Shaman of Stonewylde

by Kit Berry

  Now that the time had come, Jay felt almost reluctant to leave the warmth of the Landrover cab. But he was sure the moon would be rising very soon, if it hadn’t already – it was difficult to see from here. When he’d mentioned his plan to her the other evening, Old Violet had said that tonight during the eclipse, when the full moon was overshadowed, was the perfect time to ensure that Leveret would never fulfil her potential as Wise Woman. The crone had also said that he might get her with child. She wasn’t sixteen for another four months and had no implant. Jay really liked the thought of getting uppity little Leveret knocked up. He imagined her walking around Stonewylde, his child growing in her belly and everyone shocked and amazed, and that gave him a surge of confidence. He felt very male and very powerful, and she was ripe for the plucking.

  ‘Right then, Leveret, time for us to get on with it,’ he said. He stuffed the cigarettes, matches and mead in his pocket and pulled the keys from the ignition. Then he remembered his earlier plan, and from his other pocket, pulled out the length of fine rope and turned on the dim light inside the vehicle.

  ‘Hold out your wrists in front of you,’ he said, and proceeded to bind them together, wrapping the rope around and noticing how her hands shook. He enjoyed the feeling of mastery it gave him, tethering her like a slave-girl. ‘Just in case you make a break for it, you won’t get far like this. Quarrycleave’s dangerous and it’d be your neck you’d break, with your hands tied.’

  She sat huddled, her head down, and Jay felt omnipotent. He got out of the car and came round to pull her out as she couldn’t manage the door. As it slammed shut they heard a faint but frantic yelping begin. Leveret’s head shot up, swivelling round to hear better.

  ‘Shadow!’ she cried.

  ‘Yeah, noisy, ain’t he?’ laughed Jay.

  ‘He . . . he sounds so frightened! Please can we check he’s alright?’

  ‘No, we can’t!’

  ‘Please, Jay,’ she whispered in a small voice, ‘please—’

  He took a swipe at her, catching her arm, and she almost fell.

  ‘Yeah, and he’ll be bloody dead if you don’t shut up and do as you’re told! Remember what I said, Hare-brain.’

  He led the way and she followed, stumbling over the rough ground leading down into the open part of the horse-shoe shaped quarry. The closed end was the high cliffs of hewn rock and the entire interior consisted of half-worked rock-faces, canyons that ran between them, and in the more open parts, piles and piles of boulders and spoil. In the gloomy twilight he looked back at her impatiently and then cursed.

  ‘Bugger! I forgot the torch. Stay there and don’t move.’

  Jay hurried back to the car knowing there was nowhere for her to run or hide, not with her hands tied and being miles away from anywhere safe. He grinned to himself as he grabbed the flashlight and made his way back to where she stood waiting, small and defenceless, her head bowed and hands bound. A thrill ran through Jay’s body making him shudder in anticipation of the pleasure to come. The fiasco with Tansy receded and he knew that this time, he’d score the bullseye.

  ‘Where are you off to now?’ demanded Martin, grabbing Mallow’s arm as she hurried along the courtyard past the kitchens. He’d appeared out of nowhere from the shadows and she gave a cry of alarm, dropping her basket.

  ‘Stupid, clumsy woman!’ he said, cuffing her as she stooped to pick it up.

  ‘Nothing’s broke,’ she gabbled, ‘and ’tis only some clean clothes for her and a jar o’ butter.’

  ‘You’re visiting my mother?’ he barked.

  ‘Yes, Martin, like I do every evening,’ she said, nodding eagerly. ‘So’s I can build up the fire and help her into bed after her supper.’

  ‘But why are you going tonight? Are you a complete half-wit?’

  ‘But . . . but you said I must go every night, Martin. Every morning and every night you said, without fail.’

  He located her skinny arm under her cloak and squeezed it hard, making her squeak with pain.

  ‘And what night is it tonight?’

  ‘Ooow . . . ’tis . . . ’tis Hunter’s Moon, and—’

  With a sharp twist of her flesh he let her go, and she staggered backwards, tears filling her eyes.

  ‘Never disturb my mother at the Moon Fullness! Have you forgot she’s the Wise Woman?’ he spat, advancing on her again.

