by Sarra Cannon
Throughout the day, more demons came in and out, sometimes in groups and sometimes alone. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the times of day they chose. Everyone seemed to come and go as they pleased.
The first day, there was no sign of Jackson or Lea.
Day two was much more informative. Jackson, Andros, Lea, and Jericho all walked into the corridor together relatively early in the morning and didn't emerge until well after dinner time. What did they do in there all day?
On day four, I was tired of waiting and ready to make my move. Luckily, no one had noticed me on the balcony. I did, however, have several nice drawings of the marketplace that had kept me from being too bored while I was staking the place out.
I left my notebook behind the fourth morning. I waited until the area near the door was completely abandoned, then I made myself invisible and hid off to the side next to the blacksmith's tent. Within half an hour or so, an elderly demon came up to the door alone. Quiet as a whisper, I fell in behind him and stepped inside undetected.
When I stepped into the corridor, the tiny hairs on the back of my neck perked up. Instantly, I knew something was different here. I could feel it in my bones. The hall was wider in general, and I think the ceilings were a little higher here as well. But more than just the way it looked, it was all about the way it felt. There was the feel of magic in the air.
I followed the old man until the hallway came to a cross with long corridors stretching out in front and behind and on both sides. The man turned left and disappeared behind a door about ten feet from where I stood watching. There was no other soul to be seen down any of the passageways.
Following some unknown instinct, I walked straight ahead. Instead of lamps, the hallway here was lit by glowing stones embedded into the rock walls. There was something almost holy about the quietness of the place.
I didn't pass a single doorway that I could see, but up ahead, at the very end of the hallway, a door appeared.
My heartbeat sped up as I approached. This door was different from any of the others. First of all, it was a very tall, very wide door made of pure green stone like an emerald.
I paused when I reached the end, looking behind me to make sure no one had followed me down the corridor
I was completely alone.
I hesitated as I stared up at the huge door. Was this the council's meeting chamber? If I tried to open the door would an alarm go off?
I knew it was risky, but hadn't I risked everything already? What if the spellbook I'd been searching for all this time was just on the other side of this door?
I had to know.
I placed my hand on the cool marble and pushed.
Not All of Us Have Time
Nothing happened.
The door wouldn't budge. I looked for some kind of handle so I could try to pull it open instead, but the surface was flat. There was nothing to grab onto that I could see. Disappointed, I stepped back and studied the entire area around the door.
That's when I heard them.
Voices on the other side. Getting closer by the second. My breath caught in my throat and I looked around frantically for a place to hide.
The door began to swing open very slowly, and I ducked behind it, hiding in the shadowy space between the door and the wall.
"This is an interesting proposition," a man's voice said. "But it's also extremely dangerous."
"But you have thousands of followers here. Enough that you could build an army."
I gasped, then quickly covered my mouth with my hand. Jackson. I'd know his voice anywhere. No wonder I'd been drawn to this hallway. I should have recognized that it was his closeness I was feeling. I pressed even closer to the wall, hoping I was well-hidden.
"We've been through this. Even with thousands of us fighting together, how could we hope to defeat an organization as powerful as the Order? They have more than twice our numbers," the other man said. I couldn't be sure, but it sounded like Andros.
The group leaving the room was far enough away now that I could see their backs as they walked down the hall. Jackson, Andros, Lea, and another man I didn't recognize.
"We're forgetting our power here," Lea said. "If we train and apply ourselves, I know we could come up with a plan that would succeed. Besides, we do have some human witches on the other side who would fight with us."
"If the Order doesn't kill them all first," Andros said, bitterness dripping from his lips. "I think it's better for us to wait. See what happens to the Order over the next fifty years. Watch them closely and see if we can find a weak spot. Remember, we have something they don't have."
"What's that?" Jackson asked.
"Time," Andros said.
"Not all of us have time," Jackson protested. "My brother, for example. What will happen to him when he's bound with a different family line? One who isn't as opposed to slavery as Harper?"
"Your human girl? This Prima?" the stranger said.
My mouth went dry at his mention of me.
"You're sure her loyalties are with you? It's not possible she's a spy for the Order? If bringing her here has compromised our secrecy, we could be in danger as we stand here talking."
At that, I nearly came out from the shadows to give this unknown man a piece of my mind. I had nearly died for this cause. How could anyone think I could be a spy for the Order? But I held back, figuring that jumping out of the shadows wouldn't exactly make me look more trustworthy.
Luckily, I had Jackson there to stand up for me. "There's no chance that Harper would ever betray us," he said. "I've told you this before over and over. She wants to see the Order ended every bit as much as we all do. She may have a mind of her own when it comes to following the rules sometimes, but you can trust her, I give you my word on this."
I relaxed slightly. It felt good to hear him defending me still.
The voices faded as the group walked further away. I nearly screeched as the marble door began to close. Any second, I would lose my chance at getting into that room. But how could I be sure I would ever be able to get out? What if I got stuck inside for days?
