‘As crazy as a really, really crazy person,’ Wilfred muttered clambering back to his feet.
‘Just one night,’ Wolfgang said, ‘that is all that we ask.’
‘I said no and I mean no.’ The little man stomped his foot. ‘No, No, NOOOO.’
He threw his hands out on the last no and a wall of flame raced towards us. We threw ourselves at our horses and galloped them towards the edge of the forest. I held Scruffy firmly tucked into the crook of my left elbow until we reached the trees. I was really hoping the flames would stop at the edge of the forest. They did. An impenetrable line of fire stretched as far as we could see.
‘Can we…?’ Aethan looked at Wolfgang.
‘Went straight through my shield.’
‘So that’s a no. What about Isadora?’ He turned to look at me and I slumped down in my saddle. I didn’t feel like taking my untrained skills up against that madman.
‘I don’t know how she would go up against human magic, and I don’t think we can afford to waste more time.’
‘You’re right.’ He turned Adare away from the flames. ‘We must ride hard if we are to make it through.’
After the first few miles the foliage thinned a little, enabling us to go faster than a walk. We alternatively trotted and walked our mounts, trying to keep them rested as well as make the best time we could.
All too soon the sun’s rays were overhead and then descending from the other side. Conversation became halted and then stopped all together as long shadows stretched out beside us.
‘How far?’ Isla’s voice was a rough whisper.
‘Not long,’ Aethan said. But worry was evident in his voice.
The light shifted from yellow to orange as the sun started to set and we all pushed out mounts from a trot to a canter.
‘Aethan,’ Luke said.
‘Can you do anything Wolfgang?’ Aethan’s voice was strung tight with tension.
‘With ghouls?’ Wolfgang shook his head.
‘Right,’ Aethan said. ‘Listen up everyone, our presence will stimulate them. They will come out of the ground where we have ridden, so spread out and don’t ride behind each other.’
As we stretched out into a long line, Aethan moved his mount over to Ebony and lifted her onto the saddle in front of him. I managed to control my stab of envy.
Samuel shot him a look but didn’t say anything. He was no doubt wondering why Aethan didn’t trust him to look after her. But if she had been speaking to me the way she had to him for the last few days, I couldn’t have been trusted not to push her into the path of a ghoul.
I knew the exact moment that the sun disappeared; firstly, because the lingering remnants of the sun’s rays that were filtering through the trees disappeared. Secondly, because Aethan leant over Ebony, gripping the reins in his hands and yelled, ‘Run.’ And thirdly, I knew it because as soon as the light blinked out, moans started resonating around us.
I pulled Scruffy around in front of me and kicked my heels into Lily’s sides. She didn’t need any encouragement to run.
Samuel, now leading the hagon and the packhorse, appeared by my side. ‘Spread out further,’ he said, spearing away to my right.
I watched in horrified fascination as an ink-black shadow slithered out of the ground where Samuel’s horse had passed. It was the shape of a person, seemingly made from smoke, but two dimensional – like a cardboard cut-out. And it didn’t walk; it floated towards me.
‘Isadora,’ Samuel yelled, breaking me from my fascinated observation of my impending death.
I hadn’t realised that I had slowed Lily to a walk. I kicked my heels into her again and she leapt away from the ghoul, racing to catch up to the rest of the line. Ghouls were rising as far as I could see.
I threw up an arm in reflex as a ghoul appeared right next to me. A shield formed and it drifted in the other direction. I could see Aethan with Ebony, and Wilfred and Isla on either side.
A ghoul appeared in between Samuel and me, reaching out an arm towards Lily. I yelled in anger and flicked my hand at it, shattering the ghoul into a million stinging insects. They swarmed around the two of us as we raced through the trees.
‘Whizbang,’ I screeched as the insects banged into me, tearing tiny chunks from my neck and arms. I could hear Samuel’s cries of pain, as he crouched low over his mount’s neck.
They harassed us for a minute more while we slapped at them and swore, and then they disappeared.
