The Amulet (5 page)

Faedra and Faen both ran several yards away
from the woods before they looked back. Nothing seemed to be
following them now, so they slowed down until they were at a walk.
Then it hit her, a stabbing pain in her hip. She stopped and leaned
forward, putting her hands on her knees to steady herself while she
caught her breath.

“Oh, great, I did get hurt,” she groaned as
her breathing leveled out. She forced herself to stand up and start
walking, which quickly turned to a limp.

Up ahead, several people were walking towards
them. Faedra recognized one of them as her friend Lisa. As they got
closer, she could see the worried expressions on their faces. Lisa
broke into a run to get to them sooner.

“Are you okay?” Lisa fussed as she reached
Faedra. “Gypsy came charging into the yard like a bat out of hell,
sans you, what happened?”

“Something in the woods spooked her. She
reared and I just couldn’t hang on.”

“I told you those woods were creepy,” she
replied, somewhat too smugly for Faedra’s liking.

“Yeah, but we’ve never had a problem before,”
Faedra rebutted, “but, I dare say, I won’t be going back through
there anytime soon.” She looked back towards the woods and
shuddered. Just what had she seen in there?

CHAPTER THREE

Gypsy had calmed down by the time Faedra put
her back in the paddock. She trotted off to join her field buddies,
seemingly, without a care in the world.

“Fickle!” Faedra called out after Gypsy,
before limping back to the car and driving home.

She did her best to play down the limp as she
walked into the living room upon returning home.

Her dad was relaxing in his chair by the
fireplace when she entered, his legs outstretched, his feet resting
on a footstool. It was summer so there wasn’t a fire burning that
night, but it was her father’s favorite place to relax. He diverted
his eyes from the television to look at her, a smile forming on his
lips as it always did until he actually
saw
her. Faedra’s
face fell as she watched her father’s smile vanish, his eyes widen
with horror, which then changed to a look of worry.

She could only imagine what she looked like.
Covered from head to toe in dirt, clothing torn, and bruises now
appearing on her arms. She had a feeling the bruises were going to
cover her body much more extensively when she got around to peeling
off her clothes.

“What on earth happened to you?” he
cried.

“I’m okay, Dad,” she lied. In reality, she
felt like she’d just gone ten rounds with a heavyweight boxer. Her
body ached all over.

“Well, you don’t look okay. Are you going to
tell me what happened?”

Faedra shuffled over to the sofa, plunked
herself down rather unceremoniously, and winced as she made contact
with the cushions.

“Something spooked Gypsy in the woods. She
reared and threw me,” Faedra explained with indifference. She
thought it best to leave out the bit about the glowing yellow eyes
and Faen’s distinct aversion to them, at this juncture.

“Well, that’s not like her. She’s never
thrown you before and you’ve been through those woods hundreds of
times.”

“I know, Dad, but I have myself to blame for
becoming complacent with her. She’s always so sensible, I forget
that she is still an animal and, therefore, unpredictable.”

Faen barked.

“Okay, boy, apart from you. You are
definitely the least unpredictable animal I have ever met in my
life.”

She sensed that he seemed satisfied by that
remark as he sat down beside her.

“You know, Fae, I could swear sometimes that
dog understands every word you say.”

“You’ve noticed, too? I thought I was just
imagining it. Anyway, I’m going to take a bath,” she eased herself
up off the sofa with yet another grimace.

“There’s some Epsom salts in the cabinet.
That should help ease some of the soreness, but I think you’re
probably going to be a bit stiff for a few days.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Fae?”

“Yes, Dad.”

“Take it easy, darling, I don’t want to lose
you, too.” His poignant statement was not lost on her; she had
always been very conscious to avoid doing anything that would make
her dad worry.

“You won’t, Dad, I promise,” she said with a
reassuring smile.

Faedra made it to the bathroom rather more
slowly than usual, reached over to turn on the taps, and sprinkled
the Epsom salts under the steaming flow of hot water. She lifted
her t-shirt over her head with care and peeled off the jodhpurs,
discarding them in the laundry basket. She wasn’t sure if they were
salvageable, but it was worth a try. She turned her attention to
the mirror.

