Chapter Nine
"I have never seen a child respond in such an extreme way. That scream was like nothing I have ever heard."
"She was a little older do you think that might have..."
"No, no I have seen children of her age go through this and not a single one reacted the way that she did."
People were whispering close to Lyndsey. The voices were faint and she couldn't quite work out who was talking. She forced her eyes open and figures started to swim into focus. She blinked hard to try and clear her head. It felt all heavy and full of down.
"Do you think it might be because her moth- Oh Lyndsey you're awake." Oswald broke off in the middle of his sentence as he saw Lyndsey attempting to sit herself up in bed. For a moment, Lyndsey wasn't quite sure where she was but she was soon able to recognise her bedroom. The last thing she remembered collapsing into her uncle's arms. Looking down she saw she was in her night dress and tucked up in bed.
"How did I get back here?" Lyndsey asked sleepily, her head was spinning just a little so she lay back against the headboard.
"You got over tired and fell asleep downstairs." Lilith said from where she was stood on Lyndsey's other side. Looking around, Lyndsey saw Simeon was also in the room and all three of them were watching her.
"I carried you upstairs and we had a maid come in and put you in your nightdress." Oswald explained. "How are you feeling?" He looked slightly concerned. "Are you in pain at all?"
"I am not in pain exactly. I feel a bit... I don't know how to explain how I am feeling." Lyndsey said, rubbing her eyes. "I feel different. It's like I'm full of energy and drained of energy all at once." Oswald nodded slowly, seeming to understand.
"That's not unusual for the morning after an emergence." He reassured her. "Your new power is finding its place in you and your body is working out how to cope with that. It will take a day or so to get acclimated with it and then you will be able to start learning." He took one of her hands between both of his and held it for a few moments. Lyndsey gave a small smile as she felt her head beginning to clear. "Now you rest. You need to stay in bed and we will have some food sent up to you." He squeezed her hand lightly before getting up and leaving the room behind Lilith and Simeon.
Lyndsey had opened her mouth to ask her uncle a question but he was out of the room before she managed to. Sighing a little, she looked around the room. Her drapes were pulled across the windows so she decided to get up and open them. If she couldn't go outside she would at least like to see it. It took a lot of effort for her to force her tired muscles to move. It felt like her bones were suddenly made of lead so each step was a struggle. It took a few minutes for her to reach the window and as long to open the curtains. She had to sit for a while before she even tried to get back to bed.
"Lyndsey what are you doing out of bed." The sharp voice made Lyndsey look around. Her aunt was standing in the doorway, a maid with a tray full of food standing beside her. "You were told you needed to rest." Lilith strode across the room and fastened her hand around Lyndsey's upper arm, all but hauling the girl from the window and back into the bed. "What possessed you to try and get up?" Lilith scolded, as the maid stepped forward to place the tray onto the bed before retreating from the room.
"I only wanted to be able to see the gardens." Lyndsey said a little sadly, looking down at the tray. "What are those?" She asked indicating the bowls of odd looking substances that now lay in front of her.
"It does not matter what they are." Lilith said as she pulled up a chair to sit beside the bed. "You are to eat every morsel and I will not hear a word of complaint do you understand me?" She folded her arms and looked sternly down at Lyndsey as she picked up the spoon on the tray and scooped up a small amount of a burgundy coloured paste.
Lyndsey lifted the spoon to her nose and sniffed it. It smelled like soil with a kind of pungent tang that she couldn't put a name to. If she had had a choice, it would not be going anywhere near her mouth but she knew if she refused then her aunt would find some way of making her eat it. Screwing up her eyes Lyndsey put the spoon into her mouth. It was not as bad as she had been anticipating, in fact as she swallowed she could feel warmth filling her tired body. She ate up quickly, not hesitating as she moved onto the other bowls which contained more odd-coloured food: a dark green pulp that tasted only of salt but eased the pain in her aching muscles and some pale yellow beans which were dry and crunchy and filled her with some of the energy that had deserted her the previous night.
"Good." Lilith said when Lyndsey was done, calling back the maid to remove the now empty tray. Lilith stood up to leave but she paused by the side of the bed. "You are to remain in bed do you hear me?" She said in a low voice. "If I hear you have been out of bed again when we have explicitly told you not to there will be consequences. Do you understand."
"Yes Aunt Lilith." Lyndsey said on instinct, sinking back against her pillows. She knew that no matter what she said, her aunt would have the final word. Lilith nodded and left the room
Lyndsey shut her eyes and slept a little while longer but she awoke again in the early evening. Not being allowed to get up, she lay back, put her hands behind her head and stared up at the ceiling. Dark clouds covered the sky outside meaning the light in the room was dim and soon Lyndsey started to day dream.
"Let me out! Can someone hear me? Please!" The voice screamed into Lyndsey's head louder and clearer than ever before. It was so loud that, in the delicate state she was in, it almost hurt her to hear it. She let out a cry and pressed her hands over her ears. Though the voice didn't come again it had seemed to leave a mark on her. She could feel the desperation, pain and anger of whoever it belonged to. Something awful was happening to her. And it definitely was a her. She knew it was a woman's voice now and something inside Lyndsey told her the woman whose voice it was, was close. She needed to help her.
