Niamh and Grady started to relax. Something about the phoenix made them want to trust the bird.
‘My world is a world of magic, much like this one.’
‘Magic?’ said Niamh disbelievingly.
‘Yes,’ said the phoenix flatly. ‘Magic. How else would you explain me?’ he said, unfolding his fiery wings and lighting up the glade. ‘I am a creature of magic. I was born before humans, wizards and witches ever existed and it will be long after you have all left this world or my own before my time will be done. My life will not be measured in terms you can understand but my existence and yours are bound in ways you cannot yet begin to imagine.’ As he said these last words darkness crossed his face for a moment and the flames around him changed to a deep ruby red that gave no comfort. ‘For many years my world has lived in peace and harmony – of a sort. Like your world there have always been those who would use power for good and those who would use power for evil. Our worlds are linked but what happens in one does not, normally, affect the affairs of the other. But right now there are things happening which mean we need your help. And you most certainly will need mine.’
Niamh and Grady were puzzled. Their fear had subsided and the dogs sat quietly at their feet. ‘What sort of help could we give you, though?’ asked Grady. ‘We aren’t … magical … can’t do magic ...’
‘There is magic in all of us, Grady,’ said Bel. ‘The trick is being able to reach inside and use your inner vision to find it. Just because you’ve never yet done a thing does not mean the thing can’t be done,’ said the phoenix, grinning. ‘There is magic all around you in this world, though you may not see it.’
‘What magic?’ said Grady.
‘Why, the magic of the stones and the trees and the water and the air. It’s everywhere,’ replied the phoenix.
‘Well, if there was magic in our world then why can’t we all use it?’
The phoenix burst into laughter. It sounded like the roaring of a lion and the happy tinkling of a waterfall mixed together. The sound washed over the children and made them feel like laughing alongside the phoenix. ‘Why child, there are many of you that can! You’ve seen magicians and conjurers, circus performers and the like. They can all use it.’
Grady, however, was not impressed. ‘I’ve seen them,’ he said dismissively. They’re just a bunch of fakes. They can’t do real magic.’
The phoenix lowered his head towards Grady who tried to draw back from the penetrating gaze of the bird, but found his back up against the tree. ‘It is poor magic to be true but know this – you do not want to see the High Magic used on this world.’ Sitting back the phoenix seemed to draw breath. ‘You two of all children know of the magic places in the world. Think of where your parents have taken you – the forest glades and standing stones, the hidden valleys and silent caves – all these places have their own magic. And you also know that from time to time some of our people visit these places. You know of them in stories as elves or faeries, sprites, pixies and many other names handed down through the ages. Some of my friends have stayed here from time to time, choosing your world over their own. You have met some, though you would never guess.’
The children were captivated by the idea of having met magical folk! Their brows creased in thought as they tried to recall who they had met that could possibly have been magical. There was no one they could think of who was even remotely like those the phoenix was describing.
‘But we don’t know anyone like that,’ said Niamh. ‘There aren’t any magical folk round here.’
The phoenix shifted his weight and shook his fiery mane. ‘Does a tiger wear his stripes so everyone can see him or does he wear them to hide in the forest?’ said Bel in a low questioning tone. ‘Do you think we would make ourselves so obvious in this world? Even in my own world there are those who know this truth very, very well. You would do well to remember that. It will serve you well … in time.’ He glanced up at the darkening sky, barely visible now through the forest canopy. ‘It’s late and you must get home. Your parents will be searching for you. I can feel them turning their gaze over the land, trying to find you.’
‘Can we tell them we met you?’ said Niamh.
‘Of course,’ said the phoenix. ‘But tell them I will see them another day. There is a great deal I need to discuss with them, but not tonight. I have much to do and places to be. But will you come and see me again tomorrow?’
‘Yeah!’ said Grady with enthusiasm. ‘Try and keep us away!’
Niamh’s brow creased again in thought. ‘Do you know our parents?’ she asked.
Bel’s head swivelled to gaze at her. ‘What makes you ask?’
