The Iron Woman Read Online Free

might burst into tears. Her ears were still ringing.
    ‘What you heard,’ said the voice, ‘is what I am hearing all the time.’
    ‘But what is it?’ cried Lucy again.
    ‘That,’ said the voice, ‘is the cry of the marsh. It is the cry of the insects, the leeches, the worms, the shrimps, the water skeeters, the beetles, the bream, the perch, the carp, the pike, the eels.’
    ‘They’re crying,’ whispered Lucy.
    ‘The cry of the ditches and the ponds,’ the voice went on. ‘Of the frogs, the toads, the newts. The cry of the rivers and the lakes. Of all the creatures under the water, on top of the water, and all that go between. The waterbirds , the water voles, the water shrews, the otters. Did you hear what they were crying?’
    Lucy was utterly amazed. She saw, in her mind’s eye, all those millions of creatures, all the creepy-crawlies, clinging to stones and weeds under the water, with their mouths wide, all screeching. And the fish – she could see the dense processions of shuddering, flashing buckles and brooches, the millions of gold-ringed eyes, with their pouting lips stretched wide – screeching. And the frogs that have no lips – screaming. She suddenly remembered how the giant woman had rubbed her eyes in pain, and she thought of the wet frogs, just as wet and naked as eyeballs, burning – rubbing their eyes with their rubbery almost human fingers. And the eels – that eel. Now she knew. That eel’s silent writhings had been a screaming.
    ‘What’s happening?’ she cried.
    The Iron Woman raised her right arm and pointed atthe river with her index finger. The ringing in Lucy’s ears now seemed to be coming out of the end of that finger . She looked towards where the finger was pointing. The river rolled and swirled, just as before. But now it seemed that a hole had appeared in it, a fiery hole, and she could see something moving far down in the hole.
    It was the eel again. Just as she had seen it before, there it was, writhing and knotting and unknotting itself. But it was coming towards her, just as if the fiery hole were a tunnel. It came dancing and contorting itself up the bright, fiery tunnel. Now it was very close to them, in the mouth of the strange hole. She heard a crying , and knew it was the eel. And there were words in the crying. She could almost make them out, but not quite. She strained to hear the words coming from the eel that seemed to be twisting and burning in a kind of fiery furnace. And it did seem to be burning. In front of her eyes it blazed and charred, becoming a smoky, dim shape, a spinning wisp. Then the hole was empty.
    But already another form had appeared far down in the fiery hole, coming towards them in a writhing dance.
    It was a barbel. It danced as if it walked the water on its vibrating tail, swaying and twisting to keep its balance . Lucy could see the little tentacles of its beard lashing around its mouth as it jerked and spun in the fiery hole. And the barbel too was crying. It seemed to beshouting, or rather yelling, the same thing over and over. But still Lucy could not make out the words. And again, as she strained to catch the words, the barbel writhed into a twist of smoke and vanished, just as the eel had done. But already, far down inside the hole, she could see the next creature. And this time it was an otter.
    Just like the others, the otter came twisting and tumbling towards them, up the fiery tunnel, in a writhing sort of dance, as if it were trying to escape from itself. And as it came it was crying something, just like the eel and the barbel. Again, Lucy could almost hear the words, louder and louder as it danced nearer and nearer, till it spun into a blot of smoke at the hole mouth and vanished.
    After that came a kingfisher. This dazzling little bird came whirling and crying till it fluttered itself into a blaze of smoke like a firework spinning on a nail.
    After that came a frog. The frog’s dance was simply a leaping up and a falling