Weaving Man: Book One of The Prophecy Series

by Tove Foss Ford

  “I’ll write you a letter just as soon as I get there and tell you all about the train ride,” Eiren said to her. “I’ll write all the time so it’ll seem like you’re there with me. Then when you grow up and go to Erdahn, it won’t seem like a strange place to you.”

  “I wish you would stay here,” Katrin whispered.

  “I’ll be back before you know it and you’ll be such a big girl then, almost five years old! Riding a pony and able to read big books, I’m sure. Now, I have to go or I’ll miss the train.”

  Menders felt his heart ache as tears flowed from Katrin’s eyes. She released Eiren, gave her a kiss and allowed herself to be put down, dragging her sleeve across her face.

  “Goodbye, little darling,” Eiren whispered. She turned away, her eyes closed, then forced them open and said, “Goodbye, Mister Menders.”

  “Goodbye, Eiren.”

  Eiren nodded solemnly. She left the room without another word.

  He stayed with Katrin, who cried as she heard Eiren go down the stairs. He sat on her bed and held her while she sobbed.

  He didn’t say any of the things people say to crying children. There was more than enough time for distraction when she’d calmed down a bit. For now she needed the security of someone who loved her holding her.

  It worked. Once she’d had her cry, she sat up on his lap.

  “When I’m a big girl will I go away to school?” she asked fearfully.

  “I think you’ll have school here with me,” he answered. She smiled.

  “Good. I don’t want to go away from you on the train,” she replied, snuggling against him.

  “Well then, you won’t.”

  Lucen appeared at the doorway.

  “Would someone here like to ride her new pony?” he asked, winking at Menders to let him know that Eiren and company had departed and were out of sight. Menders had been determined to avoid a farewell scene at the halt. Eiren’s entire family of ten was going to be there, as well as people bidding farewell to those she was traveling with. It would have been overwhelming for Katrin, far too sad and upsetting.

  “I would!” Katrin cried. The pony, Snowflake, was a new addition and she didn’t know how to ride yet. Lucen’s infinite patience meant that he would hold her on the pony’s back for as long as she wanted.

  “Come along then,” Lucen said, scooping her up. “Let’s go see if that boy of mine is around and you can have a ride together.”

  Menders went to his office. He meant to put away the pile of books Eiren had used and picked up several volumes to return them to the bookshelves. He lost heart, put them back on the desk and then sat down, turning his chair to look out the window.

  He hadn’t realized until this week, while Eiren was busy preparing for her journey, just how much of his time had been occupied with planning her lessons and explaining the material to her. Franz wasn’t much of a teacher. He could select study material, but was worthless when it came to instruction so most of it had fallen to Menders since Eiren had started prepping for her entrance examination.

  They’d been at The Shadows for almost three years now and for the first time Menders was feeling restive. He’d been no further away than a day trip to Erdstrom to be measured for new glasses after his illness. It was coming into autumn, the time when work slowed. For the first time since arriving at The Shadows Menders was not looking forward to the approach of winter.

  He’d steadfastly refused to become involved with any woman on the estate since sending Ermina away and wasn’t interested in anyone in the neighboring village or on the nearby estates either. All available women were looking for one thing, a husband, and that he couldn’t be.

  Of course, Katrin was his delight and the light of his life. Teaching and spending time with her took up much of his time. Hemmett needed help with his schooling as well and that was a challenge, because he simply didn’t learn when taught in the traditional way. Franz was there for conversation and games of DeGratz. There was always much physical work to be done, to say nothing of the estate business and the housekeeper’s job.

  I should not be bored, Menders thought. I have a great deal to do, and I have to continue seeing to Katrin’s safety and staying informed about what is happening at Court. There are all those farming methods I was going to read about this winter. We’ll be having the dances as usual, and plenty of other things that will need to be arranged. I should not be bored!

  He couldn’t quite admit it to himself that he wasn’t bored at all. He was lonely.

