Misthaven: The Complete Trilogy

by J Battle

  Cavour frowned as he considered Splatt’s words.

  ‘Is that true? They didn’t seem quite so bloodthirsty.’

  ‘Oh, bloodthirsty? You want to see them when they have their blood up.’

  ‘Are you telling me the truth? Friends tell each other the truth.’

  ‘Do they? I didn’t know. No-one told me.’ He looked from side to side, and then he looked up and down. When he was sure that they were not being observed, he reached up and tugged Cavour’s sleeve.

  Cavour bent closer.

  ‘I tell lies all the time; except now, when I’m telling the truth.’

  ‘Why do you lie all of the time?’

  ‘It’s, well, you know, other people, they have conversations. They have interesting things to say, and one says something, and then the other says something back, along the same lines. I can’t think how to do that, so I say the first thing that comes into my head, and that’s usually a lie.’ He shrugged his narrow shoulders as if to say, ‘there you have it.’

  ‘Conversation is not that difficult. All you need is practice,’ said Cavour, with a smile.

  ‘Will you practice with me?’

  ‘I...well, I do have to be on my way, but we could make a start. If I ever return, I will expect to see you much improved. How does that sound?’

  ‘I...but if you go, who will I talk to?’ He took a firm grip on Cavour’s sleeve.

  ‘You will talk to the other forest-dwarves, of course.’

  ‘But, they won’t want to talk to me.’

  ‘They will when they see what a charming conversationalist you have become.’

  ‘Charming? I’ve never been called charming. Horrible, annoying, smelly. I’ve been called all of them things. But not charming.’

  ‘Charm is also a learned skill, trust me.’

  ‘How...how will we start?’ He looked up at Cavour with his squinty little eyes, all innocent and helpless. Cavour felt a sudden urge to stand on his head and crush him into the ground.

  ‘Well,’ he said, instead, turning his face away from the dwarf, ‘we could start by chatting about the best way to leave the forest. Would you suggest that we walk up this slope? It looks familiar to me.’

  ‘I...well.’ Splatt stopped as he turned to look up the slope. ‘That’s the straightforward way, but sometimes it’s best to be sneaky.’

  ‘I see. You’re doing very well. But why should we go the sneaky way? Straight seems best to me.’

  ‘That’s what they expect you to do, so you’re better doing something different.’

  ‘Who are ‘they?’’

  ‘The horrible, blood-thirsty dwarves. They’ll be coming right after you when they’ve finished with the crawlord.’

  ‘Is that a lie?’

  Splatt bent his head a little to the left and scrunched up his shoulders.

  ‘Yes, but it don’t mean it isn’t true.’

  ‘I think it means just that.’

  ‘They could be coming after you; they could. You don’t know, so it’s best to be careful.’

  ‘You want me to take a longer route so we can talk longer.’

  ‘How...how did you know?’

  ‘Because I understand. But I must leave the forest, so let us both leave the forest and take a walk, and mayhap we’ll sit and have a smoke, and some more chat, before we separate. Then I’ll be on my way, and you can return to try out your new skills on your future friends. How does that sound?’

  A smile appeared on the little fellow’s face and Cavour found that it wasn’t at all repulsive.

  Chapter 74 Gorge

  ‘Getting to be a habit,’ said the soothnurse, as she bent over Gorge. ‘Coming up here to treat people with the stink of Magic on them.’

  ‘You can smell Magic?’ asked Frenk, hesitantly, for the soothnurse, regardless of her profession, was a fierce-looking woman.

  ‘Ay, I can, and I can hear stupid as well, and I can sense an idiot from twenty yards, I can, so you best be quiet and let me about my business.’

  Suitably chastised, Frenk shut his mouth and stepped back.

  ‘How is he?’ asked Alice.

  ‘I’ll know when I’ve finished, and not before, so shush with your prattling on.’

  Alice raised her eyebrows at her tone, and then she went to stand beside Frenk.

  ‘Now, m’dear, let’s have a good hard look at you,’ said the soothnurse, her voice suddenly soft and caring.

  She pulled back Gorge’s still sodden shirt and she leaned her face against his chest.

