by M S C Barnes
gasped. “Greg, she is a strong Sensor, as are you, but your perception was clouded by our history with Heath.” He leant towards Mr West. “He was clever, Greg, managed to deflect any issue you raised. Do you not recall, each time you said you felt something wasn’t right, he would tell us it must be Braddock, that Braddock had learned to stretch his influence even to our gatherings?” Mr West nodded. “You placed trust in him and ignored your senses.” Mr West looked hurt but Aelfric Duir continued. “We all did, Greg. We have never had to face treachery from within. In Braddock’s last years we knew his ambitions – he was overt, arrogant even – but Heath, that was different: he took advantage of the fact that his happy, light-hearted manner …” Mr Duir paused, frowning at the memories, “and our long association with him would stop us seeing the darkness that was growing inside him.”
He turned his eyes to Nat. “Nat, however, meeting Heath for the first time, watching the events of Saturday night, was able to sense the disruption, the maleficence, could see that things were not right with Heath.” He smiled at her and she nodded slowly. “I saw you Nat, saw how you reacted every time you were near him. My suspicions grew.”
“But why not tell us?” Lily Angel asked. “It would have been better if we had all known.”
“Lily, there was no opportunity. Heath was with us the whole time. From breakfast at the cottage when I first saw Nat’s reaction, to when Seb left. And immediately he left, Heath did too, if you remember? He said he was going in search of Cue.”
The wolf, at the mention of his name, lifted his huge head off his paws and licked his chops, watching the group in front of the fire.
“I believed Seb was in extreme danger. I had no idea what Heath was planning, but I could not leave Seb alone while Heath’s whereabouts were unknown.” Leaning forward he prodded the fire with a stick, then threw another log from the small pile beside him onto it. “I had to find Seb, Lily. I tried to pass a message to Dierne as I left but, only when I crossed through the door did I discover that our communications were being blocked – Braddock I believe – and by then I couldn’t go back.”
He turned to Seb. “I am guessing Heath found you before I did and tried to persuade you to go with him?”
Seb nodded. “He wanted me to get in this boat, but the boat was in a pathetic little stream that it couldn’t possibly have floated in.” Seb shook his head. “And then the stream became a river and started rising,” Seb mumbled, “but I ran off. I think Cue tried to stop him following.”
“Heath probably intended to get you close to the Hurlers by boat, Seb. A moving target is difficult to locate through a door and one on water even more so. Braddock used his mind, I am guessing, to swell that river. Then when you ran, Heath must have decided to come back to the fold, stay close, wait for an opportunity.”
Trudy West spoke up. “Heath returned almost immediately you left, Aelfric. He said he had found Cue seriously injured – Braddock’s work, he believed.” She shook her head in dismay.
“Heath’s work,” Mr Duir said sadly.
“When he found you weren’t with us he guessed you were looking for Seb and he became adamant that he should go alone to find you. He sounded so concerned. We just thought he was upset about Cue and worried that Braddock was getting too strong. And then we found we couldn’t communicate with you.” She paused, frowning and hung her head. “Our time, before you opened the door, was spent arguing. I wanted to go after you but Heath said it was better we all remained and protected the new group while he found you and Seb. Morgan and I couldn’t have that – three Custodians, unprotected – and wanted to go with him. He refused to open the door unless we let him go alone. Twice I had to actually block his path. Now I understand why he was so uncharacteristically angry.” She looked angry herself.
“When I opened the cave door to you all I was surprised to see Heath with you,” Mr Duir said. “Again though, there was no opportunity to discuss my suspicions. Dierne and I could still not communicate silently and Heath would not leave Seb’s side.
“Of course he knew our plan to place the Shield Knot on the Access Stone and I suppose he was getting desperate. Once that Shield Knot was in place there was no way of getting Braddock out and my pushing to complete the Elder Ceremony early would mean, even if Braddock were freed, his ability to drive Seb’s soul from his body would be limited.” He stoked the fire. Sparks crackled upward. “In any case, even being aware that Heath was not to be trusted, I did not anticipate an attack from the Elder Door passage. I am still mystified as to how Braddock managed that. I believe I thoroughly underestimated him.” He watched the flames.
