"Just what have you done to Alyssa?" she growled, pushing him harder against the wall.
He looked confused. "What do you mean?"
"You perfectly know what I mean! You took her out last night and brainwashed her now she's an entirely different person."
Ben didn't know what she meant. Yes. He had sort of brainwashed her, but it was only to remove the argument they had from her mind. It wasn't supposed to change her or make her into a different person. Every other time, they had just gone back to their normal selves, there were no side effects.
"Answer me," the girl hissed. A crowd started forming around them, talking loudly – some started chanting 'fight' repeatedly.
"I didn't do anything, I didn't brainwash her," Ben lied, though it probably wasn't the best idea.
"Really?" the girl said sarcastically. "Then explain why Alyssa has changed."
"Umm...I don't know. Maybe she just enjoyed our time together..." Ben realized what he had just said. The mysterious girls' eyebrows rose. Her right hand flew to her sheathed sword. "Wait! It's not like that!" Ben looked around the excited faces of the crowd. The noise level had risen. He had to do this again. There was no other option – just like last night. Summoning his power, his eyes flashed a dark green. The color of his aura. A thick layer of mist shrouded the market street. People stopped moving as if frozen in time. Their eyes had turned white. Time stopped still all around him. The black-haired girl had frozen with her hands on his chest...bit awkward... "You will not remember this fight and you will not remember being angry at me," Ben said to all the motionless people, but particularly the black-haired girl. Clicking his fingers and releasing the spell, he dissolved in thin air.
Kelsie fell forwards into the side of a wall. She blinked back spots that appeared in her eyes. What had just happened? She couldn't remember what she was doing here...that's weird. Kelsie shrugged and walked back down the street, it surprised her that there was a dispersing crowd around her. They all looked confused and lost, as if wondering what they were doing. Kelsie shook her head and tried to remember what she was doing in the market street – but nothing was coming back to her. It was all a blank. She stopped when she passed the Red Herring inn. Thinking about it, she had hardly seen Leo these last few days. It could be helpful to get more information out of him. Pushing open the door she entered the cozy little inn. The owner waved at her whilst he polished glasses, stacking them on shelves. Kelsie waved back as she started jogging up the long narrow staircase.
A beautiful girl with a very sparkly decorated bag was walking towards her. Her eyes lit up when she saw her. "Hi, Kelsie! Just going out to town for some wedding supplies – I'd love to chat with you sometime," she said smiling.
Kelsie stopped walking. "Yeah, shall we arrange a time?"
Azura considered. "How about later today – 4pm? Meet at the dressmakers."
"Sure, but the dressmakers?" Azura laughed uneasily.
"Well...I was wondering if you could be my bridesmaid...um...yeah I got to go – see you later!" Kelsie gave her a nervous laugh, an image of her in a bright pink dress floated in her mind. Hmmm...Not nice...bad thoughts. She waved goodbye to Azura, who gave her a smile and gracefully disappeared down the stairs, her pale blue dress floating behind her. Kelsie stopped walking at door number 5; she opened it and found Leo lying on the bed reading a book of some sort. Though his eyebrows were all scrunched up as if he was having a hard time concentrating.
"Hey Leo." He jolted up from the bed and gave her a wide smile.
"You're Kelsie, aren't you?" Kelsie nodded. "Yeah – just came to see if you are alright. How's your new home?"
Leo's eyes gazed around the room, taking in the neat white walls and brown timbered ceiling. "I'm settling in – though I prefer my old one. Then there was an explosion...a shower of diamonds – that girl Hazel caused it, didn't she?"
"Wait, what do you mean – she caused it?" Kelsie thought back. The explosion had happened quite randomly, and she hadn't figured out who had done it. But seven-year-old Hazel? "But she's so young and she isn't allowed to use magic."
Leo shook his head with impatience. "No, no, no – no magic...it's a curse from her mother. Meddled with things she couldn't control – it cursed her. Or rather the witch cursed her."
"The witch? You're speaking nonsense again," Kelsie sat down on his bed and faced him, staring into his brown eyes. He looked so lost...
