The Lark and the Wren - Chapter Twelve

[kalinara]

So last time, Rune got her new tutor for music composition. This is the main skill that she's lacking at this point, beyond the more practical ones that Tonno and Amber have taught her all along. This means, likely, that we're about to reach a new stage of the novel.



We rejoin Rune as she rings the bell outside the Church gate, "again". It's winter, and she's been beating her "benumbed, mittened hands together" as she paces up and down the pavement. Apparently she's about to do something audacious, and the stakes are high.

We get an explanation after a moment: Tonno is very ill. He caught a chill a few weeks ago after being caught out in the great blizzard. It had taken two days for Rune to be able to get to him, and at that point he was sick and getting worse.

Rune's been going to the Church every day since then, trying to get the Priests to send a Doctor, but they keep sending her away claiming that there are other people with "more need". And Rune has finally learned what that really means: Tonno is old, without a grateful family, and not rich enough that they can expect a high donation when he improves. If he dies, the Church will get a lot of what he owns. So they're not going to help.

Rune's both furious and frightened. Tonno is delirious now (Maddie is watching him for Rune) and Rune has a desperate plan: she's waiting by the Doctors' Gate with the intention of accosting one herself. Rune's not feeling all that well either: she's got a pretty nasty cold. But she's focused on Tonno now.

Rune has good timing: she does catch up with one of the Church Doctors. Fortunately her description of Tonno's condition (fevers, "visions, and a dry cough that won't stop) gets his attention. He curses (something that shocks her, because it's more like something a laborer would say) and gets quite angry. He believes Tonno has pneumonia, and he's angry that he's been sent off to deal with rich people's trivial concerns instead.

The healer, whose name is Brother Anders (which reminds me of Dragon Age, hee), asks her more questions about Tonno's physical condition, and we get a description for him: large, black-bearded and black haired. He makes Rune think of a bear. But unfortunately, his reaction to every detail that Rune gives is not promising.

They share some anger:

"He's not in good shape, lad," the Brother said at last. "I won't lie to you. If I'd seen him a week ago-or better, when he first fell ill-"

"I came then," she protested angrily, forcing away tears with the heat of her outrage. "I came every day! The Priest kept telling me that there were others with more need, and turning me away!" She wanted to tell him the rest, what the old woman had told her-but something stopped her. This was a Brother, after all, tied to the Church. If she maligned the Church, he might not help her.

"And I simply go where the Priests tell me," Brother Anders replied, as angry as she was. "Father Genner didn't see fit to mention this case to any of us! Well, there's going to be someone answering for this! I took my vows to tend to all the sick, not just fat merchants with deep pockets, and their spoiled children who have nothing wrong that a little less coddling and cosseting wouldn't cure!"

Rune tries for a little denial, hoping that the prognosis won't be as bad as it sounds. Anders seems very capable and caring, and his righteous anger indicates that he'll do everything he can. She also thinks that many Doctors probably exaggerate the state of an illness so as to seem more skilled when the patient recovers...

But when they get to Tonno, it doesn't look good. Maddie gives them an update: Tonno is completely delirious. He doesn't recognize her and thinks it's summer time.

Anders takes charge and has Rune turn up the heat, so to speak. Rune gets the expensive wood and coal, because Tonno's life was more important. She'll buy him more, she promises, when he's well. And well, why should the Church get it if he dies.

So Rune helps Anders, figuring out ways to "bring some steam" for example, heating bricks, and so on. But sadly, even with the Doctor's help, Tonno dies just before dawn. Doctor Anders gives him Final Rites, and gently urges Rune to go home. The Priests will take care of things now.

Rune doesn't leave though. She puts the last of the fuel into the fire, because fuck the priests, and cries. Poor thing. She keeps thinking about things she could have done differently: getting the Doctor before, going to Brother Bryan or Brother Pell, telling Amber that he's worse than they thought.

All reasonable solutions of course, but all hindsight. Poor Rune.

She spends a long time with him, talking to the air, begging forgiveness, and crying until finally the Priests come, at near sunset. Also, a snowstorm is starting. The Priests are jackasses and ask Rune a lot of questions.

One thing they ask is if she's a bonded servant, because if she was, then she'd be part of the legacy. They're annoyed when she's not. They're nasty to her too, telling her that they don't see why she stuck around for so long. Rune gets a pretty good speech though:

"I was his friend," she snapped, croaking out her words like an asthmatic frog. "That's reason enough, sir-or have you forgotten the words of your own Holy Book? 'You stayed beside me when I was sick, you fed me when I was hungry, you guided me when I was troubled, and you asked no morean my love-blessed are they who love without reward, for they shall have love in abundance'? I was following the words of the Book, whether or not it was prudent to do so!"

The Priest started, taken aback by having the Holy Words flung in his face. It didn't look to her like he was at all familiar with that particular passage, either in abstract or in application.

Meanwhile Rune realizes that the snow is really bad outside and contemplates staying. Apparently she'd slept on the couch a lot recently. But the Priests are dicks and they tell her that she has to leave. The Priests will stay and inventory things, since, if there's no will, everything will go to the Church.

