Reaching out of the ground, fumbling at the bark of a root, was a human hand and forearm, long, leathery, greenish, with nails grown to claws then broken and bleeding upon Father Tree. It did not belong to anyone from the Hole.
It twitched feebly, now.. Blue sparks continued to crackle above.
Something about that hand stirred the old beast within me. I wanted to run away shrieking. Or seize an axe and mutilate it. I took neither course, for I got the distinct feeling that Father Tree was watching me and glowering more than a little, and maybe blaming me personal-like for wakening the thing to which the hand belonged.
“I’m going,” I said. “Know how you feel. Got my own old monster to keep down.” And I backed away, bowing some each three or four steps.
“What the hell was that?”
I whirled. One-Eye was staring at me. He had a Croaker-is-up-to-another-of-his-crazies look.
“Just chatting with the tree.” I looked around. People seemed to be finding their sea legs. Some of the less flustered were starting to right the walking trees. For the fallen menhirs, though, there seemed no hope. Those had gone to whatever reward a sentient stone may expect. Later they would be discovered righted, standing among the other dead menhirs near the creek ford.
I returned to Darling and the Lady. Darling was slow to come around, too groggy to communicate yet. The Lady asked, “Everyone all right?”
“Except the guy in the ground. And he came close to making himself well.” I described the hand.
She nodded. “That’s a mistake not likely to be made again soon.”
Silent and several others had gathered around, so we could say little that would not sound suspect. I did murmur, “What now?” In the background I heard the Lieutenant and Elmo hollering about getting some torches out to shed a little light.
She shrugged.
“What about the Taken?”
“You want to go after them?”
“Hell, no! But we can’t have them running around loose in our backyard, either. No telling...”
“The menhirs will watch them. Won’t they?”
“That depends on how pissed the old tree is. Maybe he’s ready to let us go to hell in a bucket after this.”
“You might find out.”
“I’ll go,” Goblin queaked. He wanted an excuse to put a lot of yards between him and the tree.
“Don’t take all night,” I said. “Why don’t the rest of you help Elmo and the Lieutenant?”
That got rid of some folks, but not Silent.
There was no way I was going to get Silent out of sight of Darling. He had some reservations still.
I chaffed Darling’s wrists and did other silly things when time was the only cure. After some minutes I mumbled, “Seventy-eight days.”
And the Lady, “Before long it will be too late.”
I lifted an eyebrow.
“He can’t be beaten without her. It won’t be long before the hardest ride won’t get her there in time.”
I do not know what Silent made of that exchange. I do know that the Lady looked up at him and smiled thinly, with that look she gets when she knows your thoughts. “We need the tree.” And: “We didn’t get to finish our picnic.”
“Huh?”
She went away for a few minutes. When she returned she had the blanket, dirtier than ever, and the bucket. She snagged my hand and headed for the dark. “You watch for the traps,” she told me. What the hell was this game?
Forty-Five
Bargain struck
Later a broken boat of a moon arose. We did not
I sat. She sat. I asked, “What?...”
“Be quiet.” She closed her eyes and went inside herself.
I wondered if Silent had torn himself away from Darling to stalk us. Wondered if my comrades were making crude jokes about us as they labored over the walking trees. Wondered what the hell kind of game had me caught in its toils.
You learned something out of it, anyway, Croaker.
After a while I realized she was back from wherever she had gone. “I am amazed,” she whispered. “Who would have thought they had the guts?”
“Eh?”
“Our sky-borne friends. I expected Limper and Whisper, up to their old crimes. But I got Scorn and Blister. Though I might have suspected her, had I thought. Necromancy is her great talent.”
Another round of her thinking aloud. I wondered if she did that often. I am sure she was unaccustomed to having witnesses around if she did. “What do you mean?”
She ignored me. “I wonder if they told the others?”
I harkened back, put a few things together. The Lady’s divinations about three possible futures and no place in any of them. Maybe that meant there was no place in them for Taken, either. And maybe they figured they could take their futures into their own hands by ridding themselves of their mistress.
A light step startled me. But I did not get excited. I just figured Silent had chosen to follow. So I was very surprised when Darling sat down with us, unchaperoned.
How had I overlooked the return of the null? Distracted, of course.
The Lady said, as though Darling had not appeared, “They haven’t yet gotten out of the coral. It’s very slow going, and they’re both injured. And though the coral can’t kill them, it can cause a lot of pain. Right now they’re lying up, waiting for first light.”
“So?”
“So maybe they won’t get out at all.”
“Darling can read lips.”
“She knows already.”
Well, I have said a thousand times that the girl is not stupid.
I think Darling’s knowledge was implicit in the position she took. She placed me squarely in the gap between them.
Oh yeah.
I found myself playing interpreter.
Trouble is, I cannot record what went back and forth. Because someone tampered with my memories later. I got only one chance to make notes, and those now make no sense.
Some sort of negotiation took place. I can still conjure a sense of profound astonishment at Darling’s willingness to deal. Also an amazement at the Lady for the same reason.
They reached an accommodation. An uneasy one, to be sure, for the Lady henceforth stuck very close and kept me between her and anyone else while she was within the null. Great feeling, knowing you’re a human shield... And Darling kept near the Lady to prevent her calling on her power.
But she did turn her loose once.
That is getting ahead, slightly. First we all sneaked back, not letting anyone know there had been summit. The Lady and I returned after Darling, trying to look like we had had an energetic and thorough encounter. I could not help chuckling at some envious looks.
The Lady and I went outside the null again next morning, after Darling distracted Silent, One-Eye, and Goblin by sending them to dicker with the menhirs. Father Tree could not make up his mind. We went the other direction. And tracked Taken.
Actually, there was little tracking to do. They were not yet free of the coral. The Lady called upon that power she held over them and they ceased to be Taken.
Her patience was exhausted. Maybe she wanted them to serve as an object lesson... In any event, buzzards-real buzzards-were circling before we returned to the Hole.
That easy, I thought. For her. And for me, when I tried to kill the Limper, with every damned thing going my way, impossible.
She and I went back to translating. So busy did we stay that I did not remain abreast of the news from outside. I was a little vacant, anyway, because she had expunged my memories of the meeting with Darling.
Anyhow, somehow, the White Rose got right with Father Tree. The shaky alliance survived.
One thing I did notice. The menhirs stopped ragging me about strangers on the Plain.
They meant Tracker and Toadkiller Dog all the time. And the Lady. Two of three were no longer strangers. No one knew what had become of Toadkiller Dog. Even the menhirs could not trace him.
I tried to get Tracker to explain the name. He could not remember. Not even Toadkiller Dog himself. Weird.