The Moonshawl: A Wraeththu Mythos Novel (36 page)

‘Were there no suspects? Did
nohar look towards the Whitemanes?’

Medoc made a gesture with both
hands. ‘Yvainte cut himself on an old iron nail in the stables at the Mynd.
That’s what we heard, and I’ve heard nothing different since. It was hidden
beneath the hay. Anyhar could have scraped against it, or they might not. Could
have simply seen it, removed it, and not been hurt.  Yvainte’s wound became
infected and his body couldn’t fight it. The hienamas couldn’t cure him. He
died. And it happened very quickly, unnaturally.’

‘What about Kinnard?’

Medoc stood up, turned his back
on me wandered to the window. ‘Well, he killed himself. Or that’s the story.’

‘Yvainte was dead, perhaps
that...’

Medoc turned once more to face me.
‘Nohar knew Kinnard better than I. He would
never
have taken his own
life. I’m not saying he didn’t love Yvainte or his family, but to Kinnard the
tribe always came first. He believed wholeheartedly in his destiny to rule it
justly. Also, it happened years after Yvainte’s death.’

‘So... what happened?’

Medoc came to sit opposite me
once more. ‘It appeared he rode his horse off a cliff and fell to the gorge
below. Is it possible to make a horse do that? Unless... unless it was
galloping in terror?’

‘Pursuit does seem the mostly
likely explanation, since there are far easier ways to kill yourself.’ I
paused. ‘The death must’ve been investigated. Why was suicide the conclusion?’

‘He left a note,’ Medoc said
bitterly. ‘The note said, “This will be the end of it, for all time.” I don’t
believe he was talking about his own life exactly. Perhaps he feared he might perish
during what he intended to do. But his hara...’ He gestured widely. ‘They
interpreted it as a suicide note and who of the Wyvachi would listen to me? I
lived miles away, had run from home. But I’m convinced that Kinnard tried to
take on that malevolent power, end the curse once and for all, and he failed.
He was vanquished.’

‘How old would Wyva have been
when this happened?’

Medoc shrugged. ‘Around sixteen
or so, I think. Well past feybraiha, in any case.’

‘I wonder how much Kinnard told
him.’

‘Well, some of it, obviously,’
Medoc said. ‘I talked with Wyva at Cuttingtide and it was clear he knew the
basic story.’

I shook my head. ‘He’s a puzzle.
He saw both his parents die under very suspicious circumstances. He knows the
full story, yet like Kinnard refuses to budge.’

‘That, my friend,’ Medoc said,
‘is perhaps as much a part of the curse as anything.’

‘Hmm, to know the danger, yet lack
the will to escape it.’ I gazed at Medoc meaningfully. ‘There might be more to what
you said than you think. Kinnard kept your letters. I know because I’ve seen
them. If he didn’t care, or still resented you, surely he’d have destroyed them.
So perhaps he
was
tied there, and a wedge was driven between you of more
than personal feeling.’

‘He never replied.’

‘I gathered that. But perhaps he
felt, deep inside, that what you’d done was for the best, and for all the hara
who departed with you. Perhaps he made no contact so you were free to create
your own new lives, far away from that twisted nest.’

‘I’d like to think that,’ Medoc
said, unsure.

‘I believe you should think
that, no matter what.’ I put aside my notebook. ‘Thank you, Medoc.’

‘Don’t thank me. Now I’m
wondering whether I was a fool to tell you the story, because it’s only
confirmed your belief you can fight this evil, this
ysbryd drwg
.’

‘Oh, it was confirmed before I
came here,’ I said. I felt I couldn’t tell him about Arianne at that moment
because enough dramatic information had filled the air for now. It might be
she’d faded away without me there to anchor her; I had no way of knowing till I
returned to the tower.

‘Do you really think you can
win?’ Medoc asked.

‘Yes. I wouldn’t go so far as to
say it’s a certainty, but the odds are on my side. I have the confidence of one
of the Whitemanes.’

Medoc’s eyes widened. ‘You do?’

‘Yes, and Myv is a sturdy little
soul. I hope that between us we have the means to banish this historical parasite,
this bad ghost, once and for all.’

‘You have to wonder,’ Medoc
said, ‘whether Wyva and Mossamber will thank you for it, if you succeed.’

I smiled grimly. ‘If they don’t,
I can live with that.’

Medoc was silent for a moment,
staring at me. ‘If you have to, if you need a place, you are always welcome
here.’

‘Thank you. I hope, though, it’s
not needed.’

Medoc stood up. ‘I’m weary now,
wrung out like a wet cloth. I’ll show you to a guest room, but stay up if you
wish to. Hara will still be down in the hall, I expect.’

‘No, I’d prefer the quiet of a
bedroom. I want to write up notes from our earlier conversation, then sleep too.’

