by Candy Rae
* * * * *
Aftermath (2)
“Hi.”
Ruth looked up from the kitchen table where she was working.
“Hi,” she responded, wondering who this attractive young woman with the scarred cheek was who stood beside her.
“Don’t you recognise me? I’m Beth. I was the Contessa Elisabeth Graham. I visited your farm once when you were just a little girl, My Lind is called Xei.”
“I’m afraid I don’t remember,” answered Ruth, “but, of course, you’re Beth! Jess’s friend.”
“Yes, yes, I was.”
“I wish she was still here, it’s so different, difficult. I don’t feel I belong, except when I’m with Andrei.”
“I miss her too,” said Beth.
“The priests at Court used to say that no-one really dies whilst they are remembered,” Ruth continued, “but I never really believed that, do you? I have so much that I wanted to tell her and now I can’t.”
“I know; I find myself thinking the same. She would have been so proud of you.”
“I hope so. People here don’t know I’m her sister so there’s nobody to talk to about her. Would you?”
“Course I will, we’ll find a quiet spot and talk soon. So how are you settling in?”
“As I said, it’s different. I suppose you found some things hard when you first came?”
“Some aspects of life here were harder than others,” agreed Beth and she pointed at the mess that lay before Ruth on the table, wondering what had possessed Anton to give the girl the task of filleting fish.
“It’s dreadful isn’t it?” said a rueful Ruth as she regarded the desiccated remains. Anything further from the neat fillets that Anton had prepared when he had shown her how would have been hard to find.
“What’s he making? Fish pie?”
“I don’t think so. I believe he intends to fill the insides with a savoury and bake them. The fish are supposed to stay in one piece. He’s going to be so cross with me. I’ve tried to do it but I can’t manage it, they always seem to disintegrate when I take the bones out.”
“I’ll have a word with him,” promised Beth, “he’s an old friend and I’ll explain a bit about your background.”
“I suppose he thought I’d know what I was doing. I didn’t quite like to say. I don’t think people are supposed to know who I really am.”
“Who you are?” exclaimed Beth in mock surprise, “why, you’re the little sister of Jess. Here it doesn’t matter what your antecedents are. What is important is who you are, what you do, not what you were. Anton probably thought you were a farmer’s child, used to helping your mother in the kitchen. (Beth was correct in her surmise) Give me that knife and I’ll try to make some order out of the chaos.”
She took the knife from Ruth’s unresisting hand and picked a fresh lungtrel out of the fish-hamper. “Watch.”
Ruth watched as Beth expertly de-boned the fish.
“First you must cut off the head and tail then split the fish from the neck straight down the back. Get rid of any roe, it goes in that dish there. Now we de-bone it by running our index finger under the backbone from the tail to the neck. See? Then we press the fillets back together.” Under Beth’s deft fingers the prepared lungtrel was still in one piece and looked very like the two Anton had prepared.
“I’ll never do it,” groaned Ruth.
“Yes you will. I was just as cack-handed, or should I say cack-knifed as you when I started. Remember, I was brought up much as you have been. Anton was patient and I persevered. As I said, I’ll have a word with him and you’ll find that he’ll treat you much as he did me, especially if he sees that you are trying.”
“Everyone is very kind and friendly,” said Ruth. “Will I try one now?”
“Tell you what,” answered Beth, “you go get a dish and clear up all the mess. I’ll finish the filleting and don’t worry, you won’t get into bother. Anton has noticed me and he knows I know what I am doing. He taught me how to gut and fillet and I’ve done it hundreds of times since.”
She waved to Anton who was at the other end of the kitchen and he waved back.
Ruth went to the dish store, selected a suitable bowl and returned.
“Will this do?”
“Ideal. Scoop up the bits and watch as I finish these off.” Her fingers and knife were working at top speed as she prepared one after another.
“Why did you leave Murdoch?” asked Ruth.
“My father had arranged a marriage to someone I did not like.”
“So you left? Just like that?”
“Yep.”
“What was his name?” asked Ruth with interest.
“He was heir to one of the dukedoms.”
