The girl
stopped and turned to them, as if she was waiting. She mouthed something incomprehensible.
As she saw Honora set a tentative foot on to the ice, she turned and proceeded
out into the middle of the lake. Honora looked back at Ella, who nodded almost
imperceptibly. She began to walk across the ice. Ella left the others and
followed her.
Lee's protests strangled in his throat.
He found himself following the two women out on to
the lake, with Brad staying close behind him. It was if the four of them were
roped together. When the girl came to a halt, they all stopped short.
She looked
back at them again. Then she scuffed at the ice with the edge of her shoe. She
scraped away a layer of snow and scratched at the ice, never averting her gaze
from them. She looked away only to stoop and to rub at the tiny clearing she
had scratched in the snow. Then she moved away from the clearing she had made
and stood at a distance.
Honora was
the first to approach. She looked through the cleared patch to the gluey grey
formations of ice beneath. What did it mean? Honora and Ella looked to the girl
for an answer, but she had turned defiantly towards the shore.
Brad had
reached the cleared space and was on his knees, rubbing at the surface of the
ice with an outstretched hand and peering at the geometric shapes below.
—There's something there—he said.
The others turned slowly.
—There's something there. I can see it.
Under the ice—
—What? What is it?—Lee kneeled beside
him.
—It's under the ice. It's trying to get
out—
—What can you see there?—
—It's trying to get out! IT WANTS TO GET OUT FROM UNDER THE ICE!—
—Tell us what you see!—Ella commanded.
But Brad was half-crazed. He seemed to
detect a new movement.—
It's
moving! It's trapped.
Look! It's trying to get out of there! It wants to get out!—
Suddenly his body went
rigid,
his breath coming in short gulps.
Lee bundled him aside
and began pawing at the ice himself, clearing away the snow on the surface. In
mounting horror he saw what Brad had seen. It was an image of Brad beneath the
ice, hoary and encrusted, bruised and blackened and floating like a corpse— but
it wasn't dead. It was waving rigidly, pressing against the under surface,
mouthing silent words that distorted the face, trying to find a way out.
The image of Brad was
not alone. Three other figures floated there.
Images of Lee,
Ella and Honora, all pressing against the ice and mouthing unheard cries.
They were all prisoners.
Now they all saw it.
They were hypnotized by the revelation. They were fixed, locked into the images
of themselves, gazing down in horror at this shivering incarnation of their
enjoined destinies. They felt the elemental cold slowly beginning to transfer
itself to them, to still the flow of their blood.
—We're
trapped—whispered Honora.—
It's
the dream within the
dream—
Lee looked to Ella, but
her eyes were on the little girl. The girl was kneeling on the frozen lake,
hands clasped in anguish beneath her chin like someone at prayer, eyes
streaming with tears as she sobbed uncontrollably. Ella was mesmerized. Lee saw
in Ella's eyes a glitter, like sunlight on frost, of the mad priestess. He
realized with shock and admiration that she was about to take charge. Her
confidence fluttered around her like a protective cloak.
—Keep moving! Don't
stand still! We have to undo what was done!—Ella's words eclipsed everything.
She had remembered the golden thread she had been spinning before falling
asleep. It came out like a formula, like a spell.
—Church and steeple!
Door and people!—She was yelling at them, without shifting her eyes from the
kneeling, weeping girl
.—
Faith and desire! We have to
end our mistrust! No more indifference! Honora, take your curse from Brad's
head! Do it
now!
—
—How can
I ?—
—Just lift it! Lift the
curse!—
—But it's only words!
Words are not real things!—
—Just! Lift! It!—
—I unmake it I unmake
it I unmake it!—Honora was screaming. She was hysterical. She wanted to run to
the girl but Ella held her back.
—Open the door! We must
open the door! Can't you see it! Open the door and the people will escape! Here
are the people! We are the people! Dream a hole in the ice!—
But Ella didn't wait
for the others. She turned her gaze on the clearing of snow, at the figures
floating beneath the ice. Remaining perfectly still she recalled all the
forgotten powers of dreaming and focused them on the submerged figures. She was
willing the ice to melt. Lee and Brad were activated by her raw energy. They
followed her lead blindly, standing perfectly still, concentrating their
minds, dreaming a hole in the frozen water. And slowly the ice began to melt.
None of them heard
Honora moaning softly.—I've been in this dream before! You must stop! I've seen
this!—
It was too late. Tiny
hairline cracks suddenly began to appear in the ice, multiplying and
discharging in all directions. There was a thudding sound from somewhere
beneath them, like the banging together of great ice floes or the grinding of
huge rocks.
—No! No!—
Now Lee saw what Honora
was most afraid of. It was his turn to panic.—
We
have
to get off the ice!—
—Not yet! Break open
the ice!
Dream open
the door! Release the people! Here
is your golden thread, Lee!—Ella still commanded the situation.
The lake answered. From
deep, deep under the ice came a low, blasphemous groan. There was a series of
dull, sonorous thuds like distant detonations, followed by a terrible tearing
sound. The ice began to tremble.
—Wait! Wait!—
This time the sound of
groaning and splitting sounded loudly in their ears and a violent tremor in the
ice sent them rocking. Ella staggered backwards. The cracks in the ice expanded
into jagged black forks, splitting off in all directions. Lee saw that Honora
and Brad were paralyzed. They wanted to escape from the lake but were unable to
tear themselves away. Ella was still locked into the consummation of the
ritual she had initiated. He couldn't seem to make her hear him. She was
entranced by the ugly, multiplying fractures in the ice. Lee shook her
violently. She looked back at him as though he were someone from another world.
It was like looking across time.
