“Well, if this is the war room, then it’s not going to lead anywhere else,” Logan pointed out. “So shouldn’t we turn back around and try to find the next spire like we planned?”
“We can’t just leave it!” Ashlin whispered excitedly. “It’s too good an opportunity to pass up!”
“Well, we’re wasting time arguing about it here,” Mason said. He pushed the door open further and stepped inside. “Come on. We’ll be quick about it. We still have fifty minutes until the first powder goes off.”
Going around the room, Mason touched his torch to the ones mounted on the wall until the entire space was flickering with light. Ashlin spun about her, taking it all in with wide, smiling eyes. She tilted her head up to the arching ceiling, causing her hood to slip off her head in the process.
“Can you believe we’re actually here?” she marveled. “With the whole castle sleeping away, and we’re here in the heart of their operations, free to do whatever we wish.”
“What do you think we should do?” Archer asked, driving his sword into the wooden table. “Should we trash the place?”
“We should use our time to look for any information we can,” Mason advised them. “Records of dispatches or orders.”
“There’s a wooden chest over there,” Logan pointed out.
“You’ll find nothing in there but candles and old maps,” a voice announced from the doorway.
Turning to face the intruder, they found no one less than the chief of Breccan himself.
“I presume you lot are the Harbinger team that’s been plaguing my city of late,” Auberon commented. His eyes moved across the hooded figures and rested on the only one of them whose face wasn’t covered. “And the new face of the rebellion herself!” he added in mock amazement. “Tell me, Ashlin,” he said, taking a step closer to them, “What did you have in store for my peace room?”
Ashlin gripped her sword tightly and pointed it out at him. “Stay back!” she warned.
Auberon chuckled, holding up his hands. “Let me guess. You just stumbled in here; not a clue in the world what you were doing. Just like your mother. You know, that’s what probably got her killed.”
“You’ve got no clue who my mother was,” she said through gritted teeth.
“I don’t need to know who she was. It just takes one look at you to realize what a completely wretched mess she made of her life.”
“Don’t listen to him, Ashlin,” Mason warned. “He’s just trying to get you angry.”
“I’m already angry,” she said, strangely calm. She took a few strides closer to him, keeping her sword outstretched. “And it’s not me you have to be concerned for.”
With Ashlin stepping closer to Auberon, the other three drew nearer, pointing out their swords to form a half circle around him. However, instead of drawing a sword himself, Auberon chose to keep his hands in the air. In fact, Mason looked to the belt around his waist and was surprised to see no sword or even scabbard strapped there.
“If I were you,” Auberon said, speaking as if he was perfectly fine with the whole situation, “I’d watch that temper of yours. You’ll find it can get you into all sorts of trouble.”
“And if I were you,” Ashlin said, stepping even closer so that the tip of her blade was only a few inches from his chest. “I would watch what you say. It’ll get you killed one day.”
Auberon gave out an easy, slow chuckle, his shoulders moving up and down as he laughed. “By who?” he challenged. “By you? You’re just a little girl playing with fire. The only people you’re gonna hurt are yourself and those closest to you.” He took a step forward so that he pressed his chest against her blade. “So step out of my way, little girl, before I decide to teach you some manners!”
Ashlin clamped her jaw shut, trying to contain her emotions. She took a deep breath and lowered her sword. Mason thought that she was about to step away, when suddenly she gave out an angered growl. Charging forward, she rammed right into Auberon, running until they hit the stone wall behind him. Mason ran forward, ready to help, but stopped when he saw her sword blade pressed up to his neck.
“Do not tempt the beast,” she whispered out hoarsely. She pricked his skin, drawing a drop of blood from his neck. “Or it will answer.”
Auberon smiled down at her. “You don’t have it in you to kill me, or you would have done it by now.” He chuckled once more. “Here you are, trying to start a war, and you can’t even…”
He suddenly stopped, his eyes growing wide with terror. From where Mason stood, he couldn’t tell what had happened. There didn’t seem to be much blood by his neck. Then Auberon slipped down the wall, slumping to the ground. There was a dagger sticking out of his side, angled up and into his heart.
