Destiny of the Witch, page 9
He clearly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He shook his head slowly.
‘You told me this place was Peloryon Island,’ he said accusingly.
‘It is. Peloryon Island’s the name it has now anyway,’ I said. ‘But this small island is a part of what was once the mighty land of Lyonesse. I’m not lying to you, I swear.’
He put his head in his hands. ‘I don’t know whether you’re insane or trying to drive me insane,’ he said at last. ‘And this Blaise St Clair man? Is he another relative of yours? Because that’s awkward, given we’ve been living together for months.’
‘Blaise is my twelve times great uncle,’ I said, realising that sounded so ridiculous that I had no chance of making him believe it. Even so, I had to tell him the truth.
‘So by your reckoning, I’m your twelve times great uncle,’ he pointed out.
I felt quite nauseated at the thought and stared at him in dumb misery.
‘Well, this is one messed up fantasy you’re having here,’ he said bitterly. ‘What is this, Game of Thrones? Please, do continue. I can’t wait to hear what you’ve dreamed up next.’
I hated to hear that tone in his voice. He didn’t sound like John when he spoke like that. Then again, who could blame him?
‘He lived in a town called Castle Clair in North Yorkshire, and in 1669 he travelled forwards in time by three hundred and fifty years, where he lied and betrayed my cousins—especially Celeste—and almost killed her brother-in-law, while attempting to kill her now husband, Hector.’
I watched him closely as I told him the facts, but there wasn’t a flicker of recognition in his eyes. I knew he’d fooled my cousins about losing his memory before, but I would have put money on him not remembering a single detail of this.
‘A Guardian removed his memories of Blaise St Clair and gave him a new life, a new identity. They made him John Ford and placed him under the care of another Guardian.’ I paused. ‘Simon.’
‘Which makes no sense whatsoever, because I’ve known Simon since we were at school together,’ John said triumphantly.
‘False memories,’ I said, hating to burst his bubble. ‘They were planted in your mind by the Guardian to enable you to live a whole new life. And you did, Johnnie, you really did! You turned it around completely. You’ve spent so many years working to help other people, because deep down inside you’re good. I know you are. Blaise did a lot of bad things, but that’s not you. I know it isn’t.’
‘I’m not Blaise,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘If I was, there’d be something. Some memory. All the stuff you’ve just told me—it’s like you’re telling me the plot of a book or a film or something. It means nothing to me. You’ve either got the wrong man, or you’re all completely mad. Either way, I suppose you and I are finished.’
I wanted to tell him we weren’t finished, and that as far as I was concerned we never would be, but I couldn’t. The truth was, any time now the Guardians would arrive to remove all his memories of John Ford, and then I’d never see him again.
I gulped down the tears as the man I loved with all my heart got to his feet and walked away from me. Clearly, he had nothing else to say, and the truth was, neither did I.
***
I don’t know how long I sat there crying, but eventually I was aware of a low murmur of voices and then a cry of sympathy. Before I had time to wipe my tears away Harley and Keely were either side of me on the bench, their arms around me as they hugged me tightly.
‘What are you doing here?’ I asked Keely when they eventually let me go. ‘Is Lowen with you?’ I sat up straight, suddenly afraid. ‘Hector’s not here, is he? He hasn’t—'
‘It’s just me, don’t worry. I left Lowen at Castle Lodge. Oh, Romy, I’m so sorry,’ Keely said guiltily. ‘If it’s any consolation, we’ve just seen John, and he looks as heartbroken as you.’
‘Don’t give up, Romy,’ Harley said fiercely. ‘If you love each other you can make this work. Look at me and Killian! Don’t let them take him away from you.’
‘She’s right,’ Keely said. ‘We’re so sorry we brought him here. We should have thought what would happen. We should have thought about what it would do to you. But we were scared, Romy. We were terrified he’d hurt you. We’d heard so many bad things about him. We just wanted to protect you. You do believe that, don’t you?’
Even though I wished with all my heart that they’d left well alone, I did believe that they’d acted out of love for me. I could hardly hate them for that.
‘I know,’ I managed. ‘But to me he’s just Johnnie, and this is breaking my heart.’
