“Can you hear what they’re saying?” whispered Emily.
“I might be able to if you’d keep quiet,” I snapped. In my head I was trying to convince myself that he was nothing like Ludo. I listened and managed to catch some of what they were saying.
“It’s good we could meet up today,” smiled Ludo, holding up her goblet for the boy to refill. She was acting so differently than the Ludo I had met back in town; the Ludo I knew her to be.
The boy took a flask and leaned closer, pouring what looked like red wine into her empty goblet. “I was happy to hear you wanted to meet with me,” he said with a low, smooth voice. He seemed blind to the beast he now conversed with.
“Then you’ve had time to think about my request?” she continued.
“I have,” he sighed. “But I must say, I thought my love would have been enough.”
“Did he just say he loved her?” whispered Emily.
“Shhhh!” I snarled.
Justin peered back at me with his hand over his mouth and a smug sarcasm in his eyes, but I pretended not to notice. ‘How could he love HER?’ my blood curdled at the thought.
“Ahh, yes your love,” said Ludo. “How can it ever be enough, if you continue to have more than I do? Am I to submit to you, accepting that I will never be equal?”
“Lustro,” he spoke softly. “You have always been favoured; burning brilliantly like the stars. It is your self-righteousness and insatiable appetite for power that concerns me.”
The boy took a ripe pear out of the basket, cut it and offered her a wedge.
“Why do you hold me back?” she sat up and pushed the pear away. “You say you care for me, and yet you keep me caged in this state of insignificance!”
“Is it insignificant to sit here having status above all others? Has all that I’ve given you already become old?” he asked.
“You would hold me back to be NOTHING if it weren’t for my persistence,” Ludo barked.
“And yet I have already given you more than any other citizen of Evoluii.”
“NO! All I am to you is a slave!”
“What slave is given a lavish life like yours, whose palace and retinue exceed even the highest of royalty?” the boy asked, reaching out to touch her hand, which she quickly pulled out of his reach.
“So you are denying me equality then; the ability to write and create like you?” she snarled.
“It is not the ability to write and create that you ask for,” he said calmly. “You have had ample opportunities to write with me and design villages that house and better the lives of our people. I have given you land to plant beautiful gardens and a voice to tell stories that move and motivate. My desire is that you love and be loved and even have a family beyond our own. But your hunger is not this,” he said with a sigh. “Your desire is to be me, and that I cannot give.”
Lustro’s heels bit deep into the soft grass as she rose and stood over him. “How powerful and mighty you must think you are, to believe I would want to be YOU, when in reality I cannot possibly imagine how boring that would be. I’m not surprised by your decision to turn down my request. HA!” she roared.
Her face began to twist into the recognizable face I had seen before. “What you should know is that I asked only as a courtesy to you.” Ludo’s pale hand slithered under his chin and she lifted his face towards her own. “What I really want, I do not have to ask for.”
Her mouth curled into a hideous smile, but the boy did not look frightened or angry, as one might have expected. Rather he looked horribly sad, sitting silently at her feet, looking up at her as a child looks up at a scolding mother.
“Why doesn’t he do something?” whispered Justin.
I watched him, lost in my own thoughts. He must surely see now, who she really is.
Ludo let go of his chin and turned her back towards him, “You bore me with your writings and your love for the things you create. But you are correct!” she turned again to look at him. “I don’t want the ability to create!” she howled. “I want the ability to destroy the boundaries you have imposed! These boundaries that keep us lesser than you. I will not be equal with you, for that is too simple. No, I will be GREATER than you dearest Henry, and not even YOU the Maker, will be able to stop me,” she hissed.
Did she just call him Henry? My mind raced to rewind her voice and I slid backwards through my thoughts and all the things Alfred had said about Henry, the Maker, his friend. But what about the painting back in the study? He was an older man, and yet his eyes, those bright green eyes were unmistakable. Ludo’s words spun around me, echoing in the chamber of my mind. He was so young, not much older than me. I could swear that someone had said the Maker was an older man. Or had I just assumed it?
While I was caught up in my own thoughts, Henry slowly stood and gently took Ludo’s pale hand, cupping it in his own. Ludo seemed awkward and unsure of what to do. It was as though he understood her actions, or even expected them.
How could he be so understanding? ‘She’s wicked!’ my thoughts screamed. Can he not see that?
His eyes met her face. “You may have been like a daughter to me, and have been given powers far greater than I should have allowed,” he said. “But don’t be fooled Lustro Basilicus to think you are invincible. For your strength will become your weakness and your evil will be harnessed for good.”
“HA!” she snarled. “But you cannot change me. You said so yourself! It is my choice how I live and who I serve. I choose to serve myself, and you cannot stop me. So if you can’t stop me, then who my dear Maker? Who would be so clever and strong that they would rise up against me, your brightest creation and risk their own life to do so?”
“If I desire it, even a fragile young girl, barely a woman would be able to stop you.”
For a moment Ludo stood silent. Eyeing Henry as though sizing up the words he had said. Then she spoke.
