Winter Wood by Steve Augarde Read Free Book Online Page B

hear? Bring Tadgemole to me. I must meet with him
.
    Massie peered fearfully into the mist that came drifting over the lip of the cave. A pale and unearthlycreature was standing there, half illuminated by the flicker of the lavender lamps. It was looking at her. Some heathen thing . . . with silvery mane and tail . . . and wings. A horse!
    The guttering taper dropped from Massie’s hand as she backed away. She would have to give up her post as lamplighter if such outlandish beings were to keep appearing at the wind-hole.
    Henty shrank back into the shadows, trying to make sure that her father didn’t see her. He would be angrier than ever with her if he knew that she was spying on him, but she was curious to learn why this astonishing creature had come to the caves – the winged horse. And now that she had heard what he had to say, she could not leave.
    She watched as Tadgemole drew his heavy cloak about his shoulders and spoke again to Pegs.
    â€˜How did you learn of this?’ he said. ‘And why should I heed the word of one such as you?’
    I speak the truth, Tadgemole, and I learn as you do – from that which I see and hear. You will be deserted. All that dwell in the forest fear the coming of the Gorji, and now Maglin makes plans to leave. Not this day, perhaps, nor the morrow, but within a moon he is like to go, and all his tribe with him, to seek for safer lands. Many others of the Wisp and Naiad may follow him also in the end, I fear.
    Tadgemole turned from Pegs and stared at the ground. When at last he raised his head again, his expression had changed. The deep lines around his jaw had hardened, and his voice cracked with anger.
    â€˜So. Maglin would run. We come to this then – aye, and as I always knew in my heart that we should. The heathen Ickri would desert us all to save their own skins. They were ever thus – faithless cowards, for all their braggardly talk. And Maglin has shown himself to be the worst of them. So now they plan to steal shameless into the night. Fools.’ Tadgemole took a deep breath. ‘Like scavenging foxes they came here, and like foxes they run. Well, away with them, then. Why should I care? I’ll not be sorry to see their tails.’
    You should not wish to see them go, Tadgemole. Without the Ickri archers to guard the tunnels and keep watch from the treetops this will be a more dangerous place. There will be no warning if the giants should come. And remember this: if the Ickri leave, then the Stone will leave with them also. Though Maglin has no belief in such things, yet he is Keeper of the Stone by right, and he will take it with him.
    Tadgemole looked at Pegs once more. ‘Ah yes. The Touchstone. And what of you,
horse
? Where is your purpose in this? I cannot recall that you have ever shown a care towards my people before. Why do you come to warn us now? What do you seek to gain?’
    My purpose is common to yours, Tadgemole, and becomes ever clearer to me as the seasons pass. I seek only what you seek, and hope but to gain what you would gain – the return of the Orbis, and the pathway to Elysse.
    â€˜The Orbis? Now there is a word I rarely hear, and I wonder to hear it now from so strange a one as you. The Orbis was lost to us longseasons ago, my friend – taken from here for safekeeping when the thievingIckri first returned from the northlands. What would a Naiad horse know of such things?’
    I am not of the Naiad – nor alike to any animal of their breeding. I know that the Orbis was carried to safety by a Gorji maid, lest Corben, false King of the Ickri, should steal it from the cave-dwellers. The maid was named Celandine, and a friend she was to your kind. You sing of her still.
    â€˜Aye, we do.’ Tadgemole put his head to one side and studied the winged beast before him. ‘I have given thought to you many times,’ he said, ‘and often wondered at your being. I know your