Eleanor

by S. F. Burgess

  “Sorry, Eleanor,” he whispered, and then he struck her across the head, a teeth-rattling blow administered with something hard and solid. Consciousness did not leave completely, but it was enough to break her focus, making everything distant and hazy. Without focus, the energy she was releasing dissipated around her, making the air crackle with ozone. She slumped forward, feeling blood running with warm lethargy through her hair. Freddie caught her and gently lowered her to the ground, then went to check on Conlan. Eleanor watched, through eyes she could barely keep open, as Conlan stopped writhing. He rolled painfully onto his back, panting. His limbs twitched sporadically, but he waved away Freddie’s attempt to assist him.

  “Help Will,” he insisted, his voice hoarse.

  Looking beyond Conlan, Eleanor could see Will. He lay on the ground, eyes closed, unnaturally still; Amelia knelt beside him, frantically moving her hands over his neck and then placing her head on his chest.

  “Freddie, he’s not breathing,” she said, fear making her voice squeak.

  Fighting to stay conscious, Eleanor watched Freddie start chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth in an attempt to kick-start Will’s automotive responses. What have I done? Despite the effort Freddie was putting into his CPR, Will showed no signs of improvement. Eleanor closed her eyes in despair, tears intensifying the throbbing pain in her head. With her eyes closed, she felt something; it was faint, but it was there. Will’s string of energy, still entwined with hers, pulsed weakly. I drained the life from him, literally. I guess our energy isn’t limitless. Although it seemed even a limited amount could do damage. A thought occurred to her that if she could pull his life from him when she pulled his energy, she could help him by giving him energy back. She had none of Will’s energy left, as most of it had ripped through Conlan and the rest dissipated around her, but she had her own energy and there was always Freddie’s energy. Eleanor tried to focus on Will, but he felt too far away. It was like pushing a huge boulder up a steep hill. I need to be closer. She rolled herself onto all fours, and fighting the black wave of nausea and dizziness she forced herself upright. With slow, unsteady steps she walked over to Will, dropping to her knees near his head; she reached out a hand to touch his face. Amelia grabbed it.

  “What are you doing? Haven’t you done enough damage? Leave him alone!” she yelled, her eyes wet grey stone.

  “Let me help,” Eleanor whispered, distressed by how tiring uttering just those three words had been.

  “How?” Amelia asked suspiciously.

  “I don’t have time to explain.”

  For what felt to Eleanor like an eternity, Amelia kept a firm grip on her wrist until Freddie pulled her free, taking Amelia’s hand in his.

  “He’s dying, Amelia, CPR isn’t working, let Eleanor try. Will has nothing to lose at this point.” Staring down at Will’s lifeless body, Amelia nodded, her tears dripping off the end of her nose.

  Eleanor placed her hand against Will’s face and concentrated on finding the faint pulse of life. She found it, but it was fading fast. She grabbed hold, and with all the force she could muster pushed the glowing green energy from the ball in her stomach into Will. At first nothing happened. Then gradually the pulse strengthened, there was the sensation that her heart was straining, beating for two, as Will’s heart jump-started, finding its own rhythm. She took slow, deep breaths until Will’s breathing mirrored her own. She pushed more energy into him, surprised at how little effort it took when they were touching – far less than pulling energy out. She felt her own energy level dropping, pushing her rapidly towards the looming darkness, and she realised in dismay that she could not take energy from Freddie because she no longer had the strength to pull it from him. The energy she had would have to be enough. With one last burst of effort, Eleanor sent out as much energy as she could. Not having the strength to hold herself up, she slid slowly down, laying her head gently on Will’s shoulder. Her consciousness started spiralling into the silent black, but as it did Eleanor heard the most wonderful sound. It was Will’s voice, confused and tired, but very much alive.

  “What happened?”

  Power

  It was the voices that pulled Eleanor up from the bottomless black – loud voices, angry. She was lying in her bed, a thick, hot, itchy bandage wrapped round her head. The fog in her mind lifted slightly and the voices started making sense.