  ***

  Hemmett watched as Katrin ran across the garden. He was her guard now. Menders had said so. He had to be very sure that she didn’t go too far or get hurt, but he had to be kind and careful too because she was smaller than he was. With Eiren gone now, there was one less person to take care of her.

  “Come on, Bumpy!” Katrin called, dropping to her knees under a willow tree. The leaves were starting to fall and she loved to play with them.

  When Eiren was still at The Shadows, she braided Katrin’s hair like her own, but Hemmett liked it better the way Menders or Cook did it, with it held back off her forehead with a band or ribbon bow and falling loose down her back. It reached her waist and was the prettiest color, like the hair of the princesses in Hemmett’s storybooks. He couldn’t read yet but he looked at the pictures and made up his own stories about them.

  He liked to think that one of the handsome princes in the pictures was how he would look when he grew up. Right now his hair was shingled short after he’d gotten glue in it and he thought his head was shaped like a potato. He’d have to improve a lot before he looked like the prince in the picture.

  He knelt beside Katrin in the fallen leaves.

  “This is money,” she announced, holding out handfuls of golden leaves for him to take. Yesterday the leaves had been magic dust. She had crumpled them until they were very fine. “We’re pirates, finding a treasure!”

  Hemmett laughed and helped her heap up piles of leaves, being a very good pirate with lots of growling and evil laughing and saying “faw!” It was his favorite word. He made it up himself because Menders had stopped him from swearing.

  The wind came along and lifted the golden willow switches, sending more leaves spiraling down around them. Hemmett looked up into the whirling gold, then at Katrin’s hair, which was tossing in the breeze as well.

  “You’re like the willow tree, with all gold hanging down,” he said, touching her hair in wonder. It was so pretty, shining like the sun, while his own hair was brown as dirt. Katrin looked down at her hair and then up at the willow branches. She looked and looked, smiling as the leaves fell down.

  “I’m going to have a special name for you, just like you do for me,” Hemmett announced suddenly. Katrin had called him Bumpy since she was a little baby and just starting to talk. Nobody knew why. “I’m going to call you Willow.”

  She looked at him and smiled. Hemmett felt perfectly happy.

  ***

  Dear Mister Menders,

  I wanted to let you know right away that I arrived safely in Erdahn and am settling in. I’m not ashamed to say that I was really surprised at how many people there are here. I’m sure I’ll get used to it soon, but right now it takes my breath away when I see all the people in the street. All the different colors of clothing and hair are dazzling.

  I have started classes. I like school a great deal and I don’t find it hard, not nearly as hard as some of the things you had me learning! I have been very interested to find out that K is very far beyond children her age in the things that she can do. I am the only person in my class with experience actually taking care of a little child, which I find funny. Most of the students are from well-to-do families where I swear they have never had to do a lick of work! I tell them about life on the farm and looking after a little girl and they are amazed. Don’t worry, I don’t tell anyone who K really is.

  I hope everyone there is well, especially you and K. I was sorry that you were having probl
ems with your digestion when I left and asked my sister if she knew of anything that might help you. She was very pleased about being asked for advice. My elder sister says a good egg should ease nervous tummies. You might try it, she’s very informed about these things.

  I will write soon again. Right now I have to study history. The stories of Morghenna the Wise’s war against the Surelian overlords fairly got my blood moving, especially since I remember you told me your ancestor was her Royal Advisor and military commander during the war! I miss you all very much.

  Affectionately,

  Eiren

  Menders’ eyebrows went up when he read the part about his digestive problems. What could she be on about? The remark was deliberate and not some odd oversight. As for “nervous tummies”, that was very unlike Eiren. She wasn’t one for baby talk or cute words. On top of that, there was no sister of hers living in Erdahn…

  Suddenly he looked at that peculiar sentence alone and laughed aloud. She had gotten his messages to Harcort Menck and Commandant Komroff. Reading only the first letters of the words, they spelled ‘message sent’.

