Eleanor

by S. F. Burgess

  How do I do that? Amelia asked.

  You understand how air works; you can feel it, just as I feel the earth. Trust your feelings. Is it possible to push the storm into a higher part of the atmosphere and then direct it somewhere else? Can you manipulate the temperature or moisture content within the clouds so they lose energy and collapse? Can you pull energy directly out of the air and release it down here, somewhere safe? Make sure you have worked through any effects this might have, because dissipating a rain cloud here could cause a hurricane somewhere else – with the weather, everything’s connected.

  Once Eleanor felt Amelia understood what she was saying, she broke the contact, watching Amelia’s face as she closed her eyes.

  Amelia must have made some comment to Will, because he was watching the darkening clouds with curiosity. For a very long time nothing seemed to happen. Amelia sat with her eyes closed, her beautiful, solemn face turned up to the dark, broiling clouds as they closed in above them. The wind picked up, lashing Eleanor’s hair across her face, but she noticed Amelia’s hair was still, as if she was surrounded by her own microcosm of calm weather. The dark clouds were beginning to lighten and disperse, all expect one small cloud high above their heads, which became so dark as to be almost black. It twisted and writhed, a tortured living thing. Then, to Eleanor’s amazement, the cloud sank towards them, moving out until it hovered over the lake. Once there it rained heavily and directly into the lake. Eleanor saw her amazement mirrored in Will’s expression. Amelia had a small smile on her face as she opened her eyes and watched the rain splatter on the lake’s dark surface, causing ripples that moved slowly out towards the lake’s rough edges. As the cloud spent its drenching load, it broke apart and dissolved into nothing. Unable to contain herself, Eleanor jumped to her feet, whooping and cheering.

  “That was totally awesome!” she enthused, as she came to join Amelia and Will.

  Amelia smiled shyly. “It was cool, wasn’t it? You’re right, everything’s connected; I can feel patterns flowing around me. I think, with practice, I could actually predict and manipulate the weather.”

  “Shame I can’t take you back to Britain, we could make a fortune,” Will said.

  Amelia smiled at him. “And I just thought the shield thing and the pushing thing were the extent of my abilities.”

  “Wait, what shield thing? What pushing thing?” Eleanor asked.

  Amelia gripped her hand. “That’s what I wanted to show you.”

  “Show her the shield,” Will prompted.

  Looking like a little girl called to answer a question in front of the class, Amelia nodded. She walked a little distance away and closed her eyes.

  “Eleanor, go stand over there and pretend I’m a rock you want to explode,” Will ordered.

  Eleanor’s mind froze in horror, but Will just smiled at her. “It’s OK,” he assured her. Eleanor shook her head – she was not going to aim at Will. Just the thought was making her feel sick with apprehension.

  Will sighed. “In that case you stand still and I’ll aim at you.” Images of Conlan’s writhing, tormented body came jumping into her mind, but it was better than accidentally blowing Will up, so she nodded numbly, walking a little distance away. Will said something to Amelia as he walked past. She opened one eye, noticed where Eleanor was standing, and then closed it again.

  Will smiled at her. Eleanor was too afraid to move. She just waited for the pain, but it never came. Instead, the air in front of her shimmered, and a rich blue-purple colour spread out like a bruise and faded to nothing. Will repeated the process, but this time his eyes were closed for longer, and as the bruise spread through the air, the colours were so bright that they left dots on her retinas. He used more energy, Eleanor thought distractedly. Eleanor could hear a low, almost electric hum. As the colours faded again, Will glanced at Amelia, whose eyes were still closed. Eleanor reached a hand out in front of her and felt the resistance. There was nothing to see, but the air was vibrating slightly, like she was holding her hand against a hard drive as it cycled up. She tried pushing through, but it was solid and caused goosebumps to rise up and down her arm. A slow smile spread over Eleanor’s face – now here was something that would be useful in battle. Will smiled, walking back towards her. With no evidence to point to it going, the air was suddenly clear, like nothing had ever been there.

