“Come,” said Fenella.
She ushered him to the upright rocks, where they both stood gazing at their reflections in the invisible mirror.
“This is the Nevek Barrier,” she explained. “All people must travel through here on their journey from life to the Land of Souls. But first let me tell you my story. Many centuries before your time, there were folk on the Earth called dryads. They had markings on their bodies just like my own. The dryads had great kinship with trees and woodland, and many had special gifts. Some had the ability to find hidden objects, others could see spirits, and others were able to look into the past. Some could even glimpse the future.”
Fenella took the staff in both hands, waving its emerald tip at the Nevek Barrier. The air between the rocks turned a glimmering silver and blurred images began to take shape beneath the surface.
“For hundreds of years the dryads did thrive,” she continued. “And many travelled the continents, some reaching the shores of England. But then came an era of great persecution and, by my own time, there remained only four dryads of the full blood on the whole of the Earth - myself, my sister Sibbie and my brothers Ket and Hob. We lived in Barnisdale Forest where we befriended a band of outlaws, led by a man named Adam McCool.”
The vision between the rocks came into focus and the images began to move. Jason watched with intense curiosity. He saw the treetops of a vast forest, the vision descending to a mighty chestnut tree in a clearing. Twenty or so people gathered under the shelter of its branches, the men in leather and wolf’s fur, most of the women in sleeveless deerskin coats over long woollen dresses. Close to the foot of the tree stood a group of people, chattering and laughing, one of them a fair-haired, weather-tanned outlaw with huge forearms and a battle-hardened look in his eye.
“That is Adam McCool,” said Fenella. “He and I fell in love and together we had a daughter named Echo. Adam was of your race, not mine, so our daughter was a dryad of the half blood.”
The vision swept across the clearing to a campfire. On an area of rough ground nearby, Jason saw a slightly younger version of Fenella. With her was a woman whose thick, hay-coloured hair cascaded all the way down her back. She wore a green linen dress, her limbs mottled with brown markings like Fenella’s. Together they were teaching fighting moves to a flame-haired girl aged nine or ten, her arms and legs marked in the same way. The Otherworld version of Fenella placed a hand on Jason’s shoulder.
“The woman is my sister, Sibbie,” she said. “And the girl is Echo, my daughter. Dryads possess great strength and fighting prowess, and Echo learned many skills from us.”
Jason’s eyes remained fixed on the Nevek Barrier, but the vision faded to nothing as Fenella continued her story.
“It was a year later when the happy life in Barnisdale Forest came to an end. Adam roused his band and raised an army of followers to fight his dire enemy, Lord Hugo de Mortain. Echo was deemed too young for battle so remained in the forest, but the rest of us joined in the siege of Lord Hugo’s castle - a fortress known to many as Evil Hold. Sadly the assault was unsuccessful, and only my sister survived.”
Fenella waved the staff again and more images began. Jason saw Sibbie, her face grimy, her flaxen hair dishevelled, her hands chained to the wall of a dark dungeon. Jason had to look away, and Fenella made the vision disappear.
“Sibbie was captured during the siege,” she said, her voice quiet and soft. “Unbeknown to her at the time, she was with child. Lord Hugo’s first thought was to put her to death without delay - but when her condition was discovered he devised a more evil scheme. He kept Sibbie in the dungeon until the baby was born. She named the girl Rowanna, but their time together would be short. When Rowanna was still a babe the lord sold her to a childless couple, travellers who took her to Ireland. This broke Sibbie’s heart, the pain far greater than any instrument of torture could inflict. Then, a week after Rowanna was sold, poor Sibbie was hanged in the castle courtyard.”
Jason was staring at Fenella now, seeing the tears in her eyes, the pained look on her face.
“I don’t think I like this story,” he said, a trace of a tremor in his voice.
Neither of them spoke for a few moments, the crash of the wavelets the only sound. Eventually Jason broke the silence.
“But couldn’t the girl have saved her – Echo, your daughter?”
