High The Vanes (The Change Book 2) (14 page)

“That’s very short,” I said, smiling.

“Oh, there was more than that. I don’t remember the rest. Except for two other lines, which I shall never forget.

Qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum
illuc unde negant redire quemquam.
”

“But this is ClassLat,” Charity said, staring at her.

Tacita nodded. Then she recited the fragment of the poem again, this time in English.

“‘The sparrow of my girlfriend is dead,

the sparrow, delight of my girlfriend,

whom that girl loved more than her own eyes.

For it was sweet as honey, and knew its own

mistress as well as a girl knows her own mother.’

The other two lines say,

‘Now it goes along the shadowy path

to that place from where they say no one returns.’

Not long after he taught me that, my grandfather also went along the shadowy path.”

Tears welled up in her eyes. As they did in mine, thinking of Taid, my grandfather.

It turned out, to my initial surprise, that Tacita was much more thoughtful than I expected. I had assumed I might be able to get some sense from Charity, but in fact I learned a lot more from Tacita. Once she relaxed, accepting that I was only interested in information, she began to tell me more about her life both in the caster where she had been born and educated, and also on the outside.

A plan was beginning to form in my mind. What if we could use these two to get inside their caster? There were obviously huge barriers against this, not least the fact that Eluned and I were wearing the uniform of a Guard, but we looked like the women called ‘child-bearers’. I asked the girls a lot of questions about these child-bearers, but they did not know much about them, apart from the obvious fact that they were the ones who produced the children of the Change. Once it was decided that they were to become childless, they are deliberately kept apart. The child-bearers lived in a separate part of the caster, and the childless were forbidden to go there.

I asked them about other Guards. Whether there were boys or men who became Guards. I could not for one minute imagine that it was a couple of girls like these who had managed to capture Taid and the professors and take them away, after blowing up Plas Maen Heledd. They had heard of special Guards who belonged to a large caster near to London. These were probably men, but no one from Deva Caster had ever seen them in this area.

I asked about methods of transport. They knew of some vehicles, intended to transport people between casters in case of a catastrophe. There had never been a catastrophe in their caster. They did not know what the vehicles looked like or where they were kept. I tried to describe the machine that we had encountered with the vagabondi back over the dyke, but it clearly meant nothing to them.

I asked what types of work women such as them were expected to do once they had spent their two years as Guards. To me the jobs sounded menial and trivial. Some were sent to the factories, to make tea and feed the men who did the actual work. Some were sent to the homes of men who had been given a child-bearer, again to perform tasks such as cleaning, washing clothes, looking after the house. Others went to the offices of the caster administration. Most ended up making tea, cleaning, taking messages between offices. Occasionally, if one of these women showed that she was brighter than the others, she would be allowed to learn how to use the computers. There was a lot of data that needed to be input and this was not considered to be suitable work for men.

Tacita became animated when she talked about these women. She hoped that she might be able to be chosen to input data one day. Surprisingly, she did not think that she was only capable of doing what she considered trivial tasks. When she said this, it clearly shocked Charity, who said she should be thankful to be given a task that would benefit everyone, no matter what it was.

Between them, they listed a whole host of such trivial and low level jobs, all of which were carried out by the childless. It seemed to be an empty, unfulfilled life for these girls. They would never be allowed to know a man, except as a superior task-master in their place of work. They lived in colonies of the childless, their sole purpose in life to work, eat and sleep. They had no leisure time, no time to themselves. As far as I could see, no pleasure at all. Yet, with the curious optimism of a ten year old, they both looked forward to completing their time as a Guard and being selected for the task that would last the rest of their lives.

These conversations carried on all that day, and into the next day. When we returned to the Room as night fell, Eluned had prepared some more broth, but she ignored us, turning to her bed as soon as we had eaten. I dished out some broth to the girls, which they ate with relish this time, then allowed them to put on their clothes as there were no spare blankets. As a last precaution, I kept their shoes near me, although I was now convinced that they would not try to escape.

