The Thirteenth (34 page)

“Do you promise?” she called out and Wyetta nodded. Val could see she had no choice but to go along with them. Without them she had no way of getting home.

Wyetta and the man released Val into the centre of the circle. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to do anything, so she just stood still.

Wyetta pulled a knife from her waistband and moved forward as the others continued circling. She called the air to her, the fire, water and earth. She blessed those inside the circle and then blessed Val. As the ceremony continued, Val started to relax and feel the energy that these people were raising. After all they had been through, they still wanted to make her one of them.

Suddenly, and without warning, they stopped. Wyetta moved forward and placed a kiss on Val’s forehead. “V, you are now an apprentice witch.” The others broke into applause. Val smiled, that wasn’t so bad.

Everyone came to Val and kissed her. Some she remembered from her dreams and others were new. Each blessed her. Val was honoured but she needed to go home.

“Val, we can do one more thing for you, but you need to agree,” Wyetta said.

“What’s that?”

“We can make Excariot forget your parents.”

“Do it! What are we waiting for?” Val was hopping from one foot to the other enthusiastically.

“There are consequences to all magic, V.”

“Well they can’t be worse than my parents’ death.” Val looked at the others for support.

“If we make a spell strong enough for Excariot to forget them, then they will have to forget you as well. Everyone will forget you. Excariot will watch your every move and if you see them, he will know.” Wyetta’s face became sad

“No, I can’t live without my parents; they are everything to me.” Val started to cry, turning to look at the other witches.

“Then you will have to be with them all the time, because he will never let them live.”

Val walked away from the coven. She couldn’t let her parents forget her; they were her life. From the age of five Val had promised her mum she would never leave home. Who would she turn to? She had lost her best friend and now she was going to lose her parents. Wyetta found her sitting on the ground with her face in her hands.

“V, I gave you up to your future mother to keep you safe and it hurt as much as you’re hurting now. Your father died to protect you and many have died to keep your secret.” She held Val’s hand. “Sometimes we have to give up things we love to keep them safe.”

Val nodded, she knew deep down that Wyetta was right. “OK,” she said. “Let’s do it.” Val stood up. The others joined hands with her. Wyetta began to chant and the others followed. As they moved around the circle, Val felt something happening to her. She was rising off the ground, her hands were glowing with light and, as the group followed Wyetta, the chant became louder and louder. Val was losing the power to control herself and as the chant seemed to reach fever pitch, Val’s whole body was glowing like a bulb. Then they stopped and a powerful beam of light shot from Val’s head, piercing the clouds. It stopped as quickly as it started and she fell to the ground.

“It is done. All who knew you will forget you,” Wyetta said.

“Everyone?” Val asked quietly as she sat up with a little help from the friendly old man who had been chanting next to her.

“Your friends in the bookshop are safe.” Wyetta smiled. “You did want them to remember you, didn’t you?” Wyetta asked.

“How did you know?” Val smiled.

“I told you, a friend came to see me.” She patted Val. “It’s time for you to go back, V.” Her eyes were glistening in the moonlight.

“You are a great mum.” Val hugged Wyetta. Val felt Wyetta’s body shaking as she sobbed into Val’s shoulder.

“I know that what I give up is for the good of all people.” She pulled herself up straight.

“And I know that I will do everything not to disappoint you.” Val stepped back and turned to look at the others. “I may not be able to bring back your loved ones who have gone, but I promise I will protect your loved ones in the future.” Everyone cheered.

“V, I will miss you.” Sam moved forward.

“That stick thing was really cool. Where did you get it from?” Val asked.

“Your father gave it to me and told me that one day I would need it.” Sam offered it to Val.

“No, you keep it. I have a few tricks of my own.” Val told him.

“So how do I get home?” Val turned to Wyetta.

“You need to let us go. When you have fulfilled a spell as a witch you must never look back, because you should be sure you did the best you could.” Val realised then that when she had been saving the people in the future, she had assumed that she was allowed to return because she had finished the task. But it had been because she believed she had done the best she could. Things began to make sense.

