Eshu 2: The Invisible Wall

Chapter 3 - The Centaur Revisited

***

The weekend arrived with a roar of wind and the pounding drum of rain against the great hall windows. The enchanted ceiling looked black and ominous. Kit stared up at it with a groan, ignoring her eggs completely.

“I have to go out in this?” she moaned.

Ellie paused with a bite halfway to her lips. “Why do you have to go out, it’s Saturday? We don’t have classes. And JBS isn’t till tomorrow.”

Kit smiled weakly at Ellie. “Guess I lost track of time. I thought it was Friday,” she lied.

Ellie shook her head. “We’ve only been back a week; you’ll be a wreck by Christmas at this rate. You should drop that extra class. It’s too much.”

“We’ll be taking two extra classes next year, and it’s not too much for third years,” Kit said. “What do you mean the Jelly Bean Society’s on for tomorrow? Have you talked to Verity about it? I haven’t been able to catch her all week. She lives in the library and when she’s not studying … come to think of it, I don’t think there is a time she’s not studying. I bet she sleeps with her eyes spelled open.” Verity, Kit and Ellie had formed the Jelly Bean Society in their first year as a way to make sure the three friends stayed close even though they’d been sorted into different houses. With only three members it should have been easy to arrange their weekly meetings, but Verity’s new found studiousness was making things difficult.

Ellie grimaced. “She says this year she’s going to beat Serena Vizzini, even if she goes blind from all that reading. Honestly, she’s completely daft when it comes to that girl. So what if Serena was top of the class last year – it’s not like she has a life or does anything else.”

Kit frowned at Ellie, “Serena’s not bad! Anyway, that’s just the way Verity is I guess. Good thing we’re not on her bad side. So, when did you talk to her?”

“Oh,” Ellie said. “I caught her in the hall yesterday. I told her that we were meeting and if she didn’t show up you’d set Puck on her books and then she’d have to nothing else to do anyway.”

“Nice. Now she’ll blame me for interrupting her.”

Ellie shrugged. “She needs to see daylight occasionally.”

“I suppose,” Kit said, returning to her breakfast.

“So what do you want to do today? Going out on the grounds is out,” Ellie said with another glance at the ceiling. “We’d be blown to next Tuesday.”

“I, uh, have to do some studying. I won’t be able to do anything till tonight,” Kit said, avoiding Ellie’s eyes.

“I have the exact same homework as you do; we can put it off till tonight. Come on we can go exploring. There’s loads we haven’t seen yet in the castle. I hear there’s a couple of singing tapestries up on the fifth floor.”

“I can’t, honest. I’ve got loads of work for Care of Magical Creatures.” Kit winced at the lie, but what was she supposed to tell Ellie – gee, sorry can’t hang out with you today. I’ve got to go meet a centaur in the forbidden forest.

“I could help,” Ellie said.

“Nah, it’s all research. Look, it’s only a few hours. We’ll meet up before supper, okay?”

Ellie sighed. “You never have time for me anymore. And I swear you’re hiding something.”

“I’m not,” Kit said quickly. “I just have a lot going on. I’m sorry Ellie. I’ll make time, I promise.”

Ellie glowered at her breakfast and didn’t say a thing.

***

Rain dripped onto Kit’s nose from the overhanging branches as she entered the edge of the forbidden forest. It slid in icy trickles down her back, making her shiver.

“You’d better be here, Bearach or I’ll turn you into a toad the next time I see you,” she muttered, shoving aside a low branch. She felt as if she’d jumped in the lake.

“A toad? What have I done that could make you so generous in your threats?” an amused voice said.

Kit spun around, finally spotting Bearach by one of the larger trees. His blond hair was limp and plastered to his face, his grey body dark with rain. She had met the centaur in her first year after getting lost in the forest. Puck had been intent on chasing down some spiders and Kit had been intent on chasing down Puck. Unfortunately, an amphisbaena, a two-headed dragon-like creature, had found the both of them before they found their way out of the forest. It was only thanks to Bearach’s intervention that Kit wasn’t monster chow. Afterward, Bearach had insisted on teaching Kit to defend herself and how to use her new found linguistic powers. He was the only one, other than Dumbledore, that knew of Kit’s ability to understand animals. He was also a giant pain in the rump. Always so precise and bossy.

“Don’t scare me like that! I might accidentally hex you if you sneak up on me!”

