B00JX4CVBU EBOK Read online

  ‘It’s so good to have you back, Skye. I missed you so much.’

  Turner was confused. ‘I brought her back? From what? How?’

  Tesco girl turned and gave Turner a hug. Turner could feel her pressing into him. She was comfortable and warm.

  ‘With your power, you ninny,’ she said into his shoulder. ‘Can’t you feel it? I can.’ She drew back and looked into his eyes. ‘I’m so glad you’re not a monster.’

  Monster? Turner had no idea what she was talking about. She stuck out her hand and said, ‘I’m Ember by the way. And I don’t even know your name.’ Her eyes were dancing orange jewels.

  Tuner had to tear his gaze from her eyes to her outstretched hand, and gave it a quick shake. ‘Uh, Hi. Turner. I mean hi, Ember … I’m Turner. Turner Conlin.’

  ‘Leave him be, Em,’ said Skye and handed Turner a large glass of water. ‘He’s obviously completely muddled.’

  Turner took the drink in both hands. ‘Thank you. Thank you so much.’ He drank the whole glass in seconds and said, ‘Muddled? I’ve got some sort of super powers. I saw black, slimy, flying creatures from hell with my own eyes, and I’m in the house of five beautiful women. So yeah, kind of muddled. Or dreaming.’ He handed the glass back to Skye.

  ‘You think you’re dreaming?’ said Skye, ‘Yesterday I was an eight year old mute girl. And today …’ She spread her arms wide and looked down at her body. ‘Today, I’ve got boobs again!’

  Ember laughed at Skye and then addressed Turner. ‘You’re not dreaming, Turner. Over breakfast we’ll answer some of your questions, but for now I’ll show where you can have a shower, because … hmm. How do I say this delicately? You kind of stink.’

  Turner smelled his armpit. ‘Ugh. Sorry.’

  ‘Yeah, real delicate, Em,’ said Skye.

  ‘But listen,’ said Turner. ‘Maybe I can have my shower at my place. You know, since you probably don’t need me any longer. Can I get someone to give me a lift home?’

  The girls looked at each other and frowned. Skye went to say something but Ember held up her hand. Turner was unprepared for the intensity of her gaze.

  ‘We … don’t you … aren’t you at least a bit bloody interested in who we are?’ She poked him in the chest. ‘Who you are?’

  Skye placed her hand on Ember’s arm and said gently, ‘Em, he doesn’t know anything about us. And he kind of got thrown in the deep end with the Scathers. If I were him, I’d want to go home too.’

  Ember was breathing heavily, her fists clenched. To Turner it looked like she wanted to throw a punch at him. But after what he’d seen at the supermarket and last night, he was sure he didn’t want to be on the wrong side of one of this girl’s punches.

  ‘Listen. Ember? Look, I’m sorry. I’ll stay for breakfast, OK? I am curious. I’m just …’ he trailed off.

  ‘What?’ said Ember. ‘You’re just what? Scared?’ She searched Turner’s eyes, he could feel his face reddening, but didn’t say anything. She waited for a few heartbeats before saying, ‘We didn’t get a human Ring, Skye. We got a chicken one.’ She grabbed handfuls of her hair and stalked from the room. ‘A chicken-shit one!’ came her voice from the hall.

  Turner was tense and embarrassed. He felt a hand on his arm, and with it a slight feeling of stillness ran through him. He took a couple of deep breaths.

  ‘Don’t worry about Ember,’ said Skye. ‘She’ll calm down. If she doesn’t burn the house down first that is. How about you at least stay for breakfast, and learn a bit more about us?’ When Turner nodded, she added, ‘Come on, I’ll show you where you can shower.’

  *

  Turner had returned from the shower wearing the same clothes. If nothing else he needed to go home to change. He helped Skye take some toast, muffins, juice, plates and glasses to the table in the sunroom. The glass room was bright, and large enough for a table and eight chairs. Turner took a moment to look out at the manicured lawns and winding garden paths.

  Despite himself he liked this place, wherever it was. He knew he was in an old house, a small castle or manor house, but he had no idea where. Finding out was high on his list of questions to ask. But those creatures from last night! They were intense. Turner was unsure if he wanted anything to do with people who dealt with such things. I’m a bloody programmer for Christ’s sake, he thought.

