Conflict and Courage

by Candy Rae

  He was not best pleased to see Andrew Snodgrass awaiting him. The man’s presence could mean one thing only; the Larg wished further conversation.

  For Sam Baker, unbeknownst to the other Lords, had made a secret pact with the Largan and the time was fast approaching when these plans would be set in motion. If all went well, his position and those of his heirs would become unassailable. With his eldest son heir to his own Lordship of Baker, his second son already installed in Brentwood and betrothed to the assassinated Lord’s only daughter, he was in a strong position and knew it. When old Smith died and that day was fast approaching, he would be in de facto control not only of Baker, Brentwood and Smith, but also of the King’s own demesne in the desert expanse of Sahara.

  Four out of the eight Lordships was a lot, but it was still not enough for him; he was more than aware that he did not have a majority in the Conclave. This galled the ambitious Lord Regent.

  As well as this, Henri Cocteau, his staunch supporter from the first days had been showing signs of dissatisfaction. The crusty Lord Gardiner followed Cocteau’s lead in most things and where van Buren’s loyalties lay was anybody’s guess.

  And Lord Pierre Duchesne in his distant northeastern Lordship, well, Sam Baker was most displeased with his antics to date. His lands were prosperous, arguably the most prosperous of them all, with its tracts of arable land and dense forests. It was also of immense tactical importance being situated so close to the island chain, the only known land-route into Argyll.

  Sam Baker hated Pierre Duchesne.

  The feeling was mutual.

  Duchesne had made a point of resisting every one of Sam’s overtures of friendship and made it quite clear that he both disliked and distrusted the Lord Regent.

  So Sam Baker had a lot to think about as he approached the Larg emissary, one of the handful of humans in Murdoch in telepathic rapport with their Larg allies. Andrew Snodgrass was mind-linked with one Aoalvaldr, whom Sam Baker remembered from the south’s abortive attack on the north eight years before. Aoalvaldr was central to Sam Baker’s plans for Duchesne.

  Sam Baker was playing a dangerous game.

  “Aoalvaldr sends you greetings,” Andrew welcomed the Lord Regent with a low bow.

  “He didn’t really did he?” Sam growled.

  Andrew shrugged, “and says that the kohorts are on their way. The advance party has been transported to the staging area. He wishes reassurance that the regiments will be in place when the time comes.”

  “Our advance party left yesterday,” answered Sam.

  “Aoalvaldr will be pleased. The Lords did not object?”

  “Didn’t say a thing,” admitted Sam, “and as it is my own three regiments who are taking part in this escapade of Aoalvaldr’s it’s no skin off their noses.”

  Andrew looked surprised.

  There was a pause as he communicated this to Aoalvaldr.

  “Well?”

  “I am to go to him,” said Andrew.

  He made another bow as he took his leave.

  “Aoalvaldr’s part of the bargain?” growled Sam at his retreating back.

  “The kohort will be in place,” answered Andrew after a somewhat longer pause, “and it will move with the new moon.”

  “When he looked up, Andrew was gone.

  Sam carried on with his interrupted walk. Anne was near her time now; he hoped she wouldn’t drop the child during the coronation. The sight of a heavily pregnant woman did not do anything for Sam and the years had not been kind to his wife. Since the birth of King Elliot and his twin sister Princess Ruth, eight years ago, Anne had given Sam five children and was pregnant with her sixth.

  In fact, he calculated as he reached the door, this would be his wife’s eleventh child and that was not counting the miscarriages.

  He took a deep breath as he turned the handle. As mother of the young king and as Lady Baker, Anne had attained a certain position within the Kingdom and it would be politic to at least be seen to accord her the respect due to her rank.

  Sam Baker had long regretted the political necessity of taking Anne Murdoch-Howard as his lawfully wedded wife. Almost constantly pregnant since that day, her body becoming more shapeless and unattractive and now, so her doctor informed him, ill, with a constant racking cough which made each breath she took a painful one as the disease that was killing her inched its way through her lungs.

