Dragons and Destiny (2 page)

There was
another note of warning in his tone, indicative that Anselm Wallace
was becoming vexed. Her mother looked at her, meaning in her glance
and Julia heeded the silent warning.

“I
am
grateful Father,” she whispered but she was close to tears. Her
mother sensed this.

“I think that
Julia could be excused prayers this evening do you not think
Husband? This has come as a great surprise to her.”

He nodded
graciously. “Yes, she may be excused.”

Julia fled.
Holding back the tears that threatened to overwhelm her, she made
her way up the ladder to the slip of loft space that was hers.
Without bothering to undress, she slid beneath the covers and only
then did she let the tears flow. Below she could hear her parents
discussing the more detailed wedding arrangements.

The next
morning Julia accompanied her mother to market and endured the
messages of congratulations. She now wore the decorated scarf of a
betrothed female. When the marriage took place it would be
exchanged for the black scarf of the married woman that would hide
even the few wisps of hair she was allowed now. She stared at her
mother’s black headscarf, realising that she had never seen her
mother’s hair. For the first time in her life Julia began to
question the Holy Writ that decreed a woman’s place in society.

Why do we
need to cover our hair? Why must we hide ourselves away under these
shapeless dresses?
She accepted the good wishes of the
women-folk.
Why do I have to obey Father and accept this
marriage to an old man who I’ve never spoken to and have only seen
from a distance?
Rebellion fermented in her mind, but she
couldn’t think of any way out of the situation. Her father had
decided on the match and in the society that held sway in this part
of Argyll a daughter was expected to obey. She performed her daily
chores in silence and after prayers that night went to bed still
pondering her predicament.

She was not to
know that in her agitation she had begun to telepathically
broadcast her thoughts, past the boundaries of the village and
towards a group of Lind on duty patrol some days away.

Unlike further
south and along the coasts, the Lindars of Lind and the Ryzcks of
Vadath were not enthusiastically welcomed in Julia’s insular
society. The Lind did however perform their prescribed duties
alongside the Vada protecting these unappreciative people from the
dangers that existed here in the northern hills and mountains.
Julia had never seen a Lind up close. The priests were not happy
about the fact that another sentient lifeform co-existed on the
continent. Any teachers who tried to teach their pupils about the
Lind were removed from their posts. As Julia lay in her bed that
night trying to get to sleep, her mind stubbornly awake, Alyei, a
young turquoise striped Lind from rtath Gainsya began to sense her
disquiet.

He rose up into
a sitting position and shook himself. Alyei had sensed human
emotions before but never as strong as this. He settled himself as
he had been taught and began to push his mind out in the direction
they were coming from, becoming more and more disturbed by the
depressing and hopeless nature of the emotions he was sensing.

He let out an
explosive grunt of satisfaction as contact was made. His teachers
had been right when they had told him about the amount of effort
and energy it took to locate and isolate thoughts and emotions over
a long distance. He estimated that the source of these emotions was
at least two days run away and towards the mountains, right at the
edge of the area where the humans had made their farms and
homes.

It was most
definitely a girl he realised before exhaustion forced him to break
contact and she was in much trouble. Not from pirates or the
fearsome gtran or wral but from something else entirely, something
more personal to the girl herself, he knew not what.

When he came to
himself he was not surprised to see the entire complement of the
Lindar patrol ranged in a circle around him, quizzical expressions
on their furry faces.

“Well?” asked
Sanei, Susa of the patrol.

“It is not
danger,” said one of the other Lind.

“No gtran this
far away from the high lands,” agreed another.

A dazed Alyei
regarded them. “I have sensed a human.”

“Where?” asked
Sanei.

“I think my
vadeln I have found. She is in trouble.”

“Danger
trouble?”

“No,
her
trouble. I must go to her. She needs me.”

Sanei looked at
the young Lind. Alyei had never sensed any emotive outgoings from a
human before and Sanei would have been prepared to bet the most
succulent haunch of his next meal that of all the Lind in the
patrol Alyei would have been the last Lind he would have expected
to bond with a human. Those Lind who were destined to become
vadeln-paired usually showed signs during their early years; it
became a want, a need; and Alyei was over twenty hot seasons old.
He had never shown the slightest wish to make intimate contact with
any member of humankind.

“If you feel
this,” announced Sanei with resignation (he was about to lose his
best scout) “you must go. If you feel that she needs you this
strong and from so far away then I think you are destined to be
together. I will tell those who need to know where you have gone
and be careful, our kind are not often welcomed in the human domtas
in these mountains. They are a strange folk.”

Alyei nodded.
Here at the coast where they were patrolling along with the duty
Ryzck, the villagers were friendly to their Lind protectors. The
further north anylind went the less was the welcome.

“One more piece
of advice. When you reach this human do not commit as vadeln unless
you are very sure. Now go.”

Sanei watched
as Alyei loped away and beckoned to another two Lind. “Go follow
him but do not let him see you. This is something he needs to do on
his own.”

Alyei, unaware
of the two mentors travelling in his wake, made good time but try
as he might, he could sense nothing of the human girl during the
day although at intervals he stopped to listen. When night fell he
stretched his mind northwards again and sensed her although it was
not as strong as that first contact. By now he was now running in
the ward inhabited by those the Lind called ‘unfriendly persons’ so
he avoided their villages and settlements. When hunger beckoned he
grabbed an injured wild kura who had fallen into a ravine and of
which he made a fine meal.

* * * * *

Julia was
existing in a despondent hell, complaisant on the outside but
inside she was screaming. The betrothal binding was imminent. Julia
had by now ‘met’ her intended although no words had been spoken.
This was not unusual. The man was older than she had expected,
indeed she now learnt that he capped her father’s age by some
years. Stooped, grey-haired and wrinkled, he had looked at Julia
with a certain look in his eyes that made her feel most
uncomfortable.

