“I’m not asking
her
, Will, I’m asking you!”
She was close enough now that she could see Conlan pacing in front of the fire; it reminded Eleanor of a wildcat, all graceful, lethal fury.
He just needs a tail to swish!
She could see Will’s calm, passive expression in the flickering light.
“You can yell all you like, Conlan; this is something I have no right to discuss with you. The only person who does is Eleanor,” he said mildly. “If you paid more attention you would have seen what I did and wouldn’t need to ask.”
Eleanor stepped into the firelight. She noticed the hares roasting over the fire, the smell filling her nose, so much guilt coursing like acid through her veins that she winced.
“Enjoy,” she said flatly, turning and heading back into the darkness. She had wanted to tell the others about finding the Dwarves, but her guilt was an agony, drowning out all other thought and crushing her excitement. She walked a little way from the camp, far enough so that she did not have to listen to the conversation. She found a large rock and climbed on top of it. Pulling her knees up to her chest she stared out at the dark, eerie mountains in front of her. Wanting to reassure herself that she had not imagined it earlier, she sent an energy string into the ground in the direction she had felt the Dwarves and was relieved to discover they were still there.
“Eleanor?”
She jumped, pulling her energy back with an uncomfortable snap.
“Yes, Conlan?”
“Can I talk to you?” He spoke calmly, softly. She nodded and he sat next to her. For a long time he was silent. Eleanor wondered if he was trying to work out what to say, or whether he was just enjoying the silence. She had no wish to push, as she had a feeling she knew what questions were coming.
“Eleanor, what just happened?” he asked eventually. He sounded curious.
“I just provided you with dinner,” Eleanor answered without hesitation.
“How?” Conlan asked.
Eleanor stared into the dark. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Eleanor, if this is one of your abilities, I need to know about it,” Conlan said, an edge creeping into the words.
“Why do you need to know? Can’t you just be thankful you get to eat and leave it at that?”
Conlan sighed. “Eleanor, I’m still in charge. Voting is functional while it’s just the five of us, and I tolerate it because you’re all happier having your say. But as you pointed out, it’s likely that one day I’m going to lead you into battle. No time to vote, just me giving orders that I’ll expect you to follow. At that point I’m going to need to know everything I can about you so I’ll be able to deploy my forces where they’ll have the most impact. So again, what just happened?”
The mention of battle made Eleanor feel like her insides were being rubbed up the wrong way. She saw the logic in his request, but it did not make her feel like any less of a freak when she whispered.
“I instructed the hares to come to me so Will could kill them.”
“You talk to animals?” Conlan asked. Eleanor wondered how much effort it had taken to keep the surprise and amusement out of his voice.
“Do I look like Dr Doolittle? No, I don’t talk to them. I enter their heads and manipulate their thoughts, although Rand is rather bright, with him it’s more like a conversation.”
“Rand… you’ve been in Rand’s head?”
“Yes, he worries about you,” Eleanor said, remembering the animal’s concern over Conlan’s state of mind when they visited Baydon. There was more silence.
“Conlan, I think I know where the Dwarves are,” Eleanor admitted quietly.
After dinner, Eleanor told them about the Dwarves. She could feel the relief that radiated from her friends. Before she had finished eating her meagre meal, Eleanor was yawning, her body and mind exhausted. She curled herself into a ball by the fire, her head resting on her bag, pulling her blanket tight round her and her eyes dropping heavily. She nearly opened them when Conlan quietly asked Will who Dr Doolittle was, but she was too tired and fell asleep before Will finished his amused explanation.
Now she knew where she was going, Eleanor set a gruelling pace. She forced her body to the limit, her lungs burning, limbs aching, making it necessary to pull energy from the earth to keep herself going. Towards the end of the morning she could hear Will’s laboured breathing; not slowing down or looking at him she brushed a string against him. She felt the drop in his energy levels. The rain had cleared up to reveal a chilly and pale-blue sky, but there was no water for him to get his energy from and his straining body was using up what he had. Reaching across, Eleanor realised that Freddie had the same problem. Without thinking about it, she pulled excess energy from the earth and pushed it out to Will, restoring his normal energy level, and then did the same for Freddie. Neither of them said anything, but Will’s breathing became easier and they picked up their pace a little. Eleanor kept pushing, giving them more energy when they needed it. Every so often she would send an energy string out to get a distance and directional bearing on what she hoped were the Dwarves. They were so close now that she could feel the individual life forces, many thousands of them. As the sun began to set, Eleanor felt a restraining hand on her arm.
