Sorceress' Blood (4 page)

“You see this candle?” Benjamin asked. “I want you
to light it. This is very easy; I’ll show you.” Benjamin
didn’t take his eyes off Ashley and he didn’t move in the
slightest. The candle lit up by itself and burned for a few seconds
and then the flame was snuffed out as randomly as it lit. Rebecca was
expecting it to happen but it still surprised her. The idea that
these things could be done were marvellous to say the least. Ashley
was watching the candle the whole time but it was as if she wasn’t
seeing anything. The girl’s expressionless face looked through
things instead of at them and she never reacted.

“Did you see what I did? You can do it too. You just have to
make it happen. I want you to want the candle to light up. You have
to need it so much that you’ll explode and you have to tell it
to light up. You can use your voice if you want. Say ‘light!’
and make the fire come.” Benjamin was eager to teach Ashley and
his voice was filled with enthusiasm when he explained what he wanted
her to do. Ashley didn’t seem to share his feelings even a
little.

This went on for about ten minutes. Benjamin showed off some other
things he could do, in the hope of encouraging Ashley to try. First
he showed how he could not only burn the candle away but reform the
wax into a whole new candle without touching it. Then he showed
Ashley one of the books in the room and when he opened it a raven
flew out and landed on the table by the candle. Nothing got a
response out of her and eventually Benjamin threw his hands up in
defeat. When he did, the candle melted back down to the way it was
when they first came into the room and the book he’d used leapt
up onto the table and snapped closed around the bird like a hungry
mouth. Benjamin didn’t say a word but sat back down in his
chair and started to read. The door creaked open by itself and
Rebecca got the message clearly.

“Come on.” She held out her hand and Ashley took hold.
Benjamin looked up with surprise. He opened his mouth to ask a
question but Rebecca was already leading the girl back to her room.
His eyes narrowed and his lips curled into a smile. He watched them
until they were both out of sight and then he picked up a book, still
smiling, and waited.

Back in the Oisin room, Ashley went over to her bed and sat down.
Rebecca sat in the chair next to the dresser and watched the girl.

“So...” Rebecca said and then went silent. She hoped
she'd come up with something better to say when Lord Sebastian asked
about the test.

“What happened to the bird?” Ashley's voice came as a
relief.

“I don’t know.” Rebecca answered. “I guess it
went back into the book.”

“Was it a real bird?”

“I don’t know. I guess it was as real as a bird made with
magic can be.”

“Can I really do something like that?”

“Maybe. I don’t really know, Ashley. This is all as new
to me as it is to you.” There was silence again for a moment.
Rebecca thought Ashley looked a little sad and she felt bad. She
thought maybe she had spoken with a harsher tone than she meant to
and upset her. She did the only thing she could think to do when
she’d upset a small child. She tried to pretend it didn’t
happen and steer the conversation somewhere else. “Why don’t
you talk to anyone else?”

“I don’t know. I just get scared whenever they’re
around.” Rebecca understood that. She had trouble trusting them
as well.

“Do you want to go home?”

“I don’t have a home.”

“What about parents?”

“I don’t have them either.”

“Well where do you live?”

“In a house.”

“Who takes care of you?”

“No one takes care of me. I live in a house and I take care of
myself.” Rebecca got the feeling that it was a sensitive
subject. She knew that it wasn’t as simple as what Ashley said
but she didn’t push the issue any further.

“Are you scared of me?”

“No.” Ashley paused a moment before explaining. “You
saved me.”

“I think you should try and learn what Benjamin is trying to
teach you.”

“Will I be able to make birds, like he did?”

“I don’t see why there’s anything you
can’t
do. I don’t think we have to be afraid of these people.”
Hearing Ashley talk about how she was afraid and didn’t trust
anyone in Lord Sebastian’s castle made Rebecca look on the idea
from a different perspective. So far everyone had been hospitable and
helpful to them and Benjamin didn’t try to force Ashley into
doing anything. When she saw her own paranoia in Ashley, Rebecca
realised that it didn’t make as much sense as when they first
arrived. They hadn’t been given any reason to remain so
guarded. The two of them couldn’t leave but that was for their
own good. Once Lord Sebastian showed that he wasn’t lying about
magic, everything had changed.

