Leaf and Branch (New Druids Series Vol 1 & 2)

by Donald D. Allan

  I stopped talking. I looked out over the fields and the setting sun.

  "You speak of her like she is only just figuring out who she is."

  "Yes, I am saying exactly that. I think Gaea is only as old as the draoi."

  "You can't be serious!"

  "I should clarify. I think the conscious Gaea is only as old as the draoi. That's what the humans did. Before she worked in silence. Unaware. Perfecting the harmony of the world. Then we woke her up. We did something. Something bad and we have been working to fix it ever since."

  "Oh, Will. How can you possibly know that?"

  "I just do, Nadine. I'm certain of it. We are all Gaea, Nadine. You, me, the draoi, the non-draoi. All Gaea. What she knows, we know. We just don't know it."

  "Will Arbor, you are speaking nonsense now." Nadine moved closer to me. The part of her that remembered being an old woman feared the cold of the night and she automatically came to me for warmth. I thought the evening pleasantly cool. The Fall was fast approaching. With the Fall came change. Something was coming this way. Something terrible. I shivered and Nadine hugged me tighter.

  Nadine waited until Will's breathing slowed and a soft snore escaped his mouth. She stared at the man she loved and wondered how she had arrived here. Her life had been full and almost complete. Death had not been that far away and she had almost come to terms with it. She had expected it any day in Jergen when she had felt her heart first falter and knew it was weakened. The simplest of activities had her heart thumping painfully in her chest. It had been only a matter of time.

  Now, Gaea had returned her to a youthful body and she preened with the joy it gave her to simply be able to move around freely without pain. With her youth came a fierce appetite to love and be loved. And now she lay in bed with an eighteen-year-old man who was her husband. A man she loved so strongly that the fear of losing him froze the blood in her veins. She would do anything for him to make him look at her just once more with that look of love in his eyes in return. Her heart swelled at the site of it. I've become a moonstruck girl, she thought with amusement. My life of hardship has almost been worth it to arrive here at this moment.

  She gave Will a long look and stopped herself from reaching over to pull his hair back from his face. He needs a haircut, she thought. She sighed and slipped out of the bed and crept to the door. She loved her new mobility. One day, she knew with certainty, the arthritis would return. She dreaded that day but was determined to enjoy this stolen new life of hers. She reached the stairs and slipped quietly down them. Her new mobility was a constant wonder. Sometimes she wanted to jump and spin and throw her head and arms back and laugh. Truth be told, she admitted to herself, I love more how my hormones rage inside me again and make me emotional and craving the touch of my man. She wanted to scream for joy and never stop screaming.

  As always the negative followed the positive. The guilt she felt for those before her that fell to the Purge tore at her. Who was I to have escaped their fate? What made me so special? Why should I have a second life of youth while the others rot in shallow graves across the Realm? She shuddered and stopped in the kitchen. She pushed the thoughts aside. The guilt was too much to bear at times. She had to push it away.

  Nadine found her shawl on the back of a chair in the kitchen. She wrapped it around her shoulders and stopped by the front room. Agnes was awake. It was why Nadine was sneaking through the dark of the house. Nadine could sense she was awake from upstairs in the bedroom and decided she needed to speak to her. There's no one else, she thought. No one else that can understand a woman of my age. Someone who faces death.

  She stopped at the entranceway and called out quietly. "Agnes, it's me, Nadine." She stepped into the front room and saw the dim form of Agnes sitting up in her makeshift bed.

  "Oh dear, you frightened me," said Agnes with a hand held to chest.

  "No, I did not. You heard me thump down the stairs and followed me through the house with your ears. You forget I am a druid with powers now."

  Agnes held the pose for a moment and then dropped her hand and chuckled. "Guilty. Come over and sit with me."

  Nadine walked over to the chair by the couch and sank into it, wrapping her shawl more tightly around her. She reached out with her senses and felt the ravages of Agnes' disease. As Will had done, Nadine eased the pain and wished she could do more, but her disease was far too advanced. She and Will couldn't see the exact problem and couldn't fix it. It lay too deep within her and beyond their ken. Unaware, Agnes fumbled at something between her and the couch and pulled out a metal flask. She unscrewed the cap and took a swig and offered it to Nadine. Nadine took it, sniffed the opening and took a swallow. "Hmm. Cala whisky. Lovely. I haven't had that in years." Nadine passed it back.

