The Elderine Stone (19 page)

Jason… Jason…

I am waiting for you. I am waiting for you, and your friends.

The cold ethereal voice slithered through the air waking Jason from his sleep, he felt a chill shoot down his spine, and he shivered as each hair on his body stood on end. Was he alone in the room? Was Emily here with him, surely not, he thought, she had went upstairs to sleep in her own room. But something had woken him, he sat in observing silence, trying not to move or breathe, trying his best to avoid being detected by whatever or whoever had spoken those poison-riddled words.

The voice spoke again.
Jason, you are coming to me…
Jason could hear the cold, spine chilling voice in the darkness. He couldn’t pinpoint its source, he wasn’t even sure if there was a source. The very sound seemed to suck the air out of Jason’s lungs. At times like this he wished he wasn’t alone, or at least not alone with something so horrible. He spun around desperately trying to find the person who was calling his name. Was it the same voice he had heard before back in the Elderine Forest a few days ago when he arrived in this strange land. He couldn’t be sure.

A strange glowing orb appeared before him, emitting a soft radiance that lit up the room. He gasped as he looked around, he was no longer in Emily’s living room, and he wasn’t in any room in Emily’s house! He was standing in a strange and twisted version of his own home back in Belfast. A suffocating purple mist floated throughout the room adding a ghostly carpet that swept up to Jason’s knees. Jason ran to a window, looking outside might give him a better clue as to where he was, he felt panic cross over him, his top was soaked in cold sweat. Had he been warped back home? Had his adventure in Hasparia been a dream? So many questions flooded into his mind all demanding to be answered at once. He peered out one of the windows, but it was too dark, the night had cast a veil of darkness over the outside world, yet the moon still shone in the sky lighting up the room. It was as if the house had been warped to a dark void and he was now its only prisoner.

Feeling the panic dig deeper within, he spun around from the window to explore the rest of his distorted house. He froze, his eyes widened in trepidation, he couldn’t move! He tried to lift his feet, but they were fixed to the ground, he tried to move again, this time nearly toppling over from the effort, he still couldn’t move. The mist began to rise. It was soon passed his knees, then his waist. Was it going to rise up and suffocate him, he thought. The mist rose further and soon he was buried beneath the thick blanket, the room began to fade around him. He stood, fixed, in this new void with the mist around him. It was too quiet, eerily quiet. The sound of his breathing was the only sound that reached Jason’s ears. Then the voice was heard again, a quiet whisper from no clear direction,

“
Jason… I will have your life when you come to me, stop now or you will die!” The voice trailed off into the darkness, it seemed to come from all angles.

“
No!” Jason cried “Who are you? What do you want with me?” Jason spun around frantically searching for the dark speaker. Fear grew over him as he felt weak at the knees. He knew what the voice was talking about, the whispering of his death should he venture north. This was a warning, a cruel and vindictive warning.

The mist swirled before him, as a figure emerged. Jason squinted as he tried to make out who or what it was. The figure walked towards him. It was a lady, someone who Jason had known, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember where he knew her from.

Smiling with an affectionate smile, the lady looked at him, and for a brief moment Jason felt safe. The mysterious lady grinned and took a step back; she no longer looked so loving. Jason watched on as her body slowly began to change. The colours and textures of her clothes and skin colliding. Slowly the merging took shape, a beast appeared, a ghastly manifestation, draped in black rags, ancient in age. Its face was long yet hidden, it moved towards Jason, arms stretched towards him in a grip that only meant one thing, death.

“
Jason”
it whispered
“You will die!”

Jason woke with a jerk, his breathing was heavy, his nightmare had almost seemed too real, perhaps it was real, but more than likely it was a vision, a warning that he would die if he travelled north with his friends. Maybe it was a warning to put him off, avoiding any confrontation with the Dark Lady. The image of the ghastly figure had been embossed on his mind. He couldn’t shake the image from his head.

A chilly, yet tender breeze passed through the room from the end of the living room, one of windows had been opened. The smell of the countryside swept through the room which was quiet refreshing. From the sound of things Emily had been up a while, she was currently busy in the kitchen preparing some food for their breakfast whilst setting some food and provisions aside for the journey ahead. She had set the table, three plates with a bowl on top of each. She had then placed a knife and a spoon beside each of the plates, and left three upturned glasses in the centre of the table. She was now busy toasting some bread. The aroma was rich and very welcoming. Jason was quite surprised that he couldn’t hear Sherbit demanding to have his food now. Jason rose from the sofa he had slept on and walked over to the small window at the front of the house. It was bright outside, song birds could be heard as they flew around the large Accuro Terradea tree, “
this is the ideal home for me” he
thought, it was a shame they had to leave now.

Jason rubbed his eyes he could still see the image of the terrifying creature every time he closed his them. What it was, he didn’t know, but he knew for sure that he would find out if they travelled north. This worried Jason, as he knew where they were travelling and he couldn’t turn back now. Looking into the kitchen Jason could see Emily placing what looked like some slightly golden toast in the centre of the table. “
Perfect”
he thought “
Just how I like it”
, Feeling his stomach rumble slightly, Jason thought the best plan right now was to go eat something, perhaps talking with Emily and getting a good breakfast would cast away his worries and memories of the nightmare he had.

“
Ah Jason, I was just about to call you, did you sleep well? Oh and I haven’t seen Sherbit this morning. He probably slept outside, typical of him.” Emily said with a warming smile as she walked over to fetch some more toast.

“
I slept reasonably well thanks, but I had a bad dream, woke me up with quite a shock. I’m ok now though.”

