A Change in the Weather

Chapter 72: More Revelations

6 September, 2008 – 4:27 pm

 

Scarlet kept her head hung low, holding the knife that she’d taken from the inn the previous evening. She seemed to be in a daze and kept twirling it in her hand absently. Every now and again, she’d glance over at the body by the roadside, wishing that she could have prevented the death somehow.

‘I can’t believe it’ she repeated, shaking her head. ‘I just can’t believe it.’

Thomas looked up and cradled his sister.

‘It doesn’t make sense,’ he said. ‘The Fiery Brand here?’

No sooner had Thomas said the words, than he felt something move and he looked down. With a frown, he felt in his pocket and pulled out the filigree cage that housed the clockwork brain of the guardian.

‘What is it?’ said Scarlet.

‘I don’t know’, he said, giving the cage a shake. ‘For a moment I thought I felt something… move.’

And then the cage begin to vibrate as it started to make tiny clicking and whirring sounds.

‘Bzz… who said that?’ asked the guardian, in its scratchy metallic voice.

Thomas held the cage up to his face and scrutinized it with a beady eye.

‘Who said what?’ he said, tapping the case with a finger.

‘Bzz… the words …zzz… that I had hoped I would never hear again,’ replied the guardian.

Thomas silently mouthed the last few word exchanges to himself.

‘You mean the Fiery Brand?’ he asked.

Scarlet stood up.

‘My god,’ she said, ‘you know them, don’t you? You know the Fiery Brand.’

‘…zzzyess…’

‘How? Tell us. Tell us your story. We want to know.’

‘There is very little to tell … zzz … apart from the fact that my name is Artus … zzz,’ said the guardian, ‘and I am the last king of Taliszzztay.’

Scarlet looked dumbfounded and clapped a hand over her mouth, dropping the knife that she was holding.

‘But everyone thinks you died at Tinderwood Grove,’ she said, numbly. ‘Hillary told us so. Torfang and Eliza too.’

Artus said nothing for a few moments, and then replied.

‘Killed was … zzz … I? No, that was … zzz … a lie.’ said Artus. ‘I was taken prisoner by a murderous traitor … zzz … My own son brought down Taliszzztay.’

‘But how?’ said Thomas. ‘And how did you come to be in this thing?’

‘He put me in it! zzz … And now I want more than anything in the world … zzz … to see him with my own eyes and punish him … zzz … for all the damage he has done. Even if I have to be put back into another guardian…’

Scarlet remembered the battle with the guardian. She remembered how close it came to killing them both, with its relentless drive, and shivered at the thought.

‘Swear that you will help me! zzz’

‘Don’t you remember trying to kill us?’ asked Scarlet.

The guardian ignored the question.

‘Swear … zzz … that you will help me,’ repeated Artus. ‘I am still king … zzz … whether I have a body or not…’

Scarlet didn’t know what to say. Thomas didn’t either. Scarlet wanted to tell Artus about the Levitonite rings and queen Isolde who had bore him children, and the dragon that had carried her to safety. She wanted to tell him how his children had culminated in the ones that were standing before him now, but somehow she knew that her words could not adequately sum it all up and she remained silent.

Eventually they both nodded their heads and mumbled a few words that sounded like ‘yes’.

‘Have you … zzz … seen them?’ asked Artus.

‘I think so,’ nodded Scarlet. ‘But they look different now. As soon as I felt something deep down in the pit of my stomach lurch, I knew it was them.’

 

* * * *

Tobias didn’t like horses. In fact he hated them. Normally he wouldn’t have been seen dead near one. Even so, this was exactly where he was, and using all his concentration to stay on top of one as well.

No matter how much he persevered though, his efforts were being undone with each trot; each bounce made him slide around uncomfortably, and he gritted his teeth and tried to haul his sorry saddle-sore backside into position again.

‘Stay still, damn you,’ he grumbled, growing more and more impatient with his predicament.

But the horse, it seemed, was having none of it. Sensing the awkward and clumsy nature of its rider, it suddenly halted in the middle of the road, causing Tobias to hurtle over its head with a feeble wail, and land with a splash in the muddy water below.

That was it, he thought, wiping his forehead. He’d had enough. He threw his hands down in temper and slapped the ground, covering himself in more water.

‘Swine horse!’ he shouted in frustration. ‘Think you’re clever, eh?’

The horse gave a petulant snort and nodded its head.

