The Tower: Part 3: Samhain
Post #24: In which a gathering of marbles ...
(If you are a new subscriber, you might want to start at the beginning of the Webbd Wheel Series with The Hanged Man. If you would like to start at the beginning of The Tower, go here. If you prefer to read part 3 in its entirety, go here. For the next serial post, go here.)
Later in the morning, when the pale autumn sun was at its warmest, they gathered together by the Well of Urd.
Eurydice had heard it called both a well and a fountain. In fact, it looked like a pool, about 35 feet in diameter, rimmed by a low stone wall. A stone collar lined the well’s throat a couple of feet below the water’s surface, providing a bench. The water looked slightly agitated, bubbling up from some unseen source.
“How deep is it?” Shala asked.
“As far as we know, it’s bottomless,” said Verdani.
Nephthys dropped her scrap of loincloth on the ground, leaned over the wall and tested the water’s temperature.
“It’s warm!” She stepped onto the wall and jumped with a whoop.
Death accompanied them to the well and stood watching with his hands on the bony wings of his hips. He minced forward and barely touched the water’s surface with a finger, as though afraid of disturbing it. Apparently satisfied, he straightened up, turned his back to everyone else and mimed disrobing, casting what could only be described as looks of maidenly modesty over his shoulder.
Rumpelstiltskin chortled.
Death turned around, one hand shielding his pubic bone and the other across his chest, ran to the well’s stone edge, and leapt into the middle, bones clattering. His rounded skull broke the surface and he trod water, grinning his empty grin at them.
Eurydice took off her clothes, folded them into a neat pile and eased herself into the water, trying not to feel self-conscious about her thick, strong body.
It felt blissful. The water was slightly above body temperature, pleasant but not uncomfortable.
Skuld had given up resisting Heks’s determination, and she, Urd and Verdani undressed without a trace of discomfiture and nimbly entered the pool. Heks assisted Shala, steadying her while she took off her sheepskin and boots. She laid her bracelets on top of her clothes and, moving awkwardly, swung her legs over the stone wall. She looked enormous without her clothes, her belly taut as a drumhead, her breasts hard and round. Even her belly button looked hard as a marble. While Heks supported her with a strong arm, she let herself down onto the underwater bench and groaned with voluptuous relief.
“Oh, this is wonderful! Thank you so much. I’ll just sit here and luxuriate.”
“Huz-zah!” shouted Rumpelstiltskin, and shot like a furry cannonball into the well’s center, sending up a fountain of spray. The hair on his body matched his beard, a rich brown tinged with red.
“There’s Mirmir!” called Nephthys. “Come play with us, Mirmir!”
Once again, Eurydice was reminded of a large, clumsy, exuberant dog as the snake surged forward, eyes gleaming with what looked like excited glee. Without pause, he flowed up and over the stone rim and dove headfirst into the water. They watched as his body followed his head and Eurydice, not for the first time, wondered exactly how long he was. Several minutes passed before his entire body disappeared into the depths.
Eurydice, treading water in the well’s center with Death, Rumpelstiltskin, the Norns and Heks, felt a qualm at the idea of bottomless fathoms of water beneath her and the giant serpent somewhere in them. She wondered how long Mirmir could hold his breath.
She needn’t have worried. The snake shot up the side of the well across from Shala, his head reaching high into the air before he fell down again with a tremendous splash. Nephthys shrieked with laughter.
Mirmir then proceeded to coil himself into intricate loops and hoops, a kind of watery obstacle course, and the Norns, now sporting tails rather than legs, began a fierce competition to see who could leap highest and swim fastest. Skuld, Eurydice noticed, acted as though she’d never been sick a day in her life.
Rumpelstiltskin repeatedly left the pool to make a running start and shoot himself through a loop of Mirmir like a hard brown ball. Mirmir, smiling his reptilian smile, managed to move so as to spoil Rumpelstiltskin’s aim as well as throw off the Norns, and much shouting, splashing and laughter ensued.
Death trod water with great dignity in the midst of the fray, and Heks removed herself from the center turbulence, lay on her back and floated serenely without moving a muscle, alternately looking as though she slept and gazing at the sky. Eurydice couldn’t imagine how such a dried-up old stick of a woman could float so buoyantly. Shala looked on, laughing, from her seat, her black hair a wet cloak around her.
Eurydice felt like a sponge. She soaked gratefully, drinking as much as she could hold and enjoying the feel of suspension in warm wetness. It felt good to be naked. It felt good to hear laughter and play. It felt good to be with friends. She wished painfully for Kunik and wondered what was happening at Rowan Tree. When they reunited, she and Kunik would have much to share.
The sun slid down the sky. Heks swam to Shala and Eurydice watched them exchange a few words. Shala nodded and Heks climbed out and returned with a towel from a pile Verdani brought from the house. She gave Shala a hand and helped her out, wrapping her in the towel. They retrieved their clothes and returned to the cottage together.
A few minutes later, Eurydice began feeling cold, and she too returned to the house. By the time she had dressed and combed her tangled hair, the Norns had come in. Eurydice gathered up discarded towels and pegged them onto the line. She could hear Rumpelstiltskin and Nephthys, still splashing and playing with Mirmir and Death.
