The Seeker - Isobelle Carmody [20]
Looking around, he pointed again to where we had come back into the open. The mountains hid the White Valley from us, but there was a broad plain on the other side of the road. “Th’ land hereabout is Darthnor, and th’ village of Darthnor is that way,” Enoch said, nodding to the east. I stared but could see no sign of any settlement. “ ’Tis a strange place,” he said, “an’ I say so even though I were born there. None dwell in these parts but a few shepherds. Those in the village are mostly miners, but I reckon th’ ground here is tainted, so I dinna go under it as me father did before me.” He looked sad. Then his expression sharpened and he brought the coach to a halt.
“Ye’ll have to get in now. Soon we come to tainted ground, an’ the vapors are pure poison,” he said.
Regretfully I climbed down and held the horses while the coachman tied rags around their noses and faces, and bags on their hooves.
“Won’t you get sick?” I asked. He shook his head, saying that he would be all right for the short time we would be on tainted earth. Nonetheless, he tied a scarf around his face before leading me back to the carriage.
Suddenly he gave a shout and pointed up. I looked but saw nothing.
“That were a Guanette bird,” he explained. “Ye missed it, an’ that’s a shame, for ’tis a rare sight.”
“A Guanette bird?” I gaped, thinking I had misheard him. “I thought they were extinct.”
Enoch shook his head. “Nowt extinct, but I guess it might be better to be thought so. They’re rare, and rare things are hunted. That village back there were named after them by the first Master of Obernewtyn, Sirrah Lukas Seraphim. A grand queer man he must have been to make his home up there with the Blacklands all round. His grandson is master up there now.”
There was a subtly different note in his voice at the mention of the present Master of Obernewtyn.
“Have you seen him?” I asked, hoping to elicit further information.
“He never comes down from the mountains,” said the coachman. A strange look crossed his face, but it was so brief I thought I had imagined it.
“In ye go,” he said. I clambered into the carriage. On the verge of locking the door again, Enoch hesitated. “Look, if ye be special fond of animals, I’ve a friend of sorts up there. His name be Rushton. Tell him I vouch for ye, an’ maybe he’ll find a job ye’ll like.”
But before I could thank him, he had locked me in, and the carriage lurched as he resumed his seat.
8
I DREAMED.
In my dream, I was somewhere cold and darkly quiet. I could hear water dripping, and I was afraid, though I didn’t know why. I seemed to be waiting for something.
In the distance, there was a bright flash of light. A feeling of urgency made me hasten toward the light, stumbling over uneven ground I could not see. A high-pitched whining noise filled the air like a scream, but no one could scream for so long without stopping to breathe. I sensed danger, but the compulsion to find the light overrode my instincts. Again it flashed, apparently no closer than before. I could not tell what the source was, though it was obviously unnatural.
All at once, a voice spoke inside me. Shocked, I skidded to a halt, for it was a human voice.
“Tell me,” the voice said. “Tell me.”
There was a sharp pain behind my eyes, and I flinched in astonishment that a voice could hurt me, understanding at the same time that the whining noise and the voice inside me were connected. I turned to run, at last obeying the urge to escape. Then the ground beneath me burst into flames, and I screamed.
I woke and stared wildly about, my heart thundering even as the nightmare faded. I could feel perspiration on my hands and back. I lay there trying to think what such a dream might mean. I rarely dreamed so intensely.
It was dark, and bruised purple clouds scudded across the sky. A distant cracking noise heralded the coming storm, and within moments, a flash of lightning illuminated the barren landscape.