by Glen L. Hall
Eagan turned and made his way through the trees.
‘We will, will we?’ Emily flared.
A tense silence fell as she and Sam followed Eagan along the path.
* * * * * *
As the archway turned north, following the course of the burn, Sam was turning his mind back yet again to Oscar’s words. Why had he been so certain of himself the first time they’d met and so confused the second time? He knew he needed to speak to him again.
Emily raised her face to the sky as the path became a broken one made of stone and the giant tree-lined avenue opened out to show the stars. Cobwebs were on her face, there was a strange taste in her mouth and her nostrils were tingling just as they had done in the Garden of Druids. She half-expected the landscape around her to start melting into the darkness, but it held steady.
Walking on, she found herself looking at the back of Sam’s head. Over the last few days she had been amazed by her friend from Gosforth. Who was he? He repelled attacks with fire in his hands and Oscar had as good as said that he was from the line of the Druids. In her view, there was no denying that he had some druidic power. She’d heard of the flow, which only the Druids could control. Was that what Sam was using and would he have to use it to heal the Fall?
Eagan was tired, but his blood was boiling. He felt stung by Sam’s words. How could anybody sympathise with such ghastly creatures as those from the Underland? Helping?! What was Sam thinking? He recalled their poison and shuddered. But more than anything else, the loss of the Celtic Flow dominated his thoughts. Sadness and anger were spiralling in his mind as he walked forwards, trying not to think of the broken boat on the beach behind him.
He was so wrapped up in his own world that he barely saw the movement out of the corner of his eye, but then he was dropping to one knee and signalling to Sam and Emily to stop.
Sam had been practically asleep on his feet. He almost fell over Eagan and then he felt Emily bump into the back of him.
‘What is it?’ she called out.
Eagan did not reply.
In an instant they were all alert, crouching with their backs to one another, staring into the quiet darkness.
Then Emily spoke. ‘There’s something in the trees.’
Sam was scouring the branches, but there was nothing there but falling leaves. He closed his eyes, but could still see nothing. There was no light and there was no darkness, only silence. Whatever it was, it was well hidden.
The leaves were beginning to swirl around them until they could see nothing but a wall of falling leaves.
‘It’s a trap,’ said Eagan. He put out a hand to stop Sam moving forwards.
‘Wait!’ Sam brushed off Eagan’s hand.
Emily watched in horror as he stepped through the wall of leaves and was gone.
* * * * * *
The wall of leaves whipped around Sam in ever tighter circles and then it was like stepping from a tornado into a cloudless day. He was still on the tree-lined path and it was still night-time, but behind him he could see a wall of leaves ten feet high, and, locked behind it, the unmoving shadows of his two companions.
Ahead, a woman was waiting for him. She was tall and beautiful and Sam knew who she was before she spoke. He stood there exhausted, but there was no fear in him, only peace. He felt the tears long before they welled and slipped down his cheeks.
When she spoke, it was like being touched by the summer sun.
‘Sam.’
The word passed through his mind in long ribbons of light and colour. It was a music that filled him with sadness and joy, a voice he had heard only in his dreams.
‘I know who you are,’ he said, trying to stop the tears, but he might as well have tried to stop the flow of the Cherwell.
‘I have long watched you and longed to speak to you,’ she replied, ‘but you would not have understood. I should not have shown myself to you now, but great danger comes to the Mid-land. Tonight my father and sister are in great peril.’
Her words should have brought unimaginable terror to his heart, but instead he was filled with courage.
‘You must bring together the fellowship who will protect the Three. There is no time to lose, for the Ruin’s servants are again in the Mid-land.’
‘Isn’t there any other way?’ Sam asked. He wanted the peace he was feeling now to go on forever.
The woman shook her head.
‘It is such a great burden,’ Sam sighed.
‘It is the burden of the Druids. The First Light chose them a long time ago. Only the heir of the Druidae can carry its flame into the Darkhart.’
‘Who—?’
But before Sam could finish his question, she answered, ‘Go quickly to Holy Island and in the garden there you will find the Staff of the Druids.’
A giant red kite flew out of the night and landed on a tree stump within touching distance. It gave Sam a sharp look before turning to its mistress and giving a number of shrill calls.
‘I must go. There is a war coming and I must prepare my followers.’
She turned again to Sam and he felt almost overcome.
‘There is much about you that gives me hope. Do not despair. You will make the right choices and help will not be far away.’
She made as if to go, then stopped. As the giant bird of prey took to the air and quickly disappeared, she turned to Sam one final time.
‘You remind me so much of your father. Believe in yourself and you could be even greater than he was.’
He blinked and she was gone. In her place he saw a lithe red mare melting into the shadows.
* * * * * *
Eagan and Emily found Sam a few hundred yards from where the leaves had suddenly dropped from the trees.
‘Sam, you look as though you’ve seen a ghost! Sam! Are you listening to me?’
‘I’m sorry – what was that?’
Eagan was looking into the trees, from which several giant birds of prey were taking flight. On the soft ground beside the Howick Burn he could see hoof marks.
‘What’s just happened here?’ he mumbled.
