The Gathandrian Trilogy 03 - The Executioners Cane

saw in my dream. Simon, Lost One, by all the gods and stars, I know you are the only one who can help us. Please, we must hurry.”
    “Yes,” he said. “Let us go. We must get to the village.”
    He quickened their pace as far as he was able to, but was determined not to leave behind those he’d sworn to bring with him. Around them other sections of trees and undergrowth were vanishing too, the bleak whiteness swallowing them up. He wondered if that same blankness could take people also, but did not want to answer the question. Next to him his father began to mumble words which made no sense, and the grating sound of them pierced him and made him tremble. He could not push aside the fear the old man understood something he could not convey, in the way the very mad or the very young often do.
    They must reach the village.
    Finally, after what seemed to be the length of several winter-season stories, Simon caught sight of the first ruined houses, no more than huts. When he glanced upwards, he could see the terrible whiteness flowing steadily through the treetops. He tightened his grip on his father’s arm and tried to quicken the pace further until the old man cried out. That sound too pierced him, took him back to the day of his mother’s death when his father had driven him away. So much to be considered, still, and no time for it.
    He couldn’t make the group travel any faster, so he must think of something else. Letting his father go, but not before ensuring he could stand, Simon lifted his eyes to search for the snow-raven. The bird came at once, a blessing he hadn’t fully expected. The raven swooped in upon him, but Simon did not flinch, although he stepped forward in order to shield Annyeke from his arrival. When the bird landed, his bright wings settling against his back like mist melting into a deeper haze, Simon raised the mind-cane and brushed it lightly across the raven’s great beak. It was the only way he could think to communicate his purpose, although the bird had always understood him well enough before.
    The safety of the nest is to be found here on the earth. So I will fly and perch as you command.
    Yes, he thought that might be as good a way of putting it as any.
    “Annyeke,” he said, swinging round to face her directly. “Take the people to the village as quickly as you can. Find somewhere to hide and I will come to you.”
    “What will you do, Lost One?”
    “I will stay here, with the mind-cane. I will try to fight the white emptiness to give you time to find safety. You will have the snow-raven. He will protect you.”
    The look on her face told him what she thought about that particular plan, but there was no time for argument.
    “Go, First Elder,” he said, giving her a gentle push in the right direction. “I give these people to your command.”
    It was enough. She nodded, turned and began to hurry along their small group towards the huts. The snow-raven sang one long musical note in a key which reminded Simon of all that was golden and warm in the land and then launched himself up into the air, tracking Annyeke in his flight.
    By the gods and stars, Simon prayed, let them be safe. Then he gripped the mind-cane more firmly and looked for the whiteness again.
    Strange how he could not focus on it for long. It was only in the edge of his vision where he thought he could sense it more clearly, because it was not purely a physical entity, he knew. When he glimpsed the whiteness, his mind too echoed with the same emptiness, bringing him at once to a place in himself he had not realised existed.
    In death and what is not, you can discover life and what is.
    “What?” The exclamation tumbled from Simon’s lips before he could realise the foolishness of it. No-one was here but the mind-cane, and it was therefore the mind-cane whose words had reached right into his soul and pierced him.
    What do you mean? he asked it, sending the words in all the colours he could imagine through his thought and flesh.
    You will know, when it is right. That is why I am here.
    That was all very well, Simon thought, but not entirely helpful. He scanned the trees and sky, then the lower branches and bracken for the whiteness. He was meant to be protecting them, allowing them time to reach safety, but he couldn’t even track his enemy for more than a few moments without losing him.
    What would Ralph say at such laxness?
    He would fight, Simon told himself. Ralph would fight.
    “Come then!” he