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Before entering the sinister shade of the ShawlWood Joannah warned the Upper Kingdom party to keep as close to her as possible or otherwise face the loss of sanity. And it was on that forboding note that the four of them entered the wood where they were immediately surrounded by ear-splitting shrieks coming from all the likely and unlikely directions. Fighting back tremendous desire to screw her eyes shut against the sound-assault Almendra decided to get a better look around, though not before checking her proximity to Joannah. There seemed to be enough insanity as it was.

Inside the ShawlWood was nothing like a 'wood' Almendra thought it would be. Even without a dictionary to support her theory Almendra knew for a fact that woods in general consisted of trees. But it was not the case here. Not after the initial tree-border. Instead of trees there were women all around running blindly into each other with their hands over their heads producing blood-curdling shrieks on their way.

But that was hardly the worst spectacle the ShawlWood was ready to present and as Almendra stared around she saw her Nanny, grey as the Upper Kingdom sky, her face paralyzed with shock pointing with a shaky hand straight ahead.

For there just in front of them was, what Almendra was sure at least once was, a girl. Though now the picture was not crystal clear. It was a lanky ugly-looking creature with a skull-like head and a batch of long strands of rare black hair protruding from its top. This 'girl' was wearing a white long wide robe with wide long torn sleeves. Her long white trembling hands and their just as long and just as white and just as trembling fingers were gripping a middle-aged woman by the neck hauling her full-force towards a group of the same looking girls that were currently forming a circle sinister are-they-sure-that's-how-people-smile forming on their are-those-actually-lips.

Each girl pulled the poor woman towards one another before throwing her in the middle of the circle. The girl that had captured the woman drew out of one of her sleeves something black. Something that turned out to be a shawl (not unlike the one Almendra was wearing at the moment) and wrapped it around the woman's head, who immediately started shaking violently producing those hysterical shrieks Almendra already knew only too well. The woman's voice was full of sheer terror as she was convulsing as if in a fit while she tried in vain to snatch the shawl off her head. The ugly-looking girls meanwhile sang in fear-spreading voices.

And as the woman would protest against the terrible future that seemed to await on her the girls would laugh a terrible laugh trying on other shawls. Still worse than the previous ones, singing all the while.

It looked as though the more she protested the more shawls the ugly creatures were ready to wrap around her wretched head.

Almendra would never have moved from her spot again if not for Joannah who was tugging at her wrist and pulling her into action.

"Come on. We'd better get a move on."

And as they moved on through the ShawlWood that consisted of huge circular rooms similar 'rituals' were taking place. Joannah was right though, no one dared to approach either her or Almendra and her companions. Sometimes Almendra felt that those girls made it their business to completely avoid the four of them. Not that she complained. But it was strange. What kind of force was stopping them from attacking Joannah? Surely, they weren't repulsed by her outfit seeing as how they themselves had no fashion sense at all.

Her musings came to a halt when they walked through an arch-like entrance and found a complete sound-proof clearing where finally the name ‘wood’ was justified by an appearance of small trees with bushy round tops. Their thick branches held out pretty white flowers with huge petals and pink middle. And as one flower fell down on the grass another momentarily took its place.

Finally, Joannah stopped and sat on the grass crossing her legs and placing her tambourine on one knee. Nanny and Woo followed her suite. Almendra just stared around. Beside each tree stood a barefoot girl in a short white sleeveless dress with straight black ear-length hair and thick fringe that completely covered her eyes. With one hand each girl held the head of the flower while with a thumb of another pressed the pink middle like a button. Instantly it made a small popping sound before a long white thin tube emerged from it. With that the tube would uncoil itself into millions of thin threads while a girl would pull those threads down until there were enough to start weaving them into a shawl pattern.

“What was that all about?” asked Almendra tearing her eyes away from the fascinating picture and sitting down her face screwing up in agony at the memory of the creatures from before.

“That were the infamous ShawlWeavers of the ShawlWood.” replied Joannah grimly.

“Who?”

“Honestly, Almendra! You could have employed your time better than that!” snapped Nanny all of a sudden with unusual severety aimed at her favourite child in the world. “Your ignorance astounds me. What would your mother say if she found out that you didn’t care to read a single book in all your life while she herself edited at least half of them?”

Almendra’s eyes grew wide before her face contorted with rage as she snarled back.

“Well, I wouldn’t know, would I? I didn’t ask her to leave and curse everything in her wake! And you are right – I didn’t care because I didn’t want to! Why would I, anyway, when no one cared about me?!”

“Almendra...” said Nanny startled tears shining in her eyes.

Almendra stalled her with an arm raised.

“No – shut up. Just – shut up. Joannah, if you please...”

Joannah cleared her throat looking uncomfortably between the two women. Nanny was deathly pale and trembling while Almendra was scowling worse than ever. By now Joannah had a pretty shrewd idea that the High Lady’s temper was not something to be trifled with that’s why she went on to explain.

