by A. Evermore
With the deepening dark it was getting harder to see where to place her feet in her bulky clumsy galoshes. Her heart beat faster as she tried to move faster, the start of the path back to the house was only a few paces away, but then so were the wraiths. She tried not to look at them but when she did her body trembled.
Some were as beautiful as Fairies with their pale sorrowful faces and seemingly youthful expressions, as if their ghosts in death had taken on the person’s perfected form. Others were far more harrowing, as if the ghost had taken its form from the decaying dead body for their faces were sunken and their hands clawed in rigor mortis, bones clearly visible through the rotting flesh.
Her clumsy over-sized galoshes caught a root and she stumbled, her left hand instinctively shot out to catch herself on a tree branch. Unfortunately it was the hand that held the lantern. Metal clunked noisily against the wood and her heart missed a beat. All the wraiths stopped their wanderings and stood there unmoving above the ocean, their ribbon-like clothes still swirling in an unseen wind. Then slowly they turned to stare at the place from where the noise had come.
Issa barely breathed but her heart thundered in her head so loudly she was sure they would hear it. Sweat beaded on her forehead and her eyes flickered from the wraiths to the dark patch in the trees that marked the path. The wraiths still did not move. Please, please look away, she silently pleaded in her frozen pose as sweat rolled down her back. In response to her prayers they did look away and began to wander as before.
Carefully Issa slipped her foot from under the root and took another step forwards, though now could not see her feet at all anymore. Five more steps, she fathomed, four more steps. She came to the path and almost leapt for joy but as she turned the corner mist seeped through the roots in front of her filling the path with a carpet of dull light.
Issa glanced behind her; the wraiths were virtually upon the shore. She turned back to the path and jumped back with a yelp for a wraith twice her height had formed there. She stumbled again as her heel caught a rock and fell heavily on the ground, knocking the wind from her lungs. All the dead eyes looked in her direction and the wraith before her scowled, its face contorting into a hideous mask of hatred. It howled like nothing she had heard before, infinitely worse than the scream of a horse in pain, and it clawed right at her soul.
The other wraiths howled in response. Issa dropped the axe and lantern to cover her ears from the unholy din. The wraith lunged towards her. She scrambled up only to fall again in her struggle to get away. She landed with a splash in the cold sea water.
The wraith was upon her before she could get further. She swiped her axe but it passed harmlessly through the wraith. Long fingers reached for her throat as she struggled to find her footing, cold waves splashing over her. The fingers closed upon her throat and deathly cold spread through her neck and chest. She gasped, her chest constricted and throat tightened and warmth flooded from her body into the wraith. She could not breathe in, only out, and out and out, as the wraith breathed in, drawing upon her living breath. She screamed a strange gasping wail filled with fury and desperation.
Other wraiths crowded around her, their ghastly fingers greedily reaching for her throat. She felt the lantern bobbing against her thigh and laboured to reach it. Waves washed over filling her clothes with water that dragged her down but her hand caught the lantern before a wave could push it away. She could barely twist the knob her fingers had become so cold and when she did it wouldn’t spark, soaked as it was by the water.
‘Spark you bastard!’ she cried and at her words a blue light flared from her hands shattering the glass but igniting the lantern into a blaze of blue light.
The wraiths all cried out at once, the sound of a thousand pain-filled sighs, and fell back from her. She held the blue flaming lantern high like a weapon and staggered to her feet, her heart shuddering under the drain of her life force. The wraiths crowded around her still but stayed just beyond the light, their retreating faces a picture of terrible loss.
‘You will not have my life!’ she cried though her voice was hoarse, ‘you have had your time.’ But she wondered if the wraiths could hear her.
All at once they suddenly turned to look in one direction, away from her out to sea, their faces filled with fear. And then she heard what they must have heard, a long moaning wail that came from no creature of the dead but of the living. A needle sharp pain struck inside her head and she doubled over with a cry. It was the White Beast, she was sure of it. The wraiths all fled like a wave of rolling mist blown by a gale.
