Valleron (Book 2)

by Jennifer Redmile

  She looked at Lyricus in horror, shaking with anger and frustration, and felt the bile rising in her throat. “These are the students who live here? Oh Gods Lyricus, look at them! We can’t go and leave them here to a life of this! We have to do something!”

  She felt Leah’s hand rubbing her arm in an attempt to soothe her. She swallowed back the anger, suddenly reminded of their own precarious position in this horrible place. “I know how hard this is for you honey. We’re all horrified by what we’ve just seen. But right now, we’re not in a position to help anyone. That’s why we have to get back to Florisia and tell the Council what’s going on here. I promise, when we get help, we’ll come back and get every single one of these kids outta here… Okay?”

  Belle nodded, looking down at her hands. She desperately wanted to lay her head on Lyricus’ shoulder and cry away some of the heartache. But she knew any sign of affection between them would raise way too many red flags. They’d all agreed they needed to act like they’d only just met, in case someone was watching.

  They sat in glum silence until the dinner bell rang a short while later. Belle shuddered at the thought of the food they’d undoubtedly be offered. If the state of the kids who’d just filed past them was anything to go by, she knew the meal would be meagre at best. Suddenly she was torn between her desire to get out of here, and her guilt at the thought of leaving these kids to suffer even another day in this hell-hole.

  She looked up straight into Lyricus’ eyes, and felt soothed by the empathy she saw in them. He smiled encouragingly, standing up in one fluid motion and reaching out a hand to pull her up. She grabbed hold of it, clinging desperately, as if to a lifeline, as he pulled her to her feet.

  They stood toe to toe, their noses almost touching for a brief second, until Raff cleared his throat and nodded his head to the right of where they stood. Jonah was coming out of the boys’ dorms and heading towards the dining room, which was attached to the other side of the main building. The man nodded, as if letting them know he was watching them. Belle quickly stepped away from Lyricus, busying herself brushing the red dirt from her clothes to hide her blushing face.

  Leah sighed. “Come on; let’s go see what garbage they offer as food around here. Seriously, I cannot wait to see the back of this place!”

  * * *

  Ten minutes before the agreed meeting time, Belle followed Leah from their room. They slipped silently down the length of the girl’s dorms, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. Although she seriously doubted anyone was still up at this hour. A normal day in the hell-hole started long before daylight.

  They flitted across the red dirt courtyard at its furthest point from the front office, melting back into the shadows as they reached the back of the boys’ dorms. Stumbling along in the dark, with only the moonlight to light their way, they soon caught sight of a small building behind the boys’ dorms.

  Yes… they’d found the work shed. She released the breath she’d been holding as the outline of Lyricus and Raff leaning against the side of the building took shape.

  Lyricus wrapped her in his arms as soon as she walked up to him. It was scary how much she’d come to rely on his comforting presence. She’d never had anyone in her life before who’d thought she was special. She got butterflies in her tummy just thinking about it. She smiled as she saw Leah and Raff hugging as well. Yep, things were definitely looking up. At least they were all back together… where they belonged.

  “So… when we get back to Florisia we are definitely going to have some of that time to ourselves I promised you,” Lyricus whispered into her ear. She sighed and nodded, perfectly content to stay exactly where she was forever.

  “Pssssttt, back here.” Belle jumped at the sound of the soft hissing voice that seemed to come out of nowhere. Lyricus grabbed her hand, and they moved cautiously around the shed towards where they figured the voice had come from.

  Professor Goon stepped out from the shadows behind the shed. “Good evening. I’m glad you got my message and decided to trust me. Sorry for all the theatrics, but I’m sure you’ll agree they’re necessary under the circumstances. While ever I appear to be a dithering fool, the Elder Guardian leaves me to run the school. Jonah reports everything that happens here to him directly, so I must be careful to keep up the pretence.” Professor Goon chuckled softly. “Had you fooled did I?”

  “Totally!” Raff’s voice came out of the darkness beside her. “We honestly weren’t sure what we’d find when we decided to do what the message said. Guess we made the right decision after all. But what makes you think we’re in any more danger than the other students here?”

  Professor Goon explained about how the Guardians disposed of all children who arrived with mixed-blood, assuming they wouldn’t be aware of how things worked. Then Belle’s heart almost skipped a beat when he told them he’d noticed a pointy-ear under Lyricus’ hair.

  “Ok, let’s be honest shall we? I knew the minute I walked into my office that you four were different,” the Professor continued. “I don’t know why you’re here, or how you got here, and quite frankly, I don’t want to. What I do know, is that for the safety of everyone involved, you need to not be here in the morning. I have managed to help a few students escape over the years, though I’ve never heard whether they survived after they left.”

  He sighed and looked around nervously. “Anyway, I’ll tell you what I told them before I sent them on their way. There are rumours of a rebel group, about two day’s walk to the south of here. No one knows the exact location of their base, but I’ve heard that if they see children alone, wandering through the desert, they will take them in. It’s important you keep moving for as long as you are able tonight. Jonah will discover you are missing at first light, and I’ll be obliged to send out a search party.”

