Rilla's Inheritance Chapter 14

Chapter 14 Far away, in the Adrina’s hidden garden, little Ella was growing up. Gabriella had demanded sewing things from Four, and re-made her own clothes to give her enough material to make clothes for Ella as well. Equally reluctantly, Four had provided a potty, left over from Rilla’s time in his power. Apart from that, he ignored them, much to Gabriella’s relief. One thing Gabriella was determined about was that Ella should have a happy babyhood. She had enough to eat, she was clothed and warm at night, and Gabriella and Pertin worked hard at keeping her happy. Ella learnt to walk barefoot in the Adrina’s garden, surrounded by the plants that the previous Adrina had carefully cultivated. What Gabriella didn’t know was that a pair of wistful eyes watched her as she cuddled Ella, played with her, or simply told her that she loved her. A dark and unhappy face looked at something she knew she had never had – a parent who loved her. Gabriella’s clothes were getting less, but Jenny was still trying to design something that was a bit more – well, appealing than the all-purpose-sack, as I called the current female attire. But it had to fasten without buttons, zips or anything else they had been using: there were still some left, but we needed to keep them for when absolutely nothing else would do. An apron would work, but be no better. Singing an old love song one night to Tyo, Jenny wondered if I might have any ideas from my planet’s past. Tyo just thought about how much he’d like to have a child with Jenny – and how they dared not. Maybe if he bleached his hair white and got rid of his Adrin markings, he’d look like a Tallin, and that madman would leave them alone. But he knew it was too risky really. I dredged up what I could remember of the history of clothing, and passed my meagre information on to Jenny. She got hold of some fabric, and tried the resulting creation out on her sternest critics – her sisters. But Kirsty and Laura both liked it! Tepo Mellin had come round to help me with my Verdin twins, Xerafin and Yu. And I was pregnant with his children – and asking his advice about names for them. I’d called my daughters after my friends from the orphanage, after flowers, and after precious stones, because they were precious.
But what next? I had to name them – we had no Xydin Adrina, and I was their mother. And it mattered that they had names.
Tepo suggested giving them names that had good meanings, and that seemed like a smart idea to me too.
Where were the other Xydin? Deep underground was the answer. So far underground that, like Amaryllis, Yolande and Zoe, no-one could sense their presence. And no-one had found them, because they were sealed in there. Dyander and Frandin could hardly remember what it had been like to be able to play outside under the open sky, but the others kept reminding them of life outside. They didn’t want them to forget. They had stores enough to last them for a long while to come. Four had tricked them into provisioning the mine, in case of another outbreak of plague, and then had tricked them further into becoming trapped down there. Garender and Andolin had realised – too late, alas – what Four must have been up to, and that he had feared they would stop him. They had stocked the mine not only with food, but also with things to do – which had probably stopped them all going quite insane. They painted the outside to remind Frandin and Dyander what was waiting for them when they got out – they would not let themselves think “if” rather than “when”. The two boys were tutored by the others as well – as far as possible, they all tried to keep to a routine, and to give the boys some structure to their lives. And, like little Ella, they boys were not unhappy – they were loved and cared for – but the adults were aware that this couldn’t go on for ever. Meanwhile, I was being watched by yet another panicking father as I went into labour again. Twins this time – Zirconia and Alethea. Tepo asked me what Alethea meant, and I told him: Truth. He liked that. My hair had grown some more! This pleased me hugely. I didn’t know if it would ever be as long as it used to be – before I ever came here – but at least it was a bit longer than it had been.
My Xydin daughters were growing up too. Querida had been the first one to change into adult, and even though she hadn’t developed properly as a Xydin, her family felt the change in her as it happened. So did Querida.
“It was as though everything suddenly became sharper and clearer,” she explained. “I suddenly knew more about myself, and about who I was, and what I could do.” “And what I can do,” she went on, “is paint, and draw. I can use that gift to make everywhere more beautiful, if I want to. And I do. I want to make this world more lovely: I want to make our homes and lives nicer. And I want to have a Tallin marking for art, please – I’ve earned it! But I had to ask you as well, if it was OK.” “That’s more than OK by me,” I said. “If you’ve earned it, then it’s yours. And I’m so pleased with what you’ve done, and how hard you’ve worked for it!”
“Talking of OK,” Querida said, “are you OK? Rilla, you look really ill.”
She was right. I’d decided to see if I really needed to be pregnant, or if the collar was losing its power. It wasn’t, and I was going to have to admit that I did need to be pregnant again. Even with the medi-suit on, I was feeling worse and worse. Tepo was teaching Alethea to walk. Like all Mellin, he was a natural with children; patience and kindness came easily to him. Someday, the Mellin would have to be running fatherhood classes, for the many men who would be getting ready to become fathers, and who didn’t have their own fathers around any more to help them and advise them.
If we ever managed to find Gabriella again, if we ever managed to deal with that madman who had abducted both me and her in turn. I hoped she was safe, hoped it with all my heart. And I was pregnant again, and feeling much better. Tepo was going to be a father for a second time around – but I was confident that he would cope well and easily with a large family. Besides, there was the rest of his household to help him as well! I was going to need some new maternity wear soon though – this outfit was getting rather shabby and worn all of a sudden. Time to talk to Jenny… Unity was the next Xydin daughter to change to adult. At the point of change, she felt the control “he” had over her loosen, slip – she fought to free herself, and for a moment, saw her skin and face change back to the colour they had once been. Then it was as though he asserted his control over her once more, and her face and skin darkened again.
