Алан Гарнер – The Lad Of The Gad (страница 2)
The Seven Big Women of Jura came home running, and caught Upright John and took the White Sword of Light from him.
“We would not give you our White Sword of Light,” said the Big Women, “unless you could get for us the Yellow Horse of the King of Irrua.”
John went out again to the shore, and the Foxy Lad met with him, and he said, “You are sad, Upright John. You did not, and you will not, as I told you. Bad is the night on which you have come. I have only a trotter and a sheep’s cheek, but they must do.”
They blew a fire heap, and they roasted flesh and ate the trotter and the sheep’s cheek. And the next morning the Foxy Lad said to the king’s son, “I shall grow into a ship and take you over the sea to Irrua.
“And my advice to you,” said the Foxy Lad, “is that you go to the house of the king and ask to be a stabling-lad to him. Be nimble. Do every job with exceeding care, and keep the horses and the harness in exceeding order, till the king trusts the Yellow Horse to you. And when there is the chance, run away: but take care that no morsel of the horse touches anything that is on the inner side of the gate but the hooves of its feet, or your matter will not go well with you.”
“I shall do all those things,” said Upright John.
The Foxy Lad grew into a ship, and they sailed across to Irrua.
John went to the king’s house. He struck at the door.
“Where are you going?” said the gatekeeper.
“To see if the king has need of a stabling-lad,” said John.
The king came out and said, “What can you do?”
“I clean and feed horses,” said John, “and I shine tackle.”
“I have a use for you,” said the king, and he set wages on him, and John went to the stable, and he put each thing in exceeding order and took exceeding care of the horses, and fed them, kept their hides clean and sleek, and he was nimble with the tackle.
The king said, “This is the best stabling-lad I have ever known. I can trust the Yellow Horse to him.”
The king gave the Yellow Horse to John for him to look after, and he looked after her until she was so sleek and slippery, and so swift, that she would leave the one wind and catch the other.
Then the king went hunting one day, and Upright John thought that was the time to steal the Yellow Horse. He set her with a bridle and saddle and all that belonged to her, and when he led her out of the stable and was taking her through the gate, she gave a switch of her tail, and a hair of it touched the post of the gate, and the gate let loose a screech.
The king came home running, and caught Upright John and took the Yellow Horse from him.
“I would not give you my Yellow Horse,” said the king, “unless you could get for me the Daughter of the King of the Frang.”
John went out again to the shore, and the Foxy Lad met with him, and he said, “You are sad, Upright John. You did not, and you will not, as I told you. Bad is the night on which you have come. I have only a trotter and a sheep’s cheek, but they must do.”
They blew a fire heap, and they roasted flesh and ate the trotter and the sheep’s cheek. And the next morning the Foxy Lad said to the king’s son, “I shall grow into a ship and take you over the sea to the Frang.”
The Foxy Lad grew into a ship, and they sailed across to the Frang.
The Foxy Lad ran himself high up the face of a rock, on dry dried land, and he said to John, “Go to the king’s house and ask for help, and say that your steersman has been lost in a storm and the ship thrown on shore.”
John went to the king’s house. He struck at the door.
“What are you doing here?” said the king.
“A storm came upon me,” said Upright John, “and my steersman was lost, and the ship has been thrown on shore and is there now, driven up the face of a rock by the waves, and I have not the strength to get her down.”
The king and the queen, and the family together, went to see the ship. And when they looked at the ship, exceeding sweet music was heard in her.
There were tunes with wings,
Lullaby harps, gentle strings,
Songs between fiddles
That would set in sound lasting sleep
Wounded men and travailing women
Withering away for ever
With the piping of the music
The Foxy Lad did play.
And the Daughter of the King of the Frang went on the ship to watch the music, and Upright John went with her. And when they were in one part, the music was in another, and when they were in that other, it would be elsewhere, and when they were there, they heard it on the deck, and when they were on the deck, the ship was out on the ocean and making sea-hiding with the land.
The king’s daughter said, “Bad is the trick you have done me and bad the night on which you have come. Where will you take me now?”
