The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Disclaimer: Not Mine

The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Chapter 12

The Building Plan

Salazar had felt safe to return after Rowena had assured him that Helga had calmed down and promised to hold her temper if the wizard would hold his tongue. He had raised his eyebrow and began to protest when the look on Rowena's face took on the same look Helga's had held before her cooking skills were tested.

They had to start on the first of the four strongholds that would serve them for the winter, and offer a place of warmth and shelter from the wind that had started to blow relentlessly from the north. They would need to start Helga's first. Salazar knew that she would feel compelled to offer the elves a place to live, more than just the warmth of the cave that she still found fearful.

They had not yet spoken of the vision. Rowena seemed reluctant to broach the topic, and Gryffin thought it wise to wait until he saw the pregnant witch occupied before taking Helga aside to question her.

Salazar and Rowena were scratching lines in the dirt and showing each other how to best position the keeps when Helga came to them and quietly stood back, waiting for them to finish.

"Helga?" Rowena looked up and saw the witch watching.

"If I may, I need a moment with Salazar."

Rowena looked to Salazar, who nodded to her. She stood and brushed off the robes and went to find Erwin, glancing back over her shoulder twice to check on the two.

"I came to seek your forgiveness. I tried the gods first, but I really don't think even they will listen to me today." Helga looked up at him sadly, tears pooling in her eyes.

"Helga," Salazar said, "there is nothing to forgive. A simple cleaning spell and all was set right."

"I allowed the anger to control me." She covered her mouth as a sob escaped. "Salazar, sometimes I just want to go home. I miss them so, and when I start missing them, everyone seems to bother me. You just happen to bother me more than most."

"I am sure there is a compliment in there someplace." He stood up and walked over to her, bending down to look in her face. "Did they ever tell you where they would go if their village was in danger?"

"No, we would never talk of it. I just need to know they are doing well. I do not expect ever to see them again. I know that would be asking too much, but some message, some hope. My vision showed me they would make it to a new land. I know I am being foolish when I know they are safe."

"It is not foolish, Helga. This shall pass." He stood up and ran his hand through his hair. "In just a few years' time these unsettled times will be over, and the world will return to its senses."

"By the morrow I will try harder, Salazar, truly I will. Now you think me a foolish child." She wiped her nose on her sleeve. "You and Gryffin have lost so much. Erwin and Rowena have lost what is still there. That may be the hardest by far, to lose and still to have, and I am the one that cries at night. I should be thankful and not act as a child. I am by far the luckiest here."

Salazar scowled at her. "The loss of family is a great burden. Do not make light of this. It is often a child that feels things the strongest, so if you are a child it would be doubly hard."

"Thank you, Sal." She reached up and kissed his cheek. "I think I could love you as a brother if you were not so cold and mean."

She turned to go away then stopped. "Oh...," she said turning back to him. "Have I done it again? You know I don't mean it like that"

"No, Helga," he sniggered. "I understand."

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They spent the day pacing off the four towers that would rise from the land and change the landscape forever. They would build to the four compass points of the world and each tower would have windows to the rising sun, and a platform on top to track the nineteen-year cycle of the moon. Rowena sat assigning numbers to names, and determining the number of each tower. She figured the sum of their names and determined the size of the print they would make to the land.

"Salazar, the towers will be immense. Even the smallest calculation, which could leave the towers weak at the base, would make them immense. I have rechecked the numbers several times, and each time it comes out the same."

"We will leave the middle of the towers open, from bottom to top. That would put less stress on the stones and should speed the construction." Salazar peered at the calculations and sketches Rowena had in front of her. "Are you sure the mountain is strong, that the stone will run under the entire structure?"

"I believe so. We could use your help, and that of your familiar to go below." She looked up from her parchments. "I found something else, something in the goblin scrolls."

"I would hardly think their village is an example of building at its finest."

"No, look here." She reached for one of the scrolls. "In the village, did you see anything that could have been underground tunnels?"

