Author Note: Dear all, I apologise for the length of this chapter and I too apologise for how wordy I have been today... I am in a play 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' and it's Shakespeare, and if you have read any Shakespeare then you will know how wordy he can get... He was also born and did die on this very day, April 23rd (random fact)... Now tarry rash wontons (little quote for you), for I must bid they farewell until tomorrow we might meet again... Adieu... ~ARTY~
Chapter 6
Ria Mason-Heap awoke before the first rays of sunlight had made their way across the horizon and shook Mackenzie awake, a hand over his mouth to prevent anyone else from stirring. Then the two stole away in the darkness to collect the help that they would need. Firstly they gathered together Nicko's children, all three, Felicity and Grace and young Hunter, all blissfully unaware of what they were to be letting themselves into, next they assembled Ria's brothers, Nate, Charlie and Robbie, each bringing something to the group of children, a small army one might say… Upon sneaking into the Forest they aroused the final member of their troupe, Freya Heap, a young Wendron Witch and cousin to those of Heap blood. Then the children took it upon themselves to follow in Kayleigh's path, to capture and to save her from herself and the darkenesse within her.
They had yet to travel a league from the Castle when they spied the first signs that they were on the right tracks, Kayleigh had been practicing her new ability on the road towards the Port, rebuilt since it had suffered a 'freak storm' fifteen years ago. Arising from the Port they saw a plume of smoke on the tainted landscape, a single building, an inn at that, had been thrown into a raging inferno at the hands of the new found magykal powers of Kayleigh Heap, daughter of the legendary darke necromancer Simon Heap.
Further still they travelled, sweeping round to the entrance of the Marram Marshes and onto the cold icy water with the help of Hunter, Grace and Felicity. The small boat was crowded but stayed afloat by the aid of Ria and Nate's magyk.
As dawn came about they spied their missing cousin asleep beneath a tree and approached her cautiously, this was a dangerous act as they were soon to discover, but never the less they crept forward with extreme uncertainty.
Kayleigh Heap was not sleeping as heavily as they had once wished, she woke at the sound of nine pairs of feet crossing the ground before her, each falling and rising lightly from the compacted earth. The nine were barely aware that she was, in fact, hardly sleeping at all when she snapped to her feet and glared at them angrily. She recognised the majority as her cousins and the ninth was a boy that she had crossed paths with a day earlier in the Castle that they each called their home.
Kayleigh spoke, her words sharper than daggers and the look on her face could have killed the innocents around her had she wished it, but she was not out for death, but magyk. "Why have you followed me, stupid cousins of mine? Do you wish your magyk be removed also? It would be easy."
Kayleigh thrust a hand towards Nate but Mackenzie pulled him backwards in time to prevent their skin from contacting.
"Quite to the contrary," said Ria. "We want you to return the magyk that you have stolen, perhaps keep a little for yourself, but you have no need for it all. Silas Heap and Marcia Overstrand grow old, perhaps hold back some of their, they shall have little need of it… Kayleigh, this is ridiculous, just less than a week ago you were a young girl wishing to meet her father in your curiosity, now you are running from the place you call your home. We came alone to get you, to save you from the wrath of your uncles, I hear they have short tempers and ought not to be reckoned with about such matters. Let yourself be escorted back to the Castle with us so that we can resolve this matter peacefully…"
Kayleigh's eyes narrowed. "I have no wish to return to that Manuscriptorium, I have no wish to return this magyk within me. Come closer and I shall shoot you all with a thunderflash, regardless of your age or your heritage. I will not be made a fool of again. My father, worthless insolent man, had a cheek to call me a mere pathetic scribe, I was angered at the time, but now I see the unearthly truth in his words, I will not become a mere pathetic scribe again. Now stand aside you all, lest I harm you with my thunderflashes."
The greater part of the group virtually leapt backwards in fear, Kayleigh was a live wire with the renowned temperament of the Heaps mixed with that of her mother, the infamous Lucy Heap. Ria Mason-Heap, however, stood firm in her position, almost daring Kayleigh to take a good shot at her. Kayleigh resisted out of her own hatred for spilt blood. Mackenzie came to stand with Ria, a fear set deep in his stomach, now he wanted little more than to see that she stayed alive in her defiance.
"Right here, Kayleigh, and right now, you are that pathetic scribe," Ria chided her, selecting her words carefully. "Stay here in the Marshes if you will, though I fear even you could not survive living here alone. Mere pathetic scribes would not survive this place, or any place. Mere pathetic scribes would not see a good thing, like a family coming to their aid, even if they stood before them for all to see… We came to help you, Kayleigh, to save you from the Darkenesse within you, you cannot deny that it is there, you let it in, you virtually invited it to stay inside your body and your soul, should anything be more apparent I must therefore be blinded… You threaten violence, so commit violence, I dare you with a force that you, my lowly cousin, cannot refuse, kill me here, if you wish it, but then face my father's wrath. Look upon my robes, for now I am the ExtraOrdinary Apprentice, all the magyk in all the worlds could never buy a mere pathetic scribe such a position. Kayleigh Heap, you are by far just as bad as your father in your power-crazed ways. He sought my position and he failed, so you too will seek and so you too will fail. There is no need to turn out like your father, unless you wish to rot in Dungeon One with him…"
Kayleigh turned red with rage and sent a thunderflash straight into Ria's chest, it struck her and she fell to the ground giving the girl enough time to make her daring escape into the Marram Marshes and, in her eyes, to safety.