Eleanor (24 page)

After a while she heard movement behind her.

“Eleanor? Are you alright?”

She smiled. “Yes, Will, I’m fine; just enjoying the morning. Where are Conlan and Freddie?”

“They are watching the area for Protectors. Want some company?”

Eleanor nodded and turned to look at him as he sat down beside her. His face was not as grey and drawn as it had been. The sadness in his eyes remained, but he too appeared more rested. He held her gaze with an air of quiet anticipation. Eleanor realised he was waiting for her to berate him for drugging her, but a swell of affection made her smile.
 

“Thank you.”
 

“For what?” Will asked, confused.

“For giving me a peaceful night’s sleep, for caring enough about me to do what was good for me, even if I didn’t want it.”

“You’re not angry?” He sounded surprised.

“Not really, not once I’d considered why you did it, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make a habit of it.”
 

Will chuckled. “Conlan could learn a lot from you.”
 

Eleanor gave him a wry smile. They stared out towards the distant mountains in companionable silence. She wondered about the conversation with the dragon that Will was refusing to talk about. Thinking about the possibilities forced a sort of strange melancholy upon her. This home they had created, this safe haven, was not going to last forever, and her memories would be all she had of this beautiful place. Concentrating, she tried to etch every detail of it into her mind.

“Have you two got room for one more?”

Amelia stood behind them, a large grin on her face. Will lifted his arm so she could snuggle up against him.
 

“It’s a beautiful view; I’m going to miss it,” Amelia said wistfully. Eleanor was surprised at how much Amelia’s thoughts echoed her own.

“We aren’t going yet,” Will said softly.

“No,” Amelia agreed. “But it won’t be long now.”

Wanting to dispel her dark thoughts, Eleanor looked across at Amelia. “Will said you’d been practicing with your energy. Tell me about it.”
 

 
“I’d much rather show you; let’s have some breakfast and then go up to the lake,” she said getting to her feet.

The walk to the lake was bracing, the fresh air still carrying the sharp chill of winter. The sun was making a spring-like effort to push winter’s cold back, but Eleanor could feel the strength in the wind and the dark storm clouds gathering in the distance. They would not get long to enjoy the lake. Beside her Amelia shivered.
 

“Since I started ‘practicing’ with this energy thing, I feel the air move and it’s the most amazing feeling, like the soft caress of a lover, and it makes me feel excited and powerful. There’s a gale coming, I can feel it, and I want to be part of it.”

Eleanor smiled at the joy she could hear in her friend’s voice. “I’m glad you found something to enjoy in all this.”

Amelia looked at her, frowning. “Will it make up for the harm I can cause?”
 

“We can do a lot of good too, you know,” Eleanor reminded her softly.
 

Amelia nodded. “Yes, I’m hoping so.”

They walked together up over the grassy hills that surrounded the lake, Eleanor heading for her favourite spot. She lay back on the grass, watching the clouds race across the sky for a while, trying to think about nothing and letting her mind drift. Will’s energy string brushing against her brought her back to reality and she reached for it.

Amelia thinks she upset you
,
he reprimanded.
She desperately wants to show you what she’s learnt. She made a difficult decision, Eleanor, and you need to support her.

Eleanor broke the contact and sat up. The storm clouds were getting closer and a thought occurred to her. Will and Amelia were sat a little further down the hill. Will was looking at her, but Amelia was staring with fascination at the sky above. Reaching an energy string towards her, Eleanor smiled as Amelia gently pulled it in.

Amelia? Can you make those storm clouds dissipate?

Amelia was puzzled
. I don’t know… Why would I want to? I like storms.

Eleanor smiled
. Remember the story of Alaric? The storms were causing deaths, so if we’re going to balance the power of the elements, we must learn to control them, which means being able to deflect or stop storms.

How do I do that?
Amelia asked.

