Unlikely Allies

by Davina Jolley

  Arvensis squeezed his wife’s hand in comfort, aware of both her sadness and the hope that burned fiercely in her heart. Forrestiana desperately wanted her family to be reunited and the battle against the Darkness won. That hope burned fiercely in his heart as well.

  16. Mastering magic

  Primrose and Elina followed a strict routine that involved study, practise and further practise outside in the forest. What was read during the morning was practised that afternoon and revisited until each lesson was mastered. Their mother’s letters had created lots of unanswered questions: Where was she? Where had the Tomes, bracelets and letters come from? What was the danger she had wrote about? Why had their mother’s magic not kept her young like Violette? What or who controlled the magic in the Tree? Why did Violette act in such a way? Was Violette the Darkness or was it something else?

  They knew that their father would be able to answer some of their questions, but looking for him in the forest would take up precious time, especially, when they knew where he would be on the night of the Full Moon. So, for now the girls practised and practised hard, believing that their lives could depend on it. They were determined not to be caught out by the danger they felt was looming or by what their mother had hinted at in her letters.

  The time had finally come for Primrose to practise using her Dark Magic inside the Ancient Tree. She waited until she was on her own. She felt Elina would disapprove and believe she was not ready, but Primrose was determined to master both types of magic and in her mind the sooner the better. Even so, she was nervous. She had not tried using it since receiving the scare on her first full day in the Ancient Tree. She had not forgotten the strong desire to touch the panel, and the blast of energy that had shot across the room or the way the Dark Magic beckoned.

  Cautiously, she removed her silver bracelet and flexed the fingers on her left hand and took a deep breath. At first, she concentrated on producing the smallest amount of Dark Magic; a thin trail of what appeared to be black smoke materialised almost immediately.

  The next step should have been simple, if it had not been for the sudden, loud noise Shadow made as he upturned his water bowl. Primrose only lost concentration for a split second as she spun round to see what the commotion was, but this was enough to allow the magic to flow unheeded.

  Instead of reabsorbing the magic back into her hand as she had intended, she accidently breathed some of the dust in. Without a shield to protect her mind, her resulting headache was the worst she had ever experienced. Not only was the pain so bad, but she also felt the return of her vicious side and the need to hurt something or someone, and then she felt nothing, absolutely nothing. Primrose had collapsed!

  Shadow ran upstairs to Elina’s room as fast as he could, seeking help. Dilly, meanwhile, watched Primrose twitch, convulse and then stop moving altogether. Dilly tried nuzzling, licking and pushing Primrose with her snout, but nothing. Primrose lay still and unresponsive.

  Elina entered the room quickly and knelt beside Primrose and tried to locate a pulse - it was weak and erratic, but it was there! Shadow whimpered. He felt he was nothing but trouble, he always seemed to cause some kind of mishap, but then he remembered a voice from the past - ‘you don’t tell anyone about this or what I’m about to do. If you do, I can cook a mean wolf cub pie.’

  Shadow nudged Elina’s hands, ‘Put one of your hands on her heart and the other on her forehead, that’s what she did to you.’

  Using his snout, Shadow made sure that Elina’s hands were in the exact same spots that he had seen Violette do, so many nights ago.

  ‘Then she chanted something,’ Shadow continued, trying hard to remember the words that Violette had muttered that night.

  ‘Who said something, Shadow?’ Elina asked gently, realising Shadow was trying extremely hard to remember something important.

  ‘Violette, when she brought you round, it was something like… I can’t remember and then she clapped and you and Dilly got better,’ he replied, annoyed with himself, because he could not remember the words, but they had sounded so strange to him at the time.

  ‘It must have been a healing spell; there must be one in her book,’ Elina rose to her feet and went to the table on which Primrose’s Tome lay. It was opened on the page instructing her on the use of Dark Magic. Elina sighed and wondered why Primrose couldn’t have waited for her. As she scanned the open page, the book started to vibrate. Pages were turned back quickly to reveal a reversing spell in the form of a chant; Elina had not done a thing!

