The Mountains Rise (8 page)

A few weeks later Daniel went with his father to visit Vernon Withers, a charcoal
maker who also supplied most of the potash used by the people of the valley and Colne.
They used the potash to make soap, which in turn was used to clean the grease from
wool after the summer shearing.

It was a long trip
,
but they stopped in Colne on their way back. Alan intended to stop at the Hayes’
store, but Daniel wasn’t too keen on seeing Alice again, especially not with his father
present.

A flash of red caught his eye as they passed the small home the Brown’s occupied.
“Do you mind if I go see Mr. Brown while you’re in the store?”

Alan looked as his son strangely, “What would you want in there?” Daniel had never
shown any particular interest in cloth or clothing.

“I thought I’d see if maybe they’d have something Mom would like,” he replied, giving
a half-truth. The red fabric had given him the idea. It was a rare color to find
,
and he knew his mother would be excited if he was able to get some for her.

His father raised one eyebrow, “Maybe there’s hope for you yet, son. You grow more
thoughtful by the day.”

“I learned from the best,” said Daniel as he hopped off the buckboard seat.

His father kept moving, driving down the street to park near the store while Daniel
knocked at the Brown’s door. He could see the red fabric through their front window.

Fiona Brown opened the door. “I didn’t expect to see you back again so soon.”

She was referring to the fact that he’d purchased several yards of grey wool from
her husband only a few weeks prior. “I saw the red in the window,” he told her.

“You want to see?” She opened the door wide to admit him. “I hadn’t thought you
interested in such things.”

Stepping into the small front room he took in the surroundings. He had already opened
his mind and he knew there was no one else nearby. A large bolt of strangely smooth
red fabric stood out amongst the earthy browns and greys of the rest of the room.

“I just thought mother might like something like that,” he said, indicating the red
cloth. “It doesn’t look like wool, though.”

She gave him a kind expression, “It’s linen, Dalton found it in Dereham. He went
back yesterday to see if they had any more after all the interest we’ve gotten.”

“Linen?”

“They make it from flax,” she explained. Fiona’s smile went all the way to her eyes
which crinkled, making their warm browns seem even more attractive. She was a young
woman still, barely five years older than Daniel, and she and her husband had yet
to be blessed with children.

He touched the fabric curiously. “It seems rather flimsy,” he noted, comparing it
to wool in his mind.

She stood beside him, “It’s much stronger than it seems and it doesn’t take up water
the same way wool does. Many people make fine shirts from it.”

“It seems like it would be cold.”

“It isn’t as warm as wool, certainly,” she admitted, “but the texture of it feels
better against the skin.”

“How much would you want for a few yards of it?” he asked.

“Three bales a yard,” she told him.

Daniel was shocked, “Why so much?”

She explained to him their reasons, the foremost being the price they had had to pay
to buy it to begin with, before adding the trouble of traveling to Dereham.

He wa
tched her as she spoke. Fiona B
rown wasn’t hard to look at, although she was far from the most beautiful woman in
town. Her nose was a bit longer than some and her chin was too small, but her hair
was well kept
,
and she smelled good. What made her most attractive was her friendly personality
and the easiness with which she smiled.

She isn’t half as pretty as Kate, nor half as smart,
he thought involuntarily,
but then, I don’t deserve Kate.

“Is there any way you could go lower?” he asked, stroking her aura invisibly. His
heart had begun to race already.

***

Less than half an hour had passed before he met his father at the wagon. Fiona had
turned out to be surprisingly athletic
,
but she had given him an incredible discount in return for his best efforts.

“How much was that?” asked his father, he knew already that the red cloth had to have
been expensive.

“I promised them two bales for two yards,” said Daniel sheepishly. He hoped his father
wouldn’t be angry at his impulsive purchase.

Alan’s brows lifted, “That’s pretty cheap I think.”

“I told Mrs. Brown it was a present for Mother
,
and I think she felt sympathetic,” explained Daniel.

“You definitely have a way with women, son,” said his father. “So Dalton wasn’t there?”

“No sir.”

Alan Tennick laughed, “I hope he isn’t too irritated by the loss when he discovers
you sweet-talked his wife out of that cloth for a bale a yard.”

Daniel tried to hide his nervousness with a laugh. The cheap price was the least
of the things he was worried about Mr. Brown discovering.

Spring flowed easily into summer
,
and Daniel made regular trips into Colne every week as the months passed. He visited
Fiona several times and Alice once, but he didn’t limit himself to just those two.

Instead he let chance and fate carry him along, planning nothing but never missing
an opportunity. As the months passed
,
the list
of
his illicit encounters grew too long for him to keep track of them all. He picked
and chose among the women of Colne as some people choose apples from a tree, looking
for smooth skin and a healthy glow.

With each tryst he found himself emptier than before, and subconsciously he developed
a self-loathing that he never quite allowed to see the light of his conscious thoughts.
The only thing that eased the pain was the thrill of the next assignation, the next
conquest.