‘Stay for breakfast, then. Don’t
rush off tomorrow.’

‘I won’t. Thank you.’

Medoc led me to a small but comfortable room that
looked out over the farming land, the river, the distant trees and the even
more distant mountains. Laughter came from the hall below. Before I began
writing, I sat for some minutes on the window seat, gazing out over this
placid, fecund land and prayed to Aruhani, dehar of aruna, life and death.
‘Extend your hand, Aruhani. Be kind to those who have suffered.’

Chapter Twenty

The following day, I got home
around noon, by which time summer was having one of its moods and had pulled
curtains of petulant clouds across the sun, but at least this was a natural
phenomenon, unlike the previous recent storm. Rain began to fall as I let
Hercules into his field. Before I entered Dŵr Alarch, I stood for a few
moments looking up at it, thinking of its history, its character, and wondering
what might happen next. Because there had to be a next, now.

When I went into the kitchen, I
found Rinawne sitting there with Arianne. If anything, she seemed more real
than before, so much so it wasn’t even disorientating, which in itself was odd.
She was my visitor, a person who’d returned to a home in which she’d once
lived. I did wonder though, what she and Rinawne had talked about.

‘I take it Rinawne’s been
looking after you,’ I said, as I took off my coat and hung it on the hook next
to the door.

‘I wish you wouldn’t say that as
if it were a bad thing,’ Rinawne retorted.

Arianne and I exchanged a
meaningful glance, and I had the feeling Rinawne had spent considerable time
complaining about Wyva and the secrecy surrounding the past. She said to me,
‘If it’s possible, I would like to meet Myv.’ So
he
had been one of the
subjects.

I nodded. ‘Yes... I didn’t tell
Medoc about you.’ I shifted my travelling bag next to the door. ‘The main
reason being I don’t want to disappoint him if it turns out your visit here
is... only temporary. But Rinawne can get Myv here in twenty minutes.’ I stared
at her. ‘And Wyva?’

‘A bit at a time.’ She grimaced.
‘I can’t shake off the feeling he won’t believe I’m who I say I am. I don’t
want to deal with that.’

Thank you, Rinawne
, I
thought.

‘But Myv...’Arianne said softly,
‘a child born of...
not
a woman. Yet my great grandson. This little
miracle I want to see.’

‘Technically he’s your grand
high-harling,’ I said, ‘and yes, he is a little miracle.’

‘Rinawne explained a lot to me,’
Arianne said, sending a warm glance across the table to him.

I noticed he glanced at me
furtively before smiling back at her. He could sense my thoughts.

‘This new world is strange...’
Arianne continued, oblivious to the undercurrents in the atmosphere, ‘a return
to some kind of idyllic past in some ways, yet in others utterly alien, as if
people have come here from a different planet and taken the place of humanity.’

I smiled at her. ‘Despite the
upheaval, I like to think the world is happier now. There is room to breathe.’

‘Humanity destroyed itself,’
Arianne said. ‘Some of us could see it coming and to be perfectly honest, I’m
not sorry it’s gone. Selfish, greedy, cruel, ignorant...’ She shook her head.
‘Wraeththu was both our punishment and a cure for us.’

‘Hara aren’t perfect,’ I said.
‘We can be all those things you just listed, as well as stupid. We’re
humanity’s second chance, really, and we need to work hard not to ruin it.’

Arianne smiled. ‘What I’ve seen
so far gives me great hope.’

I was warmed by her words, but
all the same, she’d only met two hara. She had no idea what was out there, the
bad things that still happened, the power struggles that continued to be
fought. Still, for now, I was happy to let her keep that feeling she called
hope but was in fact relief.

There was a fresh pot of tea on
the table, so I sat down and helped myself. ‘Well, such thoughts aside, we
might as well get to the meat. I’ll tell you all I learned from Medoc.’

‘From your face I can tell
you’ve learned a lot,’ Rinawne said, who had remained uncharacteristically
quiet for some minutes.

‘Oh yes!’ I said, somewhat
grimly, and turned to Arianne. ‘I apologise in advance for some of what you’re
going to hear.’

She shrugged. ‘I want the truth
as much as you do. The pain I lived through was far worse than anything you can
tell me now. Remember, I
saw
some of it.’

As I was speaking, relating the
facts impartially, I wondered when in fact I’d have to reveal what I knew to
Wyva. He’d be angry, of course, that I’d investigated his family’s past without
his permission, but would he be prepared to face up to what was happening now?
A new generation of Wyvachi reaching maturity, the curse revived from whatever
dank corner in which it had slept? He
had
to face it, and I didn’t agree
with Medoc’s opinion that the Wyvachi should just run away. Whatever haunted
the air around Gwyllion and Meadow Mynd was
wrong
, a remnant of a past best
forgotten that should be erased. And if Medoc was right, and Vivi Wyvern was
part of this lurking malevolence, there was even more reason to fight, to send
this damaged fragment of a soul on her way.

