Rilla's Inheritance Chapter 8

Chapter 8 Hope and Meti Adrin had adopted the last of the five children. It looked as though I’d actually had a non-multiple birth! Three unaccounted-for pregnancies and five children meant that one of them had been an only one. Their child had the “wrong-coloured” eyes as well, and her face too was slowly darkening. But instead of being a sad and cowed little thing, she was angry and resentful – and she let Hope know it! But every so often, behind the anger and the resentment, Hope would catch a glimpse of a sad and lonely little girl. What she needed was to find the key that would unlock the sorrow that was in there. Painting hadn’t worked for U, unlike her half-sister (or maybe full sister: we wouldn’t know until the test results were back), and Hope and Meti were not Verdin. They would have to think of something else. I’d gone round to see Phil and Tavy (I liked Xanthe’s names for them) and also Xanthe one day, and Abigail had dropped by as well. She said the test results were back, and did I want to know there and then, or wait until Adri Adrin was around to explain them.
I could tell from the look on her face that there was something odd about them – but I couldn’t think of anyone better than my eldest daughter to explain them to me, and I told her that.
It was a bit of a bombshell, though. Those five children came from two pregnancies only. Somewhere, I had another child or children still unknown to me. But the news that left me feeling most apprehensive was that none of the Xydin they had captured were the father of Zoe, Amaryllis and Yolande. I remembered what Adri Verdin had said – that their father had been very powerful – and I was frightened. Amaryllis was feeling neglected – and I couldn’t blame her. We hadn’t had any time alone together since she’d suddenly sensed what was happening inside my head, and she wanted to talk. My Mellin girls were at school now –and bringing little Xanthe home with them as well – so we could go out together for a walk. Xanthe’s clothes were as black as ever – I wasn’t sure what Adri Verdin, Phil and Tavy were doing, not changing them. I must chase them up about it. I took Amaryllis up to a place where I’d often found seeds in the past. She was beginning to take quite an interest in the garden, and with a bit of luck we’d find some more. And on the way, I listened to what she had to tell me. She’d been talking to Adri Verdin, and asking him to find out all he knew about the Xydin (which might have been why he’d had no time to attend to Xanthe’s clothes) and getting him to hunt through all the old books and records that he could find. “The trouble is,” Amaryllis said, “a lot of the history was oral. One Adrina passed it on to the next. And mothers taught their daughters too. The male gifts weren’t quite the same as the female ones. Or they were alike, but the way they were used was completely different. The men were good at creating rules – sensible ones - but the women had the wisdom to apply them. They had to work together and when they did, then all the clans flourished. The first Xydin were called the Lawmakers…” The Lawmakers! It was as if a light had gone on inside my head. And I looked around and saw where I was. Nemo’s hut. How could I have forgotten him? And as I remembered his name, I remembered a shadowy grey figure, telling me I was Rilla, and that the name had been like a light in the fog of my mind. I told Amaryllis the whole story, of how I had first met him, of the way the Xydin had taken away his name, so that no-one in the clans could remember him, of how he had been the first to find me after I had been kidnapped.
“And I’m sure he brought Adri Valdin to the place as well. He can’t remember how he found it – he just says it was as though something guided him there. And I think he might have created the diversion that Adri Valdin used to get me away. So what’s happened to him? This little hut of his is empty.”
Amaryllis asked me what his name was, and I said I couldn’t tell her.
“Whenever I say it, people forget him again. It’s as though the name they gave him has some strange power – only it didn’t work on me because I’m not from any clan.” “Then let’s give him a new name,” Amaryllis said. “That way we can talk about him to everyone.”
She took my hands in hers. “Let’s call him Pertin. That means belonging. That way he will belong again. They should never have done what they did – to him or to you.”
So we held hands there, near Nemo’s deserted home, and said out loud that his name was now Pertin.
The woods around us went very still and quiet for a moment, and then the birds began to sing again. And unknown to us, many, many miles away, a lonely young man suddenly felt his spirits lift within him. He had managed to create the diversion that gave me the space to be rescued, but he himself had been caught by the Xydin. And now he was a useful slave to them. Amaryllis and her sisters had decided that they were responsible for helping my other Xydin daughters to settle in as well.
