Greenmantle (50 page)
“’Lo, Ali.”
She turned to find Mally standing by the corner of the cabin. The wild girl dug about in the pocket of her oversized jacket and came up with a paperback book that she gave to Ali.
“This is for you.”
Ali held it up in the light coming from the cabin door. It was a copy of Thomas Burnett Swann’s
Wolfwinter
.
“Jeez,” she said. “How’d you know I was looking for a copy of this…” Her voice trailed off as she realized that the only reason it had been missing in the first place must have been because Mally had “found” it earlier. “Thanks,” she said.
Mally sat down beside her. “You talked to the mystery, didn’t you?” she said.
Ali nodded.
“I talked to him, too,” Mally said. “I never even knew he
could
talk. What did he say to you? Did you ask him if he wanted to be free?”
“He said that he already is.”
“Then why does he stay here? Why does he let the hounds chase him?”
“I don’t know,” Ali said. “Maybe because he’s not really free at the same time.” She turned to look at the wild girl. “He’s not really
the
mystery, Mally. He’s just a part of a bigger mystery.”
Mally nodded. “That other place.”
“That place,” Ali agreed, “but here, too. The mystery that’s here, in
this
world—he’s a part of it, too. There’s more than one of him.”
“I wonder why,” Mally said.
“Everything doesn’t have to be explained,” Ali said.
Mally looked at her and a broad smile settled on her face.
Frankie had come to stand in the doorway and caught most of their conversation. The ordeal of the past few days rose in her mind, but then she looked out at the forest and thought of it, of that glade with the old stone that she’d glimpsed only so briefly, of the village and Lewis, of Tony. At that moment, from the forest, from the glade and the standing stone, the soft sound of piping drifted to them.
Frankie remembered some of what Ali had told her of her experience with the mystery in that place that wasn’t here or now, but somewhere, somewhen else. A hallowed place, a peaceful place. What they had here, in one small pocket of wilderness in Lanark County, was just an echo of it. But if an echo was all they could have, then an echo would have to be enough.
Pan’s pipes were playing, and if it wasn’t the mystery himself playing them, it was still his music. She wanted to hear that music always, to hear it with Ali and to hear it with Tony. It looked like the bad times were finally over and there were things unspoken between Tony and her that could be spoken now. Though there was one more thing that had to be done.
“Time to go, Ali,” she said softly.
Ali turned to look up at her mother. “Go where?”
“Back. Someone’s got to explain things to the police. With any luck we’ll be able to convince them that Earl and those men had a falling out among themselves and keep Tony right out of it. We’ll tell a half truth—that they were after the Wintario money.”
She was no longer carrying the automatic, but she still had the .38 in her pocket. Now she picked up the crossbow from where it leaned against the wall by the door.
“We might be in for a bit of a rough time,” she added, “because if I have to, I’m going to tell them that I shot Earl.”
Ali swallowed, then nodded. “But they’ll think it was self-defense, won’t they?”
“I hope so, Ali. Come on, now. We’ve got to go.”
“But we’ll come back here…?”
Ali regarded her mother, but Frankie had turned to look inside the cabin where Tony lay. “You can bet on that, kiddo. I don’t know how things are going to work out between him and me, but if they don’t work out, it won’t be because I didn’t try.”
“What he used to be—it doesn’t matter?”
“Does it matter to you?”
Ali shook her head.
Frankie smiled and stepped from the door. “Well, it matters to me. It’s important to know what a person was. But it’s more important to know what they are now. Does that make any sense?”
Ali nodded. She looked around for Mally, but the wild girl was gone. Frankie put her arm around Ali’s shoulder, and after saying good-bye to Lewis, together they started down the trail that led for home.
“I’ll be back to see you, Mally!” Ali called into the forest as they entered it.
A head hung down suddenly from a low branch above them. “I know you will,” Mally said. Then she swung down to the ground and ran off laughing through the trees. The laughter faded, but the sound of Tommy’s pipes followed them all the way home.
###
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###
Author’s Note
The preceding novel is a work of fiction. All characters and events in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
While the
fratellanza
as portrayed in
Greenmantle
is based on an organization that had its origin in actual Sicilian history, this novel should in no way be taken as a disrespectful comment against anyone of Sicilian or Italian descent. Every race and culture has its bad element—if a finger needs to be pointed, it can be pointed at us all.
The slang references to racial and ethnic groups do not reflect my own personal viewpoint whatsoever.
* * *
Greenmantle
had its roots in the same chapter from Kenneth Grahame’s
The Wind in the Willows
with which Ali Treasure was so enamoured: “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.” My own interest in moon and horn mysteries can be traced back to my reading that chapter as a child.