"There were a few. You will need to check with Erwin as well."

"Look here." She tapped the page again. "They talk of heat brought up from the ground to warm the floors of their homes. If the hot springs are trapped, and brought up through the rock, we could do the same. I have heard the Romans have a method, but this is older and seems far easier."

Salazar stood back and looked at her, then gazed out over the mountains. "There are few trees for heat and cooking. Between this warmth and Helga's cooking spells it will save the forests for wild game."

"The only problem with the towers is Helga's fears of levitating to great spaces. I am working on stairs, or some sort of platforms that will help her navigate the halls." Rowena leaned forward to scratch again in the dirt.

"A witch would transfigure parchment and quill you know." Salazar grinned at her and raised his eyebrow when she turned with a scowl.

"Yes, oh great one." She returned his scowl and then grinned. "I will not waste time and writing on a transfigured parchment that will wear and disappear. I need real supplies."

"Then it is time for Helga to call the elves. They have been left far longer then we had told them." He stood and looked at the scratches in the dirt again. "Rowena, if children will come to learn either house them on the first floor or build the stairs. They will not have gained enough magic or knowledge to levitate."

Rowena again started to pore over her plans, ignoring all else and not hearing anything outside of the studies and calculations in her head. She was lost in her work and did not notice the change of shadows until Erwin's hand, stroking her back, brought her back to the present.

"Salazar said I should speak to you." He leaned down and placed his lips against her neck. "However, I want to do more then speak."

"Erwin!" She smiled over her shoulder at him. "I have questions about the goblin village. You were there both days, Salazar and Gryffin but once."

"Rowena, please." He stood up and turned her head to him. "You need to rest."

"I am fine."

He pushed her sleeve up and pulled her arm up to her face. "How much weight can you lose and still hold the child tight inside you? How far did you walk? How much longer do you think this will go on?"

"Helga mixes the herbs you brought for the sickness in my tea." Rowena looked at the thinness of her arm and touched it with her other hand. "It helps me keep the little we have down."

"I want to take you back, Rowena." Erwin dropped her hand and grabbed her by the shoulders. "I need you to be someplace where you can eat properly and sleep on other than the ground."

"I cannot leave here," she said. "After all we have seen do you want to go back? Do you not remember?"

"You can hide your magic. We will live with the non-magical men."

"I could not." She tried to step back from him. "Erwin, how can you say this? How can you even think it?"

"We would have just a small dwelling, near a stream, with room for children." He took a step closer and watched as she pulled further away. "It is what we spoke of before all this, it is what we wanted."

"Never that, never leaving our kind," she said softly. "Erwin, how would we do this?"

"You could teach in the dwelling to others who hide, we would build it large, as Elbragh did. We can live away or at the edge of a village." He raked his hair with both hands and looked at her solemnly. "Rowena, this is not what we wanted."

"Not now, we will finish this later." Rowena was looking over his shoulder as Gryffin ran to them. "Please, Erwin, think of this and what you ask."

"Come," Gryffin yelled from across the clearing. "The elves have arrived and brought supplies."

"Quills!" Rowena smiled up at Erwin and ran to follow Gryffin.

"Yes," Erwin said aloud, as he watched her run across the field. "Quills and everything you want."

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"My gods, Helga." Rowena fell to her knees before the food Helga had spread on the grass. "There is enough for an entire celebration."

Gryffin sat with a piece of meat in one hand and a cup of mead in the other, not looking up from his meal as he barely chewed before swallowing down and taking another large bite.

"His branch of the family was never known to be talkative at the table," Salazar sneered watching him eat.

"Erwin!" Helga called, waving as she saw him walking across the field. "Come eat before Gryffin finishes it all."

"I will eat later, Helga. I need to prepare and mark the print of the towers on the ground." He spoke to Helga but did not take his eyes off Rowena, and without a word, or a smile to his bride, he walked away.

