The Secrets of the Wild Wood

  “They did help us, though,” said Tiuri.

  Jaro muttered something. Then he said, “From the frying pan into the fire. I don’t know what’s behind it all, but I’m sure they didn’t help us because they liked the look of our faces.”

  “What do you know about the Men in Green?” asked Tiuri. “I thought they were on your side!”

  “So did I,” said Jaro. “They are under the command of my… of the Black Knight with the Red Shield, but they don’t come from Eviellan.” He stopped and turned to look at the tower. “They’re still watching us,” he remarked. He walked on and continued, “They were here long before us. I think they’ve always lived here.”

  “It is as you say, friendly enemy,” whispered the Fool. “They belong here. And their master is the Master of the Wild Wood.”

  “Their master is the Lord of the Tarnburg, the Black Knight with the Red Shield,” said Jaro. “The Lord of the Tarnburg is Master of the Wild Wood; it has always been that way. The Men in Green handed the Tarnburg over to the Black Knight when he came to the forest.”

  “How long ago was that?” asked Tiuri.

  “I don’t know exactly,” Jaro replied. “About three years ago, I believe. But it is only since last year that the Black Knight has spent more time here. He has fortified the castle and is gathering a large number of men.”

  “And when will the attack begin?” Tiuri asked.

  Jaro slowed his pace and looked at Tiuri with a frown. “What do you know about that?” he asked.

  “He is preparing to attack the Kingdom of Unauwen,” said Tiuri, “via the Road of Ambuscade. As I’m sure you must know…” As he spoke, he was overcome by a feeling of uncertainty. Jaro may have saved him, but that didn’t necessarily mean he wanted to help foil his master’s plans!

  “Of course he created this stronghold in the forest for a reason,” said Jaro. “And the war with the kingdom to the west is fully underway. We all know he is preparing an attack.”

  “Don’t you know when it will take place?” asked Tiuri.

  “No,” said Jaro. “And I don’t think I would tell you even if I did know. I may no longer wish to serve the Black Knight with the Red Shield, but I’m no traitor!” He walked on more quickly, looking straight ahead. Tiuri cast a sideways glace at him and said, “I know who he is. The Knight with the Red Shield, I mean.”

  Now Jaro stopped and stared at him with wide eyes. “You know?” he whispered. “But how?”

  “He told me himself,” replied Tiuri, who had also stopped. “He told me that he plans to cross the mountains with his army. He said he lured Sir Edwinem into an ambush and killed him. He, the…”

  “Do not say his name!” whispered Jaro. He lowered his eyes and turned away. “Perhaps you know more than I…,” he said. “And if you have spoken to him, then maybe you understand how difficult it is for me to disobey him, even though I fear… no, I hate him.”

  “So why did you return to him?” asked Tiuri.

  “Why? I didn’t mean to, but…”

  Behind them came a sound on the drum. They looked around; the man on the watchtower was signalling at them to move on.

  Jaro cursed. “You see, we have to keep going,” he said. “They can order us around without even saying a word!”

  They walked onwards in the pouring rain. “As soon as the path takes a turn and they can no longer see us, let’s head off in a different direction,” said Jaro. “I’m not planning to let them send me to this Tehalon like some meek little lamb.”

  “Who is Tehalon?” asked Tiuri.

  “No idea! It could be a place, or a person, or something else… something worse. Only the king… the Black Knight speaks their language, or so I’ve heard. He is free to enter their territory whenever he wishes. But we are forbidden.”

  “It is not the language of Eviellan,” said Tiuri. “I don’t understand a word of it, and yet there’s something familiar about it.”

  “Oh, they understand us, too, you know” said Jaro. “But they don’t want anyone to realize. They’re always sneaking around and spying. If anything happens in the forest they’re usually the first to know and to pass on the news.” He lowered his voice and added, “The Red Riders are the elite troops of Eviellan, but I have thought at times that the king seems to expect even more from the Men in Green…”

  “Do you really think so?” whispered the Fool. “You don’t know their secrets. Oh no, you don’t.”

