Ronia, The Robber's Daughter Read online

  “Hang on,” said Ronia.

  And he answered with a little grin, “Well, there’s not much else I can do here!”

  But he was afraid; you could see that.

  Ronia tore off the braided leather rope she always carried rolled in a ball on her belt. It had helped her many times with all her climbing and clambering in her forest life. Now she made a big loop at one end of the rope and tied the other end around her body. Then she lowered the rope to Birk. She saw the gleam of hope in his eyes as the rope came dangling down over his head. Yes, it was just as long as he needed, she saw, and that was just as well for this Borka rogue!

  “Get this around you if you can,” she said. “Then you can start climbing when I tell you to—but not before!”

  The storm that had struck on the night she was born had torn a block of stone out of the parapet. By a stroke of luck it lay not far from the edge of the chasm. Ronia lay down flat on her stomach behind the great stone, and then she called, “Start now!”

  And at once she felt the rope tighten around her waist. It hurt. Every tug on the rope as Birk climbed made her gasp with pain.

  Soon I’m going to split in half just like Matt’s Fort, she thought, and set her teeth to keep from screaming.

  Then, suddenly, the strain was gone and there was Birk looking down at her. She continued to lie there, wondering if she was still able to breathe. And he said, “So that’s where you are!”

  “Yes, that’s where I am,” said Ronia. “Done enough jumping now?”

  “No, I’ll have to jump once more. To get to the right side. I’ve got to go home to Borka’s Keep, you know.”

  “Take off my leather rope first,” Ronia said, getting up. “I don’t want to stay tied to you any longer than I have to.”

  He pulled off the rope. “No, of course not,” he said. “But after this perhaps I’m tied to you all the same. Without a rope.”

  “Not on your life,” said Ronia. “You and your Borka’s Keep! Get out of here!”

  She clenched her fist and punched him right on the nose.

  He laughed. “Don’t you do that again—take my advice! But it was nice of you to save my life, and I thank you for it!”

  “Get out of here, I said,” said Ronia, and ran off without looking around.

  But just as she reached the stone steps that led down from the parapet into Matt’s Fort, she heard Birk shout, “Hey, robber’s daughter, 1’11 be seeing you!”

  She turned her head and saw him gather himself for his last leap.

  “I hope you fall in again, dirty devil!” she shouted back.

  It was even worse than she had expected. Matt fell into such a rage that even his robbers were frightened.

  But at first no one would believe her, and for once Matt was angry with her.

  “A bit of lying and pretending may be fun sometimes. But you’ve got to stop this make-believe. Borka robbers in Matt’s Fort, indeed! What rubbish! It makes my blood boil even though I know it’s a lie.”

  “It’s not a lie,” said Ronia. And once again she tried to tell him what she had learned from Birk.

  “You’re lying,” Matt said. “In the first place Borka hasn’t got a boy. He can’t have any children—that’s what they’ve always said.”

  All the robbers sat there silent, not daring to speak. But at last Fooloks opened his mouth.

  “Well, but they do say he has a boy, all the same. They say

  Undis gave birth to him in sheer terror on the night there was such a bad storm. When we got Ronia, remember? “

  Matt’s eyes widened. “And no one told me! What other deviltry is there that I should know? “

  He looked around furiously, and with a bellow he grasped two beer tankards, one in each fist, and flung them at the wall, making the beer gush out.

  “And now Borka’s snake spawn is taking his ease on the roof of Matt’s Fort? And you, Ronia, have talked to him? “

  “He talked to me, ” said Ronia.

  With another yell Matt picked up the leg of lamb that had been served on the long table and flung it at the wall so hard that the grease flew.

  “And that snake spawn claimed, you say, that his heathen dog of a father has moved into the North Fort with the whole of his robber scum? “

  Ronia was afraid that if Matt had to listen to much more, he would be so furious he would lose his wits. But fury was needed if the Borka robbers were to be thrown out, so she said, “Yes, and now it’s called Borka’s Keep, just remember that! “

  With a third yell Matt picked up the soup cauldron that was hanging over the fire and flung it at the wall in a shower of soup.