  ‘No! No, Martin, I know she’s the Wise Woman! I just thought . . .’

  ‘As ever, you thought wrong. I wonder what I did to deserve a stupid goodwife such as you, Mallow. My first wife were daft, but you’re dafter, and you’re not even pretty as she was. And you only gave me one child, which is a disgrace when our Magus were telling us to breed more labour for Stonewylde. Why did I ever saddle myself with a dull, plain mare such as you?’

  Mallow stood snivelling now, her basket sitting on the cobbles as she cried into her hands. Martin’s thin face twisted with malice as he looked down at her, but then he heard the kitchen door opening behind and he stepped forward to shield her from view. He picked up the basket and thrust it at her.

  ‘Go home this minute,’ he hissed, ‘and take off your cloak and your boots and get up to the little back bedroom. Don’t take a lantern – stand on the chair in the middle o’ the room in the darkness. Do you understand? I expect to find you there when I return later, and remember I always know when you’ve disobeyed.’

  She nodded, sobbing convulsively, and he jabbed her bony chest.

  ‘If I find you’ve not done my bidding, there’ll be trouble tonight. You’ve pushed me to the end of my patience, Mallow, and I’ll stand for no more of it.’

  The flashlight seemed to make the darkness deeper, and Leveret tried to place her feet carefully, as she could see nothing of where she trod. Jay illuminated the stacks of hewn stone, scored where the old chisels had cut in. The shadows danced as the harsh white light played on the rock, and the only sound was the puppy’s terrified yelping in the distance. Several times Leveret stumbled and after a while, Jay held onto her arm. He didn’t want her damaged before they’d even started. They made their way through the heart of the quarry but Jay was oblivious to the chill and terror of the place that started to seep into their bones. The sensation of death and menace that crept up from the ground to permeate everything didn’t affect him. Nor did he sense the silent baying for blood that had started all around them.

  He walked boldly through the corridors of stone, as might a young warrior with his looted prize. He yanked the dark-haired girl along, making no allowances for her fear nor the fact her wrists were bound. He was intent only on plunder and desecration, and felt his pulse quickening by the minute into a state of aroused excitement. The canyons rustled with glossy ivy and the full moon shone through the gaps overhead. Jay had planned where they were headed, for the Snake Stone was the hub of the place, the core of the quarry which drew everything to it.

  Finally they reached the foot of the enormous column of stone where the boulders were piled and great tiers of rock clustered, forming a way up to the top. Jay gave off a sharp and pungent odour as he’d worked himself into a sweat, and he perched against a boulder to catch his breath. Leveret stood before him in the darkness, shaking convulsively. He took out another cigarette and lit it, tipping his head skyward to savour the sensation of strong tobacco smoke hitting the back of his throat. He played the beam of the flashlight over Leveret, shining it on her cloak and the long dark curls that tumbled over her shoulders.

  ‘What are you wearing under that?’ he growled, and reached forward to pull back the material.

  Instinctively she jerked away from his touch and with an oath he grabbed the front of her cloak and yanked her forward, almost pulling her off her feet.

  ‘Bloody stand still, bitch!’ he barked, and slowly and deliberately pushed the two sides of her heavy cloak back over her shoulders. ‘I see you didn’t dress yourself up for me!’

  She wore an old woollen robe underneath, with a leather belt round her wa
ist and sturdy boots on her feet. She looked like one of the Stonewylde ancestors and very different to the girls Jay had discovered in the Outside World. He was disappointed that she looked so dowdy, as if she’d done it deliberately to cheat him of the pleasure of feasting his eyes on her.

  ‘If you’d been done up all pretty like at the Outsiders’ Dance last Yule, I’d have let you keep your dress on,’ he said. ‘But as soon as we get up the top, you’ll take that lot off and I’ll have you naked.’

  Leveret’s head shot up and in the bright light, he saw the terror in her eyes. He chuckled and flicked the cigarette butt away. Pulling out the bottle of mead he took a long gulp and smacked his lips. Then he put the bottle away, and slowly and deliberately reached out to place his hand on her breast. Again she flinched, but this time didn’t pull back, standing rigid and quaking. Smiling, he ran his hand over the softness of her, pulling and squeezing as a farmer might examine an animal.

