by Jon Jacks
It almost caused the poor man to stumble and crumple to the floor.
Foal bounded along beside her master’s heels. She cowed back, however, quietly whimpering, as soon as she caught sight of Solstice.
‘So, you’re feeling well enough to help us go on the scrounge, right?’
‘Yeah, sure I am Foley!’
It sounded like Solstice had to force the words out past a mouthful of bubbling dribble.
‘But he’s too ill to go out! Just look at him!’
Beth was increasingly worried by Solly’s appearance.
Okay, so he had been shot, which would mean that under any normal circumstances he would be in a bad way. A very bad way too, perhaps.
But what was all this with the way his shoulder and arm looked like they were melting?
And why was he suffering so much when everyone else around here had made truly miraculous recoveries?
Most people suddenly seemed to be in better condition than they had ever been in their lives.
Foley glared at Beth.
It was a look that half implied she must be crazy.
As he turned to face Solstice again, Foley grabbed him by the arms, pushing him back so he was at arm’s length.
He exaggeratedly moved his head, a theatrical impression of making a close and studied observation.
‘What Beth? But ain’t Solly always looked like death warmed up, eh?’
He laughed aggressively.
‘Ain’t that right Solly?’
Beth noticed that Foley had reverted to calling her by her real name rather than Annie in front of everyone else.
Solstice started laughing along with Foley.
‘Yeah, that’s right Foley! Right as rain I am!’
‘We need him out in the fresh air, Beth!’
Foley gave Solstice a slap on the back. It made him stagger as he sought to keep his balance.
‘Fresh air, yeah! That’s all I need!’
‘Right, so come on then!’
Looking about him, Foley took in everyone in the room.
‘Dig into your pockets! Let’s have a collection for our usual goodies from farmer Hayart.’
With a nudge of his elbow, Foley indicated that he wanted Solstice to cup his hands and collect the money.
With a greedy grin, Solstice happily complied. Under Foley’s authoritative glare, everyone began shuffling forward, dropping coins into his clammy palms.
Only one of them dared to hang back.
‘I don’t need anything,’ he said. ‘I don’t feel hungry anymore.’
‘Yeah, none of us are hungry, Barfhead.’ Foley frowned angrily at him. ‘But you’re soon gonna miss having something tasty in your mouth, hungry or not. Believe me! So come on; out with that Social money and–’
His grin faded. His eyes widened in horror.
He was looking up at the washing line Beth had strung across her corner of the room.
‘Those are my clothes,’ he breathed, desperately trying to hide the tremor in his voice.
He whirled on Beth.
‘Tell me you didn’t wash them you…you…’
He wasn’t so much struggling for the right words as forcibly restraining himself from saying what he wanted to say.
Beth couldn’t understand why he was so angry, so strangely frightened.
‘But they were covered in what looked like blood and–’
‘Covered in blood?’
His face, his whole body, creased up in anguish.
He rushed towards her, raising an arm to strike her.
Yet he held it there, like he was struggling to control himself once again.
‘What…what are you playing at?’ he snarled. ‘Are you trying to get rid of me?’
‘I…I…don’t know what you mean,’ Beth stammered nervously, cowering beneath his furious glare. ‘I…I…just washed your clothes!’
Foley clenched his fists. His neck and head twisted as he fought the urge to strike her.
That’s when he saw that everyone was watching him.
Saw the shock on every face.
The shock of people who had never seen Foley hang back from striking anyone or anything.
He pulled back, straightened, grinned.
He waved his arms out like it was all a huge joke; nothing to be taken seriously.
He wagged his finger at Beth, the action of a man who appreciated and was laughing good-naturedly at the joke played on him.
‘You’d better not go playing any more silly tricks on me, eh girl?’
Beth recognised the menace in his voice. The way his eyes held hers.
But he didn’t kick her, the way he usually would.
We’re going to have problems with him soon, you know?
*
Chapter 34
They made their way along paths that either meandered alongside the fields or cut straight through the rows of corn and rape.
Foal recklessly charged ahead of them.
Their progress was slow, as Solstice continually refused any offers of help.
He even staggered back a few steps every now and again.
He often paused, shading his eyes from the sun as if were at its most blinding.
Geraldine was little better. She was already on her third can of strong lager.
Naturally, it had been Foley who had made the final decision on who would make up this little foraging party. Strangely, though, he had also tagged along.
Now he watched Solstice closely, his face creased with impatience.
Beth was amazed at how beautiful everything looked. A beauty that could have fooled you into thinking there was absolutely nothing wrong with the world.
It all seemed so perfect, as if a landscape painter had finally created his masterpiece of an ideal English countryside.
The huge variety of greens and yellows in the trees, hedgerows and crops. The reds of poppies and berries. The shimmering blues of the sky.
Yes, that painter would have had to squeeze out every shade of paint he had.
Yet…yet…there was something about it all that wasn’t quite right.
Beth couldn’t work out what it was, however, no matter how hard she tried.
