Dark Remnants (The Last Library Book 2)

by Jill Cooper

  I leaned over into her face. “He can, and he will unless you give me the answers I need. Talk, Ella, and you better talk fast.”

  Her eyes ticked back and forth between us, her brow furrowing with resignation. “Temptress needs the young to power herself. Think of the life force as food. Slowly, the ravengers drain them away until…” Ella stared down at the ground, and I watched as she shivered, “…until the children become one of them and Temptress is restored. That’s the end goal, and it’s how they have grown their numbers so quickly for the Temptress.”

  Slowly, I lowered myself down into a squat in front of her, feeling as if the wind had been knocked out of me. “That’s why Temptress and the ravengers allow the settlements, the scavengers, so there are children.”

  Ella nodded, and she spoke in a mere whisper. “She’s too smart to take all the children at once, she knows she needs to prolong the supply. So, she pays scavengers to lay with their slaves to produce children.”

  I was disgusted with the idea that people would create children, only to sell them off to be destroyed—an unimaginable horror.

  Ella shrugged. “She only attacks the settlements when she has to.”

  “How long can she go without feeding?” I demanded.

  “Long. Years, but it will start to affect her. I’ve seen it firsthand.”

  I sighed and stared up at Sebastian. He knew as well as I that Temptress was once a curator, a champion for good, and now she had been reduced to nothing but an evil shell. My fate would be the same as hers if I lost against Creighton. I couldn’t fathom it. I couldn’t!

  “And you would willingly do this for them?” Sebastian shook his head. “You’re a coward. Death is too good for you.”

  “How did you learn this?” I asked, my brow furrowed.

  Ella’s eyes, for once, were pure—as if she stepped inside of a confessional. “My parents weren’t killed bringing me and my brother through the mountain pass because they were hungry and tired. They were selling us to the ravengers. We had been bred as food for Temptress and raised until she came to collect us.”

  Sell their own children? If I wasn’t so shocked, I might’ve said something, but Ella laughed at her own pain with tears in her eyes. “We were taken by them, and I watched my brother be slowly drained by them. I watched him become one of them. When it was my turn… they couldn’t.”

  “They couldn’t?”

  Ella shook her head. “Couldn’t drain me. I don’t know why. I’m not special, believe me.” She snorted. “They offered me death or this deal. This deal seemed better. Death is too final for me. I don’t believe in final.”

  “You sold your soul to save yourself.” Sebastian’s tone condemned Ella.

  “Like you would’ve done something different?” Ella snorted. “Please.”

  “Enough,” I said strongly and crossed my arms. “You know where the ravengers take the children?”

  Ella nodded. “To Temptress’s fortress beyond the wasteland.”

  Sebastian put his hands on his hips. “It moves. You can’t possibly know where it will show up, day after day.”

  “I know how to track it. That’s how I get the Temptress her next meal. She’s given me a compass that leads to her.”

  “So, give us the compass.” I extended my hand to her.

  “Sorry, it doesn’t leave my sight.” Ella shrugged and fluttered her eyelashes. “You want my help, you have to keep me alive and take me with you.”

  Sebastian sighed, and we glanced at each other. I knew he didn’t trust her, didn’t think taking her with us was a good idea. Unfortunately, it was the only idea. We had to rescue those kids.

  Ella looked to me. “What do you say, Boss?”

  I nod. “And you’ve been inside? You know the area? You can get us in?”

  She went so pale, Ella appeared about to faint. “What you’re asking is suicide. The kids are gone, consider them dead already.”

  “Go with them and get them inside,” Mort said as he stepped forward, his big chest pushed out toward Ella. “You show them the way and return Henry’s sons. If you don’t, I’ll complete your execution order tomorrow morning myself, but if you bring back the children, I’ll plead your case with Henry and the others.”

  I crossed my arms and watched as Ella sunk into her seat, with a look of defeat across her face. “What choice do I have?”

