Ravenwood (16 page)

She cawed once more in alarm. The man rolled his head around
to look at her. She recognized the face as the man who’d been
knocked down and winded during the scuffle. He picked up a small
twig and threw it at her. It fell short and bounced off several small
branches. Still, take no chances, and with a final caw, she spread her
wings and dropped off the limb to glide between the loosely
spaced trees, putting distance between her and the watching
man.

Tanyth woke with a pounding in her chest.

Chapter 13
Skunk in the Woodpile

“A dream. Just a dream. You’re a paranoid old woman.”

Tanyth kept telling herself that, but it didn’t do anything for the pounding in her head.

She made herself not tear the door open. She fought the urge to hare across the intervening space and confront the man–if he were actually there. She stirred her tea and took a sip, burning her tongue on the near boiling liquid. She set the cup down on the table and drew a deep breath. She didn’t dare close her eyes to concentrate, but she squinted them and blew the breath out.

“Focus, old fool. Focus.”

First, was the village in danger again? She needed to find out if the bravos had come back to worry them. The day was still young and she knew Frank was about.

Second, were these dreams? Visions sent by the All-Mother to help guide and protect her? Or was she just going mad?

As she sat there at the small table in the half light of early morning, she wasn’t sure which of the two things alarmed her more–that they might be being watched by people who wished them harm, or that she may be going mad. Age did strange things to people sometimes and she’d seen plenty of examples over the many winters she sought out all the old herbalists and healers she could find. She sighed, considering that the price of wisdom sometimes appeared to be too dear.

With her fear controlled, if not conquered, she needed action. She sipped the cooling tea, unwilling to waste the precious leaves by walking off with the cup half full. She stood from the table and slipped into her warm tunic. Her hat went on her head and she took staff in hand.

She slipped the latch on the back door of her hut and slipped out, closing it carefully behind her. She wondered if there were somebody on that side of the village as well–watching from the other direction–but she forced herself not to look at the tree line. With one step after another, focusing on the ground and not her steps, she sauntered as naturally as possible around the outside perimeter of huts until she was able to make a bee line for the barn. She found Frank rolling a barrow of muck out of the barn and onto the pile.

He smiled to see her. “Morning, mum. You’re up early.”

“Too early, and I think we may have a problem.”

He parked the barrow and dusted his hands together, looking at her intently. “What kind of problem, mum?”

“I think one of the men that was here yesterday has come back. I thought I saw somebody peeking out of the trees opposite my cottage.”

He looked startled. “Are you certain, mum?”

She shook her head. “No, actually, I’m not.” She smiled apologetically. “It might have merely been a trick of the light.”

“Was it just the one?”

She shrugged. “I only saw the one, but who knows if the others were there as well and I just didn’t see them.”

He pursed his lips in thought and then fetched the hay fork from its hook by the stalls. “Let’s go see if you saw what you saw, shall we, mum?”

Together they slipped out of the barn and worked their way down the tree line on the south side of the village’s clearing. Tanyth hadn’t been on this side before and spotted several patches of yarrow and wild carrot growing in the understory where the forest tried to reclaim the clearing.

They walked quietly, keeping eyes and ears open. Tanyth heard nothing but the normal sounds of the forest. The
tzeep, tzeep
of a sparrow in the the undergrowth sounded loud in her ears and even the soft passage of wind through the treetops above carried clearly. She kept glancing northward, looking for the angle, the view she’d seen in her dream trying to match the reality against her memory even as it slipped sideways in her mind each time she tried to recapture it.

Frank offered no comment as they walked further and further, just kept his eyes sweeping the trees and undergrowth to their right.

Tanyth was about to give up on the vision when the scene snapped into focus. She stopped in her tracks, her head twisted to the left and the angle on her hut matched the angle from her dream. Her breath caught in her throat. Frank fetched up his step and looked to her in concern.

“Did you see something, mum?”

Tanyth turned her head and looked straight into the woods in the opposite direction. Just behind the verge of undergrowth a large oak lifted a canopy of leaves to the sky. “Here.”

