Ravensborough

by Christine Murray

‘My back is really sore, but my arm and my face hurt too,’ I told her. ‘The strange thing is, I only realised I was hurt on the walk back.’

  ‘It’s the shock,’ she said to me as she pulled up my top to examine my back. ‘It often stops you feeling pain when in danger so it doesn’t distract you from trying to get away from whatever is causing you harm. It’s sort of a survival instinct. I’m going to need to pick all this glass out of the wound.’

  Lavendell was as gentle as she could be, but it still hurt. Sam held my hand while each piece was picked out. She then ground up a selection of herbs in her pestle and mortar and added pungent oil. The smell was strong and disgusting.

  ‘I know it doesn’t smell good,’ Lavendell laughed at my scrunched up face. ‘But it will speed up the healing process considerably. Your back is just badly bruised, it will heal up itself in time. Though if it gets very painful, you can take something to relieve that.’

  ‘What should I take?’ I asked.

  She looked confused. ‘Well, what do you usually take? Paracetemol, ibuprofen..?’ She looked at my face and started to laugh. ‘Yes, I do use ordinary medicines too.’

  She then treated Aradia, who had also been badly hurt, before moving on to Sam. She removed all the glass from his neck and face and then reached for the ointment.

  ‘No thank you,’ he said standing up. ‘I’ll let you remove the glass, but nothing else.’

  ‘But it might get infected,’ Lavendell pointed out.

  ‘I’ll take my chances. And if it does get infected I’ll, you know, go to someone who actually knows what they’re doing.’

  ‘Sam!’ I hissed. I couldn’t believe that he’d said that, especially after Lavendell had been so nice to him.

  ‘It’s ok, not everyone is comfortable with my methods,’ she said easily. Aradia, on the other hand, was giving him a look that would kill a lesser man.

  Lavendell patched Mei up, which proved to be the trickiest as a large piece of glass had got embedded underneath the skin.

  ‘That looks really painful,’ I said, wincing.

  ‘I’ve had worse climbing,’ she said nonchalantly, but I could see that she was blinking back tears.

  ‘I wonder if Liv is all right,’ said Aradia. ‘I thought she was my friend. I just can’t believe that she could do something like that.’

  ‘What will happen to her?’ I asked. ‘You know...if...’

  ‘If she’s alive?’ asked Gethan. There was a moment of silence as we registered the possibility that she might not be.

  ‘She’ll be questioned about why she was in Darkfield, and how she got in,’ said Lavendell. ‘She might be charged with trespassing. Of course, if they manage to pin terrorist involvement on her then she’ll probably be neutered.’

  ‘Neutered?’ said Sam, sounding alarmed.

  ‘It’s a colloquial term, it means to strip someone of their powers,’ Gethan explained.

  ‘Could we do that with you?’ Sam asked me. ‘Get rid of all this unnatural stuff that seems to be inside you.’

  There was silence.

  ‘I don’t think she should do anything hasty,’ Gethan supplied. ‘She should at least wait and see if she can control her powers.’

  ‘I don’t remember asking your opinion,’ Sam said through gritted teeth.

  There was silence while Lavendell finished patching us up.

  ‘How do I find out about the Daughters of Morrigan?’ I asked Lavendell before I turned to go.

  ‘The internet and libraries should have some basic information. Other than that, you’ll have to track down a practitioner.’

  Huh. That figured. Pity they were all in jail.

  ‘What about the raven thing? I mean, aren’t they supposed to be bad luck?’

  ‘I wouldn’t have had you pegged as the suspicious type,’ Aradia said glibly. ‘Seeing how you didn’t even believe in magic until recently.’

  ‘They helped you, they mean no harm. Regardless of what they bring to other people, to you they brought luck,’ Lavendell said.

  ‘We better go,’ Mei said to me. ‘At least if you want to get home before your mother wakes up and realises you’re gone.’

  That was a point. I had enough complications in my life without being in her bad books. I thanked Lavendell again, said my goodbyes to Gethan and Aradia and left.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  We walked to the nearest bus stop and got the first bus back to Chesterfield. Sam was silent the entire time. I wasn’t sure if it was anger at me, or the shock of almost dying– which admittedly was a lot for anyone to process. And he'd had almost died at the hands of a Pagan, part of a group of people who he distrusted anyway. No wonder he snapped at Lavendell. Either way his silence didn’t make for an awkward situation because Mei seemed to have recovered her equilibrium and barely stopped for breath between sentences.

  The bus pulled into Chesterfield at five to seven in the morning. How had the time gone by so quickly? Sam had to get a bus in a couple of hours to take him to Northport. He’d have no time to sleep at all before his flight. If he was anything like me he wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway. I was too keyed up to sleep, and still had far too much adrenaline in my veins.