Rune wonders what she'd do if she had no place to go, but the Priests don't care about that. Fortunately, Rune DOES have a place to go. She does get a little of her own back by deliberately sneezing and coughing on the priests as they leave. She's also happy to remember that there's no fuel and it's too late to go buy some. There isn't any food either, Rune had been buying soup from a neighbor. The Priests will have an uncomfortable night.

Rune's trek back to Amber's place is awful and quite descriptive:

This wasn't as bad a storm as the one that had killed Tonno, but it was pure frozen hell to stagger through. She lost track of her feet first, then her hands, and finally, her face. She was too cold to shiver, but under the cloak she was sweating like a lathered horse. It seemed to take forever to beat her way against the wind down the streets she usually traveled in a half hour or less. The wind cut into her lungs like knives; every breath hurt her chest horribly, and her throat was so raw she wept for the pain of it and tried not to swallow. She was horribly thirsty, but icicles and snow did nothing but increase the thirst. She wondered if she'd been the one that had died, and this was her punishment in the afterlife. If so, she couldn't imagine what it had been that she'd done that warranted anything this bad.

She makes it to Amber's and staggers in the front door, where she faints dramatically. That's a Bard for you.

Anyway, the women get the semi-conscious Rune out of her wet clothes. Amber has Topaz, the non-human sex worker, carry Rune into Amber's own rooms, as they're warmer and she doesn't want to leave Rune alone. Her rooms sound very nice, but unfortunately, Rune's starting to slip into delirium herself and can't appreciate it.

There's some time vagaries, and Rune becomes aware of an old woman in very elaborate Roma clothing chanting over her. Amber is there, looking concerned. Later, the woman is still there, Amber is not, but Pearl and Diamond come in with steaming soup and food. They converse briefly about the woman: she's not the usual herb-woman, but a Roma friend of Amber's who is known to be a witch and "elf-touched".

Pearl is pretty casual about it, though Diamond is less sanguine. This feels a bit like heresy to her and she has bad memories of seeing what the Church in her home does to heretics.

Pearl on the other hand comes from a place where many old men and women serve as healers, magicians and speakers-to-the-Others. She reassures Diamond that the woman deserves respect, not fear. Diamond is dubious but trusts her.

Diamond is worried about Rune still, but Pearl is confident: the woman told Amber that Rune will live and "such as she is cannot lie".

I like this little snippet a lot. One thing I was happy about before was that the sex workers are all portrayed as individuals with their own histories and experiences. Here we get to see that in context. Both of these women have very different perspectives stemming from their very different lives, which makes them feel more vivid as characters.

Rune finally starts to wake up fully: Maddie is sitting with her, mending. She's happy to see Rune awake and fetches her some herbal tea with honey. She fills her in: According to Nighthawk, the Roma woman, who we're told treats the women for things that the Guild herb-woman can't, Rune had pneumonia. But her voice will recover, thank goodness. Rune will basically need all winter to recover.

She'll be staying in Amber's room so that the others can keep an eye on her until she stops having fevers, and Rune realizes from the tone of Maddie's voice that maybe things were worse than Maddie describes. After that, she can go back to her room, but she'll be staying in bed until Spring. Amber's orders.

Amber has also said that Rune doesn't have to worry what any of this costs, or that she can't do her job. She's been with Amber for more than a year and Amber takes care of her people. Aw.

We're told also that while Rune still grieves for Tonno, it's less sharp and vicious now. She's perhaps had some catharsis during the worst of her illness. Instead, she dreams of Jib and the Hungry Bear.

Jib, like Rune, is two years older, but he's still stuck in the same place: stable-hand and dogsbody. And that's not likely to change.

Rune realizes that she feels really awful about Jib. She'd left him without saying good-bye, and hadn't worried about what would happen to him. Is he okay? Are the bullies tormenting him?

She thinks about what he'd wanted to do: to be a horse trader. And where fourteen year old Rune had dismissed that as unambitious, the older and wiser Rune thinks that he'd be really good at it, assuming he stuck to the horses that he knew. Jib apparently is a good hand with Farm-stock, donkeys and cobs. He can tell a good one from a bad one, and would catch one that's been doctored up to hide a bad condition.

Rune tries to convince herself that he's not her responsibility, which is true, but she also has to admit that she's not Amber's responsibility either. Amber still cares for her.

Jib is old enough to take care of himself. But he's also trapped in a rut. He could maybe leave, but he doesn't have a skill beyond working well with animals. He could try to find a new job doing the same thing for someone less awful than Geoff or Stara, but that's a really hard thing to do. Rune realizes that she wishes she could help him.

I really like this bit too. Rune was very blase when she'd left Westhaven, and while that's understandable and realistic coming from a fourteen year old kid, I like that she's looking back on that differently. There wasn't really anything she could have done for him then, but I like that she's still thinking about him.

So now we get another time skip: early spring. Rune is finally allowed out of bed, though she's not completely recovered. She's telling herself though that she has to make Midsummer Faire this year, for her own sake and for Tonno.

She's bothered by the fact that she owes Amber so much. Amber doesn't seem to mind, but Rune still doesn't want to leave her high and dry. She resolves to go through the buskers of Nolton and find a replacement musician.

