Glowing softly, a golden rope lay coiled in the palm of her hand. From the centre hung a heavy intricately fashioned charm, an eagle body with fine outstretched wings topped by the carefully crafted head of a woman. It quivered in her hand as though alive.
Ellie stared, words dying away in her throat. The air around her felt heavy and hot, and around the necklace sharp halos of light crackled like short bursts of static.
‘Where did you get this?’ Ellie’s voice was dry and strained. She looked up at her friend. Rose only smiled, her eyes glittering with pride and excitement.
Ellie’s heart thudded in shock. ‘My God,’ she croaked. ‘This has got to be worth a million dollars, at least. Where did you get this?’
She stopped speaking. Ellie was finding it hard to breathe and around her the room was wavering, the edges of the mirror and chair and even Rose were undulating, rippling almost. She felt very weird, as though some kind of power was rising, gaining strength from the glowing figurine.
‘Rose, answer me.’ She said, shaking her head and trying to maintain a sense of equilibrium. ‘Where did you get it?’
‘Oh it’s nothing,’ she said lightly. I just found it.’ Rose looked away but not before Ellie caught a brief spasm of guilt.
‘Where?’
‘Oh, Ellie stop grilling me it doesn't matter.’ Rose grabbed the necklace from Ellie’s hand. ‘It’s mine.’ She declared as she held the figurine tightly, the chain looping out from her grip spiralling freely into the air and waving like the coils of a segmented serpent.
‘I found it a few days ago when I was feeling really crappy.’ Rose’s voice was tight and defensive, and Ellie could just make out the rushed jumble of words. ‘I was up in Dad’s room, feeling weird, looking for a headache pill or something, and I just found myself you know, just wandering around looking. Remember his old bureau? That old ancient thing he keeps still in the corner?’
Ellie did know it. It was like something from a storybook, all polished wood inlaid with ivory and onyx tiles. They’d been caught once when they were young, Ellie couldn't remember the exact age, but she could still remember that guilty feeling of excitement as they opened every one of the tiny secret drawers and doors. Like an intricate puzzle, each hidden drawer contained smaller further drawers. Some held delicate vials of glass, some held rocks, and others held fragments of claw, skin and feathers.
‘No, you didn’t...’ Ellie whispered, remembering how the curious, shrivelled specimens had frightened them. ‘Why?’
‘I don’t really know,’ Rose answered softly, her habitual, teasing manner evaporating. ‘I haven’t been sleeping, Ellie, and Dad won’t get me anything to help. Just drink warm milk,’ he says, ‘and pray.’ But it was so weird, Ellie, it was like I could hear it…’
Rose leant closer, gazing up, her tawny eyes gleaming gold in the light. ‘The first few drawers I opened were empty, which was odd; you remember how full of useless junk they used to be?’
Ellie nodded, frowning.
‘Well, I noticed a smaller, tinier opening in the middle of one of the bottom ones. It was just big enough to get my little fingernail under it,’ she smiled. ‘It took ages as though it was on some kind of spring, but then the wood just popped off like a lid.’
Rose looked down at the gold figure in her hand. ‘It was like it had been calling me.’ She said softly, her voice imbued with a new tone of longing. ‘It’s mine. I know it. I can feel it. This is why I haven’t been able to sleep. It’s like it’s been calling out to me for weeks and weeks.’ As Rose spoke her fingers were gently stroking the small finely wrought figurine. ‘It’s like it’s magic.’
Warning flared, painful and hot, in the pit of Ellie’s stomach. ‘Put it back,’ she said firmly. ‘You don’t know what it is, and what if you lost it? What if your dad found it was missing?’
‘I don't care,’ said Rose, placing the necklace against her cheek, she closed her eyes. ‘You’re always going on about magic, why aren’t you excited?’
Ellie didn’t know what to say. As she studied the golden figurine, a thought stirred in her mind, but it was so crazy, so unthinkable, she could barely grasp it.
‘Rose…’ She began slowly, testing the words on her tongue. ‘You know the last time we spoke, on the phone; I didn’t tell you all of it... That woman, when I saw her in the forest that time, she said to get home all I needed to do was wish on the stone. I didn't really believe it would work but then... somehow I was there, at home, just standing on the front porch, and it was like no time had passed at all...
