“One would be for a wytch queen, who would be needed to oversee the safety of our sisters. The other four would be for those keeping logs of those receiving treatment and of medicines given to certain people.”
“Medicines?” Marten interrupted her.
“As wytches we know much of herbs. We create medicines from them.” Romana explained. “I know very few wytches without the ability to heal with herbs.
“Would the residents need kitchens and en-suites?”
“Yes, although these can be installed later, we can travel to and from the Isle of the Gifted in minutes if necessary.”
“Excuse me, but the isle of what?”
“Your people know it as the Sorceress’ Isle. But it’s given name is the Isle of the Gifted.”
Chapter Thirteen
FREED
The question and answer session lasted for most of the day, with the designers taking notes of everything she told them. They asked about every detail from tap designs to styles of bed. When it was over, she remained in the library as the prince saw the designers out. So she was there when one of the architects re-entered the library with the intent of talking to her.
“Excuse me, ma’am?” He began.
“What is it?” She enquired. “Did you have a question about the designs?”
“No, no question. Or rather, I do have a question, but it’s not about the project.” He stuttered his way through the words.
“Then please, ask your question.” She encouraged. “I don’t bite.”
“If a girl was acting strangely, for example, if she heard things that weren’t there, and could describe it in detail, the chances are great that she’s just imagining things, right?”
“Is the child the type to tell fables?” She asked.
“The child is my daughter. She’s never really, well if she does I can’t, I don’t think she lies.”
“What does she claim to hear?”
“Our thoughts.” He said, finally without stuttering.
“And are her recounts of your thoughts accurate?”
“Always, they always are.” He replied. “I love my little girl ma’am. But she’s become immersed in voices, and I never thought, before I met you, that is, that it could be wytchery, but do you think that maybe it is?”
“It could very well be.” Romana replied. “Would you allow me to meet your daughter sir?” She asked, finally turning to look at him.
He was balding man in his mid-forties; his figure was thin and lanky, while his fingers bore calluses consistent with writing for a living. To ensure this wasn’t a trap, she quickly brushed against his mind, sensing no deceit there.
“I would, if it would not trouble you. But, respectfully ma’am, could you come to us without being seen? My wife and I, we aren’t in a good position with the neighbours already.”
“Would it help you if I were to walk there with you dressed less like a wytch queen, and more like a middle-class lady?”
“Very much so.”
And as she said it, Joanna’s dress – bless the thread wytch’s heart of gold – turned into an elegant long mourning gown with the cape becoming a veiled bonnet and shawl. Her crest disappeared from all save a small copy on the bodice of the long gown.
“Is this acceptable?” She asked.
“Very much so, ma’am.” The man said shaking now.
“I’m sorry to have made you uneasy.” She told him. “My clothes are charmed.”
“Of course they are,” He muttered. “Shall we leave now?”
“If you wish.” She replied. “But first, what is your name?”
“Ewan Cornwall.” He replied. “Should it please you, ma’am.”
“And your daughter’s name?”
“Casey Lin Cornwall.” He replied.
“Where do you live?”
“43, Hanover Street.” He answered quickly.
She teleported them there easily, while wiping the minds of the neighbours who saw them.
“No-one saw us.” She told him. “Which house?”
“That one.” He pointed and then paused. “The window’s broken. That’s strange.”
He had her attention instantly as they both ran towards the small comely house to find the door off its hinges and the front window smashed. She heard a woman’s cries from inside as Ewan led the way to find the source of the crying in a woman who was also in her forties.
“What happened here?” Romana asked.
“Ewan!” The woman cried, running up to him, making it clear that she was his wife. “They took her. They took Casey!”
“Marie, sweet, how long ago was this?”
“Just minutes ago.” The woman sobbed.
“What happened?” Romana asked them both.
“The Vipers Crew came in here, after all those months of threatening. Ewan, they took Casey.”
The architect looked too stunned to do anything. So Romana took charge.
“Which way did they go?”
“Towards Main Street.” The woman replied.
“Well, time to see if they can outrun the air shall we.” She muttered, “I need an exact description of Casey and the men who took her. Mrs Cornwall, would you let me into your mind?”
“What?”
“I’m a wytch and I’m here to help you and Casey. But I can’t do that unless I go into your mind.”
“O-Okay.” She stuttered.
Romana brushed into the woman’s most recent memories and took detailed images of the girl, who was around fifteen, and her five captors.
When she had them she gave herself to the air currents, and teleported to the people, praying that they were all still in the same place.
They were. And that place turned out to be in the city sewers; she moaned inwardly at the horrid conditions down here and pitied any maintenance workers sent down into this part of the city. Of the group, Casey was limp, most likely unconscious, and being carried by an elf, while the other men all appeared human. They were silent all martially trained and obviously listening out for any signs of followers. They didn’t speak as they walked along the grimy pathway next to the canal of brown water.
