A Change In The Weather

Chapter 25: Guilt

21 January, 2008 – 1:25 pm

Scarlet burst through the door to the study in the windmill.

‘Where’s Hillary and Tobias?’ she said, breathlessly. Her face was creased with worry.

‘You’re all out of breath, dear,’ said Eliza, who was tending to Wendle’s dismembered tail. ‘Is something the matter?’

‘Yes!’ Scarlet said, gulping for air.

Eliza finished bandaging up Wendle as best she could and got to her feet.

‘Well, as you know they’ve gone to this Dragon Society dinner wosname at Winterton Hall,’ she said, ‘but they’ll need us around as back up no doubt, ‘cos my feelings are telling me to be wary. So me and Wendle here are going to leave soon in Hillary’s narrowboat Persephone.’

‘We need to bring them back straightaway! Can’t you stop them?’

‘Calm down dear. They left ages ago. Why, what’s the matter?’

‘Because the goblins have stolen the Ivory Flute, Eliza!’

Instantly Eliza sat down, as if she was on the verge of fainting.

‘Oh dear me,’ she said, trying to steady herself by holding onto the lip of the table. ‘But that is terrible! You knew about its history and ability. Didn’t it occur to you how important and powerful it was? Didn’t you put it in a safe place Scarlet?’

Scarlet shook her head, miserably.

‘I didn’t think. It didn’t occur to me at the time. There was so much going through my head, I just didn’t realise. I’m so sorry.’

Eliza pocketed her Tarot cards and stood up.

‘No matter. There’s no use worrying ‘bout things we can’t change. Much better to concentrate on trying to change the things we can. We need to make sure that Hillary and Tobias are safe.’

‘What do we do?’ asked Scarlet in desperation.

‘Well, there is one thing you could try,’ said Eliza, reaching into her pocket for her Tarot.

She shuffled the deck and offered them to Scarlet.

‘Cut the deck three times and then pick a card. Any card.’

Scarlet looked bemused, but cut the deck three times as directed. Her shaking fingers hovered over the cards, and then finally, once she was happy with her choice, she plucked a card from the deck.

‘Ok,’ said Eliza. ‘Lay it face down on the table there.’

Scarlet placed it on the table as directed.

‘Now turn it over.’

She turned the frayed card over, and frowned at it.

It was card number 0: The Fool. Eliza snorted. The print on the card showed a man with a pack over his shoulder grinning, and a dog dancing between his legs as he walked.

‘It doesn’t look so bad.’ Scarlet said.

‘You think? Try looking at it again,’ suggested Eliza.

Scarlet looked down at the card again. It was funny, although nothing had changed, it looked like the man was just about to walk over the edge of a cliff.

‘Look with your eyes and not your head, girl.’

Scarlet gasped. She hadn’t paid much attention to the dog before, but now she noticed that its tail bled off the card.

‘The dog,’ she said, looking at Wendle. ‘It doesn’t have a tail!’

‘Huh, typical!’ muttered Wendle, and sculked off to his basket.

‘What does it mean though, Eliza?’ asked Scarlet.

‘Wouldn’t we all like to know?’

Scarlet screwed her face up. ‘That’s not an answer,’ she said. ‘You must have some idea!’

‘If I didn’t know better, I’d say it looked like an accident was going to happen. Or worse.’ said Scarlet, suddenly looking up at Eliza, as something occured to her.

‘Or an ambush?’

Eliza sighed and tidied the cards away into their little velvet pouch.

‘Very good Scarlet. You see, you must learn to trust your instincts more.’

‘So what do we do?’ sighed Scarlet.

‘It means, dear, that we do what we were going to do before, and go to Winterton Hall.’

Posted in A Change In The Weather |