The Children of When (Complete)

Chapter 34: The Amulet

Belle and Leah stared at the doorway. How were they supposed to know whether he was still alive, or been vaporised, as he stepped through the door?

They jumped as a carrot-topped head popped back through the doorway. "Hurry up you pair, I found it!" He winked, and his head vanished back inside the door again.

The girls looked at each other and grinned. They stepped through the door together, heard a popping sound, and were on the other side. Leah blinked, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the brightly lit room.

Raff sat on a chair behind a large wooden desk, frowning as he carefully turned the fragile pages of a large leather-bound book.

Belle rushed over to have a look. "How'd you find it so fast?"

"I didn't have to look far. It was sitting right here on the desk when I walked in." He scratched his head with one hand, turning the pages with the other. "However, we do have a problem. The whole thing is written in another language! I've found a drawing, but I'm not sure it's going to be much help."

He turned back a couple of pages, and showed them the drawing. "See how the three people here are each holding a piece of the amulet, but in this next drawing, they're holding hands and looking at the three pieces merged together and glowing. So how did they do it?"

Belle and Raff continued to leaf through the book, hoping to find more drawings, while Leah sat on the ground and pulled out the circlet. She remembered back to the night when it had communicated its sadness to her, and what Zolinda had said about all metals retaining memories. She rubbed her thumb along the grooves as she'd done the last time she'd felt its emotions, but this time she felt nothing.

She tried to remember what she'd been thinking when she'd felt the circlet's emotions last time. She'd been wondering what had been removed. Well, she knew that now, so maybe she needed to ask a different question. Or maybe ask a different piece?

"Hey guys, can you bring your amulet pieces over? I have an idea."

"Sure, what's up?" Raff and Belle joined her on the ground.

Leah told them about her idea, and they agreed it was worth a shot. She placed the blade over the grooves in the circlet, and held the stone in place while she concentrated. She wondered what could possibly have happened to enable someone to separate the pieces, and was hit by a wave of pain. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, determined not to break the connection like she had last time.

She stood in a room where the complete amulet lay on an old wooden desk. She knew she'd never been in the room before, yet it seemed familiar. Beside her stood an angry looking man, yelling at the three figures standing in front of the desk with dazed expressions on their faces.

Across the room stood a tall oval mirror, suspended inside a free-standing solid timber frame, along with a desk that had intricately carved scrollwork on the front. No wonder it seemed familiar; she was in the room Serena had described in her diary! The kitsune, Sardon, stood right beside her in his elven form. She was inside a memory from the amulet!

"It's not working!" the man yelled. "You have to merge your minds, become as one. It's the only way it will work!"

The eyes of the three figures appeared out of focus, as if they were in some kind of trance. They formed a circle, closed their eyes, and joined their hands together in front of them, beads of sweat appearing on their foreheads. A thin translucent green cord began to coalesce above their joined hands. It bound their hands together, and then split into three separate threads which snaked their way upwards towards the bowed heads of the three figures.

The amulet on the desk began to emit a soft glow, and Sardon immediately picked up a tool from the desk. He worked at the casing of the stone in the centre of the blade until the stone came loose. He held it up in front of his eyes triumphantly.

The three figures had slumped to the floor. Their vacant stares told Leah they were dead.

Not a trace of remorse or compassion showed on Sardon's face as he looked dispassionately at the dead bodies on the floor. "How inconvenient. Now I'll have to find three more mindless idiots to separate the other two pieces."

Leah opened her eyes, and was back sitting on the ground in the vault. She was shaking, her stomach churning at what she had just learned. Belle and Raff were staring at her, their eyes full of concern.

"Are you okay?" Belle asked softly. "We were starting to get really worried. You've been shaking and mumbling for the last ten minutes. Do you want to tell us what happened? It's okay if you're not up to it yet."

She reached into Leah's backpack, and pulled out her friend's water bottle. Leah gulped down the last of it, her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth from the horror she had witnessed. She dreaded having to tell Belle and Raff what she'd seen.

Tears leaked from her eyes, and trailed down her face uncontrolled. She could just not tell them what she'd seen; make up some story that sounded plausible? But she knew the decision wasn't hers alone to make, they deserved to know the truth. Whatever path they chose to follow, it needed to be the result of an informed decision, made by all three of them.

Leah related everything she had seen in Sardon's room, watching the fear, understanding, and finally horror, flicker in their eyes. Raff was the first to break the silence, jumping up and running back to the desk.

"I didn't find any drawings of the three collapsed or dead after the amulet was created. Surely there would be one, if what you've described happened to them?" He turned the pages as quickly as he could without damaging the fragile paper, unable to hide his shaking hands.

Belle frowned. "Exactly! And the three you watched were destroying the amulet, which is a lot different to restoring it?"

Leah could hear the desperation in their voices, and hoped they'd find something to prove that what she'd seen wouldn't happen to them.

"I absolutely agree with what you're both saying. And I so hope you're right. But, I think we're going to have to make a decision based on the information we have, which is that we don't know what will happen! I also think we need to make a decision while we're still inside this vault, with just the three of us here, and no-one telling us what we should or shouldn't do. And we need to all agree, if we decide to do it. No majority rules, if one of us is against trying, then we don't try. What do you think?"