High The Vanes (The Change Book 2) (15 page)

Tacita nodded her head. She sat on the wall next to me. Previously she had sat next to Charity. Now she ignored her. She put her arm through mine and squeezed it.

“I have much to tell you,” she whispered.

“I have much to tell you,” I said.

Eluned came back to join us less than fifteen minutes later. She was in floods of tears.

“What’s the matter?” I said, standing up. I put out my arm to comfort her, but she pushed me away.

“She wishes to speak to you now. Go to her,” she said.

“Not before you tell me what she said to you.”

“She said ... She said you must go. I must stay. Or go back.” She spluttered the words through her sobs.

“Go? Go where?”

She turned and pointed at Tacita. “Where they come from. I cannot go with you.”

“I’m not going anywhere without you,” I said, grabbing her arm. “Stop this. We haven’t come this far for us to be separated now. You stay here and calm down. Tacita. Try to comfort Eluned, please.”

Tacita came over and put her arm around Eluned’s shoulders. This time she did not react, but allowed Tacita to take her to sit on the wall. I left them and stormed off towards Gwenllian.

“Expected One,” she said, as I approached. “Great things await you. Come.” She turned and started to walk away.

“Stop!” I said, too loudly. “I’m not going anywhere with you. What did you say to Eluned to make her so upset?”

She turned her head. “She is foolish. Come, we have much to discuss.”

“No,” I said. “She is not foolish. She has been my companion – more than my companion – since I first came out here. She will stay with me or I will not go anywhere.”

She stopped walking and turned to face me. “You dare to speak to me in this manner?”

“I dare to speak to you? You appear as if from nowhere. You speak to Eluned and reduce her to tears. You order me about. Oh yes, ‘great things await me’. Yet no one is prepared to tell me what those things may be. So yes. It stops here. Say what it is that you have to tell me right here. Right now. I will not follow you.”

She stared at me. The look on her face was that of someone who had never been spoken to in such a manner before. She raised her arm and took a step forward, and for a brief moment I thought she was going to strike me. I stood my ground.

“You know who I am?”

“Yes. Of course I know who you are. Gwenllian, High Servant of The Lady. You may be someone important in your world, and Eluned’s world, but to me you are not. Don’t expect me to bow in your presence like she does. If you have something of importance to tell me, then do it in front of my companions.”

I turned on my heel and started back towards the small group huddled outside the entrance. When I reached them, Eluned rose to her feet. Looking over my shoulder, she said, “My lady, you have offended Gwenllian.”

“Have I?” I said, not turning to look. “Well, she upset you. Deeply enough to bring you to tears. She has no right to do that, no matter who she is. You are more important to me than she is, Eluned. I will not see you treated like this. I told her that you would come with me, or I go nowhere.”

I paused.

Tacita said, “She is coming this way, Non.”

It was such a thrill at that moment to hear her use my name. Somehow, it meant that a barrier had come down between us. As I heard footsteps approach behind me, I turned. Slowly.

“Not so important, after all,” I said. “Shall I introduce you?”

Gwenllian looked straight at me. “You are impertinent. I will forgive that. You are still young.” She turned to Eluned. “Who are these creatures? Why do you allow that one to touch you?”

Eluned shrugged off Tacita’s arm. “I am sorry, noble one.”

“No,” I said. “No, Eluned. You have nothing to be sorry for.” I turned to Gwenllian. “Enough of this ordering us around. These are not ‘creatures’, as you so rudely put it. They are young women. The same as I am. The same as Eluned. In her world, if not in mine.”

“They do not have the appearance of women. They are merely children.”

“They look like children. But I assure you they are women. That is what the monsters of my world have done to them.”

Charity looked up and spoke for the first time. “There are no monsters where I come from.”

“She has the voice of a child,” Gwenllian said, staring at her.

“It seems, noble one, that their world is far worse than we knew. These two young women ...”

Gwenllian interrupted her. “Enough, Eluned Llyn Y Gadair. That is of no importance.”