  “The king is the only one who knows their secrets,” said Jaro. “Look,” he continued, changing the subject. “The tower’s out of sight now and here’s something that looks like a side trail. You don’t want to keep travelling on to the north either, do you?”

  “No,” said Tiuri hesitantly, “but I don’t like the thought of meeting the Red Riders again.”

  “And I really don’t like the thought of being at the mercy of the Men in Green,” said Jaro.

  Tiuri could sympathize, but he was still not sure, as they left the road and headed east, that they were doing the right thing.

  Soon, though, he was spared the worry. Four of the Men in Green approached them and told them, silently but most firmly, to turn around and continue along the road to the north. The fugitives thought it would be a bad idea to defy the order. The men were armed and, besides, the three of them were exhausted.

  And so, reluctantly, they walked onwards, heading more and more slowly, yet still deeper and deeper, into the mysterious region between the Green River and the Green Hills.

  *

  “I really do need to stop for a little rest!” said Jaro a while later, dropping down onto the moss. His companions did the same, and the three of them lay there with their eyes closed.

  “Who would like something to eat?” asked Jaro. “I have a little food left. And as for drink, I’ve had enough of water. Thank goodness that rain’s finally stopped.”

  “They gave us a drink,” said the Fool, “back there, at the tower. Sir Tiuri and I had a drink. Why didn’t you, friendly enemy?”

  “Please, just call me Jaro,” said Jaro. “Yes, I’m sorry now that I refused their drink. The two of you don’t look too good, but you’re still alive enough, so there probably wasn’t any poison in it.” He sighed. “What I wouldn’t give to know where we’re going to end up!” he added. “Shall we just stay lying here on the moss, somewhere between Tehalon and Tarnburg?”

  Tiuri sighed, too. “I don’t feel able to decide what we should do for the best,” he said.

  “You see,” said Jaro, “those Men in Green have a bad influence on our ability to make decisions. Maybe they’re peering out at us now and having a good laugh. But still, I’m going to try to get out of this wretched wood. I wish I’d never set foot in it.”

  “How long have you been here?” asked Tiuri.

  “Oh, so you want to know how I ended up back with the Black Knight, do you?” said Jaro. He turned onto his stomach and picked at the moss.

  “I wasn’t planning to,” he began, “not after everything that happened in the mountains and my conversation with Menaures. I didn’t want to go back to Eviellan, but of course I couldn’t go to the Kingdom of Unauwen either. And there were Grey Knights roaming the Kingdom of Dagonaut who were looking for me. ‘Go and work,’ Menaures told me. ‘Find some hard, honest work.’ But it wasn’t easy!” He looked at Tiuri with an expression that was somehow surly and apologetic at the same time. “No, it wasn’t easy,” he repeated. “Not after the life I’d led. I have no wish to say anything more about that now, but one ill-fated day I met a man who needed woodcutters. It was too late by the time I noticed that the work was in the Wild Wood and, even worse, that it was for the master I’d escaped from, the Black Knight with the Red Shield! Well, of course, his men recognized me immediately and all I could do was act as if I’d returned of my own free will. Otherwise I’d surely have paid with my life! The Black Knight was already angry enough with me; he stripped the symbols of the Red Riders from me because I had not
done as he had commanded. From then on, I was one of the lower ranks – they are dressed in green, but wear black caps to distinguish them from the men who live in this part of the forest.”

  “What happened then?” asked Tiuri.

  “Then? Nothing!” said Jaro. “I had to stay. I knew I was serving a bad master, but I was too fond of my life to defy him again. Besides, it was winter when I came to the forest, and I didn’t know my way here well enough to risk an escape attempt.”

  “But now you’ve done it anyway!” said Tiuri.

  “Oh, I’d been planning to give it a try,” said Jaro. “And when I recognized you, when you were being led along the Black River, captive and blindfolded, I knew the time had come. I succeeded in freeing you and I shall never return to the Tarnburg.”

  Tiuri held out his hand and shook Jaro’s.

