Mythago Wood - 1 by Robert Holdstock Read Free Book Online Page B

the time of the Urscumug
itself!'
    'And each of those earlier forms of the girl will be in the wood too?'
    Christian shrugged. 'The old man saw none, and nor have I. But they must be
there.'
    'And what is her story, Chris?'
    He looked at me peculiarly. 'That's hard to say. Our dear father tore the
pages about Guiwenneth from his diary. I have no idea why, or where he hid them.
I only know what he told me. Oral tradition again.' He smiled. 'She was the
child to the younger of two sisters, by a young warrior banished to a secret
camp in the wild-woods. The elder sister was the wife of one of the invaders,
and she was both barren and jealous, and stole the girl child. The child was
rescued by nine hawks, or somesuch, sent by her father. She was brought up in
the forest communities all around the country, under the guardianship of the
Lord of Animals. When she was old enough, and strong enough, she returned,
raised the ghost of her warlord father, and drove the invaders out.'
    'Not much to go on,' I said.
    'A fragment only,' Christian agreed. "There is something about a bright
stone, in a valley that breathes. Whatever else the old man learned about her,
or from her, he has destroyed.'
    'Why, I wonder?'
    Christian said nothing for a moment, then added, 'Anyway, legends of
Guiwenneth inspired many tribes to take offensive action against the invader,
whether they were Wessex Chieftain, which is to say, Bronze Age, Stonehenge and
all that; Belgic Celts, which is to say Iron Age; or Romans.' His gaze became
distant for a moment. 'And then she was formed in this wood, and I found her and
came to love her. She was not violent, perhaps because the old man himself could
not think of a woman being violent. He imposed a structure on her, disarming
her, leaving her quite helpless in the forest.'
    'How long did you know her?' I asked, and he shrugged.
    'I can't tell, Steve. How long have I been away?'
    'Twelve days or so.'
    'As short as that?' He seemed surprised. 'I thought more than three weeks.
Perhaps I knew her for no time at all, then, but it seems like months. I lived
in the forest with her, trying to understand her language, trying to teach her
mine, speaking with signs and yet always able to talk quite deeply. But the old
man pursued us right to the heartwoods, right to the end. He wouldn't let up -
she was his girl, and he had been as struck by her as had I.I found him,
one day, exhausted and terrified, half buried by leaves at the forest edge. I
took him home and he was dead within the month. That's what I meant by his
having had a reason for attacking me. I took Guiwenneth from him.'
    'And then she was taken from you. Shot dead.'
    'A few months later, yes. I became a little too happy, a little too content.
I wrote to you because I had to tell someone about her . . . clearly that
was too much for fate. Two days later I found her in a glade, dying. She might
have lived if I could have got help to her in the forest, and left her there. I
carried her out of the wood, though, and she died.' He stared at me and the
expression of sadness hardened to one of resolve. 'But when I'm back in the
wood, her myth image from my own subconscious has a chance of being formed . . .
she might be a little tougher than my father's version, but I can find her
again, Steve, if I look hard, if I can find that energy you asked about, if I
can get into the deepest part of the wood, to that central vortex . . .'
    I looked at the map again, at the spiral field around the hogback glade.
'What's the problem? Can't you find it?'
    'It's well defended. I get near it, but I can't ever get beyond the field
that's about two hundred yards around it. I find myself walking in elaborate
circles even though I'm convinced I've walked straight. I can't get in, and
what-ever's in there can't get out. All the mythagos are tied to their genesis
zones, although the Twigling, and Guiwenneth too, could get to the very edge of
the forest, down by the pool.'
    But that wasn't true!