*
It wasn’t until they passed a bramble full of ripe blackberries and Beth picked and popped one in her mouth – simply for the sensation of tasting something that looked so perfectly delicious, rather than because she was hungry – that it began to dawn on her what was wrong with all this natural beauty.
Should blackberries be out at this time of year?
‘Me and Foal, we’ll go check on the traps by the warren.’
With a whistle, Foley called Foal back to him. He gave a sharp nod towards the slowly shuffling Solstice.
‘Keep an eye on Solly will you Beth? Oh, on Gerry too.’
He grinned as he gave another nod towards the increasingly drunk Geraldine. Then he set off across the fields, heading for a small copse that was home to a large colony of rabbits.
Great, Beth thought, glancing at her charges. It looks like I’m taking a couple of zombies out for their daily stroll.
Still, they were both going the right way, even if they were on autopilot.
So, if there’s no one here worth talking to, how about you, ‘Annie’?
Are you going to talk to me?
Talk to me properly, I mean?
Not just come out with snide little comments. Then suddenly vanish again.
‘So come on, talk to me! Or are you just too scared to let me know what you are?’
I resent being called a ‘what’. Please show some consideration when you’re talking to me girl!
‘Ah,
so there you are! As you seem to be a part of me, don’t you think I’m the one who deserves “some consideration”?’
If you were a prisoner, how much consideration would you give your prison cell?
‘Way I see it, I’ve got a something inside me I wish wasn’t there!’
And you think I wanted to be here? Huh!
There was a pause, like they had both gone into a sulk.
Like they would have turned their backs on each other, if they could.
‘So, okay,’ Beth said, ‘I didn’t have a choice in this, and you didn’t either. So let’s try and work something out between us that works for us both, yeah?’
There was no answer.
‘You haven’t gone away again have you?’ Beth asked irately. ‘Annie?’
Well if we’re going to have to get on, you can drop this “Annie”!
‘That’s what Foley called you. Well, I figured it was you he was talking to anyway.’
Yes, it was me. But it was…well, derogatory. We both know what this Foley character is like, right? My real name’s Lynese.
‘Lynese? So where’s Foley get “Annie” from that?’
Beth was still suspicious.
Didn’t we just agree he’s an odd sort of character? What was it your friends called you? Bedlam, right? Bedlam from Bethlehem.
‘There’s a connection! An historical connection!’
I’m sure your friends would just love to hear you saying that!
‘I thought we’d agreed to try and get on?’
That’s right; but then you started up with the interrogation! Asking me to try and fathom a warped mind like Foley’s! Perhaps it’s because I had an island named after me – Lyonessee. I suppose there’s an ‘Anne’ in there somewhere if you insist on pronouncing it a certain way.
‘I never heard of any island called Lyonessee.’
There you go being all doubtful again, see? So, just because you never heard of anything, it means it never existed, right? If you must know, it was off the Cornish coast. But it vanished beneath the sea. You know, like Atlantis.
‘That’s pretty convenient for your story; an island that no longer exists. And Atlantis never existed too – it’s just a legend.’
Full of doubts and suspicions aren’t you? Usually, you know, legends are just a poor memory of something that happened so long ago no one knows the true story anymore.
‘I think I’m taking all this pretty well considering I’ve suddenly found out there’s somebody else living inside me!’
Believe me girl, it isn’t ‘living’ in here!
Beth breathed in deeply, telling herself to try and act just a little calmer, just a little bit nicer to Lynese.
‘Look, I realise it can’t be wonderful for you, waking up and finding you’re trapped inside me, right? But it isn’t exactly wonderful for me either, savvy? You can thank all my great-great-grans and great-great-great-grans that I’m not going completely mental about all this. Obviously, they always knew they were a bit odd, and must’ve sort of prepared me for it.’
You ask me, people like this Foley seem to be handling it all a whole lot better than you. He seems to accept that he can get along quite nicely with whatever’s inside him. And for their mutual benefit too. You, you’re fighting it all the time. You’re a bit scared of me Beth; admit it.
‘Okay, yeah,’ Beth agreed grudgingly. ‘Merlin had a bit of a cheek, shelving the problems he had for people like me to deal with in the future.’
Ah yes, Merlin. She chuckled.
‘What’s so funny?’ Beth couldn’t hold back the irritation in her voice.
What did I just say about legends being nothing more than a poor recollection of what had actually happened? It all happened thousands of years before this Merlin was supposed to have existed. How he came to get all the credit, I just don’t know. Then again, who would want the credit? There we all were, minding are own business – well, apart from the matter of that tiresome war – when along comes somebody – and no, before you ask, I don’t know whom – and suddenly, wham! I take it everyone felt much as I did; that I was quickly draining away into nothing. It felt as if I were ceasing to exist, forever. And we’re all imprisoned; both good and bad. I mean, it’s hardly a military masterstroke, is it?
Beth cringed. She still hadn’t resolved whether Lynese was good or bad.
