CHAPTER 7

The Journey to Bell-da-Hallan

Gamray’s daughter was fairly high in the sky by the time Lilly and Morii woke up.

Lilly woke first, mostly because Pel was tugging at her hair. ‘Pel…stop that’ she mumbled and Pel shot off outside.

Lilly sat up as last nights events slowly came back into her thoughts.

She got up from her cushion bed and went into the bathroom where she used the loo, bushed her teeth and found a hairbrush from the selection on the table. All the time she was deep in thought…those Tarken were as dreadful as she’d feared.

As Lilly came back into the main room, Morii was putting last night’s food left-overs into a basket. ‘Good morn Lilly’ Morii said cheerfully, ‘I be getting food from the keeper for ye as soon as this is cleared’.

‘Good morn Morii… let me get it…you can’t keep looking after me…you’re not my servant’  Lilly replied.

Morii looked surprised, ‘By Gamray Lilly, I be pleased to serve ye while I can…soon as we get to the Kort I won’t be able to do any such thing…and after last night…that weren’t no dream was it?’ he asked suddenly looking worried.

‘No…no dream, and we need to talk about that. What a nightmare those creatures are, I wonder if they’ve cleared all the mess up yet?’ Lilly said looking up at Morii and giggling.

Morii burst out laughing, ‘Ye did surely stop that fight, that be true. Last I see they were running around like headless ground peckers and one of them ran into that great stack of spears and what have ye…I never did see such a thing, he were all tangled up with sparks a flyin.’  Morii couldn’t say any more, he was doubled up with laughter.

Although the whole thing was so serious Lilly thought it was good to see Morii so happy.

She started to brush her hair out and said ‘Come on, lets have some storb juice if there is some and then we’ll see what we can remember, there might be something useful if we think’.

‘Yay Lilly, ye do yer hair and I’ll get the juice, do ye want honey cake for yer mornfood? Morii asked, still laughing.

‘That would be good’ said Lilly as she began to braid her hair.

While they ate the honey cake and drank juice Lilly started to go over everything from the night before. Morii was still amazed by the fact that he had flown at all.

‘It was much easier than I thought it would be,’ Lilly told him, ‘once I’d worked out how to get you out of your earth body that is, it’s great being able to fly wherever you want and now it could be very useful as well.’

‘Yay that be true, twas a most wonderful thing, and ye do have great magik, but do ye understand I weren’t able to mind speak ye, til ye did mind speak me’.

‘I know Morii, but I think you will be able to…with a bit of practice and anyway, it doesn’t matter you can always squeeze my hand or something if you want to get my attention. Now what about this King what’s his name, and his…trap shun?’

‘Yay King Trock, he be worse than any of em…or so be told. He have got some trick in his mind that be true, what do ye think this trap-shun could be?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about that since I woke up,’ Lilly replied, frowning slightly. ‘I suppose he could have invented something…it sounded like whatever it was, they were planning to bring it to Norsonia somehow soon.’

‘That be the part that do bother me’ replied Morii in a worried tone.

‘What sort of weapons do they have? I saw that stack of spears and axe looking things…do they have other stuff?’ asked Lilly.

‘Not that I do know, they be too awkward to shoot a bow or use a dagger, they have them Tisks of course and they do be a good weapon on their own…but anything else, no. They do like to set fire to things, as ye saw for yerself; they mostly just rampage and swing them big blades.’ Morii explained.

‘Well, we have to go back and see if we can find their main camp and this King Trock, then perhaps we can find out more,’ Lilly said.

‘First we must get ye to Bell-da-Hallan. The Gamray do wait for ye and he could pass at any time, he do so want to meet ye Lilly and if he were to go without giving ye his learning…well King Trock will be the least of yer worries’ Morii told her.

Lilly looked at Morii, who was frowning with concern. ‘When do we leave?’ she asked. Lilly also had a feeling that something awful was going to happen. Maybe the old Gamray was about to die? Whatever it was, the thought would not go away; she would not say anything to Morii just yet…he was concerned enough as it was.

Morii told her they would leave as soon as they were changed into their journeying clothes, as he called the things they had been wearing yesterday.

Lilly was quite glad to put on her clothes from the beach hut. Although the silk dress was very beautiful, it was no way near as comfortable as her other things.

‘There be a short walk to halfway down the mountain,’ he said ‘then we come to the forest where there be more provisions and a surprise or two for ye Lilly.’

