by Meg Bonney
“Yeah. He’s on the low end of the creep spectrum, but still, this is weird.”
“Why couldn’t he just go to Ruth or to me?”
Jason scoffed. “Well, think about it. Ruth wanted to keep you hidden. She would have kicked Ren’s ass. And you—you for sure would have kicked his ass. I sort of get it. He needed to be sure.”
“I guess,” I said. “Do you think—does it say things about my parents?”
“Let’s check it out,” Jason said. “Has any of this actually sunk in? It still feels like a dream to me. I can’t imagine how you’re feeling right now.”
“Confused.” With each page turn, subtle mustiness hit my nostrils.
“At least it’s answers. That’s something.”
“True story,” I replied, and moved my sword’s grip closer to the book to see better. The lantern above us provided a fair amount of light, but some of the writing was still hard to see.
“In the page before that, he goes on and on about taking you to safety but fearing your reaction,” Jason continued. “Maybe he isn’t so bad. He was just worried about you. And I know you’re into him. I can see it all over your face, little miss. I think Ren could be the Angel to your Buffy, the Jess Mariano to your Rory Gilmore, the Ron to your Hermione, the—”
“Enough!” I held up my hand. “How dare you! You know I’m Team Spike.”
“My apologies.” Jason laughed. “But my observation still stands.”
I rolled my eyes. Anyone could see how attractive Ren was, but that really was the last thing on my mind. “Oh my god, no way! The dude is a nut job and pompous and so, so arrogant,” I protested.
“But hot,” Jason added.
“He’s not horrid,” I replied.
“I miss my Caleb. Everyone must be so worried back home.” Jason said, changing the subject, and leaned his head on me. “We were going to dinner with his parents tomorrow. I guess that’s out the window.”
“I will try to get you back in time for your dinner, Jay,” I said.
“It’s okay. This is where I need to be. You and me, kid. Always.” He nuzzled his head on me like a puppy.
“Stop!” I laughed and pushed his head away.
“I ruv roo, Princess Maddy. I ruv roo!” Jason said in his best Scooby-Doo voice.
I laughed even louder as I wrestled him off me.
“I think our valiant knight Ren has the hots for you, too, Princess Maddy.” Jason raised his eyebrows obnoxiously and poked me with his elbow a few times.
“No way, José.” I shook my head.
“Well, he clearly has a thing for you. On the one page—”
I held up my hand to cut him off just as we heard a rustle from beyond the cover of the willow. Startled, I jumped up, grasping the sword tightly. Jason slowly climbed to his feet as well.
“Uh, Jay, we need to go.”
I turned to scan the area. For the first time since this madness had started, I really did wish Ren were here. I felt the hairs on my arms raise with genuine fear.
“Uh, I actually wish our valiant knight was here now,” Jason said, his tone uneasy.
“Me too. A lot, actually,” I seconded, looking for movement beyond the willow tree branches.
“Ren, where are you?” I whispered to myself.
CHAPTER 14
“Ren?” I whispered, holding Jason’s hand in my left and my sword in
my right.
Nothing.
I kept my eyes on the perimeter of the tree. I couldn’t help but feel a little betrayed by Ren leaving us alone as I saw the tension on Jason’s face.
“Maddy?” Jason whispered. My stomach twisted at the worry in his voice.
I hate this. I hate that he is in a position to be afraid.
“Damn it, Ren,” I said, my teeth clenched.
Just as I said his name, Ren burst through the willow branches. Jason and I screamed in unison like we were watching a horror movie.
Ren stopped in his tracks. “Quiet! Why are you screaming?” he asked, annoyed.
“I thought it was a Cloaky, or Cloaked guy, whatever you call them,” I said angrily. “You said five minutes. That was longer than five minutes.”
I looked back up at Ren; he was already looking at me. My tired eyes traced his jaw, following the dark stubble of the mustache and beard that speckled the bottom half of his face. His hair hadn’t moved an inch, like he had just stepped out of an overpriced salon, making me want to punch him in the face a little bit more than I already wanted to.
