Pierrot's Song

Chapter 1 - To the Fureys-1

Chapter 1 To the FureysHigh overhead the Fureys loomed, made shadowy by storm clouds. Mina, Sofia, and Luka picked their way over huge boulders, looking for cave entrances. After two days of searching, they had found nothing. On the lowest reaches of the mountains there were many rough openings that could almost pass for doorways, but none led very far into the darkness. Small, damp hollows were plentiful, but none offered more than the remains of small animals. Sofia, certain what they were searching for would be well hidden, felt they must keep climbing the mountain. She guessed any secret, significant caves would be hard to find. After two days of endless climbing, even her strength and optimism waned.

Mina found herself growing ever more tired as they continued upward. The path remained clear, because there was little chance of it being overgrown as the surroundings became bleaker. Lower down, small, hardy flowers and sedge grasses softened the rocks everywhere, but up here only a few spears of grass survived. Autumn had come, and with it, chill winds that crept into their bones, freezing them from within and whispering around the enormous rocks like invisible ghosts telling lost tales. As they walked ever higher, Mina feared an errant blast of wind would pull them from the mountainside.

There were few sounds, beyond the cries of distant eagles and the intermittent buzz of unseen insects. At times the steep path and the thin air left them breathless. It was a dismal ascent.

At the end of the second day they finally found a small cave just off the path, if it could even be called a cave. It was barely large enough for the three of them to squeeze into, let alone to contain the lost secret they sought. A fire was impossible since bare rocks made poor fuel, so they huddled together for warmth. Despite this, the mood in the cave was chilly, and not just for the absence of heat.

‘Mina doesn’t look well,’ Luka murmured. ‘We can’t climb these rocks randomly, hoping to stumble on the right cave entrance. Don’t you know a*********s that could have clues? We’ve come to the Fureys because their shape is carved on so many statues of the muses. You’re the one who thinks looking for the muses will help us. You say the old stories hint at secrets about their disappearance. Is there anything in those stories to help us now we’re here?’

Sofia stood and began pacing, her eyes distant. She could only take a few steps before having to turn, but she couldn’t seem to contain her energy. Seeing she wasn’t answering, Mina responded to Luka instead.

‘Not that I can think of. The tale of the minstrel and the seven princesses says very little about the cave itself. Only that the minstrel placed spirits and spells at its entrance to stop people reaching for it.’

Luka wiped his face with his hand. ‘That means we have to try to go into every cave, and the one we can’t get into is the right one. That’s no help at all.’

Apparently frustrated at the lack of room, Sofia stopped abruptly and leaned against the wall, her head down. In the silence, she looked at her hand, then her eyes scanned the close roof. She turned to the others, almost banging her head.

‘I’ve always thought the use of the word spells was odd there. It suggests Arcani, but the minstrel became the ruler of the land, banning Arcani. I wonder … what if spells could mean something else?’

‘Like what?’ Luka asked.

Sofia continued her thought. ‘What is a spell? In children’s tales, how do spells work?’

‘They’re a kind of spoken magic,’ Mina said. Then her thoughts clicked together. ‘Oh! Like stories.’

‘What if he created stories to stop the cave being found? Stories that would make people stay away?’

Mina’s eyes widened as she understood. ‘Stories of monsters—terrifying, hungry monsters.’

‘Living in a maze of caves,’ Luka added.

Mina went on, her voice unconsciously taking on the sing-song tones of a parent telling a tale to a small child. ‘But the largest, most terrifying shadow monster lived in the biggest cave of all.’

Sofia kneeled in front of them. ‘A children’s tale about the Fureys that has terrified every generation. That’s the story that has the clues we need. I’ve always believed stories have the answers to many questions. I didn’t realise that might be true so literally. What does it say? I know it so well, but I’m so cold, I can’t think.’

It was a little unnerving to see Sofia, usually so calm, now agitated and distressed.

Mina had not learned this particular fable during her apprenticeship. She knew it from her childhood. It had been one of the tales her Papa had told her, and she had demanded it over and over again, saying it with him. The words came to her easily now.

‘The biggest of the shadow monsters lived high, high up, in a cave beyond all growing things …’

Sofia nodded. ‘Good. Good. We’ve left behind any shrubs or trees.’

‘There are still a few blades of grass around,’ Luka said. ‘I guess we have to go higher. What else?’

‘It’s coming back to me,’ Sofia said, taking a deep breath. ‘A cave where no light can penetrate. That’s it.’

‘How does that help us?’ Luka demanded. ‘Light doesn’t get into caves much as a rule.’

‘It depends on the cave,’ Mina said. ‘Paolo and I explored the ones in the cliff near Andon a lot when we were children. If they’re open to the outside, they all get light to some extent, although how far in it comes depends on the season and where the cave’s located.’

‘Well, if they all get some light, how can we find one where no light penetrates?’

Mina grinned weakly at Luka. ‘If you’d let me finish … I was going to say, the only exception is when you get a cave going off another cave. If it’s at the back of another one, the light never reaches that far. Unless the first cave’s pretty small.’

