by Holly Hook
I had to leave for their sakes.
The forest seemed so far away. And these trees weren't close enough together to hide us like the dark ones had.
"That won't work," I said. "The birds will find us. We need another idea!"
We all stopped, and I whirled in a circle. Why couldn't we hide in a house?
"The barn," Brie said. "The hay."
"Good idea," Stilt said. The thunder met my ears now. The ravens would appear any second. I wasn't even sure which way they were coming from. Alric was expanding his search.
Brie ran to the right, and we followed. A large building looked over all the houses and I saw that it had no windows. Brie pulled open the door, and we piled into a darkness that smelled of hay. I sneezed. Stilt and I pushed the door shut and darkness swallowed us.
"How are birds going to not look here?" I asked. Tiny pinpoints of sunlight were blinding in the dark and my eyes adjusted. There didn't seem to be any holes big enough to let ravens through.
But even in here, the thunder grew louder.
"Up this ladder," Stilt said, pulling me through the dark. "There's a hay loft up here. We need to bury ourselves under it. They might try to peek through these holes."
I flailed and my hand hit something with bars. I grabbed on. This thing might be like the bricks back at the tower, meant for climbing. I didn't think too much about it. I scrambled up the bars and my hands met dry, dead grass. The hay.
"Bury yourself under it," Brie said.
I went to work burrowing like a terrified gopher. The hay smell grew overpowering as the birds' cawing reached a horrible pitch outside. They must be over the village by now or close. They had at least cleared the forest. Next to me, Stilt and Brie went to work doing the same. I could barely breathe with the weight of the hay pressing down on my back. I felt like no one would find me here ever again. Someone's hand brushed mine and stayed there.
And at last, the hay cleared and I could peek out from the huge pile.
I sucked in a tiny breath of fresh air. There was a small hole right in front of my eyes that looked over the village. And what I saw made me hold it all over again.
A black cloud had settled over the village. The cawing continued and birds descended from it, landing on rooftops and grass and dirt. A stray chicken tried to flee, only to get caught up in the crowd of ravens. It ran in circles, unsure what to do. No one remained outside.
The entire cloud descended at once. The roof of the barn sounded as if someone had dropped thousands of stones on it. Skittering echoed above. I flinched. There was nothing but cawing outside and the ground was black. Ravens jumped up and pecked at windows. Many tried to crawl under doors but failed. But most of them were pecking at the thatch straw roofs, trying to invade every home in the village. Pieces of straw flew. Ravens burrowed down inside buildings and flew out again. They were doing a thorough search of the place.
Now I knew why Brie and Stilt hadn't wanted to hide in the houses.
And they were pecking at the roof above us from the sounds of it. I burrowed deeper inside the straw, so much that it toppled back down over my face. If they got in, they would search here if they were smart. They would land on our pile and peck until they found us, and then there would be no escape.
I closed my eyes.
I would die here and it wouldn't be fast.
The pecking grew louder. I imagined the barn's roof black with ravens. Thuds sounded on the surrounding walls. They were trying to find a way in.
But at last, the sounds died down.
The ravens cawed as loud as ever, but the pecking abated. It was as if a storm were calming into a gentle rain.
And I could hear my own thoughts now.
Someone shifted next to me. "I think they're going neutral," Stilt said. "We might leave the barn in a few minutes."
"It's about time," Brie said.
"They only just left the dark area," Stilt said. "Animals don't go back to normal right away. We should stay here a little longer to make sure they're not dangerous."
We waited for several more minutes and I poked my face out of the hay again. The ravens still blanketed the ground and the rooftops, but now they seemed to caw at each other like they weren't sure why they were there. They reminded me of the scared crowd back at the other village.
"They're normal again," Brie said. "We need to leave, just in case. If Alric shows up, all of them might go back under his command. He can control animals sometimes even if he's not in a dark area. And if that happens, we're dead. He can't be far."
Terror squeezed at my heart at the thought of walking through all of those birds. But this might be our only chance.
I pulled myself out of the hay and felt around for the ladder again. I found it and scrambled down, unable to stop myself from cringing as the ravens cawed all around us. They had this whole village covered. Brie and Stilt landed next to me and Stilt opened the door a bit. He waited there, a dark form against the light trying to invade the barn.
"We're safe," Stilt said. "They're not showing any interest in me."
And then he opened the door the rest of the way.
"Stilt!" Brie shouted.
I squinted. The ground was black and moving. Ravens scrambled out of Stilt's way and he took a bold step outside. Nothing attacked him. The birds feared him now. "Get out of here," he said, picking up a rock and throwing it. More of the birds took off into flight and landed several dozen feet away. He faced us, grinning. "I think we're safe."
Brie and I followed. The ravens were busy pecking the ground like the chickens had. The one lone chicken still tried to push through the crowd and get to the small chicken-house. No one else dared to come out. The ravens were here until they felt like leaving.
We walked through them and more of the birds took off into flight. They perched in the nearby forest, turning the trees black. I had never imagined so many birds. This might be all the ravens in all of Fable. Alric had enslaved an entire race.
