“I am ready.”
Jason took a step backwards, pulling at the rope again until it went taut. Then he turned, putting the rope over one shoulder. He walked away with his back to the trunk, heaving with all this strength. The rope remained tight until, suddenly, he felt it slacken.
“I am moving!” the girl cried.
Jason continued walking, yanking hard, each step faster than the last. Suddenly there came a scream and a loud thud. He dropped the rope and spun around to see a dishevelled girl in a ragged brown dress, lying on the ground at full stretch, her boots touching the trunk, her hands still gripping the rope. Jason ran up to her.
“Are you okay?”
She was about his age, her arms and legs dappled with markings similar to Fenella’s. Her eyes were closed, her hair long and flame-red, her face and shoulders stained with algae. She groaned, eyes still tight shut, her mouth falling open to draw in a deep breath of fresh air.
“The light,” she said, wincing. “’Tis too bright.”
Jason knelt down, pulling at the slip-knot, loosening the loop so it was free of her wrists. He slid the rope over her hands and threw it to one side.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I know not okay.”
“It means all right,” said Jason. “Are you hurt?”
“Nay,” the girl replied. “But I must wait for my strength to return. What is the noise?”
Jason cast a quick glance across at the trees beyond the clearing. The two men were nowhere in sight and he could still hear the saw whirring away. Should he explain about the chainsaw? He tried to imagine what it would be like for the girl, sleeping for hundreds of years then waking up in a strange, bewildering future. Maybe it was better not to explain too much at the moment.
She opened one eye. “Art thou mine enemy?”
“Your enemy?” said Jason. “How can I be? I just helped you out of the trunk, didn’t I?”
Now both her enormous brown eyes were open and she began to blink rapidly, growing used to the light. “Because there is a price on mine head. ’Twas Wulfric the forester who chased me, and shot me with a poisoned arrow - so I did hide in this tree.”
That’s right, Jason thought. That’s exactly what Fenella told me!
But he decided not to upset the girl by mentioning Fenella – not yet, anyway.
“I’m your friend, not your enemy,” he told her. “And don’t worry, Wulfric can’t hurt you anymore. Listen we don’t have much time. Can you get up?”
“Wilt thou help me?”
Jason reached down and took hold of her grubby hands. She groaned as he heaved her up. She wobbled and tottered forwards, flinging her arms around his neck. Jason wasn’t used to hugging girls, especially one like this who smelled of dry sweat and wet leaves.
“Here,” he said, moving her towards the trunk.
He let go and retreated a step. Now she was standing with her back against the trunk, inspecting the line of whitened skin on her upper arm.
“This is where Wulfric did shoot me,” she said. “But ’tis healed now. My body is free of the poison.” She looked down at her dress, putting a finger to the small split in the seam at one side. “The woodland magic has preserved my body, but my garment begins to rot.”
Jason picked up the carrier bag, shaking it. “No worries, I’ve got some new clothes for you in here.”
The girl’s gaze rested on the headlamps of the nearby pick up truck. “What is the big-eyed chariot?” Then she surveyed the clearing. “Fie, the forest does seem different.” Her inquisitive eyes travelled up and down Jason, fascinated by his clothing and his watch. “Thy garments and bracelet are most strange. Who art thou?”
“My name’s Jason,” he said. “Jason Fleeting.”
“And I am Echo McCool.”
They shook hands then Jason reached inside the bag, taking out a bottle of mineral water and unscrewing the lid.
“You must be thirsty.”
She eyed the bottle with suspicion.
Jason laughed. “It’s not poison!” He pointed to the label. “See what it says? Mineral water.”
“I cannot read,” said Echo. “But if it were poison I could tell.”
She took the bottle, sniffed the top then grinned. With three loud gulps she drank down its entire contents. By now Jason had unwrapped one pack of sandwiches and he handed them over. Again she sniffed them, then she stuffed them one after the other into her mouth, chewing and swallowing like a hungry dog.
