Abby the Witch (32 page)

She tried not
to touch her lips again with her free hand, but didn't seem to have
much control over herself at the moment. 'Nothing.…'

Pembrake
looked at her from under his eyebrows and he wasn't smiling. He let
go of her arm and took a step back. 'Who was so fast?'

She moved her
hands about quickly, trying to distract him from going any further.
'Ignore me, I'm just flustered, that's all. So midnight you say,
that's really interesting.'

'Abby, what
did he do?'

She was
cracking under the pressure here. 'I… I….'

'Abby?'

'Look it
wasn't my fault! I confronted him about only taking me to the ball
because he wanted to get back at the Princess and then… well… he
tried to kiss me,' she squeaked just like a mouse.

Pembrake
paused. 'Tried?'

'Charlie bit
him at the last moment then ran out.'

'That's a
smart cat you've got there.'

Abby had never
blushed quite like this before. It was exquisite, it was hot, it
was all encompassing. It was like being in a steam bath.

There was a
moment of silence between them and it painfully led onto several
more moments of silence. Abby was quite clearly melting on the
spot.

'There's so
much that I need to talk to you about,' Pembrake cleared his throat
and took a step closer, 'there's just so much that I need to
say.'

'Oh.'

By now most of
the guests had pushed further into the room and her and Pembrake
were left mostly alone in a corner. It was nearing midnight, after
all, most of the guests wished to see the hands of the great
grandfather clock, that stood underneath the stair case, tick over
to the next day. It was supposedly a Royal heirloom. It was giant
and gilded in gold, its face clear crystal. A central piece of the
ballroom, apparently, as it kept perfect time.

'Look, Abby,'
he took another step closer. 'I need to ask you to do something for
me.'

She shook a
little like a tall sunflower in a slight breeze.

He took up her
hands. 'I need you to trust me.'

She nodded
mutely.

'I didn't want
to tell you here, but now seems as good a time as any,' Pembrake
looked cautiously at the rest of the room then leaned down, his
voice the barest of whispers, 'we have to do something.'

'P-Pembrake?'

'We have to
make the future a better place.'

'Pembrake?'

'We have to
take the opportunity of being in the past to make it pay for the
mistakes of the future.'

'Pem…
what?'

'Abby, we have
to do something to ensure that the Bridgestock we go back to is not
the Bridgestock that sent us here.'

'But-'

'We have to
change the future, we have to do it.'

'But,
Pembrake-'

'We don't owe
anything to that future,' he kept his voice so low, his face close
enough so that only she could hear his words. 'That future did
nothing for me, and it did nothing for you.'

'Pembrake…
what do you mean?'

'There's one
thing we can do…. There's one thing we can do to make sure the
future is a better place.'

Her heart was
light and heavy all at the same time. 'What do you mean?'

'We have to be
decisive: we have to strike at the heart of this problem.'

'What
heart?'

'Abby,' the
clock struck 12, 'we have to kill the Colonel.'

She pushed
away from him. It should have been different, right? That isn't
what he should have told her at the stroke of midnight. It should
have been different.

'Kill the
Colonel,' she hissed quietly, 'are you insane?'

He shook his
head, features even and cold. She felt her back tingle from the
passive look on his face. 'Not at all, Abby, I'm thinking more
clearly than I ever have in my whole life. I know I have to do
this.'

'But,
Pembrake,' her lips were wobbling, 'you can't!'

'I have to.
Don't you realise,' he kept darting his head around to check that
no one was in ear shot, but the party was so loud that even if
someone had been standing right next to them, they probably would
not have heard a thing.

She shook her
head firmly; she didn't want to think like him if his conclusions
included assassination.

'The Colonel
is the reason the future turns out like it
does. He creates the Witch Ban, he promotes all
the hate and racism, and he-'

'Breaks up
your parents.'

Pembrake
nodded sombrely. 'Don't you see what he does?'