But something had changed for her. His control over her mind had gone. He was still changing her body, but he couldn’t make her afraid and timid any more.
“No more black clothes! I’m going to wear what I choose. And I’m going to be myself – Unity, who sings. Unity, who has a lovely voice. Unity, who has a Tallin marking for music.” Adri Verdin watched, and felt, Xanthe change. And he was proud of her, proud of the way she had grown up, and the way she had dealt with the after-effects of her childhood. Xanthe was still quiet and somewhat reserved, but it came from thoughtfulness now, rather than fear. And she was content, content with her woodland life, happy in her friendships.
Adri Verdin knew for a fact that one man at least loved her deeply, but hadn’t said anything to her yet, as the time wasn’t ripe. Now, feeling the change in her personality, Adri Verdin decided to tell him to begin to court her. A home of her own was what Xanthe needed next; somewhere where she would be sheltered and protected as she continued to grow into her gifts. It was a good job that Verity, Andor and Daisy lived a long way away from anyone else, for the force of Verity’s change knocked Andor off his feet. She grew up in a joyous burst of exuberance and energy, and flew into Andor’s arms, hugging him enthusiastically, and nearly knocking him over again.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!!! Thank you for everything you did for me! Thank you for putting up with me when I was awful! Thank you for showing me how to become me!”
Verity was almost incoherent. As she had changed, she had seen all the bad influences that had been in her life shrivel up and fall away. And she had been free to embrace whatever future she wanted, free to go and explore anywhere, free full stop. She rushed over to Daisy as well, and poured out her thanks to Daisy too.
“I can see what you did for me, what you’ve given me! I was always grateful – once I’d stopped being a horrible little monster – but today, I can see it all, shining and beautiful.”
“Verity, we want to thank you as well. You’ve given us so much pleasure, and we’ve enjoyed you so much. And we are so proud of you – you have learnt to take who you are, and make it work for good. Verity, we love you – you are part of our family, and we love you.” W was standing in her favourite spot, watching the sun go down and the stars come out. Any day now, she too was going to change into adult. She could tell, within herself. She’d come here to think, to decide how she wanted to grow up.
She could see two paths ahead of herself: the one led to being Adrina, with all the glory she had been promised, and the other…She wasn’t sure about the other one, wasn’t sure where it led, or what it involved, but she had a feeling that although it was a quieter path, it was a sweeter one. And that family and friends probably played a part in it. Suddenly, there, looking down on her, was a face she had almost forgotten. And a voice she had tried to forget.
“You are about to grow up. Are you ready to become Adrina?” All the frustration and anger that she had used to take out on Cat and Kel boiled up in W.
“What do you mean? Why should I want to become Adrina? What about what I want for once. Why don’t you ever ask me what I want to do and be?” He glared at her, and she felt her spirit quail within her.
“Why do you think you can defy me?”
But W had had a lot of practice at defiance since she had been taken away from his control.
“There’s more to life than being Adrina!”
He gasped audibly at hearing her say this, but she went on, drunk with recklessness and unhappiness. “There’s more to life than dominating others and making them do what you want and making them miserable!”
“Look me in the eyes and say that again. If you dare.” W’s anger boiled over at the way he thought he still owned her and could control her. Furious, she slapped his face, and her blue eyes stared straight into his. Then she stepped back, ready to run, aghast at what she’d just done. But his eyes continued to hold hers.
“You will do what I command.” His voice was menacing, and her head began to swim – then, suddenly, she heard voices, calling her name.
“W! W, where are you?” She was late back, and people were looking for her. She had never been so thankful in her life.
She turned and ran in their direction, her heart thudding in her chest, as fast as she possibly could, back towards the warmth and the safety and the light of the barracks. Second time round, I got exactly the same reaction from Tepo when I went into labour. Interesting, that…you’d think he would have learnt from the first time!
I gave him two daughters, Bella and Charis.
“Beauty and Grace,” I told him, when he asked the meanings of the names. “Every life needs beauty, and every life needs grace. I’m hoping that’s what they’ll bring to their communities.” Whilst Tepo was busy helping bring up his children, my cool and rational oldest daughter was busy falling in love with his brother Osse! She put it down to having the younger Adrin girls around – suddenly, she’d seen a much warmer and sillier side to life. And Osse seemed to personify it for her. In front of the computers wouldn’t have been my first choice of romantic places for proposing, but it didn’t put Abigail off accepting him! Abigail wasn’t the only one finding out about love – my little neighbourhood-improver, Galantha, was being told by Nem Adrin just how sweet and lovely she was. Unlike Abigail and Barbara, Galantha had no cautious scruples; she knew that she loved him, he loved her, and they could build something strong and enduring together. Nem picked a slightly more romantic spot to propose than Osse did. He waited until the sunlight was fading from the sky, and proposed with an old, old saying that his grandmother had taught him (and she’d had it from her grandmother…).

