After he got out of the bath he got dressed again, in warm clothes and said it was because the house was cold. After the bath it was tea time and Lou used another couple of Lily’s eggs to make scrambled eggs on toast with beans on the side, which Rhys wolfed down as if he was starving and then he sat and ate an apple and a pile of biscuits while he drank a mug of hot juice. He chattered incessantly about his day with Greg on the dig and eventually took himself off to bed after watching TV for a while.
Rhys didn’t get undressed but he set his watch alarm for eleven o’clock in case he fell asleep and he climbed into bed fully clothed and pulled the duvet up over his shoulders and hoped his mum didn’t come to check on him in the night. He lay awake but still and quiet as he listened to her come up the stairs and his door squeaked softly as she looked in on him but she didn’t come into the room. Rhys breathed a quiet sigh of relief and he waited and listened to her settling into bed. He waited even longer than that before he looked at his watch. It was almost eleven and his alarm was about to go off to he turned it off before it might wake his mum up. He slid his legs from under the duvet and swung them over the edge of the bed and onto the short ladder. He paused, listening for any movement from the other bedroom before he slowly climbed down. He picked up the stone and the map and he tucked them into his jeans pocket.
Once downstairs he crept through the living room and into the kitchen where he pulled on his new coat, gloves and an old hat he’d found in his wardrobe. He slipped a torch into his coat pocket and then he eased the key into the lock of the back door, reasoning that his mum wouldn’t hear that one and he slipped out into the dark with his heart pounding and feeling very afraid. It was very dark and very cold and the grass in the garden was starting to feel crunchy under his feet. Rhys stopped and looked back at the house, went back to the door and locked it, putting the key in his pocket. That way his mum would be safe. He wondered if he should have left a note but it was too late now.
He went down to the end of the garden and pushed through the hedge and onto the side of the main road which was still quite busy with large lorries rushing by.
He walked through the dark, through the early part of the night until he arrived at the low wooden fence that ran round the haunted woods and as he stood there Rhys had a moment of panic where he almost ran back home. The trees were dark and forbidding, casting shadows that were darker than the darkest part of the night he had already walked through. He stood there holding his torch and he shone it into the woods. He could see the path that must lead to the old oak but he was terrified now. He’d only ever been here once before, on a bright summers day with his mum and his dad and they’d come for a walk. But his mum had refused to ever come back again.
Rhys put his free hand into his jeans pocket and he pulled out the stone and it sat cold and dull against his palm.
“Darkling?” He whispered. “I’m scared.”
A blinding flash and there stood the Darkling beside him, reassuringly solid and it reached out a hand and Rhys took it, holding on to another living creature was comforting. “I am here.” It said in a voice stronger than Rhys had ever heard. “There is the smell of magic here, there is power here.”
“You think we have the right place?” Rhys asked, half hoping they had and the Darkling could go home and half hoping they hadn’t and he could just run home and not have to go into these dark woods in the middle of the night. The moon slid from behind the thin, sparse clouds that had just covered it and its light shone brightly on the woods, lighting them up and lifting some of the dark shadows. Rhys breathed steam into the night. “Wow, that’s beautiful.”
“Your moon offers us her blessing, the time and the place is right. You have done well my friend.” The darkling squeezed his hand.
“We’d better go in and get this done if we can.” Rhys gulped, swallowed against a dry throat. He gripped the Darkling’s hand and together they slowly made their way into the woods and into the shadows between the trees. Rhys followed the path that the thought he remembered was the way to the really old oak tree with the stump in front of it where his mum and dad had sat while he ran around. The leaf litter stuck to his trainers and the growing frost chilled his feet and ankles as the bottoms of his jeans became wet. Rhys shivered.
He glanced at the stone and it stayed dull and cold in his hand.
“I don’t understand, I thought it would shine or something as we got close.” He said in a whisper as they found the clearing where the old oak stood alone as if respected by the other trees that surrounded it. It was massive, gnarled and twisted but magnificent at the same time.
“That’s because you don’t have use of your own personal magic Rhys.”
A woman’s voice came from behind them and Rhys froze.
“Mistress.” The Darkling wrenched its hand from Rhys’ grasp and threw itself on the floor as Rhys turned slowly to see who was there, who knew what he was trying to do.
She stood wrapped in a dark cloak that was as inky as the shadows and that fell in rippled to her ankles. The cloak hood was pulled up over her face but Rhys thought her voice sounded familiar.
