“Thank you for saving my father’s life,” she stammered as she looked up at me. She could not have been more than fourteen years old.
“You’re welcome,” I said with a smile to her.
“Come along, Eloise,” Lord Gyfford’s wife said sharply as they walked off. The young lady gave me a quick smile and hurried off to join them as they left.
“Don’t let it get to you, Evie,” Dr. Thorpe said after we were out of earshot of the joust. “You did well today. Remember that the people here are not accustomed to modern medicine, nor a woman who would take that kind of initiative to act as boldly as you did. Today, you showed courage and intelligence and a good part of the kingdom saw it,” he said proudly.
“I’m surprised that Princess Emeley dismissed Lord Gyfford’s wife’s accusations so easily,” I remarked as we crossed the threshold back into the clinic.
“You told the truth, why wouldn’t she?” he replied.
“How could she know for sure that I was being honest?”
“Prince Eythan would have known and passed a judgment on you right then and there,” he answered.
“But how would he know?”
“He is a half-vampire. There are some things those creatures can do that we poor simple humans cannot. I’m told that he takes more after his father, the vampire king, than he does his late human mother. Whatever you do, don’t you ever lie to him. It is said that he can detect untruths from anyone. That ability alone makes him a very cunning and powerful monarch.”
“So he has a built in lie detector?” I said almost mockingly.
“I’m glad you find it so humorous, Evie,” Dr. Thorpe replied. “Just remember what I said. He shows no mercy to those who are dishonest with him.”
Sam and I nodded. How lucky for the prince, I thought. That would be an awesome trait for anyone to have, especially someone in his position.
Chapter 10
Sam and I set out early on Sunday to convene with Sarah, Kennedy, Sean, Paul, Matthew, and Josh at the edge of the marketplace. Today was not just any strategy meeting. Today we were going to investigate a potential lead on someone who might have knowledge that could help us with the possibility of opening a portal to go home.
“It’s about time you two got here,” Sean barked as we walked up to the group. “We don’t have all day, some of us have to get back to work in this wretched world,” he continued sourly as we approached Sarah and gave her a hug. She shot him a look. I feel that every day that passes drives them farther apart as his bitterness over our situation eats away at him.
“Where is this potential lead?” Paul asked, changing the subject.
“In there,” Sean said, pointing to the woods outside of the castle gates. It was in the direction opposite of the mountain cliffs and shoreline, opposite of Ironhaven.
“The Ashen Forest?” Paul asked.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” Kennedy remarked, her dark hair swinging as she turned her head. Our time here so far has affected her too. When we arrived she had a few extra pounds on board, now she was as slim and sleek as any supermodel from our world. I guess the loss of sugary desserts and convenient snack food would have that effect on anyone.
“Of course it is. What could happen in the daylight here? I’ve got my knife on me. They only call it that because of all of the white birch trees that grow there,” Sean said.
“What are we going in there for?” Matthew asked.
“To find someone named Rosalind,” he replied, taking the lead, heading towards the forest. The rest of us fell into step behind him.
“I have heard of her,” Samantha’s friend Josh answered. “The miller and his family have mentioned her. She is feared here . . . supposedly she is some kind of witch.”
“A witch!” I said in astonishment. “That’s great. That is the last thing we need, to be seen associating with someone who has a bad reputation. Somehow I don’t that that will make any of us look any better if anybody finds out about it.”
“Unlike you, I really don’t care what anyone thinks; least of all the royals,” Sean said.
“What else can we do, Evie?” Sarah replied. “We need help from someone. It’s not like the villagers are going to help us . . . and you and Sam haven’t been able to get anything useful out of Dr. Thorpe or the royals. It’s at least worth checking out.”
“How did you even hear about her?” I asked.
“Some of the barmaids mentioned that they go to her,” Sean replied, marching ahead. Sarah gave him a look. She wasn’t always with him during his evenings spent in the local tavern.
“I hope it’s worth it,” I replied as I continued on silently.
As we crossed the first group of white and black flecked trees guarding the entrance to the deep woods, the air seemed a bit heavier, a bit more ominous. That wasn’t the only thing I noticed. The sounds of our progression became almost obnoxiously loud as the sounds from the village faded from behind us and things grew eerily quiet. My eyes darted around quickly as I began to feel a little uneasy. The last time something like this happened we were at the Rose Renaissance Faire and then ended up here. Who’s to say that we couldn’t fall into some other hellish dimension worse than where we currently were. I think everyone thought it because all of us fell silent, watching our surroundings.
Portals to different dimensions, vampires and half-vampires . . . why not witches? I thought grimly to myself as we marched along in the dark green damp foliage. My knowledge of witches, just like all of these fairytale creatures that weren’t supposed to exist, hedged on ignorance. The few stories I have read or movies I have watched did not depict them very positively. I comforted myself with the knowledge that there was no such thing as magic. At any rate, I remained on my guard.
