like,’ he replied, his tone slightly mocking. ‘I would do it alone but it would seem more legit if I were, err, escorted.’
‘What about my men?’ asked Sires.
‘Don’t worry about your men. Claris will see to them. Now general, if you please’ said Terrence quickly as he saw the general was ready to protest.
‘Do I have a say in this?’ he asked crossly.
‘Yes, when we return.’
The faerie scowled but walked to the arch, his short, stubby arms swinging round his burly belly.
‘Right, take me through Sires, and you will see that we will be back before you know
it,’ said Terrence with a hint of amusement in his voice.
‘That’s General Sires to you, seer,’ the faerie replied hotly.
Chapter Two
‘M
orning Iliana, ready for Sr. Susan’s boring class on manners?’ chirped Zelda.
The next morning in St. Mary’s secondary school Iliana was sleep deprived after
another night of the recurring dream of the woman, and lay in bed traumatised till her bedroom began to brighten.
‘Eh, what?’ she asked distractedly. Her mind felt groggy and cloudy.
‘Helloooo?’ Zelda waved her hand in front of her face.
Iliana blinked, and continued to fiddle with her locker to try and open it. Zelda leaned against the cream wall of the corridor as fellow students wandered past chatting in groups.
‘What’s wrong? Is it your hay fever? You look like crap.’
Iliana smiled at her weakly ‘Thanks, I just didn’t get much sleep last night.’
‘Why not? Sr. Susan’s class making you worried? It should, she’s making us do role play today. The horror of it all.’
Iliana snorted a laugh and rolled her eyes, ‘Oh joy. I’m so not in the mood, but it’s not
really that. I just had some bizarre nightmare last night, couldn’t get back to sleep.’
‘What kind of dream?’ Zelda asked inquisitively.
Iliana frowned and finally got her rusty locker to open and took her books out.
Zelda waited for her to close her locker and repeated her question.
‘One of your standard nightmares, I suppose...’ Iliana trailed off as she ran over the details of the dream in her mind for the umpteenth time that morning. She shook it off.
Zelda’s pretty features softened. ‘Ok but just to let you know, Sr. Susan is in a grouchy mood today. I personally think it’s her time of the month but if she finds you not paying attention, she’ll send you off to the principal’s office. You haven’t exactly been on her good side lately, let’s not forget what happened in the church last week,’ and added in a few giggles.
Iliana rolled her eyes. ‘Yeah great, I’m never going to live that down. Sometimes, I just want to kill Rose’.
Last week, Rose stuck her foot out when Iliana walked up to accept her graduate token. The graduation rehearsal turned disastrous when she grabbed the priest to try and balance herself without thinking, and ended up sprawled on top of him. Sr. Susan was not impressed.
They followed the stream of blue uniforms and down another packed corridor of noisy students. Iliana always hated her uniform; she had promised herself that on the day she graduated she would burn it.
They stopped before room twenty-nine and looked in through the square window set in the heavy wooden door. Inside, they could see two of their classmates, standing at the top of the classroom facing each other. Down the back was Sr. Susan in her usual nun’s attire, her wrinkled face frowning disapprovingly at the two girls.
She waved her wooden ruler in annoyance and instructed them to be seated.
Zelda turned to Iliana and laughed. ‘Suppose Lily and Charlene aren’t doing a good job at role play.’
‘Yeah, we better go in, we’re late already.’
Iliana opened the door and stepped into the classroom followed by Zelda.
Sr. Susan looked up at the girls in irritation, fire sparking in her eyes. ‘Well, so glad you could join us, Zelda’, she walked to the top of the classroom and then added a little more darkly, ‘Iliana.’
‘Sorry we’re late miss,’ said Zelda, in the most innocent tone she could manage.
‘That’s alright girls, just don’t let it happen again. This is your graduation and it’s very
important that you attend this class promptly,’ replied Sr. Susan sternly.
The classroom was old, lined along one whitewashed wall were pictures depicting
the stages of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the desks were made of aging wood that had been varnished too many times.