  “She nearly killed you!”

  A yelling female voice. Amelia. Then more conversation, too low for Eleanor to make out the words. I need to get up; I have to tell them I’m sorry. That meant opening her eyes and moving. Her whole body ached miserably and there was a steady, mind-numbing pounding in her head. She took a couple of deep breaths and opened her eyes a fraction. A candle burned on the floor beside her bed, casting dancing shadows across the cave. Opening her eyes the rest of the way she squinted in an attempt to bring into focus what she could see, and then she carefully tried to sit up. Her muscles protested and the pain in her head reached a screaming crescendo, but taking short, quick breaths she pushed through the pain, swung her legs off the bed and managed to get herself standing. Walking slowly, feeling sick, Eleanor moved in the direction of the voices. The bandage, made loose by her movement, slipped slightly down her face. She pulled it off, wincing as it rubbed the damage on the back of her head. She probed the area cautiously with her fingers; there was a large raised bruise and a long, scabbed over gash. What did Freddie hit me with? She moved into the main cave. Conlan, Will and Amelia were sat round the fire, their backs to her, while Freddie was swinging a sword backwards and forwards in the training cave.

  “… didn’t mean to hurt me Amelia,” Will was saying.

  “I don’t care whether she meant it or not, she nearly killed you both. She should have known better!” Amelia snapped.

  “Why should she have known better?” Conlan asked.

  “Will told her it was dangerous…”

  “No, I told her it might be dangerous for her,” Will corrected.

  “The fact still remains that her ‘experiments’ with Freddie and Will are the closest we have come to getting the connection working. She doesn’t follow orders, she follows her own intuition, and as much as you want her punished, Amelia, I don’t think beating that out of her is going the help us,” Conlan said.

  “She left you writhing on the floor in agony while she sucked the life out of Will and you’re just going to let that go? Aren’t either of you the slightest bit frightened of the power she possesses?” Amelia asked bitterly.

  Feeling dread crawl up her back on tiny needle claws, Eleanor stepped a little further forward.

  “It was actually the other way round,” she said quietly. They turned to look at her, Amelia glaring pure loathing.

  “What was the other way round?” Conlan asked, regarding her with a cold, emotionless expression.

  “I sucked the life out of Will when I pulled the energy out of him and it was his energy I used to … to…”

  “To attack me,” Conlan finished flatly.

  Amelia, fury in her eyes, jumped to her feet and charged, bringing Eleanor down in a tangle of arms and legs and slamming her head into the ground. Amelia made no sound – she just punched and kicked at every piece of vulnerable flesh she could reach. Dazed and struggling to stay conscious, Eleanor made no attempt to protect herself. This was Amelia and if Amelia was trying to hurt her, it must surely be justified. The beating stopped as Will pulled the furious woman off. He held Amelia close, stroking her hair as she sobbed brokenly into his chest. Eleanor pulled herself up onto her knees, feeling utterly wretched, and forced herself to look at Conlan’s face, searching it for some sign that he understood she had not meant to hurt him, had not meant to hurt anyone. All she found was cold disapproval.

  “I’m sorry, I’ll accept any punishment you want,” she whispered, dropping her head, not able to meet Conlan’s eyes anymore, not able to deal with the sick feeling churning through her insides. She wanted to say something else, so
mething that would help them understand, but the throbbing in her head was making coherent thoughts difficult. The silence stretched out, and before it ended Eleanor slid gratefully back into unconsciousness. In her last moment of awareness she felt strong arms stop her headlong flight towards the floor.

