by Jenny Ealey
Golden Toad grimaced, “You see, the uncomfortable truth is that we all live or die by your grace. And somehow that statement made it all too obvious.”
“No. That’s not true,” protested Tarkyn vehemently.
The woodman gave a sad little smile. “But it is, you see. Your father knew that. Remember? He said the basic premise protecting any sovereignty is ‘submit or die.’”
“But no. My father made the punishment for betrayal of the oath damage to the forest, not death to the oathbreaker.”
Golden Toad looked at him, not unsympathetically. “But he knew that if the forest perishes, we perish. And if, for some reason, you insisted that we put to death one of our number, we would have to do it to preserve the forest and the rest of us.”
Tarkyn looked around wildly. “Where is all this coming from, suddenly? I thought we were all getting on. Why would anyone think I would do something like that?”
“What about Rushwind? She has destroyed a swathe of forest and betrayed the oath.”
“So did Waterstone. And he’s not dead. He had less excuse than she did. Her actions were not under her control. In fact, I think it is grossly unjust that the forest was damaged when it was the parasites, not her, that instigated her actions against me.” Tarkyn frowned, “What? Does everyone think I’m going to have Rushwind killed? Do you think that?”
Golden Toad evaded answering and asked instead, “What if she cannot be cured? What then?”
Tarkyn shook his head. “If you think I am going to decide her fate, you are sadly mistaken. It is up to the woodfolk to make that difficult decision, should it arise. No one is going to thrust it onto my shoulders. All I am going to do is try my utmost to cure her and avoid the necessity of such a decision.”
“I see. I didn’t realise that you were going to try again with her. That is most kind of you, since I know you will be placing yourself at serious risk.” The woodman added slowly, “In fact so much so, that I’m not sure that you should do it.”
Tarkyn glanced up at him and spoke severely. “I have had this discussion with the other woodfolk. I will not brook being prevented from helping any of my people, even if it does mean putting myself at risk. If it is my will, it overrides your oath to protect me.”
Golden Toad put his head on one side and considered the prince. After a moment he said mildly, “Your Highness, do you realise that you offend both yourself and me when you assume that any concern I may have for your welfare springs from the oath?”
Tarkyn blinked as though he had been struck. There was a short silence before he replied stiffly, “I beg your pardon, Golden Toad. You are right, but I do indeed find it difficult to believe that you, who have known me for such a short while, could actually care about my welfare.” When the woodman began to expostulate, Tarkyn held up his hand and continued in a warmer tone of voice, “I’m not saying Idon’t believe you. But if you ask Waterstone, he will tell you that I struggle with this whole concept, even with woodfolk I have known for much longer than you.” A slight smile dawned. “So instead, I will say thank you for your concern, but tell you that I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t make some attempt to repair the damage I have wrought in Rushwind. Is that better?”
The woodman smiled and shook his head. “You’re a funny one, aren’t you?”
“Sorry?”
Golden Toad waved a dismissive hand, not realising how much he was pushing the boundaries. “Don’t worry. Let’s leave it for the time being. Now, what did you want to talk to me about?”
The prince managed to contain the instinctive offence he felt at someone else redirecting the conversation and refocused on the task at hand. “Two things. I want to heal you and Ibis Wings first, just in case I don’t survive my effort with Rushwind” Golden Toad made to interrupt but the prince held up his hand. “Secondly, if I work with you to heal you, you will have to grant me access into your brain. I don’t actually think it affects your privacy because it is your physical mind not your thoughts or memoriesper se. But even if it did invade your privacy, I would still have to insist on full access.”
“Agreed, but…”
“And now we come to the warnings. I don’t know what effect my accessing your brain will have on your mental powers. It may lead to some sort of brain damage, especially if the parasites are more concentrated there.” Tarkyn shrugged. “My feeling is that it won’t, but I can by no means guarantee it. And the final warning. If I try to cure Rushwind, I will have to gain access to her brain too. She was resistant the first time and will be even more so now that the parasites have mutated and are rife inside her. I think there is a very high possibility that she will end up with some brain damage, if she hasn’t already, even if I can save her.”
