Eliza's Shadow (21 page)

I fingered the small satchel inspecting its
contents. It looked to contain a small mass of dried leaves, nothing more. I
wondered how a bundle of dried plants could possibly protect me from a Shadow
that wanted to suck me from one world into another but reminded myself to have
faith.

“Alright then, I suppose our work this evening is
done.” Nan said and placed her small wrinkled hands on my shoulders maternally.

I looked up to meet her warm gaze. “Thank you,
Nan. I appreciate your help.” I said softly.

As we began to weave slowly through the narrow
aisles of the greenhouse, I heard Nan suck in a breath as if she had something
she wanted to say but was unsure of whether she should say it or not. I glanced
toward her, wondering what she could be thinking.

“You know, Eliza. I could train you, that is,
tutor you in herbology, spells, and casting. They are the few areas of
witchcraft that one only has the opportunity to learn if one has access to a
witch who possesses the knowledge. Would you be interested in learning more
about these things?” She asked temptingly.

While I was still a bit spooked by the sinister
inhabitants of her garden, I was more intrigued by the opportunity to learn
about the acquired aspects of witchcraft.

“That would be great.” I answered.

“Excellent. We’ll start next week. Stop by on
Monday after school.” She said quickly.

“Everything go ok?” Ren said from the doorway.

I turned to greet Ren. Thankfully, this time, I’d
felt his approach before he appeared.

“Of course, everything went just fine.” Nan said.

“It’s getting late, I think you better let me drive
you home, Eliza.” Ren offered with a grin.

Considering the long dark walk home, I acquiesced
to Ren’s suggestion of a ride and waved at Nan as he led me out of the
greenhouse.

“See you Monday, Eliza.” She said with a wave.

The fingers of my free hand floated up to the
talisman resting on my chest. I chanted a silent wish that the spell would save
me from the predator that hunted me as I followed Ren along the strange
hallway, down the staircase and out the door to his car.

* * *

The cold dry air of the night tingled on my
cheeks. I walked stiffly beside Ren toward his car parked in the graveled round
driveway at the front of the house. My mind felt slow and saturated from the
evening’s events. I remembered that I should be pelting Ren with questions
about exactly what just happened in his house but was too sluggish to act on
the thought.

I climbed into the car when Ren opened the door
and stared blankly out the windshield. The car wound around the drive and down
a small gravel road before we emerged onto the paved street I’d taken to get to
the house. The drive was a short one and we were parked in front of my building
before either of us attempted conversation. The car idled allowing heat to blow
around the cab, which had just finally begun to feel comfortable.

“Are you alright Eliza?” Ren asked hesitantly, “I
can’t let you go up there alone if you aren’t.”

I turned to Ren. The edges of his mouth creased
with concern and his eyes searched my face, conscientiously inspecting my
state. He was so careful, I thought, and smiled appreciatively.

“I feel much better now that I’m home.” I mumbled.

I stared at my fingers twisting in my lap. Ren’s
hand fell over them halting their nervous fidgeting. I lifted my gaze again to
meet his. He peered unabashedly into my eyes and held them captive.

“It’s just that…well, one problem solved and one
to go. You know what I mean?” I asked softly. “I’m grateful for Nan’s spell and
I’ll sleep easier tonight knowing that the Shadow can’t touch me. But the last
thing I’ll think about when I close my eyes is that Benjamin will be spending
another night in that stone cell and I still have no idea how to solve the
riddle of my first lesson.” I sighed in defeat.

Ren turned his head to stare out the windshield
and let a puff of air escape his lips.

“I wish I could be more help to you.” He said with
a sigh. Then squinted his eyes thoughtfully and added, “When it comes to the
primer assume that absolutely nothing has been placed in your path by chance.
Clues to mastering the lesson are everywhere.” He said turning back to meet my
gaze with such clarity and intensity it made me blush.

I nodded slowly in assent, my eyes locked on his.
Ren gave my tangled fingers a firm squeeze with the hand blanketing them.

“I’ll walk you in.” He said and dashed around to
my side of the car and yanked the door open.

