The Ice Storm
Chapter Eleven
After several days of rolling and lurching, Scarlett had definately decided that she disliked carriages immensely. She cursed inwardly and clenched her hands together beneath the fur of her wrap. Surely it had not taken so long on the forward journey? But the days flew when one had hopeful daydreams to fill the mind with, as she had had then. Now, her mood, sombre enough at leaving Wendell's side, had inevitably darkened as the miles drew her further away from him. No matter the fact that she was returning home. They had crossed the border finally this morning, and yet already the Second Kingdom seemed a foreign land to her. She was it's reigning monarch, it's Queen and yet not the head of her family. That title was Auburn's still. Scarlett wondered where her mother was. Had the snow and foul weather finally driven her from her estate in the north? Was she even now prowling the corridors of Hooded Castle, a withered and biting crone terrifying the servants once more? Age had certainly not mellowed Red Riding Hood's eldest daughter.
Scarlett remembered their last conversation. Auburn still had the presence to almost make Scarlett automatically curtsey when she entered the royal chambers. Almost. Scarlett's journey through her Kingdom and to the shores of Coven Lake and back had changed her. That, and that which she had learned. Scarlett had eyed her mother levelly, and had taken some small measure of pride in knowing that Auburn had seen the woman emerge from the girl she had been.
Auburn had seated herself on the well worn chaise that had once been her own. "Are you still using this old thing then? Surely you could commission another chair for your use, daughter". Scarlett had not missed the hidden meaning. So, she resented being drawn here, did she? And yet, she had come, and swiftly enough too.
"I like it well enough"
"And not only this do you like" Auburn said, her eyes glittering. "If the rumours are to be believed, of course" she added sagely.
Scarlett fought down the blush that was rising to her cheeks, and yet strangely she had the impression that it was not Wendell that Auburn was referring to, but the wolves.
The carriage lurched, jolting Scarlett out of her reverie. One of her maids leant out the window, looking ahead. Her face came back dusted with snow.
"The road's blocked again, My Lady. 'Tis the third time today too" she sighed. Scarlett shifted uncomfortably. Darn it, but it would take weeks to reach the castle this way! She looked out the window herself, up at the sky to try and judge the time of day, but she had no such woodland skills to find her way by.
"It's past the midday" said a voice from above. Scarlett pursed her lips as Wolf swung down from the roof of the carraige where he'd spent the better part of the journey thus far. It was bitingly cold, but he seemed content only with a single long coat and woollen trousers. With his tall boots to plow through the drifts, he appeared to actually revel in the unending blizzard that had coated the whole world. Scarlett did not bother to wonder how he'd known what she had wanted to know. He had demonstrated an almost uncanny knowledge of what was going through her mind. Embarrassingly so in most cases. Scarlett swung the carriage door and stepped out into the snow. They were in a forested place. The main road between the north and south lay miles to the west and this road, little used due to the fact that folk generally did not travel between Kingdoms, had fallen into disrepair.
As her guards and serving men made to dig out the carriage Scarlett found herself wandering amongst the trees. Once, the very thought of being in the forest would have caused her nightmares for a week. The old legacy of her family. Now, she placed her hand tentatively against the bark of one old giant. Further on, a young sapling sprang gladly to it's full height when she reached to shake the ice from it's branches. A few steps away, another young tree bent over under the icy weight, but as Scarlett reached to shake this one gently she was utterly surprised to hear a gentle, lilting melody. One of the branches was alive, and as it moved she beheld a slender creature not unlike a stick in itself. The little stick hummed it's tune. Scarlett could see it's black eyes looking at her.
"It's a dryad...a tree guardian" said Wolf in her ear. Scarlett stilled her urge to leap away from his closeness, even though she had long gotten used to his sneaking up on her.
"You don't need to explain everything to me. I know what a dryad is!" she snapped tersely. Wolf didn't blink at her retort.
"But you have never seen one" he responded and Scarlett knew that she had no answer, for it was true.
"It's singing" she said, turning back to the little creature as it swung slowly on it's branch. The tune filled her ears till it seemed the whole forest was enveloped in it. The skin on her back prickled. "Is it...thanking me?" she whispered, then suddenly feeling foolish for dreaming of the notion. She heard Wolf snort appreciatively behind her.
"He does indeed"
Scarlett stepped back a way and nodded her head to the little dryad. They came in as many sizes and shapes as did the trees, she remembered learning as a child, yawning over her books and scrolls. To a child of the Riding Hood clan, dryads and other woodland sprites were simply classed as being 'wolf friends', creatures of the wild intent only on trapping any child who strayed across their path. Her younger brother had once fashioned a fake dryad out of an old branch a storm had blown into the innner courtyard. Scarlett could not recall if she had truly been frightened of the mannikin or not.