Rowena looked after him, playing their conversation over in her mind. She was sure he would change his mind when life became easier here and with the arrival of the elves, she knew it would. They had supplies, food to cook and clean new robes to wear. Salazar's clan had been generous and sent more than they would need for a long time. They had parchment, quills, and copies of many scrolls that they held close.

Yes, she was sure Erwin would like this place as soon as life came easier.

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Erwin had seen the plans that Rowena had drawn and knew that the first keep would stand over the cave where they spent the night. He had no worries that they would have difficulties anchoring the foundation as he had seen Rowena cast her seeking spells and found the whole mountain stood over a shelf of stone. He quickly marked the print the tower would make into the soil, scowling at the size. He returned to the spot her drawing lay in and looked again at the distance between towers.

He picked up her stick and altered the distance by half and again. He frowned as he added a walkway between each tower and the yard in the middle. He added a large rectangular room between each of the north to south walls. Then standing, he looked down at the overall again. He scratched a wall connecting the remaining towers and a cloister to circle the whole.

"Do you think the numbers will work?" Gryffin stood looking at Erwin as he changed the plans.

"If all things are changed equally there should be no difference." Erwin shrugged, not looking up from the ground. "There needs to be some beauty in his cold place of learning and broken clans."

"We will pull the children of the clans back together." Gryffin watched the other closely. "This may be the last place left that will keep the clans' history."

"This will be only a place that can tell them what is ahead, not what is lost behind."

"Erwin, if she leaves here, she and the child will not be safe. Living in the world of men is different. The child will be found out, they will see the difference, and both will be killed."

"She has spoken to you?" Erwin felt betrayed and alone as he stood and faced the wizard that held his wife's confidence more than he did.

"She is distraught." Gryffin spoke softly, knowing Erwin would be quick to anger.

"A part of me knows that what you say to be true and a part wants to take her away from here." Erwin looked at Gryffin with a look of pain. "I try not to think of the past. I have a brother. His name is Elan. I think we could go to him, that he..."

"Erwin, don't do this." Gryffin shook his head. "You know he would be loyal to the clan. He would have followed you to the circle if he could pull away from the old ways."

"I would do anything for her, you must believe me."

"It is not I that must hold your trust, Erwin. You need to make peace in your own home and either come to her understanding or have her come to yours."

Erwin walked back and began to measure and mark off the changes he had made, losing himself in his work, pushing his conversation from his mind. A small group of elves came and followed him, scratching their heads and matching his steps. One began to run from one still-imaginary tower to the next, ignoring the looks Erwin shot at him.

"I gets it, I gets it, Master, I do, I do," the elf said to Erwin, jumping up and down.

"Fine," Erwin said with a growl.

The elf stepped back and looked at the strange wizard that did not have the slightest idea how to treat an elf.

"I forgives you, Master, I do." He bowed grandly, sweeping his ears to the ground with a flourish of the cast-off cloth he wore tied at his middle.

"Forgive me?" Erwin stopped what he was doing to look at the elf.

"For not asking for my help." The elf bowed again.

"I should ask for your help?" Erwin looked at the elf and raised his eyebrow. "Why should I do that?"

"Just do it, Master." The elf grinned and rubbed its hands together.

"Fine. Please help," Erwin intoned flatly and rolled his eyes.

The elf turned to the meadow and began to snap his fingers, markers going up as he did. Erwin watched the elf run into the middle of where the towers would stand and slowly turn and mark each spot they would dig into the soil to find the rock to build on. When the elf was finished, it turned to Erwin, grinning and bowing.

"Thank you," Erwin whispered, looking around in wonder. "You will have your own chambers, I will see to it."

"Thanks you, Master, Missus Master PuffandHuff said we may sleep near the kitchen. I must go find work now, I can not play all day." The elf lifted its hand over his head and with a snap of its fingers was gone.

Play, he thought, and looked at twenty days of work. To them this is play.

