Chapter 10. The wild hunt
It appeared I wasn't the only one wearing the wrong footwear as we picked our way through the forest towards the faery glade. In fact I didn't see any of the girls in shoes or boots you could describe as remotely sensible.
It didn't matter quite as much as it might have, because someone had made a path of branches through the trees and lit it with hundreds of tee-lights in glass jam jars which lined our route. They made a beautiful winding pathway for what looked like the entire teenage population of the New Forest as they threaded their way into the woods.
When we eventually emerged into the glade it too had been transformed. Candles dotted the grass, and larger hanging lanterns made from colored glass threw an intricate pattern of light and shadow across the central pool, which moved as the gentle breeze rocked the lamps.
There were two log fires burning, one larger one directly in front of the pool, and a smaller one a little further off towards the stream. The larger fire gave off a welcome heat as the temperatures had been dropping over the past few days. The feeling of winter was in the air.
I looked around, suddenly realizing that although at first sight the twinkling candlelight made it seem welcoming the shadows from the knotted webs and the twigs hanging from the branches which surrounded the glade appeared ominous, threatening; as if they were waiting to tangle the unwary.
The gory Halloween costumes didn't help either. I began to feel a little edge of panic rising in my chest as I looked around at the assorted ghosts, demons, witches and ghouls I'd chosen to spend the night with.
My hand was trembling which was always a bad sign. I stuffed it into the pocket of the jacket I was extremely glad I'd thought to grab just as we were leaving. Did I take my headzappers before we came out? I tried to rack my brain. I couldn't remember. Perhaps I should go back?
Sim was leading us towards a fallen branch which had been dragged next to the larger fire. There was a group of teenagers sitting on it. I suddenly recognized someone I didn't want to be within a hundred miles of, let alone on the same log. I pulled on Millie's sleeve diverting her towards the smaller fire.
“What's up?”
“You didn't tell me Jem Masterson would be here,” I hissed. Millie shrugged her shoulders dismissively. “Everybody's here. I told you, it's a tradition.”
In spite of the unpleasant shock of seeing Jem again I was sure I could manage to take it in my stride. There was a nice chilled atmosphere around the smaller fire. A guy I vaguely recognized from my history class was strumming on a guitar while someone else was cooking sausages on a metal skewer and passing them round to anybody who was hungry. There were even bread rolls to stuff them in and ketchup so we could make hotdogs.
A large metal pan was bubbling away on the main fire, and a guy in a Frankenstein costume was doling out some sort of warm punch which most people seemed to be drinking. I stuck to a bottle of Coke Millie brought with her not wanting to take any unnecessary chances.
I sat for a while talking with a couple of girls from Ringburg about whether black holes really led to alternate universes – we never did decide for sure- while Millie flirted with a boy dressed in a long black velvet cape who was sitting on the grass. His mother wouldn't be happy if he got mud all over the cape - that much was certain.
Thinking about messing things up I took a look at Rebekah's shoes, I was going to need to spend some serious cleaning time on them before she got back. I stood up to stretch my legs and was immediately knocked back down again by a stinging blow on my cheek.
Jayne Carter stood over me her face a twisted mask of hatred.
“You keep your filthy hands to yourself. Jem is mine. Do you understand? Mine!”
In spite of the emphasis she gave the words she sounded nervous, uncertain. I pressed my hand to my face; it felt numb where she had slapped me with her open hand.
“You're welcome to him,” I told her, just managing to spit the words out in spite of the pain in my jaw, “he's all yours”.
She looked down at me, like someone considering whether or not to squash an ant underfoot.
“Good. Just remember that.”
She waited for a second or two as if to make sure that her words had sunk in, then the heavy chrome buckles on her black leather jacket jingled as she swung round, and stalked off back towards the main fire.
Millie rushed to my side immediately. “Oh my goodness Thea! Are you OK?
“I'm fine” I said through gritted teeth while rubbing my cheek, and secretly thinking to myself 'what goes around comes around.'
I was sure Sadie Adams would have loved to be a fly on the wall for that one. Her lawyer father would have made mincemeat of Jayne.
Millie was furious on my behalf. “What does she think she's on? I'm going to get Lucy and Sim, this isn't over yet!”
I held onto her arm to keep her from trying to set off after Jayne. “Forget it,” I told her, “I deserved it.”
“What?” Millie looked confused.
