Ravensborough

by Christine Murray

  ‘That’s because Scarlett didn’t know.’ Sam wound an arm around my waist and kissed me on the cheek. ‘I flew in yesterday afternoon and surprised her.’ He grinned at my friends.

  ‘That is soooo romantic! Like something out of a film or something!’ Cat batted her eyelashes furiously trying to look alluring. It didn’t bother me that she was hitting on my boyfriend. I’d realised long ago that Cat just had to be the centre of attention at all times. It wasn’t anything personal.

  ‘So are you going to be here for Scarlett’s birthday?’ asked Mei.

  ‘Yep’, Sam grinned back. ‘That was the whole idea.’

  ‘Well then you’ve got to have a party!’ Cat announced, her face lighting up. ‘Seriously, Rupert’s house is made for a party.’

  ‘Right’, drawled Will sarcastically. ‘Lots of valuable – not to mention breakable – antiques on every surface? Yeah, sounds like party central to me.’

  ‘But the high ceilings, the large rooms and the huge back garden? Am I the only one here who thinks that it would be an absolute crime not to have a party there?’

  ‘I think you are, yes’ said Ben.

  ‘I think a party sounds like a great idea’, Sam said pulling me towards him. ‘What do you think, Scarlett?’

  For some reason, the idea just did not appeal to me right now. There was too much going on and I really wasn’t in a party mood. But I wasn’t in the mood for an arguing about it either.

  ‘I think I’ll have to ask Mum and Rupert,’ I said, stalling for time. Just then the bell went.

  ‘That’s the start of school. Have fun at the museum,’ I urged giving Sam a kiss on the lips, trying to block out memories of the kiss by the lake yesterday. Though I was still wearing the locket, it didn’t cause me any problems when I was kissing Sam. It obviously didn’t see him as a threat to my safety.

  ‘I’ll see you when you finish school,’ said Sam. ‘What time is it that you finish again?’

  ‘Four o’clock.’

  ‘Cool. I’ll see you then. Nice meeting you all!’ he raised a hand towards my friends as he walked backwards away from us. Then, blowing me a small kiss, he turned and walked towards the bus stop.

  ‘He seems nice’, Mei said to me, tucking her arm through mine as we walked towards our first class.

  ‘He does actually’, said Ben teasingly. ‘Way too nice for you, Edwards.’

  I gave a long sigh as we walked into the school. ‘You have no idea how right you are.’

  *

  That night at dinner Sam brought up the idea of the party. My heart sank. Mum looked thoughtful, and I could see that she was trying to balance the fact that a large number of teenagers could do a large amount of damage to Rupert’s house, against the idea that maybe it would be good for me to have a party, that it might root me further in Ravensborough. I knew she was worried that Sam’s presence in Avalonia might make me homesick.

  ‘I don’t know’, she said looking at Rupert. ‘I’m not sure if this house is all that suited to hosting a party.’

  ‘Well, it was just an idea’, I said relieved. I poured myself another glass of juice. ‘Thanks for thinking about it anyway.’

  ‘Well, I don’t know’, Rupert said thoughtfully. ‘Maybe we could work something out. We could lock all the breakables in some of the upstairs rooms? That would give you enough space down here to hold a party.’

  ‘That’d be great’, Sam said, a grin lighting up his face. ‘What do you think Scarlett, wouldn’t that be great?’

  For once I wished that my stepfather wasn’t so accommodating. But what could I do? Refuse to hold a party that so many people seemed to want to throw for me? And who knew, maybe an evening of fun was exactly what I needed.

  ‘Thanks Roo, that’s really kind of you.’ I used one of my mother’s pet names for him and he coloured up with pleasure.

  I started stacking the dishes together and Sam stood up to help. ‘Oh no, its fine Sam, Scarlett and I will do this,’ said Mum. ‘Rupert, why don’t you show Sam your record collection? You have a few rarities in there that he might be interested in.’

  When they’d both left the room Mum turned to me. ‘How long is he planning on staying for?’

  ‘I think his flight back is on Saturday,’ I said.

  ‘He’s staying for a week then,’ said Mum stiffly, turning back to stack the dishwasher. ‘You might have given me some notice.’

  I rolled my eyes. ‘I didn’t know he was coming, I told you that! It was as big a surprise for me as it was for you.’

