The Forest of Adventures (#1 of The Knight Trilogy) (21 page)

He looked peaceful having been
dosed full of morphine but I thought about the moment that he’d
regain consciousness, the moment that he’d have to accept the full
horror of what had happened yesterday. He’d killed his brother, the
most heinous of all the biblical crimes and I knew that even if
Morgan could cure his physical wounds, she’d never be able to cure
the wounds now marked on his soul.

As I stood there, looking down
on him I found myself thinking who Blake would be when he woke. The
events of yesterday were bound to cause a shift in who he was, and
I wondered if it was a Blake that I could still love.

*

As I closed the door of
Meadowlake behind me, every part of me knew that this was goodbye.
I hadn’t gone back to Blake’s side before I’d left, frightened that
to see him so fragile would break my resolve. I knew I was leaving
him at the very moment he’d need me most and the thought that I was
handing him over to Morgan seemed a betrayal almost as awful as the
one that she’d committed. I now realised that yesterday was only
the first part of her plan. She’d set out to have us both destroy
everything we loved. The choice between Blake and Sam had been easy
– but easy didn’t mean painless.

Reluctant to let go of the
handle behind me, I lingered for a moment which was long enough for
Vivien to see me leaving and make her way across to me.

“You’re leaving?” Her question
had a weight to it that struck me and I knew that she knew. I
nodded giving an apologetic smile. I was in danger of crying and I
didn’t have time to be distressed. I was due to meet Morgan in less
than ten minutes.

“I’m sorry Mina. About all of
this, I’m sorry.”

“I don’t really belong here -
it’s as it should probably be.”

“But that’s just it. You
leaving, Blake like he is, none of this as it is meant to be.”

“I love him with all my heart
but it isn’t enough.”

“Time will tell. I’m not going
to say goodbye Mina, but
adieu
.”

She reached forward and pulled
me in to a tight hug.

“There’s something I need to
tell you Mina. I’ve thought about not doing so, but I think you’ve
a right to know because you may need to take certain measures.
Lavinia, Leo’s fiancé, has pledged your blood; she’s sworn that
she’ll avenge her lover’s death.”

I went rigid in her arms and
she released me.

“When they removed Leo from the
field, she removed the broken tip of Blake’s sword from Leo’s
wound. She’s made it public that she will wear it as a constant
display of his brother’s ungodly act.”

“Blake begged him to cry mercy.
We all heard him. If anybody betrayed anybody, it was Leo. If
anybody should be shouting their mouth off about blood pledges and
revenge, it should be me,” I stopped, exhausted and out of
breath.

“Mina, there must be no revenge
on either side. Both men made their own choice yesterday. Each
choice has a consequence. In a strange kind of way, Leo’s escaped
more lightly than Blake.”

I turned from her and faced out
towards the lake. The clock was ticking. The day was
inappropriately sunny and Meadowlake looked the most beautiful it
ever had. The lake shimmered, bouncing crystal sunrays around the
field causing everything to take on a dream like quality. At the
far side of the lake, the black clad figure of Morgan made her way
to the water’s edge. I looked down at my watch, the minute hand
about to strike noon.

“I’m sorry, I’ve got to go,” I
said breaking into a run.

The far side of the lake
suddenly seemed a much greater distance than I remembered and just
to spite me I saw Morgan turn on her heels and start to walk away.
By the time I reached her, I was breathless and almost on my knees
which is exactly as she would like me. She stopped as if offering
an indulgence, “It is a beautiful day is it not Mina?”

She sounded removed from her
own voice, as if the words were coming from a recording.

“Yes, it is beautiful.” My
voice came out horse, betraying the grief that had already begun to
take hold.

“I know you’ll find this hard
to believe, but I hadn’t meant for yesterday to happen the way that
it did.” She turned her face towards me, glancing at me before once
again turning away as if touched by the alien emotion of remorse.
“It had meant to be a tournament, nothing more. It had meant to
humiliate and shame Blake, it was all meant merely to reduce him
into my hands,” she shrugged dismissively. “Perhaps I
underestimated the power of placing brother against brother. Now
it’s a matter of salvaging any spoils of war that I can.”