Goolden Toad shook his head. “I can see that we will have to take the chance with Rushwind but maybe Ibis Wings and I should just learn to live without mindtalking.”
“By all means, discuss it with each other and with the other woodfolk. My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that one day the parasites within you may mutate as a result of something other than myesse. If that happens before anyone realises, half the forest and scores of woodfolk could be dead before it is stopped.” Tarkyn waved a hand. “Go away and think about it. Come back and tell me what you want to do, as soon as you have decided.” As Golden Toad turned to leave, he added, “And could you make sure that Danton and Stormaway know that they can bring Rushwind back please? They must be tiring of holding her up in the air. I think the safest place to put her would be where we had her before or in the centre of the burnt out circle.”
“Are you not coming back with me?” asked the woodman.
“No. I think I have had enough for the time being. I’ll just stay here and use this tree to recoup my energy…. And Golden Toad, if anyone looks like coming over here, could you please dissuade them? I don’t think I could stomach any pseudo-kindness at the moment.”
Golden Toad flicked a worried glance over his shoulder but returned to the other woodfolk without further comment.
It was not long before he returned, with Stormaway trailing in his wake. Tarkyn watched them approach through narrowed eyes, waiting for some comment from the wizard. None came. Stormaway merely asked him whether he was ready to proceed with Golden Toad.
Tarkyn nodded. “If you don’t mind, I will concentrate better if we are tucked away somewhere out of sight. I really don’t want everyone watching me use my power again unless it’s necessary.”
“You don’t need anyone to help you create angry thoughts, do you?” asked Stormaway anxiously.
“No, they have already done a good job,” replied Tarkyn ambiguously, throwing a dry look in Golden Toad’s direction. “Besides, these are not mutated parasites we’re dealing with here. So now that I know to contain my energy, it should be quite straight forward.”
As indeed turned out to be the case. A short-lived, intense ball of power stormed through Golden Toad’s blood vessels, frying every parasite in its path and meeting minimal resistance even as it entered the woodman’s brain. Because it was so short-lived, there was less burning and Tarkyn was easily able to soothe and repair any residual scalding before leaving the woodman. The same process was equally successful on Ibis Wings, although the resistance to Tarkyn entering her brain was noticeably stronger, despite her previous assurances that she would give him access.
Tarkyn had a short encounter with her fiery temper but overrode her with a neat sharp jab of irritation. Sure enough, behind her resistance was hiding a small huddle of parasites near the base of her skull.
As soon as he had finished with father and daughter, Tarkyn spent a few minutes replenishing his strength then moved straight on to deal with Rushwind. He remembered how hideous it had felt when the mutated parasites had coursed through him for the few short minutes he had had to endure them. Rushwind had been living with them for hours. Tarkyn overrode his present disenchantment with the woodfolk to ensure that several were standing nearby in cas
e he needed their input. He left it to Stormaway to choose who should accompany him but in the end, much to Tarkyn’s irritation they all came, either to watch or to help. He did not think it did much for his cause to have them watching him summon the type of rage and hauteur required to assail the parasites.
Against all expectation, the purging of Rushwind went without a hitch. Without needing recourse to the woodfolk, Tarkyn used the same technique as he had for the trees. He summoned his rage at the parasites and struck out aggressively from the split second his power entered her bloodstream. He burned out the parasites almost instantaneously but stayed in Rushwind much longer, checking everywhere for lurking parasites and soothing and repairing the burning until she was free of pain and back to her normal temperature. When he left her, she was still unconscious but seemed to be healed. Only time would tell whether she had sustained any lasting damage. Tarkyn had not noticed anything obviously amiss but on the other hand, he knew next to nothing about anatomy.
