The Six Swans - 4. War and Royal Succession

Zwika wished to continue east to her mother's homeland. But she heard that war had begun there and was afraid to go alone. With some thought of going back west to persuade her brother to come with her, she found herself once more at the river ferry. There Clay still sang his song:

I'd give up land, I'd give up gold,

All I have, or ever will behold,

If with me you would grow old,

Come bibble in the boo shy lorie.

Shule, shule, shule a rune,

Shule a rack a shack, shule a tycoon.

Down the river, night and noon,

Come bibble in the boo shy lorie.

"Where are you going now?" Clay asked Zwika.

She replied, "To the kingdom to the east, my mother's homeland.”

"Then you are going the wrong way," he said.

"I need help," she replied. "War has started there, and my brother is the only one who might go with me."

"I will go with you," he said.

So together they arrived in the kingdom of the east. Zir, the chief minister's elder son, impatient with his slow progress to power, had declared himself king, and shackled his father in the dungeon beside the true king, Edwin. Zwika's uncles, Edwin’s sons, fighting to recapture their kingdom, had begun their assault on the capital city.

At the height of battle, when all the guards had left to fight, Zwika and Clay slipped into the palace. They found King Edwin in the dungeon, dead, his throat slit and blood pooling on the stone floor. Beside him was the chief minister, also shackled, bloody knife in hand, saying, "Liar! My only son a liar. He put the knife in my hand and now he'll blame me. My only son." The rest of what he said made no sense; he had gone mad, and did not recognize his younger son.

"It seems my brother could not take the risk of the king being freed in the war," Clay said.

"Your brother?" Zwika asked.

"My brother Zir, whom your uncles are fighting right now. This is our father, the chief minister. My real name is Dymon.”

“I like Clay better,” Zwika said.

“Then my name shall be Clay from now on.”

Guards, returning to their normal posts after the battle, found the two young people bent over the body of the dead king; but Clay and Zwika managed to escape from them. Hiding in the shadow of the city wall, they listened as the surviving elders of the kingdom counted the battle's losses. Zwika's uncles had killed Zir; but all of them had died as well.

The elders arranged a splendid funeral for Zir. But they commanded that the bodies of the sons of King Edwin should be left unburied for crows to eat. Zwika whispered to Clay, "We must bury my uncles. We were too late to save anyone here, but we cannot allow this. They had better claim to this kingdom than your brother, and as much right to a decent burial."

That night, during the funeral, when no one guarded the bodies, Zwika and Clay began to bury them and to say the rites of the dead over each body. They were just beginning rites for the last one when guards returned and arrested them. When they were brought before the kingdom's elders, other guards recognized them as the two who were seen in the dungeon beside the dead king. Furious that anyone would defy their orders to leave the rebel corpses unburied, and persuaded that the two young people had killed King Edwin, the elders ordered that Zwika and Clay be burned to death.

After three days, the young couple found themselves tied to posts, flames growing in the brushwood at their feet.

Just then they saw a flock of geese flying over the trees to the west; then the geese circled overhead. Not six geese, or seven, but hundreds. They flew lower, then landed, each one turning into a man as it touched the ground. Some of the geese-turned-men ran to the young couple and released them, pulling them away from the fire; others drew swords, or aimed arrows at the city's soldiers. Suddenly Zwika realized that the leader of the geese-turned-men was her brother Zwolfus.

"Where did you find this army?" Zwika asked him.

"They are geese; ours, and hundreds of others. Our mother changed their appearance with a little temporary magic," Zwolfus replied, pointing to a distant hillside. Una was there.

Zwika said to her brother, "How did you know we needed you?"

"The old witch told me. She is here now." And so she was, although no one had seen her arrive.

The old witch turned to the elders of the city and said, "Your king is dead. Your chief minister is mad. Most of their families are gone. But these two young people are heirs to their lines. They must be your king and queen now." And the elders, nervously eyeing Zwolfus' army, agreed.

Zwolfus said to the old witch, "I thought you had only malice in you. You have told me terrible things in the past."

The witch said, "The truth is often terrible. That is not my doing."

Zwika said to her, "Stay here with us, as our guest."

The witch laughed, saying, "No, don't try to make me a creature of light, not at my age. I have been in the shadows too long." And she disappeared.

On the distant hillside, Una shouted a single, piercing syllable, then turned and walked back into the forest. Zwolfus' army turned into geese again.

Zwika, the new queen, ordered an honorable burial for her uncles and grandfather. Clay, the new king, released his father; but the broken man still did not recognize him. So Clay ordered a loaf of bread baked without any salt in it. He set it before his father. Sniffing it suspiciously, the old man tasted it, and suddenly became quiet. He said, “It’s — it’s wrong. It needs--it needs--"

Then Clay set salt on the table and said, "I love you like bread loves salt."

The minister, as if remembering, quietly said, "Neither more nor less than a son should love his father." And he recognized his son, and his mind was restored.

The new King and Queen, ruling in equal power, celebrated their wedding on a raft in the river. There they sang:

A patch of sand, or just one grain,

Will be enough for our domain,

If together we can reign;

Come bibble in the boo shy lorie.

Shule, shule, shule a rune,

Shule a rack a shack, shule a tycoon.

Spring and winter, night and noon,

We’ll bibble in the boo shy lorie.