by Unknown
I see the same sort of panic set in Echo, and it comforts me. “Mother, just let her go back home. She can’t help us, so why keep her here?”
The queen sits back down and folds her hands in her lap. She looks younger sitting on a chair that is much too big for her, but is meant for only her to sit in. “Because, Echo, my love, this is how diplomacy works. You either achieve it through compromise, or you force it through ultimatums. Keeper Beatrice here is going to get us what we need, or else she won’t be allowed to go back home.” She looks over her nose at me, chin dipped downward, dangerous. “And she has something she wants very much at home, don’t you, Keeper Beatrice?”
Gabe. I have no idea how he is doing since I left his bedside and ended up here. The guilt of it mixes with the panic of being kept a prisoner, and my eyes narrow in anger. I feel as if I need to protect Gabe, to keep him out of this, but against my will, he’s been dragged in, and all at once, it’s too late to not have him involved. “Leave him out of this.”
“Do you see, Echo? This girl does not love you the way you love her. Now, she will come to love you through some means. It is integral for an alliance to be formed between our people. We need their Citizens, and it is not fair that they should get to keep them all.” The queen remains perfectly poised upon her throne, like a perfectly dressed princess doll placed in a seated position.
“Love me?” I stare at Echo, who colors and turns his face away from mine either to hide it, or to address his mother full-on.
“Mother, no. Let’s just let her return.” Echo protectively steps in front of me like one would if trying to shield another from something harmful. The harm here being his very mother, who looks nothing like danger would, but there’s still something very dangerous about her.
“That won’t be happening, Echo, my love. Keeper Beatrice will stay here until she has the Visions we need from her. And she will return home only when she’s a princess of the Dreamcatchers and has no choice but to favor both the Seers and the Dreamcatchers equally.”
“A princess?” Echo and I say in unison.
“Yes. A princess. At the end of the month, you two will be wed, and the long awaited for alliance between our people will be reached. We will live together again the way we used to before the Dreamcatchers were persecuted and sent out of the City all those years ago. We will both have use of the Citizens, and they shall belong to no one in particular.” The Dreamcatcher Queen sits up a bit taller now that her plan has been laid out in the open. She smiles a pretty little smile, surely amused by the startled looks from me and Echo. “We will be equal, and the Seers will no longer be the ruling hand.”
“Wed?” I turn to Echo. “Echo? What is this all about?”
“I don’t know. She never said anything about any of this until right now. This … this isn’t how it was supposed to go, Beatrice, I swear.”
Marry Echo? All I can think about is Gabe, comatose back in the City. All those times I kissed Echo in my dreams … the time I blindly followed him here, to the home of the enemy. What did I think was going to happen? Did I think they were going to welcome me with open arms? And now, I’m being held their prisoner. I am being forced to be the bride of the enemy if I want to be able to return to the City any time soon. And even that’s not a guarantee.
“Mother, I’d like to talk about this. Alone.”
“Very well, Echo. Take your bride to her room and you can come back down here and have whatever discussion you’d like to have with me. You can put her in the guest rooms for now. I will send a contingent of guards to make sure she doesn’t try to get very far, should she choose to run.”
Where would I even run to? The Port of Aura is miles away, and I have no idea how to get to a vehicle in order to flee. I don’t even know my way out of the palace, let alone the city.
Echo takes my hand, as if sensing my obvious unease and the multitude of questions that pour through my mind, and I calm just a touch. He leads me out of the throne room without saying anything else to his mother, and as we walk away, I can feel her cool stare locked on me, untrusting but victorious. She has cornered the Keeper, and I’m sure she’s proud of herself, probably just as much as I feel as if I failed not only me and the City, but Gabe most of all.
Chapter 3
Echo takes me down another long hallway and to a set of pink-hued, ornate doors. We walk in silence, which is probably for the best, since I’m dying to scream and yell at him for putting me in this situation. Nothing graceful could come from my mouth right now, so I savor the quiet.
