The Contestants Ch. 02

It became hard for Anna to concentrate on the intrigues of the court life in Paris. To the count, she could easily say that she was worried about her family back home, and this would indeed be the truth. To complicate matters, a friend of the count, a young nobleman from the same circles, started to court her ardently to the great dismay of the count. In the end, the two men got into a heated argument, and Anna received the information that a duel was to take place. She saw her opportunity and informed them both that she on no account would accept that they fought a duel over her and that she intended to leave for the States immediately. They, on the other hand, couldn't withdraw from their joint challenge. Anna left Paris and headed for Calais and Dover in late May that year, saying that she would catch the ship for the States from Southampton.

That was however not the way she intended to travel. Anna left with all her luggage, but in Calais she sent it ahead to England to be forwarded to the States from Southampton as planned. She however remained in Calais, and she stayed at a small inn. During the night, she shed the clothes and other belongings to the lady, who had moved around in the courts in Paris, and transformed herself into a plain woman in old and worn clothes. No one looked at her twice when she slipped out of the inn in the late night and disappeared into the small streets of Calais, and not far from the inn she eased through the door to a wagon shed, and she vanished from human eyes for good.

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Gareth wasn't present in the castle when Anna arrived. She was informed that he was at the Border and she definitely didn't want to seek him out there. The Border was the only place in Inis that she hated and even feared and it represented all the darkness, which was unquestionably combined with Inis. She didn't want to know what Gareth was doing there, and she even contemplated continuing directly to New Orleans but decided after some hesitation that she would stay the night in the castle after all. There were things that she had to discuss with Gareth before going home.

"I trust you've had a pleasant night?" he inquired blandly when they met the next morning. There was just a hint of mockery in his eyes telling her that he was fully aware of why they hadn't seen each other last night.

"Now I would like to know why you are back already and evidently on your way to New Orleans?" he continued when she didn't answer.

She then went on to tell him about the duel in Paris and her anxiety on behalf of Celia all alone in the house in New Orleans and a war underway in the States. He frowned and started pacing the floor and eventually commented on her departure from France.

"I don't like it when you draw attention to your person in this manner," he said to her.

"I really didn't do that on purpose," she defended herself. "I didn't encourage the second man when he started to pay attention to me. We had decided that I should concentrate on the count and so I did. I can't help it if I attract attention even if I'm trying to keep a low profile."

"God forbid and help us all when you decide not to," he replied and curved his lips into an ironic smile.

She looked at her feet and pretended that she hadn't heard his last remark.

"I hope that you won't keep me from going to Celia?" she asked instead.

"I can't say that I'm overjoyed at the thought of having you there at this very moment, but I suppose that I can't keep you from going. What will you do?" he added.

"That depends on what's going to happen. If the war moved to our doorstep, I might have to take Celia with me and come here. I really don't know..." Her voice trailed off, betraying how worried she felt.

"We will let the issue rest for a while then," he concluded, "and I will permit you to go there."

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As always it was with great exhilaration that she entered the little courtyard to her house in the center of New Orleans. It was still very early in the morning, and the dawn hadn't broken. She often preferred coming home in this manner, not drawing undue attention to herself. It was very peaceful and quiet, yet she immediately sensed that something was vitally different this day. She couldn't pinpoint the cause of this effect. It was as if a strange personality or person had entered the house somehow. She thought however that the new situation they all were living in must be to blame for everything feeling so different. She didn't have much time to brood over this issue. Before she knew it, Celia had flung the doors to the house open and rushed out into the courtyard to hug her. It didn't help if Celia was fast asleep when Anna arrived. Even if Anna tried to move over the courtyard like a ghost, Celia always woke up when she sensed Anna's presence.

