GROUNDLING: TELL ME NO LIES

by ardavenport

- - - Part 1

Lillis stood on the rise, the morning sun shining on the city that cast long shadows in the dawn that burned off a fog further beyond. Onie knew that Haven was the largest city in Valdemar, but seeing the reality was much different from hearing about it. It was so large that it had its own green areas of trees and grass within the crowd of buildings near the center. A high stone wall encircled the original city itself though many buildings spilled out around it. And there was a big green area that Onie knew had to be Companion's Field. Lillis's home.

The wide paved main road that they were on led down to the city. There were already carts and people heading toward the nearest gate. Lillis tossed her head that they needed to go. She was impatient.

"All right. Lead tha way."

Bridle bells jingling, Lillis quick-trotted down the road. The Companion was quite proud of her trot, perfected so that at least one foot was on the ground at all times, keeping Onie's connection to it. It was as smooth as her walk but it had still taken most of a morning for Onie to get used to it. Sometime amidst all the bouncing up and down, Onie had figured out that if she just concentrated on the parts of her that were touching Lillis things went a lot more smoothly for both of them. Lillis's trot was faster than any horse that wasn't galloping, but it had still taken them days to reach the capital where Onie would begin her training as a Herald.

Lillis had been very annoyed that Onie made them stop and camp off the side of the road when they were less than four candlemarks from Haven; the gate guards would not have cared that they were coming in late, but Onie had insisted. She didn't say anything, but Onie was pretty sure that her Companion knew that she was uneasy about completing the trip. Once she was in Haven, at the Herald's Collegium, that would be her home. And her old home, the time with her family at Fair Fields, would be done. The finality of that change made her as queasy as if she had her feet off the ground. Lillis had sulked and stamped her feet that Onie shouldn't be so fearful, and a candlemark before dawn she had nudged her out of her bedroll so they could finish the trip. Onie got up, did her business, ate and packed up so slowly that Lillis whinnied in frustration. Then Onie took extra care grooming Lillis who had to put up with it since she had been rolling in the tall grass in the moonlight when she didn't get her way about going on to Haven after dark. Now they were finally on the last stretch of road and the Companion pranced forward with long delayed satisfaction.

The people on foot, riding and in carts glanced their way, some moving to the side as Lillis trotted past. Onie couldn't really make out most of their expressions, but nobody seemed much more than mildly curious about them. This close to Haven, they probably saw Companions and Heralds all the time. A few smiled and waved. Onie felt obliged to give them a little wave back when she wasn't clutching the pommel of the saddle. Lillis was going to parade her newly-Chosen past the whole city before they actually got to the palace. The approached the mills and workhouses, and from the smell of them, tanneries and animal pens, outside the city.

They slowed down for a line of three big hay wagons and when they cleared them Lillis picked up their pace again, nimbly avoiding the other traffic. Even with her weak eyes, Onie could see the bright white back end of another Companion ahead of them. And the person riding was not wearing white or gray.

The other Companion, a big broad-shouldered stallion glanced back at them and his ears perked up when he saw Lillis. Onie smirked with her own satisfaction. Lillis could not complain now that she had dallied so long making her look nice. There was just a little flirtation in the looks the two Companions exchanged as they slow trotted together, their bells and hooves chiming together. The other Chosen did not look nearly so confident. Onie did not think that he could have been any older than seven, looking very tiny aside the big stallion.

Clutching the pommel of his Companion's saddle, he warily looked back at Onie with big, nervous brown eyes. His hair was long and tangled, dirty brown, his clothes baggy and made of the cheapest rough brown cloth, frayed at the ends of the sleeves and pants. And his bare feet were dark with worn-in dirt.

"I'm Onie, this here is Lillis," she started. He looked like he badly needed to be set at ease. "Are ye from 'round here?" She couldn't imagine that any town in Valdemar would let him leave for Haven without giving him some shoes to travel in.

"Just now!" the boy's awe suddenly burst out of him. He pointed behind them. "I works for my uncle back at the flour mill. He's the foreman and lets me sleep in the storeroom. I was just sweeping up when Capar just shows up and says he's Chosen me! An – an my cousin, he just puts me on his back and says go, go before my uncle finds a way so can mess it up!" He looked like he was about to cry. "Barro will get beat for sure when Uncle Sev finds out."

