Origin of the Body (3 page)

‘I’d imagine they thought because we’re more forward thinking than most academics, that we can see the sense in what they’re proposing, which of course is nonsense.  No doubt they’re trying to muster support from all the prominent academics that don’t directly align with Tobias.  The Gods only know what he would do if he thought we were in league with the Institution, he hates our research enough already.’

‘Does he?  Why?’  This had come as a large shock to me.  Mum and dad spend loads of time with the ruling Mind Descendant and his wife, Camilla.  I’d always thought they got on like a house on fire.

‘Some of the research we do he thinks is too radical, which is probably one of the reasons Jeff was sent to approach us.  In reality the work we do isn’t that radical at all, Tobias just hates change and anything he doesn’t understand or control.’  We swung in silence for another couple of minutes.  ‘Did you really like Jeff?’

I nodded, then realised she had used the word ‘did’ as opposed to ‘do’.  ‘What do you mean ‘did’ I really like him?  I still do really like him.’

‘Yes, but darling, he works for a dangerous organisation, you can’t continue your relationship with him.  It’s impossible.’

‘Impossible in your eyes maybe, but not in mine.  You’re always harping on about the benefits of diversity of opinion; you don’t get to pick and choose the opinions you like and call the others dangerous.’

‘But they are dangerous.’

‘Only if they get enough support, which seems unlikely.’

‘It would be wrong to underestimate them, they are gaining a great deal of silent patronage.’

‘But that’s just it, it’s silent.’

‘But patronage none the less.  Anyway, Jeff is returning to Kingdom and we are heading for Wild Air, so it looks like this is where you part ways.’

‘Unless I decide to go back with him.’

‘Assuming he wants you to go back with him and he hasn’t just been using you to get to us.’

‘Mum, how can you say that?’

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.  I’m sure he does truly like you, but you’ve got to admit it’s a possibility.’

At that moment, Jeff appeared from the wooden cabin of a trading post and I left mum and the swing to go and talk to him.  He didn’t tell me much other than the obvious and said he had to go back to Kingdom.  He didn’t suggest I go with him, so I didn’t suggest it either.  He simply hugged me tightly, squeezing me protectively to his chest, kissed the top of my head and left without another word.  Surprisingly, I haven’t cried.  I feel sad and drained, like the days will more difficult to get through now, but I suppose I’d known this day would come, he’d told me as much on the ledge.’

Anita stopped reading and turned to look at Alexander.  ‘What was your dad’s name?’ he asked.

‘Jeffrey, so I suppose it could be him, but then again, there are lots of people out there called Jeff.  It’s odd to read about them through my mum’s eyes though,’ she said, ‘especially when they’re total strangers to me.  And they don’t sound as terrible as I’d thought they might, being such close friends with Helena.’

‘You spent a great deal of time with Helena too…she can’t be all bad.’

‘Nobody’s all bad.  The question is how bad.  Need I remind you that she knows about, and let’s face it, may have planted, the cylinder in my head?  She lied to get me to steal something that belongs to Austin, she withheld all knowledge of my parents when she was my mentor, and last night she kidnapped us.  So I’m not quite ready to forgive and forget just yet.’

‘I know, I’m not suggesting you do.  I’ve certainly not forgiven her yet just for the kidnapping, but maybe deep down she’s one of the good guys.’

Anita looked sceptical, ‘maybe.  Anyway, I think it’s time for lunch, I’m starving.’

Alexander nodded, but instead of getting up he pulled her in to him and gently kissed her lips.  Both of their energy responded instantly, pouring out of them like a tidal wave.  They pulled apart and Alexander ran his thumb across her cheek bone.  ‘I don’t think I’m used to that yet,’ he said, smiling as his energy started to return to more normal levels.

‘Me neither,’ she smiled back, getting to her feet and taking his hands to pull him up too.  ‘Come on,’ she said, a mischievous look suddenly appearing on her face, ‘race you,’ and with that she pelted out of the trees and down the hill.  As they reached the farmyard, Alexander had almost closed the gap Anita had gained from the element of surprise.  She shrieked with laughter as he caught her and dragged her to a stop.  He pulled her into a playful embrace, continuing to walk towards the farm and refusing to let her go, Anita having to walk backwards to stop herself from falling.  After a few paces he stopped, looked down into her grey eyes, kissed her briefly on the lips and then released her from his hold, leaving one arm around her shoulders, not wanting to completely let her go.

Alexander dropped his arm back to his side as they approached the farmhouse, hearing a clamour of happy voices as they passed under the archway into the garden.  There were a whole host of new people noisily eating lunch at the table, a feast of soup, bread, cheese and platters of meat strewn across its length.  Helena spotted Alexander and Anita and got up to welcome them, indicating to the two sitting across from her that they should shuffle up to make space.

