“This is Bessy, she is going to lovingly provide you with something to drink.” He stroked the cow’s head and picked up a brown wooden bowl. Okay, now I was sure I had somehow jumped back into the past. He grabbed hold of one of her teats and squeezed it a couple of times. Milk squirted out into the bowl and when it was half full, he handed it to me.
I wasn’t skeptical of the milk as I put it to my mouth; I just wasn’t sure how to drink out of a bowl. Herbert, my other father, was a pro at this, but me, made a mess everywhere and it was so not princess like. But I was starving and the continuous grumbling in my stomach hadn’t subsided.
I lifted the bowl gently to my lips and started to tip it slightly. The milk was warm, rich and delicious. It ran down my mouth as I gulped it all up and when I was done, I wiped my mouth.
“Sorry, that was really good, thanks.”
“Feeling any better?”
I nodded. My stomach wasn’t grumbling so much anymore.
“Want some more?”
I hesitated before I nodded and he repeated his actions from before.
I drank again after he handed it to me and felt full as I gave the empty bowl back to him. “Thanks.”
He put the bowl down and smiled again. He got up and looked at me. “It’s still early, everyone will probably start waking up in about an hour or so, either you can see if you can get some shut-eye or I can show you around a bit, if you want.”
“I would like that. I don’t think I can sleep again.”
“The grand tour it is!”
He started walking in the opposite direction to the stall I’d slept in, toward two huge wooden doors, and pulled hard on one.
It opened slightly and he slipped through. I followed him.
There was a low running sound of something mechanical, like a farm tractor in the distance. By the faint light of the barn, I couldn’t make out much, just that I was somewhere on a farm.
It was still dark and the sun hadn’t even come up yet.
It was weird because I wasn’t cold; in fact it felt stuffy here, like the humidity was off.
“This way alphabet,” August said and I couldn’t help but like him. He made me forget about the horrible thing I’d done.
When we walked past the barn’s walls, I saw an outline of a huge farmhouse. It was a double story, something spectacular, but he took me in the opposite direction. The lantern in his hand only lit up a few feet in front of us and I had to keep his pace otherwise I was going to see my ass.
We walked down a dirty road past trees and more trees. Then the road went downhill. He must’ve known this place like the back of his hand as he just walked. I, on the other hand, bumped into him on so many occasions that after ten minutes I’d said sorry so much, it felt like it was the only word I knew.
He suddenly stopped and lifted up the lantern higher above his head towards what seemed like rows and rows of cultivated fields.
“As you may have guessed from the barn, you are on a farm. We grow everything we can to hold up our side of the agreement.”
I wanted to ask what the agreement was but something told me it was something I should already know, like it was a part of history. It was in his tone, the way he’d said it, so I kept my mouth shut.
What happened here? The scenarios running through my head were starting to scare me to death. I really wanted to know what agreement he was speaking about. He was talking about freedom but by the looks of the dark outline of the fields, it was screaming the opposite. Someone was seriously scaring these people, and freedom was something that wasn’t as strong here as this boy made it out to be.
Now for the million-dollar question, where the hell was I?
Month One.
Alkadeen.
’D WALKED WITH August through so many fields on our tour. The first one was full of grapes. He even picked a couple and handed them to me. I shoved them into my mouth as if I hadn’t eaten for weeks and they were delicious. By the way he talked about the fields I could tell they took pride in their lands.
We passed fruit trees too. There were orange trees and pear trees, and all sorts of berry bushes I didn’t even know grew this time of year.
As we walked the sun had started to come up. I had never seen a sunrise like the one before me. It was a soft purplish pink mixed with a blood red sun. It took my breath away.
I turned around to look at August, but something different was reflected on his face. It wasn’t awe, or the highlight of another day, something was wrong. His expression was almost heartbreaking, it was an expression that told me sunrises on the farms didn’t mean a new day. It meant something bad that was instilled by fear.
What was this place?
Still, it lit up plenty of the farm and fields, and the scene before me took my breath away. There were acres and acres of fields with farmhouses in the distance and more barns. There was no delineation between farms, which fields belonged to whom or any sign of fences. It was just one huge field with rows and rows of crops planted and rows and rows of trees and bushes. It didn’t make sense. “You are all working these lands together?”
August just looked at me funny, as if there was any other way of working a farm.
“Sorry, that’s not what I meant.”
“I know what you meant. They took all the deeds away, and merged all the farms together. So now we are only working for the Council and that is it.”
“The Council.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement made in utter shock. The Council was behind this. But how? How could Caleb or Helmut not know about this? This wasn’t right. It wasn’t the way I wanted the people of Paegeia to be treated. I should’ve never granted that Sonic project, just because I wanted to see my mom for real, I should’ve visited the farms and found out more. Maybe one of the projects had been for this. Then again why wasn’t this boy yelling at me or fighting with me about the Sonic Project?
“Are you okay?”
I nodded. “I’m fine, I’m just not feeling so well.”
