Messenger’s Legacy (4 page)

At supper, his brothers and sisters watched him like a cat watches a mouse. Briar kept close to his mother until bedtime.

No sooner had the door to the tiny room the three boys shared closed, than the twins pinned him on the floor of their room, digging through his pockets and searching his bed.

‘Where’d you hide them, Briarpatch?’ Hardey demanded, sitting hard on his stomach, knocking the breath out of him.

‘It was just the one, and I ate it!’ Briar struggled, but he was wise enough not to raise his voice. A shout might get his brothers the strap, but it would go worse for him.

Eventually the boys gave up, giving him a last shake and going to bed. ‘This ent over, Briarpatch,’ Hardey said. ‘Catch you with it later, you’ll be eating dirt.’

They were soon asleep, but Briar’s heart was still thumping, and out in the yard demons shrieked as they tested the wards. Briar couldn’t sleep through the sound, flinching at every cry and flash of magic. Hale kicked him under the covers. ‘Quit squirming, Briarpatch, or I’ll lock you out on the porch for the night.’

Briar shuddered, and again felt an overwhelming urge to empty his bladder. He got out of bed and stumbled into the hall to find the privy. It was pitch black in the house, but that had never bothered Briar before. He had blindly fumbled his way to the curtain countless times.

But it was different tonight. There was a demon in the house. Briar couldn’t say how he knew, but he sensed it lurking in the darkness, waiting for its chance to pounce.

Briar could feel his heart pounding like a festival drum and began to sweat, though the night was cool. It was suddenly hard for him to breathe, as if Hardey were still sitting on his chest. There was a rustling sound ahead, and Briar yelped, literally jumping. He looked around and it seemed he could make out a dim shape moving in the darkness.

Terrified, he turned and ran for the common room. The fire had burned down, but a few pumps of the bellows had an open flame, and Briar fed it carefully with bricks of peat from the pile until it filled the room with light. Shadows fled, and with them the hiding places of the demons.

The room was empty.

Baby Briar, scared of nothing
, his brothers and sisters liked to sing. Briar hated himself, but his leg would not stop shaking. He couldn’t go back to bed. He would piss on the covers and the twins would kill him. He couldn’t go down the hall to the privy in the dark. The very thought terrified him. He could sleep here, by the fire, or …

Briar slipped across the common to the door of his parents’ room.

Never open the door if the bed is creaking
, his mother had said, but Briar listened closely, and the bed was quiet. He turned the latch and slipped quietly inside, closing the door behind him. He crawled up the centre of the bed, nestling himself between his parents. His mother put her arms about him, and Briar fell deep asleep.

It was still dark when he awoke to screaming. His parents started upright, taking poor Briar with them. All of them took a reflexive breath, and started to cough and choke.

There was smoke everywhere. His parents were both touching him, but he couldn’t see them at all. Everything was a grey blur even worse than darkness.

‘Down!’ his mother croaked, pulling Briar with her as she slid off the bed. ‘Smoke rises! The air will be better by the floorboards.’ There was a thump as his father rolled out of bed on the far side, crawling over to them.

‘Take Briar out the window,’ Relan said, coughing into his hand. ‘I’ll get the others and follow.’

‘Into the night?!’ Dawn asked.

‘We cannot stay here, beloved,’ Relan said. ‘The wardposts in the herb garden are strong. It’s only twenty yards from the house. You can make it if you are quick.’

Dawn grabbed Briar’s hand, squeezing so hard the boy whimpered. ‘Wet the towel by the washbasin and put it over your mouth to hold out the smoke.’

Relan nodded and put a hand on her shoulder. ‘Be careful. The smoke will draw many
alagai
.’ He kissed her. ‘Go.’

Dawn began crawling for the window, dragging Briar after her. ‘Take three deep breaths, Briar, and then hold the last. Keep it held until we’re out the window, and as soon as we hit the ground, run for the garden. You understand?’

‘Yes,’ Briar said, and then coughed for what seemed forever. At last the wracking ceased, and he nodded to his mother. On the third breath, they stood and Dawn threw open the shutters. She lifted Briar in her arms, swung her legs over the sill, and dropped to the ground with a thump.

As Relan had warned, there were demons in the yard, flitting about through the drifting smoke. Together, they ran for the garden before the corelings caught sight of them.

Dawn stopped up short once they crossed the garden wards. ‘You stay here. I need to help your father with the others.’

‘No!’ Briar cried, gripping her skirts. ‘Don’t leave me!’

Dawn gripped Briar’s shirt tightly with one hand, and slapped his face with the other. His head seemed to flash with light, and he stumbled back, letting go her skirts.

‘Ent got time to baby you right now, Briar. You mind me,’ his mother said. ‘Go to the hogroot patch and hide in the leaves. Cories hate hogroot. I’ll be back soon.’

Briar sniffed and wiped at his tears, but he nodded and his mother turned and ran for the house. A wood demon caught sight of her and ran to intercept. Briar screamed.

But Dawn kept her head, doing the same dance Relan had done that very morning. In a moment, she had the coreling stumbling left as she ran to the right, disappearing back through the window.

Feeling numb, like he was in a dream, Briar stumbled over to the hogroot patch. He rolled in the thick weeds, bruising them and getting sticky hogroot sap all over himself. One of his pant legs was soaked through. He had pissed himself after all. The twins would never stop teasing him once they saw.