But at least they had broken the spell.
"Where are we going?" I asked. Stilt was guiding us to another barn, one on the other side of town.
"We're grabbing a carriage. We need to head for the desert. Now."
My heart leapt. "That sounds dangerous."
"Which is why we're taking the carriage," Stilt said, opening the doors to the second barn. Several large wooden boxes waited, and they had seats inside. And four round things in place of legs. I had seen nothing like them.
"How do these work?" I asked.
"We have to attach horses. They're in the stable. I'll get them. I'm sure Mary won't mind if we take them. She'll understand." Stilt walked through the birds and broke into a jog as more of them scattered.
"Horses?" I asked Brie. "What are those?"
"You'll see," she said, getting leather straps ready. "You need to stay out of that tower, Rae."
"Seeing as it's crumbled, I have little choice," I said.
"Well, you need to stay away from your mother. That's not the way a person should live." Brie shifted leg to leg. "Let's go get food while Stilt is getting the horses."
We moved fast. I kept making sure that Alric wasn't coming out from behind a building. It made sense he wouldn't want to lose his connection with his army of birds. He might have sensed it already and may come to make sure he could get them back. My limbs trembled as if I hadn't eaten in two days. Brie raided the chicken house and pulled out a lot of eggs, then placed them in her leather sack. She also entered another building that smelled of bread and stuffed several loaves into the sack. She had just finished when Stilt returned with two huge animals behind him. They were brown and white on four legs and very muscular, with long faces and big, soulful eyes.
"Horses," Brie told me. "They pull the carriage for us."
We headed back to the other barn and Stilt and Brie tied the horses to the device. Stilt opened the door for me. "In," he said, waving me in with a smile. "We'll get there much faster with this carriage."
"Do you know where to go?" I asked.
A flash of pain came over Stilt's face. "I've been in the dark region before. I know where the desert Mary speaks of is but I've never visited."
The seat in the carriage was hard when I sat. Stilt got in the front while Brie joined me.
Stilt muttered something to the horses and then the entire box moved. I jumped and held onto the seat. Brie set the sack down on the floor. It bulged with supplies.
"Hold on," she said. "This will not be a fun trip."
Chapter Eleven
We took the road that Brie and Stilt said led into the wild forest.
The farther we got from Mary's village, the more I regretted not asking her more about my story.
I hadn't been able to with the sudden attack of the birds. I wished I could read the text inside that special book to see what else my story held. Mother had brought me plenty of books from her trips to the market when I was a child so I could pass the time. I used to read the nursery rhymes. Stories about sailors and adventurers. All stories had a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Mary had said nothing about my beginning or why I was full of light magic. The answer must be in that book and now I couldn't see it. It wouldn't be a good story without the answer.
We traveled for one full day through the forest. This forest remained bright and alive mostly, except for some dark spots that stayed far back from the road. However, we had to go through two that stretched across the road and the horses whinnied with nerves each time. A hornet bumped against the outside of the carriage when we passed through the first dark spot. We left behind a hanging nest as Stilt hurried us through. The second dark spot was even bigger and took much longer to get through and I spotted another red-eyed rat rummaging through rotten leaves and foliage. We left that spot behind.
The light got long and tired and that was when I noticed the forest getting dimmer and dimmer. With each league the leaves grew darker and the trees thicker. The gloom increased, and we even passed a murky pond almost as black as the one I'd gotten forced to hide in. The dread feeling bloomed in my stomach again.
"Are we already close to the dark region?" I asked Brie. The carriage had taken us much farther than walking would have, but this seemed too close to Mary's village.
Stilt answered for her. "We are," he said. "The dark region doesn't have a border like dark spots do. This is the transition zone where things get worse. We have already covered three days' worth of walking down this road. This is why I wanted to bring the carriage. I think we should stop here for the night before we end up in a terrible place. This might be our last night of safety."
Stilt pulled well off the road and the horses settled down in the underbrush. It wasn't easy, sleeping in the carriage, but we could close the doors and fasten them with the twine that Brie had packed. It felt a little better, not being in the open, but I hated that I was on the ground. Mother had always told me that height meant safety.
I wanted to leave Brie and Stilt snoring on the floor and go climb a tree, but at last, I slept on that bench.
The next day was worse. We woke early, before the sun had risen, to light that was grayer than what we had left behind. The three of us ate jerky and bread while Stilt drove the horses to a stream that wasn't dirty. The horses drank and chewed at the grass that grew around it. There was a lot of work in keeping horses healthy.
The forest only grew darker the farther down the road we went. Weeds grew up everywhere now. No one dared come this way often, and we had to follow tracks in the grass after a while. Thistles rose in a plague and the horses had to fight their way through and the dread feeling only grew stronger. I glimpsed a narrower trail that led to a cottage far back from the road, but the building was dark, desolate and abandoned. It sat behind a swamp that had rotten logs with white mushrooms growing everywhere.
And all the while, the sense of dread grew stronger. The horses got slower and Stilt kept having the crack the leather strips to urge them to keep going.
