CHAPTER SEVEN
“So what do you say?” Phoenix held his fingers out to the fire and across glanced at Brynn. “Will you guide us? For a fee, of course.” The grin he sent Jade was ironic. She frowned at him.
“To this ‘Stonehenge’ place,” Brynn raised his eyebrows. “Well, normally I’d say ‘yes’ - especially to the fee.” He flicked a cheeky grin at Phoenix. “I’ve worn out my welcome in this village. With the Romans coming tomorrow, it’s time to move on anyway. The only problem is, I’ve never heard of ‘Stonehenge’. Sorry.”
Jade moved closer, deciding she’d have to get involved. She picked up a stick and began to draw in the packed earth floor. She drew a long, wiggly line and two dots. She pointed to one dot.
“This is Londinium,” she looked at Brynn, who tilted his head to examine the drawing then nodded. “So this is the River Thames,” she indicated the wiggly line.
Brynn frowned then his face cleared to understanding. “Oh, the Plowonida, you mean. The ‘wide river’. They only call it the Thames upstream, where it’s narrower.”
She pointed to the other dot. “This is where we need to go – Stonehenge. That’s where the Jewel is.”
The boy grinned. “You mean the Carega Amgarn. Why didn’t you say so?”
“The ‘Stone Circle’,” Jade translated aloud. “Yeah, that must be it. Can you take us there?”
“Of course,” Brynn nodded. “I went there two years ago, when we took my brother to join the Druids.” He took the stick and drew another set of lines, one paralleling the river and another crossing it and turning south. “We won’t be able to take the road for long, though. The main one along the river is patrolled by Romans. We’ll have to go through the woods until we get to the ford. It’ll mean going through the Dywyllwch Brennau.”
He paused, looking straitly at the pair, clearly expecting a gasp of shock. It translated to ‘Dark Woods’ but must mean something far more sinister to him. When they just looked blank, he explained.
“The Forest Folk of Dywyllwch Brennau don’t take kindly to intruders, what with the Romans chopping down their trees lately. They like to lead travellers astray with illusions and tricks. There are all sorts of nasties in the deepest parts. It won’t be an easy passage.”
“Of course it won’t,” Jade sighed, casting a resigned glance at Phoenix. He grinned back at her, patting his sword.
They set watches that night, at Jade’s insistence. Their run-in with the local thieves made her skittish. Not that she slept much, anyway. Instead, she spent most of the night alternating between miserably missing her father and doing her best to understand the new body, memories and skills at her disposal. This was the adventure she had always read about; wished herself into. Now that it was really happening, she was terrified. It was all much harder, grubbier and nastier than she’d ever expected. She was stuck in a frightening, violent world and there seemed to be no way out, except to play the game through to the end – an end they now had to race the Romans to reach.
Finally, close to dawn, she fell into an uneasy sleep. Her last waking thought was that, if she were very lucky, this would all turn out to be a dream when she woke. Her sleep was haunted by knife-wielding peasants, grey-robed wizards and angry Roman soldiers.
In the morning, dawn revealed 80AD in all its unpleasant glory. Jade sat up and sighed, rubbing gritty eyes with dirty fingers. She felt filthy. Her hair and clothes smelled of smoke. Brynn laughed at her when she washed her face and hands in a bucket of freezing water drawn from the well. Shivering, she tried to pat her long, white-blonde hair back into some semblance of order. Eventually, she gave up and tied it back with a strip of leather, wishing for shampoo and a hot shower.
After a sketchy breakfast of some sort of thin gruel, they gathered their gear. Brynn cast one last look around his temporary home and shrugged. He carried a leather hunting sling and his pockets bulged with sling-stones and various small, probably-stolen artefacts. Otherwise, he took precious few things away with him, leaving most as though they didn’t matter.
He closed the door and they stepped out into a bright, spring dawn. Phoenix blinked in the glare of the morning sun. Holding up a hand to shade his eyes, he leaned over and muttered in Jade’s ear, “I suppose sunglasses would be too much to ask for?”
She screwed up her nose and pulled the hood of her cloak up to shade her eyes.
“Sunglasses, cars, microwaves, MacDonalds, toilets, showers, laundries and refrigerators – all too much to ask for.”
He grinned down at her and she couldn’t help but smile back. This adventure seemed a whole lot less scary in the clear light of day.
Phoenix squared his broad shoulders, squinted down the road and raised his right foot. “Well, what was it the grey woman said? A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. So here we go.” He put his foot down and Jade did the same, laughing.
Brynn shook his head, brushing past them, heading south. “Come on. If you want to stay ahead of the Romans, we’d better take more than one step. Oh,” he paused, glancing back at Jade before pulling a small leather bag out of a pocket. Casually he tossed it to her. It clinked.
“Since you’ve hired me, I guess you’d better have your money back, so I can get paid.”
Jade caught it, gaping at the boy in shock. She snatched open her own purse and tipped it out onto the ground. Gravel poured forth, clattering into a small heap. Her mouth dropped open.
“You…you…” she stammered. “You stole all my money?”
Brynn shrugged, grinning. “Last night. I took it from the Roman snitch. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. It seemed like a good idea at the time.” He shrugged again. “I am a thief, after all.”
“How can we trust you?” She snapped her teeth shut, glaring at him.
“I gave it back, didn’t I?” he said simply. “Let’s go. It’s a good fifty leagues – close to a sevendays walk if we’re not going to take the roads. We have to get to the forest as fast as we can. Keep a watch for patrols.”