Frank peered into the brush and poked the hay fork ahead. Nothing stirred so he stepped into the cover of the forest. Tanyth followed and was relieved to find nobody there. She stepped carefully around Frank and walked further into the woods, glancing back periodically, looking for the tree where the raven had perched. She was still not sure if what she’d seen was a vision, a dream, or something else and the uncertainty scraped her nerves raw. There were several likely candidates for perches but she was unable to pick out one that she could point to and say with certainty.

“What are you looking for, mum?” Frank’s voice was low but drew her back to the reality.

She turned to see him with the fork planted in the ground and looking alternately at her and then around at the surrounding woods, unsure what he should be looking for but obviously alarmed at her actions.

“Sorry.” Her reply was likewise hushed. “I was just looking to see if I could see anybody. I must have been mistaken.”

Frank nodded. “Well, mum, there’s nobody here now for certain.”

She sighed and made one last turn around. “Maybe I was wrong.” Her eyes went to the base of the oak and the large roots behind which the man in her vision had been lying.

Frank’s eyes followed her gaze and he stepped closer to the tree to peer downward. He looked up at her, eyes wide in surprise. “He’s gone now, but there was somebody here right enough.” He pointed with the tines of the fork and she stepped closer to see what he was looking at.

In the small depression behind the tree, small clumps of forest grasses were crushed and a seedling had been bent over and nearly broken off near the ground. Her mind overlaid the image of the man rolling over and tossing the small twig at the raven and her eyes went to a sparse and broken hemlock with a single solid branch about five feet above the ground.

“We need to let the others know.” Frank’s voice carried anger and urgency.

Tanyth nodded absently, lost inside her mind, somewhere between madness and horror.

“Mum?” Frank was looking at her, half turned toward the village but unwilling to leave her standing there alone.

She shook her head and smiled, if a bit tentatively. “Yes, of course, Frank. Thank you for coming with me.”

“Thank you, mum, for being so watchful.”

She shrugged and shook her head again, walking ahead of Frank and stepping out into the open light of morning.

They walked briskly away from the woods but Tanyth stopped in the track that led to the Pike.

Frank halted beside her in surprise. “Mum? We need to let the others know.”

“Let them know what, Frank?” Her voice wasn’t challenging but curious. “That we’re being watched from the woods, certainly, but what do we do about it?” She looked around her. “What can they want?”

Frank grimaced. “Just to make trouble, I suspect.”

She shook her head. “There has to be something more to it. They can make trouble any where. They know we have nothing worth their time here, so why are they still here?”

Frank shrugged. “Well, there’s still the women, mum?” He blushed when he realized what he was suggesting and to whom.

She caught the embarrassed look on his face and it tickled her more than it might have in other circumstances. “That’s possible, but I suspect they want something more than a fast tumble.”

“You have a reason for sayin’ that, mum?” Frank asked.

“They rode off. Now they’re back. Yesterday the idea of a little strike-and-go on some defenseless women might have appealed in a kind of spur of the moment idea.” She pursed her lips and leaned on her staff. “That moment passed when they rode away.”

Frank rested the butt of the fork on the ground and cocked his head quizzically. “There’s some truth to that, mum.” His brow furrowed as he thought. “But what could they want?”

“We have food, water, houses.”

“But they got a good enough look yesterday to know we ain’t rich here.”

“Except they know there’s something up that trail and they didn’t get to see that yesterday.” She nodded at the track that led up to the clay quarry.

“That’s true enough, mum, but if they’ve had a man watching the village, they must have had a chance to scout up there.”

“Or they will soon. Jakey and the others went up just after sun up and our friend must have seen or heard them go.”

“So, we can assume they’ll know who, how many, and what’s going on here. That’s more’n they knew riding in yesterday. But why’d they come back for a second look, mum?”

Tanyth shrugged in reply. “I don’t know, Frank. That’s what bothers me.” She eyed him for a moment. “How soon before you take the next load to town?”

