by Helen Slavin
As he stepped into the car park he saw his car parked in front of the doors, the keys in the ignition. It had four flats and the paintwork had been subjected to what might be called a sgraffito paint job, waving lines cut down into the paintwork. Battle scarred, he thought as he waited for the tow truck. He laughed. They might have won this battle but give him daylight and division and he was going to win the war.
Victory must be his, because, when all was said and done, Seren Lake was his spoils and his alone.
23
A Jar of Green Lentils
Afterwards, they all sat for a long time in the dark of Cob Cottage looking out across the water. Events had knocked them all, and no one even had the energy to board up the kitchen window, so a gentle forest breeze blew through and ruffled at all of them. Finally, the light lifted enough to allow Seren to decide that she was going down to the lake.
“I think I’ll head off to Drawbridge…” Charlie uncurled herself from her chair. Seren headed into the bathroom and Charlie turned speedily to her sisters.
“What’s going to happen do you think?” she asked, in a tone that told them she had her answer and wanted confirmation.
“Something bad,” Emz assured her. Charlie nodded.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Something more,” Anna put in, her response measured. Charlie gave a deep groan.
“Yep. That’s also what I thought.” Charlie stretched and took out her car keys. “I’m getting good at this,” she groaned.
“D’you think Grandma Hettie thought we would be ready for all this?” Emz asked, still pale-faced after the night’s events.
“Nope.” Charlie gave a wry laugh. “Don’t you remember? She always said…”
“You’re never ready for anything.”
They spoke, once more, in unison, exchanged a glance.
“You know, in normal circumstances this all saying the same thing at the same time would start to piss me off…”
“Freak me out,” Emz added.
“But instead… it’s making me feel…”
“Connected,” they all concluded. Charlie held out her hands in a ‘there you go’ gesture.
“So, with all that is bad and more in mind, I will not be late. In fact, I will head back here as soon as I can.” She headed out.
Emz and Anna heard the bathroom door click open and had smiles ready for Seren that were as fake and unconvincing as hers. After a few seconds Anna said:
“Shall we stop smiling? It isn’t doing any of us any good.” And, at that brutal honesty, Seren laughed, which sound made them all feel better.
The three of them headed down to the lake. Today there was a sharp breeze blowing and Seren did not strip off and dive in. Instead she was more circumspect, she walked the length of the jetty and sat at the end of it, her feet trailing into the water.
The remaining Way sisters sat on rock and grassy hummock close by and mulled over their thoughts.
Anna was watching Seren and trying to puzzle out what was different. There was something just slightly awry with the landscape and she could not work out what it was. She glanced across at her sister who was sitting intent, examining her right hand, kneading at it with the fingers of her left.
“Did you hurt yourself last night?” Anna was concerned. Emz shook her head.
Emz’s mind tried to contain jumping bugs of thought. Last night, amongst all the other events, Emz had made light glow from her hand. She had reached up, she remembered, and in her mind, she had been holding her phone, but when everything had calmed down later she realised that in fact her phone was in her school bag in the hallway at Cob Cottage and the battery was dead. So, what had she done and how the hell had she done it? She recalled the pale glow of light, the small orb that had formed itself in her palm and she’d lifted that up to light her way. It doesn’t belong.
As she thought about it something pricked further back in her memory, odd flashes and blinks of the other night when they had found Seren sleeping in her car. Emz did not have to think hard. The orb of light had come then, when she’d needed a light to see by and she’d reached up and what had the thought been then? Lantern? What an odd word to find in her head. She reached back.
Leaves underfoot. Sisters around and behind. Running. Racing. Running like the wind. There was something off about the energy and athleticism of that run from Tasha’s house. She had known where she was going, she remembered that distinctly, she had seen a place in her mind. She sat very still now and reached for that memory too. There was an unease tapping at her shoulder. It doesn’t belong. She had assumed that the image she’d had in her head, the need she had felt to be in Havoc Wood, tied in with the connection her sisters had felt. Yes. She had known, instinctively, that was the word Grandma Hettie would use here, that Seren Lake was in trouble, there was a need to be at Havoc Wood.
But.
There were a lot of ‘buts’ in Emz’s head. There had been a sensation beyond that of the urgency of reaching Seren Lake. She dug deep back into her memory, trying to recall it as clearly as possible.
“…You see that Emz?” Anna’s voice broke in sharply and the thoughts tumbled away.
“What?” Emz focused on her sister, alert as a hunting dog, heading for the jetty. “What is it? … Anna?” Emz followed her sister across the grass.
“What’s wrong?” Emz watched Anna’s puzzled face. She could see Seren sitting at the far end of the jetty, and, at first, she could not see what her sister was bothered about and then, as the persistent sound of the water against pebbles knocked at her head, she saw the phenomenon.
“Oh. The… ripples… the water… it’s going the wrong way.” It was eerie, the way that as Seren dabbled her toes in the water the water seemed to dabble back rather than roll away from her, as the Way sisters watched all the surface of the lake was rippling softly towards Seren.
“Is she alright?” Emz asked.
