“Yes, I think so,” Eilidh said.
“Then let me go and I’ll buy a child’s potty or one of those disposable travel urinals. Not the most dignified things to use but I’m sure we can arrange the boxes to provide some privacy.”
“Alright but you’re not going alone. We can take a locket each. That shouldn’t jeopardize the safety of the lorry.”
“I am sure I can look after myself, Eilidh,” Graham replied, striding towards the doors.
“Aye, Graham, that you can, but as yet you can’t read the crystals - and I can.”
“OK. That’s fair, but just know I am quite happy to go alone.”
Eilidh joined Graham at the doors and slid a lighter and crystal into his hand.
“You have your locket?” she asked.
“I do.”
“Good, it will protect you, but if anything goes wrong light the lighter, hold it to that crystal, and think very hard about this lorry. I know you will be able to do it if you need to. Your father had skills far greater than any we have ever seen before. It’s in your make up, Graham.”
“O.K, but I’m not leaving you.”
“Listen, I need to know that I can trust you to put the greater good before me.”
“And if I can’t?” Graham asked.
“Then you could be sentencing all these people to death,” Eilidh said, honestly.
“Do you think we might be risking too much for a urinal?”
“Yes. But what am I to do? Jenny is just a child and ultimately my responsibility. I will see that she gets what she needs.”
“Right, let’s do it then,” Graham said, pushing the doors to the lorry open.
A beam of murky daylight streamed in through the gap.
“Keep that baby warm,” Graham said, turning to face Corran.
“I am,” she replied, lifting the duvet higher and wincing as the movement pulled on her stitches.
Graham lifted a sheet of paper on the end of her mattress. “Erm, Rose would you mind giving Corran two Ibuprofen tablets please?”
Simon was standing beside the lorry locked in conversation with Robert and Duncan.
“Jenny needs the toilet,” Eilidh said, moving swiftly towards the three men.
“No,” Simon replied firmly.
“She’s desperate. It’s going to be hours before we can stop anywhere suitable. It’s a risk we have to take.”
“We took a risk two hours ago, Eilidh, and it cost Harry and Kate their lives. Surely the girl can hold it.”
“Graham is coming with me.”
“Surely he can hold it?”
“No, Graham’s not going to the toilet. He’s coming with me to buy a travel urinal.”
Simon nodded. “I see the sense in what you are doing, lass, but I don’t agree with the risk you are taking.”
“The girl needs the toilet. Start the engines and be ready to leave as soon as we get back. We’ve been here too long already,” Eilidh said, feeling suddenly uncomfortable.
She tightened her hand on the crystal, focusing her mind on the Dark Circle. The faces she knew, the immortal shadows she fought to trace, the evil brothers she suspected. The gem told her nothing new. Graham stiffened beside her and instinctively she re-scanned their surroundings. Cars and lorries came and went. Travelers moved wearily between their vehicles and the services. A Travel Lodge welcomed its guests and the air hung heavily with the smell of greasy fast food. Everything was as it should be.
“You alright, Eilidh?” Simon asked, frowning at the frightened shadows in her eyes.
“I’m fine,” she lied, trying to decide if she should abandon the mission.
“Take Duncan with you,” Simon suggested.
“No. It’s better that he stays here with the lorry,” she said, cementing her decision.
“Let me go, Eilidh. You stay with the lorry,” Duncan said.
“No, you can’t read the crystal.”
Graham followed closely, his hand cupped in his trouser pocket over the crystal, locket and his lighter.
“Don’t follow me so closely,” Eilidh growled. “Go ahead of me, so that I can keep an eye on you. When we get inside, you get the potty. I’ll follow you from a distance into the shop,” she whispered.
Graham nodded and went on ahead. Eilidh scanned the car park nervously as they reached the glass doors to the building. A man in a yellow coat held the door open for her. She thanked him and moved cautiously into the foyer.