“Who are you to say it is ‘of no importance’? A society which forces half its women to remain as children? And you say that is ‘of no importance’? When they return to their world, they will be given menial tasks which they will carry out for the rest of their meaningless lives. And you represent this ‘Lady’ who seems to be so important in your lives. Yet when you see women treated in this way, you say it is ‘of no importance’?”

Gwenllian raised her arm again. Eluned reached out and touched my arm. “Be calm, my lady. Be calm.”

“I will not be calm, Eluned. If the Lady, as you call her, is so all-knowing, then why does she not know about the way women are treated in the Change? And why does her ‘High Servant’ think that this is a trivial matter? How dare she call Tacita and Charity ‘creatures’? As if they are no better than animals. If this is her attitude then I no longer wish to be the ‘Expected One’.”

Gwenllian raised her arm again. As she came towards me I could not help flinching. But she simply rested her hand gently on my shoulder.

“You are indeed the one we have been expecting,” she said. “You are strong. Forthright. Loyal. Brave. The fire of the Lady burns brightly within you. I do not need to tell you what your task is. You have discovered it yourself.”

“What?” I said. “Discovered what? Stop talking in riddles.”

“You look on these child-women and you are angry, yes?”

“Of course I am. Their lives have been ruined.”

“Then make their lives different.”

Slowly, it was dawning on me what she was implying. The vague notions I had entertained myself over the years solidified before me. They expected me to return to the Change and – well, there is no other word – change it. For the better.

“How?” I said aloud. “I am one woman. How can one woman do anything?”

“You will find the way,” Gwenllian said. “You have learned the lore of the old ways. The Teacher has taught you many skills. The light of the Lady within you will be the spark that will start the fire.”

She removed her hand from my shoulder and turned away. “Now you must go.”

“Eluned will come with me,” I said. It was a statement, not a question.

“If that is your wish,” she said. She walked away and soon was gone from sight.

PART THREE

Into The Change

For a while, we all stood and stared after her. Eluned was the first to speak.

“The time has come, my lady. It is written, ‘
Tie up your garment and take your staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not reply.’ We must not hesitate.”

“Eluned,” I said. “You have not spoken like this for many weeks. Why now?”

“Gwenllian told me that the journey you must take was spoken of in ages past. Many have heard the words of the Lady, but did not understand them.”

Tacita stared at her a moment. Then she spoke.

“et quicumque non receperit vos, neque audierit sermones vestros, exeuntes foras de domo vel de civitate excutite pulverem de pedibus vestris.”

“This is in the Bible,” Charity said. “
And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, when you leave that house or town, shake off the dust from your feet.”

“The words of the Lady,” Eluned said. “But I do not understand the strange words she spoke.”

“DogLat,” I said. “The language of the Bible. It is what I was learning in Schola before I left the Change. That is what we did. We read the words in DogLat and wrote them out in English. Charity gave you the translation of Tacita’s words.” I turned to Tacita. “How do you remember these words?”

“In the last year of Schola we had to learn one whole Evangelium. I chose the Evangelium secundum Matthaeum.”

“The gospel of Matthew,” I said. “I did not reach that one. Isn’t it a long one? How could you learn it all?”

“If you wish to succeed at the end of Schola,” Charity said, “it is best to learn as much as possible.”

“What did you learn?”

“I learned the Evangelium secundum Ioannem. It is the longest.”

“And the most difficult, I think. I remember one of my teachers saying that.”

“Not difficult. Different. Exciting. ‘
In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum.
Hoc erat in principio apud Deum.’”

“I believe you,” I said, afraid she might recite the whole gospel.

“What are they speaking of, my lady?” Eluned had been looking between the girls as they proved their ability in reciting the gospels in DogLat.

“Never mind, Eluned. This is what they learn in Schola – school as you would call it. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned to you before, the words that you say are those of the Lady are the same as those found in what they call the Bible. I find that intriguing.”

“How does she know these words?” Tacita asked, looking at Eluned, but speaking to me.

“She says they are the words of a person she calls ‘the Lady’. This is her belief. Too complicated to explain at the moment.”

