The Center of the World - 6. The Way North

As Galipo led them northward through the streets of Luzig to the piers where ships were docked, he spoke mostly to Saghir but kept an eye on Pireno. The trading house was finished now and Galipo was very pleased with it. The weather had warmed early, leaving little sea ice. Pireno had said goodbye to Hesnik, who was sorry to lose him, and packed his belongings, with special care for Finlar’s pendant and one other small bundle. He had tied his last daily knot in his third tally string and was ready to start a fourth. Saghir carried the rest of their gear.

“The ship is one of mine,” Galipo was saying. “Its first stop will be the island, where it will trade with a giants’ ship. Look, you can see the island, that peak there, how close it is. The Island of Broken Bones. The Luzig council doesn’t permit giants to dock in our city port, not since the war, so that island is where trading has to take place. There are always giants’ ships there, and I’m sure you can find one to take you to your homeland.”

Saghir nodded. “Ya, I know this bad war, giant with man, on this island. Man say this island by we, giant say this island by we, war.”

“Even though it was a long time ago, there’s still a lot of bad feeling. We tried to build a trading house there, and the giants pulled it down; giants tried to build one, and men burned it down. So we have this awkward business of trading ship to ship. I personally think it would be to everyone’s benefit if we could have a permanent establishment there, but the distrust just doesn’t allow for it.”

Pireno listened to the conversation but also took in the sights as they walked. They were passing areas of Luzig he had never seen, areas not as properous as the merchants’ district. Many of the city’s poor lived here near the docks. Rich estates gave way to modest homes and then to shacks. Clothes were shabby and faces were pinched. Although it was early morning, a good number of people were drunk. Pireno’s mind went back to the day he found Saghir lying injured in his tent, and his apprehensions about Saghir’s reliance on wine. But since then the giant had shown no inclination to drink to excess.

As they neared the water, Pireno saw more and more men of the city guard, armed with lances and axes and carrying shields slung over their backs. The guardsmen eyed Saghir with suspicion.

Galipo’s ship was being loaded with cargo as they approached. Galipo had a word with the ship’s captain, pointing to Pireno and Saghir, then returned to them. “He’ll take you to the island. From there it’s up to you to arrange. Mr. Saghir, it has been a privilege to work with you. I hope very much that we will meet again some day. Even if you’re just visiting in Luzig, please come to see me. And Mr. Bilinu, I trust that if that day comes, I will have the pleasure of seeing you as well.”

“If my master is here, I will be here too.”

“I hope you don’t mind my impertinence, but is Bilinu your real name? It sounds Giantish.”

“I was Pireno in my village. Bilinu is how my master says my name, and now it’s simpler if everyone calls me that. I even prefer it.”

“There's quite a story there, I suspect -- the two of you. Now I must not delay you. You must both prepare to sail.”

The short voyage to the island was uneventful. The sailors muttered that having a giant on board was unlucky, but the captain silenced them. It seemed that their superstition was invented in the moment to justify their fear.

As Galipo had assured them, there was a giants’ ship at anchor in the island harbor. Galipo’s ship pulled alongside, and haggling began. Saghir and Pireno got permission to come aboard the giants’ ship. The ship was outbound, not going home; but in a few days there would be another ship that could take them. When the giants sent a small landing boat to the island to get fresh water, the two travelers went along and stayed ashore.

Saghir surveyed the foundations of the abandoned trading house. Pireno asked, “Master, why did the giants and men both want this island so much that they went to war over it?”

“Man, I not know. Giant think this place by giant, old time, thousand, thousand year. Some giant think, old time was, this center of world. This island like heart by giant.”

“Why is it called the Island of Broken Bones?”

“Ah, this not straight. Word not same. Word by giant, daimak ghuashila, sky break-piece. Not same as word tainak ghuashila, broke bone. But man hear, man think other word.”

“So the name is really Island of Pieces of the Sky?”

“Ya. I show you.” And without another word he led Pireno up the slope to the peak.

At the summit was a bowl-like grassy depression. A ring of jagged standing stones, spaced a few yards apart, circled a larger stone in the center. Even the smaller stones were twice Saghir’s height.

“Master, I --”

Saghir brought his finger to his lips and shook his head. They both stood in silence.

