Revelyn: 1st Chronicles - When the last arrow falls (57 page)

Rema closed his eyes and sobbed, for he smelt the death and the burning and the then the sea and the ship on which he was borne off to another land, far away.

‘This is too much,’ he cried, but the lovely old woman held him close and calmed him as a kinkindma would do without thinking.

‘It is beyond our dreams she whispered to him, but dreams come true at times. You are home at last Remy. You are home.’ The two figures sat crumpled and entwined in the dust, as Serenna stood in silence and cried with an emotion which she did not understand, for it was neither joy nor sadness, but something between. The friendly farmer stood nearby and smiled, and whispered to himself.

‘I knew he was familiar, he seemed so at home here.’ He nodded in happiness, for it was good to have been the bearer of such good news, and he had grown old with the woman for he was her husband and Remy Cantira’s kinkindpa.

They talked long into the night, for there was much to talk about. Serenna sent word to the ship that they would be staying ashore and whilst the small house which Rosylyn and Kyven Melkof insisted they share was cramped, it was at least dry and warm and, as Rema joked after their simple meal together...

‘It does not rock about near as much as what I have been accustomed to!’

Rema listened with wonder as Rosylyn spoke of his early life as a very young child, as the second son of Kiefer and Kora Cantira who had both died that fateful day when the Norz came and raided their small village, and he was taken.

‘We all lost someone that day,’ she spoke with tears in her eyes, for the passing of time had not lessened the great grief which was visited upon them. My daughter Kora was a beautiful woman and the most loving Kindma to you and your brother. I miss her every day.’ Her husband Kyven sucked noisily on his pipe as though struggling with his own deep emotions and memories.

‘I saw the man take you. He was a huge brute, and in one motion he felled Kora with a sword like you might swat an insect, and then he lifted you from the dust where you screamed for her. She called your name until her life was gone. I remember it like yesterday. Remy, Remy... she called, her voice was so frantic, but there was no stopping those men. They came out of the early morning mist and we had no warning in those days. Today we are more organised, but they have returned three times since then, and each time we lose good people.’ A silence descended for a time before Rema asked one of a thousand burning questions.

‘You said I had a brother, what became of him?’

‘He was much older than you, ten summers at least, I think; my memory is not what it was. He loved you so much and was there trying to fight with the men. He was fearless and went to save you, but he failed. He fell and you were gone. The man who took you laughed at him, and only his youth saved him, for perhaps there was no honour in killing a boy.’ Rosylyn shook her head.

‘And what was his name, where is he now?’ Rema pressed on eagerly for he was consumed with the idea that he had a brother.

‘It is a sad story Rema.’ Kyven suddenly spoke and Rema looked at him in anticipation. ‘He took the death of his parents hard enough, but losing you broke his heart; at least in the beginning. We did our best to provide a home for him, but he became more and more angry. He was always in trouble with the other boys. It was as though he wanted to fight, all the time. He swore one day he would find you. We hoped he would grow out of it, but he never did.’ Here the old farmer stared sadly into the roaring fire, and no one spoke for a time as he gathered his thoughts.

‘All who live on the Faero Isles know that children fetch a big price on the mainland. Those Norz invaders would often take babies, young boys mostly; for the childless couples will pay well for a healthy son.’ Suddenly Rema realised that his  beloved parents, Riga and Sooth must have known that he was stolen, and that they must have travelled a great distance to the coast in search of a child, and he felt a deep pain in his heart for they had held the truth from him all his life.

‘I know what you are thinking Rema,’ Rosylyn broke in, for she had been watching his face as though trying to read his thoughts. ‘There are those who take the children and then sell them on as orphans, but in truth most are, by sickness or accident. Only a few are stolen like you were. Most probably those that took you home thought you were without a home or parents for some sad reason, and so could only benefit by their love and care. And if you are childless you will go to great lengths to set that to rights.  Don’t be too hard on them for they did not know. They were surely not told the truth. No one ever is.’

