by Kevin Ashman
‘It is settled,’ he said, ‘the men will start the fence. Fox-tooth, you will take the women and collect the grass from the plains that they feed on. Neifion, until this thing is done you will organize the boys to watch for the Rheibwr on top of the cliffs. Make sure no one stands alone.’
With all understanding their tasks, the clan split up to start the next step in their evolvement, the transition from hunters to herders.
‘Sky and Alid stay!’ he ordered. ‘I have a different task for you.’ The two teenagers sat back down as the rest dispersed. Ceffyl passed them some dried meat to chew on and he watched them carefully as they nervously chewed on the pig flesh.
‘Sky, I have a task for you that I believe only you can carry out,’ he stated, ‘as chief, I have a duty to protect this clan from all dangers. Already we stay in this cave instead of our warmer huts in the forest, we build walls at our cave entrance, and our young men watch through the night for the Baal. Yet, there is a threat that we have not considered; the threat from within this very cave.’
Sky furrowed her brow; not understanding yet still looked around the cavern briefly wondering what danger he referred to. Ceffyl continued.
‘When Golau first returned, he came through the tunnels and brought a strange people with him. We know nothing of these people, just that they live somewhere in the darkness. For all we know they may be just as dangerous as the Baal.’
‘But they helped Golau,’ interrupted Sky.
‘This may be true, but the fact is that we do not know them and they could fall on our sleeping clan at any time.’
‘What do you want me to do?’ she asked.
‘I want you to retrace Golau’s steps and find a way through the mountain to these people,’ he said. ‘Go to their camp and learn their ways. Try and find out if they present a danger.’
‘And what of me?’ asked Alid.
‘You are young, but I cannot spare my experienced hunters in case the Baal return. When the camp is found, watch from afar as if you hunt a herd. At first, try to stay hidden. If they seem peaceful, Sky will go forward and try to learn their ways. I think a woman will be safer as they will not see you as a threat. However, if they seem dangerous, you will return as quickly as you can and we will seal the tunnel with large rocks forever to protect our backs. Are you okay with this?’
Sky didn’t hesitate; at last she had the chance to have excitement in her life.
‘Yes, I will leave tonight,’ she said.
‘No, sleep tonight, but in the morning take food and water, and seek out these strange people.’
They both stood to walk away, but Ceffyl placed a restraining hand on Alid’s shoulder holding him back for a few seconds as Sky walked quickly back to her hearth.
‘There is one more thing I would have you do, Alid’ he said quietly. The boy turned and looked him straight in the eyes.
‘Keep her safe, Morfil-killer,’ said Ceffyl. ‘At the cost of your own life, you will bring her back alive, do you understand?’
‘I understand great chief’ he said, his shoulders straightening imperceptibly, massively honoured at the task he had been given.
‘Then go, Alid’ he said smiling, ‘I know you will honour both me and your clan.’
----
The following morning, they packed their shoulder packs with enough food and water for several days. There would be more stored in the tunnels ready for any emergency escape that the clan may deem necessary in the future, but they knew that cave systems were often huge and they only knew their way up to the subterranean lake.
After saying their goodbyes to their families, they lowered themselves into the pit at the rear of the cave, making their way along the familiar passageways for two days, before emerging into the tiny cavern containing the ancient campsite, and mummified bodies of the long dead people. They had been in here before, and Ceffyl had forbade them to go anywhere near the sad scene. Sky, always keen to see and learn new things, quickly dropped her pack asking Alid to stop.
‘Wait here,’ she said, ‘I wish to see. I will not be long.’
She carefully picked her way through the remains of the camp, careful not to disturb anything in this graveyard, looking at the dried evidence of life and death from very long ago. Soon, Alid called and as she reluctantly turned to join him, her eyes spotted something clean and new in amongst the decay.
‘Hurry Sky,’ called Alid, ‘I am scared! I don’t like this place’
Making a quick decision, she stooped down and picked up the object, hiding it under her tunic before rejoining Alid on the path and continuing on their journey. Eventually, they reached the edge of the large lake that represented the limit of their knowledge in this warren of tunnels.
