11.
Andrea was just waking as he returned. His head pained him and he wondered if he were ill. He had a bitter taste in his mouth and his body ached all over. He remembered Helena but it was like a dream and he did not dare mention it to Andrea.
For the rest of the day he slept and Andrea busied herself around the household. Throughout the day she too had started to feel unsettled and it was only as the daylight started to dim that she felt anxious. It would be drawing dark soon and Elizabeth was late. She had spent all of the morning at her lessons with the nuns and in the afternoon she would have spent some time with Tom down on the beach.
She should have been home a good while ago and Andrea had started to fret.
“Alex, Alex, wake up!”
Opening his eyes, it took him a moment to focus. His dreams had been full of green eyes and long black hair and for a moment he felt guilty.
“Alex, Elizabeth has not yet returned home. I am worried and I think we should go and look for her.”
He swung quickly out of bed and she was taken aback by his own alarm.
“Do you think something could have happened to her?”
She had hoped she was just being over dramatic with her instinctive mother’s worrying, but Alex’s reaction only compounded her own feelings.
“I saw Helena today.”
“What?” Andrea jumped at the mention of the name.
“I mean, I think I saw Helena. I’m sorry Andrea, I’m not really sure of what I saw, or if I have been dreaming.”
Grabbing his face she looked deep into his eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me before? Alex, what exactly happened?”
He could not tell her everything, but mentioned that he had followed a shadowy figure into the Abbey early that morning.
“She acted like a mad woman, if I really did see her. I can’t really remember.”
Andrea started to put on her cloak.
“Where are you going?”
“Elizabeth is in danger, I can feel it. Helena is evil and will be up to no good. We must find our child.”
Reaching into a box beside the bed she pulled the two small runes out of a black velvet pouch.
Alex frowned.
“What do you want those for?”
She hesitated, not really sure herself but feeling the voice of Geraldine deep inside of her.
“Insurance?”
Grabbing his cloak the two set out together and headed over towards the Bay at the Back of the Ocean; the place where Elizabeth and Tom liked to play.
The sky was grey and threatening as they reached the dunes and they had to pull their cloaks up around their faces as the wind whipped up the sand around them. A small boy was sheltering against some rocks and Andrea recognized him as the boy, Tom, and they quickly made their way down to speak to him.
The boy was crying and as soon as he saw Andrea he rushed toward her and clung to the outside of her cloak whilst he sobbed.
“Whatever is the matter young Tom, now tell me what has happened to upset you so? We are out looking for Elizabeth, have you seen her?”
At the sound of his friends name he burst into a further round of sobbing.
Andrea kneeled down kindly and brushed his forehead with her hand.
“There, there, now whatever is it? Surely it can’t be as bad as all that?”
Her heart was beating fast but she didn’t want the boy to know that she was also frightened.
The boy wiped his nose on his sleeve and looked up at her with dark, wet eyes.
“I told her not to go.”
His voice was weak and timid.
“Go where Tom?”
“With the Lady.”
Andrea looked up at Alex, his face ashen white.
“Which lady Tom, who was she?”
He looked up at Alex with large, round eyes as if he didn’t know quite what to say.
“It’s alright lad, you can say anything to me, now go on.”
“Well Sir, I saw the Lady, it was the horrible one, the one with the dark hair and funny eyes. Your...”
He stopped short.
“My sister Helena, yes go on.”
“Well Sir, I knew it was her, but Elizabeth kept calling her mother as if she thought it was the Lady Andra. But I knew it wasn’t Sir and I kept telling her not to go but she kept walking away until they had both disappeared over the fields. I tried to stop her Sir, I truly did. There was something about the Lady Helena that I did not like; if you’ll pardon me Sir?”
The poor boy was quite worked up and burst into tears once again. Andrea hugged him until he was quiet once more.
“Do you know where they were going?”
The boy shook his head but pointed in the direction of where they had been heading.
Alex had gone quiet, remembering his early morning encounter with Helena. So it was true, it hadn’t been a dream. She had tricked him into thinking that she was his beloved Andrea. He trembled at the thought of his betrayal, even though it was not his fault.
“Go straight home Tom and don’t tell anyone about this. We don’t want to worry your Ma and Pa now, do we?”
The young lad shook his head and scampered back over the dunes and they watched him run until he was out of sight.
“What now?”
Andrea was almost in tears now the boy had left; she felt so helpless.
The clouds had started to gather as they had been talking with the boy and now the rain began, slowly at first, turning into huge great droplets as the sky opened up in anger.
“Maybe she went back to the Abbey, if you saw her there then maybe there is a connection?”
The image of Helena, naked on the stone slabs flitted across his mind and he tried to shake it away.
“Perhaps. It’s a start.”
The two headed together across the fields as the first flash of lightening lit up the sky and the heaving clouds rubbed together and thundered down on top of them. By the time they reached the Abbey they were soaked to the skin.
The windows were lit from within but there was no sound. Usually they could hear the evening vespers, but tonight the air was still.