  As expected, Anne was resting on her daybed. Her indomitable spirit broken at last, she had spent the last months of this pregnancy lying flat.

  She lay still and listless as he approached her, moderating his more usual loud tone for one more in keeping to a husband visiting his sick wife and mother of his heirs.

  Cara, Arthur’s trainee nurse was sponging her forehead. She was, Sam Baker noted in surprise, dressed entirely in white, from head to toe, even her hair was covered in the white material. The doctor was standing at the head of the bed taking Anne’s pulse.

  “She is drifting in and out of sleep,” whispered the old doctor.

  “The child?”

  “The baby is not due for another two weeks but I fear it will not be long now,” Arthur Kurtheim replied. “She did feel some pains earlier today, but it was a false alarm. I’ve given her a small dose to help her rest. She will need all her strength and has little to spare.”

  “The coronation, will she be well enough to attend?”

  The doctor shook his head.

  Sam nodded. “Let me know when the child is born.”

  “I will my Lord.”

  “The older children?”

  “With Lady Cocteau. She will look after them. I saw no point in them remaining only to watch her suffer.”

  “You did right,” said Sam, much to Arthur Kurtheim’s relief. One never knew where one stood with the irrational Lord Regent.

  He looked down at his sleeping wife. For some reason, he felt sorry for her. Despite what he felt about her now, they had spent the last eight years as man and wife.

  “Take good care of her,” he said to the doctor as he took his leave.

  To say that Arthur Kurtheim was amazed at this order was the understatement of the year.

  Anne was feverish and never knew of his visit.

  She rambled on about everything and everybody, and her worries about the future of her daughter Princess Ruth were loud and vocal.

  * * * * *

  CHAPTER 28 - VADATH

  Kolyei informed Tara in gleeful ‘voice’ that Holad domta Winston was a hive of activity as the Randall family prepared to welcome the intrepid wanderers home, almost three years to the day after their send off.

  Ten had left to explore the west, eight now returned.

  “I wonder if it has changed much,” mused Tara to Hilary as they followed the path alongside the bubbling stream as it meandered through the rtathlian.

  “A lot,” butted in Brian from behind them, “it’s bigger for one thing and you’ll be surprised how many are studying there now.”

  Well, Brian should know Tara thought as he went into more detail. He and Sofiya had kept in more or less constant touch with his parents. Tara and Kolyei had ‘spoken’ as well but not as often nor as regularly.

  “Sofiya bespeaked with Zhenya this morning and we are expected before dusk,” added Brian. Zhenya was still the senior Lind healer at Winston domta.

  “A celebratory feast,” said Kolyei. He licked his lips in anticipation of the culinary delights to come. Janice Randall’s cooking was legendary.

  : Glutton :

  : Me? : Kolyei grinned : I am looking forward to it, succulent zarova, cooked the way only Janice knows how :

  : Glutton : insisted Tara.

  : Janice will see a big difference in you :

  From the fragile and traumatised child who began Vada training, Tara had developed into a well-balanced and contented young woman, emerging from the four years a confident eighteen-year-old, at peace with herself at last. Whether Janice Randall would accept this new Tara w
as another matter. It had been this over-protectiveness that was one of the reasons why Tara, with Kolyei’s full agreement, had insisted on the westward exploration, even though it would take him away from Radya.

  Kolyei was in high spirits, his springing step testimony to this. He had waited for this day for many a long year. He would twine tails with his beloved Radya and did not see fit to tell Tara that she and Peter Crawford were waiting at the domta. She was very aware of his hopes and was apprehensive enough as it was. No need to tell her that their meeting was imminent rather than days or even weeks away.

  The rules laid down in the beginning by the Gtratha had made Radya and Kolyei’s courtship, by necessity, a long one. If a vadeln-paired Lind wished to mate with another Lind – such matings were for life – who was also the other half of a Lind-human bonding, then the human couple must be prepared to commit themselves to one another as well.

