by Lynn Mann
‘Holly!’ yelled Marvel, waving.
Holly’s long blond hair swirled around her as she turned and waved back. ‘Fancy seeing you lot here,’ she called out to us as we rode towards her. ‘I gather I’ve got nowhere to stay, as Jack has taken root in my room and Vic has the spare room! Charming isn’t it? I get here a few days later than planned, and my family just finds replacements!’ She put an arm back around her mother and hugged her.
We all laughed. ‘There’s room at our house for one of you, Holly you can come home with me?’ I said with a wink.
‘She’ll do no such thing,’ said Holly’s mother. ‘She’s going to show Serene to her paddock and then she’s coming straight in for a bath and a good meal, she looks like she hasn’t eaten properly for weeks.’
‘I’ve been travelling, Mum and I’ve been well fed wherever I’ve stayed, honestly.’ Holly rolled her eyes.
‘Well, shall I take Jack with me then? He can see anyone who wants his help at ours – Mum will love having everyone there, you know she will,’ I said.
‘I don’t want him to think I’m throwing him out,’ Holly’s mother said, with a guilty glance behind her.
‘He doesn’t think anything of the sort and he’s very grateful to you for putting up with people traipsing in and out of your house to see him for the past two days.’ Jack’s voice carried from inside the cottage. He appeared in the doorway and planted a kiss on Holly’s mother’s cheek. ‘Thanks Sylvie, you’ve been brilliant, but it’s time for me to take my mayhem elsewhere. Do you hear that folks? I’m going to Amarilla’s house, so you can find me there later today, or Vic is here if you want to see her now. Wait for me a few minutes, Amarilla? I’ll grab my stuff and bring Candour round from the back.’
I nodded and jumped down from Infinity as Holly approached. ‘Any plans after you’ve visited your family?’ I whispered to her as she hugged me.
‘I was going back to The Gathering. Why?’ Holly whispered back.
‘Rowena, Marvel, Jack and Vic aren’t the only ones here with me. Sonja and Aleks are here too,’ I said quietly as I released her.
‘That’s some group,’ Holly said and then her eyes widened. ‘You’re going to...’
I interrupted her with a sharp nod. ‘You’d be welcome if you wanted to come. Think about it, we’ll be here for a few more days.’
She nodded, thoughtfully. ‘I will. I’ll see you soon, Am.’
As Jack and I saw Infinity and Candour to the paddock behind my family’s house, we chuckled at the donkeys’ disdain at having another strange horse share their quarters. Infinity wrinkled her nose at them before settling into a grooming session with Candour, who appeared not to have noticed that the donkeys even existed.
Jack heaved his saddlebags onto his shoulder. ‘Are you sure your family won’t mind me being here, Am?’ he said. ‘They’ve only had you back a few days, won’t they want you to themselves for a bit longer?’
‘No, they’ll be fine. They’ll love having another Horse-Bonded to grill and you’ll be doing me a favour by taking the heat off of me. I was going to ask you to come round and see them all, anyway, they want help to be able to multiskill and you’ll get through to them far better than I’ll be able to; they’re always going to see me as the baby of the family, no matter what I do, and I think that’ll stop them trusting me enough to know that they can do what I’m saying they can. And my Mum really will love having everyone coming to her house to see you, she’s always in her element when she has lots of people around her.’
‘Well if you’re sure, then thanks.’
‘No problem. We’re just in time for lunch, come on, this way.’
I opened the back door to the sound of my mother berating Con for “traipsing mud all the way through the house when I’ve just mopped all of the floors”. Jack hastily took his boots off and left them outside, before following me in to the kitchen. Everyone except Robbie was there.
‘Everyone, this is Jack,’ I said.
Instantly, my mother was in front of us, shaking Jack’s hand. ‘Well this is a lovely surprise, you must be the Jack that we’ve heard so much about, welcome to our home. And you appear to have your belongings with you. Surely Sylvie hasn’t thrown you out? Oh, you poor lamb, leave them there and come and sit down and tell us all about it. Obviously, you must stay here. You can have Con’s room and he’ll go in with Robbie. Jack, dear, are you alright?’