“After all,” Amaryllis said, “we belong to the same clan. But we’re not male, so maybe we won’t frighten them, but perhaps we can help.” They decided that getting to know the others one at a time probably made the most sense – and Xanthe already knew Amaryllis a little, so they took her out with them for the day, to explore some of the nearby places. They went to the pool that had been the first place I’d been out to on the planet. That seemed such a long time ago now. Xanthe still seemed timid with them. But after a while, she unbent a little and began to talk to the three of them. She was used to the Verdin kindness, and these three girls were taking listening to another level yet. They didn’t know what they were doing: all they wanted to do was to make her feel at home, but she opened up to them in a way that no-one would have believed possible. Her whole sad story spilled out of her; spilled out and ran away as she felt herself being listened to. The “he” she kept referring to seemed truly scary.
“And now my face has gone away, and I want it back. I don’t like this!” “Do you think we can help her?”
Zoe wasn’t sure, but she thought that they might be able to do something. And Yolande agreed.
“Recently, things have been different inside me. Gabriella was talking to me, and I knew how she was feeling, really feeling, I mean, beyond what she was saying.”
Amaryllis nodded. “I could see inside Rilla’s head – not read her mind, I mean, but see the doors someone had locked in her memory.”
“So we could try. Try to take away this blackness. I mean, there was only one of him, and there’s three of us.” One by one, they folded Xanthe into their arms, and whispered in her ear. “Let’s lift this blackness from you, little one. This isn’t what you deserve at all.”
And they reached out to her with their minds, willing the changes that were happening to Xanthe’s face to stop, and reverse themselves. And as Xanthe was being hugged and held for the third time, Amaryllis leant over and whispered, “Am I imagining things, or is her face changing?” It was! As they watched, it grew ever clearer and clearer, and Xanthe’s face began to match the rest of her skin. She leant over the pool to see her reflection, and then flew from one to the other, hugging them again, and bubbling with joy. “You did it! You did it!” she crowed.
“But how did we do it?” Amaryllis asked her sisters.
“Adri Verdin lent me this book he found. Here, have a look at it. It’s more like a diary though, and it doesn’t explain everything, just drops hints about things. Do you want to read it too? We both have, but it raises as many questions as it answers. More, in fact. We need help, Amaryllis. I think we need to talk to all the Adris. When they see Xanthe’s face, they’ll know something’s happening to us.” Amaryllis looked at the happy little Xanthe again, but was worried by something.
“Xanthe, your Xydin star markings have faded almost away.”
“Good,” said Xanthe emphatically. “I didn’t want them anyway. I don’t want to look like a Xydin, ‘cos apart from you three, they’re all horrible. All the grown-ups anyway, and half the children as well. Q’s the only other nice one.”
The girls exchanged glances at this: they were inclined to agree with her.
“Let’s take you home, and show Phil and Tavy, and Adri Verdin what’s happened to you today, shall we?” said Zoe, and she took Xanthe’s hand and the three of them set off together. While my older daughters were taking Xanthe out for the day, I went over to see Imogen, Danno and another of my Xydin daughters, who was painting happily when I arrived. From behind, she looked like any other child in the neighbourhood… …until she turned round to greet me, and I saw the change in her face and the hurt and confusion in her eyes. Imogen said that they’d been keeping her off school and teaching her at home, as she was so self-conscious about her face and couldn’t bear to face the other girls. I asked if any of them had been being horrible to her, but Imogen said it was only one – Catriona’s. And it wasn’t Cat’s fault – there was just no reasoning with the child. Hope’s child was just plain unpleasant to everyone, but didn’t particularly pick on Q more than anyone else. Q came over to me, timid still. “Can I ask you something?”
I smiled down at her. “Of course you can, my dear.”