‘Right class. Now, I shall need two volunteers to come up to the front to demonstrate how you should all receive your special tokens,’ Sr. Susan began.
When none jumped with enthusiasm to volunteer, Sr. Susan said, ‘Hmmm…let’s see…’
She walked down one aisle between two rows of desks. ‘Rose and…Iliana!’
Iliana sighed inwardly and stood up. This was obviously a deliberate choice based on the poor priest being injured last week. Rose’s face didn’t show much elation either as she gave Iliana a hateful look.
The two girls walked up to the front of the class.
Sr. Susan clapped her hands together.
‘Now, I want Rose to be the principal first and Iliana is going to play the student and walk up to Rose to accept her gift. Oh! And…here you are Rose. I want you both to pretend this book is the token.’ She handed Rose a religious textbook and she stood facing Iliana with her back to the window.
At least this will be entertaining enough to keep me awake, Iliana thought gloomily.
‘Right, now class, pay attention. Iliana, I want you to walk up to Rose with your chin up high and your back straight, hands down by your side and no smirking. I want you all to see how your posture should be when accepting your award. Ok Iliana, you can start.’
Iliana began walking towards Rose when something black darted past the windows outside. Startled, she stopped suddenly, frowning and staring.
‘Iliana, will you hurry up? Standing in the middle of the church aisle and staring out the window daydreaming is not the proper way to accept your token, you will embarrass yourself. Pay attention girl!’ she scowled.
Low sniggers vibrated around the classroom. Iliana blinked and looked at Sr. Susan’s angry expression.
‘Uh, sorry.’ she said distantly. She looked at Rose who stood holding the book as if it were an animal carcass with a bored expression. She straightened herself up and continued her walk. She was halfway in her stride when there was a loud smash from behind Rose followed by a scream.
It took a few seconds for Iliana to realise what had happened. She saw that the rectangular window directly behind Rose had shattered. Shards of glass glimmered in the sunlight as they rained lightly down to the ground.
Then she realised that the scream had belonged to Rose. She looked to see her hiding her face in her hands, blood was trickling between her fingers to the floor.
Iliana looked around and gasped in surprise. Not at the damaged window, but at what had come through the window. She gaped in horror as she stared at a raven that had perched itself on the back of Sr. Susan’s chair. It turned its black pearl eyes on Iliana, then cocked its miniature head in the direction of the whiteboard.
She stared in shock as it flapped its oily wings and flew back out. She watched it as it took to the sky and disappeared into the clouds above.
Iliana turned her nervous eyes to the board. On it, scrawled in child’s handwriting
were the words: ‘Leave. You must leave.’
‘Oh my god! What the hell was that?!’ shrieked Rose from the floor. She was now covered in glass and her legs and hands were bleeding.
Iliana looked around the rest of the classroom, as reality rushed back. All the students were on their hands and knees under their desks like an earth
quake had happened.
Sr. Susan had flattened herself against the wall and was blessing herself repeatedly with the silver cross that hung around her neck, muttering something that sounded like prayers.
Zelda climbed out from her desk and strode over to Sr. Susan. ‘Sister? We should
get Rose out of here and looked at, she might need a few stitches.’
‘A few stitches? I’m going to need, like - a hundred!’ she screamed hysterically.
Sr. Susan stopped her babbling and blessings and looked at Zelda, the blood had drained from her face.
She stood from the wall and brushed herself a little self-consciously.
‘Em…right…Iliana, take Rose to the…to Geraldine, I will…be up to you as soon as I can.’
‘Ok,’ Iliana replied, glad for the excuse to leave the room. In a daze, she walked over to Rose as Sr. Susan fluttered over the girls like a mother hen.
She helped Rose to her feet and brought her to the school nurse lost in thought. Had she been operating more cognitively, she may have had a few comforting words to say to her.
Twenty minutes later, after much explaining to Geraldine of the unusual incident and stitching Rose’s hand, Iliana and Rose were waiting in the nurse’s office to be called on. Iliana leaned on the wall and Rose sat on the nurse’s examining bed.
