Helga: Out of Hedgelands - Rick Johnson (a court of thorns and roses ebook free TXT) 📗

without seekin’ the brighter stars to follow. Niean, there’s always bein’ a star that’s the brighter. Yor just got to find it.”

“Ola, I know what you’re saying. I know that me deciding what to do now, which way to go, is like trying to find the brightest star in a sky full of brilliant stars. But how will I find it, Ola?” Helga asked. “There are so many stars. How is it possible? I sit here first thinking one thing, then thinking another. I feel so confused.”

“Well, Misst Helgy, there bein’ a star that’s sayin’ right to yor, I’m the brightest. Listen to that place inside yor that nobody can see. The brightest star is there, where no one can see it.” Ola gave Helga another of his gentle grins as he watched her puzzle over yet another enigma.

“G’night, Misst Helgy,” Ola said as he turned to retire, “don’t let the enigmas keep you up.”

Helga, feeling full and safe, dozed off, still pondering her questions.

 

Toward the Bone Forest

“Pssst! Helga, are you asleep?” Burwell was kneeling beside her, as Helga groggily opened her eyes. “I’m sorry to be bothering you,” Burwell apologized, “but I can’t stop thinking about what Ola said. I wanted to talk to you about it.”

“What do you want to say, Burwell? I’m listening,” Helga replied. Helga could see that her friend was troubled.

“I don’t know what to think, Helga. It looks like craziness to head off to the Bone Forest. We’ll die for sure. We can’t go to the Drownlands Cutoff. We’ll die for sure. We can’t stay in the Drownlands. We’ll die for sure. I don’t like our choices...” He grew silent.

Helga said nothing. She shared Burwell’s concerns, but she also trusted Ola’s judgment. He knew the wilds better than anyone—but she also respected Burwell’s opinions. Although he was, in some ways, a silly and undisciplined fellow, Helga could see that underneath his silliness, he had a sincere kindness toward all. She also knew that a Bayou Dog did not survive in the Drownlands without a quick wit, courage and perseverance. Burwell was more than many might think. And Bwellina was like a rock, unwavering, unafraid, and unflappable. Her soft snoring was a perfect indication of how worry affected her.

“What should we do, Burwell?” Helga asked.

“I think we should try for the Cutoff station,” Burwell replied. “We probably have at least a little head start on King Stuppy’s thugs. We have a chance if we go that way. Going to the Bone Forest is suicide. You have as good a chance finding a trace of Breister at the Cutoff as in the Bone Forest—and perhaps we might have a chance to live. The Cutoff is the gateway into the Rounds of Deep Springs. If we can make it there we will be safe. You will have a life there. But in the Bone Forest, what will you have? Yep! Yep! Yep!”

Helga was silent for a time. Burwell had some excellent points. Yet her answer was not delayed long, and it was firm.

“Burwell, I appreciate your good-spirited desire to help me. I know you worry about me. I treasure that—and I love the thought of going to the Rounds again. I grew up there. I would truly love it there. But I want a chance to regain my Papa. Somehow, I think Ola is right. The place I am seeking is not a place. My heart tells me that both my affection for the Rounds and my hate for the Bone Forest may blind me to the true path.” Burwell understood her meaning.

“So, we are going to the Bone Forest.” Burwell observed. It was not a question, but a statement of conviction.

Helga looked at her friend. “I am going to the Bone Forest,” she replied. “You and Bwellina should also follow your hearts. Go to the Cutoff and escape into the Rounds if you can.”

“No, we go to the Bone Forest with you,” Bwellina declared, coming up to join the talk. “After what happened at King Stuppy’s Trading Post, we have no life here in the Drownlands any more. And after meeting you, we who have never before had a family, now have one. If you will have us, we are united in our quest to find Breister. What is a Bone Forest among family?” Bwellina finished, looking at her comrades with mock solemnity.

“Well, other than the Bone Forest being a death sentence, it surely is a wonderful thing to share!” Burwell observed dryly. Helga looked at Burwell, and chuckled. “My plan is to share everything with you except the death sentence,” Helga replied with a grim smile. “And I think, to see Ola’s face, we are about to depart.”

The first pink streaks of dawn were beginning to light the sky as Ola spoke. “Pick up yorn things quickly,” he whispered. “We’ve got to be movin’—the Locusts have stopped singin’. That’s the signal we’ve got visitors from King Stuppy! We’re warned in time to get away, but we can’t dally. I’ll load into the canoe and head out of here. I’ll lead the King’s men on a merry old chase, then I’ll slip away and they’ll never find me. Yor lay low, and then hike to the Bone Forest, safe and sound!”

“You’re taking the canoe and leaving us here, Ola?” Helga said incredulously. “You want us to walk out of the Drownlands? This place is nothing but water and quicksand!”

Ola smiled. “Yorn follow this sand-ridge line. It’ll lead yor all the way to the Bone Forest. Don’t leave the ridgeline, it’ll bein’ quicksand on all the sides—that’ll be yorn protection. The King will be thinkin’ yor will be paddlin’ out of the Drownlands,” Ola concluded, “but yorn be walkin’ right through the swamps. He’s not be thinkin’ that way!”

