He nodded and drank the rest of his beer.
***
Deep in the night, when there was no light but the glow from the hearth, Morgan woke suddenly from a dreamless sleep. From where he lay on a makeshift mattress near the fire, he could make out the humped shape of Tisian in the alcove bed, snoring gently. He pulled the blankets closer round his shoulders and turned over.
Erda sat cross legged on the table, the air around her glowing faintly. Morgan caught his breath and stopped moving.
“It’s all right. I’ve been waiting for you to wake up,” she said. He sat up slowly, glancing round to where Tisian lay. “She won’t hear us,” said Erda and Morgan had no doubt of it. “You never told me what you want from me,” she continued.
He began to speak, to try somehow to explain, but she silenced him with a wave of her hand.
“Not yet. I came to tell you that I will listen to you, but not here and not yet. First I want to speak to Kate and David again. You can find me there. I will not hide from you any longer. I am tired of hiding.”
Before he could say anything in reply she had gone and he was aware, for the first time, of how empty was the space where she had been.
***
In Kate and David’s world it was already dawn. A small spider crept under the door and into Kate’s bedroom, dim behind drawn curtains, and a moment later Erda stood looking down at the sleeping girl. She moved to the window and twitched the curtains open a little. A bar of light fell across Kate’s face and after a few seconds she stirred and opened her eyes.
At first she thought that the figure silhouetted against the window was her mother, then she realised with a start that it was Erda.
“Where have you been? How did you get in?”
Erda ignored the questions and came over to sit down on the bed as Kate pushed her sleep-draggled hair out of her eyes. They studied each other closely for a moment.
“What’s happening to you?” asked Kate.
“What is meant to happen, I think. I do not know. Something – I do not know the word for it – grows inside me. Soon I will no longer been able to control it and it will break free. Morgan fears this and longs for it too. I do not understand yet, but soon I will. I see with his mind more clearly each day.”
“Erda,” said Kate more urgently, “you must go. Not just from here; you must go back to wherever you came from – to the stars if that’s where it was. People here are trying to use you. They don’t care about you, just about getting what they want. You can still escape, but I don’t think you have much time.”
“How would I escape?”
“I don’t know. Don’t you know how to get back?”
“Perhaps. I should go. Your brother is waking up. He will come to your room soon.” She paused and looked hard at Kate again. “You still blame yourself. You must let go of that guilt or you will be too weak to help.”
Kate had no idea what she meant. She took her eyes off Erda for a moment and found, when she looked back, that she had gone.
David had woken early. It was often the case in summer, usually because he forgot to draw his curtains; but this morning he was just awake. He lay in bed reading, watching the hands of his alarm clock crawl round the face. There was a soft knock on the door.
“Yeah?”
Naturally, he was expecting Dad or Christine when the door opened, but instead it was Erda who came in. She smiled at the look of surprise on his face. He put a finger to his lips.
“Someone might hear you,” he hissed.
She shook her head, her gaze wandering around his posters and books and general organised mess.
“They won’t.”
“You have to get out of here quickly. The Lords of Chaos are after you. They want to use you to break the Worlds apart or something.”
“What are the Lords of Chaos?” she asked puzzled, then looked into his mind to find the words that would tell her.
“Ah, those ones. I do not fear them. They cannot hurt me.”
“But they’ll do something. They’ll make you … I don’t know. Morgan knows; he’ll tell you. He’s been trying to find you.”
“I know. I told him I would meet him in your world and listen to him once I had spoken to you and Kate. I went to her before I came here.”
She picked up a shuttlecock, turned it in her fingers for a moment, then put it down.
“I want you and Kate to be there when I meet him. I will go back to the house and call him and wait. When can you be there?”
“Umm …” He looked at his clock. Six fifteen. “Hang on, I’ll try to phone Kate.” He got out of bed and scrabbled for his phone. After a moment, Kate answered, wide awake. David didn’t waste time.
“Erda’s here. She wants us all to meet at the house. Can you be there by eight?”
There was a pause before Kate said “Okay. I’ll say I’m coming over to your place and meet you there. But David, I’m not promising anything.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know I don’t want this any more.”
There was no sense trying to argue with her on the phone.
“See you then.”
Erda had gone by the time he put the phone down.
***
Morgan had followed Erda as best he could as soon as he realised where she had gone. He wondered if he should wait in the house, but time lay too heavy there. When he left its protection he could feel it at once, like a trace of some scent on the air. The Lords were here.
Restlessness kept him moving until he found himself on the edge of a park at the foot of a steep hill, bounded by a gated iron fence. Beyond the fence was a small house with a red-tiled roof, and a green wooden sign that read “Blackford Pond. Local Nature Reserve.” Even before he went in he could hear the sound of ducks and coots.
A path took him to the pond on which the birds sailed, carefree in the morning light. Though it was a popular spot, with benches all around the pond, at this time of morning it was deserted. He walked slowly round the edge, glad to be away from roads and buildings.