  Turner was still staring out of the sunroom windows when he felt Ember come up behind him. He had to admit these powers were pretty cool. He turned to face her.

  ‘Look, I’m sorry,’ they both said at the same time. This made them laugh.

  ‘I am sorry though,’ said Ember. ‘I flew off the handle. I think we all need to give each other some time to process things.’

  Turner smiled gratefully. He want to say how he thought time was a good idea. Maybe a year or two to think things over would be good. But instead said, ‘That’s OK. Thanks.’

  Turner, Skye and Ember had already started eating when they were joined by two of the other girls. The girl with the blue streak in her blonde hair walked up to Turner and held out her hand. ‘I’m Celeste. I still don’t know what to make of you, but thank you for your help last night.’

  Turner saw Ember and Skye share a smile. He put down the muffin he’d been eating and shook her hand. ‘Hi, nice to meet you. I’m Turner.’

  Celeste walked around Turner and sat down. The other young woman sat down on the other side of the table, and glanced at Turner briefly. ‘I’m Brooke.’

  ‘Brooke,’ said Ember, ‘you could be nicer. He could freeze you, you know.’

  Brooke reached for the juice. She squinted at Turner. ‘I’m big on revenge.’

  Celeste nodded. ‘She is too. Remember when she thought we’d forgotten her birthday?’

  Ember winced. ‘Frogs in our beds.’

  ‘Lots of frogs,’ said Brooke with a twinkle in her eye.

  Turner looked from one to another. He felt like the new kid in class.

  ‘Hey, where’s your lumps?’ asked Skye pointing to her own forehead.

  Turner rubbed his head. ‘They were gone when I got up. And no hangover either.’

  ‘Power of the Ring,’ said Celeste softly.

  Turner squirmed under the gaze of the four girls. ‘Uh, where’s the other one?’ he asked, changing the subject. He remembered an Indian-looking girl from the last night. ‘Aren’t there five of you?’

  Ember swallowed her mouthful of muffin and jam before answering. ‘Chloe spent the night with Aunt Lani out in the chapel. Chloe’s a healer. Aunt Lani might take a few days to recover, but physically she seems alright.’

  Turner looked at Ember, then the other girls. ‘So I guess I should ask some questions?’

  ‘Ask away, Turner,’ said Celeste, ‘if you’re really our Ring, there’s nothing we can’t share with you.’

  Turner took a sip of juice. ‘First off, where are we?’

  Ember laughed. ‘Of course. You were unconscious when we brought you here. You’re in Wickerwell Manor, about five kilometres east of Wilby.’

  Turner nodded. ‘And, this is a biggie … you girls are witches, right?’

  There was silence around the table. Skye looked down at her plate, Ember and Celeste looked up at the ceiling and Brooke looked straight at Turner and made a little growling sound.

  ‘Down, Brooke, there’s a good girl,’ said Ember. ‘We’re not witches, Turner. Witches are a joke to us. Really. We laugh out loud at witches on the telly, in books and movies.’

  ‘So what are …?’

  Celeste interrupted. ‘We are a Vordene. Five cousins or second or third cousins, brought up together as sisters by five other women who were Vordene before us.’

  ‘Uh … right,’ said Turner slowly.

  Celeste continued, ‘One way to think of the Vordene is to picture a pentagram. Of course the pentagram is one of the modern myths of witches, but based on folk tales and half-truths of the Vordene. Magic, flying, pentagrams, familiars, potions are just echoes of truth
s. Each of us girls is an elemental force: spirit, water, fire, air and earth. Five elements, which can be drawn as five points of a star.’

  ‘Wow,’ said Turner. He smiled at Ember. ‘Fire, right?’

  Ember pulled her hair back around her ear. ‘You got it.’

  ‘Try me,’ said Skye.

  ‘Well, your names do kind of give it away,’ said Turner. ‘You’re air.’ He turned to Brooke. ‘And you’d have to be water.’

  ‘So clever,’ said Brooke. Turner noticed the sharp look her sisters gave her.

  Turner continued, ‘And that leaves …’

  ‘Spirit and earth,’ said Ember.

  ‘Celeste would have to be spirit, and that leaves Chloe, is it? She has to be earth. So, you have powers based on those elements?’

  Turner watched open mouthed as his glass of water frosted over. Lines of tiny icicles formed like tiny branches over the outside. The water in the glass turned to ice in an instant. After what he had seen at the park and last night’s happenings, this shouldn’t have surprised him, but Turner was nonetheless awed at the seemingly casual enchantment.

