Betrayed: Dark beginnings (20 page)

“I have got one of my friends to go and check on him already.” She smiled

“He is fine. We can go and visit him once tonight’s over and done with. Then we can try to find a way to help get rid of that enchantment.” Jordan nodded then looked back at the window.

He knew after tonight Abbelonna would hate him. He would have to find a way to get himself and his dad out of there in time.

He sat on the bed and crossed his legs. He watched Abbelonna as she finished her potion, smoke circled above the bowl. It was a dark blue colour, it glistened in the light. He watched the swirls of smoke curiously before Abbelonna stood up.

“All done,” she walked over and sat next to him. He put his arm around her waist and pulled her closer.

“I hope we can remain friends once I have Lorcan back, and you Elizabeth.” She said as she gazed into his eyes.

“Of course.” He breathed. He knew this wasn’t going to be the case, and he didn’t want to lose her, but he knew he had no choice. She got up and walked out of the room.

“See you soon.” She whispered and closed the door. He felt so nervous and couldn’t stop his legs from shaking. He bit down on his lip and closed his eyes. He laid back and concentrated on the cracks in the ceiling.

His heart pounded loudly, he felt as if any minute it would jump out of his chest. He wasn’t sure if the feeling was from what he was about to do, or that the Limnades curse was coming to an end, and his life might end soon. He checked the time and only three minutes had passed.

“Come on.” He said to the clock. It is 23.03, only another twelve minutes until he would have to kill Lorcan. It felt like the longest twelve minutes of his life.

He got up and looked down to her dressing table. He pulled open her top drawer and fumbled around the makeup and hair products. He saw a necklace, one with a sapphire on.

Curious he examined it, letting the heavy gold chain fall over his hand. The pendant was the size of an egg; it is a pale blue with a big sapphire in the middle. There were strange symbols engraved around the edges. He turned it over and on the back it said new love.

“Hmm.”

He put the necklace back into the draw and closed it. On opening the second draw a straw doll caught his eye. It had no face but had a black sheet wrapped around it. He put it back next to a yellow candle.

There were bags of herbs at the bottom of the draw and a small pentagram. He had always thought it was a symbol of the devil but around the edges had the words air, spirit, earth, fire and water.

He closed the draw and looked around for some photographs but couldn’t see any. Looking at the clock eight minutes had passed and he knew it was time to go down and wait for her signal. He felt a lump appear in his throat and swallowed hard. His heart raced and his hands were shaking vigorously.

He took a deep breath and opened the door. He crept down the hall, and like Abbelonna had said there was no one around. Silence protruded throughout the mansion, and Jordan’s footsteps was all that could be heard. He finally reached the stairs, his steps echoed on the marble floor. He reached the brown door to the hall; he placed his ear against it and breathed slowly. He could hear chanting from inside. They had begun.

He waited anxiously for Abbelonna’s signal but nothing happened. Panic filled him, had Abbelonna changed her mind? He couldn’t risk it he needed to go in. Suddenly Abbelonna’s voice echoed.

“JORDAN” She screamed.

He barged in and looked at Lorcan who stood there fear stricken as Abbelonna pushed him to the floor.

“Mayonorpillis, caynapsus.” Lorcan went still; his eyes looked empty as he stared at the floor. Abbelonna fed Elizabeth a potion to free her from Lorcan; she coughed then lied back down. No one moved, or tried to help Lorcan, like Abbelonna had said.

“Bind him.” She shouted to Jordan but he was not interested in binding him. He looked to Abbelonna and sighed.

“What’s going on?” A girl in the corner whispered.

“Jordan?” She looked at him wide eyed.

“I am so sorry Abbelonna you are the last person that I want to hurt.” He grabbed Lorcan.

“Neimus, lamia, tagansu, I cast this person to de…” “NO!” Abbelonna jumped on Jordan and threw him to the floor.

“Why are you trying to kill him?” She looked at him tearfully.

“Don’t make me hurt you Abbelonna; I don’t want to do that.” She looked into his eyes then stepped off of him. She stood in front of Lorcan defensively.

Everyone in the room had stepped back making a circle around them.

“Tell me why. I know he has hurt you but he doesn’t deserve to die. We had a deal.” She looked hurt.

“I have no choice. The Limnades put a curse on me, I must kill Lorcan, If I don’t I will die.” She looked down to Lorcan then back to Jordan, tears prickled at her eyes.

“Sorry.” She said aloud. She had made her choice; she knew who she wanted to save.

Beyond the book

This piece gives you an insight into a few of the creatures I have used in my book. I do a lot of blogging about different types of mythological creatures as well; you can check it out at [email protected]

Encantado
– shapeshifting dolphin from brazilian folklore

When I started writing my book I did a lot of research into mythological creatures. I came across one called an Encantado in Brazilian folklore. Not many people have heard of them but I found them wildly interesting.

