The Secrets of the Wild Wood

by Tonke Dragt

  They trudged onwards, wading through puddles, stepping over branches, stumbling through mud, and cutting themselves on sharp grass.

  “The Owl House is further than this,” said the Fool.

  Would Isadoro have believed him? Tiuri wondered. She warned us, but why? It must have something to do with the wood. And yet she had claimed she never went there. He couldn’t work out which of her words were true and which were not. The day before yesterday he had been with her in her garden, and he had kissed her and imagined he was in love with her. Now he was walking in a wilderness, with his heart full of doubt.

  He looked up. Through the branches, he could see the sun in the west. It was already getting late.

  “Oh, urgh, what are those nasty-looking worms?!” exclaimed Piak.

  “Bloodsuckers,” said the Fool.

  Piak looked in horror at one of the creatures, which had latched onto his leg. He was about to rip it off, but the Fool shouted, “No, no! Don’t do that! The bloodsucker will drop off when it’s had enough.”

  “Enough what?” asked Piak feebly.

  “You can spare a drop or two of blood for a little creature like that, can’t you?” said Tiuri encouragingly. “It’s not going to kill you, you know!”

  “I think you were right, Tiuri,” said Piak. “This really isn’t a proper path.”

  “But we’ll keep on going until this evening,” said Tiuri. “That’s what you wanted to do.”

  “Of course,” said Piak, a little embarrassed. “But I didn’t know then that such nasty little beasts existed. Poor horses, you’re getting attacked, too! Well, I suppose no one ever comes here, so it must be a feast day for these bloodsuckers.”

  Tiuri laughed. “You always have to look on the bright side, eh?” he said.

  After some hesitation, the Fool decided to put his boots back on.

  When they reached a spot that was relatively dry, they made a fire and had something to eat. Then they took the blankets from under the horses’ saddles and settled down for the night. At Tiuri’s suggestion, they took it in turns to keep watch, as they were in unfamiliar territory.

  The next morning, they woke up feeling damp and cold. They discussed what to do and decided to stick to their initial plan: to keep going until that evening.

  The surroundings didn’t change as they walked with their horses over boggy ground and between twisted trees. Mosquitoes and bloodsuckers plagued them with their attacks. In the afternoon, Tiuri said, “I’m afraid we’re not going to make much more progress this way. All we’ve done is waste a couple of days.”

  The Fool glanced around wildly, tugging his beard and shaking his head. “Bad ground,” he mumbled. Then he pointed at Ardanwen. “Look!” he cried. “Look at the black horse. He knows the way!”

  Ardanwen had indeed set off in a different direction.

  “He’ll find the path,” said the Fool.

  “He’s moving away from the river,” said Tiuri.

  “But we can’t follow the river now anyway,” said Piak.

  “That’s true enough,” said Tiuri. “All right, just a short distance, then. I trust Ardanwen.”

  “Beautiful black horse,” said the Fool. “Wise black horse, show us the way!”

  6 THE OWL HOUSE

  “He really is leading us far from the river,” said Piak after a while. “Although, I have to say, I’m rather enjoying it. Finally solid ground beneath my feet. And we’re free from those bloodsuckers!”

  Tiuri didn’t reply. He was taking a good look around and trying to memorize the surroundings, so he’d be able to find the way back later.

  “Hey, look!” cried Piak. “There are flowers here. I’m glad to see them. At least I feel like I’m walking in a normal wood now.” And he began to sing a happy song.

  “Sssh!” said the Fool.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Piak.

  “Don’t talk so loud, Friend!” said the Fool. “Don’t sing so loud! They might be able to hear us now.”

  “We can go back right away, if that’s what you want, Marius,” said Tiuri kindly.

  “N-no,” replied the Fool. “It would be mad to go back now, wouldn’t it? Why did we keep on going? It wasn’t just so we could turn back! And you are a knight. You have a shield and a sword.”

  Tiuri suddenly felt the heavy burden of his responsibility for Marius, who had such faith in him.

  Ardanwen calmly started to graze.