‘Really?’ Lilly smiled. ‘I love surprises; though the last few days have been nothing but surprises’ she added.

Pel came scampering into the room and tumbled over a cushion, he sprawled at Lilly’s feet and shook himself all over. ‘Oh Pel, you are a funny little thing, are you coming with us? We’re going down the mountain.’

‘Pel come illy…Pel down too’ said Pel.

Morii explained to Lilly that Lodda and Ribba from the Kort would come and collect all the things here and that they would be taken to her rooms at the Kort. Lilly was pleased to hear that, she liked the hairbrush she’d used very much.

They set off at noon-tide, or so Morii said after looking at the path of Gamray’s daughter and headed down the steep mountain path. What started off as a few scrubby bushes and lots of the pinkish-grey rock, soon became a thick lush forest of oak, ash and silver birch. Every so often, where the sun streamed through a small clearing in the trees, clouds of iridescent blue-green butterflies flitted and perched on anything they could find to warm themselves in the sun. Apart from the sounds of the forest and their footsteps crunching along the stony path, there was no other noise. To one side of the pathway stood a huge chunk of the pinkish-grey rock, it sparkled where the sun hit it and reminded Lilly of the stone in the tunnel. Lilly stopped and asked, ‘What are these rocks Morii, do you have a name for them?’

‘Yay Lilly, they be named ‘dirrand stone’ and be what we use for trade with the ‘Noeman’. They do value it highly in their land and we have plenty, so we trade for the things we do not have.’

Lilly nodded and ran her hand over the rough rock, ‘who are the Noeman, do they live here in Norsonia?’

Morii laughed at that. ‘No Lilly…they be Noemans…they don’t live no where. They journey from place to place trading, they do always come to Norsonia from the great western desert. They stay in their camp and they take the dirrand stone mostly from the mountains on that side of Norsonia. Then we do have a grand fair and the Noeman bring their wares to the city of Bell-da-Hallan and all the folk get their goods renewed.

‘What do they bring to the fair?’ asked a fascinated Lilly.

‘Ah…ye should see the goods they bring Lilly, all manner of metals, for they are truly great craftsmen and their women folk do weave the most beautiful cloth and make the most charmly ornaments for ye hair and neck.’ Morii told her enthusiastically.

Lilly thought that sounded really exciting. ‘When do they come here?’ she asked.

‘They do come every twelve turns of Gamray’s son or thereabouts’ replied Morii.

They had resumed their walk through the forest now and Lilly was asking Morii what the Noemans did with the dirrand stone.

‘They do make it sparkle like a star and then they do fashion it into ornaments or use it to trade with other folks in far away places. I don’t see what all the fuss do be about, for the stone, although it do be most charmly and bright; do not have any one colour and be rather plain.’ Morii explained.

Lilly was quiet and thoughtful for a while, then she asked, ‘have you ever been to any of those far away places Morii?’

‘No Lilly I have not. Norsonians don’t venture very far, I sometimes think I would like to see other lands, but not many folk here share that view. They do love the sagas of far away lands told by the Noeman tellers at the fair, but they don’t want to go themselves’, he sighed.

They continued walking in silence for a while with Pel appearing in the bushes or up a tree, always just ahead of them and Lilly wondered how he managed to find his way. Maybe he had been in Norsonia before.

It was getting late in the afternoon now and Morii asked if she was hungry and thirsty. ‘I would like a drink please’ she told him.

They turned off the main path and went a little way into the forest, Morii seemed to be listening for something and turning this direction and that, following whatever it was he could hear. Lilly realised after a while that he was listening for the small river that flowed down from the mountains. She could hear it now as well and sure enough, through a few more trees they came upon it. The water tasted magnificent, so pure and sweet as they knelt by the bank and dipped their cupped hands into the fast flowing water.

Lilly sat back on the mossy bank and sighed happily. ‘How far is it to Bell-da-Hallan?’ she asked.

Morii looked up from his drinking, ‘this day and the morrow, but we will have easier journeying on the morrow Lilly’ he told her. ‘Now I shall see if I can shoot a jumper for yer eve food’ Morii said, getting up and shaking the water from his hands. ‘Ye rest yerself for a while, I shall return soon’. With that Morii did a little bow and left.

Lilly lay back and closed her eyes, she must have dozed off because in no time Morii was back, carrying two good sized jumpers in one hand and his bow in the other.

