Broken Earth Page 18

  But all of her prayers went unanswered, and the body count of large male deer in the forest adjacent to Ludjo continued to rise.

  Presently, after she had washed, she went to the bed that she had made beneath a bowed tree at the edge of the clearing. There was a frame of long, straight sticks at the bottom, with a thick covering atop it made of wide ferns and a smattering of leaves. She crawled onto it, and laid her head down upon the pine-scented pillow she had made at the top.

  At the closing of her eyes, she was visited by a series of violent images. She saw the wide, frightened eyes of a deer, just before she jumped upon it – and ripped out its throat. She wrenched open its stomach, so as to tear out handfuls of warm, dripping meat.

  She fell asleep to such thoughts; but not an hour later, her hunger returned. She opened her eyes; closed them. She opened them, and looked down at her hands, which she imagined were full of warm and bloodied meat.

  She wished for her disturbing thoughts to cease; wished for sleep to come. Yet some of those thoughts, it seemed, did not even belong to her. They were not things that she had done, not things that she had seen; and they were far worse, than anything she could have dreamt of doing to an animal.

  The most terrible ones, were those with the children. She saw them being torn open, in the same way that she tore at the deer; but their eyes were still open, still crying tears of pain and fear.

  She was revolted. She was infuriated; she was terrified.

  And yet she was hungry.

  ~

  It was the last blow for Heidi’s taut nerves. She felt them stretch to the breaking point, and then snap, like the thick strings of a piano. They whipped back and lashed at her heart, drawing a steady and stinging trickle of blood.

  “I don’t believe it,” said Dera. “It’s Buck!”

  “It can’t be,” said Heidi, squinting into the distance. She kept repeating, over and over, how it could not be – even as the horse drew nearer, and began to resemble more and more Jade’s tall grey steed.

  Dera hurried to meet him. She drew alongside him, held out a hand and clicked to him. He nuzzled his head against her hand, recognising her immediately.

  “If Buck is here,” said Heidi slowly, “then where is Jade?”

  As Dera had no answer for her, she made no attempt at one. She only ran her fingers through Buck’s mane, trying to soothe him. He fidgeted from hoof to hoof, and looked quite nervous.

  “Where did you leave her, Buck?” asked Heidi. “Can’t you show us where you left her?”

  He only snorted, and turned his face towards Dera’s hand.

  Dera got down from Dillyn, and went to stand in front of Buck. She placed a hand on either side of his great head. She closed her eyes, and was quiet for some minutes.

  “Well?” said Heidi finally. “What did you see?”

  “I’m not sure. Better just to show you.”

  Heidi did not like the feeling of having Dera’s visions forced inside her own brain – and would have refused, if the circumstances had been anything other. She squirmed rather uncomfortably, as Dera placed her hands upon her head; but shut her eyes in an effort to calm herself. There was, at first, nothing but the blackness that one would expect to result from such an action; but then small spots of colour began to swirl in and out of focus, growing bigger and bigger until they formed a hazy picture behind her eyes.

  The scene unfolded from behind, in the place where Buck must have stood. Heidi could see only the back of Jade’s head, her long red hair let down, and flowing in the wind.

  Just ahead of her, there stood a row of dark figures, with larger ones grouped behind. Heidi watched, as one of the smaller figures approached Jade; but could not see his face. She saw Jade holding her sword aloft, but had no time to see what she did with it, for it seemed that Buck had turned away at that moment. She saw nothing but the pitch darkness of the night before him, as he raced from the scene; and then she returned to the reality of the lighted plain, as Buck’s vision was replaced with her own.

  Dera took her hands from her head.

  “Can you see her now?” Heidi asked.

  Dera stood quietly; but then lowered her head, and tilted it to the side; as if she were listening.

  “I hear water,” she said. “Running water. It cannot be more than fifty yards away.”

