by E M Graham
‘The worst they can tell me is no. We could probably make a sandwich or something. Anything.’
He stopped to stare at me. ‘How can you even think about eating at a time like this?’
‘I’m hungry, that’s how.’
He drew himself near and spoke in a low voice. ‘We are about to be a part of the most exhilarating change ever to happen in the world of the Kin, and all you can think about is your belly?’
‘Yeah. I mean, we need to keep our strength up, don’t we?’
Sandy was probably fueling himself through adrenaline and expectation, but that wasn’t working for me.
We came to the long corridor which ran front to back of the castle. ‘I’m going to the kitchens,’ I announced loudly, and turned down the hallway. ‘You can come with me or not.’
He chose not.
I stepped into the cavernous expanse with the high ceilings and huge fireplaces and mysterious cupboards and marble counter tops. The walls had all been whitewashed a long time ago; they bore the build-up of a couple of decades of grease and smoke, black streaks rising to the ceiling from all around fireplaces. Only one was lit, the logs giving off a welcome warmth. Yet, the room appeared to be unoccupied.
As there was no one available to ask permission, I found the bread stored in a large cabinet behind a metal grill, and hacked off a couple of chunks with a butcher’s knife. It was freshly baked that day and it squished under the non-serrated edges of the knife but no matter, for I had also found butter and jam in the larder. They’d been holding out on me – I hadn’t seen the sweet red stuff since I got here. I lathered it all on a hunk of bread and fortified myself.
Something clanked in a near corridor, and I heard the sounds of footsteps drawing near. I quickly took my hunk of bread, the butter dish and jam and escaped to the Common Room, which was empty at this time of day as I’d thought it would be. A low fire burned there and I stretched out lengthways on the longest sofa.
And finally with blood sugar levels starting to rise again my mind could get back to work.
The door creaking open brought me back to earth. I paused where I was, realizing I was hidden from view in the depths of the lumpy old couch whose back was to the opening, but I was about to call out to alert the person of my presence.
‘That’s all we need from you, Fergie,’ I heard Pauline’s wheedling voice from the corridor. ‘Try to get more information.’
‘But I’m not speaking with her.’
‘Do you want them to win? To exclude you?’
‘Well, no, but...’
‘Just do as I say,’ Pauline continued.
‘How do I know you guys won’t cut me out of the credit?’
‘I am the daughter of an elder, and I’m part of the Kin, I’m honorable.’ I could just picture Pauline puffing herself up with pride as she spoke. It was far too late to announce my presence. I kept very still and hoped they would pass on again without coming in and discovering me. I didn’t like the way this conversation was going – had Fergie gone over to the dark side? A pang of remorse hit me, for we had been ignoring her lately.
‘Come on, now, Fergie.’ Timothy cut in. ‘We’ve known each other for ages. Would I do that to you?’
‘I, oh, this doesn’t feel right.’
‘All’s fair in love and war, eh, Ferg?’ Timothy cajoled.
‘I think I know how to open the barrier spells,’ Pauline said in a low voice.
‘You can hold off on that,’ Timothy said. ‘’Why don’t we see what Fergie here can get from them?’
‘You’re planning to steal Sandy and Dara’s work.’ I heard the slight tinge of bitterness in Fergie’s voice, but I doubted that either of the other two would pick up on it.
‘I doubt they can come up with anything that could compare with my own.’
‘How do you even know what the barrier spells are made of?’
‘Oh, I have a good idea.’ Pauline was smug in her confidence.
‘Besides, we can always get Win to blast them with Dragon Magic.’
‘We’ll worry about that later,’ Pauline dismissed.
I heard their footsteps continuing on down the hall, and I took a deep breath. Bastards! They would stoop so low as to steal the work they thought Sandy and I had done. That was the Kin for you.
I began to haul myself upright, but right at that same moment I heard Fergie’s voice.
‘Ooh look, jam!’
We stopped, me half-sitting up, Fergie in mid-stride, and we stared at each other.
