Mortiswood: Kaelia Awakening (Mortiswood Tales)

by Gina Dickerson

  * * *

  Four

  Cassie, arms folded across her chest against the chill of the early night air, watched Calix slowly making his way through the field with Kaelia limp in his arms. A shiver scraped her spine and a breeze wove around her, lifting the veil of her shoulder length hair to lick the back of her neck. She spun around, her weary eyes searching the moonlit garden. Although it was cold, the trees were still and the sky, cloudless. She slipped a hand beneath the collar of her cardigan and clasped the small, amber amulet hanging around her neck by a sliver of gold chain. The breeze flipped her hair out again, prompting her to spin in the opposite direction.

  ‘I know you’re here.’ Cassie hurried across the garden to help Calix with Kaelia. ‘Stop playing with me and show yourself.’

  In answer, the breeze swirled around her, whipping both her hair and cardigan upwards.

  ‘I demand you show yourself!’ Cassie ordered. ‘I’m no Salloki puppet!’ The breeze stopped and her hair and cardigan dropped back down.

  ‘Talking to yourself?’ Calix was red in the face.

  ‘There’s Salloki magic at play, be on your guard, Calix. The Salloki are masters of deception. Come, I’ll help you take Kaelia inside then you can tell me why she disappeared with such haste.’

  ‘She saw a Vallesm.’ Calix allowed Cassie to take Kaelia’s legs and between them, they carried her into the cottage and through to the lounge.

  Cassie’s skin turned cold. ‘A Vallesm, here in England?’

  Calix, busy easing the sleeping Kaelia onto the sofa, nodded.

  ‘Are you sure it was a Vallesm?’

  Calix sunk onto the carpet by the sofa and crossed his legs. ‘I saw it with my own eyes.’

  ‘Grey or red?’

  ‘Pardon?’

  ‘The wolf, was its coat grey or red?’ Impatience snapped Cassie’s words.

  ‘Does it matter? A Vallesm is a Vallesm. It could be purple but it would still be evil.’

  ‘I read something in one of my books about the colour of a Vallesm’s fur signifying their allegiance.’

  ‘With The Salloki?’

  ‘It could be.’ Cassie hurried from the room, her voice wafting back to Calix. ‘I’ll find my book.’

  On the sofa, Kaelia stirred. ‘I’m thirsty. I need a drink of water.’ She lifted her head. ‘Did you carry me all the way back?’

  ‘Of course. I’ll fetch you a glass of water.’ Calix jumped to his feet. ‘You may be thirsty but I’m still starving. Do you want anything to eat? I fancy a bag of crisps now the soup has gone cold.’

  Kaelia shook her head, watching him leave the room. The mention of crisps brought memories flooding back. Bay’s face swam before her mind’s eye and she remembered his love of the savoury snacks. She could see his face clearly, the way his soft, brown eyes twinkled whenever he’d looked at her. Her fingers flitted to her mouth, her lips fizzling with memories of the feel of Bay’s against hers. Tears of sadness and guilt prickled behind the thin skin of her eyelids. Bay had been swept over the cliff, plunging a hundred feet into crashing waves, her father killed years ago by a Salloki controlled car, and her mother was still missing. What had she done? Nothing. She’d hidden like a frightened rabbit. Disgust with herself pulled her back to the present as Cassie returned.

  ‘Got it!’ Cassie tumbled breathlessly into the room, brandishing a leather-bound book. ‘Oh my dear, you’re awake but you look very pale!’ She dropped a kiss on Kaelia’s forehead. ‘Now, what’s this I hear about a Vallesm?’

  Kaelia stiffened, instantly on the defensive. ‘Calix shot him so I healed him, no big deal.’

  The book dropped from Cassie’s grasp, thudding heavily onto the floor. ‘You touched it? You touched a Vallesm?’

  ‘Him.’ Kaelia sat up, cross with her grandmother for reasons she couldn’t put her finger on. ‘He’s not an it.’

  Cassie pulled an incredulous face. ‘You don’t go around treating Vallesm as if they’re domestic dogs.’

  Kaelia was offended. ‘I wasn’t. I know full well it’s a wolf. I’m not stupid.’

  ‘I’ve never known anyone to touch a Vallesm. Mind you, I’ve never known anyone who knew a Vallesm.’ Cassie retrieved the book from the floor and sat beside Kaelia, resting the book on her lap. ‘What colour was the creature?’

  ‘Grey and white.’

