The Wizard's Curse (Book 2) (66 page)

“You see, Hail. You can’t predict the effect your life will have on the lives of others,” said String.

“Or my death.” She retorted.

“No, I suppose not,” conceded String glumly.

Suddenly Dry Berry stomped up to Hail and jabbed her repeatedly in the chest with her index finger. “Now listen here, young lady. You have not cornered the market on feeling lousy about how you behaved under that wretched curse. I despise the way I manipulated Tarkyn and set him up for that beating. You weren’t there so you don’t know. After all, none of us is talking about it because it was too shameful for words.”

Hail frowned and looked bewildered. “What beating?”

Tarkyn waved his hand, “Please, no. Unless we must, I would rather not talk about it. You can tell Hail about it later.” He grimaced, “Suffice it to say, there are many mountainfolk who behaved regrettably that day.” A thought struck him. “You didn’t swear the oath that day,  did you?”

A malicious little smile played around Hail’s mouth, “No, but the meaning of that howling wind that blasted across the clearing last night was transmitted amongst everyone gathered there.” She gave a little sigh, “I do understand that I am under oath to you and that you placed the future of our people and the forests into my care when you ordered me to wait.” She studied him, “So will you now risk them again by ordering me to stay alive?”

“No.”

“No? Just No? And yet you are still holding me within this shield against my will.”

Tarkyn raised a hand then let it drop, “Hail, I do not want to own your life. It is yours to keep or throw away as you choose. All I wanted was the chance to talk to you, to show you that there are people who care about you and that there may be reasons to keep living. What Pipeless did to you and the legacy he left you, have been hard to bear I know, nearly as hard to bear as the legacy he left his son. But at least you had a life beforehand to give you some perspective. Midnight’s whole life has been mutilated by that curse.” He nodded almost imperceptibly to Waterstone as he said, “Hail, if you choose to die, I will do my best to explain to Midnight that you loved him. Whether or not you choose to die, I will still look after him and love him as my own. You can care for him as much as you can manage but you do not have to take the full burden of him.”

Hail frowned, “Why are you, a young man of only nineteen, prepared to take on such an enormous responsibility when I struggle with it?”

Tarkyn smiled, and shrugged, “My life has never been my own. I was bred to take responsibility. Besides, I love that little rascal to death and back. He’s just pummelled me black and blue but I can only sit back and admire that fighting spirit of his that has brought him through all those years of being reviled. Whatever you did right or wrong, you produced a son to be proud of.”

The first gentle smile Tarkyn had seen, lit Hail’s face, “Do you think so?”

“He is a great kid, Hail,” answered Autumn Leaves quietly.

“And you haven’t watched him since the curse was lifted,” added Waterstone, “but he has been playing with all the kids using his sorcerer’s shield and they’re loving it.”

She gazed wonderingly around them all, “I was always so ashamed of him because he was half sorcerer.” Tears welled in her eyes and rolled slowly down her cheeks as Lapping Water arrived carrying Midnight with Rainstorm and Ancient Oak bringing up the rear. After a glance at Tarkyn, Danton waved away his shield.

“We all love him, Hail,” said Lapping Water as she handed him gently over to his mother.

Hail sat down on the ground and rocked herself back and forth as she cradled him in her arms, “You don’t think he’ll end up like his father,  do you?”

Waterstone sat down beside her. “It doesn’t matter if he does … as long as he doesn’t make that same bad mistake. From what I saw of Pipeless, even though he was towering above us, he didn’t seem a bad sort of chap.”

“He wasn’t,” said Bean. “He was a very clever but reclusive wizard. He just wasn’t very good with people. Midnight is much better company than his father ever was and Midnight can’t speak!”

The laughter that greeted this remark roused Midnight slightly and he gazed blearily up into his mother’s eyes. When he realised, he shot upright and flung his arms around her neck. As she hugged him to her, Hail’s mind was filled with pictures of Midnight playing with the other children, of him dragging in the huge tree branch for the fire in the cave, of him making the wristband with Lapping Water and drifting out of the tall pine in Tarkyn’s arms. The image returned to the wristband with a picture of Hail wearing one with a query. Hail was laughing as she said to Tarkyn, “You don’t need to send me all these images. You can tell me what he’s been up to later.”

