by Jon Jacks
Now he was staring hard at Drek, who had begun vomiting again.
‘When did your friend show up?’
‘Drek? Oh, it was just after Argothoth had – wait, you’re not suggesting that Drek–’ She giggled. ‘Drek couldn’t have done it!’
‘Just like a few days ago, Beth, you couldn’t have defeated an odrad. Just like your other friend – Foley? – couldn’t have controlled fire.’
‘Well yeah – but Drek?’
She looked over towards Drek.
Drek tried to give Beth a wan smile. He tried to get to his feet again. But he was so light headed from his painful retching that he wobbled on the furrowed earth.
He slithered down the loose soil of a ridge and fell.
‘It could be an act.’ Galilee scowled doubtfully once more.
‘Some act!’
Waking up, Foal slipped out of Beth’s lap.
Her leg was whole once again. There wasn’t the slightest sign of a burn or injury.
Beth smiled in pleasant surprise.
Galilee was also surprised.
He glared suspiciously at the happily gambolling wolf.
He glared suspiciously at Beth.
*
Chapter 50
‘Look, Lynese cured people! Didn’t I already say that?’
Beth didn’t want her happiness over Foal’s recovery spoilt by Galilee’s suspicions.
‘Curing people, curing wolves – they’re different things, Beth.’
‘Lynese cured by sharing her soul. That sounds to me like the kind of cure that could work for animals as well as people.’
Galilee didn’t look convinced. He nodded anyway, in reluctant agreement.
‘Okay, Beth. But we’re still missing the most important thing here; which is, what happened to Argothoth, right?’
‘We could ask Gerry and Heddy. They might have seen something I didn’t.’
The sweet smell of smouldering timbers still hung in the air.
It was still unnerving the animals who had been caught in the worst of the fire. Beth’s friends, blackened and sweat-stained, were calming the more skittish, as their nervousness only added to the edginess of the others.
‘Good idea.’ Galilee headed off towards Gerry and Heddy. ‘We could do with bringing the horses together anyway. We need to take them with us.’
‘Horses?’ Beth sprinted after Galilee.
‘For getting around quickly of course. Things like cars aren’t going to be running for much longer, Beth.’
*
They hadn’t seen anything.
They had mainly been rushing around inside the barns.
Whenever they were outside, Gerry and Heddy explained, it was always while leading out a terrified horse or cow.
Each animal needed an awful lot of careful handling and controlling. If they hadn’t been careful, they could have ended up being struck by a flying hoof.
Beth cringed when Galilee told Heddy he would ‘tidy everything up at the farmhouse’. It was such an easy-going term, when everyone knew he meant he would take care of her father’s body.
But rather than reacting badly, Heddy simply nodded. With a brief ‘Thank you’, she turned back to corralling the horses.
Beth was both surprised and envious; she wished she could accept the death of her mum so matter-of-factly.
*
Leaving a partially recovered Drek to help Gerry and Heddy gather the horses together (they had all agreed to avoid going anywhere near the area where Foley had ‘disappeared’), Galilee and Beth headed back towards the farmhouse.
‘One of your spells, I take it?’
Galilee eyed Beth warily. When she appeared mystified by his comment, he added, ‘Heddy, I mean; she’s under some sort of extremely effective charm, I reckon. Unless she’s one of the most hard-hearted people I’ve ever met. Which I doubt very much.’
Beth shrugged.
‘I don’t know how I cast it. I thought it had worn off, too, when I saw she’d come out of the trance. She’s moving around normally – well, apart from, as you say, not registering that her dad’s dead.’
‘You ask me, she knows all right. She’s just come to terms with it amazingly quickly; blanked out a lot of it too, it seems.’
‘How could she handle it if she didn’t blank it out? He died – well, pretty horribly.’
Beth shuddered as she recalled the scenes with the odrad.
‘And she lost her mum only a few months back. It took her a while to even begin to start, well, you know – getting on with her life once again. Absorbed herself in her schoolwork. Helping her dad run the farm.’
With a twirl of his hands, Galilee conjured up a concentrated whirlwind, directing it towards the crumpled husks of the soldiers still lying in the yard.
The swirling air picked them up, setting them on their feet and their crumpled, shaky legs.
As if Galilee had given them the breath of life, they began to walk, aimlessly, unsteadily. Then, abruptly, the air around them opened like curtains revealing a dark, red world beyond.
They stepped though into this new world.
Suddenly, they were gone, the curtains of air closing behind them.
‘Whe…where have they gone?’ Beth asked nervously, thinking of the strange world where she had seen and talked to her mother.
‘They’re soldiers, soldiers who have affectively died in battle. That means there’s no peace for them just yet; they can be called upon to fight again.’
‘Fight again? How’s that possible.’
‘So much is possible now that was impossible only hours ago Beth.’
Before they had even reached the remains of the farmhouse, Galilee’s deftly controlled air torrents began to dig out a shallow, man-sized hole in the earth.
Another eddying current curled beneath Farmer Hayart’s body, lifting it slightly off the ground.
‘And…and Heddy’s father? Will he be called on to fight again?’
Beth shuddered uncomfortably at the thought.
