I felt a flash of irritation, but not at him. At myself. He was right. I couldn’t stand there insisting that I needed friends, not emotional turmoil, while there was a possibility I would make out with Turos. If I was going to draw a line in the sand, that line had to be long enough to contain them both.
I nodded, too ashamed and exhausted to speak. I swayed on my feet and put a hand onto the tent to support myself.
‘Sleep,’ he ordered. ‘You’re right. The next few days are going to be strenuous enough without entering them exhausted.’
Isla appeared beside us, tucking my arm through hers. ‘Come on sleepy head,’ she said. ‘Our weapons are ready, our dragons are asleep. There is nothing more for us to do. General Tamsonite has said we can use the next tent down.’
I saw Sabby staggering towards us rubbing her eyes. I followed her to the next tent and a few seconds later was sinking gratefully onto a camp stretcher. A piece of tight fabric had never felt so good.
‘Here.’ Isla dumped a bag on the ground and rifled through it until she pulled out our dream catchers.
‘Oh.’ I hadn’t thought about packing anything when we had left.
‘Yes, you’re hopeless,’ she said. ‘Lucky you have me and Sabby to look out for you.’
I saw Sabby shoot her a grateful look at being included in the statement and I made a mental note to include her more. It had been Isla and me against the rest of the world for so long now that I had to remember there were others in my life. That knowledge, along with the conversation I had just had with Aethan pressed down on me and suddenly I felt so selfish I couldn’t breathe.
‘Hey.’ Sabby was at my side pressing a hand to my head. ‘Stop it. Everything is going to be just fine. Here. Lie down.’ She pressed me back down onto the pillow and picked the dream catcher up. ‘What do I do with this?’
‘Just tuck it under her pillow.’
‘Okay then.’ Her voice said that she had no idea why, but she would do it anyway.
I felt her hand moving underneath the pillow and then she rested one hand on my forehead. ‘You need to get some sleep, and I’m going to help you.’
‘No I need to….’ What did I need to do? Apologise to Turos for leading him on. Apologise to Aethan for same. Apologise to Grams for not spending enough time with her. Apologise to Mum for never being there any more. Apologise to Isla for Wilfred not being there with her. Apologise to the whole wide world for releasing Santanas’s soul, and for not being strong enough, or fast enough, or smart enough…
Sabby released her will into me and sleep flowed up over me like a warm, thick blanket protecting me from my thoughts, and from the outside world.
11
Gods and Giants
When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer in the tent.
‘What?’ I stared around in bewilderment. I should have been deep in a dreamless sleep, finally getting the rest my body needed. Not standing near a sandy beach, under a clear blue sky, staring up at a…what was that?
I walked towards the stairs that led up, up, up to the snowy-marble tower. White robes flowed around my legs, distracting me from my original focus. I spread my arms wide, gaping at the material draped over my body.
My hair flowed over one shoulder, clean and smelling like roses, and gold sandals graced my feet. I felt graceful and feminine, an unusual and not entirely comfortable experience.
I turned my attention back to the stairs. There were an awful lot of them. Perhaps I could just go and sit on the beach. I was about to do just that when a bear-like figure appeared at the top of the stairs and a familiar voice called out, ‘Well, don’t just stand there.’
‘Wilfred?’ My gasp turned to a squeal and suddenly my feet were flying up the stairs. ‘Wilfred.’ I laughed as I threw myself into his arms. ‘I like your outfit.’ He was wearing a white toga with a braided gold belt and sandals similar to mine.
He swung me around in the air, and then deposited me back on the ground. ‘Ahh Izzy.’ His bushy, red beard scratched against my face as he planted a kiss on my cheek. ‘It’s been too long.’
‘Far too long.’ I held his hands and pulled back so that I could see him properly. The tattoos Ulandes had given him when she had chosen him, entwined around his arms and up over his collar bones. I let go of a hand so I could trace the pattern with a finger. ‘How’s things?’
He shrugged and pulled a face. ‘Apart from missing you guys like crazy, pretty good.’
‘So,’ I looked around, ‘what do you crazy Demi-Gods get up to.’