Bearach raised an eyebrow. “Centaurs do not sneak. It is not my fault if your weak ears do not hear. Did I not teach you to listen? Have you forgotten everything over the turning of the season?”

“Look, it’s raining and I’m soaked. I’d love to stay here and discuss my hearing all night, but if it’s all the same would you mind pointing me to some place dry?”

Bearach shook his head. “Humans are such weak creatures. Centaurs do not melt with a little rain. This sprinkling is quite pleasant.”

“Right, well it was lovely to see you. I’m gonna swim back to the castle now, cause us weak humans are sensible enough to get out of the rain.”

With a sigh, Bearach stepped closer. “Are you not also a witch? Cast a spell to warm and dry yourself.”

“Oh,” Kit muttered, pulling out her wand. “Good idea.” She’d learned the drying spell in Charms last year. Why hadn’t she thought of that earlier?

Bearach inclined his head and watched her curiously. “I have not seen magic worked before,” he said, as Kit said the incantation and tapped her robes.

Instantly they were dry and pleasantly warm. However, as it was still raining, that comfort was short lived. Kit scowled, wishing quite hard for an umbrella. From now on she was going to check the weather before running off to meet Bearach.

“That didn’t work quite the way I was hoping. This is pointless. I’ll meet you tomorrow if it’s not raining”

“There is a place,” Bearach said, “where the tree tops weave like baskets and rain does not penetrate.”

Kit scowled at him. “Well, why aren’t we standing there now! Honestly, do you have any idea how heavy these robes get when they’re wet?”

“I have never understood,” Bearach said, leading Kit deeper into the forest, “why humans wear so much clothing. How can you feel the air upon your skin? The brush of the leaves, the sunlight in summer, the sting of snow? In my herd it is a mark of shame to cover your head and we only wear winter blankets when the snow is so thick it reaches our withers.”

“Peachy,” Kit muttered.

Bearach threw an amused look over his shoulder and increased the pace slightly. Kit had to jog to keep up but the exercise was keeping her warm, so she didn’t complain. Finally, they reached a tiny glade where the trees didn’t grow so close together. However, looking up, Kit saw that the tree tops had indeed been woven together in a crisscross pattern to form a sort of natural roof.

“What is this place?” Kit asked, looking around at the low boulders and scattered tree stumps. Clumps of bright yellow and purple flowers clung to the edges of the glade.

Bearach smiled. “A resting place.” He looked at the glade as well, perhaps seeing it through her eyes. “Our homes are much like this, open and free from the clutter humans love so much.”

Kit shrugged. “Give me a nice bed any day. I wouldn’t want to sleep on the ground.” Bearach snorted. “Dry yourself and then tell me of your summer months.”

Kit took out her wand and performed the drying spell again. She sighed at the warm current of air that rippled over her momentarily. Heaven. Bearach had folded his legs beneath him and was resting beside one of the small tree stumps. Kit flopped down nearby.

“My summer … well not much to tell,” she said, crossing her legs and leaning back against a boulder. “Did some homework, wrote some friends, came back here. How about you?”

Bearach shook his head impatiently. “You speak of trivial things. Tell of your learning. Did you practice the listening as I showed you?”

Kit nodded. “Yeah, a bit too much. Sometimes it drives me nuts, all that noise. Do you know how many animals there are around? I mean I can hear beetles talking. Beetles. Ants. Fleas!” She leant forward, gesturing wildly. “It gives me a headache. There’s a squirrel outside my room that bugs me every morning because he wants to play. A jay in the backyard that insists on gossiping about how the robins are nicking all his food and stealing his wife’s nesting materials. Last week I had to listen to Flobberworms moaning about their oh so interesting lives. I wish you’d never taught me to listen.”

Bearach smiled slightly. “I can see our next lesson will be learning to listen only when you wish. Close your eyes, lean back and relax.”

Kit closed her eyes obediently, focused, and began to pick up the conversations happening around her. Overhead, a couple of wood lice were screeching as they wriggled away from something chasing them. Nearby, a rabbit was trying to persuade his numerous children back into their burrow. Other conversations, dozens of them, pressed against her ears and began to make Kit’s head pound. It was all too much.

“Do you hear the rain,” Bearach said in a low voice, so that Kit had to work at hearing him over the noise.

“No,” she said, exasperated. “Maybe if some of those animals would just shut up!”

