Raven (27 page)

Adrenaline pumped through my veins but I took long deep
breaths to prevent myself from changing. I needed to know where
Gabriel was before I could do anything.

“
Vivian, what have you done with Gabriel?” I asked. “Please
tell me that he's okay. Have you hurt him?”

“
I
have no need to harm the old man,” she said and I was surprised.
The evil things she was capable of made me think that she hurt
people on purpose, whether she needed to or not. But perhaps she
only did so when she needed something. That was until she
continued, “The same can't be said for Charlie though,” and she
laughed heartily as if she'd cracked a joke.

She
released my leg and I pulled it back quickly. Charlie slammed the
door shut and locked it.

“
Charlie, where is Gabriel?” I asked, hopefully.

But he
just sniggered and said nothing.

“
There's just one important ingredient that I'm missing.
I'll be gone a while. Charlie, keep an eye on her – she might try
to change into a bird, although the cage should prevent her from
escaping,” said Vivian before she grabbed her cape, threw it on and
exited the cavern.

“
Charlie... how did you get here? I know she must've cursed
you. You're an Englishman that she made into a mountain goat. Isn't
there a part of you, hidden somewhere in there, that hates her? A
part of you that wants some kind of revenge for what she did to
you?” I asked softly.

But
again, he ignored me and sat staring off into space.

“
Charlie please help me. If you can't, please just tell me
where Gabriel is.”

“
Shut
up, Lilly. Shut up!” he yelled as he bent to pick up a small stone
from the floor and then flung it against me. It pinged off the side
of the cage and bounced against the wall before landing on the
floor by the cave's entrance.

He
wasn't going to tell me so I sat in silence and waited for Vivian
to return. My leg began to throb, a dull ache where she had sliced
into it. Fortunately the cut wasn't too deep and the bleeding had
slowed. I feared that if I didn't escape she would bleed me to
death. My father had obviously come close to that but he had
managed to get away before death had come. How, I had no idea. He
must have been so weak by that time and to get out of that room
must have been near on impossible. I wondered if someone had helped
him. But why? And how? And more importantly, who?

I would
find out what had happened to him and I would find out where he
was. I would also find out why he had deserted me and left me in
the hands of an evil witch.

I pulled
my legs up to my chest and rested my head on my knees and before I
could stop myself, I began to cry. I cried for Gabriel, I cried for
my father and I cried for me. I knew I could escape but I was so
scared that Gabriel would end up dead if I did.

That's
when I heard the sound from outside. A soft cooing noise that
reminded me of something. The owl. It was the sound of an owl
hooting, the same sound I had heard the night before. I recalled
how the bird had watched me but had then looked away and flown off
into the distance. And then again, while Charlie had been dragging
me to the cave, I had seen it but it hadn't taken much notice of
me. It was a soothing sound but that's all it was.

The
sound, however, began to get a little louder and then there was
silence. As I looked towards the entrance to the cave, I could just
about see it perched on the branch of a tree close by. It was
looking towards me.

There
were a couple of birds circling above the owl and I gasped when I
recognised what they were. Ravens. Charlie looked over at me
suspiciously and I coughed to try and hide my surprise. He stood
and walked around the cage, before he returned to sit down and just
as he let down his guard to relax a little, one of the ravens flew
into the cave as quietly as possible. He didn't notice. I watched
it surreptitiously as it stood on the floor behind him, waiting.
Whoever it was, it had found me. But had it found
Gabriel?

As I
waited, wondering what it would do, I heard footsteps and the
sighing of an old woman. The simple act of walking left her
breathless.

Vivian
had returned.

The
raven was startled, clearly not expecting her to return so soon, so
it hopped backwards and hid away in a dark corner while Vivian
walked into the cave carrying the final ingredient that would help
make her young and beautiful once again.

“
So
you're still human are you, Lilly? I'm surprised at you. I figured
you might have tried to escape. Not that you would be able to. I
raised you not to run away, didn't I? You never could get away from
me,” she laughed as she began concentrating on her strange recipe
for beauty.

I
listened and watched closely as she read to herself as if from a
bizarre recipe book.

“
Let's
see, two sprigs of rosemary, Lillian's blood, hair from a horse's
mane and the sinew from a horse's leg, the hair from Lillian's head
and a few tablespoons of pure spring water from the Pantheon
Mountains... yes, I think that's about it.”

She
placed all of the ingredients into a small bowl and mixed it up
with a wooden spoon before placing it over the fire that Charlie
had been busy preparing.

It was a
surreal experience, watching this old Vivian becoming more and more
excited as the recipe developed. She became almost childlike,
skipping around the fire clapping her hands in anticipation. This
was a Vivian I had never seen. The only Vivian I had ever known was
sombre, strict, mean... and beautiful.

It
didn't take long until I could hear the ingredients bubbling away.
Vivian removed it from the fire and sieved it into a wooden chalice
before picking it up and turning to me.

“
Cheers, Lillian darling,” she laughed, before placing the
cup to her lips and drinking it hungrily without taking a breath.
She then threw it to the floor and wiped her lips with the back of
her long black sleeve.

“
Time
to change,” she added before she took off the long black cloak and
revealed her naked body.

The old
hag was covered from head to toe in deep set wrinkles, and her skin
hung in folds all over her body. This was the body of an ancient
woman, not the Vivian I remembered.

She
didn't stand naked for long. She stepped carefully into a crisp
white gown that Charlie held open for her. All the time she
maintained a wicked smile on her lips. The smile of a mad
woman.