You understand how air works; you can feel it, just as I feel the earth. Trust your feelings. Is it possible to push the storm into a higher part of the atmosphere and then direct it somewhere else? Can you manipulate the temperature or moisture content within the clouds so they lose energy and collapse? Can you pull energy directly out of the air and release it down here, somewhere safe? Make sure you have worked through any effects this might have, because dissipating a rain cloud here could cause a hurricane somewhere else
–
with the weather, everything’s connected.

Once Eleanor felt Amelia understood what she was saying, she broke the contact, watching Amelia’s face as she closed her eyes.

Amelia must have made some comment to Will, because he was watching the darkening clouds with curiosity. For a very long time nothing seemed to happen. Amelia sat with her eyes closed, her beautiful, solemn face turned up to the dark, broiling clouds as they closed in above them. The wind picked up, lashing Eleanor’s hair across her face, but she noticed Amelia’s hair was still, as if she was surrounded by her own microcosm of calm weather. The dark clouds were beginning to lighten and disperse, all expect one small cloud high above their heads, which became so dark as to be almost black. It twisted and writhed, a tortured living thing. Then, to Eleanor’s amazement, the cloud sank towards them, moving out until it hovered over the lake. Once there it rained heavily and directly into the lake. Eleanor saw her amazement mirrored in Will’s expression. Amelia had a small smile on her face as she opened her eyes and watched the rain splatter on the lake’s dark surface, causing ripples that moved slowly out towards the lake’s rough edges. As the cloud spent its drenching load, it broke apart and dissolved into nothing. Unable to contain herself, Eleanor jumped to her feet, whooping and cheering.
 

“That was totally awesome!” she enthused, as she came to join Amelia and Will.

Amelia smiled shyly. “It was cool, wasn’t it? You’re right, everything’s connected; I can feel patterns flowing around me. I think, with practice, I could actually predict and manipulate the weather.”

“Shame I can’t take you back to Britain, we could make a fortune,” Will said.

Amelia smiled at him. “And I just thought the shield thing and the pushing thing were the extent of my abilities.”

“Wait, what shield thing? What pushing thing?” Eleanor asked.

Amelia gripped her hand. “That’s what I wanted to show you.”
 

“Show her the shield,” Will prompted.
 

Looking like a little girl called to answer a question in front of the class, Amelia nodded. She walked a little distance away and closed her eyes.

“Eleanor, go stand over there and pretend I’m a rock you want to explode,” Will ordered.

Eleanor’s mind froze in horror, but Will just smiled at her. “It’s OK,” he assured her. Eleanor shook her head – she was not going to aim at Will. Just the thought was making her feel sick with apprehension.
 

Will sighed. “In that case you stand still and I’ll aim at you.” Images of Conlan’s writhing, tormented body came jumping into her mind, but it was better than accidentally blowing Will up, so she nodded numbly, walking a little distance away. Will said something to Amelia as he walked past. She opened one eye, noticed where Eleanor was standing, and then closed it again.

Will smiled at her. Eleanor was too afraid to move. She just waited for the pain, but it never came. Instead, the air in front of her shimmered, and a rich blue-purple colour spread out like a bruise and faded to nothing. Will repeated the process, but this time his eyes were closed for longer, and as the bruise spread through the air, the colours were so bright that they left dots on her retinas.
He used more energy
, Eleanor thought distractedly. Eleanor could hear a low, almost electric hum. As the colours faded again, Will glanced at Amelia, whose eyes were still closed. Eleanor reached a hand out in front of her and felt the resistance. There was nothing to see, but the air was vibrating slightly, like she was holding her hand against a hard drive as it cycled up. She tried pushing through, but it was solid and caused goosebumps to rise up and down her arm. A slow smile spread over Eleanor’s face – now here was something that would be useful in battle. Will smiled, walking back towards her. With no evidence to point to it going, the air was suddenly clear, like nothing had ever been there.

“Want to have a go now?” he asked. Amelia walked over to join them, a smug grin on her face. Eleanor felt her mind starting to ask a million questions at once.
 

“Amelia, that was awesome, can you make this shield a ball, to protect someone inside? Can it protect someone from normal weapons? Can you make more than one at once? Can energy be fired through it from the other side?”

