‘All the babes were born here for a time. I had a way that made it not hurt. Tansy is good for that.’
Grigor sucked the smoke and held it in his lungs. Ina smiled and lifted her legs onto the bed, leaned back. ‘Thank you,’ she said, nodding at the gray smoke in the air. ‘My head hurts since I got my new eyes.’
‘My head and my neck hurt,’ said Grigor, exhaling. Ina nodded sympathetically. Grigor set down the pipe and rubbed his neck.
‘Would you like a drink of water?’
Grigor waved his hand to say no. The breeze through the open door was cold but it felt good to have air circulating the room. The candle burned steadily on the bedside table where Ina had left it. From the outside, they would have looked like two old friends, just sharing an afternoon.
‘Where did you get your new eyes?’ Grigor asked. He leaned back against the chair, let his mind drift up into the room to receive Ina’s answer. He didn’t want to seem disgusted by the eyes. He was sincerely curious where she’d gotten them.
‘Somebody gave them to me.’
That seemed like answer enough. ‘Is it true you lived in a cave when you were young?’
‘It is,’ Ina said. ‘Have you been in a cave before?’
‘I found a cave near the creek once, at the foot of the hill to the manor,’ Grigor said.
‘My cave was further away, past the range, on a different mountain. It was so cold in winter up there, but I kept warm somehow. And so much snow. I had my own waterfall in the summer.’
‘That sounds nice.’
‘I liked to stand under the water and feel it pressing down on me. I imagine it would feel just as good now. Shall we go?’ She chuckled.
‘I don’t think there’s any water in the falls there anymore,’ Grigor answered gently. He wasn’t angry at Ina anymore. His mind was in her waterfall. He saw her young and naked standing behind a curtain of warped glass, dark hair flowing long to her waist.
‘It’s too far for me to walk, to be honest,’ Ina said. ‘But there’s water there.’
‘Not with the drought. There was no water coming down these mountains.’
‘There was,’ Ina said.
Grigor tensed a bit in the chair.
‘There wasn’t,’ he said.
‘Now, now,’ Ina said, and put up her wrinkled palm. ‘Pass me the pipe please, Grigor,’ she said.
Grigor sat up and passed it. As Ina clutched it, he felt the strong, long nails of her fingers against the butt of his thumb. It was barely a feeling, as his hands were so calloused from a lifetime of work, but it was something. His wife had died years ago. He pulled his hand away.
‘If there was water on the mountains, why did we have none?’ he asked.
Ina smoked. She realized exactly what Grigor had come for. He wanted his mind changed.
‘Villiam kept the water for himself,’ she told him.
‘Father Barnabas said it was the work of the Devil.’
‘Ah, yes, it is.’ Ina said.
‘But I heard Villiam’s wife died from the drought. Like so many others.’
‘She did not.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I cannot say.’
Grigor reached for the pipe and puffed it, his mind turning. ‘If there was water up there, and Villiam had it, and the priest knew, then why were we down here starving by the lake?’
‘I’m sure Father Barnabas explained it all.’ Ina was being coy. She got coy sometimes when she smoked canniba.
‘Father Barnabas said that there was a breach of security down in hell, and that the Devil flew up to Earth, and it made the world hot and dried it all out. And now God has closed heaven’s gates to keep him out. If the Devil gets into heaven, I don’t know what we’ll do.’ Grigor stiffened, hearing the preposterousness of the story for the first time.
They were quiet for a while.
‘Can I be honest?’ Grigor asked. Ina grunted in reply. ‘The priest told me to come see you, because I told him you were a witch.’
‘Why’d you say that?’
‘I don’t know. I felt it was my duty.’
‘Did he send you here to kill me, Grigor?’
‘No, he sent me here to give you a gift, to relieve my anger.’
‘Carnage or contribution. That’s what priests always say.’ She smoked some more and passed the pipe again.
‘Do you still feel angry, Grigor?’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘The priest was wrong.’
‘Good,’ Ina said. ‘Now come let me nurse you. For old time’s sake. Do you remember how?’