Alarick dropped the book on his desk and swept down the corridor to the library. She wasn't there. He went up to her room and knocked on the door. There was no answer, so he pushed it open and peeked inside. She wasn't there, either. The bed was made and everything was tidy, but as she'd arrived with so little, he couldn't tell if anything was missing.
Moving faster now, he jogged down the stairs to Master Lucas' office in the main hall. John was working at his desk when Alarick knocked on the doorframe.
"Sorry to interrupt," he said when John looked up, startled. "But has Miss Stone been by here in the last half hour or so?"
John nodded. "She left about a half an hour ago."
"Left? To go where?" Alarick asked.
"No idea. She had a pack with her, so I assume she's gone to live somewhere else. I didn't ask."
"You didn't try to stop her?" Alarick asked, a touch of desperation in his voice that had John raising his eyebrows.
"No. Why would I? You've always said that people are free to go if they choose. It wasn't my place to stop her. How did you know she'd gone, anyway?" John asked.
"She made mention of it in a note. I didn't think she meant leaving the castle, though."
"So, she's writing you notes now?" John asked, with a hint of a smile.
"That's not important," Alarick snapped.
"It must be to have you this riled up. How many people have left this castle and you haven't given more than one flying damn? I believe your usual sentiment is, 'That's their foolish choice.'"
"This is different. She has no magical talent to defend herself out there. What is she going to do? Draw a goddamn toad and set it loose on the Ministry? She has no business being out there." Alarick was pacing the office, his coattails flying out behind him with every turn.
"Neither did anyone else who ever left," John said. "And you didn't care."
Alarick turned and stared him down.
"Okay," John said, holding up his hands in surrender. "First, we're going to make sure she isn't here. There are a lot of other places she could be besides her room and the library. If we don't find her, then we'll make plans."
"Meantime, we'll lose any trail she might have left behind," Alarick said.
"Possibly," John allowed. "But wouldn't you rather that than running off only to find she was here all along?"
Alarick subsided. "Fine. I'll search the castle. You look outside."
The two men parted, and the search began. An hour later they reconvened in John's office.
"She isn't here," Alarick said. Panic was rising inside him, but he wasn't sure where it came from. She'd only been here a matter of weeks and she was, frankly, a pain in his ass. Why should he care if she chose to leave or not?
He knew why, of course. She'd shown him kindness, and he thought of her as a friend. Of course, he hadn't been nearly the friend to her that she had been to him. He'd been surly and rude. And yet, somehow, she remained perfectly kind to him. She was the better person, and she didn't deserve to have her life stolen by the Ministry when they tracked her down.
John looked out the window. "There's still some time before dark. Can you and some of the others get airborne and see if you can find her?"
"I'll go alone," Alarick said.
"That's stupid. You'll cover more ground with more people," John said.
"There's less risk of being seen if I go alone. Plus, I don't want anyone to know I've gone after her. As you say, I've never gone out of my way to help locate anyone else who's left the Keep. It would be difficult to explain why I feel the need to go after her."
"No, it wouldn't," John muttered under his breath, but Alarick heard him anyway and arched an eyebrow in his direction.
"I expect you to keep your opinions to yourself," Alarick said.
"No problem," John said. "I'll stay here and watch for her."
"Marius is due to arrive any day. If he arrives while I'm gone, send him to find me. He can track me. I may need his help."
"Yes, sir."
Alarick didn't hear him, however, as he was already out the doors and on the front lawn. In a matter of seconds, a golden falcon soared high above the castle and disappeared behind the clouds.
6
Alarick forced himself to slow down and cover ground methodically. Elissa said she wanted to go back to Keldon and Ashgate. She was likely en route to one of those places.
He flew over the route to Keldon first and did not see her. For the sake of thoroughness, he checked the village, too, even though he knew she couldn't have made it there in so short a time. The only good news was that he didn't see any sign of the Ministry along the way.
He doubled back to the Keep and then flew the route to Ashgate. He remembered it well, even though this village had been destroyed a couple of years ago. She was crazy to try to find anything there. Even if her former love interest (or whatever he was) had left anything behind, chances were good that looters or the Ministry had long since found it. Elissa was stubborn, though, and if she had it in her head that a single book might remain, she wouldn't give up until she knew for certain.
There was no sign of her, however. Again, he checked the village closely, even though she couldn't have made it that far, either.
He flew back toward the Keep, flying a zigzag pattern so he could see more ground. The sun was dropping fast, and he'd soon have to suspend his search. His night vision was good, but not good enough to see wide swaths of ground at night.
He was about ten miles away from the Keep when an eagle joined him in the air. It was Marius. Alarick tipped a wing toward the ground, urging him to land so they could talk properly. They found a patch of open ground and dropped quickly, changing into men immediately upon landing. They came up, back to back, wands at the ready in the perfectly choreographed dance of friends who'd done this many times before.
When no threat emerged, they headed into the woods for cover and sat down on a large fallen tree.
"John told me your Book Mesmer's gone missing," Marius said, settling his brown cloak around him against the evening chill.
