Cycle of Life, the rise and fall of Tanya Vine

  Chapter 13

  The Outcasts

  Going home

  They walked steadily Westward across the hilltops, and even though there was no more rain, Pansy’s joy at finding the strange horn was rapidly evaporating, just like the water on the ground. After about two hours, they had reached the end of the ridge, where the line of hills turned South, and Pansy caught up with Tanya, who was already sitting with her back against a large rock.

  Her face showed how miserable she felt. “Tanya,” she said quietly.

  “Yes, I know,” was the reply. “Tanya, I’m hungry,” she mimicked.

  “It’s not funny Tanya Vine. Food’s important, and we’ve missed breakfast again. Got to have a balanced diet to stay healthy.”

  Tanya thought a moment about this unheard of idea. “What’s that mean then?”

  “Well, you take the days rations and weigh them out into portions, and eat it a bit at a time. Not like them dog folk. Show them food, and it’s gone. All in one go. Disgusting.”

  Tanya shrugged her shoulders and opened her pack. “Fear not mistress Pansy,” she quoted in a parody of Marco’s barbarian speech. “This fish cake is here to save the day.” And she showed Pansy the parcel of food she had stolen from Sami’s kitchen.

  Pansy’s eyes lit up at the sight of her next, and unexpected meal, although in truth it was poor fare. Half a loaf of bread, two yellow tomatoes, four stale fish cakes and a small bag of broken biscuits.

  “You’ve saved my life Tanya,” she mumbled between mouthfuls, and then there was silence until their late breakfast, or early lunch was finished. Completely. All in one go.

  They rested in the shade of the rocks, contemplating the rest of journey ahead of them.

  “How long till we get to the farm?” Asked Pansy looking across the vast expanse of Burnt Wood’s multi coloured canopy.

  “Probably nine hours,” Tanya replied, “if we follow the track and all goes well.”

  Then movement on the road below them caught her attention, and she reached out and tapped Pansy on the arm. Four people and an ox were heading Northward, from Gap.

  “Travellers,” she whispered, “don’t move and they won’t see us.”

  Pansy hadn’t seen them for more than a year, but even at this distance, instantly recognised her fellow students and their instructor.

  “Flaming seesaws! It’s Rocket Rosie,” she gasped. “Don’t look at her. She’ll know we’re here.” And so saying, closed her eyes and started whispering to herself, “I am a rock, I am a rock.”

  Rosalind Turnbuckle felt that all was not as it should be, so slowed down, and then halted her small party. She dismissed her three apprentice’s queries, and told them to observe their surroundings in silence, as her experienced eyes swept quickly across the hillside on their right, and the scrubland to their left. Then as she turned her gaze slowly back to study the goat among the rocks above them, her concentration was broken.

  “Soldiers,” squeaked Emma Goldsmith, and pointed along the line of the broken road, where four women carrying spears had come into view.

  “We’re gonna die,” cried Suzy, and clung to Mary Ann, who promptly burst into tears.

  The last time they had seen Eastern warriors was at the battle of Ashers Farm, and they had been terrified by the close encounter with Marco’s amazons and wardogs.

  “Alright, girls. Calm down. They’re not the enemy now, and they’re expecting us.”

  Her words had no effect on the sobbing girl, so she raised her voice. “Shut up now, Mary Ann Teacake, or you’ll get a good slapping.”

  In the past, Rosie’s threats of disciplinary action had been carried out in full measure, so the crying stopped, almost. Then she moved ahead of the panicking girls to meet the war band alone.

  She hailed them. “Good morning to you, ladies.”

  The troop from Dockside stopped, with Dorian slightly in front. “And to you, traveller,” she replied. She saw an unimposing pale woman of indeterminate age, (but not young) dressed in worn green leggings and shirt, with an old black cloak fastened at the shoulder with a large but plain pin. Only her boots were of good quality.

  Jenny, Kerry and Mara looked as well, but Jenny had a different view of the world now. She had lived in Homestead for several months after the Mad Martha affair, and Posy had introduced her to Flash, her dog partner. With her enhanced senses, she could feel the temple around the woman in front of her. She put her hand on Dorian’s shoulder.

  “And what would bring a priestess to this end of the world?” she asked. “Never had good news from the temple yet.”

  Dorian was slightly annoyed at Jenny taking the initiative, but her expression showed no change as she heard the uninvited words. She knew that Jenny was different, and maybe dangerous, but didn’t know why. Only the Homesteaders, and a select few, knew that being in close contact with the wardogs gave the girls heightened senses.

