CHAPTER FIVE
One more wolf padded out of the gloom to sit directly before the children. Jade drew a quick breath. It was the same grey-eyed, black wolf from last night. His ears twitched toward her and, for a second, those grey eyes stared right into hers. He sat before them with regal poise and, somehow, amusement on his long face; radiating power and alpha-control. It was clear the pack awaited only his command before attacking.
Phoenix slid out his sword, its metal-on-metal slither bizarrely out of place in this isolated forest. Marcus unslung his bow and drew an arrow forth from its quiver. The black wolf began a low, almost subsonic growl. The rest of the pack took it up until it thrummed through Jade’s body. She clapped her hands over her ears, trying to shut out the sound; the sense of strangeness; the unnerving weirdness of the whole situation. It didn’t work. There was something very wrong.
“Why haven’t they attacked?” Phoenix whispered.
Jade shook her head. “I don’t know. I….I can’t think clearly. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” She clung to her staff, using it to hold herself up. Her head spun with the weight of foreboding and fear.
“Can’t you put them all to sleep or something?” Phoenix urged.
Jade shook herself, trying to focus. “I’ll try.” She half-closed her eyes, attempting to keep her skittish mind on the task at hand.
“Sleep,” she Commanded, pointing at the alpha wolf.
The black wolf blinked at her, opened his mouth wide in a toothy yawn and shook his head but stayed disappointingly upright.
She gasped. The others cast her puzzled looks. She shook her head.
“It didn’t work. There’s something blocking me. I…I don’t think any of my spells will work!”
Phoenix looked quickly about, pointing to where the sun hung, ominously low, behind the trees to the southwest.
“We’ll just have to think of something else, fast. It’ll be dark soon and we can’t stay here all night watching wolves. Suggestions?”
“We could head north along the lake edge,” Marcus offered. “That way we can keep watching them and they can’t outflank us.”
“Sounds good,” Phoenix agreed. He hadn’t to taken his eyes off the wolves.
Jade couldn’t think of an alternative, so she went along with the others as they began to move slowly north. The loss of magic shook her to the core. She tried several spells, muttering them under her breath at the oblivious wolves. Nothing worked. Deeply frightened, she trailed behind Phoenix and Brynn, bereft and lost.
As they approached the closest wolf, it eyed Phoenix, before glancing at the black wolf. The alpha jerked his chin up and gave a sharp yip. The wolf backed up, opening a gap along the lakeshore.
They let their prey go.
Or did they?
Just as Jade began to hope they would all back off, the pack formed into a line and began to pace alongside, picking up speed, pushing the humans to run faster but always keeping a cautious distance, just beyond swordpoint.
“They’re herding us.” Jade caught up to Phoenix, unable to keep fear out of her voice.
He nodded in reply. “I just wish we knew where. Can’t you do anything?”
“I’ve been trying but it seems like the further we head this direction, the worse my control over magic gets. I can barely think coherently, let alone formulate a spell correctly.” She leaned on her staff as she ran, drawing deep, shuddering breaths, glancing forward. “It’s as though whatever it is we’re going towards has some way of scrambling my brain and my magic. I’m scared, Phoenix.”
“Tell me about it,” he muttered, frowning. “This is turning out to be one of the less enjoyable adventures we’ve had so far in this world.”
“How can you make jokes at a time like this?” Jade demanded, angry that he just didn’t seem to understand how dire the situation was. She had no magic!
Phoenix cast a quick, quizzical look at her as they ran. “It helps me cope. Does worrying actually fix anything?”
Unable to think of an answer, Jade dropped behind, glaring at his back.
The group ran north, always with half an eye on the silent wolf pack padding alongside like ghostly bodyguards. As long as they ran in the right direction, the animals kept their distance but as soon as they made any attempt to deviate, a flurry of snarling and growling resulted.
The banks of the lake steepened, becoming a rocky cliff with crumbling edges. Still the wolves pushed them on, hounding them right to the edge of a deep gorge. Skidding to a halt, the five weary travellers peered into its freezing depths without enthusiasm. Rocks, loosened by their weight, tumbled down into a stream that fed the lake. The sides were sheer and slippery, the water a jumble of black pools, swift white water and shadowed grey rocks still topped with snow and ice.