  This rule could make things difficult for vadeln-pairs, but as Rozya, mate of Matvei, had declared at a time when such life-bonds were in their infancy, such foursomes were right and proper. Lind families were very close-knit and larger extended family groups could cause much friction within the pack.

  The Eldas of the Lind had seen the truth in this and the law was introduced amongst the Lind, a rule followed shortly afterwards by the humans once they had seen at first hand the heartache and disruption caused by such quasi-illegal relationships.

  When, some years before, Kolyei and Radya had decided that they wished to mate, both had realised that they would have to wait until both Peter and Tara were older. The two knew that Peter had a profound love and respect for Tara; they could only hope that when Tara met him today she would realise that the now adult Peter was the man for her.

  True, Peter was nineteen to Tara’s twenty-one, but he was a tall, mature and handsome young man, one who had, by now, spent a year on active patrol duty with the Vada.

  Tara, knowing nothing about these wheels within wheels decided to introduce another topic, one that was worrying her greatly.

  : I hope they don’t ask too many questions about last winter :

  : Not to worry : Kolyei telepathed back : They will be so excited to see Emily and Brian’s baby for the first time they not even think about it :

  : There is Mariya’s interdict : Tara fretted : but will that be enough? :

  : No Lind will ask the question : Kolyei comforted her.

  : Jim will ask why Liam and Aiya have not returned with us :

  The previous winter, with Emily heavily pregnant, the explorers had spent with the pale-green striped pack Arensei of the northwest. Tara and Kolyei, Liam and Aiya had gone on an expedition of their own and found themselves caught by the weather deep in the high mountain ranges at the very edge of the continent. Rescued by another pack that inhabited those snowy wastes, they had spent what remained of the winter in the relative comfort of the domta of the isolated rtath Jntei, Kolyei and Tara leaving only when the snows melted and their route back to Arensei clear. There, they had found Emily and Brian the proud parents of a lusty baby boy and only waited until he was old enough to travel before starting for home.

  Liam and Aiya had decided to remain with the Jnteins.

  The others had accepted Liam’s decision without argument, after all, they reasoned, the pair had as much right as anyone to decide what to do with the rest of their lives although Hilary wondered aloud that Liam might find life lonely being the only human within the pack.

  The remaining eight, with the one small addition, had reached the rtathlian of the Gtratha some weeks later where old Mariya still held tenure as Gtrathlin, pure white and frail, but her indomitable spirit shining through regardless.

  She welcomed them all, admired baby Alexander and spoke at great length with Tara and Kolyei, warning them not to speak overmuch about their winter sojourn with Jntei. If anylind or anyone asked them they were to say they were a pack like any other but that they preferred to keep to themselves. There were important reasons, she explained, why this pack must remain in isolation and apart from the others.

  Only Tara and Kolyei knew the why behind this.

  Before they left the Gtratha Tara and Kolyei had entrusted into Mariya’s care a small sealed oilskin package. She sniffed at it cautiously.

  “It won’t bite,” said Tara with some amusement, “we’ve used our last sheets of durapaper and you know something about what we have written I think,” Tara said.

  “A little, but why write about your time with Jntei?”

  “Kolyei and I have promised to record the history of the Lind, all of it. I know we are under oath not to tell what we know, but sometime, in the far distant future, our descendants, yours and mine, might need the knowledge this package contains.”

  “This tells all the secret?”

  “It does,” affirmed Kolyei.

  “Then it shall be hidden. I am glad I cannot read because my curiosity is great. I will not ask the answer of you. Even I know only that Jntei guard that what must not be seen.”

  “We have also written some notes about subjects which we think should not become common knowledge but should still be recorded.”

  Mariya took them to a small dry cave in the centre of the domta of the Gtratha. In the gloom Tara saw some curious objects but Mariya pushed her and Kolyei past them after requesting they avert their eyes. Deep inside, she pointed with a frail paw towards a natural shelf in the rock.

  “Leave it there,” she commanded, “none enters here but the Gtrathlin.”