Out of the daylight and into the darkness,
All through the night and into the dawn,
Summer and Winter, Springtime and Autumn,
Will you be mine, to shelter and love?
Will you stand with me, in tempest and storm?
Will you build with me, to keep us from harm?
Will you walk with me, whatever may come?
My love and my darling, my heart and my home. And as if that wasn’t enough, Betony and Narad Valdin were discovering that they had rather a lot in common… …and Narad’s brother, Odan, was more than Just Good Friends with Camellia. This time it was Quinoa who came to help me with the children. Tepo was home with the older two a lot of the time, and I was very glad of her presence, especially as I was pregnant with some little Verdin babies. I wasn’t sure how many: I’d never managed to work that out, but I could definitely tell that it was more than one again. Adri Adrin’s reckoning was triplets again. Quinoa got rather stressed when I went into labour as well! I did point out to her that this could well be happening to her one day. She didn’t seem to find this very comforting. Adri Adrin was right about the triplets. Dulcie, meaning sweet, Fidelia – faithful – and Emma, which meant whole. Sweetness, faithfulness and wholeness – I thought these were apt names for Verdin children. They were always the nicest of all the children. The others had been lovely children, but the Verdin children were something special. Only Amaryllis (and Yolande and Zoe, by all accounts) had been more lovely. My maternity clothes, however, were not going to survive another pregnancy, I went and bent Jenny’s ear about it – and asked for a bit of a change as well. A different colour, maybe. I did like the new style she was developing though, and said so.
“I’ve got some more ideas as well – but it all takes time! Still, we’ll get there. Rilla, did you know that if you hadn’t agreed to have us all, they would have run out of time? As it is, they can carry on delaying their aging for just long enough – to marry us, and our daughters. You can only put it on hold for so long, you see.”
“So what happens to your sons?” I asked, interested.
“We hold their aging up, and they marry our granddaughters! We should be able to mix the gene pool up enough that way – and then after that, it gets easier.” Seeing as I had an escort with me (and someone at home minding the triplets) I decided to go and see what Galantha, Iris and Heartease had done with the swimming pool. It looked lovely! They’d made everything so clean and bright. They’d begged green and white plants from Adri Verdin, and Adri Caldin had organised some muscle to transport and plant them. The neighbourhood was beginning to change for the better, quite noticeably now. I had a go on the hopscotch grid, out of sheer nostalgia. It had been one of our standard yard games at the orphanage – funny how some things are universal. Up at the barracks on the hill, W had grown up. She had dreamt of blue eyes staring into hers the night before, restless dreams in which she tried to run away, but couldn’t escape. Or of arriving at a fork in a path, and not being certain which way to go. And when she looked round for some guidance, there was a tall, dark, hooded figure saying, “Look me in the eyes – if you dare.”
But when she woke, it was as if her mind had made itself up while she slept. She knew what she would choose. Still, however, there was a lingering feeling of having turned her back on a dream that had once seemed precious to her. Her changing lacked the exuberance of Verity’s, or the quiet sweetness of Xanthe’s. Instead, there was a slightly bittersweet flavour to it. And as she washed the dishes and cleaned the sink, W too felt slightly saddened. Autumnal, she thought – and then thought, no, like the passage from Autumn to Winter. She looked at Sapphire and Topaz, sitting on the floor, doing their homework with their father and uncle helping them, and thought: I won’t have that. I don’t think that family life is ever going to be mine. Reaching for a book off the shelves however, she thought again. “I do have sisters though. The first thing to do is to make friends with my Xydin sisters. I wonder where Zoe, Amaryllis and Yolande are?”

