The Hermit of Lammas Wood

by Nathan Lowell

  Rebecca jumped out of her bedroll and stuffed her feet into the frost-rimed boots, sucking her breath through her teeth. “Lady, that’s cold,” she said, sitting back down on her bedroll and pulling her jacket around her shoulders.

  Penny looked at her with a smile curling her lips. “You coulda held them over the fire for a bit. Woulda taken the worst of the chill out.”

  Rebecca looked at Penny, then at Tanyth, and then down at the small fire. She hung her head forward, bouncing it on her neck a couple of times. “Coulda, shoulda, woulda,” she said. “Next time.”

  “Next time take ’em to bed with ya and you won’t hafta,” Tanyth said.

  “That, too,” Rebecca said, not looking up.

  The water in the small pot began to simmer against the thin metal and soon bubbled in a full boil. Penny tossed a handful of tea into it and pulled it back from the fire to steep.

  Tanyth dug in her pack and pulled out a travel ration. “Oatmeal tomorrow mornin’,” she said.

  Penny glanced at her. “You brought oatmeal?”

  Tanyth nodded. “I always bring oatmeal. Good food when nothin’ else is handy. Light to carry and stays with ya for a while. Besides...” She held up the travel ration. “Toss a couple of these in a pot next to the fire at night and we’ll have mush by morning. Easier than gnawing on ’em.” She smiled.

  “We’ll have rabbit stew tonight,” Rebecca said.

  Penny frowned at her. “We can’t be stoppin’ to hunt if them soldiers are comin’ after us.”

  “Who said anythin’ about stoppin’. I saw two easy shots yesterday afternoon but didn’t have my bow out. That’s not gonna happen today.” She held out her tin cup.

  Penny picked up the hot pot using a folded cloth from her pack and drizzled some into Rebecca’s cup, then into Tanyth’s, and finally her own. “We wanna make another pot?” she asked, staring into the lees.

  Tanyth dunked the hard travel ration into the steaming liquid and shook her head. “With troops half a day back, we prob’ly should get movin’.”

  Penny nodded and upended the soggy mass into the fire, sending up an alarming amount of steam that disappeared almost as quickly as it formed. She stirred the fire apart with a stick and let the twigs burn a bit more while she sipped her tea and chewed her ration.

  “What d’you suppose is out here?” Tanyth said. Her hands cupped around the mug for warmth and her eyes focused somewhere in the distant woods.

  “Besides trees, rocks, bears, and the odd trapper, you mean?” Penny asked.

  “Yeah. Rebecca’s father isn’t one to waste a lot of time chasin’ down a lost cow.”

  “So I’m a cow now?” Rebecca said, a half smile on her face.

  “Well, he wasn’t lookin’ for you. We know that because we know for certain he knew where you really were. He had to be usin’ that story to cover what he was really lookin’ for.”

  “Could he have been lookin’ for Gran?” Penny asked frowning into her own tea.

  “Can’t imagine what for,” Tanyth said.

  “Two things move my father,” Rebecca said, eyes half-lidded and her face hard. “Money and power. If he was lookin’ for something here in the woods, alone, it’s one of them two things.”

  “Well, he wasn’t exactly alone,” Penny said. “He always had a couple of his own men with him and, generally, a couple of troopers as well.”

  “Wonder if he told Robert what he was really looking for,” Tanyth mused.

  “Not likely, mum,” Rebecca said.

  “Whyzzat?” Tanyth asked looking across the fire.

  “Robert was surprised to find me at the inn. That wasn’t the surprise of a man who was busy lookin’ for something last year that wasn’t really me. He seemed pretty adamant that Father was looking for me. Why else would he want to keep us there until he arrived?”

  Penny said, “Maybe he didn’t want us findin’ whatever it is.”

  “And keepin’ us in town until Richard arrived was his way of seein’ that we didn’t?” Tanyth asked.

  Penny shrugged. “Possible.”

  Tanyth sighed. “Lots of stuff is possible. Wish I knew which was most probable.”

  Penny snorted. “You and me, too, mum.” She stirred herself and clambered to her feet, kicking dirt over their dying fire. “Time to move. If we can make it into the next valley without bein’ spotted, we’ll be home free.”

