The Hidden Gift

by Ian Somers

  ‘Have you ever watched the movie?’ I asked. ‘Frankenstein? The old one with Boris Karloff?’

  ‘Can’t say that I have.’

  ‘You should have,’ I grinned. ‘It is one of those movies you should see before you die.’ My grin became a buzzing chuckle. ‘It might have saved your lives if you had watched it. You might have learned not to approach a strange-looking man by the side of a lake.’

  The hill walkers tried to back away, but I had trapped them both in an invisible web of psychokinetic energy.

  ‘I am a monster,’ I said to them as they struggled to escape. ‘But unlike Frankenstein’s monster, I have no master. In fact, it is I who am the master.’

  I reached out with my psychokinetic powers and lifted the helpless pair high into the air then flung them far out into the lake. They hit the water with a loud clap and went under for a moment before remerging. They flapped about, trying to swim back to shore, but the water around them came to life. I created two giant watery hands either side of them and pushed them below the surface. Birds fluttered into the air on the opposite side of the lake and darted into the shadow of the nearby trees. All was silent in the valley apart from that. I smiled and strolled back to the house. I had total confidence in my power now. My technique had developed enough to pull off something truly monumental.

  Within days I would change the world.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Guy Fawkes

  Each day blended into the next. That week was nothing more than a blur of tears and sadness. Every time I found myself alone I collapsed inward and was reduced to weeping into my pillow or sleeve or whatever was at hand to muffle the sound. It was days since I’d gotten the news of my father’s death. He’d probably been buried by now, in the family plot by the graves of my mother and my grandparents. He was a quiet man, mostly, not one for socialising, not the life of the party, just a simple man who liked to keep himself to himself. It must have been a low-key funeral. Some of his former colleagues, a few of the neighbours, my friend Gemma and some of her mates, distant relatives. I couldn’t think of anyone else who’d have cared enough to interrupt their day to attend a ceremony for one of the Bentleys. I didn’t care about other people, though. All I cared about was that I wasn’t there. How can you miss your own father’s funeral? How can you miss the final farewell to your only family?

  A sudden surge of anger rose in my chest and part of the windowsill I was leaning on cracked. This was why I was spending so much time alone. I couldn’t allow something like that to happen when I was hugging Cathy, or chatting with Sarah or one of the others. The cracked sill could easily be a cracked skull. I was a danger to everyone around me.

  The house had quieted down a bit since the day Ballentine arrived to inform me of Dad’s death. He’d left with the Portmans the next morning. Yenver and Powell went the day after. Their absence had made things a little easier; having the eyes of strangers focused on my weary face and feeling pity for me as if I was a helpless victim had irritated me and I’d lost my temper quite a few times. They shouldn’t have been staring at me like I was helpless because nothing was further from the truth. They should have been looking at me and fearful of the rage within, the rage that made me stronger than anyone they had ever encountered before, the rage that made me a ticking time bomb. I would explode when I got hold of Edward Zalech.

  It was clear in my mind that I would go in search of him. There was no alternative. I was loyal to the Guild, but the allegiance I had to my father superseded all other responsibilities. He had to be avenged, and I wasn’t going to stand back and allow anyone else to do the job for me.

  There was a tap on the bedroom door and Cathy poked her head in. ‘You want to come down to the animal sanctuary with me?’

  ‘Yeah,’ I replied and walked from the window. ‘It’s only midday and I’m going nuts being cooped up in this place.’

  We made daily visits to Mr Williams’s enclosure. It was the only way to stave off madness. And I had thought living in Hunter’s cottage had been maddening! This was excruciating. Waiting in silence. All of us. Waiting. Sleepless nights spent wondering what the next day would bring. When would death visit us again?

