A pattern was seared into Rose’s pale skin. Edging out from over her shoulders, it travelled down her arms, over her hands, and ended at the tips of her fingers.
Elle stared, stunned into a horrified silence. Wings…
The whole of Rose’s upper body had been claimed by a pattern of cruelly scorched feathers, branded in pain.
‘Oh my God!’ Ellie rushed toward her. ‘What happened?’
‘Stop.’ Rose backed away, her face contorted. ‘Please. I can’t speak with you, Ellie.’
‘But you were there!’ Ellie cried, her voice rising in tone, as the enormity of what she was seeing, sharpened with painful clarity.
Rose dropped her face in her hands.
‘Leave her alone.’ Ben shoved past and placed his body protectively in front of Rose. ‘Just let her be, Ellie.’ He snarled. ‘Can’t you see how much pain she’s in? You need to get a grip for once.’
Softening his voice to a protective murmur, Ben placed an arm around Rose’s shoulders. ‘Leave her be,’ he repeated. ‘We’re doing the work of the Lord.’
Ellie watched in silence as Rose allowed herself to be drawn away.
‘You have to leave.’ Her father spoke the words behind her as Ben put the truck into gear, and it roared away. Abruptly the wind began to strengthen.
‘I don’t know what you are getting yourself into, but Ellie, you must understand, you’re not welcome here anymore.’
‘No Dad, please.’ Ellie cried, in her panic the words tumbled out. ‘It’s all going to go back to normal. Look, the rains have come. I can go back to school. Mum and the twins can come home. Everything is going to be fine.’ She tried to smile. ‘It’s a miracle.’
‘Don’t say that.’ He snapped. ‘This is a one in a hundred year storm - it will never be normal.’ He pulled his coat tight. ‘You will go up north to your mother -’
‘But Dad, please-’
‘Enough.’
Ellie closed her eyes, hugging herself tight. ‘Dad...’ she begged. She began to shake as around her the rain hardened, whipped into relentless drops. Her father didn't answer.
‘You are a fool. And you will not be so protected.’
Ellie’s heart thudded as Matthew eyes locked onto hers. Desperately she looked to her father, but he stood away from her now with his hands clasped in prayer. Behind him, the shed door banged mindlessly in the rising gale.
‘You cannot win,’ he hissed. ‘I am Matthew Hopkins. I am the Witch Finder General. Know this, Ellie Malone. In the Name of the Lord, I mark you as my enemy. We shall be free, my daughter and I. You, and that foul creature that is my mother, cannot stop us. The earth shall suffer, and die. The Lord has answered us. We are more powerful than ever before, and this, this is just the beginning. My prayers have been answered.’
He laughed, and above them the great storm began to churn.
✽✽✽
The shapeshifter flew.
Wings labouring, she flew high, so high above the earth that it fell away as a soft blue curve beneath her. Stars glittered against black. But there was a place within the darkness, blacker still.
A void.
A hole.
A bruised crack in reality.
From this great-nothingness poured creatures of mindless destruction and despair.
She could see them coiling and massing, drawing closer, following the storm cloud down
They fell to earth, a great writhing mass.
Storm clouds bucked and roil. Gathered.
A demon screamed straight at her.
Pinion feathers dipped and she banked, soaring higher still.
Far below, the seas fought.
And rising waves flooded the earth.
About The Author
Karin Raven Steininger
is a documentary film editor, and writer. Specialising in science, politics and history, her films have won numerous awards including an American Academy Award (Oscar), a International Emmy Award, and an Australian Walkley Award. Passionate about climate justice, she hangs out with all sorts of interesting folk creating colourful, theatrical actions to bring about change.
Karin lives in Sydney, Australia with her husband and son in a tall thin house with a garden on the roof.
Soul Flyer is her debut novel.
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