––––––––
Faint chimes sounded playfully across my senses and I lay still, taking pleasure from the refrain. Then, as memory activated and I recalled my last moments of consciousness, I sat up with a start, scorning the sharp pain that seared through my chest, staring about me into the blackness.
I could see nothing and for a few seconds presumed it must still be the dark night of the forest, but when I looked up to the sky not even a star shone.
The tinkle of bells chimed again, as if hanging in the wind, and I turned in the direction of the sound. I was aware of furnishing beneath me, this confirmed as investigating fingers reached down to touch a feather mattress. It was so soft, so gentle, after recent discomforts, that I was quite tempted to lay back to enjoy this sybaritic pleasure.
But immediately I thought of Nicolae and Elone I was upright again, calling their names, looking about me in bewilderment, trying desperately to bring a semblance of order to a confused mind.
There was no answer to my cry, only the faint chimes responding to my call. I reached down again to the mattress, to confirm its existence, that it was not a figment of my overwrought imagination.
It was not.
I looked about me again. The air was redolent with vernal flowers but still the darkness was pervasive. I called out the children’s names once more.
No answer.
Suddenly there was a noise before me, as if a door opening. I followed the direction of the sound but saw nothing. A voice, a woman’s voice, spoke to me in a tongue I did not recognize, though the tone was soft, gentle. Still I saw nothing. The thought struck me suddenly, that I was blind, and I reached instinctively to my eyes, probing fingers denied contact by a cloth restraint.
As I began in panic to tug at the material, warm hands gently gripped my wrists, drawing them down to my side. Demulcent tones gave meaning to a language otherwise unfamiliar and I offered no resistance. I demanded, “Please, who are you? Where are Nicolae and Elone? Are they safe?” My questions gushed out, each one begun without pause for an answer to the previous, but all I received in reply were soothing words evidently urging me to rest.
I importuned my benefactress indifferently. “Nicolae, my brother? And Elone? Are they safe?”
It was obvious I was not understood, but still I persisted in my enquiry, for the welfare of the children was my only concern just now. If obvious enough I had by some miracle survived the wolf’s attack in the forest, the fate of my brother and charge remained a mystery, and one I could not conceive of rest before resolving.
I tried to sit up again, but the gentle hands were guiding me back, laying me against the feather mattress. I felt a receptacle at my lips and realised I was being offered water. I gulped down a few mouthfuls, thankful for the refreshment, then shook my head to indicate I could take no more. As the clay bowl was moved away I asked again, “Nicolae? Elone? I must know.”
The reply made no more sense to me than my questions to her and I realised my benefactress was stepping away. I wanted her to stay, to explain, to give me hope, but knew words were pointless just now. I heard the door open and close and I was alone again, only the aeolian chimes breaking the silence.
I probed the bandage across my eyes with cautious fingers, then lay back, pondering my plight. Logic dictated I must be in the tiny hamlet in the forest that we had identified from afar some days prior. That much seemed reasonable, for only those very inhabitants would surely have been on hand to find me.
Working things through my mind it was sensible too to suppose the language my benefactress spoke was Polish, though I could not be sure, for I had no prior claim to familiarity with its tones.
Extrapolating further, I reasoned she or they must have found me after the wolf had left me for dead, bringing me back to their home and tending my wounds.
My wounds.
I became conscious of the pain in my chest once more and reached a hand to feel the damage. My chest too was heavily bandaged and I quickly traced my body with my fingers to ascertain what other lesions I had received, but remarkably I appeared to have incurred no further injury.
I took further solace on finding Raisa’s amulet still safe about my neck.
Conscious now of a curious fragrance emanating from the liniment around my torso I guessed I had been tended with some bucolic poultice and this in turn gave me reassurance that I, at least, was in safe hands.
But with that thought my attention turned once more to the plight of my brother Nicolae and the dear child Elone.
Had my survival been at their cost?
Had the wolf left me to track them down instead?
Had they perhaps succumbed to another member of the foul beast’s pack?
My thoughts were myriad and sombre, fearing the worst. Even had they escaped the canine predators that night, what chance two children so young to fend for themselves in the forest? If they were indeed alive still, how much longer could they maintain such a disposition? Thus burdened with guilt I had no choice but to take immediate action.
I swung my legs across from the mattress to find the floor below and hesitantly tried to stand. My body was weak, but I managed to hold myself steady. I could hear the wind chimes tinkle to my left and knew therefore that the doorway was to my fore. But without sight I hesitated to take a step, fearful that I might stumble at some obstacle and incur further injury.
Even as I contemplated my options the door opened and an angry voice assailed my ears. Hands were upon me in seconds, guiding me gently but firmly back to my mattress. My benefactress spoke to me at length, though she must surely have known I could not understand her words, using the pressure of her hands to indicate I must stay put, and I resigned myself to the torture of uncertainty.
Suddenly my heart leapt as the unmistakeable shrill of Nicolae’s voice called my name and seconds later I felt his body lunge against mine, tiny arms wrapping themselves tight around my neck, accompanied by a gabble of chatter so rapid I could make no sense of it.
Overcome with relief to find my little brother safe I could barely manage a composed response myself and for perhaps several minutes I managed only a mixture of laughter and tears as I struggled to tolerate the pain in my chest, to enjoy my sibling’s body against mine.
Eventually Nicolae fell quiet, exhausted by his eager salutation, and I clutched him tightly, braving the pain, wondering if I dared voice the question poised on my lips.
I had to know.
I asked quietly, “Nicolae, is Elone with you?”