Between Two Worlds [Excerpt Only] | NOW A PUBLISHED NOVEL

Chapter I Pt. 1

THE YEAR DAWNED grey and frosted and bitterly cold.

It was the year of our Lord 78, by the Roman calendar 831: the ninth year of the reign of Roman Emperor Titus Flavius Vespansianus, known to his people as Vespasian; the year of the consulship of Novius and Commodus; the year that the unstoppable legions of the Roman Empire conquered the Ordovice and Silure tribes of Britannia; and the year that Gnaeus Julius Agricola replaced Sextus Julius Frontinus as the governor of Roman Britain. But all that meant little to me.

I am—I was—Enid, daughter of Ioan, the chieftain of our clan, lord of three valleys and the forest surrounding them, whose warriors numbered in the hundreds, and of many bondservants and freedmen. And on the turning of the year, as the eastern sky paled to silvery pearl and the white sun shone gloomily from the wintry heavens, the Roman Empire was only a dream, a far-off sigh of something beyond my understanding—occasionally spoken of by the clan elders, but nothing more. The valley and the mountains were my world—the river and the forest, the sky and the wind. Our people were our own and we cared little for the great kingdoms beyond our lands that posed no threat to us.

Yet could I have foreseen that when the snows melted away I would no longer be in the place I loved best, it is in my heart that perhaps I would have been different. I would have smiled more at the humourous pretensions of my younger sisters and lingered longer as I kissed the youngest. I would have laughed at the jests of my brothers, been more willing to serve alongside my mother, encouraged and appreciated my father—but all that matters little now.

The waters of Lethe offer only one passage, and woe to the soul that wishes to return through.

For we can never go back....

~~~

The first day of spring began as any other, that fateful year. I rose early to bring water from the stream that ran beyond the outskirts of the village. Coming back, as the sun began to peep its rosy face over a sleeping world, I passed Telyn on his way for a morning hunt.

Telyn was the hunting companion of my brothers, with hair the colour of a night sky without stars, shining grey eyes, and a winsome smile. I was not the only maiden to lose my heart to him, but I was the only one who received any attention from him, even if for most of my childhood he paid me only common courtesies.

He raised his hand in recognition. 'Enid, thou hast risen early this morn.' His words became small white clouds in the morning chill. He stopped walking when he reached my side, towering a good handbreadth above me.

I smiled, my cheeks burning at the pleasure of speaking to him alone. I thrust aside a loose strand of red hair that had fallen in front of my eyes. 'I could not sleep.'

Telyn shrugged, a dimpled smile sweetening his otherwise serious face. 'Fair enough. Was thy sleep troubled?'

'Nay, not at all. I slept well.'