Graham did as he had been asked and went straight to the shop. She watched him pick up two blue plastic potties and move swiftly to join the queue for the till. A shiver ran through her and she immediately tensed. A hand touched her shoulder. She froze as the sharp points of finger nails dug into her skin.
White faced, Graham stared across the foyer into her eyes.
Eilidh closed her eyes and concentrated. She knew she could reach him, if she just focused, just channeled her thoughts from her mind to his.
‘Go, Graham, go,’ she thought, desperately routing for the connection that would take her into his mind.
“What a strange place to find you,” said Shannon, with a cynical laugh.
Shannon’s familiar voice breathed warm air against the back of her neck.
“Shannon!” exclaimed Eilidh.
She made the connection, heard his thoughts, felt his fear.
‘I know you can hear me, Graham. Go, you promised me you would. Tell Simon it was Shannon.’
“It’s just you and me, my pathetic little friend,” Shannon snarled.
Eilidh held Graham’s stare, willing him to do as he had promised. He didn’t move, his body stood ridged, cemented to the ground as if Shannon’s appearance had turned him to stone.
“What are you doing here?” Eilidh asked, Shannon, whilst locking her eyes on Graham.
“Looking for you, Mouse,” Shannon replied.
Eilidh tensed at the words. Even now the nickname hurt. She bit down on her bottom lip willing her mind not to stray, controlling the emotions this woman roused and shielding her heart from the sharp blade of Shannon’s words. Just words, she reminded herself. No more was she the timid little farm girl, bullied and belittled, by the girl who stood behind her. Eilidh knew her role in life, understood her purpose and was ready to do the job she had been sent to do.
Straightening her shoulders, she breathed deeply and burrowed into Graham’s eyes with harsh determination.
‘Go now or they will all die,’ she told him, before breaking the link and swiftly turning her back on Graham to come face to face with Shannon.
“So what do we do now?” Eilidh asked, with deliberately slow words.
The edges of Shannon’s mouth quirked in a hard, evil smile.
“I play a game with you,” she replied, her smile turning to a thin tormenting laugh.
“And what game would that be?” Eilidh swallowed hard, knowing that her fate lay in this woman’s hands.
“You’ll see,” Shannon replied, snapping her hand open to display a tiny crystal in her palm.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit dangerous to do that here?” Eilidh said, squaring her chin.
“Who is to stop me?” Shannon spat.
“No one, but it won’t do you or your Dark Circle much good to be displaying your magic in such a public place or way,” Eilidh whispered.
Shannon grabbed Eilidh’s forearm roughly. “We’ll use the toilets then.”
It would have been so easy to run, to cry for help from the many innocent faces around them. But to do so would force Shannon to summon others to her aid. To bring the members of the Dark Circle to this place would spell the certain demise of those she had pledged to protect. Eilidh followed without resistance.
The cubicle was small, hardly large enough for one body, let alone two. Shannon shoved Eilidh hard into the corner beside the toilet. The paper dispenser cut painfully into her side as she watched the girl she had grown up with light the flame that would take her to a certain death. She
knew what to expect and made no effort to stop it. Holding her breath she closed her eyes and succumbed to the familiar feeling of being hurled through time and space.
A twisted evil grin was the first thing Eilidh saw when the dizzying motion of travel had ceased. Blinking hard she adjusted her eyes. Recognition of her surroundings hit hard. The table scarred and blackened with age in its familiar place on the stone floor of the kitchen. A quick glance to her right showed her the window, its pane cracked and its sill crumbling and rotten with age and neglect. Cobwebs and dust filled every corner of the room. Shannon’s mouth twisted in an ugly grin as she followed her captive’s eyes.
“You remember the old place then?”
Eilidh turned to face her, staring hatefully at the woman who had tormented her so many times in this very room.
“Why?” Eilidh asked bitterly.
“Why what?” Shannon snarled.
“Why have you brought me here?”
Shannon gave a loud snort of laughter. “Because it’s mine.”