‘Please don’t do that again,’ Samuel grunted from beside me, his upper body covered with spots of blood.
‘I promise.’ I was pretty sure I looked just as gruesome.
‘Nearly there,’ Aethan called out.
I squinted into the distance and saw that he was right. Ahead the darkness of the trees stopped and only the night’s presence held sway.
I looked across at the rest of them, a relieved grin starting to play on my lips. And then Luke let out a yell. One minute he was riding, and the next he was falling, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
His horse rode on without him, leaving him lying on the ground with a ghoul hovering over him as it sucked out his soul.
I let out a sob as I rode. There was nothing we could do but I still felt like a traitor as we left him behind. And then we were bursting from the tree line, running into the night, away from the ghouls, away from Thorn Forest and away from Luke’s body.
***
We pulled up beyond the tree line. None of us speaking, all of us staring at the ghouls standing at the edge of the forest.
‘Can they…,’ Isla’s voice trailed off as she let out a sob.
‘No. They can’t leave the forest.‘ Aethan’s voice was flat.
‘Shall we camp here?’ I asked. I didn’t want to stay that close to the forest, but Luke’s body was there.
‘The horses need resting,’ Wolfgang said. His mare’s head was down and her sides bellowed as she tried to regain her breath. ‘And then tomorrow we can….’
Nobody wanted to say it. Because that would make it real.
We didn’t speak as we set up camp. Brent handed out the food and we ate in silence, all of us no doubt trying not to think about the one thing we couldn’t stop thinking about.
All, that is, except Ebony. She kept up her normal verbal abuse of Samuel, her trill voice intruding on our sorrow as she bullied and bossed him around.
When she was finally in her tent he came to where we sat and bowed low. ‘I am deeply sorry for your loss,’ he said. ‘I did not know him well, but what I knew of him was good.’
‘Thank you,’ Aethan said, his voice thick with sorrow.
Wilfred reached out and squeezed Samuel’s arm as he headed back to his position by Ebony’s tent.
‘I’ll take first watch,’ I said, placing Scruffy on the ground and standing. ‘Unless someone else wants to.’
‘I’ll join you.’ Wilfred stood and checked himself over for his weapons.
We walked a few hundred metres from the camp and stared off into the dark. The forest had opened up onto a plain. It was too dark to see how far it stretched. With the forest behind us we only had to watch the front. There wouldn’t be anyone attacking from the rear tonight.
‘One hell of a day,’ Wilfred said.
I reached out and put an arm around his waist, pulling him into a quick hug. Luke and he had been close.
‘I didn’t even see what happened,’ he said. ‘I didn’t realise he was gone till the end.’
I held onto his big hand. ‘You couldn’t have saved him. The ghoul came up under his horse. He didn’t even know it happened.’
He took a deep breath and let out a sigh, wiping at his eyes with the back of his free arm. I stared straight ahead and pretended I hadn’t noticed.
‘We should spread out,’ he said. ‘In case more badgers turn up.’
I snorted. ‘He was a cutie wasn’t he?’
He stared at me for a second. ‘You were serious about the badger?’
/> ‘Of course. It was still there when I left. I saw him.’
‘Nothing there babe.’ He tapped his head and then twirled his finger around indicating I was crazy.
‘But I saw its eyes.’ My voice trailed off weakly remembering what I’d seen. Yellow eyes staring at me. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself. I was so not reading that book tonight.
My watch passed uneventfully and I went to wake Isla. She hugged me and then disappeared into the dark.
I cuddled up with Scruffy, feeling relieved and guilty that we had made it through the day alive. It could have happened to any of us. But it shouldn’t have happened at all.
The sound of digging woke me the next morning. The sun was just peeping over the horizon when I crawled out of my tent. A quick peep at the forest showed the line of ghouls had disappeared. In the early light I could see that the plain extended to the horizon. There would be nowhere to hide today.
Aethan, Brent and Wilfred were digging a hole. I took a deep breath and corrected myself. They were digging a grave. A grave for Luke.