  Heidi looked towards a distant line of trees, what must have marked the bank of the Kala River. Yet there was no place, in that shallow grove, where could a person be hid; and so her eyes followed the line into the East, where they connected with more trees, which grew in number and fanned out into a forest. She looked to the place where the Southern trees met the Eastern trees; pointed and said: “There.”

  Dera’s gaze followed the direction of her finger. In the emptiness of the land that lay beyond the city, there was nothing to obstruct their view. Yet they stood (quite unbeknownst to either of them) in a place some distance away, from the straighter course which Jade had set to the river; and considering, in addition, the space across the plains which she had been driven by Biscayne’s company, there stretched a distance of about twenty miles, between Heidi and Dera, and the Eastern trees.

  ~

  Jade lay huddled upon her bed of leaves, arms wrapped about her knees. The sickness had returned; and was so very strong, that she could not rise to search for food. She kept her eyes shut tight, for when they were open, the trees all blurred into one another to make her dizzy. She began to whisper to herself, to distract the pain and sickness; but it was to no avail.

  Even had she been able to rise, she could not have brought herself to kill again. She recollected the taste of the raw meat; recollected its smell, and its texture. She yearned for the fullness of it, there in her stomach, but could not have borne the chewing and the swallowing of it.

  She kept her eyes shut tight. She sought desperately for a pleasant memory; for anything that had nothing to do with pain, or with hunger. And she did remember an afternoon, only days before she departed from home – in the bright sunshine of the yard, standing beside Heidi as she tried to teach her to levitate. Heidi would rise a few inches off the ground, but would drop back down, and stumble; and Jade would catch her arm. Every time, Heidi laughed, and turned her face so that Jade could see her smile. Then she kissed her cheek.

  Jade tried to imagine herself now, standing beside Heidi – sick and sordid as she had become. Yet she no longer seemed to belong there. The truth ripped mercilessly, like claws at the sore skin of her heart, what had grown already colder with illness and despair.

  She imagined herself all covered in blood and flesh, eating greedily and ravenously; and tried to remember the reasons for which she had left home in the first place. She had resolved, against all odds and impossibilities, to kill Dain Aerca with her bare hands – to rid the world, and herself, of the destruction wrought by the Dúnanen. And yet nothing here had been destroyed, save for herself.

  Alone and hopeless, she began to scream. She screamed and screamed, louder and louder, but it did not make her feel any better. It only jarred the sickness; whereupon she rose up to her knees, and crawled away to a place where she lost the contents of her stomach. The colour was bright red, a base of blood mixed with small chunks of undigested flesh. To look upon it made her retch again – and again and again, until the blood which fell upon the ground came not from her stomach, but from her throat – the skin of which had become cut and ruptured from days of eating, eating, eating and eating; and then vomiting, time after time until she could stand it no more.

  She fell to the ground, feeling certain (and not overly disappointed concerning the fact) that she was about to die.

  “You poor girl,” said a voice from above.

  Jade could not move. Certainly, if she could have, she should have leapt to her feet – but she could not even turn her head.

  Biscayne peered down into her face. “You have made your first mistake,” he said. “I hope that you have learnt from it.”

 
; Jade could hear the rustling of leaves, and the crunching of snow, all around. Many feet moved nearby.

  “We have come to save you,” said Biscayne. “Do not fight us.”

  She felt hands on her arms, and on her back. They worked to force her upwards, to lean against a tree. Her stomach rolled, and her head swam.

  “Open your mouth.”

  A different voice. Familiar, and yet . . .

  She opened her eyes, and saw a hand before her, holding a piece of raw meat. She clenched her jaws.

  “Stop that.”

  “I don’t want any more,” she moaned. “Please, no more.”

  “You will die without it. Now – open your mouth, and let me help you.”

  Rather against her will, she opened her mouth a-ways; and the meat came into it. She tasted it on her tongue, cold but delicious; covered in blood, and unlike anything she could have asked for . . .

