Children of the May (Children of the May Book 1)

Chapter Six: A Vision (part one)

They saved only one more of us from the sea. It took four of them to carry Piers up to the cave: Agravaine, Melwas, and the two Saracens. The huge farm-lad had taken on a lot of water, but he was alive. The Saracen boy knelt by his side and pumped his chest. Water streamed from Piers’ mouth. Eventually he made a spluttering cough, and his eyes blinked open.

‘Me stars!’ Piers bellowed as he sprang back to life. Bellina scowled at him, making a show of protecting the baby’s ears from this mildest of oaths. The tiny boy in the crook of her arm was not startled by the exclamation; he giggled at the sound of Piers’ voice.

‘Where is Mordred?’ Epicene asked the Saracen boy.

‘He insists on remaining outside to look for more survivors.’ The Saracen shook his head, indicating that he thought Mordred mad for believing he would find anyone else. ‘And who are you, my lady?’ I was unsure he was right in thinking that the fire-sorcerer was a girl.

‘Damn that,’ shouted Piers. ‘Who are you, you Saracen devil? Get away from me!’

The Saracen frowned at Piers as if he was a tiny, ignorant child. ‘My name is Palomides, master of the warm circle sea, you impolite swineherd. I would thank you for your respect. My sister and I have just helped to save your poor life.’

‘Damn your help!’ Piers reached for the sickle that still hung from his belt and tried to get up, but his legs, weakened by his time in the sea, gave way under him. ‘Aye well,’ he said in his coarse voice. ‘I’ll get you for that insult when I’m well again.’

Palomina stepped forward, her skirts sticking to her slim legs. ‘You will have to get through me first, and I promise that I am more than a match for you.’

Piers was trying to summon up a reply when the small freckled girl who had been laid out by the fire shot upright and cried: ‘My harp! Where’s my harp?’ She was Elia the musician.

Palomides went to her, and placed a soothing hand on her bare arm. ‘We have not yet found it, my lady, but we will in time. Now rest, rest.’ His strange monotonous tone, and the unusual stretched-out rhythms of his speech lulled her. Palomides eased Elia back down to the floor and she was soon asleep again.

‘You lie to her, Saracen?’ Bellina said witheringly.

He opened his hands in a symbol of peace. ‘I merely proffer hope, my beautiful, sharp-tongued lady. The instrument may well wash up as flotsam, for a harp floats, does it not?’ He paused and looked less certain of himself. ‘Does it not, my sister?’

Palomina had removed her padded jerkin, and was spreading it out on a stone. It had already created a small puddle on the floor. She shrugged at her brother, and Piers let out a round laugh as Palomides was undermined.

We settled around the fire. The young boy Melwas had been undressing as I came in stopped shivering, and told us that his name was Alisander. When Aglinda was tired with crying I sent her to him, and the two young children shrugged off their memories of the shipwreck with incredible speed. They began playing a game with small round pebbles they found on the cave floor. Elia the musician woke once again, and tried to go out to look for her harp, but Palomides held her back, assuring her that Mordred would find the instrument. He placed the freckled girl between himself and Palomina, and she helped to warm them after their long spell in the cold outside.

The storm began to die off. We sat in a silence that was broken only by Aglinda and Alisander’s casting of the stones, and the occasional gurgle from the baby. Bellina found a wooden cross tied around the baby’s neck, and announced that in the absence of other evidence we should call him Christian.