Red Solstice (Alfheim Book 1) (13 page)

“Do you now wish to meet with your mother?” he asks.

“Not at the moment ,” I reply, “I have things to prepare and people to inform before I can come back here and I need to do everything at speed.  Can I leave the telling, just a little to you?”

“As much as I know I will tell her, he says “And I will certainly look forward to your return as no doubt will she.”

“It may only be a day from now”, I laugh and open a portal.

Having taken my leave of him, even if briefly, my next step is to talk to John and explain what I intend to do.  I have left things up to this point as I know he would have tried to talk me out of what I have so far set up and all honour to him he believes that he is capable of protecting us.  I love him and Aylsa too much to place them and their coming child in jeopardy.  At least Hilda understands and will stand firm with me if it comes to that.  I also need to get some more photographs from him as I am sure my mother will love to see what changes the years have made to us .

Taking Leave Again

I have a backpack with the babies things in it and also a holdall with some of my necessities.  I had thought of carrying them in slings as well but I am starting to look rather like one of the bag ladies you see on the city streets outside our town!  Not that they tend to be carrying babies.  So I have compromised and am taking them in a buggy that Benjamin and Truthy have bought back from one of their driving expeditions.  I am wondering if I can manage my mandolin as well when Benjamin turns up also with a back pack and his guitar.  “I can see you need someone to be your porter,” he laughs. 

I smile at him and laugh too but I am concerned that he might be endangered by coming with me.  Then again I am taking two babies, so why not my mad brother.  Hell we have been through worse, at least I hope we have.  I throw him the holdall. 

So a last goodbye to Hilda and babies in hand we go through the portal into Lord Caranthir's hall. 

My lord looks quizzically at Benjamin but the lady standing next to him utters a cry and rushes for us.  I am not certain if she is laughing or crying.  I know that I am crying and Benjamin seems just a little in shock himself.  It has been some eight or almost nine years since we have seen our mother and she has not aged by a day in that time whilst we are fully grown.  Mother stops wringing her hands for long enough to formally introduce Benjamin to Caranthir and then she falls to her knees to view the babies.  They are so charming in their own right that I know she will instantly love them but I do get a look as if to say why could you not have waited until you were safely married.

Others have entered the hall and now we are led away to rooms that have been prepared for us and mother is almost dancing as she accompanies us.  We are due for a long talk but first the little ones need to be tended to and their belongings unpacked.  There seem to be no end of ladies queuing up to take care of them and a small squabble takes place before some priority order is restored.  My jeans and T shirts seem to be also a cause for concern and I dread to think what they plan for them.  Some hours later we are back in the hall and seated for dinner. 

Caranthir is interested in the musical instruments we have brought and after eating my brother and I play a few of our folk tunes for him and the delighted audience.  It would seem that they prize music as much as we do but have not had such gifted a player as my brother, in their midst for many long years.  When Caranthir finds that Ben is able to play more than the guitar he brought with him he drags him off to view their collection of instruments.  My mother, meanwhile demands that I tell her all and at the same time bemoans my creative hairdressing.  I am very open in what I say to her regarding Red, and also about the hard work I have put into learning magic.  She is genuinely surprised that I have managed to work out using song to send a geas and also at the speed with which I have forced myself to create sufficient guards to keep my brother's safe.  I admit that much has come to me through my contact with Red and that he has similar powers, a fact which also surprises her.  I am just starting into how I visited grandmother when Caranthir returns with an excited Benjamin.  She asks me to repeat my encounter with Lady Chandrelle for his amusement and this I do.

He for his part assures her he has already found me to be amusing and he is looking forward to a long visit from us.  Unfortunately, by now, I am exhausted so I am shown back to my bedroom.  The little ones are well asleep themselves and I fall into bed for the first time in ages feeling totally safe.

Early the next day another flourish of ladies come to show me the bathing facilities and to feed and dress the twins.  I could get used to this but it is a little overpowering.  I am then measured for what they are calling suitable clothing.  This seems to mainly consist of skimpy silk things that show a fair amount of leg.  I protest that I would prefer tunic and leggings of some sort and if I have to have dresses may they be longer and not quite so immodest.  I do not know if I made any major headway with these requests, but at least I tried and I also refused to let them destroy my jeans and T shirts resisting this delight to the point where I started to glow slightly which convinced them that I was not joking.  They then start on my hair, deftly removing hours of painstaking plaits and braids until I am left with a rather long red fuzz that requires oils and other fun things to bring it into line with their concept of beauty.  Once finished with I am exhibited to my mother at breakfast for her approval.  I really do have to explain to her at some point that I am a mother in my own right now and no longer the nine year old she left behind.

Ben is sitting with her and he bursts out laughing when he sees my expression.  Mother, however, nods in approval.

They don't seem to do breakfast by halves here either so for quite some time I am choosing bits and pieces and eating them without joining in any conversation but eventually even I have had enough.  I wave the folder that I have brought in with me and introduce my mother to her new daughter-in-law via the wedding photographs.  She seems enchanted by Aylsa and  very pleased at the prospect of another grand child.  John has enclosed some other photographs of the band and Benjamin and myself on stage which surprises her a little.  She had not thought all three would develop a love of music, but then John had forced it on me and Benjamin was always going to be a natural.    There was a photograph of Hilda as well and she remembered her from the years back when she and my father were first courting.  I learned afterwards that Caranthir, had not seen her so happy in years.  She was not very inclined to talk of her time captive at her mother's keep but suffice it to say it had been a cruel and vicious thing that Chandrelle had done in splitting my father and mother apart.  Now she was full of plans and literally dancing on air so I bit back any comments about clothes and hairstyles and let her enjoy playing mother again.

