by Jacky Gray
An image of Lyran’s list pointed her to the fact the youth had not transferred over with any of the families who had all been properly prepared by Lyrelie. He must have sneaked across somehow. Probably with the animals. A cheeky voice in her head reminded that he was a snake. She would lay low and listen carefully to confirm all of this.
Before returning to work, it seemed every woman in the room wanted to kiss her cheek and every man wanted to shake her hand.
Even Senna seemed to be under the snake’s spell. When Eanje asked whether the roundhouses had been thatched yet, her friend smiled.
“We have no need of them for a while. Zane has shown us some caves which will make perfect winter houses. They need no building effort, so we can focus on creating furniture for them. Best of all, they are warm and dry and will need no trees to be burnt to heat them.”
All of Eanje’s warning senses alerted. Faced with the facts, she could do little more than agree, however, it seemed convenient that Zane’s caves provided a solution for almost everything Wilona complained about.
Thankfully, Senna did not notice her reservations as she enthused about how the latest arrivals included a smith, a cooper and two experienced masons, so they would be well set to create more tools and build primarily with stone.
“How is Zane coping with the transfer? He looks quite ill, presumably because he got no blood from Lyrelie.”
Senna looked a little bashful as she muttered that she and Lyran had made him a potion to counter the effects.
Surely this directly opposed Gaia’s strictures? Senna’s wobbly expression suggested torn loyalty. Maybe Lyran had received orders from the council and the lad had a part to play. Like leading them to the caves.
Eanje could not quell the feeling they had invited a viper into their midst, and many of them would suffer the consequences at some point.
~*~
Lareeta
After the unfortunate fright when Cedany thought she was losing her babe, Lareeta visited Lyrelie, asking about measures they could take to protect their little ones. Although she had some answers, the healer contacted her parents, who suggested meeting in Senna’s old house so Shayla could be given the same advice, even though her babe was not due for another moon.
It turned into quite a party as Cora and Alfun joined them, and they all looked forward to the time they would be able to meet properly.
As they walked home, Taron broached the subject Lareeta had avoided answering for so long. “Last time we spoke, you had not decided about whether you wanted to go to the new place or not.”
“Always supposing Gaia will have us. Lyrelie says some people have no choice about it. Even though they are given the same treatment as everyone else, they do not survive.”
“I heard her say it. Cal suggests everyone who died after taking the potion would not have thrived in the new world with the strict rules about living in harmony.”
“I know. I heard him say it.” She copied his words, trying to lighten the macabre subject with a weak jest.
He met it with a weak grin. “So you know he wasn’t talking about people like us, but those who abuse others in pursuit of power and glory. People like Domenyk.”
“And my father.”
The tiny pause confirmed what she already knew. Despite his protests Garvenal was no longer the man he had once been, Taron believed her father would not be welcomed in the new world. She paused, reluctant to voice her thoughts, but he guessed.
“You are worried about whether your mother would survive the treatment.”
Although she wanted to deny it, a tiny part of her wondered if her mother’s inability to protect her daughter might be counted against her. She resumed the walk. “Even if she doesn’t get the disease, she could not go back to Marlborough to live alone in that house. If we stay, she could live with us.” Before he could reply, she pressed on with another reason. “Cedany and Baxter are not sure about going either. If they preferred to stay here, we would have no friends …”
This time he stopped, hugging her to him and kissing the top of her head. “Cedany and Baxter will do whatever we do. He told me they are not championing one way or the other because they do not want to influence your decision either way. They cannot see a future which does not involve the four of us living and working together, but they are happy to do it in either world.”
“What about Baxter’s parents? I hear Baker is experimenting with new recipes and ways of cooking.”
Taron shrugged. “Baxter would miss them if he stayed here, but he firmly believes a man’s duties are to his own family before his parents.”
Lareeta shook her head, unable to believe her husband had a much better grasp of the situation than she. Then he tackled her worst fear.
“If you are at all concerned your mother would not want to go to the new place because people will be worshipping the old ways, don’t be. She has not forgotten anything about them, and is keen to join in the next proper Esbat celebration.”
She reached up to kiss her caring, sensitive husband. “Have I told you recently how wonderful you are?”
“Not in the last five minutes, no. But do tell me again.”
December opened with a week of freezing nights then, just as suddenly, it warmed up, with temperatures harking back to late autumn. At the end of such a day, Cedany produced a beautiful baby girl as the full moon rose above the horizon. Despite all the stresses of the circumstances, it was an easy, straightforward birth. The good news gave such hope to everyone in the village that they decided to call her Hope.
Born on the Winter Solstice, Lareeta and Taron’s second son could have only one name: Yul. Unlike his brother, Christian, who suffered a fraught birthing on Christmas day, the wee lad came into the world amid calm and grace.
The normal Yule festivities were reduced to a few meals shared among the families in each tithing. Most people lit candles and brought in the fresh-smelling, and highly protective, pine boughs. No one felt much like singing, let alone dancing and performing.