No one spoke much as we navigated through the white barked trees until at last we came to a crude sort of path. Humidity hung low in the air like a weight upon us. I could hear Matthew wheezing mildly as we walked. I hoped his condition would not worsen out here. A loud noise to my right startled me and I gasped. The flapping wings of a large bird suddenly taking flight caught me by surprise.
“You okay, Evie?” Paul’s calm voice asked as he fell into step with me.
“Yes, sorry. I’m just a little jumpy,” I admitted, giving him a quick smile. He returned it easily. Despite our circumstances, I had grown to like him as a friend. I wondered if we ever made it back home whether or not we could actually have a relationship. After a few more minutes we came to a clearing. In the distance, tucked into the side of the mountain, sat a cluster of trees with a faint outline of an ivy covered cottage just behind them. If you weren’t looking for it, you could easily miss it.
“That must be it,” Sean announced. “Just where the barmaid said it would be.” Soft tendrils of smoke twirled out through the gray stoned chimney. Off to the left, more birch trees gathered and wrapped around the side of the mountain. I noticed a small stone well nearby with a wooden bucket perched upon the rim.
“Well, let’s move on, we don’t have all day!” Sean ordered, snapping all of us out of our thoughts. The grass and foliage were shorter here for some reason. I wondered how that was possible given that they didn’t have any lawn mowers in this age. The large wooden door was shut, giving no indication as to whether or not Rosalind was home. As we neared the door I studied the walls of the cottage. Everything, including the windows and shutters were covered in ivy.
Sean knocked purposefully on the door while we waited to see if there was an answer. As I continued to inspect the ivy, I noticed it cascaded off of the roof in sort of a waterfall over what looked like the shape of something underneath. I crept closer to the house to get a better look. Raising my hand I gently swept some of the ivy aside. Stone . . . a statue was underneath. Sean knocked again on the door. Still no answer. I continue to pull the ivy away from the statue.
“Evie, what are you doing?” Kennedy asked nervously. “Don’t touch anything.”
“It’s a statue
of a man,” I exclaimed in a hushed tone. I pulled back the last bit of ivy covering his head and shrank back in fear when I saw his face. The statue’s face depicted a young man, who, perhaps might have been handsome, if it weren’t for the fact that his features appeared to be twisted in horror, like he was suffering from something very painful.
“Evie, get away from that!” Sarah ordered in a hushed tone.
I don’t know why, but I reached up and put a hand on the statue’s shoulder. I instantly regretted it and withdrew quickly. Something seemed wrong . . . that was not an ordinary stone statue. It felt alive, but it wasn’t. Real but not real. I could feel something that I could not explain. “We have to get back to the village right now!” I hissed, not wanting anything more to do with this creepy plan. I’d rather take my chances with the villagers and vampires.
“Leaving so soon?” A female voice from the open doorway to the cottage said. Everyone jumped back about a foot. Everyone except Sean, that is.
I eyed the woman warily. She looked nothing like I expected. My eyes surveyed a woman who appeared somewhere in her early forties with a slim, petite stature and long light brown hair, parted in the center, streaked with gray here and there. But it was her eyes that caught my attention. She locked them on me as I studied her, wanting to run. They were wide set and cast in an unnatural deep gray.
“I was wondering when you wayfarers would come to me,” she said evenly.
Sean cleared his throat. “Are you Rosalind?”
“Indeed,” she replied, still standing in her doorway.
“We’ve come to ask you for your help,” he said honestly.
“I cannot imagine what for,” she said lightly with a chuckle that was somewhat of a mix between genuine and sarcastic. “Come in, all of you, and we will talk.” She disappeared inside her house.
“I don’t want to go in there,” I said. “I’ll wait out here.”
“Me too,” Samantha agreed.
“What’s wrong with you two? We are all going in. We are all going in as a team to see what can be done,” Sean ordered.
“Evie, please?” Sarah begged. “We need to stick together now. What could happen?”
I glanced at the creepy statue and then at her. I didn’t want her going in without me, even though I still wanted to run. I don’t know why but the prince’s handsome face flashed in my mind. What if something happened to me and I never saw him again? The thought seemed sad as well as totally irrational to me since my goal was to go home to my world anyway, but still, it was there. I sighed. “All right, let’s do this.” As I moved into line with the others, I could have sworn I saw the statue move.
Rosalind’s cottage consisted of a large open room with a huge hearth and cauldron in it. Though dimly lit, I had no problem seeing. She had a weaver’s loom in one area, lots of herbs hanging and drying from the rafters like we did in the clinic, however I did not recognize the kinds that she had. A large wooden table occupied the space in front of the hearth. She stood with her back to the raging fire and faced us from across the table. When the eight of us neared her, the fire in her hearth abruptly died out. She glanced back at it curiously, and then focused her attention back to us.
“Let me guess, you have all come here to see if there is any way that you can go back to your dimension, . . . back from where you came.”
“Yeah, that about sums it up,” Sean said matter-of-factly.