Sofia rocked back to a sitting position and hugged herself for warmth. ‘And that’s a good thing? Doesn’t it make our search harder? Yes, we know we’ve got to go higher, but now we’re going to have to check every cave to see if it leads somewhere else.’

Mina stood up and walked around Sofia to their shelter’s entrance, looking out at the night sky. ‘There has to be something else. But I can’t think of anything in the monster story.’

‘Are you sure there’s nothing in the other story?’ Luka asked. ‘The one about the princesses?’

‘Do you know it?’ Mina asked.

He shook his head. ‘There wasn’t much time for stories when I was growing up.’ He looked away.

Mina turned back to face him. ‘Well, a minstrel comes to a kingdom and gradually steals all the talents of the king’s daughters, like music and singing and juggling and so on. Then he kidnaps all the daughters and hides them away and when the king dies, he takes over the kingdom. Only the storytelling princess is left, locked in a circular chamber. The minstrel lives forever, although I don’t think the story ever explains how he does that, and it’s implied the princess does too, but as all the years pass, no one remembers she was once a princess or that her stories …’

‘… might be telling everyone the truth,’ Sofia finished. She sighed. ‘I’ve gone over the wording of both stories. There’s absolutely nothing else that might help us find the right cave.’

‘We might not even be looking in the right place. Have you seen the size of these mountains?’ Luka asked, his face so mournful the other two both burst into laughter.

‘There aren’t many places you can find a way up the Fureys,’ Sofia said. ‘Mostly it’s too dangerous. Where we began is really the only path that goes any distance toward the summit.’ She joined Mina at the cave’s entrance and gazed out over the night-softened landscape.

‘The thing is,’ she continued, thinking it through as she spoke, ‘no one ever comes here because of the stories about the shadow monsters. So no one uses the paths. We forget where our stories come from, and we take them as truths, but sometimes they hide the truth in plain sight. What if the cave is just near the main path? It wouldn’t have to be hidden any more than that, because nobody uses the path anymore. Fear keeps everyone away.’

Wrapping her cloak tight around her, she turned back and took Mina’s elbow, gesturing toward the floor. ‘We should rest now, then begin our search in the morning. I think we’re on the right path.’

The three travellers huddled together against the back of the cave, watching the night creep into the cracks and crevices of the cave. They made a dismal meal from their travel provisions. With no knowledge of how long their search might take, everything had to be rationed carefully. Afterward, they whispered quietly of possibilities until the dark wore away their wakefulness. Sofia was the first to fall asleep. Mina leaned against Luka, her forehead against his cheek.

‘Tell me the story of the princesses, Mina,’ he asked, and she did. At one point she felt a dampness on her face, and thought he might be weeping, but it was too dark to tell.

~

Dawn arrived early at this height. They stumbled up the mountain for most of the day. When all trace of grass disappeared from the side of the path, they tried to rejoice that they were past all growing things, but the cold sat deep in their bones and the thinning air left them weary. There were fewer caves at this height, which made the search easier, but at the same time their absence eroded the travellers’ hope little by little. Though it seemed to take forever, eventually the craggy peaks of the mountain loomed close overhead, deadly looking shafts of rock they would have no hope of climbing. Soon they would not be able to go any further.

Progress was very slow, since the thinness of the atmosphere robbed them of all energy. They all began to feel there was no other state than tiredness, and no other emotion than despair. They tried to encourage each other to keep going, but their words passed fleetingly, because breath was scarce. After a while only their jagged gasps for air punctuated the silence.

From the dimming light, it seemed close to dusk when they came upon a sloping field of shale. At first glance it seemed easily managed after the steeper paths they’d walked earlier in the day. Sofia stepped onto it first, but after only a few paces she slid backward. Luka tried next. He was slender as a sapling, and light on his feet, yet he could only manage a few steps beyond Sofia. The shallowness of the slope was no indicator of its difficulty. Even had it been flat they would hardly have made better progress because it shifted endlessly and they could gain no traction.

Luka suggested they unburden themselves of their supplies to increase the chance of moving up the field of shale. Slowly, dragging their limbs, they built a cairn of rocks to protect their food stores from birds or whatever strange, desolate creatures might live in this barren landscape. Then they tried again to tackle the shifting carpet of rock.

For a good hour they all attempted different techniques. Stepping sideways, crawling, even lying on their bellies and wriggling upward. Some allowed better progress than others, but at the end of that time they were still at the bottom of the gentle slope that might as well have been an impossible cliff, and too exhausted to keep trying. Discouraged almost to the point of despair, they returned to the cairn of hidden food and prepared supper with their dwindling supplies. They talked little as the night crept in around them, only the necessities of communication to prepare a meal.

Their exhaustion was a good thing because after they had eaten they had barely huddled together when sleep overcame them all. It was a strange thing. Normally they were careful about finding at least a small cave to shelter in, after dousing their fire and cleaning their gear, but the need for sleep seemed too compelling to worry about such things. Even Luka, who often lay awake gazing at the moon for hours at night, was unconscious in a short time.