Helga looked at Ola in amazement. “Ola, you’re a genius!” Helga enthused.

“Niean, Misst Helgy,” Ola replied grinning. “It bein’ the power of the Enigma!”

Giving a quick hug all the way around, Ola was soon in the canoe, paddling off into the dawn. Soon the lovely notes of a flute could be heard. As if led by a magical piper, several massive canoes filled with rough-looking Cougars, Boars, and Weasels, glided past Ola’s hidden retreat, where Burwell, Bwellina, and Helga waited. The evil-looking pursuers wore heavy, gold-braided uniforms and were armed with cutlasses and pikes. They also carried the trappings of the King’s royal court: elaborate banners and huge ensigns of solid gold.

As soon as King Stuppy’s canoes had passed, and they felt certain they were far gone, the friends shouldered their packs and began following the sandy ridgeline, heading toward the Bone Forest.

 

In the Path of the Gateless Wolf

Ola paddled skillfully through some of the most tangled parts of the Drownlands swamps. Weaving his canoe in and out among the enormous trees, following an endless maze of bayous, Ola confused his pursuers and soon felt certain that King Stuppy’s thugs were hopelessly lost somewhere to his rear. Despite feeling safe, Ola paddled on and on, at last heading into the Everlost region of the Drownlands—a trackless area of thick reed forests. Thin, resiliant reeds towered eight to twelve feet above the surface of the water. Flexible and light, the grasslike reeds moved in the breeze like waves. Ola loved the Everlost because of the great enigma it represented. “Now, if yorn be’in Ever Lost, the creature must o’known he’s not lost at least once, or he wouldn’t know he be’in lost!”

But Ola also knew the Everlost was a dangerous place. With no solid ground or trees to be found, a creature had to stay in a boat. But in the boat, nothing could be seen except gently waving reeds on all sides. In places, the reeds were so tall and dense that they obscured most of the sky, leaving the traveler to ‘burrow’ through the reeds in a canoe. Ola freely went in and out of the Everlost, relying on the power of Enigma: “If yor be’in in the Everlost, follow the way of those that not be’in lost! Follow those on the way to somewhere!”

Ola listened and observed the signs of flocks of birds overhead. The patterns of flight that he could glimpse through the reeds and the sound of the bird calls gave him a direction to follow. “The birds know where they be go’in,” Ola thought, “so I can go the same place they be go’in.” By such a method Ola always successfully traversed the Everlost, although he never knew exactly where he would come out! But, being a Gateless Wolf, Ola typically did not care where he ended up. It was an adventure to explore new places. Living in his canoe for as long as it took to leave the Everlost behind, Ola did not mind the slowness of this progress through the reeds. There were plenty of fish and fresh water to sustain him until he found his way.

When he at last did emerge from the Everlost, he was in unfamiliar terrain. He saw rolling grassy hills before him, mottled here and there with small fields of corn and vegetables. Pulling his canoe up on dry land for the first time in several days, Ola slowly worked the cramps of the long confinement in his canoe out of his legs, arms, and back. Spying a tall oak tree nearby, he took his flute pouch and headed off to hang by his feet and play his flute for a while. It was that time of the day when the sun is just beginning to set. Ola planned to hang and play his flute until just before dark and then make a simple camp for the night.

He had just climbed the tree and was stepping out on a branch to get settled into position, when he saw something off in the distance that startled him. A large male Wood Cow was working in a corn field! Could it be Breister? Ola was so overjoyed at the possibility that he dropped from the tree clumsily and ran off to investigate.

As he approached the muscular creature busily hoeing weeds, he could see that he was definitely dressed in a manner and style similar to Helga. Clearly, he was of the same clan. Grinning widely, Ola called out, “Yor be’in Breister? Yor know’in a Wood Cow named Helgy?”

Dropping his hoe, the beast ran to meet Ola. “Breister? Helga? Do you know such creatures, friend? Have you seen them?”

Disappointed that the Wood Cow obviously was not Helga’s lost father, Ola still retained his happy smile. At least the stranger seemed to know who Breister and Helga were.

“Who yor be’in?” Ola asked. “Yor be’in a friend of Breister and Helgy?”

“Aye, my friend,” his new acquaintance answered. “My name is Emil. If you are talking about Helga of the Hedgelands, then that is a Wood Cow I know. She is my sister.”

“Breister’s son!” Another member of Helga’s family! Perhaps he might know how to locate Breister.

Unfortunately, however, Emil had no news about Breister. In fact, Ola knew more about Breister and Helga than Emil did. Emil had not heard the news of the expulsion of the Wood Cows. After he had escaped from Maev Astuté, he had been completely unable to steer the balloon and traveled far beyond the Hedgelands.

“I tried desperately to pilot the balloon,” Emil explained, “but I had no time to learn. When I jumped on the bicycle in the High One’s Throne Room, I had no idea it was a launch vehicle! The launch completely surprised me, and with my Coyote friend draped over my shoulders, I could not handle the controls. I attempted to direct the balloon, but failed.”

Emil shook his head in disbelief as