‘I passed a children’s ward,’ he went on, unbidden, ‘and looked in. There were some pretty sick kids, lots of them with no hair, many of them so thin it almost made me weep. I realized I was in a cancer unit. Those kids were suffering from leukaemia and various other forms of cancer, and many of them are going to die. That’s when I had the idea.’
There was an excitement in his eyes when he turned back to Jennet.
‘I’ll find the best medical staff possible, people who see medicine and nursing as a vocation, not just a career, and then I’ll turn Castle Bracken into a hospice for terminally ill kids. The grounds will be their adventure playground, nothing too grand, just a few swings, simple roundabouts, sandpits, that kind of thing. And seesaws, kids love seesaws. I’ll make them myself – I’ve already got some fun ideas. Government grants and whatever money’s left over from my grandfather’s share options will be ploughed back into the house to open it up, let the light in, convert it into a suitable place of care. And the top room with its wonderful views, will be the special place for those closest to death.’
‘And the woodlands?’
‘Kids that are fit enough will be brought here on organized walks, just a few at a time guided only by me – and, I hope, by you.’
In his eagerness, he did not notice the shadow that passed over her face.
‘I know it sounds high-minded, crazy even, or maybe just too ambitious, but I know it could work. Think of it, Jennet. They can come here and, in time – we’ll plan it very carefully – perhaps they’ll see the faerefolkis for themselves. Who knows, you might indulge them in a few miracles. If Rigwit is anything to go by, you know more about medicines and cures than’ll we’ll ever know.’
A tear trickled down her cheek and Thom frowned. ‘What is it?’ he asked, concerned.
‘It’s what you were meant to do, Thom. It’s why you’re here, why you came back.’
‘I came back because I was ill,’ he said gently.
She shook her head, wiping away the teardrop from her chin with the heel of her hand. ‘No, you were always meant to return. Remember when I compared you to the Nazarene?’
‘To Christ?’ He gave a short laugh despite the sadness of her face. ‘Yeah, I’m a carpenter too, but that’s as far as it goes.’
‘You’re more than that. I wasn’t that sure, but I understand perfectly now. The Magicks were right.’
‘Jennet, I think you’re—’
She put her fingers to his mouth to prevent him saying more and he couldn’t help kissing their tips. ‘Listen to me, Thom. Bethan was an undine and your father was a human. You have the blood and – what is it you call it nowadays? the genie—’
His puzzlement turned to another laugh. ‘The genes. You mean the genes.’
‘All right. You have them too. Don’t laugh, Thom, listen to me.’
He checked himself. ‘Sorry. Slight hysteria after yesterday.’
‘You have the power to unite us. Humans and faerefolkis. You could be the emissary, the go-between, if you like. Starting with the children.’
He was silent, perplexed. Then: ‘The children, maybe . . . But the rest? Jennet, I don’t think the world is ready to accept life from another realm just yet. There’s too much cynicism around, too much materialism. Even the normal religions are failing miserably.’
‘That’s why you need something more. I promise you this, most of the other religions will gain a new and more correct perspective once mankind comes to know and understand us. The religions will begin to make sense and there’ll be no need for blind faith. As for cynicism and materialism, that was here two millennia ago when the Christ appeared among you.’
‘And look what they did to him,’ Thom muttered.
‘But you will begin with the children, and there will be miracles, Thom, please believe me. If that’s how we can get through to others, then that’s what will happen.’
‘You’ve spoken about this with your, uh, Magicks?’
‘It was they who spoke of it to me.’
Thom pondered. He looked away, he looked back at her, and away again. He considered. No it was impossible. He’d be a laughing stock. He mused. I’m just one person. He deliberated. And yet . . . and yet . . . if the children began to be cured of terminal illnesses . . .
‘Maybe . . .’ he said finally. ‘Maybe with your help . . .’
‘That isn’t possible, Thom.’
She cast her head down and he suddenly felt a dread looming inside him.
‘Jennet . . .?’
‘There’s something I have to tell you,’ she said quietly and Thom felt his heart begin to beat faster.
HE DIDN’T want to hear. The sad look on her face, the tone of her voice . . . He really did not want to hear.
But Jennet told him anyway.
‘I have to go back, Thom,’ she said simply.
‘Back? Back to the undines? Why? I thought . . .’ He was panicking.
‘Hush. I have to go back for you. I have to go back to save you.’
He shook his head.
‘It has to be done.’
‘I don’t understand . . .’
‘Poor Thom. You’ve had to learn so much. I have to return to the moment of your car crash. Don’t you remember the bright light?’
‘Yes, but—’
‘Now is the time for it to happen.’
‘For what to happen? I’m alive, Jennet, I’m okay.’
‘Because I went back to change Nell’s bad magic. If I hadn’t, you probably wouldn’t have survived the accident, let alone the blood interruption inside your head.’
He remembered the blinding light at the time of the crash and was lost for words; he could only stare at her.
‘To do this, I must have your help.’
‘But I don’t want you to go.’
‘Please, try to understand. It’s a deed already done. Neither of us can change things now.’
‘I don’t get it.’
‘Because you’re not trying. If I hadn’t gone back to save you, then you wouldn’t be here now, talking to me.’