No one ever is,
thought Rema angrily, but he took Rosylyn’s words to his heart and they soothed him.

‘What was his name?’ he spoke to break the silence from Kyven.

The gentle old man looked at him and smiled. ‘Your kindma loved some of the old Ravelin names, although by fate they spawned the Norz who took you from her. She named your brother Refr which means fox, for indeed he was one to plan and had a score of cunning schemes to do things and go places. He was always hard to find when you wanted him... a fox he was. She named him Peter in the second name for that comes from an ancient calling, for we Faero Islanders have no relation to the Norz; we came long years ago from far south where the Kelts rule, across another cold ocean which has no warm current like we do in this place.  He was a strong lad, and with a mind of his own, your brother, Refr Peter Cantira.’

Rema absorbed this information with a strange emotion. He had a brother now. And of course Serenna was no longer his cousin. Here were his kinkindparents, people he never knew existed; Sylvion was suddenly heir to the throne descended from the famous House of Hendon...it was as though his world had been turned upside down. He had a sudden desperate longing for his home in
The Safeness
where life was simple and predictable, but then that too had changed, for no longer were his parents who he had always believed they were... He set his jaw firmly and tried to control the desperate bewilderment which had come upon him.

Serenna saw his great distress and reached across and placed her hand upon his and squeezed it hard. ‘It will take time Rema, but it will be alright in the end. I will stand with you.’ He nodded at these words but looked fiercely into the fire.

‘He left us suddenly. Took a ship to the mainland, and we have not seen or heard from him since,’ Kyven continued. ‘One day he told us that he was going to search for his lost brother, for you Remy, for he had always vowed that he would. I think he was angry with us all for not doing something years before, but we were not able...’ Rema noticed that old man struggling with a deep emotion and a sad silence descended upon the sombre group.

‘He went aboard that very day and sailed out of our lives. So in the end we lost you all.’ Kyven finally finished the story. ‘We always hoped he would send word, for he promised that when he found you he would do so. But that was more than a score of summers past. I cannot think how long, but it seems a very long time.’

Rosylyn wiped her eyes upon her apron and gently held her husband’s hand. ‘And now you walk back into our lives... it is as though some god set you upon this course, for how else could it be explained?’

In that moment Rema had a sudden remembering of Mentor and the strange and now dreamlike encounter he had had with that old man in the forest far away.

They remained in
Reviktun
for six days. In that time the
Scoria
was repaired as best could be managed with the tools and manpower available. Captain Lethyne Tyne however, was a changed man, for it seemed that his great ordeal in the storm had affected his mind. He was distant and morose and unapproachable. Even Serenna’s efforts to thank him for his heroic act in guiding the ship safely through the storm were spurned. He wrapped himself in a cold solitude and the work of his ship. The crew benefited handsomely from the sale of all the
Lavas
water which the
Scoira
carried, for the people of
Reviktun
  knew its worth and would purchase or trade whatever they could to obtain and horde it.  Scion informed Rema and Serenna that without that water as ballast and the sand which held it safe, the ship would have surely foundered, but now it was all sold for a good profit and the voyage a success already despite the loss of two good men.

They found the body of one, the sailor who was washed overboard and he was buried in the small burial ground where Rema’s parents lay. He spent some time there in a fog of confusion for he had no good picture of them, nothing but the small and painful vision of his kindma calling to him the day he was stolen, and the day she died. He did not vow to return, for the future seemed so unpredictable, and when Rosylyn and Kyven tried to convince him to stay on, he just shook his head and told them that he could not.

They had talked of many things as the
Scoira
was made ready for sea, for time they had in abundance. Word had spread through the small community and people came to visit and talk. Rema’s quest to save his love, Sylvion Greyfeld quickly became a subject of much interest, and the possibility that she could be the next Ruler in Revelyn was reviewed with a hundred opinions and comments. Rema soon learned that once the Faero Islands had been hard pressed by the Rulers of Revelyn, for they sought to tax and control the people whenever they could. King Frederic was particularly unpopular, but when the now mad Lord Petros Luminos had succeeded him, things had changed completely and their lives were not further troubled by the mainlanders. No longer were any soldiers stationed there, and it seemed that the Islanders were happy with how things were.

