Chapter Sixteen

Esteban’s arrival

 

 

 

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Esteban bent to pick up his sword. For a moment he didn’t realize he had left his own kingdom behind he was so focused on reaching his sword. His intention was to have Leonay use a water spell on the fountain with his sword touching the water so that he might mimic Claudine’s ability to create storms and control water. That way he might be able to create a portal in the lake to take him to different worlds. Suddenly he felt a shiver go over him. He felt cold and looked around properly. He was behind a waterfall.

 

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Claudine otherwise known to her friends as Dale was sitting in Tristan’s kitchen at the Dearing house. It was two days since she had met Eddie and she was explaining to Tristan carefully just what had happened to her when she saw Eddie.

“I’m so sorry Tristan I was certain you and I were meant to be. My dreams had me fall in love with you. I can’t explain it but it’s not you and me that are destined, it’s Eddie and me. I’m convinced of that. Are you angry with me? I still care for you, have a fondness for you, but since meeting Eddie I know the difference now between the dream love I had for you and the way I feel for him”.

Tristan smiled slightly. “It’s okay Claudine. I’d guessed and I know you are right we were wrapped up in some kind of dream magic. I’m not sure what, but I too have had a change of heart. Have you said anything to Evangeline or Bartholomew about Eddie?”

She grinned. “I did tell mama and she was surprised. I think she thought it was you and me for sure”.

Tristan shrugged. “It did look that way for a few weeks”.

They drank the coffee Tristan had made and looked at each other over the rims of their cups.

Tristan was grateful for the development. He had agonized over his waning romantic love for Dale during the previous week.

Dale was surprised that Tristan was so calm, but she was happy enough, especially since she was really in love with Eddie and he was in love with her too. She had not needed to plead with Eddie to recognize their love the way she had with Tristan when they first met. Although, she reminded herself, it was not for long and Tristan had been right, their feelings had been based on dreams. She decided to ask her mother and Bartholomew what might have happened there, because it suddenly seemed very strange to her. Almost as if she had woken up, she thought.

 

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Liz, knowing Dale and Tristan needed to talk seriously had taken Charlie out for a walk. Even though his body was old, the dog was young at heart and insisted on dashing down the bank to the pool and the waterfall on the Dearing estate. The very one that contained ancient magic, was linked irrevocably with Tristan, and also where Esteban stood cursing behind the curtain of water.

He was angry again thinking he would have to dive through the water and become wet to find his way into this world he was going to conquer. It didn’t matter that he could simply chant a spell to dry his clothes afterwards, just the idea that he had to do this was annoying.

Liz was calling Charlie away from the edge of the pool when it happened. Someone leapt in rather a graceful arc from behind the waterfall into the middle of the pool. It was quite deep there and Esteban was in over his head clutching his sword.

Liz ran to the edge of the bank and watched for the person coming back up to the surface. She already had her cell phone out and was calling Tristan.

Tristan saw it was Liz calling as he answered his phone and was smiling. The smile froze on his face as he heard what she had to say.

“Tristan I’m at the waterfall and someone just leapt from behind it into the pool. I think they might be drowning. I’m going in after them. Will you come down here quickly please?”

Tristan went cold. “No Liz don’t go into the water. Please don’t. Get Charlie and come home. I’m on my way”.

Liz was about to protest when Esteban surfaced. “Tristan it’s okay, it looks like a man, and he’s okay. I’ll wait and find out if he needs help”.

“Liz I mean it. Please leave the place now”, Tristan sounded frantic, and so Liz clipped on Charlie’s lead and started up the bank holding the big ferns now and then to assist her rapid ascent.

Tristan grabbed Dale’s hand and raced down the hall with her to where his old truck was parked outside the front door.

“Dale someone has leapt from behind the waterfall and it can only be a time traveler. We need to go and look”, he told her as he hurried her along.

Dale felt a wave of horror. It had to be Esteban. He had come after her. How had he got the portal to open?

“Tristan it will be Esteban I’m sure of it”.

He nodded as from habit he helped her into the truck politely, and then ran around to the driver side.

“I think that too. Call Bartholomew, we’ll need his help. Call Oliver after that and Gaston, we need all the help we can get. Keep calling everyone. It might not be Esteban but I think it probably is”.

Esteban was pulling himself out of the pool. He had not noticed Liz at all and she was now on the top path walking as fast as Charlie would allow towards the hunting lodge, the house where Chloe lived. She knew that’s where Tristan would park to access the quickest way to the waterfall.

The very wet Esteban shook himself and chanted a spell. It dried him in seconds and he smiled as he waved his sword in a circle around his head and aimed it at a tree trunk. The expected explosion didn’t happen. Esteban tried again and this time a weak bolt of lightning put a streak of charring down the tree trunk. His powers seemed diminished, but he was convinced they would return in full force.

He looked around him. He would need lodgings from where he could plan his takeover of this world. He set out around the pool to where he could see a path and some ruins. The remains of a castle curtain wall he thought. If this was how they maintained their fortresses then his battle was already won.