by Lynn Mann
‘No, he wouldn’t.’
‘WHAT?’
‘He wouldn’t still be here, because it was his time to go. Infinity says that everything happens as it should and she’s right. She says the Woeful played the part they were meant to…’
There was a blinding flash of light and I was vaguely aware of falling. The next thing I knew, I was sitting in the wet snow and my jaw felt as if it were on fire.
‘THUNDER AND LIGHTNING ROWENA, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?’ Justin rushed over to where I sat, dazed and confused. Hands appeared under my armpits and I was hauled to my feet before Justin took one of Rowena’s arms and spun her to face him. ‘YOU JUST PUNCHED AMARILLA TO THE FLOOR! WHAT ON EARTH HAS GOT INTO YOU?’
‘It was my fault,’ I said absent-mindedly. My mind was spinning. Part of me stood next to Justin as he angrily continued to demand that Rowena explain her actions, while the other part leapt back to a scene in my previous lifetime; I stood in an office of government, while a colleague I had liked and trusted looked at me with scorn in his eyes as he told me I would be sent to the frontline to help fight a war in which he knew I didn’t believe. My heart alternated between spasming painfully and calming down almost to a normal rhythm.
Everything happens as it should, came into my mind as the slightest of whispers.
‘Justin, let me speak,’ I said. ‘Rowena, whether you want to hear it or not, everything did happen as it was supposed to. It was Shann’s time to go — just as it was Noble’s, Newson’s and Integrity’s. Infinity, being injured as she was, gave me the chance to prove what is possible with the Skills. The Woeful that killed Shann was just trying to get food. He and his family were starving and he was sad, frightened and desperate. Shann saw it too and tried to avoid hitting him but his shovel was already coming down and the Woeful tried to defend himself and caught Shann by mistake. They never would have attacked in the first place if we had offered them help to get through the winter and that’s what we have to take away from this.’
‘Help?’ said Rowena. ‘Help the Woeful? Are you mad? Why on earth would we do that? They’re dangerous.’
‘They’re living beings who were created by us, abused by us and then abandoned by us.’
‘No,’ said Rowena.
‘Yes.’
‘NO! They’re monsters and they killed Shann and for that they need to pay!’ Rowena threw Oak’s rug onto his back, fumbled with the fastenings and then stormed off.
Justin’s unshaven, tear-streaked face appeared in front of mine as he gently turned my face so he could see where Rowena had hit me. ‘She’s gone way too far. Are you alright Am?’
‘Yes, I think so, it’s nothing that a bit of starflower can’t fix,’ I replied. ‘You look better.’
He grinned sheepishly. ‘As soon as I let go of it all and allowed Gas in, it was as if everything that has happened just fell away.’
‘As if even the most horrible parts all make sense?’
He nodded and then drew me into a warm bear hug. ‘Thanks Am.’
As I hugged him back, I remembered back to when Infinity and I had been on our way to The Gathering and I had been so afraid, and how it had taken Infinity knocking me to the ground and threatening to kick me before I had allowed her back into my thoughts to help me. I understood exactly what Justin had been through.
‘Come on,’ he said, releasing me, ‘let’s get something to eat.’
We checked in on Infinity and Gas, and found them both snoozing peacefully, so I left Infinity’s new rug in a corner, ready to put on her when she woke up. We then made our way to the kitchens where Turi provided us with a welcome meal of her hot pot.
‘What do I do about Rowena?’ I asked Justin.
‘Mop muchoo camboo,’ he replied. He swallowed his mouthful and continued, ‘if I know her, she’ll be mortified at her behaviour once she calms down, mind you, I’ve never seen her that angry, I mean she actually hit you!’
‘It’s not just how she is with me that worries me, it’s how she is with Oak,’ I said. ‘He looks terrible and judging by the way Liberal looks because Feryl isn’t listening to him, it’s only going to get worse.’
‘What’s this about Oak and Liberal?’
I explained my observations about the two horses and also how I had known by Diligence’s demeanour that Mason would listen to her.
