The Burning Man

5

With her iPod on, Laura sang out loudly. All the others were worried about what lay ahead. Not her. Going out in a blaze of glory was better than spending her days flipping burgers and filling her nights with drugs and sex in a futile attempt to find some kind of meaning in her life.

Her bouncing on the bed came to a gradual halt as she noticed a flock of black birds framed in the skylight. There were more of them than she had ever seen in one place before, and they appeared to be circling the building.

Clambering onto a chair, she opened the skylight and peered out. Ravens, and they were everywhere, perched on chimneys, the pitch of roofs, in gutters, and flying in that enormous black cloud. But not one of them made a single sound.

The sight unnerved her and she slammed the skylight shut, but her fear was quickly forgotten in the shock of seeing her room transformed. Vegetation obscured the walls, window and door. Clusters of acorns hung from oak branches. Holly grew across the cheap dressing table, and the bed was now a bower of ivy and mistletoe.

‘Daughter.’ The voice rolled out like a summer tide hitting the beach.

Laura fought the hammering of her heart and scanned the room. And there it was, in one corner, given away only by its red eyes. The figure was constructed of the same dense vegetation and merged perfectly into the background. Yet for all the wild strangeness, the leaf-face was unmistakably benign. It was the face carved into the stone and wood of medieval churches, the echo of the greenwood and the magical power of fertility.

‘Who are you?’ she asked with as much bravura as she could muster.

‘In your heart, you know, daughter.’

Laura felt the ghost of that knowledge at the back of her mind, infuriatingly just out of reach. ‘The Green Man?’ she ventured.

‘That is one of my names. Fragile Creatures have known me by many others. I have long watched over your people from the depths of the great forests, and I have guided and helped where I could. The Brothers and Sisters of Dragons have always been close to me. And you, daughter, have been closest of all.’

Laura felt a burning on her hand. The circle of interlocking leaves etched on her skin glowed a faint green. She had presumed it was a discreet tattoo, though she didn’t recall getting it.

‘The memory is lost to you, daughter, but you gave yourself to me and I changed you, to better prepare you for the arduous road ahead.’

Conflicting emotions threatened to tear Laura apart: fear and comfort, the desire to flee and to fall into the green embrace. This was the source of her unique ability to control plants and trees. ‘What do you want?’

‘Know this: the Devourer of All Things is aware of you, daughter, and of what you plan. It cannot abide the Blue Fire being returned to the land. My people flee — it will not allow them to remain in case they aid you. Soon, I too must slip into the long winter-sleep to preserve my power. But there may be other allies in the Great Dominions. Seek them out.’

‘I don’t know what you mean.’

The Green Man became tense, his leaves and branches shuddering. ‘You must leave this place quickly, daughter. Danger approaches.’ He motioned towards the skylight where the ravens pecked against the glass. ‘See. The Morvren know. They have come to accompany the Giant-Killer on his final journey. From now on, he will be known as Raven King.’

‘Church?’ Laura looked from the Green Man to the ravens, not comprehending.

‘Run, daughter,’ he said insistently. ‘Run!’