“Why would she if she’s trying to hide from me?”
“Why would she put up with you if she knew you were following her? And why would she hide if she was pissed off at the world? I thought she wanted to drown everyone.” Terry rebuked.
“Shh!” Darius spat, raising a finger to his mouth. “Stop it! You’ll piss her off!”
“Don’t you tell me to shush. I’ve spent the last day and a half sitting in a boat with you two trying to track down your psycho ex-girlfriend when I could have been doing other things!” Terry retaliated, raising her voice.
“Shut up!” Darius warned, the colour draining from his voice.
But Connor knew her well enough to know that her anger was false. “She has a point.” He joined in, speaking much louder than he needed too. “I should have been at work today but I’ve been wasting my time looking for that nutter.”
“I thought you were friends!” Darius exclaimed, gobsmacked.
“Friends? No way! Faye was always a crazy bitch. I hope the ocean swallowed her whole and we never see her again.”
Terry found it hard not to laugh. Steeling herself she said, “Yeah, I couldn’t have put it better myself. She was a crazy bitch.” Connor was flung into her as a wave slammed into the side of the boat. They were showered as the top half broke over the hull.
Wiping water from his eyes and spitting, Connor said, “I think we got...” A second wave crashed into the tiny vessel from the opposite direction, this time tossing them into the loch.
Terry felt herself sinking. She desperately tried clawing upward but it was no good; the pull of the vortex coupled with her heavy weight conspired to drag her down to the depths. Terry was not a great swimmer because of her metal-calcium bones, but she did not fear water. The microscopic robots in her blood acted quickly to build her a set of gills. Though she could now breathe, she hated the sensation of water in her lungs.
She peered about as she raced down, desperately seeking Connor and Darius, but she saw neither. The vortex was unrelenting and she was beginning to grow dizzy. Growing weary, Terry flung out her hands and threw a large electrical charge free of her body, the power surging through her like a lightning conductor.
It only lasted a few moments, but when she had stopped the vortex had ceased. Terry looked about as she drifted gently downward through calm waters. Then she spotted something in front of her, a short distance away. It appeared black in the poor light of the depths but it was definitely a body. She pushed herself toward it, swimming hard to avoid sinking. Her suspicions were confirmed when she drew close. It was Faye who drifted among the currents, unconscious.
******
Faye screamed as she threw another wave of water at the glass. Not long after they had returned to the estate she had awoken in a terrible rage. A fight had ensued and Terry and Lyle had had to wrestle her into the holding cell that she now lashed out in beneath the mansion. For the last half hour she had battered the reinforced walls with tsunami like waves; again and again; the storm in her heart raging.
Terry returned down a flight of steps, drying her hair with a towel. “Is she still at it?” she asked, as she approached the other three men.
“Yes and she’s been swearing.” Connor said, scratching his black hair, which had been plastered against his head. “A lot.” He added.
“What’s she saying now?” Terry asked, listening to some of the shouting that rang off the walls of the cell. She did not know the native tongue of the water elementals.
“The usual.” Lyle replied as another wave crashed against the perplex glass.
Connor sighed. “Why is she acting like this? I don’t remember her ever being so violent.”
“I know.” Terry admitted, harbouring the same fear. She noticed Darius was standing away from them by a few feet. “Have you tried talking to her?”
Darius stared at her with hunted eyes. He shook his head, his expression meek. “She won’t want to talk to me.”
Terry walked over to him. “Why not?”
“She’s crazy...look at her.”
“You were the one who wanted to find her.” Grabbing him by the arm, she pushed Darius toward the glass with a hard shove. “Try.”
He stared back at her nervously. Terry could see he was shaking. “Now!” she ordered, not giving him an option.
Darius turned his attention to the tank. He hesitated as another wall of water cascaded over the glass; all that separated him from the crazed woman he once loved on the other side. Finally taking a deep breath he shouted. The words he said were lost to Terry, as he spoke in his native language.
The cell suddenly fell eerily silent. Darius gazed in, finding Faye staring at him with icy hard eyes...
Water elementals, looked almost human in appearance bar their startling pale blue eyes, pointed teeth and webbed hands and feet. They had a slight, mottled silver and white pattern that traced their spines - the ruminants of scales some believed from an earlier evolution. The species had perfected the art of completely defusing their physical form into H20 molecules without losing their consciousness or killing themselves.
“Why were you following me?” she spat, her hatred raw in her words. They rang off the high walls and ceiling, giving her voice an even harder edge.
