In exile, Dante stayed at the Scaligers, the ruling family of Verona. The poet was accommodated by Cangrande della Scala, a valiant knight, and autocrat. They say, he drank some water from the spring and died soon after that. But in fact, Cangrande was poisoned by the stuff made from the pollen of digitalis. Only a very experienced wizard herbalist could do that. After Cangrande della Scala died, his body was put into a marble tomb and placed over the church entrance. There it stands to this day, in the city of Verona. And there appeared two more arches carved there lie the remains of other Scaligers, descendants of Cangrande being poisoned with digitalis.
Pagey yawned,
No, tell me about young Dante,
His friend glanced at Pagey in defiance,
Fine! Have it your way. The main source of inspiration and Dantes changeless muse was the girl he saw at a young age in Florence. Her name was Beatrice.
Not Beatrice but Vita, suddenly interrupted Pagey. I heard her sister call to her at the carts. Lady Crescent. Her name is Vita.
With these words, Hom suddenly noticed that the blue eyes of Pagey sparkled which he had never seen before. Of course, he interpreted it as a bad omen.
* * *
Later that night when Hom had gone home and Pagey expressed a desire to drop by to the herb-woman on holiday eve. The beekeeper tried to stop the young man telling the well-worn horror stories,
Remember, nights are getting darker and colder. The first frosts begin. No one should leave the house at this time, and its better not to open the door at all. No travelers should be allowed in to spend the night they might be the dead causing death to those who let them in.
But Pagey was pretty aware that Lekki would like himself to go to visit the one he had always loved. Except for lazy ones, everyone whispered about the herb-woman and the beekeeper in the village. Having no right to get married, they had no right even to appear together in public otherwise, it would be against the rules. Nevertheless, they always found options and the herb-woman always put on a beekeepers hat with a long meshed veil inconspicuously covering her face when she went down the hill and got back to her place behind the birch grove. They always found a chance to see each other. But today Lekki was too busy counting the profits for the sales day, so the young man went alone to the red-haired woodland sorceress. The villagers were wary of her and called her the Green woman. Nevertheless, they always came to her place for a cure for any ailment. They treated her like all the healers belonging to all peoples in the world, with the deepest awe and reverence, because common people could only explain the miraculous effect of herbs on the body by magic.
The herb-womans hut was actually outside the community lands, across the river, and beyond the birch grove no one would ever risk planting birches in the villages territory. The tree border, tree of the waters of Oblivion as they used to say here about the birch, and Pagey had been seeing the silvery bark since his childhood to find the log cabin of a beautiful witch in woods, who was once close to Lekki and even stayed at their place in the apiary. The red-haired woman left the beekeeper when the threat being revealed became too obvious. Nevertheless, nothing prevented the herb-woman to keep a warm relationship with the beekeeper until today and feel the most tender affection for his foster child.
Pagey knocked on the door three times.
Look whos here! the herb-woman smiled bringing him inside the house.
The young man breathed in a spicy warm air, placed on the fire, something was brewing in the cauldron. Unable to restrain his curiosity, he blurted right out of the gate,
Why did the Gevers come here?
The woman pretended not to know what he was talking about and uttered tranquilly,
Sounds like they have been chased away from the previous place. Would you like a pie? Just your favorite left
But Pagey wasnt up to pies,
Why are they being chased everywhere?
Because they are disobedient in the eyes of the authorities.
But who asked them to come down here?
Me, the herb-woman replied calmly.
Sitting down on the bench that had already been chosen by a triple colored cat named Rosehip, Pagey thoughtfully rubbed the pet and frowned,
Youre not scared?
Who?
Him.
No, laughed the herb-woman, stirring the contents in the cauldron over the fire. Im not afraid of him at all.
You know better, Pagey replied somberly, growing dark more and more. But if I were you, Id tread carefully to argue with the druid.
* * *
A few days later, the community gathered around a big bonfire near the river. Each festival of the Wheel of the Year was a node in public life, and so, it was another cold October, so, they all went outside to celebrate the black Samhain. Remembering the dead, remembering the past, wanting to confuse evil spirits and wicked fairies, the locals dressed up in weird clothes, painted their faces with soot, and even hid behind masks carved from pumpkins.
Hom arrived with his grandfather and the groom the executioner. The boatman left the crossing and went to the bonfire, incessantly smoking cigarettes and sitting all alone a little distance from the bonfire. The blackberry family arrived at the festivity as a whole the most successful married couple of entrepreneurs were together with their kids, all as one dressed in black. A few Gever women were here, too.
Pagey noticed Lady Crescent, and he was seized by an incredible joy.
Shes a Beauty, uttered the young man with adoration, keeping a close eye on the Gever girl.
Hom made a face,
You mean, this one? A Beauty? Come on. If there is a beauty here, it must be her, and with those words, the fair-haired man pointed to the thin and sad blackberry wife standing with all her numerous offsprings.
The blackberry wife? Pagey was surprised. Shes old enough to be your mother!
Youd think that someone had ever been stopped, Hom retorted.
But shes married to the bearded man. Theyre wealthy. And its wrong to think that.
But his friend cut him off,
Will you shut up, Pagey? Its wrong, you know, to drool over a dirty little Gypsy, and thats exactly what youre doing.
You shut up, Pagey answered back light-heartedly and stood up to go and say hello to Vita.
But as soon as he went up to her, they all fell silent at the sound of a low voice, familiar to everyone here, which was loudly announcing,
Let the new year begin. The spoke swung, the Wheel of the Year keeps on moving.
The druid approached the bonfire and raised his long, powerful arms above the flames.
He was tall and lean, with clear cheekbones incised on his face you thought, you could even cut yourself with these cheekbones. Throughout his appearance, there was something authoritarian, uncompromising. No wonder people treated the druid with great respect, brought gifts to each full moon, paid the land rent promptly. Of course, the people tried to appease Mr. Kelly but only because he was an old soldier and kept an eye on justice in the community. They obeyed the druid on some inner, intuitive level.