When Rinawne brought Myv over to the tower, later in
the day, Arianne held out her arms to him and he went to her willingly. She
enfolded him, smelling him, perhaps holding him too tightly. But he allowed this.
Rinawne had clearly explained what he could to his son on the way through the
forest, and Myv being the har he is had simply accepted it. ‘I saw you in the
bathroom,’ he said to Arianne. ‘Did you see me?’

‘Not that I can remember,’ she
answered, ‘but I’m seeing you now.’

‘You’re here to help us,’ Myv
said firmly. ‘This means we must win.’

I caught Rinawne’s eye and he
gave me a pitiful look, clearly not sharing his son’s confidence.

‘Now we must begin to make
plans,’ I said, indicating everyone should sit at the kitchen table. ‘I can
only use techniques I’ve employed in similar situations, which – I have to be
honest with you – were far less...
entrenched.’

‘What techniques?’ Arianne
asked.

‘Fighting will with will,’ I
replied, ‘but making ours the strongest.’

Arianne nodded. ‘I understand.
This is what we called magic.’ She grinned. ‘Yes, I was known as something of a
witch in my time. The power of the will... the connection between all things...
Are we not on the same path?’

I smiled back at her. ‘Yes, I’d
say we are.’ I was glad I wouldn’t have to explain too much or – worse – have
to explain to a sceptic what I wanted to do. ‘We know more or less what we’re
up against. We can visualise the
ysbryd drwg
as a condensed ball of
badness, whose skin we’ve got to pierce. First, we’ll need to lure and confine
it somehow. This can be done with focused imagery – again, our combined will. When
we accomplish this, and the skin is breached, it’s likely the badness will
emerge. We’ll have to transmute it into a different kind of energy and then
disperse it.’

‘Sounds simple,’ Rinawne said
sarcastically.

I ignored his tone. ‘The main
difficulty is that when the
drwg
– the bad – does come out, it will most
likely disorient us or incapacitate us in some way. Fear and the fact we
believe in it might be the
ysbryd
’s only weapons, but they are strong,
despite not being physical. We’ll have to support each other to keep our
defences intact.’

‘We’ll have to give something
also,’ Myv said. ‘A sacrifice.’

‘What kind?’ Arianne asked him
sharply. ‘Not a life... don’t say that.’

I let Myv continue without
interrupting him, not quite sure myself what he meant.

‘No, not a life,’ he said, ‘but
something meaningful.’

‘You’re wrong,’ Rinawne
murmured.

‘How?’ Myv asked, somewhat
sharply.

Rinawne stared at his son. ‘The
face of the banshee.’

Arianne frowned at him. ‘What?’

‘That’s what we’ll have to
face,’ he replied. ‘We have to make her turn round. And she will demand her
price.’

Rinawne asked for a private word with me shortly
after this dire pronouncement. ‘Outside,’ he said.

We went to stand on the tower’s terrace,
surrounded by my rudimentary attempts at gardening. ‘There’s something we’ve
not discussed,’ Rinawne said. There was an unfamiliar seriousness about him.

‘What is it?’

‘My son,’ he said. ‘Now, don’t
say anything – just listen for once. Over the past few days, we’ve accepted the
unbelievable. We talk about taking on nebulous, possibly deadly entities, as if
it’s some little adventure. You’ve included Myv in this and because you have
this glamorising effect on hara I’ve gone along with it. But just now, in
there, it hit me. Should a harling be involved in this? He sees it as a game,
I’m sure, and he’s loving the way you’ve drawn him in, treated him as an adult.
But Ysobi...
really
...’ He pulled a sour face. ‘If Wyva knew of this,
he’d put a stop to it – and your work here. You’d be lucky to leave Gwyllion
with your skin intact. Stand back a little, will you? Just think about this?’

I stared at him, seeing in his
face that he’d braced himself for my retaliation, expecting to be beaten down
with words. ‘You’re right,’ I said.

He narrowed his eyes. ‘I’m right,
and then suddenly there are all the reasons that, even though being right, I’m
wrong?’

‘No, you’re absolutely right. We’re
taking immense risks and if Wyva found out, the least he’d do is banish me from
this place.’

‘But...?’

‘There isn’t one. I just don’t
think we have a choice. Myv will be involved whether we keep him informed or
not. He’s always been involved, Rin – seeing and sensing things around the
house, speaking with Rey about it all. All we can do is stand by him and
protect him to the best of our ability. Cutting him out of our discussions
would simply be unfair and disrespectful. Also, I like to think including him
will do more to protect him than keeping him in ignorance.’

