by Andra Leigh
“If you’re not going to tell me where we’re going, can you at least tell me when we will be there?” she huffed. Her feet were sore, her legs ached, even her arms felt tired and heavy. With no sky to see she’d lost track of how long they’d been walking for. Too long. She was becoming incredibly hungry and it was well past the time she was usually asleep.
“Consider yourself lucky we were able to spend so much of the journey in the wagon, Princess. It’s cut a two day journey in half.”
“Oh yes, I feel honoured to have been stuffed into a dirty wagon like a common prisoner.”
“You asked to be kidnapped.”
“I did not!”
The woman waved a hand dismissively over her shoulder. “Either way you decided you wanted us to take you with us. We’ve given you plenty of chances to leave, but you just keep following us. If you’ve changed your mind feel free to turn around.”
As irritating as the woman was, she was telling the truth. Before they had blindfolded her – obviously so she didn’t know where the entrance to the tunnel system was – they had given her the option of parting ways, making it clear that they would offer the guards no information on her location if she returned the same favour.
But even if she had misheard the snippets of their conversation back at the inn or made it mean more than it did, there was no denying these two were in hiding or on the run. They were criminals of some sort, wanted by the Realm. But the Realm didn’t have them. In fact they seemed rather competent at evading capture even when the guards were knocking down doors on their heels. Who better to help her remain ‘kidnapped’ than criminals who clearly knew how to disappear. And had a convenient maze of tunnels that no one else appeared to know of.
“Do you live down here?” she called up to them. “Is that why you’re so pale?”
“Who’s pale?” asked Jinx.
“You’re pale,” answered the woman.
He made an intrigued sound. “Overly so?”
“Yes,” the woman laughed before dropping her voice to say something Acanthea only caught a wisp of a word from. ‘Fire’ or maybe ‘liar’. Whatever she had said it had clearly been amusing, as Jinx laughed.
“Well, if you don’t live down here, when will we be there?”
“Weren’t you listening?” Jinx said. “It’s a full day’s journey.”
A full day’s journey. That did not bode well for her sore legs or her tired eyes. “When do we stop for the night?”
“We don’t. We push on through the night.”
“Excuse me!” she snapped at the back of Jinx’s head. “No, we don’t.”
“Yes, we do, Princess.”
“Gentle Reigness,” she corrected, in a dangerous hiss.
“Yeah, not calling you that.”
“Fine. Call me Acanthea.” She would sooner let him call her by her first name than allow him to continue to insult her with that term.
Jinx turned around to face her, walking backwards. “Swapping pleasantries now, how unexpected. Nice to meet you, Acanthea. I’m Jinx and this is Eliscity.” He gestured to the woman who came to a sudden halt, an incredulous look across her face.
“Really! Her you give my real name to?”
“Maybe now you’ll stop trying to get rid of her.”
“I demand to know why we aren’t resting for the night,” Acanthea said loudly over them before they had a chance to ignore her.
The woman, Eliscity, threw her arms up. “Because, Acanthea, we don’t trust you. This means we’re against camping down with you for the night, but are perfectly okay with bringing you home to learn all our secrets.” She shot Jinx a dark, meaningful look before returning her displeased expression back to Acanthea. “That’s right, we have questionable priorities that we apparently don’t question. And you, you just keep following us. I’m not even certain who has kidnapped who in this entire messed up situation.”
“No one’s been kidnapped,” Jinx interjected.
“Well, I know who has been manipulated in this situation,” Eliscity muttered.
Acanthea couldn’t stand this woman. Not only was she strong-willed and exceptionally quick thinking, she was also a threat to Acanthea’s continued presence. She was only here because Jinx was allowing it. But Jinx clearly respected Eliscity and her opinion, just as Eliscity respected him. She could see it in the way they spoke and acted. If this Eliscity kept up her argument, it wouldn’t matter that she knew their names and faces. Jinx could begin to agree it was not a good idea to keep her with them.
Knowing she needed to divulge something to appease them, she said, “I require assistance to remain hidden from the Reigner.”
“Obviously,” Jinx replied.
“Why?” asked Eliscity.
“Take me with you and when we reach our destination I’ll tell you everything.” It wasn’t necessarily a lie. If they gave her enough reason to believe they could be useful, she would tell them about Cathrainra and her son.
Jinx dipped his head to Eliscity. “I maintain, she could be an asset,” he whispered just loud enough for Acanthea to hear.
“She could also be the death of us,” Eliscity said, not bothering to lower her voice.
“You think I’d let that happen?” Jinx growled, his eyes flaring with heat.
Eliscity seemed unperturbed by her friend’s intensity. “No, I don’t,” she spoke softly, “but you seem to be forgetting that her father has already been the death of us.”
That got Acanthea’s attention.
“How has the Reigner already been the death of you?”
She was met by two stony faces and silence.
“Let’s just keep walking,” Jinx finally said.
