Eternal

by Gillian Shields

  My heart seemed to have slowed right down as Velvet was telling her story. I seemed to be watching her and Helen and myself from a distance. I looked out of the window, where the day still shone bright and calm. Soon it all would become clear. Soon I would be out on those hills myself, seeking my destiny. Seek and ye shall find. I just needed one more piece of the jigsaw.

  “What happened then?” asked Helen.

  “Seraph clattered to a halt and threw me off. I was on the hillside just above the house, and I had crashed into some kind of monument.”

  I knew what she was going to say next. I knew what she was about to see.

  “It was an old stone tablet covered in moss, but I could see that there were letters carved in it—a name—”

  “Sebastian Fairfax,” I said.

  “How do you know?” she asked, startled.

  “I know,” I said. “Go on.”

  “The writing said something about ‘To the memory of Sebastian Fairfax, a beloved son,’ and as I was looking at it, I realized someone was standing behind me. I thought I was going to scream, but I couldn’t, and I had to turn around even though I didn’t want to. And then I saw him.”

  “Who was it?” I asked, although I already knew.

  “He was beautiful,” Velvet said simply. “I’ve never seen anyone like him. He was wearing kind of theatrical clothes, riding kit and a long black cloak. And he had these amazing eyes, blue like . . . I can’t describe them. He was perfect.”

  “Did he speak to you?” asked Helen.

  “Yes,” she said. “That’s the whole point. He said, ‘Tell your friends that Evelyn Johnson is trapped in the deep places of the earth, and neither fire nor water will save her. Tell them that she needs her sisters.’ And then—then—his face changed, as though he was crumbling away to dust. And the next minute he just vanished.” She looked at us with a kind of triumph. “So you see, Evie won’t be coming back. You’ll need me now. You have to let me in.”

  “Do you think we’d give up on Evie so easily?” I replied furiously. “What kind of friends do you think we are?”

  “Oh, I don’t know much about being friends,” Velvet replied. “I’ve got such a natural talent for making enemies. So what’s it to be, Sarah? Am I in? Will you let me into your little secrets or not? Friends, or enemies?”

  I couldn’t trust myself to speak.

  “No one will ever take Evie’s place, Velvet,” Helen said in a quiet voice. “And it is you who must choose whether you are for us or against us. We can’t make that decision for you. Come on, Sarah, let’s go.”

  She led me out of there, and we left Velvet staring at us with resentment burning in her eyes. I was shaking, and Helen took my hands in hers. “Sarah, you can’t care for everyone, or save the whole world. Velvet will find her own path. Your task is to find Evie. What are you going to do?” Her pale face was full of sorrow, like a saint in an old painting. Who did Helen pity most at that moment—Velvet or Evie? Or was her pity really for me?

  The deep places of the earth. Sebastian, or his shadow, or a memory of his love, had tried to tell us where Evie was hidden. She was trapped in the earth—but where?

  Earth for Sarah.

  S for Sarah.

  I remembered the words in my mother’s letter and the warning they contained. Stay away from the drums. Stay away from the drums in the deep places of the earth.

  Listen to the drums. I was beginning to understand. The drums connected everything, the drums that I’d heard when I had seen Maria. I knew I had been right when I had told Cal that Maria held the key to the mystery. She must have known those deep, fearful places herself, where Evie was now lost. Stay away, Maria had once said, but I had no choice. It was my task to seek them out. I had to find Maria, and when I did, I knew that she would lead me straight to Evie and into the heart of the danger.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  I got ready as though we were going on a picnic, filling an old backpack with warm sweaters, a map, my flashlight, and a piece of rope I found in the stables. Anything that might be useful. Hidden at the bottom of everything was the bronze crown. It was too precious to leave behind. Underneath my riding clothes I was wearing the Talisman. It was all totally surreal.

