Читать книгу Circles of Stone - Ian Johnstone - Страница 9

“Sylva is a town as strange and beguiling as any in faery folklore, lost as it is in folds of earth, wrapped in a tangle of trees.”

FILIMAYA EMBRACED SIMIA FIRST, holding her tight and bending down to kiss the top of her head. Then she went straight to Sylas and embraced him too, in a way that surprised him: not a formal greeting, but warm and heartfelt. For a moment he felt awkward, holding his arms at his sides. No one had held him like this since his mother had been taken away. But her warmth was infectious and slowly he drew his arms around her.

“Thank you for returning to us, Sylas,” whispered Filimaya. There was a pause. “And who did you bring with you?”

Sylas turned. There, walking down the gangway from the ship, was Naeo. As was her way, she seemed at ease, her hands tucked into the pockets of her coat, eyeing the crowd of onlookers and paying little attention to the reunion.

“That’s Naeo,” he said, instinctively taking a step away from the gangway. “I thought … I thought you might know her. She’s Bowe’s daughter.”

Filimaya raised a hand to her lips. “Of course …” she said. She took a step in the girl’s direction. “Naeo, daughter of Bowe, my precious child! We thought you were—”

“Naeo is my Glimmer,” said Sylas, abruptly.

Filimaya froze. The gathering of Suhl fell silent. Everyone turned to face him.

“What was that?” someone hissed behind him, and another: “Did he say his Glimmer?”

There was a gale of hushes, everyone straining to hear what was said next.

But Filimaya seemed lost for words. Her eyes narrowed a little, searching his face; she tilted her head as though struggling to understand. Then she glanced at Naeo, who returned her gaze without expression.

Finally Filimaya smiled. “Well you never cease to surprise us, Sylas!” she said. There were a few nervous laughs from the crowd. “You must forgive my awkwardness. I find myself entirely unsure how to address you both.”

“The same as ever,” said Simia with a careless shrug, as if it was perfectly clear. “Sylas is still Sylas and Naeo is Naeo. The only thing is—”

“We prefer not to be together,” said Naeo. For the first time everyone turned to face her, taking in her slender features and calm, measured voice.

“There’s no reason to treat us any differently,” said Sylas. “It’s just that Naeo and I … find each other … difficult.”

“Madness, isn’t it?” came a voice from beyond the crowd. It was Ash, strolling down the gangway from the Windrush. “All that blasted effort to get them together and now they can’t wait to be apart!” He smiled and nodded at various faces that he knew, clearly enjoying his entrance.

Filimaya paused, clearly still preoccupied by Sylas and Naeo, her eyes shifting between them. Finally she turned to the young man and smiled. “Welcome, Ash. You still have your knack for timing, I see.”

Ash’s arrival was indeed a welcome distraction. Many of the Suhl were soon jockeying for position to shake Ash’s hand, bidding him their personal welcome to the valley, and the same people then naturally turned their attention to the other travellers, swamping them with enthusiastic greetings. Simia in particular seemed to enjoy the deluge of well-wishers and beamed from ear to ear as she realised that she had achieved something approaching celebrity status. She walked around, offering her gracious hand to all who approached and many who did not.

Naeo, however, seemed far less comfortable. She shook hands and gave faint smiles, but she seemed distant and uncomfortable, looking at times tired and at others as though she wished to be anywhere else. Sylas too had slipped back a little into the crowd, distancing himself from Naeo.

Filimaya noticed this and raised her hands to call for silence. It took some while for the gathering to come to order.

“Friends! Friends!” shouted Filimaya. “Our guests have been travelling for days and who knows what perils they have faced. We must show them some hospitality and give them time to rest!”

A small hollow-cheeked man stepped forward. “But Filimaya, surely we can just ask a little of what they have seen?” he protested in a dry, wasted voice. “After all, the things we have been hearing on the winds have us all terribly worried! And just this morning the chatter among the birds has changed. I am no expert, but they would seem to suggest that Thoth is beginning to—”

Filimaya raised her hand in a calming gesture. “I understand your concerns, Dropka, and we all share them. But just look at our visitors! They are pale and they clearly haven’t slept in days. They have come here for sanctuary, not to be interrogated. What kind of hosts would you have us be?”

