Red Rowan: Book 2: All Gone, the Gods by Gosney Helen

Author:Gosney, Helen [Gosney, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Helen Gosney
Published: 2014-10-13T04:00:00+00:00

24. “… it sounds like its heart is broken...”

In the afternoon of the next day they came to a place where the road descended into the valley. Across the other side they could see where it climbed up steeply again, and they realised they’d finally found the bridge over the Catspaw River. They’d almost been starting to think that there simply wasn’t a bridge, that the road would turn away from the river somewhere ahead.

Mica tossed his head and pawed the ground, clearly unhappy about something. Soot was restless too, sidling sideways regardless of what Rose wanted him to do.

“What’s wrong with you two silly ratbags?” Rowan patted Mica’s dappled neck as he looked about to see what the problem might be. The place was oddly silent, there were no birds at all, but apart from that there was nothing untoward. “There’s nothing here to...”

“What’s that?” said Cris suddenly.

From deep in the valley came a soft sobbing wail that echoed strangely so they couldn’t tell its exact source. There was still nothing remarkable to see though.

“It’s not something else caught in one of those cursed purple things, is it?” Rose wondered.

They hadn’t seen any more of the strange plants, but that didn’t mean that there weren’t any. From their high vantage point they could see endless green treetops moving in the wind in an almost unbroken canopy, but certainly nothing like the sinister purple thing.

They listened carefully. No, it didn’t sound quite like an animal in distress, but something was certainly very upset. The cold wind was gusting straight into their faces and the only smell was the scent of rainwashed earth and leaves. No, there was something else.

“It doesn’t really sound like an animal, does it? But what the hell can it be, away out here?” Rowan asked slowly. “And can you smell something… I don’t know… charred?”

The others nodded unhappily. There was a sort of burnt, singed smell. The wailing cry came again and something about it made them all shiver slightly.

“It sounds like the place is haunted!” Cris said, almost serious about it.

“I don’t know about ‘haunted’, but I truly don’t think that’s just the wind...” replied Rowan slowly, nudging Mica forward. The stallion tossed its head again and strode ahead.

“Whatever it is, it sounds like its heart is broken...” Rose said softly as she urged Soot to follow him.

The way down to the valley floor twisted and turned and they couldn’t see very far ahead through the trees. Sometimes they caught a glimpse of one or other of the huge statues that guarded the way to the bridge. The eerie, distressing sound became louder as they neared the bottom of the slope, but there was nothing to be seen until they came closer to the river. Now they could see the great guardian statues seated each side of the old road, though the bridge was still hidden. The ground around them was blackened and charred, and the trees were badly burned, their leaves gone and their scorched limbs twisted.

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