A Shadow in the Moonlight: A Thirteenth Hour Prequel Read online

  As the door to the cave closed, she jumped out of bed, grabbed her crutches, and peered through a crack in the door. Yes, her eyes had not played tricks on her. She saw a figure walking away, cape billowing quietly in the wind. Lighting a torch and summoning all of her courage, she decided to make her way towards the rear of the cave, the place where this mysterious figure presumably lived. She had never been able to make it back this far yet, as the tight turns and obstacles along the cave path required a certain amount of agility she did not yet possess, but she pushed on tonight.

  Finally, after numerous stumbles and incalculable times when she cursed both her leg and her crutches, she reached the back of the cave and found a bed, bookshelves, fireplace, and a storeroom filled with food. On a small table lay a book, a quill pen, and an ink bottle. Lavinia picked up the book and opened it to the first page, which was dated with a brief paragraph. As she read, she was transported to a land of wizards, spells, enchanted forests, secret caves, and lost hunters. She read how one man had been imprisoned in a cave, doomed to spend his life in darkness, never to see the light of day because he had been enchanted by a magic spell. As she continued reading, she discovered how he'd found a girl, unconscious and with a broken leg. He had fed and cared for her, but because of his condition, could not speak to her and could barely even look at her. He'd written that he could not change his present condition, but the least he could do was help her get well.

  "The girl falls into a deep slumber shortly after I have administered the medicine," an entry from a few days earlier read. "It seems to be working, since she no longer thrashes or cries out in agony, but I'm worried it may be making her worse. Most of the time, she seems to be in a stupor, occasionally mumbling gibberish. At other times, she appears to be wide awake, though she doesn't respond to me. When she's in one of her lucid periods, I can spoon feed her some broth, but most of it goes untouched, and she's eaten and drunk little overall. I'm no doctor, but she surely can't spend the rest of her recovery in this state. I'm wondering if I should stop the medicine so she can eat, drink, and move around enough to regain her strength. How that will affect her, I don't know, but I think I'd better do it soon. If only the wizard were here, I'd feel better equipped to deal with this healer's task I've taken on."

  Lavinia next read an entry where the man was reviewing the contents of the larder and seemed to be planning meals that could be eaten cold so he could deliver them to her the night before. In the entry after that, he'd apparently resolved to leave a bucket of water for her from the well outside.

  "The girl seems to be mending, and now seems as good a time as any to stop the medicine. Along with food, I'll put out a bucket of water along with some bathing supplies. Goodness knows the last time this poor creature had a bath. Honestly, I've had half a mind to just do the job for her. I've resisted so far, since I don't want her to get the wrong idea if she wakes up without clothes on. I sure as hell wouldn't want to wake up confused and bare-assed in a cold, dark cave. I can't help thinking one doesn't get to her state of poor hygiene overnight and wonder if the cleaning supplies will actually be used. I really hope so, since her stench is, I must admit, overpowering."

  Lavinia frowned, putting down the book. Was that how this kind man thought of her? Some kind of ? "creature" that smelled? She had to admit, her clothes had been disgusting. But ? they were cleaner now, weren't they? She found a cracked mirror and examined herself. She certainly was cleaner than she'd been in a long time, but there was still the mess of her hair to contend with. Removing the bandages and feeling back to where her head wound was, she pulled her hand away and examined it. No bleeding, just some dried blood that flaked off onto her fingertips. Lavinia suddenly decided that today was the day she would tackle this rat's nest on her head. And then ? perhaps her benefactor would see who was underneath all the blood, sweat, and grime. "I actually care what this person thinks," Lavinia thought. "And I don't even know him!"

  She really was stepping into new territory. Turning her attention back to the diary, she continued reading, right up to the very last paragraph, which caught her eye. "I've grown fond of this girl and wish I could speak to her and tell her what I've written here, for I can't say it myself. I've watched over her every night while she's asleep, though I think she may have seen me more than once. Part of me hopes that she'll soon be well enough to read what's written here and that she won't be frightened by these strange surroundings. Or by me."

