The Sorceress's Mask

CHAPTER THREE: THE WITCH.

  Violet left the library and made her way to the park in a happy daze, she would have skipped along if their weren’t so many students around there that she’d previously spoken to sternly. She reached the bench they usually met at, and unusually Ayden wasn’t waiting for her. He always got to their rendezvous first. She glanced at her watch, yes, she was on time, perhaps even a little late, and this was definitely where they were due to meet. This had become their usual meeting place now as it was so close to the library. She glanced around the parts of the park she could see, but she couldn’t spot him, it looks like she would be the one waiting today. She sat down on the bench, swinging her legs underneath her, she was sure he wouldn’t be long.

  After ten minutes she got out her copy of Jane Eyre and began to read.

  After half an hour she thought she’s just have a quick walk around the park to see if she could spot him. She left her copy of Jane Eyre on the bench to let him know she had been there and set off around the park, but she couldn’t see him anywhere. Her book was still there when she returned to the bench, on its own. She picked it and sat back down again, and began to read.

  After an hour she began to be worried. Perhaps he couldn’t make it and he’s left me a message somewhere. She left a message on the bench for him. She walked quickly home to see if any message had been left there, their was nothing on the answer phone but she remembered that Ayden didn’t have a mobile, in fact she wasn’t even sure if he had a home, after all he’d been a bit vague about where he lived, he didn’t live in the town and she got the impression it was somewhere near the woods around the stile. But no messages had been slipped under the door either. She tried the library next to just double check he wasn’t there or had left a message there after she’d left. Again no luck. She searched around some of the other places they been too, other parks and along the river. Her heart leaping into her mouth every time she saw a long dark coat or anyone remotely resembling Ayden. Nothing. She tried ringing the hospital and the police station, but no-one fitting Ayden’s description had been brought in. She was getting more worried, he’d always been so reliable before when they met up, it was very unlike him to not meet with her without any sort of explanation, but thinking back, how well did she know him really, even thou she felt like she’d known him for a long time, it was actually only about a couple of weeks. Yes, she felt like she knew him and he knew her intimately about what he thought and felt about so many subjects, the sort of person he was. But really she didn’t have a lot of information about him, she didn’t even know his second name, unless Ayden actually was his second name, in which case she didn’t even know his first name, or where he lived and she’d never met or even heard him mention any of his family or friends. Oh I’m rambling to myself she thought, what I am going to do. She was getting increasingly worried for herself as well as for him. The only place left for her to look was the stile where she had first found him. She got out her bicycle and pedalled there as fast as she could. She arrived at the lane out of breath, dumping the bike in a bush she ran around the corner to the stile. But it was empty, she looked all around it, but empty, silent fields surrounded her. A cold wind gushed suddenly blowing her hair away from her face and making her eyes sting and water, she realised she was alone and she had nowhere left to look. She slumped down on the stile disheartened, a heavy weight on her chest. She brushed the wind-induced tears from her eyes, she wanted to cry but she wasn’t going to, not till she knew what was going on. She picked herself up and went and retrieved her bicycle from the bush and cycled back towards the town, she needed help, so she went to the smartest person she knew.

  She tapped on the door of a small cottage near the university, it was most peculiar to have such a cute little house hidden away amongst all the larger more impressive buildings surrounding it. It had a selection of herbs growing in pots around the door and on the windowsills and peculiar symbols on the door. Aliya opened the door, she had been a bit distant with her since Ayden had appeared on the scene, Aliya didn’t seem to have much patience with people drifting around in a dream world with a smile on their faces.

  “Are you just visiting from fairyland or are you back for good then?” she asked with a wry smile.

  “Hello, Aliya, I need your advice. Is it alright if I come in.”

  “Of course,” she replied opening the door wide. “Make your self at home. But you’re straight back out that door if this is one of those long rambling does he or doesn’t he love me rants.”

  “No.”

  Aliya’s front door opened straight on to the main room of the house, which had nearly as many books and unusual objects in it as Violet’s flat, but Aliya was much more tidy and her taste in objects more macabre, with skulls, stuffed animals and large drippy candles in place of sparkly boxes. Clovis was curled up contentedly on a comfy chair nearest the open fire burning brightly in the grate.

  “It is about him then a presume?” she says going to put the kettle on.

  “Yes.” She took a seat on a sofa, feeling how tired and heavy her limbs felt now she sat down.