Even
though she was barely recognisable, seeing her in white reminded me
of the times we had lived together. She had never worn any other
colour. She always presented herself, from head to foot, in white.
White trousers, white blouse, white pumps, sometimes even a white
head band. Every day, something else white. She had long white
dresses, skirts, jeans even.

She had
presented herself so beautifully, while at the same time had
presented me in such an ugly way. Dowdy, old, used clothes that
didn't fit properly. In yellow, the one colour that did nothing for
me. The one colour that made me look ugly. That's what she'd tried
to do. She'd wanted to make me look uglier so that she could feel
even more beautiful. Me, Mellow Yellow. It had all been done on
purpose.

As she
stood there, looking at herself in the mirror waiting for something
to happen, I noticed the raven had managed to sneak closer to me.
It stared at me and I could see something startlingly familiar in
its eyes. Then suddenly, it winked at me and I knew exactly who it
was. Jo. She often winked at me. She had finally made the
transformation. But how had she known where to find me? Then I
thought of the owl. If the owl knew where I was, it would
undoubtedly know where Gabriel was. I smiled at her and winked
back. Relief flooded through me and I felt as if I could finally
make my escape, but before I did, I waited to see what would happen
to Vivian.

She
stood smiling at herself in the old mirror on the wall, waiting for
her transformation to begin.

After a
few minutes, I could see that it was working. Her saggy skin began
to tighten up and the colour of her hair slowly began to change
from grey to bright red. Her sallow eyes began to gleam and her
lips, and not to mention her breasts, plumped up. All age spots
disappeared and I began to see the Vivian that I
remembered.

She
breathed in a long happy breath and sighed out in happiness before
she began to laugh uncontrollably.

“
I'm
back and I'm even more beautiful than before,” she giggled, as she
touched her face and her neck and then her breasts and
bottom.

“
Why
didn't I think of doing this before? I should have used your blood
from day one. Instead I wasted years on that father of yours, and
before that I wasted years on Walter, when I could have used the
blood from his damned daughter. And I let her go. How stupid of
me,” she said to herself as she continued to admire herself in the
mirror.

As she
said the words, I thought of Rose. How her husband and daughter had
disappeared all those years ago, when in fact they had been
kidnapped, just like my father and I had been. And they had been
used for the one single reason: to achieve her own flawless beauty.
It disgusted me.

But
Vivian had just let it slip that she had let the daughter go. Just
when I thought I could make my escape, I discovered something new.
Something else I needed to find out more about. And I needed to
find out the truth for Rose.

Just as
I began to think of ways to investigate what had happened to Walter
and his daughter, Lori, Vivian shrieked.

“
What
is this?” she cried turning to me, “What is happening to me?
Lillian what have you done?”

I
watched, stunned in silence as whiskers began to sprout from her
cheeks and out of her ears. Her hands and feet began to mutate and
suddenly I knew. She didn't know the truth about my own
transformation. She didn't know that I was capable of changing into
a mountain lion. The combination of my feline and raven genes must
have been affecting her in ways she could never have
foreseen.

I
couldn't help but smile at her affliction.

“
How... is this possible?” she sobbed as she stared at her
reflection in the mirror. Part witch, part cat. Not at all
attractive.

“
How
could I have been so damn stupid? The girl, your sister. I thought
I'd just miscast a spell on her the day I killed her. But I hadn't,
had I? She'd really changed into a cat herself. No!” she cried
while I nodded, smiling.

“
But
that means...” and before she could finish, I transformed myself
into a mountain lion, breaking the cage into a hundred pieces right
in front of her eyes. I pounced on her and pushed her to the
ground, ready to get the revenge I had craved ever since I'd
learned the truth.

“
Lilly!” yelled another voice as I saw a very naked Jo had
changed back into human form and had managed to throw Charlie to
the ground too. He had hit his head on a rock, knocking him
unconscious in the process.

“
Lilly... no. Let the Elders deal with her,” she shouted as
I held a razor sharp claw close to her jugular vein. “Lilly, you're
not like her. You're not a killer,” she said, but I couldn't move.
All I could think of was Serena and Neleh, the years I'd spent
practically a prisoner in my own home, my poor father and Sammy,
Walter, Rose and Lori and what she had put us all through. And
Gabriel. Poor Gabriel, wherever he was. She had done all of this
damage just so that she could be beautiful and young. I wanted her
to die more than anything but, as I looked up at Jo's face, I knew
it couldn't be by my hands. She was right, I wasn't a killer. I
wasn't anything like her. I wasn't a monster.

I leaned
back away from her and instead pulled her up and pushed her hard
against the cave wall, winding her. Jo took over. Finding some
rope, she tied Vivian up so there was no way she could release
herself. Not even a witch could escape. But Vivian didn't even
struggle, she was too busy sobbing about her appearance.

I made
the transition back to my human self, using the breathing
techniques Rose had taught me. After a moment, I was human again.
Jo and I clothed ourselves with tops and trousers from my
rucksack.

She gave
me a long hard hug, while the other raven just sat outside, perched
quietly on the same branch the owl had been on earlier.

“
I'm
so glad you're okay, Lilly. We were all worried sick,” she
said.

“
But
how did you know?”

“
Both
Sammy and Meredith felt something was wrong so we contacted a close
friend, one of the Elders, who sent someone to search for you,” she
said.

“
Let
me guess, that someone was an owl?” I asked and she nodded, “so you
saw him then?”

I nodded
and then remembered Gabriel. I asked her if he was okay and she
reassured me that the owl had witnessed everything and had gone to
fetch help straight away.