  ‘And for her next trick …’ said Skye.

  Brooke cocked her head. ‘I was just giving him an example.’

  ‘Be thankful she didn’t make your nose gush like a fire hose,’ said Skye.

  Brooke’s grin was all teeth. ‘I only did that once, Skye. You have to let it go.’

  Celeste rose from the table. ‘Enough, you two. Although it is nice to hear the old Skye again,’ she said smiling at her sister. ‘I’m getting a cup of tea. Anyone else want one?’

  Four hands were raised. ‘I’ll help you, Celeste,’ said Skye.

  After the two had left the room Turner said, ‘Another question. If you’re not witches, what is a Vordene? Are you gods, or aliens or something?’

  Neither Brooke nor Ember smiled. ‘We were born from other Vordene women,’ said Ember, ‘who were also born of Vordene women and so on, back through time. There’s never a man involved in our births, so some would consider us goddesses—like the old Greek gods.’

  ‘Better than gods,’ said a new voice.

  ‘Turner,’ said Ember, ‘this is Chloe. Chloe, this is Turner.’

  ‘So you do have a name,’ said Chloe as she bent to give Turner an awkward hug. ‘Welcome, Mr Ring.’

  ‘How’s Aunt Lani?’ said Brooke.

  Chloe sat down and poured herself a glass of milk. ‘I’ve done all I can with my healing. She woke before. A bit groggy, but I think she’s going to be alright. She’s a toughie. Give her a couple of hours more sleep before going out, OK?’

  ‘We were just telling Turner about the history of the Vordene, Chloe,’ said Ember.

  ‘Oh yeah, like Ember said, some would consider us god-like, but gods are really human constructs; whereas, we are more than that. We are the Earth itself.’

  Turner frowned. The Earth itself? He was confused. He was still trying to get his head around the whole ‘no male was used in the making of this Vordene’ thing.

  Chloe continued. ‘There are Vordene all over the world. At least fifty groups of sisters in Britain alone. We fight the evilness which threatens to take over the Earth. We are the Earth’s guardians.’

  ‘So dramatic,’ said Brooke, rolling her eyes.

  ‘Or,’ continued Chloe, ‘to put it another way, we are the Earth protecting itself. Elemental forces in human form created to fight the evil from the Grimshade.’

  ‘Grimshade?’ Turner asked around a mouthful of toast.

  ‘Sort of like Hell,’ said Ember. ‘It’s where those nasties came from last night.’

  Celeste and Skye returned with a tray of cups of tea. ‘Have you told him about the Ring yet?’ asked Celeste, holding the tray as Skye gave everyone a cup.

  ‘Not yet,’ said Ember. ‘Hmm, OK Turner, picture that pentagram again, but this time with a circle around it. That’s the Ring: the protective ring which a Vordene needs to guard it and keep it safe, especially in battle. Usually it’s a spirit animal—a force from nature that presents itself to a Vordene in animal form, like a cat, a snake or a bird.’

  ‘Or a stallion,’ said Brooke quietly.

  Turner’s head was swimming with all this new information, but there was one last thing he needed to know. ‘So I am your Ring? Skye called me that a couple of times. I’m not a spirit animal, in case you hadn’t noticed.’

  Celeste took a sip of tea, then said, ‘It seems that some Vordenes are given a human Ring. I don’t know why. We only just found out ourselves. But yes, we think you are our Ring. You’re here to fight with us, to use your powers to protect us.’

  Turner didn’t like the sound of all this magic and fighting. ‘Don’t take this the wrong way, but … is this Ring position permanent? Do I get a say in whether I take it on, or not? Because really, I don’t think I’m your guy. Maybe … maybe you should wait for the spirit animal?’

  Turner was not prepared for the effect his words would have. There was silence around the table. Skye and Chloe looked at the table, frowning. Ember looked away angrily.

  Brooke was the first to speak, ‘Maybe he’s right. He doesn’t belong here.’

  Celeste held up a hand. ‘Brooke.’ And, then addressing Turner, she said quietly, ‘how about you and I take a walk outside, Turner. I’ll show you the well.’

  Turner looked around at the other girls, none of whom would look at him. ‘Yes,’ he said quickly, ‘that sounds wonderful.’ Bloody wonderful.