“Oh, my goodness,” she gasped as her battered
reflection stared back at her. Nearly her entire body was covered
in patches of red, the first stage of a bruise, and she thanked her
lucky stars that she was sensible enough to wear a helmet; it could
have been a lot worse. “Those bruises are going to be sore,” she
groaned.

After a few more minutes of closer
examination, her bath was ready. She slipped out of her underwear
and dipped her toes in the water to make sure it was not too hot.
It wasn’t, so she eased herself down, letting out a sigh of comfort
as she sank up to her neck in the warm, steamy water. She could
feel the healing warmth envelope her body, seeping into her
muscles. After several minutes the soreness ebbed away.

The candle she had lit when she started the
bath was flickering in front of the mirror giving the appearance of
there being two of them. She watched the glowing flame send a
soothing warm light throughout the bathroom. A few more minutes
passed, her mind drifted, and her eyelids grew heavy.

In an instant, she was back in the woods
again, fear coursing through her veins. Her eyes under their lids
darted about erratically and her breathing quickened. Faen, who was
laying on the other side of the bathroom door, could sense
something was wrong. He sat up with an urgency and scratched at the
door.

She was once again staring at the frightful
yellow eyes, glowing with ominous intent, hiding in the shadows of
the trees. Her body turned ice cold with trepidation once more.

Faedra, Run!

Her eyes flew open and she pushed herself up
in the bath sending water splashing over the sides. Disoriented,
she looked around with trepidation, then sighed with relief when
she realized she was still in the security of her bathroom.

“Mum,” she whispered to herself. “It was
Mum’s voice in the woods.”

Faen scratched on the door again.

“It’s okay, boy. It was just a dream.”

She hefted herself out of the bath. After
drying and dressing into her pajamas, Faedra trudged down the hall.
It was odd how her bedroom was located within the cottage. After
the renovations there was no entrance to her room from the new part
of the house. To access it, one had to walk down the back stairs,
come through the kitchen and dining room, and walk up another set
of stairs that led only to her bedroom. The other original bedroom,
next to hers, would have been accessed through her room when the
cottage was built, but that door had been sealed off long ago, and
had its own access from the new side of the house. Usually this
would not have been an issue, but tonight, as stiff and sore as she
felt, it was.

It took Faedra ages to hobble down one set of
stairs and then up another. When she opened her door, she let out a
loud groan. She had completely forgotten about the mess on her bed
that had been dumped there earlier. Scuttling over to her bed, she
pushed it all onto the floor; she’d deal with it tomorrow. She
flopped on the bed, sore and exhausted.

“Night, Faen,” she whispered, and was asleep
almost before her head hit the pillow.

The sun shining in through the window woke
Faedra the following morning. Her curtains, although pretty, didn’t
do anything helpful to keep the room dark once the sun had decided
to peek over the horizon. She opened her eyes and stretched; a
smile crept across her lips when she realized what day it was. It
was Saturday, and she was taking her two best friends, make that
three best friends, if you included Faen, to Strawberry Fair.

As soon as Faedra had passed her driving
test, she bought a car; albeit, a bit of an old banger. She was so
excited at the prospect of being able to drive herself to
Strawberry Fair that she’d been marking the days off on her
calendar. When she’d mentioned it to her friends, they wanted to go
with her, so she had been looking forward to this day for
months.

Strawberry Fair was held in Cambridge, about
an hour and a half drive from her home. It was the largest one-day
festival held in Cambridge and had been held annually for over
thirty years now. It was first started as an ‘alternative’
festival, a bit like a renaissance fair, she imagined, but now it
was very much like most other festivals held around the country.
Although, she was secretly hoping there were still some vendors of
the more ‘mystical’ variety, something that had always interested
her. Maybe she could get her palms read.

There would be all kinds of arts and crafts,
music, food, and shows. Thousands of people from all over the
country converged on Cambridge for that single day a year, and this
year she was going to be one of them. Eager to get going, she threw
back the covers and jumped out of bed. Then something struck her as
odd. She didn’t hurt.