When I’d finished, Justin nodded slowly. ‘Makes sense, but if Oak can’t get through to her at the moment, she’s not going to appreciate anyone else trying to talk to her, I know I wouldn’t have appreciated anyone trying to stick their nose in before I was ready.’
‘One friend punches me, the other one calls me a sticky beak!’ I said. ‘I’m so glad I came here!’
He laughed. ‘Never that, Am and I asked you for help in a roundabout kind of a way.’
‘So, we just leave her alone for now then?’
‘I think so. We’ll see enough of her because Oak’s in with our two, but just leave the dust to settle and see what happens. She’s going to have to look at that work of art on your face every time she sees you now, maybe that will be enough to make her stop and think.’
‘Work of art?’
‘It’s a beauty. Our Rowena packs a punch, there’s no doubt about that.’
‘Well next time, you can be on the receiving end and then we’ll see how funny you think it is. I’m going to see Adam, I think I’ll try one of his starflower combination creams as a face pack after I’ve had a bath, you never know, it might be gone in a few days?’ I said.
‘I like your optimism my friend, I really do. Rest well, and I’ll see you up with the horses later.’
I left him still eating and went to find Adam, who listened to my explanation about the state of my face without comment.
‘And how do you feel about it all?’ he asked.
‘Shocked, upset, but strangely, now you come to mention it, better,’ I said.
‘Better? In what way?’
‘My heart feels better. Calmer.’
‘Interesting. Now I think your idea to use this as a face pack is a good one, just make sure you fall asleep on your back otherwise you’ll have most of it on your pillow and it won’t be doing any good at all there. Starflower, arnollia, mennawort and my secret ingredient, all in there,’ he said, his eyes twinkling.
‘Secret ingredient? Secret from me too?’
‘Only until you can identify it! That’s if you still intend to finish your apprenticeship in between teaching everyone else how to multiskill!’
‘Stop teasing me you wicked old man and stop making me smile, it hurts,’ I said.
I left him chuckling to himself and walked back to my room. I peeled off the many layers of clothing I had accumulated, put on my dressing gown and then ran a bath. I lowered myself into the stingingly hot water and as the heat seeped into my body, muscles that had been clenched with cold and stress for so long began to relax and waves of fatigue swept over me. Worried that I would fall asleep in the bath, I scrubbed myself all over, washed my hair and then dried myself and returned to my room. Now that I was clean, I could smell my dirty clothes and I wrinkled my nose. I kicked them to the corner of the room furthest from my bed, applied my face pack and then as it sank into my skin and a sense of calm began to infuse my body, I lay down to sleep.
The next thing I knew, I was waking in the dark to the sound of pounding on my door. I hadn’t closed my curtains so the fact it was dark meant that I had overslept. Infinity!!! I leapt out of bed and rushed to open the door.
Marvel stood there. ‘Um, I’m looking for Amarilla, haven’t seen her have you good lady?’ he asked with a grin.
‘Infinity! Is she alright? I mean she must be otherwise I’d know, but I’ve overslept. Thunder and Lightning, what if she’s run out of hay? What is it Marvel? What’s happened?’
He began to laugh and couldn’t stop.
‘Marvel, what is it? Please stop laughing and tell me!’
‘Sorry Amar
illa, but you are a sight! Don’t worry, Infinity’s fine, I just came to tell you not to hurry. Justin and I have mucked her out, given her fresh hay and straw and put her rug on her and you can just go and see her when you’re ready. Skies above, Justin said you’d wake in a panic and he wasn’t wrong!’
‘Oh, thank goodness. Thanks Marvel. And, look, no queue of Healers to be seen!’
He chuckled. ‘Give it time Amarilla, give it time. Oh, and by the way, Justin said you’d want to know that Spider’s back.’
I washed off my facepack, dressed at lightning speed and then ran all the way to the paddock, stopping only to pick up a lantern from the tack room. When I reached Infinity, she was indeed rugged, warm and munching from an enormous pile of hay. Diligence munched alongside her but the other horses were nowhere to be seen. Infinity whickered to me and I felt her contentment.