The real springboard, however, was Lord Dunsany’s forgotten fantasy
The Blessing of Pan
. Written in Dunsany’s usual lyric prose, the book is set up for an atypical climax of the good vicar overcoming the heinous pagan rites of his flock, only to end with a complete turnaround. My sympathies, in such cases, often lie with the pagans, not because of any particular pagan leanings of my own, but because I dislike religious intolerance of any sort.
Since first reading
The Blessing of Pan
, I’ve retained an interest in that lost village of Wolding, visited only by the Gypsies and a horned mystery—hence this book. Had Dunsany survived to this day and written his own sequel to
The Blessing of Pan
, I find it highly unlikely that he would have come up with anything like
Greenmantle
. But I do hope that, here and there, in a passage or two, some echo of the wonder I first found in his book has made its way into what I’ve written where it might touch someone else.
* * *
Another reason for my writing
Greenmantle
was an interest in exploring the place that Mystery holds in contemporary society—how we view it, how it affects us, who we become when it directly touches us. Today, almost twenty-five years after I first wrote the book, and with the millennium behind us, the questions seem perhaps even more pertinent, or at least they’re being asked by a great many more people.
Greenmantle
was never meant to answer those questions on its own. But I do hope the novel helps continue the dialogue: between ourselves, and between ourselves and the mysteries of the world.
Ottawa, Fall 2015
###
Copyrights & Acknowledgments
Grateful acknowledgments
are made to:
Tanith Lee for the use of the quote from her short story “Blood-Mantle” which first appeared in
Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine
, Nov. 1985. Copyright (c) 1985 by Tanith Lee.
Jane Yolen, who introduced me to the poetry of Joshua Stanhold in her book about his daughter and their relationship,
The Stone Silenus
(Philomel/The Putnam Publishing Group);
copyright ©1984 by Jane Yolen.
http://www.janeyolen.com/
Robin Williamson for permission to use a portion of “Song of Mabon” from
Selected Writings 1980-83
, copyright 1984 by Robin Williamson. All rights reserved. Go to
http://www.pigswhiskermusic.co.uk/
for more information about Williamson and his music.
About the Author
Charles de Lint is a full-time writer and musician who makes his home in Ottawa, Canada. This author of more than seventy adult, young adult, and children’s books has won the World Fantasy, Aurora, Sunburst, and White Pine awards, among others. Modern Library's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century poll, voted on by readers, put eight of de Lint's books among the top 100. De Lint is also a poet, artist, songwriter, performer and folklorist, and he writes a monthly book-review column for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. For more information, visit his web site at
www.charlesdelint.com
You can also connect with him at:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Charles-de-Lint/218001537221
https://twitter.com/#!/cdelint
Cover art by Eugen Krüger.
Cover design by MaryAnn Harris.
Greenmantle
First published by Ace Books, 1988. This Triskell Press edition published in 2015.
eISBN 978-0-920623-64-0
For information:
Triskell Press
P.O. Box 9480
Ottawa ON K1G 3V2
Canada
www.triskellpress.com
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
Discover other titles by Charles de Lint at
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Other Books by Charles de Lint
RIDING SHOTGUN (novella; Triskell Press, 2015)
THE WISHING WELL (novella; Triskell Press, 2015)
NEWFORD STORIES: CROW GIRLS (collection; Triskell Press, 2015)
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PAPERJACK (novella; Triskell Press, 2015)
WHERE DESERT SPIRITS CROWD THE NIGHT (novella; Triskell Press, 2015)
OUT OF THIS WORLD (young adult novel, Penguin Canada, 2014; Triskell Press, 2014)
JODI AND THE WITCH OF BODBURY (young adult novel; Triskell Press, 2014)
SEVEN WILD SISTERS new edition (middle grade novel; Little Brown, 2014)
OVER MY HEAD (young adult novel, Penguin Canada, 2013; Triskell Press, 2013)
THE CATS OF TANGLEWOOD FOREST (middle grade novel; Little Brown, 2013)
UNDER MY SKIN (young adult novel, Penguin Canada, 2012; Triskell Press, 2012)
EYES LIKE LEAVES (early work, 1980 novel, Tachyon Publications, 2012)
THE VERY BEST OF CHARLES DE LINT (collection; Tachyon Publications, 2010); Triskell Press, 2014)
THE PAINTED BOY (young adult novel, Viking, 2010)
MUSE AND REVERIE (collection, Tor, 2009)
THE MYSTERY OF GRACE (novel, Tor, March 2009)
WOODS & WATERS WILD (collection, Subterranean Press, 2008)
WHAT THE MOUSE FOUND (children's collection, Subterranean Press, 2008)
DINGO (young adult novella, Viking, 2008)