  ‘The heart is good and strong, and his breathing sounds good enough. So, why ain’t he awake?’

  She turned suddenly to Alice and Frenk, making them both jump.

  ‘How long was he in the water?’ she asked, sharply.

  ‘We don’t know for certain. Some days, we think,’ answered Alice, because Frenk couldn’t bring himself to speak.

  ‘Days, eh? That’ll be the Magic, then, that kept him alive.’

  She pulled Gorge’s shirt back into place, and she straightened his unruly fringe.

  With a sigh, she turned back to Alice. ‘Ain’t much I can do for him. It was the Magic that saved him from the water, and it will be the Magic that wakes him up, if fortune turns her gentle face to him. If she don’t, he’ll die in his bed.’

  She began to pack away her bag, and there was a slump to her shoulders and a sadness to her face as she worked.

  Gorge coughed all of a sudden, and dark water trickled from his lips.

  ‘There you go, lad. Get it out of yourself,’ said the soothnurse, and a stranger might have been forgiven for thinking she was smiling.

  Alice moved quickly to the bed and pushed the boy onto his side. More coughs came, wracking his body, and ejecting more water.

  After a couple of moments, they stopped, and his body became absolutely still.

  Alice looked at the soothnurse for aid, but she focused on her bag to the exclusion of all else.

  ‘I…Lady Alice?’

  Gorge’s eyes were wide open.

  ‘Gorge! You’ve returned to us!’ There were tears in her eyes as she spoke.

  ‘What…I did something stupid, I reckon,’ said Gorge, leaning up on one elbow. ‘Stupid is as stupid does, as a Giant might say.’

  Gorge was sitting up now, and his face was fairly glowing with health.

  Alice wrapped her arms around him and squeezed.

  When she was finished, she stepped back to reveal a blushing boy.

  ‘What has happened? Since I’ve been gone.’

  ‘So much, but let’s get some food into you, before we go on.’

  ‘Can I ask a question, miss? I reckon it’s something we need to know, and it has to be asked.’ Frenk was by the bed now, with one hand gripping the frame of the bed.

  ‘Surely we can allow him some time?’

  ‘Not sure how much time we have, miss. They’ll be there soon, and there’s just the few of them, and I don’t reckon that’s enough, no matter what that Woewearer woman says.’

  Alice nodded slowly, relenting.

  ‘Lad, we’re pleased to have you back, we are, but, can you tell us, have you still the Magic?’

  Gorge frowned and looked down. ‘I tried to get rid of it all. I melted the ice up top, but then I saw the flood would wash into the valley, so I made a stone wall to stop it. It must have worked, because we’re in your house, so it can’t have been washed away.’

  He looked up at Alice, and he tried a smile, but it wouldn’t stick.

  ‘There must have been still some Magic within me, and that kept me alive, when I thought I’d surely drown. But there can’t be much left, because I can’t feel it or touch it. Tell me now, what’s happened? Where have they gone, and who are ‘they?’’

  Alice frowned at Frenk as she explained the mission that had been undertaken by Ellaine and the rest of the group.

  ‘I have to go with them!’ blurted Gorge, before she’d even finished.

  ‘You can
’t, lad. The ship left yesterday, and there ain’t no more. The other ships left for who knows where days ago.’

  ‘There must be a way! There’ll be a boat, surely. I could get there in a boat.’

  ‘The sea’s turned rough since they left, and a boat won’t manage them waves,’ answered Frenk, calmly. ‘I wouldn’t have asked, but I reckoned if you had Magic, you wouldn’t need a ship, because you were flying through the air like a bird, I heard.’

  ‘I…I can try. There must be some Magic left, I’ll…’

  ‘But it’s gone, Gorge. You said so yourself.’ Alice touched his arm as she spoke. ‘We just have to hope that they succeed.’

  Gorge lay back on the bed and closed his eyes, shutting out the world. Somewhere, deep within him, there might be a flicker of Magic. If he could reach out and draw on it, then he would be able to help them. Mayhap he’d save them. All he needed to do was find it.

  What a fool he’d been, he thought, throwing away all of that power, just when it was needed most. With the full power of the Magic he’d had, no-one could have withstood him. Not Giants, not Elvenfolk, and not whatever it was that was sitting on Fairisle, waiting for the arrival of his friends.

