by Vance Huxley
Billi and everyone else knew the shattered ground. The Great Rock, now called Skull Rock, looked as if a giant bird had dropped it from the sky in the middle of the flat ground. Big boulders had flaked off leaving the solid pillar standing up stark and clearly visible from at least half the Farm. The ground for a large area around it really seemed shattered, with rocks sticking up and little growing. Every house and barn in the Village had been built of rocks from the lumps that had broken away or been dug up.
“There’ll be a lot more stone cutting in the new Village, but I’m still not sure how you’ll manage after.” Billi grinned. “No offence, Syman, but I’m worrying about how to pay you for that, let alone find work to keep you.”
“Ah, but if I come out to live there, the stonecutting will be much cheaper. In return for a home until I go on, I’ll cut into the valley sides and ends and shape the stones to build all the cottages and barns. I’ll even cut ledges and niches for skulls and steps up the valley sides and help to build the walls around the sinkholes so they are solid.” Syman chuckled at the expression on Billi’s face. “I told ye I’d thought on it and asked about.”
“But after that?”
“For all the stonework I’ll want a place to live for as long as I need one. I should take an apprentice as well, but not just for stonecutting. I’ll need shelter, firewood and enough to eat while the building work is finished. I’ll waive the food if I can run a few sheep with the flock, and a few geese and ducks that are watched over with the others, and have a few fish. My apprentice will want the same deal but will earn it.” Syman waited for Billi to think it through.
“A share of fish and a place for waterfowl come with a cottage out there. What other work?” Because Billi realised that an apprentice stonecutter really would be needed in time, either in the valley or here in the Village.
“I can make charcoal, and throw pots if you find some clay even if they won’t be as fine as the Potter’s.” Syman gestured round his home. “I can carve wood or horn of course. That’s my other source of income to eke out the landshare. Hah, sometimes my main source. I’m a better carver than stonecutter because that used to be my trade. I’ll make sure my apprentice learns them all so your valley has the skills when I’m gone.”
Put like that, Billi didn’t need to think hard at all. “Deal, Syman. There’s enough dead wood and loose rock to build temporary huts like mine for three or four couples so you can have one to start with. The first settlers will move out when their proper cottages are built, then the timber and stone can be reclaimed and used for more cottages.” Billi held out his arm. “You can build your own cottage however ye wish, once I’ve shown you the space. It’ll be yours and the apprentice’s as long as you want it, and the apprentice’s after.”
“I thank ye, Billi. Give me a moon to get organised and find an apprentice, and I’ll be ready to go.” Syman reached out his own arm and they clasped to seal the agreement.
Billi took four young Hunters and four youths with six ponies to bring back a huge load of firewood from two days into the Forest, because there was little left nearby after the bad winter. They also built three charcoal kilns while there, and left them to burn out. The result kept the Village supplied for a while and made a tidy profit for everyone involved, and that encouraged the young Hunters to branch out.
The young Hunters now began exploring in groups, out beyond the usual boundaries, looking for more wood or stones, or perhaps their own valley. Two asked Billi if he minded them supplying the Blacksmith with charcoal in future since Billi would be supplying the valley? By an unspoken agreement none explored towards Billi’s valley, leaving any extras there for the new settlement. The preparations at Billi’s valley now had to wait until the summer bounty had been harvested, from the ground or taken with bow and snare.
Law-Breaking and Tithes
There were no more attempts on Billi’s door, so he assumed whoever the Trader had sent left with the caravan. He had worried about it being Edan and his friends, but Edan must be too busy now. The young man had managed to work off his debts and would be trying get ahead for the next winter. The stockyards were busy because the young stock needed to be inside fences at night. At the moment the smaller hunting creatures could sneak up and snatch one, so they couldn’t sleep in the fields with the herd and just one Hound and a Hunter.
