Rilla's Inheritance Chapter 5

Chapter 6 Rilla. Someone was asking me if I was Rilla. I didn’t know. I didn’t know who this person was either – it was too dark to see clearly. And my mind felt so strange. But the others had said that someone was looking for me – and now someone was here. “I daren’t stay here for long, Rilla, in case the Xydin find me. But I know where you are, and I’ll bring help to you. Even if I have to drag them here. You will be rescued, Rilla. There are lots of people looking for you. You haven’t been forgotten. Remember that, Rilla. They haven’t forgotten you.” Then he was gone again, like a grey shadow in the night, leaving me with a word in my head. Rilla. Rilla. I was Rilla. I kept saying that to myself again and again. And each time I said it, I felt a little bit less lost. But it was still so hard to think, to concentrate. Holding on to my name alone seemed to take all my strength of mind. And the metal collar round my neck buzzed and hummed and the lights on it glowed red day and night. Then the one called Four came in. He took me out and dragged me to the next hut.
“I thought you’d like to see your other children,” he said, but his voice was not pleasant. I looked and saw three grown women, training hard at some kind of martial art.
“We might have grown them up a bit too quickly. I’m not sure if they’ll be any good for having children themselves. But they’ll make good guards for whichever of the others becomes the Adrina.” At the next hut, two more children were playing a logic game under the stern eyes of another of the Xydin. “We’re not going to rush their growth so much. We do need more children, if the Xydin are to be the clan they should be.” Four really frightened me. It was getting dark as he took me to the final hut. Two weary girls were sitting there in the gloom, looking sad and lonely. And I was sure they had been babies quite recently. Was I losing all track of time, or were the Xydin just rushing their growth? Four pulled me round to face him.
“There. Now you’ve seen them. And now I’m going to wipe all memory of them from your mind.” The noise from the collar round my neck rose to a piercing whine, and suddenly I could neither see, nor hear, nor think. Then he took me back to where I lived. He came closer to me.
“This time, I want triplets. These ones are going to be mine. And as I am the most powerful of the four of us – my mind skills are the greatest – then my children will be the most talented. And I can use them to make the Xydin the ruling clan again.” I fought his gaze with all of my strength. I was not going to produce children for him to use as weapons to further his own ends. What did he mean anyway, this time? Children were there to be loved, valued, cared for – not used for another’s ends. I was Rilla, and my children were mine. I came round feeling sick and giddy – but also determined not to let things go on happening to me. I had had enough of this. I was Rilla, and I knew that somehow, somewhere I had a different life. And I wanted it back. And there were other people who wanted me to have my life back too. Adri Valdin and his team had been searching endlessly for me – and they had just found a deserted hut from the early days of the settlement. With a fairly new child’s toy lying tucked away in a corner of the wall.
The question in Adri Valdin’s mind was not: had I been there? It was: where was I now? And how was he going to find me? I was being sick in the mornings. For some reason this felt very familiar. My body was trying to tell me something, but my mind was having problems processing it. The one thing I was holding on to was that my name was Rilla and that I had more to my life than this. One of the rooms had cots in it – three of them. My stomach was getting rounder and rounder, and I knew there was life in there. I could feel the baby – babies? - moving. It was so hard to remember what I was doing here though. It was so hard to remember the previous day. It almost seemed as if something or someone was rubbing out my memories one by one. As fast as I fought to remember what I had done, the memory slowly trickled away. But I would not forget my name! And then there was someone in the room, saying my name. “Rilla. Rilla. Is it you?” He looked deep into my eyes – it was as though he didn’t recognise my face at all. “Yes. I am Rilla.” I replied.
“It is you! We’ve found you!” And he hugged me closely. “But who are you?”
He looked disappointed when I said that – as though I should not only know him, but know him well.
“Adri Valdin. Don’t you remember me?”
I shook my head.
“We have to get you out of here, and we have to do it now, while the Xydin are occupied with…” His voice tailed off, and he shook his head as though he was trying to chase an elusive memory. “Anyway, we have to go now. Get ready to run.” Then he looked at me properly, and saw my swelling stomach. “Rilla. What have they done to you?” He led me out of the building, locking the doors behind him with some curious implements, and through the trees, always undercover. We couldn’t move as fast as he wanted to – my body just wouldn’t let me. I still didn’t know who he was, but he seemed willing to be kind to me. And he knew my name and was getting me out of there. We travelled for quite a while – or was it all one day? But he kept calling me Rilla. The name was like an anchor for my mind. And then one day he brought me to a house by a lake, with a vegetable garden round it.
