I took in a deep breath. Could things get any worse? I looked up and down the street at all the people. No one was looking twice at us. “Maybe we’ll be ok. No one recognizes us. We can book into a hotel.”
Cynder shook his head. “Luca will have every hotel on alert. He knows you are friends with Magi and he knows that the Magi can change their appearance. He’ll have his guards schooled on your mannerisms, the way you walk, your voice. I can’t change any of that. The second we book into any hotel in the city, he’ll have a swarm of guards descending on us.”
“What else can we do? Where are we supposed to...”
A thought occurred to me. It was brilliant. There was one place that Luca would never think to look for us
“What?” asked Cynder, catching my excitement.
“We can go back to the palace,” I said turning and heading in that direction.
He looked confused as he caught up with me. “What palace?”
“My palace,” I replied.
I quickened my pace, desperate to be back home for the first time in forever. Cynder almost had to run to keep up with me as I weaved between the throngs of people lining up to buy a loaf of bread or a bottle of milk.
“Your palace burnt down, remember? You saw it yourself on the TV. There was barely any of it left.”
I stopped and turned to him, a grin on my face.
“Exactly. Which is why Luca won’t think to look there. Why would I go back to a palace that is no more than a pile of ashes?”
“He has a point!” replied Cynder.
I purposely didn’t let on what I was planning for fear I might be wrong, but as we got to the palace, I could see that I was right.
The gates at the back were boarded up, but at least, there was no one guarding them. I already knew there was nothing left to guard. With Cynder helping me, I managed to hoist myself up and vault over the gate. Cynder followed.
“There’s nothing left,” he said taking in the mess that used to be the royal palace.
“The palace is no longer standing,” I began, heading towards the little that was left. A couple of rooms on the ground floor remained although neither of them had a ceiling. The beautiful mosaic floors were now wet with rain and blackened by ash. “But underneath...”
“The basement!” exclaimed Cynder finally realizing what I came here for. “It was a bomb shelter!”
“Well remembered! It should still be intact.”
We had to burrow under bits of broken wall and pieces of palace that could have been anything originally but now were blackened beyond recognition. Eventually, we came to the steps leading downward and a door. The keypad to enter the code was still there. I typed in the code 2103, my elder sister’s birthday. Nothing happened.
“The code has been changed.”
“I’m not sure it has,” replied Cynder. “The keypad has no electricity running to it. Look.” I looked to where he was pointing. The little red light that usually appeared on the keypad was out.
“The basement has its own generator in case of emergencies. It should be working.” I tried the number again out of sheer stubbornness.
“Let me try.” Cynder brought out his wand and pointed it at the keypad. He mumbled something, and the keypad came to life. Seconds later, there was a click, and the door opened. Stepping over some debris, I headed through. Everything looked exactly as it was the last time I’d seen it. The shelves upon shelves of royal heirlooms were still there if a little dusty. I noticed many of them were missing, no doubt taken in Luca’s purge of the palace finery before he blew it up.
I squealed as I ran through the huge warehouse-like room. Not everything had been destroyed after all. I didn’t care about the expensive jewelry or works of art. What I cared about were the photographs that had been stored down here. Pictures of Grace. Pictures of Elise and I as children.
Even better were the beds, the small kitchen, and the food that we’d stored in the event of an emergency.
“We can stay down here for weeks!”
Cynder picked me up and twirled me around before pulling out his wand and pointing it at my face. I felt the familiar warming of my face.
“What do I look like now?” I asked, bringing my hand up to my face.
“You look like you again,” he replied and kissed me. My heart rate increased as he ran his hands through my hair. I pulled back and looked into his eyes.
“Can you turn yourself back too? I feel like I’m kissing a stranger.”
That wasn’t quite the truth. I’d know the touch of his lips no matter what he looked like, but I missed his brown eyes.
He waved his wand over his face and the Cynder I knew came back to me.
His features were etched on my brain, but seeing them again, his beautiful face gazing right back at me made my heart flutter.
He reached up, cupping my face. There was nothing anymore—no palace basement, no rows of shelves where my heirlooms used to be. There was just Cynder and I.
I felt his breath, hot against my cheek and the flutters turned into something more.
All the chances I’d had to do this with Luca, and I’d come up with excuses not to, this time I didn’t need an excuse. I was all in.
We stayed down in the palace basement for weeks. I hated to admit it, but I loved those weeks away from reality with only Cynder for company. It was almost as though I could forget the dire situation we were in. I told myself it was fine because we were accomplishing something down there. We were still writing articles for the Charm Chronicle, and once a week, we’d head out of the palace to meet Manny to film our short segments for the news. Without Copper to help us and with the increased guard in the city, it became more and more dangerous, and yet, we persisted fueled by the hundreds of purple leaflets pinned up all over the capital. Whoever was smuggling them into the city was doing a fantastic job. They were everywhere.