The dryad had laid itself down along a branch, it's long fingered limbs clinging tightly as the chill wind moved it's sapling home to and fro. A rustling in the undergrowth caught her attention. No, not a rustling. A heartbeat. It thudded in her mind.
"See...under the ferns..." whispered Wolf. The beady eye stared at them as if frozen, but it was the faint twitch of the long ear that gave it away. "Do you want it? Are you hungry?" Wolf breathed. Without waiting for an answer he pounced suddenly, leaping a full six feet to land in the exact spot he needed. The rabbit squealed as he hefted it, and it was a totally mesmerizing sound to Scarlett's ears. Wolf's long canines bared to finish the kill. The bones in the neck snicked and the scent of fresh blood tainted the air. Wolf licked at the gash he'd made in the animal's skin. "You want some" he said politely, not a question at all, really. He held the limp body under her nose, dangling it. Against her better judgement, Scarlett felt her nostrils grow wide to catch the smell. Fresh blood...so strange and coppery. Was it salty or sweet? What...are...you...thinking?
Her not quite empty stomach rebelled finally, the gorge rising to dispell any sensations the dead rabbit might be giving her. She felt dizzy, uncertain. The strong tree supported her as she leant against it. Wolf moved closer. "Go away" she hissed under her breath, "take that thing away from me".
"As you wish" he murmured, his eyes glittering with amusement, and something else. Perhaps a strange kind of respect. But before he withdrew he reached out and dared what so few had ever done. He touched her face, fingertips so gentle as he traced a line from between her brows to the tip of her nose. Scarlett couldn't have protested this invasion of her personal space even if she wanted to. His lupine eyes held her as captive as the dead rabbit in his grip. Then he was gone, slipping away into the forest, leaving no sound or sign of his passage. Scarlett felt her head clearing, breath returning. Anger and confusion crested and washed away. The dryad peeped at her from it's branch, silent now.
"Tut tut my Lady! You shouldn't wander so far. These woods are dangerous! Let's go back, the men have the carriage clear". The voice, a coarse sounding noise from her maid filled the clearing. The maid offered her arm, leaning close to peer up at her. "Ah now, what's that you've got? On your face, it looks like blood it does, my Lady" the maid chattered on helpfully as they drew near the coach and team. Scarlett put her hand up to her forehead, feeling her fingers come away damp. The maid frowned in distaste, but Scarlett ushered her into the coach. Wolf had already returned to his post on top of the carriage but he did not meet her stare. Just as well, Scarlett thought angrily, as she absently brought her fingers to her lips.
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Yacobe pushed his powerful body through the deep drifts that lay across the border between his home Kingdom and the Fourth. It was physical work he was used to and he paid his aching body no mind. Only his mission was important now. He reached a lip of a valley he had traversed before and stood looking down. Several leagues to the south lay the Castle White, and to the east, the Fairy Kingdom. West lay his people's ancient homeland, now the Second Kingdom, but once called by another name, the Wolf Woods. That great expanse of forest was all but gone now under the loathsome weight of human settlement and expansion. Humans who feared and hated what they could never control. Not for the first time, Yacobe wondered how and why the remaining populations of wolf-kind still endeavoured to exist there.
His own clans had deserted the Kingdom generations ago, to stake out new territories and hunting grounds in the far north. Yacobe knew that most other people's thought of the Eigth Kingdom as a barren wasteland, but his kind had flourished there. It was a harder life, to be sure, than the soft and green lowlands, but there was an invaluable trade off. Only the best and strongest survived. Yacobe did not feel any particular empathy with his lowland cousins who even now would be suffering under his Queen's touch.
His Queen. Oh yes, she certainly was. Her transformation, whilst not a complete surprise, had still been stunning to watch. Where had she come from, this royal foundling? Where exactly had Neva discovered this child who was now her heir? Yacobe recalled his first sighting of the babe, held close and well wrapped by her nursemaid, the Queen Neva standing behind, a strange mixture of love and craftiness on her face. Rumours had abounded from that day foward, running the length and breadth of the Kingdom, fascinating to the humans and wolf's alike. Now, that which Yacobe and others of his clan had sensed in the Princess had come to fruition at last. Yacobe had not minded prostrating himself before her, and in truth he could have done little else lest he forfeit his life. And he had taken her commands seriously.
Only one problem remained, an ancient foretelling that loomed over his and every lupine future in this world. And he knew, in his secret heart, that he would soon be making a decision that would affect not only his future, but of all wolf-kind in these lands. And one more.The moon-shadow child.
Despite his inner turmoil, he felt eerily blessed to have been chosen by the Goddess.
Brushing the ice from his coat, he resumed his journey south.
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Dinners at Castle White had become more morose by the day thought Virginia. Were it not for the ever increasing population of villagers and townfolk who had been driven to shelter here, it would have been a dank and silent place tonight. Wendell's royal dining room had been taken over by refugees in past weeks, so those remaining members of the royal inner court now took their meals in what had once been a small study off one of the lesser wings. Glancing at Wendell sullenly picking at his food, Virginia thought that he would have been just as uninterested had they been forced into one of the many broom closets. The King sighed loudly, tugging at his stiff collar in agitation.