He burst out laughing. ‘Demi-Gods?’
‘Well, you did come back from the dead. And now you live in heaven, that at least makes you a Demi-God.’ I looked around again. ‘Is this heaven?’ Green grass flowed out from the tower in every direction. ‘Hey. Where’d the beach go?’
‘Same place this did.’ He waved a hand and all of a sudden we were in a busy marketplace. People moved through the crowded mayhem with ease, some stopping to barter with store holders in a language I couldn’t understand. A man pushing a small cart, sold mugs of a steaming beverage which smelt of spices.
I breathed in the heavy scent coming from the mugs. ‘That smells delicious.’
‘Chai tea? It is.’
Everywhere I looked there was colour and light and movement. I backed up against a wall as a mule loaded with bolts of cloth pushed toward us.
‘Willy,’ one of the shop holders called out in a foreign accent. ‘I have that thing you ordered.’
‘Perfect.’ Wilfred slapped his hands together. ‘Come on,’ he said, grabbing my hand. ‘I need your opinion on something.’
We followed the wiry shop holder through the crowd, turning down a series of alleys until I was totally disorientated. ‘Where are we?’
‘The City of Ulandes.’
‘Of course we are.’ I rolled my eyes. ‘And where exactly is that.’
He turned to me with seriousness imprinted on his face. ‘I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you.’ He waited a beat, studying my expression, and then he burst out laughing. ‘As far as I can tell,’ he said when he could talk again. ‘We’re on a plane of existence halfway to heaven.’
‘Really?’ Wow. I hadn’t really believed in the whole heaven and hell thing.
‘No.’ He let go of my hand to punch me on the shoulder. ‘We’re in India.’
‘Oh.’ Well that would explain why everyone but us had dark skin, shiny black hair and soulful brown eyes. ‘So…you’ve been in India the whole time?’ I heard the pain in my voice.
‘What?’ His head swung toward me. ‘No. No.’ He put a hand on my arm. ‘We live….’ He waved a hand in the air. ‘But we can access here because Ulandes is worshipped openly here.’
‘So the reason you haven’t come home is because you can’t.’
He ignored the impatient gestures of the wiry, little shop keeper and turned fully toward me. Putting his hands on my shoulders he peered into my face and said, ‘Do you really believe I wouldn’t have come home if I could?’
I shrugged. I knew I was being petulant, but if a girl couldn’t be petulant with her big brother then who could she be petulant with?
‘Ahhh Izzy.’ He pulled me into a rough hug. ‘Have things been that bad?’
‘I….’ I stopped and sighed. ‘Nothing I haven’t been able to handle. But I’ve missed you.’ The last bit came out in a wail. ‘And Isla. Isla misses you so much. She puts a brave face on but…well, you know how she is.’
‘Yes.’ He nodded, a wistful look on his bearded face. ‘I know how she is.’
‘Willy.’ The little shopkeeper was at Wilfred’s side, tugging on his arm.
We started walking again. ‘We need to hurry,’ Wilfred said. ‘Ulandes wants to speak to you.’ He shot me a cheeky grin. ‘She’s expecting me to bring you straight to her.’
We followed the shopkeeper again as he navigated the maze-like markets with ease. Finally, he stopped outside a small booth. He pulled a key out
of his pocket and unlocked the door. ‘Come.’ He gestured to us and darted to the back of the room, waiting till we were inside and had shut and locked the door again before pressing some numbers into a keypad. There was a click, and the next door swung open.
‘Wow.’ I stopped in the doorway to take in what I was seeing. Jewellery, no artworks – each piece so exquisite and unique that they were more than mere items of jewellery, lay in velvet-lined display boxes.
‘Here.’ The man pulled a box off one of the many shelves lining the walls.
Wilfred took it and placed it on a table in the middle of the room. He stared at the lid for a few seconds before finally lifting it off.
Inside the box was a silver sculpture. Metal danced in an intricate weaving of scrolls, the solid lace making a long tube that was narrower at one end than the other. Wilfred picked it up and held it in his hands, a look of reverence on his face.
‘Do you think she’ll like it?’ He held it out to me.