  Lovis had sat silently listening and watching. Now she was angry and it showed. She picked up a basket of eggs, freshly gathered from the chicken run, took them to Matt, and said, “Here you are. But you’ll have to clean up after yourself, remember! “

  Matt took the eggs and with fearful howls flung them at the wall one by one until the place was running with yolk.

  And then he cried, “Safe as the fox in its lair and the eagle in its nest—that’s what I said. And now…”

  Big as he was, he threw himself on the floor, and there he lay, crying and shouting and cursing, until Lovis was sick and tired of it.

  “Now, that’s enough,” she said. “If you’ve got lice in your coat, roaring won’t get rid of them. Get up and do something about it!”

  The robbers were already sitting hungrily around the table. Lovis picked up the lamb from where it lay on the floor and wiped it off a little.

  “It’s probably only a bit more tender,” she said comfortingly, and began to carve thick slices for all her robbers.

  Matt got to his feet sullenly and took his seat at the table with the others. But he did not eat. He sat with his dark, tousled head in his hands and growled under his breath, sometimes giving a sigh so huge that it could be heard all around the stone hall.

  Then Ronia went over to him, put her arms around his neck, and laid her cheek against his.

  “Don’t be sad,” she said. “All you have to do is kick them out!”

  “And that may be hard,” said Matt heavily.

  They sat in front of the fire all evening, trying to puzzle out what to do. How to get lice out of your coat, or rather how to get Borka robbers out of Matt’s Fort when they had gotten a firm hold—that was what Matt wanted to know. But first and foremost he wanted to know how those snakes in the grass, those thieving rats, had managed to get into the North Fort without a single one of Matt’s robbers noticing anything. Everyone who wanted to reach Matt’s Fort on horseback or on foot had to pass through the Wolf’s Neck, and a watch was kept there day and night. And yet no one had seen hide or hair of a Borka robber.

  Noddle-Pete laughed scornfully. “Well, what did you think, Matt? That they’d come strolling through the Wolf’s Neck and tell the guard, sweet as you please, ‘Step aside, friend, we’re planning to move into the North Fort this very night! ’?”

  “So which way did they come, if you know so much about it?”

  “Well, not through the Wolf’s Neck and the big fortress gate, by all accounts,” said Noddle-Pete. “From the north side, of course, where we haven’t got a guard.”

  “No, why should we keep a guard there? There’s no entrance to the fort, and just a sheer rock wall besides. Do you think they’re like flies who can climb straight up into the air? And then wriggle in through one or two narrow arrow slits?”

  Then something suddenly occurred to him, and he looked at Ronia, his eyes narrowed. “What were you doing up on the roof anyway?”

  “I was watching out that I didn’t fall into Hell’s Gap,” said Ronia.

  She was sorry now that she had not asked Birk a few questions. Perhaps he would have told her how the Borka robbers had managed to get into the North Fort. But it was too late to think of that now.

  Matt set guards for the night, not only at the Wolf’s Neck but on the roof as well.

  “B
orka’s nerve is just too much,” he said. “At any moment he’ll come rushing over Hell’s Gap like a wild bull and drive us out of Matt’s Fort, lock, stock, and barrel.”

  He picked up his beer tankard and flung it at the wall so hard that the beer splashed all over the stone hall.

  “I’m going to bed now, Lovis! Not to sleep. But to think and to curse, and woe betide anyone who disturbs me!”

  Ronia lay awake that night too. Everything had suddenly turned so wrong and miserable. Why should that be? That Birk—after all, she had been pleased when she first saw him! And now, when she had met someone of her own age at last, why did it have to be a nasty little Borka robber?

  Four

  Ronia woke up early the next morning, her father was already eating his porridge, but he was making slow progress. He would lift the spoon glumly to his mouth, but sometimes he forgot to open it. He wasn’t getting much porridge down, and was no better when Little-Snip, who had been standing guard at Hell’s Gap that night with Bumper and Shaggy, suddenly came rushing into the stone hall, shouting, “Borka is waiting for you, Matt! He’s standing there on the other side of Hell’s Gap and carrying on, and he wants to talk to you immediately!”

