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379 lines
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<head>
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<title>Mythlands - Chapter 23</title>
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<h1>23</h1>
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<p>
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They had travelled a difficult road since the battle of the forest. They were hungry and saddlesore, but Jack knew he had to keep going, even when he was
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half asleep behind Kerry on the great horse as it trudged up into the dry mountains beyond the plain.
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</p>
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<p>
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Declan followed close behind, guarding the rear, while Kerry found the trail and Jack used the compass in his head to keep them heading northwards when
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mist covered the high land at night and blocked out the stars. The little Leprechaun they had saved from the bird clung precariously to the horse's neck,
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eyes tight shut. He didn't like wide open spaces.
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</p>
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<p>
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The nights were cold and the days scorched and none of them knew how far they would have to travel.
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</p>
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<p>
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Without the <em>Book of Ways</em>, they were lost, and without the obsidian heart stone, they might never find a way back, but Jack was determined to keep
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them moving.
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</p>
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<p>
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The old Leprechaun had taken Jack and Kerry aside. "My brothers, and the heartwood, thank you for saving this sapling from the catcher-bird. You have a
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long and hard road to travel, and how it will go is hidden in shade. But there are ways and there are ways. And if the forest can help, our sapling will do
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what he can."
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</p>
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<p>
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At that, the little creature, hardly more than knee-high, clambered up the stirrups and clung to the mane. When they left the shelter of the trees, it
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clamped its eyes shut tight and rode on the horse's neck, while Kerry sought the route ahead.
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack was convinced that Corriwen had either escaped from the burning redoubt, or that she had been captured. They had searched the smouldering ruins,
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ignoring the smell and the clouds of flies that covered the bodies of the dead Scree, but found no sign at all, and no sign was a good sign, Jack thought.
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It confirmed she was still alive.
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</p>
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<p>
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He had already sensed that. There was no empty hollow in his heart that would have told him otherwise.
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack had no idea who had felled him; didn't know who had stolen the stone and the book, but he knew that first they had to find Corriwen.
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</p>
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<p>
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He had made a promise.
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</p>
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<p>
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It was Kerry who found the first signs. He had scouted along the trail north on foot, after someone said he remembered Corriwen had been with her cousin
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Brodick when the main gate had been smashed open.
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</p>
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<p>
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"He was horsed, is what I recall," the scarred fellow had said as he sharpened his sword on a whetstone.
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</p>
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<p>
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Five miles up the track, Kerry found a piece of cloth snagged on a hawthorn bush and thought it might be from Corriwen's hood-cloak. Further on, he found a
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strand of red hair caught in an overhead branch, about the same height as a rider might have been. It was the colour of spun copper.
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</p>
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<p>
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Alevin called a meeting of the troop leaders.
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</p>
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<p>
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"This young Coronal deserves our thanks, and my apologies," Alevin started. Declan stood beside him, silent and broad, solid as rock.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I called him traitor, but he repaid us by saving us." Alevin put his hand on Jack's shoulder. Kerry beamed with pride. "He bears the Red Hand of Cullian,
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and the sign of the Corona. Just as the Bards told us it would be. His coming here is surely a sign."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack didn't know what to say to that. He felt a blush creep from under his collar and kept his eyes firmly on the ground.
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</p>
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<p>
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"The Lady Corriwen is gone, but we believe Brodick may have saved her from the Scree. It may be that Mandrake's forces have taken her, but I think she is
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alive.
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</p>
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<p>
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"We have hard battles ahead, but we are not dead until they put pebbles on our eyes, so hope lives on."
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</p>
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<p>
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The men nodded agreement.
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</p>
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<p>
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"So, will you fight with me to break this curse of Mandrake?"
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</p>
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<p>
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Every man raised a right hand and made a fist. They swore to fight on.
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</p>
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<p>
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"And now," Alevin said, "we must listen to what this young Coronal has to say. Because it seems Mandrake is not our true enemy. Behind him is something
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much worse."
