Moondance of Stonewylde (46 page)

‘ENOUGH!’ snarled Magus, his face once again dangerously pale and pinched. ‘I don’t—’

‘If you killed Yul before he reached adulthood, the Dark Angel would take you too!’ Clip continued gleefully, enjoying this rare opportunity to gain the upper hand over his brother. ‘Even if you organised his death indirectly, you’d die yourself, and—’

He stopped abruptly as Magus snatched up one of the empty coffee cups and smashed it down full force on the table. Magus looked nearly as shocked as Clip at this unexpected act of violence. His dark eyes locked into Clip’s pale ones in a look almost of supplication as he tried to bring his ragged breathing under control. His hand trembled as he began to carefully gather together the shattered pieces of bone china that now lay all over the coffee table and carpet.

‘What I meant, Clip,’ he said shakily, ‘is that I’m going to crush the boy completely. There’s no place at Stonewylde for someone who defies me the way he does. I am the magus and if he can’t accept my absolute authority, his days here are numbered. I’ll take pleasure in subduing him once and for all, or banishing him forever.’

‘Surely,’ said Clip quiet and sober now ‘rather than trying to destroy him, it’d be better to have him on your side? Heggy may be wrong. Her prophecy may never happen. If you had Yul as your ally, working by your side, maybe none of it will happen as she predicted. Maybe, when he reaches sixteen, he won’t rise up against you. Think about it, brother.’

‘I have,’ said Magus shortly. ‘I’ve thought about it a great deal. There’s something about Yul … some dark flame burning in him that I have to snuff out. He and I could never work together and I will never, ever let him become magus after me. Consequences or not, I’d see him dead first.’

Sylvie was scared. Restricted to her bed, she could think of nothing but the approaching full moon and almost wished she
were still under Clip’s hypnosis and living in blissful ignorance. She was virtually a prisoner since Magus had locked the outside door leading to the garden, and her mother never seemed to leave the sitting room, through which she’d have to pass to leave their rooms. She deeply resented having to stay in bed when there was nothing wrong with her. She wasn’t sick or weak; she felt absolutely fine and had already lost far too much of her life to the sick bed to accept this enforced and unnecessary bed-rest now. The moondancing at Hare Stone had restored her fully and she teemed with the dark red energy of the Harvest Moon, feeling stronger than ever. Lying in bed all day, even with books to read and studying to do, was driving her mad. And the food! Magus had trays of it sent up every meal time and she was expected to eat it all, but had no opportunity to work up an appetite.

Her mother was driving her crazy with her blind adherence to Magus’s instructions, constantly repeating how they must both do what he wanted and keep him happy. The worst of it was that Sylvie suspected her mother would act like this even without the hypnosis. She seemed to have lost every last shred of her former independence and objectivity. Sylvie was becoming increasingly anxious to see Yul and plan how to escape on the night of the Moon Fullness, which loomed ever closer.

Yul was frantic with frustration too. He plied Harold with questions and was told that Sylvie was kept locked in her room with all her meals sent up. It explained why he hadn’t seen her out and about, despite having hung around at every opportunity in all the places he might find her. He visited Mother Heggy, desperately hoping that she’d be able to help again. He was disappointed.

‘This Hunter’s Moon he’ll take her to the stone and there’s nought I can do.’

‘But why can’t you stop him again? It worked so well last time.’

She wheezed at him, pouring him a mug of some concoction.

‘Sit down, boy, and stop fidgeting. Drink this – no, ‘tis just a
drink. You’ve grown, Yul, did I tell you that? A young man now, as the Solstice comes closer. ‘Tis as well, for you’ll need a man’s qualities soon enough.’

She sat rocking back and forth, peering at him fondly as he downed the drink impatiently. The crow hopped along the table, pecking at scraps of meat with its black beak whilst a battered black cat crouched under the table twitching its tail.

‘Please, Mother Heggy, you
must
help! Sylvie can’t go up there again.’

‘If there were a way clear, I’d follow it. Do you think I want her to suffer? But ‘tis not yet time for the conflict, and till that day comes, he still rules and he still gets what he wants. Bide your time, boy, and have faith.’

‘But Mother Heggy, it’s dangerous!’

