by Andre Norton
I gathered up stalks of valerian, mallow, and feverfew, careful not to ruin the plants lest some traveler need them in the future. Then I returned to Alysen. I noticed a thin sheen of sweat on her face, and her expression showed she was uncomfortable.
She didn’t talk to me, though I expected her to ask questions about what I was doing. I took the handle of my ax and used it to grind the feverfew into a green paste. Setting that aside, I mixed valerian and mallow into another paste, went into the cave, and found a nut-bulb the insects hadn’t fouled. I sliced it and spread the mixture onto it like one would put jam on a piece of bread. I passed it to her and took a slice with the paste for myself.
“Eat it,” I said. She hesitated and I added a firm look. “Quickly, Alysen.”
She complied, drawing her face together into a point and gagging.
“Yes, I know it tastes bad.” Horrible, in fact, as I forced down the slice and made one more for each of us. I passed her another, and she shook her head. I did not want to argue with this girl, but I would force it down her throat if I had to.
“Alysen…” I said her name as a warning, and she finally accepted it, practically swallowed it whole so she wouldn’t have to taste it.
Next, I took the feverfew paste and spread it on the cuts and bite marks on her neck and arms. When I’d covered them all, I used the rest on my own wounds. The process took quite some time, and the sun was high overhead when I was satisfied that I’d tended to her and myself to the best of my ability. I wasn’t the skilled healer Bastien had been, but I had a rudimentary knowledge of what things helped with fevers and infections.
Already I could feel the hotness leaving me, and I could breathe easier. Alysen, too, had improved and was getting to her feet. She made a move to enter the cave. I knew she wanted the rest of her belongings.
“I’ll get them,” I told her.
She didn’t protest.
Minutes later the horses were saddled and the packs were in place. This time I rode Dazon and let the cob carry most of the satchels. Grazti sat on the pony in front of Alysen.
“Where are we going?” Alysen was staring at the cave, then at the ridge, twisting around and looking to the edge of the forest we’d emerged from last night. “The fen isn’t this way.”
“But we’re not terribly far.” My tone was comforting. “A little retracing … after we pluck some more of that fruit.”
“But not too much retracing,” she said. I suspected she was thinking about the fose-bear.
“Perhaps no retracing,” I decided after a moment, frowning that I’d so easily given up on the fruit. “We’ll go around the ridge and come at the fen from the north.” That would take us farther from the bear and the tangle of thorns. Certainly I could find a creek soon so the horses could drink and we could replenish our water skins.
Despite the herbs and having something to eat and drink, my head still ached. I suspected it was because I’d called on my wyse-sense so often yesterday. There is a price for employing magic, and calling upon it as many times as I had was risky. I would pay for it the rest of the day with a throbbing that centered over my right eye. Had I the right herbs, I could thwart the headache. And though several herbs grew in the field that had once been someone’s garden, they weren’t the correct ones for this malady.
“You think we can do that? Find the Nanoo from the north? I’ve only ever—”
“We’ll find them.” I wanted to be rid of Alysen, wanted to know she was safe with Nanoo Gafna. Then I wanted to be about my business of revenge on Lord Purvis. “We’ll find them today, Alysen.” I tried to think of other things, focusing on the taste of the … murrows, Alysen had called them, royal fruit and the smell of the lavender. I didn’t need her reading my thoughts at the moment.
I noticed that Grazti had wrapped its clawed hands into the fell pony’s mane and was gently tugging. I would leave the bird-creature with the Nanoo also. I didn’t need to be looking out for anything save myself while I carried out my bloodoath.
My headache flared more strongly, and I closed my eyes for a moment. I vowed I would not call on my wyse-sense again until the pain vanished. I heard a whispered moan from Alysen, and I reluctantly opened my eyes again. Had the herbs not been effective? No. It was something else.
Her breath came quick. “Eri … I feel…”
Pain stabbed above my eye.
“Place of Fire Stones. Now.”
