The Roots on the Ground E-Book

Jan Fortune

• Herausgeber: Cinnamon Press
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 134

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

In this prequel to The Standing Ground, we travel back two generations to the origins of the oppressive E-Government state that infiltrates every aspect of people's lives in the decade following Brexit and a global pandemic. But, as the darkness overtakes Britain and other areas of Europe, the light of resistance wakes in a community that spans the Celtic outposts of Brittany and North Wales. And in a strange child, Myrddin Emrys, also known as Merlin. Weaving together Arthurian legend and exploratory fiction of the near future, The Roots of the Ground explores the human cost of a monoculture that tramples freedom and privacy and asserts with Carl Jung that: 'As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.'

Leseprobe

Contents

Title page

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Prologue

Part 1 — The Caverns

1

Blaise

2

Myrddin Emrys

3

Luned

4

Myrddin Emrys

5

Luned

6

Myrddin Emrys

7

Luned

8

Part 2 — The Apprentice

9

Blaise

10

Myrddin Emrys

11

Gwenddydd

12

Myrddin Emrys

13

Gwenddydd

14

Myrddin Emrys

15

Gwenddydd

16

Epilogue

THE ROOTS OF GROUND

JAN FORTUNE

Published by Cinnamon Press, Office 49019, PO Box 15113, Birmingham, B2 2NJ

www.cinnamonpress.com

The right of Jan Fortune to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act, 1988. © 2020 Jan Fortune.

Print Edition ISBN 978-1-78864-119-7

Ebook ISBN 978-1-78864-124-1

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A CIP record for this book can be obtained from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publishers. This book may not be lent, hired out, resold or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, without the prior consent of the publishers.

Designed and typeset by Cinnamon Press. Cover design by Adam Craig. Sword illustration © Paul Fleet | Dreamstime.com 

Cinnamon Press is represented by Inpress.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the group of writers who accompanied me as I wrote this book, listening to first drafts of each chapter as they emerged. Thanks to Adam Craig for his careful reading and editing and for the cover. And thanks to Tamsyn Fortune-Wood for her enthusiasm and inspiration to complete a prequel to The Standing Ground. Thanks also to the village of Tanygrisiau, the setting for both books and my home for two decades.

THE ROOTS OF THE GROUND

BOOK TWO OF THE STANDING GROUNG TRILOGY

To Merlin,

who is magical in Cymru and Bretagne

Prologue

Carmarthen County Hall, October 2028

Sian sits by the wall, holding her knees and rocking, eyes screwed closed. This is a mistake. She tells herself that Morfryn will hear about this and have her released. Soon. The place hasn’t been a prison for almost a hundred years, the cells made into archive rooms decades ago. Yet here she is.

The door opens and she jumps to her feet. Two other women are thrust through the partly open entrance and the door slams behind them. They look as dazed as she feels and stand uneasily, not speaking until the older one breaks the silence.

‘Who did you get on the wrong side of, then?’

Sian guesses the woman, tall and with a riot of unkempt blonde hair, must be in her early thirties.

’No one… I…’

‘Must be someone. I’ve heard they’re going for people who are expendable. Stories of them putting these things into kids in care. Regular prisoners of course. But now… They’ll be putting them in everyone soon. Everyone in Wales, anyway. We’re the testing ground.’

‘Testing ground for what?’

‘Implants, of course. What planet have you been living on?’ It’s the other woman who answers. She has dark curls and darker eyes. She’s tiny but speaks with fierce intensity. Sian guesses she’s about her age, late teens, early twenties.

‘Implants?’ Sian thinks she must sound stupid. She can’t think properly. How can this be happening? ‘No, they can’t… I mean, I’ll tell them I’m pregnant…’

The dark-haired young woman gives a bark of a laugh but the older one puts a hand on her arm.

‘Pregnant? Whose? Is the dad…’

Sian sucks in air. ‘He’s a politician,’ she says quietly.

‘Oh, sweetheart…’

‘But he… Morfryn wouldn’t…’

‘Morfryn Nazir Malik?” 

Sian tries not to hear the contempt in the kind woman’s voice. 

The other laughs again. ‘You like them old and powerful, eh?’

‘You know he’s just been made Minister for Connectivity?’ the kind woman asks.

‘For what? When?’

‘Yesterday. How long have you been here?’

‘Two days.’

Sian slumps back onto the ground by the wall and the blonde woman leans over her. ‘He’s the Devil, that one. I’m sorry, sweetheart. But listen. Maybe you’ll be okay. Maybe it won’t hurt the baby. They’ve been working on these implants for a couple of years now. Maybe…’

‘Yeah, maybe your baby will be born with superpowers and save us all,’ the dark-haired woman cuts in, sarcastically.

The door opens and two guards bar the exit.

‘Sian Adhan Hughes?’

Sian stands up. ‘That’s me, but…’

‘Save it for someone who cares,’ the larger of the guards says.

