Burnt Snow

by Van Badham

  ‘You’re the evil ones, not me!’ I hollered, trying to kick at the legs of the Finders who swarmed me. ‘What kind of sickos kidnap teenage girls, tie them up, drag them into forests in the middle of the night—’

  ‘We’re saving you,’ said Elton, calmly picking up the bag of presents from where it had fallen.

  ‘Get some therapy and save yourselves, you freaks!’ I heard myself scream. I was fighting them now; I got a kick into one of their shins, and someone tumbled into a cloud of dirt. A single step into that salt circle and all my knowledge would be useless. I would be trapped, Brody would be dead and God only knew what the Finders had planned for me. ‘Help!’ I screamed – to someone, anyone. ‘Help me!’

  Something flashed dark grey before my eyes. I threw my head back to avoid it and suddenly all the Finders stepped away. In the second of peace, I ripped at the ropes on my hands – only a couple of knots and I’d be free, only a moment of fire magic and I could burn through them … but something stung at my neck – a hand, a clench – I lost my breath, my head jerked and I felt tearing pain at my scalp.

  Jeules had grabbed me by the hair. He had a knife in his white fist that he held against my chest.

  ‘Help me!’ I screamed, so loudly I heard roused birds flutter from the dark trees.

  Jeules released my hair and landed a hard punch in my back, sending me staggering as I tried not to fall forward. As my arms snatched at empty handfuls of air, Jeules pushed me at the salt circle; this time, I did fall. My hands jarred with pain as my palms took the impact of the fall, magically stung by the hard, white grains of the salt. My knees hurt, but my palms burned as if they’d been sprinkled with hydrochloric acid. Shoving my hands against my dress, I tried to wipe away all traces of the salt before the skin started to bleed. I tried to keep my body far away from the flesh-melting salt as I staggered to my feet, but Jeules was at my hair again, grasping it from the roots in his bony knuckles.

  ‘Somebody help me,’ I screamed, but no one did. Jeules dragged me by the hair, over the boundary line of salt, into the arena of the Finders and their flaming torches. My Will vanished. I felt crippled as if by a week of sleeplessness – my thoughts fuzzy, incapable of remembering the basic words of a spell. All I could do was go limp as Jeules dragged me across the ground, trying to swerve so only the dress touched the salt, not my skin. ‘Help me,’ I said to the dark earth being scattered under my hands. There were Finders behind me, checking the salt circle for breaches, pouring bags of salt across my tracks.

  ‘Help,’ I said again.

  Jeules let go of my hair again and squatted beside me. ‘No one can hear you!’ he hissed in my ear, and laughed.

  The rest of the procession had entered the salt circle. They started chanting – a word I didn’t understand repeated over and over. In the few seconds of freedom I had from Jeules’s grip, I tried to crawl away. If I could only get back across the salt line …

  Jeules was still laughing. From the corner of my eye, I saw him lift his hand with the silver ring on it.

  The silver ring that he didn’t know belonged to me.

  I stopped crawling. I sat in the black dirt in my white dress, waiting to see what he would do. ‘Okay,’ I said, in a pathetic voice. ‘I’ll stop. I’ll stop, I’m sorry – I’ll do anything you want.’

  On his ring hand, fire lit like a spark on butane.

  ‘Give me back the presents,’ I said, steadying myself. ‘Just tell me what to do, I’ll do it.’

  It doesn’t matter what you say. It doesn’t matter what you do. If someone wants to hurt you, they will.

  Cackling, Jeules stepped forward with his hand on fire and stuck his burning fingers into my scalp.

  A crackle. A bolt. The silver magic I’d programmed into the ring shot through Jeules’s arm in a whip-fast spiral, straight to his head. His hand fell from my own hair as, screaming, he discovered that his blond curls were warm, were hot, were burning. He screamed, high-pitched, long; he threw his head around so violently, it took the Finders around him some seconds to realise what was going on.

  I sat still, watching him burn. Under the flames the skin on his forehead started to blister and then split; blood ran, its dark liquid sizzled in the heat.

  I didn’t smile, but I didn’t turn my eyes away.

  This was what he’d intended to do to me, until the return spell on the ring sent his intentions back to him, like a flame thrower.