He turns the handle and pushes on the doors, and they give way into a large, beautiful bedroom with a baby pink, canopied bed dead center of it all. I’m shocked at the grandeur of something obviously meant for a child to inhabit. The teddy bears on the cushioned bench at the foot of the bed are all lined up, arms outstretched toward me and Echo.
“Leave us,” Echo commands the guards, and they look at me, then at each other in hesitation. “Was I not clear? Leave us. Now.”
The guards eventually salute and make their exit, closing the door behind them. I remind myself to breathe since the anger has closed itself around my throat like two hands trying to squeeze the air from me. When I can form words, the first three to leave my lips come out shaky. “How dare you!”
“Beatrice, I didn’t know she would do this.”
“You told me that you needed me. You didn’t say that there is absolutely no plan, that you are relying on Visions that I can’t promise, and that your mother, who very clearly hates me, now wants to force me into an alliance by making me marry you!” I snap back at Echo, closing the space between us as I point a finger into his chest. “You tricked me.”
“I didn’t … listen … ”
“You tricked me, you made me leave behind my post in the City, and worst of all, you made me leave Gabe all alone in his coma.”
“I didn’t make you do anything.” Echo’s tone goes from being apologetic to defensive and he steps away from my touch. “You followed me here. Willingly. You wanted to help, remember? You said you wanted to help.”
“You didn’t say I was going to be your prisoner until I can figure out how to cure the plague!” I blurt.
“That wasn’t my idea. It’s my mother’s idea. She’s a very stern woman, but she’s very passionate about her people. She doesn’t want to see them suffer anymore.” Echo turns around and starts to circle the bed in the middle of the room.
“Who? The Dreamcatchers or the Citizens?”
“Both, I guess. We cannot be without the Citizens, so in that way, she’s probably upset that they must suffer, too. But ever since a few Dreamcatchers have come down with the illness as well, she’s been a bit panicky.” Echo picks up a porcelain doll from a nearby bookshelf and delicately holds it in his hands. “That, and ever since the execution of my sister, things haven’t quite been the same between us. I think she blames me for it. I know she does.”
I watch Echo as he stares down at the doll, and it dawns on me that we are in her room and those are Paradigm’s dolls and teddy bears. This is her bed, her writing desk, her balcony window. I become wary of my surroundings and walk over to Echo’s side, attracted to the comfort that seems to emanate from him. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“She wanted to find you because of me. I should have never told her about my dream. I shouldn’t have said anything about my plan to find you, either.” Echo sighs and turns to look down at me, the doll still in his hands. “She hated the thought that I would want to find a Seer to fix our problems here. She was jealous that I wanted nothing more than to dream of you.”
I blush and worry on my bottom lip as I try to find words to say that would make sense right now. “It wasn’t your fault,” I say again, this time without looking at him.
“You say it so easily, Beatrice, but do you really believe it? That it wasn’t my fault?” Echo puts the doll back on the shelf, sitting her neatly beside the others, all with carefully painted faces and vibrant gl
ass eyes.
“Does it matter what I believe? If anything, it was my fault. If I wasn’t who I am … you’d have no interest in me anyway. You would have never found me, or caught me, or anything. I’d be just another Seer.” I reach out and tug on a ringlet of chestnut that has been neatly tied behind one of the dolls’ heads. “Right? So … we can share the blame.”
“If you want. It still doesn’t help that now I have my mother and you angry with me.”
“Then you shouldn’t have lied to me about the situation.” I glance about the room. “I don’t want to stay in here. It’s not right.”
“I think that’s the point. My mother probably wants you to be as uncomfortable as possible. The Keeper took her daughter away from her, and so now she gets to take the Keeper away from the City.” Echo sighs and takes my wrist in his hand. “Beatrice … I don’t want this any more than you do.” He pauses as his cheeks color. “I mean … not that I wouldn’t want to marry you … but … Let me talk to her, okay?