  The house looked strangely normal after the events of last night. I left Sam and Mei fixing breakfast while I went upstairs and had a quick shower. Bruises coloured my arms, legs and lower back. The hot water soothed my tight muscles while I tried not to get water on my bandaged arm. I put on a long sleeved shirt in an effort to hide it from Mum.

  When I got downstairs Mei had made a pot of coffee, scrambled eggs and toast.

  ‘Thanks, guys. This looks lovely!’ Sam was very conspicuously not talking to me at that point. Mei obviously picked up on this and finished up her breakfast quickly.

  ‘I’m going to head home now, I’ve family stuff on later’, she said, obviously keen to get away from the awkward atmosphere.

  She gave me a hug. ‘Seeya Sam, it was nice meeting you. Have a good flight home.’ With that she was gone.

  The silence hung so heavy in the room that I could hear the ticking of the clock.

  ‘Are you packed?’ I asked, trying to make conversation.

  He looked at me angrily. ‘Am I packed? Am I packed? We nearly died last night and you want to talk about my luggage?!’

  ‘We nearly died, but we didn’t. We’re alive. Everything is ok now!’ I tried to make him understand. ‘We did a good thing, and stopped a crazy terrorist from doing real damage. Who else can say they did that on their holidays?’

  Ok, it was a little on the flippant side, but how else was I supposed to deal with it?

  ‘Oh, I don’t believe this,’ he said angrily. ‘You actually find this whole thing funny?’

  ‘Oh, come on Sam.’

  ‘You need to leave here. The people you’re hanging around with are dangerous. Especially that Gethan guy. I think you should come back to Ireland. Like I said, Lindsay said you could stay with her. I think that would be safer.’

  ‘But I’m needed here,’ I protested. ‘I’m the only Daughter left. . .’

  ‘Oh come on,’ he sneered. ‘You don’t even know what the Daughters do.’

  ‘Well then, maybe I need to stay here and find out,’ I said calmly.

  ‘Maybe it’s all a load of nonsense. There is no such thing as magic. It’s just a ruse. The dangerous thing is that they think it’s real. It’s like a cult you’ve gotten yourself involved with. They’re making you believe their crazy stories. You need to get as far away from them as it is humanly possible to get. Ireland is a good first step.’

  ‘If they’re so crazy what happened last night then?’ I asked angrily. ‘How do you explain that Sam?’

  ‘A bunch of crazy birds saved our asses, and you got it into your head that you should wave a book trying to be a hero.’

  I paused, stung.

  Mum walked into the kitchen fully dressed. ‘Morning all. We don’t have long before we have to leave for th
e station. Have you got your bag ready Sam?’

  ‘I’ll go and get it’ he said moodily, walking out of the kitchen.

  ‘What’s up with him?’ Mum asked.

  ‘I think he’s just cranky because he didn’t get much sleep last night,’ I said. It wasn’t quite a lie.

  Mum made herself a cup of coffee and turned on the news. ‘Police in Ravensborough have confirmed that the body of a female has been found in the locked down area of Darkfield,’ said the newsreader in a clipped voice. ‘It is not known how the girl got into the area, and no identification has yet been made. The girl is believed to be of Pagan affiliation.’

  ‘Isn’t that terrible,’ said Mum, shocked. ‘Just so sad.’ I just nodded mutely. She was dead. I couldn’t believe it. And what if the police connected us to it?

  The drive to the bus station was strained. Mum pulled the car into the car park.

  ‘Will I wait for you?’ she asked me as I got out of the car.

  ‘No, it’s ok. I’ve got some things to do in town before I head home,’ I told her

  ‘Ok. Have a safe trip home Sam.’ Mum waved and pulled out of the car park. Sam and I walked over to the kiosk in silence where he bought a ticket for Northport.

  We sat down on a bench as we waited for his bus to start boarding.

  ‘So will you come home?’ he asked staring into the distance.

  ‘This is home now,’ I answered.

  We were silent for a minute or so.

  ‘Sam, I think, well. You and me...we’re over.’

  He didn’t look surprised, but he still had that cold look in his eye. ‘I came over here for you, I came to visit you...’

  ‘I know’, I said, my eyes brimming with tears. ‘I’m sorry.’

  He put his head in his hands for a moment. His face was resigned. He’d had enough.

  ‘Is there anything I can say to change your mind?’ he asked gruffly.

  I shook my head.

  ‘Is there someone else?’

  I was unable to hold his gaze, looking instead at the ground.

  ‘Right,’ he said bitterly. ‘I see. Nice, Scarlett. Real nice.’

  He looked away, staring into the middle distance. His jaw was tight and clenched. I hated hurting him like this.

  The Northport bus pulled into the boarding bay.

