Stories by Sofia Hardy
The Marsh King
Part 3
She was very thoughtful all that day, and spoke gently to her daughter; and she discovered that her daughter responded well, and she began to be hopeful, that perhaps there was a solution for both of them.
The rumours of war increased. It was coming closer, and people began to talk of evacuation.
One day, her daughter had a terrible tantrum. She screamed so hard her mother was nearly demented, and nothing would make the little girl stop screaming.
Her mother looked, horrified, at the wide open, stretched mouth and the closed eyes, and she thought with a sense of dread of the marsh king. “She is like him,” She thought. “It is why I have never been able to love her,” And she ran away and hid in the kitchen, and she wept.
That night she dreamed again. This time, she saw the marsh king, and messengers had come to him and had told him of a defeat he had suffered; and he screamed, just like her daughter, only the noise was much worse and, in the dream, the wife could herself feel his rage, feel it's overwhelming intensity. So much so that when she woke she was holding her hands to her ears and she felt a terrible sense of shock at the marsh king's emotions she had experienced, in the dream.
“Is that what it feels like, to be my daughter?” She wondered. “But I can rarely find a reason why she screams.”
But even as she framed the thought, she knew it was not true. There was always a reason; the child had been refused something, or she had not been able to attract her mother's attention.
“The child is a tyrant!” The mother thought, in great despair. “There is nothing I can do!”
Time passed. The battles became more frequent and came closer. More people left. The shopkeepers were boarding up their shops and rationing their foods; and all kinds of produce became more expensive.
It seemed the war was going badly for the country. Part of the north had been defeated, and the new overlord was in control. The people were fleeing from him, refugees were everywhere. It seemed the new lord was a harsh and an inhumane man, and he was taking the land and giving it to his own followers.
More and more young men disappeared, lost on the battlefield. The husband, however, had not gone to the war; his occupation was regarded as necessary for the civilian population, so he remained at home.
One day, the wife was outside in her garden when she saw a new plant had rooted itself in her border, and it was Rue's Colard. Swiftly and fiercely she dug it up and she threw it on the bonfire, and burned it; but she shuddered.
“Will I never be free of it?” She thought to herself. Since she had challenged her husband, the Rue's Colard in the shawl had stopped, but still the fragrance was hard to lose, and sometimes she scented it in the room, or in the drawer, even though she had thoroughly cleaned the drawer.
While she was watching the bonfire she heard someone call her name. Looking up. Startled, she saw Ag; and Ag was mounted on a big grey horse and was looking sternly over the garden wall at the wife. “Come with me now,” Ag commanded. “It is time. Our family is suffering because of the war. You know many of us had land and property in the north, and all has been lost to the invader. We need your daughter now,” Said Ag. “You should come too, we need those skills lying dormant in you, and we need your intelligence. I am growing old and my powers are fading. So come, the family needs you.”
The wife called the daughter, who had been playing beside the tree, in the garden; and she held the child close, and said; “No, you cannot take her, I will not let you. And I will not go with you, either. You must leave without me.”
Ag became very angry, and was about to speak, her narrow eyes flashing; but Beck ran up then, and he said, “Let her do as she wishes, Ag. After all, she is worth nothing to us, unless she wills it herself.”
“Very well,” Said Ag, as if she had lost interest in the wife. “But fetch the child, Beck, and let us be on our way.”
Beck smiled rather sadly at the wife, who screamed at him; “You were working with her all along! You only pretended to feel kindness for me!”
But Beck only approached her and reached for the child.
The wife said; “Leave my garden or I shall call for the law, and you will be arrested.”
Ag laughed. “What law,” She derided. “Who do you think will come, when the land is in such turmoil as it is?”
But just then, a group of new recruits, some fifteen of them, came tramping down the street. They were all earnest and fresh faced, and, hearing the wife scream even louder, they broke ranks to hurry over to her, to find out what was wrong.
“These people are trying to steal my child!” She cried out and Beck moved away, as he saw the soldiers looking angrily at him, and saw one or two of them draw their weapons.
But Ag said, “Not so. She has kidnapped my daughter's child,” And the soldiers became uncertain. But the little girl, who was frightened, clung to her mother's knees and said “Mummy!” In such a tone as she had never before used to her mother; and the soldiers turned on Ag and Beck, and drove them away.
“Oh, thank you, thank you,” Said the wife, in tears. “I do not know what I would have done if they had taken her from me,” And to her surprise she found it was true; she was very glad the little girl was still with her.