  Elina took hold of the tome with shaking hands and placed it on the floor next to Primrose and nervously began the chant:

  Out of the dark, into the light

  Fight the magic, with all your might.

  Out of the dark, come back to me

  Fight the evil, forever be!

  When the chant was finished, she clapped her hands just as Shadow had told her earlier.

  Primrose began to stir slightly, unsure of what had happened to her. She looked around and was greeted by a sea of angry eyes. It took a full hour for her to recover completely. Luckily, the only sign of her first experiment with Dark Magic was a massive throbbing headache and a dreadful feeling of guilt. Dilly was not at all happy with her.

  ‘This Dark Magic malarkey really freaks me out. It makes me horribly nervous,’ Primrose admitted, slipping her bracelet back on. ‘I suppose I’m going to have to try that one again!’

  ‘Agreed, but wait until I’m with you next time!’ Elina scolded, ‘Just because you’re inside the Ancient Tree, doesn’t mean you should forget your protection spells. You gave us all a horrible fright.’

  Primrose gave a sheepish look of apology to Elina, Dilly and Shadow, but she knew she would have to do a lot more before Dilly would forgive her.

  Meanwhile, Shadow lay with his nose on his paws with his ears flopped forward, wondering if Violette would actually turn him into a mean wolf pie. He had promised never to tell anyone of what he saw that night when Violette had healed Elina, Dilly and himself. Everyone had thought Elina’s magic had cured them all. He knew neither Elina nor Primrose would allow that to happen, but it still worried him slightly. His eyes followed Elina as she walked towards him and said:

  ‘How about we put Vile Vi in a pie instead?’

  ‘Only if you want the biggest bout of indigestion ever,’ Primrose laughed, ‘I’ll never let her hurt you, Shadow. Thank you for saving me tonight. You did well. And you definitely deserve another giant, juicy piece of steak.’

  Shadow wagged his tail, salivating nicely over the floor, his troubles nearly forgotten.

  The next day, as the sun was shining warmly in a forest opening, Primrose decided it was time to practise a particular spell involving the creation of magical energy spheres or orbs. They would then be controlled by either hand or arm signals and if possible their minds. It was the start of using their thoughts to transfer energy to move objects or magical rays. Primrose was extremely excited at the idea and finally felt her magic was getting somewhere. Today would be the day that she would use both types of magic; it both thrilled and scared her.

  Elina, on the other hand, was hoping to use her mind to either energise the spheres or try to take them from her sister.

  Remaining hidden and alone inside her protective barrier, Primrose cupped her hands in front of her. Gently, she began to rotate her hands in opposite directions, concentrating on her right hand until golden dust formed. She then shaped it into a golden sphere and let her hands drop down to her sides - the sphere hovered in front of her at waist height.

  Concentrating hard, Primrose moved her hands upwards and forwards, the sphere moved away from her and started to soar as it followed the directions dictated by her hands. As her confidence grew, Primrose formed several more orbs and made them dance.

  Elina, wearing the yellow cloak, stood outside the barrier and made sure Primrose and the o
rbs remained undetected. When she felt sure that Primrose could maintain the barrier and manoeuvre the spheres consistently, she entered the barrier.

  Primrose smiled at Elina as she entered the barrier and repeated the spell for her, enjoying the sight of several orbs gliding through the air. Suddenly, Primrose clapped her hands and the spheres popped gently and golden dust sprinkled softly to the ground. The grass grew greener and stood taller as the glittering dust settled and coated the ground like dew, slowly the pinprick dots of light extinguished, disappearing completely.

  ‘Wow!’ Primrose said, ‘Time to do that again. This time, Lina, try to see if you can take some away from me. If I create magic, I need to know if I can keep it. I would not like anyone to use it against me.’