“Here you are, Rilla,” he said. “Home.”
He handed me over to someone else who knew my name, and who took me off for a very thorough medical examination. The collar round my neck came in for a lot of attention. He couldn’t remove it, but after some time he managed to stop it buzzing and flashing and whining. The relief was enormous and instant. I walked round the house that they said was mine, and suddenly it felt familiar. Memories began to come back to me. There was a picture over the bed – and I recognised it! It was called Hope in Darkness. And Adri Tallin had painted it for me, because that’s what he said I was! And I had a daughter called Hope as well – Adri Tallin had wanted to name her that. The relief was unbelievable. My mind was coming back to me – I could remember things again. And when Adri Tallin came round to see me, I recognised him straight away.
“I knew your picture,” I said. “ And we have five daughters. Are they well?”
He took my hands. “They are now that you are back safe and sound. Though I think they’d better not see you just yet – not until Adri Adrin has finished sorting you out. You still don’t look quite like yourself.”
“So I was right! I thought the face in the mirror didn’t look like mine.”
“Your eyes are the same though. Still as lovely as ever. And Adri Adrin can sort out the rest for you. Oh Rilla, we are so pleased to have you back.” Adri Valdin came round as well. And I knew him too – but I had no memory of him rescuing me.
“It was that collar,” he explained. “It was set to eat away your memories. Adri Adrin has managed to turn it off – it’s in a dormant state now. You won’t lose any more memories, but we’re not sure how big a gap you’ve got, or what you do remember. I’m so glad we found you.”
I looked at him, and was so pleased to see him again. “How did you find me?”
And a weird thing happened. His eyes glazed – as if he couldn’t remember either.
“I don’t know. I found the first place you’d been, and the toy by the fence – but I don’t know how I found the second place. It was almost as if something was pulling at my sleeve and urging me there. Then I knew I had a bit of time to rescue you, because the Xydin would be busy with something else. But I don’t know what.” It was very mysterious. But I was home, and safe – and so tired! I fell into my own bed and slept and slept and slept for days. Despite the wriggling and kicking that was going on inside me. I had a feeling I’d be giving birth quite soon. The next few weeks were hectic indeed. I was nearly ready to give birth; I’d been right about that. Three girls, all with piercing blue eyes. I’d never seen eyes like that in a child before, but I had a feeling I’d seen them in an adult. And I hadn’t liked them. Gabriella and Felicity came to stay with me, to help me with the babies and to keep me company. Adri Adrin got rid of the black stars on my face – he assured me that the marks would fade given time. And he put me into a high-spec medi-suit – he said it would not only deliver what I needed, but would also run daily diagnostics on me, and keep him up-to-date with my status. It turned out that Gabriella didn’t just want to help me – although she did want to do that – but she wanted my advice too. She was feeling ready to grow up into an adult. Not least because there was someone she was rather keen on – but she wanted my advice, input and approval as well. I said I’d need to talk to Adri Mellin as well, because there was so much I didn’t understand about the way they speeded up and delayed aging – but that she had my love and my support always. Adri Mellin was really happy with the idea of her growing up.
“Mellin girls do mature early. I know she’s not your oldest daughter, but she is ready. And Yan Adrin is a good steady man – he will take good care of her.” So I was content. Yan came and ate with us, and he was so obviously in love with Gabriella, and she with him, that all my questions were answered.
“I will wait as long as Gabriella needs me to wait,” he said. “But I don’t want to wait any longer than I need to!”
We all agreed that Gabriella could grow up as soon as Adri Adrin was ready for her to do so. But I asked them to wait until I felt better before they got married – I wanted to enjoy the wedding, not feel off-colour at it. Adri Valdin came round and told me that he wanted to move us to a new house.
“This one is not easy to guard – I want to put you somewhere safer. We’ve been converting an old barn for you: don’t worry, Adri Tallin supervised it, and it does look nice! Please, Rilla, will you move?”

Rilla's Inheritance Chapter 4

Chapter 4 The menacing stranger glared at me – no, it was more than a glare. He stared into my eyes, and suddenly I felt my senses slipping, my knees giving way, and the room going dark around me. I don’t know how long I was unconscious for. I came round at one point to hear two people talking.
“Have you boosted all the fertility meds?”
“Yes, I’ve done that. What else?”
