Tree Slayer

by Harriet Springbett

  “It’s logical.”

  “Is it? Explain.”

  “Well, we have a tree to find and save. That makes it a special tree, and special trees are generally old. People treat old trees as features and preserve them. So if there are old trees in Paimpont forest, we can assume that someone will know about them, especially if Paimpont is supposedly Brocéliande forest because the tourist industry will use anything it can to attract visitors and their money, like the cave in Lourdes where Bernadette Soubirous had a vision of the Virgin Mary and busloads of tourists visit Lourdes and line up outside the cave to be miraculously saved and buy water and stay in hotels and eat in restaurants–”

  He saw Rainbow raise her hands to make the T-sign, and fast-forwarded to the end of his theory. “So if we go into Paimpont, we can find out where there’s a special tree.”

  Rainbow smiled. “You’re right. We can ask someone.”

  “Or look in a library.”

  “Whatever. Let’s go!”

  Eole followed her along the road through the trees. After a few minutes, when they were deeper inside the forest, he heard a susurrus of very faint voices. They were still there, but no longer talking to him. It was as if an orchestra had finished playing its symphony for the audience and the musicians were whispering to each other about where to go for a drink. He wished he could listen to a symphony right now, to immerse himself in music and identify which melodies came from which instruments.

  In the bourg, a lake separated the houses from the forest. Paimpont was only a village, but it felt like a town to Rainbow after their weeks of walking in the countryside. According to the road signs, it had an abbey, a library, a campsite and a tourist office.

  Eole wanted to find the library, but Rainbow knew it would be quicker to ask in the tourist office. She left him and the rucksacks outside the abbey and entered the tourist information centre, where she was told that there were a handful of ancient trees, and that Hélène, the council office secretary, knew all about them. She also learnt that the forest covered twenty-two thousand acres, and that they’d need to hire bicycles from Monique at Le Brécilien bar if they wanted to visit it. Rainbow bought a tourist map showing the forest tracks, and then hired two bicycles and wheeled them back to Eole.

  “I’m going to ask the secretary in the council office to mark the trees on the tourist map,” she said to him. “Bring the rucksacks inside if it starts to rain.”

  Eole looked up. The sky was heavy with cumulonimbus, but they hadn’t charged enough to cause lightning yet. Storms were slow to come, here, unlike those in the mountains.

  “I’ll come in,” he said.

  “You don’t have to.”

  But he insisted, so they each locked up their bike and Rainbow led the way inside the abbey. She smiled at him as they opened a big wooden door into a corridor. It was good to see him taking a step to overcome his fear of strangers. She felt perfectly at ease with people now – as long as her dealings with them didn’t touch on her gift.

  “You’ll be fine. Just take deep breaths,” she said, and knocked at the secretary’s door. “Not too deep, though.”

  Eole breathed in hundreds of years of monks’ prayers and fixed his eyes on the broken strap on Rainbow’s rucksack. She was with him. He could do it.

  A female voice told them to come in.

  The secretary smelt of fish, looked about one hundred years old, had artificial curly hair like a wig, and wore a beige cardigan and a blouse decorated with blue flowers (species unidentifiable). She leant behind a counter, talking to a man about authorisation to take a group of children to Germany.

  Eole placed his rucksack beside Rainbow’s and they sat down to wait. It was always easier when he had time to size up a place before he had to interact, in the same way that stopping at a red traffic light in an unfamiliar town gave him time to read all the signs and analyse which road was the right one.

  There was a bus timetable on the wall. His brain seized its reassuring lines of numbers and started to memorise them, the rhythm soothing the logical part of his head. But his devious mind – the part that dealt with incompatabilities and emotions – needed occupying too. Superimposition had helped his mind before Domi’s hypnotism session, so he looked around the office and superimposed the interior of the council office at Arras-en-Lavedan over what he could see, hear and smell. The man became Monsieur Delage and the secretary became Mademoiselle Henri, which made him snigger because he couldn’t imagine total babe Mademoiselle Henri with wrinkles, a perm and a beige cardigan.

