“Since we are not leaving on the morrow we have time for a lesson instead. Find me when you are ready.” With a nod he went inside and Ceolwulf continued down the corridor.
“I wanted to thank you for agreeing to accompany us to Elevered. I am sure a knight has more pressing duties to fulfil than escorting us across the country.” Caleigh said when they stopped outside a further empty room.
“You are most welcome, though I can think of no duty more pressing at present than ensuring your safe passage.” At Ceolwulf’s gesture Caleigh moved past him into the simple bed chamber. “Your belongings, such as you need of them, will be brought to your rooms. We feast in two hours hence, if you care to join us. If not, food will be brought to you.”
“We shall join the feast, naturally.”
“As you wish, I should warn you, though, that there will be a great muster of warriors present tonight. I think it will be a more ribald occasion than those you are accustomed to in Connlad. It might be wise if you stay close to my father and do not stay longer than he.”
“Am I in peril here?”
“Of a kind, the men here will know you are no-one’s wife and you have no kin here. They may see you as a waiting prize.”
“I thank you for your warning.”
For the early part of the evening Ceolwulf’s warning seemed over-anxious. The atmosphere during the meal and after was lively and ribald yet it stopped short of debauchery, and though Caleigh was aware of a large amount of attention being focussed her way it did not reach the stage of being untoward. Indeed, she was grateful to be here on this night for she had never partaken in such a gathering in all her days in Connlad. The hall reverberated with tales and song as much as with the throb of conversation. Smoke curled across from the rotating spits mixing with the oaken air of ale and the sweeter scents of mead and cider and everywhere the close press of bodies filled the room with a clammy heat. This was the real world and not a safe corner where a girl might hope to pass her years unaffected by the tides of human deeds.
Then there came a palpable change in the atmosphere. Gideon had gone from her side and as she watched a serving girl being drawn into the arms of one of Cynric’s riders the heat in the room seemed to steadily increase as though several more fires had been lit around the perimeter.
She looked up at the head table and saw that it was now unoccupied, both the Earl and Hilda had retired and with them had gone the restraint that had hitherto been present. The serving girl yelped at being pulled down to bench level and smothered by beer drenched lips though she made no efforts to pull away. Without needing to look Caleigh could sense that in the wings and side rooms just beyond the main part of the hall, clothes were being shed.
The gazes upon her grew more intense and purposeful and she knew it was only a matter of time before the first of them made their move on her. Vainly she looked down at herself and tried to limit the spread of her charisma charm to no seeming avail. One of the men began to make strides towards her and was only prevented from reaching her by the sudden return of Gideon to his seat, physically blocking to her for the moment.
“Thank the Gods, you’ve come back. I cannot seem to hold in my charm, I can feel half the room readying to pounce on me.”
“Well, keep trying but it may well be fruitless.”
“Why?”
“Your looks are against you when it comes to deterring men.” It took Caleigh several seconds to appreciate that this was a compliment of sorts.
“What shall I do?” She asked but it was too late. Someone had distracted Gideon long enough for a new man to appear in front of her.
“Hearty evening to you” he slurred “me friend says he saw you dance last time he went Connlad way. Would you care to show us some steps tonight?” A reasonable and polite enough request normally and Caleigh might have accepted were she not wholly aware of the lecherous motivation behind it.
“Forgive me but I have travelled far today. I would rather rest my feet this night if you do not mind.” The man stepped back and raised his hand in an exaggerated gesture of placation.
“As you wish, if you feel more energetic later please let us know.”
“I will do as much.” The man returned to his friends to groans of disappointment. Caleigh smiled pleasantly at them knowing that the next approach would not be so courteous or so easily discouraged.
So it proved and Caleigh had to resort to tugging her hands free on several occasions to avoid being dragged away. Not only was it getting physically harder to reject these invitations it was also becoming harder to reject them at all. As always her empathy for these feelings of desire ignited her own desires to a point where she found it hard not to parade herself before all the men of the hall.
She returned to her place on the bench and before she could retake her seat a further admirer took it ahead of her, squeezing himself into the space so that she all but fell on top of him. “Whoa, lucky for the soft landing!” He exclaimed grasping at her breasts crushed against his arms. Almost at once his nose plummeted into her cleavage and he went limp in his hold. Caleigh twisted free of him and Penric, coming to her aid, scooped his drooping form away from her and carried him outside. She looked down to where he had been and saw that Gideon was holding a wand discretely under his folded arms.
Caleigh was not able to retake her seat as another pair of arms seized her aggressively from behind. She pushed him against him, there was a flash of red light and he went sprawling from her grasp. There was a cheer from the hall when he hit the ground, the obvious assumption being that he had drunk too much to stand straight. Nonetheless Caleigh was worried that she was not alone in seeing the spark of magic. More worrying still was that she found she could not regain her composure after. The urge to shed her clothes and give in to the desires afflicting her was all but overwhelming. When a new pair of arms took her by the waist she could hardly bring herself to resist.
Fortunately, when she looked up she saw that the arms belonged to Ceolwulf and he was shepherding her from the hall away from further temptation. They reached her room in silence before she turned imploringly to her saviour. “Why did you take me from the hall?”
