I laughed because I felt like a lost boy in a Peter Pan story. I had never thought dancing around a fire could be so fun. The ones that didn’t join us started to clap and play instruments. They were all laughing and having a great time while we just skipped and twirled around the fire.
I’d never felt so alive.
After our dance the girl introduced herself as Andrea. While we were talking, her mother shoved a big plate of roasted meat into my hand. We ate so much at Joe’s that I was stuffed but the meat looked delicious and I dug in.
Andrea was really nice and asked me all sorts of things about the Domain. What people were like, what we wore and all sort of things that made Nomads, as Leigh called them, sound like we were living on a different planet.
“I’ve never been. My mother didn’t want me to train as a Caster. She lost my father when I was little and since then we’ve just been trying to live a normal life as best we can. I’m bored out of my mind,” she rambled.
“There’s nothing wrong with normal.”
Her entire body inflated. “Chas, you have no idea how badly I want to go to the Institution. I’m nothing like my mom and I guess got this free spirit from my dad. My sand appeared a couple of months ago and I can’t stop experimenting with it. Mom doesn’t like it so much, but a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do, don’t you think?”
I felt sorry for her. She didn’t want to be normal, it showed in her every gesture and I wished that I could just take her with me.
Andrea babbled on about her dreams that she felt were being crushed and I had to admit it was a bit of a mood damper but I had a feeling she had nobody around to rant and rave to about it.
The evening ended when Cale, a boy of about thirteen, went to bed and a very old man who was blind started preaching to us all. It wasn’t really a preach, more of a warning.
He went to a couple of us, yelled that we had to be careful of the light, because it had shadows.
Andrea grunted softly. I figured she must know him.
Then he stared straight at me with those glossy eyes.
“Be careful!” he shouted. “The Light, the light has shadows.”
It didn’t make any sense but I didn’t like how it felt as if those eyes saw things we couldn’t.
“Come, Father. It’s time for bed.” Andrea’s mom put a soft blanket over his shoulders. He was barely a man anymore.
Fox got up to help and when she touched him, the man said again, in a very disturbing, ranting way. “The light! The light has shadows.”
“It’s okay, Fox. I’ve got it,” Andrea’s mom said while the man still protested. He started to cry, it was sad to watch as she led him back to the tree.”
“No, listen to me!” he begged. “The light, the light.”
“Yes, Father. We know, it has shadows,” she whispered softly as they disappeared into the tree.
The look on Fox’s face said it all. She was worried about what he’d said, I guessed Guardians her age with years and years of experience looked at everything differently, even the things normal Casters would call lunacy.
“Andrea!” her mom yelled from the tree.
Andrea sighed. “I guess it’s time for bed.” She got up and smiled at me. “Nice to meet you Chas. Have fun for the both of us.”
“Yeah, sure.” I didn’t know what else to say as I watched her figure retreat.
The conversing went on. A couple of men and women stayed and the booze started to flow. It was served in an old bottle that had deer skin around it. For a world where you could create anything, the people in this village sure like things primitive.
Fox sat down next to me on the log.
“You okay?” I asked.
She nodded. “I’ve known Geoff for a long time.”
“Is that the old man?”
She nodded again. “He used to be one of the best Casters our world has ever seen. One of the famous ones too. He was the reason why so many of us joined. They still follow most of his techniques when it comes to overpowering the Shadow Casters. A really smart mind and look at it now. He doesn’t even know what he’s saying anymore.”
“That is so sad. I can’t imagine seeing someone I admired turning into someone I barely recognize anymore.”
She smiled. “It’s fine, it happens to the best of us.”
She got up and went over to a couple of the men on the other side of the fire. The one that spoke to us earlier, warning me of spending way too much time with Pursuers laughed at something she said, and I smiled. She was a likable person.
I sighed and walked back to Joe’s tree. It was quiet. Henry was sitting on a branch high up near the roof, and a small fire was the only thing that was still awake. I figured the rest must have gone to sleep or were still somewhere enjoying the party.
I climbed the stairs that led to the second level. Joe had shown us the rooms we would be sleeping in earlier tonight and I didn’t mind the idea of Fox sharing one with me. I’d really become fond of her these past few weeks.
The room wasn’t very big, but it was beautiful. It didn’t have lights, at least not in the way I was used to back home.
A lantern shone a bright light filling the entire room. It was hanging from a root that grew through the top of the roof. Light danced over the walls and I really wished that I could see it in color.
Two small wooden beds with a dresser and a bathroom, which only had cold water, was enough for tonight.
It somehow reminded me of the secret cabin Mom had trained me in. Not that it was as primitive as the tree house, but it had the same ambience.
I found myself staring out the window. The stars shined through a couple of branches and I couldn’t believe how much they resembled the ones from back home.
I couldn’t get the old man, or what he’d been saying, out of my head. The light, the light has shadows. What did he mean by that? Could he see things none of our eyes could see?
I gasped. What if that warning was about me? I was light, as in Light Caster, and the light has shadows. What if the old man was trying to warn Fox and all the others that they’d transported a Shadow Caster into Revera?
