Shaman of Stonewylde

by Kit Berry

  The only thing that had stopped him plunging to his death last night was the thought of his daughters. He’d pictured their little faces, so serious and loving, as Magus had urged him to spill his brains on the jagged rocks far below. He couldn’t make them suffer his suicide, so instead he must live apart from Sylvie for the rest of his life. That would be just punishment for his transgression. He’d stepped back from the brink, and then dear Mother Heggy had come to him just as the Bright Lady was emerging from her blood-red caul, and had led him down through the dead bracken to her cottage. He’d even heard her crow, perched on the rooftop above, calling to him as he’d pushed open the door and stumbled inside.

  Yul had tripped over a jumble of things lying on the floor but had made it to the little settle against the wall, thrown himself down with a groan of anguish, and huddled under the blanket in the silvery blackness. Sleep had come eventually as the ancient rocking chair moved very slightly to and fro, and the ancient Wise Woman, who’d always loved him, watched over him in the darkness of the Hunter’s Moon.

  Magpie banged on the cottage door and then barged inside, causing Maizie to sit up in bed in alarm. Nobody called out so she quickly found her warm shawl, pushed her feet into her slippers and went downstairs, holding up her lantern to see who’d come into her cottage at this time of day. It was the hour before dawn and she’d been awake anyway, contemplating getting up to stoke the range and put the kettle on. She recalled that Sylvie wasn’t there, but Rufus was asleep in Yul’s old room whilst her little granddaughters slept in their room next to hers. It made Maizie’s heart glad to have a cottage full of young ‘uns again, and she’d planned on cooking them all a nice bit of bacon this morning, along with their eggs and toast.

  She was bemused to see who had come crashing uninvited into her cottage.

  ‘What do you want, Magpie? ’Tis very early to be disturbing folk like this.’

  Of course the lad couldn’t answer her, but hopped around the parlour in a state of distress, gesticulating wildly and tugging at her arm. She had no idea what was wrong with him and shrugged him off, calling up the stairs to Rufus and the girls to come and see if they could understand what was up with Magpie. They should be getting up soon for school and Nursery anyway.

  It was Bluebell’s idea to give Magpie pencil and paper, and he seized it gratefully, sitting down at the table with Rufus and the girls crowding around him to see what he produced. Maizie took herself off into the kitchen to make tea and start the breakfasts, still irritated at Magpie’s lack of manners in arriving at such an hour.

  He drew a fast sketch of Leveret, whom they recognised instantly. He nodded and tried to drag them out of the cottage but nobody understood.

  ‘We can’t visit Auntie Leveret now, Magpie!’ said Celandine. ‘It’s too early and Granny’s making our breakfast!’

  But then they realised something was wrong, and by miming he explained she was in trouble and they must help. But where she was – how could he explain that? He had no concept of the distance involved though he knew it was a long way. He tried to mime, tried to explain, and eventually picked up the pencil and wrote “cwri”. This elicited guesses about cows and fields, and Rufus, who’d heard of cowry shells, thought of the beach. But it was little Bluebell, a new writer herself, who cracked the code.

  ‘Quarry!’ she shrieked. ‘She’s at the quarry!’

  Rufus proved himself to be calm and level-headed, throwing on his clothes and running up the lane with Magpie to the Great Barn, where there was a phone. He rang up to the Hall but nobody was in the main office where he’d hoped to find Yul. Martin answered another extension and was singularly unhelpful, saying Rufus was talking a load of nonsense. Next he tried his mother, who immediately told him to call Hazel on her extension if it seemed as though there might have been an accident. All the while that Rufus was trying to get help, Magpie hopped around frantically, nodding at Rufus’ explanations on the phone and almost in tears with frustration.

  After that things moved very fast indeed. Magpie’s state of distress was taken seriously and Hazel swung into action. The boys and several others drove in borrowed work vehicles up to the quarry, pink and benign in the rising sun that washed the pale rock-faces clean of all guilt. But the rose-hued stone revealed the horror of the previous night as Jay was found broken and white in a great pool of dark, sticky blood, his body as smashed as the bottle inside his pocket.