Arikk, the farmer who’d taken a horse for fodder and silver in the winter found that it did well ploughing the heavy clay soil. Unfortunately, the beast ate heavily as well so nobody could decide if the idea would be viable once the clay was broken, since a pony might do the job in future. Edan kept trying to push the benefits, hoping to sell the colt now prancing behind one of his mares. Several people mentioned how much such a horse might drag out to the new Village, or back for trading, but Edan never approached Billi as a possible customer. His small group made periodic attempts to rouse resentment over Raban’s death, Hektor’s Hound, the fever, and any slight misfortune that could be blamed on Billi.
Edan also hoped to sell some of the pups his bitch had produced. The dogs were certainly big enough to guard stock on the Farm, but despite Edan’s claims nobody thought even four would stop one of the larger Wild hunters or a pack. Edan pushed hard, trying to trade pups for silver or the promise of fodder and meat over winter. One or two were considering that, those with farms nearer the Wild, since the pups would be nigh on full-grown by next winter.
* * *
The traded horse wasn’t really fully occupied once the ploughing finished and the Farmer’s youngest, Kelli, had taken to the big, gentle steed. She enjoyed riding the horse down to the river for water each day with a pad of fur for a saddle. Sometimes Kelli would ride out to the fields to tease the youths tending the flocks and herds, since she would soon be old enough for her first Harvestfest and her first bearr dancing. Then one morning the horse came home, wide-eyed and lathered, without Kelli.
Billi was home when the Hounds’ call went up and he and Rabbit answered as fast as they could. Rabbit and almost every Hound on the Farm took the scent from Kelli’s bedclothes before they all spread out back along the way the horse had come. The Hunters had backtracked the horse part of the way but too much stock moved around the Farm in summer and the tracks had been obscured. That only left searching for her scent and the Hounds spread out in a fan.
‘Twas past midday when the call went up, the baying of a Hound followed by a distinct urge in Rabbit’s song to go and see. Billi and Rabbit were working along the river bank and it took them a long time to get to the right place. By that time Arikk, Kelli’s Da, and most of the Village were there. Nortan’s Hound, Sunrise, stood looking steadily at the edge of the Forest and Nortan looked sad, but certain. “The Wild took Kelli.” He sounded as if he’d said it more than once already.
Billi realised why, her Da wouldn’t accept it. “No, how can that happen? The horse came home unmarked. Why would the Wild be here now? It isn’t winter and there’s plenty of game in the Forest.” Arikk shook his head in denial. Then he rounded on the Hunter. “Why didn’t you or the Hounds see what happened?”
“There’s no flocks or herds out here, Arikk. Just empty pasture and the sign says the horse was galloping.” Canitre pointed, but Arikk didn’t looking at the sign. “Kelli might have come out here to run the horse for fun, out where there’s no crops to harm or rocks in the soil.”
“But you could be wrong.”
Nortan had kept everyone back and now he raised his voice. “Four really good trackers, the best please.” That wasn’t Billi because he rarely tracked game, so he stayed back while other Hunters carefully worked over the ground. Eventually all four had done.
Nortan already knew but he asked anyway, for Arikk. “What happened, best ye can tell?”
“The sign says the horse galloped along here, then reared for some reason.” They all four pointed where, and Farimer carried on. “The horse bolted across here, but we think ‘twas lighter by then. We’re more or less c
ertain, but Kelli wouldn’t have weighed much so there’s little difference especially as it changed gait.”
Two Hounds, Midnight and Autumn, worked over the area where the horse reared. Both hit her scent at the right place, near enough for a fall, and followed it towards the nearest big tree. Then both stopped and looked into the Forest, exactly where Sunrise had been looking. “That settles it.” Nortan took Arikk’s arm. “The Wild took her, but we’ll do our best.” Six Hunters and Hounds set off including Farimer, Midnight, Canitre and Autumn because those two Hounds were known to be some of the best on a trail.
“But why would the horse rear? ‘Twas a gentle creature, but big enough to stand it’s ground.” Arikk still wouldn’t let it go.
“We’ve no idea, Arikk. It could have been spooked by the predator’s scent, a rabbit, or a bit of grass on the wind. The horse certainly took off at an angle, away from the trees, but that might be because the predator struck.” Nortan kept talking quietly, trying to get Arikk to understand.
“But there’s no paw marks, are there?”
