Ashlin thought about this for a moment, her auburn hair catching fire in the afternoon light that came in from the window. “I’m not the only one on the team,” she finally said with a smirk.
“What’s this about the team?” Archer asked, coming in from behind Norabel.
“Any sign of Logan down the road?” Mason asked, flicking his head in the direction of the street outside.
Archer casually stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Nah. He’s probably still making doe eyes with his girl.”
“He’s been doing that a lot lately,” Mason commented gravely.
“Nnnot the only one,” Archer mumbled, drawing his first word out to let Mason know he was talking about him.
Norabel suddenly found great interest in a loose string on the hem of her sleeve. She didn’t want to see Mason’s reaction. Whether it was true or not, it made her stomach twist to think that he might be making doe eyes with Ashlin.
“So what have you guys been talking about?” Archer asked, looking between Mason and Ashlin. “Not me, I hope.”
Ashlin raised her eyebrows at him, but then said, “I was just about to suggest that Norabel do a little reconnaissance for us.”
“Me?” she squeaked out.
“You scared?” Archer asked, bumping her in the elbow.
“Well, yeah,” she admitted. “I’ve only ever been near the stronghold twice in my life.”
“Don’t worry,” Ashlin said, giving her an encouraging smile. “You’ll be fine. I’ve seen you as a Shadow. You’re a little hesitant, but you get around just fine without being noticed.”
“Besides,” Archer said, butting in. “Everyone’s out looking for Ashlin. Anyone with the slightest tint of red in their hair has been brought in for questioning today. But, they take one look at your hair Norabel, and well…there’s not the slightest hint of any color in yours.”
Norabel looked down and rubbed at the bandage on her wrist. “Thanks. That makes me feel better.”
“How many people have they brought in, do you know?” Ashlin asked.
“Dunno,” he shrugged. “But I can tell you this; the Pax are running around like a dog chasing its tail, trying to figure out why no one has ever heard of you before. The word is that you were just using a false name, and that no one was able to get a good look at your face last night. That’s why they haven’t been able to identify you. But, regardless, it’s making them look like fools.”
Norabel wanted to comment that the Pax may look like fools, but it didn’t make their team any more heroes, but she decided to hold her tongue. As long as their next attack involved stealing horses and not scaring people, it wouldn’t do any good to make comments like that.
“You know, that might be perfect,” Mason said, running a hand on the map between where the stables and the stronghold were labeled. “If people are being brought into the stronghold for questioning, then it stands to reason that there would be people standing around outside, waiting for them to come out. No one will think it’s strange if they see Norabel by the stables.”
“Guards and yards, Norabel,” Ashlin said. “That’s all we need. Tell us how many men are watching the place, how many yards apart. And get a peek at the lock on the stables.”
“We’ll need an exit route too,” Archer added. “It’ll be pretty obvious when a pack of horses come charging through the village in the dead of night. It’s gonna wake up a number of people, so we have to choose the fastest route to the forest.”
“We can do that,” Mason volunteered. He turned to Norabel, adding, “I just need you to concentrate on the stables.”
“You should probably go now,” Ashlin suggested. “Who knows how much longer they’ll be questioning people inside.”
Norabel opened her mouth to say something, but nothing would come out. It seemed the decision had already been made for her, and there was no getting out of it. She was a part of the team, after all. And if she wanted to stay on, she would have to do her part.
Dutifully going to the door, she was about to step through when Logan appeared outside on the street outside.
“Oh. You’re leaving already?” he asked, jogging up to her.
“I guess so,” she answered.
“You guess?” he repeated, confused.
“To be honest, it all happened so fast.” She stepped around him in the doorway, quickly adding, “Sorry. I have to get going.”
Chapter 12
The Breccan stronghold was a great stone castle amidst a village of wooden shacks, dirt roads, and thatched roofs. It had four tall spires reaching up to the sky, and a stone courtyard where a line full of men could always be seen standing to attention.
The first time Norabel had been summoned to the stronghold, it was right after her home had been burned down and her grandfather had been killed. The memory she had of it was broken and incomplete. She couldn’t recall the sights inside or the men that spoke with her. The only things that stood out in her mind were the emotions. Hurried, scared, panicked, befuddled—like everything inside was just a swirl of colors in shades she had never seen before, and all she longed for was a crisp blue sky.
The second time she was summoned to the stronghold, she remembered everything as clear as day. It had been eleven years since her home had been scorched, and she was already nineteen years old. Chief Auberon had called both her and her family up to a room in the stronghold with no windows, no furniture, no smell or character or warmth, just the great black and red of the Pax flag looming on the walls.
“We’ve decided to reassign you to your old land,” Auberon told them. “It’s fertile now, and Amias realizes that he’ll get the most out of that land if it’s tended by the people that understand it the best.”
Her dad nodded dutifully as he took this in. He knew this wasn’t a request. The decision had already been made.
