She could hear horns now, and the sweetest flutes. The music was distant, but she could hear just enough to sing along with a wordless crooning as she danced, twirling and laughing through the trees.
“Mistletoe and berry-wine, sparrow song and ivy climb,” she sang, as the words came to her unbidden. “Stream and stone, field and barrow, moonlight, stars bright, bone and marrow.”
She darted away from Devin's grasping hands, moving faster and faster through the woods, dancing and spinning as she went, until she burst out of the trees and into a clearing. Moonlight bathed a ring of low stones cast in a rough circle with a taller stone set in the centre. The stones were half covered in moss, as if the forest floor were cradling them in an embrace. A bare patch here and there reflected the light. Thick moss and lush grass filled the clearing and Miriam laughed in delight as she began to weave in and out of the stones, singing and twirling.
***
Devin awoke with a start at a loud splash from the stream. He sat up, rubbed at bleary eyes and turned to see his mother lying face down in the water. With a gasp, he rushed to her side and tried to haul her out, but she was far too heavy for him to move. She rolled over and sat in the waist-deep water, laughing at him. Her eyes shone with a sickly sheen in the pale light from the moon and stars, and even soaked in the stream he could feel the heat pouring off her.
“Come on Ma, let's get you out, eh?” he suggested, and she stood agreeably, wading out of the stream and onto the bank.
“Can you hear the bells?” she slurred at him, and then laughed at his concerned face. She staggered off into the trees, lurching this way and that. Devin chased after her, calling her back, but she didn't stop or slow. She was almost running, moving with a painful limping gait, her soaked skirts slapping at her legs.
“Ma, please!” Devin called, close to tears.
Her voice carried back to him through the trees. She was singing, an odd crooning with words he didn't understand. “Lians'antha cu Savenfaer, Arun taer cu Brystlien lair. Tuertha cu Faana, C'rus cu Callow, Lune staer, Lis taer, Fis cu Halow.”
She dashed away from him again as he caught up, and crashed through a stand of holly, ignoring and not even seeming to feel the cuts and scratches. Devin skirted around the holly and stopped as he spotted her.
She stood at the centre of a circle of short, mossy stones, swaying back and forth like a willow in a soft breeze. Her head was cocked to one side as if listening and her face was fixed in a jubilant smile. She stood next to a slightly larger stone that was positioned as if it were the hub of a wheel in relation to the rest of the circle. Unlike the other stones, this one had gathered no moss and almost seemed to shine in the moonlight. Devin walked towards her slowly, his eyes darting this way and that. He wasn't especially scared of the dark, but he was still a city boy, and the noises of the forest at night spooked him. A boy who was slightly older might have been terrified, but Devin was young enough to still think his mother could fix anything.
She smiled broadly at him and reached to take his hand. “Dance with me?” she whispered. She held his hands tight and spun him in a circle, leaning back against the force and he grinned, despite the crazy situation. Then she slowed and dropped one hand, leading him as she stepped in a dance, weaving in and out of the stones, all the while singing words he couldn't understand.
The dance was intricate and seemed far more than simple steps she was just making up. A hop here, a delicate spin there as she passed a stone, and singing, all the while the singing. There was a pressure building. Though nothing touched them it was almost as if something pressed against them, like a strong wind. This was smooth though, nothing so ragged as wind. It felt like the pressure you feel when you try and push a wide bowl down into an already full sink, straining against the buoyancy. Eventually he pulled her to a stop, his face red and chest heaving. She stood smiling at him in the moonlight. She didn't even appear to be breathing hard.
“Come on Ma, let's go back now?” he panted. She nodded agreeably and allowed him to lead her from the stones. As they stepped out of the circle, the night seemed to shudder like a sapling shaken by a thoughtless child. Devin looked around in a panic, but there was nothing to see. The sensation ended as suddenly as it had begun, and then the night was still.