Jack appeared to be unaware that his hand was still clasping my mother’s, in fact he appeared unaware of anything except for my sister, at whom he was staring unashamedly. I grinned as I felt the thread that linked him to Katonia – the thread that I’d seen when I’d looked into the source of her restlessness – strengthening now that the two of them occupied the same physical space. As it almost seemed to solidify, I was Aware of an agreement between two souls, made long ago, settling into place.
Katonia was as mesmerised by Jack as he was by her. I felt her shock and confusion. She frowned slightly and began to shake her head, as if trying to release herself from whatever it was that held her. Then her gaze flickered to me very briefly and her face relaxed into a broad smile of understanding. Jack smiled back.
‘Jack, this is my sister, Katonia,’ I said.
Jack came back to himself. He looked down at his hand, still holding my mother’s, and flushed red. ‘Oh, um, sorry,’ he said, ‘how rude of me, I’m Jack.’
‘Yes, I know, dear.’ My mother beamed, looking from him to my sister. ‘Come and sit down next to Katonia. Shove up Con, you can sit around the other side.’ She picked up Con’s plate of food and moved it across the table.
‘Oi!’ said Con through a mouthful of vegetables.
Jack moved to where my sister sat, and held out a trembling hand. ‘Hello Katonia,’ he said, quietly.
Katonia’s cheeks were a pretty pink as she stood up and shook his hand. ‘Hi Jack, it’s um, well it’s very good to meet you.’
‘Kat, why don’t you and Jack go and sit in the garden and I’ll bring your lunch out to you?’ I said.
Katonia flashed me a grateful smile and nodded. ‘Er, this way then,’ she said to Jack and he followed her out the way he and I had just come in.
‘But...’ said my mother.
‘Mum, believe me when I tell you that if you ever want grandchildren, you need to leave them alone,’ I said.
My mother looked at me in consternation. Then her expression changed to wonder and her eyes filled with tears. ‘He’s the one? Finally? Do you really think so? I mean it was obvious that something just happened, but Amarilla, are you sure?’
‘Yes, I’m sure. You’ll have all the time in the world to get to know Jack, but for now, you need to leave him and Katonia alone. Okay?’
My mother nodded.
Con had retrieved his lunch and was looking from me to my mother in confusion. My father, who was sitting at his normal place at the far end of the table, said, ‘would anyone like to tell me what just happened?’
My mother threw her arms around me and hugged me, rocking from side to side in her glee. ‘Frank, you just saw your future son-in-law, but we mustn’t interfere,’ she said, giggling.
‘Okay well firstly, you always say we mustn’t interfere and then you interfere,’ my father said. ‘Secondly, if that young man is who I think he is, then he’s Horse-Bonded, and we all know that the Bonded rarely marry and never to non-bonded folk. And thirdly, you’ve seen your future son-in-law in just about every male that Katonia’s ever spoken to, so how can you possibly be sure this time?’
I caught my father’s eye, raised my eyebrow and nodded.
‘Oh,’ he said.
I was just finishing my breakfast when there was a frantic banging on the front door. My father got up to go to see who was there and shortly afterwards, a breathless Vickery burst into the kitchen. ‘Amarilla, your Dad tells me that Jack’s not here. Do you know where he is? I can’t do another day like yesterday, there are just too many people who want
help and poor Verve is stuck in that paddock with Serene, who just squeals and kicks out at him whenever he looks in her direction, and I’ve had no time to ride him out to give him a break,’ she said, breathlessly. ‘And I’ve had some of the people who’ve come to see me tell me that they’ve already been here to ask for Jack’s help, but he wasn’t here! I thought he was going to carry on helping people once he’d settled in here, not disappear off the face of the earth and leave it all to me!’
‘Do you want a cup of tea?’ I said, already pouring one for her.
‘No, I haven’t got time, I need to get back before people start queueing outside Holly’s house. Hello everyone by the way,’ she said with a wave of her hand to Robbie, Con and my mother, ‘and sorry to interrupt your breakfast. Am, if you can just tell me where you think Jack might be, I’ll go and find him and leave you all in peace.’