Rilla's Inheritance Chapter 13

Chapter 13 Gabriella, and my first grandchild, were constantly on my mind. I tried not to fret too much – like Gabriella, I didn’t want to harm the children I was carrying – but I couldn’t not worry.
Yan was looking so drawn and haggard.
“It’s the not knowing, Rilla,” he said to me in quiet despair one evening. “Yolande and Zoe would probably be able to sense her, if we brought them to the surface, but we daren’t. Last time someone spoke to Armiger, he said that they were broadcasting so loudly that you could feel them miles away. And that was before Gabriella was even pregnant. It’ll settle down when they finally mature – but we daren’t risk it at the moment. We haven’t told them, and we haven’t told Armiger – they didn’t know she was pregnant anyway, so they aren’t waiting for news. Can you sense anything? She is your daughter, after all.”
But I had no idea, and told him so, as gently as I could. Ger’s children were growing fast – Garnet was learning to walk, and Emerald and Fluorite were fascinated by everything around them. And these small triumphs did make me happy.
I had given birth to Mellin twins, Heliotrope and Iolite, and they were bidding fair to be as sweet-tempered and contented as my Mellin children had always been. I was becoming resigned to the necessity of being pregnant as much as possible – and the sheer joy of the fathers was a bit unmissable, so I guessed I really had no room for guilt. My Mellin twins grew sweeter and happier day by day. They were such cheerful and sunshiny children that they helped take my mind off Gabriella a little – but they reminded me of her, Eloise and Felicity so much at other times. Gabriella was never far from my thoughts. By now she would have had her baby – or should have done. If she was all right, that is. And as though what had happened to Gabriella wasn’t enough of a disaster, tragedy struck again all too soon afterwards. Adri Caldin took me to meet the seven men who ran the biggest farm in the colony. Most people were trying to grow or catch as much as they could of their own food, but it takes time to garden or fish, and not everyone had the time. I’d already met Aghri at Adri Caldin’s house, but he wanted me to meet the rest of them, so with Adri Caldin as bodyguard, I travelled to their farm. There seemed to be hundreds of them! All big and green and muscular – and a bit earthy under the fingernails too! Actually, there were only seven, and it took all seven of them to keep on top of the work needed. Lew and Reevo both offered to show me round, but Cul won the toss. They ordered Aghri straight back out there to get on with the harvesting! He went very good-naturedly. The fields were big – I could see why it took all seven of them to cope with the weeding, watering and harvesting of everything. Suddenly, there was a strange screaming noise in the sky, and the sky darkened. Everyone stopped what they were doing and rushed outside to look.
“What is it?” Chure asked.
“I don’t know!” Shan had no answers, and Ral was no wiser either. A trail of fire and a plume of smoke arched across the sky, and the screaming noise got louder. Then there was a whoomph and a massive thump that shook the ground. The meteorite had missed the house, and the crops in the fields, but Lew had been too close to it when it landed. I was pregnant again, and it was with a Caldin child. It was a relief to feel well, but my pregnancy also reminded me of Gabriella. Like Yan had said, it was the not knowing that was so hard. Another labour, another panicking father! Aghri hadn’t planned to be around for the birth – since Lew’s untimely death, they had all had to work harder than ever, and he had merely called round to check that I was all right. He got a bit of a surprise! He got another surprise when it turned out to be triplets. I don’t know why, as there were enough of my triplets around now for it not to be anything new – but he’d convinced himself that it would only be twins. Moonstone, Jade and Kyanite however were his, and he’d be bringing them up once they’d stopped being toddlers. At least they wouldn’t be fenced in and imprisoned, growing up with a Caldin father. I was beginning to hate the walls around me. At least I could get outside though. Yolande, Zoe and Amaryllis were even more fenced in than I was – and for the same reason: to keep them safe for the time being. They spent a lot of their spare time forcing Armiger to remember everything he could about the Xydin, and particularly the Adrina.
“She had three things that were hers and hers alone. She had a collar – like Rilla’s, but golden and blue. Mostly it was like the standard Xydin one; it damped down the mental noise from other people, but hers was more powerful than the others, and a bit more specific. So she could listen really carefully to one person if she wanted to help someone, but still cut out the background noise from everyone else. Tela – my wife – she would have to go somewhere private with someone, if they wanted her to really listen to them.” “What else?” Amaryllis and Zoe both wanted to know the same thing.
