Ravenwood (21 page)

At sunset, the scudding clouds broke open enough to reveal darkening sky and the whole village turned out to honor the full moon at equinox. At the first hint of silver through the trees, Frank turned to the north and sprinkled a bit of apple cider onto the ground. “Thank you to the Guardian of the Earth.” He turned and spilled a few more drops onto the ground while facing the moon rising in the east. “Thank you to the Guardian of the Air.” He turned to the south and repeated his delicate spilling. “Thank you to the Guardian of the Fire.” He turned to the west where the setting sun had already dipped below the horizon but where the clouds that had covered them all day continued to obscure the sky. He spilled a few more drops from his cup. “Thank you to the Guardian of the Water.” He closed his circle and poured out the final drops of cider and they spattered wetly on the soggy soil. “Thank you to the All-Father for the bounteous harvest and the cycle of another year.” He stepped back to give Tanyth room.

The moon continued its inexorable climb. As she stepped up, the full sheen appeared above the trees and cast her in an almost blue light as she faced the north and shook her sheaf of wheat to release a few of the grains. “Thank you to the Guardian of the North, Bones of the World, for the soil in which we grow.” Even as she turned she could feel the earth beneath her boot soles–gritty and moist, tired after a season of growing, but fecund yet and filled with potential. She shook her sheaf again as a gentle gust tossed the grains upon the ground. “Thank you to the Guardian of the East, Breath of the World, for the air that nourishes us–plant and animal alike.” Turning south she repeated the shake. “Thank you to the Guardian of the South, Soul of the World for the passion of life that renews us.” She felt the heat in her belly rising as she turned to the west, clouds breaking open to show the ruddy final glow of the sun sinking below the horizon, unseen behind tree and hill. “Thank you to the Guardian of the West, Blood of the world, for the water that let’s us flourish and grow.” She turned back to the north and shook the sheaf one last time, the final grains raining onto the damp soil. “Thank you, All-Mother, for the gifts of your body and the fruit of your fields which nurture and keep us all the year round.” They stood there for a moment. Tanyth facing north with the villagers arrayed in a half circle behind her. Something quivered in the air and slowly subsided as the moon swam ever upwards and bathed the village in its argent light.

Tanyth turned to see them all staring at her. She looked uneasily from face to face starting with Frank’s slack-jawed expression and then scanning across the small crowd of adults and children. Their eyes were all dark and round. Some looked awed. Some looked frightened. All looked at her.

She glanced up at Frank at her side and her voice was low. “Did I do something wrong?”

Frank shook his head dumbly, his eyes wide.

Tanyth looked back across the small crowd and they seemed to be blinking and moving about, if a bit dazedly. Almost as if they were waking up.

Amber moved first. She stepped forward and curtsied. William stepped up and bowed. One by one each of the inhabitants of the village stepped forward and bowed or curtsied while Frank and Tanyth stood for the All-Father and All-Mother. Tanyth smiled and nodded, acknowledging each one down to the smallest child. When they were done, everyone sauntered off in the silvery light to find their evening meals. William, Amber, and the two children waited for Frank and Tanyth at the edge of the track to escort them to the house for dinner.

Tanyth turned to Frank once more as the last of the villagers finished their obeisance and wandered off. She held out her arm as a prompt and he took the cue and held his up under hers in proper form to escort her from the field.

She leaned in and murmured to him. “That was unusual. I’ve never seen a Harvest Moon Celebration quite like that.”

He turned his face toward her. “Me, either, mum.”

She caught his look. “What? That wasn’t the way it’s been done here before? I thought Mother Alderton did the ceremony.”

He all but laughed. “Mother Alderton wasn’t much on ceremony, mum.” He blew out a breath. “I’ve never seen–or felt–anything like that.”

She cast him a look out of the corner of her eye, but they were approaching Amber and William who turned to lead them onward and she let it drop.

Amber and Sadie had prepared a feast with a roasted joint of venison, along with squash and potatoes fresh from their gardens. The crusty yeast bread added an almost sweet counterpoint to the savory smells coming off the hearth as they stepped back into the warm hut after being outside in the damp and chilly darkness.