  Agnes frowned. "It is so strange to hear you speak like that with a face as young as yours. I keep forgetting."

  "Hmm. Well, I'm actually older than you. I've lived an entire lifetime before Gaea saw fit to restart it. I need you to see me as that old woman. It would help if you could tonight."

  "How's that? What's wrong?"

  "I'm torn. Will spoke to me tonight about the future. I thought we would march together hand in hand and equally minded. Now I am not so sure. I don't understand where he is going and why. I am a sixty-year-old woman in here," Nadine tapped her head. "But a child in my heart. It would help to hear your thoughts. The thoughts of a woman who's lived a lifetime, too."

  "I'm only forty-five and I thought you were sixty-seven."

  "Hmm, well who counts the years?"

  Agnes chuckled. "When I close my eyes I can hear the older woman inside you. So don't mind me, I'm keeping my eyes closed. Tell me, get it out."

  "I love him."

  "Yes, we can all see that. It's a little cloy, to be honest. Like too much honey in your tea."

  "It's more than that, Agnes. It frightens me. Gaea said that what we have is a rarity. I'm so scared to lose it. To ruin it. To lose him. To not be able to follow where he is running so very quickly. I am the Cill Darae. Gaea named me. But I feel like the child next to the parent. Unqualified. Uncertain. Will, he is so sure of himself. So confident."

  Agnes said nothing.

  "You know what he said to me the other day? He said 'I wish I was more like you. You are so sure of yourself. So strong.' I almost broke down right in front of him. He didn't know what he did wrong and just made things worse. I had to push him out of the room and find a new centre to myself. I'm lost, Agnes."

  "You were never married were you? In all those sixty-odd years."

  "No."

  "Or had a boyfriend. You kept to yourself in that house in Jergen. Hiding from the world."

  "Yes, I suppose that's true."

  "You have no idea what it is to have a relationship, my dear. It isn't you and him. You aren't two people anymore. You are a team. You will each have your strengths and your weaknesses. Learn them. Support each other. Accept that Will will be stronger at some things and that you are stronger in others. It will come in time. Trust me in this."

  Nadine grew quiet for a time. Her emotions pulled at her until, to her shame, she started to softly cry.

  "Oh hush, girl. You'd think a woman of your advanced years wouldn't cry."

  Nadine sniffed, and wiped at her tears, and forced a laugh. "Yes, well I also didn't have all these hormones either. Dear Gaea, I forgot all about these damn things. Getting back my moon flow was a disappointment as well. I didn't miss that. And the cramps."

  Agnes shared the laugh and then passed the flask back to Nadine. Nadine took a swig and handed it back. "So, what's really on your mind, Nadine?"

  "Ah, see? This is why I wanted to speak with you. We women, we understand these things. Men, boys and girls are just stupid when it comes to social graces and awareness."

  "Hmm. Some women stay oblivious too."

  "I suppose. Were you a very good archer?"

  If Agnes wondered at the subject change she didn't show it. "Yes, I was. One of the
best. It's what captured Ben's attention. And Steve's, unfortunately. But, I loved archery. I rarely missed. I had a knack for it."

  "That must've been hard. Sleeping with Steve to bear a child that would not be Ben's."

  Agnes stirred for a moment. "You have no idea. I liked Steve. But, it was all work with that one. Ben was a hard, hard man, like Steve, but Ben had a soft side that Steve didn't. I needed both in a man. Ben was always my favourite. I loved how silly he could be. He made me laugh so hard I peed myself more than once. Nothing says 'marry that one' than having pee run down your leg. But I guess I had a thing for Steve, too. I loved his unwavering determination. He knew what was right and drove the crew toward it. You couldn't help but follow a man like that. I swear if I could have merged the two into one it would have been perfect." Agnes sighed.

