Chapter 27

Elle felt as if her entire body had been turned inside out and back again, as she hurtled through time and space in a chaotic rush of speed and movement. She was distantly aware of Isidre following along beside her, his elbow once connecting painfully to her sternum.

It was all over in seconds. Elle tumbled down violently, rolling head over heels and crunching painfully onto her right wrist. Somehow, she did not cry out – it might have been the shock of where she found herself. It was dark, much darker than it should have been for the time of day. There were thousands of stars in the sky – many more than Elle had ever seen with the naked eye. The grass beneath her was long and dry. It had been trampled underfoot in a large circle several meters in diameter. Large slabs of rock encircled the grass, and the bench had fallen directly out of the sky just in front of one of them. She had managed to tumble backwards, so that it was only a matter of scooting over a few inches before she was partially hidden behind the large rock behind the bench.

One glance down to her throbbing wrist was enough to confirm that she was still invisible. Still, it felt good to crouch behind something solid. Because her and Isidre were not alone in the field.

There had been an immediate flash of light when the bench had touched down. Now that Elle had a vantage point, she could see the damage that it had done. Isidre was covered head to toe in tight, thick ropes. He was flailing about in the grass, attempting to wriggle free without any success.

"Ooooh she's a feisty one" cackled a voice. Elle squinted in the darkness to try and make out the figure. It appeared to be an old woman her white hair pulled into a severe bun. "Quiet" ordered a second voice, this one definitely male. The figure emerged from the shadows of the stones and was illuminated in the moonlight.

Elle bit her lip to keep from crying out, bit so deeply that she tasted the familiar bite of iron on her tongue. She was bleeding. She was bleeding, because the man in the moonlight looked just like her. The man was tall and thin, and his cheekbones were so severe they cut deep curtains of black across his face in the silvery light. His hair was thinning, but clearly blonde in the patches that were left. Her entire life, Elle had not seen anyone who looked just like her. Now, her mirror image was walking right towards her.

The man walked brusquely towards Isidre's body. He kicked the side of the rope sharply and Isidre immediately stilled. The moonlight carved shadows of his features – his eyes were so deeply set that he looked as if they were simply pits of black. He looked at Isidre's still body cruelly, his mouth twisted into a starved sort of grin that set Elle's teeth on edge.

The man knelt before the ropes and murmured in a voice so low that Elle had to strain to hear it. "I've heard you look like me." The man raised a long thin wand to the shape of Isidre's head and slashed the air casually. The rope tore itself apart, and it must have cut deeper, because the cry that Isidre gave out was one of pain.

The man immediately rocked back on his heels, his face a mask of fury. "IDIOT BOY" he roared. His wand slashed out again, cutting deeper across the ropes. Isidre cried out again, but the ropes had been cut sufficiently now that he could finally break free. He knelt in front of the man's feet. "Please, father –"

The old woman stepped forward. Her face was similarly lit up by dancing shadow, licking the sides of her sharp jaw like a black flame. "What have you done" she hissed "months of planning down the drain, and with the half-wit half-blood putting her more and more under protection…" the woman was ranting now, flecks of spit catching the moonlight as they fell from her mouth. She paused her rant, staring cruelly at Isidire, who had been kneeling silently, his face turned towards the ground. "You deserve to feel half the pain you've just caused your family. Cruci-" "NO" screamed another voice.

There had been a third person in the field, small, and crouching so deeply in the shadows that Elle had not seen her. Now, the woman walked into the light. And this time, Elle could not help but gasp. Because it was her mother.

The woman who rushed across the field was paler, gaunter than the woman Elle had known as her mother, but the wild curls were the same. The wide, brown eyes were a touch duller, but they were the right shade. The woman raised her arm, holding it protectively over Isidre, who had scrambled from his kneeling position to hide behind her.

"DISGRACE, FOUL LITTLE-" the old woman started screaming. "Quiet" ordered the man Isidre had called father. Immediately, the old woman was silent. "I thought I heard a noise…" he said, walking slowly towards where Elle crouched. Her heart stopped, she stopped breathing. There was so much going on, and Elle could make sense of none of it, but she knew, in the deepest, most primal part of her brain, that she should not be found by this man.

Elle waited, her breath held still in the air before her, as the man walked carefully towards the stone she hid behind, his eyes scanning the space in front of him. One… two… three… he was right in front of her. She could feel the heat emanating from his body, could see the twill pattern of his pants. "My king! Over there!" called out Elle's mother. The man's head snapped back to look to where she was pointing. There was something lying in the grass beside the bench. Elle's heart sunk. It was her wand. It must have fallen out when she had summersaulted.

The man walked towards the wand. "It's mine" Isidre called out desperately, "I dropped it." The man turned his cruel gaze to Isidre. "You have my father's wand, as undeserving of the honour you are. And now you are stupid enough to claim this wand as your own? You will be punished for that." Isidre was pale. There was a long thin slash across this face where his father's spell had cut him. The man's eyes were glittering with malice. "but not right now. Because she is here with us." The man dropped a hand, meaning to pick up Elle's wand.