Heks settled Shala and Skuld before a newly-lit fire. Verdani and Urd worked in the kitchen, where the simmering stew scented the air with onions and garlic. Eurydice fetched her comb and stood behind Shala, combing her wet hair.
By the time darkness fell, the whole group had gathered together by the fire or in the kitchen, feeling clean, relaxed and entirely comfortable with one another. Verdani, Urd and Eurydice set the table, and two apple pies added their fragrance to the meaty stew and burning applewood.
In the middle of the meal someone knocked on the door.
Rumpelstiltskin opened the door and stood aside in invitation, letting in a chilly gust of autumn-smelling wind. Odin entered, followed by a slim youth with pale blond hair and grey eyes.
Odin and his companion set down their bundles, took off their cloaks, and acknowledged introductions while Eurydice hurriedly set another place for the unexpected stranger, whom Odin introduced as Seren.
The name gave her a shock. She’d heard it before, though a swift glance around the table revealed nothing but polite interest from anyone else. With some amusement, she noted how the young man’s face fell when nobody reacted visibly to his name. Evidently, he expected to be recognized. She dropped her gaze and schooled her expression into pleasant neutrality.
Seren was rumored to be the greatest bard who had ever lived, renowned for his verse, singing, composing and performance. Gossip declared he’d been born with a shining white light about his brow, and his name meant “star”. His instrument was a lyre. Seren’s gift was no less, it was said, than Orpheus’s had been, and Orpheus, for a few fleeting days long ago, had been Eurydice’s husband.
In her maidenhood she’d been enchanted by Orpheus’s skill, along with everyone who heard him. Handsome, passionate and irresistible, she’d gladly given herself to him entirely. A few days after their whirlwind courtship and marriage, Eurydice had been bitten by a snake and died suddenly, and Orpheus, inconsolable, did something no man had ever done before and sought out the throne of Hades in the Underworld to beg for Eurydice’s return.
His grief and powerful music compelled Hades to summon Eurydice and order she follow Orpheus back to the Green World with the caution that he must not look back until they moved out from her tomb’s shadow. Eurydice did not want to return to the life she’d lost, but she’d not been allowed the choice.
Obedient, she’d followed Orpheus as he strode up out of the Underworld in his blue velvet cloak with his golden lyre on his arm. Impulsive and triumphant, he controlled himself with difficulty from looking back to be sure she followed until they reached Eurydice’s tomb. When he stood in the sun, he turned, exultant, but she had remained within the tomb’s shadow and thankfully turned away. The sound of his anguish followed her all the way back to Hades.
Orpheus never accepted what he could not change and withheld his musical gifts from the world and from himself, expressing only unending grief for the rest of his short life.
Now people said this young man Seren blessed the world with music again, and this time talent would not end in tragedy, but in many long years of service and acclaim.
He was young, though Eurydice realized, with a shock, he was no younger than Orpheus had been when she’d first laid eyes on him, and she’d been even younger. She wondered why Odin had brought him.
The conversation remained general during the meal. Seren demonstrated the healthy appetite of any young man who’d traveled all day and was pleasant and agreeable, taking part in the conversation with self-confidence and extraordinary poise for one so young. Eurydice wondered if her initial impression of his disappointment at not being recognized was accurate.
When the pies were reduced to crumbs, Urd, Verdani and Eurydice washed the dishes while Heks and Shala cleared the table and wiped down the counters and stove, after which they gathered together before the fire.
She’d noticed Seren carefully unwrapping his lyre and setting it ready to take up at a moment’s notice, as though he expected to perform. He sat upright in a chair, alert and vibrating with enthusiastic energy. He smoothed his pale hair once or twice, tucking it carefully behind his ears.
Odin produced a pipe and performed the ritual of packing it with tobacco and lighting it. Rumpelstiltskin followed suit, though he didn’t normally smoke in the evenings. Eurydice wondered if he’d missed male companionship. Somehow, Death and Mirmir hardly counted.
Death, as usual, stood casually in a corner observing and listening.
Once his pipe was going to his satisfaction, Odin removed it from his mouth and rumbled, “Now we’re together, we have business to see to.”
Seren sat up, his expression expectant.
“But not tonight,” Odin continued. “Tonight, we relax after that excellent meal, and tomorrow we go to work. Tonight, we need entertainment.”
Odin had removed his hat and his one eye searched the faces around him with a sardonic gleam.
Seren began to rise.
“We’ll play a game of marbles,” said Odin.
Eurydice nearly laughed. Seren dropped back into his chair, looking thoroughly put out. Was Odin teasing him deliberately? Surely Odin knew who Seren was, even if none of the others appeared to. What more obvious choice of entertainment could there be? As for playing marbles, she didn’t take that seriously for a minute.
“Where’s Mirmir?” asked Odin. “We need him.”
Urd opened the door and called out into the windy darkness, “Mirmir! We want you!”
A moment later Mirmir poked an inquiring head into the cottage.