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</p>
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<p>
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He motioned Jack forward. "Jackflint and Stone-thrower. We owe you a debt. It will be some time before we can repay you, so we will borrow more. Tell the
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captains what they need to know."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack shuffled again, aware of all those eyes on him, and even more aware of how big and strong and old they seemed. It made him feel his lack of experience
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and lack of years.
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</p>
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<p>
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"All I can say is what the Bard told me," Jack began. "The Bard of Undine Water. Finbar."
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</p>
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<p>
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He raised his head, focussed on Declan. "Mandrake, he's trying to raise something up. Something called the Morrigan."
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</p>
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<p>
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A murmur rippled round the men. Some made signs in the air with their hands.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Long ago, your people buried her somewhere in the desert," Jack continued, still nervous. "Or the High Barrens, whatever you call them, but Mandrake found
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where they put her. He's learned how to get her out. By breaking a spell. You call it a <em>geas?</em>"
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</p>
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<p>
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"Old stories tell of the Bane-Shee curse," Declan said.
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</p>
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<p>
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"That's why he's building the dam, and cutting a channel through the hills. He thinks if he floods the desert, then she'll get loose."
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</p>
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<p>
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"And if she does," Alevin said quietly, "then the battle and all else is lost."
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</p>
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<p>
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"That's what the Bard says," Jack agreed. "We said we'd help Corriwen find the place, so whether she's been captured or gone on ahead, we still have to get
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there. That's where your sword is. The Redthorn sword."
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</p>
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<p>
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One of the Captains stepped forward.
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</p>
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<p>
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"No-one knows where the Black Barrow lies. The salt desert is blasted lands. Nothing grows there and if you travel there, you're walking dead."
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</p>
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<p>
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"I promised to help Corriwen find her father's sword," Jack said. "We know we have to go north, and Kerry here's a good tracker. If anybody can find her,
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he can."
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</p>
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<p>
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He raised his eyes again. "But you have to destroy the dam before the water gets too high. And you have to stop them cutting through the mountains. If you
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can do that, then everything might be all right. At least we might have a chance."
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</p>
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<p>
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"A chance is more than we've had for a while," Declan said.
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</p>
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<p>
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"So it seems," Alevin said, "we have three ways to go. To find the Redthorn sword. To find the Lady Corriwen. And to prevent Mandrake breaking the <em>geas.</em>"
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack held a hand up. "I want to find Corriwen."
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</p>
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<p>
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"As do we all," Alevin said. "This is what we will do."
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</p>
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<p>
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Very quickly he laid out a plan for Jack and Kerry to follow her trail, while he would ride hard to the dam and do their best to destroy it.
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</p>
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<p>
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Declan agreed with most of it, but he stood for a while and scratched at his yellow beard.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I'm thinking," he said, "that two boys alone won't get far."
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</p>
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<p>
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"We've done okay up until now," Kerry said.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Aye, maybe, but you never walked those blasted lands before. Me neither. But if you've no objections, you'll need a strong arm at your back. I say I take
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the road with you."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack looked at Kerry. He had seen Declan slaughter those big Scree when the gate fell. Strong arm was one way to describe him. Jack smiled.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I think that would be a really good idea," he said.
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</p>
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<p>
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A week later, they were getting close to the mountain plain and Jack knew they were on the right track. Corriwen had left a trail for them to follow.
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</p>
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<p>
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But none of them knew Mandrake was travelling westwards, at the head of a huge army, determined to find Corriwen Redthorn and her two companions and to
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finish Alevin and his fighters once and for all.
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</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>
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He sat inside a black covered wagon, drawn by half a dozen great-horses. His retinue of renegade chiefs and their men were outnumbered by the horde of
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Scree who marched alongside, keeping clear of the horses. The hauling beasts whinnied and stamped and it needed riders on the outrunners to keep them
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moving. They could sense Mandrake's evil and would have bolted if they hadn't been strapped in harness.