The third night
she went to bed feeling more miserable than ever. There was no
escape; she would be married to that old man and when he died, then
what? Probably she would stay on at her son-in-law’s house as
unpaid housekeeper. Again her emotions began to seep out. Alyei,
resting on the top of a small hill not far away, latched on to it
and followed it to its source.

Julia,
half-asleep, began to be aware of a ‘presence’. She thought she was
dreaming. In her dream began to talk to this ‘presence’, to answer
the questions and respond to the invitation. Still thinking she was
living a dream (one from which she did not want to wake up) she
pushed her mind out as the ‘presence’ was telling her to. There was
an instantaneous moment of recognition from Alyei then before Julia
had the chance to back away he threw welcoming and loving thoughts
in her direction, of comradeship, of friendship and of the end of
loneliness.

Although
panicking more than a little with the force of emotions that were
threatening to overwhelm her, Julia didn’t break the contact
although Alyei half-suspected she might.

: Who are you?
:

: I Alyei am.
Alyei of rtath Gainsya. You are Julia :

There was a
snap as the mind-link cemented between them.

: I can feel
what you are feeling. How is this? :

: Because our
minds are one :

Alyei mentally
thanked the old Lind teacher of his youth who had insisted that he
and his year mates learn the rudiments of the human tongue.

: You are
unhappy. Come to me :

: How? :

: I am waiting
on the long hill outside your domta. Come to me so we can be
together :

Is this a
dream?
Julia pinched herself to make sure. It hurt.
Okay
then, not a dream.

Julia came to
the decision that would change her life. Whatever all this meant,
she was going to meet this Lind, this Alyei who was talking to her.
She had never met a Lind and she was desperate to do so even for a
few snatched moments in the middle of the night. If she
had
to marry Thomal Allanson she wanted the chance to meet one of these
wonderful creatures before she did.

She sat up and
felt for her dress with her left hand. Her feet found her shoes,
there was no time to think about stockings. Julia stood up. She
struggled into her dress and crept towards the loft ladder. She
left the hated head-scarf behind.

No one stirred
as she ghosted through the downstairs room and towards the door.
She picked up the first coat she found on the pegs, not realising
it was her father’s best leather jacket. The door-bolt was stiff
but she managed it and slipped outside. With due care for the
latch-noise she shut it and throwing all caution to the wind ran as
fast as her cumbersome skirts would allow towards the long hill. As
it was dark as pitch, she stumbled painfully and often on the
uneven ground until she reached the farm boundary fence which she
clambered over with some difficulty. Her skirt caught in the post
and she tore it as she broke free.

Alyei was
waiting just beyond arrow range of the farm. He saw her struggling
up to him.

: I see you
Julia. Come to me :

They ran
towards each other.

: I am here
:

Julia’s arms
were round Alyei’s neck. She was sobbing with joy, filled with the
sense of love and belonging that was Alyei and she knew now as she
stood beside him that he shared these feelings in full.

: We must go
:

: Go? Where?
:

: To Vada. We
are together, now and for always :

The two
followers that Sanei had sent to keep an eye on Alyei looked at
each other with happy faces and turned away, returning to their
patrol area with satisfaction of a job well done. Alyei had found
his life-partner.

Julia looked
down at the buildings that had once been her home. Her
disappearance would be noticed in the morning as soon as her mother
realised the water hadn’t been brought in and the range lit.

“Let’s go
now
,” she agreed with a thrill of nervous anticipation. “My
father has a fast horse. When he finds out I’m missing he’ll come
after us.”

“He will not
catch us,” declared Alyei with a grin, his great white teeth
showing bright even in the dark. “Horse run fast but Lind run
faster.”

“I still think
we’d better go now.”

When Anselm
Wallace found out that his eldest daughter was nowhere to be found,
the duo were long gone. She never knew of his anger, disappointment
and loss of face amongst the villagers, nor of her formal
out-casting by the resident priest.

* * * * *

AL580 -
Niaill

Eight year old
Niaill loved playing the game ‘Hide and Seek’. With a laugh he ran
off to find a hiding place where his cousins, brothers and sisters
wouldn’t be able to find him. Out he ran from the trees that
surrounded the open space on top of the Mound where he and his
extended family were having a picnic, intent on a quest for the
perfect hidey-hole.

Where should he
go? The seekers would first look for him up in the trees; Niaill
was a consummate tree-climber and they would be sure to search
there. If he wanted to stay hidden the longest (and that was the
aim of the game) he would have to find somewhere better than that.
He gazed around the clearing looking for inspiration and found it;
a great chunk of moss covered stone at the edge of the shorter
grass near the rocks. He didn’t have much time; he could hear his
older brother Danal counting. He ran towards the stone and peeked
behind. Could he possibly hide in there? Was there room enough?
Yes, plenty room enough for his skinny body. No one, he was sure,
would look for him there. For the young Niaill to think was to act.
With scant regard to what it might do to his clothes (and what his
mother would say about it later), he squeezed behind the stone.

He managed to
get himself into a fairly comfortable position, a third crouching,
a third sitting, a third standing and settled down to wait.

Danal and the
others wouldn’t find him here. He pressed his body hard against the
back-facing of the stone monument.

He heard Danal
calling, his brother found Doug and Catlina who usually hid
together, the twins then little Gemma. Now they would all be
looking for him. He could hear their excited voices.

Absently, he
rubbed a grubby finger against the moss and stickleweed, exposing a
small section of the stone underneath.

He had
previously noticed that the front facing of the stone had been
smooth and now he found to his astonishment that the back of the
stone was of the same smoothness. Strange that the ancestors had
smoothed the back where no one would see it set against the rock
face.