Yesterday, I talked about Terrence Dechantagne, one of the main characters in The Voyage of the Minotaur. This kind of leads me into a discussion of Yuah Korlann– one of three women who revolve around Terrence’s life. Yuah is a servant who has grown up with Terrence and his siblings, and is madly in love with him. She of course struggles with feelings of inadequacy and he does nothing to help, because while he does care about her, he doesn’t really love her. He may be incapable of love; he certainly thinks so. The following is one of the many Terrence-Yuah interactions as she basically courts him, though she doesn’t really realize she’s doing so.
There was pounding on the door. Terrence opened his eyes and began to climb out of bed. The pounding continued. He stepped across the room and threw open the door. The bright light outside silhouetted the form of Yuah Korlann in the doorway. Her skirted lower half was wide and completely filled the door frame, but her upper half reminded Terrence of how thin she actually was.
“Good. You’re awake.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Look what I’ve got.” She pulled a picnic basket out from behind her. “You’re going to take me out for lunch.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“Because I have been working my ass off. Between your sister and the wedding plans, I haven’t had a moment to myself all week. If I don’t have a moment to relax and share a bit of pleasant conversation with someone, I’m going to go barmy.”
“Can’t you find one of the women to waffle with?”
“I could if I wanted to,” Yuah said. “Get dressed.”
“Get dressed?”
“Yes. Preferably something without blood splattered all over it.”
Terrence looked down at his shirt and found that it was indeed the case that blood was splattered across the front. The disclosure, that it was only dinosaur blood rather than human, would probably not matter to her so he simply turned around and began to remove his shirt. Yuah stepped inside and closed the door behind her.
“Don’t forget to wash your face and shave.” She leaned against the door. He stopped and looked at her. “I’ll wait,” she said.
Terrence washed his face in the bowl of water sitting on a large crate. He didn’t know how it had gotten there. Then he pulled out his straight razor and shaving powder. Once his face was smooth, he peeled off his undershirt and replaced it with a clean one, then covered it with a clean shirt. He ran a comb through his hair.
“You look almost smart enough to be seen with me,” said Yuah.
“Shouldn’t you be seeing to your father or Miss Lusk? You heard what happened of course?”
“My father is sleeping and there are more people seeing to Egeria than will fit into her room.”
Terrence shrugged, and then offered her his arm, as they stepped out into the bright sunlight. Yuah led the way down the hill in a northeasterly direction. A leisurely walk of about a mile found them on a small grassy knoll overlooking the sea. Here on the opposite side of the promontory from the small bay where the HMS Minotaur was anchored, the waves crashed against a long sandy beach.
Setting down the picnic basket, Yuah opened its top and removed a small yellow plaid blanket, which she spread out. The two sat down side by side, and she began removing wrapped package after wrapped package from the basket.
“Curried egg?” she offered.
He took one and bit into it.
“Mrs. Colbshallow’s?”
“No, I made them.”
“I had no idea that you could cook.”
“Oh, I’m talented.” She unwrapped a sandwich and handed it to him. He lifted up the dark rye bread and examined the thinly-sliced but thickly-piled meat, onion, cress, and mayonnaise.
“I didn’t think we had any bread.”
“That is thanks to Mrs. Colbshallow. She baked two dozen loaves yesterday in the first oven set up here. I was just lucky enough to get one of them.”
Terrence took a bite of the sandwich. It was good. He looked at it and realized that the bite he had taken out seemed abnormally large, so he took a second smaller bite to cover it up. As he chewed, he looked up and watched a group of circling winged reptiles being pestered by equally numerous small birds.
“So, do you have a date for the wedding?” asked Yuah.
“What wedding?”
“The wedding of Corporal Bratihn and Mrs. Kittredge. The wedding everyone is talking about.”
“Why would I want to go?”
“You have to go. You are one of the founders of the colony.”
“Iolanthe is the founder of the colony.”
“You are very important. People look up to you. You have to be there.”
“All right, I’ll be there.”
“Who will be your date?”
“Why do I need a date?”
“It’s a social event. Everyone needs a date.”
“I don’t want to take anyone.”
“Then you can take me.”
“You want me to take you to the wedding?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“First a picnic lunch and now a date to this alleged social event. You’re daft if you think you can get me to marry you so that you can move up in the world.”
Yuah jumped to her feet, balled up her fists at her side, and gritted her teeth. Then she kicked the picnic basket and sent it flying across the grass, trailing sandwiches and desserts.
“I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man in Birmisia!” she screamed, and then she shook for a moment as if she needed to scream and nothing would quite come out. Finally she hissed at him. “You pathetic, rat-assed tool.”
She kicked again. This time planting the pointy toe of her shoe in the meat of his shoulder, she knocked him onto his back. By the time he sat back up, she was stomping her way up the slope. As he watched her disappear over the top of the hill, he fumed over her inability to take a joke. Then he fumed at himself because he knew he hadn’t been joking. He picked up the sandwich and angrily tossed it towards the sea. It flew apart into its various components in the air, one of which was caught by one of the flying reptiles swooping down from the sky.
Speaking of Senta Bly (as I was yesterday)… I’m reading The Dark and Forbidding Land, and doing a little editing here. One of the key elements in the series is the dynamic between Senta and Zurfina. These two characters become more and more alike during the course of the plot, until they almost really change places. One of my favorite little hints of this is in The Dark and Forbidding Land— in two different parts. Both characters arrive in the Pfennig Store where they find a wooden toy pony…
