Raven (29 page)

I
thought of my own father and felt a tug of sadness at the pit of my
stomach. I wish I knew the truth. Where was he? Was he alive? Did
he desert me on purpose? So many questions and so few
answers.

As we
had been chatting, we had fallen behind. The rest of the group were
quite far ahead and so we walked on in silence, increasing our pace
until we caught up with them.

A few
hours later, in darkness, we arrived. It wasn't what I
expected.

The main
entrance to the mass of caves beneath the mountains was well
hidden. If I'd have been there alone, there was no way I'd have
known anything was there.

But a
large group of people and creatures were waiting for us. I later
found out that the raven and the owl had flown on ahead and
notified them of our impending arrival.

I wasn't
prepared for such a large group, but everybody was very pleased to
see me safe and well. Many of them patted me on the back and
welcomed me into their home. However, my number one priority was to
see Gabriel and so I asked to be taken to him.

“
Ursula will take you both to him. Now I must sit down. It
has been a long day and a long walk for my old legs,” chuckled
Finley as he was led in the opposite direction.

“
Come,
girls. Zis vay,” ordered Ursula in a thick German accent. It was
the first time we had heard her speak.

“
You're German, Ursula?” asked Jo tentatively.

“
I am,
yes,” she answered and continued walking in a fast pace.

“
How
did you get here?” I asked, hoping to get her to loosen up a
little.

She
stopped and turned to us. “Now is not ze time for conversation,”
she said, turning brusquely as she carried on walking, taking large
strides. We struggled to keep up, especially after such a long hike
up the mountain.

Jo
shrugged her shoulders and we walked quickly in silence, having
little time to take in our surroundings. What I did notice though
was that the sequence of caves rolled easily and smoothly into each
other and it was warm. I had expected something cold and damp but
it was quite the opposite. It felt homely.

“
Come!” yelled Ursula, “Gabriel is in here,” and she pulled
back a heavy thick green curtain to reveal a large oval-shaped room
covered in wall hangings and thick warm rugs on the floor. There
were two old red leather sofas facing each other, with a mahogany
coffee table carefully positioned between the two. Behind was a
large king size bed and in it, lay Gabriel. He was surrounded by
pillows. He grinned the moment he saw us. I noticed then that he
was on a drip.

“
Girls, girls... I was so worried. Lilly I am so sorry,” he
said with open arms but he winced as he moved.

“
Gabriel, I was terrified something awful had happened to
you,” and I suddenly broke down in tears, “for a while I thought
you might be... might be... dead.”

“
Dear
Lilly. I'm okay. Everything is all right now. Come now, no more
tears.”

But they
continued to fall, preventing me from speaking. Jo, instead, spoke
for me, telling him all that had happened.

“
Jo,
you have been so courageous, my dear,” he said to her.

“
But I
didn't do anything... Lilly was the one who captured
Vivian.”

Finally
able to speak I said, “But I couldn't have done that had you not
captured Charlie, Jo. And when you winked at me I knew you were
telling me Gabriel was safe. I couldn't have done any of it without
you.”

This
time, it was Jo's turn to shed a few tears. After a few minutes, we
laughed and hugged each other.

“
You
are both the most courageous girls I know and I am so proud that
you are my grand-daughters. Now that you are safe we need to send a
message to the rest of the family to let them know. They're
probably worried sick,” he said, adding, “if only this place had a
cell phone mast. There's no signal around here.”

We
giggled with him then and pondered the quickest and safest way to
get a message back. Ursula, who had been waiting outside, stepped
in and suggested we send a changeling. Jo offered to fly back home
but she was too tired. She needed rest.

“
I
vill talk to Finley. Ve vill decide who to send, okay?” she had
said before walking back out again.

“
She's
a strange one,” I said to Gabriel quietly and he laughed
loudly.

“
Perhaps a little. But she is an incredible woman. She is
responsible for saving the lives of hundreds of people during the
First World War,” he said clearly in awe.

“
But
surely she's too young to have been involved,” I asked
confused.

“
Ursula has recently celebrated her two hundredth birthday,”
he said, impressed, “when she was 61, she was bitten by a
vampire.”

I
gasped, not expecting it at all.

“
She
wasn't directly involved in the war itself, but there was a very
nasty vampire around at that time, Olivier Duran was his name. He
was ruthless, killing anybody and everybody. Ursula made it a point
to stop him. She prevented hundreds of murders. That's how the
Elders discovered her. They're always on the lookout for those that
help other people like that. So they sent a couple of people over
to France and they worked together to stop Duran.”

“
Wow,”
said Jo, “that's impressive. Did they kill him?” she
asked.

He shook
his head, “Unfortunately he managed to escape. He hasn't been found
since though so we're hoping that he now keeps his killing to a
minimum.”

“
But
how does Ursula survive? She needs blood doesn't she?” I asked and
Gabriel nodded, assuring us we weren't in any danger from
her.

“
She
has extraordinary self control. She usually feeds off the blood of
other animals, occasionally from the stock they keep in the medical
supply here.”

Tabitha
appeared with Zoltan, “Can we come in?” she asked.

“
Of
course, come in, come in,” said Gabriel.

“
Zoltan is probably the fastest here at the moment and so
he'd like to deliver your message to your family, if that's okay
with you,” said Tabitha.

