Mad Men (Part 27)

[Continued from here]

The beautiful dawn became a beautiful day. The sun shone bright over Beranwen's head as she walked. She wasn't sure where she was going, but right now it wasn't important. It was nice simply to be lost in the walking and the warmth of the day. Eventually, though, she realised she was walking back towards the forest, and knew she had to start thinking once again.

Stan couldn't remember where he was from, but he thought he'd been walking towards the side of the tree where they had found him. That meant roughly north-ish. There were a couple of villages within a day's walk of the north side of the forest that Stan might have come from. They seemed like the most sensible places to start.

With nothing else to do except walk, she started to wonder how anyone could build a proper, living man out of cogs. And not just all cogs - from the outside, he was flesh and blood the same as anyone. Well, flesh at least. Beranwen suspected the only 'blood' in his body was black. But someone had managed to build living flesh around a mechanical interior, and then make it walk and talk and think. Stan was probably a miracle. She hoped Nereus was a decent enough man to not take advantage of that. More realistically, she hoped he was devoted enough to Quinton to not upset him by taking Stan away.

Away to the north, the first village was already coming into view. Flinty, if she remembered correctly. The towns and villages around land held by Mad Men always had obvious names like that. Rocks and Elm were two farmsteads to the south of lord Winstanleigh's house, and Snails was another closer to the city. Mayport itself was a similar example - the name for their capital had apparently been too complicated for Mad Men, and so was now only ever called the city.

Given that Mad Men often chose the simplest names for things (Quinton's horse was called Brown), Beranwen wondered why she had never suspected the truth about Mad Men before.  Had she not known that insane was not the same thing as dumb? It was obvious now it had been spelled out for her, but it had never crossed her mind before. Mad Men had simply been a different kind of mad. Clearly they had to be different, or they wouldn't be noble.

And with that kind of thinking, kingdoms were built. Beranwen chuckled. How many other lies was her civilisation built on? She had a dizzying feeling of sudden freedom, and wondered how easy it could be to walk through the world seeing all the lies. It would be like cheating at cards. You could do anything.

Hoof beats invaded her thoughts. Blinking the power-mad fantasy from her mind, she turned towards the sound.

Coming over the hill behind her, pointing and waving, were Quinton and Stan.

The two men were overwhelmingly pleased with themselves. Even Beranwen’s waspish greeting didn’t deflate their satisfaction. Stan laughed as she glowered at him.

“What’s wrong, Master Win?” He asked cheerfully. “You didn’t want to leave, and we didn’t want you to leave. You couldn’t stay, so we found the next best solution.”

“We?” She asked shrewdly. “Quinton, who had the idea to follow me?”

“I did.” He said with pride.

“What?” The answer surprised her more than their sudden appearance. “Really?”

“He did.” Stan corroborated. “I told him you were going to look for the man that made me, and he said that was supposed to be a quest.”

“And you can’t quest without me.” Quinton added.

“So we talked about it for a bit,” Stan continued. “And in the end he said we’d better just follow you.”

“This isn’t going to be like a quest, Quinton.” Beranwen told him. “I’ll be away longer than a day. We’ll probably have to sleep outside tonight. There might not be any food.”

“We’ve got food!” Quinton patted a saddle bag.

“Your father was very helpful.” Stan told her. “He got the horses ready while we put some things into packs. And then he gave us some other things to pack – blankets, and a tinder box, and all sorts. He said he wasn’t worried about the horses, because you knew what you were doing with them, but he couldn’t give us a third one because we might not be able to ride very fast with a spare horse. So you’ll have to share with one of us.”

“Sorry… my pa helped you with the horses?” Could her life become any stranger? “That doesn’t sound like him.”

“It was the man you were shouting at yesterday.” Quinton explained. “You said he was your father.”

“He is. He just… actually helped you? And gave you blankets? Did he check through your packs to make sure you had everything you needed as well?”

“Yes.”

"Well..." That brought back memories. He'd always been better around children than adults. "He shouldn't have done that."

"But you were leaving." Quinton said, looking more serious now. "Master Nereus said you were going away, and I didn't believe him, but then he said he'd find me a new advisor, and Stan said you were going as well, so I had to believe it."

"You didn't believe Master Nereus?"

"Why are you leaving?"

"Because there's no work for me at the house anymore." She said carefully, avoiding connecting that with Nereus. "And your father thought I should go to the city and train to be a proper advisor."

"You are a proper advisor."

"Not a qualified one. And you're an important man, you have to have a properly trained advisor."

"What if I don't want one?"

Stan chuckled then, and interrupted.

"I think what he's trying to say is he wants you to be his advisor."

"But what if... what if I'm not ready to be an advisor?" Beranwen was almost begging. Advising a Mad Man she could handle - had handled - but if Quinton wasn't really mad...

"Then you can practice until you are. Please, Master Win."

Both men were looking at her expectantly, almost pleadingly. She cast about for another excuse, another reason why they should go home, but before she could think of anything she found herself speaking.

"Alright. Just for today, though, Quinton. We'll go and look for Stan's creator, and then I'll take you home. Master Nereus will be very angry, and your father will be worried."

"I left father a letter. He won't be worried. It's exciting anyway. And Master Nereus never really gets angry."

"He doesn't get angry with you, Quinton, but he'll be livid with me." She sighed. "Well, I was heading towards Flinty. That seems to be in the direction you came from, Stan."

"Does it?"

"Based on what you said yesterday."

"What did I say yesterday?"

"You don't remember?"

"I remember... you found me by a tree... we had lunch..." He shook his head. "There must have been something in the middle there, but it's gone."

"Then you'll just have to trust me. You said you were walking from the north, so to the north we're heading."

"To the north." Stan agreed.

"To the north!" Quinton joined in.

Since Stan's horse had the heavier packs, Beranwen tied her case onto the back of Quinton's saddle and pulled herself up behind him. Pointing their direction out once more, she got the small group moving, and as they moved, she came to a realisation. She didn't feel like crying anymore. She did wonder what Nereus would do once he found Quinton missing, but wasn't too concerned that he would catch them up. He had practically no one but himself to send out on a search, and they were out of sight of the house now. With a grin, Beranwen relaxed and began to enjoy the day.