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

there will be no Expected One. Certainly not this child-woman.”

    Again he leaned forward, placed the end of the stick beneath the remnant of the skirt of Eluned’s shift and lifted it.

    “There is one woman in this room. Is there not, Eluned Llyn Y Gadair. One fine woman. As yet untouched. Is that not so? You are untouched, are you not?”

    Eluned opened her eyes for the first time and looked directly at him. It was a look of sheer hatred. She tried to shuffle back a little but the weight of the log between us made that impossible. I could see what she was trying to do, so, with as much force as I could muster, I pushed myself forward. It was enough. Eluned moved back. Her skirt fell away from Nefyn’s stick.

    Nefyn laughed. “That’s the spirit. A woman who will produce many fine sons. Fathered by me. Together we will bring back the old peoples, yours and mine. Our sons will take back our land from the child-woman and her like. What say you, Eluned Llyn Y Gadair?”

    He laughed again. He poked Eluned’s gagged mouth with his stick.

    “I forget. You cannot speak. This is good preparation. When I have cut out your tongue that will be an end to your speaking. Our sons will learn of their fathers from me. I alone will teach them. I alone will forge them as steel to overcome the enemy. You, silent for ever, will tend to them until they are old enough to be rid of you. She also.” He whirled his stick in my direction, still without looking at me. “She also will be silent. Never more to speak to me or to my sons. She will make fires and cook so that my sons will become strong warriors. Before they are men she will be dead and we will be rid of her.”

    He stood up, stepped between Eluned’s legs and took her face in his hand.

    “I would not have chosen you, with your pale skin and yellow hair, had I a choice. But there is none. You will have to be sufficient. You have the hips and the paps to make a good mother. I have watched you since you came. That will have to be enough.”

    He dropped his hand from her face and placed it inside the tear on her shift. She struggled. In vain. He laughed and stepped away.

    “Now I go to find food. Wood for the fire.” He moved the chair back to the table and bent to enter the tunnel. Just before he put his head in, he turned back and said, “Tonight. Tonight we make our first son.”

Chapter 22

    As soon as he was gone, Eluned started to weep openly. Tears fell from her eyes, her shoulders, constricted as they were, shook, she sobbed, gagging on the cloth that bound her mouth. All I wanted to do was lie back down again. Holding this sitting position with my arms tied to a pole behind my back was excruciating. Yet I knew if I did lie down that would be the end. All that he threatened to do he would carry out when he returned. Cut out our tongues. Force himself on Eluned.

    I tried to shout some encouragement to Eluned, grunting and groaning. It seemed pointless. But at last she did stop crying. She opened her eyes again and looked directly at me. It was a look of utter sadness and despair. I knew what she would be thinking. That she had failed. Failed me. Failed in her mission. How many times before had she said the same thing?

    This time, there did not seem to be any way out. We had foolishly entrusted ourselves to this madman. I had even tried to befriend him. Had thought that he could actually become a friend. Yet again I had been wrong. So wrong. Rather than a friend he was a monster. A monster who could club two defenceless women into unconsciousness, drag them into this place and bind them together, half destroying our clothes in the process.

    Had he done anything else to Eluned, to me, while we were unconscious? The mere thought was terrifying. Even if he had not, that was clearly his intention. With Eluned at least. I could not allow my imagination to travel to such a place. Frustrated and angry, filled with fear, I pulled with all my strength against the