Where the Stones Sing (15 page)

‘What’s your hurry? You nearly tripped me up!’ Tom said.

‘I’m going to collect wood for the witch burning! The girl from the priory is going to be burned!’ The child could hardly speak with excitement.

‘What do you mean?’ said Tom. ‘There are no girls in the priory!’

‘Yes there are! It’s the choirboy called Kai, that everyone thought was a boy. Except she’s a girl. And she’s a witch so they are going to take her out at dawn to be burned! She … she …’ the child thought hard, trying to remember exactly what he had been told and ended triumphantly: ‘She
converses
with demons in the cathedral! Paul the mason heard them!’

Tom swallowed. What was going on? Demons in the cathedral? Had their trick been too successful? He was still trying to take in the fact that Kai was a girl. So that was why she was so secretive.

‘Where is Kai?’ he asked. ‘Who has arrested him … her?’

‘Oh, nobody knows. But she is being brought to trial at the High Cross in the marketplace in the morning, at first light. They say that when she is burned the curse will be lifted from Dublin and the plague will end!’

Tom took a halfpenny out of his pocket. ‘Run to the priory and tell Brother Albert all about this, and you shall
have this. Will you do that? Do you promise me?’

The child nodded and took the coin. Then he ran off into the maze of streets. Tom could only hope he would keep his word.

Tom wondered what to do. If Kai was being guarded by the law, there was no point trying to find her. Perhaps if he went to the mason’s house there might be some word as to where Edward was. It was a faint chance, but he didn’t have a lot of choices.

At the mason’s house, the door to the courtyard was locked and there was no answer when he banged on it as hard and as long as he could.

He was standing there, unsure what to do next, when a woman in a bright red gown, passing him in the street, stopped and stared hard at him. She was carrying a large wicker basket full of linens. He recognised her as Ymna, for she often did the washing for the priory.

She looked at him quizzically. ‘No point trying that door, they are all gone away up to talk to the guild.’

‘Is Joan with them? It’s really her I’m looking for,’ said Tom.

‘She is. They have all gone up to get young Paul dismissed. It turns out he was the one who took that statue that there was all the fuss about. He wanted to get Edward into
trouble
. He finally confessed what he had done. Something must have put the frighteners on him; he keeps babbling about
demon voices in the cathedral. Why did you want to see Joan?’

‘I wanted to see if she had had any news from Edward. His sister is in terrible danger and needs help.’

Quickly, Tom told Ymna what had had happened to Kai. He ended: ‘But I don’t know where she is or who has
captured
her. And I don’t know what to do!’

‘I’ll tell you what you can do, for I know Kai and Edward well, and their father. You must go and fetch Ned Breakwater from where he is up in the mountains. He is the only one with the wit to save his daughter.’

‘But how? And where is he? How can I get up there?’

‘I was heading up to the priory myself to tell Kai that I have finally got news of where Ned is. He’s up in the hills beyond the village of Rathfarnham. It’s a good two hours ride from the city. You must go out Patrick’s Gate and follow the trail out towards Rathfarnham. After the church there, you will be going up into the hills. It will be a rough ride, for those mountains are full of danger. Ned is with the
fairground
people, so if you head south and ask for directions for their camp you will find the way. But you must go at once, before the dark sets in.’

‘Is there no one else who can go?’ said Tom, desperately.

Ymna snorted disdainfully.

‘Yes, I’ll head up there in my chariot and horses! No, boy, of course there is no one else. You are wasting time, go on
now, get you gone. Do you want to see your friend burned alive?’

Tom drew in a deep breath. Who else could help? Joan? Brother Albert? It was true, he was the only one left to do this. He was going to have to take a horse from the priory stables and make his way through darkness up into the hills where the wild Irish lived. If only Jack were around to come with him!

Tom sat down on a bale of hay and eyed the priory horses nervously. There were three of them: Abelard, Anselma and the newest horse, Puca. Tom watched in frustration at the performance that Puca always put on when someone came near him. The horse danced its way around its stable, its eyes rolling, its mouth frothing.

