‘Alex, were you shooting to kill, or just to scare?’

Valery’s raucous laughter rang through the wood as Alex wrenched his quivering arrow from where it was embedded in the trunk of a nearby tree. ‘If I told you I was aiming to miss, would you believe me?’

‘Of course!’ Valery laughed again. ‘I only come with you on these trips so that you can have a lesser man around to feel superior to, you know that. But what are we to do for food now? That miss of yours will have put the fright into every buck in the forest.’

‘Only if that laugh of yours hasn’t sent them scurrying for their hideaways!’ Alex gave him a friendly clap on the shoulder. ‘But if we want to catch ourselves a supper, we could do worse than to ride down to Great Rose Pool. Creatures of the forest need to drink, and, right now, so do I. Agreed, my friend?’ Valery nodded his agreement, and the two companions rode off through the trees, side by side, in search of drink and supper.

The buck, the smell of the human creatures still strong in its nostrils, plunged on through the foliage, terrified half out of its simple mind. Bursting out of the thicket onto the riverbank, it shied in alarm. Another human creature knelt on the bank, its scent carried across the water, away from him. A crashing in the bushes behind heralded the approach of more creatures. Desperate with fear, the young stag leapt for its life across the swift-flowing river, and pounded up the bank and into the trees beyond.

The girl on the riverbank turned at the unexpected noise behind her, and was confronted with a confused blur of hide and hooves. Everything happened so fast she did not see the hoof of the deer when it struck her full on the forehead and sent her, unconscious, toppling backwards into the river.

The tranquil Great Rose Pool mirrored the huge granite outcropping, which jutted from the forest floor and ended in a sheer drop to the water. The Forest River fed the pool at one end, and underground streams carried the flow away again, so the water stayed fresh. Water carved the opposite bank into a series of gentle curving bays that resembled the petals of a flower. Local legend said that the pool was bottomless; the overhang where Valery and Alex now halted was a favorite diving spot for the young and reckless. It was also a superb spot for hunting, as deer would often come down to the opposite bank to drink.

As they rode up the slope, Alex’s mare labored beneath him. He dismounted and ran his nimble hands down her silky forelegs. She pulled away at the pressure of his touch. He cursed softly, and Valery glanced up from where he tended his own mount. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Ishbel is a touch lame in her foreleg. I don’t think it’s serious, but I also don’t think I should ride her any more today. I don’t want to make it worse.’

‘Fine with me!’ Valery grinned. ‘I wasn’t planning to go much further today anyway. There’s a way station not far from here; we can stop there overnight. We should be home by tomorrow moonrise. Did you have any plans?’

‘Nothing important.’ Alex, feeling drowsy, stretched out on the smooth, sun-warmed rock. ‘There’s nothing I’d rather do than snooze in the sun, really.’ Valery joined him in sprawling on the rock, and it wasn’t long before the warmth of the sun and the sound of the water lulled Alex to nap. He was almost in deep slumber when he was startled awake by a nudge from Valery.

‘What is it?’

‘There’s something over there, tangled up in those bushes on the edge of the pool. It may be a deer.’

Alex squinted. ‘It looks more like some kind of sacking, possibly a bag. Maybe someone’s been having puppies they don’t want. Shall we go and take a look? We could always use more dogs.’

They rushed along the bank to get to the object in the water, fearing all the puppies would drown before they arrived. As they got closer, Alex realized what they were looking at. It wasn’t a bag at all, but a bundle of clothes, caught up on and partially draped over a stout branch, half in, half out of the water. He wondered why anyone would wish to throw clothes into the river. Valery gave a yell, and splashed out into the water. ‘Come here, quick!’ Alex scurried after him.

By the time he waded out to chest-depth, Alex saw that the thing that looked like a bag had arms and legs tangled up in the overhanging roots and branches. Valery struggled to free the twisted limbs and Alex swam over to help him. The girl’s limp form draped over the branch, and her head and legs dangled in the water. Alex raised her head, and gasped at the sight of the ugly gaping split in her forehead. The skin around the wound was purple and swollen, and her lips were blue. She didn’t seem to be breathing.

Valery, slipping and stumbling in the water, managed to get a grip on the girl’s waist and pulled hard. There was the sound of wet cloth tearing, then something gave. Valery, burdened by the sudden extra weight, staggered backwards and disappeared under the surface of the pool. There followed a moment of confusion, and then Alex found himself dragging the girl up the bank. Valery, spitting water, waded after him.

Alex carefully laid the girl out on the springy turf and felt for a heartbeat. It was there, faint but regular, but there was no reassuring rise and fall of her chest. He sat back on his heels, not knowing what to do.

‘Get out of the way,’ Valery said. ‘I saw a little girl rescued from the sea once, at Northpoint. You’re supposed to put air back into her chest.’

‘How?’

‘Like this.’ He knelt beside the girl and holding her nose began to puff life-giving air into her lungs. ‘You Midlanders,’ he complained between breaths, ‘you don’t know anything, do you?’

