But there was no reply. Instead, the vibrations of his cries merely dislodged dirt from the roof of the hollow. It fell on his head and into his mouth. David spit it out, then prepared to shout again.
"Oh, I wouldn"t do that," said the Crooked Man. He picked at his teeth and extracted a long, black beetle leg that had lodged close to his gums. "The ground here isn"t stable, and with all that snow above, well, I don"t like to think what would happen if it came down on top of you. You"d die, I expect, and not very pleasantly."
David closed his mouth. He did not want to be buried alive down there with the insects and the worms and the Crooked Man.
The Crooked Man worked on the lower half of the beetle, removing its back to expose its innards entirely.
"Are you sure you don"t want any?" he asked. "They"re very good: crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. Sometimes, though, I find that I don"t want crunchy. I just want soft."
He lifted the insect"s body to his mouth and sucked at its flesh, then threw the husk into a corner.
"I thought that you and I should have a talk," he said, "without the risk of your, um, "friend" up there interrupting us. I don"t think you"ve fully grasped the nature of your predicament. You still seem to think that allying yourself with every pa.s.sing stranger will help you, but it won"t, you know. I"m the reason you"re still alive, not some ignorant Woodsman or disgraced knight."
David couldn"t bear to hear the men who had helped him dismissed like that. "The Woodsman wasn"t ignorant," he said. "And Roland argued with his father. He isn"t a disgrace to anyone."
The Crooked Man grinned unpleasantly. "Is that what he told you? Tut, tut. Have you seen the picture he carries in his locket? Raphael, isn"t that the name of the one whom he seeks? Such a nice name for a young man. They were very close, you know. Oooh, very very close." close."
David didn"t know quite what the Crooked Man meant, but the way he spoke made David feel dirty and soiled.
"Perhaps he would like you to be his new friend," continued the Crooked Man. "He looks at you in the night, you know, when you"re asleep. He thinks you"re beautiful. He wants to be close to you, and closer than close."
"Don"t talk about him that way," warned David. "Don"t you dare."
The Crooked Man sprang from the corner, leaping like a frog, and landed in front of David. His bony hand grasped the boy"s jaw painfully, the nails digging into his skin.
"Don"t tell me what to do, child, child," he said. "I could tear your head off if I chose, and use it to adorn my dinner table. I could bore a hole in your skull and stick a candle in it, once I"d eaten my fill of whatever was inside-which wouldn"t be much, I expect. You"re not a very bright boy, are you? You enter a world you don"t understand, chasing the voice of someone you know is dead. You can"t find your way back again, and you insult the only person who can help you return, namely me. You are a very rude, ungrateful, and ignorant little boy."
With a snap of his fingers, the Crooked Man produced a long, sharp needle, threaded with coa.r.s.e black string made from what looked like the knotted legs of dead beetles.
"Now why don"t you work on your manners before you force me to sew your lips shut?"
He released his grip on David"s face, then patted his cheek gently.
"Let me show you a proof of my good intentions," he purred. He reached into the leather pouch upon his belt and drew from it the snout that he had severed from the wolf scout. He dangled it in front of David.
"It was following you, and it found you as you emerged from the church in the forest. It would have killed you, too, had I not intervened. Where it went, others will follow. They are on your trail, and growing ever greater in number. More and more of them are transforming now, and they cannot be stopped. Their time is coming. Even the king knows it, and he does not have the strength to stand in their way. It would be well for you to be back in your own world before they find you again, and I can help you. Tell me what I want to know and you will be safe in your bed before nightfall. All will be well in your house, and your problems will have been solved. Your father will love you, and you alone. This I can promise you if you answer just one question."
David didn"t want to bargain with the Crooked Man. He couldn"t be trusted, and David felt certain that he was keeping many things from him. No deal made with him could ever be simple, or without cost. Yet David also knew that much of what he was saying was true: the wolves were coming, and they would not stop until they found David. Roland would not be able to kill them all. Then there was the Beast: terrible though she was, she was only one of the horrors that this land seemed to conceal. There would be others, perhaps worse than Loups or Beast. Wherever David"s mother now was, in this world or another, she seemed beyond his reach. He could not find her. He had been foolish ever to think he could, but he had wanted so badly for it to be true. He had wanted her to be alive again. He missed her. Sometimes he would forget her, but in forgetting he would remember her again, and the ache for her would return with a vengeance. Yet the answer to his loneliness did not lie in this place. It was time to go home.