‘Well, you said our parents had shown us places, the standing stones and so on. How did you know that? How long have you been watching us? And you talk about them as if they are old friends.’
Bel laughed. ‘You have good hearing and far sight, don’t you? I do know your parents. And they know me. Well.’
‘But how could they? I mean they’d have told us about a phoenix in the backyard, don’t you think?’ said Grady.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Bel. ‘I forget myself sometimes. You really do not know, do you? You have no idea?’ Neither Grady nor Niamh said anything directly but their faces said enough. ‘You two are the children of the most gifted Wizard Prince and Witch Princess our land has seen in many years! Though you do not know it you are both royalty in my land, and a wizard and witch in your own right. And I am here to help you all come home.’
The children had no time to consider Bel’s words. Lightning suddenly forked down from the clear sky above and crashed into the trees around them. Bel leapt into the air and in a voice which boomed across the forest howled at the children, ‘Run! Run now before it is too late!’
Chapter 2
Secrets & Legends
Niamh and Grady screamed as the lightning struck. Bel leapt into the air as the first bolt hit the ground. He rose into the twilight sky and circled above the children.
‘Turn and run as fast as you can! Run to the cave,’ said Bel – or at least the children heard his words in their head but the bird had vanished into the sky above, so where the words came from they did not know.
Niamh needed no more warnings. She turned and sprinted back the way they had come. Grady was close behind but Niamh’s speed meant he was dropping further behind by the second. Instinctively, the dogs split themselves between the children – Cu staying with Grady and Fin running with Niamh.
Lightning struck either side of the children but never closer than a few metres away from them. The children looked up through the canopy of the forest as they ran and saw Bel above them with his wings outstretched in a protective umbrella of flame. Lightning continued to rain down from the cloudless sky, but whenever it came close to Bel, it was deflected away or sizzled into nothingness.
‘Make for the cave by the waterfall!’ Bel shouted urgently.
The children knew exactly where he meant. The waterfall was not far away. It was a small cleft in the woodland which fell away towards the river. Niamh and Grady knew why Bel was sending them there. The waterfall hid a small cave behind it which would be the perfect protection from the attack. They plunged off to their right and sped towards the cave.
The lightning was relentless and the air began to smell tinny and burnt from the barrage. The children knew that if it were not for Bel weaving his protective web across the sky above, they had no hope of escape. Ragged breaths escaped from them as they urged their tiring legs on and on into the deepening gloom. The dogs raced alongside them, frantically scanning each side for signs of further danger. As they fled towards the cave the children thought they could see a shape moving through the brush alongside them, but could not make out what it was. Branches snapped, and the sound of hoofbeats grew louder but still the children could see nothing.
Suddenly a huge beast burst onto the path ahead, rearing up as the children charged towards it. Niamh screamed and fell to the ground. Grady
, not seeing Niamh fall in front of him, ran headlong into her and tripped, throwing himself forward onto the path. He rolled onto his back as the beast’s front hooves crashed into the forest floor beside him. Niamh looked up in wonder and awe as before her stood a glowing white horse – no! Not a horse – a unicorn! Its silver horn shone as the beast dipped it towards them. The children both heard a voice in their head – this time from the unicorn and not Bel. ‘On my back, NOW!’
The unicorn knelt down quickly on the path as it spoke. Niamh and Grady stared at it, too scared to move until the voice of the phoenix again boomed out – ‘Get on, Get on now! Your lives depend on it!’
Niamh did not need to be told again. She picked herself up from the forest floor and helped a struggling Grady to his feet, pulling him to the unicorn, and roughly throwing him on before climbing up behind him. She reached around her brother and grabbed a handful of the unicorn’s mane in each of her hands. ‘We’re on!’ she said.
