The Ways of Winter

by Karen Myers

  He took a seat next to Rhodri who still looked unwell. “How are you feeling?”

  Rhodri glared at him, then winced. “You say this does wear off, right?”

  “Sure,” he said, confidently. Privately he was worried.

  Rhys asked Cadugan to report on the sorting out of travelers from the morning.

  “Every one of them has been properly assigned to a village and a dwelling, in some cases to a shop or workshop. Most of them have started on the final leg of their journey, and the remainder will travel tomorrow.”

  “All of them?” Rhys asked, incredulous.

  “All of them,” Cadugan said. “It would not have been possible without the able assistance of Ceridwen and Eluned.” He nodded at the ladies graciously.

  Ceridwen laughed. “It was easy. We wouldn’t let them into the hall for the mid-day meal until they’d gone through our line. The ones at the tail end were a bit grumpy, but they understood the necessity.”

  “We took the opportunity to appoint representatives for each location who will report back to us about education and health needs, through Lleision’s temporary military outposts,” Eluned said. “Some of them might be good choices for new mayors or part of the town councils.”

  Ceridwen said, “The only ones remaining are those whose special mission is to seek out relatives. The fae are working directly with us, but the korrigans will send out their own group tomorrow, headed by Tiernoc and Broch, and Benitoe and Maëlys have taken on the task for the lutins. They’ll leave tomorrow, too. We have lists of names and information from all three groups, added to the names from the last two batches of settlers, as well as the names of all the people they’re looking for. What we don’t have is a list of names of the people already here when we came. We haven’t found those records. Yet.”

  Cadugan added, “We’ve taken the lutins into our own employ, my lord. They were comfortable with the tasks, and it seemed the safest thing to do, to keep them near until we discover what happened to the others. The korrigans are more numerous and better-armed.”

  “Well done,” Rhys said.

  “The settlers will report on urgent needs once they look over their new houses, farms, and shops, and we’ll discuss how to help each of them as individual cases. The small craftsmen can be adequately handled this way, but the larger establishments—I’m thinking particularly of the mines, the smithies, and the mills—will need more coordinated work. The korrigans who came are involved in the mines and the smithies, and they understand the mills, so I’ve asked Tiernoc to help gather information about the state of affairs with all of the bigger industries as they move from place to place.”

  Edern said, “Tiernoc was eager to get some of his folk started in trade but I explained to him he may find that difficult until we solve the riddle of the deficits in the local fae. No customers, no trade. He’ll understand once he gets out into the villages and sees for himself.”

  “Next, the news from Gwyn,” Rhys said. “Our dispatches have been delivered through the Archer’s Way, and George brought back the messages from my foster-father. My grandfather and I went through them this afternoon.

  “I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear that there’s nothing of an alarming nature to discuss. All’s well at Greenway Court.” He looked at Ceridwen. “Gwyn asked me to tell you that your patient Emrys will be released back to Idris tomorrow. He’s making excellent progress.”

  “That’s the fellow who ran through the barrier, the one I told you about,” George said quietly to Rhodri.

  “I know how he feels,” Rhodri said.

  The light went on in George’s head and he froze.

  “What?” Rhodri asked. “What is it?”

  George raised a finger to stop him while he considered what had just occurred to him. Mag, he thought, you know the barrier around this place?

  *Picture of Edgewood’s land with a semicircle surrounding it, anchored on the Blue Ridge at each end.*

  Yes, that’s right. Is that a way, a non-traveling way?

  *Picture of Granite Cloud.*

  He thumped his fist on the table in triumph, and everyone looked at him. “Oh, sorry. Mag just confirmed something. I think I know what the barrier is.”

  “Yes?” Edern said.

  “Let me get to it in an organized manner,” George said.

  Rhys said, “You were next anyway. I’ve been hearing bits about your work today.”