  They were sailing into peril, and there was nothing he could to aid them, for no matter how hard he tried, there was no Magic to be found within his body.

  Chapter 75 Elstar

  ‘So you see, Crawlord, we have no Magic here.’

  Elstar glared down at the smiling dwarf, and he wanted to rip the creature to pieces and wear his scalp as a decorative accessory for his belt.

  But, what if he spoke the truth? Could the state of these woods be caused by nothing more than dedicated husbandry and the warming effects of the hot springs spread throughout the wood? Was that enough?

  If that was the case, and there truly was no Magic here, then Cavour had made a fool of him.

  ‘How do I know I can believe you?’

  Buntt shrugged, as if he couldn’t care less on the matter. Then he raised one of his thick hands.

  ‘Take a look at that, crawlord,’ he said.

  Elstar looked at his hand. ‘What am I supposed to be looking at?’

  Buntt sighed. ‘You see them callouses? I wouldn’t get them if I was using Magic, would I? Would any of us?’

  The rest of the forest dwarves standing nearby lifted their hands to display the effects of all of their hard work. It was quite a disturbing sight for the crawlord.

  But the case was well made.

  ‘Cavour!’ roared Elstar, as he raced from the camp of the forest dwarves.

  **********

  ‘So, where will you go?’

  ‘Excellent, Splatt. Asking someone a question about themselves is a fine way to start a conversation. People are always willing to talk about themselves. And you kept your eyes on my shoulder, which saves that unnerving staring you do, so that is good.’

  ‘But…it was a proper question; not a conversational gambit.’ There was a whine in his voice that he really needed to work on, thought Cavour, before he even considered the question.

  For as long as he could remember, he was always occupied with the needs of the Trytor; travelling here and there about his business. But, if he was truly dead, what did that mean for his own future?

  There were so many possible answers to that question, how could he come up with a fair response to the forest dwarf?

  ‘There is a whole world out there, my friend, so how would I answer that question?’ He frowned as he spoke, because he really didn’t know.

  ‘Oh,’ said Splatt, with his eyes still averted.

  ‘Oh? Can you not ask a question, to show interest?’

  ‘Will you go home?’

  ‘Excellent question, but…I really don’t know.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘You could ask how long it would take me, or what family would I find there, if I decided to go. There’s all manner of questions to be asked to continue the conversation.’

  ‘Where is home?’ asked Splatt, and he turned to Cavour with a smile on this face at thinking up his own question.

  ‘Now, Splatt, that’s a good question, for sure it is. But I’ll not be answering it, for that’s the sort of thing a wary, if not weary, traveller should keep to himself. When I leave this wood, I’ll be gone, and there’s no need for anyone to know exactly where I can be found.’

  ‘I wouldn’t tell anyone. I wouldn’t. I just thought, if I ever left the wood, I might take a walk along the road and come and see you. That’s the sort of thing a friend would do, isn’t it?’

  ‘Ay, you’re right. But, will you ever leave this wood?’

  ‘Who knows? Mayhap one day I will.’

  Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of a heavy body rushing through the trees lower down the hill.

  In a smooth movement, Cavour slipped his bag over his shoulder and nodded to the forest dwarf. Then he was off up the slope like a man half his age.

  Splatt watched him go for a moment before he turned.

  ‘Who goes there?’ he called, trying his best to keep his voice firm.

  ‘Out of my way, little man,’ snapped Elstar as he moved to pass him.

  ‘Hold on there, Elf. Where are you off to in such a rush?’ That’s a good open question, he thought.

  ‘What? Out of my way, before I rend you limb from limb.’

  ‘Is it the man you are looking for?’

  That stopped the crawlord in his tracks.

  ‘What do you know of the human?’

  ‘I spoke to him and, well, he annoyed me with his arrogant ways.’

  Elstar smiled. ‘And?’

  Splatt looked to one side. ‘You won’t get angry when I tell you?’

  ‘I’ll be angry if you don’t, little fool.’

  ‘You weren’t friends, were you? You came together.’