  “Want to have a go now?” he asked. Amelia walked over to join them, a smug grin on her face. Eleanor felt her mind starting to ask a million questions at once.

  “Amelia, that was awesome, can you make this shield a ball, to protect someone inside? Can it protect someone from normal weapons? Can you make more than one at once? Can energy be fired through it from the other side?”

  Amelia frowned. “I could make it a ball, but I need to concentrate really hard to make it at all, and I’d have to worry about the air supply of the person inside. I don’t think more than one is possible, plus I have to be able to see where it’s needed. It’s not easy to move, but I could make one big one to protect us all, if necessary. I’ve no idea if you can fire energy through it from the inside – I’ve never tried, but I doubt it because its construction is the same all the way through. It does stop swords and arrows, though.”

  Eleanor smiled at her. “Congratulations, you have the most useful ‘talent’ of any of us so far and it seems to be entirely defensive. Maybe if we play with it we can see how far it can go. What’s this ‘pushing’ thing?”

  Excited now, Amelia turned towards the lone tree in the apex of the hill. It was the one tree in the immediate vicinity that Eleanor had managed to save from Freddie’s practice torching sessions. She had a moment to feel a pang of regret for it before it was ripped from the ground and flung back forty feet, crashing into the mountainside and falling to the ground, its roots reaching plaintively for the sky. It was clearly not an exploding force like her own; it was as Amelia had called it – a ‘pushing’ force, a very strong pushing force, like the invisible hand of a god. If we get this connection working, Conlan is going to be the most powerful man alive!

  “That was great! So if we can get this connection thing working, Conlan will be able to explode, electrocute, incinerate and flatten his enemies. Suddenly I’m not so worried about our odds.”

  They spent the rest of the day by the lake waiting for Conlan and Freddie to return. Eleanor lay on her back concentrated on the book, trying to find answers, playing the pages slowly through her head. Will and Amelia practiced trying to draw and fire energy with their eyes open. Deepening shadows filled the twilight world before they headed back towards home. Eleanor was caught up in the book, her mind elsewhere as Will and Amelia discussed their progress.

  “Eleanor!”

  Will’s sharp tone made her jump. She stopped, trying to bring herself back to the present and out of her rather complicated deliberations on word lengths, position and number theory.

  “Yes?” she said, turning to look at them.

  Will’s concern fought with his irritation. “Are you OK?” he asked. “That’s the fourth time I called your name.”

  “I’m just a little distracted.”

  Amelia gave her a knowing little smile. “They’ll be fine, Conlan knows what he’s doing and they can’t have gone too far because we’ve not felt our brands burning.”

  Eleanor nodded, wondering why Amelia had assumed that was what was distracting her. She was missing them very much. She wanted to talk to Conlan about the book, but she trusted them to take care of each other. She turned back and began walking down the path, humming to herself.

  Amelia trotted up to her side.

  “What’s that tune? You’ve been humming it to yourself on and off all day.”

  Eleanor stopped. What tune? The minute she focused on it she realised the tune was playing on an almost continuous loop in her head. As she concentrated on it, the music grew louder, like she had heard it before, played on a mournful wind instrument. It swelled through her, pounding through her m
ind.

  “I didn’t realise it but it’s a tune that seems to have been playing in my head for a while,” she said.

  “Where have you heard it? I don’t recognise it,” Amelia said.

  Eleanor shook her head. “I feel like I’ve heard it before, but I’m also certain that I haven’t.”

  “Maybe it came out of the book,” Will suggested.

  Eleanor nodded slowly. “Maybe, but I don’t recall seeing music…” That was as far as she got; an energy string came out of nowhere, bursting into her head. She had time to register her body’s jarring impact with the ground, before a terrified panic flooded through her.

  Eleanor?!

  Freddie?

  RUN, Eleanor! They’re coming, they’re really close, don’t go back home, they’re nearly there; go to our old training cave. Conlan and I will meet you there. Hurry!

