The Redwoods

by Ross Turner

  She heard her mother sigh deeply then as well.

  “She’ll find out sooner or later, one way or another, whether she’s ready to or not…”

  Vivian waited anxiously for her father to reply, but the seconds ticked by silently, soon turning to what felt like minutes, even hours, and still she heard nothing. She craned her neck further and leaned closer to the door, desperate to hear something, anything.

  But then what happened next was something she hadn’t expected, though it should probably have been the first thing on her mind. It was instead the last.

  The door swung silently and swiftly open, replaced immediately by the tall, broad and, in this guilty looking situation, the somewhat intimidating figure of Vivian’s father. She stepped back reflexively and snatched a sharp breath, her shining blue eyes meeting his almost identical glowing pupils.

  His gaze was sharp. His face was set. His expression was one of stern disappointment, yet his eyes flickered with a hint of sorrowful understanding. Glancing past him briefly, Vivian saw that her mother’s face mirrored her father’s, and their combined emotion struck her at her very core.

  Dorian did not shout, nor did he even raise his voice, for he never did so if he could help it. When he spoke, he spoke quietly and slowly, in a tone so sure and steady that it was simply impossible to disobey.

  “It’s late Vivian.” Was all he said at first.

  He paused as if waiting for her to respond, clasping his hands behind his back, but she could not find the breath to speak. He continued.

  “Go to your room.” He instructed. “Your mother and I will be along in a minute.”

  Vivian could only nod, taking a few tentative steps back before whirling on her toes and almost fleeing to her bedroom. Her breath came back to her in fits and bursts, and an almost overwhelming feeling of disappointment in herself surged through her veins. Her heart was still racing and she steadied herself carefully.

  She shouldn’t be eavesdropping on her parents, or anybody else for that matter.

  How had they even known she was there?

  That didn’t matter.

  She just added it to the long list of questions she had stored in her mind. Questions to which now, she was almost convinced, she would never be entrusted with the answers to.

  “Vivian…” Miranda Featherstone, the Lady of the House, her revered mother, began, her expression and tone identical to her husband’s, and her eyes too glowing bright blue, shining even amidst the dim light.

  “Yes mother?” Vivian replied. She was tucked into her bed and her parents both sat at her bedside, as they often did most nights.

  “There are many dangers in the world we live in sweetheart. And these are the things we have tried very hard to protect you from.”

  “Like the monsters in the forest?” Vivian asked immediately. Her mother smiled in response, but it was her father who spoke. The light from the candle at the bedside danced energetically across his face, casting half of it into dark shadow.

  “Yes.” He said calmly. “Like the monsters in Redwood Forest. But that’s not all. There are many other things too.”

  Vivian’s next question was obvious, but she held her tongue. Her parents knew that she desperately wanted to be told, to be informed, to be included, but there are some things that are just simply not for the ears of children.

  The Featherstone family heirloom, at least for now, was one such thing.

  It provided them with enormous power, and wealth, and respect, and the other Lords and Ladies feared them for it. To a certain extent, though of course they had never used their heirloom for their own personal gain, it had the potential to be a devastating weapon. However, because their hearts were filled with care, they retained it solely for the greater benefit of the Redwood Empire. All knew this, but nonetheless, all were still inherently wary of it. Even if they had never witnessed its use first hand, it was still something most unnatural, and not all men’s hearts a filled so generously with love.

  The evidence of its great and indeed far reaching power was all too clear in the discolouring of the forests all around.

  “Our family has a great treasure, Vivian.” Her father continued. “It’s something that has been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years. When your mother and I married, I shared it with her, and when the time is right, you too shall learn its secrets.”

  Vivian’s eyes dropped then. She knew all too well that ‘when the time is right’ did not mean now. They were going to keep her in the dark for even longer still. They both saw her disappointment quite evidently.

  “We’re only doing this to protect you Viv.” Her mother assured her softly, caressing her cheek gently. “The heirloom is powerful, yes, but also very dangerous.”

  “How do you know I’m not ready?” Vivian asked then, hoping to sway her parents’ decision at least a little, but her eyes met her father’s then, and she could see she would not find success down that route.

  “If we are wrong…” He began to explain. “If you are ready, and we are in fact making a mistake, then I have no doubt you shall discover it for yourself. That’s what happened to me, and I was only a little older than you.”

  “You weren’t told either?” Vivian asked then. Curious suddenly about her father’s earlier years.

  “No, I wasn’t told.” He replied with a shake of his head. “But, like you, I so desperately wanted to know.” He smiled understandingly, and all of a sudden Vivian knew he understood exactly how she felt.

  “How did you find out?” She asked, engrossed then in possibly the most interesting bedtime tale her father had ever told.

  “I was ready. It just happened. There was nothing I could do about it.” He told her.

  “What happened?” She asked then. He smiled warmly and looked at his daughter with the great fondness that only a parent can show.

  “What happened when I found it?” He asked her.

  Vivian nodded, but as before, she could not summon her voice, and hung eagerly on to her father’s every breath, waiting desperately for his next words.