  “Whyzzat?” Tanyth asked.

  Penny just smiled and started rolling up her bedding. “You’ll see.”

  Chapter Twelve:

  Ole Man

  The trail led them deeper into the mountains as they climbed northwestward up a long north-south running ridge. The spruces were noticeably more stunted the farther the women hiked, until they broke out of the trees and stood at the foot of an unbroken ridge that ran straight up to the side of a massive snow-capped peak towering above them.

  “We’re not gonna climb that, I hope,” Rebecca said, her head tilted back for a good look at the snow-crusted rock.

  Penny laughed. “Not hardly. That’s Ole Man. You can see his snowy head for a hundred miles.”

  “Don’t look like a head much,” Rebecca said.

  “That’s ’cause we’re too close. By tomorrow you’ll be able to look back and see it better.”

  Tanyth scanned the ridge line and then glanced over her shoulder at the scrubby trees. “Seems kinda exposed up here.”

  Penny nodded and shaded her eyes, gazing back down along the path they’d taken. “Yeah. We won’t wanna stay here very long. Come on. Let’s get over the crest of the ridge.”

  They followed the edge of the tree line across the lichen-covered rocks. When they reached the top, the vista stopped Tanyth in her tracks.

  “Don’t stop here, mum,” Penny said. “Get off the ridge line and we’ll take a water break so you can gawk. It’s worth lookin’ at.”

  They stumbled along until Penny found a couple of boulders they could shelter behind. Dropping her pack on the ground, she pulled out her canteen. “Drink up. There’s a spring just down the trail a bit.” She fished out a ration bar and plunked herself on the ground, using her pack as backrest.

  Tanyth stood there for a moment drinking in the view before following suit, nudging Rebecca to do likewise.

  Below them a wide valley stretched between tall cliffs. Instead of the smoothly curved ground covered with trees that she expected to see, Tanyth saw a broken patchwork of pillars and mounds, most of naked rock but some with tufts of vegetation on them like unruly haircuts on skinny children. Here and there water gleamed between them. The valley curved up and around Ole Man to the north, disappearing around his flank. To the south it widened and flattened. The broken land seemed to go on for miles.

  “That’s Black Rock Canyon,” Penny said. “Once we get down there, nobody can follow.”

  “Is that a river?” Rebecca asked.

  “Yeah, Black Rock River.” Penny shrugged. “Not very imaginative but you’ll see why when we get down there.”

  “We have to cross that?” Rebecca’s gaze kept sweeping back and forth, her head turning one way then the other as she scanned.

  “Oh, yeah. It’s worse than it looks, but there’s cover all the way across.”

  “We won’t leave footprints?” Tanyth asked, squinting against the late morning sun to try to see better.

  “There’s a reason it’s called Black Rock Canyon, mum.”

  Tanyth grinned.

  “Most of the ground is covered in black rock scales and, when you get down in there, it’s practically a maze. It’s not someplace you go unless you know where you’re going.”

  “And you do?”

  “I do,” Penny said. She turned to Rebecca. “Keep your bow handy. Might find dinner on the way.”

  “Well, let’s get to it,” Tanyth said, taking a final pull from her canteen. “Sooner started, sooner done.”

  Penny chuckled and stood, pulling her pack up and onto her shoulders.
“Off we go then, the spring’s just down here and then we’ll climb down to the valley.”

  “Climb?” Tanyth asked.

  “Trail. Lotsa switchbacks. That’s the last bottleneck between here and Gran’s.” She strode off down the trail with Tanyth and Rebecca following. “It’s the only way up or down on this side of the canyon for ten, twenty miles in either direction.”

  “Does Robert know that?” Tanyth asked.

  Penny paused and looked back at Tanyth. “Maybe. That’s why we need to get down first. If he’s ahead of us, that’s where he’ll be.”

  Tanyth nodded.

  Penny started back down the trail. After a brief stop to fill their canteens from a clean, moss-lined spring, they began the long trek down the side of the valley.

  The sun rode high in the southern sky by the time they reached the valley floor. Penny called a halt. “Lunch break. They’re not here and we’ll hear them coming down the trail if they start.”