A bed of churning air bore the farmer’s body across the strewn rubble.
‘No, I don’t think so. He didn’t really die in battle, did he? He’ll return to the one spirit.’
As had happened with the husks of the soldiers, the current carefully set Heddy’s father on his feet. The farmer moved robotically, aiming blankly for the curtains of air opening before him.
Then he stepped though into the dark world waiting for him beyond the blue curtains.
‘The one spirit?’
As the curtains of air closed behind Heddy’s father, Galilee used a series of other currents to refill the hole with the removed soil.
‘He loses the individuality his spirit had gained, I’m afraid. But he’ll be at peace.’
At peace? Beth was confused.
Why hadn’t her mother passed on to become a part of this ‘one spirit’?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a final, strong blast of air that effortlessly picked up one of the wrecked farmhouse’s stones.
Placed on top of the mound of soil, it made a crude gravestone.
‘Thanks Galilee; I think Heddy would appreciate this. Even though she seems to be taking it all okay at the moment.’
‘He would have risen and gone to the beyond even without my help eventually. I just thought that this might help Heddy; if she ever asks what happened to her father.’
Beth stared blankly at the makeshift grave.
Galilee noticed the sadness in her eyes, the nervousness in her voice.
‘You’re thinking of your own mum, right?’
; ‘Uh uh,’ Beth nodded sorrowfully. ‘You know, it’s awful, but I’m almost jealous of the way Heddy’s handling it all. If I knew how to cast a charm like that on myself, I’d do it.’
‘If it helps, I think your mum would be glad it was her who died, not you.’
‘Yeah.’ She even managed a pained laugh. ‘She doesn’t seem too bothered where she is now anyway!’
‘Where she is now?’
Galilee’s doubtful, anxious attitude had returned.
‘Well, remember how Lynese said I’d see mum again? She was right – and you were wrong!’
Beth had spotted the sword, buried to the hilt in the stonewall. Gingerly making her way across the debris, she drew nearer to it.
She wondered if it would be possible to retrieve it by carefully chipping away at the stone.
‘You saw her? You’re sure of that?’
Galilee was more apprehensive than ever.
‘I talked to her, Galilee!’
‘Beth, are you crazy?’ His eyes were wide with fury. ‘How many times do I have to tell you that you shouldn’t be using Lynese’s powers until we know who she is? What she is!’
Beth ignored him.
She placed her hand on the sword’s handle. She placed her other hand against the wall, bracing herself.
Tensing her arm, her whole body, she pulled back on the sword with all the strength she had.
The blade slipped cleanly, effortlessly, from the stone.
It seemed to sing, to whisper.
To shout in joy.
Beth proudly held and admired its glittering steel.
It wasn’t a sword.
It was a part of her.
*
Chapter 51
‘A water fay, eh? What sort of water fay has a sword like that, Beth?’
Galilee drew closer to Beth, his eyes narrowed and probing.
‘Lynese said a girl had to protect herself in those days.’
‘With a magical sword?’
‘The Lady of the Lake? Didn’t she have a magical sword?’
She emphasised ‘magical’ the same way Galilee had, gently mocking him.
‘I can’t recall reading that she used it like Conan the Barba–’
‘Machal? You’re Machal, yes?’
A man was confidently striding towards them.
Beth recognised him. He was the young Asian she had seen in the garage shop.
The man she could have sworn Solly had shot and killed.
*
‘Lord Machal! I’ve ridden far to be with you!’
An exhausted, overweight carthorse was lazily munching the grass in one of the fields behind the approaching shopkeeper.
He seemed younger, much younger, than Beth remembered him appearing to be in the garage shop.
He bowed low, with a flourish and a beaming smile.
‘Khalid Aziz, at your service my lord!’
‘And…who…?’ Galilee frowned quizzically at the newcomer.
‘Ah, Atalicas – it is Atalicas who made me aware of your calling!
‘Calling? I called you?’
Beth sensed that Galilee was trying to hide how deeply troubled he was by this information.
He obviously didn’t seem to be aware of any ‘calling’ he had sent out.
Could it be that he’s not as fully in control of Machal as he likes to think he is?
*
‘Surely you must be aware of your calling, my lord? Atalicas tells me you’re calling everyone in the south to your banner.’
‘Drop the “my lord” bit,’ Galilee said irritably. ‘And all this cod Shakespearean stuff.’
‘Shakespearean?’
Khalid said it like Galilee was criticising his normal way of speaking. Beth chuckled.
‘I recognise you.’
Carefully stepping over the uneven stone, Beth unconsciously held out the gleaming sword before her.
‘You were at the garage; the garage where a frien – where a man, er, shot you. Didn’t he?’
Khalid eyed her guardedly. For a moment it seemed as if he wouldn’t answer her.
Seeing that Galilee appeared to accept her, however, he brusquely said, ‘Oh, he most certainly did!’
As he offered no further explanation, Beth felt a little stupid as she found herself saying, ‘Then…he didn’t kill you; obviously.’
Ending with a grateful sigh, she slipped her sword into one of the many metal-reinforced loop decorations on her dress.