“Do I know you?” he asked when he finally found his voice.
“We have met but I didn’t expect this, not from you.” Her hands pushed out from within the cloak and Rhys caught a glimpse of ordinary faded jeans as the cloak parted and her arms reached up to push the hood back from her face.
“Mrs McPhearson?”
“Lilith.” The Darkling whispered, cowering on the ground.
“Get up dark creature with a light soul, I mean you and your kind no harm and I would right the wrong that was done to you if I can.” Her voice was warm and kind and the Darkling looked up in surprise and suspicion was written all over its face.
She turned to Rhys with a smile that although soft was also hard and he knew that she was in control here. “May I see the talisman you carry? The stone?” She held out her hand and Rhys was captivated by her ice blue eyes. He held out the stone and he let her take it from him. She held it in her hand and it glowed rich summer sunshine yellow, casting a link of light to the ancient tree in front of them before it became dull again and she nodded with a smile.
“Where do you belong dark creature? Where would you wish your home to be?” She asked softly.
“We belong in your realm Lady.” The Darkling whispered.
“But it is no longer my realm.” She frowned. “But I can find a space within that land where She will not be aware of you, a place where you can live peacefully. Will that be enough?”
“It will, and you will have our gratitude.” The Darkling was standing now but with its head bowed and it refused to look at her.
She gave Rhys the stone back and it still lay dull and cold against his skin. She waved him to stand aside and she raised her hands.
The light that flowed from them was not fire but it was like a stream of golden sunlight that pierced the trunk of the old oak so that Rhys gasped, thinking the tree would be harmed, split apart but it wasn’t. The tree opened like a flower, sliding easily apart until a door of light shone brightly from within and from that light walked more Darkling’s, perhaps a couple of dozen but no more. They clustered around the Darkling that Rhys knew and they waited silently as Andrew’s Mum closed that fissure and used her magic to open another that didn’t glow as brightly but this one she held open with an outstretched hand.
“Rhys.” She spoke directly to him. “Can you get yourself home safely and without your mum knowing where you’ve been or what you’ve done?”
He patted his pocket and felt the reassuring lump of the back door keys. “I locked the back door and I’ve got the keys, I can get back in and hopefully Mum won’t wake up. I’ll be as quiet as I can.”
“You shouldn’t be out on your own but I have to take these people home, I have to guide them and I can’t see you home as well. If this causes any rouble for you then ask your mum to come and talk to me and I’ll sort it out for you. OK?” The Darklings clutched at Rhys’ legs, unwilling to leave him, but Lily’s blue gaze was warm and kind and Rhys just knew that she wasn’t going to harm them.
“OK.” He agreed and he pulled the map from his pocket, opened it and laid it on the cold tree stump. “Look.” He pointed at the woman on the map. “She has pale hair; this lady here now has dark hair with red in it. The woman here looks angry and she’s being nasty but this lady is trying to take you home. I trust her and I think you should go with her and you’ll be safe and you’ll get home. It’s just a feeling but I trust her and I know she won’t hurt you.” The original Darkling, Rhys’ Darkling stood just slightly taller than the others.
“This is Lilith; this is not the Mistress that banished us.” It spoke slowly while it reasoned through what Rhys had said. “We should follow his judgement and go with her. At worst it will end our lives swiftly and not prolong our suffering.” The others nodded, accepting his words.
Rhys watched as she widened the fissure and the Darklings walked through and disappeared.
“Thank you Rhys, thanks to you I can put right a wrong done by my family.” Lily said as she followed them and the light went out and the woods were dark again. Rhys waited for a moment, hoping she’d come back but he was cold and it was now past midnight and he had to get home before his mum realised he was missing. So he left the woods, as dark as they were, and he ran home with the image of a magical doorway still bright in his mind. He let himself in through the back door, relocked it and snuck up the stairs to get into bed.
“Rhys?” Lou called sleepily as he stepped on the creaky step at the top of the stairs.
“Just going to the loo Mum.” He called back, hoping that she’d not get up to check on him or she’d see that he was fully dressed and find that he was cold and then there’d be trouble.
“OK, then straight back to bed. Unless you need me?”
“No, it’s ok Mum, you stay in bed and go back to sleep.” After going to the toilet, because now he really did need it, Rhys got into his pyjamas and into bed, where he slept long and deep until a normal Sunday morning.
Tags: 2009, darkling, Nano, NaNoWriMo, November, portal series, rhys