  Then Little-Snip jumped back hastily, which was clever of him, because the next second the wooden platter with Matt’s porridge on it flew past his ear and hit the wall, splashing porridge all over everything.

  “You’ll clean up after yourself!” Lovis reminded him sternly, but Matt was not listening to her.

  “So Borka wants to talk to me! Death and destruction, so he shall, and after that he won’t be doing much talking for quite a long time! If ever,” said Matt, clenching his teeth till they squeaked.

  Now all the robbers were crowding into the room from their bedrooms, eager to know what was going on.

  “Swallow your porridge as if the place were on fire,” said Matt, “because we’re about to take a wild bull by the horns and throw him into Hell’s Gap!”

  Ronia jumped into her clothes. It did not take long, because all she had to do was to pull a short foal-skin tunic over her shift, with trousers to match. And she always went barefoot, until the snow came, so no time had to be wasted on boots or slippers when she was in a hurry.

  If only everything had been as usual, she would soon have been out in the woods. But nothing was as usual any more, and she had to go up on the roof with them to see what was going to happen.

  Matt urged his robbers on, and with their mouths still full of porridge, all of them marched determinedly up the stone steps of the fort to the roof. Only Noddle-Pete stayed alone by his porridge platter, fretting bitterly because he could no longer join in when there was some fun in the offing.

  “Too many steps in this house,” he muttered, “and too rickety legs, for that matter.”

  It was a clear, cold morning. The first red glow of the sun lit the deep forests around Matt’s Fort. Ronia could see it over the parapet. She would have liked to be down there, in her own quiet green world— not here by Hell’s Gap, where Matt’s robbers and Borka’s robbers now stood arrayed, glaring at each other straight across the chasm that separated them.

  I see, so that’s what he looks like, the snake in the grass, she thought when she saw Borka standing there, so bold and bare-faced in front of his robbers. But he was not as tall and as handsome as Matt; that was a good thing, she thought. He looked strong, though; there was no denying that. He might be short, but he was broad-shouldered and powerful, with tufts of red hair sticking out in all directions. Beside him stood someone else with red hair, although it lay like a smooth copper helmet on his head. Yes, there was Birk, apparently enjoying the scene. He gave her a secret wave, just as though they were old friends. So that was what he thought, the thieving dog!

  “It’s a good thing you came so uncommonly fast,” said Borka.

  Matt gave his enemy a black look. “I would have come before,” he said, “but there was something I had to finish first.”

  “What sort of thing?” asked Borka civilly.

  “A poem I was making up early this morning. ‘Lament for a Dead Borka Robber,’ it’s called. Undis might get a bit of comfort from it when she becomes a widow!”

  Perhaps Borka had thought that Matt could be reasoned with and that there would be no more quarreling about the matter of Borka’s Keep. But he had made a terrible mistake there, Borka realized now, and he began to get angry.

  “You should be thinking more about comforting Lovis, who has to put up with you and your big mouth all the time,” he said.

  Undis and Lovis, the two in need of comfort, stood each on her side of Hell’s Gap, arms folded across their breasts, and looked each other straight in the eyes. They looked as if they could get on quite well without any comfort.

  “Now you listen to me, Matt,” said Borka. “There was no staying in Borka’s Wood any longer. Soldiers are swarming there like flies, and I had to take my wife and child and all my robbers somewhere.”

  “Maybe so,” said Matt. “But just stealing yourself a place to live, slap-bang, without asking, is something no one with a sense of shame would do.”

  “Strange talk from a robber,” said Borka. “Haven’t you always taken what you liked without asking?”

  “Hmm,” said Matt. He had no answer to that, but Ronia could not think why. She would have to find out what Matt had taken without asking.

  “Talking of one thing and another,” Matt said, after a short silence, “it would be interesting to hear how you got in, because then we can throw you out the same way.”

  “That’s enough talk about throwing out,” said Borka. “How we got in? Well, you see, we have a little monkey here who can climb the steepest walls with a long, strong rope like a tail behind him.”

