~<Firstly, if you are just beginning to read I beg that you go to the previous chapter beneath it before you read this one. DO NOT READ THIS CHAPTER FIRST. It's very important. Also, if you have already read there have been a few edits that you might prefer seeing before you continue. Comments and critiques are very much appreciated especially if you don't like what you've read, of course compliments will be more enjoyed : ). Thank you very much>~
~L.G. Farrer
CHAPTER 2
A Sanctuary of Trees
A strange wind danced through the trees. It made the leaves swirl in an eerily hypnotizing pattern and sang a strange hymn in the woman's ears. She shivered as she stood on the porch of the white house, holding a cup of steaming coffee in her hands and wearing a blue and white blanket around her shoulders. There were times when she didn't like that wind. Particularly the times when she saw what it did to her daughter...
The woman turned and stepped back through the glass door into her house. Her pale golden hair was pulled back in a clip and there were loose tendrils curling around her heart shaped face. Feminine strength exuded from her sapphire eyes that had a confident water like feel to them. Small laugh lines around her eyes showed her age to be about forty-five but she still held a youthful humor in the slight upturn to her lips and her clear, creamy complexion. There was a clean quality about her face and air.
She sat down on a comfortable looking, white couch and curled her legs up to her, gazing around the living room. It was almost entirely wood, cedar by the looks of it. A pale, calming design prevailed. White couches with blue accents, uncomplicated plaid and designs of yellow roses. Everything was simple and clean, similar to the woman herself. Out through the windows one could see trees and flowers surrounding the house. She looked further and saw a her husband, slightly stocky and short bearded walking into his work house, Tristan the golden retriever following closely at his heels. The woman smiled fondly at a man who began work at Five thirty in the morning and finished at two. Then something else caught her eye. On the small, wooden bridge that separated her safe, secure house from the rest of the chaotic world stood a man. He wore a long, black trench coat and a fedora that covered any distinguishable part of his face. He was watching her.
"Morning, mom," came a voice. The woman started and looked around. There was a boy with dark blond hair standing at the foot of the stairway. "Are you okay?," he asked uncertainly. She looked quickly back at the bridge, the man was gone.
"Yes,"her voice was noticeably distracted, "Yes, I'm fine...." She turned back to her son. "It's waffles for breakfast."
"Great," he replied slowly. Michael had an open, honest face like his fathers. His soft brown eyes(Like his mothers) were intelligent but guiless. He was a hard worker and good with his hands(also like his father). He also had a temperament that matched his father's.
She didn't give him a chance to continue questioning her, "Go get your father for me, would you?"
"Sure,"he said still in the same slow, uncertain voice. He walked to the door and taking a brown jacket from the coat hanger stepped out into the morning air.
A gentle tread coming down the stairs announced another entrance into the room. It was a girl about fourteen who had eyes unlike any of the other members of her family. Though her face and countenance was undeniably similar to her mothers, her eyes were a soft gray blue like a cloudy sky over a peaceful sea. The girl's aura was one that automatically soothed a person's spirit and the woman with the cup of coffee felt more calm with her around almost immediately. However there was and underlying discomfort that was caused simply by the presence of a question mark. Why did her daughter cause comfort so easily? How did she gain control over people emotions so quickly? She loved her daughter, truly and deeply. But there was something behind the veil. Something about the Wise ones, about their world that was frightening. She loathed the part of herself that was frightened of her daughter, but it still continued existing. Silently haunting the back of her mind.
"Mom...Are you alright?," asked Elena. "What is it?" Elena's eyes seemed once again to gaze into her soul so that the woman felt that all her secret thoughts were plain to see.
The woman thought quickly. There was no way she could say "Nothing", her daughter would spot so blatant a lie a mile away. "Oh, just getting old and confused I suppose,"she said, her voice offhand and casual. Elena was harder to avoid than her son. "I'll need your help with breakfast, get the milk will you?" Her daughter continued to gaze at her, half exasperated, half worried then complied.
The door opened and closed and in walked her husband,"Madeleine," he said, his eyes sweeping the room, "Where's my hammer? I can't find it any damn place."
"Ill tell you after you eat breakfast, dear,"she replied.
"I've got to work, Madeleine."
"Yes darling," she gave him a kiss on the cheek,"And you've also got to eat." She smiled her most charming at him and his eyes melted visibly.
"All right, fine," his answer was gruff and decidedly grumpy but he looked at Madeleine with nothing short of pure admiration. "But I'm eating quickly and then back to work...."
"Of course, John,"she replied.
