The Phoenix Series

Chapter 8

8

I landed hard on my right side, the bat smacking painfully against my left ribs. I hadn’t lost consciousness though, so things were looking up. It was totally dark. Absolutely pitch black. I had a moment of panic before a wind picked up and the trees parted to let in the moonlight. Sid moved in close to me.

“Lady, are you hurt?” His eyes reflected the cold light as they searched the trees.

“No, but I’ll have a bruise.” Or three.

“Good.” He produced a rough brown sac from his bag. “This…” He held up the cloth for me to see. “…Satchel is infused with great power. It will conceal whatever is placed in it, no matter the size.” He handed it to me. “When we have found the wing you must put it in the bag. But please Lady, do not touch the wing itself.” I took the sack and added it to the menagerie in my tote.

“Why?”

“I do not know what the reunion will trigger. It is best if we are in a safe place for such an act.” It made sense.

“Okay. I won’t touch it.”

“Thank you. Now follow me.”

He took off at a mild trot using his hands and feet as he had before. Yeren was a silent presence at my back. For someone her size, she moved with a surprising grace through the trees.

My eyes slowly became accustomed to the dark light of the forest. The wind kept up, allowing the moon to reveal our path. I stumbled on a root and would have gone down if Yeren had not steadied me. With her hand came a pulse of power. Knowing what they had said about touching, I tried to break away. She kept her hold on my arm and did not let go until Sid turned back and hissed at her. The incident lasted mere moments, but I could tell by the hard set of Sid’s shoulders and his increased pace that Yeren had put us in danger. We finally came to a halt at the edge of a small brook. Sid gathered us in the shadow of a boulder. It didn’t hide all of Yeren, but nothing around here would.

“Do you see those lights in the distance?” Sid gestured towards something on the other side.

Peering around the rock, I looked in the direction he indicated. About a hundred feet in the distance was what looked to be a small village. I could make out the shapes of a handful of huts and the glow of torches.

“We must pass very close to the village to reach the clearing.” His voice was calm and even. I was feeling neither.

“What?” I said in a harsh, screamed whisper. “Why didn’t we just land closer to the bloody thing or at least on the other side of the village!” Yeren spoke for the first time since we’d landed.

“We must pass by the village to diffuse our Light. The entrance to the clearing, where the statue lives, stems from this village. By passing close to it, we will hopefully trick anyone who is paying attention into thinking we’re villagers.”

“Oh.” Again, it made sense.

“Yes, so stay close to us.” Sid chimed in. “We are invisible to them, but you are not.” I blanched.

“Don’t worry,” Yeren cooed. “The villagers are the least of our worries.” Sid did his usual nod and was off.

We were about ten feet from the edge of the brook. It wasn’t a very wide stream, but I wondered how Sid was going to cross without getting wet. Apparently, I was the only one, Yeren bounded across like it was nothing. I turned to ask Sid if he was okay and was facing him just in time to see him jump. It was a startling sight. He leapt like a frog, springing from his hands and feet and landing softly on the other side. I made a very human, and very clumsy, run and jump, managing only to get my heels wet.

It was Yeren leading the way now, her long arms swaying back and forth at her sides, occasionally rising to gently sweep a branch from her path. Sid scrambled along behind her, his head dodging the low hanging branches. They were so fast that I trailed behind. I got my hair caught on a branch and after untangling myself, looked up to see them heading left around the perimeter of the village. I was rushing through the trees, trying to catch up, when I heard voices.

“Hey, you!”

“Where do you think you’re going, huh?”

The voices were closer than I expected. I tried to sprint and catch up with Sid when one of them grabbed me. Grabbing me by the scruff of my jacket he turned me, and with one fluid motion, pinned my back to the closest hut. Hard. These guys made solid huts. The shock of it sent stars racing across my vision. When it cleared, I saw two men.

One, the guy who nabbed me, was huge. He was easily six foot five and built like a linebacker. The other was only marginally smaller, maybe an even six feet, with an equally wide build. They were both wearing heavy fur coats that hung the length of their bodies. The one pinning me to the hut spoke: “She’s not from around here.”

