Chapter 4: Cy's Story

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The view from the top of the hill was spectacular. From up on their perch, Cy and April could see all the way down to the Jasmine River, many miles away. A series of ever-descending natural terraces led the land gently downward to the river's shore. A quilted patchwork of fields, motley colored in the sunlight, wavered in a shimmer of heat. Tile-roofed adobe houses dotted the landscape like freckles on the face of the earth, and scattered trees were lost in the dark background of their own shadows. Beyond the fields, a nebulous shape in the haze, lay the city of Marntz. Its spires and walls were an indistinct mass in the distance, but here and there windowpanes in the city glinted, winking like fireflies in the middle of the day.

 

"Oh, Cy! It's so beautiful," April said in an awed tone as she looked at the scene before her. "No wonder you love this land so much. I've never seen such a beautiful place."

 

Cy nodded, silently admiring the view. He reached down to take April's hand and held it, looking briefly at her and smiling. Then he turned to look again at the magnificent vista spread out before them, the smile still on his face.

 

After a few minutes had passed he began to speak as, ever so slightly, his grip tightened on April's hand. "This place has been my refuge and my sanctuary since I lost C'elaine. At first I tried to lose myself in work. C'elaine was, as I was, an only child. When we married, my parents and hers were already getting on in age and were prepared to turn the operation of the farms over to us. After C'elaine died, I took on the burden of my parent's farm and hers as well."

 

"After she died, I couldn't stand it for very long, living in the house we built. I couldn’t take living there without her. The place was haunted by too many memories of her. The plowed rows of the fields where we worked together, the flowers in her garden in the side yard, the kitchen table where we'd sit and talk at the end of our day's work, the bed where we slept at night, all of them were a constant reminder of her and what I’d lost."

 

"For three years, after laboring all day, I'd go home to that empty house, and it drove me nearly mad. I couldn't take it any more, and I got her parents and mine to agree to sell their farms. The money they received allowed them to buy houses in Marntz, where they lived out their last years as neighbors in the city. All of them died many years ago, and when they did I inherited the houses. C'elaine's parents left theirs to me since they had no other heir, and I was their only remaining link to their daughter. I sold both and invested the money in a sundry goods business that my friend, Jepp, wanted to buy and operate in the city."

 

"Since then the only place I have felt truly at ease is here in the wilds, where I can lose myself in all this beauty. Jepp and his wife Cara handle the business in Marntz and give me a small percentage of the profits each month. It's far more than I need for my purposes, so I donate the rest to the city school for supplies, or sometimes I walk through one of the poor neighborhoods in the city and find a home that’s old and ramshackle but still shows signs of great care given to it by its inhabitants. I'll drop a small sack of coins through an open window and sneak off before I'm seen."

 

"Most of the time, though, I'm out here, alone, where I don't have to know the time of day or the date, and I don't have to talk to anyone or see anyone. I can just be, and sometimes, sometimes, I can almost forget what I've lost."

 

With a look of infinite despair, Cy turned to look at April and said, "Now you know who I am." Looking down at his boots, he added, "and why I'm such a mess."

 

"Cy, I don't think you're a mess," whispered April. "I think you're just about the sweetest man in the world, and I'm lucky to have met you, in more ways than one."

 

“Thank you for that. It means a lot more to me than you can know.” Cy said as he turned to face her.

 

Then, with a laugh, he said, "Okay. Now it's time to eat."

 

Seeing the twinkle in April's eyes was like looking back across the years to an earlier time when he was young and it was C'elaine's laughter that enticed him to laughter of his own, back to a place in his mind where he could see her again, her blond hair tousled by the wind, her cheeks flushed and glowing, her smile as bright and sunny as a summer's day. Living. Breathing. Vital.

 

"Oh! C'elaine!" he thought, and looked again into April's eyes, searching for some sign that this was not just a dream haunting his sleep at night.

 

They ate and gazed at the magnificent view, and afterward Cy and April sat for a while, talking. He related the circumstances surrounding C'elaine's death, how the child, a boy, had been stillborn and the strange deformity he had. "In every other way he seemed perfectly normal," Cy explained to her, "but his head was abnormally large. The doctor who attended her told me he thought that was the reason C'elaine had died. The child's head couldn't pass through the birth canal, and she, already weak with 36 hours of prolonged labor, had died from blood loss and shock."

