Red Solstice (Alfheim Book 1)

by Unknown

  Ben is sitting with her and he bursts out laughing when he sees my expression. Mother, however, nods in approval.

  They don't seem to do breakfast by halves here either so for quite some time I am choosing bits and pieces and eating them without joining in any conversation but eventually even I have had enough. I wave the folder that I have brought in with me and introduce my mother to her new daughter-in-law via the wedding photographs. She seems enchanted by Aylsa and very pleased at the prospect of another grand child. John has enclosed some other photographs of the band and Benjamin and myself on stage which surprises her a little. She had not thought all three would develop a love of music, but then John had forced it on me and Benjamin was always going to be a natural. There was a photograph of Hilda as well and she remembered her from the years back when she and my father were first courting. I learned afterwards that Caranthir, had not seen her so happy in years. She was not very inclined to talk of her time captive at her mother's keep but suffice it to say it had been a cruel and vicious thing that Chandrelle had done in splitting my father and mother apart. Now she was full of plans and literally dancing on air so I bit back any comments about clothes and hairstyles and let her enjoy playing mother again.

  It did not stop me from asking Caranthir if I might have some of the elven green outfits so that I would work out sensibly, however.

  The Hunter Returns

  I had hope that with the amulet they had got for me, this would prove to be a short stay. I set up my base of action once again in the glade carefully hiding the things that I needed against any stranger that might enter there. I have my hair back long and I now fasten this back from my face as I have seen some of the men do here. It is strikingly white against my faintly tanned skin but they will probably think that this is yet another outlandish dye. I have my red jacket and jeans which to be honest I have missed wearing. Once suitably dressed and with the geas firmly housed in my belt pouch, I head into the town. I have chosen a Saturday as the place will still be crowded with traders and the locals will be out in force to enjoy themselves.

  Little has changed. The Docks has a poster proclaiming that the group will be playing later in the evening. I order a beer and mingle with the crowd . I doubt that even she would bring the babies to this place but one can never be sure. It is unlikely that she would miss the chance to be on stage so I wait.

  Time passes and then the group takes to the stage but only John is up there singing, I also note that the younger brother is missing too. They both vanished from our radar once before, during the time when she must have been pregnant, and a suspicion enters my head that she has taken off yet again. I need to gain more intelligence but maybe I could charm one of her acquaintances into enlightening me of the direction she has taken. With this thought in mind, and no way of putting it into action immediately, I return to my camp and bed down for the night.

  Sunday is a fairly quiet day in the town and after a brief recognisances which takes in her home and also Hilda's house I settle down to think things through. Some work has obviously been done to her home as it is now partly painted as well as repaired. I cannot sense her in there though and neither is there much trace of her at Hilda's. The sense of her presence is stronger at Hilda's for some reason but old or perhaps stale is a better word. I do sense, however, that there has been some coming and going between Hilda's and my world, which could be her son visiting her or visa versa. I cannot directly ask John for information and I suspect she will have kept much from him to keep him safe from the likes of myself. Hilda will have her own defences and I am not so stupid as to go against her without any knowledge of what these might be. Then I remember the girl that she hung out with at college. Tomorrow I will seek her out.

  Monday dawns and I am up early and waiting outside the college. I do not recognise any of the girls going in to the place but then I had no reason to seek any of them out in the first place. I tried asking a few of them if they had known Lily and although some remembered her from the group not one seemed to know where she was now. Her friend , it would seem was someone called Janice or Truthy and again there was no information as to her whereabouts. This was becoming very frustrating.

  I settled for the day in the town square and seated myself on a bench close to the fountain. Around lunchtime a face I did recognise appeared and from the look of her she was heavy with child. John came from the town hall at this point and they walked to one of the other benches arm in arm. They were so absorbed in each other that I doubted they saw me at all. It gave me a strange empty feeling that lingered for the rest of the day. The rest of the week was spent in much the same way as Monday, idly sitting in the square.

  On the Saturday I was there earlier and offered my help to some of the older traders in setting up their stalls. I shamelessly poured on the charm until they were treating me like one of their own. A few pints strategically bought at lunch time gained me the tale of Lily's original flight but no one seemed to know where she was now. However, they did know that Truthy had left the town in the old van that Benjamin and Lily had originally been travelling in and was seeking adventure before she went to a university in a city close by. This they found amusing considering she was less inclined to adventure than Lily and bets had been laid as to how long she could stay away from her family.

  It was strange hearing their comments on both. They seemed to have a lot of respect for Lily and also admiration for her spirit. Maybe they saw her as more akin to themselves. There was no mention of any man that she had favoured amongst them or indeed of her being with any man during the time she had travelled with them. They conceded that she was a great flirt but one who had definite boundaries in place and I suspected that any one of them would have gone to her aid in an emergency. The more I hear of her and the more contact I have with her makes me feel like I am negotiating a maze and maybe if I hit the centre I will be truly lost.