I lit the fire and got the coffee brewing while Isla sorted out the food. When they had finished digging they washed their hands and then drank their coffee, staring wordlessly into the fire.
How many times had they done this? How many times had they buried a friend? The answer to that was too many. Even one friend was too many.
After we had eaten, they went to collect Luke’s body, returning a few minutes later with him hanging limply between them.
They placed him on the ground and Isla and I washed his face and his hands and feet in what Wolfgang had told me was the faery tradition. We brushed his hair and straightened his clothes, and then we kissed him on his forehead – for his mother, his cheeks – for the rest of his family, and his lips – for his lover. Our falling tears mingled with each other’s as we rose, backing away to let the men place him in his resting place.
Faery funerals were a short affair and as soon as Luke was positioned within the hole, the dirt was replaced where it had come from until a mound rose over him. Then we packed our things up and continued on our way.
Initially I thought it was Luke’s death affecting me, but as the day progressed I realised it wasn’t that. Something else felt wrong. I rose up in my stirrups and swivelled in my saddle, examining the plain as far as I could see. There was nothing there except grass and the occasional lonely shrub.
I shook myself. I was being silly. The last couple of days had been particularly stressful, you couldn’t blame me for being jumpy. But into the afternoon, more and more, I noticed the others doing the same thing.
‘Do you see anything?’ I asked Brent.
‘No, there’s nothing there.’ He pivoted his head again and then sank back into his saddle. ‘But I feel like something is watching me.’
That was the scary part about it. It did feel like something was watching, as opposed to someone. And it didn’t feel at all friendly.
The feeling continued to grow like a storm of ominousness on the horizon. Even the horses could feel it as they flicked their tails from side-to-side and whinnied nervously. There was something coming and it wasn’t going to be good.
‘No tents tonight,’ Aethan said when we finally dismounted. ‘Double watch and sleep ready to ride. The horses as well.’
I removed Lily’s saddle and brushed her thoroughly, going through the evening ritual of checking her hooves and legs. When I was sure she was healthy I put her feedbag on and then replaced her saddle. ‘Sorry girl,’ I said. ‘Boss’s orders.’
All I removed from the saddle bags was my blanket. There was coolness in the air that hadn’t been there the night before.
I drew second watch, so after dinner I curled up in a ball next to Isla and pulled my blanket over Scruffy and me.
‘What do you think it is?’ she whispered to me.
‘I don’t know.’ I was managing to resist the urge to pull my blanket over my head, put my thumb in my mouth and rock myself while I cried for my Mummy. Thinking about what it might be could shatter my delicate self-control.
I closed my eyes, but every little night noise had me snapping them open and staring wildly around. Eventually exhaustion took me and I managed to sleep between my mini panic attacks.
Isla’s gasp woke me. I rolled towards her and opened my eyes. She lay flat on her back, staring straight up at the retcher whose tongue was in her mouth. I screamed and pulled my sword out from beside me, slashing through the retcher’s smoky body. And then Samuel was there, ripping the tongue from Isla’s throat.
She let out a scream and rolled to the side, vomiting onto the grass.
Aethan and Wilfred bounded into the circle as Samuel danced in front of the retcher, his blade twirling so fast it was a blur. The creature let out a shrill cry and disappeared into the dark. We had a few seconds to breathe before the next attack came.
We spread out, facing into the dark. Isla grabbed her bow and sprang to her feet, nocking an arrow. Ebony crouched on the ground by Samuel’s feet. I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like she was crying.
A whirring sound came from our left and a shadow flicked by, barely illuminated in the moonlight.
‘Wolfgang,’ Aethan growled. ‘We need light.’
Wolfgang pointed at a nearby shrub and the plant burst into light. I squinted my eyes and stared out onto the plain and my heart tried to clamber out of my chest and run away.
Yellow eyes stared back. Many, many sets of yellow eyes.
‘Dark Sky,’ Isla said, ‘what are they?’
The whirring increased in volume as if the creature had turned and was coming back towards us. Suddenly, I knew at least what it was.
