“You’re a sweet old bear, you are,” Laurie said to him.
I could not stay entirely comfortable, but a sip of my rum collins soothed. “Well, sure, you’re welcome to the information,” I began. “I did assure myself that Alawin would be all right.” Everard stirred. “How?” he demanded. “Not to worry, Manse. I proceeded cautiously, for the most part indirectly. Different identities on different occasions. The few times he glimpsed me, he recognized nothing.” My fingers passed over a smooth-shaven chin – Roman style, like my close-cropped hair; and when the need arises, a Patrolman has advanced disguise technology at his service. “Oh, yes, I’ve laid the Wanderer to rest.”
“Good!” Everard relaxed back into his chair. “What did become of that lad?”
“Alawin, you mean? Well, he led a fair-sized group, including his mother Erelieva and her household, he led them west to join Frithigern.” (He would lead them, three centuries hence. But we were talking our native English. The Temporal language has appropriate tenses.) “He enjoyed favor there, especially after he was baptized. That by itself was reason for letting the Wanderer fade away, you understand. How could a Christian stay close to a heathen god?”
“Hm. I wonder what he thought about those experiences, later.”
“I get the impression he kept his mouth shut. Naturally, if his descendants – he married well – if his descendants preserved any tradition about it, they’d suppose that some kind of spook had been running around in the old country.”
“The old country? Oh, yes. Alawin never got back to the Ukraine, did he?”
“No, hardly. Would you like me to sketch the history for you?”
“Please. I did study it somewhat, in connection with your case, but not much of the aftermath. Besides, that was quite a spell ago, on my world line.”
And plenty must have happened to you since, I thought. Aloud: “Well, in 374 Frithigern’s people crossed the Danube, by permission, and settled in Thrace. Athanaric’s soon followed, although into Transylvania. Hunnish pressure had gotten too severe.
“The Roman officials abused and exploited the Goths – in other words, were a government – for several years. Finally the Goths decided they’d had a bellyful, and revolted. The Huns had given them the idea and technique of developing cavalry, which they made heavy; at the battle of Adrianople in 378 it rode the Romans down. Alawin distinguished himself there, by the way, which started him toward the prominence he achieved. A new Emperor, Theodosius, made peace with the Goths in 381, and most of their warriors entered the Roman service as foederati: allies, we’d say.
“Afterward came renewed conflicts, battles, migrations – the Volkerwanderung was under way. I’ll sum it up for my Alawin by saying that after a turbulent but basically happy life, he died, at a ripe old age, in the kingdom which by then the Visigoths had carved out for themselves in southern Gaul. Descendants of his took a leading part in founding the Spanish nation. “So you see how I can let that family go from me, and get on with my work.”
Laurie’s hand closed hard around mine.
Twilight was becoming night. Stars blinked forth. A coal in Everard’s pipe made its own red twinkle. He himself was a darkling bulk, like the mountain that lifted above the western horizon.
“Yes,” he mused, “it comes back to me, sort of. But you’ve been speaking about the Visigoths. The Ostrogoths, Alawin’s original countrymen – didn’t they take over in Italy?”
“Eventually,” I said. “First they had dreadful things to undergo.” I paused. What I was about to utter would touch wounds that were not fully scarred over. “The Wanderer spoke truth. There was vengeance for Swanhild.”
374
Ermanaric sat alone beneath the stars. Wind whimpered. From afar he heard wolves howl.
After the messengers had brought their news, he could soon endure no more of the terror and the gabble that followed. At his command, two warriors had helped him up the stairs to the flat roof of this blockhouse. They set him down on a bench by the parapet and wrapped a fur cloak about his hunched shoulders. “Go!” he barked, and they went, fear upon them.