Rose shrugged. ‘Maybe you were just dreaming.’
‘No, I wasn’t...’ Ellie shook her head. ‘But Rose, what if magic is real, like really real, like things happen. That old woman...I’ve seen her a couple of times, down in the clearing, just sitting like she’s meditating or something.’
‘You’ve been back there?’
‘Yeah well, I’m just kind of curious,' Ellie shook her head, ‘I know it’s nuts, but sometimes she’s in my dreams, and she changes… You know that eagle we saw –’
‘What?’ Rose cried out, backing away. ‘Stop, I don't want to hear it.’ She clutched the necklace to her chest. ‘Anyway, why are you always obsessed with the forest? Who cares about it? It’s just a bunch of stupid trees, and dead dirt. It’s boring. I wish you would just shut up about it for once.’
Ellie stared at her friend. ‘I thought you liked going there.’
‘Well, there’s nowhere else for us to go that’s private, and you like it. But for God’s sake, stop going on about it, you’re just giving me the creeps.’
Rose flopped down on her bed, and arranging her feet prettily beneath her, she looked up, her face suddenly serious. ‘But, if it is real, Ellie, that weird stuff you’re seeing, and that awful woman…’ She shuddered. ‘She’s got to be evil, why else would she be just hanging down there.’ Rose paused. ‘You know, sometimes my dad’s right –’
Ellie couldn’t believe what she’d just heard.
Rose glared at her. ‘Think about it, the things you’re seeing in the forest really have to be bad because they’re sending you crazy. Flying things? My God!’
‘Come off it, Rose, the forest is amazing and you know it, and those tiny faeries are the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I see them all the time now, how can they be evil?’
‘Well, what’s her name then?’ Rose snapped.
‘Who?’
‘That old woman, the witch?’
‘I don’t know, I haven’t asked her, we don’t talk. But not knowing her name doesn’t mean she’s bad or anything. She’s not really a witch. God, now you’re talking crazy.’
Rose jumped to her feet. ‘You don’t know anything.’ She snapped, pacing around her room. ‘We don’t know what’s evil or not, it’s not like they’ve got signs on them, like ‘ooh I’m bad.’ Beautiful things can be wrong too, you know. How does anyone know?’ She stopped. ‘But, I know my dad. And there’s stuff he’s right about.’
‘Well you should ask him about that necklace,’ Ellie snapped.
‘Why? It’s mine and I want to wear it tonight.’
‘Rose, you can’t be that stupid!’ Ellie shouted.
‘Don't call me stupid!’ Rose flared and she whirled away to the other side of the room near the bay window, where she crouched to the floor shielding the figurine with her body.
‘It’s got nothing to do with you. I want to wear it,’ she whispered. ‘I have to wear it. God, Ellie you don’t understand. I bet it was Mum’s.’
The room fell silent. Ellie gazed at her friend, lost for words.
Rose held the necklace possessively, closer to her chest. ‘Yeah,’ she crooned, ‘I bet it was Mum’s.’ She stroked the little figure’s head gently. ‘It feels like it’s a girl thing, like it comes from a long line of girls, like it doesn’t want to be with Dad at all.’
‘Ellie,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t care about magic or all that rubbish you go on abo
ut. This belongs with me and has been waiting for me for a long, long time.’
THIRTEEN
Monday after school, Ellie strode along the narrow forest path, head down and hands shoved deep into the pockets of her jeans, her long hair tied back high off her neck. Abruptly, she scowled and batted away a dry branch that dared block her way. It whipped into the air, scattering dry twigs and dust onto the ground below. Ellie only hurried on, her heart thudding in sync with each footfall.
What the hell was going on? She kicked out at a rock in the path. And what was up with Rose?
The thought wrenched her to a sudden stop. Ellie glared at a small quartz riven stone that lay wedged in the dirt at her feet.
My God… Ellie exhaled sharply in frustration.
The pebble was kind of pretty, in a small white sort of way, and ordinary.
Her foot twitched, eager for the signal to give it a hard, satisfying whack.
Above her the sun glared hot and unrepentant through brittle, grey-green leaves. The trees hung mute, their branches swathed in ribbons of dry bark so low they trailed down along the ground.
