‘And there’s none left here?’ Luna asked hopefully. ‘All the fairy portholes have collapsed?’
The giant nodded miserably.
‘I’ve searched and searched, of course. But there’s none as I’ve found, I’m afraid.’
He grinned, stood up straight and proud – until he had to bow his head to avoid catching it on the room’s ceiling.
‘Still, we’ve just got to make the best of things, ain’t we, miss?’
He cocked his head, looking up through the branches stretching out high above them.
‘Me, I usually head up there as high as I can, as I hopes I can catch the sounds of that beautiful violin playing down at the smithy.’
Luna remembered catching the strains of the mournfully playing violin on the wind when she’d climbed as high as she could up through the creaking tower.
‘That’s where it comes from, is it? The smithy?’
‘That’s right; get the wind right, and it’s like being entertained by the very best violin player you’ve ever heard. I reckon as it’s the magic object left behind by the princess when she came here, as it all started the day she called in there.’
‘You saw her come here?’
Luna was excited: of course, the giant lived here when the building was at its very highest. He may well have climbed up to the highest point and seen the princess’s tower; which might also mean he could give her directions on how to get there.
‘Can you remember where the princess’s great tower is?’
Frowning once more, the giant carefully pondered Luna’s question.
He shook his head.
‘No, sorry miss: as is, I can’t remember. It being so long since the tower fell, like. Used to be able to see it a mighty long way afore that, now mind you.’
Despite his size, Luna realised, even the giant wouldn’t be able to stand on what remained of the tower and see above the highest of the tree’s branches.
On the other hand, if they both went up together, and the giant held her up as high as he could in one hand: then, surely, she would be able to see at least the top of the princess’s tower?
‘Ah, so that’s as why you’re here, is it?’ the giant grinned amiably when Luna asked if the giant would take her as high as they could climb, then lift her up. ‘As you’re a wanting to see out across the land, that’s right, ain’t it? Come on then,’ he added brightly, with a nod of his head indicating that she should follow him, ‘let’s as give it a try, why shouldn’t we?’
*
As they ascended through the delicately balanced rooms, Luna was once again amazed that the creaking structure managed to support the giant. Rouger had caused a great deal more of the wood and bricks to collapse as he’d moved through far firmer sections of the building.
When they reached what was now the highest point of the tower, the gaunt picked Luna up and – stretching high on his tip toes, stretching his arm as much as he could – he managed to lift her clear of the surrounding branches.
‘Why, you’re as light as a feather could ever be, miss!’ the giant chuckled with surprise. ‘Lighter than lighter, in fact: as I do believe that if you so much as allowed it, you could as take me right up there with you, if I as held you high enough!’
Luna grinned with excitement. She could see, it seemed, for ever.
Then she grimaced. The Fay Queen could be anywhere out there.
In fact, she might not be anywhere out there, but living in a completely different land, one she had accessed through a fairy porthole.
It all suddenly seemed hopeless.
She needed that magical mirror. She needed the princess’s tower.
But no matter where Luna looked, she couldn’t see any tower.
‘I can’t see it,’ she wailed. ‘I can’t see the princess’s tower!’
‘But didn’t I tell you, miss?’ the giant said with a perplexed frown. ‘I’m sure as I said it had toppled long ago.’
‘Oh, that tower!’
Luna recalled that the giant had indeed referred to a falling tower, but she had presumed he was talking about the one they were standing on.
‘Why did it fall? What happened?’
‘It was as never well built, that tower: not as like this one, supported by the great tree. All a rush job too, you as ask me. Top bit went while the princess was as out here visiting. The rest as vanished almost as quick, I reckon.’
Once again, now that she was up here once again, Luna heard the melancholy strains of the violin. It was such a sad tune, the violin could almost have been making a complaint, could almost have been talking.
‘Beautiful, ain’t it?’ the giant said with a blissful smile.
‘Is it always so sad?’ Luna asked
The giant shook his head.
‘It didn’t as used to be; but these days, as as when I hears it, it does seem a trifle sad, yeah.’
‘Are you sure that would be the princess’s magical gift?’
Carefully picking out the melody drifting towards her on the wind, Luna tried to work out where it might be emanating from. She peered roughly in the direction she believed it was coming from, tried to pick out the minute details of the land lying far beyond the edges of the thick mass of dark trees – and yes, there did seem to be a small, lonely building, perhaps a smithy, lying at a crossroads on a bleak moor.
‘I mean,’ Luna continued, ‘it doesn’t seem very magical: a violin.’
The giant pondered this, raised a finger as if about to answer – then, dropping the finger once more, bemusedly frowned.
‘That’s as being a very good point you have there, miss. Then again, its music does as carry a surprisingly long way; and it is as the most beautiful playing as I’ve ever heard. So that might be it!’
*
Chapter 16
Riding on the back of the magical horse the giant had loaned them, Luna and Rouger covered more ground in each hour than they probably would have throughout a whole day’s walk.
