Earth - A few months later

  Anna/Pauline

  Anna

  Moments later we sped away from Jalholm's place of retreat. I sat in the front with my ever faithful Jack, while the others sat in the back, each with faces full of trepidation and questions. Questions that my compulsion still held them from voicing.

  An hour's driving passed before I deemed that we were safe, but still I urged Jack to continue to make haste.

  ‘We will stop soon,’ I said, as I turned to face those in the back. ‘And, for a while at least, we will be safe. I will answer your questions then. But for now, talk amongst yourselves if you wish. I must conversed with Jack for a little while.’ And with those words I released my hold on the compulsion I held upon my reluctant and so obviously frightened companions.

  ‘Who the hell are you?’ Jamie blurted, immediately. ‘And… and what bloodied danger are we are now?’

  ‘Later, Jamie,’ I said, with just a hint of compulsion. ‘Talk amongst yourselves, as I have asked.’

  Pauline stared wide-eyed as Jamie again fell silent. ‘I wish I could do that,’ she said, a hesitant laugh in her voice. ‘Let's all do as a lady suggests, shall we, boys? If I can wait a while longer, then so can you.’

  ###

  Pauline

  ‘So what do you think's going on then, Pauline? Who is she, and where is she taking us?’ Jamie said, in a whisper.

  The noise from the engine and the bumps and jolts from the road as the car sped on its way, made his voice almost inaudible.

  ‘You will have to speak up if you want me to hear, Jamie. Besides, why whisper? What's the point?’ I said.

  Jamie nodded towards the woman in the front as he mouthed something that looked like, ‘her, of course.’

  The woman's shoulders moved slightly, and somehow I sensed that she laughed to herself.

  ‘Don't be an ass, Jamie. We're here now, so spit out whatever it is you're going to say.’

  Strangely, it was Tony who spoke next. ‘I'm with Jamie on this.’ His voice, though quiet, was strong and measured, completely at odds with the, until now, almost silent young man who had joined our company.

  ‘Everything is happening too quickly. It took me ages to find you lot, and then, just like that, Alex and Jalholm are gone… and now this woman comes along and more or less abducts us. So, yes, I'm with Jamie.’

  Leaning forward, Tony tap the woman on the shoulder, and it was only then that I realised, that his face, too, was somehow strong, and filled with resolve.

  ‘I want to know who you are, and where you are taking us. And I want to know now! Whatever you did with Jamie won't work on me, and you know it won't.’

  As she turned to face us the woman's eyebrows went up in surprise at Tony's words, but there was no anger there, she just seemed amused.

  ‘Your father's blood run strong in you, young Tony. How you can be so confident as to whether my compulsion will affect you, I do not know, but I fear that you may well be correct. Rarely have I been able to affect your father, and even then it was something I did only as a last resort… so draining was it. A few moments longer and we will be at our destination, or at least the first of many. There, I will tell you what I can of what you wish to know —’

  ‘Not in a few moments. Now!’ Tony interrupted, his voice still quiet, but his tone inescapably commanding.

  ‘My, my. You really are Ka'in's son, aren't you?’

  ‘My father's name is David!’ Tony said, his cool seeming to slip somewhat.

  ‘And so it is, Tony. Or at least it was. To you he is your father, David. But in the greater scheme of things he is Ka'in.’

  The word Kane seemed strange how she spoke it, different somehow. Alex had told us of how David had taken the name Kane, the name his father had wanted to name him. But the way this woman said the name was elongated somehow, almost as if it were two words, but joined.

  ‘There, I have told you something, after all, young Tony… and there is yet more if you can only show some courtesy to someone who has been a friend to your father for more years than you have been born… for more years than you could ever imagine.’ The woman's voice matched her eyes now. Both urged Tony, all of us, to silence.

  ‘Sorry,’ Tony said. ‘I… I just can't wait any more. Too much as happened. Too much that is just not… just not normal. My dad is out there —’

  ‘I am taking you to your father, Tony. That is where this journey ends. We go to meet your father and,’ looking to Jamie, the woman said, ‘some other friends… friends that only recently left you.’

  ‘What?’ Jamie bellowed. ‘What did you just say? What you mean?’

  ‘Ah, we are here at last,’ the woman said, as the car pulled to a halt on clifftops overlooking a beach and the ocean, below. Through the tinted windows, I could see a dinghy, with two men beside it, upon the beach.

