by M S C Barnes
Zach, watching Seb, looked angry.
“I’m going to stop this,” he muttered to Aelfric. Turning quickly he took a step towards Georges and Emile. Aelfric spoke quietly but firmly.
“No, Zach. That isn’t the way.” He nodded at Dierne who zoomed in front of Zach, blocking his path.
“Well what is then?” Zach shouted, frustrated. “She’s not going to listen to reason is she?”
Nicole seemed delighted by the exchange and laughed.
“Feeling the strain Zach? Worried about your friend? You are right, I won’t listen to reason, when reason means hearing lies from Aelfric. What I will listen to is your account of where you hid your piece of the knot.” Zach glanced over at Scarlet and then frowned at the sword in his hand and said nothing. “Come on, Zach. You wouldn’t shut up before. Why so reticent now? Can you not even raise a smart-mouthed comment?”
Seb knew what Zach’s issue was. After breaking his part of the Shield Knot seal, he had given it to Scarlet and it was she who had hidden it, not Zach. So while Nicole demanded Zach tell her where his piece was hidden he, actually, had no idea. Now Seb glanced at Scarlet, who stood the other side of Aelfric, in the shadows. She looked horrified by what was happening and Seb wondered if she would be the one to weaken and tell Nicole what she wanted to know. But as he looked at her, she looked at him. She gave him just the slightest shake of her head as if trying to reassure him she was no more likely to reveal the location of Zach’s piece than Zach would have been; to do so would risk both her brother and Zach being damned to the Soul Drop, and she obviously knew that.
“Well, if you won’t talk Zach,” Nicole turned, “Caretaker how about you?” she said. The Caretaker stood near Reynard, frowning and didn’t even bother to look over at Nicole or to reply. “Dierne then,” Nicole said, turning back. “Come on. One of you must want to start the ball rolling.”
Ignoring her, Dierne knelt beside Aelfric and whispered into Seb’s ear, “I want to help. I have Aelfric’s sanction. Seb, I can join Alice’s mind and weave your pain through us both,” he said. “Let me.” Seb’s head was swimming; he groaned as the golem hit its leg on Henri’s barrier and pain ripped through his own knee.
“I can’t do any more than I am, Seb,” Alice now said. “Let Dierne help.” Seb nodded and was stunned as, instantly, he felt the intensity of the pain halve.
Using Cue, Aelfric now stood. He placed a reassuring hand on Zach’s shoulder and then walked towards the centre of the mausoleum. The wolves went with him. As he approached, Nicole lifted her chin and crossed her arms and then eyed him up, quizzically.
“You look in a poor way, Aelfric. Are you ill?” she said, not sounding the least bit concerned. Ignoring the question, Aelfric stopped and actually turned his back on her. She looked astounded and then annoyed as he address everyone else in the mausoleum.
“No member of any group owes loyalty where loyalty requires them to go against their good conscience.” He looked directly at each member of Nicole’s group before continuing slowly. “I have not spoken of the events at the Hurlers because I did not wish his actions, on that one night, to eclipse the hundreds of years of devoted service Heath gave to his role. But a young and innocent Custodian will die tonight if I do not make clear to you all exactly what did happen. Once you have the truth, it will then be for each of you to decide the path you take.”
“Aelfric,” Nicole began.
“Let him speak!” Yvette said, frowning at her.
“I will not!” Nicole snapped. “It will all be lies.”
“Then I will not speak,” Aelfric said. “Dierne.” Dierne immediately leapt into the air and began circling above Aelfric’s head, leaving a trail of his passage behind him. Alice, realising what he was doing, zoomed up to join him, followed by Dæved and then, to Seb’s surprise, Riven. Within seconds the four Dryads had created a column of green. “Torhtian nú!” Aelfric said. The column flattened with a loud clap, upended and began spinning. The Dryads re-materialised beside it and everyone stared into the mirror as hazy shapes began to appear in it — a circle of standing stones, Heath in the middle of them, raising his left hand to capture moonlight and shine it onto the inlaid stone at the centre of the circle.”
“Stop now Aelfric!” Nicole yelled at him and suddenly she raised her arm and tilted her hand towards him.