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</p>
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<p>
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Mandrake was alone in the wagon, covered with hides to keep the daylight out. He was talking again, talking to himself, so the renegade chiefs tried to
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make themselves believe, but they had heard the strange two-way conversation coming from his mouth in harsh scrapy voices. Despite their betrayal of the
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Redthorn chief, they would have killed Mandrake for his madness if his power hadn't been so great.
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</p>
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<p>
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But his power was indeed great. The heads of the Scree who had limped home, wounded and bleeding after the battle outside Sappeling Wood, were spiked on
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banner-poles, eyeless, noseless and earless. Mandrake might have been incandescent with rage at the time, but cutting up Scree cowards had calmed him a
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little.
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</p>
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<p>
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Now as he travelled westwards, gibbering in the darkness, he planned to destroy the renegades, and there would be no more to worry about.
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</p>
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<p>
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Behind him, the great storm the Morrigan had conjured, swirled in a black maelstrom. Under the ferocious clouds rain poured incessantly, filling the lake
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that was building behind his dam.
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</p>
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<p>
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The news had come in the night when Mandrake had been walking on the rim of the dam spanning the river gorge. Behind the massive wooden barrier, the waters
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were high, and tossed by violent winds, swamping the valley behind it as the river backed up. Already the pressure was making the dam creak alarmingly, but
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Mandrake knew it would hold for long enough.
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</p>
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<p>
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Two miles up from the dam, the people who had farmed the Redthorn lands now slaved, men, women and children, young and old, chipping and cutting at the
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stone of the thin ridge, driving a chasm towards the flooded valley. Already water was seeping through cracks in rainbow sprays, making the work even more
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treacherous, but Mandrake had no concerns for the diggers.
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</p>
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<p>
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There were more of them now, and work was faster, after the rest of the Scree failures from Sappeling Wood had been sent there as their punishment.
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</p>
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<p>
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"They'll all come out in the wash," he had cackled, and his retainers had laughed along with him, afraid not to join in.
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</p>
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<p>
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The time was almost at hand. The waters would soon be through.
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</p>
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<p>
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Visions came to him, along with the hunger that was always with him. Her<em> </em>hunger.
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</p>
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<p>
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The visions were of death, blood and bones; of savagery and destruction and he gave himself to the hunger. He saw cracks razor across stony ground and
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brimstone erupt from fissures and hellish things crawl from the deep dark. He saw flying beasts with skeletal faces filling the air, drawn from a foul
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underworld where <em>her</em> word was law.
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</p>
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<p>
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He saw Temair ravaged but raised again under his rule. Under <em>their</em> rule. He saw infinite power in his hands.
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</p>
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<p>
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But…and there was always a but.
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</p>
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<p>
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The girl had slipped through his fingers again; the boy had escaped, with the key-stone that would open worlds to their oppression.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Break the <em>geas,</em>"<em> </em>his voice cackled. They heard it from outside the wagon, high and shrill; the voice of a hag. "Dismantle the curse that
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has bound us."
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</p>
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<p>
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"So nearly there," his other voice responded. "The water is high and the dam holds. The cleft is almost cut through. The flood is imminent."
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</p>
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<p>
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"<em>We find </em>him<em> or else all is lost. World upon world."</em>
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</p>
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<p>
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"Nowhere else to hide. The fools destroyed the fort. They are all on the run."
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</p>
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<p>
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"<em>He escapes us again and again. Everything conspires against us."</em>
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</p>
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<p>
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"Luck, only luck. He is a pup. A piglet. He cannot escape us now."
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>"We must have it. We must have it. The Journeyman's Key. Find him. Find the heart stone." </em>
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The cackling voice grew to a screech. "<em>Find him. Kill him. Break his bones; eat his brains."</em>
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>"But give me my KEY!</em>
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"
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</p>
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<p>
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The black wagon rolled on at a gallop, and the voices inside it continued to screech, while the Scree ran alongside, ready for battle.
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</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>
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The land was hot and parched; water was hard to find. Brodick had rested the horse in the shadow of a stunted tree while Corriwen slept fitfully.
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</p>
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<p>
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They had come so far together, Corriwen and Jack and Kerry Malone.