  “Hmm,” she snorted, making them both a cup of calomine tea.

  “I don’t know who else to talk to,” Violet said pleadingly.

  “Have you not noticed my track record with men,” Aliya replied looking bemused, “my total disrespect for them. What makes you think I can be of any help what so ever, if I even wanted to be.”

  “Aliya you’re the smartest person I know” Violet was getting exasperated, “he’s disappeared.”

  “So what’s so unusual about that?” she replied unimpressed, “that’s what men do here today gone tomorrow, like children, easily bored.”

  “But we met everyday, he was always waiting for me, he’d never been late, and he wasn’t there at our meeting place, I’ve looked everywhere, all the places I’d been with him, I even checked the hospital and police station. He’s disappeared.”

  “He’s probably just gone back to where he came from and found someone else to dally with.” Aliya said unsympathetically.

  “He wasn’t like that.”

  “All men are like that, however wonderful you think they are at the time, trust me something else will have caught his interest.”

  “Aliya, please,” Violet could feel tears behind her eyes, she didn’t want to believe what her friend was telling her, but she was running out of other possibilities. “I love him,” she said quietly.

  “That’s what we do,” she said wistfully staring into space, “we love them and give them everything and when they’ve got what they want or they get bored they leave.”

  “He said he loved me,” she replied quietly.

  “They always imply that they feel the same as you do, that their feelings are as strong as yours, they imply so much without even having to say the words.”

  “He didn’t imply that he loved me, he does love me, he said the words.” Violet said a little more loudly than she’d intended. Clovis opened his lazy green eyes and stared at her, obviously miffed at having his nap interrupted. She was starting to get a little bit annoyed now, Aliya was supposed to be her friend and she wasn’t even getting any sympathy from her, not even a ‘there, there, the bastard’.

  Aliya looked across at her sharply, “he said the words ‘I love you’ to you, the actual words?”

  “Yes” Violet almost shouted, “that’s what I’ve been telling you he said them to me the third time that me met and he’s said them every time we’ve met after that, it was the last thing he said to me when we parted the last time.” Violet could feel hot angry tears welling up in her eyes she was so angry with Aliya for not being helpful or even sympathetic and for Ayden not being there, her heart ached, and all the worry and uncertainty just turned into anger.

  “Hmm,” said Aliya thoughtfully and looked off into space again with a crease between her eyebrows.

  Violet just saw red. “Some friend you are, I’ve come here for your help baring my soul a
nd you’re barely interested. You could at the very least have pretended a bit of sympathy. I’m going to wallow in my own misery at home.” She stood up to leave.

  Aliya, ignoring her, had turned to one of her bookshelves of large arcane books and was running her hand along the titles. Violet marched out of the door slamming it behind her and screamed on the doorstep before marching home.

  Clovis after a glance at Aliya, who was leafing through one her books, started lazily rearranging his limbs to settle back down to sleep again. “Well what a performance that was,” he said.

  “Hmm” Aliya replied non-commitaly, getting down another book “yes, but if what she says is true, he did say the words, and if he is who I think he is, and if he has disappeared this may not be good news. It is worth looking in to at any rate...and she did ask for my help.”

  “Nosy cow,” Clovis replied quietly, closing his eyes.

  “I heard that” she replied sharply reaching for some bundles of herbs. “Get your lazy butt off that chair I’m going to need your help anyway.”

  Violet returned home to her flat threw herself down on her bed and indulged in a good fit of angry crying. Not only had she lost the man she loved, but probably her best friend too, today had not been a good day. Exhaustion physical and mental finally took over and she fell into an uneasy slumber.

  Mist swirls in the air, the ground vibrates. A black horse emerges. A black cloak swirling out behind piercing blue eyes. Horse and rider thunder straight towards her. A long sword glints as it is pointed towards her. She is frozen in place, she cannot move. They are almost on top of her, the sharp sword swings down towards her head, she hears it swish through the air as she closes her eyes, waiting for the feel of the sharp edge. She hears an impact like a cleaver slicing through a cabbage and a guttural unnatural scream. It is not hers, she opens her eyes, something has fallen at her feet, she looks down at it. At first she thinks it is a rotting cabbage, it is shades of green and it stinks. Then she notices the yellow eyes staring wide-open in fear. The open screaming mouth lined with yellowing pointed teeth. Her first thought is that is it evil, straight from hell. She hears a hammering sound.

