The Serpent in the Stone - By Nicki Greenwood Page 0,51
then—”
“—could be what we’re able to do now,” interrupted her sister, looking startled. Her eyes turned green, and she floated the copy of Fairy Tales into the air. “Do you think the wizard—druid—was one of us?”
Faith recoiled. “I think we’re in big trouble. You’d better take that thing back to a jeweler and have it dismantled. If someone like us is looking for that thing, I don’t think I want him to find it. Especially if he knows how to use it.”
Sara let the book come to rest on the blankets of Faith’s cot again, and blinked her eyes back to hazel. “Did Beardsley give you anything on this?”
“No, but ley lines are nothing to kid around with. There’s a lot of power in them, especially with the collective conscious of every ghost walking them. You saw what happened to me. I couldn’t handle it.”
Sara grabbed Faith’s arm. “What if this druid could? What could he do with it?”
Horrified, Faith started imagining all sorts of things that could have linked the amulet to as much blood as she’d sensed on reading it. “Anything. If he could harness the power, if he wanted to do damage...anything. It would be the psychic equivalent of an atom bomb.” She shook her head. “But it could kill someone, trying to control that kind of power alone. You’d have to be incredibly powerful.”
“Or a whole druid order working together?” Sara suggested.
A chill seeped into Faith’s bones. “I don’t like this.”
A commotion outside the tent interrupted Sara’s reply. Voices rose in alarm. They rushed outside in the direction of the sound.
A knot of crew surrounded a figure lying prone on the ground. Faith heard Lambertson’s voice booming above the others, ordering them to lift. “What happened?” She bullied her way into the circle. Then she saw for herself.
Cameron lay pinned underneath a section of fallen scaffold. He groaned in agony, pushing at the heavy rigging and gasping for breath. Lamb and the rest of the crew struggled to haul it off the young man’s chest. Horrified, Faith sprang to help.
Sara jumped in beside her and crouched down over Cameron. “Hang on, Cam,” she murmured. Faith knew that her sister had called on her telekinesis, and her eyes changed, when Cameron’s eyes sprang wide. Sara bent a shoulder to the scaffold and glared at it, pushing and using her power at the same time.
Faith jammed her shoulder against the bars and hauled upward with the others. The bulky steelwork dug into her body, resisting her efforts. With tacit understanding, she waited until Sara blasted it with another wave of telekinesis and gave a simultaneous heave, shouting for the others to do the same. It rose a few grudging inches. “Get him out, get him out!”
Luis and Dustin grabbed the young man by the shoulders and dragged him out from under the scaffold. Cameron gave a broken shout of pain. When he was clear, the crew let the steelwork slam back onto the ground.
“Dustin, the stretcher. Luis, my first-aid kit. Hurry!” Lamb shouted.
Faith saw them tear away in the direction of Lambertson’s tent. She bent over Cameron, assessing the damage. The young man’s ribs were crushed in on one side. Bile rose in her throat. All this from a scaffold that shouldn’t have been that heavy to start with?
Sara crouched on Cameron’s other side. Faith caught a glimpse of her sister blinking away tears and the evidence of her power. Cameron coughed. A reddish froth of sputum covered his lips. His glassy gaze fixed on Sara. “You— Your—” His chest heaved once, twice, then his breath hissed out and his stare turned blank.
Sara made an inarticulate sound and clapped a hand over her mouth.
Feeling sick, Faith checked for a pulse and found none. “Lamb. Radio the mainland for a helicopter.” Lambertson was already walking as she spoke. She glanced up at Thomas and Michael and caught them staring, stone-faced, at Sara. Even without her sister’s skill at reading expressions, Faith saw It’s your fault we stayed here on their faces.
Flintrop’s voice spurred them into action. “Someone get a blanket to cover him. The rest of you, help me put this goddamn thing back.” Becky dashed off to find a blanket, and the others put their shoulders under the steel bars of the scaffold.
Faith watched it swing upright with less trouble than it had given moments ago. Suspicion raced through her. Thomas and Michael found sledgehammers, and secured the rigging with extra posts. Faith wanted to throw up.