‘Maybe if we all stick up for him,’ Harley mused. ‘Maybe if we can get Emrick and Mum to stick up for him, too. I mean, they seemed to be on his side at breakfast, didn’t they? Emrick seemed to feel sorry for him. Surely, Hector will listen to us if we all gang together?’
‘Given Celeste’s history with Blaise?’ I asked doubtfully.
We sat, the three of us, mulling the problem over.
‘Hector does seem to listen to Emrick, though,’ Keely said thoughtfully. ‘And I’m sure I could get Lowen to put in a word, too.’
‘And Killian,’ Harley added.
‘But what if it’s not just down to Hector?’ I asked. ‘What if this involves a whole bunch of Guardians, and they make the decision to send John away to another new life? Could Hector disobey them? Somehow, I doubt it.’
‘Well, we have to try,’ Keely said firmly. ‘If Harley can defy the gods to marry the man she loves, you can defy a few old Guardians!’
I spluttered with laughter and hurriedly wiped my face on a piece of tissue Harley handed to me.
‘Don’t let them hear you talk about them like that,’ I warned. ‘Who knows where we’d all end up?’ I looked from one to the other of them. ‘Anyway,’ I said, ‘it’s lovely to see you two are friends again. I was worried about you.’
‘Oh…’ Keely looked shamefaced. ‘I’m so sorry about that ridiculous scene. I’ve already apologised to Harley. The truth is, I’m scared, and when I’m scared I lash out. I suppose I was so quick to defend Lowen because…’
Her voice trailed off and she nibbled her thumbnail.
‘Go on,’ I encouraged gently. ‘You can tell us anything. No judgement.’
‘Well, the fact is, I suppose I defended him because I felt guilty. You see, I’m having my doubts about him. Not who he is now,’ she added hastily. ‘And don’t think for one moment that I don’t love him to pieces, because I really do. But it’s when he gets his magic back. I’m afraid he won’t be Lowen any longer. And the thing we can’t get away from is that he’s a Pendragon, and Pendragons go one way or the other. What if he’s more Mordred than Arthur? What then?’
‘That’s a reasonable fear to have,’ Harley said. ‘But Excalibur was given to Lowen for a reason. And when he finds the Sword of Feidhlim—’
‘If he finds the sword,’ Keely reminded her. ‘If it doesn’t think he’s worthy he won’t find it, and then we’ll know he’s more Mordred, won’t we?’
‘But he won’t reclaim his magic until he’s found his sword,’ I pointed out. ‘So either way, you’re safe. If the sword doesn’t trust him it will remain hidden from him and Lowen will remain Lowen.’
‘But,’ Harley added, ‘I really don’t think that will happen. Emrick said Excalibur wouldn’t have been given to him if whoever had it didn’t believe in Lowen one hundred per cent. And besides, we know he finds the sword and becomes the Great Guardian because Killian’s parents met him all those years ago, remember?’
‘But can destiny be changed?’ Keely asked with a shiver. ‘What if something goes wrong? What if something happens to turn him to the dark side? What if—’
‘Oh, Keely.’ I sighed. ‘You could tie yourself up in knots thinking like that. We have to trust in something, don’t we? Everything’s such a mess right now and I feel lost and confused and heartbroken. I must keep the faith in someone, and it seems to me that Wulfram Pendragon is my best option. He’s going to make everything okay; I just know it.’
Keely’s blue eyes glittered with tears. ‘Oh, thank you, Romy,’ she murmured, squeezing my hand. ‘That’s just what I wanted to hear.’
‘I want to say sorry to you, too, Keely,’ Harley said, sounding slightly embarrassed. ‘I never meant to lump Lowen in with the other Pendragons, you know. You do know I have every faith in him really, don’t you?’
Keely smiled. ‘Yeah, I know. Thank you.’
‘I guess the truth is, I’ve got my own worries about Killian,’ Harley confessed.
We both looked at her in surprise.
‘But you’ve just got back from your honeymoon,’ I said. ‘Shouldn’t it be all sweetness and light right now?’
Keely wrinkled her nose. ‘Don’t tell me he was a letdown in bed? That would be such a disappointment, especially given who he is. What he is. I mean, if a god can’t satisfy you between the sheets, who can?’