  Cassie opened the book, running a finger down the index page until she found the entry for the wolves. She flicked the desired pages open, eyes skimming the page.

  ‘Water, my lady!’ Calix burst into the room, presenting the water as if it were a precious flower. He blushed, realising Kaelia was no longer alone.

  ‘Don’t mind me,’ Cassie chuckled, looking up from her book. ‘You carry on with the chivalries; it’s refreshing to see.’

  Calix laughed. ‘I don’t mind if I do. The Chosen One deserves the best treatment.’

  Kaelia rolled her eyes, part-smiling, part-sighing. ‘Are you taking the piss?’

  Calix shrugged teasingly. ‘You’ll never know.’

  ‘Here.’ Cassie tapped the paper, interrupting them. ‘I knew I’d read something about Vallesm colours. A grey coated Vallesm signifies allegiance has been formed.’ She frowned. ‘But it’s not definite. There’s really not much known about Vallesm.’

  Calix thumped his thigh. ‘I knew I should’ve shot that beast a second time and aimed for its head!’

  Kaelia struggled to absorb her grandmother’s words. ‘I don’t believe that wolf, my wolf has pledged himself to The Salloki!’

  Cassie patted her granddaughter’s knee. ‘It isn’t your wolf, it’s a creature. If you want a pet, we’ll buy a dog.’

  Kaelia huffed. ‘Neither of you understand.’ She jumped up from the sofa and angrily paced the room. ‘He isn’t just a creature to me. He’s special and I refuse to hear he’s part of The Salloki. Whoever the hell they are!’

  Cassie, head bent in reading again, held up a silencing finger. ‘It doesn’t say who the Vallesm are in allegiance with if their coats are grey but we have to assume it’s with The Salloki.’

  ‘There aren’t any other secret sects or anything I need to know about?’ Kaelia asked, hope igniting.

  Cassie snapped the book shut. ‘No. My advice is to steer well clear. At best a Vallesm can be an ally but only if it can be controlled. At worst, it’ll kill you faster than you take a breath.’

  Kaelia nodded at her grandmother’s book. ‘Does your book say anything about The Salloki and how I can find them or is it useless on that score too?’

  Cassie sighed. ‘There’s a little about The Salloki but nothing I can’t tell you. Only those sworn into The Salloki know where they hide.’

  ‘Tell me what you do know,’ Kaelia instructed. The discussion surrounding the wolf had riled her and anger bubbled in her stomach, rising up her throat and spewing out. ‘Considering you’ve kept everything a secret so far. And talking of secrets,’ Kaelia’s voice rose, ‘why didn’t I see you while I was growing up? Where have you been for most of my life? I didn’t even know you existed until recently!’ She clenched her hands at her sides, knuckles paling.

  ‘The Salloki are a secret society. No-one, or indeed, no creature has ever left their control alive. Anyone who joins The Salloki, joins until death.’ Cassie steadily eyed Kaelia. ‘Your father - my son, decided it was safest for all of us if we didn’t have any contact. The Salloki knew about me, Kaelia. I’ve fought the puppets they’ve sent my way many times over the years. Your father decided it was best if I stayed here and as The Salloki knew I lived here, they’d watch me and know I had no contact with you.

  ‘We hoped it would mean they would never find you. Not until you were ready to face them. When you were a baby, we didn’t even know if you would end up being The Chosen One.’ Cassie rose and reached for her granddaughter’s rigid form. ‘Not seeing you was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do but I did it, to try and keep you safe.’ She unhooked her amber amulet from around he
r neck and gestured for Kaelia to lift her hair up. She fastened the chain around her granddaughter’s neck.

  ‘Where did you get this?’ Kaelia fingered the amulet. ‘My mum has one exactly the same and my dad had one but his was on a key-ring.’

  ‘Your father had it sent to me many years ago,’ Cassie replied. ‘It was the last thing I received from him before he died. I want you to have it. Hopefully it will offer some protection now you are The Chosen One.’

  Kaelia screamed in frustration. ‘What does that mean exactly?’

  Calix, observing quietly from his position on the sofa arm, finally spoke. ‘Your destiny is entwined with the one called Marrock. You must find out who Marrock is and your destiny will be revealed to you.’

  Kaelia stuck out her bottom lip. ‘And what if I don’t like this Marrock person? Why do The Salloki want me so badly?’

