Red Solstice (Alfheim Book 1) (14 page)

I explain that I am my lady's Hunter and have been sent to find her granddaughter, which is obviously a truth but I am not ready to tell him the whole in case he embroiders it into his

reading.  I also tell him that I have found no trace of her where she should be.

There is a pause as he consults some cards and then he calls for an answer from some spirit invisible to myself.  Then he looks straight at me and I get the feeling he is inside my head.

Finally he says, “ This is far more complex than you have told me but that is of no matter.  There are many factors here that could spin out and over turn the future paths before you.  I say paths because indeed there are more than one, although I see that you believe differently.  This I can say  that she is hidden in plain sight.  She is where she should be.”

“But this is a riddle”, I protest

“it may be now but you are not distant from finding her and once you think things through you will see through the riddle.” he pauses, “ Also you will come again with an even more intriguing request before the year has turned”.

I grimaced at that and paid him for his work before setting off back to Earth.

The town is as it was and I moped around for a week or two turning his words over and over in my head.  She was where she should be but that should be either here or with her grandmother.  She lives here but she should live there.  If she was here I would be able to find her but she is hidden in plain sight so maybe it is another geas.  I sigh and start over with the search of the town this time straining my senses to breaking point.  I try calling her to me from the glade but there is a defence in the way and one more powerful than I had expected.

I spent a few weekends at the Docks and was there on the night when John's son's birth was announced.  I even raised a glass of mead to him but I do not think he saw me at all so caught up in the joy of the moment he seemed.

I tried looking at it the other way.  If she was hidden in plain sight where she should be perhaps she had secreted herself on my lady's lands, but then with twins that was a fool hardy step to have taken.  She would need to be under protection from someone who cared about her and her children and I doubted she had made the time to impress anyone close to her grandmother.  Then as he had said, it dawned on my addled brain that she would be with her mother, and her mother was in Lord Caranthir's keep and he was a powerful adept. 

It was time to go home and make plans.

Autumn Equinox

It is September and the woods and hedgerows are full of ripened berries.  I figure that some of the keeps ladies will be out filling their baskets ready for the making of jams and bottled fruits thus making it an ideal time to do a little wood craft camping in the hope of spying her, and hopefully the babies.

As the border between my lady's land and Lord Caranthir's is notably peaceful I did not find it too hard to penetrate through a forested area between patrols.  The area around his private woods and home farm was a little heavier in guards but wearing the same green uniform as they I was hardly discernible.  I settled down for a few nights in a copse close to the keep that seemed an ideal place to catch the ladies of the hall at their berry picking, and some two days later, as I surmised, a group came not long after the breakfast hour armed with baskets, one smaller female pushing a strange contraption that I had seen briefly once on my visit to Earth. They were singing and I heard her voice raised in song with the others, as if she had not a care in the world.  I steeled myself to resist the sheer beauty of it and focus on my task.  The young female stayed on the pathway and the babies were obviously in her care for the moment.  I waited long enough for the group to settle at their task before noiselessly appearing from my hiding place.

“Good morning”, I said smiling at the her. “What is this strange contraption?”

She smiled back, “It is called a buggy, sir.”

“Ah then these must be the famous Earth born twins everyone is talking about?”  I kneel down and reach out to touch my son's hand.  He stares at me in a rather haughty, questioning manner but my daughter smiles and gurgles at me.  “All ready a flirt” I say laughing.  I reach into my pocket and withdraw a small bracelet which I offer to her and she grabs for it.  The attendant is looking worried so I speak to her of knowing their mother and being on my way to pay a visit to her.  This throws her off the scent for a moment or two in which time I have unstrapped my daughter and am holding her against my breast whilst I croon a small lullaby.  I know that I do not have time to grab them both and that maybe this needs to suffice for the present but I am laying a geas on her so that she will know me and come to me willingly in the future.  I have never held anyone so small and the scent of her is bewitching in its own right.  “You smell like your mother” I whisper into her ear.

“what do you think you are about”, a voice I have not heard in a long time shouts at me and turning I see Rose. 

She continues frowning, “Do I not know you?”

“I came to see the children,”

“That is not convenient at the present”, she replies.  “Ah yes, you are of my mother's court”,    her eyes narrowing.

A faint rustle of silk beside me and Lily is there reaching for our daughter.   Her hair is now bereft of embellishments but it glows and curls around her face falling down her back like a red wave.  She is stunning.  The baby practically throws herself into her mother's arms.

“She, they, both are very beautiful”, I say, trying to keep my voice for her alone to hear.

She looks at me searching my face for possible hidden meaning but replies, “Thank you but rather spoiled by all the attention they attract” she smiles down onto her now yawning mite.  I am unprepared for the rush of feelings that hit me.  We have played so many games with each other that I honestly do not know how to react to this new aspect.

“I have called her Violet for the colour of her eyes,” she continues, “and he”, she gestures back at our son who is now looking somewhat petulant that his sister steals the attention from him, “is called Niall”.  Her mother is whispering with some of the women and I notice that one has peeled away from the rest and is heading back to the keep.  It seems she too has spied this for turning away from them less they hear her she say, “It might be best for your own safety if you were to go, sir.” and there is real concern in her eyes.  I almost reach for her but let my hands drop and fade silently into the wood.

Rose watched him go and turned to her,” He actually loves you” she said, her face showing her puzzlement.