"The witch," Leo nodded. "She is neither good or bad. She's the middle one who keeps the peace; she stops things from getting out of control. I used to know her. There was a plan, but it didn't work. Now there's a princess without her mother..."
"Are you talking about Alyssa?" Kelsie said. This was confusing. Her head already hurt, and Leo was not making in any better.
Leo grunted, so she wasn't sure whether it was a 'yes' or a 'no'. "The princess – her mother isn't here is she?"
"Why?" Kelsie persisted. She had known that Alyssa's mother didn't live with her anymore, but she didn't know why. She had never really thought about it much. "I don't know...I can't remember..."
"What about your parents?" Kelsie said and then immediately regretted it. Leo's eyes went watery and red. He sniffed; a lump was forming in his throat. "Forget I said that."
"No, it's ok," Leo gulped. "They died, it was a mermaid attack – we lived too close to the sea, we weren't careful enough."
There it was...mermaids again. Why was everyone so obsessed about them? But her earlier argument with Mr. Wright didn't seem to matter anymore. The look of sincerity on Leo's face was so real...she found it hard to go against it. Instead of saying her usual phrase: 'Mermaids don't exist' she wrapped her arm around Leo's shoulder. She was bad at comforting people and she had no idea what to say.
"I'm fine," Leo said, cheering up slightly.
"Leo..." Kelsie said slowly, wondering how best to put it. "Do you know how we can...um...heal your mind – and also Luke's...um...transformation..."
Leo brightened up. "There's a physician in Alltalos...Not sure what his name is, to distant...to f – f- faraway..." Kelsie nodded, pleased that they had finally found a possible cure. "Luke likes spinach," Leo added helpfully.
"That's good to know," Kelsie said. "Well, I must be going – see you around sometime!"
Before she went out the door, Leo stopped her. "Wait, before you go – find the mermaid...please? Find her, find her..." Kelsie bit her lip at the fragile state Leo was in.
Her smile faltered. She didn't know what he was talking about; she was only just starting to wonder if mermaids actually existed. Now her was telling her to find a specific one. "I'll try," though she felt bad when she saw Leo's face split into a smile. He looked somehow happier and less insane...
But she still had no idea what he was going on about. "Rescue her," he said firmly.
Chapter Sixteen
"Good morning, Tristan," Alyssa said happily, waving at him as she went down the market street. Prince Tristan looked at her with a peculiar expression. Alyssa returned it with a smile.
"You seem happy today," Prince Tristan said somewhat suspiciously.
Alyssa grinned and nodded, she held up her shopping bag that was full of chocolate. "Of course, I am! Why does everyone think I'm weird or something – is it a crime to be happy? I've just been shopping for my friend's wedding; her father gave me all this chocolate at a massive discount. Isn't that nice?" Alyssa showed him her bag. She held out some beautifully wrapped chocolate fudge. "You want some? I got more than I bargained for."
Tristan took the chocolate hesitantly from her hands. Alyssa had literally no idea why everyone thought she was acting different today. She felt incredible, euphoric, amazing!
"Thanks..." "So how is your training for the Millay going? Its next week isn't it – apparently this challenge is going to be a brand new one, so the contestants will be taken by surprise." Prince Tristan looked at her weirdly, as if having a perfectly normal conversation was the strangest thing ever. Alyssa wil
l never understand some people. She had no clue as to why Kelsie seemed so stressed this morning.
"Yeah...this challenge is going to be a breeze for me – that Benjamin or Ben...whatever...he was such an attention seeker in that last challenge. The crowd were going bonkers for him all because he managed to kill a dragon...blah, blah, blah," Tristan complained, there was a smearing of chocolate around his mouth. Alyssa gave him a handkerchief. He eyed it warily.
"It's to wipe your mouth," Alyssa prompted.
"Right..." he used his hand instead and gave back Alyssa her unused tissue. "So anyway...that Ben person seems pretty suspicious don't you think? No one knows where he came from or who his family are – and he's only like sixteen, no sixteen-year-old should be able to use magic that effortlessly. It's not natural."
"He could actually be like a hundred and just preferred taking on the form of a sixteen-year-old," Alyssa pointed out.