  ‘I don’t know why The Salloki want you; all I know is that they have always searched for The Chosen One. They’ve waited centuries for you to arrive. All I can assume is they want your powers for themselves.’ Calix looked at Cassie before answering. ‘You don’t have an option with destiny. It is written.’

  Kaelia’s mouth was dry. ‘So this Marrock character, it’s a bloke, right? Meaning I have to be with him sexually? Doesn’t love come into it?’

  Calix’s lips rose into a gentle smile. ‘I can’t answer that and I don’t know if it means that exactly, to that detail.’

  Kaelia snorted. ‘There’s no way I’m bumping naked with someone I don’t even know for my destiny to reveal itself. If your books are useless,’ she said to Cassie. ‘Maybe mine isn’t.’ Leaving the other two perplexed, Kaelia raced from the lounge and ran upstairs to find the small book left to her by her parents.

  The book, hidden after bringing her to Cassie, was the same as when she’d last tried to use it. The pages were still blank like they had been on the occasions Kaelia had tried, and failed, to make it work again.

  Cassie and Calix were deep in conversation, their heads bent together, and looked startled at Kaelia’s return.

  ‘Talking about me?’ Kaelia demanded.

  Calix cleared his throat. ‘We don’t think it’s safe for you to stay here anymore.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Cassie nodded at Calix to continue.

  ‘First the Dybbuk now the Vallesm.’ Calix reached her in two big strides and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. ‘The Salloki know where you are. It will not be long before they send someone else after you. Someone who will get what they came for.’

  Kaelia blinked back tears. ‘I don’t want to go.’ She turned her watery gaze onto her grandmother. ‘Do you want me to leave?’

  Cassie fervently shook her head. ‘Of course not. I want what’s best for you. It’s time to find your destiny and grab it with both hands. The Salloki are coming for you, you have to face them.’

  ‘I know I can’t run away but I’m frightened.’ Kaelia squeezed the small book between her hands. ‘Maybe I should ask this if it’s time to face my destiny.’

  Cassie frowned. ‘What is it?’

  Kaelia smiled up at Calix before moving gently out of his embrace, instantly feeling colder. She crouched on the floor and opened the book. ‘I don’t know what it’s called.’

  ‘It’s blank.’ Calix observed, dropping beside her.

  Kaelia nodded, running her palm across the open pages. Her voice broke with emotion. ‘Mum had kept it for me. It was given to my parents when I was born.’

  Cassie leant forward from where she was sitting on the sofa, elbows on knees, interest captured. ‘What is it for?’

  ‘It told me to come to you.’ Kaelia nodded at her grandmother.

  ‘You mean words appear on the pages?’ Cassie asked.

  Kaelia shook her head. ‘Not at first, it showed me an image, like a hazy photograph of the island and your cottage.’

  ‘Is it a guiding book?’ Calix tentatively touched the pages, snapping his hand back. ‘Ouch! It’s burning hot.’ He blew on his fingertips.

  ‘No, it’s not.’ Kaelia placed her palms on the pages. ‘It doesn’t feel hot to me.’

  ‘Was telling you to come here the only thing it has done?’ Cassie asked.

  ‘There was a woman who appeared from within it.’ Kaelia fell backwards in surprise as plumes of multi-coloured light rose from the book. ‘This could be her!’

  Cassie looked at Calix. ‘Do you see anything, because I don’t?’

  ‘Are you blind?’ Kaelia watched the plumes merge to form the ghostly image of the woman, long hair tied in a heavy, dense plait, her flowing robes swirling around her feet in a pool of liquid satin. ‘Can’t you see her?’

  Cassie shook her head, concern etching her face. The ghost woman smiled, approaching Kaelia with an outstretched hand. She pointed at Kaelia’s neck where the mark of evil still tattooed her skin then floated to the book Cassie had discarded and pointed at it.

  ‘Grandmother,’ Kaelia said. ‘Can you open your book?’ She watched the ghost woman hold up two fingers, then one, and finally three. ‘Open page two hundred and thirteen.’

  Cassie did as she was bid, the pages noisy under her touch as she flicked through them. ‘This is about healing a Dybbuk bite.’ She tossed Calix a confused look. ‘But you dressed the wound and said it would draw the evil poison out.’

  Calix took Cassie’s book from her. ‘I thought I did. Look at this.’ He tapped the page. ‘If the poison runs through more of Kaelia’s veins, whoever sent the Dybbuk will be able to see through her. They’ll be able to see with Kaelia’s eyes exactly what she sees!’