“He has a funny way of showing it, “ I reply half between tears and laughter.

“I don't understand this”, Rose continues, “my mother has a lot to answer for.”

“Ah yes, there we have agreement.  But now I could do with a stiff glass of mead”

I get a disapproving look for that statement but hell I really did want one.

After this encounter I suspect they will be doubling the patrols so it is unlikely I will get another chance to take them from here but I am also bemused by her words and the way she looked at me.  I had wanted to embrace her so badly.  She had acted as if I was important and that she cared for me.  It seemed real and there was no reason for her to have put on an act.  She could have called for the guards and had me dragged of for interrogation, or maybe fear of my abilities drove her and she did not want to endanger her mother and the twins.   Another piece of the strange puzzle that has become my life sits firmly out of place.

Ben has taken over the music room at the keep and practically declared it his own.  The few that live here that are capable of playing an instrument are not well tutored and he has taken it upon himself to set up some lessons for them.  He says this saves him the suffering of listening to badly played tunes.  I told him he was growing into a pompous old man, but secretly I agreed with him.  Perfect pitch can have its drawbacks at times.  This enterprise at least keeps him out of trouble and, as he has no desire to throw himself around a gymnasium, as I do, we are not in constant contact except when I join him to sing.  The local folk songs are mostly in a language called high elvish and they are a little strange to us at first but very evocative and it is not long before we are exploring the way they are notated and practising some of the more easily accessible.  Mother is helpful here as she can translate the words for us so that we gain a better understanding of their meaning.  She also knows how to place the stress on certain words to highlight the songs intent.  In this way we are picking up the older elvish language, which I understand has usage in the High Court for ceremonial purposes.  Lord Caranthir is impressed with our progress and we have promised him a concert at some future point.

It is fast becoming the time of year when visitors are more plentiful and banquets and other treats indulged in.  It follows on from their main harvest, and local gentry and visiting lords can be counted on to drop in for a few days.  To my indignation my mother has declared I should learn to dance.  My days are being gradually filled with the mundane tasks that others seem to enjoy, my only respite being the gymnasium and the sessions honing my magic skills with Lord Caranthir.  The babies are always a delight of course but they are gradually more independent and have started pull themselves up on the furniture and shuffle from one piece to another, which amuses the court ladies and my mother.  They have declared them to be the most advanced and intelligent small beings on the face of Alfheim, which bodes badly for their future temperament.

I have taken to using the gymnasium before the breakfast hour each morning and have taught some of the guards how to do martial arts movements.  I am not that great a practitioner but it is good to have someone to spar with once in a while.  The guards seem to enjoy the sessions and a lot of good humoured gambling is taking place over potential outcomes.  It has become a respite from the constant chatter of the ladies, kindly though they are.  I guess I am not really cut out for the courtly ways that my mother would have me aspire to.  She on the other hand would make a great chatelaine if given the chance.  I wonder sometimes why Lord Caranthir has not fallen in love with her but he treats her with the fondness of a father.  I think he is enjoying having a foster family of sorts thrust upon him.

It is during the aftermath of one of my dance classes that I sit down with my mother and ask her what it was like growing up with her mother and also in what measure she has the same elemental abilities as myself.

“I was pampered as a small child but as I grew to womanhood my mother seemed to regard me as a rival in some way so I also knew rejection at her hands.  She liked to undermine my confidence in my newly growing awareness of my own beauty, as if it was taking away from her limelight.  I thought her the most beautiful person on the face of Alfheim so I could not understand why she found me so threatening.  I worshipped her.  Unfortunately as time went by I had lesser contact with her as if she did not wish to be with me and much of my time was spent with her ladies or my teachers.  I was brought out on occasions when we had visitors and particularly if they had sons travelling with them.  She wanted a good bargaining advantage in place to secure her dominance of the land and perhaps extend its borders.  I was considered that bargain.  Held up for the highest bidder.    Unfortunately her treatment of me had left me somewhat tongue tied in high company so I did not shine as she had hoped.  There were negotiations and potential offers but either they gained her little or the rest cost her too dearly.  I felt like I was nothing to her and she would be glad to see the back of me.  There were even times when she seemed to blame me for my father's death.  Or looking back now, more that his brother had not stepped in to replace him.  I would have pitied lord Caranthir if he had.  She is a high maintenance woman and so needy of admiration that she must have lover after lover to ensure she still has the full bloom of her beauty in tact.  She is held in high esteem by our King, so I have heard and this has been the cause of some gossip in the past, although I do not know whether this is a truth or one of those courtly lies.  I dread to think how she will take age creeping up on her.”  She smiled at me but her eyes were sad.

I hugged her briefly.  “She is not one of the nicest people that I ever met,” I say, “ but she does inspire devotion, look at Red and his unswerving adherence to her commands.”

Rose smiled,” I was trying to remember his name.  We used to play way back when we were both children but that is a long time ago”.

I almost got excited then but maybe I am used to calling him Red and somehow it suits him even without the hair style.  After all the energy we both manipulate is fire based as I have come to learn from Caranthir.

There is one thing that is bothering me to an extent and that is how come I am the child that carries the elemental power and not John or Benjamin and how much ability has my mother got, so I ask her outright about these things and I think she has finally caught up with the fact that I am not nine and have been through an awful lot which qualifies me to be regarded as a possible adult because she gives me as fair an answer as she can.