“OK, then I must go.” Val turned to walk away. She had only gone a few steps when she felt a hand grab hers. She turned to find Sam looking into her eyes.

“V, I will love you for as long as the sun rises and the trees grow.” Val felt her knees buckling as he bent down and kissed her. She was going to miss this part.

“I will miss you as well, my brave Sam.” Blinking back tears, Val turned and resumed walking. She could sense Wyetta watching her and, although she wanted to stay with the mother who
could
remember her, she knew that everyone would be in danger if she did that. She had no choice. She had to go.

Val was almost at the edge of the forest when she heard a familiar voice.

“Val.”

Val turned around to see Delta holding the baby.

“What the hell do you want?” Val asked angrily.

“Please help me. Excariot’s left me here. He wasn’t interested in the baby or me; he just wanted to get to you. Please forgive me.” Delta looked uncomfortable holding the baby and its whining was quite grating.

“I just died, Delta while you laughed. I have had to give up my mum and dad and I’m not sure if my friends will still be alive when I get back, so please forgive me if I don’t give a damn about what happens to you.” Val felt nothing but hatred towards Delta.

“If you leave us here, we’ll die,” Delta said whimpering.

“There is a village about a mile in that direction and they will really love you.” Val placed her hands together, closed her eyes and felt herself slip into a jump. The last noises she heard from the past were the cries of Delta and Excariot’s baby.

Val opened her eyes and found herself staring at blank white walls. This wasn’t the shop and where were her friends? She got to her feet and was wondering if she had arrived at the local asylum when a door opened.

“Hello, please follow me.” A young man dressed in a black sweater and trousers moved to one side so Val could leave the room. He didn’t seem hostile, but she still felt deep trepidation. However, she didn’t seem to have much choice, so she followed him.

“Can you tell me where I am please?” Val asked quietly.

The man didn’t answer, but he just walked on in front of her. Val looked for possible escape routes, but there was nothing; no way out. They made their way down an immense corridor. On the walls, which seemed to reach into oblivion, were imbedded endless small boxes; each one contained what looked like a wisp of smoke. They eventually arrived at another white door, only distinguishable from the endless wall by its handle. The man stopped, “Wait here. He will call for you when he’s ready.“ The man walked off, disappearing into the distance and leaving her alone in this strange place. Val felt as if she was heading for detention. She looked around nervously. She didn’t know where she was, didn’t know where her friends were, didn’t know what was going to happen to her. How could they, whoever
they
were, expect her to hang around here, waiting patiently? Val jumped and turned round quickly as a door behind her opened. A large, white-haired man, with a well-groomed beard was smiling at her. She was now convinced she had been kidnapped by Father Christmas.

“Welcome to Alchany,” he said, starting to walk down the hall. Val followed, unsure what was happening but determined that she wasn’t going to stay alone.

“Where is Alchany?” Val asked.

“Somewhere you will never find on your maps. We are a prison planet on the edge of the Bannaly galaxy,” he said.

“Prison?” Val responded nervously. “Galaxy?” Val put out a hand onto the white wall for support.

“Don’t worry, you aren’t in trouble; you are one of us.” The man patted Val kindly on the shoulder.

“What do you mean I’m one of you?” Val was still supporting herself against the wall when the man turned to face her.

“You are one of us. You belong here, in this place.” He smiled then took Val’s hand and pulled her back into motion. “Please let me explain. Your father, Gabrielle, was one of us, although your mother wasn’t. So I suppose you could say you do and don’t belong here.”

“Galaxy?” Val stuttered, “I don’t even like flying.”

“Stop gibbering. Do you want to know the whole story?” He stopped and pushed open a door that hadn’t seemed to be there a second earlier.

“Yes please,” Val responded.

“OK, welcome to the prison.” As they walked through the door, Val could see the true extent of the place. The corridors appeared never-ending; there were hundreds, possibly thousands, of men dressed in black making their way up and down each one. Val followed her guide out onto a balcony, which allowed them to see the immensity of the expanse in front of them.