  She reached up, and took the meat in her hands. There felt to be over a pound of it, but she devoured it in seconds.

  More pairs of hands helped her to her feet. She fell back against the tree, and opened her eyes.

  Biscayne stood there in front, with a tall woman beside him. Her hair was blacker than ink, with gleaming eyes to match. Her hands were dripping with blood.

  All around them stood five others.

  “If you do not remember, my name is Biscayne. This is Zana. Beside her is Kroso; and then there is Pesha, Gowa, Raven and Vax.”

  “Where are the beasts?” breathed Jade, glancing all about.

  Biscayne rolled his eyes. “I sent them away. They are much more trouble than they are worth, believe me.”

  “You care nothing that I killed them?”

  “The three Narken?” Biscayne shook his head. “I could not care less. As for Qoera, though – well, that is another matter. You shall have to be redeemed of that deed. Should you pass our tests, you will take her place, and the murder shall be annulled.”

  “Not for me,” said the one called Pesha. “You are nothing but a dirty little witch – and you will never be anything different.”

  “Peace, Pesha!” said Kroso. “We do not use that word.”

  “Well, that’s what she is. A filthy whore of a witch!”

  Biscayne’s hand came down hard against the side of her face. She hissed at him, but made no move of reciprocation.

  “If you cannot work with us, Pesha, you shall have to be gotten rid of. Now, personally – I have been wanting to cast you out for years. Do not test me.”

  Pesha shrank back a little behind Kroso.

  “Control your wench, Kroso,” said Biscayne.

  “I apologise for her,” said Kroso.

  Biscayne turned back to Jade. “I am terribly sorry about that,” he said. “Not all of my brethren are quite so civilised as myself.”

  Jade said nothing.

  “Now,” said Biscayne, clapping his hands together. “There are a few things which we should discuss. First of all, I will state the obvious: When Zana bit you, she infected you with the blood of the Lumaria. We –” (he made a gesture, which was meant to collectively represent the occupants of the semi-circle) “– are the Lumaria. We are but a few of thousands, most of whom are currently asleep in our tunnels. There is no certain telling when your transformation will be complete; and in this, you shall have to be patient. Afterwards, you will retain all powers you possessed before the infection, and will lose none of your ability to wield them. Yet you will also gain those abilities which we all possess. These include teleportation, telepathy, and increased strength and speed.”

  He stopped for a moment – but then clapped a hand to his forehead, as though he had forgotten something.

  “The most important thing,” he said, “is what you shall feed on henceforth. You tasted it moments ago – and shall have to eat the same thing at least twice a month, though in far greater portions. The meat must be raw, never cooked. The blood is a great part of its nutrition.”

  He paused, and looked rather intently upon Jade; as if trying to gauge her response to his words. Yet she said nothing; so he went on:

  “Animal meat will never do, as you should know well enough by now. You ate massive amounts of it for days – but still grew sick. If the meat is not of humans, it will not sate your hunger.”

  Though Jade had already suspected that bitter truth – and had indeed already eaten of it – the words themselves sent her reeling. She slumped back against the tree; dropped her head into her hands, and felt that she needed to scream again.

  “You shall grow accustomed to all this,” said Biscayne. “After a time, it will not seem so much as a crime. It will be only hunting.”

  Jade fell to the ground and began to weep, there in the shadow of all those abominable creatures. She was one of those creatures now – and had eaten the meat of what she had been, mere days before. There was no way to justify it.

  Zana came forward, and knelt on the ground beside her, smoothing her hair away from her face.

  “Don’t be afraid,” she said. “It shan’t be long, before you realise what a gift this is.”

  “I don’t want it,” Jade sobbed. She fell forward, without a thought, into the arms Zana offered her. She hid her face against her shoulder, and repeated: “I don’t want it.”

  “Many don’t want it, at the time it is given,” said Zana. “But you shall grow to appreciate it.”

  She lowered her head, and whispered into Jade’s ear.

