Dead. Huts, goat shed, screaming women had all been left behind. In the dell, under the unvarying dim light of this side, sat a circle of the Dead. Beyond them the fog was thick as soup, although the air surrounding the circle was clear. Each of the unliving heads was obscured by more thick, vibrating grey fog, and in the centre of the circle spun a humming vortex. Faster, faster …
Three hisafs appeared, each with an infant on either arm. I could barely glimpse them through the fog. Then a clap of noise like thunder, light brighter than the sun, and the Dead vanished, sucked into the vortex.
That was all I had time to see. Kelif gave a great bellow, seized me, and we were again back in that terrible place between countries, that eternal grave. This time it seemed to go on for ever, although probably that was only my own horror. Then we were back in the wagon, peeringover the side. A moment later the hisafs reappeared, infants still in their arms. The babes’ cries had ceased. The hisafs laid them, inert and tranquil, in a circle on the ground.
Kelif cuffed me on the side of the head and I staggered against the side of the wagon, unable to fall because of the chain between us. The blow hurt, but not as much as what I had just seen.
So it was true, what Mother Chilton had told me so long ago. ‘ Don’t you understand? Life and death are both part of the web of being, and both have power. When power is made to flow unnaturally from death back to life, as Soulvine Moor is doing, there must also be a flow in the opposite direction. Or else the whole web will become more and more disturbed, until it is destroyed. There are terrible times coming, more terrible than you can imagine .’
That time was here. I had just seen it. Soulvine Moor had sucked the power of the eternal Dead into themselves, to use in their quest to live for ever. They had thereby robbed eternity from the Dead in that circle. To balance their theft, they had taken life from the infants, putting the babes into the unchanging, quiescent trance of the Dead. That was why the Country of the Dead had not been disturbed into storms and quakes, as it had when I had brought back the Blue army. Soulvine was preserving the balance in the web of being, so they could go on plundering it for their own gain. ‘ Everything has a cost ,’ Mother Chilton had said, but she had not said the most monstrous part. Sometimes the cost is paid by the innocent.
Which did not include me. If I had not meddled with death, if I had not brought back Bat and Cecilia and the Blue army, if I had not carried Tom and Jee and the princess across the grave – then would any of this even be possible? Mother Chilton had told me that the warwith Soulvine Moor began even before I was born – but how much had I advanced it?
All those infants, neither dead nor alive … all those grieving parents …
Behind me Charlotte said tremulously, ‘Roger?’
Kelif growled, ‘Get back down, ye.’
Leo said anxiously, as well as with rage that she was a cause for anxiety, ‘Rawnie, I would not really hit you.’ Which meant, Don’t tell Straik I threatened to do so!
Rawnie said in her new, warm, lying tone towards Leo, ‘That’s all right. I’m sorry.’
I was back in the world of captives, of complicated politics, of solid wagon and hard-edged trees, of clear unfogged summer air. But I had seen what Soulvine Moor was doing. My father’s hisafs and the web women – whatever they were doing to stop Soulvine Moor was not, apparently, succeeding. I did not see how it could. Life and death, both, were under siege.
I sank down against the side of the wagon, turned my face to the rough wood, and spoke to no one for the rest of the day.
9
It was twilight before we halted for the night. Probably Straik wanted to put as much distance as possible between the Brotherhood and the farm plundered of its babies’ life force. The first stars had already appeared. A half moon rose, buttery yellow. The
Three hisafs appeared, each with an infant on either arm. I could barely glimpse them through the fog. Then a clap of noise like thunder, light brighter than the sun, and the Dead vanished, sucked into the vortex.
That was all I had time to see. Kelif gave a great bellow, seized me, and we were again back in that terrible place between countries, that eternal grave. This time it seemed to go on for ever, although probably that was only my own horror. Then we were back in the wagon, peeringover the side. A moment later the hisafs reappeared, infants still in their arms. The babes’ cries had ceased. The hisafs laid them, inert and tranquil, in a circle on the ground.
Kelif cuffed me on the side of the head and I staggered against the side of the wagon, unable to fall because of the chain between us. The blow hurt, but not as much as what I had just seen.
So it was true, what Mother Chilton had told me so long ago. ‘ Don’t you understand? Life and death are both part of the web of being, and both have power. When power is made to flow unnaturally from death back to life, as Soulvine Moor is doing, there must also be a flow in the opposite direction. Or else the whole web will become more and more disturbed, until it is destroyed. There are terrible times coming, more terrible than you can imagine .’
That time was here. I had just seen it. Soulvine Moor had sucked the power of the eternal Dead into themselves, to use in their quest to live for ever. They had thereby robbed eternity from the Dead in that circle. To balance their theft, they had taken life from the infants, putting the babes into the unchanging, quiescent trance of the Dead. That was why the Country of the Dead had not been disturbed into storms and quakes, as it had when I had brought back the Blue army. Soulvine was preserving the balance in the web of being, so they could go on plundering it for their own gain. ‘ Everything has a cost ,’ Mother Chilton had said, but she had not said the most monstrous part. Sometimes the cost is paid by the innocent.
Which did not include me. If I had not meddled with death, if I had not brought back Bat and Cecilia and the Blue army, if I had not carried Tom and Jee and the princess across the grave – then would any of this even be possible? Mother Chilton had told me that the warwith Soulvine Moor began even before I was born – but how much had I advanced it?
All those infants, neither dead nor alive … all those grieving parents …
Behind me Charlotte said tremulously, ‘Roger?’
Kelif growled, ‘Get back down, ye.’
Leo said anxiously, as well as with rage that she was a cause for anxiety, ‘Rawnie, I would not really hit you.’ Which meant, Don’t tell Straik I threatened to do so!
Rawnie said in her new, warm, lying tone towards Leo, ‘That’s all right. I’m sorry.’
I was back in the world of captives, of complicated politics, of solid wagon and hard-edged trees, of clear unfogged summer air. But I had seen what Soulvine Moor was doing. My father’s hisafs and the web women – whatever they were doing to stop Soulvine Moor was not, apparently, succeeding. I did not see how it could. Life and death, both, were under siege.
I sank down against the side of the wagon, turned my face to the rough wood, and spoke to no one for the rest of the day.
9
It was twilight before we halted for the night. Probably Straik wanted to put as much distance as possible between the Brotherhood and the farm plundered of its babies’ life force. The first stars had already appeared. A half moon rose, buttery yellow. The
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