The man shrank a little. “I don’t mean to be impolite,” he said, dropping his eyes. “It’s just—”

“I understand,” said Filimaya, “of course I do, but there will be plenty of time for us to discuss these things tomorrow.”

There was a general murmur of agreement from the gathering. The man gave a bow and quickly retreated into the crowd.

“Good, then!” said Filimaya brightly. She walked over to Ash, embraced him and gestured to a rather portly woman in the front row. “My dear Ash, please go with Kayla – she’ll show you to some fitting quarters. I will come and see you later.”

Ash nodded and hoisted his pack on to his shoulder. Filimaya turned to Naeo and smiled warmly. “Naeo, your father has become a good friend since the war and he has spoken of you often. I hope that in time we too can be friends.” She held out her hand.

Naeo stared at the hand, then slowly and awkwardly she took it and gave it a quick shake. “All right,” she said.

If Filimaya was surprised by this cool response, she did not show it. “Good!” she beamed. “Now, I take it that you and Sylas would prefer to sleep in different—”

“Yes,” said Naeo and Sylas in unison.

Their abruptness clearly shocked Filimaya, but she quickly gathered herself and nodded politely. “Of course. Naeo, please go with Kayla and Ash. I’ll come and check on you just as soon as I can.” Finally she turned to Sylas and Simia. “You two,” she added with a wink, “you can come with me.”

Sylas and Simia smiled and fell in at her side. Sylas tried not to show his relief that they were not to be separated. After all they had been through together over the past few days, he knew he would feel a little lost without Simia. He saw in her glance that she felt the same.

“Thank you, everyone!” shouted Filimaya.

There were a few disappointed grumbles from the crowd, but soon enough everyone began to disperse, reluctantly and noisily, amid much chatter about the Windrush and its occupants, about the things Dropka had mentioned – the whispers in the leaves and the chatter among the birds – but most of all, about Sylas’s strange declaration.

“Why did you have to mention Glimmers?” murmured Simia in his ear, jabbing him in the side. “Now everyone’s completely freaked out!”

Sylas sucked a breath through his teeth and shrugged. “I don’t know. It just came out!”

Filimaya led them up the grassy bank and into the cool of the forest. Many of the ancient trees were gigantic, with trunks as broad as castle towers and waist-high roots that rumpled the forest floor into a baffling, mossy maze. They crossed dazzling, sun-speckled glades and lively streams that bubbled between stones, singing watery melodies. They waded through seas of delicate ferns, between vast outcroppings of thickly scented bracken, over rich carpets of leaves and nodding flowers. Sylas was struck at once by how vital everything seemed, how full of life, even though the world outside the valley had fallen under the cloak of winter. Yet there was no sign of any of the people who had met them on the banks of the lake. It was as though they had simply disappeared.

Filimaya moved with all the grace and ease that Sylas remembered from his time with her in the Water Gardens; in fact she seemed even more vigorous, even more radiant, as though this magical place had returned to her some of her lost youth.

As they walked, they told Filimaya of their adventures; of their meeting with Espen and their long journey together across the Barrens, ending with Espen’s revelations about the Glimmer Myth. Filimaya nodded as though entirely familiar with the Myth, just as Espen had predicted. They told of Espen’s seeming betrayal at the Circle of Salsimaine and Bayleon’s capture, of their escape to the city and their discovery of Paiscion and the Windrush.

At the first mention of Paiscion, Filimaya turned.

“Was he well?” she asked, anxiously.

Sylas nodded.

“And where is he now? Did he not travel with you?”

“You’re jumping ahead!” scolded Simia. “You need to hear the rest first – you’ll miss the best bit!”

