The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Disclaimer: Not Mine.

The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Chapter 27

The Travel of Elves

Gryffin reached his hand down to Bretta and was glad when she accepted the help and pulled herself up next to him.

"I must say, that was unexpected." He pulled her closer to him and looked into her face, running the pad of this thumb down her cheek and studying her.

"Only because you are a blind fool." She frowned and looked around. "We should leave here before someone comes by."

"Why is that?" He leaned down to brush her lips with his, only to have her pull away.

"We just should." She began to walk away, then stopped and pulled out her wand and began to point it at her abdomen and utter an incantation when Gryffin slapped the wand out of her hand.

"What are you doing?" he hissed, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her.

"You know what I do." She struggled to get away from him. "I cannot risk it."

"Where did you learn it?" He sneered at her, and pushed her hard into the rock wall behind her. "Tell me witch, tell me quick before I..."

"Elmira," she gasped at the pain that radiated from her back as the sharp stone dug into her.

"Why?" he whispered in a dangerous voice, his anger radiating from him. "What did you do before coming here? Obviously you were not new to this."

She spit in his face and tried again to pull away. He saw her eyes fill with tears and saw her wince as she tried to move away from the stone where he had pushed her. He stepped back to release her from his grip but kept her pinned with one arm on each side of her.

"Talk to me, witch."

She shook her head and put her hands to his chest, trying to push him away. She began to take short breaths and knew that soon she would be sobbing if she could not get away. She could not explain to him, she could not say the words.

Salazar had looked into her mind and seen her last day in the city when the war was all around her. He was the one that had seen her memories of battle and the baby she had found on the road. He had seen her as she picked up a blade and wielded it toward the others after they ripped the baby from her arms. He had seen the men that grabbed her and pushed her down. He had whispered to her mind to be proud and not ashamed, her secret was safe, that he would tell no one.

He had stopped before he had seen Elmira come to her and pick her up where she laid in the mud beside the river. Elmira had cleaned her, mended her cuts, and staunched the blood that flowed between her legs. Elmira had pulled her into the cover of bushes and cast a spell long banned, that would not allow a child to grow from the men that had taken her. The stopping of life was the same as taking a life in their lands and the spell dark and considered the same as black magic. This was a crime punishable by stoning in her world, a crime of death to the mother of a cast off child.

Now she looked at the anger in Gryffin's face and could not explain that the stigma of a child with no hearth to take it would not be worth the risk. A child born to her in this hidden place, in such a small group, would not be passed off as a child of the clan. The child would be unwanted and remain unnamed, a fate the same as an unattended death.

"Let me go." She tried again to push him back only to sink to the ground. "Please let me go. I won't do it, the spell, I won't do it, please... don't ask me..."

He squatted down to her, tipped up her chin, and looked coldly into her face. "You will not use that charm. If it is so repulsive to you, keep your legs closed." [Author ID1: at Sat Apr 24 00:31:00 2010 ]

Her hand shot up to his face fast enough that she caught him unaware. He put his hand to his cheek and ran one finger over his lower lip, pulling it away and looking at the blood he now held on his finger. He stood and glared down at her.

"Bastard!" she hissed, looking up at him. "I thought you were different. I thought you could ... I thought you were different."

"I will ask you one more time and then I will leave." He sighed and squatted down in front of her again. "Be careful you do not lie. Salazar looked into your mind that first day on the pass. Now tell me, witch, what happened to you before you came here. What did you do?"

"I am not ashamed of it." She jerked her head away from him. "I killed two in the battle. Two more then many men on that last day."

"And?" Gryffin fought to be patient.

"My blade broke. I knew if I used my wand, they would know what I was. I was afraid they would find my dwelling and... I was afraid of the fire, I saw what they did to witches they caught. I hid my wand." She pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them, looking at him for the first time. "I let them take me. There were... seven I think, it is all I remember, seven. When I woke... I... when I woke and ... my family and the babe I found were dead... they found them anyway, my family, they killed them all, they were all dead. I quit fighting them and it did no good, they were all dead."

