Mortiswood: Kaelia Falling (Mortiswood Tales Book 2)
Page 3
‘Sorry, Kaelia.’
He plucked several strands of hair from Kaelia’s head and pushed them into the bottle
‘Hair—tick. Base oil—tick. Earth, hmmm.’
Pushing aside the layer of leaves covering the ground he scratched up some dirt. ‘Tick. Air? How am I supposed to capture air?’
The hair at the nape of his neck parted. Warmth hit him followed by the sound of panting. He twisted around and couldn’t help smiling.
‘Breath is air. You are a clever Vallesm!’
Narrowing its eyes, the Vallesm dropped a clump of Portanium plants on the ground. Stringy leaves hung from between the wolf’s teeth and Calix reached out to remove them, snatching his hand back at the Vallesm’s low growl.
‘Okay, don’t get your fur in a twist!’ Calix shrugged. ‘I thought we’d reached an understanding.’ He watched the Vallesm slink to Kaelia’s side and sit, rigid in its guarding pose. ‘Obviously we haven’t!’
Calix used the heel of his boot to crush the bulb of one of the Portanium plants the wolf had dug up, and forced the battered pieces into the bottle. Next, he shook the bottle, swilling the contents enthusiastically while consulting the book at the same time.
‘Fire,’ he muttered more to himself than to the Vallesm. ‘I need fire.’
The thin beam of the torch was still holding out and Calix cast it around the hollow, drawing shadows out to play, while looking for dry twigs. Why hadn’t matches been on his list of items to have had packed? He sighed; rubbing two sticks together would take ages to prompt a spark. He hadn’t ever been able to do it in survival studies. Something glimmered in the damp, dead leaves and Calix pounced on it. It was cold and slightly damp. Hardly able to believe his luck, Calix held the lighter aloft like it was treasure and whistled through his teeth.
‘Luck really is on my side!’
The lighter was of the old, heavy type and Calix eagerly flipped the lid. It took him several attempts to coax it into flame but as soon as it did, he held it at the opening of the bottle. The mixture inside the bottle caught alight and flames raged inside the plastic, yet they didn’t burn through. Calix checked the book for a final time and threw the bottle at Kaelia. Flames bled from the bottle, consuming her body. The Vallesm sprang up and howled, leaping over the flames to Calix. Its wide front paws hit Calix in the chest, knocking him to the ground. The wolf pinned Calix down and lowered its head, snarling.
‘It’s supposed to happen.’ With saliva drooling from between the wolf’s fangs and dripping onto his face, Calix shakily wrenched an arm free and pointed to the book. ‘Now I must blow the flames from Kaelia’s face and she’ll awake. I wasn’t doing it to hurt her. I promise I never would.’
The Vallesm’s wrinkled muzzle smoothed out. Closing its mouth, the wolf released Calix and matched his steps, lowering with him to kneel beside Kaelia. The flames blazed around her, lifting her hair, licking without damage. Calix drew in a deep breath and blew at the flames engulfing Kaelia’s face. They abated for a second before erupting once more.
‘What, why didn’t it work?’ Confused, Calix grabbed the book and re-read it aloud. ‘Once the potion is made, ignite it and throw it onto the sleeping person, a breath of love will extinguish the flames and break the Sleeping Death spell.’
The Vallesm’s amber eyes narrowed and it growled, snapping its head to Calix.
Calix glanced fearfully back at the wolf. ‘I don’t know why it didn’t work. I love Kaelia, she’s my friend. I did everything the instructions said!’
The wolf knocked against Calix, forcing the physician to scrabble away from Kaelia’s side. With a deep growl it eyed Calix once more before slinking back to where Kaelia lay. The wolf paced around Kaelia in a full circle before lowering beside her, keeping its back to Calix.
From his position, crouched a safe distance away, Calix watched on. The Vallesm brought its head level with Kaelia’s face. For a few moments the wolf was still, all Calix could see was the back of its hunched form. Then, the flames reduced to embers, before emitting puffs of white smoke and disappearing.
Calix’s eyes widened incredulously. ‘You can’t love her...you’re a...a...wolf!’
The mighty Vallesm stood, circled around Kaelia, and stared at Calix. Its amber eyes unblinking.