  ‘Nice little tits, Leveret,’ he sneered. ‘They’re bigger than they was last time I had a feel.’

  She said nothing and he felt her body shrink beneath his touch. He slid his hand across to examine her other breast, giving it the same rough treatment.

  ‘That must’ve been . . . ooh, ’twere that time we had old Magpie in the woods with the rabbit, and you tried to rescue him. Remember? And I chased you across the Green and pinned you down, and you were bloody rude to me. Remember? How things have changed. You won’t be rude to me tonight, will you? Will you?’

  ‘No,’ she croaked.

  ‘You’ll say stuff like “Oh Jay, you’re so good” and “Ooh Jay, do it again!”’ He laughed hoarsely at this. ‘And you’ll be squirming underneath me, but for a different reason this time around. You’re such a lucky girl doing it here for your first time, ain’t you? Bet you never dreamt o’ this. But I have and it’s taken a bit o’ planning to get it to happen tonight.’

  With a final painful squeeze, he pulled his hand away and stood upright. He towered over her and felt a hard jolt of lust as he imagined how it would soon feel when he forced his way deep inside that small, soft body. The puppy’s distant yelps had died down a little. With a grunt of anticipation, Jay spun Leveret around to face the way they must go to climb up to the top of Snake Stone.

  Magpie entered the busy kitchen and located Marigold amongst the team of youngsters and adults. All were hard at work cooking for the large number of mouths that must be fed, and Marigold was far too busy to be interested in his attempts to communicate. Frowning, he made his way to the tower, but of course Leveret wasn’t there and neither was Clip. He turned on the electric light at the bottom of the spiral stairs and peered into Leveret’s bedroom, then went up the stairs and found Hare on the top floor. She climbed out of her basket and stretched, then hopped over to greet him. Magpie stroked her soft fur absently, gazing around the shadowy room. He opened the door and stepped out onto the staircase leading to the roof.

  Up there it was cold and dark, with the moon peering through the branches of the trees. Magpie stood gazing out, lost in contemplation as he stared at the Hunter’s Moon. Suddenly the crow landed, appearing from nowhere in the darkness and settling on one of the crenellations. Opening its beak, it began to caw loudly and repeatedly. Magpie stared at it for a while but then returned indoors. He sat on the sofa in the cold room and Hare jumped onto his lap, laying down her ears and nuzzling his hand gently.

  On the top of Snake Stone Jay stood tall; a king surveying his realm, his captured woman meek at his side. The brilliant white moon shone down on them, silvering their skin and eyes. Jay was out of breath from the strenuous climb and his heart pounded. He glanced down at Leveret.

  ‘What time is the eclipse?’ he asked but she shook her head, unable to speak.

  He’d turned off the flashlight to see the scene by moonlight. Taking the bottle from his pocket again he drunk deeply, the heady mead feeling good inside him, then lit another cigarette.

  ‘You can get undressed now, Leveret. Take everything off underneath, but you can keep the cloak on until I’m ready for you. See how kind I am?’

  He untied the rope that bound her wrists – she couldn’t escape him here unless she jumped. He chuckled, feeling the strangeness of the night pulsing through his veins, the wildness of the place drawing him in. As she silently obeyed him, he thought back to all the insults this girl had flung at him, all the times she’d turned her nose up as if he were repulsive, all the disdainful looks she’d cast his way. Somehow she’d always managed to make him feel stupid and ugly; he’d never thought this night would finally come.

  He glanced down at her now that she was still again, standing small but straight-backed with the cloak wrapped around her. In the silvery light he glimpsed her bare feet on the rock, and, at the thought of her nakedness under the cloak, he was suddenly alive with hot, dark desire. He almost chose to forget about the eclipse and take her now, hard and fast, spill her virginal blood on the white rock, spill his seed into her ripeness and seal her fate forever. But Old Violet had impressed upon him that if the magic were to be truly powerful, it was during the darkness of the eclipse that he must take the girl. So instead, he denied the primeval urge and turned back to gaze out over the shadows of the quarry waiting below.

