Chapter Five Alder
Chapter Five
Alder
That night, Alder slept more soundly than he had for months. Mia and Dart had welcomed his little group into the resting rooms they had chosen that day.
Alder stirred as soon as the sun rose. Though he couldn’t see a single ray of sunlight, his body knew that it was dawn.
He had always had an aptitude for telling time and weather.
He could predict animal migrations and know exactly when a plant would bear fruit.
No one had taught him these things, and though the Nomads had always thought them odd, he hadn’t spent too long worrying about it.
Now, his sensitivities to the earth could finally be explained. He was human.
Lettle twitched in her sleep by the door. Dart and Mia had kindly offered to take over the watch rota, so Lettle and Farhan could get a full night’s sleep.
Lettle made a sound as though she were in pain, before rolling over and mumbling Rayan’s name. It had been hard watching her fade from the world–with every step she took eastward, it was as though she walked further and further from her soul.
They must reconcile when we return, she cannot go on like this.
Lettle wouldn’t tell him the extent of their feud, other than it had been Rayan’s decision to walk away. The next time she’d opened up about it, Alder hadn’t intended to probe.
‘Can I ask you something, Lettle?’ he’d asked, as they walked along a dirt path.
They were still in their early days of their quest, and he was still wary of her.
They did not know each other well, their circumstances the only reason they’d been brought together.
He wasn’t even sure he liked her. He found her too volatile, her gaze too discerning.
When she looked at him, he felt as though she were assessing him like her prophecy tokens.
‘Please. I’m bored of my own thoughts.’
‘Why do you always run your fingers against your neck? Is it an old injury?’
All humour drained from her features and she looked haunted.
‘Of a kind, I suppose.’
Alder didn’t think she’d speak again, and when she did it was at least half an hour later and it took him a moment to remember the thread of the conversation.
‘I used to wear a necklace. Yeeran made it for me when I was a child. We didn’t have a lot of money.
In fact, we had no money at all. So each year she’d gift me with a nameday present that could be threaded onto the twine.
Sometimes it was a shell, other times a pebble. Worthless to most, but precious to me.’
Alder didn’t think Lettle had realised she’d stopped walking. She was looking to the horizon, but it was clear her mind was conjuring the memories in front of her.
‘I lost that necklace before we got to Mosima. And Rayan,’ she laughed and shook her head. ‘He had noticed, and so he started collecting little things that reminded him of me. The first one was a polished seed that he threaded through a chain.
‘Then when we argued on Conch Shore,’ she shut her eyes and tears seeped from the corners. When she spoke her voice cracked. ‘I threw the necklace into the sea.’
Alder had never seen Lettle so exposed.
Here she was…breaking.
Alder wrapped his arms around her. At first she tensed up, but then she relaxed, the sobs racking her small frame. Alder helped hold her together.
The next day before they bedded down for the night, Alder handed her two leaves he had plucked earlier that day.
‘A snack?’ she asked hopefully. Farhan had got distracted cooking dinner and burned the stew.
‘No,’ he said and sat down beside her. ‘This is giffy grass. Sturdy, waterproof and easy to weave.’
She still looked confused, so he added, ‘I…I thought you could make it into a necklace.’
Her face was impassive. He started to feel a little silly.
‘I thought it might be nice to make something for yourself. Maybe add some trinkets we find on the trail? There are some lovely rough sapphires near the mountains…and the seed pods from the fula tree are a beautiful red…’ Still she didn’t speak and he shrugged.
‘Sometimes you can make your own happiness too.’
Then her arms were around his neck. ‘Thank you,’ she said as she embraced him.
Now, she murmured once more in her sleep and then was still.
Peace, Lettle. I hope only for your peace.
Farhan on the other hand was almost too peaceful. He was curled around his obeah, smiling softly in his sleep.
Alder was about to sit up when he heard whispering. He stiffened when he heard his name.
‘You have to tell Alder,’ Mia whispered.
‘They have come such a long way,’ Dart said.
‘It’s not your fault your father didn’t tell you anything.’
Alder’s stomach sank and he wished so desperately that he had remained asleep.
If Dart knows nothing about where I was found, then this journey was pointless.
And he could have stayed in Mosima, with Golan.
As he sat up, Mia and Dart looked at him, ashamed. He was about to tell his old friends that none of this was their fault, when there was a knock at the door.
Lettle sat up suddenly, her eyes flying open. ‘Alder?’
He winced. She was so attuned to his sleep talking that he wondered if she’d ever have a restful sleep again.
‘No nightmares last night, it was just the door,’ he said.
She reached for her pack, which she always used as a pillow, and he knew she was checking for the grimoire and her journal–like she did multiple times a day.
Mia started to rise to answer the door, but Dart waved her away, her swollen belly more of a burden than it had been on the trail.
‘They’re big,’ Mia remarked when she saw Alder looking.
‘They?’
‘Twins. I think it’s two boys, Dart thinks it’s two girls.’
‘Hopes it’s two girls,’ Dart said, returning. ‘I just think we all could do with more people like Mia in the world.’