  While his mind was busy with Mademoiselle Henri’s appearance, his brain finished with the bus timetable and started to create a three-column question table. It contained his questions, Mademoiselle Henri’s possible responses and his subsequent reactions in each case.

  Before his brain could finish the table, Monsieur Delage left the office. Rainbow stood up and introduced them both to Mademoiselle Henri. Everything started to gallop along too quickly for Eole, including his heartbeat. Rainbow explained they were researching interesting trees for their art project. Mademoiselle Henri said she knew some amazing ones and Rainbow sparkled and took out her travel log and Mademoiselle Henri made exclamations like “Sublime!” and “Exquisite!” and Eole wondered how it was that he could actually hear the exclamation marks and he missed a bit of the conversation, and then Mademoiselle Henri started to write on the map and Rainbow asked him to come and look and he concentrated on the map and not on Mademoiselle Henri.

  He noted the crosses and the names of the ten trees and memorised the circuit she recommended, and he realised he’d be able to guide Rainbow after all because she didn’t understand maps and of course he was still her soulmate, and his question table faded from his brain and he relaxed his hold on his mind. He listened to Rainbow assuring Mademoiselle Henri that they would get permission from the owners for the private parts of the forest, and then he heard the full stop of her sentence.

  His mind seized its chance.

  “Rainbow,” he said, “can you ask Mademoiselle Henri what the procedure is for finding my biological parents who lived here when I was born, please?”

  And he’d actually said the words out loud and both Rainbow and Mademoiselle Henri were silent and the silence swelled into a huge bubble of confused air between them and he suspected his timing was wrong, as usual.

  Rainbow stared at his blank face. Who was Mademoiselle Henri? Where had his question come from? She had no idea this was the village where he’d been born. What a coincidence that they’d arrived in the same … She bit her lip. Was it a coincidence?

  She’d trusted him. Blindly, Mary would say. Against her advice, Mary would say. Inside her, Mary’s voice – or her own voice: she wasn’t sure which side of the wall it came from – rebuked her for being so naïve.

  She glowered at Eole and picked up the map and travel log. He’d manipulated the whole journey to find his biological parents. And now he wanted her to ask his questions for him! What a cheek! She couldn’t even shout at him in case he got upset, raised a gale and allowed the Tree Slayer to kill the One Tree – if the One Tree really was here. If this really was Koad.

  How much of what he’d said was actually true? The trees hadn’t confirmed the forest was Koad. She only had Eole’s word to go by. Perhaps the reason for the lack of storm damage here was that Eole’s gale had been directed south towards the Pyrenees, not to the west. And if he was capable of such a degree of manipulation, he may even have invented the voices. She should have listened to Mary’s doubts in François I park, when he’d suddenly declared that the voices came from nature.

  “Thanks for your help, Hélène,” she said to the secretary. “As you just heard, Eole has some questions on a different theme, so I’ll leave you both in privacy.”

  She knew what she had to do, though she didn’t know if the idea came from her or Mary. She picked up her rucksack and left the room.

  Eole felt sick. Why had he spoken those words? It wasn�
��t what he’d planned. He’d meant to finish saving the One Tree before asking Rainbow to help him, not just blurt it all out like that. He started to follow Rainbow out of the office, but she slammed the door in his face. At the same time, Mademoiselle Henri spoke:

  “Don’t be afraid, Eole. Come and talk to me. I know exactly what procedure you must follow because you’re the second person to ask in two days.”

  His brain told him to stay and his mind said he might as well find out about his parents now because it would save having to come back and do the introduction bit again, and maybe this time he could perform because he’d learnt how to do conversations properly with Rainbow, and he could speak to Mademoiselle Henri because he knew her and she was gorgeous according to Paul Coutances, though he thought ‘rhinoceros-like’ was more accurate than ‘gorgeous’ – or ‘total babe’, which was Hestia’s description of her.

