The Power of Seven

by Peter R. Ellis

  “I love myself and I love everyone. Listen to me. I am here, the Cludydd o Maengolauseren and I will defeat the Malevolence.”

  Her voice was strong. A sheet of lightning flashed out from the starstone. The white prison was gone and she was standing again amongst the orange band of the cludyddau o efyddyn. They clapped loudly.

  “We hear your message, Cludydd,” Anarawd said over the din, “and so does every person in the universe.”

  “You found your love for yourself,” Catrin said.

  “Yes,” September cried, filled with satisfaction, “thanks to you. I don’t think I have ever really loved myself before but now I do and I love you all.”

  “Now you have the power of Gwener at your disposal, you can communicate with anyone in our universe whenever you wish,” Anarawd explained.

  “But I don’t have the copper horn with me.”

  “You no longer need it. The Maengolauseren is your link to the network of efyddyn that is in and around every living thing. You can also summon electric energy from the earth, air, fire and water that make up the substance of the universe, reinforcing the energy that the stone draws from the stars.”

  “Thank you, Anarawd, for explaining it to me.”

  “Now you have added the essence of efyddyn to your skills, your time with us is at an end,” Catrin said sadly, “we hope you will return to us some time, but now you must travel on.”

  Once again there were farewells as she rose from the planet’s surface. September looked up and saw the Sun directly ahead.

  5

  The Sun was a great golden ball in front of her. As she got closer September expected the heat to become intolerable. After all, it was the Sun that warmed the Earth. How would she survive?

  She wasn’t burned to a cinder. Although the growing Sun became brighter, making the stars invisible to her eyes, she didn’t feel heat. Was the blue glow that surrounded her protecting her? Now that the Sun filled her field of vision she realised that, like the Moon and the planets she had already visited, it didn’t look like what she might have expected. She recalled films showing huge flames leaping off the face of the Sun and a mottled, boiling appearance. Here the Sun was a uniform golden sphere.

  She was on the surface. Well not exactly. She was floating a centimetre above the incandescent material that was the Sun. Even the air or gas around her glowed brightly, making it difficult to see far. She didn’t see the approaching spirits until they were close enough to speak. Their wraith-like bodies were luminous like the Sun itself and they had hair that varied from the yellow of daffodils to pale straw. There at the forefront was the spirit of Aurddolen, smiling warmly. September felt a spurt of happiness at seeing him.

  “Welcome, Cludydd. You have travelled far and have a long way still to go but we are pleased because your arrival here shows that you have been successful in your first three tasks.” Aurddolen’s voice was formal but friendly.

  “I think I am beginning to understand how things work,” September said, “I have to use my emotions to control the Maengolauseren and your tasks are teaching me the feelings I need.”

  “That is correct, September. Only by drawing on the energy of the seven planets as well as the stars will you be powerful enough to overcome the Malevolence.”

  “And Malice?”

  “We have no knowledge of a spirit with that title.”

  September was confused but before she could enquire further she noticed one of the most aged spirits stepping forward.

  “I am Heulyn, Cludydd,” he said.

  “The one who built the Arsyllfa?” This must be the cludydd o aur she had first heard of in Tudfwlch’s stories, who Aurddolen had told her about, whose book had set her on this trek through the solar system.

  “That is correct.”

  “The Mordeyrn who knew my mother?” He was ancient in appearance but still retained a power.

  “I was honoured to accompany the Cludydd Breuddwyd. You are very alike. You and she are worthy bearers of the stone.”

  “But she didn’t have a twin to make things worse.”

  Heulyn ignored September’s comment as if he was reciting a recorded statement. “After Breuddwyd banished the Malevolence I devoted my life to preparing for the next Cysylltiad expecting it to follow the same pattern as before. All the cludyddau o aur that followed me including Aurddolen, continued my work.”

  “You must complete your awakening, September,” Aurddolen said, “so that we can develop our plans.”

  “So you have a task for me?”

  “Of course. We are sure you will find the key to access the power of Haul.”

  The noise was deafening; people shouting and screaming, the crash of stone pulverising stone, the roar of fires. A stench of burning wood and something else filled the air. Was it meat or human flesh? September felt dizzy. Where was she? It felt like she was on Earth or in the Land again. She rested a hand against a rough wall to steady herself. Men and women ran past, seeing her but taking no notice of her. She peered through the billowing clouds of dust and smoke that obscured her view. She seemed to be in a village or town. There were buildings of stone and wood although most now seemed to be in ruins. It was not a place she recognised.

  She followed the people, picking her way over the debris of fallen stone and half-burned timbers that filled the streets and alleyways. There was a line of people ahead of her, their backs to her. They were kneeling or crouched down. A few held bows with arrows poised to fire, some grasped short swords, but most held rocks in their hands, ready to throw. September could see over their heads to hilltops and realised that the town was also on top of a hill. The people seemed to be gathered at the edge, looking down at something.