Without further explanation, he began to jog away.
Jade looked at Phoenix, who grimaced and shrugged as well. “Like he said: he’s a thief. Don’t stress,” he added, obviously seeing her annoyance. “We need him. If this Equinox thing is only a few days away then we don’t have time to find anyone else. We’ll just keep an eye on him. Let’s go.”
He swung into a ground-eating easy jog and, shortly after, she caught him up, still frowning.
Soon they’d left the tiny hamlet behind and followed a well-used road running alongside an expanse of marshy land that bordered the river. On their right were small fields, cattle and straggling stands of forest. Twice they jogged past carters carrying goods in the opposite direction, back toward the village they’d left.
They ran and walked alternately, mostly in silence except for the jingling of Phoenix’s sword sheath. Jade’s long fair hair escaped the tie and streamed out behind her in a light spring breeze. Birds twittered alarm calls in the forest as they passed and the sun rose warm in a clear blue sky. Their characters were used to this sort of travel and they barely had to breathe hard to keep up a steady pace.
They reached the edge of the farmed land and halted, staring at a vast, dark forest rising like a wall before them. The Roman road veered sharply left, skirting the edge of the forest as though frightened of the place. Traces of an older, less well-marked path ran straight ahead.
Brynn pointed. “We go in here. If we’re lucky, we’ll make it through without encountering the Forest Folk.”
“I thought they’d be friendly to non-Romans,” Jade said, brushing her fingers over the pointed tips of her half-Elven ears.
“Years ago, yes,” Brynn shrugged. “But the Folk here have been long besieged by the Romans and no longer trust anyone.” He
glanced at Jade. “I’m not sure they would even welcome you, my lady, not being a full-blood Elf and all.”
Jade looked at him, startled. Phoenix frowned at her. It hadn’t occurred to either of them that her half-bloodedness might cause a problem with Elvenkind as well as the Romans.
Brynn set off and the two Players shouldered their packs once more, following him off the road and into the gloom of the forest.
…..
Under the canopy, Phoenix paused for a moment, listening to the soft sounds of the forest, letting his eyes adjust to the dappled light falling on the leaf-strewn floor. As they moved on, he soon realised that part of him was always watching and listening. His Warrior self was always alert. His brain seemed to know what woodland sounds it could safely ignore and what might pose a threat. His eyes flicked to follow small movements and his hand never strayed far from the hilt of his sword. His feet involuntarily picked out the smoothest path and made little noise. It was quite incredible to feel so at home in the forest when he’d never spent any time here in the real world. Phoenix grinned to himself, feeling the flow of energy and the flex of muscle in his body. He could quite easily get used to this. This was definitely more fun than just watching on the computer screen.
They ran and walked through the forest for an hour, heading steadily west and slightly south, paralleling the Roman road. With casual skill, Brynn brought down some small game with his sling in preparation for dinner, later. Twice they stopped and hid to avoid being seen by travellers on the nearby road. A third time they lay, breathless, while a small contingent of Roman soldiers, their scarlet-plumed helmets bobbing in time, marched toward the capital.
Back on the forest path, Phoenix noticed a growing discomfort and finally decided he couldn’t wait any longer. He stepped off the track and stopped, dropping his pack on the ground.
“What’s up?” Jade asked.
“I have to go,” he muttered.
Brynn nodded, understanding immediately.
Jade glanced around, looking perplexed. “Go where?”
Phoenix looked at her steadily for a moment then jerked his head toward a cluster of large shrubs a little way inside the forest.
“I have to go,” he said significantly.
Jade stared at him for a moment then her eyes lit with understanding and she giggled. Brynn grinned, too.
“I get it. Well, I have to admit,” she looked around, “going to the toilet isn’t usually mentioned in the books I’ve read. You’d better grab some leaves.” She smiled, adding in a whispered aside, “They don’t invent toilet paper for a couple of thousand years.”
Phoenix flushed with embarrassment and ripped three of the largest leaves he could find off a low plant that grew amongst grass and pretty spring flowers, beside the track. They were a bit too crinkly to be really useful but they were the best he could see.
“I wouldn’t use that if I were you,” Jade warned.
Brynn’s smile widened. “Ah milady, you’re a better person than I. I wouldn’t have told him.”
“We can’t afford him to be ill,” she pointed out.
Phoenix looked at the leaves in his hand. They looked ok. “Why can’t I use these?”
“It’s Ragwort,” she replied. “It’s toxic. You can absorb the poison through your skin and it can lead to severe problems breathing.” She indicated another plant not far away. “Try that one. It’s harmless. Nice big leaves, too.”
Phoenix glanced at her and back at the leaves in his hand, wondering whether she was just pulling his leg. He decided not to risk it. She might be a bit of a worry-wart but she seemed to be confident enough about this. He tossed the leaves away and murmured a self-conscious thanks. Ignoring Brynn’s laughing comment that he should just wash his backside in a stream like the everyone else, he grabbed the other leaves and walked purposefully off into the forest, trying to look cool about what he was doing.
He wasn’t. He’d never considered that toilets, as he knew them, didn’t exist in this time. It would be at least eighteen hundred years before the first indoor flush toilet was invented. Right now, a hole in the ground was the best anyone could expect. Being out in the forest meant he couldn’t even have that. Resignedly, Phoenix ducked behind the bushes and hoped they were thick enough to screen him from Jade’s eyes.
Minutes later, feeling much better, he emerged from the bushes, found the forest path again and glanced around for the others.
The path was empty.
His companions had vanished.
****