“A young girl?” she snickered. “I suppose she is another myth of grandeur for you to write about, that is, if you still have life in you to write?” The familiar, sinister smile spread across her face.
“Oh no,” Henry sighed. “The myth I speak of writes her own story.”
“Then you’re a FOOL for believing it!” she raged pulling her hand away from him. Her body surged with anger and a flurry of electric arcs shot from her hands and poured out thunderously against him, throwing him a good distance back into the water. Before he could move, she pounced on him like a lioness, refusing to loose her prey.
“She’s going to kill him!” screamed Emily. I panicked, knowing he was our only way home. “NO!” I screamed, tearing past willow branches towards them. Henry lay lifeless in the water at Ludo’s feet. My attention shifted to Ludo as I ran. She had become a frothing, hungry monster. Her trance was broken and her focus veered towards me, as her pupils dilated. Everything was happening faster than my thoughts could calculate. My dread of losing the Maker and our only way home were now belittled by the transformed beast that stood ahead of me. It was like a dream that I couldn’t stop from happening and all I could do was scream.
“NOOOOOOOOO!” I bellowed as I ran towards her.
Dark wings peeled out from behind Ludo’s back and rose above her head, doubling her size.
“It’s YOU!” she hissed as she leapt into the air. Her large bat-like wings fully unfolded, shadowing Henry and the water around him.
Pounding gusts of air swirled through my hair as I ran beneath her into the breadth of her shadow. Higher and higher she climbed in the sky until she was a dark speck against the blue horizon. Then she was gone.
Justin and Emily ran up behind me, panting. “You want to warn me next time you feel like doing something stupid like that?” scolded Justin.
“I can’t believe she flew away,” I shuddered as the fear and the aftermath of an adrenalin rush crippled me to my knees in the water beside the M
aker.
“Henry?” I lifted his head out of the water, but he was limp, his eyes closed and his hands lifeless, stirring only with the shifting surf. A wave tumbled in, and rocked his flaccid body in my arms and although he was without expression, he looked peaceful, as though he were only sleeping.
The waves of his hair shimmered in the sun, swaying like ochre coloured seaweed in the ebbing tide. I noticed something tangled in his hair. The sun’s rays bounced off a silvery reflective surface that I recognized. It was the necklace he had given me back in the water. It must have slipped off his neck and was being pulled away from him with the swells of the tide. Had it been Henry back there in these same waters of Lily Palus on that day when I had nearly drowned?
I reached out to grab the chain, but the undertow snatched it from me, pulling it down and away. I watched it slide deep into the water’s dark depths and out of sight. Instinctively I put my hand up to my chest and felt the charm still hanging under my shirt. The H stood for Henry.
“Henry!” I put my ear near his mouth, hoping he was still breathing. But the gurgling water made it too difficult to hear. His drenched attire was like Alfred’s – from a different time, not my own.
‘You can’t be dead,’ my thoughts darted through my head. Could we have failed?
“We need your help!” I begged for him to be alive. Then grabbing him under his arms, I lifted his upper torso. “Help me get him out of the water!”
Justin and Emily were quick to grab his legs and helped me pull his drenched body to the shore. Resting him on the warm sand of the water’s edge I pleaded with him, “Wake up!” It was difficult for me to accept that we may have failed and our only way home may have drowned. “Wake up!” I shouted again.
His eyes twitched and his eyelids slowly opened, revealing the brilliant green eyes that haunted me. The same ones I had first seen back in the deep cool waters. It took a minute for him to focus on us, but as he did the corner of his mouth curled in to a smile the way it had done before.
“He’s alive!” shouted Justin.
“That’s a relief,” he coughed out with confidence that closely resembled smugness.
“What were you doing with her?” I blurted out. “And why did you let her treat you that way? You are Henry, the Maker aren’t you?”
“Why yes, last time I checked.” He looked at all three of us, then stopping on me he said, “and you must be the Myth.”
Chapter Twenty
Spiritus
Hardly,” I laughed.
“But don’t worry,” interrupted Emily. “The Myth is alive and was found a couple days ago by Prospexi’s sister.”
“Surprised you didn’t know,” I said.
He looked at me, puzzled and I got the sense that the Maker might not be all that everyone thought he was.
“I figured that you of all people would know, being the Maker and all,” I said sharply.
“Actually, it was a couple days back for us, but not for him,” said Justin.
“Huh?”
“Think about it,” Justin continued. “How’s Henry supposed to know anything that happened before we came back in time? Technically for him, it hasn’t happened yet.”
I had forgotten that my past isn’t necessarily Henry’s past and my thoughts spun around inside my head, tangling themselves into a dizzying mess. Emily seemed just as confused.
“But should it really matter?” I asked. “People say that you know everything before it happens?” Henry’s eyes widened, but he didn’t say anything. I looked at him trying to get a sense of who he really was, but he remained silent, as though he were doing the same with me. Something didn’t add up.
A playful smile widened on his face.
“Well?” I pushed, frustrated by his smugness.
“They should say that I know enough,” he finally said. He sat up and held his hand out towards me. “I’m Henry... Henry Thorpe.”
