think of it, but in some way that goes beyond comprehension. Whether their intentions are good or evil is unclear. Don’t let yourself be pulled in by it.”
At that instant, I am freed from the strange hex I was under, not on my own power or from intervention by Astor or Mavyn, but by a loud pounding echoing from the canals. Soldiers are coming.
“This way,” Astor says, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward the room’s far corner as I hurriedly pick up my pack.
Once we reach where the walls meet, I see that it isn’t a corner at all, but a small exit concealed by the room’s design, each of the walls overlapping the other in order to conceal a secret passageway. Astor slides inside the narrow crevice, but I stop before I reach it, turning around to retrieve the stone.
“You must take this with you,” Mavyn says as she rushes after me, the pouch in her hand.
I grab it, feeling the weight of the stone inside reassuring me that she had actually repacked it. But then she backs away.
“Are you not coming?” I ask confused.
She shakes her head.
“We can outrun them,” Astor implores, emerging from behind me. “They’ll lose track of us in the tunnels.”
“This isn’t about running away,” she calms him.
He looks down in disappointment and doesn’t say anything, disappearing back into the darkness. Mavyn then stares affectionately at me, sad like this is no ordinary farewell.
“I’ll enchant the passageway so they won’t be able to see it or follow you. It will simply appear as though I am trapped alone. There are others besides me who will be able to unlock the stone and create the bridge to the world it came from. Astor will help you find th—”
“Why won’t you come with us?” I interrupt, emotion in my voice because I’m tired of meeting people only to lose them.
“There is something else going on right now, a mystery in the shadows that I won’t be able to uncover if I’m running and hiding. They might kill me, but if they don’t, I will learn what I can, escape, and journey to you where you go. Astor will be tempted to save me. Don’t let him. He is your guide now and will do as you say, even if he can be bullheaded at times.”
I don’t understand Mavyn’s trust in me, nor why I should have any right to tell Astor what we will do as though I know any better than he does, but looking into her eyes now, I can see why my father believed in her. They are a faded light-blue, like crystal, and purer than any I have ever before seen. It saddens me to think that they could so soon be closed forever.
A pounding comes on the door, followed by bellowing orders to unlock it, but Mavyn ignores them, looking down at the ground and whispering something under her breath. The air between her and I seems to glow as she speaks, like flying wisps, fireflies in the air, slowly joining together and creating a thin wall of glass between the two of us.
“Goodbye,” she says peacefully, turning just as the door opens.
Several soldiers flood into the room, two of them seizing Mavyn by the shoulders and pushing her down on her knees while the others search around. One comes toward me and I freeze, his eyes seemingly on mine, yet he doesn’t react. The glass between us somehow makes me invisible to him, or so it appears, and he moves on like all he can see from his side is another a stone wall.
One last soldier enters the room, tall and dark-haired, his uniform decorated with peculiar designs and colors as though he is much more important than those who came in before him. He ignores everything but Mavyn, a satisfied grin on his face like a hunter who has finally cornered his elusive prey.
“Simply forget to hide the way this time, Julienne?”
His voice is snide, like the sliver of a snake, unpleasant and venomous. It makes my blood boil, as do the soldiers who forcefully hold Mavyn, or rather Julienne, in place with her knees pressed painfully down against the jagged floor. I wonder if that is her real name.
“Any suggestion that I let you find me just shows how ignorant you are of your own loathsomeness.”
He laughs lightly, though I’m not sure how amused he is.
“More likely it was for a very special guest. Where is she?”
“Far from here,” Julienne says boldly. “And you know you won’t catch her. Nor will you get any more out of me.”
The playful smile on the man’s face becomes a scowl as he steps forward and grabs her by the throat.
“You may have your enchantments and spells, but I can still hurt you in ways far beyond whatever magical incantations you might utter. Just hope that I never have to use them.”
He then shoves her back into the arms of the soldiers. It upsets me so badly that I am about to charge forward when Astor suddenly tugs me back slightly, restraining my temper a little.
