"Princess," Aurelie heard a voice rousing her out of sleep. "Princess, please," the voice grew more persistent. She felt a hand on her shoulder, lightly shaking her awake.
Vica, the Sproot's head maid, stood above her. They were under cover of a thick bush, at the side of the garden. Aurelie's head felt cloudy for a second and then a hot flash raced through her along with the memories of the previous evening.
"How long have you been here?" Vica asked.
"I . . ." A lump formed in Aurelie's throat. She lost her wit and words. Vica had never called Aurelie a princess before. In fact, she had never known her real name or title at all. They called her Natali and knew her family to be distant relatives of Mrs. Sproot.
"Come along. It isn't safe, princess. You really shouldn't . . ." Vica paused, pushing away a branch with her hand and looking out through it. "The whole bloody village is looking for you."
"Does anyone else know I'm here?" Aurelie asked. The light coming through the gaps of the leaves was orange. The Sproots would still be in deep slumber. She watched them entertain the King for what felt like hours, before falling asleep, while he was still at the table.
Idiot, she thought. Idiot. Idiot.
"No, it's just me. I saw your feet sticking out of the bushes. We need to get you out of here, and quickly," Vica said, pulling at Aurelie's arm. "They'll be up soon and if they see you . . ." So she knew who Aurelie was and that the Sproots sold them out to the Dragon King. She wasn't sure why Vica was helping her. A large reward waited for her at the Dranoir castle if she were to hand Aurelie over to the King.
Aurelie stood, bending her back to keep herself hidden under the leaves.
"The King has your aunt andâ"
"I know."
"Good God, girl, what are you doing here then?"
"I must have fallen asleep."
"That's incredibly careless. One would hope that someone with your history would be smarter. You've got a lot of people relying on you."
"On me?"
Vica widened her eyes. "Yes, of course, have those people taught you nothing?"
"They taught me everything!" Aurelie bared her teeth. Tears welled in her eyes at the mention of her aunt and uncle. How dare she speak about them and question their efforts in her upbringing?
"Yes, I'm sure they told you all about the rebellion." Vica pursed her lips. Sarcasm did not suit her. If anything, the expression she put on, made her narrow, brown eyes look rat-like.
"They had other things to worry about."
Vica struggled out of the bush, and looked around the garden, making sure that they had been in the clear, and then pulled Aurelie out of the bush by her arm.
"Yes, yes. I'm sure. Listen, we don't have much time, alright? There's a witch in Berillian who is allied with a faction of Halbrook rebels. Her name is Marianne Darkem and she is from the same coven as your late mother. If your aunt and uncle did not leave you with a plan, then go to the village and ask for her. She'll help you."
"Berillian?"
Vica starred at her for a moment, it looked as if she were trying to see if Aurelie was being serious about not knowing where Berillian was.
"We did not travel a lot, since, you know, all the guards in the bloody kingdom are looking for us," Aurelie clarified with a zest of her own.
A bell rang upstairs; Vica looked toward the sound. One of the Sproots was awake. The house would explode with life sooner than either of them anticipated. "That's on you, princess. I've done my part. Now, go! Mention my name to the rebel leaders when you find them. God knows I might need their help soon too."
She had planned to go see her friend, Leila, last night after calming down a little. Even the Sproot's weren't aware of their existence. She and her father fled the castle with her aunt and uncle and remained close by all these years. Mr. Holver would know what to do.
Aurelie and Leila mocked the bag of supplies he kept under his bed specifically for an event like this, but they would mock him no longer. He had maps of rebel holdings, different ways out of the village based on just about any position of the guards, and weapons stashed under floorboards and in the ceiling. He had been a spy for the old King when he was alive and followed Uncle Kaiden as his protection.
Vica hurried off toward the house. She made a turn about halfway to the door and waved Aurelie away as if she had eyes on the back of her head and knew that Aurelie had yet to move.
*****
Aurelie knew that if her aunt had a chance to warn her, she would send her to Mr. Holver. The rebels were fine wizards, she was sure, but their hatred for the Dranoir family could not grow any deeper. For when the King found no dragon to consume, the witches and wizards of Highfire became his primary targets.
How could Aurelie then be sure that they didn't plan on killing her when they found her? Surely, with her out of the way, the Dragon King loses out on her magic and they lose a new potential threat. With another dragon running around Highfire, how could they ever be assured of their safety? That's how Aurelie would think about the matter had she been a witch, and that is why she decided to find the Holver's instead.