A light breeze blew. Clouds drifted overhead. The faint sound of the sea reached Pireno’s ears. As he looked at the stones, he felt very small and young. He could almost believe that they were great pieces of the sky, fallen from the heavens. They dwarfed all the worries and dramas of the last year, and for that matter of his life. His village seemed insignificant. Compared to these stones, even the Empire seemed like a passing thing, rising and falling in a brief moment in time.

He caught a faint glimpse of why this place was important to the giants, why they thought it had once been the center of the world.

Saghir turned to him and held out his hand. Pireno reached out and touched his fingers, and felt in that moment something beyond the ancient, ancient history of the place, something without any time at all.

************

They returned to the shore and set up camp. Two days later a giants’ ship put into port, and when the sailors came ashore for water, they agreed to take Saghir and Pireno to the giant’s homeland. They were a little suspicious of Pireno, but warmed to him when he spoke to them in Giantish, and decided that Saghir must have him well in hand.

Pireno decided to pass some time with a grammar lesson. “Master, you see how giants are not so suspicious of me when I speak Giantish, even if it’s not perfect. I think it will help you when you talk to humans if you speak our language more like us, less like the trade language.”

“Bilinu, word by man very not easy. For giant. All time you say this word bad, this word good, I say why, you not answer.”

“I don’t have any answers about why we say things one way and not another. It’s a lot easier if you grow up with it. But I didn’t grow up speaking Giantish, and I’m learning, aren’t I?”

Saghir just raised his eyebrows and started laughing.

“All right, all right, my Giantish is bad sometimes, but I keep trying.”

“Ya, ya. You want I keep try word by man.”

“I think it will be to your advantage.”

“I giant. I not man.”

“Let’s start with that. We don’t say ‘I giant.’ We say ‘I am a giant.’”

“Ya. I hear this word ‘am.’ What this word mean?”

“It doesn’t really mean anything. You just use it. I mean, you use it after ‘I.’”

Saghir shook his head, but said, “I am giant.”

“Right. And I am a man.”

“You am man.”

“Sorry, no, you don’t say ‘you am.’ You say ‘you are.’”

“Why?”

“I don’t know why. You just do.”

Saghir exhaled an impatient “Fff!” but said, “You are man. I am giant. You are man.”

“Right.”

“I am master. You are slave. I am Saghir. You are Bilinu.”

“Perfect!”

“I am go. You are think. I am eat.”

“No, no. You can’t say ‘I am go.’ You can say ‘I am going.’”

“Why?”

“I don’t know why.”

“I am go-ing. I am think-ing. I am happy-ing. I am big-ing. You are little-ing.”

“No, it’s ‘I am happy,’ ‘I am big,’ ‘You are little.’”

“Why? Why go, happy not same?”

“Heskelion would say it’s because one is a verb and one is an adjective.”

“Now you make up. You try make head spin-turn.”

“No, I’m not just making this up.”

Saghir picked Pireno up and spun him around and silenced him with a kiss. Smiling, he said, “Now I make head by you spin-turn. This how you make Saghir do thing you want. You make head by Saghir up, down, right, left. You say word, I not can say not. You do little dance, I see that ass by you, I not can say not. You say word, “You under power by I,” I hafta do all thing you say.”

“Not ‘You under my power,’ ‘You are under my power.’”

“Ya. I are under power by you.”

“Am.”

“I am under power by you. And I am want fuck you now. Much.”

“All right, that concludes today’s lesson.”

Forbidding islands of rock and wind-swept, smooth, grassy islands drifted past. Their progress was rapid with favorable winds almost the entire way. They were very far north and the progress of spring did little to abate the cold. A broad expanse of shoreline appeared. Whether it was mainland or a large island was impossible to tell. “Tughan-ik gurma,” Saghir said to Pireno -- the homeland of the giants.

Pireno should have expected the enormous buildings, but their effect was still overwhelming. They were in perfect proportion to the many giants walking about the harbor. Most were giantesses or children or old giants. The children stared at Pireno, pointed and laughed. They ran up and wanted to touch him, as if he were Saghir’s pet dog. Saghir shooed them away.

They found Finlar’s wife at home. Her voice was melodious as she greeted Saghir with a big smile and cast an inquiring glance at Pireno.

She wore a beautiful blue dress with a silver sash. Her height, Pireno noticed, was almost exactly the same as Finlar’s. She had long, flowing, rich chestnut hair, and a dense, full beard.