  It was also ironic that Miss Scratton’s relaxation of the rules meant that our year was now allowed out for a short walk or ride after supper, as long as we signed out in the book in the entrance hall. So we were allowed to leave the school and face her and her Priestess as the day began to fade. Helen and I jogged on Bonny and Starlight down to the school gates. Two Wyldcliffe students going for a ride on a lovely spring evening, that was all.

  Helen had fallen in with my plans without any argument or discussion. Although she didn’t usually like riding, she was a natural horsewoman, far better than Evie would ever be—but I couldn’t think about Evie. It hurt too much. This was our last chance to find her, and I couldn’t get it wrong. Instead I rode next to Helen and tried to distract myself by admiring her straight posture and delicate profile. She looked as though she didn’t quite belong in this world, like a medieval knight riding into battle, doomed and proud and sad.

  We rode through the village, and I remembered how we had first met Cal there. I remembered how he had been wary at first, and how my feeble attempts to use some Romany words had softened him. Then he had smiled and called me “Gypsy girl,” and I had felt that I belonged. I ached to see him again, with his rough brown hair blown by the wind and his watchful eyes older than his years. I longed for his rare smile that was just for me. I knew now that I had wanted him from that very first moment. Well, I had messed that up. If only—but it was best not to think about what might have been. I wouldn’t get another chance.

  We paused for a while by the scrubby patch of land where the Gypsy camp had been. This was the moment to turn back and return to school in time for evening prayers. But instead, we went on, following the long winding path that led to the moors. The path took us steadily higher. It began to feel cold. Here on the high ground the spring came late, but it was still so beautiful. I hadn’t realized before just how much this place was part of me—the wide sweep of moorland, the jagged outcrops of rocks, the swoop and cry of the birds. It was my own land, it was in my heart. Eventually the black stones on the top of the Ridge came into sight. We reached them and dismounted.

  “Ready?” Helen asked.

  I nodded. “I’m ready.”

  We stood in the center of the ring of stones and faced the late sun. Pink and gold clouds swelled over the far horizon. The birds fell silent. We could hear nothing but the breath and sigh of the wind. I held the Talisman up to the sun, and it burned with reflected light.

  “Maria,” I said. “You showed yourself to me in this sacred Circle. Tell me now where to find the deep places of the earth. Tell me how to find our sister Evie. Holy powers, show us the truth.”

  The sun was blotted out. It was night, deep midnight, and the stars trembled above us. At the far side of the Circle, next to the tallest standing stone, we saw a young girl and a woman dressed in black. Their faces were veiled, but they were beckoning us toward them. The girl pointed to the ground; then they vanished and so did the stars. The radiant glow of the bright evening flicked back on again like an electric light.

  “There’s something over there that they want us to see,” I said eagerly. “Come on!” We ran to search the ground, but there was nothing unusual. I dropped to my knees and pressed my hands against the turf, letting the earth below speak to me. I closed my eyes, concentrating intently and asking for guidance. I heard a girl laughing. I saw her riding a plump hill pony. “Come on, Cracker! You can’t catch me, Zak!” I saw her slumped against the stone, the circlet on her head, the blood on her cheek. Maria was calling to me.

  “Dig!” I panted. “We have to dig.” I tore at the earth with my bare hands, then pressed my fingers into the wet soil. “Mother Earth, show us your secrets,” I begged. “Reveal your treasures.” The earth crumbled
loosely under my hands until I could move it aside as easily as sand. Soon I had carved out a shallow hole at the foot of the stone. I reached in and found a handful of tarnished coins. Next to them was a small stained bundle, wrapped in waxed cloth. My hands shook as I opened it. The bundle contained a few torn pages, covered with clear, round handwriting. “It’s from her! It’s from Maria!”

  I smoothed the crumpled papers on my knee. Maria Melville’s Wyldcliffe Journal, it said at the top. I began to read, with Helen looking over my shoulder, as the day began to slip away into oblivion.

  If one day you are reading this, whoever you are, I hope that you will have the courage to accept these mysteries. I hope that you will not have to enter the underground world. I hope that you believe me.