‘Come Lilly, I know of a place we can make camp’ he said and turned back into the undergrowth.

Morii asked Lilly if she would like to learn the way of shooting the bow, not a longbow he had said, but a smaller one to start off with; Lilly had said she’d love to and perhaps she could teach Morii some of her Taekwondo skills. Morii had seemed very keen on that after seeing Lilly demonstrate some of the kicking exercises and even said that she should teach the skill to some of the other scholar knights at the Kort.

Lilly told him she’d be glad to, especially if it helped when fighting the Tarken, which they would surely have to do at some point.

The clearing that Morii had brought them to, was just a little way from the stream and had signs of being used before. There was already a fire pit in the centre of the clearing and to one side, a kind of makeshift wooden shelter with a big old metal box at the back of it.

Morii got the fire started and then began to cut down some sort of fern or bracken plant. ‘For yer bed Lilly, tis most pleasing to lay upon.’ Morii explained.

Lilly came over to join him, ‘can I help?’ she asked. ‘Yay Lilly, use yer dagger to cut…like this’ Morii showed her where to cut the stem at it’s weakest point.

They cut until they both had a large bundle of the soft but firm leaves. Morii led them back to the shelter and laid his pile of leaves on the ground. ’Ye must spread them out like this, and in yonder box ye will find some bear furs…ye will be most comforted for this eve,’ he told Lilly. She did as Morii had told her while he went to cook their supper.

Lilly did feel most comfortable as she settled down to sleep that night, deep in the forest with Pel cuddled beside her.

The morning came and after a breakfast of storbs and clear mountain water Lilly, Morii and Pel set off once more. They found the path from yesterday and continued along it for the best part of the morning. They were still following the river, more or less, and every so often they were able to rest by it’s banks in the cool shade of a large willow. Lilly was telling Morii about her home and friends. Morii was fascinated to hear about Lilly’s school; he couldn’t believe that any folk could be in need of that much learning.

It turned out that in Norsonia, children or youngers as Morii called them, only attended classes to learn about the sagas and a little of reading and writing. At most it only seemed to take up about two mornings a week, the rest of their time seemed to be spent with their families learning whatever skill or trade their families had. Some of the brightest youngers were then chosen, at about the age of thirteen, to become scholar knights attached to the Kort. This had been Morii’s idea. Norsonia did not have an army, they had not fought with anyone for many years. Morii had realised that there was no longer any training in fighting skills or in the use of the longbow and with the ever increasing threat from the Tarken, they needed to be able to defend themselves. Five years ago, King Litan had agreed and given his blessing and now they had their first group of skilled scholar knights, twelve in all, who in turn were helping King Litan’s older Kort knights to train another hundred or so youngers. Lilly thought it all most interesting and couldn’t wait to meet some of the other scholar knight’s, they sounded like great fun.

The forest was thinning out a little now and had become rocky again in places. After a while, they came to a small ridge of dirrand stone which they had to climb up while Pel rushed off to look at something. Lilly had given up wondering where he got to…he always seemed able to find her again.

As they reached the top of the ridge, Morii caught Lilly’s arm and whispered, ‘look yonder Lilly… if it please ye’. She looked to where he was pointing and there in a little clearing was a young fawn nibbling at a tree shoot. ‘Oh, he’s lovely,’ Lilly whispered back as they stood completely still, watching the little creature for a moment. The thought of Tarken trampling all over this made Lilly feel quite sick.

Around mid day Lilly thought she could hear the sound of water rushing and tumbling from beyond another outcrop of dirrand stone, as they made their way down the rocky path, Lilly saw to her delight, a truly beautiful waterfall cascading down into the small river. Blue and yellow iris flowers grew all around between hummocks of bright green grass. To one side, in a clear spot was a small stone building rather like a shed.

‘We be here at the second stop Lilly’ Morii said, putting down his longbow and sack. He went to the little hut, opened the door and looked in. ‘All is set’ he informed the amused Lilly.

‘What are you doing?’ asked Lilly as Morii looked through his sack for something. ‘Ahh…I have ye,’ he said and produced the small silver whistle.

Lilly was intrigued. Morii held up the whistle, smiled at Lilly and blew…a long, high and sweet note, he repeated it once and then came and stood next to Lilly.

