The Ghosts of Blood and Innocence (3 page)

Once Zira had related what Darq had told him, Phade felt obliged to administer discipline. ‘You will stay here in the tower for a week,’ he said. ‘Don’t take advantage of Olivia’s good nature, Darq. No more wandering around on your own. If you want to go into the woods, wait until Zira can take you.’

It was torture for Darq to be kept indoors, which is of course what Phade intended. It was even more irksome that Phade locked him in his room at night, to bring home how serious the punishment was. Darq felt that even being confined for a week meant he would miss so much of what was happening outside. He also missed Amelza’s company. They’d only known each other for a couple of weeks but had quickly become firm friends. Perhaps by the time Darq was let out, the trees would be bare, the gold all gone, and a cold wind would come slicing down through the high pine forests that surrounded Samway’s valley. The older deciduous woods were Darq’s domain. He loved them, and resented bitterly being kept away from them, which he considered unreasonable. Olivia knew he was safe, so what was Phade’s problem? Darq had tried to explain, but Phade wouldn’t listen.

Three days into his incarceration, and exasperated by rules and punishments he didn’t understand, Darq absconded into the night. The tower was surrounded on either side by outbuildings and stables and at the back by a walled garden. In front was the wide yard with a well in the centre, and the great gates that were kept closed at night and guarded. Darq scrambled out of his window, intending to exit the tower via the gardens, since he knew a place where he could climb a tree next to the wall and thereby get over it. He experienced some perilous moments as he teetered on the sill, some thirty feet above the ground, and then inched towards the thick ancient ivy that covered part of the tower walls. He climbed down, stems coming away from the wall in his hands. Dust and insects got into his eyes and hair and mouth, and he eventually jumped down the last few feet.

Oh, how big the world was at night. Excitement coursed through Darq’s veins in an intoxicating flood. He saw a great white owl swoop down from the sky, heard the squeak of the creature it killed. He ran across the lawn, past the sundial and the sleeping fountain, into a stand of ancient yew trees that hugged one part of the wall. Within moments, he was on the other side, free. He paused a moment and breathed deeply, taking in the scent of the night. The wind had a voice, full of secrets. The last leaves of the trees trembled to hear them. A fat moon sailed majestically above the reaching branches of the oaks around him, and Darq could feel the presence of hunters in the nearby forest: not animals, hara or men, but spirits who rode on spectral black horses, hounds baying at their sides.

He laughed aloud, drunk on his forbidden freedom, and ran towards the trees.  Then, inspired by a spontaneous idea, he veered off along the lane to Olivia’s cottage.

Olivia and Raymer held high positions within the human community, and therefore had one of the larger dwellings in the town. It had a spreading lower story, and a smaller one on top, which was a big attic room where Olivia and Raymer slept. Amelza and her older sister Silbeth slept on the ground floor, in a room at the back of the cottage, next to the charcoal house.

Because Olivia believed it was beneficial to breathe fresh air while you were sleeping, the window was open and Darq was able to slither into the room quietly. He saw Silbeth lying on her back, mouth open, snoring. Amelza was curled beneath her blankets, silent and still. Darq crept to her side and put his hand upon her. Instinctively, he did not speak or even shake her, but thought the shape of her name in a loud way, as if he were shouting. Amelza woke at once and uttered a soft gasp. Darq felt her body go rigid beneath the blankets.

It’s me,
he told her.
Don’t be afraid. Let’s go out.

Amelza peered out of her nest, her face creased into a frown. She glanced at her sleeping sister, paused for only a second or so, then got out of bed. She pulled on a pair of work trousers and stuffed her nightdress into the waistband. Together, she and Darq left the cottage, and neither had said a word out loud. Samway was sleeping. A few dim lights burned high in cottage windows, but mostly it was dark and silent.

Once they were on the track that led to the forest, Amelza said, ‘I hope you don’t get caught. Ma told me what happened.’

Darq shrugged. He didn’t care about getting caught. The only important thing was his ability to escape the tower.

‘If they find out they’ll put locks on your door,’ Amelza said.

‘There’s already a lock on the door,’ Darq said.

‘Then how did you get out?’

‘The window.’

Amelza laughed. ‘You’re mad. You could have fallen.’ She took Darq’s arm and they left the main path to walk into the trees.