Mason stared with shock from Auberon’s dead body to the stunned girl standing over him. The sword dropped from her hand, and she took a few steps back. At first no one knew how to react, but then a movement by the open doorway caught Mason’s attention. His eyes flew over to it, and he saw a night guard standing there, staring at the scene with wide eyes.
Seeing his plan fall apart around him, he had no other choice but to run over to the guard, hoping to stop him before he raised the alarm. The guard noticed him in an instant, and quickly turned around and started sprinting down the corridor. Mason ran as fast as he could across the war room and over to the hallway, but the man had already gone past the door by the time he even reached the hallway.
Mason let out a frustrated growl and kicked the wall. “That’s it!” he exclaimed, looking back to the group. “He’s gone. It’s all over!”
“W-w-what does that mean?” Archer stuttered. “What do we do about him?” He motioned down to Auberon’s dead body.
“Is he really dead?” Logan asked, standing over him with a mortified expression on his face.
Ashlin turned to him in a trance and nodded her head.
“You just,” Logan shook his head. “You just killed him! He wasn’t even armed!”
“Stop!” Mason yelled. “We don’t have time for this. We have to get out now before this whole place is swarming with the pox.”
Logan relented to his brother, and they silently ran down the hallway towards the open air of the castle. Coming out, they couldn’t see anyone in sight, but they knew it wouldn’t be long until that changed. Running down the widest of the hallways in front of them, Mason turned the corner and nearly stopped in his tracks when he saw what was in front of him. It was the main entrance. Nothing but open ground and a few flags and torches stood in between them and the front door. But they couldn’t just burst out that way, could they? It seemed too easy.
In the distance, they heard a man giving orders, and at once Mason sprang into action. The front door was, at present, the quickest way out of there, and he was going to take it.
“Are we really going through the front door!” Archer exclaimed, running up beside him.
Mason didn’t answer as he pushed forward, readying to ram the door with his shoulder. They were past halfway there when the sound of running footsteps rounded the corner. Mason ignored them, hoping that there wasn’t a bowman in the group.
He reached the front doors and, choosing one, he gave it a hard push forward. He nearly lost his balance as the heavy door relented to his request. Recovering quickly, he held the door open for the others to pass. As they ran out, he took a look to the courtyard beyond the front steps. There was one guard that was a good distance away, patrolling the north eastern rim of the castle. When he noticed them running, the guard gave out a shout and started towards them, but he was far enough away that Mason knew they could outrun him.
Abandoning the door, he brought up the rear as his team ran for the darkness of the village in front of them. They made it down the steps and across the courtyard. Taking a quick peek behind him, Mason saw a few of the guards following after them, but most of them stayed by the open front doors. It struck him as odd that the majority of them decided to give up the chase so easily, but
he wasn’t about to question it.
Plunging into the sleepy village roads, it only took a matter of a few turns to lose the rest of the guards. Though their original plan had been thoroughly ruined in the matter of a few minutes, it only took the same amount of time to retreat back to safety. But Mason did not take comfort in the fact that they escaped imprisonment so effortlessly. A fire of anger had been lit underneath him, and there was only one person he could think to blame.
“Mason, where are we going?” Logan asked when they turned down a road that led west instead of north.
“To the girl responsible for this!” he whispered out angrily. “If she had been there for us, none of this would have happened.”
Chapter 19
When the Harbinger team slipped down the road towards Norabel’s house, Mason ran ahead of everyone else, storming up to her front door.
“Norabel!” he yelled out. “Norabel, get out here!”
He knocked furiously on the door, but it opened at his touch, not having been closed in the first place. Mason stopped suddenly, looking at the opened door and the dark house behind it.