‘Well, hello, traitor.’ I was the first to speak.
‘It’s not what you think!’
FERGIE CONTINUED her way over to the table and set about making a jam sandwich, her back held stiffly. She gave a toss of her curls and a sniff.
‘Sure looks pretty bad from where I’m sitting.’
‘Well, how about you and Sandy?’ She flung back at me as she turned around, her sandwich dripping its sweet red juice on to the table. ‘You two have pretty much deserted me, going off on your own, discovering the Crystal...’
She stopped in mid-sentence and stuffed the rest of the bread in her mouth.
I sat up fully now. ‘That was you following us in the tunnel? But why? Why be so secretive about it?’
‘You dare to ask me why?’ she asked through a mouth full of jam. It was not a pretty sight. ‘I thought we were beginning to be a group, the three of us. But then you’re always going off with Sandy, and I was feeling like the third wheel.
‘I knew you were on to something, and you were cutting me out,’ she continued. ‘That was pretty rubbish, you know.’
Fergie swallowed a big lump, then looked down at the bread in her hand and took another angry bite. She chewed a little more slowly, then swallowed again. ‘I guess I was feeling left out.’
‘So you know about the tunnel and what’s in it...’
‘That the Crystal Charm Stone exists? Yeah,’ Fergie said. She wiped a bit of jam from the corner of her lip and licked her finger. ‘That blew all of us away. Who’d have thought little Sandy had it right all the time?’
‘All of us? You told the others? Are you working with them? Fergie!’
‘Oh come on, Dara,’ Fergie said, coming round to sit on the sofa beside me. ‘I was hurt. I knew I didn’t have a chance of winning the Competition, but after I followed you guys, well, I thought maybe if I gave this info to the rest of them, make it a level playing field so to speak, they’d...’
‘Stop bullying you? Accept you as part of the gang?’
Fergie sighed and rolled her eyes. ‘Fat chance of that happening, eh? Well, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. Sorry for telling them about the tunnel.’
I thought for a moment, then nodded. ‘How close are the others to finding out how to win the Competition?’
She thought for a moment. ‘They haven’t yet agreed how to lift the barrier of spells. Pauline thinks it’s this complicated whole set of spells, which she is sure she can undo given time, but Win just wants to blast it.”
I winced.
‘I know, right? That’d just bounce right back in her face and she’d end up heavily singed at the best if they went that route.’ Fergie grinned suddenly. ‘So they haven’t really come to an agreement amongst themselves. Pauline wants to be in charge of course, but the others aren’t having any of that. Timothy figures he knows how to divert the energy of the stone by matching his own crystal to it. I guess it’s just a matter of time till they agree on a method, and bring it to Johanna. I’d say tomorrow morning.’
With a rustle of his wool kilt, Sandy stepped quickly into the Common Room and slammed the door. I could feel the anger he brought into the room with him, like a force-field of aggression.
‘What the hell, Dara?’ he hissed. ‘You haven’t told...’
‘Hey, chill out,’ I said, jumping to my feet as Fergie flattened herself into the back of the sofa, trying to make herself les
s visible. ‘What’s done is done. We got followed into the tunnel. Everyone else knows and they’ve ramped up their efforts to find a plan.’
It took him a moment to fight his rage and digest this information. His eyes narrowed as he looked at me. ‘That means we’ve got to do it tonight.’
‘Ah, no.’ I was quick to disagree. His crazy plan to steal the Crystal? I had to discourage that. ‘A little too soon. That’s not the plan.’
‘Do what tonight?’ Fergie asked. ‘You mean you’ve already got it all figured out and you’re going to Johanna tonight?’ Her eyes lit with glee.
‘No,’ I said to her, thinking fast. I wasn’t about to tell her Sandy’s plan, I couldn’t let her get mixed up in this. Besides, she’d already shown herself to be untrustworthy. ‘He means... a dry run. A dress rehearsal. We want to see if we can do it, if it actually works.’