Opening her eyes and following her instinct, Lyndsey leapt out of bed and ran out of her bedroom. It did not matter what her aunt had told her, she needed to go. She didn't notice to cold tiles under her bare feet or her hair streaming out behind her. She didn't even care that she was only wearing her nightdress as she heaved open the front doors. The heavy door swung open easily and into the garden she ran. She had barely set foot onto the grass when someone grabbed her from behind and spun her around to face them. It was Lilith and she looked furious.
"What on earth are you doing out here?" She demanded. An emotion Lyndsey couldn't place was making Lilith's usually quiet, soft voice sound like it was somehow made of iron. "You were instructed to stay in bed and rest and yet here you are outside in this weather and only in your night clothes. What do you have to say for yourself?" Her light eyes seemed to darken as she glared down at the small pale girl. Footsteps behind them indicated the arrival of Oswald and Simeon.
"I heard someone." Lyndsey cried, a slight gasp in her voice as Lilith's grip on her wrist was very tight. "A voice, in my head. It was a woman. She needs help. She's trapped and she needs to get out." She struggled with all her might to pull her hand away but Lilith only held on tighter. "Let me go!" Lyndsey shouted. "I need to help her!" She pulled and pulled but Lilith's grip remained strong. Lyndsey fought desperately until she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see her uncle there. He crouched down beside her and spoke in a quiet, measured tone.
"Lyndsey can you please stop struggling." He said, keeping his eyes on hers. It was as if in that moment the desperation drained out of her. She became still at last, her breath coming in short fast pants. "Thank you." Oswald said.
"What about that woman?" Lyndsey asked again, her voice cracking just a little. "We need to find her and help her."
"We do not." Oswald ran an anxious hand through his hair. "The woman you have heard does not need help. She is angry certainly and would like nothing more than to be let go, but you need to know that it would be a terribly bad thing if you were to let her out." Oswald could feel his wife's gaze burning into him. He knew this was a significant issue that would take a lot of his work to resolve, but right at that moment the priority was getting Lyndsey calm. "The woman is in what you might call a prison. She is very powerful and not far away, so in the state you are in I can understand why you heard her. Being able to communicate using only our minds is a gift of the Esa you see, though you cannot usually hear someone who is not in your line of sight. She is trying to use you to let her out. You must not do that do you understand?"
Looking around at the faces above her, Lyndsey wasn't sure what to think. She was sure this was the same voice she had been hearing for years. Could it be that she had been in this prison the whole time? Lyndsey rubbed her eyes with her free hand and closed them for a moment as she tried to make sense of what she was hearing.
"Do you understand?" Lilith's harsh voice made Lyndsey open her eyes once more. She decided just to nod and allow herself to be led back to the house. She was taken directly back to her room and Lyndsey got the feeling that her aunt might just have thrown her in bed if she had had less self-control. Once she had obediently got back into bed, the three adults left her. As soon as the door was closed Lyndsey got up again, her mind racing.
She put her ear to the door and, hearing nothing, she slipped out into the hall. Walking as quietly as she could and listening for anything, Lyndsey made her way through the quiet corridors. It wasn't long before she picked up the sound of angry voices. She followed the sound to another door and pressed her ear against it, listening hard.
"The situation is more serious than any of us suspected last night." The accent of the voice told Lyndsey she was listening to Simeon. "The child is stronger than we could have anticipated. I need not remind you just how important she is. I will report back as I am bound to do and you will hear from him in due course."
"I understand the gravity of the situation Simeon. But we all need to remember she is still only a child and a very confused one at that. We must be careful and not scare her with anything that is going on. Scared and powerful is a combination that could cause all sorts of problems." Oswald spoke quickly, almost grovelling it seemed. "You both saw tonight what she is potentially capable of." There was a moment of silence.
"Don't tell me you've become attached to the girl." Lilith scoffed, speaking for the first time. Her voice maintained the hard edge it had had earlier. "We brought her here for a purpose. One she needs to fulfil. I believe we should go ahead as planned though a few more precautions will of course be necessary given what we now know. We should really have expected it really given who her parents are." Lilith sneered and Lyndsey felt anger flare inside her in a way she hadn't felt since she left school. She of course knew very little of her parents but she bristled with anger at hearing them spoken about in such a way.
"We need to look after her and nurture her. She will not respond I think to what we had planned." Oswald spoke again but Lyndsey was barely listening. Her mind which had been racing before was now doing somersaults. Did this mean her family did not really want her? And what was this purpose she needed to fulfil? What would happen if she couldn't do it? "I implore you to tell him my views Simeon. The girl has abilities we cannot yet predict. I know of no-one who could have heard what she did tonight." Oswald continued to plead his case.
"How could that woman have even managed to get a message out for the girl to hear in the first place?" Lilith snapped. "I thought you had taken care of that some time ago."
"I thought I had bu-"
"Cleary you hadn't." Lilith cut him off. "I will go there tomorrow and take care of it for myself. You need not worry about that happening again." Lilith continued. Footsteps told Lyndsey they were heading for the door and she fled back to her room, but not before catching Lilith's last words. "Simeon, please send my regards to The Sultan. Let him know he can have faith in me to do what is necessary."