Fenella shook her head. “Sibbie had the dryad gift of scrying, an ability to glimpse snatches of the future. She saw a vision, warning that Echo would face certain death were she to attempt a rescue. With help from a friend on the outside, Sibbie sent a message to Echo, begging her not to raid the heavily guarded stronghold. But now I must tell you Echo’s story.”
Jason’s eyes widened as more images began. He saw Echo, now aged eleven or twelve, running across a narrow bridge over a ravine.
“As an orphan she continued her life as an outlaw,” said Fenella, her eyes gleaming with pride. “Her exploits were legendary. She freed slaves, and stole tax money from the lord to return to the poor. She left Barnisdale and headed north, to another forest controlled by Lord Hugo. But one day she was chased by Wulfric, an evil forester whose arrow tips were laced with lethal poison.”
The vision moved forward to the moment Echo climbed inside a hollow oak tree, scrambling into the hole and out of sight.
“She knew the poison could kill her,” said Fenella. “But if she hid in the hollow tree, in contact with living wood, she would eventually be saved by the dryad magic. Wulfric was not so lucky. He failed to find Echo so returned to Lord Hugo’s castle with a false story. Wulfric claimed to have shot Echo on the bridge, sending her falling into the gushing stream below, her body swept away, never to be found. But Lord Hugo was not satisfied and refused to pay the reward. Wulfric became enraged and stabbed the lord with a poisoned arrow. Lord Hugo called for his guards who took Wulfric down in a hail of crossbow bolts. The lord died of the venom that day and his body was burned a week later on a funeral pyre - while the remains of Wulfric rotted in a gibbet above the castle gate.”
“Serves them both right, I guess,” said Jason. “But why are you telling me all this?”
Fenella tapped his left arm with her staff. “Roll up your sleeve.”
“But…”
“Hurry, time is scarce.”
Jason unfastened his cuff and pulled back his sleeve, showing her the two faint brown lines that encircled his forearm.
“Now raise your shirt,” Fenella demanded.
Jason did so, revealing three similar but larger marks below the left side of his ribcage.
“The doctors say they’re port wine stains,” he said. “In other words, birthmarks. But most kids think I’m a freak.”
“Those markings are beautiful, not ugly,” Fenella told him. “You are of dryad blood. The girl Rowanna grew to womanhood in Ireland and had children of her own. They too had children, and they too, and you are a descendent of Rowanna on your mother’s side.”
Jason’s mind was buzzing now.
“My mother’s family came over from Ireland,” he recalled. “When she was little. But I can’t be a dryad.”
“You are mainly human but part dryad,” Fenella explained. “A throwback. Have you never felt a connection with trees?”
“I guess I’m quite good at climbing them,” said Jason. “Except when they give way on me.” He paused. “Anyway, if I’m descended from Rowanna and she was your sister’s daughter, then you must be my great-great-great-great-aunt or whatever,”
“I am a relative of yours from many generations since,” said Fenella. “But what of your sister? She also has unusual marks, has she not?”
Jason’s throat tightened as a picture began to form in his mind; his sister aged fourteen, on a warm spring afternoon in their garden at home, not long before she was taken. He saw her long blonde hair, and blue-grey eyes, and she was wearing shorts and a sleeveless top. Lauren didn’t often like to wear shorts because she was conscious of the three brown marks
, like tiger stripes near the top of her left thigh.
“She too is a throwback,” said Fenella. “A part-dryad who discovered she had a special gift, once she blossomed from a girl into young womanhood.”
Jason nodded. Not long after her fourteenth birthday Lauren had developed an ability to find missing objects. Trips to the seaside became treasure hunts because Lauren would find coins, buried in the sand, without needing a metal detector. She couldn’t explain her gift, except to say she saw an eerie red glow above the places where the items were hidden.
“That is the reason she was taken,” Fenella told him.
Jason’s stomach was in knots. “You mean…she was snatched to help her kidnappers find coins in the sand?”
“Her captors do not take her to beaches,” said Fenella. “There are far more valuable treasures, lying hidden beneath the ground.”
