Ashes Under Uricon (The Change Book 1) (5 page)

The question was meaningless to me. “I don’t know. Luck. Coincidence.”

“No such thing.” His voice strengthened. “She knew where we were. How do I know that?”

I shrugged my shoulders. Taid was in one of his cryptic moods. Lots of questions before telling me. At times like this I wished he could be more like the teachers in school. They never asked questions. He repeated his question, as I knew he would. I had to give an answer.

“I have no idea. How do you know that?”

“You’re not thinking, girl. Damn this new education. All they want to produce is dummies. All they
do
produce is dummies. How do I know that she knew where we were? Think!”

“I am thinking. I just don’t know. Tell me, Taid.”

“You’re not thinking, that’s the problem. What did we have when we went into the hut?”

“When we went into the hut?” I realised that I must have been sounding as dopey as he thought I was on these occasions, but my mind was incapable of working things out in the way that he could. At least, it was at the time. Things have changed since then.

“Don’t repeat my question. Duwch. Give me an answer, Non. What did we have?”

I shrugged again. “Nothing. No food. That’s what I remember.”

“Let me be more specific, then. What did I have?”

“No food.” I grinned.

“Yes. But what else did I have?”

A flash of light blazed in my head. “The bag of stuff. The stuff that could get us arrested.”

“That’s right. And what was in the bag. Apart from an old Welsh Bible?”

“Some papers. You spent most of the night reading them.”

“Yes, indeed. And where did I tell you those papers came from? Come on, keep thinking.”

“They were something to do with that story you were telling me about when you were on a school trip. You found a house that wasn’t there and it was full of books or something. And those papers were from those books.”

“Yes. And?”

My mind was reeling by now. As I had never been taught to think for myself, it was really difficult to sequence my memories. We had been taught that everything was now, apart from what was written in the Bible. There was no ‘in the past’. There was no ‘in the future’. There was now and only now. In that case, why should we worry about what we had done? Or what we were going to do. Those things did not matter. I can see the posters clearly in my head even now. Beneath the large ones reading ‘Before was Chaos. After was Order’, there were smaller ones which read, ‘That was NOT then. This is NOW. That will NOT be.’ A young mind constructed around those phrases did not seek explanation. For anything.

“What happened next, cariad?” Taid’s voice was gentle again. He always knew when I had reached this point of incomprehension. “I was telling you the story, remember. But I was interrupted. Wasn’t I?”

“She came,” I blurted out.

“And what did I do when she came? The story. Remember?”

“You told the story again.” Understanding suddenly filled my head. “She was wearing the same clothes as the woman in your story. Although that had happened in your past. Because we have a past, don’t we, Taid? She was in your past, wasn’t she?” My voice rose as I spoke.

“All right. All right. Calm down. She seemed to be in my past. But she said the woman I saw in my story was not her but her mother. Do you remember that?”

“But she was wearing exactly the same clothes. Which means that she was …” My brain, confused as it was, gave up at this point. “I don’t know. Tell me, Taid. Please? Just tell me. I can’t do this thinking. It’s too hard.”

“It would appear that the woman in my story and the woman – Mererid – who appeared in the hut, apparently at random, were one and the same. But I know, and you know but your mind is not capable of accepting it yet, that is not possible. A woman in her thirties when I was a teenager cannot possibly be the same woman in her thirties when I am in my sixties. Can she?”

I stared at him, in wonder. Where did he find all these questions? Why did he ask them anyway?

“Of course she can’t. That has to be the answer. Women don’t live for fifty years and still look exactly the same. It’s impossible. Therefore, she must be someone else. She claimed to be the first woman’s daughter. Maybe that’s true. But why wear the same clothes? What is she trying to prove by doing that? But -”

He stood up at this point, full of vigour once again.

“But. The bigger question is how did she know where we were, and, even more strange, how did she know what we had in our possession? Those two things cannot be simply coincidence. She knew where to find us, and she knew that I had found the papers missing from her library.”

“Is there an answer to those questions, Taid?” I looked at him, still confused.