“Really? I was going to marry one of them as well. My sister Annette is married to a Duke, at least he is now; he was the heir when she married him.”
“I remember Annette. She rode my Xei to the woods once. Who did she marry?”
“The Duke of Baker, I don’t like him very much and I don’t think Annette does either. Was it him you were going to marry?”
“No it wasn’t. It was the Heir of Brentwood, Tom his name was.”
“You’re kidding me,” exclaimed Ruth, wide-eyed. “Why, that’s the man I was supposed to marry and would have had to if Tana hadn’t come to get me. He’s old, sixteen years older than me.”
“So he’s not managed to find a wife yet,” laughed Beth, “now that’s the best news I’ve heard for many a tenday. He was so bumptious and sure of himself. What a joke!”
“He hasn’t changed. He’s going bald!”
Beth stopped what she was doing, smiled and gazed around the busy kitchen.
All was well with her world and she said as much to Ruth. She belonged here, with Xei, in Vadath, serving the North. She realised that she hardly ever thought of herself as a southerner now.
Still smiling, she said, “you’ll fit in fine, give it time. One morning you’ll wake up and know deep inside that this is home.”
“That’s what Andrei says too.”
“A wise Lind your Andrei. Start paying attention to him and stop worrying about things that don’t matter. Now let’s go see Anton about the stuffing for the fish.”
She placed a hand on Ruth’s shoulder to steer her and felt a warm glow inside as Ruth raised her own and placed it on top of hers.
Jess might be gone but here was her little sister, she could not take her place but she could help to fill the void left by her passing.
All was well.
* * * * *
Aftermath (3)
The Seneschal looked with fondness at his queen.
“She will not make the same mistake the first Princess Ruth did,” whispered Anne. “They will never find her or her descendants. Thank you for what you did that day. David and I knew that you knew more than you were telling.”
Anne closed her eyes.
“It will soon be over, the sacrifice at an end.”
She did not speak again.
Crown-Prince Xavier sat beside his mother as her grasp on life began to fail. Her breathing grew shallow, then stilled. Queen Anne of Murdoch was dead.
“What was it my mother whispered to you?” asked King Xavier. “I thought I heard my sister’s name mentioned.”
The Seneschal looked at his King.
“Princess Ruth is gone, best to let sleeping rudtka lie,” he advised. “You are King of Murdoch now, focus on that.”
King of Murdoch. Xavier sighed a deep sigh. He didn’t want to be a king. His own sacrifice was about to begin.
Xavier leant over his mother and with a gentle hand that trembled only a little, closed her eyes.
He stood up and, after one last backward glance at Anne’s peaceful face, squared his shoulders and made for the door. Along the corridor he walked with measured step towards the throne room full of expectant nobility despite the lateness of the hour. The Fealtatis Ceremony would begin immediately he knew, he was now King, the
crown was his blood-right and he must accept the homage of the Dukes, the Counts, the Margraves and the Barons of the Kingdom of Murdoch.
* * * * *
Aftermath (4)
At the beginning of this Chronicle it was written;
‘In the decades to come glorious tales would be told and songs would be sung about the exploits of this quartet but in this, the summer of the year of landing one hundred and fifty-six, they were but four anxious young girls in their early teens travelling east, west, south and most surprisingly, north.’
Two of the four pairs had gained the Silver Honour Star, one pair was dead but Jess and Mlei became famous for another reason. During Ruth and Andrei’s cadetship, and despite her mother’s hopes, the secret that she was a runaway princess leaked out together with the knowledge that she was the deceased Vadryzka Jess’s younger sister. Jess and Mlei’s service records were amended to read;
‘Jessica Crawford of Vadath, Princess of Murdoch and her Lind Mlei from rtath Gyneya’
Ruth and Andrei served many years with the Vada. When they retired from patrol service they ran one of the Supply Stations in the south-west of the Lind rtathlians. Ruth never married nor did she have any children. She and Andrei died in AL206.