  Freddie left her head at such speed that it would have knocked her flying had she not already been lying in the dirt. She winced and opened her eyes. Will and Amelia were crouched next to her, faces full of apprehension and concern.

  “Help me up, we have to go. Freddie says the Protectors are here,” she said, struggling to stand. Will pulled her to her feet. She rocked slightly until the world stopped spinning and then she set off back toward the lake and Freddie’s cave.

  “Where are we going?” Amelia asked, fear making her voice tremble.

  “Somewhere safe,” Eleanor replied, saving her breath and pushing her body to move faster.

  Panting, sweaty, but chilling rapidly, Eleanor looked at the black void of the cave mouth for a moment. Taking a firm grip of Amelia’s hand, as much to reassure herself as her friend, she walked into the darkness, using a hand to feel her way along the tunnel, her breathing loud in her ears.

  Eventually she felt the tunnel open out into the main cave.

  “Amelia, can you let go of me for a second, so I can light a candle?” Eleanor asked. She was glad that Amelia could not see the look of relief on her face as her fingers were released from the vice-like grip. Moving slowly from memory, testing the way forward with her feet and hands, Eleanor found the stash of flints, kindling and candles. It took a couple of attempts with shaking hands to light the kindling and the first candle, but she managed and lit a couple of others, handing one each to Will and Amelia and then crouched to light a fire.

  “You’ve been here before,” Will said, looking around. He found a pile of blankets and wrapped one around Amelia, who was sat staring into the fire. She smiled absently at him.

  “It’s where Freddie and I used to come to practice my fighting,” Eleanor said, finding some water and putting it onto the fire to heat. She put mugs down next to the fire, so she could pour drinks. Her hands were still shaking and she stared at them. What’s wrong with me? Will took her by the shoulders and led her to the fire, forcing her to sit next to Amelia; he found her a blanket, placing it around her.

  “You should rest while you can,” he said quietly. She wanted to object, wanted to point out that Conlan and Freddie could arrive at any moment, but something inside her prevented her from doing so. She needed sleep. Curling into a ball, she drifted into oblivion.

  “Eleanor?”

  A hand shook her shoulder. She emerged from sleep as a drowning man might breach the surface – gasping, frightened and confused - from a dream filled with tunnels, dark underground spaces and the melody in her head crashing through her consciousness in a wall of sound. She had no idea where she was. Panic tore at her. She sat up, scrambling away from the fire in front of her until her back hit the cave wall.

  “Eleanor.” Will was speaking, saying something. There were words, but she had no idea what they meant; the music held her attention, but it was slowly subsiding.

  “I have no idea what you are saying,” she said, fighting the fear. Will stuttered to a halt, his eyes wide.

  “I was telling you that I can hear movement outside, I think they are here,” Will said slowly.

  “Then why did you not just say that?” Eleanor snapped, the crashing music receding, a throbbing headache taking the space it had left.

  “Eleanor, do you know you are speaking Dwarfish?” Will asked.

  He must have been speaking English, but why didn’t I understand? Did I forget how to speak English? That’s ridiculous, of course I didn’t. I’m thinking in English, so Will must have just surprised me; and why won’t this stupid music go away?

  “I guess I was just a little confused,” Eleanor said, switching back to English. “Must have been sleeping too deeply – it’s what you wanted, right?” she asked, smiling. Will did not smile back but continued to stare at her, fear for her sanity clear in his eyes. “Will, I’m fine.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “OK, I’ve got a bit of a headache and there’s music playing constantly in my head, but it’s not as bad as it sounds.”

  Will sighed. “You’re overdoing it; you’ve been distracted since you got back from Baydon. It’s that book, you need to give it a rest.”

  Eleanor gasped, distress washing through her. “The book, Will, its back home. What if the Protectors find it? I promised Gregor I’d keep it safe.”

  “Eleanor? Are you OK?” Amelia asked, their conversation having woken her up.

  Before she could answer, Conlan walked into the cave, the firelight casting shadows across his grim expression. Freddie followed.

