Tiuri had first met Marius on his journey to the Kingdom of Unauwen. “I am the Fool in the Forest,” he had told him. “The Fool in the Forest, that’s what they all call me, the woodcutters and the charcoal burners, and my father and my brothers call me the same. But my mother calls me Marius.”
Tiuri and Marius had become friends. That had been months ago, in a very different forest.
“Do you remember me?” asked the Fool. “Do you still know my name? Don’t say it out loud! I know you, too. You are a traveller, a rider, and now I call you knight.”
Tiuri went to greet him. “Marius!” he said. “However did you end up here?”
“Sssh!” said the Fool. “My cabin is far away and no one can find me now. Not even you, but I saw you and searched for you. I saw you, knight and rider, on your black horse. But you were not alone. Are you alone now, alone with me in this Wild Wood?”
“Yes,” replied Tiuri. “I found your flowers and I came back to look for you.”
“Beautiful flowers for a beautiful black horse,” said the Fool, stroking Ardanwen, who calmly submitted. “I wanted to call out to you and to talk to you. But I couldn’t speak out loud and tell you I was there. So I called you with the flowers instead and I told your horse that he must return with you – with you, knight and rider. Did you come here for me, truly for me?”
“Yes,” said Tiuri. “I truly came for you.” He looked in concern at the Fool. His friend had changed. He had grown thin, and his eyes seemed full of unshed tears. “What has happened, Marius?” he asked. “How did you come to be here and whatever’s wrong?”
“Sssh!” said the Fool again. “I am happy to see you. Do you remember me bringing you food?”
“I certainly do!” said Tiuri with a smile. “And I remember visiting you in your cabin.”
The Fool’s tears suddenly began to flow. He hid his face in the horse’s mane.
“Oh, Marius! Do tell me,” said Tiuri, laying his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “What is it? Don’t be sad. I’ll help you.”
The Fool raised his head. “I left the cabin,” he said, his voice trembling, “far, far away.” He wiped his nose and continued, “I didn’t want to leave, but they came and said to my brothers, ‘You’re coming with us.’ My brothers went and I had to go, too, but I didn’t want to.”
“Who came and why did you have to go with them?” asked Tiuri.
“Shh!” whispered the Fool. “They came and I had to go with them, and that’s how it was. It was a long time ago, and my mother doesn’t know where I am. And I don’t know where I am either.” He looked like he was about to start crying again.
“Calm down, Marius,” said Tiuri. “It won’t be hard to find the cabin again, you know. I’ll take you there if you don’t know the way.”
The Fool started to laugh through his tears. “Would you do that, sir knight?” he asked. “Would you do that and do you know the way? The cabin is so far.” Then his face clouded over again. “You can’t go there,” he said. “You mustn’t. They’ll find us and they’ll capture us. They’ll seek us and they’ll catch us…”
“But who are you talking about?” asked Tiuri.
The Fool looked around. “They are not here now,” he whispered. “But they will return. They were here last night, in that house, there.”
“Where? And who do you mean?” asked Tiuri.
The Fool pointed.
“In the old hunting lodge? But no one goes there now,” said Tiuri. “And you…”
But the Fool wasn’t listening. He was peering down the track toward the Unholy Hills. Then he turned back to Tiuri and said, “Come with me, rider. Climb on your horse and ride back. Climb on your horse. I will go with you. Quickly!”
He broke into a run, constantly glancing back over his shoulder. Sometimes he went alongside the path as if he were scared he might be seen, and then he would step back out into the open to beckon to Tiuri. Tiuri could do nothing but follow him, still confused and wondering what exactly had happened to the Fool. Who were the “they” who had taken him against his wishes, and who were not here now but could return soon? Did they exist only in his friend’s imagination, or were they a real, living danger?
Danger… But there was nothing out of the ordinary to be found in the Wild Wood, unless you believed in creatures like the Men in Green. And yet… Does Isa know anything about this? he thought. Is there some secret hidden in this wood after all?
“Marius!” he called softly.
The Fool turned back and came to walk beside him. “What is it?” he asked. “What do you want, knight and friend? You are my friend, aren’t you?”
“Of course I’m your friend,” said Tiuri, as he brought Ardanwen to a stop and dismounted. They had reached the signpost.
The Fool sat down beside the stone and huddled up, as if trying to hide. Tiuri crouched beside him.
“Now you have to tell me everything,” he said.
The Fool looked at him with wide eyes. “I’m frightened,” he whispered.
They waited in silence for a short while. Tiuri felt a strange shiver run down his spine. He sat down beside the Fool, leant back against the stone and peered around. But the wood didn’t look frightening at all. Quite the opposite, in fact – it was nothing but pretty and full of the green of spring.
