A Different Kingdom(113)

I love the great trees.

The Horseman was the wood.

I am anything you want me to be.

Rose had wanted a mysterious romance. Michael wanted Cat. Or Rose. It did not matter. He had wanted that dark girl, and the wood had given her to him.

But now it wanted something in return.

'You're not getting me,' he said steadily. The cold had tightened the muscles of his jaw and his words were bitten out of the frigid air. 'I won't become part of you unless you let Rose go.'

'She is dead.'

'You have her essence here. Her ... soul. And you have my life. Give my life to her and let her go back. Let her go free and I'll be part of your wood. I'll do whatever you want.'

'Are you so strong you will bargain with me?' The words were a soft, threatening zephyr.

'I'm not Nennian. You can't blind me. My life for hers.'

The face stared at him. It seemed to be weighing things, considering. In that moment Michael knew that it was not evil, no more than the spring gale or winter blizzard were evil. It was as elemental as the sun.

'She will return to the moment she left, to a stillborn daughter and a life of disgrace.'

'But life, nonetheless.'

'When she returns you will be there also, a boy. The man you grew into will never exist. There will be another Michael Fay in your world. That land's history will have changed.'

Michael smiled. So his other self would have another chance, a life not ruined by his time in the Other Place. And Rose would be there with him. Who knows? he thought. Maybe he will even go to England one day and meet a well-spoken girl who dreams of a man speaking Gaelic in his sleep.

'That's the bargain.'

The leafy growth around the face rustled with what Michael thought was silent laughter.

A happy ending for a fairy tale.

And Michael knew that he had won. His quest was fulfilled at long last.

Cat was there, and Nennian, his face open and grinning. And Michael was no longer cold.

I'll do whatever you want.

He left aside the battered remnant of what he had been, found Cat lithe and alive in his arms. The pair of them were standing in sunlight looking out over the vastness of the Wildwood that was the breath and life and heart of this wide world. And it was summer.

My life for hers.