“Will you stay there with me?”

“I will.” One thing didn’t change. Rebecca still
felt responsible for Ashley.

“I don’t want to do it now.” Ashley said and
Rebecca nodded at her.

The following day Rebecca and Ashley returned, without invitation, to
Benjamin’s study. The door opened for them on arrival and
Benjamin was more aware of their presence this time.

“She wants to learn?” Benjamin asked when they walked in.

“Yes.” Rebecca answered.

“Lord Sebastian didn’t send you up here. In fact’
you haven’t even seen him today, have you? Normally, you’d
eat breakfast but you decided to bring…” Benjamin paused
and looked very thoughtful; he studied Rebecca with squinted eyes and
then smiled. “Ashley. You’ve brought Ashley to me without
even having breakfast.” Surprise snatched away Rebecca's breath
as she opened her mouth to respond.

“How did you know?” she asked.

“Your mind is difficult to read; certain things in particular
are hidden well. You’re not impossible, though.”

“What? How dare you go poking into my mind?” Rebecca was
furious. “You’ve got no right to do that!” What
made her even angrier was that she didn’t even know he was
doing it. She couldn’t tell if he was there reading her
thoughts, so, if she didn’t know when he was doing it, there
was nothing she could do to stop him.

“That’s not important. What is important is that Ashley
needs to be tested now. We’ll begin just as we started
yesterday.”

“What do you mean it’s not important?” Rebecca
demanded but Benjamin was ignoring her. She was defeated. She was as
powerless as ever in this world where nothing made sense. Rebecca
shut her mouth, folded her arms and watched Benjamin from the door,
begrudgingly. What happened to treating guests with respect? Who the
hell just goes poking into people's minds like that? Fine! She
guessed she owed them anyway.

Benjamin took Ashley over to the table, just as he had the day
before, and placed the candle, fully formed, in front of her.

“Do you know what I want you to do?”

Ashley looked at Benjamin, who was kneeling down to her level. “No?”

“It’s alright, Ashley,” Rebecca said soothingly.
Benjamin waited a moment and at last Ashley shook her head.

“Well, that’s something. I want you to look at the string
at the top of the candle. That’s called the wick. I want you to
look at that and focus on it. I want you to keep looking at that
until it’s like there’s nothing else – just the
wick and the sound of my voice. Then I want you to tell it to light
up. Tell it, with your voice, to ‘light’ and want it to
light up. You have to want the wick to light up in a flame. You have
to need it like you’ll die without it happening. Then you have
to tell it what to do. I want you to put all that need and that order
for it to obey you into that one word. Now when you’re ready,
tell it what to do.”

“This sounds very complicated for her.” Rebecca said.
Benjamin hushed her with a wave of his hand. Rebecca was sceptical
but she let him go on.

“Light!” Ashley said with a soft voice, lacking in the
force she needed. “Light!” she said again. “Light!
Light!” Nothing was happening.

“Take your time, Ashley.” Benjamin told her. “Don’t
say it unless you’re sure it’s there. You need to bring
it all out in that one word. Use your tone of voice and that word to
bring out those feelings I told you. You have to want that fire to
come more than anything you’ve ever wanted and then tell it,
order it like it's a puppy, to come alight.” Things were quiet
for a time and no one seemed to move. The only sounds came from the
wood fire that occasionally crackled. Ashley stared intently at the
candle and Benjamin stayed kneeling by her side. Rebecca leaned
against the wall, her hands in her pockets, watching them both.
Nobody moved. Coming into the room at that point would have been like
walking into a painting.

No one knew how long had passed and how many times Ashley had tried
to get the candle to light. Rebecca had fallen asleep on the couch.
Benjamin tried different approaches to teaching her but there was
only so many ways he could reword the same idea for her. Eventually
he took a seat and began reading while Ashley kept trying.
Eventually, Rebecca lost all sense of time. There was only that room
and the lesson. It wasn't until her stomach started growling
painfully that Rebecca realised how long they'd been there. She could
see Ashley was also getting hungry and losing focus and hope.
Benjamin stood up and patted her on the head.