Calix rubbed his forehead. ‘I don’t know why she hasn’t woken up; she should have as soon as the flames died down.’ He dropped to his knees and opened his book again. ‘Let me see if there’s anything else we need to do!’
Keeping one eye on the wolf, Calix thumbed through the pages. The Vallesm lowered its bulk next to Kaelia’s immobile body, pressing its warm body against her coldness. Resting its head on her thigh, it looked up at her, before sorrowfully closing its glowing eyes.
* * *
Chapter Three
Kaelia stirred. Weighted heavy from sleep she yawned, and opened her eyes. Moving only her eyes from side to side, she realised she was prone on the grass by the play area in Northdown Park. The lawns had recently been mown and clumps of cut grass littered the park. For a moment she panicked and struggled to move. What was wrong with her? Wanting to sit up, her body refused to obey. It was as if she had been given an anaesthetic to paralyse every part of her bar her face.
Biting her lip, she breathed in deeply through her nose. This was a dream, it wasn’t real. There was no need to panic. The air was closing in, claustrophobically so, and the smell of cut-grass dampening with the evening dew rose with it. Darkness had stolen the remaining light, and there was a pressure on her chest, making it difficult to breathe. It felt as if something was not only leaning upon her but stroking at her body; tiny fingers fluttering against her skin. The sensation made her itch and she longed to be able to scratch. A tingling ran through her, this time on the inside, and her fingers suddenly twitched. With her skin prickling into goose-bumps, a shock charged up her spine, breaking her from the clasp of immobility.
At the same moment she moved her legs the pressure on her chest eased, enabling her to sit up but her skin still felt odd and she rubbed her forearms. She had been here in this park in her dreams many times since the love of her life, and life-long best-friend, Bay had been swept over a cliff by a powerful wind sent by The Salloki. The last time she had been here—in this dream park—so had Bay. But that had been different. Unlike the other times, it hadn’t been night and she had thought she was dying. Now she was here again and it was, once more, night, meaning this was more of a normal dream. If her dreams could ever be classed as normal.
A fox barked from within the copse of trees near to the play area, its high-pitched yips loud and eerie in the otherwise quiet. Kaelia stood and strode towards the play area, glancing over her shoulder along the way. Was Bay here? She opened the gate in the fence running around the play area and stepped onto the bark chipping ground. Her heart lifted with hope as she reached the swings, then crashed. Both rubber seats were empty.
Setting the two swings into motion, she passed them and exited the play area through the opposite gate to the one she had come in through. She hurried around the edge of the concrete cricket pavilion and to the three benches nestling underneath its canopy. Empty. Shivering, she wrapped her arms across her chest to try and keep warm. Striding onto the darkened cricket pitch, she cupped her hands around her mouth.
‘Bay!’ she shouted. ‘Bay!’
There was a sudden stamp of charging footsteps and she was flung to the ground. Hands grabbed her arms and flipped her onto her back, pinning her down. A shadow loomed above her. Blood pounded, fuelled by adrenalin, before her eyes stripped the shadows away and a face with a lopsided grin floated into focus.
‘Hello, Kaelia.’ Bay’s soft, brown eyes crinkled at the edges. ‘You’re back.’
‘What do you mean?’ Kaelia touched Bay’s face; he pressed his cheek against her palm, the drop of his chocolate-toffee hair velvet soft against her fingertips.
‘Before, I was holding your hand and we were running, and then you
just vanished.’
‘What do you mean, vanished?’
Bay slipped off from on top of Kaelia and sat beside her. He rested his forearms upon his knees and looked at his hands. ‘You were gone faster than a puff of smoke. I didn’t feel you’d gone until you were no longer behind me. I never even felt your hand slip from mine.’
The strange butterflying sensation against Kaelia’s skin intensified, she shuddered. Frightened, she reached for Bay and slipped her hand into his. Her bottom lip trembled and she bit it to steady it. ‘I’m here now. I don’t know what’s happening to me, I feel strange.’
Bay grasped Kaelia’s hand and pulled her to her feet. Wrapping his strong arms around her, he kissed the top of her head. ‘You’ll be fine,’ he whispered into her hair. ‘I know it.’ He stiffened, indicating for Kaelia to keep still. His eyes narrowed. Keeping his hands on her, he ran them down Kaelia’s arms until he picked her hands back up again. Holding a finger to his lips he motioned for Kaelia to be quiet.