“No Arikk, and no sign of a struggle so ‘twas big and fast. The creature, probably a big cat, waited in that tree and dropped without warning. She’ll never have felt a thing.” Nortan carefully avoided what all the Hunters knew. There would have been nobody near enough to hear Kelli’s cries even if she stayed conscious. She might have been carried off screaming but her Da wouldn’t want to know that.
“But why did she go towards the Forest? Kelli knew better.”
“After a fall she’d be stunned, hurt or confused. Perhaps Kelli went to the tree for support if she hurt her leg?” Nortan had an arm round the old Farmer now, and three of his friends were doing their best to get him to come away and leave the Hunters to work.
The six Hunters already in the Forest were followed by another half dozen once they’d collected packs so they could keep going. The first set were hoping the cat had stopped to feed and might still not have finished Kelli, a very slim hope. At the least they might bring her body back for her Da to have a proper pyre and wake.
That became no hope when the second six returned after dark to report that the trail went into a tangle of bushes and trees and didn’t come out. They’d even beaten the bushes, a very dangerous occupation if the cat had been trapped in there. Now the Hunters believed the cat had gone up into the trees and moved off because the scent trail stopped. Perhaps it had heard the pursuit, or perhaps the beast obscured any trail back to cubs or a den. Kelli had been taken by the Wild.
The following day was a sombre one in the Village, and all over the Farm. Arikk took it badly which wasn’t unexpected, with everyone else hoping he would come to terms with what had happened. He refused to even consider a wake as Kelli might not be gone, just lost in the Forest. Arikk kept asking Hunters to go and find her. Billi wasn’t really involved beyond the initial search because he couldn’t keep up so the next day he took a wood gathering party out. Arikk came up as they set out and asked him to keep an eye out for Kelli. Billi agreed and waited as the man asked each member of the wood gatherers to do the same. Then Billi shouldered his pack and set out.
Billi had been affected by the general air of hopelessness around the place as everyone wondered how to get Arikk past this. He decided to have a few days at the valley and hope the man felt better by then. Billi didn’t know Arikk so he couldn’t help the man, and in any case Billi was hopeless at that sort of thing, personal emotions, and knew it. Going to the valley wouldn’t help Arikk but nothing Billi did would help the man.
Maybe Arikk wouldn’t get over it. Billi remembered as a littlun he’d seen one man who walked around with the weight of the whole Farm on his shoulders. He searched all the time, wandering around unkempt and uncaring. His littlun had fallen in the river and drowned and the man kept saying the littlun could swim, he’d be fine in a while. One day he’d been found in the river. Billi hadn’t thought of that for a long time and he really hoped that Arikk didn’t end up the same.
Billi made his best pace and the villagers collected wood quickly and quietly with no banter at all, and everyone headed back. When they reached the fields and the first Hunter guards with their Hounds, Billi waved and turned back. As he stepped into the green again Billi began to feel better. He had to stop doing this, using any reason to come out here, but there again next year they could come and live out here. Despite the circumstances, a happy something joined its song to Rabbit’s.
* * *
Billi pushed on until dusk, ate a beef sandwich and made camp for the night. He ate his last sandwich in the morning and set straight off. Billi travelled steadily, wanting to get to the lakes and relax. He didn’t intend stopping for anything, even hunting if he could manage with a bit of fishing, and could feel himself already relaxing. Then suddenly, late morning, Rabbit’s song gained a different note and seemed uneasy. Billi couldn’t understand because the song said warning but not prey. Rabbit didn’t sound the ambush warning, nor anything Billi could make sense of.
Rabbit’s song was never specific, but usually easy to understand when combined with body language and any signs Billi picked up. No other Hunter understood their Hound any better, which Billi knew because occasionally Hunters discussed it. They compared how it felt sometimes, and tried to work out if the song, voice or hum of Hounds had once been more, or could be more. Billi thought Rabbit’s might be clearer than many, easier to understand, from what others said.