Sam could still see the woman, tall, with hair as golden as the leaves that had fallen around her. He wanted to speak to her again, he wanted to reach out and touch her fair skin. He had almost been overcome by her love for him and his love for her. She reminded him of the woman at the gates of Magdalen, but this woman had been real. All his self-doubt and fear had dropped away in her presence. He had a burden to carry and a mission to accomplish, but now he felt ready.
‘One of Three came to me,’ he said.
‘One of the Dagda’s daughters?’ Eagan was surprised.
They stood looking at each other, whilst leaves again started gently raining down on them.
‘What does that mean? Did she tell you anything?’ Emily was pushing her damp hair back from her face.
‘There is a war coming,’ Sam said.
‘I think it’s already here,’ replied Eagan, ‘but did she say anything else?’
‘I have to gather together a fellowship. The flame of the First Light has to be carried into the Darkhart,’ Sam answered.
Eagan seemed to recoil. ‘And how do you propose to do that?’
‘She said I had to go to Holy Island and find a talisman.’
‘What are you supposed to do with it?’
‘She didn’t say. She didn’t have much time. She was preparing for this war.’
‘Great!’ said Emily. ‘Just what I needed to hear.’
‘I have to speak to Oscar,’ declared Sam. ‘He’ll be able to tell me—’
‘No!’ Eagan was shaking his head. ‘We wait for Father and then decide what to do.’
‘But she said I had to go quickly. That the Ruin’s servants were in the Mid-land. What if there isn’t just one Shadow next time, but other
s as well?’
Emily let out a whimper of fear.
‘What about the letter?’ Eagan asked. ‘What does that say?’
Sam felt in his back pocket, but the familiar creases of the envelope had now become a soggy mess. As he withdrew it, he saw that the ink had run and both letter and envelope had all but disintegrated.
For a moment they all stared at it in silence.
‘That’s that, then,’ said Emily.
Sam felt suddenly bereft. Then he remembered there was another way.
‘We have to find a Way-curve,’ he said, ‘and speak to the Keepers of the Druids. I think they were part of Oscar’s fellowship. I’d like to speak to Oscar himself.’
‘Oh, yes, it’s a brilliant plan,’ Emily said with a sarcastic grimace. ‘We form another fellowship! We set off into the Otherland! We don’t even know where it is. And if we do get there, then what?’
‘I think if the Shadow hadn’t attacked the Garden of Druids, then Oscar would have been prepared to lay out exactly what we needed to do.’
‘Yes, but it did attack. And now he’s back in Oxford with you.’ Emily shook her head in exasperation.
‘Well, he’s back in Oxford with the Shadow.’
‘So you say. But you can’t break the paradox so easily! For all we know, the Shadow could be anywhere. Could be stalking us right this second.’
‘Okay, enough!’ Eagan had heard it all before. ‘It’s pointless going round in circles. We can’t go further into Northumberland without understanding what we’re facing. Brennus and Drust went to the Dead Water seeking answers. When they return, we’ll know more.’
‘But they won’t return. Remember what the letter said.’
‘Can we just leave the letter out of this?’
Eagan and Emily glared at each other.
Sam broke the tension by saying wearily, ‘You do what you want, Eagan, but I’m going to find a way to finish the conversation I started with Oscar. He led a fellowship to the Darkhart. And it looks as though I might need to do the same.’
Eagan ran an exasperated hand through his hair, turned and walked on. Emily stomped along behind him. Sam brought up the rear, wondering how he could ever form a fellowship when he couldn’t even get two people to agree with him.
They walked through the avenue with only the babble of the burn for company. As the trees thinned out, they saw that a slight blue tint was edging ever westward. Dawn was breaking when the trees came to an abrupt end and they arrived at Howick Hall.
* * * * * *
They stood on a small rise looking down on the hall and its gardens. Sam was convinced that each place they had travelled through had been connected and this felt no different. He only had to look at Emily once more trying to brush the invisible cobwebs from her face to know that the Fall’s power was not yet broken here.
Eagan was already making his way down into an autumn garden fit for a king. They followed him over a short wooden bridge across the burn and into a profusion of trees and shrubs of all shapes, sizes and colours. Their senses were lit up by a thousand earthly smells as they walked through the gardens and climbed a steep bank, and when they came to its summit, the house was waiting for them, its imposing Georgian architecture framed by the dark blue light of dawn.
The stillness, the silence and the smells reminded Sam of the Fellows’ Garden in Oxford. Even in the dawn light he could see the Fellows’ House reflected in the Georgian style of Howick Hall. There was the same symmetrical flow he had seen in the Seven Stories and the old school house. They were being led from place to place, and whether they had any choice in the matter or not, he could see and feel the connections between each one clearly now. From the emblem of Cherwell College to the successive reading rooms, the Keepers of the Druids had left their mark. Were they there too, willing them on, or was it the Fall herself?
Then they were passing a circular pond and benches, and for a moment Sam thought he was back in the Fellows’ Garden, or was it the Garden of Druids? He wondered whether Oscar would come back from the dead and deliver a different message to him there.