Abby closed
her eyes for a brief moment. 'Even if we did what you say,
Pembrake, how could you be sure it would change the future the way
you want it to? Didn't the Witch Ban start with an assassination?
Didn't something so hateful come off the back of something so
terrible? In my experience, horrible things don't make up for
horrible things. Killing people only ever leads to fear and
hatred.'

He shook his
head. 'Sounds like the argument of a civilian. Some people don't
have the luxury of thinking that way, Abby. When I joined the Navy
I took an oath to protect the people of the Westlands. Do you know
what it means to agree to protect people?'

'It means you
should do everything in your power to keep them safe, I know that,
Pembrake. But can you really do that by killing people?
Can you really protect a population by making them afraid, by
making them accepting of murder? What kind of protection is that?
Isn't it better to safeguard what's right than pay the price for
what's wrong?'

'Abby, when
you agree to protect someone, you agree to stop thinking about
yourself.'

She flinched
at his words, she didn't agree with where he was going one bit, but
he seemed so terribly honest.

'When you
agree to protect someone, you agree not to wait around before
people have thought about what's right. Because time and indecision
kill people. Thinking is a luxury of people who aren't responsible.
Decisions – actions – are the only real things that can help
people. Sitting around and thinking about the moral implications
won't save people. Grabbing someone who's drowning and pulling
their head above the waves is saving someone. Standing on
the shore and thinking about it will see that person drown.'

She shook her
head again.

'Abby, tell me
you see the opportunity here, don't tell you haven't thought about
this before?'

'Pembrake,
this is just not worth discussing. This won't get us home again;
this will see us rot together in a prison.'

He stepped
closer, till it was just the both of them again, till she totally
believed he was the only other person in the room. 'Then it's worth
it. I'll rot in a prison with you if I know I've at least tried to
make the future a better place. I won't follow you back to the
future to watch you starve and die in a place that will cheer at
your funeral.'

She shivered
again, as if the iciest of winds was circling the room.

'I'm going to
do this, Abby.'

'Pembrake,
no.'

'Look, I will
say good bye to the Princess and I will meet you at the gates of
the Palace.'

She didn't
speak.

'Please be
waiting for me there, Abby.'

He walked
away, leaving Abby shaking as if she had received the greatest
fright it was possible to receive. Her hands jittered like a ball
being jerked back and forth on a long string, and even when she
clutched them around herself they did not stop.

The gates of
the Palace….

She walked
there in a daze, barely capable of concentrating on putting one
foot in front of the other.

He couldn't be
serious, he just couldn't.

The night had
grown very cold indeed, and the other guests who were beginning to
leave the ball were busy tucking their hands into their pockets or
stamping their feet. Abby didn't even bother to draw her shoulders
in to try to conserve heat – she just let the chill drag through
her.

She wanted to
be cold right now; it seemed right to be cold at this point in
time.

She wanted to
believe that Pembrake wasn't serious, but she'd seen his eyes. She
wanted to believe that he couldn't do it, but he was a Commander in
the Navy – he'd know a way. But most of all she wanted to believe
he'd change his mind, he'd decide that it wasn't worth it, he'd
decide that it was wrong. But she knew, deep down, that he wouldn't
do that.

So she was
just waiting for him. She'd pull him aside and try again,
desperately try to convince him that this wouldn't work, that it
wasn't even worth trying. She didn't want to see him killed by the
Guards or thrown into jail. She didn't want to be separated from
him for something that did not need to happen.

Abby shifted
closer to the wall and felt her eyes shuddering with immanent
tears.

He wasn't
right, she knew that. They couldn't change the future for the
better by assassinating the Colonel. You can't make the ending
happy by simply changing the nature of the crime.

'Abby!'

Abby swivelled
her head until she saw Charlie bound down from the wall above
her.

'Charlie!' she
scooped him up and hugged him suddenly.

'Pleck, Abby,
what's wrong?'

She nuzzled
her face into his back, only wanting to open her eyes again when
the world had gone back to normal.