Some of them became obsessed, even going to far as to try
to
ambush him whenever he was alone. In general he lost interest after the second or
third ‘meeting’ but his special skill always left them wanting more. He had discovered
that he could drive a woman to the height of passion with barely more than a glance,
even if he decided not to indulge himself personally.

On one day he had tested the limit of his ability, teasing Emily Banks, Ronnie’s sister,
into the deepest throes of passion after fifteen minutes of nothing more than kissing.
He had left her twitching and moaning under a tree behind her parents’ home, without
ever bothering to lift her dress. He had already sampled her wares the week before
anyway, so he no longer felt any curiosity about what she kept hidden there.

With each passing dalliance
,
his soul died a bit more, growing steadily greyer and emptier. He cared less about
others, and not at all for himself. Rumors began to spread through town, but he couldn’t
muster the energy to care.

Through it all his thoughts inevitably returned to Kate, much the same way one can’t
keep from probing a sore tooth. On the occasions that he encountered her
,
a fresh blaze of pain would sear its way through his heart, reminding him that perhaps
he wasn’t as dead as he thought, but he refused to go near her.

She tried to talk to him one day, as he drove past her, but he refused to speak.
The only gift he could give her was to keep her from being tainted any further by
his acquaintance.

Eventually, he heard, through one of the women he was meeting, that Kate had begun
seeing Seth Tolburn. The news wasn’t unexpected, but it hurt anyway.

Today he was watching his father’s sheep, playing music while the sun made its way
languidly through the summer sky. Days like this one were a balm to him. Away from
people, his sins and transgressions seemed distant. Here he felt the peace of a simple
shepherd’s life, and he tried to express it through the strings of his cittern.

His mind was open, feeling and sampling the world for what was probably a mile in
every direction. He had learned to be careful. A few days prior he had encountered
a presence that he knew must be the warden, hunting again for him. The other man’s
aura was brilliant, shining with a powerful light that Daniel never saw in his parents
or the townspeople of Colne.

The light was the key. He knew that he must give off some similar sign and over the
past months he had refined his ability to control his own power. In the beginning
he had closed his mind, making himself appear to be nothing more than an ordinary
person, but now he was able to work in more subtle ways, damping his own light while
keeping his mind open, allowing him to see the world around him in his special way.

He also suspected that perhaps the warden was unable to sense him at the same distance
which he could sense the warden. Otherwise his first experiments would have gotten
him caught.

The forest gods will have to send more than one servant if they wish to catch me,
he thought smugly.

The warden was currently heading toward Colne, having already passed the Sayer house.
He never suspected that his prey had watched him the entire time.

Passing lightly over that area
,
Daniel noticed Kate on the hillside behind her home. She sat on a rock overlooking
the river. He kept playing, wondering what she might be thinking about. On days
like this
,
he had often noticed her there, still and silent on her perch. He imagined she must
be thinking, but he couldn’t guess at what. He only hoped it wasn’t him.

That’s what he told himself anyway.

He suspected she could hear his music from there, and despite himself
,
he always played when she came out. Secretly he felt as if the music somehow bridged
the distance between them, forging a bond that could transcend even the darkness of
his soul, but he never looked at those feelings directly. He kept them hidden, even
from himself, focusing always on the music itself.

A new figure appeared, moving from the direction of Seth Tolburn’s house. It took
the new arrival nearly half an hour to cover the distance
,
but as he passed closer to Daniel’s hill he recognized his former-friend. It was
Seth himself.

He wondered briefly what errand Seth might be on, but he quickly realized that it
wasn’t anything he wanted to know about. Seth stopped and left the trail near Kate’s
perch, making his way over to sit beside her.

Daniel closed his mind. He didn’t want to see them. Anger warred with grief inside
him. Removing his hands f
rom the cittern he quit playing.
H
e’d be damned before he
would serenade
them while they kissed or shared love tokens.

You’re already damned,
he thought to himself again. A sudden impulse came to him then, the desire to send
a flash of the strange light toward the heavens, to create a beacon. Such a thing
would most assuredly alert the warden to his location. It would be so easy to do.

He resisted the urge, keeping himself still and silent instead. Closing his eyes
as well as his mind, he listened to the soft susurration of the wind over the grass,
punctuated by the occasional bleats from one of the sheep. Blue sat close to him,
lending him the comfort of his presence.

No matter what sins he committed, Blue was absolutely loyal. His values were simple
,
and Daniel could do no wrong in his eyes.

If only people were like dogs.

A sharp cry cut through the silence of his thoughts. Kate was yelling.

Curious but not quite alarmed, Daniel opened his mind again and was surprised to see
that Kate and Seth were no longer alone. Three of his least favorite people had joined
them
;
Ronnie Banks, Aston Hayes, and Billy Hedger. They must have come from the direction
of Colne, otherwise he would have detected them before he had shut his mind.

The three young men were spread out, standing in a small circle around Kate and Seth.
Their stances were tense
,
and they moved constantly, edging from side to side. A fight was brewing.