And so David spoke. "What do you want to know?" he said.
The Crooked Man leaned toward him and whispered. "I want you to tell me the name of the child in your house," he said. "I want you to name for me your half brother."
David"s fear was replaced by puzzlement. "But why?" he said. If the Crooked Man was the same figure he had seen in his bedroom, then wasn"t it possible that he had been in other parts of the house too? David remembered how he had awoken at home with the unpleasant sensation that something or someone had touched his face while he was asleep. A strange smell had sometimes hung about Georgie"s bedroom (stranger, at least, than the smell that usually came from Georgie). Could that have been an indication of the Crooked Man"s presence? Was it possible that the Crooked Man had failed to hear Georgie"s name spoken during his incursions into their house, and why was it so important to him to know the name anyway?
"I just want to hear it from your lips," said the Crooked Man. "It"s such a small thing, such a tiny, tiny favor. Tell me, and all this will be over."
David swallowed hard. He so badly wanted to go home. All he had to do was speak Georgie"s name. What harm could that do? He opened his mouth to speak, but the next name spoken was not Georgie"s but his own.
"David! Where are you?"
It was Roland. David heard the sound of digging from above. The Crooked Man hissed his displeasure at the intrusion.
"Quickly!" he said to David. "The name! Tell me the name!"
Dirt fell on David"s head, and a spider scurried across his face.
"Tell me!" shrieked the Crooked Man, and then the ceiling of earth over David"s head fell in, blinding and burying him. Before his sight failed, he saw the Crooked Man scurry for one of the tunnels to escape the collapse. There was earth in David"s mouth and nose. He tried to breathe, but it caught in his throat. He was drowning in dirt. He felt strong hands grip his shoulders as he was pulled from the earth and into the clean, crisp air above. His vision cleared, but he was still choking on soil and bugs. Roland"s hands pumped at David"s body, forcing the earth and insects from his throat. David coughed up dirt and blood and bile and crawling things as his airways cleared, then lay on his side in the snow. The tears froze on his cheeks, and his teeth were chattering.
Roland knelt by his side. "David," he said. "Talk to me. Tell me what happened."
Tell me. Tell me.
Roland touched his hand to David"s face, and David felt himself recoil. Roland, too, registered his response, for instantly he withdrew his hand and moved away from the boy.
"I want to go home," David whispered. "That"s all. I just want to go home."
And he curled into himself upon the snow and cried until he had no tears left to shed.
XXIII.
Of the March of the Wolves
DAVID SAT on Scylla"s back. Roland was not riding with him but once more led the horse by her reins along the road. There was an unspoken tension between Roland and David, and while the boy was able to recognize both Roland"s hurt and its source, he could not find a way to connect the two with an apology. The Crooked Man had hinted at something about the relationship between Roland and the lost Raphael that David felt might be true, but he was less convinced by the implication that Roland now had similar feelings for David himself. Deep down, he was certain that it was false; Roland had shown him nothing but kindness, and if there had been any ulterior motive to his actions, it would have revealed itself long before now. He was sorry that he had recoiled from Roland"s touch of solicitude, but to make the admission would have forced him to acknowledge that, even for just the blink of an eye, the Crooked Man"s words had found their mark.
It had taken David a long time to recover himself. His throat hurt when he spoke, and he could still taste dirt in his mouth even after he had washed it out with icy water from the stream. It was only after riding in silence for a long time that he was able to tell Roland of what had taken place beneath the ground.
"And that is all he asked of you?" said Roland, when David had repeated to him most of what had been uttered. "He wanted you to tell him your half brother"s name?"
David nodded. "He told me I could go back home if I did."
"Do you believe him?"
David thought about the question. "Yes," he said. "I think he could show me the way, if he wanted to."