  Eleanor woke again with the feeling that something was wrong, intuition shooting fear through her heart. Although there was no sound, she could feel screeching vibrations through every nerve ending in her body. There was nobody in sight, so moving carefully she got herself standing again. The fuzzy, vomit-inspiring dizziness was less than before, but the throbbing in her head was still a steady, monotonous pounding. She shuffled slowly out into the main cave. Will and Amelia were side by side in the kitchen, preparing food and talking quietly to each other, and they seemed fine. Judging from the noise coming from the training cave, Conlan and Freddie were sparring. Not wanting to risk Amelia’s wrath, Eleanor shuffled quietly over to the entrance of the training cave and sat to watch. Conlan and Freddie’s swords were a blur as they traded blows backwards and forwards. Freddie seemed to be putting rather more effort into it than was strictly required. Eleanor focused and the vibrations jumped up a gear. Freddie’s eyes were blazing, reaching out she felt how dangerously elevated his energy was, and watching his movements she realised he was fighting to win. Conlan seemed oblivious and was clearly enjoying himself. One slip up and Freddie’s going to skewer you. The thought had no sooner surfaced when Conlan caught his foot on a loose stone. He only lost his balance for a heartbeat, but it was enough. Freddie was on him, heavy overhead blows pushing him further off balance. Panicked, Eleanor reacted instinctively and began siphoning as much of Freddie’s energy from him as she was able – far more and far quicker than she ever had before, realising too late that it was not going to naturally dissipate, she was building up power too fast. It was beginning to make her energy ball glow and become hotter; the effort pushed her battered, damaged body towards another shutdown. She silently berated herself while frantically trying to think of a solution to the problem. She wracked her brains and suddenly the image of fork lightning hitting the ground filled her mind.

  Pushing a string of energy deep into the earth below her, she pushed Freddie’s energy down the string and out into the surrounding earth. It was working; unfortunately, the relentless throbbing in her head made judging the effort she needed to use very tricky. As she pulled at his energy Freddie staggered, his sword dropping from his hand. Conlan froze, concern and confusion on his face. Freddie turned and looked at her, his panicked look turning to understanding. Conlan followed Freddie’s gaze and cold fury filled his face. Clearing the distance between them in four long strides he grabbed Eleanor by the collar and dragged her to her feet.

  “Stop it!” he hissed.

  Still trying her best to pull energy from Freddie while at the same time push it down into the earth, a task akin to patting her head and rubbing her tummy with two sets of arms at the same time, Eleanor was only able to react to this new development with one emotion: terror. Conlan looked back at Freddie, who was now on his knees taking rapid, gulping breaths, giving an even stronger impression of her guilt. Conlan turned back to her, jamming the point of his sword into the soft flesh under her chin, pushing hard enough to break the skin.

  “Whatever you’re doing, stop it, now… or I will end you,” he snarled. Eleanor believed him. Having heard the commotion, Amelia and Will came running through from the main cave. They took one look at Freddie on his knees gasping for breath and Conlan millimetres away from killing her and reached their own conclusions. Will rushed over to help Freddie and Amelia started yelling.

  “What’s wrong with you? Don’t you know the pain you’re causing or do you just not care? Freddie has done nothing but help you. Conlan should push that sword right through your sick little brain!”

  “No!” Freddie ordered. Not releasing the pressure on the sword, Conlan turned back towards him again. He was still on his knees but he looked far better, his breathing returning to normal. “She was trying to help,” he continued, looking ashamed. “With Eleanor not being conscious much the last few days, my energy levels have been raising. I’ve tried to control it, but… There’s a good chance Eleanor just saved your life.”

  “And you didn’t think to mention this sooner?” Conlan asked.

  Freddie hung his head. “My thinking becomes different as the energy levels rise. I get paranoid, fearful… angry. It’s like all my common sense leaves me.”

  Conlan removed his hand from Eleanor’s collar at the same time as he took the sword away from her chin. She dropped into a heap at his feet, trembling violently and hating herself for it. She watched the steady drip of blood from the cut under her chin as it began to form a puddle on the floor. There was pain, but it just sort of merged with all the other pain, which she was becoming worryingly used to. Having returned Freddie’s energy level to a more even keel, she pulled her energy strings back as Will came and crouched down in front of her, firmly pushing a pad of material under her chin to staunch the blood. Eleanor looked into his deep-blue eyes.

