by L P PATERSON
"You called me by her name earlier."
"You look like someone that I know." This woman was crazy. I felt the hairs on my arms lift as I sensed that the wraiths were getting closer. The mist started to thicken again and the light dimmed. " Can we just go inside? We can talk inside." I said.
"Who? Who do I remind you of?"
"Oh for Christ sake!" I shouted. "You remind me of my great grandmother Agatha. Now can we please go inside."
Her eyes widened ever so slightly, but I didn't care that I had shouted at her or that she had issues with her mother. I just wanted to get inside. "Sure." She turned the knob and I barged past her in my hurry to get off the streets and away from the shadow wraiths.
"Mum" she shouted as she closed and locked the door behind us.
"What is it Agnes?" a voice answered. "Did you lock up? I don't know what’s happening out there tonight, but I don't want any of it in here."
I heard footsteps and I watched the figure of a slender woman approach through the hallway. She was tall and her hair was a deep red. As she approached and I looked closer I knew that her eyes would be a stunning deep blue.
"Yeah mum. I locked up. I also think I found your great granddaughter" said the young woman.
My mouth fell open wide and my eyes seemed to open even wider as I saw my great grandmother walking towards me. The woman who only earlier today I had met through the efforts of the Time Master, the woman who had lived and, should have died over one hundred and sixty years ago. I couldn't believe it and I simply said "Agatha"
CHAPTER 21
"Audrey!" Agatha seemed as shocked as I was. The only calm person was Agnes, who looked at me and curled her lip. She had helped me before but it seemed that now she knew we were somehow related that I was no longer deserving of any help from her.
"What are you doing here?" asked Agatha.
"Do you really think I know?" I responded. "I think that I might have been sent here by War."
"But why would a Horseman send you through the Gates?"
"Is that where we are?" I asked. "The Gates?"
Agatha drew in a breath. The room we were in seemed to be a hallway which was furnished with two small armchairs and a small round table. It looked Victorian in style and decor. The small overhead lamp was fitted with a scalloped edge lampshade and gave off a dim yellow light. The red carpet covering the floor was too patterned to identify any one theme. The place looked old. Agnes walked to one of the chairs and sat down, waiting for the conversation to continue between me and Agatha.
"Yes." said Agatha as she drew in another shaky breath. "We are within the Gates." Great. Something else for me to have to figure out. How the hell was I going to get back to Cymon now? I hoped that the Time Master had had better luck and had arrived in the right place. "But a Horseman would not send you here."
"Well here I am." I said with an enthusiasm that I was not really feeling. "I was in the time sphere, I felt a tingle in my belly and then I ended up here."
"Someone must have intercepted your path." said Agatha.
"But who could do that mum?" Agnes asked. She turned her screwed up face towards Agatha. "Who could affect a Horseman's will?"
"Hang on. Hang on." I said. I wanted to understand what had happened. I needed to get back to Cymon and most of all I wanted to know if the Time Master had arrived at the River Lord's court. "What actually happened?" I asked. I hoped that Agatha would be able to explain and I looked at her expectantly. I bit down on my lip fighting to stop myself asking further questions.
Agatha sighed and she walked across the small hall to the remaining chair and sank into it. She raised a finger to her mouth and started chewing on it as she stared down at the floor.
"It seems that War intended for you to go somewhere else." she said.
"Yes. To the court of the River Lord. That's where Cymon is." I told her.
"Well clearly someone else didn't want that to happen. But it takes an immense amount of power to affect a Horseman's actions. Someone didn't want you going to the River Lord's court. Someone who is almost as powerful as the Horsemen. Maybe they also sent the shadow wraiths here." She turned her eyes to me. "What is going on Audrey?"
"I told you this morning what is going on." I almost shouted this at her. How could she forget? "I need to help the Reaper find his scythe remember? I told you."
"Audrey." she sighed. "You told me that over one hundred and sixty years ago, through a time channel that we were lucky enough to speak through." A gentle laugh left her. "Do you really think that I remember everything that you told me?"
