The Amulet (8 page)

She looked up and gasped. Sitting on the
headstone directly in front of her was a bird, not just any old
bird, but her mum’s favorite bird. Its name escaped her at that
moment, but she knew it was fairly rare and not seen in this area
very often. It looked directly at her and sang its beautiful
lilting song.

A surge of comfort swept through Faedra at
the sight. It was the sign she had asked for.

“I knew it. Look, Faen,” she said, pointing
at the bird. “It’s Mum’s favorite bird. She sent me a sign; she is
with me,” she looked up heavenward. “Thanks, Mum, that’s just what
I needed.”

Faedra felt her spirits lift exponentially in
comparison to how she felt when she first entered the graveyard a
little while before. She regained her appetite and decided it was
time to eat the sandwiches she had packed into her picnic basket.
Straightening herself up, she sat cross-legged on the blanket and
placed the basket in front of her.

The dogs both sat up and looked expectantly
at the picnic basket that was now positioned between them.

“Don’t worry, you two. There’s something in
here for you, as well,” she said with a smile, the first one she
had managed all day.

She pulled out a couple of ham sandwiches and
passed one each to Faen and the collie. They wolfed theirs down in
seconds and looked again at Faedra, and then at the basket.

“That’s your lot, you greedy buggars,” she
laughed and pulled out an egg sandwich for herself. She loved egg
sandwiches; they were her favorites. Her mum used to make them for
her when she was a child, so it was only fitting that she would
bring one to eat when she visited her.

The little bird sat perched on the headstone
the entire time; Faedra threw it a few crumbs. It hopped down onto
the ground and finished up the crumbs that had been offered it.

A few moments passed and their picnic was
finished. Faedra felt like a huge weight had lifted off her
shoulders. She leaned back up against the cool granite of her
mother’s headstone and closed her eyes again. She didn’t want to
leave just yet; although, she was incredibly tired.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been asleep
when she was woken suddenly by a low carnal growl. She recognized
it instantly as being the same as that time in the woods a few days
ago. Her eyes snapped open and fear whipped through her. She felt
disoriented for a second because it was almost dark. That odd light
just after the sun goes down and the night sets in.

Faen and the collie were both standing to her
left; their hackles were raised and they were postured ready to
fight. Faedra noticed the oddest thing at that moment. The collie
was looking at Faen and growling in different tones. Faen returned
the collie’s gaze and growled back in different tones, also. Were
they talking to each other? It certainly looked like it. Faedra
watched in amazement as the two dogs seemingly had a conversation
right before her eyes; then they turned their attention on her and
she almost jumped.

The collie barked at her; it was an insistent
bark, like she was instructing her to do something. But what?
Faedra didn’t talk dog. The unusual scene unfolding before her
almost made her forget what was causing it in the first place,
until the collie looked back in the same direction as Faen and
continued her deep menacing growl. The two of them looked
ferocious, sending shivers down Faedra’s back. Although Faedra was
loathed to, she couldn’t stop herself looking into the trees, and
the familiar icy cold feeling washed over her again.

“Oh, no, not again,” she whispered to herself
as she bent down and scooped up her blanket and picnic basket,
ready to make a quick exit. “What
are
those things?”

She was watching, trance-like, at what looked
like the same pairs of eyes she had seen in the woods the other
day. Only this time there were three pairs of them. The collie
barked a response to her question, then looked at Faen and snapped
a bark at him, too. He turned and all but pushed Faedra in the
direction of the car park. She snapped out of her trance and picked
up the pace, running as fast as she could while dodging between the
headstones. The older ones were dotted randomly all over their exit
path. Symmetry was not something that had been adopted in the olden
days, but she wished for it now. She bashed her hip into the corner
of one as she miscalculated its position when running past it.

“Ouch. This is getting beyond a joke,” she
cursed to herself, not daring to look back in case those things
were chasing her. She could hear the collie’s growl getting fainter
as they drew closer and closer to her car. They reached it, but
Faedra couldn’t find her keys. She had tossed them in the picnic
basket when they’d arrived and now was frantically feeling around
in it, trying to grab them.

Faen barked several times in quick
succession.

“I’m trying, Faen, I know they’re in here
somewhere.” Her heart was racing; she didn’t know if those things
were close or not. Her fingertips brushed over the cold metal of
her keys. “Got them!” she exclaimed as she pulled her hand out of
the basket clutching onto her car keys. She opened the door and let
Faen in the back, threw the basket and blanket on the passenger
seat, then jumped in herself and put the keys in the ignition.

“No, no, no! Don’t do this to me now,” she
cried as she turned the keys, and the car responded with a
splutter. “Come on, Sally, you can do it. You have to get us out of
here,” she coaxed her car as she turned the key again. Still there
was nothing but a splutter. “I promise I’ll never call you an old
banger ever again if you start for me now,” she pleaded and turned
the keys once more. The engine spluttered to life.

“Yes! Thank you,” she patted the steering
wheel.

Faedra revved the engine a couple of times
and then put it into gear and drove out of the car park, spraying
gravel behind her as she did.

“Sorry, Vicar,” she cried, as if he were
standing right there and had witnessed her speedy exit. “Thanks,
Sally, you have my word, I’ll never call you an old banger
again.”

Faedra had named her car when she first
bought it. Her dad had thought it cute and her uncle had made fun
of her, but she didn’t care. She heaved a sigh of relief as she put
more and more distance between her and the church.

“I hope I’m going to get some answers soon.
My life is getting just a little too weird of late,” she thought
out loud.

The next morning Faedra wasn’t surprised to
see that the bruise that had been forming on her hip, where she had
bashed it against a headstone during last night’s getaway, had all
but vanished. A slight reddening of the area was all that
remained.