“The Lady is not a person,” Eluned said, sounding offended.

“No. No,” I replied. “I know that, Eluned. It’s just easier to explain it that way.”

“We must prepare, my lady. We need to go.”

“What, now?”

“As soon as we are prepared. There is no time to lose.”

“Where are you going?” Tacita said.

“Back into the Change,” I said.

“Then I will come with you,” she said.

“You cannot go with them,” Charity said. “You must complete your time as a Guard.”

“I don’t see the point,” Tacita said.

“My lady, they cannot come with us,” Eluned said. “You heard Gwenllian. She did not want me to go with you. Until you persuaded her. For this I am for ever in your debt.”

“You might regret it one day,” I said. “Now listen, all of you. I think I made it clear to Gwenllian that if I am to go back into the Change, then it is my responsibility to decide who comes with me. Eluned will obviously come. I’m not sure about either of you. Charity, it seems to me, does not wish to come. Is that so, Charity?”

She nodded her head.

“But you do, Tacita.”

“You must take me with you,” she said. “You do not know the methods of the Change as they are now. Your knowledge is out-dated.”

“So is ours,” Charity said. “We have been out for seven months. Who knows what has happened in that time.”

“Not as much as has obviously happened in over seven years,” I said. “Isn’t it true what she said about you completing your time as a Guard, Tacita?”

“Not for me,” Tacita said. “Not any longer. The little I know about you, and Eluned, and that woman in red…”

“Gwenllian,” I said.

“Yes. Her. You seem to have a purpose in life. So far in my life, there has been little purpose. What have I had? Childhood, Schola, the Guards. What do I have to look forward to? A life spent in some menial task, with no purpose as far as I can see.”

“The life of every childless is important, Four,” Charity said. “We were told that. That is why we accepted being made as we are. Of course your life has purpose.”

I noticed that she called Tacita ‘Four’. We were not going to be able to persuade her from what she was convinced was her ‘duty’.

“If you do not wish to join us,” I said, “that is your choice. But you must realise that if Tacita comes with us, you will be alone. Do you want that?”

“Better to be alone, than to go with you. Wherever you are going. If you think you can return to the Change after seven years absence, you are mistaken. They will take you, and they will take Four because she is with you.”

“And what will they do to us?” Tacita said.

“I do not know. I only know you will not be allowed to return. Something will happen. I fear the worst.”

“What is that, Charity? Death?” She stressed her name.

“Perhaps.”

“You think they will kill us? For what reason? What purpose would killing us serve?”

“For the good of the caster. The good of the people. Everything is done for that purpose. You know this.”

This discussion was becoming too heated. “Enough,” I said. “If Charity wishes to remain then so be it.”

“But she will be alone,” Tacita said.

“She knows that, Tacita,” I said. “It is her choice.”

“My choice,” Charity said. “The right choice. ‘ecce venit hora et iam venit ut dispergamini unusquisque in propria et me solum relinquatis.’”

“What is this?” I said, unable to catch enough of the DogLat to understand it.

Tacita said, “She said, ‘
Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone.’ From the Evangelium secundum Ioannem.”

“I know these words,” Eluned said. “They do not end like this. There is more. ‘Yet I am not alone, for the Lady is with me.’ We are never alone, my lady.”

“You believe that, Eluned. I’m not sure I would be able to live with just that thought.” I made my way to the entrance to the Room. “Time to go. There is little to prepare. And we must set off before it becomes dark. Charity, I wish you well.”

Tacita put out her hand to touch Charity, but it was brushed aside. When we came out half an hour or so later, she had gone.

And so we began our journey. We three. Myself, supposedly ‘The Expected One’, charged with returning to the Change, hoping the reason for doing so would somehow become clearer. Eluned Llyn Y Gadair, remnant of an ancient people, who had lived many hundreds of years with the sole purpose of becoming my companion. Niobe0344, whom we called Tacita, her family name, a young woman with the body and voice of a ten year old, who had cast aside her allotted task in order to come with me.