Chapter 10
"Take your place at the horse stone," Keeper Pansy said and pointed to the rock that had always been Rosy's secret favourite. From a distance, with a bit of goodwill, it almost looked like the head of a giant steed. Like an over-sized chess piece the ancient stone waited for her among the flattened grass.
It was placed just a few steps outside the circle formed by humans and stones and even further away from the group of Keepers who still observed her with that unnerving quietness of theirs.
Rosy swallowed. Suddenly, she didn't want to leave the sweaty safety of the circle, be out there all on her own. Out there, where the frozen figures of the witch hunters still loomed. How would she make her escape when the others were gone?
"That spell won't break for quite a while," said Keeper Colin tilting his head at the frozen shapes "When it does, they will find the village empty."
Her head strangely devoid of thoughts, her fingers numb and her heart thundering in her chest, Rosy walked towards the standing stone. As she broke through the circle, she felt a tingling, a burning sensation, then it was gone. And what had been a world caught in greys suddenly became colourful again.
But it was quiet. Completely and utterly still. Above her, birds had got caught in the spell and were pinned to the sparkling blue skies. A butterfly hovered above the stone, ready to land but never getting close. Rosy whirled around to face the stone circle.
It was empty.
The shock hit her like a blow to the stomach. This wasn't possible. They had to be there, she knew they were there, she felt their magic still tingling through her body. It reached towards the ring like an invisible umbilicus tethering her to the other White Wardens. Some of the stronger familiars had learned to become invisible and granted that gift to their masters. But to hide a group of people, their belongings, their animals in plain view was a masterly execution of their craft. How many skylles did that take to accomplish? How long would the Keepers be able to maintain the illusion?
As if in answer, the air begin to shimmer around her, taking on just the faintest tinge of emerald and bringing with it a strangely metallic odour.
The Keepers had started the final ritual, were opening the portal. For a moment, a short moment only, she felt cheated. But she didn't care for their escape, did she? So better not to see where they were going and what they were doing. They would call upon her soon enough if they needed her to follow.
Wind whispered past the stone, blessedly cool it stirred the sodden strands of her hair, and soothed her flushed brow. The breeze was blowing straight from the circle, ruffling her clothes. With it came a strange tugging on her chest, a pressure, not unpleasant at first, but increasing as if something invisible had latched on and was sucking, draining, taking something away from her. Something that was hers for only a short while anyway.
Youth.
Somewhere behind her, she heard the thump, thump of running feet getting closer. The footfall was spaced in unusual intervals, as if somebody was fighting his way through treacle. So, she hadn't been wrong when she spotted that one figure turning against the tide. It was impossible, though, how could anybody break the Keepers' spell. Obviously that person was no witch hunter, then. But who else could it be? Was one of the Red Wardens suicidal enough to return? The tread was heavy, had to be a man's. Not her brother, then. Her father? But he had his family to protect. It could only be . . .
"Rosy?" Bill's voice was high pitched with worry as he rounded the stone and stopped on her right, panting.
"Don't get any closer," she gasped.
The tugging had become a pressure on her chest, as if an unseen hand was flattening her against the rock that was pressing into her back. Whorls of turquoise were dancing in the air, billowing out of the circle, like translucent creepers spawned by the void.
"Your father told me you wanted to sacrifice yourself. You must not do that, do you hear me? Surely, you're out of your mind!"
His face was flushed and his eyes wild as he reached for her. Rosy tried to twist sideways but found herself pinned to the rock like a speared fish.
"Whatever you do— don't come near me." Getting out the words was hard, that invisible power was now closing its stranglehold on her windpipe.
The creepers dancing in the air lost their ethereal quality, became solid, real growth that rose into a thicket around them.
"Go, you must go," Rosy whispered her voice as colourless as the world had been earlier. Mercifully, the pressure was not increasing, she could only draw shallow breaths, but at least she could draw them.
How had Bill got through the spell, Rosy wondered and the answer found her almost immediately.
He loved her.
Love was the biggest spell of them all. It had carried him across the plain unscathed and got him close to a hotspot teaming with magic. Alive. Unhurt. Now he was here, would his love be enough to protect him from whatever it was the Keepers were doing?
Bill stared at her in horror. "Your eyes, they've gone red. But they never do that before the first score and ten? And your face, it is— changed."
He took a step backwards. "I don't want you do die." Tears ran over his cheeks, covered in tiny blond stubbles. "Please."
Die? She wasn't dying. What was the man thinking? That was so typical of the Others. Their history was steeped in blood, they only ever thought in terms of winning, conquering and destroying what they didn't understand. Even Bill, as kind as he was, carried the burden of his heritage. Thought she was making a blood sacrifice. Only those few Wardens whose names were never spoken, who had joined the Others on the dark side might think of such heinous deeds.
Around them, the greenery grew rampant, blocking the landscape, hiding the circle from her view until she and Bill were encapsulated in a lush green cocoon.
Suddenly, the pressure on her chest eased with a jerk that sent her stumbling from the horse-head rock.The green that had been encapsulating them them winked out and once again she was facing an empty stone circle. Bill had whirled aside, pulled a small knife from the pockets of his trousers and scanned the circle, his eyes darting left and right and back again.
Were the Wardens gone?
The answer came with a rising wind that blew towards her and slammed her back towards the stone. The air in the circle shimmered and shifted and in between Rosy could again see all the red faced people pooling their magic, the Keepers weaving their spells, their arms slowing— her sacrifice hadn't been enough, they wouldn't make it!
"Bill, run!" she screamed.