I fumbled with my seatbelt and scrambled out of
the car ungracefully. As I shuffled toward the door of my building I realized
just how drained I was from the evenings events. In fact, exhausted would be a
more appropriate word for my state.

Ren tucked his arm below mine and grasped my wrist
supporting some of my weight as we climbed the stairs to my door. When we
reached the door, I was grateful to see darkness beneath the threshold. Jane
was still a work.

Ren released my arm allowing me to probe around
the depths of my bag for the key.

“Thanks for walking me up, Ren. See you tomorrow
ok?” I said sleepily, while opening the door.

“See you, Eliza.” He said slowly as his eyes swept
the main room of my apartment. It seemed he wasn’t entirely comfortable leaving
me alone.

“Ren, really I’m ok, just super tired. Jane will
be home soon, you don’t need to worry, ok?” I assured him.

He tilted his head and gave me a tired smile.

“Alright then.” He said hesitating. His hand
glided down the length of my arm and brushed my fingertips. A spark glowed in
his eyes, drawing me to him. My heart fluttered unexpectedly. And for a moment,
I felt something wild and rebellious happening between us like we were standing
at the edge of a cliff about to jump.

Then as quickly as the moment arose it passed. Ren
flushed and pulled away, moving toward the stairs.

“Goodnight.” I said awkwardly.

He glanced back and smiled, resigned. “Goodnight.”
Then turned away and bounded down the stairs.

I slipped inside my apartment and shut the door
before he even exited the building. As I crossed the main room flipping on
lights along the way, I heard the subtle roar of his car engine come to life on
the street below then fade into the distance as he drove away. I inhaled the
warm air laced with all the familiar scents of home and sighed calming my
racing heart.
Forget
it, Eliza
. I reminded myself sternly. Then padded into the kitchen pulling
out tea, milk and sugar and set the teapot to boil on the stove.

Despite my physical exhaustion, my mind was
restless. With the burden of the Shadow lifted, my thoughts shifted to the
lesson from my primer. Anxiety about Benjamin’s wellbeing gnawed at the edges
of my mind.

I wondered if my exhaustion was a side effect of
the spell or if it really had just been that long of a day. I wriggled lazily
out of my clothes and pulled on a pair of loose pajama pants and a t-shirt
before climbing under the fluffy down comforter.

I fell heavily back onto the pillows, relishing
the comfort surrounding me and my eyes wandered to the old leather primer
resting on the top of my dresser across the room.

It didn’t take long for my inner sleuth to begin
rummaging through the uncomfortable details of the scenario the primer had
presented to me. I rested my head against the headboard and closed my eyes to
better focus on the pictures in my mind. Ren had advised me to look at
everything as a clue and that is what I needed to do now. Safe in my bed, away
from the fear of the torture chamber, I needed to review the scenario
objectively and try to understand just what it all had to do with manipulating
minds, namely the mind of my captor.

As I sank deeper into the process of remembering,
I had to bat away the flutter of panic the images evoked. I tallied the facts.
At the time I started the lesson, I had already executed mind manipulation on
Jane, and the primer knew that. Exactly what I learned from the experience with
Jane was information I was expected to use.

I had learned one thing. I learned that in order
for mind manipulation to work, the first step was gripping the subject’s
attention. My thoughts turned to the mind-bending maneuver with Bryn.

Then it occurred to me. Gripping the subject’s attention
was not the first step. My heart rate sped at the realization. The catalyst to
sparking the magic behind mind manipulation was something I had not really
understood until I’d worked on Bryn.

Emotion
.

Like a camera lens coming into focus, it was all
suddenly clear. The key to mind manipulation was not just getting the person’s
attention. The person had to become emotionally involved with me. It was the
person’s emotion that opened their mind and made them vulnerable to my will.

When I bent Jane’s mind, she was upset with me
because of my behavior with Ren. When I manipulated Bryn, she was worried about
me because she thought Ren had abused me.