  Rebecca immediately stripped off her back and plunked down beside it on the ground, brushing away the dust-crusted sweat from her eyes. “That’s gonna be a pain to get back up. Tell me it’s not like that on the far side,” she said.

  Penny laughed. “No. The other climb’s up a smooth grade. There’s a campsite just on the other side of the valley. We’ll stop there tonight and cross the ridge tomorrow.”

  Tanyth placed her pack on the ground, pulling out another travel ration and her canteen. “These are gettin’ old,” she muttered.

  “I don’t usually notice when I’m out here by myself,” Penny said. “Funny you should mention it.”

  “Well, I didn’t get my oatmeal with my mornin’ tea,” Tanyth said. “I miss it.”

  “And not like Amanda didn’t serve big breakfasts,” Rebecca said. She eyed the ration bar for a moment as if debating whether or not to eat it, before she started chewing on it.

  “Oh, I’ve had worse,” Tanyth said. “Made worse, to be honest.”

  “We’ll have oatmeal for breakfast and something fresh for dinner, if we’ve any luck and Rebecca is as good with that bow as you say.”

  “That sounds like a challenge to me,” Rebecca said, a wide grin stretching her mouth.

  Penny shrugged. “We’ll see,” she said, then laughed.

  Their meager lunch soon behind them, they packed up and followed Penny out onto the valley floor. A line of black stones with regular sides stretched along the valley floor, some taller, some shorter but all with similar joins of five or six faces.

  “What made these?” Rebecca asked as they hiked along the line of curious stones.

  “Lady only knows,” Penny said. “They’re funny rock, though. Sometimes it’s reddish like it’s rusting. Places where it’s underwater all the time it’s almost always black. If you manage to break a chunk off, it’s black on the inside.”

  “Who cut ’em like this?” Rebecca asked.

  Penny laughed. “Lady only knows. They’ve been here as long as we have.”

  “Longer, I suspect,” Tanyth said. “This is old, old country here.”

  “Why’d you say that?” Penny asked.

  “This river musta carved this whole valley down. I bet you dig into them pillars and piles, you’ll find more of this black rock at the core. Dirt washed away faster than the rock.”

  Penny nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. There’s more’n one that’s a solid block of rock with dirt on top and grass growing up there.”

  “Takes a long time to wear away that much dirt,” Tanyth said. “Must be nearly as old as the mountains.”

  “Where’s the river go?” Rebecca asked.

  “There’s a bay off that way about twenty, thirty miles,” Penny said, waving her hand toward the south. “It dumps into that.”

  “No town there?” Tanyth asked.

  Penny shook her head. “Nah. No beach. Cliffs straight down to the water. At least that’s what the trappers say. Never been there myself.”

  “Must be pretty,” Rebecca said.

  “What?” asked Penny.

  “The river running off the cliff and fallin’ into the bay.”

  Penny stopped and looked back at her. Her mouth opened and closed a couple of times. “I never thought of it, but you’re right. Must be.” With a shrug she continued along the path of black stones, Tanyth and Rebecca following in her wake.

  Tanyth eyed the sun and watched the rocks. Didn’t seem like a place to take fresh game, but she followed along and tried to keep track of the path with lots of glances over her shoulder to gauge the position of Ole Man and the trail that led back to civilization–such as it was.

  Chapter Thirteen:

  In The Black Rock

  Penny led them around the piles of rock and dirt, always walking on the fractured black stone surfaces. The traveling was easy but nerve-wracking as the sound of rushing water grew with nearly every step. The sun angled into their eyes as they moved more and more directly west. By mid-afternoon they came to the main channel.

  The muddy water boiled between the banks, which looked about half a mile across from where they stood. The noise echoing off the canyon walls made Tanyth’s head pound.

  “How are we going to cross that?” Tanyth shouted to Penny, to be heard over the rushing water as they paused a few feet from the bank.

  Penny smiled and pointed up-stream. A rope bridge spanned the gap between two of the tall pillars of stone.

  Rebecca’s eyes grew round.

  Penny waved dismissively and started along the riverbank to the base of the black rock pillar. When they got there, what had looked like a straight column of rock turned out to be cleverly carved and chipped away to allow relatively easy access to the top. In a moment they stood above the roiling waters, staring across the swaying walkway to the other bank.

