defend her. That night, however, he wanted only to spend his life with her.

“I knew Dollmage would let you come,” Manal said. “She is not evil, only afraid.” He said it, not I.

Annakey shook her head and laughed. “I cannot recall ever seeing Dollmage afraid of anything.”

Manal laughed. “Nor I, but one. She is afraid of your frowning promise doll.”

“Everyone is afraid of it,” Annakey said. “Even my mother was.”

“I am not.”

“Not?”

“I understand what it means.”

“Теll me.”

Manal shook his head and smiled. “I will. For a kiss.”

Annakey said nothing for a long time. She looked thoughtful. Finally, she said, “My mother taught me that a kiss was a kind of promise, and that great care must be taken with such promises. So ... no.”

Manal laughed, and then he stopped laughing, for everything she said and did made him love her more.

“I made you a house,” Annakey said.

“I will come and see it tomorrow.”

“Do you remember this dance?” she said, taking his hand and laughing. “The Lady-Under? We learned it as children.”

“My head forgets, but perhaps my feet will remember.” They joined into the dance. Their bodies understood each other. I could see that, as they danced the jigs and reels. Star, square, circle, promenade: They moved in rhythm to the music and to each other. They danced as if they had been dancing every day of their lives.

I have told you that Manal was the best boy in the village, and so of course who should set her sights upon him other than my Renoa. She loved the way he knew the forest paths as well as she, and respected him for his understanding of the wild beasts. She flirted with Manal, and he had responded to her in the pure delight a man takes in any woman. Since he had fallen in love with Annakey, however, he had been distant with Renoa. She did not know why. She only knew it made her desire him more. Now, when Renoa saw Annakey and Manal together at the dance, she saw that while she herself was any woman, Annakey was the woman.

That night, Manal and Annakey danced together every dance. They laughed and talked at the surface of things and at the bottom of things. Though Manal had been Annakey’s special friend since childhood, Annakey of late had begun to look at him with the yearning eyes of one who looks upon her treasure. As she danced, she touched his shoulders and arms as one who outlines her world with her hands.

I told you that Renoa had her eye upon Manal. Now I will tell you that Areth had his eye upon Annakey. He did not love her, as Manal did, because of the art of her hands, or, as Manal did, because she always smiled even with a frowning promise doll. He did not love her, as Manal did, because of the way she breathed and moved and dreamed. Areth loved her because she was beautiful, but more than that Areth loved her because Manal loved her. Also, because he thought she was easy to boss.

My Renoa was not entirely spoiled. When she saw that Manal wanted Annakey, she turned her attentions to Areth. When she saw that Areth wanted Annakey too, she became filled with hate. How can I blame her? Annakey was stealing everything that made Renoa smile. Renoa told herself that Annakey was draining the smiles from her promise doll as she had with her own mother.

Why is it that everything that was bad in her life made Renoa miserable, whereas when bad things happened to Annakey, she remained happy? Annakey had promised herself she would be happy. What had Renoa promised herself? That she would have what she wanted. There is the difference. Of course, that may be the moral of the story, but I will not punish you by explaining it.The bad egg and the gristly stew and the woody potatoes all together do not add up to such abuse. As I told you, I am selfish and weak, not evil.

The dance music became louder and wilder and the common fire burned hotter and brighter. Steal from us what you will, the dancers seemed to say to any robber people that might be watching, you cannot steal from us this night our joy in being alive, and in our bodies that can do this and this and this.

Annakey and Manal became separated in the dancing. Annakey saw Manal dancing with Renoa, and then Areth was with her. While they danced, Areth placed his hands on Annakey’s body where they should not be. The elders were all too riotous to notice.

“I am a man, now, Annakey,” Areth said into her ear. “Do not stop me.”

“If you are a man, stop yourself,” Annakey said, moving away.

Areth was surprised. He had thought Annakey was easy to boss. Of course, Annakey was the hardest to boss. She was the only one I could not boss, though many a night I wept in my pillow for it. Annakey would not allow her promise to her mother to go unfulfilled. She would be happy, and that was that.

Areth found himself looking into the face of Manal. As I have said, Manal was like Mount Crownantler, full of weather. The weather at that moment was a black storm. Areth too was like a mountain, and though it was the smaller Southslope Mountain, still he was high and proud. He met Manal’s glare. At that moment Renoa began weeping loudly, and all her friends gathered around to comfort her.

“What is it?” they asked, but Renoa appeared unable to be consoled.

“What is it?” a few of the elders nearby asked.

Annakey went to Renoa. “What is it?” she asked.

“You!” Renoa said to her, in the hearing of all around them. “It is you. How could you play such a trick on me?”

“I? What?” Annakey asked.

