High The Vanes (The Change Book 2) by David Kearns

castles, and cities. And they slew all the men, but the women they kept alive. And thus they continued until the young men that had come with them were grown grey-bearded, from the length of time they were upon this conquest.”

    He paused before continuing.

    “Then spoke Kynan unto Adeon his brother, "Whether wilt thou rather," said he, "tarry in this land, or go back into the land whence thou didst come forth?" Now he chose to go back to his own land, and many with him. But Kynan tarried there with the other part and dwelt there.”

    Again he paused. Again he continued.

    “And they took counsel and cut out the tongues of the women, lest they should corrupt their speech. And because of the silence of the women from their own speech, the men of Armorica are called Britons. From that time there came frequently, and still comes, that language from the Island of Britain.”

    He stopped. I recognised what he was reading. It was the end of the story about Macsen Wledig. Then he repeated a number of sentences, pausing between each one.

    “ And they slew all the men, but the women they kept alive. ”

    Pause.

    “ But Kynan tarried there with the other part. ”

    Pause.

    “ And they took counsel and ... ”

    Pause.

    “ And cut out the tongues of the women. ”

    Longer pause.

    “ Lest they should corrupt their speech. ”

    After this he stopped. Still in shadow he stood up. I heard the chair scraping back. He moved towards me. I thought he was going to come to me, but he stopped and turned away from me.

    “You hear this, Eluned Llyn Y Gadair? This I will do to you. Soon. Soon.”

    I heard the low groan again. Eluned, I thought. She must be trussed up like me. Nefyn took two steps towards me, took hold of my hair in his left hand and pulled me up into a sitting position. The pain was excruciating. My head throbbed. I closed my eyes as spasms shot through me. I felt warm tears run down my cheeks. Still holding me by my hair, he took two steps in the other direction, stretched out his other hand and pulled Eluned up by her hair. Despite the gag, she screamed.

    I opened my eyes. I was face to face with Eluned. Our legs were pulled apart, our ankles tied to a heavy log that lay between us. Our hands were also outstretched, attached to a piece of wood behind our backs that came up as he lifted us. A strip of cloth that looked as if it had come from one of our shifts was bound around her head and in her mouth. Mine must be the same. Tears were running down her cheeks as she turned her head from side to side, moaning.

    When I looked down I could see that both our shifts had been roughly hacked off at mid-thigh. The material, torn into strips, he had used to bind our feet, our hands, and our mouths. Eluned’s shift was torn down the centre of her chest and where it lay open I could see a thin line of dried blood. I could not lower my head enough to see my own chest.

    For several minutes he held us in this position, tightening his grip on our hair, occasionally pulling it. Finally, he began to loosen his grip. “Stay,” he said as he did so. When he released my hair I remained in the awkward and uncomfortable sitting position he had forced me into. When he let go of Eluned’s hair she fell backwards.

    “I told you to stay,” he screamed as he grasped another shank of her hair and pulled her up again. The whole time, Eluned’s eyes remained closed. She did not open them once. After a while, he released her hair and, this time, she remained sitting.

Chapter 21

    Nefyn returned to the corner, lifted a chair and set it down between us. Stepping over our legs, he selected a thin, straight piece of wood from the pile, looked along its length before returning and sitting down. From his pocket he produced a small folding knife, with which he proceeded to sharpen one end of the stick. The shavings from this fell on my bare calves. When he was finished, the stick now had a very sharp end. He tested it on Eluned’s