Things were changing in Silverwood, and there was nothing Luca could do about it. The Charm Chronicle was going strong, and now the mainstream newspapers were beginning to pick up on it. Oh, they still covered their front pages with Luca and Drusilla, but inside, questions were beginning to be asked. There were sightings of “Charm” all over the city (none of which were actually me), and polls as to whether I was actually alive or not kept up the people’s interest. Even more exciting, there were reports of the people beginning to protest against Luca.
I’d always hated protests. The anti-Magi had done enough of them in their time, and they usually ended up in violence. Now, however, the people were coming together for a better cause. They were fighting for their kingdom against their own soon-to-be king. It was a glorious thing to witness. I only wished I could go out and join them, but Cynder pointed out that I was the one rallying them together. They just didn’t know it. We’d carried on with our aliases of Jess and Mitch, and according to the papers, we were becoming stars in our own right. Speculation abounded as to who we really were. Most people thought we must be Thalians because how else would we be able to broadcast if not from outside Silverwood’s borders. I suspected Luca knew the truth though. Cynder had told me that the magic masks were easy to see through if you knew the person well and Luca knew me better than almost anyone. It gave me great satisfaction to believe that Luca was seeing me tearing him down on television, and there was nothing he could do about it.
All in all, everything was going to plan. The whole of Silverwood was littered with purple newsletters, our weekly TV segments were still going out, and Luca’s popularity was fading fast as people began to question his motives.
Nothing could bring me down, not even the note from Copper to tell me that “Jess” and “Mitch” now had a death sentence on their heads and Luca was offering a ten thousand dollar reward for our capture.
In fact, I couldn’t be happier. That was until I received a message from Seraphia.
Elise really sick. In hospital. Come immediately! She might not make it.
Deception
B
efore rousing Cynder from sleep, I dashed a quick note back to Seraphia, Which hospital?
Cynder read the message and jumped out of bed. Pulling on a pair of my father’s old trousers (the only men’s clothes we had access to down in the basement), he started to make plans aloud.
“We need a new disguise...we need to think of a way to get out of the capital...where is she again?” He hopped around, trying to get into my father’s trousers while I kept my eyes fixed on the talk stone Seraphia had given me. Eventually, a reply began to form.
One km north of hiding place
“Elise is in a hospital a kilometer north of the holiday cottages. We need to go now. It’s a long journey.”
I tried to keep the panic out of my voice, but it wasn’t easy. I couldn’t lose another sister. I wanted to ask more about Elise’s condition, but to do that would take time and I didn’t want to waste any more.
“Are you ready yet?” I asked impatiently.
Cynder picked up on the fear in my voice. “She’ll be fine. We need to calm down. Going out there without a plan is madness. The whole of the city is surrounded by Luca’s men. The roadblocks are all manned and more have been put in place.”
“I don’t want to calm down,” I yelled. “My sister is sick. She might die!” I hurried along to the exit and opened the door. A bitterly cold gust of wind hit me along with big fat drops of freezing rain.
“At least, take this,” said Cynder, handing me a coat.
Inside the basement, we kept our own faces, only changing them into Jess and Mitch when we were to be filmed by Manny. Today, however, Cynder changed us into other people entirely. He darkened his skin and gave me freckles. His curly dark hair straightened and grew even longer than it usually was, covering his ears and reaching his shoulders. My hair also grew longer and turned fiery red.
I only noticed this as we passed a shop window later and I saw my own reflection.
“Why did you make me a redhead?” I asked as we hurried through the city. “It’s too eye-catching and memorable. You’ve made me too pretty too.”
Cynder hurried to keep up. “You’re naturally a blonde, Jess is dark haired. I figured no one would be looking for a redhead.”
I wasn’t too sure, but it was too late to do anything about it now.
“What has Mr. Copper planned?” Cynder asked as the border came into view. I’d messaged him before we’d set off to ask him for help.
“He said he’d cause a diversion for us in the north of town,” I sighed. I doubted Luca’s men would leave their post to go to an emergency elsewhere, but getting through the border was our only hope. I needed to get to Elise. Needed to! The thought of losing her was too much to bear. In our childhood, I’d only had Grace and Elise as friends. We were so isolated in the palace, home schooled by the best tutors in the land, not allowed to play with other children. My big sister was already gone, poisoned by a man desperate for glory. I know that Elise’s illness had nothing to do with Luca, but if she died because the hospital wasn’t good enough, or she didn’t have the best medical attention, I would personally hunt Luca down and murder him myself.
Whatever Copper had done, he’d done it well. Contrary to my expectations, the border was now empty. The roadblock was still in place, but there was no one there to guard it.
Our plan was to find a horse in a farmer’s field on the outskirts of town, but the moronic guards had left one behind in their rush to get to whatever emergency Copper had cooked up. It was tied up near the roadblock itself.
After untying the horse and jumping on, Cynder held his hand out to me. I pulled myself up behind him, and then we were off. Away from the city, away from Luca, and away from the threat of being captured by Luca’s men. Ok, there were Luca’s men all over Silverwood right now, but in smaller concentrations. If we kept off the beaten track and were careful, we should be able to get right through Silverwood without being caught.