Mia stroked his cheek fondly as he sat back down next to her. ‘You honey-tongued thing.’
Alder tensed as the newcomer entered behind Dart. Mortah swept into the room with more grace and presence than he could ever imagine having, even with a walking cane.
‘Who are you?’ Lettle said, in her coarse way. Mortah just sniffed.
It had been over a year since Mortah had relinquished the Nomad way of life to live in Caperly.
Alder had thought she’d never retire from travelling.
Even with her walking stick she’d been one of the fiercest hunters, the most proficient of foragers.
And though she detested him, he always appreciated her candour and knowledge.
She shuffled forwards, her joints clearly paining her more than they had before.
‘Mortah, it is good to see you,’ Alder said.
Her lips unwound into a small smile. ‘You thought me dead, eh?’
‘No, not at all.’
‘I thought you dead,’ she replied. Lettle snorted.
‘Well, I’m not,’ he replied.
There was a long silence as everyone waited for Mortah to explain her arrival.
‘Thank you for speaking in my defence yesterday, it was a welcome surprise,’ Alder said, a touch awkwardly.
‘A surprise it was not, it was predestined,’ she said.
Again the silence rose up around them. Lettle gave Alder a look that said, How do we get rid of her?
Dart cleared his throat, making it obvious Lettle’s glance had been less than subtle. ‘How about I go and get us something to break our fast?’
‘No,’ Mortah said sharply. ‘You stay, send the fae and elf.’ She pointed to Farhan and Lettle.
‘They don’t know where they’re going,’ Alder said.
‘Dart should stay,’ Mortah replied firmly.
Mia stood, understanding the subtext in the room before anyone else. ‘I’ll show them the way.’
Farhan, who had remained asleep through it all, was awoken and gently ushered out of the room by Mia. As they walked away from the sleeping quarters Lettle could be heard saying, ‘If she didn’t want us there, she should have just come right out and said it…’
Dart looked expectantly at Mortah. ‘Shall we sit?’
The older woman looked around at the unmade blankets and bedrolls with distaste. ‘Yes, I suppose we should.’
Again the strained silence. But Alder would not break it, for Mortah would not be rushed.
‘As you know, I knew your father, Dart.’
Though it was rather obvious, both Dart and Alder dutifully nodded. The Nomad community was not large, and everyone knew everyone.
‘He was the one to find you, Alder,’ she continued.
Again, they nodded.
The story went that Osei, Dart’s father, had been hunting on the cliffs near Caperly and had come across a cave full of obeah…and Alder. He had led Alder back to the village and nursed him until he came back to himself–albeit without his memories.
‘What we didn’t tell you is that I was also there,’ Mortah said.
Hope swelled in Alder’s chest. Finally, a breakthrough.
Dart’s brows pulled together. ‘Father never said.’
Mortah’s expression went curiously blank. ‘No, he didn’t want your mother to know.’
‘Oh?’ Alder said. Then he noticed the thunderous look on Dart’s face. ‘Oh.’
‘You? And my father?’ Dart rose to his feet.
‘Sit down,’ Mortah snapped and surprisingly, Dart did. ‘Osei didn’t want your mother to know, but I told her.’
Anger ebbed from Dart’s face, and for a moment Alder thought he might weep. His mother had died five years ago and the grief seemed just as fresh.
Then Mortah said, more gently, ‘She did not go to the grave with hate in her heart. She had long forgiven your father for his transgressions.’
Alder squirmed beneath the weight of the questions he wanted to ask. But he knew he had to allow Dart a moment to acclimatise to his father’s affair.
‘How long?’ Dart asked.
‘How long did it last?’ she asked and Dart nodded. She sighed. ‘Too long.’
Dart waited.
‘Twenty-three years.’
Dart let out a strange laugh, somewhere between a hiccup and a gasp.
Mortah’s frown was back. ‘I said it was too long.’
‘Long? Five years would be long. Two decades? More? That’s a lifetime.’
Alder could see the conversation unravelling. Grief, anger, sorrow, guilt, love, all vying for purchase, all gasping for air to lend a voice.
‘We don’t have time for this,’ he cut through before Mortah could respond. ‘I’m sorry, Dart, and I’m sorry, Mortah, but I need to focus on what’s important here–the curse…and unfortunately me.’ They both looked at him and he felt a flush rise in his cheeks.
‘You’re right,’ Dart said eventually. ‘Mortah, I am sorry that you were burdened by this secret all these years.’
‘You do not loathe me?’ she whispered.
Dart looked surprised. ‘My father was the one who created the boundaries with my mother. You were not the one to cross them, he was.’
Tears filled Mortah’s tired eyes and she dashed them away with gnarled hands before clearing her voice as though nothing had happened. ‘I suppose you’ll be wanting to know where you came from, Alder.’
His head bobbed. ‘Yes, tell me everything about where I was found.’
‘I won’t tell you.’ She must have seen the despair on Alder’s face because she held up a hand and continued, ‘But how about I show you?’