‘Morii, what is going on?’ Lilly hissed. ‘Ye must have patience Lilly, ye will see,’ he said in a hushed voice.

They waited in silence for a few moments until a soft whiney came from somewhere close by. There was a splash of the water from up the river and a moment later there, stepping across the water right in front of her, was the most unbelievable sight yet.

‘Morii…is that…a…a…unicorn?’ Lilly whispered, holding onto Morii’s arm for support. Her eyes were wide with disbelief, she couldn’t take them off the creature in front of her.

‘I know not of unicorn,’ Morii answered with a smile. ‘He be an Ehwaz…a one horn Ehwaz and he do offer himself to the Lady Lilly of the Nor-Folk, for to take ye further into Norsonia and Bell-da-Hallan’.

‘Oh…how totally cool…sorry… I mean awesome…er...sorry…can I touch him?’ asked a totally confused but excited Lilly.

Morii looked at Lilly and still smiling said, ‘why Lilly, ye can ask him that for yerself’.

‘WHAT?…I can talk to?…Oh wow I just don’t believe this. Hello… I’m Lilly’ she managed to say.

The one horned Ehwaz nodded his beautiful white head and snorted a little. ‘I am named Srix. I am Ehwaz and only to you Lady Lilly of the Nor-Folk will I answer.’ With that Srix, stamped the ground gently and shook his noble head.

The bushes on the far side of the river moved again and another, slightly smaller one horn Ehwaz came across the river and into the clearing.

Lilly was awestruck, she felt quite faint… all of this was too much to take in.

‘Good noon Storr… and how be ye?’ Morii asked the beautiful creature.

‘Good noon Lord Morii, I am well since we last met’ answered Storr, in a very gentle voice.

Lilly walked slowly up to Srix and gently stroked his neck, ‘You are very kind to offer to take me into Bell-da-Hallan Srix and I do most gratefully accept’ she said.

Srix whinnied softly and told Lilly, ‘I, Srix of the one horn Ehwaz and my wife Storr do serve the Hah-rold when they are in need. Ye are Hah-rold and Saviour of the Runes Lady Lilly of the Nor-Folk and it is a great honour to carry ye to Bell-da-Hallan.

Lilly patted his neck and gave him a small kiss. ‘Thank you Srix’ she said quietly.

Morii had gone into the stone hut and came out with an exquisite saddle, not leather but a kind of woven material and embroidered all over with dragon flies, which he carefully put onto Srix’s back. He buckled it up firmly, talking gently all the time to Srix, then returned to the hut for another saddle and did the same with Storr.

Lilly thought while watching Morii, that he was one of the gentlest people she had ever met…perhaps that was what people in her world meant when they used the term ‘gentleman’. But then Morii was a scholar knight and he seemed to Lilly so very different to boys of a similar age in her world.

Morii had returned to the hut yet again and stepped out holding a small brown leather bag. ‘This be for ye Lilly’ he said, holding it out for her to take.

Lilly took the bag and thanked Morii. The bag was made of the softest leather and had the traditional dragonflies and twining leaves etched into the leather. She opened the flap and looked inside. There was a small silver whistle, a short silver dagger with a carved bone handle and a beautifully crafted leather belt with a holder for the dagger. ‘Oh Morii, this is too much, these things are beautiful…and I have nothing to give you’ she murmured.

Morii shook his head, ‘They be nothing but necessities Lilly’ he said kindly. ‘The whistle is for ye to summon Srix…the rest ye need me not to tell ye, I do hope ye find them of some use my Lady’. Morii did one of his little bows.

Lilly examined the belt and dagger and realised they had her name in rune letters, plus two extra letters etched onto them.

‘I recognise my name Morii, but what do these other two symbols mean?’ Lilly asked, pointing to the extra marks.

‘They have the meaning ‘sacred protector’, that be ye Lilly’ Morii answered her rather seriously.

Lilly sighed, ‘I just hope I can live up to all your expectations’ she told the little group by the waterfall.

They were now ready to set off on their journey to Bell-da-Hallan, Pel had rejoined them but would go nowhere near Srix and Storr, so followed behind.

Morii had helped Lilly into the saddle and Srix now told her, ‘hold onto my mane Lady Lilly…ye will not harm me.’ ‘Thank you Srix, I hope I’m not too heavy?’ Lilly asked.

‘No Lilly, I hardly feel ye at all…hold on now’ and Srix was off, walking steadily along the now widening forest path.

