by Candy Rae
“There are letters inscribed under the moss!”
“Letters? Are you sure?” asked a disbelieving Jess, “Uncle James didn’t say anything about hidden letters. Talk sense. Who in their right mind would inscribe letters behind the stone? Stands to reason, no-one looks at the back.”
“I’m telling you, there are so,” retorted an indignant Tana.
“You’re not joshing me?”
“There are,” affirmed Tana, taking her knife from her belt and squeezing herself into the crevice with scant attention to what the moss was doing to her clothes. With the tip of her knife she began to clear away the furry growth from the first two letters.
“It’s the word ‘IF’,” she exclaimed. “Wonder what’s next?”
“It’s too hot,” complained Jess, “come and explore the rest of the Mound. There are other stones.”
“You go,” said Tana, busy scraping away, “I want to see what’s underneath.”
Jess laughed. There was only room for one behind the stone and that with a terrible squash. She was bigger than Tana too and she doubted if she could fit in anyway. She glanced over at Hannah and Beth. They had made themselves more than comfortable under the trees and were talking. She could hear the quiet murmur of their voices.
Leaving Tana to it, she knew her Tana by now and was convinced her inquisitive friend would could not leave the mystery unsolved, Jess sauntered around the Mound looking at the other stones. There were not many and like Jim and Larya’s the only words inscribed on them were names. She recognised some from history classes, Francis and Asya, Tina and Daltei, Wilhelm and Mislya. Francis and Asya she knew had been the very first Susas of the Vada and Tina and Daltei the second. Wilhelm, she rather thought he had been the Vada’s first Weaponsmaster. By and large, the cadets still followed the training programme that he had devised and to her secret pleasure, Wilhelm Dahlstrom was a distant ancestor of hers.
Tucked away in one corner, she found the memorial marker of Peter and Radya, famous for being one of the first group of children to be vadeln-paired with the Lind but try as she might she could find no marker for Tara and Kolyei, arguably the most famous of them all. She did find however, on a stone larger than the others, an inscribed list of some of the other vadeln-paired of the original twelve children who had died fighting during the Battles of the Alliance and Trumpet Keep but she still could find no sign of Tara and Kolyei. She resolved to ask one of her academic teachers the reason why as soon as she could.
Rising from her knees she looked over at Tana, still industriously beavering away at Jim’s stone and decided to join Hannah and Beth. Hannah had decided that she wished to embark on Holad training when she became a senior cadet.
Beth was aghast at the prospect of such a lot of extra work. She was becoming less shy now and would speak her mind when the occasion warranted. She was trying to dissuade Hannah, pointing out the disadvantages of such a step but Hannah was adamant that this was what she wanted. Her Kolyei, she argued, was happy with the decision and that was all that mattered. As Jess joined them Hannah was telling Beth that she should do the same.
“I’ve not had the advantages you’ve had,” Beth was saying with some heat. “I’m still trying to catch up with you three on the academic front. I’d never learn enough in time to be accepted into Holad training, even if I wanted it, which I don’t. Stop pressing me Hannah.”
“What will you do?” asked Jess, sitting down on the springy bracken fronds beside them.
“I’m not sure,” admitted Beth, “you and Tana will join a Ryzck and Hannah will probably end up with the Holad unless she changes her mind, but you know how awful I am during arms-practice. I don’t like it and that’s a fact.”
“You’ll get better,” encouraged Jess, “we all will.”
“I will never be good enough to join a Ryzck,” was Beth’s flat response. “Weaponsmaster Rhian says I’ve got to attend extra sword-practices or she says I’ll never move out of first year.”
“Never mind all that,” said Jess, anxious to put an end to Beth’s despondency. “This is rest day. We’re here to enjoy ourselves.”
“And to rest,” pointed out Hannah.
“That too,” Jess answered, “now, what about some eats? I’m hungry and thirsty.”
“Good idea,” said Hannah, rousing at this. “Call Tana will you?”
“I’ll try,” said Jess with a grin, “I don’t think she’ll come though, you know what she’s like once she gets her teeth into something.”
The three had long past eaten and drunk their fill and were fast asleep when Tana walked over from Jim and Larya’s memorial, excitement bubbling within her. Much as she wanted to tell them what she had uncovered she decided not to wake them but busied herself getting something to eat and drink on her own account before, tired out, she too fell asleep.
They woke around Sixth Bell and just had time to gather together their possessions and rush back to the Stronghold. It was only then that Tana insisted they all invade her cubicle so that she could tell them what she had managed to decipher.
“It was a poem,” she declared. “It was difficult to make out but I think I’ve managed to make sense of it. I wrote it down on this scrap of paper and I’m going to read it to you.”
“If danger dire dost thrive.
And North and South fight to survive,
Look ye to the west,
Where at our behest,
As Mariya was solemnly bidden,
Gtrathlin evermore keep hidden,
Deep inside the ground,
Answers may be found.”
“TS and K”
“What do you make of that?”
“What does it mean?” asked Jess.