  "I think Ben and I were one of those rarities that Gaea spoke to you of. We joined to make a team Ben and I. Steve was a trophy of sorts for me. Something to conquer but not hold on to. He oozed confidence. I wanted that. If only for a moment. Ben and I talked about children after the accident. Ben wanted children with me so desperately. Now that he was unable, well, it consumed him. You always want what you can't have, I suppose. He came up with the idea of asking Steve. Proposed it. It didn't happen right away. It was bloody awkward. Taboo. Whatever. In the end, Steve and I accepted and then we were fucking every day I was ovulating. I hated it. I cried and cried. I wish it had taken at once. But it took a couple of months of trying. It was so hard on Ben." Agnes plucked at her blanket.

  "It was worse for Steve. He left as soon as I quickened. Bolted actually. He couldn't look at Ben anymore. It destroyed him. Ben endured. It strained us but then we heard those cries! The cries of Katherine when she was born. It was a panacea! Ben and I never looked back. I insisted Steve come and see his daughter. He did. He looked at her. Held her once and left.

  So I made the right choice, didn't I? I ask myself every day whether Steve would be here by my side while this disease eats me away. I hear the answer in my heart as loud as my own voice. I know Ben will be. Steve...I'm not so sure. He would have resented it. Hated that he couldn't fight it. I made the right choice, my heart did. No regrets except it pains me that I must leave Ben one day. He doesn't deserve that. I'm thankful that you and your husband will give me a few more months with Ben and our daughter."

  Nadine held out her hand and Agnes gave her the flask. She took a deep swallow and handed it back. Agnes took a drink and slowly screwed the cap back on.

  "For men it's easy, isn't it," said Nadine. "They come, they leave. It's women who bear the weight of the world. Gaea is a woman. Not surprising, really."

  Agnes turned a sharp look to Nadine. "Nonsense. Men have it just as hard as women. Never think they have it easy. Men and women have their own challenges. What's important is that we work together for a common future. Sometimes giving up something for the other. That's marriage. There has to be sacrifice, at times, I won't deny that. But no marriage can remain in harmony if you are always looking for balance. It is what it is. Life is life. It finds a way."

  Somewhere in the house, a clock rang three bells. Nadine turned her ears to the sound. She hadn't heard the clock before. "Thank you, Agnes."

  "You're welcome Nadine. Now go to bed and back to that man of yours. Maybe wake him up, eh? Put those hormones to use."

  Forty-One

  Jaipers, 900 A.C.

  BRENT RUSHED TO the barracks with his ceremonial sword in hand. Wrong weapon at the wrong time, he thought and cursed it. Matching his sprint were James, Gendred and Comlin. The cries from up ahead were loud in the afternoon. Villagers were standing on the street and staring over the tops of buildings to the black smoke rising thick in the air in the distance. Shops and houses opened and people ran out into the street looking scared and crying the alarm.

  Gendred yelled at them as they ran past. "Back into your homes! Off the streets!"

  The people ignored him and some ran after them. Comlin joined the garrison captain's cries. "People! Hide in your homes! Off the street!" This stopped a few of them.

  James drew alongside Brent and pulled his sword free. It, too, was ceremonial. "Our weapons, sir. They're with our equipment. These swords are almost useless!"

  Brent spared a glance at James and grimaced. "I know. It will have to do. Whatever we find up ahead we need to rally our men. If they are being attacked they need our leadership." Brent ran out of breath and focused on sprinting.

  They rounded the Woven Bail Inn and Brent saw mayhem before him. The barracks and garrison buildings were fully engulfed with the flames that reached at least twenty feet into the air. Thick black smoke poured into the sky and obscured the field. The gaol door was smashed open and two figures were pushing inside. The chest held little concern for Brent. His immediate concern was the fighting in the square. His men, fighting alongside garrison men, clashed openly with other garrison men. Grimly, he could see that, of his men, only those that were armed were still standing and fighting. Everywhere lay bodies, unarmed and bleeding out on the ground. Captain Mayer was down and holding his upper thigh; heart blood spraying through his fingers. Horses lay bleeding or dead on the ground, hacked and butchered; their cries more horrendous than anything else. Amongst the fighters were men he did not recognise. They wore black boots and moved with exceptional fighting skill; weaving in and out of the fighting and slashing at will with long sharp and pointed daggers gleaming red with blood. There was no order. The square was a full out melee and mayhem.