“We’ll get her out of the medi-suit once they’ve had time to take effect. Then we can put the memory-fogger on her. Did you dump the helmet?”
“Yes. But once you take her name away, no-one will remember her anyway.”
Then someone noticed my eyes opening, and put me under again. The last thing I heard was, “Don’t forget her face either.” The next time I came round, I was lying on a bed in a totally unfamiliar place. My head hurt and I felt sick and giddy. When the room had stopped whirling round, I staggered to my feet and found the bathroom just in time. Where was I? And then I caught sight of a mirror, and went over to see if I looked as rough as I felt. But the face looking back at me didn’t look familiar. Who was she? And then I realised I didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know my name. Who was I? There was a door, and I went through it – to find myself in a stone-paved yard, with a metal fence all around it. And no gate. Beyond the fence was a high wall, and beyond that dense trees. I could see no landmarks at all. I had no idea where I was, who I was, or what I was doing there or how I got there. And there was a metal collar round my neck, with little lights on it that changed occasionally. I explored the rest of the building, but there was no other door to the outside. There was a room with cots in it – why did seeing cots make me think of a daisy? And the days went by. There was food in the fridge – and I could go out into the yard and look at the fence and the wall if I wanted. And I was pregnant. I recognised it as familiar. There were other things I knew too – how to cook, how to look after myself. But I didn’t know who I was or where I had come from, or who my parents were or anything like that. When my labour pains started , I knew exactly what they were. And I knew how to look after those three babies. But how had I come to have them? Who was their father? And how did I know how to look after them – did I have more children somewhere else? Or was I part of a big family? A few days later a door suddenly appeared in the wall, and two strangers walked in. Or were they strangers? They frightened me. They picked up the babies and inspected them.
“This is good,” one of them said. “Your turn now, Two.” The first one came over to me and stared into my eyes. My head filled with a suffocating pain, and I could no longer stand. Coming round, I dashed for the toilet. At least I knew where it was this time. My head felt as though someone had been rummaging around inside it – and none too gently either. I have three babies and I’m pregnant again. And tired – this is hard work. I keep expecting there to be someone here to help me, but there isn’t. I have a feeling it’s really important that I have babies, but I don’t know why. And I don’t know who I am! I don’t know my name or anything about me. I do know what this is. This is labour. This is another baby on its way. And I do know that somewhere, sometime, I’ve held babies and loved them. That wasn’t another baby on its way – it was another three. My first three have become toddlers. And the person who calls himself One has come round. He drills them each day. The children look like me – but the face I see in the mirror isn’t a familiar one. And what is this thing round my neck? It hums sometimes, and it’s sometimes warm to the touch. I can’t find out how to take it off though. One came round again, with someone called Three. I have to concentrate to follow what they are saying – it’s as though they’re speaking a foreign language. This time, I knew what he was going to do, but I couldn’t get away from his stare fast enough. The first three children are older again. I’m sure it shouldn’t happen so fast. And they seem so unhappy and mean. I’m sure I’m used to having happy children – but whenever I try to remember things, my mind goes all blurry and foggy. And this thing round my neck hums and the lights flash, and it gets warm. Could it be interfering with my memory? I’m also pregnant again. There’s another baby on the way – more than one, judging from the wriggling going on in there. One has taken the first three children away to live with him. Two comes round and drills the next three, just like One did. The children have no names – and I think this ought to worry me, but I don’t know why. I just feel that they need names – but I can’t think of any. One and Two use letters to refer to them – R and V and so on. Something is wrong here, but I don’t know what, and I don’t know what to do. Can I try and fight back at all? Can I resist them when they stare into my eyes and mess with my mind? While I was lost, confused and trapped far from my home, the children that I could no longer remember had not forgotten me. Abigail and Barbara were the first to feel uneasy about me. And their uneasiness deepened when their father said, “Who? Who are you talking about?” They dragged him round to my house – the place where they had grown up – but he still couldn’t remember me. Barbara and Abigail were so insistent that something was wrong that Adri Adrin went off to find another Adri. And Adri Tallin had had exactly the same experience – only with five daughters this time, all telling him that they had a mother called Rilla, and that something was wrong with her. Very wrong. When all six of the Adris got together and compared notes, they knew they had to act. Not least because all the girls were going to do something off their own bat anyway. Adri Adrin went back to my house and examined it forensically. The place looked as if the owner had just walked out. There was a book on the table, music playing – and the high chairs did suggest that there had been small children or babies here recently. Then he found the medi-aid lying on the floor. It wasn’t one of his – and how had it got there? It wasn’t one of the hospital ones either, but he did recognise it as an original ship’s store issue. And the only reason to use one was to alter the functions of a medi-suit. Which the girls were all insisting that their mother wore. After that, they began to search for me big-time. Adri Valdin and his clan did the planning and co-ordinating. He and Martha and Naomi sat by the fire each evening, planning the next day’s search, co-ordinating the searchers and following up any clues. But it was a big planet, and the ground was full of little hidden valleys – searching took time. And his daughters kept telling their father about me, in the hope that his memory of me would return. Each time they mentioned my name, a little more came back to him. Daisy and Catriona also knew that I wasn’t dead, but I was in trouble. They came and weeded and tended my garden every day, keeping the place looking good for my return. And, like my other daughters, they kept talking about me, kept saying my name over and over again. And with each repetition of it, what the Xydin had done when they took my name away was slowly being undone. My next babies were twins. And one of the Xydin stormed in to my yard, furious with me for only having twins. The others followed him. Again, I had to concentrate to follow what they were saying, but I could understand it.