Darius felt them cut through him. “I came looking for you to bring you home. I’m worried about you, everyone is.”
“Liar. You have come to kill me! You were always jealous of my power!”
“What power? Faye this has to stop. Please, come home. There are people who can help you.” He pleaded with tears in his eyes.
“Not until I have finished here. Let me out of this tank and I promise I will not kill you.”
Darius whimpered, shocked by the words of his former lover.
“Faye.” Terry said, stepping up to Darius’s side. Even she was shocked by what she had just heard.
“Alchemist.” Faye said coolly, inclining her chin but there was no kindness in her voice.
“It’s been a long time.”
Faye gave a curt nod and nothing more.
“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” Terry asked, folding her arms.
“It does not concern any of you.”
“Really?” she began pacing along the edge of the glass. “This week two people have tried to kill me, your boyfriend here broke into my house and there have been a number of portals opening from Santerria. And Darius claims you only came back here six days ago.” She turned to face Faye. “It’s very strange that you decided to come back now. I’m not stupid. What is really going on?”
“I know nothing about what you’re talking about. I came here to destroy mankind.”
Terry flicked a glance ad Darius. “So he’s telling the truth then? About that part?”
“Yes.” She said, a proud smirk creeping across her face and all Terry could see was evil.
“Why are you wanting to do this? What happened back home?” Connor asked.
Faye scoffed. “What do you mean? Nothing happened. I came here after none of my brethren backed my cause.” Her eyes fixed on Darius. “But he was sent to kill me. The others said that they would kill me if I tried to do what I wanted.”
Terry turned to Darius questioningly.
The boy was ashen. “What? No! She’s lying! She’s insane!”
“Why should we believe him?” Lyle asked, looking at Terry as he drew closer. “We do not know him and there’s always been something suspicious about this story since he arrived.”
Darius backed away a few steps; terrified.
“What about her?” asked Terry. “She’s clearly mad.”
Her uncle continued to stare at the ranging youth. “It’s your choice but I say for now we lock both of them up.”
“What?”
Terry thought about it for a long moment. “Agreed.”
Darius could do nothing but shout and scream in terror as Lyle closed on him...
******
Terry brushed
her hair back absently with one hand as she sat lost in thought. She and Connor had sat in silence in the kitchen for the last fifteen minutes. Connor gazed at some spot on the table, somewhere just beyond where his drink sat. Without looking he would occasionally reach for the glass, taking a small sip before returning the glass to its former spot. “Darius.” He suddenly said.
“Pardon?” Terry said, snapping out of her reverie. She had been so withdrawn in her thoughts that she hardly heard him.
“I was just thinking about Darius. Do you believe him?”
Terry shook her head and shrugged, before having drinking some more water. She was as much on the fence as he was. “I don’t know.”
He smiled. “Yeah, I’m not sure either. Normally I would side with Faye but...” he left the thought unfinished.
“She’s different.”
“Yeah, there’s definitely something different about her. She isn’t how I remember her.”
Terry shrugged. “Maybe it’s just because we’ve not seen her in a long time. I mean, we were just kids back then. It’s like when you watch a film again that you’ve not seen in years and when you were younger you enjoyed, it’s exactly the same but your perception of it isn’t.”
He smiled again. “That’s very deep. Are you feeling alright?”
“What? I can’t say anything like that without being made fun of?”
He laughed, shaking his head. “No, I wasn’t making fun of you. It just seemed a heavy thing to say for a Sunday night.” He shook his head again. “But you don’t believe that do you?”
“No. You’re right, she’s not the same.”
Connor sighed, suddenly feeling very tired. “I’m worried that she may have stayed in her water form too long. You know as well as I do that that can do things to them.”
“Yeah, but she was talking strangely for a while before she left. Remember she kept saying all that stuff about defusing her body into the ocean completely?”
Connor nodded, his gaze lost in the distance. “I remember.” He looked back to Terry. “Do you think that is even possible?”
“I doubt it, when you consider how big the world is. How can someone possibly be so connected to the world that they can be everywhere at once? I mean, the idea itself is just ridiculous.”
Connor lifted his glass. “Yet you can alter the shape of your body at will. You can create cells and alter your height at a whim. Have you ever tried to find out how tall you can get or how many tentacles you can spawn?”
She shook her head. “No. Why would I?”
Connor sighed, shaking his head. “I know but you get my drift.”
Terry gave him a funny look. “I don’t think it’s fair to compare the two. I can only take the shapes my body dictates, nothing more.”
