They jumped back in shock, their jaws dropping fast as they suddenly realised it was the crow talking. They were in eye-to-eye contact with the creature they’d seen in their grandmother’s garden. Dropping the note and key, Larna freaked out, overwhelmed. What was happening to them? Grabbing Aron’s elbow, she ran like mad, all the way back to the cottage, too scared to make a sound in case they were being chased by demons. Aron followed, close on her heels. They didn’t even stop to shut the gate. Nobody had followed them, not even the crow.
They reached the back door and bent down, hands on their knees, out of breath but safe.
“What just happened, Larna?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Crows can’t talk. But somebody did.” Aron paused. “Or something did.”
“Could we have touched something that caused us to hallucinate?”
“It’s possible. We picked up those strange leaves just before we heard the voice.”
Straightening up and stretching her neck to get rid of the crick, Larna started to feel a bit stupid. “I’m not really sure what we heard now, Aron, but I’ll be jiggered if it’s going to put me off.”
After three unexplained occurrences – being attacked in the school library by a dark spectre, the spectre returning on her grandmother’s front door step and now confronted by a talking crow – you would have expected Larna to be put off from investigating any further. But her natural curiosity sometimes got the better of her. And for once, her brother agreed with her.
“Me neither,” he said.
Aron passed the GPS back to Larna who quickly shoved it in her trouser pocket. Then Aron opened the door, holding it for his sister to walk through. As she passed, Aron gently pushed her into the kitchen and towards the table. Looking round, Larna realised Yaya must have returned early because shopping bags were on the work surfaces. Pulling out two chairs they sat down heavily. Elbows on the polished surface, chins in hands, they were silent for what felt like forever. Soft music playing on the radio soothed them, and they could hear her upstairs, presumably tidying up after them. Their mum was always on their case about leaving things lying around in their bedrooms.
As their grandmother made her way down the stairs, Larna suddenly pushed herself away from the table and whispered in Aron’s ear, “Better hide the GPS.” Then she tried to look innocent as she dashed past the old lady on the stairs, heading to her room. The bed was already made so she took care not to ruffle the covers as she tucked the GPS under her pillow. Standing in the middle of the room she stared at the three painted walls. One of them seemed slightly different, but for the life of her she couldn’t tell which one, or what had altered. A shiver went up her spine. She sat on the edge of the bed and wondered if they should ask her gran the meaning of it all and risk being grounded for the rest of the holiday. Larna didn’t know which would be worse, banned from going through the gate or the embarrassment of being laughed at and told they’d imagined everything. Or they’d touched something poisonous and hallucinated. That would lead to some of Neve’s nasty-tasting homemade herbal medicine. In the end, discretion won the battle and she decided to keep it a secret. For the moment, anyway.
CHAPTER FIVE
“How did your exploration go this morning?” asked their grandmother as they sat round the table after lunch.
“Fine, thanks,” answered Larna, shooting a look at her brother to warn him not to give anything away.
“Did you see the faces in the old tree?”
“We did indeed,” said Aron with a rather false chuckle. “We looked hard and both of us saw different faces.”
“Tea, Yaya?” asked Larna, getting up and reaching for the kettle.
Neve didn’t notice they were changing the subject.
“Mm, that would be very welcome,” she said. “No sugar and not much milk, please.”
The rest of the day was endless. Larna and Aron were bursting to get back into the forest and find out more about the mysterious goings-on of earlier. But they couldn’t get away, not with Yaya there. She might have agreed to another short outing from the cottage, but the time they needed to get back to the stone circle where they’d found the note and talked to the crow was much more than she’d be prepared to give them. So they were stuck.
Larna tried to pass the time by reading a book in the garden, but she couldn’t concentrate on the words. Her mind kept wandering back to the strange events of the morning, question after question turning over in her mind like washing in a tumble-dryer. So she just sat and watched Neve pottering around in the flowerbeds. The old lady seemed not to notice the dark clouds that had gathered in the sky, blotting out the sun and creating a strange eerie light that gave Larna a sense of foreboding, as if something evil was about to happen. Maybe the weather was often like this in Sherwood. Aron didn’t notice it, either. He’d made himself comfortable in the kitchen with his MP3 plugged into his ears and an episode of The Simpsons on Neve’s old-fashioned portable television. Multi-tasking, he called it. Being a moron was what Larna called it.