  Rosie smiled as she answered, “very perceptive of you, my dear. My name is Rosalind, and it’s true that I was a priestess, but since you Easterners showed us the error of our ways, we have become merely librarians.”

  Dorian nodded, “so you’re the scribblers that guru Mona told us about.”

  Surprisingly, most of the population could read to some extent, but few could write legibly, and even though Rosie was insulted by the description, her face didn’t reflect her thoughts.

  “Yes. These miserable urchins,” she waved at the three girls standing with the ox, “can make their letters in an adequate fashion, and we are charged with copying some of the new books in Homestead. Our paper and such are in the panniers. You can look if you like.”

  “No time.” stated Dorian. “We have to find some girls before they do something foolish. Tell me, have you seen anyone on the road?”

  “No one at all. I thought we were being watched, but it was only a goat.”

  “Don’t mention goats,” Dorian said quickly, with a shake of her head and pulled a wry face, then went on to recount the events of the last two days, including how Sasha and Sami had followed Sharkey to the tower this very morning, and found her dead, in circumstances which fulfilled Pansy’s prophecy.

  Rosie nodded her head wisely. “Ah, Pansy Prayerbook,” she said, and a feeling of pride filled her at the thought of her little ex-pupil still using the skills she had taught her. “She was a good student. Had a fair bit of natural talent, and could have been one of the best if she’d finished her training.”

  Jenny frowned. “You’re thinking ‘but’ aren’t you?”

  Rosie and Jenny studied each other for a moment, and Rosie decided to tell her as little as possible. “Don’t know what’ll become of her now, but it’s her choice.”

  Dorian brought the conversation to a close. “Can’t stand here. If they’re not behind you, then we’ll go to Homestead. They must have gone that way.”

  Fugitives

  Tanya sat still and watched until they were out of si
ght, then looked at Pansy and wondered about her friend. She was turning out to be full of surprises. Tanya hadn’t heard any of the conversation from the road below, but Rosie had looked straight up at them, and had ignored their presence completely.

  Pansy’s lips were still moving in the endless mantra, “I am a rock, I am a rock.”

  “Alright miss rock, they’re gone. You can be a girl again if you like.”

  Pansy’s eyes flew open at last, and they were brimming with tears as she gazed at Tanya. “They’re coming for me,” she blurted out. “I knew they would. No one ever leaves the temple. I don’t want to go back Tan, I want to stay with you. Don’t let them get me, I’m scared of what they’ll do to me for running away.”

  Pansy in tears again. “Nothing new there then” thought Tanya, but put her arm round her friend, and pulled her close to comfort her.

  After a moment, Pansy wiped her eyes, lifted her head and said, “Tanya?”

  “What sweetheart?”

  “Let me go. Your sword handle’s sticking in my right booby.”

  Tanya shifted the cause of Pansy’s discomfort. “Sorry love. Better now?”

  “Nearly. Is there anywhere we can go Tan? It seems like the whole world’s against us.”

  Tanya’s mind was racing through the various options open to them.

  “Well, Dockside’s right out of it, with Shark woman and Mona waiting for us, and they’ll probably send a boat down to Gap and La Via as well, so we can’t go there. I’ll get a thrashing if we go back to Homestead, and that rocket woman will be waiting to take you away again.”

  “I’ll kill myself first,” said Pansy vehemently.

  “Shush love, no need for that sort of talk. We’ll be alright,” but deep within herself, Tanya could see no easy way out of their predicament. She took a deep breath and sighed. “Come on,” she said, and helped Pansy to her feet. “We’ll head South and try to keep out of the way for a while.”

  Pansy only had a sketchy idea of the local geography. “But what will we do for food Tan?”

  They looked at each other and smiles spread across both their faces again.

  “Food’s important,” they said in unison, and laughing, they went hand in hand, heading South now, hoping to pass unnoticed between Gap and South farm, then between La Via and Ibis.

  They had two hungry days and a night as they slowly made their way South for one day, and then West. Their hunger was only relieved during the first day by picking oranges and almonds from the abandoned farms in the hillside terraces above Gap, but when they struck out Westward, it got easier. On the second day, they had to cross the flatlands between Gap and South Farm, where they took one egg from each of several birds nests, and found some green tomatoes.

  In the remains of a derelict building, at the foot of the Central Sierras, they managed to fry the eggs on a piece of roofing slate over a small fire, and before they settled down for another cold night, Tanya set out two snares.

