Shadows at Stonewylde (32 page)

She held the four caps in her cupped palms and thought carefully. Was she doing the right thing? For herself, she was absolutely sure. She no longer wanted to live. She had no future – the heaven of Stonewylde wasn’t meant for her. She wished that she was good enough and had so desperately wanted to be the Wise Woman one day. But she’d failed in every sense and this was the only way out of the misery she’d endured these past few days. All her life she’d suffered at the hands of her brothers and she could see it stretching away endlessly into a bleak, loveless future. Inside she felt cold and blank.

And Magpie – did he have a future? Was there any way his life could become worth living? She knew that without her the answer was no. Without her he’d be at the mercy of Jay and Starling. Even when alive she had no power to protect him. So yes, this was the right thing for both of them and best to get it over and done with now. She squeezed the dried caps and felt their sponginess. This was it – this was the way their world would end. No more life, no more Stonewylde, but at least they’d find peace in the Otherworld.

Leveret looked at where the sun had gone down in a bloody puddle of glory. The darkness was crowding in and once more she sensed something down in the quarry. She peered below, sure she could hear a rustling noise in the ivy. Well, if it was a carnivore it would be welcome to their carcasses, and if it was something else, something less tangible – they’d soon be gone into the Otherworld and oblivious to anything in this one, however frightening it was. She felt the mushrooms in her hands – they were so light. Would they work? How could something so small and insubstantial do something so immensely powerful? There was only one way to find out. So why was she feeling so reluctant to do it when she knew it was the right thing?

‘Mother Heggy, speak to me, please! Is this right? Should we do this?’

But there was no answer, only more stirring in the quarry below. A cold shiver began to spread over her skin despite the warmth of Magpie propped against her. Leveret sensed a deep hunger all around her that craved and craved.

‘Mother Heggy, will you be there on the other side of the veil waiting for us? Please give me a sign that this is the right thing to do.’

She felt the thing below creeping closer and had a sudden image of death, of broken and bloody bodies lying amongst blasted stone and thick choking clouds of stone dust, of something feeding on the death. And then there was another image of weapons – piles of bloodied weapons and more bodies, mutilated beyond recognition, and more feeding. But the hunger couldn’t be satisfied. She saw a man with silver hair and black eyes laughing, but then the hunger devoured him too.

Leveret shuddered, knowing that they had no choice now – Quarrycleave had them and they too must feed this hunger with more bodies, poisoned ones. This was why she’d been called here and it was the right thing to do, to join her Stonewylde ancestors at this special place.

‘Maggy, you must eat both these caps quickly now so we can go to the Otherworld together and find Mother Heggy. Look, see Levvy doing it? Mmn, delicious. Eat yours too – good boy. Swallow! Is that both of them gone? I know they taste a bit funny but never mind. Have you swallowed them both? Now we’ll curl up together here and go to sleep.’

He squeezed her hand and she felt the radiant love in his heart.

‘I love you too, Magpie. We’ll be together in the Otherworld, don’t you worry. I’ll always look after you, I promise.’

Strangely, as she closed her eyes she thought she heard the long, anguished cry of a wolf howling in the winter’s night. But that was ridiculous. Leveret smiled with relief – they’d done it and now they were free. There was no turning back now.

By the time Clip arrived in the old Land Rover they’d been asleep for a good couple of hours. He’d first had to get back down to the Hall from the Dolmen and find a vehicle. The place was deserted – many of the senior adults were involved with the Rites of Adulthood events, others were observing the Solstice Eve at the Stone Circle and most of the young people who lived in the Hall were down in the Village, presumably helping with the final decorations around the Village Green. Clip had no idea what he’d find when he reached Quarrycleave, but he threw in a first aid kit just in case he wasn’t too late and could do something to save them. He also brought blankets and water, and then thought of torches too.

Clip stood in the kitchens frantically wondering if there were anything else he should bring. His heart was pounding and he felt scared, knowing the urgency of the situation but not used to acting so decisively. He phoned up to the hospital wing hoping to find Hazel but she was down in the Village, so he raced around to the barn near the stable block where the vehicles were kept. He spotted Tom’s son, Fletch, and asked him to come along to help. Luckily the keys sat in the Land Rover; Clip felt very strange sitting in the driver’s seat. It was so long since he’d driven but Fletch had already had a couple of glasses of cider and was worried about driving all the way to Quarrycleave, especially over the rough ground. Soon they were bouncing up the track and then turning onto the ridgeway, Clip calling on the Goddess to save the youngsters’ lives and not let them die. He should’ve known! Leveret had as good as told him and he hadn’t listened. If he were too late he’d never forgive himself.