The ice was splitting
everywhere. Ella came to her senses. She took hold of Honora. Lee propelled
both of them towards the bank. They clung to each other, slipping and skidding
as they tried to scramble off the ice. With the sound of ice splitting and
splintering around them, Lee hoisted Brad off his knees; but in flailing and
staggering wildly Brad brought them both down. Lee tried to struggle to his
feet but Brad clung desperately to his legs. The two men slithered hopelessly.
Ella and Honora stood
on the edge of the bank screaming at them. Brad groped blindly at Lee, dragging
him back. At last they scrambled to the edge, where the two women pulled them
to safety.
—The girl!—said
Honora.—Where is the girl?
No one answered. Behind
them was a mass of deep interlacing cracks, darting across the lake like
snakes' tongues and splitting still farther as they watched. Then the ice began
to groan like a wounded primeval beast, folding against itself and crushing upwards,
breaking up in huge slabs which collapsed in clouds of steam. Churning grey
waters tossed in the air, waters that broiled and bubbled and released
billowing jets of cloud.
A wind of hurricane
strength blew up from nowhere, or from within the depths of the lake itself. It
threatened to pick them up like straws. The willows screamed as the wind tore
through their dead branches, and the old charred oak creaked and leaned with
the wind. Ella stood behind its huge trunk, her hair whipping in her eyes as she
called to the others, urging them to make a chain around the tree. But the wind
stole the words off her mouth as she reached out for Lee and pulled him to her.
Honora saw them, and with the hurricane shrieking and raging around her and the
water boiling behind her, she took hold of Brad's outstretched arm and battled
to reach Lee and Ella.
—Circle the tree!
Circle the tree!—Ella was mouthing orders that none of the others could hear.
The lake was now a boiling cauldron, releasing great geysers of water and
steam thirty feet into the air. Huge waves radiated from the centre, buffeted
by the wind and crashing on the banks of the lake, hissing and sizzling as they
fell on frozen earth. Lee guessed what Ella was trying to do. He threaded his
way around the tree trunk, inching into the full force of the hurricane,
pulling the chain of the others after him. Circling the tree, he was able to
link arms with Honora, but the force of the wind pressed him flat against the
blackened trunk like a pin on a magnet. On the other side, Ella linked arms
with Brad.
The earth at their feet
was scooped up in giant handfuls and flung around their heads and into the
lake. The wind was digging them out. The ruined oak creaked and groaned and
leaned. The angry wind clawed like a live thing at the ground, throwing up
earth and exposing its roots. It seemed that even the tree might be dug out and
dragged into the lake. The four clung grimly to each other's arms, faces
pressed against the charred trunk. Ella thought that if only they were able to
hold on they might have a chance.
But the hurricane
shrieked and howled like a thing enraged, and Ella slipped and fell as the
earth was dug out from under her feet. The wind ripped up clods of earth and
loose soil, tossing it in the air and lashing it at their faces. The others
held her up as she found new footing on the exposed roots. Then the roots
themselves curled and bent in the wind as if twisted by a giant fist. They
began to snap, were torn off and bulleted into the lake. The tree groaned and
leaned with the wind. It was being dug out of the earth.
Then Lee felt Honora
stiffen, and saw her mechanically turn her head towards the boiling lake. Her
features reset themselves in that familiar gaze. Her face was ivory. He felt
her loosen her grip, as if she wanted to be taken by the wind, as if her
resistance was exhausted. He knew that she was going into the lake.
—No Honora! No!—
The
wind lifted the words from his lips.
Ella saw what was
happening.—Stop her!—
—I can see her in the
water! She wants me! I'm going to her
!—
Honora slipped
Lee's arm. He lunged to pull her back, but she fell away easily.
—Hold her! Keep her
there!—Ella called out to Brad, knowing that somewhere in the storm he too was
holding Honora. Then she felt Lee stumble towards her and a sudden absence of
pressure at her other hand.
Brad had slipped Ella's
hold and had gone with Honora. Ella and Lee slithered to the base of the tree,
clinging to its exposed roots. They saw Honora plunge into the raging water,
crying out unintelligibly into the heart of the storm. It was Brad who plunged
in after her and dragged her, kicking and thrashing and screaming, out onto the
bank. Then he fell or dived back into the water. Fell or dived they would never
know, but they saw him look back at them as he was dragged under. Lee grabbed
Honora and brought her weeping to the tree, where the three of them clung like
survivors of a shipwreck groping for a plank of driftwood.
As quickly as it had
appeared, the wind dropped, and the waters on the lake calmed. Brad did not
come up again. The three lay
panting,
exhausted on the
bank of the lake. Already it was beginning to ice over. Then the dream broke.
EPILOGUE
I
do not know
whether I was then a man dreaming
I was a
butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly
dreaming
I am a man
—Chuang
Tzu, 3rd century BC
Ella checked her face in the
hotel room mirror. After packing and
clearing her room
she decided to forgo breakfast and leave early. Carrying her split-leather
holdall down the stairs, she crossed the polished parquet floor to the
reception desk, where she learned that Lee had already taken care of the bill.
She was grateful for that since money was going to be a problem for a while.
Then she went outside and crossed the deserted hotel car park, unlocking the
door of the Midget before swinging her bag on to the passenger seat.
The
sun was well up in the sky. The morning was fresh but tranquil, and it promised
to be a beautiful spring day. She readjusted the soft-top of the Midget to its
down position, and the clip which Lee had repaired for her came apart in her
hands.
Since there was no one else around, Ella allowed
herself another weep, last one before leaving.
"Come
on, Innes, you'll see worse than this," she said into a crumpled tissue.
But she was crying for a whole host of things. Ella had agreed to stay behind
for a few days to tidy up the details. In the end, she had felt most
responsible, particularly for Brad.