Onie frowned back. "Ye jus' tells 'em exactly that, when we gets to tha palace. Yer Uncle Sev will have'ta answer to the Queen's own guards if he touches yer cousin for sendin' ye on."

The boy gulped and looked less likely to burst into tears. "You think so? Barro will have to do my sweeping or Uncle will be twice as mad, so he can't run off 'till later."

"I knows it," Onie answered with a definite nod. And to confirm it, both Companions turned their heads to nod back to him, too. The boy exhaled with relief and wiped his dirty nose. Onie knew he had to be an orphan, if he was sleeping in a storeroom and working for his uncle, who obviously didn't give him any love.

"Capar's a fine lookin' stallion. Ye got a name, too?"

"Oh! I'm Sack! Well . . . . " he paused, embarrassed, "my Ma called me Saston, but my uncle calls me Sack an' . . . . now everybody does."

"Well, if ye tells 'em that ye're called Saston at the Colleg'm, they'll calls ye that there. An' that's a mite bit more important than what yer uncle calls ye. Ye got another name ta go with Saston?"

He lowered his eyes. "My Ma, before she died of the fever, she said that I didn't have another name. And my uncle, he acts like that's something bad."

Uh, oh. Born on the wrong side of the sheets, and orphaned, too. Or maybe just abandoned if the father was alive out there somewhere. But that wasn't anything bad as far as Onie was concerned, certainly not with her own nephew not having a proper father, either.

"Well, that won't matter up with tha Heralds. Capar Chose ye and that's good enough fer the Heralds. Good enough fer tha Queen even."

Saston started to look a little more hopeful and she smiled back. They approached the gate. Guards looked down at them from high up on top of the wall while others at the Gate waved them on; one saluted. The bell-like clopping of the Companion's hooves echoed in the tunnel as they passed under the thick walls, past more guards by the inner gate. Knowing exactly where to go, the Companions trotted along while both riders gaping at the city around them. Bakers, seamstresses, potters, carpenters, weavers, butchers, Onie saw more trade shops than she'd seen in her whole life. And she lost count of the taverns and inns. 'The Green Boot', 'The Compass Rose', 'The Bent Arrow', and quite a lot of them seemed to do morning custom, partons coming and going, some holding sausage rolls as they left.

The streets were smooth gray stone with plenty of cleaners wheeling carts about to scoop up the animal waste. As they followed the spiral of the main lane that led to the Palace in the middle, they passed courtyards with public fountains, women and children with buckets to fill, even in the poorer neighborhoods of tall narrow boarding houses two, three and even four stories high and shops along the street with upper stories to live in above. After several turns of streets, the quality of the shops and inns improved and there were more small parks and green places. Then the shops became nice homes and nicer temples. Then the homes became walled estates and only a little traffic, servants on foot, a few nobles on horseback and a some carts making deliveries to kitchen doors off the main lane. Saston admitted in a hushed voice that he had never been to the highborn parts of Haven before.

Finally, the Companions stopped by a plain door in a gray wall only two stories high, with only one guard in a clean blue uniform. He stopped them and checked the sigils on Lillis and Capars' tack.

"Back already? You've hardly been out for a candlemark."

Capar whuffed at him.

"But you must have to have come from quite afar, Milady." Lillis jingled her bells at him.

"Not s'far, Sir. M'fraid I slowed'er down a bit," Onie admitted.

"Well, you're here now." He swung the gate wide open for them. "Your Companions know where to go."

They passed through the gate onto a wide path. The gate rattling closed behind them sounded very final to Onie. To their right was a stone building. The Collegium? The palace itself? To their left were green fields and groves of trees. Companion's Field. Onie had heard enough Bards' songs to know exactly what it was.

