by Holly Martin
But she pushed me gently away, her face pale with fear. It was then that I noticed she was with a small group of people, mainly men. One of the men looked very concerned by the look of fear on her face.
‘Cassidy, you’re alive, I was so worried about you,’ I gabbled. ‘Is Freya ok, is she with you?’
‘Yes, she’s fine. What are you doing here?’ Cassidy hissed, her eyes wide with panic.
I stared at her in confusion, why was she scared to see me. Did she think I’d hurt her?
‘Cassidy?’ asked the man next to her in confusion.
Cassidy looked around fearfully and her eyes fell on Amelie. ‘You? You did this? You brought her down here. Is this some kind of sick revenge, vengeance for the life of your daughter? I told you, I told you she’s not like that. You brought her down here to die didn’t you?’
My heart leapt as I realised the look of panic on Cassidy’s face was not out of fear for herself, but fear for my safety. I turned to face Amelie. Was this true? Had she brought me down here to be killed, had she shown me her inner sanctum because she knew I would never leave?
Amelie stood. ‘Cassidy you might want to keep your voice down a bit, you’re drawing a lot of attention.’
Amelie was right, people were looking now.
But Cassidy didn’t seem to notice. ‘How could you do this? You with your high morals. When those amongst us wanted to go back to the villages and kill the Putarians you told us we couldn’t. You said we wouldn’t sink to their level, and now you bring Eve here to die, it wasn’t her that killed your daughter. It wasn’t her fault.’
‘Eve? This is Eve? This is the Sentinel?’ the man next to Cassidy said. A furious whispering broke out amongst the people around us.
In a movement, that was just a blur, Seth suddenly had me pinned in the corner, his body blocking me from the suddenly angry people around us.
The furious whisperings, the anger, even the laughter from the other side of the room, suddenly died out. The room was silent with an unspoken anger, hatred and vengeance. Many lives had been lost, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, daughters and sons had all been killed in the villages, and somehow, trapped below ground for weeks on end, I had become the scapegoat, the one person they could blame, the one person they had all grown to hate.
Amelie had brought me down here to die. And I had trusted her, felt safe with her. I had listened to my heart and it had let me down.
A plate flew from the crowd, and smashed against Seth, followed by a cup, which smashed against the wall above our heads, showering us with fragments of porcelain.
Suddenly one of the men broke the tight ranks around us and ran forward, his fists clenched, his eyes filled with hate.
‘No, please don’t,’ I begged, knowing that Seth would kill him the moment he got close. But the man came up against an invisible wall, surrounding me and Seth. We had been shielded.
I looked around in confusion. There was a man standing next to Amelie and it was evident that he had shielded us.
Amelie climbed up onto the table and whistled loudly, the room fell silent.
‘She will not be harmed, if anyone wants to hurt her you will have to come through me or Thaddeus first, do you understand?’
The crowd mumbled angrily.
‘Go about your business,’ Amelie growled. ‘The Elders will deal with this.’
The crowd dispersed, reluctantly, shooting me evil glares as they walked away. She clearly had more weight than I thought.
Cassidy walked away too, embarrassed. ‘I’m sorry Eve… I didn’t mean for this to happen.’
I smiled at her. ‘It’s ok.’
Amelie hopped down from the table and came to stand near us.
‘I think we should go now,’ Seth said quietly.
Amelie shook her head. ‘That is not for you to decide. I will ask the Elders to heal Eve, or to protect you here until her Guardians come back.’
The tall man who had shielded us approached, his silver hair long and plaited, his eyes a fierce grey. ‘What is the meaning of this Amelie?’ Why is she here?’
‘Because she needs our help, Thaddeus. I see her heart, and she is true and kind. She had no knowledge of what went on in the villages, not until a few days ago. She would have helped us if she knew, I see this now.’
Thaddeus shook his head.
‘Do you doubt me Thaddeus?’ Amelie said, angrily.
I smiled to myself, she was full of fire, that was for sure.
‘I don’t doubt what you see, Amelie, my friend, but I wonder if you see what she wants you to see.’
Amelie shook her head.