  In the morning there was a rabbit in one, and the remains of a rabbit in the other. The thought of a predator being near to them was alarming for Pansy, the eternal worrier, but Tanya assured her that there was nothing to be afraid of. From a different viewpoint, it would have been possible to see that she had her fingers crossed behind her back while she was saying this, but it made Pansy feel a little better. After all, Tanya was her hero, and wouldn’t lie to her. Would she?

  After filling their water bottles at the stream, Tanya took the opportunity to give Pansy another lesson in fighting skills.

  “Come on Pan, you’ve got the strength of a thousand spiders. Swing it like I showed you this time, and you’ll be amazed at what you can do.” She had to shout the insult, because she was standing a safe distance away from the action.

  Pansy considered the statement, and decided that it was a compliment. After all, the spiders in the temple vaults were tough little things, weren’t they. Some of them not so little either.

  With renewed vigour, she swung the sword in a huge arc over her right shoulder, and the bamboo finally collapsed, falling to the ground with it’s end cut at an angle to leave a sharp point.

  “Easy when you know how,” said Pansy with pride. “I’m getting the hang of it now.”

  “Well, we’ve got enough for the time being. Can’t carry any more,” answered Tanya, not wanting to prolong the dangerous activity. “We’ll cut these down to size, and start walking again. Got to get over this hill and into the plains again before dark.”

  Pansy reluctantly returned the sword with the everlasting edge. “Can I do it again tomorrow, Tan?” she asked hopefully.

  “If we get time love. But only if it’s safe.”

  With the discovery that there was a rabbit thief out there somewhere, Tanya had decided that they needed more than just her sword and knives as weapons.

  They sat and trimmed their homemade spears, and then, reluctantly on Pansy’s part, started to climb the last major obstacle before the flat plain near Ibis, and the comparative safety of the great forest.

  The next morning, on the Ibis side of the hills, both of the traps had been sprung, but again, one of them was empty. Or should we say, almost empty.

  “Look,” she said to Pansy, “Another rabbit missing, but we’ve been left two cabbages in it’s place. Weird.”

  There was no one to be seen as they neared Ibis pass, where the White River ran between the two ranges of hills before reaching the sea near La Via. It was as if they were the only two people in the world. Until they reached the banks of the river, that is.

  Pansy stopped and looked over her shoulder to Tanya. “There’s someone swimming in the river,” she whispered and let Tanya go past her for a better view.

  After a brief look both ways along the banks, they decided that it was safe to get closer. “Drowning more like,” snorted Tanya, as she watched the swimmer’s feeble splashing. Then her attitude changed dramatically as the swimmer rolled over showing his face, and she stared in disbelief. “It’s Marcus.”

  “Who?” asked Pansy, having only seen him occasionally, and from a distance.

  “Marcus, Marco the barbarian. We’ve got to save him,” and she hurriedly pulled off the mail shirt and discarded her weapons. Pansy stood amazed as the pile of knives grew. “Stay here,” Tanya ordered, and waded out into the shallow water. The river was wider and slower here than at the bridge near Ibis where Marco had fallen in, so Tanya was able to seize his wrist easily as he drifted past. That, and getting him to the river bank was the easy part. With him being only semi conscious, the two girls had a struggle to get him onto dry land, but eventually they all collapsed in a heap on the stony beach.

  Pansy grimaced. “He’s a mess,” she commented after looking at his bloody back and legs. “How do you think it happened.”

  “Looks like he lost his skin on the rocks.” Tanya replied, then touched his leg and frowned. “He’s got
a hole in his leg.”

  Marco mumbled incoherently in delirium.

  “What’s he saying?” demanded Tanya.

  “Don’t know. Sounded like ‘tie a bill be’, I think.”

  Tanya put her hand on Marco’s cheek. “Say it again,” she demanded.

  “Margaret? Is that you?” he said clearly.

  “Well that was plain enough,” said Pan, stating the obvious.

  “Tried to kill me,” and he went into a fit of coughing.

  The two rescuers looked wide eyed at each other across his heaving chest.

  Pansy screwed her eyes shut for a second. “Oh Tan. I heard her say it a couple of weeks ago, in The Vine. 'If he talks to me like that again, I’ll bloody kill him', she said. I thought she was joking. They make stupid jokes like that. Didn’t know she meant it.”

  Tanya’s reply was cut off by faint calls from upstream.

  “Marco.” “Marcus.” There were two voices in the distance shouting his name.

  They both looked up together. “No. Please, not now.” Whined Pansy in a very worried voice. “That sounds like Sylvia and Margaret.”

