“Well, bye for now,” said Meghan. “I hope your ankle feels better.”
“It’s much better already, thank you.”
Meghan turned and walked away, saying no more and leaving Ivan to assist Maria in rejoining the ship’s crew. He wanted to ask what had happened, but Ivan didn’t want to confuse Maria any more than she already was. He worried she had some unseen injury and wanted her to get checked out, first.
They’d all learn what had happened on the ship, soon enough.
Ivan made his way to the large meeting hall near the center of the village. It was the only space large enough to accommodate so many people.
Ivan made sure Maria got inside and comfortable. She slid his coat off her shoulders and handed it back to him. He tried to tell her to keep it, but she refused.
“It is freezing out there. But it’s nice and toasty inside.”
He conceded and put it back on.
“Thank you, Ivan,” she whispered softly. “I cannot express how relieving it is to see a familiar face.”
“I understand how you feel,” he replied.
“Maybe, after everything calms down, you could actually tell me a little bit more about what is going on.”
“Sure,” he answered, his throat scratchy. Maria saw that familiar Ivan itch to get away. This time, though, it made her smile. She liked the idea that she made him nervous.
Ivan left with a quick gait, once again with the need of getting more air. This time, the feeling in his heart wasn’t pain, but nerves sending shivers down his spine.
Meghan found him just minutes later.
“Wow! Can you believe it? Billie. Noah Flummer. Maria.”
“What exactly were you trying to do back there anyway?” he stammered.
“Oh, yeah, sorry. That did not come out like I intended it to. I was just trying to put in a good word for you. You know. She just happens to be the one gal you like, and you literally whisk her off a ship.”
“That was your idea of helping?”
“I said I know it didn’t come out right, geesh! I think I made up for it.”
“Meghan, they just arrived here, out of thin air, in some part assisted by your brother; they are clearly battered and confused. And all you can think about is setting me up?”
“Well, why not?”
“I don’t know as I will ever understand how your brain works,” he grumbled. “It had to be you,” he added under his breath, stalking back towards the ship. She shrugged, not seeing the big deal and followed, assuming they would return once the chaos had calmed.
CHAPTER 7
Colin stepped gently into the lighthouse so as not to awaken Catrina. He closed the door, suddenly unwilling to move. She was not on the sofa where he had left her. The blanket was in a heap on the floor.
“Catrina,” he called out. She did not answer. “Perfect. I left. She woke up, probably freaked out because I wasn’t here.”
He darted through the lighthouse calling out for her. She wasn’t in the kitchen or the dining area. He knocked on the women’s restroom door but there was no answer.
“Maybe she went up to the top of the light?”
He raced up the spiral staircase two steps at a time, expecting to see her up there searching for him. But it was empty. His heart skipped a few beats.
“Catrina,” he shouted more forcefully, racing back down the stairs.
She was not there. She was nowhere.
He stepped back into the room where he had left her sleeping.
“I shouldn’t have left her. I knew it was a bad idea.” Horror reached into every fiber of his being, like a wrecking ball had hit him straight in the gut. He had made a terrible mistake. An error beyond forgiving.
In his hurry to save Billie and the ship, he had forgotten to leave Catrina cloaked. He had taken the protection cloak with him, leaving her vulnerable and easy to find.
Someone must have traced the magic and taken her.
His head swam with too many equally terrifying thoughts.
“What have I done?” he called out in a panic. “I have to find her.”
His heart thumped and his thoughts strummed at full pace, threatening to overwhelm him. He struggled to catch his breath, each one coming out harder and more ragged. He turned in circles, unsure of where to start his search.
He fell over, his legs faltering, and he half walked, half crawled, out of the lighthouse back onto the beach.
He needed to keep control. This was not the time to lose it. He stood up but almost fell over, his legs jelly. Muscles screaming to find control again.
Anger stirred. Fear. Desperation to know where she was.
He let out a primal scream that shook the entire beach.
Sand flew into the air, leaving a deep trench from the lighthouse to the water’s edge.
His thoughts begged for her to appear at his side, but she did not. Why could he not wish her back to him? Something was very wrong.
He stood up filled with determination to find her.
“Whoever is keeping her from me, will pay with their life.”
He rushed back inside, searching for any clues he might have overlooked, trying to keep his mind calm and stay on task.
“This was not here before,” he said, grabbing hold of a leaf floating in the air just above the sofa, as if waiting for him to find it.
He glanced around. All was quiet. He was alone.
He reached up to touch the leaf but backed away when a sinister voice suddenly emanated from it.
“If you ever want to see your girl alive again, you will follow the trail I left for you, and you will do it fast. It fades with every moment you waste.”
Colin had never traced magic before, but he did not hesitate. He gave the order in his mind and felt the magic within him searching for the trail.
A path started to form in the shape of hazy wisps of white, streaming out of the lighthouse. Colin followed it without question or worry over what awaited him at the end of this trail.
If someone had Catrina, he would do anything to get her back.
##
Mireya Mochrie had fallen asleep in her bedroom’s hidden crawlspace again. She sat up with a rush, fearing she had overslept. Her foot knocked over a glass vial filled with a pinkish liquid. She leaned over and grabbed the vial, thankful she had put the stopper in, and exited the crawl space into the bedroom’s loft.