‘Aye, true enough, but she’s strong now. ‘Tis why I made sure she had the Harvest Moon at Hare Stone. With that red magic in her she’ll be strong enough for the Hunter. She can take it.’

He leapt up and banged the table hard with his fist, making the crow flutter aside and the cat growl.

‘I don’t
want
her to take it!’ he shouted, his face dark with anger. ‘I can’t bear her to go through that again! If you could see how she suffers …’

Mother Heggy nodded her wizened head, rocking fast in the creaking chair.

‘I have seen. Not your bright one, but my Raven, my poor little girl – I saw how she suffered. Every moon, every single moon, she were up there for years and years. I watched her getting weaker as first one man, then another fed off her magic, bled her dry. All that life draining from her, month after month. So don’t you think I don’t know! I know better than any what snake-stone does to a moongazy girl.’

‘But couldn’t you have stopped it? You were powerful, Mother Heggy, you were the Wise Woman with magic at your call. Why didn’t you stop it?’

She laughed harshly at this and pulled her shawl closely around her withered body, her eyes faraway.

‘Do you think I didn’t try? Do you think I stood by while they took my little one away? Of course I fought them! ‘Twas not so bad with the first one, with Basil. He were softer and he cared for her in his own selfish way, despite the forcing. He only wanted to lie with her at the Moon Fullness, and at first he took her into the woods or down to the river under the willows. But after the baby was born he came across the secret of the snake-stone at Mooncliffe and there was no stopping him then.’

‘Couldn’t you have hidden her away somewhere?’

‘Aye, I did everything I could to hide her, but then he captured her, kept my Raven in the tower at the Hall so’s I couldn’t see her. Locked my girl away when she had to roam wild and free. ‘Twould kill her to be in captivity so I got her out, one Dark Moon. I cast my circle and I got her out. But then the other one, Elm, he found out the secret too. He saw what went on at Mooncliffe and the magic my girl could draw down to that stone. He saw it one Moon Fullness, and Basil were dead within the month.’

Yul stared at her in astonishment.

‘You mean Magus’ father, Elm, he killed Clip’s father?’

She shrugged, plucking at the frayed shawl with bony claws as she rocked.

‘I saw nothing. But one moon Elm discovered the secret of the rock, the snake within that feeds and holds the magic deep in its coils. By the next moon Basil were dead, fallen sick and wasted to death in his bed. There were dark magic afoot there, and not my magic either. Somebody else’s hand, somebody who bore a grudge and wanted Basil dead. ‘Twas the Destroying Angel as finished him, and I know who brought
her
to the feast. There was only one other with knowledge enough.’

‘You mean he was poisoned by mushrooms – the Destroying Angel mushrooms? Does Clip know?’

‘He were only a babe-in-arms at the time. If anyone knew then they kept their silence. Elm was not to be crossed, and once he had the power of the moon magic in him too there were no stopping him. He took the mantle of magus and he took my
Raven too, every moon, up on that rock. He were an evil man much like this one now, cruel and hard and only looking out for himself, never for others. Wanting everyone to worship and obey him and destroying anyone who defied him. This one now, he hides it better. He can make people believe he’s a good master, however black and deadly his heart is underneath. But Elm – if he wanted something, he took it without planning and scheming as this one does. He knew I had some power and would stop him if I could, for he were far crueller to my girl than his brother afore him, rough and violent with her and I couldn’t bear her to be hurt. So he made a pact with me. If I let him bring Raven to Mooncliffe every Moon Fullness so he could take his fill, he’d let me keep her here all the other days of the month.’

‘But I still don’t see why you didn’t hex him, like you did my father at the Summer Solstice.’

The crow hopped from the table onto the chair-back and the old woman turned to whisper to him. He dropped onto her lap and hunched there, staring at Yul with his beady eyes.

‘I told you he were clever, that Elm. He had these papers writ and they were kept in the Outside World, locked away somewhere safe. Should anything happen to him – anything at all – the papers would be read. They told of Raven, of her moongaziness, but they twisted it. He read them to me so I knew. They spoke of her strangeness at the rising of the moon, of how she were wild and magical, but they made her sound a danger to folk. They said she were a madwoman, and Elm said that men would come from the Outside World, if they read them papers, and take my Raven from Stonewylde. They’d lock her away in the Outside World and she’d never be free again. So I could do nought for fear o’ them papers. ‘Twas like a binding spell – he had all the power and my magic was as nought.’

