Before I knew what was happening, I ended up at the Brook Gate Tavern. This late in the morning, the smell of freshly baking bread was gone. As was the hubbub of tightly packed bodies conversing and arguing with each other.
It looked quiet and peaceful right now, with small groups of people dotted throughout the tavern sitting at those long wooden tables. Even though I knew this many people were normal for a morning at the tavern, it looked somewhat empty and forlorn. There were even a few people there, sitting alone mainly, who were more into their cups than the breakfast, which was almost forgotten next to their leather tankard.
It was Mirielda who saw me first. Well, me and Tan-bei, who had steadfastly refused to let go of my arm.
Her beautiful pink pockmarked face with its slight sagginess and rosiness instantly reddened. She slammed the leather tankards she had been carrying on the bar, sloshing the ale all over the clean bar.
‘Only this morn,’ she said, crossing her arms over her bosom, ‘ya promised Sara. Now ya have it hangin off ya arm. ’
Tan-bei instantly let go of my arm and retreated behind me.
I know Mirielda was important to Sara. Sara was important to me. But Tan-bei was a friend too. Maybe the most important friend I had. It had been her who helped me settle down and get used to living here, even helping me overcome my wariness of Gomes.
If she wanted to be angry, fine. But I would show her how true thunderous anger was.
I stood up tall, chin thrust forward, and my arms held wide from my body. Then, thinking about all the minor slurs she held against me, and my friends, admittedly mostly from when she was first getting back into Sara ’s life, I allowed the anger I had buried deep crack out from its barren landscape.
With a glare, I looked down at her and took a step closer. I could feel my heartbeat pound hard and fast.
My whole body grew hot.
She stepped back away from me again. The wall dividing the kitchen from the rest of the ground floor stopping her retreat. I easily vaulted over the bar and stood in front of her, looking down at the small pitiful creature than had wormed its way into my Sara ’s life.
Using two fingers, I lifted her chin so that I could look at her in the eyes.
‘If I wanted to fuck Sara, then fuck Tan-bei, you have no right to stop me. You who ran away. You who cut Sara out of your life. Because you were mad, Sara’s dad picked your sister, the prostitute, over you, the pure maiden.’
The redness on Mirielda ’s face turned ashen. Her lips trembled, as did her chin, under pressure from being held up by my fingers. She kept blinking away the dampness, which filled her eyes.
‘Berwyn, stop!’ I heard Sara’s angry voice call.
She was standing on the other side of the bar near the square table, which had been displaced when Gomes brought the round table in.
Her bright smile was gone from her chubby and prematurely aged face, replaced with a thin narrow lipped expression. Her warm white skin was almost bright red. Her hands were on her hips. This is who I come to recognise and see in the time I spent in this tavern; a strong woman who single-handedly ran this tavern after her parents died. Those bright eyes, which looked at me with love the last time I saw them, were now filled with anger and a slight edge of fear.
I took a step back from Mirielda and let my hand rest easily by my side. Mirielda collapsed to the floor, her shaking legs unable to support her weight.
‘It’s my fault—’ Tan-bei started to say, but she shut up after receiving a glare from Sara.
‘Ya explain, mister.’ Sara spoke to me, ignoring what Tan-bei said.
‘I come here to talk. She,’ I spat out, ‘dared claim I was cheating. Tan-bei is here to help.’
Sara shook her head, then looked back at me. ‘Forget the temple.’
I spun myself over the bar and strode across to where Tan-bei stood. Her hands were shaking and her copper-fawn skin was pale.
I took one of her clammy hands in mine. It seemed absurdly small in my large hand. ‘Maybe I do what she wants. Maybe I’ll take her to the chapel and marry her instead.’
‘Fine. She were always after ya.’ Sara turned around, her face sad. She stormed off across the tavern and disappeared behind the stair divider. Her stomping up the creaking stairs was loud as thunder in the now quiet tavern.
Keeping Tan-bei ’s hand in mine, I stalked out of the tavern. Ignoring those who skittered away as I came storming out of the door.
By the time my mind had finally quietened down and calmed down somewhat, I was standing in front of the carts packed around the courtyard in front of the flint-faced chapel with its pointed tower reaching up towards the realms of the gods. The cobbled courtyard was packed with a swirling mass of people and children so thick it was impossible to see the uneven and unrefined cobblestones. A cacophony of voices, shouting and chatting away, along with the hawking shouts of the stall holders and the joyful loud voices of children. The mass of people and children were swiriling like the rockpools in a rising tide as they headed between the carts, looking for cheap trinkets and the tempted by the appitising smells of roasted and salted meats. More than a couple of people were eyeing up other people caught up in the swirling mass rather than what lay on the carts.
This time, it was Tan-bei who led me through the swirling mass across the cobbled stones, unrefined from the gound they had been ripped from.
I don ’t know why, but the crowd parted around us. Then we were through the noisy swirling mass and into the quiet and empty chapel with its door shut firmly behind us.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
The walls were covered with brightly vivid and dramatic depictions of the gods and goddess in various religous scenes. Though I couldn ’t quite understand them all, I was aware there were some scenes of the creation, also of the punishment and pleasurable life in the realms of the gods. Some other scenes were recognisable because of the ranting of preachers who I had come across in the past.
A musty smell of old sweat filled the chapel as if it held onto whatever it could of the worshipers who entered within.
Near the back of the church, was a decorative dark wood screen reaching up to the celling. Fine cut patterns on the panels of the screen showed intricate carvings of animals and plants. The great, dark wood screen shut off the public areas away from the sacred areas of the back.
