High The Vanes (The Change Book 2)
Page 23
Suddenly I heard a slight whistling sound. At the same moment Eluned stopped and I piled into her. Fortunately I was close enough behind her not to disturb her, but I felt my heart begin to race.
“Did you hear that?” I whispered.
“It was him,” Eluned replied. “He has seen us.”
I didn’t dare move my eyes to look. “Who?” I said, still whispering.
“You have heard that sound before, my lady.”
“The whistling sound? Have I?” I remembered. “It can’t be.”
“What is it?”
“The sound of an arrow? But it can’t be. It can’t be.”
But it was. “Are you going to stand there all night?” His voice boomed out over the gorge, echoing.
Clutching Eluned’s back, I shivered. “That voice,” I said. “It’s ...”
She started moving again. Slowly. I followed, still clutching her shift. When she stopped again I lifted my head.
“What took you so long?” the voice said. This time I recognised it. “Gwyr a aeth Gatraeth oedd fraeth eu llu,” he said.
Oblivious now to where I was, I stood upright and said, “Glasfedd eu hancwyn a gwenwyn fu.”
There, in the mouth of the cave which loomed above us, a stone-tipped arrow notched in his bow, stood none other than the Teacher. A broad smile lit up his face.
“What took you so long?” he repeated as I literally fell into the cave.
Chapter 54
I suppose I should have known that he would not say very much – he never had. The whole time I had been with him in Red Castle, I don’t think we had more than two or three ‘conversations’ and it would be stretching things to call them that, really. Stood just far enough inside the cave entrance to ensure that I did not plunge back down the cliff face, he waited in silence until I had clambered to my feet. He looked me up and down as Eluned helped me.
“How?” I started, but he turned on his heel and headed into the cave. “I presume he wants us to follow him,” I said to Eluned. We set off into the darkness of the cave interior, the Teacher’s footsteps echoing ahead of us. At first it was difficult to see anything and I did wonder why he was taking us into this bleak, dark place. But before too long, a dim light came into view. As we approached it grew brighter until it became clear that it was a lantern, a candle burning inside a small wood and glass holder. This hung over a brick-built archway in the middle of what was the back wall of the cave.
The archway led into a tunnel. A tunnel that was clearly man-made. Since the Teacher’s footsteps rang out from within this tunnel, we had no choice but to follow him in. It was only wide enough for one person to pass at a time, but was high enough for us to walk upright. As the light from the entrance lantern faded, another came into view, some distance ahead. Now with the sound of three pairs of feet ringing along the tunnel, we soon reached this new lantern, which hung from an iron hook on one wall. We carried on past it at the brisk pace needed to keep up.
As we reached what I guessed was the fifth of these wall-hung lanterns I stopped. The silence that followed was uncanny. The sound of footsteps had been strangely comforting as we passed along this semi-dark tunnel. Now I could no longer hear those of the Teacher.
“Where’s he gone?” I whispered to Eluned who was following close behind me.
“I know not, my lady,” she whispered.
“What should we do? Carry on?” I was hesitant now, unsure what lay ahead.
“There seems to be another lantern ahead. Let us go forward.”
We set off again, this time more slowly. As the light from the lantern faded, it soon became clear that the light ahead of us was not coming from another one. It was daylight. We were nearing the end of the tunnel. I quickened my pace, eager to escape from its confines. Fortunately, Eluned was a little less eager than I was, for when we did reach the end of the tunnel she quickly grabbed my arm as I nearly plunged out into the nothingness that lay beyond.
I ended up leaning, breathless, against the brickwork of this new entry or exit, whichever it was. Now that I had paused to look, I could see a flight of wooden steps running down to the left. They ended in a platform at the mouth of the tunnel, but there was no railing or guard around this to stop anyone who was not taking sufficient care. As I recovered my composure I looked out over this platform. What I saw was truly astonishing.
I’m not sure even today what I had expected to see at the other end of the tunnel that first time I ventured down it. All I knew was that I was following the Teacher and I presumed that he knew where he was going – and why. I suppose if anything I had half-expected to find a landscape similar to the one we had just left. If that is what I thought then I could not have been more wrong. Before me, in a wide valley mostly filled with trees, I saw, in a clearing, a huge walled enclosure. The walls were partly ruined, but still at least three times the height of a tall man. At regular intervals along these walls, which formed an almost perfect square, there were semi-circular towers, some topped with wooden fences, others covered with straw roofs. On each of the fenced towers I could see two or three men carrying what looked like weapons of some sort.
