Chapter 18 — Milkmaids at the Gates
~ 1 ~ When Valkei released her hand, Ingundis the Weaver saw the Vision of a wind-rippled tapestry fade away, a handmaid taking form in its place. The handmaid was speaking to Valkei while other handmaids were busily working on the Floor behind them.
“The War Thing has passed?” asked the Weaver.
The handmaid stared at her, for Ingundis the Weaver had become visible to her only as she was asking the question.
Valkei explained to the handmaid, “ I and Ingundis the Weaver have accidentally seen different figures of the War Thing’s Exscape.”
The Weaver said then, “Valkei, our milkmaid visitor said to me, before this Docking, that she possessed the Crown. I believe that it is the Crown which caused the sun-flash seen by us, although I did not see the Crown itself.”
“What kind of ‘sun-flash’ is it, of which you are speaking?” asked Ingundis the Maker, upon whose approach the handmaid had turned away to aid in restoring order to the Treasury of Devices before resuming her Calling Portal duties.
Ingundis the Weaver described to Ingundis the Maker her experience of the sun-flash: “To me, it seemed that I was in my living body in Earth’s Province, where the sun surprised me.”
Valkei nodded. “And so it was with me, Sister.
Ingundis the Maker declared, “I say, then, that you did experience the Earth’s sun, for the Crown may have passed through Earth’s Province, gaining a store of sunlight, before resting in Ottilie Krüger‘s hand. We know now that Ottilie’s War Thing did not begin with a proper Solemn Council, but with her preventive destruction of the false Crown of Liuva. After that, she held in her hands the Crown of the War Queen, but she did not wear it.”
“I agree, for I think that I see your thoughts: Ottilie Krüger held the Crown on her own authority, rooted in Earth’s Province.” Ingundis the Fair said this as she, too, came to join them. She said, “You were unable to move the Crown, Valkei, because Ottilie Krüger possessed it.”
Ingundis the Weaver found herself looking upon Ingundis the Fair for the first time, hearing her sweet and womanly voice and admiring the long, pale-gold hair which was braided and coiled upon her head. The Weaver was awed by beholding, at last, the woman who had devised, while yet a primitive Maker, the art of Inscription, and who had been one of Thiuderieks’s first apprentices, along with Thorismund. She was the peerless first woman.
Some time earlier, Ingundis the Weaver had been told by Ingundis the Maker, “You will meet Ingundis the Fair after we have completed our work with the War Thing which succeeds yours and Frederick’s. She is the eldest of us, and her Secrets are the deepest. Although many Keen Makers of past War Things have joined us and worked their Secrets, they have then passed from the Commons. Ingundis the Fair remains. She is the first of us to come here, and we think that she will be the last of us to leave. Ingundis the Fair is beautiful like Valkei, but she is milder, having even a wistful temperament. Her Secrets are deep, and none can guess them. Of course, each of us tells nothing of any Secret of our own until its hour comes, but we do speculate freely about each other's Secrets.”
Ingundis the Maker asked, “Ingundis the Fair, are you implying that it is by her own authority that Ottilie Krüger has obtained the Crown, snatching it away from us as you were reaching for it?”
“Yes, and I think that she has the same authority over the Crown that you have, Valkei, because she has truly lived the life of the virgin War Queen, as you had desired to do.”
Ingundis the Maker looked intently at gentle Ingundis the Fair. “You are saying, then, that in so far as she was truly dead to Earth’s Province in her chastity, the milkmaid was, in part, one of us, and able to grant her own request for the Crown in her War Thing.”
The gathered Keen Makers pondered this matter, some nodding and others shaking their heads.
“Let us return to the Gate,” Valkei said, “and see if our milkmaid has returned for a parley. I know that she is not an Avatar, as I had first surmised.
Some of the Sisters followed Valkei, walking toward the Gate. Ingundis the Fair followed behind the eager group and took the hand of Ingundis the Weaver, detaining her. “Welcome to the House of Women, Ingundis the Weaver,” she said. “What shall we do about having yet another Ingundis in our midst? What shall we call you?”
Some of the Keen Makers of past War Things stopped to listen.
The Weaver answered, “Surely, Ingundis the Fair, our names are the least of our problems, but as Valkei has called me ‘Sister Weaver’ and my husband calls me ‘Rhoda’, please, if you will, call me Sister Rhoda.”
“But you are not Rhoda Ingundis, Slayer of the Wicked, are you?”
