Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Lilly learns a lot and the journey into Norsonia

Lilly opened her eyes and, for a moment, didn’t know exactly where she was. There was bright sunlight, and she could feel something metal against her arm.

Then she remembered...she was in Norswuld, with Morii!

She turned her head and looked at her arm which was squashed against the metal frame of the camp bed. Ouch! She thought as the horrible pain of a dead arm crawled up towards her neck.

Lilly shook her arm out, trying to rid herself of the awful ache as she looked toward the hut door. It was still open from last night, but Morii’s feet were no longer stretched across the threshold.

She lay there for a moment or two, letting her eyes become used to the light before getting up.

Lilly got out of bed, put on her boots and went outside and stretched. It was warm and still, in the distance she could hear the strange singing of the Squibs.

Morii was not in the clearing, so Lilly walked down to the lake and there at the end of the row of willow trees was Morii, fishing. He was using a line and little silver hooks, with worms… crawlers attached.

He looked round at the sound of Lilly’s approach, ‘Goodmorn my Lady Lilly...I beg for yer pardon…Lilly. Did ye have good rest?’ he enquired.

Lilly smiled. ‘Good…morn Morii, I rested very well thank you. I see you are good at fishing’ said Lilly looking at the collection of small fish at Morii’s feet.

‘Yay Lilly, these be silver swimmers, we do find them most flavoursome for mornfood in Norsonia. I will make fire and ye will eat’ said Morii, ‘I do have a little bread in my sack, from the kitchens at the Kort, if that pleases ye’ he added.

Lilly nearly said cool, and then remembered that Morii didn’t know that expression and said ‘that sounds good, let’s go and eat’ instead.

In no time Morii had a good fire going. He had spread some large flat leaves on the ground and he placed skewers of the cooked silver swimmers on them. There was also some more peeled and sliced storbs on another leaf.

Lilly, who now felt extremely hungry at the sight and smell of this food, sat down and picked up a silver swimmer. It looked a bit like a sardine and tasted divine.

Morii opened his bag - which he called his sack and took out half a large, round loaf of brown bread. It had cross marks over the top of it and he broke off a chunk and handed it to Lilly.

When he had finished, Morii brushed his hands and said, ‘I have a gift for ye Lilly, I have it in my sack and like as not, there is where it still will be’

He pulled the sack to him and took out a small silver whistle, a knife that looked to Lilly like half a pen-knife, a wooden comb, some thicker twine or leather - Lilly couldn’t tell, and finally he took out and held toward Lilly in his open palm, a small and beautifully crafted silver arm bangle. Like his, it had a dragon head at one end and a tail at the other end.

‘Oh! Morii…. Is it really for me…how beautiful’ said Lilly and took the bangle from Morii.

‘It is the mark of the Hah-rold of Norsonia and of the Kort of Bell-da-hallan, all the Hah-rold of the Kort do have the mark upon their left arm’ Morii informed her holding out his left arm for her to see. ‘It is right for ye to have the same’ he added.

‘Well it’s beautiful and I shall be happy to wear it’ smiled Lilly starting to put the band on her left upper arm.

‘Please… I beg for yer pardon Lilly; ye must wear it on the other side, for ye do have the magik as is foretold in the sagas’ said Morii very seriously.

Lilly stared at Morii, ‘I have magic?’ she was astounded, ‘And what is foretold in the sagas?’ she asked.

Morii looked slightly bemused, ‘Why, ye must know of the old tales, the sagas, did not the fair lady Alex tell ye?’ asked Morii.

‘I’m afraid she didn’t’ replied Lilly, ‘It was all a bit of a rush actually, I’m here to try and help in some way… I know that from Aunt Alex. I know there is a problem with your younger brother…Leekan…and ...er…the Tarken? But anything else…’ Lilly’s voice trailed off.

Morii was looking at her in an odd way.

‘I do beg for yer pardon Lilly…I see I have a task… to tell ye of the saga of the fair Lady Lilly of the Nor – folk, crosser from the Inner Wuld and saviour of the Rune Stones of Norsonia.’ Morii said softly.

