The Memory Thief

by Lauren Mansy

“I’m not sure three minutes counts as older, Brother.”

  Though intimidating from the outside, the inside of Porter’s castle is stunning, its own maze of shiny marble floors and curved hallways filled with amber sconces and dozens of mahogany doors. After days of hiking, the plush carpet feels wonderfully cloudlike beneath my boots, and the walls are covered with tapestries woven with hundreds of colorful threads.

  We pass through a glass atrium leading to the most beautiful garden I’ve ever seen. I can’t stop smiling as we go under an archway made entirely of trees, their branches intertwined as if they’ve been braided. The gardens are a sea of lavender, turquoise, citrusy yellow, and fuchsia spread across a lush green lawn. A light breeze carries a sweet scent from the fields of wildflowers, a mix of honeysuckle and violets, and thick tunnels made of ivy provide much needed shade over the pebbly walkways.

  “I’ve seen this before in my mother’s memories. She loved these gardens,” I say, stunned by how peaceful a place her mind has chosen. “This is where the coma has kept her.”

  Porter places his hand on my shoulder. “Your mother spent nearly every day out here with your grandmother. Perhaps her mind is rebuilding itself from the ground up, vines of memory which need time to grow strong before detangling.” He plucks a violet and gives it to me. “After years of experimenting, I discovered that violets are not only good for the soul but also for the body. Their petals contain a healing compound, an oil which stimulates the brain to repair itself. It’s a long, tedious venture, but if given the time, the results have been close to miraculous. Using this compound, Greer has been rehabilitating those who suffered in the Maze until they’re well enough to rejoin my people.” He meets my eyes. “I designed the horrors of that prison to destroy their minds. Now it’s up to me to piece them back together.”

  There’s shame in Porter’s expression, but I sense something greater inside him. He’s not dwelling in the past but doing everything he can to help those he hurt.

  “I once offered Madame the compound for those in the asylum, but she refused it, of course,” Porter says, and it isn’t difficult to imagine why. Healing patients would end her thriving treasury. “But now that your mother is moving, I’m certain it will bring her out of the coma.”

  I let out a cry of joy as I hug him. She’s going to come back to us! And never would I have thought her father, Porter of the Woodland Realm, would provide the way.

  As I draw back, I see Reid walking down the pathway toward us. A smile spreads across my face as the heaviness in my heart begins to lift.

  Felix gives me a gentle nudge. “He hasn’t stopped asking about you, my dear.”

  Wearing a heather gray jacket made from the same Aravid wool as my cloak, he has a black eye from the Minder who knocked him out, but his smile grows as I run toward him. He wraps his arms around me, and I lean my head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. It’s such a beautiful sound that I laugh. To see Reid alive and well fills me up. I didn’t even know how empty I’d become. And now that we’re back together, I can’t bring myself to let him go.

  “You’re okay,” I whisper.

  “I was so worried about you,” he says at the same time.

  Another laugh escapes me. “This isn’t exactly how we planned to get that map, but it’s turned out a little better, huh?” I draw back to look at him. “Your brother—he’s safe, Reid. Porter said everyone in the Maze is thriving.”

  Tears fill his eyes as he clasps his hands on his head, letting out a long breath. “All this time . . . he’s been safe?” Reid grins, looking happier than I’ve ever seen him.

  I hug him once more. After all he’s done for me, the only way I could ever thank him is by helping Reid find his brother. To be given the chance to do so now makes me happier than I ever imagined.

  Porter and Felix greet him kindly. The shock of the turn of events that we found in Aravid has been slowly wearing off. According to Felix, it took quite a few memories to convince Reid this wasn’t some crazy mind game, but now that he knows the truth, he’s just as anxious as I am to head for the Maze.

  “Even with the map, it won’t be easy to get to the Maze. I designed it to be nearly impossible to locate, and I oversaw all prisoner transports just to keep it hidden. Not to mention, if Madame finds you on the way there, she’ll use you to force me to stand down when she attacks,” Porter says as we sit on benches facing one another.

