The Space Between (6 page)

Keeble grunted. "Huh. Just might work." It
wouldn't work if she weren't given more time. With another grunt
and a shake of his head, he raced towards the nearest of the
armored figures.

"Stupid bloody dwarf." He dropped his
shoulder and barged through the first of the figures. It fell to
the ground and squirmed like an overturned tortoise.

Keeble might well have used the same tactics
for the next target, but his shoulder was numbed from the
collision. "That armor is bloody heavy. It explains why they're so
slow," he said, as he swung his axe one-handed. The tool almost
shuddered from his grasp when he made contact with an armored
chest. "But it also makes them hard to hurt." And it affected the
calculations that were running through his mind. The Song was still
dancing around in his skull and he fitted his new sums in with
it.

"I wonder if there are more armored people
in that middle cylinder." It was impossible to tell.

For the next swing he reversed the tool in
his hand and attacked a knee with the sledge. There was a loud
crack and a hiss of air, but apparently no other result. Help for
his victim was arriving, though at a slow, plodding rate. Keeble
looked around and noticed that most of the armored figures, all
painted the same colors, were pointing bulbous arms in his
direction.

"Weapons." He darted to the side. He gasped.
The hair on his arm stood on end as an almost-visible beam of power
passed close by. "Whistler's Mother. That felt like
electricity."

More of the bats were nearing the clearing,
presumably coming to drop off their passengers.

"Get into the tree, Meledrin," Keeble
shouted. The woman had run out of arrows and stood silently
watching. "Typical woman. Being able to fire arrows doesn't help if
you have no head for battle."

"I cannot hide," she said after a moment. "I
cannot run away."

"Forget it. What you can't
do is
win
." Keeble
moved quickly back to his most recent target and struck at the side
of the already damaged knee. The figure tumbled to the ground, and
Keeble whooped in delight.

Then he took a parting swing at someone else
and ran. "Get in the tree, stupid dwife. That or die." He ran
harder. The distance to the tree seemed to have grown. "You can't
help anyone if you're dead, Meledrin."

"It is not possible that the hollow in the
tree is large enough to hide us, Keeble."

Keeble ran. "I don't know. But it will. It
has to." The Song was beautiful and powerful and had taken a hold
of his soul. "The Song is calling me to the tree." It wouldn't let
him die.

Finally the woman turned and crossed to the
tree. A sizzling beam of energy passed through the spot where she'd
been standing.

"Definitely electricity." Dwarves had known
about electricity for twenty-two years, but nothing like that.

He looked back over his shoulder. A dozen
arms were zeroing in on him, but seemed to move in slow motion. But
he was even slower than they were. Loath as he was to do it, he
dropped his tool. It wasn't good to leave tools lying around, but
he was able to run quicker.

When Keeble reached the tree Meledrin had
only just entered the hole. As he scrambled in himself he felt a
sizzle of energy melt the soles of his boots and send a spasm
through his legs.

"For Whistler's sake, woman, move. Move." He
pushed at her, poking with his mechanical hand. "The tree is huge,
you must be able to get in further than that." He didn't know why
he'd thought the tree would save them, but the Song still filled
his mind and he could not doubt.

When he looked back, he saw the armored
figures closing in.

4: Tree and Sky

Kim opened her eyes, but the owner of the
rough, gravely voice was nowhere to be seen. She glanced around,
dark eyes narrowing in concentration. Though she couldn't
understand what was being said, the urgency was palpable.

Kim rose from the bench and scanned the
shadows at the edge of the forest. She couldn't see anything and
jumped slightly when the voice returned. It was closer than she
thought.

“
[Keep going, for
Whistler's sake. For my sake.]”

It was a strange language, like nothing Kim
had ever heard before.

“
[I am not a mule, Keeble.
All that prodding will not make me move faster.]”

This second voice was soft and calm. A
woman's voice like a dollop of golden honey compared to the rasping
landslide of the man. Kim still couldn't understand anything more
than the tone. The man was seriously stressed. The woman seemed
unconcerned.