At last it was time for dinner. Larna didn’t feel very hungry. Her guilty conscience about keeping Yaya in the dark and her frustration at not being able to find out anything more took away her appetite. Not so Aron. He tucked into the mountainous pile of sandwiches that their grandmother made as if he hadn’t eaten for a week. Afterwards, they helped to clear up and then went to watch television. Mistaking their weary expressions for tiredness and unaccustomed fresh air, Neve announced an early night for them all. “Teeth, toilet, turn out the lights and sleep. Okay?”
“Okay” They replied in unison, not minding a bit.
Before getting into bed Larna removed the GPS from under her pillow and placed it inside her jacket pocket ready for tomorrow, just in case they had an opportunity to use it. As she hunkered down in her comfortable bed, she thought of the young man she’d seen in her dream the previous night and wondered if she’d have any more strange dreams. Maybe they would answer some of the questions still swirling round in her head. With this happy thought, she nodded off.
“BOO!”
Larna jumped big time in her dream. Then a voice said, “So sorry, Larna, didn’t mean to startle you.”
“Who are you?” At first, Larna couldn’t see a thing, only a dark swirling mist. “Where are you?”
“The answer to your questions will only make sense when you are actually here,” the voice answered, beginning to morph into the shape of the boy she had seen so many times in her dreams.
“What do you mean by ‘here’?”
“It will all make sense in due course,” the boy repeated.
“I hope so… ” began Larna, but then everything in front of her began to disappear, gradually fading out of sight. She could hear the young man calling her name as he faded away. The shock of it woke her up. On opening her eyes, her grandmother was standing at the side of the bed, looking down at her with a strange expression.
“Are you alright, Larna?” she whispered. “I heard you talking in your sleep.”
“Yeah, I think so. I had a weird dream.” Yaya’s cool hand touched her forehead. “It was so real.”
“Yes love, it would be,” replied her grandmother, as if she knew what she had dreamt.
Larna could feel herself drifting back to sleep and just managed to say, “g’night before Neve left, leaving the door partly open so that the landing light shone dimly through.
“Good night, safe dreams,” she called.
Within a matter of moments, Larna started dreaming again and found herself taking the same course as before. But, just as she was about to meet the strange young man again, she was faced with a brick wall – a high, solid brick wall – which she could neither get over or around. Try as she might, she just could not get to the other side, so she decided she’d had enough and gave up. She felt very upset about this, deeply unhappy that the path to her friend had been blocked by someone or something. So she sat by the wall and waited, but nobody came. S
he felt alone and friendless in a strange world, the same sense of approaching doom that she’d felt in the garden that afternoon seeping into her bones.
Larna woke to the sound of a very noisy bird on her windowsill. Checking the watch still on her wrist, she realised she’d woken up before the alarm was due to go off at 7.30 a.m. Neve’s head popped round the door.
“Morning, Larna! Sleep well after that little hiccup in the night?” She smiled brightly.
“Like a log actually.”
“Aron’s still asleep, but you could come down and have breakfast with me in the kitchen.”
“Sounds good to me. Be down shortly.”
Larna was just eating her cereal when Aron entered the kitchen still only half-awake but already dressed in jeans and top. He headed straight for the food and plonked himself down opposite Larna.
“Morning, sleep well?” Larna asked smugly, knowing he didn’t appreciate polite conversation first thing in the morning.
Aron scowled at his sister. “Yeah, fine.”
Then Neve hurried out of the room to answer the telephone.
“I had that dream again last night,” Larna whispered.
“So?” Aron shrugged grumpily.
Larna felt annoyed at his lack of interest. She felt her dreams were a key to the mystery. But she just shrugged and said, “Oh well, if you’re not bothered. Still on for some more geocaching?”