  ‘And eventually they’ll be able to control her ...’ Cassie’s voice tapered off into an inaudible whisper. ‘It has to be The Salloki’s work. No-one else would stoop so low.’

  ‘What do you mean, control me?’ Kaelia’s head pounded. She staggered to the sofa, pulling the book from Calix’s limp hands on the way. ‘We have to stop this.’

  Cassie quickly pulled herself together. ‘We’ll do a protection spell for tonight, then tomorrow we look for the cure.’ She tossed Calix a scathing glance. ‘The proper cure.’

  ‘There must be a cure in this book!’ Kaelia flipped over page after page but nothing told her how to cure the spreading poison.

  Calix dropped his head into his hands, shoulders silently shaking. ‘I have let you down. If my father had stayed around longer to finish my teaching, I wouldn’t have failed you!’

  Kaelia grasped his hand. ‘You haven’t.’ She turned her attention to the ghost woman who hovered in the centre of the room, robes and plaited hair billowing by an unseen breeze. ‘How can we cure it?’ Kaelia demanded.

  The ghost woman held a finger to her lips before her image blurred into plumes.

  ‘Don’t leave!’ Kaelia wailed.

  The plumes re-merged to form the head of a wolf with its jaws wide open. The ghostly wolf image lowered its giant head down to a ghostly woman who lay prone on the ground. The wolf’s mouth enveloped the woman’s neck, black blood veiled her neck, pooling around her still body. Kaelia gasped, the ghost woman was her.

  ‘What?’ Cassie shook her granddaughter who was staring into the middle of the room, eyes wide open, mouth slack. ‘What do you see? What’s happening?’

  The image of the wolf and Kaelia dissipated, and the ghost woman with the flowing robes returned. She held a silencing finger to her lips.

  Although Kaelia didn’t understand why the ghost woman wouldn’t want her to tell Cassie and Calix about the scene she had witnessed, she followed the instruction. After all, it had been the ghost woman who led her to Cassie in the first place.

  ‘She’s gone,’ Kaelia replied instead, truthfully. ‘Disappeared back into the book.’

  ‘Can you describe her?’ Cassie reached for her own book.

  Kaelia described her, both how she had just appeared and how she had seen her on the occasions in the woods, with free flowing hair.

  ‘Is t
his her?’ Cassie pointed at a full page print in her book.

  ‘Yes!’

  Cassie’s eyes shone. ‘That’s Vanadis!’

  Kaelia looked blank.

  ‘The goddess?’ Calix asked disbelievingly. ‘Why would she appear from an old book?’

  Cassie’s face lit up. ‘You really are The Chosen One, Kaelia!’

  ‘You mean you doubted if I was?’

  Cassie shook her head. ‘No. I suppose I was futilely hoping you weren’t but Vanadis wouldn’t appear to just anyone.’

  Kaelia shrugged. ‘I don’t know anything about Vanadis.’

  Cassie replied excitedly, ‘Vanadis is a Vanir, a deity, or as Calix called her, a goddess. She—’

  ‘Is a warrior goddess,’ Calix interrupted, his voice grim. ‘She claims half of the souls of heroic warriors who’ve died in battle. It must mean a battle is coming. Maybe this is a bad omen and Vanadis will claim Kaelia’s soul.’

  Kaelia shook her head. ‘I don’t believe that’s why she appears to me.’

  ‘You didn’t believe me about the Vallesm.’ Calix smiled ruefully.

  Kaelia almost told them what Vanadis had shown to her but stopped in time, the warning from the goddess silencing her.

  ‘That’s a small part of who Vanadis is,’ Cassie replied hurriedly, her words falling over each other. ‘She’s a priestess, a sorceress of seior - of magic. If she can teach Kaelia even a smidgeon of her knowledge then Kaelia stands a greater chance against The Salloki. I feel much more at peace knowing Vanadis is on your side.’ She pointed at the amulet she had given Kaelia. ‘Amber is said to be tears from Vanadis which fell into the sea. Now, I must prepare the things I need to make the protection spell.’

  Calix stood. ‘It is time I went home.’

  ‘It’s too late for you to leave now. You can sleep on the sofa. We may need your help.’ Kaelia plumped the cushions up. ‘It’s a soft sofa, you’ll be comfy.

  Calix rubbed his eyes ‘You don’t need me, I haven’t been any help so far.’

  Kaelia tossed the cushions aside and rose. ‘Rubbish. Who carried me safely back from the beach? You did.’