“I don’t know. What do you think?” Anna asked not taking her eyes from the water. Emz considered for a minute, rummaged around all her thought processes and accompanying emotions. She didn’t feel that Seren was in danger.
“There aren’t any alarm bells going off in my head. Just a sort of an idea of… waiting,” Emz concluded. Anna turned to her sister and nodded.
“We didn’t feel like this with the other guests, did we?” Anna mused. Emz shook her head.
“Because they weren’t meant to be here.”
The thought drifted away across the water.
“And Seren Lake is.” Emz knew it, the knowledge sat inside her. Anna nodded again, let out a short, relieved laugh.
“I can’t pin whether this is going to be good or bad, can you?” she asked. Emz was surprised. It wasn’t often that Anna asked her opinion, after all, Emz was the baby of the family and Anna was the big sister, the one they relied on. Except that since the terrible events of last October they had viewed Anna very differently. Emz had seen that her sister was, in the end, just a woman, only human and that sometimes she needed to be helped and to rely on others.
“It feels complex. Layered. Has implications. At least… that’s what I think of when I feel it at the edges of my mind.”
“Like a background hum,” Anna said and Emz nodded but they both stood and listened for a moment.
“Except…” Anna listened hard again. It was more than a hum now. Emz was certain now that she could hear very distant music, something not entirely easy to listen to.
“You can hear that too?” Emz asked, deciding that all her madnesses had come at once and it was going to be better to just out them all. Lights. Voices. Olympic distance running.
“Depends,” Anna said, “can you hear a sort of music?”
“Yes. That’s it exactly. ‘Sort of’ music.” Emz felt lifted by the connection this gave her. She might not be going mad if her sisters felt the same. “… But… not pleasant… off… odd.” They listened together for a few moments and Emz felt herself driftin
g as if the music was hypnotic.
“Any idea where it’s coming from?” Emz watched Anna, her sister’s face still with concentration.
“Under the water,” said Anna. She looked at her sister and Emz made the thought for them.
“Grandma never let us swim in the lake,” she said. She looked down the jetty.“Black-deep, blue-cold.” Emz recited her grandmother’s often used words regarding the lake and the taboo she had placed upon it for swimming.
“You warned Seren.” Emz reassured her sister.
“I did. Not that it seems to matter. She’s been in more trouble on the land. The lake seems almost the only safe place for her. At least Tighe Rourke can’t get to her in there…”
The two women watched and listened.
“We could only ever swim up at Frog Pond, remember?” Anna felt they might be joining some dots but equally she felt that she was actually sprinkling more dots. She’d been thinking about Frog Pond the other day and had made the decision, but not yet acted upon it, to head up there. She looked at her sister, at the odd expression that crossed her face. “You alright Emz?”
It was all Emz could do to nod. She managed a smile too and Anna turned her gaze back to Seren.
“There’s a reason Seren Lake has come here.”
“She is called Lake after all.”
“That is a good point, well made Emz.” Anna smiled and gave a wry laugh. “That is exactly the point.”
“You think she’s been sent?”
“Or summoned. I’ve been thinking back… maybe all Grandma Hettie’s guests and visitors were here for a reason.” Anna took in a deep, invigorating breath. “All my Grandma Hettie instincts are really kicking in, Emz. More. Everything. Extra.”
“Me too.” Emz could feel the little trickle of frightened tears that was stockpiling itself inside her.
“We have to help Seren,” Anna stated the fact, a small word which carried vast responsibility, “and yet I have no idea how.”
“You scared Anna?”
Anna looked round.
“Terrified.” Her smile was shaky.
Emz nodded. It seemed okay if they were both terrified, and, somehow, she knew she didn’t have to ask Charlie how far along the fear scale she was sitting. She’d seen how tightly Charlie had curled herself into the chair last night. She only really did that when they watched scary films.
“Okay. My Way Instinct wants me to go and sit on the rocks for a while. Keep watch.” Anna took a step.
“I’d better head off.” Emz took a step back to the porch. “I’ve got a double English and History, but I’ll be heading back here by two.”
Anna nodded and waved.
“See you later. Don’t work too hard,” Anna said as she moved along the shore.
* * *
As Emz walked down Old Castle Road, she tried to find the bookmark in her thoughts. Frog Pond. She thought of the light that had glowed from her hand illuminating Seren, and thought of its softness, its beauty. She made a mental link with the skill she had for reaching inside an animal in distress and of how that felt. That skill was something Grandma Hettie had helped her with, something that she had with her forever so that, for Emz, she had earmarked it as a good thing. A skill. A Strength, of course. The light thing, now, she needed to take a look at it, that skill or strength was something entirely new and different.
She thought of the most recent incidence, the hunted deer. The light might be part of that and oooooh the light… frog… soft, white as the moon’s face… pond… lunar and lovely… That was interesting, Frog Pond, the way that if she thought about the light her thoughts seemed to drift frog pond slightly and be distracted. She let the feeling take her for a moment and then halted. No, the light was not like the sense of the deer and its heart. When she did that it felt right, it felt part of her. This drifting thought, Frog Pond. No. Didn’t feel good. Felt strange. Stranger. She pushed the moonlit orb out of her head. She moved away from the idea of the light and concentrated on running. Where had she been headed? She thought of castle stone underfoot, of forest floor. There had been a picture in her mind. She kept coming back to her sisters and the Seren trouble that had taken over. Taken precedence. There was something else, something more at the edge of things. She had come across Seren but that clearing, she was not headed to that place, she had been called elsewhere. No. Not called. Not called at all.