Renoa held up the pretty cake that Annakey had made her.“Yes, you.You gave me this cake thinking to apologize for the hurts you have caused me, but when I went to bite into it, I smelled this.” Renoa held the cake up to Annakey’s nose, and Annakey recoiled from the strong scent of chicken manure. Renoa held up the cake to her other friends, who each exclaimed in turn at the stench of the cake.

“You rolled the cake in chicken manure,” one of the friends said to Annakey.

“No,” Annakey said. “I didn’t. I wouldn’t.”

“She would not do that,” Manal said. “Perhaps Renoa dropped the cake and in the dark did not notice into what it had fallen.”

“I did not drop the cake,” Renoa said sharply, and then she began to weep again, and fell on Manal’s chest. Manal stepped away from her as if she had the pox. Renoa’s tears stopped as suddenly as they had begun. Annakey had seen that expression before. Renoa was angry, and Annakey knew she would be the brunt of that anger. Renoa was angrier than she had ever been before.

“Shameful,” said one of the elders who had been listening. It was Oda Weedbridge.

“A disgusting prank,” said one of Oda’s cronies.

Soon, many of the elders were comforting Renoa and casting accusing glances at Annakey. This was when Annakey began to grow in wisdom. All her life growing up, she thought the villagers knew her and loved her as she knew and loved them. At that moment she realized they did not know her at all, for if they did they could not believe such a thing of her. She clutched her promise doll and tried to remember that the things she loved about her people had not changed.

“Renoa, you are lying,” Manal said.

“Manal, you are defending her because you fear that it you do not, she will choose Areth over yourself,” Oda Weedbridge said.

“I have no such fear,” Manal said.

At this Areth stepped forward. “Why is that? Because you think you are better than me?” Now Manal truly was better, and that had been griping at Areth since they were boys. He threw a punch at Manal, surprising everyone. Why were you surprised? It had been coming for a long time. Of course Manal punched back. Now both boys were well liked in the village, and so you might imagine that not a few of the others joined the brawl. Soon the elders of the village had to be called away from their posts at watch to stop the fight.

I went to fetch the girls.

For a long time I treated them to my silence. I made them sit far from the fire, and then I told them they had spoiled the dance and who knew what trouble would come of that. Would the robber people see that we were weak because we were not united? I refused to listen to either one of them. I doubted Annakey had played the trick on Renoa, but I loved my Renoa, and the smell of wild herbs in her hair. I suspected Renoa had Hed, but I also understood her tempers. Finally I spoke.

“This comes because of the contest. Even thinking there may be two Dollmages has divided us. It is obvious that you two girls cannot live in the same village as equals,” I said to them. “For now, I have a plan. The elders of the village are worried about those who took the herds to the summer meadows up on the mountain. They fear the robber people will find them and steal our sheep all away. They have asked me to build a doll of the sheepcote and the summer meadow and hide it. It has been too many years since I have been to the summer meadow and I do not remember it well enough to make a doll of it. I am too old to make the climb now.You will go in my place, Annakey.”

“No, send me, Grandmother Hobblefoot,” Renoa said. “It is my place, in the mountain.”

“No, Renoa, you will stay and work on your contest doll.” I knew she wanted to go, but at long last I would discipline her.

“Thank you for trusting me with this task, Dollmage,” Annakey said. “I will prove to you that I can be Dollmage.” Then she stopped and said, “If I am in the summer meadow, when will I have time to make my contest doll?”

“When you get back there will be time enough. The true Dollmage will find a way to do what she must.”

Annakey frowned a little. That softened me. “It is a long climb to the summer meadow,” I said, “and there are bears. You may take a companion with you, a friend.”

I felt regret as I watched Annakey struggle to think who might be her friend. I realized that a few of the girls knew Annakey enough to like her, but they were afraid to defend her. Anyone who befriended Annakey was sure to bring the same torment from Renoa upon herself. I determined to speak to Renoa about her behavior and looked at her sternly as I thought it.

“I will ask Manal,” Annnakey said finally.

“No!” Renoa said. She looked up at my disapproving face and said, “Do not let her. It —it is not appropriate.”

“Why? If they start early in the morning, they can be at the summer meadow before nightfall.” It annoyed me that Renoa should be jealous over anyone but myself. “Now apologize to Annakey. You must learn to be her friend, to overcome personal feelings, if you are to be a good Dollmage.”

Renoa’s face calmed immediately. It went very white. Then she smiled.

“I am sorry, Annakey,” she said, only she looked at me when she said it.

“To prove your friendship,” I said to Renoa,“go tell Manal yourself that Annakey has chosen him to accompany her to the summer meadow.”

Renoa ran. She was gone a long time.

By the time she returned, Annakey had packed the things she would need for her journey.

“Manal said to start without him. He must first do the chores, but he will catch up to you before the morning is half over.”

Annakey smiled. She need not have, for Renoa had not told Manal. She told Areth, who now both loved and hated Annakey.