  Flat planks with rope threaded through holes in either end made up the bridge decking, but instead of a handrail down either side there was only one rather hefty line strung above the bridge to serve as a handhold.

  Penny motioned Rebecca and Tanyth to the end of the bridge. She pointed to the rope above. “Hold that,” she shouted. “I’ll help you keep your balance. It looks scarier than it is, just don’t stop. Keep moving across. I’ll go first and show you how.”

  With a cheery wave, she turned and wrapped both hands around the rope above her head, then walked out onto the planks. She moved steadily along, pausing halfway across—almost casually, it seemed–to turn and look back. She motioned with her head several times.

  Tanyth looked at Rebecca. “Just like workin’ aloft in the riggin’, huh?”

  The thought seemed to please the younger woman. She grinned and nodded. “After you. I’ll push you if you freeze up,” she shouted.

  Tanyth eyed her and then shrugged. “Not gonna cross standin’ here, are ya, old woman,” she muttered. She reached up and grabbed the rope, walking along the wet planking and concentrating on her hands rather than her feet.

  “What?” Rebecca yelled.

  Tanyth shook her head and kept going.

  After a relatively long three minutes she arrived safely on the other side and lowered her arms. They objected, and she had to shake the cramps out of them. Penny hugged her, pulling her away from the end of the bridge to make way for Rebecca, who crossed with a smile on her face and only one hand hooked over the rope.

  Tanyth felt her eyes all but bug out of her head in alarm, but before she could say anything, Rebecca stepped off the end of the bridge like she was stepping off a sidewalk in town.

  “One hand for me, one hand for the ship, mum. It’s what I learned,” she shouted.

  Penny pointed at the path down off the pinnacle. They soon found themselves walking on black rock paths between quiet pools with sandy bottoms. Within a dozen yards the sound of the rushing river faded to a dull roar, and they could speak almost normally.

  “Get your bow strung,” Penny said without preamble. “Dinner should be here somewhere.”

  Rebecca
looked around but did as Penny asked. “What am I gonna shoot at? Geese or something?”

  Penny shook her head. “Or something. Come on.” She led them along the paths between the pools, pausing at each one to scan the water before moving on. At the fourth pool she stopped and held up a hand. She pointed to a dark shape on the sandy bottom.

  Tanyth looked hard, but it was a few moments before she realized she was seeing the shadow of a decent-sized fish lazing in the clean, still waters. As she looked, she noticed several more shadows but had to study to find the fish above them.

  Penny leaned her head over to Rebecca. “Can you hit one of them? They’re not moving, but you’ll have to aim low.”

  “How low?” Rebecca asked, squinting against the glare.

  Penny pointed out a particular shadow. “You see the fish above the shadow there?”

  “Just barely.”

  “Aim for the far edge of his shadow. It’ll look like you’re gonna shoot under him, but the water does funny things.”

  Rebecca shrugged and nodded. She nocked a barbed arrow and pulled the bow back until her thumb nearly touched her ear. The tip of her arrow tracked downward a bit and in an instant it was gone as if by magic, only the vibrating bow string indicating that it had been there at all.

  Across the pool, the fletching shuddered above the water and then became still, sticking up at an angle from the surface. A cloud of silt and sand obscured the business end of the arrow under the water. All the other shadows in the pool had disappeared.

  Penny patted Rebecca on the shoulder and scampered around to the far side of the pool. She splashed into the knee-deep water, reached down, and pulled up a fat trout by the gills. Rebecca’s arrow had pierced the side of its head. “Nice shot,” Penny called, then turned to clamber out of the pool.

  Rebecca and Tanyth joined her as she freed the arrow and handed it to Rebecca. “Dinner,” she said, holding up the fish. “You like trout?”

  Rebecca nodded.

  “I usually catch my own, but that’s faster,” Tanyth said.

  Penny pulled a small knife from her belt and gutted the fish right there on the bank, leaving the entrails for the small scavengers to find before standing and heading down the path once more. “Half a mile more and we’ll stop for the night. We’ll wanna be fresh for tomorrow,” she said.