by Glen L. Hall
‘My people are nervous,’ Bretta explained. ‘The wood is unsettled. My rangers have picked up a host that is moving from the north. It is clear they are coming here. We have about an hour before they arrive.’
Sam felt his stomach clench at her words. ‘So what will you do?’
‘We have to decide whether to make a stand or to escape east. If we stay, then it will be too dangerous for you to remain with us. If we flee, then the place we are here to defend will fall.’
‘In that case, all I can tell you is that we are looking for the Garden of Druids.’
‘Sam!’ exclaimed Emily.
‘The Garden of Druids?’ repeated Bretta in astonishment. ‘It is the reason we are here. A request came from my cousin Braden to travel to Birling Wood in haste.’
‘Can you show us the way to the garden?’ Sam was starting to feel desperate.
‘I would be happier if we waited for my brother. There may be news from the King’s Seat that will help you. He can’t be long and I don’t think it’s safe travelling through the wood alone.’
‘You won’t get to the garden anyway,’ said Emily suddenly. ‘No matter how hard you walk, climb or run, it’s impossible to find it without Eagan.’
‘What do you mean?’ Sam was flabbergasted.
‘Well, if it really is the orchard, that is. I’ve been shown the way many times, but I couldn’t find it back there.’ Emily lowered her eyes to the ground. ‘I’ve just put two and two together and realised I’ve never been there without Eagan or Jarl. I think they are the only people who can find it.’
‘You knew this all along and still took us on a wild goose chase?’
‘I didn’t know it all along. I thought I could find it.’
Bretta listened to the bewildering conversation with interest. The girl wasn’t lying – they’d scoured the wood and found no garden. She’d heard about it, of course, but no one amongst the rangers had seen it apart from Braden, and that had been when he’d been with Eagan. So was it an orchard? But they hadn’t found an orchard either.
As she looked at the girl, questions rushed through her mind. Who was she really? Was she anything to do with Eagan? And the boy – she could sense something quite potent behind him. The more she looked at him, the more unsettled she became. What was she to do with them? She had to decide whether to let them go or risk them being injured if her rangers had to defend the hill.
Without warning, figures were emerging from the wood once more. They again spoke in a thick dialect, but now there was a new urgency in their gestures. Bretta was standing listening, her face solemn in the flickering firelight. Then the figures were wrapping their cloaks around them and melting back into the night.
When they were alone once more, Bretta turned to Sam, her face troubled.
‘The enemy is through the place we call the Cauldron. They are moving with great speed and will be here shortly. I’m afraid it is too late for you to leave.’
‘But I need to find the garden!’
The idea of being caught between the Reivers and whoever they might be fighting was one Sam wasn’t willing to contemplate.
‘You have no time – this hill will be surrounded.’
‘Oscar is waiting for me.’ The words seem to burn as he said them.
‘Oscar is dead,’ Bretta replied.
‘No – I met him, I spoke with him. I have to find the garden.’ Sam looked at Emily. ‘You need to take me there.’
‘I don’t know where it is, Sam!’
A cawing sound resounded through the wood.
Instantly Bretta stamped out the fire, throwing the clearing into complete darkness.
‘It’s too late – we’re being attacked!’
From across the clearing the first forms emerged, some running on two legs, others on all fours. It was a giant wave that was coming to sweep the Forest Reivers from the wood. There was a noise that struck Sam from all sides, a whooshing sound, and then there was a rain of arrows.
Sam felt the usual dread swell up in him like sickness. Amid the pandemonium, he heard Emily’s voice calling for him. Then someone swung him around in the darkness and pulled him quickly into the trees. For a second he tried to twist out of the hands that held him and look for Emily, but a terrifying roar was sweeping through the wood and he felt dazed. It was unlike anything he’d ever heard before. It sounded as though a thousand wild animals were crazed and stampeding, and still it built in volume.
Blarus was darting through the wood, pulling him along with him, whilst to his left a young Reiver woman was dragging Emily. Deeper into the wood they fled, on and on until the roar receded behind them. Then Blarus and the woman turned.
‘We can take you no further,’ Blarus said. ‘Keep heading north and eventually you’ll be free of the wood.’
And with that they were fastening their cloaks and evaporating into the night.
* * * * * *
‘Do you think it is the crow-men who are attacking them? I am still shaking.’ Emily found Sam’s hand in the darkness. ‘I wish Uncle Jarl was here.’
‘So do I. I’m done with all this, Emily – I’m frightened and tired, and I want it to be over.’ Sam was shaking too. ‘It started with Oscar and I think it has to end with Oscar.’
‘Have you thought what happens if you don’t find him?’
Sam didn’t answer as a distant sound, shrill and penetrating, rang out through the wood.
‘Let’s get moving. We need to find the orchard.’
‘I don’t know where it is.’
‘You need to find it, Emily!’
‘Stop shouting – you’re not helping.’
Sam let go of Emily’s hand, his fear turning to burning anger. ‘I don’t understand why it’s so difficult.’
In the darkness, tears flowed down Emily’s cheeks. She was exhausted and frightened.