“Guess you haven’t eaten for a long time,” said Jason. “There’s more food in the bag, but right now we’ve got to get out of here.”
Echo shook one leg then the other, getting the blood back into circulation. Jason could only stare in amazement. With her battered boots and tattered dress, strange brown markings, wild red hair and huge hazel eyes, she was more like someone from a fantasy film than a real person.
“Methinks I am recovering swiftly,” she said. “But I do feel the Powers of Time, calling me.”
She clasped her hands then closed her eyes. For a second, Jason saw rapid movement behind her eyelids. A moment later she was staring at him again, her mouth falling open.
“Fie, my gift of gewita has changed,” she gasped. “’Tis all far clearer now. I did see the events of the recent past. There were two men in strange hats, and one of them carried a bladed machine. Never before have I seen such a gruesome device. He wished to slice the trunk in two, and I would have suffered the same fate. But thou didst come and lead the men away. Thou art my saviour!”
Jason remembered all Fenella had told him, about Echo’s ability to see glimpses of the past. But how had she managed to see all that, in no more than a second? Echo pushed herself away from the trunk, then turned and bent over to kiss it.
“I give thanks to the oak for preserving my body and spirit,” she said. She straightened herself, facing Jason once more. “And may I kiss thee, for saving my life and setting me free?”
“Er…no, you’re okay,” Jason said, feeling his cheeks go red. “Can you walk now?”
She nodded.
“You’ve got to follow me,” he told her. “Then you can have some more food.”
She took his hand and walked with halting steps as he guided her away from the sound of the saw, across to the opposite side of the clearing. They continued through the undergrowth, stopping when they arrived at the edge of the wood.
“The men won’t see us now,” said Jason, looking first at the trees then out across the oat field.
They sat down and he unpacked the last of the sandwiches. She ate them as quickly as before. Then he passed her the apples and she devoured them both, even eating the cores. Jason drank half the remaining bottle of water and Echo finished the rest. Suddenly the sawing stopped.
“We’d better get going,” Jason said.
Moments later he heard loud voices, swearing and cursing from somewhere among the trees.
“WHERE IS THAT KID?” yelled Steve.
“Tricking us with chocolate coins!” cried Phil. “I’LL KILL HIM!”
Echo’s brow furrowed into a deep frown. “’Tis the enemy. We must fight them!”
“No,” said Jason. “We’ve got to escape. This way.”
He grabbed the carrier bag and began to crawl away into the oats. Echo got to her hands and knees and followed. They went in single file, only resting when they’d gone fifty metres into the field.
So far so good, Jason thought as he flattened an area in the oats for them to sit in.
“Why wouldst thou not let me attack the enemy?” Echo asked him.
“We’ve got much bigger enemies to fight,” Jason replied breathlessly.
“Who dost thou mean?”
“The people who killed my mum,” he said. “They’ve got my sister too - and you’re going to help me find her.”
– CHAPTER FOUR –
The Night-Hawks
Jason and Echo knelt up in their hiding place, peeping out acros
s the oats towards Witch Wood. The angry shouts of the men grew fainter.
“Do they seek Lord Hugo’s reward?” Echo asked.
Jason shook his head. “Those men don’t even know about you – and we escaped before they spotted us.”
He waited a few more moments before the chainsaw started up again from deep within the wood.
“They must’ve gone back to the clearing,” he said. “To finish sawing the trunk. That means they’ve given up looking for me. They don’t know we’re here.”
“But I cannot understand how thou didst find me in the tree trunk,” Echo said.
She and Jason sat cross-legged, facing one another in the flattened area of oats.
“It’s a long story,” Jason began. “A really long story.”
He was desperate to discover more about her ability to see into the past, and to ask her to help find Lauren. But it wasn’t fair to ask straightaway. Echo was in a strange new world and everything needed to be explained to her. Jason wondered whether she’d believe him, if he told her about his meeting with Fenella at the Edge of Time. He decided to convince her by talking about things only Fenella and Echo could’ve known.