My mouth dropped open as I realised that my morning and afternoon of a few hours had been more than one hundred and sixty years for Agatha. How was she still here? And with a child.
"Is this...?” I could not finish the question as I looked across at Agnes. We all had thought that Agatha had died. But a body had never been found. This explained all of that.
"No. Agnes is my second daughter. Amelia...." Her eyes became cloudy then and Agnes shifted in her seat looking closely at her mother but not saying anything. "Well I don't really know what happened, but since you are here, I know that she survived and grew up to have a child. Her father was a good man. He wouldn't even have known that we had another daughter." she looked across at Agnes and smiled.
"Okay. But what now?" family reunions were great, but I needed to get to the Thames, and quick. I wanted to know how Agatha was still alive. "So does time slow down inside the Gates?" I asked.
"No. But if I leave, I won't survive."
"Why not? And how are you still alive then?" visions of Agatha crumbling into dust sprang into my mind and I shivered slightly.
"There can only be one Loci at any one time Audrey. There are never more than one."
"Well. It seems that there are three right now." I said. I was confused. I knew that Agatha was a Loci and I had seen Agnes use her powers to send a shaft of white light into the shadow wraith. Plus, if there were three of us, they could teach me. Help me to learn all the things I needed to know in order to use the powers that I had.
"The Gates are a funny place Audrey." Agatha said. "They form a ring around London. The London Wall. But they can take you to other places too. To other gates." I lifted an eyebrow at this as I had no idea what she was talking about. Agatha stood and started pacing the hall. "They safeguard the city. I became trapped within the Gates a very long time ago. They are just gateways to other places; but all of them are connected, you enter one and exit at another and it is almost instantaneous if you know where you are going. That is their purpose. It is like a shortcut to another place or across the city." She placed her hand on her stomach and rubbed slightly. Her eyes clouded again and I could see that the memories she held were running through her mind.
"But...?" I asked
Agatha looked at me and smiled. "But when I entered, I couldn't exit straight away. I was being chased and if I was caught not only would I be killed but so would the child that I carried. You see I couldn’t believe that I was carrying a second child. We never have more than one.” she looked at me with raised eyebrows and a smile. Expecting some sort of solidarity of knowledge in Loci’s. “I chose to remain within the Gates." she looked across at Agnes again. "I only intended to hide. Wait for a few hours and then exit. But when I tried to leave. I could not." She shrugged her shoulders and looked at me again. "Gatekeepers can be real bastards sometimes!"
I looked across at Agnes who was sitting quietly and drawing on the table with her fingers. Had Agatha made the right choice. I could not judge or question. "But how have you survived all this time?" I asked.
"I don't know. After Agnes was born it just seemed that we aged exceptionally slow.
This was all too much and it didn't help me in my need to get back to Cymon. "Can I use the Gates to get back to Cymon?"
"Yes." said Agatha. "Yes, you can."
"How far away is it." I asked. I was so tired of walking but hopefully I would get back to
Cymon soon.
"Not far at all." she replied.
Agatha walked towards me and placed her hands on my shoulder. I instantly felt myself tense but she did not release me.
"I'm sorry Audrey. Sorry that you did not have someone from a closer generation to guide you." she said.
"My mum told me stories." I mumbled. "She never mentioned special powers or anything, she just told me about the great women in our family."
"Well. I'm sure that they were all very great in their own way." she said as she gently squeezed my shoulders. Agnes was watching me intensely and I instinctively pulled away from Agatha. She let me go.
"But they were not Loci's." I said.
"That may well be because Agnes and I are obviously very much alive. You have to understand Audrey, it is almost impossible for the Loci gene to be dominant in both a mother and a daughter." said Agatha.
"Then what happened with you and Agnes?" I asked.
" I don't know. But I believe the Gatekeeper may, and that is why we are both stuck within the Gates."
Agnes then got up from her seat and walked towards the front door. She peered through the frosted side panel. "We need to leave through the back mum. There are still wraiths outside." she said. "They are forming a horde."
