Abi knelt down in front of the fire and held out her hands to the flames. She watched as Justin waited by the door. She could picture Kier the other side listening just as they were listening. He would know someone was at home because the car was outside, so why hadn’t he knocked?
She hugged her cardigan around her shoulders and watched as the flames climbed higher, illuminating the chimney. There was a loud crack as one of the logs split and she jumped. She turned and looked at Justin. He smiled at her and gestured at her to wait. Not long, he seemed to say. Just be patient.
‘I know you’re in there!’ Kier’s voice was suddenly very loud in the room. He had crouched down and spoken into the letterbox.
Justin didn’t answer. He tiptoed across to the table and reached for one of the jars. Inside were several bundles of dried herbs bound up with wool. Taking one out, he brought it over to the fire and pushed it into the flames. He waited until it had caught, then he blew it out gently, leaving the herbs smoking. Abi saw the trail of fragrant blue smoke spiralling lazily round his head. He winked at her and went back to the door. Somehow he managed to lever the inner flap of the letter box open and he held the bundle near it and, pursing his lips, he blew smoke towards the aperture.
They both heard Kier cough. Justin smiled – he had obviously been very close – and blew again, gently, watching as the smouldering sticks in his hand glowed red. Abi climbed to her feet and stood with her back to the fire, watching. Any lurking fear had gone. They were safe here. Kier couldn’t get into the house.
He coughed again, then there was silence. After several moments Justin went to the front window and cautiously lifted the corner of the curtain. He grinned. ‘He’s thinking about it,’ he said softly. ‘The smoke is working on him.’ There was another silence. They waited. Then suddenly a loud bang on the door. ‘I know what you’re doing. You think that pagan smoke is going to drive me away. Well, you’re wrong.’ Kier’s voice was harsh and panicky.
Abi and Justin exchanged glances. ‘I’m going to hit you both with bell, book and candle!’ There was another crash on the door. Then silence.
Justin peered out of the window again. ‘He’s going.’ His voice seemed unnaturally loud after the long silence. ‘Back up the track, although I fear we haven’t seen the last of him.’
‘You think he’s going to come back.’
‘Well, don’t you?’
She hesitated before nodding. ‘He won’t leave us alone, will he.’
‘I doubt it. But while we wait to see there are things we can do. I think you should pray for him, Abi. Pray that he sees how foolish he is being. Pray that he will leave you alone in future. Pray for his soul which is tortured and in pain.’
‘You don’t think I haven’t done that already?’ She spoke more sharply than she meant to. His magic seemed so powerful, and his concessions to prayer so patronising.
He raised his hands in surrender. ‘Of course. I’m sorry.’
‘What is that stuff you are burning? It doesn’t smell like church incense.’ She sat down, staring back into the fire. ‘If it has special powers I would like to know what they are.’ She softened the unintentional sharpness of her tone with a smile and a shrug.
‘Smudge.’ He came over and threw the remnants of the bundle into the fire. She smelled the sweetness of the herbs as it burned. ‘Something modern druids have learned from the Native Americans. They use wild sage to bless and purify and our guess is that other cultures, including our own tradition, would have done the same. I have made my own bundles. The different coloured wools mean the dried herbs I have used are for different specific jobs. That one, with red wool is to dispel danger and calm the atmosphere.’
‘And the savage beast.’ Abi shook her head slowly. ‘I am out of my depth here.’
‘No, you are not. You are a priestess of your church. And a good one, if I read the signs right. The trouble is you are confused, and rightly so, by all that has happened to you. As soon as Kier has gone we can relax and get back to Mora. I think you will find your doubts will be resolved.’
‘Even when my bishop hears I’m shacked up with a druid priest burning smudge in the Welsh mountains?’
There was a moment’s pause. ‘Shacked up,’ he repeated. ‘That sounds potentially interesting. I wonder what he’ll think about that.’ He smiled as Abi blushed and it was a moment before she turned away and reached for the crystal.
He laughed softly. ‘Don’t worry. You forget that the bishop in question has known me since I was born. He’s a Somerset man. There must still be vestiges of magic in his soul.’
It took two days for Mora to make her way back to Ynys yr Afalon, partly by boat, hitching a ride with one traveller after another and then on an ox cart for the last part of the journey. She did not go at once to see Petra and her parents, instead waiting on the landing stage until one of the young druids saw her and responded to her wave by coming across for her in a dugout. She went at once to see her father.
He took her into his arms and held her for a long time. ‘You know that Cynan is dead,’ he said gently. She nodded, her face muffled in his robe, her tears falling anew at hearing the words spoken aloud. ‘And with him, Romanus.’
She pulled away and looked at him. ‘How could he do it?’
‘Flavius?’ Her father shrugged. ‘He is a man driven by evil gods and by a vicious master.’ He sighed. ‘Yeshua is safe?’
She nodded once more.
He took her hand and led her over to the two intricately woven wicker chairs which stood near the fire. His attendants had left them alone and the interior of his house was lit only by the flames licking over the burning peats. Outside the rain had started to fall again. In the distance she could hear the sound of chanting.
He looked sternly at Mora. ‘I have sworn our community to silence about Yeshua’s story here. We do not wish to attract the attention of any more vindictive dictates from the Emperor. His reach, and that of Herod Antipas appears to be as long as it is deadly. The Emperor bears no love of druids as it is. It is not our desire to bring his wrath down on the Pretannic Isles. Because Julius Caesar abandoned his attempt to conquer these shores does not mean the Romans might not be moved to try again.’
In the cottage Justin shook his head. ‘What an irony,’ he whispered. ‘That the end of the druids came not through the hostility of Rome, in the end, but through Christianity itself.’
Abi, her hands clasped around the Serpent Stone, did not hear him.
‘Cynan and Romanus have gone to the land of the ever young,’ Mora’s father said gently, ‘but they have gone with Yeshua’s blessing to the feet of his god. You know of course, that that young man was wise far beyond his years,’ he went on. ‘He came here to learn, but also he came to teach. You and I and all who have known him have been blessed by his presence in so many ways.’
She nodded, trying to hold back her tears.
‘This island is a sacred place; now it is thrice blessed.’ He smiled sadly. ‘He won’t come back here, Mora, not in his lifetime, but one day his spirit will visit us and we will feel that he is near again. I have seen the future here. It is tied up inextricably with Yeshua and his teachings. His uncle will return again and again, as he has always returned, but one day he will come here to settle and with him he will bring some special sign.’ He reached across for her hand again. ‘You will still be here, my daughter. You will see this for yourself.’
Mora stared at him. ‘Did Yeshua tell you this?’
He shrugged. ‘Not in so many words. But he and I talked many times. He told me that you too saw his destiny. One day you will serve his god, Mora.’
She shook her head. ‘I love my own gods; the goddess.’
‘We talked of the goddess. In his land she is called Sophia which means wisdom.’ He stood up stiffly. ‘Go now and rest and pray. Tomorrow you must go to see Lydia and her daughter. Take them the comfort of Yeshua’s words. And remember,’ he raised his hand and touched her hair for a moment, ‘all this for now must remain our secret. Flavius is still in this country. He still harbours hatred for his brother in his heart and when he finds that his quarry has eluded him my guess is that he will return to try to wreak vengeance on everyone who has outwitted him.’
21