‘Good morning?’ inquired Helena, as she ladled steaming broccoli and stilton soup out of the kettle in the middle of the table into two bowls and handed one to each of them.

‘Fine thanks,’ Anita replied, wanting to keep Helena in the dark about her thoughts on the diary for as long as she possibly could.

Helena ignored her stilted response, instead saying brightly, ‘I’d like to introduce you both to Rose,’ indicating a tall, well-built woman with blond hair and green eyes to her right.  ‘Rose is one of my oldest and dearest friends.  She was also very close to your parents Anita and she is a long standing member of the Institution, not to mention the mother of your close friend Bas.’  Anita inwardly raised her eyebrows; she’d been friends with Bas for as long as she could remember but had never once entertained the idea she would actually get to meet his mother.

‘Lovely to meet you,’ said Rose politely, although her energy was reserved.  There was something about the way she was looking at Anita that made her nervous, like there was something she was holding back.

‘Lovely to meet you too,’ said Alexander, copying her polite tone.  ‘Rose, you look very familiar, but I can’t quite place why?’

Rose fixed Alexander with penetrating eyes, taking her time before answering, deciding what exactly to say.  ‘We’ve never met,’ she said distantly, ‘but I look a great deal like my cousin, Olivia, Peter’s late wife and Gwyn’s late mother.’  She said it in a way that did not invite further question; Helena stepping in, starting to chat about the farm and how great everyone was being at helping.  Anita zoned out, trying to imagine what it was that Rose wasn’t saying, a futile effort of course, given she had only just met the woman.  She instead turned her attention to the others who were chatting freely around the place.  There was no one she immediately recognised, some younger than her, many Helena’s age or older, and people to represent every age in between.  Their energy was relaxed, no one seemed to be there under duress, not according to their energy anyway, and their conversations ranged widely across an abundant number of topics, from trivial gossip, to the energy levels, to the latest fashions.  She wondered how they had all come to end up here; had the younger ones been recruited by teachers like Helena?  Did one of the older ones recruit Helena in the first place?  No doubt she’d find out more in time.

Chapter 2

After lunch, Alexander and Anita retreated once more to a private space, but this time opted for a spot by the river.  They lounged on the lush grassy bank, the rush of the water therapeutic after the surreal gathering.  Anyone would have thought they were all the best of friends; Helena seemed to have conveniently forgotten she’d kidnapped them both only the evening before.

‘More of the diary?’ suggested Anita, shuffling over a little to get comfortable.

Alexander nodded, absentmindedly stroking her back, ‘I’m quite keen to understand what it is exactly Helena wants us to uncover.  I can’t believe we’ve got there quite yet.’

Anita pulled the notebook out of her pocket, flicked to the page where they’d left off and started reading once more.

‘9th January, 1332.

I’ve finally returned from the Wild.  My parents decided it was about time we came back to civilisation, not least to sell all of the wonderful, exotic things we’ve collected along the way.  Yesterday, we made our way from market stall to market stall selling the cocoa beans and spices my parents trade in.  Our version of a library back home in Empire is full of jars of different herbs, spices, roots and beans, alongside books my parents have written about the properties of each.  My dad has a knack for seeking out the purest supplies and my mum has a knack for selling them - together a formidable force.  So yesterday, mum was in her element, reeling in the younger, greener stall holders with her ‘pushover woman’ act, the older stall holders inviting her in for tea and sweet cakes in the hope that if they treated her with respect, she would respect their profit margins in return.  Mum does tend to go a bit easy on the older ones; they’re people she’s been trading with for years, often people who helped teach her everything she knows, back when she was a child whose playground was the market, her father a stall holder selling silks.  In the end, somehow or other mum always gets the price she wants, my father, famously, one of the only people to have ever got the better of her in a trade (I suspect this has a great deal to do with why mum was eventually persuaded to accept his marriage proposal), and yesterday was no exception.

To celebrate a great day’s trading, we went for a lavish dinner at my dad’s club, ginger champagne all round and by the end of the evening we were all feeling quite merry, until that was, I saw him.  It was odd; the blood seemed to drain from my brain, adrenaline coursed through my veins, my energy soared, and yet I couldn’t move, I was frozen to the spot.  He was talking to a friend as he walked past, both clad in dinner jackets, their hair slicked back, the friend offering him a tobacco roll from a silver case.  He refused.  ‘Must dash,’ he said to the friend, placing a warm hand on his shoulder, ‘but I’ll be at Monty’s later.  Alistair and I were thinking of playing some cards.  Might see you there?’  The friend nodded, they shook hands informally and Jeff left, not looking back, so not seeing me.  The friend noticed I’d been watching them as he returned to his table on the other side of the floor.  He gave me a strange look but didn’t say a thing.

