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Before they left the inn, Aaron went back in for their bags. He and Caleb also washed off the blood and dressed their wounds. Neither was too badly injured but both were quieter than usual. With Noah’s brooding silence, it was a subdued group that headed back into the dark forest.
“We’ll catch a train too,” Aaron commented as they walked. “It will get us to Sienya City where Alice will be held until the ball. We’ll find a way to get word to her once we arrive.”
“You mean we’ll find a way to get her out,” Noah snapped.
“That would be almost impossible. Her best chance is to touch him. If she’s as good a person as you claim, she’ll make the right decisions back on Earth and Alexandre will die.”
Noah had nothing to say to that so they continued the rest of the journey in silence.
It was an uneventful journey, though the inability of the starlight to penetrate the thicker areas of forest led to the odd stumble. Within a short time however, the trees were starting to thin and another twenty minutes saw them nearly out. Aaron had them wait while he went on ahead. They milled around in silence, Katerina stealing the odd glance at Noah. The stress of Alice’s disappearance was written all over him so she chose to keep quiet. Caleb stayed that way too.
After a few minutes Aaron reappeared like a ghost to tell them, “It’s all clear. Come on, we need to be fast, the train is nearly here.”
Once they cleared the trees they were in the long, empty rolling Clarine Valley. It was a stunning bright apple-green with more trees on the far side. The train tracks curved through the valley and the train itself appeared abruptly and silently out of the night. It came to a halt right beside them — not that there was anything to indicate that where they stood was a train-stop. The carriages themselves were nearly empty and the few people aboard paid them scant attention. This would change though, Aaron warned under his breath, as they travelled closer to Sienya City.
The journey was surprisingly quiet. Noah obviously wanted to be left alone so, after some time of sitting by herself watching the beautiful countryside roll by, Katerina sought out Caleb’s company. She needed to talk to someone about their predicament.
“I thought he was lying to us,” Caleb nodded at Aaron. “I thought he was some kind of nutter at first. But I just don’t know now. People have tried to kill us twice! And Alice being grabbed...it’s like being in a movie...”
“If he is telling the truth then you must have some stuff to face back home. Do you know what it would be?”
Caleb frowned. “My life is fairly uneventful at the moment. Well, except for work and my parents fighting a lot. You know I’ve spent the entire year wondering what their real problem is and, just like that, in that photo I found the reason why.”
“How did they even get those photos of us? I can’t remember anyone taking pictures of me.”
“Why don’t you ask Aaron? He seems to have taken quite a liking to you.”
Katerina frowned at the insinuation but shrugged anyway and said, “Okay.”
Aaron was gazing intently around the carriage as she approached. When he focused briefly on her, she queried, “Can I ask you some questions?”
“Can I stop you?” he returned with a smile, making room beside him. “What do you want to know?”
“Well, I’m not entirely sure, so much has happened. What can you tell me? Like how were those photos of us taken? And what kind of things will we have to deal with back home? What happens to us if Alice goes back home — while we wait here I mean?”
“There will be little time-lag here. She may be gone a few minutes, but time is different between our worlds.”
“What will she have to do?”
“I don’t know actually. Everything we know about this phenomenon we learnt from some ancient books that were found four years ago in the underground catacombs. It was attempted once many years ago with a different king, but we have no idea how it was even discovered in the first place.”
“What happened? When it was tried that other time?” Aaron seemed suddenly uncomfortable, looking away. She asked in a quiet voice, “Aaron? Is there something else we need to know?”
But the answer was not forthcoming, because as Aaron looked out the window he abruptly sat upright, his face draining of color, exclaiming, “We have to get off!”
The look on his face was enough. She raced back down the corridor with him, grabbing Noah’s shoulder to shake him awake.
The train was slowing into a station. As they moved rapidly down the corridors with a bemused Caleb and Noah now in tow, she caught a glimpse of who they might be running from. There was a group of men standing closely around a figure all in black with a hat hiding his face from view. She did not need to be told he was dangerous; it was almost like there was a dark shadow surrounding him. He was looking down the line of the train, oblivious to their presence. But then his face lifted suddenly and turned directly towards them. For long moments, he seemed to be looking straight at her. It paralyzed her, halting her in her tracks so Caleb banged into her. Then Aaron was grabbing her arm urgently and tugging her forwards and she managed to turn away from the man she guessed was Zeus.
They jumped out of the train carriage on the opposite side of the tracks, finding themselves instantly in a huge crowd of people despite the late hour. Before them was a massive cliff-face with several tunnels cut out of it. Aaron led them into the nearest one at a fast run. It was busy with people and lit by flickering lights in the walls.
They sprinted past men, women and children, shoving their way through groups. Katerina looked back numerous times but saw no one sinister. Her lungs were burning when they finally hit the other end of the long tunnel. They spilled out into a huge, overwhelming, brightly lit, bustling city.