“Take her,” the man then orders.
The room empties as quickly as it was filled, leaving just myself and Astor. His face is firm, reactionless, like he is not letting himself feel what is going on. Instead, he gestures toward the passageway, and together we wander into the dark.
A little further down, Astor lights a torch, which helps us navigate the many tunnels and stairs in the strange labyrinth the passage leads us through. Many twists and turns confound the way, but Astor moves forward confidently without hesitation, that is until we come across two sets of stairs, one up and one down.
“Did you forget which way?” I ask.
“No,” he says with a hollow voice, pausing. “She didn’t have to tell you to not let me go after her.”
“She probably knew you’d be listening.”
“Still, she didn’t have to say it,” he says again, a sort of childish whine in his voice as he lets out a sigh. “So much depends on us now. I wouldn’t throw it all away just to save her.”
“One of these stairs goes to where they’ve taken her,” I infer.
He doesn’t respond, instead glancing at the stairs leading upward for a moment. His head then goes down again.
“If I say we should go that way, it’s not because I’m considering doing something foolish. She and I have said so many goodbyes not knowing whether we’d see each other again that it has become a simple assumption, one we don’t mention anymore.”
“Then what’s up there for us?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it would be good to take a look.”
There is no sign of emotion on his face, nothing that says he’s acting rashly, so I nod and we start the ascent. More hallways greet us at the top, along with another set of stairs. We walk in silence until I ask where exactly we’re going.
“To the courtyard in front of the palace,” he explains. “That’s where they put captured criminals on display. With the light of morning fast approaching, my mother should be there.”
We don’t speak again for a few more moments as we travel through a number of corridors with light pouring down from grates above, some from torches and others from the golden haze of the sky above, the faint glow that precedes the day.
“That soldier who spoke to your mother, who was he?” I say quietly, fearful of what listening ears might be close by.
“Sebastian,” Astor answers sharply, “one of the City Men. That’s what they call their high captains here, a small council of military leaders who have ruled Vanguard since my people were banished. None of them is particularly pleasant, but Sebastian makes the others look like decent folk. He has made it his personal mission to hunt all of us until we’re extinct.”
This description makes me wonder if Sebastian could be one of the reapers. Yori mentioned once that people started to disbelieve and distrust the rangers when no evidence could be found that the reapers were real, but the rangers were convinced that these dark beings who could take the form of men, or even influence their minds, could be hiding anywhere, including among the people of the cities. The thought terrifies me too much, however, to even mention it to Astor.
As I start mulling over this possibility, I slowly trail further behind Astor, who doesn’t seem to notice given h
is quick pace. He turns a corner sharply maybe fifty feet ahead, and I am left in a dark, diagonal hallway unable to see the way to catch up.
At that instant, a strange coldness settles over my skin. It starts with my arms and legs and then slowly spreads inward until it reaches my chest and heart. I start to shiver and breathe deeply as it continues to spread up my neck and down into my lungs.
“Astor,” I try to call out, but my voice is gone.
I become weak, and my thoughts become cloudy. My legs nearly give way before I lean up against the wall to stabilize myself. The way ahead becomes even hazier, and I close my eyes in hopes of somehow withdrawing into myself and finding a place of safety from this overpowering force.
“We’re almost there,” Astor says, shaking my shoulder like I had fallen asleep.
My eyes open, and the power that only seconds before had oppressed me is instantly gone.
“You okay?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I try to play off.
He studies me, his eyes bouncing between mine as though he’s certain I’m hiding something.
“Keep up, I don’t have eyes in the back of my head,” he says as dryly as a child can.
A few moments later, the light pouring into these tunnels becomes a permanent glow as we begin to hear the sounds of people moving and chattering somewhere above us. We slow a bit, moving up one last staircase and reaching a large metal door. To the right of that door is a small tunnel, so small that a grown man would struggle to fit inside. Astor jumps up and begins crawling,