After an interminable journey the Land Rover pulled up at the quarry mouth and Clip and Fletch jumped out. They hurried through the quarry calling Leveret, their voices bouncing strangely off the rock faces.

‘How do you know they’re here?’ asked Fletch. ‘Did Leveret tell you?’

‘Not in so many words,’ replied Clip, ‘but I know they are. I can feel it … and something else too. Come on, we need to get to the head of the quarry and climb up to the top of the Snake Stone. That’s where we’ll find them.’

The relief Clip felt at discovering their bodies on top of the Snake Stone was short-lived. At first he thought they’d merely meant to jump but had changed their minds and were now sleeping here for the night. But when he tried to awaken them and found them drowsy and confused, he feared they’d taken an overdose. Magpie woke up fairly easily but he couldn’t speak, and Clip tried desperately to wake Leveret up enough to find out what exactly they’d taken.

But then a mushroom rolled out of Magpie’s hand and Clip realised: of course Leveret would choose something natural like mushrooms. He peered at the shrivelled cap in the torchlight but it was impossible to identify. He knew enough about mushrooms to understand that death was not instant, even with the most lethal ones, and several hours could pass before symptoms manifested. He guessed at this stage they were only sleeping, exhausted from the long walk here and probably very hungry and cold too. He carefully put the remaining cap in his pocket – there was one person at Stonewylde who could identify it, if she had a mind to co-operate. Then he set about trying to wake Leveret, whilst Magpie cried into his hands in fear and distress, scared by the turn of events and the bright light in his face.

Leveret was groggy but furious when they managed to rouse her. The next person she’d expected to see was Mother Heggy, not Clip and certainly not Stonewylde. But he and Fletch managed to get them both into the Land Rover eventually, after a nightmare trek in the dark back down the boulders and through the black labyrinth of stone. All around then the quarry breathed and sighed its disappointment and by the time they reached the Land Rover all four of them were completely spooked.

They sped along the tracks, Leveret and Magpie bundled up in blankets, and Clip questioned Leveret as he drove.

‘What have you taken?’

‘Death Cap,’ muttered Leveret. ‘It’s no use, Clip. There’s no antidote and you shouldn’t have interfered. I wanted us to pass on to the Otherworld at the Place of Bones and Death with our ancestors.’

‘I don’t think it could’ve been Death Cap,’ said Clip. ‘You’d be feeling some symptoms by now. You’re not in any pain, are you?’

‘No,’ said Leveret. ‘But maybe it’s still too soon. I’m sure they’re Death Cap. I checked …’

She huddled miserably in the blanket, cuddled up to Magpie who was moaning with terror at the ride in the vehicle and pain from the bumpy track.

‘Well I think you’ve taken something else. Thank goddess – and my silver wolf!’

They soon arrived at the Hall. The youngsters were taken straight to the hospital wing where a nurse was on duty keeping an eye on a couple of elderly patients with bronchitis. Having left Leveret and Magpie in safe hands, Clip drove fast down to the Village. Hazel was soon located in the Barn whilst Maizie was just leaving the girls’ Rite of Adulthood party under the willow tree to see to her baking for the morning. She went completely to pieces when she heard what had happened, screaming with distress and clutching at Clip desperately. He tried to reassure her that he thought Leveret had taken something other than the fatal mushroom, and Hazel quickly took over as Maizie was becoming hysterical. Clip left the two women to drive back to the Hall in the Land Rover whilst he hurried down to the dirty cottage at the end of the lane. He hoped Old Violet was in a good mood.

She peered at the shrunken cap and sniffed it.

‘Leveret said it was Death Cap. Is she right?’ he asked anxiously. The crone continued to examine the dried, spongy fragment with her twisted and blackened fingers. ‘Is it Death Cap, Violet? Could it be something else?’

