by Jon Jacks
Yes, I heard her say that. I can only hear her, by the way, when she’s speaking to you. And so I would think she can only hear me when I’m speaking to you.
How can I be sure you’re telling the truth?
And, if you really are Lynese, why didn’t you speak to me earlier?
Why didn’t you warn me earlier about Morrigan?
So many questions! But yes; you have a right to demand so many answers. And for so many more, too, I think. As for your first question – you can’t. Not yet, at least. Your second question – I didn’t want to reveal myself to Morrigan while you were still too weak and too naive to contain her. That way I could wrest some control over her myself, as she wasn’t aware of my presence. Oh, you wouldn’t believe how hard you would find it to even think if I hadn’t held her back from constantly berating you. That I think, answers your third question.
And that’s why Morrigan couldn’t get rid of me so easily? Because you were holding her back?
Oh no; I’m afraid I don’t have that much control over her! Fortunately, you are far more different than you believe Beth!
Far more different? With two magical spirits taking up home inside me? I think I already know how different I am!
How come my poor old ancestor happened to get two of you being zapped into her? Was she the only one nearby, poor girl?
Ahh, but that’s it you see, Beth; thanks to you using Canola to look deep inside yourself, I think I now know what happened to your ancestor.
And it didn’t involve anybody nearby at all!
*
Yes, Morrigan threw a powerful spell at me.
And as it seemed to her that I simply disappeared, it’s not surprising that she thought she had destroyed me.
But, knowing that I probably would be destroyed if I simply tried to defend myself against such a powerful charm, I used the strength of her own magic to enhance my own speciality – the ability to heal by a sharing of souls.
In this case, I shared myself so wholly with Morrigan that I disappeared inside her.
I had already shared my soul with thousands of humans; granting them a small share of my own soul to help them heal. In return, I was unavoidably taking on a small part of their own, human essence.
Gradually, over the centuries, I had taken on more human qualities than I realised, slowly weakening my powers.
The presence of so much of the suffering of humanity suddenly appearing within Morrigan was like an unforeseen, rapidly spreading disease.
It shocked and weakened the purity of her own spirit. We both mingled and transformed.
You see, you are totally unique Beth – your ancestor wasn’t a human, inhabited by a magical being.
You, like her, are magical spirit made human.
*
Chapter 80
‘Some sort of mangled incantation seems to have poured out of Morrigan as she suffered this transformation. Like she thought it was the end of the world, and every other magical being had to suffer something similar. So Lynese’s sharing of souls spread, and they were all imprisoned in the nearest human female.’
‘It’s said that Morrigan will prophesy the end of the world – though, in this case, she seems to have brought about an end to the world she knew.’
Galilee frowned thoughtfully as his horse carefully negotiated one of the many muddy ditches they had to cross as they made their way to Hayart farm.
Beth had carefully explained everything she had learned while swimming with Canola.
Listening with equal care, Galilee had made only one interruption until now: ‘No wonder Morrigan couldn’t split from you; it would be like trying to split yourself down the middle and survive.’
*
Heddy and Drek once again rode ahead of Beth and Galilee, giggling and making excuses to reach out and playfully touch or prod or gently slap each other.
Beth was surprised that Heddy was taking her visit back to the farm so light-heartedly; was the reassuring, calming charm she had cast over her still working?
She felt envious of Heddy’s almost casual attitude to her father’s death. Her own mother’s death still haunted her, especially on a night as she tried to sleep.
For her, of course, there had been nothing final about her mother’s death. She had met her, talked to her.
Denied her.
If Beth were magical spirit made human, wouldn’t that mean that her mother was the same?
Would that explain how she managed to survive the fire without suffering any spiritual damage?
‘Galilee; we know how the magical spirits were passed on from generation to generation, yes?’
Galilee nodded sagely. ‘But, let me guess – you wonder how it worked with you and your family, right?’
Beth smiled in agreement.
‘A dolphin gives birth to a dolphin, a kingfisher to another kingfisher,’ Galilee continued. ‘But it puzzles me that it all wasn’t somehow gradually weakened every time a human father was involved.’
‘Ahhh,’ Beth said, suddenly remembering some of the entries in the journals she had found in the trunk. ‘I’ve had a lot of ancestors who had babies even though they insisted they hadn’t been with any man.’
