Aria Remains
CHAPTER ELEVEN

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It was Alice. Standing in the moonlight, stretching out behind her like the sharpened train of a dress. Alice, keeping her here, sneaking off into the night, whispering and shrieking incomprehensibly, summoning enormous sheets of light and sending them racing towards the stars. It was Alice who…

Who was Alice? What was Alice?

Aria moved further backwards, leaning against a tree as the old woman entered the glade at a point several feet away from her and then disappeared from view. Still keeping herself as small and hidden as she could, Aria again tried to imagine what might be going on, and how much of a part Alice had to play in it all. Was it she who had been responsible for bringing her here in the first place? Had she, somehow, stolen her memory as she had stolen her away from her life? And was now keeping her here, locked away from the rest of the world? Did she know who she was, where she was from, what she used to do, who she used to be before she somehow found herself in this remote, desolate place?

She rubbed her brow, still looking to see where Alice had gone, still listening for the slightest sound. Silence remained, not as foreboding as it had been when the old woman emerged from the building but there was no sign that she was close by. There was no suggestion that there was anyone around anywhere, that there was anybody left alive in the entire world other than she and the old woman, presumably now making her way back down the hill towards Dog.

Aria waited for several more minutes until she felt certain Alice wouldn’t return, then she carefully stood, emerged from the secrecy of the trees and began investigating the devastated village. As she walked she could see that Alice had been scattering the dried leaves in an almost perfect circle, marking the perimeter of an open area of grass which was surrounded by several small wooden huts. To her right was the largest of the structures, where Alice had been reciting her incantation - or whatever it was she had been doing. Taking a few steps closer to it, then leaning forward so she was able to see into the darkness of the open doorway, Aria took a deep breath and started walking towards it.

A wide and tall building, inside it was empty apart from a small, smouldering clump of ashes at its centre. Her eyes gradually becoming attuned to the darkness, assisted by the shafts of moonlight that came sneaking through the gaps and holes in the wooden walls, Aria started to see odd markings carved into the walls. Scanning them as she moved slowly along, she saw six-lobed flowers scratched within circles, while other spoked circles intertwined within one another in complex hexafoils. She also noted several eight-pointed stars, mazes, crosses, overlapping V’s and scores of diagonal lines running in all directions. Having reached the far end she looked down at the long, thick lines that ran along the floor, each not quite reaching the doorway, each impossibly straight.

What were these markings? she wondered. Who put them here? What did they mean?

As she reached the pile of ash she bent down to examine it more closely, though found nothing other than the stale odour of extinguished fire. It was when she stood again, raising her eyes to the ceiling, that she noticed dozens of hanging objects, each gently moving against the light breeze circulating the space, each swinging independently, in a different direction to its neighbour. Although unable to see them clearly, it seemed to her that there were suspended collections of bones, misshapen items that could have been clay or pottery, and at least twenty straw figures, some maybe twelve inches long, their arms and legs straight, their heads falling forward.

Aria shivered, suddenly realising how preternatural the atmosphere felt, how out of place everything seemed, even here, a place that itself had no name, no denomination. It struck her again just how alone she was, how very far from anything she assumed she had previously known, anything she understood, but she fought again for her courage, for her determination to no longer be the passive victim but to replace her way out, to replace her way back.

Looking around the building once more, she then went to the doorway and leaned against its frame. She knew her options were limited, and that each of them would pose its own threat, bring its own problems, but surely one of them must show her how to return, and where it was she was supposed to be. Gazing up at the moon, now free from the restraints of the clouds, she considered the choices she needed to make.

If she were to continue walking, moving further from Alice and her hut, out into the unknown beyond this strange little village, what were the chances of her replaceing other people? She bit her lip, wondering just how big the island was, if it even actually was an island; and if there were other people here, could they help, or would they be just as peculiar as the old woman? She could try to make it down to the water, follow the shoreline the best she could, just to ascertain if she had been separated from the mainland. Maybe she could attempt to build a raft, make some kind of vessel that would allow her to navigate the water. But then, she thought, turning again to look back into the building, seeing the objects hanging from the ceiling still swaying and swinging despite there now being no breeze, what if the water was actually an ocean? What if she really was on an island, hundreds of miles from anywhere else? Maybe she would be better where she was, rather than risk dying at the centre of a vast body of water.

She began walking towards the glade, then noticed a narrow pathway at its edge. That must have been the way taken by Alice when she left, she considered, then started to examine her final option. If she were to confront Alice, to ask her what was going on, what had happened to her and what part the old woman played in it all, would she be rewarded with answers? Or would it, instead, be too much of a risk, bringing her not answers but the woman’s fury, making everything so much worse? Clearly she had some kind of power, was some kind of sorceress, and she didn’t want to put herself in the position of being at the painful end of her wrath. Perhaps a little more furtiveness was required, perhaps she should mention nothing of what she had seen tonight and instead try to replace out the answers she needed in a more subliminal manner. If she asked the right questions, she thought, following the pathway as it led down the side of the hill, the water still hitting the rocks to her left, maybe that would be a way for her to discover the things she needed to know. Surely she would be able to elicit the information she wanted without Alice realising it since, she evaluated with a shrug, despite her apparent capacity for legerdemain she was hardly a mastermind.

Approaching the bottom of the hill, its decent proving much easier than its earlier climb, Aria suddenly heard movement ahead, something coming towards her at speed. For a moment she considered hiding, looking around for somewhere she might secrete herself, but then saw that it was Dog, bounding towards her happily, his tongue flapping from the side of his mouth.

‘Hello, Dog,’ she said quietly, bending to stroke him.