Or, for that matter, whether Lynese could read her thoughts when she was trying to figure things like this out.
‘So, okay, Lynese; what type of spirit are you?’
Well, I would have thought that was pretty obvious even to you by now. You know, all those water spouts that came to your rescue? Remember them?
‘Water? You can control water?’
Hey, a silver trophy to the girl with the funny hairstyle please! And, by the way, I prefer to be called a fay – that’s a fairy to you – rather than spirit, thank you very much. So yes, I’m a water fay – though with nowhere near the powers I used to have, I’m afraid.
Beth suddenly froze.
She couldn’t help but remember the wall that had killed Miss Hilary. The wall that had been weakened by water.
What’s wrong dear? I can sense that you’re upset about something. But – it’s so frustrating! I can’t access your thoughts like I would have expected.
‘The wall! I killed Miss Hilary? Why, why did I – we – kill her?’
Oh dear, there’s that accusatory tone again! You really must stop being so suspicious, dear! It was that little minx friend of yours, Kate; well, that obnoxious little sprite that’s inside her anyway. Obviously quite a precocious little thing. Some of us are so much more aware of what’s going on around us than others are!
Beth sighed with relief. She didn’t want to be responsible for Miss Hilary’s death.
‘But why kill her? She wasn’t doing any harm to any one.’
She probably didn’t want someone as intelligent and questioning as your poor little Miss Hilary going off and blabbing and making a big deal about something that was still just getting underway. That little stinker Donna shouldn’t have been using things like those symbols; things she didn’t understand. Not everyone was in a rush to show themselves.
‘You can say that again. It’s amazing how hard it is to find you, considering you’re right here in my own body somewhere!’
Yes, and that’s the way I’d like to keep it. See, it’s a very dangerous place out there for some of us, Beth dear. For the weaker ones among us, especially. We’re easy pickings aren’t we, while we’re still getting used to our powers again? And some of us are taking longer than others.
‘Is…is that why my mum was killed? They we’re trying to get me – us – while your powers were weak?’
Yes, I’m sorry about that dear, really sorry. But yes, that’s what I mean when I say we should keep our heads down. It’s not just those with fays and demons inside them that we’ve got to avoid; various groups of humans have been expecting this for years. They’ve already taken sides. Given a bit of magical help, they can be quite formidable too. As we unfortunately saw with those firemen, who set fire to your poor mum’s house.
‘They…they were just ordinary men?’
Yes, but aided by somebody with extra powers.
The boy!
Beth had seen the boy, Galilee Green, at the fire!
And she had already seen that he was capable of magic.
‘About my mum, Lynese – you said I’d see her again.’
Yes, of course you will girl! But before we go into that – that boy over there, by the combined harvester? Isn’t he the boy that was at the fire?
*
Chapter 35
Beth spun around.
A combine-harvester had come to a halt, the tracks left behind it a
dull, bristling brown against the swaying golden waves of the rest of the field.
A solidly built man was partially hanging out of the driver’s cab, waving angrily at a boy standing in his way.
It was hard to tell at such a distance, but yes, the boy could well be Galilee Green.
Even though the drink was now making her unsteady on her feet, Geraldine noticed that Beth was staring uncertainly at the strange commotion taking place by the halted harvester.
‘What’s wrong, me dearie?’
‘I think that boy might have been there when my mum was killed,’ Beth answered.
Geraldine screwed her eyes, attempting to focus through a haze of drink.
Other men, who had been hidden by the harvester’s vast bulk, were now aggressively pushing the boy out of the way.
‘Hmn, you could be imagining it. He’s a long way away. At that distance, a boy’s a boy.’
‘Suppose so,’ Beth agreed unsurely, now staring every bit as hard as Geraldine at the boy.
She tried to pick out the detail that would confirm it was Galilee Green.
At that moment, the boy looked up from talking with the men.
His eyes locked with Beth’s.
Startled, he moved quickly, ducking behind the surrounding men like he was trying to hide from her.
Too late.
She knew for sure now that it was him.
The boy who had helped those firemen kill her mum!
*
For a moment, Beth wasn’t sure what to do.
She wanted to march over to the boy, accuse him of murder. Tell him she was going to fetch the police.
But another part of her (Was it Lynese? Beth didn’t think so) was already struggling with this idea, reminding her that he was dangerous.
He had magical abilities, stronger than the fledgling powers she had managed to accidentally use.
And it wasn’t her mum that he had meant to kill.
It was her.
*
‘Gerry, let’s go this way today.’
With a touch and pull of her hand, Beth guided the unsteadily shuffling Solly towards a gate opening on to the other side of the hedgerow.
It took them to a path that branched out into three possible directions.
It also took them out of sight of the boy.
If he continued to argue with the farm hands, with luck he wouldn’t be able to follow them until it was too late for him to see which path they had taken.
*
They made their way to the farm without seeing anything more of the boy.
But the farm itself was far from reassuring.
An armoured car was parked outside. A handful of soldiers were lazily lounging against it.