Endless Winter (Guardians of The Light)

by J Armitage

  “Did you bring the body back here?”

  “No, we made an anonymous phone call to the police. We really can’t afford to get involved with the authorities. He has a wife and grown children who can deal with the funeral arrangements.”

  Anais was silent for a while.

  “So he escaped then…again.”

  “Yes, unfortunately, but we did find this.” he picked up an object from the cabinet. It was the crossbow. “Jago must have dropped it as he ran through the woods.”

  Anais thought about it and realised he didn’t have it with him when he stepped on her leg. She shuddered to think of the damage he could have caused if he had still had it.

  Rafe continued “It’s pretty rare apparently which should give us some clues as to his whereabouts.”

  Anais looked at it closely and now that she could see it in the light she could tell it was a very fancy piece of weaponry. Too fancy really. Made out of wood it was all swirls and intricate details. She’d never seen anything like it before. It seemed odd. Why not just use a normal crossbow?

  “Strange huh?” Rafe echoed her thoughts. “Judith was the one to recognise it, giving us a major clue”

  “It’s African?”

  “No. She recognised it from a film. It’s a prop from a fantasy film from a few years back. Audsley looked into it and it seems Judith was right.

  Apparently only a few of them were ever made and were all sold to wealthy private memorabilia collectors or given to some of the actors in the film. None of the crossbows worked in real life so this one is either a copy or an actual prop that has been modified for use. Fascinating isn’t it?”

  “So, when you, Alex and Arcadia go to find Jago, you have a lead to follow?”

  “Alex and Arcadia left last night. Audsley took my place and went with them. She knows a lot more about film memorabilia than me so it seemed the right thing to do.”

  “Alex has gone?”

  “Yes” said Rafe rather irritably. “Audsley said she knew someone in Las Vegas that dealt in film props so they booked the first flight they could get to Vegas and toodled off.”

  Anais felt bereft at Alex leaving.

  “He didn’t even say goodbye. Did he say anything about me before he left?”

  “No he did not. He had more important things on his mind getting the four of them to the airport in time for their flight to come and see you.”

  “Four? I thought Alex was just going with Arcadia and Audsley?”

  “Yes, they are. Judith went to the airport with them. She flew home this morning.”

  “Why?”

  “After last night Father insisted she return home immediately. Andrew is quite beside himself. I tried to make Father see sense, I mean it’s hardly as if Jago is going to attack again. He’s already proved his point. There was really no need for Judith to go but Father was adamant.”

  Rafe seemed angry and Anais remembered that he had been in love with Judith too.

  “You loved her.”

  Rafe stared at her in shock. “How did you... Oh never mind, Yes, I was in love with her, not that I could do anything about it. I had my dear brother warning me off and then Andrew there all the time with her. What does it matter now? She is flying to Kenya as we speak. I’ll probably never see her again. If Jago gets his way, the whole of civilisation will be wiped out within a year, Judith included.”

  He was hiding something. A quiver in his voice betrayed him. Anais suspected he was taking it harder than he was making out. Nevertheless Rafe’s words jolted something in her memory.

  “I need to speak to Aldric. Now!”

  If Rafe was surprised by this sudden turn in conversation he didn’t show it.

  “He has been up all night performing surgery on you and dealing with Aethelu. He just retired about an hour ago.”

  “Wake him up. Please, it’s important”

  “He’s not going to be happy.”

  “Just do it!” She raised her voice. She didn’t have time for an argument. He looked like he was about to say something but thought twice and turned on his heels before disappearing out of the surgery door.

  As she waited for Aldric to arrive, Anais watched Aethelu breathing softly. She looked so peaceful although that probably had something to do with the drip attached to her arm. Now that the blood had been cleaned up and the arrows removed, she really did look like she was going to be ok. If Anais hadn’t seen the extent to which she was injured, she would never have been able to tell that Aethelu was hurt at all. She even had a slight colour to her cheeks. Anais breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t know how she would survive without Aethelu. She was part of her now.

  Anais pulled herself up and experienced an agonising pain shooting through both her legs, each competing for the most painful. She held her breath and waited for the agony to subside. Eventually it lessened and she was able to pull herself into a sitting position.

  Footsteps alerted Anais to Aldric’s arrival. He was wearing pyjamas and slippers and had black circles under his eyes from a lack of sleep.

  “Are you ok? Do you need more painkillers?”

  “Jago knew about the babies. He knows about you trying to make an antidote and he says it won’t work. He’s got another virus. If you manage to cure the first he said he’d just let the second one loose.”

  “You’re sure that’s what he said?”

  “Yes. He said he’d kill all your children one by one if you don’t start working on the elixir.”

  Aldric sat on the little chair between the two beds, lowered his head into his hands and started to weep. It was disconcerting to see him cry. He had always seemed so strong.

  Winnie chose that moment to walk through the door. She appeared just as disturbed by Aldric’s loss of control as Anais felt.

  “What is it? Is it Aethelu?” She rushed straight to her daughter’s bed and was mollified to see her youngest child breathing.”

  “Aldric?” She turned to him, concern in her voice.