“How could I be? She is a merely a mythical figure. Have not many of us played that role in our girlhood?”
“She who claims that name has dismissed the Penultimate Shift of Thiuderieks’s Garth; so she is no myth. When I was in the flesh, I kept the First Shift, which was in Earth’s Province. Then, from this House, I kept the Penultimate Shift until Rhoda Ingundis dismissed it. During that time, Thorismund, my husband, was the Garth’s Master Maker.” The other Sisters, hearing this, looked in amazement at Ingundis the Fair, who smiled at them saying, “My Secret has many Arms. Ingundis the Weaver, we—like Valkei—shall call you ‘Sister Weaver’.”
While the others went on toward the Gate, Ingundis the Fair lingered alone behind them, clasping opposite wrists in her hands. Thorismund, my husband, have you recognized Ottilie Krüger?
"No. Is she the Rhoda Ingundis who dismissed the Penultimate Shift?"
No; Rhoda Ingundis is yet to come. It is on Ottilie Krüger’s part that we are facing a crisis.
“My love, the consensus of the Houses is that we have now served the War Thing of Ottilie Krüger, and so we have put it into our past. Ottilie is free to enter the Houses through your Gate; her counsel to our Thing will be highly valuable.”
That is true, but not fully true, dear husband. Her War Thing is a dangerous situation for us because Ottilie Krüger had acted with the authority of the Houses before the Niche of her War Thing was opened to us by a Solemn Council.
“How do you know this?”
I will tell you: I happened to be on the Grassy Meadow scanning the Advancing Front from the Meadow’s vantage, when I discovered her approaching the House of Women, bringing the events of her War Thing to us. I followed the seeing back into into her past, and I discovered that Ottilie Krüger had held in her hands the Crown of Women—Valkei’s Crown, as it is now called—after finding it in the hidden drawer of a flour bin in the Abbey Estate Clan Hold in modern Germany. She had unconsciously commanded it to come to her—a fact suggested to me by her taking it into her hands, appearing to desire to place it on her head, and then returning it to the drawer instead.
“Through whose eyes did you see these things?”
Through the eyes of another clever young apprentice, whom I sensed to be more Word Wise than Maker. I saw her watching secretly from behind a closet door. When Ottilie Krüger left the room, this young woman attempted to fetch the Crown for herself, but it remained hidden.
Then the Vision changed, and I saw Ottilie Krüger, through the eyes of her Word Wise mentor, destroying the false Crown of Liuva—by that action unknowingly lifting the Ban of Swords. Then, after a miscarried Solemn Council, she was called for and was appointed Keen Maker of the War Thing. Only partially understanding the import of these events in the thatch Visions, I searched again for her in the Commons and saw her through the eyes of ever-keen Imogen: Ottilie Krüger was standing on the other side of the Sundering Brook, the Crown in her hands flashing with the sunlight of Earth’s Province. Then I understood our danger!
“What did you do?”
I alerted our Powers to prepare for Docking with a new War Thing which originated in the times of my Visions.
“So the debate within the Houses was resolved swiftly when it was understood that a new War Thing Docking was already taking place.”
That is correct, and there was no margin for error in Docking, but we did achieve it without disaster. However, there is a real danger which has been the cause of Valkei’s warning about an Avatar: A very powerful agent of the Foe has followed Ottilie Krüger and is near our Gate. I cannot see it, but I sense that because of the danger’s relationship to her, only Ottilie can deal with it. Ottilie is unaware that, being in possession of the Crown—the seat of power in a War Thing which in some way is not concluded—she is free to wield that power!
“So, from outside the Gates, Ottilie might accidentally destroy the Houses in defending herself against the Foe’s agent, or the Foe might overcome her and gain the Crown and its power.”
Yes, dear Thorismund, and my wisdom tells me that you must prepare the Partial Vision of Thiuderieks so that I may see through your eyes.
“Do you not trust your own eyes, my fair one?”
There is no time for teasing, dear heart. I must first see myself, through Imogen’s eyes nested within yours, beginning the fabrication of the Crown. Then I will know best what I am to do in order to aid in resolving the new War Thing, securing the Crown and bringing its bearer into our Houses.
“I must understand what knowledge it is that you can gain from Imogen, which you yourself do not possess.”