‘What now?’ asked Alid looking at the uninviting water. As far as he knew, none of the clan could swim.
‘There must be a way around,’ said Sky, and they searched the shore in the torch lit gloom looking for a way around. Finding none, they returned to their original position and looked hopelessly across the gently rippling surface to the waterfall that fed the lake on the other side.
‘Golau said that is the way he came,’ said Sky, ‘we have to get across.’
‘What about the bodies back there?’ asked Alid shuddering. ‘If they lived in this place, perhaps we will find a coracle such as the Water-clan use.’
‘Good thinking, ‘said Sky, much to Alid’s delight, ‘you go back and look, I will stay here and seek another route.’ Alid returned nervously down the passage, and though he wouldn’t show it, he felt very unnerved at the thought of rummaging around amongst the long dead family scene.
Two hours later, he once again stood in the strange cavern with its dead hearths and groups of mummified bodies. Slowly, he started to walk between the corpses and piles of detritus that regular family life accumulated, lifting piles of animal skin hides looking for anything they could use as a float.
Finding nothing of use, his curiosity got the better of him and he paid closer attention to the bizarre bodies that lay in close groups near long dead fires. The twelve dried out corpses were not of his people and though they were mummified in the confines of this cave, it was plain to see that they ranged from very old to babes in arms. He was fascinated to see their heads were elongated; the remains of dry strips of animal hide wrapped tightly around their skulls had forced the bones to assume this strange shape as they had lived their lives.
They showed no sign of injury or wound, and the more Alid looked, the more he came to realize that they had all died the same time. The five adult males lay curled at the remains of the fires, wrapped in their desiccated furs still clutching tools or weapons, while young children lay held tightly in dead mother’s arms, one shrivelled shadow of a baby still attached to the long dry breast of its mother.
Alid’s torch gradually burnt down as he squatted, unable to work out what had killed such a large group at one time with no sign of injury. He glanced once more around the scene, and noticed something against the cavern wall he had previously missed. He approached the shrine cut into the wall, and picked up the small statuette that the family had obviously worshiped. Exquisitely carved, the female form fascinated him and he placed it in his food pouch. He would examine it later in the daylight. He returned through the scattered bodies to the path with his dying torch, and as the flames flickered out, the deathly scene returned to pitch darkness and total blanketing silence.
The ancient remains of this long dead family lay silent once more, forever unable to explain to this trespasser how they had frantically hacked at the thick ice that sealed both entrances with their crude stone axes. Alid would never know how they had eventually realized the futility of their actions and returned to die at their familiar hearths. The one safe place, that had been a place of safety from the worsening weather for so long had become their eternal airless tomb.
Alid looked up tilting his head slightly. At the limit of his hearing, he thought he could hear a distant hauntin
g sound seeping through the very walls of the cave. Alid shuddered and left the family’s perpetual resting place of twenty thousand years to return to Sky.
----
The sound was intermittent now, though it was definitely clearer. As he once again approached the underground lake, he broke into a trot, afraid that Sky might be in danger. This was surely a cursed place.
‘Sky!’ he called, as he broke out into the lake cavern and stopped dead in his tracks alongside his travelling colleague.
Five hours ago, this cavern had been silent and dead. Now, across from him on the distant shore of the lake dozens of figures draped in heavy capes held a line of blazing torches high.
‘What’s happened? asked Alid. ‘Who are these people? Where did they come from?’
‘I don’t know,’ whispered Sky in awe, ‘they just turned up.’
Alid looked down at Sky’s hand. In her grasp was a long thin bone he had not seen before.
‘What is that?’ he asked.
She looked down and raised the artefact she had taken from the corpse at the dead family camp.
‘I found it back at the camp,’ she said, ‘I thought it belonged to them. Listen.’
She raised it to her mouth and blew gently down the hollow bone, producing the haunting tone that Alid had heard earlier.
