Magus of Stonewylde Book One (22 page)

‘Didn’t she have any children then?’ asked Rosie, looking up from her embroidery.

‘No, Rosie. She was the Wise Woman and they don’t have children. Nor husbands. Keep their strength and energy for their magic and nought else.’

‘She said she brought me into the world,’ Yul added. ‘I was the last one.’

‘Aye, that’s true. After your birth she … well, she fell from favour. Magus told us all to go to the doctor at the Hall if we were sickly, and the midwife up there must help us with birthing. He said Old Heggy was a menace and a danger. So people stopped visiting her for potions and the like, and over the years she’s been forgotten by most. There’s only a few who still call on her and keep her in food and firewood.’

‘Poor old thing,’ said Rosie. ‘How sad for her, after caring for folk all her life.’

‘No, Rosie, ‘tis for the best because she’s a little touched. Full of rantings and ravings that are best ignored. Don’t you go listening to her, Yul. Keep away from Mother Heggy, like I’ve
always told you. She’ll fill your head with nonsense if you let her.’

Maizie got up to make them all a cup of tea, but found Yul and Rosie still discussing the crone when she returned to the sitting room.

‘She doesn’t think highly of Magus,’ said Yul. ‘She said his ideas were too grand and it will all fall about him.’

‘Pah! What does she know?’ said Maizie. ‘If it weren’t for Magus we wouldn’t be here now sitting in this cosy little cottage, warm, dry and well-fed. Mother Heggy would do well to remember just what Magus has done for all of us before she starts on about him. She never did know when to keep that mouth o’ hers shut.’

‘Do tell us, Mother,’ said Rosie eagerly. ‘I love hearing about the old days at Stonewylde.’

‘What’s to tell? You know what it was like here when I grew up as a girl. I’ve told you that story many a time, Rosie. Folk always hungry, cottages falling down, the fields not farmed properly. Times were very hard. I grew up in hunger and cold, not like you lucky ones today.’

‘And Mother Heggy was the Wise Woman then?’ asked Rosie.

‘Aye, and believe you me, her healing powers were needed, right enough. Children were sickly and under-fed, always ailing. The men fought and hurt each other, for there was no justice, no proper laws. Women died in childbirth, couldn’t feed their families, couldn’t clothe their children and keep ’em warm. There were accidents on the farms because everything was so run down and broken. Terrible hard times they were. Mother Heggy was certainly needed then and we all went to her for help.’

‘Who was the magus then?’ asked Rosie.

‘When I was born ‘twas Basil. A weak man, they say, who lived in a world of dreams and couldn’t be bothered with running the estate. Let it all go to disrepair and wildness. His father before him had started the ruin, because they do say in the very old times back before him even, ‘twas perfect at Stonewylde. But the old father had been a dirty dog who only lived for his women
and his mead. Used every woman on the estate, they say; fathered countless children all over the place. So Basil inherited a mess and he weren’t the man to sort it out. There were so many Hallfolk then, all living a life of ease up at the Hall, off the backs of the Villagers. Us poor folk lived in squalor, in damp and cold cottages with no food because the Hallfolk took it all. There was a Village School right enough, and children were taught a bit o’ reading back then, but fat lot of good it did them with no food in their bellies.’

‘And Basil was Clip’s father?’ said Yul.

‘That’s right. He had several children himself but Clip was the special one on account of his mother. Basil had a right old passion for her.’

‘I think I’ve heard about her. Wasn’t she a Villager?’ asked Rosie.

‘Aye, she was. A fey, strange girl called Raven. She grew up in Mother Heggy’s cottage, for her own family were all dead and there was no one else to care for her. Old Heggy doted on her – Raven was the child she’d never had. But she was an odd one, they say, feckless as a flea. This was before my time, o’ course. She died just before I were born. Basil was mad for her but she didn’t want to know him. She was moongazy, folk say. As moongazy as they come, completely wild and free.’

Yul’s heart quickened at this. He’d heard something about a moongazy girl in the past, and this must be her. The older folk were always reluctant to speak of these times, so his information was very piecemeal.

‘I’ve heard tell of Raven too,’ he said carefully. ‘So she was like a daughter to old Mother Heggy?’