After shutting the little door that led to the crawl space, she shoved a couple pillows up against the door, blocking it from view. She spread out some blankets to make it look as though she was sleeping in the loft.
She climbed down the ladder plunking herself onto the edge of her bed. She wasn’t late. Good. She set the vial of pink liquid next to her.
It was quiet. Too quiet. Almost painfully quiet.
She had never had a room of her own before and now that she did, she did not care for it. Mainly because this meant her brother, Jae, was gone and would never return. His bed remained made, never to be slept in again. At least not by her brother.
Mireya had turned fourteen just a month before he died. He missed her birthday party. He had been missing a lot of other things too, like skipping classes, or skipping school altogether. He wasn’t hanging out with his old friends anymore, he’d made new ones, like Darcy Scraggs. A girl he had once considered a bully. An enemy.
Mireya bounded off the bed in a flurry to get dressed.
“No point in dwelling on it now,” she chided herself.
She grabbed a thick coat hanging by the bedroom door; she needed it for two reasons. One, it was a cold day. It was always cold now in Bedgewood Harbor. And two, she had cut into the liner inside the coat and sewn in a hidden pocket.
She grabbed the glass vial with the pink liquid, shoving it into the hidden pocket, and took it, and herself, down the stairs. She didn’t need to look out the window to see that it was another gray day. It had been this way for weeks.
Since Jae had died, nothing had been the sa
me.
Because Juliska Blackwell had lied to them all.
She had betrayed them all. She was responsible for her brother’s death, amongst others, like Garner and Ravana Sadorus.
Some Svoda were still missing, presumed dead.
The gray of the outside might as well have been the color of the inside of her house. It fit her mood today.
She hung her coat over the back of a chair, sat down and pulled on her boots.
She was not preparing for school.
Or to play with her friends.
Playing was no longer permitted in Bedgewood Harbor. In fact, very little was permitted.
“Morning, Mom,” she spoke softly as she entered the kitchen.
“Oh, good morning, dear. Breakfast is on the table. I’ve just brought your father his.”
Mireya did not respond. If she looked right now, her father would be in the same spot he had been in since her brother’s death. And that he would not have touched a bite of his food.
“I’ll eat later,” Mireya told her. “Can’t be late, you know.”
Sheila Mochrie threw her daughter a wide, blank smile. “Have a good day, dear.”
Mireya shook her head as she put on the thick coat. Both my parents have completely checked out.
In a way, she could not blame them. It was easier than dealing with their son’s death. It was much easier than dealing with the manner in which he died. It was also much easier than dealing with the current conditions of the island. But it left her to fend for herself and that was something she’d had to get good at, fast.
Before leaving, she stopped to say an obligatory goodbye to her father. It always gave her a start to see him now. His face was sunken in. His eyes glazed over, staring endlessly out a window, for what, she did not know.
“I’m leaving now. Bye, Dad.”
He did not respond to her. Not even a movement in her direction. Her dad has just vanished, deep inside himself, somewhere out of her reach.
Irving Mochrie might have been strict with her brother, she’d seen it a hundred times. Sometimes overly so, but she never doubted, especially now, how much he had loved his son. He just wasn’t good at showing it. And now, it was too late.
For some reason Mireya could not get Jae out of her thoughts today. It would lead nowhere good, to dwell on what she could not change.
She had chosen to remember Jae for the good brother he had been, and nothing more. She missed him. Now more than ever. Now that her parents had checked out, now that Ivan was gone, now that Jae was gone, now that Meghan and Colin Jacoby had gone... her once vibrant household had been reduced to a shadow of its former self.
Mireya left her father and stood at the front door. She was not permitted to leave until 9:01am, and she had to be at her destination by 9:15am. This left a few long minutes for her mind to keep wandering. She was almost glad it was a workday; she needed to keep busy.
It made her sick to think of that first day after her brother’s death.
After Juliska Blackwell had killed Garner and Ravana, in the process revealing that she had created the Scratchers. Juliska ordered an attack on that first day, against her own people.
Mireya was not sure in the end how many Svoda had died or how many had been taken prisoner.
Many prisoners were released a few days later, after the Stripers had arrived. Adults were put under house arrest. They were not permitted to leave their homes. Ever.
School was permanently canceled. Businesses closed.
Children under the age of sixteen were the only ones permitted to leave their houses, and that was to work. Each had been given a specific job in order to keep the island operational.
The worst part though, were the sessions.
Each Svoda, no matter how young or old, had to attend mandatory sessions in that first week. One by one, they were lined up and taken to the school building; only it wasn’t a school anymore.
The Stripers had used magic to change the school, turning the classrooms into prison cells. In these cells, Svoda were subjected to a magic, she, nor anyone on the island, knew little about.
Mazuruk stones. Nicknamed Mazy Stones.
Mireya had studied the war behind the stones, but as the stones were believed extinct, that is where the lesson ended.
No information about how to destroy them.
Nothing about any way to combat their use.