Through the pain Issa clawed her way back to the shore, terror of the White Beast driving her onwards. She grabbed the axe as the lantern’s light dimmed and whirled to face the dark ocean. A white bulk crested the water and its great mass followed, endlessly rolling above the surface as it dived. Issa stared disbelieving at the size of the beast moving under the waves.
A whining howl whistled on the wind, filling her with pity and a strange desire, like a mother seeking to comfort a Demon-possessed child.
‘Come to me,’ a low voice sighed.
Issa felt her left foot take a step forwards. ‘No!’ she cried, though it took all of her effort to drag her foot back and turn towards the path. The crying howl intensified sending her to her knees with a gasp, the noise itself seemed to wrap about her body and try to drag her back into the ocean. Her mind wobbled and thoughts became jumbled and incoherent. She had to get to the path but couldn’t remember how to get there. She had to find Edarna but couldn’t remember who Edarna was.
‘Come to me,’ the luring voice breathed, ‘come to me.’ Issa was dimly aware of her body responding to the seduction and turned involuntarily towards the ocean.
‘No,’ she screamed, but her voice was just a murmur on her lips as her feet touched the water.
A blast of wind struck her face momentarily breaking the trance. Her eyes followed the direction and caught the black shape of a raven as it landed clumsily beside the lantern that flickered weakly still with a blue flame. It was bald in patches and one wing hung lower than the other.
Her eyes blurred with tears, ‘I thought you were dead,’ she whispered to her old companion.
A howl came once more and she sobbed against the pain and the allure of the sound. But then something else was happening. It felt like calm spreading around her as if a gale had been blowing but now had ceased. The White Beast’s grip on her mind and body was beginning to release as a low blue light began to grow. The light seemed to come from all around at first, casting the ocean, the trees and the raven in its soothing light. She could feel the energy of her life force, stolen by the wraiths, flowing back into her. The ache in her muscles and bones from so many days of hardship was disappearing.
Keteth’s grip on her mind suddenly released and clear thoughts returned. She heard a howl in the distance and then silence. The White Beast was gone. Peace flowed through her as the blue light grew. The sorrow she felt for Ma and her lost home, a constant pain that never went away, was still there but no longer a crippling wound in her heart.
The raven stood calmly watching as the blue light flowed over him. His wing no longer hung so low and soft down was forming where the bald patches had been. Issa turned to face the ocean where the blue light now seemed to be coming from.
Then the tip of a great blue orb appeared, climbing above onto the horizon. Its pure unobstructed rays struck Issa like a wave of energy and she fell back stunned, only to land gently on the ground. The energy flooded her being, blue light bathed her mind and soul in a tide of cleansing waters, banishing all sickness from her body and thoughts until she was nothing but the blue light and all things were gone from her mind.
Far away on the distant shores of the Unchartered Lands, when the same night was at its deepest and all slept deeply, Gharupoha gently rapped his thick staff on the door to Coronos and Asaph’s tree house. He waited patiently for a moment in the stillness of the warm night. There came rustling and low voice
s and then the door opened.
‘Gharupoha, is everything all right?’ Coronos asked.
‘Come, there is something you must see,’ he beckoned and turned without waiting.
Coronos and Asaph looked at each other, both bleary-eyed and dishevelled from sleep, and then swiftly followed the old shaman along the complex walkways of their tree kingdom to the stairs that led up the tallest tree.
They eventually reached the top of the highest look-out all panting for breath. After a moment the three men stood up straight and stared out across the tree canopies. There was no moon of Doon or Woetala, only thousands of stars blinking down upon them. Even at this height there was no breeze tonight.
‘Gharupoha, it is always amazing up here, and I love to come in the dead of night, but I am tired and what is special about tonight?’ Coronos asked and Asaph nodded in agreement.
‘Look,’ the shaman did not look at them but nodded eastward with his head, ‘look there and be silent,’ he stared into the east at the dark ribbon of ocean.