The Fool began to speak. “I’m not allowed to tell anyone. ‘Keep your mouth shut,’ they said. ‘Or we’ll beat you to death.’ I mustn’t say anything.” He looked unhappily at Tiuri.
“Now listen to me, Marius,” Tiuri said firmly. “No one is going to do anything to you while I am here. Do you hear me? You really can tell me everything!”
“But I don’t want to, Friend,” whispered the Fool. “You don’t know who they are. You don’t know them.” He took hold of Tiuri’s hand. “Do you remember what you said to me before?” he continued. “When you were riding to the place where the sun goes down? That they were looking for you and they wanted to hurt you because of your secret! You said no more than that and I told no one about it. No one! This is a secret as well and I’m not even supposed to know it myself! ‘Ask nothing and say nothing,’ they said to me. They’re still looking for me and they’ll be looking for you, too, if I tell you.”
“Let them look for me!” said Tiuri. “Please tell me, Marius! You’re talking in riddles. Who are ‘they’? Are there many of them? Or few? Where are they? What do they want?”
The Fool gave a sigh. “Do not ask, do not ask, sir knight!” he said. “You are a valiant knight, and you are my friend. I have seen other knights, but they did not see me, no, no, never. They did not see me and they did not speak to me.” He furrowed his brow and continued slowly, “I saw a knight, but he was not as fine as you. His cloak was green, but it was ragged, like a poor man’s clothes. That’s strange, don’t you think, for a knight?”
Tiuri nodded. He said nothing. He dared not say a word, as he feared the Fool might stop talking.
“He had a sword, just like you,” said the Fool. “And a shield. Do you have a shield, too?”
“I do,” replied Tiuri.
“What colour is your shield? The other knight’s was… What colour is yours?”
“White,” said Tiuri.
“White. That’s beautiful, white,” said the Fool contentedly. “White. Like snow. But it hadn’t snowed yet when I saw him…”
“What colour was his shield?” asked Tiuri.
“That knight’s shield? Green and grey and white,” replied the Fool. “No, not white… What’s that colour called again? Silver! His cloak was green, and his shield was silver, green and grey. He had been fighting. Have you ever fought?”
“I have,” said Tiuri. “But this knight, was he young or old, or…”
“He had a beard, like me,” said the Fool. “But his hair was turning grey. I saw him very clearly, but he didn’t see me. He knelt down and cried.”
“He cried?” repeated Tiuri incredulously.
“Ah, do knights never cry?” asked the Fool. “I’ve cried. Don’t you ever cry? My brothers call me a fool when I cry. They get angry and they laugh at me. You won’t be angry if I cry, will you?” He looked anxiously at Tiuri.
“No, no, my dear Marius,” he said. “I don’t think you’re a fool at all! I’d just like to know why that knight was crying.”
“He knelt down,” the Fool said again, “with his face in his hands, like this. He said something, but I didn’t hear what it was. And he took his sword, like this” – Marius made a gesture as if giving a salute – “and he cut into the tree. He scratched into the trunk – signs like these.” He put his finger on the letters of the stone signpost.
“Then what happened?” asked Tiuri eagerly.
“Then he walked away,” the Fool replied. “He walked to the river. He crouched, and he crept, and he looked. But he didn’t see me.”
“And then?” asked Tiuri.
“Then? He ran away. I didn’t see him again. Gone.” The Fool was silent for a moment. “I ran away as well,” he said. “They looked for me, but they didn’t find me. But I couldn’t find the cabin again.”
Tiuri thought: Ristridin? Did he see Ristridin? The description fits, but… He couldn’t imagine it, Sir Ristridin crying – no, with his face hidden in his hands. Ristridin, taking his sword and carving symbols into a tree trunk…
“Marius,” he said, “where did you see that knight, and when?”
“I… I don’t know,” said the Fool. “I…” He jumped to his feet.
Tiuri stood up, too. “Answer me,” he said urgently.
“I don’t know if I’m allowed…” whispered the Fool. “They, they said… But he…” He gulped.
“Was the knight one of the men who took you?” asked Tiuri.
“No, no,” said the Fool.
Tiuri leant towards him. “I think I know that knight,” he said quietly. “And, if so, he’s a friend of mine. A friend, Marius, just like you. That’s why I need you to tell me everything you know about him.”
“I don’t know anything,” whispered the Fool. “That’s what they always tell me: ‘You are a Fool and you know nothing, and you talk nonsense!’”
“Where did you see him when he was carving letters in a tree?”
The Fool thought for a moment and pointed to the north. “Far from here, in the wood,” he replied. “I truly don’t know where, sir knight. I have travelled for so long. But it was close to the dark river.”
“The Black River?”
The Fool nodded vigorously. “Yes, the Black River,” he said.
“And when was this?”
The Fool thought again. “The leaves were brown,” he replied, “and some of the trees were almost bare. But it was not yet snowing.”
