The Raven Saga Box Set

Chapter 20

And that's what I did over the course of the next month. When I wasn't at school, working with Ben, hanging out with Oliver, or chatting to December or Jo online, I would devour as much information as possible. I didn't just read about all the animals that might appear in my path but also about myths, legends and tales about the so-called supernatural world. I read about beings that were only supposed to exist in storybooks, but I knew different, and I also knew that I needed to learn as much about them as possible. Naturally, much of what I read wasn't exactly strong factual information, but beliefs and, in some cases, pure fiction. Nevertheless, every little scrap of detail was devoured. The more I knew, whether it was entirely true or not, made me a stronger person. Or should I say a stronger raven or a stronger cat... which, I still didn't know.

I was fortunate that Oliver was interested in the same things as me. We spent much of our time watching spooky TV shows and movies, before discussing them in-depth. Oliver, assuming that we just shared a common thrill for the supernatural, when I knew that the majority of what we saw was, more than likely, true.

CHAPTER TWENTY

As the end of January drew near, so my dreams began again. It had seemed like so many weeks since I'd had such vivid experiences during my sleeping hours that I had almost forgotten about them.

As the dreams intensified, one night, I found they had an altogether different effect. I awoke to find myself sleepwalking through the house. Although it worried me a little, I decided against telling Gabriel. I didn't want to concern him, and the fact that I'd woken up while still within the house reassured me that I probably wasn't capable of opening the front door.

I was wrong.

Just a few nights later, I had one of the most vivid dreams to date...

Voices called to me from within the forest. Ethereal voices sang my name, beckoning me to follow.

Before I knew it, I found myself approaching the tall trees that swayed in the softly blowing wind. I couldn't stop myself from following the sounds. Peering through the trees, I tried to see who the voices belonged to. My vision seemed blurred, and I couldn't quite see, but I did catch sight of a figure dressed in white. I pushed through the long branches and gently tiptoed through the cold mossy ground beneath my bare feet.

It's strange that in dreams I could walk barefooted in the snow and I didn't feel the slightest bit cold. In fact, the snow felt more like soft balls of moist cotton wool, squelching underfoot. I looked ahead and saw the figure moving like an angel in front of me. Or a ghost. She was not stepping but gliding along, almost as if she was on roller skates being pulled along on a smooth surface.

She didn't turn, so I was still unable to identify her, yet the smooth tones of her voice continued to sing my name, beckoning me to follow.

“Lilly... Lilly... come Lilly.”

The forest soon became darker as the trees thickened ahead, the path we walked upon disappeared completely and I was forced to climb over huge tree roots that exploded from the ground underneath my toes. In areas it was slippery, and I stumbled a few times but managed to stay upright.

Although I was vaguely aware that I was dreaming, I was conscious that the cast on my leg had only recently been removed, so I had to be extra careful on my delicate bones.

“Lilly... Lilly...” sang the voice. Soon I heard another voice, and she too sang out my name. I quickened my pace, feeling like I needed to know who was calling me, and why.

Just as I was close enough to see, I noticed that both women had long black hair. They turned, and I gasped. Serena and Neleh stood before me, reaching out to me. My mother and my sister had called me this far, but why? I tried to speak, but no words would come out of my mouth. At the same time, they put their fingers to their own mouths, indicating that I shouldn't make a sound. Then they pointed ahead of them, and as I tried to reach out to them again, I stumbled. But that time, I couldn't stop myself, and I fell to my knees.

The jolt woke me immediately, but I found myself not in my bed. Not even in my home. But in the forest. In precisely the position I had dreamt I was.

I shivered uncontrollably, and as I looked down, I saw why. I had sleepwalked out of the house and into the forest in nothing but a pair of thick cotton pyjamas.

I panicked, thinking if I stayed out there like that, I would surely die of hypothermia. I would find myself with the same fate as my mother. Looking around, I tried to see a way back home, but I was well and truly lost. Why would Serena do this to me? She wouldn't want me dead, so there must be a reason for her and Neleh to bring me here.

I recalled the dream and remembered that they had been pointing in the opposite direction. I had no choice but to go where they had told me to go. After a minute of stumbling through the freezing cold, something caught my eye. A flicker of light. I quickened my pace. It wasn't just light, it was fire. Warmth.

I began to run, not caring about the scratches my poor feet and ankles were picking up as I went. The warmth was much more important to me at that point. As I approached, I could hear another voice. It was the voice of a man humming to himself, in perfect tune. Because it was a kind voice, I didn't feel afraid.

I approached him. He hadn't heard or seen me so when a few twigs broke underfoot, he jumped and hid immediately behind the large tree he had been leaning on.

“Who goes there?” he asked.