  “Look, he’s given up, too,” said Piak. He walked past the horse and let out a muffled cry. “There’s a track here!” he said excitedly.

  The others followed him – yes, it was a track, a narrow one, but most definitely a track.

  “Was it made by people?” Tiuri wondered aloud.

  “Animals have paths, too,” said the Fool. “Fox tracks, deer tracks. But this is not an animal’s path.”

  “Ardanwen, you’re a marvel!” cried Piak. “Now we can keep on going, can’t we?”

  “Until nightfall,” said Tiuri.

  He reckoned that the track ran north-east to south-west – and south-west was the direction they wanted to go in. Then they’d probably come out by the Black River again.

  The Fool looked around, twitched his nostrils, and said, “Hush, friends and travellers, walk softly! I have been here before, not alone, long ago… Look carefully, tread softly!”

  His mood took hold of Piak and Tiuri. They hardly even dared to breathe as they moved cautiously onwards, first on foot and then on horseback.

  Birds chirped in the trees, and they spotted two deer, which stared at them in surprise.

  Then, late in the afternoon, they did indeed come to the river.

  “This is the way,” whispered the Fool. “This is our way, friends. Do you hear the reeds rustling beside the dark water? Take care. There’s a stream flowing across the path here – jump over it. You can drink this water. It tastes better than the water from the river. Come on, keep walking, horses. Keep going, friends.”

  As the sun was setting, they came to a building – or rather, a ruin.

  “The Owl House!” said Piak.

  It had been a large house once, made of stone, but now most of it had collapsed. What was still standing was dilapidated and overgrown. The roof was almost completely gone, and the windows were just holes in the crumbling walls. A wide flight of steps had once run down to the river, but little of that remained either.

  In silence, the travellers headed for the building and, after some hesitation, they stepped inside. They entered spaces that had once been halls and chambers, and walked among tall ferns and over dense moss instead of across floors with tiles and rugs. When they looked up, they could see the fiery red sky. There were not only windows in the thick walls, but also alcoves, where they thought they could spot the occasional movement.

  “Owls,” said the Fool. He pointed everything out to Tiuri and Piak as if he were the owner of the house. “You mustn’t go upstairs,” he said. “It’s dangerous. And look, there’s the well. There’s still water in it, and it’s really deep. Go and see.”

  It was a most suitable place for spending the night. When it was dark, they sat around a fire in one of the rooms and ate a very light meal.

  “We should have just enough food for the journey back to the Dead Stone,” said Piak. “Or are we travelling onwards to the cabin from here?”

  “We shall have to ask Marius,” said Tiuri. “The path we followed came from the north-east. That’s the direction of Marius’s cabin. Isn’t that right, Marius?”

  The Fool did not reply. He was staring intently ahead, as if trying to catch a sound.

  Tiuri couldn’t hear anything. No, there was something: rustling, flapping above his head. “It’s the owls,” he said.

  “Yes, the owls,” the Fool nodded absently, but it wasn’t the owls that seemed to be worrying him.

  Tiuri was in a strange mood. There was something sad about the thought that people had once lived in this place where they were now sittin
g, and had felt happiness or sorrow. But nothing of them remained; this ruin was the only reminder of their existence.

  “And in ten or twenty years’ time, even this ruin may have disappeared,” he whispered, half to himself.

  Piak answered him. “Out there, out in the marsh, it felt as if we were somewhere no one had ever set foot before,” he said. “And here we’re in a wood where once there were people, but now they’re all gone. That’s almost creepier, don’t you think?”

  “Yes,” said Tiuri. “We should just go to sleep.”

  The night that followed was like no other night Tiuri had ever spent anywhere. He could hear the constant flapping of the owls, and sometimes he saw their round, staring eyes flickering in the glow of the smouldering fire. It occurred to him that maybe they were not owls at all, but spirits in the shape of birds with ragged feathers, sighing and bewailing their fate.

