head, practising for this moment. “I found it,” I said. “Over by the far lookout, where the earth was turned when we was building up the walls.”
“That work was finished months ago.” It wasn’t Catrin that said this, but Fer. She was still up on the tabernac. She had been standing at the back behind the pledged couples, but now she pushed her way through, shouldering Issi Tiller aside without so much as a scuse-me. She stood glaring down at me like Dandrake’s vengeance. “Months ago,” she says again. “What call had you to be there?”
“I go up there to be alone sometimes,” I said. “To think.”
“And that thing was just lying on the ground?” Fer pointed at the DreamSleeve. “Yet nobody else seen it? Only you?”
“It was half in and half out of the ground,” I said. “Mostly buried.”
“Then why is it not covered in moss and mould?”
“I cleaned it,” I said. “With a cloth.” I could play this game as well as Fer Vennastin could, and I liked it better than Catrin’s searching eyes and more mannerly questioning.
But Dam Catrin didn’t like it at all. She lifted up her hand. I seen a lot more questions trembling on Fer’s lips, but she held them in. Though they was sisters and equals in most things, Catrin was Rampart Fire and her word carried. It carried even when she didn’t bother to speak it. That was why nobody else had spoke up all this time. They was waiting to be told what was what, just like I seen Haijon doing.
“I don’t think there’s any more that needs to be said,” Catrin told them – told everyone, including Fer. “What I just done here was a testing, the same as if this was the Count and Seal. All of you witnessed it, and there isn’t any doubt. That tech woke to Koli Woodsmith, and it worked when he bespoke it. He’s a Rampart. We don’t know what name to give him yet, but that will come. In the meantime, you should rejoice. This was already a day of celebration, and now it’s even more so. Salt Feast, wedding day and testing day all in one.”
That much was said to all. Then turning to me she said, “That name of Woodsmith I take from you, Koli, and give you a new one. Rampart of Mythen Rood you are, and will be. Wait no more.”
Well, that was what it took in the end. Cheers and yells went up from everyone. Jugs and wineskins was opened, and what was in them splashed into cups and into mouths. Some people gun to dance, and Jil and Mordy took their cue from that to start playing.
In the middle of all of this, the last part of the wedding service, which was when Haijon and Spinner was to kiss, got more or less forgot. Nobody was looking at them any more. But nor was they looking at me and Catrin. The dancing and the drinking had taken over as the thing to do and to think about.
Catrin was still looking at me though. She give me a nod like you would give to someone in the stone game if they worked a clever move on you. “You’d better go and get your things,” she said.
I didn’t see what she meant at first. “My things?” I said like an echo bird.
“Your clothes. Razor and comb. Any belongings you want to bring. You live in Rampart Hold now. I’ll have Ban and Gilly prepare a room for you. Hurry now, Koli. There’s more to being a Rampart than what’s seen in the village. We got lots of things to do before lock-tide.”
I didn’t dare ask what them things might be. I looked around for my mother, for Athen and Mull, but I couldn’t see them in the singing, drinking, jostling crowd. “I got to—” I gun to say.
“Fer,” Catrin said. Her sister was at her side in a second. “You and Mardew take Koli to the mill and help him find and bring whatever he needs. Let’s get this done now, before the feast starts.”
“Yes, Cat,” Fer said. “Come you, Koli.”
She set off at a fast walk, the people standing aside for her as you would expect for a Rampart. Two Ramparts, for Mardew come running alongside us, summoned by a snap of Catrin’s fingers and a wave of her hand. No, three Ramparts, for wasn’t I one too now?
They bustled me away from the gather-ground. There was some