  “Damn. I can’t beat Sylvia. She’s way too good for me,” exclaimed Tanya.

  She jumped up and grabbed all their gear, then laid it down by Marco’s still body.

  “Lay down behind him,” she ordered, and then she laid on the ground as well, so that Marco was between them. Pulling her cloak over them all, she continued, “we can’t move him in time, so do your rock thing.”

  “It doesn’t always work though.”

  “Just do it Pansy Prayerbook,” she ordered, “or Margaret’s going to kill us all.”

  Pansy focussed her mind and started whispering her “I am a rock” again, but unfortunately Marco took up the chant as well, and not very quietly.

  Tanya was distraught. “Shut up Marco,” she whispered.

  “I am a rock,” he said, “I am a rock.”

  “Shut up idiot.”

  “I, am a mmmm?”

  Tanya stopped his senseless rambling by forcing his mouth closed with hers. The voices were coming nearer, but Tanya ignored them. She had other things to worry about now.

  Marco’s tongue was making tiny expeditions between her lips, and his left hand had crept round her back and settled on her bottom. As his fingers gently kneaded her soft flesh, her eyes were wide open with surprise and she was extremely aware of her racing heart, and the butterflies in her stomach. She was no stranger to kissing, as she and Gilda had been lovers up until the arrival of the miners in the time machine, but she only knew of the rudiments of making love with a man by hearsay. To say the least, she was very confused by her feelings.

  Someone passed by them only a dozen paces away, but they were not challenged.

  When Pansy finally declared that they were safe again, there was no reply, and when she lifted the cloak, she found that Tanya had her eyes shut tight and was kissing Marco vigorously. Without hesitation, she slapped the side of Tanya’s head with her open hand.

  “Oww!” exclaimed her startled friend. “What’s that for?”

  “Tanya Vine, that’s not fair. Here we are about to die, and you lay there enjoying yourself.”

  She sat up rubbing her head and Marco sank back into unconsciousness. “It was the only way I could keep him quiet,” she explained.

  Pansy wore a glum expression. “Still not fair. You never kiss me like that. You were enjoying it too much for my liking. And you’ve only just met him. Like you were working in Pauline’s Pleasure Parlour.”

  “Where?”

  “Nasty place on Cow Lane behind the temple. If you can meet the price, you can get anything there.”

  Tanya shook her head, not understanding. “Oh Pan, I’m sorry, I shan’t do it again. And I didn’t know you wanted kissing that way.”

  “Neither did I, till just now. And you were trying to make babies. I felt him wriggling! Bet if I had a maggot hanging between my legs, you’d kiss me proper then.” Her lips pouted and she hung her head in misery.

  Tanya blushed and her cheeks went bright red at the memory of Marco’s semi conscious gyrations beneath the cloak. She ran her hands through her hair and stood up.

  “Come on Pan love. We’ll talk about it later, when we’re safe. Got to move him first.”

  Reluctantly, Pansy got to her feet, and together they tried to move Marco’s inert body up the beach towards the cover of the trees.

  They had only moved him a couple of metres, and their tired limbs were beginning to tell them that this was an impossible task.

  Pansy sat down. “I can’t do it,” she panted. “He’s too heavy.”

  Tanya had also been thinking the same thing, so sat down as well, and rested her head in her hands.

  “I can help.”

  At the unexpected voice, both girls jumped up in alarm. Tanya making a dive for her sword, while Pansy screamed and ran straight into the water in her panic, convinced that they were going to be murdered.

  When Tanya swung round to face the unknown threat, she lowered the sword point uncertainly. Crouching down beyond Marco was the dirtiest, thinnest woman they had ever seen. She had a wild tangle of unkempt hair, was barefoot, dressed in rags, and it was impossible to tell her age.

  “Please don’t hurt me,” she wailed, and cringed even lower. “I’ve brought you another present.” She had one hand held up as if to protect her head, and thrusting the other one forward, she let fall two onions and a carrot, complete with green tops.

  Understanding came to Tanya. “You’re the rabbit thief,” she declared.

  “Only borrowed them,” whined the pitiful creature. “I found you the greens. Can find things. Can’t catch rabbits.” She got a little bolder. “Trade. It’s trade.” And louder. “Find you things, nice things for rabbits.” A manic grin spread across her face. “Help you, help me. Help your man.”

  Tanya looked round at Pansy, who was still knee deep in the water. “Well?” she asked. “What do you think?”