  Once more Primrose created golden orbs. At first, Elina concentrated on just one orb and managed to gain control of it. Primrose clapped; every orb, bar the one captured by Elina, popped gently as before. Elina followed Primrose’s example and clapped. Golden dust showered both of the young wolves, who had just entered the barrier after one of their adventures away from the girls. Excited by the flickering dust, they chased the floating specks and tried to eat them before they fell to the ground.

  ‘We might have to be a little bit more careful where the dust settles, Lina. We don’t want to have giant wolves on our hands,’ Primrose stated.

  ‘I’d rather have giant wolves in our hands than someone else’s,’ Elina added seriously, looking at both Dilly and Shadow; they seemed to be growing very quickly. She wondered briefly if that was to do with their magic or the amount of food that both wolves managed to tuck away each day.

  Primrose continued to practise making and controlling different sized orbs and soon learnt to manipulate them expertly, she tried to be one step ahead of Elina to avoid their capture. Both girls were extremely competitive and were enjoying themselves immensely.

  Primrose’s hands and arms moved gracefully, tracing patterns in the air; the orbs mirrored every turn. It was a huge improvement to the awkward movements Primrose had used earlier that afternoon. Elina pretended to use her arms and hands and copied many of her sister’s movements, but secretly she probed Primrose’s mind and eventually forestalled all her movements and captured every sphere.

  Elina, also had to put into practise the lessons she had studied.

  Primrose tried her best, but was unable to recapture a single sphere. She watched Elina intently and suddenly, frustrated beyond belief, clapped her hands against her head and declared, ‘I give up! I can’t recapture them. Your arm movements make no sense to me. Where am I going wrong? Give me a clue!’

  ‘But, Primmy, if I give you a clue, how on earth are you going to figure out where you’re going wrong? I could be an ugly sister, bending you to my will and… I haven’t heard that special word,’ Elina laughed.

  ‘Bending you to my will?’ Primrose narrowed her eyes, as she repeated a phrase Elina had said, ‘You were reading my mind, of all the sneaky, underhand…’

  ‘Now, now,’ Elina teased, ‘lesson learnt. Remember, not everyone is going to be on our side and play nice. You need to keep your shield secure at all times.’

  Primrose laughed. ‘Dilly is a great assistant, but you are priceless. By the way, where are the wolves?’ Primrose asked suddenly, ‘I’ve been too engrossed to notice where they went, that’s another lesson I need to learn or people around me could get hurt.’

  ‘They got bored with the orbs and went off to explore. They’re on their way back as we speak.’

  Elina held out her hands to the sky and the orbs landed gently into her palms. She gathered them together to form one orb and then gently squeezed her hands together, the orb disappeared. Primrose looked on amazed.

  ‘How did you know that would happen?’

  ‘I didn’t,’ Elina replied equally baffled, ‘I sensed it. Do you think I might have some of your magic in me now? After all they were your orbs.’

  ‘Can’t imagine why you think I have the answer to that one, mind you, Lina, time will tell. Do you want some of the black orbs as well?’ she laughed. ‘Because, believe it or not, they’re the ones I need to practise with now.’ Slowly Primrose dried her nervous hands on her skirt.

  Primrose repeated the procedure, as before, but this time she concentrated on her left hand and created the smallest of black orbs by compressing the black dust. She then sent it away and practised manoeuvring the orb quickly and slowly, turning its course both sharply and smoothly. Once she was sure she could control it just as well as the golden orbs, she looked at Elina - a warning, to let her know she was about to clap her hands.

  Primrose was more than a bit disappointed with the small pop emitted from the tiny orb as it disintegrated, she thought Dark Magic was supposed to be scary. Still looking at the small particles floating harmlessly in the air, she stood up straight, placed her hands on her hips and muttered something indistinguishable under her breath. She turned towards Elina, ‘Well, that was a total flop, a waste of energy and time, I should have been braver and made a larger…’

  A sudden, large vibration surged through the air; hundreds of flaming sparks shot out in all directions. Dilly and Shadow, who had just returned to the glade were showered with burning embers; both ran as fast as they could, tails between their legs, as more burning embers followed them.