When he had finished, Tarkyn opened his eyes, and took his hand from her shoulder. As he rose to his feet, he looked around the assembled woodfolk and said tiredly, “I think she is all right. And I hope now, we have seen the last of that infection.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I’m going to bed. I’ve had enough for one night.”
“My lord,” said Running Feet, “the lookouts have reported that, as the men on horseback passed below them on their way back to the encampment, they heard them discussing your magic. We fear that the people at the encampment now know you are here.”
Tarkyn waved a tired hand. “And yet I am still going to bed. I will leave it to you to ensure my safety. As I understand it, you have centuries of evading detection behind you. So you won’t need me to help you.”
Golden Toad gave a slight smile but the rest of the woodfolk looked stunned that Tarkyn was taking no interest in dealing with the new threat. Without another word, the exhausted sorcerer threaded his way through them and headed off to his shelter.
Part 2: Danton's Trial
Chapter 7
Tarkyn slept for more than twenty-four hours. Drumming rain on the roof of his shelter finally woke him. He lay in the semi-darkness remembering where he was and what had happened. He wondered how Rushwind was, but not enough to venture into the rain to find out. Tarkyn thought about Autumn Leaves telling him he was unnerving, Rainstorm calling him ruthless and all the woodfolk backing away from him. Most unkind of all was Waterstone’s remark about the wolf’s spirit being broken. Tarkyn hadn’t broken his spirit. He may have mastered the wolf but that same wolf was still lord of the wolf pack. Even at the end, the wolf had met his eyes for some time before acknowledging Tarkyn as his packleader. On balance, Tarkyn decided to roll over and go back to sleep.
When he next awoke, the rain had stopped and he could see tiny pinpricks of sunlight through the entwined branches of his ceiling. He thought about going outside. How would the woodfolk treat him? Would they all pretend everything was all right? Would someone come up and apologise? Would they avoid him? Tarkyn shook his head. He couldn’t think of any scenario he could look forward to with any pleasure. On balance, he decided to roll over and go back to sleep.
By mid-afternoon, going back to sleep was no longer an option. Physical needs were demanding attention. He pulled on his boots, reached for his cloak and made his way quietly outside. There was no one was around. After he had relieved himself, he wandered around the area looking at the devastation wrought by the infestation and the oath. The acrid smell of old smoke and wet charred wood still hung in the air. It didn’t cross his mind to think how much worse it could have been if he hadn’t intervened. He only thought about the fact that it was his power that had triggered the mutation of the parasites in the first place. Tarkyn wandered further afield beyond the burnt area where fallen trees and smashed branches littering the ground marked the vengeance of the oath. Never having considered that a woodman or woman might attack in an act beyond their volition, he had not foreseen this danger. He realised he had become complacent about the viciousness of the oath and had not maintained his campaign with Stormaway to change it.
He wished he knew which way to go to start the journey to find Falling Rain. Then he could just pack up and leave. The others would have no trouble following his tracks and catching him up. Perhaps he could use a bird to guide him. He knew they were heading for the mountains in the south so he could use the mountains as an image
He frowned as it was borne in upon him that there was actually no one around anywhere. This was the first time he had been on his own since the first morning he had awoken in the forest. Even then, the woodfolk had been watching him. Presumably someone was watching him now but it was strange that everyone was keeping out of sight. He heard footsteps crunching over the tree debris and turned to see Danton coming towards him.
As he neared the prince, Danton gave a slight bow. “Good afternoon, my lord. Are you feeling better after your long sleep?”
Tarkyn shrugged, “I have had enough sleep, if that’s what you mean. But I feel quite heartsick about the forest. And I seem to have misplaced an entire nation of people while I slept.”
Danton smiled, “Your woodfolk are not far away. They could not bear to face this devastation while they waited for you. So I have been keeping guard until such time as you felt ready to rejoin them. I think you’ll find some packages of food and a waterbag waiting for you outside your shelter.”
“Hmph.”Tarkyn glanced at his liegeman, “And what is the mood among them? In what light do they see me at the moment?”