“Shit,” said Daniel. None of it was his problem. He and Seth were no longer technically
even friends
,
and Kate was most certainly not his.

They’ll probably just harass them a bit. Rough Seth up and embarrass him in front
of her, like they did with me.
Even as he thought it, though, he wondered if it was true. That had been two years
ago, and they were older now.
Grown
men had no business behaving like hooligans.

What if they did something worse?

He saw Seth’s fists come up, signaling his readiness to fight. Ronnie had moved closer
to him, grinning as he came on. Ronnie was the largest of the three, nearly as large
as Daniel, and he was two years older than Seth. There would be nothing fair about
the fight.

Laughing he danced aside as Seth swung at him
,
and as he did Billy stepped up from the side, swinging a heavy branch. It struck
Seth across the temple and he fell, dropping limply to the ground. It had been an
ugly blow, with no mercy or fairness in it. It was the sort of blow that might kill
a man.

Daniel was already running
,
and this time he didn’t bother telling Blue to stay behind. He heard Kate’s yelling
again as he flew down the hillside. She was swearing at them, something she never
did. Ronnie had her by the throat now, shaking her like a doll, as if that might
shut her up.

It would take him several minutes to reach the bottom of the hill, assuming he didn’t
trip and dash his brains out on a rock on the way down. Crossing the river would
be quick at the shallow ford where the trail met it. From there it would be several
minutes more running up the opposite side to reach Kate. He tried not to think what
might happen in that time.

In his mind’s eye he watched them as he ran.

Ronnie gave up on the shaking;
instead he drew one arm back and drove his fist into Kate’s stomach. She crumpled
to the ground in front of him, gagging and choking. Laughing now, Ronnie pulled her
up by her long red hair, forcing her face toward his groin
,
even as he fumbled with his trousers with the other hand.

Daniel flew across the river as if it didn’t exist
. He was running so hard it felt as if his feet never sank into the water. Dashing
up the trail he ran as though his life depended upon it. His own life was worthless,
though, he wouldn’t have run for it. He ran for the last thing that mattered to him,
he ran for the only part of his soul that still held any value, the part that remained
with her.

Ronnie yelled, shoving her back now. Daniel could only assume she had bitten him.

Good for her. I hope she bit it off.
Kate was no shrinking violet, she wouldn’t surrender easily.

Then Ronnie kicked her, driving the heel of his boot into the side of her head. She
hit the ground hard and while her arms were struggling to lift her again, she couldn’t
seem to find the ground. Disoriented and bleeding she fell repeatedly as her hands
clawed at the earth.

Ronnie’s knife was out now, and he began cutting her dress away. He wasn’t laughing
anymore.

Daniel wouldn’t make it in time. The steep incline had forced him to slow down
,
and his breath was coming in great heaving gasps. Blue paced him, waiting for his
master to catch up.

“Go Blue! Go! Help Kate!” he shouted at his only remaining friend.

Blue was uncommonly smart, even for a sheep dog, and he responded immediately, running
up the trail as though gravity had no hold on him. Daniel followed as fast as he
could
,
but the dog outpaced him with ease.

By now Ronnie had cut most of Kate’s dress away, leaving her naked before them. Aston
was leaning over Seth’s still form while Billy watched what Ronnie was doing, one
hand rubbing at his own crotch.

Pulling her by the ankles across the rough ground, Ronnie started to lift Kate’s legs.
Still weak she fought him, twisting and jerking, but she was losing. Her assailant
was drawing them apart, steadily working to get his hips between her knees. He never
heard the sound of soft paws behind him.

A bolt of furred lightning struck him hard, sending him tumbling sideways. Before
he could recover
,
Blue was on him again
,
savaging his arm and then releasing him. The dog leapt in and out, trying to get
at the young man’s throat. Terrified
,
Ronnie hid behind his arms, preventing the
furious
dog from reaching his vitals.

Aston jumped in then, kicking at Blue to force him back. Even so, they had no hope
of getting to Kate, not while her
four-legged
guardian was there. Billy solved the problem with the heavy tree limb he had used
o
n Seth, though. He clubbed Blue
hard as
the valiant dog
dodged away from another of Aston’s kicks. A second swing sent the shaky
canine
flying from the stony outcropping, to tumble down the steep incline.

Daniel was a blind mass of rage by now, but his mind still worked. Before the three
young men had recovered from their battle with the dog, he was among them. They saw
him coming
,
but with only seconds to spare they weren’t ready. He went for Billy first, marking
him as the most dangerous with his wooden club. Dodging the boy’s first tentative
swipe
,
he closed and drove his fist into Billy’s midsection. A second blow sent his opponent
reeling back
,
and then he turned to face Ronnie.

Movement from his right forced him to turn
.
Aston wasn’t staying out of the fight. He caught the blonde’s shirt as he struck
him with an ineffective punch and dragged him forward, bringing his knee up in a brutal
strike to the other boy’s more sensitive region. Using his elbow
,
he sent Aston hard into the ground, but he was too slow to avoid Ronnie’s attack.