Charmed

by J. A. Armitage

  “It’s not much, but it’s all I could find this time of night.”

  He handed me an apple. I didn’t think I was hungry, but my stomach growled, giving me away. I took a bite. It tasted all the sweeter from me having not eaten all day.

  “Please stop worrying about Elise and the others. I really don’t think Luca will kill them. Not while you and I are still out here.”

  I closed my eyes, remembering the cellar I’d been thrown in. If Elise spent only one night there, he wouldn’t have to kill her. Her frail body wouldn’t be able to cope with the cold and damp, and she would die without Luca having to lay a finger on her.

  I paced some more before Cynder called me over again. “Come look at this.”

  The warmth hit me as I sat down next to him, and I had to admit it was preferable to shivering while pacing up and down.

  He handed me the talk stone that connected to Jason Copper’s.

  The Queen Mother, Elise, Leo, and Jenny along with twenty Magi have been brought here by Luca.

  The message disappeared to be replaced by more words.

  I’ve put them in the cells on his orders. I can’t let them out, but I’ll make sure they are comfortable.

  Again the message disappeared into the stone. I watched as the end of the message appeared.

  Please keep safe. Don’t come back to the capital. JC

  I pulled a pen from my pocket and wrote quickly on the stone.

  How is Elise? C

  Seconds later I had my answer. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, but it could be much worse.

  Elise sick. Have ordered urgent medical attention for her. JC

  I breathed a sigh of relief and handed the talk stone back to Cynder. He looked at the last message from Copper before pocketing the stone.

  “She’s being looked after,” he said, scooping up some of the straw and making a makeshift bed for the pair of us. It wasn’t the most comfortable bed in the world, but it was better than sleeping outside. I finished the apple and lay down next to him. He stroked my head until finally, my eyelids felt heavy and I fell into a deep sleep.

  The morning brought with it more stress as the farmer who owned the barn caught us as we slept and promptly threw us out. At least he didn’t recognize the pair of us.

  Breakfast was comprised of more apples and some bark from a tree that Cynder assured me was edible. I had to take his word for it as it tasted exactly like the dry bark it was.

  He was silent as we walked down a deserted country road, the reins of the horse in his hands. Yesterday, we’d galloped; today we had nowhere to go.

  “I’ve been thinking,” began Cynder as we walked along a country lane. The weather had settled, leaving the morning feeling fresh and new. The sun shone through a slight haze, drowning everything in a pink light. “I want to head back to the capital.”

  It was what I wanted too. I desperately wanted to see Elise and the others, but we’d both agreed the night before that it was too dangerous.

  “We’ll never get past the roadblocks. You think Luca will let us get through twice? Even if he does, it will be so his men can follow us like they did last time.”

  He continued on walking, pulling the horse by the reins. I waited patiently for his answer. After a while, it came. “I didn’t mean to go through the roadblock. I say we stay on the outside. Close enough to keep an eye on everything going on, but far enough away that no one sees us.”

  I mulled it over. To be honest, it wasn’t like we had a lot of options. Going back to the palace was an impossibility now, and both the holiday homes and Seraphia’s ancestral home had been raided. I thought about Seraphia. Copper hadn’t mentioned her when he’d said that the others were safe. I could think of only two options. Firstly that Tomas had waded in and taken her home to protect her from Luca or secondly, and the most likely, Luca had taken her elsewhere without Tomas knowing. A mental image of her dead somewhere flashed through my mind. I shook my head to get rid of it and tried to concentrate on what Cynder had said.

  “I guess so. Where will we stay though? Another barn?”

  Cynder shook his head. “Actually, I was thinking you could contact Copper. He’s the only person we know who is still on the outside of a cell right now. Maybe he knows someone who lives near the edge of town who will let us stay for a while.”

  “It’s a long shot. There are only farms on the edge of town. We’d be putting them at an awful risk.”