Coronos and Asaph looked at each other quizzically but then did as the shaman asked. Several minutes passed and Asaph stifled a yawn but then he felt it: butterflies in the stomach, excitement of sorts, and his heart began to beat faster. He caught Coronos’s gaze and knew the older man was experiencing the same. Gharupoha stood unmoving but every now and then closed his eyes and breathed deeply.
‘Look,’ he breathed, and just as he spoke brilliant blue rays broke across the ocean. Asaph and Coronos gawped in disbelief at the rising indigo orb the size of the sun.
‘Behold the dark moon rising,’ Gharupoha said.
‘The blue moon of Zanufey. The prophecies have not lied,’ Coronos gasped.
Asaph stared open-mouthed from Coronos to the shaman to the blue moon and back again, speechless and yet wanting to ask them what on earth they were talking about.
‘A time of great change is now upon us,’ the shaman said, ‘though what has yet to be revealed.’
In silence the three men watched the blue moon move low upon the horizon before it swiftly dipped back down into the sea, as if it had risen only briefly to show its coming.
‘I know not when it will rise again but each time it does it will rise higher and be with us for longer,’ Gharupoha said. ‘I shall mention this only to the other shamans until we have a better understanding.’
When the last rays of the moon disappeared the three men walked slowly back home, talking in hushed voices as they went. They all slept soundly that night. In the morning it seemed that the blue moon had been all but a dream, though they felt its strange power still moving deep within them.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
No Leaving These Shores
Issa awoke with the dawn in the place where she had fallen, the cold hard stones sticking painfully into her stiff back, the heavy salty smell of the ocean filled her nostrils and the waves braking on the shore rumbled through her. The spreading orange rays of the sun began to warm her stiff cold body, breathing life into it once more.
The raven was still with her, huddled next to her hip. He ruffled his feathers dozily as she pushed herself to sitting. He definitely looked better; his wing no longer hung down at all and the bald patches were covered in soft downy feathers.
She heaved herself up; the stiffness from sleeping outside on cold damp stones swiftly left her body as she stretched. Physically she actually felt filled with life and vigour, like she used to feel after a good nights’ sleep at home long before the Dromoorai came.
‘Right, let’s go back home to Edarna and try to find a way to leave,’ she said to the raven as she picked up the axe and broken lantern. ‘This place is no longer safe, the Shadowlands have reached these shores,’ she turned and hurried off down the path she had had so much trouble trying to reach the night before.
When she opened the kitchen door Edarna had just arisen and was tying her long grey hair into a bun. The raven stayed outside as Issa took off her boots and went inside.
‘Ah there you are!’ Edarna said as she closed the door, the warmth of the fresh fire engulfed her like a welcome blanket, ‘I was thinking you had tried to do something silly like try to get back into that boat of yours.’
Issa looked sheepishly down at the floor. ‘Well I… I went to go and check my stuff. But to be honest I did think about it.’
‘There be no leaving these shores ’cept on a bird’s wings, or in a Dread Dragon’s mouth,’ Edarna added with a shudder.
‘I awoke in the middle of the night,’ Issa blurted, ‘I don’t know what time it was but it was light, Doon was full. I went to the shore and then Doon set and the wraiths came.’ Issa felt the blood drain from her face. ‘Edarna, the wraiths have reached the shores, it is not safe here, we must leave.’
Edarna paled and sat down slowly upon her rocking chair, staring into the fire. ‘I know they have reached these shores,’ she admitted with a nod, ‘but I cannot leave this place,’ her thin lips pursed defiantly.
‘Edarna, it is not safe! I got my lantern and axe,’ she pointed back at the door were she had left them. ‘I could not see my way and tried to light the lantern but there were so many wraiths, Edarna, hundreds of them and they did not seem as Lost Ones, they seemed as Forsaken. I tried to get to the path leading here but they blocked my way. I fell and then they saw me,’ Issa’s hands went to her throat where the wraith’s hands had touched.
‘Impossible!’ Edarna squeaked, ‘you would not be here now if a Forsaken touched you.’