“And, that brings me to another matter,” Auberon continued. “Your daughter. I’ve been told that she’s established herself as a hard-working potter here, but that she also knows how to work the land. Now, this might sound strange, but looking into the matter, we’re just not quite sure whether to send her to work the land, or keep her here as a potter. Both jobs are of equal value.”
“Well what…what does that mean?” her mother asked, grabbing ahold of Norabel’s hand.
“It means,” Auberon explained, “that, even though it is rather unprecedented, we’ve decided to give you the choice. Either stay here in Breccan, or travel with your parents back to your old home.”
Norabel’s mother had placed a hand over her heart in relief, but one look at her daughter’s face, and the fear shot right back in.
Her mother said she understood, in the end. When Norabel told them what she was doing with Mason, how she was returning what was stolen back to the people. Her father understood, that much she could tell. He patted her on the head and said he was proud, said it was about time someone put Amias in his place. But her mother saw past all her good intentions of revolution and justice.
When she had hugged her goodbye, she held her close and whispered in Norabel’s ear, “Please don’t lose yourself sweetheart. Because I’m afraid that, with all your happiness, it still won’t be enough to erase that boy’s sadness.”
Norabel kicked a pebbled that she found on the ground and tried to clear her mind of her mother’s words. She had a job to do; she didn’t have time to wallow in the past.
Turning away from the stronghold, she saw the peaked wooden roof of what she assumed was the Pax stables. It lied past the castle, about a half a courtyard’s distance to the north-west. Staying inside the busy village square, she circled around the stronghold so that she had a clear line of vision to the stables.
At this angle, there were still a few meters of open space between the common village street she was standing on, and the Pax guarded stables. Though she could tell how big the structure was and how far away it lied from the stronghold, she knew she would still need to get closer to get a m
ore accurate account.
She was debating on how to go about doing this, when she spotted a young Pax official sitting with his back slumped up against the side of the stables. He had a jumbled mass of saddle reins in his hands, and he seemed to be having a hard time trying to detangle them. By the boyish nose on his freckled face, and the tangled mop of blonde hair on his head, she figured that he was still young, perhaps a year or two younger than her, and as such was assigned the more menial jobs that the other officers didn’t want to do.
Norabel walked down the village road so that she was standing directly in front of him a few yards away. She looked down to her feet, planted on the dirt road, and made sure not to cross onto the stone courtyard.
“Uh, excuse me,” she called out to the frustrated young man.
His head shot up, and he blinked in confusion at seeing Norabel waving to him.
“What is it?” he asked, slightly annoyed for being interrupted from his work.
“I was wondering if you’d like some help,” Norabel asked.
Her voice had come out so quietly that the young man stood to his feet and took a step closer, asking, “What was that?”
“I…I was wondering if you’d like some help,” she called out, louder this time. She gave him a sweet smile and pointed to the reins in his hands.
He looked around them, checking to make sure no one was watching, and then walked over to her. “You know about detangling reins?” he asked skeptically.
“No, but I know about hands,” she stated cheerfully, putting hers up in the air for him to see. “And mine were made for detangling knots.”
The boy glanced down at the mass in his hands before reluctantly holding them out to her. “Here,” he said. “See what you can make of them. I can’t seem to make any progress.”
She smiled gratefully at him and gingerly accepted the pile. She chose an outer lying rein to start from, and nimbly dug her fingers inside, tugging it out of its prison.
“I’ve been working on those wretched things for the past hour,” the boy complained. “I swear, whoever stored them like that was purposefully trying to make me suffer.”
“It must be hard,” she commented as she worked, “having to do the jobs no one else wants.”
“It’s,” he paused for a moment, as if deliberating if he should be talking to her. Then, deciding that it couldn’t hurt, he gave out a small chuckle, admitting, “It wretching stinks!”
She laughed softly and then swiftly pulled one of the reins loose from the pile. “Oh, here you are,” she said, extending the newly freed strand out to him.
He took it and draped it over his arm, watching as she continued to pick away at the pile.
Noticing his eyes on her, she said, “My name’s Norabel, by the way.”
After she said it, she wasn’t sure if she should have, but there was no taking it back now. She just had to make sure she didn’t do anything that might incriminate her whenever they discovered the horses missing later.
“I’m Emmett,” he replied. His arm twitched like he wanted to shake her hand, but he kept it back, either too cautious or too shy to do so.
He was quiet as he watched her detangle two more reins from the mess, leaving only a couple that were knotted together.
“You’re good at that,” he said, motioning to the pile. “A lot better than me,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.
“We’re all good at something,” she told him, angling her head to the side in thought.
Emmett took his hand away from his head and cleared his throat. “Why are you helping me?”
Norabel finally detangled the last of the bunch and held them out to him. “Because I like undoing knots,” she answered simply. “You could say it’s an addiction really,” she joked.
“Well…” Emmett was cut off as someone yelled his name.
“Hey Emmett!” a Pax official called out from a few yards away, waving his hand to get his attention. The official looked to be just a little older than Emmett, and had two other officers with him that looked equally as young.
“Kade!” Emmett said, waving to him with one hand and trying to grasp all the reins with the other.