  ‘Simon, Simon – no!’ screamed a male Finder, launching at Jeules, throwing him to the ground, pressing the folds of his robe around Jeules’s head. He thumped the thick sleeves of his robe over the flames, trying to put out the fire.

  ‘She did this!’ squawked a female Finder with a birdlike face, pointing at me. ‘She’s one of them!

  ‘I’ve done nothing,’ I said.

  Elton unfroze himself from shock and stared at me, acknowledging the bird-faced woman only with a tilt of his head. ‘Is the circle closed – all the way?’ he asked the group.

  ‘Three layers,’ said a male Finder. ‘What are we going to do about Simon?’

  Beside him, a blubbering Jeules was moaning himself into unconsciousness, his head clamped under his rescuer’s sleeve; the flames had been extinguished, leaving the stomach-churning stench of burnt hair.

  Elton was still staring at me. ‘Three layers wouldn’t allow that to happen,’ he said. ‘There’s a curse on the ring.’ He turned to the group. ‘It would have come from the boy!’ he cried. He turned to Jeules and his rescuer. ‘Carl, you and Paul take Simon inside. If you can’t treat him, take him to hospital. Tell them you’ve been at the party on the beach. The rest of us,’ he said, handing me the bag of presents as he dragged me to my feet, ‘the rest of us can look forward to roasting the flesh of our enemy tonight … for Simon. For Simon!’

  There was a faint smile on Elton’s face as Carl and Paul carried Jeules away. The rest of the procession fell into line behind me, and we marched into the trees.

  The smell of baked vegetables mixed with that of burnt hair, and I sickened, even as Elton dragged me onwards.

  78

  The chanting continued. The sound they made in the trees was ‘MOR-si-an’, ‘MOR-si-an’ … I didn’t know what that meant.

  I was surprised when we didn’t plunge deeper into the woods but emerged into a small clearing cut out of them. Here was a circle of burning torches, planted in the ground. Here were tables, bizarrely – tables laid with clay cookery pots that were being heated over trays of coals. Some Finders were tending these. Others were gathered at the base of a tree.

  The tree was an old pine; its bark was rough – incredibly rough, even in the limited light of the burning torches – and old grey pine cones lay with spindly orange pine needles at the base of it. Marlina was here, chanting. Nikki stood next to her, chanting too.

  Apart from the blonde scraps of pigtail on her shoulders, there was no glimmer of the Nikki I knew in anything the robed girl was doing.

  ‘MOR-si-an,’ they chanted. ‘MOR-si-an …’

  And that’s when I saw Brody.

  My jaw actually fell in shock. Elton placed my hands into the tough grip of someone else’s, and he walked towards Marlina. I guessed he was going to tell her about Jeules. Perhaps I should have tried to hear their conversation, but all I could do was stare at what they’d done to Brody.

  Brody was tied to the trunk of the pine tree, and he was naked apart from a piece of brown cloth wrapped around his hips. His shoulders and arms were spread out on a wooden frame, the support poles of which had been driven into the earth either side of the pine tree. Brody’s feet hovered an inch or two above the ground: he was bound so tightly to the frame and the tree that his shoulders and waist were taking his entire weight. His head hung; he was unconscious – he’d clearly received a larger dose of whatever they’d fogged into us both in the cave. There were bruises on his chest.

  ‘MOR-si-an … MOR-si-an …’ came the chanting.

  Near the
feasting tables, I heard someone sharpening knives.

  Elton left Marlina at the tree and rejoined the processional group. Some other people joined him, some stood just within the line of the salt circle. Still others lurked around the tables, although they were laying their tools down, and turning towards the tree.

  With stomach-bending revulsion, I looked from the knives, to Brody, to the feasting tables, to the crowd, to Marlina – licking her lips – and realised what they were going to do.

  They thought Brody Meine was a bear and, irrespective of what they planned to do to me, they were going to slaughter him and eat him. With roast vegetables.

  I wanted to be sick. I wanted to be sick so violently that I would drown all the Finders in vomit.

  Whoever was holding my hands let them go, instead delivering a push to my back. My hands struggled in their binds as I fell forward again.

  ‘Welcome, bride!’ cried Marlina. ‘Do you come willingly before our kallohonka, pledging your hand in marriage to the Great Bear?’

  ‘No, I don’t!’ I cried. ‘Let him go!’

  ‘She comes willingly,’ said Elton, stepping out of the crowd.