The unicorn sprang to its feet and turned into the forest. As they charged through the trees Bel dodged this way and that above them, deflecting the bolts away from the children. The unicorn did not slow but ran on, leaping over fallen trees, dodging around old stumps, and pounding through the small streams which ran together to form the river not far away. Niamh knew they were close to the cave. The unicorn must have flown, she thought, as the waterfall suddenly loomed out of the forest. Both children let out a scream as the unicorn charged towards the wall beside the falling curtain of water. They felt certain they could not stop in time but just as they closed their eyes and braced for a crash, the unicorn ducked aside behind the waterfall and into the cave.
The dogs, by now well behind, woofed and barked as they tried to find the children. Inside the cave the unicorn pulled up quickly and turned its head back towards the entrance. A clear crystal note rang out from its lips, echoing around the cave. The chime made the children gasp; they had never heard such a perfect sound from anything ever before. Within moments the two big black labs came bounding through the spray from the waterfall and collapsed on the cave floor, panting, muzzles flecked with foam. Their wagging tails showed how obviously happy they were to be back with the children.
Niamh and Grady had not moved but were still bent over the unicorn’s mane, hanging on with all their might and taking big gulps of air as their hearts pounded in their ears as loudly as the lightning had boomed outside in the forest. Slowly they released their grip and slid off the unicorn’s back, landing heavily on their bottoms on the cave floor. They hardly dared to move as the unicorn turned slowly round to face them. Its hooves clattered and echoed on the floor of the cave. The children suddenly realised they could hear the unicorn’s hooves and the sound of the waterfall, but all else was silent. The ferocious storm from the sky had stopped.
The glow from the unicorn’s body and glittering horn was joined by a sunrise stab of light as Bel swept into the cave. The walls and ceiling sparkled as tiny crystals in the rock reflected both the magical creatures’ colours until the children felt they were afloat in the night sky surrounded by the light of a thousand galaxies.
Bel regarded the children for a moment and then turned to the unicorn. ‘Thank you my friend, for coming to my call.’ Turning back to the children he smiled and said, ‘Allow me to introduce your unexpected helper tonight. Niamh and Grady, this is Embarr of the Tuatha De Danann – the faerie folk.’
The children turned to stare at each other. How were they going to explain this to Mum and Dad!
Now that the flight through the forest was over, the children started to shiver in the evening gloom. ‘You’re cold,’ said Bel.
Niamh just nodded as she hugged her feet to her chest.
‘Then quickly gather those stones together,’ said Bel, gesturing to the small rocks littered around the cave. In quick time the children had a small cairn built close to one of the walls. ‘Stand back for a moment,’ said Bel as he turned his head towards the cairn. The flames around his body, which had shrunk to no more than a small glow, began to burn brighter. A sudden stab of light reached out from Bel’s eyes towards the stones and heat began to fill the cave. The stones grew brighter and brighter as the magical light burned into their heart turning them first red, then orange, and finally a bright white which gave off a soothing warmth which seemed to reach into the core of the children, driving away their recent fears and shadows from the attack.
As the children moved close to the incandescent stones, the evening chill was driven away. Embarr moved close and lay down beside Niamh.
‘Do you remember your Irish legends, Niamh?’ asked Bel.
‘Why?’ she said as she reached out to touch the horn which was tantalisingly close.
‘Do you remember who Embarr was?’
Niamh thought for a moment and tried to dredge up the stories from the Irish mythology books sitting on her bookcase at home. One of the volumes was an old brown leather-bound book with roughly cut parchment-like pages. The book had always felt ancient to her with pictures that looked hand-coloured and not printed. The writing was a flowing script and had always made Niamh wonder how the printers could have made it look so old. One page leapt to her mind. A princess rode a white horse across an ocean towards the land of Tir na Nog – the Land of Promise. The caption at the bottom read Niamh and Embarr. Niamh’s eyes widened in sudden realisation. ‘Embarr was the horse of the Princess Niamh.’
‘That’s right,’ said Bel, as the unicorn whinnied at the sound of its name.
‘But that’s just a tale,’ said Niamh. She suddenly blushed as she realised how ridiculous that must sound – she was sitting next to a unicorn! ‘But this isn’t the real Embarr? Is it?’ she said with rising incredulity.