  "To me!" screamed Brent and brandished his sword. His men looked to his cry and moved to disengage and join their General. James positioned himself to Brent's left and together they hit the attacking garrison men from behind.

  Brent thrust low with his sabre. His sword was useless as a striking weapon. It barely carried an edge but the point worked just fine. He took the man on the right side and drove the point through his kidney. The man threw his arms up in pain and Brent watched Corporal Ian finish him with a slash across the throat. Heart blood sprayed across him and Brent withdrew his sword. The man fell to the ground grasping at his throat. Brent watched the man's sword clatter to the ground but had no time to grab for it.

  James drove his sword into the back of the man in front of him. The man spasmed and twisted. The snap of James' sword was loud despite the screaming that filled the square. James dropped the half of the sword in his hands and reached over his opponent and plucked his longsword from his hand. Brent was impressed; it was smoothly done.

  Brent's men were backing up toward him, parrying and stepping carefully. They were exhausted and most carried wounds. A rallying cry came from Gendred and his men looked quickly to find the source. Brent spared a glance to his right and saw Comlin with a long dagger standing next to Gendred. They worked as a team and kept Brent's right flank protected.

  Brent looked around the square. He had six men remaining, armed and still fighting. The garrison men still fighting for Jaipers numbered only eight. Opposing them were fifteen garrison men and ten of the men in black boots. Two more men in black boots emerged from the gaol and moved to join the others. On the ground men cried in agony holding wounds, but they were outnumbered by men who would move and cry no more. It was a slaughter. The barrack's roof collapsed and flames and sparks erupted into the air with a roar. Many ducked reflexively and looked over at the flames shooting in the air. The fire bathed the square in heat and made the figures on the ground writhe. Brent's men used the distraction to form a loose line.

  This makes no sense, thought Brent. What is happening? Why now? Dear Lord, I beg you, help us!

  Brent yelled in his best parade voice. "To me! Defensive positions!"

  His cry was followed by a voice carrying an unearthly power. "Form up!" A man emerged from the gaol. His image was blurred, hidden from sight. Brent tried to focus on it and failed. The order from this strange figure caused the traitors to disengage from his men. An uneasy break in the action occurred.
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  Brent felt a pinch on his chest where the medallion from the Cathedral of Jergen lay against his breast. His vision blurred for a second and suddenly the man who had emerged from the gaol came into sharp focus. It was Seth Farlow, grinning and walking with confidence. Brent watched him fall in behind his men and then stand watching his men separate and form an opposing line. He carried a small crossbow in his right hand. Brent recalled the conversation in the Cathedral in Jergen. He warned me about Seth. Warned me and I failed to heed it.

  The men split into two factions. His men and those of the garrison fighting for the town formed up in a single rank to his left and right. Across the square, with the burning barracks and garrison building behind them, the garrison traitors and men in black boots formed up against them. Brent looked to his men. They breathed with labour and many held hands to open wounds. Eighteen men against their twenty-seven. All the men trained in delivering violence, but only half his men carried swords, the others mere daggers. The opponents were all well-armed with swords. It had been an ambush. His men caught transitioning into the barracks. Storing equipment. Relaxing their guard.

  "Seth Farlow! I see you!" yelled Brent across the twenty feet separating the lines. Seth looked surprised and scowled.

  "General Brent Bairstow, you are siding with demons. Join me. Join the Lord."

  "Demons? Have you lost your mind? You killed my men!" Brent reached up to his neck and pulled free the medallion and held it before him. "I am a man of God. Acting on his behalf to secure this Realm from evil and men like you." Brent saw the men in black boots look surprised and glance back at Seth.

  "Demons can carry any symbol to deceive and sway the Lord's children from His ways. You have been deceived. Your oath to the Realm demands you punish those who work against it. Those men with you, they knowingly sided with demons and aided them. I ask you one last time: join the Church of the New Order or die. The Lord's punishment is swift and just."