Devin managed to navigate his mother back to their little camp without protest. For a short time, it was almost as if he were the parent, and she the child, as he encouraged her to lie down and put a cold wet cloth on her forehead. Eventually, they both slept under the moon. Curled up together to create a little haven against the darkness. She burned with fever but Devin couldn't think of that now. He closed his eyes, and slept.
***
The next morning brought harsh realities. Miriam woke mid-morning and made her way to the stream, discovering a host of unexplained scratches and scrapes as she did so. Devin was still sleeping, but decisions had to be made. Whilst there might be water here in the stream, they were not eating enough, nor was it the right kind of food. Her leg was not going to get better by itself. It was time to leave.
She started a fire and soaked her bandages again, before hanging them close to the fire to try and boil the water in them. Looking around she managed to locate a fallen branch that would serve as a crutch or staff. She gathered a few handfuls of mushrooms and ate slowly. They tasted gritty and earthy, but she forced them down and then worked to clean her wound. Her leg seemed swollen and felt hot to the touch. The pus ran freely down her thigh as she worked to clean it with the steaming cloth and the smell was enough to make her gag. The pain was incredible, but she bit her lip and carried on until the wound was clean, and slowly bleeding pure red blood. She bound the wound as best she could, wrapping the still steaming cloth around her thigh and tying it off. Then it was time to wake Devin.
After a small breakfast of the raw forest mushrooms they set off. Devin was telling a tale about his dream, something about her dancing in the moonlight, but she was really only half-listening. Just walking took an enormous amount of effort and concentration, and she was trying hard to not think about the chances of them actually making it out of the woods.
They continued to search for food as they hiked, stopping every time one of them spotted berries or mushrooms. Half of everything they found, they ate, and the rest they bundled into a pouch made from Devin's shirt. The day was warm enough that he could go shirtless with no complaints.
The forest seemed endless, and it was a constant worry that they might be drifting in circles. She tried to keep to a straight line by sighting on a particular tree and walking to it, and then picking another, but there never seemed to be many trees in exactly the direction she picked. Water was another worry, as they had neither seen a pond or heard any other streams and they were both soon dry-mouthed. Berries helped, but for only a second and then the tartness of the berry seemed to create a thirst all of its own.
They came across a shallow pool as the sun touched the tree-tops, and Miriam sank down next to it gratefully. Devin flopped to the ground and immediately drank deeply. She decided that she had never been so tired, or dirty in her life.
“When we get out of here, baby boy, I am never going near another tree!” she announced firmly.
Devin laughed and scooped another double-handful of water from the pool. It was crystal clear and fed from a tiny rivulet, trickling from a trail of rocks up against one side.
Miriam worked to start a fire and they fed on the remains of the mushrooms, before huddling together to ward off the chill of the night. Devin stared silently into the fire as his mother dozed and before long, he heard her snoring as the moon rose.
It had been a fine adventure for a time. Garrit had been exciting and the run into the woods, whilst terrifying at the time, was a great tale to tell. Now though, it was just a boring slog and Devin was keen to get out of the trees. As he stared at the fire, he gradually became aware of just how silent the forest had become. Normally there was endless birdsong, the faint rustling of s
quirrels in the trees and other creatures in the undergrowth, but now it was utterly silent except for the soft snoring made by his mother.
He slowly became aware of an intense feeling of being watched. As a boy in Kavtrin, he had often seen cats stalk their prey. There was a time, just before they pounced, when they simply sat and watched. This was how he felt, as if some predator sat and surveyed their little camp, deciding whether they would make a good meal.
The night had turned cloudy, and so there was little light to be had from the full moon except when it occasionally broke through the clouds. What light there was came from the dying fire.
“Where do you go to, manling?” A voice, soft as velvet, cut through the stillness. Devin leapt up and stared about wildly, his head whipping this way and that as he searched for the speaker.
“Who said that!?” he cried. “Where are you?”
“Where do you go to, and why do you dance? Do you summon with intent?” The voice seemed to come from a different direction. It had an odd accent as if speaking a language unfamiliar to it, the words shaped strangely on its tongue.
“We're just trying to get home,” Devin said softly.