“You are the first female guard ever to be born. These men you see are unique. We breed only the finest guards and your father was by far my greatest creation.” The man looked at Val and she could sense the same sadness as Wyetta in his words.

“When you say ‘breed’ what exactly do you mean?” Val asked.

“Each guard comes from a perfect strand of what you call DNA. They are mixed with a female match and so another perfect guard is brought into existence,
always male.
“ The man pointed over to the far side, to an open doorway. “The Ransowars live there, they are the chosen females who are used in producing all new guards.” Val looked over but they were too far away to see the females.

“So what am I?” Val was now intrigued.

“You are a mistake, but if you were male you would be twenty-three thirteen, although I believe you call yourself Val. Your father, Gabrielle, was twenty-three eleven. The twenty-three is your DNA job description and your other number shows when you were produced.”

“So, who is number twenty-three twelve then?” Val asked.

“That would be Excariot.” The man looked both sad and ashamed.

“I’m sorry, did you just say Excariot?” Val could feel her blood instantly boiling.

“Come with me. You need to understand the whole story.” He turned and headed back into the door. “Your father was due to breed with a Ransowar called Lailah.”

“That was the name Excariot was calling out!” Val exclaimed, and the man nodded.

“What we hadn’t realised was that Lailah and Excariot had fallen in love and hatched a plan for her to escape.” They carried on walking. “Excariot managed to run away with Lailah to the planet Gingua where he must have hoped they could live out their lives, but I sent Gabrielle to bring them back. Your father succeeded, as always, catching Lailah and Excariot and returning them here to go on trial. They were found guilty and sentenced. However, Excariot managed to escape before we could carry out the extraction.”

“Extraction? That sounds painful,” Val said.

“We are a prison for thousands of planets. As you can see, we collect and hold prisoners from all over the galaxy so we have to do it in a way that minimises risk. Each box you see contains one essence.” The man patted a box on the wall and Val felt a shiver going down her spine.

“So, you are telling me you make people into wispy smoke?”

“Nearly. In a very technical procedure, we extract the essence of that person, which is indeed the wispy thing, and keep it here until they have fulfilled their time.”

“Then what? Do they get their bodies back?”

He seemed amused and shook his head. “No, of course not.”

“If you have dumped their bodies, what do you do with them when they’ve finished their sentences?”

The man didn’t answer. Instead, he opened another door and Val instantly heard the screams. She grabbed the man’s arm.

“Do not forget that these people are the most dangerous criminals in the Universe. They are returned to cloned bodies. Each body is engineered so that if the person attempts to cause pain or harm to another, or create or manifest what you call magic, their clone will shut down.”

“You stick them in a cloned body! That is just terrible. Do they all look the same?”

“Look.”

Val followed the man to another balcony from where she could see a spirit form being injected into the arm of what looked like a young man.

“The clones take on one of several forms: male, female, young and old. We also have a special form for the prisoners who have caused the worst devastation.”

“What if they are have been unfairly condemned?” Val knew this might be a sensitive question, but it had to be asked.

“We never make mistakes,” the man said sternly as he walked back towards the door.

“So why did Excariot choose to come to my home?”

“Your planet is the first one we have found on which our spirits can move freely into body forms.”

“So all those spirits Excariot let out and took to the future are hardened criminals with magical powers, who can take on human form, is that correct?” Val asked with her hands firmly placed on her hips.

“Yes. He was trying to get Lailah, but you stopped him before he could achieve his ultimate goal.”

“Don’t you think it would be a lot easier to just give him Lailah and be done with it?” Val asked in an agitated tone. “So now you have a load of weirdoes to deal with.”

“Not exactly, Twenty-three Thirteen.
You
have a load of what you call weirdoes to deal with.”

“No! You messed up. Let him have the girl. He killed my biological father and he may even try and kill my mum and dad, and you want me to go and sort out your problems?” Val could feel her temper rising and she was struggling to keep it under control. “And call me Val.”