“So she’s definitely…she’s definitely alive?” Jason said, almost choking.
“She has been held captive for three years,” said Fenella. “But your sister lives.”
A chill went through Jason. He needed to be sure.
“And you know where she is?”
“I do,” said Fenella. “But first I am in need of your help. Your fate is to die today, but destiny can be altered.”
She pointed out to sea. A winding pathway began to form, supported on arches like a viaduct, spanning the distance between the shoreline and the horizon.
“It is the Pathway Through the Sky,” she explained. “My duty is to take you along there to the Land of Souls.”
“This is too weird,” said Jason, his breath catching in his throat. “If we’re at the place where dead people go, how come we’re the only ones here? Where’s everyone else? Where’s Mum?”
“As I told you, we are merely at a portal,” Fenella replied. “Only the chosen few are selected to be helpers of the goddess, and today I am on duty alone. Your mother is with all the others, beyond the pathway. I could reunite the two of you, if you wish, but the goddess trusts me - and on this occasion I may be persuaded to deceive her.”
Jason found himself gazing into Fenella’s deep, honey-brown eyes.
“Deceive her?” he said. “Look, just tell me straight. Am I going to die, or will I live?”
“I will show you a glimpse of the near future,” said Fenella. “Then I will reveal the task I have for you.”
She returned her attention to the Nevek Barrier, waving the staff again. “I must now continue the story of my daughter Echo.”
Jason stared as more images formed. This time the colours were washed out, like an old black-and-white film. He saw a clearing in a wood and a man in a hard hat, using a chainsaw to cut the branches of an ancient oak tree. Another man was helping him, an old pick up truck parked nearby.
“Where is this?” Jason asked.
“A place called Witch Wood, not far from the town where you live,” Fenella replied. “These men have travelled to the area, paid by the owner of the wood to fell some of the trees.”
Jason watched as the men removed the boughs and branches until only the tall thick trunk remained standing, cut cleanly across at the top. One man was up a ladder and he remarked that the trunk was hollow, and filled with dead leaves. He passed the chainsaw to his friend, tied a rope around the top of the trunk then climbed down his ladder. The other man revved up the saw and began to slice through the base of the trunk.
“As I told you, this is the near future,” said Fenella. “On the third of June this year, at exactly 2.23 in the afternoon, the trunk will hit the ground.”
“The third of June,” said Jason. “That’s only five days away!”
The man finished his sawing. His friend pulled hard on the rope and the trunk fell to the ground with an ear-splitting crash. With his machine still buzzing, the saw-man stepped up to the middle of the fallen trunk, ready to slice it in two. Fenella waved the staff again, pausing the action.
“Should that man cut the trunk, he will smite poor Echo in half,” she said, her voice faltering. “No woodland magic could save her then.”
Fenella moved the staff left to right, winding back to the present and the frozen image of Jason, lying motionless in his hospital bed.
“Were I to send you back, to return to full health, then you could save Echo,” she said. “Be at Witch Wood, at 2.23 on the afternoon of the third June, to stop those men. Then help Echo from the trunk and give her food and water. Disguise her dryad markings, for your world is not safe for anyone unusual. Become her guide – everything will be confusing and frightening to her. Tell her I have sent you, take her to safety and she will help you find and rescue your sister.”
“How’s she going to do that?”
“In her own time Echo had a dryad gift,” said Fenella. “She was able to see into the past, though her power was weak and ill-formed. After her long sleep her gift will be far greater.”
“I can’t tell the men to stop sawing the trunk,” Jason pointed out. “They’re not going to listen to me – I’m just a kid.”
“It is for you to think of a plan,” Fenella said.
“This is crazy,” said Jason, his voice high with protest. “Why don’t you just tell me how to find Lauren?”
“I need to be certain of your loyalty,” said Fenella. “You must save my daughter – then she will show you. But there is something you should keep in mind. During my time here I have met many departed souls, and from them I have learned the modern way of speaking. It is different for Echo - her language will sound strange and old-fashioned to you. ”
“Okay I’ll promise to rescue her,” said Jason. “But only if you tell me where Lauren is.”
