Chapter 15: Progeny

Cassandra and Egbertha each give birth to healthy boys while we are encamped in the ruined settlement. Although it is an Elven rather than a Thurnian custom, we delay naming the babies until the whole community can be assembled to bear witness. That way everyone can join in the inevitable party that follows.

When we discovered the ruined settlement, Akenehi had initially intended that we stay for no more than a few days. She wanted us to resume our journey as soon as a place was found to ford the river that is blocking our route south. Search parties had been sent upstream and downstream as soon as we had arrived, but both groups were unable to locate a suitable crossing place nearby. A heavy storm added a further delay. The river was in flood for nearly a week, and attempts to locate a more distant place to cross were postponed.

As soon as Cassandra and Egbertha give birth, Akenehi sends her oldest daughter, Makareta, to search upstream to the east. Makareta set off upstream, accompanied by two of the adolescent elves, to try and find a suitable place to cross. They are due to return in three days, at which time we will hold a naming ceremony for the two babies, followed by a celebration.

Our prolonged stay in the ruins of the settlement enable me to investigate the likely origins and reason for the settlement’s existence. Both Cassandra and I had undertaken extensive research into Thurnian history when we were students. Nothing in our studies suggested that this region was anything more than unexplored wilderness. And yet we are camping in the remains of a settlement we estimate was abandoned over a hundred years ago.

Although the contracts Defina35 and Defina36 signed with me back in Thur have lost all relevance, I still think of them as part of Cassandra’s and my extended family. Although they have had little opportunity to use their respective skills in metalwork and leather-craft, they have not been idle in finding raw materials with which to work. The deer we saw when we arrived here are now fewer in number as the elves hunt for food. The hides of the slain deer have been added to Defina36’s stock of materials.

It’s Defina35’s search for metals that give me an insight into why this settlement existed, and probably why it was later abandoned. Gold. As the level of the river drops following the storm, Defina35 discovers traces of gold along the river bank below the flood level. Could this settlement have once been a centre for gold panning the river? The main sources of Thurnian gold are in the mines to the west of Thur. In all my research into Thurnian history, I don’t recall anybody mentioning the discovery of gold this far east. And yet it seems possible that the High Ridge to the east of us is ... or was ... a source of gold.

“Does my discovery mean that I can ask a favour?” asks Defina35 of Cassandra and me.

“You can ask a favour at any time,” replies Cassandra.

“I’m in heat. Please can we have sex.”

At first I think Defina35’s request is strange, since any of the commune’s Elf Maidens in heat has an right to expect sex from Drew, Seamus or me. But I quickly realise that it is too soon after giving birth for Cassandra to be ready to engage in active sex, and Defina35 doesn’t want to propose sex with me if Cassandra is unable to participate.

In many ways, my marriage to Cassandra is a step into the unknown. For centuries, Thurnian men and women have only come together for a few weeks once a year during the Rutting Season. For the rest of the year Thurnian men and women live apart. A Thurnian man is never expected to have any contact with offspring conceived during the Rutting Season, let alone any responsibility for the child’s well-being. Even the arrival in Thurn of the regularly fertile Elf Maidens didn’t change the attitudes or responsibilities regarding nurturing children.