Free The Turnarounders and the Arbuckle Rescue by Lou Heneghan

undulated outwards, then several things happened all at once. Leo gave an awful, shuddering moan. Valen leapt to her feet, the remains of her cup fell to the floor and the clinking sound of it shattering echoed loudly in the too quiet tent. A pair of huge, impossibly bright eyes snapped open in the centre of the tapestry. Alfie whimpered. Even Seth lurched back a step.
    Ralf was frozen. The eyes were a rich, mad gold and seemed to stare right through him. They’re looking for me , he thought suddenly. He didn’t know why but he felt sure he was right. They were staring at him and, though only the eyes were visible, he knew that the face behind them was sneering.
    ‘That’s enough of that, I think,’ said Ambrose softly. He waved his hand and the eyes melted back into the dark.
    ‘What happened?’ Valen asked shakily.
    ‘War,’ said Ambrose. The word hung in the air. ‘And then came the darkest time of all.’ He pointed at the tapestry once more. A light flickered at the centre of the picture, like a candle flame. Slowly it grew until the flame became fire, red-orange and alive with malice. The flames crawled outwards, clawing the stitching. Threads of smoke wafted from the picture in to the enclosed space of the tent.
    ‘What’s going on?’ Seth cried and, for the first time, his voice had a nervous ring to it.
    ‘The Prince used his power over the elements to send forth a wall of fire to destroy his enemies once and for all. They watched as the flames on the tapestry spread. Tiny, panicked figures ran for cover but there was nowhere to hide. The fire raced onwards.
    ‘The fire destroyed everything in its path. It obliterated the Formorians and killed many thousands of Celts and Hidden who stood in its way.’
    Ralf was on his feet now, heart hammering. The smell! The burning! His eyes stung and he pressed his hands to his temples.
    ‘Enough!’ Seeing his reaction, Ambrose flicked his hand again and when Ralf looked the flames had disappeared. The tapestry was just as it had been when they first walked in, a pretty coastal scene, frozen in time in a thousand tiny stitches.
    ‘Well?’ said Ralf, trying to ignore the pounding in his head.
    ‘The Prince had done the unthinkable,’ said Ambrose gravely. ‘For a race unused to death, for those who hold the preservation of life as central to everything, The Prince’s act was unforgivable. He had committed genocide.’
    ‘So the fairies weren’t the good guys after all,’ said Alfie. ‘My Nan’ll be well vexed.’
    Ambrose ignored the interruption. ‘And this is where I came in. It’s difficult to explain but events were so terrible and so contrary to the laws of nature that they affected the flow of Time.
    ‘Time wasn’t doing what it should and the little leaks I sometimes had to patch up suddenly became great waterfalls. In the middle of all the destruction, people from different ages were stepping through Time onto the battlefield not knowing where they were or how to get back. It was a disaster.
    ‘But that’s when something amazing happened. Surprising as it may seem, it was a group of children who put a stop to it. An extraordinary young man came up with a plan to fight the Prince. He and his friends sacrificed everything to stop him. The plan worked. The Prince was defeated.
    ‘When it was over and Time was back on track, the children looked around them. They saw devastation. Their homes were destroyed. Their families slain. And they realized that in that final battle, as the Prince was losing, they had been cursed with death. All would die before they reached twenty.’
    ‘That’s terrible!’ cried Valen.
    Ambrose smiled. ‘The remaining Hidden thought so too. They couldn’t undo the curse but –’
    ‘Oh, I know!’ Alfie squealed. ‘They done some magic to make it not as bad. Musta done. They got tooled up with magic powers, like singing and talking to animals and stuff?’
    ‘Singing?’ Now it was Ambrose’s turn to look