  He fixed his eyes on the back of the photo frame on the counter and started at the top of his brain’s table of questions. Although Mademoiselle Henri didn’t comply with the responses he’d devised for her in his table, she did tell him that he had to write to the Service Adoption et Accès aux Données Personnelles in Rennes, who would contact his biological parents and ask if they wanted to meet him and, if so, this would be organised by the social workers, and there was an association who could accompany him psychologically and it would take at least a fortnight.

  All her information went into his mental notebook, although she insisted on writing it down along with the address. And then she stopped writing and stopped talking and when he looked at her rhinoceros face (though without a horn, obviously) she was staring at him and tapping her pen against her nose and he knew that if he said nothing and waited she would end up speaking, just like Alexandra – no, Hestia had forbidden him to say that – um, Maman-A when she wanted to talk about something special he’d done and she was searching for the right way for the words to come out. And so he waited.

  “The local newspapers covered a ‘baby for adoption’ story here about eighteen years ago,” said Mademoiselle Henri. “I’m not saying it was you, and I can’t tell you anything more, dear, but you might like to look at the archives upstairs in the library.”

  She gave him some paper and an envelope for his letter, and then she wished him luck, and when he didn’t move she said he could leave now and join his lovely girlfriend outside, and he stood up and mumbled that she wasn’t his girlfriend but his soulmate, and Mademoiselle Henri raised her eyebrows and then picked up her phone receiver and said goodbye to him while she tapped in a number, and so he shouldered his rucksack and when he glanced at her again, she was staring at him and her lips were moving, so he left the office and was suprised to see that he was in the abbey entrance and not in Arras-en-Lavedan.

  Rainbow had her back to him and was studying the town noticeboard. He was relieved to see she was still there, but she looked bristly like a hedgehog. She would probably shout at him now, like Hestia did when he messed things up. She’d never shouted at him before. He didn’t want her to shout at him.

  He stood behind her and wondered whether it would make things better or worse to tell her that they didn’t need the voices now they had the map of trees. They would find the One Tree and save it, and afterwards he would write his letter to find Maman-B and Papa-B.

  “Murderers!” muttered Rainbow, reading a council notice. There was a project to cut down a part of Paimpont forest near a village called Argoad. They were going to build a golf course there, and the tree slaughter was scheduled for this week.

  A rustle made her jump. Eole stood close behind her with some papers in his hand.

  “So,” she said, folding her arms. “Have you found your biological parents?”

  “Not yet. I’ve got to write to the authorities.”

  She studied him: he avoided her eyes but his feet weren’t squirming and he wasn’t drawing in a deep breath. “What will you do if they don’t want to meet you?”

  “They will want to meet me. I’m not their responsibility now I’m eighteen so there’s no logical reason why they’d refuse.”

  Rainbow nodded, pretending to agree with him. Gerard at the commune had been adopted. She remembered him saying how desperately he’d wanted to meet his real parents. But they hadn’t wanted to meet him. He’d been gutted. And furious. Would Eole blow up a storm if he was rejected?

  “Well, good luck,” said Rainbow. “I hope it all works out for you. I’m going home.”

  Eole thought he’d misheard, and then he wondered if she was giving up because she couldn’t read the map. Whatever the reason, it didn’t make sense.

  “Why?” he said.

  “I may be naïve, but I’m not stupid, Eole. You only pretended the voices were guiding you here so I would come and help you trace your parents–”

  Eole made the T-sign but Rainbow ignored it: “I just wish you’d told me the truth,” she said. “I’d have driven you here and we’d have wasted less time. I could have gone to Massane forest with Thierry, and I needn’t have lost Christophe to Emilie. But it’s too late for regrets. We’ve done what you wanted and now I’m going to Rennes to catch a train home. I’m still counting on you to keep your gale promises. So this is goodbye.”

  Rainbow turned and left the abbey.

  “No! Rainbow!”