I turned away from him quickly.
Ren cleared his throat. “All right, are you ready to go? It is only a two-hour march through the cavern, but I have water and shelter if we need it. Also, Jason, I think it wise for you to be armed.”
He pulled out a crossbow out of the chest next to the willow’s trunk. “Jason, here you go.”
Jason grabbed it and immediately pointed it to the side and pretended to shoot it. “Yes! Pew! Pew, pew!” he exclaimed with joy.
Rummaging through the chest again, Ren pulled out a quiver full of small arrows. He handed Jason the little quiver and a rope.
“Here, tie this around your waist. Do you know how to use one of these?” Ren asked, pointing to the crossbow.
Jason shook his head.
“It is easy, and you will not have to come too close to inflict a bit of damage. You just put the arrow here, pull this back, aim, and fire at your target,” Ren explained. Jason nodded, looking a little more nervous now. “It is old and does not pack as much punch as it used to, but it will sting them enough to scare them off.
“Now, here. You can hook the bow onto the belt as well. Always have it at the ready.” Ren clapped his hand on Jason’s shoulder, knocking Jason forward a bit.
“No prob, Bob,” Jason acknowledged.
Ren cocked his head to the side, a confused look on his face. “My name is Ren.”
Jason looked at me over Ren’s shoulder, his eyebrows raised dramatically. He snickered. “Sorry, Ren. That was just a saying. It just―it means that I understand.”
“Right. Okay.” Ren nodded, turning back toward me and holding out another slender black rope. This one had a scabbard attached to it.
“Here, this is for your sword,” he said. “It may be a little big for your blade, but it should work.”
Ren reached around me to tie the black rope around my waist. His cheek grazed my earlobe.
“I’ve got it.” I pulled the rope from his hands and took a step back, tying the black cord in a knot at my hip. I slid my sword into the scabbard.
Ren nodded in approval, then started to place both hands on my shoulders before changing his mind. “Now you look like a true warrior,” he said.
Jason burst out laughing. “Bah! No, she doesn’t! She looks like a lunatic with a sword, and I look like a deranged cowboy.”
Finally, the insanity of this entire day peaked with both of us bursting into laughter. We did look ridiculous. Jason was right—with the crossbow on one side and the quiver on his other hip, he had a bit of a cowboy gunslinger quality about him.
Jason continued, “It’s like we’re in an action movie, but someone forgot to give us our costumes.” He laughed, doubling over. “Wardrobe! We need wardrobe over here!” He mocked snapping his fingers over his head.
Our laughs subsided as I reached up to lower Jason’s snapping fingers. Ren surely wouldn’t understand that reference, and I certainly didn’t want to waste another second. We need to get moving.
Jason tilted his head. “It’s good to see you smile, kid,” he said.
“Okay, I have the canteens,” Ren said, closing the lid of the chest. He put the satchel over his head so that the thick leather strap crossed his chest diagonally and held an unlit torch in one hand. “Ready?”
No. But there was no other way.
Jason put his arms around me. “Okay, I know you hate hugs, but I don’t care,” he said, pul
ling me close. I didn’t stop him, but I did groan loudly.
We stood there for a second or two as it struck me: This could be hard. Ren felt the need to make sure we had weapons. That had to mean something. I wrapped an arm around Jason and squeezed him tightly.
Jason let go first and stepped back, resting a hand on each of my shoulders.
“Jay, this may be dangerous and it may suck.” I frowned.
“Maddy, I promise that I won’t let you go alone, not ever.”
“And I love you for that, but I…” Tears filled my eyes, and I took a deep breath before continuing. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Ren, lead the way,” Jason said, never taking his eyes off mine.
“Okay. Let’s go.” I nodded, wrapping my hand around the grip of my sword for light. “We aren’t going to find anyone standing still in here.”
With a nod, Ren lit the torch from the lantern and it burst into flame with a roar and a crackle. Ren walked to the cavern entrance and pulled the willow branches back. The torch flared up.