Lilly was getting more confused by the minute, ‘Look Morii, I don’t mean to be rude but I really don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. My Aunt Alex said that Norsonia needed me to help guard the …what do you call him…Gammy?’

Morii laughed a little at that, ‘The Gamray’ he corrected.

‘Whatever…’ said Lilly rather crossly. ‘Now you’re telling me something totally different about some old stones, magic and stories that I’ve never heard of…and I don’t understand any of it!’ she exclaimed.

Now Morii did laugh. ‘Oh Lilly, ye look so fired up…yer face have gone the colour of a storb…I beg ye forgive me…ye have a way about ye….and I think ye most charmly’ Morii was laughing so hard he had tears in his bright green eyes.

Lilly just looked at him….and then started laughing herself.

‘Come Lilly if it please ye, we will leave this clearing and begin our journey to Norsonia. Morii will tell ye the saga of the Lady Lilly of the Nor – folk, crosser from the Inner Wuld and saviour of the Rune Stones of Norsonia as we walk our path’, said Morii with a smile. He grabbed Lilly’s hand and pulled her up.

Lilly and Morii cleaned everything up and shut the door of the hut. Lilly had made sure her bag and clothes were safe and dry and Morii had collected his longbow and quiver. They began their walk to Norsonia.

Morii explained that, before they went to the forest path, they must walk a little to the ‘fall o the water’ and get some water to drink on their journey.

‘There be water in the forest’ he said, ‘in small streams, but water from the falls will taste much finer and I feel ye wants to see the falls closer to ye’ he looked at Lilly.

‘I would love to see them close up, will you explain how they work Morii…like I asked you last night?’ asked Lilly eagerly. Morii nodded ‘I will tell ye what I know’ he said.

They walked together along the shore of the lake and Lilly remembered to ask Morii to tell her when three turns of the moon had gone, as she must go back to her home then. Morii said he would keep a count of the turns of Gamray’s son and let her know.

After what Lilly thought might be about twenty minutes walking along the shore, they reached the edge of the lake where the ’fall o the water’ was. The noise it made was deafening.

Morii first undid the cord from his longbow so that it wouldn’t get wet and become saggy and put it in is sack. He then took some small folded water skins out of the sack and began to fill them from the fresh, bubbling water. He tied each one tightly with a cord of leather and gave Lilly two to carry. He carried the other two water skins himself.

Because they could not hear each other above the deafening roar of the waterfall, Morii pointed to Lilly to follow him farther round the edge of the falls toward the forest.

Here the ground rose quite steeply away from the lake and after another ten minutes of hard climbing they entered the forest. The noise was lessening now and Lilly found it quite a relief not to have the constant roar of water in her ears.

Morii stopped and found some more wide leather cords from his bag. Lilly thought there must be much more stuff in there than she had seen…it seemed never ending!

Morii plaited the leather together really quickly and made a kind of strap that he attached to Lilly’s water skins. ‘Ye will be better able to carry the water skins with this’ he said to her kindly.

Lilly was grateful as it was much easier to carry them.

She followed Morii on and up the winding forest side, weaving among the trees until they came upon a small pathway.

Here, after they both got their breath, they were able to talk and Morii began explaining.

‘Ye saw the colour bow and clouds on top of the falls and on top of the mountains Lilly? He asked.

‘Yes, I did, the rainbow and clouds… they were there yesterday too’ she replied.

‘Those clouds be there every day, they be made by the Gamray and be named the ‘raining ring. The Gamray do hold them there by the power of his mind. The colour bows come out all over Norsonia.’ Morii told Lilly. He continued, ‘the raining ring do follow the mountains that surround the land of Norsonia.’ He made his arms into a circle shape. ‘It do rain there on the top of the mountains all of the morn, noon and eve and through every night, that be true.

The water from that rain falls into a river, high up in the top of the mountains. That fall -o- the water we just seen, is where it all comes out, on this side here and on Norsonia side too, there be that much water.’

