Consorts of Heaven Read Online Free Page B

him either.
    ‘I know, Damaru,’ said the woman patiently, ‘but I need to fetch fire to cook. You will have to wait.’
    The boy gave a half-shrug, half-twitch and walked out without a word.
    The woman called over, ‘I am sorry, master. I cannot make food or medicine without fire. I will have to go and get some.’
    Fire was something she needed to go and get ? He understood her words, despite the odd accent, but they didn’t make sense. He realised she was about to leave and said urgently, ‘Wait, don’t go - where am I?’
    ‘To answer your first question,’ she said, drawing herself up straighter, ‘you are in the village of Dangwern.’ She gave a short, barked laugh at his look of incomprehension. ‘No, master, you would not know where that is. No one more than a day’s walk from here does, and I know everyone who lives within a day’s walk.’
    ‘So this isn’t my home.’ That was good. Though he wasn’t sure where he belonged, he hoped it wasn’t in a filthy, stinking hovel like this one. ‘How did I get here?’
    ‘I do not know. We found you, up at the mere. Well, Damaru found you, and I found him.’
    ‘The mere?’
    ‘The boglands, up on the high moor. Some say it is an unholy place.’
    He didn’t like the sound of that. ‘What did I have with me? Was I alone?’
    ‘You were naked as a newborn.’ She sounded embarrassed. Under the pungent bedclothes, he was still naked. She paused, then added, ‘There was something with you, though.’
    ‘What was with me? Where is it?’ He needed clues, links to his life, anything that might explain this to him.
    ‘I have it here.’ She reached up to one of the packed shelves that covered the far wall, got down a clay pot and pulled out two pieces of silvery-white fabric, easily the brightest, cleanest items in the hut. She brought the larger one over to him.
    He hugged the cloth to his chest. The fabric was soft, with a texture that seemed familiar, or at least comforting. ‘You found this with me?’
    ‘It was caught on a bush near where you lay, with a smaller piece in a pool nearby.’
    ‘What is it?’
    ‘I do not know.’ She sounded confused at being asked. ‘I have never seen cloth like this before, master.’
    He wished she wouldn’t call him master . Maybe she didn’t know his name—
    —and neither did he. His vision darkened. The fabric slipped through his fingers.
    ‘What is it? Master, are you all right?’
    He turned his head, anger and terror coursing through him. ‘No, I’m fucking not all right! I’ve just woken up in a strange woman’s bed, and I have no fucking idea who I am or how I got here!’
    She recoiled from him and his anger evaporated. ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry - I shouldn’t have shouted at you. You’re only trying to help.’ He started to sit up, only to fall back at the stabbing pain in his temples.
    She stayed where she was and said firmly, ‘You need medicine, and you need food. For that, I need fire. I will go and fetch it now. I will not be long.’ Without waiting for a reply she took down something small from the shelf, stooped to pick up something else from the floor, and bustled out.
    In the silence after she left he lay still, head throbbing, ashamed and afraid.
     
    Kerin cursed herself for a fool. What did she think she was doing, bringing a stranger into her house? Did she expect him to wake up and shower her with gifts? She had already returned the only thing of value he had had with him. A cannier woman would have kept the larger piece of cloth as payment for the trouble he was putting her to. Then again, to have access to such fine material implied he was rich, perhaps a noble from a distant land. It was a shame, then, that he appeared to have no more idea of how he came to be here than she did.
    There might be another explanation for his behaviour, she thought as she headed up to the moot-hall. Three summers back, Duffryn’s lad had fallen from a roof he was rethatching and landed