“She’s fighting back,” one of them said. “We need to boost the signal on the memory fogger.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” asked another.
“What does it matter if she forgets everything? She’s here to have babies.”
And the last sentence rang true, somehow. I knew I was here to have babies. But not like this.
“We’ve got an old medi-suit – we could re-boost her fertility meds.”
“Good idea. Then she should have triplets again.”
I didn’t like what I was hearing. But they were bigger and stronger than me – and outnumbered me. When he stared hard into my eyes, I fought back as hard as I could.
“Told you we need to boost the memory fogger,” one of them said. But eventually he overcame me. Once again, I came to lying on a bed. When I looked in the mirror, the face I saw was - surely – not the one I’d seen before. It was really hard to think – my mind felt as though it was full of cotton wool. Or as though it was slipping through my fingers like dry sand. There were people talking in the next room.
“They’re looking for her.”
“This place is too easy to find.”
“We’re going to have to move her – and us.”
“We need to clear this place out completely. We mustn’t leave a single clue that she was ever here.”
Someone was looking for me. Someone was looking for me. This seemed to be terribly important. I needed to leave a clue for them. The other people left the room and I went to see what I could do. It was so hard to concentrate. There was no way out of the yard, but there was a gap between the mesh fence and the high wall. I took a child’s toy and threw it right into the corner of the gap. Maybe someone would find it and know that there had been someone else here. Someone was looking for me. There was more to my life than just this place. If only it wasn’t so hard to think!
The next place was quite a distance away. Walking wasn’t as hard as it might have been – although my head felt fuzzy and confused, my body felt fine. It seemed to be a collection of little buildings, again hidden among trees. And once again, they were protected by high walls and mesh fences. I had thought that the last place was designed to keep people in, but it might equally well have been designed to keep dangers out. Some of the huts seemed like houses inside, but the one I was put in was strange. The internal walls were all made of wire mesh. Later on, I discovered that this one had been meant for storage, and not as living quarters, but it was odd being able to see into every room. When I looked in the mirror, it was harder than ever to recognise the person who looked back at me. Her eyes seemed to be lost and empty. My family were still looking for me. Martha and Naomi were searching all the nearby lakes and other water sources, reasoning that wherever I was, I must be near a water source to be able to survive. They didn’t know that they were being watched in their turn, by a shadowy figure who had no family to call his own. When Nemo heard what they were saying, he crept closer and listened carefully. Years of having to forage for himself meant that he knew the lie of the land better than anyone. Nemo had a very good idea where I might be – but who could he tell? No-one could remember him – and he had no reason to believe that talking to any of my daughters would be any different to trying to talk to anyone else. The Xydin had taken away his name, and he no longer existed in the memory of the clans. He was going to have to look for me himself. Nemo set out on his search as soon as day broke. Three days travelling took him to the place where I had first been held captive. Even as he crept closer, he knew the place was deserted. Nevertheless, he decided to climb the wall and see if there was any sign of me having been there. The hut I had lived in was completely empty – too empty, Nemo felt. He went over to the other building.
That bore all the signs of a hasty exit. No signs of me, but the place had very clearly been occupied quite recently. He was going to have to continue his search elsewhere. And two weeks later, there was a stranger on the other side of the fence that bounded my yard. “Rilla,” a voice whispered urgently. “Rilla. Is that you?”