Bearach sighed. “Focus on the rain. It is there. You can hear it if you try. Do you hear it sliding on the leaves? Hear the wet sound of it hitting the ground? Listen to the tree boughs moving together. Do you hear them?”

Slowly, very slowly, the sounds of the conversations around her began to fade and Kit could hear the rain. It was just as Bearach had described it. The patter of drops overhead, the slow drip of a raindrop sliding from a leaf, the gentle murmur wrapped around her. She sighed and relaxed back until she was lying full out on the forest floor. “I do hear it. I do.”

“Now, I want you to focus again. But this time, try to hear only one conversation. Pick one and turn your ears to that.”

Kit concentrated on the wood lice overhead. “Ahhhh nasty, nasty tree man! Crawl faster Lewis, crawl faster! Ohhhh no, it got Ralph. The tree ate Ralph.”

Kit squinted an eye open and stared at the boughs overhead, but she couldn’t see anything. Odd little things. Trees didn’t eat bugs. Kit considered for a moment. Well, maybe in the forbidden forest they did. She looked closer but the trees looked quite ordinary. No fangs or red eyes, no gaping mouths waiting to devour innocent students.

“What do you hear?” Bearach asked.

“A couple wood lice freaking out. They seem to think one of the trees is after them.”

Bearach laughed. “A bowtruckle most likely. They eat the wood lice to protect the trees from them.”

“What’s a bowtruckle?” Kit asked, pushing up onto her elbows.

“It is a tree guardian resembling a stick. They become tangled in your mane if you are not careful. They gouge your hide and tangle your hair. I have run into a few while practicing with my bow. Trees are poor targets when they have bowtruckles in them.”

Kit flopped back down. “I don’t hear anything else,” she said with wonder.

“If you want to you will. You must learn to focus, to relax into the listening and then you will be able to hear what you wish and no more.”

“Is that what you do?” Kit asked.

Bearach nodded his head once. “My ears are not as sharp as yours, but they hear better than a human’s. I can hear an earthworm wriggling across a puddle.”

Kit wrinkled her nose. “Why would you want to?”

“This forest is my home, but there are dangers here even for centaurs. It does well to know what approaches before it reaches you.”

Kit nodded. “Makes sense. So what are you listening for?” She had noticed that Bearach was keeping his head slightly cocked and his body tensed as though in anticipation of something.

His head snapped back to her. “I listen for nothing.”

She frowned. “Yeah, okay, only you’ve been acting a bit off ever since we got to this place. Don’t you like it?”

Bearach leaped to his feet suddenly, his hooves crushing the flowers beneath them. His eyes were wide and his face white. “Get up,” he ordered. “Hide, now, quickly!”

Kit scrambled up, her heart racing. Was it another Amphisbaena? Something worse?

Before Kit could dash into the forest something emerged from the trees and stopped on the edge of the glade. She froze, staring. Another centaur stared back. This one was older than Bearach, an adult by the look of his sleek, dark grey body. The new centaur was frowning and his face looked grave as he turned to face Bearach.

“Explain,” the centaur said.

Bearach stood silent and shook his head, apparently unable to speak. He held his head stiffly and his hands were clenched.

“You dare to bring a human here?” the centaur demanded.

“It was raining and we had nowhere else to go,” Bearach said defiantly.

“I do not care that you were wet. It is the company you keep that concerns me more. If anyone else had found you they would not let you explain. You would be brought up before the elders and cast out of the herd.”

Bearach’s shoulders eased. “You will not tell the elders, Serren?”

“No, I will not carry tales. But this risk you take is too great for one so young. Are you so set on defying the herd that you would court their anger? Do not think your years would save you. You break a dozen laws by being here with her. Is a human really worth the cost? They are ignorant and loud, they destroy everything they touch.”

“I was called to this,” Bearach said, stamping a hoof. “The stars led me to her and I am only following their will.”

“The stars do not tell us all. You are young yet, perhaps you read them wrongly. Surely they would not have you risking your life to play with a human child.”

“I’m not a child,” Kit said, glaring. “And what do you mean he’s risking his life?”

Serren turned to face her. “Our laws prohibit us from consorting with humans. Because Bearach is young it is unlikely they would kill him, but certainly he would be shamed. Perhaps outcast. If he can not see sense in avoiding this perhaps you can, human. Though your kind is not known for their sensibility.”