Rosalind grinned as we all watched. She surveyed each of us one by one with those unnatural deep gray eyes. I wondered what she thought of us. She stepped to her right and opened a large ancient looking book that was sitting on the edge of the table. I figured it was some kind of spell book. She flipped through the pages slowly, ignoring us. From what I could see, it was not written in English and there were drawings of symbols and other things scattered throughout the pages. At last she stopped at one particularly busy page, running her index finger down the letters, skimming its contents. “Here it is,” she said.
We all waited in silence for her to continue. “You came here through a portal, so it is back through a portal you must go.”
“But how will we know when one will open, or if it is the right one?” Sean asked.
“Portals contain mystical energy, I can smell it on all of you even now . . . no one here has the foresight to be able to tell you when the next one to your dimension will open,” she said slowly.
That is because it is probably a scientific phenomenon, I thought to myself.
“Then why are we wasting our time here?” Sean demanded coldly.
“Are you wasting your time?” she replied coyly. “I said no one here knows when the next portal to your dimension will open, however, there are ways to open a portal.”
“Do you mean to tell us that there is something we can do to create a portal to take us back home?” Sarah asked.
Rosalind definitely had my attention now. “All of you arrived here from a portal that opened on the night of the twilight star,” she said cryptically.
“The twilight star?” I repeated absently.
“Happens usually once every year,” she said. “Although, there has never been a portal that has coincided with that night before in my time. If you want to go home, you will have the best chance to open a portal on the very same night.”
“When is the next twilight star?” I asked.
“Can you teach us how to do it?” Sarah asked, hope brightening her face.
“So many questions,” she continued, closing her book and crossing her arms as she studied us. “The next twilight star will overlap with next year’s fall solstice.”
“That’s a year away!” Sean blurted out, obviously unhappy with that news.
“Can you do it?” Sarah asked.
“I can teach you a spell and ritual that will do the trick,” she said with a shark’s smile. “However, . . . there is a price.”
“How much?” Paul asked quickly. I think he did not want to linger here any longer than the rest of us.
“It is not money that I require,” she said, picking a bit of lint off of her sleeve. “Bring me the hand of a half-vampire and I will teach you how to open the doorway back to your home.”
“The hand of a half-vampire?” Kennedy asked. “Why not the hand of a real vampire?”
Rosalind glanced at Kennedy and semi-rolled her eyes, then replied in a frustrated tone, “because vampires turn to dust when they die.”
“You want us to kill a half-vampire and bring you the hand?” Paul asked, seeking clarification.
“I never said you had to kill one, I just want the hand.”
“Why?” he asked.
“That that is the price for my services,” she said, ignoring the question. “Now, if you do not mind, I have things to do.”
We took the dismissal gladly as we turned to stride out of the dim cottage. As I pivoted, I heard her say, “You.”
I looked back and she pointed at me. “You, . . . stay a moment.”
I glanced at Sean as a moment of terror struck through me. He nodded as he gestured for everyone else to file out. “We’ll be outside, Evie,” and with that they left me with the witch. So much for being a team.
She walked around the table to come nearer to me. I kept my feet planted where they were, not wanting to venture nearer to her.
“You are not like the others, are you?” she said mysteriously.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Your coming was foretold but not by me, . . . hold out your palms.”
I wasn’t sure I heard her right, but I held her eye contact as I did what she asked. She dropped her gaze to look at my hands for a few moments. Then her eyes returned to mine. I have no idea what she saw but she gave me a half-smile.
“What happened to the man outside?” I asked boldly, referring to the statue.
She chuckled lightly. “Do not feel sorry for him. He got what he deserved, believe me. I think he has learned his lesson.”
Fear st
arted to slink down my spine. There is no such thing as magic, I repeated in my mind. If she could do things like that, I wanted out of here now. “Take care of yourself, Evelyn Remington,” she said using my full name that had never been spoken here, turning back to the fire. “Not all of you are going to make it home.”
I turned and practically ran out the door.
“What did she say to you?” Sean asked as I rejoined the group.
“Nothing that made any sense,” I replied.
“You and Paul are well acquainted with the half-vampires. Keep an eye out for who you think is the weakest one.”
“Are you serious?” I asked incredulously.
“Do you want to die here, Evie?”
“Of course not.”
“Then we do what she wants.”
“The half-vampires have strength like superheroes, Sean,” I reasoned. “There is no way you can harm one without getting killed in the process. Besides, we have no idea if she can really do what she promises. She could have made the whole thing up.” I wanted no part of harming one of the royals or nobles. So far, most of them had been decent to me.
“We’ll see about that,” Sean retorted as he marched on.
As I turned to follow the others, I glanced back at the statue that creeped me out on the way in. Fear flared within me when I realized it was nowhere to be seen.
Chapter 11
Sam and I walked slowly through the village carrying small bundles of firewood. Drew had been ill for the past two days and Dr. Thorpe ordered him to rest. This was our third and final trip of the day and I was worn out. But it was worth it, the nights had grown a little colder and we would be uncomfortable without a fire. As we neared the center of the village, I heard hoof beats behind us.
The Twilight Star Page 10