I looked over towards the other fire. I could just make out Jayne's slumped figure sitting alone, on the other side of the glade from the spot where I'd seen Jem earlier.
“I was trying to mess with her boyfriend.”
Millie shook her head angrily. “Even so, it still doesn't excuse slapping someone in the face. I’m going to give her a piece of my mind”
“Leave it. Please,” I told her, “it’s not worth it.”
Still looking unsure Millie squatted down next to me and looked at my face.“I don’t think it’s going to bruise. I’m sorry Thea. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. I just wanted to help you get out of yourself a bit, have some fun. My bad.... I'll take you back if you want.”
I appreciated the offer especially as I could tell she didn't really want to leave. The boy in the velvet cape was hovering a few feet away and she'd accidentally looked towards him just before she'd asked.
I smiled at her. “Don't sweat it. I'm alright. Really.”
“I don’t know…are you're sure?”
“I am,” I said, gesturing towards the boy in the cape. “You get back to Batman.” She sniggered at that.
“He's supposed to be Count Dracula.”
I gave her my brightest smile and a tiny shove. It was enough. Ten minutes later I saw them locked together in what was either him giving her a blood transfusion or a very smoochy kiss.
“Hey!” A male voice sounded next to me. It was the guitar player. “Mind if I join you?”
“Be my guest,” I replied, grateful for the chance to distract myself from Millie and her new Transylvanian boyfriend.
The guitar player – I never did get his name- was saving up to take a greyhound bus around the States the following summer. By the time we'd been through all of the places he wanted to visit, and the sites he was hoping to see the forest party was in full swing.
It seemed fairly clear that some of the teenagers rampaging up and down had been drinking. There was a raucous, chaotic- looking game of chase going on. Shrill screams and hoots of laughter echoed around the glade. One boy hung upside-down with his legs wrapped around the branch of a tree swinging back and forth.
As I watched he lost his grip and dropped about five feet onto a pile of bracken and leaves which, fortunately for him, prevented any serious injuries. There was a crash of glass as another boy hurled a bottle at a tree shattering it.
“You know what, I don't think this is really my sort of thing,” I said to the guitar player, “I think I might just walk back to the village.”
“You shouldn’t go back through the forest on your own,” he replied, “let me walk with you.”
I said I was sure I'd be fine, but was secretly quite relieved when he insisted he didn't mind going back too, he had work in the morning. As I got to my feet an overpowering wave of dizziness clouded my vision making me stagger forwards a few steps.
Suddenly I wasn't in the grove any longer. I could
see what looked like a large underground chamber, possibly the wine cellar of an old house as there were vast oak barrels enclosed within vaulted arches down either side.
I was standing behind a thick stone pillar, and could hear the murmuring chant of voices echoing through the space beyond.
Moving cautiously to one side I peered around the pillar to see a gloomy cavern-like space filled with masked figures dressed from head to foot in long black robes. There were several large candles guttering on cast iron stands, and the smoke they gave off filled the air with an acrid smell.
“Blessed be,” a woman's voice intoned and a bell chimed, the deep tone resonating around the cellar. The droning chant stopped and the crowd of figures turned slowly to face the speaker.
The woman, hidden by her robes and mask held up a slim hand encased in a black lace glove. In it was a silver knife, the blade gleaming dully in the candlelight.
Another figure came forward carrying a black bag. The sides of the bag bulged as whatever was contained within it struggled to get free. Pulling back on a drawstring and reaching into the bag, the cloaked figure dragged a live cockerel from its depths. Thrashing in its wild attempts to escape, the bird, held firmly by its feet, was hauled aloft.
The knife rose. I squeezed my eyes tight shut as the knife plunged down, unwilling to witness the helpless creature's final moments.
When I opened them again the crowd of masked figures had closed in tightly surrounding the woman with the knife. She spoke again.
“All hallows een.’ Let the shadow now be seen.”
As the words left her mouth I could see the grove again and the guitar player's frightened face as he tried to get me to listen to him.
“What happened? I thought you'd passed out or something. You were just standing there, staring at nothing, you wouldn't answer me.”
I shrugged him off and looked around. It could only have been a few moments, yet the party seemed even wilder, more out of control. I felt certain that something bad was about to happen.
I dragged my attention back to the guitar player who was still trying to get my attention. As I did so a girl staggered out of the woods into the light of the fire. There were long scratches down her face, like she'd been clawed by something and her dress was torn and ragged.