I took it from him carefully, but I needn’t have bothered, because for all its visual delicacy, it was as strong as a metal rod. ‘Isla?’
He nodded.
‘What is it?’
He barked out a laugh. ‘It’s an armlet.’
‘Oh.’ I looked from the armlet to his arms and back again. It was an exact imitation of the tattoos he wore. ‘May I?’ I held it in front of my hand, waiting for his nod of assertion before I slipped it on.
The metal rippled as it contacted my skin, becoming light and elastic. I gasped as it moved with my flexing wrist. ‘It’s amazing.’ I swirled my arm as if I were wielding a sword, the armlet did not interfere with my movement at all. ‘Like it? She’s going to adore it.’
His eyes shone as I slipped it back off and handed it to him. The shopkeeper wobbled his head from side-to-side, obviously pleased with my compliments. He placed it back in the box and handed it to Wilfred. The two men shook hands and then Wilfred led me back out into the lane.
‘We’d better get going.’ He grasped my hand and the lane disappeared, and we were back at the grassy beach with the marble tower.
‘So you do live here?’
‘Nah.’ He laughed. ‘But it is a portal to where I live.’
I expected him to lead me up the stairs, but instead he took me around to the back of the tower. He placed his hand on a wooden door – the hinges rusted with age, the wood splintered and worn – and he pushed. It creaked as it swung inwards. I followed him through the door into the darkness.
‘You live in a closet,’ I said into the inky blackness.
His laugh echoed as if we were in a small room. ‘Here,’ he said. ‘Help me shut it.’
I turned and put my hands on the edge of the old door, watching the green grass disappear as we managed to heave it shut. It slid into place with the click of a smoothly-oiled lock, and light illuminated the room.
The door wasn’t old and splintered from this side. The grain of the wood glowed in the light, oiled till it gleamed. An ornate handle, that I was guessing was solid gold, and two metal bands, also gold, decorated the surface. The metal bands were decorated with the same design that Wilfred wore on his arms.
I gasped as I turned back from the door. We were no longer in a closet. Instead, massive arches curved above us, mosaic tiles glittering in the light. The arches swept up so high I had to crane my head back to see them meet. They supported the ceiling of the hall that opened up in front of us.
‘Come on.’ Wilfred started walking. ‘She’s waiting for us in the ornate garden.’
I followed him, trying not to trip over my feet as I gawked at the beauty of our surroundings. We walked for a few minutes before I realised that there was no way we were within the tower.
‘What is this?’
‘It’s Ulandes’ residence.’
‘No. I mean how can this be inside that tower?’
‘Do you really think you’d understand the answer even if I knew it?’
He had a point. I had chosen not to do science at school for a very good reason.
We walked for a few minutes more before the passageway we were on opened up onto a balcony. A sweeping staircase curved around the balcony as it descended to a massive garden full of fountains and flowers.
I followed Wilfred down the stairs, looking around for Ulandes as I did. A woman, garbed in white robes as we were, but also wearing a broad-brimmed hat, bent over a small shrub, hacking away at a dying limb with a small saw.
Wilfred walked up to the gardener and said, ‘Got her.’
The woman sighed, putting down the saw as she turned towards us. ‘Really?’ she said. ‘After all this time, no grovelling in my presence, no bowing, not even a polite nod of your head?’ She took off her hat and ruffled up her hair and I was surprised to recognise the Goddess who had floated out of the statue and brought Wilfred back to life.
I dropped to my knees and bowed my head.
‘See,’ Ulandes said, ‘she gets it.’ But there was merriment in her voice, and I could tell that this was a conversation they had had many times.
I felt her fingertips brush my hair as she said, ‘Rise child.’
I rose back to my feet and met her sombre expression. So many questions flooded into me, but none of them seemed important enough to disturb a deity with.
‘Come,’ she said. ‘Let’s sit.’ She turned and walked – not floated – down a path in the garden, navigating several turns before I could see what she was heading for. It took several more minutes to reach the pagoda and its low slung couches. Pools of water ran on three sides of it, the sounds of fountains instantly unwinding the tension in my shoulders. Flashes of bright colours turned out to be fish, but not like any fish I had seen before. These were all the colours of the rainbow. Brilliant golds and reds like other goldfish, but also green and blue and purple. Some had stripes and some were perfectly polka-dotted.