They spent all morning in the kitchen telling each other of what had happened during the months they'd been apart. Celia wanted to know every piece of gossip from the French court, and Anna wanted to hear about how the city prepared for the conflict. At last when they had satisfied their curiosity, Anna inspected the house the way she usually did when she came home. After her mother's death she had redecorated the whole house and allotted both herself and Celia more space, each one of them now having a whole floor at her disposal. She had also turned the whole ground floor into a space where she housed the living room, a library and the dining room. When she came to the library to open the windows and let some fresh air in, she sensed this strange, disturbing feeling of faint danger again, and her heart started to beat. She stood for a long time listening to the silence, but no other sound but her own heartbeats disturbed it, and in the end the feeling slowly vanished. She didn't feel it anymore, and a couple of days later she had forgotten all about it.

During these early days of the war, it was easy to look upon the sequence of events as a romantic adventure. Everyone was so sure of winning and that the unpleasant fighting would end soon. Anna started to make herself useful as all the other women in the city did. She joined a group of ladies, who intended to learn to nurse the wounded soldiers, and she also spent time organizing rallies to bring in boots and clothing. Then the first reports of skirmishes started to drop in, and soon news circulated all over the city about the first major contest between the two armies, which had taken place in Virginia. It was described as a great victory for the South and really boosted the morale. Anna thought it was awful to hear that around 4.700 men had died. Little did she know that in a short while everyone would consider this a moderate figure.

As summer turned to fall it started to become clear to everyone that the conflict was not going to be solved easily or quickly. The strategy of the Union started to show. The Federal forces aimed at getting control over the big river system and to split up the Confederation. They also set about blockading the southern ports. In February of 1862 the South learned what heavy causalities meant when around 17.400 men were reported killed at Fort Donelson and nearly 23.800 at Shiloh, both battlefields in Tennessee. Between the two battles, Nashville fell to the Union forces. This fact left the residents of New Orleans stunned. Without warning, the war had come very close to their homes. The parties, balls, and rallies that had kept them busy during the fall and around Christmas stopped, and people started to think about securing their property and perhaps even leave the city. Shortly after the Federal victory at Shiloh in early April, the two forts that guarded the entrance to New Orleans from the sea were put under heavy siege and fire. When it was all clear that the forts couldn't keep the Union forces from sailing up the river to the city, New Orleans surrendered without fighting and bloodshed and the most important town in the Confederacy was lost.

The northern army descended upon the city, and the city received it and swallowed it in silence. No one knew at that time that the effects of the stern military rule invoked upon them would last for decades; hard and dreary years with personal suffering and great political unrest, which would form the destiny of the city well into the next century. The eternal and indolent city itself was not to suffer much harm. No army could conquer her. Some twenty years later, many of the northerners would be hard to single out from the original citizens, having been assimilated and neutralized and simply digested by this living structure by the river mouth.

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Anna thought seriously about leaving New Orleans with Celia. As they had an opportunity to do so, why not take advantage of it after all? However, it wasn't going to turn out that way. Something happened before Anna could make a choice about leaving; something that would forever change her life yet again.

When the news came that everyone would have to be prepared for military inspections and the possibility of confiscation of valuable property, Anna thought like her neighbors that she would hide the most expensive items in her house rather than give them up. She went from room to room for a survey, and when she came to the library, she became acutely aware of a strange feeling of danger again. She entered the room cautiously, but she couldn't see anything that was out of the ordinary at first. Then she spotted something on the window sill that she hadn't put there herself and that she didn't recognize. It was an Indian leather bracelet adorned with small blue beads. Somebody had used it for a long time because it was well worn and almost frail in parts. She took it in her hand to examine, but dropped it almost at once because it burned her fingers. She stared at it in alarm and bent down to look at it. Even before she came close to it again, she knew. She knew that this was something that Conaill had worn close to his body. She called out for Celia in a loud voice. Celia came rushing, fearing that Anna had hurt herself or was being attacked by someone, but when she saw Anna standing by the window, looking at the piece of leather, Celia stopped short in her tracks and she buried her face in her hands.

"Celia!" Anna cried again. "You know about this? If so, you have some explaining to do!"