 

April shook her head sadly, and said, "I'm so sorry, Cy." as she reached out to place a hand on his shoulder.

 

Cy took her hand and held it for a moment as they sat silently until Cy looked at her and spoke. "We need to get going again, April. Do you think you can make it?"

 

"I'll be okay. Don't worry about me," she responded. "With your help, I know I'll be just fine."

 

Cy stood up and reached down to help April stand. He knelt again and put all their things into his pack, then closed it and stood up again. April reached out her hand, and he took it, smiling. Hand in hand they headed down the hill.

 

Cy and April stopped at the stream where he had gone earlier that day, and he bent down over the rocky bank to refill his water pouch. April picked some of the long-stemmed wildflowers that were growing there and began to weave a tiara like the ones he made and gave to the young girls in Marntz. He watched with fascination as she deftly shaped a circle of flowers, and then a second one.

 

"For our crowns," she explained with a mischievous grin. "I am the Princess of the Forest, and you are the King’s Knight"

 

"Yes, my lady." he intoned in a deep voice, grinning just as mischievously. “Shall I call your carriage?"

 

"Oh, no," she replied. "'Tis much too fine a day to be cooped up in some old, fusty box. Shall we stroll through the park?"

 

"By all means," he said, giving April a sweeping bow that would have shamed the greatest nobleman with its grace.

 

She laughed, and Cy beamed a smile that lit his face like a ray of sunlight. Still playing their parts, they continued their journey in a lighthearted mood, in spite of their situation. April's demeanor was from all appearances, happy by nature and irrepressible, and Cy was carried along on a wave of optimism. Soon they left the shade and coolness of the forest, and the sun shone down on them. He allowed April to set their pace as they walked, and the afternoon wore on. After a while she began to walk more slowly, and Cy knew she was near the limits of her endurance. A hundred paces away, the shade of a large codill tree offered some relief from the sun, so he steered April in its direction.

 

"We're not far from the nearest farm now, so let's take a short rest," Cy said to April.

 

She nodded but didn't speak, and Cy knew, then, that she was weaker than he had thought.

 

"Here, drink some water," he told her as he fished his water pouch out of his pack.

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April smiled weakly and took a long drink of water, then handed it back to Cy. He took a small drink and replaced the pouch in his pack. Looking up into the tree he spotted some ripe fruit still remaining in the highest branches. "Wait right here," he said.

 

Cy clambered up into the lowest branches and worked his way upward. April watched with a mixture of fear and admiration as Cy climbed up into a tangle of small branches near the top.

 

"Get ready to catch," Cy called down to April.

 

He unsheathed his knife and reached out precariously far and with a flick of his wrist snicked the nearest piece of fruit from its branch. Standing below him, April caught the fruit neatly in the folds of her dress. A few more snips of his knife, and he was done.

 

He returned his knife to its sheath and climbed back down. When he was on the ground again, April held up four beautiful pieces of fruit and grinned.

 

"Dinner is served, sir Knight," she said and she laughed gaily as she executed a dainty curtsy.

 

Cy laughed, too. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt so at peace. Jauntily he made a show of spreading out April’s silver blanket, bowing deeply when he had finished.

 

"Table for two, my lady?" he said, as he reached out to take April's hand. "The finest table in the house."

 

The fruit was delicious, washed down with cool water from Cy's pouch, and he could tell how much April had needed the rest. After a few more minutes in the shade he said to April, "We need to get going again."

 

April nodded and said, "Will we make it there before sundown, Cy?"

 

"It's not much further, so I think we'll make it with time to spare," he replied. “If you’re ready, we’ll get started again.”

 

With that he stood and reached down to help April up, but the look in her eyes told him that she was far from recovered from the ordeals she had recently suffered. Cy hoped she would have the strength to make it to the nearby farm before night fell. He did not relish the thought of her having to spend the night in the open field. A dark gathering of clouds had formed behind them again, and it looked like a storm was once more threatening to swoop down on them from the crags of Stell's Reach.