Kaelia’s heartbeat echoed through her body. She held her breath for a second and squeezed Bay’s hands, the warmth of his skin reassuring. The air turned colder and the oppressive stuffiness was lifted by a bitter, violent gust of air. Trees bowed under the wind, their leaves caught in the wind, stripping the branches half-bare. Kaelia’s hair whipped up and streamed behind her.
‘They know!’ Bay bellowed, raising his voice to be heard over the howling of the wind. ‘The Salloki know you are here...it’s not safe, you must go. They’re trying to get in.’
‘To get in where?’ Kaelia’s hair whipped across her face, plastering across her eyes and stealing her sight. ‘I won’t leave you, not again!’ The gusts of air tore the words from her.
Bay’s fingers slipped from hers. ‘It’s not safe here. You can’t come here again. They are trying to see.’
Struggling with her hair, Kaelia stumbled, putting distance between herself and Bay. ‘See what?’ She screamed as the wind knocked her backwards, lifting her off her feet. She threw out her arms, attempting to steady herself but the wind shoved her over, sending her crashing to the ground.
‘Into your dreams!’ Bay’s voice became distant.
‘But it’s just a dream!’
Kaelia pushed up against the raging wind to stand. Her hair whipped this way and that, making her vision appear only in flashes. It was difficult to breathe properly, the force of air so strong it both rushed inside her mouth and stole Kaelia’s breath from her at the same time. Holding her hands out before her, she pressed forwards, moving back towards the cricket pitch. A gust of wind so violent shot across the pitch, winding Kaelia it forced hair inside her gasping mouth.
Bay’s voice sounded far, far away before the wind swallowed his words. ‘You know it isn’t, Kaelia. Remember, I love you!’
* * *
On Mortiswood’s forest floor Kaelia convulsed sharply and her eyes snapped open. She twisted her head to one side and drew in a breath, her heart beginning to race. In the shadows of the trees at the edge of the hollow in which she lay, was a figure with its back to her. The ground was hard and cold in comparison to the ground from her dream. It didn’t take her long to remember where she was and she turned her head in the opposite direction, relief slowing her nerves a little as beside her, the Vallesm stirred and opened its eyes. Tentatively, she held out a hand and the creature nudged its muzzle underneath for a caress, its glowing amber eyes moist.
Motioning for the wolf to be calm, Kaelia rose and focussed properly on the figure with his back to her. She grinned. ‘Calix! What are you doing here?’
‘Oh, it worked...it really worked, you’re alive!’ Calix spun around, tripped over his own foot and stumbled to her. ‘For a while there I was really panicking. I thought the spell had beaten me.’ His face was ashen. ‘You were under a very strong Sleeping Death spell.’
The Vallesm stood and stretched its back, its body dipping in the middle and its bones creaking. After shaking it paced around the hollow, nose lifted in the air, sniffing for any scent of danger.
Kaelia gasped. ‘Sleeping Death? I read about Sleeping Death spells in Mortiswood Academy. I didn’t think people still practised the magic needed to do them. I know it is the old magic.’ She screwed her freckled face up. ‘I remember crying...and then something caught in the back of my throat. Wait, when I was in Hel’s realm one of my tears helped to heal the Vallesm. I couldn’t heal him with light because my power was useless down there. That’s it! I think I choked on a tear. My own tear!’
Calix nodded sagely. ‘Someone sent the spell while you were crying; all it needed was something to latch on to. Such a spell is usually put into a drink, or given to the victim within a piece of food. No doubt it was a Draugr trick. I thought I smelt his stench earlier.’ He looked around them. ‘It was either Thom’s or the necromancer’s work.’
Kaelia shook her head. ‘Bran didn’t make it out of Hel’s realm. It wasn’t him.’
‘Really?’ Calix smiled, and then hastily frowned instead. ‘Oh dear.’
‘Besides I don’t think a Sleeping Death spell is Bran’s style.’
Calix stared at Kaelia. ‘And you know him so well?’
Kaelia bit her lip. ‘No.’
