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478 lines
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<head>
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<title>Mythlands - Chapter 6</title>
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<h1>6</h1>
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<p>
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Kerry was so surprised he loosened his grip on the dark shape. It screeched again and spun away, but he grabbed fast and caught a leg, dragged back and
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held tight. Jack reached and pulled down a wide hood which shadowed the face. The small figure pulled free and stood on the shingle, hands down on splayed
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knees, hauling for breath. Moonlight limned short amber hair.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I thought it was a cat," Kerry said. "Or a wolf."
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<p>
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The girl, wiped water from her face and stood there, leaning against the roots of a willow tree, chest heaving with effort.
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<p>
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"A wolf?" she finally spoke. "A wolf would have had your throat."
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<p>
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She had a lilting accent that reminded Jack of the western Irish, or even the Scottish islands, but he was surprised that he could understand her at all.
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</p>
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<p>
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"And I'll have it too." She stuck a hand inside the short cape and another knife flashed, thin and sharp.
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack simply put a hand on her shoulder.
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</p>
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<p>
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"We won't hurt you," he said softly. "Take it easy."
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</p>
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<p>
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"You trapped me like a beast. You expect me to believe you?"
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</p>
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<p>
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"We're lost here," Jack said. "I don't know this place. We just took precautions, that's all. You could have been anybody. Anything."
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<p>
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She considered this for a moment, then nodded and sank to her haunches.
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</p>
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<p>
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"There's worse than me in these woods, believe me. I've seen them." She held on to the knife, and her eyes kept shifting from Jack to the blade in Kerry's
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hand, as if she was gauging the distance, estimating her chances. Jack kept his hand on her shoulder.
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</p>
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<p>
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"We've got no fight with you," he said. "We don't want to fight. But we don't want you to use that on us."
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</p>
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<p>
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She breathed out, considering.
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</p>
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<p>
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"First, tell me who you are, and what you're doing wandering the darkwood?"
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</p>
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<p>
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"You came sneaking up on us," Kerry said. "You tell us who <em>you</em> are."
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</p>
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<p>
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She turned her face up to them and Jack could see how slight she looked there, hood fallen on to her shoulders, breath still coming in shallow gasps. In
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the moonlight her hair had the sheen of new copper.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I am Corriwen Redthorn," she said.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Is that supposed to mean something?" Kerry was still on an adrenalin high. He'd never talk to a girl like that in Ardmore.
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack held out his hand. "I'm Jack Flint. And this is Kerry Malone."
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</p>
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<p>
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She looked warily at the hand, checking him out for some sleight, saw none, and slowly reached far enough to touch his fingers. Her hand barely brushed his
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and drew back fast. Her eyes, even in this light, were luminous green. It was only the briefest touch, but Jack felt a shudder ripple through him, like a
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jolt of hot electricity that shook him to the core as if he'd touched a live wire.
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</p>
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<p>
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When he found his voice, all he could say was: "We're kind of…lost."
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</p>
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<p>
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She drew herself up, considering a response, holding his eyes with hers. Finally she seemed to come to a decision.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I am Corriwen Redthorn. The last Redthorn," the girl said. She reached again and this time she took his hand in hers and held it tight as if afraid that
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he might disappear. "And I have been lost for a long time."
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</p>
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<p>
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A long silence stretched between them. The girl's simple statement was so bleak, so empty of hope, that Jack Flint felt his heart do a slow lazy flip
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inside him.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Well, we're all lost together," Kerry said beside them.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Listen, I'm really sorry about the face." He kicked at the shingle with his toe. "I thought you were something else."
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</p>
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<p>
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She turned towards him as if he'd just appeared, and whatever it was that sparked between Jack and the girl snapped when she released his hand. She drew
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herself up and they could see she was wearing a hooded cape that came almost to her knees. In the dark here, it was perfect camouflage.
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</p>
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<p>
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"It was dark, and you had a knife," Kerry said defensively. "You could have been anybody."
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</p>
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<p>
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"Well, I suppose I could." she agreed, "You have to stay in the shadows here. Like an animal. It's the way to stay alive."
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</p>
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<p>
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"Can't be that bad," Kerry said. "It's not the jungle."
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</p>
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<p>
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She glanced at him, as if puzzled by the word, then turned back to Jack. "And what are you doing here on the far side of Temair?"
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</p>
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<p>
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"Temair." Kerry said. "There's that word again."
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</p>
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<p>
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"I was talking to your master," Corriwen Redthorn said .