  7 THE MAN IN GREEN

  The sun chased away Tiuri’s gloomy thoughts, even if few of its rays reached the travellers. Still it cast patches of light on the ground, on the leaves, and on the dark river. Tiuri and Piak took another walk around the rooms of the Owl House, silently hoping to find some traces of people. But there were none.

  The Fool was in low spirits. He stood close to Tiuri and said quietly, “They’re not here yet, but they will come. They are sure to come. Here or there.”

  “Can’t you tell us now who ‘they’ are?” asked Tiuri.

  The Fool shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said. “They are not here yet and soon we will go home to the cabin.”

  “Along the path we came from?” asked Tiuri.

  “Yes, you know the path, sir knight!” said the Fool, a little more cheerfully. “But first I shall show you the tree, the tree you’re looking for.”

  The path ran on westwards along the Black River, and that was the direction the Fool took them in. He himself avoided the path as much as possible, keeping parallel to it whenever he could. Tiuri and Piak rode along the track, which grew wider and wider.

  “It’s strange,” said Piak. “I’d expect the track to become narrower, the deeper we go into the forest.”

  “The paths in the Wild Wood are dead ends,” murmured Tiuri, “or lead to ruins of towns and villages that were abandoned long ago.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I’m repeating the words of Sir Ristridin’s message,” replied Tiuri. “Hey, where’s Marius gone?”

  “Over here!” came a voice. “Ride on, friends, ride on. Now you are riding again to the place where the sun sets, Sir Tiuri. But not too long, not too long. I don’t want to go on for too long.”

  “It’s further than I thought,” said Piak a while later. The Fool, who had disappeared into the undergrowth, reappeared and waved at them, holding a muddy root in each hand. “I found food!” he said proudly. “Come here, and we’ll rest on the grass where no one can see us. And then I’ll take you to where you want to be.”

  Marius still seemed very sure of his ground, thought Tiuri, as he chewed on the bitter, hard root. He sat leaning against a tree, with Piak and the Fool lying nearby in the grass and the horses grazing alongside them.

  And then, suddenly, he saw a Man in Green.

  He was sitting on a branch of the tree right in front of him. Tiuri froze. He could hardly believe his eyes! He saw a big, tanned man with a dark blond beard; his close-fitting clothes and the cap on his head were in various shades of green. There he sat, perfectly at ease, as if the branch were the most comfortable seat in the world. One leg was tucked under him, and in his hand he held a bow. And he was watching them very closely indeed.

  “Who are you?” Tiuri managed to say as he sat up.

  Piak and the Fool followed his gaze and saw the man, too. He bared his teeth and then rose – incredibly quickly. One moment he was standing upright on the branch, and then he turned and made a leap that took him to the next tree. Before the three travellers’ astonished eyes, he swung from branch to branch, and within just a couple of seconds he had disappeared. Only the rustling in the trees revealed that he was moving into the distance.

  Tiuri and Piak jumped up and went after him. The Fool cried out, “No, don’t do that, don’t do that!” but still he followed them. Before long, though, they stopped, peered around, and then looked at one another. There was no sign of the Man in Green.

  “So they do exist,” said Piak.

  “Yes, you saw him,” said Tiuri.

  “Was it actually a person?” asked Piak.

  “I think so,” replied Tiuri.

  “Well, he’s certainly at home in the forest,” said Piak. “He darted through the branches like a squirrel!”

  “Don’t follow!” whispered the Fool. “Don’t go on. They don’t want us to see them. They don’t want to speak to us!”

  “Was it men like him who took you?” asked Piak.

  “All they do is watch,” said the Fool. “Quiet! Look out!” He turned and ran.

  Tiuri and Piak went after him, determined now to hear the full story.

  The Fool gave them no opportunity to ask questions, though. He stopped and said quietly, “Here. It was here. Now I remember. Nearby!”

  “What?” said Tiuri.

  “Hush,” said the Fool. “The tree, of course.” And he disappeared into the undergrowth.

  8 THE TREE

  “We’re sure to get lost now, Tiuri!” muttered Piak, as they tried to keep up with the Fool.