  She edged forward until she was standing in the row of men and women waiting behind a low parapet. Then she saw what they were waiting for. Climbing the rough hillside, grasping at shrubs and outcrops of rock was an army, a motley, dusty, undisciplined army but a determined one. She couldn’t count their numbers but everywhere she looked she saw another figure, scrambling up the steep slope. They grasped all sorts of weapons in their hands – swords, knives, axes, scythes, burning torches, or simply heavy sticks. Some were close enough to see their faces. September recognised those faces. They were the same as she had seen at Glanyrafon, the faces of the servants of the Malevolence, faces that were distorted with hate. These people were driven with just one purpose – to do the bidding of the evil, to kill and destroy.

  Beyond the attackers, lower down the hillside, September could see the reason for the town being a burning ruin. There were dozens of war machines. Each was different but each was designed to throw missiles of one sort or another. Even to September’s untrained eye they seemed makeshift and hastily lashed together from misshapen pieces of wood but they were effective. As she watched, one lobbed a boulder into the sky. It ripped through the air over her head and crashed into the unprotected town. Another fired a bundle of burning wood that passed over them dripping sparks and cinders.

  “Get down, or you’ll get your head knocked off!” The man next to her tugged on the grubby gown that covered her body. He held a sling for flinging small rocks and looked to be in his fifties. “It won’t be long now before they’re at us.”

  September saw the desperate look in his eyes. These people, these few people, were defending themselves against the hordes of the Malevolence with the rubble of their own homes and a few real weapons.

  “Where are the cludydds?” she asked, wondering who was in charge.

  “What are you on about? You know we have no cludyddau here.”

  Not one cludydd, so there was no one to wield the power of iron or copper or lead or gold to defend these people from the power of the Malevolence. They were relying on their own strength and courage to repel the hate-driven attackers. September wondered why she was here. The noise, the smells, the eye-smarting smoke, seemed real but, she remembered, it was a test for her. What did the spirits of the Sun intend her to do
?

  She needed to pause to think, but the chaos around her, the missiles flying overhead and the knowledge that the army of the Malevolence was getting closer with every moment made her head spin. The starstone was still in her hand. She looked at it. It was cold and dark. What did she know about the power of gold? She had seen Aurddolen draw on its power to destroy the first Draig tân and a speck of gold powered the motor that drove her boat. Gold was a conduit for the energy of the Sun but it also seemed to imbue its bearers with the skills of leadership. Everyone looked to Aurddolen to guide the Land through the Conjunction and the invasion by the Malevolence as Heulyn had done before.

  There was no gold here and no cludydd o aur. Very soon the townspeople would be fighting for their lives and their identities against the overwhelming numbers of the mindless attackers.

  “Do you think you can defeat them?” September asked of the man beside her.

  “How can we win against the Malevolence? We do not have the power.” A few of the defenders let fly with arrows. Each found its mark and the attackers fell but the vast numbers remaining took no notice and continued their advance.

  “Why are you here then?”

  The man showed surprise that she should ask such a question but answered her nevertheless. “There is no way of escape. We are surrounded. I will fight and die rather than become like them.” He nodded at the approaching horde now barely forty metres away. September recalled how the people of Glanyrafon had been turned to evil.

  “They were ordinary people once.”

  “That is true and some of our own folk have already been turned to evil in the same way. They killed their friends and families as well as destroying their own homes.”

  “Is there no way they can be stopped?”

  “A visitation from the Cludydd o Maengolauseren perhaps? Some hope.”

  Hope. As he said it, September realised that was what Aurddolen and the other cludyddau o aur had within them. They radiated optimism and hope while the people trusted in them and had hope themselves. Wherever there was a cludydd o aur to plan and guide, the people were filled with the hope that they would succeed against the Malevolence. With the power of the Sun behind them, of course there was hope.

  September felt the stone getting hot in her hand. She leapt to her feet raising her hand high. The dusty gown that had covered her dissolved into the air and she was clothed once again in royal blue.

  “Cludydd?” the man cried out. Others surrounding her looked towards her, recognition dawning on their faces.

  September took a deep breath and shouted, “Have hope!”

  She was back on the Sun facing Aurddolen, Heulyn and the others. Her heart was thumping with the thrill of discovering how hope could defeat the enemy. She lowered her hand and gripped the starstone tightly again.

  “Well done, Cludydd,” Heulyn said, “You discovered hope.”

  “Yes, now I understand how you can prepare for a battle against something that seems impossible to destroy.”

  “We know we cannot destroy the Malevolence, but you are correct, hope gives us the strength to stand against it and banish it from our world.” Heulyn said.

  “Was I really there defending that town?”

  “It was a vision of what could be,” Aurddolen said, “There are many places across Daear that have little defence against the manifestations and servants of evil other than what the people can provide themselves. They face pain, death or perhaps conversion to evil but yet they persevere. With the powers that you are acquiring you will be able to help them and give them hope.”

  “Can’t you?”

  “If I was there I could, but I cannot be everywhere and there are few cludyddau o aur.” September looked at the assembled spirits. There were many of them but she remembered that this included all the past cludyddau like Heulyn. Aurddolen was the only living one she had met or heard of. Then she noticed for the first time that they were all men.

  “Are there no women gold bearers?”

  “Aur and arian are the husband and wife of metals. The Sun and Moon determine who can become a cludydd. The Moon always chooses women, the Sun, men.”