“There were dryads on the Earth hundreds of years ago,” he began. “And your mother was one of the last ones. I know about your father too – Adam McCool, the outlaw.”
“Fie!” she said, eyes widening. “Thou art wise about all these things, yet I have only just met thee.”
“Your parents and their friends were in a siege,” Jason went on. “They were all killed – except your mother’s sister.”
Echo’s look of curiosity was replaced by one of intense sorrow. “’Tis true, and I was unable to save Sibbie. Forever I will carry that burden.”
“Then one day a forester shot you with a poison arrow,” Jason continued. “And you hid inside the hollow tree. But what you don’t know is you slept for hundreds of years.”
Echo stared in bewilderment. “Nay, ’tis not possible.” She pushed herself up, craning her neck above the oats to survey the field. “Yet…much of Wicca Forest is gone.”
“You won’t believe everything that’s happened since you climbed into that tree,” said Jason. “There’s been battles and wars, and all kinds of discoveries and inventions, and loads of different kings and queens. One queen was really famous - her name was Victoria. At that time they had the Industrial Revolution when they invented machinery and engines, and things like steam trains.”
Echo sat back down again. “I know not steam trains.”
“Huge metal things that whistle and blow out smoke,” Jason explained. “They run on tracks and pull carriages with people in. We have different kinds of trains now, and they can go at over a hundred miles an hour. In the twentieth century they invented machines for people to fly in – and bombs that could kill everyone for miles around. There were two world wars, and…”
“Thou dost make my head spin,” Echo interrupted. “’Tis all very difficult to believe, but with my stronger gift of gewita I may see the truth of thy words.”
“A gewita?” said Jason. “Is that what you call it when you look into the past?”
Echo nodded. She clasped her hands on her lap and closed her eyes. As before, Jason saw flickering behind her eyelids, her face twitching, but again for no more than an instant. Her eyes shot open and she drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
“Fie, ’tis all true!”
“Hang on,” said Jason. “What did you see? It only took a second.”
“A gewita itself may last a long time,” said Echo. “But in the world of the present, not a moment passes. First I did see Wulfric and Lord Hugo in a fight, and both men did die. The lord’s body was burned, and Wulfric perished in a gibbet. Then I saw many kings and queens, and metal weapons of death, and huge iron birds that flew as thou didst say. There was even a man like a beekeeper, who did walk on a dusty surface among the stars.”
Jason realised she meant the moon landings. He’d seen films and photos of the astronauts on the internet.
“The internet!” he said. “That’s another thing you need to know about. We’ve got all kinds of gismos these days - computers, televisions, DVDs, and mobile phones that let you talk to anyone, anywhere.”
“Such things I also did see,” said Echo. “And more devices like the big-eyed chariot in the wood, though these did speed along roads with no horses to pull them.”
“You mean cars,” said Jason. He showed her his watch. “And look at this – it tells the time.” He paused. “But all this must be really scary for you. There’s no need to be frightened, though. I’m here to guide you.”
“Nothing affrights me,” Echo said firmly. “But ’tis good to have thee as my guide, for there is not a way back for me. I am trapped in thy time.”
“I’m sure you’ll get used to it in the twenty-first century,” said Jason. “But right now I’ll explain where I come into all this. I was climbing a tree when a branch gave way. My head hit the ground and I ended up in hospital. That’s a place where sick people go to get better – except I didn’t at first. I was dying and I left my real body, travelling all the way through the stars to somewhere called the Beach at the Edge of Time.”
“Never have I heard of such a place.”
“That’s because you’ve never died,” said Jason. “You must’ve come close when you were sleeping in the hollow tree - but I guess you were frozen, never quite dead. Anyway when I got to the beach I met Fenella, your mother.”
The colour drained from Echo’s face. “But my mother is dead.”
