Chill Breeze
By Elaine Letsen
Copyright 2012 Elaine Letsen
Cover Art by Nick Nestel 2011
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Chapter 1
20th of Quiet Moon, 2992
“There comes a point in everyone's life where they come to a crossroads, where the decision they make will take their life in one direction or another. Sometimes the direction you choose is to shorten your life by using evil ways. Magic that comes unbidden to you and through deliberate actions you use this evil to rob and harm those who support and care for you. The path to the gods you abandoned, you did not come to the temple when you felt the first stirrings of this power when you could have been saved, redeemed. Instead, you chose to revel in these powers, you chose to walk the path of evil and magic. Now, the end of the path is nigh and you find the reward that comes with your path choice.”
The voice of the high priest and judge rang out over the assembled crowd as the bound prisoner was jerked to his feet and dragged to the raised platform. The boy’s slight frame shook wildly as his knees touched the wood and he was pushed down onto his back, the guards silently but harshly tying his arms and legs spread wide and fastening his head into the harness to hold it still. Tears streamed down the young face, beardless still, and his eyes stared pleadingly to those nearby. At the judge’s signal, the platform was raised at an angle so that all present could see the condemned.
“Mahru Galae’Cartref, for the crime of possessing unreported magic and for the crime of using the misting magic to rob from those in the town you have been found guilty. Your crime has been judged evil but not completely foul. It is the sentence of the court that you shall be executed to protect Cartref and its inhabitants from the spread of horror. First, the arms, then the head, and lastly, the legs.” The white-haired priest raised his arms. “Thus face the justice of the gods.”
The arms lowered with a nearly audible snap and the guard raised his ax and with a swift, efficient movement the boy’s left arm was no longer attached to his body. Blood spurted for a moment, then slowed to a trickle. On the other side of the platform the next guard grasped his ax, raised it and repeated the act on the right arm. The boy’s body jerked and he moaned deep in his throat, though no screams were allowed to pass his lips. For several minutes the boy laid on the platform in agony before the lean priest raised his arms again.
“May the gods be merciful to your soul, as you were not in this life.” The arms slashed down again and the first guard took a firm grip of his ax handle and with an indrawn breath separated the criminal’s head from his body. After a few moments, arms quickly motioned again and the corpse’s legs were removed.
“Eolas Eagna grant justice swift and always true.” The voice rang out over the crowd. Echoing back came the crowd’s refrain, “Goddess true, goddess swift, justice to one, justice to all.” The execution and catechism over, the crowd each made the sign of the seven upon their chests and drifted silently away.
One of those leaving the ceremony was a young girl, ten years of age, small but strong of arm. She glanced back several times to the body on the platform as the guards unstrapped it and placed the pieces in a wooden box nearby for transport. She walked slowly, her feet dragging, down the road away from the town hall. A body of nearly frozen water passed by on her right and when it ended she slipped easily into the tall grasses next to it. She followed the curve of this pond and where the water met the town wall, she sat down, hidden from sight by the waving grasses and the shadow of the towering wall.
Tears began to flow down the pale cheeks of the sharp-faced child. She wrapped her arms around her knees and rocked back and forth as she wept. Only a few minutes passed before a rustling in the grass was heard over her silent grief. A form emerged into her sight as she raised her head.
“I thought you might need to talk, Cinnia,” the form said softly as it sank to the icy ground beside her. “I saw your face after the execution and I followed you. When you came here, I knew you might need me.”
Cinnia bit her lip for a moment before nodding. She turned her head to face him, her older broru, the closest of her sibs or sibus to her, and whispered, “He was only 14.”
Tawel nodded. “Yes, he was. But as Prophet Scanraither said, he chose his path. Mahru was my friend, Cinnia. We played together as children and we had begun working the fields together, lately. But he chose his path. He was not surprised by the magic. He knew what it was. I know 14 may not seem old to you, only 4 years from now for you, but we have all been to temple class since we were tots. You know better than to hide magic, or worse, to use its evil. Mahru let the magic fester inside himself and it burst out and he became evil.”
“I know he stole stuff but so did Rogo Banu’Cartref and they just locked him up the first time and exiled him the second time. Why didn’t they do that with Mahru?”