Another man approached, he was tall also, but where Thaddeus was thin, he was broad and strong, his eyes had the silvery glow of a Zeki. He was with a woman, who had a strangely exotic beauty. She looked like she might be Turkish or Arabian. Her eyes were silver also.
‘Eve Jones,’ the man bowed his head slightly. ‘I am Barak and this is my wife Naomi.’
A short bald man appeared, as if from nowhere. ‘Shall we use my room?’
He walked off expecting us to follow, which we did, with Amelie bringing up the rear.
‘Next time we get caught in the rain, Seth, we’ll just get wet,’ I muttered as he took my hand.
‘Next time you want to go back for your sunglasses, you will take all of your personal guard with you,’ he muttered back.
‘Well next time you get married, take your wife on a decent honeymoon. This one hasn’t exactly been a barrel of laughs.’
‘What do you think I was trying to do with that island, except of course you decided to bring all your Guardians along with you?’
‘You just said I had to bring them everywhere, even to get my sunglasses,’ I muttered, suddenly smirking at the ridiculousness of the conversation.
Seth caught my smirk and looked away so I wouldn’t see his.
We had reached a door at this point and the short bald man pushed it open, inside was a circle of chairs. He sat himself on one and Thaddeus, Amelie, Barak and Naomi sat around him. Me and Seth sat opposite.
‘I am Jason, you know the others?’
I nodded.
‘My family and friends want you dead…’ Jason said, simply.
‘Over my dead body,’ Amelie snarled.
‘Well the day we turn against each other has not yet arrived Amelie, so I do not imagine any blood will be spilt today. My brothers, sisters?’ Jason addressed the others.
‘I’m not inclined to see her dead either,’ said Thaddeus. ‘Amelie says her heart is kind and I believe her. We know she has that ability.’
‘Whether that is true remains unclear, but her hand did not hold the knife that killed our loved ones,’ Barak said.
‘But she left us to die,’ Naomi said. ‘That makes her as bad as those that did it.’
‘She didn’t know. I see this, she would have fought for us, had she known,’ Amelie said.
‘Why did you come here Eve?’ asked Thaddeus. ‘What do you want from us?’
‘I don’t want anything, I don’t mean you any harm or any inconvenience. I was injured and we were looking for a Zeki when the storm started. We were just looking for somewhere to shelter. I had no idea you lived here. If you wish, we will go.’
‘I think that might be wise,’ Naomi said. ‘If the Putarians find you here, they will kill us all.’
‘Naomi, she’s a child, you would send a child out into the rain and thunder, out into the waiting arms of the Putarians to save your own neck,’ Jason said.
‘Rather her than the lives of my own,’ Naomi said. ‘She left us, deserted us when we needed her, now we will desert her.’
‘It is not our job to protect her,’ Barak said. ‘She has Guardians for that.’
‘She can’t reach her Guardians,’ Seth said. ‘Her link with them is blocked, as is her powers, she is defenceless now.’
‘You want us to fix this, to heal this link before you go?’ Jason asked.
&nbs
p; ‘Yes. Please. The Zekis and Donum are our allies, we help our allies,’ Seth said.
‘Yes we do,’ Barak said, pointedly.
‘I swear, I had no knowledge of what they were doing,’ I said. But they had no need to believe me. They didn’t know me and it was easier to listen to the rumours. ‘I would have helped you if I’d known,’ I said, uselessly.
They were silent as they stared at me.
‘How did your powers get blocked?’ asked Jason.
‘Adam, my… brother, he injected me with something to block them. The drugs that I have been injected with before have normally worn off after a few hours, but this is something different.’
‘Adam?’ asked Barak.
‘The new Sentinel,’ Thaddeus explained. ‘The Oraculum’s new puppet.’
I scowled at this.
‘I don’t think I want to get in the middle of that, the Oraculum, another Sentinel,’ Jason shook his head. ‘If we heal you, then we could anger the Oraculum or this new Sentinel. It’s best not to get involved. If you aren’t The Sentinel now, then we certainly shouldn’t feel obligated to help you.’