  “A coward like you has few choices,” Sebastian said. “Don’t think we’ll trust you. Don’t think you’ll get away from us. If you try…”

  “I get it,” Ella said with a shake of her head. “You’ll kill me. My life means nothing. I’ve heard it all a million times.”

  “It doesn’t mean nothing.” I stepped forward and placed my hand on the back of her chair. “It’s a chance to do the right thing. A chance to make everything right.” First things first, I had to talk with Henry about what had happened and explain what would follow.

  I hurried from the barn, and Sebastian chased after me. “Don’t try to talk me out of going after the kids, Sebastian. The quest for the next remnant…”

  “Will wait. Of course it will.” His eyebrows netted together tight. “The quest is everything to me, but those children… what will you tell Henry?”

  “The truth. I hope he’ll forgive me for my part in it.”

  Sebastian shook his head. “There is no part. Ella brought the ravengers here, not you.”

  Yet, she had been my enemy since we left the ruins of New York. If Sebastian didn’t see my part in all this, I surely did, and I would beg Henry for forgiveness.

  ****

  The new baby cried in the next room, and I watched Henry pace back and forth, wearing a ridge in the hardwood floor of his living room. “They took our boys? Just ours?”

  I nodded and felt so queasy I couldn’t respond, so Sebastian did it for me. “Tarnish tried to stop the ravengers as the children were taken to safety.”

  “But it wasn’t enough,” I admitted. “I wasn’t fast enough. I’m sorry, Henry, for all of it.”

  “Where is my daughter?” Henry asked the question with such intensity, I glanced away. “Where is Harriet?”

  “She’s staying with Francesca. She doesn’t know about her brothers yet,” Sebastian said.

  Henry’s eyebrows furrowed, and his lips scowled. “Good. It’ll stay that way, do you understand?”

  “Of course.” As I said it, I saw Penny watching us from the hallway off the living room. She hid behind the shadows of the drapes, but it was clear she was curious about what was going on. Maybe she wanted to speak to Sebastian.

  Right now, we had no time.

  “You’re going to get them back.” Henry said it like a statement rather than a question, or maybe it was an order. “My wife’s not out of the woods yet. She’s tired and lost blood, probably too much. With having to nurse the new baby… if she hears about our boys, I fear it’ll be too much. She won’t hear about it from me, do you understand?”

  “We’ll leave now. We’ll find your sons, and we'll do whatever we have to.”

  Henry sighed with his hands in his pockets. “You better.” He escorted us to the door, and as he slammed it in our faces, Sebastian and I exchanged glances.

  “I think his good will to me finally ran out.”

  I sighed. “I’m sorry, Sebastian.”

  He held up his hand. “Not your fault. It’s no one’s fault but the ravengers.” Sebastian lifted two backpacks and handed one to me. “Hopefully, these supplies will get us there and back in one piece, but there’s something we need to think about, Tarnish.”

  “What’s that?”

  “How we’re going to get the children out of the ravengers' stronghold.”

  That was something I had been thinking about, too, and unfortunately for us, I didn’t have the answer yet, but I hoped with time the answer would be revealed just as the truth about Ella had been.

  We walked toward the front gate, where the cleanup effort was still underway. Markus
met us there with two brown and white spotted horses. On one of them, Ella sat with her hands bound in front of her, tethered to the saddle.

  “I heard what happened,” Markus said. “I know what you mean to do. Wish I could talk you out of it, but since I can’t…”

  “Father,” Sebastian whispered with a grimace. “They’re children.”

  “Children, yes. More children are lost every day Creighton and Temptress are in control. You think loss doesn’t sicken me, it does, but the longer we go without Tarnish completing the quest…”

  “Children are as expendable as we are,” Ella said with a sniff.

  I glared over at her. “Markus, keep an eye on Henry and Claire. Make sure this place is protected.”

  Markus squeezed my hand. “Godspeed, Tarnish Rose. Our lives all depend on it.”

  If that wasn’t enough to crush me, I wasn’t sure what else would be. Around us, crowds of men and women gathered to bid us farewell. Mort stepped from the crowd to shake my hand.

  “Be safe, my friend.”