Valery worked on the woman for what seemed like an age, with no result. Alex shook his head. ‘Maybe you should stop,’ he said. ‘It’s been—,’ the girl’s chest gave a convulsive heave and her eyelids flickered. Water spluttered from the corner of her mouth, and she groaned. Alex’s face broke into a relieved grin. He moved to help Valery assist the girl into a sitting position, and then held her tangled, dripping hair out of her face as she vomited a copious amount of river water.

Concerned, Alex peered into the girl’s face. ‘Can you hear me?’ he said. When she nodded, he went on, ‘I’m Alex, and this is my friend Valery. We’re going to help you. Are you all right?’

Her voice was weak and raspy when she replied, ‘Thank you, I’m alright now, truly.’ Alex wiped the spittle from her chin with the end of his shirt. Her fingers tugged her snarled hair as she raked through her soaked tresses made almost black by the water. She pulled out leaves and damp scraps of twig. ‘I must look a terrible sight.’ Her fingers probed the deep gash on her forehead. Washed out by the water, it began to bleed again. Tendrils of blood webbed out along the fine lines of her face.

Valery reached out to study the wound, and she jerked away. ‘You need something done about that,’ he told her, shaking his head at her reluctance.

Alex took off his shirt as his friend spoke, and tore it into long strips. ‘It’s a head wound,’ he said to the girl, who raised her hand to her head and looked with alarm at the blood that stained her palm. ‘It’s going to bleed a lot. Let me bandage it for you.’ She submitted to his ministrations as he wound the makeshift bandage round her skull.

Alex handed her his water skin, and as he watched the girl drink he felt Valery pluck his sleeve. Alex followed his friend a little further into the trees where they would not be so easily overheard.

‘Alex, I don’t like the look of that head injury.’

‘It is ugly, but I saw worse when we were fighting the Telesians. And she seems well, in herself, I mean.’

‘Head wounds are strange things. People can seem perfectly all right on the outside, and then suddenly go all … wrong. And we don’t know how long she was in the water. She could have caught a chill as well.’

Alex nodded. ‘You’re right. We should take her back to Hierath as soon as we can.’

‘I don’t really see how that can be done.’ At his friend’s look of incomprehension, Valery went on. ‘Ishbel is lame, and Lintar is only a light hack. Maybe he could carry two, but I don’t want to risk him. And from the looks of her, I don’t think she could walk even as far as the way station.’

‘So what can we do with her?’

‘Maybe we should leave her here; or just give her food and water and send her on her way.’ Alex’s eyes widened in surprise.

‘We don’t know who she is or what she’s doing here.’ Valery shrugged at his friend’s expression. ‘She could be anyone, and she might be dangerous. What would happen if we take her home and she turns out to be a horse-thief, or a murderer, or, worse, a Telesian? What then?’

Alex frowned. ‘She’s too pale to be a Telesian, and even if she was one, or a horse-thief, or any other of your unlikely suggestions, we can’t leave her here in the woods with a bleeding head. The Stalkers will be out after Moonrise. She’d be dead by morning, and while you may say that that will solve all our problems, I don’t think I can justify it to myself.’

Valery considered for a moment. ‘I suppose we can’t leave her to die, but it’ll fall on your head if she brings us nothing but trouble. The only thing I can suggest is that I ride full speed back to Hierath and bring help, while you stay here and protect her from the Stalkers. I trust you have your sword?’

Alex touched his hip, searching for the reassuring presence of his blade. The threat of the Stalkers was not one to be taken lightly. They feared only sunlight, fire and the taste of cold steel, and their hunger for blood was legendary. It was said that the Stalkers could smell a single drop of human blood a mile away, and were relentless in tracking down their prey. Valery was relieved that it would not be him staying in the forest as it grew dark. ‘Good luck, old friend,’ he said, giving Alex a quick hug.

‘And the best of speed to you. Be sure you bring good help!’ This last was a shout as Valery hurried away in the direction of his horse, not wishing to delay a moment longer. Alex returned to the edge of the pool. The girl’s pale form leaned against the trunk of a tree. She looked small and vulnerable. Her eyes were closed, her face grey. Blood seeped through her rudimentary dressing. Her eyelids flickered and opened at Alex’s approach. For a moment she looked confused.

‘Whaa … my head hurts so much. Where did your friend go? Or did I dream him up?’

‘Valery’s ridden back to Hierath to get help.’ Alex explained the situation, but he wasn’t sure the girl understood what was happening. Her eyes drifted in and out of focus, and several times he shook her gently to be sure she stayed awake. ‘Come on, stand up!’ He took her by the arm and walked her up and down along the lakeshore, trying to get her to talk to keep her mind focused. ‘Who are you, anyway? And what are you doing wandering around in the forest on your own? You’re not from Hierath, are you?’

‘My name….’ She raised her hand to her forehead, and winced. ‘My name is Lydia. I came from Lydyce, in the Estmarch. I … I can’t remember what I was doing here….’

‘Try to remember,’ he urged.

‘I can’t think properly, I’ve got so much of an ache in my head. Can’t you just let me lie down?’ She sagged, and Alex tightened his grip on her arm.