  ‘No way are we leaving it at that,’ Jamie said, as Tony's words almost exactly mirrored them.

  ‘It is a very long story that you need to hear, and much of what has happened needs to come from the others… for I can only guess at their a tale. But for now, will you accept that I take you to meet David, or Ka'in as I now know him to be, and Alex and Jalholm. There are others still, but you will not know of them.’

  ‘Alex? And Jalholm? What the hell is going on?’ Jamie said, as the door opened and the heavily built Afro-Caribbean driver beckoned him out. Jamie glared at the man for an instant, and then turned back to address the woman who was stepping from the car. ‘Well?’ Was all he said, as he folded his arms in front of himself.

  ‘Your rudeness knows no bounds, Jamie. You know that, don't you? Here I am telling you what you want to know… and doing my very best to reunite you with Alex, not to mention keeping you from Dar'cen's clutches, and you do nothing but demanding even more answers.’ the woman said, as she leaned her head back into the car.

  Strangely her words, harsh though they were, was spoken softly and with a hint of teasing. ‘Very well, if you wish to hear more, you will just have to keep up, won't you?’ She said, beckoning her burly driver, as she walked off towards the cliffs edge.

  ‘Move it, Jamie,’ I said, as I nudged him in the ribs. ‘I, for one, want to hear what she has to say… and I'm sure Tony does, too.’ Tony was already pushing open the door on his side of the car.

  ‘Uh! Oh, right,’ Jamie mumbled as if arousing from a dream. ‘That blood a woman. Who does she think she is, doing that to me?’

  ‘Doing what, Jamie? What did she do?’

  ‘Dunno. It was like she put me to sleep or something. Heard that I had to follow, and then it was… oh, never mind. Just get after her.’ And with that Jamie leapt from the car and hurried off after Tony, who had already almost disappeared from sight as he descended down the side of the cliff.

  ‘Bloody men, got me swearing like Alex, now,’ I said as I shuffled across the seat and out of the door.

  Reaching the cliffs edge, I found a path winding downwards to the beach, some hundred feet below. The woman and driver were on the beach heading towards the dinghy, and Jamie had already caught up with Tony, both of them animatedly talking, or arguing perhaps

  Putting it on a sprint, I once again spat out the word, ‘Men!’ So the woman is going to take us to see David, is she? Well at least that means I was right… and that I'm not going barmy. But Alex and Jalholm? That makes no sense. Why would they use that blood a rod thing just to go somewhere else here… they were supposed to be going to Ellas. Jalholm said they were.

  By the time I got to them, they were all sat in the dinghy on the waters edge, Jamie calling me forward with his hands and muttering something inaudible. The woman and the man, Jack, sat serenely at the bow of the craft, which close-up was much bigger than I'd thought. Even as I clambered in, the two thick necked Afro-Caribbean men that I'd seen from the clifftop heaved the remainder of the craft into the water, and once it was well clear of the beach, pulled themselves in.

  With a roar the twin outboard engines on the back fired up, the front of the craft rose up out of the water, and it hurtled forward into the oncoming waves.

  Wind and salt laden spray filled the air, and I soon found myself drenched. And yet despite everything – all that had happened over that day, and the days since David's disappearance – I found myself laughing. The speed, the wind, even the sprays soaking me through, was a welcome break. I'd been in a daze, I realised. Since meeting David, my life had not been my own. And now, suddenly, I was back. Was it because I had been told that I was being taken to him? Or was it simply the exhilaration of speeding across the ocean? Did I even care? I was myself again. And woe betide anyone that got in my way, even the bloody woman at the bow of the dinghy, who was even now, staring at me as if she could read my every thought.

  Through my laughter, I smiled at the woman, and though not completely unexpected, the returned smile filled me with warmth, and an unexplainable trust for the woman. A single smile, and yet I knew for a certainty that I could trust the woman… and the what she said was true – she took us to David.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Twenty minutes into our wind swept and utterly drenching journey, I was still smiling, smiling and on the verge of hysterical laughter. The same could not be said for Jamie. He looked not at all happy, and wore a deep frown. His longish dark hair was blown back from his face and slapped to and fro in the wind like a soaking wet dishcloth.

  The sight made me realise that my hair, much longer than Jamie’s by far, must look much the same. I giggled at the thought. Only a few months ago, I'd have died at the thought of ever looking as bedraggled as I now did, let alone giggling. Me giggling! I thought with astonishment.

