Thalonn Tayn

46 - Fathers and Sons

As Ormana's belly grew, so too did the interest with which her pregnancy was discussed. Everyone wanted to know who the father was.

'But whoever could it be?' a man said. 'Ormana is not the sort to talk about politics, or not that I have heard. I daresay it has never rained in those woods.'

To which his wife said, 'Well, it must have done, or else she has a terrible case of something-or-other. Every drought will eventually give way to a downpour.'

Then the man, recalling years gone by, said, 'Here, there was the Thalo man. She liked to grin beside him, did she not?'

'She did,' the woman replied, 'but grinning was surely the end of it. He was a most thwartful fellow.'

In the end, their curiosity only grew until it became too much to bear, until there was nothing for it but to put their shame aside and ask outright.

'How did this come about, then?'

'Who watered the flowers?'

'Just what have you been up to?'

And every time, Ormana said the same—the father was a man called Oro, whom she had known briefly at Samnew before he moved along, and there was nothing more to it. That was, more often than not, convincing enough to satisfy her inquisitors, but there could be no like satisfaction for her. It was a rotten thing to suffer such meddling, and to each time end it with a lie. But she bore it, and as time passed, the gossips all turned their tongues to other matters.

Some three months after returning to Pearmol, Ormana finally gave birth to a pair of identical twin boys. She named them Rendeo and Eyveno. It had been a long and difficult birth, but with Yondea holding her hand, she saw it through. And the moment Ormana saw her sons' faces, the moment she held them in her arms, all the doubt in her heart was dispelled, or at least for a while.

'How remarkable it is,' she said, 'that such love should be borne from such pain. Fate is ever unforgiving.'

*   *   *

Thalo was not present for the birth of his sons, nor had he meant to be. Indeed, he knew nothing about it until nearly a month later, when Essero arrived one afternoon. He had come to visit Awldano ahead of a meeting to be convened at Pearmol, and since they had not been reunited for some time, they had much to tell one another. After the initial pleasantries, Essero said he had recently been home, only to discover Ormana mothering a pair of twin boys.

'Twins?' said Thalo, standing nearby.

'Twins!' said Essero. 'And birthed from her very own loins, no less.'

'How queer,' said Awldano. 'I do not mean to slight my friend Ormana, but this is quite unexpected. Say, who is the father?'

'Someone or no one or so. A wanderer, or some other sort of crook. She said his name, but as paltry as it was, it now escapes me, as he escapes his paternal obligations.'

Essero was by that time a father himself. His daughter, Ewffoa, had been born at Ennaslad early in the previous year, and he took great pride in his fatherhood.

'Yes,' he continued, 'I should like to meet the man who coaxed the huntress into bed. What manner of man must he be? What witchcraft must he have wrought to have his way with her?'

Thereupon a great shame arose in Thalo's heart, one he could not bear. He went outside, and in the darkness of the night, with none but the stars for company, Thalo said to himself, 'Who will remember the nameless vagabond, hiding in the shadows of history? Who will weep for him? Someone? No one? What manner of man must he be?'