"Hmm..."
"Oh well, I'll see you later – it's been nice chatting to you," Alyssa said, continuing down the market street, with Prince Tristan still frowning in confusion behind her
Ben banged on the old wooden door loudly; he heard light footsteps behind it. A tall woman opened it; her violet eyes gazed at Ben. "Hello Ben, come in, come in – it's nice to see you again, it's been so long!" Rachel ushered him inside the warm dimly lit house. He looked around the familiar room taking in the potent aura of magic in the air.
"It's only been a few weeks," Ben said as Rachel gave him a big hug.
"Exactly, it's been ages. How are you? Have you been coping alright?"
"Rachel, you're not my mother – seriously." Rachel pouted, which looked quite comical on her mysterious youthful face. She pushed him into a chair by the fire and sat down in front of him in her own armchair. "Yes...your mother, hmm..."
Ben sat straight up, his eyes pleading. "What about my mother? Do you know her?"
Rachel laughed. "Well yeah, she was the first of my experiments – ahh, happy memories."
Ben's eyes flickered. "You experimented on my mother?" he growled, staring ferociously at Rachel.
She stared back at him; her eyes unwavering. "It was a good experiment – I had help of course, even though I'm number 1 top soothsayer witch, I couldn't have done it without my buddies..." Rachel leaned back and sipped a steaming hot liquid from a mug...though it certainly did not look like tea...
"How do you mean? A good experiment?"
Rachel gave him one of her all-knowing smiles. "It was a good experiment, except it is unfinished," she replied simply. Great, very helpful.
"Where's my mother now?" Ben asked hopefully.
Rachel took another sip of her drink, a puff of steam drifted from her nose. "Dead."
"Dead," that single word felt like someone had just dumped a thousand tons of rock on him. "How?" his voice was shaking, maybe from grief or anger. How could Rachel just sit here and talk so calmly about it?
"She made a mistake that was fatal. The price she had to pay was her life. End of."
"I'm getting nowhere with this," Ben trembled, his hands were shaking. "You've kept secrets from me my entire life! I can't just...just live in darkness...this is my life as well. Not just yours. She's my mother, I deserve to know."
Rachel put down her mug on a small coffee table beside her. She looked intently at Ben after his outburst. "All with come in good time, Ben. Just have patience."
Ben looked away; his fists clenched in frustration. "Fine. As long as I get answers in the end."
"Shall we start again then? What is the real reason you came here? I know it wasn't to shout at me about your mother," Rachel said, breaking the tension like a knife cutting through a veil.
Ben looked back at her, though he avoided her eyes. "I used a memory wipe spell on the princess last night. In the late morning her friend marched right up to me and accused me of changing her, whatever that meant. But I was confused, that's not supposed to happen, right?" Rachel didn't reply for about ten seconds. A clock ticked in the background. "No, that is unusual. But it has happened before – it only means that the person has deep affection for you," Rachel winked slyly at him. "Even if they haven't admitted it fully to themselves, the person's soul already has. It turns them into a slightly different person, though it should wear off in a couple of days."
"That princess loves me?" Ben spluttered, choking on the air.
"Yep, completely head over heels," Rachel said happily. "Now we can have loads of one quarter mermaids running around! Won't that be wonderful?"
"You're not serious?" Ben said, still gasping for air. He couldn't imagine the princess as his wife at all. Every single time she met him, she always started shouting at him. To be honest it scared him, and her eyes were a very intimidating color.
"Would I ever lie to you?"
"Possibly," Ben mumbled.
"What was that?" though she knew perfectly well what he said.
"Nothing. When the side effects of the spell wear off, does this mean she'll...um...remember what happened?" Rachel raised an eyebrow.
"What happened? Anything explicit?"
"No! Why does everyone think that? Just answer the question."
Rachel thought about it. "The memory spell will still work, so she probably never will know...what happened..."
"I didn't do anything to her by the way," Ben reminded her.
"Sure, sure...is this the princess of Mylvehil by any chance?" Rachel asked curiously.
"Yeah."