About halfway round, he realised he was not alone. There was a little island in the middle of the pond, barely a foot above the water. On it sat a woman, her face in her hands, sobbing. She must have fallen in somehow, for her long brown hair and dress were soaking wet, water streaming off them and disappearing into the earth around her.
“What’s wrong? Do you need help?” Morgan called, but she continued to sob. She seemed quite unaware of his presence.
The water was clear enough for him to see the bottom of the pond and so shallow it would hardly reach his knees. He stepped in and began to walk across to the island.
He was halfway there when the birds went silent. He stopped and looked at where they floated, voiceless. When he turned back to the island the woman was standing, watching him, no longer sobbing, though the water poured ceaselessly from her hair and clothes. She stretched her crimson mouth in a smile and raised her arms.
The world exploded around Morgan just as he realised who it was on the island. The waters of the pond gathered themselves to Tethys’ hands and hurtled at him and the bottom of the pond disappeared from under his feet.
He was submerged, tumbling over and over under the onslaught of the water. He tried to kick for the surface, but he didn’t even know in which direction it was.
He thought of Erda and Tisian and the Wildwood, and of Thomas, and of how he had failed them all. His breath was running out. He kicked desperately for the surface again, but it wasn’t there.
If only …
If only …
CONSEQENCES
Morgan drifted in the dark, at peace at last, ready for death. Any second now he would take a breath and his lungs would fill with water and there would be an end of everything …
Someone grabbed his shoulder; a terrible grip that seemed to grind its way into his bones. Whoever it was dragged his head out of the water just as he took his final breath, so that it was part water, but
mostly air, and hurled him onto the bank.
As he lay coughing and retching he could hear voices. One, Tethys presumably, shouted, “He killed my wolves; I will have vengeance. Do not interfere.”
The other voice was much quieter, but its sound made Morgan’s skin crawl.
“I warned you not to touch him. I told you what would happen.” There was a sound like the cry of a hunting dog and after a second, answering cries and yelps, like the belling of a pack of hounds. Tethys shrieked, “No!” and Morgan lifted his head and saw, through his soaked lashes, Tethys and the other figure, the one from his nightmares, struggling in the water. Beyond them he could dimly make out shapes, swift and terrible, rushing towards them.
Tethys gave another scream and the pond became a whirlpool. The water boiled around them briefly, then they were gone.
Morgan let his head drop and lay, gasping for breath. When he was able to sit up he looked at the pond again. It lay tranquil under the morning sun, a swan sailing past the island with unruffled grace.
“What happened?” From somewhere, Erda appeared at his side. When he tried to speak he started coughing, so she took it from his mind instead. She sat down with a thump on the bank beside him, her face stricken.
“What is it?” he managed to ask.
“This is my doing.”
“What?”
“The wolves. You killed them to try and keep me safe – and I let you. There was no need; they could not have harmed me. But now, all this because of that … One thing makes so many others happen here. How does anyone dare to do anything at all?”
“Consequences.”
“What?”
“The things that happen because of something else. They’re called consequences.”
She nodded absently. “We must go back to the house now. Kate and David will come soon.” She stood and held out a hand to him and pulled him, with surprising ease, to his feet.
***
In the Underworld, close to Lake Avernus, the Hunt caught up with Tethys and made an end of her as the Hunter watched, smiling.
***
“Maybe they’re not coming,” said Kate, looking out the window again.
“It’s only just gone eight. They’ll be here. Why don’t you sit down?” David tried to sound soothing, but Kate’s nervy pacing was unsettling him too.
“I don’t want to be here. If they don’t come by ten past, I’m going.”
David bit back the urge to yell at her. He couldn’t understand why she was being like this. She must realise as he did, deep down, that once again there was no walking away from this. He decided it was probably best to say nothing.
Kate’s pacing took her back to the window yet again.
“They’re here. What on earth …?” She made for the front door without completing the sentence.
Erda looked upset and Morgan was soaked through, though it wasn’t raining, hadn’t rained in days.
“What happened to you?” asked David. Morgan shook his head.
“Not now. It doesn’t matter.” They obviously didn’t believe that, but accepted it for the moment, to his relief. He found what had just happened frightening enough; he didn’t want to pass that fear on to Kate or David.
They found him some dry clothes and went to hang his wet stuff in the garden. As he dressed, he noticed that his shoulder was already a mass of purple bruises where he’d been dragged out of the water, and when he caught sight of his face in a mirror he was shocked by how awful he looked; white-faced and grim. He tried smiling, but it looked even worse. Rubbing his aching shoulder, he went to join the others in the kitchen.
It was Erda who had brought them together, so now they waited for her to speak.
“Who brought me here?” she asked, looking from face to face. “Someone called and brought me to the Worlds. Was it one of you?”
“None of us has the power to do that. Only the Guardians of Time or the Lords of Chaos could do that. The Guardians called you down.”
“I have heard you speak of the Lords of Chaos, but who are these Guardians?” They started to explain and soon she had taken enough words from their heads to understand. “I sense them, but they do not know I am here. None are close.”