The moment the words escaped from his lips, I felt even more at ease, and so I rushed towards the fire and sat down, rubbing my poor feet and hands in an effort to warm up as quickly as possible.

“My name is Lilly Tulugaq,” I responded.

“You shouldn't be here, Lilly Tulugaq”, he said, “it is not safe for you here. You should be frightened.”

“Why would I be frightened... of the man that saved my life?” I questioned, recalling that stormy day when I had become trapped beneath an oversized log. Someone had rescued me and carefully placed my unconscious body somewhere safe, where he knew I would get immediate attention. That person was the same person that hid behind the tree in front of me. I would have recognised that gentle voice anywhere.

As he stepped out from his hiding place, although the light did not allow me to see his face, I could see his silhouette, and I was not prepared for what I saw.

His profile was that of a fit man in his early 30s, but as he moved to the side, he had something else that should have terrified me. Two huge black wings jutted out from his shoulder blades.

“What are you?” I whispered, “Are you a raven?”

He laughed then and shook his head. “I wish I was. I am neither a raven nor a man. Not any more,” he said sadly.

“I don't understand.”

“I was once a man, but an evil woman cursed me with these wings, and now I am neither one thing nor another,” he said, sitting opposite me. It was then that he noticed I was wearing only pyjamas and he stood abruptly, making me jump in the process.

“Lilly... you could freeze to death like that. What were you thinking of walking in the forest with hardly any clothes on? Not even any shoes? Are you insane?” he said as he rushed into what looked like a cave that was well hidden by the trees. Returning, he had old thick socks, walking boots that were several sizes too big and a large woolly blanket.

As he came closer to me, I caught a glimpse of his face and jumped backwards, suddenly very afraid.

“You... you're... Sammy Morton,” I muttered, confused and frightened.

He nodded in response and placed his hand gently on mine.

“Please don't be afraid of me, Lilly. I am not the killer that some people think I am. Neleh was everything to me. I loved her more than anything in the world. Come, sit closer to the fire and get warm. I will explain. I will tell you the truth about what happened to your sister... and to your mother.”

His voice was so gentle and soothing that I believed every word that he said and I instantly found it impossible to believe that someone like him could ever be thought of as a killer.

As I sat next to the fire, Sammy produced some hot tea for me, made, he said, from herbs he picked from around the forest. Over the years he'd had little choice but to learn to fend for himself – teaching himself all about the different plants and animals. He had to learn how to hide from prying eyes and to defend himself from predators.

“But before I tell you about any of that, how did you find me here?”

I explained how I had been led to him by Serena and Neleh. How they had come to me in a dream.

“I understand now that they led me to you. They want the truth to be known... as I do,” I said, before letting him continue his story about how he ended up in the forest all alone.

“Neleh and I used to spend a lot of time here in this forest. Although we never dared come this far. Jack and Gabriel would have gone mad. We would just hang out... do what young lovers do,” he said sadly, before going on, “we were going to get married you, know? Neleh and I. But then that awful day happened, and our dreams were snatched from us. From all of us. Not just from Neleh and me but from you, your father, Gabriel. All because of that evil witch.”

Of course, that's when things started to click into place. That evil witch. He was talking about Vivian. She had been responsible for a lot more than we had initially thought, and I was about to find out just how evil she really was.

“She killed Neleh,” he said, and then he stood in front of me, his wings spread out majestically to his sides.

I realised that he had probably never spoken about it before. In fact, it dawned on me then that I was probably the only person he had spoken to in fourteen years. Fourteen lonely years with no company except for the animals that lived within the trees surrounding us.

He had kept the heartbreak to himself for a long, long time and it would undoubtedly hurt him immeasurably just to say these words, but I didn't interrupt. I knew the benefit of talking about things. Hopefully, this would be the start of his healing process, if it was still so raw.

“I had never known that Neleh was... was different,” he stuttered.

“Different?” I asked.

He looked at me, his wings finally slowly closing behind him, while he appeared to wrestle with something within his head. He nodded and asked me if I knew anything unusual about my family. A family secret, he asked.

It was then that I understood. Neleh had the gene. She could change – the family just hadn't realised because it hadn't happened before she died. At least if it had, she had never had the chance to tell anyone about it.

“Yes,” I nodded. “I understand what you mean. Could... could Neleh change?”

“I never knew about it until that day. In fact, I'm not even sure that she knew herself. I'd heard tales of such creatures but believed them to be nothing but fairy tales. We'd ventured a little further into the forest. Neleh was so happy because you'd just been born – she'd always wanted a baby sister, and so we were just hanging out together, having fun on our own. We'd left the hospital because we thought Serena and Jack should spend some quality time with you. We had taken a different path than usual and decided to investigate the area a bit more. That's when we found the run-down old cottage, well hidden within the forest.”