Three days after Yul’s birthday, Lareeta was visited by the spirit of her father, who wished her every happiness as he moved on to what he called, “a better place.”
Lareeta sat with Yul on her breast, suckling happily, with the dark of midnight around her. “Shall I fetch mama? She would love to speak with you one last time.”
“Let her have one last night of peaceful sleep before she is wracked with grief. Tell her I love her, and I’m sorry. I wish I had loved both of you better, and had not caused either of you the grief I did.”
“Oh, Papa. I …”
“Do not try to deny it. My biggest hopes are that Taron continues to be a gentle, loving soul, and that the pair of you remain as quick to forgive and forget. You are lucky to have found each other.”
“I love you, Papa. I would not be the woman I am now without the lessons you forced me to learn.”
He made a sound somewhere between a snort and a scoff. “It is good of you to say so, and far better than I deserve. Thank you, my love.”
The endearment, one he’d never used while alive, caused her eyes to mist and a lump to appear in her throat. They were his last words and, when she told her mother and husband of the visit, they reacted as one.
“There is your answer.” Taron got in a moment before her mother’s, “He is setting us free. To carry on in this new world without him.”
Cedany squealed when she heard of their decision. “That is wonderful news. Assuming we all make it over.” She giggled. “Of course we shall. This new world was made for people like us.”
“You mean people with brand new babes?” Baxter quipped. “In that case, Shayla should hurry up and finish cooking her little one so we can all go over together.”
~*~
Eanje
It did not take long for Eanje’s prediction about Zane bringing trouble to manifest. Despite the obvious benefits of cave dwelling he and Wilona advocated, many people found the idea of being underground
for extended periods of time oppressive.
The biggest cave, used as a communal room, was nearly as big as the roundhouse; the other half-dozen chambers could sleep between six and ten people. This meant the complex could, in theory, house the entire population. The practice proved an entirely different matter.
Having thirty adults and ten children contained in such a small place was a recipe for disaster. Particularly on the third day after they all moved their possessions to the caves, when it rained for the entire day. Although they tried hard, the seven sets of parents had scant success containing the glut of energy their children needed to expend. The nature of the caves made them more than suitable for games of hide and seek, a task involving inordinate amounts of running around and squealing.
One by one, most of the men disappeared, and Eanje discovered them in the church where Jarl and Tasker had decided to sample the latest brew, even though it was very much what Lyran referred to as green.
Whether a consequence of the mayhem or not, all the quarrymen and their families moved back to the roundhouse, along with Cooper and Wright, the two smiths. This more than halved the number of children in the caves, which eased the situation considerably.
Jarl, Lyran and Bryce moved back to the church with their wives to be closer to the washing facilities for little Andrew and more comfortable for the two pregnant ladies. This left the three farmers and Woodward much more room in the caves, and it made more sense as the caves were a lot closer to the farmlands.
Both Senna and Lyran expressed concern it felt too divisive, with the craftsmen versus the farmers, but Jarl and Bryce didn’t see it as a problem. Eanje didn’t feel as though she knew any of the people involved well enough to contribute. From what she’d seen so far, everyone seemed to be very positive about doing their best to respect the natural resources and reduce the amount of waste.
She watched with growing unease the way Wilona had such an influence on the other children. The older boys were enchanted by her outspoken ways and she and the farmer’s daughter, Fabia, seemed firm friends. They took over most of the foraging, encouraging the younger children to do their bit to help in finding plants, and teaching them how to identify the edible ones.
Chalette had mixed feelings about her as she churned milk in the church while the others made dinner. “At the start, I thought she seemed wonderful – I think most people admired her passionate speech about finding alternative ways to build and heat homes.”
Eanje nodded. “And she has saved a lot in terms of the trees we would have chopped down to build the extra houses.”
Chalette frowned. “I’m not so sure about that. I don’t think living in caves will be pleasant in the summer, it will get too stuffy. And it is always so dark. Even in daytime we would burn many candles to give light for cooking.”
Senna paused in her rolling out of the dough. “Unless we continued to do all the cooking and eating in here or the roundhouse.”
Halting the barrel to check the consistency, Chalette shook her head. “I’m not sure how practical that will be when more people arrive.”
Eanje smiled. “I think we will all have to make changes to the way we live. Personally, I love the way we all share these tasks. It’s nice to spend so much time with dear friends.”
With a grin, Paulina passed her a scrubbed turnip ready to be chopped. “Especially when they share the gossip. I’m dying to know how our budding romance is going.”
Chalette feigned innocence as they all gazed at her. “I’m sure I have no idea who you are talking about.”
Paulina tutted. “Of course you do. Wilona and Barthel. You cannot fail to notice the connexion between them.”
“I see. I thought them well suited because they are both serious about their endeavours, but it seems Zane’s concern for the trees has turned her head.” Chalette’s tone darkened to match her face and she said no more.