  Without further ado, he reached into the shadows behind him, pulling out two tattered backpacks, and a roughly drawn map. “I’m sorry I can’t be of more help, but at least this way you’ll have a fighting chance at survival. Keep heading south until the morning, the map has a few landmarks that will guide you. Goodbye and good luck. I sincerely hope you make it.” He turned and disappeared into the shadows, leaving them staring into the darkness.

  Raff scratched his head. “Okay, so what do we do now? I must admit, I’d like to find this rebel group, and see what they can tell us about what’s going on in Valleron.” He looked at Leah and grinned. “But I’m happy to do whatever we all agree is the best plan.”

  Lyricus shook his head. “While I agree with what you’ve said, I think we need to get the girls home safely to Florisia. We can always come back and look for this rebel base with some of the palace guards?”

  Leah smiled sadly at him. “Unfortunately Lyricus, that’s not gonna work. The only way through the veil is if all three of us wield the amulet, which means we’d have to come back through with you anyway. I’m not sure whether it’s because we haven’t made a decision either way yet, but I’m not getting any bad feelings at the moment. Belle, what do you think?”

  “If the only way to help those kids is for us to bring back help from Florisia, then I say we stay and find out what we can from the rebels. Let’s face it, from what we’ve seen of the Florisian Council so far, I think we’ll need more information about what’s going on here in Valleron than we currently have to convince them to act. And those kids need help now!”

  Much to Belle’s surprise, it was Leah who nodded first, looking around in the darkness surrounding them. “Okay, so which way’s south?”

  Raff and Lyricus both nodded their agreement, and they left Valleron College behind them, once again headed who-knew-where to find who-knew-what. It seemed to be becoming a habit.

  Chapter Nine

  -Serbus-

  Serbus, the Elder Guardian of Valleron, shoved his star ball back into his pocket as he paced the length of his sitting room for the third time. His fur and tails bristled in response to his churning emotions.

  How dare t
he Kitsune Council threaten him! It wasn’t his fault these three mixed-blood children had eluded them yet again! So now that these brats were here in Valleron, they were his problem? What a bunch of pompous hypocrites!

  He hadn’t told the Council about the communication from Jonah this morning, regarding four new students who’d arrived and run off overnight. Of course, it had to be them! They’d been at the school yesterday, and now they could be anywhere. Jonah said the search party had found some tracks heading south, but the trail vanished after a couple of miles.

  Serbus had heard the story of how these children had supposedly killed Tyranius, the Elder Guardian of Florisia. Tyranius had always been an arrogant, lazy fool, and Serbus had put his untimely demise down to this own ineptitude, rather than giving the credit for his destruction to these three mixed-blood children.

  In the forty years he’d ruled Valleron, he had never once failed to dispose of a mixed-blood child. Thanks to Jonah’s unwavering loyalty and vigilance, the dithering old Professor at the school always acted on the information provided by the portal. When a mixed-blood arrived in Valleron, they were dealt with swiftly and quietly. Every. Single. Time.

  But apparently these children hadn’t arrived in Valleron via the portal. The Council said they’d come through the veil. How was that even possible? The ability to penetrate the veil had been a closely guarded secret for centuries, known only to the kitsunes. Someone had obviously got their wires crossed somewhere. And he’d been left to clean up the mess.

  What if someone had found Tyranius’ star ball after his death? He chuckled to himself. Unless it had been another kitsune, the star ball would have been absolutely useless to them. No records existed of the unique abilities of a kitsune’s star ball, let alone how to activate and use one.

  So how had they come through the veil? He shook his head, annoyed by the very thought of having to clean up some inept imbecile’s mess. How they got through the veil wasn’t his problem. The Kitsune Council could worry about that. He just needed to find them, and finish them, once and for all.

  He stopped pacing and reached out to stroke his long furry tails. The gesture never failed to calm him, reminding him of his power over the puny beings he ruled. Still bristling with indignation at the Council’s high-handed directives, he resigned himself to finding a solution and proving his unquestionable worth in their eyes.

  Unfortunately, the solution would come at a cost. There was no doubt about it; he’d have to negotiate to summon those disgusting hell-beasts from Dragardia. Tyranius had been a fool to summon just one to deal with three children. He’d bring three through, and be done with the whole thing! It would cost a small fortune, but was well worth the price to get the Council off his back.

  Dismissing the issue as dealt with, his mind turned to more important matters. He’d received a report earlier today that the number of recruits and volunteers for the Valleron army had swelled. The rumours he’d circulated, of an impending invasion from Florisia, had paid off!

  The report had also confirmed that the binding device carrier was almost completed. He chortled to himself — these humans were such fools, willing to believe whatever stories he fed them. Even if he never found the actual binding device, they believed whatever the carrier held would make them invincible.

  That left only one other problem, the irritating thorn in his side presented by the rebels. He needed to concentrate more effort into locating and destroying the ever illusive rebel base. He’d managed to procure the services of a few weak-minded, money-hungry mages in the last few months, who’d informed him that the rebels were using a magical shield to render their community invisible. They’d assured him that once the shield was located, they’d be able to destroy it.