"Then you must decide for yourself what to do. Remember, though, that nothing comes without cost. The villagers learned that as they sifted through the remains of their homes. There is a price to be paid for everything, and it is a good idea to find out that price before you make the agreement. Your friend the Woodsman called this fellow a trickster, and if that is what he is, then nothing he says is entirely to be trusted. Be careful in striking a bargain with him and listen closely to his words, for he will say less than he means and conceal more than he reveals."
Roland did not look back at David as he spoke, and these were the last words that they exchanged for many miles. When they stopped to rest that night, they sat at opposite sides of the small fire Roland had made, and they ate in silence. Roland had removed the saddle from Scylla"s back and placed it against a tree, far from the spot where he had laid out David"s blanket.
"You can rest easy," he said. "I am not tired, and I will keep watch on the forest while you sleep."
David thanked him. He lay down and closed his eyes, but he could not fall asleep. He thought of wolves and Loups, of his father and Rose and Georgie, of his lost mother and the offer that the Crooked Man had made. He wanted to leave this place. If all that was required was to share Georgie"s name with the Crooked Man, then perhaps that was what he should do. But the Crooked Man would not come back now that Roland was keeping watch, and David felt his anger at Roland begin to grow. Roland was using him: his promise of protection and of guidance to the king"s castle had come at too great a price. David was being dragged along on a quest for a man whom he had never met, a man for whom only Roland had feelings, and those feelings, if the Crooked Man was to be believed, were not natural. There were names for men like Roland where David came from. They were among the worst names that a man could be called. David had always been warned to keep away from such people, and now here he was keeping company with one of them in a strange land. Well, soon their ways would part. Roland reckoned that they would reach the castle the following day, and there they would finally learn the truth of Raphael"s fate. After that, Roland would lead him to the king, and then their arrangement would be over.
While David slept, and Roland brooded, the man named Fletcher knelt at the walls of his village, his bow in his hand, a quiver of arrows by his side. Others crouched alongside him, their faces lit by torches once again, just as they had been when they prepared to face the Beast. They gazed out at the forest before them, for even in the darkness it was clear to them that it was no longer empty and still. Shapes moved through the trees, thousands upon thousands of them. They padded on all fours, gray and white and black, but among them were those that walked on two legs, dressed like men but with faces that bore traces of the animals they once were.
Fletcher shivered. This, then, was the wolf army of which he had heard. He had never seen so many animals moving as one before, not even when he had looked to the late summer skies and witnessed the migration of birds. Yet they were now more than animals. They moved with a purpose beyond merely the desire to hunt or breed. With the Loups at their head to impose discipline and plan the campaign, they represented a fusion of all that was most terrifying about men and wolves. The king"s forces would not be strong enough to defeat them on a field of battle.
One of the Loups emerged from the pack and stood at the edge of the forest, staring at the men hunched behind the defenses of their little village. He was more finely dressed than the others, and even from this distance Fletcher could tell that he seemed more human than the others, although he could not yet be mistaken for a man.
Leroi: the wolf who would be king.
During the long wait for the coming of the Beast, Roland had shared with Fletcher what he knew of the wolves and the Loups, and how David had bested them. Although Fletcher wished the soldier and the boy only health and happiness, he was very glad that they were no longer within the walls of the village.
Leroi knows, thought Fletcher. He knows they were here, and if he suspected they were still with us, he would attack with the full fury of his army.
Fletcher raised himself to his feet and stared across the open ground to the place where Leroi stood.
"What are you doing?" whispered someone from close by.
"I will not cower before an animal," said Fletcher. "I will not give that thing thing the satisfaction." the satisfaction."
Leroi nodded, as though in understanding of Fletcher"s gesture, then slowly drew a clawed finger across his throat. He would be back once the king was dealt with, and they would see how brave Fletcher and the others truly were. Then Leroi turned away to rejoin the pack, leaving the men to watch impotently as the great wolf army pa.s.sed through the woods on its way to seize the kingdom.
XXIV.