With reservation I slowly placed my hand in his. “I’m Tali,” I said, expecting a handshake, but instead he leaned in, turned my hand over and kissed the back of it without taking his eyes off mine. It was hard not to get lost in the emerald eyes that appeared translucent in the sunlight; the same eyes that spoke to me under the water.
Justin reached in and broke our gaze.
“I’m Justin,” he said, shaking Henry’s hand firmly.
“And I’m Emily.” She giggled as Henry kissed the back of her hand as well.
“So why did you let Ludo do that to you?” I asked. “You know she’s evil, right?”
“Lustro?” he asked, his eyes widening.
“Ludo,” I replied firmly, emphasizing the contrast.
“Ludo,” he repeated slowly. “Hmm... Yes I suppose deception is an appropriate name, but what would you have me do?” his brows raising innocently.
“I don’t know? Capture her? Lock her up? Kill her?” I suggested.
“You’d have me kill someone I love? Just like that?”
‘LOVE?’ I thought. “How could you LOVE her?” I asked. “She just tried to kill you! What kind of love does that?”
“I did not say that she loves me,” he sighed, his eyes filled with hurt.
“If you really are the Maker, you should know that she’s going to do a lot more damage.”
“It is sad,” he sighed.
“Then why don’t you stop her?”
“Tali!” Emily broke in. “Let him recover before you batter him with questions.”
“It is not my purpose to fulfill,” he answered. “Nor the time, nor sun.” He looked away. Perhaps he was too ashamed to admit he was a fraud; that he didn’t know everything and didn’t have all the answers. It was sad to see Henry - the Great and Mighty Maker - appear so fragile and torn. Had I been too hard on him? Had I called his bluff? I felt sick inside. For all I knew he couldn’t even get us home.
“Well, at least you’re not dead,” said Justin.
“Right you are,” said Henry. “After all, how would I help you then?”
“Can you help us?” I asked.
His brow furled. “Oh please do try to contain your abundant faith in me Tali.”
“Well, if you were unable to stop Ludo, I don’t know what you can do for us,” I sighed.
“It’s not a matter of who can stop her, but who will and under what sun?” he said far more calmly than I felt. “I understand your concern Tali, but it is only because you haven’t yet read all of the chapters. There is much more written than this.”
“Right,” I sighed. “It’s all in your book, the Troth.”
“Yes,” he agreed despite my sarcasm. “Grab that stick,” he said pointing to a long thin piece of driftwood beside me.
I held it out towards him, but instead of taking the stick he wrapped his hand around mine. I felt my face flush but did my best to appear impassive as I watched him direct the opposite end of the stick through the sand like a paint brush.
“It can seem ambiguous at first, when a painter begins to paint his masterpiece,” he said, drawing some lines in the sand. “The colours and textures of the artist’s strokes can seem muddled and enigmatic,” he added. “But as the painter continues,” he drew a line towards me until the stick poked my knee. “...his vision is eventually revealed.” While I had been lost at first, I now realized he had drawn a bird, with its wings outstretched and its feet perched on my knee.
“Oh wow,” sighed Emily. “It’s a dove.”
“It looks more like an eagle,” mumbled Justin.
“No, it’s a dove,” said Emily. “You can tell by the wings. Eagles don’t have wings like that.”
“It’s a drawing in the sand,” said Justin. “Technically no bird has wings like that.”
The two bickered with each other over the possibilities of what type of bird it was, but it didn’t matter, as the sketc
h was beautiful.
I glanced at our hands still linked together and holding the stick. He noticed and opened his fingers, releasing me. I pulled away and looked up at his eyes that were focused on me. He had to be the one I met below in the water; his spell on me was undeniably unique.
“Do you recognize me?” I whispered below the heated debate about the bird. I needed to know.
“Should I?” he searched my eyes.
Of course he wouldn’t, because it hadn’t happened yet - at least not for him.
“Never mind,” I sighed, trying to sort out the jumbled thoughts inside my head. Then feeling his gaze still on me I said, “It’s just that I get so confused with what has already happened and what has not.”
“I can see you’ve met Alfred,” he grinned.
“What Tali is trying to find out is - are you the merboy that saved her?” laughed Justin who had evidently finished one argument and was trying to start another.
Henry glanced at Justin.
“She says you were a merboy, with a fish tail,” giggled Emily.
He looked back at me and I felt my face flush red with embarrassment. How stupid he must think I am. My thoughts groaned. Could I have been wrong?
“Well, stranger things have happened.” His crooked smile attempted to clear the awkwardness.
“Told ya she made it up,” Justin smirked at Emily.
“You know,” Henry began with his eyes smiling deliciously at me. “Sir Francis Bacon once said, If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Justin.
“Precisely that!” he laughed. “No matter, we should really be on our way before someone sees us,” he said as he struggled to stand. His body was saturated and he appeared still weak from his ordeal with Ludo. I fumbled to find the best way to help him up without being awkward, which of course only made it worse.
“It’s funny because we all thought the Maker was someone older,” said Emily.
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