But he didn't. Disgust distorted his features as he stared at the spectacle in front of him. There was only so much a human mind could take, even if it was a flexible one, like his. But better that, better he hated her for what she was, than staying and getting caught in magical crossfire. If the Keepers failed, they would blight the lands for generations to come.
Bill shook himself, then turned away from the flickering figures in the circle. And grabbed her hand. "You're coming with me. Now. I won't let them kill you."
The moment he touched her, Rosy knew he was doomed.
A current shot from her body into his, a current so strong, it made his blond hair raise in a halo before it dropped again. Yet he didn't seem to feel it, kept tugging at her arm. "Come on, move, woman."
His voice sounded deeper than it had before. When Rosy examined him more closely, she saw tiny lines springing up in the corners of his eyes, deepening around his mouth. And the hand that held hers, was fleshing out, becoming broader.
Oh sweet Woods, he was ageing before her eyes. She had done so too, he had told her that. But it had stopped. Would it stop for him? How dare the Keepers take a sacrifice he had never offered?
Yes, he should never have come here. Still.
"That isn't fair," she yelled. "Do you hear me? Leave Bill alone!"
She got no answer.
Around them, the magical creepers grew again, much faster, much denser than before. They swayed and danced and sparkled and blotted out the heavens hiding Bill and Rosy in their shadow.
Rosy flailed and kicked at the magical growth screaming for the Keepers to stop.
But the greenery kept growing, rising and Bill kept ageing before her eyes, his hairline creeping backwards on his head, wrinkles appearing where before there were none. Only his blue eyes remained unchanged, staring at her in puzzlement.
"Heavens, Rosy, what are you screaming at? Let's just get out of here," Bill said, his voice shaking. "Where does this forest come from all of a sudden? Your people really are very strange, you know. As if we didn't have enough woods already."
Rosy sagged against the nearest plant, sobbing.
Bill staggered towards her and bent down with a groan. "My word, these joints are aching all of a sudden. I've been running too much recently."
Gingerly, he lowered himself next to her and wrapped his thinning arms around her. "Come on, Rosy. This is not at all like you."
Rosy remembered Bill's words from last night and had to dig her nails into the soft flesh of her hands to stop herself from bawling out loud.
I want to grow old with you.
He was.
And very soon he would be gone.
Rosy placed her head on his shoulder, inhaling his scent, committing it to memory. When his strength failed, she cradled his body, gently rocking him to sleep. Time stretched, became meaningless. Whatever happened at the circle was irrelevant. They were together, only that counted. In the end, he went peacefully. One moment, his young eyes were smiling at her from an old man's face, the next instant only the eyes were left, twinkling like blue stars, until they too vanished, leaving Rosy with nothing but empty air.
"Bill," she whispered.
Sorrow turned to fury, erupted in a deadly heat from deep inside her body. It rose with a roar, rose on a flame that ripped into the magical plants and with a thunderclap it tore down both the green screen and the magical veil hiding the circle from view, revealing the throng of people that still stood there. Like a lit fuse, her magic raced towards the centre of the circle and ignited the air with a bluish flash that jumped from standing stone to standing stone, turning them into geysers of blue flame. More flashes followed and amid all the crashing and banging the air tore apart.
The portal was open.
The voice of the Head Keeper rose over the pandemonium, "Run," she screamed and the Wardens surged forward and pressed towards the widening rift.
Only one figure turned the other way, made for the rim of the circle.
Keeper Colin. His face lined with exhaustion, he faced the white hot blaze that was consuming Rosy's world.
"I think she planned it all along," he said with an other-worldly calm. "She must have known your sacrifice wouldn't be enough." For a moment, he just stood and observed her. "Come with me. We'll keep the redheads safe."
Yesterday, it would have mattered. Today, it mattered no more. The pain of loss was consuming her, leaving no space for anything else.
"Rosy, they need us. I can't do this on my own."
The words lashed through her pain, dampened the fury and slowly, so slowly the fire died down. But she still saw those eyes, would see them to the day she died. She had got what she wanted. But at what price . . .
Bluish sparks winked out among the circle and Rosy sensed more than she noticed the portal's closing. Time passed. All was calm and quiet again. Not in her heart though, it harboured a heavy darkness from where echoed a series screams only to die at the back of her throat.
Bill!
The words never came. Instead, Rosy waited, straightened and swallowed down the pain. Then she bent down and picked up two of the tablets that had been hurled from the circle. They felt hot to the touch but were cooling down rapidly. But they were charged with the power of the portal, a portal opened on the altar of a dying love.
Bill!
She gritted her teeth. She mustn't give in. Aye, she would go with the old Keeper. She would help him keep the Red Wardens alive. And there was something else. Bill had left behind a gift, a gift she would allow to live and grow now that nobody could bar her anymore.
Rosy took a deep breath, wiped away the tears that trickled from her eyes and blurred her vision. It was too late for tears.
"Let's go," she said and, together, the last two White Wardens walked away from the old henge that slowly faded into the haze behind them.
Night fell over the standing stones, the cold white glare of a full moon illuminating an empty circle, trampled grass, a blackened spot of burning and the frozen statues of the hunters. But there was movement now, a twitching finger here, a rolling eye there. The neighing of a horse. A short bark coming from a hound. Soon, they would be ready to give chase again.
But the Earth Wardens were gone.
A world full of anger has no place for love.
A world full of hate is a world filled with death.
Four centuries have passed. And still the pyres burn on.
Why?
*** THE END ***
Music is from Hans Zimmer's Gladiator. For me, one of the most beautiful soundtracks ever. It's tragic, it's sad - but it's not without hope. No gadgets or gifs for this chapter, they wouldn't fit here.
This chapter is dedicated to my friend anupamarc. She knows why.
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top