Ellie hesitated then gritted her teeth and turned away. It wouldn’t have helped anyway, not now. Not when everything and everyone around her was going completely nuts. She hurried on once more through the trees, heading back to the clearing. She sped, almost running further down into the valley, the heat following close like a wraith, pressing in on her bare skin from all sides - thirsty, hungry, and desperate for any lost drop of moisture. Ellie tried to ignore it but her throat hurt, and the air itself was so dry that each intake of breath was like sucking up a straw of old stale dust.
‘It just needs a wash,’ she muttered hoarsely to herself. ‘It’s almost winter … please, a little bit of rain, that's all anyone needs.’
When the path at last reached the edge of the fern gully and the base of the stairs, Ellie dropped her backpack and sank to the bottom step, her legs shaking.
Leaning back, she reached into her pack. The water bottle was easy to find, and quickly Ellie gulped down a few mouthfuls before pouring the rest of the contents onto the base of the nearest fern.
‘At least that’ll help a little,’ Ellie muttered as she dropped the now empty bottle into her bag and jumped to her feet.
Ignoring the path, Ellie slipped under a low branch, her footsteps crunching as she clambered over a heap of dry bracken. Overhead, the high glare of the sky began to dim as furls of cloud began to reach out across the valley. Ellie frowned; from here she could just make out the grove of pale trees, their white branches in stark contrast to the deep red of the cliffs beyond.
She hurried on, they were so close and Ellie didn't intend to take the slow way to the clearing, bogged down by the convoluted twists of the path. She wanted to get there and she wanted to get there now.
✽✽✽
It was impossible. After squeezing past the last picnic table, and stepping over the dry creek bed, Ellie stood staring up at a wall of rock, high and impenetrable and made of the smoothest grey granite. Incredulously, Ellie ran her hand along the speckled face.
It was quite pretty, she supposed, the rock dark flecked with silver specks. She pressed her hand against its surface. ‘Let me in!’ She muttered. ‘Let me in!’ she cried again louder this time and, frustrated, she slapped it hard with her hand.
Nothing happened. The barrier jutted high against the sky. Faceted and sharp, the rock face angled away, as though she didn't matter, as though she was too small, too insignificant, too young to be attended to by a being as ancient and as immoveable as this. Leaf shadow danced over the stone, light interplaying with the heaviness of rock. The wall held a silence that had faced down the challenge of the eons.
But Ellie was sure she’d never seen it before.
‘How can I be lost?’ she wondered, ‘I’m not lost, I’ve just come a different way.’ Ellie suppressed the urge to kick at the wall with her foot. She slid down its face to the ground. Behind her, the sun-warmed rock cradled her back. She closed her eyes, reaching for her drink bottle. It was empty, of course. With a sigh, Ellie opened her eyes and noticed the edge of the hag stone peeking out from the top of her bag.
She pulled it out. ‘I want to talk to her,’ she whispered, holding it close against her cheek. It felt like an egg, she thought suddenly, a warm smooth egg, and oddly comforting. ‘Please’, she whispered, ‘take me to her.’
She waited staring into it, willing herself into the clearing. But nothing happened, no light, no weird pulsing, nothing.
Disappointed, Ellie dropped the hag stone back into her bag. Then not knowing what else to do she reached up under her scarf and, wincing, pulled out a couple of strands.
At least I can leave these somewhere, she thought morosely. The afternoon won’t have been completely wasted.
Pulling herself to her feet, Ellie trudged back along the length of the wall holding the strands of red and gold aloft. They trailed softly from her fingers, long and light like spider silk. After a few minutes, Ellie stopped. ‘This is stupid.’ She muttered, dropping the strands on the ground.
‘You can have them, okay!’ She shouted up into the wall, cursing herself for getting lost. ‘But I’m not lost.’ She said out loud. ‘This thing shouldn’t be here.’
Turning, she stopped, staring in disbelief. Straight ahead right before her eyes lay the narrow, twisting forest path and just beyond it, she could see a small gap exposed in the wall.
‘Oh that’s too weird, I just came from there before. I know I did.’
With a shake of her head, Ellie squeezed herself into the grove of towering ghost white trees.
‘Hey!’ She called, a moment later, bursting into the clearing.
Her voice echoed, ricocheting uncomfortably off the face of the sandstone cliffs.