  I glance at Reid. “Reid will make sure we’re not tracked by her Minders, and once I have the map, nobody can take it from me. She won’t discover our plan.”

  “But placing you between Madame and me, Julietta—”

  “There’s no place else I’d rather be,” I say.

  Porter is silent for a few seconds before giving me a slight nod. “I don’t see what other choice we have.” He turns to Felix. “Our Minders have grown under your leadership, but we’re not strong enough to wage war against Madame.”

  “But if we do nothing, she’ll likely kill Emilia and attack us anyway,” Felix answers. “All in three days’ time, no less.”

  “What if you joined forces with the Shadows?” Reid asks. “We have strong numbers and have been crafting weapons for years, but we need allies to win this war. Bray wants Madame knocked off her throne as much as you do.”

  Felix sits up straighter. “The Shadows would fight alongside our Minders?”

  “Bray has already made contact with Sorien in Blare, as well. If everything goes according to plan, we’re hoping the Coastal Minders will fight alongside us too.” Reid rests his elbows on his knees as he angles toward me. “Do you remember Kellen Marks, Etta?”

  “From the auction?”

  “Kellen Marks?” Porter and Felix ask at the same time.

  “Who is he?” I ask.

  “Sorien’s nephew,” says Felix. “He’s been missing for weeks.”

  “His auction was why I was in Craewick the night Ryder told me that Etta wanted to meet with Bray,” Reid says. “Sorien has been questioning Madame’s ideals, to which she retaliated by murdering Kellen. As far as we know, Sorien has no idea what happened to him, so Bray sent a team of Shadows to give him the memories of that night.”

  I widen my eyes. “That’s why Ryder is in Blare?”

  Reid nods. “No uncle should have to find out about his nephew’s death this way, but it’s our only shot at giving Sorien a reason to fight alongside us.” He glances between Porter and Felix. “We know Madame has been swaying the loyalty of his commanders to her, but many of them must’ve known Kellen. Maybe the truth can help break whatever hold Madame has on them. If this doesn’t push them over the edge, I’m not sure they’ll ever make a move against Madame but we had to try.”

  “Three allied armies . . . all attacking Craewick?” says Felix, thoughtfully.

  “Declan and the Desert Minders will align with Madame, but she won’t expect our alliance,” says Reid.

  “No, I dare say she won’t.” Porter glances around his gardens. “For years, I’ve stayed out of her way, but I should’ve challenged her sooner. Not doing the right thing feels an awful lot like doing the wrong one.”

  Felix rubs his chin. “I see no reason not to align, but there is one condition I must insist upon. Madame must not be killed.”

  “Bray’s brother was murdered under her orders. He’ll kill Madame the first chance he gets,” Reid says.

  “Then you must convince him not to,” Felix says. “Last year, we caught two of Madame’s Minders trying to break into Aravid. As I questioned them, I realized there was something wrong with their minds. They were subdued—not their normal, violent selves I saw in their memories. And I sensed a connection which ran to the very core of their beings.” He taps his temple. “Madame appears to have a variation of her own. She’s figured out how to unite her mind to those of her Minders.”

  “What?” Reid and I both bark.

  “Imagine the majority of Madame’s Minders are puppets. They are controlled, submissi
ve. Fully aligned with Madame’s consciousness—”

  “Like the Minders who attacked me,” I say, placing my hand on Reid’s arm. “That’s why it was difficult for you to get into their heads.”

  Reid frowns. “Because Madame is already there.”

  “And if we sever the connection too rapidly, I fear all her Minders will be set loose to wreak all sorts of havoc. Some of them are criminals that Madame forced to the other side of the law through her manipulation. They’ll be cruel, unpredictable, untrustworthy, and many will no doubt try to escape Craewick,” says Felix. “The timing of our attack will be tricky but if carefully planned, we could subdue enough of them so when Greer takes away Madame’s Gift, we can capture the rest and take Madame into custody.”

  “Not if Bray has anything to say about it,” reminds Reid.

  “Unless we convince him otherwise,” I say, repeating Felix’s words.