‘Aye, though maybe more of a granddaughter. She grew up in that old cottage on the cliffs with Heggy, never going to school but spending all her time out in the open, gathering and harvesting ingredients to make the potions. She gave birth to Clip, born at the eclipse of course, and for a while the baby stayed in the cottage. But Raven wanted none of him. She weren’t woven to be a mother. So Basil took him up to live at the Hall. They do
say Heggy were wild with rage, for she wanted care of the little boy even if Raven didn’t.’

Yul thought of the filthy hovel he’d visited that afternoon; it was hard to imagine someone of Clip’s standing being born and raised in such a humble place.

‘So Basil would’ve been pleased to have his little boy close with him,’ mused Rosie. ‘Even though Raven didn’t love him.’

‘Aye, but then Basil died. By rights little Clip was the new master, for Basil had written it on a piece of paper to make it lawful. All o’ Stonewylde to go to the boy. But Clip was much too young of course. So his uncle Elm, Basil’s younger brother, he took over. And things went from bad to worse.’

Maizie picked her mending up again and began to sew.

‘Well go on, Mother! Don’t stop there! What happened next?’ said Rosie.

‘Elm was another bad ‘un, folk tell. Couldn’t be bothered with sorting out the estate neither. He roamed around taking what he wanted from whoever he wanted. And he decided he wanted the wild girl Raven too. But whereas old Basil had been a bit daft and dreamy, Elm was a different matter. A hard man he was, hard and cruel. I remember him myself, for he was the magus when I was growing up. How my old mother hated him!’

‘I can’t imagine what it’s like having a bad magus,’ said Rosie. ‘Poor you, Mother. It must have been horrible.’

‘’Twas horrible. Life was difficult for every Villager at Stonewylde in them days, when Elm were in charge. And little magic around then, I can tell you. They barely celebrated the festivals, other than to drink and take the girls. The power was fading. The Earth Mother, the Moon Goddess, the Green Man and the elements – nobody honoured them or channelled the Earth Magic. ’Twas seeping away slowly but surely. A few of the older Villagers, they tried to keep the old ways going, and Mother Heggy was one o’ them. They celebrated the Eight Festivals of the Wheel, they danced for the moon, honoured the Mother, planted and harvested at the correct times as far as they could. But Elm – he couldn’t care less.’

‘And little Clip was still living up at the Hall was he? Mother Heggy didn’t get him back when Basil died?’

‘No, Elm kept him up there, for ’twas Basil’s wish. And Clip would one day become the new magus when he were grown.’

‘And what happened to Raven?’

‘She’d turned even stranger. Dressed in old rags and tatters, bare feet, silver hair in a great tangle. I remember my mother telling me all about her. She were a tiny little thing, all skin and bone, and lived like a wild creature. But Elm had a passion for her just like Basil before him. Goddess knows why, for she sounds completely mad. Maybe ‘twas the moongaziness – they do say those girls with the moon in their eyes drive the men crazy with passion. They have some sort o’ hold over men. I don’t know about that. There’s no moongazy girls around nowadays, thank the stars. Anyway, before she knew it, little Raven was carrying again, but this time round it were Elm’s child. Who was born at the Summer Solstice.’

‘Our Magus!’ said Rosie.

Maizie got up out of her chair and trimmed the lamp.

‘That’s right. Now you two better be off to bed before your father gets back.’

‘But what happened to Raven? Please tell us, Mother,’ begged Rosie. Yul, already scooping up his wood whittlings at the mention of Alwyn’s return, paused to hear the end of the story.

‘Well, after the second baby was born, Raven lost her mind completely. She hated Elm even more than she’d hated Basil. I told you Elm was a cruel man. I believe he forced Raven, and of course Mother Heggy despised him for it. There was very ill feeling between her and the Hallfolk, and they say she tried to hex him. He took the baby away from her too, just as Basil had done. The two little boys, Clip and Sol, grew up together as Hallfolk in Elm’s care. Clip was as dreamy as his father before him, but Sol was different. He was wild as a boy – fighting, causing mayhem, riding around on a horse too big for him, upsetting everyone. He was very bad and the young Villagers feared him. He could be as cruel and wicked as his father.’