  Anais repeated what she had told Aldric moments before.

  Winnie held her hand to her mouth in shock.

  “How could he possibly have known?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that” answered Anais. “He has keys to the house”

  “He can’t have. What makes you think he has keys?”

  “When he came into the studio he was silent. I had locked the door behind me. The only two ways he could have got through that door were if he broke the door down or if he had keys and we would have heard him if he’d broken in.”

  “Oh good lord!” Winnie looked around her as if she expected Jago to jump out from behind a curtain.

  “Did the cameras capture anything?”

  “No. We had Andrew watch back yesterday’s footage but he said that something had blocked the camera in the studio. Oh! Do you think Jago has been breaking the cameras?”

  Anais thought back to Aethelu covering the studios camera and blushed. It had seemed like a good idea at the time but now she regretted it.

  “No, I think Aethelu might have covered it by mistake.” Winnie did not need to know the real reason it was covered.

  Aldric wiped his nose and eyes with a handkerchief he brought from his pocket.

  “What are we going to do Winnie?” he sounded defeated.

  “We’ve run out of options Aldric. We have to give him what he wants.”

  “What about Arcadia, Alex and Audsley. They have a chance of finding him.”

  “I think we both know that the chance of finding him is extremely slim. They’ve all flown to Las Vegas on some wild goose chase even though we know he is in this country now. For all we know he could be in the grounds as we speak.”

  “August took Baker and thoroughly searched the grounds. He’s gone. I’ve asked Andrew to sort out the security again. He managed to get through the electric fence. Honestly, I’m glad Judith has gone home. Now Andrew can put all his concentration into the security instead of parading around th
e grounds with her. There have been too many lapses in security for my liking and it’s just not like him.” He sounded tired, his voice flat.

  “Be easy on him. He’s found love for the first time in his life. You remember how that feels don’t you? Now he’s lost her. The poor boy is beside himself.”

  Aldric spoke wearily “Andrew has upped the security a number of times and still Jago gets in. We don’t know where, we don’t know how and somehow he has managed to avoid turning up on any of the security cameras. He travels through this house like a ghost whenever he pleases and nothing Andrew has done seems to make any impact.”

  “I’m aware of that Aldric but I don’t think we should put so much pressure on Andrew at the moment. I found him crying in the library this morning. I don’t think we can count on him at the moment. I’m not losing another child Aldric. You are going to give Jago what he wants and the consequences be damned.”

  Anais opened her mouth in shock. She had never heard Winnie speak like that before. She was fierce and Anais was unsurprised when Aldric quelled under her steely gaze.

  “Ok Winnie. I’ll give him the elixir but I don’t know how.”

  “You have some of the elixir already brewed?” Anais was incredulous. “You said you’d forgotten how to make it and all this time you had some? You’ve been lying to us all?”

  “No. I do not have some brewed and I didn’t lie to any of you. I was just economical with the truth. I do not remember the exact recipe for the elixir however I do have the ingredients in the correct quantities for a small vial. I separated them and sealed them and put them somewhere well hidden, many hundreds of years ago. I was telling the truth when I said I’d forgotten the exact recipe I just didn’t say that I knew where to get it.”

  “Where?” Hope sprang to Anais.

  Aldric started to unbutton his pyjama top. Anais didn’t know what he was doing so she kept silent as he put his hand down the front. He withdrew his hand and pulled out something on a chain around his neck. It was a star pendant just like hers. In the place of her pearl was a black diamond. She subconsciously brought her hand up to her own neck before remembering that she’d left her necklace on the bedstead.

  “I sealed a small amount of each ingredient in a pendant. Fourteen different ingredients, fourteen different pendants, fourteen different owners.”

  Anais thought of her own necklace. She’d never guessed it was hollow. She’d kept on to it since the day her mother had died, not knowing it contained an ingredient to eternal life.

  “So all we have to do is get all the pendants, break them open and make the elixir.”

  “I’m afraid it is not that simple. For a start there are more than fourteen ingredients. There are sixteen.”

  “What are the other two?”

  “One is water.”

  “Just plain water?”

  “No, the water was taken from a stream near to the village we lived all those years ago. It was taken from the source of the stream. If we are to do this, we must do it correctly. However I have no reason to believe that the stream still doesn’t exist.”

  “Ok, water from a specific stream, got it. What’s the other ingredient?”

  “Well that is where it gets a little more complicated. The other is a plant. It was the only ingredient that wouldn’t keep over a long period of time.”

  “That doesn’t sound complicated. What plant is it?”

  “It’s a plant that was rare even all those years ago. Unfortunately it is now extinct.”

  “That is a problem. Wouldn’t any other plant work?”

  “It was the only plant that worked at the time and I tried hundreds if not thousands. Of course I did not have the methods of travel that are available today so I could only try plants that grew within a few miles of where we lived. It is possible that other plants could work although I would have to experiment.”

  “Ok, so we all go out and bring you as many types of plants as we can find. Have some imported if needs be. It’s not much but at least it’s something to go on.”