“Is that how you see Blake, a
spoil of war? I think you knew all along that this might happen.” I
stared at her, waiting for a flicker, a tiny movement that might
suggest regret but there was nothing. “Oh my God…you wanted this to
happen, didn’t you? You twisted bitch.”

“Play nicely, Mina, or I’ll go
and then you’ll have two funerals to arrange.” Morgan’s eyes
flashed in the sunlight, “I take it you’ve made your decision.”

It was a statement rather than
a question.

“You’ve said goodbye to
Blake?”

“What makes you so sure of my
decision? Just because you’ve gambled your entire plan on the
assumption that I’m as good as you’re bad but you don’t know me
Morgan. What if I’m just as much of a cruel hearted, manipulative
bitch as you? If I choose Blake then you lose.” I smiled even
though fear had grabbed at my stomach and was twisting it in
knots.

Morgan let out a laugh making
me feel immediately foolish, “A valiant effort Mina, I admit I
underestimated your grit and you’re not half as stupid as I
thought. I could almost like you. I tell you what – you can have
Blake for one night; one night of memories to nurse you through to
your old age. Call it a recognition of effort.”

“One night?”

“Take it or leave it, Mina. We
both know that it is an act of generosity on my part. I don’t have
to give you anything.”

She turned from me heading in
the direction of Meadowlake, “I’m going to visit Blake now, he’ll
be well enough in a couple of hours so enjoy!”

I stood there as if I had been
picked up by a tornado and dumped back down to earth. By this
evening Blake and Sam would both be well.

26. FAREWELL MY LOVE

I arrived home just after
lunch. Mum wasn’t in but had left a note explaining that she’d gone
to the airport to pick up Josef. He was coming home to us,
heartbroken and homeless. I placed the flowers I’d picked at
Meadowlake into a jug and plonked them on the dining table. They’d
meant to cheer the place up and offer a small apology to Mum, but
they just furthered the depth of my sadness.

Halfway up the stairs the house
phone went. I knew before I answered it that it would be the
hospital. I took the call and scribbled a note to Martha telling
her I was going to visit Sam.

It was another afternoon of
torrential rain. I’d never known a spring so turbulent. I made my
way down the road battling with an already broken umbrella, gusts
of wind chucking it outwards on itself every couple of meters. In
the end I gave up and crammed the useless thing in the bin outside
of the newsagents.

Giving up the fight and
submitting to the elements suddenly felt good, like letting go of
everything I’d been struggling to carry; the breakdown in the
relationship between Mum and me, the worry of Sam and the tempest
that had ravaged my heart since the moment I’d met Blake. I turned
my face to the sky, letting the rain mingle with tears of
relief.

Within moments my attention was
snapped awake by the sound of a car driving up and parking in front
of the row of shops. Even though the rain caused the figure to fold
in on itself, I recognised that it was Delta who was making a dash
to the newsagent door. With her hand on the door handle, she
turned, recognition stopping her in her tracks and causing her to
look over at me.

“Hey, Mina!” she shouted before
throwing her car keys high in the air towards me. Much to my own
surprise they made contact with my hand. “I’m just grabbing some
lights and a coke. Back in a minute. Get in!”

There was no way to argue as
she’d already dashed into the shop before I could respond.
Typically, at that very moment the bus came and I was left with the
problem of having Delta’s keys. With no other option, I made my way
over to the passenger side of the battered white Fiesta and got in.
The inside of the car smelt of stale smoke and looked like it was
used as a waste paper basket. Empty coke cans had been tossed into
the passenger well and books and papers were spread across the back
seat. A small glow-in-the-dark skeleton swung from the rear-view
mirror as if it had just simply had enough of the chaotic state of
its existence and decided to end it.

The car gave a worrying pitch
as Delta bundled her way back into the car. Even in the few moments
between car and shop she’d been soaked.

“So where we goin’?” she asked
holding her hand out for the key.