  Cynder stopped walking and turned to me. “Charm, everyone is fighting. This isn’t just about us anymore. You saw the town before we left. People are beginning to stand up to Luca. His lies are being exposed, and people are beginning to take note. I would imagine farmers would be the first people to want to take us in. Apart from the Magi, they are the ones losing out the most. They are prohibited from taking their produce into town. Luca is killing their businesses. It’s worth a shot.”

  He handed the talk stone to me. It was the only one we had left that we could use. I kept the one Seraphia had given to me in my pocket even though it was now useless. Taking a pen out, I wrote another note to Copper. We had to wait almost ten minutes for a reply, but when it came, it was good news.

  Friend will take you in if you can get there tonight. On the northeast edge of the capital. DO NOT attempt to cross into town.

  He followed the message with an address.

  I read the message out to Cynder before handing the talk stone back to him. I jotted the address down on my arm so we wouldn’t forget.

  “He really doesn’t want us to try and get through the roadblocks does he?” pointed out Cynder as he jumped onto the horse’s back. He held out his hand and pulled me up. The journey to the east of town was uneventful although both of us were on edge, waiting for someone to spot us. The one thing that did raise my spirits was the purple posters tacked to everything. The closer we got to the capital, the more of them there were. They really were everywhere. It raised a smile to my lips. Luca wasn’t as popular as he liked to think he was, or at least, his popularity was fading.

  I could see the buildings in town on the horizon. I ached to be back inside. The capital of Silverwood had been my home since the day I was born, and here I was—an outcast.

  Cynder hadn’t the energy to use his magic today. Days of running and using his magic to change our appearance had taken its toll on his magical abilities. Our faces had gone back to being our own, making things even more dangerous for us. The hoods we wore on our cloaks, were our only disguise, and with the weather being as cold as it was, no one would think to look twice. At least, I hoped that was the case.

  I wrapped my cloak tighter around myself, trying to keep out the chill. Eventually, we came to the address that Copper had given us. It was bigger than I had expected. The owners of this particular farm were wealthy. The house itself had huge double height windows and had been kept in good repair. A number of stables and other outhouses were dotted around the property. I was pleased to see that a large hedge sheltered it from the main road. I jumped down and knocked on the front door. A good-looking man opened the door and gave me a warm smile. As soon as he saw me, he gave me a quick bow and ushered me in. He held out his hand to shake Cynder’s as he followed me through the door.

  At six foot three or so, he was a man of great stature and could easily have passed for a male model albeit one who was rough around the edges. A young woman, equally as beautiful and equally as accommodating stepped into the hallway to greet us. Unlike her husband who had only given me a perfunctory bow, his wife dropped into a deep curtsey.

  “I’m Alan, and this is Jeannie,” said the man “We are honored to have you in our home.”

  “You are doing us a great service,” I replied, smiling. I liked them already. Their home was as lovely on the inside as it was on the outside. It looked lived in without being messy. Photos of impossibly beautiful children lined the wall.

  “We have three,” said Jeannie as she caught what I was looking at. “They are
in bed at the moment. They are certainly going to be surprised when they wake up and see our queen here tomorrow. We thought you’d died. I can’t tell you how surprised we were when we got a message from Jason. I had to go straight to the kitchen to start baking. I hope you like cookies. I’ve baked a million of them! In fact, I’ve just got some out of the oven. They’ll still be warm.”

  I laughed at her enthusiasm. Having eaten nothing but apples and tree bark all day, warm cookies sounded like heaven.

  “We’d love some, thank you.”

  We followed her into a large farmhouse kitchen. A huge wooden table laden with cookies and cakes filled the center of the room. The smell was utterly delicious.

  Jeannie poured four glasses of milk as we each picked up a cookie. It tasted as wonderful as it smelled. I was just about to take another when something caught my eye. It was a photograph of Daniel.

  “May I?” I asked, taking the newspaper when Jeannie nodded.

  I nearly choked when I read the headline.