  “I wished for every day afterwards that it had stayed a secret from me for just a little while longer, for in the moment I discovered it, my life was instantly lost to it.”

  3

  Dorian and Miranda Featherstone, the leading Lord and Lady of the House, protectors and rulers of the Redwood Empire, parents to Vivian Featherstone, slept soundly in their large, wooden four poster bed, undisturbed for most of the night. Though the nights were often long and cold, they kept each other warm throughout, laying close side by side.

  Their chambers were well furnished with large wooden dressers and drawers and cupboards and tables, each one crafted superbly from the finest oak. Cushioned chairs were dotted here and there, and their peacefully sleeping figures could just be outlined in the bed by the light from the stars shining down through the large, high windows, set in the strong, warm, stone walls.

  Vivian too was asleep, only a few rooms down from her parents’, though her dreams were troubled, and her nights of late a little fitful. It had been only four nights since her mother and father had told her of their family heirloom, and though they had not explained to her exactly what it was, of course that didn’t stop Vivian’s mind from wondering on the thought extensively, and sometimes very imaginatively.

  They had only told her that when she was ready she would discover it on her own. And though Vivian had thought of it these past four days, she had thought of nothing else in fact, she had made no such discovery.

  Clearly, whatever it was, her parents were right: she wasn’t ready.

  But that still didn’t stop her unconscious mind dwelling on the notion, and in her dreams Vivian saw beasts and fiends of all shapes and sizes, monstrosities conjured from the deepest, darkest depths of her imagination. Then she saw curses and poisons and deaths, terrible things that might easily inflict pain upon an entire generation, each one more gruesome and torturous than the las
t.

  If the Featherstone heirloom was something so powerful as to be so greatly feared by all the other families, for by the sound of everything Vivian had managed to piece together, it certainly was, surely it had to be something most dreadful?

  Vivian awoke with a start, sitting bolt upright in her bed, sweat pouring from every part of her. Her clothes were saturated and clung to her skin like some sort of disease, lingering long past its years. Breathing quickly and sharply, Vivian could barely control the shaking in her arms as they struggled to hold her sitting, preventing her from collapsing back down into the pool of sticky sweat that was once her bed.

  It took her a few minutes to calm her breathing and collect herself. Most children would likely have burst into floods of tears following such awful dreams, especially ones concerning their family, but Vivian had never been one to give in so easily. There had to be a reason for these nightmares, whether she could decipher it or not. Even if the reason was nothing other than simply her own foolish worry.

  She climbed down from her bed and changed her clothes and her bed sheets for fresh ones, all the while replaying the images from her dreams over and over in her mind. Her imaginings did not improve with time, and soon they consumed her thoughts wholly. Almost before she realised, it became nearly impossible for Vivian to push the visions from her mind, and they infected her thoughts uncontrollably, as if the more she tried to dispel them, the worse they became.

  This continued for some time, and the young girl struggled silently with her internal battle, her face twisting into expressions of extreme concentration.

  But then, for apparently no reason at all, they suddenly vanished. They were simply gone, almost as if they had never been there.

  What had happened?

  Something had pushed them out, forced them away.

  At first Vivian was relieved, but soon that relief faded when she realised that whatever it was that had removed those terrible sights, had now taken up residence itself in her subconscious.

  She sensed that something was amiss. She didn’t know how she knew, or what exactly it was that was alerting her to the fact, she only knew that something was very wrong. That feeling in the back of her mind, the feeling that had removed the memories of her dreams, was growing stronger and stronger by the second.

  She didn’t know how, nor why. She only knew that the feeling was right.

  Before she knew what she was doing Vivian was out of her bedroom, pulling the door to behind her, but not quite closing it. Moving silently, her bare feet stinging against the freezing stone and wood of the floor, she made her way invisibly down the corridor and towards her parents’ chambers.

  Peeking into their room through the darkness, the only thing that could be seen of her was Vivian’s shining blue eyes, and there was little she could do about that. She saw the outlined shapes of her mother and father, asleep in their bed, and her heart settled somewhat, seeing that everything was in fact alright.

  It appeared she was panicking over nothing.

  Vivian returned to her room slowly, breathing deeply, though not once did the warning sensation in the back of her mind subside. She was still convinced that something was terribly wrong.

  In fact, she was so consumed by that feeling of worry that she almost didn’t notice her bedroom door wide open as she approached, and when she finally did, at the very last second, her heart jumped into her mouth.

  For a moment she was frozen by fear. She couldn’t move. There was someone in her room, and somehow inherently she knew that he was there to hurt her, to kill her even. She should have fled immediately, back to her parents’ bedroom and awoken them. But her moment of fearful hesitation had cost her that opportunity, and a great, looming shadow of a figure appeared in her bedroom doorway.

  “There you are…” A low growl of a voice emanated from the figure, fixing his sights on her glowing blue eyes, terrified and alone in the darkness.

  This time Vivian did not hesitate, for she could already sense that this man was not alone. She spun immediately on her toes and fled back towards her parents’ bedroom, and as she did so, she let out the highest pitched, loudest, shrieking scream that she could possibly muster, awakening the entire mansion in the process.