“Maybe it’s all the fruit. Come, I’m sure the folks are awake.”
August led me back in the direction of the barn. My heart was now heavy and bouncing with fear and my gut, well it felt like I’d eaten bad fruit; but I knew the fruit wasn’t bad, it was, in fact delicious.
“As you must know, we don’t have a lot of women your age on the farm, so just to warn you, if some of my brothers end up staring, just ignore them.”
I stopped. What the hell did he mean? I didn’t know anything.
August stopped too, turned around and walked back to me. “Are you sure you are okay, you are acting kind of strange?”
“I’m fine,” I lied again. I should stop feeling dumbfounded every time he revealed something to me, I could give everything away if I didn’t stop.
I took a deep breath again, pushing the last bit of information into the back of my mind, and walked with huge strides up the road again.
August was right behind me and then right next to me. He just chuckled.
“What?” I looked at him.
“One of my brothers actually stared at you for an entire day, my mother and two sisters are some of the few women here. There are about three at the farmhouse below and a couple more just below them. So seeing a beautiful girl, well you could say his eyes sparkled.”
I giggled. I wanted to ask him why there weren’t plenty of young females here, but he might just ask me what was wrong and I didn’t want to give anything away, or worse, be handed over to a higher power.
“How old is he?” I asked another question.
“About twenty-five.” I giggled as I’d thought this brother might have been a young boy of five.
I could see the sadness still in his eyes. “Two of my sisters were taken on his birthday. It was a sad day.”
“How many sisters did you have?”
“We were quite a big family, well if you count my two eldest brothers’ wives, fifteen.”
“You had fifteen sisters!”
>
He laughed. “Okay not that big, no we were a total of fifteen. I had four sisters and three have been taken. One of my sisters and another we picked up, like you, are still with us. They look extremely tomboyish, as it was the only way to make the Council lose interest in them. My other three sisters, and two sisters-in-law, well we never heard from or saw them again.”
Why didn’t I know about this? Where were they taking them? All those women… I felt like a crappy princess again. I was useless at this. I should’ve known. “I’m so sorry.”
“They will take you too, Elle, if they discover you are here.”
I stopped and stared at him again.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure my father has some sort of a plan.” He grabbed my wrist and pulled me further down the road toward the mansion of a house.
It was beautiful and needed a bit of TLC, but it was made of the same rock the Leaf’s manor was built from.
It had the most beautiful wooden oak door and a small driveway in front of the entrance which had a huge porch.
There were beautiful round bushes growing alongside the house, with a gorgeous garden that grew all sorts of flowers right in front of the driveway. It was extremely homey.
We walked up the steps to the porch and he opened the front door, and led me into a huge lounge.
It was full of fluffy couches, with a very old TV and a fireplace with plenty of lanterns lining the windowsills.
Noises came from in front of us, like people talking all at the same time.
“What do you mean they aren’t in the barn?!?” a deep male voice asked.
“I was just there, Tom. August is not there, and neither is the girl.”
“Her name is Elle, like the letter,” August yelled from the hallway we were taking that was leading us toward the buzzing noise; we walked into the kitchen.
A table with at least five grown men all looked up at August and me as we entered.
Another was doing the dishes and an older woman was frozen in place with a huge bowl of scrambled eggs in her arm.
“Elle, this is the family; family, Elle.”
“Hello,” I croaked as they all just stared at me. I knew why they were staring and I looked down to the floor.
“For heaven’s sake eat your food.” The one that stood by the basin washing dishes smacked one of the men sitting in the head. I’d only just realized that she was female and not male. It must have been one of August’s sisters, and I totally got what he meant by changing her appearance so that the Council lost interest in her. The guy that she smacked rubbed his head and gave her a scowl.
“It’s not like you haven’t seen a girl before, Steve.”
“Well, I haven’t seen a girl like her before.”
The older woman with the bowl of egg in her arms unfroze.
“Nice to see you are finally awake, Elle. You must be starving.” She slapped one of the men on his arm and he got up with his plate in his hands.
“No, thank you. August sort of fed me from your crops.”
They all froze and looked at August.
“What?” August said. “It’s not like they will know. Besides it’s still our land.” He sounded angry.
“Okay, fine. Just, you need to be careful. If any of them saw you…”
“Mom, they are not here.”
“No. If they were, Elle wouldn’t be here.” She put the bowl down on the counter and came over to me putting both her hands softly on my shoulders.
“Sorry for the barn, we weren’t really sure what to make of all of this.”
“It’s okay,” I said. And wondered again why none of these people knew who I was. They didn’t even mention that I resembled the princess, nothing.
“I’ll get a bath ready for you.” She smiled. “Daisy, help me with getting some water on the fire.”
Fire? Didn’t they have geysers?
“Come, we have set up one of the guest rooms for you,” the older woman said and gestured for me to follow her.
We walked down a long marble hall. Plenty of pictures of more women and happy families lined the walls.