“How?” Eilidh asked, noticing the bottom edge of a birds’ nest poking from the outside eaves of the window.
“Angus said I could have it… Once he got rid of my parents, of course.”
“Don’t you care what happened to your parents and sister?”
Shannon gave a bitter laugh and her mouth curled into a cruel smile. “Why should I? They never cared what happened to me.”
“Do you know where your family are?” Eilidh asked, praying that Shannon didn’t have the answer to her question.
“No.”
Eilidh’s shoulders relaxed and she let out an audible sigh.
“That pleases you, my timid friend?” Shannon asked with searching eyes.
Eilidh didn’t reply.
“What do you know of my family?”
“I know nothing of your family, Shannon,” Eilidh lied.
“I don’t believe you,” Shannon spat.
“I thought you didn’t care.”
“I don’t.”
“Then why the interest?” Eilidh asked, trying to gauge her motives.
“I’m not interested. They can be dead, for all I care.”
“Do you believe them to be?”
“What I think is none of your business,” Shannon objected, thrusting her hand, palm out, in front of Eilidh’s face. “Hand over your crystal and locket.”
Eilidh did as she was told, pouring the items from her fist into Shannon’s waiting palm.
Their surrender was no great loss. Eilidh knew that to use them would bring the Dark Circle upon her and the villagers. It was going to take more than one locket to protect her from the Dark Circle’s trace, now that Shannon had her mark.
“Follow me,” Shannon demanded, grabbing a handful of Eilidh’s hair and dragging her to the front door.
Three hundred years of blatant neglect stared Eilidh in the face. Even in the cold air of winter, the crumbling courtyard was overwhelmed by rotting vegetation. Loose gutters that clung perilously to the stone cottages; fallen chimney stacks; wooden doors that hung pathetically from rusted hinges; smashed slate tiles and cracked windows all went to make for a pitiful and heartbreaking glimpse into what had become of her childhood home. She moved mechanically, stumbling occasionally on a loose cobble or fallen tile, barely catching herself against crumbling stone walls and rotting timber supports.
They stopped before an old cottage, its use as a home long since forgotten after time and neglect had eroded all trace of human habitation. Eilidh remembered the building and the farm hand whose home it had it been.
“What happened to Alex and Jean?”
“What do you think, you stupid girl?” Shannon snapped betraying a fleeting expression of irritation.
“And the rest?” Eilidh pushed.
“Shut up,” Shannon screamed. “You know what happened to them and what’s more, Mouse, I would do it again.”
Eilidh didn’t doubt she would, but what she hadn’t expected was the flicker of conscience she noticed in her captor’s eyes.
“In!” Shannon ordered, pushing Eilidh roughly through the doorframe of the cottage.
“Just for the record, my parents are dead,” Shannon spat. “I killed them, along with all the rest of the lowlife no-hopers that lived on this farm. I killed them all, the same way I am going to kill you,” she screamed hysterically.
The room was dark, even with the door ajar. The smell of old cement, dust and damp rotting wood filled her nose. Eilidh turned her back on the open door and stared blindly at the stone wall she knew she faced. She waited until the door closed and the bolt slid home, before slumping to the floor and resting her head heavily against her knees. She sighed, relieved to find that Shannon didn’t have any idea where her own parents were. They were, of course, at the village. Eilidh had seen to their safety shortly after her own arrival in the village. Eilidh prayed that her friends were safe, that her sacrifice would be enough to ensure their survival. She was afraid of her fate, but it was an easier fear than she had known before. She would die right here on the land on which she had been born. Her death would surely come at the hands of those who had taken her parents’ lives and she had done the job which God had sent her to do. In that knowledge she found peace, and in that peace she found sleep which came with Shannon’s whispers echoing in her ears.
******
CHAPTER 25
Graham stood panting beside the lorry, his face flushed and panicked.
“They’ve got her!” he gasped.