She almost stopped them then and there, but instead, she followed them while remaining invisible, wanting to know what they were doing with the girl, who was a wytch, now that Romana scanned across her mind and sensed latent power there.
They turned off up ahead, and Romana followed them into a plain room that was still covered in the icky scent of sewage. In that room there was a single jail cell with four other girls already in there. But in front of that was a desk with a young pixie-like lady sat at it.
“Is she legit?” The group asked the lady at the desk.
The woman took her time in getting up, and a brush across her mind revealed heavy shields. Romana realised almost instantly that this woman was a well-trained wytch. There were papers on the desk, and Romana silently moved over to take them, before she acted. When they were teleported straight to her room in her caves, she materialised in full wytch queen garb, without the glamour that Kate had given her.
“What the hell?” The elf gasped, even as she burned his arms and legs to ashes, cauterising the wounds ensuring he would live long enough to be interrogated. The mortals, she killed, but the lady was a different matter.
“Who are you?” She asked, “Obviously a wytch, but those robes…”
“I’m a wytch queen.” Romana corrected, summoning fire to wrap around her hands as they circled each other. “Who are you?”
“I am a sorceress, entrusted with ridding these girls of their unholy powers and returning them to their parents sinless.”
“Do they still have them now?” Romana asked, using air to pin the woman to the wall, immobilising her. “Do they?” she began to apply power around the woman’s throat.
“Yes.” The woman choked out. “Kobos hasn’t come for them yet.”
“How do you know Kobos?” Romana demanded.
“Trained. Him.”
She forced out.
“You know men go insane with their powers.” Romana replied. “Where were you trained?”
“Isle.” Her eyes began to roll in their sockets. Romana eased the pressure against her throat but only fractionally.
“The Isle of the Gifted?” She asked. “Answer.” The pressure increased again.
“Yes.” Romana eased the pressure slightly.
“When is Kobos coming for them?”
“Fifteen minutes.” She struggled out. “Please, don’t kill me; I can only sense other people’s powers. I’m a weakling. You’re so strong, why hasn’t he recruited you yet?”
“Because I didn’t want to be recruited.” She replied, “You’re coming back to the Isle, along with these girls, and he, he is going to the palace dungeons.”
“Nooo!” The woman screeched. “Kate will kill me. Please no. Please. Please.”
“Why will she kill you?” Romana asked.
“Because I betrayed The Coven.” The woman strangled out.
“Then you deserve it.” She replied. “Tell me what the girls’ powers are.”
“Psychic, mind reader, compulsion, duplication and empathy.” She listed. “Let me go please.”
“No.” Romana replied. Opening mental communication between herself and Kate.
I have someone here, stealing children for their powers; she claims to have betrayed the Coven. Is there anywhere we can lock her up?
Send her to me in my rooms.
Don’t kill her.
That might be very hard.
I also have five magical children who may be coming to you soon.
I’ll be ready.
She works for Kobos now.
I’ll keep him out. Kate promised.
Romana teleported the woman into Kate’s rooms after strangling her unconscious and then teleported the now dismembered elf to the palace courtyard where Marten would hopefully deal with him. The girls were all unconscious, and she teleported them outside the room before stripping the desk bare of paper, teleporting it all to her room and turning the room into an inferno. Just a little greeting for Kobos when he arrived, she thought with glee.
She glamoured herself to the blond haired brown eyed woman of before, and watched as her cloak grew the veil back before she teleported to the palace courtyard with the girls, to find them already occupied.
“What the hell is going on?” Marten yelled at her. “Who is Mr Crispy? And why have you got five sleeping girls next to you?”
“Mr Crispy was part of a team abducting young girls with powers that were going to be taken from them to make Kobos more powerful. These girls are the ones I found.”
He calmed down at that, and beckoned to a guard.
“Take these girls to one of the large rooms and make them all beds together on the sofas, they’re to be given anything they want—”
“— they’ll get it anyway—” She inserted, he glowered at her. “What? One of them has compulsion and the other can read minds.”
“As I was saying, they’re to be well guarded and given anything they ask for, information or otherwise, but try to tell them that they’ll be best off here.”
“One of them is called Casey Cornwall, tell her that her father sent me after her, if you want to find him, he lives at 43 Hanover Street.” She added.
“Do that, and try and find their parents.” Marten added. “And you,” he turned to her, “you have to tell me everything, from the beginning. In my office, five minutes.”
“I’d like to be with the girls when they wake up, your men have no experience with mind readers. I’ll be able to reassure her. I’d also like to talk to their parents about getting them trained, since they are all quite powerful, without help they will probably die, either by their own hands or by the hands of those who ‘love’ them.”
“Do it.”
Romana bowed respectfully and ran after the guards that were carrying the little girls.
The guards took them to a room with a queen sized bed, where the three smallest were carefully laid, and two sofa’s where Casey and another girl just younger than her were covered in blankets. When the guards left, she gently gave their minds a nudge towards consciousness.
The second girl on the sofa woke first.