"We need to go Audrey. If they sense you need a gate, you may not be able to leave." said Agatha.
What the hell did she mean by that? I was not getting trapped inside the Gates. The place was dark and dismal and horrible. It was misty and there was barely any light. I was going through a gate. Period!
" I need to get to the River Lord's court." I said. “That is where Cymon is and I hope that the Time Master is there too."
"Then we need to get you to Buttulph gate. That will be the closest one to the River Lord." Agatha said.
I had never heard of Buttolph gate but I was not going to argue. I had already been told that the Gates formed a ring around London to protect the city. I did not know how they did this but if they could get me back to Cymon, that was all that I was worried about right now.
"This way." This came from Agnes, who was still watching me with what seemed to be a sense of awe and hatred mixed in with a side of anguish. She tugged at her red hair constantly and it pained me to see the longing in her eyes. I guess I was what she never could be. A Loci that was not trapped in an in-between place, doomed to always exist in a place that you did not belong.
I looked away. From what Agatha had told me. She and Agnes were trapped and there was nothing that anyone would be able to do to help that.
We walked towards the back of the property. The long corridor was narrow and dark and I saw a kitchen leading off of it. My stomach rumbled but I did not have time for food. The back door was made of heavy wood and Agnes pulled a key from a nearby shelf and unlocked it. She released the bolts at the top and bottom before turning the large iron handle and pulling the door open. The small yard beyond the door was filled with dark shadows but none were wraiths.
"Quick. We need to get back to the Cripple gate. That is the closest one." said Agnes.
I turned to look at Agatha who was following behind me. I raised a questioning brow. "You will enter at the Cripple gate and if all goes well you will exit at Buttolph gate."
"What do you mean if all goes well? I have never even heard of Buttolph gate?" I replied.
We crept down a small path which led to a wooden gate set into the back wall. A small apple tree and a slightly larger plum tree, both heavy with fruit took up most of the tiny earthen space of the righthand side of the yard. The left side held containers of varying size and materials which all held herbs.
"Buttolph is an ancient river gate Audrey." said Agatha. "The first gates were built by the Romans, they formed part of the London Wall, to secure the city. More gates have been added over time and in the human world many have been demolished. I doubt that any are left. But in our paranormal world they all still remain."
"How do you not know this?" asked Agnes. How was I supposed to know it? I only found out that I was a Loci today. I knew that Agnes was angry at her situation and that I formed part of that. But now was not the time to let her know that none of that was my fault.
"If I enter one gate how do I know which one to exit from?" I asked Agatha. I thought about my journey here. I had not come through a gate. Someone had changed the path that War had set for me. I had not come via any gate and I was nervous about using them.
The deafening sound of the rusty hinges of the wooden gate creaked as Agnes pulled it open. I instantly froze and glanced behind me and then in front. I did not see any wraiths.
"Quick. Come on." whispered Agnes as she headed through the back gate. I followed close behind, my heart thumped and my ears pricked as I waited for the low moan of the wraiths. Agatha was behind me. The three of us ran down the cobbled street which was flanked by houses on both sides. The mist was rising and I could barely see the stones of the road that we ran on. The yellow glare given off by the street lamps did not help and it only increased my fear that where there was light there would be shadows. We ran.
We came to the end of the road. We had seen no one and I wondered if it was only Agatha and Agnes who occupied a property here. "You need to get to the gate over there." said Agnes as she pointed forwards. I followed her finger and saw the Roman soldier standing atop the arched gate. The distance was about fifty metres and the area was well lit. I could do it.
I turned to Agatha. "So how do I know?" I asked. Agnes' head swung back and forth as she checked for wraiths. I also was constantly listening. Waiting for the moaning that would announce their arrival.
"You're a Loci Audrey. You will find it." Agatha replied.
I saw Agnes shifting from foot to foot. Looking back at us and then at the street ahead.