“Beware your sister’s captors,” said Fenella. “They are the same people who killed your mother - and they are evil and dangerous. Most of all, beware the crooked officer, but look to the fleur-de-lis for the allies you surely need.”
“The fleur-de-lis?” said Jason. “What are you talking about?”
“Without the minstrels you will not succeed,” Fenella went on. “They will need your help in equal measure. Surely it is better to help others, as well as yourself and your sister?”
Jason’s mind was reeling. “Look, you’re doing my head in. Why don’t you just…?”
Fenella pointed along the beach. In the distance, a single tongue of flame licked up. Another appeared at its side a moment later. Jason looked in the opposite direction, where a continuous line of fire took shape.
“The Flames of Death come for you,” said Fenella. “They will drive you to the pathway, though I have cast a spell. Return through the Nevek Barrier and you will go back to your life on Earth.”
Jason glanced up to see the clifftops crowned with fire. He gulped in disbelief as the crackling flames crept down the cliff face. Fenella held the staff aloft, closed her eyes and muttered something to herself. The colour began to fade from her flesh, and her body shimmered and stretched. There came a sudden flash of smoke, causing Jason to cover his eyes and turn away. When he looked again Fenella had disappeared, leaving nothing but two coils of mist where her feet had been.
“Hey!” he cried. “Come back!”
The hissing yellow flames reached the foot of the cliffs then seeped forward. Next second the whole beach was ablaze except for a narrow corridor of sand, stretching from the two rocks to the shore and pathway. Shielding his face from the scorching heat, Jason turned towards the Nevek Barrier to see the frozen image of himself in the hospital bed. He was only twelve, too young to die. He had to return to his life, he had to find Lauren. In a panic he leapt at the Nevek Barrier, the air fluxing as he passed between the two rocks. Now he was thrashing under water again, the vortex buffeting him around and around. An instant later he was free, whirling through the stars towards the solar system. The Earth loomed towards him until he could see Europe and Britain. He entered a mass of swirling clouds and emerged at the other side, plummeting down towards the town, a maze of miniature buildings. The h
ospital grew closer then Jason was engulfed by a blast of quivering light as reality returned.
“Improving heart rate,” a shadowy voice said.
“Condition stabilising,” said another. “He’s coming back to us.”
The voices became clearer; the doctor, the nurses, Pauline Hewless - but no family or friends were waiting for Jason as his eyes shot suddenly open…
– CHAPTER THREE –
Rebirth
“You’re quite a puzzle, young man,” the doctor said, once Jason had regained full consciousness. “I’m astonished at the speed of your recovery.”
Not only was Jason out of his coma but the brain injury and other symptoms had completely cleared up. He hadn’t broken any bones in his fall from the tree, yet even his cuts and bruises had miraculously healed.
“But we’ll keep you in hospital for at least a couple of days,” the doctor added. “For observation.”
Jason tried to tell the hospital staff about his mystical experience at the Edge of Time, though he wasn’t surprised when no one believed him.
“It was all an hallucination,” the doctor explained. “Caused by the drugs we injected into you – and a shortage of oxygen to the brain.”
“I know it was real,” Jason insisted, but it was no use.
Shortly afterwards he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep and next morning he could think only of Lauren. He called the police from his hospital bed, trying his best to convince them his sister was still alive – because Fenella had told him so. But the police dismissed the whole thing as a hoax, a child’s prank, and warned him not to call again. This only added to Jason’s frustration because, although he was desperate to find Lauren, he knew he couldn’t without first rescuing Echo McCool. The girl-dryad needed to be saved from the hollow tree in Witch Wood and, according to Fenella, was the one with all the answers. Jason thought of doing a runner from the hospital so he could go to the wood himself, but escape was impossible. The children’s ward always had a nurse on duty, the door had a security lock and there were CCTV cameras in the corridor.
Echo McCool, Outlaw Through Time Page 2