“Ahh, home. I understand that. It is bad to be away from your home for too long. Bad to be, kept from it.” The voice was soft but caught on that word.
Devin jumped again as he caught a hint of movement among the trees. Nothing so definite as catching sight of the owner of the voice, just the merest hint of a passing figure. His eyes caught again on a patch of darkness, and slowly the disparate images coalesced. It was a woman. She stood in the dark calmly, as if it was the most natural thing in the world for her to be there. She stepped towards him slowly out of the shadows, moving with an infinite grace, each step almost a dance in itself. She stopped just outside the tiny circle of light shed by the dying embers of the fire.
The clouds parted to bathe her in moonlight and Devin hissed with a sharp intake of breath. The woman's skin shone with a pale green colour where it was not covered by her simple tunic. It was as if her skin had a sheen all its own that threw back the beams of the moon. Her hair hung long and loose about her shoulders and was as silver as the moonlight. She turned and raised her face to the moon, almost seeming to drink in the light. Then the clouds blew in again and the moment was over.
“Why do you travel?” the creature asked, turning to face him again. Devin had stopped thinking of her as a woman. On some level he knew he ought to be fearful of her but she seemed more curious than threatening.
“We're going to find my grandpa,” Devin answered self-importantly, as only a ten year old can.
The creature nodded sagely. “Seeking the elders. A fine task.” She stepped towards the fire, another cat-like step that brought her closer to Miriam but yet somehow no closer to Devin. She crouched to her haunches suddenly and sniffed, almost seeming to taste the air in front of Devin's mother, before turning to look at him.
Her eyes shone in the light, and for the first time Devin could see they were a startling shade of amber. It may have been a trick of the poor light but he could see no pupils at all. They were just solid orbs of amber, gazing at him, unblinking in the night.
“This one will not go much further,” she said in her strange accent. “Her wound is deep and foulness travels to her centre. When it finds it, she will be ended.”
Devin blinked. “Can you help us?”
“Help you?” The creature cocked her head, looking for all the world like a curious bird for a moment. “Why would I do that?” she seemed genuinely perplexed. Devin had no answer to that and gave her a pleading look. “She sang?” she asked curiously. “At the stones? It was she who sang and danced?”
Devin nodded, confused as to how she knew about the stones.
“I suppose I might be able to help, at that.” She took one tiny step backwards and suddenly she was gone, between one heartbeat and the next and without seeming to move. The shadows and half-light that made up her form seemed to shift and Devin found himself searching around for her in the darkness. He was breathing heavily, as if he had run a fast sprint uphill, and he turned to his mother still sleeping on the ground. Devin knelt and felt her forehead as he had been taught. It was burning to the touch again.
“As I said, there is a taint that moves to her centre,” came the voice again.
He turned to see her stood close to the fire with a small wooden bowl and various implements. She knelt, as he watched in silence, and ground up various leaves mixing them with what smelled like honey and strong red wine. She stirred with one long finger, and seemed to smile as she did so, before taking one crouched step towards Miriam bearing the bowl.
Abruptly she stiffened and sniffed sharply at the recumbent form again. Moving so swiftly Devin wouldn't have thought it possible, she set the bowl down and pushed at Miriam roughly, rolling her over with her foot and revealing Garrit's long knife.
The woman leapt backwards and landed in a fighting crouch, hissing savagely at Miriam like a wildcat.
“What's the matter?” cried Devin. The woman started, as if she had forgotten he was there, and bared bright white teeth at him.
“Fie! Fly! Be gone, little manling!” she spat at him. “Take your tainted She and be gone!” She drew herself up to her full height and Devin was struck with pure terror as she moved towards him, her steps slow and deliberate. Waves of enmity seemed to roll from her and Devin shied desperately away from her, sinking to the ground beside his mother.
“BEGONE!” the creature snarled and taking two steps backwards, she vanished into the trees.