Dear Thorismund, Imogen assisted at the beginning of my fabrication, in such a way that in her Living Memory, that event is yet open on the Edge of Meaning. Standing in her Place, I will be able to open the Crown’s Design, enabling Ottilie Krüger to use the Crown in such a way that it naturally recasts the Design using Imogen’s open Edge. Since Ottilie Krüger intends no harm to our Houses, her unconscious use of this opening will naturally spare us any dire consequences. When she encounters and recognizes this agent of the Foe and her relationship with it, she will be free to act with her full power to meet whatever challenge it presents to her.
“That is a very clever stratagem, but it will cost us ever-keen Imogen’s service.”
That is true, too, my love, but we all deeply desire to pass through the Commons into the Glory.
“I will prepare the Partial Vision in perfect simplicity of heart, so that all three of you women will see, as clearly as our art allows, what is to be done.”
I know that you will do it well, my love.
Ingundis the Fair unclasped her hands from her wrists and followed the others to the Gate.
~ 2 ~ Looking back, Ottilie was no longer able to see the fence cloud. She halted, gazing at the Crown of Valkei in her hands and recalling how she had longed to place it on her head when she had—four years earlier in her life—withdrawn it from the flour cabinet. She felt again that longing. But I am no longer the War Queen. Saying a Returning Oath, she returned the Crown to her purse, from which it had come following her request for whatever object would best establish her authenticity. Ottilie waited...
The Anchor of Ottilie’s Niche as a Denizen human had been in her final sight of Ellie Herder’s outraged face after Ottilie’s killing sword had pierced her body. Suddenly, Ottilie was aware that the Anchor had become untethered from that sight and was now tethered to the hearing Bridge between her and the House of Women. The change told her that beyond the horizon of the Bridge, the activity in the Houses was bringing them into her War Thing, which had begun four years before her death. She herself was only days removed from her death, but she estimated that the current Advancing front in Earth’s Province was a quarter of a century in the future of that day. She had only the hearing Bridge now to help her return to the Gate of the House of Women, and the change of her Anchor had changed her directional sense, so she needed to take care in returning to the Gate.
Looking around, Ottilie spotted a panther-form Denizen. She saw clearly that it was tracking her! Ottilie watched it with fascination—almost like prey watching its end approach—as the panther-form drew nearer. Awareness came to her then that her attention had wandered, and she was barely hearing the distant voices from the House of Women. She was losing the Bridge! Without it, there was no possibility of her finding her way back to the House. Hastily, she refocused her attention on the faint sound of voices. I am a fool! Until I truly pass, my follies are yet haunting me.
The panther was blocking her from seeking the voices by simply retracing her Footpath.
Ottilie unsheathed her dagger, enshrouding herself in a Mantle of invisibility within the Commons, in an Inner Sanctum-like space in which the hand holding her dagger became her Calipers’ Arm on the Edge of Doing, and her empty hand became the Calipers’Arm on the Edge of Meaning. In effect, she became an invisible living Calipers. Through the Mantle, she perceived the Commons in the way of a Maker in her Inner Sanctum, and she found it very interesting! She perceived the many Pathways (including her own) through the upper Airs in the flagstones of Electrum. All of the Pathways were visible to her in their full essential dimensionality, and she saw a myriad of Denizens slowly finding their own Footpaths within the Pathways. She discerned that the panther-form Denizen truly was tracking her! And she discerned that the panther-form was that of an Anima which disguised the true Denizen who was following her Footpath down from the fencing cloud of the Women’s House. It must have been watching her and listening to her there. She thought the Denizen might be a Death Stalker. It had halted at the location of her inversion into the Mantle of invisibility. The panther sat there, swishing its long tail from side to side, waiting for her to reappear.
While focusing her essential vision upon this Denizen, Ottilie heard again the murmur of the Sisters’ voices. She understood then that the panther-form had continued to listen to them, and that she would be able to use the beast as a means of restoring her fading Bridge with the House of Women. Ottilie cast a Net to the panther, securing it as an amplified Bridge, and at once she heard clearly the voices within the House. I have an aid to hearing, but it may be a rather unruly one. While the panther sat quietly searching for her with its Anima’s senses, she learned from the voices that the Houses’ Docking with the past of her War Thing had begun, and it was moving toward completion.
Ottilie became aware of again exerting command over the Edge of Meaning, and she became vividly conscious of the events of the last minutes of her War Thing in which her Denizen’s Niche was anchored. So I am yet part War Queen, without my body! My dying command is yet effective!
Quickly, she sheathed her dagger and revealed herself, stretching out her hands to the panther and crying, “Ellie, come here!”