‘What do you think it was? A rock?’ asked Rose shakily, rubbing her arm for comfort.
Iliana blinked in surprise. Then realised that Rose had fallen forward face down and didn’t see the raven that came and went.
‘Uh, it was a raven, Rose. You didn’t see it come in cause you were on the floor,’ replied Iliana.
‘A raven! You’re lying Iliana, ravens don’t just fly into windows, they’re intelligent animals.’
‘It…must have lost control or something.’
Rose scoffed rudely. ‘Yeah, whatever.’
‘If you don’t believe me, you can ask everyone else, they’ll tell you the same thing.’
Before Rose could reply, Geraldine and Sr. Susan entered the office.
Iliana and Rose stayed silent as Geraldine closed the door behind her.
‘Right girls, how are you?’ asked Sr. Susan.
‘Iliana’s fine, it’s me that got hurt!’ exclaimed Rose.
‘I know Rose, how is your hand?’ asked Sr. Susan calmly.
‘It’s fine, I suppose.’ Rose muttered gloomily.
Sr. Susan smiled gladly at her. ‘Now girls, there’ll be a lot of talk going on about what happened, and I suppose it’s only natural since we don’t get birds crashing into our windows a lot.’
Rose flashed Iliana with an astonished look; she returned it with raised eyebrows.
‘And I’ve told the girls already that it must have gotten lost. We have had strong gale winds all morning. It can happen to birds when the winds are so ferocious.’
She turned around and opened the door, then stopped. ‘That is all I want to say. Now, I don’t want to hear any more of this. Rose? I’ve called your parents and they will be here soon.’
Rose nodded.
Sr. Susan silently escorted Iliana back to her next class with some sideways glances. Iliana didn’t understand the meaning of them and tried to ignore it as they made their way through the bleached walled corridors. Iliana’s mind continued to picture the raven’s intelligently fixed gaze as their marching footsteps echoed off the scrubbed tiled floors. The words scrawled on the whiteboard were now scrawled in her mind.
‘Leave. You must leave.’
Iliana returned to English class after taking a few more suspicious side glances from
Sr. Susan. She muttered something about being on time for class in the future and left her outside her classroom door.
When Iliana walked in, she was bombarded by questions from six different girls in her class, most of them were inquiring if Rose was ok.
Mr. Timmons turned from the whiteboard where he was outlining homework, and shushed the girls and instructed Iliana to sit.
Iliana replied that she was fine and took a seat beside Zelda. Who leaned sideways, eyes upfront and asked, ‘What kept you so long? Did Sr. Susan take you to the convent for an interrogation session?’
There was a small nun’s convent on the school grounds where the nuns who taught in the school lived.
‘No, worse. Zelda, I think she thinks I had something to do with the raven coming through the window!’ Iliana whispered back.
‘What?!’ shouted Zelda.
Heads turned and looked at Zelda.
Mr. Timmons turned from the board. His long, horse-like face had dipped down so he could speculate Zelda from above the rim of his glasses.
‘Something you want to share with the class, Zelda?’ he asked, frowning.
Zelda started to show a colour on her cheeks. ‘No, Mr. Timmons.’
‘Then leave your girly gossip till after the class please.’ He turned back to the board.
A few girls giggled.
After it died down, Zelda turned back to Iliana and whispered, ‘What?!!’.
‘Yeah! All she has to go on is the fact that she doesn’t like me and I was late for class today. Do I look the type that spends my time training animals to smash through windows? Where would I even get a raven anyway? eBay?’
‘It was weird though, it just sat on Sr. Susan’s chair. Wish it had pooped before it took off again.’
Iliana sighed and thought of the raven from her dream.
The words on the whiteboard continued to revolve in her mind like a merry-go-round.
She didn’t like the warning sense she got from them. ‘Did you see the writing on the whiteboard?’ She hissed nervously.
Zelda frowned. ‘No. What writing?’