  Violet awakes suddenly and lifts her head up quickly from the bed, her hair plastered to her face, she can still hear the hammering sound from her nightmare, the image of the hideous head still in her mind as she shudders. As the mist starts to clear she becomes aware that the hammering is someone banging at her front door. She brushes the hair out of her eyes and rushes to the door, bumping into things in the dark, still confused by her dream. She opens the door and sees Aliya on the doorstep with a box in her arms and Clovis at her feet. Seeing Aliya standing on her doorstep reminds Violet of the previous days events and they all come back to her in a rush leaving her exhausted, she just wants to go back to bed.

  “Well are you going to let me in?” Aliya asks impatiently, “you did ask for my help and this box is heavy.”

  Violet moves out of the way and Aliya walks confidently in, dumping the box down on the kitchen table. Violet glances at the box in a stupefied way and sees books, candles, bundles of dried herbs and jars of odd things she doesn’t look at too closely. Clovis slinks in disdainfully and examines all the chairs and cushions until he is satisfied he’s found the most comfortable, then proceeds to walk round and round in a circle until it is to his satisfaction before settling down.

  “I’m sorry about what I said earlier, I was just a bit upset, I didn’t really mean it.” Violet attempts to apologise, she has no idea why Aliya is here with her bizarre box. Aliya just waves her apology away and makes them both cups of hot chocolate.

  As what Aliya said when she first came in gradually filteres into Violet’s mind, a small spark of hope emerges. “Did you say you’d come to help me? Do you know where Ayden is, or how we can find him?” she asked hopefully.

  “Yes I have come to help. I don’t know exactly where he is, but we should be able to get an idea of where he is by scrying for him. “Aliya had started to clear the floor around the kitchen table and was now drawing a pentagon on the wooden floorboards with a piece of red chalk. She then got some more things out of her box including a pretty authentic looking skull.

  Violet looked at the skull, at the bundle of herbs which were burning with a strange aroma, then at Aliya confidently drawing symbols on the floor, muttering strange sounding incantations in a language she was unfamiliar with, at the black cat curled up on the near by chair watching the proceedings with the air of a supervisor and then back to Aliya. “Urm, Aliya,” Violet askes hesitantly, “are you a witch?”

  “Yes.” She replied not looking up. “Do you think I’m going to all this trouble for fun?”

  “Oh just wondered.” She looked again at Clovis who she was sure was laughing at her if cats could laugh.

  “Right, said Aliya “I need something of Ayden’s or something he’s had close contact with.”

  Violet wracked her brains for something he’d given her or left behind, and realised slightly embarrassed that he’d never given her any presents of jewellery of other fripperies that boyfriends usually do. Had he given her anything at all, yes, he’d given her a wild rose from near the stile, it was sitting in a vase in her bedroom. She fetched it. Aliya unfolded a strange hand-drawn map and spread it out on the table, weighing it down at the corners with the skull and three crystals in different colours. The map seemed to have places on it that Violet recognised, features in the town, in the loop of the river but it also seemed to have lots more locations and features on it that she didn’t recognise and the names were all in a language she couldn’t hope to guess at. Aliya asked Violet to place her hands on the edges of the map and to keep an image of Ayden in her mind. Aliya stood at the opposite side of the table the rose in one hand and a shining white crystal on a purple cord in the other. She held the crystal over the map and closed her eyes and began another incantation. She started to move the crystal over the map, allowing it to spin slightly. The crystal started to glow purple and a crease appeared between Aliya’s brows, suddenly the crystal exploded into dust and Ayden’s rose burst into white flames and was gone in an instant. Aliya staggered backwards with a cry and then rushed to the sink to run cold water over her burnt hand. A look of fury on her face. Violet felt very startled and had cried out with Aliya. She wasn’t sure if that was supposed to happen or not. She went over to Aliya at the sink, “Are you alright?” she asked in a concerned voice.

  “Yes fine,” replied Aliya in a brisk voice, “you haven’t got any lavender oil have you?” Violet went and got her some, hearing her mutter to herself. “One of my best scrying crystals, someone’s going to pay for that.”

  Violet returned with the oil and Aliya put it on her burn. “Shouldn’t we go to the hospital and get it treated properly?” Violet asked.