Brother Albert, when he had been brought out to see the new horse, had looked at the fierce eyes and kicking coal black feet and had not been able to find a suitable saint or theologian to name him after.

In the end, Jack had chosen the horse’s name, calling him after the fairy beast who brought travellers on wild midnight rides. Puca was the fastest horse in the stables. He was also the meanest. But Anselma was due to foal and Abelard was as lazy as sin, so Tom really didn’t have much choice.

He gritted his teeth and stood up, halter in hand. He could not waste any more precious time, but it was going to be a nightmare, trying to catch the huge black beast without being kicked to pieces. He threw the halter in the general direction of Puca’s neck but only managed to hit him on the side with it.

Puca went even more wild. ‘Jack should be the one who is here doing this,’ Tom thought bitterly. ‘Jack should have been the one left alive. He would have been able to help Kai. Or whatever she is called.’ He kicked the manger and cursed. The he started over again. After several more futile attempts to catch the horse, he finally made it onto Puca’s back with all his bones more or less intact. Once on the horse, he made straight for the southern gate of the city.

Leaving Dublin to take the unfamiliar road was strange and frightening. The mountains rose up before him, blue darkening to purple as the light faded. He rode the horse as fast as he dared, trying hard not to imagine who – or what – could be lurking behind the hedgerows that lined the track to the hills. It was almost dark when he reached
Rathfarnham
. The village was nothing more than a scatter of cabins huddled around a small church. There was a woman standing outside one, gathering a basket of turf, and he stopped to ask the way to the fairground people’s camp.

The farmer’s wife looked at him curiously. ‘And what might a city choirboy want with that gang of rascals? And
riding such a fine horse?’ she asked.

‘Please, just tell me the way; it’s urgent.’ Not for the first time Tom wished he had Jack’s easy manner. And his ability to make up stories at will, which would help him give an explanation which this woman would accept.

‘Urgent, is it? Hmmh. Very well, then – take the trail that leads up past Harold’s Grange, keeping the mountain in view all the time. Then you will have to ford the river – there’s no bridge. The trail will finish and after that you will have to make your way through the scrub woodland and heather as best you can. The fairground people are camping in Kelly’s Glen, to the west of the hilltop. You’ll see their fires as you come near to them. But don’t say I didn’t warn you of how dangerous it is up there! There are dark creatures living in those woods. The Irish O’Tooles have taken over the Royal Deer Forest at Glencree, just the other side of the mountains. So these hills are no longer safe; it’s not safe even down here in the village. And never mind the Irish, there are wicked creatures up there that are not human at all …

‘Didn’t you ever hear stories of the black cat seen up there and the witches meeting the devil on those mountains?’

Thanks, thought Tom. That was all I needed, more horrors to be afraid of along the way. Every nerve in his body was taut and every bone in his body ached from the ride. Puca was restive, giving every indication of wanting to bolt back to his stable.

Not happening, you horrible beast, said Tom to himself. Holding tight onto the reins with his blistered hands, he directed the horse towards the louring darkness of the hills.

A bitter wind had sprung up and wailed through the trees that blocked his path southwards. There was still a long, hard ride ahead, and he wished he could believe that he would ever reach his goal.

The Singing Stones

t was dawn, and in the streets of Dublin there was pandemonium. The Watch had been called to try to control the crowd. Word had gone out about the witch, and people had gathered from all over the city to see the burning. It was said that this powerful enchantress was the cause of all the troubles of the city. Now she had been found and was going to be punished, perhaps the nightmare of plague would end.

Every urchin in Dublin was already happily collecting loose wood to build the bonfire, cursing because so much of it had already been used for the Halloween fires.

Crowds had gathered around the market cross. Dragged out from the escheator’s house, there was a sudden silence when the crowd realised that the witch was a little girl. Many had expected to see a powerful enchantress. Instead, Kai stood in front of them, small and frail and pale as a ghost.

