Madison quickly walked over the grime in the streets to get away from the sight before her, finding it difficult to keep her balance in the muck of the streets. She felt as though she were sinking deeper into the filth with each step she took. She could no longer see the tan color that her shoes had once been. And new garments would be required as soon as she left this sordid city.
She rushed into the oncoming street and down an alley that appeared cleaner, only to find that the local butcher left no further peace for the neighboring resident’s sense of smell. The parts of pig he didn’t require, and the shavings from its skin, were all thrown into the street. Continuing forth, she ran down the alley directly opposite, not caring should anyone see her unnatural speed. Discretion was her last concern by this point.
The large stone structure before her looked like a cathedral. She pushed on the large expansive door and let herself in. She hoped that this may be the one area that Londoners thought to keep clean. She was shown no mercy. A man stepped in just behind her. She heard him close the door with his foot. Turning around, she saw him carrying a small child; a daughter as frail as she had been, although quite younger. Her long hair trailed beneath her revealing a large blackened circular mark upon the back end of her neck. Her fingers were blackened and her nails protruded yellow pus. Her shoes had been left off, showing her toes to have the same likeness. The man didn’t even see Madison as he passed. He called out for the priest who lived within the large structure. No light shined from the stained glass throughout the cathedral, leaving it dark and difficult for the man to navigate. Not even a candle was lit for those who were dying everywhere. The man continued to call out a name, becoming more distressed with each breath.
His sobs were eventually heard and a man appeared from behind one of the small wooden doors within the stone wall’s columns. He was obviously a priest, although Madison could just barely see his features. The man with his daughter in his arms could see him with even less clarity.
He spoke to the priest, trying to contain his sobs. “Please, father,” he managed to speak.
The priest faltered and stepped back shaking his head.
“She is only a child, you must give her rites. Please father,” he continued. “I have here in my pocket four pence should you be willing.”
The priest took the door and slammed it shut, locking it quickly and moving up the column of stairs within the stone pillar. The man looked down to the ground, not making a sound. Collapsing to his knees, he cradled the child in his arms. Madison could feel his emotions throughout the entire cathedral. They were more powerful in his grief than any she had ever felt. The man sobbed quietly, taking his child’s head to his.
Madison came up from behind. He didn’t hear her walking to him. She extended a hand to his shoulder and did her best to calm his weeping as she penetrated his aura. She knelt down in front of him, not taking her eyes away from his, although he could only look downward. He slowly stopped crying and his composure changed slightly. He seemed as though he were in the same state she had been once she realized her grief for Jamison. Sorrowful, but with an acceptance for what had transpired. She reached for the child and took her into her arms. He let her go and stood up. Madison took her to the altar at the end of the church and laid her upon it, folding the child’s arms across her chest.
Walking back to her father at the other end, she took him by the arm and escorted him out. He seemed tranquil, but not undisturbed. She doubted he would even remember having seen her in times to come, or that she had tried to help him. And yet, she only hoped that she had helped to quench his sorrows for the briefest of moments.
He slowly turned away from her and walked down the street from where he had come, no longer weeping, and no longer crippled by his loss. He was merely lesser for it. Of all the abilities Madison had come to harness, she quickly began to like this one the best. If she could ease such pain in others, then she could be satisfied with her new state of being.
Watching him walk away, Madison then heard a sound in the distance. It was hardly a sound that she expected to hear in the depths of grime within this city. It was the sound of children. And they were laughing. They were playing in fact. It was a few hundred yards away, but it was a distinct sound and unmistakable sound.
‘How could children possibly find happiness amongst all of this mourning?’
She slowly walked forth to where the clamor came from, relieved that anything joyful could be heard. Within a few minutes she was in an open area. Tall structures still surrounded it, but the space appeared as though it may have been a market of sorts. All tents for selling were now gone, and only the hay and waste of animals remained on the ground.
Five children held hands and circled around one another. A few dances nearby and more chased one another about. Not a single adult was in sight. Their song echoed throughout the area. The mist of rain and grey clouds peering above didn’t stop their play.
Ring around the rosey,
Pocket full of poesy,
Ashes, ashes,
We all fall down!
They sang as loud as their voices could carry before a few stopped to chase the others again, slipping and sliding in the muck below their feet.
‘If their parents live, let them be damned for allowing them to play in such filth.’
The children repeated the rhyme again and again, not even noticing her watching them until she stepped forward. A few stopped to take her in, their giggling still resonating throughout the space.
She took to her knee to be eye to eye with a young boy before her. She reached for his hand and he took it, smiling at her.