I couldn’t help but look at them as I passed. The number one question on my mind was still where was I. Why were all of August’s sisters taken and why did they need them? A part of me knew that answer but somehow I knew it wasn’t the case as I was sure we would’ve known. One of us would’ve known, but then again why would the other two women have completely changed their appearance if that wasn’t the reason? It felt as if I wasn’t inside Paegeia anymore and I knew answers to these questions would raise more, ones I just couldn’t answer as I was too chicken shit to be caught by the same Council that was responsible for this. If they knew I knew, they would for sure find away to keep me silent, probably killing me. I wasn’t ready to die, yet.
She led me upstairs, on steps that creaked. The shoes she wore were old, and patched up with a different kind of fabric here and there.
Her clothes resembled August’s, also patched up.
It just raised more questions and more concerns. If this was what freedom was like wherever I was, I didn’t want to know what other parts looked like.
“My name is Gertrude, my father was the one that found you. He’s a lot like August. They have a fighting spirit, but I’m afraid that it’s only going to get them killed one of these days.”
Killed? She spoke as if fighting spirit were the wrong spirit.
“So when he found you, he couldn’t leave you.”
“Then I should thank him.”
“Where are you from, Elle?”
“It doesn’t matter.” I spoke softly. “I just can’t go back, ever.”
She looked at me with concerned eyes and then they slowly welled up. She sniffed and wiped away her tears. “Sorry, silly. An old woman like me crying.”
“No, it’s not. August told me that they took three of your daughters.”
“It was a long time ago.” She sighed again.
“Still, it can’t be easy.”
She just scrunched up her nose and walked the last two steps that led into a carpeted hallway. There were plenty of doors and she opened the third door.
It was a beautiful old bedroom, with a huge bed and an old bathtub, which was still empty. Gertrude walked to the closet and took out one of the few dresses that hung inside.
It made me think of Cinderella’s dress before she moved to the palace to be with her Prince Charming. It was worn too, patched up here and there.
“I’ll get that washed for you, sorry that this isn’t more like what you are used to.” She eyed my jeans that looked nothing like their clothes and my brand new sneakers. “You need to fit in otherwise I’m afraid we won’t be able to help you.”
“It’s perfect,” I interrupted her and gave her a warm smile.
She smiled. “I still would love to know what was so bad about this place you ran from. From what you are wearing, it couldn’t have been that bad.”
“It was.” I spoke fast and hoped that she wouldn’t ask what it was I had done.
A knock on the door came to my rescue and the girl that had smacked the guy behind his head, and another, both carrying huge pots of steaming water, entered. They poured it in the old bath and left.
Two more pots came, carried by two of the guys. I found the one looking at me as he walked past, Steve, I think was his name, but as our eyes met he looked away immediately.
“Please don’t fear them, they won’t harm a soul. They just haven’t seen a real girl in a long time.”
“A real girl, your two daughters aren’t real girls?”
She giggled. “Not what I meant. They had to change their appearance, cut off their beautiful long hair so that the Council doesn’t pay any attention to them. I was referring to the way you look. Your beauty is what puts them under this spell.”
It was my turn to giggle. “Thanks for the compliment.”
A couple more came and it didn’t stop until the bath was filled with enough water
to take a bath. Gertrude moved a divider that blocked the bath from the bedroom and gave me privacy to undress myself.
“The best route of action is to let you start working the land as soon as Marcus has spoken to the rest of the farmers. He is not here right now, and will be back shortly. We just hope that all of them agree, otherwise, I’m afraid that when the Council comes next month you will go with them.”
I swallowed hard and prayed that the rest of the farmers would agree to keep me. I felt like a stray puppy.
“Okay, I understand.”
“He’s really good when it comes to persuading people.”
I gave a small laugh. What else could I do, cry? It was so not going to help my situation at all.
I climbed into the bath. It felt so good.
“Is the water warm enough?”
“It’s perfect, thank you,” I said again.
“Okay, I’m just going to get you a towel and some soap.”
“Thank you.”
I heard the door opening and closing again. There were so many things going on here that I didn’t understand, and I didn’t know how to begin to understand it. Not asking questions was the hardest part. Just then Blake crept into my mind. I hadn’t thought about him at all. Why did the idiot have to kiss me?
I pushed the memory of the blood pouring out of his nose and ears to the back of my mind. I couldn’t think about that. He was dead and he wasn’t going to come back. Still, I had to know if my abilities still worked.
I closed my eyes and thought about my pink flame, just like he’d trained me that first time on the mountains. When I saw it, and felt it, I opened my eyes; but, nothing. There wasn’t even a spark.
I buried my hand under the water. If the pink flame wasn’t working, none of the others would either.
Still I tried. I tried to move the divider with my gift of telekinesis. I stared at the damn divider so hard that it almost gave me a headache but still, it didn’t move. It was never going to move ever again, Elena. The sooner you make peace with that the better.
The door opened up again and Gertrude walked in. Or I assumed it was her, hoped it was her and not one of her peeping boys.