Through endless fields we galloped, the rain in our hair. The weather had taken a turn for the worse, drenching us. By the time we reached a small town in the right area, my newly red hair was plastered to my face.
Finding the hospital was easy. It was the biggest building in the area.
A huge brick building with square windows and not much character, the hospital was still bustling with people. The reception was full of people waiting patiently and not so patiently to be seen by a doctor. I ran past the people in the waiting area, straight to the reception.
“I’m looking for...”
“A young girl who is pregnant,” cut in Cynder. I raised my eyebrow.
“Can you be more specific?” The bespectacled receptionist peered at me in annoyance.
“Has a pregnant woman aged eighteen come in with acute sickness today?” asked Cynder.
The receptionist opened her mouth to speak, but before she could get any words out, Cynder grabbed my arm and pulled me quickly back through the reception.
“What are you doing?” I asked as we stepped back out into the rain.
“Get on the horse,” he demanded.
I looked at him in confusion. “What?”
He picked me up and practically threw me on the horse. Once I was up, he jumped on in front of me and took off at such a speed. I had to hold onto him to keep from falling off.
“Look behind you,” shouted Cynder, his voice almost disappearing in the wind.
I turned to see a couple of Luca’s men following us.
After ten minutes of chasing us, they sprinted off to one side. Another ten minutes later and Cynder finally slowed down.
He jumped off and led the horse to a tree to give us shelter from the rain.
“How did they find us?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder in case they reappeared again.
“They aren’t coming back. We’ve already given them what they want.”
I jumped down from the horse and went over to him. It was already beginning to get dark, and I was desperate to get back to the hospital.
“It’s going to be difficult to get in to see Elise if they are casing the place. How do you think they found us?”
Cynder groaned and held his hand up to massage his temple. I got the feeling I wasn’t going to like what he had to say.
“Elise isn’t at the hospital. She never was at the hospital. She probably doesn’t know that this hospital exists.”
I shook my head, unable to understand what he was telling me. “Of course she is. Why would Seraphia lie to us?”
“She didn’t lie to us. She’s been found out. Luca must have got to her, and if he found her, it means he found the printing press. It also means he found the talk stone. A quick note to you about the one thing you’d leave the capital for, playing on your heart strings, and he had us both where he wants us. I should have realized it was too easy to get out of the capital.”
I was completely lost. “What do you mean?”
Luca knows you are still in town because he’ll have had no reports of you leaving when you escaped from his house. He wants you, but he also wants me and the rest of the Magi. I don’t know how he found out about Seraphia, but as you saw before, those papering the capital with the Charm Chronicle have hardly been discrete. It probably didn’t take much to find out where it was coming from. Once Seraphia was captured along with all the others at her parent’s house in Thalia, a note was sent to you to flush you out.”
“But they still don’t have me,” I replied, still baffled. “Those two men following us went in a completely different direction.”
Cynder sighed. “They will get you. They are too busy capturing everyone at the holiday village first including...”
“Including Elise,” I finished for him. I closed my eyes. We’d led Luca right to everyone. I thought back to the message I’d gotten that morning. It had said a hospital a kilometer north of the hiding place. This was the closest hospital to the holiday villages. It wasn’t quite two kilometers, but it was close enough. Cynder was right. It was too easy to g
et out of town. The horse left there for anyone to take should have been enough to alert us, but I was so desperate to get to Elise that I didn’t stop to think about it. We must have been followed all the way down here. The two people following us would have messaged Luca. Within hours, the place would be crawling with guards. The others would be found before dawn.
“We need to warn them!” I said.
“We can’t. If they’ve not found them already, they will soon. Luca wants you the most, but he’s gambled that he’ll still get you if he gets the others first. If you’ve proved you’d cross the kingdom for your sister once, he knows you’ll do it again. Even if we do get there before Luca’s men, how are we going to get all those people out without being seen? Roadblocks will be being put up all around here as we speak. They’ll all be kept alive. Luca will be counting on you to go rescue them. We really only have one option right now.”
I asked the question even though I already knew the answer. “And that is?”
“We need to get out of here before it’s too late.”
I looked at Cynder, completely soaked with the rain. He was right. The only problem was where could we go?
The Farmer
We rode the horse for hours through the night, not going anywhere in particular, just getting as far away from the holiday cottages as possible.
Hours later, we stopped to rest on the edge of a village. An old barn filled with hay became our bed for the night not that I could sleep.
“I’m to blame for all of this,” I said to Cynder for the third time as he conjured up a small fire in the straw. The magic fire burned merrily without setting the rest of the straw or wooden barn on fire.
“You are exhausted. Come here and sit by the fire. I’ll find us something to eat.”
Cynder beckoned me over to the fire beside him. I shook my head, too anxious to sit still.
He stood up and hugged me briefly before leaving the barn. I paced up and down, leaving a trail in the straw at my feet until he returned five minutes later with some apples.
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