At the threshold, Amber and William lost their dazed expressions and the party was soon joined by Thomas and Sadie and their children. In a matter of moments, Amber and Sadie had distributed cups of sweet cider and the feast began in earnest.

Frank and Tanyth sat in the places of honor near the hearth and Tanyth enjoyed being the All-Mother surrogate much more than she had expected. The children were all on their best behavior and the meal was wonderful with just the right amounts of savory and sweet, meat and bread to balance. For dessert there was pie and fruit and soft cheese.

As the evening wore on, Tanyth began to flag. The combination of hot food, full belly, and jocularity among friends moved her from stuffed to stupor in relatively short order. She found herself blinking and stretching her face to try to stay awake as sleep plucked the children away to dreamland. Even Amber and Sadie began to blink and yawn. The party broke up with Frank rising suddenly from his chair and announcing that he needed to find his bedroll in order to be fresh for the morrow.

The movement sparked action and in moments people were moving about, snuffing candles, banking fires, and making trips to the privy. Sadie caught Amber’s eye and nodded at the pile of sleeping children. Amber just smiled. “Let’em be. We can sort ’em out in the morning.”

Tanyth rose and stretched but still stumbled gratefully into her bedroll, stretching out on the firm floor, pulling the covers tightly around her, and drifting gently off into darkness even as Frank, William, and Amber finalized plans for morning.

The raven peered through the trees at the dark shapes just inside
the forest’s verge. Open ground beyond the forest’s edge was painted
in stark silver and the shapes moved in silhouette. They smelled to
her, a sharp smell. Not the calling smell of meat but something else.
Something man made. It came faintly on the breeze. Not pine pitch.
A smell she knew from the forest but sharp like pines. Four of
them now. Two held shiny glass and the smell came from the
bottles.

The night around them was still. Even the raven huddled against
the tree truck heard only the soft murmur of night wind in tree tops.
The day’s soft rain had brought up the smells of rich loam and forest
floor. The end of the rain had brought these man-shapes and she just
wanted to sleep.

One man spoke and another man struck steel. A spark flicked
onto a torch, the pale yellow light almost drowned by the brilliant
silver beyond the wood. The two with bottles ran forward with
the torch man in the rear. They broke from cover and ran
to the nearest house, approaching without stealth or grace,
stumbling on the rough ground. They stopped a few feet from
the building and the bottles spun end over end as they threw
them–flashing in the moonlight, arcs of pale liquid pinwheeling
outward, until they hit the roof. The heavy glass didn’t break, but
thunked loudly on the damp wood and rolled down the steep
incline, falling to soft, damp earth at the foot of the wall. The
man with the torch threw it up onto the roof with a sidearm
toss and together the three of them turned and bolted back
to the woods, ducking into the trees and past the one man
waiting.

The torch found the liquid on the roof and a ribbon of fire
traced across the dark incline as the torch followed the bottles
and fell to earth, rolling off the steepness and dropping into
the wet grass to smolder and almost gutter out before finding
the puddle of sharp smelling liquid and igniting in a quiet
whump.

Tanyth woke with the word on her lips. “Fire!”

Amber was just settling down to her own bed and looked over at Tanyth struggling out of her bed roll and grabbing for her staff. “What is it, mum?”

“Fire! They’ve tried to set one of the huts on fire. Get help.”

She raced for the front door and threw it open as she scrambled up out of the house, her bare feet aware of the cold, wet ground under her, but drawing strength with every step as she ran. The disorientation of the dream soon aligned with the flickering light behind one of the houses and she pelted across the yard to where she knew she’d find the two bottles of lamp oil in the weeds.

She skidded around the corner even as she heard Amber banging on a door and yelling for William and Thomas and Frank. The village seemed to spring into life all at once as men came out to see what was happening, pulling suspenders over shoulders even as they ran.

Tanyth slipped on the grass but managed to maintain her balance and shouted. “Here! Fire! Over here!”