Dog stood on his back legs, desperately trying to lick her face.

‘Ssssh, Dog,’ Aria whispered. ‘No need to get too excited, I’ve only been gone for a little…’

It was then she noticed the thin line of pink across the horizon, hinting at an imminent sunrise, yet she felt sure she had only been away for an hour - two, at most. Even if it were now the middle of summer, if it was the equinox, she couldn’t imagine that she had been gone for five or six hours. She stood and saw in the distance the line of trees standing between her and Alice’s hut, then gestured for Dog to walk with her as she made her way towards it.

‘What be you?’ Alice asked, as they appeared from the line of trees. She spoke with a tone of suspicion, and Aria feared she had been aware of her presence during the night.

Dog trotted to Alice, while Aria continued walking slowly, trying to read the old woman’s expression as she got closer.

‘Sorry,’ she said, finally joining her and bending to stroke Dog again. ‘I was walking with Dog and he ran off, through those trees. I just wanted to catch up with him.’

Alice narrowed her eyes.

‘Thou knowest it be not for thee to venture yonder,’ she said. ‘Danger there may be.’

‘Oh, it was fine,’ Aria told her, smiling. ‘We didn’t go far, just inside the trees, and that’s where I found him. He must have heard something in there.’

‘Hmmm,’ Alice said, unconvinced.

Aria thought that, if she hadn’t yet seen any other animals or birds then Alice would also be well aware of their solitude, their incongruous seclusion from living things. The two of them looked at each other for a few moments, Alice’s eyes still small, dubious, before she patted Dog’s head and told Aria to come inside the hut, since there was breakfast to be had before they began working.

They were to spend the morning in the field towards the other side of the hut, harvesting the small number of broad beans and carrots. As they set to work, the sun already bearing down on them with force, Aria thought about how she might encourage Alice to provide answers to her questions without realising it. She noticed Dog running along the length of a hedgerow, then settle, panting, in a stretch of shade close to them.

‘Where,’ Aria began, standing and wiping her brow, ‘did Dog come from? I mean, have you had him since he was a puppy?’

Alice paused, looked across to the animal and nodded.

‘Since he be a pup. A newborn.’

‘And where did he come from? I mean, where did you get him?’

Alice shrugged.

‘Always been together, Dog and me. Always.’

‘Did he have brothers and sisters?’

Alice looked at Aria, frowning.

‘I mean,’ Aria tried again, ‘was he from a large litter?’

‘Can’t say I rightly remember, now. Been such a long time, it has.’

They both looked over to Dog, who was looking back at them as though listening. He lazily wagged his tail two or three times, then closed his eyes again. Suspecting she wouldn’t be able to elicit any further information about Dog’s history, and from where Alice had acquired him, Aria began her harvesting again, thinking about her next line of questioning.

‘Have you always lived here?’ she asked, not looking up, trying to sound as casual as she could.

‘Aye, always,’ Alice replied, also concentrating on her work.

‘Did you have family? I mean, do you still see any of your family?’

Aria glanced up as Alice rose to her feet.

‘What be thy purpose, these questions with which thee be plaguing me?’

Aria, too, stood up. The old woman sounded frustrated, as though she were being interrupted from something important. The gathering of these sparse crops would hardly take them the rest of the morning, making Aria concerned that she wasn’t interested in the carrots but had, instead, seen through her probing, just as she must have seen her the previous night, hiding amongst the trees.

‘Well, I…’ she began, thinking what she should say. ‘I just thought that, well, I hoped that we were becoming friends and, since I don’t know anything about myself, I was wondering if I might be able to replace out a little bit more about you.’

Alice pursed her lips and looked down to the earth. Dog, too, looked over to them. This time his tail did not wag.

‘Aye, we be friendly, thou couldst say,’ Alice said at last, her tone more relaxed, something very close to being a small smile revealing itself on her face. ‘But there be not much to tell. It be all lost amongst the time, all that has happened in this place.’

‘What do you mean?’ Aria asked, taking a few steps closer. ‘What kind of things have happened?’

‘Thou need not know any part of that.’

‘But I’d like to know,’ Aria said, smiling, moving closer still. ‘I have no past, at least none I can remember, and if I am to stay here I would like to know a bit about where I am, and about who you are.’

She paused, carefully taking hold of Alice’s hand.

‘You’ve been so helpful to me since I came, have taught me so much and been so kind. I almost feel like…’ She paused again, squeezing Alice’s hand and looking into her eyes. ‘I almost feel like you’ve become a kind of mother to me.’

At this, Dog barked and began walking towards them. Alice’s expression softened, and she tightened her grip on Aria’s hand.

‘That be a nice thing, a nice thing to say. I, too, have come to see thee as more than a stranger, more than…’

Alice was interrupted as Dog sat between them, looking up at her. The old woman looked down at him, then said, ‘Perhaps tonight I can tell thee something more, something about this place. When the work be done and the sun has moved along. For now, it doth seem, old Dog be wanting me to go along aways with him. Don’t like to go too far by himself, he don’t.’

‘Okay,’ Aria agreed, still smiling. She released Alice’s hand and watched as they walked away. It seemed, as they reached a far enough distance to be out of earshot, that Alice was talking to Dog, nodding and shaking her head, gesturing with her hands. She’d probably been alone for a long time, Aria thought. Probably talked about everything with her canine companion.

She dropped to her knees again, going through the motions of the harvest, picking at the hot ground. Her mind was racing, her heart beginning to pulse. This could be it, she told herself. This could be the night when I replace out where I really am, and what is really going on. Tonight could be the night I replace myself, and replace my way out of here.