“It’s too deep and fast,” Jade yelled above the noise of rushing water. “We can’t cross here. Truda and Brynn will get swept away and we’ll all freeze in seconds. There has to be-”
“There.” Brynn clutched at her arm, pointing upstream. Sure enough, his sharp eyes had spotted a possible crossing: a thick log. Fallen in some past storm, it lay askew from bank to bank. The closest end was anchored precariously in place by a tangle of roots still clinging to the eroded bank. Dead branches protruded from the trunk in awkward directions. Moss, lichen, snow and ice covered every inch of bark. Hardly a three lane bridge, it would be a dangerous and difficult crossing.
Jade saw Phoenix glance at the tree, down into the stream-bed and over his shoulder at the wolves behind. He swallowed hard.
“Oh man,” he murmured. “I hate heights.”
She laughed nervously, perversely glad that he showed some anxiety. Served him right for being so superior before.
“You can always stay here and play with the nice doggies,” Brynn said.
Phoenix sent him a sour look. “Just for that, you can go first.”
The boy shrugged. “Suits me. I’d rather be on that side anyway.” Eyeing the waiting wolves warily, he edged toward the dirt-clogged rootball. The wolves backed away, giving ground. The black wolf sat on his haunches, watching them all in a disdainful manner; as though he had better things to do and just wished they’d get out of his territory.
Marcus kept an eye on the wolves as the others watched Brynn. The boy picked his way, clambering over exposed roots, onto the thickest part of the fallen trunk. There were no branches there, so he moved slowly, arms outstretched like a tightrope walker, feet shuffling inch by inch along the slippery bark.
Shadows lengthened. Jade held her breath.
Reaching the halfway point, Brynn wrapped his arms the first branch. He jumped a little, making the entire tree flex and creak. Jade couldn’t help the little sound of fear that escaped her throat. Phoenix groaned. Truda clutched at Jade’s arm, hiding her face. Brynn jumped again, grinning at them.
“It’ll be-”
His foot slipped and he lost his balance, yelling as he slid half-off the rotting wood. He held on, fingers barely clinging to end of the thin branch. It bent under his weight. Phoenix took off, outdistancing the others as they hurried to help.
Wolves forgotten, Jade and Truda watched helplessly as Phoenix scrambled onto the log. Brynn slid further, both feet now dangling high above the whitewater below. His cry for help vanished in the roar. A mist of droplets clung to his hair and fur clothing, giving him a strangely ghostly appearance.
Jade wracked her brain for a spell – anything that might help. Her mind was blank. She had nothing. It seemed that every spell she knew had been wiped. She was just an ordinary person again. Her body shook with fear and the effort to remember. Nothing. Despair gripped her.
Phoenix, visibly pale and sweating, wobbled his way along the fallen log, arms extended, eyes firmly fixed ahead. He reached down to grab Brynn’s arm. Hauling the boy up, Phoenix waited until he’d steadied himself then the pair continued to the other side, both
breathing hard. Even from a distance, Jade could see Phoenix’s hands shaking. At least he had done something, though. If it had been left to her, Brynn would have fallen.
Numb, Jade barely heard Marcus’ low-voiced urging, barely remembered the perilous, slippery walk across the log-bridge. She had failed. When her friends needed her most, she hadn’t been able to do anything. She really was useless, just as her mother had always said.
The minute Jade set foot on the opposite side of the river, the feeling of helplessness doubled until she felt physically ill. She saw Phoenix and the others eyeing her with concern but couldn’t make herself voice words of reassurance.
Behind her, the others talked about the departure of the wolf-pack. She ignored them, watching the forest, instead. Truda yelled something in her own language at the black wolf, stamping her little foot in anger as it bared yellow teeth at her. Phoenix made some sort of comment about the pack’s odd behaviour but Jade ignored that, too.
Something was wrong. Something worse than wolves. She just didn’t know what.