  ‘Oh, Mighty Bear, sacred honey eater,’ began Marlina.

  ‘This is sick and wrong!’ I cried, throwing down the bag of presents again. ‘Let him go! Let both of us go!’

  Elton was by my side in seconds. He snatched me in a headlock and put his hand over my mouth. ‘Shut up or I’ll slash your throat,’ he said, tightening his grip around my neck.

  I stopped struggling, distracted by a yellow glow suddenly smouldering in Marlina’s eyes. She had her hands above her head and was screaming at Brody. ‘Take from our tribe these gifts, this bride! This marriage makes you one with us, Great Creature! Give us your strength!’ The rest of the Finders were still chanting their bizarre refrain.

  My eyes darted around the full gathering, noting a knife here, some kind of vicious-looking nunchucks there, a glowing staff, the metal chain I’d noticed before.

  I needed a plan and didn’t have one. There were twenty-seven of them around me – twenty-eight including Nikki – and they all meant me harm. If only I could force a break in the salt circle.

  ‘Give him the presents,’ Elton hissed in my ear.

  I tried mumbling, ‘What?’ but Elton merely pushed my head in the direction of the bag of presents on the ground.

  ‘Empty the pillowcase in front of the bear,’ he ordered. ‘Do it on your knees.’

  When I didn’t move, Elton’s arm gave my throat a crushing choke.

  I nodded into Elton’s shoulder, as if resigned. He let me go and even as I scooped up the pillowcase and walked, head-bowed, over to Brody, my eyes searched for the weakest point in the salt circle. In front of Brody, I dropped to my knees. The circle, I noticed, ran close to the back of the tree. Brody was not in the centre but towards an edge of the salt barrier. If I could get behind the tree, I’d have a couple of seconds in the safety of darkness to try to breach the salt-layers before I could summon magic and use it.

  I tipped the contents of the pillowcase onto the ground in front of Brody as slowly as I could, to buy myself some thinking time. Brody was waking up. He seemed to be trying to blink. I needed water – the literal solution to a salt circle was to pour water on it. I had no water and, trapped in the circle, no spell to rip through the salt’s effects. As I was wondering what to do, I noticed Nikki standing over me.

  ‘Great Bear!’ she roared at Brody. ‘These are the offerings of your wedding day!’

  Nikki grabbed my wrist and dragged me to my feet, over to the wooden frame. The edge of her sleeve was wet and heavy. Sweat was pouring over her face. She shoved my hand into Brody’s, forcing our fingers together in a squeeze. ‘Accept this bride from us, honey eater,’ she said, ‘and let us have our wedding feast!’

  ‘MOR-si-an … MOR-si-an,’ chanted the Finders.

  Brody’s hand moved gently in mine, like a baby grasping. I felt like crying.

  Nikki extracted a white-handled knife from the folds of her robe. I looked desperately around for help – any help. Amongst the chanting Finders gathered under this tree were several men large enough to kill me with their bare hands – but it was tiny Nikki Cipri who frightened me the most.

  I couldn’t move. Her eyes glowered in mine.

  Brody squirmed, half-unconscious, on the wooden frame to which they’d tied his body. He struggled weakly against his bonds – and now I, who should have been his saviour, was also a prisoner.

  ‘This marriage contract is blood for blood,’ said Nikki to me in a dark voice. Her hand flashed towards me and torchlight flickered on the blade of her knife. I fell back, gasping. I thought she’d missed me until I felt wetness pool across my shoulders to my collarbone, then a sharp sting. I looked down: my white robe was collared with dark, shining, blood. She’d cut me from shoulder to shoulder. ‘This is your wedding dress,’ she hissed.

  Two of the Finders came towards me. Blood streamed from my wound and now my eyes also streamed with tears. Brody squirmed again – the drug was wearing off, and whatever they intended to do to him he would not suffer painlessly.

  ‘Please … please … It’s not him you want!’ I pleaded with Nikki. ‘He hasn’t caused any of this, I swear it! I swear!’ Rough hands tore at the ropes tying my hands and the bonds came loose. I was shoved towards Brody. His eyelids were opening. He’d be conscious in seconds.

  A voice amongst the Finders barked, ‘Return the demon to his hell!’

  ‘No!’ I screamed. ‘Kill me! He’s innocent!’