“It’s a riddle,” declared Hannah, “what fun! I wonder why it was put there?”
Their Lind were interested too. The eight talked about nothing else that evening.
“Probably nobody has seen it for years, decades even,” said Tana, thrilling at the idea.
“Why do you think that?” asked Beth.
“Stands to reason,” answered the logical Hannah, “you’d have to be small to get in behind that crevice and what children go up to the Mound. Precisely none I should imagine. It would also take someone like Tana here with her sharp eyes.”
“Do we tell the others?” asked Beth.
Tana shook her head, “I think it should be our secret.” She turned to Jess, “do you think your Uncle James knew about it?”
“If he did he didn’t tell me.”
“But before he left Vada you said he was insistent that you visit,” pressed Tana.
“Maybe he did,” agreed Jess, “I’ll ask Mlei to telepath a message.”
Jess never got the chance. Sad news awaited her and Mlei when they woke the next day. Her Uncle James had had little time to enjoy his retirement. He had died in his sleep not long after he and Siya had arrived back at her domta.
* * * * *
Sanrhed (Fourth Month of Summer) – AL156
Nemesis (3)
The smell of dry decay filled the still air. The door of the van Buren Mausoleum stood open in the sunlight, a dark maw waiting to receive the dead of the van Buren bloodline.
Duke Raoul van Buren was a broken man. Shoulders slumped; he stood and gazed with swollen eyes at the coffins in front of him. He listened with only half an ear as the priest intoned the funeral service in a turgid voice.
Immediately behind the Duke the others stood silent; he was not aware of the restless shifting of feet from the younger and more active members of the standing congregation as the traditional funeral rite drew to its sombre close. Beside the Duke stood William Duchesne, representing Conclave and grieving for his sister, Duchess Eloise.
She lay in the middle coffin. On either side sat the dalina-strewn coffins holding her son Raoul and daughter Eloise – one day looking forward to their respective marriages, the next, dead.
Celine Brentwood and her family had escaped contagion
and she would now marry Duke Raoul’s nephew Wolfram whose father was now Brother-Heir.
As the family priest bowed, indicating that the service was at an end, all the Duke could think of was a life devoid of joy without the woman he loved at his side.
Over the last days, his brother Wolfram hadn’t been able to get even a spark of interest out of him regarding the imminent succession crisis that was so worrying Conclave.
At a nod from the priest the retainers moved forward to carry the coffins into the Mausoleum.
Duke Raoul van Buren watched stony-faced as his wife and children entered the world of the dead.
* * * * *
Rakrhed (Fifth Month of Summer) – AL156
Quartet (2)
A First Aid Lesson
“This morning,” announced the young Holad nurse in charge of the class, “we are going to continue with the subject we began during our last lesson together. Now, can anyone remember what I was talking about? Don’t look at your notes,” this command in response to the rustling of paper towards the back of the room. “I want to listen to what you remember.”
Jessali might be young and not long out of training but there was nothing wrong with her discipline. The rustling stopped. The cadets at the back who had been surreptitiously peeking at their notes tried to pretend that they hadn’t been doing any such thing whilst those innocent looked self-righteous.
Jessali smiled. She knew all about it. Not that many years ago she had tried the same ploy if she hadn’t had time to revise and the old Holad medic who had had the teaching of her had stopped her and her fellow transgressors using the same words although not in such a gentle voice.
Tana raised her hand.
“You were talking about blood and bleeding,” said Tana.
“Correct. Can you be more specific?”
“We were learning about the circulatory system, about what makes up blood and about what happens when there is a wound; at least we’d started that bit.”
“Can you tell the class how the circulatory system works?”
“Well,” Tana thought for a moment, wishing Jessali would move on to someone else to answer and also that she had made more time to read over her notes the previous evening, “blood flows throughout the body through the veins.” She stumbled to a halt.
“Good as far as you go. Can you remember anything else?”
But Tana had shot her bolt and bestowed a pleading look on Jessali.
Jessali surveyed the class, noting that the majority of them were trying to avoid catching her eye.
Only two raised their hands, Hannah and an otherwise colourless member of the year group, Iain by name who, in the short time he had been a cadet, had gained the reputation of being a bit of a slogger at lesson-work. As Hannah had said, he didn’t have a lot of imagination but he learnt what was put in front of him.
Jessali selected Hannah, “Hannah, perhaps you could explain?”
Iain dropped his hand, disappointed.
Hannah stood up, “oxygenated blood is pumped out of the heart around the body through the arteries and the veins. Blood that has given up its oxygen to the body tissues flows back to the heart to start again.”
“Well done,” Jessali congratulated her. “It’s good to see that someone was paying attention.”
Iain looked hurt and Hannah sat down, well pleased.
“Iain,” said Jessali, “what is the main attribute of an artery?”
He beamed at her as he scrambled to his feet.
“Arteries have strong, muscular elastic walls,” he said, “which lets them expand with each blood surge from each heartbeat and allows the blood to move into the tissues.”