Filimaya sighed. “I don’t know why, Simsi, but I’ve missed you.” She squeezed her arm. “Go on, then, tell me your own way.”

Sylas and Simia took it in turns to finish the story, telling of Paiscion’s astonishing discovery in the note from Mr Zhi, then Sylas’s encounter with Naeo in the Glimmer Glass and Simia’s decoding of the message “So at last we may be one” into Sylas and Naeo’s names. Simia spent some time on this part of the story and rather exaggerated its importance, but even then Filimaya did not rush her.

As they began to tell of Naeo’s rescue from the Dirgheon, Filimaya stopped in wonderment.

“You broke into the Dirgheon?” she blurted.

Sylas nodded. “It was the only way. I had to get to Naeo.”

He described Paiscion’s summoning of the storm, the encounter with Espen, the battle with Scarpia and their final escape, flying high over Thoth’s city, borne aloft by Sylas’s strange birds made from the ruined sails and rigging of the Windrush.

“We really flew, Filimaya!” said Simia. “As high as the clouds – higher even!”

“It sounds magical, Simsi,” smiled Filimaya. She turned to Sylas. “Was it, Sylas? Was it magic? Or was it the science of your world? Of the Other?” She raised an eyebrow. “I ask because you seem to know quite a lot about both.”

Sylas thought for a moment. It was still so strange to hear his own world referred to as “the Other” – if anything was other it was this place – this world – with its magic and its creatures and outlandish people.

“I think it was a bit of both,” he said hesitantly. “Magic and science. The gliders seemed to work, but I don’t think they would have flown like that if Ash hadn’t summoned the winds.”

“And so already the two worlds are becoming one,” said Filimaya, almost to herself.

For a moment they walked in silence, each lost in their thoughts.

Finally Filimaya frowned. “So … you and Naeo are able to be together? You said you held hands. You shared a glider?”

“Then, yes,” said Sylas. “I mean, it felt weird, and it hurt – here, around the Merisi band –” he held up his wrist to reveal the glistening bracelet – “but it was like, in that moment, we were meant to be together.”

“And since that moment?”

“It’s just been … difficult. To be around each other,” said Sylas, shaking his head. “It’s hard to describe why. It’s like I start to feel … like the parts of me – my bones, my insides, even my thoughts … I don’t know …” He trailed off.

Filimaya looked at him with concern.

“I keep telling him, I’m not sure they should still be together at all!” said Simia knowingly. She lowered her voice. “And Naeo’s just a bit—”

“I’m sure Sylas and Naeo will be trying to work all this out themselves in their own good time,” interrupted Filimaya. She put a hand on Sylas’s shoulder. “Come on, it’s this way.”

She led them through a veil of vines towards a denser part of the forest. As they passed through the long dangling strands, Sylas jabbed Simia in the side.

“I told you to keep out of it,” he hissed.

Simia gaped innocently. “I was just being honest,” she protested. “You seemed to think that was a good thing when we got here!”

Sylas said nothing and pushed on.

As the vines fell away they gasped. Here the tree trunks were as wide as houses and soared above them to new heights, like the columns of some grand and ancient citadel. Sylas and Simia craned their necks towards the canopy, trying in vain to see the topmost branches.

“So, tell me,” said Filimaya in a casual tone over her shoulder, “where is Paiscion now?”

Sylas and Simia exchanged glances, as though neither wanted to reply.

“We don’t really know,” said Simia hesitantly. “He didn’t come back to the Windrush.”

“But he said he might not …” added Sylas, quickly. “And he said we shouldn’t worry about him.”

For a moment, Filimaya turned and gazed at them anxiously, as though hoping they would say more, but when nothing came she breathed in deeply and turned her eyes upwards. She watched the path of a fluttering bird until it was out of sight, but in truth, she seemed to be composing herself.

Eventually she looked down again. “Well, young Sylas Tate,” she said, her voice sounding a little forced, “every chapter of your adventure is more extraordinary than the last. I marvel at all you have endured and discovered.”