Panic shot through my stomach. I didn't want to lose this chance at getting inside. Without really thinking it through, I quickly slipped around the open door and into the darkness of the room beyond it.
Seconds later, the heavy doors closed, leaving me completely alone in the black.
To Translate Words
I couldn't see anything, but I knew I had found the room. I could feel it in my bones.
Trembling, gratitude washed over me. After all this time, I was finally here in a room filled with priceless information about the Order.
First things first. I needed light. Blindly, I felt along the sides of the door, looking for a crystal or something that might give off light.
No luck.
It could take me all day to find a light in this place. I definitely didn't have the time or the patience for that. I created a small orb of dim light and held it up, stepping forward.
Rows and rows of intricately carved bookcases lined the room. Ancient tomes filled the shelved from end to end, top to bottom. I swallowed, feeling my heart rising. There were more books here than I ever dreamed there would be. I'd been expecting a row or two, but this? This was over a thousand books.
Were they all captured from hunters?
I made my way slowly through the stacks, looking for any kind of organizational system that might help me figure out which books held the spells. Instead, what I quickly came to realize was that many of these books were written in a language completely foreign to me. Apparently Joost's magic potion did nothing to translate words on a page the way they did the demon language.
In the center of the room there was a large black circular table that reminded me of stories I'd read of King Arthur and the round table. Was this where the Underground's council met? It was completely clean of papers or notes except for a single book sitting on one of the chairs. I picked it up and ran my hand along the
binding.
I couldn't make out what it said, but the words were written symbols like hieroglyphics. I laid it on the table and flipped it open, letting my orb hover over the book. Inside was more of the same, only symbols, all handwritten very neatly in a dozen rows. I flipped it closed and sat down. How was I going to ever find the hunters' spellbooks in all of this mess?
Randomly, I walked around the room, pulling books from the shelf and peeking inside to see if it was written in a language I could understand. After more than a dozen tries, I finally gave up. It would take me forever to go through all of these books.
The library was floor to ceiling books in a room that was bigger than Shadowford's entire downstairs. I couldn't even begin to estimate how many were here in all.
I wanted to lay my head down on the table and just give up. After all the weeks of training and studying and planning, I was drained. Totally burned out.
I wasn't sure I had the energy to go through every row in this room, book by book. This room held answers, I could feel it. I just wasn't sure how in the world I was supposed to find them on my own.
Deep in thought, I almost didn't realize the door to the library had begun to open. Had they come back?
My pulse hammered in my veins. I had to hide.
I scrambled to my feet and ducked behind the next to last bookcase. The orb disappeared, but I had no idea if I'd gotten rid of it fast enough. Even the tiniest light would make an impact in this stark darkness.
My heart rose into my throat. I held my breath. If I was caught now, none of the demons here would ever trust me again. Why had I risked this?
Footsteps sounded against the marble floors. I jumped as the entire library lit up in a blaze of lights. I squinted up toward the ceiling, raising my arm to shield my eyes from the sudden brightness of it. Up in the air above the top of the bookcases, more than a hundred lit candles floated. Well, no wonder I hadn't been able to find the light.
I pressed my back deeper against the bookcase, wishing I could just disappear into the books.
I listened. From the sound of the footsteps, only one person had entered the room. Slowly, they seemed to be making their way through the center row of stacks. I estimated that I had about sixty seconds before they reached the end of my bookcase, where I would be very easy to see.
I summoned my power and quickly disappeared into nothingness, standing completely still.
That's when the person in the room spoke, freezing me to the spot.
I Have My Reasons
"Harper? Are you really going to make me search this whole place?"
My shoulders slumped and I let my head fall back, heavy with both regret and relief. Jackson. How had he known I was here?
He was probably going to kill me.
Reluctantly, I dropped my glamour and stepped into the middle aisle. Jackson stood about fifty feet away, a frown on his face.
"What were you thinking?" he asked. "I don't even know how you managed to get in here, but this is completely insane. How could you do something this risky?"
The anger in his voice made my stomach twist.
"I'm sorry," I said, unable to come up with something better to defend myself.
"You're sorry? You don't even know the first thing about being sorry," he said, his face red with rage. "Do you have any idea what would happen if someone else had found you in here?"
I hung my head. I didn't know what he wanted me to say. That I knew they would call me a traitor? A spy? Probably kick me out of this place.
Or worse.
"I felt your presence in the hallway earlier. Believe me, I rushed back here as soon as I could get away," he said. "The demons here don't know you like I know you. They wouldn't be so forgiving."
I crossed my arms over my chest. "And how do you think they are going to get to know me when all I do is sit in a room all by myself all day?"
Jackson shook his head in frustration and turned away. "That's not true," he said. "I've seen you in the marketplace plenty of times."
"Yeah, with all my new friends," I said, my tone biting. "Do you have any idea how lonely it is for me here? Or do you even care?"