  But that was just as well, for within seconds her parents’ chambers were yet again in sight, and their door too was open.

  She heard a terrible cry of agony from within and shrieked again, fearing the worst. She burst into their room, leaping through the door seemingly without a care for her own self-preservation.

  “FATHER! MOTHER!” She cried, searching desperately for her parents in the darkness. But no matter how many times she scanned the room, the stars above outside had been concealed behind a fortification of cloud, and in the pitch black she could see nothing.

  She could, however, hear everything in the darkness, and the shadowy figure from her doorway had pursued her the whole way, and there was nothing she could do. His footsteps halted as he reached the door, and Vivian crouched down and closed her eyes tight shut, hiding the light that shone from them, for she knew he would find her easily if she kept her eyes open.

  “Very clever little girl…” The shadow whispered quietly as he entered the room, closing the door behind him so that Vivian could not escape without him knowing. “You’ve stirred up quite some trouble.”

  From beyond the door the shouts and screams of pain and death could clearly be heard, along with the shrill ring of metal upon metal. Clearly Vivian had been correct. The shadow had brought many others with him, and by the sounds of it, open battle had commenced in Vivian’s home: the very place that was supposed to be the safest haven of all.

  She could hear his footsteps getting closer, scanning the room, but she daren’t move. Not only could she hear him, but Vivian could sense the shadow’s approach. She could feel his hatred towards her. She could almost taste his satisfaction as he prepared to end her life.

  She kept her eyes squeezed tightly shut.

  Finally, after what felt like a millennia, his shuffling footsteps stopped directly behind her, and he let out a long, wistful and satisfied sigh.

  “Ah…” He said pensively. “There you are…”

  He stood above her, looking down through the darkness upon the shadowy silhouette of the young girl at his feet, only eleven years of age. He raised his sword above his head, grasping it with both hands, ready to perform his execution. He had been waiting for this moment for eleven long years, and now finally the time had come.

  His body tensed and he thrust his arms downwards, driving the tip of his sword straight towards Vivian. But it did not connect. The tip of the metal blade struck the wooden floor with a heavy thud, slicing through the planks and buckling the wood, missing the young girl entirely.

  “NO!” He cried out in anger, yanking his blade free and swinging it wildly all around.

  In his momentary lapse of concentration Vivian had crept off silently into the shadows once more, her movements concealed mercifully by the heavy clouds blocking the starlight.

  But still there was nowhere she could go. She couldn’t leave the room without him knowing.

  “I will find you.” He breathed into the blackness, his voice evil and coated in malice.

  Vivian didn’t doubt it. She tried desperately not to panic. She needed to remain silent, or he would locate her in an instant. Still she kept her eyes tightly shut. She had managed to find one of the walls of the room, and cowered against it curled up in a ball, hoping and praying fervently that he did not discover her again.

  But then the door to the heavy bedroom swung open with a thunderous bang, as if it had almost been kicked off its hinges. The doors of the Keep were solid and very heavy, and it would have taken quite a force to push them open with such speed.

  The shadow and Vivian both spun to look, and what they saw shocked them equally. In the doorway, their bodies lighted by blazing fires roaring just behind them, stood Dorian and Miranda Featherstone, their faces
set in stone like their burning home all around, eyes fixed upon the shadow of a man who had just tried to execute their daughter.

  “Wha…” The shadow began, but he wasn’t given time to finish.

  Almost instantly, without a single step from either her parents, nor from the man trying to kill her, Vivian could do nothing but watch as he burst into flames, hungry and roaring, licking at his clothes and his skin greedily. He screamed and shrieked in sheer agony and ran for the door, his melting skin dripping grotesquely as he ran.

  Dorian and Miranda were no longer in the doorway, for the shadow of a man was no longer their concern, and they melted from his path. He disappeared down the corridor, mixing with the rest of the flames all around.

  As they crouched down by their daughter’s side, still cowering against the cold stone wall, they placed their hands gently upon her shoulders.

  “Viv! Vivian!” Her father shouted above the now overpowering roaring of the flames outside the bedroom.

  “Are you ok!?” Her mother shouted then, the higher pitch of her voice penetrating Vivian’s fear and forcing her eyes open.

  “I…I think so…” She replied, though admittedly she wasn’t sure. Her voice was small and easily overwhelmed by the deafening thunder of the flames all around.

  “We have to go!” Her father shouted then, helping his wife and his daughter to their feet. “It’s too dangerous to stay here!”

  “What’s happening!?” Vivian shouted then as her father began to lead them out into the corridor and away from the bedroom chambers.

  Open fights were still in evidence throughout the great house. There seemed to be an awful lot of men, Vivian thought. They all seemed to know where they were going, who they were supposed to be fighting, or perhaps more accurately, executing.

  How long had they been planning this for?

  “Greystones!” Was her father’s only reply. Instantly, the knowledge of the feud the Greystone family seemed to have against her own, sprung to the forefront of Vivian’s mind. Had they really prepared an attack as extravagant as this? All simply to butcher her bloodline?