Summoned.
Emz held the word inside her head. It was stark and truthful and although it scared her it was exposed now. It could be thought about, dealt with. She reached, tried to recall her destination. Where had she been going?
As she reached the edge of town the noises started to bustle in on her thoughts and she knotted the thread of them up to unravel later. Now she needed to concentrate on not getting run over, and, also, the dread came flooding back, how was she going to face down Mark Catton and Logan Boyle and Caitlin?
* * *
At the Drawbridge Brewery, Michael Chance had seen the car once already. It was not a hard car to miss, it was white and tank-like, a high-end Dick car in his opinion. It had rolled by the gates at about nine thirty and he’d noticed because it had slowed and had a good look through the gates before being driven off, and only a very few moments later he’d seen it heading back again in the opposite direction, once more slowing to check out the brewery.
Now, it was pulling into the car park. Michael was heading down the stairs, looking out and rather annoyed that the man had parked the beast of a motor right in front of the gates effectively blocking everyone in. Michael didn’t like the look of him. He looked as if he’d been in a fight last night and his manner was gruff and rude.
“I’m here for a brewery tour,” he barked. Michael crossed the car park, he could feel his phone in his jacket pocket and reached to take it out, wanted it in his hand, just in case.
“I’m very sorry sir but we don’t actually do any brewery tours here at Drawbridge.” Michael was struggling to pull on his convincing customer service face. The man pinched at his nose in frustration and impatience and looked around for a second.
“There no chance of a quick tour? Since I’m here and all?” He made an open-handed gesture as if he was full of goodwill.
“I’m sorry. No.” Michael wanted to get this over and done with. “There is a tour running at the Zoo Beers Brewery, that’s in Castlebury, it’s just up the…”
“I’m not in Castlebury though am I mate? I’m here.” He gave a sneering laugh. Michael wondered if it might be time to think about employing a security guard.
“We don’t do tours.” Who did this man think he was? They didn’t advertise tours, so it wasn’t as if he’d made a special trip and been let down. There was a moment of standoff, the man staring very hard at Michael as if willing him to take him on a tour. Michael felt his anger rising and wrestled it down a little, he did not want to cross this man. He was looking at the man’s bruised and stitched face and feeling sorry for whoever had crossed him last night. The man’s gaze wandered methodically around the site and Michael felt uneasy. He was about to speak, to warn the man off when he turned on his heel.
“Right. Forget it.” And in a screech of brakes he had manoeuvred the car out into the road and driven off. Michael waited a few moments, went so far as to walk to the gates and look down the road, watched the big car turn left at the lights and move out of sight, before he headed back into the office.
* * *
Charlie, Jack and Owen had been busy all morning. Now the wort had drained into the copper, and with that boiling it was the task of clearing the mash. There were other errands to run and since Charlie always preferred to be in the brewery itself and especially loved the mush and mess of the mash, she sent Jack and Owen in the van to run the various errands to the maltster in Old Town in Castlebury and to deliver kegs to a tiny pub, the Highwayman, out on the Castlebury Road.
“We’re basically your Minions.” Jack only half-joked. Charlie nodded.
; “Basically, but better paid, so bog off.” And she’d shooed them towards the van with a brush.
She needed the tasks today to try and keep her head straight. All the incidents, events and, worst of all, the instincts, were racking up inside her. She found that every hour or so she would be jolted by the memory of the blaring horn of the truck and an image of the figure of Tighe Rourke as the vehicle brushed by him.
She had done that. She and her sisters had pushed him up the hill with the power of their thoughts. It shocked her, that she’d been so angry at him and she had been so afraid of the way the dark moved. Of what was in the dark, was that from inside her or outside her, what was that? She had a glimmering understanding then of all that their grandmother had taught them, that here was the total of their Strengths. There were three sides. Three corners. Her mind plotted out the train of events. The man had literally been cornered by her and her sisters. What they had done had been so deadly, how had they done that? She knew inside her that she wanted him dead. No. It wasn’t a desire for that, it was… oh God, there was that word again, an instinct, that this could only end that way, that if it wasn’t Tighe Rourke dead it would be… The instinctual chemical rushed through her again. He would kill Seren. Impossible. Impossible. Cannot think. She couldn’t think about it, she wanted to push the thoughts aside, hide them but they blipped with heat like boiling tar. She felt the only place she could look at them with any clarity or safety would be Cob Cottage.
Charlie togged up in her boots and reached for one of the newer plastic shovels. She liked clearing the mash. She liked getting inside the tun and feeling the dimensions of it about her, connecting with it. Not that she would ever confess such daft thoughts to anyone, especially not Michael. She almost smiled at the fact that she felt safe in two places; Cob Cottage and the Drawbridge Brewery mash tun. Shut the door on the world.