‘But he’s not like that now, is he, Mother?’ asked Rosie.

‘No, not any more. Things got so bad that Elm sent both the boys away to a school in the Outside World. A school where they stayed for most of the year and only came back from time to time. It calmed Sol down, made him mend his ways. Gradually he started to take an interest in Stonewylde. He began to visit the folk, talk to them and find out what the problems were. I remember him well. I was only a young girl then.’

She paused, her eyes faraway.

‘He was a lovely young man, so full of energy and life. Then the best thing happened a few years later: Elm died and Sol took over. Left his work in the Outside World and came back to Stonewylde for good. And that’s when our lives changed.’

‘But surely it should’ve been Clip who took over?’

‘It should, but he didn’t want it. Didn’t want to be magus, didn’t want the hard work of sorting out all the problems at Stonewylde. He liked to go off into the Outside World on his travels, as he still does to this day. And they do say the Earth Goddess herself chooses who’s to be the magus. There was no doubt about it – the Earth Magic came to Sol. I remember it well, one summer solstice. A great crack and a flash of green and he almost fell off the Altar Stone at the sheer power of it. From that moment on we knew things would be alright.’

‘I’ve seen the Earth Magic come to him on the Altar Stone,’ said Yul.

‘Aye, the Goddess loves him alright. She fills him to the brim and gives him the strength he needs. And he certainly needed it then, in them early days. Stonewylde was just about as bad as it could be. Magus spent years pulling the estate up to what it is today. He had all the cottages and buildings repaired and new ones built. He organised the fields and livestock so there was enough food for everyone to eat, not just them greedy Hallfolk. Sorted out the woodlands, repaired the school and the Great Barn and, best of all, he started celebrating the festivals again properly, as they should be. The poor man worked himself to the bone, he did. In the saddle from dawn to dusk every day for
years, for there was so much to be done. You don’t realise, growing up in these good times, just what our magus has done for us all.’

‘Didn’t he get rid of most of the Hallfolk too?’ asked Yul. ‘I remember Greenbough talking about that once.’

‘Aye, he did. Weeded ’em out, sent most of them packing. There’d been far too many of them lazing about up there. Like rats cast out of the granary, they were. Magus said they could come back once or twice a year for the festivals and that was it. He took their children into the Hall School if they wanted, but even they have to leave when they’re grown up, most o’ them.’

‘Good thing too!’ said Yul. ‘There are still too many Hallfolk to my mind.’

‘You can see why everyone loves Magus so much,’ said Rosie.

‘He was our saviour. Without him we wouldn’t be here now, so happy and content. Outsiders would’ve taken over. Magus built up the great boundary wall, for that had crumbled in places, and he put guards on the gate. One Samhain, in the Great Barn, he told us all of his dream for Stonewylde. And we’ve been living that dream ever since.’

‘I heard when I was at school, that “magus” means “the wise one” and “the magician”,’ said Rosie. ‘And from what you’ve told us, he really is.’

‘Aye, he is,’ said Maizie warmly. ‘Goddess bless him!’

‘What I don’t understand,’ said Yul, ‘if he’s so wise and magical, is why Mother Heggy told me today that I must beware of him.’

Maizie looked at him sharply.

‘What did she say exactly?’

Yul was surprised to see the two bright spots burning on her cheeks. They were always a sure sign that she was angry. He shrugged.

‘She just said to be careful and not make him angry.’

‘Good advice you should heed, my lad. You’ve upset him a great deal lately and you’d do well to beware of upsetting him any more. The crone spoke right. Was that all she said?’

‘I think so.’

‘Good. And my advice is to stay away from her. She’s an interfering old busy-body and she’s caused a lot of harm in her time. Stay well away from her, Yul, I’m warning you. I don’t want you visiting her again, and you can tell Greenbough that if he tries to send you there on another errand.’

But she was talking to thin air. Then she too heard the tuneless whistling that heralded her husband’s arrival. Rosie’s skirt was only just visible at the top of the stairs as the front door banged open. Breathing a sigh of relief at her children’s speedy departure, she picked up the empty tea mugs and went into the kitchen to prepare Alwyn one of his late night snacks.