‘I don’t know where he is, I haven’t seen him since he arrived here,’ I said.
‘But that was the day before yesterday! I don’t understand,’ said Vickery.
I handed her the cup of tea I had poured for her and poured another for myself. ‘Come on, we’ll go in the other room,’ I said.
Vickery listened intently as I told her of Jack and Katonia’s meeting.
‘But nothing will come of it, Jack’s Horse-Bonded and your sister isn’t,’ said Vickery. ‘Or do you think she will be at some point?’
I shook my head. ‘I don’t think so. But it doesn’t matter. Everything else is changing, why not this? It used to be that the Horse-Bonded set themselves apart because they needed time and space to learn from their horses, but we need to integrate with the villagers more now that we’ve learnt so much and have so much that we need to pass on to them. Maybe Jack will be the first of many.’
Vickery slumped in her chair. ‘Hmm, maybe,’ she said. ‘And you say you haven’t seen Jack or Katonia since the afternoon they met?’
‘Nope, I took their lunch and then their dinner out to them in the garden and they were still out there talking when I went to bed. When I got up yesterday, they and Candour had already gone somewhere and by the time I got back from dinner at my aunt’s, everyone was in bed. This morning they were already up and gone again. I can’t say I blame them, they have a lot to talk about and they’ll get no privacy here, no matter how hard my Mum tries to contain herself. I’m sorry you were so inundated yesterday, I helped some of the people who came here to see Jack, but there were some I knew wouldn’t be able to accept help from me, so I sent them on to see you.’
Vickery said, ‘don’t worry, I got through them all eventually, but I really do need to get Verve out for a ride today, he’s going stir crazy at Holly’s.’
‘Well if you fancy some company, Infinity and I could come with you both?’
‘We’ll only be here another day or so though, what about all the people who want help?’ Vickery said.
‘We’ll only be here for a few more days, but I have a feeling that Jack may well be here a good while longer. I think there’ll be plenty of time for everyone to get the help they want.’
‘You think he’ll stay longer and catch us up? That won’t be easy, I mean we don’t exactly move slowly, do we? Oh, hang on. You think he’s going to stay here? With Katonia?’
I nodded. ‘I don’t see another choice for them. Katonia can’t come with us, she’d never keep up on foot and it’s not her... I mean it wouldn’t be the right thing for her anyway. You can help as many people to multiskill as you can as we pass through the villages and we’ll spread the word that Jack is in Rockwood and will help anyone who travels to see him there. He could also do trips out to the surrounding villages.’
Vickery nodded, slowly. ‘I guess that would work.’
‘Are you okay? About Jack staying here, I mean?’
‘I’ll miss him like fury, I’m not going to pretend otherwise, and going to find the Kindred will feel a whole lot scarier without him and Candour there. No, I’m not even remotely okay about it, but don’t breathe a word of that to him,’ Vickery said, and sighed. ‘I think I’ll just go on that ride with Verve, he’s what I need right now. You and Infinity are welcome to come along, but I can’t promise I’ll be much company.’
‘That’s okay, you’ll be looking at Fin’s tail in the distance most of the time, anyway,’ I said with a wink.
A glint appeared in Vickery’s eye. ‘Fighting talk, eh, we’ll see about that. Infinity may be able to summon an impossible amount of power in that hind end of hers, but Verve’s improving all the time, in fact he got very excited about the amount of lift and connection he achieved just before we arrived in Rockwood – it may not be too long before Infinity’s breathing his dust.’
That is unlikely, Infinity noted.
‘Not if she’s got anything to do with it!’ I laughed.
I woke up suddenly and sat bolt upright in my bed, my heart racing. I felt for Infinity and found her grazing contentedly in the moonlight. Instantly, I calmed.
You had a dream that was not a dream, Infinity informed me.
Yes, it was like the one I had when I first dreamt about you and the ones after that when I could see where you were and I knew what you were doing. Only this one was about the Kindred Elder.
You are in her thoughts. She is curious about you.