Lilly swapped the water bags to her other shoulder, glancing around as she did so. The forest seemed to be changing. The oaks, ash trees and storb bushes were giving way to more and more fir trees now and the path was becoming rockier, with sharp stones sticking out of the ground every now and then, waiting to trip an unwary walker.

‘Now Lilly,’ continued Morii, ‘ye may be asking why do the Gamray keep that raining ring a raining? If ye have heard of the Tarken, then that be yer answer.’

‘I have heard of the Tarken, yes. Aunt Alex told me they were evil creatures’ replied Lilly.

Morii nodded, ‘Them Tarken can’t be doing with too much water ye see, it kill’s them stone dead before they can so much as sneeze at ye.

‘Oh…I see,’ Lilly said, ‘the Tarken can’t get into Norsonia because they would have to go through the rain to get to it…or up the falls…or over the lake and if they got wet they would die…that’s clever, I understand a bit more now…thanks Morii. What about us… are we going to get wet going into Norsonia?’

‘We be going on a secret path through the mountains, but it may be that we get wet, tis oft times wet in the caves’, Morii replied.

‘I don’t mind’ replied Lilly, ‘but then I’m not a Tarken’.

They had walked a fair distance now. Lilly calculated it must be about three miles and she could see a bit of a clearing up ahead with a fallen tree trunk across part of it. She asked Morii if they could have a break for some water. Morii thought that a good idea. They sat on the tree trunk and Mori first opened one of the water skins that Lilly was carrying and gave it to her, then opened one of his.

‘So…’ asked Lilly, In between sips of the water, ‘What is the problem…with the Tarken I mean?’

‘Ahh…the problem is Lilly, that the Gamray, as ye know, be very old and weak. He do not have the strength to hold all of the raining ring together all of the time…it gives up in places, and sooner or later the Tarken will take a chance and come through.

If they get in they will take prisoners for slaves, try to kidnap Leekan and worst by far try to get the Rune Stones. If they do capture Leekan or the stones our world will be lost for all time.

There was silence for a while. Lilly could see the lake way below them, glistening through the trees. There were different butterflies up here, pale blue with iridescent green underwings and birds twittering away in the tree tops. Everything was so beautiful…it was quite hard to believe that there could be any threat in such a pure and serene place.

At last Lilly spoke, ‘I still don’t see what help I can be…and I don’t know anything about the ‘Rune Stones’ either…you said something about a saga, that’s like a legend or story isn’t it?’

‘Yay, that be true Lilly, and there be such a saga about ‘Lady Lilly of the Nor - folk, crosser from the Inner Wuld, saviour of the Rune Stones of Norswuld’ Morii told her, ‘let us journey more and I will tell ye’.

Lilly handed Morii the now empty water skin for him to fold and put away in his sack while she tightened the cords on her boots.

‘I can’t believe there’s an old story about me… you know… I mean…someone with my name,’ she said as Morii stood up to go.

‘I will tell ye and see if ye feels it to be yer own’ said Morii.

As they left the little clearing, the path began to level out and meander between tall pines and spindly bushes that looked like holly. Now underfoot was a thick carpet of pine needles and no longer really a path, it made a slight crunching noise as they walked toward the mountains.

‘If it pleases ye Lilly, I shall begin the saga’ said Morii.

 Lilly nodded enthusiastically.

‘When the Wuld was young and the land of Norsonia was of the time before Gamray, there is told of a King. His name be Olin and he be a great warrior and leader of his people. Olin wished to be more powerful by the use of magik and he wanted the strongest magik kept by the sky bound gods.

He journeyed by dragon boat to the Inner Wuld and the land of the Nor - folk, where he speared himself to a tree in the forest to prove his strength and fortitude to the sky bound gods.

He stayed there speared to the tree, for nine days and nine nights, through wind and rain and storms that the gods sent to test his strength. On the ninth night the gods saw that he be of great strength and so gave him powerful magik in the form of the Rune Stones.’

Morii glanced at Lilly and saw that she was listening intently. He continued.

‘When Olin at last be recovered, he returned to Norsonia with the Rune Stones of great magik power and a beautiful high lady of the Nor – folk. She were a noble miller’s daughter and had tended to his spear wounds with great gentleness. She became his Queen and she were named ‘The High Lady Lillian’. 