It  did not stop me from asking Caranthir if I might have some of the elven green outfits so that I would work out sensibly, however.

The Hunter Returns

I had hope that with the amulet they had got for me, this would prove to be a short stay.  I set up my base of action once again in the glade carefully hiding the things that I needed against any stranger that might enter there.  I have my hair back long and I now fasten this back from my face as I have seen some of the men do here.  It is strikingly white against my faintly tanned skin but they will probably think that this is yet another  outlandish dye.  I have my red jacket and jeans which to be honest I have missed wearing.  Once suitably dressed and with the geas firmly housed in my belt pouch, I head into the town.  I have chosen a Saturday as the place will still be crowded with traders and the locals will be out in force to enjoy themselves.

Little has changed.  The Docks has a poster proclaiming that the group will be playing later in the evening.  I order a beer and mingle with the crowd .  I doubt that even she would bring the babies to this place but one can never be sure.  It is unlikely that she would miss the chance to be on stage so I wait. 

Time passes and then the group takes to the stage but only John is up there singing, I also note that the younger brother is missing too.  They both vanished from our radar once before, during the time when she must have been pregnant, and a suspicion enters my head that she has taken off yet again.  I need to gain more intelligence but maybe I could charm one of her acquaintances into enlightening me of the direction she has taken.  With this thought in mind, and no way of putting it into action immediately, I return to my camp and bed down for the night.

Sunday is a fairly quiet day in the town and after a brief recognisances which takes in her home and also Hilda's house I settle down to think things through.  Some work has obviously been done to her home as it is now partly painted as well as repaired.  I cannot sense her in there though and neither is there much trace of her at Hilda's.  The sense of her presence is stronger at Hilda's for some reason but old or perhaps stale is a better word.  I do sense, however, that there has been some coming and going between Hilda's and my world, which could be her son visiting her or visa versa.  I cannot directly ask John for information and I suspect she will have kept much from him to keep him safe from the likes of myself.  Hilda will have her own defences and I am not so stupid as to go against her without any knowledge of what these might be.  Then I remember the girl that she hung out with at college.  Tomorrow I will seek her out.

Monday dawns and I am up early and waiting outside the college.   I do not recognise any of the girls going in to the place but then I had no reason to seek any of them out in the first place.  I tried asking a few of them if they had known Lily and although some remembered her from the group not one seemed to know where she was now.   Her friend , it would seem was someone called Janice or Truthy and again there was no information as to her whereabouts.  This was becoming very frustrating.

I settled for the day in the town square and seated myself on a bench close to the fountain.  Around lunchtime a face I did recognise appeared and from the look of her she was heavy with child.  John came from the town hall at this point and they walked to one of the other benches arm in arm.  They were so absorbed in each other that I doubted they saw me at all.  It gave me a strange empty feeling that lingered for the rest of the day.  The rest of the week was spent in much the same way as Monday, idly sitting in the square. 

On the Saturday I was there earlier and offered my help to some of the older traders in setting up their stalls.  I shamelessly poured on the charm until they were treating me like one of their own.  A few pints strategically bought at lunch time gained me the tale of Lily's original flight but no one seemed to know where she was now.  However, they did know that Truthy had left the town in the old van that Benjamin and Lily had originally been travelling in and was seeking adventure before she went to a university in a city close by.  This they found amusing considering she was less inclined to adventure than Lily and bets had been laid as to how long she could stay away from her family.

It was strange hearing their comments on both.  They seemed to have a lot of respect for Lily and also admiration for her spirit.  Maybe they saw her as more akin to themselves.  There was no mention of any man that she had favoured amongst them or indeed of her being with any man during the time she had travelled with them.  They conceded that she was a great flirt but one who had definite boundaries in place and I suspected that any one of them would have gone to her aid in an emergency.  The more I hear of her and the more contact I have with her makes me feel like I am negotiating a maze and maybe if I hit the centre I will be truly lost.

I consider perhaps going with them when they leave early on the Sunday morning.  The city is some twenty miles to the North of this town and I could try and pick up Truthy's trail there but I do not feel that this is going to lead me to my prey.  I am at a loss as to where I should search next.  There are those who are gifted in foresight back home and perhaps I should seek out one such .   I decide therefore to break camp and head back to Alfheim for the time being.

Our lands are laid out in owned sections but with highways running in between and some villages and towns placed outside our fealty.  As long as we walk the highways then we are safe from the boundary guards and this is considered sacrosanct by all, even the most belligerent of our fellows needing at times to pay visits elsewhere unchallenged.  I am heading for a town some ten miles north of my lady's lands, where I have heard from others that a soothsayer lives.  I am also hopeful of meeting a waggoner on his way to market there so that I do not have to walk the entire distance.

Unfortunately this does no occur but at least the walk is a pleasant one and I arrive in time to book into a small inn for the night.  The next day I inquire of the serving wench where I might find the soothsayer and she gives me directions to a well presented house set in a side road from their village square.  A maid answers the door and I am conducted to a room where I am left to wait until her master is ready for me.  I chose to consult a male because I feel he will be unlikely to spin me a tale rather than a female, who, in the past, I have found to be rather too ready to make fanciful mountains out of nothing.