Broken Earth

by C M Blackwood

  “A little soup,” said Heidi, “and perhaps a bit of bread. But she was only sick afterwards.”

  Lila looked back to Tobias. “And there you have it.”

  “My, my,” said he, clapping his brown-spotted hands together. “Very unfortunate, of course – but also very interesting! Very curious.”

  “And what is so very curious?”

  “The fact that she is still alive, my dear! If she has not changed, then she should by all accounts be quite dead. How long has she been here?”

  “More than two weeks.”

  “Oh, yes,” said Tobias seriously. “She should have died some time ago.”

  Heidi put her hands over her ears, and closed her eyes. But Lila only asked, “And what does that mean?”

  “It means that she is strong. It means that she is resisting the transformation.”

  “And is there anything you can do for her?”

  “Perhaps. I must see her first.”

  And so the three of them together up the stairs, and stopped outside the door to which the paper was nailed, and on which still burnt like fire the symbol painted in blood.

  Tobias seemed surprised by none of it (which, in a man such as himself, meant not by any means that he understood any of it).

  Lila knocked upon the door, and waited for a response. But all was quiet.

  “Perhaps I should go in,” said Heidi.

  “I think not,” said Lila. She knocked again upon the door.

  There was a sound of stirring inside the room. Lila knocked again; and was quite startled, when there came a great crash on the other side of the door. It shook in its frame against the lock; and then was still.

  “Jade?” said Heidi, putting her hand to the door. Yet there came only a second crash.

  “She is in no state for visitors,” said Tobias. “We shall have to try again later.”

  And so they all went away from the door. Tobias returned to his rooms, and Heidi slipped wordlessly into Dera’s chamber. Lila only stood there in the hall for a moment or two, feeling rather disappointed. But then she remembered herself, and set off in search of Thomas Henry.

  ~

  The room was dark, and there was not a sound upon the air. When she woke from a heavy slumber, she needed look to the narrow crack between the curtains, to tell whether it was day or night.

  It seemed some hours after sunset. She looked to the left, thinking that Heidi would be asleep there beside her; and yet there was nothing but an empty space filled with wrinkled sheets.

  The door was closed. She looked all around the room, and saw nothing but emptiness. All she could remember was sleeping – and sleeping, and sleeping, for what seemed a very long time. She could not remember the last time she saw Heidi; and she could not remember what either of them had said, if they had indeed said anything at all. It was as though past days had all been removed from her memory, and then taken away to a place where she would surely never see them again.

  Presently, she continued to peer about the room, looking for nothing – but feeling nonetheless curious. And why was she lying alone in the night, in an unfamiliar place which she could scarcely recognise? Of course, she knew where she was, but she did not remember much of what she had done there thus far; and she certainly could not recall how she had come there in the first place.

  “Heidi?” she said softly, roving her eyes about once more. “Luné.”

  She was not quite sure why she had brought forth the light, since it seemed that her vision was sharp enough in the darkness. But why would that be? Why would –

  She drew a sharp breath; for the first memory that came to mind was one of long, dark tunnels, through which she had passed unseeing but not unseen. She could not see through the darkness then.

  But now? She looked about in the light, and realised that nothing was any clearer now, than it had been when she first awoke. It all looked quite the same, only now, tinged with blue.

  She went to the door. She pulled the handle, but the door stuck fast.

  And why would the door be locked? She looked down, and saw the bolt beneath the handle; she put her fingers to it, and attempted to loosen it, but it held tightly against her prying. So she raised her hand, and made with it a small circle. She heard the bolt snap. Then she tried the door again; and it opened without a stutter.

  She went out into the hall. A glance from left to right showed her nothing; but there was a smell upon the air, familiar and strong. She looked to the right, viewed the door to the adjacent chamber, and realised, it was from there that the smell emanated. So she tried the door, and found it unlocked.

  It was quite as dark as the room in which she herself had awoken. Yet she could see perfectly well, and had to glance about for only a moment, before she saw the bed pressed up into the far left corner of the room. Two sleeping shapes, two familiar scents – but one much more pleasing.

  She walked softly across the bare stone floor. She looked down upon the bed, and reached out to the nearest shape.

  “Wake up,” she said.

  Heidi started up in an instant. “Jade,” she breathed, recoiling slightly from her touch. “What are you doing here?”

  “Looking for you. What else would I be doing?”

  She stared hard, for a very long moment, into her eyes; but then let loose a sigh of what seemed to be relief.

  “Are you all right?” she asked.

  “Of course I am,” said Jade, who was growing more puzzled by the moment. “Why would I not be?”

  “It’s nothing. Nothing at all. Never mind.”

  “If you say so,” said Jade, attempting a smile. “But what are you doing in here?”

  Heidi frowned.

  “What is the matter with you?” asked Jade.

  “Nothing is the matter. Why would anything be the matter?”

  “You’re acting strangely.”

  “I’m not.”