‘Oh, Keely!’ Harley laughed, and I nudged our youngest sister, thinking only Keely would say something like that. ‘It wasn’t that! No, that was perfect, trust me. It’s the other stuff. I think I’m only just starting to realise how different life as the wife of a Shining One is going to be.’
‘What do you mean? Did something happen?’ I asked.
Harley plucked nervously at a thread on her jeans. ‘We had a wonderful time,’ she said. ‘We were in a stunning hotel in Bermuda, can you believe? Honestly, it was gorgeous, and we had an amazing five days there.’
‘Lucky you,’ Keely said enviously. ‘So what went wrong?’
‘It didn’t go wrong exactly…’ Harley looked deeply uncomfortable. ‘It turned out that Killian hadn’t paid for any of it. Not a penny.’
‘You mean his parents paid for it?’ I asked, frowning. ‘Well, does it matter?’
‘Nobody paid for it,’ she said. ‘That’s the problem. He took us there with magic. We had full use of this incredible suite and all the hotel facilities and helped ourselves to the most delicious food you’ve ever tasted, and on the last day we were there I discovered he’d swindled the lot out of the hotel owners by using magic for everything.’
‘Oh.’ Keely and I exchanged glances. ‘Not good.’
‘Not good at all, but when I tried to explain that to him he got quite flustered and annoyed. He said I’d known who he was when I married him, and if I’d wanted an obedient little drone sitting in an office all day I’d married the wrong man.’
‘Oh gosh,’ I said. ‘How awful.’
‘He has got a point, though,’ Keely said.
As our eyes widened she added hastily, ‘Well, what I mean is, when I got together with Lowen I had no idea he would one day be Wulfram Pendragon, and poor Romy here definitely didn’t know John Ford was really the infamous Blaise St Clair. But you, Harley, you knew exactly what you were getting into.
‘You were told repeatedly that Killian shouldn’t be with you because he was a Shining One, descended from the old gods, and that life with him would be very different to anything you’d ever known before. But you loved him enough to ignore all those warnings and marry him anyway. You can’t turn round now and say that you want him to change. It’s never going to happen, and if you try to force him to change he’ll end up very unhappy and resentful, and that will be the end of that.’
I gave Harley a nervous sideways glance, wondering if the argument was going to kick off again between them.
Fortunately, she gave a reluctant nod. ‘You’re right, of course. I just don’t know how to deal with it. And we never gave enough thought to what happens next, that’s the trouble. I mean, we were so focused on sneaking off to get married before anyone could stop us that we never gave a thought to our life beyond the wedding.’
‘What do you mean?’ Keely asked.
‘Well, even where we’re going to live. I assumed we’d be going back to Castle Lodge, but Killian had already decided we were going to stay on the island. I mean, I know he loves it here, but what about going forward? This is Mum’s home, and we can’t just freeload forever.’
‘Mum wouldn’t mind,’ I said. ‘I think she’d love it if we all moved here to be honest.’
‘That’s not the point, though,’ Harley said glumly. ‘Right now, I know all our energy must be focused on sorting out this mess with the fae and getting Wulfram in place. I get that, I really do. But after this is dealt with—and it will be dealt with at some point—what then? What’s our future?’
‘I could say the same,’ Keely said, sounding equally glum. ‘All I can think of right now is getting through whatever’s coming our way and making sure a war is averted. But after that… Jeez, I feel depressed now. What will Lowen and I do with ourselves?’
‘I haven’t even got the library any more,’ Harley said. ‘And I did love that job. I miss being there so much.’
‘Well, I don’t miss being a children’s entertainer,’ Keely said firmly. ‘But what will I do with myself? And Lowen’s never going back to being a solicitor, so what will he do? What do you do after saving the world? Take a job frying chips? Work on a building site? We haven’t even got a place to live, because we can’t stay at Castle Lodge once all this is done, and there’s no way I’m going back to the wilds of Northumberland. You are lucky, Romy. You’ve got your own little cottage and a thriving business of your own.’