Tarkyn grinned, “I’m not. Your son is sending them to you
.
He’
s
telling you all about it. You can send images back to him, you know. Just not words, at least not so far.”

She looked down as Midnight tugged insistently on her sleeve. When he had her attention, he replayed the image of the wristband with the query. She nodded, laughing and crying all at once.

Dry Berry looked on with an approving smile, “Hail, you know, a wise man once said, ‘We can’t change the past. We can only change the effect the past has on our future.’” She glanced at Tarkyn and cleared her throat self-consciously, “Something like that, anyway.”

Hail just nodded and smiled.

Chapter
55

As they headed back towards the firesite, it became apparent that Waterstone was displeased. He kept his eyes forward and did not join in any of the laughing and joking that was going on around him. His mouth was set in a grim thin line and when they arrived, he left immediately to retrieve Sparrow and retire.

Tarkyn watched him leave but knew that the woodman was deliberately using Sparrow as a barrier to any discussion. When he brought his eyes back to the group around him, he found Stormaway’s gaze upon him. He gave a little shrug and returned his attention to the people around him.

The home guard moved out at crack of dawn the next morning. They headed up the same narrow path but swung away to the left when they reached the wider space at the top. At this altitude, the pines had begun to thin and other trees, stumpy and windblown, had been driven into gnarled shapes by years of weathering.  The cover was sparser and the wind that blew around the home guard was iced with the first breath of winter. They travelled for half the morning, pushing uphill on legs that became tireder and sorer until finally Autumn Leaves said firmly, “Time for a halt. We are nearly at the top of the range. One more push after breakfast should do it.”

Everyone sat down on patches of moss, on rocks or on rucksacks while a fire was lit. After the children had scoffed down bowls of porridge, they shot off to play wolves in the long coarse grass while the adults sat around resting and talking quietly. Waterstone had walked a little distance away with his breakfast and sat, hunched into himself and aloof.

Tarkyn procured two cups of tea and headed over to join him. Waterstone barely glanced at him as he accepted his tea. After sitting in stony silence through half the cup, Tarkyn finally asked gently, “What is wrong, my friend?”

Waterstone turned eyes on him filled with such bitterness and scorn that Tarkyn swayed backwards. “I think the fact that you don’t know makes it worse, if that’s possible.”

Tarkyn’s hands whitened around his cup but he said nothing and simply waited.

Eventually Waterstone began to talk, his voice vibrating with hurt and anger. “How could you risk our lives; Sparrow’s life, my life, Ancient Oak’s life, everyone’s lives on the whim of a half-crazed woman?” He took a deep breath to fuel his speech, “With no consultation, not even an apology. Nothing. Do we count for so little that you can stake all of us in one grandiose gesture to save one life?”

“Waterstone, I didn’t think…”

“Didn’t think?!…” Waterstone spluttered. “If that’s your best effort, that you didn’t even consider us, then I think it would be better if we just kept our relationship formal from here on in. You are the lord. We are your vassals, nothing more. You can do with us as you will and there is nothing we can do to stop you.” Then he shook out his empty tea cup before turning to confront Tarkyn, “How could you know that she would have enough clarity of mind to even understand what she was forfeiting if she jumped? You threw our whole welfare into the chance that she would obey you
.
Yo
u
, a hated sorcerer.”

Tarkyn’s mouth thinned and he turned his head to look at the tumbling white clouds forming on the horizon. After a moment, even though his eyes were glittering with anger, he said quietly “I was not going to say that I didn’t think of you. I was going to say that I didn’t think one refused command would affect the forest too much.  If she had disobeyed my command, we would not have lost all  the forests.”

“How do you work that out?” demanded Waterstone.

Tarkyn leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees, “Do you remember the time I told you that the oath had spread and you asked whether I was ordering you not to tell anyone?”

