The Luck of Brin's Five

The Luck of Brin's Five

Book 1 of the Torin Trilogy

Cherry Wilder

“Help Diver!” Yelled Brin.

“Mamor . . . Roy . . .

Can You Fight?”

Diver had used his stun-gun with measured force; already those that he felled had bounced up again, and as he altered the setting two of the largest brutes leaped upon him. Vel Ragan, behind a tree now, fired his weapon, and I saw Red-Belt, the leader, clutch a wounded arm, pierced by a dart.

“Devils!” panted Red-Belt. “Nest of devils!”

I felt Old Gwin come closer, placing the whimpering Tomar in my arms. “Keep back, for the fire of Eenath has consumed your souls! We know you all, and you are all accursed! You will go down into fire . . .!”

CAST OF CHARACTERS

BRIN

MAMOR

HARPER ROY

OLD GWIN
A Family of mountain weavers. All bear the family name Brinroyan (of Brin's Five)
.

ODD-EYE (Eddorn) BRINROYAN
The first Luck of Brin's Five
.

SCOTT GALE
Lieutenant-Navigator of a Biosurvey team from the planet Earth. Adopted as the Luck of Brin's Five. He is given the nickname
DIVER
and is also known as
ESCOTT GARL BRINROYAN
,
a version of his name which is easier for Moruians to pronounce
.

DORN BRINROYAN
Eldest child of Brin's Five, who tells the story
.

NARNEEN
Second child of Brin's Five
.

TOMAR
Youngest child of Brin's Five
.

HUNTER GEER
Neighbor of Brin's Five on Hingstull Mountain
.

WHITEWING
An albino. The Luck of Hunter Geer's Five
.

BEETH ULGAN (Beeth the Weathermaker)
A Diviner in Cullin, the local township. Friend and adviser of Brin's Five
.

GORDO BEETHAN
Her apprentice. A Witness or telepath
.

RILPO RILPROYAN GALTROY

TEWL RILPROYAN GALTROY
A married pair. Grandees of Clan Galtroy
.

TSAMMET
Their servant. An omor: one of a caste of female workers noted for strength
.

MOONEEN
A twirler or religious fanatic rescued by Diver and Harper Roy
.

PETSALEE, Host of Spirits
Leader of the band of twirlers
.

ITHO

LANAR

MEEDO
Three ancients who sailed a bird-boat on the river Troon and carried passengers
.

TIATH AVRAN PENTROY
The Great Elder, elected leader of the Council of Five Elders, chosen from the five clans of Grandees. A powerful but unscrupulous governor and landowner, dedicated to preserving clan power. His nickname is Tiath Gargan, which means
“
Ropemaker
,” “
Lawmaker
”
or
“
Strangler
.”

NANTGEEB
A powerful Diviner and scientist, out of favor with the Great Elder for the use of fire-metal-magic. Also known as the Maker of Engines
.

VARB'S FIVE
A family of shepherds living at Whiterock Fold
.

AT THE BIRD CLAN

THE LAUNCHER
The leading Bird Clan official
.

ABLO
A townee from Otolor who serves as Diver's mechanic and remains with Brin's Five. Later he is called Ablo Binigan or Ablo the Fixer, the one who picks up dropped stitches
.

JEBBAL FALDROYAN LUNTROY
A pilot at the Bird Clan
.

VALDIN

THANAR
Her children
.

MATTROYAN
A merchant of Itsik
.

ULLO MATTROYAN
His child; a pilot at the Bird Clan
.

MURÑO PERAN PENTROY
A young grandee, known as Blacklock. He is a popular hero on Torin for his athletic feats. A pilot at the Bird Clan and a pupil of Nantgeeb
.

SPINNER
Blacklock's first officer, who takes care of him
.

FER UTOVANGAN
Blacklock's copilot, whose name, which can mean Second Pilot or Former Bird Farmer, hints at his former identity. Antho, a birdfarmer from the outskirts of Fintoul, is a famous designer of flying machines whose adventures have passed into legend
.

DEEL GIRROYAN
A town-grandee of Otolor, pilot at the Bird Clan
.

VEL RAGAN (Vel the Scribe)
A scribe from Tsagul, the Fire-Town
.

ONNAR
A Witness, in his service
.

VARADON

MEETAL

ARTHO

TRANJE

TROY

ALLOO

BANO
Vassals in the service of Tiath Pentroy. Members of a
Gulgavor
or seven-fold band, who have sworn to capture Diver or die in the attempt
.

TILJE PAROYAN DOHTROY

ARN LORGAN (the Bridgemaker)
Friends of Vel Ragan, from Tsagul, where they were in the service of:

TSORL-U-TSORL
Former Deputy of Tsagul, who has disappeared on an errand for Tiath Pentroy
.

AT RINTOUL

GUÑO GUNROYAN WENTROY
The Wentroy Elder on the Council of Five. Known as Guño Deg
—
Old Crosspatch
.

LEETH LEETHROYAN GALTROY
The Galtroy Elder on the Council
.

ORN ORNROYAN DOHTROY
The Dohtroy Elder on the Council, known as Orn Margan
—
the Peacemaker
.

MARL NOONROYAN LUNTROY
The Luntroy Elder on the Council. Known as Marl Udorn, Blind Marl
—
the Luck of Noon's Five
.

AV AVRAN PENTROY
Old Av, Tiath's elder sibling, the head of his Family
.

URNAT AVRAN PENTROY
A dwarf. The Luck of Av's Five
.