Had those words been spoken aloud? They hadn’t come from Alysen. I swiveled in my saddle, looking to the cave behind us, the ridge, the field of herbs and weeds, then to the edge of the woods in the distance. I saw no one.
Another jolt of pain struck over my right eye. I gasped and slapped my palm against my forehead.
“Place of Fire Stones. Now. Now. Now!”
I’d heard the words in my head, so loud this time the pain from them competed with my headache.
“Grazti,” Alysen said.
The girl spoke true. The words had come from the bird-creature.
“Powerful ground there, at the place of Fire Stones,” Grazti continued with its mental-speak. The bird-beast’s beak clacked and its eyes flashed as if the creature had become instantly irritated.
“The … place … of … Fire … Stones?” I forced the words out, the pain growing worse. Alysen was feeling it, too, I could tell. Her lips quivered and she clenched and unclenched the reins.
“Powerful there. Place of Fire Stones. Now.” Grazti tugged on the pony’s mane and the bird-beast’s stubby legs kicked against its sides. It trotted forward in compliance. “Now. Now.” Grazti nodded its head violently and looked up at Alysen. “Now or die.”
Was that a threat? Was Grazti threatening to kill Alysen and me if we didn’t agree with its wishes to go to this place of Fire Stones?
“Yes, Eri. It’s a threat,” Alysen whispered in answer to my silent question. “I don’t think we should have rescued this thing, Eri. Not at all.”
I could slay the bird-creature. I could slip off Dazon and in two steps be at the fell pony, pulling Grazti off and hurling it away. I could cut off its owllike head with my knives.
Alysen screamed and clutched the sides of her head.
Or could I? Could I kill the creature before it slayed Alysen? Had Grazti divined my intentions and struck at Alysen to keep me back?
I chewed on my lower lip, so hard I tasted blood. Bastien had taught me well, but I’d not learned enough. I was not wary enough. I’d taken this creature in, protecting it and sheltering it, thinking it a benign beast. I’d so thoroughly let my guard down to this new threat!
The pain flared again, so sharp it threatened to pitch me from Dazon.
“All right!” I spat the words. “We’ll go to the Fire Stones.” Whatever they were. Wherever they were. We would go there. And during the journey I would plot what to do with the bird-creature. Then I would plot my best course back to the Nanoo’s fen. “We will go to the Fire Stones now.”
The ache above my eye subsided just a bit.
11
It was fear for Alysen that stayed my hand against Grazti. Had the bird-creature been sitting in front of me on Dazon I would have twisted its neck in my hands and been done with it … but it was in front of Alysen, and every time she tried to raise a hand against it, she gasped in pain and grabbed the sides of her head.
By the Green Ones! I realized now why the woods had trapped the bird-creature and had built the thorny wall.
Parts of the woods, particularly the area that surrounds the Nanoo’s fen, is thick with ancient magic and designed to protect the witches from evil influences. Grazti was heading to the fen, just as Alysen and I had headed there.
Grazti’s intentions were clearly malicious, and strong enough for the old, old magic to detect the creature’s presence and react. The woods had grown the thorny wall and held the bird-creature fast in its writhing vines. Grazti likely would have perished there had we not come along. I don’t believe he could have broken free.
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I remembered the cry I’d heard in my head as I entered the plant-weave.
Alysen must have sensed the creature as it had fought futilely against the vines; it had likely called out, looking for a soul who could hear it. Alysen was capable of reading my thoughts. No doubt she was receptive to Grazti’s summons.
I knew that normal animals, fortunately, were not capable of malice or manipulation. Grazti—or whatever it was called—had skillfully manipulated Alysen; me, too. Manipulated … and worse!
I thought back to the cave Grazti had led us to. Just before the death-eaters swarmed us, the bird-beast had cried out.
Had Grazti called them to us?
Sensed them in the cracks in the stone and brought them down upon us?
The insects, though large and numerous, could not have bested both Alysen and me … but had Grazti hoped that one of us would have died there of disease so there would be only one of us to control? Or perhaps the creature had only wanted us weakened.
