Chapter 4 – Tales of the Uncanny.

13 years old.

The air was hot and still, the forest around me almost silent. The birds and animals didn't like the heat any more than I did, and in the face of the scorching midday sun they had all taken to the ground or the shade to get away from it.

Bran came loping out of the forest, his long pink tongue hanging low, and made a beeline for me, rubbing his heavy head against my shoulder. I scratched him behind his ears and looked up expectantly, waiting until Alec came into view through the trees. His pale blue eyes were sparkling as he grinned at me.

"Did you get some berries then?" I asked him.

"A basket full of them," Alec answered. "But I found something even better than that."

I jumped to my feet and took the basket of woven grasses from him, scooping a handful of the dark red berries into my mouth, relishing the tart sweetness of them. "Oh, they're good…I was thinking perhaps we should dry some of the fruit, since the sun is so fierce and hot at the moment. It would be nice to have some once the growing season is over…"

"I found a beehive," Alec interrupted me, his eyes gleaming. "It's a big one. If we can smoke the bees out and get the honeycomb, I bet we can sell it to the lord's house."

All thoughts of drying berries were immediately forgotten. A honeycomb could be valuable, and we were sorely in need of trade goods. "Come on then," I said, scrambling to my feet. "Get the flint."

Alec grabbed the flint from above the lintel and led the way back into the forest, retracing his tracks from earlier to lead us to the beehive. I heard it before I saw it, the low buzzing hum almost making my ears itch.

"Move slowly," Alec cautioned. "We don't want to get them more riled than we can help."

I rolled my eyes. "Do you think I'd be anything other than careful? In truth, the fire getting away from us is what we should be more concerned with. With everything so dry the whole forest could go up in smoke."

Alec frowned, but had to concede I was right. The long, hot summer had scorched the trees and even here, deep in the forest, there was not the usual layer of damp, decaying green on the ground. "I'll clear a patch," he said at last. "You go and find some new green growth to make the smoke."

By the time I returned to the tree, my hands full of damp greenery, Alec had already struck the flint and made a small fire on a cleared patch of dirt. Above his head the bees were buzzing a little more agitatedly. I crouched down beside my brother and half smothered the little fire with the greenery, and a moment later drifts of thick, cloying smoke began rising up to encircle the hive.

Coughing a little, my eyes streaming, I waited with Alec until we thought the bees would be subdued from the smoke. "Ready to run?" I asked, my voice hoarse.

Alec nodded and began backing away as I raised a stick and began pushing at the hive. I wanted to keep it as intact as possible. Most of the bees were stunned by the smoke, but as the hive began to swing more began coming out, buzzing angrily. I felt a sharp sting in my arm and I swore and shoved hard enough at the hive to make it fall. I didn't wait to see it crack open though, fleeing to take shelter beside Alec a short distance away.

I scraped the bee sting from my skin with a fingernail, wincing. At least it was only the one. Squinting I could see the hive beside the fire, smoke curling around it and honey oozing from the cracks running through it. "Come on," I said. "Let's go and get it."

The smoke still issuing from the fire had continued to daze the bees emerging from the broken hive, and between us Alec and I sustained only a few stings as we gathered up the broken pieces and headed back towards home. We wiped the site of the stings with honey and then sucked the sticky sweetness of it off our hands.

"Should we take it home?" Alec stopped and looked at me. "Or take it straight to the manor house? They'll pay well for the honey, as well as the comb. If we take it home…"

He didn't finish, but I knew what he meant. If we took it home then Mother would eat it, as like as not, and we'd be left with so much less to trade. "Sell it," I said practically. "There's so much we need."

It felt like a longer trip to the village in the hot summer sun and I half wished we'd waited for the cooler evening. But the honey smelled sweet and tasted delicious when I broke off a piece of comb and sucked on it, and the thought of what we might get for it cheered me enough to keep going.

The village was quiet. There were a group of boys fighting with stick swords on the green, but they fell silent and still as Alec and I passed by. The women collecting water at the river stopped their gossip and kept their eyes down as Alec and I crossed. The water was so low that there was no need to use the stone bridge and we simply walked across the stony bottom, enjoying the feel of the cool water on our feet.

I heard the low hum of their conversation begin again as we passed out of sight, and I gritted my teeth. "They're all so stupid."

"You know what they think," Alec said quietly. "They think we do things."

"I wish it were true," I said savagely. "I wish I could make it happen, make all the people I hate have bad things happen. And I'd start right in with them," I added, nodding back towards the women at the river.

Alec didn't answer as the manor house came into view. There were chickens scratching in the yard, and two of the hounds that looked so much like my Bran were stretched out, panting, in the shade. A little girl, picking at scabs on her knees, watched us warily as we walked towards the back.

"Jane and Alec! I wouldn't have thought to see you about on this hot day." Agnes, the woman who cooked for the lord and had warmed his bed since his wife's death, was plucking a chicken by the door and she smiled at our approach. "What can I do for you?"

"We've got a beehive," I told her. "All the comb and the honey too- we haven't kept any back."

Agnes looked at it with sharp eyes. "Aye, that's a big one. I think we can do something…what were you hoping to trade it for?"

Alec let me do the bargaining, although there wasn't a great deal to it. Agnes was canny, but she was not immune to the rumours about Alec and I that were whispered through the village and she was not mean when she filled my tunic with apples in return for the hive. There were stories of misfortune coming to those who raised our ire, and tales of blessings for those who traded with us on generous terms or did something that pleased us. Fables that should have been able to be laughed away…except for the seam of truth that ran below them.

Beasts had sickened and died after the yeoman had chased Alec and I from his fields. A crop of root vegetables had inexplicably failed after I was discovered stealing some and whipped. A boy who taunted us relentlessly did come suddenly down with the pox, and then just as suddenly improved and came back to health after his mother had implored us to forgive him and begged for his life. The lord, who had always been generous with his trading, gained favour with his highers and his sons and daughters grew healthy and strong as the sun shone and the rain fell on his crops and they flourished.

So the stories were told in low voices and people believed us to be uncanny. It didn't help that Alec and I were almost unnaturally alike. Twins were an ill-omen in our village, and the two of us both so similar despite being girl and boy, inspired unease when we were seen together. It didn't help that our mother was a simpleton who earned her living, and ours, by peddling herbs and medicines and trading what we found in the forest. It didn't help that we worshipped the old gods and refused to set foot in the house of the new.

It could all be attributed to nature, both good and ill fortune alike, but the villagers looked upon us with suspicion nonetheless. The stories were told in hushed tones and the tales spread and the legends grew, and none of us could have known where it would end.