It was no use arguing. I could
tell that wherever I said I was going Delta was coming with me. I
couldn’t answer her. I looked into her eyes that stared back into
mine. Her eyes were beautiful pools of blue ink. A black line
ringed the iris making her look almost like a cartoon, unreal and
perfect. The thick black eyeliner she’d applied made them seem
almost infinite. My lip trembled. Delta started the engine and
reversed out of the space seeming to disregard any possible
oncoming traffic.

“The hospital then!” she said
almost to herself before changing gear and accelerating into the
rush hour traffic.

I managed to croak whisper a,
“Thank you” about five minutes into the drive to which she just
nodded before one-handedly pulling out a cigarette from a packet in
the side pocket and lighting it from the car lighter. She pulled in
a deep drag which made her look world-weary and I what her real
story was. Catching me looking, she offered it over to me.

“No thanks. I’m good,” I said,
recalling the effect that the last one had had on me.

She shrugged and pressed play
on the car stereo. It was as old as the car and still played
cassette tapes. I’d expected to hear the sound of some angry
emo-metal belt out but I was surprised to hear the country sound of
Johnny Cash filling the car.

“Sorry about the dad music. It
came with the car and cassettes are real hard to find. If I’m
honest, me and Johnny, we’ve kinda grown on each other. He’s a
legend.”

She turned to me and flashed me
a smile. It was possibly the first time that I’d ever seen her
smile. I smiled back and relaxed. Too soon we arrived at the
hospital entrance. I got out, thankful that the rain gave an excuse
for rushing off before having to exchange awkward goodbyes. Before
I could make it to the door, I heard Delta’s voice shout out from
the car window causing me to turn and retrace my steps,

“Look, you can tell me to piss
off or whatever the hell you like, but I thought I might just park
up over there and catch up on a bit of reading. If you want a ride
home then come and knock on the window, and if not, then I’ll
finish my book in a couple of hours and make my way home.”

“You don’t have to do
that.”

“No, you’re right, I don’t but
that’s what I’m going to do - Kindness of strangers and all that
crap.”

She wound the window up before
I could argue and I knew from that point that Delta and I were
going to be good friends, that somehow even though she barely knew
me, she understood me better than anybody else.

I entered the hospital fully
aware of what would face me; a medical miracle an inexplicable
recovery - a medical first. And, even if I told them that I could
explain how Sam had been cured - that it was simply with the use of
a magical sword gained from the mythical Chapel of Perils by a
daring and courageous knight who fought off living giants made of
stone, they wouldn’t believe me. In fact they would probably sedate
me and admit me to the conveniently located psychiatric ward. I
wasn’t fully convinced that this wasn’t a bad idea.

A weird celebratory energy
buzzed around the staff at the ward desk and before I could even
get to Sam’s room, someone had called out to the ward sister
causing her to abandon her patient to her subordinate and come up
to me, all smiles. She folded her arms and then unfolded them,
clasping them together reminding me of some ecstatic saint.

“Mina. You will never believe
it - such happy, happy news; a miracle by all accounts.” As she
said this her hand involuntarily touched a small golden crucifix
around her neck. “We’re all so pleased. We’d begun to think that…”
she waved her hand as if clearing away a fly, “…well never mind all
that. Sam’s awake and…”

With that a nurse wheeled Sam
around the corner. He looked at me and smiled and I understood that
he was as bemused by all the excitement as I was. Our greeting was
silent, smiles tinged with sadness. It was clearly not the reunion
that they had all been hoping for and the mood took a sudden dip as
surely as if somebody had come along and burst all their balloons.
Sensing the mood, the Ward Sister sprang into action, clapping her
hands with efficiency, “Anyway, Back to work everybody! Let’s give
these lovely young people some space.”

As the sister passed, on return
to her patient, she stopped speaking quietly into my ear, “I’m
sorry we got rather carried away. It was insensitive of us. It’s
just that…”

“I know.” I smiled at her.

Her hand touched her crucifix
again and I wondered if she was conscious of her habit.

“We’ll give you some privacy, I
am sure that you both have a lot to talk about. The family room is
yours. We’ll send along some tea as soon as we get a chance.”

The nurse wheeled Sam in to the
family room before taking a hasty exit. In her place, silence
expanded in the room, sucking out most of the oxygen.