  ‘Well, just make sure you don’t fall behind in your schoolwork,’ she said, her disapproval evident. I sighed and went to find Sam who was still looking at Rupert’s music collection.

  ‘I have a few business calls to make,’ Rupert said as I came in the door. ‘So, if you’ll excuse me I’ll just go to my office.’

  ‘So, you’ve been bonding with Rupert?’ I asked Sam. He grinned back at me.

  ‘I wouldn’t exactly say we bonded, he’s a bit uptight. But he’s got a surprisingly good record collection. Oh, look at this!’ Sam held up an old record by Belfry, an Avalonian band who had been big in the seventies. They were fairly iconic. The cover artwork was black and white photos of the band in Ravensborough. I took the record from him.

  ‘The photos look like they were taken in the Pagan medieval quarter,’ I said idly.

  ‘Really?’ asked Sam, sitting up straighter. ‘Can we go there? We can take pictures there posing as members of the band!’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said doubtfully. ‘Rationalists don’t really go to the Pagan quarters.’

  ‘Yeah, but you’ve been there, right?’ asked Sam. ‘I mean, to visit your Pagan friends.’

  ‘Sssshhh!’ I hissed looking at the open door. ‘Keep your voice down!’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, unperturbed. ‘But couldn’t we go see your Pagan friends or something?’

  ‘Now that I think about it, that might not be such a bad idea,’ I said. I could introduce him to Aradia anyway, if not Gethan. ‘I’ll just phone Aradia.’

  I ran upstairs to call her and see if she was free tomorrow. She seemed happy to hear from me.

  ‘I hear your locket repels dark elf magic!’ Aradia exclaimed in her usual upbeat way.

  ‘Yeah apparently it does,’ I said.’ Though that’s about as much as I know about it. I was wondering if I could call over and talk to you about it? It’s kind of unnerving.’

  ‘Sure, no problem. I’d be glad to see you, and so would Mum and Dad. They’re still intrigued by your find.’

  ‘Well, we’ll have to be careful when we’re talking about it. You see, my boyfriend Sam is over...’

  ‘Oh Scarlett, I know! I’ve heard all about that!’ Aradia said drily.

  I groaned. ‘How much do you know?’

  ‘I know that elf magic wasn’t all that you and Gethan were experimenting with down by the lake.’

  ‘Oh, Aradia, I don’t know what to do. There’s just so much going on right now.’

  Look Scarlett, don’t worry about it all now,’ Aradia said reassuringly. ‘I’ll work out some way that we can be on our own together tomorrow, and we’ll talk it out, ok?’

  ‘He’s really angry at me Scarlett.’

  ‘I think the word ‘angry’ is an understatement,’ she said cheerfully. ‘But hey, that’s guys for you, right?’

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Sam and I headed over to the Pagan quarter the next day, right after school finished. I changed my clothes in the girls’ toilets before I went. Sam was right – my uniform clashed horribly with my hair and, with my boyfriend around, I wanted to look my best.

  It was all so confusing. I looked at Sam as we were going over the Lady’s Lake Bridge. He was such a good boyfriend. Not only was he good looking, but his enthusiasm for life was infectious. He was funny, always cracking jokes, but he had a serious side too. Plus he’d saved up money to fly himself up to Avalonia for my birthday: there was no
way his parents would have funded a trip like this. And yes, it would have been nice if he had called me to let me know that he was coming, but that was Sam all over: impulsive, enthusiastic, fun.

  Did I love him though? I had loved him when I lived in Dublin, and I thought I did now. But there was a little niggle of doubt in the back of my head that made me question myself. Then I’d remember everything that he’d sacrificed to be here with me and feel a dull burst of shame.

  When we walked up the set of gated steps that led to the Pagan Quarter, Sam was amazed.

  ‘It looks like something out of a horror film,’ Sam said.

  ‘I was thinking more medieval fantasy, actually,’ I said with a frown. I found the Pagan Quarter charming, it was typical that he didn’t. Maybe it was the burgeoning archaeologist in me: I liked the old and historical whereas Sam loved the new and fresh.