"Erwin," Rowena called as she came up to him. "The elves brought these as well."

She unfolded a bundle and showed him wands that Salazar's clan had supplied. Erwin picked one up and tested it on a simple spell, then laid it down and tried another. He tested five before being satisfied with length and weight.

"Things will be better now." She worried her lip as she looked at him. "You will see. We have food now, and soon shall have shelter. The elves will be a great help and Salazar says his clan is sending messages to us. Perhaps there will be something from Morgan."

"Rowena, I am sorry." He took the wands from her, placed them on the ground, and pulled her close to him. "I spoke to soon. We will try this and see how it fits."

"Yes," she said, looking up at him. "You will see it will be good. The land on the pass is good, fertile and black. You can tell Morgan and perhaps he will come."

"He will seek the sea, and live at the shores." Erwin tipped her chin to see her better. "Perhaps I could visit him. Someone will have to gather the students and bring them here, and we can not send you."

"Yes," she said, now excited. "Erwin, that is a wonderful idea. I had not thought of how to get them here. I never considered it. You can go to the villages and collect the children once they are found."

"Hold on now, I cannot just scoop them up and hoist them to my shoulder. You will need to contact the elders first." He grinned, seeing the worry leave her face, and glanced quickly over his shoulder.

"We need to walk." He leaned down and found her lips tasted better now than just this morning.

"We never seem to get much walking done." She put one hand on his chest, and let her other slid down to stroke him through his robes. "I do enjoy your kind of walking."

"Come with me," he said, laughing at her boldness. "I will teach you next to run."

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That night only Salazar chose to sleep underground, the others preferring the cold air to the cold of the stone. He left the others shortly after the evening meal, feigning weariness and too many sleepless nights, to return underground and continue his work.

"Come, Erwin, we were to practice today." Gryffin stood and pulled his plain steel blade. "We may be well hidden but cannot afford our skills to rust like the blades."

Erwin grinned and pulled his own blade, hefting the weight. Glad for a chance to test his new weapon, he followed Gryffin away from the witches.

"Wizards," Helga muttered as they walked away.

"Helga, really they are not that bad," Rowena giggled, hearing Helga's snort.

"I know how to wield a sword as well as my brothers. I may not last as long in battle but I have an accurate blow and know how to throw up shields. Yet, will they ask a witch to hone her skills away from the hearth or the bed? No, not them, not the great..."

"Helga." Rowena scowled at her. "You made a promise. Did you not promise to hold your temper?"

"Fine." Helga leaned back and folded her arms, watching the wizards in the distance. "Did you see that? He moves in too close, his stance is wrong. He will lose his head if he keeps going like that."

"Gryffin will correct him." Rowena herself flinched at the sight. In the village, Erwin proved to be a fierce fighter. Now, seeing him with Gryffin, she saw how much more he could learn.

"We need to afford them more time to practice." Rowena continued to watch the mock duel. "They both need to be ready."

"Enough, we can look at what Erwin finished today."

They linked arms and walked higher up the slope to the flat expanse that would soon hold the towers. Seeing the markings, Rowena pulled away from Helga and entered the centre of the field. She turned in a circle, slowly inspecting the area she had not inspected before.

"He has changed it."

"Since you brought the wands?"

"No, I just did not look. He wanted to take a walk so we..." Her head turned up to see Helga's grin. "Anyway, I did not study it then."

"What do you make of it? Will it work?"

"It will be beautiful Helga. Look." She got down on the knees and began to draw the building, as it would look when it was completed. "The true beauty is that it can be expanded on. Not added to, but filled in and carried up. The walls will be true and stronger this way."

"Gryffin said Salazar spoke of a keep he has seen. He said it was square, and tall, with windows at the top and rooms for many. He said it had at least four levels and a space in the ground under it." Helga spoke quickly and saw Rowena's nod.

