Chapter 49
“You spoke of security when we were in the other caster,” Tacita said. “Now you see why we do not need to lock doors and buildings.”
“Because you commit acts of barbarism? You think that gives you security?” I laughed scornfully.
“There are no more than three or four executions every year, much less than in the past. My father once told me that the arena was full one time when he was a boy, over a thousand men and women were executed. It must have been really exciting. Imagine how long it would have taken!”
I looked at her, baffled. Here was a young woman who had been prepared to abandon her place in this society to join me, yet she still relished the way in which these people were governed. With sheer, primitive brutality. Or so it seemed to me. I recalled how long it had taken the Professors to make me see the truth about the Change during the time I spent in Plas Maen Heledd. And the Change had been nowhere near as brutal as it appeared to be now.
Eventually, after more interminable speeches, the ceremony came to an end. “Will those sentenced to Desolatio leave now?” I asked her.
She shrugged. “I suppose. I really have no idea.”
I could see the Leaders leaving their seats, and a few moments later they appeared on the road making their way back inside the caster. Slowly the amphitheatrum emptied, just as it had filled, row by row, social level by social level, until finally the childless on the top row made their way out. When the last of these had made their way inside, the gates closed behind them. So far, there had been no sign of the group of men sentenced to Desolatio.
As we watched, a group of workers entered the arena, piled the incinerated corpses onto a simple wooden trolley and wheeled them away. Then the lights began to be extinguished, starting at the top and working their way down the rows of empty seats. The effect, from where we sat, was astonishing, as I had not really been aware how late it was until now, and how dark the evening. Soon, there was only one light visible, over a small door near the end of the building furthest away from the entrance.
The door opened, two workers came out and hunted around until they found the remains of the poor childless who had thrown herself off. They dragged her back to the doorway. Two other workers then came out, pushing the trolley loaded with the corpses. The broken body was thrown on top of these and all four men set off into the darkness beyond.
“To be buried, I hope?” I said.
“Buried?” Tacita said. “No. We don’t bury dead criminals.”
“So what happens to those bodies?”
“They are thrown into the river. Washed away after that, I presume.”
As if to prove her correct, a few minutes later the workers returned, now pushing an empty trolley. They returned inside the amphitheatrum.
“We still have not seen the men condemned to Desolatio,” I said. “When will they leave?”
Tacita shrugged. “Soon, I expect.”
Suddenly, Eluned leaned in towards us with her finger on her lips. I looked at her. She pointed down the slope below us. I followed where she was pointing and could just make out a small figure that appeared to be coming towards us. My first reaction was defensive. As quietly as I could, I scrabbled about behind me, trying to find something to strike out with – a stick, or a rock. There was nothing.
As the figure came closer, Tacita whispered, “I think it’s a childless. I’m sure she has seen us.”
Scrabbling and crawling her way up, we could soon make out that she was right. A thin creature, barely covered by the ragged remains of a brown shift, lifted her head when she was close enough for us to see her clearly, and stopped. She seemed to be alone. Once the sound of her crawling had ceased silence fell.
“What are you doing?” Tacita called out.
A thin little voice, still surprising despite the fact that we had grown used to Tacita’s similar voice, replied. “Niobe0344? Four? Tacita? Is it really you?”
“Who are you? How do you know my name?” Tacita sounded afraid.
“It is you! I thought it was. It’s me...” She stopped abruptly as Eluned stood up and walked towards her.
“Why are you here?” she asked as the woman cowered beneath her. “How did you know we were here?”
“Sister,” she wailed. “My sister.”
“Catulla?” Tacita cried out. She stood and ran down the slope, crashing into the woman and lifting her up. “It is you! I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. Non! This is my sister. My sister. Polyxena0741. Catulla. My sister.” The pair clung together and danced a little jig before falling over in a heap, both laughing hysterically.
Eluned walked back to where I was still sitting. “How can this be, my lady?”
“I have no idea,” I said. “I did not think we were visible up here. No one seemed to be looking up here anyway.”
“What if she is being followed? Surely she should have gone back inside that place with all the others like her.”
“There doesn’t seem to be anyone following. As far as I can see. The only ones left down there are those workers, and they’re back inside. Tacita,” I called, “bring the woman here so that we can see her properly.”
Still giggling hysterically, just like the ten year olds they half resembled, the two women clambered to their feet and rushed up towards us.