The horse wasn’t magical in the speed it could attain, but in the weight it could carry. Naturally, the giant required an exceptionally strong horse to carry him. Not that he had ever been able to ride it, of course, as he remained unable to continually keep his feet lifted off the ground, or maintain balance as he sat on the small saddle.
Even so, the horse had been startled when Rouger had leapt onto its back. It had looked as if it would rear and throw Rouger until the giant, unaware of his horse’s problems with Rouger, tenderly picked up and placed Luna in the saddle.
Satisfied at last – and after a few quick yet grateful goodbyes and thanks to the giant – the horse had set off at an easy gallop. Once it had got into its stride, the horse didn’t seem to tire at all, maintaining its effortless pace mile after swiftly passing mile.
They rode on through the night, Luna and Rouger sleeping, confident that the horse would carry them safely along the narrow, winding path. Luna would have slept like this until morning, but she was woken by the harsh, overly-excited barking of dogs.
Rouger had woken too. The hounds, like them, were hurtling through the woods at great speed. There were also lots of them, running together in a great pack.
Now and again, Luna and Rouger caught a glimpse of the racing pack. There were riders amongst them too, the frequent wail of a hunting horn.
A hunt? In the middle of the night?
Luna looked back over her shoulder towards Rouger, exchanging curious, anxious glances with him.
Like the dogs, the night riders sometimes swung close towards them, directed this way by dangerously hanging branches. The riders grinned, tipped a hat in greeting; then swung back into the main bulk of the hunt as soon as the trees allowed them to.
They leapt fallen trunks or deep hollows with ease. They avoided branches as if with not just the most amazing sight, but also the most incredible foresight.
On the narrow path they themselves were following, Luna noticed, the trees and branches came in wic
kedly and dangerously close on either side of them. Off the path, the trees must be even more treacherous.
She wouldn’t like to walk through those parts of the woods on a dark night like this, let alone charge through it in pursuit of some wild animal.
Yet rather than slowing, the hunt rapidly picked up speed. It rushed through the surrounding woods as if it were as insubstantial, as unstoppably powerful, as a surging current of flood water. The riders and hounds even glowed now and again like water struck by moonlight.
Even on their magical horse, Luna and Rouger couldn’t hope to keep pace with the swiftly moving hunt. The crashing and cracking of undergrowth being relentlessly pummelled beneath pounding hooves, the yelps and howls of the hounds, the blare of the horns; it was all happening at the most ridiculously dangerous speed.
Amongst the mass of dark branches whirling past them on either side at terrifying speed, Luna spotted now and again the brightest flash of white. She peered hard at it, wondering at its incredible brightness: the way it shone like a moon descended to Earth.
And suddenly, she knew who it was – the Fay Queen.
*
Chapter 17
Magnificent as ever, the Fay Queen swung towards them as they all precariously hurtled through the maze-like woods.
She calmly looked their way, chuckled mischievously, taunting them with her nearness. Her mount snorted arrogantly, as if impatient to be given free rein.
Suddenly, the Fay Queen spurred her horse on: and rider and mount spurted forward as if they previously hadn’t been moving, a ridiculously unworldly extra burst of speed.
The Fay Queen weaved in and out of the overhanging branches as if she knew, perhaps even controlled, the positon of every single one of them. She caught up with and merged in with the rest of the hunt, becoming a bright white flash amongst so many other eerily glowing riders and hounds.
Soon even all this began to fade, the glimmering lights becoming indistinguishable from the reflected sheen on countless stems. The cacophony of sound drifted away into nothing more than the unintentional cracking of branches by nocturnal beasts.
The hunt abruptly became a bizarre memory in Luna and Rouger’s minds that they could easily have doubted, wondering if such a strange hunt could ever really have taken place.
As if to create an ever greater distance between the now vanished hunt and themselves, their own horse began to slow until it could manage no more than a pained walk.
Rouger suddenly slipped off the horse’s back, running back along the path for a brief moment. He returned holding a badly deteriorated horseshoe.
‘I thought I’d seen this glittering back there,’ he said with an apprehensive glower. ‘It’s in a terrible state: that giant certainly didn’t know anything about shoeing horses, did he?’
Swinging a leg wide, Luna dropped out of the saddle. She was frustrated, naturally, that they’d been so close to achieving their goal of finding the Fay Queen; but the responsibility for their failure couldn’t be placed on the backs of either the horse or the giant.
‘Luckily, we’re heading for a smithy anyway,’ she said. ‘We’ll just have to walk a bit, that’s all.’
Rouger was bending low by the horse, checking all the other hooves one by one.
‘They’re all worn! Like that stupid giant never had them changed, even once!’
Once again, Luna found herself wondering why Rouger was so rude and ungrateful. The giant had loaned them the horse, after all. He probably wasn’t to know that the shoes were in such a terrible state.
‘The horse has still got us farther than we could have hoped to travel,’ she pointed out. ‘As I said, we’ve just got to walk for a while; that’s all.’
Rouger glanced about them worriedly, taking in the frighteningly eerie darkness of the surrounding woods.
‘And if that weird hunt shows up again, Luna? What do we do if they decide we’d make for a nice night-time hunt, do you think?’
