The child shuddered in the soft seat of the landskiff. Though the night was warm, a memory seemed to waft through the darkened branches of the woods and brought a chill of eeriness to her senses. They moved slowly along, not working the engine too hard since it was dark and they had plenty of time. The trees which lined one side of the way began to spread across their sky, enveloping the wide fields to the right. As the road entered a dense grove, it turned, hiding the future from view.
The memory had faded, and her attention had returned to the shapes of trees against the twilight sky. It was nearly full dark, but there was a barest tinge of indigo blue left to distinguish air from earth. Before this color the branches tangled black with funny limbs reaching and blocking the heavens. They could not keep them all out though, and she found some comfort in the safety of the road. It cut through the landscape wide enough for a gap to remain above them, even as the woods grew thicker.
For a moment as they approached the curve, the land to either side disappeared into the blackness of the trees. As soon as it began to return though, so did the eerie feeling. The lighting was suddenly not right for the time of day, or for the place. At first she thought it must be a show of some sort that they now approached; a circus or players with lights. Something did not feel right though, and she realized there was no sound of the usual merriment that accompanied those events. There were sounds, but they were too faint and few to be a joyous crowd. The road completed its bend, and they were shown the open scene. Transported past the light and smoke, she gasped in astonished horror.
The road at this point crossed a broad murky waterway that filtered in from the woods to great marsh jungles that stretched for miles under the open sky. A vast inland sea reached in shallow fingers here that were themselves vast and deep to her young eyes. On the near side of the causeway bridge was an access point; an open area of reinforced land with water frontage for boats of all kinds. These access points usually fostered a small village center. Traders and boatmen would often have houses nearby, as the landing provided a good marketplace with visitation from local cities. This fishers village however, seemed to be no longer inhabited by such agreeable folk.
The stalls of the marketplace were empty and dark, though that was not unusual for the time of day. A few of the houses were smoldering, though none seemed to be fully ablaze. There was a general sense of destruction about the whole place, and she suspected there had been more buildings where the ground seemed especially blackened. In the center market square a huge pyre had been built, and the blaze of this flame illuminated the whole grove with flickering yellow light. The higher branches of the nearby trees glowed in a weird second sunset that came from below.
It was not only the strange lighting and signs of destruction that caused the uneasy feeling. Those around the fire were not random party-goers or bandit looters. They did not seem to be drinking overly much, or celebrating in the wild natures of the usual troublemakers. Instead a low murmur came from the group, as if they conferred with each other as they went about business. Peering over the edge of the skiff as it passed by, she could see them from the roadway. They were dressed in black robes, all roughly alike in manner. Only one was hooded, and that one stood a short distance apart. One approached the hooded figure, seemed to confer something, and then returned to the others near the flames. The landskiff sped quietly by, its passengers hoping to remain unnoticed. It is known not to ask about what one sees in the marsh at night.
As they crossed the causeway, she could hear the sounds from the landing change. The words of the robed group, though still muffled by distance, became more focused and rhythmic. What to her ears was clearly a chant rose in volume as they sped away. They crossed the bridge and she thought the fire seemed to flicker with the chant and change its color. She saw greens and purples strike against the upflung branches and the trees thrilled in a shock of the ceremony, moving in strange ways. But it could all have been only the lateness of the hour and the imagination of her young mind. Whatever the black-robed cultists were doing, that road was behind her now. In the hills there was more and deeper forest, and the reaching branches of those trees would protect her from whatever else might reach for her out of the swamps and the night.
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