Searching for the Silent Lady

Chapter 4

I stand up quickly and draw my sword. I look behind me, expecting to see the grass from where we had only just come from, an easy retreat, but it is gone. Only more giant forest looms up behind us.

'What is it M'lady?' says Raven.

Then, I hear the humming above us, like a huge swarm of bees. But there is something else behind the hum, like the murmur of a thousand little voices. Leaves begin to rain down on us. They float down, as dry and brittle as the ones on the floor.

I look up. The lights have gathered above us in an enormous circling cloud. They swim around and around like in a giant whirlpool. I hear the muttering again, clearer and closer this time and what I can hear the lights say scares me to my bones. 'Water, water.' the hungry little voices snarl.

A blue spark, quick as lightning, swoops down on us. It flies past Raven in a flash and he caws out in pain. Before I can think, another, violet this time, shoots past my ear. I hear it buzz loudly and then searing pain rocks me. I watch as it zooms off, taking a lock of my dark hair with it. And then, the whirling flock of blinding lights is upon us, swooping and diving at us like airborne piranhas in a tornado, taking with them a bit of skin there, a feather here.

I start to run from them, run from the deafening sound, run from these tiny creatures tearing at my flesh. Every morsel of my skin that they took felt like someone stabbing me with red hot pokers.

Over the thrumming of a thousand wings, I can just hear the sound of Raven's caws, but they are not caws at all, they are screams. Human Screams. I turn back and struggle to see through the blur of red, blue and purple lights that blind me. I can just make out a little black spot on the ground covered in the lights that feed on him. Raven's tiny figure is pinned to the ground, like the skeleton that I had stepped on.

I fight through the pain inflicted by the winged lights and fling my sword around wildly in the air. I can still hear the tortured whisper that ripples through them, they say it, over and over again. Hungrily, desperately. 'Water, water ...' And then, I understand why that little skeleton had been picked clean, why it was so dry.

I feel the blade of my Sword of Waves slicing through the tiny bodies and I watch as their lights blank out and they fall to the dry leaves below. More of the lights descend on the fallen, feeding on their own kind, mad with thirst.

Suddenly, my memory flashes. I can see myself, holding my sword high in the air, I can feel water pouring out of me, see it coming out of the sword. And I know what I have to do.

I hold my sword up high, feeling my body tingle all over. There is a strange rushing sensation, all over me, like a million fingertips tracing their way over my skin. My eyes catch a sparkle of light from above. I look up quickly at my arms and legs, thinking that it is the creatures, but it is me. I am illuminated by the fine chains of water, the same ones that I had seen on my feet before, they run over me, all heading towards my sword. And they are glowing.

I drive my sword down into the dry earth and then I am surrounded by water. It floods out of me, like a great wave, covering the forest floor. I feel alive, energized. It quiets my mind and my soul. The water lowers and laps around my knees, soothing my skin.

In an instant, the lights freeze and then dive into the water, drenching the forest in silence.

Raven begins to gurgle and flap around in the water, helpless and damaged. I race to pick up my guide. He folds his ragged wings in and lays on his side in my arms. He makes a kind of a coughing, spluttering cry, more human than bird, and says, 'Are you okay, M'lady? I am so sorry I could not be of more assistance ... in this form.' I silence him by stroking the top of his head where parts of his plucked skin show. 'Thank you, M'lady.'