  *

  Celeste and Turner walked down a few stone steps to a pebbly path. For a while neither said anything. The early morning bird calls and the crunch of the gravel underfoot the only sounds. Turner looked around at the manor gardens. The lawns were short and green, the bushes trimmed into careful topiaries. It all seemed well kept. Turner wondered who looked after the gardens, but imagined the answer would probably involve gnomes or fairies, so left the question unasked. Past a small fountain another path lead through a gap in an ivy covered stone wall, beyond which stood a small, white, stone building, its roof high-pitched and slated.

  Celeste noticed where Turner was looking. ‘The chapel. That’s where Aunt Lani spends most of her time. Where she is now. We were very lucky not to have lost her.’

  ‘Can I ask you a personal question, Celeste?’

  Celeste looked up at Turner. ‘Ask.’

  ‘How old are you? I mean … I just want to know whether I’m speaking to a three hundred year old wise woman, or a …’

  One corner of Celeste’s mouth turned up. ‘I’m twenty-five, Chloe and Brooke are twenty-four, Skye twenty-two, and Ember is twenty-one.’

  Turner looked back at the sunroom. ‘Phew, that’s a relief.’

  ‘That’s not to say with the right conditions you couldn’t have a Vordene sister who was one hundred and fifty, or so.’

  ‘Conditions? What conditions?’

  ‘Ah,’ said Celeste, ‘that’s what I want to talk to you about. I want you to try to see the big picture. It’s all about fighting and protection. We Vordene are soldiers really. Soldiers for the Earth. Sounds silly when I say it like that, but we think from the dawn of time Mother Earth has fought a war against rot, against decay, disease and evil. An evilness which, if not held in check, would grow like a cancer.’ She spread her arms. ‘It would spread across the world and destroy everything that is light, free and flowing. And if the war were lost, all life would be turned black, rotten and dead.’

  ‘So those hell creatures last night …’

  ‘The Scathers. Yes, they are the carriers. The spreaders of death. They tend to rise up occasionally like a volcano. Other times they are summoned, like last night with that horrible Skorn woman.’

  ‘I knew there was something wrong with her. Those eyes. Ugh. But the Scorchers?’

  ‘Scathers.’

  ‘Yeah. Scathers. How come no one knows about them? If they’ve been around since the dawn of time or whatever, why aren’t they well k
nown?’

  ‘Scathers have a built in fell it seems. Whenever people see Scathers, they see something that makes sense to them: black birds, aeroplanes, storm clouds, swarms of locusts, that sort of thing. The Vordene, the Scathers, our battles, are all hidden from the eyes of humans.’

  Turner frowned. ‘By who?’

  Celeste waved her hand at the gardens. ‘Mother Earth of course. Mother Nature. Gaia. It’s Mother Earth who is fighting the evilness. And it uses the fundamental elements: fire, water, earth and air, but in human form. Us.’

  Turner looked at Celeste. ‘You forgot spirit.’

  ‘Yes, and spirit. Although not a basic element, the spirit dwells within all of the others, yet stands alone as well.’ Celeste placed a hand on her chest. ‘Like the spirit of the Vordene,’ she said looking at Turner intently, ‘and … like the spirit of the Vordene’s Ring.’

  ‘But like I said, I’m not a spirit, am I?’ said Turner. ‘You were expecting a spirit animal not a twenty-two year old programmer from Hyde Park.’

  They had descended another flight of old stone steps and now stood beside what looked to Turner to be a small ancient shrine.

  ‘No,’ said Celeste, ‘we weren’t expecting a human for our Ring. But, and remember this, there must be something special about you to have been chosen.’ She pointed to the shrine-like building. ‘I’ll show you the well now, but back at the house just remember what we’ve talked about before you go making any rash decisions. There are much bigger things to consider than just you and I.’

  Turner rubbed the back of his neck. ‘OK, I won’t rush into anything. But I never imagined anything like this could happen to me. Seriously, the closest I’ve ever been to anything supernatural is playing RPG and fantasy games on my computer. This is just … huge, I guess. Scary huge.’

  Celeste looked at him kindly. ‘I guess it would seem a bit scary. But just take one thing at a time. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t meant to be. And as well as your new-found “super powers”, you’ve got a house full of girls who want you in their lives. So, so it’s not all bad, huh?’