Thunder oak, p.17
Thunder Oak, page 17
Chapter Twenty-One
After a particularly warm day the occupants of Hunter’s Hall had allowed their fires to get very low. While everyone was asleep that night many of the fires went out altogether. By the early hours of the morning the smoke from those special herbs the hunters put on the flames had become very thin. The atmosphere in the room began to clear.
Mawk woke and felt keen-witted for the first time since they had arrived. The previous evening he had felt unwell and, though ravenously hungry, had not eaten his stew. Now his head felt as if it had been thoroughly scoured on the inside and he could think straight for once.
Now that he could think clearly, his thoughts went immediately to escape and his own survival.
After a week of mucking out dirty straw and hay, and fetching and carrying for the hunters, Mawk-the-doubter had suffered enough. They had not been allowed to go outside – indeed, that terrible lethargy assailed them when they attempted it – but all the work within the hall was done by the outlaws. It was peculiar that whenever they thought of leaving the hall they felt exhausted, but then, when there was work to be done, they managed to tackle it from dawn to dusk.
Well, no more of that for Mawk! For the first time since entering the hall he felt able to make his escape, despite the fact that his forelegs ached from carrying buckets of water and his ankles hurt from standing on tiptoe to light the brands. He was terrified, there was no doubt about that, but the thought of slaving for the hunters for ever over-rode that terror. Mawk despised menial chores and even the fear of being hunted down was not enough to hold him to this place.
He blamed Sylver for getting the outlaws into the mess they were in and saw no reason to remain with the band.
He woke Scirf and spoke to him. ‘Scirf, I’m going,’ he whispered.
‘Goin’ where?’ asked that bleary-eyed village weasel, rubbing the sleep from his face. ‘What’s all this?’
‘I’m running away. I’ve had enough. Tell Sylver I’m sorry. If I’m caught it’ll be too bad. I can’t stand this bondage any longer. I’m not a serf.’
Scirf looked around him. The hunters, like the outlaws, were all lying in a deep sleep on their beds of straw. The smoke from the smouldering camp fires was like grey tendrils. There were polecats, pine martens, stoats and weasels everywhere, draped over floors and furniture like limp rolls of rag. No-one guarded the doorway. If Mawk wanted to run, there would be no-one stopping him. Only a chase at dawn, when the first hunters woke.
‘Good luck,’ muttered Scirf, looking bleary-eyed. ‘Good mind to come with you meself, but I can’t seem to summon up the energy.’
Scirf immediately fell asleep again. Mawk, forever concerned with his own safety, was worried about venturing out into the world again alone. He decided he needed company and took up Scirf’s limp form in a fireman’s lift, slinging him over his shoulder.
With Scirf on his back Mawk picked his way carefully through the still bodies until he reached the nearest door. As always in this world which had first been populated by humans, it was a small door set in a much larger one. Mawk spat carefully on the hinges to lubricate them, then opened the door centimetre by slow centimetre. To his great relief it did not creak. Then he was out into the night, and walking as swiftly as the weight of Scirf would allow him towards a distant hill.
After a while the other weasel’s body became too heavy for him to carry. Mawk was not used to lugging dead weights around and he let Scirf fall to the grass. Finding he still could not wake his friend, Mawk decided to continue alone after all. Hunter’s Hall was still close by and he had visions of the hunters waking and raising a hue and cry. He left Scirf where he lay and scampered on, anxious to be gone from this part of the country where he was the prey of skilful pursuers.
He put some distance between himself and the hall, pausing to gasp for breath occasionally. Once he was over the first range of hills and climbing the second, Mawk heard someone chasing him, and terror rippled through his lithe body. He turned and cried, ‘Don’t kill me. I’ll come back quietly. I – I was just looking for the toilet. I lost my way to the privy in the dark. All I want is a pee.’
‘Be quiet, you nit,’ said a voice Mawk recognized instantly. ‘Do you wanna wake the whole flippin’ countryside?’
Relief flooded through Mawk. ‘Scirf? Is that you? Er, how – how did you get out here?’