I rehearsed the instruction from the primer. It’s
meaning a whisper in my ear.

what lies Behind
the eyes commands the hands, the Heart guards the key, an unwise tongue may be
silenced forever

If I wanted to force my wicked captor to do my
bidding, I needed to capture his heart. His heart held the key to his mind, his
actions, and my freedom. Yet, I needed to choose the words I used to stir his
emotions carefully. The wrong words could spur disaster.

I jolted up in bed, suddenly energized by a burst
of excitement that spread through my body like a sunburst. I forgot about being
tired and actually suppressed a spontaneous urge to run over to the dresser and
throw open the primer.

Solving the riddle was at once exciting and
unnerving. But I reminded myself that it was one thing to know how to ride a
bike but entirely different to actually ride one. The two measly times I’d
successfully executed mind manipulation, my subjects were the closest people to
me. It hadn’t been difficult to evoke emotion in Jane or Bryn to make the magic
happen. But how on earth was I supposed to make that awful man, the person who
was hell bent on torturing me, feel anything for me?

A shiver ran down my spine at the realization that
there was one emotion that might be my only answer… Anger. But making my
torturer angry sounded like a stupid idea, even if it did work. If he was angry
and I didn’t capture his mind quickly enough, I could be dead before I even got
started.

Besides, the instructions I hoped to give him were
a little complicated. I wanted to persuade him not only to allow me to escape
but to release little Benjamin as well. That would require an extra step, more
time and increased risk. Confounded and overwhelmed, I brought my hands to my
face and massaged my temples gently with my fingertips.

So now I had an idea of how to win the game but
how I would pull it all off could be the difference between life and death and
not just for me but Benjamin too. True exhaustion, mental, physical blurry-eyed
exhaustion overcame me then. Glancing at the clock, I noticed that it was
nearly eleven o’clock and Jane would be walking through the front door any
minute. With a tinge of guilt, I decided it best to call it a day. With all
that I had on my mind, I didn’t want to risk conversation with Jane. She would
certainly suspect something and I was in no condition to come up with a cover story.

I flopped back onto my pillow and rolled around
restlessly until I found a comfortable position. It had been three days since I
left the lesson. As I reached for the cord of the hanging lantern above my
nightstand, an image of little Benjamin sleeping on the dirty stone floor of
his cell came to mind.

My jaw clenched, I made up my mind. Come hell or
high water, at the end of the school day, I would return to the primer. Then I
turned off the light.

14

It was cold and I shivered.
With eyelids still heavily shut against tired eyes my sleepy brain nudged my
arms to find my blanket. My muscles flexed and fell, flexed and fell unable to
rouse my hands. The lack of response set off an alarm deep in my
sub-conscience. Like swimming to the surface of a dark lake, the shroud of
sleep slipped away and I found myself bound. My eyelids fluttered in the dim
light and I frantically scanned my surroundings.

A strangled shriek escaped my lips. My mind raced
trying to make sense of my situation. I was certain that I’d fallen asleep in
my bed with the primer safely stashed across the room on top of my dresser.
Yet, I found myself tied limb by limb to a wooden chair in the torture chamber.
Worse yet, my feet dangled inches from the black water of a well. My heart
pounded violently in my chest and I sucked in gasping breaths.

In my state of panic, I slithered furiously from
side to side struggling against the ropes that secured my wrists and ankles to
the chair. The chair swayed and dropped an inch. My stomach rose to my throat
with the fall. The tips of my toes dipped into the cold dark pool beneath me
and I froze, hoping the ropes would hold. The chair continued to rock gently
from side to side and the ropes creaked above my head. My breath escaped
haltingly as I struggled to gain control of myself.

I scanned the room to discover it was empty
besides me and a few rats huddled in the corners. The torches flickered wildly
against the walls tossing unsettling light into the room. I clenched my eyes
shut hoping that it was all a dream but the dank cold air drifting up from the
well beneath my feet and the searing rope burns I’d just inflicted upon myself
refused to disappear. Frustration and rage squeezed my chest and a fierce surge
of adrenaline shot through my system. This was ridiculous, how could the primer
do this to me? ‘I’m not ready!’ I wanted to scream, not that it mattered
obviously.