Read Online The Greenstone Grail by Jan Siegel - Free Book Online Page A

that they were dark, and had a lustre that was not quite human. He fancied she was seeking to look right into his mind, to unpick his thoughts and probe even to his subconscious, but he met stare with stare, trying to remain steadfast, not defiant but unyielding.
    At length she released him, and sank back in her chair. ‘So,’ she said, ‘a dreamer, a traveller in other worlds. Well, we shall see. Ancestresses of mine were drowned on the ducking-stool and burned at the stake, and maybe I have inherited something of their Gift. I can read the future, and sometimes even the present, and only a fool would play cards with me. If there is anything to be seen, Nathan Ward, I will see it. Meanwhile, dream carefully. This tumbling from world to world – if that is what you are doing – is bad for the stomach, and worse for the head. Take care you don’t leave your brains behind.’
    ‘You
do
believe him,’ Hazel said, ‘don’t you, Great-grandma?’
    ‘You are impertinent,’ Effie snapped. ‘It is for me to decide who and what I believe.’ She rose to her feet and so did the children, conscious they had outstayed their welcome – if indeed they had ever had one. Suddenly, Effie rounded on Hazel, seizing her by the hair, plucking the loose strands off her face. But unlike Nathan, the girl could not meet her gaze, blinking in the grip of something akin to panic. ‘Remember,’ her great-grandmother said after a minute or two, ‘you too are a Carlow.’ The rasp in her voice might have softened, if she had been capable of softness; as it was, Hazel flinched away, twisting her head in the older woman’s grasp, averting her eyes. Then Effie let go, and the children were thrust outside. A pile-up of cloud was vanquishing the last of the daylight: it seemed as if they had brought the gloom of the cottage with them. They heard the front door shut, not with a bang but a snick, and began to walk along the roadside.
    ‘Does she have some kind of power,’ Nathan wondered, ‘or does she just
think
she has? There’s something definitely creepy about her.’
    Hazel shivered. ‘Mum says she has the Sight, whatever thatmeans. I remember she knew, the week before, when Uncle Gavin was going to die.’
    ‘When was that?’
    ‘Ages ago. Nearly a year. It was while you were at school.’
    ‘Was your uncle ill?’ Nathan inquired, looking sceptical. ‘After all, if someone is really ill, it’s fairly easy to guess when they’re going to die.’
    ‘No, he wasn’t. It was a – a neurism, or something. Very sudden.’
    They walked on a while in silence. Nathan was frowning. ‘What did she mean,’ he said, ‘when she told you, you too are a Carlow?’
    Hazel didn’t reply.
    ‘She thinks you’ve got power too, doesn’t she? Something you’ve inherited, like a gene for witchcraft.’
    ‘I’m normal,’ Hazel said abruptly. ‘I’m normal as normal. I don’t want to be like her. Anyway, Mum doesn’t have any powers that I know of. If she did, she’d be able to deal with Dad.’
    ‘Genes can sometimes skip a generation,’ Nathan said knowledgeably. ‘If they’re recessive. We learned about that in biology.’
    ‘Look, I’m not a witch, okay?’ Hazel said, her voice growing deeper as it always did when she was upset. ‘I don’t believe in witches – not even Great-grandma Effie. I’m just a girl.’
    ‘Pity,’ Nathan remarked. ‘Being a witch would be cool. We haven’t made much progress on other worlds, have we?’
    Hazel was silent again, scuffing her feet as she walked. She still seemed to be disturbed by the imputation of witchcraft.
    I’ll have to ask Uncle Barty, Nathan thought. But not yet. Not unless I have more dreams.
    But time passed, and though he dreamed of the cup, andwoke with the whispers in his ear, he did not revisit the alien world again for a long while.
    Annie, too, neither heard nor sensed her unseen pursuers, though as spring mellowed into summer she often walked alone through wood