… in time… caught the edges of my mind and I spun towards Diligence.
Fin, what is Diligence trying to tell me? I asked.
Infinity expressly ignored me.
Fin, Diligence has been trying to communicate with me but I can only catch snatches of it. Mason helped me last time — can you help me?
No response. I thought back to when Dili had been communicating with me before. What was the advice I’d been given? Accept I could hear her and relax, that was it. I tried to still my mind, but found it difficult as I was curious to know what was “in time”. I didn’t have to wait much longer for my question to be answered, but it wasn’t from Diligence that the answer came. I heard footsteps running past the entrance of the field shelter and caught sight of Quinta.
‘Quinta!’ I called out, but she carried on running. I ran after her as she made her way towards the other field shelter, and entered just behind her.
Oak and Gas were tucking into hay that Justin was shaking into large piles for them by lanternlight. Rowena stood by Spider, her hand resting possessively on his neck, but Spider’s attention was locked on Quinta. He looked rough. He’d lost weight, his coat stood up with the cold and he had twigs matted into his mane and tail. His eyes, though, appeared bright as they stared into Quinta’s. Rowena looked from Spider to Quinta, questioningly.
‘Quinta is everything okay?’ I said quietly.
She nodded, but her eyes remained locked with Spider’s and all of a sudden, I was aware of thoughts whistling between them. I stepped back involuntarily. Quinta could communicate with Spider? Was it like with me and Dili? I wondered.
At the sound of footsteps behind me, I turned to find Adam approaching at speed. The light from his lantern revealed a look of wonderment on his face. He hurried past me and stood next to Quinta. Spider looked from one to the other and his thoughts continued to flutter at the edge of my mind.
Adam looked at Quinta. ‘Both of us?’ he said.
A broad smile lit up her face. ‘It would seem so.’
Spider dropped his head and began to eat his hay.
‘Does anyone feel like telling us what is going on?’ said Rowena, thornily.
Adam said, ‘Spider called Quinta and me to him. It seems that he would like us both to continue the ridden work that Shann started with him.’
Rowena took a step back. ‘W-w-what?’
‘Do you mean he tugged you?’ asked Justin.
‘It wasn’t like that really, not like when Noble tugged me, at least not for me,’ said Quinta.
Adam said, ‘no, it was more of a request, really, took me completely by surprise! I never thought to hear another horse in my mind after Peace moved on! There I was, chatting to Norrie about, well you don’t want to hear what two old men were nattering about I’m sure, anyway, all of a sudden, Spider asked if I would come to him and here I am, and then he asked Quinta and me if we would learn to ride him as you are with your horses, as there is more he would like to achieve and he would like to do it with us!’
I caught Justin’s eye and he flicked his gaze to Adam and then back to me and grinned. Rowena was as white as a sheet and said nothing. As Adam and Quinta began to discuss their experience and what it would all mean, Rowena walked quickly out of the field shelter. I looked over at Justin and saw the concern on his face. He read my unasked question and shook his head. He looked at Oak and then back to where he had last seen Rowena. I nodded my agreement. She would need Oak to help her with this and if she wouldn’t let him, then there was no way she would let either of us.
Justin finished what he was doing and then left the field shelter with me. Adam and Quinta were busy untangling Spider’s mane and tail, chattering excitedly.
‘Things just keep bending around on themselves, don’t they?’ Justin said.
‘Don’t they just,’ I replied. I could feel a sense of satisfaction emanating from Infinity and… something else from Diligence, I thought.
Twenty
Surprise
It was a beautiful, crisp, sunny morning and I’d had a sound night’s sleep. I should have been feeling on top of the world as I made my way across the slushy square to the dining hall, after all Infinity was doing well, winter was on its way out and I was expecting to tuck into a cooked breakfast. Instead, I fought against the waves of fear and anger that lashed around The Gathering, I worried about Rowena and I dreaded walking into the dining hall alone, to the mercy of all the Healers who would now be wanting answers from me.
