Destiny (22 page)

T
HE
W
ITNESS OF
E
VELYN
J
OHNSON

A
gnes’s passing left a sweet, tender pain in my heart, but I knew she was right. We had to continue without her and use our gifts one more time, for Velvet.

“Evie,” Helen said quickly, “give the Talisman to Velvet. She needs the strength of fire and the cleansing of water. And Sarah, give her the Crown. She needs the renewal of life from the everlasting Tree.”

We did as she asked, arraying Velvet in our tokens, the Keys to our powers. And then Helen cast the Seal into the air, spinning like a coin, and called out, “I call upon the servants of the Seal. I believe in them!”

The Seal was opening into a wide golden circle, crossed by two curved shapes, like swords, no…like wings…and
Velvet was still breathing, but she moaned faintly and her eyes closed…. Everything slowed, and I thought my heart had stopped. The Seal was blazing like the sun, and at the heart of its brilliance, I saw a creature of light with wings of fire; as graceful as a dancer; as strong as a mother; as beautiful as an angel….

The vision passed. The Seal shrank and returned to Helen’s hand, a small, insignificant brooch. But standing in front of us was a woman, a radiant being. Then she veiled her beauty and took on another form: thin and spare, with harsh features and keen dark eyes.

“Miss Scratton!”

Sarah and I rushed to her, but she held up her hands for silence. “That was the name you called me by and how you knew me, but that life is finished for me now.” And as she spoke her face changed again. A slim woman of about forty, with cropped blond hair and an expressive face like an artist, stood before us. Only the gleam in her eyes was the same. She smiled at our astonishment. “This is my new life on this earth. For now, these are the robes I wear, and they will do as well as any others. You may still call me Miss Scratton, if you wish. It is permitted for me to walk with you again, until the dawn breaks.” She turned to Helen and said softly, “You have called me for a
purpose. Are you ready for this final task?”

Helen nodded. “Yes. I’m ready. Velvet is the one who matters now. She’s desperately ill.”

Miss Scratton sighed. “Dr. Franzen was indeed, as he claimed, a sorcerer of some ability. He has cast an ancient spell on her. Even as we speak Velvet’s life force is dwindling.”

“What can we do?” asked Helen.

“Bring her to the ruins.”

Cal and Josh lifted Velvet between them, and Miss Scratton led us out of the building and onto the grounds. At the front of the school there were still little knots of students and staff milling about. Ambulances and fire crew and police cars added to the sense of unreality as people were taken away for treatment or gave eyewitness accounts about what had happened. But we weren’t part of all that. We slipped unnoticed to the back of the school, past the terrace and down to the lake and the deserted ruins. As we stepped under the crumbling archways of the old chapel, all the distant noise and activity was suddenly cut off, as though we had stepped into a different world.

The boys laid Velvet gently on the green mound of the altar. The scars caused by the Preistess’s unholy entry
into that sacred place had healed. Velvet seemed to be peacefully asleep as the boys stepped back. Miss Scratton looked grave. “Velvet has wandered far into the darkness. We have one short hour in which to help her. If she dies, the Priestess will have gained a great victory from this night. She and Dr. Franzen have already claimed another innocent life—Mr. Brooke. And we should mourn even for Rowena Dalrymple and the rest of her fallen sisters. They weren’t born as they died. They were all innocent once.”

I looked up in distress. “Mr. Brooke—I didn’t realize.”

Miss Scratton nodded slightly. “He was braver than you knew. John Brooke was Celia Hartle’s brother, and had long suspected her evil ways, even though it pained him to acknowledge them. He was a faithful friend to Wyldcliffe. When she was alive, he did what he could to restrain her, though she scorned him. It amused her to keep him here and flaunt her power over his weakness. He tried to help, but she was too strong for him in the end.”

“Velvet mustn’t die!” Helen said with surprising vehemence. “Otherwise that’s what people will say about us. ‘Oh, they tried to help, but Celia Hartle was too strong in the end.’ I’m so sorry about poor Mr. Brooke, but Velvet
mustn’t pay the same price. She’s not ready. And she pretended all this time to be so hard and uncaring, but she was just lost. Tonight she showed that she has a valiant heart. Velvet should live to know that we’re thankful for what she did for us, and that she’s our sister now. And another thing—” Helen took a deep breath. “She needs to know that her mother loves her, underneath all the petty quarrels and jealousy they allowed to grow up between them. They must have the chance to find each other again. Velvet’s mother has lost one daughter already; we can’t let her lose Velvet too. I was frightened of Velvet at first, but I see now that she’s a dark rose, beautiful and wild, and she deserves to blossom. She deserves to live.”