And they did. They walked…
And walked…
And walked…
And crossed through the streams of frigid water…
And ignored her protests…
And walked…
And ate some bread that tasted days old…
And walked…
And threatened to gag her twice more…
And walked some more…
The insufferable fools were trying to kill her with walking. She was sure of it. More than once she wondered if they were leading her around in circles just to see how long it took her to throw her arms up and leave them. There was no way there were hidden tunnels this long without her knowing about them. Perhaps they truly were in the Northern Cities’ water tunnels. Or perhaps her new companions were actually disturbed or mad and she had just opted to follow them around while they played out some sort of shared delusion.
Wonderful.
She was emptying her ruined shoes of water for a fourth time when she heard Jinx mutter to Eliscity, “I’ll go ahead. Follow at a slower pace. I’ll clear everyone out and meet you at the antechamber.”
Everyone? Who was everyone? She hadn’t considered that there may be more people – criminals and the like – where they were heading. Cringing at the cold wetness of her shoes, she heard the woman reply.
“Fine, but I still don’t know the tunnels well, so if I lose her it’s not my fault.”
Great, Acanthea thought as she straightened. She was about to be left alone with a woman desperate to get rid of her. Glancing at the stream flowing past her, she thought how lucky it was that it was neither deep nor fast enough for her to be pushed into and carried away.
After producing a strange fire stone of his own, Jinx left them, speeding up to disappear into the darkness of the tunnels. She was tempted to rush after him, rather than be left alone with the woman currently ignoring her. But even weighed down with grain, Eliscity was still taller and stronger than her. She suspected she wouldn’t get far.
A few minutes after the final glow of Jinx’s light vanished, Eliscity halted and spun to her. Acanthea waited for the onslaught, wondering whether it would be insults she favoured, or threats. Instead the woman pointed down one of the tunnels they had just walked past.
“Follow the water
upstream until you can’t go any further. It’ll take you to the Southern Cities. That should be sufficient in aiding your escape from your father. Especially since the guards believe you to be in a wagon fleeing Trelyes.”
Acanthea placed her hands on her hips. “I’m not leaving.”
Eliscity didn’t look surprised. “And I’m not going any further until you tell me why you’re still here. And why you ran away, for good measure.”
Acanthea glared at the woman, huffing her annoyance. She knew she was telling the truth. She may have a forceful and determined personality, but this Eliscity seemed just as obstinate and was faring better than her after the long, exhausting, blister inducing journey they had just made.
“There’s some information I need to find.”
“Not good enough.”
“Information on a boy.”
“Not good enough,” Eliscity repeated.
“Information on whether or not the Reigner is responsible for his mother’s death and his disappearance,” she admitted.
“Who’s the boy?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who’s the mother?”
“The maid that raised me.”
“Why would the Reigner kill your maid?”
“She was trying to find her boy.”
“Disappeared by the Reigner?” Eliscity was speaking fast, her expression flat.
“So she believed.”
“And you believe?”
“I believe my maid was of sound mind.”
“You’re trying to find the boy.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She chewed her lip for a moment, tossing up whether or not to say more. In the end she decided it couldn’t hurt. “My maid said it wasn’t just her boy. That many children were being taken for some reason.”
Eliscity didn’t fire another question at her. Instead the woman gave her a dark look.
“Look, have you heard anything that could help me with my search? Do you know why children would be taken?”
Eliscity gave a cold shrug. “Perhaps their blood is special.” Her voice was like ice and venom.
“What did you just say?” Acanthea’s jaw dropped open. “That’s what – she said – it’s still in the blood. What do you know? Tell me what you know!”
The woman didn’t shudder or shake or bow to her. She did the opposite; she laughed. A dark, bitter laugh.
“One day this Realm will be yours to reign and you don’t even know what’s happening in it. You really do have no idea what your own father does to satisfy his craving for power and sick curiosity.”
She knew the Reigner had some questionable morals and methods of getting his way, but the way this lowly woman was telling her about her own life was grating on her last nerve. She was the Gentle Reigness. People were meant to curtsy and quiver in her presence not smirk and laugh. She wasn’t supposed to get blisters and sores on her feet from walking all day through dank tunnels. She had carriages and comfy cushions to parade through the cities. She wanted those soft cushions now. She wanted the woman in front of her to fall to her knees and beg her forgiveness. She wanted to be out of these horrible tunnels.
She wanted a Dusting.
“Why don’t you enlighten me then?” she snapped, angered all the more when Eliscity merely smiled.
The woman put down the sacks of food she had been carrying, red marks marring her flesh in the places that had taken the bulk of their weight. She rolled her shoulders a few times, each time making Acanthea slightly more impatient. Why couldn’t the woman just tell her what she wanted to know? Prolonged pauses were not required in the sharing of information.
Her foot tapped the ground. “Are you going to tell me or what?”
Eliscity untied the laces on her cape-like sleeves and let the material fall limp at her back. Small curved brands inked the corners of her palms but Acanthea didn’t think anything of them. It wasn’t uncommon for people to have themselves marked with some sort of identifier. Marriage bonds, family crests or even ties to a criminal group were often scratched and stained into the skin.