  “No its not that bad and lavender oil is better for a burn that any of their chemical rubbish.” She said dismissively. “Right, lets try something else.”

  “That wasn’t supposed to happen then?” Violet asks timidly.

  “No,” she says shortly, “things are not supposed to explode or burst into flames.”

  “They’re not a good sign then?”

  “Again no.”

  “Oh,” said Violet in a small voice. “What are we going to do now?”

  “We are going to try something else, if we can’t find his location, perhaps someone saw what happened to him, we just have to find them. Do you have anything else of his?”

  Violet wracked her brains, then she remembered the leaf he’d left inside Jane Eyre, she’s kept it, and put it inside her own copy. She pulled it out carefully from between the pages.

  “Ahh perfect,” Aliya seized it eagerly, “this should work even better. She laid it aside carefully and asked Violet to help her move the kitchen table out of the pentagram. She then asked Violet to put a blanket and some cushions in a bed on the floor in the middle of the pentagram while she placed candles and smouldering bunches of
herbs at its points, saying incantations as she did so.

  “Right, all done,” said Aliya standing back to admire her handiwork. “I am going to go into a trance to find an observer and then catch their memory. The memory will decant into this bottle.” Aliya placed a glass bottle with white liquid in it at the head of the pentagram. “Do not under any circumstances disturb me or the bottle, or let anyone else, whatever happens and I mean what ever,” she said strictly. “Do you understand?"

  “Erm, yes, sure.”

  “Right.” Aliya laid down in the pentagram with the leaf held in her hands on her chest, she closed her eyes and took three deep breaths, then was still. Violet bent over her to check she was still breathing, she couldn’t see her chest move, but when she held a metal spoon near her mouth she could see it mist over slightly. Violet wondered how long it would take, she looked at the leaf nervously and then went and filled a bucket with water and put it near the pentagram, just in case. Violet curled up on one her wooden kitchen chairs to wait, she glanced over at Clovis curled up asleep on her comfy chair and decided she didn’t actually dare move him. It is still dark outside and her eyes start to feel heavy, before she knows it she’s fallen asleep.

  Mist swirls and clears to reveal a woman in a long dark blue skirt and a smart Victorian jacket. She has a small hat with blue ribbons and peacock feathers sat on her blonde hair. As the mist clears further she can be seen to be standing up very straight and tall in front of a doorway. The doorway is made of heavy wood, dark with age but with ornate metal hinges curling over the wood. It is set deep within a Norman archway with a decorative floral border carved into the stone. As the mist retreats further the building in which the door way is set can be seen. It is a small church made of large sandstone blocks with high stained glass windows and a small square tower above the doorway.

  Violet awoke with her neck stiff from having fallen asleep at an odd angle, and with Clovis purring and rubbing himself against her feet. The image of the church was still fresh in her mind, leaving a blurred idea that she’d seen it somewhere before. Remembering what had happened that evening she glanced quickly over to her kitchen floor where Aliya was still stretched full length, unmoved since when she’d fallen asleep. She looked like sleeping beauty lying there unmoving with the leaf held to her chest. Clovis started meowing now, nudging her hand, she absently stroked his ears. He stalked over and stood in front of the fridge looking expectantly at her, she ignored him and he gave a little meow. As she continued to stare at Aliya, he came back to her and head butted her legs, meowing a little louder, she gave him a quick stroke and pushed him away. He went back to the fridge and started clawing at the door, meowing more urgently. He went and sat in front of her and stared at her giving a loud meow. She looked at him a frown on her forehead before picking him up and putting him back on his chair. Clovis looked at the ceiling for inspiration, before sitting up straight in the chair and saying, “what is wrong with you? Do you not speak cat or something? How obvious do you need me to be for goodness sake?”

  Violet startled, looked back at him closely, then at Aliya, and around the rest of the room and back at Clovis again. She shook her head, “I have so not had enough sleep tonight, I am going barmy.”

  “Give me strength, please,” muttered Clovis to himself.

  Violet gave him another sharp look.

  “Well if you can’t even work out basic cat communication. I meow at you means I want something. Meowing in front of the fridge means I want something to eat, just how obvious is that, a child could work it out. In fact children tend to pick it up quicker than adults, same priorities I think. But anyway, you’ve left me no choice than to talk to you in your language.”

  Violet stared at Clovis stupefied, “Did you just say something or am I going mad?”