  The sound of the engines cutting back and the craft slowing, brought me from my thoughts. The dinghy settled down onto the ocean waves, now nowhere near as rough as they had seemed as the craft had cut through them. A hundred yards away, was a huge boat, a yacht, or a motor cruiser, something that only millionaires and film stars owned.

  Jamie's voice cut through the comparative silence as the dinghy made for a landing area at the stern of the boat. ‘Don't tell me, you've been here saving your pennies the same as bloodied Jalholm.’ He was staring daggers at the woman, who was now standing as if she'd been at sea all her life.

  ‘Not mine, Jamie. A place that Jalholm has not long vacated that I have sometimes availed myself of.’

  It was only then that I realised that Tony's face seemed devoid of blood, a greenish colour even.

  ‘Tony are you —’

  Too late, because even as the words left my mouth, Tony stood and made an attempt to lean over the side. But all he did was make what would have been an embarrassing situation far, far worse.

  ‘Bloody hell, Tony!’ Jamie shouted as he tried to leap out of the way. But his efforts, too, were wasted, as Tony's eruptions sprayed across his body.

  ‘Shit. Shit. Shit.!’ Jamie shouted, as he held his hands out in front of himself, away from the mess that Tony had covered him with. His face was filled with revulsion.

  Beside him, Tony leaned out over the side, his face almost touching the water, as he retched and retched.

  I didn't know who to feel the most sorry for, but as I looked to the woman, our eyes met and once again we both smiled.

  I had no idea why, but I silently mouthed, ‘I like you.'

  The woman smile widened, but her only response was an ever so slight nod of her head.

  ‘Please forgive me for not seeing to your needs earlier, Tony. My mind was elsewhere,’ she said, as she moved her hand through the air, each finger seeming to write some invisible pattern in the air. ‘There, you should feel fine now.’

  And indeed, Tony, after splashing seawater over his face, leaned back and smiled, his colour now normal again. ‘Thank you,’ he said, relief plain in his voice, until he turned to look at Jamie, when embarrassment took over and filled his cheeks. ‘Sorry, Jamie. Really I am. I didn't —’

  ‘What about me, woman? Can't you use your blood a magic to clean this up?’ Jamie yelled, as he stared down in horror at at the mess that ran down his clothes.

  As she turned to her companion, a grin crossed the woman's face. ‘Magic is not something to be used lightly, Jamie. Not when other methods are at hand. Would you be so kind, Jack?’

  ‘What?’ Jamie said, just as the woman's companion moved forward with amazing agility and speed, and pushed Jamie from the boat into the water.

  ‘You need a bath,’ the woman chuckled.

  As the boat moored on the larger boat’s landing ramp, and we all clambered out with the help of two men, immaculately dressed in white ship's uniforms, Jamie still swam, circling the dinghy.

  ‘The water's lovely,’ he shouted for what must have been the tenth time, as he tried to make light of his dunking.

  Once we were all aboard and the dinghy secured, Jack reached down, and offered his hand to Jamie. ‘Come, friend,’ he said, his voice strangely accented.

  ‘Friend?’ Jamie scoffed.

  Unruffled, Jack said, ‘Yes. Friend. If she calls you so, then so are you to me. Take my hand. You must be clean by now.’

  ‘Yes, Jamie. Hurry. We must be underway,’ the woman said, all humour now gone from her tone.

  As Jamie took Jack's hand the woman said, ‘Make way, Captain. And would you be so kind as to provide my guests with some dry clothes? Go with the captain, Tony, and you, too, Jamie.’

  Then, as I fell in step with the others, the woman put her hand upon my arm. ‘Not you, Dear. To you, I would introduce myself. Our minds have met, and it is only fitting that you now know my name.’

  The smile on the woman's face was infectious, and I could not help but return it. ‘I suppose so. But what you mean about our minds meeting?’ But even as I spoke the words, I knew the question to be irrelevant – I liked and trusted this woman, and that was all I needed to know.

  Smiling, the woman said, ‘My name is Anna. I am a friend of the man you know as David. We have been friends for more lifetimes than I care to count. And you, Pauline, brief though your encounter with him was, are one who can help save him from what is to come.’

