The Death of Yorik Mortwell by Stephen Messer Read Free Book Online

coat.
It’s an apple tree
, said the image.
Now start climbing
.
    Yorik stood, startled. “Is that a ghost?”
    “Sort of,” said the Princess, twirling her twig. “It’s a memory.”
    Two flickering gray Dark Ones were hunched on the shoulders of the image. They spoke, sounding whispery and scratched.
The servant boy is very clever. He’ll find out what you did. Throw a rock. Throw a rock
.
    They repeated this again and again. The image bent, chose a rock, and threw it. The Princess twitched the twig, and the image vanished.
    “I’d find out what he did?” said Yorik, surprised. “What were they talking about?”
    “I don’t know.” The Princess shrugged. “But it’s only human business, so it can’t be very important. I have other things to worry about.” She looked at Erde.
    Yorik was worried about Erde too. She had dwindled since her encounter with the Dark Ones. She had stopped having conversations with ants, ordrawing in the dirt. She mostly huddled, slumped and motionless.
    “Are you sick?” Yorik asked.
    Erde nodded. “Sick,” she sniffled. A piece of mud fell from her mouth. Yorik noticed that the mud was drier than it had been. Erde was drying up, like the creek bed during a drought.
    “Can’t you help her?” said Yorik to the Princess.
    The Princess shook her head grimly. “I
could
,” she began, “but beastly Father—”
    Yorik was done with hearing about beastly Father. “What does that have to do with it? The Dark Ones can’t come near you. You have loads of power.” The Princess’s eyelashes fluttered. “True. But my power is limited to this glade because of—”
    “Beastly Father,” said Yorik.
    The Princess gave Yorik a withering look. “Yes. The instant any bit of me left my glade, he would know. And Erde’s sickness comes from outside. It comes from
them
.”
    All of Yorik’s attempts to repeat their word for the Dark Ones
—Yglhfm
—had only made the girls giggle nervously.
    “I don’t understand,” said Yorik, “why they make her sick.”
    The Princess and Erde exchanged searching looks.
    “Tell him,” grunted Erde weakly.
    “Are you sure?” said the Princess anxiously. “He’s only a human.”
    Erde looked at Yorik. “Not a human.”
    “It’s still a human,” objected the Princess. “Just a dead one, that’s all.”
    Erde wearily rumbled, “Tell him.” She closed her dark brown eyes.
    A wind blew through the glade. The trees and flowers stirred. Patterns flowed across the grass and across the surface of the pond. The light in the glade darkened.
    “Very well,” said the Princess. “I will show you who Erde is.” And to Yorik’s surprise, when she said that, her voice did not sound high and haughty as it usually did, but deeper and richer. It stirred and echoed in his mind. Goose bumps rose on his arms.
    The Princess stood and raised her leafy twig. Her glow deepened, and her gossamer dress grew black.
    “Be honored, boy,” she said. “This knowledge is a gift rarely given to one of human birth.”
    Suddenly the pale moon flickered and vanished. An instant later it reappeared.
    Yorik was no longer on the Estate. No, he was, but the land had changed. The trees and flowers were gone, and a river flowed through the glade where the pond had been. But he could see the four hills of the Estate rising up around him, four brown hills dotted with scrub.
    And he was alone.
    Yorik stood and walked to the nearest of the four hills, then ascended for a better view.
    Below, the river twisted and wound through the hills. Yorik knew there was no river on the Estate, only a small creek that flowed in a different place. He looked at it with interest, then was surprised to see a red lion rambling along the bank.
    Yorik looked toward the Manor.
    There was something there, not a manor, but some other kind of structure. It was high and arched, made of stones piled one on the other. It had a raw look that the Manor did not, as thoughcobbled together by hand. The