Cloudfyre Falling - a dark fairy tale (22 page)

‘
Aye, that is true. But perhaps I
merely blame them for so far I have naught else to blame. Such as
you blamed me for the dying in these woodlands.’

She said nothing.

He went on.
‘Still, they could not possibly be to blame for every death. For I
have seen animals, birdlings, die without warning as if they have
been struck down by an invisible wave of spears.
So, this
Hawkmoth
be whom I seek
for this Hawkmoth
claims he knows the
answers
.’

She continued to watch him. ‘Do
you believe this?’

He shrugged. ‘I have precious
little else to believe at present. Though I must say it has given
me some focus.’

‘
What if there be no sorcerer?’
Melai put to him. ‘What if it be some ploy to drag out the last of
the living to their deaths?’

He had to admit, this were
something he had not yet considered. And it surprised him that he
had not. Were he thus walking straight into a potential trap? Had
he been left so bereft of feeling, so distraught, that his
judgement had become so clouded? Had he been so desperate for an
answer to this blight that he were willing to dash after the first
solution that fell at his feet?

Do not torture
yourself
, a voice in his head
spoke.
You have had much on your plate
lately
.

He sighed. ‘If it
be some ploy then so be it. I would sooner fall trying, than to
fall sitting staring at the
earyth
.’

She eyed him closely,
thoughtfully. In turn he eyed her. ‘Makes me wonder,’ he said, his
eyes narrowed. ‘If this Hawkmoth be indeed seeking the living, then
why has he not yet detected you?’

She shrugged. ‘Who says he has
not?’

8

The second metal
man were sprawled and tangled in a hazel tree. Half of it
blackened, charred, hinting at signs of damage by fire. Parts of
the hazel tree were scorched, with branches entirely burnt of their
foliage, and those leaves not charred to ash had turned copper
brown from intense heat. Bits of painted skin flaked away from the
metal man. Bits of tubing or wire either floated upon water’s
surface, or were caught
tangled
amidst reeds and
lilies.

‘
It appeared three or four days
gone,’ Melai told Gargaron from where she sat upon Grimah’s broad
shoulders. ‘I refused to believe what it had to say. I had never
seen its like before. I were highly suspicious of its presence
given that it appeared mere hours after my dear sisters perished.
Before it were engulfed in fire, it reported the sorcerer’s wishes.
Not long after, I witnessed you fall from the sky. It were then I
assumed it were all a lie, that you had come with another metal
man, a Rjoond invasion force as we here in Thoonsk have always
feared.’

Gargaron studied the mekanik. Its
presence seemed to confirm Hawkmoth’s claims that he had somehow
found survivors across the land where Gargaron himself had not. And
by all signs, the sorcerer had dispatched his mekaniks far and wide
to gather all those who had not perished.

Melai wiped her eyes and gazed out
through forest canopy to a patch of blue sky. ‘I were with my
sisters when we felt the first shockwave. We were away in the
woods, collecting Xhuerfruit. Have you heard of Xhuerfruit? It be a
fruit fortified by bark as tough as hawk eggs, but if the fruit be
ripe—and you know when it’s ripe for the bark turns blue and puts
off such a sweet pungent odour—you crack them open while they are
still attached to their branch and inside you’ll find the soft
Xhuer pulp all wet and gooey, which you suckle and the small
segments explode and pop on your tongue and there is the release of
the most delicious nectar. It can make you dizzy and giggly as a
drunkard.’ She wiped more tears. ‘Anyway, we heard it coming. A
sound like howling storm wind. The trees here speak to one another,
a language we begin to learn as babes, but don’t fully grasp until
adulthood. We could hear them speaking of a great dark shadow
pressing down. But we argued between ourselves as to exactly what
they meant. They seemed to be speaking of a poison on the air.
Since then, the trees have fallen silent. I hear them no
longer.