My parents and I returned to our guest house and I immediately headed for bed, their company now suffocating; it was a relief to close the wooden door behind me and shut out the world.  I lay down on the enormous mattress, the feather duvet threatening to engulf me, and considered my options.  I haven’t heard from him in four months; nothing since he abruptly left the trading post in Wild Wood.  In the last month or so I’ve even started to stop missing him, almost believing it was just a fling, a fun way to pass the time when we were travelling.  But seeing him in the club wrenched me back to those glorious weeks we had together and the feelings have come flooding back.

I decided I had to see him.  If I waited until morning I wouldn’t know where to find him, and let’s face it, I wouldn’t have had the false courage supplied by all the champagne that was swimming around my veins.  Seeing as I was already dressed for Monty’s, a sophisticated cocktail bar with a jazz band and card tables, all I had to do was slip out of the guest house and walk the two streets to the bar.

I arrived at Monty’s and they looked me up and down.  I was very glad of the elegant black dress and stilettos mum bought me especially for dinner.  The cinched in waist, puffed out skirt and cap sleeves at least made me look the part, even if the girl at the front desk could sense I wasn’t exactly a regular.  ‘Who are you here with?’ she asked viciously, seemingly looking for a reason to turn me away, her stance that of the most popular girl at school vetting a newcomer to see if they were worthy, her drop waisted flapper dress seeming somehow to add to her passive aggression.

‘I’m here to see someone called Jeff,’ I replied, trying to be confident but non-confrontational.

‘Jeff?’ she gave me daggers as the name rolled off her tongue and she again flicked her eyes up and down me as she decided what would happen next.  ‘Come with me,’ she said eventually, turning to lead the way, not waiting to see if I was following.  She slinked up the long, wide, marble steps that led to an extravagant circular bar at the top, the columns either side giving the place an almost erudite feel.  The place oozed a weird kind of sophisticated danger; it felt like no one here could be trusted, but everyone realised that, making it a part of the fun.  I felt like I was walking into a vipers nest, the girl leading me the snake charmer, the one in control of who could bite me and when.

As we reached the top of the steps, the girl turned right, away from the packed dance floor, full of couples energetically dancing to the faultless band, and around the circular bar to a less busy area where there were card tables dotted here and there.  She approached a group of men standing casually at the bar, sipping elaborate cocktails from martini glasses, Jeff standing in the middle, carelessly leaning back against the dark mahogany.  He was the first to notice her, not looking to see who was trailing in her wake, and an evasive smile spread across his lips.  ‘Helena,’ he said obliquely, sending her a questioning look.  She said nothing in return, locking eyes with him and totally ignoring the others.  She walked right up to him, kissed him flirtatiously on the lips and then moved her mouth to his ear, where she whispered something to him.  His eyes snapped up as she pulled away and he stayed motionless, pinned against the bar as they met mine.  It felt like everyone else disappeared in an otherworldly haze as I took him in, desperately trying to read his thoughts, my heart thumping against my chest.  To my relief, he gently brushed Helena aside and moved decisively in my direction, pulling me into a fierce embrace when he reached me.

‘Hi,’ I whispered in his ear, holding him tightly to me.  My turn now, I thought smugly; I could almost feel Helena’s eyes boring furiously into Jeff’s back.

‘I’m so happy to see you,’ he said excitedly, pulling back, but putting a hand on my cheek and kissing me firmly on the other one before pulling away completely. He took my hand and led me to the bar, where happily Helena no longer stood, and introduced me to the people he was with.  I have no idea who they were, I was too busy focusing on Jeff.  Luckily he placed a drink in my hand, one of whatever it was they were all drinking, and led me a little further around the ornate, mirror and crystal clad bar, to a secluded table.  ‘What are you doing here?’ he asked avidly, taking my hand and repositioning his chair so our knees touched.

‘We came back from the Wild a couple of days ago.  Mum wanted to trade our purchases, mum and dad need to get back to academia, and I suppose I need to work out what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.’  Jeff lifted my hand to his lips and my stomach flipped.  I was so relieved; he was genuinely happy to see me.  ‘When you left Wild Wood…’ I started, but he cut in before I could get the words out.

‘…I’m so sorry.  Your dad didn’t really give me any choice but to leave so quickly, he said he was going to tell Tobias about my involvement with the Institution unless I left immediately.  Looking back there are so many things I should have said before I left…but it all happened so quickly.’

‘I haven’t heard a thing from you in months.’

He lowered his eyes to the table.  ‘I know.  I’m sorry.  Your dad said if I contacted you and he found out, he would tell Tobias.’

