The Raven Saga Box Set

Chapter 32

The main entrance to the mass of caves beneath the mountains was well hidden. If I'd have been there alone, there was no way I'd have known anything was there.

But a large group of people and creatures were waiting for us. I later found out that the raven and the owl had flown on ahead and notified them of our impending arrival.

I wasn't prepared for such a large group, but everybody was very pleased to see me safe and well. Many of them patted me on the back and welcomed me into their home. However, my number one priority was to see Gabriel, and so I asked to be taken to him.

“Ursula will take you both to him. Now I must sit down. It has been a long day and a long walk for my old legs,” chuckled Finley as he was led in the opposite direction.

“Come, girls. Zis vay,” ordered Ursula in a thick German accent. It was the first time we had heard her speak.

“You're German, Ursula?” asked Jo tentatively.

“I am, yes,” she answered and continued walking at a fast pace.

“How did you get here?” I asked, hoping to get her to loosen up a little.

She stopped and turned to us. “Now is not ze time for conversation,” she said, turning brusquely as she carried on walking, taking large strides. We struggled to keep up, especially after such a long hike up the mountain.

Jo shrugged her shoulders, and we walked quickly in silence, having little time to take in our surroundings. What I did notice though was that the sequence of caves rolled easily and smoothly into each other, and it was warm. I had expected something cold and damp, but it was quite the opposite. It felt homely.

“Come!” yelled Ursula, “Gabriel is in here,” and she pulled back a heavy thick green curtain to reveal a large oval-shaped room covered in wall hangings and thick warm rugs on the floor. Two old red leather sofas were facing each other, with a mahogany coffee table carefully positioned between the two. Behind was a large king-size bed and in it, lay Gabriel. He was surrounded by pillows. He grinned the moment he saw us. I noticed then that he was on a drip.

“Girls, girls... I was so worried. Lilly, I am so sorry,” he said with open arms, but he winced as he moved.

“Gabriel, I was terrified something awful had happened to you,” and I suddenly broke down in tears, “for a while, I thought you might be... might be... dead.”

“Dear Lilly. I'm okay. Everything is all right now. Come now, no more tears.”

But they continued to fall, preventing me from speaking. Jo, instead, spoke for me, telling him all that had happened.

“Jo, you have been so courageous, my dear,” he said to her.

“But I didn't do anything... Lilly was the one who captured Vivian.”

Finally able to speak I said, “But I couldn't have done that had you not captured Charlie, Jo. And when you winked at me, I knew you were telling me Gabriel was safe. I couldn't have done any of it without you.”

This time, it was Jo's turn to shed a few tears. After a few minutes, we laughed and hugged each other.

“You are both the most courageous girls I know, and I am so proud that you are my grand-daughters. Now that you are safe, we need to send a message to the rest of the family to let them know. They're probably worried sick,” he said, adding, “if only this place had a cell phone mast. There's no signal around here.”

We giggled with him then and pondered the quickest and safest way to get a message back. Ursula, who had been waiting outside, stepped in and suggested we send a changeling. Jo offered to fly back home, but she was too tired. She needed rest.

“I vill talk to Finley. Ve vill decide who to send, okay?” she had said before walking back out again.

“She's a strange one,” I said to Gabriel quietly, and he laughed loudly.

“Perhaps a little. But she is an incredible woman. She is responsible for saving the lives of hundreds of people during the First World War,” he said clearly in awe.

“But surely she's too young to have been involved,” I asked confused.

“Ursula has recently celebrated her two hundredth birthday,” he said, impressed, “when she was 61, she was bitten by a vampire.”

I gasped, not expecting it at all.

“She wasn't directly involved in the war itself, but there was a very nasty vampire around at that time, Olivier Duran was his name. He was ruthless, killing anybody and everybody. Ursula made it a point to stop him. She prevented hundreds of murders. That's how the Elders discovered her. They're always on the lookout for those that help other people like that. So they sent a couple of people over to France, and they worked together to stop Duran.”

“Wow,” said Jo, “that's impressive. Did they kill him?” she asked.

He shook his head, “Unfortunately he managed to escape. He hasn't been found since though, so we're hoping that he now keeps his killing to a minimum.”

“But how does Ursula survive? She needs blood, doesn't she?” I asked, and Gabriel nodded, assuring us we weren't in any danger from her.

“She has extraordinary self-control. She usually feeds off the blood of other animals, occasionally from the stock they keep in the medical supply here.”

Tabitha appeared with Zoltan, “Can we come in?” she asked.

“Of course, come in, come in,” said Gabriel.

“Zoltan is probably the fastest here at the moment, and so he'd like to deliver your message to your family if that's okay with you,” said Tabitha.

“That would be wonderful. It's very kind of you to offer, Zoltan. Thank you. Perhaps we should write a letter. That would be best. Jo dear, please hand me the inkpot and some paper... thank you.”

After he had written a lengthy note to our family and Zoltan had taken it away, Jo stepped out with Tabitha for a while as I stayed with Gabriel.

