ENSHROUDING LIGHT

THE LECTURE

CHAPTER 11

THE LECTURE

Nevaeh grunted as she woke and placed her hand where she'd been punched. Had she broken a rib? She lifted her top. She'd acquired herself a souvenir from the previous evening; a huge, purple bruise. She turned to her bedside table and switched off the whirr of Adaeze's weird CD. She smiled at her eccentricity, but the strange, wavy, musical sounds and beats had actually helped lull her to sleep.

'Ouch, Mummy.'

She sat to his attention. 'What's the mat...arrh.' The pain sharpened.

'Ouch, Mummy!' He stretched out his arms and opened and closed his hands.

She groaned as she stood, straightened her back, bent her knees, took a deep breath and lifted his weight over the bars of his crib. 'Ouch.' She spun and plonked him onto the bed then crawled back up next to him. 'Oh dear, Mummy needs to lie back down.'

'Tom do Mummy ouch.' He lifted her pyjama top and placed a freezing cold hand on her ribcage, flecks of iridescent glitter appearing in his eyes. A soothing warmth melted into the pain but she grabbed his palm, which tingled in hers, and turned it to see the sparkling, soft-blue bubbles dancing under his skin. His expression was so...concentrated! She looked down at her stomach.

Her large, purple bruise now had a tiny, skin coloured handprint inside it. She pulled at her flesh to look at it properly. How had he made it fade like that? Tom stared into her eyes and waited. Never once taking her eyes off him, she slowly lay back down and released his hand.

Placing the icy palm back on her stomach, Tom swirled his hand over the bruised area like a professional masseur. Every so often, he lifted his glitter filled eyes to hers, his expression clear; he wanted her to feel better. She took another look at the bruise. The rest was fading. So was the pain.

It would've been nice to close her eyes, to lie back and savour this overwhelming sense of relief, but she couldn't. There was no way she could've stopped looking into his wondrous gaze. What was that glitter in his eyes? How on earth did he know how to conjure the blue light, let alone know how to use it so well? Within a few moments, all her pain had vanished.

Losing the concentrated expression, he sat back and clapped his hands like a giddy toddler. The light glowed immensely and then sank back under the surface, just like the galaxy inside his eyes.

There was nothing left of her bruise. She stared at him for a moment. How should she react? Should she tell him he's clever, like she would when he learned a new word? Should she ignore it? Ignoring it might be best, that way he wouldn't put more effort into his gift. That way he may forget he had the ability. Yeah right. Who was she trying to kid? He knew full well he could heal. He was sat, smiling at her like he was proud of himself. How could she protect him from anything if he was going to find things out for himself? Did this mean he would eventually discover, gain and use all his powers without her help? Would he ultimately know the reason he came here?

'Tom clever?' He tilted his head as if wondering why she hadn't said anything about this achievement.

What could she do? She wiped a tear from her eye and smiled back at him. 'Yes, Tom's very clever.'

After breakfast, as she was washing the pots, there was a knock at the door. Her heart took a dive. Had Luke informed all his strange associates of her whereabouts? She crept into the hallway, ducking so as not to be seen through the side window, and peeped through the spy hole. Adaeze stood with a pleasant look on her face. Her heart slowed, and she let out a sigh.