Read Snow White and Rose Red Online
Authors: Patricia Wrede
Snow White and Rose Red (25 page)
“Fay?” John said sharply.
“Possibly,” Hugh replied. “‘Tis no scent I know.”
“Wait here, while I go and look,” John said, stepping forward.
As John disappeared among the bushes, Rosamund frowned and started to follow. Hugh growled warningly, and at the same time Blanche said urgently, “Rosamund, do not!”
Rosamund stopped and looked uncertainly from Blanche to the woods. “But—”
“‘Twill be a moment’s wait, no more,” Blanche coaxed.
“Oh, very well,” Rosamund said ungraciously. “But I do not like his high-handed ways.”
Hugh snorted but would not comment further, and they waited in silence for John’s return. He reappeared sooner than Rosamund had expected, and his expression was disturbed. “There are two men ahead, and in the very spot we looked to work,” he told them.
“Worse still, they’ve the appearance of the sorcerers you saw at All Hallows‘.”
The fur on Hugh’s back twitched all over, and a low growl rumbled through his chest. Blanche’s eyes widened, and she turned very pale. Rosamund said sharply, “The sorcerers? Thou‘rt sure?”
“They look uncommon like to thy description,” John said.
“What were they about?” Rosamund demanded.
John shrugged. “They drew a circle on the ground; I did not see clearly, though I tried.”
“We must stop them!” Blanche said with sudden passion. Rosamund looked at her with surprise and Blanche said impatiently, “They must seek to do Hugh some further mischief; how else would they be here? Oh come; hurry; we may have little time.”
Hugh made an uncertain noise, half growl of assent, half whine of warning. His fur prickled at the very thought of the half-remembered agony of his slow transformation, but he was equally disturbed by the thought of Blanche facing dangerous sorcerers. John glanced at him, then said to Blanche, “Softly. I do agree with thy purpose, but ‘twill do no good to run our heads into a snare. We must plan what’s best to do, ere we approach these men.”
Reluctantly, Blanche admitted the good sense of this argument, and several minutes more were spent in discussion before they finally set out again, moving as noiselessly as possible in the direction of the clearing at the edge of Faerie.
John’s brief inspection of the area had gone unobserved. Dee and Kelly had little attention to spare for anything besides their preparations. Similarly, Bochad-Bec, watching avidly from the huge oak that spread its branches above the sorcerer’s working area, had eyes only for Dee and Kelly. None of them noticed John.
Dee and Kelly had completed their circle as John left. The two men then set about carefully removing every twig and rock from the ground within it. Kelly removed a folded square of red silk from one of the packs, and he and Dee spread it on the ground they had just cleared. Dee remained to smooth out the wrinkles, while Kelly went back to the packs and began unloading the smaller items that would be required for the spell.
“You’re certain we’ve no need to make all these afresh?” Kelly asked, holding up a knife.
“Nay, Ned, the tablets and the herbs will suffice,” Dee said absently. “They must; ‘twould take a year or more to reforge the lamp alone.”
“I hope you’re right,” Kelly muttered. He pulled the lamp out of the bundle, inspected it for scratches, and set it down beside the knife. Bochad-Bec, peering down through the oak leaves, tensed as the lamp came into view. His eyes darted from Kelly to Dee and back, as if judging the distance between them. The dwarf’s habitual frown grew deeper, and he muttered a curse under his breath.
“There,” Dee said, straightening. “‘Tis done. Shall I set out the brazier, or would you have help?”
“I’ll take your assistance here, and gladly,” Kelly replied. “‘Tis too much for one pair of hands.”
Dee nodded and walked toward him. In the tree above, Bochad-Bec took one final measuring look at the two wizards, then closed his eyes. He pressed his hands against the bark of the tree, his gnarled fingers outspread in a near caress. Softly, he began murmuring.
“The wind is rising,” Kelly commented as Dee approached. “We’ll have no easy time of this.”
The branches of the oak swayed and creaked as if in agreement; then, with a loud grinding noise, one of them tore free and hurtled down upon the two men. Kelly tried to dodge, but was beaten down and trapped in the tangled side branches, while Dee was thrown to the ground under a part of the main section. The tools and ingredients of their spell were scattered and hidden under the spreading leaves. In the instant of calm that followed the crash, while the leaves were still trembling with the shock of the fall, Bochad-Bec leapt down from the oak.
The dwarf landed on his flat, splayed feet and bounced into the air like a ball. He caught one of the projections from the fallen limb and swung himself along it, peering down among the leaves. A gleam of light on polished metal caught his eye and he pounced. Triumphantly, he tucked the lamp under his arm and turned to leave. As he did, his eyes fell on the horrified, half-stunned face of Edward Kelly.
Bochad-Bec gave the sorcerer a grin of fiendish glee and ran along the fallen branch. A moment later he had vanished through the barely visible shimmer of the Faerie border beyond. Kelly blinked and shook his head; then, after briefly inspecting his extremities to make sure everything was still in working order, he began struggling to free himself.
Kelly’s efforts sent a ripple of movement through the leaves and outer branches of the fallen limb. Immediately a somewhat shaky voice called anxiously, “Ned? Is’t you? Are you badly injured?”
“Nay, John, I am but scratched and bruised,” Kelly called. Feeling that this belated reassurance might well be considered inadequate, he added, “‘Twill take me but a moment to get free; then I’ll come to you.”
“Praise Heaven,” Dee said with fervent sincerity. “I, too, am little injured, but I doubt I can get free without help.”