Suddenly, there was a loud crack in the air, and an eruption of light. A fourth figure had appeared, still deep in shadow, and was firing a volley of lights towards the others. The man cursed loudly, returning fire. The old woman did the same. Elle's mother knelt over Isidre, sobbing.

"Neus" the man laughed hoarsely in between spells. The figure did not respond but redoubled the rate of light. The laugh died on the man's lips as his brow lowered in concentration and anger. Despite what looked like his best efforts, the other figure was breaking through his defensive spells almost as quickly as he could put them up. The old woman was cackling, shooting off spells with no real aim or power. This fight was between the man and the shadowed figure.

The old woman fell to a spell right to the chest, landing several feet back with a loud "oof". A large shield spell shattered seconds after the man cast it, and he cursed, leaping towards the huddled figures to his right. There was a scream, and the man re-emerged, holding Isidre's pale body against his own, his wand pressed to the soft part of Isidre's throat.

"Neus" crooned the man, "doesn't this feel a little familiar?" The figure walked forward out of the shadow, and Elle gasped again. This time it was unheard. The woman who had just been hugging Isidre and the woman who know faced off the man in the center of the trampled field were identical.

"My name is not Neus anymore" the woman, Elle's real mother, said. "Not another step forward" the man threatened, pressing his wand firmly into Isidre's throat. The small boy whimpered. "Neus" sobbed the identical woman to the man's left, "please don't hurt my boy." "Ariadna" the woman spit back "nice to see you too."

"As I was saying" Elle's mother continued, her eyes never blinking, never leaving the spot where the man held his wand to Isidre's throat. "My name is not Neus anymore. And I am not the scared little girl I used to be, Amon." "You were no girl. You were betrothed, and you betrayed your oath. A filthy mudblood's slut" snarled the man. "I was a slave, bound by an unbreakable vow made I made before I could even spell my own name!" "You were undeserving of the honor your parents bestowed on you" Amon retorted, his face so shadowed it resembled a skull.

"Married off as a package deal with my twin sister, to save a failing family fortune?" Elle's mother asked, her voice derisive. "There is no honor on your name. But it matters not" Elle's mother said "because this isn't going to end like it did in the forest. Even then, you were afraid of what I could do. Now I'm free to show you…"

Elle's mother never got to finish her speech. Because at that moment, several things happened at once. Five or six people apparated into the circular field, their wands firing. Elle's mother was forced to leap forward to dodge a spell. She shot towards Amon and Isidre. Amon, who had temporarily removed his wand from Isidre's throat to block an incoming spell, was thrown off balance. In the chaos, Isidre was released. He rolled onto the grass. A second later, Amon and Elle's mother, who were still wrestling, disapparated with a loud crack. The woman who Elle's mother had called Ariadna was leaning over the old woman, and in a second crack, they were both gone too.

Elle leapt out into the field, her disillusionment charm gone. "MAMA" she screamed, her voice a raw sob. The field was quiet now, the wizards who had apparated there falling silent in response to Elle's cries.

Elle wasn't sure how long she would have stayed there, if it wasn't for the arrow that sang through the sky, landing perfectly in the center of the circular field. The figures of the wizards who had apparated into the field came into the light as they were herded towards the center were Elle knelt. She recognized Harry and Teddy. The others were strangers to her, and she paid them no mind, because another form had just made its way into the light of the clearing.

It was a centaur, the most beautiful creature she had ever seen. The body of the horse was a pure, midnight black, and it blended seamlessly into the dark skin of the torso, the undertones of blue making it seem as if she was almost glowing in the moonlight. Her hair was shaved at the sides, the rest of it braided thickly down her head all the way to her waist. She held a bow high in the air, an arrow notched and aimed.

"What wizard dares to enter the sacred land of the centaurs, the last free plains of the earth?" Harry held his hands up, approaching the female centaur with caution. There was a pawing of earth from all around the circle that made Elle realize that, outside of the light, they were surrounded. "We come unwillingly" he said "in chase of those who trespassed first."

"We had clear sights on the intruders. We need no help of men to keep our lands" the woman spoke, her nostrils flaring. "Why didn't you shoot?" Teddy asked from Elle's side. Harry's back tensed. The centaur pawed the earth, her the string of her bow stretching a centimeter farther. "The time is nigh for a celestial eclipse" she stated, as if her words justified everything.

"You centaurs and your sky" muttered one of the wizards Elle didn't recognize, "it looks the bloody same to me." The centaur's eyes flashed. "Mountain is immortal to man's eye. But the sky has seen them die. Has any man's eye every truly seen the sky?" There was a stamping of hooves in agreement from outside the circle of moonlight.

"We meant no harm in coming here, and we leave at your request" Harry said hurriedly, trying to staunch the rising tension. The centaur nodded. She turned her gaze to Elle. "It has been dark before. It will be dark again. Noontime knows this." Elle nodded weakly, and then Teddy's hand was on her shoulder, and suddenly everything was black and chaotic again.