The Wall at the Edge of the World by Damion Hunter

Author:Damion Hunter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo Digital Publishing Ltd
Published: 2020-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

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Beltane was another of the great festivals that marked the wheel of the year in Britain, midway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, when the land began to grow green again. Household fires were doused and the New Fire kindled with a fire drill. From it, one child in each house took the New Fire home, and two great bonfires were lit for the cattle to be driven through to make them fruitful. Couples hoping for the same might run between the fires as well or jump the embers.

In a colonia like Isurium Brigantum, not everyone followed the old ways, but the festival itself attracted most of the citizenry with food and drink and general carousing. Postumus stood on the edge of the crowd around the dark circle where the New Fire would be kindled by friction. In the colonia, there were still a few lights burning but outside the east gate, on the gentle slope above the river, there was pitch darkness. Two men knelt above a small twist of tinder and spun the fire drill in it and Postumus could feel the held breath of the crowd, waiting for the spark, the New Fire, entwined with the old fear that this year, this time, the light might not come again, there might be no spark. It would be easier to fear that in the hills than outside a colonia where the more Romanized inhabitants were eating their dinner by the light of oil lamps, and no one would think of putting out the fire that fueled the hypocaust, but the darkness here discouraged disbelief. Not for the first time in his life, Postumus felt one foot in some other world.

The crowd let out its breath as a spark rose in the tinder, and then another. The keepers of the flame fed it small bits of kindling, shielding it from any stray breeze. If the New Fire went out and had to be rekindled, it was a bad omen. The fire grew to a handful of flame, and then enough to shed light on the faces around it. Postumus was startled by a woman’s face that came suddenly into the light and then flickered away. It had looked like Claudia. He could have sworn he had seen her at the theater in Londinium too, in the seats to his left, beside a tribal-looking escort with an impressive mustache. If it had been her, she had made it clear that she did not want to see him, and turned away so that her veil hid her face. The little dancer beside him had taken his attention, bouncing in her seat with excitement and wheedling him for sweets, and when he looked back, the woman was gone. Postumus wondered if it had been her either time, or if he was developing an unhealthy fixation.

The New Fire blazed up and a group of boys clustered around it with torches to light from the flames. They set out at a run toward their homes, the light streaming behind them.

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