Yul shook his head. It was just the sort of thing Magus would do – clever and cruel.

‘I’m sorry, Mother Heggy. I didn’t realise.’

‘Aye, history repeats and the wheel turns. I know well how you feel, my Yul. You want only to protect her from his evil, but
Sylvie will survive this. He forces her to feed the snakes in the rock but nought else – it could be far worse.’

‘I was worried because I heard that Raven died up at Mooncliffe, and I thought …’

Mother Heggy nodded, her eyes gazing unseeing at the fireplace.

‘Aye, she died there, ‘tis true. ’Twas an eclipse and the moon magic is strange at times such as that. Different, more powerful, yet tainted and dark. Well, she lay on the rock as always, the moon was high and he’d done with her. I came up the path for her, same as every month, for she were too weak to walk alone after he’d taken his fill. Then the eclipse began, and the bright moon grew darker and darker as the jaw moved across, devouring it. My Raven started to groan with the pain of it. I tried to reach her, to pull her off the rock where the snake drank so greedily of this new dark magic, but the evil one held me back. He wouldn’t let me near her – he said he wanted to see her moongaziness under the eclipse. She moaned and she cried, like a hawk riding the winds she sounded, high and keen. But then, when the Bright Lady was all dark, all devoured, the crying stopped. My girl had gone.’

Her shrivelled hands caressed the crow in her lap and she sighed heavily, the breath rattling in her old lungs.

‘After a while he prodded her and saw she were dead. He cursed and cursed, ranting and raving, calling at the dark powers with every foul name, howling at the blood-red moon. He dragged her poor little body off the rock and threw her at me. I had to get her down from there, carry her all the way down the cliff path on my own.’

‘Mother Heggy, that’s awful. I’m so sorry.’

She got up and poked at the fire fiercely.

‘Aye, well, ‘twas a long time ago and he got his justice in the end. And ‘twas as well she passed on when she did, for her life was nought, just a vessel to be used by him for his greed. I hated that man, just as I hate this magus. They have the same lust in them, the same desire for power. I see it clear in this one and
he’ll get worse, just like his father did afore him. That power, that stolen moon magic, is a canker. ‘Twill eat into his soul and turn him bad, like a maggot in an apple, spoiling and rotting him. So, my Yul, never believe I don’t want to help. When the time comes, I’ll fight for you as I’ve done before. Every last drop of my magic will be yours when you need it. But ‘tis not yet time and I know the bright one can take this, though it hurts her. She’ll survive the Hunter’s Moon – Raven survived years of it.’

Yul stood up and the crow fluttered from her lap onto his shoulder, pecking at his ear.

‘Alright then,’ he said sadly. ‘I’ll have to accept it, unless I can think of a plan.’

‘No! You mustn’t force a battle yet! No plan, Yul – the time isn’t right and the wheel hasn’t yet turned full circle.’

‘But
when
will it be time? How much longer do I have to wait before I can destroy him? I feel strange at times, Mother Heggy, I feel this great need in me, this stirring of power and knowledge growing inside. There are things I must do and Stonewylde calls me to do them. I feel it at the Altar Stone when the green magic comes, but I feel it at other places too, in the woods, on the Village Green, at Hare Stone, by the river – everywhere! I feel Stonewylde calling to me. It must sound strange, but I know that I’m here to guard and protect Stonewylde and Magus isn’t. He’s forgotten what being the magus means. He thinks only of his own power and glory, not what Stonewylde and the folk need, and not what the Earth Mother wants of him. That’s why she no longer gives him her Earth Magic. When will his rule end, Mother Heggy?’

‘The Winter Solstice, my boy, that’s when.
Under blue and red, the fruit of his passion will rise up against him with the folk behind, at the time of brightness in darkness in the place of bones and death
. Be patient, Yul, and bide your time for ‘tis almost come and some of us have waited long for this. Remember what I told you. If we do it right, if we can keep on the path, those who stand against you will fall, one by one.’