by Lynn Mann
‘You told your story to a Herald?’ Rowena asked incredulously.
‘Infinity and I overtook her and a Pedlar called Pete, just before we got here. One of their donkeys was lame and we stopped to help, and they gave me food and water. They were so nice. Salom didn’t question me for my story, she just noticed I didn’t have any belongings and I kind of ended up telling her everything.’
Rowena rolled her eyes. ‘Well of course she didn’t come right out and ask you for something to gossip about, she’s a professional. Heralds have a way of wheedling information out of people, that’s how they make a living and now she’ll tell anyone who’ll listen anything they want to know about you, honestly Amarilla you’re going to need to grow some common sense.’
‘Rowena, why don’t you pour us all some tea,’ Adam said.
Rowena glared at him but then sighed. ‘Amarilla, I’m sorry. I’ve had experience of Heralds spouting off about things that would have been better left alone, but that’s no reason to go off at you. Forgive me?’
I nodded and smiled at her. I asked Adam, ‘why should Infinity’s name cause so much interest?’
His green eyes twinkled. ‘Amarilla, your horse will have told you that the way we name our horses has been a tradition since Jonus first told Mettle that he wanted a name to call him by.’
I nodded.
‘And you know from when you chose Infinity’s name, that a horse’s name is an indication of what their bonded partner sees in their essence.’
I nodded again.
‘Well it’s more than that. It’s probably easiest to explain by telling you about Peace and me. What seems an age ago now, I married the woman of my dreams and I thought I would burst with happiness. I was doing well as a Herbalist, she was a gifted Weather-Singer and we had plans to live happily ever after. Sadly, within two years she was dead. She died giving birth to my daughter and my daughter died a few hours later. I’m afraid I rather lost my way. I was angry. Furious, as I never knew I could be. I had no interest in my work, my home, my family, nothing. Everyone told me that with time I would get over it and live my life, albeit a different one from that which I had planned, but I didn’t allow myself to get over it. I indulged myself in my anger and pushed away everyone who cared for me. In the end I packed my back-sack and left my village. I lived rough in the woods for three years until Peace tugged me.
‘It was a dark time, I won’t pretend otherwise. When I first felt Peace tugging at me I fought him, just as I had fought everything else since Bronwyn and Alita died. I just wanted to be left alone to wallow in my own self-pity, to continue being angry at the world. Luckily for me, Peace persisted until I had no choice but to go to him. I’m not proud of how I behaved in the first few months after he and I found each other and it doesn’t need speaking about, but the point of my story is this. When I was having one of my more rational moments, I asked his name and he told me how to choose it myself, as you and all the other Horse-Bonded have done. When he revealed his essence to me, I saw many aspects to him but the main sense I got from him was immense peace, as you will already have surmised. It was many years before I realised, and he confirmed to me, what every Horse-Bonded eventually learns. Considering my history up until that point, can you speculate as to what that should have been?’
I looked at Rowena, hoping for inspiration but she merely munched on a piece of apple cake and smiled at me. Adam began to tuck into his own piece of cake, clearly content to wait until I had an answer for him. Infinity monitored my thoughts closely. Eventually, I had an inkling. ‘You saw in Peace what you needed yourself?’
‘Yes, well done,’ Adam said, ‘but it goes further. I saw in him not only what I needed, but what I had the potential to be. I recognised peace most strongly in his essence because, hidden as it was, it was present and ripe for development in myself. By choosing to spend his life with me, Peace enabled me to find and develop that part of myself which I so desperately needed and wanted to flourish, but wouldn’t have had even the faintest chance of finding without him.’ He stopped speaking then and looked at me expectantly. I could feel Infinity waiting too and I thought through everything Adam had said. Adam saw in Peace what he himself had the potential to be.
‘Infinity is what I have the potential to be,’ I said faintly and felt a sense of triumph from Infinity before she reverted her attention to grooming with Oak once more. ‘But how? What does it mean?’