“And how can we give her the life she deserves, now that she hovers on the brink of death?” Miss Scratton asked quietly, looking at each of us in turn. I felt uneasy. I had willingly given one day of my life’s span to Sebastian so that he could have one more day on earth, and I had given again for Laura, but another day, or even many days, wouldn’t be enough to return Velvet to the dance of life.

There was silence. Josh glanced at me questioningly. Cal moved protectively to Sarah. Helen stood alone.

“I will give it,” she said in a low trembling voice. “I will
give my life force to Velvet, and I will follow Agnes and Sebastian through the gates of death.”

“Helen—”

“Please don’t try to stop me. I was willing to give up my entire existence for my mother, who didn’t even deserve the sacrifice. I am happy, truly happy, to give this much smaller gift to Velvet, who does deserve a second chance. I feel so much love inside me, and I need to give it to someone. So let it be for a sister—for Velvet.”

“But we could find another way to help Velvet! Don’t throw your life away like this!” Sarah cried.

“I’m not throwing anything away. I’m putting aside a long and weary task. Darling Sarah, I never really saw a future on this earth for me. I never hoped for a career, or children or any of the things that life promises. My hopes and dreams were different. I was always the odd one out. So I shan’t really be giving up so much, you see,” she said bravely, though her eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry, so sorry to say good-bye to all of you, more than I can ever say. But it’s only for a short while. We will meet again, in the light where Agnes dwells. So I will move on and trust in the Great Creator to lead me home.”

“What about the Seal?” said Miss Scratton. “Aren’t you turning your back on it?”

Helen shook her head. “I’m sorry. I know this means I cannot serve the Seal as I might have done. But I think saving one innocent life is more important than anything else.”

“In saying that, it shows that you truly belong to the Seal and all it represents,” Miss Scratton replied gently. She took Helen’s hands in her own, as a mother might have done, and looked searchingly into her face. “And so you will leave your friends at the gates of death and travel on? You will miss them, I know, until all paths meet once more. Is there anyone else you will miss, Helen?”

“Tony—my father—I don’t want him to grieve. He was kind, but there was too wide a gulf between us. It was too late, that’s all. I don’t want him to be sad about me.”

“To him and to the wide world it will be as if you never lived, if that is your wish. Only we who stand here will keep your memory alive. The Guardians can give you this grace.”

“Yes, please. That’s what I want.”

“Oh, Helen, are you sure about this?” I said, trying not to cry. “How will we manage without you?”

She came over and hugged us in turn and I felt her strength filling me, like the breath of a lioness. “You have each other,” she whispered. “Never forget that. And thank
you…thank you for letting me share this with you. But it’s time for me to go. Good-bye, my sisters.” She reached into her pocket and took out a battered notebook and gave it to me. “Read this one day,” she said. “Read it, and remember me.”

She turned to Miss Scratton. “I’m ready. Show me what to do.”

“In one moment. All shall be fulfilled. But finally, Helen, is there anyone else you need to say good-bye to?”

Helen didn’t reply, but Sarah exclaimed, “What about that boy—the musician? What about Lynton? I thought he was going to be the one to love you!” She was in tears. “And you said there was one you loved best—did you mean him? You can’t give that up, not yet, before you’ve even given it a chance. There must be another way!”

Helen shrugged, with a touch of her old secrecy. “There isn’t anything else we can do for Velvet. It’s too late. But if this is the right thing to do, if it’s my destiny, then I believe that Lynton—well, he’ll understand. I can’t explain.”

“Perhaps you don’t need to,” Miss Scratton said softly.

There was a rustling noise, like leaves in the first winds of spring. A golden light spread all around us, as sweet and clear as honey. Rapturous singing filled the air, and we were surrounded by a great company of radiant beings,
beautiful and powerful, with arching wings and keen swords by their sides. And at their breasts they wore the sign of the Great Seal.