  “Well, here’s the current status. The newly-made way over there,” he pointed west, “has been sealed. It’s definitely Madog’s, as if there were any doubt, and Cloudie made it. I can’t take it over, but I think I can destroy it, and I think I should. The only evidence we have says Madog can’t get through my seal, but I wouldn’t rely on that, especially if he has Cloudie with him. The only other time that’s been tested, he was alone.”

  Lleision said, “We’re maintaining a guard on it.”

  “The Archer’s Way remains open and unsealed. Madog still has an ownership in it, but apparently so do I. I can seal it from this end, but once I do so, you’ll lose communications with Gwyn again. I’d like to transfer my ownership to Rhodri so that it can be maintained like the Edgewood Way, with tokens and so forth, but I don’t imagine that can be done with Madog’s fingerprints all over it.

  “I haven’t looked at the Edgewood Way and its problem, yet. That’ll be first thing tomorrow.”

  He paused, wondering how much to discuss here. “We, Rhodri and I, discovered many things this morning, experimenting with Mag.” He nodded to her.

  “The most urgent thing we found is that she’s dangerous to the touch.” That caused a stir. He held up a hand. “She didn’t know, and we’ve been lucky. We had an accident with Rhodri this morning, and the effects were very much like those on Emrys.”

  That made Ceridwen’s brows rise. “So you think the barrier is… what?”

  “I think it’s a stationary way, a non-traveling way. I’m betting that the same thing that makes Mag dangerous to touch affects someone walking through a stationary way, across it, I mean. You don’t use those, do you? Ever do the experiment? How would you know?”

  Rhodri said, “That makes perfect sense. Who would deliberately walk through a way from the side? Only the entrance and exit are really present. You’d need a non-traveling way to try it.”

  “And we’ll test that tomorrow. But I bet I’m right,” George said. “Mag said the barrier was made by Cloudie—I just asked her. What would happen if you were surrounded with the same sensation you got from Mag when you touched her, diluted, from all directions?”

  “Nothing good.” Rhodri shuddered at the thought.

  George hesitated, then said, “Now that we were finally able to take some time to run a few tests, we also confirmed that Rhodri and I are very different sorts of way-finders. It doesn’t look like I can work tokens at all.”

  “No,” Rhodri said, “You can move ways instead.”

  That startled everyone into attention. Edern said, “Excuse me?”

  “I raised the question with Gwyn before we left,” George said, “about how a third-generation descendant could have much of the fae powers. I mean, you’ve seen my glamoury, Ceridwen. Not impressive.”

  She gave a little smile.

  “But you manage the hounds, you led the great hunt,” Rhys said. “Mag can talk to you.”

  “Oh, I can communicate with the beasts, but then so can Cernunnos. And isn’t he a master of the ways, too, for the great hunt?”

  Ceridwen nodded. “I’ve wondered just how much you take after your father’s line, whoever he was exactly.”

  “I haven’t been able to learn the skills, the technology, you use casually for magic, the small wooden symbols, and now the way-tokens.” He cleared his throat awkwardly. “I don’t think I can do magic, Ceridwen. I think I’m like Mag, it’s what I am. Or what my father was, anyway.”

  “The point of all this is I already knew I could move a way, a little. I widened the way I c
ame in by, from the human world, to get back through it with my horse the first time I went back.”

  Rhodri stared at him.

  “I didn’t know that wasn’t supposed to be possible,” he said, sheepishly, looking at him, “so I didn’t say anything.” To Edern, he said, “This morning, we experimented with a small non-traveling way that Mag made for us. I picked it up and moved it a short distance. The, um, horned man helped. You know, from inside.”

  Dead silence. He tried to move past it.

  “Now, look, here’s what I propose. I’d like to take one more poke at that new way in the morning, to confirm a theory that Rhodri and I have about way ownership. Then I want to see if maybe I can untangle the Edgewood Way’s entrance from whatever trap way has been inserted, by moving its end a little bit to separate them. If that works, I could seal the trap way and restore the Edgewood Way to use.”

  Edern said, “Ceridwen, I don’t know how to evaluate this. Do you think it can be done?”