Devin sank slowly to the ground. His breath was ragged as he looked around in the darkness. The night-calls of birds were slowly returning, and he could once more hear the faint rustling of animals in the undergrowth. He gathered up some of the wood from their pile and stirred the fire into life. The wooden bowl sat just to one side of the fire, and Devin sniffed at it curiously. The mixture had somehow transformed into something closely resembling water, albeit with a faintly oily sheen. The scent of wine had faded and the concoction smelt oddly of moss. He shuffled over to his mother and wormed his way into her arms. Staring out at the darkness, it was a long time before sleep finally claimed him.
Chapter Three
Devin woke the next morning, alone. He sat up on the leaf-covered ground and picked the pine needles and twigs from his hair. Looking around the clearing, he felt the first twinges of panic. The knife and tinderbox lay where they had been left last night, but there was no sign of his mother.
“Ma?” he called out. His voice sounded tiny to himself, the sound almost mocking him.
He made his way over to the pool and knelt, drinking down the sweet water and splashing some over his face. Looking around their small camp one last time, he scooped up the knife, and made his way over to the edge of the clearing.
He almost tripped over the bowl before he saw it. It lay on its side at the base of a holly bush. Devin crouched and picked it up, turning it over in his hands. The events of the previous night had been so bizarre he had almost convinced himself it had been a dream, but the bowl put an end to that. An adult might have been more shocked to see it, but Devin took it in his stride and saw it simply as an indication of the direction his mother might have gone.
It didn't take him long to find her. It looked as though she had got up in the night and blundered on through the dark until she grew tired, then simply slept where she was. Devin felt her head and shook her gently. “Ma?”
She opened her eyes and smiled at him with eyes that weren't quite focused. As she looked around the woods, Devin could feel the heat pouring off her. She was covered in a sheen of sweat, despite the cool of the morning.
“Do you want a drink Ma?” He went off to the pool in response to her nod, and filled the bowl with the cool, clear, water. It seemed to refresh her, but she insisted on setting out straight away without even bothering to search for any food.
Within the hour she was staggering
almost aimlessly through the forest. It took all of Devin's efforts to try and keep them on a straight course. He managed to eat some berries as they passed bushes, but he was still desperately hungry. He tried to get her to take some, but she showed no interest.
They reached the ridge around midday. Devin had been following Miriam, trying to keep them travelling straight by sighting on particular trees as she had taught him. Her fever seemed worse than ever, and her skin was dry and burned to the touch. Despite that, she seemed more alert, and was happy enough to be guided by him. They did not stop though. She wouldn't stop to rest, and she became angry when he suggested it.
Between one step and the next, Devin saw the ground fall away in front of them as they passed through the last trees. They stood atop a ridge-line in the forest and, for the first time in what felt like weeks, Devin could see for miles. It actually took a minute or two to sink in that he could see beyond the forest, or that the edge of the trees was in roughly the same direction they had been travelling. The excitement of this was nothing compared to the thrill he felt when he realised that beyond the trees, was a road.
“Ma. Look!” he called, pointing at the brown smudge in the distance. He turned to see her leaning heavily against a tree, murmuring to herself. It didn't look like she had even heard him and after two more attempts, he gave up with a bitter sigh.
The ridge continued for some distance, but sloped downwards to his left. Even if he did manage to navigate through the trees, they wouldn't make it out of the forest before nightfall. Assuming, of course, that his mother would cooperate and walk where he led.
Devin trudged on through the undergrowth, trying to ignore the gnawing of his empty belly. Following the ridge-line proved harder than it looked. They were forced to travel in the wrong direction several times, to avoid bramble thickets, or steep ravines leading in from the ridge. By the time the ground was beginning to level off, indicating that they had made it off the ridge, the sun had almost set and the moon was rising. They had passed another stream some hours earlier so Devin could cope with the thirst, but he didn't think he had ever been this hungry. The berries and mushrooms that had sustained them during the previous few days seemed to have vanished, and with the failing light, it would be almost impossible to spot anything now. As he stumbled along in the near dark, he tried and failed, to keep tears of frustration from falling.
The Riven Wyrde Saga boxed set Page 5