  Lavinia read those last sentences several times, then put the diary back down on the table. She slowly limped and stumbled back to the mouth of the cave, pushed open the door, and went out into the cool night air. So, in spite of everything, he cared what she thought, too. Standing under the same moonlit sky as the hunter, she felt a pang of grief mixed with longing for this mysterious, lonely man. She knew all too well what it meant to be alone, afraid, and trapped. Above her head, the sky was black, save for the moonlight peaking beyond dark clouds.

  ********

  The sound of barking roused Lavinia from her reverie. Down in the valley, she saw a man on horseback with several dogs. He dismounted, let the dogs sniff something that looked like an old blanket, and then set them loose. Lavinia watched with curiosity until she saw the man's face - the hard, stern countenance that could only belong to the headmaster of the orphanage - and felt a shudder rise through her body as she realized that the dogs were looking for her. That had been her blanket he'd let them sniff, and Lavinia knew all too well what happened when one got too old for the orphanage - the headmaster sold you as a slave. Though slavery was illegal, there were people who paid well for his services. He was not about to lose the chance to make good on his investment.

  Suddenly, as Lavinia turned to get away, one dog let out such a yelp that, from surprise and fright, she lost her balance and tumbled head over heels down the steep, icy hill towards the canines, losing both crutches in the process. She sat up with a start, uninjured but dazed as she struggled to find cover. The dogs were still about fifty yards away but had apparently picked up her scent and were coming straight at her. She grabbed a thickly rooted bush and began the process of pulling herself up the slope, her uninjured leg struggling to find a foothold.

  The dogs, however, were faster and more numerous. Lavinia had the height advantage, so when the first dog jumped, mouth open and teeth gleaming white, she managed to knock the brute down easily with a thick branch that lay nearby. But that did not deter the others. Soon, they were all on top of her, pinning her down.

  Elsewhere, the hunter was returning to his cave. He could see dawn's first light, signaling the end to his nightly excursion. Suddenly, he heard a woman's scream. He froze. It was coming from the direction of the cave! He forgot all about the impending daylight and, with a strong leap, spread out his cape and took to the air.

  Soon, he was at the cave, but when he looked inside, the girl was not sleeping on her bed, nor was she anywhere to be seen. That scream had to have been hers. Rushing outside, he looked wildly around, his enhanced night vision finally spotting a faint trail of growing dust farther off in the valley. With another leap, he soared towards the trail, which turned out to be a man riding a horse with a pack of dogs following close behind. The dirt kicked up by the beasts made it difficult to see clearly, but there appeared to be someone seated behind the man. As he swooped closer, he saw it was the girl, her hands bound.

  Throwing himself into a dive, the hunter sped towards the fleeing horse. The wind whistled through his hair, pulling off his hood and exposing his face. Both arms out in front, body straight as an arrow, he plunged the final distance. The girl, who had managed to untie the ropes on the bouncing horse, saw him, and though her eyes went wide in amazement, she stretching out her hand. Making a grab for it, the hunter pulled her up off the horse and held her tight.

  The headmaster turned around, let out a terrified shriek, and nearly tumbled backwards
at the sight of the flying apparition in close pursuit. He grabbed his horse's neck to try to pull himself back onto his saddle, but his foot slipped from the stirrups. For a moment, a leg nearly touched the ground while the other dangled high in the air, then he smashed onto the forest floor with a dull thud. He found his legs after the fall and started to run. Looking back at his flying pursuer, he tripped on his shoelaces.

  Alighting and setting the girl down, the hunter quickly pulled his hood back over his head.

  "Wait, can you leave it off?" she asked. "I'd like to see who you are ? if I may."

  The hunter couldn't manage a reply. Suddenly, he was acutely aware of the diminishing night and the cold fear brought on by the spell. The pain in his body became so great that all his strength left him. He fell on both knees with his head bowed low, teeth grinding as he tried to fight off waves of nausea.