“Hey there,” Romana started. “It’s okay. You’re in the palace, and the men are dead.”
“Who are you?” Deep brown eyes that echoed the girl’s rich skin tone seemed to stare into Romana’s very soul.
“I’m a wytch queen, sent here to oversee the building of a healing centre. I followed one of you being taken and I freed you. The elf is in the dungeons, and the woman is being held on the Isle of the Gifted. What’s your name sweetheart?”
“Hannah, Hannah Mathews. You’re very calm.”
“Are you the empathic child?”
“How do you know me?”
“I forced the lady to tell me before I sent her away.”
“How long has it been since I was taken?”
“I don’t know.” Romana replied. “Can you tell me who your parents are?”
“Don’t have none.” Hannah replied, “Got taken in by the thieves.”
“Can I contact someone for you?”
“My squad leader.” She replied. You can find him outside the bakery on Germaine Street.”
“Okay.” She replied. “Now, would you like to sleep for a bit? Because I think his highness doesn’t mind you taking a nap on his sofa.”
“I can’t sleep in unknown territory. Squad leader would punish me.”
“You’re safe. And when he gets here I’ll talk to him, because we need to see about getting your powers trained before they mature, otherwise you’ll be out of control.”
“I’m fine. I don’t need any training.”
“Listen to me Hannah; you know you feel other people’s emotions.” The girl nodded. “Well that’s going to get worse, until all you can sense is other people’s feelings; you’ll be no good as a thief because you won’t be able to focus. You also go mad eventually, unable to distinguish your emotions from anyone else’s, so if you walk past someone suicidal you’ll become that way too.” Hannah looked at her, clearly frightened and unsure; Romana sensed she should change the subject soon. “Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself; you don’t have to think about that yet. Would you like some food, or some drink if you’re not going to sleep?”
“Do you have any sweets?”
“I’m sure someone here can find some.” She smiled, walking to the door and telling the guards that the children would like some sweets.
When she returned, she found the three on the bed and Casey all stirring as well.
“Where am I?” Casey asked, jumping up.
“Casey, you’re okay.” Casey wheeled to face her, and the little girl’s eyes hardened in concentration. Romana felt a brush across her mind, and she built up her shields.
That’s rude. She communicated to the girl mentally. I can tell you the truth; you just need to stop trying to get into my mind.
“Why can’t I read you?” Casey yelled, which brought the others in the bed upright in no time.
“Where am I?” was echoed from all sides, along with “Who are you?”
“Girls, please calm down.” Romana ordered. “You are safe in the palace at Morendor. I am a wytch queen; I followed Casey’s abductors to find you and I killed most of the men who took you. The only one that is alive is in the dungeons of this palace. The lady was a low level wytch and she’s been taken to the Isle of the Gifted to await her punishment.” As she spoke, she sent them mental images of everything that had happened, giving them a film of what she’d done.
“Are my parents really okay?” Casey asked.
“As far as I could tell.” She replied, “And the man who gave the orders has a nice crispy fire bath awaiting him when he goes to find you.” She ended the film on the scene of the inferno she’d left burning the room to shreds.
“Can you let me into your mi
nd?” Casey asked, “I know it sounds silly but I need to know truth.”
“I’ll trust you to only go where you should.” Romana told her, lowering her first shields. “But I will keep my magic shielded.”
Casey was already inside, and Romana directed her to the correct places.
“She tells the truth.” She told the other girls a minute later. “I see it.”
“I told you.” Romana replied.
“You’re a wytch queen, but I know your identity.”
“I know, may I erase it from your memories?”
“You have to.” Casey said.
Romana quickly reached in and rapidly erased her mental signature and all trace of her true identity from Casey’s mind.
“Can you remember anything of me now?”
“I only know that you’re the wytch queen of dragons.” Casey replied. “That was weird.”
“Now, I need all your names and your parents’ names so we can contact them for you.” She looked pointedly at the three on the bed
They all looked at each other, and one by one the three on the bed told her everything she needed to know. She relayed it to Marten through a mental link.
Got it. He told her. They’re being found as we speak.
I need to talk to them. Romana told him. They need to know the risks their daughters face if they aren’t taught. And for most of these it will be a life or death decision.
Okay. I can give you ten minutes with them in the conference room. They’ll all be here within five minutes.
Fast.
Aren’t you glad that it is?
She looked back at the girls feasting on sugary treats and smiled. Just surprised, that’s all. She told him. I think they’ll all be fine emotionally. But I also think that the empathic girl is keeping them calm at the moment for me.
The thief?
Yes. Did you find her squad leader?
He’s already here. He’s in the conference room awaiting you, like the Cornwall family.
I’ll be there in a moment.
I’ll tell them.
She got up from where she’d been sitting on the bed and instantly the girls looked at her.
“Where are you going?” Hannah asked.
“To talk to your parents, and in your case, your squad leader.”
Kate's Legacy (Soul Merge Saga Book 2) Page 10