Prologue

A low mountain range straddled the northern coast of the continent; it was massive and striking, rising in places straight out of the grassy plain. The highest peaks lay to the north, snow-capped in summer because they were close to the polar circle. A hot summer sun burned down on the craggy lower slopes; there were stands of a straight-limbed tree with a red-brown trunk and small leaves of a particular bronze green. Campsites clustered among these trees; some were old and permanent as small villages, with a stone wall or a stockade. In summer many of the camps were empty: the campers had wandered off on their travels, to the fairground and the riverside. In other places there was a murmur of voices, the rhythmical clacking of looms; no open fires were lit, no smoke curled above the treetops.

There were cool places to be found even in high summer; caverns full of the sound of rushing water; noisy brooks and torrents. Hunting trails ran along the tops of the ridges and dipped into the valleys that led down to the hot grass of the plain. There were natural plantations of a plant that looked like flax; its flat leaves rattled and shook, never still, in the prevailing north wind.

A man, travelling through this rough, pleasant, hill country could drink at the streams, eat berries if he dared, breathe the mountain air. Yet the creatures that scrambled up the trees as he passed, the little bouncing deerlike animals that took off into the scrub, the slow, dipping flight of the birds would remind him, finally, that he was not on Earth.

The continent and the world itself were called by the same name: Torin. When Esto, the Great Sun, set in the west, its strong golden light gave way to darkness, then to a silvery light, six times as strong as the reflected light of Earth's moon . . . the light of Esder . . . the Far Sun. It was possible to read, to hunt, to maneuver a flying machine by the light of Esder.

Down below on the plain, during Esder light, other flickering lights clustered at fords and river crossings. In an old shallow crater a sheet of water threw back the far sun's light oddly; the water steamed and gave off its own phosphorescent glow. Beyond the northern bank of this lake twin peaks rose up, two of the highest in the range, and below them, on a stone terrace, stood a long oval building.

It was a mild summer night in the year 274 of the New Age, two hundred and seventy-four Torin years since the last Torlogan or Great Builder handed power to the grandees. The only sounds here in the mountains were natural ones: bird calls, a stone dislodged that rolled down into a pool. When four Torin hours of darkness had passed and ten of Esder light, a new sound grew sharply in the clear air. The flying machine came buzzing in from the southwest and landed neatly on the terrace. It was strong and shapely, made of woven, stiffened fabric over a frame of bent wood. The wingspan was large; there was a propeller mounted on the nose and four smaller ones on the wing itself. On the hindmost panel, to the left, there was a row of painted characters; in the corresponding position to the right there were block letters:
TOMARVAN II.

A man climbed down out of the machine and reached up to help down his companion, a young Moruian, an inhabitant of Torin. They talked softly, as if the silence of the mountains made them lower their voices, but the man's voice, his laughter, rang out sometimes. They came down from the terrace and began walking briskly towards the lake, just visible through the trees. The light of Esder picked out quite clearly their sameness and their difference. The man, Scott Gale, was well-built, broad-shouldered, and muscular, a head taller than his young companion. He wore a synthetic blue zipper suit, a regulation garment hardly weathered by four hard years of an alien climate.

Dorn, the Moruian, was seventeen years old; he was wiry, thin, and long-limbed. He walked with a lithe, swinging motion; the carriage of his head, his hips, his thin, long-fingered hands, were all distinctive. By contrast Scott Gale was over-controlled, muscle-bound. Dorn had thick mid-brown hair, perfectly straight and cut off, carelessly, above the collar of his fine woollen tunic. His face was broad at the forehead, and tapering, with a straight nose, a long upper lip and a firm jaw. It might have been a human face, in certain attitudes, except for the eyes, which were widely spaced, very large, and set, up-curving, into his temples.

Scott Gale was, in comparison, round faced and round headed, yet in cloak and hood he had often passed for a Moruian. His hair and beard were black; he had often, during his first days on Torin, cursed the Irish ancestors who gave him blue eyes. This strange pair walked on, talking in Moruian, until they came to the lake shore. Esto, the Great Sun, came over the shoulder of a mountain and turned the warm waters of the lake to gold.

“There!” said Dorn, “and not even a stone for memorial!” Scott Gale laughed. “Memorial to the loss of a good air ship,” he said.

“Ah, but it is strange!” exclaimed Dorn. “Don't you feel it? To remember the past so clearly . . . We stand where the party from the hunting lodge was standing . . .”

He looked back to the oval building on the terrace. “They carried torches and lances, that night, and a Galtroy banner . . . star and spindle.” He knelt at the water's edge, wrinkling his forehead, and skipped a stone across the steamy water.

“I've heard the story, from the Family,” said Gale, “until it's like a story from my own childhood. I don't know what I remember or what was told to me.” He pointed to a narrow beach on the far side of the lake.

“Was it about there that you pulled me ashore?”

“Yes,” said Dorn.

They walked on, around the head of the lake, with Dorn running ahead and clambering over fallen logs. When Gale caught up again, Dorn was staring ahead at a particular rock above the little beach. Over the rock arched an old, gnarled tree, a mountain black-thorn, which had been struck by lightning and scarred along one side of its bent trunk. The rock was scratched and indented with written characters; the tree itself was strung with loose clumps of thread, of varying thickness, knotted in certain patterns.

“Well, someone has not forgotten,” said Scott Gale. “What do the skeins say?”

They walked to the tree, and Dorn climbed the rock and felt at the largest message skein. He read off the woven symbols: “Praise to our Mother, the North Wind, and to Eddorn who found great fortune for his Family.” Then he reached for another skein.