“We need a ring, my dear fellow,” said Odin. He put his pipe on the stone mantel. “Get up, everyone. A rearrangement of furniture is necessary.”
Eurydice was open-mouthed with astonishment, as were Shala, Verdani and Urd. Nephthys and Rumpelstiltskin grinned. Heks wore her driest, most inscrutable expression and Skuld, to Eurydice’s astonishment, looked positively gleeful. Seren simply looked pole-axed.
They arranged chairs, stools and cushions around the room’s perimeter. Mirmir, coiling and uncoiling in convoluted patterns, positioned the tail end of his body in a large loop on the floor in room’s center. He coiled the rest of himself out of the way and rested his head on the back of Seren’s chair, where he obtained a good view of the circle he’d made. Seren, visibly uncomfortable, leaned away from the snake’s flat head propped just above his right shoulder.
Eurydice took pity on him. “He won’t hurt you,” she murmured. “He’s gentle. You can relax.”
Seren gave her a stony look, tension in every line of his body. She gave up and sat back comfortably in her own chair. For some reason, both Mirmir and Odin appeared intent on teasing the young man, but she could do nothing about it.
As Eurydice watched in disbelief, Heks and Skuld organized themselves side by side on cushions outside the circle’s perimeter. Nephthys crouched on the floor, holding a small, frayed-looking bag. Odin stood smoking with his back to the fire, looking benignly on as everyone arranged themselves.
Death sauntered forward and knelt on a bony white knee, spilling a handful of fire and ice onto the wood floor just outside Mirmir’s loop. Eurydice leaned forward to examine the rolling marbles. Some were as red as fresh blood and others exactly the same ivory as Death himself.
Nephthys emptied her bag with a rattle. “Mine are real knucklebones,” she said to Death. “Yours are just glass pretending to be bone.” Hers did not roll heavily, as Death’s weightier collection, and varied in sizes and shades from cream to light brown.
“Show them yours, Heks,” said Skuld. Heks reached into the neck of her tunic and withdrew a plain linen bag, slightly grubby. She unknotted the top and emptied the bag within the circle.
Eurydice gasped. She remembered hearing some vague talk about Maria and Rapunzel giving Heks marbles that had once been eyes. In Rapunzel’s case, the eye had come from her first lover, Alexander, whom her foster mother nearly killed in her rage and grief after Rapunzel freed herself from her tower. Maria’s eyes had been those of her two sons, whom she murdered before killing herself. She and Eurydice had in fact met in Hades. All five eyes had inexplicably become marbles, and all functioned as guides. Now, she saw them again, the four brown eyes of Maria’s children and the blue one from Alexander. In addition, there was a fierce amber eye she hadn’t seen before, obviously not human.
Several marbles were the same deep red as Death’s, the color of rubies and garnets. They reminded Eurydice of a gem-encrusted key she’d once held for a time that had unlocked the portal underneath Yggdrasil so she could travel to Nephthys’s desert. They glowed in the fire and lamplight. Other marbles burned with diamond-like brilliance, reflecting beautifully in the warm light, making Eurydice think of starry crystals of ice and snow. Other spheres made from gems and glass in every color and various sizes were mixed in with them, along with a few humbler, roughly made marbles that appeared to be clay or stone.
“Oh, my,” said Verdani inadequately.
“I have some too,” said Skuld. “See? This big one is a taw. You shoot with it. This is a clambroth, and this a bird’s egg. It’s made of clay. Heks gave me the taw, but I won the other two!” She looked enormously proud of herself.
Eurydice now understood the hours of laughter and giggling behind Skuld’s closed bedroom door.
With the air of making a grand entrance, Odin squatted and tipped a large leather bag into the circle of Mirmir’s body. A double handful of marbles rolled gently onto the floor in a bewildering array of sizes and materials. Eurydice couldn’t imagine finer or more fascinating treasure.
For the next two hours, the audience was instructed in the ancient art of marbles, including the proud history of cheating, though Odin generously named Baba Yaga the queen of cheaters; none could challenge her skill. General hilarity spiced with the rich and unique language of marbles ruled as Odin directed and participated in games such as Troll-My-Dame, King of the Mountain, Handy Candy, Dicies, and, in honor of Mirmir, Black Snakes.
Skuld, being the most inexperienced player, was allowed to play “for fair,” which meant the other players would return her marbles at play’s end. Death, Heks and Odin, however, played for keeps, knuckling down and circling the ring with determination and skill, and employing various cheats when they thought they could get away with it. Nephthys shot with skill and daring, but appeared indifferent to winning or losing, and Eurydice noticed when the evening ended the others gave her back her knucklebones, in addition to what she’d won.
Rumpelstiltskin moderated, eyes gleaming with interest. He quickly spotted cheating and evaluated the marbles with a professional eye, as the Dvorgs and Dwarves had made many of them.
It was the perfect end to a relaxing day, and when the marbles were put away, the furniture put back where it belonged, and everyone had trooped off to their beds or, in the case of Odin and Seren, their bedrolls, Eurydice fell peacefully asleep without a thought for any coming difficulties.