Their garden looked much like that of Aunt Elizabeth: rows upon rows of vegetables on one side, and berries on the other, with fruit trees in a straight line behind the cabin providing shade to the house on hot days. Since her aunt wasn't able to travel as much anymoreâdue to the increase of guards roaming all ends of Highfireâthe Holver's plants had lost their color and started to sag. Without the help of magic, there was simply not enough water to keep them alive, not in times of drought. Only the trees survived.
Smoke drifted out of Holver's chimney and swayed into the air. They were home, probably making breakfast. Aurelie's chest roiled in relief. Mr. Holver would know what to do. He still had men who were devoted to him working at the castle, and on the off chance that the King had kept her uncle and aunt alive they could even attempt to rescue them.
As she rounded the corner of the cabin, a sharp smell hit her. It filled her throat with the thickness of pepper. Though it was not that of burning wood from a fireplace, the reek of burned grass and soot. Her nostrils burned from the smell.
Then she saw it, the purple and black particles of a shadow walker portal circling weakly over the blackened grass. The portal was sinking into the earth.
Aurelie dropped to her knees. Her stomach hollowed and if she had eaten anything at all, she might have thrown up right there. She shook her head and her lips parted, "No," she whispered. Her eyes stung. Their stone cabin was black and gray from soot.
Whoever came here had done it hours ago, a day at the most. The King's men must have gotten to the Holver's first. Her aunt and uncle would never give them up and the Sproots had no knowledge of their existence as far as Aurelie knew, they had all thought it was safer like that. But it appears, not safe enough.
A thick haze came over her mind. Before she knew it, she was inside the cabin where the King's fire still burnt in the Holver's living roomâor what was left of it. The front half of the roof had collapsed inward, and only a shell of the cabin remained. The sun heated her hair from above and made the ash glow as she disturbed it.
It was so strange to see the cabin like that. Everything was gone. Broken roof tiles clad the floor, their wooden couch lay in piles of ash, the chimney was black, and in the kitchen, only a hot iron plate remained. The floor had holes in it. The walls were black and the windows brown and cracked from the heat.
Aurelie sucked in her breath and walked from room to room, looking for bodies, not that she would be able to differentiate human ash from that of the furniture, but she knew the cabin well, and perhaps there would be something out of place . . . then she'd know for sure.
The King was not known to leave a living soul behind. The Holver's did not possess magic like her family, but that did not stop him from taking them too. Mr. Holver aided their escape. Helped plot the abduction of the King's only heir. In the eyes of the law, of the King and all his brainwashed loyalists, Mr. Holver was guilty of treason.
She halted at the very last arch - Leila's bedroom - resting her hand against the wall. She stepped away, wanting to cling on to the hope that they had escaped before the King arrived. If she didn't step inside, she would have the comfort of uncertainty. But that wasn't enough. She folded her trembling hands around herself and stepped inside.
The room was clear. She released the breath that she had been holding, and slid down the wall with her back. The tremble in her hands spread throughout her body. It turned into a violent shake. Her vision blurred and the room spun around her. She pressed her hands against the stone floors and braced herself. The power within her crept into her eyes. It covered her vision in a thick orange hue.
Mr. Holver was such a smart man, how could he not have seen this coming? They must have come for them at night, like bandits. There was so much hatred inside her. So much rage and fear. It boiled over inside her, mixing with her magic, and raising her temperature. Sweat gathered in the curve of her back and her neck.
Aurelie kicked the ground, frustrated with her helplessness. She had never been on her own before. Not even for a single day. The thought terrified her. Her only possessions were the clothes she wore. She had no food, no gold, nowhere to sleep, and not a single soul to run to.
Aurelie cupped her mouth with her hands, looking nowhere in particular. Her parents were gone and now so were their friends. Berillian was an hour away and even then she had no idea which way to even go to find it. She sat like that until the sun shifted and stopped shining directly over the cabin.
Something moved in the distance. Aurelie thought that something had disturbed a heap of ash at first, but then as she stood up and walked closer, it flashed. Grey smoke appeared to be manifesting out of thin air. It flashed two more times, in and out of sight, before she found the courage to step even closer and drag her hand over the space it had occupied.
It reappeared, staying longer than before. Aurelie bent over to get a closer look, her nose almost touching it. The smoke disappeared. Within a second of its return, Aurelie found herself face to face with a ghostly, bearded face of an old man. She fell backward, crawling away on her hands and feet. Her heart raced but she did not want to leave just yet. That could be Mr. Holver trying to reach her from beyondâno, the man looked different, older and with a more oval head.
The man's eyes widened. His lips moved, but no sound came out. Aurelie cocked her head, inspecting him closer. The head shot upward and Aurelie scrambled to her feet, pausing again to see what he'd do next. When a body began to form, she screamed and ran out of the cabin, leaving clouds of ash behind every step.