“We need to rest for a while, Eleanor,” Will said softly.
“No, Will, we’re so close, we can get there in a few hours, if we keep going,” Eleanor replied, her eyes shifting from Will’s tired face to the mountain they were heading for.
“We need to rest,” Will repeated – there was something in his voice, a warning perhaps? Confused Eleanor gave him her full attention. Will shook his head, glancing back. Eleanor followed his gaze. While Will, Freddie and Amelia looked tired, Conlan looked like he was dead on his feet. He was pale and shaking slightly, his breath wheezing in his chest and his eyes staring unfocused at the ground in front of him.
“We
need
to rest,” Will said a little more forcefully. Feeling guilty and ashamed for not noticing the state Conlan was in earlier, Eleanor nodded. Too tired to make camp, they just dropped where they were stood. Eleanor moved towards Conlan and led him to a flat piece of dirt against the mountainside, where they slid to the ground.
“Do you want to eat something?” Eleanor asked, concerned over the time it took for his eyes to focus on her face. He shook his head slowly. She should have seen that he was pushing himself too hard, that he was suffering, too. She turned to apologise, but his head dropped onto her shoulder as he struggled to stay awake. She patted her thigh gently, pushing her legs out in front of her and offering him a more comfortable place to lie. He said nothing, but his body slid down, his head resting in her lap. She gently stroked her fingers through his hair as he took a deep relaxed breath, his eyes closing. She watched him sleep as the setting sun took the last of the day’s light and warmth. Carefully, so she did not wake him, she slipped off her bag, and pulling the blanket out of its restraints draped it over his still shaking body. Without waking he turned on his side, into his normal sleeping position, pressing his head heavily into her inner thigh. Slowly, Eleanor pulled her legs back in towards her and curled herself protectively around him, resting her head on his shoulder. Closing her eyes, she slept.
Movement woke her in the cold, pale grey before sunrise. Conlan was carefully trying to extract himself. She opened her eyes, rubbing them, pulling herself up as he sat. It was hard to see his expression in the shadowy light, but the tension in his body was hard to miss.
“Conlan, are you OK?” she asked.
“That was wrong of me, it will not happen again,” he said in Dwarfish, his underlying growl offering an unspoken apology. His voice was low, but Eleanor could hear the anger. He stood, moving away from her. Eleanor stared after him, totally confused and a little upset. Was this his pride? Was he really angry that he had been weak enough that he had allowed Eleanor to help him?
The whole point of having friends is that you have people to carry you when you are too tired or defeated to carry yourself, just as you carry them when they need it.
Why would he not want her comfort?
In a gesture of supreme optimism, they ate the rest of their supplies in a hearty breakfast and set off again as the sun rose on another beautiful but chilly day. They were climbing so high now that there was heavy snow on the ground, making the path almost impossible to navigate. They had problems getting Rand up the trail – the poor animal did his best – but Eleanor found she had to enter his head on several occasions to give him encouragement. She had even tried sending him some energy, but Rand had not liked it. In the end, Conlan had come up with the idea of a sort of sling, using their blankets so they could haul Rand up after them. Will took one side of the sling and Conlan moved to take the other, but Freddie beat him too it. Conlan glowered at him, but Freddie just smiled until Conlan stalked back to take Rand’s bridle and led him forward. Rand quickly settled into the pace. Eleanor pushed into his head; the animal was relieved and quite happy at being half carried up the mountain.
“What’s he thinking?” Conlan asked, noticing her distant look.
“He’s grateful to have friends to help him in his hour of need, which makes him smarter than you right now.”
The mountain stood before her, sheer rock faces rising to dizzying heights. She hoped the Dwarves were inside, but she had no idea how to get in. Moving her eyes slowly she scanned the mountain side.
“What are you looking for?” Conlan asked, an extremely noticeable breathless wheeze in his voice.