It was later that day that they came. She was prepared for them. She had even set out a pot of coffee and biscuits. Along with some tea. And it was in fact the moment after she set them down on the kitchen table and turned around that she saw the pair of them standing there in the doorway. Looking at her through the glass. There were several thoughts she tried to prevent from coming in to her mind then. One was simply that is very creepy and the other Oh heavens, please not him came when she saw the face of one of the wise one's that had come. One was a man with shoulder length, straggly, black hair and unnaturally green eyes that were always too large and too open. He stared at her like some absurd guppie as she moved to open the door and greet them. The other person who had hair of a darker, more vibrant gold than Madeleine's was a tall woman with a poise Queen's were often known for. She had eyes of a bright, poignant blue.
"Madeleine,"she said in greeting as they entered. "You remember Jeffrey Boggart?"
"Of course,"replied Madeleine graciously,"How are you Jeff?"
Jeffrey continued to stare at her with an unsettlingly bright gaze, "A little under the weather,"was all he said. The man was difficult to place in age and wore all black. His hands were covered in silver rings and his nails decorated with black polish. Do those eyes ever blink wondered Madeleine with irritation. It had been years since she had last seen Boggart and she was newly reminded of the annoyances he presented. But Madeleine was determined not to let this show on her face no matter whether it really made a difference or not. So she continued to be gracious to a fault. They were led into the living room where she asked them what they'd have to drink.
"Tea will be wonderful," Helen graced her with a charming smile as she said this. Boggart continued to stare and then blinked ostentatiously.
"How about some of the Apple cider you've got in the cupboard?" he asked.
Madeleine felt as if she'd very much like to lose her temper for some reason, but only said,"Of course," and went to fetch it. She resisted the temptation to look as irritated as she felt. As she handed them their mugs of steaming beverage the door suddenly opened and closed. There stood John, covered in paint and sawdust and bringing with him the heavy scent of wood. He paused for a second and stared at the guests with a look on his face that suggested someone had just told him that yes, Santa was indeed real. However, he visited people's houses to steal children's toys rather than give them.
"Madeleine..."he began but didn't seem to know where to go from there.
"Mr, Decatur," broke in Helen Phoenix suddenly, "Do you remember who I am?"
John glared at her, "I'm not stupid woman, just normal. Of course I remember the people who told me I had to lose my daughter before she was even am adult."
"Elena's not a child, John," replied Helen," Not really. It works differently when-,"
"Yes, yes, I know. You've told me all this before," snapped John. He was pacing around the room. Something he did when he was irritated and didn't know what to do about it.
"You cannot keep her in your sanctuary of trees forever, Mr. Decatur," Helen's voice was now gentle. It calmed Madeleine's nerves immediately but at the same time....She felt a part of herself fighting that calm. As if her mind persistently whispered warnings that it was a facade. A false calm. "It must be Elena's decision," Helen went on,"and she has wisdom enough to make that decision responsibly."
~<>~
A few uncomfortable hours later in near silence the gentle patter of rain met their ears and the door opened once again. Elena and John walked and paused at the sight of guests. Strange guests. Perhaps Helen was dressed normally but she still radiated an aura that drew attention toward her. Through her eyes, through her every pore. And Boggart, well Boggart....
"So this is Elena!" he said with interest in his oversized, unblinking, green eyes. He stared at her carefully as the girl moved with calm uncertainty into the room. Madeleine wondered what he thought. Elena wore jeans and a blue blouse while all the other female Wise ones she had seen dressed with simple Elegance. Helen wore a feminine, sapphire dress suit and acted like an extremely talented saleswoman with years of practiced charm. Elena was the girl next door, with a twist.
"Who are you,"asked Elena in a tone that doubted the question itself. As if she felt somehow silly asking.
"I've seen you before," said Michael with surprising force in his voice. "What do you want?" Helen Pheonix and Jeffrey Boggart exchanged a meaningful look. Madeleine began to feel irritable again but didn't let it show on her face. She would normally have rebuked her son for being rude but couldn't bring herself to this time.
"They're here for me," Elena answered Michael gently. The two siblings had always been close. When they argued they knew what the other was probably going to say before they said it, they knew when the other was worried and angry, and they always felt it when the other was in danger. Elena looked back at the strangers, gazing at them expectantly. Helen put her cup down and was suddenly all business. Madeleine couldn't excape the feeling that they had skipped a beat.