“
A good breakfast will do you a world of good. I’m very surprised that Sherbit is missing this, if he knew we were eating without him... I’d hate to think what he’d do.”

Jason laughed as he took a bite out of the toasted bread, it tasted so good, it was fresh, but he knew that Emily hadn’t baked this morning.

Emily and Jason sat around the table. Emily talked for a while about her family, Jason sat and smiled acknowledging everything that she said, he hadn’t really experienced a family life like hers, and the only family he knew was his aunt, who at the best of times was someone he had tried to avoid.

As they finished their rather bounteous breakfast of toast, cheese and fruit Emily started to clear the table, while Jason finished off the last of his toast with a slice of cheese.

“
There is something I have to do before we leave.” Emily said as she turned round to get Jason’s plate “so while I’m doing that you can wait here, or if you want a bit more of a strenuous task you could have a look around the house and outside for Sherbit. I shouldn’t be too long.”

Jason nodded in reply, he didn’t want to say anything knowing only too well that if he did he would spill half of the food in his mouth out onto the table, and that’s something that he didn’t want anyone to see, especially Emily. With a smile Emily walked out of the kitchen towards the front door, opened it walked out, closing it behind her. She was always up to something Jason thought.

As Emily stepped out of the front door into the morning sunshine she looked around, everything seemed so peaceful, birds were flying (as they normally did), some landing on the great branches above her, she often wondered how things could be like this when there was that ever growing evil in the north. How could people continue to live their life’s knowing that the Dark Lady existed? Maybe it was because people expected her to be there, there had always been evil, perhaps in the past there was a greater fear, but when the Lord of Darkness was imprisoned things became more relaxed.

“
That’s just the way things are.” Emily sighed.

Emily believed that The New Order was more like a religion rather than a protective gathering of noble people. Perhaps this New Order had twisted the minds of the ordinary folk to believe that the evil was of no concern, perhaps the truth was buried deeper within the Order and impossible to retrieve by someone like herself.

Emily had her doubts the night that she met Jason. She knew who he was the moment she laid eyes upon him. The fact that her Grandfather pushed him aside to talk with Elindril caused her to ponder the imponderable, why would her grandfather want to talk alone with Lord Elindril why didn’t he want to talk more with Jason? Her grandfather must have known Jason was going to be there, so why was she allowed to come along. Something wasn’t right, and she felt her grandfather had a part to play, perhaps she was over reacting, maybe her grandfather was a cautious old man, but then, he was, the head figure above the other elders in the Order, of course he was still beneath the King and Queen, but as they had interests of state to address he had the responsibility to take care of the Order and its activities. Her grandfather held quite an honourable position. But how this boy could be such a risk to them she couldn’t understand. She had to make sure that Jason was the hero, not that she didn’t already believe that he wasn’t, but she couldn’t afford to risk the life of her new friend and her own at the same time.

“
Still”
she said aloud, “something isn’t right, someone else is trying to stop us, apart from the dark lady”. There was only one way to shed some light on the matter, she had to find out if her grandfather had been playing a negative role in their quest.

Master Talathin’s hut stood alongside the large tree, it had two small windows that were tinted a dark shade of blue, strangely enough no matter how hard you tried to squint your eyes, the angle you stood at, or how far you could press your face against the cold glass, you couldn’t see inside. It was a clever spell that Emily’s grandfather had placed on the windows to stop wandering eyes from seeing the huts contents, even though the only eyes that may be interested in this area were those of Emily and her parents.

The door of the hut looked like any ordinary door, solid wood, steel beams embedded within the door to make it sturdier, metal bolts aligned along each beam. The handle was a round loop of metal. Anyone trying to push the door open would have found it impossible, knocking it down was also impossible. There was a trick in getting in, and if it wasn’t for Emily’s curiosity and sense of adventure when she was younger then she too would have found entering her grandfather’s hallowed place impossible.

Emily placed her hand on the surface of the door, closing her eyes, so her mind could come as one with the door. How she knew what her grandfather did each time he wished to enter his most private place was beyond the normal comprehension of common folk. Emily’s eyelids fluttered as she concentrated on the task at hand, her hand placed firmly against the door. There was a clicking noise from within the building, followed by another as the sound of cogs and gears as they began to turn, creaking with each movement. The noise of latches being removed behind the door could be heard. Emily relaxed as the final latch slid back into its resting place, freeing the door from its locked state. Emily pushed the door open half expecting to see a neat looking study where her grandfather could carry out his research for The Order. Instead a spiral staircase led down into the darkness below. The Staircase was made out of old wood, it looked almost malevolent in appearance. Emily could almost swear she saw what looked like twisted faces in the knots of the wood.

Her heart pounded against her chest, Emily knew her grandfather had cast a few spells to aid him, whilst he was alone in his chamber; one such aid was the casting of a lighting spell. The room or area would illuminate with the clap of a hand. Emily didn’t hesitate to light the hall in which she was standing, she clapped her hands and several torches sparked to life lighting the short hall and the twisted staircase that led downward.

Each step creaked as Emily walked downward, as a new torch lit in front with a clap the one behind her faded into the darkness. This effect added more apprehension for Emily. She knew her grandfather as a kind and loving wizard of great dignity and revere. The staircase finally stopped Emily’s foot touched solid stone ground, the stairs behind her were now dark as the torches had faded out of sight. One remained lit at the bottom of the stairs. It was dim and didn’t shed enough light to make the whole room visible. There was a puff as several torches around the room lit up. Emily stood in dread at the sight that lay before her. The expected sight of a noble wizards study was far from what lay in the girl’s line of sight.