Blood Song: The First Book of Lharmell

by Rhiannon Hart

  I glared at him, breathing heavily. ‘I want to help.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why not? You said yourself we’re the only people who can come here without being poisoned to death.’

  ‘You’re royalty. You have a responsibility to your people.’

  ‘Lilith’s done enough duty for the both of us. Because of her, our people are not going to starve. But they could still freeze. I’m of more use to them here, where I can fight, than married to a rich man. In the end, what use will food be to them if they’re frozen in the streets? Or turned into harmings?’

  ‘We’ve got a long journey back. Surely we can argue about this at the palace.’

  I picked up my bow. ‘I don’t want to go back.’

  ‘What?’ he exclaimed.

  ‘This thing, this Turning. Is there one happening soon?’

  ‘Yes, but –’

  ‘And will the leader be there?’

  He looked at me stonily. ‘Zeraphina. No. It’s far too dangerous.’

  ‘Why? Because I’m a girl? I’m an excellent archer, you know that.’

  ‘It’s not enough,’ he said. ‘There will be hundreds of them. We have no supplies, nothing.’

  ‘We have weapons and arrows. We could kill a brant if we need blood.’

  He ran a hand through his hair.

  ‘I can’t go back without doing something,’ I said, my voice tight in my throat. ‘I can’t. Even if we just go to one of these Turnings and watch, we might learn something.’

  ‘There are people who love you, Zeraphina. People who care whether you live or die. I can’t ask you to risk your life. Me, I have no one. I’m expendable.’

  I reached out a hand and touched his leg. ‘I care.’ And I did. If he died or was Turned, no matter how irritating and frustrating he was, I would miss him. He was probably the first and last person in the world who was ever going to understand me, who knew what I was struggling with because he was struggling with the same thing.

  He met my gaze. His eyes were less certain now. ‘We might learn nothing. Do you really want to risk everything when the chance of failure is so high?’

  ‘Truthfully, I want to go back to Amentia. Put my head in the sand. Shoot arrow after arrow and try to ignore the pain. But now that I know the truth, how can I?’

  Rodden put his head in his hands. He sighed heavily. ‘I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this.’

  I felt a flash of elation, and then a pang of alarm. We were going to do this. I’d just talked both of us into a suicide mission.

  Rodden pointed a finger at me. ‘I’m in charge. You do what I say and if at any point I say we’re leaving, then we’re leaving.’

  ‘Yessir,’ I said, with the same tone Hoggit used when taking orders.

  ‘Then we’ll go a little way in. Maybe not all the way to the tors, or the Turning, but as far as we can while it’s still safe. Then we’ll go back, and no arguing. Drink up.’ He held out the flask to me.

  I grimaced, but took a swig. It tasted even better that it did in my dreams. Better than anything I’d ever tasted in my life. As I drained the flask and licked my lips I felt a little guilty that I enjoyed it so much. I was taking to being a harming like a duck to water.

  THIRTEEN

  Rodden handed me one of the packs. ‘We’ve each got a water skin, a small packet of food, two dozen arrows and a bow. Keep your hood up at all times. If we see anyone, we can pass as part-harmings if you keep your head down and your thoughts under control.’

  ‘How do I do that?’

  ‘Blinker them. Here, practise on Leap.’ He picked up my cat and sat him on his lap. Leap purred and rubbed his cheek against Rodden’s chest. He was such a sucker for attention. ‘Ask him to do something with thought-pictures, like twitch his ears.’

  I formed a thought-picture of Leap twitching his ears with my mind and sent it to him with something that I hoped seemed like ‘please’ tacked on the end. Leap looked at me, wide-eyed, and his ears twitched. I laughed delightedly.

  ‘That was very polite,’ said Rodden. ‘Almost made me want to twitch mine.’

  ‘You heard me?’

  ‘Yes, it was effective but unfocused, and far too loud. Try again, but make it just for Leap.’

  I tried making the picture smaller and gave it a little nudge. Leap’s ears twitched again.

  ‘That’s better. I still heard you but it was very faint. Now try, but before you send the pattern, put up a big wall all around your mind so the thought can’t get through.’

