Endless Winter (Guardians of The Light)

by J Armitage

  “You’re right. So it looks like he was based in York or at least living nearby at the time of your birth and now he’s more multi-national. What does that really tell us though? That he can afford holidays now?”

  “Not much but it does tell us he was living in the York district in the year I was born. It’s not much but it’s something to go on. I wish I’d told Andrew when he was here. It might help with his investigations.”

  Aethelu was unconvinced. “Maybe. I think Alex has taken over the lion’s share of the investigating. Andrew is too busy with Judith. I caught them three times making out with each other yesterday! I mean, seriously, get a room already!”

  Anais laughed.

  “Yeah. He does seem very loved up at the moment. I’ll tell Alex when I see him” She knew she would have to go and speak to him soon enough anyway to apologise for her outburst from the day before.

  “Come on let’s go see Father.”

  They found him in his surgery as Andrew had said.

  He was looking at a slide under a microscope when they entered.

  He looked up “Good morning ladies. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

  “We have some information about Jago.”

  “Really? Come in, sit down! What have you learned?”

  Anais sat on the only other available chair. Aethelu perched herself on the surgery bed.

  “I got a journal of my fathers the other day.”

  “Mmm yes,” interrupted Aldric. Winifred mentioned you had gone AWOL for the afternoon. She was very worried you know!”

  Anais blushed “Yeah, sorry about that.”

  “Never mind. Tell me what you found in Alistair’s journal.”

  “Jago was sending threatening letters to him twenty years ago. It was the reason he moved to America.”

  Aldric sat up with interest.

  “Please may I see this journal?”

  Aethelu hopped down from the bed and passed the journal to her father.

  “I turned down the corners of the pages which mentioned Jago.”

  They sat and waited whilst he read the relevant passages.

  Finally he finished and handed the journal back.

  “I always wondered.” Anais wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or to himself.

  He continued. “It explains why he left so abruptly. I do not see how it helps us in any way though.”

  Anais explained about the postmarks and told him that she planned to tell Alex about it.

  “Yes, that seems like the right course of action. Thank you for letting me know. Do any more of Alistair’s journals mention Jago?”

  “I don’t know. I only picked one up from storage. He had hundreds of them. The rest are in boxes in York.”

  “It might be in our best interests to organise a trip to pick the rest of the journals up. I trust I can leave that up to you both?”

  Anais was excited at the prospect of leaving the manor again, this time with Aethelu.

  “Yes sir!”

  “Just let me know when you are planning to leave so I can sort out some security for you both.

  Anais wasn’t sure that she liked the idea of security but she knew better than to argue.

  They bade farewell to Aldric and made their way back to the kitchen for breakfast.

  Winnie was there cooking up a storm. She offered to make breakfast for Anais and Aethelu, an offer which neither could refuse. Andrew appeared before Anais had finished her breakfast. He was carrying his and Judith’s dirty dishes.

  “Did you manage to find Aldric?” He asked as he put the plates into the dishwasher.

  “Yeah thanks. He didn’t think it would help much.”

  “No, that’s what I thought.” He closed the dishwasher door and headed back up the stairs.

  “What did you need to see Aldric for? Is everything ok?” Winnie had a concerned look on her face.

  Anais filled her in on everything they had learnt from her father’s journal. She was surprised when Winnie burst into tears.

  “I thought he’d had enough of us. I can’t believe it was Jago the whole time. Why didn’t he tell us?”

  “I think he didn’t want to worry you, that’s all.” She put a comforting arm around Winnie.

  When Alex appeared a few minutes later, Winnie wiped her eyes and dished him up a huge breakfast.

  He seemed a little wary around Anais. She waited until Winnie was busy doing something at the other side of the kitchen before asking Aethelu to make her a coffee. When Aethelu had moved over to the kettle she quickly sat next to Alex.

  “I’m sorry about yesterday. Of course I want you to be in the babies’ lives. I don’t know what made me say it.”

  “It’s ok. I get it. I’ll help out where I can.” He held out his hand and Anais held it. They were sat like that when Aethelu came back with three cups of coffee. She placed one in front of each of them. Her eyes flicked down to Anais and Alex’s hands but she didn’t say anything about it.

  “Has Anais been telling you about Alistair’s journal?” she directed her question to Alex.

  “The one you picked up from storage? What about it?”

  Anais repeated the story for the fourth time that morning, careful to mention the details of the postmarks.

  “Interesting! I’m not sure how much help it will be but knowing that he was probably living in York twenty years ago certainly narrows it down a little.”

  “Do you really think it will help?”

  “I’m not sure how much but let’s go have a look.” He quickly downed his coffee and headed to the larder with Anais and Aethelu following closely behind.

  As they closed the door and pressed the button that would see them descend to the lower floor they heard Winnie shouting

  “Don’t you want to finish your breakfast first?”

  Once they were past the keypad and thumb scanner back into the room with the screens, Alex logged on to the computer.