  The dog was quiet now and all was still as the hard white moon rose higher in the glittering sky. And then . . . the eclipse began. Just a tiny edge of the moon disappeared, the merest dent in her round perfection. But this dent grew into a small bite, taken from the side, and slowly, slowly, the silver was eaten away. Jay watched in fascination, blood pumping hard through his body, mead fuelling his anticipation. The desire to break her pulsed harder and harder inside him – very soon he’d push her down onto the rock, pin her there and take her as brutally as he could. Up here at Quarrycleave, nobody would hear her if she screamed. And how he longed to make her scream – to know that he’d finally pierced her arrogance and her superiority and reduced her to nothing more than a receptacle for his thrusting pleasure.

  He was aware of the silent girl by his side watching and waiting, counting the heartbeats until that moment when the Bright Lady was completely shadowed and perhaps even bloodied by the dark eclipse; in reality the Blood Moon as some still called her in October. Then he’d spoil the girl forever; taint her purity and plunder her magical gift. After that, she could never truly be the all-powerful Wise Woman of Stonewylde.

  Jay felt a slight rustling movement by his side and sensed the folds of material brushing his arm and leg. He smiled – was she readying herself for him without being told? Was she removing her cloak to welcome him into her arms? Perhaps she wanted him after all, had felt a secret need for him all along. He gazed up at the moon, now so dark crimson as to be almost gone, and then turned at last to the girl waiting by his side.

  In absolute shock he gaped at what he saw, almost gagging on his own saliva. His eyes popped in horror at the thing that now stood beside him in the eclipsed darkness on the Snake Stone.

  ‘I shall go into a hare,’ it whispered, and he saw the long ears on her head standing tall and erect.

  ‘I shall go into a hare,’ it snarled, baring sharp teeth that gleamed in the moonlight.

  ‘I shall go into a hare!’ it screamed, and pale arms rose up and the cloak fell back and she was naked, a tiny perfect woman with the head of a hare and bright, feral eyes, and teeth so small and barbed. Her arms were held high; pointed, clawed wings that jutted above her, and she spun in frenzy, a flurry of fur and dark hair and blurred transformation in the eclipsed moonlight.

  Jay screamed in terror as suddenly the girl was no more and in reality, a hare stood before him. A great hare standing up on her hind legs advanced on him with vicious paws that boxed him hard, beating off the violator. The wild creature was powerful and female and brooked no domination – she was not to be taken and would fight to the death. She pushed him, punched him inexorably to the edge, to the precipice where he teetered . . .

  But
as he fell, down, down like the silver-haired man before him only fourteen years ago; as he fell from Snake Stone like so many others before had fallen throughout the ages, down into the waiting maw, down into the jaws of the Beast below; as he fell – Jay grabbed at her. For why should she live and not him? He grabbed and she stumbled and in the darkness, as the Bright Lady was veiled, the Hare Woman of Stonewylde slipped. She fell and the thing waiting hungrily below for blood to be spilt – that thing was waiting for her too.

  27

  Yul was awoken the next morning by Magpie flinging open the door to the cottage and tramping inside in the darkness. Both were equally shocked to see the other, and almost immediately Magpie stumbled out again and disappeared. Yul sat up on the tiny narrow settle where he’d spent a cold, cramped night and tried to stretch his stiff limbs. He found matches and lit a lantern, and the tiny cottage flared into life in the brightness. He then lit the fire and put the kettle on to boil, having noticed a jar of homemade herbal tea placed nearby with a mug. Leveret had certainly made herself cosy here. He gazed at the rows and rows of carefully labelled jars and bottles on the dresser and the shelves, but his mind was elsewhere.

  Last night had been a bad one, watching the eclipse alone at Mooncliffe. So many ghosts had haunted his reveries, but most of all Magus, who’d capered about on the great disc of stone laughing gleefully, taunting Yul for his stupidity. Yul had seriously considered jumping from the cliff-top and ending his pointless life. He knew that his act of betrayal was a marriage-breaker. Bad enough to be unfaithful to his beloved wife, but to have done so with Rainbow, at the Summer Solstice on Sylvie’s birthday, and then for others to have seen a drawing of it . . . She would never truly forgive him for this. She might try, in time, but Yul knew it could never again be the same between them. Something pure and magical had been smashed, and even the glue of forgiveness would never make it whole again.