The Raven Saga Box Set

Chapter 30

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 n***d 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 n***d 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 madwoman.

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 headband. 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 n***d 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.

“Gabriel was in quite a bad way, but he's recuperating with the Elders. They sent one of their raven friends to tell us what was going on. But at that stage, we didn't know that Vivian was involved. So I'm so relieved you're okay Lilly.”

“Thank you for coming so quickly. But how? When did you learn to transform?” I asked.

Jo explained that the family's only chance of getting someone here quick enough was for her to change into a raven. “I couldn't wait for it to happen naturally so Rose helped me make it happen for myself, that was this morning,” she said proudly.

I was amazed at her transformation, and even more surprised that she had taken it upon herself to come and help us.

“Sammy wanted more than anything to come and help, but it's daylight. It was too much of a risk. We practically had to tie him up to stop him from following me,” she said.

“A few of the Elders are on their way now. They should be here soon. Come, let's wait for them outside.”

We tied Charlie up and dragged them both out into the sunlight where we sat on a large boulder as we awaited the arrival of the Elders.

As we sat, I saw that the other raven and the owl were waiting patiently with us and so I stood up and walked over to them. Bowing my head, I thanked them for all their help, “I don't know if you can understand me or not, but I just want you to know how grateful I am.”

Both birds nodded their heads at me, and I knew then that, through some kind of magic, they could understand my every word.

“I know Meredith can occasionally read minds, but I thought that was just when we're close,” I said to Jo as I returned to her side, “how was she able to do it this time?”

“This is the first time that she's been able to pick up on something so far away. I think the fact that Sammy was picking up on the same feeling helped,” she answered.