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</p>
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<p>
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"Master? Me?" Jack felt a smile work on him. "No. No. We're pals. Friends."
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</p>
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<p>
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"But this boy wears skins, and you have the plaid." She looked Kerry up and down, "And why is he carrying a man's sword? Is he a squire?"
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</p>
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<p>
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"It's fancy dress," Kerry started. He didn't want to tell her where he'd found the sword. "We were at a party."
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</p>
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<p>
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"It's a long story," Jack butted in. He was relieved that they wouldn't have to fight any more tonight, and puzzled by the odd sensation that had jolted
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him when she'd taken his hand. "Let's get back to the fire."
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</p>
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<p>
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She ate as if she was starving and did not lift her head until the can of beans and the slices of corned beef were finished. She looked as if she could
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have licked the last of the tomato juice from the can. Jack handed her a tin mug with dark tea and she sipped at it, hugging the sides to savour the heat.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Whatever this is," she said, in that lilt that he still couldn't decide was Irish or highland, "it puts heart back into a soul. All I've had is a fish and
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a coney or two. And a bristlehog and I hope never to eat another."
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</p>
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<p>
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They watched her sip slowly, a slender figure huddled in her cape and hide boots. Her legs were thorn-scratched. The two thin-bladed knifes nestled against
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each other in a twin sheath on her belt. Kerry put another couple of logs on the fire and Jack waited until she had finished the tea before he spoke again.
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</p>
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<p>
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"So where on earth is this place?" he asked. "We thought somebody was trying to ambush us and we set some snares."
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</p>
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<p>
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"So you're gamepoachers then?"
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</p>
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<p>
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"No. We're just lost." He thought for a minute while she scanned his eyes, trying to assess him for truth. "We came here through a…some kind of
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gateway, and here we are. We want to go home."
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</p>
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<p>
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"Aye, and wouldn't we all if we had a home to go home to," she said softly. Jack heard a deep and melancholy sadness in her. "Here's three of us and far
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from home, and little chance of getting it back."
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</p>
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<p>
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"So what are you doing here?" Kerry asked. "Wandering around the trees all by yourself?"
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</p>
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<p>
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"I'm hunted," she said simply. Above them, a stutter of dry lightning strobed through the canopy, and she raised her eyes up. The light flashed back green.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I came to find my brother." It was barely a whisper. "My brother Cerwin. He stood for Redthorn House and the Dalriada against the mountain people. The
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Scree. But my uncle Mandrake tricked him. Cerwin did not know Mandrake led the Scree and fell into a trap."
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</p>
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<p>
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She reached a tentative hand and clasped Jack's fingers in her own, holding tight as if she was afraid of falling.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I found my dear brother and his wasted army on the moor. They had fought hard and sold themselves dear. I never saw such a sight. The Mandrake's Scree
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have been on my heels since."
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</p>
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<p>
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"I think we saw the place," Kerry said. "On the hill. There's dead bodies all over the place. The smell would have knocked you down."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack punched him on the shoulder and Kerry stopped talking, but the girl simply nodded. "The best of them lie rotting where they fell. My people and the
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foul Scree and their beasts, a spread for the roaks and ravens."
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</p>
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<p>
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"What caused it?" Jack asked gently. Another flash of lightning flickered overhead and illuminated the immense trunks that seemed to march away into the
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far darkness.
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</p>
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<p>
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"My uncle Cadwill, my father's twin brother was the cause," she began. "Always the jealous one, twisted and turned with bile because he was the younger by
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mere minutes. The Redthorn sword could have been his but for those ten minutes, and a terrible thing that would have been. Now he has the sword and the
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Scree armies. He calls himself the Mandrake now, and he has put them over the Dalriada, his own people."
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</p>
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<p>
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"Who are these Scree then?" Kerry couldn't contain his curiosity.
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</p>
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<p>
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She drew her eyes away from Jack's. "They are the Fomorians. Banished to the north mountains back long ago. Savage and soul-less beasts they are."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack drew in his breath. He had read of the Fomorians in the Major's library. They were in the oldest Celtic legends.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I think we saw some of them on the moor," Kerry said. "Look like they hit every branch fallin' out the ugly tree."
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</p>
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<p>
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"They fight for Mandrake now. Some say he found riches and pays for his army."
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</p>
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<p>
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"I don't get this," Kerry said. "You're some sort of princess, right?"
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</p>
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<p>
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"My father was the Landholder, if that's what you mean."