So the first thing you should know is that they are shape shifters. According to myths they can shape shift into humans from a fresh water dolphin that lives in the Amazon
River called the Boto. They are larger than most others of their kind. They are also said to be able to shape shift into snakes, such as the Cobra. There are still many South Americans who believe in them, and do not go near the Amazon River after dark, or when they are alone.

Some say that they are the illegitimate children of an Encantado, or that they were taken by one to their underwater Utopia
called Encante, where it is said to be full of wealth, no pain or death. Although they live in a paradise, Encantados crave the human hardships. They often surface to go to parties (They are party crashers).

The strangest thing is that they wear hats, because of their
blowholes; they don't dissapear once they have shape shifted. The Encantados are mainly said to be men, but there has been stories of female Encantados. They have the power to control storms, enchant humans, inflict harm and insanity and they have superior musical abilities. Some stories have been told of people being taken by an Encantado and to have dissapeared, then they would return either pregnant, or an Encantado themselves.

They are very promiscuous creatures, and fall in love easily. They like to kidnap humans and their illegitimate children and take them to Encante.

After reading hundreds of stories of these creatures, my opinion is to steer clear of the Amazon River at night, as many people are said to have gone insane after meeting this creature.

witchcraft in the 17
th
century

When I started writing Betrayed I was doing a lot of research into witchcraft in the 1600's mainly in the UK and London itself.

After slogging through hundreds of websites and books I came across many interesting
factors.

One being that in this century not many people
believes in magic or witchcraft but in the 1600's it was a certain thing, they were a very superstitious and ignorant people and convicting people accused of witchcraft and killing them was a normal thing.

To you and me, it sounds horrendous and quite evil of course but back then it wasn't to them, witches were looked at to be responsible for many death's including babies born stillborn and people dying from diseases.

When the great plague hit everyone presumed it was the doing of witches and hangings, burnings etc. became more common.

In fact anything that happened that was slightly out of the ordinary was blamed immediately on witchcraft, even if someone owned a pet cat or had a strange scar or even a physical or mental disability were accused of witchcraft.

The opinion was that the church actually used witchcraft to get rid of those whose beliefs didn't fit. It was also mainly the poor and homeless who were targeted as no one wanted to accuse someone of high stature, also it was mainly woman who were accused as men dominated in that era and woman were looked at as inferior.

The fact that witchcraft was punishable by law seems strange, as if we had a law like that now, it would go against out human rights, there would be riots and protests and people would look laughably upon this.

So why did people believe in it so much then, the answer is simple; they were uneducated and followed whatever the church said.

The way they tested if people were in fact witches was pretty horrible, one man was pressed to death by stones, others hung, others pushed into rivers to drown to see if they would float, if they did they were witches, and if they didn't they would die anyway. So there was really no way out, it was
either you died or they were sorry for accusing you when you passed there "witchcraft test" or they thought you were a witch so killed you anyway.

All
I know is what horrible times it must have been to live in for young woman.

Even queen Elizabeth's
mother (Anne Boleyn) was accused of witchcraft so Elizabeth had quite the lenient view on witchcraft.

After doing some more research
I found out that quite a famous hanging took place in my home town of Exeter and three witches were hung at the end of the 17th century just before it became illegal.

I would love to hear your views on this topic and if I have missed anything out.

How do you feel about the people who were killed just because they had something wrong with them?

Do you yourself believe that witches were responsible for the plague and deaths that happened?

limnades – water naiads from greek mythology

In Greek mythology there are many types if naiads, these particular ones are called Limnades, and are my favorite of them all. They reside in lakes or rivers, and are the children of lake gods. What makes them so interesting is that they take the personality of the water they live in.

So polluted water equals one not very nice Limnade. Although these creatures are said to have helped people and most are kind, beware for they have been known to take men, when fascinated by their beauty under the water.

These men drowned, accidentally, but it still makes them dangerous. They used to be worshiped by local villagers before they started accidentally killing people. These creatures are bound to the water they live in, so if the river dried up, the Limnade in that river would die. They had very long lifetimes, but were not considered immortal.

It is also said that they can control the water around them, shape shift into fish and control the weather.

They are also said to be extremely beautiful, and often mistaken with Sirens. Although some are kind, many people who have been near them have drowned, so I would be careful.

The next book in the betrayed series, secrets of North Brother Island, will be out on the 15th November 2014.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rebecca Weeks is a British author, currently living in Leicester with her Fiancé and kitten (Kitty) she has been writing since a young age, but this will be her first novel. She got her inspiration from growing up in Devon and hearing about the local folklore. Now published, she will be writing her next four books in this series, with the second book (Betrayed: Secrets of North Brother Island) due to be released in November 2014. As well as a writer she runs her own blog where she talks about all different mythical creatures and she makes personalized jewelry in her spare time. To find out more visit her website.

Email:
[email protected]