"I don't understand it," Celia mumbled confused as Anna went up to her and took her by the shoulders.

"He has been here!" Anna said shaking Celia lightly. "When was he here, tell me, I must know!"

Celia lifted her head and looked gravely at Anna. "He said himself that I mustn't tell you that he'd been in the house. He made me promise not to tell! So why leave this for everyone to see? I don't understand," Celia repeated.

"Celia, just now I don't care about what was said between you, I only want to know when he was here last," Anna implored her.

Celia sat down heavily on a chair and motioned Anna to sit too. Then she started to tell Anna about Conaill's visits to the house.

It wasn't long after he had been exiled from Inis that Conaill showed up at the house for the first time. He made Celia promise for fear of her life not to reveal anything about his visits to Anna. The house had once belonged to Conaill, and he evidently still had access to it in his own way. As the years followed, he showed up from time to time to inquire about Anna and to see her.

"See me?" Anna whispered with a shaking voice.

"Yes when you were sleeping," Celia answered, and Anna covered her face with her hands and wailed.

Conaill had told Celia a little about what he had occupied himself with but no details. Much of the time he had traveled the world and made his living as a mercenary soldier. He had said with a short laugh that there wasn't a continent left that he hadn't fought a war in. The last time he had shown up was just a couple of days before Anna's return to the house. He had come to tell Celia that he had enlisted in the Civil War on the Confederate side.

"I've never been able to resist a losing cause," he had remarked with a wry smile.

Anna looked up when Celia had finished. She went up to her and shook Celia by the shoulders again.

"Then you must know where he is now. You must know which unit he enlisted with and where they are. You must know, tell me, you've got to tell me!!" Anna shouted in agony.

Celia started to cry and so did Anna, and they cried in each other's arms for a while before finally calming down enough to be able to talk in a rational way again.

Yes, Celia knew where Conaill had enlisted. He had said that he didn't much fancy the large anonymous battalions and that he intended to join one of the smaller cavalry brigades or partisan rangers as they were also called. They were small very mobile and deadly units, which specialized in guerrilla warfare, constantly harassing the Union forces that dared out of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and their other camps and small enclaves along the river. Most of the time, the rangers were hardly distinguishable from civilians as they had to supply clothing, weapons, and horses by themselves. Today they could be just anywhere between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and with this knowledge in mind Anna ordered Celia to go into the city at once to find out all there was to know concerning the whereabouts of the partisans.

"I don't care what means you'll use to get hold of the information I want, just get it and get it now," Anna urged her.

When Celia had gone, Anna sank to a chair in the library and stared numbly at the walls and the bookshelves in the room. She tried to come to terms with what had happened and make plans for what to do next. "I will have to go and search for him. There is nothing else left for me to do," she thought. "No matter the cost," she added mentally. She knew that she traveled best alone. She couldn't make herself totally invisible the way Gareth could, but she could become very inconspicuous, blending into the background hardly noticeable at all. Her over-perfect hearing would aid her when she would have to travel among strangers, who perhaps were enemies. One more thing was also painfully clear to her; she didn't mean to involve Gareth in this quest if she could help it. That meant that she couldn't use any of the facilities that Inis offered her. She would have to abide by the human rules if she were to solve this issue.

She lifted the small and worn leather bracelet. It didn't burn her anymore, but it felt almost warm to the touch, like human skin. She pressed her lips against it, and then she put it on her arm and tied it securely to her wrist, intending to keep it on and never take it off again, no matter the circumstances.