"Elena, I'm Helen Pheonix,"She began, "this is Jeffrey Boggart. There are several things we have to tell you-," she stopped. Boggart had lifted a silencing hand and looked up in alarm. Tristan's head lifted from the floor and he scented the air. Ever since he had entered he had had an unnerving grin printed on his face. Now his lips were pressed together and eyes opened larger than ever in alarm. It was dark out by now and the night pushed against the large windows with silent fury. The two strangers stood simultaneously. "You don't think-," began Helen.
"No, not him," replied Boggart.
"Then...That Belmont woman?," Helen suggested. She moved closer to Elena, her hand reaching ever so slightly toward the girl protectively. The sound of thunder came from close by. Madeleine layed her hands on each of her childrens shoulders.
Then a flash of against the dark windows. There outside the glass stood a figure. A young woman with dark hair and wearing leather. Madeleine saw a mockingly triumphant smirk on her face before the lightning was gone and so was the image of the girl. "THAT BLACK WIDOW OF A GIRL!" roared Boggart. He swung around and gave Helen a miniscule look containing such force Madeleine wondered that she didn't feel herself repel. Unlike Elena who did repel. Madeleine felt her stagger back as if a blow had struck her. She held her steady. Boggart turned again and ran out the back door in the direction the girl had appeared. Suddenly Elena pulled from her mothers grip who released her without even thinking and moved close to Helen. Speaking to her in a voice deep and desperate.
"What will he do to her?" she asked in a near whisper.
Helen surveyed Elena closely for only a moment, "What he has to,"she replied.
"What...What is this?!" demanded Michael angrily,"What's going on? Why are you here? Who was she?" he made to move forward as well but Madeleine held him firmly. He settled for eyeing Helen suspiciously, but before he could get a reply the door swung open again. Boggart moved in, sopping wet and furious, his large emerald eyes glowing with anger. Somehow this actually made the creepy quality vanish.
"What happened?" asked Helen with forced composure.
"She won't be telling any secrets soon,"Boggart said savagely.
"Good," she replied matching his tone. "DAMN! They know we're gathering," the composure was gone and in it's place appeared a fury equal to any storm. And underneath that, an anxious worry that made Madeleine's hair stand on edge.
"We need to contact the others," said Jeffrey Boggart.
"Yes, yes. I know," Helen rubbed her wrist in agitation.
"Where is that girl?" cut in Elena with a command in her voice that Madeleine had never heard before. "What did you do to her?"
"I didn't hurt her," answered Boggart. "Although if you knew what she was here for you might wish I had. She may look young, Elena but she's a Dalia. Age doesn't matter with Dalia not the way it does with everyone else. She was here for information to take back to a person that would have you and your family killed immediately. There are people who don't want you to go to Willowby."
"Willowby?" Elena seemed startled by the name. As a person would feel about a distant memory they couldn't quite bring forward but sensed all the same. "What do you mean?" Helen and Jeffrey looked at each other.
"We'll have to hurry,"said Jeffrey Boggart," She'll have to make the decision quickly, before they send someone else."
Helen sighed and gestured for everyone to sit. She spoke now in a hushed voice, afraid to draw unwilling ears...or minds, "Elena, We need your help. You have a choice before you. Willowby is where people like us...The place where there are more of us than anywhere else in the world. Every generation a new set of Dalia, people like us are chosen to guard it. Now you have been chosen to ba a part of it."
The room was very quiet. A tense unsettled silence reigned and no one was at ease. Tristan paced the room like a guard, his floppy ears as perked as they could get. "Who was in the set...before?" asked Elena. She seemed tensed, even more than the rest of them and her voice indicated that she may be forgetting to breathe now and again.
"My sister....was a guardian,"replied Helen. "She's gone now," Helen paused and allowed her words to sink in to Elena. There seemed to be no point in concealing the truth. This time Madeleine thought to herself grimly. Elena was studying the Wise ones carefully, looking into their eyes. It brought a certain sense of Deja vu to Madeleine.
"Do you trust us?" asked Boggart surprisingly. He had been preocupied watching their surroundings, barely noticing the conversation. Now he leaned forward toward Elena with such an unsettling grin that Madeleine wondered how anyone could.
Elena met is gaze unflinchingly. "Yes," she replied as if only realizing this now herself. Of course thought Madeleine, of course she trusted them because she saw the things that were hidden to everyone else. Very well she thought.
Very well.
"You've got to be joking!" Michael burst out.
