“Let them torture me. I don’t care. I won’t give you all up.”
Leo furrowed his eyebrows. When he replied, his voice was soft. “What if they torture Dean in front of you? Are you confident you won’t tell them then?”
Daniel looked down to his feet. His body wracked with silent sobs. My heart went out to him.
I ran over to him and held him close. He slumped leaving me almost holding his full weight.
“We’ll figure something out,” I soothed, although I wasn’t sure we could. I turned my head and spoke to Cynder. “We need to get everyone here now.”
Cynder nodded. Those that had already eaten got up and left, presumably to go get everyone else. Alannah handed Leo the strange concoction she had made and went back to the stove.
Leo left, fighting against the tide of people to get back to Elise
The sound of sizzling bacon once again filled the air as the people bustled in. Most went straight to the kitchen counter to pick up bacon sandwiches that Alannah had rustled up.
Cynder had to stand on the small coffee table in the center of the room to get everyone’s attention.
“The regent is doing exactly as we feared,” he began. All eyes turned to him. “For those of you who have just come in, he has been filling the TV feigning sadness, but he ended an interview this morning with a direct threat that he’d find Charmaine.”
Someone took my hand in theirs. I looked around to see it was Agatha. I gave her a smile and squeezed her hand back.
“I feel pretty secure here at the moment,” continued Cynder, “but we have to think of security and make a plan to leave at short notice if the need arises. Make no mistake, he will find us, it’s just a matter of how long it takes him, and we need to be ready. Pittser is also back in the picture which tells me that the police and the media have been infiltrated. Basically, we can’t trust anyone at this point.”
“Like we ever could,” shouted someone from the back.
“Exactly,” carried on Cynder pointing at the man, “we’ve always been outsiders, and that is our biggest strength at the moment. Unfortunately, Luca knows a lot about us because we had no idea of his true motives which left us all unguarded around him. I have to hold up my hand to that. I spoke freely when I was living in the palace because I trusted everyone there, Luca included.”
“You couldn’t have known, mate,” said the same man. Cynder acknowledged this with a small head nod.
He sighed. “Maybe, maybe not, but he knows more than I’d like him to. He doesn’t know where we are, and he doesn’t know how many of us there are, and I’d like to keep it that way. A while back we planned a garden party at the palace. At the time, I thought it was a way to invite you all to further our cause. I should have known something was wrong when he told me he didn’t want help. Unfortunately, I’d already given him all your addresses. You’ll all need to contact family members to tell them to leave if they haven’t already. Tell them to go across the borders while they still can. They aren’t safe anymore. I’m certain that Luca will show his true colors to the public sooner rather than later so we need to be quick.”
I felt a person move behind me and saw it was Leo. He was back from giving Elise her potion.
“We have a lot to overcome,” continued Cynder, “but our first problem is a man called Dean. Dean was the driver of the carriage at the wedding. I should have brought him with us, but he put up a fight, and at the time I thought he was a liability.”
Daniel’s hand clamped around my spare hand as he heard this.
Cynder glanced over at Daniel. “It was a mistake. Dean is on our side. I thought leaving him behind would be the safest option as I didn’t want him falling from the carriage, but we believe the MDS have taken him and are holding him hostage in exchange for Charmaine.”
“Who is this guy?” asked a stout woman at the front. “Why should we care if they have him?”
“Because,” answered Cynder, “he’s one of us. He’s a partner of one of us, and he needs our help. We are in this together, and to be frank, we are hopelessly outnumbered. We need all the help we can get.”
“Dean worked for the police in the capital,” interjected Leo. “He knows a lot about the area and the people there. He also helped start a task force on gathering information on the MDS. He probably knows more about them than anyone here. He will be an asset to our team.”
“Good enough for me!” said the stout woman, and Daniel’s hand relaxed.