I can’t tell you how angry this made me.  The whole point of going to the Wild Lands in the first place was to learn the family trade, to be treated as an adult, yet mum and dad are still trying to make decisions for me.  ‘I can deal with mum and dad,’ I said quickly, before I thought about the implications of the words.  Jeff looked at me with unreadable eyes and I flushed bright red.  ‘I mean, sorry, you’ve probably moved on…you and Helena…’

He laughed.  Loudly.  ‘There is absolutely nothing going on between me and Helena.  We had a very short fling two years ago and nothing has ever happened since.  She’s just like that; she’s marking her territory; she doesn’t like or trust new people, especially new girls,’ he said, eyes flashing as he grinned knowingly.

I smiled inwardly.  ‘Who is she anyway?’

‘She’s a member too.  She’s also a very gifted Body.  She’s about to become an academic and is working here until she does.  It works quite well actually, there’s a back room here used for private dinners and high stakes card games that we use for meetings.  It’s perfect for us to have someone like Helena keeping tabs on who is coming and going.’

‘What exactly is the Institution?’ I fired the question at him like a poisoned bullet, needing to hear in his words what all the fuss was about.

He took a breath, considering what to say.  ‘In a nut shell, it’s an organisation centuries old, dedicated to preserving energy stability.’

‘I thought that’s what the Descendants were here to do?’

‘No.  They’re here to send the relic back and free the world, it’s totally different.’

‘But the consequence of sending the relic back would be stable energy, so the end goal is the same.’

‘Only if you believe that the Descendants really want to send the relic back.  They don’t seem to be trying very hard and Austin has just made a move to ban energy research, almost certainly at the direction, and obviously with the support, of his father.’

I thought then of Christiana, my mother’s best friend, my Godmother, the ruling Body Descendant, and I found it hard to believe someone so just and kind could fail to act on the oath they had sworn when invested in power.  ‘I can believe Tobias would think like that, but Christiana?  Philip?  Peter?  Anthony?  I can’t believe the Body and Spirit Descendants would go along with that too.’

‘Well you should believe it, Clarissa,’ a delicious shiver ran down my spine when he said my name, ‘think about it, what have they ever done to try and find a way to send the relic back?’

Now he mentioned it, I couldn’t think of a single thing.  I was going to say something about how I was sure they conducted research and held meetings on it in private, but this would have sounded thin even if my mother, Christiana’s best friend, had ever mentioned a conversation with her about sending the relic back, which she hadn’t.  Instead, I said, ‘is that why Peter’s involved with the Institution as well?’

He nodded, a slow, purposeful movement.  It was rare for him to be so serious, so I wondered in silence what was causing it.  Before I could find the words to ask, he changed the subject.  ‘So what are you going to do with your life?’ he asked flippantly, his usual devil-may-care attitude back in play.

‘Gods, not you too?’ 

My avoidance tactics are getting better since the endless tirade of questions and ‘helpful’ suggestions from my parents on this topic, but it didn’t even begin to deter him.  Instead, he used his own manoeuver to throw me off guard, slowly leaning across the table and moving his face towards mine.  ‘I think you’re evading the question,’ he murmured, as he ran his nose across my cheek, inhaling deeply.  He pulled back a little, eyes alight and playful.  ‘I want an answer,’ he said softly, placing a feather light kiss on my cheek bone.  ‘I demand an answer,’ his voice was husky now, as he moved to the other side and kissed my neck, his warm breath sending shivers running down my spine, the intoxicating scent of his cologne mixed with cocktails and cigars making me light-headed.

‘Well maybe I don’t want to give you an answer,’ I whispered temptingly into his ear, nipping his ear lobe mischievously as I moved away.

‘Well then I shall have to do something to persuade you,’ he said roguishly, taking my hand and lifting it to his lips as his eyes poured into mine.  As he did it, a new found intensity somehow washed over him, the mood changing, a potent, palpable, stillness settling around us.  He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then, without another word, stood up abruptly, dropped my hand, and made his way swiftly towards his friends at the bar.  I watched him go, looking dashing in his dinner jacket, the line of his hard stomach hinted at below his crisp white shirt.  He isn’t what you would call muscular, he’s too thin for that, but he has an aura of strength around him, an aura as captivating to me as ever.

He returned and held out his hand for mine, an unscrupulous smile playing around his lips.  My head was saying, ‘it’s late,’ and ‘I should go,’ or ‘I’m supposed to be trading chilli powder in the market tomorrow, and I need to get my beauty sleep before I do,’ but the words wouldn’t come.  Instead, I took his hand and stood, in a deliberate, provocative way, a salacious mist settling around me as I met his smouldering eyes.  We paused there for a moment, a spell around us, until he turned unexpectedly away, keeping hold of my hand and drawing me behind him.  We descended the marble steps, walked past Helena, who gave me another dirty look, and emerged into the cool night air, where Jeff wrapped a warm, protective arm around me and lead me down the cobbled street.