Alarick looked at Marius. Time and grief hadn't been kind to him. He was only a few years older than Alarick, but he looked closer to fifty. His once ginger hair had faded to gray streaked with a watery, pale auburn. Deep lines bracketed his mouth and his eyelids had gone papery. Still, the green eyes beneath them were kind and thoughtful. And sharp. The man never missed much of importance.
"It appears so. I know she's gone to look for more books. She came to me and asked me to take her, but I told her no. That it wasn't safe."
"Well, it's not," Marius said. "You weren't wrong."
"Yes, but I didn't know she'd be stupid enough to go out on her own."
"She's not stupid," Marius corrected. "I've never met her, and I can tell you that. I've never heard of a Book Mesmer who was an idiot. They're usually smarter than all of us."
"Oh, she's intelligent. But she's ill equipped for this world. She possesses virtually no defensive skills. What kind of resistance can she mount if the Ministry finds her?"
Marius turned those sharp eyes on him. Alarick stared back for just a moment, just long enough to drop his mask for his oldest friend.
"I see," Baines said softly. "She's not simply a resident of the castle, is she?"
Alarick shrugged. "That's all she thinks she is. That's all I've let her see. She thinks I'm rude and unfeeling, and I've done little to convince her otherwise. But I was beginning to think of her as a friend."
"Well, then, we'll find her," Baines said. "Besides, even if she thinks you're a complete jackass, I'm not going to miss my chance to meet a Book Mesmer. We'll head back to the Keep for tonight and start again tomorrow. Who knows? She might have come home by now. If not, I've got some tracking spells I can try that might show us where she's gone."
They returned to the open patch of land, changed into their avian forms, and took off for the Keep. When they returned, John delivered the bad news that Elissa had not
returned.
"Okay," Marius said, shucking off his cloak and dropping it on a chair by the main doors. "Do you have anything of hers? Something with her skin or hair on it? A comb? A pillowcase, maybe? I'll need it to track her."
Alarick led the way up to the library where he grabbed the vial of her hair and all but threw it at Marius.
"Oh, I so want to know what she did with this," he said in wonder, looking at the vial from all angles.
"I can explain it later. Right now, we find her."
"Right," Marius said, clearing a space on a nearby desk with one arm. Papers and books crashed to the floor. Alarick winced. If—no, when Elissa returned, she was going to be furious at the mistreatment of the materials.
"What are you going to do?"
"First, I'm going to try to track her magic. Magic leaves behind a signature unique to every individual. Even if she isn't actively using it, this spell can locate that signature. If it doesn't work, I've got another spell that might guide us to her, but it won't work until the sun is up. Do you have a basin of water? Preferably clear glass if you have it."
Alarick ran down to the kitchens and deviled the cook until he came up with a clear glass bowl. Alarick went to the pump and filled it, then carried it back to the library. He only had to go back once to refill it when his haste caused him to spill the water. On the next attempt, he consciously slowed down, although the effort had him cursing under his breath.
Back in the library, he placed the bowl on the desk and stood back to let Marius work his magic. Tracking and divination weren't subjects in which Alarick was well versed. He knew the theory and could perform the spells, but his efforts generally yielded less than satisfactory results. Marius, however, was a master.
Marius shook some of Elissa's hair into the bowl and swirled it around with his wand. The water turned red, reminding Alarick uncomfortably of blood. Marius chanted, "Magicae invenire" three times over the bowl. The tiny pieces of hair began to arrange themselves on the surface of the water, much like iron fillings arrange themselves in response to a magnet.
The shape of the British Isles formed in the bowl. Marius gently lifted his wand from the bowl and allowed one drop of water to drip from its tip onto the map. "Locus," he whispered.
For a moment, nothing happened. And then a tiny golden spot formed on the map southeast of the Keep, followed by another golden spot further south. Another and another appeared, all in a line heading south-southeast.
"The spell worked," Marius said.
"Where is she heading?" Alarick asked. "Neither Keldon nor Ashgate lie in that direction."
"My guess? London. Do you not see how far away she is?" Marius indicated the distance she'd traveled with the tip of his wand. "And she may be further than that. The spell isn't always one hundred percent reliable. She's moving too fast to be on foot."
Alarick understood, then, and let what he'd tried to block out of his mind wash over him.
"The Ministry," he breathed.
"Looks like," Marius said. "Either that or she's borrowed a horse from somewhere."
"All of mine are here. John and I checked the stables earlier," Alarick said, a cold ball of fear forming in his gut.
"She could have obtained one from somewhere else," Marius said, but Alarick didn't believe it.
"Where will they take her?" Alarick asked. "I haven't been to London in probably twenty years."
"They'll take her to the Law Courts, most likely, to stand trial as a witch. That's if they don't kill her first. But since it looks like she's on the move, it appears they've decided to keep her alive for now."
"Why?" Alarick asked. "You know more about the inner workings of the Ministry than I. Why not just kill her now? What's the purpose of a trial when they've already decided she's guilty? That might tell us how long she has to live."
Marius shrugged. "I have no idea. I've seen them kill in haste and I've seen them keep people alive, though tortured, for months. There is no making sense of their motives."