The escheator took the platform that had been hastily erected beside the bonfire site. Kai was dragged up beside him and somebody threw Dinny onto the platform where she mewed and rubbed against Kai’s legs. Kai wished she could pick her up to comfort her, but her hands were still tied together.

Silence fell as the crowd looked at the little girl and the cat. Many of the people there knew her as the choirboy who had visited their houses with Brother Albert. A whisper of surprise went around the gathering.

‘Do not let her innocent appearance deceive you!’ shouted Brother Malcolm, taking a place on the platform. ‘For this exterior hides one of the most evil souls that I have ever come across in my life. Truly the Evil One can take many forms! This is the witch and blasphemer who has brought disaster on the town of Dublin! If we slay her, her powers will be destroyed and we will be free of this terrible contagion!’

Someone called up from the back of the crowd.

‘How do you know she brought the plague?’

‘Did not the contagion arrive at same time as she took up residence in the holy priory with the brothers? See, she has blasphemed by pretending to be a boy and thus gained access to the most sacred places of the church! She has spread her filth even among the good canons! Did she not kill her
companion
with her potions and her spells? Remember young Jack, the orphan boy; it was she who was responsible for his death!’

At this, Kai could keep silent no longer. She cried out: ‘It’s lies, it’s all lies. I would have done anything to save Jack!’

But her voice was drowned out in the roars of the crowd. Someone began to chant: ‘Burn the witch child! Burn the witch!’ And numerous other voices joined in, so that it seemed to Kai as if a wave of hatred was washing around at her feet. When she looked down into the crowd, she could see nothing but malice and condemnation on the faces of everyone there. Even the children, some of them younger than her, were shouting as loudly as their parents. Some of them looked so small they could hardly have understood what they were saying, but that did not stop them shouting. A rotten egg suddenly hit her in the face and ran down her cheek. The smell was horrible, but she could do nothing to wipe it away.

‘They really are going to kill me,’ she thought. She
desperately
, wanted her father to come. He had got the family out of so many seemingly hopeless situations. She looked out over the crowd, as if she might see him in the distance,
striding
across with his long legs, joking, turning the mood of the crowd from hatred to laughter. But no one came – not even Tom or Brother Albert, or Edward or Dame Maria, any of those who might have spoken for her and tried to save her. And the sky darkened and the roar of the crowd grew louder and louder in the gloom of the November dawn. To the east the sky was red and orange, and the flames that had caught
in the bonfire reflected the lurid colours and threw deeper shadows against the walls of the city.

And suddenly there was an outcry from the cathedral, and Brother Albert came rushing out.

‘What are you doing?’ he shouted above the crowd. ‘What are you doing to that child?’

‘She is a witch!’ shouted Brother Malcolm. ‘Do not try to defend her! You thought her a boy and she is a girl, who has deceived us and defiled the holy places! She must die!’

Brother Albert’s face was very red, and he seemed to be almost in tears. He had spent the night trying to find out what had happened to Kai and Tom. An unknown child had run up to him in the street and tugged at his habit,
whispering
that Kai was in danger. He had a strong suspicion that the escheator and Roland were involved, but when he went to the Fitzhugh house on Skinner’s Row he had not been allowed in. Prior Stephen had tried to talk to both Archbishop Bicknor and the Mayor of Dublin, Kenewrek Scherman, but both were ill, it was said with the plague. The canons had stayed up all night, praying, and Brother Albert called frantically now into the crowd:

‘Rubbish! The child is no witch, even if she is a girl! She has given me help with the sick and the dying and the poor; she has sung like an angel in the church! How can she be evil?’

Roland chimed in, ‘I have heard her conversing with
demons! How can she explain that? Paul heard the demons too! And Tom saw her in the cathedral!’

‘Where is Tom, anyway?’ Brother Albert looked around anxiously.

Now Brother Malcolm spoke, ‘Never mind that! I tell you she speaks to the spirits of air and darkness! Unholy beings from hell!’

‘Burn the witch!’

The cry was taken up again by the mob, and they surged forward as if they would drag Kai from the platform and pull her towards the flames which were now licking greedily around the wood of the bonfires. Dame Maria had appeared beside Brother Albert and was trying to calm the voices, but no one was listening to her.