  “You are immortal now.”

  ~

  Heidi was still miles away, when she heard the screaming.

  Time passed as if it were standing still. She knew not how much of it elapsed, as she raced across the plains; for she registered only the moment when she and Eriah went crashing into the underbrush. They proceeded a little more slowly to the South, winding through the trees towards the river.

  When they came to the clearing, it was empty. Heidi looked back at Dera, who approached at perhaps an eighth of a mile’s distance.

  “Where is she?” cried Heidi.

  “I don’t know,” replied Dera.

  “Can’t you see her?”

  “Not anymore.”

  Heidi fell down to the forest floor. She put a shaking hand to her face.

  “Come now,” said Dera, jumping down to the ground. She held out a hand to Heidi.

  Heidi accepted it, though rather reluctantly; and rose up half-heartedly.

  “We have to go on,” said Dera. “We shall follow the river back West, till we reach the Aria.”

  She looked into Heidi’s face, and added, “It is all we can do.”

  Heidi’s misery left room for little else. She followed Dera back to the plain; and then through the thick trees that stood before the Kala.

  XIV: After the Fire

  On a lovely spring morning, while Dera and Josephine worked together in the kitchen on a questionable new recipe, Heidi and Jade lay side by side on a blanket in the thick, green grass of the side yard. They stared up at the sky, in silence for a time, differentiating in their own minds the separate shapes and figures that the white clouds formed.

  Heidi felt Jade’s hand press her own, and turned her head so that she might see her face. But Jade only pointed back to the sky.

  Heidi looked up once again, and saw that the clouds were moving quickly together, racing into one another to form a large, fluffy mass. The shape was indistinct at first; but then there formed an outline of white, with blue sky surrounding it. There appeared one woman, and then a second, both of whom were joined, at the left and right hands. They used their free hands to wave, and to smile down at their miniature counterparts, on the ground below.

  “Do I see,” said Heidi, “what I think I see?”

  “I suppose that would depend,” said Jade, “on what you think you see.”

  “But how – how did you do that?”

  “Many years of practise.”

  “Will you teach me?”

  Jade laughed lou
dly; but then covered her mouth, and smiled rather shamefacedly. “I mean nothing by it,” she said; “but you cannot even levitate! And that, believe me, is much easier.”

  “I can,” said Heidi, pulling her hand from Jade’s, so that she might cross her arms over her chest. “I’ve been trying!”

  “Of course you have. And you have been doing very well! But it is better, I think, to keep to one lesson at a time.”

  “Someday, then, you shall show me?”

  “Certainly! Only not today.” She slid across the blanket, to lay her head upon Heidi’s shoulder.

  “I must ride to Tolin this morning,” said Heidi. “Skyler has been asking after the silver I owe him.”

  “I thought that it was not due with him, until later in the month?”

  “Ah,” said Heidi; “but you do remember, the small advance that I requested of him? I have bought a horse for Josephine, for her birthday.”

  “Did you really? It’s a lovely present, I think – but I do wonder if she will be too frightened to make use of it.”

  “I did ask her, only last week, whether she would allow me to teach her to ride. She agreed.”

  “Good show!” said Jade, kissing Heidi’s cheek. “An impressive feat, if I ever did see one.”

  Now, once Heidi and the others had established themselves into the house on Bridgewater Street, it became evident that they required some method by which to sustain themselves. Heidi, of course, had been released from her apprenticeship (though it need be noted that, even had she not been, it would not have been at all possible to maintain a position at such a distance from her new home). Yet the other three made suggestions which followed along the lines of their own experience: with Jade considering the installation of a small farm on the property; Josephine pondering the resumption of her previous occupation, with some other wealthy area family; and Dera, of course, quite on the brink of falling back into her old money-making habits. Had they not discovered something much more suitable, and much more profitable, quite by chance one day, the support of the household would no doubt have fallen to a combination of any and all of these means.