  “Oh no,” Jaro said a little shyly. “I should thank you. Finally I’ve found the courage to escape. Although… I fear we are still prisoners…”

  Tiuri asked Jaro if he knew anything about Sir Ristridin. But there was nothing Jaro could tell him. Most of the time he had been made to work in and around the castle and was not allowed to ride freely along the paths in the forest, as the Red Riders were. All he knew was that the Black Knight had ordered his men to ensure that no one who entered the forest would ever leave it again.

  “I think all the intruders have been slain,” he said. “It was only the knights with white shields who were to be brought to him alive.”

  “Why is that?” whispered Tiuri.

  Jaro sat down. “I can only guess,” he replied. “He considers those knights his mortal enemies – perhaps he wanted to question them first to find out more about King Unauwen’s plans for war. Maybe he wanted to kill them himself, in his own way. But you are the first and only knight with a white shield ever to come here – and you’re not even a knight from the west.”

  I have lost my white shield, thought Tiuri, and the sword King Unauwen gave me, too. He felt very low at that point; Piak was not with him and Ardanwen was dead. He closed his eyes and sighed again.

  But the Fool gave him a shake and said, “Knight, Friend, shouldn’t we keep going?”

  “Where to?” Jaro grumbled. “Onwards to the unknown, to Tehalon?”

  Tiuri got to his feet. “I think Marius is right,” he said. “We can’t just stop and rest. We have to take one path or another – it doesn’t matter which, as long as it takes us out of this forest.”

  3 THE DEEP LAKE

  The only road they could see, though, led to the north, and for a short while they followed it without saying anything, sometimes going slowly uphill, then back downhill for a while. Then, suddenly, they emerged from the shade of the trees.

  On their left was a grassy valley with just a few very young trees. At its centre was a small, deep-green lake. Beyond, the forest began again, dark and dense, and in the far distance they could see slopes and mountain peaks.

  Tiuri blinked; he had just looked up at the sun, which was already in the west. But he went on looking, not at the valley and the lake, but at the mountains, the Great Mountains. How very close they seemed – and on the other side lay the realm of King Unauwen!

  “That’s where I need to go,” he whispered.

  “What do you mean?” said Jaro. “I don’t like the look of that lake at all. It’s so still and it looks very deep.”

  “I meant the mountains,” said Tiuri. “I don’t know how to get there, but I know that I must. I have to reach the Kingdom of Unauwen before the attack that’s coming via the Road of Ambuscade.”

  “You must be mad!” said Jaro.

  Tiuri looked at him. “Now that I know, it’s my duty to warn them,” he said, his voice trembling slightly. “I have to attempt it, even if it seems impossible. And you mustn’t try to stop me,” he continued. “The King of Eviellan is a wicked man and you no longer wish to serve him. So do you really want the Kingdom of Unauwen to come under his rule?”

  “Calm yourself!” said Jaro. “No, believe me, I don’t want that to happen.”

  Tiuri thought he sounded sincere. He sat down by the side of the path and his friends did the same.

  “You’re right, Jaro,” Tiuri went on. “We can’t keep on walking along a path that we were ordered to follow without knowing our goal. Oh, if only I knew when the attack was going to happen!”

  “Listen, Tiuri,” said Jaro. “I don’t agree with your plans at all! And for a number of reasons. Firstly because, even though I happen to have escaped, I don’t like the thought of being a traitor…”

  “You have to do one thing or the other,” Tiuri said firmly, even though he barely raised his voice. “You were born in the Kingdom of Unauwen, and the King of Eviellan is bad. You can’t run away from him and yet refuse to fight him.”

  “That sounds true enough,” said Jaro, “but there’s something you don’t understand. Maybe you’re not able to understand. The King of Eviellan is a wicked man, and I know that. And yet still I can’t bring myself to turn against him. I would be the first man to say that everyone should fight against him, but still I don’t want to play a part in his downfall. I just can’t do it!” He looked at Tiuri with something like desperation in his eyes. “You can’t understand,” he said again. “You haven’t known him and served him for years as I have.”

  Tiuri didn’t know how to respond. But he did understand – had he not spoken to the King of Eviellan himself and listened to his words? But he had met Prince Iridian first… He felt a sudden sympathy for Jaro, who no longer wanted to follow the path of evil and so had nowhere to go.

