sun blazed brightly above him, failing to penetrate the cold mist that crept up from the lower ground. Clip felt his heart race from the vision he’d seen, cloaked as it was in symbolism and mystery. He’d never unravel its meaning directly – it must be approached obliquely and deciphered piece by piece – but he still felt the prickle of terror roused by the evil thing lumbering from its lair.
He blinked in the glare reflected off the white blanket below, and then a strange sight caught his eye. Was he was still dreaming? Further down the hill he saw a head, seemingly disembodied in the thick mist; a head that bobbed about as it climbed slowly towards him. It was Yul, but Yul as a boy, when his hair was wild and full of curls and bits of leaves. Then the head looked up and he saw the face, small and elfin, with pointed features and slanted green eyes that widened as they recognised him. The mouth parted to reveal sharp white teeth stretched into a gasp of shock. Not Yul at all but Yul’s youngest sister – who looked as if she were about to turn and flee.
‘Stop! Come up here!’ called Clip, raising his staff.
She hesitated, obviously wanting to disobey, but then slowly approached him and emerged from the mist. She kept her head down and stood before him, tiny next to his lanky height.
‘Blessings,’ he said, trying desperately to remember her name. He was terrible with names and Yul had such a large family with all those brothers whom he always muddled up. But this girl he really ought to remember, Maizie’s last one … there was the older sister Rosie and this girl … Leveret!
‘Blessings,’ she mumbled, fidgeting nervously.
‘A very thick and sudden mist, Leveret,’ he said conversationally, wishing now that he hadn’t called her up here. Too late he remembered she was a strange girl, not like her mother or sister who were sociable and chatty. He doubted he’d ever spoken to her much and he felt uncomfortable being alone with her now, especially as she wouldn’t meet his eye. He noticed she wore a very coarse flaxen tunic and leggings, with sandals on her feet and a bag like his own in her hand. Dressed so simply, she looked like the Stonewylde children of old. The young people had become more fashion conscious as they began to visit the Outside World regularly after the age of fifteen, but Leveret was pure Stonewylde right down to her dirty hands and the smears of lichen on her cheeks.
‘What’ve you got in your bag?’ he asked gently. ‘Have you been collecting cob nuts?’
‘Nothing!’ she said quickly, gripping the bag tighter.
‘Don’t be shy – let me see,’ he insisted and reached to take the flax bag. As his fingers brushed her hand she cried out and he felt a jolt like an electric shock. She moaned and then, to his dismay, she crumpled. He caught her and stood awkwardly holding her limp body upright, before deciding to set her down on the grass. He had no idea what was wrong with her; her breathing was deep and rasping and her eyes had rolled up in their sockets with only the whites showing. Clip was extremely ill at ease and smoothed the tousled dark curls away from her face, which was now sheened with perspiration. She was trembling quite severely.
‘Leveret! Leveret, it’s alright,’ he said softly, at a loss for what to do. He racked his brain, trying to remember if Maizie or Yul had ever mentioned fainting fits. He looked down at her carefully and was struck again by her strong likeness to Yul as a boy.
Then, as suddenly as she’d collapsed, the fit was over and her eyes rolled back to normal. She gazed up at him blankly.
‘The serpent in your belly will poison you,’ she whispered. ‘You have one year, Son of Raven.’
‘What?’ he gasped. ‘What do you mean?’
She shook her head in confusion.
‘Did you see the evil?’ she asked, her voice barely audible. ‘Did you feel it? It’s coming – it’ll eclipse everything good at Stonewylde and it’s coming for us now.’
She shuddered, and he saw tears well in the corners of her clear green eyes.
‘Sit up now, Leveret,’ he said firmly, trying to pull her upright. ‘Sit up and snap out of this.’
A few minutes later she was back to normal and looking embarrassed.