“You are not marked for death, but for everlasting life, Helen,” Miss Scratton said joyfully. “Your sacrifice to heal Velvet is accepted—on one condition. You will give her your life force so that she can live on this earth a happy, mortal life. But your soul shall not pass into death. You will live on, and fulfill the gift that was offered to your mother. You will become as she should have been, and the sorrow of her failures will be wiped away. Helen, yours is a strange and beautiful destiny, if you will accept it. The Order of the Seal stands before you: the Guardians, sent by the Great Creator to make crooked paths straight, to protect the innocent and bring a message of hope into the weary world. You have only to say yes, and they are ready to welcome you. And there is one whom you have long known, and he is here.”

One of the angel creatures stepped forward. I felt dazzled by his presence, but then the glory fell away from him, and his shape changed many times. Now he seemed like a young child, and now like the old gardener who tended the school grounds, and now like a teenage boy with merry eyes and a wide grin.

“Tom! Oh, Tom…my Wanderer, it’s you! You’ve come back!” Helen flung herself at him, sobbing wildly, and I didn’t know why but I was crying too….

The boy released himself, laughing, from her embrace. “Yes, it’s me,” he said. “I was with you all the time.” And then he wasn’t laughing anymore, but looking solemn and tender. His face changed again, and I saw a young man with fair hair and a world of wonder in his blue eyes. “Lynton!” Helen swayed and he caught her, and they clung to each other like two souls who had been drowning far out to sea, and had now been saved and were walking on the shores of paradise.

“Lynton…,” Helen said, as she stepped back in amazement. “My Wanderer, my hope, my salvation! I thought perhaps…I tried to guess; I thought there was a connection when you gave me the ring, though I couldn’t be sure if you were really part of all this. But I never stopped hoping. I never stopped believing, not really. Why didn’t you say? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wasn’t permitted to until now. I nearly gave myself away to you so many times; then I had to draw back, which was so hard. I had to pretend we were just friends, when I knew we were meant to be soul mates. And I wanted so much to be there in your last battle. I did everything
I could to help, without crossing the boundaries. You had to work things out for yourself if you were ever going to be ready to join us. But the sacrifices you were willing to make for your mother, and for Velvet, have shown the Guardians that you are ready. And that means I don’t have to hide anything from you anymore, not where we are going. That is—if you will come with me.” He looked at Helen beseechingly, balanced between hope and dread. “The choice is yours.”

“And you will always be there with me?”

“Always. Now…and now…and now,” he replied softly. “In every circle of Time, in every place, and beyond the confines of this world. Helen, I’ve always loved you, ever since I was sent to watch you in the home.”

“So you were there?” Helen gazed at him in wonder. “You were my Wanderer, all the time…. It really was you…. Oh, Lynton.”

“Someone had to protect you, even from a distance. You were the daughter of one who could have been a Guardian, and so you were touched by fate. You had great gifts, greater than you ever knew, and those gifts can be a burden. We had to make sure that no lasting harm came to you. Helen, I know you had a harsh life in the home, and that hurt me too. I tried to bring you what
little comfort I could, but above all it was your soul that we were guarding, and they couldn’t touch that. From the first time I saw you I have known that your soul is beautiful and great and strong—how could I help loving you, even though I thought you would never love me in return? I thought I was just helping to guard you so that you could grow up and be safe and meet some human boy and forget all about me. But you didn’t forget, and the Order allowed me to be near you again, and watch over you at Wyldcliffe. Helen, I have loved you from the very first moment I saw you. I always will, whatever you decide.”

“I’ve already decided,” Helen said, and her face was radiant with certainty. “It’s the easiest choice I’ve ever made.”

“And you won’t regret it?” Lynton asked.

“Never.”

“Let me hear you say it.” His voice became barely a whisper. “Tell me that you love me.”

“You know I do. You’ve always known.” Helen blinked back her tears and laughed for joy. “‘Twice or thrice had I loved thee, before I knew thy face or name….’”

Lynton drew her to him, murmuring in reply: “‘Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm; for
love is strong as death.’” Then he folded her in his arms and kissed her, and a light fell all around them, like a blessing.