I clear my throat and go back to staring at the dolls. “Fine. Talk to her.” Peeking to Echo, I watch as his blush fades away and turn to face him once more. “I’m sorry I was mad at you. I guess I thought that I’d be walking into something more … definite. Something I really could help with … ”
Echo brushes a thumb down my cheek, just like he used to in my dreams, under the tree with the long branches. “You’ll help. I just know it. It’s who you are, Beatrice. It’s a part of you.” Leaning down, Echo brushes his lips against mine in a quick kiss that sends tiny sparks of excitement through my fingers and up my arms.
I gently nudge him away from me, breaking the kiss. Mixed with the excitement is the undeniable guilt that I feel for leaving Gabe behind, and I can’t help but to think of his kisses, even if it’s Echo doing the kissing. “We’ll see, Echo. We’ll see.”
He smiles at me, unfazed by the breaking of the kiss, and makes his way to the double doors that lead back out to the hallway. “Keeper Beatrice is to be left undisturbed for the rest of the night. I’ll bring her dinner later,” Echo informs the guards in his princely manner which I can’t help but find ever so handsome. He looks back at me one more time, smiles, then exits the room after I smile in return.
Now left alone, I study the room one more time and tentatively sit on the corner of the bed. Pink, gauzy curtains have been tied back to the posts, and with a simple tug of a ribbon, I let them fall close, one-by-one. Sitting in the middle of the mattress, enclosed by the curtains, I take a deep breath and wipe my face with my hands. “What did I get myself into?” I ask no one, flopping back onto the bed. It doesn’t take long before the long day catches up to me, and I fade into a much-needed sleep.
***
In the infirmary, Gabe’s room is left undisturbed. Nurses buzz about everywhere else, but the door to Gabe’s personal bed remains closed, shutting out the busy noises of the hospital outside. He lays in bed, covered up to the neck with thick, white blankets that seem so bright against his tanned skin. Monitors are hooked up to his frail form, and they all beep in their own rhythms, each noise meaning something completely different in its cacophony of pulsating sounds.
I sit beside Gabe, one hand on his own cold and sweaty hand. The nurses say he can hear me, but I feel funny talking to someone who can’t talk back, so I don’t say anything to him. Instead, I watch the way his eyes roll behind his eyelids, and I wonder what he’s dreaming about. Hopefully it’s something much more pleasant than the last thing he had to face in his waking moments: his own Keeper betraying him in a final act against her Seers.
“I’m so proud of you,” I whisper to him and put my head down on his arm, snuggling it close.
The truth is, I am scared, and I hate coming here. I hate seeing him like this, and I hate the way he can only listen, and I hate how he can’t say anything back. I want to hear his voice more than anything in this broken world. I want to listen to him speak my name, to call for me down the hallway on the way to the cafeteria for ham day. Maker, I’d give anything just to have him back.
Then, the machines all start to sound in unison, their high-pitched squealing alerting the nursing staff outside. I stand up from the chair beside the bed and am quickly pushed back in a sea of infirmary personnel to the point where I can’t see Gabe anymore.
“Gabe?” I call for him, as if he’s going to reply, and of course, he doesn’t. The nurses push a machine into the room and power it up beside the bed. One of them is telling me to stand back, and I realize only then that I’ve been pushing into the crowd, trying to figure out what is going on.
“Gabe!”
But he doesn’t answer back.
And I don’t know what is happening.
***
When I wake up, I feel awful. My head is throbbing and my body hurts. I stumble out of the bed and flail across the room until I crash into a side table and knock it and all its contents on the floor. Holding my head in my hands, I swear something is screaming inside of me, a high-pitched squealing that threatens to crack me in two. It takes everything in me to call out, “Echo!”
I yell his name over and over again until I hear the doors open, and that’s when I fall to the ground, unable to take it anymore. A young woman kneels by my side and puts her hands on my shoulders, trying to get me to hold still. Another pushes something cool to my mouth until I have no choice but to open it and drink whatever it is that she’s offering me. The taste is familiar. It’s the serum.
Echo’s voice cuts through the piercing noise. “Beatrice? Are you okay?”