  These things happened in the spring of 1919. My name is Maria Adamina Melville, and every word is true, I swear.

  We had reached the end of Maria’s journal. I smoothed the papers and folded them up again. Now I knew where to go and what to do. Maria’s story had given me the final piece of the puzzle; the location of that underground world where Evie was a prisoner. The caves at the White Tor—that was where we would find the threshold between this world and the dark places of the earth. I loved and pitied Maria for her story, but most of all I was grateful.

  “But what about these creatures—the Kinsfolk—are they still living in the caves?” asked Helen. “Or is it just her now—my mother?”

  “I don’t know.” I was reluctant to tell Helen that I had already caught glimpses of Maria’s tormentors in my dreams. Maria had said that Sebastian had bound them again in sleep, but hadn’t Velvet’s reckless game released all bindings? Whatever had once slumbered in the dust of the earth might be awake, and the thought made me feel faint. I didn’t doubt Helen’s courage, but maybe I doubted my own. The Priestess I already knew, and I thought I could face her again, but idea of those shrunken, wizened bodies filled me with disgust. I felt their hands reaching for me, as they had grasped Maria. I saw their hideous faces and felt their icy breath of death. I sensed them waiting to claim me.

  I had been so desperate to discover the secrets that would lead me to Evie, so intent on saving her, and now that I seemed to have what I needed, I wasn’t sure that I could do this. I looked across the valley to the opposite ridge where the White Tor rose against the sky. I knew, in my deepest self, that if I went on this journey to the underground kingdom I would return changed. Or perhaps I would not return at all. I went over to where Starlight was waiting patiently and leaned my head against him and prayed for strength to do this thing.

  I was not like Evie. I didn’t belong in some great romance. I was just Sarah, the best friend in the background, nothing special. Good old Sarah, always there to help everyone else. That’s what best friends were for. I had promised that I would do anything for my sisters—the words had been easy to say, but how hard it was to actually do it. Because I knew that in order to save Evie, some sacrifice would be asked of me.

  Now I had to make the hardest decision of my life. To go on, or to go back.

  “Sarah?” Helen called softly. “Are we going? What are we waiting for?”

  The sun was setting over the wild, wide land that I loved so much. I loved the wind on my face, and the high call of the birds, and the deep life and history of the ancient hills. The rocks that lay like bones underneath the heather and gorse spoke to me of power and strength and eternity. Was I really strong enough to give up all of this and never see it again?

  And Cal—if I didn’t return from the caves, he would never know how I felt. Never know that I was weak enough to be stupidly angry and then regret it. Weak enough to need him. Weak enough to fall in love.

  But I had made a promise, and that promise couldn’t be broken.

  The sun had almost gone. Night began to spread over the moors. Out there, in the land that I loved, Evie was lost. That was the only thing that mattered.

  I had made my choice. I would leave everything that was dear to me and enter the underground world, for her sake. I would not turn back. I would walk into the valley that was called Death.

  “I’m ready,” I said to Helen. “Let’s go to the White Tor.”

  “But you’re not going alone,” said a gruff voice. It was Cal, standing in the center of the circle, his hands clenched by his sides. Josh was next to him, holding the halters of their horses.

  “Cal,” I said, amazed. “I thought you were leaving.”

  “I changed my mind.”

  “But how did you find me? How did you know I would be here?”

  Helen walked over to me, her eyes shining. “I did it,” she said. “I told Josh that we needed them both.”

  “You shouldn’t have said anything.” I felt embarrassed and confused. “I can manage on my own.”

  “It’s not weakness to need someone, or to love them. Josh loves Evie. You love Cal,” said Helen simply. “Love makes you stronger. What was the real secret of Agnes’s great power? Her love for Sebastian, that was all. And we will need all our powers on this night. This is the beginning of our battles, not the end.”

  I was scarlet in the face and I could hardly look at Cal. “I’m so—so sorry about that stupid quarrel,” I stammered.