“What are you doing, Nicole?” Yvette shouted as Trudy launched herself at Nicole. The Caretaker was instantly in motion too but before either reached her, Cue and Pace leapt at her. Riven zoomed down, grabbed her under the arms and hoisted her away from them, placing her back on the ground near to the cenotaph. From there she shouted at Aelfric.
“Aelfric, I will not permit you to —”
“Permit him to what? To show the truth?” Henri called to her. “Surely you want to know what really happened?”
Aelfric hadn’t even turned around; trusting his Guardians and the wolves to protect him, he stood where he was, back still to Nicole. Trudy, standing in front of the wolves, staff in hand, spoke menacingly.
“Attack him again and, Custodian or not, I will kill you.” She glared at Nicole.
The images within the Torhtian mirror were still playing but in an eerie silence — no sound accompanied them — and, in the awkward stand-off, all eyes were drawn to watch as Heath tried to open the Access Stone to the Soul Drop. The moonlight he reflected onto it rebounded, striking him like a bolt of lightening and he was thrown backwards, out of the circle. When, with difficulty, he got to his feet and staggered back into the centre, he was holding his left hand to his chest, obviously injured. He lifted his head and gave a silent scream of rage.
Seb didn’t need to watch; he remembered clearly the next events — which included his own arrival, accompanied by his group and most of Aelfric’s; the manipulation of him, by Heath, causing him to open the Access Stone and then the Soul Drop itself; the emergence of Braddock’s soul from the Soul Drop and his attack first on Aelfric and then on him. Everyone within the mausoleum stared at the mirror in awed silence; everyone except Henri, who was still focussed on containing the golem, and Aelfric, who now returned to Seb and sat beside him on the wet ground, looking pale and breathing heavily.
Seb’s memories of that night were mainly punctuated by fear and confusion. But at the end of it all had come clarity, a belief in his own power and a conviction that he could take control. Glancing across at the golem striking Henri’s barrier over and over, he struggled to comprehend how just an intention by Nicole and Jacqueline could cause such injury and make him feel such pain. Trying not to look at the blood stains on the golem, he looked instead at the effigy Aiden and Nat were still holding, which had been so quickly and roughly made by them, with the intent — and the belief — that they could use it to protect him. Sympathetic influence … can be a positive influence as well as a negative one … you can choose whether you are affected … Aelfric had said. You just need to believe in your own strength to fight the influence and in their intent to protect you.
The images were still rolling on in the mirror. Seb, his head pounding as, once again, the golem hit its head against Henri’s barrier, looked up in time to see himself, besieged by a colony of bats, striding through them towards another, massive cluster of the creatures, which, mobbing Alice, had caused him to fall from the sky and still continued their frenzied attack on him on the ground. Seb watched himself lift his hand and send a pulse of power outward from it, destroying the bats and freeing Alice. He had done that without thinking, compelled by his concern for his twin. You just need to believe in your own strength to fight the influence…
Nicole wasn’t watching the images, she had looked away and was fiddling with the object in her pocket again. She ignored the gasp Jean-Paul gave as he and everyone else watched a group of thirty or more gytrash gather, surround the stone circle and then begin a vicious onslaught on Aelfric. Bowing her head, as if accepting defeat and unable to look, she remained motionless for some time. As
the final minutes of Heath’s life were displayed for everyone to see, she slowly slipped her hand from her pocket and then suddenly spoke into the silence.
“Zach, let’s start again with you shall we?” she said, her voice echoing around the mausoleum. Her group, who had been absorbed by what they were witnessing, all glanced at her.
“Er, start what with me?” Zach shouted back.
Nicole laughed. “You know what.”
Zach looked confused. “You can’t still be on that can you?” he said. “Weren’t you watching?”
“That little circus,” she waved her hand at the Torhtian mirror, “changes nothing. I have something far more entertaining — and real — for you to watch. Take a look at your friend, Zach. Poor Seb, how he’s suffering now,” she chuckled.
Even with Dierne’s help, the pain was once more becoming unbearable for Seb and he placed his forehead on his knees, clasping his arms around his legs.
