High The Vanes (The Change Book 2) (25 page)

A path led from the bottom of the wooden stairs on which we stood to a point near one of the guarded towers where there was a small gateway. The path continued on the inside right across the enclosure to a similar gate on the other side, running past the fenced buildings on its way. Other paths criss-crossed the enclosure, one leading to a pair of gateways in the other walls, although these, as far as I could see, were bricked up.

I stood for some time trying to take all this in, absolutely entranced. It seemed so organised and peaceful, unlike everything I had seen in recent weeks and months. There were men and women everywhere in the enclosure, all working at one thing or another. One group were clearly constructing another building in one corner, men and women carrying wooden beams or climbing those already set up.

“My lady, he is waiting,” Eluned said, touching my arm, breaking my reverie. She was pointing out the Teacher who stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at us.

“What?” I said, dragging my eyes away from this sight. “Oh yes, the Teacher. We’d better go down and join him, I suppose.”

With much greater eagerness than when we passed through the tunnel that had brought us here, we clattered and stumbled down the stairs. As soon as we were close to the bottom, the Teacher turned and headed away along the path that led to the enclosure. Now that we were down on the ground level the walls looked even bigger than they had from above, soaring over us as we neared them. We approached the gateway I had seen, finding that it contained a thick wooden door that was swung back.

A tall heavily bearded man stood in the centre of the gateway, his hands on his hips. When he came up to him, the Teacher turned and stood beside him.

“So, these are your two charges?” the man said. His voice was deep and resonant, ringing from the stone archway above his head.

“Finally,” the Teacher said. “Step forward.” As we both did so, he put out his hand. “Only the Expected One.”

Eluned stepped back. I stood my ground.

“Long have we waited,” the door keeper said. “This is a great day, young woman. May I call you Non?”

Shocked that he knew my name I stepped back.

“Nothing to be afraid of,” he continued. “We all know our names here, and we use them!” He laughed. “My name is Cyndrwyn. You are most welcome. Now, Eluned Llyn Y Gadair, you may step forward.”

Stepping forward, Eluned said, “It cannot be.”

“You are shocked?” Cyndrwyn said, again laughing.

“The old people are here?” she said.

“A few of us,” he said, reaching a hand out to each of us. “Now there is one more, eh?”

The Teacher spoke for the first time. “Together with another of these who live long but are not one of us.”

He was looking directly at me as he said this.

“What do you mean?” I asked him.

“You have discovered how many short-life years have passed while you were away?” Cyndrwyn said, smiling.

“If you mean that the Change has moved on over two hundred years, then, yes, I have discovered it. Though I still find it hard to understand how it has happened.”

“The Lady has her reasons,” he said. “She has her reasons. Does she not Eluned Llyn Y Gadair?”

“Always, my lord,” Eluned said, her head down.

“My lord?” Cyndrwyn roared with laughter. “My lord? None is lord within these walls, Eluned. You will call me Cyndrwyn, as does everyone else. Is that clear?”

Eluned nodded.

“Now,” he said, stepping through the gateway, still holding our hands. “There is someone who longs to meet you.”

Inside, the building was humming with activity and thick with the smoke that rose from a fire burning at its centre. As far as I could see at first, my eyes streaming, there were several tables arranged on three sides of the single room. Directly facing the entrance I could make out two long tables over which a number of men and women appeared to be engaged in a noisy discussion. To the left another table was laden with plates of food and jugs of drink. Some children were seated at one end of the table on low benches, eating hungrily.

To the right the last table contained what looked like documents of some sort, in several piles of different sizes. Behind this table a huge board carried what appeared to be a plan of the whole enclosure. Having seen this from above when we arrived, I could make out the walls, the towers and the internal buildings. I rubbed my sleeve over my eyes several times in order to make out much of all this, although each time I did so they only stung more than before. In the end I had to stagger back through the entrance in order to clear them.

We had followed Cyndrwyn and the Teacher across the enclosure following the path I had seen. As they passed groups of men and women working in the fields, or carrying things to and fro, everyone stopped what they were doing and lowered their heads. Cyndrwyn waved a hand to some of these groups, to others he said a few words, although none responded. He laughed a lot. When we reached the wooden fence around the internal enclosure a gate giving entrance to the interior opened as he approached.

“Come in! Come in!” he had said, taking up our hands once again. “Here you will find the warmest of welcomes.”

He had crossed the courtyard swiftly and pushed his way through the crowded entrance to the largest building. Inside he had released our hands and promptly disappeared.

Now back outside, trying my best not to rub my sore eyes, Eluned soon joined me, her eyes also streaming. “I thought you might have been used to that,” I said, smiling.

“It is many years since I have been in such a place, my lady,” she said, returning my smile. “I had forgotten what it was like. So much smoke. So many people. So much noise.”