  “But your daughter, Heulwen, she carries gold and says she is your apprentice.”

  Aurddolen looked sad.

  “Heulwen certainly has a little aptitude for wielding gold and she has had a dream that Haul for whom she is named, will select her despite the rules.”

  “Rules can be broken or changed.”

  “Perhaps rule is the wrong word. It is a law of our universe that cannot be altered.”

  “So Heulwen is wrong.”

  “She is misguided. Her mother died when she was just a baby. As a child I taught her some simple ways of drawing energy from gold, barely more than anyone using an engine powered by gold can do. Then I had to leave her at the Arsyllfa while I toured the Land to spread the message of hope. I was absent for years during which Heulwen became convinced that she was my apprentice and would assist me in the struggle against the Malevolence. I have been unable to shake this belief.”

  “She’s bananas.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “She’s mad.”

  “I hope not. Somewhat overconfident I feel.”

  September didn’t say anything more as she felt that Aurddolen, or his spirit, had a rose-tinted view of his daughter. The opportunity passed as she felt herself lifting off from the Sun.

  “Farewell, Cludydd,” called Heulyn, “Take our hopes with you for the rest of your journey.”

  While Heulyn was smiling warmly, September saw that there was a frown on Aurddolen’s face. Perhaps his daughter is yet another worry for him, September wondered. Further thoughts about Heulwen slipped from her mind as the Sun diminished behind her. Now she was heading into the outer solar system; next stop, Mars. The planet was a red dot in front of her but it grew rapidly. A variety of vague but conflicting ideas about Mars flashed through her mind. Mars was the god of war but the planet was a dead, cold world covered in red rust. There was a link. There were three bearers of iron that she had met: Iorwerth, Iddig and Cynhaearn. They were also warriors as Tudfwlch had been.

  The three cludyddau were at the front of the crowd of crimson spirits welcoming her as September’s feet touched the surface of the planet but she could not see the youthful features of Tudfwlch among them. The bright spot of the Sun, high in the sky, did not seem to dispel the ruddy gloom. September looked at the assembled cludyddau. There were women as well as men but they all looked strong and muscular and suited to wielding heavy tools and weapons too.

  “Welcome, Cludydd,” Cynhaearn said, “We are eager for your presence among us.”

  “Have you been waiting long?”

  “Time has little meaning for us. The spheres of the planets continue on their endless rotation around Daear and the incursions of the Malevolence grow stronger but we do not measure hours or days. We knew the Cludydd o Maengolauseren would join us in the battle and we are delighted that you are here.”

  “I am interested in what I have to learn here but first I wonder if Tudfwlch is with you?”

  “I am sorry, he is not,” Iorwerth said, “News reached us that he had fallen to the Malevolence.”

  “Then shouldn’t he be here?”

  “Alas, Tudfwlch was an apprentice and not a cludydd. He hadn’t established the full connection with Mawrth that would have brought his spirit to us. It is a sad loss as I am sure he would have been a fine cludydd o haearn.”

  “What happened to him when he died?”

  “The spirits of the good return to the soil of Daear but those of servants of the Malevolence ascend above the stars.” Iorwerth said, “Do you know what death befell him?”

  “I killed him – twice. First with the knife you gave me and then with the starstone. He was infected by the evil and attacked me.”

  “Ah, that is a sad end. His spirit will now be full of hate and is merged with the Malevolence. You must remember his fate as you
take the test that Mawrth has set.”

  Again, September stood on ground somewhere in the Land. She was beside a river in a broad valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains. There were even patches of snow on the thin, sparse grass of the flood plain. This isn’t the Bryn am Seren, September thought, the mountains are far too tall. I must be in the Mynydd Tywyll. She noticed activity by the river a couple of hundred metres away. A party of people were climbing over a tangled heap of iron girders. September decided to join them. As she was again clad in luminous dark blue the people soon saw her and stopped their work in order to greet her. One man stepped forward. He seemed the oldest among the crowd.

  “You are the Cludydd o Maengolauseren?” he asked.

  “I am. What are you doing?”

  “We have been attacked by the Malevolence. A Draig tân destroyed our bridge.” He indicated the wreckage. “It is haearn but our cludydd o haearn was killed by Llamhigwyn y dwr so we are unable to rebuild it.”

  “Lam… what? That is a manifestation of the Malevolence I’ve heard mentioned but I haven’t met them.”

  “You are lucky, Cludydd. They are immense creatures that have heads shaped like those of frogs, wings of skin like bats and tails of a lizard that carry a fierce sting. They arose from the river as the Draig tân struck the bridge. The cludydd attacked them with his great sword but one of the stings struck him down.”

  September didn’t like the image she had of the Llamhigwyn y dwr.

  “I see. The cludydd would have repaired your bridge, I suppose.”

  “Yes. Our flocks graze on the other side of the river and the current is too strong for us to cross so the bridge is essential to our village. Without the cludydd we cannot rebuild the bridge. We have the cludydd’s tools but not his skill in manipulating haearn.” The old man struggled to lift a heavy hammer such as she could imagine Iorwerth wielding.