“I don’t get it,” Zach said. “If what they really wanted was Seb’s body for Braddock to take over, why didn’t Heath just go to the Hurlers and let him out? Surely Braddock’s soul could then have just gone along the ley lines and found Seb that way?”
“Did you see Heath’s birthmark?” Mr Duir asked him. Zach nodded. Seb recalled the jagged, charred lines. “Custodians can open the Access Stone to the Soul Drop – any of them can – but to try and open the Soul Drop itself for no good purpose brings its own consequences,” Mr Duir said. “I believe Heath had tried before, unsuccessfully. He realised he had to take Seb to the Access Stone, had to get him to open it.”
“And we took Seb right to him,” Mr West mumbled.
“But having Seb there wasn’t enough, Greg. He had to get him somehow to open the Soul Drop,” Mr Duir said. “Illuminating the summonsing stone brought the gytrash and the bats.” Seb remembered Heath overbalancing and knocking him, causing him to illuminate the wrong stone. “It was a risk. The summonsing also calls forward the good, but Heath knew he had harmed Cue severely. He obviously felt confident he had bought sufficient time.”
“What difference would that make? There were loads of other wolf-stags,” Aiden said.
Mr White answered. “Cue is the pack lead. For the pack to come, the lead must appear.”
“So summonsing the gytrash forced you into a position where you needed to open a door, Seb, to save everyone,” Mr Duir continued.
“He was the one who lit the centre stone though, he must have been.” Seb looked at Mr West. “I know you thought it was me, but it wasn’t. And then when you told me to open a door with Aiden, just as I was about to, Heath pushed me to get me out of the way of some bats. I accidentally lit up the tower!”
“Yes, and having the purest of intentions: to open a door to assist your friends’ escape, you were able to open the Soul Drop, just has Heath had calculated. And now Braddock had his freedom.” Mr Duir said.
“Then we should never have followed you,” Scarlet said.
“When Heath disappeared through the Elder Door I still wasn’t certain he was against us. I had to follow to establish what had happened to him, or what he was up to. I really didn’t know you would decide, in turn, to follow me. I had planned on being minutes only.”
The Caretaker, watching the fire, said, “We thought Heath had been captured and you had gone alone to face something none of us could name. We couldn’t leave you unprotected.”
“That you would all take that risk on my behalf and on Heath’s is something I am extremely grateful for, and I will not allow it to be turned into a negative thing. The fact that you all came is the reason we have been able to thwart Heath and Braddock. If Heath had managed to get Seb there on his own, things may have ended much differently.” Now Mr Duir’s face became solemn and he stared out at the diamond on the lake.
“When I followed Heath and arrived at the Hurlers, I watched from a distance. I saw him open the Access Stone. I was about to intervene as he tried to open the Soul Drop but he was struck by twenty-eight power bolts, one each from the standing stones and one each from the spaces of the lost stones. How he survived I have no idea, but he was clearly injured – Nature’s price for trying to open the Soul Drop for no good purpose – and now I knew his intent. As he yelled in fury I went to The Pipers, to a door we have used before, and travell
ed back to the cave to discuss with you all how best to protect Seb.
“But when I got there, Lily told me you had followed. I was one step behind all the way …” He shook his head. “I told Lily to make the call to the fairies and follow on using the spirit stallion, then I returned to the Hurlers. I was horrified to see the assault on you all, but I arrived just in time, just as you opened the Soul Drop, Seb, and I was able to intercept Braddock. The rest, I am sure, you all know.”
“Not quite,” Seb spoke into the silence that followed.
Mr Duir raised his eyebrows.
“How are you here?”
Other than the gentle lapping of the water and the crackling of the fire there was not a sound. Seb looked at the torn clothing, still covered in blood, at his neck and jaw which bore no scar, no mark, nothing to show those dreadful gashes which had bled so badly. He looked at Mr Duir’s frame, straight, whole, no indication that his arm had been broken. How is he here?
Eventually Mr Duir began.
“When Heath and Braddock attacked me Seb, my body was so ravaged, so damaged, that I did not have the energy left to fight two souls bent on your and my destruction. I had not anticipated what they would do …” he looked mortified. “As I have said, I was a step behind all the way.”
In a