  He patted Birk’s red topknot, and Birk smiled.

  “And then the little monkey tied the rope on good and tight up there so we could all climb up after him. And after that all we had to do was walk straight into the keep and start organizing ourselves a regular robbers’ den.”

  Matt ground his teeth for a time while he pondered this. Then he said, “As far as I know there is no entrance on the north side.”

  “As far as you know—there’s not much you know or remember about this fortress, although you’ve been living here all your life! You see, in the days when it was more of a gentleman’s home than now, the maids had to have a little door where they could go out and feed the pigs. Surely you at least remember where the old pigsty used to be when you were a child. Where you and I used to catch rats until your father found us and boxed my ears so hard I thought my skull was going to burst.”

  “Yes, my father did many good things,” said Matt. “He kept all the Borka snakes in the grass in their place when he came across them.”

  “Yes, indeed,” said Borka. “And it was that bully who taught me that every member of Matt’s clan was my enemy, alive or dead. Before that I had scarcely realized that we belong to different clans, you and I, and I don’t think you realized it either!”

  “But I do now,” said Matt. “And now there will either be a lament for a dead Borka robber or else you and your rabble will leave Matt’s Fort by the way you came.”

  “There may well be laments of one kind or another,” said Borka.

  “But I’ve made a home in Borka’s Keep now, and here I stay.”

  “We’ll soon see how things turn out,” said Matt, and all his robbers growled indignantly. They wanted to stretch their bows at once, but the Borka robbers were armed too, and a battle at Hell’s Gap could only end badly for all of them, as both Matt and Borka realized. So they parted now, after abusing each other one last time as a matter of form.

  Matt did not look exactly like a conqueror when he returned to the stone hall, nor did any of his robbers. Noddle-Pete surveyed them in silence, then smiled his sly, toothless smile.

  “That wild bull,” he said, “the one you were going to take by the horns and heave into Hell’s Gap—I
suppose that was a crash that rumbled all around Matt’s Fort?”

  “Eat your porridge, if you can chew it, and leave wild bulls to me,” said Matt. “I’ll deal with them when the time comes.”

  But since at the moment the time did not seem to have come, Ronia hurried back to her woods. The days were growing shorter now; the sun would set in a few hours, but until then she wanted to be in her forest and by her lake. There it lay in the sunshine, glowing like warmest gold. But Ronia knew that the gold was deceptive and the water ice-cold. All the same, she quickly took off her clothes and dove in. She let out a shriek at first, but then she laughed with pleasure and swam and dove until the cold drove her out. Her teeth chattering, she slipped her tunic on again, but it did not help; she would have to run to get warm.

  She ran like a troll between the trees and over boulders until the chill left her body and her cheeks were glowing. After that she went on running just to feel how easy it was. Shouting with joy, she came shooting out between a couple of close-growing firs and ran straight into Birk. Then rage welled up in her again. She could no longer have any peace even in the forest!

  “Look where you’re going, robber’s daughter,” said Birk. “Are you really in that much of a hurry?”

  “What kind of hurry I’m in has nothing to do with you,” she snapped, and she ran on. But then she slowed down. It had occurred to her that she could steal back and see what Birk was doing in her woods.

  He was squatting outside the den where her fox family lived.

  That annoyed her even more, because, after all, they were her foxes. She had been following them ever since the cubs had been born that spring. Now the cubs were big but still playful. They leaped and bit and fought each other outside the den, while Birk sat and watched them. His back was toward her, but in some strange way he knew that she was behind him, and he called out without turning, “What do you want, robber’s daughter?”

  “ I want you to leave my fox cubs alone and get out of my woods!”

  Then he got up and came toward her. “Your fox cubs! Your woods! Fox cubs belong to themselves—don’t you know that? And they live in the foxes’ wood, which is the wolves’ and bears’ and elk’s and wild horses’ wood too. And the owls’ and the buzzards’ and the wood pigeons’ and the hawks’ and the cuckoos’ wood. And the snails’ and the spiders’ and the ants’ wood.”