‘Come on, then. The Connectors haven’t got all day,’ the other adds. He moves forward and grabs her arm, jerking her ahead of him and out into the corridor.

Part 1

The Caverns

1

November, 2031

Gerhard Raven closed the virtual news site and rested his head in his hands. What now? He shook himself, stood and stretched.

‘Well, my friend, at least I will try to save your son.’

He returned to the site and scanned the page beneath the headline:

FORMER MINISTER AND ENEMY OF E-GOV CUT DOWN IN PLANNED ATTACK

Regulators have confirmed that the terrorist who died in the failed insurgency of October 31 has now been identified as Morfryn Nazir Malik, former Minister of Connectivity, who absconded from his position two years ago to set up the radical terror group, Myrddin’s Mutineers. The organisation is believed to operate from a forest location in Brittany, where it uses stolen technology to hide its whereabouts and activities. Before disappearing with sensitive state secrets, Malik, 44, rose to power as a Welsh politician of Arabic descent following a prestigious career as an IT entrepreneur whose work was critical in developing the architecture of E-Gov. 

‘It’s hard to imagine why such a talented man whose worked paved the way for E-Gov, with all the benefits it has to offer us, should have betrayed his country and his calling,’ commented Tarquin Radley-Smythe, Malik’s successor as Minister of Connectivity.

E-Gov has appealed to anyone who has information about the whereabouts of this dangerous and disturbed group to contact their local Regulators.

Meanwhile, E-Gov will be reaching out to the mother of Malik’s child, Sian Adhan Hughes, to offer her support at this difficult time.

‘Liars!’ Gerhard shouted at the empty room.

He needed to reach Sian before the Carmarthen Regulators showed up at her door. No time to visit in person.

‘Sian?’

‘What? Who? I mean… how did you?…’

‘Shh, you need to leave here. You need to follow me. Where’s Emrys?’

‘Asleep. I… Why should I…?’

‘Sian, listen, you and Emrys are in danger. The Regulators are on their way. Morfryn was killed…’

‘I know. He deserved it. He abandoned…’

‘Please, listen. I’ll explain… everything… but not here. You have to…’

‘He’s right, Mam. We have to leave now. Right now. It’s Blaise, isn’t it?’

Gerhard stared at the toddler in the living room doorway. ‘Yes, I… Blaise is…’

‘Your code name. He’ll tell you everything when we’re safe, Mam. Dad didn’t abandon us, but the Regs will kill us.’

‘Emrys?’ Sian looked more shocked than Gerhard. ‘When did you…?’

‘Ask me later. You’ll never get to find out if you don’t follow Mr Raven now. Not that he’s really here.’ The child grinned and took his mother’s hand. ‘Now, Mam.’

Sian began grabbing items, but the boy shook her arm and pulled hard. ‘Leave it.’

She scooped Emrys into her arms and ignored his protests about walking, following Gerhard, who marched ahead as Emrys continued to talk.

They scuttled along the main road, heads down and eventually turned into Reservoir Road, took the right hand fork as the road narrowed to an overgrown lane, and walked briskly until they reached the final house where the lane petered out into fields.

‘We’ll be safe here,’ Gerhard told them, opening the door and directing them inside.

Sian deposited her son and slumped down onto the floor of the hallway, weeping.

Emrys patted his mother. ‘Come and sit down, Mam.’ He pulled gently and she stood up, sniffing and following her suddenly unfamiliar child into a large living room lined with book shelves.

‘This place is…’ she trailed away. ‘I don’t understand. I don’t understand anything.’ She began to cry more quietly.

‘Let me fetch us something to drink and I’ll do what I can to explain,’ Gerhard told her.

‘So you see, what your son told you on the walk here is true. Morfryn’s position as Minister of Connectivity was his cover. He was one of those at the forefront of the technology that made E-Gov possible, but his invention was never meant for them. He was a wizard, of maths and logic, and of other things too. But like too many geniuses he didn’t imagine how his work would be used for power. He didn’t guard it closely enough and for a while he was naive, thinking E-Gov genuinely intended to make life better for people. When he realised the direction things were going he contacted a resistance movement in Brittany and together they set up Myrddin’s Mutineers. 

‘He thought he’d have time to get you out, but they moved too fast. You were arrested before he realised how fast things were moving, thanks to a political rival who heard about your pregnancy. Someone angry at being passed over for what he felt was his rightful place in Cabinet. Of course, he had no idea about Morfryn’s other powers and no idea how important your son would be. He was just an average power-hungry politician being vindictive. He probably hoped that using you as an early subject for the implants would cause a miscarriage or at least brain damage to your baby.’

‘And who exactly is my son? Why’s he so important? I mean…’ Sian turned towards Emrys. ‘I’ve never heard you talk before, well only… words…’ She looked back at Gerhard. ‘You know, like ordinary toddlers.’