She scanned both of her arms, no big ugly
black and blue bruises, just a little redness in some areas. She
walked around for a few steps. There was a very faint aching in her
hip, but nothing like the throbbing pain of last night. Confused,
she walked to the mirror and pulled her top up to reveal the skin
beneath; nothing but patches of a reddish tinge reflected back at
her. Could Epsom salts do that? She wondered as she kept checking
for bruising and finding nothing. Coming to the conclusion she
wasn’t as badly bruised as she first thought. She put it to the
back of her mind and wandered over to her closet, rummaged around
for a moment, and grabbed a pair of shorts, and a sleeveless top
with thin straps. It was going to be a warm day, and now that there
were no hideous bruises to hide, she could dress accordingly.

Once dressed, Faedra skipped down the stairs
and into the kitchen. Her father was leaning against the counter
waiting for his toast to pop out of the toaster. He looked at her
in astonishment.

“Must have been the Epsom salts,” she gave as
explanation to answer the obvious confusion in his expression.

He raised his eyebrows. “I guess so.”

She grabbed a slice of toast that had just
popped up out of the toaster.

“Hey, that’s mine, young lady!” Henry
exclaimed.

“We’re off, I’ll see you later tonight. Enjoy
yourself on the boat and give my love to Uncle Leo and Nicki.” She
grinned her cheeky grin and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Love
you.”

“Have fun and drive carefully,” he called
after her, but she was already halfway to the living room. Henry
shook his head with a big smile on his face. His daughter was
growing up fast, and turning into a fine young lady.

Faedra pulled up outside her friend, Amy’s
house. She had arranged to pick Zoë up from there, too. Zoë lived
close to Amy, so it was on the way. She honked the horn to let them
know she was there. A couple of minutes passed. Just as she was
about to honk again, the front door opened and her two friends
appeared. Amy was a little shorter than Zoë, who was about the same
height as Faedra. They were all roughly the same build, but had
very different features. Amy had white blonde hair, cropped into a
short spiky style. She had blue eyes and pale skin, but unlike
Faedra, not a freckle to be seen. Something that Faedra couldn’t
help but be envious of. Amy was a party waiting to happen; there
was never a dull moment when she was around.

Zoë on the other hand, had long sleek dark
brown hair that flowed down her back and shone in the sunlight. Her
olive toned skin complimented her warm green/brown eyes and she
always looked great in anything she wore. Between the three of
them, they had all the hair colors covered: blonde, brunette, and
redhead.

Faedra could see the excitement in their
smiles as they made their way down the garden path to the car.

“Hi, Fae,” Amy chirped as she took her
assumed position in the front passenger seat.

Zoë didn’t hesitate jumping in the back seat
beside Faen. She loved Faen almost as much as Faedra. It seemed to
Faedra the feeling was mutual.

“How’s my boy today?” Zoë said as she mussed
Faen’s ears and planted a big kiss on his nose. Faedra was watching
her in the rearview mirror and a big grin spread across her
lips.

“Hi, guys,” Faedra said. “Well, we’ve got a
great day for it.”

The journey to Cambridge flew by. They fell
into the usual girlie chatter and didn’t stop talking for the
entire drive there. Amy told them in great detail about her latest
conquest. Faedra had to admit he did sound rather nice and was
looking forward to meeting him. Zoë was already in a relationship
and she was perfectly happy. They had been together since the
beginning of high school, and at this point, it didn’t look like
that was going to change any time soon.

Faedra hadn’t yet met anyone she felt any
connection with. Although, she had been asked out on numerous
dates, she had always politely declined. She had a feeling that
when the right person came along, she would know in an instant. She
just didn’t want to waste her time, or his, when she knew it
wouldn’t go any further than the first date.

Cars started to slow several miles out from
Cambridge with all the festival traffic trying to make its way into
the city. They sat in traffic for what seemed like half the day,
but was, in fact, only about half an hour until they were
eventually ushered into a huge field. They followed the line of
cars in front of them until they found a parking space.