‘That doesn’t make sense.’
‘It does if you think about it. We’re only wasting time, because it will happen. But I need all my powers and the powers of the undines. You, too, can help make it work. Remember I also told you about the power invoked by the act of love? I said it was the greatest magic of all.’
He saw where she was going with this. She began to push his unbuttoned shirt off his shoulders.
‘Jennet . . .’
‘No more words, Thom.’
‘Just one last question, grant me that.’
She nodded, but she was weeping again.
‘What happens after? Do you come right back as if you’ve never been gone?’
‘I have to go to the Waiting Place.’
He caught her wrist. ‘What did you say?’
‘I have to leave you for seven years.’
‘No! No, that can’t be. I can’t let that happen!’
‘We have no choice. It’s the price I have to pay for using such strong magic.’
‘I won’t let you!’
‘I already have. But listen again to me, Thom. Listen and hear what I’m telling you. After seven years I will return to you. I will be like Bethan, mostly human. And as long as you live I can remain so.’
‘But the Waiting Place – where is it?’
‘Don’t you remember? I showed you once before.’
‘The vision. The constellations, the great clouds. The spirits. But I thought it was the new beginning.’
‘For most it’s the start of the journey onwards. For others it’s the dimension humans call Purgatory. The Waiting Place. Some return to this world from there, but only those who have more to do here, or who have left certain things undone.’
He stared at her in disbelief, while in his heart he knew she would only speak the truth.
‘Do you recall the fox we met in the woods, the one I called Rumbo???
? she asked and Thom nodded. ‘I told you that once his life was human, and that he came back as a dog, and later a squirrel. Now he’s a fox.’
‘You’re saying humans go through some kind of reincarnation?’
‘No, not all. Just special cases where it’s necessary for the individual’s growth and awareness. Most of you – and most of us – journey onwards because you’ve learned all that’s required of you on this Earth. Some might go on immediately, but for the majority there is always the waiting time that eventually leads to a condition of near-perfection. A state of grace, some of your religions call it.’
She squeezed his hand.
‘I have to be there for seven years in your time. It’s the price I have to pay for challenging the natural laws. But it’s all right, Thom, it’s a wondrous place to be.’
He fell silent once more. Jennet had shown him the Waiting Place so that he would not be afraid for her while she was gone. But he felt there was another reason too, that some time in the future when the terminally ill children came to Bracken, to the hospice he would create there, she would also show them this wonderful place and death – if that was to be their fate – would hold no fear for them. He understood now and realized it was pointless to argue. Besides, to win would be to lose anyway.
He shrugged off his shirt. ‘Jennet, I love you so much. I don’t know how—’
‘Seven years will soon pass, you’ll see. And you will achieve so much during that time.’
She slipped the flimsy dress from her shoulders and the top fell to her waist. Her small breasts were proud in the dappled sunlight, their points softly pink and extended. The sight of her beneath the willow, with the lake behind her, the backdrop of forest, was exquisite; her flawless skin seemed to glow with a serene kind of energy and, not for the first time, Thom was lost in awe of her. How could he be without her now? He could not let this sweet, unique being escape him, not for seven years, not for one moment.
‘There must be another way,’ he said determinedly.
‘There is, but it would mean losing each other for ever. This is the only way, Thom, and you must help me.’
She bent forward and kissed his brow, then his lips, and he returned the kisses with desperate passion. Jennet responded, equalling his fervour, and quickly, with her help, he was naked. Jennet, however, remained wearing the diaphanous dress around her waist where it rumpled over her lap and upper thighs. Somehow, the partial nakedness made her even more alluring as she knelt before him, resting on her heels. He drank in the vision, allowed it to sink deep into his mind, an indelible image that would last all his days.
She pushed him back gently with one hand so that he lay prone on the mossy forest floor that felt like velvet against his skin. She leaned over him, the aroused tips of her little breasts almost touching his chest, and they kissed again, softly, tenderly at first, then more firmly, her tongue exploring his lips, entering his mouth, pushing past his parted teeth to be met by his own tongue. Firm, but then hard, pressing against each other, their mouths becoming moist as they savoured one another.
His hardness was intense as he thrust his naked hips towards her, and she responded by moving her smooth pudenda against him, wetting herself with the slick moistness that was seeping from him. He groaned and reached for her breasts, gently running his fingertips over their elegant smoothness, covering the nipples, pressing softly until her hips became more active, drove against him, her kisses becoming wilder, her long golden hair falling over both their faces to create a momentary curtain that enclosed them in their own world. He returned her kisses, his passion easily equalling hers, although his touch never once became rushed or clumsy.
Jennet lowered herself so that her nipples could touch his. She smeared her breasts over his chest, the movement less and less gentle as her body began to lose control. Thom reacted to the increasing roughness, thrusting himself hard at her, his arms encircling her back, fingers running down her spine, fingertips exploring the cleft at its base, kneading the dip so that nerve endings sent a shiver through her.
