Courted Sanctuary

Chapter 8

  Since Luitgard had left them, it seemed the village had had to make surprisingly few adjustments to their daily routine. While the lessons she had once taught were taken over by different crones, the day to day supervision and decision making had fallen to Adalbern and Sieglinde, who had managed quite successfully to maintain the efficient status quo.

  Every morning, Sieglinde would steal some rolls from the kitchens and take them to the men on the walls. Most mornings, Humbert was there and she would give him the first hot roll. He always thanked her, but so too did the other men. She hoped one day he would finally see the gesture as something more.

  With the storehouse finished, Sieglinde and Adalbern decided the builders could be sent to change the stone in the dying shack. Before they could seek out an appropriate replacement stone, the original had to be removed. It had never before been replaced and there was no one who knew exactly what was needed.

  After a rainy night, Sieglinde sent Boris, Friedmann, Emil, Corbinians, and Detlef to the shack to remove the stone. All five of them were strong and in the prime of their lives. She knew they were easily up for the task so when Friedmann and Detlef walked into the Great Hall before midday looking worn, she was surprised.

  She and her mother, Lilli, had been giving the Goddess Maids Dianna, Agnes, and Lucia a sewing lesson. She lowered her sewing as Friedmann walked up and whispered in her ear.

  "We have found something you should see," he said.

  She nodded and stood, leaving her sewing on the chair she had been using.

  Her mother, who had been the Mother of Sewing for many years did not hesitate in regaining the Goddess Maids' attention. She scolded Agnes for her uneven stitching.

  "Fetch Adalbern," Sieglinde said to Friedmann as they left the manor.

  Within minutes, she was walking across the drawbridge with Adalbern, Friedmann, and Detlef following. Humbert was watching from the battlements.

  Though the clouds had fully cleared that morning and the air was hot, the earth beneath the canopy of trees was muddy. The mixture of smells of soaked soil and hot bark mixed unpleasantly in Sieglinde's nose. It took much longer than she had expected to get to the dying shack and her skirts were muddy up to the knees by the time she did.

  The entire front wall of the shack had been ripped out; the rubble was scattered around it in the mud and grass. The dying vat had been rolled against a tree. A rainbow river of old dye and water trickled down the slope towards the lake from where they had dumped it. The large grate that had held the vat was propped against one of the remaining side walls of the shack. Boris, Emil, and Corbinians were waiting for them near where the vat had once stood. As Sieglinde approached, Boris pointed at the ground.

  "I'm not sure when this was put here," he said, "But it must be from us."

  There was a hole big enough for a man to slip through right where the vat should have been. Sieglinde leaned over to look down it but there was no light. It seemed bottomless.

  "How do you know it is something of ours?" she asked.

  Boris pointed to the cracked stone they had removed and which was now on the ground several feet away. Though the design was interrupted by the large hole that had developed in the middle of it, there was no mistaking the coiled wyvern.

  "It fit the hole perfectly," Boris said. "It was made for this spot."

  Sieglinde considered. She saw no reason why it could not be something of theirs but she also saw little purpose for it.

  "Is it a former well?" Adalbern asked.

  Boris shrugged. "It isn't one anymore even if it was," he said. As if to accentuate his point, he took one of the small pieces from the demolished wall and dropped it into the hole. After several seconds, they heard the echo of a click as the hard chunk hit the bottom.

  "Does it lead anywhere?" Sieglinde asked.

  "That's a good question," Boris replied.

  Sieglinde was still at a loss. As far as she was aware, the dying shack had served no other purpose for as long as the Mintharchs had been there. She was not sure how a giant hole aided dying.

  "Is it possible to get down there to take a look?"

  "We could get a rope," Detlef suggested.

  Adalbern shook his head. "If there are sharp rocks, they could cut the rope. Best use a ladder instead."

  "But we don't have a ladder that long except in the gatehouse," Detlef protested.

  Adalbern glared. Detlef was a man but only just. He had yet to learn that sometimes it was best not to whine. "Then make another one," Adalbern growled.