Kim squinted towards the dark mouth of the
Major Oak, sure she spied movement. She walked warily back to the
fence that penned the tree in but obviously had little effect in
keeping people out.

“
[Wait,]” the man said in a
harsh whisper. “[Can you smell that?]”

“
[Smell what?]”

“
[You're a forest dweller
and you can't smell the difference?]”

“
[I noticed the difference,
Keeble, but was unsure if you were referring to something more
specific. I was unsure if you would notice.]”

“
[Well I did.]” He grunted.
“[I seem to be thinking clearer than I have for ages.]”

"Hello?" Kim said. People had commented on
her stupidity on numerous occasions; she never knew when it was
best to give curiosity the finger and head on her way. She felt
this was going to be one of those occasions. "Hello. I don't think
you're supposed to be in there, you know?" That was obvious,
really, but she couldn't think of anything else to say.

The woman stepped into view inside the
tree.

Kim gasped, on the edge of bolting, before
getting control. “Whoever's lighting this film should be paid
more,” she said softly.

Shadows covered half the stranger's face,
leaving her looking mysterious and slightly ominous. She stood
perfectly still for a long moment, green eyes unreadable. Then she
turned sideways and carefully climbed through the sinuous slot in
the tree and out into the open.

"Very dramatic," Kim said. "How long have
you been hiding in there, waiting to surprise someone?"

“
[Hello.]” As she spoke,
the woman wove her fingers in something that may have been sign
language. She was tall and lithe with pale skin and sharp features.
Her long green dress worked well with her auburn hair. It looked as
if she had just stepped out of a beauty salon, not a tree. She
appeared calm enough, but glanced back over her shoulder as if
worried she'd forgotten to lock her car.

After the graceful, beautiful woman, the man
who emerged from the shadows was hardly what Kim expected, though
his voice should have given him away. He declined to be dramatic,
immediately squeezing out of the confines of the tree with lots of
grunting and cursing. He wasn't very tall at all and had a broad,
swarthy face and unkempt beard. He wore ragged, dirty pants and a
linen shirt.

He sniffed the air. “[Told you. If this is
your forest then I'll sit on my hands and do nothing for the rest
of the day.]”

A mechanical contraption of medieval
appearance had been fitted in place of his missing left hand. He
wound some gears that adjusted the hand before stumping across to
the fence and hauling himself over.

Kim stared for a moment longer.

“
[Where are we, dwife?]”
the man asked in the impossible language.

The woman added something equally
unintelligible, and they stared at each other.

"Great costumes," Kim said eventually. They
were the best she'd seen. "A dwarf and an elf, right?" She still
didn't know why people insisted on coming to a medieval festival
dressed as fantasy creatures. And she didn't know why they'd go to
the bother of inventing a language. Though the woman looked
slightly Nordic, so perhaps they were speaking something
Nordic?

The man asked his question again, sounding
out each word as if Kim might understand the gobbledygook any
better.

"I," Kim replied. "Don't," she added.
"Understand."

It appeared he'd speak once more, but the
woman forestalled him with a quiet word and another wave of her
long fingers. She climbed the fence with much more grace than the
man had managed and, after demurely smoothing her dress, pointed to
herself. "Meledrin," she said, slowly and clearly. She then pointed
to her companion. "Keeble."

Kim thought for a moment. There were two
possibilities here. One: these two really didn't speak English. Or
two: they were just having some fun at Robin Hood's birthday party.
Kim remembered the words of the witch and decided to play along.
She pointed to herself as the other woman had and stated her name.
Then she waved and said, "Hello."

The man grunted but Meledrin bowed slightly
in response before waving and also saying, "Hello." Then, crouching
down, she laid a hand on the ground and looked up with a question
in her eyes.

