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?”