'Abby,
seriously, you're getting my fur wet here – what's going on? I
distracted that Captain guy, don't tell me you found yourself in
more trouble after that?'

She finally
pulled her face away, finding more comfort in stroking her cat than
she could ever hope to find in the past. 'Oh it's terrible. It's
just terrible, it's awful, it's shocking – it's terrible!'

Charlie sat up
in her harms. 'Wow, that does sound bad.'

'Pembrake…
Pembrake wants to… Pembrake wants to….'

'What the
pleck, Abby?' Charlie looked genuinely alarmed, his whiskers
sticking out. 'What does Pembrake want to do to you?'

'To me? No…
he… he,' she began to whisper quietly, 'he wants to kill the
Colonel.'

Charlie stared
at her apparently numbed by her statement. 'Are you serious? That's
the problem? Look, Abby, of course Pembrake is planning to off the
old terror – have you forgotten your troll is in the army?'

'Charlie,
don't call him that; he's not a troll at all.'

'Woah, let's
stay on topic here, Abby. You aren't honestly telling me it's a
surprise to you that Mr Arrogant Commander is planning a little bit
of assassination on the side of history? Granted I think it's a
clunky plan doomed to failure, but I'm still not surprised
here.'

'What?
Charlie, this is horrible news! I can't believe you are siding with
him.'

'Siding with
him? Me not being surprised that he's planning some extracurricular
murder is not equivalent to me handing him the sword, Abby. Like I
said, I don't think it will work. In fact I think it will end up in
a big pile of disaster, but at least he's doing something.'

'Charlie!'
Abby looked down at the only thing she thought could have comforted
her in her darkest moment and contemplated dropping him on the
ground. 'Planning an assassination is the wrong kind of thing to be
doing.'

'But sitting
around and moping about how ineffective you are isn't a fantastic
alternative. Yes, your man is playing out his homicidal tendencies,
but at least he's doing that in the real world - you're just
withdrawing into that castle in your mind and locking yourself
inside with fate as your only friend.'

'I am not
withdrawing, I'm just shocked….'

'You withdraw,
Abby. You try and convince yourself that nothing is wrong, and you
put up with horrendous conditions. We live in a plecking attic in
the centre of the slumps. And you, look at you, Abby, before we
came back in time you were starving. What Pembrake is doing is
wrong, Abby, but what you aren't doing isn't right.'

She let his
words wash over her. He was wrong – Charlie and Pembrake were both
wrong. It was worse, much worse to do the wrong thing
than to do nothing at all. Destiny was there to sort things out: if
you just let it you could be confident that your life would be
going in the direction that the fates set. But if you started
making decisions, if you stated acting out of turn, if you started
choosing through desire and fear – well of course your choices
would end in ruin. No, she believed in destiny, and it was not her
destiny to kill people.

'Look, Abby,
before you blow me out of the water, hear me out on this. Those
witches told you that going back in time destroyed both yours and
Pembrake's destinies. If your destines are destroyed, there's
nothing deciding what you'll do next – nothing but you, that is.
They said that you needed to find some way of tying your destinies
down again – but how do you plan on doing that if you don't do
anything? If you are too scared to make even one move, then how are
you supposed to do anything at all?'

'I'm not
scared,' she could feel Charlie growing heavy in her arms and was
not sure if it was the cold creeping into her bones or the weight
of what he was saying.

'Ah ha. BOOO!'
Charlie suddenly jumped up onto her chest and Abby startled. 'You
look pretty scared.'

'Charlie, that
wasn't funny.'

But he had a
point.

~~~

Pembrake
walked out of the Palace with his mind bent on one thing. He would
find Abby and he would convince her that this was the right thing
to do. But if he could not convince her, if she wouldn't listen to
reason, then he would go ahead and do it anyway.

If you took
the responsibility of protecting someone, then you agreed to do
whatever it took to keep them safe. He knew what to do in this
situation; she was simply to innocent to make the same
conclusion.