“There’s a guide waiting to take you to a safe house. You can meet him at the diner on Main Street. You’ll know him when you see him. Just stay at the safe house ‘til all this is over. Oh, and Tara’s there as well. I’ve told her all about Ms. Cabot locking you up, and she’s madder than a wet cat. She’ll fill you in on what’s been happening. Now hurry, put on the earrings and go,” said Hannah desperately.
Sadie quickly put the studs into her ears. She was immediately startled when she reached for her backpack and couldn’t see her hand. It was strange and a bit disturbing to be invisible for real. She smirked at the irony of finally getting her wish to be invisible. Sliding her arms into her bags straps, she almost doubled over from the wave of nausea that hit her.
Something dreadful is going on.
“I’m ready,” Sadie said. She said the words, but didn’t really believe them.
Hannah giggled a little. “Sorry, Sadie, I’m not laughing, really, it’s just…weird to hear you, but not see you. Our plan should work; now let’s go.”
Hannah led Sadie back down the hall, and they turned up another that ended in the front parlor doors. Hannah quickly opened the door and acted as though she was just stepping outside for a breath of fresh air. Sadie whispered a thank you and walked down the front steps to the cobblestone walkway leading to the front gates. She could see Gur sitting at his post and really hoped her new earrings worked. She had seen firsthand what trolls could do when they were mad.
I wonder what Mom would do?
Though it was not as much comfort as the real thing, not hearing her mother’s voice for the last few days was weighing heavily on her. It had been both calming and helpful in times of stress.
She slowed her pace as she drew closer to the troll. He began to sniff the air, and she froze.
Oh, no, he knows I’m here.
She walked carefully forward, choosing her steps warily. Gur looked around. Sadie stepped lightly towards the gates. Gur sniffed the air frantically. Sadie touched her ears making sure the earrings were still in place, just in case, not that she was really worried. She wasn’t quite sure what would happen to her if they found out she was not only out of the box, but trying to escape. And Hannah, what would happen to her if they knew she had helped Sadie.
Holding her breath, she stepped through the wrought iron gates and warily moved forward. Gur began to turn in circles, as if searching frantically for something lost. He grunted while he scratched his head and sniffed the air around him. Sadie took a step off the path and the frost covered ground crunched underfoot. Gur turned and looked directly at her. Cold fear swept through her stationary body.
After a few minutes the troll looked away and started sniffing the air once again. She stepped back onto the cobblestone drive and began walking quickly while constantly looking back over her shoulder at the giant beast. When she reached the road leading to town, Sadie realized she had been holding her breath.
Shew, I made it, she thought, as she let out a long, measured lungful of air.
Sadie pulled on her backpack straps like a hiker and continued down the road a little easier.
I wonder what is really going on.
She thought about what Hannah had told her, that Ms. Cabot didn’t trust her and wondered what to do. Weighing her options, she knew she had to listen to Hannah. At least Tara wasn’t mad at her; maybe she could straighten all this out.
As she approached Main Street, lost in thought, once again the sound of her stomach growling brought her back to reality. The town clock struck three and caused her to look up. The parking meters appeared to be parking meters.
What is going on?
They in no way resembled the eloquently dressed sentries she had seen when being taken to the warehouse.
This is so…confusing.
Her stomach growled again, louder. Sadie saw Fulton’s Main Street Grocery just up ahead, not twenty yards in front of her. The bins of apples, oranges, and bananas in the front window made her mouth water. She knew she didn’t have any money and hatched a plan in her head.
I’ll just borrow something to eat ‘til I can pay them back.
Waiting for someone to open the door only took a matter of minutes. Mrs. Gallagher, her former Biology teacher, was heading right for the store.
It must be a weekend, otherwise she’d be in school making us cut up frogs or something.
The woman approached and opened the door wide, but when Sadie tried to enter behind her, the cold November wind whipped the door closed, almost hitting her in the process.