‘Oh, but he most certainly would have killed me! It was a most perfectly good shot! Straight to the heart!’
‘Then… Atalicas saved you?’ Galilee said it as if he were pondering how Khalid’s magical spirit would have saved his life.
‘The gun shot, the threat of death, awoke Atalicas!’
Khalid used the kind of emphasis he would probably use to recite ancient tales of heroes and gods.
‘In the blink of an eye, he moved me off to one side! In the blink of another eye, once the bullet had struck the wall with a mighty bang, he moved me back to where I had been! Then he made me fall, as if I had been shot! Trickery – that, I believe, is what Atalicas is famous for!’
Galilee chuckled.
‘Trickery and a great many other useful things, Khalid!’
He turned to Beth.
‘In legend, Atalicas is Autolycus, Prince of Thieves; but he never really needed his famous helmet of invisibility to hide away.’
He gave Khalid an admiring smile. ‘No wonder we never felt your presence!’
Presence?
Beth recalled that Galilee had said something earlier about sensing a presence; that was, after all, how he had been able to find her.
Yet she couldn’t sense anything unusual, either in Khalid or Galilee.
Just as she had failed to sense any ‘presence’ in Foley.
Perhaps she was holding Lynese too much in control.
Perhaps that’s why she couldn’t sense the presence of a magical being in the same way Galilee could.
*
There was a whinnying and a clopping of hooves as Gerry and Heddy approached the farmhouse, leading the horses they had managed to round up.
Foal kept way off to one side, and downwind too, so as not to unnerve the horses any more than they had already suffered.
Drek stayed on the edges of the herd, his expression flipping between happiness and a frightened wariness of being kicked or violently nudged by the briskly trotting horses.
Galilee observed Drek with undiminished suspicion.
‘Galilee; about Drek.’ She shook her head. ‘He didn’t do it, honestly. Believe me!’
‘You said something came up behind you, right?’ Galilee growled in answer. ‘And, voila, he shows up just after.’
‘Well, what about our new friend here?’
With a sharp nod of her head Beth drew Galilee’s attention to a surprised looking Khalid.
‘He just suddenly showed up too, didn’t he?’
Galilee spun around angrily. ‘I get a sense of something odd out there around this Drek. Khalid; can you sense anything?’
Khalid’s face creased in concentration.
‘As you say, my lor – Machal, there’s something. But it’s not plain, not easy to read.’
His gaze switched towards Beth.
‘But that’s what I find with your friend here too!’
Galilee grinned for a moment before becoming serious once more.
‘Hmn, it’s puzzling. Someone powerful enough to defea
t Argothoth – and yet there’s no real sense of a presence around here!’
‘Argothoth? Argothoth has been defeated?’ Khalid let out an impressed, low whistle.
Foal rushed up alongside Beth, leaping up against a leg as if she were still a small dog rather than a medium-sized wolf.
Beth giggled and stroked her head, treating her as if she were indeed still a cute little dachshund.
Khalid’s eyes widened, taking this all in as if it only confirmed his initial doubts about Beth.
‘I know this might sound ridiculous,’ Gerry growled as she drew nearer, ‘but there’s a whole heap of people coming across the fields towards us.’
*
Chapter 52
‘Mount up Beth!’
Galilee hoisted himself up onto the bare back of one of the healthier, younger horses as if he had been born in a different age.
Beth hesitated.
Heddy, having been raised on the farm, swung up onto a horse as easily as if she were mounting a bike. Even Drek had clumsily mounted one of the smaller horses, using one of the larger pieces of rubble as a set of steps.
But Beth had decided that, like Gerry, she would pointedly insist that she would much prefer walking, thank you very much.
‘I’ve never ridden before.’
‘Yes you have. How do you think you used to get around when you were busy wielding that sword of yours? Mount up!’
Khalid cupped his hands in an offer to help her up onto the nearest horse’s back.
Beth smiled gratefully, but her gaze was drawn once again to Gerry. Gerry’s arms were resolutely crossed, a bunch of reins aggressively crumpled in each hand.
The horses gathered behind her like supporters of her inflexible stance.
‘She doesn’t need that, Khalid,’ Galilee insisted. ‘Mount up Beth! We need to see who these people are – now!’
Khalid swung up onto a horse as naturally as Beth would have expected him to slide into a car.
‘What about the horse you arrived on?’ Beth asked, if only to delay her attempt to mount up.
‘This looks a better one than the one I stole!’ Khalid grinned mischievously.
Galilee swung his mount around, pointing it towards the field where the horse Khalid had arrived on was still contently munching the grass.
‘We can’t afford to waste any horse,’ he said, spurring his own horse forward with a short jab of his heels. ‘I’ll fetch it.’
‘You stole it?’
Without even being conscious of what she was doing, Beth grabbed a clump of the horse’s main and effortlessly pulled herself up onto its back.
‘Why not steal a car? It would’ve been quicker.’
‘As my lor – Machal obviously realises, cars, trucks, automobiles; they will all soon be useless. Soon only magic will keep them going. It’s amazing that things like the spark plugs kept working for so long. Perhaps, without being aware of it, their drivers were keeping them going by simply willing and expecting them to work.’