Jessali nodded, “you are correct. At least two of you have done your homework. Let me warn you all that next time I will be asking questions about both lessons and woe betide any of you who do not have the answers. Remember, training here is not just about fighting. First Aid is very important so pay attention. Now, let us continue with today’s topic. It is about bleeding.”
She then proceeded to give the class a thorough grounding on the subject. Towards the end of the lesson, she summarised, “so there are three types of bleeding, arterial, venous and capillary. Revise these three for next tenday and also revise the circulatory system. Next time we will be studying the various types of wounds.”
Hannah’s arm shot up, “I’d like to study wound types before the next class if I can, Vadeln Jessali,” she said. The majority of the rest of the class goggled at her. They felt that they had quite enough to fit in each day without studying lessons before they had to. Only Iain nodded his head. Tana, Jess and Beth shook theirs.
“Come find me later,” offered Jessali to Hannah, “and I’ll lend you a book that might interest you. It goes into more detail than the general textbook.”
“Thank you,” said Hannah.
“Thinking about Holad training in a couple of years are you?” asked Jessali.
“Yes, yes I am,” answered Hannah with a Beth-like smile.
Later that day the Quartet were squeezed inside Hannah and Kolyei’s cubicle; the latter had left them to it and had gone for a walk with Xei.
“Did you know that there are five main types of wound?” asked Hannah to no-one in particular, having hunted out Jessali and been lent the book. “It’s terribly interesting. Incised, laceration, abrasion, contusion and puncture.”
Jess looked up from where she was saddle-soaping Mlei’s harness and remarked to the others, “perhaps she’d better do Holad training, especially if she actually understands the meaning of the words she’s just uttered.”
Tana peeked into the book and screwed up her pretty face, “better her than me. The illustrations are gruesome.”
“I don’t want to look,” announced Beth.
“But it’s fascinating,” protested Hannah, still concentrating on her book. Hannah had decided to aim high. She didn’t want to be a medic or a nurse. She wanted to be a doctor like her brother.
A Weapons Practice
Exuberant excitement was prevalent among certain members of the year group. Some, the more able, were to begin learning how to fight mounted. Amongst those selected were Tana and Jess. Beth, naturally enough, was nowhere near ready. Although Rhian had seen a slight improvement regarding her sword-handiness over the last few days she was still inconsistent, her wooden practice blade still apt to perform unscheduled and unpredictable movements. For Xei’s sake, the Lind bruised as easily as their humans, Rhian would require to observe more evidence of Beth’s proficiency before she would allow the girl to practice from his back. Coupled with this was her ability in the riding classes that were run by Ranolf, the Junior Cadet Ryzcka. Like other tyros to riding, Beth often spent more time on the ground than she did on Xei.
Hannah, too, was to be excluded for the time being although she was better than Beth in both departments; the trainers having come to the conclusion that a few more tendays in the basic classes would be beneficial.
Hannah accepted Rhian’s diktat in her usual happy-go-lucky fashion. Beth saw it as yet more evidence of her lack of progress and became despondent when the amended class attendance lists were posted on the noticeboard.
“Never mind,” Hannah said, “I don’t.”
“But I have been trying,” Beth whispered, biting her lip which was wobbling with the desire to cry.
“Weaponsmaster Rhian knows you are,” comforted Hannah as the pair of them watched the excited Tana and Jess dancing a jig around the common room, “and me and Kolyei haven’t made it either. You don’t see me crying about it, do you? Fact is, I’m quite pleased, I don’t want to make a fool of myself and I would, believe me, if Rhian had included us. We’ll both get there in the end.”
“Do you really think so?” asked the doubtful Beth.
“Course I do. We can’t all be good at everything and in the knife-fighting movement classes you’re better than Tana! Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought you had received a fair commend
ation last lesson.”
Beth had forgotten this and began to feel better.
The Quartet made their way towards the practice fields, Hannah and Beth peeling away to go to the salle where Danal, the Weaponsecond would continue to drill them in the art of basic sword-work while Tana, Tavei, Jess and Mlei continued on to where Weaponsmaster Rhian and Ryzckas Melody and Ranolf were waiting for them.
Tana and Jess were one big thrill of excitement and Tavei and Mlei not a whit behind them. Mlei was visibly shaking as his battle adrenalin started to kick in.
The three trainers were waiting alindback and watched with inner amusement as the eighteen excited first years formed up in a line in front of them dressed in their battle armour for the first time, Rhian being a firm believer in the tenet that they should learn dressed in the real thing.
“Primary rule,” she announced in a stentorian voice, which could carry for miles, “is to try to remember that your Lind will bruise if they get hit so be careful, drop your swords immediately if you think it is going to hit them. As you grow more proficient the chances of accidents will reduce. You cadets however, are wearing armour so there are no such inhibitions. You are training for war and will have to learn to cope with knocks and bruises.”
There were some apprehensive looks between the cadets, their excitement dimming with the realisation that learning to fight alindback had its own dangers and that they were about to begin to learn how to put the often intricate set moves they had learned in the salle into practice. They had taken enough knocks there.