‘Nothing happens by chance, Niamh,’ said Bel. ‘Stories come and go and change across time but immortal creatures are bound to help those they serve, wherever they may be. There is more to life than you can imagine, Niamh,’ said Bel, smiling.
Niamh gazed in wonder at the shining creature beside her. This can’t be happening, she thought to herself.
‘And why not?’ came the response in her head.
‘Because you would be ancient now,’ said Niamh out loud.
‘Time is no barrier to us,’ came Embarr's words. ‘And we serve those of the royal and ancient lines, wherever they may be.’
Niamh glanced at Grady who was also staring in disbelief at Embarr. ‘Why didn’t Mum and Dad tell us?’ she said.
‘Why don’t you ask them yourselves?’ said Bel. ‘They are here.’ Embarr and the children turned towards the cave mouth as the sound of small rocks being dislodged announced the arrival of visitors.
Niamh and Grady leapt off the floor, ran to the entrance, and leapt into their parents’ arms just as they ducked inside the cave. Niamh’s mother, Grace, was slim with the same elfin-shaped face as Niamh and large almond-shaped eyes of piercing blue. Merritt stood a head taller but was more human-like. The hair which framed his square-jawed face was deeply auburn and showed just a tinge of the red that gave Grady his head of flame-like hair. His grey-green eyes looked like a stormy deep ocean radiating strength and power.
Grace ran her hands over each of the children to make sure they were okay. ‘We felt it start, we ran but couldn’t get here fast enough! Are you hurt? Did they get close to you? Did they see you?’ Grace blurted out in a voice quavering with the tension of a frantic search.
‘Mum – we’re fine,’ said Grady. ‘Bel saved us. Well actually, Bel and Embarr.’
‘They were amazing, Mum!’ said Niamh. ‘Bel flew above us and kept the lightning from hitting us and Embarr gave us the most amazing ride through the forest – you’ve never seen anything like it!!’
Grady’s dad stepped towards the phoenix and unicorn with a look that contained a deep sense of knowing. His movements were graceful and effortless. Those who met him for the first time felt he almost seemed to glide across the floor, barely touching the ground. ‘We have seen it b
efore Grady, many times. And yes, it is amazing.’ His voice was mostly calm but a slight trembling note gave away his sense of fear at the attack on his children.
Grady turned back to his mother and asked, ‘Mum, what did you mean just then – about “They” getting close or seeing us? Who do you mean?’
Grace turned to Merritt with a sorrowful but resigned look. ‘We have to tell them now. This isn’t something they can be protected from by us alone anymore.’
Niamh and Grady turned quizzical expressions towards each other and burst out almost in unison, ‘Protect us from who, from what?’
Bel, sitting off to the side shifted slightly, his talons clanking on the cave floor like the foot piece of a suit of armour. ‘Grace is right, Merritt,’ said the phoenix in a low, firm voice. ‘If they can reach the children here then we need to go where we can offer them more protection. You know this to be true.’
Merritt’s shoulders slumped. ‘I’m not ready for this tonight,’ he said.
‘You’ve been ready for this since before they were born, Merritt,’ said Bel.
‘Bel already told us who you are,’ said Niamh. ‘And what you, what we are.’
Grace and Merritt exchanged glances at Niamh’s revelation. ‘You told them?’ Grace said to Bel.
‘They had just met a phoenix in the forest, Grace. The truth is a powerful force for change and events tonight have proved a change is coming. Will you finish the tale?’
Merritt took a deep breath. ‘Come here you two and take a seat,’ he said to Niamh and Grady. The children sat on the ground beside their father with their backs to the still glowing stones.
‘Your mum and I were not born in this world. We come from a world very much like this one but which is built upon the power of magic. In our world everyone has some magical power, some more powerful than others. Your mum was a powerful witch and I was one of the most gifted wizards in our land. Our families were … are royalty in our world – your mum was not just a witch but a witch princess, while I was more than just a wizard. I was a sorcerer.’
Azrael's Twins Page 2