  “If a cat talking is a problem for you, you have no idea about the other stuff you’re about to find out about. Anyway, the reason I spoke to you in the first place was because I’m hungry….and nothing has changed, I still am.”

  “You’d like something to eat.”

  “At last, yes. And some milk to drink, full fat preferably, and none of that Soya stuff. Yuck.”

  “I’ve only got semi-skimmed, How’s that?”

  “Ohh, that’ll have to do I suppose. What have you got to eat? I will not touch anything that has been anywhere near a tin. I like fresh meat, preferably fish, but with the bones picked out. I got a fishbone stuck in my throat once and it was just awful, I was choking and hacking, it was just dreadful. It could have put me off ever eating fish again, but it is just so tasty.”

  “The only fish I’ve got is a tin of tuna.”

  Clovis shuddered, “don’t talk to me about tins, I’m not an ordinary cat you know, I do not do pet food.”

  “Oh I’ve got some cooked chicken leftover in the fridge.”

  “It’s not that processed rubbish is it?” asked Clovis suspiciously.

  “No, it’s from a roast chicken, it’s even free-range.”

  “That sounds acceptable. I want it in a proper china plate, mind no plastic pet bowls.”

  “No problem.”

  “Thank you.” Clovis sniffs tucking into the food Violet has put in front of him. She sits back in her chair and watches the cat eat without a sound, all very normal, perhaps it was all her imagination after all due to too little sleep. She glances again at Aliya, who is still lying motionless. Clovis had finished eating and is now washing himself, again a very normal cat activity, no talking, this is good, he then stalks over to the chair he has claimed as his own and makes himself comfortable, completing ignoring her. She must have imagined it. Just the tail end of her dream surely.

  The sky outside is just starting to get lighter, more grey than black, when Violet notices that the leaf held in Aliya’s hand is starting to glow slightly. She sits up straight and grabs the bucket of water in case it bursts into flames. She looks at Aliya’s face, but it has retained its serene countenance. Violet stands poised, her sudden movement has awoken Clovis who sits up and stretches paying a cursory interest. The bottle of white liquid is also starting to glow, Violet tenses waiting she doesn’t know for what.

  “It looks like she’s found an observer,” says Clovis disinterestedly, “whatever you do don’t touch anything.”

  Violet starts and looks at him, “You talked again didn’t you.”

  “Yes, we’ve been through this already,” says Clovis rolling his eyes.

  Violet looks back at Aliya, the leaf and bottle are glowing brighter and the liquid gradually turns from white to lavender to purple. Then both gradually dim and the glow fades. Violet is glad to see the leaf appears unharmed. Aliya opens her eyes and sits up, “I could murder some chocolate biscuits.” She states.

  “Oh right, I’ll get some,” she helps Aliya up. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine,” she picks up the bottle and swirls the liquid round with a contented smile on her face. “Excellent. That was a tricky one.”

  “You found a witness to what happened to Ayden?” she asks passing Aliya a packet of biscuits.

  “Yes, I had to search really hard, but eventually I found a rat who’d seen it all.” She said stuffing biscuits into her mouth.

  “A rat,” Violet asks incredulously.

  “Yes, nosy creatures but he saw it all.”

  “What happened?”

  “I can show you, which is just as well because you wouldn’t believe me if I just told you anyway.” Muttering under her breath, “You don’t even know what Ayden is.”

  “I heard that, you don’t need to know everything about a person’s background to love them.”

  “That wasn’t what I was talking about. Right lets get some picture.” She went over to her box of tricks and pulled out a flat square glass vase and poured the purple liquid into the top then set it upright on the kitchen table. She handed Violet a large piece of white paper and told her to pin it up on the wall. Aliya placed a table lamp behind the upright
purple square and when she switched it on and adjusted the lamp’s positioning a large purple square appeared on the white piece of paper. Violet blew out all the remaining candles so the room was in darkness. Aliya mumbled some words over the purple glass square and the purple square on the paper began to swirl like mist, gradually blurry images began to appear in the mist. “These things are so difficult to get to tune in,” muttered Aliya, tapping the top of the purple square and said some short authorative words in the strange language. Gradually the images became sharper. “That’s better,” she said with satisfaction, “no sound unfortunately…too messy.” She sits back and munches some more biscuits. Violet stares at the screen as she recognises a tall graceful figure in a long dark coat.