“Where is your father, little one?” she asked in a pleasant voice.
He shrugged and merely pointed upward to the sky. It took little effort to decipher what he meant.
“Me mum says he went to heaven,” he said, as though he expected him to return within a short time, and not fully comprehending what those words meant.
“What of you all then? Where are your parents?” she said loudly, looking to the others who had also stopped their play.
One came forward, a young girl. Her long black hair reminded her of the native children she had once seen playing with one another. But her skin was as pale as her own and her eyes a pale green.
“We five are of the same family,” she said, pointing to the others. “The three there come from down the lane.”
“You are all from the same lane?” Madison asked. The little girl nodded in response and stepped closer to her. A few of her teeth were missing, but her smile still beamed despite the surrounding misery.
“Your mother doesn’t mind you out here alone then?” said Madison, keeping her tone as gentle as possible.
“I should not think so,” said the girl, “We cannot be allowed inside.”
Curious, Madison looked at her strangely, revealing her eyes from beneath her hooded cloak.
“Why do you have violet eyes?” said the little girl. Madison ignored the question as the girl continued speaking. “Have you been sick with the others?”
“No, dear child, I haven’t. But I am curious as to why you cannot see your mother? Why can she not come to retrieve you?” Madison reached her other hand forward and the little girl took it, her suspicion for the intentions of strangers clearly not adhered.
“Because she’s locked inside,” she said, as if the answer were obvious.
“And why is that?”
“She has the pestilence.”
“And she is not allowed out?” said Madison, revolted by the action.
“And I’m not allowed to enter,” said the little girl, her cheeriness suddenly diminished. Madison did her best to keep her sorrows away by continuing to hold both the girl and boy’s their hands.
It was then that she realized something was odd about these two children. She extended her senses outward slightly and saw that the other children were just the same. Buried within their emotions, there was something she hadn’t noticed unt
il now.
It was numbness. There was a still aura throughout the air around them and on their person.
“What’s that in your pocket, child,” said Madison.
“Poesy, madam,” she said calmly.
“Yes, the dark haired man gave it to us a fortnight ago,” said the boy.
“May I see it?” she asked. The boy eagerly took it from his pocket and placed it in her hand. It was as she suspected. Lying within her hands was the same likeness as the substance the healer had given her. And yet, it was a dried flower petal. She had never seen this flower in the land she left. And yet here it was before her.
“Who was the man that gave this to you?” she asked. “Did you learn his name?”
The child shook his head.
“He was tall and had dark hair,” said the girl.
The boy nodded beside her in agreement. “He said it would protect us if we kept it on our bodies,” he said.
Madison took it and placed it within the young boy’s pocket once more. “Then you best have it with you,” she said, taking his hand again. “Did you happen to see where this man went?” she asked.
The young boy shrugged, not knowing nor caring particularly about her questions. She tried to maintain his attention as long as possible as she held both their hands in hers.
“Go back to your game then,” she said, letting go of them. Within a moment they had forgotten her presence all together.
Madison amplified her senses to try to pick up on the trail this man had left. It was no wonder she hadn’t sensed it before with the fowl aroma of the streets penetrating every other sense she possessed. And yet, within a few yards of the open space it was floating inside a well. “Posey,” as they had called it.
From house to house, there was a scent that followed. The doors were smeared with it. Remnants of the poesy was nearly everywhere. Even a few people who dared leave their homes carried it on them. But not in the same way the children had. It was inside them. They had consumed it from the well. Walking back to the Thames, she noted its presence again. The mixture was in the river itself. It was subtle, yet it was there. Even on one of the corpses on the ground, it was present.
Madison looked down at a man on the ground, lying dead nearby. He too had the substance within him from taking of the water in the well. It wasn’t until she truly looked at him that she noticed what others wouldn’t. There was no black mark upon him. He didn’t even appear to have suffered from the sickness. Although there was one feature he had that she knew quite well.
Bite marks.
She examined him more closely, looking for anything other than grime and the poesy upon him. There was only blood and the scent of a man. It was one she immediately recognized.
Madison stood and instantly felt an aura penetrate hers. It was even more anxious than she was.
Jayden appeared from the dark corner of the street, his cape dirtied and dragging along behind him. “Couldn’t wait until dawn to see me, could you?” he said smugly.
“It’s Lyndon. I can smell him,” she said.
“Yes, I know.”
“You know?” she repeated in disbelief.
“And it appears as though he’s not alone.”
The End of Book Two
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Exile (Book II in The Elder Origins series): Novella Page 10