  Jade reached out to touch Heidi’s arm, and was surprised when she pulled away. “What is going on?” she demanded, taking hold of Heidi’s hand anyway.

  “Will you come with me?” Heidi asked. She held Jade’s hand gingerly, but seemed all in all that she would rather not have done.

  “Come where?”

  “Downstairs.”

  “To where, Heidi?”

  “Just come, will you?”

  They went down two flights of steps, and turned left at the landing on the second floor. Heidi led Jade down the corridor a-ways, until they came to a great polished door in which there was situated a wide post-slot. Heidi knocked several times upon it; and it was opened by a tiny old fellow wearing a pair of rather large spectacles.

  He smelled of tea leaves.

  “Miss Bastian!” said he, reaching out to squeeze her hands between his own spotted ones. Then he peered towards Jade, and pushed his glasses for a moment down the bridge of his nose. “And who might you be, young lady?”

  “This is Jade,” said Heidi. “The Princess and I talked of her with you yesterday?”

  “Oh!” exclaimed the old man, jumping back in surprise. “Oh my! How very unexpected!”

  Jade only looked at him nervously.

  “Come in, come in,” he said, ushering them quickly into the room. “Have a seat, make yourselves comfortable!”

  “What are we doing here?” Jade whispered to Heidi. But Heidi only pressed her hand, and told her to hush.

  “How are you feeling, my dear?” asked the old man.

  Seeing as she had absolutely no idea who the fellow was, Jade did not think that he was talking to her. But when she glanced back at him, she saw that he was looking at her expectantly, and deduced that he must be.

  “Quite all right, thank you,” she said, somewhat shortly.

  “How interesting!” exclaimed the old man, peering at her rather studiously.

  Jade shrank a little closer to Heidi.

  “What do you suggest we do now?” Heidi asked him, now looking at him expectantly.

  “Has
she had anything to eat?”

  “No.”

  “Well, then, that’s the first thing to do.” He looked back to Jade. “How about a little something to nibble on, my dear?”

  “No thank you, I’m not –”

  But before she quite managed to say the word hungry, a sudden and stabbing pain took hold of her stomach. She fell down to the floor.

  “Mr Redda!” shrieked Heidi. “Help her!”

  “Get up, child!” he ordered, pulling Heidi away with a pair of skinny arms. “Run and fetch the Princess!”

  Heidi was up and away in a moment. When Jade opened her eyes, and looked all about for her, she was disappointed to see nothing but the wizened face of the old man, hovering there above her.

  “Everything will be quite all right, my dear,” said he. He patted her hand; but she only wrenched it away, as an even fiercer pain took hold of her.

  She opened her mouth and screamed.

  ~

  Heidi raced up the four flights of stairs to the Princess’ chamber, and pounded upon the door till she opened it. She looked out at Heidi with one bleary eye.

  “What in the world is the matter?”

  “You have to come,” said Heidi, motioning for her to follow, as she ran off again down the hall. She looked back when she reached the stairs, and began to wave more frantically, when she saw that the Princess was not exactly hurrying.

  “Come!” she cried. She took to the stairs, then, and did not look back until she had reached the second floor; but by that time the Princess gained her, and was directly beside her as she came to a halt before Redda’s chambers.

  The sight which awaited them there was far more terrible than either had expected. Heidi was the first to push through the door, which had been re-fastened in her absence, and barrelled into the room not much better than a drunken fool; while the Princess stepped in behind her, and closed the door upon the horrors which were taking place within.

  Jade was huddled down upon the floor behind the table, her face hidden under the curtain of her hair. Her left wrist was snapped into an iron manacle, the opposite end of which was fastened around the heavy handle of the closet door. She remained still until the two women entered the room; but when the door to the chamber was opened again, she began to lash forth with a great gnashing of teeth, causing the locked door behind her to rattle alarmingly in its frame. Heidi looked upon her, and felt as though she would weep at this horrible sight of her recession into sickness; but felt in her heart that tears would only draw her deeper into the darkness over which they were all hovering, and bind her hands so that she could not move as she must. So she only turned her eyes away, and fixed them hopefully upon the medicine man.

  “I suppose I needn’t ask what is going on,” said the Princess, looking from Heidi to Jade.

  “Why do you look at me that way?” asked Heidi sharply.

  “What mean you, ‘why’? Would it not better for me to ask you, exactly how she managed to escape her room?”

  “I most certainly did not let her out!” cried Heidi, waving and pointing madly to the pitiable yet most frightening creature down upon the floor, who was working herself into such a desperate state, that she was beginning to froth at the mouth.

  “Then who did?” asked the Princess, crossing her arms rather self-importantly over her chest.

  “No one did,” said the medicine man. When compared to the volume of the women’s noisy exchange, it was no wonder that they did not at first register what he said. But, just as Heidi was preparing to issue a retort to the Princess, who was still staring at her somewhat accusingly, both hers and the Princess’ impatient eyes fell upon the medicine man, as if he had let loose some sort of annoying cough.

  “What was that, Tobias?”