Inside the enclosure, at its centre, was another enclosed area, this time surrounded with a wooden fence built on top of a bank inside a ditch. Inside this there were three buildings, all made of wood and some other material, roofed with straw. These were laid out with the two smaller ones almost joining the ends of the middle, largest one. Together, they formed a sort of courtyard within them. Elsewhere in the main enclosure there were three or four smaller buildings, but the ground was mostly set out as small fields, some of which contained crops, others contained animals like cows and sheep.
A path led from the bottom of the wooden stairs on which we stood to a point near one of the guarded towers where there was a small gateway. The path continued on the inside right across the enclosure to a similar gate on the other side, running past the fenced buildings on its way. Other paths criss-crossed the enclosure, one leading to a pair of gateways in the other walls, although these, as far as I could see, were bricked up.
I stood for some time trying to take all this in, absolutely entranced. It seemed so organised and peaceful, unlike everything I had seen in recent weeks and months. There were men and women everywhere in the enclosure, all working at one thing or another. One group were clearly constructing another building in one corner, men and women carrying wooden beams or climbing those already set up.
“My lady, he is waiting,” Eluned said, touching my arm, breaking my reverie. She was pointing out the Teacher who stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at us.
“What?” I said, dragging my eyes away from this sight. “Oh yes, the Teacher. We’d better go down and join him, I suppose.”
With much greater eagerness than when we passed through the tunnel that had brought us here, we clattered and stumbled down the stairs. As soon as we were close to the bottom, the Teacher turned and headed away along the path that led to the enclosure. Now that we were down on the ground level the walls looked even bigger than they had from above, soaring over us as we neared them. We approached the gateway I had seen, finding that it contained a thick wooden door that was swung back.
A tall heavily bearded man stood in the centre of the gateway, his hands on his hips. When he came up to him, the Teacher turned and stood beside him.
“So, these are your two charges?” the man said. His voice was deep and resonant, ringing from the stone archway above his head.
“Finally,” the Teacher said. “Step forward.” As we both did so, he put out his hand. “Only the Expected One.”
Eluned stepped back. I stood my ground.
“Long have we waited,” the door keeper said. “This is a great day, young woman. May I call you Non?”
Shocked that he knew my name I stepped back.
“Nothing to be afraid of,” he continued. “We all know our names here, and we use them!” He laughed. “My name is Cyndrwyn. You
are most welcome. Now, Eluned Llyn Y Gadair, you may step forward.”
Stepping forward, Eluned said, “It cannot be.”
“You are shocked?” Cyndrwyn said, again laughing.
“The old people are here?” she said.
“A few of us,” he said, reaching a hand out to each of us. “Now there is one more, eh?”
The Teacher spoke for the first time. “Together with another of these who live long but are not one of us.”
He was looking directly at me as he said this.
“What do you mean?” I asked him.
“You have discovered how many short-life years have passed while you were away?” Cyndrwyn said, smiling.
“If you mean that the Change has moved on over two hundred years, then, yes, I have discovered it. Though I still find it hard to understand how it has happened.”
“The Lady has her reasons,” he said. “She has her reasons. Does she not Eluned Llyn Y Gadair?”
“Always, my lord,” Eluned said, her head down.
“My lord?” Cyndrwyn roared with laughter. “My lord? None is lord within these walls, Eluned. You will call me Cyndrwyn, as does everyone else. Is that clear?”
Eluned nodded.
“Now,” he said, stepping through the gateway, still holding our hands. “There is someone who longs to meet you.”
Chapter 55
Inside, the building was humming with activity and thick with the smoke that rose from a fire burning at its centre. As far as I could see at first, my eyes streaming, there were several tables arranged on three sides of the single room. Directly facing the entrance I could make out two long tables over which a number of men and women appeared to be engaged in a noisy discussion. To the left another table was laden with plates of food and jugs of drink. Some children were seated at one end of the table on low benches, eating hungrily.
To the right the last table contained what looked like documents of some sort, in several piles of different sizes. Behind this table a huge board carried what appeared to be a plan of the whole enclosure. Having seen this from above when we arrived, I could make out the walls, the towers and the internal buildings. I rubbed my sleeve over my eyes several times in order to make out much of all this, although each time I did so they only stung more than before. In the end I had to stagger back through the entrance in order to clear them.