‘But I didn’t,’ Darq said. ‘You’re right about the locks though. I hadn’t thought of that. I won’t be able to get back in the way I came out or through the door either, so I’ll have to wait til morning when the guards open the courtyard gates.’

‘Maybe Phade will beat you,’ Amelza said.

‘Maybe,’ Darq said, brushing aside a branch that blocked their path. ‘But he
will
lock the window.’ He grinned. ‘I must enjoy the night. It might be the last until I think of another way.’

‘Don’t you care about being beaten?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve never had it done to me.’

‘You won’t like it,’ Amelza said.

They went to a secret place, deep in the forest, they’d claimed as their own. There was a pool there, which sometimes caught the moon in its depths, and wonderful burrows and warrens of ancient rhododendron. There had once been a monastery in Samway, and the ruins of a very old church lay deep among the trees. At one time, the human lord of the area would have worshipped there with his family. Now, it hid close to the pool, where sometimes the moon came to swim.

‘You know,’ Amelza said, clambering over the mossy stones of the fallen masonry to find a good seat, ‘I can’t work out whether you’re a girl friend of mine or a boy. Not that you’re either, of course. But sometimes, I feel like you’re one or the other.’

‘Hmph,’ grunted Darq, uninterested. ‘You’re just you. So am I. Isn’t that all there is?’

In the moonlight, Amelza frowned, clearly unsure what Darq meant. ‘And you look so old too! You could be the same age as me, yet Phade looks much younger than Ma, even though he’s much older. It’s so weird.’

‘We’re different,’ Darq said. ‘Different species.’

‘I know…’ Amelza paused for the space of three heartbeats. ‘Maybe we should do something while we’re here,’ she said. ‘It’s a forbidden night so we should do something forbidden.’

‘Like what?’ Darq came to sit beside her.

‘Like… call up your dead twin.’

Darq could tell that was not the only thing on Amelza’s mind and that, in fact, she was eaten up with curiosity to discover how he was different from her and the other children. However, she lacked the courage to ask him to show her. ‘I don’t have a dead twin,’ he said. ‘Phade said so.’

‘And you believe him?’

‘Yes, he wasn’t lying. I know when hara are lying… and humans too.’

Amelza looked away. ‘Don’t you have that feeling any more… about missing some part of yourself?’

‘Yes,’ Darq said. ‘But it’s not a twin, not in the normal way, anyway. I don’t know what it is. Perhaps we
could
try to find out.’

‘You should ask the moon,’ Amelza said. She took hold of Darq’s arm, and when she spoke again, her voice was a whisper. ‘Look…’

At that moment, the moon had slid above the trees and now its reflection was cast in the pool. It was as if it had come to them at their request. While Darq was extremely practical and logical in many senses, he also appreciated the power of the world of the unseen. When an omen walks past your window, or comes down from the heavens to wallow in a pool, you should not ignore it. He jumped from the jumble of old stones and approached the water. He knelt down beside it. How clear it was, fed by a secret spring, and yet so still, because the current ran deep beneath the surface.

‘Drink it,’ Amelza said, creeping up behind him.

Darq shivered. He realised that Amelza was far more like her mother Olivia than her brother and sister were. Amelza had a bit of witch in her; it was obvious. She could hear Darq’s unspoken messages, and as far as he knew humans weren’t supposed to be able to do that.

‘Go on,’ Amelza urged.

If Darq stretched out, as far as he could reach, his fingers could touch the cold image of the moon. If you drink of the lunar fire, you are given the power to see beyond the veil of mundane reality. Darq didn’t know whether he’d read, been told or had overheard this, but he knew it to be true. So he leaned out and scooped up a handful of water. The image of the moon shattered like crystal and ripples bloomed over the surface of the pool. Darq drank quickly before all the water ran from his fingers. It was cold in his mouth, so cold, and tasted of earth and sky.
Show me
, he said in his mind.

For some moments, all was quiet, but for Amelza’s breathing, which for some reason was quite heavy. Darq was just about to stand up and say something, when a sibilant voice hissed in his mind:
there are four of you.

It had been so loud, and so definite, that Darq jumped up, uttering a small, shocked sound.

‘What is it?’ Amelza asked. Her eyes looked completely black, open wide.

‘A voice,’ Darq said. ‘It told me there are four of me.’