‘I dunno. I just found meself lying on a grassy knoll. Me head feels clear for the first time in a week. Didn’t like that place, back there. I had a better time guarding the pile of dung outside me village. At least I could catch flies with me mouth when I got fed up. Nothin’ but smoke in that place – and them hunters are as boring as anythink, ain’t they? They don’t talk about nuffink but huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’.’
Suddenly there was another sound in the grasses behind Scirf and the two weasels froze.
‘Who’s that?’ whispered Mawk. ‘Did anyone follow you?’
‘I dunno,’ replied Scirf. ‘Didn’t see no-one. Still, two of us should be able to handle any rotten hunter. You get over there behind that rock. I’ll hide in the grasses here. When he comes past, we’ll jump on him together, see?’
Mawk said, ‘I’m not so sure . . .’ but the rustling came closer and he had no option but to do as Scirf said. His heart was pounding in his chest. He was not a weasel given to violence. He preferred to talk his way out of trouble.
Scirf was already poised to leap on the person following them, so Mawk realized he would have to do the same. The pair of them waited as a long dark shape came looping up the hill. When the creature was close enough they both jumped out onto the figure. They struggled for a few moments. The desperate Mawk sat on the creature’s head to prevent any attack from a set of fangs. Scirf gripped the lower body hard.
‘Got you, you rotten sneak,’ muttered Scirf, sinking his teeth into the tail of their pursuer. ‘Take that, you creep.’
‘Ow!’ came the voice of Alysoun from underneath Mawk. ‘Stop that, you rat.’
Mawk instantly fell away from their prisoner. ‘Alysoun? What are you doing here? Is everyone following everyone else?’
‘More to the point,’ said an angry Alysoun, getting up and feeling for her tail, ‘what are you doing out here?’
Mawk said in a confused voice, ‘Me? I – I was going to get help, of course. That is, Scirf and I thought we’d better try and find someone to come back with us and set you all free.’
‘That’s it,’ Scirf confirmed, in a strong aggrieved tone. ‘Flippin’ heroes, that’s what we are! Riskin’ our necks to get you lot out of trouble. I’d like a bit more respect in your voice when you speaks to us, jill.’
Mawk admired the way Scirf attacked Alysoun before she could accuse him of running out on the band. He could learn a thing or two from this dung-watcher who had recently joined their ranks. Scirf did not sit down and take his medicine, he dished it out first, with great big spoons.
‘Arrrggh,’ muttered Alysoun, distracted for a moment, ‘I think I’ve caught one of your fleas, Scirf.’
Once she had dealt with the offending parasite, Alysoun said, ‘How did you two escape? I woke up and saw the door flapping open. Your patches of straw were empty and I guessed you’d gone outside. I tried to wake the others, but they were still deeply asleep. So then I followed you.’
She paused before adding, ‘We have to go back, you know, and carry the others out into the fresh air. We could do it, between the three of us . . .’
‘Go back?’ squeaked Mawk. ‘That’s likely, isn’t it? What can we do? You know how it is in there.’
Scirf frowned and said, ‘I still don’t understand it. How did we get out?’
Mawk, coward and doubter that he was, was no idiot. Now that his head was clear he had already been thinking things over carefully and had an inkling as to what had been going on. He turned to Alysoun. ‘Did you eat the stew last night?’ he asked.
Alysoun shook her head. ‘Why, no. I was hungry enough, but the day’s work had exhausted me so much that I fell asleep before I could put the spoon in my mouth.’
‘I didn’t eat it either,’ said Mawk. ‘And those herbs they usually put on the fires – the stock had run low. They put some on, but not as much as usual.’
‘What’s your point, squire?’ asked Scirf.
‘I think the stew had some kind of magic potion in it,’ said Mawk, ‘which was reinforced by the smell put out by the burning herbs. I have heard that if you eat in the land of the dead, you never get to leave. I didn’t eat the stew because I was not feeling well last night. That’s why we managed to escape.’
‘What about me?’ asked Scirf. ‘I stuffed meself silly.’
‘I carried you out,’ replied Mawk, deciding to come clean, ‘but you got too heavy for me, so I left you on the grass. The clean air must have cleared your head after a while. I suspect their dark concoctions only work in the atmosphere of the hall, while they’re burning those weeds.’
‘You lef’ me on the grass?’ cried Scirf. ‘Remind me to give you a thick ear sometime.’