  The question took the soaked girl by surprise. She’d never been asked her opinion before, only ever told what to do. “Er, got no choice really. We’ll have to let her help. For a while, anyway.”

  “Just what I thought,” replied Tanya, nodding her head.

  Journey’s end

  Lifting Marco was surprisingly easy now. The thin woman was tougher than she looked, and with her help they moved thirty metres or so from the river bank into the cover of the trees. Leaving Pansy to clean up Marco’s wounds as best she could, Tanya and their new ally went back to the river to remove all sign of their passing. While they walked and worked, Tanya asked who she was.

  “I’m princess Florabel of Alacant, and I was stolen from my mother’s castle by a witch when I was a baby. I’ve just escaped from her tower, but she’s not far behind me.”

  Tanya was naturally sceptical about this and asked her again.

  “It's true! My mother’s step sister hated me for being
so beautiful, so put a curse on me, and put me to sleep for fifty years. Now I have to roam the wilds till I find my true home again.”

  “You’re talking nonsense, like a cracked pot, aren’t you.”

  “No, I swear it's true, every word, and I’m not crackers at all.”

  Tanya’s eyes lit up and she pointed an accusing finger. “I knew I’d seen you before. You’re not crackers. You’re Craken. Flossie Craken. You were in Mad Martha’s lot.”

  “Not so loud,” pleaded Flossie, looking round furtively. “Someone might hear you. They’ll set the dogs on me, like they did with the others.”

  It took two more days to get Flossie clean and free from lice again, and during that time they put together her story bit by painful bit. She had run from the battle on Homestead green at the first opportunity, and had kept on running South and East, skirting round Burnt Wood. Life had been hard for her, but at least she had survived, unlike her unfortunate companions, who had stayed till the bitter end and had been slaughtered by the wardogs. She had kept away from all human contact for the last year and a half, and the wild goats on Dockside mount had eventually accepted her as one of their own. Even to the extent of letting her milk them, sometimes. And then again, sometimes not, when she then received a good butting and stamping for her impertinence. It was she that had accidentally let the goats out of Dockside’s pen one night when the wild ones had refused to cooperate with her. She had lived by scavenging what she could from the rubbish dump outside Dockside, never being seen by human eyes, and her presence had reinforced the tales of old man Deerward’s ghost. She told them that she had been compelled to follow them when Pansy had blown the horn.

  Then Marco was on his feet again and able to walk with them, so they started their journey South through Ibis pass and onward towards the forest.

  The weather had been kind to them, and it was a mild Spring day as they emerged from the pass into the Southern Valley. They stopped for a rest in the shade of a clump of date palms, and as they rested, the girls tried to get Marco to remember.

  “So what did Margaret actually say?” asked Pansy

  Marco frowned. He’d done a lot of frowning as he tried to make sense of his jumbled memories. “Go first, she said, because they’ll be ready for you.”

  “And did you go first?”

  “Yes, they were still at the fire, eating breakfast and I left them.”

  “Tell us about the bridge again.”

  He frowned again and rubbed his forehead. “I put my helmet on in the trees.” He looked around with a puzzled look on his face. “It’s been stolen.” There was a long silence.

  “And the bridge?” prompted Tanya.

  He nodded. “I was on the bridge, and then my leg hurt. I looked down and there was an arrow.” He touched the bandage, then smiled at Tanya. “Then you were kissing me.”

  “Yes, well. We don’t need to go into that now,” said Tanya, reddening again.

  He looked at Pansy. “Then you were kissing me. I like kissing.”

  It was Pan’s turn to go red.

  “Pansy Prayerbook,” exclaimed Tanya loudly, “what have you been doing?”

  “Well I’d got to thinking, hadn’t I?” she said hurriedly. “If he’s our man now, it’s our duty to know how to do it properly isn’t it?” She decided to go on the offensive. “I only did what you did. Only kissed him, after all.”

  Tanya jumped to her feet and put her hands on her hips. “What about all that, ‘you don’t kiss me like that’ business back at the river then?”

  Marco and Flossie looked from one to the other as the exchange got under way.

  Pansy stood up as well and facing Tanya, poked a stiff finger into her chest.

  “And you still haven’t kissed me like that, Tanya Vine.” Pan was getting louder now.

  “Haven’t had time, and I can’t do it with people watching.” Tanya replied.

  “Why not,” demanded the angry Pan. “It’s not like making babies. And I love you.”

  Tanya was silenced by the statement and she reached out for Pansy, who had the beginnings of tears in her eyes again. As they clung to each other, Tanya whispered in her friends ear, “Oh Pansy sweetheart, and I love you too.”