  The screens showed a hive of activity in the house but nothing unusual. Andrew and Judith were once again walking hand in hand in the grounds, stopping for a stolen kiss. August was walking Baker in another part of the grounds. Anais wondered if the cameras had captured her and Aethelu the day they climbed the branch over the fence. She watched the screens a bit longer and was relieved to see that part of the grounds not covered by a camera. She might want to use that way out herself someday. Mind you she’d be too big to climb anything in a few months’ time.

  Images of her heavily pregnant trying to climb a tree were interrupted by Alex’s voice. He was showing something to Aethelu on the computer screen. She went over to see what he was pointing at. It was a bit of a squeeze, three of them around one screen so he pressed something and the image he was seeing on his computer appeared magnified over all sixteen of the large screens.

  “See here, I’ve mapped out where all the letters we’ve received were originally posted from.”

  Anais looked at the screen. A map of the world showed with dots to represent the letters. They had been posted from as far away places as Rio, Paris, Canberra, Manila and Rome. As she watched, Alex added a few more dots to represent the letters to her father all those years before.

  “Can you put the dates the letters were sent beside each dot? Otherwise it makes no sense.”

  “Yeah,” said Alex “Let me see. I think I’ve got the dates here somewhere.”

  He copied and pasted each date next to its corresponding dot on the map. He had to do each one individually so it took him a few minutes to go through the list. Anais watched as each date appeared on the map. It was only when Alex had finished that she noticed something.

  “Are you sure these dates are correct?”

  “Yes. I have the original envelopes if you want to check but I’m pretty sure they are right. I typed them in myself.”

  He opened a drawer and pulled out a bundle of letters and envelopes with an elastic band holding them together. She pulled the band off and sorted through for the enve
lopes, discarding the letters as she went. She searched through the envelopes and finding what she was looking for handed them to Alex. Aethelu stood over her brother’s shoulder and looked at the two envelopes her brother had been passed. Aethelu was confused as was Alex as he said “what am I supposed to be looking at?”

  “Look at the dates.”

  They both checked the dates. “One was sent the day after the other.”

  “Look where they were sent from.”

  A look of comprehension was beginning to dawn on Aethelu’s face but Alex still didn’t know where she was leading.

  “One was from Canberra, the other Oahu. I admit they are far apart but it’s not impossible to post a letter in Hawaii, get straight on a plane and then post another in Australia when you land.”

  “That’s true but you are forgetting the International Date Line which will have to be flown over. These letters were posted on the same day!”

  “Is there any way he could have posted one really early in the day and then one late at night on the same day?”

  “It’s possible but highly unlikely. It takes about twelve hours to fly from Hawaii to Sydney and then you’ve got the flight from Sydney to Canberra.

  Have a look on the internet to see if there any early morning flights which will allow someone to post both letters within the given time.”

  He typed away on his computer, coming back minutes later.

  “There is one flight that might work. They all have stops which makes the journey longer but taking into consideration the time difference and with all the necessary changes. He could theoretically have posted both letters in the same day.” He looked triumphant at finding a snag in her logic.

  “What time does the flight touch down in Canberra?”

  “10.45pm. Why?”

  “Let’s assume that the flight arrived on time at quarter to eleven. Give it another five minutes to taxi to the airport and maybe another ten to disembark. Let’s say that it only takes ten minutes for the luggage handlers to empty the plane and put Jago’s bag on the carousel. He’s still got to go through customs and to find a post box. Even if everything goes to plan and he gets through the whole rigmarole of getting through the airport security in record time and if there is a post box at the airport. The very earliest he would have been able to post that letter would be, what? Say Eleven fifteen.”

  “Ok so it’s unlikely but you’ve just proved it’s possible”

  “Yes, it may be possible to post two letters in those two cities on the same day but what time of day do you think Canberra postal service pick up and sort the letters from the airport. I think we can safely say that it’s before quarter past eleven at night.”

  “You are right. So what does it mean? Do you think Jago has his own private jet?”

  “Possibly but I think the more likely solution is that two different people posted those letters. One in Hawaii and the other in Australia. I think Jago is working with a partner.”

  Alex and Aethelu looked at Anais in shock. Neither of them could dispute her argument.

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  Aethelu was the first to break the silence.

  “So he’s working with a partner?”

  “I certainly looks that way,” said Anais. “The question is, where do we go from here?”

  Aethelu turned her attention to her brother. What happens if you do a search for him on the internet?”

  “Nothing comes up for him when you type in Jago but that’s not really a surprise.”

  “What about his full name? Do you remember his last name?”

  “No, do you?”

  “Cooper? Cutler? Something like that.”

  “Cutter, Jago Cutter. You are right. Ok I’ll see what that comes up with.” He typed it into the search engine and read the results.

  “Nothing. It was a long shot though.”

  “Try James Cutter” Anais said. Alex and Aethelu looked at her.

  “Jago is the Cornish for James. Jago is such an old fashioned name. It would stand out too much in this day and age but who would remember someone by the name James Cutter? If he wants to stay under our radar, then James is a common enough name to choose.” Anais realised she was sweating. She felt hot and her forehead was clammy. She surreptitiously wiped it with her sleeve.

