Lodestone Book 1: Of Flood & Wrath & Thorn

Lodestone Book 1: Of Flood & Wrath & Thorn Part 8

Outside the garden, the cold breeze was strong. It carried particles of hail on it that stung the bare faces of the mining troupe, who huddled deeper into their uniforms against the cold. Here, they saw the cavern was covered with frost and the layer of moss, lichen and fungus was frozen and kept preserved, as on the last day of its life.

The six of them came to a chamber in the cave. Here, the wintery air blew so hard that they had to shield their eyes against snow that blasted out and lay in drifts ankle deep. A blue-white glow lit it from within.

Aisling slipped and reached for support. Her hand sunk deep into snow. She grasped an object, and pulled it out.

'What's this?' Aisling barely had time to say aloud. The blizzard dropped and the air cleared. On a rush of cold wind, a horrifying, dark shape leapt across the chamber, straight at Aisling.

With quick reflexes, Aisling jerked her pickaxe up in front of her, and the metal head rang with an impact as the dark shape collided.

What met Aisling's eyes was a hideous apparition of a woman. Her skin was grey and morbid as someone who had perished in freezing cold, and she was wrapped in a ragged shroud. Her lips were pulled back and her teeth bared in a death-mask of frozen hate, and her madly staring eyes were yellow, with slit pupils, like those of a cat. Aisling recoiled, mute and wide-eyed with horror.

Henry lunged in and swung his stave at the apparition. Without turning his way, the apparition grabbed the stave with one hand and held it tight. Henry struggled to pull it back, it was stuck fast.

'That's mine,' the spectre hissed at Aisling.

Aisling drew back and let go of the pickaxe, which, although she had pulled with all her strength, was held rigid in the shrouded woman's clutch. She saw that the object she held was a statuette. It had a head, paws, ears, and tail that were so precise and delicate in form that it seemed lifelike.

'My baby,' the ghoulish woman growled and dropped the pickaxe. She flung Henry's stave across the chamber. Hunkering down, the woman made a slow advance on Aisling without breaking her stare.

There was a crackling noise and the head of the statuette turned to face Aisling. It flailed its paws and squirmed from side to side, as slow as if it floundered in tar. A dark shape moved within, that Aisling could now see was the body of a frozen kitten.

In Aisling's grip, the statuette was so finely crafted that it looked very fragile. The apparition paused. Her withered, white hands were outstretched not towards Aisling, but the kitten.

'Get back. I'll break it,' Aisling threatened, and clutched the little thing around the neck.

'No, don't harm my baby!' The apparition gave a mournful wail.

'Aisling, come this way, towards my voice. We'll back out and then put it down, gently,' Henry called in as soft a voice he could whilst still being heard.

'Back off, or I'll snap it,' Aisling snarled at the creature, and took faltering steps backwards towards Henry.

The apparition shrank down to a crouch and circled around to one side. Her purple tongue flicked out to lick her upper lip and she emitted a low growl.

'Look, there's more kittens,' Irene whispered and pointed to a host of other statuettes in the snow. They were arranged in a congregation around the edge of a chamber and looked on at the scene. Together, the rest of the group edged towards an exit from the chamber.

Aisling reached the others as the grey shrouded woman grew increasingly agitated, and paced from side to side. Together, the miners turned and ran for the exit, and Henry stooped to grab his stave along the way. Aisling still clutched the kitten under her arm.