  “I’m not saying you have to come with me,” he said finally. “I am the one who came upon this information.” And I’m not the only one, he thought, but I could be the only one who can still tell someone about it. “And because I know,” he added, “I have to try to foil Eviellan’s plans.”

  “How are you going to get across the mountains?” asked Jaro. “You can’t take the Road of Ambuscade, and there is no other way over. There truly isn’t.”

  Tiuri didn’t answer. I’ve no idea either, he thought miserably.

  “You want to fight the King of Eviellan,” Jaro continued. “But you are no more his match than I am. Whole armies have failed to defeat him! You have met him, so you must realize it’s madness to think you could take him on.”

  For a moment, Tiuri was back in the Tarnburg, sitting across from the Black Knight, with the chessboard between them – the game they had not finished. “Yes,” he said quietly, “that’s true.”

  “I think there is only one man in the world who could stand up to him,” whispered Jaro. “Someone who is just as strong as him…”

  “Prince Iridian,” said Tiuri.

  “But I doubt he would ever want to take up his sword against his twin brother,” Jaro added. “I mean in a one-to-one duel.”

  They fell silent. But Tiuri noticed now that the silence was full of life. A cricket chirped in the grass, and small creatures were moving all around. He shivered; suddenly he felt cold.

  “In any case we have to get away from here,” said Jaro. He struggled to his feet and held out a hand to help Tiuri up. “I am afraid this could be the Deep Lake,” he continued, “and I’ve heard nasty stories about that place. The Deep Lake, where sacrifices were once made to the evil spirits of the forest. I don’t want to say another word about that, but you know that the King of Eviellan also rules over the Men in Green. You are still on his land, Tiuri, and so you must flee with us from this place!”

  When Tiuri did not move, Jaro added, “You can only fight against him once you have placed yourself beyond his reach. Outside of this forest there are better roads and you have friends who can help you.”

  “That is true,” Tiuri agreed.

  Now the Fool spoke to him. “Stay here, Friend,” he said. “This man Jaro is afraid, but he does not know the secrets. I have already told you that. Stay here and wait.”

  “What for??
?? asked Tiuri, rather puzzled. The Fool had always been afraid of the Men in Green.

  “I… I… I don’t know,” the Fool replied.

  “Well, what I know is that we’re wasting precious time!” said Jaro impatiently. “We have to head to the east and make sure we get to the other side of the Green River. Perhaps we’ll reach civilization that way.”

  “You can’t!” said the Fool. “Look, there’s another one. Down by the lake.”

  “The devil take him,” said Jaro. “I’m leaving.”

  “Don’t say that,” whispered the Fool, going after Jaro. “He’s calling us.”

  “Let’s pretend we haven’t seen him,” said Jaro, without stopping. Tiuri went with him.

  “There are two of them now,” said the Fool. “They’re both calling us.”

  Yes, they were standing by the lake, beckoning to them. Tiuri and Jaro stopped and looked at each other.

  “We can’t just run away,” whispered Tiuri. “They’ll be sure to stop us!”

  “We have to go to them,” said the Fool.

  “Then we shall do that!” said Tiuri, suddenly decided. And to Jaro he added, “It wouldn’t be the first time Marius has been right about a situation. Without him I would never have found out who lives in this forest. Besides, I see no other possibility. Right now we just have to do what they want!”

  They walked slowly down into the valley, the Fool leading the way, and Jaro bringing up the rear. Tiuri looked up at the mountains again. “If only I knew how much time we have left,” he said to himself.

  Jaro heard his words and said, “I don’t know when the attack will happen. But I think it will be late spring or early summer, when the pass is free of snow and the road is passable for an army with horses.”

  Tiuri thought of Piak. His friend knew all about the mountains; he could have told him when that would be. Oh, Piak…

  “Are you not scared of anything else?” asked Jaro beside him.

  “What do you mean?” asked Tiuri.

  “An army by the Black River, closer to your own land than to the Kingdom of Unauwen. It actually is your own land! You are a knight of King Dagonaut, after all!”