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</p>
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<p>
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Now it was just her and her cousin Brodick, and despite the anguish she felt, the empty space in her heart where she had held her two friends close, she
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knew she had to live with the ache of loss and keep travelling.
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</p>
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<p>
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She had questioned Brodick about the night of the battle, but all he could tell her was that he had seen Jack fall in the melee, felled by a Scree club.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Could he have lived?"
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</p>
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<p>
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Brodick shrugged and put an arm around her shoulder.
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</p>
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<p>
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"It was a heavy blow," he said gently. "and he wore no armour."
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</p>
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<p>
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They had ridden for seven days now, ever northwards through stony country and then up to this dry place where the rocks were ground by wind into dry sand.
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She kept looking back the way they had come, in case Kerry might have found their trail. Corriwen had cut pieces of her cloak and tied them to scrubby
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branches. Twice she had used her knife to cut locks of her own hair and leave them as markers, just in case. The Salt Barrens were to the north. How far,
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neither of them knew. No-one in living memory had ever travelled there. No one, except mad Mandrake.
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</p>
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<p>
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She had sat behind Brodick, holding to his belt, glad of the closeness and fellowship of her cousin who had stood over her and fought Scree before they
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could catch her. She owed him a debt she could never repay. Now he was her protector for the final part of this awful journey. He would keep her safe if he
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could.
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</p>
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<p>
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"We must go North," she had insisted, when he had veered the great horse east.
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</p>
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<p>
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"There's nothing there but mountains and blasted lands," he said. "It's been cursed since the old days."
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</p>
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<p>
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"That's why we have to go there," she said. "That's where the Redthorn sword is. Without it, Temair will never be whole again."
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</p>
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<p>
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"It's only a sword," he said.
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</p>
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<p>
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"It's Cullian's sword," she answered quickly. "It has been handed down the generations and kept Temair united against all evil. Mandrake has used it to
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wake her, so the Bard says. The burden is on my shoulders, and I have to carry it for the sake of my brother and father and for Temair."
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</p>
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<p>
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He shrugged. "It's not where I would choose to travel, but if your mind is made up."
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</p>
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<p>
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"I haven't the pleasure of choice. I wish there was another way, but there isn't."
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</p>
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<p>
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"Well," he smiled and ruffled her hair, the way cousins can, even with a Redthorn. "If that's the way it is, there's no point arguing, once the dice are
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thrown."
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</p>
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<p>
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"They rolled out long ago."
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</p>
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<p>
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"So it's up to the blasted lands then," he said.
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</p>
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<p>
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When she woke, Brodick was just a dark shape. The sky was inky in the east and in the west, it was still aglow with the dying day. She rubbed her eyes,
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tried to ignore the fierce ache in her heart, and when she opened them again, she saw the cloud in the western sky.
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</p>
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<p>
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It glowed a fiery red, lit by the embers of the sun.
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</p>
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<p>
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And it hung in the sky, in the shape of a handprint against the cobalt blue.
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>The red hand of Cullian</em>
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.
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</p>
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<p>
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Corriwen's heart did a slow, lazy flip. She blinked against the glare of the fiery cloud, leant back against the saddle. Directly overhead, she saw the
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Corona blaze, five points of light like jewels on dark velvet. The stars held her eyes and as she watched, with the red hand glowing in peripheral vision,
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out of the evening sky flew five swans, flying high enough to catch the dying rays of the sun.
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</p>
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<p>
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They flew, not in the chevron formation she had watched every spring when the water-birds came back home, but in a semi circle.
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</p>
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<p>
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They soared overhead and the last light caught their beating wings until, miraculously, each bird covered each star in a fantastic shimmer of light just as
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they flew into the sun's shadow, causing the corona to flare like torches before the birds vanished into darkness
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</p>
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<p>
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At that moment Corriwen Redthorn knew, deep inside herself, heart and soul, that Jack Flint was still alive.
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</p>
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<p>
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The bards had sent her a sign.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</body>
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