  Being with the animals, in particular Argento, was a welcome distraction. He was a perfect example of a mind that had been through unimaginable torment yet had endured and remained dignified and beautiful – in his own way. Did I have the inner strength that this gorilla had? I couldn’t help thinking that I didn’t. I couldn’t help thinking Argento made a better human than most humans. There was more good in him than in most people. It was then that I noticed that I was changing. It was only in calm moments, out of the eye of the storm, that I could assess myself, and I didn’t like what I found. I was becoming the bitter man that Romand and Hunter warned me about. I was fast becoming a liability. Someone who was innately violent and hellbent on revenge. I should have been concerned about protecting those loved ones who still remained in the world of the living, yet I was focused solely on avenging those who had passed from this world into the endless darkness that lay beneath or beyond it.

  Argento reached out to me and ran a finger across my cheek. I hadn’t even noticed the tear rolling from my eye until he smudged it into my skin. I looked into his mysterious black eyes. They were like an abyss at first, but the longer I stared into them the more I saw of the intelligence within.

  ‘He doesn’t pity you, Ross.’ Cathy said quietly. ‘He’s worried about you.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because he knows what I know.’

  ‘And what’s that, Cathy?’

  ‘He knows your heart is set on stepping up this conflict. He knows someone has pulled you into this endless cycle of death and destruction. And once you’re in, you never get out.’

  ‘Spare me, please.’

  ‘You go your way, Ross. But know that if you do, you go a different way than I do. I won’t be waiting for you to find your way back.’

  ‘What do you expect me to do? Forget that he filled my father’s lungs with water and slowly drowned him in his own home? My father!’

  Argento backed away into the shadows, becoming one with the wall of darkness on the far side of the room.

  ‘Way to go, Ross.’

  ‘I’m sorry. Argento’ I turned to the shadows where he had disappeared. ‘… I’m sorry, buddy.’

  ‘I don’t want you to become cold and bitter,’ Cathy began to sob. ‘I can’t be with someone like that, Ross.’

  ‘Just because I want justice for my father doesn’t mean I’m like that. I’m not really like that.’

  ‘You might not change back to the person you once were.’

  ‘Cathy, why are you making this so difficult for me? You know I can’t let this go. That fiend murdered my father and I’m going to make him pay for it. I’m not going to sit back and let the Guild deal with it while I stay out of it. I’ve seen how they’ve dealt with Zalech before and I’ve no confidence in them!’

  ‘Ross, you’ve only met a handful of the Guild’s agents. There are some who are lethal killers, people who enjoy killing just as much as Zalech does. They’ll be the ones who are sent after him. They should be the ones to do it because they are already ruined souls who won’t be damaged any further by having another death on their conscience.’

  ‘Was Romand ruined?’

  ‘Why do you have to bring him into this?’

  ‘Was Romand a heartless killer?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Yet he realised that he was the one who had to deal with Marianne. It was his fight. He didn’t allow any of these Guild assassins you speak of to do his dirty work for him. Even after all that, he was a good and honest man that you loved. Why can’t I be like Romand? This is my fight. I’m not backing down. I’m sure as hell not running away from it now.’

  ‘It almost destroyed Romand,’ she raised her voice. ‘And he didn’t hunt her down. He accepted that one day she’d find him and he lived his life as best
he could until that day arrived.’

  ‘You don’t understand me.’

  It was a pointless argument. I left her and went to the car outside the enclosure. She joined me half an hour later, when we’d both cooled off. I apologised, not because I thought I was in the wrong, but because I thought that’s what she wanted to hear. It didn’t work.

  ‘Say it like you mean it next time.’

  ‘God,’ I sighed. ‘Why are women so difficult?’

  ‘Why are men so stupid?’

  ‘We’re not stupid. We’re just misunderstood.’

  ‘Stop trying to lighten the mood.’

  ‘Sorry.’

  ‘And stop saying you’re sorry. You’re not in the slightest bit sorry.’

  ‘I’ll stop talking, shall I?’

  ‘That would be better.’

  I didn’t bother speaking for the rest of the journey to the Williams estate. Not because Cathy was angry with me. I had very little to say and talking simply deflected my thoughts from where they wanted to be: on killing Edward Zalech. How could I find him? Where was he hiding? What would his next move be?