“Her garden. And that was almost secret. You couldn’t find it very easily – and not at all, if the Adrina really didn’t want anyone to visit. It was where she recovered her strength, if she was very tired. It was where she could be alone. And it was where the Truth Space was.”
“What was that?”
Armiger shrugged. “Tela could never really describe it. What it was for was to help someone know the truth about themselves – you know when you need to make a big decision, and you don’t know what you really want to do? Well, the truth space would help you see. And the Adrina could use it to see the truth in someone else as well. After the first one was built, there were no more unjust judgements. But it was exhausting for her – you didn’t use the Truth Space for petty things. Tela went to it to find out whether she should marry me or become the next Adrina.” “So you can’t get married if you want to be Adrina!” Yolande scowled at the thought.
“Yes you can.” Armiger was quick to correct her. “But you can’t marry someone who wants to go to the far ends of the planet, and be away from others for months, even years at a time. The Adrina is needed by her clan – or the Adri, with the other clans: they can have either. To become Adri or Adrina is to give up your name, and keep only your clan name. Adri and Adrina: they mean “servant” in the oldest language.”
“How come people don’t forget you then?” That was Amaryllis.
“No-one takes your name from you – not like they did to Rilla and Pertin. Nothing is taken away; instead something is given, is offered. You usually remember what you’ve been given, don’t you?”
The girls saw his point. And Armiger had given them a lot to think about. They all three of them knew that one of them would need to become Adrina for the Xydin, and would also need to stand up to the rogue Xydin who was still at large, if the colony was ever to be at peace, and if Rilla was to be safe. It was just as well that they didn’t know what had happened to Gabriella. Yolande and Zoe didn’t know what had happened to Gabriella – and she didn’t know what was happening to them either. But she knew that Four hadn’t found them yet. Finding them was one of his constant themes. He was forever sending the others out at night to hunt for them – or going out hunting himself. Which explained what he had been doing at their house that fateful night.
He had questioned Gabriella, hunting through her mind ruthlessly, but she did not know where they were, and she could not tell him what she did not know. She whispered their names to Ella though, as she held Ella close to her, and showed Ella the wide world that lay beyond the fences that hemmed them in.
“Somewhere out there Ella, people are looking for us. And they won’t rest until they find us. You will see you father, and he will see you. One day Ella, one day.” Heartsease had come to stay with me and help me with the children. Aghri couldn’t stay himself; there was too much farm work to be done. Plus he needed to build a little cottage for himself and the children for when they were old enough to leave me – it didn’t leave much time. He visited whenever he could, so that he wouldn’t be a stranger to his daughters, but full-time was not an option. I enjoyed having Heartsease there – it was good to hear what she was up to, and Iris and Galantha as well. After the library, they’d decided one of the things they could do was to restore some other places in the neighbourhood that had become decayed or derelict. Three determined girls – women now, really – could make a lot of difference, and if they started things, others would help.
“I think people stopped hoping that there would be a future. But now it’s here, and it’s time we started making it. Now tell me some more stories of your orphanage days, please, Rilla.”
Gabriella had loved hearing those stories too – she’d come round when she was pregnant, to talk to me, and to find out if how she felt was normal, and always asked for my orphanage stories. Now I had three Caldin girls in high chairs… …and three more in cots downstairs. Ruby, Peridot and Quartz. One of my daughters, however, remained as much of a problem as she had ever been. W was forever laughing at Unity, and mocking her for her black face. She would go out of her way to track Unity down and tease her mercilessly. It didn’t matter what Kel said to her – she remained totally unrepentant and obdurate. Cat met up with me at Eloise’s house and told me all about the things they were having to put up with, and how difficult it was. She was obviously getting to the end of her tether, and I agreed with her that this had gone on for long enough. They needed a change – and W was going to have to improve her ways or take the consequences. Cat and Kel warned W that if she didn’t mend her ways, there would be serious consequences for her. She was promptly rude to them, and ended up having to eat all her meals alone, go nowhere except school and back and see no-one for a week. At the end of the week, she went straight round to Querida’s house and pitched into her.
