I made my way more urgently up to the woods. It was more likely that Ieuan was in the Castle, getting his wits and disposition back on an even keel, but he might be in the forest. The boy would live for another day without him but the sooner he was found, the better.
I had reached the edge of the forest when another thought struck me: the size of the family I’d just visited. The father was young, a junior warrior by his bearing rather than a farmer - the hut was just by the foot of the Rock, well away from the fields. The mother was no great age either, early twenties at most. The invalid boy was five or six, so where were the other children? I would have expected to see two at least, maybe three and possibly four; and I’d felt no indication that the woman was pregnant. Strathclyde was a busy kingdom and had been for years, beset by enemies within and beyond its frontiers, but not even the most professional army fought in the depths of winter. Most didn’t fight at sowing or harvest-time either. Across the known world there were bulges in the birth rate in January, June and September, to reflect the return of the army: so where were the younger children?
The father could have been wounded in battle, of course, and unable to sire any more - but he had jogged off without any sign of sensitive injury. Maybe they’d died? That was possible, but all of them? I was unaware of any great sickness sweeping through the infant population in the last few years, in Strathclyde or anywhere else. Infant mortality was a fact of life, but only one child after all these years together?
I snapped my fingers and called myself a fool. The man I’d thought the boy’s father probably wasn’t the father at all: the most likely explanation was that the true sire had died, in battle or otherwise, and this one was a second husband. The young woman would consider herself lucky to get him as she wasn’t the young virgin soldiers are supposed to prefer, and there weren’t that many men who would take on another’s children.
I turned to look back towards the Castle and its grounds and could see the dwelling containing the sick boy quite clearly. There was a commotion outside and the bent figure of Ieuan could just be made out approaching the hut, two guards with him. He had been found, which meant that I could get on with locating my plants and herbs without distraction.
I didn’t have to wander far into the woods before I began to find what I was looking for. There was wild garlic, whose scent always reminded me of Padhraig’s cooking. It cleaned the blood and helped speed convalescence, as well as adding piquancy to cooked meat. Dandelion, for a tonic, and the base of my own medicine. The early leaves of some valuable flowers could be perceived as well: I recalled the litany I’d been taught as I collected a few from each plant. Rosemary for remembrance, Pansies for thoughts - both useful for brain-fever; Fennel and Columbines, and Rue, the all-purpose herb of grace; some nettles (the best gift from the Romans) and their ever-present companions, dock. My arms were nearly full and I stuffed my haul into my bag anyhow then tied the ends of my rope girdle around so that they wouldn’t get in the way as I sought the last and most valuable quarry - and there it was! Through the trees I could see a clearing where a stream spread out to become a pool, and hanging over it were three willow trees. Their bark, when purified and ground down, was a marvellous remedy against headaches, inflammations and pains of all sorts. It was another major constituent of my own post-Vision medicine.
As I used my small knife to lever off some of the precious fibrous wood - being careful to damage as little as possible and so leave the tree flourishing for others who might have need of it - my eye was caught by something that looked like it might be a clearing, on level ground away to my left and lower down. It looked, of itself, unremarkable, and I wouldn’t normally have paid it a second glance but I felt that I should investigate further. I had that special feeling. From years of experience, I didn’t tend to ignore such feelings. My Gift was not to be ignored.
The only trees that were coming into leaf at that time were birch; those surrounding the clearing were bare. Other than the fact that they weren’t birch or pine, I couldn’t tell what they were from this distance. I finished my task with the willow-tree, put a fair bundle of bark into my bag and made my way towards the open space.
As soon as I went among the trees again the clearing disappeared from sight but I was confident of the direction and the call to go there: I would find the way. It was quite a coincidence; I wouldn't have noticed it from anywhere but the pool’s edge where I’d been harvesting the bark, and I’d certainly not seen any sign on the way up the hill. It was with a tingle that I felt that God was guiding my steps, and with foreboding that I found the undergrowth getting thicker along the route I wished to follow. I just managed to keep my habit from being badly damaged by the brambles and clinging growth that obstructed me, and I was forced lower and lower in my determination to get by. Nowhere else in the forest had I encountered such growth. I couldn’t say it had been planted there but it did seem to have been encouraged.
The vegetation was getting so thick as to be virtually impassable but the urge was even greater, so I pushed and cut my way through. I couldn’t protect my habit from rents completely but I’d managed to minimise the damage when I reached a clump that looked to be completely impenetrable. It was tangled and dense and rose from ground level to a height of over six feet. It was more hedge than undergrowth and I had no idea how I would get through it. But the urge to do so was very strong. I could just see a thinning of the canopy a short distance ahead: the clearing was very close. I looked carefully to either side to see if there was any way round but there was none that could be discerned. I looked around and up but there was nothing to guide or assist me. I knelt on the ground to look for any raised area, or lighter patches but there again I saw nothing. I felt helpless for a moment and was ready to give up and turn back, but I didn’t.
“You wanted me to come here, Lord, so I’d better just find a way through. It must be here somewhere, or very close. I’ll find it,” I said aloud.