  Anais was trying to keep upbeat despite the pain in her legs which was becoming unbearable.

  “Unfortunately that is not the only predicament we face. There is another reason that I believed making the potion was impossible.”

  He paused to massage his temples. He seemed to have aged years in the short time Anais had known him.

  “As all animals that are kept in captivity, after a while they begin to feel trapped. They fight with each other. We were not unlike animals in a zoo. Constantly together. Ava and Alfred, as you know, bought a boat and moved out as did some of the others. Two of our members, Abel and Amber left us over a hundred years ago. There had been a disagreement, I forget what about but it wasn’t the first. They didn’t want to live in our group and so they left. Unlike Ava and Alfred they have never been back. We do not know where they went and none of us have heard from them since. They took their pendants with them when they left. I do not know if the others still have theirs. They were handed out so long ago.”

  “My pendent has a black pearl. Aethelu’s is a ruby. I’m I right in thinking they all hold different precious stones?”

  “That is correct. This one here...” He held out his own pendent “is a black diamond.”

  “I’m guessing that you put the stones on the pendants to remember which ingredient was in each pendent? Surely if you see which we have and then you only have to remember the ingredients of those we have missing.”

  “I wish that were the case. I wasn’t lying when I said I can’t remember the ingredients. I cannot remember which pendent got which ingredient. Also when these were made over five hundred years ago they did not have stones in them at all. They were all identical except for their contents. You forget, with how small the world seems now that I could not travel very far when I was young. Cars and planes were hundreds of years from being invented. We could go as far as our feet could take us, or if we were lucky, a horse. Rubies and diamonds were not in plentiful supply in Yorkshire in the fourteenth century.” He gave a mirthless laugh “A hundred or so years ago, not long before Amber and Abel left our number, I collected all fourteen of the pendants. I took them to a master jeweller, had them coated with platinum and the stones were added at that time. I have no way of knowing who got what ingredient. I do know however who got what stone, so if there are any missing now we will know who last owned it.”

  “So we could open up all the pendants we have and hopefully you will remember what is missing?” Anais was desperately trying to solve all the problems and cling to hope despite the increasing pain in her legs.

  “The pendants cannot be broken before the ingredients are ready to be used. They have been sealed against moisture and oxygen. Once exposed to the air the ingredients will begin to decay. Within days they will be no use at all.”

  “Ok let me get this straight. Firstly we need a plant which no longer exists, then if by some miracle we find a plant that will work we still need fourteen other ingredients, of which we know two are definitely lost and haven’t been seen for a hundred years. Only then can we make the elixir.”

  “That’s about the long and the short of it yes. However you are missing out a vital point.”

  “Which is?” Her legs were really beginning to become so painful she was struggling not to cry out in pain. She was having trouble concentrating on what Aldric was saying to her.

  “I cannot experiment on any new plant without the other ingredients. There are such small amounts of each ingredient as it is. I will not have any spare to experiment on one plant let alone hundreds.”

  “Which leaves us where?”

  “I’m afraid it leaves us out of options.” He held his head in his hands.

  Anais had a feeling she could see a way out of the mess but with the pain she was in she was finding it too hard to concentrate. At that moment Aethelu began to stir. She murmured “Anais.”

  Winnie ran over and poured her a drink of water from
a jug on the cabinet.

  “Anais?” Aethelu spoke much more urgently this time. She was unable to move too much with the drips and the bandages but Anais could see her eyes were wide and pleading with her mother.

  “She’s fine darling. She’s right here next to you. Now have a sip of water. It will make you feel better.”

  She helped her daughter into a sitting position slowly. Aethelu groaned with the pain. She looked over and saw Anais sitting next to her in the next bed, a similar look of discomfort on her face but with a weak smile. Anais held her hand out between the gap and Aethelu reached for it. They were only close enough to touch fingertips but even the effort of doing that seemed to exhaust her.

  “I’m giving you both some more painkillers. They will knock you both out. Now before you protest I’m not taking no for an answer. You both need time to heal and before you lie to me Anais I can see the pain in your face.”

  Anais grinned sheepishly. Winnie could always read her like a book.

  Winnie gave each of the girls’ two tablets and some water and waited until they had both swallowed them.

  “Now those tablets should begin to work in about ten minutes. You should sleep through the next twelve hours or so. None of us can come up with a solution in the state we are all in. We all need our sleep. Tomorrow we can look at the problem afresh. Come on Aldric, back to bed.”

  Aldric shuffled out after her and softly closed the door behind him.

  “Are you ok?” Aethelu asked, the pain evident in her voice.

  “Broken leg on one side, injured leg on the other.”

  “Best not enter any marathons any time soon.”

  She laughed at her own joke and then groaned in pain.

  “Did Jago escape?”

  Anais filled Aethelu in on everything she had missed including the problems they faced making the elixir.

  Aethelu yawned and held her hand out again.

  Anais was also beginning to feel sleepy. Her eyelids were getting heavier by the second.

  “Aldric didn’t know what to do.”

  “We go find Amber and Abel, that’s what we’ll do. You and me together.”

  “But what about the plant?”