Snarling, the panther sprang at her. Ottilie’s leap was even higher than the beast’s, and to one side of its lunging body. She grasped the nape of its neck with her left hand while seizing her dagger from its sheath with her right hand. Abruptly, the motion of both combatants ceased; Ottilie and the panther were floating in the space of Ottilie’s Mantle. The panther went limp in her hand, and after singing a Chant to release Ellie from the Anima, Ottilie struck the panther’s head with the dagger’s hilt, just above the spot where her left hand was clutching its neck. The panther skin split open, exposing Ellie Herder! Naked and dazed and wounded by Ottilie’s death thrust, Ellie fell from the panther pelt and collapsed at Ottilie’s feet.
Kneeling to look at her, Ottilie saw the astonished and outraged face which had been staring at her when she had said, “Come with me, Ellie.” Ellie had batted away her hand, then. Now, Ottilie smoothed Ellie’s hair away from her face and was assaulted at once by the Hell Stench. She commanded her Powers to waft it away.
Seeing Ellie’s eyes focused on her, Ottilie commanded,
“Ellie, with your hand, feel my sword’s wound in your body!”
Without taking her eyes from Ottilie, Ellie moved her hand to the gaping wound in her chest and explored it with her fingers. She clenched her teeth, reached behind her back, and felt the exit wound. Groaning, she lay back and closed her eyes.
“We are not in Valhalla, sweetheart, but both of us are dead to the world we knew in Berlin. You are no longer gracing the floor of the Fishbowl with your blood.”
The teasing irony of Ottilie’s voice eased Ellie long enough for Ottilie to quickly slip an arm under her, touching the exit wound with her fingers as she did so, and thrust her dagger though the wound with her other hand. Transfixed a second time, Ellie gasped in a second agony. She felt completely crushed, with no air remaining in her lungs. Her hands twitched, but she had no strength for seizing and throttling Ottilie as she desired. Her eyes closed. This nightmare is ended. I am dying at last.
Ottilie pulled her dagger from Ellie’s body, wiped it on her dress and sheathed it. “Breathe, Ellie. The stench is gone, is it not?”
Ellie breathed. “It is gone, Ottilie. Have I followed you? Where are we?”
“The story of where we are is long, and I have no time to tell it to you. You have followed me in order to seize me with these jaws and drag me to your recent master.” Ottilie held up the panther Anima Device, which looked something like a large cat’s skull made of gold. She worked the jaw as though the skull were a toy; Ellie was almost amused. Ottilie spoke to the mechanical skull in the androgynous voice of Sunderer: “Stay on her scent or breathe my scent again!”
Then, working the jaws and speaking in Ellie’s own voice, she said, “Go away! Go away! I hate her already!” Ottilie was mimicking the conversation that she had read from the Living Memory of the panther Anima
Ottilie’s imitation of Sunderer’s voice replied, “You do not hate her enough, my playmate. Not as we do!”
Ellie’s strength was returning; she raised herself to a sitting position. “Oh, God! Stop, Ottilie! It was horrible!”
“I had a need for certainty that I correctly understand your situation, Ellie. I am sorry that it was necessary for you to endure that experience again.”
Ellie looked around and saw other Denizens, of both animal and human form, moving about in the strange airy landscape. She looked down at her own body. She did not see the wound that she had felt, but what she did see caused her to quickly cross her arms over her breasts and pull up her knees. “I am naked!”
Ottilie stood up. She tucked the panther Device into her purse. Then she rummaged around in the purse while Ellie watched her. “Ellie, I can find something for you to wear, but I travel light, so I do not have much to offer.”
“Anything, Ottilie. I feel so exposed among all of these people! At least they are not staring and laughing at me yet.”
“Well , here is a second milkmaid’s dress, Ellie, of a design different from that of the one which I am wearing.”
“Ottilie, you are dressed like a milkmaid! Well, if a milkmaid’s dress is all that you have, I will accept it.”
~ 3 ~ The other women made way for Ingundis the Fair as she walked briskly toward Imogen, who was yet keeping watch, looking across the Sundering Brook from the Gate. “My daughter Imogen, I have read your Living Memory of the encounter with our milkmaid at our Gate. I will keep watch with you for her return.”
Quickly, Imogen said, “I must report to you that I have seen a Denizen in the form of a panther following the milkmaid as she retreated.”