  “Where’s Rand?” Amelia asked, looking behind them.

  “We left him by the mouth of the cave,” Conlan said.

  “We can’t leave him there, someone will see,” Eleanor said.

  Conlan shook his head. “We’re not going to be here long enough; we have to go, now.” He thrust a leather satchel at Eleanor, handed Will his medical bag and then walked toward the pile of equipment by the cave wall. Confused, Eleanor opened the bag and realised it had Gergor’s book in it. Relieved, she wrapped it back into the bag, making a promise to herself that it would never leave her sight again.

  “You went back? How many are there?” Will asked.

  “Too many. We got as much of our valuable stuff as we could, but we couldn’t stay long, as they were too close,” Conlan muttered, not looking round. He was already sorting through the stuff that Freddie had squirrelled away in the cave, looking for things that would be useful.

  We have to leave? Although she had known it might be coming, suddenly Eleanor was deathly afraid – this was their home and they were being driven away. I’m not ready!

  “We could fight,” Eleanor said, trying very hard to make it a forceful statement.

  “That’s what I said, but Conlan has other ideas,” Freddie informed her, a look of hurt anger filling his face. Conlan ignored him totally, shoving food and equipment into the bags. Eleanor felt for Freddie; he had a perfectly valid opinion, just as she did. Conlan was simply overriding them. What gave him the right to dictate their every move?

  “We don’t have to follow Conlan’s orders,” Eleanor said quietly. Conlan froze. He dropped the bag he was packing and turned slowly to face them.

  “You’re choosing now to question my authority?” he asked incredulously. “Eleanor, there are over a hundred heavily armed Protectors heading this way, and thanks to the Protector you stopped me killing they have a really good idea where to search. Five of us can’t take on a hundred men, and even if we did they would just box us in and wait until a thousand Protectors turned up. Life is unimportant to the Lords of Mydren; they will keep coming at us in ever-increasing numbers until they kill us. We have to leave.”

  A hundred heavily armed men? And it’s my fault. On the surface Conlan’s argument made sense – five normal people could not take on a hundred and hope to win – but they were not normal people, so why was Conlan ignoring this fact?

  “Conlan, I could wipe out a hundred men myself and there are four of us.”

  He flashed her a dangerous look. “You’re talking about annihilating an army, taking lives we don’t nee
d to.”

  “No, that’s not what I’m suggesting, I was merely pointing out that I could! What I’m suggesting is frightening them off, getting them to leave. It’s going to come to a fight eventually, Conlan. We’re too powerful, too much of a threat to the Lords’ way of life. Perhaps we could give them a scare they won’t forget, make them think twice about coming after us…”

  “NO!” Conlan roared, a heavy snarl bouncing off the cave walls. “I did not start this to deliver more senseless deaths. The Protectors are still human beings, with families, loves and lives. I will NOT take that from them!”

  Eleanor opened her mouth, but Will shook his head vigorously. Eleanor huffed. “No, Will, I won’t just shut up.” She turned back to Conlan’s furious glare, working hard to hide her fear. “I don’t want to kill anyone, I never did, but the Lords of Mydren are hunting us – something you have freely acknowledged. How do you think this is going to end? That we’ll get the connection working and it will just be accepted? A big part of their control is the marginal influence they have over the elements, which we would effectively remove. Why can’t you see that?”

  Conlan’s lip curled slightly, a growl starting deep in his throat. “And what, with your vast experience of my world and my people, do you think we should be doing?”

  “We should be working towards making you the king you were born to be!” Eleanor yelled.

  Thick treacle-like silence filled the cave.

  Conlan was coiled so tightly that his body shook with the effort to control himself. Eleanor saw his disgust and fury, and her anger was rapidly fading, regret taking its place. She had overstepped the mark, but she had no idea how to take it back. Freddie and Amelia stood frozen, while Will rolled his eyes in exasperation.

  “Is this what you’d prefer?” Conlan demanded of them, pointing at Eleanor. “Would you rather massacre those Protectors than take the peaceful option?”