The Guardian's Protector: The Chamber of Souls (14 page)

‘We have a qualified teacher in The Order. If you tell the authorities he’s being privately educated then it’s fine. People have private tutors all the time.’

‘Not people like me,’ Amy stated.

‘This teacher even has their own classroom set up in their home. Tom will feel like he’s at a real school.’

‘Minus the other kids, of course. Is he not entitled to any friends?’

‘All humans are entitled to friends, but it will be hard for Tom to make them with him being so different.’

‘He has a friend called Molly now! He always comes out of the ball pit when she comes in. They sit and pretend to read books in the corner. Then she serves him tea from the tea set. Every week he lets her order him around and she loves him!’

‘I know,’ she said, her eyes full of sadness. ‘But Tom will eventually prefer the company of adults.’

‘I know you think you know what’s best for him, but I’m his mother and…well…who said you could interfere in my life like this?’

‘You did, beautiful,’ she said, stroking Amy’s knee. ‘You did.’ Amy was flabbergasted. How could she argue with what she couldn’t remember? She couldn’t believe she would’ve agreed to this.

‘I’m going to find a way out for him!’

‘Amy…’

‘I am. I mean, why can’t we just tell Kate her son’s evil? Tell her what he wants to do, then she can stop him herself. She could kill him now.’

‘Would
you
kill a child?’

‘He’s not a child!’

‘I see you can see
that
!’ Adaizi smiled. Her all-knowing expression irritated Amy. ‘It’s harder to see things when they’re so close, though, hey?’ She stroked Amy’s knee again, hoping she hadn’t offended her.

Amy took a deep breath to calm herself. ‘I’d still want to know.’

‘There’s no way Kate would hear it, even if we told her. The Dark Army already has control of her. When Ethan jumped into the embryo she’d created, he infected her instantly.’

‘Why can’t this Omnipion stop evil souls from being born?’

‘Don’t you think we’ve tried to help mothers from gaining a level twelve player?’

‘How?’

‘The Governance of Disproportion team, who worked with the Growth of Development team to implement detectors inside a woman’s womb so they were able to recognise birth defects and abnormalities, created a detector to recognise dark souls upon entering.’

‘And?’

‘And it worked well at first. As soon as an embryo was taken by a lower level player, the womb discharged of it but, after Ethan gained the last few powers, he was able to provide a way in for them. They take a small piece of his power into the womb so the womb is confused into seeing the soul as perfectly good.’

‘Can’t you take
your
power and put it into Kate? Make her normal. We could tell her then.’

‘Unfortunately not. Once the dark has taken over a soul, there’s nothing we can do. If we tried to save her, we’d kill her. Same with Luke. The only thing we can do is void this life so they don’t lose any points they’ve gained from their last lives.’

Amy stared at her for a moment. ‘There must be something.’

Adaizi looked over her glasses, her eyes fixed on Amy’s. ‘It doesn’t hurt to invoke the light, you know. We just have to open a channel inside you, then all you have to do is relax enough to visit your higher self, then you will receive the power.’

‘I don’t want to speak to my higher self. I don’t want to be given a lecture about what I agreed. I don’t want to meet the person who agreed to help train him to fight!’

‘You will visit the Decision Maker for a source of comfort. The fact that you will remember who else you are only helps you. You will be both Nevaeh
and
Amy
when you enter the Divine Realm.’

‘I don’t want to feel confused.
I’m
clear that I shouldn’t have agreed to this mission.’

‘You’ll feel better once you connect to yourself
.
’

‘“
Myself
,”’ who agreed to train Tom?’

‘Your higher self isn’t as stubborn as your lower self. If you wanted something that Nevaeh didn’t, you would win. All you will be doing is remembering. It just means nothing would have to be explained. You say you want to protect Tom from what could hurt him, right?’

‘Yes.’

Adaizi raised her eyebrows. ‘Do you not also want to protect him from the pain of losing his mother?’

‘What?’

‘We could have lost you last night. That kind of behaviour will lose Tom his mother, and he needs his mother. Without you, the one person he trusts most in the world, the person who makes him extremely powerful, this mission could fail.’

Amy didn’t know what to say to that. Adaizi telling her Tom needed her definitely caught her off guard. She stared at Adaizi with a blank expression for a moment before weakly making her retort: ‘I believe there’s always a way around things.’

Adaizi paused for a second and looked at her seriously. ‘I
don’t
believe there’s another way and I’ve valid reason for that. The last thing I’d do is put this loving boy in harm’s way if it wasn’t what he agreed. Or if it wasn’t necessary.’

‘Maybe it’s not necessary!’ Amy said, clinging to the idea.

‘Even though you have resistance, I believe in you. Although,’ she added contemplatively, ‘I also trust things happen for a reason and that good always comes out of bad so, even though your refusal to invoke the light worries me, I’m not
so
concerned.’

‘No?’

Adaizi shook her head and looked in deep thought. ‘No,’ she answered like she meant it. ‘It will be sad to lose you…and Tom will be distraught without his mother…but …if the reason you not invoking the light turns out to be that you will die because of it, the good from that bad would be that we could then take over Tom’s upbringing and…’

‘Okay, okay,’ Amy shouted in horror. The thought made her skin crawl. Adaizi knew exactly how to get under her skin, but she didn’t think she’d claw her way under. ‘A compromise is in order.’

Adaizi’s face lit. ‘A compromise?’

‘I’ll make you a deal,’ Amy offered, trying to think fast. ‘If I’m in danger, or Tom ends up in danger because
I’ve
not invoked the light, then I’ll invoke the light to protect myself…but I won’t visit my higher self.’

‘I’m afraid the two go hand in hand. You open a channel first to
enable
you to invoke the light. To invoke the light you then must visit Omnipion. Once you have visited then you can use the light you have been given.’