  Reid laughs once. “You know him even better than I do. How well do you think that’ll go over?”

  “We’re fractions of a whole, Reid, each too small to go up against Madame if we don’t work together. We have to make Bray see that,” I say.

  “I think the wisest course would be to attack Craewick as soon as possible, hopefully with the Coastal Minders and the Shadow army as our allies, while you two retrieve Greer,” says Felix. “We need to cripple Craewick before Madame summons the troops in Kripen.”

  “But what will happen to Mother? This attack is what Madame was trying to prevent by sending you that auction notice,” I say to Porter.

  “It’s a thought that also concerns me, but I don’t believe any harm will come to her. The very fact that Emilia’s in danger will be the reason she’s kept alive—her usefulness has not run out. I sent my best scouts to locate her, though I’m sure your mother is heavily guarded and most likely moved from the asylum now,” he answers. “That said, we must keep the element of surprise on our side. In case Madame is watching, we’ll use the tunnels below Aravid to send out our troops. That’s where you and Reid can exit the city, as well.”

  We all agree that Reid and I should wait until nightfall to leave Aravid, use the cover of darkness to head back to the Mines and present Bray with the alliance. I wish we could go straight to the Maze, but we all know Bray’s scouts will never lead one of Porter’s men into their compound, especially when Porter is known as a master of manipulation. This information must come from us. Then Bray, Sorien, Porter, and their armies will meet in Craewick.

  And when Reid and I arrive with Greer, he’ll take away Madame’s Gift and end this war before it really begins.

  While Porter and Felix instruct their troops, Reid and I walk through the gardens.

  “This is where my mother’s mind has been the past four years,” I tell him as we sit on a bench overlooking a field of violets. “Her coma brought her back to Aravid.”

  Reid pauses. “What happened the day your mother fell into her coma, Etta? What kind of accident caused it?”

  “It wasn’t an accident, not really. It was my fault,” I whisper, the answer slipping out so quickly that I think I’ve been ready to tell him for a while now. “A few days before I betrayed the Shadows, Madame sent letters throughout the Realms, claiming to have kidnapped and read a Shadow, and that she’d discovered the identities of a bunch of us. If we didn’t return home to face trial, our families would suffer. Do you remember that Shadow I told you about . . . Beau?”

  Reid nods.

  “Beau was captured by the Minders just before I betrayed Greer. We all knew Madame would see a lot of our faces in his memories, but most of us used nicknames and never discussed where we’d grown up. She had no way of knowing where our families lived. Her letters were just a trap to draw any Shadows stupid enough to believe her lies to come home.”

  “You were young, Etta, you didn’t know,” says Reid.

  “I should’ve known! Bray ordered me not to leave the Mines, and I did anyway.” I roughly wipe a tear away. “According to that memory that Bray gave me, some commander recognized my mother as Porter’s daughter and tipped Madame off, so that’s why she was in Blare. Madame was always going to imprison my mother to use as leverage against Porter, but it was my own fault that I showed up too.”

  I close my eyes as Madame’s words rush over me.

  I have ensured these events will never be linked to me or you, Commander. No one will ever know you’re the one who told me that Porter’s daughter was here.

  “Just after I got back to Blare, our cottage filled with Minders. There were so many swarming us that I . . . I got confused. I grabbed an arm I thought belonged to a Minder and—” my voice breaks, “I forced every painful memory I could think of into that person. Only it wasn’t a Minder. My mother was already in a coma when I realized what I’d done.” I take in a shaky breath. “That’s when Madame offered me a deal . . . a place for my mother at the asylum if I gave up Greer’s location. She even said something about having big plans for me, but I always thought she just wanted to torture me for being a Shadow. Madame knew long before me that I was Porter’s granddaughter.”

  Reid leans toward me, his shoulder pressing up against mine. It’s a few seconds before he says, “I blame myself every day for leaving my family, but I can’t do anything about it now. And when I find my brother, I won’t leave him again. You’re going to have a second chance with your mother too.”