  “Smart girl,” he said, admiring the way she’d woven it into her narrative. She would do beautifully at teachers’ college. He had already coached her in subjects at a difficulty level far beyond anything she would encounter there.

  Now to wait for a reply from Menck. So far no-one had been able to trace Ifor Trantz, who seemed to have disappeared into the southeastern part of Mordania.

  Menders sighed and put the letter down on his desk before looking out the window at the leaves glistening from a recent rain shower.

  He’d go for a ride. It would ease his feelings of restlessness. First, he would need to be sure Katrin was happily occupied.

  He heard her laughing in the kitchen and poked his head in. Cook had her festooned in a large apron and they were busily compounding something in a bowl.

  “Now, stir it around. Don’t slop it up the sides, keep it in the bottom, like a big girl does,” Cook was saying.

  “If you ladies are going to be occupied for a while, I’ll go for a ride,” he said, smiling as they both looked up. It was a tie as to who was covered in the most flour.

  “Oh, I want to ride too!” Katrin cried.

  “I need to take Demon out, Little Princess, he’s been in his stall for two days. Let me work the kinks out of him and when I come back, I’ll take you out to ride Snowflake,” he offered.

  “By then we’ll be done,” Cook told her. “Don’t want to leave your good dough to waste, Katrin.”

  Katrin nodded happily, belaboring the contents of the bowl with the spoon again. “We’re making animal cookies,” she announced.

  “I look forward to them,” he replied, stepping over to her for a floury kiss and then making good his escape.

  Demon was restive. He snapped and kicked and generally showed his displeasure at the world until Menders jumped into the saddle and wrapped his leg around the pommel. Demon ran as if the road was on fire, tearing along far beyond the Spaltz farm before Menders could get control of him again.

  “You’re as grouchy as I am these days,” Menders said as the farlin swung his head around, snapping at Menders’ foot. “I’ll let you run some more soon, just cool down now.” They jogged on for a while but Demon was still jittery.

  Menders let him canter while he went through a series of stunts; jumping to the ground while Demon was moving, then bounding back into the saddle, picking up objects on the ground from the farlin’s back. Eventually he felt confident enough to vault over Demon’s back from one side to another, boosting himself with the saddle while the farlin was in a full gallop.

  Such displays of horsemanship were a Thrun sport, popular for carnivals and festivals. Menders had learned the tricks in his boyhood during the times he had run away from home and stayed with the Thrun. Those days in their camps were his most treasured memories. What would his life have been like if he’s accepted the Thrun’s offer to go and live among them on the plains of the cold far north? It certainly wouldn’t resemble his present situation, that was certain.

  The exercise finally knocked the edge off of Demon’s foul mood. Menders felt, if not happier, at least pleasantly weary.

  As he reined Demon down to a walk, he saw that Franz was watching them from a distance, seated on his gelding. He must have been out in the area making calls – he had an extensive patient load now. Menders urged Demon over to him.

  Demon approached the gelding cautiously. He had terrorized the gentle horse for months until the day the gelding had enough and swung around, taking an enormous mouthful of Demon’s neck and shaking his head wildly while biting as hard as he could. They weren’t good friends but had formed a sort of truce. They could tolerate each other’s company.

  “You’re deliberately trying to kill yourself,” Franz said calmly.

  “I’ve done those stunts since I was a boy,” Menders replied.

  “Grundar shit.”

  “No, we had Thrun herdsmen on the estate where I was born. I learned from them. Where are you heading home from?”

  “Frohmoff’s. His wife is still very ill from the birth,” Franz replied, reining the gelding in beside Menders as they started back to The Shadows.

  “I’ll take some food over tomorrow then. They’ll need it,” Menders said.

  “Yes, they will. She’s not going to live,” Franz sighed.