We had followed Cyndrwyn and the Teacher across the enclosure following the path I had seen. As they passed groups of men and women working in the fields, or carrying things to and fro, everyone stopped what they were doing and lowered their heads. Cyndrwyn waved a hand to some of these groups, to others he said a few words, although none responded. He laughed a lot. When we reached the wooden fence around the internal enclosure a gate giving entrance to the interior opened as he approached.
“Come in! Come in!” he had said, taking up our hands once again. “Here you will find the warmest of welcomes.”
He had crossed the courtyard swiftly and pushed his way through the crowded entrance to the largest building. Inside he had released our hands and promptly disappeared.
Now back outside, trying my best not to rub my sore eyes, Eluned soon joined me, her eyes also streaming. “I thought you might have been used to that,” I said, smiling.
“It is many years since I have been in such a place, my lady,” she said, returning my smile. “I had forgotten what it was like. So much smoke. So many people. So much noise.”
“Just what I thought,” I said. “How can anyone know what is going on in there?”
“You soon get used to it, fy nghariad,” a soft voice said behind me as I felt a hand on my shoulder.
I turned to find I was looking into the face of my grandfather. “Taid!” I cried. “I can’t believe it!”
“Believe it, cariad. It is me.”
I threw my arms around his shoulders – surprisingly I was now taller than he was – and tears again ran down my cheeks. This time they were tears of joy, rather than those caused by the smoke inside the building. After leaving me to sob loudly into his shoulder for a while he gently pushed me away.
“Let me look at you, little one. Although you are not so little now. I have dreamed of this day for so long. So long.”
I looked into his eyes. “So have I, Taid. Although there have been times when I began to believe that I would never see you again. And yet, here you are. Here you are!”
Taid put out his hand to Eluned, who was standing quietly beside us. “Eluned, I am so happy to see you again.”
“As am I to see you, my lord.”
“My lord? My lord?” came Cyndrwyn’s deep voice from behind Taid. “My word. Is everyone your lord, Eluned Llyn Y Gadair. This is Richard. Nothing more. Nothing less. The father of our little family here, but certainly not its lord, eh, Richard?”
“It will take her some time to learn that, Cyndrwyn. But fear not, she will be a welcome addition to our company. Won’t you, Eluned?”
Eluned bowed her head. She took one of my hands and squeezed it. “My lady has longed for this meeting since that terrible day you left us. Now her work can truly begin.”
“Come in. Come in,” Taid said, taking our hands. “You will soon grow used to the smoke. Just don’t rub your eyes for that only makes it worse. Cyndrwyn, I think that the ladies will require food and drink. Am I right, cariad?”
I nodded, too drunk with emotion to speak at that moment.
*|*
I found my voice once we were seated inside and had had something to eat and drink. As usual, I launched into a stream of questions, but Taid simply put his finger to my lips.
“I know, I know,” he said, “there is so much to tell. There will be time for that. Don’t worry. For now, a brief version must suffice.
“After my capture at Plas Maen Heledd, we were brought to Deva Caster and thrown into a stinking prison beneath the amphitheatrum. At the next assembly we were condemned to be sent to Desolatio. They stressed that we should be sent to different casters so that we could never work together again. Poor Mere Rhiannon caused such a fuss that in the end they executed her, I’m sad to say. From that day to this I have never seen my colleagues.
“When I arrived in the place they call Desolatio at first I was cast into a deep despair. There were only a few of us inside at the time, and most of those died off in the first few months. It took me many years to realise that, unlike everyone else, I was not growing any older. I spent those early years exploring every corner of the compound, until at last I came upon the cave, the very one through which you entered earlier. At the time it went no further than its natural course.
“Then I realised that the increasing numbers inside the compound needed some purpose to their lives if they were not to descend into mere barbarism. Eventually I persuaded two of them to climb the cliff face beyond the cave, which I was unable to do. They returned after many days full of excitement, telling of this very enclosure, which they had discovered on the other side. I knew immediately that this would be our salvation.
“It was obviously impossible for everyone to climb over the mountain, but one enterprising fellow suggested we could tunnel through, using the cave as a starting point. There followed much discussion, but in the end we realised this was the only realistic solution. Over many, many years, workers replacing workers as they passed away, the tunnel you have seen was dug through. The moment the last tunnellers broke through was one of the best days of my life, I can tell you. There was much rejoicing that day.