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</p>
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<p>
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"And we've walked right into a war zone? Between you and these ugly-bugs?"
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</p>
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<p>
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She nodded, her face registering surprise at his ignorance.
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</p>
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<p>
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"So this bad uncle Mandrake, he's killed your family and taken over. What's that all about?"
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</p>
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<p>
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"It's about power and evil," she said simply. "Mandrake is evil and he wants power. I'm the last of the Redthorns and until I am dead, he can't be sure of
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the power. That's why he's hunting me down."
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</p>
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<p>
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She paused as another flash of lightning lit her face, then quickly turned to look out past Kerry into the dark forest. Jack saw her body tense like a
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spring, felt it in the tightening grip on his fingers.
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</p>
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<p>
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"What's wrong?"
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</p>
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<p>
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"Something's coming."
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</p>
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<p>
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"I hear it," Kerry said. Jack heard nothing at all. He sat still and listened.
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</p>
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<p>
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The far night birds had gone silent. The forest around them was suddenly still.
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</p>
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<p>
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Then he heard it, a vibration in the air, so deep and low it was felt as much as heard.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Thunder?" Kerry whispered. Corriwen Redthorn shook her head. The lightning had been far away, silent flickers in the night.
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</p>
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<p>
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The vibration came again and now Jack could hear it clearly. It did sound like distant thunder. The girl sat stock still, straining. Her body was as tense
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as a bowstring.
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack felt the shiver in the ground under his haunches.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Can you climb?"
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</p>
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<p>
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He turned towards her. "Climb…?"
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</p>
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<p>
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The rumble was louder now, closer. The ground trembled. Out in the dark, he heard the rustle and crack of trees whipping back and forth, branches snapped
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underfoot.
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</p>
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<p>
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The girl was suddenly on her feet in one liquid motion, looking right and left. Jack heaved up, gasping against the ache in his chest. The satchel was in
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his hand. Kerry was beside him. He snatched up the backpack and drew the sword from the ground.
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</p>
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<p>
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"What's happening?" Kerry asked. "An earthquake?"
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</p>
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<p>
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She moved fast, tugging at Jack's sleeve, pulled him with her beyond the fire to a big gnarled tree that might have been a beech, its branches contorted
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like muscular limbs.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Climb now," she said urgently, bushing him towards the lowest branch. "The beasts are running."
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</p>
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<p>
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The noise was like thunder now, not distant, but suddenly very close. Jack heaved himself up, grunting against the ache and stiffness in his bones. Kerry
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pushed him from underneath until he was athwart the thick bough. He boosted the girl up and then followed easily.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Higher," she ordered. "Climb, man. Up and up."
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</p>
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<p>
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The branches were so thick that climbing was relatively easy. Jack made it up one, reached another, felt her hands urging him onwards, until he was twenty
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feet above the forest floor. He stopped, panting for breath. He could have done this in seconds only the day before. Now it drained him of strength.
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</p>
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<p>
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The tree began to shudder as if it had quick life of its own and the hairs on the back of his neck rose in hackles. Out beyond the firelight shadows were
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moving fast, crashing through the undergrowth. He could hear them bawling in panic. Saplings whipped from side to side.
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</p>
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<p>
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The first big animal thundered through a thicket and sent up a spray of leaves under its hooves. It came towards the fire and then veered away from the
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light. Jack got a glimpse of jagged antlers spread so wide they would have spanned a room. One tine caught a reedy trunk and simply lopped it off in the
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passing. They could hear the gasp of breath and see steam rising from its flanks as it ploughed on. Right behind it a cluster of smaller deer rippled past
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and were gone into the shadows beyond.
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</p>
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<p>
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Yet the thundering grew louder, and out in the distance Jack heard the howling and snarling that had first sent them deeper into the forest. Before he
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could speak, another great beast lumbered, bawling into the clearing. It was as black as night with great scythe-shaped horns curving out on either side,
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heavy enough to completely destroy the thicket as it crashed through. Behind it a whole herd of big animals came in a phalanx, side by side, smashing the
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thorns flat. Thick hides and heavy horns shuddered the tree they were in. Out there, a whole tree came crashing down and Jack wondered what could have been
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big enough and panicked enough to do that.
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</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
Something smaller came whipping out of the undergrowth, snickering in fear and loped right across the clearing straight through the fire. Sparks and embers
|
||
|
|
fountained upwards. Flames caught dry leaves and flickered upwards in seconds. A small bush burst into flames and a runnel of fire climbed a dry
|
||
|
|
honeysuckle creeper. Smoke billowed up towards them.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
"Fire," Jack said. He tugged at Kerry and pointed down. "We have to get out of here."
