Chapter Three

Ivy stood, ready to head back to the war room to examine it further, but she noticed that Ellora didn’t make a move to follow her.

“What is it?” she asked. “I thought that we were going to go see if there was anything else hidden behind the weapons.”

“Yes,” Ellora said. “We are. But---" she hesitated, “I’m very concerned about Athan.”

The mention of Athan brought the memory of everything that Ellora had told her crashing back down on Ivy. She had been able to push what she had learned about Malcolm, Icelyn, and Athan into the back of her mind as she let the patient file and what it might mean take precedence in her thoughts, but now that Ellora had brought up Athan, she felt the gnawing worry return to her stomach. Athan had been the first person who Ivy had encountered within the kingdom, a person with extreme importance to Maxim, and he had been intricately entwined in everything that had unfolded in front of them. The thought that he was now missing, especially in light of the dangerous role that he was playing in Malcolm’s defection from the Order, was terrifying. She didn’t want to think that he had fallen into the hands of those who had offered up Aegeus, the same people who he had fought against and laid down his life to hold back from the destruction of the kingdom and the people he loved.

“We should go check on him,” she said. “You probably just missed him when you were looking for him. There are so many places around the kingdom where he could have been that you don’t know about. You mentioned someone else who was with them. He might have been with them.”

“Mhavrych,” she said.

The name struck something in the back of Ivy’s mind. She couldn’t quite identify it, but she knew that she had heard that single word before.

“Who is that?” Ivy asked.

“I don’t know who he is really,” Ellora said. “I don’t know where he came from or what he has to do with the kingdom, but he helped Athan rescue me from the Order tunnels and he said that he knew Aegeus.”

“Could Athan be with him? Maybe they brought Malcolm and Icelyn into hiding?”

“He would have told me,” Ellora insisted. “He’s been keeping me informed of everything that happens.”

“Maybe he couldn’t this time. Let’s go to his house and see if he’s there. We’ll bring the page of the file with us. If we show it to him he might be able to tell us more about it. He might even know why your husband was guarding it all this time.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t think that we should take it out of here. It’s too risky. We might break it and then there would be no way that we could show it to Athan or eventually bring it back to Aegeus. Even if we didn’t, we still don’t know why it was hidden. Whoever my husband didn’t want to find it might still be in the kingdom. Bringing it out of the house could reveal to someone that we have it and that might get it into the wrong hands. We need to leave it hidden here, somewhere other than where it was, and we’ll tell Athan about it so that he can come back here and look at it.”

Ivy nodded. She understood what Ellora was saying. Though she was eager to find out more about it as soon as they could, she knew that Ellora was right about the danger that it could pose bringing the page out of the house and possibly having someone see it. Until they knew what it was and why it was hidden, it was better that they kept it hidden.

They made their way across the village as quickly as they could without drawing attention to themselves. Ivy was rapidly learning that every move that they made, every word that she said or step that she took, had meaning and could be being scrutinized. They didn’t know where the Order had eyes and ears, and what might happen if something that they did seemed even slightly suspicious. It was a measured existence, controlled in a way to which she wasn’t accustomed, but she was willing to do it. She didn’t want to do anything that might compromise Maxim’s safety or the safety of any of the others who were standing beside him.

When they arrived in front of Athan’s house, Ivy immediately noticed that there were no lights burning inside. She felt the hope that she had held that he would be there dissipating, but she forced herself to maintain as much positivity as she could, not wanting to further upset or discourage Ellora. They climbed the few steps to the front door and Ellora rapped on it. She waited for a few moments and then turned the knob. The door opened easily beneath her hand and she leaned inside.

“Athan?” she called into the dark expanse beyond the door. “Athan, it’s me, Ellora. I’m with Ivy. Are you here?”

Only silence greeted them, and Ivy felt the rest of her hope disappear. He wasn’t there. Athan was still missing and she knew now without any hint of doubt that there was something very seriously wrong. The swimming, foggy feeling within her mind was still there and now that they were standing on the threshold of Athan’s empty home it seemed to be getting worse. The sensation had spread to her chest and belly, making her feel as though some unexplained energy was swirling through her, surrounding her organs and making it harder for her to draw in and expel her breaths. She reached out and gripped the doorway, hoping that a moment of stability and concentration would ease the feeling and bring her back into full focus, but it did little. She couldn’t understand what was happening to her and though she was concerned, she looked at Ellora and decided not to say anything yet.

The older woman already looked so incredibly worried, so strained and tired from everything that was happening around her and the exertion of her efforts trying to prepare the group for their journey to Penthos. Ivy didn’t want to add any more to that. She forced her face to stay calm and not register any of the worry that she was starting to feel about herself as Ellora stepped past her again and they went down the stairs. They started back toward Ellora’s house, nothing left for them to do but go forward with their exploration of the war room.

When they arrived back at Ellora’s house, both slowed. They said nothing, but it was as though they felt the same slight hesitation, the wariness that had come from discovering that Athan was still missing. Neither knew what they should do. Ivy wanted to tell someone, to reach out to anyone who might have more information or be able to do something. The only people she could think of, however, were Creia, Theia, and Rey, and though she trusted in their strength and leadership, she felt that there was little, if anything, that they would be able to do. Had any of them known what was happening and that Athan and the others were in danger, they would have already taken action.

Ivy and Ellora finally climbed the steps and entered the house again. They had left the lights burning inside, easing some of the discomfort that Ivy felt. There was an eerie feeling in the air, making her feel as though something were creeping along her skin. Without a word, the women made their way through the house and down into the hidden area that had belonged to Aegeus and his father before him. As they descended the stairs and passed by the symbols that represented the men, Ivy wished that she could be witness to even a few moments of what it had once been like in this area of the house. She knew that the war room wasn’t something that had always been there. It wasn’t the original intention for this lounge to contain so many weapons or be the central location of preparations for war. There had been another reason. This space had once meant something else, and she wished that she could experience it. If she knew that, if she could feel what this space had once held, it might ease some of the pain that she felt when she stood in it and some of the dread that she went through any time that she thought of it.

As they approached the door to the war room, something struck Ivy. She was nearly certain that she hadn’t closed the door when she left with the glass page. She had been so consumed with questions about it that she had simply left the room. Now, though, the door was firmly closed.

“Did you close this door?” she asked Ellora.

The older woman looked at her and shook her head.

“No,” she said. “I assumed that you did.”

“I must have,” Ivy said uncertainly. “I don’t remember closing it, but…” her voice trailed off.

They opened the door cautiously, but the war room was empty. Ivy stepped inside and looked around slowly. Ellora stepped up beside her and Ivy saw that her head was moving in the same way, her eyes slowly scanning over the room, looking at every surface and item as if she was attempting to see through them. Ivy no longer saw just the few weapons that had been left behind or the shelves, tables, and cabinets that lined the walls and floor. She saw secrets, the purpose and meaning of each seeming to have two sides; what they could immediately see and what each might be hiding.

“There’s something different,” Ellora said.

Ivy felt as though Ellora were giving voice to exactly what she was feeling. She continued to look around the room, trying to put her finger on what was different about the space. There was nothing that immediately stood out to her as having been altered since the way that it had been when she had left, but she could feel it. Something had changed.