  They were about to kiss when Flossie broke the spell.

  “I know how to make babies. Can show you if you like,” and she reached out to Marco.

  The mismatched quartet approached the jumble of rocks in silence. Which was understandable, considering what had occurred the day before.

  After Flossie’s offer to show the two virgins how to make babies with Marco, they had pounced on her with the fury of wildcats, and Marco had finally picked them both up and held one in each hand with their feet off the ground. It wasn’t until after a good two minutes had passed, with them both kicking and cursing, that they had finally calmed down. With their promises to ‘be good’, he had gently let them down again.

  “Touch him again Flossie Craken,” Tanya said angrily, “and I’ll sort you out proper.”

  Flossie was regaining her composure, and confidence. “Well that’s not fair. You both get to do some tongue tasting, and I’m not allowed anywhere near him?”

  “Be thankful we’ve allowed you to stay with us,” retorted Pansy.

  “Allowed me to stay? Pardon me, but who finds all the cabbages for you then?”

  “I’m sick of cabbages,” Pansy shouted. “They taste awful, and they make us smell awful too. Why can’t you find something nicer, like a biscuit tree?”

  “You’re just nasty, miss Pansy Smells Awful, and if your manners don’t improve, then I won’t show you my secret treasure.”

  “You don’t have a secret treasure.”

  “Do.”

  “Don’t.”

  “Do.”

  Tanya looked at them in dismay. “Shut up,” she yelled. “Enough bickering. He’s only a man. We shouldn’t fight over men. They’re not worth it.”

  “Excuse me for asking a silly question,” interrupted Marco, “but don’t I get a say in this?”

  The three red faced girls looked at him in surprise. “No!” they exclaimed together.

  “Why should you?” asked Pansy.

  “Your opinions don’t count,” added Flossie.

  “You’ll do as you’re told,” said Tanya curtly.

  And here they were, near a place that Flossie called Sanwan, and her secret treasure, which she was going to share with them in an attempt to become an equal partner in their group.

  “This way,” Flossie said tersely, and headed to the right of the rock heap, which had fallen down the mountain at some time long past.

  Built against the rocks, there was a rickety wooden shelter consisting of untrimmed tree trunks holding up a roof of woven bamboo and willow wands. The sides were mostly open to the elements. They stood under the flimsy roof.

  “You’ll have to move this one,” she instructed Marco, “Jenny Fish was the only one who could do it on
her own.” She paused, “she was huge.” Speaking softly now, “like you. Strong. Lots of muscles.”

  “Flossie, shut up.” commanded Tanya quietly.

  Marco stood at the boulder and heaved in the indicated direction. It rolled aside with surprising ease and exposed a small dark entrance.

  “Come on inside, and then say you’re sorry for not believing me.” Flossie led the way through the opening and then stopped. “We have to light these,” and she picked up a rush light from a pile near the entrance.

  They each held a flaming torch, lit from Tanya’s flint and steel, and they advanced into the cavern which quickly expanded into a huge chamber. To the girls, it was just a chamber, created by the ‘old ones’, but Marco recognised it as the tunnel carrying the coastal road between Alicante and Benidorm, and he had driven in convoy through it many times during the alien war, in the days before his rescue by the time machine. He had been seventeen then. Now, two thousand years later, he was still only nineteen.

  “Sanwan. San Juan tunnel,” he whispered. There was something about the cathedral like vault that inspired awe and wonder, and whispering came naturally. Twenty metres inside the tunnel, the decaying hulks of five transport cruisers stood in an orderly row, the carbon and plastic bodies showing some signs of their two thousand years underground, but only the metal parts actually disintegrating. Behind these five, the front of another vehicle protruded from the pile of rubble where the tunnel roof had collapsed.

  “Is this your fabulous treasure, then?” asked Pansy in her best sarcastic manner.

  Flossie didn’t get time to make a suitable retort in return, as Marco started crying.

  He was shaken by this encounter with the reminders of a past he’d tried to forget, and the girls looked at him, not understanding the horrors he had faced only two years previously. Those two years had seen him change, from a tired, frightened kitchen hand, into the muscular, nearly naked barbarian they saw before them.

  He crouched down, and dropping his torch, covered his head with his arms. The girls stood and looked on, awkward and uncertain what to do, as the sound of his sobbing filled the tunnel. It was Flossie who made the first move. Handing her torch to Tanya, she grabbed the miserable man, and somehow managed to pull him to his feet and then pushed and pulled him back to the tunnel entrance.