"A Loci who doesn't know how to use her power." I said. Agatha reached out and grabbed my hand. My instinct was to pull back but she held on tight. I felt my hand warming and then it was hot. Really hot. Again, I tried to pull back but she would not let me go. Agnes was still checking for wraiths. And my hand burned. Then I saw an image in my mind. It was a small bricked archway which seemed to be set into a wall overlooking a waterway. I was not sure if it was the Thames. A set of wooden double doors sealed the arch and three steps led down from it. My hand was suddenly cool again.
"Hurry." hissed Agnes.
"Once you enter the Cripple gate. Keep that image in your mind. Focus on it and that is where you will exit." said Agatha. "That is all you have to do Audrey. Your powers are inherited. They are part of you on a genetic level. All you have to do to access and use them is to focus. We use numbers, mathematics to hone and streamline the power, to focus the energy and identify the location." She still held my hand and she turned it over slowly, looking at the red band. Her head tilted to the side and I saw her eyebrows bunch and release as her lips scrunched up then parted slightly. "Ahhh. I see that you have been marked. What did you do?" she asked.
"Audrey. You have to go. Now!" said Agnes.
Then the moaning started.
I turned to Agatha. I didn’t have time to answer her question but I felt that I should hug her or maybe just a handshake. But it was awkward. Instead I gave a half smile that barely registered on my mouth before I turned and ran towards the gate.
"Good luck Audrey." I barely heard this whisper as I ran past Agnes and saw the pained look in her eyes. I knew that she wished she was coming with me or maybe going instead of me, but I couldn't stop to answer. The wraiths were coming. A mass of dark shadow began to form on the right side of the road and it was growing quickly. I saw it splitting into pieces and taking shape as arms, legs and heads formed and clumped together. There were at least ten of them. I kept running. I should have reached the gate by now. Fifty metres was not that far. But the gate still seemed so far away. Then I saw a wraith detach from the mass and start moving towards me. It was running. Fast. Shit!
Then another and another. No one told me that wraiths
ran! I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut but I needed to see the gate. I dared not look round. I did not want to see how close they were. My eyes bulged and my chest burned as I tried to breathe, but fear held my lungs tight and I could barely get any air into me. I twisted my head slightly and saw the glowing eyes of the wraith right next to me. A scream ripped from my throat as panic flared inside me. At the same time my left foot dragged and connected with a cobble stone that was jutting up and I went airborne. My arms flailed above me as I spun over and then landed flat. My chest connected with the ground and the small amount of air left in my lungs was pushed out as I gasped in pain. Everything hurt but I got up. Too late. I was surrounded by shadow. I could not see any way through the dark mass. The gate was about ten metres away now, but I would never reach it. Cymon would die and we would all be lost. The moaning got louder and the mass got thicker and darker.
CHAPTER 22
"Audrey run!" Agnes' voice rang out from far behind me. A shaft of white light burst through the mass and I could see the gate. I ran. I didn't look back. I couldn't. What if they were hurt? What if the horde now turned on them? Had Agatha and Agnes sacrificed themselves for me? I kept running.
As I got nearer to the gate, I could see a shimmering blue light within it. The street beyond was covered by the veil of blue light, just like the light of the Knights Bridge. I ran until I was just in front of the light and then I quickly turned back. I could not see either Agatha or Agnes, but the shadow wraiths were in pieces. Trying to reform. I turned and ran into the gate.
The image of Buttolph gate was sharp in my mind. I did not want to get lost or trapped or end up someplace where there would be no one to help me. Agatha and Agnes were gone. Still in the crazy town inside of the gates. I was on my own. I ran further into the blue shimmering light of the Cripple gate. It was like running into a tunnel and reminded me of changing trains on the underground tube network, the multitude of twisting and turning tunnels which connected the different platforms and train lines. Only in here I could see through the tunnel walls because they were constructed of that same blue light. And there were people. So many of them. Just like me they were heading for a gate somewhere. They moved funny as if their limbs were mimicking movement when actually they were being carried along by some strange current. I felt it too. They all seemed to have a glow which streamed slightly behind them as they moved forward. I twisted round, my neck craning behind me to see if I also left a trail. I did.