Lillis and Capar went to the left, going at a quick walk to a large open stable. Servants came out to greet them, along with a man in Herald's whites. He had silver-white hair, clipped short like a soldier, a long lined face and pale eyes. But as soon as he took a step toward them, Onie saw the limp. The outline of one of his legs wasn't right; it was too straight in his boot. With a wary glance down at the ground, she grabbed the edge of the saddle and swung herself off and down. She had gotten fairly comfortable with climbing off by now, and the ground felt comfortingly solid under her shoes. Then she stepped over to Capar and reached up to Saston to help him down since he was too little to do it himself.

"Hello." The Herald smiled. Up close, his smile looked genuine, going all the way up to his eyes. Onie curtsied and Saston gulped. "The stablehands will take your Companions. You'll have plenty of time with them later after we get you settled." Saston's longing gaze followed Capar while Lillis gave Onie a wink as she followed the servants.

"I'm Herald Gordlin."

"Onie Thatcher, Sir." She curtsied again.

"Sa-Saston, Sir." He ducked his head.

"Well, I know this is all new for you two." He tilted his head at Saston. "You're a little younger than what we usually get," then to Onie, "and you're a little older."

Onie held back her grimace; she did not need any reminding about how old she was and how late this had all happened; again she wondered why Lillis couldn't have come to her ten years ago, but that was probably years before Lillis was ever foaled. It was all going to be much simpler for Saston.

"But we've had Chosen older than you come in. And younger than you." His voice rose in tone as he added that to Saston. "The first place we need to go is the Collegium, to get you started." He seemed to want an answer.

"'Spose, I need ta, Sir, since I'm startin' so late."

Saston just nodded earnestly, his eyes wide.

Gordlin gestured toward a smooth gray stone path back to the gray palace buildings and they followed him. His gait was almost normal as he smoothly used hip on one side to push his false leg forward.

The Castle, the Collegium, Onie had read tales about these places, heard about them from the Bards; she thought she should have been excited, as if the Queen herself might come out any minute to invite her to dinner, but the reality was just too large for her feel anything. Except for one thing. She very much wanted to touch the buildings, the stones as they walked by. They were old, carved into blocks and built into walls centuries ago and people had been living in them ever since, all that time. But she kept her hands clasped before her.

They came to the Herald's Collegium building and a young man in grey Herald's clothes met them. He was maybe fifteen, with broad shoulders, just beginning to fill out, untidy golden-red hair and a spatter of freckles across his nose and cheeks. Gordlin introduced him as Herald-Trainee Rodie and then looked down at Saston.

"Now, first before we start, I want to you go with Rodie here. He's going to get you cleaned up and get you some proper clothes and then we're going to talk to the Dean about your schooling."

"Come on, Sas," Rodie encouraged with a big, toothy grin.

"Saston." the seven year-old said before suddenly turning worried eyes up to Gordlin, "uh, Sir. My-my name is Saston."

Rodie's smile faltered, but Gordlin was completely unfazed. "Saston. Thank-you for reminding us," he added with a little low. That got a shy smile from the boy. He left, going up the steps into the wooden double doors of the Collegium.

"Now, Onie." He walked up the few steps and opened one of the heavy oak doors for her. She squared her shoulders, climbed the few steps and went inside.

She shivered in the anteroom, her eyes adjusting to the indoor light. Ahead, past open inner doors was a long hallway of dark wood paneling and doors. Light came in through windows above the doors and from side corridors in the middle and the far end. A few wall lanterns were lit as well. Saston and Rodie were nowhere to be seen. Gordlin led her down the hall, telling her about the Collegium. The doors led to classrooms and as they passed them, Onie heard muted voices behind some of them, morning classes. Onie listened to her guide talk about Herald book training, Valdemar law, languages, geography, history. She fervently wanted to know how many years she needed to study. Would she be thirty before she ever got through all the learning she needed now? But she said nothing, fearing what the answer might be.

Reaching the end of the hallway, Gordlin opened a door, beyond was a stairway. "Upstairs on this end is the girls' dormitory. I'm sorry, we'll have to put you with the young kids for now. Newly Chosen are usually a bit younger than you are."

She nodded. "Aye, I knows abouts that. An I'm na picky abouts wheres I stays."

She stopped.