  Former Boyfriend of Queen Charmaine, Daniel Laurient, Sentenced to Death for Murder Plot.

  I read through the article in horror. Daniel had been caught by Luca. He’d been sentenced without a trial for his part in plotting to kill Luca. I felt even sicker when I read who else had been sentenced. There was a list of thirteen more names, most of which I recognized as Magi. Dean’s name was among them. Even though it wasn’t printed, I knew without doubt Seraphia was with them too.

  They must have all been at her house. This was their punishment for publishing the Charm Chronicle. This was all my fault. They were going to die because of me.

  I dropped the paper to the floor. I heard a scream as my legs gave way beneath me and everything went black.

  Back to Thalia

  Three concerned faces gazed down at me as I came around. Jeannie was waving the paper up and down as a fan to try to cool me.

  I stood up quickly.

  “I think you should sit down,” Alan said, grabbing a chair for me.

  I propped myself up on the edge of the table. I didn’t want to pass out again. “I’m sorry. I appreciate your help, but we can’t stay here tonight.”

  Cynder gave me a curious look while Jeannie looked stricken.

  “Is it something we’ve done?”

  “No,” I assured her. I have something I need to do.

  Cynder shook his head, guessing what I was going to say. “Charm, what can we do? The article doesn’t say where they are being held. We can’t go back into the capital. Mr. Copper has warned us against it twice now. If we try, we’ll only end up with our own death sentence.”

  “You know exactly where they are being held,” I replied, thinking of the damp basement of Luca’s house, “but that’s not where I want to go.”

  “Where then?” he asked, looking perplexed.

  “I want to go to Thalia. I need to see the king and queen. It’s about time they knew the truth about their son.”

  Cynder closed his eyes. I could see he was trying to think of a way to talk me out of it. To my surprise, he didn’t. “Yes. We should go.”

  It was not what I was expecting him to say at all. “We should?”

  “I know we are hardly the king and queen’s favorite people at the moment, but we have a history with them, you as their daughter-in-law and me as a member of staff. Even more importantly, they’ll be worried about Seraphia. We have to speak to them. The date for the execution has been set for the day after the royal wedding. It’s a weird kind of honeymoon, but there you go. I’m not going tonight though. We’ve barely eaten in days, and we are both exhausted. Please let’s stay here tonight and get some rest. We can make a real plan rather than setting off in the middle of the night. Crossing the border into Thalia isn’t going to be easy.”

  I saw Jeannie nodding her head enthusiastically beside him.

  “Actually, I can help you there,” said Alan. “I go to a market across the border every Saturday. Luca has started letting the farmers cross the borders again since the Charm Chronicle appeared. It’s his way of making up for not letting us sell things in town. I think he’s trying to win back some approval.”

  I nodded. One more night wouldn’t make much of a difference. The execution was still a number of weeks away.

  Jeannie made us a magnificent meal which we followed with even more cookies and warm milk. I’d not eaten a decent meal in weeks, and Jeannie was an exceptional cook.

  After dinner, we were shown to a lovely room with a view of the city in the distance. The bright lights twinkled, reminding me that all the people I loved were now within the capital’s limits. If only I could go and see them. They were so close and yet so far.

  I took a long, hot bath, another luxury I’d been deprived of in the previous weeks and wrapped a white cotton robe that Jeannie had lent me around myself.

  I watched the lights imagining how my family and friends were getting on half in the main police station cells and the other half hidden below Luca’s huge house.

  A pair of warm arms enveloped me from behind. “They are going to be ok.”

  “Hmm?” I didn’t share his optimism.

  “We’ll get them out. I know it. We’ll get them all out.”

  I turned and looked into his beautiful brown eyes. I’d seen him look out of so many different colored eyes in the past few weeks thanks to magic, but his real eyes were my favorite. They held more truth than the ones he conjured up to mask himself. I could see forever in them.