She turned suddenly and crawled away to vomit on the ground. She retched until her stomach was empty then sat back on her heels. Gryffin conjured a cup and spelled it full of water, gave it to her and let her wash her mouth.

"I should have fought," she whispered as she sat back on her heels. "If I could do it over I would fight. If I had it to do over, I would put the broken blade to my throat. I should have had my wand. I should have used it. It would have been better to go to the fire and end all this."

"I have seen men do that. Finish what is started already." Gryffin frowned and looked at her bent head. "I sometimes thought they showed great bravery, and other times extreme foolishness."

"They say you lost everything. They say you were lost for a while." She raised her head and locked her eyes on his. "If your Lara had a child of theirs, could you have taken it in, taken it to be named and raise it as your own?"

"I would want it dead." He waited for her response and finally saw her nod.

"I would want myself dead." She turned from him and sighed. "I cannot get beyond that day. It haunts me still."

Gryffin flicked his wand, cleaned the ground, and sat down next to her. "I am sorry for what I said. However, I am not sorry for making you stop the incantation."

"I will stay in the town when it is finished," she said, lowering her head again. "If the parents knew of me they would want me away for the children."

"Why would they do that? They would be glad to have you there to protect them."

"I do care for you, Gryffin. I don't want you to think me a ... I don't want you to think badly of me." She turned and looked at him. "You are the first I ever... the first... Damn it, you know what I am trying to say."

"The first one you came to willingly?" he asked and smiled as he saw her turn her head and nod. "You do know this means we will have to join?"

"No ... no Gryffin, not after what ..." she sighed and shook her head.

He put his head back and laughed at her. "Gods woman, if every wizard that fell in bed with a witch could not marry and have children we would have died out years ago."

She looked at him and felt her lip twitch. "I would not expect you to claim me. It was I that let it happen."

"You did not." He tried to peek at her face, only the further he leaned toward her, the further she turned away. "Men, magical and non, do things in war they would not normally do. They are crass and hard and kill for the taste of blood. They would have taken you if you had fought or not, it does not matter."

"Our laws do not give different rules for war."

"We have never faced wars like this to make laws for. We will join, it is settled."

"No, you did want me only one hour ago. Nothing has changed from then to now. It is not what you want."

"I do nothing I do not want. Trust me on that." He again reached for her chin and pulled her face to his. "We will wed, you will never use that spell, and you will never leave me, or I you. Agreed?"

Bretta looked at him and locked her eyes on his. "Do you care for me?"

"I enjoy your company. You make me feel ... you make me feel at peace, as if I can stop running now. Is that love? I do not know."

"Do you care enough for this?"

"Yes. I can say that for sure. And you, Bretta?"

She turned red and looked down at the ground. "I care for you more than you for me."

"We will join when the town is complete."

"No, Gryffin." She looked up at him again. "We will join when you can tell me you feel the same as I."

"Bretta," he said, cupping her face in his hands. "You saved yourself from a pyre. You tried to save others. There is no shame in that."

"There would be shame to join with someone who only did so because of what was done in a moment." She shook her head. "No, I will not do this. I will not use this to trap you into a hearth you do not want. I have never sold myself and I will not do so now."

.

.

.

.

In three moons' time Gryffin and Bretta had laid out the rest of the town and the buildings already started from wood, set up on stones mudded together. There would be no stone houses here, no towering buildings or beautiful halls. This would be the last stop before Hogwarts and only those connected with the school were to pass. Gryffin set up original wards and then Rowena added hers, followed by Helga and Salazar, insuring the privacy of the school from here.

The first building had a first floor of a large room with a kitchen and a smaller room for stock. Upstairs were many rooms for traders to spend the night. It had a floor of wood, and glass fitted into the doors and upstairs windows. A small shed built inside the front door made it possible to enter only by passing through the small, cramped space to the second door that opened onto the pub. The shed was to hold brooms, made available to Hogwarts students and staff that needed to travel quickly.