"Curses! Would that I could just leave all this...pompousness" he muttered, tossing the offending necktie away into a corner "and endless infernal duty!".
Virginia reached to take his hand. It wouldn't do for the servants to hear such dispirited words from their beloved King. "Hush! There's nothing either of us can do about it right now" she whispered across the table. "I myself would much prefer to be out of here as well, you know!" she added, unable to hide her own bitterness. Wendell choked out a rough laugh.
"Look at us! What a sorry pair we make!" he said, his eyes brightening for a second. Virginia was glad of a glimpse of his old self. Then he sobered again in thought. "They should be nearly there. To Hooded Castle I mean. Even accounting for the worst weather they must surely be drawing near to it"
"I wish we could know for sure"
"Scarlett will send a carrier bird"
"If it gets through"
"It will" Wendell replied, voice firm and sure where his eyes were not. He tossed his table napkin ungraciously across his half finished plate before glancing aside at her. "And how are you, Virginia?" he asked casually, but Virginia knew he referred to her pregnancy. He could hardly avoid mentioning it, she thought uneasily, given how obvious a figure she now presented. Her hands caressed the infant as she crowded out her mother's form, day by day.
"I feel well enough, Wendell" she said evenly. She had not told anyone else about her strange moonlight allergy that Frederick the priest had surmised. She was tired enough of the stares and whispers, well meaning or not. Wendell's old midwife who had attended Virginia before had found many 'excuses' to visit Virginia in the past weeks. The crone's eyes had glittered with curiousity more than once, and Virginia knew it was only her status as semi-royal figure that had kept her from being dragged off and examined at every opportunity. Not that she could blame the women's interest. No one had seen a 'magical' pregnancy for the longest time, apparently. Almost daily her girth expanded now, and at only fourth months she was just shy of the size and weight she had been at Caelum's birthing. No amount of bulky coats could hide that now.
"This babe is in a hurry" Wendell added, before blushing furiously. "Not that I would know anything about...such things...women's things, you know..." he trailed off. As if she knew she was being discussed, the infant rolled over in Virginia's womb, tiny soft feet pressing against the uterine walls. Virginia smiled at the movement. In spite of her worries, Virginia knew that her mothering instincts were still in full working order, and deep down she knew that nothing was unduly wrong with her little daughter. She hadn't needed any deity whispering that fact to her, not at all. She just wished more than ever that Wolf was by her side. If the birth was to come ahead of schedule, then she wanted him, not some sour faced stranger.
"Well, I did spend some time in the Goblin Kingdom, and time most certainly runs differently there. One day seemed like three in the 'upland', as Clayface called it" Virginia said finally, though she knew it was only part of the explaination. But Wendell seemed to buy into it, nodding and smiling at her.
"Well, here's hoping it all ends happily ever after" he intoned in a ritualistic tone. "Any sign of little Alice?" he added. Virginia felt yet another pang of worry at the cub's disappearance (cripes! was motherhood all about endless worrying!). But she knew where Alice had gone, and had an inkling of why. As for the survival of such a small cub in the vastness of the snow covered Kingdoms, well, that primarily was out of anyone's control. The girl-cub had determined to follow Wolf and Scarlett and so she would. Although Virginia did not fancy having to explain this to Willem whenever he decided to return from his Eigth Kingdom 'recon' mission. Briefly she wondered where her brother-in-pack was, and if he was well and whole.
"No, she'll be well on her way by now. I wonder if she'll just walk into their camp and announce herself. Or maybe she might just hide. Wolf will certainly be angry enough with her, that's for sure!"
"And an angry Wolf is not to be ignored" Wendell added.
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She knew she was dreaming. She had been here before. Or rather, up here. The villages and roads were so tiny, so insignificant. Despite humankinds' grandiose ideas, they were still outnumbered a thousand to one by the natural world. The wind was soft and cool against her. So good to be so free, even if it was a dream.
Something shifted. Stone grinding on stone, a tiny movement far below where she slept. A piercing beam of thought, so delicate, questing upwards. Rhoswen pressed her back into the hard pallet, trying to rouse herself. She didn't want to found by that...thing.
In her dream, she tilted in flight. Huge mountains loomed over the land. Behind the mountains...what lay there? Urged on by an unknown force she crested the snow caps to look down onto a sharp and narrow valley, a long frozen lake running the length of it, with a solid waterfall cleaving to the broken sides of the mountain. Let me go! A voice screamed in her mind. Was it hers? She was dimly aware of her body thrashing against the floor of her room.
A great blackness filled her vision as she struggled to wakefulness. Like standing in the shadow of some monstrous thing.