  The Fool looked back at them. “We’re close to the dark river, friends,” he said, “and I know the way.”

  A little later he stopped and took hold of their hands. “I was sitting here,” he whispered. “I was sitting here and I saw… A knight by that tree…” He let go of their hands and pointed.

  Tiuri felt almost as if he should be able to see the knight, but there was no one there. He saw the tree, though, strong and sturdy, surrounded by tall ferns.

  Slowly, almost hesitantly, he went closer. As he pushed the ferns aside, he saw nothing on the trunk. He did not waste any time feeling disappointed, though, but walked around the tree, where there were indeed signs carved into the bark – letters, words, names…

  Tiuri stood and read them, and then read them again… three times, four.

  Piak gasped as he came to join his friend, staring incredulously at the message that had been carved into the tree trunk months ago.

  IN MEMORY OF

  SIR ARWAUT

  AND ILMAR

  AND ALL OUR FAITHFUL MEN

  SO TREACHEROUSLY SLAIN BY ENEMIES

  MAY THEY REST IN PEACE

  MAY THEIR DEATHS BE AVENGED

  I SHALL NOT FORGET THEM

  RISTRIDIN OF THE SOUTH

  9 THE SOUND OF DRUMS

  “Dead…” whispered Piak. Tiuri made the sign of the cross and bowed his head.

  “Dead?” asked the Fool quietly. “What is wrong? What do those signs say?”

  Tiuri laid one hand on his shoulder. “You have helped to reveal a terrible secret, Marius,” he said. “Sir… Sir Ristridin has written here that his friends were killed by enemies.”

  “Ah,” sighed the Fool.

  All three of them stood in silence.

  Enemies… thought Tiuri. And Arwaut, Ilmar, and others have been killed! He realized then that they had indeed been heading into danger, but if they had not done so, he and his friends would never have found out what had happened to Ristridin’s party, and everyone would have gone on believing there was no threat in the Wild Wood and that all the paths were dead ends. Tiuri sprang into action.

  “Quick! Come on!” he said. “Come with me!”

  He took a few steps to the river. Then he asked the Fool, “Marius, do you know the way back to the horses?”

  “Yes,” he whispered.

  “Then go there! Quickly!” ordered Tiuri, also in a whisper. He studied the tree one last time and then followed the Fool, who was already running away.

  “Why the hurry?” asked P
iak.

  “Don’t you see it could be dangerous here?” said Tiuri. “We have to get back to civilization as quickly as possible and tell them what we have found. Sir Ristridin, Sir Arwaut, Ilmar and their men were ambushed and defeated by enemies. May God grant that Ristridin escaped! These enemies are probably the same ones the Fool keeps mentioning. Who knows where they might be now? And I fear the three of us will be no match for them.”

  “But we must let people know!” exclaimed Piak.

  “Exactly. Luckily there are three of us, so at least one of us should get out of the wood alive.”

  “Oh, Tiuri,” said Piak. “You’re being so gloomy.”

  “I’m just trying to see the situation as clearly as possible,” said Tiuri. “There is something here that we are not supposed to know. Oh, Arwaut, Ilmar…”

  “Who is Ilmar?” asked Piak.

  “Ilmar was Ristridin’s squire. I really liked him,” replied Tiuri. “He was the same age as me,” he added under his breath.

  They walked on in silence until they reached their horses.

  “They’re still here,” said Piak with relief. “Even though that Man in Green saw us.”

  And he could still be looking at us now, thought Tiuri, but he didn’t say that out loud. First they had to try to get as far away from this place as possible, and head back to the east. Later, in a safer place, they would be able to talk more. But there was one thing he still needed to say.

  “Listen carefully,” he said. “It is our duty to tell King Dagonaut what has happened here in the Wild Wood. Do you understand, Marius? Sir Ristridin’s friends have been killed and Sir Ristridin himself has disappeared. And King Dagonaut needs to know about this. I hope we can leave the wood without encountering any difficulties, but if anything happens, at least one of us needs to reach our goal.”

  “If what happens, sir knight?” asked the Fool anxiously.