Onie froze at the sight of the stairway. "Uh, Sir, I have me a big problem with bein' up high anywheres. I-I couldna even stay on Lillis's own back, 'less she went slow. Lillis an' I met two Heralds in Kettlesmith, Vern and Steren, an' they worked out tha I have some kind'a Ground Gift, an' that make's it hard fer me ta be up off the ground at all." Onie had practiced how she would explain to the Heralds in Haven about her problem in multiple ways, but she had not even thought that her first challenge would be stairs. All the building in Fair Fields were ground level. Onie had never had a reason to climb a set of stairs in her whole life.

Gordlin seemed a little surprised, but unconcerned. "Oh, well we only have the dormitories for Trainees on the second floor. And the Library's on the third floor. How about we try it first and see how you get along?" he suggested. Never having been up a flight of stairs in a building like this, Onie did not know what would happen; given her few bad experiences with ladders, she was sure it wasn't going to be good. But if she couldn't manage to at least try something so simple on her first day, what kind of Herald would she be?

She put her foot on the first step and started up. Putting a hand on the wall to steady her, Onie made it to the landing, but she had to let go and quickly look away from the window. Her poor sight spared her the details, but she could tell how high up she was from the greenery outside. Gordlin grabbed her arm and she put her hand on the wall again, facing the next section of stairs.

"Just up here." His voice was not nearly as confident as it had been.

Head down, Onie put one foot up after another. Up, up, up the well worn, wooden stairs. She felt light-headed when she got to the top and Gordlin waited, his hand on her shoulders, for her to catch her breath. Perhaps she could get used to this, like riding Lillis, with practice, but she did not look to the side, where the stairs continued to go up. She nodded and he knocked on the door before them. A moment later they heard footsteps running and it was opened by a very young woman who was probably only sixteen in a Herald uniform like Gordlin's except it was gray.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she immediately apologized. A little shorter than Onie, she had light blonde hair, tied back in a braid and blue eyes. "I should have been downstairs to greet you, but - -"

"That's all right, Hooli." Gordlin cheerfully waved off her fluster. "I'm sure Housekeeper won't be too upset if I'm just in the stairway. This is Onie Thatcher. She needs a room and then she's going to need clothes and supplies from downstairs. Onie this is one of our Trainees, she'll help you out here."

"Are you all right?" Hooli's already high-pitched voice went higher with concern.

One steadying hand still on the wall, Onie took a deep breath and nodded. "I'm jus na used ta tall buildings."

"Oh." Hooli didn't seem to know what to say. With a little push from Gordlin, Onie entered, the door closing behind her. It was another hall, all dark wooden panels and doors spaced close together.

"Well, this is the girls' dormitory. Men like Gordlin aren't really allowed here."

Still feeling dizzy, Onie followed the girl down the hall while she pointed out different doors. The names meant nothing to Onie, though there were name cards in holders by each door; she could read those later. They reached a door with no name card in its holder. "This one's yours." Daylight shone in the hallway as Hooli pushed the door open. There was a bed, a desk, a chair, a bookcase, a wardrobe in a narrow room. And a window with greenery and blue sky beyond, no ground visible from the door. Onie barely stepped inside.

"It's nice," she said. It was nice. A private room, with a door . . . Onie had never had anything like it. But she would have cheerfully traded it for a warm spot on a hearth. In a nice ground floor room. They had to have hearths here somewhere.

"Good, now the bathing room is at the end." Hooli hurried down the hall and then had to stop and wait for Onie to catch up. Again her young features clouded with worry. "Are you sure you're all right?"

Onie nodded. "Jus takes some gettin' used to, at's all." The hallway was too warm, her clothes didn't feel like they fit right and she kept her hand on the wood paneling for support. It was different from being up on Lillis; she felt like she was suffocating, the wall pressing in on her. They entered the bathing room. It had white walls and white basins, and pipes overhead and along the walls. They had hot water to wash with, even in winter, a fantastic luxury. But they were right next to the Queen's palace after all. Hooli showed her where the clean towels, soap and women's moon supplies were, along with laundry chutes for dirty towels, clothes and linens. Heralds were expected to be respectable and clean at all times. Her guide pointed to wooden doors to stalls on the side. All the waterclosets in the Collegium and palace were indoors, of course.

Onie dove into one of the stalls.

- - - End Part 1