  I imagined the palace walls in Pergamia, steep and impenetrable. I built them up first, and then gave the thought-picture a little nudge towards Leap. He looked around in surprise, as if he’d heard something, but his ears didn’t move.

  ‘Good, but next time put a roof on your walls so the thoughts don’t escape over the top. We should get going.’

  I was surprised that Rodden knew with such accuracy what my wall had looked like. As I shouldered my pack, a ghastly thought occurred to me. ‘You can’t read my mind, can you?’

  ‘No, of course not. I can just hear you when you let your thoughts go sparking off in all directions. Especially when you’re angry. And you’re angry with me a lot, so I block that out. You’re very keen to tell me in words just what you think of me so I don’t need to hear it twice. And they,’ he said, indicating Leap and Griffin, ‘can hear you when you tell them how much you love them, which is pretty much every time you look at them.’

  I had no idea my thoughts were so noisy. I remembered how, as I’d been getting ready for the ball, I’d been wondering if Rodden would be there. I hoped he hadn’t heard me then. He would get entirely the wrong idea.

  Rodden put his hood up and grinned at me from underneath it. The orange lamp-light made him look quite wicked. ‘And what idea would that be? That you’re a rotten show-off?’

  I blanched. He’d just heard me then. I would have to be more careful.

  ‘You needn’t have worried,’ he said, reaching over to pull my own hood up. ‘I wouldn’t have missed that dress for anything.’

  I rolled my eyes. ‘Move out, soldier.’

  The sky was just beginning to lighten. I stood at the cave mouth, hooking my bow and arrows to the pack at easy grabbing distance. I usually liked dawn. It was a fresh, hopeful time of day, everything turning rosy and golden as the sun broke over the horizon. But in Lharmell, the dawn was sickly. The sun turned the clouds greenish and was doing very little to lighten the blackness of the dead forest. I shivered. The cloak was warm but while it kept the cold out it couldn’t keep the other sort of goose-bumps from my skin: the sort caused by being totally spooked. At least at this time of day we wouldn’t bump into any Lharmellins, but there might be harmings around. There were at least two about on that cold morning. Us.

  Rodden emerged and looked around. ‘Home sweet home, hey?’

  ‘Don’t even joke about that. Which way are we going?’

  ‘You were headed in exactly the right direction when I found you yesterday: straight to the tors.’

  ‘I thought I was heading for the ocean.’

  We started walking. I was very glad to have a pair of good sturdy boots as it made the going infinitely easier.

  ‘The tors act like a sort of homing beacon and they probably turned you around. If you pay attention to them, they can act like a compass. Right now I can feel us getting closer, like there’s an invisible cord pulling us forwards. On the way back, you’ll feel the cord lengthening, but reluctantly. It will always try to pull you back. But the good thing is you can navigate your way around the whole world without a compass, just by feeling where the tors are.’

  I nodded. I’d felt that cord and the pain it could cause. But I’d also felt another. The one that had yanked me back the night I’d taken off on the brant. The one that had been connected to Rodden’s agonised thought-pattern that had sounded like No! It had been almost as powerful as the cord that connected me to the tors.

 
Griffin flashed overhead, disappearing and reappearing among the trees. Rodden nodded to her. ‘She’ll keep an eye out. We’re not likely to come across any Lharmellins during the day, but there could be harmings about. Leap’s keeping watch, too.’

  ‘How far is it?’

  ‘You tell me.’

  ‘You don’t know?’

  ‘Of course I do. But so do you. You have the same instincts as me, so work it out.’

  I felt around a bit with my mind, searching for the cord. But Leap and Griffin kept getting in the way. Rodden’s mind was completely closed; he wasn’t giving anything away. Leap’s mind was fuzzy and warm, his thoughts swarming like a cloud of midges as he took in sights, smells and sounds all at once. I wondered that he could concentrate on anything with all that thought-noise. Griffin was all about her eyes: her mind was clean and focused and razor sharp. I was getting just as much interference from her, though, because her thoughts were so directed.

  ‘They’ll never stop,’ Rodden said. ‘You have to learn to block them out when you need to.’