Sylas smiled, but that too was an effort. “The thing is,” he said, “I still don’t feel we know what we’re doing. I mean, I’ve found out all about the Glimmer Myth, and I get that Naeo and I have … well, everything to do with it. And we’ve even managed to find each other, and to get away from Thoth and the city. But while we were on our way here, all I could think was, what next? Now that we’re together, what do we do?” He frowned. “And the truth is, I still haven’t managed to do the one thing I actually set out to do, which is to find my mum.”

Filimaya regarded him closely for a moment and then raised her hand to his shoulder. “The truth, Sylas, is that you are at the centre of great things, and the greatest of things rarely happen when and how we choose.”

Sylas gave her a pained look. “But it’s all just so …”

“Frustrating? Yes, of course it is.” She smiled and cast her eyes around her. “But you’re here now, in the Valley of Outs, among friends and allies. We will help you to understand and to decide what comes next. I will call a Say-So especially. But right now, Sylas, Simia, you’re exhausted. I’d love to stay with you and ask more, but now you need to go and rest. You can speak to us all, tomorrow, at the Say-So, once you have had a good meal and a decent sleep.”

Sylas shifted his rucksack on his shoulder and allowed himself to feel the weariness in his limbs and the fogginess in his mind. Filimaya was right, of course. They had hardly slept all the way here – keeping watch, talking, going over all that had happened and what might come next. He looked up at her and nodded gratefully. “I’d like that,” he said.

She gestured towards the forest. “So go on!”

Sylas and Simia looked where she had pointed. There was nothing there: just more ferns, bracken and tree trunks.

“Are we … camping?” asked Simia, failing to hide her disappointment.

Filimaya’s laugh rang through the trees. “No, of course not –” she pointed – “that’s where you’ll be staying.”

Sylas and Simia peered past her. She was pointing at a gigantic tree, which towered even higher than those around it and whose massive trunk was at least the width of a small house.

“Come on – take a closer look!” she said, setting out towards it.

They all walked slowly across the clearing, staring at the colossal redwood – its huge roots snaking over the surface like dragon tails; its vast, gnarled limbs reaching up into the canopy as far as they could see. But there was no sign of any shelter.

Then Sylas saw it.

In a fold of the trunk, between the joints of two great roots, there was an opening: a triangular slit where the flank of the tree had naturally grown apart. Sylas and Simia clambered over one of the roots and stood gazing up at the huge entrance, a grin of delight spreading across their faces. The lip around the dark cavern was smooth, almost as though it had been crafted that way, but there were no cuts or straight lines, no joints or nails. They could smell cool air issuing from the living cave, but it was not musty: it smelt fresh and a little sweet, like timber. And there, deep in the hollow, they saw a flickering light. Then another and another: little oil lamps, dotted around what looked like a substantial chamber.

Simia beamed at Filimaya. “We’re staying in there?”

“Why not?” asked Filimaya, smiling. “This is how we live in the Valley of Outs.”

Sylas frowned. “In trees?”

“In trees, caves, dells, on lily-rafts, behind waterfalls, beneath roots and hillocks, among the birds in the canopy. Wherever Nature opens herself to us. She is a very generous host, so there’s never a shortage of places to stay!”

“She makes them for you?”

“Yes, but not at our bidding. We simply find them when we need them. The more we need the more we find, and I daresay that if we all left one day, they would disappear. Nature provides what is needed and nothing more.” She smiled and looked about her. “And such has been our need since the Reckoning that this place has become something of a town. We call it Sylva.”

Sylas looked around him but could see no sign of a town. There were no homes or walkways or streets, not even any people.

Simia could not restrain herself any longer. “I’m going inside,” she said, tugging at his sleeve. “Are you coming?”

Filimaya was already turning to leave. “You’ll find everything you need. Someone will come and get you in the morning,” she said brightly, as she disappeared into the forest.

Sylas turned and eyed the dark opening, wondering at the mysterious forces that had made it. Then he followed Simia inside.