“My sister, Non!” Tacita cried as she threw herself down beside me, dragging down her companion. “This is Non, Catulla,” she said, as if introducing us. “And this is Eluned, her servant. They saved me. And now they can save you, too.” She laughed again. A weird, high-pitched screech of a laugh. The other woman simply sat saying nothing, stifling her giggles, her eyes wide, sunk in her pale cheeks as they were.
“Calm down,” I said, sounding like an old woman. “Calm down, Tacita. So this is your sister. She’s older than you, I think. What did she say her name was?”
“Catulla,” Tacita giggled.
“No, her Ovidian name.”
“I am Polyxena0741,” the woman said. She stopped giggling and made a futile attempt to cover herself with the rags she was wearing. “I am twenty-three. Strong. Willing to work hard.”
I looked at her. Her skin was certainly coarser than Tacita’s, much coarser than mine or Eluned’s, which suggested that she was older. She had a long red scar across her stomach, clearly visible in the gaps of her shift. But there was little to confirm that she was Tacita’s sister – they did not look at all alike.
“41,” I said. “You completed your Guard duty?”
“Yes, two years ago.”
“So what have you done since? Why is your shift in such a state?”
“I started in the Aula,” she said. “After Guard I was considered to be worthy of that. I had a beautiful ivory shift. I was so proud. Tacita, you would have been proud of me. It was what we both dreamed of becoming.”
“So what happened to change things?” I was intrigued. This was the first time I had spoken to someone who was actually living within the caster. Tacita and her dead friend, and the girl in the isolated house, had all been living in the ‘outland’ as they called it.
“One of the Leaders,” she said. She sounded very bitter.
“In the Aula?” Tacita said.
“No. Not in the Aula. The Aula Leaders were very good to us.”
“So where?” I said.
“His domum,” she continued, hesitatingly. “He asked me for assistance as I was going home one evening. It is our duty to assist a Leader if he asks for it. You know that, Tacita.”
Tacita nodded agreement.
“When I entered his domus he took me to his sleeping room. He told me to remove my shift and lie on the bed. When I refused he took a blade and cut me.” She pointed at the scar on her stomach. “Blood went everywhere. He threw me out. I just about made it back to the childless sector where some of the others bound me, using a spare shift. For three or four days I was too weak to get up. When I managed to stand up and walk I returned to the Aula but they
would not let me in. I was told that a Leader had accused me of luring him.”
“Luring him?” I said. “What does that mean?”
“Some of the Leaders like to do things with the childless that they cannot do with their personal child-bearer,” Tacita said. “They know we will not take a child. But it is very painful. We are not prepared like the child-bearers.”
“Could you not complain?” I said to Catulla, knowing what the answer was likely to be.
“A childless complain about a Leader?” Tacita said, laughing contemptuously. “Who would listen to that? Who would we complain to, even if we could?”
“So what happened to you, Catulla?” I asked.
“I was sent to be a servant to the workers. To clean their quarters. To be used for their enjoyment.”
I shuddered. What terrible lives these poor women had to lead.
“My lady, the door,” Eluned said, interrupting. As I looked down, the door at the back of the amphitheatrum was opening again. Two of the workers emerged, followed by a group of five who appeared to be shackled together at the neck. The other two workers came behind them. Once they were all outside, the door closed and the last light was turned off.
“It’s them,” I said. “The ones they are taking to Desolatio. We need to follow them.”
Chapter 50
Catulla came alongside me and grasped my sleeve. “What are you doing?” she said.
“We need to follow those men,” I replied, hurtling down the slope as quickly as I could.
“But they are going to Desolatio,” she gasped, tripping and stumbling with me.
“Which is where I need to go,” I said. Small stones and bits of scrub were being dislodged and cascading before us as we careered down. At one point I skidded to a halt. The group of men, who mercifully had not heard or – worse – seen us, suddenly disappeared from view. “Where did they go?” I gasped, looking around.
“There,” Tacita said, pointing to the road that led to the caster. “They seem to be going into the caster.”
We carried on down until we reached the path next to the amphitheatrum. I had to put out my hands and use the glass wall to stop myself. Catulla and Tacita managed to bring themselves to a stop. Eluned, coming last, was followed by a hail of stones which crashed into the glass. For a moment the group of men paused, but since we were hidden in the darkness, they saw nothing and carried on.