The second morning, I tried to find out how far they were prepared to follow the rules and regulations of the Change. As with her knowledge of ‘forbidden’ writers and their books, Tacita had revealed an occasional spark of rebellion in her previous answers. After an hour or so in which I learned very little, the discussion took a different direction.

“Wait,” Tacita said. I was asking them if they had ever considered the purpose of the education they had received when she suddenly interrupted. “You want to know what the purpose of our education was. What about your purpose?”

“What do you mean?” I said, taken aback.

“All day yesterday you bombarded us with questions. Now you are starting again. I want to know why. Why all these questions?”

“Exactly,” Charity said. “You told us you were from the Change. So how is it that you know so little about life in the casters?”

I smiled. “So much has changed. I left the Change seven years ago. I had lived in a caster for the first fifteen years of my life, but I know nothing about the things you tell me. ‘Child-bearers’, ‘childless’, women doing menial tasks, ‘Guards’ who have nothing to guard. None of these things existed before. Not as far as I was aware, anyway.”

“You must have had your eyes and ears closed, that’s all I can say,” Charity said.

“No,” Tacita said. “I think I believe her. We are always told that the purpose of the Change is just that. Change. Nothing must stay the same. The Apostles study the lives we lead and decide when and where to make changes.”

“Yes,” Charity said. “Changes to improve the quality of our lives. They are always doing that. But I can’t believe that life was so different only seven years ago. We were alive then. If we were chosen to become childless, why wasn’t she?”

With the strange ability they had, they were talking to themselves as if I was not there. This time I let them carry on.

“I remember,” Charity continued, “when she was first asking me questions, she said that someone had known about the child change, and had taken her away because of it.”

“That could only have been known by someone very close to the Apostles, surely.” Tacita shook her head. “Why would she know someone like that?”

“We don’t know anything about her, do we? She has been asking us questions all this time, but we have not had a chance to question her.”

At this point Charity turned to me. “Who are you?”

“I’ve told you who I am. My name is Non.”

“No. We want to know who – no, what – you are. You keep us captive here. You ask questions of us as if we are your prisoners.”

“You have been willing to answer my questions,” I said.

“Because you threaten us. Because that other one threatens us. We are not stupid. We do not like pain.”

“You are free to go. Whenever you wish. Go now, if you want.”

“We have no shoes, Three,” Tacita said. She was more reluctant to support Charity now that she was becoming antagonistic.

“I don’t want to go yet,” Charity said, in a calmer voice. “That’s not my point. I only want to know … I want to know who you are. You live out here in this place of ruins. With the other one who is not like you. She calls you ‘my lady’. Are you an important person?”

“I’ve given you my answer to those questions already, Charity. If I were to tell you any more, you really would not believe me. I want to know about your life, your world, because it seems that I have to go back to it. Soon. And don’t ask me why. I don’t know. At the moment it’s just a vague feeling I have. No more than that.”

“What will you do when you enter the Change?” Tacita said.

“I’ve no idea. From what I’ve learned over the past few years, I think I may be expected to do something. Something to change it.”

They both laughed, simultaneously.

“You will change the Change?” Charity said, still laughing. “You are mad. Isn’t she, Four?”

Tacita stopped laughing. She said nothing.

“I think we should go,” Charity said. “Forget our shoes. We can manage without them.”

“No,” Tacita said, quietly. “She believes it.”

“Believes what? That she can make some difference to the Change?”

“Yes. She is prepared to kill for her beliefs. Or at least, to get the other one to kill for her. Which is the same. Are you prepared to kill for your beliefs, Charity?”

It was the first time I had heard either one of them use their proper name.

“Don’t call me that,” Charity retorted. “I don’t have to kill. What I believe is not like that.”

“What do you believe?” I said. This was bringing me back to my original line of questioning. This time, perhaps, there would be some answers.

“I believe in the Change. I believe in the Apostles. I believe they make life better for us. I believe that working together, as we do, life will always become better.”