“It’s a bit private,” she said. “Can I whisper?” She reached up to me, and said, very softly, “I want a name.” I pulled her closer into my arms, and said, “Then we’ll call you Querida. Which means darling.” Next port of call was Adri Adrin’s house, where it was my turn to be hugged enthusiastically. He was out, but Barbara was in, and so pleased to see me. “It’s lovely to see you! And so nice to see another female! You know how lab-based Abigail’s and my work is – and there are so many Adrin men! They survived the plague the best, as so many of them were already working in fairly isolated environments when it broke out. I mean, there were a couple of dozen of them alone who were up at the high-security labs when the plague started – you know, the ones they’ve turned into holding compounds for the Xydin. Sometimes Abby and I feel like we’re almost aliens among all these scientists, who’ve been doing all this for so much longer than us.” I’d never known Barbara be so chatty – normally, she was quite quiet. And as she talked and talked, I began to realise that it was quite hard for her and Abigail, being the only Adrin females. And given their interest in what they were doing and learning, they weren’t so likely to be marrying early. I began to think about having some more children. Iris, Galantha and Heartsease were going to grow up to teenagers and leave me soon: there would be space in the house. And as if to confirm me in this intent, Barbara began to talk about how much having a family, even if he had no wife any more, had meant to Adri Adrin – and to the other fathers.
“They all say the same, Rilla. It’s brought new meaning and new hope into their lives.” What Barbara had said set me thinking. Thinking hard enough to get in touch with Liot Adrin again. I had really liked him, really enjoyed the time I’d spent with him (mostly losing disgracefully at his chess-type game), and then the Xydin had taken me, and I’d not seen him again. He came round for a meal one evening – a bit of a bitter-sweet evening, because my Mellin girls were leaving to live with their father tomorrow. And I really must remember to ask about clothes – the clothes that had come for them were - well, plain to the point of coarseness. Liot was delighted that I was willing to carry a child for him (or two, or maybe even three. Who knew?), and I realised that Barbara was right. Though many of these men had lost wives, or girlfriends or fiancées, the prospect of a child of their own did indeed give them hope, and something to look forward to.
Amaryllis, meanwhile, was studying the book Yolande and Zoe had lent her.
“It says here that the Adrina had a garden, where she would go and spend time, regain her strength, think about the problems that were facing the clan. And it says that part of her power - or her skill; it’s like the two are interchangeable – came from a hidden part of the garden that no-one except the Adrina could enter. But no-one knew where the garden was except the Adrina, and her successor. It was her private place.” But Amaryllis was wrong. Someone else did know where the garden was, and had taken it for himself, hoping to be able to use the Adrina’s power for his own. And he was using Pertin as a slave to tend the garden for him. He hoped that by eating the produce, he would grow stronger, hoped that that might be the secret. And from behind the walls and fences that kept him locked away, Pertin watched Four’s activities. There were three women there with him – Pertin never heard their names: Four only seemed to use letters to refer to them. They almost seemed to be controlled by Four. They were forever practising strange forms of fighting, as though Four was raising a private army. Yet if they displeased him, Four had no hesitation about showing his displeasure. Pertin couldn’t work out why they didn’t band together against him – unless the strange collars they wore had something to do with their behaviour. He remembered the one I had worn, and how it had seemed to have a life of its own. Since Amaryllis and I had re-named him – and since we had started telling people about him – Pertin was beginning to change. He was becoming more sure of himself, and more sure that this was wrong. And Four could sense his power over Pertin slipping away. But he was still better fed, angrier and stronger than Pertin. And he still sought to dominate him. Pertin however, was getting angry in his own right. The next time Four began one of his bullying and humiliating routines, Pertin stood up to him. Four was totally taken aback. And angry. When it came to a fight, Pertin was not a match for Four. But the fact that it had come to a physical fight was deeply worrying for Four. He had lost his mental hold over Pertin, and he didn’t know why; didn’t know that Pertin had a new name, and one that was hidden from him. But Pertin did not know this. Sore, bruised and alone, he wept a little, wishing that someone would come and rescue him, as he had rescued me. But who was there to do that? No-one could remember his existence except for me – and he did not want me to come anywhere near Four if that collar was still round my neck. And no-one knew where they were. Even he had never seen this place before – and it had been a long journey to get to it. It had been at the library that I’d first bumped into Liot again, and I’d noticed at the time how scruffy and run-down the outside of the building was. My Mellin girls had heard me, and taken it seriously. They’d gone to see for themselves, and agreed that it was a mess.
“And we’re Mellin,” Galantha said. “This is our responsibility – the home, the neighbourhood. Let’s do something about it.”
And the three of them had spent an energetic weekend hacking back at all the brambles round the library. It was much clearer with the brambles gone, but unfortunately it became very obvious how many dandelions there were as well. And the pampas grasses were taller than Heartsease’s head. Maybe they had bitten off a bit more than they could chew?