My heart was beating so fast. What if I was really only fooling myself, thinking that I could hide what I really was? If there were people here that could sense I was dark, I was only wasting my time and should just give myself up, come clean and tell Fox who my mom really was. That I wasn’t kidnapped, that it was her.
I rolled over onto my side when Leigh’s voice popped into my head.
You can choose Chastity.
He had seen the black sand inside the mirror, clawing its way out of me. He knew and he still thought I had a choice.
The door opened up and Fox walked in, without making a peep. I turned around and she jumped slightly.
We giggled softly.
“Sorry,” I said. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Not many things do, Chas. Except being snuck up on. You can be glad I didn’t pull out my sword.”
I giggled again.
She disappeared into the bathroom while I just stared at the stars shining through the trees.
Black and white or color. It didn’t matter. It was still breathtaking.
When Fox came out she crawled back into bed.
“You should try to get some sleep Chastity. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”
Silence filled the room and I remembered another thing that had been bugging me since I walked through that mirror back in the lighthouse.
“Fox?” I asked.
“Uh-huh.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot,” Fox said sleepy. She’d already lain down in her bed.
“Why is Tom the way he is and Joe’s well you know, not like Tom?”
Fox laughed. “I know Tom is quite intimidating, but you need to understand where it is he came from Chastity. He lost both his parents when he was twelve. They were Light Casters that became Seekers. His father was one of the be
st to retrieve and his mother was one hell of a clever woman. One night, they were sent to retrieve someone like you, a boy that had no idea what he was and it ended up that the boy was a Shadow Caster, so halfway to Revera they were ambushed by Shadow Casters. His parent’s crew put up an amazing fight, lost their Tulas and when his mother died, his father grew so bitter that he turned dark. Selene chucked his ass straight into the Oblivion. If it hadn’t been for Joe, she’d have done the same with Tom.”
“Why? Because his father turned dark?”
“She believes if one parent has the dark gene, the offspring has the gene too.”
“That’s a bit messed up, don’t you think? I mean no disrespect, but people choose whether to be good or bad.”
I couldn’t see Fox’s face but I could tell that she didn’t have a problem with my comment, otherwise she would’ve been all over my ass.
“Go to bed, Chastity. It’s been a long day and tomorrow is going to be even longer.”
“Okay, sure.” I stared back out the window and saw more bright stars as the forest started to quiet down. I didn’t know how long I stared at those stars but I could swear that after a couple of hours I started to see a trail of light sand swimming through the sky. My eyelids became heavy and before I realized it, I was fast asleep.
I WAS AWOKEN BY A SCREAM. IT WAS SO LOUD AND shrill it echoed through the entire village.
Fox jumped out of bed, and by sheer curiosity, I followed her lead.
I saw the backs of Tom and Joe disappearing through the front door as we reached the stairs.
All of us were wearing what we’d crawled into bed with.
When we exited the house there was a large crowd. There was a woman in the middle of a large circle of people whose screams were now turning into sobs.
“Chas, go back in the house, now,” Fox commanded as she rushed toward the crowd.
I wished I had done what she’d told me to but I had to know what was going on, so I followed her after hanging back a couple of seconds.
When I reached the group I saw a very frail body lying on the ground. Huge men blocked my view and I pushed through gently until the entire scene was unveiled before me.
“Mary, Mary, he’s dead,” Fox said. “I’m so sorry.”
“No, leave me alone,” Mary yelled. I realized that the sobbing woman was Andrea’s mom and the frail body was her grandfather. The blind man who’d given us a warning that night.
I gasped as I saw a huge wound on his torso. If you could call it a wound. It looked like an animal had seen him as an easy meal and had dug its teeth into him.
I immediately thought about the Shadow Hounds and about Fox’s story. What if there were Shadow Casters and they’d come for me? I couldn’t live in the Oblivion. I wouldn’t make it.
I didn’t know what else to do, so I let out a scream. Fox immediately got up from Mary and rushed over to me. “I told you to go back into the house. Why didn’t you listen?” She sounded angry.
“What killed him?” I yelled at her.
“We don’t know. By the looks of it a Shadow Hound.”
“They’re here?”
“We don’t know Chastity. It’s not safe out here.”
“Are they coming for me?”
She stared at me with a huge frown. “Don’t think like that okay? Nothing will harm you while I am here.”
I nodded and Joe folded his arm gently around me, leading me back into the house.
I struggled to sleep after that. Why him? He was so old. He couldn’t even see and his warning was plaguing me now more than ever. What if there were Shadow Casters inside Revera and retrieving me was their mission? It would mean that Fox and Tom, all of their team members were going to die.
THE NEXT MORNING THE SMELL OF BREAFAST WOKE me up. When I’d dozed off in the night, I couldn’t remember. My blissful moment of early morning amnesia soon changed to fear once again. Fear of what I was hiding inside of me, fear of the Shadow Hounds lingering close by, fear of losing the only people I knew inside this new world.