  “That’s Ayden,” she points excitedly.

  “Well yes, that’s what I have spent most of the night looking for,” replies Aliya sarcastically.

  Violet ignores her and continues to look at the screen. She recognises where he is, he is leaving the park he’d left her in the last time they met, he’s about to walk through the children’s play area and skateboard ramp. But there are no children playing there its too late, just getting dark. She notices a group of hooded teenagers slouching against the bars of the climbing frame, they seem to be talking to each other mostly in gestures, they don’t seem very friendly, she wonders if they mugged Ayden, he is certainly taller and remembering his strong arms around her, he must work out, probably stronger, but there’s six of them, he wouldn’t have a chance. As Ayden draws within sight of the hoodies, he looks at them sharply and stares at them his eyebrows drawn together. “You don’t stare at them,” thinks Violet, “you just ignore them and hurry past.” But Ayden stared at them and didn’t quicken his pace. The hoodies stopped leaning against the bars and slouched upright instead staring back. Violet couldn’t see their faces, they were hidden within their hoods but she was sure they were leering. Suddenly the six hoodies, moving as one, rush stumblingly towards Ayden, arms waving. He stops and turns towards them, head still held high, unflinching, he glances to left and right, no one is about to help him, Violet can feel her heart pounding in her chest and hardly dares watch as the hoodies charge drunkenly towards Ayden stood upright and unmoving before them.

  “Run Ayden,” shouts Violet at the screen, “run, run now.”

  Aliya glances at Clovis and shakes her head.

  But Ayden doesn’t run, instead he brings his hands together in front of him and Violet can see his calm face with his lips moving as he incants something, a ball of white light begins to glow between his hands, as it gets bigger a wind blows billowing out his coat and hair behind him. Just as the hoodies are about to reach him he moves his hands swiftly outwards the white ball of light expands out quickly and push the hoodies away from him knocking them to the ground. Violet breathes a sigh of relief, her shoulders sagging. Ayden gives a satisfied but tired smile and quickly turns to leave. Another hoodie moving quickly on a skateboard appears from nowhere and crashes into him, sending them both flying. The boy lands on top of Ayden, but quickly climbs off and bends over him, he pulls the hood away from his face and reveals a shock of messy blonde hair over a teenage face. But Ayden doesn’t move, his face is paler than usual and his eyes are closed. The boy shakes him, gesticulating wildly, but nothing happens, Ayden remains unmoving. The boy looks around wildly for help and for the first time notices the other hoodies still lying on the ground stunned. He rushes over to them, and then draws back a look of horror on his face. The hoodies are starting to stir and one after the other they leap up. Their hoods have been blown back from their faces and now Violet can see why the boy drew back in horror when he saw them.

  What worries Violet the most about their faces is that she should also be recalling back in horror at these unearthly hideous faces, but she recognises them. They have the same mottled green skin, large yellow eyes and evil pointed teeth from her dream, but these are alive and gnashing their yellowing teeth. They descend on Ayden and the boy; he turns to run away but trips over Ayden still lying motionless on the ground. He falls backwards, but the look of horror has now left his face he is staring at them with a kind of wide-eyed macabre fascination as one of them grab him and drag him away. The others have tied up Ayden with strange thin green ropes and pull him along. The figures fade into the purple mist which swirls gradually loosing its colour and Violet finds herself staring at a white light on a piece of white paper.

  Aliya switches on the lights and goes to make a cup of tea, the sun is rising and the light outside is getting brighter. She presses a cup of tea into Violet’s hand and sits down with one herself waiting for the barrage of questions. She’s sure Violet won’t believe her answers so she was anticipating a long frustrating conversation.

  Violet looks at Aliya and calmly says, “where have they taken him?”

  “I don’t know, but somewhere very powerfully protected as you saw when we tried to search for him.”

  “How are we going to find out?”

  “We are going to have to ask someone who is an oracle or similar, I’ll have to consider who would be the most likely to find him. I’ll have to do a bit of research and preparation.”

  “How long do you need before we can ask?”

  “I should be done by sunset today, that’s always an auspicious time to look these people up.”

  “Okay.”

  “That’s it?” asked Aliya puzzled, “No, what are those horrible creatures? How could he fire balls of white light?”

  “I don’t know if a want to know yet, all I do know is that I’ve got to rescue Ayden.”

  “Okay then.”