Free Opening Atlantis by Harry Turtledove Page B

kick a man to death, too,” Edward said. “That’s all honkers are—grazers that go on two legs, not four. But when God made those eagles, He made them to kill.”
    Henry thought it over, then nodded. “He made them to kill honkers, I’d say. And we look enough like honkers, they think we make proper prey, too.”
    Edward Radcliffe started to say something, then stopped and sent his son a surprised glance. “I hadn’t looked at it so. Damned if I don’t think you’re right.”
    Henry walked over, retrieved his wasted arrow, and put it back into the quiver with the rest. “We’ll have enough to get through the winter with or without crops, seems like,” he said. “Between the cod and the honkers, we’ll do fine.”
    â€œAye, belike,” Edward said. “But I want my bread, too. And Lord knows I want my beer. If we have to fence off the fields to keep the honkers out, well, we can do that.”
    â€œIt will be extra work,” Henry said. “We’re all working harder now than we would have on the other side of the ocean.”
    â€œ Now we are, yes,” Edward agreed. “But that’s only because we have to make the things we take for granted back there. Once we have them, things will be easier here than they were in England. Why else would we have come?”
    Henry laughed. “You don’t need to talk me into it, Father. I’m already here.” He made as if to break the bow again, but this time not in earnest. “I’d be gladder I’m here if only I were a better archer.”
    â€œEach cat his own rat,” Edward said. “Plenty of fine bowmen who’d puke their guts out on a fishing cog.”
    â€œOne of the girls was screeching about a rat the other day,” Henry said. “It must have got ashore in a boat—I don’t think this country has any rats of its own.”
    â€œI don’t, either, but I was waiting for that to happen,” Edward said. “No rabbits here, either, or none I’ve seen, which is a pity, for I like rabbit pie and jugged hare. You can’t keep rats and mice out of things. We brought cats, too, so there won’t be too many vermin.”
    â€œI saw a cat with a lizard’s tail in its mouth yesterday,” Henry said.
    â€œYes, and they hunt the blackbirds that look like robins, too,” Edward said. “Never worry about cats. They don’t starve.”
    â€œI wasn’t worrying,” Henry said. “Next time we go back to England, though, maybe we could bring some rabbits over. They’re good eating and good hunting.”
    â€œWell, maybe we could,” Edward said.

IV
    R abbits. More chickens and ducks. Two more sows, with their piglets. And Tom Cawthorne, a bowyer and fletcher, and his family. They all came back to Atlantis on the St. George. With the good hunting in the woods back of New Hastings, Edward was glad to get a man like Cawthorne. The bow-and arrow-maker probably wouldn’t have come if his oldest son hadn’t just got a girl with child. Dan Cawthorne didn’t want to marry her, and so….
    â€œIf you didn’t want to marry her, why did you sleep with her?” Edward asked the youth—he was seventeen or so—once they got out to sea.
    Dan looked at him as if he were not only crazy but ancient. “Why? Because she wanted me to,” he answered. By the way he said it, only a fool could imagine any other reason. “We didn’t think anything would happen. Don’t you remember what it’s like to—?” He broke off, not quite soon enough.
    To have a stiff yard all the time. That was what he’d been about to say, that or something a lot like it. And Edward did remember. His yard still worked well enough, but it wasn’t stiff all the time, the way it had been when he was seventeen. He sighed. One of these days, Dan would get older, too. Edward