Chapter Six

Dan was relieved to find that he’d been right about the charges – they had to be dropped once Ursula denied that he’d hurt her. He had wanted to go and see her but the lawyer his father had engaged had strongly advised him to stay away. The police did not believe Ursula’s story. They were still obsessing about their clothes. They appeared to believe that Dan and Ursula had been having some secret relationship, that he’d attacked her in a jealous rage. It made no particular sense, but then the truth made no sense at all.

Ursula came back to school surprisingly quickly. She looked stunning and one glance in her direction told Dan that she’d lost none of her strength. He didn’t know how he knew, but he knew. His schoolmates clustered round her like wasps round a jam jar and Ursula did nothing to discourage them. The one exchange he’d had with her had not been very satisfactory. He sought her out the first day that she was back. She was briefly alone by the lockers.

‘Are you all right?’ He spoke to her in the language of the Combrogi, the language that had become theirs. She smiled at him and he wanted to fall at her feet, but that wouldn’t do at all.

‘I’m good. Taliesin came and finished the job of the doctors. I’m good as new. Thanks for saving me, Dan. I owe you my life.’

He shrugged as if it were nothing, as if it had cost him nothing. He would have paid even more to have kept her safe. He did not want to say that, though. He didn’t want to burden her with that. He kept his voice non-committal. He spoke to her casually, as if she wasn’t … everything.

‘What did Taliesin say?’

‘Oh, what you might expect – that I should go with him back to Macsen’s world, that I would be appreciated there.’

Dan knew that was true enough. King Macsen had been more than a little in love with her and would have liked her magical bloodline running through his descendants.

‘Did you want to go?’

Ursula tidied a stray hair and stuck it behind her ear. She pulled a face. ‘This is home. Right?’

He wanted to touch her – just to hold her hand – but things were different for her now. She had a certain glamour that came with her newly uncovered beauty and the fact that she had nearly died in mysterious circumstances. Everyone wanted to be her friend. He didn’t want to feel she had to be with him because he’d saved her. Taliesin was right. He knew too much about how people worked. The time he’d spent being able to read minds had changed the way he looked at people, had made him cynical, uncharitable. By and large he’d prefer to avoid them. He wanted Ursula to be free – of him and of the guilt and horrors of their shared past.

‘Yeah. No one even had time to miss us,’ he said easily.

‘Dan, I …’

He did not want to hear her tell him that things couldn’t be the same between them now that they were home. He didn’t think he’d be able to bear it. He’d prefer to stay out of her way and leave everything unsaid. He could hear someone coming and then the bell went. ‘Got to go! See you later!’ he said and hurried away.

It was a big school and he made sure that he was always busy at the few times their paths might have crossed. He stopped hanging out with the smokers and with his other mates. He could not care about the things they talked about and, of course, they all fancied Ursula now and wanted to know what had happened to the two of them in that lost hour after they left the re-enactment. His friends seemed hurt by his withdrawal but left him alone. He took to going running and to using the gym every lunchtime, as if by wearing out his body he could somehow control his mind. It did not work.

He was in the library one wet lunchtime when for some reason the gym was closed and he could not face running in the cold. He sensed Ursula’s arrival before he saw her. He always knew where she was – it was the one hangover from the magical bond between them that had saved them so often in the past. He watched her from behind the bookcases. She was with a group of Year Elevens, mucking about and being a little too loud. Dan’s mate Josh was shouting – showing off. ‘So what happened with Dan, then? He must have done something because he’s turned into a right weirdo since that day.’

Ursula shrugged and sent a pointed look in Dan’s direction. So she knew where he was too. Some vestige of that old link still existed for her too. He busied himself with finding the book he needed for his homework and then he heard raised voices again. ‘Look. Leave it alone, will you. I have said that Dan never touched me. He would never hurt me!’ They all picked on that remark and started teasing Ursula that she had some kind of thing for Dan, and Dan just knew that Ursula was getting angry. They really did not want to make Ursula angry.