  The sound of a dog’s desperate yelping echoed through the canyons of rock. It bounced off the cliff-face at the end where everyone gathered around Jay’s mutilated corpse. Magpie was already traumatised by the car journey and terrified of the Place of Bones and Death, remembering his previous visit with Leveret. Beside himself with fear, he began to climb the great boulders in dangerous haste, a terrible keening noise bursting from his throat, and the others struggled to keep up with him. The swarming snakes carved all up the sides of the huge column of stone were bathed in the soft pink light that permeated the place. It should have been a beautiful sight, but everyone was frightened, and everyone dreaded what they’d discover next as they neared the platform above.

  Leveret’s body was found quite near the top of the stone pillar, wedged in a crevice between two great boulders. Magpie reached her first, noticing her cloak bundled up in the gap and a mess of sticks and grass displaced where she’d landed on what looked like a raven’s nest. Her hare headdress was still in place and at first she looked as if she were merely curled up asleep. Her naked body was mostly covered by the warm cloak and there were no obvious signs of injury or blood.

  Magpie tried to lift her to cover her bare limbs, but Hazel, not far below, shouted urgently for him not to move her at all. Too late, he’d cradled her head in his lap and the headdress slipped to reveal the trauma to her skull. He let out a great cry of anguish and, at that, her eyes opened in an unfocused gaze.

  ‘Shadow,’ she whispered, as her eyelids fluttered close again.

  The news spread rapidly amongst the community, bringing Clip down from the Dolmen, Yul back from Mother Heggy’s cottage, and Sylvie out from her retreat in Miranda’s rooms. This was the day when Christopher was arriving to finalise the paperwork for the handover of the estate, and he was surprised to be greeted by such uproar. The helicopter had already swooped down from the sky like a great bird and air-lifted Leveret to hospital, where she remained unconscious but stable, with injury to her head and a broken wrist. The note about the dog was discovered and then Tansy reluctantly came forward to tell of her own ordeal at Quarrycleave; the course of events leading to Jay’s gruesome death became obvious.

  Maizie finally overcame her distaste for Magpie and engulfed the bewildered lad in a crushing embrace. It was understood by all that if he hadn’t alerted everyone not only to Leveret’s disappearance, but also to her whereabouts, she wouldn’t have survived. Poor Shadow was lost without Leveret. Magpie and Clip did their best to console him, but the pup remained subdued and trembling. Hare also moped about the tower and the crow sat on the roof making such a noise that Clip had to scare him away. Clip had managed to rescue Leveret’s headdress and he cleaned it up for her. He had a strong feeling it had played a part in protecting her the previous night. He did wonder why she’d taken it to the quarry in the first place, and guessed it must have been tucked away in the large pocket in her cloak, ready for the ritual he knew she’d planned in Mother Heggy’s cottage.

  Clip spent some time at the hospital with Leveret over the next couple of days. Maizie had felt unable to leave Stonewylde, once she’d been assured that her daughter was recovering and would soon be home. Yul popped in and Hazel was a constant visitor, but Leveret was unable to speak and was mostly asleep, so it made sense for everyone to wait and visit her when she came home to the Stonewylde hospital. Clip, however, maintained a vigil by her bedside as she drifted in and out of consciousness. Her head was bandaged and her wrist plastered, and she seemed very peaceful as she lay in the room surrounded by the parapherna
lia of modern medicine. Clip was an incongruous addition in his sky-blue robe, with his silvery hair so long and unkempt. But the nurses soon realised he was harmless and were glad the poor child’s father, as they believed him to be, was so devoted.

  ‘I’ve come to take leave of you, Leveret,’ he whispered to her, the night before Samhain. ‘I’ve written you a letter and I’ll leave it for you in the tower. When you’re recovered you can read it and I hope then you’ll understand my reasons for not waiting for your return. More than ever, I have to leave tomorrow at Samhain, as I’ve always said I shall. I’m so sorry that we can’t say farewell properly and I hope you’ll forgive me.’

  She stirred slightly and her lips moved, but she couldn’t surface, and Clip squeezed her hand.

