Then there was something else in the air, a terrifyingly sad yet wonderful quality. Something hovered at the limits of understanding, reaching past the conscious mind to touch a more primitive and basic element of their emotions. With a quickening pulse, Gabbie found tears welling in her eyes, and she whispered, ‘What’s happening?’
Holding her close, Jack whispered back, ‘I don’t know, Gabbie. I don’t know.’ He breathed deeply, as if reaching to take control of the alien and powerful emotions that swept through him. Another deep breath, and he said, ‘Something strange is going on.’ He looked around. ‘I think over there.’
With those words, the spell was somehow broken. Whatever those astonishing and strange feelings were, they fled as he moved. She also breathed deeply, forcing herself to calm, and followed him.
Cautiously they moved through the woods towards the source of the sensations. As they climbed over a fallen tree trunk, Jack said, ‘I know where we are.’
Gabbie looked about and hadn’t the faintest notion where they were. Her attention had been riveted to Jack, and she suddenly felt concern that if anything happened to him she’d not have a hint on how to find help. ‘Where are we?’
He pointed with the dimming flashlight and softly said, ‘The Troll Bridge is over there, just beyond that other rise. From there the path goes straight to your back door.’
She nodded, relieved to know. Jack moved forward, like a soldier on patrol, slightly hunched over, body tensed, as if expecting an ambush. He worked his way through the trees, climbing a small rise. Near the top, he swore. ‘What is it?’ Gabbie asked.
‘Damn flashlight went out.’ She could hear him hitting it against the palm of one hand, but no light was forthcoming. After a futile attempt at wishing it back into life, Jack put the light in his back pocket. He glanced about, letting his eyes adjust to the gloom. ‘Come to me,’ he whispered.
Gabbie climbed up and could see him in the dark. ‘There’s a little moonlight,’ he offered, ‘but be careful. You get to where you think you can see and you can still fall and break a leg.’
‘Should we go back?’
‘It’s safer if we finish going up, then get the path on the other side of Erl King Hill. Come on.’ He held her hand and led her the rest of the way to the top of the rise. Abruptly his body tensed. Gabbie squeezed his hand. ‘What?’
Jack’s eyes were wide with astonishment. He could only point. For an instant Gabbie couldn’t see what had caused him to halt, then in the gloom she saw it. Across the bald top of Erl King Hill something moved. It was as if a cloud had passed before the moon, making shadows dance. Gabbie glanced up; the sky was clear, without stars because of the bright moon overhead. Slowly her eyes adapted to the light and she began to perceive something moving across the top of the hill. Shapes, suggestive of human form, seemed to be moving in rhythm, a swaying, orderly pavane to an unheard song. On the breeze came a faint tinkling, almost chimes, almost music. And a scent graced the air, a blending of spices and wildflowers, something alien yet familiar.
Jack rubbed at his eyes with his free hand, as if fearing that some affliction was responsible for the vision. Gabbie was about to speak when Jack pulled her back behind a tree. Something was approaching. Jack held Gabbie tight, and for some reason she was terribly afraid.
Something came through the night and it plunged Gabbie into a primitive emotional state, a childlike dread as some unknown terror approached in the dark. She clung to Jack. He stood firm, a rock to shelter under, her protector. In that instant something happened within Gabbie and she understood Jack would defend her. And in that instant her concern shifted from herself to Jack. Suddenly she was afraid of losing him.
The dread rose up within, and Gabbie knew something powerful and wicked loomed close at hand. Whatever it was came within touching distance. Gabbie buried her face against Jack’s chest and held her breath, overwhelmed by inexplicable fear. She felt a presence manifest itself nearby, then around them, and whatever it was knew they were hiding behind the tree and was about to reach for them, and if it touched them they would both be lost. Primitive recognition came into focus, and a scream rose in Gabbie’s throat.
Then the presence vanished. Gabbie checked the urge to shriek and run, swallowing her own fear. She felt Jack rock-hard with tension, breathing in rapid, shallow rhythm. Whatever had been approaching had turned away, and the sense of dread had turned away with it. Gabbie dug her fingers into Jack’s shirt and listened but the evil presence, the thing of nameless horror, had gone.
In the dark they heard only the sounds of the night, the breeze moving the ancient branches, the rustle of leaves blowing through the woods. A scampering sound here and there would alert them to the passage of a night creature, perhaps a red squirrel fleeing the approach of an owl, or a racoon foraging nearby.
Gabbie gasped a deep breath, a feeling of relief surging through her. She felt Jack slowly relax. He whispered, ‘You okay?’
She whispered back, ‘Yes. What the hell was all that?’
‘I don’t know.’ He led her away from the bole of the tree and glanced over the rise. Whatever they had seen before seemed to have vanished without a trace. After a silent moment Jack said, ‘What did you see there?’
Gabbie hesitated, not certain. ‘Something. Vague shapes. Maybe that light you talked about when we were riding. You know, St Elmo’s fire. Anyway, it was pretty dim.’
Jack remained silent for a long time. At last he said, ‘Yes, that must have been it.’
‘Why? What did you see?’
