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Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

Lilith had given Lyndsey directions to a large open hilltop not far from Willow Grange. She and Celeste had brought Imelda and Oswald with them, lead shackles on both the hands and feet of the prisoners. Imelda didn't even try and help herself to be moved. Since being tortured into reaching out to her daughter, she had seemed to have given up. Oswald had seen the light go from her eyes and the tears had dried on her cheeks. He wanted to talk to her, but with the lead against his skin he found himself feeling increasingly weak and his mind felt clouded and slow. How Imelda had retained as much strength as she had after some twelve years, spoke to how powerful she had once been. It also hinted at how powerful her daughter could be, Oswald thought.

Lilith was pacing up and down in front of him. Every now and again she would stop and bend down touching one finger to a flower. Oswald watched as the flower shrank back to nothing and a light flashed in her eyes. As she continued to do this, Oswald noticed a small dark mark forming at the nape of her neck. As the flowers disappeared, the darkness grew. It almost looked like a loose tendril of hair as it twisted around the side of her neck and up onto her cheek. Lilith hadn't seemed to notice and it worried Oswald. Lilith was not born to this gift and he knew just how much danger she was putting herself in. She seemed to be trying to store as much energy as she could before Lyndsey made her appearance.

Oswald looked about him to see who else was nearby. To his surprise he couldn't see anyone aside from Imelda, his wife, and Celeste. Simeon, he knew, would not be far away and would be watching. He preferred to keep his distance. He had stated in the past that this was mainly Lilith's doing and so it would be her job to finish this for now. It would not stop the coming war, Oswald knew, whoever came out of this confrontation victorious. Simeon and his supporters had been gathering supplies and building up their numbers for some time. There had always been simmering tensions, Oswald had grown up around them, but they had never been so apparent. He had always kept an ear out for news from the human towns around large Esa populations and violence seemed to be growing. The human authorities had no idea what was causing the strange conditions and injuries they were finding. Oswald recognised them for what they were and had flagged them with Simeon. Simeon however, had seemed unfazed and, Oswald thought, impressed.

The wait for Lyndsey seemed endless and Celeste was getting restless. She was spending the passing time sending small seeds, or whatever she could find on the ground, flying at Imelda's head. She felt in her pocket and clasped the smooth wooden balls she had secreted there. Lyndsey had already experienced their effect and she had used larger pieces of lead inside these ones, just to see what might happen. She had been told that what they wanted was to capture Lyndsey, but Celeste couldn't have cared less if they killed her and she thought her Aunt felt the same. When Celeste looked up, she found Imelda's eyes on her. She squirmed a little under the intense gaze. They were exactly like her daughter's and Celeste hated them just as much. A large piece of turf flung itself into those eyes and Celeste giggled as she saw Imelda blinking hard, trying to clear the dirt from her eyes without the use of her hands.

"Celeste." Lilith chided. "Focus." Celeste got to her feet and looked in awe at her aunt. The darkness, which had previously been just a tendril, had now spread to her eyes and curled fully around her neck. It was like a living thing writhing across her skin. The power emanating from her was more than she should have been able to handle but she stood tall and straight as she looked for the child.

"I'm here." The gentle voice sounded immensely loud in the still air. Lilith and Celeste turned to see Lyndsey standing as far as she could from them on the other side of the hilltop. Her eyes darted first to her mother and lingered briefly on her uncle before settling on Lilith. Lyndsey knew what she was seeing, and she tried to quell the nerves which had started churn in the pit of her stomach. She had faced this power once already and she knew the devastation it could cause and now it was aimed at her alone. Abigail was close and Jerry too wasn't far with the cart to get her mother away. This is my fight, Lyndsey said to herself, they are my family and only I can face them. She didn't know how she might win though, let alone how she might be able to get her mother and maybe her uncle away.