  Tears stream down my cheeks, but something deep inside me swells at his words. For so long, I’ve carried this secret, the weight of it threatening to crush me each time Reid inched closer to the truth. But like when I told him about Greer, the warmth in his eyes when he looks at me hasn’t changed at all.

  “How do you do this?” I whisper.

  He angles his head. “Do what?”

  “Make me feel like anything’s possible.” I smile at him through my tears before I bite my lip. “Do you remember Kellen Marks’ last words?”

  “I think everyone in that audience does.” Reid inches closer, his fingers brushing across mine. “Better things await me.”

  “I didn’t believe him. So much had gone wrong in my past. I’d lost hope that things could ever be made right.” I slip my hand into his and peer up at him. “Meeting you showed me how wrong it was to believe that.”

  “It wasn’t just you who’d lost hope, Etta,” he says. “For years I’ve been so afraid of never finding my brother. Even when you didn’t believe it yourself, you showed me how important it is to never stop fighting.”

  Leaning my head on his shoulder, I close my eyes. Reid wraps his arm around me, and I know this feeling of being so near to him is something I’ll never forget. As if nothing in the world can ever harm me.

  Reid lets out a quiet laugh. “Only one more day until we find your father and my brother. You’re going to love Penn.”

  CHAPTER

  15

  Penn?” The name gets caught in my throat.

  For a second, I let myself believe his Penn is not the same as my Penn, but memories rush through my mind, painting a picture of the similarities between Reid and Penn. There’s a peace inside Reid that Penn owned too. I feel the same stability, the same sense of protectiveness, and both have eyes the color of the Blarien Sea that squint when something makes them laugh.

  I clutch the edge of the bench as the world spins. Reid says something, but his words don’t make any sense. I’m too busy imagining his face when he learns his brother died four years ago.

  My heart pounds so quickly that I’m afraid it’s going to stop. This front is getting too heavy to hold up. I’m sweating, an icy kind of wetness that invades every inch of me.

  Reid sees us as allies now, but what’ll happen when he learns I’m the reason he can’t save Penn? If we make it to the Maze, he’ll find out Penn was never one of Madame’s prisoners.

  He’ll discover I killed his brother.

  Reid puts his hand on my shoulder, and I jerk away. “Are you okay?”

  Order
ing myself to answer him, I open my mouth, but nothing comes out.

  “Reid!” Felix rushes toward us from the direction of the castle. “Reid, my boy! Commander Averett and my military counsel need more statistics on the Shadows. Numbers, weapons supply, all that. Can I pull you away for a bit?”

  Reid squeezes my hand. “Only one more day until we find your father and my brother,” he says with a grin. “I can’t believe it.”

  He turns to wave just before disappearing into one of the turrets, and I can’t believe what’s happening either. I curse the cleverness of Bray, at how he ensured Reid’s loyalty knowing all along Penn is dead.

  Reid and I are opponents in a game we’re both destined to lose.

  “Julietta?”

  I angle to the other side of the gardens, where Porter strolls toward the bench.

  He sits beside me and gently pats my hand. “Our plan will work, my dear, there’s no need for tears. You’ll see.”

  His smile is so genuine that I long to share the truth about why I’m crying. How can I deceive Porter, especially after all he’s confessed about his past, about all the mistakes he made with my mother?

  “It’s not Madame I’m worried about. I’ve discovered something terrible.” As quietly and quickly as I can, I tell him about how my best friend died . . .

  His hand clutching my arm, Penn pleads with me to leave Blare and return to the Shadows before Bray discovers we’ve left.

  I glance at my mother, wide-eyed with fear as a group of Minders breaks down the wooden door of our cottage.

  Penn yells for me to run, and his hand slips off my arm as a Minder drags him away.

  A numbness creeps over my body when Madame steps through the door. She walks toward me, so calmly it looks as if she’s floating.

  Suddenly, I can’t hear Penn’s cries or my mother’s screams anymore. All I see is the ghost of a smile on Madame’s pale lips, how the gold flecks in her eyes burn brighter than fire.

  I wait for my heart to stop beating, for her to make me forget how to breathe.