“It's blocked!” Her voice was breathless with panic making it hard to understand what she was trying to say. “I c..couldn't....couldn't get back!”
“What’s blocked?” I asked her, fascinated by the thin trickle of blood forming along one of the scratches. “What happened to you?”
The words came out in fits and starts in between sobs.
“I just....I went into the bushes....I...I wanted a pee.... but the thorns...they wouldn't let me.... ..I couldn't get back!...It fought me...the forest!“
The guitar player muttered under his breath. “She’s probably high as a kite, no idea what she was doing and fell in a blackberry bush.”
I shook my head. “No,” I told him firmly, “that's not it.”
More and more cries of alarm started to come from the woods around the grove. Something was turning what moments ago had been screams of pleasure into screams of fright.
A mass of people began moving towards the main fire, as if wanting to congregate where the light was strongest. I grabbed the guitar player by the arm pulling both him and the hysterical girl behind me.
Sim was standing in the middle of the crowd towering over everybody. His ghoulish make up was a smeary mess, and he had a nasty looking scratch running up the length of his forearm.
“There's a bank of thorns out there and they're spreading. They're everywhere...blocking the path. There's no way out of here. How's that possible?” The sound of fear in his normally super-confident voice made things seem even worse than before.
The whole crowd seemed to be shuffling backwards, unconsciously forming into a huddle around the fire, and facing outwards towards the darkness which was seeping in as we watched it, slowly swallowing the glow of the fire until it was impossible to see your own hand in front of your face.
With the darkness came an eerie silence, nobody wanted to speak, though a few whimpering cries could still be heard as people tried to suppress their tears. Where the words came from I couldn't say, but I opened my mouth and whispered four words… “Get ready. They're coming.”
As if on cue the trees began to rustle and then to shake violently as though a mighty hurricane was gusting through them, even though there wasn’t so much as a breath of wind. Like a herd of antelope scenting a lion, the group shifted, and the screams began again.
There was something amongst us, darting in and out between our legs, scratching, pulling hair, and giving sharp, vicious pinches. In the darkness it was impossible to tell what was happening though I caught sight of the occasional flash of pointed teeth, of claw-like hands, and yellow gleaming eyes.
The group was quickly becoming an uncontrollable mob as everyone tried to get away from the biting, and clawing, and scratching. It was impossible to tell what was happening or where you were, there was just a tangled mass of bodies, pressing and struggling and crushing one another.
Suddenly a horn sounded a single clear brassy note which seemed to stretch longer than any I’d heard before. A glaringly bright beam of light cut through the darkness, and although it was almost too bright to keep my eyes open I saw one of the most extraordinary sights imaginable.
A massed crowd of huntsmen and women came galloping into the glade following on the heels of a pack of hounds. While this was surprising enough, what was truly remarkable was that the hunters’ mounts were wild animals, great antlered stags, huge black bears, and shaggy haired wolves which snarled and champed at the bits between their teeth.
The pack might have looked like hounds at first glimpse, when they burst out of the woods, but they too were not what they first seemed. There were silver tailed foxes, striped badgers, an assortment of rabbits, stoats, weasels, squirrels, and pine martins. There was even a contingent of field mice which scurried in and out between the paws of this incredible menagerie of woodland mammals.
The huntsmen and women looked human, though their faces and bodies were wound around with ivy, and they wore crowns of leaves on their heads. Their leader, mounted on the largest stag, and holding a staff in the air which was the source of the overpowering brightness was the beautiful woman I’d seen when I first stepped into the pool.
Dressed in white robes, her golden hair swirling loose around her shoulders, she cantered around our group as the horn blew its ear-splitting note. Wherever she rode the biting, pinching and scratching stopped immediately.
Wanting to get closer to her I took a step forwards. The movement of the crowd had left me disoriented, and I must have misjudged where I was because I missed my footing – thanks no doubt to those stupid high heels- and plunged into the pool.
I immediately found myself under-water and with no real idea of which way the surface was. I’m normally a strong swimmer, but I swiftly found that I wanted to give in to a terrible lethargy which insinuated itself into my very being.
The water wasn’t cold, it was warm, and felt soft, comfortable, like a feather bed urging me to sleep rather than to swim. There was a humming, vibrating tone, pulsing through the water which lulled me even further. Gradually I began to let the sound pull me, and started to sink down, and down, and down.