‘I got you out, didn’t I?’ Mawk said testily.
Alysoun said, ‘All this aside, we have to go back for the others – we can’t leave them to face the wrath of the hunters.’
‘You must be mad,’ Mawk said, shuddering. ‘I’m not going back there – not for the world.’
Alysoun looked severe. ‘Sylver and the others will be punished because of you. Sylver was telling me the hunters were almost ready to let us go, having paid for our crime . . .’
‘Crime?’ cried Scirf. ‘What crime? ‘Ow did we know we was committin’ any crime? I’ll give ’em crime. I know what crime is, don’t you worry.’
‘I’m sure you do,’ said Alysoun, ‘but the thing is, we have to go back. We’re in their power at the moment.’
Scirf said, ‘Well, we ain’t, but the others is – I s’pose you’re right, Alysoun.’
‘No,’ Mawk said firmly.
‘You know if the hunters don’t catch you,’ Alysoun said, ‘Sylver eventually will, and he’ll be just as tough on you.’
‘I don’t care,’ said Mawk. ‘I’m not going.’
‘You cankered gooseberry,’ said Scirf in disgust. ‘I thought you was a weasel, but instead you’re nuffink but a frightened newt.’
‘I can’t help that. I’ll wait here for a few minutes. If you come back soon, then I’ll be ready to welcome you to join me. If not, I’m gone.’
Alysoun shook her head. ‘You’ll regret this, Mawk.’
She led Scirf down the slope to the lake side, towards Hunter’s Hall, hoping that Mawk would change his mind and join them. When the pair got to the bottom of the slope, however, they both blinked in astonishment. Sure, it was grey dawn, but there was enough light to see by. Certainly they would have seen something as big as Hunter’s Hall – if it had been there.
‘Where has it gone?’ cried Alysoun, staring at the space beside the lake. ‘It was there, wasn’t it?’
‘Disappeared,’ said Scirf with a tell-tale gasp of relief. ‘Vanished.’
‘Don’t sound so pleased,’ cried Alysoun, rounding on him. ‘Your friends – my friends – they’re still in that place. If it’s disappeared, they’ve gone too. I don’t want anything to happen to my friends.’
‘Well, no, of course I don’t wish ’em to come to any harm,’ said Scirf uncomfortably. ‘I was just – well – smell that lake,’ he said, changing the subject. ‘It pongs! Look at that stinkin’ water. It looks all scummy. This isn’t the same place at all. We’re somewhere different.’
‘Let’s get back up to Mawk,’ said Alysoun, upset. ‘I’ve an idea what’s happened.’
They trudged back up the hill to find a triumphant Mawk waiting to gloat over them. ‘Ha! I knew you’d come back. Changed your minds, eh?’
‘No,’ replied Alysoun stiffly, ‘we haven’t. What’s happened is this . . .’ and she explained what they had seen down by the lake.
‘Crikey!’ Mawk exclaimed. ‘You mean they’ve just gone and fizzled away, just like that?’
Alysoun nodded. ‘You know what I think has happened? I think the hunter who told us we would be tracked down if we escaped was lying. I think that Hunter’s Hall exists in some kind of Otherworld which we wandered into. A pale valley which one might be led into by the magic of a witch!
‘Anyway, the polecat knew that once we got out of the hall and over the next hill we would find ourselves in the real world. That’s why he told us they would hunt us down – an extra threat to discourage us from escaping. But, now we’re out of it. We’re back on our old Welkin.’
‘What about the others?’ asked Mawk.
‘Well, they’re still trapped there, ain’t they?’ Scirf said. ‘And we can’t get back in to tell them the truth. Somehow they’ll have to discover it by accident, like what we did.’
Alysoun added, ‘Unless they are indeed set free, having paid their dues to the hunters.’
Mawk said, ‘I’m glad I thought of running awa— fetching help.’
Scirf said, ‘Where does that leave us, jill? What do we do while we’re waitin’ for the cows to come home, eh?’
Alysoun wondered if there was some way of finding Hunter’s Hall again, but could not think of one herself. In the far distance she saw a statue crossing the countryside, striding out purposefully. It appeared to be carrying an axe, so it was either an unhorsed knight with a battle-axe, or a woodcutter. ‘We could ask that statue if it knows where the hall is,’ she commented.