The screeching starts to fade, but my headache remains. It’s the sort of headache I get after having a Vision, and by the way the two girls are staring at me, I can only figure that my eyes are glowing now as well. I catch my breath and put a hand back to my head, rubbing it fiercely. “It’s getting better … ”
Wrapping his arms around me, Echo pulls me into an embrace, rocking me as the turmoil slowly begins to unravel, releasing me before disappearing all together. “I let you sleep for the night, so you didn’t have the chance to drink more serum before the last bout of it wore off.” Brushing my black hair out of my face, he looks down into my eyes and asks, “You had a Vision?”
That’s when I remember the beeping noises from the monitors by Gabe’s bedside. The last thing I want is for my dream to have been a Vision, but the glowing of my eyes makes it very apparent that that is what happened. “Gabe is in trouble.”
“What?”
“He’s in trouble. Something is going to happen to him, Echo. Something bad.” I drop my hands back to my sides and sigh sadly. “And I’m here.”
Echo shifts uncomfortably as I talk about Gabe, and there’s a pause between what I say and what he says. “Well … I … I hope that whatever happened … doesn’t … happen.” It’s obvious that Echo doesn’t want to discuss Gabe. He stares at me, marveled by the glow of my eyes. “You are beautiful like this.”
Normally, I would probably turn red at those words, but I can’t help but to think of the wall of nurses surrounding Gabe’s bed, and I sigh. “Why couldn’t it have been a silly dream?” Tears well in my eyes; I can feel them swell the more I think about Gabe and whatever danger he is in.
Echo rocks me back and forth to comfort me, and it works. I calm myself, knowing that there’s nothing I can do here. If I want to get home, I’ll have to be rational and think about a way out of this situation. Crying in the arms of the Prince of Aura isn’t going to help me get back to Gabe. “I guess this is as good a time as any to introduce you to your two servants for your stay here.” He nods his head toward the two young women who stand nearby, each of them staring at me, probably because they’ve never seen eyes glow the way mine do.
“Hello,” I greet them quietly, noticing also that they are both Citizens, with their almost-black hair and dark eyes.
“This is Irene and Jamie. They will take care of you while you are staying here with us.” Echo lets me go, unwrapping himself from
around me. I almost immediately miss the comfort of his arms, and I want so desperately for him to go back to holding me. “And it would probably do you well not to cross with my mother again any time soon. Not if you want to leave Aura in the near future. She’s still quite upset and set on our marriage.”
“You two would look beautiful together,” Irene blurts, only to be slapped on the arm by Jamie. Covering her mouth with her hands, Irene offers an apologetic look without saying anything else.
“Excuse her, Keeper Beatrice. Irene has a habit of saying whatever comes to mind.” Jamie curtsies, which throws me off guard. I’ve never had anyone curtsey to me before. It’s unnerving, and I almost immediately wish she never did it because just a moment after, Irene does the same.
“Yes, excuse me, Keeper Beatrice,” Irene echoes as she rises from her curtsey.
I look at Echo, and he grins. “They’ve brought you a change of clothes too, if you’d like. It’d probably be easier if you didn’t stick out as a Seer in that black robe.”
Looking down at my robe, I frown. “There isn’t anything wrong with my robe, Echo.” But I understand his point and instead of arguing to stay in my own clothes, I relent with a nod. “Very well. I’ll get changed then.”
“And when you’re done, you can come to breakfast. You’ve slept all through the night.” He nods his head to the two young women who seem too eager to help me into clothes that aren’t my robe, then takes his leave.
When Echo is gone, Irene and Jamie immediately get to work. They bring in a clothing rack with a few dresses hung on wire hangers, and already I can tell that I’m going to dread this.
Irene bounces forward and offers to take my robe from me by reaching out and simply grabbing it. “Off with this ugly thing!”
Mortified, Jamie steps forward and carefully pries the robe out of Irene’s hands. “Irene! Stop being so rude will you? This is the Keeper. She’s in charge of all the Citizens back in the City. Don’t you know that? You can’t just treat her things so roughly.”
