‘Matka Ziemia,’ she prayed to moist Mother Earth as she plucked at a head of fungi, ‘look down upon your child and guide her steps.’
Maybe moist Mother Earth listened, because as Iwa stumbled forward she recognised the outline of a rock. She was very close to the riverbank now, where last year’s floods had worn away a section of the earth. Here a copse of trees, linden and aspen, hugged the water’s edge. She’d often been here after wormwood or meadowsweet, which grew freely around the trees.
Nearby the forest opened out into a narrow glade, but the edges were thickly lined with bushes. And, by a willow which reached over the water, the bracken pushed up to form a half-hidden hollow.
Placing the baby in the centre, she started to gather up leaves and a few twigs. Anything which might catch light. She didn’t like the idea of a fire so close to the camp, but at least the glade was shielded by a thick wall of trees. Unless you followed the path there was little chance of stumbling into this place and little reason she could see for anybody to come here.
I must have run for ages, she thought grimly as she began to make the fire. No wonder my legs ache so. But it was not only with fatigue that she ached. With trembling hands she tried to strike the flints. It was no good. Blowing hard over her fingers she tried to bring some of the life back into them.
Then she remembered the moss that grew by the river. Maybe some of that would help. She thought of taking Tomaz with her, but the baby was asleep now. And if I don’t come back he will never know the pain of the death which carried him to the ancestor world.
Besides which, they were only a short distance from the river. She could even see it from here, the moonlight rippling across the waters, half lost in the mist. How could it be so still?
Breath held, she peered out of the thicket, but there was nothing, only the lap of the water. Perhaps by morning the raiders would be gone, and taken their pig-faced demon with them, but somehow she doubted that. At least there was more mist now, rising with an almost unnatural thickness from the river.
Maybe she could slip away into the forest now whilst it was dark. She peered round; the shadows of trees pressed in all around. The clan often travelled deep into the forest, but they were careful to keep to well-trodden paths that Karnobog had given to them so that they might follow the herds through the forest. Even Iwa, who was braver than most, never strayed too far. For her the deep forest was a place of evil, where wicked spirits sucked out the souls of the living or grew trees which fed on human blood. Then there were all sorts of thickets and bogs where evil Leszy waited to pull you down into the mud.
No, far better to wait till morning. Then she could pick her way along the river. So long as she kept close to the water she’d be bound to come across one of the other clans sooner or later. They’d be sure to take her in and give her a cup of hot broth. Then they could come and hunt the raiders. Who knows, some of the Bison Grass clan could have survived. The raiders couldn’t have killed them all. She remembered Godek’s dismembered body and pushed further into the hollows.
There was a sound on the water. She caught her breath; maybe it was the pig-faced demon come to eat her soul. There it was again. Iwa shivered and sank into the bank as far as she could, her legs curled to her chest in an effort to make herself as small as possible. Even so, she couldn’t help but look out, her breath coming in shallow frozen gasps, but there was nothing, only a ripple on the water.
Just an otter, probably. She relaxed and closed her eyes. There it was again, a hushed plop as if a stone had been thrown into the river. The sound was so quiet this time that she hardly heard it. Around her the mist closed in… and then she saw it, a dark shape gliding towards her.
Slowly it came through the water. Iwa gasped and drew back. She could see the thing more clearly now, a slender neck curled high above the waters to end in the head of a savage beast, its mouth twisted into a snarl. She’d never seen a smok before, but the old ones often talked about such creatures, the great fire snakes of the east who flew through the air on giant wings.
Perhaps they could swim as well, like their smaller cousins. Too tired even to make the sign to ward off evil, she watched the creature pass. It was larger than she’d ever imagined. Even in the legends of the traders such a thing had never existed. Rows of sharpened teeth gaped in its open mouth, silhouetted darkly through the mists.
With barely more than a creak, the thing slid past, silent as a shadow. She watched the blackened outline of its tail as the mist engulfed it, and then there was nothing.
Chapter Two
Sunlight broke through the shelter, cutting shadows across Iwa’s face. Hardly daring to breathe, she peered through the gnarled fingers of roots, but there was nothing, not even the splash of a fish or the call of a bird to disturb the peace. It was as if the river had washed all memory of the night away.
Maybe the raiders have gone. Iwa moved and was greeted by
