Tree Slayer by Harriet Springbett

Author:Harriet Springbett [Harriet Springbett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781911293408
Publisher: Impress Books
Published: 2019-12-16T16:00:00+00:00

Eole woke up to darkness. It was 1:14 a.m. His headache had passed and he was ravenous. Alexandra was stretched out on the bed beside him and Darwie lay in the corner of Jasmine’s room on a blanket. Eole sat up. He was still dressed, except for his trainers.

Alexandra reached out to him. He whispered that he was going to the toilet.

Before going back to bed, he paused at the foot of the staircase leading to Rainbow’s loft. A scratching noise came from Jasmine’s room. He opened the door and Darwie nosed his way out. Eole picked up his trainers, told Darwie to lie down, and crept up the staircase.

He knocked on Rainbow’s door. There was no reply. He turned the handle and opened it a crack. A sliver of moonlight made his hand glow white. He whispered her name.

Her bed creaked. He went and stood over her. She looked like a younger version of herself, her brown hair loose around her face. Before he could find a metaphor, her eyes opened. She stared at him, then cried out and bunched her sheet over her mouth.

“Jesus, Eole! What are you doing?”

“I’m looking at you. Shall we carry on?”

“Carry on what? It’s the middle of the night.”

He corrected her and then pointed out that they only had tonight to see if his idea was feasible. She argued, in a whisper, that they’d already seen it wasn’t, and grumbled about having to get up at seven o’clock the next morning to meet Thierry. He told her his headache had gone and he wanted to make their treeopedia.

“You said my part in the mission was over,” he added. “But maybe this is our real mission: to use my hearing and your understanding of trees to invent a device for translating the voices. Once we understand them, we can deduce where they come from and publish a scientific paper.”

She blinked three times, then sighed and said she’d see him in the kitchen.

He went downstairs with Darwie and made himself a cheese and ham sandwich from a stale baguette while he waited for her. He much preferred the commune at night, when everyone was in bed.

She looked a little more sparkly when she tiptoed into the kitchen, as if his mention of their mission had cheered her up, and they sneaked outside into a surprising brightness. The air was still, the sky clear and the moon almost full. Night-time here smelt of mist and pesticides as well as a mossy odour similar to Rainbow’s own scent. She led him away from the woods and towards the vines, where there were fewer trees.

He listened to the voices before he put on his headphones. They were urgent whispers, rather than the aggressive shouting he’d suffered from earlier on, but they still jumbled together and made it impossible for him to isolate a single voice. Rainbow asked him if he was all right, which was pointless because of course he wasn’t all right. He ignored the muted voices and concentrated on the sound of his and Rainbow’s footsteps on the stony track.

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