"Marnie loved children. She liked men too, she loved men, but children... To her men were but a fleeting pleasure. That is the way among Wanderers. Brothers are the ones who care for their sister's children, just like Uncle Jos, despite his grumbles, cared for us. After Sandor Sercel and then old Cremer, she didn't expect much from men. So her children were the real source of joy for her. And the men she chose to be our fathers, I think they were the ones she loved most. We are souvenirs, Dion, remembrances of happy times.
Chapter 4
We left Cardun the following morning, while the sky was still pink. It had rained before dawn and it promised to do so again. Bell birds were tinkling out their dawn songs in the tall sweet oil trees and a tremendous feeling of sadness came over me as I pulled the door of the hut closed. I stood at the door with a lump in my throat.
"Come on Dion," cried Tomas. "The day's a wasting."
Hamel put his arm round my shoulders and drew me towards the waiting horses. It was surprising how quickly our relationship had become this easy.
"Sorry little sister?"
"Aye," I said. "I feel as if I will never see this place again."
Tomas snorted. "Well since you've no talent for foretelling that probably means you'll be home within the month." He pinched my chin. "Did you think of that? Now up with you."
The quickest route over the border was through the forest and over the river, but it was a very stealthy route, not entirely legal and Tomas had decided against it.
"The border will be crawling with patrols at the moment. Everybody will be on edge because of the war. We are certain to get picked up going through the hills. It's the smugglers natural path and that will only look doubly suspicious. It's best if we go respectably along the main road."
This plan had the added advantage of disguising our movements from my parishioners. More than the usual number of people were hanging or working round the village street that morning and the fields by the road side seemed very busy too. Everywhere people waved cheerful farewells, but their eyes were curious.
Only after midmorning when we were well into the next parish, did we stop seeing people I knew. I was glad. I could see only trouble stemming from Cardun coming to know that their village healer had not taken the safe turn towards the city of Gallia, but the illegal and highly dangerous route into Moria instead.
Every now and then soft rain fell and the air was chill. I leaned against Tomas' back and tried to relax, but I was unused to riding pillion and by midday when we reached the crossroads, I was saddle sore and looking forward to getting down.
"There's Parrus," Tomas called back to me.
Parrus was sitting on the ground beside the shrine to Tansa. He was dressed in the sober blue robes of a Borgonese merchant. It had been agreed, (not by me of course, because I hadn't been consulted) that he should call himself Ren Parrus Latrides, making me Enna Dion Latrides.
He greeted us with relieved pleasure. When I got down from the saddle and could finally see more than Tomas' back I realized why he was so relieved.
On the other side of the crossroad sheltered by the trees sat a big group of Wanderers. There must have been 30 or 40 of them, just sitting or lying on the grass by the road.
"What are they doing here?" said Tomas.
"How should I know?" said Parrus defensively. "They were here when I got here. Just sitting about. Give me the creeps. Damned Moonies."
"Parrus!" I said. Moonies was a pretty common term of abuse for Wanderers, a reference to their moon white skin and pale hair, but I'd never liked it and now knowing what I did about my own family, I was ashamed to hear it in front of my brothers.
Tomas just shrugged. "Well you should have asked them, you fool. They don't bite, you know."
He had turned on his heel and was crossing the road before Parrus had time to let out an outraged noise.
"Well, to hell with you too," muttered Parrus at his back.
"A word of advice, Parrus," said Hamel gravely. "There's a lot of Wanderer blood in our family as there is in a lot of Morians." Then he turned and followed Tomas.
"I wouldn't admit to it if I were him," said Parrus to me softly. "It's hardly a badge of honor."
"Well some Morians don't admit and some do. I'm surprised at you calling them names like some badly-educated lout ..."
"Well you kept pretty quiet about your Wanderer blood," said Parrus. "In fact you kept quiet about a lot of things. Didn't you trust me or something?"
I couldn't think of anything to say to that, because the answer was, no I didn't trust him. I felt myself turning red.
"Not to worry," said Parrus almost kindly. He stroked my arm. "Your secret's safe with me."
We watched my brothers on the other side of the road. They made the traditional five movement gesture of Wanderer greeting and bowed.
"Huh!" said Parrus crossly. "Here I was sitting politely enough, minding my own business and one of them came over and gave me one of their stupid foretellings. Then I had to sit here the rest of the morning with them watching me."
I suddenly remembered the Wanderer man in black. His foretelling was coming true. How odd!
"What was your foretelling?" I asked interested.
"He said I should follow my heart not the Duke. When I asked him what he meant, he just turned and went away."
"Strange," I said.
"Dammed annoying is what it was. Anyway enough of that. Sit down. How did it go? I think I managed to get away without anyone seeing me."
"Why on earth do you want to come with us?" I asked. "And why didn't you ask me?"
"Your brothers said it would be all right."
"So?" I said sharply, annoyed at his presumption.
He shrugged. "They seem to know what they're doing."
"But why?" I said again. "The danger of the Witch Hunters ... That's real."
He shrugged. "I don't know. You're not the only one who's worried about necromancy in Moria, you know. I'm a mage for God's sake. And I'm sick of rotting at Cardun. Anyway what sort of a fellow would I be if I let you go off into Moria just like that?"
Was he actually worried about me? How ... odd. I found myself looking at him curiously. He reddened slightly.
"You're the best healer Cardun has ever had," he said quickly. "And they are my parish."
"Dion!"
Tomas beckoned me to come over.
Hamel came to meet me.
"They said they were curious to see you, Dion. It seems you've got a good reputation among them."
I could not help being flattered by this, but it was an odd meeting. The leader of the Wanderers got up as I approached and bowed and greeted me with their special gesture and I followed as best I could. Then they all sat there looking at me, their dark almond-shaped eyes expressionless and unreadable and as deep as silent wells. I could understand how Parrus would have been unnerved, waiting here all morning alone with these people. They were real wild Wanderers, the type that didn't even try to blend in with the rest of the Peninsula folk. They wore Wanderer-Brown garb and their hair was plaited and intertwined with twigs and feathers. In their ears were heavy rings of metal or bone. They were an unusual group for Wanderers. Wanderers mostly travel in family groups and there are always children playing about among them, but this group had neither old people nor children.
”The omens are good for the Duke's journey into Gallia,” said the leader to Tomas continuing the previous conversation.
"Is that a foretelling," said Tomas quickly.
The Wanderer smiled thinly.