by M S C Barnes
twin, to a suitable place where his body can be honoured in order to respect his soul.” He looked at Seb expectantly.
Seb felt awkward. He didn’t know what Dierne was expecting from him. If he wanted to take his twin’s body and bury it, that was okay by him.
“So you’re taking him, then?” Seb looked at Alice who shook his head.
“Dryads cannot touch the human dead,” he said.
“Oh, don’t be so squeamish!” Zach snorted.
“No Zach, I mean we cannot. It is a physical impossibility. To have a tangible presence in the human world the human must be aware of us, believe in us and want us to be there.”
Seb remembered passing through Alice’s frame many times – in the playground, on the coach, in the woods – when he either didn’t believe in him or didn’t want him there. Since Mr Duir’s lifeless body had no awareness, the Dryads had no solidity; they were like ghosts.
“Well that’s pretty rubbish,” Zach was frustrated. “Okay then, I will carry him for you.”
“Zach,” Scarlet said. “He’s two feet taller than you; you won’t manage that. And where are you going to take him?”
Where indeed? Seb thought. He could see Dierne’s problem: the teachers were refusing to remove the body and Dierne had no physical means of doing so.
Looking at the stony faces of the teachers Seb believed Dierne and Scarlet were right – as experienced and knowledgeable as the teachers were, they were missing the point.
“It is not about a body,” he said to them. “It is about respect, about a fitting way to mark the centuries of service he gave. To leave the physical body he used to carry out that service to be picked at by crows or to feature in the tabloid newspapers as a front page story is almost worse than my damning him to that hellhole!” He wasn’t sure what he could do to help Dierne but he was sure of one thing. “He’s not staying here.”
Dierne looked overwhelmed with relief.
Mr West tried to dissuade Seb. “To take a lifeless body through a door is unforgivable, impossible. It cannot happen, Seb.”
The Caretaker now moved across to be with Dierne.
“I too am aware that we do not assign attachment to the shells worn by souls but, in spite of my knowledge and experience, I am unable to set aside that attachment. I feel it a betrayal to Aelfric to leave his body to a degrading and humiliating end, like a piece of scrap to be found by the ignorant and gawped at by the curious.”
Dierne nodded and Mr White shuffled his feet awkwardly.
“You too, Dom?” Mr West turned to his sister, looking for an ally. She broke eye contact and looked to the ground. “It is just a body!” He opened his hands wide, exasperated.
“Stop calling him it!” Aiden raised his voice, surprising them all. “I can’t believe this conversation is even being had. I couldn’t bear it if you leave him here!” His freckles twinkled as his face turned red.
Seb looked around the circle and then the solution hit him. He pointed at the spirit stallion.
“I will take him on the stallion.”
Dierne gave him the biggest smile of gratitude and Mr West threw his hands up into the air.
“Oh fine,” he sighed. “But this is very untraditional.”
“Untraditional?” Aiden asked. “I thought Dierne said no Custodian’s body has ever survived. So there can’t be a tradition for that, can there?”
Mr White chuckled. Even Miss West gave a slight smile.
Mr West seemed stumped. Realising he had been defeated he backed down.
“Then let us do this properly,” he said. “Zach, Trudy, Morgan – can you lift him onto the stallion?”
“You said him,” Zach pointed out as the dwarf walked over to Mr Duir. Reaching the prone figure he knelt beside him and then to everyone’s astonishment Mr West wept. That was enough to set Aiden, Nat and Scarlet off. Miss Angel walked over, knelt beside him, and hugged him.
“Daylight is coming,” The Caretaker said, drawing attention away from the two. “We must hurry.”
The sky beyond the circle, Seb saw, was beginning to lighten. Was it dawn already? The Caretaker was right – he would make quite a spectacle, riding the huge spirit horse with a body draped across its back along roads and through streets. He needed the cover of darkness.
Everyone now seemed to understand the urgency. Mr West, composing himself, declared that the only fitting location for this great man’s final resting place was the lake of the Elder Tree, so Mr White sorted the logistics. Seb would open the door to the Royston Cave for the others. He would then ride the spirit stallion, accompanied by Dierne and Alice, back to Royston and The Caretaker and Miss West would meet them outside to take Mr Duir down into the cave.