  I twirled a lock of his curly hair around my finger before letting it fall. He responded by picking me up and taking me to the bed.

  Exhaustion overcame me. In all my life I didn’t think I’d ever felt so utterly tired and yet when he kissed me, I fought the urgency of sleep and kissed him back.

  His lips were warm, soothing my weary soul. I felt my body responding to his touch, waking up, coming alive. He kissed down my neck, sending rivers of pleasure through me and producing goosebumps down my arm. If only this moment could last forever—this moment of perfection in a world of madness.

  I murmured lightly, enjoying the feelings Cynder brought to me. Everything always felt new when I was with him.

  “I love you, my Lucky Charm,” he said, pulling himself back up to face me. He stroked my face. His eyes glistened as he looked at me. Whatever he was thinking eluded me, but whatever it was, it was filled with emotion. I’d never seen him quite like this. It made me feel protective as though I held his heart in my hands the way he held mine.

  “I love you too,” I replied giving him a small smile. It could have been weird or awkward, us proclaiming our love for one another in a warm bed in the safety of a beautiful house, but it only felt right.

  “Charm, when this is all over...will you marry me?”

  My heart jumped as I took in his words. I’d been engaged twice before, but this was the first time I’d been proposed to. I couldn’t speak with the emotion I felt. Getting the words out was impossible, but he understood completely when I nodded. He took me in his arms and held me tightly, both of us giving into tears. When he placed his head on the pillow beside me, I nodded my answer—Yes! I knew that I’d never have a night without him ever again.

  The next morning, Jeannie must have wondered how my mood had changed so completely overnight, but she didn’t ask questions as she served us a huge cooked breakfast.

  Three perfectly gorgeous children sat staring at me as I ate. Cynder pulled faces at them to amuse them. Every so often one of them would break into fits of giggles.

  “They are awfully good,” I remarked to Jeannie as she took her place at the table.

  “They’ve been forbidden to ask you any questions about being a queen,” she replied. “Haven’t you?”

  Three cute blond heads nodded in unison.

  “Nearly ready!” cried Alan, coming through the door and kissing his wife, then his three children’s heads, before grabbing a piece of bacon from the youngest’s plate.

 
; Cynder and I gobbled down our breakfasts, keen to be off. I hugged Jeannie and promised to visit again, hopefully, in better times.

  Outside the front of the house was a wagon filled with produce. I hopped up to the front, followed by Cynder and Alan who took the reins of the three horses. Three because we needed to take ours to get from the market to the palace. Jeannie and the three children waved us off as we headed out into the country lane. It wouldn’t take much time to get to the border, but it was quite a journey on the other side. I’d done it a couple of times before and wasn’t particularly looking forward to it.

  About a mile away from the border, Alan stopped the wagon. He’d piled boxes of fruit, vegetables, and meat (all grown on his farm) in boxes, leaving a small space for Cynder and me to crawl under. It was a tight squeeze, especially when he lifted another box on top to cover us, but it was the only way we’d get past the border guards undetected.

  I felt each bump in the road as we meandered up the dirt track to the border. My bones physically ached, and my fingers and toes were beginning to go numb in the cramped space. It seemed to take an age to get to the border, but really it was no more than fifteen minutes. I heard the sharp voice of the border guard demanding to see a permit to cross.

  “I cross here every Saturday,” stated Alan.

  “You know the rules,” replied the border agent gruffly.

  I crossed my fingers and prayed that Alan had remembered whatever permit was needed these days to cross. I couldn’t stay cramped up in the tiny space much longer.

  He must have shown the permit because the wheels began to turn on the wagon once again. Ten minutes later, Alan lifted the box from above us enabling us to stretch out.

  “I think my feet are going to drop off,” I exclaimed as I jumped down from the wagon.

  Alan grinned at me as I hopped about, trying to get the blood flowing to my legs again. “This is where we part ways. I wish you both the best of luck, and if you ever need somewhere to stay again, you know where we are.”