“Right – what I know is that the ShawlWood was known as the place where, originally, two kinds of shawls were made – fortune-telling shawls for common folk and High Ladies’ shawls of destiny. However, for many years now, I guess ever since your mother’s curse came into effect, the art of shawlweaving was declining speedily as well as the beauty of the ShawlWeavers. They became greedy and mean and having wasted their natural talent of foresight away they found another way of going about their business. They invented threads made up of horrors. They weave them into the shawls that used to tell the future. And so when someone comes to try on the shawl to see what awaits them they come face to face with nightmarish pictures that haunt them till the end of their days. The ShawlWeavers have a nasty kind of imagination. Many of their victims don’t live long after because the realization that their future is nothing like they planned it to be is enough to send them on the path of madness or break their hearts.”

“That’s horrible.” said Almendra feeling sick. Suddenly, as if struck, she looked sharply at Joannah. “But how do you know all about it? I thought you’ve never been here before.”

Joannah averted her eyes as she answered.

“I – the thing is that – I used to work here.”

Almendra was shocked.

“Here? When?”

“Some—“ Joannah broke off to gulp down a nut-sized stone that stuck in her throat, “Some time ago.”

It was obvious by the look of mortification on Joannah’s face that she didn’t want to talk about it. Almendra, having other questions on her mind, decided to let it go, for now. She wondered how to breach the subject more delicately. It was hard. She was not the one to spare others’ feelings.

“It sounds like you know a great deal about this place—” she started slowly.

Joannah tensed.

“—so I thought you could tell me more about those shawls of destiny for the High Ladies.” she finished indicating the black one wrapped around her shoulders.

“Oh, of course.”

Joannah, her face a vivid shade of magenta, released a sigh of relief and spoke.

“The ShawlWeavers of the old age, as I call them, worked here alongside fate writers of the Upper Kingdom. Once a new High Lady was born a fate writer of the time would write her fate line and would take it to the ShawlWood, where a particular ShawlWeaver, the one the fate writer chose herself, wove it into a shawl destined and designed especially for the newest High Lady. No one but a fate writer knew her fate. Not even parents of a High Lady were allowed to know it beforehand. Once the process of shawlweaving and shawlcolouring was finished the shawl was incrusted with precious gems that had a special purpose.

The gems were of the same colour as the shawl and each stone shone brighter than the rest when the girl went through this or that point of her life. That is to say, each gem marked a particular period in the life of a High Lady. Once given the shawl, at the age of five, during the ShawlGiving Ceremony, the High Lady was bound to wear it till the end and beyond. The shawls were made to define them. And once they put it on they never took it off again. The thing is, that the shawls wore enchantments that bound them to a High Lady they were made for. This way the High Ladies wore their fates on their shoulders and nothing could ever change their future. It was foretold, forewritten and foreworn."

Almendra looked down at her shawl with a frown. Something was not right.

"How come I’ve got no stones then? I know for a fact that all the High Ladies had their shawls showered with them and here I am with not a precious drop!”

“I’m sorry, Almendra, I don’t know that.”

The High Lady pursed her lips.

‘Nevermind.”

She turned then to Nanny who flinched as if hit.

“Is it true?”

Nanny fought to reply without tremors in her voice.

“I’d say yes, except for one thing. The destruction of the ShawlWeavers had begun long before Demetrae, Almendra’s mother, put a curse.”

Now Joannah and Almendra both stared at her.

“What do you mean, Nan?”

“I mean that their destruction began when they started weaving themselves around men who did not belong to them. And, it pains me to say it,” she did look ill saying her next line, “but one of those men was your father, Almendra.”

“My father.” repeated Almendra in a voice devoid of all emotions. Nanny continued sadly.

“Indeed, Demetrae was beyond grief when she found out—“

Almendra gave a mirthless laugh.

“Yeah, Nan, I’ve noticed. Funny though, you’ve never cared to share this little detail with me before.”

Nanny looked hurt.

“Almendra-dear, you never cared to know. Everytime I tried to speak about your mother you would shut the door in my face. I-I-tried – I honestly did.”

Almendra’s features softened. She looked around and spotted the hard-working girls. Now was the best time as ever to change the subject. She didn’t want to dwell on the fact that she was left behind because of the stupidest reason imaginable – a pathetic combination of a wounded pride and a broken heart.

“And who are these girls?”

However, her tongue and temper lashed out and got ahead of her resolution.

“Love children, perhaps? Is one of them just might happen to be my out of wedlock half-sister?” she asked coldly.

Joannah shook her head.

“No, they are the ones who do the actual shawlweaving these days. They come from the Blind Colony on the Isle. They are blind but very gifted. I think there was some deal made between the ShawlWeavers and whoever was in charge of the Colony. I don’t know for sure but I do know that big money were involved...”