The Stolen Child (12 page)

He held up a hand to silence her.
 

“
Tell me in a moment.  You're sure you're OK?”
 

Arsha nodded.
 

“So, when do we get to find out who this mystery girl is?” Milima said, pointedly.

“In time,”
h
er father said.  “Thank you
all
for your help,
but I really should talk to Arsha alone now.
”

Milima stood and gave
her
shoulder a squeeze.  Then she held out a hand to Ilona.  Ignoring it,
the woman
tried to stand
,
but her legs wouldn't seem to take her weight
.  Milima
caught
her just in time
, and gently lifted
her
upright.  
Abasi and Micah followed the women out, without a word spoken between them.  T
he door closed and Arsha was alone with her father.

She realised that she was still sitting
cross legged on the floor
.  Her legs felt numb.

With deliberate care, her father extinguished the smoking bowls
with handfuls of sand
.  Then he stopped just in front of her and held out his hand.  She took it, unsure of what his silence meant.  Carefully he lead her out of the circle.  Only when she had crossed the outer ring did he let go.

She looked up at him, not quite sure what to say as he leaned back against a nearby crate.

“You did well,”
h
e said, at last.

“Thanks,”
s
he said.  It felt a little awkward, just standing there, so she hopped up onto a barrel, her heels
making a knocking sound
.

“What did you make of her?”

“Rachael?”

He nodded.

“
I don't know.  She was angry and scared and... I don't know.  Confused?  Like she didn't really know what was happening.  She said that people had been chasing her.
”

She saw him frown, saw the concern in his eyes, but he said nothing.
 

“
And there was... It was weird, it looked like she had something drawn on her forehead.  It was mostly covered by her hair, but it was some kind of symbol.  It might have been done with blood.”
 

“
I don't know if I should be worried or happy about that.  It sounds like someone is trying to hide her.  It certainly explains a lot.”
 

“
Hide her?  How?”
 

“
Well, it could be a ward.  A kind of small spell that conceals someone's Fate, for a little while.  I had been trying to trace her with a number of, uh, old tricks that I know.  This is the first time we've had been able to make any kind of contact though.”
 

“
What does that mean?”
 

He gave a heavy sigh, and looked at her sadly.
 

“
It means I may need your help again before all of this is done.  Whatever connection you have to this girl, it might be the only thing that can get through that ward.”
 

Arsha swallowed, and nodded.
 

"We have to help her.  She
's all alone
."

“
We will,
”
h
e said.  “
You did well, sweetheart.  
I'm proud of you.”

He slipped one arm a
round
her shoulders
and placed
a gentle kiss against her
fore
head.

“Go rest, pet.  You'll be tired after the ritual.”

She was,
d
esperately tired.  The nervous tension of the last few days
seemed
to
be
crashing in on her
like
a tidal wave.  Her legs had gone to jelly, and she wasn't even sure she could walk back to her room.

Her father seemed to sense what she was feeling.  In a single motion he scooped her up, and she pulled herself tightly to him as he carried her back to her room.  
S
he felt as if years had fallen away from her and she was a small child again, bundled up in her
D
addy's arms.

-

Rachael
heard the way his footsteps smacked across the tar-paper roof as he ran to her side.  She felt Justin's hands around her shoulders, heard the trembling in his voice.

“
Rachael, what happened?  Are you OK?  What happened?”
 

Angrily, she pushed him aside, jumping to her feet.
 

“
Get away from me!”
 

“
Rachael, what's wrong?”
 

“
Just get away,” she repeated, her voice raw.
 

“
What happened?”
 

He was on his feet again, eyes wide with concern.  She turned away.
 

“
It don't matter.  It wasn't real.”
 

She started to walk away, not wanting to see his face any more.  Unable to bear that look of pity.
 

“
What?  Rachael, what wasn't real?  What did you see?”
 

Anger flared inside her as she wheeled about to face him, eyes full of fury.
 

“
Would you just stop?  Stop acting like this is normal.  Like it's OK for me to be seeing things that aren't here, like it's normal for all of this to be happening.  I don't know what your deal is, playing along like all of this makes sense, but I know what I am.”
 

At last, she saw his sympathetic mask crack, if only a little.  Saw the way his fists clenched at his sides, the way his lip curled into a sneer.
 

“
What?  What are you?” he shot back.  “Why don't you tell me?”
 

“
You want me say it?” she shouted back, taking a step toward him.  “I'm crazy.  Messed up in the head.  A total nutjob.  You hear me?  Drugs, doctors, the whole deal.  You think this is new?  I've known about this all my life, and you trying to act like it's not all in my head is the opposite of helping.”
 

She expected him to get angry, shout back at her, lose what was left of his cool.  She wanted to see that mask shatter.  But in his eyes she saw only sadness.  He reached out to rest a hand on her shoulder.
 

“
Rachael, I don't believe that for a minute.”
 

“
Yeah, well maybe you're crazy too,” she said, pushing his hand away.
 

“
You actually think that?  You think that all of this is just in our heads?”
 

As he reached for her again she took a step back, eyes narrowing.
 

“
Just who the hell are you, anyway?  You keep acting like you want to look out for me, but I don't know nothing about you.  Who are you really, Justin?”
 

She took another step back, her weight settling on the balls of her feet.  Ready to fight, or to run.  He didn't come any closer.  He just stood there and watched her with those sad eyes.
 

