mirror of
https://gitlab.silvrtree.co.uk/martind2000/booksnew.git
synced 2025-01-27 14:06:17 +00:00
101 lines
13 KiB
HTML
101 lines
13 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
|
||
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
|
||
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
|
||
<head>
|
||
<title>Spellbinder - Chapter 15</title>
|
||
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="imperaWeb.css"/>
|
||
<link rel="stylesheet" type= "application/vnd.adobe-page-template+xml" href= "page-template.xpgt"/>
|
||
</head>
|
||
<body>
|
||
<div id="text">
|
||
<div class="section" id="xhtmldocuments">
|
||
<h1>15</h1><p>It was night and they sat round a campfire a mile or so outside the town. Brand perched on a stool close to the flames. The rest of the troupe formed a circle and drank a hot brew from a big pot.</p>
|
||
<p>"Score did the right thing," Brand said. "That would have been you on that jail-cart. You can't help anyone when you can't help yourself, am I right?"</p>
|
||
<p>Jack had to agree. It had happened to them before, and Kerry had accused him of cowardice before he saw sense. It was hard to see sense, though, when the one person they had come to find was caught and felled.</p>
|
||
<p>"You have to pick your moment," Brand went on. "And the moment always comes."</p>
|
||
<p>"We have to find her," Kerry blurted. He hadn't eaten a thing. His stomach was still churning at the thought of Corriwen dashed to the ground.</p>
|
||
<p>"That's the easy part," Brand said. Score nodded. Natterjack stuffed half a smoked ham into his wide mouth, closed those bugging eyes and swallowed with a look of sheer pleasure. "They'll race her to Wolfen castle and spare no horse on the way. Bold Dermott and his spellbinder have been combing all Eirinn for your friend."</p>
|
||
<p>"So why have we stopped here?"</p>
|
||
<p>"More haste, less speed," Brand assured them. "Sure, we're commanded to entertain Dermott in his sea-hold. Loves a good show does the Lord of Wolfen. He's crowning himself king of the southlands and he wants to make a celebration of it on the midsummer. That's where we're travelling, to let him see our show, and you're welcome to travel along."</p>
|
||
<p>Kerry was itching to be up and away. The troopers and the prison-cart had sped along the road as if lives depended on speed. He looked at the fat ponies that hauled the <em>Vagaband</em> circus. The comparison was clear. These were no racehorses.</p>
|
||
<p>"How far away is it?"</p>
|
||
<p>"As the crow flies? Two days. As the road twists, maybe four."</p>
|
||
<p>"So we should get a move on!" Kerry insisted.</p>
|
||
<p>"Aye, we will. Once we're fed and watered and rested."</p>
|
||
<p>Kerry hauled to his feet, drew his sword, spun around in clear frustration.</p>
|
||
<p>"Come on Jack. We have to get going."</p>
|
||
<p>Jack looked at Brand who returned the look with an encouraging smile. There was something in that look which told him to take a breath, not be hasty. Brand and Score had saved them from capture, twice in two days. They might be thieves and pickpockets, but hadn't the Book of Ways predicted the meeting at the crossroads?</p>
|
||
<p>He took Kerry's wrist and sat him back down again.</p>
|
||
<p>"I think we should see what the book has to tell us first," he whispered.</p>
|
||
<p>"The book was right," Kerry hissed back. "It said time was running out."</p>
|
||
<p class='break'>* * *</p>
|
||
<p>Corriwen was not sure of she had dreamed it. Her eyes had opened briefly as the prison-cart rolled through the town gate and onto the road, past a line of little caravans. For an instant, before the darkness rolled in again, the thought she saw Jack Flint.</p>
|
||
<p>She tried to swim up out of the miasma, ignoring the pain in every joint and the blood that clogged her nose, but the effort was too great. She slumped down again and the darkness took her away.</p>
|
||
<p class='break'>* * *</p>
|
||
<p>They were under the caravan, sheltering in the dry, whole beyond the wheels, a thin cold rain soaked the ground. Kerry had his little flashlight out. Jack opened his pack and drew out the roll of leather that protected the Book of Ways.</p>
|
||
<p>As he opened it, something else rolled out of the bag, glinting in the torchlight, and immediately Jack saw himself back in the dark of the Drumlin when the spectre of the old warrior had come out of the shadows and reached for the heart-stone.</p>