Ellie swung around. The clearing was unchanged, a space, hidden and sheltered beneath the cliffs. Dotted throughout were pale trees, each one reaching for the light, their roots edging into the cracks of fallen sandstone.
Ellie tilted her head back, and from the branches above a row of angular nests trailed from beneath the trees. Made of twigs and woven grasses, they hung empty, like puffed up paper bags or wonky Christmas decorations, delicate, and abandoned.
Nothing moved.
‘Hey,’ Ellie tried again, her voice wavering fearfully in the silence. ‘Hey, please, is anyone there?’
Clasping her hands, Ellie waited as her last syllable echoed away to nothing, absorbed by the sheer walls of sandstone. Opening her mouth to call again she stopped. Why should the old woman be here at all?
Ellie winced. How stupid, stupid to even imagine…
‘Child.’ The voice was older, calmer, and close.
Ellie whirled around.
Only a few feet away, the old woman stood, her eyes were bright and shining, her slight form concealed in the shadows of the surrounding rocks.
‘Young woman, I should say,’ she corrected herself, peering up at Ellie. ‘You were taking so long muddling to get here I was afraid you wouldn’t make it. Stopping and starting… Why did you leave the path? Don't you ever read folk tales? Anything can happen at all.’
‘I-I-I-’ Ellie stammered, ‘I-’ She stopped, tongue tied as embarrassment flushed her cheeks hot.
The old woman regarded her with her head cocked to one side. ‘It doesn't matter in the least, you did what had to be done to get back on the path and you made it.’
Confused, Ellie stared at the old woman before she too smiled, surprised by the surge of warmth that flashed between them.
‘Well, come,’ said the old woman firmly and gestured to a small clump of rocks protruding near them. ‘If you are ready to learn the way of Heka, first we need to introduce ourselves properly.’
Ellie didn't move, the old woman was so tiny, she realised studying her, that her head barely made it to Ellie’s shoulder. And though her dark hair tied back in a bun was streaked grey, she didn't seemed old or frail at a
ll. Instead, she stood calm and firm, radiating a feisty impatience.
‘What is your name, child?’
‘Uh, sorry, I’m Ellie.’ She held out her hand.
The old woman nodded and shook it, her bony grip firm and sure. ‘Pleased to meet you, Ellie,’ she answered formally, ‘You may call me Ba Set.’
Not sure if she’d heard rightly, Ellie leaned forward. ‘I’m sorry, did you say Bast?’
‘No,’ said the old woman sternly, ‘Ba Set, it’s an old family name. You need to pronounce it clearly. Speak correctly when you say it. Words have power you know and names even more so. This is one of the first things to understand if you would learn the ways of Heka.’
Ellie slowly tried again. ‘Ba Set.’
The old woman smiled in approval, her huge eyes glowing against nut-brown skin. Ellie’s heart skipped a beat. She may be old, she thought, but power radiated out of the depths of her being, and her face spoke eloquently of past beauty with her high cheekbones and delicate bones. As Ellie stared, the spaces through the air around them seemed to quiver and sizzle, like a bending mirage in the heat of the day. She gasped, sure for a second Ba Set held a hint of someone she knew.
The thought evaporated as Ba Set lowered herself down by one of the largest rocks and arranged her long skirt carefully around her feet. She gestured to Ellie to sit.
‘Heka,’ Ba Set repeated, ‘takes us into the very centre of creation.’
She waited while Ellie settled herself against one of the lower rocks. ‘Follow me.’ Ba Set commanded and closed her eyes.
‘Wait. I don’t understand.’ Ellie said quickly. ‘Ba Set, please, we need to talk. I need to know about faeries, what are they? And the hag stone, it didn’t work-’
Ba Set shook her head firmly. ‘Quiet. If you would learn more, follow me.’ Ba Set sang a deep tonal note.
The air around quivered, and a cold shiver tingled on Ellie’s skin, prickling up along her arms and the back of her neck. Shuddering, Ellie looked up and gasped in a mixture of fright and wonder as out from the lopsided nests dropped a dark, rippling cloud, swirling and changing direction on a whim. It streamed towards her and then turned, revealing a mass of spidery, spiky-topped beings flying out and around the tops of the trees.
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