“It seemed that you were under siege on many fronts and I did not want our friend Master Gideon to give himself away further by using his powers to protect you.”
“Did you see the magic?” Caleigh asked dreamily.
“No, but it was not hard to deduce what was happening. Forgive me for not being at your side sooner. I should have attended to you afore a rescue was required.”
“It is not fair. I have done no wrong why should I be removed?”
“You are right ‘tis not fair yet I had either to remove you or ten score of lusty men.”
“Why remove me at all? Who is to say that I do not seek to be ravished?” Caleigh put her fingers to Ceolwulf’s collar. “Or is it that you wished to reserve that pleasure for yourself?”
“Alas, I cannot.”
“Why can you not? I can feel how much you want to.”
“Tovrik warned us what the nature of your power is, and he warned us that to begin with there may be times when it overcomes you. To take you now would be no better than taking you insensible with drink or in the midst of a malady.”
“If you know the nature of my power then you know I could make you take me.”
“Yes, I know this. I trust that you will not do so.” Caleigh sighed and stepped away from the knight; the call on her conscience washing over her like cold water on her libido.
“You are an honourable man, Ceolwulf.”
“You may call me Ceol.”
“Well then, Ceol, Sir Ceol, knight of virtue. I thank you for your consideration, truly, and now I must ask you to leave for I will shed my garments and I think both our resolves will be shattered if you remain here as I do so.”
“I think you are right in this. Sleep well, Caleigh.” Thus Ceol departed with his eyes fixed ahead never risking looking round and witnessing Caleigh’s baring form. For
her part, Caleigh closed the door fast behind him and clambered onto the bed in a kneeling position. The memory of the lust that had filled the hall was fresh within her and thinking on it she was able to come at the merest touches with her hands and fingertips to her breasts and hardened nipples.
14. Into the Elements
Caleigh woke with the bed sheets coiled up and sodden between her legs. Her dreams remained vague although she was sure Loreliath had figured in them. There had been much love-making, some of it in the forest she had dreamt of prior, some of it within the many chambers of this very hall. A small part of her felt cheated that for all the lust that had come her way she had not been part of any of this enjoyment.
Once dressed and cleansed she made her way to where she thought the training yards would be in the hope of finding Penric and Ellie there. On her way she was intercepted by Ceol wearing the most unsure of expressions. He was torn by the peculiar mix of shame and regret that assails a man who for principle passes by the chance to lie with a beautiful woman. Somehow the knowledge that the right thing was done is of little solace afterwards. “Good morning, Caleigh.” He began stiffly.
“Good morning, Ceol.”
“Forgive me if I was abrupt or seemed to be unfeeling last night.”
“Put aside your worries, Ceol, you did what you felt was right. How could I think less of you for that?”
“I thank you, though now I am not so sure it was right.”
“It must be preferable to doing something you felt to be wrong. Would you rather I now believed that your ideals could be easily overcome?”
“You are most understanding.” Caleigh could feel his relief expanding out from his chest. Little did he realise that Caleigh did not feel as one spurned for, unlike other women in this position, she knew for certain that he had not declined for lack of wanting. “I did not seek you out for this reason though. My father sent me to bring you to him he thought you might have things to discuss ere you leave Crowbridge.”
Ceol led her not to Cynric’s council chamber as she might have expected, instead he took her out into the grounds behind the great hall to a hill below which the riders had assembled the day before. As soon as Caleigh was face to face with the Earl, Ceol took his leave and hurried back down the slope.
“He seems troubled.” Cynric remarked at his son’s departure. Caleigh did not comment, which in itself told the Earl he was right. “I gather he had to rescue you from a clutch of uninvited advances last night.”
“Yes, I am grateful to him.”
“Forgive me; I should not have departed ere seeing that you were safely returned to your chamber. I should have foreseen this.”
“My lord?”
“Tovrik told me the nature of your powers and how you may be affected by them. It is fortunate that Ceol had the wit to realise what that would mean in a room full of drink-addled men.”
“I know not what to say to that. I did not realise the nature of my gift was so well-known.”
“Ah, I see. The young often have this fanciful notion that their elders are more easily embarrassed then they are by such matters, forgetting that if they were so unworldly in this way then they themselves would have not been born.”
“Maybe it is that the young realise they are unworldly and feel embarrassed to speak of it openly to those who may not be so. Or perhaps they prefer that their elders believed them to be unworldly.”
“Both are possible, I concede. Do not be troubled that others know; your gifts are not a statement of your character. That is only decided by how you choose to use your gifts. That talk is for another time, however, and with those whose wisdom in such matters is deeper than mine. I called you hear so you could have the chance to ask me any questions you might have free from prying eyes and ears.”
“Is that why we are so far from the hall? Do you have reason to distrust your people?”
“No, although discretion does no harm, it is for my leg. I find that if I sit for too long I stiffen up. So come Caleigh, I know these lands and their tales well. Is there anything you would wish to know?”
“Yes, were there many wizards in Caerddyn’s time? Everyone says of how they were hunted down, which means there must have been many more once. Do you know much of this?”