As he climbed the steps leading out of the gardens, he couldn’t help but turn and look back at them. And all the while he could feel it – an energy, a strange happiness that brushed his cheek. It was as if the darkness of the last few days could not penetrate this place. As if he was looking out of his window at Cherwell before Oscar had turned up with the letter and the Shadow had arrived in Oxford. As if all his fears had simply melted away, as if he was a boy again, looking out from his tree house towards Elgy Green in the late summer sun, waiting for his friends so they could play beneath the shelter of the trees, a time before he had started to see the dancing lights and hear the faraway voices, a time of innocence before he had been drawn into the desperate dance between the hunter and the hunted. And yet, whether he liked admitting it or not, he knew that really the storm clouds had been gathering long before he had gone to Oxford, long before the Shadow had turned up in Warkworth.
He also knew the day would come when he would have to face his fears and confront the unseen enemies that were stalking him in the edgelands of his mind. But there were unseen allies too. He was opening his eyes to a new world. It was as if his first encounter with the Fall had set him free. And every step he had taken into the unknown had brought a deeper understanding of the power that flowed around him. At Magdalen, it had been nothing more than a chorus of voices willing him to awaken to its potential. At Warkworth Castle, the Garden of Druids had called to him because he had started to believe in himself. The more he asked for help and the more he gave of himself, the more help would turn up. Just as Ronald’s letter had foretold.
* * * * * *
They finally arrived on the main terrace of the hall. Sam stood between Eagan and Emily, looking up at the building’s stately lines.
‘Most of the hall is closed and the family are away,’ Eagan explained. ‘Uncle Kenrick will be in his home in the annexe.’
He started skirting the hall, Sam and Emily following.
Sam looked at the building curiously as he passed by. The windows were large and dark and he could see nothing of the rooms from outside. They walked under a small archway that led into a garden courtyard with magnificent borders, then Eagan took them down a small footpath that led from the main hall across a manicured lawn to an iron gate that was slightly ajar.
‘Look!’ Emily said.
Sam and Eagan turned, and there in the gate was a circle with a tree at its centre, crafted perfectly from the metal.
‘The emblem of Cherwell College.’
‘Another safe house in the wilderness,’ Sam said with a smile.
‘By the looks of things the Celtic Flow knew where she was taking us,’ Eagan said. ‘Come on, let’s have something to eat and drink and go to bed.’
He clapped Sam on the back and the three of them passed through the gate and walked along a stone path to an oak door with a slightly rusty knocker. Eagan tapped it gently and stood back.
There was a pause. Sam could feel his legs beginning to shake, he was so tired. Whoever they were trying to rouse from their sleep was taking an age. He was just about to ask Eagan to knock harder when there was a loud creak as the door slowly opened and a soft light escaped into the night.
‘Eagan!’ came a stunned but gentle voice. ‘Good grief – have you been chasing Forest Reivers?’
A figure stepped from behind the door dressed head to foot in stripy pyjamas. It was an older gentleman with a long handlebar moustache that was almost white and small-rimmed glasses that were sitting on a long thin nose. When he took in Sam and Emily, his eyes grew wide.
‘Good grief – Sam!’
‘You know Sam?’ Eagan asked.
‘Know him? We’ve been looking for him the length and breadth of Northumberland.’
Without further
ado, the man ushered them through the door. Once he had bolted it firmly shut, he turned to them.
‘I’m very glad to see you. You’ve had us all worried.’
‘Uncle, I don’t understand.’
‘Well, you should, Eagan. Everyone goes missing for days after Sam returns from Oxford. Not a word from your mother or your father. Even the Hoods have disappeared. There are rumours that all sorts of strange beings have been seen. Then a company of Forest Reivers passes through these lands prepared for battle. Do you expect me and your aunt to remain calm?’
Sam, Emily and Eagan stood in the large hallway feeling slightly guilty.
‘And by the looks of you, your journey has not been without incident,’ the man continued, looking at them curiously. ‘Forgive me, I am a poor host,’ he added. ‘I have let my excitement get the better of me. Come, dry yourselves off.’
‘Some food and dry clothes would be good.’ Eagan smiled at his uncle.
‘Yes, of course. Come along. Hello, Emily. I’m Kenrick, by the way, Sam. Very pleased to meet you.’
He led them all through a doorway into a living area based around a beautifully decorated fireplace. In it, embers were still glowing red. With a little kindling, within minutes the fire was springing back into life. Then Kenrick disappeared back through the doorway, leaving the others by themselves.
Sam sat down on a leather couch and felt the heat from the fire beginning to thaw out his legs. Emily dumped herself in an armchair and without another word was asleep. Eagan stood with his back to the fire, facing the door they had come through. Sam could tell there was something bothering him.
‘What’s wrong?’
Eagan shrugged his shoulders. ‘I didn’t think he knew anything about you. It looks as though more people are aware of you than we think. And I’ve never seen him look so startled.’
‘If someone knocked on your door at 4 a.m., I think you would look startled.’
To Sam’s relief, Eagan smiled. ‘That’s probably it, Sam. These last few days have put me on edge, that’s all.’
He sat down by the fire, stretched out and closed his eyes.