She got ready for work. Only another couple
of days and it would be her birthday. She was so pleased that it
fell on a Saturday this year. She was planning an evening out with
Zoë and Amy, and was looking forward to going out and having some
fun with her friends.

CHAPTER FIVE

The sun peeking through the curtains awoke
Faedra on the morning of her eighteenth birthday. She stretched and
rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she turned over to look at the
time on the clock that was sitting on her nightstand. It told her
that it was six thirty in the morning.

“Urgh, it’s still early,” she moaned.

Faen was lying on the rug next to her bed and
stirred when he heard her move. He sat up and looked at her,
wagging his tail as he always did when he greeted her in the
morning.

“Hey, boy, it’s still early. I’m going back
to sleep again for a while.” She moved to turn back over, but
something caught her eye as she did. Pushing herself up on her
elbows, she looked straight ahead at her doll’s house. There
resting up against the wall of the house was an envelope that
simply read, ‘Faedra’.

She looked around the room, not quite sure
what she expected to see, maybe her dad peeking through her door.
Had he put it there as a surprise for her when she woke up? She got
out of bed and wandered over to the doll’s house, picked up the
envelope and went back to sit under the covers. The envelope had an
old-fashioned wax seal as a closure on the back.

“That’s odd,” she said, pulling her eyebrows
together. “Who on earth seals an envelope like that anymore?” She
had seen plenty of examples of them in the museum, but had never
seen it on a modern day letter.

She opened the envelope with care and pulled
out a letter. She could feel something else in the envelope and
tipped it up. A ring fell out onto her comforter. She picked it up
so she could examine it.

“Wow, that’s unusual,” she whispered as she
held the ring between her thumb and forefinger, inspecting it from
all angles. It looked very old. She didn’t recognize the metal it
was made from. It didn’t look like gold or silver, although, it did
look gold in color; maybe some type of copper mix. There was no
stone in the ring; it was solid metal throughout. The main part of
the ring was square and had what looked like a Celtic design
engraved on it. There was a different symbol in each of the four
corners of the ring and they looked like little swirls going in
different directions. The band came down from the square and they,
too, were engraved with several rows of etched lines. The band
itself was thick. It was a ring of substance but didn’t look too
oversized for a female to wear.

Faedra slid it on the ring finger of her
right hand and it fit perfectly. As soon as the ring was in place,
a warm sensation emanated up her finger and throughout her hand.
She stared at it, then brought her hand nearer to her face so she
could inspect it more closely. Her eyes widened as she watched the
symbols glow for a few seconds and then fade back to normal
again.

She picked up the letter and watched as goose
bumps flashed up her arms; an involuntary shiver was sent hurtling
down her back. For some inexplicable reason, she had a feeling that
she was not going to like what this letter had to say, but, after
taking a deep steadying breath, she opened up the papers. She
noticed that Faen was staring intently at her now as she scanned
the top of the first page, which made her gasp.

“This is Mum’s writing, I recognize it from
my old birthday cards that I kept,” she said to him and then turned
her attention back to the letter and started to read.

My Dearest Faedra
,

If you are reading this letter, something
prevented me from being with you on your 18
^th
birthday. I have probably been taken from you and
your father. There are things you need to know and it is best that
you hear them from me. For that reason, I wrote this letter to be
given to you in the event that I could not be there in person.
Before you read any further, make sure that you have Faen sitting
beside you.

Faedra looked quizzically at her dog. “Mum
says before I read this I need to have you beside me.”

Faen pricked up his ears, jumped on the bed,
laid his head on Faedra’s leg, and looked at her. His beautiful
amber eyes were burning with understanding.

“You
do
understand everything I say,
don’t you? And how does Mum know your name, you turned up after she
had died?” She drew in a breath as the incomprehensible happenings
of the recent past started to make the tiniest bit of sense, and
continued to read the letter.

By now you may have been experiencing things
that you cannot understand. I wish I were there to tell you myself
and answer all your questions, of which I’m sure there will be
plenty. I shall start at the very beginning and hope that I can
answer most.

Faedra, you are a direct descendant of an
ancient Celtic bloodline. Thousands of years ago there was a family
and they were fae. Yes, faeries do exist. This family desperately
wanted to become human and live in the World of Men. The fae king
at the time could see their desire, although, he could not
understand it. They were so desperate that the king eventually
granted them their wish, on one condition. Should he ever need
their help in the World of Men, they would consent. The fae family
agreed to his condition. In addition, the king allowed them each to
keep one of their distinct powers. More concerned for their
well-being than they seemed to be themselves, he also allowed them
to keep their ability to heal much faster than normal humans.

The family lived happily among men for many
years. Living among the fae had become a distant memory until one
day the king visited them. He was seeking a place to secure a very
precious element of fae heritage and asked the family if they would
look after it for him. Remembering the king’s generosity and their
previous agreement, they agreed to his request; the king handed
them the Amulet of Azran.

Let me explain a little more about the
amulet. There is a book the fae use to help control nature, in all
realms, not just ours. It is a very powerful book called the Book
of Anohs. The amulet was created to be utilized in conjunction with
the book and it has the power to control weather when the two
elements are put together. On its own, it is nothing more than a
pretty trinket. The king realized that if the book and the amulet
got into the wrong hands, the results could be devastating in all
realms, and he was not willing to take that risk anymore.

You see, there are two types of fae in
Azran. There are the
Light Fae, also known as the Seelie,
who are good, and the Dark Fae, known as the Unseelie, who are
evil. The king had reason to believe that the Unseelie were
plotting to try and take control of the two elements. He bound the
book with powerful magic to protect it and hid the amulet in
another realm… ours.