  ‘Give me a break. This is all new to me,’ I grumbled. I tried again, wiping everything cat and eagle from my mind. After a second I felt a faint tug, and fastened my mind onto the thread.

  ‘That’s me,’ Rodden said, surprised.

  ‘You were supposed to have your mind closed.’

  ‘I did.’

  ‘Well, close it some more.’ I tried again. There it was, the white-blue cord, as cold as ice but strong as steel, pulling me onwards to the tors. I tested it, tugging back, feeling the distance between us.

  ‘Got it?’ asked Rodden.

  ‘Yes. It’s far, but . . .’ I imagined the distance in paces, as if I was walking the cord like a tightrope. ‘About a day-and-a-half’s walk?’

  Rodden nodded. ‘About that.’

  We walked in silence for a while. I wanted to ask Rodden why I could still pick up his thought-pattern when he had his mind closed, but he didn’t seem to be in a talkative mood any more.

  We rested when the sun was directly overhead, sitting on our packs to keep off the poisonous dirt. The clouds had begun to thin but there was still little warmth in the air.

  ‘Eat the bread and cheese. It’ll go stale soon anyway.’

  I resisted the urge to snap that I would eat or drink what I pleased, but he must have heard me anyway as he muttered, ‘Fine, do what you like.’

  I ate because I was going to do it anyway. I just didn’t want him to think I was doing it because of his say-so. When I’d finished I pushed the dirt around with the toe of my boot. ‘What makes the forest so toxic?’

  ‘There’s a sort of acid rain that falls occasionally. The Lharmellins make it to keep the humans out. But the harmings and brants don’t like it much either so they don’t do it very often.’ He glanced at the sky. The clouds had gathered again but they were pale and thin. ‘We really don’t want to get caught in an acid storm. It’s a good thing everything is so toxic right now as it means they’ve probably just had one.’

  Acid storms. What a charming bunch these Lharmellins were. ‘How do you know so much about this place?’ I asked. ‘You said you’d been trained. What did you mean by that?’

  ‘Nothing,’ he said, stuffing the remains of his lunch back into his pack.

  ‘Have you been here before?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘You said you weren’t Pergamian. Where are you from?’

  ‘I’m not in the mood to reminisce, Zeraphina.’ He stood up, shouldering his pack.

  The way was getting steeper now so I saved my breath for walking. Sometime in the mid-afternoon, craggy mountaintops rose behind the trees.

  ‘The tors?’ I asked.

  Rodden nodded.

  By twilight the trees had begun to thin and the ground was rocky with lots of boulders and loose stones scattered around, scree from the mountains. We found a sort of natural dolmen, a large flat rock being supported by two others that formed a shelter.

  Rodden gave it a sharp kick. ‘It’s solid,’ he pronounced.

  ‘And you determined this how?’ I asked, walking around the structure. If it collapsed in the night we would be squashed like bugs. I leaned heavily against it in several places, testing its soundness.

  ‘I said it’s fine.’

  ‘Do you want to fight about it or can I just get on with it?’ I snapped. I watched Rodden throw his pack under the dolmen and slump against it, his eyes closed. He looked bone tired.

  I crawled in after him. ‘Have you slept since the ball?’

  He kept his eyes closed and shook his head.

  ‘Oh.’ He stayed silent, and I sensed the inad- equacy of the ‘oh’. Because it would gall me, and because he would probably throw it back in my face, I was reluctant to express any gratitude. But I had to. ‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘For coming to find me. I thought I was going to die.’

  ‘Any time,’ he mumbled.

  Leap walked the length of my legs and curled up between us, instantly falling asleep.

  Talking about the ball made me think of Renata and Lilith for the first time all day. I missed them with a force that surprised me. Bossy and interfering as she was, Renata always had my best interests at heart. And I would give anything to hear Lilith call me Fina again. I was even more surprised to find that I was homesick for Amentia and our cold, dreary castle.

  I sighed heavily. ‘I’ll keep first watch,’ I offered.

  ‘No need. Griffin’s dozing in a tree out there. She’ll wake us if something happens.’