And so she went on, listing her beliefs, seemingly without end. She probably would have carried on had we not been interrupted. I turned my head away as she was talking. Without warning, I saw a figure standing not too far away from us. Tacita, who had been watching me intensely, saw the figure at the same moment. She immediately put her hand on Charity’s arm and brought her finger to her lips. Charity was at first annoyed that she had been interrupted, but when Tacita nodded her head in the direction she and I were looking, she froze.

“Gwenllian,” I said, aloud, although I had only intended to think it.

“What?” Tacita said. “You did not say there was another here.”

“There is not. Until now. Tacita, quickly, go back into the Room. Tell Eluned that Gwenllian is here. Go. Quickly.”

“Tell her what?” Tacita said as she ran to the tunnel entrance.

“Gwenllian. Gwenllian.” I repeated.

She said something that sounded vaguely like it and disappeared.

“Say nothing,” I said to Charity, who had still not moved. I stood up. I was convinced the figure was Gwenllian, although I had only seen her once before. Just as before, she was clothed all in red, standing tall and silent. She saw me when I stood. Smiling, she beckoned me towards her. I wanted to wait until Eluned was with me, but she seemed to be taking her time coming out. I walked towards her.

“It is good to see you again, my child,” she said in her deep, penetrating voice. After a day and a half of listening to two voices that sounded like ten year old girls, it was even more astonishing than it had been the previous time.

“And you, my lady,” I spluttered. I heard movement behind me.

“Ah, Eluned Llyn Y Gadair. My heart is filled with joy to see you.”

Eluned came and stood beside me. “It is my honour, noble one,” she said to Gwenllian. “Long have we waited for you.”

“There was much to do, much to prepare. I fear even now all is not complete.”

“We will wait as long as you consider it necessary.”

I did think of asking what exactly was being prepared, but decided it was probably better not to at this stage.

“Where is the boy, Nefyn? He whom I left to guard you.”

“He is gone, noble one.”

“Gone? How gone? He has been here since his parents were lost at Catraeth. How can he be gone?”

“He was alone too many years. His mind was turned.”

“In what way?”

“Against women. Against us.”

“He had long talked of bringing back his people. You know that he was the last of his line?”

“He told us. I fear he intended to fulfil his wish. With me.”

“He said this?”

“It was clear that was his intention, noble one.”

Gwenllian turned to me. “Expected One. You were witness to this terrible thing.”

“I was,” I said. “More than witness.”

While we had been speaking, Tacita had crept up behind us. Gwenllian noticed her before we did.

“Who is this unknown one? Speak, child. Speak your name. I know it not.”

Tacita grabbed my arm. “Is she speaking to me?” she whispered. I nodded, pushing her forward.

“My name is Niobe0344,” she said.

“It speaks like a child. Your name. What is your name?”

“Tell her your real name. Tacita,” I whispered, loudly.

“No, I must not say that,” she said, cowering back.

“Her name is Tacita,” I said to Gwenllian.

“Does she not know her own name, poor child?”

“She is of the Change, noble one,” Eluned said. “There is another one.” She turned around and pointed out Charity, still sitting on the wall beside the entrance. “That one is also of the Change.”

“Her name is Charity,” I added.

“Tacita? Charity? These are strange names indeed. But time presses. I wish to speak to Eluned Llyn Y Gadair alone, Expected One. Please leave us. Later, I will speak with you.”

Taking Tacita gently by the arm, I led her away, back to the tunnel entrance. She was babbling questions as we walked.

“Who was that? Did she call you the Expected One? Why did you tell her our names? You know that is not allowed. Why does she want to speak to Eluned? Isn’t she your servant? Shouldn’t she speak to you first?”

We reached the entrance. “Stop,” I said to her. “Stop. Now. Answers will come later. We will sit and wait here quietly. After Eluned and I have spoken with Gwenllian there will be time to explain. At least you must now see that what I have told you is true?”