“
That
would be wonderful. It's very kind of you to offer, Zoltan. Thank
you. Perhaps we should write a letter. That would be best. Jo dear,
please hand me the ink pot and some paper... thank you.”

After he
had written a lengthy note to our family and Zoltan had taken it
away, Jo stepped out with Tabitha for a while as I stayed with
Gabriel.

“
Gabriel?” I asked.

“
Yes
dear?”

“
What
did Charlie do to you?” I whispered.

“
It's
not important now. You can see I'm okay,” but he decided to tell me
after seeing the stubborn expression on my face.

“
I
believe that he drugged me before I went to sleep. I think he must
have put something in my tea. It paralysed me but I was conscious
of what was happening. He removed me from my sleeping bag... and
told me that he was going to... deliver you on a plate to Vivian.”
A tear fell from his eye as he spoke. “And then he pushed me down
the mountain. I couldn't even lift my hands to protect my face from
everything that I fell on, stones, twigs, branches, rocks. I seemed
to fall forever. It was cruel. Very cruel. But I am safe and I am
recovering. And more importantly, you are safe and well,” he said
as he lifted a bruised hand to my face and softly brushed my cheek
with his fingers.

“
I
fear I will never forgive myself for putting you in that position,”
he added.

“
No
Gabriel, no... please don't think like that. There is nothing to
forgive. She would have got me somewhere else if it wasn't here on
the mountain. She was desperate for my blood, Gabriel. But she got
what she deserved in the end,” and I told him how my blood had
affected her, how her face had changed beyond recognition. All the
beauty she craved, gone for good.

He
smiled and I could see in his eyes that he was
exhausted.

“
I
should let you sleep now, Gabriel,” and I kissed him gently on the
cheek and went to stand up, but he took my hand before I could
go.

“
Lilly... did she tell you anything about your...
father?”

I sat
back down, took his hand in mine and held it tightly.

I had
hoped to wait until he was better before I told him the truth but
he needed to know. Just as I had needed to know. And so I told him.
That she had almost killed my father, 'almost bled him dry' and
then he had escaped, without taking me with him. I told him that we
didn't know if he was alive or if he was... dead.

Gabriel
and I sat sobbing together, thinking of the man he had been and
wondering what kind of man he had become – dead or
alive.

“
Lilly, please sit here with me for a while. At least until
I fall asleep,” and I nodded as he closed his eyes while I sat
quietly by his side.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Gabriel
had been asleep for an hour when Jo tiptoed back into the room.
When she saw that he was finally asleep, she ushered me
out.

“
Come
on, Lilly, it's time for supper. You must be starving? I know I am.
But first, we've been given these clothes to change into,” she said
as she handed me a small bundle consisting of a long red dress and
black pumps. I noticed she'd been given a similar dress in green
with a slightly different pair of black shoes. We quickly changed,
before I followed her back through the maze until we found
ourselves in what must have been the main dining 'room' within the
caves. The ceiling was particularly high, but as there were no
windows, it would have been very dark were it not for the hundreds
of candles placed at regular intervals along the walls and along
the centre of an unusually long dining table.

I
wondered how the Elders had managed to get all of this beautifully
fine furniture all the way up the mountain but before I got the
chance to ask, we were greeted by an abundance of friendly faces –
all of the people that had been waiting for our arrival outside the
cave.

It was
the first time I had managed to get a good look at them and I was
surprised at how many normal looking people there seemed to be. Of
course there were a fair few rather strange looking ones too. Some
looked very old indeed, needing assistance just to move across the
floor to their seats where they struggled to sit down, with their
old joints creaking.

I
noticed a woman with bright red hair and skin so pale that I could
almost see through it. I wondered if she was related to Rupert. She
was chatting quietly to an older woman who appeared to have dark
scales all over her face and when she reached for her chair, I saw
that her fingers were webbed. As the candlelight caught her face,
the dark scales appeared to sparkle. She noticed me staring and
smiled kindly. I blushed and looked away, embarrassed.

The last
creature to walk in came as a bit of a shock. He was huge, about
seven feet tall and covered from head to toe in fur. He looked like
a giant ape, except that he walked exactly like a human and his
facial features were soft. He was laughing at something someone had
said in front of him. He laughed like a human too.

They all
sat at the table and Rupert called Jo and me over to sit at either
side of the head. We had figured that Finley would be sitting
there, assuming him to be the head of the Elders, but we were
wrong. He was sitting a few chairs down from us, chatting quietly
to Tabitha who grinned when she saw us.

We
waited a few minutes and then everybody stood up – apart from the
really old ones. We followed suit and stood up too, waiting for
something to happen. We didn't have to wait long. A very attractive
young man appeared. Jo gasped at the sight of him and blushed,
making me smile.

“
Good
evening my equals,” he said in a deep smooth voice, “I trust you
are all well? Please sit.” We all sat down and waited. “This
evening we are honoured to be joined by two of Powell River's
greatest changelings. Two very brave young women, Lilly and Jo.
Welcome,” and then everybody lifted their glasses to us and we
blushed crimson.

“
We
also have with us another very special guest but he is recovering
from a brutal attack. Fear not for him, though. The girls'
grand-father Gabriel is recovering well and I believe he is
currently sleeping. But we shall lift our glasses to him
nonetheless.” And we all raised our glasses and said 'to Gabriel'
before everybody began talking amongst themselves while Jo and I
sat nervously to the side of what appeared to be the Elders' number
one man.