  Sieglinde's mind was still churning over when such a hole would be needed and why. Her great grandmother, Oda, might know or Ewald. They were the last two alive who were not born Mintharchs. She entrusted the exploration of the hole to Adalbern and the builders as she made her way back to the village where she went straight to the apothecary.

  Oda and the two Mothers of the Apothecary, Doris and Julia, were teaching Adelina, Gisa, and Abigail proper grinding techniques when Sieglinde entered. She signalled for Oda to join her outside where she could speak to her privately.

  She described what had been found in the dying shack and asked her if she knew anything about it. To her dismay, her great grandmother was perplexed. As far as she had known, there was no such thing out there. She suggested Sieglinde ask Ewald.

  Sieglinde thanked her but could not force the disappointment from her voice. Oda gave her a close-lipped smile. "I'm sure you will figure it out, dear," she said. "You've always been such a smart girl." Far from making her feel better, Oda's encouragement made Sieglinde want to cry. She felt anything but smart at that moment. She thanked her again before walking back to the manor to change out of her muddy dress. She would have to speak to Ewald that evening. He was the head of the farmers and the hike to the eastern fields was many times longer than that to the dying shack.

  To pass the time, she returned to the sewing lesson once she was wearing clean clothes. Her sewing was where she had left it. As she picked it up and sat down, her mother reached over and squeezed her hand. She gave a weak smile back.

  "I was just showing the girls a new stitch," Lilli said. "They are picking it up nicely."

  The three girls blushed but did not stop the movement of their needles.

  The rest of the lesson dragged for Sieglinde. She found it difficult to contribute. She knew her mother had noticed and yet had said nothing as she had taken over the reins of the lesson entirely. When the end of the lesson finally came in late afternoon, Sieglinde handed her sewing to her mother and headed for the gates where she waited for Ewald and Adalbern to return.

  Clouds had moved in once more and a deep rumble echoed in the distance. She wrapped her arms around her middle but it did little to counteract the wind that was quickly growing.

  Ewald and the farmers returned before Adalbern and the builders and just as the clouds began to release their moisture. He was a white-haired man only a few years younger than Oda. He had been the brother of Oda's husband before the man had died. Despite his advanced age, his skin was golden and glistening from his days in the fields. His arms were thick with muscle and even his cheeks still spoke of the young man he had once been.

  She called him over. Though he was confused, he complied with her request and listened as she gave the same description as she had given Oda. To her further disappointment, he shrugged. "I have no idea what that is about," he said. "But I have always been a farmer. That would have been the work of builders."

  "But all the builders who would have been involved have since died," she lamented.

  He nodded. "Sorry I could not help solve your mystery," he said. "At least it doesn't sound like another thing we need to worry about. I think Luitgard's adventures are enough for one summer."

  His mention of Luitgard evoked a swell of prickling emotion she had managed to keep supressed until then. When everything was going according to plan, with no surprises, it was easier not to hate her sister priestess for leaving. It was easier
to try to sympathize with Luitgard's reasons for going. At that moment, Sieglinde missed her only because she wanted someone else to ask, someone who might have a better idea than she did. If Lord Mintharch had passed some secret knowledge onto Luitgard, Luitgard should have had the decency to tell her before abandoning them.

  Sieglinde thanked Ewald and returned to her spot on the drawbridge, though now a little more beneath the shelter of the gatehouses, where she awaited Adalbern's return. Because of the rain, she did not have to wait long.

  Adalbern and the builders emerged from the trees and were soaking wet from the increasingly heavy downpour. Adalbern looked at her before shaking his fist to the clouds, which showed no interest in his protests.

  "We were almost finished but we had to stop because of the weather," he said when he had neared. "As soon as the rain lets up, we should be able to finish that ladder."

  "Get inside," she instructed, trying not to let her disappointment show. "We can worry about it in the morning."

  He agreed and they joined the other villagers who were scrambling to seek shelter from the rain.