Storb bushes were everywhere, their bright purple flowers dazzling in the sun and Lilly could smell the scent of lemon flowers on the light breeze. They soon came to the grove of lemon trees. ‘This is heavenly…this smell’ Lilly remarked to Morii. ‘Tis to the edge of Storbenn we do come Lilly’ said Morii, ‘I think ye will see many Norsonians now, this be the first of many hamlets and towns ye must journey through. They all be wanting to see ye with their own eyes…but we have not day enough to stop at any of them’.

Before long the track had widened into a lane and the lane into a road and there, surrounded by low marsh and fields, Lilly caught sight of her first Norsonian town. There were long low wooden houses with reed thatched roofs interspersed with larger two story houses that almost touched each other, forming a kind of wall around Storbenn. There were no windows on this side of the houses and across the road was a large carved archway with a wrought iron, spike topped gate. The gate was open and Lilly could see that the road led to the town square. It was lined with hundreds of people, all craning their heads to get a better view and whispering excitedly. Many of them had brightly coloured flags and bunting hung from the fronts of the buildings surrounding the square. Set back to the left hand side of the town was a windmill and that too had been decorated with brightly coloured bunting.

As they passed under the archway the cry went up. ‘Here she be…here she be, the Lady Lilly of the Nor-Folk.’ The people surged forward, throwing storb petals and waving their flags and cheering madly.

‘Oh dear…here they come’ said Srix in a bored voice. Lilly wanted to laugh at how Srix had said that, but managed not to.

The people were trying to touch her boots and press flowers into her hands. They were mostly fair haired, with the women and girls dressed in pastel coloured calf length,  panelled dresses and close fitting trousers and the men in open fronted sleeveless jackets and suede or leather trousers. The women and girls wore elaborate silver hair slides with multi coloured ribbons streaming from them over their long golden hair.

Morii rode Storr slightly ahead and shouted to the crowd. ’Stand by good folk…stand by. Let the Lady Lilly of the Nor-Folk pass. As Hah-rold I ask ye…stand by.’ He turned in his saddle to Lilly and asked, ‘can ye wave to them and tell them ye be back to mardle with them… soon.’

Lilly took a deep breath and raised her arm, everyone stopped pushing and went quiet.

‘Er…Good folk of Storbenn…’ she began, looking quickly to Morii for reassurance. Morii smiled and nodded approval. ‘I wish ye well and thank ye for yer kind words. I shall return soon to…er…mardle with ye, but for now we must get on to Bell-da-Hallan where the Gamray awaits our company.’ She waved her hand and smiled whereupon all the people of Storbenn bowed their heads, whispered ‘Gamray be with us’ and stood aside for Lilly and Morii to pass.

As they approached the town gate at the other side of Storbenn a huge cheer erupted from the towns people and Lilly turned and waved goodbye to them all. They had only gone a short distance beyond Storbenn when Morii pulled up Storr and waited for Lilly. Grinning happily he said, ‘Lilly ye are of the Hah-rold and that be true.’ Srix added, ‘I would not carry the Lady Lilly if she were not…but I do add my congratulations…ye dealt with the towns folk admirably my Lady Lilly.’

‘Oh Srix’ replied Lilly, ‘they were just a bit excited at seeing someone different, that’s all.’

Srix snorted and shook his head. Lilly raised her eyebrows at Morii and he just managed not to laugh.

‘We be having more of the same at the other towns and hamlets on this road as we pass through Lady Lilly,’ he said, ‘but I do think ye will manage the folk there too.’

They passed through six more towns and hamlets, all with a similar layout to Storbenn, although most did not have the large gates that Storbenn had. The crowds had gotten bigger and brighter the further into Norsonia they travelled, all had accepted that they would get to see Lilly for themselves at some point; though Lilly did wonder where she would get the time to mardle with all these people as she’d promised.

The landscape had changed dramatically from this morning. Now they travelled through a very flat valley with fields of golden corn, or something that looked very much like corn and herds of large woolly looking horned cows grazed on fenced pastureland. ‘What are they?’ Lilly asked Morii as they trotted by. ‘They be Aurochs’ Morii replied, ‘though most folk in these parts do name them Uruz, from the rune name’ he added. Suddenly Morii called out excitedly, ‘Look ye Lady Lilly…there be Bell-da-Hallan.’