|
||
<p>The hand that had been long white bone had raised towards him. Something had gleamed in the corner of Jack's vision. The warrior hand held a torc, almost a complete ring of gold.</p>
|
||
<p>"<em>Talisman for a king</em>," the dream-spectre had said. "<em>For peace and harmony and an end to wicked ways."</em></p>
|
||
<p>"It was a dream!" Jack breathed. He had been sure of it. </p>
|
||
<p>But the golden torc was real and heavy in his hands.</p>
|
||
<p>"Some dream," Kerry said when he explained the inexplicable. "You could dream Corriwen right back here and we could all go home."</p>
|
||
<p>But there was something about the torc that had to be important. If a long dead hero <em>had</em> visited him in the night and left this with him, it was for a reason. He put it carefully back into his pack and opened the book. Kerry shone the light onto the page and they waited until the words appeared for them.</p>
|
||
<p class="centered"><em>In Mists of Time a low road take</em></p>
|
||
<p class="centered"><em>Through skeins a stranger journey make</em></p>
|
||
<p class="centered"><em>Careful though upon this travel</em></p>
|
||
<p class="centered"><em>See the winding road unravel</em></p>
|
||
<p class="centered"><em>Straight and swift as any ley</em></p>
|
||
<p class="centered"><em>Wander not from on this way</em></p>
|
||
<p class="centered"><em>Peril waits at journey's end</em></p>
|
||
<p class="centered"><em>New friends aid to find a friend</em></p>
|
||
<p class="centered"><em>Journeyman, forewarned, beware!</em></p>
|
||
<p class="centered"><em>Onward lies the serpent lair.</em></p>
|
||
<p>"I wish it would just say ‘Go north' or ‘watch out for dragons'."</p>
|
||
<p>Jack agreed. "But beggars can't be choosers," he whispered. "Let's take Brand's advice. There's safety in numbers, and if he's going the same way, we should travel with them. I bet Score Four-arm can handle himself in a tight corner."</p>
|
||
<p>It was late and the campfire was sizzling in the rain and there was nothing to do but get some sleep until morning, when Brand had promised them they would be on their way.</p>
|
||
<p>And true enough, the line of caravans was on the road before dawn, taking the twisting road away from the town where Corriwen had been captured. Kerry was still in an agony of haste as the little fat ponies ambled along as if they were out for a stroll, but a few miles along the road, the track curved down into a thick stand of trees where wide branches curved over them in green arches.</p>
|
||
<p>Further down the road, Brand turned the procession to the left at a fork on the trail as the ground fell away. Jack smelt cool damp on the air as they descended further and the forest grew denser until they were travelling through a fine mist that thickened with every mile until it enclosed them completely like a veil.</p>
|
||
<p>Jack and Kerry, up on the buckboard with Score, huddled under their hoods in the chill of the morning.</p>
|
||
<p>"Brand's taken the left hand road," he said. "It's the best way for where we're going, and there's nobody to follow us here. But it gets a bit tricky along this way, so even if we stop, don't stray from the path. You get into that mist and you'll never get out again. Not in this life."</p>
|
||
<p>"It's only a bit of fog," Kerry said. "I've seen worse blowing onshore back home."</p>
|
||
<p>Jack wasn't quite sure. There was something odd about the mist, so white and thick, rolling in from either side so that even the dank forest was completely hidden from view. As he stared at it, he could imagine he saw pale shapes writhing within its depths, and he remembered the words from their Book of Ways: <em>In Mists of Time a low road take.</em></p>
|
||
<p>For a while there was silence. Even the rattling of the wheels was muffled by the fog, as if wrapped in gossamer. Ahead of them, the next caravan was a dim shape. On either side, a pale void, as if all the world had shrunk down to themselves, the little horse, and the road they were on.</p>
|
||
<p>"Where is this place?" Jack asked. His voice sounded thin and smothered.</p>
|
||
<p>"A road few know of." Score said. "And fewer take. With good reason too. Brand knows all the low roads. We call 'em <em>By-Ways.</em> Takes us by and beyond."</p>
|
||
