Tiuri Entrusts the Letter's Contents to Piak

Tiuri entrusts the contents of the secret letter to Piak while they consider how to cross the Rainbow River. The decision turns a dangerous delivery into a shared responsibility: if Tiuri can no longer carry the mission forward, Piak will know what must be done, even though neither of them understands the message.

The Toll and the Ring

After Piak conceded that their predicament was real, the two fell silent. Tiuri considered what to do and abruptly recognized a possible way to meet the toll: he had no gold, but he did have something more valuable. It was the ring hanging from a cord around his neck. The thought reframed the problem from a choice between paying with money and risking the river to a question of whether Tiuri should part with the ring.

Piak thought that paying with the ring might be their only option. He had no confidence in swimming, but left the decision to Tiuri. The ring was therefore not merely a valuable possession; in this moment it became a possible means of passage, weighed against the danger of trying to cross without permission.

Sharing the Message

Before deciding what to do, Tiuri asked whether Piak could memorize something important. Piak said he could, and Tiuri quietly whispered a few words in his ear. When Piak asked what he was saying, Tiuri explained that he was going to pass on the letter’s message word for word. He had considered telling Piak before, and now accepted that the assignment had become Piak’s as well as his own.

Tiuri gave a specific reason for sharing the contents: if anything happened to him, Piak needed to be able to take over the task. Piak was impressed by the gravity of the trust, though he immediately treated the lesson as something to occupy him until daylight. He hoped it would never be necessary for him to assume Tiuri’s role, but agreed to learn.

Tiuri recited the message softly, pausing so Piak could repeat it piece by piece. Their repetition was practical rather than interpretive: after a while, Piak asked whether Tiuri understood any of it. Neither did. Piak wondered whether the words might be a secret language, but uncertainty about their meaning did not alter the need to remember them accurately. He asked Tiuri to begin again until he could recite the whole message from memory.

A Shared and Secret Charge

The lesson made Piak more than a companion accompanying Tiuri. He now held the contents of the letter in memory as a safeguard for the mission. Tiuri also instructed him never to let anyone discover that he knew them. The message was thus entrusted without being made public: Piak could serve as a substitute bearer, but had to conceal that knowledge.

As the eastern sky began to grow light, Piak hurried to learn every word before sunrise. The scene closes not with the letter explained, but with its contents preserved in a second person’s memory. Tiuri’s decision creates a practical contingency for the delivery and confirms the trust between the two travelers, while the message itself remains obscure to them both.