“Rogo was just a thief. He picked locks and slipped in open doors to steal. Mahru walked through the walls using the evil magic that had consumed him. Only the fact that he did not physically harm anyone is what saved him from head lasting. I know it is hard for you to understand. For the first execution of your tenth year to be of a boy that you knew, hardly older than yourself is hard. Most people’s first law witnessing in their tenth year is a bandit or other obviously evil criminal. Now that you are old enough that you must attend, you will see plenty of those. But in some ways, Mahru is even more evil than a murderous bandit. If he had not been stopped and sent to the gods, he could have corrupted and harmed many here in Cartref. You have heard about the evils of magic in temple school, the rot that it brings, the horror. Believe it. Two years ago, I saw someone use magic to kill. And he escaped justice and now leads a bandit group and has killed and harmed more. I understand your feelings, Cinnia, but you must use your head. Grieve for the person that Mahru could have been had he chosen a different path and for the person that he was before the magic took him, but do not grieve for the life that ended today. He is better off in the hands of Marlowathe than here and Cartref is better off and safer that it is so. ” He used his mittened hand to wipe her face then put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick hug before rising to his feet. “Keep a close watch on the sun. Pazi Cameron will want you to watch the young ones in a few hours. You do not want to be late and get punished.”
“I’ll be on time. Thanks, Tawel. I love you.” He smiled down at her and walked away through the swaying grasses. She watched until his form was lost among the stalks and then she lay down on her back and her dark green eyes stared up at the cold blue sky as over the next hour she tried to let go of the memory of the fears and terror that had swamped her unbidden at the execution star.
Cartref is a fairly large walled town at the foot of a very large mountain range, called the Mynyds. The Mynyds is a very long range whose peaks are so high that the snow never melts anywhere near the tops. It is covered in dense forests and caves that are home to bandit bands. The town is surrounded on the other sides by a very long, very deep, very swift, very dangerous river filled with rapids and several high waterfalls. The final waterfall of the river Abhain falls over one hundred feet into a huge inland lake that many would think was an ocean if they were only to ever see one side of it. Lake Enfawr stretched a long way and comes up against the far side of the the Mynyds range on one side and a deep forest on the other.
For this reason, Cartref was isolated and a lone settlement for many centuries. Few souls were hardy enough or foolish enough to make the long, dangerous trek to this detached town for little reward. Only recently had the nearest accessible country, Tiarna, realized that Cartref had the sole easy access to the important mineral getrus. They negotiated with the town and built a bridge over the Abhain and a good paved road and caravans began arriving shortly thereafter, though not too often for it is still a very long trip.
Houses in Cartref were typically three or four stories tall, plus an underground basement. The houses are long and fairly narrow with limited windows to keep the winter winds from freezing the residents. Depending on the size of the family, it may occupy just a few rooms on one floor or several floors of a building. The smallest families usually occupy the basement.
The buildings are made of close fitted black and grey stone and hold heat in fairly well. The interiors are lined with polished wooden walls hung with tapestries and some paintings and thick woven carpets line most rooms‘ floors. The hallways are typically wood or bare stone, as are the stairs. The few windows are made of thick glazed glass and open with difficulty in the summer months, though they do open. Most rooms have a fireplace.
Each house can hold about 300 people or so. Very few people get their own rooms, indeed most children sleep five or even seven to a bedroom. There is very limited privacy to be found in Cartref.
Within the walls of the town there is a single gate, on the north-west corner, though the entirety of the walls are patrolled night and day. The gate is guarded over by the men who live in the gate house. They are solitary men, bachelors by choice, who do not want families. They live in the gate house and act as guards for the town.
The street south of the gate house is a market road. It holds all of the regular shops in town, including a bar which also has a few rooms to serve as an inn for the intrepid travelers who make it all the way to the town. Further south from the market road is the execution star adjacent to the town hall.
The town hall is a very large, somewhat imposing solid grey stone building. All of the governmental activities take place here, as do many public events, including the annual winter game competitions. The town hall also serves as a bank and money exchange.
South of the town hall, between it and the south wall, is the common outdoor area. It is a large swath of cleared ground used primarily for children’s games and courting families picnics. However, during fair time, this is where the caravan merchants set up their tents and show their wares.
To the east of the town hall and the common area is a large pond that served as a water source for the town. It was fed by several underground springs and so will not run dry. It is also the home to several types of fish and crabs that are delicacies in the town since custom dictates that they not be over-fished, but rather allowed to multiply within reason so as to remain an emergency food source for the town.
Keep going east and there is the granary storage area, next to the domestic animal enclosures. This was where the town’s cows, bulls, sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens were kept and tended.
To the north of the pond, directly south of the bar is the temple and school. This building is very soft looking, made of glossy black stone. The east wing houses the temple itself and its offices, living quarters, and storage. The west wing houses the town’s school, for all ages able to walk and talk on their own. It includes mostly classrooms with some storage, a large auditorium type room, an eating room, and a few offices for the teachers. The basement of the temple school houses the healers’ area. In includes living quarters, exam rooms and sleeping rooms for patients who need to stay within reach, as well as a cold room for the dead.