The woodman frowned, “Yes.”

“And when I tried to walk away, you kept doing your woodfolk flick to bar my way? Well, I ordered you to get out of the way then and you just blatantly said, ‘No,’ and stood your ground.” Tarkyn looked sideways to meet Waterstone’s gaze. “Remember? There was a turbulent gust of wind after that, maybe a few leaves drifted down but not much more. No trees nearby were even damaged.”

“So why did you look so aghast last night, when that gust of wind hit us as we were trying to reach her?”

“I was worried she wouldn’t last until we got there. I wasn’t worried about the forest.”

Still Waterstone was not satisfied, “But why didn’t you say anything when I said that our lives and the forest were teetering at the top of the cliff?”

Tarkyn frowned at him, “I just thought you were being facetious. I must admit I did think it was a little discordant with the gravity of the situation but on the other hand…”

“On the other hand, what?”

Suddenly Tarkyn found that his throat had closed over and he was struggling to speak. He swallowed and said tightly, “On the other hand, until now, it would never have occurred to me that you might think me such a monster.” With a supreme effort, he achieved what he thought was a smile but was actually a grimace, “Still, you never can tell with us hated sorcerers, can you?”

With a sense of inevitability, Tarkyn spotted Autumn Leaves heading over to join them. He smiled sadly at the solid woodman as he arrived, “Too little too late, my friend. I doubt that there is much you can retrieve from the fragments of the friendship that just died here this morning.” Tarkyn was too dispirited to be bothered getting up to walk away. He just sat there on the rock next to Waterstone, his arms linked across his drawn up knees encircling the dark pit in his stomach, staring at the clouds building on the horizon.

Autumn Leaves pointed at Tarkyn, Waterstone and then himself. Correctly interpreting this, Tarkyn nodded his agreement for Waterstone to transmit their conversation.

When Autumn Leaves’ eyes cleared, he watched Tarkyn speculatively for a few minutes while he tried to work out how to say what he needed to. Finally he said, “Now, if I begin this conversation, will you contract to stay until the end of it?”

Tarkyn brought dulled eyes around to focus on the woodman, “That can only mean that you concur with Waterstone but yes, I will.” He heaved a sigh that did not release any of the tension in him, “If we are to move forward as a people, I will have to confront and deal with what you think of me.” Autumn Leaves went to place his hand on Tarkyn’s shoulder but the prince held up his hand to keep him at bay. “I agree with Waterstone. Let’s just keep this formal for the time being. We may be able to revert afterwards. I don’t know.”

Autumn Leaves looked uncertain, “Does that mean I have to bow, Your Highness?”

The ghost of a smile wafted across Tarkyn’s face, “No. And you don’t have to use my title either. It just means that you keep your distance and focus solely on the matter at hand. Don’t try to be my friend until I know where I stand.”

Autumn Leaves let out a silent whistle and glanced apprehensively at Waterstone.

“Come on. Out with it!” Tarkyn’s voice cracked with tension, “It cannot be worse than what has gone before.”

Autumn Leaves cleared his throat, “Tarkyn, the rest of us didn’t even know that there had been an occasion when your command had been refused with minimal damage to the forest.”

“Obviously Waterstone didn’t remember it either,” said Tarkyn shortly. He grunted, “So, you all feel as Waterstone does, that I am a heartless monster who would throw your lives away on a gamble? Have you spent the night in mental huddles talking about it? Have you all closed your hearts off to me but not dared to show it?”

“Just be glad that Waterstone’s reaction is to show his qualms.”

“I’m not feeling glad about anything just at the moment.” Tarkyn stood up and began to pace back and forth. By now everyone in the home guard was aware that a tense situation had developed but were keeping well away, watching from a distance. Tarkyn swept his gaze across them. None of them met his eyes. He rounded on Autumn Leaves, “Well, you can tell them this from me; out of all of you, only Waterstone has had the decency to raise it with me and even then I had to begin the exchange. The rest of you were content to let this fester behind my back and destroy everything we had built up without even giving me a chance to explain my actions.”