“Do not turn this onto her, Serren,” Bearach said. “I am the one that chose to take the risk. I would do it again. I did not read the stars wrong, I know exactly what they foretold and I will follow where they lead me. Only fools and mules ignore the fates.”

“Then you should be a fool, for you are already a mule,” Serren insisted. “Tell me why it is so important for you to do this. Make me understand.”

Bearach faltered, his head dropped a little. “I can not.”

“Then end this. Send her back to the castle she came from and do not risk the herd again.”

“No,” Bearach said. “No. She needs to be taught. And I will teach her.”

Serren paled. “You teach her our ways,” he whispered. “Are you maddened?”

“I teach her what she must know,” Bearach shot back.

“Enough,” Kit interrupted, stepping between the two. She turned to Bearach. “I didn’t realize you’d be in so much trouble for helping me. I wouldn’t want that. I’ll go. He’s right, we shouldn’t meet again. I don’t want anything bad to happen.”

Bearach flung his head and snorted. “I will not be led like a foal. This is my decision to make.”

“It’s my decision as well. And I say it’s over,” Kit insisted. “You saved me, isn’t that enough?”

Serren groaned. “There is a blood bond between you? Bearach, this grows worse by the moment.”

“There is no bond,” Bearach said dismissively. “She persists in believing I saved her life, though the truth is I had little to do with it.”

“Saved her how?” Serren asked.

“I was attacked by a creature in the forest,” Kit said, “and Bearach scared it off before it could kill me.”

Bearach grimaced. “I have told you countless times, fox kit, the amphisbaena had already decided to let you live when I arrived.”

Kit waved a hand. “And I’ve told you, it might have changed its mind. It doesn’t matter. It’s all past history now. Look I’m cold and tired. I’m going back to the castle. I’m sorry.”

Bearach blocked her path. “You will meet me again, in a month’s time.”

“I will not,” Kit said, contemplating whether she should shove past him.

“Tell me fox kit, can you hit anything less than a mountain with a bow and arrow? If you lost your wand would your feeble hands be able to stop an attack?”

Kit scowled. “Well, I just won’t lose my wand then.”

Bearach shook his head. “You know magic, but there is much more to the world. Do you not wish to learn it?”

“Of course I do,” Kit shot back. “But not if it’s going to get you in trouble. You,” she spun to face the other centaur, “don’t you have any more objections you’d like to share.”

The centaur bowed his head. “There is a blood bond. It is not as I would wish, but that is not something I can turn my hooves upon. Remember though, this stubborn mule of a colt risks much each time he meets you. You would do well to linger at the edge of the forest where centaurs seldom venture.”

Bearach shot a triumphant look at Kit. “You see, even Serren believes you should continue our meetings.”

“I do not deny the blood bond,” Serren said, “but I do not urge you to rashness. Do what you must Bearach, but do not forget the consequences if you are caught. Consorting with humans … teaching a human,” Serren’s voice trailed off, appalled.

Bearach tossed his head. “I will be more careful.”

Serren nodded once and turned to Kit. “This place – and others like it – are not meant for humans. Do not return here, even should this foolish colt try to lead you. Should another centaur catch you, Bearach would not be the only one facing the wrong side of a hoof.”

Kit nodded but didn’t answer him. With a last hard look at Bearach, Serren melted back into the forest and they were left alone.

“Fretful old nag,” Bearach muttered, kicking at the ground.

“He seemed worried about you,” Kit said.

“Oh Serren is always so proper, never a hoof out of line. Yes he is a good nanny goat. He treats me as if I am a yearling.”

Kit glanced curiously at Bearach. He seemed more annoyed than anything else. “Why don’t you like him?”

Bearach threw her a startled look. “I never said I did not like him. He is my brother, certainly I care for him. That does not mean I do not wish to tie his tail in knots.”

“Your brother?” Kit said, staring at the place where Serren had disappeared. “But he doesn’t look anything like you.”

Bearach smirked. “He is an ugly cart horse, is he not?”

“Actually I thought he was very nice looking.”

“Are you calling me a cart horse?”

Kit laughed. “Well, as I’ve never seen a cart horse I wouldn’t know, but if the horse shoe fits …” she let her voice trail off delicately and burst into giggles at the outraged look on Bearach’s face.

“I am reconsidering my offer to teach you,” Bearach threatened.

“Ha,” Kit said, trailing out of the clearing and headed back toward the castle. “You’ll be waiting for me next month, I know.”

***