Standing guard over the narrow passageway through the screen was a larger-than-human sized statue looming over the hall as powerful as a fortress tower. The immaculate, glossy pitch black, statue was of the prime god, Aitan, and his two wives, Fegoia and Laitra. The three of them were centred around a circular platform. His two wives were wearing demure dresses as they draped themselves over their virile, muscular, and bare chested, husband, the prime god with his long and bushy beard.
I had never been in here before, happily shunning the gods. I continued to believe in the spirits of my home island, rather than the gods which seem to dominate the rest of the inhabited lands. After the Night of Destruction, preachers from the gods came to our island, promising us a better life. Sadly, most of them were content with just shouting out simple platitudes. The worse were those who acted alongside those who wanted my people to be mere slaves and acted kindly until they were in chains or behind bars.
After my second almost-capture, I stopped trying to use the preachers and started actively avoiding the preachers.
‘That’s unheard of, one of the Tree Folk here in Three Bridge.’ A hoarse, yet calming and soothing voice, said. The soothing voice was something I had all too often heard to lure my people into traps. Warily I looked around for the person who had got the name of my people right.
He was a thuggish-looking individual who was probably in his thirties with ruddy skin and shaved, balding hair. He carried himself with dertermination and strength, his movements silent and graceful. The way he looked and the way he moved reminded me of my combat tutor, Osbert. He was wearing the slate grey robes of the preachers. The purple skull cap he wore on his head indicated, I believed, he was the head of this chapel. ‘May the branches watch over you.’
The shock of receiving the traditional welcome to a visitor from afar made me reply in kind, even though I was even more suspicious of this preacher. ‘And may your branches ever grace your skies.’
‘Ah, Tan-bei, it’s nice to see you again. I wasn’t aware that An-chau was expecting you today. Were you not meant to be on healing duty at Mægen Scōl today? I guess it matters little, truly. But I’m guessing you’re here about this young man.’
Tan-bei, however didn ’t seem to view him suspiciously. So I decided to give him a little trust.
He looked back at me. ‘I journeyed to the Isle of the Woods as a new preacher, about a year before the Arlennic Ruin. I left mere weeks before, praise to Juron. When I heard what happened, I got permission to head back. It was a shame to see such beautiful trees destroyed. Alas, it hurt even more to see the depths some of those who took the cloth fell to, in those dark days, for your people.
‘May you bless me with your name?’
I shook my head.
‘May I enquire if you are free, or imprisoned?’
That much I was happy to tell him. ‘Free.’
He gave me a radiant smile, which really looked odd on his square, thuggish face. ‘That is good news indeed. Too many of your people have been imprisoned or trapped. I don’t know the proper saying here, but I wish for them to have peace.’
Too many people were led into captivity by his peers. But my instincts seemed not to warn me about him. Which made me all the more wary. Especially as he seemed to know lots out my people. As for the saying, I knew the saying he was talking about: may the birds of the branches lead them ever to freedom.
I refused to allow any emotion to show on my face.
‘Though it wasn’t much, I smuggled a dozen young out, mainly girls, with the help of the Druids of the Northern Isles. When my superiors found out what I had done, even if was almost a decade later, they stripped me of my rank. Further more, my family disowned me. I was and sent here. It was a sacrifice which I am happy to have made. My selfish prayer was for me have had saved more back then.‘
He was lying. There was something he wasn ’t saying. I eyed him with a look which I hoped he would understand that I knew he was lying.
‘Welcome to the First Chapel of Saint Evaine. I bless you with my name; I am Gannis, no longer of a family, but one with Brook Bridge.’
He really knew the ways of my people. If what he said was true, was true then I was grateful for what he claimed to do. But the bad blood of what I had seen too many preachers do still made me wary of him. I didn ’t return the Blessing of Names.
‘No, young Tan-bei, the young gentleman will give me his name when he is ready.’ Gannis said, looking at Tan-bei at my side. ’Until then, his desire to remain nameless to me is his choice. A choice which many of his people no longer have, as they have been forced to take on names that their…’ He trailed off for a moment. ‘Damn it, I’ll get censored again if this ever gets out. That their slave masters forced upon them. They were a proud and strong people who lived in harmony on their island. Though much is made of the loss of the ships at sea and the two ports impacted by the Arlennic Ruin, it is the Tree Folk of the Isle of the Wood who suffered the most.
‘Not that many would believe that, or accept that. They believed they were enlightening a backwards people.’ The preacher gave a forced chuckle when he said that. Then his face came over with a dreamy look. ‘Oh, Tan-bei you should’ve seen those trees. Ancient trees, some of them older than the union of the Bernician Isles. And the intricate culture and artwork they produced, some of it is far better than the smiths on the main isles are capable of. My most treasured belongings are my set of silver inlaid, bone divination stones they gifted to me when I first visited the Isle.’
He tapped the sleeve of his dark grey robe, and in the chapel's quiet, I heard stones rattle together. A familiar sound I hadn ’t heard since the Night of Destruction.
The door to the chapel opened behind us briefly letting in the caphony from outside, ‘Tan-tan, I didn’t know I would be seeing you today.’
‘We want to marry, Chau. Please let it be.’
I wasn ’t sure if I wanted to marry Tan-bei. She seemed awfully sure she wanted to marry me, though.
‘The young gentleman seems to have some reservations.’ The thuggish preacher said with a slight chuckle. He reached into his sleeve and brought out two stones. He nodded and smiled at them. ‘Come with me. I will show you something. Something I’ve not shown anyone before. And when there, we’ll cast lots to bring comfort to our young gentleman’s mind and help him come to a decision.
‘So, come and let me lead you to the original, and long-lost, reliquary of Saint Evaine. And may she grant her guidance to this lost gentleman.’