On the far shoreline, they saw movement as one of the strangers lifted a similar object to his mouth. Across the water floated a similar sound, copying the resonance that Sky had clumsily produced from the bone flute that Kraiach had left as a tribute many months before.
‘Do you think this thing summoned them?’ asked Alid, indicating the people on the other shore.
‘I do not know,’ she said, ‘but they appeared a few hours after I first blew into it. Look at them, there are young and old, men, women and children.’
‘And they are all the same as Golau’s friends,’ said Alid. ‘We have found them, Sky, These are Kraiach’s people.’
----
Chapter 28
‘We have travelled this path as far as we can,’ said Morlak, ‘the ice sheet lies two days in that direction.’ He pointed toward the enormous mountains running parallel to the shore.
‘Oh no,’ said Seren, ‘don’t tell me we have to climb those.’
‘It has to be done,’ said Morlak, ‘Kraiach needs us.’
‘Is there a path,’ she asked.
‘We have to climb!’ he replied.
‘Morlak, I cannot climb these mountains.’
‘I will help,’ he said. 'If we start now, we will get to the ice in two days.’
‘Morlak, you are not listening to me, I cannot do this.’
‘We must go now,’ he said, ‘there is far to go!’
‘Morlak!’ she shouted.
He stopped and turned to face her, his mild shock evident on his rugged face.
‘Listen to me, you hairy beast,’ she shouted angrily, ‘as much as I want to go with you, I am telling you now, I cannot climb those mountains. You will have to go on without me; I will try to find another way.’
‘You must come,’ said Morlak, ‘I will have need of you.’
‘I cannot,’ she said, ‘I am exhausted.’ She sat on a rock, holding her head in her hands.
Morlak stared for a long time as if struggling to make an internal decision. Finally he spoke.
‘There is another way,’ he said. ‘There is a cave that leads through the mountain, half a day back the way we have come.’
‘Then why did we not take that route?’ she asked, exasperated at her companion.
‘It is a sacred place to my kind,’ he said, ‘a place of my ancestors.’
‘Ok,’ she said eventually, ‘I respect your reasons, but surely your ancestors wouldn’t mind if we used the cave to help Kraiach and the rest.’
‘It would be fine for me,’ he answered, ‘but you are not Mwrllwch.’ The statement was forceful and final, inviting no argument.
‘So, what do we do now?’ she asked.
Morlak stepped forward, drawing his flint knife as he got close.
Seren’s face dropped as he grabbed her arm forcibly and dragged her to her feet.
‘What are you doing?’ she stuttered in fear. ‘Morlak, stop it you’re hurting me.’
The Neanderthal wrapped his huge arms around her, holding one of her hands forward held tightly in his giant grip.
‘Morlak stop it!’ she screamed, and then caught her breath as he drew his razor sharp knife along the palm of her captured hand, the deep red blood quickly welling up through the sliced flesh.
She gasped in pain as he released her, and she clenched her fist, trying to stem the flow of blood, holding both hands between her knees in the forlorn hope that it would ease the pain. Tears welled in her eyes and she looked up at him in fear as he stood over her while still wielding the knife.
‘Why?’ she cried. ‘Why did you do that?’
‘You are no Mwrllwch,’ he said again, ‘but if Mwrllwch blood runs through your veins, then the ancestors would be appeased.’ He gripped the blade of the knife tightly in his own fist and drew the knife out quickly, slicing into his own palm with not so much as a flinch evident on his face. As blood dripped from his clenched fist, comprehension dawned on Seren, and wiping the tears from her eyes with the back of her sleeve, she stood once more and walked toward him.
‘Ok,’ she said, ‘I understand. Let’s do it!’
Morlak held out his hand, facing upward to reveal the angry red gash across the palm oozing his own deep red blood.
Without taking her eyes from his gaze, she held out her own hand and slowly opened her fist above his upturned palm. She turned it over and lowered it slowly, the small profile of her hand dwarfed by his as the blood of the two species mixed through each other’s veins. She winced in pain as the cut opened slightly with the pressure, but she kept it there staring into his eyes.
