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you did grow older, when you reached an age to understand and remember, she
stopped bringing you here.'
Wait a minute. How d'you know all this? You're younger than me. At least, you
seem to be.'
'I am, Thom. Even in your years I am.' She lightly pulled him onwards. The
story, almost a legend among us now, was passed down. A union between mortal
and faerefolkis is something we could never forget.'
Then why didn't she want me to know? Why didn't my mother tell me what she
was? Or at least about my father?'
"You were too young for the burden. Besides, it seems, she'd made a promise.'
He came up short again. 'A promise? To whom? About what?'
 You'll understand much of it soon. Let's keep walking, Thom. I can only be
with you for a certain amount of time.'
He could only brood over the secrecy all these years. Why, when she was alive,
had his mother not told him of his father and these fabulous little people who
lived in the woods? If she had, as Jennet had claimed, surely he would never
have forgotten? And what did Jennet mean, why could she only stay with him for
a certain length of time, where the hell was she taking him?
Jennet said no more to him for a while. They passed old oaks, venerable elms,
sycamores, beech and many more that had grown undisturbed by man in this
forest for countless centuries, alongside them new, leafy saplings that
provided forage for fallow and roe deer. Animals, birds, insects too, appeared
unperturbed by Thom and Jennet's intrusion as they journeyed through this
perfect and self-contained ecosystem, where each forest layer provided
sustenance for every denizen - ground and soil, shrubbery and undergrowth,
lower and upper canopies. Insects, animals and birds dwelt here in a harmony
that today, at least, not even human presence could disrupt. Birds and small
animals might feed on insects, some birds on some animals, some animals on
some birds, but at this wondrous time for him, there were no sudden scuffles
as one species preyed on another, no squawks of birds diving for some juicy
beetle, no squeals of rabbits captured by old enemies: today this world seemed
at peace.
He continued to catch sight of little people playing among flowering hawthorn,
elder, or spindle, none of them shy of him but all of them curious if only in
a passing way. At the earthy, blackened end of a thick
fallen tree trunk, where twisted roots slowly degenerated, he saw what he had
first
thought was a nest of termites, but on closer inspection discovered that they
were hundreds of tiny faeries playing and bustling about, their frail red
wings now giving them the appearance of minute moths or butterflies. He began
to wonder just how many different types of faerefolkis there might be.
There were still hosts of lights, no more than bright specks in the
near-distance, flitting between trees or disappearing into undergrowth
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caverns, although not as many as he had observed before; in fact, the deeper
into the woods that he and Jennet went, the less he saw of both animal and
faery.
The great green canopy overhead grew thicker so that in places they made their
way in twilight. Silver shafts of light broke through the overhanging branches
to speckle the mulch floor, or to highlight certain patches of ferns and wild
plants, and in the very deepest parts of the woods they seemed like beacons to
Thom, letting him know that the sun still governed the skies. Yet it was cool
beneath this leafy pavilion as well as shadowy, the tops of the trees
absorbing the sun's heat, a thin breeze below chilling Thom's flesh.
He shivered and wondered how much further they had to go? The girl walked on
ahead, her movement graceful, snarled undergrowth no impediment, the sudden
duskiness no disincentive, and as he was about to speak she pointed ahead.
There, Thom,' she said. 'Do you see it?'
He followed her direction with his eyes and saw in the distance a bright oasis
of light, a smallish clearing where the trees parted overhead to allow the sun
full ingress. It was like a bright jewel in the sun-peppered gloom.
Her steps quickened as though she were eager for him to find out what lay
ahead in the clearing and he followed close behind, trying to tread in her
footsteps, for she knew the path that was all but invisible to him.
Occasionally he stumbled, but hurriedly gathered pace again, feeling an [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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