So it must have been last autumn, thought Tiuri and he asked, “Were no others with him? Knights? Horsemen?”
“Sssh!” said the Fool. “No, he was alone. All alone. But he was not alone in the wood.” He shivered and added anxiously, “They haven’t killed him, have they?”
“Oh no, no,” said Tiuri. “But I am glad you have told me this, Marius. You do not need to be afraid. I shall help you. I only want to know if there are dangers in this wood.”
“What dangers do you mean? The animals? I am not afraid of the animals,” said the Fool. “But I am afraid of others, even with you, knight and friend. Even with you and your black horse.”
“We need to know the dangers we face, Marius,” said Tiuri. “The better we know them, the less we have to fear them.”
“Yes, but I do not know them myself, knight who keeps asking question after question!” the Fool argued. “They told me nothing. They just shouted or laughed at me.”
“The Men in Green?” guessed Tiuri.
“Shh!” whispered the Fool. “The Men in Green are always on the lookout and they hear so much. But they never speak.” Then he took Tiuri’s hand and he pleaded with him, “I don’t want to talk about this wood! I just want to go back to my cabin. You said you were going to help me, didn’t you? What do I have to do?”
“Come with me,” said Tiuri. He realized he was going to have to leave the Fool in peace for a while. He really did seem very upset. Suddenly Tiuri felt himself becoming angry at the mysterious creatures that were to blame. Poor Marius, who would not hurt a fly!
They slowly walked to the edge of the wood. The Fool stopped for a moment and pointed towards the hunting lodge.
“They were there, in that house, last night,” he said. “Were they looking for me? What do you think, Friend?”
“The old lodge is never used these days,” said Tiuri, half speaking to himself.
“I saw light inside,” whispered the Fool.
“Did you?” Tiuri whispered back. “So who was there?”
“They came from every direction,” said the Fool. “But I couldn’t see them very well in the dark. I saw their shadows. I heard their voices. Were they looking for me?”
“I don’t think so, Marius,” said Tiuri, “but I can’t know for sure. Let’s go over there and take a look.”
“No!” said the Fool, and he seemed so horrified that Tiuri didn’t dare to insist.
He looked at the path. He could tell that horsemen had ridden along there, but it could have been the tracks that he and his companions had left on yesterday’s ride. How much longer ago it seemed!
At the edge of the forest they stopped in the meadow with the yellow flowers.
“Marius,” said Tiuri, “were you here yesterday, watching us?”
“Yes,” replied the Fool. “You were sitting there, with the lady.”
“The lady. Do you know her, Marius?”
The Fool shook his head. “No,” he said. “She is beautiful. I would be too scared to speak to her!”
“Have you ever seen her before?”
“No,” replied the Fool. He picked a flower and wove it into Ardanwen’s bridle. “Pretty, isn’t it?” he said, looking at Tiuri with a devoted smile. “Who is the lady? Has she enchanted you, knight and traveller?”
Enchanted! Yes, Tiuri realized, you could call it that. Isadoro had enchanted him. But right now it felt as if the enchantment had lost much of its power – even though he still found it difficult to fathom his feelings for her. Was she just a fickle young woman who wanted to make a fool of him? Was she the lady Evan believed her to be, more like a woodland fairy, barely an ordinary mortal at all? Or was she something entirely different? Whatever she was, she had lied about the flowers.
“Why do you say nothing, Friend?” asked the Fool.
Tiuri returned to reality. Here was someone who had more need of his attention. “You are coming with me, Marius,” he said. “Come on, climb up onto the horse. Ardanwen is strong enough to carry us both.”
“Is that his name? Ar-dan-wen, your black horse?” said the Fool. “I know your name, too – Tiuri. But I call you Friend.”
“Come on,” said Tiuri. He suddenly remembered that he should have been attending Sir Fitil’s festivities. How long was it since he had left Islan? The sun was already in the south, and it was still quite some way to the castle. He was sure to be late, a most impolite way for a guest to behave. Yet he could not regret his decision, not now that he had met the Fool.
“Where are you going?” the Fool asked. “I don’t want to go that way. No!”
“Don’t be like that, Marius,” said Tiuri, a little impatiently. “We are going together. There’s a castle that way, where there are friends of mine.”
“You have many friends,” said the Fool. He climbed onto Ardanwen’s back, clumsily, but he managed. Tiuri climbed up in front of Marius, who wrapped his arms around his waist. And off they rode to Islan.
“You have many friends,” repeated the Fool. “I do not. I have only you, rider, knight.”
“My friends will be your friends, too,” said Tiuri. “I know my squire, Piak, is going to like you.”
Piak! he thought. He’ll be furious with me – and rightly so! He sighed. Soon he would be at Islan, and the thought of facing Isadoro again was a worrying one.