Scirf and Mawk stared in the direction she was indicating. Scirf shook his head. ‘Statues don’t answer questions, they just ask ’em.’
Alysoun squinted. ‘I think that one’s a woodcutter – being a man of the forest, he might know where Hunter’s Hall is.’
‘Nah,’ said Scirf, ‘not a chance. Hello,’ he added, staring at the statue, which was now disappearing over the brow of a hill, ‘I wonder if that’s the bod that keeps askin’ for me everywhere. There was a statue of a woodcutter used to stand in our village, but he upped and left one morning. Then I heard he was looking for me for some reason. Dunno why. Don’t think I want to find out really – might be for some reason I won’t like.’
Alysoun did not really want to hear about Scirf’s problems at that moment. What she wanted was help with a decision. If they could not find Hunter’s Hall again, there was an eggshell map to be sought. ‘We might try carrying on with the quest alone,’ she said to the others, without conviction. ‘The only trouble is, we haven’t got Wodehed’s magic needle with us, to show us the way to the great sea eagle’s nest where the egg-map lies.’
‘I’ve got an idea how we could find Hunter’s Hall again,’ Scirf cried. ‘We could go back to the green chapel and try to find our way from there. I mean, if a magic path led us to Hunter’s Hall from the green chapel once, it might do it again.’
‘Oh Gawd, no!’ cried Mawk. ‘We can’t go back there again – she’ll fry our livers for breakfast.’
‘That’s worth thinking about, Scirf,’ Alysoun replied, ignoring Mawk. ‘We’ll make up our minds when it’s fully light.’
When the day was bright the three went down to the lake, just to make sure they had not made a mistake in the dawn’s half-light.
It was indeed a dreary sight which greeted them when they reached the forbidden spot. The reeds and bulrushes were all brown and dead looking. An oily scum drifted around on top of the lake, which was choked in blanket weed and other growths. If there were any fish in there, they were hardy creatures, used to polluted waters.
The banks of the lake were in no better state. Where there had been magnificent grasslands, fine woods – now there were dirt trails through scrubby wastelands, broken trees. It was a place no self-respecting hunter would linger in for a moment, let alone an eternity. Where were the skylarks climbing up invisible poles? Where were the bullfrogs adding their bass voices to the evening choir of crickets? Where were the hedgehogs snuffling through rich brown leaves?
The place was lifeless.
Alysoun shook her head. ‘Well, we have to make up our minds. It’s either an attempt at the eagle’s nest, or the moufflon’s den. What’s it to be? Scirf?’
‘I say we go back to the witch. She knows we’ve got powerful friends in the dogs. I’m sure she won’t try anyfink this time.’
‘Mawk?’
‘Look,’ he said reasonably. ‘Why don’t we – why don’t we look for a dying weasel or stoat hunter and ask him or her to take a message to Sylver . . .’
‘Don’t be foolish, Mawk.’
‘In that case,’ snapped Mawk, ‘I vote we go home to Halfmoon Wood and forget about all this business altogether. I’ve had enough of being pushed around, by you and everyone else. I’ve had it up to here.’ He drew an imaginary line across his bib. ‘Now what do you say to that, then?’
‘You want to return along the path we’ve taken,’ she said sweetly, ‘that’s up to you, Mawk. We’re going back to Maghatch’s green chapel. I just hope you don’t get eaten by wolves, or killed by Sheriff Falshed, or carried off by rogue statues.’
‘I haven’t voted yet,’ said Mawk in an indignant voice. ‘Have I voted yet? I was just saying what I might do, if it came to the pinch. As a matter of fact, I vote we go on, into the mountains, to find the eagle’s nest.’
‘Well, I vote we go back to the green chapel,’ said Alysoun. ‘So it’s two against one.’
‘I hate you both,’ cried Mawk. ‘I just – I just hate you both so badly.’
Chapter Twenty-Two
When Sylver woke in the morning he found to his astonishment that three of his band were missing. It seemed they had vanished in the night. He questioned the polecat, who seemed a little slippery and would not answer directly. Sylver had for a couple of days now suspected that the band were not being told the whole truth concerning their present situation.