Logan, who had been watching him from behind, pushed past him and burst into her house. It was too dark to see anything, so he reached for some Snapper in his pocket. When he snapped his fingers, he stopped dead in his tracks. The entire place had been trashed. The table and chairs had been upturned, and nearly all of her possessions were littered on the floor.
Looking to his brother, he saw a stunned expression on his face.
“I told you,” Logan whispered out, pointing a finger at Mason. “I told you something was wrong!”
“Uh, Mason?” Archer called from outside on the street.
Mason turned quickly at the sound of his name, rushing outside to see what had caught Archer’s attention. Across the road, a door had opened, and a man was walking out. As he came closer, Mason could see a dark bruise on the left side of his jaw.
“She isn’t here,” the man said, addressing Mason. “Norabel. She isn’t here.”
“What happened to her?” Mason asked, suddenly finding himself out of breath.
His face darkened as he said, “The leacher took her.”
“Leacher?” Mason shook his head. “W-what leacher, what are you…”
“The leacher that’s been preying off her every night for the past two weeks!” the man exclaimed, gripping his hand into a tight fist. “Only, he wouldn’t have done it if she hadn’t been trying to get him off of me and my family.”
“Please,” Logan said, breaking past his brother, “tell us what happened to her.”
“He came for her,” he said with a remorseful shake of his head. “He said he’d kill my wife and child if I tried to interfere.” He gripped a fist to his mouth, trying to overcome a bout of tears. “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t, I couldn’t do anything. I just stood there, watching him beat her to the ground until she couldn’t even stand up. Then he carried her away on his horse.” He shook his head again. “That was over an hour ago.”
“What are you saying?” Mason whispered out in a state of shock. “What are you…what do you…she’s gone?”
“I’m sorry,” he said, backing up from them. “She saved my family. I really am truly sorry.”
Turning around, he went back up to his house, disappearing inside. With him gone, a fever seemed to boil up inside of Mason’s head.
“No,” he said, pacing around in a frantic circle. “No, we can do this! We can get her back!”
“Mason, she’s in the stronghold,” Logan pointed out. “There is no way back into that place now. Not with their chief dead! Every Pax in Breccan is going to be up and guarding it!”
Mason shoved his brother out of the way, breaking away from the group. Taking out his sword, he rammed it into the hard dirt road. Yanking it out, he stabbed the ground again and again until he was straining for breath.
“Mason, you need to calm down,” Logan said, taking a tentative step towards his brother. “Just…calm down.”
He put a hand on his shoulder, and Mason suddenly fell to the floor, kneeling in the dirt. He grabbed onto his sword and pressed his forehead into the hilt. From behind, the rest of the group could see his shoulders shaking in silent sobs.
“I left her Logan,” he cried out in painful admission. “I…I abandoned her…just like you said.” He curled into himself, and his mouth opened wide as if to scream, yet no sound would come out.
Logan knelt down next to his brother, gripping tightly onto his shoulder to let him know he was there.
Mason’s face contorted into a grimace, and his head dropped to the ground as he strained out, “What do you think is happening to her? What if she’s already dead?!”
Logan shushed his brother. “Mason stop,” he demanded. “That isn’t going to help anyone.”
Mason hastily got to his feet and ran forward to regain his personal space. “I can’t…” He gripped a hand to his forehead and bent forward. “I can’t do this.”
“Logan, he’s losing it,” Archer said, motioning to Mason and urging him to do something.
“Mason,” Logan said, coming closer.
“N-no,” Mason urged, shaking his head. “Just stay…stay away from me!” His throat wheezed as he tried to take in air.
“Everything’s gonna be alright, Mason,” Logan said. “Just calm down. We’ll figure something out, okay? I just need you to calm down and breathe slowly.”
Despite his brother’s warnings, Mason still could not catch his breath. His body started to sway as he was in danger of hyperventilating.
“Lo…Logan,” he strained out, reaching back for his brother. His hand blindly found his shoulder. “Knock…me out. Please!” he insisted.