Of the Fortress of Thorns
DAVID AWOKE the next morning to find Roland gone. The fire was dead, and Scylla was no longer tethered to her tree. David rose and stood where the horse"s tracks disappeared into the forest. He felt concern at first, then a kind of relief, followed by anger at Roland for abandoning him without even a word of good-bye, and, finally, the first twinge of fear. Suddenly, the prospect of confronting the Crooked Man alone again was not so appealing, and the possibility of the wolves coming across him was less appealing yet. He drank from his canteen. His hand was shaking. It caused him to spill water over his shirt. He wiped at it and caught the jagged end of a fingernail on the coa.r.s.e material. A thread unraveled, and as he tried to free it, his nail tore still further, causing him to yelp in pain. He threw the canteen at the nearest tree in a fit of rage, then sat down hard on the ground and buried his head in his hands.
"And what purpose did that serve?" said Roland"s voice.
David looked up. Roland was watching him from the edge of the woods, seated high on Scylla"s back.
"I thought you"d left me," said David.
"Why would you think that?"
David shrugged. Now he was ashamed of his display of petulance and his doubts about his companion. He tried to hide it by going on the attack. "I woke up and you were gone," he replied. "What was I supposed to think?"
"That I was scouting the way ahead. I did not leave you for very long, and I believed that you were safe here. There is stone not far below the ground here, so our friend could not use his tunnels against you, and at all times I was within earshot. You had no reason to doubt me."
Roland dismounted and walked to where David sat, leading Scylla behind him.
"Things have not been the same with us since that foul little man dragged you beneath the ground," said Roland. "I think I may have some inkling of what he said to you about me. My feelings for Raphael are mine, and mine alone. I loved him, and that is all anyone needs to know. The rest is no business of any man"s.
"As for you, you are my friend. You are brave, and you are both stronger than you look and stronger than you believe yourself to be. You are trapped in an unfamiliar land with only a stranger for company, yet you have defied wolves, trolls, a beast that had destroyed a force of armed men, and the tainted promises of the one you call the Crooked Man. Through it all I have never yet seen you in despair. When I agreed to take you to the king, I thought you would be a burden on me, but instead you have proved yourself worthy of respect and trust. I hope that I in turn have proved myself worthy of your your respect and trust, for without it we are both lost. Now, will you come with me? We have almost reached our destination." respect and trust, for without it we are both lost. Now, will you come with me? We have almost reached our destination."
He extended his hand to David. The boy took it, and Roland raised him to his feet.
"I"m sorry," said David.
"You have nothing to be sorry for," said Roland. "But gather your belongings, for the end is near."
They rode for only a short time, but as they traveled the air around them changed. The hairs on David"s head and arms stood on end. He could feel the static when he touched his hand to them. The wind blew a strange scent from the west, musty and dry, like the interior of a crypt. The land rose beneath them until they came to the brow of a hill, and there they paused and looked down.
Before them, like a stain upon the snow, was the dark shape of a fortress. David thought of it as a shape rather than a fortress itself, because there was something very peculiar about it. He could make out a central tower, and walls and outbuildings, but they were slightly blurred, like the lines of a watercolor painting made on damp paper. It stood at the center of the forest, but all of the trees around it had been felled as though by some great explosion. Here and there David saw the glinting of metal upon its battlements. Birds hovered above it, and the dry smell grew stronger.
"Carrion birds," said Roland, pointing. "They feed upon the dead."
David knew what he was thinking: Raphael had entered that place, and had not returned.
"Perhaps you should stay here," said Roland. "It will be safer for you."
David looked around. The trees here were different from the others he had seen. They were twisted and ancient, their bark diseased and pitted with holes. They looked like old men and women frozen in agony. He did not want to remain alone among them.
"Safer?" queried David. "There are wolves following me, and who knows what else lives in these woods? If you leave me here, I"ll just follow you on foot anyway. I might even be useful to you in there. I didn"t let you down in the village when the Beast came after me, and I won"t let you down now," he said with determination.