  My face blanched. ‘Save him? What do you mean? What is to —’

  ‘You love him, do you not? I saw it when our eyes touched. It is not a thing to be hidden. And he has talked of you. Fleeting conversations to be sure, but conversations where he has tried to hide more than he has said. Yes, you two are meant to be as one. But as to the rest, I cannot explain. I only know that, if we are to succeed in what we do, you will be needed if he is to survive.’

  ‘But —’

  ‘I can say no more, child. Not because I hold back, but because I do not know… I know only fragments, and so you must trust me in this. Will you trust me, Pauline?’

  ‘I already do… and I suspect that you, too, already know that I do,’ I said, slightly alarmed that this woman, Anna, could know so much about me.

  ‘Yes, you are right in what you say. It is a thing between us now… this trust. But I, too, trust you, Pauline… unreservedly.’ Then as her hand tightened on mine, ‘But enough of that. What I have told you is true… I take you, all of you, to Ka'in… sorry, David, and the others. The story, the how of it, is a very long and complicated tale, much of which, I myself am not privy to yet. But as I have watched over your little group for quite some time, so have I watched over David and his companions, even as they, too, watched over you…’

  Anna let the words hang there, and it was a moment before my mind caught up with what she'd said. ‘I don’t understand… they watched us? David watched us… and you watched them?’

  ‘Yes. Complicated, isn't it? But don't worry, for it only gets worse,’ Anna said, with a smile.

  I didn't speak, I only looked and waited, and waited. Finally, all in a rush, I blurted, ‘The phone call, Alex's sister? That was Alex, wasn't it? No wonder Alex thought it to be her sister. That was them watching us, wasn't it? They warned us?’

  Anna smiled again. ‘No, that was not Alex, though I believe that is what was once intended. No, another helped with that little matter. The group that watched over you, much as I did, Ka'in's group, for if you do not mind, that is what I shall now name him… that you see is his true name, were forced to believe that what once was would be again.’

  I opened my mouth to speak, but holding her hand up, Anna forestalled me. ‘I told you that it was complicated, did I not? David, the man named David, is no more. Do not worry, he is the same man… somewhat grown, but the same still. But as I was saying, Ka'in's group is made up of Alex, Jalholm, and man, Jain, who you may have heard of,’ and as I nodded my ascent, ‘and one other…'

  The pause in Anna's words, seemed at first to me as if she did so for effect. But when I looked, Anna's face looked questioning, almost as if she herself did not understand what she was about to say.

  ‘The other is a young woman, one I love dearly. One who has been as a daughter to Ka'in. Her name is Carthia, again a name that Alex may have told you of. And… and in some way that I myself do not comprehend, she is truly the twin sister that Alex lost as a child. She, Carthia, is Alex's sister, Sarah. Carthia and Sarah are one and the same. They share one soul, a soul somehow connected across time and two so very different worlds.’

  Silence held for a moment as Anna searched my face. Then she said, ‘You seem little surprised at what I have said, Pauline.’

  ‘My life has been turned upside down since I met David. And things way beyond my comprehension have happened in the last few hours,’ I answered, and then laughingly, ‘Not to mention you somehow managing to silence Jamie. So what you have just said is just a little more confusion to add to the mix. Which, I am sure, you will explain… eventually.’ Then, after a pause and a frown, I said, ‘There is one thing that I would like to ask, though.’

  ‘And what is that Pauline? Go ahead, ask.’

  ‘You said that you were a friend of David's of Kane's, or however you say the name, an old friend.’

  ‘Yes, I did. And I am.’

  ‘So why is it that you watched them, David and his friends, I mean? You said that you watched them as they watched us.’

  ‘Yes, I did. And so you will have come to the crux of my problem, Child… You see Ka'in believes me lost to him. Not dead, and yet gone from his life forever —’

  ‘But you're not. So why hide from him?’

  ‘Time, my dear. Time, that is all. The time was not right to reveal myself to him again —’

  ‘But how —’

  ‘Dreams and portents, dear. Foretelling’s that I do not understand myself… they told me that the time was not right… but now, with you with me, I can once again be with my friend… he who will, God's be willing, save us all.’

  ‘Save us all?’ I said. ‘What on earth do you mean by that?’

  ‘All part of the greater story that I will tell you all during our journey. We have a few days before we are reunited, and by then you should all know as much as I. But for now, let us go below and join the others.’