“Whoa, a torch? Isn’t that a bit much?” Jason asked and took a step back.
“Yeah, can’t we just take the lantern?” I pointed back to the lantern hanging from its nail in the trunk of the willow tree.
“Goblins hate fire. Always bring a torch in the caverns. The lantern would not be enough to scare them. Remember that,” Ren instructed us.
I rolled my eyes but nodded.
Ren walked into the cavern and Jason and I followed.
The cave was much cooler, and the air was damp and smelled musty, like the basement of Aunt Ruth’s house in the spring. Above our head, the cavern ceiling was high—too high to see with the light of the torch. The ground was fairly smooth and even. The walls seemed to be getting farther apart as we walked.
“Watch out on your right,” Ren stated. “Don’t step on them.”
I looked over to see a half dozen stacks of books, each piled ten or eleven books high.
“Are all of these yours?” I asked, looking down at the collection.
“Yes. I enjoy the written word,” Ren answered.
“Maddy, too,” Jason chimed in behind me.
“Really?” Ren replied, turning his head only a bit, never taking his eyes off the path ahead of him. “I figured you more for an athlete.”
“I can be as many things as I want to be,” I replied.
“They didn’t have a TV when Maddy was a kid. Just books. Right, Mads?” Jason added.
I stopped and whipped my head around to whisper “Shut up.” I wasn’t embarrassed or anything like that, but Ren already knew enough about me—more than I did. He didn’t need to know every detail of my childhood in Greenrock, too.
Ren didn’t respond, thankfully.
I squinted to see the titles on the tops of the piles. “These look like the books back home. Like, the actual covers and everything.” I squinted, recognizing the classic, unmistakable blue cover of The Great Gatsby.
“I prefer the writers from your world. I like the magic-free stories,” Ren replied, still walking. I trotted a little faster to catch up to him, and Jason followed.
“Really? What is your favorite?” I asked, curious.
“A favorite? I would have to think about that.”
Ren held the torch to the side of him, lighting the path as we walked. The cavern curved as we continued on, and the musty smell only grew stronger. Soon our path had widened so that the wall to our left was no longer lit by Ren’s torch. Jason’s hand was hooked into the thin black rope around my waist, and as the cavern grew wider, Jason moved closer.
“This is sort of spooky,” he said softly.
My sword in its scabbard swung at my side, hitting the top of my calf every few steps. I kept a hand on the sword’s grip. Like Ren had said, my sword was a little too small for this scabbard, so holding it also stopped it from rattling around as I walked.
“How much longer?” I asked Ren, who I was following almost as closely as Jason was following me.
Ren sighed loudly and stopped to face me, making me stumble as I halted in order to avoid colliding with him. “Madison, you said you deserve to know everything, right? Well, this information is not a conversation that one has while walking like this.”
“Whoa, hey. Can we stop after we exit the super-creepy dark cave?” Jason asked, his voice echoing off the cavern walls.
“Shouldn’t we keep walking?” I asked Ren while hooking my arm around Jason, who was standing at my side.
“Yes, you are right. We should not stop.” Ren, caught in a thought, ran his hand through his hair. I started walking again with Jason on my left and Ren and his torch on my right.
“Ren, just talk. It’s okay. I am the princess of the evil Ember Isle empire hell-bent on killing all the Magics, which is further complicated by me being half Witch. What else could there be?” My voice echoed slightly in the in the silence of the cave.
He didn’t say anything.
“Just tell me,” I urged him, apprehensively.
“I was not sure I should say anything, but I feel that I must share what I recently learned,” Ren stated.
“Okay.” I nodded.
“It is about your cousin.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, nervous to hear the answer.
“I do not think that the guards of the Ember Isle came upon your aunt on their own. I think they were aided.” Ren lowered his chin, making the torch cast an ominous shadow on his face.
“Okay, we knew that,” I said.
“By Lacy,” he said flatly.
“What?” I shook my head at the idiot idea.
“When I went to fill our canteens, I intercepted a Cypher Fairy that was headed to deliver a message to your father, King Dax of the Ember Isle…the message was from your cousin, Lacy.”