‘I’m not going to let you do that,’ he said. ‘There’ll be time for sleeping later, when we get home. And speaking of home, why don’t you tell me about yours?’

She frowned. ‘I can’t seem to remember much of that either. I’d like to see you try and remember things in this state.’

Alex laughed. ‘I have trouble remembering things in any state!’

Lydia giggled, but sobered as she glanced around. ‘It’s getting dark. Will your friend be long?’ She seemed nervous, and he wasn’t sure whether it was because of fear of the woods at night, or of being left alone with him.

‘I hope not.’ Alex wandered off towards the trees, looking for firewood. ‘I’ll be right back.’

When he returned, she was again sitting propped against a tree, shivering in her damp clothes. The setting sun lost its warmth, and long shadows stretched thin fingers across the lakeside. Alex wrapped his wool cloak around the girl, and with a grateful smile, she snuggled into it. Her skin felt cold and clammy under his fingers, and she coughed, a great hacking that sounded as if it would tear her apart. He built up the fire with an ease born of experience. She laid his cloak on the mossy ground, as close to the warmth as possible, and curled up on it. Within moments she drifted into a feverish and troubled half-doze, wracked with mutterings and sudden starts.

Alex sat cross-legged, naked sword across his knees, and watched her as she twitched and mumbled. His ears strained for sounds in the forest and he wished he had carried the girl to the sanctuary of the way station. There would have been dried food there, and stone walls to protect them. The Stalkers would make no sound, he knew, but hopefully the fire would keep them at a distance. But there were other things haunting the woods. Things that were not afraid of fire.

‘Hsst! Alex!’ Lydia’s hiss jerked him out of his half-doze. She sat upright, staring beyond him and out over the water.

‘What is it?’ he whispered back.

‘Eyes! In the trees and out on the water too. They’re all around us; I saw them glowing in the firelight.’

Alex glanced around but could see nothing. He took the precaution of throwing another stout branch on the fire, making the blaze leap and spark. ‘There’s nothing there now,’ he said. ‘Are you sure you didn’t dream it?’

She glared at him from the other side of the fire.’Of course I did!’ she said, sarcastically. ‘I’m in the habit of dreaming forests full of eyes, every time I sleep in one!’

‘Maybe it’s because you’re feverish—’ he began, but she cut him off with another hiss.

‘There! Behind you!’ He spun around, and caught the briefest flash of yellow between the trees. ‘Is it a Stalker?’

‘I don’t think so; they usually have red eyes. Put a bit more wood on the fire, just in case.’

‘That’s almost the last of the wood, you know?’

Alex knew, but tried not to think about it. But he was more than worried about the eyes staring at him from the waters of the pool. He knew that Stalkers had a strong dislike of water and could not swim, although they would wade if they had to. That could only mean that the malevolent glowing eyes slowly approaching across the surface of the pool belonged to something else. Alex swallowed hard, trying not to think of the old tales his nurse used to tell him. He’d had nightmares as a child about the dark creatures from the depths of the earth coming up to feed. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead. He called back to Lydia; ‘Do you have a knife?’

‘No, but I wish I did.’ She backed against a tree and hefted a great branch in her hand. She glanced around in fear. ‘Alex, they’re everywhere!’

‘Don’t run.’ He drew his sword and backed away from the water, trying to put the fire between himself and Lydia, and whatever it was out there. ‘No matter what happens, don’t run. They’ll be onto you in a second, if they’re Stalkers.’

He offered her his dagger, but even as she reached out for it a hand snaked across the grass and grabbed him by the ankle. He yelled and overbalanced as it pulled at him, tossing his sword to Lydia as he fell. She fumbled with it, hacking wildly at the stringy tendon attached to the hand as it yanked Alex across the grass. The tendon split with a faint twang, and then as if the sound was a signal, the creatures were upon them.

‘What are they?’ Lydia yelled. She tossed the sword back to him and snatched up a flaming branch, thrashing it about as dozens of many-fingered hands shot out of the trundling creatures and made a grab for her.

‘Balifidae!’ hollered Alex back, hacking and slashing at the tentacles before him. ‘Arm-sprouters!’ He looked around in horror at the squat, greenish-brown plantlike beasts approaching from all sides. Yellow bulbous eyes extended and retracted on quivering stalks as their tentacular arms clawed towards him.

They fought side-by-side. Alex’s sword weaved and flashed in the firelight, and soon the ground grew slick with sludgy balifidae fluids but their onslaught went on, relentless because they did not understand death, or feel pain. Only hunger.

Lydia dropped to her knees, clearly exhausted by the onslaught. Alex struggled to reach her as a pair of long, thin tendons wrapped around her waist and lifted her high in the air. Her struggles grew weak as her strength failed her and hundreds of tiny poisonous stings pierced her skin. Paralyzed, her eyes widened in numb horror as the balifida drew her helpless body towards its great lipless, round mouth, and row after row of razor teeth that stretched all the way down its throat.

And then the balifida exploded beneath her.