He put his hand on my shoulder. “At the moment, Non, the answer is no. There must be an answer. To both questions. But I cannot for the life of me work out what they might be. Yet.” He smiled. “And that, fy nghariad, is why it is vital that we follow her, wherever she has gone. Although I think I might have a good idea where it is that she has gone.”

“Where?”

“To where she came from. From Plas Maen Heledd.”

“The house in your story?”

“The house in my story. Good girl. You worked that out for yourself. Your mind is waking up, Non. From its years of useless sleep. Excellent. Ardderchog. So, let us go then, you and I.”

I looked at him, about to ask where were going. Something told me it would not be a wise question, given the mood he was in. I took his hand and we carried on up the road.

Without warning, Taid suddenly stopped. Catching me off guard, I was swung around, painfully pulling my shoulder.

“Ouch! That hurt. What are you doing?” I said, rubbing it.

“Hush,” was his reply. He was looking up the road in the direction of a large tree.

“What are you looking at?” I tried again.

“There,” he whispered, pointing at the tree. “Now she’s behind it.”

I looked where he was pointing but could see nothing.

Taid turned to look at me. “I think I saw a young girl by that tree.”

It had crossed my mind, briefly, that when he said ‘she’ he meant the woman from the hut. It obviously wasn’t her. I shrugged, still rubbing my shoulder.

“Wait here,” Taid said. Very softly, and very slowly, he set off towards the tree. When he was about half way between the tree and where I stood, I thought I saw something white at the side of the trunk. Although it vanished in a moment, Taid had clearly seen it as well. He paused. Then carried on. Soon he reached the tree. Pressing himself up against it, facing back down the road in my direction, he said, in a sing-song voice, “I know you’re there, little one.”

A small figure emerged from behind the tree, looked right at him, then turned and ran off down the road. Taid waved me forward. Struggling with my aching shoulder, I joined him.

“What was that?” I said.

“Not what, cariad. Who. Who was that?” He was staring off in the direction the figure had gone. “She’s been following us for the last few hours, I think. Well, not really following us, that’s the wrong way to put it. We’ve been following her. She’s been constantly just ahead of us, trying her best not to be seen. But I have spotted her once or twice.” He ran his hand over his face. “That was the closest I’ve got to her. I’m sure she wants to talk to us.”

“Talk to us?” I was conscious of repeating his words again, and I bit my tongue.

“Mererid intends for us to follow her to Plas Maen Heledd. I’m pretty sure of that. I don’t think she would have gone off in the way that she did without that expectation. But, she also knows that we don’t have a clue as to how to get there.”

I nodded at that. As far as I was aware, we had no idea where we were. Simply over a week away from where we had started. And I wasn’t even sure where that had been.

“She will want to make sure that, somehow, we find our way to the house. There are no signposts or markers of any kind out here. I think she’s sent someone to guide us.”

“She’s sent someone …” I broke off.

“That little girl – if that’s what she is, and I think I’m right in saying so – is making sure that we are walking in the right direction. Do you remember that last junction? About two miles back along the road?”

I nodded.

“That was the second time I thought I saw her. And she was on this road. That’s why I decided to come along this way. The first time I saw her I wasn’t so sure that she was anything to do with us, so I ignored her. When she appeared again, I knew it wasn’t accidental.”

I leaned against the tree. “If she’s meant to be showing us the way, wouldn’t it be better if she stayed with us, rather than hiding and running away?”

“Maybe. That’s why I thought I might have been able to talk to her just now.”

“Doesn’t seem like she wants to, does it?”

“Perhaps not yet. We’ll have to wait and see. Come on, let’s move on.”

We plodded on. It was a slow pace that we walked at, mostly to ensure that Taid did not become too exhausted and lose his breath. We also paused quite often, just to make sure he was properly rested. It meant that we made little real progress. I had no idea at the time how to measure distance, all I knew was that we had been on the move for three days but did not seem to have covered much ground. My stomach was also telling me that we needed to find something to eat.

Before long, we reached yet another crossroad. This time, to make things more confusing, there seemed to be five roads leading into it. There was no way in which we could carry straight on, as none of the roads led off directly opposite to the one we arrived on. Taid stopped and looked around, scratching his head in wonder.