‘
When we returned to our home
trees of Willowgarde, everyone… all my dear sisters… they…’ She
wept. ‘They fell ill. I thought at first it were but exhaustion.
For one by one, without warning, they fell to slumber. I could not
awaken them. I screamed at them to wake up. When the second wave
passed over, it, it st-stole their breath…’ She cried now. Heavily.
She wanted to say more but could not. She cried into her hand, her
injured arm cradled in her lap, her tears falling, becoming tiny
sprites as they splashed against tree and bark.

Gargaron placed his hand gently
upon her back, his fingers almost eclipsing her entirely. To hear
her cry reminded him of his dear Veleyal and tears escaped his own
eyes. He found naught to say to her, naught that would help her. So
he simply sat with her while she sobbed; he seated in water upon a
mound of deadfall, she on sun drenched stone.

Eventually she
looked up at him, the green skin around her cheeks and eyes puffy
and damp. ‘I will come with you,’ she said softly. ‘I will come
to
Haitharath the Old
as we here in Thoonsk know this sorcerer. If only to avenge
the death of my dear sisters.’

9

Melai hid her pain. And kept her
wing and arm close at her side. Aye, she had agreed to travel with
this Rjoond but it did not mean she yet trusted him. She reminded
herself that, although he had so far proved himself a friendly
fellow, his folk were the enemy of her kind. She would thus remain
on guard.

They returned to Willowgarde where
Melai spread upon the spirit stone an enormous Aahnyey leaf. From
the garden growing amidst the roots of the Temple Tree that clung
to the spirit stone, she uprooted a vast array of small plants and
placed them on the leaf. Zantha, Loniyahd, Teatha, and Fraew. Jaynu
Root, Blossom Cup, Jazeem Fruit. Yellowcap Mushoom. Dynoldi Pea.
Gipp. Hyth. Meathe. Fynesa. Cortha. Some of them were rooted to
round mossy stones, some to clumps of wood, some into the stinking
carcass of dead swamp fish. Others sunk their roots directly into
the Aahnyey leaf itself when placed there. Nearly of them all drew
moisture from the atmosphere and did not require regular watering.
But all would sustain her and would continue to yield fruit and
some she would milk for poisons for the arrows she
fired.

Before she were
done she fetched one last item. A little clump of bark layered
wood; small green leaves sprouted from it. It were a plant that
housed some particularly nasty things. Her sisters would say,
‘
On long journeys from Willowgarde, to
ward against any lizards of the sky, we must always carry amongst
us the
monstrut
.
’

Melai now folded up her Aahnyey
leaf into a travel sling, and heard the Rjoond enquire about
directions for a westways journey. She declared that she could
point the way and also better steer him and steed around hidden
drop-offs and plunge-holes if she were mounted again upon the
horse.

As this Rjoond, Gargaron, heeled
his steed and pulled the great two-headed creature around, Melai
took one last look at her home trees of Willowgarde. Within them
she and her sisters had been born. They had been their home and
mother, their playground and teacher. Now she were leaving them…
For how long she could not know.

A tear filled her eye. And from
where she sat upon the horse’s huge shoulders she turned forward
and did not look back.

1

THERE were indeed deep plunge
holes as Melai had warned. And she would berate Gargaron for not
having wings, for not having the ability to fly. He told her she
were quite welcome to fly on ahead if it would please her. But she
stayed where she were, upon the shoulder of the steed.

‘
How be your wing by the way?’ he
asked.

But she would not answer.

The stretches of
water became larger, deeper, in these, Thoonsk’s, westwun reaches.
Trees grew sparse. Dead things floated. Fishes, turtles,
water-lizards. And other beasts Gargaron had never laid his eye on.
Oarfish. Critters he had only heard stories of. And things he did
not at all recognise. Dark things with shining skin and arms ending
in spiked claws, and mouths full of teeth, and gleaming, bulging
black devil eyes. Gargaron felt a peculiar need to drive his steed
around these strange clumps of dead creatures, fearing another
attack by some alien critter such as that damned Soulsucka, but
Melai would direct him irritably
through
them, steering Grimah away
from treacherous plunge holes, and then scolding Gargaron for
ignoring her.

