shivered violently. In front of him youths in a group sauntered in the direction of the pools, laughing at a shared joke and walked into him and out the other side. He groaned and fell to the ground.
Mr Duir pulled him to his feet and in a patient voice said, “Shut your eyes and start again.”
“Seb, are you okay?” Scarlet asked, stepping forward and passing through a young woman who was crying. Neither female noticed the other and he barely heard her words over the din of speech and animal noises.
“Can’t you see them?” he shouted at her.
She simply looked confused.
Mr Duir called over the noise, “Seb, most of it is just memories, like standing in the path of a movie projection. Ignore it.”
Seb couldn’t. Two fairies flew across, inches in front of his nose, and then a small dragon flapped through his head. “Get them away from me!”
“Take them through,” Mr Duir called to the other teachers. Miss Angel and Mr West helped Scarlet and Nat through the door. Seb felt Aiden brush past him. He leapt away and found himself standing inside an old woman. Hunched and miserable, she was holding a walking stick but seemed too frail to walk anywhere. She just stood, bent over, staring at the pool of water in front of her as other figures passed through her and Seb.
He screamed, “GET AWAY FROM ME!”
“Seb, I didn’t mean to bump you.” Aiden sounded panicked.
Now Alice stood right in front of Seb. “You have to learn to ignore these images. We have told you, they are just memories, just imprints. Block them out, Seb, because we need to leave.” His voice was inside Seb’s head.
Seb stared at Alice. As he focused on him he found that the human figures and the creatures around him faded. The throbbing in his palm, however, did not.
The Dryad looked intense. “You have to help yourself, Seb. We can only explain; we can’t do it for you.” He was impatient. “Go to the door.”
Seb stumbled towards the sparkling he could see between all the figures when suddenly Aiden, right beside him, yelled, “Help, my foot!”
Seb looked down. Wrapped around Aiden’s foot were wiry, black roots which seemed to be growing and sprouting through the ground at an astronomical rate. Aiden yanked his foot free as Mr Duir lifted him and tucked him under his arm, carrying him to Miss West and Zach who stood in the doorway.
They all disappeared through as vines began wrapping themselves around Seb’s feet. His mind now focused on them, he found all the other images around him faded. Beneath Mr Duir’s feet the heather and moss remained undisturbed. He was untouched by the grasping creepers.
Seb lifted a foot but it felt anchored to the ground. “What are these?” he shouted, glancing at Alice.
“We delayed too long,” the Dryad said.
Seb’s heart sank. “Well that’s helpful!” he snapped as he pulled his right foot up and managed to tear it free. As he put it down again more shoots grabbed it, growing faster and stronger.
Mr Duir lifted Seb and carried him to the doorway as Mr White passed through it. Placing him on the threshold, The Head put a hand on Seb’s shoulder. “Seb, a ley line is a pathway, a track that carries an imprint, a record of all who pass along it and a track that is used by more than humans.”
Seb stared at him. Am I getting a lecture? Now? All he wanted to do was step through the door. He looked down as vine tendrils began crawling up the doorway.
“When one such as you treads the line it is like shining a beacon, like shining a light in the darkness of a forest, a light that will attract every moth and every crawling thing.” Mr Duir removed his hand. “When you walk a ley line you will be visible to all.” At last he allowed Seb to go through the door.
Seb didn’t know what he had expected … but it wasn’t this. He had stepped from the cavern and into the school library!
Rainbow colours daubed the floor in front of him as sun shone through the stained-glass window. Scarlet and his friends were sat at the large table, bemused looks on their faces, the teachers opposite them.
In the aisles between the bookshelves the lights had been turned out and the rows were cast in darkness. In fact, other than the mottled light from the huge window, the room was cloaked in shadows.
As the doorway disappeared in a flurry of sparkles, to be replaced by a dusty bookshelf, Mr Duir manoeuvred Seb towards the table’s last two seats and sat down opposite him. Alice leapt to the top of a bookshelf and perched there while Dierne stayed close to Mr Duir.
The Head spoke quietly, “It is time for you all to acknowledge that around us there is more than what you have learnt to see.”
Zach leaned nearer to Scarlet. “Oh, really?” he mumbled, but in the quiet room everyone heard. Miss West tutted and Mr Duir eyed Zach impassively. “You heard that then?” He looked guilty.