  His ears were full of the whine of alien lasers, and the smell of burnt human flesh filled his nostrils again. He lay on the grass and screamed at the sky. “Gudrun! Help me.”

  Flossie lay down beside him and held him close. “Shush darling, you’re safe now.”

  Pansy was in the tunnel’s entrance, and she stared open mouthed as the scene developed before her. “Tanya,” she whispered over her shoulder, “she’s stroking his hair.” She narrowed her eyes. “I can’t hear what she’s saying.”

  Even if she had heard, it would have meant nothing. Flossie was using baby talk to calm him down.

  “Tanya!” hissed Pansy, “the rotten cow’s kissing him!”

  Her new lover was more pragmatic about the situation. “Come on sweetheart, back inside. We’ll leave them alone for a while.”

  “But she’s kissing him!”

  Tanya had heard Margaret and Gudrun talking about the ‘old days’, and she knew how they had kept Marco going through those bad times, so she pulled Pansy back into the tunnel. “We’re not going to watch. We’ll look at Flossie’s treasure.”

  Back inside, and not knowing what to expect, the contents of the five cruisers came as a complete surprise to them. This was the secret store and hideaway of Martha Torrent and Filian Strake, the evil pair who had terrorised the valleys, and instead of meaningless, crumbling ancient artefacts, the vehicles held the proceeds of ten years of looting and extortion. With Martha’s patrol now all dead, except for Beryl, Glen and Basher, who had no knowledge of the secret hoard, as they had never been trusted, they were the only four people in the world who knew of its location, and it was theirs for the taking.

  Pansy was dashing from one cargo bay to the next, in her eagerness to see all the goodies at once, opening boxes and bags at random. Tanya was slower in her approach, but no less excited about what she was seeing. There were silver plates, dishes, and spoons. Silver and gold cups, and even a box of crystal goblets that must have come from beyond Valencia, and had pictures of strange animals and trees engraved on them. Then there was the jewellery. Boxes of assorted trinkets gleaming in the flickering torch light and chains of gold and silver in velvet lined cases. Tanya was always looking for weapons and armour, as good examples were highly desirable, and could be traded anywhere. There wasn’t much, either in quantity or in variety, but she was not disappointed by her finds. The few swords, shields and axes she found, were of the highest quality, and at first glance, appeared to be from the same workshop as Sylvia’s sword. She caressed the weapons and traced the outlines of the exotic beasts depicted on the shield bosses.

  Pansy’s excited calls broke the magic of the moment and she went to see what the fuss was all about. She found Pansy dancing around the tunnel at the rear of the last vehicle, and draped from head to foot in bright blue shimmering cloth.

  “It’s beautiful, Tan, just beautiful,” she gasped in delight. “Feel it. Go on, feel it,” and she stopped her mad cavorting.

  Tanya reached out and touched the dazzling material. Unlike the coarsely woven clothing that most people wore, it slipped easily through her fingers. “What is it?” she asked in wonder, “I’ve never seen anything like it.” Then the practical side of her nature came to the fore. “Wonder what it’s worth. Is there any more?”

  “There’s more, much more,” laughed Pansy, “and other colours too.”

  “It came from the South, over the mountain.”

  The two ecstatic girls hadn’t noticed Flossie rejoin them.

  “Is he all right,” Tanya asked, chewing her bottom lip thoughtfully.

  Flossie nodded. “Don’t know why he went stupid on us, but he’s quiet now.”

  “What have you done to him,” snarled Pansy. “I saw you kissing him,” and she clenched her fists menacingly.

  “No.” Tanya said firmly, stepping in front of Pansy. “We don’t fight any more. We need each other now.” She turned to Flossie, who hadn’t cringed away as she would have done two days ago. “How old are you Floss?”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “Twenty four, five maybe. Why?”

  Tanya nodded. “Here’s why. I know about Margaret and Gudrun. They used to lay with him all the time, to stop him thinking about the monsters, and I know you must have been making babies out there. Marco’s ours, we saved him from drowning, but I don’t want to have children with him. Not yet anyway, and you’re too young Pansy dearest. So we’re going to love each other, like good friends should do, and if Marco has to be calmed down, then that’s part of Flossie’s job, till we’re old enough. Right?”

  Tanya was naturally talkative,
but mainly in the gossip department, and it had been a long speech, in her terms. There was silence while Pansy and Flossie stood and looked at each other.