  “I really have no idea,” she said. “If Cernunnos is strong in him, then it may be so.”

  “I wouldn’t bet against it,” Rhodri said. “You didn’t see the way move this morning.”

  *Disturbed. Picture of storm tearing a way apart in the air, picture of landslide tearing a way apart underground. Picture of George crushing the experimental way, holding it in his hands like a toy.*

  He swallowed.

  “What did Seething Magma say?” Eluned asked.

  “How did you know…” George said.

  “You get this look when she talks to you.”

  “Ah. Well, I can’t be sure, but I think she just accused me of being a force of nature, like an earthquake.”

  Rhodri said, dryly, “Better not let Angharad hear that.” The laugh echoed around the table and released some of the tension.

  Leaving dinner early, Rhodri made a point of seeking out Mag in the conservatory before George was done. He wanted to speak with her privately.

  He found the room otherwise unoccupied except for Cydifor, sitting in a corner with some pieces of paper, writing. He paused every few seconds, looked off into space, and waved the hand holding his pen quietly along to something only he could hear.

  Rhodri recognized the symptoms: Cydifor was working on a composition.

  “What are you making?” he asked.

  “I’m just trying to get the words for a song down.”

  “What about?”

  Cydifor balked at telling him and looked down.

  “Come on, now, you’ll have to tell me eventually.”

  He raised his head and said defiantly, “Well, about the huntsman.”

  That stopped Rhodri dead. Were the instincts of a bard correct? Were they watching a legend forming? He’d often wondered what the contemporaries of famous figures thought about each other while the events for which they were known were unfolding. He didn’t think you could tell, while it was happening, what was going to prove significant and what was not.

  But maybe he was wrong.

  In any case, this wasn’t why he’d come in early, and George would be here soon.

  “Can you help me talk to Mag?” he asked Cydifor.

  “I’d like that,” Cydifor replied.

  Rhodri walked over to her, and she backed away as he approached. “No, don’t do that, my lady. It was an accident this morning, not your fault.”

  She stopped and let him get closer.

  “You know that I can’t hear you, the way George does? That none of us can?”

  One knock.

  “But you can understand us.”

  One knock.

  “Good. May I have a few minutes of your time?”

  One knock.

  He bowed to her formally. “I speak for Rhys when I say we’re very happy to help you however we can with the recovery of your child. We would do the same for anyone. I hope indeed that we will be successful.

  “What I’d like to discuss with you is the possibility of continuing our friendship with you and your people, afterward.”

  Cydifor looked at him. Ah, he’s forgotten that I’m also supposed to be a diplomat, Rhodri thought.

  “Would you like that?”

  One knock.

  “Would others among your people like that?”

  A pause. Three knocks.

  No surprise, she doesn’t know. That’s not why she came, after all.

  “Do you know whom we should speak to?”

  One knock.

  How was he going to get something specific out of this, he wondered. “Hold on,” he said to her.

  “Cydifor, there are games and toys stored along the edges of this room, under the window seats. Let’s go see if we can find anything useful there.”

  A few minutes’ work yielded a pile of toys, game pieces, and various odds and ends.

  Mag moved over to a pile of pebbles, used for some game, and extended a pseudopod to make them into an isolated group.

  “That’s a person?”

  One knock.

  Rhodri was stumped but Cydifor stepped in.

  “What we need are a bunch of symbols. Let’s start with that.”

  He rapidly sorted out several items and placed them along the top of a bench.

  “This old dog collar, we’ll let that be the huntsman. You understand?”

  One knock.

  “Good. This cup will be you.” In an aside to Rhodri, he said, “Best I could come up with for a pool of lava.”

  One knock.

  Soon they had established several stand-ins. Rhys was a small crown, Cydifor a miniature harp, and Rhodri a wooden sun.

  “I don’t understand that metaphor,” he said, looking at Cydifor.

  “Maybe that’s what you look like to her.”

  One knock.