"This is Alric's territory now," Brie told me. Her face was pale in the dim light. It was nothing but gray now, and just as bad as my home had become. But at least the ravens hadn't returned. Stilt would have to pull under some trees if that happened. "We're in the dark region."
"I agree," Stilt said. "I can feel it working on me. Rae, I will need your, um, services before the day wraps up. If you weren't with us, I wouldn't be venturing into this place at all. We had to let the last girl come this way alone."
"Last girl?" I asked.
"There are other stories," Brie said. "She must have saved hers, because the entire forest back there didn't turn dark."
"How come you are on such a mission to save all the stories?" I asked Brie. "You seem like you're very passionate about it."
Brie turned away. "I don't want to talk about it."
Her words were heavy and sad. She sounded the way I felt about leaving Mother and Henry behind. Only, if he was supposed to wander to the desert, I might not have left him behind at all.
"You have a story, too," I said. "You haven't told yours."
"I don't want to." She got a little sharp, and I balked.
We didn't speak much for the rest of that day. The forest remained dark and unchanging except for the occasional swamp and the water that came almost up to the road itself. In the distance, we heard shouts once, but nothing else. Stilt tensed on the driver's seat until they faded. He muttered something about bandits and cracked the leather strips again, which Brie told me were called reins.
The second night was worse than the first. We slept in the carriage again, which Stilt pulled very far away from any brambles and swamp water and far from the road. We made extra sure to keep all the doors to the carriage shut, and the horses tried to lie down, but kept shifting with nerves. The poor things had to sleep in the open.
Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled. I'd heard them before from the tower, but had never seen one. Mother said they could get vicious sometimes. The darkness here would make one dangerous for sure.
The forest didn't thin until the middle of our third day. At last, it gave way to fields of dead, yellow grass and openness which made me nervous. We broke from the trees and into the full gray light. Dead trees dotted the landscape and a distant village stood on top of a hill. The low, brown buildings looked like dots from here and more of the dead trees hung around the place as if standing guard.
Stilt pulled the carriage to a stop and one horse snorted.
We were at a fork in the road just as Mary had predicted.
"What's going on?" I didn't like how open all of this was. Villages existed in the regular dark region. I'd thought the entire area would stay deserted of most people except for bandits and guys like Alric.
The village was to the right where we had to go. To the left stood a huge pile of rubble dotted with bright green. The deadly brambles. They seemed to like ruins. Perhaps they had consumed the former inhabitants. The road went right past there. Stilt eyed, and it shook his head.
"The desert is past that village," he said. "It will be another day before we reach its border. I'm not sure if we should go through there. The dark region is home to all the worst parts of our stories." Stilt faced me. His eyes were clouding over with darkness. "I'm sorry, but I need your help. Again."
I'd grown used to the treatments. I nodded an apology to Brie as I scrambled to the front window and handed my braid to Stilt. He undid it and went to work braiding it again. My scalp warmed as the magic came to life.
Brie laughed. "Stilt, you look so silly braiding hair like that. In the regular world, you'd get laughed at."
"I'd get laughed at here," Stilt told her. "I'd get laughed at anywhere. Just tell no one I have to do this."
"Why?" I asked. "What's wrong with braiding hair? Tower all my life—remember?"
"Guys aren't supposed to do it," Brie told me. "It's considered something that only girls should do."
"Why? They have hands just like we do."
>
Brie sighed and let her hands slap to her skirt. "A lot of rules make little sense when you think about them. You'll find a lot more that Stilt and I don't even notice because we've lived with them all our lives. You put things into perspective."
I was enjoying the conversation. This was the most relaxed I had seen Brie and Stilt so far.
We might even become friends. Not good friends like Brie and Stilt were with each other, but a different kind. Until Henry, Mother had been the only other person in my life.
There was so much more outside of that tower than she had told me.
I wasn't sure if I could go back to that life even if some of this was unpleasant. The outside world might be worth exploring further.
Stilt finished and returned to the reins. His eyes were bright blue again as if he had never set foot in the dark region.
"You had better not get us lost," Brie said. "Mary didn't give us any information more than this."
"I won't get lost." Stilt spoke with confidence.
Brie nudged me. "This is another rule. Men will always say they're not lost when in fact, they might be. And they always refuse to ask for directions."
Stilt said nothing to that. He cracked one rein, and the horses turned towards the village.
"Are those people bad?" I asked.
"Not everyone in the dark region is bad," Brie told me, "just like not everyone in the light region is good. But there are more bad people than good people. We'll go through fast unless Stilt needs to stop and ask for directions."
"I do not," he said.
Brie and I giggled.
Yes. We were becoming friends.
We drew closer to the village which remained distant even after an hour. Brie kept checking the sky for ravens, but none appeared other than an occasional pair which ignored us. "I don't think Alric expected us to come this way," she said. "But he might think we're heading to the desert. He knows the stories as Mary does and he's one of the few. I'm worried about his magic mirror. King Henrik stole one from a queen who lives here in the dark region. When we—when King Henrik fell into the underworld, Alric took his place and now he has it. You can use it to travel from place to place."