‘It tried to kill me, tried to take my life force for itself,’ Issa continued, ‘but I flared the lantern…’ she hesitated and decided against mentioning magic. She had not willed the magic to come and the memory of destroying their secret cave on Little Kammy was raw in her mind. ‘And they fell back. And then Keteth came again. They fled from him, Edarna.’
The old woman nodded, her face was grim, ‘there is only one thing those wraiths fear, Lost Ones and Forsaken alike, and that is the White Beast who enslaves them, as he does all souls he finds, living or dead. Keteth keeps them imprisoned within the Shadowlands.’ She paused and then shot a look at Issa, ‘how did you escape him alone?’
‘I don’t know…’ Issa stalled searching for words, ‘I don’t know what happened but it was very dark and Keteth bound a spell upon me as before. Then there came this wave of energy, gentle but strong, it seemed to flow into me as a blue light grew everywhere, brighter and brighter, and as it did so Keteth’s spell was weakened.
‘And then it broke above the horizon, a great dark blue moon like the one you spoke of. Its power was like nothing I had felt before. It struck me so I fell and Keteth fled from it. It healed my body and eased my mind, and I felt as you did, that everything would be all right but that great change was coming. And then I awoke and it was dawn and here I am.’
Edarna watched her, unmoving except for her eyes that widened in wonder then squinted in worry. ‘Yes, that too is what I saw, what I felt,’ Edarna whispered. ‘So the White Beast fears the dark moon of prophecy…’ she stared into the hearth and murmured, ‘could it be that this is a Child of the Raven? Blessed Goddess of the Night. I cannot leave my beloved home,’ she shook her head as her thick fingers worried the hem of her apron.
‘Edarna, I am indebted to you for saving my life, for welcoming me into your home. But for all the horrors I have witnessed, beyond my worst nightmares, and the struggles I have endured, I cannot stay here. I must leave for the Main Land or die trying, and if I remain here I shall surely die. I cannot make you come with me, nor do I want to push you beyond your wishes, but the Shadowlands are spreading and faster than you thought. The Forsaken do not care for you.’
Edarna nodded and spoke as if to herself, ‘I know that you cannot stay but if you go I fear you go to your death anyway. Keteth is mad but there is true power in insanity and by its nature it is dangerously unpredictable.’ Both women were silent for a moment and then Issa spoke.
‘Tell me about h
im, what is he? Where did he come from?’ Issa sat down opposite Edarna upon the cushioned chair that had been her bed.
Edarna sighed heavily and something akin to sadness clouded her eyes. ‘Tis a sad, sad, tale,’ she shook her head, ‘it is no wonder that few know the truth of Keteth when so many are afraid to even speak of him. Keteth was born long, long ago, back in the great Time of the Ancients, back when Baelthrom was a just a dark essence, a small pestilence upon the land.’ Edarna made the same strange hand gesture in the air, a warding sign against evil at the mention of his name. The room seemed to grow colder and Issa shivered and drew closer to the fire hearth as Edarna continued.
‘Now that the Immortal Lord has destroyed all the Dragons of the north, Keteth may be the only being alive that still remembers the time of the Ancients, if he remembers anything at all of course. Though now an immortal abomination, he was in fact born a normal little boy except that he had a strange gift... or a curse, and did something no other had ever done before: he went beyond the realm of the living into the realm of the dead... and returned,’
Edarna’s eyes were wide with fear and something more, almost awe, but Issa could not be sure. ‘It is forbidden you see, Zanufey’s realm is for the dead alone, and all Wizards, Witches, Seers, Priestesses, even black art Necromancers know this. But more than that, worse if you will, he could find the recently departed souls and bring them back, he could bring the dead back to life.’
It was Issa’s turn to stare wide-eyed, she had never heard anything like it. But something didn’t seem right.
‘Surely the Night Goddess, this Zanufey you speak of, has powers far greater than any other to prevent Keteth traversing her domain? Would she not have stopped him if she wanted to?’ Issa asked and Edarna smiled ruefully.