“Okay, well what if she had found a way to defuse? Hypothetically, I mean. But suppose she had, do you think that would scare her kind enough to try and kill her?”
“Okay maybe Darius is right then, maybe she has fallen off the wagon and he was sent to bring her back. He did say that she wanted to flood the world. You have got to admit, that is pretty crazy!” she pointed out before taking another drink of water.
“So you do you believe him then?” Connor asked, curious.
“No, but I don’t trust Faye either.”
Connor scratched his head. “I have an ominous feeling that she would kill him if she got the chance.”
“Yeah me too.” Terry said. She could not have agreed more.
Connor checked his watch. “I better get off anyway. The missus will be wondering where I’ve got too.” He said, pushing his chair back from the breakfast bar.
“I’ll phone you in the morning to let you know if we find out anything else.”
“Cheers. Goodnight.” He said, walking away with a smile on his face.
She lazily waved a hand in farewell. “Goodnight.”
After a few more minutes of contemplation she cleared the glasses away and retired for the night herself.
Chapter 7
Distractions
Terry woke not long after dawn as the sun caught her on the face. She sat up pushing back the quilts. Her room was still shrouded in darkness but the morning sun had managed to push its way through a slither between the curtains; allowing a marigold finger to touch her across the face and wake her. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, Terry clambered out of bed.
She was putting milk in her cereal when Lyle walked into the kitchen, his expression grim. “Morning.” She said, fetching a spoon out of the draw beside her. “Is everything alright?”
He shook his head. “No, not really.”
Terry dug the spoon into her breakfast. “What is it?”
Lyle sighed, looking away for a long moment. When he looked back, she could see it was serious. “I have just had a long chat with Faye.”
Terry swallowed her mouthful of cereal. “And?”
“She has told me a lot of things that have happened since we were last home and the most grave among them being that apparently your father has declared war on the Southlands.”
The spoon clanged against the bowl as it fell free of Terry’s grasp. She blinked at him, wide eyed. “What?”
He held his hands out to her in supplication. “Terry! Terry! It might not be true!”
“What makes you so sure? What happened? What did she say?”
“Apparently there was a murder. That’s why your father has declared war, according to Faye anyway.”
“Who died?” Terry hastened, desperate to know.
“One of your second cousins apparently, Faye seemed to think it was Micca.”
Terry blinked at him in confusion. “Wait, Micca? Dad hated Micca. He kicked him out of the colony, why would he care about whether he died or not?”
Lyle shrugged. “I don’t know. As far as I’m aware he wouldn’t be. But that said your father would likely take such a move against one of his own family personally.”
“But war Lyle? Really? We’ve been at peace with the Southlands for centuries.”
“I don’t know, I really don’t.” He admitted, at a loss.
Terry folded her arms and leant back against the counter. “When did this happen apparently?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Terry shook her head. “It can’t be true.”
Lyle gazed at her in open question. “What makes you so sure?”
“If my cousin had been killed, someone would have came and told us ages ago.”
“Terry,” he said gently, “Your father does not possess any means of travelling to this world. He would not have been able to get a message to us.”
She shook her head, refusing to believe. “He would have found a way. There are still portal machines out there Lyle. What’s happened this week has proved that there are.”
He sighed. “I know that Terry but just because other people have them does not mean that your father has one.”
She shrugged defiantly. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t believe her. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Lyle nodded but she could tell that he was deeply unsure. “I don’t either but it is not a chance we can afford to take. It would be a huge coincidence that this has happened now when there have been attempts on your life.”
She stared at him incredulously. “What are you saying? You think someone in the Southlands has sent assassins to kill me because the King has declared war on their country?”
“I’m not saying anything Terry but we need to know.” He said, walking over to where she stood. He sighed. “But if it is a lie, why would Faye say it?”
“Why wouldn’t she? She tried to kill us, she tried to kill her ex-boyfriend and nothing she seems to have said or done since we bought her here has made any sense.” She twiddled a finger next to her head. “She’s lost it.”
Lyle raised a hand in supplication. “I know she seems a little preoccupied, but she has not done anything to prove me that she is untrustworthy. I think she was after Darius, no
t you.”
Terry shook her head. “I don’t think so. You saw the way she was looking at us yesterday when I was talking to her in the cell.”
“She told me ten minutes ago. She swears it.”
Terry stared at him. “And do you believe her? Would you let her out of that cell?”
Her uncle hesitated and Terry had her answer.
“See.” She walked passed him. “I need to talk to her.”