Ulandes saw me staring at them. ‘I find normal goldfish so boring,’ she said as she sat gracefully onto one of the couches.
A bird flew down and perched on her shoulder. As she raised a hand to scratch its neck, her robe slipped up her arm revealing a twirling, dancing tattoo the same as Wilfred’s. But where his was black, hers looked like she’d been gilded with 24 carat gold.
I sank onto a couch opposite her, and Wilfred slumped onto a third. He surreptitiously placed the box, holding Isla’s gift, behind a cushion.
‘Really?’ Ulandes said. ‘Like I wouldn’t notice.’ She held her hand out and he puffed out a sigh, reminding me of a naughty boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. With a burst of intuition, I realised that it was all an act for her amusement.
He pulled the box back out and handed it to her, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth. ‘I thought, maybe, Izzy could take it back to her for me.’ He didn’t have to say who ‘her’ was.
She took the lid off the box and viewed the armlet inside. ‘I don’t think so,’ she said.
Wilfred’s shoulders slumped in defeat.
‘Not like this anyway.’ She pulled it out of the box and held it up, turning it from side-to-side as she examined it. ‘I mean it’s very nice and everything, but do you think it’s good enough for her?’ There was an almost reverent quality to the way she said ‘her’.
He shuffled his feet. ‘It was all I could afford. You don’t pay well you know.’ He flashed a quick smile at her.
‘I suppose I don’t.’ She tilted her head to the side as she continued her examination. ‘Well, perhaps this will make up for that.’ She placed the fingertip of her free hand to the armlet and a faint glow started at the point of contact. It flowed out over the piece of jewellery till the whole thing was glowing in her hand.’ She took her finger away and re-examined it. ‘And I think some bling,’ she said. ‘What girl doesn’t like a little bling in her life?’ She touched her finger quickly to several points over the armlet. ‘There.’ She nodded her head in satisfaction. ‘That’s better. Except…I think she needs
two. One for each arm.’ She waved her free hand and a second one, a mirror image of the first, appeared.
She passed them back to Wilfred. He took them, staring at them with wide, astonished eyes. I leant closer to affirm what I was looking at.
The armlet was no longer silver, now it was solid gold. And set into that gold at the points she had touched, gigantic diamonds sparkled. Before it had been beautiful, now it was magnificent. They, were magnificent.
‘Thank you,’ he whispered, tears glistened in the corners of her eyes. ‘I’ve never been able to give her a gift worthy of her.’
‘There is no gift worthy of her,’ Ulandes said. ‘But they will suffice.’ She turned her pleased look from Wilfred to me. ‘How are you?’
The question I’d heard a million times, held so much more weight coming from her. I opened my mouth to give her my rote answer of ‘fine’, but under the sombre eyes of the Goddess I found, instead, the truth tumbling out.
‘I’m scared,’ I said. ‘I’m so scared that if I concentrate on it at all I think I’ll start screaming and won’t be able to stop.’ I paused while I sorted through my emotions, looking for the next most important. ‘I’m terrified of Santanas, and to be perfectly honest Galanta isn’t too much further behind. But the worst of it all is that I’m scared I’m going to let everyone down.’
Now that the words had started I couldn’t seem to stem their flow. ‘I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what they expect of me. I know I have all this power,’ I flapped my hands at my chest, ‘inside me, but I don’t think it will be enough. He’s got so much more experience, and she’s so cunning.’ My voice gained speed as it rose in timbre. ‘And then there’s all their warriors. Even with the dark faeries, we’re grossly outnumbered. And people are going to die. I mean thousands. Tens of thousands.’ I waved my arms around wildly. ‘And their families are going to be without them. Children without fathers. Wives without husbands, and it’s all because of me.’
Tears stung the corners of my eyes and then broke over the wall of my lower lid. ‘I’m not enough.’ I shook my head. ‘And everybody thinks I am going to be their saviour, but all I am is a fraud.’ A hiccupped sob escaped with the word fraud.
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