Seth stood up. ‘She is the Sentinel, she will save the world, you know this,’ he said. ‘The Oraculum are broken, there are now only four that stand on the council of nine. Three others, Cain, Matthias and Leon have left the Oraculum as they still believe that Eve will save the world and as the others would not stand for her, they left. Nereus was killed for his belief that Eve would save the world. In all the prophecies of the end of the world, she is the one standing alone fighting for it. If you believe this, if you believe in this prophecy, then refusing to help her is condemning her to death, condemning all of you to death.’
Thaddeus shook his head. ‘The Oraculum have turned against each other, they are killing each other? I didn’t know that. That makes me less inclined to help, to interfere.’
‘Please,’ Seth begged. ‘If you are so scared of the Putarians out there then they pose a real threat to Eve too. I can fight for her, but I can’t fight all of them, I can run, but I can’t keep running. The Guardlings, the young Guardians are on their way from the fort, it will take eight maybe ten hours to get here, if you won’t help, at least let us stay till they come.’
‘We have to help her,’ insisted Amelie.
‘We don’t have to do anything,’ Barak said.
Thaddeus leaned over to whisper something to Jason, but he shook his head, Naomi whispered to Barak and he nodded
‘Don’t you see, this is bigger than all of us, bigger than the Putarians, the Oraculum, she will save the world, you have to help her,’ Seth pleaded, but it was evident that no one was listening now, the four elders were arguing amongst each other in hushed angry whispers. Only Amelie was watching us, listening to Seth’s pleas.
‘What is it with you, the Guardians are loyal, protective but they’re not this vehement. This is something else, this isn’t about her saving the world is it, this is something more?’ Amelie asked, as the angry arguing went on her behind her.
‘I do believe she will save the world, but yes, it isn’t about that, not anymore, not for me,’ Seth pointed at his wedding ring.
Amelie turned to stare at me incredulous. ‘You’re married! How old are you?’
‘Seventeen,’ I mumbled.
‘My god, how tightly do the Oraculum have you bound to have you married off to a Guardian at seventeen, I know they want to keep an eye on you, but that’s ridiculous.’
‘I didn’t marry Seth because the Oraculum wanted me to, I married him because I love him.’
Amelie laughed. ‘You’re a child, what do you know about love?’
I stood angrily. ‘It consumes me, it isn’t just a part of me, it is all of me. When he kisses me, when he touches me, my love for him burns through my veins, through my skin. It isn’t just love though, not anymore, I need him, like I need air to breathe.’
Amelie looked at me with some approval. ‘You’re older than you look.’
Amelie turned to face the arguing, and seconds later she too was putting across her pennies worth.
Finally the arguing stopped and Thaddeus stood. ‘It has been decided, you will leave now.’
‘This is madness,’ Amelie said, furiously. ‘We can’t abandon them, can’t kick them out.’
Barak shook his head. ‘If the Putarians find her here, they will slaughter all of us. We all agreed when we came here that we would have nothing more to do with these prophecies, with the Oraculum or the Guardians now.’
‘If the Putarians come here, they will slaughter you anyway, regardless of whether Eve is here or not,’ Seth said, quietly.
Naomi shrugged. ‘Maybe, maybe not, it’s not a risk we are willing to take.’
‘Ok, let me ask you this, do you believe she will save the world?’
Naomi hesitated, then nodded. ‘Yes, and there are many here that do too, some have seen it.’
‘Then you are condemning yourselves to death anyway, if you don’t help, if she dies tonight or tomorrow at the hand of the Putarians or Reapers, then she won’t be able to save the world, and we all will die.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Thaddeus said, quietly.
‘Please leave now, or we will have to make you,’ Jason said.
I stood and Seth stood too.
‘I’ll escort you out,’ Amelie said, quietly.
She opened the door and stepped outside. Immediately I knew we were shielded as we followed her and Thaddeus out into the larger room.
The room fell silent as the Zekis and Donum watched us walk towards the stairs.
I scanned the room for Cassidy, but I couldn’t see her.