  “I only said, my dear Princess, that no one let her out of the room.”

  “How can that be, if she is sitting there upon your own floor, as we all very well see that she is doing?”

  “Your spell was made so that she might not shift from the room,” answered the medicine man. “And she did not. You made it so that she might not leave that space in a questionable state of mind, or in anger that she was shut up in the first place. And she did not.”

  “I should warn you that I am on the brink of losing any patience I have left,” said the Princess.

  “It was as herself that she went from the room,” said Tobias. “She meant no one any harm. I suspect,” he added, peering over the rims of his spectacles at Heidi, “that she was only looking for her friend.”

  “Then how did this happen?”

  “That may have been my fault,” he said somewhat sheepishly. “Perhaps I should have waited to mention food, until I had taken the proper precautions. But I do swear to it, she was looking so very innocent!” He shook his head, seeming utterly confounded.

  “Should she be fed?” asked the Princess.

  “I can see no reason why not. She is already tethered to the door – so I imagine it is the perfect time to see whether she will take to it or not.”

  “All right,” said the Princess, rubbing her hands nervously together, as she began to formulate a plan at the second’s split. “I will go and find something. Miss Bastian, you will stay here. I suspect that she would only be angrier if you left the room.”

  She departed quickly. Heidi looked anxiously at Jade, who had begun to calm herself a little. Then she looked to the medicine man, who nodded reassuringly, and patted the seat beside him.

  When Heidi made for the chair, however, she was dreadfully frightened by the vicious growl which issued from Jade’s lips. But the medicine man only nodded again, and waved Heidi towards him with a kind smile.

  “Just you sit down here, my dear,” he said. “There is nothing to do but wait – so you might as well be comfortable.”

  And so they sat there together for what seemed long minutes, looking occasionally from the snarling woman, to the door through which the Princess would enter with what seemed their only hope.

  “What will be done,” said Heidi, “if she cannot be got back with normal food?”

  “I am terribly afraid, my dear, that there is no real cure for the infection. The only real chance lies within the time before a person is fully changed. Now, I saw her with mine own two eyes tonight; and I will solemnly attest to the fact that she is not yet changed. This is a very good thing. Now we must hope that she will take to our meat – and yet, if she does, she has only made the first step.”

  “And what is the next?”

  “She must be closely watched,” said the old man. “If she reverts again to her normal self, it will be a very good sign. Of course, it would not mean that all is well; but it would still be very good.”

  “And then?”

  “And then there is only time. The infection is like a clinging disease, something that must be fought away with time. But I do think that it may help you to know, that most people who are infected die almost instantaneously. These people are only carriers; and the disease ravages them without ever taking hold. In her case –” (and here he nodded to Jade) “– the disease has attempted to dominate the better, healthier person who she was before. The speed of domination depends upon the strength of the person; upon time elapsed since infection; upon the amount of human flesh that had been consumed. All of these things together will determine the outcome.” He shook his head. “But even if she does begin to eat, and her body ceases to require human flesh, it may not be the end. There is still the possibility, then, that she will end up like all the others, and that she will only be destroyed.”

  “You are making this seem a very hopeless case,” said Heidi.

  Here he smiled, and said, “I do not mean to do that. I only wish to be honest with you; and I only wish for you to understand what might happen, so that afterwards you cannot say that you never expected.”

  And with that they spoke no more. Each was left to their own thoughts (of which Heidi’s were, accordingly, much more dismal) until the Pr
incess returned.

  She came through the door with a platter in her hands, upon which sat a cut of red meat that sloshed blood all round the plate. She went to the medicine man, showed him the meat, and said:

  “I think this is sufficient?”

  “Very sufficient, my dear,” said he. He took the plate from her, and rose from his chair. Then he looked to the women, and said, “I do think that you should both leave the room for now. This may be more than you, at least –” (and here he looked at Heidi) “– should want to see.”

  “Quite right,” said the Princess. Heidi wanted not to move; but the Princess took hold of her arm, and led her somewhat roughly from the room. Once in the corridor, Heidi shook her arm free.

  “I am quite fine, thank you!” she said loudly.

  “I am sorry, Heidi. I only meant to help.”

  And then Heidi realised, that her exasperation with the Princess was not so very great; and that it was only her immense worry for Jade, which held such a weight upon her heart. So she nodded in apology, and turned away with no more words of anger.

  Locked within her chamber, she threw herself down upon the bed, and sobbed for a while into her pillow. When she had managed to compose herself a little, she reached for Jade’s own pillow, and clutched it tightly.

  XXXIV: One Rainy Night

  As previously stated in the heading just above, this afternoon which took place more than four years ago was one possessive of such terrible weather, that all occupants of the small red house on Bridgewater Street thought not at all of venturing out into the open, no matter how choked and pressed they were beginning to feel. It had been storming, you see, for well-nigh six days; and all four of those persons under that roof were certain that, if they did not taste fresh air upon their tongues by the next day at latest, one of them would surely die at the hands of one (or more) of the others.