Cynder nodded. “Here is what I propose. Leo, Daniel, Charmaine, and I come up with a plan to get Dean back. Charlie, Lucy, Emmet, Rob, and Nancy figure a way to get word to the other members of the Freedom of Magic without anyone finding out. David, Clement, Renee, and Jack do security on this place including making an escape plan, and the rest of you break into teams to figure out how we are going to defeat Luca Tremaine.”
Just hearing his name made me tremble.
“What shall I do?” My mother asked quietly. I’d not even seen her come in.
Alannah took her by the hand. “You can come and help me look after Elise. If she’s not well, she’ll need someone looking after her, and who better than her mother?”
As we were one of the smaller teams, we broke off into a side room. It had a bed in the corner and a small chest of drawers and not much else. On the top of the chest was a framed photograph of me that had been cut from a newspaper.
“This is my room,” said Cynder awkwardly as he noticed what I was looking at. I suppressed a grin.
Leo took a seat on the bed while Cynder ran back out and grabbed a couple of chairs for the both of us.
“This is wasting time,” huffed Daniel, sitting on the edge of the bed next to Leo. His foot tapped rhythmically on the floor, and he rubbed his hands together impatiently.
Leo looked at him kindly. “You know we can’t just go back. We don’t even know where it is they are holding him.”
“Does it matter?” asked Daniel. “If I go back, Luca will see me and take me to him.”
“Yeah, and then what?” Cynder focused on Daniel.
“Why don’t I go back?” suggested Leo. “I’ll keep to the shadows. Dean isn’t the only one who knows the capital like the back of his hand. I’ve spent the best part of the last five years walking the streets, feeding the poor. I know the secret Magi haunts, the few families that stayed behind.”
“I do too,” interjected Daniel. “I am a mage remember?”
“Yes, but the difference is, I don’t have anyone I love being held. They have nothing on me, even if they catch me. I need to find a way to speak to Copper anyway. I’m pretty sure he’s not one of them, but he’ll be finding it hard right now. I want to know what’s going on with the police. We could do with them on our side.”
“Look,” began Daniel. “I appreciate you trying to help, but there is no way I can sit here twiddling my thumbs until you get back. I’m sick with worry.”
“I think he should go too,” I said. Daniel gave me a small smile of gratitude.
“Fine,” agreed Cynder. “Both of you go, but it’s a reconnaissance mission only. Don’t be doing anything stupid. If the MDS see you, I want you to get out of there as quickly as you can. I don’t want to have to send anyone in to rescue either of you. If you do find him, come back here, and I’ll give you more men, do you understand.”
“No,” argued Daniel, shaking his head in frustration. “If I know where he is, I will try to rescue him.”
Cynder stood by the door blocking Daniel from leaving. “I’m only going to let you go if you adhere to my terms. It’s too dangerous otherwise. I need to know you are all safe, and I won’t compromise on that.”
“Ok,” replied Daniel defeated. “Come on, let’s go.”
Leo stood to follow Daniel out of the room. They both walked around Cynder who called after them.
“Take two of the horses. Tell the people in the barn that I said it’s ok. Alannah will pack some food for you. I want you both back by n
ightfall tomorrow, or I’ll be coming after you, ok?”
“Ok.”
The door closed behind them, leaving Cynder and me alone. I closed my eyes thinking of Dean. Could Daniel be right? Would Luca have captured him thinking he knew something? It wasn’t really Dean I was worried about though. There was one other person we left behind, and if Daniel was right about Dean, Luca would surely have captured her as well.
“You ok?” asked Cynder, sitting back down beside me and taking my hand.
I opened my eyes and looked at him. “Jenny.”
“What about Jenny?” he asked, perplexed.
“Do you think Luca has captured her too?”
He was silent for a second while he weighed my question.
He walked towards me, taking my hand in his. “Honestly? I’d like to say it’s impossible or even improbable, but I don’t know.”
At least he had the decency not to fob me off.
“I wish I could go with them and help,” I’d never felt more useless in my life.
Cynder pulled me into his lap and held me tightly. “I want you right here where I can see you. Of all the people in this house, you are the most important. You are the one that Luca wants the most.”