“
I'm here to protect you, Rachael.  That's the truth.  I was sent to keep you safe, by someone who cares about you very much,” he said.
 

“Right.  Because there's anyone
out there
that cares about me.”

“Your mother does.”

The words felt like a shard of ice stabbing into her gut.  Eyes narrowed, she looked at him with a cold rage.
 

“That's not funny,” she said.

“
It's the truth,” he said,
with an unearthly calm.

Her laughter was a sick and bitter thing, rising up like bile in her throat.
 

“
My mum's dead, you asshole.”
 

“
No, she's not.  The woman who sent me here, she's your real mother, and she's been searching for you for a long time
,” he said.  “Rachael, your whole life, you've been lied to.  
Whatever family you knew was just a... An illusion.  A trick.
  You never belonged in this world.  It was just a cage they put you in.”

“
This world?  What are you even talking about?”
 

“
Everything.  Everything you've ever known, this whole world, this whole universe is just a speck in the Dreaming.  There are thousands of worlds out there, worlds where anything is possible.  That's where your mother is waiting for you.  Far out into the Deep Wild, where your father imprisoned her after he stole you away.  That's why she sent me, to keep you safe, to bring you home.”
 

“
Justin, what the hell is this?”
 

“It's magic, Rachael,”
he said,
with a resigned sigh
.
 
“That's what this is.  Magic and gods and monsters, and all the other things I didn't want to talk to you about, because
I knew
you'd look at me just like you're looking at me now.”
 

She could feel her breath growing short as she looked into his eyes and saw the conviction there, the unbending, unyielding force of his absolute belief.
 

“
Jesus,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper, “you really are crazy.  You actually believe all this.  That I'm some kinda magic princess, and it's all up to you to save me?  Do you even know how insane this sounds?”
 

He took a step forwards, reaching out towards her.
 

“
Of course I do.  Rachael, I know this isn't easy for you to believe, but you have to trust me,” he said.
 

Her eyes narrowed, as she studied his.

“No.  I really don't,”
s
he said.  
She
could feel
her hands shaking
as she turned and walked away.
 

“Rachael, stop,”
h
e called
out
, but she ignored him.  
She expected him to come running after her, but the only thing
she heard
was
a flutter of wings
.  Then something flashed in front of her face.  
A
dark streak, blurred with motion.  She thought it looked like a raven.

S
he glanced back for a second,
but saw no sign of him.
 
Then she
looked up
to see the bird wheel around in front of her.  With a sudden turn it swooped down.  She skidded
to a halt
as the bird spread its wings
to hang,
suspended, in the air before
her
.  
In her alarm she stumbled
and fell backwards onto
the ground,
as the raven flew over her.  Then,
seeming to play out in one long and flowing movement, though it couldn't have been more than a heartbeat
, the bird
disintegrated
.  Its body became a cloud of oily black smoke, bursting outwards
in a liquid motion
.  The smoke moved like it was alive, roiling and shifting to take on a larger form
,
a body framed with cape-like wings.  Then it condensed down, the wings becoming the tails of his long coat as Justin's body formed from the smoke.

He fell with catlike grace to land on the balls of his feet, splayed fingers of one hand catching the ground.  He was poised above her
with a predatory look in his eyes
.

Her heart thundered in her chest, and her breath caught in her throat.  She was transfixed by his glare as her brain scrambled to comprehend what she had just seen.

She
laughed
.  
It seemed like the only sensible thing to do.  
It was so impossible, so ludicrous.  Like the entire universe had decided to play a cruel joke.  For a moment he seemed taken aback, unsure of how to react.  It didn't take long for her bitter laughter to turn to screaming, as she felt a wave of cold terror seize her.
  Hands clawed at him as she squirmed away.  A foot lashed out and he reeled backwards.  
Halfway to her feet, s
he stumb
led
to
wards
the edge of the rooftop.  
Laughing, sobbing, she gasped for air, feeling as if she was trying to breathe underwater.  
Hands fumbled in the depths of her bag, finally closing around the
plastic pill bottle
.  Justin stood and crossed the roof to her in three long strides.  Her fingers shook as she tried to prise the
cap loose.  Then he snatched the bottle from her hands.
 

“Did they tell you
this
would help?”
h
e
snarled
, gesturing with the
clear orange container
.  
“
That if you took the pill
s
and closed your eyes, all the scary things would go away?”  

Feebly, she tried to
pull
it from his grasp, but he
turned
and hurled it from the rooftop
.  Heart pounding, she
rolled away from him, stumbling to her feet.
 

“
What... What the hell are you?” she said, struggling to breathe.  She could feel her pulse pounding, feel the world shaking, as if someone had turned up the volume on everything.  The sound of the city, the wind, the car engines, it all seemed to thunder in her ears, a cacophony of noise.
 

Slowly, he turned to face her again.  She saw his features soften, saw the anger fading from him, but all she could think of was the blood glistening bright red on the blade of his knife.
 

“
I'm someone who cares about you.  Shouldn't that be enough?  I'm asking you to trust me, Rachael.  Haven't I earned that?”
 

“
Get
away from me,”
she said.  She almost felt as if she was choking on her own words.
  “Just...
Get
away.”

She stumbled back a step.
 

“Rachael, wait,” he called out to her, a fading note of command in his voice.  She stared at him, horrified.  “I'm sorry that I scared you.  I just needed to show you it was real.  It's all real.  You've been telling yourself a lie, all this time.”