~<>~
Five minutes later Helen Pheonix and Jeffrey Boggart sat patiently at the table in the kitchen. The sound of pounding on a keyboard reverberated through the normally peaceful house. Elena stood in the living room looking at the back door. The rain still poured outside but the porch light had been turned on and she could see her father sitting on the steps, looking off into the night. She looked over at the guests and saw they were watching her. She hid her irritation but knew that it didn't really matter whether it showed on her face or not.
Elena turned and went up the stairs. the first door was closed and had pictures of basketball players and muscicians covering it. It was from this room that the keyboard pounding came. She passed it for the next door, which was open. her mother sat on the bed. Straight backed and calm faced. It was an act. Elena could feel the tension coming from her body, she was nervous.
Madeleine looked up at Elena when she entered. Beside her on the bed was a suitcase. Madeleine was folding her clothes and nestling them in carefully. Elena felt an unusual temper come over her, "Aren't I going to get any say in this?" she demanded. Her mother returned her gaze calmly, understandingly.
"It can't hurt to be prepared," she replied.
Elena studied her mother, "Why do you seem so familliar with them? It's like you've been around Dalia almost all your life."
Madeleine smiled, "I have. I've spent more time with Wise ones than most ordinary people have in their lifetime." She turned her eyes away, looking distracted.
"How?"
her mother looked back up at her, "My brother was one."
Elena stared, "Uncle Phillip?! Uncle Phillip is one of them?"
The smile returned, "It tends to run in families. It's not a requirement, but it seems the thing that creates Wise ones is partial to certain families and like to surprise certain members every once and a while. The fay's are one such family."
Elena pondered for a moment, "Why is everyone so certain I'll choose to go?"
"Only because no Wise one has ever been able to resist the call of Willowby. They have to visit it once at least. Everything seems to go back to it for them."
Elena left the room and walked over to the other door, the one she had passed before. Testing whether it was locked or not she turned the knob. It opened. The sound of key's banging, which hade never ceased during the whole time now seemed to blast at her. Michael sat at the little piano playing Mozart, well sort of. Elena braved the din and stepped over the threshold. She didn't know if Michael was aware of her presense or not but she walked to the stool he sat on and joined him. He continued the pounding for only a few seconds, then relented into silense, staring stubbornly at the ivory music keys. Elena spoke first,
"Heart and soul?"
"I get the fun part."
"Deal."
They played together for only a few minutes. When the song ended Michael said,
"What is it with them anyway?"
"I don't know," she answered, "They see the world differently, maybe."
"They're creepy," he said with finality. Elena didn't challenge it, though it felt like he had expected her to. After a few more minutes of silence he added, "I'll miss you nerd."
"Ditto."
When Elena came back down the stairs she ignored the visitors. Her eyes rested once again on her Father. Unmoved on the step.
She stepped out the door. John Decatur head turned slightly in recognition of his daughter but said nothing. He continued to look out into the dark night as Elena sat on the steps next to him.
John shifted slightly and leaned forward, he glanced around at the surrounding trees. "I've been a good Father, haven't I? I mean, I've taken care of the family and provided what you need?" Elena looked at him. There was a disquiet under his surface that radiated from every pore. He wasn't just worried about his own profficiency as a provider for his family, his mind was on the more than that. The state of the universe itself. Her father's world had been fractured somehow. She began to say something when he jerked suddenly. He turned and looked back at the kitchen table. Boggart and Phoenix were watching them calmly. John seemed to suppress a shudder and turned back to the trees. "I don't trust them," he shook himself slightly,"I don't know. I don't understand them. I've always been an ordinary man leading a simple life," he began to mutter indistinctly. Elena caught certain phrases like "Not normal" and "freaky eyes". The muttering subsided steadily. "Your mother understands them. I accept that, I believe that. But when she trusts them all I can think is it's insane. She's insane....But she's not. I don't know, I need a cigarette."
"You don't smoke."
"That's the problem."
They sat there for several minutes until John said suddenly, "When you go to Willowby don't trust anyone. Not Wise ones or normal people. Take care of yourself."
"I haven't decided I'm going to go yet," Elena protested weakly. John grunted. Elena looked around at the trees, wondering if any more strangers would appear. Then she felt something. A wind that hadn't been there before enveloped her in it's swirling pattern. She stood feeling it dance through her hair and across her face. Elena thought she heard a song somewhere, bit's and peices of a distant tune struck a chord deep inside her. But the harder she struggled to listen to the song, to remember it and repeat it in her mind the more it evaded her mental grasp. Then the wind was gone and the sound of the silence left behind was unbearable.
~{To those of you who have been reading so far thank you. I appreciate your comments. Please let me know what you think.}~
~L.G. Farrer
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