“Just what I thought,” I said. “How can anyone know what is going on in there?”

“You soon get used to it, fy nghariad,” a soft voice said behind me as I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I turned to find I was looking into the face of my grandfather. “Taid!” I cried. “I can’t believe it!”

“Believe it, cariad. It is me.”

I threw my arms around his shoulders – surprisingly I was now taller than he was – and tears again ran down my cheeks. This time they were tears of joy, rather than those caused by the smoke inside the building. After leaving me to sob loudly into his shoulder for a while he gently pushed me away.

“Let me look at you, little one. Although you are not so little now. I have dreamed of this day for so long. So long.”

I looked into his eyes. “So have I, Taid. Although there have been times when I began to believe that I would never see you again. And yet, here you are. Here you are!”

Taid put out his hand to Eluned, who was standing quietly beside us. “Eluned, I am so happy to see you again.”

“As am I to see you, my lord.”

“My lord? My lord?” came Cyndrwyn’s deep voice from behind Taid. “My word. Is everyone your lord, Eluned Llyn Y Gadair. This is Richard. Nothing more. Nothing less. The father of our little family here, but certainly not its lord, eh, Richard?”

“It will take her some time to learn that, Cyndrwyn. But fear not, she will be a welcome addition to our company. Won’t you, Eluned?”

Eluned bowed her head. She took one of my hands and squeezed it. “My lady has longed for this meeting since that terrible day you left us. Now her work can truly begin.”

“Come in. Come in,” Taid said, taking our hands. “You will soon grow used to the smoke. Just don’t rub your eyes for that only makes it worse. Cyndrwyn, I think that the ladies will require food and drink. Am I right, cariad?”

I nodded, too drunk with emotion to speak at that moment.

*|*

I found my voice once we were seated inside and had had something to eat and drink. As usual, I launched into a stream of questions, but Taid simply put his finger to my lips.

“I know, I know,” he said, “there is so much to tell. There will be time for that. Don’t worry. For now, a brief version must suffice.

“After my capture at Plas Maen Heledd, we were brought to Deva Caster and thrown into a stinking prison beneath the amphitheatrum. At the next assembly we were condemned to be sent to Desolatio. They stressed that we should be sent to different casters so that we could never work together again. Poor Mere Rhiannon caused such a fuss that in the end they executed her, I’m sad to say. From that day to this I have never seen my colleagues.

“When I arrived in the place they call Desolatio at first I was cast into a deep despair. There were only a few of us inside at the time, and most of those died off in the first few months. It took me many years to realise that, unlike everyone else, I was not growing any older. I spent those early years exploring every corner of the compound, until at last I came upon the cave, the very one through which you entered earlier. At the time it went no further than its natural course.

“Then I realised that the increasing numbers inside the compound needed some purpose to their lives if they were not to descend into mere barbarism. Eventually I persuaded two of them to climb the cliff
 
face beyond the cave, which I was unable to do. They returned after many days full of excitement, telling of this very enclosure, which they had discovered on the other side. I knew immediately that this would be our salvation.

“It was obviously impossible for everyone to climb over the mountain, but one enterprising fellow suggested we could tunnel through, using the cave as a starting point. There followed much discussion, but in the end we realised this was the only realistic solution. Over many, many years, workers replacing workers as they passed away, the tunnel you have seen was dug through. The moment the last tunnellers broke through was one of the best days of my life, I can tell you. There was much rejoicing that day.

“Once we were through, in no time at all the wooden staircase was constructed, we explored inside the walls of the enclosure, and, without a single voice in opposition, those of us who were still living moved ourselves in here. In time, the buildings you see were constructed, and the society we created was born. Over the years, I was joined by two or three of the old people, who had been captured by the Change and sent here, just as I was. You have met the greatest of these, Cyndrwyn, without whose assistance we would not have progressed so far. You have yet to meet his son, Cynddylan, who has become my ‘right-hand man’.”

“Boy, come here!” Cyndrwyn roared above the noise in the hall.

A tall young man, who had been deep in conversation at one of the central tables, stood up and turned in our direction. His startling blue eyes looked straight into mine. I felt myself blushing deeply as Cyndrwyn roared with laughter.

“That, in brief, is my story since we were last together, cariad,” Taid ended, but I hardly heard his words.

The young man approached me, his hand extended. “Non, the Expected One. Yes?”

I took his hand. It was a firm hand-shake. “And you must be Cynddylan,” I stuttered.

“Now that you are together at last,” Taid said, mysteriously, “there is much that we have to do. Plans for the future. The time we have waited for so long has finally arrived. Eh, Cyndrwyn?”

Cynddylan and I stood, each reluctant to drop the other’s hand, oblivious to everyone around us.

“I think this is going to work, Richard,” Cyndrwyn said. “I do think it will work.”

End of Volume Two