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
"You'll get squashed flat, man." The big black bulls, whatever they were, came on and on, churning up the leaf-litter, snorting and grunting in herd-panic,
|
||
|
|
wheeling to the left when they smelt the smoke.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
And out there, the snarls and howls were getting louder. It was clear to Jack and Kerry that whatever made those awesome sounds was what caused the
|
||
|
|
apocalyptic stampede.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
As soon as the big black herd had crashed their way past, leaving a trail of devastation and splintered trees behind them, Corriwen Redthorn began to move,
|
||
|
|
hand under hand, back down the tree.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
"There might be more things," Kerry said.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
"There <em>are</em> more things," she said flatly. "And you don't ever want to meet them." She used one hand to point in the direction the big animals had
|
||
|
|
fled. "We follow them."
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
"What's coming?" Jack asked. He really didn't want to meet what made those slavering, vicious noises out there.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
"The Scree," she said, already three great limbs below him, and moving with lithe ease. "They're scouring the forest."
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
"What do they want?" He looked down and she paused.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
"They want <em>me</em>," she said. "But they'll take you both, so climb down Jack Flint. You're going to have to run."
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
His heart sank. He had trouble enough walking, and the climb had drained him.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
"Come on Jack," Kerry said when they were on the churned ground. Over to the left, the fire had taken hold of some fallen branches and flames were reaching
|
||
|
|
upwards towards a thick pine. Already the scent of burning resin was heavy on the air. Kerry snatched at his sleeve. "I'm not ready to roast."
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
They moved then, following in the wake of the great herd, with the howling and snarling too close behind them. The ground was soft, churned by hooves, but
|
||
|
|
logs and branches and trunks criss-crossed where they had tumbled. They got to a clearing and Jack had to stop for breath. He felt as if a vice was clamped
|
||
|
|
around his ribs. Kerry was jittering with the need to keep moving. The girl dashed across the clearing, hair glinting in fine moonlight.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
A huge shape crashed out of the bushes straight towards her and she skidded to a halt. Jack got a glimpse of a great flat snout and pairs of curving tusks
|
||
|
|
all in a row. Red eyes glinted in moonlight and bristled hackles ridged along a humped back, just behind a thick spiked collar. Behind it, a grey, manlike
|
||
|
|
figure that was squat and muscular hauled at a length of chain.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
The tethered beast grunted, so low Jack felt it vibrate in his belly and then came charging at her, twisting its head in jerking lunges, trying to catch
|
||
|
|
her with its tusks. The handler grunted something alien that sounded like grinding stones. Corriwen pushed herself backwards. Jack saw a flash and one of
|
||
|
|
her knives was in her hand and his mind was telling him the little knife would do no good at all.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
Before he even knew it, he had the bow off his shoulder and an arrow nocked on the string. The grey handler stepped forward, unshipped the leash and the
|
||
|
|
tusker came powering forward, squealing and slavering as Corriwen threw herself backwards, rolling over and over, just inches from those wicked scythes.
|
||
|
|
The handler, the Scree, whatever it was, raised a big wooden club edged with spikes of stone.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
"No," Jack bawled and ran forward as Corriwen tumbled desperately away. The motion caught the great hog's beady eye and it wheeled like a top, swung its
|
||
|
|
ugly snout and one of its tusks sliced through the side of his jacket like a razor as he leapt to the side.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
The grey man raised his club, and brought it down on Corriwen as she rolled. It hit the ground with a shattering thump and Kerry dashed in, slashing down
|
||
|
|
with the sword with such force the haft of the club cut clean through.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
The hog's momentum carried it right past Jack into a thicket and it wheeled, sliced through twigs and branches and came at him again. He raised the bow,
|
||
|
|
drew back and let the arrow fly.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
It caught the thing in the eye. It was purely an accident, <em>surely an accident,</em> Jack thought, but the shaft buried itself right in that glittering
|
||
|
|
red bead, right up to the black flight feathers.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
The beast screeched, swung its head, still running, its humped back powering up and down. It came straight towards him and Jack threw himself to the side.