‘Here of all places, my home, I might have won some support,’ Rema complained to Serenna one evening as they walked along the beach, ‘but they actually support him. Here of all places he is popular. It is so hard to understand.’ All Serenna could do was to agree, for she too was confused by this turn of events.

They did receive one strange surprise. The evening before they sailed, a tough and wiry looking man quite some years older than Rema came and knocked loudly upon the door of the simple farmhouse which was the home of Rosylyn and Kyven Melkof, Rema’s kinkindparents.

He announced that he was Rema’s cousin, Ofeigr, and the closest boyhood friend of his older brother Refr. He had heard of Rema’s quest and offered to join him, for he hoped to perhaps discover what had happened to Refr. He spoke with few words, but Rema could see that he was a man of action and good sense and happily welcomed him to their small party, promising to secure a berth for him upon the
Scoria.
Ofeigr walked off into the night with little emotion and so it was done.

Rosylyn, who had been listening to the two men talk, took Rema aside and whispered a gentle caution.

‘Ofeigr is a strange one. His name means
not cowardly,
and he is all of that, for he is at the front of the battle whenever the Norz come raiding and he gives the best account of all our men. He makes them pay dearly for their boldness. But he cannot live well with others, and is shunned by most. He and Refr were close though, and perhaps his leaving unsettled Ofeigr. Keep a watch Rema, for he is not as he seems, although he will not betray you in any fight; that you can depend on.’ Rema listened to her words, but the man seemed fair enough, and so he did not think greatly upon them.

‘And now I have a real cousin,’ he told Serenna in jest shortly after, ‘I wonder what else will happen in my life, for it changes each day.’ He did not see Serenna’s face, which showed a sadness then, for she too was learning to live with great change and without the closeness that being his cousin had afforded her, and her heart feared for their friendship and what the future held for them.

Rema parted with Rosylyn and Kyven with deeply mixed emotions. He knew he was falling in love with the beauty of his childhood home, for it seemed that part of him would always belong to the Faero Islands, but he was confused by so many other feelings that he wanted time to think about all that had come to pass, and from a far off place, for here it was all too close and painful. His Kinkindparents seemed to understand in part, but made him promise that he would return when he had finished his quest, however that might turn out. Rema could not refuse for he had come to love them in such a short time, but it was a promise which seemed too hard to think on once he had made it.

Rosylyn gave him a simple gift just before he rowed out to the
Scoira
waiting at anchor in the small harbour. It was a tiny polished whalebone sword which hung from a simple leather thong.

‘This was your brother’s,’ she said with tears in her gentle eyes, ‘Refr wore it always. He said on the day he left, a day not unlike this one, that if you were ever to return we were to give this to you as mark of his love and desire to find you. Take it now Rema and good speed. We will die happy now one day, Kyven and I, for we have seen you once more. If you find Refr, tell him that we still love him.’ Then they embraced and in short time the
Scoria
, now repaired as best it could be, and ready for sea, weighed anchor and headed out beyond the harbour wall. They stood at the rail and waved as the two figures of Rosylyn and Kyven waved back, and then as the ocean swells grew larger, they were gone. Rema clutched at the tiny ornament now hanging around his neck and wondered what next would befall him, who next would come into his life to turn it all about once more.

Serenna stood by Rema’s side. She said nothing, but her mind was full of many thoughts. She had been lovingly accepted by these kind folk, who had been unsure of what to make of her relationship to Rema, but who treated her with every kindness. She knew though that the Faero Isles held nothing for her, and indeed had found that the place had seemed to take Rema further from her. She was not sad to leave
Reviktun.

None came to bid Ofeigr farewell, for he was a solitary man with few friends, and he told no one of his leaving. He stood quietly alone by the starboard rail and watched his world grow smaller until it was lost to view, his face impassive and his feelings hidden.