Gryffin had laughed to see a broom closet attached to an inn and quickly dubbed the name by the number of brooms kept there.

A second structure was built across a small way and connected to the school by a tunnel that ran underground from its cellar to the wall of the tower that held Salazar's magic tapestry. This was the shop to hold Helga's cakes and extra honey taken in the fall from hives too full for the bees to continue.

Two dwellings would stand a short walk from what would become the small town. One for Marcus and Karra, and one for Hengest. They marked out two roads, and laid out the markings for more dwellings that would be built by those that came to live here.

Erwin took Rowena, covered in a hooded cloak to show her the town, leading her through the tunnel and into the shop that would hold Helga's sweets. He let her inspect the shelves and the quarters upstairs before taking her outside to see the inn across the road. She scowled, looked around and turned to leave, refusing to enter the inn.

"He is not here, Rowena."

"Do you intend to have him live with the others in the dwellings? Erwin, I cannot breathe here. It is wrong."

"Rowena, please."

"No, Erwin, make him live at the inn. If he has a dwelling he will bring a new wife, and he will..."

"Rowena, he already has a new wife. She seems a good woman."

"Gods, Erwin. Why an inn? Why not just a shop and a place to sleep in the back?"

"He is here to meet the traders. He needs to offer them lodging and food."

"And whores and mead?" she spat out angrily. "I do not trust him."

"I have spoken to Marcus. Two of the witches that came with him, Mara and Willa, they can have a place in town as well. We will give them the dwelling meant for Hengest and he will live in the inn. They will sell the mead to keep it away from Hengest. They will have a shop in the back to sell the potions until they have need for a bigger shop and then open up their own herb stall."

"We do not have enough mead to sell. There are not enough grains to make it."

"Marcus has ordered a Hog's Head. Karra will transfigure containers to sell the pints. Rowena, it will work."

"The students should not come here. I do not trust it Erwin. I don't want Helena out of the valley."

"Gryffin is setting a collecting point for the students by the lake. We can collect them there and they will avoid the town. In this way none of the traders will see them or the school, and we can keep them safe."

"Perhaps when it is safe again in the cities, when they stop burning witches I will feel better. I still hear stories from the students, Erwin." Rowena looked around what would be the town and hugged her arms around herself. "I worry for Helena, if this is not over when she is grown will she have to stay here forever?"

"Gryffin thinks that raids on whole cities and villages are over." He began walking to the inn. "We must instruct the students better to hide their magic."

"We do encourage too much." Rowena mused. "We should separate the girls in the first year and give them lessons on hiding their magic until this is over."

"We will talk to the others. Salazar and Karra should be back tonight."

"I know Helga will agree. She is worried as well."

Erwin sniggered when he thought of Helga. "Did you hear her this morning with the elves? She was berating them for helping you learn to travel the way they do."

"I almost have it, really I do." She was suddenly excited and smiled as she pulled him along with her down the path to Hogwarts. "I have worked too hard on one aspect that is different with us. I just did not realize it. Our magic is different, not weaker, but centred somehow different."

"What aspect have you been concerned of?" He grinned down at her as she walked and talked faster as she became more excited to discuss her findings.

"I have been trying to silence the travel, as the elves do it." She looked up at him, wrinkling her brow. "You cannot hear them when they travel from place to place, but with us it is different."

They walked on down the path and started around the lake. "Wait, let me show you."

She stepped away from him and closed her eyes, holding in her arms and turning in place, a look of pure concentration on her face. Suddenly a thunderclap echoed across the valley as she spun in a circle and disappeared from sight.

"Over here!" She cupped her hands to her mouth and yelled across the lake back to where Erwin stood. "Did you hear?"

Erwin stood with his mouth open, trying to form words that would not come when a second clap of thunder returned her to stand in front of him.

"Did you hear it?"

"I am not deaf, woman! The whole valley could hear that!"

"I cannot tell if it is the leaving or the coming that creates the noise," she said, frowning at him.

"It is the leaving. I heard the echo against the far hill before the one behind me, yet I am in the centre."