“Hmm, this is more a question for Tovrik but I can answer some of it for it features in the story of how the Kingdom came to be and of its fall. After perceiving the White Lady at the Shrine of Lost Souls, Albion and Caerddyn set out creating the Kingdom that they had spoken of. Many great deeds were done in that time but I shall restrict my telling to that which concerns Caerddyn most, as this is your interest. Albion raised a fortress beyond the Great Henge named Helmgard and here came many young men inspired by his vision of a Kingdom built of valour and virtue and not simply on tribal ties. These warriors became Albion’s knights and rode to all corners of the Kingdom to protect its people from harm. In the same way, Caerddyn reached out to the magically gifted drawing them to Helmgard where they would be protected and where they could assemble a great store of knowledge in libraries greater than any known before in these isles.
Amongst those to come were the warrior-mages of the west and in Helmgard they formed the Order of the Dragon. Indeed, they may have been the first of the knightly orders to be founded. So it was that the gifted and the valorous alike came from far to reside within the walls of Albion’s capital. I cannot say how many wizards there were at that time for some of the gifted may have served principally as knights within an order, whilst others though able were never able enough to be famed to the height that Caerddyn was. I know of two only who were mentioned with any measure of the same reverence and they were named Benifran and Ranevark. Have you heard these names afore?”
“I have read a letter from Ranevark to Caerddyn. I think he was an Enchanter, like me.”
“Yes, he was. It was Benifran who Caerddyn met first, when the borders of the Kingdom moved into the most western lands of are isle, where the line of druids remained the strongest. The Kingdom grew in part by war it is true yet also by shared ideals. Benifran’s people had oft been oppressed by the Danarians from over the waves and Caerddyn was able to persuade him that they would have a freer and more peaceful life under Albion than they would have under eternal tribute to those that harassed them. Benifran was respected amongst his people and in turn he persuaded many more to join with the Kingdom. Thereafter Benifran joined the court of Helmgard and his voice was considered chief in wisdom, save only for Caerddyn.”
“Benifran was a druid?”
“Yes, his lore was that of nature and all growing things. Ranevark joined with the Kingdom a little while later and in doing so sparked the events that would make Albion the foremost king of the western lands.”
“How did he do this?”
“Ranevark had been in contact with Caerddyn before he flocked to Albion’s banner. The letter you read was likely from this time. He was an influential advisor in the eastern fens after the people there had rebelled against their Senatian overlords. For a time they were able to manage their own affairs until Lucentanius decided to bring them back under control. Ranevark convinced the fen people to beseech Albion for aid rather than submit to a rule doomed to be harsher than before.
Albion did not refuse their request for aid and in doing so brought himself into direct conflict with the Governor he had once served. It is said that this was no easy thing for him; to raise a sword against a former master is never easy for the true of heart. Yet his love of the people his Governor had long abused was greater than his former ties of loyalty and in the end he defeated Lucentanius upon the field. With that victory all the lands that had been once a province of the Senatian Empire was now part of the Kingdom of Albion. With Caerddyn, Benifran and Ranevark all sitting on the King’s highest council this was likely the best time for wizards known in many an age.”
“How did it turn so ill?”
“The Kingdom failed and wizards like all those who had prosp
ered under its protection, suffered at its demise.”
“What happened to Caerdynn, Benifran and Ranevark?”
“Ranevark was assassinated, Benifran died in the wars against the Danarians and Caerdynn vanished, some say he was killed others that he withered away alone and broken. Each death was in part tied to the demise of the Kingdom and to tell their story in full is to tell that tale. That is for another day and mayhap for others to tell, though I should happily continue the tale of the earlier days of the Kingdom if you have time to hear it ere you leave.”
“Yes, I would like that.” Caleigh stopped to consider for a moment. “Does this not perturb you?”
“What do you mean?”
“The last time Loreliath tried to steer these lands towards virtue the venture failed. Is our present struggle not likewise doomed?”
“The Kingdom may have failed yet not all was lost with its fall. As long as there are some who believe that we should be ruled by conscience and just laws then something will remain of what Albion and Caerdynn tried to build. A vision only dies when there are none left to dream. But this is fanciful talk; let me give you something more solid. Our forefathers failed to perceive the darkness that poisoned the Kingdom this time, should this Beast come before us, then all will know of it and I believe when the choice is made plain between good and evil enough of us will choose good for there to be a fight of it.”
“Will it be enough, simply to fight?”
“It may be. When it comes to conviction more will choose good than evil. Each of us knows what is right in our hearts. Evil must therefore always swell its ranks with the fearful. As long as the triumph of evil is made uncertain their cause will remain uncertain, reliant of the obedience of those who would abandon them if defeat ever loomed near. Mayhap this is a simple judgement of the nature of man but it is one I choose to trust in.”
“How will you prepare for what is to come while we study in Elevered?”
“I will seek to persuade King Aethelwine towards peaceful policies where there are friends to be made and try to protect the gifted when they emerge. And to keep a sharp sword close to my side for if the worst comes to happen.”
Enchantress Awakening: Part One of the Book of Water (The Elemental Cycle 1) Page 14