He cowered there, shaking, as his family’s cries echoed in the night. He could hear them calling to one another, bits of sentences drifting on the night smoke to reach his ears. But no one came to the garden, and moments later, the night began to brighten, the grey smoke giving off an evil, pulsing glow. Briar looked up, and saw that the ghostly orange light came from the windows of the house.

The shrieks of the demons increased at the sight, and they clawed the dirt impatiently, waiting for the wards to fail. A wood demon struck at the house, and was thrown back by the magic. A flame demon tried to leap onto the porch, and it, too, was repelled. But even Briar could see that the magic was weakening, its light dimming.

When a wood demon tried the porch, the wardnet had weakened enough for it to power through. Magic danced over the demon’s skin and it screamed in agony, but made it to the front door and kicked it in. A gout of fire, like a giant flame demon’s spit, coughed out of the doorway, immolating the demon. It fell back, shrieking and smouldering, but a pack of flame demons had made it through the gap by then and disappeared into the house. Their gleeful shrieks filled the night, partially drowning out his family’s dwindling screams.

Hardey stumbled out the side door, screaming. His face was dark with soot and splattered with gore, and one arm hung limply, the sleeve wet with blood. He looked about frantically.

Briar stood up. ‘Hardey!’ He jumped up and down, waving his arms.

‘Briar!’ Hardey saw him and ran for the garden wards, his usual long stride marred by a worsening limp. A pair of howling flame demons followed him out of the house, but Hardey had a wide lead as he raced for the hogroot patch.

But the boy hadn’t cleared half the distance when a wind demon swooped down, digging its clawed feet deep into his back. Its wing talons flashed, and Hardey’s head thumped to the ground. Before the body even began to fall, the wind demon snapped its wings and took to the air again, taking the rest of Hardey with it. Briar screamed as the demon vanished into the smoky darkness.

The flame demons shrieked at the departing wind demon for stealing their prey, but then leapt onto Hardey’s head in a frenzy. Briar fell back into the hogroot patch, barely turning over in time to retch up his supper. He screamed and cried, thrashing about and trying to wake himself up from the nightmare, but on it went.

It grew hotter and hotter where Briar lay, and the smoke soon became unbearable. Burning ash drifted through the air like snowflakes, setting fires in the garden and yard. One flake struck Briar on the cheek and he shrieked in pain, slapping himself repeatedly in the face to knock the ash away.

Briar bit his lip to try and stem the wracking coughs, looking around frantically. ‘Mother! Father! Anybody!’ He wiped at the tears streaking the ash on his face. How could his mother leave him? He was only six!

Six is old enough to be caught by
alagai
for running when it is best to keep still
, Relan said,
or for keeping still when it is best to run
.

He would burn up if he stayed any longer, but as his father said, the fire was drawing demons like moths. He thought of the goldwood tree. It had hidden him from his brothers and sisters. Perhaps it could succour him now.

Briar put his head close to the ground and breathed three times as his mother had told him, then sprang from hiding, running hard for the tree line. The swirling smoke was everywhere, and he could only see a few feet in any direction, but he could sense demons lurking in the gloom. He raced quickly over the familiar ground, but then somehow ran into a tree where he was sure none should be. He scraped his face on the bark, bouncing and landing on his back.

But then the tree looked at him and growled.

Briar slowly got to his feet, not making any sudden moves. The wood demon watched him curiously.

Briar began to sway back and forth like a pendulum, and the demon began rocking in unison, moving to keep eye contact like a tree swaying in a great wind. It began to step with him, and Briar held his breath as he moved two steps, then back, then three steps, then back, then, on the fourth step, he kept on walking. Three breaths later, the demon shook its head and Briar broke into a run.

The demon shrieked and gave chase. At first Briar had a fair lead, but the wood demon closed the gap in just a few great strides.

Briar dodged left and right, but the demon kept pace, its growls drawing ever nearer. He scrambled over the smouldering woodpile, but the demon scattered the logs with a single swipe of its talons. He skidded to a stop by his father’s refuse cart, still loaded with some of the items Relan and his brothers had salvaged from the dump.

Briar dropped to his hands and knees, crawling under the cart. He held his breath as the demon’s clawed feet landed with a thump right in front of him.

The wood demon lowered its toothy snout to the ground, snuffling. It moved to the hollow, sniffing the roots and dirt. Briar knew the demon could reach under and fish him out, or toss the cart aside easily, but perhaps that would give him enough time to run out the other side and get to the tree. He waited as the snout drew closer, coming just a few inches from him.

Just then, the demon gave a tremendous sneeze, its rows of sharp amber teeth mere inches from Briar as the mouth opened and snapped shut.

Briar bolted from hiding, but the demon, gagging and coughing, did not immediately give chase.

The hogroot,
Briar realized.

A small flame demon, no bigger than a coon, challenged him as he drew close to the tree, but this time Briar didn’t try to run. He waited for the demon to draw close, then flapped his arms and clothes, creating a cloud of hogroot stink even in the acrid night. The demon heaved as if sick, and Briar kicked it, sending it sprawling as he ran on. He leapt to catch the first branch and swung himself up into the goldwood and hid in the boughs before the demon could recover.

Briar looked back and saw the windows of his house blazing like the hearth, flames licking out to climb their way up the walls.

The hearth.

Even from this distance, the heat could be felt, smoke and ash thick in the air, making every breath burn his lungs. But even so, Briar’s face went cold. His leg twitched, and he felt it warm as his bladder let go what little it had left. In his mind, he could hear his mother singing.