  "I read your diary like you hoped I would ? so I understand if you can't take off the hood. But I wanted to say thank you," the girl said. "No one ever did anything like that for me before. You even cared enough to ? make me clean myself up. So, here. I've been thinking about this a lot, and I have an idea. Will you let me try?"

  All the hunter could do was manage a faintly perceptible nod as he stared at the ground swimming before his eyes.

  And with that, she reached out and gently removed his hood. His head was facing the ground, and the girl reached out and lifted his chin slightly. He looked up slowly, the wind blowing his long hair from his eyes. She gazed into them, and at that moment, thunder crackled in the distance. The dark clouds played overhead, separating from their dense bundles to give way to the cracks of a rosy colored dawn sky. Opening his mouth to speak, no spell grabbed hold, and there was no pain or fear.

  "I ? I can speak!" With wide eyes, he scanned the sky, receding clouds, and the life all around him. The sun had just broken over the horizon, and its warm rays shot forth like arrows shining upon his face. He closed his eyes, for they, unlike the rest of him, were not quite ready for the light.

  "Thank you," he said finally, getting to his feet. "I don't know how you did it, but it's gone. I feel like a man who's just walked out into the sun after years of imprisonment in a dungeon. I guess what happened to me was kind of like a dungeon. This is the first time I've seen the sun for ? weeks."

  "I used to get so scared whenever someone came near me," he continued. "It felt like someone was choking me, and I couldn't do anything about it. That's why I couldn't talk to you before. But ? it's weird, something kept me from losing my senses completely. I guess that's why I couldn't bring myself to leave you there when I first saw you fall."

  "It's something I'll always be grateful for," Lavinia said. "Maybe when I took off your hood and looked at you ? it broke the spell?"

  "I don't know, but the one thing I couldn't do was look at another human being, and you helped me do just that. Thank you again."

  "It's quite all right," she said softly. "My name is Lavinia, by the way."

  "Lavinia," he repeated. "I like it. It's a bit ? different."

  "I always was," she replied, looking down at her feet. "How about you? What's your name?"

  Here was that question again. The hunter thought for a moment.

  "I never had one. I'm a junior hunter. Where I'm from, that's name enough at my age."

  Lavinia looked at him in surprise for a long moment, then shrugged. "I guess that makes you different, too. In a good way," she said, eyes squinting up at him in dawn's early light. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Hunter." She extended her hand.

  "The pleasure's been mine," the hunter said, taking her hand, bringing it to his lips, then holding it in his as he nodded towards the direction of the cave.

  ********

  A few days later, the wizard returned, no longer an amateur. He had the World Wizards Association certificate to prove it, as well as a cure to the spell.

  "Good thing I didn't wait for you to undo the curse you put on me, huh, old man?" said the hunter, a wry smile on his face.

  "Ehhh. I'm sorry it took me so long. It's ... complicated." He gave a jumbled explanation about time needed for additional training and a voyage home marred by gambling debts, a vindictive ex-wife, and drunken debauchery that caught up to him, all culminating in a few nights in jail. "Anyway, enough about me. It's all very boring. Let's just say there's a reason why I live in a cave and wanted to make myself invisible. Fair?"

  "Fair enough."

  They were sitting in the wizard's study by the fire while the hunter told the tale of how he'd spent the last several weeks. After he finished, the wizard gave a low whistle. "I'm very impressed. I really must inform the World Wizards Association how you kids managed to defeat the spell. That was brilliant, Lavinia, pulling off the hood."

  "I mean, I didn't know that would actually work," Lavinia said. "I only had a feeling. Do you really think that's what broke the spell?"

  "Well, the Shadow in the Moonlight spell creates a living shadow who's unable to be around others due to intense anxiety and discomfort. So the inflicted person avoids anyone who might be able to help. But our hunter friend here didn't allow his symptoms to keep from helping you, Lavinia, which, in turn, made you curious about him. In other words, you decided to find out who the man behind the shadow was. Your taking his hood off and looking in his eyes was what sealed the deal, but the spell was really being broken little by little, the whole time you were in the cave."