  Primrose, spinning around quickly saw further sparks coming straight at her. She stood still totally transfixed by the burning embers; all she could think of was - how on earth could something so small create so much energy?

  Elina acted quickly, she imagined a shield around the pair of them and sent another mental shield towards the fleeing wolves. She then stood up straight, criss-crossed her hands above her head, and brought her arms down quickly in an arc to her sides, fluttering her fingers at the same time to create a short, sharp, heavy bout of rain - extinguishing every spark.

  ‘Underestimated that a bit, definitely need to master that one,’ Primrose said rather sheepishly, looking apologetically at Elina.

  ‘And make it up to the wolves; that might not be so easy.’

  Dilly and Shadow had returned to the practise arena, and two pairs of angry, accusing eyes bored into Primrose.

  ‘Steak tonight, for the pair of you,’ Primrose offered in way of an apology.

  Dilly was unimpressed, Shadow on the other hand loved steak and was ready to forgive Primrose anything in return for food.

  ‘And you, Dilly, can share my bed tonight. Lina, I think we will leave the other sphere combinations for another day or at least until I’ve mastered this one. Tomorrow, I will repeat this spell, but I would like you on the outside of the barrier, just to make sure it holds out under that amount of energy, can’t be too careful! That was a really cool idea to use the rain and a shield. You know, we are going to make one awesome team. Thank you for getting me out of trouble.’

  ‘That’s what sisters are for,’ Elina replied, ‘that was quite a show from one small piece of Dark Magic, don’t think I will be squeezing any of them; you can keep those ones.’

  As they walked back to the Tree, Primrose said, ‘There’s something else I want to try tonight, and I need the safety of the Tree for that. After reading mother’s letter, on my first night inside the Tree, I was sitting in the rocking chair and something strange happened to me. It scared me quite a bit, but I’m ready to try it out again. It will be good having you there with me. You always seem to know what to do when something goes wrong and that gives me confidence.’

  ‘Are you going to tell me what you intend to do?’ Elina asked after Primrose went quiet for a time.

  ‘A long-distance telephone call,’ Primrose answered mysteriously. ‘I’ll explain after we’ve had something to eat.’

  After eating another delicious meal, Elina tried to relax but an odd feeling kept coming over her. Her eyes darted from the cradle to a panel, and then
back again. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end and a cold shiver ran up her back. She felt uneasy, not in a dreadful way, but as though her mind was trying to get to grips with a message but could not quite grasp its meaning. Elina blamed it on the last chapter she had been reading concerning meditation.

  Elina closed her eyes and tried once more to clear her mind. She needed to feel relaxed before helping Primrose practise her new spell, but the strange feeling persisted. Sighing deeply, she stood up and walked across to the cradle.

  ‘Are you alright, Lina?’ Primrose enquired, noticing how restless her sister had become.

  ‘Not sure, but something’s bothering me.’ Elina stroked the wooden, top rail of the cradle, looked around, stepped in front of it, then crossed the room to the panel and studied the black centre and the unusual markings. She then looked at the trap door and the cold feeling down her back intensified.

  ‘Do you know how those markings were made?’ Elina asked, looking at the panel again.

  ‘No, but I think it was from a blast of Dark Magic, probably one of our ancestors practising with one of those black spheres,’ Primrose suggested, ‘I felt something myself as I looked at that panel, possibly some kind of residual energy.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Elina added, preoccupied once more with the markings.

  ‘I wouldn’t touch that if I were you,’ Primrose warned, raising her voice, ‘My left hand really wanted to, and it took a lot of control on my part to keep it by my side. I need to know a bit more about my dark side before I touch that thing again. Elina, don’t you dare!’ she screamed.

  Elina placed both hands on the panel; then rested her head between them. She listened intently and sensed a connection. Tracing the strange markings with her fingers, she followed them until they touched its blackened centre. That is when she sensed it. Dawn, Dawn had been here, and something else too - a weakened life form. She sensed desperation, despair and utter loneliness.