She suddenly straightened and reached a hand beneath the flimsy rumpled material of her skirt to guide him inside her, her own dampness making the penetration easy. Thom drew in a brief gasp of pleasure as he felt her melt around him and as she loomed over him, the sun behind her highlighting her flowing locks and curls, outlining a golden sheen around her body, he saw the dazzling lights approach, small irradiations of pure energy that concealed the beings within. Their colours dazzled the eye as they glided around Jennet, brushing her skin, sending waves of power through her, titillating her flesh, descending so that they crossed her stomach and swept over her stretched thighs to reach him as he lay there, exposed and vulnerable on his back.
The sensation on his skin, with their wings fanning him, tickling him in their sensuous way, was stimulating and he felt his senses drawing together, sinews and muscles tightening, nerve endings tingling with excitement. Out of the corner of his eye he saw more of the faerefolkis arrive to watch and cheer their approval and joy at this most natural of acts. He no longer felt exposed lying there, and was neither intimidated, nor embarrassed by their gaze, for their thoughts were pure, their reaction innocent. Somehow he knew they were there to encourage, not to leer. He saw the beautiful creatures rising from the lake, neither their hair, nor their bodies, not even the thin fabric that some wore, wet or dampened. They were some distance away, yet he could see their smiles and feel their benevolence.
The lights increased, pulsating with individual power, so stunning in their brightness that he was forced to close his eyes, or shield them, with a forearm when they came too close to his face. He absorbed their potency, drew their vibrancy into his own body, and the elation was incredible.
Jennet moved against him, raising and lowering herself on him with a steadily mounting rhythm, occasionally breaking to writhe her hips, drawing from him all that she desired, for he was rigid, strong, meeting her every demand, and soon she was breathing in short, sharp gasps, her straddled legs pumping, her hands now behind her, pulling at his thighs, taking every inch of him, and never had he felt so hard and powerful, never had his juices seethed so wildly inside him, rising to cause small eruptions, before receding only to rise again, and again . . .
Until both their bodies were caught in the shuddering paroxysms of ecstasy.
The noise around them – the light flutey singing, the tiny shouts of joy, the dainty clapping of hands – reached its peak also as the little people danced and copulated among themselves, some in groups of three or four, five or six, but mostly one-to-one, celebrating their own as well as Thom and Jennet’s union, for there was no shame in such behaviour for them, nothing about it that should be secretive or hidden. Lovemaking was their supreme delight and they saw no reason why it should not be shared with as many as possible.
Besides, this was their way of helping Jennet work her magic, a mass consortium of energies that drew forces beyond her normal powers. Good forces. The forces of purest rapture . . .
The ascendancy for Thom and Jennet was perfectly timed and both cried out as one, over and over, bodies swelling with the supreme ecstasy.
Thom opened his eyes to watch Jennet in her last blissful throes and saw that her arms were thrown upwards and spread wide as if in supplication. Lights zoomed around her dizzyingly, their splendour now so harsh that he had to squint to protect his eyes. He could just see that her eyes were shut tight and her mouth was set in a euphoric smile; her bare arms trembled as she arched her spine and neck so that she faced the skies through the overhead canopy of willow leaves. Her cries turned into a moan and he could not tell if it were one of joy or despair.
Suddenly, a blinding light radiated from her, a shining far greater than that which emanated from the flying sprites and even greater that the rays of the sun. He had to throw both hands up to shield his face and eyes. The heat burned and even from behind his own palms he could see that the light throbbed, although it never once grew
less fierce.
And then it was gone, waning a little before blinking out completely. It was as if a light-switch – one that controlled the most powerful light in the universe – had been flicked off. It was as amazing as it was confusing and, when he dropped his hands away, Jennet was gone.
Thom took his time walking back through the woods. Beneath the willow tree on the banks of the lake, he had silently wept, but the tears had not lasted long. There was so much to be done, so much to get ready for Jennet’s return. For return she would; he had no doubts. And when she did, he would find his peace again.
As he strolled, watching the enchanting faerefolkis caper, the animals and the birds of the forest still undaunted by his presence, he lost the numbing ache in his leg; he could even swing his debilitated arm without impediment despite his general fatigue. He wasn’t entirely cured, he was aware of that, but the harm had been lessened, and with Rigwit’s medicine and daily exercise, he knew he would soon be back in shape.
Both joy and a peaceful kind of sadness were his companions on his walk back to the cottage, but at least he had a purpose now as well as something to look forward to, a dream that could only come true.
For as Jennet had vanished into the blinding light, her voice – it was not a self-thought, for this voice had sound and inflection – had come into his head.
She had said: ‘Expect me.’
THE BIRDS gathered in the trees surrounding the hidden forest clearing. Their feathers were sleekly black, sinister in the shade afforded by the thick leaves around the edges of the glade, their bills long and pointed, these also black.
Kraaaa! they called to one another, and the sound was harsh in the quietness of the woods.
The crows – a gathering that was known as a murder of crows – watched the black-and-white bird skip haltingly through the grass below. The magpie, shabby and tattered wings flapping weakly each time it tried to lift them, seemed disorientated as it hopped from one spot to another as if searching for something (although it never ventured into the shadows of the trees). It opened its bill as if to call, but no sound came forth, and occasionally it would peck uselessly at the soft mulch between the blades of grass.