Now what? Did she want to know grass? Or
ground? Or England? Or Nottinghamshire? Or Sherwood Forest? Kim was
saved the trouble of figuring it out when a sound intruded. There
was a clatter and a screech of metal as another figure stepped into
sight beyond the split in the tree. This one was about the same
size as Meledrin but wore some kind of colorful, full-length armor
and had no hope of getting out into the open. It stood, silent and
watching.

Elves and dwarves were easy enough to
recognize, but the newcomer was beyond belief. Maybe it was a
supposed to be a robot, which was stretching things even for Robin
Hood's fans. The thick, chunky armor, with huge rivets holding
together the seams, must've been taken through the slot piecemeal
and assembled inside. The head swiveled one way, then the next, as
if it might find some alternate escape route.

"Hello," Kim said, waving slightly. "How
many more people have you got in there?"

The robot stopped his inspection of the
tree. Kim had the feeling he was staring straight at her but
couldn't be sure.

After an interminable moment in which nobody
moved, the robot took a slight step to the side and started to
raise his arm.

“
[Look out.]”

Keeble grabbed Kim and pulled her a few
meters to the side.

"Hey, buddy, watch it."

“
[That thing'll fry you
where you stand.]”

"What?"

In the tree, the robot was having
difficulties. Apparently there was enough room in there for three
people, but not enough room to raise his arm. The bulbous appendage
hit against the wood three times before he gave up.

“
[Isn't that a shame?]”
Keeble said. He flung himself back over the fence and strode
purposefully to the tree. He looked as if he wanted to attack
either the tree or its occupant, but the first was pointless and
the second impossible to do through the crack. So Keeble stood
talking animatedly to the armored figure instead. The tone was more
apparent than ever, and Kim thought she could pick the profanity
from amongst the clutter.

Perhaps the robot stared back defiantly. It
was impossible to tell. It did try to raise its arm again, as if
reality might've ducked out the back for a coffee and let things
slip out of control. Kim knew how he was feeling.

"Hello, Kim," Meledrin said.

Kim snapped her attention to the tall, thin
woman while Keeble continued to rant.

"What's going on?" she asked. Finally, the
figure in the tree turned laboriously and disappeared.

Meledrin spoke, but Kim hardly took any
notice. She squinted into the tree, trying to see where the robot
guy might be hiding.

"Meledrin," Meledrin said again, pointing at
herself. Then she pointed to the ground and said a single word in
the strange language. “[Where?]”

"Can't help you." Kim turned and quickly
made her way back towards the festival. Wondering where she could
report what she'd just seen. Wondering exactly what she intended to
say.

Ten minutes later, Kim had
started to calm down and think clearly. Back amongst the stalls she
slowed down and breathed deeply.
It was
street theatre.
She wasn't convinced but
she was
not
going
to report that an elf and dwarf were setting up house in the Major
Oak.

She took another deep breath and stopped to
look around.

Nearby, traditional Scottish dancers were
leaping their way through a number to the accompaniment of pipes
and drums. An old man was regaling people with stories of dragons
and damsels in distress. And, further down the aisle between the
tents, the two monks were just pulling out the 'one wheeled chariot
of doom' for another session.

Street theatre,
Kim thought again.

She checked her watch and pulled out her
phone to see if Nina had called again. Of course not. She was stuck
here for a while longer yet. "Damn." She walked to the cricket
field, looking for something to occupy her mind, and discovered she
was in time for the archery demonstration the wicked witch had
mentioned earlier. A group of archers were checking over their
equipment just outside the roped off area of the camp. About fifty
meters away, down past the grandstand, some squires, or something
similar, were erecting targets.

There was still a bit of crowd left over
from the tourney, and fifteen minutes later more people started to
arrive. Kim caught sight of Meledrin and Keeble as the mismatched
pair crossed purposefully to where she sat halfway along the range.
Meledrin joined her on the grassy bank and the man stood stock sill
at the base of the slope.

"Why you..." Meledrin gestured, wiggling her
fingers in the air as if attempting to entice forth the elusive
word. "Why you go?"