Inkdeath

52. THE DEAD MEN IN THE FOREST

On, farther and farther on. Resa was feeling sick again, but she didn't say so. Whenever the Strong Man turned to look anxiously at her she smiled, so that he wouldn't slow down because of her. Snapper had more than half a day's start on them, and she was trying not to think about the Magpie at all.

Co on, she told herself, go on. It's only a little sickness. Chew the leaves Roxane gave you and keep going. The forest through which they had been walking for days was darker than the Wayless Wood. She had never been in this part of the Inkworld before. It was like opening a new chapter, one she'd never yet read. "The strolling players call it the Forest Where Night Sleeps," the Strong Man had told her as they were passing through a ravine so dark, even by day, that she could hardly see her hand before her eyes. "But the moss-women have given it the name of the Bearded Forest, because of all the healing lichens growing on the trees." Resa liked that name better. With the frost lying on them, many trees did indeed look like ancient, bearded giants.

The Strong Man was good at reading tracks, but even Resa could have followed the trail left by Snapper and his men. Their footprints had frozen in many places, as if time had stopped. In other places they were obliterated by the rain, as if it had washed away the men themselves at the same time. The robbers hadn't taken any trouble to conceal their tracks. Why should they? They were the pursuers.

It rained a lot. At night the rain often turned to hail, but luckily there were enough evergreen trees under whose branches they could keep reasonably dry. At sunset it turned bitterly cold, and Resa was very glad of the fur-lined coat that the Strong Man had given her. Thanks to that coat and the coverings of moss that he cut from the trees for them both, she could sleep at night in spite of the cold.

Go on, Resa, she thought, keep going. The Magpie flies fast, and Snapper is quick with his knife. A bird uttered a hoarse cry in the trees above her, and she looked up in alarm, but it was only a crow and not a magpie gazing down at her.

"Caw!" The Strong Man replied to the black bird with a croak of his own (even the owls talked to him), and then suddenly stopped. "What the devil's that?" he murmured, scratching his shorn head.

Resa, too, stopped, alarmed. "What's the matter? Have you lost the way?"

"Me? Not in a thousand years, not in any forest in the world! Certainly not this one." The Strong Man bent down and investigated the tracks on the fallen leaves, now frozen stiff. "My cousin taught me to poach here. He showed me how to talk to the birds and make blankets from the bearded lichen on the trees. And he showed me the Castle in the Lake, No, Snapper's lost his way, not me. He's bearing much too far west!"

"Your cousin?" Resa looked at him curiously. "Is he among the robbers, too?"

The Strong Man shook his head. "He joined the fire-raisers," he said, without looking at Resa. "Disappeared when Capricorn did and never came back. He was a tall, ugly fellow, but I was always stronger, even when we were both little boys. I often wonder what's become of him. He may have been one of those damn fire-raisers, but he was still my cousin, see what I mean?"

Tall and ugly… Resa thought back to Capricorn's men. Flatnose? Oh, Strong Man, Mo's voice brought him to his death, she thought. Would you still go on protecting Mo if you knew? Yes, he probably would.

"Let's follow Snapper's tracks," she said. "I want to know why he strayed from his path!"

They found him and his men very soon, in a clearing brown with withered leaves. The dead men lay there as if the trees had shed them along with their foliage. Ravens were already pecking at their flesh. Resa shooed the birds away – and stepped back in horror when she saw Snapper's body.

"What did that?"

"A Night-Mare!" The Strong Man's reply was barely audible.

"A Night-Mare? But they kill through fear, nothing else. I've seen it!"

"Yes, but only if they're prevented from eating their victims. They eat them, too, if they're allowed."

Mo had once given her a dragonfly's cast-off case. Every limb could still be traced under the empty skin it had shed. There wasn't much more than that left of Snapper. Resa threw up there and then beside the dead men.

"I don't like this." The Strong Man examined the blood-soaked leaves. "Looks almost as if the men who killed them watched the Night-Mare eat him… as if they'd brought it with them, like the Prince brings his bear!" He looked around, but nothing stirred. Only the ravens perched in the trees, waiting.

The Strong Man drew Gecko's cloak over his dead face. "I'm going to follow the trail and find out where the killers came from."

"You don't need to." Resa bent over one of the dead robbers and raised his left hand. The thumb was missing. "Your little brother told me the Adderhead has a new bodyguard, a man known as Thumbling. They say he used to be one of the torturers in the Castle of Night until his master promoted him. Doria says he's notorious for cutting a thumb off every man he kills. He makes little pipes out of the thumb bones to mock the Piper with them… and it seems he has a very large collection." Resa began trembling, even though she no longer had to fear Snapper. "She'll never be able to protect him," she whispered. "Violante can't protect Mo. They'll kill him!"

The Strong Man helped her to her feet and awkwardly put his arms around her.

"What do we do now?" he asked. "Go back?"

But Resa shook her head. The killers had a Night-Mare with them. A Night-Mare. She looked around.

"The Magpie," she said. "Where's the Magpie? Call her!"

"I told you, she doesn't sound like a real bird," said the Strong Man, but all the same he imitated a magpie's cry. There was no reply, but just as the Strong Man was about to try again Resa saw the dead woman.

Mortola was lying a little way from the others, with an arrow in her breast. Resa had often imagined what it would feel like to see the woman she had served for so long lying dead at last. She had so often wanted to kill Mortola herself, but now she felt nothing at all. A few black feathers lay beside the corpse in the snow, and the fingernails of Mortola's left hand were still like a bird's claws. Resa bent down and took the bag from Mortola's belt. There were some tiny black seeds in it, the same as the seeds still sticking to Mortola's pale lips.

"Who's that?" The Strong Man stared at the old woman in disbelief.

"The woman who used to mix poisons for Capricorn. You must have heard of her. She was his mother."

The Strong Man nodded and involuntarily took a step back.

Resa tied Mortola's bag to her own belt. "When I was one of her maids…" (she couldn't help smiling at the surprise in the Strong Man's eyes) "… when I was still one of her maids, it was said that Mortola had discovered a plant with seeds that could change your shape. Little Death, the other maids called it, and they whispered that it made you crazy if you used it too often. They showed me the plant – it can be used as a deadly poison, too, but I always thought its other quality was just a fairy tale. Obviously, I was wrong." Resa picked up one of the magpie feathers and laid it on Mortola's pierced breast. "And they also said that Mortola had given up using Little Death after a fox had nearly killed her in her bird-shape. But as soon as I saw the magpie in the cave I felt sure it was her."

She rose to her feet.

The Strong Man pointed to the bag at her belt. "Sounds to me like you'd better leave those seeds here."

"Should I?" replied Resa. "Yes, maybe you're right. Come on, let's go. It will soon be dark."