What the Briar Remembers
fantasy◐ MatureMirren ran. She had buried enough of these to know a waking field when she saw one, and she would not be standing on it when the rest came up. She made for the old chapel at the forest's edge, where the warden before her had carved warnings into the stone. Behind her, more hands were breaking the soil.
Mirren slammed the chapel door and dropped the bar. Through the slats she watched the dead rise across the whole forest, a grey tide of soldiers standing up out of nine winters of careful work. They did not attack. They simply formed into ranks and waited, every blind face turned toward her little door.
What happens next?
1 ways forwardMirren found Aldous's old name-list pinned behind the altar and read the top name aloud through the door: GHERICK. The waiting army shuddered. Then, rank by rank, the grey soldiers turned, walked back to their graves, and lay down in them. Mirren opened the door at dawn to a forest of fresh-turned earth — and silence.