  The walk to Aradia’s took longer than necessary as Sam tried to soak up as much of the Pagan Quarter as he could. He wanted to stop and look in every unusual shop, take photos of statues and monuments to famous Pagans in Ravensborough history, read every unusual signpost. This was vintage Sam, trying to glean every ounce of enjoyment possible from everything, but today it was irritating because I was impatient to go and talk to Aradia. I couldn’t tell him what for though, and it was hard to hurry him along. We found the spot where the Belfry photos had been taken, and I took picture after picture of Sam posing as the lead singer.

  We finally reached Angita Road, where Aradia lived. The apothecary shop was open.

  ‘This is kind of disappointing,’ Sam said looking at the outside. ‘It looks like any pharmacy that we have at home. I was expecting something a bit more mysterious.’

  Inside, though, the similarities to an ordinary chemist all but disappeared. The shop wasn’t very wide, but it was long and a broad wooden counter ran down the length of one side. Behind the counter were old fashioned shelves that stretched to the ceiling, supporting what looked like hundreds of jars of herbs and various plants. Two digital weighing scales rested on the counter, along with displays of ready mixed remedies. The shop floor held a variety of amulets, candles and packets of unmixed regular herbs like sage and rosemary.

  Aradia was behind the counter and a smile lit up her face when she saw me. She came out from behind the counter and embraced me. She stuck a hand out at Sam who, mesmerised by her dark green eyes and general otherworldness, shook it. I could see him eye the protection bracelets she wore on her wrists. I’d explained their significance to him on the way over. I quickly made introductions.

  A few moments later Lavendell came out from a door behind the counter. Behind her was a tall dark-skinned woman who looked to be in her forties. Aradia introduced her as Wren, a fellow apothecary that worked in the shop with Lavendell.

  Lavendell gave us a quick tour and explained how they processed the herbs, changing them from raw ingredients into potent remedies. She showed Sam a few herbs that he’d only read about in books, such as hemlock and myrtle. When Lavendell had finished demonstrating, she looked at Sam apologetically.

  ‘You’re going to think that this is impossibly rude of me, but we’ve just gotten a really large delivery today, and the boxes are so heavy that it takes two people to lift them. Wren has hurt her back dreadfully, so she can’t lift them. Would you mind helping me bring them in from the store room?’ Lavendell asked.

  He smiled broadly. ‘Sure, that’s no problem at all.’

  ‘Thank you’, Lavendell smiled gratefully. ‘Aradia, why don’t you bring Scarlett up to the apartment. I’ll send Sam up as soon as we’ve finished.’

  ‘Ok. See ya in a few, Sam,’ Aradia answered.

  Aradia started talking as soon as we got outside the apothecary shop. ‘So you and Gethan?! What happened there?’

  ‘I thought we were meant to be taking this opportunity to discuss my locket,’ I said drily.

  ‘Oh come on Scarlett, this is so much more exciting,’ Aradia said as we ran up the steps that lead to her front door. ‘I’m not surprised that Gethan made a move on you, he’s liked you since he first set eyes on you, but Scarlett – you kissed him back!’

  ‘You know, I am aware of that,’ I pointed out. ‘I was there, after all.’

  Aradia pushed open the front door and we walked inside. ‘But why?’

  In spite of myself I had to laugh. ‘Aradia, why do you think? If I hadn’t been wearing my locket I could have blamed him, said he was using glamour or something. So the only reasons I could have kissed him back would be by reflex, or because...’

  ‘Because?’ Aradia prompted.

  ‘Because I like him.’

  ‘So you do you like him?’

  I shifted uncomfortably. ‘Well, yeah. I suppose I do.’

  ‘You suppose you do.’

  I looked at her levelly. ‘Yes then, ok, yes I do.’

  ‘Scarlett, why didn’t you tell me?’ Aradia asked, looking hurt.

  I sighed. ‘Well, I thought he was lovely from the first time I saw him. I met him by chance at a protest in Guinevere Plaza, before I even met you in fact. But then I saw a picture of him on your Facebook page. He had his arm around your shoulders, and I thought you were a couple.’

  ‘I know the picture that you’re talking about, but he's more like a brother than anything else,’ Aradia said. ‘We’re both oddballs here. We don’t fit in because we’re neither one thing or the other. I’m not fully Pagan, or fully Rationalist. He’s not fully light elf or fully dark elf. It links us, but it’s completely platonic.’