‘Can I help?’ Fergie’s face was shining with excitement. ‘Oh, God, there must be...’
‘No,’ Sandy cut in. ‘It’s just me and Dara.’
As her face fell, I realized that if we forced her out, I wouldn’t blame her for going back to the Kin and telling them what she thought we were planning. Best to keep her close, I decided.
‘I will warn you,’ Fergie said as she gave a quick glance around the otherwise empty room, and she leaned in closer. ‘They’ve got something planned. There’s no way they’re going to let you back down into the tunnel, they’re going to set traps for you and at the same time they are furiously trying to come up with a solution.’
‘It can’t be that bad,’ I said a little nervously.’ We’ll just take extra care to avoid anything they put in our way.’
Fergie looked at me with fear in her eyes. ‘You don’t understand,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘They are out for blood. Your blood. They will never let you win the Competition, even if they have to kill you doing it.’
She was afraid for me, and she was telling the truth. The Kin wanted me out of the way. They wanted to take my future out from under me. My blood was beginning a slow boil at the arrogance of those who had everything in their lives already, unwilling to give me the ghost of a chance. This had been the story of my life with the Kin. I would never get anywhere, never reach my dreams.
No more. I looked up from where my fingers played with the coin and met Sandy’s gaze. My anger must have shown on my face for he gave a small smile and a nod.
‘Do me a favor?’ Fergie looked nervously first at Sandy, then at me. ‘Don’t tell them I told you all this. Please. I have to live in Scotland, these guys are going to be in my future for the rest of my life if I want to do anything with my magic.’ She bit her lip. ‘I don’t know what they have planned, but I would advise you to stop right here. You can’t beat the Kin.'
SANDY DREW me aside after Fergie had slunk out of the Common Room. We’d promised not to let the others know what she had confessed to us, but we would still need her on board to figure out the barrier spells. I only hoped she would come down into the tunnel with us again.
‘It’s time you knew the rest of the story,’ he said. ‘Come with me.’
With that he turned and led me down the corridor to the outside entrance, the one leading to the barn and beyond.
I tried to speak with him, to discuss the details of how to hold back the barrier in the tunnel that led to the Crystal Charm Stone, and to figure out how to theoretically lift the stone or at least divert its energy. Once we had that down, we could go to Johanna with our results and claim the prize. My future would be assured, but he ignored all this talk, turning the conversation instead to the island’s shepherd.
‘What does he have to do with anything?’ I asked guiltily, knowing there was a strong possibility that his hermit had come to harm at the hands of Willem, and that this was my fault for leading the sorcerer to the island.
‘I think he’s the key to it all,’ Sandy continued, mysteriously.
And so I confessed to everything, I told him all about the illusions that were real, to all my contacts with Willem so far on Scarp, and how I thought his shepherd was probably dead.
Sandy listened in silence as we sat out by the barn, leaning against the stone walls where we were sheltered from the wind. ‘What do you believe, Dara?’
I thought long and hard, and I shook my head. ‘I know what I saw, and said, and heard and felt,’ I said. ‘But it doesn’t matter. None of that matters. Let’s just get this Competition over and done with, then I can show them all. Worry about the rest of it later. And I’m sorry about your shepherd.’
I felt Sandy relax a little beside me. His eyes cut off to the distance, to the hills and the sea beyond. ‘I think it’s time we went to prove to all of them that you’re right.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Where will we find Willem?’
‘He’s staying in your shepherd’s bothy,’ I said. ‘I think... I really think he may have harmed your friend.’
I let that sink in. ‘I mean, I think you already have met him,’ I added. ‘But he cast a spell so that you thought he was the shepherd.’
‘Then we must definitely go to see him.’ Sandy’s face was hidden from me as he turned to look at the sea. I thought he might be shedding a tear or two for the hermit.
‘There’ll be time for that later,’ I told him, trying to keep my voice kind without showing my burning impatience.
‘No.’ This came out quickly like an automatic reaction. ‘We’re going to find your sorcerer now.’