*
Chapter 18
As they walked, the horse clomping wearily alongside them, the woods seemed darker than ever.
When they had been moving swiftly, relying on the horse to lead the way, they hadn’t had to pay much attention to their forbidding surroundings.
Every now and again, either Luna or Rouger would peer into the enveloping darkness, or cock a head as they tried to clarify a sound they believed they’d heard. They were constantly on the lookout for any signs of a returning hunt.
They were both tired, but only Luna was hungry. Or, rather, Rouger took the risk of assuaging his own hunger by carelessly grasping any dangling bunch of berries they passed, feeding them into his mouth of crushed berries without a care.
Naturally, Luna had to be more circumspect; she couldn’t eat any berries unless she knew for sure that they wouldn’t cause her any harm. In this darkness, in this strange wood, she couldn’t be sure that anything around would be safe to eat.
Luna wondered just how safe it was, in fact, for Rouger to continue to eat the berries.
He seemed less plant-like than he had been when she had first created him, gradually taking on what she hoped were more human qualities. His skin of woven stems, for instance, was becoming less obviously a wickerwork, everything merging and blending into one another, becoming smoother and softer looking. His hair was now less like shredded stems and more like real hair, being in some parts much finer. The more distinctly plant-like parts of the face, too, were merging, smoothing out, even his mouth of berries now far more lip-like than it had originally appeared.
Luna hoped that as he became more like the real Rouger, his fragile temper would smooth out too.
As she considered this, there was a loud crashing of snapping branches deep in the darkness of the woods. It was a rider, careering through the wilder parts of the wood as if racing along an easily followed or familiar path.
Both Luna and Rouger, as one, came to an abrupt halt, stilling and quietening their own horse. Although Luna hoped it was the returning Fay Queen, she recognised that she also feared it might be the returning hunt: as Rouger had pointed out, they might be the next ones the hunt turned their dogs on.
The swiftly approaching rider glowed around his edges with a ghostly white but – Luna was sure – this was purely down to what little shards of the moonlight penetrated the thickly woven branches of the wood. For a moment, it seemed that the rider would storm straight through them – but he suddenly veered off, avoiding a practically thickly congested clump of trees and plunging instead through the undergrowth lying just alongside them.
It was girl, a young girl, Luna thought, although admitting to herself that it was such a brief glimpse she’d had of the rider that she could never swear on it. The girl was leaning low into her saddle, urging her mount on to ever greater bursts of speed. She was going much faster than any horse Luna had even seen, including the incredibly swiftly moving mounts of the hunt and even the Fay Queen.
In the blink of an eye, the girl had vanished into the darkness, the sounds of her wildly crashing ride fading away to nothing but silence only seconds later.
Rouger anxiously glanced Luna’s way.
‘Let’s get out of these woods as soon as we can, Luna!’
*
When they finally cleared the edge of the woods, it was still night, as if it had decided to stay on longer than it was normally allowed to.
Free of the muting effects of the tightly packed trees, Luna could once again pick up the mournful strains of the violin. Far ahead of them, much farther along the road they were on and situated deeper within the bleak moor, she could also see a fiery glow: the flames of the blacksmith’s raging furnace.
If she listened carefully, Luna could hear the distant clang of metal being pounded and shaped by hammer and anvil. But she didn’t need to listen carefully at all to hear the pounding of the hooves of a rapidly approaching horse.
As the rider rushed towards them along the road leading from the far off smit
hy, he became ever more definable in the darkness, the moon suffusing him in her ghostly, silvery glow. The horse snorted, neighed, as if his own urgent haste wasn’t satisfactorily fast enough for him.
Luna soon realised that it was the young girl they had seen ferociously racing past them earlier. By the stern set of her face, her low lean into the saddle, the refusal to lessen her furious pace even slightly, it appeared that she would almost obliviously rush past them once more.
As she drew closer however, as if experiencing a sudden change of mind, she reined in her mount to a high-rearing halt.
‘You’re heading to the smithy?’ she cried out irritably, observing their limping horse. ‘Don’t either of you realise just how dangerous that is?’
*
Chapter 19
‘We don’t have any choice,’ Luna explained to the appalled girl. ‘Every shoe needs replacing.’
‘Better to walk than visit the Devil’s blacksmith,’ the girl replied, fighting to calm her excitedly cavorting horse.
The horse snorted in protest at having being so rudely halted. He seemed eager to be off once again.
‘Devil’s blacksmith?’ Rouger repeated curiously. ‘That’s just a name, surely?’ he added uncertainly.
‘Hah, if only everyone round here thought it was simply quaint to name a blacksmith in such a way,’ the young girl snapped scornfully. ‘We travel miles to have our horses shod, rather than risk using him; especially on a night like this.’
‘Surely this blacksmith can’t be that bad!’ Rouger chuckled.
‘The blacksmith’s fine: you’re real problem is if his best customer calls. That’s why he’s called the Devil’s blacksmith!’
‘We have to risk calling in anyway,’ Luna said. ‘I’m hoping the blacksmith can recall something about the visit of a princess that might lead us to her.’