  I made my pack into a makeshift pillow and lay down. The ground was horribly hard and cold, but it was better than being on my feet. Rodden looked like he was already asleep. His face was roughened by stubble, but as he wasn’t frowning for the moment he looked almost agreeable.

  I wasn’t sleepy just yet so I examined the thought-threads in my mind. There was Leap’s, vibrating with purrs and warmth. Griffin’s was sharp and alert. The tor-line was thick and strong now that we were so close. But I pushed these three aside, searching for another. There it was, humming away quietly: the thread between me and the man sleeping beside me. I brushed it with my mind, very softly. He noticed and clamped down on it immediately, severing our connection.

  ‘Go to sleep.’

  ‘Sorry,’ I whispered back.

  ‘Hmph. Always poking your nose in . . .’

  ––

  After the initial coven of Lharmellins I’d stumbled into we’d been blood-sucking-monster-free – apart from ourselves, of course. We couldn’t continue to be so lucky, especially not this close to the tors.

  Between them, Griffin and Leap woke us four times that night.

  I would like to say that the first occasion was the worst. But it wasn’t. Each time a blazing, anxious wake up! thought-pattern shocked me out of consciousness I think I died a little inside.

  When the first alarm came, I realised I’d stupidly left my bow and arrows hooked to my pack and I couldn’t get to them without dragging them out from underneath everything. Not only would it be far too noisy to do so, it wasn’t exactly the best place to store delicate weaponry. I sent a miserable can’t to Rodden when he asked me what the hell I was playing at and could I get my weapon out already? He had his bow trained on the blackness and replied with an image of a wall, telling me to block my thoughts. I concentrated on doing so while I searched the landscape for tell-tale bluish glows and listening for the clicks that would announce a pack of Lharmellins on the hunt. I could barely see a thing, and the only sounds were the crunch of stones underfoot, far off. It was a decidedly non-Lharmellin sound.

  Eventually I heard Rodden un-notch his arrow. ‘Harmings,’ he whispered. ‘Just a handful and Griffin says they’ve gone. Where’s your weapon?’

  ‘Under my pack.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I left it there,’ I hissed. I had already been chastising myself enough.

  ‘Well, get it out now.’

  ‘I am.’


  ‘Don’t shoot anything unless we’re spotted. We don’t want to draw attention to our presence here. We want them to think that after killing those Lharmellins we left or died in the poisonous forest, not that we travelled closer to the tors.’

  ‘We should have decided this before we went to sleep,’ I grumbled.

  ‘I already did. I thought it was obvious, but apparently not to someone who can’t keep her weapon handy.’

  I slapped my bow down at easy grabbing distance and turned my back to him.

  ‘And put a lid on all those irritated thoughts. Anything could hear you.’

  I thought about asking Leap to bite his hand but decided that while it was tempting, it was also rather unethical.

  The second time we were woken I was up and aiming before Rodden had his eyes open – probably because I had been fuming too much to sleep. I heard the dull thud of footsteps against hard-packed earth, and then a skittering of stones. It had to be harmings again as Lharmellins didn’t technically walk. There seemed to be about a dozen of them and they were heading up the mountain. The sounds grew fainter and we both relaxed, easing ourselves back down without a word.

  The third and fourth times were much the same: footsteps in the dark. ‘We must be near a mountain pass,’ Rodden said softly as the fourth group faded away.

  ‘Do you think they’re looking for us?’

  ‘It’s hard to say.’

  I remembered what he’d said about acid storms. It seemed a rather too effective way of clearing the forest of unwanted guests. I just hoped there were too many harmings about to make it worth the Lharmellins’ while.

  Rodden shook me awake at first light. This was my third morning in Lharmell, and it was starting to show. My hair was a tangled mess, I was grimy and I was starting to stink. Rodden was in much the same condition. I poured the tiniest amount of water on a rag I’d saved from my petticoat and wiped it over my face and neck. It refreshed me a little despite the fractured night’s sleep.

  Griffin had been on a morning hunt and to my surprise she was butchering a large rat in a tree. Leap was sitting nearby, and I saw her drop down the hindquarters for him. Leap snatched it up and scurried off with his prize.