by M S C Barnes
occupying souls of Heath and Braddock, had thought he had managed to direct the power of the wolf-stags, his own power, just to those malignant presences, but he had failed and Mr Duir was gone.
“It is bad timing, I know,” Mr West said quietly, “but we must break the seals on the quadric knot. It is only then that the power of the binding will secure their souls.”
“But what if Mr Duir’s in there with them?” Aiden asked, wiping his nose.
“We have no choice,” Mr West said. “Aelfric knew that when he told Seb to act.”
“But he will be trapped in there for ever, with those two. We can’t do that to him, Greg!” Miss West spoke angrily. She would not abandon her Custodian.
“Trudy, Braddock will find a way to emerge again. The mirror seal, once broken, will mean his soul, and his mind, can only travel back and forth in an eternal reflection. You know that. It is the only way to keep the power of his mind locked in there … along with his soul. We discussed this yesterday.”
“You already planned this? You knew?” Seb was outraged. “You knew all along that Braddock wanted to break out, wanted to get us here?” None of the teachers responded. “Why did you let me go through the Elder Tree door if you knew?” Seb’s voice was rising, his anger taking over guilt.
Cue whimpered and the spirit stallion, standing feet away, stamped and snorted.
“Calm down, Seb.” Zach tried to placate him. “You’re upsetting the beasties.”
“I won’t!” Seb stood up, really shouting now and many of the flamers popped out, so they were all standing in a half-light. “You all knew and as usual didn’t tell us anything. If I’d have known maybe I wouldn’t have come here, but then you thought that didn’t you – that’s why you told us nothing, kept us in the dark. How dare you! You didn’t trust us … have never trusted us enough to explain everything. If I wasn’t here then Braddock couldn’t have done what he did. He couldn’t have tried to take over my body, couldn’t have taken over Heath’s, couldn’t have— ” he stopped, unable to continue.
The fairies’ dome was splintering as his anger caused such consternation among their ranks they shrank and cowered.
Nat took his arm. “Seb, this won’t help. What is done is done. They feel his loss more than you. This does not help.”
“It helps me, Nat!” he yelled at her and immediately wished he hadn’t. But his anger was so strong. He had been forced to kill the one person he now realised, in all his short life, he respected more than any other; the one soul who had helped him, saved him and trusted him. He was awed by the knowledge, the strength, the bravery and the integrity he had seen in Mr Duir and he wanted more than anything for him to be alive … to be able to continue teaching him. But now he would have to see him buried, see his soul vanish into anonymity, or worse, be for ever trapped with his two greatest enemies. And worst of all, Seb wouldn’t know which it was.
At that moment Seb hated the teachers: in spite of their obvious grief, they had let this happen. They had forced him to this position. They thought they knew so much, could manipulate, could control Seb, could use him as bait to lure Braddock out and then trap him again, in a more defining, more elaborate damnation.
But their stupidity had now cost the lives of Heath – no great loss there – and Mr Duir. He didn’t care they were grieving; he would have to live for ever with the guilt that he had banished Mr Duir to eternal damnation!
The Seal
Cue, behind Seb, nudged him. He ignored the beast, still wanting to rant at the teachers, but he had nothing left to say. He looked at Dierne, sitting beside Mr Duir’s lifeless body, racked with grief.
Mr West coughed gently. “We still need to lock it.”
“No!” Seb shouted. “Not until we know he’s not in there.”
Cue nudged him again and Seb absently placed a hand on his forehead. It made him feel better, stronger. Aiden came and stood beside him, his whole head covered in flamers. The sight made Seb smile in spite of his anger.
“Seb, even if he is, we can’t let him out, not without risking them escaping too.”
“I know that,” Seb mumbled, petting Cue who whimpered.
“So what do we do now?” Scarlet asked.
Miss Angel, crying silent tears, knelt beside Mr Duir and stroked his forehead. “We didn’t know, Seb,” she said. “We knew Braddock was getting stronger and we planned on completing the Elder ceremony and then travelling here to lock the Access Stone. But we hadn’t expected Heath to be taken.” She looked at Greg West and smiled sadly.