Mr Duir continued, “Since birth you have all been encouraged to disregard anything society does not wish to acknowledge as real. In times past humans were more receptive to the idea of other realities.” He waved a hand and sparkles of silver danced above the table. “You are trained to be literal, to only believe what you see in this three-dimensional world and to disregard as nonsense anything else.” He continued to wave his hand and now an image appeared within the sparkles. “Over the years and generations, more things become that else. Humans have become cynical – expecting to be able to prove, to touch, to evidence – but sometimes you have to simply feel and believe.”
With a quick movement his hand darted down and grabbed what was now a solid shape within the sparkles. He closed his fist, concealing what he had grasped. The sparkles disappeared.
“What did you see, Scarlet?”
She was staring at his fist and stuttered, “I’m not sure …”
“You are sure, Scarlet. You just think your friends will disapprove if you speak it,” he said. “What did you see, Zach?” Mr Duir turned his attention to Zach who was grinning at Scarlet.
“Sparkles,” he answered, his grin widening.
“Don’t be clever, Zach!” Miss West snapped. The smile disappeared.
“What did you see, Aiden?” Mr Duir turned to a blushing Aiden.
“I saw a fairy.”
Zach laughed and the redness in Aiden’s cheeks deepened.
“You laugh because …? Zach?” Mr Duir rounded on Zach.
“Well, I mean … fairies!” Zach snorted.
“Fairies. You mock that suggestion, yet you accept Dryads?”
Zach’s eyes flicked to Dierne. “Well, that’s different.”
“What did you see, Zach?” Mr Duir asked him again.
Zach frowned, looking down at the table. “I don’t know.”
“Oh my, you are stubborn. What did you see?” Mr Duir sounded mildly irritated.
Zach muttered, “Something with wings.”
“Indeed.” Mr Duir opened his hand. Curled up on the palm was a small figure no bigger than Seb’s forefinger. He could barely make out its little face but could clearly see that it had arms and legs like a human, its legs pulled up to its chest, head tucked down onto its knees and arms wrapped around its body, clasping a pair of delicate wings and pulling them around itself like a protective blanket.
“Aahh …” Scarlet and Aiden gasped together and leant across the table to get a closer look. Zach frowned, crossing his arms.
Nat was sitting with her eyes closed and Seb watched as a tear rolled down her cheek. He couldn’t understand why she was upset. She opened her eyes and looked at Mr Duir.
“I’ve always heard them,” she whispered. “I’ve just never seen them.”
Mr West suddenly frowned and spoke quickly to Mr Duir. “It happens more frequently,” he said and Mr Duir nodded but remained seated.
“What words do you hear, Nat?” Mr Duir asked as Seb realised he could now hear faint whisperings.
“Strange words …” Nat sniffed and sat more upright, “The displaced soul must serve.”
As she said the words the little fairy flew in a vertica
l line towards the high ceiling where it disappeared. The words stopped as it vanished but now Seb heard a faint wheezing sound and felt his palm tingling. A sudden bang made them all look to the library door.
Scarlet, staring at it, shrieked, “The ogre, it’s outside!”
Zach was up in an instant, leaping across the table, through the gap between Mr West and Miss Angel.
Miss West called to him, “Zach, leave it be. There are other ways.”
Zach turned, confused, as Mr Duir stood, murmuring words under his breath which Seb only just caught, “You have been told you must wait the hour. Feorsian!”
Bright light, which had no apparent source, lit the whole library. The door became transparent and the figure of the ogre could be clearly seen rocking backwards and forwards, like it was dithering, deciding what to do. Then it turned, shambled to the right and simply dissolved into nothing.
“Did you see that thing?” Zach’s voice was loud as he paced back over to the table. “I mean, that was a … well, it looked like an …”
“An ogre!” Scarlet finished for him. His shoulders slumped as he stared at her.
Zach could see it !
Within a second Zach regained his confidence, straightened his shoulders and strode back to his seat.
The Group
I haven’t even a clue what time of day it is, Seb thought. The light in the library had grown dim as, beyond the window, another storm was brewing. He wondered if the rest of the students were still at Waulud’s Bank. He glanced up at Alice sat atop the bookshelf, arms crossed, grinning at him.
“Can’t we have some light?