Later that day she was still very much agitated when her husband came home late, as usual. He was very pleased with himself.
“I have made a new deal,” He said. “It will give us enough money so that we can move away from here, and go somewhere where there is no fighting, and no danger.”
He told her of the deal he had struck, but the wife became very upset. “You have struck a deal with our enemy!” She said, very shaken. “With the lord of the north!”
“Oh, why are you so naïve,” Her husband said. “Of course I have. He is the strongest man in the land, and it is only a little while before we are overrun here. We have a good chance in this to move north and we will be given a fine piece of land, and a much larger house and even servants; there are plenty of people looking for work up there. And anyway, one overlord is very much the same as another. The lord here is just as harsh and cruel as the invader in the north, I am sure.”
“No,” She said. “People are peaceful here and they have their freedom. I will not go to the north.”
“But this is a wonderful chance!” Said her husband. “The best I could do for all of us! We will be safe there, much safer than if we remain here, and of course when the invaders come, we shall be counted as enemies of the winners. Invaders come and go, wife, but chances like this come only very rarely.”
He was so angry that she promised to think about it, and she went to bed very frightened. She did not want to leave her little home! And she felt it would be wrong to throw in her lot with the invader, but what could she do? Perhaps her husband was right.
But early in the morning she looked at him, still asleep; his face was peaceful, as if there was nothing on his conscience at all. He was a handsome man, and on his regular features there was even the shadow of a smile.
She watched him for a while. “There are things as bad as being the descendant of the marsh king,” she thought. “In fact, I am not at all sure you are not worse.”
She left him, and quietly but hurriedly packed her bags and got her daughter, who was always an early riser. Before he woke, they were dressed, packed, and on the road.
“Where are we going, mummy?” Asked the little girl.
“I am not sure, “ Said the wife. “We have to leave this place, for a while, anyway.”
“When will daddy be joining us?” Asked the little girl.
“Someday soon, “Said her mother, and together, they made their way along the road.
It was early autumn, and the nights were not cold. She had taken all the money she could, and for some days they were quite comfortable; and then she found work, in a big house, doing the mending in the laundry.
 They had a small room. It was not very warm but it was clean and dry, and they shared a large bed; and together, at night, they whispered to each other and they began to get along.
The child had so much to occupy her she was not so clinging, though often she asked for her father.
One day they heard news of a great battle. A hero had risen in the south, and he had fought the invaders and he had won. The invaders were still in command of the north and parts of the middle lands, close to where the wife and the little girl stayed, but their advance had been prevented.
There was chaos everywhere but at the great house they had their own force, comprised in the main by elderly men, but they were well armed; and people were not suffering unduly.
While some items were in short supply and the diet was very plain there was enough to eat for everybody,
One day the housekeeper asked the wife to take a trip into the town. “They say the road is clear,” She said. “I would send one of the men, but they are all old and will be slow. You are young and strong. But be quick and don't loiter, there may still be danger on that road.”
So the wife set out. She had to hide, once, from a group of deserters, from which side she could not tell and she had to be wary and careful.
But she reached the shop in the town; and, as the shop keeper handed over the salt and the spices he said, urgently, “Do not go out yet. There is another troop coming through, looks like the retreating army, and they look like trouble. Hopefully they will just pass through.”
“I must get home tonight,” She said. “My little daughter will be very anxious if I am not home before the morning.”
Concealed behind the shutters, the shopkeeper and the wife watched as the troop passed through. They were relieved when they saw that the troop seemed to have no intention of staying but were hurrying north, away from the battle of the south.
They were well uniformed. Some were plainly injured and very exhausted but they rode like a crack regiment, in good order, and the two in hiding could hear the sharp reprimands of the captains.
But, as they watched, they saw a group of especially well dressed men, carrying arms but emblazoned as if they were marked out, and tall and very strong looking.
Among them there was a man, and he got off his horse and called them all to halt, to wait for another, slower troop to catch up.
As he stood there, under the town lights, the wife saw him very clearly and she gasped; because this was clearly the leader of the invaders, and the lord of the north; and here he was, just a few paces from her.
His eyes were full and heavy lidded. His face was wide, and his mouth was wide, and his lips were thin and colourless.
His stomach was not small, but protruded under the belt of gold her wore, but his legs were thin by comparison. “Frog legs, She whispered, and the shopkeeper laughed softly and shushed her.
“Well,” She thought. “So Ag was wrong. We were not the last of the marsh king's descendants, after all.”
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