Sadie shivered and sneezed. A woman passing by said, “Bless you,” to her companion who looked truly befuddled. Sadie muffled a chuckle.
With all the commotion, she hadn’t realized just how cold it was outside. She knelt down in the alleyway next to the store. She wanted to check her backpack for that sweater Mrs. Teak had given her. Hopefully, it was inside. When she untied the drawstrings and started to look, what she found surprised her. All her magikal gifts were gone, there were two books, both titled something about human behavior, and the only other thing in her backpack was a bleached white bird skull, a little smaller than her fist. It had perfect emeralds for eyes and a sharp beak the color of faded buttercups.
She was drawn to those eyes the way a salmon is drawn upstream during spawning season. She ran her hand across the beak and felt tingles run down her spine. She petted the thing, lovingly, and smiled down at it. A warm, cozy feeling rushed through her body like it was summer and not fall. She felt safe in its presence, like everything was going to be okay. She fell further into its eyes and let the world go away.
She heard the clock in the center of town chime four times and shook her head.
I’ve been staring at this thing for an hour?
She shivered and stood up on legs that were full of pins and needles. She drew the drawstrings of her bag tightly again and put it on.
Why do I feel like this thing is trying to tell me something?
Ignoring the cold and her hunger, she walked down Main Street towards Mable’s diner.
I’ll save the questions for Tara.
Crossing the street, Sadie caught sight of The Book Nook where she used to meet with her only friend, Mrs. Felis, for tea and company. It seemed so long ago to her.
Boy, things have changed.
The shop was still open; as she approached, she noticed the window she and Zeno had jumped through to escape looked as though nothing had ever happened. She peered inside as she passed. Behind the counter, sitting on a stool, was the old gray cat wearing glasses, which the humans saw as elderly Mrs. Felis.
How come I can see her, but not the parking meter sentries?
She wanted to go inside, to have a cup of tea, and sit with the old woman, but she thought better of it when Ms. Cabot’s angry face flashed through her mind. Who knew if Mrs. Felis was against her now as well? Bitter nostalgia was soon replaced by fear as she saw a man-vulture fly overhead.
And I can see them?
It was headed to that same warehouse on the outskirts of town she had been taken to not so long ago.
Moments later she stood in front of the glass door to the diner, examining its occupants for magikal qualities. It only took a second to spot the gnome wearing an I LOVE THE GUILD tee shirt tucked neatly into his little trousers. He was sitting at the counter; as if he knew she were there, he turned and looked directly at her and smiled. The gnome threw some money on the counter, hopped off the stool, and made his way out the door. Once outside he motioned for Sadie to follow him.
They walked down Main Street and turned off onto the block where she used to live with the Argyle family. As they turned, Sadie caught sight of David’s father sweeping his front walk and shuddered. He looked up and caught her eyes, his own seemed surprised. Sadie’s stomach lurched a little, but then she remembered and felt safe in the knowledge that he couldn’t see her because she was still wearing the invisibility earrings. She shivered again; she didn’t like t
hat man.
Though she wasn’t that attached to the Argyle family, she still didn’t like the idea of evil being so close to them. They were good people and had always been nice to her. Sadie looked again. David’s father still stood there not sweeping, but staring at Sadie as she turned the corner away from him.
Why does it seem like he can see me?
She looked one last time, still a little unsure, to be positive he really didn’t see her. David’s father had returned to his sweeping. What she didn’t see was his reaching into his pocket and retrieving his cell phone the moment she disappeared around the corner. She also didn’t see how he very quickly began dialing a number while running to the same corner she just turned down.
Passing her former foster home, she saw into the big bay window of the kitchen where Mrs. Argyle was moving about, most likely preparing dinner for Mr. Argyle.
What I wouldn’t give for a nice, calm, normal sit-down dinner with them right now.
But she knew that would never happen again and set her jaw as she pushed her hair behind her ears.