"That is what he first wanted, and then he said to make the towers round. The numbers show that the wind from the north will not hit them, but flow over them and around." Rowena sat back on her heels. "I have never seen such as this. Gryffin wants the space in the middle a great stone floor to practice battles on."

"Where the children will see?" Helga's eyes grew large. "My village would not mind if the witches can be trained. I do not think that the Ravens would approve, and the Gaunt clan will not send their sons. Oh, Rowena, we really have to talk to them about this."

"Could you make a list of all the clans you know and list the teachings of each? Then give it to Salazar. He will be the best to persuade them." Rowena bit her lip and looked again at the plans. "It is just like a wizard not to plan a kitchen or a place to bathe."

"Salazar spoke of bringing the hot spring up for heat, perhaps he would be talked into a bath?" Helga looked at Rowena and smiled sadly. "My mother and I would play a game. A game where I would say I would meet a man, and then we would go on to list all the things he would bring."

"You will find him still."

"It is not the man I miss, it is the game." Helga's eyes filled with tears. "I miss my mother's kitchen, Lucian the youngest, and my father the most. I miss walking to the market and watching in the road for them to come home. I just miss it, Rowena."

"I know, Helga, we all miss it." She stood and looked again at the markings. "Come, call your elves and let's begin. We know what has to be done and you can tell them what to do."

Helga asked the elves to open the ground at each marker down to the stone, and then chisel beyond, until the rock was solid and firm. She had the soil that the elves removed piled to the side and had several smaller elves sift it and make it fine. She told Rowena she would want shelter from the wind put up around the soil for fear the northern wind would knock down the tender plants she would grow.

Rowena sent her Patronus to seek Salazar and saw Helga watch the silver raven fly to the cave. Salazar saw the bird glide through the air and circle his head. He started up once again, not knowing if Erwin or Rowena had summoned him since the Patronus had again not said a word.

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"Come, join us." Gryffin stood, panting and wiping his brow.

"I think not." Salazar crossed his arms across this chest and sneered down at the sweating wizard. "Is this why you thought to disturb me?"

"I did not summon you." Gryffin grinned. "What about you, dead man, did you summon the thane?"

"Not I, Lord." Erwin laughed and bowed. "Perhaps that sweet witch looks for you."

Salazar turned and left the two joking wizards, not wanting to take part in their games. The sound of clashing steel and Gryffin's yells filled the air as he walked to the field. He climbed up the slope and seeing the activity, he stopped and frowned. These were not the markings, not the way he had left things, and he was unsure of what Rowena had done.

He scowled as he walked over to her and demanded to know what changes had been made. She timidly walked to the sketch she had just shown Helga and showed the same to Salazar.

"You will need more stone than I can remove from the cave." He turned angrily to walk the meadow where the structure would stand. "How do you think to build this without the stone?"

"There is a whole mountain here," Helga said waving her hand at the massive amount of rock above them.

"Yes, small stones, or weak and cracked. We can use none that you see."

"Salazar, there has to be a way to bring up more. It is right underfoot." Rowena crossed her arms and took a stance that told him she would not back down.

"Unless you plan on cutting it out from the bowels of the earth..." He stopped and looked at the plans again. "Helga, have your elves remove the earth from the middle. They will need to cut deep into the rock. At the depth of eight men, they can cut out passages and storage areas. It will be dark in the day, and cool in the summer and supply all the stone that we need."

"We can store what we need a year at a time, and use it to hide the children if it becomes unsafe." Helga brightened and looked up to see Rowena already plotting what it would look like.

"We will put the potions there, and make a safe place for the cauldrons to brew what we need. We will have no need to purchase potions if we can make our own. Salazar, can we add potions to the lessons?" Rowena questioned, looking up from her notes.

"Perhaps, for the older students." He frowned at her and shook his head. "You get ahead of yourself, witch. I see a pile of dirt and you are already teaching potions."

Rowena sat in the dirt, called an elf to retrieve parchment and quill, and began to plan what she did not know to call a dungeon in the new school.