  “It’s hard for me to say I’m sorry,” he replied, looking down and scuffing the ground with his foot. “But I am. You don’t know how sorry. I thought I had lost you, and it was killing me.”

  “I hated quarreling too.”

  Cal stepped closer to me and said in a low voice, “Sarah, I have to tell you something. The real reason I came back to Wyldcliffe.”

  “Why? Cal—what’s wrong?”

  He looked straight at me. “I’m in love with you,” he said. “I’m in love with Sarah Venetia Rosamund Fitzalan. So you’re stuck with me now, if you’ll have me.”

  I didn’t say anything. I had no words for that moment. We kissed, and with that kiss we sealed something between us forever, that no quarrels or misunderstandings would ever undo. It was hard and real and eternal, like a stone in my pocket.

  “Let’s go, Sarah,” said Helen. “It’s time.”

  Then we mounted our horses and rode like four avenging angels across the darkening valley. We rode as close to the edges of the peat bogs as we dared before veering away and up again to the higher ground that led to the Tor and the caves. As soon as we came under the shadow of the great crops of limestone, we slipped off our horses and tethered them to a straggling thorn tree.

  “Don’t worry,” whispered Cal, seeing me glance at them anxiously. “I’ll come back for them later, whatever happens. I promise.”

  I smiled fleetingly at him, touched by his concern, then looked around to examine the place we had arrived at. It was the first time I had been to White Tor, but I recognized the biggest cave mouth from pictures I had seen of it. It was just as Maria had described in her journal. I silently sent her a message of thanks.

  Josh led us into the cave, eager to get closer to Evie at last. He had explored some of the cave systems in Wyldcliffe before and knew some of their physical dangers—airless tunnels and deadly crevices as well as the constant threat of rockfalls or underground flooding. But there was nothing Josh could do to guard us against the evil spirits that inhabited those hidden places. We simply had to trust one another and walk blindly into the dark.

  Josh went ahead, and we followed him down the first tunnel. Soon we reached the place that Maria had mentioned—a wide flat area like a small chamber of rock. This had been blocked off on her journey and Sebastian had used his powers to open the way to the underground kingdom on the other side. But we had no need to do the same. A doorway had already been opened in the rock wall, a perfect arch with smooth, polished edges. Runes and spells were carved around it, grotesque signs with unknown meanings. I didn’t like this open, welcoming door. It was too much like walking into a trap.

  We crossed its threshold all the same—we had no choice. Cal squeezed my hand briefly as we went in sin
gle file into a new tunnel that was much narrower and lower than the first. Our flashlights created huge unexpected shadows on the walls as we moved forward.

  Ahead of me I could see that Josh was stooping down, and behind him Helen was also walking along with bowed head and stiff arms. I guessed that she, who belonged to the air and the light, was suffering most in this narrow space. At least I was with Cal. Even here I felt warmed by his love. He had come back to find me, to swallow his pride and start again, and he was taking this journey for the sake of me and my friends. Wherever he was, I was at home. How could Helen keep enduring her loneliness? I wondered. But when she did find love, I knew it would be deeper than most people could only dream about. A love beyond the confines of the world, hadn’t Miss Scratton promised? I wondered what she had meant and when this would happen for Helen; then I remembered that Miss Scratton had told so many lies and that maybe this had been just one more.

  “Wait!” Josh whispered. “We’ve reached the end of the tunnel—be careful.”

  We emerged one by one into the cavern where Maria had been nearly a hundred years before. The beam of my flashlight wasn’t powerful enough to reveal the whole of the vast cave, but I caught glimpses of high rock formations and clusters of crystal and shining yellow stalactites. The air was very cold and the underground lake gleamed black, as slick as oil. I couldn’t make out the far shore, which was lost in shadow. Water dripped unseen, like a dull heartbeat. Now all my terrors came back to me, and I dreaded to feel the clutching hands of the Kinsfolk dragging me away at any second.