"Give me your best guess," Alarick pleaded.
Marius walked away from the bowl, deep in thought, and wandered over to the scriptorium.
"Is anything of hers missing?" he asked, looking around.
Alarick studied the chaos. It was still far less orderly than he preferred, but having spent some time with her in this space, he'd become accustomed to her organizational system. He entered the scriptorium and looked around.
"Phaedo," he said. "It's not here. Her father gave it to her and she always kept it there," he indicated the empty upper right corner of her desk. "She once said it made her happy to have him close."
Marius' face fell. "If she had a book with her, then chances are good they're going to use her as an example. If they do, she'll be publicly tortured before they finally behead her. She's a woman, she's a witch, she's in possession of a book, and she's literate. Others will be made to see that those transgressions warrant slow, painful punishment."
Alarick paced to the window and, extending both arms, braced himself against the frame and dropped his head.
"It may not be too late," Marius said. "And they may not have her at all. We'll go at dawn."
"I cannot ask you to endanger your life for this," Alarick said. "I'm not certain that even I should put my own life in jeopardy for her. I've never done so for any other resident who left here. Not even the one who mattered most."
"That was different," Marius argued, remembering the incident to which Alarick referred. "You didn't even know that Abigail had gone until it was too late."
"But I drove her away," Alarick said. "She left the Keep and died because of my actions, just as Elissa will die because I drove her away."
"The past need not repeat itself. We'll go at dawn," he said again. "If we're very lucky, we'll catch up to them before they reach London."
Instead of retiring to Alarick's rooms, the two men stretched out on the sofas in the library. Alarick felt closer to Elissa there. If he could feel her spirit, then nothing bad had yet happened to her. Or so he told himself all through the sleepless night.
Just before dawn, Alarick went to John Lucas' room and knocked on the door. His Master of the Household opened it, eyes barely open, clearly having been woken from his slumber.
"Marius and I are going after Miss Stone," he said to John. "If I do not return, I'm giving control of the Keep over to you." He handed John a piece of paper saying as much, signed and witnessed by himself and Marius.
"I won't try to talk you out of it," John said, coming quickly to alertness. "Rest assured that everything will be well here. I'll see to it."
"I know you will." Alarick extended his hand and John took it, clasping it in both of his hands.
"Go well," he said.
Alarick turned and went downstairs where Marius waited for him in the main hall. Marius handed him his cloak, donned his own, and they went outside to begin their journey. Once airborne, Alarick flew once around the Keep, committing it to memory should he not return.
They flew south for several hours, following Elissa's last known path. The hope that she was alone collapsed when they found the tracks of several horses and wagons on the main road. It wasn't impossible that she'd found a band of merchants and begged transportation, but they both knew it was unlikely.
When they stopped for rest, Alarick asked his friend, "How does the Ministry move so fast? They use horses, correct? They shouldn't be able to cover this much ground this quickly."
"You have been out of touch up there in your castle," Marius said. "They've perfected a breed of horse that can travel a hundred miles or more in a day. I believe it's something they found in the Near East. They've been breeding them for years now and have thousands in their stables."
"Wonderful," Alarick said without enthusiasm. This news was something else to worry about. It explained the rate at which the Ministry was able to reach village after village, even before his own spies could alert him to a potential attack.
They flew
onward and reached London just after sunset. They landed in Hyde Park and immediately took cover under some trees after changing back into their human forms. It was raining, and the water dripped from the leaves and down Alarick's collar. Another time the discomfort would have bothered him. Today it barely registered.
"I'd say we wait until morning to try to find her, but the cover of darkness is our best asset," Marius said. "Are you able, or are you too tired?"
"I can do what needs to be done," Alarick said.
"Very well. Let's see what we can find out."
They reconnoitered around the Law Courts for a while, eavesdropping from the shadows on the conversations of guards and anyone who passed in or out. Finally, at the rear doors, they heard what they needed.
"Are you on duty tomorrow?" one guard asked another.
"No. Why?" said the other.
"You should see about getting your shift changed. Tomorrow is going to be fun."
"Oh?"
"They brought a witch in tonight."
"So? That's not new," said the other guard.
"No, but this one had a book on her. And she can read."
Alarick rolled his eyes this comment. As if her ability to read made her any more or less dangerous than the fact she was a witch. The ignorance of the Ministry never stopped astounding him.
"What are they going to do to her?" asked the second guard.
"Public torture. There's to be a flogging and a branding. Eventually, they'll decapitate her. Or maybe even give her a traitor's death and throw her entrails on the fire!" The glee in the man's voice chilled Alarick.
"Sounds like fun. I'll go see if McIntyre wants to trade shifts. Is it going to be here?"
"No, over in front of Ministry Cathedral. That's where they're keeping her tonight. The consecrated ground should weaken her, making her easier to control."
Alarick clutched Marius' arm as the latter struggled mightily not to laugh at that remark. They backed away quietly into the darker shade of adjacent buildings.
Once they were safely away, Marius said, "What is it about these idiots that makes them think their religion will hurt us?"
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