The stallion approached as Seb beckoned it. Before he had time to worry about how he would get onto it, Miss West grabbed him under the arms and in one heave tossed him upward so he landed sprawled across the horse’s back. He wriggled upright and, unable to sit astride it – its back was too wide – he swung his legs to sit sideways.
“Girlie side-saddle?” Zach teased him and got a punch from Scarlet.
The stallion began bucking and pawing the ground. Seb clung to its mane.
“Don’t think he likes free-riders,” Zach laughed.
“Not funny, Zach,” Seb said. The horse bucked more violently.
Nat hadn’t spoken in all these goings on. In the debate over whether to take or leave Mr Duir, she had simply stood, crying silently, beside the central stone. Now she walked up to Seb and, craning her neck, called to him.
“Seb, he is nervous of you.”
Seb didn’t need to be told that. The stallion was skittish, fidgety.
“I don’t think he likes me. When I got in the carriage with Mr Duir he reacted even if I spoke.” As he said the words the horse bucked and drummed a hoof into the ground. Seb could feel it shaking. He wasn’t sure if he was being cruel now, staying on the animal. “Why is it scared of me?” he asked Nat.
“Seb I said he is nervous, not scared. I don’t know why but he doesn’t dislike you, he is just really anxious.”
Dierne approached the horse and, calming, the stallion dropped its head to meet his hand.
“Spirit stallions serve the Custodians,” he said. “You can ride this stallion, you just need to understand him. They feel the power of the Custodian and are awed by it.”
“You are kidding, aren’t you?” Zach laughed.
“No, Zach. I am not.” Dierne’s eyes flashed with a spark of anger. He stroked the stallion again. “They were anxious of Aelfric too, in the beginning. He found a way to calm them. You will have to find your own way,” he said to Seb.
“You could always try stroking him,” Alice said, flitting up to Seb’s eye level. “You’re perched on his back like you are scared he’ll throw you off.”
“That’s because I am!” Seb said and the horse whinnied. “Calm down,” he said more gently. The stallion scuffed the ground. And then from nowhere a thought stuck Seb: He wants to run … and thinks I will stop him!
He smiled and, grabbing the stallion’s mane, whispered close to its ear, “When I say, you can go as fast as you like!”
The horse instantly stood perfectly still.
“Oh, now I’ve seen it all,” Zach laughed. “Seb, the horse whisperer!”
With the spirit stallion now calm, the Guardians lifted Mr Duir onto it. They draped him in front of Seb, behind the stallion’s neck, and Seb tried not to look at the blood-soaked shirt, torn and ragged and the severe cuts beneath its fabric.
Nat called up to him again. “Seb, I am sorry to be dramatic but with Mr Duir gone, you are probably more vulnerable now than ever before. You haven’t got him to protect you.”
Dierne whizzed up to hover beside Seb. “Alice and I will accompany them, with others. It is not ideal but the journey will be quick.”
Nat seemed satisfied and gave a quick nod.
“Seb,” coughed Mr White. “The door?”
From hi
s high perch, the sun ascending rapidly behind him, Seb illuminated the door, visualising the carvings in the Royston Cave. Immediately Mr White seized the handle and the others walked through, leaving the stone circle.
The Escort
Above Seb and Mr Duir in their lofty place on the stallion’s back, the fairies disassembled the dome. The flamers, no longer needed now the sun was rising, disappeared.
At a word from Dierne, ten Dryads, speaking their names, appeared in front of Seb. Even before they spoke, however, Seb realised he could see them.
They formed an arc in front of the proud stallion, Dierne and Alice at the head. The hordes of fairies fluttered in behind, their gossamer wings catching the sunlight, creating a rainbow of sparkles like sequins on an evening gown.
Now Seb whispered to the horse, “As promised – as fast as you like.” And the beast took off.
Shocked at the speed, Seb gripped its mane tightly and the stunning procession sped across the countryside. Objects around Seb were a blur: the Dryads simply looked like green trails; the fairies behind, dots of rainbow light; and as they moved, flocks of birds rose from bushes, gardens, trees and hedgerows and surrounded the cavalcade, shielding it from view. Like an avian Mexican Wave the birds lifted, travelled for a distance and dropped away to be replaced by a fresh flock.
The only things that seemed to make sense to Seb’s eyes were the powerful body of the magnificent horse, whose hooves ate up the ground so fast miles passed in seconds, and Mr Duir. Seb had one hand on his back; it was still warm, his death so recent. He swallowed a lump in his throat and