Something interesting happens now, though. A Priest has come to see her. Rune figures that it's because of the books that she still has from the shop. But actually, it's something else:

Tonno (whose last name, we learn, is Alendor) had left a will, properly filed. He's named the friendly tax collector, Brother Bryan, as his executor. And he's left everything except the death tithe and taxes to Rune.

Brother Bryan has already found a buyer for the shop and contents, except for the list of books that Tonno specifically wants her to keep. This must have been a fairly recent will, as the books are the ones Tonno had insisted she keep in her rooms.

There's a bit more business talk. The Priest asks if she wants anything from the shop, the cost of which would be pro-rated from her share of the sale. Rune can't think of anything. Even the instruments won't be of much use: Rune can only play lute and fiddle. Tonno sold the last of those in the summer.

So now Rune has some money. She doesn't know how much yet, but she figures Brother Bryan will do his best for her sake and the Church's, and even if it's only a fraction of the actual worth of the shop, it will still be more money than she'd ever seen.

She dreams of Jib again. This time she sees him very plainly unhappy: the villagers scorn him, Stara abuses him, and everyone orders him about. He's still getting bullied, and Rune isn't there to protect him.

He'd gotten an offer recently. A horse-trader who'd been stopping by the Bear as long as Jib could recall, and he'd let Jib buy into the business and learn the ropes. Eventually he'd take over. But he has no money. He doesn't get paid for his keep, and he can't go somewhere else without a reference. And he knows Stara won't let Jeoff give him one. Poor boy.

So Rune wakes up, and whether or not her dream is a true vision, she knows what she wants to do.

We don't hear what that is yet. Instead we skip ahead. It's time for Rune to leave so she can get to the Faire when it opens. It's time for goodbyes.

So Rune hugs everyone, from Ruby to the newest little kitchen-boy. Amber sees her off with genuine regret, but has always understood that she wasn't going to stay forever. And as it turns out, Rune has found a replacement: a talented female musician who doesn't want to do anything but street-busk, so Amber will have her as long as she wants. (Carly apparently hates her.)

As it turns out, Rune gave half of the money from the sale of the shop to Amber, for the expenses of nursing Rune back to health. Amber doesn't want it, but Rune convinces her to accept it and use it for bribes or emergencies. She thinks Tonno would want that.

Rune has sent a quarter of it to Jib, via the Roma, with the message to follow his dream. According to Rune, among the things that Roma people are impeccably honest about are pledges. They vowed on "their mysterious gods" to give the money to Jib without touching a penny. Rune stops having nightmares about him. (She does, of course, pay a delivery fee.)

The remaining quarter is enough to get her to Midsummer faire. She has a new set of faded finery, a new pack of books, and has regained her strength.

Amber gives her a kiss, like a fond mother. And finally, after lots of goodbyes, Rune is finally off.

So here we close out the Nolton segment of the book, and what I personally would consider the "coming of age" portion of the story. It seems deliberately designed to parallel how Rune left Westhaven. In both cases, Rune comes into a bequest from a benevolent figure (the Ghost, Tonno), and she closes out her time at each location without looking back. We'll see some mention of Amber or Shawm or Maddie again, but we won't see the characters.

But there are differences here too. Rune is a different person now than she was when she left Westhaven. She leaves openly and happily, rather than sneaking off in the night. She gives herself closure with Amber, with her friends, and even goes so far as to get closure with Jib, who she'd abandoned in Westhaven.

Now Rune has the skills she needs to pursue her career as a Bard, and it's funny what a difference it makes that we get to see her obtain these skills. If you think about it, it's not that we really see Rune in her lessons. We generally don't. Most of her learning is off page, just like Menolly's with Petiron, but it feels different because it's contemporaneous.

I feel like maybe I'd have been more invested in Menolly's story if it had started with seeing her sneak away from her duties to study from the old old man. Heck, Tonno and Petiron are another parallel when you think about it: both of them are the formative musical influence, and both die tragically after Menolly and Rune took care of them to the best of their ability.

But we got to meet Tonno. We got to know him. And we got to glimpse his dynamic with Rune and that makes all the difference.

Finally, of course, we get the capstone in the Church vs. Brothel/Assumption vs. Reality section. One of the EXPLICIT duties of the Church, as described by Tonno, is to care for the sick and poor. The Church has the mechanism to do that. They have Doctors. They have money. But they don't. The Church does nothing that doesn't benefit itself.

The Brothel on the other hand, well, Amber takes care of Rune. She puts her in her own room. She sees to her medical care. She provides food and drink and everything she needs. And she asks for nothing, even though Rune can't do the job she's been hired to do. Amber does everything for Rune that the Church was meant to, and failed at.

But at the same time, there's still a bit of nuance here too. The Church, while awful as an entity, is not a monolith. We see good people who want to do well here too. While we do have the awful Father Genner and the Priest that kicked Rune out of Tonno's shop, we also have Brother Anders and Brother Bryan, who do genuinely care and they do their best to help.

It's not cut and dry, and I really appreciate that. Next time, of course, we'll see the Faire itself. And we'll eventually find out the significance of the book's title. Eventually.