  “Don’t hate me, Pansy,” said Flossie quietly. “Everybody’s hated me since Martha picked me to be her skivvy. I haven’t been happy for years. I want to be happy.”

  Reluctantly, Pansy held out her hand and the three companions briefly hugged.

  That evening they dined in style. Marco’s fears were driven underground sufficiently to allow him to help with the removal of some of the loot into the open air, and he and Pansy built a camp among the rocks near the tunnel, while Flossie and Tanya went hunting with two of the bows they had acquired.

  Tanya took the opportunity of being alone with Flossie to reinforce her position as leader of the group. She spoke softly to her. “There’s three of us now and I’m glad you’re with us, but Marco belongs to all of us. If you try to steal him from me and Pan, I’ll kill you. Very slowly. Understand?”

  Despite their age difference, Flossie had no difficulty in believing the threat, and promised that she would always be honest and true to her new family.

  Tanya had some skill with a hunting bow, but in Flossie’s hands, it proved to be a deadly instrument. They returned to camp with a small deer hanging from a pole they had cut, and as darkness fell they sat around the fire, drinking wine of dubious quality from silver cups, and admiring each others new clothes, while they waited for Pansy to declare the venison ready.

  As well as the rolls of synthetic cloth in the last wagon, there was an abundance of more practical gear, and their own shabby clothes had been discarded. There were no ‘mens’ clothing as such, but Marco had been fitted out in voluminous trousers and a loose shirt, both of white linen with blue edging. He had kept his sandals, as they had found none to fit him, but the three girls had a bigger selection to choose from, and were decked out like peacocks in the brightest colours they could find and exotic shoes with bright buckles.

  Tanya wiped grease from her chin and licked her lips. “What were they going to do with all this stuff then,” she asked Flossie, and reached for the wine bottle again.

  “Martha said it was her insurance. For when she was too old to frighten people I guess.”

  “There’s better things here than we ever saw in the temple,” added Pansy. “Never seen clothes like these before.”

  “Its called poly something,” Marco informed them. “We wore clothes made of it on the Hood.”

  The girls looked at him warily, half expecting him to start crying again, but he skewered another piece of meat on his dagger and popping it in his mouth, kept on chewing.

  “Or was it tetra something,” he mused. “Can’t really remember now. I’ll ask Margaret when I see her.” He frowned. “If I remember.”

  Tanya put her hand on Marco’s mighty shoulder. “We don’t want to see her yet, Marco love,” she said quietly. “We’ll wait a few weeks. Perhaps she’ll realise she was wrong to try and have you killed, and if she doesn’t…”

  Her voice trailed off to leave an awkward silence between them.

  “Time for a story,” exclaimed Pansy suddenly. “Who will go first.”

  Apparently, no one knew any stories worth telling.

  “A song then,” she said brightly. “Anything?” She added after another lengthy silence.

  “I’ll tell you a sad story,” said Marco at last, and he commenced to tell them of his childhood in North America. He could have told them anything, anything at all. They wouldn’t have known the difference between fact and fiction, especially as the facts of his childhood and early teens could have come from a novel.

  But he stuck to the absolute truth, from the break up of his parents marriage, through the happy times on the asteroid mining ship, Hood, then the horrors of the alien invasion, to the debacle of Ashers Farm, after which he had been heralded as a hero, when in fact, the truth was far different to the stories being spread by the wardogs who had been with him.

  “So you see,” he concluded. “I’m a fraud, made in my father’s image and living out his dreams. I can’t even draw a sword without cutting myself. And as for that battle, I never actually hurt anyone. Even the girls and dogs with me had to run themselves silly to get close enough to the enemy, and then they mostly fell down crying and begging for mercy.”

  “So, what you’re saying,” said Tanya slowly, “is that if we got ourselves into a fight, you wouldn’t know how to use a sword or axe?

  He nodded. “That about sums it up, I’m afraid. Pretty useless.”

  “Chiggers!”

  They all stared at her.

  “What’s wrong Tan?” asked Pansy.

  “Unless you and mister muscle here can learn fighting pretty quick, then we’ll have to think of something else. I thought we had a chance to rule the world, but now we might have to make do with only half of it.”

  Sceptical at first, but then wide eyed with wonder, they listened to their leader’s scheme, and congratulated her on it’s audacity.

  Then they opened another anonymous bottle, which proved to be Crampton’s finest brandy. As the fire died down, Pansy cuddled up to Tanya and drew her lover’s face down to hers, and they engaged in a long kiss goodnight. She had accepted Flossie at last, and they ignored the sounds coming from the other side of the fire.