Sprites Amulet
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Mmm choc choc.
Jude with Ruby, Branwell, Rowan and Connor quietly left Aldea, avoiding the Orcs and progressed to Jude’s house. Jude knew they must look a strange group. He, Ruby and Rowan were in simple Elvish clothes, Rowan with a hood to hide his face and pointed ears and Connor disguised in children’s clothes, grumbling. Jude would be glad to get his own clothes back on again. He felt a bit nervous about seeing his mum, especially with such a strange group of people. He thought it best for just him to go in first then Ruby and the Sprite next and for Branwell and Rowan to come when she’d got over the shock of seeing Connor.
They arrived at Jude’s house; he could see his mum had just got back from work. He walked through the kitchen door, trying to stay as calm as possible. The image of the last time his mum had seen him flashed into his head. It was not a good one, what with the shouting and being held down and sedated by nurses in a mental institution. His mum was in the kitchen and looked up in surprise at the door opening.
“Jude,” she exclaimed. “What are you doing here, love? I phoned Ravenscar today and they told me you were far too unwell for me to see you.”
She seemed unsure whether to be worried or pleased, it all depended on what Jude said next.
“Mum,” he said calmly. “I’m fine now, I’m okay.”
She came towards him and held him in her arms, he hugged her back and felt himself relax.
“What happened? Why are you dressed in these strange clothes? No one from Ravenscar has told me anything. What’s going on?”
“Mum, do you trust me?”
“Yes of course I do, love. But you’ve got to tell me what’s been happening.”
“The best way for me to explain is for me to introduce you to someone I met recently.”
Jude opened the door once more and beckoned to Ruby who came in carrying Connor.
“Mum, I’d like you to meet Ruby. Ruby this is Ella, my mum.”
“Hello, Jude’s mum, it’s lovely to meet you,” she smiled at her.
She smiled back, amused.
“And I’d also like you to meet Connor.”
Ruby pulled the hood of his coat back, revealing the Sprite’s pointed ears. Jude’s mum blinked in surprise and opened her mouth. Then Ruby helped the Sprite take off his coat and a pair of beautiful wings were revealed.
“He’s a Sprite.”
With a burst of sparkling light the Sprite set off around the kitchen. He hated having his wings pinned back and loved the attention of an audience. He was in his element. Jude’s Mum grabbed hold of the counter behind her with both hands and stared at the Sprite flying around her kitchen with her mouth open. She looked over at Jude, who was smiling at her confusion, her mouth was moving as she kept trying to say something, but nothing came out and she went back to staring at Connor. He had now landed on the kitchen table and was investigating what was in a large box. He picked out a piece of something from the box, which was brown and crumbling. He sniffed it and put it in his mouth.
“Hmm,” he said.
“That’s chocolate cake,” said Jude. “You probably shouldn’t have that.”
“Hmm choc choc.”
Jude’s mum turned to him again.
“You weren’t lying,” she said softly. “You were telling the truth.”
“Yes, I was telling the truth, I didn’t make it up.”
“You know that was what upset me the most, that you’d lied to me with so much conviction. That’s why I took you to Ravenscar, because it was so out of character for you to lie, you’d always been so truthful. Even when you’ve obviously wanted to lie, you never were able to.”
She looked from Jude to Ruby and back again with slightly raised eyebrows.
“It’s okay Ruby’s human,” Jude replied to the unasked question. “Well mostly.” He said to himself.
“Jude, the monsters?” his mum exclaimed suddenly. “Were they real too?”
“Only too real, I’m afraid. We kind of need your help with something. But first can I introduce you to two more friends?”
He opened the door again for Branwell and Rowan. His mum looked at them uncertainly when they walked through the door. Rowan lowered his hood to reveal his pointed ears and face which was too thin and angular to be human. His mum’s eyes widened in surprise.
“This is Rowan. He’s an Elf.”
Rowan put a hand to his chest and bowed to her.
“Greetings.”
“And this is Branwell, a friend of the Elves and human,” said Jude. “As far as I know.” He added to himself.