  ‘Don’t worry, my dear, I know you can hear me. The doctors say you’re in a severe state of shock after your fall, which is why you can’t speak or wake up at the moment. But the CT scan shows brain damage is unlikely and Hazel says the team here are excellent, although she’s itching to get you back to Stonewylde in her care. Rufus wants to nurse you, and your mother is beside herself wanting you home. Poor Magpie’s missing you terribly, as are Shadow, Hare and Crow. And little Celandine and Bluebell send you their special love and kisses. So you need to get better soon – they’re all waiting for you to come back home again.’

  He raised her limp hand and held it against his whiskery cheek as he gazed at her, his wolf’s eyes bright with tears.

  ‘I shall miss you, Leveret, and I just hope you know how very much you mean to me. This past year spent in your company, watching you grow and learn, has been one of the very best of my life. I couldn’t leave Stonewylde if it weren’t for you. You’ve given me my freedom. You’ll be a truly magical Shaman, far better and wiser than I ever was, and you have Mother Heggy watching over you too, helping you to fulfil your destiny as the Wise Woman of Stonewylde.’

  Leveret stirred again, trying to move her head, and her hand twitched in a glimmer of movement. He had no idea of the darkness that seethed in her mind, the terror and trauma that banished all light and silenced her speech. Clip leant over to kiss her cheek, his tears spilling.

  ‘Farewell, my little Leveret. I can’t visit again before I leave as I have so many preparations to make, but you’ll always be in my heart. I’ll see you again one day – I don’t know when – maybe as you said, in another realm when we’re journeying. Make a speedy recovery because Stonewylde needs you.’

  The crone drew angrily on her pipe, kicking out at the log that poked from the fire but unable to reach it with her foot. She muttered furiously to herself as she rocked in her chair, bemoaning her age and how her body had twisted and hunched in such a way that she could now barely stand, let alone go up to the Stone Circle to perform a ceremony.

  ‘ ’Twas only last year!’ she champed, her gums gripping the clay pipe. ‘Only last year I cast such powerful magic and summoned him back through the veil! Look at me now – nought but a shrivelled old stump!’

  ‘Mother, your magic is as powerful as ever,’ said Martin, sitting in Vetchling’s chair and gazing into the flames. ‘You’re ever the Wise Woman, ever the one who can cast and summon and scry.’

  ‘Aye, but she ain’t tainted, that hare-girl!’ spat Violet. ‘She were meant to be spoiled, or better yet, the Beast might’ve had ‘un with her maiden blood all spilt on Snake Stone. I thought Jay would take her and then perhaps the Beast would finish her off, or she’d be with child and no use. But I were wrong and I should’ve seen it a-coming!’

  ‘No, Mother, your magic is still there.’

  ‘Pah! No use smoothing me down,’ she mumbled. ‘Old Violet should’ve known, should’ve scried. I sent that boy up to Quarrycleave to his death, and he were one of us!’

  ‘From what I heard, he were going to take her up there anyway,’ said Martin. ‘Swift says Jay had an itch for the ugly little maid long since and he’d always planned to force her, so don’t you blame yourself for that. ’Tweren’t your fault.’

  ‘Well, nought must go wrong tomorrow night,’ she said. ‘All is prepared and all is set. I wish I’d be there too, for how can you do the work alone? Oh, when I think back to some o’ the Samhains I spent in that Circle, with my dear sister working alongside o’ me . . .’

  ‘Aye, Mother, and after tomorrow night, all will be well again, just as you always said.’

  ‘But Heggy’s magic still reaches out, beyond the grave,’ said Old Violet sadly. ‘ ’Twere ever so. Every time I cast or I hex, she’s there a-blocking me! That hare-girl – ’twere Heggy as saved her. Same with that moongazy Sylvie – Heggy’s protection. Yul, all them years ago – ’twere Raven, there at Heggy’s bidding. Magpie should be gone, useless brat, but oh no, he’s too bright now to be fooled. And instead, ’tis our own loved ones who’re taken. My Vetch, that daft Starling – as good as dead – and now Jay! And ’twere Heggy who had Jackdaw killed by her crow up at Mooncliffe all them years ago. Now ’tis just you and me left, son, against the whole lot of ’em.’

  ‘Would you like a cup o’ tea, Mother?’ he asked.