Sienya City in fact, was one of the strangest cities any of them had ever seen for it alternated constantly from block to block between wealth and ruin. Some streets they hurried down were rimmed with high-gated mansions, with gardens lit by ornate lanterns and filled with huge foreboding statues and odd ornaments. Other streets reminded Katerina of a war zone with sections of buildings slumped over, spilling bricks and wood onto the sidewalk, the rubble filling their throats with dust and the signs of war making them jumpy.
At one intersection Aaron halted them and they huddled in semi-darkness behind him. Katerina asked what they were all wondering, “What’s happened here — why all this damage?”
“The War happened. Bombings, killings, fighting.”
“Is it still going on?”
“Yes,” Aaron replied briefly, and said no more.
Eventually he led them through the wreckage of an entire block and into a tall building beyond it. They entered through an empty foyer and waited for a lift that never came. “Sorry, but we’ll have to use the stairs,” Aaron apologized and they started the long haul up twenty-four flights, right to the top. By the time they were in the apartment and allocated beds by Aaron, they were all exhausted. Sleep came quickly.
Katerina dreamed of Aaron this time.
He was walking through city streets and someone was following him. She sensed rather than saw it and she tried to warn him, but it was just a dream and she was helpless to stop him from marching on, oblivious. Then he walked around a corner and three men grabbed him. He tried to call out but couldn’t make a sound. Nor could she scream either...
Abruptly the scene changed and he was in a small, empty room with one wall made of thick iron bars like a prison cell. Even as she watched, the picture zoomed out like a telephoto lens and she saw the corridor leading to the room, then more corridors, and more, twelve in total. They were gray-colored, lit with tiny ceiling lights and marked with strange writing. She tried to understand it, but it was a script she had never seen before...
Then Aaron was before a group and one of them, an older man, was holding a scroll, reading from it. She tried hard to listen, but the words were muffled as if someone was blocking her ears. Yet somehow, she knew it was a death warrant and Aaron was about to die if she did not do something. But again, she couldn’t say anything. She stood in the group and she couldn’t speak. Then they led him, handcuffed, resigned, his face grief-stricken and full of pain, away to die...
She awoke, gasping. Thankfully she was alone in her room so she had not disturbed anyone else. She lay still awhile trying to get back to sleep but the dream was too fresh in her mind to release her. Eventually she got up, threw a cardigan on and slipped out onto the balcony off her room.
The view was spectacular. In some parts of the city, lights twinkled brightly. Other areas were blacked out, yet the starlight caressed them with a silver touch making the devastation almost beautiful. Far in the distance the mountains had lights sprinkled across them too like twinkling jewels. The whole panorama was surreal and strangely appealing. Katerina moved the length of the balcony, drinking it in, quietly so as not to awaken anyone, for the balcony stretched across all their rooms.
She had reached the end before she realized Aaron’s room was dimly lit. She could hear voices through a partially opened window. She did not intend to listen, but a voice raised in agitation floated out to her momentarily. The words alarmed her. Glancing quickly around to ensure she was definitely alone, she moved closer to deliberately eavesdrop.
“They’re in too much danger here,” the unfamiliar voice had said.
“We have to be here for now. We need to contact Alice; there is no other option,” Aaron replied in a much quieter voice, so Katerina had to strain to hear.
“If Tobiah finds you...”
“Tobiah has been trying to find me for two years now,” Aaron sounded weary. “This is no different.”
“This is different,” the stranger was urgent. “There’s so much at stake now. If they find you...”
The two men fell silent and Katerina shrank back against the wall, nervous she might have been discovered. But after a few moments Aaron continued, “Any update on finding the assassin?”
“There is actually. We arrived at that car-bombing in Malinga just as it happened. We managed to get a photo of him leaving the scene this time.”
“Show me.”
Again, silence ensued and Katerina held her breath so they would not hear her. Once more they carried on oblivious to her presence, Aaron asking, “And Lyonel is blaming the bombing on Tobiah again?”
“Yes, they still both have no idea of Alexandre’s involvement in the conflict.”
“Do we have enough evidence to expose him to Tobiah and Lyonel yet?” Katerina could just picture Aaron leaning forward in anticipation.
“I think so. Matthias is putting it together this week, which is all the more reason to get your recruits out of Sienya City. We can’t risk you getting caught. It could ruin everything.”
At that moment something moved in the darkness near Katerina and she swung round in fear, her heart jumping into her throat. She peered into the night, out into the city, into the rooms off the balcony, but could see nothing. She was too unnerved to risk staying there any longer. Aaron and his companions were talking more quietly now too, so she crept quietly back to bed.
She heard someone leave ten minutes later and an hour after that was still awake when a second person, assumedly Aaron this time, also slipped out. She resisted curiosity momentarily before throwing back her covers and hurrying to her balcony again. After a few minutes, she saw Aaron gliding from their building and away into the darkness.
She wrestled with what to do next briefly, before justifying her curiosity as she slipped into Aaron’s room by deciding this was information they should have been given. They needed to understand what sort of danger they were in merely by being there with him.