She trailed along as the others turned away from the ravine to continue the hunt for a settlement or shelter before darkness fell. What else could she do? There was nothing definitive she could go on to warn them. An all-pervading fear of the unknown was hardly a threat they could stick their swords into.
“We’d better find a safe campsite soon,” Marcus called out over his shoulder to Phoenix.
Phoenix nodded and pointed at a fallen log near the lake edge. “We need a few minutes to rest, though. Those wolves pushed us hard.”
The two youngest companions, rednosed and exhausted, lurched a few more metres to sit on a rotting log. Jade however, filled with nervous energy, strode back and forth before them, casting anxious glances in all directions. Her breath clouded the air in great, white huffs.
She eyed the sun. It sank lower. Unless the village was within a few hundred metres, there was no way they were going to reach it tonight – if it even existed. Marcus was right: they needed shelter. For some reason, the thought of being out at night sent a paralysing wave of fear through her, making her stomach lurch.
Desperate, she hauled Phoenix & Marcus to one side, digging her fingers into their arms like clamps.
“It’s getting worse – that feeling, I mean,” she said urgently. Letting go she wrung her hands around the smooth wood of her staff. “I can’t think. I...it’s like...like when you’re about to walk into an exam you haven’t studied enough for and your stomach is all churned up and sick – but much, much worse.” She looked away from their blank, puzzled expressions, searching for something in the woods. Something she couldn’t see but knew was there.
Phoenix and Marcus followed her glance.
“I can’t see anything, Jade.” Phoenix laid a soothing hand on her arm.
She shook it off impatiently. He was right. There was nothing to see – maybe that was the problem. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. The woods seemed very bare in this part of the world. There was no undergrowth and not even any reeds around the edge of the lake – just bare earth, patches of slushy snow and brown pine needles. That could be because they had arrived before the true beginning of spring and the vegetation simply hadn’t sprouted yet. Otherwise, nothing seemed amiss.
“We got away from the wolves.” Marcus spread out his hands to indicate a total absence of danger. “What else is there?”
Jade sucked in a shaky sob and turned a wild look on Phoenix. Her hands trembled uncontrollably now, fingertips white. She ran a hand through her hair.
“I…I don’t know...I...” She darted a look around again, half-expecting an attack any second. “I can’t concentrate. There’s something...here...somewhere. It’s…blocking my magic. It’s horrible; destructive. I can’t stand it much longer!” She wrapped her arms around her body and shivered.
Phoenix frowned, hesitated then shrugged. “Alright. You sit down a moment. I’ll keep watch.” He turned to peer into the empty forest as the others rested.
Jade sank onto the log next to Truda. The girl leaned her head on Jade’s shoulder and patted her leg with gentle concern.
“It’s ok,” Truda’s childish voice interrupted Jade’s fearful thoughts. “You just need to eat. Here,” she pushed something into Jade’s fingers, “try this.”
Distracted, Jade ate automatically, watching the surrounding forest for signs or enemies. There had to be some reason she was feeling so jittery.
It was several seconds before her brain registered that what she was chewing wasn’t dried or smoked meat. It tasted like bitter lettuce. Confused, Jade glanced down at the food Truda had given her. It was a flower; its many pink petals dewed with sparkling drops of water. Large and cup-shaped, its heart darkened to the deepest scarlet, dusted gold with pollen. A vivid splash of exotic colour in this otherwise grey-green place, it rested like blood in her cold, white hand. A red water lily.
With growing horror and bewilderment, she stared first at it then at Truda’s innocent, smiling young face. Did Truda know what the chemicals in this flower did? Was she deliberately trying to sabotage Jade’s ability to function? Jade shook her head, trying to think straight. She blinked. The world began to blur. Slowly, a strange feeling of peace settled over her turbulent thoughts; muffling her fears until she couldn’t remember why she’d been so worried in the first place. Everything seemed distant and unimportant. What a relief.
What had she been doing?
Oh yes, eating something. That’s right. She was very hungry. Vaguely, she lifted another petal to her lips.