Kelly’s attempts to wriggle out from beneath the branches were more than noisy enough to cover the sounds of a hasty, whispered conference beneath a tall holly bush nearby. Rosamund, Blanche, and their two half-Faerie companions had heard the crash of the falling branch and arrived just in time to see Bochad-Bec abscond with the lamp. Rosamund at once proposed that they follow the dwarf, but John and Hugh instantly rejected that idea.
“Oakmen are surly and dangerous to cross,” John said. “And he’s in Faerie now, where neither Hugh nor I can go.”
“Then let’s accost these others,” Rosamund whispered back. “Belike we can discover more of their plans and purposes.”
“And how wouldst thou explain how it is that two girls are found in company with a man and bear?” John said sarcastically. “No, we’ll learn enough by watching.”
“Blanche and I can go alone, and you shall stay here and watch,” Rosamund said persuasively.
“Look!” Blanche broke in, her tone horrified. “His ears have been cropped!”
All eyes turned toward the clearing. Kelly had succeeded in freeing himself at last, but in the process he had lost the black skullcap he always wore, and the truth of Blanche’s surprised exclamation was clear to them all. “So he’s been taken for wizardry before,” John said in a speculative tone.
“Nay, cutting off the ears is too mild a punishment for witchcraft,” Rosamund said. “He must have been convicted of some lesser crime—theft, perhaps, or forgery.”
“Are you there, Ned?” Dee’s voice, coming from the other side of the fallen branch, had a touch of querulousness. “Are you free?”
Kelly glanced swiftly toward the sound and saw that the swelling curve of the branch screened him from his companion’s view. He gave a sigh of obvious relief and called back, “A moment only, and I’ll be there.” He snatched his skullcap from the ground where it had fallen and shook it to dislodge the twigs and bark, then crammed it on his head. He felt the edges with his fingers to make certain it was properly positioned to hide his deformity; only then did he go to help his fallen friend.
His efforts were unsuccessful. The heaviest part of the branch lay across the small of John Dee’s back; a slight unevenness in the ground was all that had kept him from being crushed. Kelly’s strength was enough to shift the branch, but not quite enough to raise it, and Dee’s agility was not sufficient to enable him to wriggle out from under.
“‘Tis no good, Ned,” Dee said at last. “You needs must fetch help. ”
“And what am I to tell them?” Kelly said angrily. “That we brought red silk and an iron brazier into the forest to gather firewood in? Nay, I’ve no desire to hang for witchcraft.”
“Nor have I,” Dee replied. “But my desire to die of thirst and hunger beneath this branch is equally small.” He sighed and suddenly looked older than his fifty-seven years. “This is what comes of greed; it is the judgment of Heaven on our presumption.”
“‘Twas no angel stole away our lamp,” Kelly retorted. “That I’ll swear to.”
“I did not see the apparition of which you speak,” Dee said. “Yet if it was some demon it but proves my point.”
“Have done, John!” Kelly said in exasperation. “‘Twas neither devil nor angel, but some wight out of Faerie, and what its presence proves is that our spell’s had more effect than we knew.”
Within the holly bush, John snorted softly. “He’s right on that account,” he said under his breath to Hugh. “But I’m puzzled what interest an oakman would take in these two.”
“For now ‘tis more important that they leave, else our own work will ne’er begin,” Rosamund said impatiently. “Turn thy mind to that, and save the dwarf for later.”
“We must help them,” Blanche said. “They’ll not think it strange to see Rose and me, and I think we two can add enough to Master Kelly’s efforts to set Master Dee at liberty. ”But you“—she looked at John and Hugh—”you must stay well hid, or they’ll know we’re more than what we seem. “
“No,” John said, and Hugh nodded his agreement.
“We’ve no choice,” Blanche insisted. “Rose—”
“No,” John repeated, and caught hold of her wrist. “There’s no need.”
“But there is!” Blanche whispered urgently, pulling against his grasp. “Dost thou not see it?”
“Thou dost misunderstand,” Hugh rasped. “He’d have thee wait on his attempt ere thou makest thine own. ”
Blanche looked from Hugh to John, and nodded uncertainly. John released her wrist and turned. He studied the scene before him. Kelly was preparing to make another assault on the branch that pinned his companion. As the wizard set his shoulder against the bark, John’s eyes narrowed to slits and he stretched out his left hand.
The heavy oak branch shifted. “Once more, Ned!” Dee cried. Kelly’s face turned purple with effort. Beads of sweat formed on John’s forehead, and his outstretched hand trembled. The branch shifted a little farther and rose slightly as it rolled onto a projecting limb. John Dee made a strangled noise and scrabbled his way to safety; an instant later Kelly sprang away, panting, and the branch fell back to its original position.
“Well done, Ned!” Dee said as he climbed to his feet. “I owe you much. ”
“Well done?” Kelly kicked viciously at the fallen branch. “We’re ruined!”
“Perhaps,” Dee said gently. “But we’re alive, not crushed to death, and that’s worth more than gold, or even knowledge. Thank Heaven for your life, my friend, and let the rest go.”
“Let it go?” Kelly said, his voice rising. “The crystal’s failed and we’ve no hope of remedying it now; by tomorrow eve we’ll look like fools in motley before Lord Laski and the court—and you say, let it go?”
“‘Tis Heaven’s judgment, Ned.”
“‘Tis rather Faerie’s malice! And that I’ll not accept, for all your pious mouthings!”
“What mean you?” Dee said, taken aback by Kelly’s fierceness. Kelly, still scowling heavily, described the dwarf and the stealing of the lamp. When he finished, Dee, too, was frowning.
“This puts a different face on things,” the elder wizard said. “An’t be Faerie that we war with, we may not be altogether lost.”
“How so? Without the lamp—”
“The lamp’s no matter. Think, Ned! An we’d failed as completely as we thought, there’d be no reason for this mischief.”
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