Catching my breath, I ran along the path, rounding the curve and nearly colliding with the huge gateway. “Are they going into the caster?” I asked Catulla, who was still keeping up with me, although she had released her hold on my sleeve.
“No, they will go around the outside. Watch.”
As the group neared the gate, which now looked absolutely huge from where we were, they suddenly turned to the right. Close to the red stone wall, which soared above them, they headed towards the far corner. When they were what I considered to be a safe distance along the wall, I whispered, “Come on,” and the four of us made a dash along the road until we reached the shelter of the wall to the right of the gateway. As we watched, the men turned the corner and were lost to sight again.
“We must keep up,” I said as we jogged along the narrow path. “We cannot afford to lose them now.” But when we reached the corner and peered around there was, at first, no sign of them. “No,” I moaned. “Where can they have gone?”
“There,” Eluned said, pointing. Some way off, in the direction of the river which ran past this wall of the caster, I could just make them out. They were certainly moving quickly, particularly considering that five of them were shackled together. We set off again. For Eluned and I the half-walking, half-running that we kept up was no real problem, but it soon became obvious that the other two were having difficulty keeping up. Tacita slowly dropped behind us, and, before we reached the bank of the river, Catulla had fallen even further behind.
The path that ran alongside the river was perfectly flat and, even in the darkness, faintly visible a long way ahead. The group of men could still be seen, although they seemed to be outstripping us. I stopped, keeping my eye on the dwindling group. As Tacita caught up with us she leaned forward with her hands on her knees, breathing in shallow gasps. Catulla eventually made it, collapsing onto her knees.
I looked at the pair of them. They were obviously not as fit as they thought they were. “We must keep the group in sight,” I said. “You’ve got to do better than this.”
Between gasps, Catulla said, “I know. Where they’re going. This path. Only goes to one place. Will take some time. No need to rush.” She looked up at me. “Really. Can’t breathe.”
“How can you know that?” I said, staring at her.
“Been here. Before. With a Leader. Took me. With a child-bearer.” Slowly, she recovered her breath.
“And this Leader brought you down here? Why would he do that?”
“It was not his personal child-bearer. She belonged to another. He knew of a place where they could do it. Without being seen.”
“Except by you, presumably.”
“They needed me to hold their clothes. I wandered off. It was too uncomfortable. I saw a wire fence. And gates. On the end of the path. I think that must be where they put those condemned to Desolatio.”
I was half-inclined to question her further about this episode, as I was worried that she might not be telling the truth, or that she had mistaken the path now it was dark.
“Are you sure about this?” I said.
“Yes, yes,” she replied. “If we walk along this path I will show you the place where they … you know, where they ...”
“Yes, I know what you mean. You are sure this was the path? And that this path led to the fence?”
She nodded vigorously.
Eluned had listened to this discussion. “Do all the men, the so-called Leaders, act in this way in this caster?” she said.
“All the time,” Tacita said. “Some of the Leaders have too little to do. They get bored so they look for women who will lie with them. They will usually take a childless, especially those who do not work in the Aula. No one cares what happens to them. But sometimes they prefer a child-bearer. They are better prepared. And if their personal child-bearer is carrying a child, they will choose another.”
“This place has no morality, my lady,” Eluned said. I was as shocked as she was. Most especially at the calm way Tacita recited this tale of debauchery. It was as if it was totally acceptable - ‘normal’ - behaviour.
“Show us the way, then,” I said to Catulla. The group of men had long since disappeared into the distance. I had no option but to trust that she was telling the truth. As they had both recovered I let them take the lead. Eluned and I plodded slowly along behind them.
Since the path was made of a light-coloured gravel it remained faintly visible despite the dark, and the river along which it ran was almost silent. Occasionally a tree would loom out of the night, but the path would simply curve around it. It was some considerable time before Catulla came to a stop.
“Here,” she said, pointing to the side of the path away from the river. “They did it here. We are not far from the fence now.”
The place she indicated was not, as far as I could see, any different to any other part of the path we were following, but she sounded convinced and, once again, we followed as she set off. Before long I spotted a wire fence to our left. Set some way back from the path, it was high, far too high to climb over. The top leaned outward and was covered in sharp, knife-like objects.
High The Vanes (The Change Book 2) Page 21