  Lavinia nodded.

  "But what was the deal with the endless need to hunt that buck?" asked the hunter. "I don't know how many times I shot that thing; I never did kill it. After a while, I stopped bringing my bow. But every night, I had the same need to go out and find it. And now the spell has been broken, the need is gone."

  "Ah, yes! This part is so exciting. It isn't even in most texts yet since it's so cutting edge! Essentially, before you were cursed by the spell, the last unfinished thing you'd done was attempt to trail that deer. That's one of the things that happens with this spell - people end up trapped, forever doing the tasks they were trying to complete before they were enchanted. It's a sort of ? perpetuating mechanism the spell uses to keep inflicted people so busy that they have no opportunity to seek help."

  "Wow," the hunter exclaimed. "I'd love to meet the sick son of a bitch who created this spell and stick that deer's antlers up his ass."

  Lavinia and the wizard laughed.

  "Just be glad you weren't scrubbing toilet seats when you were infected. Imagine doing that for all eternity," said the wizard.

  The hunter smiled ruefully. "Definitely could have been worse, I suppose. So the deer was part of the spell. Hmm."

  "I think so. Tell me again what it looked like?"

  "It was one of a kind - its coat was white as snow. It's the only albino deer I've ever seen. I'm not sure if its coat made it look like a ghost or whether it really was one."

  "Fascinating. Some kind of hallucination, perhaps?"

  "Maybe. I never got close enough to touch it, and my arrows always passed right through. But I'm positive the one I saw before I got lost was real. It made noise, and you could hear its hooves like a real deer. The one I hunted at night was always silent."

  "Utterly fascinating. It's something for the textbooks, for sure. I wouldn't put it past a spell as devious as this to cause you to see something like that. Seems like it was quite convincing."

  "It certainly kept me busy, whatever it was. And, I have to say, the nights would have been pretty difficult otherwise."

  "Say, would you mind if I wrote this up?" the wizard asked. "'Self-induced recovery and visual hallucinationatory phenomena in The Shadow in the Moonlight spell.' Yeah, that has a nice ring to it. I think the World Wizards Association would be very interested, and it might even help with my academic appointment there. Er ? with your permission, of course. I promise not to use your name or anything."

  "N
ot a problem in my case."

  "Jeeze, I forgot!" the wizard said, smacking his forehead with his palm. "Sorry."

  "No worries."

  Lavinia suddenly had an idea.

  ********

  One fine morning a few weeks later, after Lavinia's injuries had more fully healed, she and the hunter were married in town. On the wedding day, the couple arrived at a little church in the center of the village as onlookers from the town peeked in through their open doors. Lavinia was dressed in a simple white dress with a flower woven into her hair. Gone was her tear-streaked face - in its place, only an expression of radiant happiness and peace. The hunter wore his finest tunic with dark black pants and patent leather boots. His hair was combed and his face clean-shaven for the first time in weeks. There was no darkness in his eyes, and it was as though the many weeks he'd been entrapped by the spell had not affected him.

  Thus, with the ringing of church bells, the hunter and Lavinia were married. As a present, Lavinia gave him a gift. Not the sort you can unwrap, just something simple - a name. She whispered it in his ear as a smile spread over his face.

  "Thank you. I normally would have had to wait until my thirtieth birthday to become a senior hunter before receiving a name like that."

  Overhead, birds flew up into the rosy colored sky. The wizard's fireworks shot up in the air, bursting into spectacular colors. The rays of the sun shone through the breaking clouds, casting color over all that had been darkened in the night.

  ********

  A year later, a son was born to Lavinia and the hunter.

  During the nine months prior to his birth, the couple had many discussions about the new life they envisioned, but one topic that came up again and again was what, if anything, to name their child.