The running men converged on her even as she ran at the fire, scattering the burning brands with the heel of her staff and even stomping out sparks with her bare, wet feet. By the time William and Thomas came around the corner only one small patch of lamp oil burned on the ground beside the torch that had ignited it.

Tanyth leaned on her staff and panted slightly to catch her breath. She pivoted to where she knew the men had come from. She could see their tracks in the moonlit grass where their rapid passage had shaken the water from the blades. Thomas turned and drew, but held since there were no targets, just as Frank pelted around the corner.

William and Frank stomped out the remaining fire with their heavier boots and the crisis was past.

The men all looked at Tanyth. Frank spoke. “Are you alright, mum?”

She glowered at the tree line for another moment but turned to look at them. “Yes. Fine.” She took another deep breath. “It just scared me and I was afraid they’d come back and throw more lamp oil on it when they discovered it just rolled off.”

Thomas glanced at Frank with a kind of “I told you so” look and Frank looked at Tanyth.

William, for his part, picked up the two heavy bottles and smelled each. “Lamp oil alright.”

Thomas turned to Tanyth. “Thank you, mum.”

She was too tired and too shaken to respond with more than a nod.

Frank offered his arm as if she were the All-Mother again and she took it, leaning on it heavily and let him lead her back to the cottage and her bed.

Chapter 19
Shared Secret

“That was just a warning.” William looked around at the circle of faces, pale in the morning’s light.

“A warning?” Jakey frowned and pointed to the singed ground. “If one of those bottles had actually broken up there, we’d have lost this house!”

William nodded. “I think that was their plan, but it didn’t break.” He turned to Jakey with a calm look. “And who lives in this house?”

Jakey spluttered a little but had to admit the truth in the end. “Nobody.”

William shrugged. “It was a warning. Wasn’t as effective as they’d have liked perhaps, but a warning.”

Jakey grumbled but subsided.

“That’s why we have to send your boys off with Frank, Jakey. You knew that before.”

Jakey nodded. “But that was before they was attacking the town. Sending them off with Frank means we’ve got three fewer people here to defend us if we need ’em.”

William sighed. “And not sending them means we leave Frank, the horses, the wagon, and the cargo open to attack. You like that thought better?” He glared at Jakey. “Here we’ve got more than enough folk to protect the village even with Ethan, Richard, and Harry going along to cover Frank.”

Thomas spoke up for the first time since the confrontation over sending off the quarrymen began. “We’re dealin’ with cowards and bullies here, Jakey. They’re not gonna try for equal numbers in a movin’ wagon when they can hang around here and pick off the easy targets.”

Jakey nodded triumphantly and started to say something but Thomas cut him off.

“And if we don’t give Frank cover, they’ll hit him as the easy target and take away much more than we can afford to lose.”

Jakey saw the logic but he was just bullheaded enough to need to fight about it.

Frank put an end to it. “Sooner gone, sooner back.” He turned to his traveling companions and jerked his head toward the back of the wagon. “Mount up, boys, and let’s get this thing moving. Daylight’s burnin’ and they’re probably watchin’ from the woods.” He spat on the ground. “Let’s give ’em something to look at besides us palaverin’ the day away.”

The three quarry men had already stowed their traveling gear in the wagon and they scrambled up onto the bed before their obstreperous boss could interfere with the departure any longer. Frank pulled the wagon’s brake and flicked the reins with a clucking sound. “Hee up there!”

The horses leaned into the traces and the wagon moved off across the still damp ground toward the packed surface of the Pike, rumbling slightly. In a few minutes, the wagon had made it to the road and turned north. Several of the villagers watched them go, and Megan raised a hand to wave farewell to her husband, Harry, who waved back from the tailgate of the lorry-wagon as it moved slowly out of sight.

Jakey made a disgusted noise, gathered his remaining three helpers, and started trudging up the track toward the quarry. The villagers dispersed to their daily chores. William stood beside the path and frowned at his feet while Thomas crouched on his haunches nearby.

Amber and Sadie looked to William. Amber asked the question everybody was thinking. “Now what?”