Annifer

Chapter 1: The Dream

I'm lying motionless on the stone floor of my bedroom.

A woman's voice chants mysterious words in a language I don't know. A white cat purrs and rubs her face against mine. I can feel a dog's rough tongue licking my leg. Two strong hands are pressing down on my head, trying to keep me here, trying to hold me down. But it's no good. I'm leaving.

As I start to rise up from my body, I see a woman sitting cross legged on the floor by my feet, her expression is frantic, her eyes piercing blue and her long dark hair is wild and disheveled.

"Let me try," she says, desperation in her voice and staggers to her feet.

"No, Sophia!" the woman at my head barks. "You don't have my training. It could kill you."

"If my daughter dies, I don't want to live."

I rise up higher and drift towards the open window of my room, like the downy seed of a dandelion clock. Through the window and out into the open air.

As I float upwards I turn and look down at the castle below me, its grey stone walls, round towers and neatly manicured gardens getting smaller and smaller.

Now I can see the whole of the city of Merlax, capital of Frailing, with its red-roofed houses and windy streets. Beyond them, the mists rising from the farmer's patchwork fields. To the west lies the Great Forest, dark and forbidding, to the east the mountains, purple and majestic, the sun rising behind them. In the south, far in the distance I can see the blue line of the sea.

Without my body I am light and ethereal. Completely free. I turn back towards the sky and open my arms to embrace the blue.

A sudden flash of light and I'm stopped. My way is barred. In front of me is a horse. But a horse like no other I've seen: magnificent wings spread out from his flanks, a silver horn spirals up from the middle of his forehead. His pure white coat shimmers in the sunlight. He looks at me with dark, fathomless eyes. Steam comes from his nostrils as he breathes out, lowering his head - a signal for me to climb onto his back. I mount and take his mane in my hands.

With a shake of his head and a flap of his wings the horse dives and flies back downwards. The castle looms ahead, getting closer and closer. A clattering of hooves and he lands on the balcony outside my room, high up on the East Tower. I dismount and walk towards the balcony door. Inside I see the carpet has been rolled aside and a chalk circle has been drawn on the floor. Inside the circle lies the lifeless body of a three year old girl, my own body. Two candles have been placed on the outside edge of the circle, level with my heart. At my feet a clear multifaceted crystal catches the candlelight.

A woman in a dark blue cloak lies face down on the floor outside the circle, the hood covers her face, her dark hair is spread out on the stone. Next to her lies a small white terrier. I can't tell if they're alive or dead. The cat lies by the side of my face, she's still purring but the sound is much weaker now. The woman I had seen at my feet is now kneeling, her hands pressing down on my head, eyes closed, concentrating with all her might. She wobbles. Soon she too will fall to the ground with exhaustion.

As soon as I pass through the door I feel a magnetic force pulling me. I fly across the room towards my lifeless body, lying in the circle. With a jolt I'm back in it. Pain sears through every cell of my body as if I were on fire . . .

I woke up with a start and sat bolt upright. Catching my breath, I slowly lay back down on the silk sheets of my four poster bed, my mind whirring, trying to work out what I'd just seen. The woman with the piercing blue eyes who had brought me back to life was clearly my mother who had died when I was six years old. Her face was the same as the one in the portrait that hung in the Throne Room. But who was the woman in the blue cloak? Why did she seem so fascinating to me? I needed to know who she was and for that I'd have to ask Abigail, my nurse.