Sam heard her sobs, but there was a new danger coiling itself around him, a dread snaking its way through his body, coursing through his blood. Somewhere in the darkness, under the cover of battle, the Shadow was coming.
‘Emily,’ he gasped, ‘the Shadow is here – it’s searching for me.’ He sank to a crouching position, his hands covering his face. ‘I can’t do this.’
‘Get up!’ Emily yelled, horrified. ‘We can make it. Get up!’
She reached down and pulled him to his feet. For a brief second, they stood looking at each other. Then Sam took a deep breath and headed into the twisted trees.
* * * * * *
They moved as quickly as they could through the dense undergrowth. Every now and then Sam would feel the hair on the back of his neck stiffen, goosebumps would ripple across his body and nausea would wash over him. No matter how fast they went, he could feel the Shadow’s presence growing in his mind. He sensed it trying to slow him down. The forest floor became like gurgling quicksand and he could feel his feet sinking in…
‘It looks as though the orchard has found us.’
Emily’s voice broke through his thoughts and he turned to follow her gaze. No more than half a mile away, there was a broken wall.
Without another word, they made their way quickly towards it. Sam felt static electricity popping and cracking around him and his skin was prickling with tiny shocks.
The wall had seen better days and in places had crumbled to nothing. There were glimpses of its former splendour to the east and west, but with little effort Sam and Emily picked their way over a part of it that was now a pile of stones.
In the moonlight they could see long lines of trees separated by narrow paths. Fruit hung low and Sam couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed that the orchard was nothing more than apple and pear trees after all.
Emily walked to the first line of trees.
‘What now, Sam? I’m so tired.’
‘I don’t know. I was certain
Oscar would meet us here.’ Sam looked around, but all he could see was more lines of trees. ‘But I don’t think we can stay here long. The Reivers may be hard pressed to defend the wood.’
‘Well, wake me up when we have to go.’
Emily sat down, rested her forehead on her knees and seemed to drift into sleep. Sam looked down at her, feeling guilty as he remembered how hard the last few days had been.
Not knowing what to do next, he walked back to the wall and pulled himself up onto a high point. Still all he could see was an orchard. Why had he let a letter send him on a wild goose chase?
The snap of a branch made him turn to face the dark wood. Someone was coming this way. His blood ran cold as a solitary figure staggered out of the gloom, carrying a companion fallen in battle.
Then moonlight fell on the man’s face and he realised it was Jarl, his face bloodied and contorted in anguish, and in his arms was the slumped form of Eagan, ashen white, with his chest covered in blood.
‘Jarl – what happened?’
Jarl didn’t answer, but looked down at Eagan. Then he whispered, ‘Killed by those who were meant to protect him, Sam. I didn’t think it would come to this. I can’t be part of this deception any longer.’
He bent his head.
‘I am sorry, Jarl. I am so sorry.’
Jarl raised his head. ‘We have been lied to, Sam, by the very people we would call friends – betrayed by each and every one of them.’
He stepped over the broken wall, holding Eagan close to him.
‘I won’t lie to you – not after tonight. They would have you believe that they are protecting you. But you are nothing more than a diversion. They have used you like they used Eagan – to distract the enemy until they could decide what to do.’
Jarl’s voice had become lower and there was now anger in his words.
‘I was there the night Oscar came with the Shadow to Oxford. They wanted to give it your scent. They wanted it to find you. And it did. We distracted it so you could escape from the river. Where were Brennus and Drust when you needed them? Where were they in the Fellows’ House? Where were they at the gates of Magdalen?’
Sam felt his mouth go dry. Jarl had touched a nerve.
‘We stopped the Shadow finding you in the reading room when they left you alone with the Way-curves. They wanted to remind it of what you looked like. I know you don’t want to hear this, but it’s time for you to know the truth, no matter how painful you think it is.’
Sam didn’t know what to say. Had the professors been using him? Had he just been bait all along? He scrambled down off the wall and stood with his back to it, his mind whirling.
‘They led the Shadow to you and let you down at every turn!’ Jarl was almost raging now. ‘Ask yourself, who have they really been protecting? They talk of Druids and the Fall and still they can’t tell you the truth. They talk about the crow-men and don’t tell you who they really are and the pain they have suffered at the hands of those Druids.’
He took a few steps forward and looked around him.
Sam couldn’t speak. He leaned against the wall, staring at Eagan’s pale face. How he wished he’d made things up with him before he’d left for the wood. Perhaps they could have helped each other. Now it was too late.
‘Where is Emily?’ Jarl asked. ‘Quickly – we have little time. The enemy will be upon us.’
‘Emily?’
‘Yes, Sam. I seek the girl.’
Sam hesitated. He’d never heard Jarl speak of Emily in such cold tones. It reminded him of another night, not so long ago.
‘She’s not here,’ he said quickly.
‘She is our only hope, Sam.’
Jarl stepped forward again. Instinctively Sam moved sideways, inching away from him along the wall.
‘We have suffered enough! Tell me where she is!’
‘Who are you?’ Sam whispered.