“Gabriel?” I asked.

“Yes, dear?”

“What did Charlie do to you?” I whispered.

“It's not important now. You can see I'm okay,” but he decided to tell me after seeing the stubborn expression on my face.

“I believe that he drugged me before I went to sleep. I think he must have put something in my tea. It paralysed me, but I was conscious of what was happening. He removed me from my sleeping bag... and told me that he was going to... deliver you on a plate to Vivian.” A tear fell from his eye as he spoke. “And then he pushed me down the mountain. I couldn't even lift my hands to protect my face from everything that I fell on, stones, twigs, branches, rocks. I seemed to fall forever. It was cruel. Very cruel. But I am safe, and I am recovering. And more importantly, you are safe and well,” he said as he lifted a bruised hand to my face and softly brushed my cheek with his fingers.

“I fear I will never forgive myself for putting you in that position,” he added.

“No Gabriel, no... please don't think like that. There is nothing to forgive. She would have got me somewhere else if it wasn't here on the mountain. She was desperate for my blood, Gabriel. But she got what she deserved in the end,” and I told him how my blood had affected her, how her face had changed beyond recognition. All the beauty she craved, gone for good.

He smiled, and I could see in his eyes that he was exhausted.

“I should let you sleep now, Gabriel,” and I kissed him gently on the cheek and went to stand up, but he took my hand before I could go.

“Lilly... did she tell you anything about your... father?”

I sat back down, took his hand in mine and held it tightly.

I had hoped to wait until he was better before I told him the truth, but he needed to know. Just as I had needed to know. And so I told him. That she had almost killed my father, 'almost bled him dry' and then he had escaped, without taking me with him. I told him that we didn't know if he was alive or if he was... dead.

Gabriel and I sat sobbing together, thinking of the man he had been and wondering what kind of man he had become – dead or alive.

“Lilly, please sit here with me for a while. At least until I fall asleep,” and I nodded as he closed his eyes while I sat quietly by his side.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Gabriel had been asleep for an hour when Jo tiptoed back into the room. When she saw that he was finally asleep, she ushered me out.

“Come on, Lilly, it's time for supper. You must be starving? I know I am. But first, we've been given these clothes to change into,” she said as she handed me a small bundle consisting of a long red dress and black pumps. I noticed she'd been given a similar dress in green with a slightly different pair of black shoes. We quickly changed, before I followed her back through the maze until we found ourselves in what must have been the main dining 'room' within the caves. The ceiling was particularly high, but as there were no windows, it would have been very dark were it not for the hundreds of candles placed at regular intervals along the walls and along the centre of an unusually long dining table.

I wondered how the Elders had managed to get all of this beautifully fine furniture all the way up the mountain, but before I got the chance to ask, we were greeted by an abundance of friendly faces – all of the people that had been waiting for our arrival outside the cave.

It was the first time I had managed to get a good look at them, and I was surprised at how many ordinary-looking people there seemed to be. Of course, there were a fair few rather strange looking ones too. Some looked very old indeed, needing assistance just to move across the floor to their seats where they struggled to sit down, with their old joints creaking.

I noticed a woman with bright red hair and skin so pale that I could almost see through it. I wondered if she was related to Rupert. She was chatting quietly to an older woman who appeared to have dark scales all over her face, and when she reached for her chair, I saw that her fingers were webbed. As the candlelight caught her face, the dark scales appeared to sparkle. She noticed me staring and smiled kindly. I blushed and looked away, embarrassed.

The last creature to walk in came as a bit of a shock. He was huge, about seven feet tall and covered from head to toe in fur. He looked like a giant ape, except that he walked precisely like a human and his facial features were soft. He was laughing at something someone had said in front of him. He laughed like a human too.

They all sat at the table and Rupert called Jo and me over to sit at either side of the head. We had figured that Finley would be sitting there, assuming him to be the head of the Elders, but we were wrong. He was sitting a few chairs down from us, chatting quietly to Tabitha who grinned when she saw us.

We waited a few minutes, and then everybody stood up – apart from the really old ones. We followed suit and stood up too, waiting for something to happen. We didn't have to wait long. A very attractive young man appeared. Jo gasped at the sight of him and blushed, making me smile.

“Good evening, my equals,” he said in a deep smooth voice, “I trust you are all well? Please sit.” We all sat down and waited. “This evening we are honoured to be joined by two of Powell River's greatest changelings. Two courageous young women, Lilly and Jo. Welcome,” and then everybody lifted their glasses to us, and we blushed crimson.

“We also have with us another very special guest, but he is recovering from a brutal attack. Fear not for him, though. The girls' grand-father Gabriel is recovering well, and I believe he is currently sleeping. But we shall lift our glasses to him nonetheless.” And we all raised our glasses and said 'to Gabriel' before everybody began talking amongst themselves while Jo and I sat nervously to the side of what appeared to be the Elders' number one man.