Ingundis the Fair clasped her wrists. Thorismund, is the Partial Vision prepared?
“It is ready.”
That is good. Anchor it at the Gate of the House of Women where I am standing. I have need of haste.
“It is prepared, my love. Choose your moment!”
Ingundis the Fair placed her hand on her handmaid’s shoulder. “Imogen,” she said, “I need to use your eyes, and using them, pass to you the ability to perform a Secret task of the War Thing which has only now come to me. I cannot use my own hands for this task, because the one who does it will pass from the Commons, which I must not yet do, for I have yet another Secret, which can be done only by my own hands.”
Imogen turned, smiling radiantly at Ingundis the Fair. “Command me, Mistress!”
“Look!” said Ingundis the Fair. “Our milkmaid returns!”
The moment is now, my love.
Imogen looked, and Ingundis the Fair entered invisibly into Imogen’s seeing. “Mistress,” said Imogen, “there are two milkmaids approaching us, hand-in-hand!” Many of the House of Women’s members overheard her, and they pressed forward to see, behind Imogen and her mistress. By touching her handmaid, Ingundis the Fair had restored the present moment to the whole House, and she had extended the Houses’ Plenum beyond the Gate to the pair of milkmaids. All of the women there had heard Imogen’s declaration that she was ready to risk passing from the Commons in order to perform the task which Ingundis the Fair would set her.
“Go to meet Ottilie Krüger, my daughter, and request the Crown of Valkei for me. Follow your own instincts in performing this task.” After giving this command, Ingundis the Fair opened the Gate and forded the Sundering Brook with her handmaid. Dense schools of small, eel-like Denizens, swimming upstream, brushed against their feet like innumerable tiny, purring kittens. At the stream’s bank, Imogen stepped out and walked alone to meet the two milkmaids.
Ellie and Ottilie halted, awaiting the envoy. Ellie stared at her and at the women gathered at the open Gate. That is not the Gate to which I was commanded to return with my prey! Feeling passionate joy, Ellie squeezed Ottilie’s hand as Imogen bowed. Bowing to Imogen, Ottilie returned Ellie’s fierce hand-squeeze.
Imogen said respectfully to Ottilie, “Lady: My mistress, Ingundis the Fair, requests that you deliver to me the Crown of Valkei, that I may take it to her.”
“Certainly,” said Ottilie. “First, let me introduce to you my companion, Ellie Herder. Ellie and I have experienced death from Earth’s Province in the same moment.”
Bowing to Ellie, Imogen said, “Ellie Herder, I am Handmaid Imogen, at your service. Did the two of you die together in battle?”
“Yes, but we killed one another. I was to blame.”
Imogen had no ready response to that disclosure. She glanced at Ottilie, who was opening her purse.
“Ah, here it is,” said Ottilie. “In truth, Imogen, I was not sure that I still possess it.” She placed the Crown in Imogen’s hands.
Ellie stared at the Crown of Valkei.
“Ellie Herder, will you be pleased to carry this for me?” Imogen held out the Crown to Ellie, whose bewildered face glowed with pleasure as she reached out her hands. Then, at Ellie Herder’s touch to the Crown, both she and Imogen vanished. A gasp came from the women watching from across the Sundering Brook, and the Crown fell to Ottilie’s feet. She picked it up at once. For a moment, it blazed again like the sun. The milkmaid entered the Sundering Brook, carrying the Crown to the beautiful woman in a flowing gown who was waiting for her. She had not yet come to Ingundis the Fair when she saw that Valkei had entered the stream. Valkei spoke to Ingundis the Fair before coming on toward Ottilie, who halted before her.
“I am Valkei, as you have guessed, Sister Ottilie. Please accept my apologies for mistaking you for an Avatar.”
“It was a happy accident, Sister Valkei, which provided me with an opportunity to reconcile with my slayer. You might say that this Crown is the Blood Gold between us. Will you accept it for us?”
Valkei laughed and took the Crown into her hands. “Ottilie Krüger, you have lived the life that I had desired to live, and you have died the death that I had desired to die.” Valkei’s face became as radiant as Imogen’s and Ellie’s had become, as she placed the Crown on Ottilie’s head and kissed her cheeks. Then Valkei vanished, the Crown flashing with the light of the sun for the third and final time. Valkei’s Secret had been accomplished and she had passed from the Commons, following Imogen and Ellie. Another gasp of astonishment came from the women watching from the far side of the Sundering Brook.