The first son she gave him grew to be the first Gamray of Norsonia and he alone knew how to use the stones for great good. After many turns of Gamray’s son, (what ye call ‘moon’ Lilly) and the death of King Olin, the High Lady Lillian wanted to return to her own people, the Nor - folk of the Inner Wuld.

The people and the creatures of speech in Norsonia were full of grief as they loved their Queen and did not want her to go.

She in return, loved them and made a promise to her people that if ever they be in trouble or need, or if the Gamray or the Rune Stones ever be under threat, that she would send a crosser from her bloodline to help save them and that crosser would bear her name. The crosser would be the keeper of much magik power. She would have;

The power of the flyers.

The power of silent speech of the mind.

The power of knowing before time.

The power of movement without touch of hand.’

Morii paused, then added, ‘The fair Lady Alex did tell us of yer coming and that ye be named Lilly of the Miller and here ye be.’

Morii fell silent beside Lilly, but looked at her, searching her face to see her reaction.

Lilly did not know what to think. Parts of what Morii had told her seemed to fit with what Aunt Alex had said, and… she could remember her dad talking about his great, great, great grandmother, who was called Lillian. That was after all how Lilly got her name; her parents had shortened it to Lilly because her mum thought Lillian sounded too old fashioned.

‘Ok…’ Lilly said at last, ‘I see that the story is connected to me…in a way… the things you say are my ‘powers’ or ‘magic’ are true, but I don’t think they are magic, they are just part of me… and I still don’t know how I can help…although I will if I can’.

Morii stopped and smiled at Lilly. ‘Ye can help Norsonia; ye be the saviour of the Rune Stones and our Wuld, and now my Lady Lilly we be arrived at the secret place.

Lilly looked around her, they had come to the end of the trees and before them the mountain side rose up steeply. ‘Where do we go now?’ asked Lilly, as there seemed nowhere to go.

Morii held out his hand for Lilly to take and she did so.

He led her forward toward the rock face and there she saw that instead of it being a continuous wall, there was actually a space that sort of doubled in on it’s self. They squeezed around it and there in front of them was the entrance to a cave.

‘Wow!’ exclaimed Lilly, ‘that’s incredible…no one would ever know there was a cave here’.

Morii let go of Lilly’s hand, smiled and went into the cave a little way. He brought out a large bag and a thick piece of tree branch with something like pine sap or resin thickly smeared to one end.

He held up the bag and said, ‘food for ye’ and then held up the branch and said, ‘light for the caves’. He put both these down by the cave entrance, with his longbow, quiver and sack and said, ‘first Lilly, there be something I wish ye to see…tis not far’.

‘What?’ said Lilly, but he was already squeezing round the corner of rock that hid the cave entrance. Lilly followed.

Morii looked over his shoulder his green eyes gleaming, to make sure Lilly was following him. ‘Just be up here’ he said, puffing slightly as he scrambled over the lose rocks round the edge of the mountain side and turned into the pine wood again. Lilly scrambled after him and when she caught up saw he was standing under a huge pine.

Morii pointed up into the tree and Lilly could see a kind of platform more than half way up.

‘Can ye climb a tree Lilly?’ asked Morii with a grin, ‘follow what I do and ye will be there with me’. Lilly nodded and watched as Morii began to climb.

He took hold of the lowest branch and hoisted himself up and onto the next, using small, broken stubby branches as footholds he climbed higher and higher. Lilly thought that it looked quite easy and started up herself, doing exactly as Morii had.

Suddenly she was there… being helped up onto the platform by Morii’s strong grip.

Lilly gasped…‘we’re so high up’ she said breathlessly, gazing around. She could see the lake where they had been this morning and the vast expanse of wood that they had walked through.

The waterfall looked as big as ever, but now she could see they were almost level with the top of it. She could see the cloud ring or raining ring and the magnificent rainbow stretching away over the top of it.

Morii tapped her shoulder, ‘Look ye over the lake, what do ye see?’ he asked pointing towards the scrubby marsh, way over the other side of the lake.

