Heritage (19 page)

“You could be a little less enthused by this latest development Alex.”

Sighing I closed the book and tucked it under my arm.  So let’s get this straight, there are four stones. One which we already have and the rest are scattered all around god knows where. These stones together can control anyone or thing. Perfect, just perfect, taking the box from my jean pocket it shook at my touch.

“Let’s take a look at that” Josh asked as he pushed past the table and chair. The moment he touched the stone it glowed in his hand.  Rushing water filled the tiny book filled room, echoing against the stone walls. Lighting up the room it jumped from his hand back into its container. Shutting its lid the room fell silent.

“I now want to go to the seaside” sighed Alex with an arm filled with books.

“I want to go to the seaside I’m not trying to say that everybody wants to go…”

“Kooks? Really Josh?”

“Yes Alex really, it seemed appropriate” continuing singing, he took the books from Alex’s arm.

“Let’s get out of here before someone sees” I suggested. Picking up the Ruins of our souls and making my way out of the small room, we headed back towards my bedroom.

“ADABELLE”

My father’s shout rang through my head like a bullet shot. Telepathy is just another thing that’s going to really bug me, whatever happened to good old fashioned texting.

“Oh come on!” I yelled.

“What?” Alex asked opening my bedroom door.

“My father is calling me” I moaned and walked into my room flopping onto my bed, I pulled out my mobile. As the phone began to ring my annoyance set in. I’m guessing Katelyn had some vision of me in the library. It’s a wonder if I get away with anything.

“Hello” He answered.

“Yes father?” I asked even though I couldn’t see his face, I know the look he will have on it by the unevenness of his breathing.

“Get to my office now young lady!” He yelled through gritted teeth.

“I’m a bit busy Dad with the case you assigned me to, is it important?” I replied cockily.

“If you value my respect it is yes. Do you? Value my respect?” He replied. I’m guessing replying is that a trick question wouldn’t be in my best interest.

“I’ll be there in a minute”

Closing the phone and slowly slipping off my bed, I left the room and dawdled to my father’s office.

                                                     ***

“Is it possible for you to pay attention for ten minutes Adabelle?” My father ranted as he paced his office for the hundredth time.

“I’ve been paying attention for the last hour” I replied, trying but failing to stop my eyes from staring into space.

“Then what have I been saying to you?”

“You have been telling me that I apparently need to start noting down, where I go and what I do and who I do it with. Sort of like a Bridget Jones kind of thing I guessing” I smiled.

“Well…”

“Dad I don’t see why you want me to do these things. I’m not fifteen, and I don’t need a diary to keep my secrets in. If I had any, which by the way, I don’t”

“I don’t think you’re getting the point of this exercise Elle” He sighed taking his seat. So it isn’t to spy on me like I’m a teenager, by getting me to write down everything in a book which you most likely will take from me. Funny but that’s what it seems like to me. I can barely sort out the thoughts in my head, never mind write them down on paper. My silence had lasted a little too long as my father began to shake his head.

“I see you are getting slightly over your head, how are things in Icarus?”

“Well we are looking into the marking on the ground. We believe that they are old markings made a while before the killings happened. We found an old altar in a shack near where one of the elves was killed. There was an element stone in a burnt out box. So we are thinking that the markings were made to tell demons where the stones had been hidden”

Well I just put that together in my head this second, but that does actually sound plausible.

“Right, I’ll get my men to start searching the area, now off you go I have work to do” He shooed me from the room and shut the door behind me.

“Always a pleasure” I whispered making my way to my room.

Feeling the texture of the wallpaper with my fingers, the air around me shifted. Turning as fast I could my heart stopped as Ethan orbed in front of me.

“DUDE!” I yelled punching him in the arm.

“WHAT!” He yelled back mockingly. “So you have found the first stone then” He continued in a deep mocking voice.

“Wait what” I asked confused. Taking my arm he led me into an empty box room. I have no idea why we call it that, it’s bigger than the bottom floor of the Bales house. Wind whistled through the cracks in the window pane, sounds like the Bales house to I chuckled, with all the whining. Looking around the shabby room I spotted my brother crouched in a corner with a torn book to his face.

“So…” my voice echoed in the empty room.

“Take a look, I found this in err… the library” He mumbled the last part of the sentence, it’s a good job I had extra hearing.

“You have been through dad’s library, you sod. Why didn’t you tell me” I clucked taking the book from his hands and kneeling in front of him.

“Err duh you would have told dad, I know what you’re like” he jeered pulling his knees up to his chin.

“I wouldn’t tell him, I’ve been there to, hence me knowing about it. Look I…..” Finishing mid sentence my eyes flashed over to the picture of a crystal on the page, glowing like it had done in my hand. All four of them glowed as I continued to flip the pages in sheer awe at the glow of each individual element. The Fire element caught my attention the most, its warm glow seemed to fill my whole body making me feel like I was sat in front of a roaring fire.

The fire element is both creative and destructive with it courageous heat it can overwhelm and soothe. Many sorceresses believe it is passionate, emotional, untamed, the most powerful of energy forces, which represents the force of the Spirit.

“You have the Water which is apparently the least powerful of the four, but is supposed to be the most desirable. Most likely as the world is made up more of water” Ethan mumbled from behind the book.

“So Earth, Fire and Air are out there somewhere. Awesome, treasure hunt without a map” I sighed placing my back on the wall and stretching my legs out.