  Grateful for it, I gave him a smile. As I did so, Sebastian stepped off to the side to talk to Markus. In the distance, I saw Penny running toward us.

  “I wish Henry held your sentiments.”

  “Long night for him and worry for his children. He’ll return the sentiment when you get back.” Mort snapped his fingers, and two men started to open the front gate.

  This was goodbye. We were off onto the next leg of our journey. I took a shaking breath and watched Sebastian say goodbye to Penny. They stood close together, but there was little affection between them. Sebastian gripped the hem of her apron, and Penny closed her eyes and placed her hands together in front of her.

  Their goodbye was heartbreaking to watch. It made me wonder about those times Sebastian showed me affection, when he tried to kiss me. If he felt this way about Penny, why did he show signs of being close to me?

  “Don’t worry,” Markus said as he turned to me, “he’ll do what is necessary when the time is right. Penny is… she’s been his childhood friend a long time.”

  “What I see isn’t a goodbye between friends.”

  Markus scoffed at me with a shake of his head. “He knows the place of the historian is at the curator’s side.”

  Was Markus saying what I thought he was saying? I stared at him, my mouth open. “My future husband is also in the Temptress’s tower. I will rescue him. I love him with everything I am.”

  Markus’s face scrunched up in apparent disapproval. “There is a time and place for love, but it isn’t for you. Your destiny is too important, too much rides on you. You’ll be with the historian, and that is final.” Markus walked away like the subject was over, but clearly it wasn’t. My heart was ripe to argue with him.

  “Where does he get off telling you what to do?” Ella asked from her place up on the horse. “You’re the chosen one. Our savior. You’ll do as you please, won’t you?”

  I gazed at her with questions, none of which I voiced. I didn’t need her to know the confusion I felt.

  “I mean, really. He doesn’t sound much different from the ministers you fight, does he?”

  He didn’t, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I had been meant to marry George all my life, I loved him, but it was happenstance, not intended to take place. And now Markus, head of the rebels, who fought against Temptress and Creighton, wanted me to marry because some prophecy said I would?

  Penny stroked Sebastian’s cheek with tears in her eyes. Slowly he left her and returned to me with the same sad expression I had seen on him off and on since we met. I understood it now, and I wanted to tell him how I felt, but now wasn’t the time.

  “Everything all right?” I asked.

  He nodded, clearing his throat. “Fine. Ready to move out when you are.”

  There’d be time to talk about it later. I shared the horse with Ella, my arms gathering the reins as her blonde hair blew and tickled my nose. She turned her head. “We’ll be dead in a matter of days, taking the place of those children as food in the coffers.”

  Sebastian nodded at me as he gathered his own reigns and started the journey out. I didn’t know if Ella spoke the truth, but I knew we were doing the right thing. So long, I had sat back in Rottenwood and watched the death hunters do what they wanted. Now it was time to act.

  Now it was time to take back our own destiny and see to it we ended their reign. Maybe this was just one turn against them, but it was the right one, and it was a beginning. Let it be the start of a rising tide.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The Richardsons

  Evelyn pulled the straps on the back of Dani’s dress tightly. So hard, so tight she pulled that Dani yelped and held on to the door frame to keep from falling over.

  “Almost done.” Evelyn took a threaded needle from her mouth, stabbing it through the fabric and pricking Dani’s skin.

  Dani flinched, and Evelyn pulled it out sharply. “So sorry for the added pain. Working on a dress fitted for a slender, beautiful young lady is a lot different than fitting a pregnant whore like you, isn’t it?”

  Evelyn watched and waited for Dani to nod, but she didn’t. Angrily, Evelyn sucked on both lips, finishing up the button work on the back of the dress. “You have nothing to say for yourself, then? No longer my house servant, so you think you have no reason to answer me?”

  “I’m sorry, miss,” Dani whispered. “It’s as hard for you as it is for me.”

  Evelyn’s eyes widened as she rose up to her feet. “Is it? Is it?! Pregnant with my husband’s child, you’ll marry my son? Have him marooned in a town like Beantown, and you think it’s difficult for you? Hardly!”

