[Bêthberry]

And Madi purred on, almost automatically, until finally he reached a last line.

" ... there you'll find no lover."

Whereupon he stopped, cleared his throat in a sonorous way more deeply than that he had yet used with either Bethberry or Ruthven, and bowed a short, curt closure to his recital, looking not a little smugly satisfied with himself.

"Well?" he said, when Ruthven failed to respond.

The Old One was still staring at him incredulously. His question seemed to surprise her.

"What?" she asked, shaking her head as if returning to the conversation. She had mutely been mouthing some of the lines Madi had recited, as if to herself, trying to recollect them.

"Well," he replied huffily this time, his hands circling the air as if he was trying to prompt something.

"Well, what?" Ruthven responded.

Madi pursed his lips together, setting his jaw so that it became even more pronounced.

"Waiting," he said. "Get going."

"Waiting and get going at the same time? Where?" she replied, with a laugh despite her own confusion. She really didn't understand what Madi was on about but she was beginning to see some humour in the situation.

"No where," retorted an exasperated Madi, who was missing master Jian rather much at this moment. He hummed for a bit and tapped his foot. He really liked Vinney and all, but the old girl really could be slow sometimes.

"Aren't you going to write what Madi spoke?" He was beginning to wonder if he had wasted his nice completely.

"Write! You're a funny one, Madi. Since when would the likes of me know how to write? Or read? I can sign my name, is all, and that's thanks to Bethberry and none others."

A penny dropped for Madi, or would have, if he had had a pocket for coin. Or any coin, come to think of it. He looked at Ruthven with a sudden awareness, tinged with sadness. He had at first believed he could find the nice again he had had with master Jian. But obviously he couldn't, at least not with Vinney even though he felt safe and warm with her. He bite his lower lip to keep it from trembling and his large, dark eyes looked sadly forlorn again, as if, saucer-like, they were ready to catch a falling tear.

"Can't write it?" he asked, wistfully.

Ruthven was almost going to tease Madi that she would not have had to write it out if he had not eaten the parchment in the first place, but then she looked at him and began to realize his real disappointment. Her fondness for him winning out over her sense of humour, she tried to find a way to reassure him that she had appreciated his performance.

"No, can't write," she admitted, with a twinge of bitter resignation in her voice. "But I thank you for telling me the verse. You've reminded me of it. You see, I've heard it before, long ago, I'm sure. It's an old one, a very old one. It's one Bethberry told me, long ago, when she first came to Edoras, but I had forgotten about it. And now you have given it back to me. I wonder how I came to have the parchment of it here."

"Berry knows it?" asked Madi, his eyes lighting up." Madi can give it back to Berry?"

"Yes, yes, I'm sure. As I recall, she could recount it with many a great laugh and glee, sort of knowingly, if you know what I mean. It seemed to have a hidden story for her. Beats me if I could ever suss it out though."

Here the old woman stopped, as if lost in her thoughts again. Her head began nodding time and her lips moved silently, as if repeating the verse to herself again. Madi began to wonder if all old people regularly talked to themselves, but then a sudden start from the Old One interrupted his thoughts.

"I think it goes with something else she told me," she muttered hesitantly, "something about 'shoreless seas and stars uncounted' Yes, yes, that was it. 'shoreless seas and stars uncounted ... and, and, an ever-present peril." Here Ruthven became frustrated that more words would not come.

Madi, however, was transfixed. He looked up at Ruthven. For a brief moment a pained looked passed over his face and he almost panicked, wondering if he would belch again. Then he straightened up. "Venny," he said. His hands extended once again as if he were addressing the world with bright lights upon him as he picked up the very words she had spoken, and filled them out.

But this time Ruthven was not swept up in nostalgic remembrance of a nonsense verse, for though clearly Madi knew the story she had vainly tried to recall, yet he knew far more about the peril than she had ever heard.

"it is dangerous to ask too many questions," he intoned, 'lest the gate should be shut and the keys be lost ....' " Her eyes widened as Madi continued, until finally she was driven to try to stop him.

"Hush! Hush! Oh, shush! How do you know such things?" she asked, brushing his lips lightly with her hand, and then resting it on his shoulder, with worry and amazement. Blinking, Madi looked up at her in surprise.

No one had ever intruded upon his words before and he didn't know how he could stop. He felt ill, truly sick even. He felt like he was holding something down that didn't agree with him; he almost retched and his cheeks bulged. And he couldn't understand what was wrong and why Ruthven had stopped him. He stood, wavering on his feet for several minutes, until eventually his stomach settled. Finally he swallowed the air in his mouth and began to speak again in his normal voice.

"Humpf," he retorted, impatiently, not in the least understanding what had disturbed Ruthven. "Now what?" This was definitely not like his days with master Jian, who had been pleased and calmly excited with everything Madi had read to him--well, everything but this one nasty tome--and who had died imploring Madi, in a weak, faltering voice, to take good care of his words. Madi half suspected that Venny thought his words were junk and wanted to sell them herself, but he tasted the air and could sense only real concern tinged with fear about the Old One. Then he felt a bit bad about first misjudging her.

"Madi, my lad," opined Ruthven, "I think I need to get you back to Bethberry, who might understand these things."

With those words, Ruthven picked up one handle of her cart, and not even waiting for Madi to take the other, she turned back down the allyway towards the White Horse, her pace now quickened and her face sombre. Madi nearly tumbled over his handle but he could tell the Old One was seriously bothered by something. He shoved his hands in his pocket, and scurried to catch up. He seriously hoped that Bethberry would be able to write what he spoke the way master Jian had learned to. Or that she could learn to at any rate. Maybe then Venny wouldn't be so worried about all this.

Rushing their pace and each lost in thought, neither Ruthven nor Madi saw the young woman come upon them.

[ September 03, 2003: Message edited by: Bêthberry ]