  I consider perhaps going with them when they leave early on the Sunday morning. The city is some twenty miles to the North of this town and I could try and pick up Truthy's trail there but I do not feel that this is going to lead me to my prey. I am at a loss as to where I should search next. There are those who are gifted in foresight back home and perhaps I should seek out one such . I decide therefore to break camp and head back to Alfheim for the time being.

  Our lands are laid out in owned sections but with highways running in between and some villages and towns placed outside our fealty. As long as we walk the highways then we are safe from the boundary guards and this is considered sacrosanct by all, even the most belligerent of our fellows needing at times to pay visits elsewhere unchallenged. I am heading for a town some ten miles north of my lady's lands, where I have heard from others that a soothsayer lives. I am also hopeful of meeting a waggoner on his way to market there so that I do not have to walk the entire distance.

  Unfortunately this does no occur but at least the walk is a pleasant one and I arrive in time to book into a small inn for the night. The next day I inquire of the serving wench where I might find the soothsayer and she gives me directions to a well presented house set in a side road from their village square. A maid answers the door and I am conducted to a room where I am left to wait until her master is ready for me. I chose to consult a male because I feel he will be unlikely to spin me a tale rather than a female, who, in the past, I have found to be rather too ready to make fanciful mountains out of nothing.

  I explain that I am my lady's Hunter and have been sent to find her granddaughter, which is obviously a truth but I am not ready to tell him the whole in case he embroiders it into his

  reading. I also tell him that I have found no trace of her where she should be.

  There is a pause as he consults some cards and then he calls for an answer from some spirit invisible to myself. Then he looks straight at me and I get the feeling he is inside my head.

  Finally he says, “ This is far more complex than you have told me but that is of no matter. There are man
y factors here that could spin out and over turn the future paths before you. I say paths because indeed there are more than one, although I see that you believe differently. This I can say that she is hidden in plain sight. She is where she should be.”

  “But this is a riddle”, I protest

  “it may be now but you are not distant from finding her and once you think things through you will see through the riddle.” he pauses, “ Also you will come again with an even more intriguing request before the year has turned”.

  I grimaced at that and paid him for his work before setting off back to Earth.

  The town is as it was and I moped around for a week or two turning his words over and over in my head. She was where she should be but that should be either here or with her grandmother. She lives here but she should live there. If she was here I would be able to find her but she is hidden in plain sight so maybe it is another geas. I sigh and start over with the search of the town this time straining my senses to breaking point. I try calling her to me from the glade but there is a defence in the way and one more powerful than I had expected.

  I spent a few weekends at the Docks and was there on the night when John's son's birth was announced. I even raised a glass of mead to him but I do not think he saw me at all so caught up in the joy of the moment he seemed.

  I tried looking at it the other way. If she was hidden in plain sight where she should be perhaps she had secreted herself on my lady's lands, but then with twins that was a fool hardy step to have taken. She would need to be under protection from someone who cared about her and her children and I doubted she had made the time to impress anyone close to her grandmother. Then as he had said, it dawned on my addled brain that she would be with her mother, and her mother was in Lord Caranthir's keep and he was a powerful adept.

  It was time to go home and make plans.

  Autumn Equinox

  It is September and the woods and hedgerows are full of ripened berries. I figure that some of the keeps ladies will be out filling their baskets ready for the making of jams and bottled fruits thus making it an ideal time to do a little wood craft camping in the hope of spying her, and hopefully the babies.

  As the border between my lady's land and Lord Caranthir's is notably peaceful I did not find it too hard to penetrate through a forested area between patrols. The area around his private woods and home farm was a little heavier in guards but wearing the same green uniform as they I was hardly discernible. I settled down for a few nights in a copse close to the keep that seemed an ideal place to catch the ladies of the hall at their berry picking, and some two days later, as I surmised, a group came not long after the breakfast hour armed with baskets, one smaller female pushing a strange contraption that I had seen briefly once on my visit to Earth. They were singing and I heard her voice raised in song with the others, as if she had not a care in the world. I steeled myself to resist the sheer beauty of it and focus on my task. The young female stayed on the pathway and the babies were obviously in her care for the moment. I waited long enough for the group to settle at their task before noiselessly appearing from my hiding place.

  “Good morning”, I said smiling at the her. “What is this strange contraption?”

  She smiled back, “It is called a buggy, sir.”