To the east of the animal’s barn are houses along the east wall, four of them take up nearly the entire stretch of the wall from south to north. There are nine other houses in the central and northern areas of town.
Along the back side of market road was a long, very thin building. This was the unlinked lived. Those men and women who had been linked but either cheated on their spouses by voluntarily having sex with someone not within the link or were physically violent to their spouses or the link’s children. When this occurred, the offender was publicly shamed and shunned for a period, if the reason was the former, or locked up in the cells beneath the town hall for a period, if the latter were the reason.
After this period of shame or incarceration, they were formally unlinked from the family, forced to take a new name which meant undesirable as their last name, and assigned quarters in the bachelor building. These persons were then allowed to rejoin society, although they could never again join a link. They were forever alone. They could see and spend time with their children, if the children wished but they could never have the children live with them. They had a single bed room, a kitchen, a bathing room and a living/eating area in their quarters. They were free to have sex with other bachelors or with those adults who had not yet linked but if a pregnancy resulted, when born the child would be given to childless links, usually links made up of pure homosexual couples, either all men or all women, to raise.
To the west of the town are the fields where the town grows the communal food. There are sections devoted to wheat, corn, rice, potatoes, various beans, berries, grapes, peppers, and other fruits, herbs, and vegetables. To the north of the fields were groves of apple, pear, cherry, nut, maple, and peach trees. To the south of the town wall was the road and then the river. The bridge was well to the south and west of town. Along the river were several sluices to collect and sort getrus coming down the river from the mountains.
Far to the south of the bridge was the garrison of Tiarnan soldiers that protected Cartref and its surrounds, as well as the caravans coming and going from there.
Cinnia walked slowly along the road toward the western wall of town and followed it to the building her family lived in. As with almost all families, hers was large, consisting at the moment of a linkage of the full seven adults and over thirty children of those adults. Linkages of seven were not the norm in the wide world, indeed they were somewhat rare, but in an isolated town like Cartref, it was actually more usual than not. When one of the linked died, it was rarely more than a year before another was asked to link in. In the harsh bandit-filled environment in the mountains, it was necessary to have many children. Cinnia’s family took up three whole floors of the building in which they lived. The other two floors were taken by a linkage of three men and two women and their dozen children.
Cinnia climbed the stairs to the main floor of her home and walked in. Sitting in a chair near the window was one of her pazis, Cameron. He was in charge of assigning some of the chores to the children of the house. He gazed at her calmly, his brown eyes twinkling lightly.
“Just in time, Cinnia. Your sestrus just returned from temple school. Go and supervise their night work and read to the youngest.”
Cinnia simply nodded her head and walked down the hallway and up the steps to the upper floors. When she reached her bedroom, she took off her coat, placed it on her bed and spoke, “All right, girls, get your slates out. Sooner done, sooner fun.”
Five heads raised from the beds in the room with frowns or grins, according to their wearers’ temperaments. Three young bodies trudged wearily into the next room and sat at a long table with taking slates and chalk from nearby bags. The remaining two little girls hurried over to a soft carpet in the corner of the study room and sat down, legs bent at the knee and tucked under their bodies to the right.
The dark haired little girl on the left began chanting, “Sin!”
The redheaded little girl on the right took up what was obviously her cue, “Yuh!”
“Sin!”
“Yuh!”
“Sin!”
“Yuh!”
“We love you Cinnia,” they chorused.
She grinned at them. “I love you, too.”
Cinnia took the Holy Book from the shelf and sat in the cushioned chair above the carpet. She opened it to the marked page and began to read in a firm but low-pitched voice:
Blessed be the seven, seven blessed be,
Beneath the stars and moon may they watch over thee.
Late to the arms of Marwolathe go
Let her to keep sickness far from thy home
Let mighty Eldingar give storms at need
Her lightnings light thy path and hit not thy steed
May the wisdom and justice of Eolas Eagna
Bring her comfort to thee wherever thou wander
Let wondrous Blodyn bless thy fields with his bounty
And keep his shaking to the enemy’s army
May the heat of Cruthu build thee beautiful things
But touch not your life with his fiery wings
Always to have Tethio’s bounty near to thy lips
No matter how far do you take of his trips
Forget not the change
Remember always
Athru is there
Hynaf at times
Changing god goddess
To thee its protection
She closed the book and looked at the pair of three year olds at her feet. “What do you remember about the gods, Uchelle? We just read the psalm of blessing. What does it mean, do you think?”
Uchelle bounced upwards onto her knees. “I like the part about Tethio. I like to drink water. Mazi Annwyn takes me to the well to help her all the time and we always ask Tethio’s blessing before the first bucketful!”