  “When did I become the enemy?” she whimpered. She felt lost, like the world had just turned upside down for no reason at all. Will gave no answer, but Eleanor felt an energy string gently push up against her. Reaching out with a string of her own she wrapped round it, and Will’s cool, calm presence entered her mind.

  I know you’re not the enemy, Will said, his voice echoing. The others do, too. You just gave us all a nasty wake up call. I don’t think we realised just how dangerous this was going to get. How dangerous we were going to get…

  Eleanor felt him leave her mind and detach his energy from hers. He was still looking at her with emotionless blue eyes and she realised that this was for Amelia’s benefit. Eleanor felt profoundly grateful to him for offering her what little comfort he could.

  Eleanor was so miserable, she was desperate to escape. Amelia’s open loathing exploded if Eleanor so much as caught her eye. Will was careful not to get involved, while Freddie’s uncomfortable misery mirrored Eleanor’s own. Conlan just did not seem to care; distant and distracted, he seemed to want to spend most of his time on his own, brooding. Freddie came to the rescue, taking her up to the high lake, where she would lie on her back in the snow and just concentrate on her energy. She was going to learn as much as she could, knowledge was power and with it she could ensure she never accidentally hurt anyone again. At first Freddie had tried to talk to her, but when Eleanor made no attempt to respond, he eventually gave up, following her around in silence.

  It was up by the lake that she first felt it. Finding her favourite spot Eleanor settled herself back into the snow, watching the clouds roam the sky above her. She lay still, not really thinking of anything, when a thought popped into her head.

  Spring is coming!

  Eleanor sat up. She looked slowly at the frigid, white world around her. There were no outward indications, no evidence that could have brought her mind to the conclusion that spring was coming. Logically it must come at some point, but this thought had brought with it a certainty, an excitement that spring was imminent. The excitement was not her own – she knew that for a fact – because spring meant the snow would melt and the Protectors and Enforcers would be coming into the mountains looking for them. Spring held no excitement for her.

  Fearing for her sanity, she closed her eyes, concentrating on her feelings and turning them over in her mind, looking at them from every angle. As she did, she felt it. She brought it into her conscious thoughts; it was a faint energy string connecting her to the Earth. As she focused on the string it strengthened, vibrating slightly, and the stronger it became, the more information flooded into her mind. She could feel the different types of rock in the ground beneath her, each with stories to tell, and she could feel the seeds and living things of the Earth sleeping, dormant, waiting, sensing that spring was coming. It was their collective excitement she could feel – it was the
Earth’s excitement at the thought of rebirth and creation. The effort of pushing her energy string deep into the earth became too much and she relaxed, retracting it. Then on a whim Eleanor tried pulling energy from the Earth and was delighted to find this required almost no effort at all. She felt her energy string pulled deep, spreading out like roots of an ancient tree. She had not had to push, she just had to take slow, deep breaths and hold her concentration. Unlike Freddie’s energy, which always made her feel like she was burning, or Will’s, which had made her feel a little like she was drowning, this energy felt totally natural to her. The green energy ball she imagined in her stomach began growing, stretching, and Eleanor became aware of the unlimited energy at her fingertips; the sense of power was intoxicating.

  Distracted by the feeling of omnipotence, she did not notice just how much energy she had accumulated until it was too late. Eleanor discovered that her body was not meant to hold such a large amount of energy; there were side effects. The symptoms came slowly at first, a tingling in her extremities and then numbness. I have to release the energy. She pushed it back into the ground, but there was too much. Numbness turned quickly to agonising pain, like acid running through her veins. She gritted her teeth together to keep from yelling out, terrified what might happen if Freddie heard her scream, and she released the energy at him by accident. Could I release the energy? But where? She had done it with Will’s energy; all she had needed was something to focus on, and unfortunately that had been Conlan. So, no focusing on human beings… What about something inanimate? The pain was making it difficult to think, but she pulled herself upright so she could see the lake in front of her with its thick lid of ice. Focusing on a spot in the middle, she released all the energy. It was not the steady stream she had felt when she had released Will’s energy. This felt more like flinging a rock with all her strength.