Aron perked up at this, his mouth full of cereal. “Yeah that’s what we’d planned, isn’t it?”
Larna grinned. That was more like it!
It wasn’t long before Neve came back into the kitchen, smiling. “Guess what? I’ve just been invited to be guest speaker at the church hall this morning. The speaker they booked has been taken ill and they’ve asked me to be a last-minute replacement. Will you two be alright for a couple of hours on your own?”
They nodded vigorously.
“What will you do while I’m gone?”
Thinking quickly on her feet, Larna said, “We haven’t given it much thought, Yaya. I expect we’ll do the same as yesterday.”
“As you wish, but with the same proviso. Now then, what shall I speak about? I know! It’ll have to be my favourite subject. Nature’s own medicines. Plants that possess healing powers.”
“In that case, why do we need doctors?” queried Aron.
“I haven’t time to discuss this now, dear,” said their grandmother, sorting out some books containing large coloured pictures of wild plants that she intended to use to illustrate her talk. Then she wandered off to make some notes, leaving Larna and Aron alone. They looked at each other, nodded and made a dash for the door. Neither wanted to waste a moment of their precious freedom. But Neve stopped them in their tracks.
“Hang on a minute,” she called. “Why don’t you come with me? You might learn something.”
They felt their blood run cold.
“We’ll be fine on our own, Yaya, honestly.” Aron said quickly.
“Okay. On second thoughts, there’ll be a lot of sitting around and you’d probably be bored stiff. So you do your own thing. Just remember, if you do go into the woods, no further than the big tree. Okay?”
Suddenly, Larna remembered something, “I need to go upstairs and get the GPS,” she whispered to Aron. “Cover for me, okay?”
So while Aron pretended to be interested in Neve’s illustrations, Larna dashed upstairs, collected the GPS and the clues and key-ring and was back downstairs in sixty seconds flat. She gave her grandmother a glancing peck on the cheek, still on the move, and grabbed Aron by his jacket. Together they raced outside and shouted, “Bye! See you later.” If there was a reply, they didn’t stop to hear it. They headed straight for the garden gate.
A voice on the breeze… “Remember the rules. Always stick together. Have fun.”
They came to an abrupt halt, turned and saw the sprightly old lady making her way to the garage, handbag in one hand, swinging her car keys in the other.
“Why does she keep saying that, stick together?” Aron snorted.
“Dunno. Daresay she means well.” Larna shrugged.
CHAPTER SIX
Aron pushed the gate open and held it as Larna’s hands were full, holding the GPS and clues. They headed deeper into the forest. With an occasional glance backwards, they heaved a sigh of relief as they heard the roar of the MG’s engine and the spitting of gravel as their grandmother sped away.
With co-ordinates in the GPS, they found they were being directed beyond the big tree again, then to the area where they needed the clues. This time neither of them gave a second thought about breaking their promise.
There seemed to be a lot more wildlife than yesterday. Trees were full of birds all competing to be heard. For a few seconds Aron and Larna were the quietest they’d been in a long time.
“I see you’re back then.” said a disembodied voice.
They looked around. Nothing.
“Okay” Larna replied, exasperated. The calm and quiet mood was broken. She glanced up into the trees. “Whoever you are, show yourself.”
“Be careful where you put your feet. I’m down here.”
The large black crow from yesterday peered up at them from its stance at their feet.
“It is you. You’re actually speaking to us!” The absurdity of it brought about the onset of fits of nervous laughter. “I’m talking to a bird!” Pausing to inhale, Larna wiped her eyes and looked around. The air stilled. Everything seemed to be holding its collective breath. Then the hairs on her neck started to prickle.
Slowly, before their eyes, the bird began to change. Firstly the legs, now clad in green, lengthened into human form. Then the body grew to about Aron’s height filling out a long black mac. The wings extended until they filled the sleeves and bony fingers crept out of the ends. In fear Larna and Aron scrambled backwards, but unable to look away they sat on a rock and watched the final part of the transformation take place. A shock of unruly red hair topped a narrow face with two fangs protruding from the corners of the mouth. Penetrating blue eyes looked back at them from under bushy red eyebrows.