Lilly looked. ‘I can see marsh and then hills and sand and something that looks like…’ Lilly held her hand up to shield her eyes and squinted into the distance, ‘well… like tents. Are they tents Morii?’

‘Yay that they be, ye see well Lilly. They be the Tarken outposts, they be keeping watch o the raining ring, that be true. Most of the Tarken be further in the Drylands with their savage little Tisk’s and their bevies’ said Morii.

‘What’s Tisk’s and bevies?’ asked Lilly.

Morii frowned, ‘Tisk’s be a small, wily little creature, with hair like a stiff brush and teeth like tusks, they make a noise…tisk…tisk when they run at ye, hoping to gouge yer legs. The Tarken keep them hungry so as they be mad when they hunt or fight’.

Lilly shuddered, they sounded nasty…’What about the bevies?’

Morii laughed, ‘The Tarken like a bevy or two, we thinks that’s what keep them so stupid and makes them so mad’.

Lilly understood, ‘You mean they drink!’ she said her eyes wide.

Morii nodded, ‘they’d like to steal our Storbvin if they could.

There have been raids in the past, when the Tarken do get desperate.

They send one or two of the more stupid ones, all covered in hides they be, and they sometimes get away with a barrel…but they do more often die trying…from the water.’

‘So they have got into Norsonia?’ Lilly looked worried.

‘They do try Lilly… just into the outlying hamlets, and only ever one or two of them. They do make a type of barge and row it across that small river down there at night.

Then if they be lucky and have got no water on them they do cover up in hides, climb the mountain and try to run through the raining ring where  they think it be thinnest. Sometimes they get through.’ Morii told her.

‘What happens when they get wet?’ asked Lilly.

‘Within a few moments their feather’s do start to drop off and then they do fall over and gasp a bit, then they die’ said Morii bluntly.

‘Feathers!’ Lilly almost choked. ‘They have feathers! What are they… birds?’

‘They do have the heads of Flyers and a body a touch like us, which they do keep covered up by leather jerkins, trews and big strong boots’ replied Morii. ‘But the skin be all scaly not like yers’.

‘Oh…this is so weird’ said Lilly. ‘Can we go down now and have something to eat…I need to take all this in and I feel quite weary’.

‘I do beg for yer pardon Lilly… if it please ye follow me down’ said Morii.

Morii and Lilly climbed down the tree and made their way back to the cave.

Once there, Morii took the bag from the cave mouth and invited Lilly to sit down with him. The food bag had bread and cheese and something that tasted like honey cake in it, which they ate greedily, with one of the skins of water for a drink.

Just as they were finishing, Lilly felt something give way on her head. She realized that the elastic bands holding her braided hair had just disappeared!

‘Oh no! I forgot to change my hair’ she said to Morii…’I should have remembered that things from my world don’t last’.

Morii laughed, ‘At least ye changed everything else…here… allow me to fix yer hair with this cord I have’. Morii got his small knife and some lengths of cord from his bag and before long had used it to twist and tie Lilly’s long plaits just as securely as they’d ever been. Lilly thought while he was doing this, that’s what the leather lace things were for that I have round my wrist. Aunt Alex did think of everything!

‘Thank you Morii that feels fine’ said Lilly gratefully as Morii finished.

It was now late afternoon, and Lilly felt quite refreshed after they’d rested and eaten. She was thinking about the Tarken and what they must look like when Morii said, ‘If ye can manage it Lilly and it pleases ye to do so, we can be through the mountain tonight. There be more shelter at the top and I do have more provisions there for ye’.

Lilly nodded, ‘I’d rather be in Norsonia than stay the night here’ she told Morii.

Morii looked relieved, ‘There be five hundred steps to go, will ye do that Lilly?’

‘Yes, I can manage that’, said Lilly standing up.

They packed away the things they had with them and now Lilly carried the empty food bag, which she’d put the last water skin in and Morii’s sack. Morii had his unstrung longbow, quiver and the torch of wood, which he’d lit and he led the way into the cave.