When the group of three men reached them, the officer called Kade nudged his chin in Norabel’s direction, asking, “Hey, who’s the girl, Emmett?”
“Uh no…she was just helping me with the reins,” Emmett stuttered.
“Well, does rein girl have a name?”
“It’s Norabel,” she offered them with a smile.
“Hey look,” one of the other men said, pointing to the neat pile of reins in Emmett’s hands. “She beat Harker’s knot of terror.”
“Well congratulations,” Kade said, giving her his hand to shake. “That thing has been tied up like that for months.” He turned to Emmett asking, “How long did it take her to…”
“Five minutes,” Emmett answered proudly.
One of the men behind Kade whistled in admiration.
“Well, hey, come on,” Kade said, motioning behind him with a nudge of his head. “We were gonna get in a few pints before Leon here starts his night shift.”
“Those wretched horses,” the officer named Leon said, shaking his head. “I never understood why they need some guy to just sit in front of their door twiddling his thumbs every night of the wretched week. It’s not like the horses are gonna up and leave!”
“So whad’ya say?” Kade asked, turning back to Emmett.
“Ah, I can’t,” he replied, looking down to the reins in his hands. “I’m the one guarding the stables right now. I can’t leave.”
Norabel’s ears perked up at this last comment. From what Emmett and Leon had said, it seemed as if there was only one guard posted at the stables.
“Well that’s wretching unbelievable,” Kade exclaimed. “We can’t go now cause you can’t go, and we can’t go later cause Leon can’t. It kinda makes you rethink having so many friends.”
“Why don’t you just stay here with Emmett?” Norabel suggested.
The four guys turned to her, eyes blinking, unsure of how to respond.
“And do what?” the man named Leon finally asked.
“You ever play Shadow Snapper before?” she asked.
“Never heard of it,” Kade said, shaking his head.
“Well, each person has a small handful of Snapper, and the object of the game is to hit someone’s shadow with it while trying to keep your own shadow safe. If you hit a person’s shadow, that’s a point, and if someone hits yours, that’s a minus point.”
“Sounds simple enough,” Emmett reasoned. “You guys wanna try?”
“I’ve got some Snapper right here,” the quietest of the young men said, raising it from his pocket in offering.
“You just carry that around with you, Finn?” Kade asked in disbelieve. “Even to the pub?”
“You never know when you might need it,” Finn defended, shrugging his shoulders.
“Not in our line of work,” Leon added. “They never let us do anything of any importance. It’s all unknotting reins, watching horses, and latrine duty for us.”
“Imagine using Snapper for that last one,” Kade joked.
“Oh, hold on, guys,” Emmett exclaimed, holding up the reins. “Let me just drop these off in the stables. I’ll be right back.”
Norabel listening closely as Emmett left for the stables. She made sure to keep her eyes on the boys’ interaction before her so it wouldn’t seem as if she was interested in what Emmett was doing. She heard the quick jingling of keys as the door opened, and then a moment later when he came back out to lock it. As he ran back towards them, she noticed a small ring of keys slipped at his waist. There were three keys in total, but the one that was sticking out in the front was the largest. That must be the one to the stables.
“Alright, let’s do this,” Emmett said when he rejoined them.
Norabel then took the Snapper from Finn and gave each boy an equal share. However
, before she could give the rest back to Finn, they all insisted that she play with them—just to make sure they were doing it right.
So, Norabel soon found herself playing Shadow Snapper with four Pax officials, and the strangest thing was, she enjoyed it. The boys laughed and joked with each other non-stop, and the game seemed to bring out their naturally competitive side. In fact, the guys seemed to take turns trying to block her shadow from the others’ view, and on a fair few occasions one of them would actually step into her shadow with their own, claiming that they had taken the brunt of the attack.
They ended up playing so many games of Shadow Snapper that only the setting sun caused them to stop. When they all realized that they couldn’t play anymore without their shadows, a subtle wave of sadness washed over the group.
“Well hey,” Emmett said, realizing that Norabel had to go. “If you ever see us around the village, don’t be a stranger.”
Assuring them all that she would say hello should she ever see one of them again, she bid them a goodnight, and walked home.
Though the sun had fully set by the time she came down her street, she could still see enough to know that a man was leaning against her front door, waiting for her. She stopped in her tracks, feeling her heart speed up.
“Is that you Norabel?” a smug voice called out, kicking off from her door and taking a few steps closer.
She instantly recognized Fletcher’s voice and closed her eyes for a brief moment, wishing this wasn’t the start of something bigger. She took a quick glance at her neighbor’s house to make sure that everything looked okay, before she turned around to greet him.
“Good evening,” she offered, bravely stepping up to her house.
She figured that the best way to handle Fletcher was to treat him as nicely as possible. And, if there’s one thing that her mother taught her, it was that difficult situations were only made better with kindness.
“I’m hungry,” Fletcher stated, throwing her a smile as if silently asking her to do something about it.
Chasing Shadows (Saving Galerance, Book 1) Page 14