“I don’t know why you kept those stars on your face – you’re no true Xydin. And those goody-goody friends of yours, wherever they are, no-one would want them to rule the clan either…”
She had Querida in tears before some adult intervention showed up, and she was hauled home in disgrace again. For the first time in her life, W began to wonder if she might not have gone a bit too far. Kel was actually really angry with her. The Mellin clan were so even-tempered that she hadn’t realised he was capable of anger – and, secretly, she’d always rather despised him for his kind and considerate nature. That night, as she lay in bed still awake, she heard Cat and Kel talking outside.
“Kel, I feel like we’ve failed. The others have all turned out so well now.”
“Cat, it’s not your fault. She’s obviously been totally spoilt by her upbringing. But we are not going to let her go on ruining our lives. All the Adris agree – they met at The Place yesterday to discuss this. You and I have tried and tried. Now it’s someone else’s turn to take over this burden. Come here, my love.”
W could hear Cat crying softly. For a moment she thought of going and apologising – but then she thought of the destiny she had been promised. She was going to be Adrina of the most powerful clan! She would rule everything! Softness was for weaklings. The next day, W crept out early and ran off to one of her favourite places. She loved the huge and open views, the sense of space and adventure that it gave her. It touched something buried deep inside her. She was almost happy as she went back to Cat and Kel’s house – and discovered that her world had been re-organised for her. “You’re leaving.” It was a Valdin who told her this, eyes neither hostile nor friendly but merely indifferent.
“Oh, and we’ve had enough of the show-off black clothes – put these on instead. And there’s going to be no more head-shaving to try and look scary. You’re still only a girl. You’re going to look like one. Hurry up – we march in ten minutes.”
And that was it. Ten minutes later, she was marching off. To, as it turned out, a Valdin training barracks in the middle of nowhere. And to a very different life-style. She was escorted to and from school each day by one or the other of the three new recruits – usually with heavy packs on their backs! No-one was unkind to her, but no-one was kind either. She was just part of their responsibilities. And she had responsibilities of her own too. The dishes, for one. And the cooking for another. It had better be done right too, or there were complaints. She was expected to get on with her homework alone, but someone always checked it, and it had better have been done well. If it wasn’t satisfactory, Dev or Edo simply ripped it up and told her to start again. Sometimes W would watch the three recruits talking and laughing together – or playing chess against each other – or singing together – and wonder if she might have missed out on something. Orache, Nepeta and Melilot seemed to have something she didn’t. But then she would remind herself of her glorious destiny – only it seemed to be a long time coming. However, she was a true Xydin! She had the blue eyes! She would rule one day – he had promised that to her. Well, to her or Verity, but Verity had gone soft now, so she was the only one left. Iris, Heartsease and Galantha were serious about improving the neighbourhood. The next target they had their eye on was the old outdoor swimming pool. It had been unused and neglected for a long time now, but it had been well-built in the first place, and the girls were confident that they could restore it to its former glory.
