In the Dark of the Night

by torchwood101

Seven years after Adrianna fled her home town after the death of her mother, and old childhood friend calls her home. For weeks they have both been having dreams about a man inside a tree. Who is he? And what is the secret that Adrianna's mother died to protect?

Katie Fleming

In the dark of the night

Prologue

The world was dark. Night had crawled over the land, shrouding it in darkness. The wind blew low and mournful down the land, over the hills, and danced between piles swords and shields and lives that had been lost while the grass began to stain red. A woman's cries followed the wind, until it stopped at a small glade of apple trees, the branches swaying silently as they reached upwards towards the moon. A flutter of wings was the only sound as an owl left its nest to hunt for the night.

An old man came stumbling into the clearing, shattering the silence. Twigs and leaves were scattered liberally in his mattered grey beard, covering his grey, worn out and lined face which was splattered with blood, some his own, most not. His manic eyes surveyed the area before letting out an animalistic howl while tearing at his chest.

"Gana! For thy crimes thou shalt not go unpunished! For each day thou lives, thou shalt not age, Grandfather Times hands shalt not reach thee! Thy loved ones shalt wither and Death shalt take them whilst thou shalt be forever! Thou shalt suffer as I have!"

With a last cry of despair, he hurled his curse into the night sky. Silence fell once more, the trees returning to their motionless life; still, in the moonlight. He fell to his knees, placed his head in his hands and wept. Minuets passed, the broken sobs from the old man being the only sound in the glade.

A small rustling came from his right. Raising his head he watched silently as a young woman glided towards him, water glistening on her bare arms and the blood red, ruby adorned dress she was wearing dragging silently behind her. Raven curls tumbled down her back and over her shoulders and swayed with each step she took.

"Myrrden, calm thyself. Thou cannot change the fates design" Laying a hand on the old man's face, she whispered in the silence, words long forgotten to the world of man.

"Tawelu meddwl dy oesol

Le y taranau stopio a chysgu"

Her voice swept over Myrrden's mind, and his midnight blue eyes cleared and he saw her properly for the first time. Stumbling to his feet, he pulled her to him.

"Nimua! Oh how mine eyes are pleased to see thee. Long have I awaited the time whenst I night glance apon thy beauty." Myrrden frowned, pulling away from Nimua. "But why didst thou change our plans? Thy promise to meet me by thy lake was made in front of those we would call friends. Why reveal thyself now, annwyl?"

Nimua pushed against Myrrden, forcing him to let go.

"Why lord? Does thou truly need to ask? How could I give myself to thee when there is no love for thee in mine heart and only lust in yours? Truly, 'tis more than I couldst bear." She glared at him, a look of hatred and disgust marring her delicate features. "To think thou wouldst have me? Nay, Myrrden this I shalt not let pass."

Slowly in the darkness, Nimua's eyes began to glow, a soft golden hue illuminating her pale face, growing in brightness as she called on the power handed down to her through the ages. The darkness shifted, wrapping around her arms and dancing on her fingertips. Keeping her eyes locked on, Myrrden's, now wide with shock and terror as he realised she had stuck him fast to the Earth with her spells, Nimua raised her arms to the sky and screamed a sound so full of pain and disgust that the trees themselves flinched backwards from her.

"For thy crimes on those I consider kin, thou to shalt suffer Gana's curse. Thou to shalt never be touched by Times hands. Though I tell thee, Son of the Devil, thou shalt not walk this Earth until one who is brave and true to our kind comes to free you." As she murmured this, the ground began to shake. Roots sprung up from the Earth, slowly twisting round the frozen sorcerer, wrapping closer to him and crushing his body between each root. While doing this they began to rise up towards the moon, desperate for any kind of light. Leaves sprouted from the ends of the roots and as suddenly as they had come from the Earth they stopped, Myrrden still inside.

Letting her arms fall once more to her sides, Nimua sighed.

"Farewell, Lord Myrrden. I pray that today was the last thou and I shalt meet." She turned, not sparing a look around and left the glade as silently as she had come, with only a small rustling of leaves announcing her departure.

The wind whispered through the glade, ghosting through the leaves and began to move onwards, up the length and breadth of the land, resting only at the small village of Garndiffaith. Candle light flickered in the windowsills of the houses as the all but two of the village slept. As the wind howled through the mud streets a woman screamed as she used the last of her strength to bring her child into the world that had robbed it of its father. As she passed her child to the nurse that was with her, she glanced out the window at the quite night. Once she had been the most beloved in all the land, but now, like Myrrden, she had been brought down low by someone she had trusted and even loved. Her gaze was drawn back to her child as it began to cry. She took it into her arms and began to cry herself; weeping for all that she had lost. Back in the glade, surrounded by apple trees, just beginning to bloom, a single tall gnarled hawthorn tree shuddered in the howling wind as it felt its king's blood line continue.

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