Stormchild: Emeline and the Forest Mage

44 The Golden Pages I

'Elian,' the Father of time said, nodding at the man who held Emeline by the shoulders. 'And this is the Great Father, Axel.' He showed a hand toward the man with the sorrow-filled eyes, and there seemed an endless depth to them that caught Emeline's breath for a second. That stirred those dark pools deep inside her uncomfortably.

'Child, you have kept the truth from yourself for too long,' he whispered after a moment. Emeline breathed again.

'They said reading the Book would save Erdil,' she whispered.

The fathers shared glances. 'Let us hope so,' the Father of Time said stepping forward, his hand at the nape of her back. 'Let me show you what you have come for. The first is the gift the Father of Time can give. Most who read The Book beg the gift of immortality from me. One begged me to reveal the future, and it was this very one that wrote the prophecy all of Öldeim obsesses over. In his time he saw you dear one, and here you are as he foretold. My gift to you will not be immortality, or visions of the future, but hindsight.'

Emeline's brows knit. Reading the Book turned out to be an experience far beyond what she had expected, and she felt jarred, going so quickly from the dream battle with the Dark Woman to this place

'Usually one can choose their gift,' Elian said, hands behind his back, 'but in this instance—Well, you will see why it has been decided thus Emeline, and when you and Mercur return we will discuss your second gift.' The warmth from his smile washed over her, called to mind a warm summer night on the farm when she had lain gazing at the stars. 'Father,' she managed to say, bowing deeply.

Mercur stood at her side patiently, and once she turned to him, he took her hand, and in a flash they were somewhere else.

A dark place. Noisy, the stench of blood thick as the dark mists in the air. They floated above it all, like the fae of legends, they drew nearer to the dark place, and Emeline saw gnarled trees in a dark mass, leafless. Something inside her roiled. This was familiar. The Father's grip on her hand squeezed, reassured her. 'What is this place?'

'Look carefully,' Mercur said, meeting her eyes briefly, his own a piercing grey. He pointed at the heart of the dark place, and there Emeline saw four creatures. Almost human, but somehow ethereal. 'What are they?'

'You never knew them,' the Father of time said. 'They are Immortals, the ones who started this whole mess.'

She squinted past the darkness. A man with a chiselled jaw and long blonde hair, his skin wispy like ghost-sugar, white and semi-translucent, gestured wildly with his hands, clearly upset. With a woman. She stood calmly, hands clasped before her, a dark tattered dress whipping in the cool winter winds. Emeline's breath caught. She knew this woman—the Dark Woman.

'Where is this?' she asked. The Father of time did not answer, his gaze caught on the four. As Emeline watched, they started moving in hypnotic dances, their hands twining, oscillating, their bodies soon joining the movements. 'The Way,' she said to herself.

Mercur nodded.

The man with short brown hair swung his arms wildly, anger evident, and called a great blast of energy from the sky. A bolt of lightning struck where the Dark Woman should have been, but she was gone. From above it was easy to spot her reappearing. She touched him on the shoulder and he fell to the snow, frozen. This seemed to infuriate the fourth figure. Emeline squinted but could not figure out what she was. A woman with white hair, then grey hair, then black, blue nails, green skin, then grey skin, red lips, then she became all red as the man with short hair collapsed. In the redness, a dark orange swirled. The colour woman spun, but her movements felt awkward, even to Emeline who knew so little of movements of The Way. Or did she? Some things were all wrong. She flicked her wrist when she should have whipped it. She curled her thumb when she should have jabbed it.