In a swift movement Nicole suddenly brought the object she was holding to her mouth and blew into it. A piercing whistle ripped through the night air followed by what sounded like the shattering of glass. Nicole lowered her hand.
“What was that?” Trudy yelled, taking a few paces towards her. Riven swooped across and barred her path.
Nicole smiled at Trudy, then looked at Zach. “And now for that entertainment. Just watch,” she said and waved her hand skyward. A few dark shapes lifted from the treetops just behind the mausoleum, accompanied by the sound of cawing. Everyone, including Seb, did watch these shapes as they circled once above the enclosure and then suddenly descended, dipping to the ground, and flying low over the grass. As the light from the firefly torches illuminated them they were revealed as three, huge crows and now they veered left, heading for the golem. “Keep watching,” Nicole called as Reynard and Yvette both turned towards the approaching birds. Holding the Sælen Sword in one hand, Reynard drew the fine blade from the scabbard on his back with the other and told Lily and Dom to take cover within the lea of the cenotaph. Yvette didn’t move, she just watched as more of these birds lifted from the treetops and swooped down towards the mausoleum. The Caretaker and Trudy ran past her to join Reynard, reaching him just as the first crows did and just as Reynard swept his sabre around in an arc. It sliced through the leading crow but the creature disappeared, dissolving into a black haze around the blade.
“They’re totems!” Dom shouted, having stood, steadfastly where he was in order to maintain the light source Henri needed.
The black haze continued on its path and then reformed into the solid shape of the crow, yards behind Henri.
“Yes they are,” Nicole laughed, “And the joy of a crow totem is that it can shape shift!” As she spoke, the second crow swerved around Reynard to his right. He swung at it with his sabre, slicing though it and that one too changed into a vaporous haze and continued on its trajectory, reforming into a solid crow before circling left.
And now the third crow flapped its way towards the golem. Trudy, standing in front of it, struck at the bird with her staff. It evaporated around the wood and reformed behind her but in front of the small figure. Diving, it stretched its feet forward and sank its talons into the golem’s head before Trudy was able to strike it again, causing it to dissolve into a haze once more. Seb cried out and clasped his own head in his hands. It felt as though two knives had been driven into the top of his skull. Zach, looked at him, horrified, then he turned and sprinted to the cenotaph, joining Trudy as a group of five more crows swooped over the walls and into the mausoleum.
“Nicole,” Yvette shouted, watching the first three crows join up in formation with the new group and sweep across the grass towards her. “This is madness. What we just saw,” she pointed up at the Torhtian mirror, “it’s not what you told us happened. Seb and Aelfric weren’t to blame, Heath was! Stop this torture. It is wrong.”
“Do not challenge me!” Nicole yelled at her. “Your job is to protect me, nothing more!”
Yvette looked momentarily stunned and then shock turned to anger. “My job is to protect all Custodians,” she shouted and leapt across to stand side-by-side with Trudy. As the front two crows reached them, in unison they swung their staffs through the air, striking the crows, causing them to evaporate, and then they backed up to stand inches in front of the golem, preventing the birds reforming near it.
The next crows were already speeding towards them and Zach and Reynard leapt forward, both swinging their Sælen Swords and striking one each. As the swords struck the birds, instead of them dissolving, however, a flurry of sparks erupted and they screeched and veered off left and right. Zach and Reynard exchanged surprised glances and then grins, and The Caretaker, armed with the third Sælen sword, jumped in front of them and, lifting it high, brought it down on the next bird. Again there was a dazzle of sparks and the crow gave a shrill squawk and turned sharply away.
Seb could feel blood from his scalp dripping down his temples and, in the flickering light from Aiden’s torch, watched as several drops fell onto his hands. Nat dabbed them away.
“Seb,” she whispered tearfully, “believe in our protection. We want to protect you more than she wants to harm you.”
Seb wasn’t listening, he was panicking. His scalp smarted and the amount of blood running down his face was turning from drips into a trickle. He glanced across at the golem, but was only able to catch glimpses of it between the feet of the Guardians as they jumped and leapt, battling more and more crows as the number of birds joining the attack swelled. But the glimpses he caught through the melee were good enough to confirm his fear. Across the top of the golem’s head a tear had appeared and the material around it was stained.