Rachel smiled somewhat creepily. "Interesting
Chapter Seventeen
"Alyssa?" Kelsie said, looking down from her horse.
"Kelsie! What did you do to Ben," she demanded rather territorially.
"What? Who's Ben?" Kelsie asked, confused. What was she going on about?
Alyssa looked back at her equally confused. "I thought you went off to kill him or something – earlier this morning you started getting angry about him..." Kelsie scrunched up her eyebrows. She really tried to remember but nothing was coming back to her.
"That's right," Luke intervened. "You told me it was going to get messy."
"What he said," Alyssa said, looking up at the two of them, as if only just realizing that they were on horseback. "Where are you going?"
"To Alltalos to find a cure for Luke and Leo," Kelsie told impatiently, it annoyed her that this was wasting time.
"Alltalos? But that's really far away! It will take a few days for you to get there – you'll miss the third Millay challenge."
"Do you really think I care about that lame Millay tournament?" Kelsie gave her one of her famous snorts.
"I'm saving one of my friends instead of wasting my time with some stupid Millay."
"I'm your friend?" Luke asked with awe.
"Yes, and right now we have to go. So nice meeting you," she waved sarcastically at Alyssa and pressed her heels into the horses' side. The wind rushed past her as they galloped down the streets, leaving Alyssa standing at the stables open mouthed. Her grey eyes full of an emotion she couldn't understand.
"Yay! I'm going to be an elf again!" Luke cheered into the passing sky. Kelsie smiled at his enthusiasm, she only hoped that this Physician knew what he was up to. Cantering down the wide paved streets, Kelsie saw a glimpse of brown through the trees in the upcoming pine woods. Gary came onto her mind. It must be him. Riding off into the unknown... Kelsie crushed the urge to follow him; she could do that another day. She maneuvered her dark brown horse onto a deserted country road, which wound up and down through the long pale grass.
The high afternoon sun shone down onto them, providing warmth on their journey ahead. Kelsie's bag of provisions jolted up and down from the galloping horses' speed. An immense sized forest was drawing closer towards them; it stretched far over the horizon. She could just make out a gate that blocked the entrance to the forest.
"Did you kill Ben then?" Luke said over the noise of the pounding hooves.
"Look, I have no idea what you are
talking about. Can we just leave this conversation?"
"But -"
"No buts," Kelsie answered firmly. She dug her heels harder in the horses' side and it charged right towards the gate.
"Ahhhhhh!" Luke screamed. "Nooooo! Too fast!"
Kelsie laughed at him. "You're not going to fall off, I'm at the back of the horse, be grateful." The wooden gate approached them rapidly; the horse wasn't making any inclination of slowing down. Kelsie pulled suddenly on the reins, the horse reared on its back to legs, whinnying in protest. Kelsie gripped harder with her legs in effort not to fall off. Although it was quite hard with a hyperactive goblin clinging onto your waist... "Luke, get off!"
"S-sorry," he squeaked, but he didn't let go. The horse fell back on all fours and shook his mane, getting rid of the knots and tangles.
"Luke, open the gate, would you?" Luke muttered something dirty about horses and spinach, as he jumped down from the horse and opened the gate.
"Says here 'BEWARE: DO NOT ENTER'" he gestured to a badly engraved sign that was nailed roughly into the wooden fence.
"Ignore it," Kelsie said. "It probably means nothing." Luke shrugged and continued opening the gate. He climbed back on the horse (with a little help from Kelsie) The horse started trotting cautiously into dark overgrown woods. A cool scent of berries and fern leaves wrapped around the air around them.
Birds chirped in the background, through the noise of the rustling trees. Kelsie could hear the sound of crisp dead leaves flying with the wind, they twirled around in the air, spinning and falling to the ground. The trees around them looked like they were holding their breath. Their branches were dark and empty, bare twigs reached out towards each other like outstretched fingers. A lone squirrel raced across their path, disappearing up a tree on the other side of the path.
"Can you hear that?" Luke whispered.
Kelsie listened. "No," she said just as quietly, though she didn't know why she was whispering.
Dark Oceans (Ocean Series Book 1) Page 10