They went there together for a closer look one day. Closer was not necessarily better. “What is it with the brambles?” Galantha asked Heartsease. “Do you think they lie in wait for us, and all walk over to wherever we’re going to clear next?” “So where do we start?” Iris asked the others. “The brambles, the fence, the changing rooms? I saw some old benches round the back that we could re-paint, maybe.” “I think we should start by re-painting the hopscotch grid. I can hardly see the markings on this,” Heartsease said, very firmly. The other two pointed out, gently but equally firmly, that they hadn’t come here to play, but to work… Some others who were working hard were Adri Adrin, Barbara and Abigail. They were reaching the end of their tests on the three Xydin in the isolation labs, and hoped to begin analysing the results soon. The tests had been far more complex, both to do and to analyse, than anyone had expected them to be. It had taken everyone who was capable of helping a huge amount of time. Now they were nearly over, though Barbara and Adri Adrin were still working late into the night. As Barbara carried out the final analyses, Adri Adrin checked the results against the programs they had written to cope with the strange outcomes they had been observing. He found them so disturbing that both Barbara and Abigail re-ran the analyses, but unfortunately the same results came up again. As soon as he could, he called a meeting of the other Adris to discuss what he had found. Meanwhile, W’s new life continued as it had started. Dev and Edo added physical training into her routine, and again they treated her with dispassionate indifference. No-one was cruel to her, no-one menaced her – but it was very clear to her that she had better co-operate rather than rebel. And she was worked hard – but not excessively so. No-one showed her any sympathy when she fell over on the treadmill – they simply expected her to get up and get on with it as soon as possible. But no-one mocked or taunted her either – as she would have mocked and taunted them if the position had been reversed. For the first time ever, she began to question her own behaviour. Her confidence in her glorious destiny was beginning to ebb away a little. No-one really trusted her either. She was never alone, and there was always someone watching her. They don’t think I can behave properly, she thought to herself – and a little, long-stifled voice in her head said: well, can you? Adri Adrin called the other Adris together to discuss his findings.
“The plague seems to have affected their capacity for empathy – never as strong in male Xydin as in female Xydin, admittedly, but never absent! And the cocktail of drugs they were taking – or being fed – has made this far worse. But the other problem is that these drugs have heightened their ability to influence the minds of others.”
“And you think that the remaining Xydin is still taking these, and is getting more extreme in both areas?” That was Adri Verdin. “Yes. But what really worries me is that I’m not sure if Zoe, Amaryllis and Yolande are going to be a match for him – even the three of them together. I’m worried that he will be stronger than them.” Barbara had been explaining their findings to Adri Tallin and Adri Valdin – and their worries too.
“We need more Xydin,” Adri Tallin said flatly.
“How? Rilla will never agree to having another Xydin child – and who would be the father in any case?”
“No. We need to find the missing ones. Armiger’s brothers-in-law. Andolin and Garender, and their families.”
Adri Valdin agreed with him. “I’ll get the patrols out looking for them as well as Gabriella. We know they survived the plague – it’s not right that we haven’t seen them since. Either they’re somewhere, or their bodies are – we need to know. I don’t know how they’ve managed to disappear so completely. And come to think of it, they disappeared at about the time the trouble with this four started.” Life was the oddest mixture of the normal and the strange. Gabriella was missing, and none of my other daughters dared to think about getting pregnant in case the same thing happened to them. I, on the other hand, needed to be pregnant as much of the time as possible – and I only went out with a bodyguard.
Adri Valdin had taken me out to see what my girls had been doing with the swimming pool. Heartease had re-painted the hopscotch grid! They had also dealt with the brambles, replaced the missing bits of fence (and were going to re-paint the rest to match next), and cleaned up the seesaw. The toilet and shower block was still looking rather shabby, but that was next on their list for improvement.
“I want us to have places we can all meet as a community,” Iris had explained. “I want family places for us all. I want us to be able to play together, and have fun. Thanks to you, there are children here again. Let’s make it good for us all.”
I looked around at what they had done so far, and I was proud of them. Not only were my three Mellin girls changing the look of the neighbourhood, but they were also helping build the relationships that made a neighbourhood good. With W out of the way, Unity was beginning to regain the confidence W had eroded so successfully, but she had retreated back into herself noticeably.
Galantha found out about Unity’s passion for collecting songs, and promptly ordered Byander to teach Unity any that he knew. It was a very silly song, that had everybody joining in one after the other. Byander began.