Often Rabbit’s song seemed more companionship than anything, especially when travelling like this and the Hound’s joy in the green always gave a lift to Billi’s step. Now the song sounded worried and confused, and Rabbit kept looking back. Billi slowed a little, and debated going to see, but couldn’t detect an urgent need to do so in the song. Eventually, just after midday, Billi heard a strange baying. Not a Hound, more of a howl, and not any creature Billi had heard before. Not wolf or Hound, Billi decided, but maybe a big dog or more than one, which meant Edan. The only big dogs in the Village were Edan’s, but Billi couldn’t work out why they would be in the Forest?
A Hunter and Hound must have brought them, but Billi couldn’t understand why those dogs were along. Sounding off like that, the beasts were challenging the Wild to react, and that would go badly. Stranger still, Rabbit wasn’t answering and a Hound would always answer a friend. Did that mean the Hunter and Hound weren’t friends? That really set Billi worrying about something else. If Edan had followed Billi into the Forest did that mean the stockman finally persuaded a Hunter to bring his mischief out here?
Billi glanced around for the right place, then carried on to the next bend in the stream. He moved off the grass strip alongside the water, behind a big tree where he had a good view of the bank back to the last bend. Billi settled in to wait because if this group were following him, he should find out why. That would be better done here than letting them follow him all the way to the valley. Billi didn’t want Edan there. That would spoil the place somehow, and Billi would never feel truly relaxed again.
Billi removed his pack, had a stretch and made himself comfortable, then sat on the pack with Rabbit laid by his foot. The Forest sounded peaceful and he amused himself by watching the squirrels and other small life that came out once they thought he had gone. A Zigga ran down from a tree for a drink, and Billi smiled as he remembered Ellibeth naming them. During the trips since then he’d reminded himself of all the names for flowers and birds and little animals, as many as he could remember. He heard the sounds again, nearer, and those were definitely big dogs. Worse, from the direction the dogs really were coming up the stream.
Suddenly, in a flicker of fur, the Zigga shot away and Rabbit stirred. The song peaked a little so the followers had come near enough for Rabbit to feel unsure about what to do. “Hush.” Billi stood up behind the big tree trunk so he could get a look before they saw him. He could hear some voices and the sound of people breaking twigs as they walked, though they were speaking in hushed tones. Not hushe
d enough when tramping about in the Forest like that, so what were they doing?
* * *
A group came around the previous bend and the four big dogs on leads were on a scent. That had to be either Billi’s or Rabbit’s trail but why? Billi looked carefully at the group and they had no Hunter! What were the idiots playing at? At a low rumble from Rabbit the dogs stopped, barking furiously at the noise. Billi rolled his shoulder around the tree trunk and into sight.
“There he is!”
“Where is she?”
“Animal.”
“Give her back!”
The shouts weren’t easing off so Billi held a hand up and most quietened. “What’s the problem?”
“Give her back. Where is she?” Billi recognised Arikk and tried to be gentle, but he had to raise his voice to be heard above the dogs. “I don’t know where Kelli is Arikk. The Wild took her. I wish I could help.”
“Liar, you’ve taken her for your new village!” Edan came to the front, with his dogs fastened to his waist and his group of friends clustered round him. Billi recognised some of the others in the party but had no idea why they were here in the Forest. They all looked to be angry at Billi, which really confused him.
“Don’t be silly. There’s nobody there yet, not until spring and it’s not my village.“ Claiming to be the Eldest didn’t seem to be a good idea right now.
“Not anymore.” More mystery, from one of Edan’s group. The one who’d been about to set into Billi at the dance. Aescon, a youth who didn’t want to be a Potter like his Da, or a Farmer, or anything else it seemed.
Billi tried to be reasonable and ignored the mystery statements for now. Getting them safe was more important. “What are you doing out here without a Hunter? The Wild won’t allow it.”
“Don’t give me that nonsense. We’ve got proper dogs now and don’t need a Hound or a Hunter. We’ve got bows and these dogs will kill any Hound or creature foolish enough to take them on.” Billi had heard about Edan spouting this sort of nonsense, about Hounds not really being necessary since a crippled one seemed good enough, but didn’t think the idiot really believed it. Edan’s friends were nodding, but Billi could feel the amusement in Rabbit’s song so he certainly didn’t believe Edan.