  Slapping her thighs with her hands, Evelyn stormed off and retrieved the black veil Abby would wear. Now it was Dani’s. The slave turned, and while the black dress showed off her swollen middle, there was a simple elegance to her face. Evelyn had already pinned Dani’s hair back into two stylish buns at the nape of her neck, braided for a twist.

  Dani’s still slender face glowed the way only a pregnant woman’s did, and Evelyn raged at her beauty and youth. Once she had been beautiful, too, before the frown lines, before the difficult life of keeping the ministers happy.

  Now what did she have to show for it?

  Evelyn placed the veil on Dani’s head and attached it with pins. This time when Dani yelped with a painful pinch, Evelyn didn’t apologize. Instead she smiled triumphantly.

  “A better bride my son deserved, but we all deserved better than this, didn’t we?”

  “Enough,” Mitchell said from the doorway into her tailor room. “This is hard enough without you making it worse, darling.”

  Wide-eyed, she went over and slapped him. “How dare you?! You think to second guess me in my own seamstress shop? My room! My house! While you laid with filth! And now what? We’ll be reduced to basket weavers?”

  She could barely say the vile words. Spit and regret rushed up from her throat. Evelyn wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I’ll never forgive you of this. Never lay with you again, so if you think once Dani’s gone your dirty hands will ever touch this body again…”

  “After everything you’ve said and done,” Mitchell’s eyes narrowed, “do you really think I would dare touch you again?”

  “Pig!” Evelyn shouted, tears springing to her eyes. “Roll in the mud, then. It’s what suits the both of you. Pigs!”

  She stormed up the stairs, rushing and leaping before the sob escaped her. Evelyn pressed her hands against the wall of the hallway closest to her bedroom and sobbed. Leaning her forehead against the hardened wood, she couldn’t keep the pain locked away.

  Oh, it hurt. Everything inside her was breaking. Mitchell had never loved her, maybe Evelyn hadn’t loved him, either, but there had been rules. Decorum. Some things just weren’t done and sleeping with your house servant was one of those things.

  He had no respect for what she had given him. The best years of her life and a son. No
w it was all over.

  “Mother?” Timothy whispered, his hand on her shoulder startled her.

  Evelyn jumped, wiping her face. “What is it, Timmy?”

  His eyes sincere, he begged her, “I don’t want to marry her. I don’t wish to move to Beantown.”

  “I’m sorry.” Evelyn's lip quivered. “This is the way of things. These are the ways of society. You have no choice, same as the rest of us.” She stepped into her bedroom—numb, hollow and flat.

  “But—”

  “Leave me!” She nearly screamed, unable to even look at him and see disappointment in her, in life. Evelyn slammed her door shut and slid down the wall, covering her face in her hands.

  ****

  The sun crested over the minister’s offices, and it came not a moment too soon for Sandra Taylor.

  Her back ached badly through the night. The pain grew so intense, it screamed until it was numb. She could no longer feel her arms, and her fingers tingled. All she could focus on were the crows nipping at the cuts on her face, doing their best to peck out her eyes.

  She squeezed them tight to fend them off, feeling their sharp beaks slipping beneath the fold of her eyelids. Sandra screamed when the pain got too bad, feeling the sharp sting of her flesh being torn off bit by bit.

  Little at a time. Here and there.

  When the birds flew off, when it was finally over, Sandra shivered and cried with relief. She felt an eerie presence but could no longer see. Instead, she felt the bony grip of a hand on her shoulder.

  “Ready for the end, Sandra?” The Dark Lord Creighton laughed, almost like they were friends, minus the mocking tone in his voice.

  Sandra wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of an answer, but she was ready. Oh, how ready she was.

  ****

  Worship went on for three hours and continued past lunch. Evelyn wished it would go on forever so she wouldn’t have to say goodbye to her son. Numbly, she kept kneeling on the ground like she had been for hours beside her husband. Even being beside Mitchell could get no rise out of her.