Magic Parcel (20 page)

She followed his pointing finger and realised at once that he was right. The portrait had changed its position and now a power had begun to wax in the picture, drawing them to it so that they were almost touching its surface with their noses. They strained to resist, eyelids screwed shut in an effort not to make contact with the canvas. Unexpectedly, they were released and as they opened their eyes slowly as if waking after a long sleep, they felt the caressing warmth of a welcoming sun on their faces. They were in the southern hills of Omni confronted by a grizzled old man with sharp, deep eyes.

“So we meet at last,” he growled in a deep guttural drawl. It was Gor-ifan, the Old Man of the Mountains, Ursula's grandfather.

“Grandfather,” Ursula whispered, quite overcome with emotion, although it didn't sit well with her. “I never thought... “Her voice tailed off, as tears began to well in her eyes.

“My child,” he growled softly, reaching out to her with one old and gnarled hand. Such touches of tenderness towards another had been alien to him over recent years, particularly since his brother had been largely instrumental in his demise. Perhaps now that he was regaining his powers, slowly, painstakingly, surreptitiously, he might once again retake his rightful place in what had become an alien world to him.

Although at this moment Ursula felt nothing for this world, her inner feelings told her she had always known this man, as if he had always been part of her. Deep inside stirred a desire for, and to know more about, the world she had never visited until now. It fused through her very bones, the countless generations of contact, line on line, to her, the latest, and possibly the last. She was not about to lose her grandfather now and she was prepared to do whatever it might take to stay here with him. Unfortunately, as Jimmy had found before, Omni travel could neither be guaranteed nor relied upon. When it was your time to return
that
world would find a way to bring you back. The same was true in reverse, as she discovered. With one blink she stood in front of her grandfather, holding his great hairy hand tightly, and the next they were in the grounds of her home, standing with her nose to a knotty oak tree and grasping Jimmy's hand as tightly as she could.

“Hand please Ursula,” Jimmy said quietly.

“What?” she replied, still really in Omni. “What do you mean?”

“Your finger nails are nearly through my almost dead hand!” he grimaced in pain, trying to draw his hand away from hers.

“Can we not go back?” she said to him, earnestly gazing into his eyes. “You know, like straight away, now?”

“I'm afraid it doesn't quite work like that,” he told her quite authoritatively, speaking from experience. “Omni travel is not a bus service where you can hop on whenever you have a mind.
It
decides when it wants to take
you
, and usually there is some purpose to it. It's not just a day out, you know.”

“I know,” she nodded quite wistfully, “but that's the first time I've seen my grandfather, and now he's gone.” She turned to Jimmy, eyes pleading whilst tears rolled down her cheeks, and automatically he slipped his arm around her heaving shoulders, in an attempt to comfort her.

That night Jimmy slept the most soundly he had slept for many weeks and so he awoke and arose refreshed and revitalised. Although breakfast was a bright affair it wasn't matched by the weather. Chill, dull and drizzly, it seemed to have left the last vestiges of summer behind and was rushing headlong into an early winter. Ursula was late for breakfast and sat down in front of Jimmy, her eyes betraying her lack of sleep. She seemed distracted and distant, no doubt feeling keenly the loss of her grandfather so soon after finding him for the first time.

“That's the only time I've been there,” she said finally. “I've always
felt
there was somewhere, another place, because of being around my mother.
That
I know now. I always knew I was
different
from everyone else because I never “fitted” in wherever I was. When do you think we might return?”

“You never can tell, really,” he replied quietly, sensing the sensitivity of the moment and her impatience. “Once you've been, Omni can call you back any time it needs you, as I told you yesterday. It was yesterday, wasn't it? Seems like forever ago. Let's go for a wander down the corridor by your father's study, you know, where we felt the tingle. You never know, you might get lucky.”

Ursula agreed, almost reluctantly, and led the way. They took the exact turning they needed, followed the corridor to where her father's study should have been, but couldn't find it. How could it be possible to lose a whole corridor and a study when there was only one possible way? When they emerged into the hall through one of the oaken doorways they had not used before, they both slowed to a frustrated halt, looked at each other and shrugged in disbelief.

“I don't believe this!” Jimmy sighed. “How could you get lost in your own house?”

Ursula was just as puzzled as him, and suddenly launched herself through the door she
knew
was the correct one. Not so.
This
passageway took them to the Great Hall where they again stopped.

“It's as if the house is consciously taking us away from where we
want
to be,” Ursula said slowly, through a deeply annoyed frown. She clenched both fists so tightly that her knuckles lost all colour, and stared fixedly and very determinedly at the picture wall. So strong was her annoyance and so deep her concentrated inner strength, the Great Hall gave way to the recess in front of her father's study. Immediately it became solid, they both experienced the tingle, and as she reached out to touch the door
their
world evaporated. It was replaced by a moonlight-flooded world of thatched mud huts and glinting water. Jimmy recognised the Chieftain's Halls immediately. He grabbed Ursula's hand to move towards it, and noticed everyone stopped what they were doing and turn slowly towards them. They recognised Jimmy straight away and although they did not know who
she
was, they felt Ursula's hidden power, bowing low and shielding their faces from it as it passed. They slowed to a standstill, their movements frozen in time.

Several things happened virtually simultaneously. The Chieftain's Halls grew around Jimmy, the people were released from their inactivity, and Ursula disappeared. All light from the waxing moon had been veiled, as the gloom in the Hall deepened, to cut out everything except for the faint glow and swirling haze surrounding the Chieftain's chair. The room, like some hazy smoke-filled bar after closing time, was empty; except for the Chair.
That
, as ever, was occupied. As it could by right, be occupied by the Chieftain alone,
he
was in residence. Jimmy recognised the shape of the head, the mane of hair and the aura surrounding him. He approached slowly, carefully, so as not to irritate the great man. As Jimmy neared the chair its occupant turned, slowly, deliberately, anticipating the newcomer's actions.