He put a hand on her shoulder and mumbled, “We didn’t know Heath was working with Braddock. I had sensed something wasn’t right,” he explained, “but had no idea it was Heath. I thought it was the influence of Braddock which was growing stronger by the day. The bats, the storm at Waulud’s Bank, the vines at the Five Springs, then the fire … it was actually Heath who gave us the first warning that Braddock was managing to reach his mind beyond the Soul Drop. He warned us about going to Waulud’s Bank with you, said it wasn’t a good idea to take you to the Five Springs yet … once your mind was opened it would make it easier for Braddock to locate you. And he was right. Your time of confirmation would have to be by the equinox and Heath tried to tell us to wait until then, as would be normal, to bring you to the Elder Tree. But Aelfric was adamant that we needed to summons the Elders early, seal your soul as the new Custodian before anything could be done to prevent it, or to harm you. He seemed to sense more of the danger than even I did.
“When Heath appeared to have been taken and Aelfric went through the Elder Tree door after him, that was an eventuality we had not anticipated or discussed. We had no reason to believe Heath had betrayed us but every reason to believe what you thought had happened; that Heath had been taken, maybe by Braddock, was the case! We had no idea— ”
“No idea?” Seb laughed. “I saw the memories. I saw how strongly Heath loved his twin soul and how devastated he was when Mr Duir essentially killed him. I don’t really know Heath, but if I could see how badly it affected him, how could all of you, who knew him so well, not?”
The Caretaker answered. “Seb, that was more than two hundred years ago! And yes, Heath was grief-stricken, but he also had agreed with the course of action we took. In fact it was he who opened the Access Stone. And for two centuries since, he has been devoted to upholding the balance of the worlds. We did not know that he was helping to orchestrate this.”
Cue nudged Seb again and now the poor beast flopped his back end onto the ground and hung his head, whimpering. Seb looked at his dreadful injuries.
“Can anyone help Cue?” No one answered. “He’s really badly hurt,” Seb said more forcefully.
Mr White said, “Seb, healing outside the human reality is beyond our capability.”
“Dryads then? Fairies? Can’t any of you help?” Seb looked at Dierne.
The Dryad ignored him, staring at Mr Duir, bereft.
Alice answered for him. “Seb, they are power. How can we heal power? It is not like other creatures. The wolf-stags are the essence of the Custodian’s power. They feed it, feed from it. The bond is between Custodian and wolf. The fairies can act as a chain to link the wolves, making a more powerful source for use by the Custodian as you saw, but none can give back the energy to heal the beasts. Once they are injured …” he stroked Cue himself, “well, we cannot heal them.”
Seb looked at the sad sight of the damaged wolf. So many wounds. How had Heath inflicted them? Or maybe it wasn’t Heath alone, maybe it was Braddock too. He remembered the howling and keening he had heard as he followed Mr Duir through the woods. He could only imagine what had been done to this poor creature. He placed a second hand on Cue’s head and felt energy course through himself. Cue lifted his eyes and grunted and suddenly Seb realised … wolf-stags are the essence of the Custodian’s power. They feed it, feed from it, Alice had said. Seb smiled. He knew why Cue was nudging him.
“I ge
t it, Cue,” he said and the beast grunted again.
Seb waved a hand and instantly the other wolves padded over.
“What are you doing, Seb?” Zach asked, moving towards Cue. He placed a hand on the animal’s back. “Poor beastie.”
The remaining wolves gathered in a semicircle as if, without Seb telling them, they knew what he wanted them to do. Unasked, a cortège of fairies once more dropped from the dome and formed sections linking the wolves, so the semicircle ran end to end. Longer lines of them then linked themselves between the last wolf at each end and Seb. As the two last fairies placed their hands on Seb’s shoulders he closed his eyes. He felt the well of power from the eight wolves to his back and the agony from Cue to his front. Using himself as a buffer he let both run into him. He winced as the pain from Cue hit his body but the power coming from the other wolves was stronger. He let it flow through him back to Cue.
He heard Nat gasp and opened his eyes. Cue sat in front of him, not a mark on him – no cuts, no blood, no misshapen leg, his ear once more complete.
“Well, I would never …” Mr West was stunned. He stared in awe at Cue and then at Seb, who now broke the chain. “How would you know? How could you know to do that, Seb? I have never seen or heard of it.”
Mr White was shaking his head. “Nor I.”
Seb had no idea and smiled sheepishly. He felt weak and quickly glanced at the