To Kai, looking down, it was as if the crowd itself had become possessed by some kind of demon. The voices of reason were drowned under the terrible need to find
someone
to blame for all the dreadful things that had happened to Dublin.

But just as the crowd had caught hold of Kai’s dress, another commotion started. Everyone turned to see what was causing it. A loud and carrying voice rang out. At the head of a group of jugglers and tricksters, of musicians and fortune tellers and the rag tag and bobtail of the roads of Ireland, rode Ned Breakwater, also known as Longshanks, mounted on a piebald pony too small for him and singing
loudly. On either side of him rode him Edward and Tom. He stopped abruptly when he saw his daughter.

‘Well now, Kai, and what trouble have you got yourself into?’ he asked.

Kai found that she was laughing. That had always been her question to him.

‘It appears that these people think I am a witch, Pa.’ Kai said. She was pleased to realise that her voice sounded quite calm.

‘A witch! Indeed. And you such a law-abiding and
virtuous
young lady, I have sometimes wondered how you could be a child of mine. Good people, what proof have you that she is a witch?’

‘She came at the same time as the plague!’

‘She sings with demons and converses with them!’

‘She has a black cat!’

‘Indeed. A black cat. And are there no other black cats in Dublin? If there are, perhaps we should seek their owners out and burn them too. I think one such is owned by the mayor, and another by the Lady Rachel and her husband, the good escheator. As for coming to Dublin at the same time as the plague, why, is she not one of many such? One might as well blame the sheep farmers who came here selling their beasts at the end of summer fair. And if she is the cause of the plague, how is it that it has broken out in other towns? She was not in Kilkenny when the pestilence broke out there. As
to the singing with demons, daughter, can you explain what all that is about?’

Kai took a breath. This was hard to explain, even to her father. But now her secret had to come out. She spoke slowly, choosing her words carefully.

‘Father, after my friend Jack died, I went to the cathedral. And I sang for him. I felt very lonely and I just wanted to feel closer to him. And then something very strange
happened
. Something so strange, I can’t explain it. I found there was a kind of echo in the walls. There was singing, voices that seemed to be coming from them. And then I found that it was Jack singing back, singing with me. And other voices joined in, the voices of the children who sung in the cathedral, right from the time it was first built. So I go there for comfort, and sometimes the voices tell me stories of the cathedral in times gone by. Surely, there is nothing wrong with this, even if it is magic? It does no harm to anyone, and it comforts me greatly.’

The escheator had broken in, ‘We are wasting time here. What is this rabble that they should interrupt our
judgements
? Men of the Watch, arrest them and take them away, for the fairground people have been forbidden to enter the city.’

Ned laughed.

‘That is true. But with all the Watch watching nought but this circus, t’was easy for us to come in. And I owe great
thanks to this young lad for coming to fetch me.’

He smiled at Tom, who blushed fierily.

Kai suddenly felt fearful. What if the mob suddenly turned on her father and his friends? Had they been led into danger themselves? Were they risking their own lives to come and help her?

But now Ned Breakwater laughed again.

He gave a sign to his friends and suddenly the group surged forward to the platform. Kai found herself being lifted into her father’s arms and placed before him on the piebald horse he was riding.

‘Come, my friends. There is one way to find out the truth of this matter. Let us go to the cathedral and see if what the lass says is true. Let us hear these voices and see if they are good or evil. Then you may make your judgement on my child.’

Despite protests from the escheator and Brother Malcolm, there was a murmur of agreement from the crowd. Many of them, now they had had time to think, had begun to wonder if this small girl could really be the cause of all the troubles that had come upon the city of Dublin.

So Kai was carried from the High Cross to the great
western
door of the cathedral, and the crowd surged in after her. At the High Altar Kai was set down and the crowd, quiet now they were inside the church, looked on expectantly.

‘Sing, daughter,’ said Ned. ‘Sing your heart out. Sing and
let us hear the voices.’