“Eilidh?” Simon asked.
Graham nodded, frantically trying to regain a normal breathing pattern.
“Get in the lorry, now,” Simon bellowed.
“No, we’ve got to help her,” Graham protested.
“Do as I say, man, or I will leave you here,” Simon shouted, hoisting himself into the cab and slamming the driver’s door shut.
Graham launched himself around the front of the lorry, and as the engine roared to life he grabbed the door and flung his feet onto the step before squeezing into the already fully loaded cab.
“Shut the door,” Simon shouted, “and, Duncan, don’t just sit there with your mouth open, make space for the man.”
“Where’s Robert?” Graham asked, finally heaving the heavy door closed.
“Back here,” came the dulcet tones of the man in question.
“What’s he doing on the bed?” Graham asked, slightly alarmed.
“Are you comfortable, Doctor?” Simon asked.
“No, not particularly,” Graham replied, realizing that Robert had been consigned to the sleeping quarters because of lack of space in the cab.
The lorry picked up speed as it reached the end of the entrance ramp and Simon joined the north-bound roadway.
“Are the others with us?” Duncan asked, trying to get a visual on the camera monitor.
“Aye, lad, that they are,” Simon said, casting a quick glance at the monitor and then in his side mirror. “Now, Graham, tell me what happened.”
“I’m not really sure, to be honest. I did what Eilidh asked. We split up and I went to …”
“You split up? Why?”
“Because Eilidh said it was too risky to stay together. I went for the potties…”
“And?” Simon asked, checking his mirror again.
“I was in the queue when I glanced up to see a girl standing behind Eilidh.”
“Can you describe the girl?”
“Eilidh told me to tell you it’s Shannon.”
“Shannon?” gasped Duncan.
“That’s what Eilidh said.”
“She talked to you?” Simon asked, raising his brows.
“Not exactly.”
“Either she did or she didn’t, Doctor. Now which one was it?”
“Well, OK then, she talked to me, but I heard it in my head. I don’t know, I’ve never known anything like it before. It was as though I could hear her mind.”
“She used her mind to communic
ate with you. It’s not that unusual. People do it all the time without realizing they are doing it. What did she say?” Simon asked, moving swiftly on.
“She told me to run, to leave her and come to you. You did exactly what she asked me to tell you to do.”
“What would that be?”
“To leave her.”
“Was there anything else?” Simon asked, ignoring the obvious accusation in Graham’s tone.
“No. I did what I promised and left her, as have you, Simon,” he paused and turned to look at Simon over Duncan. “I don’t agree with it. I think we should have tried to help her.”
“On this matter, Doctor, your opinion is of no interest to me.”
“Pa, he’s right. If you won’t help Eilidh then I will,” Duncan said emphatically. “I’ve lost two friends today already. I don’t intend to lose another.”
Simon made no move to contradict his son. He kept his eyes focused on the road ahead, casting an occasional nervous glance at his mirrors and the rear view camera monitor.
A tense silence ensued where the only sound was that of the engine as they kept to a steady fifty miles per hour, heading north up the A1.
“If the boy wishes to help, I offer my services in his support. It was my nephew and my wife’s friend who lost their lives today. He is right. There should be no more deaths at the hands of these people,” Robert said.
“And this is your opinion is it?” replied Simon with contempt.
“Yes, Sir, it is.”
“And pray tell, Mr. Hamilton, how exactly do you and my son intend to help Eilidh?”
“We will look for her,” argued a defiant Duncan.
“I asked Robert, not you, Duncan.”
“Your son is correct, Sir. We will search for the lady and when she is found we will return her to this lorry and the safety of her people.
“Where will you look for her?” Simon asked, raising and sharpening his voice.
“At the services,” Duncan snapped. “You should never have left her there, Pa.”
“Shouldn’t I?”
“No, you shouldn’t.”
“You would rather have me risk the lives of all the people in the village, in this lorry and those following us for Eilidh?”