|
||
|
|
It thundered past, five, six, seven steps then twisted madly and caught the handler with its leading tusk, scoring a gaping slice up its thigh. Then,
|
||
|
|
before it could turn on them again, it flopped snout down into the churned earth. Its back legs scrabbled mindlessly, sending up bows of soil, and then,
|
||
|
|
miraculously, the motion stopped.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
The Scree roared in fury. Two others appeared beside him, one wielding a broad axe. The second had another club. They leapt into the clearing, both
|
||
|
|
converging on Jack. He tried to nock another arrow, but they crossed the distance in barely more than the blink of an eye. Up close he saw a broad warty
|
||
|
|
face under a narrow skull. It had the texture of sandstone, and eyes so black they looked like holes into night. It snarled at him, raised the axe and he
|
||
|
|
tried to pull back.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
The axe came swinging down. He saw it in almost slow motion, the torsion of thick shoulder muscles, the bulge of forearms, and there was nothing he could
|
||
|
|
do.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
Then Corriwen Redthorn flashed in beside him, and her knives glittered in the moonlight. She was in past him, arms a blur and out on the other side, light
|
||
|
|
as a fawn and spinning like a ballerina.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
Blood spurted from the squat thing's belly. Jack saw two lines, one across the abdomen and another under a thick armpit that opened up like zippers and the
|
||
|
|
creature staggered backwards as the axe swung to the side, missing Jack's head by a scant inch. It continued onwards as the thing spun, grunting, and
|
||
|
|
caught its companion on the knee. Bone crunched. Something flew off into the bushes and the third creature looked down at its severed leg with an
|
||
|
|
expression of dull bewilderment. It tried to take a step forward and toppled sideways. The first one roared and came running in. Kerry caught it with a
|
||
|
|
swipe of the sword and for a second or more it stood there, vacant surprise clear on its ugly face. Its jaw was trying to work but no sound came out. From
|
||
|
|
under its chin, blood drenched a studded leather jerkin and without a word the thing fell face-first into the dirt.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
Corriwen spun again, fast as a stoat, flicked her knife at the crippled creature that thrashed and snorted in the leaf litter. Whatever she did, it stopped
|
||
|
|
snorting and thrashing. It quivered for a second and then flopped like a puppet whose strings have been cut.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
"Move," she said, "if you want to live."
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
Kerry hauled at Jack and they followed her out of the clearing. Behind them, the howling was so near Jack could almost feel breath on the back of his neck,
|
||
|
|
and that helped force him onwards, stumbling over fallen trunks and using others as pathways through the tangles. Every now and again he would look back
|
||
|
|
and see the shapes blundering through the scrub and bushes until they reached a rise where mossy rocks poked through. He stopped for a second, gasping for
|
||
|
|
breath.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
"Go on," he urged Kerry and the girl. "I'll never keep up."
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
He nocked an arrow and put another two beside him, waiting on one knee on the rise, even as Kerry dragged at him. Below them, two Scree came running in,
|
||
|
|
with a huge dog on a chain. It snarled and snapped, fangs jagged and white in the moonlight.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
Jack took careful aim and planted a barb in the hound's chest. It screamed, high and wavery, turned and savaged its handler, going for the throat. The
|
||
|
|
other Scree tugged at it, hands round its neck and the dog rounded on him, snapping at a thick arm. The Scree bawled, trying to shake it loose. Jack
|
||
|
|
snatched up the arrows and let Kerry haul him along the track, forcing him onwards behind the running shape of the girl.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
They found a deer track that made the going easier, but Jack's chest was aching badly now, ribs constricted so tight that every breath was like fire. He
|
||
|
|
thought he could taste blood, but he forced himself on. Behind him the howling and snarling seemed to fill the whole forest.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
Then they were slip-sliding down a steep slope. Kerry tumbled head over heels, landed miraculously on his feet, shook his had and grabbed Jack's arm as if
|
||
|
|
nothing had happened. Over the lip the slope steepened and they were not running any more, but sliding through thick leaves. Ahead of them Jack thought he
|
||
|
|
heard water, but all his attention was on the sounds behind them. They hit the flat, three of them all in a tangle that knocked the wind out of Jack and
|
||
|
|
sent a searing pain twisting inside him, so fierce it made him cry out.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
"It's the river," Corriwen cried. "Into the water. Don't stop." She urged them both, tugging at their sleeves, pushing them ahead of her.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
The water was cold, shallow but cold and they were out ten feet, fifteen feet before it started to deepen.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
"Into the deep," she said, gasping. "The Scree sink."
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
Kerry jammed the sword through the loop of the backpack. He was up to his waist, then up to his chest.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
"I hate to say this," he said. "But I sink as well."
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
</body>
|
||
|
|
</html>
|