They all exchanged greetings, Ella looking somewhat bewildered by it all. Rowan, always gracious on every occasion, talked to her about Elves and Sprites and how they were hidden. She listened to him talking absolutely fascinated. Jude wasn’t sure what she was more fascinated by, what he was saying or just by him and Connor themselves. She kept glancing between the two of them, shaking her head. Occasionally she would glance at Ruby and give Jude a sideways look. He could tell she really wasn’t too sure what to make of Branwell at all and he stayed silent and waited for the talking to stop so he could tell her what they wanted her and Jude to do.
After Rowan had told her more about the Orcs she asked. “You wanted me to help you. But what could I do?”
Branwell stepped in and told her about Adzaq and the Orc’s plan. Then he told her that he wanted her to find out who it was at the nuclear power plant that was under Adzaq’s enchantment.
“But how on earth am I going to find him?” she asked incredulously. “Do you know how many people work there and how will I be able to tell if any of them are under an enchantment.”
“Can you get anyone into your work with you?” asked Branwell.
“It would be difficult, security is pretty tight. I can’t see them letting you in.”
“What about Jude and perhaps Ruby?”
“I’m sure I could get Jude in, he’s been there before and Ruby I should be able to as Jude’s friend.” Had she put a special emphasis of the word ‘friend’ or had Jude just imagined it?
“Good. They have both some experience of our world, which will help to spot an enchantment. Plus we will give them a spell which will help locate him and dispel the enchantment.”
“When do you want me to do this?”
“The sooner the better, we do not know how long we have until they launch the attack.”
His mum took a deep breath. “Tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
She let out the breath. “Okay,” she looked at Jude, patted his arm and smiled. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too Mum.”
After a fond farewell to his Mum, Jude went back to Aldea with the others to make final preparations. Rowan instructed Jude and Ruby how to use the spell. He first of all needed to enchant an object they could take unnoticed into the power station. Jude rummaged through his pockets and brought out his Ipod. Rowan enchanted it so that it would play louder when it got close to the enchanted human. Then once he found the person he could just touch him with it and say an incantation and it would dispel the enchantment. The incantation had to be said correctly thou or it wouldn’t work. Rowan annunciated it clearly for them both. Jude said it perfectly first time, which really surprised him. Rowan was impressed at the ease he’d spoken it correctly. After Rowan was satisfied that they both knew what they were doing, Branwell came and briefed them further about what they needed to do. He stressed that they were not to put themselves in any danger, they were just trying to find Adzaq’s agent and disenchant him if possible. Rowan also put a spell on Jude’s mobile phone so that he would be able to contact them if needed.
Jude carefully pocketed his Ipod and mobile, slightly suspicious of his now enchanted electrical gadgets. He and Ruby wandered back to their guesthouse for something to eat. She smiled at him.
“Excited about tomorrow?” she asked.
“I’m not sure,” he replied thoughtfully. “I have a lot of emotions surroundi
ng tomorrow, but I’m not sure excitement is one of them.”
She took his hand and smiled.
“Don’t worry it’ll all be fine.”
They walked back hand in hand; it felt good to feel her warm hand in his. When they got back to the guesthouse, a table of delicious food was waiting for them and they sat down together to eat. The sun had just set when they sat down next to each other and they watched the stars come out. Jude remembered another time when they had watched the stars together and his heart skipped a beat. She was sat next to him gazing up into the sky, so close that he could smell her cinnamony scent. He watched her looking up into the night sky and thought how beautiful she was. She felt him watching her and turned her face towards his. She looked into his eyes and smiled. He smiled back at her. He reached up a hand and stroked her hair back from her face. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered.
She curled her shoulders, blinked her eyes and her smile widened, reminding Jude of a contented cat. She reached up a hand and stroked his cheek; leaning forwards she kissed him on the lips. He knew this kiss was not the same as the light-hearted kisses she’d previously given him. This kiss left him in no doubt about how she felt about him. He put his other arm around her to draw her closer to him, he could feel the heat radiating off her his lips burned. He suddenly became aware of the dragon inside her rising up. They drew slightly apart and he looked into her eyes. He was half expecting to see shiny, red scales, but she was the same.
“You felt it too didn’t you?” she said. “The dragon.”
“I did. I don’t know how I did, but I did.”
“I wondered how to find that part of myself but it seems to have found you.”
“That kiss felt amazing.”
She leant forwards to kiss him again, but he leant back slightly.
“You’re not going to go all pointy teeth on me are you?” he asked uncertainly. She just smiled and leant forwards to kiss him again.