‘I think it’s totally Bran’s style...sneaky...underhand...old.’
‘He saved me so give him a little slack.’
Calix laughed. ‘Saved you from what? Being trapped in Hel’s realm with him?’
‘From Hel herself. He sent me back but stayed behind to save me.’
‘I’m sure he was only doing it for effect. He’ll probably take great delight in reminding you about it sometime in the future. You’re in his debt now and I don’t envy you that.’
‘Did you know he was raised by Hel?’
Calix let out a long whistle. ‘Well that explains his powers over bringing the dead to life. Makes sense really. Did you find Cassie’s spirit, did Hel have her?’
Kaelia nodded, her eyes glistening with tears. ‘Yes, my grandmother’s spirit is finally where it should be, although I don’t know where that is.’
‘Kaelia: One, The Salloki: Nil!’
‘Oh no, The Salloki weren’t behind the capture of my grandmother’s spirit, or her death.’
Anger twisted Calix’s face. ‘It was Bran, wasn’t it? I knew he couldn’t be trusted. He’s such a dick!’
‘Hel sent the Dybbuks,’ Kaelia continued. ‘When Bran asked her to.’
‘I think you should finish him.’ Calix bunched his fists. ‘Poor Cassie, all she had done her entire life was help people and then he shows up and kaboom, she’s ripped from her own body and sent to Hel’s realm!’
‘I know.’ Kaelia‘s hands flickered into ice-blue light. ‘I’m angry with him about that as well but I don’t think he actually meant for my grandmother to be killed by that Dybbuk, I think he just took advantage when she was. Besides, killing him won’t make me any better than he is.’
‘True but it’ll make me feel better. I never liked him. He’s so arrogant, and cocky, and sneaky, and—’
Kaelia poked Calix in the side. ‘He’s not all bad. Everyone has another side to them. You should’ve seen him, Calix, down there in Hel’s realm; you should’ve seen his pain. He has a daughter, a pretty little young girl called Rosalie. She has this beautiful hair, and she’s such an amazing portrait painter. She lives with Hel. From what I can gather Hel keeps Rosalie there against Bran’s wishes. It must be so difficult for Bran knowing where his daughter is but hardly seeing her. I don’t think she even knows who he really is, Hel has her under some sort of enchantment.’
‘I don’t believe you, now you’re feeling sorry for him!’
Kaelia couldn’t help it but she did. ‘Maybe he’s only the way he is because of Hel. It must be torture for him to leave his only child with her.’
‘He could have tons of kids for all we know,’ Calix replied. ‘He’s bad, Kaelia, and not like naughty-dog bad, like evil and cruel bad.’
‘Bran’s not the Vallesm, he’s not worthy of your compassion!’
‘I think he is. I think he deserves a chance.’
‘I’m willing to admit I was wrong about the Vallesm.’ Calix shrugged apologetically at the wolf. ‘But I’m not wrong about Bran, I know I’m not.’
‘You don’t know that. Bran’s mother is missing; he doesn’t know where she is because, apparently, Hel banished her somewhere. My mum is still missing and I know the pain he has over the loss of his own.’
‘Who is Bran’s mother? She must be all kind of bad to have given birth to that.’
‘Don’t be so unfair. I don’t know who Bran’s mother is. I don’t think he’s ever even seen her.’
‘And you think because his mother is missing, the same as yours, you two are alike? Well, I’m without my parents, the same as you are which makes me and you the same; you’re more like me than you are Bran. He’s rotten through and through. Do you think you and he both missing a mother means you have some sort of special bond with him?’
‘I don’t know what I think of Bran right now.’ Kaelia remembered Calix’s own quest. ‘Did you find the Rosealrium bloom?’
‘No, Bran-the-dick gave me a dud map.’
Kaelia wished things could be easy. ‘You haven’t found the castle yet?’
‘No, it’s here in these woods some distance away, at least I think it is.’
Kaelia grabbed Calix’s arm. ‘I’ll help you find it. With two of us, it’ll be quicker.’
‘I thought you hated Cadence.’
‘I can’t stand her but you’re my friend and I owe you one. You freed me from the Sleeping Death!’ Kaelia teased. ‘It means you love me really even if we don’t always agree over things!’