It was the scent which made me open my eyes, the glorious scent of a field of wild flowers. I was standing in a sunlit meadow which stretched away as far as I could see. Around me was every bloom you could possibly imagine in a riot of color. I began to walk, trailing my hand through the flowers as I went. After a few moments I saw a small clearing had been made where the flowers had been pressed down into a perfect circle.
Sitting in the center of the circle was the leader of the hunt. Her face was somehow ageless it had the smoothness of youth, while her emerald green eyes when she turned them on
me seemed to contain the wisdom of centuries.
She stood as if to greet me and then stepped forwards drawing me into an embrace and kissing me on both cheeks. She smelled fresh, a mixture of salt spray from the ocean, the fruits of an orchard, and a perfect summer’s day is the only way I can possibly describe it. Holding me at arm’s length she stared deep into my eyes. I don’t think I heard the words she spoke; they seemed to come from within my own head.
“It is not time yet child, you must return. Seek your destiny.”
As the words echoed through my mind her eyes began to shine like two diamonds glittering with beams of light which momentarily dazzled me making me blink. In that instant I was awake. I was in a dimly lit room, lying on my back. I felt the touch of a hand on my face, a light shone into my eye, I twisted to try to move my head away.
Feeling a pillow under my cheek and the weight of blankets on my body I realized that I was in a bed, though it made no sense whatsoever. Rebekah was sitting on a chair next to me. She reached over and clasped my hand. I looked around and saw a nurse standing on the other side of the bed.
“I’ll fetch the doctor,” she murmured and moved out of sight.
My eyelids felt like they had lead weights attached to them, and although I tried really hard to keep them open they shut tight and I floated off into a deep sleep.
The following morning I woke to the sound of a nurse pulling aside the curtains that surrounded my bed. She handed me a breakfast tray containing a bowl of rather grey looking cereal and a piece of toast before bustling off somewhere else.
There were cards and flowers all over the side table next to the bed. I reached out to pick one up only to find that my right arm was attached to one of those drip stands you see in hospital dramas. At least there didn’t seem to be one of those bleeping heart monitors on me. That had to be a good thing surely?
I looked up to see Rebekah standing at the door, holding a Styrofoam cup of coffee, and looking at me with concern written all over her face.
“How are you feeling TT?” she asked sympathetically.
“I don’t know. OK I think. What happened? How did I get here?”
Shaking her head Rebekah told me she wasn’t certain of all the details. What she did know was that I had fallen into the pool in the grove, and nearly drowned.
“Only some quick thinking by that young man saved you. He got you out of the water, called an ambulance, and even gave you the kiss of life.” I tried to sit up only to find I was as weak as a newborn baby.
“Who was it? Sim?”
“No, that wasn’t his name. I think it began with a G or a J.”
My heart flipped and sank both at the same moment. “Not Jem?
Rebekah smiled, “that’s it. Jem. I’m sorry for being so vague. He took off after the ambulance arrived and I never had a chance to thank him.” She hesitated for a moment before asking, “what were you doing Thea? Do you remember anything at all?”
I thought back over the events of the night, the thorns - the creatures biting, scratching and pinching, the arrival of the hunt. “What happened to the others?” I asked suddenly, “are they all right?”
Rebekah looked puzzled, “I’m not sure what you mean.”
I managed to struggle into a sitting position. “There were thorns all around us, nobody could escape. Then we were attacked by something.”
I could see by her face that Rebekah wasn’t really buying this. “There was something out there, something with claws, and sharp teeth and…” I dried up realizing how crazy it all sounded.
“And?” Rebekah was looking even more worried than before. I knew it was pointless to go on so I just sat there saying nothing. Rebekah flopped down into the chair next to me, splashing some coffee onto her blouse which she dabbed at ineffectually.
“One of paramedics said that it was possible some teenagers at the party or whatever it was you were all doing out there had spiked the punch, some people had bad hangovers, but nobody could remember much about it. Did you drink any of the punch?”
I shook my head wishing in a way that I had that excuse.
“Thea, you did make sure you took your medication while I was away?”
I shrugged. I couldn’t for the life of me remember if I had or if I hadn’t.
Sighing Rebekah told me that she blamed herself for not looking after me better. After a couple of minutes of this I couldn’t possibly have felt more miserable and guilty. I felt a heaving pain inside and suddenly found myself in floods of tears. Rebekah grabbed me and held me close while I sobbed my heart out.
“Help me!” I whispered to her. “Please help me! I don’t want to end up as a patient in the Lodge.”
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