‘That’s what everyone else is wondering,’ said Rowena. ‘Now you see why you’re the talk of the town. The other horses have perfectly respectable names like “Tranquil”, “Noble”, “Verity”, “Temerity”, as well as the more obscure ones like my “Oak”, Shann’s “Spider” and Justin’s “Gas”, but then you arrive with your own Herald to tell everyone just how young and accident prone you are, and your horse is called no less than “Infinity”!’
I looked from Adam to Rowena and we all burst into laughter. It was Adam who recovered first. ‘It’s good to see you have a sense of humour my dear, I’ve a feeling you’re going to need one,’ he said, still chuckling.
Adam and Rowena insisted on hearing everything that had happened to me since I left them in Coolridge. While Rowena wanted exact details of Infinity’s and my encounter with the Woeful, Adam was more interested in how I’d healed my broken bone with no training and in Infinity’s assertion that anybody could perform any of the Skills. When dinnertime arrived, they said their goodbyes, leaving me with the food tray Rowena had thoughtfully brought so that I could eat in my room in peace, and Rowena promised to knock for me in the morning so that we could breakfast together.
After they had left, I thought over everything Adam had said. Infinity. I thought back to when she had revealed her essence to me and felt again that sense of how vast she was, part of everything that existed and more, so much more. How could I be that? I missed Infinity’s physical presence keenly all of a sudden. I could hear people moving around in the building, no doubt preparing to go to eat, so I ate my fill while waiting for the building to fall silent and then made my way to Infinity’s paddock. The square was illuminated by light spilling from the numerous windows of the surrounding buildings. Once I left it, I followed my sense of Infinity through the dark to the paddock where I had left her. She was waiting for me at the gate.
Walks A Straight Path. All is well. She enfolded me in her energy. I stroked her face and she rested her chin on my shoulder. Each of her slow, deep breaths blasted warm air into my ear. Just as my shoulder was beginning to ache with the weight of her head, she removed it. I stroked her neck, feeling much better.
Rest well Fin, I told her, I’ll be down to see you in the morning. She wandered off and I made my way back to my room, looking forward to spending the night in a warm bed.
I woke the following morning to a loud thumping on my bedroom door. ‘Amarilla for the love of autumn wake up, or, decent or not, I’m going to come in and drag you out of bed!’ groaned Rowena’s muffled voice.
I threw back my heavy, warm covers and stumbled to the door in my nightshirt. ‘Are you alright? Have I overslept?’
‘Yes, to both questions. Bloody hell, I nearly thumped a hole in the door,’ she said, striding past me into my room and flinging back the curtains. Light streamed in. It was long past dawn, the time I had become accustomed to waking alongside Infinity. Infinity!
Are you alright? I sent her the thought in a panic, but immediately knew that she was. She grazed alongside Oak and had been doing so for hours, she was well rested and content. It had been a cold night though and she had missed her blanket.
‘You’d better get dressed,’ said Rowena. ‘I left you to sleep as long as I could, but if we don’t go down now we’ll miss breakfast.’
‘But I need to go to Infinity first,’ I protested as I began pulling on a pair of woollen tights.
‘She’s fine, you know she is. I’ve already been to see her and Oak, I’ve mucked out their field shelter and checked the water in their paddock.
You need to eat, you’re in for a busy day today. You’ll need to go and register with the Overseer so he can put you on the duty rota, Adam wants to see you about your apprenticeship, Infinity will need to be measured for a saddle and I’ve no doubt Feryl will find one that you can both make do with for now so he can get you on board today and begin your riding instruction.’ Anxiety must have shown on my face. ‘Don’t worry, Shann’s going to do my chores so I can accompany you today. I’m not leaving you on your own on your first day now that Salom’s opened her gob,’ my friend told me and I could have hugged her. ‘Get dressed, I’m going to the loo. I’ll meet you in the corridor.’
We made our way across the square, heading for an imposing five-storey building with numerous chimneys and huge windows spaced evenly along its length. There was an enormous doorway at one end of it and on reaching it, Rowena leaned against the oak door and waited for me to enter in front of her. Every part of me wanted to run to my mare.
Merely be yourself. Her thought calmed me and gave me courage.