Or how long it took the stones to completely drain someone’s magic.
Now, not one member of the Svoda was strong enough to perform any sort of respectable magic. They still had the capability of using magic, if their magical strength could be renewed.
This didn’t happen though.
Each member of the Svoda was required to go through a session twice each week. Stripers would fetch them and drag them away to the prison, only to leave hours later, weak and unable to use magic.
Even Mireya was smart enough to know this meant the Stripers were storing up magic. Treating the Svoda like food, to feed the stones.
Why? No one knew for sure.
Only that Juliska Blackwell was behind it.
And their biggest fear was the long term effects of the stones on people. It appeared that it not only drained their magic, but after a few sessions, minds starting getting scrambled for a few hours. Now, close to a day. How long until it was permanent brain damage? Or death?
Sessions were the only valid reason anyone over the age of sixteen was permitted to leave their homes. At all other times they were under house arrest.
If someone over sixteen did need to leave for any reason, they were escorted the entire way by a member of the Striper guard. Only children between the ages of seven and sixteen were permitted to leave, and that was for one purpose, to go to work.
The moment for Mireya to leave her house arrived. She stepped outside, sucking in her first breath of frosty morning air.
Her friend, Joseph, should come up alongside her any second, the one bright spot in her day. He lived just a house down from her and they walked together to work each morning now.
He sidled up alongside her and mouthed hello, tossing her a feeble smile. They did not speak. It was not forbidden, but no one dared talk about much anymore.
They walked side by side, in silence, towards Juliska Blackwell’s old home, the one she’d stayed in when they’d first arrived back on the island.
This was where she and Joseph worked. Her job was in the kitchen preparing and delivering food to each home on the island. It was an endless job. Each day they prepped and delivered food to a specific zone on the island. There were four zones, so each house was delivered food once every four days. In the mornings, they prepped, and in the afternoons, they delivered. Sometimes deliveries took them late into the evening.
A scream stopped them in their tracks.
A sinister shadow jetted over their heads.
They ducked, backing away until they hit a fence and could go no further. They huddled in front of the fence, Joseph grasping Mireya’s hand, holding it firmly in his.
Neither took a breath as the shadow lowered, a Scratcher peeling out of the dark clouds hovering over the island. It thudded to the ground just feet in front of them, wings outstretched, threatening to close its wings around a woman running wildly down the middle of the street.
“I won’t go!” she shouted hysterically. “I won’t go.”
The Scratcher lurched forward, gnashing its wolf-like teeth.
The woman screamed again, tripping over the edge of a cobblestone. She sobbed, just lying in the street.
The Scratcher clicked its raptor like toenails on the cobblestone, letting out unnerving shrieks as the Striper guard caught up to the woman. They dragged her to her feet, holding her up by each of her arms. They were about to take her away when another Striper materialized seemingly from nowhere.
It was KarNavan. Their leader.
The Svoda had yet to see Juliska Blackwell step foot onto the island since her initial takeover.
However, KarNavan made it clear that when he appeared, or spoke, it was by her order and command.
KarNavan never walked down the street and appeared. Like today, he preferred to materialize as if coming from nowhere.
The fact that the Stripers could blend in with any background was just as frightening as the Scratchers looming ominously overhead. Their chameleon-like ability allowed Stripers to pop out from anywhere, at any moment. And the point was emphasized almost daily, to remind the Svoda that no matter where they were, they could be watched at any time. Another reason to be careful when speaking.
“Wait,” KarNavan ordered his guards.
They halted, waiting for him to approach.
“What is your name?” the leader asked the woman, unkindly.
“Mary,” she squeaked in reply.
“Mary Mary Mary. Do you have any idea what the penalty is for running away from a session?”
She did not reply. A faraway look covered her eyes and she lowered her head, accepting whatever was to happen.
“Sessions are law, Mary,” he spoke loud enough that anyone within earshot could hear. “And the penalty for violating this law is to have magic stripped from you. Drained. Sucked out. You’ll join the other prisoners, Mary.”
She was hauled away to the old school, the new prison.
“Get to work,” someone suddenly shouted at Mireya and Joseph.
“C’mon,” Joseph whispered, encouraging Mireya.
They ignored the woman as she was dragged by, hurrying along to work. A short while later, they stepped inside Juliska’s old house and directly into the kitchen, where other youngsters were just starting work as well.
The boss of the kitchen was pulling an apron over her towering frame and barking out orders.
“Morning, Daveena,” said Joseph, upon seeing her.
“Yeah, morning,” added Mireya, although with less enthusiasm.
Daveena nodded back, approaching them. “Heard someone tried to run. Anyone die?”
They shook their heads.
Joseph added in a low voice, “New prisoner.”
Daveena nodded again and returned to barking orders. She was a gal of few words, but Mireya had come to enjoy her company these last weeks. She could not believe she was saying that. Just weeks ago she would have run the other way if she’d seen Daveena Troast coming her direction, but now, they were almost friends. At least as friendly as this place allowed.
Control (The Blood Vision, The Immortality Stone, and The Woman in Glass) (A Fated Fantasy Quest Adventure Book 7) Page 7