  ‘I’ll tell your Mum, you know,’ he said to me, his voice shaking with emotion. ‘And Rupert.’

  ‘Then I’ll tell my friends,’ I replied. ‘And they’ll come after you.’ I didn’t want to part like this – hell, I wasn’t even sure if they’d do something like that – but it was the only way I could think of that would stop him causing trouble for me.

  Sam stood up and picked up his bag. ‘Bye Scarlett.’ Without looking back he walked over to the bus and got on. He sat on the opposite side of the bus so he didn’t have to look at me. After a couple of minutes the bus pulled out of the station. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I hated hurting anyone, and I knew that I’d never see him again.

  A couple of kids at a vending machine were looking at me strangely, so I wiped away my tears and walked out of the lot. A seagull was perched on top of a railing...which gave me an idea.

  I pulled out my mobile phone and rang Gethan’s number.

  ‘Hello?’ a sleepy voice answered.

  ‘Oh, I’m sorry!’ I apologised. ‘I forgot you’d probably be asleep.’

  ‘It’s ok. Have you gone to bed at all?’

  ‘No’, I said sadly. ‘I’m not really tired.’

  ‘Well, why are you calling me anyway?’

  ‘I was wondering if you’d drive me somewhere, but it’s ok if you’re resting.’

  ‘No, its fine, where are you?’

  ‘I’m at the bus station.’

  ‘Okay, I’ll be there in twenty five minutes.’

  I went over to a shop across the road and bought enough bread to feed a large family for a month. Then I went and waited at the bus stop. Soon I saw Gethan’s car turn down the road. I got in.

  ‘Where’s Sam?’ he asked as I fastened my seatbelt. He had circles under his eyes and his hair was mussed.

  ‘On a bus to Northport.’

  ‘And where are we heading?’

  ‘To the stone circle where you and Aradia took me, please.’

  ‘Alright,’ he said.

  We drove westwards in silence, but it wasn’t the uncomfortable strained silence that had existed all morning between Sam and I. This silence was comfortable, companionable.

  ‘Can we pull in here?’ I asked as we passed a large field near the circle.

  We both got out of the car.

  We broke up the bread and threw it all over the field. Ravens began freewheeling down from the sky, angrily squawking at each other in case they didn’t get enough food.

  ‘What made you decide to do this?’ Gethan asked.

  ‘I don’t know. They saved our lives last night. I felt I should give them something back.’

  ‘You saved our lives,’ Gethan corrected.

  ‘With their help. They watch over me. I never noticed it before, but they’re always with me,’ I said. ‘They protect me.’

  ‘Have you listened to the news?’ he asked.

  I nodded, tearing up. He put his arms around me.

  ‘I feel kind of responsible,’ I started, but Gethan cut me off.

  ‘No. You were defending yourself. She wanted to kill everyone inside that temple. You did what you had to do,’ he said firmly.

  ‘So...Sam is gone?’ he asked, changing the subject.

  I nodded, my eyes still on the birds flying overhead.

  ‘Are you going back?’

  I shook my head. ‘I broke up with him at the bus station Gethan’, I said, pulling away from him.

  ‘You broke up with him to be with me?’

  ‘I broke up with him because I was being unfair. If I had feelings for you, I obviously wasn’t happy with him.’

  ‘If?’ he asked softly.

  Balls of white began to fall down from the sky. I put my gloved hand out and they fell on my hand, melting slightly.

  ‘Cool, more snow’ I said enthusiastically. ‘It doesn’t snow much in Ireland, just rains.’

  ‘Scarlett, you’re killing me here’, Gethan said.

  ‘You know I have feelings for you,’ I said quietly. ‘I just didn’t want to presume that you’d still feel the same way. After everything’s that’s happened.’

  ‘I still do,’ he said taking my face in his hands.

  I closed my eyes, waiting for his kiss but it didn’t come. I opened my eyes to see what the problem was. He was staring at my throat.

  ‘Oh,’ I loosened my scarf and unfastened my locket, slipping it in the pocket of my jeans. And he kissed me then, as the ravens and snowflakes twirled in the looming grey sky above.

  THE END

  About the Author

  Christine Murray is a bestselling contemporary fiction & fantasy author from Dublin, Ireland. Before embarking on a writing career, she studied history at university and has a master’s degree in medical history. She also worked as a freelance journalist and ghost-writer.

  When not writing, Christine enjoys reading, watching spy thrillers and spending too much money at make-up counters. She loves both coffee and cocktails, and thinks that the espresso martini might just be the most underrated invention of all time. You can find out more about her on her website, or alternatively you can find her on Twitter and Facebook.

  Website: http://www.christine-murray.com

  Blog: http://www.mermaiden.ie

  Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MurrayChristine

  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/christinemurraybooks

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight


  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  About the Author