I still tasted the blood in my mouth from where I’d bit down on my lip.
I let Grazti and Alysen get a little ahead of me, then I extended the tip of my tongue and concentrated on my wyse-sense. I’d vowed not to do that until my headache was past … but I wondered if the headache was not caused by my overuse of the wyse-power yesterday, but by Grazti.
I tasted the hunger of the horses; they’d not been allowed to graze long enough this morning, and all of them were thirsty. I tasted a hint of lavender, from the plants becoming more distant behind us. And I smelled wildflowers growing nearby, though I couldn’t see them through the tall tufts of grass that stretched away from us to the north. I ordered my senses to go beyond those physical things, and was rewarded by tasting Alysen’s fear and pain. A moment more and I tasted evil. That confirmed what I’d already surmised—there was nothing good about the creature we’d rescued from the animated woods.
I closed my eyes, trusting Dazon to follow the fell pony. I knew the cob and the draft were directly behind Dazon, instinct or a pack mentality keeping them with us. I was grateful that they didn’t need to be tethered. The provisions and clothes in the satchels and packs on their saddles might be needed … if we could make it past the Fire Stones and once again be on our own. I searched my memory; Bastien had never mentioned such a thing as the Fire Stones.
Would we find more of the bird-creatures there? Or, by chance, might Grazti let its guard down enough for me to strike before we ever got there? I wanted that opportunity, as I had no desire to discover the nature of the Fire Stones.
I only wanted to reach Mardel’s Fen and the Nanoo.
But the answer to that possibility rang no, as each time I rode even with the fell pony and my fingers fluttered to a knife or the chain at my waist, Alysen was subjected to intense pain—and the throbbing above my eye intensified to the point I could hardly think.
I’d never traveled this far north.
We spent the whole day riding, stopping only twice to stretch our legs, eat some of our provisions, and drink, and during this entire time Grazti clung to Alysen.
The bird-creature had to sleep sometime, didn’t it? I would strike against it then. No chivalry in that, but my first concern had to be Alysen. If the vile beast had slept last night I couldn’t have proved it, I’d been oblivious to everything in my exhaustion, but it looked weary now, perhaps tired from the strain of managing Alysen and me.
This night I would not sleep, though I would pretend to.
This night, I would slay the creature while it rested, when it presented no threat to Alysen.
If I was fortunate, however, I would find an opportunity earlier.
I stayed alert, despite the ache in my head, watching Grazti constantly, looking for its head to bob, as if it dozed, or for the creature to be distracted by something in our surroundings. The bird-beast turned to glance at me occasionally, as if it sensed I was watching.
The land we crossed seemed oddly devoid of wildlife. The fescue grasses didn’t flutter with the passage of ground squirrels, badgers, or other animals that might wander this type of terrain. The copses of trees were spaced farther and farther apart, and they were looking straggly now, especially the birches and ginkos, half dead due to lightning or drought or disease—some of the low cover looked scabrous in places. We stuck to an old trail and didn’t travel close enough for me to see what caused the trees’ malady. Had the circumstances been different, I would have investigated. What affects the plants, affects the land, affects the people.
“What happened here, Eri?”
Alysen hadn’t spoken in quite some time, and so her words startled me. I was certain that she still ached, from whatever Grazti was doing to control her, but she glanced at the land to the east, perhaps to take her mind off our predicament.
“What do you think happened to the trees?”
“There were more here once,” I admitted. I nodded my head forward, indicating shattered trunks along a ridge, so long dead the wood was stringy and rotted.
“A fire, you think?”
Perhaps she hoped we were near this place of the Fire Stones. “Yes, perhaps a summer fire, when the grass was so dry a touch of lightning set it all off. But it happened a long while ago, Alysen. There are strong trees all around.”
“Just not many of them.”
“No.” After a moment, I shivered. “Too few of them.” The earth had died in places, I tasted that, and could not nourish the kind of forest that had once grown here.
