‘What madness possessed you? Crossing the boundary. Your mischief risked us all.’
‘They would have killed me if I’d stayed. You know that, Cade. You too, had they thought us partners in witchcraft.’ She shook her head, wincing in regret. ‘I was so sure nothing was there.’ She laughed as if realising a poor joke. ‘Throne forgive me.’
‘They mean to hang you still, Abi. They believe you to be a witch.’
‘A fine word for a woman who questions their thinking.’
‘Do you think I jest?’ Cade said, irritated by her remark. ‘We cannot return until we have planned what to tell them.’
‘I know exactly what to tell them, Cade,’ she said with a hopeful smile. ‘I’ll need to speak to Mother Alder. She’ll understand.’ Now it was her turn to shake him. ‘We know the truth, Cade. No orphan must ever leave the Cradle and now we know why.’
‘What do you speak of, Abi?’
‘The boundary stones, Cade. They stand for our protection. I’ve read about them in the ancient texts. I think they divert spirit matter, the energies of the earth, in such a way as to hide us from what’s out there.’
Cade shivered. ‘From the Nothings?’
She steadied him with a zealous grip. ‘I fled because of doubt. Now I return to the Cradle with a faith stronger than ever, with proof of the Horned Throne’s power.’
The earth shuddered.
Cade looked about him, searching for the source of the tremor. The great boundary stone shifted beyond the pines. It lurched like an enormous tooth loose in its socket. Then it cracked, bursting into rubble as it collapsed in a cloud of dust.
Before he could comprehend the impossibility of what he had just seen, Cade felt a familiar chime in his head. It passed through him like a seismic wave, leaving him feeling somehow cleansed, liberated. He felt he could pinpoint every cricket chittering in every thicket about him.
Abi was screaming.
The boundary stone adjacent to the one that had just fallen was itself crumbling from view. Its death howl resounded with a tenor too substantial to have been a mere echo. Cade knew the ring of stones that surrounded the valley was collapsing, one stone after the other. He stumbled under the weight of his realisation and toppled into Abi who knelt now beside him, sobbing and pleading.
‘What have I done? Oh, Horned Throne, forgive me.’
Cade felt weightless, dizzy with loss. The Cradle was no more. His home since infancy had been invaded by the Lands Beyond, and whatever vengeful energies dwelt there. The dust that lingered where the boundary stone once stood blew apart as if at a sudden breeze. Abi saw it too, though she looked away, wincing in pain.
Something stood there, he knew, the dust disappearing around it, as if the stone and whatever sacred energies it possessed were repelled, shattered by the very presence of its conqueror.
Cold fear squirmed in Cade’s belly, wriggling through his guts like an eel, as a half-glimpsed silhouette moved through the dust towards him.
And several more followed.
Cade fled with Abi back through the pines, numbly aware of the branches slashing his cheeks, tearing at his hair. They eventually broke from the line of trees, welcomed by the gushing stream that would lead them all the way back to the village. They paused for a moment, hands on trembling legs as they caught their breath. The Horned Father watched them from atop the darkened Tor, His curled horns bowed as if in mourning.
‘We have to warn them,’ gasped Cade. ‘The village. They need to know what’s coming. What we’ve done. Even if they kill us for it.’
Abi lowered her head and nodded, sobs punctuating each gasping breath.
He took her hand and they slid together down a high bank of dirt and roots. Cade relished the reckless speed of their descent, thankful for the distance it put between him and whatever drifted after them through the pines above. They rolled onto a grassy bank in a cloud of dirt.
The meadow lay empty before them, the stream a glittering path, merry with faun lights. They had a clear run, but men carrying torches and muskets were already lumbering up the rocks to their left. Cade went to hide Abi in the plunging stream, but Barrion had already seen them. By the time the others were aware of their quarry, the master hunter had an arrow aimed at the chest of his former apprentice.
Cade froze, covering Abi, though he knew the shaft would go straight through him at such close range. The arrow’s tip did not tremble and Cade caught himself marvelling at the unfamiliar clarity with which he could see Barrion’s blue eyes piercing the darkness, stark and merciless.
‘Did she cross the boundary?’ asked Barrion, his voice cold.
Cade knew the truth would earn him instant death. ‘Hear me, all of you,’ he said. ‘Something’s coming.’
‘Did an orphan leave the Cradle?’ Barrion said.
Haylan the smith growled beside him, his face wolfish with rage. ‘Why else would the boundary stones have fallen, Barrion? The Father’s wrath is upon us. Killing that witch now might at least curb our sorrows.’
Abi snarled back at him. ‘Don’t think I wouldn’t meet death in glad payment for the ruin I’ve caused, Haylan. But you need to listen. Something followed us through those trees. Something that means to kill us all.’
Another man cried out. ‘The village!’
Everyone turned to look. Smoke was streaming from the distant thatched roofs. Cade staggered back at the sound of ghostly screams carried on the breeze. Abi seized him and thrust her head into his chest.
‘I’m sorry,’ she sobbed, repeating the words until they choked her. He hadn’t the strength to catch her as she dropped to her knees and vomited at his feet. The men ignored them, bellowing in outrage, most of them now fleeing back across the meadow. Cade reeled at the thought that there might be yet more pursuing spirits, that the destruction of the boundary stones may have permitted some kind of invasion. Abi caught his shoulder as she hauled herself upright, her eyes dazed, jaw slack and dripping.
‘I know a place,’ she croaked, then raised her voice to shout after the fleeing mob. ‘Upstream,’ she cried. ‘Come with us! There’s a fissure in the rock beneath the Tor. Within there are tunnels through which we could escape.’
But the men had already fled. Only Barrion remained, staggering on the spot, staring at the ground as if it might disclose a solution to this madness.
Cade caught her. ‘What tunnels?’
‘The Iron Caves,’ said Abi. ‘The scrolls say they were explored by our forebears.’ She called to Barrion, imploring. ‘There are passages within, passages that could lead us to the Lands Beyond.’
Barrion looked up at her. Cade knew that ravenous glare. It was the last thing seen by countless beasts the instant before an arrow entered their eye.
Barrion’s arrow whispered past Cade’s ear as he threw Abi into the tumbling stream. She disappeared into the rushing waters and Cade leaped after her. A vortex of freezing water enveloped him, seconds before disgorging them both a short distance below.