Still in shock Aron gasped, “Clem, is that you? What’s going on? Where’s the bird gone?”
Bending down, Clem grabbed the youngsters and hauled them up. “There’s no need to be afraid, you two. I know it’s very confusing for you at the moment. There are many things you do not know or understand yet. But soon you will. I am here to guide you on your journey, don’t ya know.”
“What journey are you talking about? We aren’t going anywhere. We’ve already gone further than we promised. Yaya’ll have a fit if she finds out.” Aron was beginning to take things more seriously now.
“I know all that. But I’m also sure that in these exceptional circumstances your grandmother would fully understand. Stand next to the cache and nature will form a circle round you. That’s when your journey begins.”
Ordinarily Aron was the sceptic while Larna had blind faith, but this time she was the one to challenge Clem. “How are we going to travel?” she said, snapping her fingers in the air. “By magic?”
At that precise moment a piece of paper drifted down and landed at her feet. Bending to pick it up Larna realised it was the note to them from the cache box they’d found yesterday. Clem nodded to the paper in her hand. “Now, if you’re ready… ?” Aron squeezed his sister’s shoulder and Larna automatically did the same to him. Each realised the other was scared stiff but trying not to show it.
“There’s no need to feel afraid. You have many friends where you are going.” The old man paused. “I promise you’ll receive an explanation at the other end. Larna, you’ve already been to the other side in your dreams, though somewhat briefly I know. They wanted to make initial contact with you whilst you slept.”
Larna and Aron looked at each other, unsure whether to go on or go back.
“If you follow the instructions to the letter,” continued Clem invitingly. “I promise your spirit of adventure won�
��t be disappointed.”
“Shall we go for it?” Larna asked Aron.
“Yes, I think we should. But don’t ask me why.”
“Okay, we’ll do it, Clem. But will you stay with us?”
“I wish I could, but sadly I’m unable to. My place is here to protect the contents of the cache box, but there will be someone to meet you at the other end.” He leaned his head to one side. “A piece of advice you must always obey. Whatever happens, stay together and you will be fine.”
With his bony left hand he motioned them towards the cache, now partly visible in front of him. Suddenly the morning sun came out from behind a cloud and a shaft of golden light shone down onto the lid of the box. “When you’re ready, read the final instructions.”
Nervously, Larna picked up the note and read it out loud for Aron’s benefit…
Larna, being the eldest in line, must remove the key from the box. Aron, the second offspring, must say ‘Ella Vita’ three time. A monolith will rise from the earth in the shape of a door. Use the key and then step through.
“Ready?” Clem asked, holding his hand out for the note. “You can’t take this with you.”
After handing it over, Larna and Aron stepped forwards and Clem stepped back. Suddenly leaves began to swirl up. Then they dropped back to the ground, having formed a large circle round them. Larna looked at the old man and saw he was pointing urgently at the cache box, reminding her to pick up the key. Glancing at Aron, Larna double-checked he was still happy to go ahead. He nodded and gave her a thumbs-up sign. So, drawing a deep breath, Larna bent down and opened the box and was surprised to see the key back in place, but in a better condition. She picked it up in her right hand. Then Clem motioned to Aron to begin. Anxiously clearing his throat he began, “ELLA VITA, ELLA VITA, ELLA VITA.”
There was a rumbling sound beneath them and the ground started to shake. On the edge of the circle, a large block of stone slowly pushed its way through the earth until it reached Larna’s height and stopped. Totally overawed, she couldn’t fathom where the key was to go. Turning her head towards Clem for help, she saw he was pointing a long finger in the direction of the stone and was just in time to see a red glow appear within the rock. In a matter of seconds it had burnt a hole large enough for the key. It was obvious what she was supposed to do next. Holding onto Aron, she stepped forwards and, with a shaky hand, managed to insert the key and turn it.
Spellbound Chronicles – Blood Line Page 4