“A way in… I don’t know, something obvious… A door would be good,” Eleanor answered.
“I can’t see anything,” Conlan said, his eyes scanning the featureless rock as hers were doing.
“I think I might have to climb up there,” Eleanor said, a tremor in her voice as she tried not to think about the height.
“No.”
Eleanor glanced at him; he had his hard, emotionless expression in place.
“I’ll go,” Amelia said, coming up behind them.
“No one is climbing up there!” Conlan snapped.
“I used to do a lot of rock climbing and abseiling, I can do it,” Amelia said quietly, concentrating on the rock.
“No!” Conlan said again.
“Maybe this is something we need to vote on?” Amelia asked softly, dropping her gaze to Conlan.
“Eleanor, go fetch Freddie and Will,” Conlan ordered, not taking his eyes off Amelia. She nodded, jogging back down the path to where Will and Freddie were still struggling with Rand. They both smiled as she approached.
“Amelia wants to climb a mountain, Conlan doesn’t want her to. We need to vote,” Eleanor told them. Will raised an eyebrow, but they left Rand and followed her.
Conlan and Amelia were staring up at the mountain face when they got back.
“You want to climb up there?” Freddie asked, horrified. Amelia turned to look at him and smiled, nodding her head.
“Can you really do it?” Eleanor asked.
Again Amelia nodded. “Search and Rescue, remember – climbing is as natural as breathing for me.”
“But we have no ropes, no equipment, you’d be taking a huge risk,” Freddie said.
Amelia shrugged. “It’s not as if the Dwarves have a doorbell we can ring. This whole mountain screams ‘Go Away!’ I can see a ledge up there, so maybe I can get their attention if I reach it. If not, I’ll come back down.”
“And maybe they’ll just push you off,” Conlan said. “You don’t even speak Dwarfish – what are you going to tell them if you do find them?”
Amelia frowned.
“I’ll go with her,” Eleanor said.
“Eleanor, you’re afraid of heights, I’ve seen you on the ledge at home. You’d be a liability,” Amelia said gently.
“I don’t have to go physically, I could just go in your head,” Eleanor replied.
“Will, please, talk some sense into her, this is just too dangerous,” Conlan said.
Will was studying the mountain thoughtfully. “Amelia, if you’re going, you need to go now, or you’ll be spending the night once you get up there,” he said. Amelia smiled. Conlan stared. Freddie looked shocked.
“Will, she could get herself killed. I thought we were going to vote on this?” Conlan said. Will turned to look at him.
“No, Amelia is very good at this stuff, she’ll be fine. Eleanor, Amelia and I are happy for her to climb up there, so majority rule means that Amelia can go. I’ll go with her, in her head, to make sure she can talk to the Dwarves if she finds them.”
Eleanor opened her mouth to say she was not at all sure she was happy about Amelia climbing so far up the mountainside, but she caught Will’s warning glance and closed it again. Amelia moved to Will’s side. He kissed her forehead and watched her walk to the base of the cliff to start her climb, before kneeling in the snow and closing his eyes. Eleanor saw Amelia pause as she pulled in Will’s energy, and then she began climbing. Freddie and Conlan went back down the path to retrieve Rand while Eleanor knelt at Will’s side, watching Amelia’s progress.
Amelia moved with slow confidence, stopping every so often for a breather. Occasionally Will would ask Eleanor how far Amelia was from the ledge, but mostly he sat in silence with his eyes closed, his face blank. Behind them, Conlan and Freddie stood in silence, eyes riveted on Amelia, her body made small and vulnerable by the distance.
Several long hours later they let out a collective sigh of relief as Amelia propelled herself over the lip of the ledge. The relief did not last long as they noticed other figures on the ledge with her.
“The Dwarves have found her,” Will said.
“Is she alright?” Conlan asked, eyes on the ledge.
“One of them is threatening her with a sword. I need to concentrate,” Will said, eyes still closed, frowning. Eleanor jumped when he gasped.
“Will?” Conlan asked. There was no response. Conlan began pacing backwards and forwards, eyes flicking between the ledge high above them and Will’s face. Tense minutes crawled by.