A Hat Full Of Sky - Terry Pratchett [11]
But things written down lasted. They were the voices of Feegles who’d died long ago, who’d seen strange things, who’d made strange discoveries. Whether you approved of that depended on how creepy you thought it was. The Long Lake clan approved. Jeannie wanted the best for her new clan, too.
It wasn’t easy, being a young kelda. You came to a new clan, with only a few of your brothers as bodyguards, where you married a husband and ended up with hundreds of brothers-in-law. It could be troubling if you let your mind dwell on it. At least back on the island in the Long Lake she had her mother to talk to, but a kelda never went home again.
A kelda was all alone.
Jeannie was homesick and lonely and frightened of the future, which is why she was about to get things wrong.
“Rob!”
Hamish and Big Yan came tumbling through the fake rabbit hole that was the entrance to the mound.
Rob Anybody glared at them. “We wuz engaged in a lit’try enterprise,” he said.
“Yes, Rob, but we watched the big wee young hag safe awa’, like you said, but there’s a hiver after her!” Hamish blurted out.
“Are ye sure?” said Rob, dropping his pencil. “I never heard o’ one of them in this world!”
“Oh, aye,” said Big Yan. “Its buzzin’ fair made my teeths ache!”
“So did you no’ tell her, ye daftie?” said Rob.
“There’s that other hag wi’ her, Rob,” said Big Yan. “The educatin’ hag.”
“Miss Tick?” said the toad.
“Aye, the one wi’ a face like a yard o’ yogurt,” said Big Yan. “An’ you said we wuzna’ to show ourselves, Rob.”
“Aye, weel, this is different—” Rob Anybody began, but stopped.
He hadn’t been a husband for very long, but upon marriage men get a whole lot of extra senses bolted into their brain, and one is there to tell a man that he’s suddenly neck deep in real trouble.
Jeannie was tapping her foot. Her arms were still folded. She had the special smile women learn about when they marry too which seems to say “Yes, you’re in big trouble but I’m going to let you dig yourself in even more deeply.”
“What’s this about the big wee hag?” she said, her voice as small and meek as a mouse trained at the Rodent College of Assassins.
“Oh, ah, ach, weel, aye…” Rob began, his face falling. “Do ye not bring her to mind, dear? She was at oor wedding, aye. She was oor kelda for a day or two, ye ken. The Old One made her swear to that just afore she went back to the Land o’ the Livin’,” he added, in case mentioning the wishes of the last kelda would deflect whatever storm was coming. “It’s as well tae keep an eye on her, ye ken, her being oor hag and all….”
Rob Anybody’s voice trailed away in the face of Jeannie’s look.
“A true kelda has tae marry the Big Man,” said Jeannie. “Just like I married ye, Rob Anybody Feegle, and am I no’ a good wife tae ye?”
“Oh, fine, fine,” Rob burbled. “But—”
“And ye canna be married to two wives, because that would be bigamy, would it not?” said Jeannie, her voice dangerously sweet.
“Ach, it wasna that big,” said Rob Anybody, desperately looking around for a way of escape. “And it wuz only temp’ry, an’ she’s but a lass, an’ she wuz good at thinkin’—”
“I’m good at thinking, Rob Anybody, and I am the kelda o’ this clan, am I no’? There can only be one, is that not so? And I am thinking that there will be no more chasin’ after this big wee girl. Shame on ye, anyway. She’ll no’ want the like o’ Big Yan a-gawpin’ at her all the time, I’m sure.”
Rob Anybody hung his head.
“Aye…but,” he said.
“But what?”
“A hiver’s chasin’ the puir wee lass.”
There was a long pause before Jeannie said, “Are ye sure?”
“Aye, kelda,” said Big Yan. “Once you hear that buzzin’, ye never forget it.”
Jeannie bit her lip. Then, looking a little pale, she said, “Ye said she’s got the makin’s o’ a powerful hag, Rob?”
“Aye, but nae one in his’try has survived a hiver! Ye canna kill it, ye canna stop it, ye canna—”
“But wuz ye no’ tellin’ me how the big wee girl even fought the Quin and won?” said Jeannie. “Wanged her wi’ a skillet, ye said. That means she’s good,