After what seemed like an eternity, his free hand grabbed her wrist to gently lift it from his and closed her fingers back into a fist.
‘Now you are Mwrllwch,’ he said formally.
‘And now, my dear Morlak,’ she retorted, a hint of a smile breaking through her drying tears, ‘You are human.’
His eyebrows lowered as he considered the revelation, causing her to laugh.
‘Don’t look so concerned,’ she said, ‘it’s not so bad.’
‘No!’ he said finally. ‘I am still Mwrllwch!’
‘Whatever you say, Morlak,’ she laughed, ‘now pass my bag so I can make a dressing for these cuts. We need to be on our way, I can’t wait to see the cave of our ancestors.’
Again, his eyes furrowed at the implication, much to the amusement of Seren.
----
Their cuts sealed with chewed wads of herbs from Seren’s medicine bag, and wrapped in the last of the rabbit skin bandages, they retraced their steps for several miles and once again, they stopped at the base of a mountain.
‘Is this the place?’ asked Seren.
‘Yes’
‘Where is the entrance?’
He looked up.
‘Up there.’
‘I knew it,’ she sighed forlornly, ‘why is the route always up?’
‘I do not understand,’ he said.
‘Don’t worry,’ she replied, ‘let’s just get started,’ and she followed him over the boulders toward the seemingly vertical cliff face of the nearest mountain. For most of day they climbed, following an overgrown Goat’s path until Seren cried out to the Neanderthal.
‘Morlak,’ she called, ‘I see smoke!’ and indicated further up the mountain where a coil of dense grey smoke spiralled into the evening sky, cumulating in a giant grey cloud.
Morlak paused allowing Seren to catch him up.
‘Someone lights a fire,’ she said reaching for her water pouch to take a drink.
‘It is not smoke,’ he said looking up at the swirling trails pouring out of a cleft in the rock above, ‘they are the Yslum, the mice
that fly.’
Seren stared up in amazement as millions upon millions of bats poured out of the hidden cave entrance pouring into the sky and swarming to the nearby forests in their nightly quest for insects.
Birds of prey darted amongst the giant swarm swallowing their catches on the wing as they made the most of this bounty before it got too dark, swooping to pick off the stragglers around the fringes of the living cloud.
They pressed forward, finally reaching a small rocky ledge as darkness fell, no more than ten paces across in either direction and well hidden by the surrounding mountain scrub. Morlak dropped his pack.
‘We will sleep here,’ he said, ‘it is too dark to continue.’
Exhausted, Seren was too tired to speak and as soon as she had wrapped herself in her sleeping furs, she fell fast asleep, not even taking the time to eat. Again, the seemingly tireless Neanderthal spent time collecting wood and set a fire against the possibility of any night beasts in the area.
----
It was still dark the following morning as Seren eased into consciousness, her nose detected the welcoming aroma of roasting meat. She sat up, holding her furs close against the chilled morning air, yet un-warmed by the sun’s touch. As she became more awake, she watched the silhouette of Morlak against the glow of the fire, holding the freshly caught squirrel over the flames with his knife.
‘You wake,’ he said without turning from his task
She sat staring at his back in silence.
‘I hate it when you do that,’ she muttered quietly under her breath and unwrapped herself from her furs to join him at the fire, momentarily forgetting her injury and crying out as she placed her weight on her hand to rise. At the fire, they both squatted in silence and shared the meat that Morlak had killed with the Swaden.
‘There will be no more fresh meat for many days,’ said Morlak. ‘Today we will enter the place of the ancestors.’
‘Why did they live so far up?’ she asked. ‘Surely, they would have been better nearer the plains or the forest’
‘It wasn’t always so,’ he said. ‘In the long ago, only our dead were brought to this place. When Huan turned his face from us and the killing began, we had to find a safe place. Our ancestors called to us and we lived here for many grandfathers.’