Jasper cleared his throat and waited for the murmur in the room to fall. He placed one hand on the marble mantel. “We are all here to discuss Ava and how to end her reign. Dawn is willing to be the new heart of Ravenswing, if we can supplant Ava.”
Dawn moved to his side and reached for his hand. “I know I have much to learn about your world, but I think I have pieced together something that may work, if you are all willing to help.”
Glances were exchanged between Marjory, Hector, and Elijah. Lettie stared at her hands in her lap. Elijah spoke for them all. “We will do whatever we can.”
Dawn mouthed a thank you to the young man. “I think water is Ava’s weakness, and we shall use that to our advantage. I want to construct a moat around the Ravensblood tree. It may offer protection to the tree and further weaken Ava. But I need your help, Lettie.”
It seemed everyone held their breath and stared at the ethereal woman. She shook her head. “She scares me.”
Dawn walked over to where Lettie sat and knelt down to hold her hands. “I know, but you do not do this alone. We will defeat her as a family.”
She closed her eyes and blew out a long sigh. Then she opened them again, and a tiny hint of resolve stared back at Dawn. “Family. Yes. Julian would have liked that.”
They discussed how to create the moat and divided up tasks. As the others left, Elijah paused in front of his uncle.
“After we have removed Ava, we will avenge my father.” The young man tilted his chin and challenged his lord.
Jasper ground his jaw but didn’t answer.
Elijah threw up his hands, his frustration palpable. “How long will you make me wait? It has already been forty years while the Hamiltons laugh and name us cowards.”
Jasper stared at the youth for a long moment and then stretched out his hand. “Never think I have forgotten my brother, but Ava has bound me all this time. Once Dawn is the new heart, I promise you that Julian will be avenged.”
Elijah took his uncle’s hand, and the two men shook on their promise.
A shiver ran over Dawn’s skin. Would she lose Jasper and Elijah to the Hamiltons, just as they lost Julian? Soarers had claimed so many loved ones from this family, and they may also have been behind the deaths of her parents.
Jasper watched Elijah leave and then wrapped an arm around Dawn’s waist. He kissed the top of her head. “You can stop worrying right now. No harm will come to either of us.”
“How can you be so sure?” Lettie said he couldn’t save them. Or, perhaps she meant not while the estate was controlled by Ava. What if by healing both tree and land, Dawn made the family stronger? They might be strong enough to withstand any blow dealt by their enemies.
She managed to conjure a smile to her lips. “Might I suggest we tackle one enemy at a time?”
While Dawn had been recuperating in the cottage, her workforce had continued clearing and trimming the maze. The passageways were now easier to navigate, and nothing caught in Dawn’s newly shorn locks.
“Where does she go during the day?” Dawn asked as they walked the freshly clipped tunnels. She refrained from using Ava’s name in case the newly cut vine sprang into life and blocked the way.
Jasper shrugged. “Because of the bond, I can keep her confined to the estate’s boundary, but that covers hundreds of acres and includes the mountains and heavily forested areas. She could be hiding anywhere. I only see her when she summons me.” He tugged on her hand and pulled her closer to his side. “My mind feels clearer already, as though we have opened a window in a room too long shut up, but my connection to her as Lord Warder remains.”
Dawn leaned in to him as they walked and cast a glance backward at the family and workmen following them. Chatter rose from the other group. “I hope you can resist her call if she summons you. Lettie seems calmer this morning, but if the serpent vine is growing inside her, I don’t know how we will remove it.”
“Grayson has been researching that. He said it might be similar to insects that burrow into the ear canal and lay eggs, and there may be a way to entice it out of its own accord.” Jasper let go of her hand to slide an arm around her waist.
Dawn grimaced. Bugs inside your head sounded more horrifying than a vine or an apple growing in your stomach. “We won’t know until we defeat you-know-who and see what effect that will have on this monstrous vine.”
Jasper glanced up at a thick branch that jutted down toward them and guided her under it. “Everything and everyone feels the heart’s presence to some degree. Elijah saw me returning to the house this morning. I told him I had been out for an early morning walk, but I suspect he knows there was more to it than that.”
Judging by the smirks, smiles, and nudges being exchanged, Dawn surmised that everyone knew exactly what happened the previous night.
They stepped through the last archway and entered the tree’s presence. Dawn stopped and stared. The state of decline was more heartbreaking in the morning light. The ground was littered with dead leaves, the corners of their black bodies curled up upon themselves. Varying shades of red on the reverse of the leaves made the ground appear to be coated in still glowing embers that had rained down from the burning tree.
Deep in her soul, Dawn renewed her promise to save the tree and the family. “Right everybody, we have lots to accomplish today. Let’s start work.”
The men wheeled in barrows laden with spades and pick axes.
“You are in charge, what would you have us do?” Jasper murmured from her side.
Dawn held out her arms. “We are going to construct a moat around the tree, as deep and wide as we can achieve in one day. Tonight, Lettie will summon water to fill it.”
Hector presented Dawn with the pail of paint and a brush. She drew a circle within the central square. The Ravensblood stood at top of the circle with a stretch of lawn under its canopy.
Jasper and Elijah changed to their Elemental forms. Dawn watched as pebbles and stones appeared from the thin air and adhered to their bodies and encased their clothing. They grew taller and more muscular as the rock coated them. At first they appeared rough clay thrown together and then the rock smoothed out to form sharp features, wings, and claws. The entire process took only a few seconds and soon two gargoyles stood on the lawn – one a slightly shorter version of the other.
As earth Elementals, Jasper and Elijah led the way, working around the circle Dawn had marked in the grass. They opened up the soil using their bare stone hands like ploughs, the ground obeying their command to form a trench. The army of men followed behind to pick up the leftover rubble, shovelling loose earth and stones into the wheelbarrows.
As Dawn watched, she imagined the two earth Elementals holding picks and perhaps with little red pointy hats. They would make fabulous garden ornaments on a manicured lawn. Or perhaps hiding among shrubbery for inquisitive children to stumble upon.
“You can think it, but don’t go calling them gnomes aloud.” Hector winked at her as he picked up a shovel.
Dawn bit back a laugh. “How do you know what I’m thinking?”
“Seen advertisements in the newspaper. Those garden ornaments are all the fashion apparently, and here we are with two giant versions only in need of the hats.” He shook his head in mock disbelief and joined the others.
They had a serious task, but it gladdened Dawn to see how they all pulled together. She took the opportunity of bright light to inspect the tree. When she laid her hand on the trunk, heat spread from around the tiny splinter in her palm to the tree.