"I didn't bring you here to make friends," he said. "I brought you here to save your life. Did you know that right now there's a hunter stalking the entrance where we came in? She's there, just waiting for you."
I felt like I'd had the breath knocked out of me. "One of the Order's hunters? How did she know where to find me?"
Jackson ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know," he said. "She had to have tracked you somehow, which doesn't make sense to me when you've barely even been casting any magic down here at all."
I froze, my body tense. "Magic?" I shook my head. "I thought you said this place was shielded from the surface. That they couldn't track me all the way down here."
"Normally that's true," he said. "But that's never really been tested with a witch's magic. I mean, we're usually thinking more about demon-only magic. It doesn't matter though, you haven't been casting that much, have you?"
I didn't know what to say. I hated to lie to him, but to tell him the truth would be admitting that I'd been watching the soldiers.
"Harper?" He took a step toward me. "Have you?"
I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath. This was going to be painful.
"Oh my god," he said. He walked around in a circle, his hands balling into fists. "You've been casting? A lot? Tell me now."
"First of all, let me say that I had no idea I could be tracked," I said in my defense. "You never told me that was even a possibility."
"Tell me," he demanded.
"Okay, yes, I've been casting," I said. "A lot."
I explained about the practicing in my room.
Jackson paced the room in front of me. "Still," he said. "I wouldn't think that would be enough. I mean, I would have thought it would take something more to get through the barrier. Something stronger, like all-out use of your power."
I fidgeted. "There's something else," I said. "And I know you're going to be angry, but you have to understand, I couldn't just sit down here and do nothing. I wanted to learn to be more powerful."
"What did you do?"
I knew I had to say it quickly, like ripping off a bandaid.
"I used my invisibility to follow the soldiers into the training rooms," I confessed. "I went every day for several weeks, sometimes staying overnight after they left to practice."
The shock on Jackson's face was complete and terrifying. He took a step backward, then collapsed into one of the chairs around the table. "How could I have missed this?" he asked himself. "I should have been paying more attention. I never thought... how did you even pull that off?"
When he looked up at me, I saw a mixture of anger and wonder.
He genuinely hadn't thought I was capable of something like this on my own. Didn't he know me at all?
"You don't think I'm strong enough to make any real difference, do you?" I asked, so angry with him for always believing I was weak. "Did you really expect me to just sit around down here like a little puppy dog? I don't want to be down here forever, no matter what you might think. I plan to go back and fight someday."
Jackson stood, taking several quick steps in my direction. "Why are you always so bullheaded and stubborn? Why can't you just be patient for once? You have no idea what the Order is capable of."
The anger in his tone felt like a slap across the face. I had no idea? How could he even say that after all I'd seen and been through? I pushed back the sting of tears. "You want to know why I can't be patient?" I asked. "What about the fact that I've got an entire army of witches looking for me? Witches who, by the way, want to kill me. Or what about the fact that every day we sit here on our asses, more and more demons are forced into an eternity of slavery?"
"You think I don't know all that?" he said. "But what do you want me to do about it Harper? I have been trying to find a way to fight back for a hundred years. You think we can just cha
nge the world in two weeks? It doesn't work like that."
"No?" I said, lifting my chin. "Well how does it work?"
Jackson didn't answer. He stared at me, his chest moving up and down with each heavy breath.
"You don't have a clue how it works," I said. I was in his face now, part of me wanting to punch him and part of me wanting to kiss him. "Just how far have you really gotten in one hundred years? Have you fought anyone? Defeated anyone? Changed one single thing?"
I saw the hurt in his face. His upper lip twitched slightly and the muscles in his cheeks pulsed as he ground his teeth together. I know I was pulling some low blows, but wasn't I right? How long were we all going to sit back doing nothing?
"What do you propose we do then, oh mighty sixteen-year-old Harper?"
"I'm seventeen now," I mumbled. I didn't have some brilliant plan to offer either, I just wanted us to start looking for better answers.
"Oh excuse me, seventeen," he said, clapping his hands together. "I'm sure that extra year has provided you with the wisdom of the ages, right? So what's your big plan to save my brother and the entire shadow demon race? Do you think we should just all go over there and just start fighting?"
"At least that would be something," I said.
"It would be mass carnage," he said. "For both sides probably. Is that really what you want?"
"No," I said, my voice softening. He couldn't really think that was what I wanted. "Of course not. But I want to do something. I'm so sick and tired of always being kept in the dark with you. Why can't you just talk to me? It's like you don't believe I'm strong enough to hear the truth. You don't think I'll have anything to contribute to the conversation. You don't think I can help. You just take it all on your own shoulders, thinking you can protect everyone, but you know what? That's bullshit."
"That's not the way I feel at all," he said, sadness darkening his eyes.
"How would I know?" I said. "It's not like you talk to me about how you're feeling. Since we got to the shadow world, it's been nothing but secrets between you and Lea."