Amelza began to laugh, then smothered it. ‘A voice…’

Darq was conscious now of the forest spreading away from them in all directions, so ancient. He was aware of every small natural sound in the undergrowth, and the other sounds beyond normal hearing. The hunters of the forest had heard the voice too. They had pulled their horses to a halt and signaled their hounds to be quiet. Darq did not want to attract their attention. He did not fear them exactly, but neither did he want to confront them. He told himself it was because the sight of them might drive Amelza mad for, if they should approach, the girl
would
see them. She was different from other humans in that way. ‘We should go,’ Darq said.

‘Yes,’ Amelza agreed.

Darq knew the two of them shared the same fear, but also knew that if either of them spoke of that fear aloud it would become far worse. He held out a hand and Amelza took it.  

Just as they left the glade, Darq looked back. It seemed to him that, for a moment, a spectral figure floated above the pool. It was like a dancer, arms held out straight, hovering on one foot, the other leg bent up. It had smoky holes for eyes and its long waving hair was white.

‘Come
on
,’ Amelza said, her eyes fixed on the path ahead of them. She pulled on his arm. He followed her.

Darq returned to Olivia’s cottage and, because he knew he could not get back into the tower, slept with Amelza in her bed for the rest of the night. Shortly after dawn, Olivia came in to wake her daughters and uttered an outraged cry when she caught sight of Darq snuggled against Amelza’s back. ‘Darquiel!’ she cried. ‘You are a bane, I swear, by all the gods and their swift messengers! Get out of that bed!’

Darq woke up from a rather unpleasant dream, and was instantly alert. ‘I had to come here,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t get back in at home.’

Olivia sat down heavily on a chair. Silbeth and Amelza were also awake now, both eyeing their mother anxiously. ‘Do you wish me such ill?’ Olivia asked Darq. ‘Will you bring the wrath of Olopade down on my head? Why do you do this to me? You are an ungrateful wretch, young har.’

‘I won’t tell anyhar,’ Darq said, getting out of bed. ‘I’ll go back home at once. I won’t tell them where I’ve been.’

Olivia sighed. ‘What do you take me for? Come on.’ She grabbed Darq by the wrist and dragged him from the cottage. Despite his protests, she would not talk to him until they reached the tower gates. Here, she demanded to see Phade, and the guards, seeing who she had with her, did nothing to obstruct her.

Phade was not yet out of bed, but came to his office on the second floor at once, still wearing his dressing robe. As the office overlooked the yard, Darq could see the guards talking together down there, occasionally glancing up towards the window. They knew he was in trouble.

Phade’s eyes widened when he caught sight of Darq, but he remained outwardly calm. ‘What is it, Olivia?’ he asked.

Olivia thrust Darq at him. ‘I found this in my daughter’s bed this morning.’

Phade’s lips twitched a little, and Darq could tell he wanted to smile, but he restrained himself. ‘Indeed! That’s quite a feat for a harling who was locked in his room last night. Darq, are you such a magician? Can you turn into smoke and pour through a keyhole?’

‘No,’ Darq answered. ‘I climbed out of the window.’

‘Thank you, Olivia,’ Phade said. ‘You may go.’

Olivia hesitated. ‘I know it’s not my place to say so, tiahaar, but… the harling is not unsafe in the forest. He knows his way, in this world and the ones you cannot see.’

‘I’m sure,’ Phade said. ‘Thank you, Olivia. You were right to bring him to me personally. Ag knows where he might have strayed if you’d sent him home alone.’

Olivia ducked her head and left the room.

After she’d gone, Phade stared at Darq for a whole excruciating minute. Darq did his best to return the stare.

‘It is not advisable to disobey the orders of your elders,’ Phade said.

‘The order was unreasonable,’ Darq said, sounding braver than he felt, for he could see in Phade’s calm manner just how angry he was. ‘Olivia is right. I
am
safe. There’s no reason I can’t go around by myself.’

‘My order was unreasonable?’ Phade sat down on the edge of his desk. His hair was still messy from sleeping and the front of his robe hung open at the chest. ‘Do you presume to think you know better than I do?’

‘I just don’t know why you want to lock me up. Olivia isn’t scared for me, and she’s human, so why are you scared?’

‘Sit down!’ Phade ordered, pointing to a row of chairs near the door.