  ‘I know that now. But by the time I realised that you two weren’t an item I thought he was in a gang.’

  Aradia looked thoughtful. ‘Well he likes you. A lot. So it might be possible that he was using glamour on you without realising it.’

  I shook my head vehemently. ‘No, I don’t think so. Because nothing changed when I put on the locket.’

  ‘That is strange.’

  I opened my mouth to ask a question, then closed it again. Eventually though I decided that I couldn’t resist and asked the question that was churning my insides.

  ‘So...he likes me?’

  ‘He never shuts up about you. If I didn’t like you too, he’d drive me mental. Oh, this is perfect!’

  ‘Perfect?!’ I asked incredulously. ‘Perfect? I have a boyfriend! And even if I didn’t, how exactly do you have a relationship with someone who has a protective shield that hurts you every time you touch her? And excuse me for getting a little bit too Romeo and Juliet here, but I’m a Rationalist and he’s a Pagan...’

  Aradia rolled her eyes. ‘You’re not a Rationalist! If you were a Rationalist the locket wouldn’t have chosen you.’

  ‘Rationalists can’t use protective charms?’

  ‘Oh they can,’ Aradia said. ‘But they can’t use it as a weapon.’

  ‘Neither can I,’ I pointed out.

  ‘No?’ Aradia asked. ‘Well that’s strange, because Gethan felt you push back against him during one attack. If you had no magic in you, he would have just felt pain when he tried to hurt you. But he told me that when he tried to get into your mind you pushed him out.’

  ‘I did?’ I slumped down on the couch beside her. ‘Oh Aradia, I don’t know what to do. I’m completely out of my depth here.’

  She snaked an arm around me and hugged me close. ‘It’s ok, we’ll work this out. Lavendell, Gethan and I. We’ll find out what’s going on.’

  ‘Aradia, you didn’t see how angry Gethan was with me the other day. I doubt he’s going to want to help me,’ I said bitterly. ‘He wants nothing to do with me.’

  ‘Well then you don’t know him very well. You just need to give him time.’

  ‘Yes but...’ I began. ‘What about Sam?’

  Aradia sighed, and hugged me tighter. ‘I’m afraid that’s one thing that I can’t help you with.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  After we finished up at the apothecary store Sam and I got the underground to Bessbor
ough. It was getting darker earlier in the evenings now, so our identification was checked before the train slid out of the last neutral station. The guard was surly and wasn’t happy to find that Sam was neither Pagan or Rationalist. After a stream of questioning he reluctantly moved on.

  ‘Does that happen here all the time?’ he asked incredulously.

  ‘Yep. Every night. The Pagan and Rationalist residential areas are no go areas for outsiders after nightfall,’ I answered. ‘The strange thing is, you get used to it pretty fast.’

  Sam gave me a dubious look.

  As we made our way up the steps of the underground, Sam read aloud some of the slogans etched into the stone walls.

  ‘The Children of the Devil will Never Take Our Country’, ‘Rationalists Rise’, ‘Fuck Pagan Scum.’ Scarlett, this is pretty heavy stuff.’

  ‘There was similar stuff written about Rationalists in the underground in the Pagan quarter,’ I pointed out.

  ‘Yeah, but you can’t really trust people who believe in fairies and magic spells can you? Of course they’re going to say bad stuff about Rationalists. But if people who think logically write this kind of stuff about Pagans, then isn’t there something to it?’

  ‘Hey, you liked Aradia, didn’t you?’ I asked. ‘And Lavendell?’

  He just shrugged.

  I tuned Sam out, focusing instead on what Aradia had told me earlier on.

  A group of my school friends were meeting up to get some hamburgers and sodas, and I’d decided to go and bring Sam along. It would be a good chance for him to meet my friends so he would know them at the party on Friday.

  When we arrived, Mei, Cat, Will and Ben were there, along with Jane who was in my biology class. We all piled into a corner booth.

  ‘So, is it really as cold here as Scarlett makes out, or is she just a wuss?’ Will asked.

  ‘It’s very cold here, I have to say. I’m hoping that you get some snow here before I leave. We rarely get it in Ireland,’ he answered.

  ‘How are plans going for your party?’ Cat asked me excitedly.