“We are going,” said Upright John, “to give you as a wife to the King of Irrua; to get from him his Yellow Horse; to give that to the Seven Big Women of Jura; to get from them their White Sword of Light; to give that to the Giant of the Five Heads, the Five Humps and the Five Throttles; to get from him his Blue Falcon; to take her home to my stepmother, the Bad Straddling Queen, that I may be free from my crosses and my spells and the sick diseases of the year.”
“I had rather be as a wife to you,” said the Daughter of the King of the Frang.
When they came to shore in Irrua, the Foxy Lad put himself in the shape of the Daughter of the Sun, and he said to Upright John, “Leave the woman here till we come back, and I shall go with you to the King of Irrua; and I shall give him enough of a wifing.”
Upright John went with the Foxy Lad in the shape of the Daughter of the Sun, and when the king saw them he took out the Yellow Horse, put a golden saddle on her back, a silver bridle in her head, and gave her to John.
John rode the horse back to the Daughter of the King of the Frang, and they waited.
The King of Irrua and the Foxy Lad were married that same day, and when they went to their rest, the Foxy Lad gave a dark spring, and he did not leave a toothful of flesh between the back of the neck and the haunch of the King of Irrua that was not worried and wounded: and he ran to where Upright John and the Daughter of the King of the Frang were waiting.
“How did you get free?” said John.
“A man is kind to his life,” said the Foxy Lad.
The Foxy Lad grew into a ship, and he took them all to Jura.
They landed at the Rock of the Flea on the north side of Jura, and the Foxy Lad said to Upright John, “Leave the king’s daughter and the Yellow Horse here till we come back, and I shall go with you to the Big Women, and I shall give them enough of a horsing.”
The Foxy Lad went into the shape of a yellow horse, Upright John put the golden saddle on his back, and the silver bridle in his head, and they went to the house of the Seven Big Women of Jura.
When they saw John, the Big Women came to meet him, and they gave him the White Sword of Light.
John took the saddle off the back of the Foxy Lad and the bridle out of his head, and he left him with the Big Women and went away. The Big Women put a saddle on the Foxy Lad, and bridled his head, and one of them went up on his back to ride him. Another went on the back of that one, and another on the back of that one, and there was always room for another one there, till one after one the Seven Big Women of Jura went up on the back of the Foxy Lad, thinking that they had got the Yellow Horse of Irrua.
One of them gave a blow of a rod to the Foxy Lad: and if she gave, he ran.
He charged with them through the mountain moors, singing iolla, bounding high to the tops, moving his front to the crag, and he put his two forefeet to the crag, and he threw his rump end on high, and the Seven Big Women went into the air and over the Paps of Jura.
The Foxy Lad ran away laughing to where Upright John and the king’s daughter were waiting with the Yellow Horse and the White Sword of Light.
“How did you get free?” said John.
“A man is kind to his life,” said the Foxy Lad.
The Foxy Lad grew into a ship, and he took them all to the mainland.
When they had landed, the Foxy Lad said, “Leave the king’s daughter here with the Yellow Horse and the White Sword of Light, and take me to the giant, and I shall give him enough of a blading.”
The Foxy Lad put himself into the shape of a sword, and Upright John took him to the giant. And when the Giant of the Five Heads, the Five Humps and the Five Throttles saw them coming, he put the Blue Falcon in a basket and gave it to John.
John went back to the king’s daughter, and the Foxy Lad came running.
“How did you get free?” said John.
“Ho! Huth!” said the Foxy Lad. “A man is kind to his life, but I was in the giant’s hand when he began at fencing and slashing, and, ‘I shall cut this oak tree,’ said he, ‘at one blow, which my father cut two hundred years before now with the same sword.’ And he gripped me and swung me, and with the first blow he cut the tree all but a small bit of bark; and the second blow I bent on myself and swept the five heads the five humps and the five throttles off him. And there is not a tooth in the door of my mouth left unbroken for sake of that filth of a blue marvellous bird!”