‘Death Cap, Death Cap,’ she muttered. ‘Good old Death Cap. Quite slow, she can be, but always brings the Dark Angel with her, though he may have to wait a while at the door.’

‘Aye, sister,’ chipped in Vetchling. ‘The Dark Angel never leaves her side unsatisfied.’

Clip stood there with fear in his pale eyes, his wispy hair sticking out wildly. He was feeling very strange himself, having fasted for three days and then rushed about all over the estate. He should be in a peaceful trance right now.

‘But is this mushroom a Death Cap, or did Leveret get it wrong?’

‘Did she get it wrong? There’s a thing – did the girl get it wrong? She worked alone, you can be sure.’

‘Doesn’t it bother you that Magpie has taken it too? They’re both in the hospital wing right now.’

‘Pah!’

She spat viciously into the fire.

‘Please, Violet, is it Death Cap or not?’

‘Don’t know why you’re in such a bother,’ she said grumpily, eyeing him through her tufted white eyebrows. ‘If ‘tis Death Cap, there’s no remedy, none at all. Not even in your fancy hospitals.’

‘Aye, not even them fancy hospitals can banish the Dark Angel,’ croaked Vetchling. ‘He’ll come with his burning eyes if ‘tis Death Cap and no use you fretting.’

‘If you can tell me what this mushroom is, I’ll make sure you’re rewarded.’

‘What with?’ said Starling, still sitting by the fire and apparently unconcerned that her son had tried to kill himself. She shifted her great bulk to break wind. ‘What’ll the reward be?’

‘Oh Goddess, I don’t know! What do you want?’

‘Mead!’ she replied. ‘We want mead and we want it for the Solstice. Three bottles o’ good stuff like you lot have up at the Hall. Strong stuff.’

‘Of course. So—’

‘And pastries and cakes, them special ones they make at the Hall for Yule, with lots o’—’

‘Yes, yes – you can have any food or drink you want! Please, Violet, is it Death Cap?’

She stared at him, her crumpled face malignant.

‘No.’

He stared back.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Aye.’

‘What is it then?’

‘’Tis False Death Cap – not poisonous at all. Stupid girl! She should’ve come to me and I’d have given her Death Cap, no mistakes. Old Violet knows.’

‘Aye, sister, you know Death Cap. Stupid girl – Maizie’s daughter, what do you expect?’

‘Bring the mead in the morning,’ said Starling. ‘And a whole basket o’ cakes and pastries. Send it all up with Jay and he can have a drop o’ mead too.’

Clip turned and stared at her, dizzy with relief that it wasn’t a poisonous mushroom. His heart was hammering in his chest now the terrible tense moment of truth had passed.

‘Your son could’ve died tonight, Starling. Don’t you care at all?’

‘No – a dog’s got more sense than him. And at least a dog can bark.’

She smiled at Clip as he stood there staring at her incredulously. As her lips stretched the crooked brown stumps behind them became visible.

‘I remember you when you were a young man,’ she leered. ‘Not looking too good now, are you?’

Violet leant forward in her rocking chair and to his dismay, placed her gnarled hand on his abdomen.

‘Been hurting, has it? If you need something for it, Violet can help.’

‘Aye, Violet can help,’ cackled Vetchling. ‘For a price, mind you. Nice little remedy to take the pain away, sure enough. We know, we understand. A nice little remedy can make you feel good, so you come to us and forget them fancy hospitals when it gets too bad. Old Violet can help.’

The three of them sat laughing as Clip stumbled out of the stinking cottage and out into the starry Solstice Eve. Once more he was reminded of the crones’ power and it shook him to the core. How on earth had they known about the serpent that writhed in his belly?

I
t was dark in the Stone Circle and people were gradually arriving via the Long Walk, adults in their ceremony robes, children in their tunics and cloaks, all wrapped warmly against the early morning chill of December. Everything was ready; cakes and mead set out on the flat stones around the Altar Stone. Rufus stood with Greenbough next to the great bonfire ready to climb up the ladder to the top, although it was not yet time. The pewter pendants were laid out carefully, ready to be presented to the new adults, and the families had come with the brand new ceremony robes they’d prepared. The stones were beautiful with their Yule decorations: holly, ivy, mistletoe, deer and the golden suns, although it was still far too dark to appreciate them. No sign of dawn yet streaking the south eastern skies.