I stepped through the door into an entrance lobby and then through another, smaller, door into the dining hall. Long wooden tables stretched away from where we stood to the far end of the hall, where I could see another table laden with what looked to be the remainder of the breakfast food. Huge fireplaces dominated three of the plain stone walls at regular intervals and some of them had fires burning within. The windows of the fourth wall allowed the morning sunlight to flood in, giving the hall a warm, even cosy feeling, despite its size. The floor was made of enormous stone slabs, each easily the size of our kitchen table at home.
There were still some people eating at the tables, but judging by the empty bowls and plates left strewn about, most had been and gone, for which I was relieved. The man Rowena had spoken to in the square the previous day was just wiping his mouth and getting to his feet as we approached him on our way to the food table. He was tall with wide shoulders and had brown, shoulder length hair and hazel, laughing eyes.
He held a hand in front of Rowena’s face. ‘Don’t say it Ro, I know I’m late, I’m on my way now. It’s the sheep in the furthest paddock whose feet I’m helping to trim and I have to pick up the worming paste from Adam on my way. See, I was listening. Morning Amarilla, I’m Shann. My horse is Spider, he’s the amazingly handsome bay in the paddock a couple down from your mare, you’ll have to meet him later because… I’m… late.’ He tried to dodge Rowena’s fingers, which were flicking at his ear, and left us at a run, laughing.
As we made our way to the food table, I was awarded nods and smiles by most of those we passed and several stood and introduced themselves. I learnt that a tiny, middle-aged woman with a black and grey ponytail was called Quinta, and that her equally small horse was called Noble. They had just returned from a year long trip visiting villages, helping where they could. I met an elderly lady called Turi whose horse had sadly passed away, but who couldn’t think of living anywhere but The Gathering and was now the resident head cook. A thin man, whom I judged to be in his fifties by his lined face but not yet completely grey hair, introduced himself as Newson and assured me that I would meet Integrity, his grey mare, very soon. The last person to stand up and greet me was none other than Holly, whose Quest Ceremony I had attended as a child.
‘Amarilla, it IS you!’ she said. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I heard your name flying around yesterday and for your mother’s sake I hoped it wasn’t the Amarilla from home, but it’s good to see you here. How is your mother coping with it?’
‘I think she’s doing okay, thank goodness!’
‘Well that’s a relief for your father, we’ll have to catch up properly sometime soon, I’m late meeting someone, but it’s good to see you Amarilla,’ she said and hurried off towards the door.
As I piled my plate with fried eggs, tomatoes and bread, I relaxed and began to look forward to my day and all of those that would follow. I was Horse-Bonded and I was at The Gathering with Infinity. I smiled.
Eleven
Settling
My first morning at The Gathering passed so quickly, I hardly had time to blink. First of all, and despite Rowena’s protestations that we didn’t have enough time, I insisted on fetching my new grooming kit and taking proper care of my horse. Infinity was aware that my actions were governed by the “strange emotion” I felt for not tending to her as I should have after breaking my arm and I was aware of her exasperation, which was exacerbated as she became aware of my intention to visit a Bone-Singer after I had finished tending to her.
I know I can finish healing it, I trusted you enough to heal it in the first place, but I need my bone back to full strength before I can damage it again and I can’t afford the energy or the time to do it now, I told her.
There will always be an excuse to avoid that which is difficult.
Please Fin, don’t give me a hard time, not this morning.
She withdrew her disapproval from my mind and directed all of her attention towards grazing. I sighed as I returned the various components of my grooming kit to their bag.
‘Wha’s up?’ asked Rowena. She sat on the top rail of the fence, swinging her legs back and forth as she waited for me.
‘Infinity disapproves of me wanting to go to a Bone-Singer to finish healing my arm. She thinks I should do it myself.’
‘Well if it was me I’d think carefully before ignoring her advice, but first things first, we need to go to the healing rooms to see Adam. Then we’ll go and see Norieva — he’s just taken on the Overseer’s role for a while — and then I said we’d be at the Saddler’s workshop with Infinity just before lunch.’
The healing rooms were on the ground floor of the building next to the one in which I had my room. Rowena told me that there were usually three or four practitioners of each Skill present at any one time, along with a number of Apprentices, so any injuries or illnesses tended to be dealt with swiftly. She couldn’t resist commenting on how lucky that was for me.