“I guess it was her spirit I met,” said Jason. “She’s got a job, helping some goddess called Tenkys. Your mother showed me the future and told me you’d wake up today, when the tree was cut down. The man would’ve sliced you in two but Fenella sent me to save you.”
“My people did believe in a goddess named Tenkys,” said Echo. She gazed up at the sky with soulful eyes. “So, all the while my mother does look down upon me from this Beach at the Edge of Time.”
“Guess she does,” said Jason. “But I don’t think she can help you, any more than she has already.”
Echo closed her eyes, hiding her face in her hands. Jason could tell she was doing another gewita, and again it lasted only a moment. She looked up, almost in tears.
“’Tis true,” she gasped. “I did see thee falling from a tree and hurting thine head. Also I did see a beach, where thou didst speak with my mother. She showed thee all the events of today.”
“Except I changed the way things were going to happen,” said Jason. “By saving you. She told me about Sibbie too.”
Echo nodded slowly. “I did also see that part, but I knew not that Sibbie had a child.”
“She had a baby girl while she was locked in that dungeon,” said Jason. “The baby was called Rowanna, and the lord sold her to some people who took her to Ireland.”
He rolled back his sleeve, showing Echo the two dryad markings on his forearm. Then he lifted his sweatshirt and tee-shirt, revealing the three faint brown lines below his ribcage.
“I’m descended from Rowanna, your mother told me. A throwback. I’m of dryad blood, like you.”
“Then we are cousins?” said Echo.
“Sort of,” said Jason. “Distant cousins.”
Echo reached out and touched both sets of markings, lightly with her fingertips.
“They are dryad for certain.”
“Lauren’s the same,” said Jason, lowering his shirt as she drew her hand away. “That’s my sister. She’s got three marks at the top of her leg. But I haven’t seen her in three years. Some people took her, the same people who murdered my mum. Fenella said you could find out who did it - then you’ll help me rescue Lauren.”
“Thou savest my life,” said Echo. “For certain I will help thee. As thou art of dryad blood, it may be possible to share my gift of gewita.”
“Share it? You mean I could see the same things as you?”
Echo reached out and took his hand.
“Powers of Time,” she said. “Please show us all that Jason must see.”
An eerie silence fell as a sudden surge of power shot up Jason’s arm. He heard a rushing noise in his ears, a million whispered voices struggling to be heard. His surroundings pulsed with white light then exploded in a dazzling flash. His eyes snapped shut, tiny wisps of silver bursting out of the darkness. His stomach dropped, as if he’d stepped into an empty lift shaft. He felt a lurch of fear and, in a panic, drew his hand away from Echo’s. As he opened his eyes the swirling sensation stopped and the hiding place among the oats came back into focus. Jason shivered.
“What happened?” he gasped, staring wildly around.
“Thou lettest go too quickly,” Echo told him. “Art thou afraid?”
He swallowed. “’Course not.”
“It did seem to be working,” said Echo. “Let us try again.”
Jason took her hand and they both closed their eyes. He saw a whirlwind of coloured lights and felt a tingling sensation, spreading from the base of his spine to his toes and fingertips. When his eyes opened again, he and Echo were sitting in a different place.
“Do not let go yet,” she whispered.
They were in near-darkness beneath a soft three-quarter moon. Jason blinked and looked all around, trying to work out where he was. He seemed to be sitting on damp earth, the rough surface stretching away in every direction. Only when he got his night vision did he realise they were in a ploughed field.
“How…how did we get here?”
“We are like phantoms,” said Echo. “I know not where we are, but we are now in the world of the past. Our earthly bodies remain in the oat field, where not one moment will pass.”
“The past?” said Jason. “How cool is that! But how long ago is it?”
“I cannot say,” Echo replied. “Now thou hast held on long enough.” She pulled her hand away from his. “Let us stand.”
Echo McCool, Outlaw Through Time Page 4