“Very few actually get it on their first day. It takes a while
for people to really find that feeling they need. You also have to
believe it can be done and some people never get past that.” He
shrugged. Benjamin was satisfied that Ashley wasn’t who they
thought she was. “I can tell Lord Sebastian the results of my
experiment. You two should go downstairs and get some food. That’s
enough for today.”

“Let me try one more time.” Ashley said. The first full
sentence she’d spoken to anyone other than Rebecca came out as
a plea. Benjamin looked at her for a second and then nodded.

“Alright. You already know everything you need to for this, so
go ahead. Give it your very best.” Ashley nodded and looked at
the candle. She focused hard. Ashley reached deep down inside herself
to find the feelings of wanting but what she found was need. What
Ashley found, as her gaze sat fixated on the candle, was hunger. Just
as if she was starving for food, she starved for a flame. That
feeling of emptiness was almost painful but it was right. That
feeling was exactly what she’d been looking for and she could
feel death creeping on her if she couldn’t light that candle.
She had to have it, there was no alternative and she knew there was
only one way. With all that hunger swelling in her throat she opened
her mouth to speak.

Benjamin watched her closely. Her mouth was hanging open but nothing
was coming out. He glanced at the candle. There was nothing going on.
Then he felt a movement in the air. He turned around to see if
someone had opened the door but there was no one there. Rebecca still
lay sound asleep on the couch. But there was definitely movement.
There was wind. He knew there must be wind because the fire was
lashing wildly back and forth beneath the chimney. He watched it
twist and lick the walls. Benjamin wasn’t confused. Benjamin
had been in his job long enough to know magic when it was there. He
turned away from the flames and looked back at Ashley.

“What are you doing?” Ashley was still staring intently
at the candle, her eyes narrowed with focus. There was no world to
her. The lounge chairs, the table, Benjamin and even Rebecca were
somewhere far away in a forgotten world. Now there was only Ashley
and the candle. There was also the fire. Ashley lifted her jaw, not
noticing the clack of her teeth. Then dropped it again, flexing the
muscles and releasing her will in a single word:

“Jump!” The word was barely out of her mouth when the
fire flared and a flame burst from the fireplace and shot across the
room. The flame splashed against the candle’s wick and then the
embers vanished. The table and the wall were barely scorched but the
candle was burning brightly. Ashley smiled. She looked at Benjamin
and her satisfaction overflowed into a smile. Benjamin felt a mix of
pride and awe but when he saw Ashley’s little face smiling up
at him he smiled back.

“Amazing,” he said softly. “You really are her. I
have never seen anything like it in someone so young and
inexperienced.”

Benjamin had gone directly to Lord Sebastian to report. He could have
sent the message to him twenty other ways but he wanted to see the
look on Lord Sebastian’s face for himself. Lord Sebastian was
in his office, located somewhere in the maze of hallways and rooms
that made up the castle. He was poring over some papers and sipping
tea. Standing close behind him, as ever, was a maid waiting for his
command. Benjamin burst through the door and bowed quickly before
starting.

“She’s amazing!” He proclaimed excitedly. “She
must be the Sorceress’ descendant.”

“Are you certain?”

“I don’t have any other explanation for her aptitude. No
one picks up that sort of magic as quickly as she has. There’s
something special about her. Something very special.”

“Then we will proceed with the plan. Assign Sir Julian to the
task and you continue as we’ve planned.”

“What of the woman?”

“What do you recommend?”

“Ashley – the girl – finds her presence comforting.
Removing her might make Ashley withdraw even further. She also knows
about the castle, which makes her a liability if she’s set
free.”

“Agreed. Rebecca will remain here with Ashley. She will be
treated as Ashley’s guest, not her guardian.”

“Very well, my lord.” Benjamin turned and left.

From that point, a week passed without incident. A routine formed
that Rebecca almost came to understand as normal – the word
normal
having taken on a new meaning. Lord Sebastian no longer
met with Rebecca and Ashley in the mornings. A maid delivered
breakfast to them in their room instead, coupled with the same letter
of apology that pressing matters did not