“No. She isn’t.” The other moved in as he answered his friend, putting his face inches from mine as he taunted me. For some reason, even though I knew they weren’t speaking English, I understood every word. “What are we going to do with you, little one?” His breath stank. Absolutely stank. It was the smell that cut through the fear and brought me back to myself. I started thrashing, try to loosen the big one’s grip.

“Oh! A fighter!”

I had a moment to see the next ten minutes flash through my brain when Yeren appeared behind them. She quietly bopped them both on the head with a leathery fist, and they went down. Unfortunately, I fell to the dirt with them.

“Thank you!” I said while bringing myself to my feet. “Wow. You knocked them out cold!” The two men lay peacefully crumpled together.

“They are nothing.” Yeren nudged the smaller with her foot. “They’ll wake in a few hours.” Sid joined us.

“Enough pleasantries. We must go! Yeren, you bring up the rear.”

We continued our quick march around the perimeter of the village. It was a minuscule cluster of buildings. Some had smoke billowing from rudimentary chimneys, but otherwise, we saw no signs of life. The men we left behind seemed to be the only wanderers in this tiny town. We had walked about halfway around the village when a path, leading straight from the centre of town, appeared. At one end were the dim lights of the village square, the other lead into the dark forest.

“This is the path,” Sid said.

“Do we just walk down it?” I asked

“We must. The power of the forest is strong here. We must take the path.”

We stood in the underbrush, side by side along the path’s edge. There was a strange vibe to the whole thing. I could feel the forest watching me, waiting to see if I would step out into the clearing. It was Yeren who led the way.

Come was all she said and then she was off.

Her legs were extremely long, and she was covering ground before Sid, and I slipped in behind her. The moment my foot touch the path I felt a change, like a small electric shock that coiled around my legs and up my spine. There was a presence here. By the twitching of Sid’s head, I could tell he felt it too. I couldn’t decide if it was good or bad, maybe that’s because ‘it’ hadn’t decided either.

The moon burned down on us as we trudged along. The path was smooth and clear; there were no weeds or twigs strewn across it. I quickened my pace to catch up with Sid.

“There are no twigs or anything on the path.”

“No.”

“Well, don’t you think that’s strange? We’ve been hacking through thickets every step of the way and now…” I swept my eyes from side to side. “There’s nothing.”

“Yes, it is strange. I fear someone has tampered with this Time.”

“Shit.” That just about summed it up. “Is the wing okay?”

“The enchantments I left were very strong.”

“That didn’t sound like a yes.” I made one of those weak uncomfortable laughs.

“It wasn’t.”

He quickened his step; Yeren was paused in the path a short distance from us. When we caught up with her, she held up her arm for silence and pointed at a spot just up the path. There was a quiet rustling, and then a small rabbit hopped out onto the path. It bounced to the centre, sat back on its hind legs and stared at us. Sid took in a sharp breath.

“Baba.” He barely breathed the words.

I was just about to ask ‘That’s Baba?’ when Sid made a horrible screeching noise and charged at the rabbit. He moved with his belly inches from the ground and was almost faster than my eyes could catch. I blinked, and he had the rabbit by the throat. I blinked again, and it was dead. Yeren and I ran up to him. He held the limp form in both hands.

“Baba’s henchmen!” He shook the rabbit and then spat on the ground.

“I don’t understand.” I really didn’t. Yeren came to my rescue.

“The Hag uses the creatures of the forest to spy for her. Sid has bought us some time.” Sid tossed the dead animal into the trees. He was shaking with rage.

“It is not supposed to be like this!” He said to no one but himself. He turned to me. “My Lady, this will be harder than I had imagined. No matter what happens at the clearing, put the wing in the satchel and run for the woods.”

“Okay.” I wasn’t going to argue with the bunny killer.

“Promise me.” His eyes blazed with the cold blue of the moon.

“I promise.”

“Then we have no more time to waste.” He turned and ran.