  “Ah then these must be the famous Earth born twins everyone is talking about?” I kneel down and reach out to touch my son's hand. He stares at me in a rather haughty, questioning manner but my daughter smiles and gurgles at me. “All ready a flirt” I say laughing. I reach into my pocket and withdraw a small bracelet which I offer to her and she grabs for it. The attendant is looking worried so I speak to her of knowing their mother and being on my way to pay a visit to her. This throws her off the scent for a moment or two in which time I have unstrapped my daughter and am holding her against my breast whilst I croon a small lullaby. I know that I do not have time to grab them both and that maybe this needs to suffice for the present but I am laying a geas on her so that she will know me and come to me willingly in the future. I have never held anyone so small and the scent of her is bewitching in its own right. “You smell like your mother” I whisper into her ear.

  “what do you think you are about”, a voice I have not heard in a long time shouts at me and turning I see Rose.

  She continues frowning, “Do I not know you?”

  “I came to see the children,”

  “That is not convenient at the present”, she replies. “Ah yes, you are of my mother's court”, her eyes narrowing.

  A faint rustle of silk beside me and Lily is there reaching for our daughter. Her hair is now bereft of embellishments but it glows and curls around her face falling down her back like a red wave. She is stunning. The baby practically throws herself into her mother's arms.

  “She, they, both are very beautiful”, I say, trying to keep my voice for her alone to hear.

  She looks at me searching my face for possible hidden meaning but replies, “Thank you but rather spoiled by all the attention they attract” she smiles down onto her now yawning mite. I am unprepared for the rush of feelings that hit me. We have played so many games with each other that I honestly do not know how to react to this new aspect.

  “I have called her Violet for the colour of her eyes,” she continues, “and he”, she gestures back at our son who is now looking somewhat petulant that his sister steals the attention from him, “is called Niall”. Her mother is whispering with some of the women and I notice that one has peeled away from the rest and is heading back to the keep. It seems she too has spied this for turning away from them less they hear her she say, “It might be best for your own safety if you were to go, sir.” and there is real concern in her eyes. I almost reach for her but let my hands drop and fade silently into the wood.

  Rose watched him go and turned to her,” He actually loves you” she said, her face showing her puzzlement.

  “He has a funny way of showing it, “ I reply half between tears and laughter.

  “I don't understand this”, Rose continues, “my mother has a lot to answer for.”

  “Ah yes, there we have agreement. But now I could do with a stiff glass of mead”

  I get a disapproving look for that statement but hell I really did want one.

  After this encounter I suspect they will be doubling the patrols so it is unlikely I will get another chance to take them from here but I am also bemused by her words and the way she looked at me. I had wanted to embrace her so badly. She had acted as if I was important and that she cared for me. It seemed real and there was no reason for her to have put on an act. She could have called for the guards and had me dragged of for interrogation, or maybe fear of my abilities drove her and she did not want to endanger her mother and the twins. Another piece of the strange puzzle that has become my life sits firmly out of place.

  Ben has taken over the music room at the keep and practically declared it his own. The few that live here that are capable of playing an instrument are not well tutored and he has taken it upon himself to set up some lessons for them. He says this saves him the suffering of listening to badly played tunes. I told him he was growing into a pompous old man, but secretly I agreed with him. Perfect pitch can have its drawbacks at times. This enterprise at least keeps him out of trouble and, as he has no desire to throw himself around a gymnasium, as I do, we are not in constant contact except when I join him to sing. The local folk songs are mostly in a language called high elvish and they are a little strange to us at first but very evocative and it is not long before we are exploring the way they are notated and practising some of the more easily accessible. Mother is helpful here as she can translate the words for us so that we gain a better understanding of their meaning. She also knows how to place the stress on certain words to highlight the songs intent. In this way we are picking up the older elvish language, which I understand has usage in the High Court for ceremonial purposes. Lord Caranthir is impressed with our progress and we have promised him a
concert at some future point.

  It is fast becoming the time of year when visitors are more plentiful and banquets and other treats indulged in. It follows on from their main harvest, and local gentry and visiting lords can be counted on to drop in for a few days. To my indignation my mother has declared I should learn to dance. My days are being gradually filled with the mundane tasks that others seem to enjoy, my only respite being the gymnasium and the sessions honing my magic skills with Lord Caranthir. The babies are always a delight of course but they are gradually more independent and have started pull themselves up on the furniture and shuffle from one piece to another, which amuses the court ladies and my mother. They have declared them to be the most advanced and intelligent small beings on the face of Alfheim, which bodes badly for their future temperament.

  I have taken to using the gymnasium before the breakfast hour each morning and have taught some of the guards how to do martial arts movements. I am not that great a practitioner but it is good to have someone to spar with once in a while. The guards seem to enjoy the sessions and a lot of good humoured gambling is taking place over potential outcomes. It has become a respite from the constant chatter of the ladies, kindly though they are. I guess I am not really cut out for the courtly ways that my mother would have me aspire to. She on the other hand would make a great chatelaine if given the chance. I wonder sometimes why Lord Caranthir has not fallen in love with her but he treats her with the fondness of a father. I think he is enjoying having a foster family of sorts thrust upon him.