I stopped walking and crossed my arms. “Lacy is sending a message to my father?”
“Yes.”
“What?” Jason asked. “Are you sure it was her?”
“It was her voice, yes.” Ren nodded.
“What was the message? You said that only the intended person could receive the Cypher Fairy’s message,” Jason added.
“I have my ways with the fae,” Ren retorted.
“I don’t understand. Why would she do that?” I asked. I felt my body sway a little, like I was standing on the deck of a rocking boat. “You think Lacy led the guard to her mom? And that Lacy is sending my father a message? My father, the man who is rounding up Magics to kill them, including her mother?” I asked softly, like a confused child. “But why? What was the message?”
Ren didn’t answer.
How bad is it?
I glared at my feet, unable to look at either of them in the eye. I crossed my arms in front of me, wanting to continue on our path but unable to make my feet move beneath me.
“What was the message?” Jason asked.
Ren looked at me and back to Jason. The torch flared brighter for a moment.
“What was the message?” I repeated urgently.
“It was a warning. Lacy was warning your father that we are on our way to the Ember Isle,” Ren stated. “She was betraying us.”
CHAPTER 15
“You’re lying. Why are you still lying to me?” I asked, taking a step back from Ren. Jason put his arm firmly around my shoulder.
“Madison, I speak only the truth to you, I promise,” Ren insisted. “When I was in Greenrock, it was Lacy who found me. She told me about Ruthana, about you. I did not understand it then, but it was what I wanted, so I did not question it. She seemed to want me to protect you, so I did not see any malice in her actions…until now.”
“I don’t believe it!” I growled.
“Something is wrong…with all of this. I had a strange feeling about her then, but I did not know exactly why. She knew who I was, and it was almost as if she knew why I was there. I think she was involved in Ruthan
a’s capture.” Ren ruffled his hair in thought.
“That’s her mother! She’d never do it!” I yelled, my voice resonating from the stone walls. “You don’t know her. She’s the sweetest girl on the planet. She’s so…”
“Madison, please—” Ren put his hand on my shoulder. I knocked it off, pushed my hands into his chest, and flung him back into the wall.
The torch fell to the ground, and Jason swooped down to pick it up. I glared at Ren for another second. “This can’t be true.”
I turned sharply and placed my hand on my sword’s grip again as I walked ahead of them. No amount of tantrum that I threw at Ren would change the facts. Lacy had been acting strange when Aunt Ruth was taken. Something wasn’t right.
“Why would Lacy warn him? I don’t get it,” Jason said behind me to Ren.
Before Ren could answer, I turned back around. “You were never going to take us to meet her, were you?”
“No.” Ren looked at his feet. “The spot where Lacy asked us to meet her is in the other direction.”
I scoffed.
Ren chewed his lip for a second. “We are going to the Jade Village to get supplies and to cut your aunt off at the Temple Road. I had my doubts about Lacy before this, and now I cannot rationalize what she has attempted to do. We cannot trust her.”
“I don’t understand. She’s…she’s the good one,” I mumbled to myself, turning back around.
“She’s right. You don’t know her like we do, Ren. Something’s wrong,” Jason said.
Could it really be true? Could Lacy have fooled me all this time? Maybe I didn’t really know my cousin after all.
“No,” I whispered painfully, and shook my head. Just because I knew it wasn’t true, that didn’t make it hurt less.
We walked in silence for what felt like forever. The cavern was long, and the ceiling was still high enough that it didn’t make me feel claustrophobic. Ren had said that it would take two hours to get to the Jade Village, but I didn’t want to ask him again how much longer. The walls had narrowed enough that I could see them by the light of my sword’s grip, though. I preferred that to the big, open, too-wide part of the cavern a ways back. I lifted my sword out of the scabbard to look at the wall. Squinting, I could see lines—no, scratches, perhaps? There were similar markings on the other wall. I ran my fingers over the etched grooves. They didn’t look like natural lines on the stone surface.