Gerhard nodded. ‘I’m sure Emrys didn’t want to scare you, or put you at risk by letting you know too much. We need to remove your implant. The Regs will have already tracked you here in all likelihood, but by the time they arrive, we can make sure they can’t see you.’

‘But they won’t believe you even if you can get these things out and hide us. They’ll…’

‘Trust him, Mam.’

‘We’re so sorry, for the intrusion, Dr Raven. We can’t think how…’

‘No problem at all, Regulator Reeves. We all have to be vigilant.’

‘It just doesn’t make sense, Sir. It…’ The Regulator, a tall man in his late 30s, close cropped pale hair and paler skin, rubbed his forehead.

‘These people are wily, I’m afraid. No doubt they… or their accomplices… have set up all kinds of decoys for just this occasion. I’m afraid my guess is that they’ll already be overseas in a forest somewhere, plotting their next move. You mustn’t blame yourself. They’re dangerous people.’

Reeves nodded. ‘I’ve heard that people used to think Malik was some kind of devil, even when he was in power. There was something not right about how he came up with all the tech in the first place. Not human, if you take my meaning?’

‘Well, he wasn’t powerful enough to outwit E-Gov in the end, thankfully, and I’m sure our rightness will win the day in the end.’

‘Yes, Sir. Of course.’ Reeves stood taller while behind him two shorter Regulators nodded their agreement. ‘Well, thank you again for being so understanding, Dr Raven. And thank you for everything you do for E-Gov. We need artists like you.’

‘How…?’ Sian began to whisper, as the door closed behind the Regulators.

‘Maths and magic, Mam,’ Emrys said.

Gerhard smiled. ‘The boy is right again. I’m afraid it’s not something I can explain, but we can work a kind of illusion so they see only what we want them to. It’s the same with the implants. To E-Gov we appear to be connected, but it’s an illusion. Morfryn was one of the, shall we say, wizards? And I’m another. And of course, Emrys here, so no need to remove his implant. It’s never operated. I’m sorry we had to cut yours out so hastily,’ he added.

‘So they couldn’t see us, even me? It’s not just the implants, it’s…’

‘You’re right. Those of us who are… different. We’re able to change how people perceive things. Maths and magic, as Emrys puts it.’

Sian shook her head. ‘I’m so tired.’

‘Of course you are. Let me show you your room. We have a long journey ahead, but sufficient to the day is its own trouble.’

Blaise

I have been known by many names. I have written the long-forgotten histories and myths, as Nennius, and have been the bard, Bleheris, and Blihis, writing and recounting the mysteries of the Grail. In each incarnation I have kept the chronicles of Brocéliande and of Cambria. Myrddin Emrys and of Artu, working in story and art. In this life, as Gerhard Raven, I write the tales and make installations of image and light to hold the memories. In this life, as in others, I will teach the young prophet, who will far outgrow me and who will love my daughter, Vivian. And she, in her turn, will be his own apprentice, outstripping him in ways of shapeshifting and sorcery, bringing him joy and grief, as her mother, my darling incarnation of Luned, will bring me.

This is how it will be, how it has always been, bringing the light of the Sun Child to this world again and again.

2

‘Why Blaise as a code name?’ Sian asked, as they drove north the next day.

‘It’s the name of Merlin’s mentor in Robert Boron’s thirteenth century account of the legends and in this lifetime too,’ Gerhard answered.

Sian turned in her seat to look at her son, two and a half and fast becoming a mystery to her.

‘Are you saying that Emrys is Merlin?’

Gerhard nodded. ‘Myrddin Emrys. Yes.’

‘Merlin’s father was supposed to be a demon, wasn’t he?’

‘He was called that, yes. In some stories he’s accused of being an incubus. In others he’s called a black devil. Racism perhaps?’

Sian sucked in her breath. ‘I’d never thought of that. But this is… I mean, those are stories. It’s the 2030s, not the Middle Ages or Roman Britain or some Celtic forest in Brittany. This is real, it’s…’ She sighed. ‘I’ve no idea what this is.’

‘It’s complicated but think about it like this— E-Gov can put a chip in your body and you can visit any site it permits you to see. You can smell the flowers that you see on a website meadow. In the Middle Ages that would have been wizardry beyond imagining. We simply have another sort of wizardry, though it’s not the same for all of us. We have various skills. Not all of us use shapeshifting or illusion.’

‘It’s still hard to take in.’ Sian was silent for a while. ‘Are we going to a group of others like you and Emrys?’

‘No,’ Gerhard glanced from the road to Sian’s worried face. ‘They’re regular people, but with a knack for resistance. We’re going to The Standing Ground, Y Tir.’

‘So there really is a resistance movement in North Wales? How come they haven’t been wiped out?’

‘They’re well hidden. A bit of magic in that, though they don’t realise it. And they’ve taken to the old mines. There are caverns underground bigger than cathedrals. Plenty of room for a small community to disappear into. E-Gov started destroying towns and villages along the border in the North back in ’23, one of its first policies when there were early signs of resistance.