After leaving Adam and Quinta the previous evening, I’d gone straight to my room and Justin had brought my dinner up to me once he’d eaten. I’d felt a coward, but my face was sore and I just didn’t feel up to going into the dining room and playing host to all the questions I would inevitably face regarding healing, or the source of my bruising. Justin had been descended upon in my stead and had apparently thoroughly enjoyed laying false trails as to my whereabouts.
I arrived at the dining hall more quickly than I would have liked and the minute I set foot through the doors, a multitude of eyes focused upon me. Just as I caught sight of a miserable-looking Rowena sitting by herself, pushing fried mushrooms around her plate with a fork, the Healers descended.
Holly reached my side first. ‘Amarilla, at last. What on earth happened to your face? Never mind, come and sit down and I’ll fetch you some breakfast.’
‘Amarilla, we need to sort out a proper meeting so you can tell us how you did what you did,’ said Vickery. ‘Your knowledge will be invaluable if we are to fight the Woeful, just think, if you can manage to teach all of the Healers how to multiskill by the time we go to hunt, so many more lives will be saved…’
‘Honestly Vickery, let Amarilla move,’ said Thuma. ‘We all want to speak to her, but ambushing her in this way is no way to behave!’
‘Oh? Well I notice you seem to have pushed your way alongside me easily enough, do you think you have the right to speak to Amarilla first and it’s the rest of us who should wait?’ retorted Vickery.
There was some pushing and shoving, and angry voices began to argue all around me. Holly took hold of my hand and attempted to force her way past people who now blocked our way.
I couldn’t believe it. I had looked up to the Horse-Bonded since I was a child, revered them as people who were wise and worthy of emulation and here they were, behaving no better than a group of over-excited school children at snack time. As voices were raised even higher, I fought hard to remain immune to the atmosphere of disquiet that seemed to be fuelling the behaviour of those around me.
Do not attempt to fight fear, volunteered Infinity. To fight it you must first acknowledge it and then you are vulnerable to its influence. Better to focus on who you are and what is contained within you. Exude light until it surrounds you and no harmful energy will be able to reach you.
I closed my eyes and turned all of my attention towards doing as she suggested. Gradually the atmosphere around me lightened and the horrible unease that had been battering at me receded. I reopened my eyes to find that the situation around me was much the same. I looked around for a way to escape the throng of a
rguing Healers. It was hopeless; there was no way of escaping them without undertaking some pushing and shoving of my own, which would only draw more attention to myself. An intention formed in my mind. Infinity sensed it immediately.
You will need to stay within the space you have created for yourself. Do not allow yourself to succumb to what ails them all, she advised me.
I took a breath and composed myself. ‘STOP!’ I shouted.
All of those in my immediate vicinity stopped talking and looked at me. There was nudging and some angry shushing and finally everyone around me fell silent. I focused on radiating my own positivity again and then opened my mouth to speak.
Vickery got in first. ‘You name the time and place Amarilla, and we’ll all be there. Make it soon though, this is important for all of us, not just to save lives here at The Gathering but to help everyone in the village communities. Once they hear what’s happened and realise the danger they’re in they’re sure to want to hunt the Woeful down and the light knows how many injuries their Healers will be having to deal with once that happens.’
Someone shushed and Vickery looked furious.
‘I won’t be holding a meeting and I won’t be teaching you anything, because there’s nothing to teach,’ I said. My heart beat violently in my chest, but it was the normal beating of a heart in response to an uncomfortable situation and not the wild lurching that it had been performing of late. I had a small surge of confidence that I was heading in the right direction.
‘Explain yourself please Amarilla,’ said Jack, his blue eyes glinting dangerously.
‘I don’t have anything to teach you because you can already perform all of the Skills by yourself, and not just the Healing Skills — all of them.’
‘That’s preposterous!’ said a voice.
‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ said another.
‘How did you come by this knowledge?’ asked Jack.