  I heard his voice slur, ‘Sophie … ?’

  I fell at Nikki and snatched at her soaking robe. ‘Don’t kill him! Don’t kill him!’ I screamed, but the Finders tore me from her.

  ‘Sophie, where are you?’ he mumbled.

  I sobbed. In the fracas, I’d torn Nikki’s hood from her head. She shook out her hair and smiled. Her voice was tiny.

  ‘I have no intention of killing him,’ Nikki purred.

  The chant hummed amongst the Finders: ‘MOR-si-an … MOR-si-an … MOR-si-an!’

  ‘Sophie!’ Brody cried.

  Nikki roared to the crowd, ‘We have brought him down!’ Her eyes flashed to me then, and her words were for me alone: ‘It’s you who will finish it.’

  The chanting thundered – and the hilt of the white-handled knife was thrust into my hand.

  And then—

  And then—

  Nikki’s hand was around my wrist. A glimmer of recognition flashed as my eyes met hers. With a yank, Nikki pulled my wrist towards her throat so the point of the knife was pressed against her skin. She let out an awesome cry, and swung her body around so quickly that not even the Finders who stood next to us were fast enough to pull her away from me. She shoved her back against my chest and I quickly grabbed her free wrist.

  ‘I’ll kill her,’ I screamed – at Elton, at Marlina, at the lot of them.

  Some of the Finders started moving towards us, freezing in their tracks as Nikki let out another painful cry. ‘Marlina! Call them off! Don’t let—’ she sobbed, leaning her body so it looked as though I was pushing her away from Brody. I followed her, knowing that my own steps were hidden behind the skirt of her robes. The chanting was interrupted by confusion.

  ‘Don’t break the incantation!’ hollered Elton.

  The chanting restarted but some voices stuttered, out of unison.

  ‘Protect the bear!’ ordered Marlina, and some Finders ran towards Brody.

  ‘Marlina!’ yelled Nikki, shuffling on her feet towards the salt circle as I danced behind her.

  ‘Let him go or I’ll slit her throat!’ I barked. ‘I’ll slash her to pieces!’

  ‘Marlina …’ Nikki was sobbing, choking, but it was her wrist in my hand that was navigating us towards the edge of the circle. ‘Marlina … call them off!’ Nikki freed her grip from my arm that held the knife, and feebly tried to push me away from her. Blood from my chest was on her f
ingers as she made a weak grapple at the knife. Blood – my blood – was now smeared on her neck. ‘Call them off!’ cried Nikki again. Still she shuffled us towards the salt. The torches around us flickered as a sudden breeze whipped through the air.

  There were three Finders around Brody now; one of them had the end of a short metal spear pointed into Brody’s stomach. It drew blood. The chanting built as the group regained its single voice, a choir of anger and hate. ‘Let’s kill him now!’ spat another Finder at Brody’s elbow, pricking a dagger into the flesh of Brody’s chest.

  The torch flames whipped back and forth. Brody was half-awake now. I could see him struggling against the ropes that tied him, trying to get free, ignoring the blades held against his skin.

  Something fluttered above my head. I flashed the knife at the circle of Finders, trying to stare each of them down even as I staggered closer to the salt. My eyes met the burning hatred of Marlina’s and my lips went cold. ‘One more drop of blood and she dies!’ I hissed. Nikki made another stagger – we were within half a metre of the salt circle.

  Now Elton was at Marlina’s shoulder. ‘Your sister’s a necessary sacrifice!’ he said, clutching her arm.

  Marlina didn’t move. Our eye contact did not break.

  ‘Marlina!’ cried Nikki, pulling her weight on my arm. ‘Marlina, call them off!’

  Marlina didn’t move. She stared at me. I stared at her.

  ‘Bring him down,’ Marlina said.

  Nikki tumbled from my arms as she threw herself onto the ground, landing across the white salt line with a sobbing moan.

  The moment Nikki fell, something swooped from the trees into the gang of Finders who surrounded Brody. Two jumped back to avoid it; the Finder with the spear swung it at the shadow as it soared past his face and, missing, dropped the weapon from his hand. As he dived to pick it up, a massive blue bolt of electricity struck a feasting table. I threw my arms over my head to protect my face as Finders hurled themselves to the ground. In the roaring crackle of bright blue magic, the wooden table burst into flames and clay pots exploded like bombs.