  When Kolyei and Tara left, they were confident that the package would be safe with Mariya and her successors. The Lind did not make promises they could not keep.

  The countryside through which they now passed had changed little; most of the humans domiciled in Vadath lived in the more open southern plains where they could grow crops. These woods belonged to the Lind. Humankind would never attempt to cut down these forests, no matter how desperate they became for arable land. Of the eight thousand that had landed on the northern continent, most remained in Argyll, though the colonisation of the islands had begun. There were hundreds of these islands, some very large indeed. Even now, after ten years, there were barely two thousand humans in Vadath itself.

  They spied the first outlying dagas of domta Winston as the first hints of night-dusk began to show. The inhabitants, human and Lind, came out to welcome them and many followed, the better to watch the long-awaited reunion.

  As they got deeper inside the domta, the crowds grew bigger until at last they spied the stout wooden cabin that was the Randall home. Outside it stood a small knot of people and one Lind.

  Tara screwed up her eyes the better to identify them but failed to recognise the tall man standing beside the Lind, leaning against her side, it must be a she thought Tara, life-bonds were gender-led, male to female and visa versa.

  They were within vocal calling distance when she realised just who the vadeln-pair were.

  “Peter,” she gasped, “and Radya.”

  She clouted Kolyei on his shoulder.

  “You rotter!” she cried, “you knew all along that Radya would be here.” She did not mention Peter.

  : Naturally : chuckled Kolyei, with false modesty : and before you get angry with me, just think what a nice surprise it is :

  He padded smartly up to the waiting delegation, ears cocked, tail wagging nineteen to the dozen, eyes glued to Radya’s face.

  Peter and Radya edged slightly to the right of those waiting, as they did so, Peter disengaged himself from his lind-mate, his own eyes on Tara.

  As if from a great distance, Tara could hear the shrieks and whines of welcome as Janice and Winston and their three girls lunged towards Emily, Brian, Sofiya, Ilyei and baby Alexander.

  Peter waited as Tara dismounted and looked up at him, she was behaving, he decided, as if she had never seen him before. He stood, a questioning expression on his face, but one both solemn and serious.

  Kolyei shook himself and took the th
ree steps to Radya’s side where they stood in nervous anticipation, waiting for what must be.

  The Randall family and Hilary grew silent, except for Janice who held her first grandson in her arms and was making crooning noises, as they became aware of the drama unfolding. Everyone and everylind present knew what Radya felt for Kolyei; how long the two had waited for this moment.

  Tara stood as still as a statue, her mind in a whirl.

  Then Radya and Kolyei began to whine. The watchers cheered as the two Lind entwined their tails and then rested their heads on each other’s necks. Attuned, as ever, to their human partners’ innermost thoughts, they both knew the second when Tara Sullivan realised what Peter Crawford meant to her.

  Peter folded Tara in his arms and drew her towards him for their first embrace as man and woman.

  After a while they drew apart and Tara glanced over at the Randall family, abashed, her gaze moving beyond the family group towards Hilary, Gsnei, Jim and Larya and all the others who had come to see the fun.

  : Did everyone know but me? :

  : I think so, yes, young Peter has been in your thoughts overmuch over these last months :

  Then it was Tara’s turn to be welcomed and congratulated by her stepfamily (Peter let her go with a great deal of reluctance).

  The feast that evening fulfilled even Kolyei’s expectations though neither Peter nor Tara could manage more than a few bites. They slipped away early on in the proceedings and enjoyed themselves in the manner expected when two young people so much in love find themselves alone together as adults for the first time.

  Radya and Kolyei did likewise.

  Tara awoke the next morning to find herself in Peter’s daga. Still half asleep she gazed around in a bemused fashion, noticing that her personal possessions had been placed on the shelves in the tidy manner only her adopted mother could accomplish.

  “I knew you would say yes,” said Peter, nibbling her ear.

  “I too,” she confessed, “even during the early days when we were children together at domta Zanatei.”