  ‘We were not friends, and he was my prisoner, if you like.’

  ‘Then, well he asked which way to go, and I said the quickest way out of woods, for a man who doesn’t want to be seen, is through yonder woods, and off he went, into the Whispering Wood, and he won’t be seen again.’ He hissed as he spoke the name of the wood, and raised one hand in a warding gesture,

  ‘Your leader mentioned the Whispering Wood. I’m sure it is nothing but nonsense. How long ago was it?’

  ‘Now you’ve got me, sir. I don’t know time; we have no clocks here. But it was today. I can tell you that for certain, because it was after I got out of bed. If I’d still been in bed, I wouldn’t have seen him, would I?’

  Elstar stood up straight and scanned the dark trees of the Whispering Wood. The little man was getting on his nerves, and he saw no reason to linger.

  ‘Right, I’ll go after him. If you’ve steered me wrong, then woe will betide you when I return.’

  ‘And I’d be a fool to still be here,’ thought Splatt, as the arrogant beast strode off.

  ‘Cavour said I didn’t need to lie if I had a friend. Sometimes, I think, you have to lie if you have a friend. Because that’s what a friend does, for his friend.’

  As he swung himself up into the trees, he was surprised to find that he was whistling.

  Chapter 76 Boys

  ‘Can you sleep?’

  ‘I’ve tried, but it won’t be coming anytime soon, I reckon.’

  Sam sat up and looked through the narrow window. There was a full moon tonight and he could see the waves tossing themselves against the side of the ship. A ship that now seemed so small when compared to the immensity of the water it was pitted against.

  ‘Gorge should be here,’ he said, so quietly that Tom almost didn’t catch his words.

  ‘Ay, you’re right there, but he ain’t, and there’s no point getting all sad about it. If he was here, he’d say, ‘what’s all this mooning about for? You’re on the high seas and set for adventure. What more could a lad ask for?’ That’s what he’d say, I reckon.’

  ‘You sound just like him, Tom,’ said Sam
, with a sigh.

  ‘Ay, you just have to put in an unusual word or two to sound like Gorge, with all that reading he did.’

  ‘I reckon I’ll read a book when we get back. If we get back.’

  ‘No ‘if’ about it, Sam. That Ellaine lady, she knows what she’s doing, she does. I heard she was a thousand years old. Can you believe that? And she looks so fine with it.’

  ‘She can’t be much older than Alice, I’d say. Someone’s pulling your nose if they’ve told you anything else.’

  ‘There’s things we don’t know about, Sam, and she’s one of them.’

  ‘What will we find, when we land, like?’

  ‘I can’t say for sure. If it’s a man, then I reckon that big Rootheart will give him a punch with one of those massive fists he has, and knock him into the sea.’

  ‘What if it ain’t a man? What if it’s…something else?’

  ‘That’s why your father is here. If there’s Magic to be done, then I reckon he’s the man.’

  ‘But he ain’t got a Wellstone, and we threw the mage’s Stone away, and was that the right thing to do? Now, I’m not sure as it was.’

  ‘Remember what Alice said. We’ll have a world without Magic, and it will be a better world for that. But we’re not there yet. I reckon, that Ellaine, she knows what we’re coming to, and she knows there’ll be a Stone there. And that’s why she brought your father. And that’s why she brought us.’

  ‘Us?’

  ‘Yes, us. ‘Cause, if your father can’t do it on his own, and he needs some help, well, she’ll want someone who knows how to handle Magic, and that’s me and you, I reckon.’

  ‘But…when did you use Magic?’

  ‘Who do you think brought you half way back when Gorge struck you down, by accident? That was me. I used the Stone, and it hurt like I don’t know what, but I did it anyway, to save you. And I’d do it again, if I had to.’

  ‘I don’t want to use Magic. It didn’t…I don’t know what it didn’t…but it didn’t feel right, that’s what I’m trying to say.’

  ‘Well, if Ellaine is right, and Rootheart and your father do their jobs, then we won’t have to, will we? We can just sit by the sea, and if you could get hold of a pointed stick, you could catch some fish for our supper. Or I should say, catch a fish, ‘cause you need a net to catch enough fish for everyone.’