Galilee chuckled. ‘There’s our answer then. No man is involved when it comes to reproduction in your family.’
Beth felt a tinge of guilt as she thought of her father.
She had hardly thought of him, or even what might have happened to him, since the world had suffered all its changes.
Perhaps she had always sensed that lack of a real connection between them all along. Perhaps he had sensed it too; perhaps that’s one of the reasons why he had walked out on them.
And mum? Would she have sensed it?
Sensed that there was nothing of him in Beth? Wouldn’t that all have added to her mum’s sense of loss and disconnection?
‘But what was really puzzling me,’ Beth said, bringing the conversation back to where she had originally intended it to go, ‘is the way both my mum and gran felt after they had had a child. In our case, the magical spirit wasn’t being passed on, was it? Not if it was all really a part of us?’
‘Ah, yessss. I’ve been pondering that too.’
Galilee no longer looked like a naive boy. He had the bearing and sense of natural authority of a young man.
Beth felt like a schoolgirl asking her teacher questions.
‘I think, probably, they retained the – there aren’t really any words for this, so even though it’s nowhere near an accurate description, let’s call it physical essence – they retained the physical essence, but not what we shall have to make do with calling mind – thoughts, powers, as well as a sense of purpose, such as youth, growth, and future.’
Beth burned with the irony of the terms ‘youth’ and ‘growth’.
Heddy and Drek had just dismounted now that they had reached what remained of the farmhouse, making their recent increases in height all the more apparent. Like Galilee, they had become handsome, confident young adults in a matter of days.
Beth hadn’t aged at all.
That’s what comes of being something other than a purely human spirit, she thought bitterly.
Alongside her, Galilee laughed to himself.
‘What’s so funny?’ Beth asked irritably.
‘Well, you said that some of the survivors of Lyonessee had watched what happened between Morrigan and their protective little mermaid, right?’
‘Yes. So what?’
‘Mer maid. Mer Lynese. Mer Lyn.’
‘Merlin.’ Beth smiled.
‘Move, Heddy, mov
e!’
Alerted by Drek’s panicked cry, both Galilee and Beth looked over towards the edge of the ruins.
The young couple appeared to be arguing fiercely, Drek pulling hard on Heddy as if he wanted to drag her back to the horses.
She was resisting, screaming, ‘No, no! You don’t understand!’
Beyond them, a shabbily dressed, pathetically weak woman was ungainly shambling across the rubble, heading their way.
Her clothes were torn, threadbare, shredded. Her skin was in even worse condition, hanging raggedly to reveal muscle and bone.
Her stare seemed blank, lifeless.
‘It’s a zombie Heddy!’
Drek was almost tearful in his need to get Heddy away. Yet Heddy continued to pull back, struggling to approach the oncoming zombie as if she were bewitched by it.
Beth rose in her saddle, raised a hand – and was stopped from casting a spell by Galilee throwing an extended arm across her chest.
‘No Beth!’
Heddy broke away from Drek’s clutches.
She ran towards the haggard, rotting woman. She wrapped her arms around the walking corpse, hugging her tight.
‘Heddy!’ the woman croaked tenderly, stroking the girl’s hair with a bony hand.
Heddy turned to face Galilee and Beth.
‘It’s my mum,’ she cried joyously. ‘My mum’s come back to me!’
Galilee sighed.
‘The end is over. Now it’s just beginning.’
The Beginning
If you enjoyed reading this book, please remember to click that you liked it on the Kindle Rating icon.
You may also enjoy (or you may know someone else who might enjoy) these other books by Jon Jacks.
The Caught – Chapter One – The Changes – Sleeping Ugly
The Barking Detective Agency – The Healing – The Lost Fairy Tale
A Horse for a Kingdom – Charity – The Most Beautiful Things – The Last Train
The Dream Swallowers – Nyx; Granddaughter of the Night – Jonah and the Alligator
Glastonbury Sirens – Dr Jekyll’s Maid – The 500-Year Circus
P – The Endless Game – DoriaN A – Wyrd Girl
Heartache High (Vol I) – Heartache High: The Primer (Vol II) – Heartache High: The Wakening (Vol III)
Miss Terry Charm, Merry Kris Mouse & The Silver Egg – Seecrets – The Wicker Slippers – The Cull