He blinked at the sudden change in subject. “Jakey and the boys say they’ll be done in another couple of days. The wagon can only carry so many barrels of the clay safely and they’re filling the last one tomorrow or the next day. I’ll be taking the lorry wagon up there today so we can begin stacking them.”

“First things first. Is there an old wheel rim or barrel hoop we can hang up as an alarm bell?”

He nodded. “I suspect there’s at least one up in the store room.” He motioned with his head and they started up the track. Three chickens scurried out of their path, clucking angrily at being disturbed in their scratching.

Frank went around the side of the barn and under the shed roof where the ox cart usually rested. He rummaged in the weeds growing up along the foundation and pulled a half buried metal barrel hoop out of the ground. He held it up in boyish triumph. “I knew it.” The rim was hardly new but it appeared sound except for a break in its smooth curve. A small chunk of metal was missing from the ring.

He lugged it out and set it beside the front of the barn while he rummaged in the tack room and brought back a long strip of leather. He held it up for Tanyth to see. “Busted reins. Be good to hang this on though.”

He fashioned a quick loop and held the rig up by the leather strap. “Whack it, mum!”

She looked around for something to hit it with for a moment then felt foolish for overlooking the staff that was already in her hand. She hit it once with the gnarled knot at the top. The resulting gong didn’t seem quite as sharp as she’d have hoped.

Frank screwed up his mouth in a grimace. “Didn’t sound much like an alarm bell, did it, mum?”

She shook her head ruefully. “Nope. I was hoping for something with a bit more clang to it.”

He nodded at the barn door. “There’s a couple iron pokers standin’ just inside the door there, mum. Try one of them.”

She stepped into the barn, and selected one of the indicated fire irons. She leaned her staff against the barn door and gripped the poker in both hands.

Frank grinned at her and held the leather up higher to give her a good target.

She drew back and gave it a good whack. The resulting discordant clang echoed up her arms and across the valley. She grinned and saw the answering grin break across Frank’s face as well.

He laughed in delight. “All we need to do is hang this someplace handy.” He lowered it to the ground and let it lean against his leg. “Where do you think?”

She grimaced in thought. “Not in the front of the village.”

He frowned in concentration and turned his gaze to the line of trees behind the huts. “Someplace behind the line of houses but maybe not as far as the quarry track?”

She nodded in reply. “Is there enough of an overhang to hang it off the eaves there on the backside of the last hut?” She pointed to where she meant.

He nodded. “Yup. We’ll wanna ask Megan and Harry if it’s ok, but that looks like a good place.” He took the ring over to the barn and leaned it against the building. “Harry’s up at the quarry now, but I’ll see him in a bit when I take the wagon up.”

Tanyth put the poker beside the ring and retrieved her staff from its resting place. “I’ll talk to Megan, too.” She looked up at him. “And thank you, Frank. I appreciate your going with me to look in the woods.”

He smiled. “You call on me anytime, mum.” He shook his head in amusement. “Funny things happen around you, but it ain’t been half dull here since you arrived.”

She laughed. “Thank you, I think.”

He tipped his head in a shortened bow and turned to head into the barn. “Well I need to harness up a couple of these critters and get that lorry up the track, mum, but hollar if you need anything.”

“I will, Frank. I will.” She watched him amble into the barn and move among the shadows, speaking softly to the horses and moving deliberately around them. She surprised herself by noticing how nicely he filled out his jacket. She snorted softly and turned her feet toward her hut. “Fool woman. Got no time for that silliness.”

Still, it bothered her. What did they want with the village? Simple harassment didn’t put food in the pot and even bully boys needed to eat. Her thoughts chased themselves around in her head but caught up to no conclusions. Part of it seemed logical to her. She cursed the darn foolishness that young men got themselves into all the time. The fact that they’d come back, and that she couldn’t figure out why, bothered her almost as much as the raven visions.

The memories from the two episodes exploded in her. She’d been distracted enough to overlook the the implications but the reality of it crashed over her again between one step and the next. She had to grab her staff and stop to keep from losing her balance. She leaned heavily on it, not quite gasping for breath.