I made myself a tasty stew
There was plenty there for two
I found myself a comfy seat
And I was just about to eat
When I heard

and here everyone else clapped the four beats

1,2,3,4 And so I opened up the door
I found Penander standing there, saying…
Penander picked up his part

Neighbour, have you food to spare?
I’m starving and my larder’s bare.

Byander sang again

I said there’s plenty here for two
So come and find yourself a seat

Their voices joined

And we were just about to eat
When we heard 1,2,3,4
And so we opened up the door
Aaand... Iolite was standing there
Iolite was a little shy about singing in front of Unity, but Galantha had asked her to do it, and explained that it would make Unity happy, so she obliged. She had a sweet, clear voice.

Neighbour, have you food to spare?
I’m starving and my larder’s bare.

The other two sang back at her.

We said this stew is fine for three
Sit down here with him and me
And we were just about to eat
When we heard 1,2,3,4
And so we opened up the door,
And we found Iris standing there
Iris joined in. By now Unity was laughing at the song.

Neighbour, have you food to spare?
I’m starving, and the larder’s bare.

Three voices answered Iris.

We said this stew will stretch round four.
Come on in and shut the door
And we were just about to eat
When we heard 1,2,3,4
And so we opened up the door
And Unity was standing there

Unity joined in the song, and their voices blended and rose in the starlight. When I heard of the evening they had spent with Unity, I was even more proud of the three of them. They were turning out to be true Mellin – community and family oriented.
I could see why my Valdin daughters had said they couldn’t marry a Mellin – those were not responsibilities they could take on and do justice to. I had two Valdin toddlers in high chairs in front of me, and their adventurous and inquisitive natures were already very obvious. Topaz and Sapphire were a full-time job in their own right. And I was pregnant again. Very pregnant! Chure Caldin was going to be a father, and that news went some way to easing his grief over Lew’s death. I was going to need some help though. I needed another daughter to come and stay. If only we could get this collar off my neck! If only Amaryllis was here… But although Laurel wasn’t Amaryllis, it was lovely to see her and catch up on all the Adrin news. The influx of Adrin girls had transformed the clan, apparently.
“Barbara and Abigail notice it the most,” Laurel said, cuddling Verdite. “But we three do as well. People have stopped being so solemn and serious. And the girls all ask questions and some of the questions are funny, and everyone laughs again. And they want to play games, and not work all the time – we all went to our fathers as teens, and that was different, because we were expecting to learn and work – but they’ve come as children. It takes everyone’s mind off all these test results and everything.” The test results and everything were very much on people’s minds though. Adri Valdin had organised a massive search for any traces of the other Xydin. They couldn’t just have disappeared, surely. Nepeta and Orache were among the searchers. As Dev Valdin said to them, this was real training. They searched everywhere. “What happens if we never find them?” Nepeta asked.
“We’ll find something. We must. Hopefully, we’ll find them,” Dev replied. They found Garender’s old home. It was obvious that no-one had been there for a long time. The whole place had an air of desolation about it. Many many miles away, Edo had found the place where Andolin had gone with his son and grandson. Again, there was no sign of anyone having been there for a long time. So where had they gone? There were no bodies, no sign of illness, no signs of violence. And this had been far enough away for little Dyander to be shielded from everyone else’s grief, which was why Andolin and Frandin had moved in the first place. It didn’t make sense. They travelled as far as the huge ruins, left by a former civilisation (Adri Adrin’s bet was that the plague had finished them off too), which was as far in that direction as anyone had ever explored. No signs of anyone. In the end, they had to give up and go back home again. Dev Valdin’s two girls were old enough to join him now – and living in a house with so many walls round it was not suiting them at all. With Topaz and Sapphire joining them, the atmosphere at the training barracks changed somewhat. A more family feeling became apparent. W began to see what Cat and Kel had been trying to create for her. Living outside so much was suiting her as well – she enjoyed the open spaces and the huge views.
She had a favourite spot on the top of a nearby hill, and no-one objected to her going and sitting there and watching the sky change around her – as long as she had done all her duties. They’d even stopped setting a watch on her, as she always came back when she was supposed to. To her surprise, she found that she liked being trusted. Soon, she knew, she was going to grow up. And she was beginning to ask herself how she wanted to grow up.
Did she really want to carry on with this whole I-am-going-to-be-Adrina business? With no-one around to remind her of it, and with these wide-open spaces everywhere, just waiting for her to explore them, her glorious destiny didn’t seem so important any more.