‘I am here to free my people. They didn’t deserve what the Druids did to them. A long time ago we fought with the people of the Mid-land and forced back the hordes of the Ruin. We were betrayed by the Druids in our hour of need – betrayed by the Faeries and men. They left most of my people behind the Fall – left them to perish! Those who remained were forced into the Underland, chased by the Forest Reivers into the deep dark places of the world.’
Jarl lowered his head.
‘Who are your people?’ Sam asked, amazed. Why had no one told him this side of the story? Then he froze.
‘Uncle Jarl!’ Emily was clambering to her feet and waving.
‘Emily, come to me. Great treachery has befallen our family this night.’
‘Eagan!’ Emily gasped. She started to run towards them.
‘Emily!’ Sam called. ‘Stay back! This is not your uncle – stay back!’
Confused, Emily stood still.
Sam ran to stand between her and Jarl. ‘Who are you?’ he repeated.
Jarl let Eagan drop with a sickening thud. He threw his arms wide, revealing claws that belonged to no human.
‘I come from the Underland to free our people from the hand of the Druidae. I come to track down the last Druid.’
He moved with sickening speed, catching Sam off-balance, but Sam was big and strong and managed to twist out of his reach. He heard Emily’s voice calling his name and a subtle light danced before his eyes, or was it in his mind? All the colours of the rainbow were swirling together in clear water. There were voices too, like the choir of Magdalen.
Silently, he called to the light. It flowed round him and he saw the creature go crashing to the ground.
It spun quickly back around and something had changed. It was no longer standing like a man, but was hunched over, watching him and baring its teeth.
Emily screamed, but Sam barely heard it. In his mind’s eye the voices were washing through him, climbing ever higher until he could see them as filaments of flowing colour.
The creature charged, running on all fours, but an unseen force knocked it clean off its feet. When it hauled itself back up, Jarl’s face was now mixed with grey feathers and snarling jaws.
‘Let the girl go!’ Jarl’s voice rang out through the quiet night.
Again the creature tried to charge Sam, but the voices and threads of vibrant colour were still strengthening, and without knowing how or why, he brought the flow to bear on the creature, flinging it back as if it were made of straw.
When it got to its feet again, it no longer resembled Jarl, but had long grey feathers protruding from its face, a snapping mouth that looked half-jaw and half-beak, and glittering eyes that oddly reminded Sam of the grey heron on the banks of the Coquet. It was a hideous and grotesque representation of nature and he knew it was no better than the crow-men. It raised long thin arms, threw back its head and started baying.
Sam knew it was calling to its brethren and if he stayed a moment longer he would have the horde who had attacked his home swarming through the orchard. Anger exploded in his head and then raced down through his body. He swept his arms up through the night and the air became a fizzing, galvanising flow, crackling and snapping, flowering through the darkness – and then a deafening silence brought everything to a stop as the creature dropped to the ground, unmoving and silent.
The voices, colour and electricity left Sam as quickly as they had come. The quiet night rushed in to fill the void and Sam and Emily were left standing like statues, breathless and immobile, whilst in the distance the sounds of fighting rang out through Birling Wood.
Then Emily ran to Eagan and bent down beside him.
‘What have they done?’ she cried.
She touched his face, but there was no response.
‘Is he alive?’ Sam asked.
‘I don’t know. We have to get help.’
Together they lifted Eagan. With Sam holding his body and Emily holdi
ng his legs, they moved off through the long lines of trees.
* * * * * *
Bretta was standing on the edge of the clearing, watching the Reivers’ whistling arrows thumping into the frenzied mass of terror that was spilling out of the dark trees. The horde came a second time, and again they were met by a wall of arrows that stopped them in their stride.
Bretta was readying herself for the moment when the arrows were spent and the rangers would come down on the horde on horseback. Her hope was that they would drive them from the clearing and back into the wood. She wasn’t sure how their fortunes would hold up once the arrows were gone and the advantage from the cavalry had faded. But if necessary, her rangers would break up into smaller fighting units and would fall back through the wood, fighting hand to hand with their short swords.
The crow-men were unnaturally quick, even though it looked as if they were having difficulty standing. Bretta quickly realised they weren’t fighting with weapons, but with claw-like bones protruding from strange twisted limbs. The noise that issued from their cruel beaks made her almost nauseous. She was hoping that Jolan would arrive soon from the King’s Seat. She would need his experience to repel these hordes from the Underland.
The girl and boy flashed through her thoughts. They’d given her only half the story. She’d heard of Oscar, of course – every self-respecting Reiver knew of him and of the journey of his fellowship to lands that were now part of Reiver folklore. But as far as she could tell, he’d died several years ago.
Her thoughts came back to the crow-men. More of them had reached the clearing now, as the shower of arrows was lighter. She’d come across these creatures once before. She’d trailed several through the Blindburn only days earlier. They had been different from the ones she was now facing in the wood, though. They had been dog-like, though her brother had said they’d reminded him of wolves.
Bretta shivered. Then she noticed that Blarus and Erin were now standing beside her and she drew strength from them.
‘Sam and the girl, have they gone?’
‘Yes,’ they said almost together.
‘Then let us do what must be done.’
And with that, Blarus was moving quickly to her right, whilst Erin, wrapped in her ranger cloak, was disappearing to her left.