One of the girls, Lucy – she’d been queen bee until Ursula had started causing a buzz – suddenly said, ‘Yeah, Ursula, why don’t you go out with Dan and leave all our boyfriends alone? You’ve turned into a real slag since you came back from hospital.’

Dan found that he was holding his breath. Ursula had gone very white and her blue eyes seemed to flash Lucy ample warning, but Lucy didn’t know what she was dealing with.

‘What did you say?’ Ursula said dangerously.

‘You should get with Dan – he’s more your type. You’re both weird.’

‘Dan is not weird,’ Ursula said emphatically. Lucy did not seem to know when to stop.

‘Look, you might have got all thin and interesting since your “accident”, but we all know that he did it and you pushed him to it. You were weird two weeks ago and you’re weird now.’

Dan saw Ursula get to her feet. Even if he’d been unable to feel her fury, her body language must have told Lucy it was time to shut up.

‘Do you want a fight, Lucy?’ Ursula said softly.

Lucy laughed. ‘I’m not afraid of you. Josh wouldn’t let you hurt me anyway. Would you, Josh?’

Josh was not an idiot and he recognised something in Ursula that Lucy did not. ‘Stop it, Lucy.’

‘You’re not afraid of Ursula, are you, Josh?’ Lucy had an instinct for trouble and because Josh was actually afraid of Ursula, because he had instincts of his own – good ones – he had to deny it.

‘Of course not. Anyway, I don’t hit girls.’

‘Oh go on, Josh. She’s asking for it!’

It was impossible to read Ursula’s expression. She was impassive as stone. Dan had to stop this now.

He stepped out from behind the bookshelves.

‘Hey!’ he said.

‘I think Josh just challenged me,’ Ursula said flatly, without looking at Dan.

‘Don’t be silly, Ursula. Josh wouldn’t fight you,’ Dan said.

‘He’s too scared,’ Lucy chipped in.

Josh coloured. ‘Of course I’m not.’

‘Go on then, hit her. I dare you.’

‘Don’t, Josh!’

‘Or what, Dan? Will you stop me?’ Josh was squaring up to Dan now and the last thing Dan ever wanted to do was fight another human being. He had seen where it led.

‘I don’t have to stop you, Josh. Ursula can look after herself.’ As soon as he’d said those words he knew he’d made a mistake. Couldn’t they see what Ursula was? She was six foot one or more, lean and muscled, and her eyes were two hard blue stones, bright as sapphires. There was no mercy in her eyes – no fear and no mercy. She could have killed every one of them and not broken into a sweat.

‘Are you saying Ursula would beat me in a fight?’

Dan didn’t know what to say. He could sense Ursula listening with keen interest. He should lie and say that Josh would win – maybe that would defuse the situation. What did Ursula want him to say? He shrugged. Let them make of that what they wanted. He thought it was over. He knew Josh didn’t want to take on Ursula; he’d seen it in his eyes.

The library as a body seemed to let out a quiet sigh of relief. Ursula sat down and Dan turned away to get his backpack. Then, without warning, Lucy launched herself at Ursula like some kind of demented wildcat.

In one fluid moment Ursula was on her feet and had lifted Lucy off hers. Ursula’s strong right hand had Lucy’s throat and Lucy’s eyes were beginning to bulge. Her legs dangled helplessly in mid-air. Ursula remained expressionless.

Josh, seeing Lucy’s danger, tried to punch Ursula, which was a mistake. She deflected the blow easily and with a casual backhand sent him reeling across the floor, where he collided with the bookshelves. The girls Lucy was with started screaming and one of the librarians was shouting. Ursula still didn’t say anything, but Lucy was turning blue.

‘Stop it, Ursula! She’s a kid! Put her down!’ Ursula relaxed her hand and Lucy fell to the floor, gasping for air and sobbing. Before anyone else could move, Dan grabbed Ursula’s arm and dragged her out of the library.

‘For God’s sake, Ursula, what are you doing? You could have killed her! You nearly killed a young girl. She’s not a bloody warrior. Are you out of your mind?’

‘Maybe, Dan. I can’t stand this any more. Please get me out of here.’

How could he not respond?