I could hardly believe she’d just said that. ‘Lucky? Don’t you think I’d give anything I had to have John back for good? You two might be worried about money and careers and where you’re going to live, but you’ve got Lowen and Killian. Do you realise how fortunate you are?’
They both looked sheepish, then linked arms with me.
‘Sorry, Romy.’
‘You’re absolutely right.’
They each rested their head on my shoulders, and we all sighed.
‘Life is very complicated since we got those invitations from Meri, isn’t it?’ Keely said softly.
‘Very,’ I agreed.
‘But we’re going to be okay, aren’t we?’ Harley asked. ‘I mean, whatever happens, we’ll always have each other, won’t we?’
‘Of course,’ I said.
‘The three of us against the world,’ Keely said.
We all fell silent, and I wondered if, like me, they were remembering Lyrica’s chilling words that day in The Fool’s Journey pub, what seemed liked years ago.
“Three will become two.”
I put my arms around my sisters, and we held each other tightly.
I guess they remembered.
Chapter 12
Lowen
We had a late breakfast that morning at Castle Lodge. Many of us had slept late after the exhausting events of the previous day. Hector was subdued and Celeste was far from her usual cheerful self. I had a feeling words had been exchanged between them but had no intention of prying.
Besides, I had enough to worry about, not least Keely’s odd behaviour. We’d had a bit of a discussion last night about her argument with Harley, and she’d been strangely evasive about why she’d been so rude to her. After breakfast she decided to zap to Peloryon Island and make it up with her, which was a relief.
Hector headed to the study and locked the door behind him. Celeste helped her mother do the breakfast dishes in the kitchen. They were doing them the “normal” way, so I guess they had a lot to talk about. I suspected the cause of the tension was Blaise St Clair, and that was confirmed moments later by a gloomy looking Castor.
‘Right performance this is,’ he told me. ‘Always was trouble, that bloke, and now look. Even when he’s someone else he’s a pain in the backside. Never seen Celeste and Hector so distant from each other but is it any wonder? Hector feels responsible for him coming back into our lives, and Celeste just wants him gone, while of course Hector has to look at the bigger picture and figure out what’s best to do with him. And that poor lass is still missing, and who knows what’s happening to her? And where’s the High Council in all this, eh? Where are they? They want to be careful. They should be seen to be doing something. There’s rumblings…’
‘Rumblings?’ I asked nervously. ‘Rumblings about what?’
‘What do you think? You reckon that Pendragon lot can murder the leader of the High Council of Witches and nowt will be done in response? If the High Council don’t start a formal investigation some of the witch families will plan their own revenge. I know what they’re like. Now, what do you reckon will happen if they do that, eh? Escalation, that’s what. Before you know it we’re in a full-blown war.’ He shook his head and sighed. ‘I’m too old for all this malarkey. It’s you young ‘uns I fear for. You’ve got too much on your shoulders.’ He patted my shoulder as if to emphasise the point. ‘You especially, lad. By heck, I wouldn’t be in your shoes for owt.’
As if I needed to hear that!
Sirius returned to Castle Lodge, evidently unable to handle being around John, who he blamed almost entirely for Trinity’s kidnapping.
Despite our appeals to him to wait until we knew who the real culprits were he insisted that, until “Blaise”, as he kept calling him, was “dealt with” he wouldn’t be returning to Peloryon Island. I could see Iliana was worried about him and I didn’t blame her. I was worried about him, too. Sirius was usually so level-headed and reasonable, and it was a shock to see him behaving so irrationally and giving way to outbursts of temper.
I understood that he was terrified for Trinity. I was terrified for her, too. She was, after all, my twin sister. But we had to be rational about all this. If we couldn’t keep clear heads we’d never be able to deal with whatever was coming our way.
Though, as I sought refuge in my bedroom away from the weird atmosphere in the house, I couldn’t help wondering how we were going to deal with it anyway, clear heads or not.
Every time I thought about what might lie ahead I felt as if my brain was going to burst. The responsibility for keeping the peace between witches and fae weighed heavily on me, and I felt useless. I knew that I needed to reclaim my magic so I could start to make a difference, but without the Sword of Feidhlim I had no proof of who I was, and I was no closer to finding that than I had been the moment I accepted Excalibur.