Amelia frowned. “I could make it a ball, but I need to concentrate really hard to make it at all, and I’d have to worry about the air supply of the person inside. I don’t think more than one is possible, plus I have to be able to see where it’s needed. It’s not easy to move, but I could make one big one to protect us all, if necessary. I’ve no idea if you can fire energy through it from the inside – I’ve never tried, but I doubt it because its construction is the same all the way through. It does stop swords and arrows, though.”

Eleanor smiled at her. “Congratulations, you have the most useful ‘talent’ of any of us so far and it seems to be entirely defensive. Maybe if we play with it we can see how far it can go. What’s this ‘pushing’ thing?”

Excited now, Amelia turned towards the lone tree in the apex of the hill. It was the one tree in the immediate vicinity that Eleanor had managed to save from Freddie’s practice torching sessions. She had a moment to feel a pang of regret for it before it was ripped from the ground and flung back forty feet, crashing into the mountainside and falling to the ground, its roots reaching plaintively for the sky. It was clearly not an exploding force like her own; it was as Amelia had called it – a ‘pushing’ force, a very strong pushing force, like the invisible hand of a god.
If we get this connection working, Conlan is going to be the most powerful man alive!
 

“That was great! So if we can get this connection thing working, Conlan will be able to explode, electrocute, incinerate and flatten his enemies. Suddenly I’m not so worried about our odds.”
 

They spent the rest of the day by the lake waiting for Conlan and Freddie to return. Eleanor lay on her back concentrated on the book, trying to find answers, playing the pages slowly through her head. Will and Amelia practiced trying to draw and fire energy with their eyes open. Deepening shadows filled the twilight world before they headed back towards home. Eleanor was caught up in the book, her mind elsewhere as Will and Amelia discussed their progress.

“Eleanor!”

Will’s sharp tone made her jump. She stopped, trying to bring herself back to the present and out of her rather complicated deliberations on word lengths, position and number theory.
 

“Yes?” she said, turning to look at them.

Will’s concern fought with his irritation. “Are you OK?” he asked. “That’s the fourth time I called your name.”

“I’m just a little distracted.”

Amelia gave her a knowing little smile. “They’ll be fine, Conlan knows what he’s doing and they can’t have gone too far because we’ve not felt our brands burning.”

Eleanor nodded, wondering why Amelia had assumed that was what was distracting her. She was missing them very much. She wanted to talk to Conlan about the book, but she trusted them to take care of each other. She turned back and began walking down the path, humming to herself.

Amelia trotted up to her side.
 

“What’s that tune? You’ve been humming it to yourself on and off all day.”
 

Eleanor stopped.
What tune?
The minute she focused on it she realised the tune was playing on an almost continuous loop in her head. As she concentrated on it, the music grew louder, like she had heard it before, played on a mournful wind instrument. It swelled through her, pounding through her mind.
 

“I didn’t realise it but it’s a tune that seems to have been playing in my head for a while,” she said.

“Where have you heard it? I don’t recognise it,” Amelia said.

Eleanor shook her head. “I
feel
like I’ve heard it before, but I’m also certain that I haven’t.”

“Maybe it came out of the book,” Will suggested.

Eleanor nodded slowly. “Maybe, but I don’t recall seeing music…” That was as far as she got; an energy string came out of nowhere, bursting into her head. She had time to register her body’s jarring impact with the ground, before a terrified panic flooded through her.

Eleanor?!

Freddie?

RUN, Eleanor! They’re coming, they’re really close, don’t go back home, they’re nearly there; go to our old training cave. Conlan and I will meet you there. Hurry!

Freddie left her head at such speed that it would have knocked her flying had she not already been lying in the dirt. She winced and opened her eyes. Will and Amelia were crouched next to her, faces full of apprehension and concern.

“Help me up, we have to go. Freddie says the Protectors are here,” she said, struggling to stand. Will pulled her to her feet. She rocked slightly until the world stopped spinning and then she set off back toward the lake and Freddie’s cave.

“Where are we going?” Amelia asked, fear making her voice tremble.