Crik (17 page)

As though to prove her point the beat of leathery wings crashed overhead. Looking up, Jack followed the flight of a large bald bird. It had rows of ivory teeth in a snub beak.

‘Well we’re down now, so there’s no point in worrying. We push on and once we’re through the Wold we can think about returning home.’

‘Yes Jack,’ said Inara, ‘you’ve told us. What happens if Knell tells you to find your answer you have to travel even farther? Will you drag us to Grog Mountain and through the Black Mines? When will it stop?’

‘Hey guys, look at this,’ shouted Bill, saving Jack from having to answer.

Moving across, he saw Bill standing over a lantern.

‘Do you think someone lives down here?’ asked Bill, gripping the metal casing. ‘It still has some oil, that’ll come in handy tonight.’

The valley floor, lighter than the jungle above, allowed them to see far ahead. To the east snaked a glistening river; while to the north lay a large open field, dotted with rabbit holes. They saw no other sign of any human inhabitants.

‘It could’ve been left down here a while,’ said Jack. ‘Take the lantern; only keep your eyes open, I don’t fancy finding myself locked in another house.’

Krimble laughed.

‘I hate him,’ said Bill.

The hard ground took them into the trees toward the river. Feeling unfettered by the valley Jack took the lead. Not even the weird birds flitting in and out of eyeshot could dampen his rising spirits.

‘Ay Yin,’ said Bill, rushing to Jack’s side, his face flush, his eyes wet and wide, ‘remember that vagabond who stumbled into the village last year.’

A small man, wearing rags, and smelling foul, had set up camp on the outskirts of Crik. The dwarf had raved how the woods had turned against him, thwarting his every effort to find his way back to his village. The stranger grew wild when the village hunters offered their help to take him back to his home. He claimed something, or someone, hunted him. Mr Gasthem, seeing the stranger’s distress, allowed him to stay within sight of the village. Two nights he stayed camped, never entering the village, but stayed close to the busy street. He disappeared on the third night. The hunters could find no sign of his passing, as though the woods had wiped away all traces of the man.

‘What about him,’ Jack asked, suppressing a shudder.

‘The only thing left behind to show that the dwarf had ever been to Crik was a snake charm. Do you remember?’

Now that Bill mentioned it, Jack recalled the black metal disk found hanging from a bush. A coiled snake, with four feet emerging from a cave, engraved the charm. He nodded, not liking where the conversation was going.

With a shaking hand Bill lifted the lantern and pointed at a serpent climbing out of a cave. ‘I think whoever lost this, is still down here.’

Night fell quic
k
in the valley, and as the sun dipped beyond the distant mountains, eerie calls invaded the spaces amongst the trees. The small group huddled close to the lantern. The light only stretched as far as the ring of stones Bill had placed around the campsite. Only Krimble sat beyond the circle, grumbling to himself.

Bill, chewing his lip, inspected the etched symbol on the lantern. His intense scrutiny, afforded him only the briefest non-committal reply to Inara. She, being so fascinated with the abundance of new creatures within the valley, failed to notice. Earlier, rabbits with whiptails had intrigued her. Moving through a field of the small grazing creatures, she had slowed them with each new discovery. First, how they only ate in pairs, and then, after noticing the small horns peeking through their brown fur, Jack knew she wanted to take one as a pet. Traversing the field should have taken minutes; instead, they spent over an hour picking their way around the burrow entrances. Happy with her lightened mood, Jack had not complained, even when she asked to get down from Black so she could feed the rabbits. Bill, not concerned with getting in her good books, protested at every detour. In silence, Jack ran his tongue over his teeth, as Inara again tried to engage Bill in conversation.

‘I wonder why they had those long tails?’ she said, drumming her fingers on the ground.

Bill Shrugged. ‘Who’s to say they were rabbits. For all we know they could be giant gophers. Or rats,’ he added.

Inara’s horrified reprimand came quick. ‘Don’t be silly.’ She clutched her hands to her chest.

Ignoring her clipped tone, Bill said, ‘Why not? I’ve never seen rabbits with long wormlike tails before. Have you?’ He lay back, disengaging his sights from the lantern for the first time since they had made camp. ‘The truth is we don’t know what they were. What do you think Yin?’

Though obscured in darkness, Jack felt Inara’s eyes on him. Close by he heard a shrill cry amongst the trees, tightening his nerves. ‘I don’t know. We haven’t a clue what’s living down here.’ He looked behind him as a new rustle stirred the undergrowth. He hoped no snakes lived in the valley.