I nodded, wishing there was something else I could do. By the time we left the room, Leo and Daniel had already gone, so I decided to go and see how Elise was doing, now that her husband had left.
She looked much worse than I feared. Mother sat at her bedside mopping her brow which was slick with sweat. An empty glass sat by her bedside with the remnants of Alannah’s potion in it.
“What’s the matter?” I asked. This was not just common morning sickness. She really looked ill. Her skin was pallid, and her face showed an expression of pain although I could see she was trying to hide it.
“I don’t know,” replied mother sadly. Her usual graceful expression had turned to one of worry, and she looked older than her years. “The journey yesterday hasn’t helped her, and it looks like she’s got some kind of fever. Alannah’s potion helped a little, but I’m not sure it’s helped enough.”
“I’m fine,” argued Elise, trying to pull herself up in bed. She looked so pale and fragile. Even with her baby bump, she appeared thinner than she had yesterday. Too thin. “Please don’t talk over me as though I’m not here. I might not be well, but my hearing is still working.”
I bowed my head in guilt. She was right. We shouldn’t have talked over her. “Did you hear about Leo?” I asked, taking her hand.
“Yes,” she nodded. “He came and told me where he was going. He’s such a brave man.” She gave a small smile as she thought of him.
“He’s a foolish man,” replied mother brusquely. “He should be here with his wife and baby.”
“The baby isn’t even born yet,” I pointed out, trying to play the situation down, “and he’ll be home tomorrow. He promised Cynder he wouldn’t do anything stupid and you know Leo enough to know he’s a man of his word.”
Elise gave me a weak smile just as Alannah walked back in with more of her potion. I could smell it before I saw it. The mushy green substance smelled like boiled cabbage. Maybe that’s exactly what it was.
Elise screwed up her nose and downed the lot in one. I made my excuses before I threw up with the smell. Poor Elise. Hopefully, whatever was in the strange concoction would make her feel better in a couple of days.
Without Leo and Daniel, and with everyone else broken into groups, I found that I had nothing to do. I decided to go outside and see exactly where it was we had all ended up.
Fields stretched out in all directions as far as the eye could see. Apart from the huge farmhouse and barn, there was no sign of civilization. We were thoroughly alone. The mid-morning sun shone down, warming my face and bathing the golden fields in light.
I felt someone’s presence beside me. I didn’t have to turn my head to know it was Cynder. He took my hand as we walked through the barley.
“It’s beautiful here,” I remarked.
“It’s ok for now, but we can’t stay here forever. If the MDS find us, they’ll see us escaping. We’ll need to move sooner rather than later now that they are looking for us. We need to find somewhere more well-hidden, a forest maybe.”
“I don’t think Elise is up to being moved for a while. She looks pretty sick.”
“I’m not sure she’ll have a choice,” replied Cynder. If Leo and Daniel don’t come back soon, I’m moving us all out of here without them.”
“You are moving us already? Why can’t we wait? You can see for yourself that there is no one around here.” I gestured to the flat expanse of fields surrounding us.
“I didn’t want to worry you, but one of our group has just come back from the city. He’s been spying for us.” He took my hand and looked directly at me. “Luca knows where we are.”
leaving
“He knows where we are?” I asked, suddenly petrified. I glanced over the fields again, expecting Luca and his men to suddenly appear.
“Don’t panic. My man thinks Luca knows this as a potential place among others. He knows we are in one of the places he has a list of. We are quite far down south, so I think he’ll be checking the places closer to the Capital first, but I don’t want to hang around here too long, putting everyone in danger.”
I closed my eyes. Yesterday had felt like a nightmare, but now I felt like I’d just woken up to a reality that was just as bad.
The wait for Leo and Daniel was nerve-wracking, to say the least. Every time the front door opened, I jumped nervously until I realized it was just one of the Freedom of Magic coming or going. To keep my mind from it, I watched the TV incessantly, stopping only to help with mealtimes.