Sluada slid forward and spoke out, “Tethio is okay, but I like Eldingar’s lightnings. I stand at the window and watch the storms over the mountains and Fancha says that is Eldingar being angry and throwing things at the other goddesses! I like to throw things but they don’t spark like lightning.”
Cinnia smiled. “Fancha was being fanciful. Eldingar controls the lightning and has a temper, sure, but she doesn’t try to hurt others, certainly not the other gods. Her lightnings can harm us if we do not have care but it is our own faults when that happens. On the roof of every building we have the lightning catcher to protect us.”
Uchelle put her hand on Cinnia’s knee. “Can I ask something, Cinnia? I don’t understand but at school, well, everyone else seems to and I don’t want to seem stupid if I ask the priests.”
Cinnia lifted Uchelle into her lap and Sluada climbed onto her other knee. “Of course, little sestru, child of my athair. You can always ask me things. I won’t think you foolish and definitely never stupid. The ones who are stupid are the ones who don’t understand but don’t ask. That’s what Tawel always told me when I was younger. What can I explain to you?”
Uchelle snuggled into her arms, “I don’t understand Athru Hynaf. Sometimes we say Athru, sometimes Hynaf, sometimes the priest says he, other times it is she, but they are talking about the same thing. The priest talks like I should know and the other children all act like they get it, even Sluada. But she won’t explain it to me,“ she glared at her sestru. “I don’t understand. Will you explain? You‘re 10. You must understand.”
Cinnia took a deep breath. “Athru Hynaf. I’ll tell you something, Uchelle. I don’t completely understand Athru Hynaf, either, even though I’m 10. And I don’t think even the priests and priestesses do. And certainly not Sluada.”
Sluada looked down at her hands, biting her lower lip and confessed, “I don’t understand it, either, Uchelle, but I thought you would think I was stupid.”
Cinnia held the girls close. “To stay quiet would have been foolish, Sluada. Always ask to get knowledge. That is what we are told. Knowledge is sacred to Eolas Eagna but it pleasing to all of the gods. Tawel says that, Pazi Cameron says it, my mathair Annwyn says it, I’ve even heard High Priest Scanraither Gwyfol say it. So always ask. If not me, then your teacher priest at school or someone else. Alright? Understand?”
The little girls nodded solemnly.
“Now, to try to answer your question. Athru Hynaf oversees all change and protects and cares for the insane. We don’t really understand any of the gods or godesses, but Athru Hynaf is really confusing. Unlike humans or even the other sacred six, Athru Hynaf changes its sex whenever it wants to or needs to or something. So, Athru is what we call her when she is a goddess, Hynaf is what we call him when he is a god. I don’t understand why this is the case but it is. And we call on one part or the other depending on what kind of change it is. We call on Hynaf when the seasons change. We call on Athru with new births, like when my mazi Ailis just had the new baby, my new broron -”
Uchelle interrupted, “That’s my mathair and he’s my broru!”
Sluada spoke up as well, “She’s my mazi, just like for Cinnia, and he’s my broron, too.”
“That’s right. You’re learning the family relationships. Uchelle’s mathair is Ailis, who is mazi to Sluada and I. But the three of us share an athair, that makes us sestrus. Uchelle and the new little boy share a mathair but not an athair, so he is her broru, not her bror. But Sluada and I don’t share either mathair or athair with him so he is our broron.” Cinnia then points to the nearby table and the girls working there. “To me, Fancha, Olabac, and Gwirion are all my sestrus, because I don’t share a mathair with Fancha or Olabac but Scall is their athair, just like for you two, and Gwirion‘s mathair is Annwyn, just as she is mine though she has a different athair. But to Uchelle, Olabac is her sestra because Ailis and Scall are mathair and athair for you both. But Gwirion is sestron to Uchelle because they share neither maither nor athair. You are doing well. It takes a while to understand, but when you do, you know that there is little real difference. Love in the family is love, no matter the blood.” She hugged the little girls close and they returned the favor. “And I love all five of you very much.”
Cinnia glanced over at the girls at the table. “I hope you three are near to done your work. Its just about mealtime. I’ll look it over for you after.”
The girls smiled at her in thanks and after a few more quick notes, they got up from the table and dashed through the bedroom to the washroom and the other three followed after them.
Cinnia took her place at the rectangular table in the corner of the mealtime room where the children between the ages of 3 and 12 sat. When you were under the age of 3, you sat with the eldest children still at home and were fed by them, preparing them for when they linked and had children of their own families to care for. When you were over 12, you moved to the table of older children who were not old enough to link but were old enough to work at least a small job. The grown children still at home were in another corner of the room with the babes and the family’s seven parents sat a table in the middle of the room.