  She didn’t stop, not even at their bikes. He did a double take: there was only one bike left. She was walking back through the village. He caught up with her.

  “Your logic is all wrong!” he said. “I didn’t invent the voices. They must have stopped because we’ve reached Koad and this is where the One Tree is, not in Massane, and you must stay with me because I can help you with the map and it doesn’t matter if you’ve lost Christophe because he’s not your soulmate but I am your soulmate and it’s a coincidence that Paimpont is on the line the voices have guided us along and I only planned to investigate my biological parents after we’d saved the One Tree but we were in the council office so it was logical to ask, and you can’t go home yet because we haven’t finished our together mission and I don’t want you to die and I must protect you one hundred per cent and when I make a promise I always keep it.”

  “It’s over, Eole. I’m going home. You’d better go home too. Remember to take your bike back first.”

  “You’ll die if we don’t save the One Tree. I don’t want you to die.”

  This was much harder than she’d expected, but Mary was back in full force and wouldn’t let her give in. Eole hadn’t created a storm in the whole time they’d been together. She could trust him to keep his promises.

  “I won’t die: not if you keep your promises,” she said. “The One Tree isn’t here. I’m going home, and so should you. Goodbye, Eole.”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  She marched along the road towards the cemetery. He was following her, of course, as she’d known he would. Her timing was perfect: the lunchtime bus was waiting at the bus stop, filling with passengers. She walked past. As the last passenger boarded, she doubled back and stepped onto it.

  The doors closed behind her rucksack. The bus lurched into movement. She squeezed her eyes shut and imagined Eole standing, forlorn, his feet shuffling. Too bad. He deserved it. It would be safer for the One Tree if she found it on her own.

  Part IV

  Broken Halves

  Chapter 29

  Eole watched Rainbow get onto the Rennes bus. He knew he wasn’t as good at understanding people as he was at understanding sheep, but he could tell she was acting strangely. Her reasoning was illogical. Was it an excuse? Had she given him an excuse so she could do something harmful?

  Hestia had once given an excuse so she could do something harmful. She’d said she was going to revise at Caroline’s house, which was illogical because she never did schoolwork on Friday nights. And then she’d run away from home. The police had found her in Paris, beaten up, three days later.

  He had to find Rainbow.

>   He remembered from the council office timetable that the next bus was in an hour’s time. He sat down in the wooden shelter to wait. Above him, the cumulonimbus clouds were almost fully charged and thunder started to rumble. Rainbow might not have realised they were storm clouds. It could be the Tree Slayer, lurking in the storm and preparing to kill her and the One Tree. It was the worst possible moment for them to be separated.

  He watched cars pass. After half an hour a woman sat next to him. He stood up and waited behind the shelter, under some trees. The wind had risen and it started to rain in slow, heavy drops. He listened to the faint voices in the trees. They still weren’t talking to him but at least his ears had adapted to the near-silence and the ringing pain had lessened.

  A taxi approached. Perhaps he should call a taxi so he could get to Rennes before Rainbow: then he would intercept her at the train station instead of arriving an hour after her. He peered through the leaves to see if there was a telephone number on the car.

  A girl was slouched low in the back seat.

  She looked like Rainbow.

  It couldn’t be Rainbow. She was in the Rennes bus.

  He was sure it was her.

  He lurched out from behind the trees but the taxi had driven out of sight. He had no idea which direction it had taken. Itch. What should he do now?

  Rainbow hunkered down in her seat. Eole wasn’t sitting at the bus stop, and she didn’t see him along the road either. He must have caught the bus just after hers, whatever time it had left. She hoped he would manage to catch a train on his own. She imagined him at Rennes train station, trying to avoid the rush of passengers, his feet shuffling.

  No, she mustn’t imagine that. Now she’d tricked him, she must finish her mission quickly so she could be with Amrita again. She had to find the One Tree, and she no longer needed Eole and the voices because she had a map. She just hoped that the reason the voices had stopped wasn’t because she was too late.