  Mag moved her cup over to the next bench and added a bit of gray flannel on one side, and the pile of pebbles on the other.

  “Oh, of course,” Rhodri said. “That’s you with Granite Cloud and Gravel.”

  One knock.

  “So, Gravel is the one I should speak to, about long term relationships between our people.”

  One knock.

  “Here comes a tough question. How would I do that?”

  Mag made a vertical column on her bench, of Granite Cloud at the bottom, herself in the middle, and Gravel at the top. She made a scratching noise.

  What did that sound stand for, Rhodri tried to remember “Ah, a question. Do I understand, you want to know?”

  One knock.

  “Can you give me any more clues?”

  She made a second column with Rhodri’s sun at the bottom, then Rhys’s crown. She paused and then took a miniature metal star and a toy lion and placed them side by side at the top of the column.

  Cydifor said, “That lion must be Gwyn and the star Edern, as brothers. Is that right, Mag?”

  One knock.

  She extended a second pseudopod and touched the symbols at the bottom of each column simultaneously, then the middle symbols, and then the top ones.

  “I understand,” Rhodri said. “We must bring our highest rulers to meet with Gravel. The relationships we’re making today will help with that.”

  One knock.

  “Well done, you two,” Eluned said. Rhodri turned around to discover they had acquired an audience. Edern, Rhys, and George were standing there with her, and Ceridwen was just entering the room.

  Edern addressed Seething Magma directly, bowing. “My brother and I will be glad to speak together with your leader, once we’ve gotten your daughter back.”

  George took on that abstract look he wore when Mag spoke to him. “She’s thanking you, Edern,” George said.

  Rhodri let Eluned take over with George so they could map out additional symbols more efficiently. He was proud of himself for having gotten this far on his own, with Cydifor’s help.

  “She’s pleased with you, Rhodri,” George told him. “She likes this game.”

  CHAPTER 12
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  George stood in front of the entrance to the Edgewood Way and considered it. Earlier that morning he’d gone back to the new way near the manor and confirmed that he now had a partial grasp on it, a shared ownership. He wasn’t sure if that meant his seal would hold against Madog if he brought Cloudie, but at least it was consistent with the Archer’s Way.

  Now he tried to understand what he could sense here.

  “Rhodri, it feels like the Edgewood Way starts normally, but you can’t see the other end of the passage, like you could before.”

  “It’s not always easy to see the end looking in from outside.”

  “Yes, but now it’s blocked right up front,” George said.

  He reached his senses past the Edgewood Way’s opening to examine the end of the way that was inside it. “This isn’t how the hidden branch of the Guest’s Way works. That’s just a fork, like a letter ‘Y’ with one branch hidden. This one reaches all the way across.”

  Rhodri said, “I can’t see the inner one very clearly. Your sight may be better than mine, here.”

  Edern and Rhys watched in some frustration as Rhodri and George stared at what was, to them, empty space. The end of the Edgewood Way met an old flagstoned surface that had been built to accommodate traffic. The flagstones had been swept free of snow and the way entrance was well marked on the stones for about twelve feet, but the way itself was invisible to them.

  “Mag, can you tell us anything about this?”

  *Picture of Edgewood Way, picture of a blue mountain cliff. Picture of the trap way, picture of Granite Cloud.*

  “She says the Edgewood Way was made by someone else altogether—Blue Cliff?—but the trap way was made by Cloudie.”

  He asked her, “Does it go the same place the other one does?”

  One knock clicked off the flagstones.

  “We already knew this,” Rhys said.

  “No, we only assumed it,” George said. “It’s good to check the facts.”

  He said to Rhodri, “It looks to me like the trap way intersects the side of the Edgewood Way right at the front, cutting into it at an angle so that its mouth occupies the passage, not the side of it. It’s not open, but it doesn’t feel exactly closed, either.” He illustrated the relationship with his hands. “If it’s open from the other side, the direction the messenger came from, what would it look like on this side? Are we somehow seeing it from the back?”