Read Online Legend of the Three Moons by Patricia Bernard - Free Book Online
Authors: Patricia Bernard
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graves contain dead people, or their occupants would be going stone deaf.'
The vigorous noisy assault on the gates went on until a sharp whistle made the dogs fall silent and drop to their haunches.
A bent figure, holding a lantern, stepped out from behind a stone angel. `Who be there? Be you alive or dead?'
`Do you have many dead people visiting you?' asked a shaken Chad.
`Enough to keep me company. Which be you?'
Celeste put her arm around Chad's trembling shoulders. `We are alive and looking for Edith the Oracle. We have food to pay her with.'
The figure held the lantern up higher so that they could see the holder's face. `I be Edith. What do you want? Quick now because I be freezing out here and I be disturbed already this night.'
`Could you decipher a song?' asked Lem.
`Depends. Who be you? From where do you hail?'
`We are five travellers called Spear, Splash, Wolf, Tree and Arrow and we come from the Forest,' said Lyla, hoping that the old woman wouldn't see that she and Celeste hadn't tied their hair back to look like boys.
`We travelled through the Snake Tree Wood to find you,' added Swift. `And I had to limp all the way because I have a sore foot.'
`And who asked you to do that?' snarled Edith.
`Malcolm Leftfoot and Mistress Emma told us you were here,' said Lem, coming to his brother's rescue. Then, because he didn't like the way the old woman snapped at them, he added, `Although they said you were probably long ago burned as a witch.'
The old woman pulled her scarf further over her grey barbed-wire hair. `Well they're wrong! So, come in. If you don't fear the graves and the spirits.'
`What about your dogs?' asked Chad, who was wondering if the others had noticed how all of the dogs had a missing part. Most had only one ear or none, four balanced on three legs, a couple had one eye and none had tails. The only thing they had in common was their sharp teeth and the ferocious gleam in their eyes.
`If you are afraid of dogs you won't get far in this world,' snapped Edith as she unlocked the gate's padlock.
Edith's shack was just big enough for Edith, the children and fifteen dogs to sit around a fire of fence palings. Paid for, so she said, by her last customer, a Missen Bee woman whose missing husband had gone to Belem to sell the cat masks she had sewn, and never returned. `And probably won't.'
`You didn't tell her that did you?' asked a shocked Celeste.
`No. I told her that he'd come back when he was ready, but without the money he'd earned from selling the masks. Now sit down and sing me your song.'
Lyla, Celeste, Chad and Swift squashed up on a bench in front of rows of baskets full of dried herbs, weeds and thistles. Edith sat close to the fire with her favourite white, one-eyed bull terrier's head on her lap. Lem remained standing beneath a row of bags labelled red back spider webs , bat wing grease , green frog's toe fungus and rats' toenails .
When everyone was settled Lem began to sing.
`Three moons to save three Princesses born,
Five journeys to save a land that's torn,
One journey to find the dragon mocked,
One journey to find the merwoman locked,
One journey to find the poisoned tree,
One journey to set a chained eagle free,
Five journeymen to find the cage that swings,
Five journeys to free five Queens and Kings.'
Lyla asked Edith what she thought the song meant.
Edith stared at each of them in turn. `This is what I think. I have before me two travellers who pretend to be boys, three travellers who are, a green snake that can unlock doors and a patch-eyed pup that's worth more than the lot of you. What will you pay if I decipher it? Will you give me the pup?'
`No, not the pup. He belongs to me,' said Lem quickly, picking up Nutty. `But we'll give you enough meat for you and your dogs to eat for two days.'
`Done!'
They watched the old woman search through her many bookshelves, cupboards and drawers but she found nothing mentioning the moons' song. She then threw a handful of
The vigorous noisy assault on the gates went on until a sharp whistle made the dogs fall silent and drop to their haunches.
A bent figure, holding a lantern, stepped out from behind a stone angel. `Who be there? Be you alive or dead?'
`Do you have many dead people visiting you?' asked a shaken Chad.
`Enough to keep me company. Which be you?'
Celeste put her arm around Chad's trembling shoulders. `We are alive and looking for Edith the Oracle. We have food to pay her with.'
The figure held the lantern up higher so that they could see the holder's face. `I be Edith. What do you want? Quick now because I be freezing out here and I be disturbed already this night.'
`Could you decipher a song?' asked Lem.
`Depends. Who be you? From where do you hail?'
`We are five travellers called Spear, Splash, Wolf, Tree and Arrow and we come from the Forest,' said Lyla, hoping that the old woman wouldn't see that she and Celeste hadn't tied their hair back to look like boys.
`We travelled through the Snake Tree Wood to find you,' added Swift. `And I had to limp all the way because I have a sore foot.'
`And who asked you to do that?' snarled Edith.
`Malcolm Leftfoot and Mistress Emma told us you were here,' said Lem, coming to his brother's rescue. Then, because he didn't like the way the old woman snapped at them, he added, `Although they said you were probably long ago burned as a witch.'
The old woman pulled her scarf further over her grey barbed-wire hair. `Well they're wrong! So, come in. If you don't fear the graves and the spirits.'
`What about your dogs?' asked Chad, who was wondering if the others had noticed how all of the dogs had a missing part. Most had only one ear or none, four balanced on three legs, a couple had one eye and none had tails. The only thing they had in common was their sharp teeth and the ferocious gleam in their eyes.
`If you are afraid of dogs you won't get far in this world,' snapped Edith as she unlocked the gate's padlock.
Edith's shack was just big enough for Edith, the children and fifteen dogs to sit around a fire of fence palings. Paid for, so she said, by her last customer, a Missen Bee woman whose missing husband had gone to Belem to sell the cat masks she had sewn, and never returned. `And probably won't.'
`You didn't tell her that did you?' asked a shocked Celeste.
`No. I told her that he'd come back when he was ready, but without the money he'd earned from selling the masks. Now sit down and sing me your song.'
Lyla, Celeste, Chad and Swift squashed up on a bench in front of rows of baskets full of dried herbs, weeds and thistles. Edith sat close to the fire with her favourite white, one-eyed bull terrier's head on her lap. Lem remained standing beneath a row of bags labelled red back spider webs , bat wing grease , green frog's toe fungus and rats' toenails .
When everyone was settled Lem began to sing.
`Three moons to save three Princesses born,
Five journeys to save a land that's torn,
One journey to find the dragon mocked,
One journey to find the merwoman locked,
One journey to find the poisoned tree,
One journey to set a chained eagle free,
Five journeymen to find the cage that swings,
Five journeys to free five Queens and Kings.'
Lyla asked Edith what she thought the song meant.
Edith stared at each of them in turn. `This is what I think. I have before me two travellers who pretend to be boys, three travellers who are, a green snake that can unlock doors and a patch-eyed pup that's worth more than the lot of you. What will you pay if I decipher it? Will you give me the pup?'
`No, not the pup. He belongs to me,' said Lem quickly, picking up Nutty. `But we'll give you enough meat for you and your dogs to eat for two days.'
`Done!'
They watched the old woman search through her many bookshelves, cupboards and drawers but she found nothing mentioning the moons' song. She then threw a handful of
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