‘Sandy, I’m sorry about your friend,’ I said again. ‘I had no idea that Willem had tracked me here to the island. I guess it’s my fault if...’
‘Right then.’ Sandy jumped up from the table. ‘Dara, you’re coming with me.’
He’d had already taken off, heading up the hill. His short legs could really get up some speed as he raced over the rocks and gorse like a sure-footed mountain goat in his boots. His legs were strong under the kilt, and he had been walking hills and moorlands all his life. I had a struggle to keep up with him.
As we made our way up the hill, Sandy began to talk. ‘Do you see, now, after what Fergie said they’re planning? They have no intention of letting you or me win this competition, it’s all a farce. It’s time to pay them back and take control away from them all. It’s all politics, you know.’
‘Slow down,’ I gasped. He paused a moment to let me catch up, then started again but at least at a lesser pace. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘We can’t let things continue in this way, and we have the power to stop them,’ he said. He held aside a gorse bush so it didn’t flick back on me.
As we continued up the hill, no longer following any human path, I realized we were heading in the direction of the shepherd’s bothy.
‘Wait, Sandy!’ But he had sprinted up ahead of me again, his face grim.
I felt a deep regret at having told him about the sorcerer, for Willem was my only link with my mother, now the magic of her coin had been wiped out. If Sandy found him, there would be bloodshed in retribution for Hamish’s life, or worse, he would turn him into the Kin. I gulped and forced myself to run faster. Right now, he needed little to further ignite his rage. He would haul Willem down to Johanna, my role in attracting Willem to the island would be ascertained, and I would be finished. Never mind having my magic bound, there would be nothing left to help me find my mother.
Of course, Willem would not let this happen, and the sorcerer had killed for less than this.
‘Wait!’ I screamed after his fast disappearing back.
But to no avail. He continued on a path known only to himself and the rabbits, and he soon arrived at the bothy where I had happened upon the sorcerer before. As I topped the last hill before the shepherd’s hut and turned that corner of the hillside, I saw that I was far too late to stop him entering. He didn’t even bother knocking, just opened the door and strode on in, knowing to duck his head as if he’d been here ma
ny times before.
I was just in time to see the swish of Sandy’s kilt disappear into the open door.
‘Be careful!’ Oh God, Sandy would be no match for the sorcerer in a war of spells. I had to help him. I raced after him through the door, fully expecting to see the two in a wrestling match as Sandy wreaked revenge for his friend’s death.
Instead, they were both sitting quite companionably on the stone benches which served as table, seats and bed in the tiny bothy.
Willem turned to me with a benevolent smile.
Chapter 18
‘JOIN US, please, Dara. We have much to discuss now.’
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the sudden dimness inside the bothy after the harsh winter sunlight outside, unfettered as it was by shadows or clouds. The two men faced me, relaxed, no turmoil on their faces.
‘Welcome, Dara,’ Willem said. ‘Please be seated.’
‘What’s going on?’ I looked at the sorcerer, and then at Sandy. Willem was not hiding behind a disguise spell as far as I could see. ‘He’s not your shepherd! Can’t you see?’
‘There’s nothing wrong with Sandy’s eyesight, Dara,’ Willem said drily. ‘We are well acquainted already.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘You still think it was you who drew me to Scarp?’
‘The coin, you had some sort of magical GPS on it, you followed me here,’ I accused him. ‘I don’t know how you managed to break through the island’s defences.’
The two men looked at each other and smiled. Willem even tittered.
‘You haven’t changed at all, have you?’ he asked with a fond smile. ‘You still insist everything is all about you.’
‘How else would you have known to come after me?’ I asked him hotly. ‘It has to be the coin and whatever you put on it.’
He shook his head, and the men shared a laughing glance. ‘No, how many times do I have to tell you? Not you. You were incidental to this story.’
Sandy leaned back against the stone wall of the one roomed-hut and crossed his arms, as if settling in to hear an enjoyable story. I stared at him in disbelief. What had happened to his anger?