We arrived back at the stairs and as Amelie closed the door behind us. I heard the room erupt into furious shouts but Thaddeus was guarding the door making sure no one followed us. We walked quickly up the stairs, through the cupboard and out into the old church.
‘Follow the path a few hundred yards up the hill, and you’ll come to an old shed, we store our fire wood in there, it’s not much, but it’s at least a shelter from the storm. I will try to convince them to help you, and if I do, then at least I will know where to find you. I’m sorry.’
‘It’s ok,’ I smiled. ‘I’m just glad so many of you are alive, and regardless that you all hate me, knowing that so many of you are here, that’s cheered my day up no end.’
Amelie followed us to the front door. ‘I’m ashamed to admit that I was one of the ones that hated you. But now I see you differently, we’ll meet again, Eve, I see this. I just hope it’s under better circumstances.’
I nodded.
‘I’m afraid I have to ask you to leave the cloaks here, we cannot have any connection between you and this place.’
I nodded and took off my cloak, pulling on my wet T-shirt from where Seth had discarded it on the floor. Seth did the same.
‘Take care of yourself Eve,’ Amelie touched my shoulder, affectionately.
‘You too, and thanks for the food.’
She smiled, weakly
Seth opened the door, and the wind and rain surged round us. He took my hand and we ran together out into the storm.
We followed the path, as instructed and through the wind and rain, a tiny shadowy hut emerged. The door was unlocked, it was only firewood after all. We quickly ran in and Seth shut the door behind us.
There was hardly any space in there, but at least we were sheltered from the rain. I sat down in the corner and Seth folded himself in next to me, pulling me into his arms. I shivered against him, but his warmth soon made me warm too.
‘Was that true, what you said to Amelie,’ Seth said, quietly.
I thought back, wondering to what Seth was referring, then I smiled as I realised. ‘About how much I love you? Yes, in fact it was probably an understatement.’
Seth smiled.
‘I wish I could show you how much I love you,’ I said. ‘Maybe I can show you some of it.’
I took his hand and placed
it over my heart. ‘Now kiss me.’
Seth obliged, taking my face in his other hand, his warm hot mouth enclosed mine. My heart exploded, like it always did when he kissed me, breaking into a furious canter. And Seth felt it, hammering against his fingertips, he smiled as he continued to kiss me. He moved my hand to cover his heart, and I smiled as I could feel the same acceleration, the same desire.
Eventually we parted.
‘You should get some sleep Seth, I’ll wake you if there’s any trouble. The Putarians won’t be looking for us in this weather, and the Guardlings will be here soon.’
‘I’ll be fine,’ Seth said, kissing my fingers.
‘You’re exhausted.’
‘Yes, but I’m not going to sleep.’
‘Just half an hour Seth, I’ll be ok for half an hour.’
Seth smiled. ‘I’m not sleeping Eve, I’m not leaving you unprotected. You could sleep though if you want.’
I tutted. ‘Well maybe I can rejuvenate you.’ I was quite proficient at the healing side of things now, but to expel exhaustion was not something I had any practice at. Zach had mentioned it once, that one of the Zekis had done it for him. The Guardians didn’t need much sleep, but after four or five sleep deprived days, even they started to flag. Zach had said that the Zeki had eradicated all tiredness from him, though this had made him feel more tired when the effects had worn off.
‘It’s worth a go I suppose,’ Seth shrugged.
I put my hand to Seth’s head and focussed on the area of the brain responsible for sleep. I released some of my healing power.
Seth’s head rolled back, his eyes immediately closing and seconds later he was snoring softly.
I pulled a face. I had inadvertently forced him into a deep sleep. This had been done to me a few times, to help complete the healing process, when I had been injured. Seth would not be happy when he woke.
I considered waking him, forcing him awake, but he needed the sleep. It would only be for a few hours. I would stay awake until then. I would be his protector for a change.
I forced myself into a sitting position, so I wasn’t lying wrapped in his warm arms, and watched the rain out the window.
To my annoyance I woke a few hours later. I had been determined to stay awake whilst Seth slept, but I was lying on the shed floor, so at some point I must have fallen asleep.