He turned to face Logan, still laboring to breathe, and pointed helplessly to his face. At first, Logan was too stunned to do anything. But soon he was forced into action as he couldn’t take watching the pain that his brother was under.
Shaking his head, he whispered, “I’m sorry,” and sent his fist flying into the side of Mason’s head.
Logan caught his brother before his body fell to the ground. He breathed a sigh of relief as he looked down to see Mason’s eyes closed, and his chest slowly rising and falling in breath.
*
A noise awoke Hunter from his sleep. He sat up in bed and listened for it again. A door closed, followed closely by another one. No one was speaking, but Hunter knew that something was up. It was the middle of the night, yet officers seemed to be coming out of their rooms as though they were under attack. Since he was Lorcan’s nephew, he had been placed in a tower with many high-ranking officials, and if they were getting out of their beds at this time of night, something big had to be happening.
Rushing over to his closet, he quickly got dressed and slipped on a pair of boots. Then, opening his door, he stepped out into the hallway. A Pax officer twice his age hurried past him, ignoring Hunter as he went. Hunter knew better than to ask questions, so he decided that the only thing for him to do would be to head downstairs and try to find his uncle.
He had just reached the bottom of the staircase leading into the main hall when he spotted Lorcan. There were several people around him, and even more hurrying past, rushing out the side doors. The strange thing was, no one was uttering a sound. They were all moving as if participating in a late-night silent drill. Taking a closer look at all the faces, he realized that most of the officers had what he would call “above-ground standing,” meaning that they weren’t from the underground barracks with the lower ranking officials.
When Lorcan spotted Hunter by the stairwell, he started walking over to him. Hunter walked towards him as well, noting that another officer had decided to follow Lorcan like a watchful dog.
“Hunter,” he said, speaking softly as if he didn’t want to wake a sleeping child. Then, clapping him on the shoulder and giving him a smile, he commented, “You look about as stunned as a dead sparrow. Lighten up; it’s just a few e
xercises.”
With that, his uncle and the hovering guard left, leaving Hunter to wonder what in the world was going on. Lorcan had just given him the signal to get out of there now. Whatever all this activity was, it certainly wasn’t a harmless exercise. But what scared him the most was why his uncle wasn’t supposed to tell him. They were all on the same side, so why were the older officers sneaking around and keeping secrets? Hunter tried to push all these thoughts and questions aside, telling himself that he would figure it out later. For now he had to get out of there and to the courtyard.
Moving swiftly across the main hall, yet not too quickly as to draw suspicion, he started towards a side door that led out into the courtyard. However, before he could reach it, the door opened by itself, and a young official he recognized as Emmett came rushing in. His eyes were wide in alarm, and when he spotted Hunter, he started running over to him.
“Emmett, is everything alright?” he whispered.
Emmett shook his head. “He has her.”
“Who has who? What are you talking about?”
The young officer tried to catch his breath before exclaiming, “Fletcher! He’s taken Norabel!”
Hunter’s heart nearly stopped. He could hardly believe what he was hearing. He didn’t know how it was possible that Emmett knew about Norabel, or even how he knew that Hunter knew who she was, but that didn’t matter.
“Where is she?” he demanded.
Emmett shook his head. “I think he took her to his rooms.”
Hunter’s blood boiled, and all thought about his uncle’s warning left his head. He immediately ran to the door that led down into the underground barracks, feeling like an unstoppable wildfire ready to burn flesh from bone.
“Which room is his?” he asked, whipping his head from either ends of the hallways.
“Over here,” Emmett said, rushing ahead of him.
A few of the officers were coming out of their rooms, silently walking up the staircase, and both Hunter and Emmett shoved past them, racing to Fletcher’s rooms. When Emmett stopped in front of a door, pointing to it, Hunter burst inside, ready to fight Fletcher to the death if he had to. However, he was not faced with the confrontation he was expecting, but was instead met with a silent, still room.
Chasing Shadows (Saving Galerance, Book 1) Page 25