Doctor Who_ Wolfsbane - Jac Rayner [79]
He held up the silver candlestick, now carrying a fat white candle from the Doctor‟s house. If he could just find a spot where the branches were not weaved so tightly together...
On the back of his hand, there was writing. Clear and black in the candlelight, he could see definite words: „Dryads exist.
I was trapped in a tree.‟
It made no sense. Dryads exist? Some kind of tree sprites, weren‟t they? Yes, a dryad was a sort of nymph that frolicked through the woods dressed in green with ivy in her hair. Why would he have written that on his hand? Something to do with these woods? But why couldn‟t he remember writing it? Was it even his writing?
Harry thought very hard. He closed his eyes, threw his mind back over the past day. He thought, and thought, and thought. He sank to the ground, ignoring the pain in his arm and the cold dampness of the earth below him, and he held the Grail tightly, and he thought some more. And then he opened his eyes, and his mouth, and called for the dryad.
For a while, nothing happened. The tranquillity that had stolen over Harry began to ebb away. Fear and dread began to return. But then, suddenly, standing in front of him at the edge of the wood, was the most beautiful woman Harry had ever seen. The most beautiful woman on this world or any other.
But when he came to try to describe her later, all he could say was that she wore green. And then, later than that, he couldn‟t remember her at all.
She hissed at him, and he realised after a moment that it was the candle that angered and scared her. He blew it out.
After all, the moon was full. Then she held out a hand and led him through the parting trees, into the wood.
It was only after they reached her tree that Harry got his mind back. The enchantment hadn‟t been strong, just enough to daze him, but dazed he had been and he didn‟t remember the trip through the woods at all.
„You called me,‟ she said to him. „The other one called me earlier, and then he stopped. But I didn‟t want to speak to him, anyway. He hurt me. And his mind isn‟t friendly.‟
„You mean you can‟t bewitch him,‟ said Harry. She didn‟t answer. „I need your help,‟ he went on, after a pause. „I need to get through the wood. The sorceress who‟s done all this to the land is preparing - well, I don‟t quite know what‟s she‟s preparing to do, but it‟s not good. A lot of people are going to die.‟ He thought back to the carnage on the village green.
„Some have died already.‟ He glanced around him. The trees had closed up again; there was no path. „I need you to help me get to the other side. That‟s where she is. I have to try to stop her.‟
„Why should I help you?‟
Harry boggled at her. „Because otherwise more people are going to die! She could destroy the whole country!‟
She shrugged, a graceful movement like leaves in a breeze.
„That means nothing to me. Nature never gives for nothing in return. We bear fruit so that the animals that eat it will spread our seed. The leaves which provide shelter collect the sun we need to grow, or if they provide sustenance to the animals, then we receive nutrients from the excreta or, in the end, the carcasses.‟
„What about wood?‟ said Harry. „What does that get you in return?‟
Her eyes flashed. „That is not exchange, it is murder. It is hardly the same thing.‟
He blushed, feeling cruel, but continued. „You took a thousand years from Godric. What did he get in return?‟
She laughed, a sweet, tinkling sound. „You have your argument the wrong way round! I did not say that Nature never took without giving! But still, I gave the boy many things. A thousand years of life! Safety, and peace. Pleasure, had he only chosen to taken it.‟
„But he didn‟t want any of that!‟
She shrugged again. „Then it is a pity for him. But I owe him nothing.‟
Harry tried again. „This woman thinks she‟s Morgan le Fay.
You must remember her, this was her wood. I bet she wasn‟t a kind mistress.‟
The dryad shivered, shrank back. For a second Harry thought she was going to retreat inside her tree, and