The Chorister's Verse
Participants
- Odda Quarrel — answered the verse
- Beatrix Holloway — sang along, a beat behind
- Iveth Ammerly — read the counterpart
- Gammer Tansy Holt — taught the verse, waited outside
- Barrow Chorister — asked
Morning of day 6, at the door of Maudry’s Barrow on the crest of the Sallow Hills. The clay guardian in the niche lifted its head as the Wardens stepped onto the door-stone and sang the first line of a verse the hill people have kept for two and a half centuries.
What happened
Odda Quarrel answered with the rest of it, bells and voice together, in the harmony she had worked out at Gammer Tansy Holt’s fireside the night before. Beatrix Holloway sang along a beat behind and a tone below. The Barrow Chorister listened to the whole verse, lowered its head, and stepped back into its niche. The stone door swung inward.
Inside, past a painted passage of shepherds and sheep and one very large yellow shape, the Founder lay on a stone bier with her sword on her breast and a case of amber-sealed vellum under her hands. Iveth Ammerly read the counterpart aloud by lamplight. When she reached the rent clause, Odda laughed out loud, and nobody told her to be quiet.
Consequences
- The Wardens know the rent: one song never before sung, made by the vale and given freely.
- The clause headed Of Default, and of Tender is still under the Founder’s seal.
- Beatrix carries Fair Terms, and has made a promise to its first owner.