Roland did not argue with him. Together they rode toward the fortress. As they moved through the forest, they heard voices whispering. The sounds seemed to come from within the trees, emerging through the openings in their trunks, but whether they were the voices of the trees themselves or those of unseen things that dwelled within them David could not say. Twice he believed that he saw movement in the holes, and once he was certain that eyes had stared back at him from deep inside the tree, but when he told Roland, the soldier said only: "Don"t be afraid. Whatever they are, they have nothing to do with the fortress. They are not our concern, unless they choose to make themselves so."
Nevertheless, he slowly withdrew his sword as he rode and let it hang by Scylla"s side, ready to be used.
The forest was so thick with trees that the fortress was lost from sight as they pa.s.sed through them, so it came as something of a shock to David when they finally emerged into the blasted landscape of fallen trunks. The force of the explosion, or whatever it had been, had torn the trees from the ground, so that their roots lay exposed above deep hollows. At the epicenter lay the fortress, and now David could see why it had appeared blurred from a distance. It was completely covered by brown creepers that wound around the central tower and covered the walls and battlements, and from the creepers emerged dark thorns, some easily a foot long and thicker than David"s wrist. It might have been possible to attempt to climb the walls using the creepers, but make even the slightest misstep and an arm or a leg or, worse, the head or the heart would be impaled upon the waiting spikes.
They rode around the perimeter of the fortress until they came to the gates. They were open, but the creepers had formed a barrier across the entrance. Through the gaps between the thorns, David could see a courtyard, and a closed door at the base of the central tower. A suit of armor lay upon the ground before it, but there was no helmet, and no head.
"Roland," said David. "That knight..."
But Roland was not looking at the gates, or at the knight. His head was raised, and his eyes were fixed on the battlements. David followed his gaze and discovered what it was that had gleamed upon the walls from a distance.
The heads of men had been impaled upon the topmost thorns, facing out over the gates. Some still wore their helmets, although their face guards were raised or torn off so that their expressions could be seen, while others had no armor left at all. Most were little more than skulls, and, while there were three or four that were still recognizable as men, they looked as though they had no flesh left on their faces, just a thin covering of gray, papery skin over the bone. Roland examined each one in turn until, at last, he had stared into the faces of every dead man upon the battlements. He looked relieved when he was done. "Raphael is not among those that I can identify," he said. "I see neither his face nor his armor."
He dismounted and approached the entrance. Drawing his sword, he sliced off one of the thorns. It fell to the ground, and instantly another grew in its place, even longer and thicker than the one that had been severed. It grew so fast that it almost stabbed Roland in the chest before he managed, just in time, to step out of its way. Roland next tried to hack through the creeper itself, but his sword made only the slightest of cuts upon it, and the damage once again repaired itself before his eyes.
Roland stepped back and returned his sword to its sheath.
"There must be a way inside," he said. "How else did that knight gain admittance before he died? We will wait. We will wait, and we will watch. In time, perhaps it will reveal its secrets to us." They settled down after building a small fire to keep the cold at bay and maintained a silent, uneasy vigil on the Fortress of Thorns.
Night fell, or the greater darkness that merely deepened the shadows of the day and served as night in that world. The whispering from the forest, which had continued while they circled the fortress, abruptly ceased with the coming of the moon. The carrion birds disappeared. David and Roland were alone.
A faint light appeared in the topmost window of the tower and then was blocked as a figure pa.s.sed before the opening. It paused and seemed to stare down upon the man and boy below, then disappeared.
"I saw it," said Roland, before David could open his mouth.
"It looked like a woman," said David.
It was the enchantress, he thought, watching over the sleeping lady in the tower. The moonlight shone upon the armor of the dead men impaled on the battlements, reminding him of the danger he and Roland now faced. They must all have been armed when they approached the fortress, yet still they had died. The body of the knight that lay inside the gates was huge, taller than Roland by a foot at least, and almost as broad as him again. Whoever guarded the tower was strong and fast and very, very cruel.
Then, as they watched, the creepers and thorns blocking the gates began to move. They unraveled slowly, creating an entrance through which a man could pa.s.s. It gaped like an open mouth, the long thorns poised like teeth waiting to bite.
"It"s a trap," said David. "It must be."