Beth and Xei stayed with the Fifty-first Ryzck on attachment with the Avuzdel. She too never married although in AL169 Xei took a mate. His offspring were very like him; in fact they grew even taller than their sire and could run even faster. Most of them paired, many of them became Express operatives while others served with the Vada. Beth and Xei died in AL212.
Hannah stayed with the Holad and with the Vada. In AL169 she married Malin, the doctor whose life she had saved when she and Xei had been cadets. They had seven children, four of whom became doctors, the other three served with the Vada, the youngest vadeln-pairing with the young Lind whom she had saved that birthing-day, Hannahya by name and who became Susa of the Vada. Hannah and Kolyei died in AL208.
Hannah’s sister Lucy, despite their father’s best efforts, never forgave her sister for, as she chose to call it, ‘stealing her dream’. She insisted that the flag be flown from the mast as year followed year but although the Lind visited, none chose her. In AL170, she bowed to the inevitable and married a widower from a nearby farm. She refused to allow the blue flag to be flown on the farm’s weather vane. She died in AL228, a lonely, sharp-tongued and embittered old woman.
Tiffney, Qenei, Jen and Trnslei served with the Ryzcks and all four retired to an honourable old age as did Petar, Whiskya, Tamir, Whalya, Iain and Luya.
Harld and Alya returned to their Supply Station after the battle, full of pride that Rhian and Tadei were now Susa of the Vada.
Tana? After the Battle of Fountains Head, she, Tavei, Philip and Radnya returned to Vada. Tana continued as a cadet trainer and Philip joined her after a stint with a Ryzck in AL169. In AL170 Tana was appointed Ryzcka of the Fourth Ryzck and led her Ryzck on patrols in Vadath, Argyll and Lind for the next five seasons. She took a break to raise her and Philip’s son David, their only child. In AL184 Rhian and Tadei retired as Susas and Tana and Tavei were appointed in their place.
Tana and Tavei died in AL224. Their names are on the list of Vada Susas on the wall of the ‘Inner Sanctum’ at Vada headed by Francis and Asya then Tina and Daltei, continuing to the thirteenth Susas, Lynsey and Bernei, the fourteenth Rhian and Tadei and the fifteenth, Tana and Tavei.
In AL607 a Prince of Murdoch, travelling incognito through the North on his ‘Grand Tour’ in the months before his marriage gained access to the ‘Inner Sanctum’ and standing straight and tall before it, read their names aloud to his companions. He also read aloud the Vada motto, emblazoned in gold gilt above the window; ‘Truth, Duty, Courage and Honour’
He marvelled. There was nothing like this in the Kingdom of Murdoch. Prince Elliot thought that he would have liked to be part of this instead of being heir to his grandfather’s throne.
His ancestor, King Xavier the First, would have agreed with him.
* * * * *
The Southern Continent – AL234
Anslei, Susa of the Avuzdel of Lind, grandson of Alei, arrived in the isolated inlet far to the west in the Southern Continent, many leagues away from habitation centres of both human and Larg.
Angvr the Larg was waiting for him. He was alone.
“So all must continue as we have been instructed,” said Angvr after a full day spent in detailed discussion. “My task is a difficult one.”
“Indeed,” answered Anslei.
His counterpart within Largdom sighed, “it is hard to remain loyal to Them and Largan both. It is also difficult to roam at will within what the two-legs call Murdoch but we do our best to fulfil the task asked of us.”
“I understand and it is a good best,” Anslei said with compassion, “but we must continue, else North and South will plunge into a war more brutal than ever seen before.”
“We continue then?”
“We must.” Anslei donated on Angvr an approving look, “and I have been instructed to say that They are pleased with you and your rtath.”
“I am pleased. They are pleased,” answered Angvr with secret pride. “You will give Them my homage and duty when next you speak?”
“I will,” promised Anslei and added, “it is a great honour to be chosen to serve.”
“The honour is yours and mine both my friend,” replied Angvr.
The two, Lind and Larg looked deep into each other’s eyes and liked what they saw. Not for them the enmity of eons that was the case elsewhere and if anyone had been watching, the watcher would have said that there was little to distinguish them.