Thankfully the pictures were easily found, stuffed into a case positioned under the desk. The assassin was some distance from the camera and dressed in dark colors, yet an explosion lit him clearly. He was lean and hard and, even so far away, his eyes looked cold and dangerous. Yet he was inconspicuous too, blending into the crowd as he hurried from the scene of his crime. What turned a man to such evil; to detonate bombs that cruelly killed the innocent?
There were other photos too, of other explosions and some of different groups of people. She stared at them for a while, but they had no labels and meant nothing to her. Eventually, curiosity sated, she packed it all away and returned to her own room. Sleep came quickly this time, but it was filled with him, the assassin, following her, so that no matter how fast she ran she could not seem to get away.
{
As soon as Alice opened her eyes, despair rolled in as the comfort of unconsciousness receded. She was in a small, dimly lit room painted soft blue, lying on a single bed. Across the room another girl slept peacefully on an identical bed. Otherwise the room was completely empty. One window, high up, allowed faint starlight in and there was a door on the facing wall. It was of course locked when she tried it.
“You can’t get out,” a voice said dryly from behind her. Alice turned to find the other girl sitting up staring at her. She was beautiful with dark red hair and a pert nose dusted with freckles.
“Where are we? What’s happening?” Alice asked, returning to her bed.
“Don’t you know? Where are you from?”
Alice regretted her questions immediately. “I’m from out of town,” she said, trying to sound guileless.
“Alexandre’s ball is tomorrow night. We’ve been chosen to attend it. He wants a new mistress. We have the honor of applying.”
“Honor?!” the word escaped before she could stop herself.
The girl frowned. “Yes. Honor! Nothing could be better than a life of luxury with a gorgeous man.”
“But wouldn’t you rather choose a man for yourself than have to be chosen by one?”
“Where I come from the war has ruined everyone. There’s no money in our region. There are few suitable men to choose from. This is my only hope for a decent life,” the girl shrugged.
“A decent life is about more than money.” But the girl just looked at her blankly. “What’s your name?”
“Shiloh. And you are?”
“Aleisha,” she lied. “So, what happens next?”
“We wait. My girlfriend was here last year. She said they fed her and dressed her in a beautiful dress for the ball but otherwise she just waited. She didn’t see anyone else until the ball.”
“And after the ball?”
“She came back home of course,” Shiloh replied in surprise.
Though this should have reassured Alice it didn’t because she had no idea how to get home again. At the thought of this the waves of despair rolled over her again and she lay back down on her bed, wondering where on earth her brother was...
{
Nothing really alerted her that there were new people in their apartment. Katerina just woke up knowing someone else was in the living room. She sat bolt upright in bed wondering what to do. After a few minutes, she could hear muted voices. She dressed quickly in a dark red dress and lemon-yellow cardigan. Her hair was a wild tangle which she hastily clipped back, her mind only on the rising pitch of the voices in the next room.
As she opened her door, she decided the strange voice definitely belonged to Aaron’s visitor from the night before. She had to suppress a gasp of surprise when she saw him, for he was tall, black-skinned and formidable in appearance, dressed entirely in black with the look of a seasoned fighter about him. The series of tattoos adorning his bare arms drew her attention in particular, for they appeared to be some kind of runic language, similar to the symbols from her dream. He was standing between the door and a very irate Noah as if to keep the latter in the room.
“What’s happened?” she asked quickly.
“Aaron’s been captured,” Caleb said beside her, “and this man says we have to get out of the city now, but Noah wants to go to Alice.”
She gasped, and instantly the dream was upon her making her heart pound rapidly. She forced calm into her voice as she asked, “What happened to Aaron?”
“Our land’s in a lot of trouble and we have many enemies,” the black man answered. “One of them has taken Aaron.”
“Who has him?”
“That’s not important...”
“I disagree. Aaron is the only one we trust...I trust,” she corrected as Noah glared at her. “We have a right to know what’s happened to him!”
“It’s not important! Because there’s nothing you can do for him except get somewhere safe, so everything he’s gone through to get you here won’t be for nothing!” the man snapped back, staring hard at her.
“Is it one of those two groups that are at war here?” Katerina asked, watching closely. His slight grimace betrayed him. They eye-balled each other a moment, then she said suddenly, “Take us to them.”
“No!” the man and Noah exclaimed at the same time.
“Noah listen,” she said quickly, “We need Aaron to get Alice back. He’s the one with the connections...isn’t he?” she looked back at their visitor. He shrugged reluctantly. “If we can help Aaron, he’ll help us.”
“I agree, I think we need him,” Caleb interjected.
“No!” Noah’s dark eyes were flashing. “We go to Alice!”
“There’s no way I could get you near her,” the man said. “I can get a message to her, but that’s it. Alexandre’s palace is extremely well guarded during the week of the ball, more so than normal. And they have ways of knowing that you are...different.”
“But you can get us to Aaron,” Katerina stated slowly, already knowing the answer. The dream was going to come true. She had to somehow get there and change the outcome.
Just as she had known he would, the man began to consider her request and after a few more minutes of arguing back and forth, he reluctantly agreed.
{