The curious pair, invisible witchling and stout little glamoured gnome, walked on to the end of the block and turned left. They approached a set of street side basement steps, and the gnome began to descend, looking over his shoulder at Sadie.
How can he see me?
She followed, wanting to get out of the cold more than anything at this point. The stairs led to a brick hallway under the house above. It was dark and all Sadie could make out was the light at the other end.
Ah, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
She laughed to herself and gripped her backpack tighter. She followed, not really seeing the gnome, but hearing his feet scuff on the dirty brick ground. As they drew closer to the light, Sadie relaxed at the thought of spending time with Tara again. Stepping through the entryway, into a large brick anteroom, she heard the gnome shout, “NOW!”
Her arms were grabbed by two huge imps—the biggest imps she had ever seen, with the same sickly grey warty skin as the one at Tara’s the last night she had seen her. Sadie was shocked; she thought imps were only small, child-sized creatures. Two more imps snatched the earrings from her ears and danced away from her laughing. The gnome stood staring at her expressionless.
“What’s going on?” asked Sadie. Utterly confused and now becoming angry, she wanted answers.
The gnome who had been her guide began to transform into the hideous imp that had been in the bubble with Tara. He laughed and drool hung from his jowls, swinging with each evil snigger. He looked as immoral and menacing as he did that night at Tara’s, only there was a new scar across the top of his boil infested skull. Grey ooze and yellow pus crusted and stuck to it in places, and Sadie felt queasy. She scrunched her eyes as a newfound headache settled in; she went a bit limp in the hands of the imps that held her. It moved closer, its breath reeking of rotting fish.
“You will make a trophy addition to my collection, my collection,” it said as it stroked the scalps that hung sash-like from its putrid body. Sadie eyes fixed on the red felt that hung from a string around its neck. “Oh, you like this? It was a gift from that stinking gnome friend of yours. He did put up quite the fight, quite the fight.”
Sadie now recognized the red felt as Whistle’s little hat, and she choked back sickness. The imp had turned it into a purse of some sorts; as he reached into it, crackles of colored light popped and fizzled out over top of Sadie’s head.
“HA! You can’t do a thing can you, Sadie? Your magik is useless, a waste of time, as is keeping you alive, keeping you alive. Take her to the dungeon, to the dungeon,” it said. “But first, we’ll not lock her up with this. We’ll not make the same stupid mistakes as before, as before.”
It grabbed her backpack, ripping the straps right off the bag, leaving them dangling from her shoulders. Though it did hurt a little, Sadie did not cry out. She was resolute in the fact that she would not show these disgusting creatures who either had a hand in or did kill Whistle, any signs of pain or sadness.
The two foul-smelling imps dragged a fighting and kicking Sadie down a dark passage off to the left of the original entry. It was lit by sconces sporadically placed along the brick walls. The more she fought, the tighter their grip. She eventually gave up, letting them drag her limp body the rest of the way. No way am I going to walk to my imprisonment and death; they can carry me.
They stopped in front of an iron barred door and pulled on it to open, the creaking and groaning of the hinges filling the silence. They threw her in and slammed the door hard, the noise echoing in the grimy, damp, dimly lit cell. For the second time that day Sadie sat alone in the dark, wondering how she ended up where she was, as the imps slouched off down the corridor.
Listening to their footsteps and grunting fading away, Sadie slumped down along the only dry spot in the cell and rubbed her temples. She could smell the imp’s foul stench on her skin and clothes and tried not to be sick. She threw the remaining backpack strap to the ground in disgust and punched the floor, skinning her knuckles. Sparks of unrefined magik fizzled out around her.
“Sadie, is that you?”
A smile spread across Sadie’s face and she scrambled to the barred cell door. Straining to see in the dimly lit dungeon, she did make out several other cells similar to her own. The voice seemed to have come from the cell directly across from hers, and she trembled with excitement and joy.
“Elgarbam? You’re still alive! I am so glad to hear your voice,” said Sadie.