“Chieftain,” Jimmy said gravely, and as he did so he caught the glint of the eyes behind the bush of facial hair. “Is it Tarna? It can't be you! Are you now the Chieftain of Omni?”

“Tommy?” Tarna's brow furrowed at the mention of the name. “I knew you would come back sooner or later. I am sorry you had to return in such inauspicious times.”

“It's Jimmy, Tommy's brother. Are you the Chieftain now?” Jimmy asked rather pointedly, knowing already that he couldn't be Chieftain unless he was a direct descendant; unless...the rightful heirs were all dead!

Tarna, the Chieftain of All Omni, fixed Jimmy with an aggressive glare, which all but silenced him verbally if not mentally. As Tarna didn't know much about Jimmy other than what Tommy had told him a long time before, he couldn't have accounted for his growth in mental faculty since the last time he was in Omni, and that he was beginning to develop his own powers.

“
I
am the Chieftain of All Omni,” Tarna boomed rather grandly, “and I have no need to justify my position to you!”

Immediately, Jimmy was suspicious because the Tarna he had known about from his brother and Dominic would not have delivered such a pompous and arrogant speech. He felt something wasn't right.

The assumed smile behind the glower reasserted itself as Tarna spoke, in sugary tones this time.

“Jimmy,” he oozed, “how good to see you. I hope you have brought good tidings with you. As you can no doubt see we have had a difficult time of late. How is your brother? Is he with you?”

“I know we left somewhat hastily in the middle of a battle last time we were here,” Jimmy answered, “but I had no idea things might be as bad as this. Has Seth become too powerful?”

“A slight set-back, that's all.” Tarna said, glossing over the obvious poor state of the land. “He will be defeated ‘ere long. Then I, we, will take back what we have lost.”

“What about Por and the Wandering People? Are they still here?” Jimmy asked. “And what of the Old Man of the Mountains? We saw him before we left last time.” He did not let him know about Ursula or their meeting with her grandfather. He did not trust him now.

“Not been seen for a long time,” he replied with a grand gesture. “Word has it that he has diminished to an old powerless hermit in the wild or he is, quite simply, dead.” Jimmy remained silent throughout the diatribe, not letting Tarna see that he didn't believe this explanation.

“You must be in need of refreshment,” he continued, clapping his hands to summon an aide. “Jaffed here will see to your needs.”

With the arrival of this man, Jimmy was effectively dismissed and led away from his presence. The last he saw of Tarna was the back of his head wreathed in a blue swirling haze, rather like a tobacco smoker framed by a wreath of shifting pipe smoke. Fortunately, Jaffed had gotten to know Tommy quite well during the times he had been here before, and so Jimmy hoped he might glean information about the situation here now.

“How are things here
really
?” Jimmy asked Jaffed tentatively, understanding that he would need to be careful with his wording. “Things don't seem to be quite as good as before. “ He paused to take in a little food – fruit, bread, and fruit juice – but Jaffed said little other than to speak of their situation in generalised terms. “I know the Old Man of the Mountains isn't dead. I've seen him, spoken to him, know he's not as lame and useless as perhaps might have been thought.” The look of utter surprise on Jaffed's face told Jimmy that he had scored a direct hit.

“Come with me,” Jaffed urged Jimmy, taking him by the elbow and leading him out of the Chieftain's hut. “We need to be somewhere we can't be overheard.”

They entered a small hut on the southern-most edge of the village, a little detached from the others. They weren't seen as it was still dark outside, with a few clouds venturing inland and periodically obliterating the moon's pale glimmer. Once inside, Jaffed lit a small oil lamp which cast only enough of a glow to allow them both to see each other's facial features.

“The Chieftain of old suffered several serious defeats, both military and personal, at the hands of Seth,” he started. “At first we all put it down to misfortune but these defeats became a little too regular. There is no way Seth could have inflicted all of that without internal help of some sort. We had our suspicions but could not prove who the informer might be, until one moonless night several weeks ago. We witnessed the most intense and prolonged battle of wills between the Chieftain and, we assumed, Seth. The struggle lasted an age, with great lightening storms raging in and around the Chieftain's hut, and we could do nothing but watch helplessly.

In the midst of one particularly violent onslaught, all activity ceased suddenly. We rushed into the hut to see what help we might give, but the Chieftain – our
proper
Chieftain – was no longer there. He had disappeared entirely. However, filling his Chair, as if he had a
right
to be there was Tarna. He was changed in a way we hadn't noticed before, much as you saw him today. He simply
assumed
the role of Chieftain, and nobody has dared to challenge him, not even the Chieftain's sons. As I said, we all have our suspicions and fears; all, that is, save those who support him and provide him with whatever counsel he
wants
to hear. Tarna never used to be
that
arrogant and self-opinionated.”

Jaffed tailed off into a pensive silence, which lasted for several minutes, until Jimmy asked quite pointedly and unexpectedly, “What about Por and the Wandering People? Tarna didn't answer when I asked him earlier. And Algan, what about him?”

“I know nothing about any of these people,” Jaffed faltered, after a moment's thought. It was as if he had never heard those names before. Or as if he realised suddenly he had said too much.

Intuitively Jimmy felt that, although his mental abilities had recently become heightened, Jaffed was able to shield the truth from him. A feeling of helplessness began to grow in his head, making him wonder if the Omni he had known was slipping away gradually, to be replaced by a world of deceit and evil.