I thought through what I had just dreamt. And about you. When the young Kindred found us, the other horses were all terrified, yet you chose not to feel fear and you helped me to convince her that we wanted to be friends. The Elder witnessed it as she rode within the young Kindred’s mind. She knows what she felt from us and from the others, but she can’t believe it, she won’t let herself believe that we’re sincere. And then she remembers who I was to her and she wants to hope. I could have known all of that any time I wanted to if I’d given any time to being Aware of her, I’ve just had so much to think about since we arrived in Rockwood.
This she knows.
She’s Aware, I agreed. She reached me while I was asleep because she knew I have too much on my mind at the moment while I’m awake.
I felt a warmth towards the Kindred Elder as I realised that she could have come crashing into my mind at any time of her choosing, yet had chosen to nudge my mind in the gentlest of ways, letting me know of her interest in me, her curiosity and her concerns in the least intrusive way that she could. She was more used to being Aware than I, I realised, and then remembered how the young Kindred had also placed her thoughts so gently into my mind, with such ease.
What do I do, Fin? Shall I try to communicate with her?
She will need time. Our mind will be open to her touch at any time and in any manner of her choosing. We will not recoil from her as she probes for the information she needs. But we will not attempt to return her contact unless she asks.
I relaxed as I felt my horse’s wisdom permeate my being. Agreed. It will be difficult not to reach for her, knowing who she is, but it’s the only way she might learn to trust us.
Who she was to you has relevance only with regard to the agreement you made. Do not be distracted by who she was and who you were.
Easier said than done, Fin.
It is something to which you will need to become accustomed. Now that you are Aware you will see connections between yourself and others that would previously have been invisible to you. They were invisible by your choice when you incarnated into a human body since your mind would not have been capable of comprehending so much information on so many levels. Now that you are Aware of these connections you must not allow them to become a distraction. View them merely as a point of interest and then revert your attention to the task before us.
And what about the connections I see between others? Like the one I saw between Katonia and Jack? Should I not have helped that to come to fruition?
Your interference was irrelevant.
I saw it immediately. They would have met whether I brought Jack home or not. And I was so distracted by the connection I saw between
them that my mind was too busy to register the Kindred Elder’s interest. Okay, I understand. I’ll try to focus on what’s relevant to our mission.
Do not try at all. Position yourself between being Aware and being present and then merely observe. The way forward will be obvious.
It’s about finding my centre again – finding it and staying in it.
Whilst you are incarnate it always will be.
Six
Celebration
Katonia and Jack were married before we left Rockwood. My mother was as hysterical about organising a wedding at such short notice as she was joyful at her daughter’s engagement, but since Katonia insisted that she wouldn’t get married without me as her bridesmaid, my mother calmed down and chose focused determination instead. The result was beautiful.
Everyone who could tree-sing, including many new to the Skill thanks to Jack’s help, took shifts sitting in our paddock and singing two newly-planted rows of pink-blossomed cherry tree saplings to grow up and arch towards one another, forming a tunnel for Katonia and me to walk through to meet her husband-to-be.
The Earth-Singers, led by my brothers, moved earth in from surrounding fields to form a large horseshoe-shaped mound around the end of the pink-blossomed archway. Robbie and Con trusted no one but themselves to then lift sections of turf and sing them into place until they covered the mound, providing an enormous seating area upon which family and friends could position themselves to watch the ceremony.
The Metal-Singers provided ornate, twisted metal posts which were placed at intervals along the top of the mound and linked by ribbon, from which the Glass-Singers hung opaque baubles that they had sung in pastel colours, each one featuring the intertwined letters K, J and C – my sister had insisted that Candour’s initial was included. Having had experience of Infinity’s complete refusal to be involved in the personal affairs of humans, I wasn’t sure whether Candour would necessarily appreciate the gesture, but I guessed that it would mean a lot to Jack. The Glass-Singers also provided open-fronted glass lanterns which were attached to each post. Scented candles, provided by the village Chandler, were placed in each lantern, to be lit once the wedding ceremony was complete; the flaming lanterns would symbolise the warmth and love of the new marriage.