From the road that led off to the left of where we stood, I suddenly heard a little voice. It seemed to be saying, ‘Easy’. I looked at Taid, just to make sure that this wasn’t something only I had heard. He stepped forward.

“I can’t hear you, little one,” he said, quietly.

“Easy,” the voice repeated, slightly louder than before.

“Why don’t you come out and show us the way, fy annwyl?”

I couldn’t understand what was said next, it sounded like ‘Swee mwa’.

“I need to see you. Don’t be afraid.” Taid took two steps in the direction from which the voice came.

“Ah ret,” said the voice.

Taid stopped. Turning towards me he said, “Ar ret? Ar ret? What is she say – Wait, of course. Why are you so stupid, Richard Beynon-James? Not ‘ar ret’. ‘Arretes’. It’s French, Non. She’s speaking French.”

I was totally confused. Again. Why was Taid accusing himself of being stupid? I was the really stupid one. He was always able to find an answer. Presumably because he asked so many questions.

He came up to me, grasping my shoulder – the one I had wrenched earlier. I flinched and pulled away. “Look, Non. You’re going to have to accept this. I know it won’t mean anything to you. The girl is not speaking English. She’s speaking French. The language they speak in France, which is another country. That you’ve probably never heard of. Have you?”

“Another country?” I repeated, emptily.

“Never mind, cariad. It’ll take far too long to explain. Just trust me. The first thing she said, which sounded like ‘easy’, must have been ‘ici’ – the French word for ‘here’. She was telling us which road to take. Exactly as I said a while back. She is guiding us. The next thing she said was ‘Suis moi’ which is French for ‘Follow me’, which definitely means she is our guide.”

“What about the other one?” I ventured a question, hoping that it did not sound too dumb.

“The other one?” Taid laughed out loud. “I sound just like you. When I went in her direction, she said ‘Arretes’, the French for ‘Stop’. She was telling me not to come any closer.”

“Viens. Vite.” The voice suddenly said.

“Come. Come quickly.” Taid walked back towards her. “Duwch. I wish I could remember what little French I once knew. Ou etes vous, ma petite?”

“Ici, pere.” The voice materialised before us. A young girl with striking long blonde hair, dressed in a plain white shift that reached down to her ankles. She smiled, showing a row of shining white teeth. Taid clapped his hands.

“What did I tell you, Non? She knows us. Now all I have to do is work out how to communicate with her.”

“Her words make no sense,” I moaned. “And neither did yours, just then.”

“I know it’s difficult for you, cariad. Just be patient, please. My French is very, very rusty. I simply asked her where she was, and she said ‘Here, father’. I think. And she showed herself. Isn’t that wonderful? Who ever would have thought that a few words of a long forgotten foreign tongue could be so useful? Wait a minute.”

He turned back. The little girl was still standing in the same place. Taid pointed at his chest and said, “Je m’appelle Richard.”

She laughed. “Oui. Je sais. Richard Beynon-James. Avec Non. J’suis Rhiannon.”

I made out Taid’s name, and what sounded as if it could be my name, the rest meant nothing.

“She knows who we are,” Taid shouted. “Definite proof.”

“How does she know my family name?” I said.

“From Mererid, presumably. I’m still trying to work out what her name is. She said it, but with a French accent I didn’t quite catch it. ‘Ree ah naw’. ‘Ree ah naw’.”

Hearing this, the little girl said, “Oui, pere. Rhiannon. C’est moi.”

“Good lord. Rhiannon. It’s Rhiannon.” Taid flapped his arms about wildly.

I could not help but laugh at his antics. The little girl also found him funny and started to giggle.

“She’s a French-speaking child with a Welsh name, Non. Just like yours. In English we say ‘Rhiannon’. Now, I have to try to speak to her.”

He beckoned to the girl who took two or three tentative steps towards him.

“Rhiannon.” He said it in the way she had. “Ou allons-nous?”

“Vers ma mere,” she said.

“‘Vers ma mere’. My mother. Towards. Oh, to my mother. Qui est votre mere?”

“La mere du monde, pere.”

“La mere - the mother. ‘du monde’. The world. The mother of the world? Who on earth is that? Do you mean Mererid?” He repeated the name, “Mererid?”