Jack looked at her, his face white in the moonlight. ‘You’re going to think I’m crazy, but I could have sworn for the first moment that I saw a bunch of people dancing across the top of the hill, all dressed up in robes and gowns. Then suddenly it was like looking through a fog.’
Without conviction she said, ‘Too much brandy?’
‘Maybe. But one thing is certain, it was weird.’ He took her by the hand and led her over the rise, down towards the path home. ‘From now on, when I hear strange stories about these woods I think I’ll take them a little more seriously.’
Resuming their walk, Gabbie reviewed what had happened. As they left Erl King Hill, the memory of the figures on the hill became faint, less distinct, until she was certain she had only imagined recognizable shapes, and the terror had been some unreasoning fear in the dark. As they crossed the Troll Bridge and made their way towards home, Gabbie became more and more certain she had been the victim of her own imagination.
‘Jack?’
‘What?’
‘This is going to sound dumb, but … what did we see on the hill back there?’
Jack faltered a moment, as if the question surprised him, then fell back into step. ‘What …? Something … I don’t know. I think it was a trick of the light. Why? Worried?’
She said not, then fell silent. She couldn’t imagine why she had been so worked up over a few strange movements in the distance. She was certain that what she and Jack had seen was but shadows and moonlight playing across the bald hill. And her mind was quickly losing its fascination with mysteries in the dark woods. It was turning to the question of her feelings for Jack. And that was enough of a mystery for her.
Behind them, in the gloom, he stepped out from behind a tree, while the sound of the dancers carried past him on the wind. He was black and featureless as he hid from mortal eyes. Then he willed the mask changed and suddenly he was stunning in his beauty, a figure of awesome perfection. His eyes were blue, like the ice of a frozen lake in a winterscape never seen by mortals, and his movements were supple, and he seemed to flow across the landscape without sound. His form was encased in a faint glow, and around him hovered the scent of spices and wildflowers. He was light and beauty and he was evil. He watched until Jack and Gabbie vanished from his sight, then he turned to face in the direction of the other. Her presence so near had halted him as he had thought to trouble the two mortals passing by. Only she could challenge his will. Only she had enough power to possibly balk him. With anger mixed with a hint of fear, he laughed, and the night’s blackness was rent by the sound. With a smile that held no humour, he bowed in the direction of the Queen’s court and vanished.
Upon the distant hillock the Queen’s court paused in their dance, for the music halted. The musicians turned as one, looking past the dancers into the night. All shivered, for they knew he was again upon the night, taking unto himself that which he desired, and save for the Queen’s protection, all were at his mercy. They were afraid, for to hear the sound of his laughter was to hear madness.
• Chapter Fourteen • (#ulink_617f9e09-549c-5b51-a2ad-3e857a092f47)
Gloria jumped slightly at the sound of the kitchen door slamming. For just an instant she heard another sound in the distance, the sound of laughter. She put aside her discomfort as she heard Gabbie’s and Jack’s voices. Gloria thought she’d see how they were doing, then decided the intimate, low tones of conversation indicated any interruption would be unwelcome. Given Gabbie’s obvious attraction to the young man from North Carolina, Gloria decided to let things lie.
She glanced over to where Phil sat studying some notes for the next day’s work. Then she heard Patrick’s voice shouting from the boys’ room. ‘Mom! Dad!’ She was out of her chair and moving towards the stairs without thought. The boy’s tone had been excited, not alarmed, but Phil followed his wife with an expression of concern on his face, wondering why she was so jumpy.
They entered the boys’ room to find both of them seated upon their toy chest, gazing out the window with rapt expressions on their faces. Sean said, ‘Wow!’ drawing out the exclamation. Patrick echoed his brother.
Out by the barn, a dozen tiny lights hung in the night air, pinpoints of blue-green glow, moving through the murk, blinking on and off. ‘Neat!’ said Patrick.
Phil laughed. ‘Fireflies, boys. You think this is something? One good rain and there’ll be thousands of them out there. We’ll get a mason jar and catch some.’ To his wife he said, ‘You know, I completely forgot about lightning bugs. It’s the sort of thing you take for granted when you grow up with them. I didn’t think about how the kids would feel seeing them for the first time.’
Gloria smiled. Something was making her jumpy and she felt foolish at her alarm. Still, she was the mother. ‘Okay, back to bed.’
‘Aw, Mom,’ both boys said as one.
‘Can’t we watch a little longer?’ asked Sean, his voice pleading.
‘Well, for a while. But I’m coming back in ten minutes, and if you’re not in bed, I’ll …’
Both boys grinned. This was not a real threat. ‘We’ll go right to bed,’ assured Patrick. Everyone knew the boys would be under the covers only as soon as they heard their mother’s footfalls upon the stairs.
‘Okay, then. Ten minutes.’
Phil put his arm around his wife’s waist. ‘Next year you’ll hear the peepers.’
‘What’s peepers?’ asked Sean.
‘Spring peepers,’ answered their father. ‘Little frogs, about the size of a pencil eraser; they make the loudest sound. It’s fun.’
‘Neat,’ said Patrick.