  “Common is right” answered Alex. “The internet has hundreds of entries for James Cutters”

  “Well, it’s a start. Check if any of them lived in York twenty years ago. Check the other places too.” Anais was excited they’d got a lead, no matter how tenuous. She was also starting to feel dizzy so she sat down on one of the ratty sofas.

  Aethelu hadn’t noticed and was chatting excitedly to Alex.

  “I bet Anais is right. He’d never expect us to remember his surname either. I bet we are on the right track! Anais!!!

  Anais didn’t hear Aethelu’s shout. She’d passed out, her body slumped on the sofa.

  When she awoke she couldn’t make out her surroundings. It was dark and lifting her head made it pound with pain. She felt something on her arm and wondered if she’d been shackled up in the bedroom again. She felt down and realised it wasn’t shackles but an IV drip. She pulled herself up into a sitting position and waited for her vision to adapt to the dark. Her headache worsened with each movement. After a few moments her eyes got used to the dark and the hazy shapes she could see turned out to be glass bottles lining the walls. She was in the hospital bed in Aldric’s surgery.

  Dizziness threatened to overcome her again. She took a couple of deep breaths and the fogginess cleared a little. Her eyes swept the dark room again and she made out a large shape to the side of the bed. Putting her hand out she felt down at the shape and realised it was breathing. It was Aethelu, obviously asleep on a chair next to the bed. Her head was lolling to the side in an uncomfortable position.

  Anais pulled her hand back and as she did, the movement woke Aethelu with a start. She jumped upcoming quickly to Anais side.

  “What’s wrong? Are you ok?”

  Anais couldn’t make out Aethelu’s face but she could hear the worry in her voice and could imagine the look on her face.

  “I can’t see you.”

  “It’s dark, do you want me to turn the light on?” She made as if to go find the light switch but Anais grabbed her arm.”

  “No, I mean I can usually see you, even when it’s pitch black but now, in the darkness, all I can see is your outline.”

  “Yeah, that can happen. In times of great stress or sadness, The Light can lose potency a bit. The first thing to go is our glow.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. If we are happy or have any kind of positive emotion it seems to be so much more powerful.”

  “I meant, why are you sad?”

  Anais waited for Aethelu to answer her but all she heard was silence. When she felt Aethelu’s hand take hers she knew the answer.

  “I lost the babies didn’t I?”

  “Father says that technically you just failed to get pregnant in the first place. The embryos just didn’t take.”

  Anais could hear by the sound of her voice that she was holding back tears.

  “Is it because of The Light?”

  “Father doesn’t really know. It was just one of those things. I’m so sorry.”

  Aethelu finally descended into the sobs she was trying to hold back.

  Anais put her hands around her and held her until the sobs subsided.

  She felt numb. She knew she should be crying along with Aethelu but the tears wouldn’t come. She’d lost her babies. She knew that she’d never wanted to be pregnant in the first place but despite herself she’d grown to love the little people inside her. All Alex’s talk of the children had rubbed off and even though she’d not shared his plans for the babies she had begun to imagine a future with them. She’d had dreams about bringing up three little white haired children with Aethelu, of being a family. Now that would never be.

  It wa
sn’t just her children that had been lost though. The loss of the DNA they so vitally needed signified a loss of everybody’s children, of sons and daughters, mothers, fathers, cousins, friends. They were on a countdown to the loss of everyone and they had just lost their only weapon.

  It was too late to try again.

  Suddenly it hit her.

  The magnitude of her loss was just too much to bear. It felt like a gaping chasm had opened up inside her and finally she caved in to the grief.

  As the two girls held each other, joined together in sorrow, the door opened. Winnie approached the couple and silently put her hand on her daughters shoulder. Aethelu pulled back to let her mother in to see Anais.

  Winnie switched on the bedside lamp and felt Anais forehead. Quietly and without any fuss she emptied a syringe in Anais IV line. Seconds later Anais eyelids began to feel heavy and once again she succumbed to the merciful blackness.

  The next morning Anais woke up to a bustle of activity. Aldric was removing her IV lines, Winnie was waiting patiently with a tray of breakfast and Aethelu was just hovering in the background.

  “How are you feeling this morning?” Aldric quickly put a thermometer in her mouth, rendering her incapable of answering his question. She nodded and mumbled that she was ok.

  When the temperature check was done, he checked her blood pressure and then pronounced her fit and well and left in a hurry.

  Winnie placed the tray in front of Anais. It was one of her famous extra special Sunday breakfasts, unusual for a Thursday morning but Anais wasn’t going to complain. She was hungrier than she thought she would be and the plate heaped with crisp bacon, scrambled egg, hash browns, beans and sausages was just too mouth-watering to resist. A cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice was placed on the table next to the bed.

  “Eat up sweetheart.” Winnie kissed her cheek and gave a smile. She looked like she wanted to say something but the smile said everything she needed to say without the need for talking. Winnie gave Anais hand a squeeze and then left as suddenly as her husband had.