A brief flash of guilt surged through her body as she realized that in all the commotion she had just been through, she had not thought of her friend that much. She clung to the bars of her cell desperately and spoke again.
“Everything is a mess, Elgarbam. Everyone thinks I’m a traitor, that I have this Heart thing they’re all looking for. They all hate me. Except Hannah, she tried to help me, but it all went wrong. An imp, the same imp that came to Tara’s tricked me. He saw me when I was invisible, tricked me into thinking he was a gnome, one of us, and he led me here. And I don’t understand, it seems like all the magik is working…differently. And Ms. Cabot even thinks I’m working with the Syndicate; she put me in some sort of walled-in room in the dark. Whistle’s dead, it’s all falling apart, and I haven’t even cast my first spell and I’m….”
“Ssshhhh. Not so loud, they’re probably listening. Even though they’re probably off roasting kittens on a spit by now, I don’t trust them not to somehow be listening. And you’re babbling again. One thing at a time, witchling,” said the gnome.
Elgarbam scuffled his way to the front of his cell, his little knobby fingers trying to wrap around the bars as his pale little face peered out.
“I’m so glad to see you. Things are such a mess,” cried Sadie.
“First things first, witchling-friend. How did you not see the imp for what he was? Witchlings, witches, and well, just about all creatures with magik can see through glamours. Why didn’t you? This can only mean they’ve unlocked some sort of stronger magik than we have. Or something about the laws of magik is changing. That is bad, very bad indeed.”
Shuddering Seamus
After what seemed like an eternal night of listening to the screams, moans, and groans of other prisoners, the very same gnarled imp who had been the cause of all Sadie’s troubles to date was standing in front of her cell. She didn’t know how long he had been there—staring, glaring—but when she awoke, he was there, nonetheless, in all his smelly, warty, evil, pus-covered glory.
She pretended to still be asleep.
How long have I been out this time?
He continued staring at her as if he were looking for something.
I don’t even remember finishing my talk with Elgarbam.
The imp shuffled a little to his right, scratching his boil covered head and licking the pus from his fingers. Sadie stifled her gag reflex and continued peeking out from one barely opened eye.
“I can see
the gas we pump in here keeps them knocked out for quite some time, Master, quite some time,” it said to a dark figure that had appeared in the gloom. “I didn’t find any sign of the Ataraxia Heart in her bag, but I did find her talisman—a very powerful one I might add. She’s from the Raven Skull Clan, Master, but you already knew that, already knew that.”
So that was my talisman, and now I’ve lost it. And, they can destroy a part of me if they destroy it. Great, I’ve screwed up again.
The imp crouched down to her level and tried to peer closer at Sadie. She squished her eyes shut even tighter and tried to control her breathing.
“It could be hidden somewhere on her person; we just threw her in here, ya know,” it almost whispered in its raspy breath.
A rat scampered past Sadie’s head and crawled through the cell door as she lay on the cold dungeon floor. The tall, dark figure squashed it with his boot-clad foot, and the imp grabbed up the oozing remains and gobbled them down with no regard for couth, or even what he was eating.
“Never mind the girl…for now, Gok. We’ll get what we need from her later. I need you to send another message to the Guild. Use that other gnome; the one I think they call Elgarbam. Remove more body parts this time and come see me for the parchment; we’ll deposit this message within an organ. Maybe then they’ll begin to listen, just give us what we want, and stop trying to fight us. It’s become so…annoying,” said the tall, dark figure.
“Yes, Master, but if I may, what about the girl, what about the girl? Can I at least perform some torture on her to see if she’ll reveal anything? I’ve got some great new toenail pulling techniques, and I haven’t used my pus juicer in a while. I’d love to force her to drink, to drink,” suggested the nasty imp.
Sadie could hear excitement in his voice which made her slightly tremble.
The figure in the shadows laughed a little. It sounded familiar to her, like she had heard that voice before.
I’ll bet its David’s father. He must have seen me and was just making sure the imp took me where he was supposed to.
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