Jacqueline, nearby, was sobbing again. “I should have thought,” she said. “They have been gathering around her for a while.”
“What?” Scarlet asked.
“The crow totems. What she was doing — it caused so many of them to gather.”
Aelfric was still sitting beside Seb, leaning against the wall, looking pale, his breathing laboured. But now, keeping his hand on Cue’s back, he pushed Pace over to Seb.
“Guard him and help him,” he ordered the wolf and then, with difficulty, he slowly stood up. “Greg,” he whispered. “Emile and the others cannot be here. Help Seb.”
“What?” Greg sounded surprised. “But there’s little I —”
“Do what you can,” Aelfric said, gazing back down at Seb and looking apologetic. “Seb,” he said, “I will be back in a minute.”
Seb stared up, blinking away blood that was dripping from his eyebrows into his eyes. His head was pounding so much he couldn’t really concentrate on what was being said to him and simply watched as Aelfric turned away from him. He felt some small relief as Pace now flopped across his lap giving him an instant charge of energy which lessened the aches and pains in his body slightly.
Greg moved across and crouched down beside him and Scarlet did the same. Glancing across at Zach who had just struck another crow, sending a shower of sparks skyward and the crow flying away to his right, she whispered to Greg, her words only just audible over the sound of the cawing and screeching of the crows.
“How is Nicole controlling them? Can’t we do something? Maybe turn them against her?”
“She isn’t controlling them,” Greg said, sadly.
“Then how is she getting them to attack the golem?” she asked.
“Crow totems protect the ancient lores,” Jacqueline answered her question. “What Nicole has been doing is an affront to those lores and that is why they have been gathering around her — for weeks now. All she has done tonight is shatter the veil she was using to conceal the golem from them and now, seeing it, they find it an aberration — a breach of the lores they must uphold. They will naturally seek to attack it. She knew that.” Looking angry now, she left Philippe and followed Aelfric who had taken the few steps across to Georges and Emile.
Greg shook his head. “Aelfric knows that the crow
s will see Emile as the same — Using the water gateways has made him an abomination to them — He is the worst affected of Nicole’s group and when they notice him, they will attack him; but the rest of Nicole’s group are also at risk,” he said. “Look.” He pointed as two crows dived over the wall on their side of the mausoleum. Ignoring the activity around the golem, they turned towards Georges and Emile.
“You need to get him and yourself out of here,” Aelfric shouted over the noise to Georges and waved his hand, making the door reappear in the wall the other side of Seb. Georges was having to hold Emile up and stared at Aelfric, at a loss. He, like the others, had seen the images in the mirror and so now was unsure of how to react to him, given that Nicole still seemed intent on vengeance. He didn’t have long to think about it, however, as he spotted the two crows approaching. “They will attack Emile,” Aelfric shouted. “Let Dierne help; you both need to go through the doorway.” Dierne had zoomed across and was about to lift Emile when the first crow slammed into his back. Hooking onto his clothing with its talons, it began pecking at his jacket. Georges frantically grabbed at the bird, trying to pull it off his friend. The second crow, reaching them, landed on Emile’s shoulder and jabbed at his ear with its sharp beak. Emile screamed and Aelfric, raising his hand, shot a bolt of white light at the bird. As the bolt struck it, the crow screeched, let go of Emile and flapped away, rising up to disappear over the wall of the mausoleum.
Nicole had been busy enjoying the spectacle of the battle between Guardians and crows and as Emile screamed she turned to him.
“What have you done Aelfric,” she shouted and Yvette, hearing her yell, glanced across as Aelfric lowered his hand and Emile dropped to the ground, Georges holding him. Assuming the worst, she left Trudy and sprinted at Aelfric, shouting at him.
“Leave him alone!” She covered the distance between them at phenomenal speed. Emile lay on his side, screaming and flailing his arms. Georges was still trying to detach the second crow from his back as three more birds swept towards them and Jacqueline reached them. Kneeling, she pulled at the crow but its wings were beating and flapping so furiously she couldn’t get a purchase on it.