Elspeth spoke of the way her two were enamoured of Zane. Eanje’s ears pricked up and she listened as the women tossed around the relative merits of the two youths. It appeared few of them had witnessed Zane’s darker side in the other world – they knew little about him apart from what they had recently witnessed.
She thought about his claim that Uncle had hired him in the same way he recruited her. It did not seem likely, but Uncle had been extremely secretive at the beginning, not wanting the shadowy team even to know each other’s identities. It certainly put a different aspect on Zane’s activities; he’d been extremely convincing as Domenyk’s enforcer. And quite repulsive in the way he’d leered when Domenyk made plans for him to compromise Lyrelie so Cal would reject her.
Her musings were interrupted as Paulina passed two more turnips with a cheeky comment about her being too busy daydreaming about Lyran to focus on the task. She sought around in her mind for something to divert their hunger for juicy details. A topic which had been niggling at the back of her mind for a while popped to the front. “I’ve been thinking of this idea Senna had about using the big sarsen stones to build houses.”
Senna’s wink said she spotted the diversion tactic. “Wilona had the same idea. We can take advantage of nature to help us. Firstly, when it freezes, the ground will harden, making it a lot easier to slide the rocks along.”
Eanje grinned. “If it snows, we could fashion a slide.”
“We may be able to harness the power of the earth energy to ease the load for the horses.”
Building from stone caught everyone’s imagination and the men spent many eves figuring out potential problems. They made many models with pieces of slate from the quarry; the final design included openings for two doors.
When the ground froze in December, they trialled the method for the first slab. It had some minor problems, but they all shared the sense of achievement when it reached the prepared ground. A fall of snow made the transfer of the next three much simpler as Eanje predicted.
A couple of the children saw the models and copied the activity using stones, making their own version of the houses. This proved a popular amusement with many of the youngsters as they collected stones of all shapes and sizes and experimented. One of the designs, in particular, showed originality of thought. Brom’s daughter, Elise, arranged her tall stones upright in a circle rather than the rectangular shapes the boys made, copying the adult designs. She had included smaller stones for windows and topped it with a slanting piece of slate for the roof.
Elspeth showed her husband the idea, but Brom had belittled it, calling it naught but fancy. Undeterred, Elspeth approached Jarl and Bryce with the idea. Tasker gave the idea most credence, saying he had been drawn to the idea of standing the stones upright, and they tested the design when the second big freeze came in early January.
Although considerably smaller than the first roundhouse, it took much less time to build.
~*~
Lyrelie
The freezing weather brought a brief respite from the pestilence for a few short weeks when the fleas spreading the disease lay dormant. This caused mixed reactions among the people left in the old world. Lyrelie knew many were grateful for the reprieve from the fear of waking up with the dreaded symptoms, but most felt cheated out of what was normally the merriest time of their year.
With the quarantine still in place, people generally kept to their tithings, but were a little more relaxed if they met in the street. The first week of January seemed like a complete re-run of December, with freezing temperatures keeping people indoors and the fleas at bay. Just before the full moon, it warmed up considerably and Shayla went into a long, slow birthing process which continually stopped and started for well over twenty four hours.
With no victims of the pestilence to look after, Lyrelie stayed with her almost-aunt all the way until midnight on the night of the full moon, when Shayla and Quinn’s beautiful daughter, Quilla, took her first breath. Plenty of beakers were raised that night in houses all over the village as people joined together to celebrate the new arrival.
&nbs
p; As they lay in bed, Cal put his hand over Lyrelie’s belly. “I cannot wait until we are done with this world so we can make a start on our own wee one.”
“What makes you think I’m not already pregnant?”
“Are you?”
She shrugged. “This is the best time. We could try tonight.”
“I think Gaia would rather we were far from this disease before blessing us with a babe. But I see no harm in practicing.”
Giggling in delight as she caught his meaning, Lyrelie happily shared the joy of a tender coupling.
The warmer weather brought with it the return of the pestilence: stronger, faster and more powerful. Every week saw a different tithing succumb to the disease with at least two or three families passing through the portal. For the weeks coinciding with the new moon, Imbolc and full moon, this rose to four or five families, around half of the affected tithing.
Because of this transfer of people, very few villagers actually died, and those who survived put it all down to the efforts of their talented healer. They had no idea about the fate of those chosen for a second chance in Gaia’s new world. The strict quarantine meant no one outside the village was any the wiser and the “death” rate kept in line with those of surrounding villages.
Just before March’s Chaste Moon, very few remained. Lyran had arranged to give the four friends the best support for as long as possible, so his father and Senna’s parents had only gone last week. The final family to leave by the normal method was the constable, Dennon, and his healer wife, Marena. She’d had her hands full with three new arrivals and her own babe not yet fifteen moons.
Lyrelie managed a brief hug with her parents before the portal closed. Then the four friends shared a beaker of ale and an altar cake as they swapped stories of the family who had just passed through.