It took a few seconds for the importance of her words to sink in.
“But they must know you’re here if they brought you,” reasoned Kate.
“Then it cannot be them who called me. It must have been the others.”
Morgan stood up so abruptly that his chair tipped over with a clatter onto the tiles. He walked out of the back door without a word and they stared, baffled, as he stumbled to the other end of the garden like a blind man and finished leaning against a tree.
“What’s wrong with him?” Kate said
“I don’t know. It’s something to do with what Erda just said. Should I go out there?”
Erda laid a hand on his arm and shook her head. “You must leave him. He thought he knew who he was. Now he doubts it.” Her words made no sense at all.
In the garden, Morgan struggled with the horror that threatened to overcome him …
The Guardians had summoned him to search for the Stardreamer. It must have been the Guardians. He hadn’t seen them of course … he never saw anyone in the Empty Place; they were just presences, without form, but it must have been the Guardians.
You assumed it was them who called you; who used you. You would never let the idea that it might be the Lords into your head, would you?
What had he done?
***
“Are you saying it was the Lords of Chaos who brought you here?” asked David, sure he must have got something wrong.
“I don’t know. It could not have been these Guardians; even now they do not know I am here. Morgan says the Lords are the only other ones who could have done it.”
“Does that mean you’re really on their side?” It was the question Kate had dreaded asking.
Erda frowned. “I am myself. I am not on anyone’s side.”
***
In the garden, Morgan stood with his eyes shut, trying to remember …
His mother had told him of his kinship to the Lords and the Guardians, but it was always his inheritance from the Guardians that she spoke of as shaping him … She would say that, wouldn’t she? She was your mother; she loved you, she wanted to protect you.
The times he’d been called to the Empty Place and set some task or other by the Guardians he’d never seen anyone of course. He’d just assumed it must be the Guardians, but looking back with the cold eyes of hopelessness, it seemed to him that it could as easily have been the Lords who had sent him on these errands, toying with him for their own amusement.
He sent his mind back to the summons that had set him on this path …
The cold mist of the Empty Place had swirled about him. There had been voices around him, but he could never see the source.
“The Stardreamer must be found and brought to the Heart of the Earth.”
“If the power of the Stardreamer is joined with the Heart of the Earth then the Worlds will be safe. The Dream will hold them safe; but if the power of the Stardreamer is loosed outside, it will destroy the Heart of the Earth and the walls between the Worlds and the Lords of Chaos will triumph utterly.”
He had wanted to believe that the Guardians had summoned him to help save the Worlds. Now it seemed that the Lords had brought him there to trick him into helping destroy them.
***
“What are you going to do?” It was David who broke the silence that had fallen in the kitchen. Erda didn’t answer. She was watching Morgan make his way back up the garden, shoulders bowed as though he carried a great weight. When he came in he looked at their expectant faces, then spoke.
“You must go Erda. I’ve betrayed you. All this time I thought I was searching for you for the Guardians; that it was them who had called you and whose bidding I was doing. I have been tricked. The Lords have directed everything I’ve done. I didn’t know until
I heard what you said just now.
“I’ve failed you all, betrayed you all. All my life I thought I was working for the Light and now I find that the Darkness has claimed me.”
Erda’s expression was unreadable. ‘Would it not have been a betrayal then, if the Guardians had sent you? You searched for me to make me join with the Heart of the Earth. Whichever side sent you only wanted to use me for its own ends.’
“You’re right,” said Morgan. “Of course you’re right. It was all a betrayal. You should go now. You must know enough about your power to be able to return to the stars if that is what you want.”
She nodded in agreement. “From this place I could go. I can see the path now where I fell. I could follow it back.”
“I will not stand in your way.”
“But what about the Worlds, the Lords?” gasped David.
“They’re not her responsibility,” said Morgan, “they’re ours. Those of us who live here will have to find a way to save the Worlds, to force the Lords back into the Underworld. The Guardians will help.”
“What will you do, Kate?” Erda said unexpectedly.
“I don’t want to have to do anything,” said Kate slowly. “I want everything to be normal again.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” Erda looked from face to face as though trying to fix them in her mind. “I must go now. The Hunt is gathering. The Lords know I am here. Soon they will come. Do not let them find the Door to the Wildwood. Keep the house safe.”
“Will we see you again?” David could hardly get the words out.
“I do not think so. I want to see everything.”
A breeze swirled up from the floor and stroked their faces as it passed and Erda became part of it.
Morgan sat down at the big kitchen table, staring into nothing. In Kate’s mind an urgent curiosity fought with an unwillingness to intrude. Curiosity won.
“You said something about Light and Darkness just now. What did you mean?”
He looked up, surprised. “Surely you know? It is the heritage of the Guardians and the Lords, that you carry too. I am a Child of Light and Darkness, like you.” He saw the look of shock on her face. “You didn’t know?”
Chaos Quest Page 12