I got up and found a middle aged woman, much younger than Joe but older than Tom, in the kitchen. The woman was making breakfast. Part of the course had been prepared the old fashioned way and another was done through her dust. It was weird to see a whisk beating itself and pouring the white liquid into a pan for pancakes. Small silver specks (which I knew were bright gold) sparkled off the whisk and pan as they prepared my favourite meal. Pancakes and maple syrup.
Tom and Joe were in a deep discussion, probably about last night’s events. The ambience inside the tree was thick and smothering. The only one who didn’t seem bothered about any of this was Henry, who was digging into a live mouse and sitting on a root that was way above our heads.
My stomach turned as I saw white fur with blood inside Henry’s claws and his beak pulled away flesh. I didn’t know how he could eat that.
“Morning, Chastity. I wish it was a good one, but after last night.” Joe shook his head. “I hope you got some rest.”
I nodded with a soft, unsure smile. “Do any of you know where Fox is?”
“She had to leave early this morning with John. Selene’s orders. She heard about last night and wanted answers as soon as possible, so I’ll be escorting you back to Atlas,” Tom explained.
Just great. I nodded once and immediately wasn’t looking forward to experiencing the rest of the journey with only Tom and Henry as my companions.
“Come, eat,” Joe said and mustered the warmest smile he could while pointing at a chair right next to Tom.
I took it and the lady that was still preparing breakfast plopped a pancake with a bowl of fresh berries and cream right in front of me.
I really wasn’t a berry type of person but I remembered my manners and smiled. “Thank you.”
“You are welcome. My name is Trinity, you must be Chastity.”
I nodded.
“It must be so horrible being taken from your home not even knowing who you are. That is what you said, right Tom?” She tried to desperately change the subject.
“Trinity,” Joe said softly. “Let’s give Chastity some space to eat her meal.”
“Oh, sorry. I sometimes don’t think before I speak. Forgive me, Chastity.”
“It’s fine, really.”
I gave a soft smile. I hated that lie, I hadn’t been taken at night and that horrible woman wasn’t as horrible as they all thought. She was my mom and a damn good one too.
I devoured the pancakes as if I hadn’t had breakfast in ages.
Well, if you didn’t count the horse food with yoghurt every morning then I technically hadn’t had breakfast for a long time.
Around ten we had to go say goodbye to everybody and it was sad to leave in a crisis like this one.
Tom went to Mary’s house while I was still packing. Probably promising her that he would find whoever did this to her father and make them pay.
When he came back, it was time to leave.
“Take care of my grandson on the way back home and try to rub off on him as much as you can,” Joe said as he gave me a hug.
I giggled knowing that Tom would probably gag me with a bandage or something for being a smart mouth.
“I’ll try my best not to work too much on his nerves.”
Joe smiled. “It was such a pleasure to have met you Chastity Blake and I’ve got a pretty good feeling that we are going to see you again real soon.”
“That would be nice. Thank you for letting us crash here last night.”
“It was my pleasure.”
Henry was hooting already and I knew it was probably at Tom’s foul mood because I’d made him wait.
“Got to go, your grandson isn’t anything like his old Pappy.”
“No, he’s not the most patient peanut in the bag.”
I giggled as I walked with Joe to the front door. I bent down and scratched Abby’s head softly as we passed. The fox was a pure delight and I couldn’t believe how fond I’d become of
her. It wasn’t like I could’ve just gone up to a fox back home and scratched their fur, not unless I had some sort of a death wish or something. Abby was just like Joe, where Henry pulled at Tom’s patience with every hoot he gave whenever the man seemed like he wanted to chip a tooth. Abby was relaxed and followed Joe wherever he went.
The crowd outside was somber.
“When are you coming back?” a big guy asked Tom.
“I’ll be back before the funeral. Again, I will find whoever did this Chris.”
“I don’t want to think that it’s a Shadow Caster, as you know what that would mean, Tom.”
I knew they were referring to me, but pretended that I didn’t know what the two men were talking about.
“You sure you don’t want me to come with?”
“No, watching out for this one is more than enough.”
“You wouldn’t need to watch out for us. Have you forgotten? I used to be one of you guys not so long ago, cousin.”
“Still, I’d hate to be the one to tell Sue that her husband died because I couldn’t save him. I’ll be fine Chris.”
“Okay,” the guy said and looked at me. “Take care of yourself Chastity. And be careful, okay. It’s still a couple of miles until you reach the Inkas.”
The Inkas?
“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.” Tom eased his fears. “Besides, they need you here.”
Chris nodded as he grabbed Tom around the neck and slapped him hard on the back.
THE TRIP TO THE INKAS, WHEREVER THAT WAS, FELT like it was taking forever. My nerves were tied up into a bundle and I wished I hadn’t asked Fox what the deal was with Tom and his sparkling personality.
I couldn’t help but scan the woods constantly. A small snap of a twig made me jump and then I would stop and stare in that direction which only annoyed Tom more.
We walked past a gazillion trees and the only thing I saw was a snowy owl sitting on the branches of a huge oak. All the oaks looked the same and I took off my jacket again as the suns were streaming down on my skin, baking me as if I was a bun in an oven.
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