“You don’t know anything, do you?” she accused her silent companion who was now standing perfectly still, an unreadable expression on her face.
Acanthea was about ready to move forward and shake the young woman when something behind her shifted. For a moment she thought it had been the light from the odd fire crystal bouncing off the walls and water. But it wasn’t a reflection. It trickled up through the air, shimmering and growing behind the woman. Peering at the moving shape in the darkness she saw shadowy fingers curl from its edge, twisting and beckoning. Stretching and rising. Panic gripped her chest and she almost reached out to grab the woman. To pull her away from the swelling shape that was creeping up around her. But then she suddenly realised the horror of what she was seeing. And she no longer wanted to grab the woman. She didn’t want to pull her away from the eerie shape. She was the shape. They rose from her back, framing her figure in shimmering darkness.
Wings.
Eliscity had wings.
Frozen at the monstrosity of the sight, Acanthea did the only thing she could think of.
She screamed.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Too Many Truths
• Eliscity •
“GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU MONSTER!” Acanthea-the-Gentle-Reigness screeched, despite the lack of movement on Eliscity’s part, then promptly returned to her incoherent fitful shrieks. Every few screams she would insert a word or sentence into her piercing cries indicative of what she thought of Eliscity.
So far Eliscity’s favourite was ‘unnatural beast’. Crude and simple, it had sounded so amusing coming from the small feisty Reigness that it had made her laugh. Which had brought on a further bout of wild cries.
Eliscity had been prepared to jump into detain mode the moment she had released her wings but so far it hadn’t been necessary. Rather than attempting to flee into the web of dark passageways, Acanthea had waded purposefully into the stream, shrinking against the far side of the narrow tunnel. Perhaps she thought the shin-high water would deter a pursuit. In some ways she was right. Eliscity didn’t feel like standing in the freezing water any longer than absolutely necessary.
Feeling a tremble in the ground beneath her feet she looked over her shoulder and found Jinx, closely followed by Casamir, hurriedly approaching.
Jinx barely glanced at her as he rushed up, his wide eyes focused on the bawling Reigness.
“Why is she screaming? I did not leave her screaming,” he yelled over the din. Finally looking at her properly, his shoulders slumped and he sighed. “I also didn’t leave you with your wings out.”
“No, you did not,” she smiled, giving her wings a little shake out.
Casamir stepped into the stream, grabbed the Reigness by the shoulder and pulled her to him. She gave a frightened series of muffled squeaks as he slapped a hand over her mouth, offering a reprieve from the shrill wails.
“I brought Casamir with me in case we needed a scare tactic, but I see –”
“Oh, got that covered,” she nodded. “But thanks. Although I wouldn’t say no to a team up.” She gave Casamir, who looked positively gleeful, an offering hand gesture.
“What were you thinking?” Jinx looked exasperated. “Now we can’t let her go.”
Acanthea whimpered through Casamir’s hand.
“Okay, first of all, letting her go doesn’t mean she’s going anywhere. Trust me, I tried –”
That earned her a glare.
“ – And second, if you wanted to let her go, you would have done so when I not so subtly suggested walking the Bloods away from her, while we were nothing more than a strange encounter with nameless, faceless people. But no, you enjoy adding to the Family too much.”
Jinx had made his plan to bring her back to Vance Manor with them very clear. Short of keeping her forcibly confined – which didn’t seem like Jinx’s style – or having the Family act like th
ey weren’t experiments of the Realm, there was little room in his plan for keeping the truth about them hidden. Since she had been unable to talk him out of their new attachment, Eliscity was simply speeding matters along.
“I was prepared to have to reason with her to not talk of us,” he said.
“Oh please, does she seem like the type of person who can be reasoned with?”
Acanthea made a throaty noise somewhere between a snort and a chuckle, struggling pointlessly against the bulging muscles of Casamir.
“See,” Eliscity pointed at the girl, “even she knows she’s impossibly difficult.”
“So this is your method of not reasoning?”
“No.” She rubbed a particularly sore spot at the base of her neck. “This is my method of making a terrible situation somewhat amusing to me.”
Casamir barked out a laugh.
“Anyway.” Hefting up some of the food she had piled beside her she turned toward the entrance to the Manor. “It would seem she’s looking for a Clinic patient.”
With that she strode away.
Jinx followed her, with Casamir half pulling, half carrying Acanthea behind him.
He didn’t have far to drag the Reigness. They had only been a few feet shy of the antechamber entrance when Eliscity had decided to stop and find out why Acanthea was so dead set on remaining with them.
The Playground was empty, as she expected it to be. She assumed the other members of the Family were either in their rooms or spending time in the fresh air of the upper Manor after being told of the predicament.
It was going to be a long winded predicament if they couldn’t make Acanthea see they weren’t big scary monsters out to eat her. Not that that was enough reason to make her regret showing her wings. She sensed that even if she had handled the subject with more delicacy, they still would have reached the point where Acanthea was screaming, Jinx was infuriated and she had a pounding headache. No, if anyone stood a chance at talking to the Reigness it was Cyan. Human to human.