Authors: Angie Sage
PathFinder
For Tom Wishart
Contents
Snow Princess Driffa, the Most High and Bountiful
A distant bell tolled
.
On an ancient beach Dan Moon watched a line of flickering lights appear and disappear as they wound through sand dunes, heading towards him. It was three o’clock in the morning on MidSummer’s Day. Holding his own lantern high, Dan stood in the middle of a circle of rugs on the sand, watching the lights move closer. Dan’s bare feet were cold, and despite his heavy black cloak, he shivered in the pre-dawn chill.
Dan saw the first of the lights – a flickering candle encased in a glass lantern – emerge from the dunes. It was carried by a dark-cloaked figure, who was quickly followed by others. They walked slowly across the sand, heading towards what they called the MidSummer Circle. Silently, one by one they sat down on the rugs, making a circle around Dan.
The dark-cloaked group were not the only ones making their way towards the beach. In the shadows of the dunes the square figure of a woman moved hurriedly along a path she had marked out earlier that day. The woman, Mitza Draddenmora Draa, was late. She had intended to be in her hiding place before everyone began to arrive, but she had been delayed by having to help Dan Moon pull out a pile of moth-eaten rugs from under her bed in the spare room. And, what was worse, she had to smile while she was doing it because Mitza had to be a good houseguest, and more importantly, be above suspicion. Consequently she was not in a good mood. She didn’t like being late, she didn’t like sand, she didn’t like walking and she certainly didn’t like what she called “dratted kids”. Still, it would all be worth it – she hoped.
Covered in sand after losing her footing down a dune, Mitza found her hiding place behind a small hillock of sand. It was near enough to hear what was being said and yet far enough away to make a quick exit without being seen. She settled down among the spiky dune grass and tried not to think about sand snakes.
Dan Moon, whip-thin, tall and dark, fiddled with the lapis lazuli stone that hung from a string around his neck. He had performed the MidSummer Circle more times than he liked to remember, but that night Dan was nervous – because for the first time his only child, Alice TodHunter Moon, twelve years old (and so now considered to have come of age) was old enough to hear it. Alice, who insisted on being known as Tod, was sitting at Dan’s feet, regarding him with an unflinching gaze. Her dark eyes were glowing with excitement as she twisted her long, thin plait – the traditional PathFinder elflock – that hung down from her mass of short dark hair. Just in time, she remembered not to chew the end of it.
Dan watched the last latecomer take his place. He did a headcount and saw that all those from the village, aged twelve to fifteen, were indeed present. He checked his timepiece. It was important to Dan that he timed his talk to the very second. His father had never bothered, but Dan loved the sense of wonder that timing it just right always produced. It still gave even him goosebumps. He looked around the circle at the solemn audience, sitting cross-legged, muffled in their black cloaks. The younger ones had their hoods up against the chilly offshore breeze, but the older ones – too cool to cover up – were toughing it out, and their faces and hair showed the typical PathFinder sheen that only became apparent in the dark.
Dan held his lantern high and saw the completed Circle of flickering points of flame. Silence had descended and with it an air of expectation. This was going to be a good night, Dan thought. The atmosphere was right. He was pleased for Tod’s sake – everyone remembered their first Circle. Dan glanced at his timepiece once more, took a deep breath and, speaking slowly but loudly enough for all to hear – including Mitza Draddenmora Draa – Dan Moon began.
“Good morning, PathFinders. Welcome to our new people.” Dan smiled down at Tod and two other twelve-year-olds, who were sitting in the space reserved for first-timers. Tod smiled shyly back. It was strange seeing her father in a new role – no longer a fisherman but someone who everyone was, literally, looking up to.
Dan continued. “Every year we meet in the early hours of MidSummer Morning to hear our history and to understand the secrets that made us PathFinders who we are, and why we are a little different from others. These secrets are kept among us, and when we leave the Circle we do not speak of them to anyone else. Does everyone here understand?” Dan did a 360-degree turn, looking at each person and getting a solemn “I understand” in return. Dan turned his gaze to the three sitting at his feet. “To begin, I will ask our first-timers to promise to keep our secrets from all who are not PathFinders, and more importantly, from all PathFinders who have yet to come of age and join our MidSummer Circle. You may have brothers and sisters or close friends who are only a little younger and you may feel there is no harm in telling them. But harm there is.”
Tod blushed. She knew Dan was thinking of her best friends, twins Oskar and Ferdie Sarn. But there was no way she was ever going to break the Circle promise.
One by one, Dan asked each first-timer to say the promise. Tod was last and felt very nervous by the time it was her turn. “Alice TodHunter Moon,” Dan said in a most un-Dad-like voice. “Do you promise to faithfully keep the secrets of our PathFinder Circle? For all time and in all ways?”
Tod spoke as loudly as she could manage. “I do promise to keep the secrets of the Circle.”
Dan smiled. “Well said all.” Then he addressed the rest in the Circle. “Let us welcome our new brother and sisters.”
“Welcome, brother and sisters, to the MidSummer Circle,” came the response.
Tod smiled. She belonged. It was a good feeling.
Dan relaxed. The serious part of the evening was done; now he could begin to do what he liked best – tell a story. He began to move around within the Circle, pacing slowly, speaking in his low, resonant voice while Tod listened, entranced.
“In the Days of Beyond, those distant days in the past, our ancestors went to the stars. Here on Earth they had great skills navigating what were called the Ancient Ways, and for this they were revered and called PathFinders. We no longer know what these Ancient Ways were, but we do know that because of their
PathFinding
skills, our forebears were chosen to leave this beautiful planet and find paths through the stars. They left willingly and went into a great closed metal container, a ship named
PathFinder
, which they knew they would never leave. An explosion sent the
PathFinder
up into the sky, away from our planet, past the moon, and set her on a path to the stars.”
Tod suppressed a gasp and exchanged glances of amazement with the other first-timers. She could hardly believe that Dan, such a great teller of stories, had managed to keep the most amazing story of all secret. She stared up at the dusting of stars above, trying to imagine what it would be like to walk into a huge metal tube, knowing that you would never see the sky or the sea again. Tod pushed her bare feet into the cold sand, as if to reassure herself that she was still firmly on Earth, and listened to the comforting sound of her father’s voice continuing his story.