  ‘No I would not!’ she spat. ‘Give me a drop o’ mead, and then we must once more go through the ceremony for tomorrow night. You must know it all perfect. And the cakes – they’re ready for you to take, Martin. Oh, after tomorrow night, all will be well and then we’ll show ’em all – my magic is the stronger, and Old Heggy and that slut Raven will be finished forever. My boy came first, and my boy will be master.’

  ‘But this lawyer, Mother? What of this charity thing that Clip says will happen at Stonewylde? How can—’

  ‘Pah, ’tis nought! Once Clip’s gone tomorrow night, ’twill never happen, right enough. Don’t you fear, my son. When our Magus has found flesh again and is truly amongst us in body, all that trouble will wither away, you mark my words. You and Magus together’ll be stronger than anything, and Stonewylde will be ours once more.’

  The Samhain celebrations in the Green Labyrinth on the Village Green, and in the Great Barn, were unusually subdued. The terrible event at Hunter’s Moon in the quarry was still too fresh in folks’ minds for them to relish a festival, even if it were one that honoured the dead. The Barn was decorated as usual and the children performed their dance and drama, but as she watched, Maizie was weighed down with sadness. She thought back to the previous year and the trouble she’d had with Leveret disappearing and then falling asleep in the Barn; she almost wept again at the thought of it. What she wouldn’t give to have her little one safe and well in Stonewylde again. Hazel had told her that it would only be a couple more days and then Leveret could be transferred to the hospital at the Hall. Maizie planned to live in the hospital wing until she was healed, so she could care for her daughter personally.

  Sylvie, dressed in her grey and black robes, watched the children perform their dance and felt her heart sitting like a fist of stone in her chest. This time last year she’d told Hazel how wonderful her love life was, the only blight being the way Yul wrapped her in cotton wool. Now she could hardly bear to be anywhere near him and certainly couldn’t look him in the eye. She’d returned to Maizie’s cottage after Leveret’s awful accident because the girls were so upset and needed her there, but when Maizie had tentatively broached the subject of Rainbow and the sketch, Sylvie had refused to talk about it. The only way at present she could deal with the situation and hold her head up in public, knowing everyone was gossiping, was to glaze her eyes, walk tall and refuse to acknowledge any of it. So far that tactic had worked, as most people were worried about upsetting her further by mentioning it. She knew that Clip was leaving first thing in the morning and she needed to get through that ordeal before she could start to deal with the issue of Yul’s infidelity.

  Miranda watched her grandchildren dance and noticed her daughter’s suffering, knowing that Sylvie’s humiliation must cut her to the quick. She’d tried to talk it over but had been firmly rebuffed. So be it – all Miranda could do was sup
port Sylvie if she faltered. Hopefully there’d be enough hard work setting up the Stonewylde healing centre to distract her in the months ahead. Perhaps once she’d got over the shock of Yul’s adultery, she’d find it in her heart to forgive him and start again.

  Clip headed down to the labyrinth marked out on the Village Green wearing his black-feathered cloak. He liked to wear this at Samhain and tomorrow when he was gone it would become Leveret’s. He still had much to do in the tower, although he’d now written those difficult letters of farewell. He felt bad to be leaving not only Leveret, but Sylvie too, at such a traumatic time. But he also knew that despite appearances to the contrary, Sylvie was tough and determined like her mother, and would survive Yul’s stupid betrayal. The healing centre would provide her with a true vocation, both setting up and then running it, and all the papers had now been signed. He was so glad he’d been able to make her wish come true.

  Clip walked the winding and tortuous path of the labyrinth like everyone else, with a white skull mask over his face. He thought of the Green Magic of Stonewylde that pervaded the entire estate, but especially this Village Green. That serpent of energy and life-force spiralled beneath him and as he imagined it, the serpent in his belly flexed its coils. Clip writhed, wishing now that he’d taken his prescribed medicine that morning. He hated the thought of his senses being blunted but the pain was bad today; maybe he’d take it before leaving the tower for tonight’s ritual in the Stone Circle. He left the labyrinth and, clutching his slip of yew, Clip walked for the last time along the track leading back to the Hall. Despite yearning for his freedom and knowing that he was about to attain it, his heart was sad and his step heavy at the prospect of all he’d leave behind.