I looked away from the trees and to Grazti, then I glanced at the sky and saw a flock of starlings heading west. I had noticed occasional lone birds, but this was the first flock in more than an hour, and it was a small one.
There should be more birds, more animal tracks … more everything. The stillness kept my mind off Grazti for a few moments. The hunting had been bad around our village in the past many weeks and I’d ranged quite a bit farther to the north to find the curl-horns. Except for the fose-bear, I hadn’t noticed game in the marshy woods. So the decline in the animal population was not just limited to the environs of the Village Nar. Fewer animals roamed the land here, too, but why? Were they fleeing from something? Dying off from the same affliction striking the trees?
“Eri!” Alysen gasped in pain. “Stay with me!”
I’d been so caught up in the land that I’d drifted back. I made a clicking sound, thumped Dazon once in the side, and he caught up … but I held him back just a little, not wanting to ride even with the fell pony. I wanted Grazti to keep turning around to look at me, to keep him uneasy and distracted. Maybe I was hoping to tire him out. And as the miles crept by, he looked at me less and less often, his head bobbed more, and I saw his beak open in a yawn.
I smiled. I knew I wouldn’t have to wait for nightfall.
The opportunity came shortly before sunset.
I urged Dazon a little closer, finally coming up to the fell’s shoulder. I put a finger to my lips to signal Alysen to remain quiet.
She nodded her understanding.
Grazti seemed inattentive.
I leaned forward across Dazon’s neck and peered around Alysen. I saw that the bird-beast’s eyes were closed. Its small clawed hands still grabbed hanks of the pony’s mane.
Was the creature sleeping?
My fingers reached for the handle of my longest knife to slice him.
Or should I simply yank the vile creature from the saddle and hurl it as far as I could?
I opted for the latter, replacing the knife, my fingers reaching for Grazti now. Perhaps the knife might have been the surest method, but it also presented risk to Alysen and the fell, all of them so close.
I took a deep breath and grabbed Grazti by its feathery neck, my fingers digging in and squeezing with all my strength, as I might be able to break its bones and end its evil life with one gesture. In the same motion I lifted and flung the bird-beast, so fast it hadn’t time to spread its membrane wings and stop its fall. The creature landed in a patch
of browning fescue, screeching both audibly and inside my head.
Pain shot hard above my right eye, and I slammed my teeth together to keep from crying out. I jumped from Dazon’s back and drew both knives, racing toward Grazti and ignoring Alysen’s call and the horses’ whinnies. Each step was agony; felt as if spikes were being hammered into my heels.
What power did the creature have that let it inflict such suffering? Never had I known such a beast existed!
Never had I felt such pain.
I hurtled toward him, pushing off and slashing with my knives, the sun catching the blades and making them look like molten silver. The knives whistled through the air. So much force I put into the blows! It was like flying, my body parallel to the ground and streaking toward the hateful creature.
The bird-beast rose on its hind legs, shook out its head as if clearing its senses, and then glared at me, making no effort to move … but it had made an effort at something, as pain stabbed into my stomach! I curled and dropped to the earth, less than a foot away from it, though I didn’t drop the knives.
I’d never felt such complete misery.
“Thrice-damned beast!” I cursed through gritted teeth, forcing myself to my knees.
Its eyes glimmered darkly, and I swore it had an amused expression on its feathery face. “I will kill you!” Even as I said the words, I doubted myself capable of it. It was all I could do not to writhe in the grass. I briefly thought about death, believing that might be a welcome relief to this magic-induced suffering.
I heard Alysen shouting, one of the horses whinnying shrilly and stomping on the ground, Grazti making a disconcerting cackling sound, my heart pounding loudly in my ears. I heard a sharp noise, one I’d never heard before.
The sound repeated, and then was followed by Alysen’s scream and a loud thump.
Struggling to my feet, swaying in pain and sweating from the effort, I looked at Grazti and risked a glance behind me. The knives slipped from my hands and I felt my chest grow instantly tight.