  Then a terrible thought flashed into my brain. What if he didn’t reappear? What if he moved on and disappeared into the big wide world never to be heard from again? I should have been content with that idea; he wouldn’t harm anyone close to me again if he disappeared, but that would rob me of the revenge I wanted so much.

  Where are you, Edward? I thought. Under what stone do you hide? Why do you hide?

  I thought of a thousand challenges I could put to him. I thought of a hundred ways to kill him. I thought of a million dramatic lines to speak as I ended his life. I could think of no way to find him. I was nothing more than a bystander until he made his move. This was Edward’s game and he was calling the shots, but I was going to win. He would not beat me!

  ‘You recognise the car?’ I asked as we passed between the tall gates and took to the long driveway. There was small red hatchback parked outside the garage door that I hadn’t seen before.

  ‘No.’

  Cathy didn’t care about the car. It was probably another Guild member and Cathy had had her fill of them. Her desire to escape the Guild grew each day. I couldn’t blame her; the situation we found ourselves in was maddening

  I parked next to the hatchback and took a glance inside when I stepped onto the gravelled path. It was meticulously clean and gave no clue to the owner’s identity. Apart from being a clean person and one who didn’t like to drive fast.

  Cathy pushed open the front door and stomped up the staircase without a single word to me. Hunter was lingering in the hallway like a guard dog and he watched her climbing the steps with a smirk.

  ‘What’s up with her?’ he asked, grinning at me. He appeared to take some joy in other people’s bad moods. ‘Lover’s tiff?’

  ‘It’s complicated,’ I told him as I pulled shut the front door.

  ‘It always is with women.’

  ‘I’m beginning to see why you chose to be single.’ I stood next to him as the house rattled when Cathy slammed her bedroom door.

  ‘You must have done something pretty foolish to get her that worked up.’

  ‘I’d rather not talk about it,’ I replied. ‘We got a visitor?’

  ‘You noticed the car.’

  ‘I did. Who owns it?’

  ‘A senior member of the Guild. She’s practically retired now.’

  ‘She come to stick her beak into our trouble?’

  ‘No. Just a friendly visit. This woman is like family to me so make sure you show her some respect, got it?’

  ‘Family?’

  ‘Pretty much.’

  ‘At least you have some. I seem to be the only one without a family around here.’

  ‘Now don’t get all cranky again.’

  ‘Hunter, my dad–’

  ‘I know! I told you the time would come to beat your demon. Now is not the time to be cold and angry and to be alienating yourself from those who can help you.’

  ‘I can’t help it.’ I leaned against the wall and pushed out a long and weary breath. ‘Can’t get it out of my mind. Not for more than a few minutes.’

  ‘Try to keep it together, lad.’ He raised his hand and almost patted me on the shoulder, then realised we weren’t supposed to be close so he stuffed it back into his pocket.

  ‘Have you spoken to the Council?’ I asked. ‘Is there anything being done to track Zalech down?’

  ‘There are a lot of Guild operatives on the move around Britain and Ireland right now. They’re scouring the land for any trace of him and they are the best trackers around. We have some spies – non-gifted – who are watching Golding’s activities, there’s been precious little to report. There’s not much more we can be doing. We have limited people at our disposal but I’m sure they will pick up his scent sooner or later.’

  ‘I hope so,’ I said. ‘So, who is this illustrious guest?’

  ‘Marie Canavan. She’s the most powerful light-tuner alive. She trained me when I joined the Guild. We have a tradition each year that we never miss, no matter what’s going on.’

  ‘What tradition?’

  ‘You’ll see tonight.’

  We walked into the sitting room to find Canavan and Mr Williams sitting on one of the couches and deep in discussion. I knew I was the topic of conversation by the way they went silent as I entered. Canavan was about sixty years old, had short grey hair, her clothes were formal and she that hardness in her face that Hunter shared. Her bright green eyes were sympathetic without being condescending.