<p>He turned to the boys, all hands juggling on automatic. "The mist hides a whole shebang of things you don't want to look at. And don't you pay no heed to anything you might hear, either. Short-cuts are fine and handy, but to travel them, you got to go <em>between</em> places."</p>
|
||
<p>Jack thought he got the meaning. He and Kerry had gone <em>between</em> places and ended up here in Eirinn. There were some things you just had to accept, he decided, or you could go crazy.</p>
|
||
<p>Kerry muttered under his breath and Jack saw he had quietly drawn his sword.</p>
|
||
<p>"Creepy place," he said.</p>
|
||
<p>The words were barely out when a deep bass rumble shivered the struts of the wagon, like a fog-horn over still water. Jack jumped.</p>
|
||
<p>"What was that?"</p>
|
||
<p>"Who knows, or wants ever to know. There's things lost in yon mist."</p>
|
||
<p>The rumble came again, so powerful and slow it made the hairs on the back of Jack's neck rise like hackles. Then they heard a wet sucking sound, once, twice, as if something very big was moving in thick swamp. </p>
|
||
<p>"Can this horse go faster?" Kerry asked. "Like a whole lot faster?"</p>
|
||
<p>They moved on and the sound faded out behind them, bringing another silence for some time before Jack heard something else and he turned on the buckboard to peer to the left.</p>
|
||
<p>It came again, high and clear. It was the sound of a child crying beyond the side of the road.</p>
|
||
<p>The mist billowed in towards them and the crying came, plaintive and hungry at the same time. The cry of a child left alone too long.</p>
|
||
<p>Jack instinctively moved towards the sound. Score touched him gently.</p>
|
||
<p>"Maybe it fell off a wagon," Jack said. "We have to help it."</p>
|
||
<p>"No baby with us. And it's not what you hear."</p>
|
||
<p>Jack strained, trying to see through the blank gauze. A motion, barely perceptible, twisted in the mist, began to solidify. </p>
|
||
<p>"I see her," Kerry said.</p>
|
||
<p>It was a girl, small and thin and ragged. Great tearful eyes found them and silently pleaded with them.</p>
|
||
<p>She held up skinny arms to them.</p>
|
||
<p>"Help me." Jack heard the whisper, like a voice in his head. "Oh please help me. I'm lost and all alone."</p>
|
||
<p>"Just you look straight on," Score advised. </p>
|
||
<p>"She's just a kid," Kerry said. He bent to put his sword down, but the hairs on Jack's neck were still walking and he clamped a hand over Kerry's wrist.</p>
|
||
<p>"Oh sirs. Won't you help a waif?" The piteous voice tugged at Jack's very soul. "Take me with you. Please?"</p>
|
||
<p>"Look," Jack said.</p>
|
||
<p>The girl was closer now, almost close enough to reach and touch. Somehow solid, but filmy and translucent. Jack thought he could see other shapes beyond her, milling in the mist.</p>
|
||
<p>"She's floating," he said, aghast. "She's not on the ground."</p>
|
||
<p>The girl stretched towards them. Through her, Jack could definitely see other shapes roiling and twisting. Shapes that hurt the eyes just to look at.</p>
|
||
<p>And the pitiful, thin face writhed back into churning mist and became something that was not quite a face. Inside his head, Jack heard a cold giggle that sounded more than a little mad.</p>
|
||
<p>He closed his eyes against the thing that twisted just beyond reach and held tight to Kerry's wrist, wishing he had never heard a thing, never seen a thing.</p>
|
||
<p>And the little horse plodded on along the strange road while things unseen walked and stumbled through the cold pale fog.</p>
|
||
<p>The journey seemed to take a long, long time in that eerie place. Jack and Kerry clambered into the wagon and found a dry place to sleep, while Score juggled and watched the pony, never letting his eyes stray left or right. He had travelled the By-Way before.</p>
|
||
<p>When the boys awoke, some hours later, the mist was thinning and the odd feeling of oppression that had surrounded them was also beginning to lift.</p>
|
||
<p>Eventually they could see the trees on either side of the road as it rose out of the foggy hollow until the last wisps wrapped themselves around the roots and faded from view. They rounded the bend on a forest road and appeared on the brow of a hill.</p>
|
||
<p>The road meandered down the slope, a thin ribbon against the grey of bare stone and the purple of thick heather.</p>
|
||
<p>And far in the distance, a great dark castle hunched like a beast on the crags beside a storm-tossed sea.</p>
|
||
<p> </p>
|
||
</div> </div> </body> </html> |