Cynder had the horses and carriages ready to go, just in case, and everything that could be packed up was already in boxes. Only the essentials were still out, and even then, they could be thrown into one of the carts at a moment’s notice.
“We go at midnight,” announced Cynder that night after calling a meeting. I looked at the clock. It said ten pm. If Leo and Daniel weren’t back in a couple of hours, I knew it was unlikely we would see them again, at least not for a very long time. Even if they did get back, they’d come back to an empty house, and it wasn’t as if we could leave a note to tell them where we had gone. It was then that I wished we had a phone so we could communicate with them. Phones were extremely rare in Silverwood, and only the richest of the rich had them. We’d had three in the palace. I realized then just how privileged a life I’d led.
One of the teams had come up with a number of alternative places for us to stay, and it was agreed that the best one was a couple of hundred kilometers from here. A girl called Renee had an uncle who owned a number of wooden houses in a forest that had once been a holiday park. It had fallen into disrepair twenty years ago when the Magi were no longer wanted, and people refused to go to anything owned by a mage. Apparently, Renee’s uncle had died a few years back, but the lodges were still there, and her family still owned the land. The last time she’d been there was when she was tiny, so she had no idea what state they were still in, but there was enough room for all of us plus extra for any new recruits.
It sounded perfect if it wasn’t for the fact that if we went, it was all over for Leo and Daniel.
I played with the hem of my dress, gazing up at yet another interview with Luca. He was wearing a rose shaped pin. I recognized it as the one I’d seen on his bedside cabinet all those months ago. I remembered I’d seen one on Pittser too.
“Do you know what that rose pin is?” I asked Cynder who was alternately watching the TV and gazing out of the window.
“It’s the emblem of the MDS. It’s how they identify each other.”
I suddenly felt panicked. “Grace had a pin like that. I still have it somewhere. You don’t think she...”
Cynder shook his head. “I think it’s more likely that your father had one and ended up giving it to her as a gift. You already know he had connect
ions to the MDS.”
I thought about it, and it made sense. If Grace was a member, she’d have married Xavier and would still be alive. I made a mental note to throw that pin out, before remembering it had been in the palace and had more than likely been burned in the explosions. I cast my mind back to the one I’d seen recently on Luca’s bedside cabinet at his parent’s castle.
“I saw that pin months ago. It belonged to Luca. If only I’d known then.”
Cynder’s interest perked up. “He wasn’t wearing it though?”
“No,” I replied. “I saw it in his room.”
Cynder sighed. “Yeah, he would have wanted to keep that out of view at the time. I guess if he’s wearing it now, the MDS will know where his allegiance lies. It doesn’t matter what he says about protecting the Magi. The MDS will be able to see through it thanks to that pin.”
“Won’t he be giving himself away though? It’s not as if he’s hiding it from the world.” And he wasn’t. I’d noticed he’d been wearing it in a prominent place on his lapel for the past few days.
Cynder pressed his lips together while he composed himself. “The MDS is an underground group, much like the Freedom of Magic. Most people are blissfully unaware of the existence of either. Any non-MDS watching would just think it was a piece of jewelry, but to the MDS, they’ll know the truth. It looks like your husband is bringing the troops in and probably recruiting more.”
“I wish you wouldn’t call him that,” I grimaced. I hated that I’d gone through with the ceremony. I’d thought I loved him, but even as late as walking up the aisle, I’d had reservations. I thought Luca would be the best for the kingdom, but now I could see, it didn’t matter in the slightest if he wasn’t the best person for me. And he never had been. It was always Cynder that came to my mind when I closed my eyes, and when I dreamed it was never about Luca. I’d been swept up in his beauty and position when all I ever really wanted was someone who’d dance with me and let me be who I was.
Cynder didn’t reply. He just took hold of my hand which was exactly what I needed at that moment. I rested my head on his shoulder, and the hand that had been holding mine now snaked around my shoulders, pulling me even closer to him and crumpling the shirt that someone had lent to me.
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