  ‘Yes,’ I began, stopping myself as I ran my hands over my blouse and trousers in astonishment. ‘My clothes are dry! Yours, too. How? Oh, never mind. I'll get used to this magic thing of yours… eventually. Are you sure that you can't teach me that little trick you used on Jamie?’

  ‘Who knows? Perhaps, in time, you may learn a little of such things. I do not think that magic is completely gone from your world. Come, let us join the others.’

  ‘So this Ka'in… have a pronounced the name correctly?’ Anna nodded slightly to my question. ‘He is this Dar'cen's brother? He is brother to the creature he is trying to destroy, and yet he doesn't know?’ I continued.

  ‘Bit too far-fetched for me,’ Jamie said, but for once with a straight face, and not a hint of flippancy.

  I glared at him, but Anna merely smiled, as she said, ‘I couldn't agree more, James. Were I you, I would react exactly as you have to what I have said thus far.’

  ‘I wish you wouldn't call me by that name. It's Jamie, not James! James is something my mother calls me… only my mother!’

  ‘Jamie!’ I interrupted. ‘How can you waste time debating your stupid, bloody name after all Anna's just told us… after all that happened these last few days? Get a grip, will you?’ As I finished, my face flushed, as I realised how angrily I had spoken. ‘Sorry. Didn't mean to be so harsh.’

  ‘Nah, it's okay. You're right. Sorry, Anna. Call me what you like,’ Jamie said, with spots of colour on his cheeks. ‘Still think it's a bit far-fetched, though,’ he mumbled.

  ‘Agreed… Jamie,’ Anna said, with emphasis on his name. ‘And even more so because I cannot prove any of it. But given all that you have seen… Jalholm and Alex with the rod, and the magic that I have a demonstrated, things that you would not have believed possible mere weeks ago, can you not at least agree that what I have told you of Dar'cen's childhood and his brother, Ka'in, is possible?’

  ‘Yeah, I suppose so. But then, anything is possible, isn't it? Oh, never mind. Forget I said that. I'm just being awkward, I guess. A huge part of me can't wait to see Alex again, but it's just that seeing her disappear like that, makes it so hard to believe that she is back already… has been back for ages, so you said. And that makes me find everything so bloody unbelievable.’

  ‘You will be with Alex soon, Jamie, if all goes as I hope. But —’

  ‘How soon?’ Jamie asked, in a rush, his eyes wide and a grin stretching the width of his face.

  ‘Soon, Jamie. And your father, Tony,’ Anna said, as she looked intently at me. I believed the danger to be passed for now… and it is time that we were all united.’

  ‘What was this danger? We've run twice now, Anna still really no wiser as to why,’ Tony asked.

  ‘Dar'cen is here, on your world, Tony. Driven from Ellas by your father… and many others who gave their lives to do so. He has few followers here yet… but he brought one with him who is at least the equal of Ka'in… and it is he who has pursued you. He who we fled. But that is past now for a while, and what is important is the history that I have just told you, the tale of Ka'in and Dar'cen. For he does not know of this. David, Ka'in, call him what you will, is ignorant of all that I said… but he is the one that must believe. He must know who he is, if we are to defeat the Demon forever.’

  ‘And that's why you've told us?’ I asked. ‘You want us to convince him? Why not you? Why —’

  ‘I have enlisted all that I can in my efforts to convince him of who he truly is, because… because I fear that my words alone will not be enough, and because I have hurt him enough. He has blindly followed all I have said that he must. Oh, he has pushed back and argued, but always he has done as I have asked. But in this, I must share the burden with others… to tell him such a tale and look upon his face as he hears, as he believes, terrifies me. This is one task put upon me by my prophecies that I refuse… I cannot be the one who tells him this. It… it must be you, two,’ Anna said, as she gestured to Tony and me.

  ‘Us?’ Tony said.

  ‘Yes. Another, too, I have enlisted. One who now believes what I have said. One who he may listen to. But I fear that she will not be enough —’

  ‘But why us? He will know that you are behind the story, surely?’

  ‘Yes, he will. But that does not matter, for if you both truly believe, as does his own mother, then there is hope that together you will convince him. I cannot do this… it must be you.’

  ‘You told this to my Gran?’ Tony said. ‘My Gran! And she believes?’

  ‘She does now, and I believe, coming from three people he loves dearly, my story may well be more believable. I pray that it is so.’