  What no one seemed to be able to do though, much to his disgust, was actually locate this invisible community! Even though he had spies planted all over Valleron, there’d never been the slightest hint about where to look. Somehow the rebels were able to come and go like ghosts. But someone would make a mistake one day, and Serbus would be right there waiting to take them down when it happened.

  Chapter Ten

  -In Search of Rebels-

  Leah was utterly exhausted. They’d been walking for hours, following Lyricus across the monotonous moonlit landscape in a mind numbing haze of hunger and sleep deprivation. Every muscle in her body screamed, as she concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. The landscape was both barren and deserted. They hadn’t seen another living creature since they’d left the school. It was almost as if they were the only people left in the world.

  Raff squeezed her hand, a worried frown on his face. “You okay?”

  “Only just…” she said, leaning into his shoulder for a couple of glorious seconds.

  Streaks of pink had begun to crisscross the sky; the sun couldn’t be far off rising. Leah roused herself from the temporary respite and continued to plod forward.

  “Hang in there, babe. I’m sure we’ll be able to stop for a rest soon.” He lifted his head and called to the shadows ahead of them. “Lyricus, any sign of somewhere we could stop yet?”

  Lyricus stopped and turned back towards them. Belle sagged against him, looking every bit as exhausted as Leah felt.

  “According to the map, there’s an abandoned settlement not far from here. I think we should head there and grab a few hours’ sleep. Once the sun’s up, it won’t be long before the temperature soars. We’ve managed to cover what I’d consider a day’s walking already, so we should be about half way there.”

  Raff sighed. “Cool, let’s get going then. I need to drink, eat and sleep — preferably in that order.”

  * * *

  Leah stumbled into the dilapidated lean-to and dropped onto one of the stinking, stain-covered mattresses. They’d cleared out the spiders, lizards and other small creatures who’d taken up residence before settling in. She scrambled for the backpack Raff had been carrying and pulled out the water bottles, tossing one to Raff as he flopped down beside her.

  “So what other goodies are in there? From the weight of it, there should be heaps!” Raff asked between swigs from his water bottle.

  Lyricus was already inspecting the contents of the backpack he’d been carrying. “My respect for Professor Goon is now bordering on awe! I don’t know where it came from, but this is definitely not from the food stores offered to the students!”

  Leah dug into the backpack Raff had been carrying in excitement. She pulled out oranges, apples, and sandwiches filled with roast meat and cheese lavishly stacked between thick, crusty bread. Dinner the previous night had consisted of a bowl of watery, ‘spot-the-meat’ and vegetable stew, accompanied by a week-old small bread roll that had been hard as a rock. Leah suffered a moment of guilt about eating the virtual feast spread out before them, and then she shrugged. Them not eating, and inevitably starving to death, wouldn’t help the poor kids back at Valleron College.

  Belle sat quietly watching them eat. As usual, she was the only one not devouring the food. Leah frowned, knowing Belle wouldn’t want her to make a fuss, but the girl seriously needed to eat to keep up her strength. When Belle’s eyes met hers, she threw caution to the wind.

  “Don’t even think about not eating Belle! I remember what happened in the cave. You went all day without eating ‘cos you were too stressed. I know you’re stressed now, but seriously, we need to keep our strength up. Here, at least have an orange.”

  Belle’s eyes widened as she caught the orange flying through the air towards her. She shook her head, sighing as she peeled it. “I should’ve known you’d notice. You’re right though, I think I can manage an orange.”

  They sat in a companionable silence for the next ten minutes, eating and drinking until they were full. Leah’s eyes felt like half the red dirt they’d walked on had taken up permanent residence on the inside of her eyelids. She stuffed the remaining food into the backpack and stretched out on the mattress, oblivious to its filthy state, sighing with p
leasure as she finally allowed her eyes to close.

  “Wake me when it’s over,” she mumbled, and was asleep within seconds.

  * * *

  Leah woke drenched in sweat, struggling to breathe in the searing, oppressive heat. She’d been having the best dream, about sitting in the meadow at the Fey Academy sharing an apple with Solange. She froze, the sound of Solange happily munching on her apple continuing even though she was awake. She rolled her head slightly to the left, only to find a real horse standing in the doorway munching on one of their apples.

  What was a horse doing out here in the middle of nowhere? She rolled her head cautiously to the right, and found Belle’s face only inches away from her own.

  “Belle, wake up!” she whispered. As soon as she saw Belle open her eyes, she put her finger to her lips, and nodded in the direction of the doorway. Belle’s eyes widened and she looked back at Leah confused.

  “Maybe he can help us. Riding would sure beat walking. Can you talk to him?”

  Belle nodded and closed her eyes. The horse instantly stopped chewing, and looked directly at them. Leah held her breath, hoping he wouldn’t turn tail and bolt. A few seconds later, Belle opened her eyes and smiled, while the horse in the doorway snorted, throwing his head back and forward as if in agreement with whatever Belle had just said.

  Raff and Lyricus both sat bolt upright at the sound, looking wildly around for the source of the strange noises.

  “About time you two woke up. Leah and I have been working our butts off arranging transport, while you two were snoring your heads off!”

  “Whadya mean transport?”