  “Grahl’s teeth,” Menders hissed. There was a terrible ongoing cycle in Old Mordania of women suffering complications in childbirth and dying, while girls married young and started babies immediately. Many of the farmers in the area had been through multiple wives. The hard work on the farms and the endless childbearing wore women down and often killed them.

  “I’ll see what else they’ll need then. There are eight children?” Menders asked.

  “Nine with the baby and Frohmoff without a notion of how to cook.”

  “We can get them over the worst of it without difficulty,” Menders said after a moment. When the farmers were widowed they tended to remarry quickly. It wasn’t that they didn’t mourn their wives, but here was an urgent need for someone to tend motherless children and do the woman’s work on the farm. Mordania’s constant warfare eroded the supply of marriageable young men, so there was a plentiful supply of unmarried young women for widowed farmers to choose from.

  “A couple of the children are pretty threadbare as well,” Franz added.

  Menders took out his notebook and pencil, wrapping Demon’s reins around his wrist while he wrote. There was now a stock of castoff clothing at The Shadows, gathered from the farms and other holdings, which was then distributed to anyone in need. He would also arrange for some of the farmer’s wives help the Frohmoff family for a while.

  “That’s the brightest I’ve seen you in some time,” Franz observed. “You’re down at the mouth this autumn.”

  Menders shook his head. He didn’t want to start a string of confidences. What good would it do?

  “Why don’t you come with me next time I go to see Kara?” Franz suggested. Kara, Lady Keel, was the very attractive widow who owned one of the two estates adjoining The Shadows. Franz had been keeping company with her for some time. “You might meet someone you could spend some time with.”

  “No.”

  “You would feel better.”

  “For a while. And then I would feel much worse. If that sort of thing would work, I’d have done it by now,” Menders replied, swinging his leg over Demon’s head to sit astride, replacing his notebook in his pocket.

  “Experience taught you that?”

  Menders nodded. “My time in Surelia taught me that. I want more. I like the physical part but then I want to talk about history, or go to dinner and stop by an art gallery. Or play the spinet while she sings. I want it all. If I can’t have it all, I’d rather have nothing.”

  Franz groaned. It wasn’t in jest.

  “Living way out here that’s not too likely a poss
ibility, with restaurants and art galleries thin on the ground. You may have to settle for what you can get.”

  “No.”

  “You’re a romantic and there is no cure for that,” Franz sighed. “My young friend, you will have a difficult life if you can’t compromise. What you want is married life with someone like yourself, but you refuse to marry.”

  “I can’t compromise. Not on this. Not on much of anything, unfortunately. It’s always been all or nothing at all. I can’t be happy with half measures.”

  Franz opened his mouth to reply, obviously ready to remind him of his affair with Ermina, but stopped himself.

  (18)

  The White Beast

  Menders looked up toward the halt as he heard train brakes squealing, accompanied by a shrill whistle. It was the weekly scheduled service coming through, probably one of the last regular trains before winter really closed in and the tracks became impassable a good part of the time. There would be mail on the train. A few moments later, Lucen drove by from the stables, on his way to the halt.

  Menders went back to shoveling snow into a mound that would eventually be a snow castle for Katrin and Hemmett. It got it off the steps and this year both children were big enough to play outside in the cold for long enough to enjoy it. Katrin was happily picking up bits of snow, making miniature snowballs and throwing them toward Hemmett, who usually caught them and tossed them back very gently.

  “Will we finish the castle today?” Katrin asked, looking over at him.

  Menders, sweating inside his heavy clothing, smiled at her use of the word ‘we’.

  “No, it will take a while,” Menders told her. “Winter is very long, so it will be something to do.”

  She nodded and returned to her snowball making.

  Menders leaned on the shovel handle, watching the road for Lucen. Katrin scooped up a handful of loose snow and flung it at him. He laughed and reciprocated. Within seconds, a lot of snow was flying as Hemmett joined in, though Menders kept him from getting hold of the shovel with which he would have gained instant weapons superiority and also would have probably managed to hit someone in the face.