‘Get down,’ I yelled, throwing myself to the ground.
The snugalof dropped from the sky, its cruel wings held in front of its body in a cross. Brent ducked and rolled as the snugalof snapped its wings back out to the side.
It missed Brent’s neck by a hair. If he had responded to my yell one second later it would have been all-over-red-rover.
While most of my brain ran around inside my head shrieking in horror, a tiny, analytical portion thought, ‘Oh, so that’s how they cut people’s heads off.’
‘To the horses,’ Aethan yelled.
He was right. There were too many of whatever-the-fuck-they-were out there for us to fight. We had to outdistance them.
Isla fired off arrows at the creatures as we sprinted for our horses. Since Wolfgang lit the fire, they had kept their distance, but as they saw us mounting they lunged towards us, eating up the distance between us far too quickly.
Suddenly I wasn’t so sure we would be able to outrun them.
Lily let out a snort of fear and leapt forwards without my urging. I snuggled Scruffy into my chest and wrapped my arms to either side as I lay low over Lily’s neck. I wasn’t keen on having my head hacked off by an overzealous snugalof.
A glance over my shoulder showed the yellow eyes dropping back a little, but with their eight legs they were able to maintain their pace with ease. Long tails stood up in the air above them, and hard beaks clacked open and closed.
I recognised the creatures from Cedric’s book. Yaffas. If they caught us, those beaks would hack off our limbs.
Whirring came from two different directions.
‘Down,’ Aethan yelled.
Hugging Scruffy to my chest, I rolled to the side as the snugalofs dived. Sharp pain lanced as the tip of a wing sliced into my back. A quick feel with my fingers showed me it was just a shallow wound – this time.
‘What are they? What are they?’ Ebony shrieked.
‘Snugalofs,’ I yelled. ‘Keep down if you like your head where it is.’
I had to give her credit, for all her hysteria she urged her hagon on with her knees and kept as low as she could.
A low yipping started to our right, growing in volume as more and more voices joined in.
‘This way.’ Samuel urged his mount to the front
and then veered left.
With no better plan, we all followed.
The next time a snugalof attacked I rolled and, at the same time, stuck my sword above my body. Metal clanged on metal as my sword met its wings, but the animal let out a shriek and pivoted to the side. I heard the faint sound of its body smacking into the ground. Hopefully that was the last we’d see of that one.
The yipping off to our right got louder. Another quick glance over my shoulder showed the yaffa keeping pace. Snugalofs were lining up to divebomb us. We were so screwed.
Isla let out a yell and rapidly fired arrows to our right. I’d expected the yippers to be small and doglike. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Think elephants crossed with baboons and you’d almost have it. If Cedric were correct, I was seeing my first egibany.
Running on two legs they raced towards us, their long trunks holding huge rocks. The lead one swung back its trunk and hurled its rock high into the sky. I lost sight of it in the dark but I knew it was heading our way.
‘Izzy,’ Wolfgang yelled.
‘Got it.’ I threw my arms up, believing that somehow my magic would stop the rock. For once, I wasn’t disappointed. There was a loud thud and then the rock exploded, shattering into a million pieces of shrapnel. My shield protected us, but the snugalofs weren’t so lucky.
Two of them screamed and plummeted from the air, their bodies limp before they contacted the ground.
‘Two snugalofs with one stone.’ Wilfred had a huge grin on his face.
I shook my head at my berserker friend and turned just in time to see Wolfgang hurling fireballs at the egibanies. A few more managed to throw their rocks before they were struck by the fiery tornados that raced amongst them.
I deflected my shield up and backwards, so that this time, the shrapnel flew towards the yaffas. I heard a couple of yelps and for a second the clacking beaks stilled, but then they were back, a few less in their pack, but just as determined to catch us.
The scent of burning flesh scoured my nostrils as the egibanies ran like living torches towards us. Most collapsed but a few kept coming, the urge to destroy us so great that even as the muscle was burnt off their bones, they attacked.
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