"That would mean it is the leaving I must work on." She chewed her lip and thought. "We do not have enough energy."

They started walking toward the school as Erwin slipped his arm around her waist. "Helga said it is unsafe. She says Bretta was injured."

"Yes, but we know why now. The leaving must be done in a small space of magic that circles your body. If you step out of that circle it is dangerous."

"That is why you hug your arms to your body?"

"Yes. However, I am sure there is a way of concentrating to enlarge the circle. The problem is the noise. I can not find enough energy to ... oh Erwin, it is simple!" She ran and spun as she was still moving, appearing up the path with only a small crack of noise.

"It is so simple! I only have to add the forward motion to get it started." She smiled widely at him. "We will teach the students. The older students that can pass a test of concentration will be allowed to try."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Do you not see, Erwin? A witch can avoid the pyre if she can spin away and be safe." She frowned and waited for him to catch up to her on the path. "Never again will one of ours be caught and burnt. Never again will those such as Gryffin lose his Lara because she cannot escape."

Erwin lifted her face to his and smiled. "Helena will learn as soon as she is able. It means she will be safe to do what she wants in this world and not hide in this valley."

.

.

.

.

Gryffin sat at the end of the dining table, poking at the food in front of him. He had no appetite tonight. Erwin had told him about Rowena's disapproval of the town so close to the school and Hengest as the trader. He saw her glance at him occasionally, unable or unwilling to bring up the topic in front of the entire staff.

Salazar and his wife laughed and told tales of the summer spent in a fine new home near that of Salazar's parents. Karra blushed and nodded as he announced the coming of his son next spring to the joy of the witches at the table. Gryffin stole a look at Bretta, saw her scowl, and then put what he knew to be a false smile on her face as the told Karra how pleased she was.

Gryffin slammed his cup on the table, stood up quickly, sending his chair cashing to the floor as he glared at Bretta, and stormed out of the Hall. He did not understand her, and he did not want to. She had refused him. Now he would be done with her, and seek his pleasure elsewhere.

He continued walking until he came to the lake and climbed on the rocks as he had done when they first came to this place. He sat and looked to the sky, no longer knowing how to say the prayers. He caught a glimpse of movement on the ridge and, looking carefully, saw the silhouette of a centaur against the darkening sky. He wondered if it was true that they looked to the sky not for the gods but for the future, and fought the urge to find his mirrors and find his own future in them.

He looked back up to find Orion and then Cassiopeia and frowned, wondering if he would ever have what Temin had. His Lara no longer visited him. He could no longer recall her voice, or the sound of her breathing as she had slept next to him. He had a longing for her that he knew would never leave, but it was a sweetness now, a hurt that was no longer burning or the harsh pain of the past.

He thought of Bretta, and remembered how she looked wielding the sword, and grinned, thinking how close she could come throwing her knife to him in practice.

He had known her once, and it was not enough. He thought of her, as she had fought not to say the prayers in front of Temin's hut as the witches had prayed for the birth of the children and remembered her lips had not moved after the first singing of the song. He remembered her as she skirted the back of the crowd at Helga's joining. He remembered how she had lowered her eyes and stayed far back from the dancing at the fire. Once again, he raised his eyes and searched for the centaur.

He knew what he had seen as shyness and a witch's coy ways was fear and embarrassment and the feeling she was unworthy. He now saw how she pushed the food around her plate, not for dislike of Helga's fare but her inability to put her nightmares from her mind even in the warmth of day. He remembered her eyes on him during lessons and knew why he had not felt easy having her there.

Lara had not caught him unaware. She had been a presence in his life. She had not argued with him in truth, or thrown curses his way in anger. He grinned and thought that he had never yelled at her to swing the blade in a wider arc, or to throw the knife harder. Perhaps if I had, he thought, she could have protected herself and be here still.

He stood to walk back to his tower, turning his back on the stars, and he wondered if this night would ever end, or his need for Bretta leave.

AN: A Hogs Head is a unit of measurement of aprox. 63 gallons, sold in a large cask.