‘But…’

‘And if you’re only going to wait until you’re in danger, when that time comes please call for me so I can save you.’

‘I did try to call you. I thought you’d sent someone because you must have heard me
think
your name.’

‘No,’ Adaizi said, but she didn’t look confused.

‘Well, who was the man made of light in the alley?’

‘A Guardian who just happened to have a vision of you being in trouble. You were lucky!’

‘How many Guardians are there on this mission? I feel like I’m being watched at every turn. First you, then Rose, now someone else.’

‘On
this
mission there are just three for now. Tom included. Rose isn’t a Guardian, though. She’s, let’s say, a discrepancy in the Test. She shouldn’t have remembered the Truelife but she did. Nevertheless, she’s part of the mission too and valuable help.’

‘So four?’

‘Winston, five. You make six. We can recruit more help when the time comes to make the numbers equal to the Dogod’s army. There are Guardians with completed missions scattered all around the world we could also call upon.’

Amy sighed. ‘If I’m in danger ever again, I will call you. If I ever have to do that, I will then—and only then—invoke the light…
but
…I won’t change my mind about training Tom to fight!’ Amy said, holding him tight.

Adaizi, trusting Amy’s honour, patiently agreed.

CHAPTER 10

THE UNINVITED GUEST

            ‘Guess what you can do today,’ Amy said to Tom as they walked down the road.

He looked up at her, his amazing eyes alive with excitement. ‘Me blow candle on bufday cake?’ he asked. Every party the café hosted, Tom had to watch children blow out candles. Amy couldn’t wait to watch Tom do it.

‘Yes.’ Amy smiled. ‘So no going in the ball pit today!’ she added.

‘Yes won’t!’ he said, nodding his head as they stepped into the café. Tom took one look around and gasped. There must’ve been a hundred colourful balloons all around the place and a ‘Happy Birthday Tom’ banner spanned the entrance to the play area.

Tom ran to Jack and Winston. ‘Love Jack. Love Winston. My TVD,’ he shouted, holding his arms up, referring to the TV and DVD player he’d opened from them before he came.

‘You’re welcome!’ they answered, picking one arm and one leg each side of him and swinging him into a group hug.

Mark entered, bending his huge, chiselled frame under the kitchen doorway. His piercing teal green eyes caught Amy’s first. As he smiled, Amy’s heart rate soared.

‘Father Christmas!’ Tom shouted gleefully. The guys placed him back on the floor and Tom ran to him. Mark smiled and patted his head then handed him a present: a set of plastic coloured letters and a small magnetic white board to stick them to.

‘Wow,’ Tom said. ‘Thank you!’ Mark secured the board into a sturdy position and then reached in the bag and placed a few letters on the board. Tom stood tall and pointed to each letter. ‘T, H, P and N.’

Mark looked impressed. ‘He’s learnt his letters already, I see.’

‘Yes, thanks to you, he’s mastered that book already!’ Amy’s voice was sweeter than usual. Mark was there to cover her shift. He was also the reason for her brand new silk dress the shrewd expensive shop assistant told her brought out her eyes.

‘I’ve got a few early learning books. I could bring him some others if you like.’ Mark smiled his handsome, shy smile at her and this time she didn’t even notice his scar. His hand rested on the counter next to hers; her heart fluttered at the thought he might touch it.

‘Yes, I’d love that,’ she agreed, a little too enthusiastically. ‘I mean
he’d
love that!’ Thankfully, as she’d just begun to blush, the doors opened and guests walked in. The three lads, taking up their work positions, led all the mothers and children through.

Out of all the children who turned up, only Molly ran to Tom. Molly decided that today, as soon as he opened his presents, he would be her dog. In consideration for his new suit, she allowed him to be led by his hand instead of walking him on all fours.

When Frank and Alicia arrived with Thomas and Joan, Amy walked into the café area to greet them. Thomas shook Jack’s hand enthusiastically and Joan gave him a kiss but, as Frank told Jack how good it was to see him, Alicia stared at him with a look of disgust.

‘How many squiggly daft lines have you got
now
?’ she grated, looking at the S shaped tattoos he had on both forearms like he was an idiot.

‘They’re F-holes!’ Jack clarified. ‘You know, from a violin, an elegant and endearing instrument.’ He held out his forearms and smiled with pride for his art. Even though it was obvious Jack thought she was rude, and knew the question was rhetorical, he smiled, lowered his arms, and answered: ‘And I have fifteen.’

‘Hasn’t
Frank
got three tattoos?’ Amy asked, her tone remaining as sweet as possible because of Mark.

‘
They’re
hidden though, aren’t they?’ Alicia smirked and then gave her a filthy look. ‘And is it some kind of rule that you must have ridiculous hair to work here or what?’ Amy looked at Jack, whose hair, now past his shoulders and full of beads, had begun to form complete dreadlocks, and then to Winston’s, who could have been stashing at least four birds, and then touched her own mass of curls, embarrassed she hadn’t straightened it.

Frank put on his best never-mind-my-wife-she’s-only-joking face, while Joan smiled nervously. Ignoring them all, Thomas walked into the play area and patted Tom on the head. Amy, picking up Francesca, followed him in.

‘How’s my best grandson?’ Thomas asked him.

‘Me best son okay, Granddad,’ Tom said, hugging him tight. Molly reluctantly let go of his hand.

‘Look who’s here, Tom,’ Amy said. Francesca’s hair was in pigtails and she was wearing the beautiful lemon dress Amy had bought for her first birthday.

‘Francesca!’ Tom said excitedly. Francesca smiled at him and Amy placed her beside him. Towering above her, he took her hand in his to support her unsteady walk.