  ‘The infamous Ross Bentley,’ she said, turning in her seat to face me. ‘I’ve heard so much about you that I almost feel we’ve known one another for many years.’ She smiled and held out her hand towards me. ‘My name is Marie, and I have been looking forward to meeting you. Although I would have preferred if it had been under less stressful circumstances.’

  I shook her hand and forced myself to smile. I didn’t want to appear rude, but the last thing I wanted was to meet someone new, to discuss my gifts, to have yet another Guild member probing my feelings. To her credit she never directly mentioned my father, nor Edward Zalech. She did refer to the recent trouble a few times as we chatted that afternoon, but I didn’t take any offence. Mostly, she talked to me about the training I had done and my knowledge of the true gifts. She had a school teacher vibe about her and I got the feeling she was very knowledgeable about the fifteen true gifts and the history of the Guild and all the battles it had gotten involved in down through the years. In the couple of hours that I talked with her, she revealed that the Guild had started out in the year 988AD, in central Europe. A group of gifted people had come together and often held secret meetings and dealt with potential threats to their survival. They of course would have been viewed as devils or evildoers by the general public and the authorities and so they masqueraded as a Guild of craftsmen. This was how they became known as a The Guild. So much had changed in the years since then, but the Guild had remained.

  ‘What’s this tradition I’ve heard about?’ I finally asked her.

  ‘Ah,’ Canavan chuckled, ‘Hunter mentioned it, did he?’

  ‘He did, but as always he failed to elaborate.’

  ‘He does that a lot,’ she chuckled again. ‘Oh, he was such a difficult teenager – and he’s not much easier as an adult. We have had a tradition for many, many years. The light-tuners of the Guild put on a light display on the Guy Fawkes Night. Hunter and I always meet this night each year and try to out-do the other with our light-tuning abilities.’

  ‘Sounds like fun.’

  ‘It is. You’ll see once the sun sets, which will be soon enough. I would like to have my dinner now. One should never extend one’s self too much on an empty stomach.’

  All the occupants of the house convened in the kitchen at six in the evening for a grand dinner. Cathy reluctantly joined us. She didn’t speak to me; she hardly even made eye contact. I didn’t s
ay much either, and was happy for Sarah to get the attention for a change. The others focused on her over dinner, and kept talking to her; trying to keep her mind off the horrible things she saw each time she slept.

  At 7.30pm a few of bottles of wine were uncorked and everyone enjoyed a couple of glasses, except Sarah and me. The mood in the house was jovial for the first time since I arrived and even Cathy was smiling. I tried to join in and act like everything was rosy, but inside I was still caught up in the pain caused by my dad’s death. That would never go away and would remain immediate until Zalech was either captured or killed.

  After the wine bottles had been drained we walked out to the patio and we watched Hunter and Canavan descend the steps, around the huge hole in the lawn and walk down close to Romand’s grave. We were then treated to the most spectacular fireworks display imaginable.

  Hunter began by creating a small blue light-orb that shot out of his finger and swirled high over the lawn. It came to a stop about a hundred feet above him and hovered in the chilled night air. It grew in size and began to flash different colours. Red to green to blue to white. It was quite a sight, but this was merely the beginning.

  Canavan pointed at the night sky and five orbs came from her hand. They rose up fast and surrounded the initial orb, spinning fast around it and changing colour from red to white and back again. They then grew in size, to dwarf the one Hunter had created then became star shaped and shifted from blue to yellow to purple.

  ‘Ever wonder what all those UFO sightings really are?’ Mr Williams said to me with a wide grin on his aged face.

  The six orbs collapsed into one immense disk of light that swelled and became so bright I couldn’t look directly at it. We shielded our eyes as it gained in size and strength, until finally it burst into a gazillion tiny flickering lights that danced through the air like a swarm of fireflies. The swarm shimmered every colour in the spectrum and I became mesmerised by its movement and by the lazy shift in its colour. Then the entire cloud of light became gold and was transformed into a giant eagle that circled the house. Sarah and Cathy cheered when it swooped low over the patio.