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It was late evening when Celia finally returned. It hadn't been easy to find what Anna wanted. Celia couldn't go around asking questions openly about the Confederate army without arousing suspicion. Her good hearing and her skills in reading people's minds had helped her in the end. She could tell Anna that the special unit that Conaill belonged to had last been seen near Donaldsonville roughly halfway upstream to Baton Rouge. Anna brought out a large map she kept in the library and pondered it for a long time. It was a treacherous part of the river area to travel; that much she knew. It was a swampy and marshy land and could sometimes be flooded by the river. Nevertheless, she thought that the harsh terrain would offer her protection. She could envisage that the enemy operating in these surroundings would most likely try to stick to the new railway and the river and not dare out into the marshland if they could avoid it. When Celia saw Anna with the map in her hand, Celia's eyes widened and she tugged at Anna's sleeve.

"You don't fancy going there, I hope?" Celia whispered. Anna merely looked at her.

"But you can't!" Celia cried. "Even if they won't kill you, they can hurt and cripple you and even take you for prisoner!"

"Do you seriously think that I could just sit here doing nothing, knowing that he is within reach?" Anna asked.

"And by the way," she continued, "not a word, not a single breathed syllable to Gareth if he seeks you out while I'm gone."

"You mean I'm to stay here while you go out in this wilderness?" Celia protested.

They had a long heated argument, and it took a while for Anna to convince Celia that she was best protected if she traveled alone, thus having the chance to blend into the background and not draw attention to herself.

When Celia had reconciled herself to the fact that Anna was going to leave in search for Conaill, Celia tried to help in all possible ways. It was all too clear that one of the most difficult parts of the quest was getting out of the occupied city. Celia rallied her contacts and managed to ensure Anna a passage on a small boat, which was to cross Lake Pontchartrain in the middle of the night. The lake had proved to be the best way of escape. It was hard for the Federal forces to keep guard in the delta at every bayou and every little river, emptying itself in the great lake. There, on the other side, friends of Celia's would wait for Anna with the horse she was going to need for the rest of the journey. Celia advised Anna to dress simply and usefully. She brought her a jacket and a knee-length skirt in supple and soft skin. The dress looked as if it had been made for an Indian woman to begin with. Anna roamed the attic and found a pair of riding boots and a hat under which she hid her blonde hair and which shaded the better part of her face. Anna also decided to take her small French pistol, and she had Celia go and find ammunition for it. Apart from the gun and some money Anna traveled very light, there was no need to burden herself with a lot of luggage.

Anna tried to rest a little before it was time to leave in the middle of the night, but she found no peace of mind. Her thoughts roamed endlessly around Conaill — sometimes in doubt and despair of what might have happened to him during the time they'd been apart, and sometimes in feverish longing for him. However, she never doubted for a second that she would manage to find him.

Celia brought her some food before her departure, and Anna forced herself to eat a little although it felt almost impossible to down anything at all. Even so, Celia watched her like a hawk and didn't leave the table until Anna at least had tried to taste some of the dishes.

Then the moment came. Anna hugged Celia in silence for a long time, and she heard Celia whisper something in a language she didn't understand. Anna asked if Celia had put a spell over her but Celia answered that she had said a prayer, an old African prayer her mother had taught her once.

"In this night you need all extra protection you can get My Sweet," Celia said, "I will not rest through a full night until you are back here again."

Anna accepted the gift, hugged Celia one more time, and then she slipped out into the night and out of the little courtyard. She almost immediately became one with the shadows, and she was soon lost to human eyes and minds when she on light feet headed towards the lake.

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The passage took much longer time than Anna had expected. She had found the boat and two young colored men in charge of it at the meeting place Celia had pointed out to her. She had given the specific password to ensure the men of that she was indeed their intended passenger. They didn't question her reasons for being out in the middle of the night alone; they had promised Celia to take her across the lake and nothing else. They kept the boat in the flooded vegetation near the shoreline and moved silently and stealthily in the water. No one uttered a word. Anna started freezing although it wasn't too cold. She tried to the best of her ability to shield it from the men. Several hours later, when dawn was about to break, they ventured into the mouth of a tiny river and eventually hit the shore. An older colored man waited for them. He stood so very still in the bushes that it took Anna a while to spot him. The men greeted each other quietly and the older one turned to Anna.