Rinawne grimaced. ‘That was a
paragraph of “buts”.’

‘No, it wasn’t. I’d rather Myv
was with us than alone at home with his hostling, who’s in denial. I understand
your fears, Rin, and I’m not belittling them. You’ve a right to be afraid for
Myv, but you’re strong and grounded, and an essential part of our team. You’re
his father. Who else could be more adept at protecting him?’

Rinawne smiled uncertainly. ‘You
assume that when whatever it is we have to face turns up I won’t be running off
screaming.’

I smiled also. ‘Oh, come on.
You’re fierce. You wouldn’t do that now, not if Myv was in any danger.’

Rinawne appeared partly
reassured by these words, but really I didn’t blame him for not being wholly
convinced. ‘Do we even know what’s going to happen?’ he asked.

‘No, but we can take action and
help guide events. We can’t wait passively to find out, hoping it’s something
we can cope with. We have to make plans. We have to be firm. I’ll put all I
have into protecting Myv and freeing Gwyllion from this blight. That’s all I
can say.’

Rinawne sighed deeply. ‘I
remember the fear, Ys, from when I was a harling and that
thing
I saw
began to turn round. The fear was irrational and consuming. I’m not sure
making plans will help in any situation like that.’

I squeezed his shoulder. ‘You
were a harling. You’re not now. Neither am I, nor Arianne. Maybe you had that
experience for the very reason you’d be facing this situation now. Maybe it was
meant.’

Rinawne expressed a scornful
snort. ‘That would be too convenient. No, it was just an experience, as all the
things you’ve gone through as a hienama are experiences, and perhaps what we’ve
learned from those things will help us now. That’s the best we can hope for, I
think.’

‘Then that will be good enough.
We start work now, today, building our defences, unifying our group. I hope
that’ll make you feel more confident.’

Rinawne laid a hand upon my
chest. ‘So do I. Don’t be get me wrong. I want to be brave, and I’m furious
this blight, as you put it, is threatening my family. I agree with you entirely
we have to try to put a stop to it, once and for all. I just don’t want to let
the rest of you down.’

‘I know how you’ve felt since
Cuttingtide,’ I said. ‘You wanted it all to go away, have a normal,
uncomplicated life. Yet you’re here now, prepared to fight. That’s courage enough
for me.’

He smiled, stroked my face.
‘When the time comes, just hold my hand and don’t let go.’

The four of us spent the rest of that day
meditating together, trying out various visualised scenarios, combining our
intention. Arianne could not mind touch as a har can, but because three of us
could put concerted effort into including her in unspoken communication, she
was able to pick up enough to work with us effectively. Also, as she’d already
told us, she was familiar with work of this nature, although she’d never had to
deal with anything like the
ysbryd drwg
.  ‘Love spells, healing,
divination... that’s as far as it went,’ she said. ‘But I can feel what you
talk about, Ys. I’ve no doubt it’s out there. And I’m here now to help fight
it.’

She wasn’t scared, but why
should she be? As far as Arianne was concerned, she’d already lived through the
most terrifying things a mortal life can throw at you. I did manage to ask her
privately during that afternoon how she felt about the fact part of what we faced
might be a remnant of her mother-in-law.

She set her face in a firm
expression. ‘It’s
not
Vivi. If there
is
anything of her in it,
it’s her grief, her fear and her anger. But it’s not her entire personality, if
you understand what I mean.’

I nodded. ‘Yes, but whatever
part of her it is, it will no doubt recognise you and seek your
vulnerabilities.’

Arianne laughed coldly. ‘Ysobi,
I lived with Vivi Wyvern for many years. I learned how to cope with her then –
and she
could
be a monster. I’m not going to let her bully me now.’

My little team had enough enthusiasm
and courage for a group of ten, yet I was worried for them. I had fears I
hadn’t been prepared to admit to Rinawne because I didn’t want to feed his
doubts. Ferreting out information and putting the story together was one thing,
but now that the time had come to act, we seemed so small in comparison to what
we might face. This was a power that could engorge the skies and command the
elements, could strike a har dead. We were one hienama, a har who’d never
trained but had once seen a banshee, a human woman who might or might not be a
ghost, and a harling not yet at feybraiha. I did wonder during that afternoon
whether I was mad, and Medoc was right, and I was about to throw these good
hara – and woman – into something far bigger and deadlier than we imagined.
Still, what other choice did we have? If I went to Wyva, or even Mossamber
Whitemane, and revealed my plans to them, I was sure I’d be met with scorn or
disbelief or anger, or all three. This negativity would disperse all that we
were trying to build up. I couldn’t risk it. We had to remain focused, pure of
intent and strong. Whatever happened, I would have to take responsibility for
it.