Every now and
then Grimah would stray into water that threatened to swamp both
himself and riders, the water gushing high around his shoulders,
soaking Gargaron to his hips, Melai’s grassy hair swirled
serpentine across its rippling surface. The steed nickered
nervously. Gargaron opted once or twice to dismount, for fear that
under his weight, the horse might sink into muddy floor. The act
left Melai frustrated, arguing that if he were to do that she would
then need keep look-out for steed
and
Rjoond. ‘That be not ideal,’ she
warned. ‘I have not enough eyes to guide you both around deathly
drop-offs.’

When Gargaron
suggested she take flight and call down directions from above, for
surely with a bird’s eye view she would see the way
more
clearly, she argued otherwise.

‘
I can see the
bottom of the lagoon far more clearly
here
, thank you.’

This rebuke intrigued him.

‘
What do you suffer?’ he asked
finally. ‘What injury did that beast leave you with?’

‘
None,’ she said hotly.

He pulled the steed to a halt.
Both she and Gargaron lurched forward, such were the abrupt
cessation of momentum. ‘I know you hide it,’ he said gruffly. ‘Let
us have it out so that we might lance the problem before it
festers.’

‘
Press on!’ she insisted. ‘I am
uninjured!’ Her tone suggested this were the end of the matter and
end of discussion.

He hesitated.
Through her mind bond with him, he had happened to see
her
personal thoughts
and fears. He knew she had damaged wing and arm both. Yet, he would
see how long she could keep a lid on her pain.

2

Gargaron ate
lunch. Dried mushrooms, cured ham. He offered Melai some but she
turned her nose up at his taste in food. Following a somewhat
derogatory comment by her regarding his culinary preference they
sat there on a huge pile of deadfall and she ate nothing. And she
spoke little. And she gazed at length into the woods, her thoughts
far away. Gargaron would have preferred some conversation but
reminded himself that she had only recently
farewell
ed
her kin. No easy task. Thus he respected her
silence and her longing for solitude. And assumed her appetite
would return in time.

Grimah watched them both as if
curious of their nature.

After he had eaten, Gargaron shed
his boot to inspect his ankle. Melai pretended not to look but she
were intrigued to see the mighty tear put there by the Soulsucka
were now effectively gone. Again she were surprised by this
Rjoond’s ability to heal himself; she were slowly rethinking her
belief that his kind were all oafish and dim witted.

3

They pressed on
after midday, when the two suns seemed to be swinging by each
other. The swamp appeared to steam. The air were muggy and rank.
Sweat gushed off Gargaron in small rivers. Dead pond skaters
floated. In the trees he watched bizarre creatures Melai
called
Buccas.
Another species Gargaron had never laid eye upon. So
fascinating were they he near drove Grimah into a plunge hole.
‘
Watch where you send
us!
’ Melai screeched at
him.

Gargaron pulled Grimah to an
immediate halt. He saw where shallow sandy lagoon floor gave way to
the dark maw of an abyss off to the steed’s right shoulder. He
pulled Grimah back a few paces before returning his gaze into the
trees. ‘What be those things?’ he asked. They were peculiar
frog-skinned, spider-like creatures, and peculiar of shape. So
peculiar of shape Gargaron were simply awestruck. It were as if a
pair of folk, with all sets of limbs intact, were fused together
back to back. And not only that, they were headless, two necks per
individual that ended in naught but stumps.

‘
Buccas,’ Melai told him. ‘Magical
creatures. Kind, inquisitive, not so evil as their appearance might
suggest. Forest folk claimed they could never die, that they be
immortal.’ Her gaze shifted to water’s surface where one or two of
these strange creatures floated. Dead. ‘Though now it seems they
too cannot withstand this infernal curse that grips
Thoonsk.’