“Well I can’t help you with the Map, but I can help you with the Earth stone.” Ethan smiled pulling a copper string bag from his pocket. Fresh cut grass filled the room as he pulled out the stone. Thick oak trees filled the room spreading out their roots through the cracks in the floor boards.

“It’s beautiful” I gulped as it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

“Where did you get it?” I exclaimed. “Did you go to Icarus? Please tell me you didn’t go there.” Giving him a stern look, he rolled his eyes.

“I went with Leo actually, and before you go all High and mighty on me, Dad told me to go. You’re not the only person in this family with some importance you know Elle. Geez get off your high horse” He exclaimed slamming the book closed.

“Whoa! Cool the Jets, I just don’t want you to get hurt ok” ruffling his hair and taking the book from his hands I stood up.

“Come on we both need some sleep, we can tell the others tomorrow.”

Chapter Ten

Alight with the smell of freshly mown grass and sounds of bubbling streams. We gathered around the cluttered oak table, that stood in the centre of the Roots and Wings dining hall, which was mainly used for autumn feasts. As it was the middle of winter we were sure no one would disturb us, The fact that it was on the darkest side of the castle also worked in our favour. The two elements glowed together on the table surrounded by rippling lights.

“I don’t understand. What do they exactly do apart from create a visual landscape,” Josh asked, replacing them back into their own containers.

“No idea. There just supposed to be immensely powerful,” Ethan explained, opening another book searching for answers.

“There really should be a better way of describing things other than powerful. That doesn’t really tell us much” Alex moaned putting the water stone back into her bag.  The decision to keep both stones separate was Josh’s, which surprised us all as he isn’t one to be clever.

However, it was a good decision and everyone was right. We knew the stones were powerful, and that apparently demons wanted them for something but what and why. Also, why is Alex wearing my jumper, do I seriously need to lock my door.

“Ok two things, one Alex why are you wearing my clothing? And two, we genuinely need to start keeping track of these chaos symbols” I requested.

“Hey I was cold” She mumbled. “We were coming here, and your room was on the way”

“Right” I replied sarcastically.

“As for the second thing, I have been back to Icarus with Leo and talked to our Giant friend Gair. Who took me around all the crime scenes, which by the way were far apart from each other. I didn’t find any stones, but I’m not really good at looking for things”, Alex explained handing me a large sheet of paper with a map of Icarus drawn on. Each chaos symbol had been drawn on. With ten in total its lot of ground to cover.

“I’ve marked off where the places where the two stones had been found. The shack and The Tree house” She pointed out on the map the river and the tree. So the water stone was found near a river and the earth in a tree.

“There connected. Water near water and Earth in a tree…..” I muttered.

“So what Fire will be in a fire and Air will be floating around in the breeze” Josh interrupted.

“Oh I’m sorry, do you have any other ideas?” I asked. The boy gets one thing right and now thinks he’s a genius.

“Wait!” Ethan whispered. Taking a ruler from his bag, he began to connect the points of the murders. Muttering as lines began to form.

“You are Kidding, A pentagram?” Josh spluttered sounding as confused as I felt. A pentagram has five points being a star and all. Each of the stones that were found were on a point, each meaning that the other four should be at the other areas where the point falls.

“There’s a fifth element?” Alex asked. “That’s impossible right?”

“Unless it’s not an Element” I thought out loud. Maybe it’s not what we think, maybe it’s not just the elements that they are after.

Brothers of the dark

Magic forces far and wide,
Reaching out through space and light,
Come to me I summon thee

Settle here on this darkened night

“Shit” I croaked. There summoning someone or something and they need the power of the stones to do it.

“Care to Share with the group Sherlock?” Ethan asked. The mounting of books next to him toppled over and hit the floor breaking me out of my trance.

“They are summoning someone. When we found the first element there was a piece of paper with the words brothers of the dark. Magic forces far and wide, reaching out through space and light, come to me I summon thee, settle here on this darkened night written on it.” I cried.

It makes sense now, well sort of. The reason why the books didn’t tell us anything about the elements power was because without the right words they weren’t powerful. Making a pen materialise in my hand, I wrote the elements on the section on the map that had already had an element stone found on them.

“The fifth one I think might be a meeting place or an opening of some kind”

Drawing a cross on all the sections, between two of the points that hadn’t been named, I stared at the map.

“At least we know that they are going to be at the middle point of two points of the star” Josh put in.

“Wrong. We found the earth element in this tree house which is nowhere near a point. We stumbled across it after looking at the murder scene over here,” Ethan pointed to one of the stars points. So they are not hidden at each of the star points. Of course not, that would be easy, but they are in each section of the star. I suppose that helps a little.

“Ok I’m so confused” Alex sighed pulling the map towards her.

“Look, here  are two points of murder scenes and two points of the star, but the space between them is where the earth stone was found.” I explained pointing at the star.

“O.K I’m sort of on the same page now. So we have to find Air and Fire and then.... An altar maybe?” She asked with a puzzled expression glued to her face.

“Yeah but we are not going to cover all the ground ourselves” I mumbled. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I texted Leo to meet us in the dining hall. Before my phone was back in my pocket, he materialised in front of us all.

“Your Majesties” He bowed and returned to his solider stance.

“Leo we have found something” I explained. My phone vibrated in my pocket as I spoke. Leaving the others to fill Leo in on the discovery, I answered and went into the corridor.