Alex pushed cautiously against the oak door and Andrea followed closely behind. A hushed reverence hung in the air as if no-one had entered the place for a hundred years.
Andrea caught her breath, despite her fear the cold Abbey looked beautiful in the soft glow; someone had been busy, hundreds of candles shone from every corner.
A cloaked figure stood at the altar; it was Helena, and by her side stood the child Elizabeth.
“Elizabeth!”
The name hung in the air as Andrea called out to her daughter and started to rush forward. Alex held her back; Helena would be up to her old tricks and was not to be trusted.
“What do you want Helena, give us back the child. She can be of no use to you.”
He could feel her cold reptilian smile across the room.
“I am not holding the girl against her will. See!”
Raising her arms she demonstrated that she had no hold on the girl.
“Elizabeth, you may go now” and she tried to push the young girl away from the altar but she would not move and instead threw her arms around Helena as if in fear from those around her.
“See, the poor girl is afraid of you. She wants to stay with me. Isn’t that right Elizabeth?”
The girl gave a brief nod and continued to cling to her cloak.
“Elizabeth, it’s me, your mother. Come to me my darling there is nothing to be afraid of.”
The girl looked out blankly across the semi darkness.
“What games are you playing at Helena?”
Alex stepped forward.
“I’m not sure what you mean Alexhander. You were the one that wanted to play games earlier. What on earth would Andrea think?”
He opened his mouth but could not speak. Anything he said would be a betrayal to his beloved Andrea and he could not bear to hurt her.
“Well my valiant brother. The time has come to show your allegiance. You can see how your daughter clings to me. She is wise. You should do the same Alexhander. I have the power and I have seen many things. Together, we two can rule the universe, it has been foretold. Come with us. Now is the time. The ancient powers are gathering; can you not hear them?”
A peal of thunder rumbled above them and a streak of lightning flashed against the tower as if it were daylight outside. The storm was directly above them.
Alex rushed forward to seize the girl but she cried out as he approached her.
“Elizabeth it is I, your father!”
The poor girl looked feverish, her face flushed and her eyes wild.
“You are the devil.”
She buried her head into the folds of Helena’s cloak.
“What have you done to the poor girl?”
Alex grabbed Helena by the arm and pulled her close.
She laughed; her face close to his, the red lips wide open until he could see the red of her throat. His hands shook with rage, he could easily strangle the woman, feel his fingers once again wrap around her slender neck.
“You forget how powerful I am Alexhander. I have now found all of the ancient stones and I feed from their strength. Like the Runes, they were formed by the Gods at the beginning of all time and hidden across the four corners of the world to make sure that no-one could take advantage of the supreme power until it was time. All we need now are the two remaining runes and the ancient powers will be reunited for the first occasion since the very dawn of Time. Can you not feel it? It is the birth of a new time Alexhander, our time, and we will share the power as it has been foretold!”
Andrea stepped forward.
“That is not so Helena. You are wrong. Yes it was foretold that a brother and sister would rise to take power, to rule, but that is not you and Alexhander. It is not your time; it is ours; mine and Alex’s time. The power will pass to our children, or our children’s children - when the time is right.”
Helena glared into the darkness.
“How dare you, you stupid bitch. What do you know about us or what has been written? You aren’t even the real Andra. You have the two runes but you do not know their power, now hand them to me and I will be merciful to both you and the girl.”
Andrea felt the two small stones stored safely within her pocket.
“And Alex is not the real Alexhander. He is not your brother. The truth is that you two were not even of the same blood.”
Throwing back her dark hair, Helena laughed out loudly.
“Aha, so Miss Prim, and how do you know of all these details?”
“Geraldine told me, and I believe her.”
Helena was silent for a moment, the name of Geraldine sobering her for a second.
“The young nun and the old woman; she talked too much. Well I soon stopped her idle tongue. You should have seen her face when I sat with her at the Hotel. She knew her time had come. She was strong, but not strong enough. I only had to touch her to cause an embolism in her brain. It was fun to watch her frail form slip away before me, the spittle dribbling from her mouth like an imbecile.”
Alex could take no more. At the mention of his poor grandmother he lunged at Helena and felt his hands upon her throat. As he touched the pale skin he was almost knocked to the floor by a sudden surge of energy. The lights seemed to flash in front of his eyes and when he opened them again Andrea was standing before him with the child.
“You have seen sense Alexhander. You must come with me now as we regain our rightful place.” She held out her hands towards him.
“Alex, don’t!”
A voice rang out clear and loud from the darkness behind him. It sounded familiar but his head was foggy.
“Alex, it’s me Andrea, don’t be fooled by Helena.”
He looked at the woman standing before him. The face of his beloved Andrea, he was confused.
“Alex, it’s me Andrea, don’t go with her, it’s a trick.”
A figure stepped out of the darkness, the dark hair and the green eyes, it looked like Helena.
Helena struggled with her emotions. She must stay calm, but the young woman was annoying her. The spell she had cast over poor Alexhander would not last for too long and she needed him to take her hand willingly. She also must have the two runes that were in Andrea’s possession to give her absolute power.