Wendle, who was balancing on the hindquarters of Hillary’s horse up ahead, turned to look back at him.

‘Need some help old chap?’ he offered, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Tobias returned the grin, albeit momentarily, and hauled himself to his feet. God, he hated being wet – even more than he hated horses. But even so, he grabbed the reins and clambered onto the saddle once more, determined not to let go and cling on for dear life this time.

Once he was up and sitting, he let out a sigh and leaned forward slowly towards the horse’s ear.

‘You won’t win you know,’ he whispered.

Then he sneezed violently and fell off again.

In the meantime, Raedwald and Sigbert had taken up flanking positions on either side of Hillary and Tobias. It hadn’t entirely escaped Tobias’ attention that both of the warriors from Winding were constantly staring into the trees and keeping curiously silent.

What were they being so suspicious about, he thought? From what they were talking about earlier, it seemed that they would soon be coming to the edge of the forest. To Tobias this sounded like blissful relief, but the two warriors knew better; they knew what remained in the dark foliage of the outer edge was hazardous and murderous and difficult to negotiate.

‘There they are!’ cried Hillary, pointing with his staff into the distance.

‘They are?’ replied Tobias, incredulously, and scrambled to his feet as quick as he could.

Hillary spurred his horse and galloped off, the wind whipping his cloak about as he disappeared rapidly away leaving Tobias to negotiate his willful steed.

Raedwald and Sigbert followed him closely behind, all the while keeping a careful watch in all directions.

‘You go ahead Hillary. I’ll catch up,’ shouted Tobias with a wave of a hand.

He patted his horse.

‘And no more funny business thank you.’ he said, wagging a finger at it.

 

 

* * * *

Scarlet and Thomas sat by the roadside.

Both of them seemed utterly dejected and oblivious to the approaching drum of horse’s hooves in the distance. Somehow they knew that it was Hillary and Tobias, but what they’d just been told had been like a bombshell and they were struggling to come to terms with it.

Hillary drew nearer and nearer. His face was serious but filled with relief. As they got close, Wendle jumped off and padded over to them.

‘There you are,’ bellowed Hillary, swinging down from the horse, his face serious and stony. ‘Thank god you’re safe. We were worried about…’

But Hillary’s words trailed off when he noticed the bloody body by the path, and the strange look on the children’s faces.

‘What happened here? Are you both alright?’

When Scarlet started to laugh and giggle, Hillary’s stony look dropped, replaced by one of curious surprise. Something was making her laugh, but for the life of him, he couldn’t guess what it could be. It was more a nervous laugh than one of mirth, and as soon as it began it stopped, and she looked up at him.

‘Well, where would you like us to start?’ she said. ‘The reason we left in the middle of the night?’

She nodded over to the dead man.

‘Or what about the facts concerning the murdered coachman over there?’

Hillary was about to speak, when Scarlet spoke again.

‘What would you say if I told you the Fiery Brand killed him?’

Hillary recoiled at the words.

‘The Fiery Brand?’ he muttered. ‘But how?’

He was entirely lost for words.

‘Or better yet,’ she said, ‘how about the history of this little clockwork box here? The clockwork brain that you took from the guardian after we defeated it?’

She held up the little clockwork cage. It sparkled and gleamed as its little gears spun and whirred and ticked. Hillary frowned as he stared at it.

‘Apparently, it says that it’s Artus – the last king of Talistay…’

 

* * * *

The Green Man moved slowly through the trees, as quiet as a moth, careful as to not make any sudden sounds or movements that would reveal himself. Instead he glided through the pines like some ghostly apparition.

He and the wolf pack had been watching the unsuspecting group of riders since they left The Windings. By now they were closing on the back marker, having tracked him by a combination of his scent and the sound of his constant moaning.

And then there was another sound and he quickly concealed himself behind some foliage as another man on horseback approached. It was the leader. He looked familiar to him, and yet at the same time, wasn’t.

As the two talked, there was one word that lodged itself firmly in his mind. And then the leader rode off again leaving the dawdler behind grumbling again.

The name that formed in his head had almost been forgotten, but still it clung to his conscious thoughts like some parasite feeding on his past; a name that clearly meant something a long time ago, but now since the fog had descended on his mind shrouding his thoughts, making him forgot everything, nothing made sense anymore.

The passage of time had been slow, and it had buried all thoughts of his previous life.

He shook his head as if trying to clear his mind.

He needed to make himself known to them.

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