‘That lantern could’ve lain in the grass for a long time; it doesn’t mean someone is down here.’

‘Doesn’t mean there aren’t,’ replied Bill, his face aglow with lantern light.

‘Those rabbits,’ Inara stressed the classification, ‘weren’t afraid of us, so I presume there are no hunters. This whole valley looks untouched.’

Jack nodded. ‘We would’ve spotted a settlement from the top of the hill.’

‘That doesn’t mean no one uses the valley,’ argued Bill. ‘I for one won’t eat those giant rats, and we could’ve easily missed a house built amongst the trees. Someone left this lantern.’ Using the metal handle, he held it aloft. ‘By the oil left inside I don’t think it was that long ago.’

‘Why leave a half full lantern behind?’

‘I don’t know, ask Yin, he’s the one who’s always looking for answers.’

‘There’s no point in speculating until we have further proof that people live down here,’ said Jack. ‘I’m more concerned with what waits beyond the valley, I don’t like the sound of the Myrms one bit, and I’m sure not all of Krimble’s stories are lies. Everything is strange down here, and I can’t see them getting any more familiar, but nothing has attacked us, so we should rest while we can.’

Bill said, ‘How can you think of rest? You just mentioned the Myrms as though they were just a child’s tale and not something that we’re about to face. If you weren’t so obsessed with getting rid of Yang we wouldn’t be here.’

‘And we wouldn’t have to enter the Wold,’ added Inara.

A blood moon slipped the cover of the clouds, its cratered surface seeming to stare down upon the small circle with inhuman keenness. Jack glanced at the orbiting sphere. Grandpa Poulis said a blood moon was an evil portent. The thought made him colder than the wind.

‘The decision has been made,’ he said, ignoring his roving shadow. ‘It’s not too late for you to turn back.’

‘I’m not leaving you out here alone,’ replied Bill in a rushed whisper. ‘That doesn’t mean I have to like where you’re taking us. The sooner we can see Knell, and turn our feet back home, the better. I’ve yet to show Black to anyone, and that just tears a hole in my gut.’

‘They’ll see Bill, and when they do no one will make fun of you for not having a Talent ever again,’ said Inara.

Bill gave a firm nod. ‘They can change how they look,’ he said. ‘They can pick pebbles off the ground with their minds, but none of them will be able to ride a wolf, or make an owl roost in their room. I can’t wait to see their faces.’ He turned to Jack. ‘For that I will gladly allow my Narmacil to remain inside me.’

Narmacil is just a fancy word for demon, thought Jack, sticking his cold hands into his pockets. If only they had seen Bill’s demon. He tossed a stick into the darkness, beyond Krimble’s hunched form. He had done his part, warned them of the thing lurking within, bestowing gifts to pacify their revulsion at being a host to the creature.

Jack noticed Black’s blue eyes studying him. He returned the look, startled by the intelligence in the wolf’s gaze. For a moment, as Inara and Bill resumed their argument about the valley, he imagined the great black wolf shared his fear of the demons. Resting on his bent arm, he continued to watch the great lupine. In the torchlight neither blinked. His mouth lacked any moisture, and his tongue felt too large for his mouth. The square muzzle of the wolf parted, wrinkling its flesh. Silver coming into the circle broke the contact, and when his eyes once more settled on Black, the wolf had dropped its gaze. 

‘You should have Black guard us while we’re sleeping,’ said Inara.

‘Thought you said no one lived down here,’ argued Bill. ‘Black needs to rest; he’s been carrying you for hours. If you hadn’t stuck your nose into every hole in the ground, he’d be much more alert.’ The wolf’s shaggy head nestled into Silver’s lighter coat as she lay down beside him. ‘Poor thing is exhausted, he can barely stay awake.’

‘He’s probably bored,’ replied Inara, swiping her hair from her face. ‘Let him go hunting with Silver. A bit of excitement and something to snack on will put strength back into his limbs.’

‘Hunt? So now you’re alright with them going and killing a few of the giant gophers?’

Inara chewed her lip. Her expression made it clear she did not like the idea of the two wolves snacking on her new favourite animals.

‘You’ll be in control of Black the entire time,’ interjected Jack, quite happy to have some space between him and Black for a few hours. ‘Guide him away from the field. There’re plenty of other things to eat in the valley.’

‘I hope nothing down here will eat them,’ said Bill with a worried frown. ‘Or us,’ he added in a whisper.