“Alex, listen to me. You must fetch me the two runes from Helena. She is keeping them from me and stopping the both of us from gaining the powers which are rightly ours.”
Alex looked at both women; he was confused. Something was not quite right.
Helena was becoming bored with the charade. Soon the spell would wear off and she could not afford to wait.
“Alexhander, if we do not get hold of the runes then we will have to sacrifice Elizabeth to the Gods, it is the only way to appease them. Do you want to see your daughter slaughtered?”
He looked at the woman’s face. It looked like Andrea, yet the words she was speaking were not those of his wife. She would never harm one hair of her own daughter’s.
The lights shone once again in his head and he could barely think.
“Alexhander, fetch me the runes, I must have them!”
Her voice was shrill and demanding in his ear and he had no other option than to obey. He approached the woman standing in the darkness. She was calling his name over and over again.
“Kill her, Alexhander. Get the runes. Quickly now!”
His head told him to kill the woman. She looked like Helena but there was something in her eyes, and his heart was telling him something different.
He could feel his hands upon her throat, the pleading look in her eye.
“Alexhander, can you hear me? Take the runes, do what you wish, but you must save the girl, save our daughter Elizabeth.”
It was then that he knew, and the image of his beloved Andrea, of Andra and all that had been before merged into his head.
His Andrea, the mother of his child, would not talk about sacrificing her own daughter. The eyes, although they looked like Helena’s, did not have the same cold stare. He could see the fire burning deep in their depths. The woman he was trying to kill was not Helena, but his beloved Andrea. Forcing his hands from her throat, Alex summoned all of his strength to throw his body away from her and onto the ground. As he did the spell was broken and he reached out his hand to his Andrea; love had brought him to his senses.
Helena was livid and stood angrily at the altar. The spell seemed to have been broken and she held Elizabeth tightly by the arm as the girl reached out and sobbed for her parents. Helena had drawn a great knife from her belt and was pointing it at the child’s heart.
“Give me the runes.”
Alex could feel the pains behind his eyes, but they were nothing to the anger he felt within his chest. His wife, his child and his grandmother, he had to be strong for all of them.
Rushing forward he grabbed at the string of ancient stones that were strung around Helena’s neck, the source of her so called power.
The leather cord stretched in his fingers and she shrieked as the strong twine dug deep into her slender neck, before he felt it finally give and the ornament snapped in front of her. The sudden release pushed him back and Alex found himself reeling across the ground, knocking his head against a sharp stone plinth. He was out for the count.
The ancient stones scattered across the floor and around Helena’s feet, striking the slabs with a sharp click as stone met stone. As she scrabbled to retrieve them, she released her grip on Elizabeth who fled quickly, sobbing into her mother’s arms.
Without delay, Andrea bundled the girl against her cloak and fled quickly down the aisle and out into the storm.
Her arms ached with the weight of her daughter but she could not stop. The rain was still torrential and dragged down at her clothing, her feet slipping and sliding in the mud below.
Andrea could feel the other woman hot on her heels and she turned her head to see Helena almost upon her. She had tried in vain but it was all too late and as she reached for the gate her feet slid from underneath her body and she and the girl were sent crashing onto the muddy grass.
Helena was standing over both of them, a look of triumph on her face. She held the sacred stones in her hand and Andrea knew she would now stop at nothing to retrieve the runes. Everything had been in vain; all of their efforts useless. Everything that she, Geraldine, Alex and her grandma Betty had been through was all for nothing.
Helena lifted the knife from her belt and held it high, the blade glittering against the night.
There was a cry from the Abbey and Helena hesitated for a moment and looked around. It was Alex, but he was too late. He could not save Andrea or the girl now.
Raising the blade she stood in victory, ready to deliver the death blow. Andrea looked her enemy in the eye; like Geraldine she would meet her end with dignity, and she drew the girl closely towards her.
A great crash of thunder roared from the heavens as a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, lighting up the shimmering steel of the blade in Helena’s hand.
The smoke swirled into the atmosphere as her pale flesh fizzled and crackled in the damp air. Andrea had thought that she heard a woman’s voice laugh out shrilly into the night as a second bolt of lightning hit the ground. For a moment she was blinded by the light.
***
An eerie calm settled on the Abbey grounds. Andrea opened her eyes slowly, afraid of the sight that would greet her. She was lying on the grass and the sky above her was blue. It was a cold day and yet the sun was shining; she could feel the warmth upon her cheeks.
There was a murmuring beside her and she glanced to see Elizabeth happily stirring in her buggy.
“Andrea!”
His voice rang through her head and she looked up into his eyes.
“You OK? I think we made it.”
Taking her hand, he pulled Andrea gently to her feet and kissed her. They were home; all three of them had made it back to safety.
She could see that the ferry had just arrived into port and that the tourists were disembarking. They would soon be making their pilgrimage, down towards the Abbey.
There was so much to say, so many questions to ask, but for now they walked back home in silence, step by step into the Future.
THE END