Iliana shook it off. ‘It’s nothing.’
In the farm lands on the outskirts of Walkers Fall, a plain meadow was dotted with balls of haystacks and a tiny stream meandering through it. Sheep grazed in the morning summer sun and all around was quiet, except for the distant roar of a tractor’s engine. The air was comfortably warm and bees hovered from flower to flower, gathering pollen from dandelions growing in tightly close knitted groups about the meadow.
A wind picked up and sent newly cut grass twirling in the air, and the sheep drew closer together as it got stronger.
In the clear, blue sky above, a small black speck was plummeting down at a high speed. At first, it was so distant that people would mistake it for a bird, but as it came closer, the black object increased in size and it became clear that it was actually two bodies falling.
One was tall and masculine with wide set shoulders and his cloak whipped snappily above his head. The other was a lot smaller, only the size of a child.
The sheep became restless and bustled around uneasily for an escape route.
A few seconds later, the two figures plopped into a haystack. There was a moment of silence, then Terrence popped his head out of the top. He spat out some hay angrily and growled, ‘Sires you bloody idiot! You nearly got us killed!’
The small faerie tumbled out, bits of straw following him, and fell to the ground with as much grace as a squawking chicken.
He protested, ‘I haven’t done this in years! What do you expect? You show up at the arch with your ‘high and mighty ‘gait and order me on the spot to perform an alignment there and then!’ The faerie picked himself up off the ground and watched Terrence struggle out of the haystack.
‘I expected you to do your duty! I asked you to bring us outside Walkers Fall, but not eight hundred feet in the bloody air! If it weren’t for my levitation spell we would be sleeping with the crawlers,’ he replied angrily. ‘I hope you can bring us back in one piece’.
Terrence finally broke free of the haystack by slicing his way out with his sword.
‘I will. That was just a warm up, besides, your levitation spell wasn’t all that impressive, we didn’t land very softly now did we?’
/> Terrence was flicking bits of hay off his shoulders. He said, ‘It was the only soft spot I could find, it wasn’t like you had any good ideas when we were dropping at a hundred miles per hour.’
The nervous sheep muddled around them, their eyes wide on Sires, nostrils widening at his odd smell. They shuffled towards the edge of the field.
Terrence noticed their distress and said, ‘We’d better leave. But first, glamours.’
Sires groaned at the word. Faeries appearances caused a lot of complications in the past when seen by humans and the result was hundreds, if not thousands of books produced by humankind on faeries.
His majesty had decided to impose sanctions for visiting Earth, and passed a bill through the government stating that when a faerie was on Earth, they must wear a glamour at all times.
Terrence closed his eyes and concentrated on his power.
Sires grumbled. ‘Don’t make me look like a fool.’
Terrence ignored him, and rested his palms on Sires’ shoulders, he felt his power rise to its peak in his chest, he visualised the person that Sires would become and whispered,
‘Seachmall. ’
A white, pulsating glow, leaked out from underneath his palms and he felt his power drain into Sires as the glamour left him. He dropped his hands and opened his eyes.
Sires wasn’t standing before him. What Terrence saw was a small, pale boy with black hair and lightly tinted green eyes. Freckles danced around the bridge of his nose and cheeks. Replacing his armour was a black t-shirt with the white symbol of the crescent moons encased by the wings on either side.
‘Seems fit for a faerie,’ said Terrence approvingly. He closed his eyes and did the same to himself, when he opened them he was wearing leather boots, blue jeans white jacket and his sword had turned into a walking stick.
‘Right’, he said, ‘if anyone asks, you’re my son, Philip and my name is Tom. We have just moved into the area and we’re exploring the countryside, and please don’t say anything you’ll blow our cover. Just act childlike, shouldn’t be too hard for you.’
Iliana rose out of bed sleepily. She didn’t have another disturbing dream and had slept deeply, which she was thankful for. She got dressed into her uniform and went downstairs for breakfast at the kitchen table.
Return of the Starchild (The Divine Inheritance Series Book 1) Page 3