‘Keep them close,’ said Inara as Black rose to his feet. ‘In case we need them.’

Time passed slowly. Bill sat with the lamp on his lap, his finger tracing the etching on the casing. Inara watched Krimble from the corner of her eye, while Jack followed his own shadow, as it too took an interest in the morose corpse that sat with hunched shoulders.

‘It’s dangerous to take Krimble into the Wold,’ said Jack as Krimble waved a hand at his troublesome shadow. ‘He’ll give us away the first chance he gets.’

The girl regarded him with lazy eyes. The tight lines, bordering her thin lips, deepened into dark tributaries across her chalk white skin.

Blowing out his cheeks, Jack remained silent, waiting for Inara to talk.

‘I won’t let him go,’ she answered, long after the silence had become awkward. ‘You have asked too much of me already. I want my heart to grow, but it will remain small and cold until I again see my family.’ She placed her hand on Jack’s arm. ‘Krimble kept me captive by lock and key. You keep me imprisoned by my gratitude towards you.’ She let go, leaving small crescents on Jack’s skin where her chipped fingernails had dug in. ‘Although I’ll go through the Wold and see this woman on the far side, I won’t allow Krimble’s punishment to end. Your distrust of the Narmacils is foolish, Yang saved you in the marsh house, and he has been a constant companion since you can remember. You shouldn’t be so suspicious of him.’

‘Was it fair that a demon decided to use me?’ he retorted. ‘If these things are our benefactors why do they hide? Why did the Giant enter my village in the dead of night to leave the egg behind? I’m certain the need for secrecy is to stop people asking what they are, what they want, and where they come from.’

‘I knew of them,’ said Inara. ‘I’ve told you how innocent you are concerning the woods. That does not make them evil. It was fear that made me destroy the Lindre; only to discover she was helping you.’

Jack spoke through Inara’s guilt; he refused to let her feelings fester. ‘When you attacked her you thought you had no choice. You did not understand her motives. That is why we need to find Knell, to understand, to question. Perhaps I’m overreacting, but until we know for sure what they want,’ he touched his stomach, ‘who can say which of us is right?’

‘What’s that?’ Bill looking past Jack.

‘What?’ Jack jumped to his feet and around in one motion.

‘A light,’ said Inara, spying the weaving illumination before Jack had time to locate it.

Following the direction, in which his friends looked, Jack saw a speck of colour, no larger than the stars sprinkling the sky, it shone yellow, blinking as it passed by the intervening trees. It remained close to the ground as it travelled; only rising when the ground itself swelled into a small hillock or a protruding rock.

‘It’s another lamp,’ said Bill.

‘Then kill ours,’ said Inara, pointing a finger at the lantern. ‘Do you want to be found?’

While Bill fumbled with the wheel that controlled the gas, Jack took a step outside the stone circle. No one else had yet heard the whistling, a strange tune that carried on the wind. The haunting melody raised the hairs on the back of his neck. It made the same sound as Knell’s flute.

Inara sat up straighter at the sound. ‘There’s music.’

‘What’re you talking about, music? It’s the wind you’re hearing,’ said Bill.

‘No, I hear it as well.’

Bill pushed his glasses up his nose. ‘Do you recognise the song?’

‘No, it’s not like that,’ replied Jack. ‘It reminds me of how the wind sounds as it rushes through the eaves of the old church back home.’

‘Charming,’ said Bill, walking past Inara.

Neither Bill stopping beside him, nor Krimble, with his slouching walk, diverted Jack’s attention from the spot of light. It drew closer. Whoever, or whatever, carried it, appeared to be in a rush.

‘Call Black,’ said Inara.

Neither Bill nor Jack heard her.

The music grew, blowing its haunting melody over the group. It had no effect, other than to herald the coming of the light bearer.

‘Whoever’s carrying the lamp must be very short,’ remarked Bill, watching the bobbing light hug the ground.

Splashes of colour lit up the bushes in yellow and green hues. Together with the hanging red moon, it was a most diverse rainbow. Yang appeared, sitting close to Jack.

Despite the light being so close as to reveal the shadows cast by the lantern housing the flame, they still could not see the actual owner. A lean tree blocked their view for a moment; when the light came back into frame, they saw a small, wizened, old man carrying the lamp. An immense beard hid the man’s features.

Soothing music accompanied him as he trudged forward. Stopping, the man blew out his cheeks, and patted his beard with a dirty handkerchief. Turning to Bill, he said, ‘Well, what do you want?’