Danton raised his eyebrows. “Why do you ask? They seem much the same as always.”
“They weren’t, I can assure you. After I disbanded the wolves and the huntsmen, they were clearly unnerved by what I had done.”
“Were they?” asked Danton. “I missed that bit. Well, you can’t blame them. Every day you perform some new magic that has never been tried before. You astonish me, a sorcerer, let alone them.”
Tarkyn gave a wry smile. “I don’t mind astonishing them. But I do mind when they start to shy away from me.” He shrugged despondently. “Still, who can blame them? Look at this mess I’ve wrought.”
Danton waved his arm around. “What? This? You aren’t responsible for this. Without you, the whole forest would be like this.”
“Without me, Rushwind wouldn’t be able to mindtalk, but the forest would be undamaged. It is only because the parasites fed on my power that the infection became so strong.”
Danton kicked a bit of wood aside and bent down to pick up a tiny broken egg shell. He looked at Tarkyn for a moment before replying. “I can see what you mean but I don’t think the woodfolk are holding you responsible.”
“Perhaps not. I don’t know. But I am holding me responsible.” Tarkyn swept his hand through his hair. “Maybe my brothers were right, after all. Maybe I am not safe with this power.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. Anyway you know perfectly well your brothers were only using that as an excuse to disarm you. They didn’t really think your power was dangerous.” Danton gave a wry smile. “At least, not when they had you arrested. Maybe afterwards they did.” He shrugged, “Still, at least no one was killed this time.”
Tarkyn glared at him. “No people were killed. But many birds and animals were killed, not to mention all these trees.” He sighed. “I can see why the woodfolk couldn’t bear to stay here looking at all of this.”
“Tarkyn, neither time did you intend to hurt anyone,” said Danton gently.
“Tell that to the families of the palace guards I inadvertently killed. I’m sure that will make them feel better.”
Danton put his arm across the prince’s shoulder. He could feel the tension under his hand but ignored it as he began to guide the prince towards his shelter. “Come on. You need some food. You had a tough time fighting that infection. You need to look after yourself.”
Tarkyn’s eyebrows twitched together as he looked in surpr
ise at his liegeman. “When did you become a mother hen?”
Danton smiled reluctantly. “If you must know, I am under strict orders from Summer Rain and Stormaway.”
“Neither of whom care enough to be here in person.”
Silence greeted this remark.
“What?” demanded Tarkyn.
Now that they were walking back towards the shelter, Danton let his arm drop from Tarkyn’s shoulders. He glanced at the prince and gave a slow smile, “I couldn’t think of a response to that remark that wouldn’t sound cheeky or disrespectful. So I didn’t say anything.”
“So you think I’m being petulant, do you?”
“Something like that. Perhaps you don’t realise that the woodfolk were actually feeling physically ill from the distress of having their forest so badly damaged. Stormaway has been coming down from time to time but he’s just not here at the moment.”
“Hmph. Fine. So I jumped to the worst conclusion. I admit it.”
Danton looked sideways at him, “Do I detect a note of anger in your tone?”
“Of course you bloody do. I’m angry with myself for destroying the forest. I’m angry with Stormaway for the blasted oath. I’m angry at the woodfolk for reacting as they did. I’m angry about the whole stinking mess.” He glanced at his friend and gave a wry smile. “And I suppose I’m also embarrassed that I made an idiot of myself running around rescuing everyone from the huntsmen when they were perfectly capable of looking after themselves.” He sighed, “All in all, it has been an inauspicious couple of days.”
“Just remember how much worse it could have been.”
“Cold comfort, I’m afraid.”
Chapter 8
As prince and liegeman neared the woodfolk’s new firesite, a delegation came forward to greet him. He glanced with some trepidation at Danton, thinking that the woodfolk were about to remonstrate with him. But no. As soon as he was close enough, they brought forth a huge bunch of wild flowers and a stone flask of their finest wine.