They touched noses in farewell then Anslei turned and bounded away in the direction of the Graham-Argyll Island Chain.
Angvr watched him go.
He sat for a while gazing at the horizon to the northwest before he sighed and, turning away, began his long run back to his pack range in the deep South.
CHARACTERS
(For minor characters from the Noble and the Royal House of the Kingdom of Murdoch: Refer to Appendices)
(*Vadeln-paired)
Aanya*: A Lind vadeln-paired to Rick
Adela Knutson: Mother of Hannah
Alei: Susa of the Avuzdel
Allan*: Teacher of knife fighting and an ex-cutthroat (Asniya)
Altei: Avuzdel Lind
Alya*: A blue/brown striped Lind with tinges of white, grey and yellow in her coat and vadeln-paired with Harld
Anders*: Retired Weaponsmaster of the Vada (Freya)
Andrei*: Lind from Mlei’s pack waiting for his intended life-partner to grow up
Andy Knutson: Elder brother of Hannah who is training to become a doctor
Angus*: Old vadeln serving with the Seventh Ryzck
Anne Crawford: Mother of Jessica
Anne Crawford: Younger sister of Jessica and known as Annette
Anslei: Lind and son of Alei
Anton*: Vada Chief Cook (Susya)
Artur Bernardson: Clerk of Works at the main record office at Stewarton
Asniya*: A Lind vadeln-paired with Allan who teaches knife fighting at Vada
Axei*: A Lind (Holad) and vadeln-paired with Jessali
Aya*: A Lind vadeln-paired with Ranolf, Ryzcka of the Junior Cadets
Balindifya*: A Violet Striped Lind
Baltimalya*: A Lind bonded with an ex-Garda officer
Benya*: A Lind vadeln-paired to Paul, Ryzcka of the Forty-fifth Ryzck
Bernei*: A tri-coloured Lind and paired with Susa Lynsey
Beth*: Name used by Elisabeth when she ran away from home
Canya*: A Lind vadeln-paired to Kiefer
Cdidya: A Lind pack from the south-eastern Lind
Dafid Charleston: Junior Clerk at the main record office at Stewarton
Dainei: Susa of the Lindar of pack Lainei
Danei*: A Lind vadeln-paired to Terez, Holad medic of the Forty-fifth Ryzck
Danel*: Elderly Weaponsec
ond to Weaponsmaster Rhian when the Quartet were cadets
David Crawford: Farmer who owns and runs a farm in southwest Vadath and father of Jessica, Annette, Xavier and Ruth
Dei*: Lind vadeln-paired to Melody, Ryzcka of the senior cadets
Delya*: A Lind vadeln-paired with Jon
Edith Charles: Old councillor from one of the northern wards of Argyll
Enya*: Female Lind and member of the Vada
Frieda*: Vadryzka Fifteenth Ryzck (Salei)
Galansei A Lind (Avuzdel)
Grdnei*: A Lind vadeln-paired with Laura
Gunter Knutson: Father of Hannah
Halland: Brigadier commanding the Heavy Horse of the Argyll Garda
Hannah Knutson*: Daughter of Gunter (Kolyei)
Hansi Guntarson*: A vadeln who comes from the same area as Hannah Knutson (Olya)
Harld*: Elderly vadeln, retired from active service with a Ryzck and in charge of one of the Vada Supply Stations in south-eastern Vadath (Alya)
Iain*: Cadet in the same year group as the Quartet (Luya)
Ilyei*: A Lind vadeln-paired with Nalda
Jadred*: Retired vadeln who is in charge of the domta not far from Vada where those pairs and orphans under the age of fourteen live
James*: Great Uncle of Jessica Crawford and young brother of Jessica Robson (Siya)
Jen*: Vada Cadet who looks after newcomers to the Vada (Trnslei)
Jenny*: Ryzcka Seventh Ryzck
Jessali*: Holad nurse at the Holad station near Fountains Head (Axei)
Jessica Crawford*: Daughter of Anne and David (Mlei)
Jessica Robson: Grandmother of Jessica Crawford