As we walked along the corridor, many of the doors were ajar and I could hear the murmur of voices within several of the rooms. I wondered whether to ignore Infinity and knock on the door of one of the Bone-Singers. I decided against it for now.
Adam opened his door at Rowena’s knock and welcomed us warmly. The stone walls of his consulting room were decorated with large, coloured drawings of different herbs with their names written underneath in stylised lettering. One wall was lined with shelves, upon which sat jar upon jar of dried herbs. On the windowsill were small troughs with live herbs growing in them. Three large comfy chairs were arranged in a small circle and a tall cabinet stood in the corner next to the window. I guessed that it contained his notes and patient records. A door stood ajar and I could see that it led to Adam’s bedroom, a room similar in size and contents to my own.
It was quickly arranged that I would be at Adam’s disposal for the two hours after breakfast each day. He showed me some small rooms at the end of the corridor that I could use for preparing herbs or writing up notes in peace and quiet and then he bid us farewell as a patient arrived for a consultation with him.
Next, we entered our own building and Rowena knocked loudly on the first door that we came to. A loud, high-pitched and harassed voice bade us enter. On complying, I saw a man of slight build with grey, wiry hair and the most enormous hooked nose, sitting behind a huge wooden desk. He paid neither of us any attention. He muttered to himself constantly as he scribbled on pieces of paper before stacking them into tall, teetering piles with his knobbly fingers. Occasionally, he would shake his head violently and the muttering would get louder, as he crossed out whatever offended him and wrote his correction in its place.
‘Norieva, this is Amarilla Nixon. She’s come to register for the duty rota. Norrie?’ said Rowena. The muttering and scribbling continued. ‘Norrie?’ she said louder and then finally shouted, ‘THUNDER AND LIGHTNING NORRIE, WE HAVEN’T GOT ALL DAY!’
Norieva jumped and knocked a pile of
papers to the floor. He glared up at us both with black eyes. ‘What is the meaning of this, Rowena and… nameless person?’ he squeaked, ‘can’t you see I’m hopelessly busy? And now look, papers all over the floor, more work for me, always more work for good old Norrie and always interruptions…’
‘We knocked and you told us to come in, and I told you at dinner last night that I’d be bringing Amarilla to register with you. If being the Overseer stresses you so much, why don’t you just say you don’t want to do it anymore, or at least have an assistant? All the others do when it’s their turn,’ said Rowena.
Norieva glared at her and she returned his glare defiantly. He transferred his gaze to me.
‘Um hello, n-nice to meet you,’ I said.
Norieva took a form from a tray and then asked for my name, my horse’s name, any Skills for which I was training or qualified, and any chores for which I had a particular liking. He told me to check the rota on the dining room noticeboard on Sunday evening, to see my duties for the following week. Since today was Wednesday, I should apparently think myself lucky to be having four days grace before I would muck in with everyone else. Unlike him, who toiled constantly, day in, day out when there were so many other things he could be doing instead…
‘Yes, thanks Norrie, we’ll leave you to your martyrdom,’ Rowena interrupted cheerfully and prodded me towards the door.
‘Thanks Norrie,’ I said. Once the door was closed behind us, I breathed a sigh of relief.
‘He’s a sweetheart really,’ said Rowena, ‘he just doesn’t handle stress very well. It’s a shame he doesn’t seem to allow Dragonfly to help him much when he’s apart from her, maybe it’s because he bonded late in life, who knows. I’ll make sure you have a chance to sit with him at dinner some time, he tells the best jokes, no, really, he does,’ she said as I looked at her disbelievingly.
We headed back towards Infinity’s paddock. It took an age to get there, as people kept appearing in front of us, wanting to introduce themselves and to know if all that Salom had said about Infinity and me were true. When we finally reached our destination, we found a group of people talking near the paddock gate and every now and then, one of them would glance at Infinity. She was well aware of their interest, and it pleased her. They each introduced themselves to me, commenting on how beautiful Infinity was, before continuing on their way. I felt her pleasure intensify and couldn’t help but smile.
