Deception

Before rousing Cynder from sleep, I dashed a quick note back to Seraphia, Which hospital?

Cynder read the message and jumped out of bed. Pulling on a pair of my father’s old trousers (the only men’s clothes we had access to down in the basement), he started to make plans aloud.

“We need a new disguise...we need to think of a way to get out of the capital...where is she again?” He hopped around, trying to get into my father’s trousers while I kept my eyes fixed on the talk stone Seraphia had given me. Eventually, a reply began to form.

One km north of hiding place

“Elise is in a hospital a kilometer north of the holiday cottages. We need to go now. It’s a long journey.”

I tried to keep the panic out of my voice, but it wasn’t easy. I couldn’t lose another sister. I wanted to ask more about Elise’s condition, but to do that would take time and I didn’t want to waste any more.

“Are you ready yet?” I asked impatiently.

Cynder picked up on the fear in my voice. “She’ll be fine. We need to calm down. Going out there without a plan is madness. The whole of the city is surrounded by Luca’s men. The roadblocks are all manned and more have been put in place.”

“I don’t want to calm down,” I yelled. “My sister is sick. She might die!” I hurried along to the exit and opened the door. A bitterly cold gust of wind hit me along with big fat drops of freezing rain.

“At least, take this,” said Cynder, handing me a coat.

Inside the basement, we kept our own faces, only changing them into Jess and Mitch when we were to be filmed by Manny. Today, however, Cynder changed us into other people entirely. He darkened his skin and gave me freckles. His curly dark hair straightened and grew even longer than it usually was, covering his ears and reaching his shoulders. My hair also grew longer and turned fiery red.

I only noticed this as we passed a shop window later and I saw my own reflection.

“Why did you make me a redhead?” I asked as we hurried through the city. “It’s too eye-catching and memorable. You’ve made me too pretty too.”

Cynder hurried to keep up. “You’re naturally a blonde, Jess is dark haired. I figured no one would be looking for a redhead.”

I wasn’t too sure, but it was too late to do anything about it now.

“What has Mr. Copper planned?” Cynder asked as the border came into view. I’d messaged him before we’d set off to ask him for help.

“He said he’d cause a diversion for us in the north of town,” I sighed. I doubted Luca’s men would leave their post to go to an emergency elsewhere, but getting through the border was our only hope. I needed to get to Elise. Needed to! The thought of losing her was too much to bear. In our childhood, I’d only had Grace and Elise as friends. We were so isolated in the palace, home schooled by the best tutors in the land, not allowed to play with other children. My big sister was already gone, poisoned by a man desperate for glory. I know that Elise’s illness had nothing to do with Luca, but if she died because the hospital wasn’t good enough, or she didn’t have the best medical attention, I would personally hunt Luca down and murder him myself.

Whatever Copper had done, he’d done it well. Contrary to my expectations, the border was now empty. The roadblock was still in place, but there was no one there to guard it.

Our plan was to find a horse in a farmer’s field on the outskirts of town, but the moronic guards had left one behind in their rush to get to whatever emergency Copper had cooked up. It was tied up near the roadblock itself.

After untying the horse and jumping on, Cynder held his hand out to me. I pulled myself up behind him, and then we were off. Away from the city, away from Luca, and away from the threat of being captured by Luca’s men. Ok, there were Luca’s men all over Silverwood right now, but in smaller concentrations. If we kept off the beaten track and were careful, we should be able to get right through Silverwood without being caught.

Through endless fields we galloped, the rain in our hair. The weather had taken a turn for the worse, drenching us. By the time we reached a small town in the right area, my newly red hair was plastered to my face.

Finding the hospital was easy. It was the biggest building in the area.

A huge brick building with square windows and not much character, the hospital was still bustling with people. The reception was full of people waiting patiently and not so patiently to be seen by a doctor. I ran past the people in the waiting area, straight to the reception.

“I’m looking for...”

“A young girl who is pregnant,” cut in Cynder. I raised my eyebrow.

“Can you be more specific?” The bespectacled receptionist peered at me in annoyance.

“Has a pregnant woman aged eighteen come in with acute sickness today?” asked Cynder.

The receptionist opened her mouth to speak, but before she could get any words out, Cynder grabbed my arm and pulled me quickly back through the reception.

“What are you doing?” I asked as we stepped back out into the rain.

“Get on the horse,” he demanded.

I looked at him in confusion. “What?”

He picked me up and practically threw me on the horse. Once I was up, he jumped on in front of me and took off at such a speed. I had to hold onto him to keep from falling off.

“Look behind you,” shouted Cynder, his voice almost disappearing in the wind.

I turned to see a couple of Luca’s men following us.

After ten minutes of chasing us, they sprinted off to one side. Another ten minutes later and Cynder finally slowed down.

He jumped off and led the horse to a tree to give us shelter from the rain.

“How did they find us?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder in case they reappeared again.

“They aren’t coming back. We’ve already given them what they want.”

I jumped down from the horse and went over to him. It was already beginning to get dark, and I was desperate to get back to the hospital.

“It’s going to be difficult to get in to see Elise if they are casing the place. How do you think they found us?”

Cynder groaned and held his hand up to massage his temple. I got the feeling I wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

“Elise isn’t at the hospital. She never was at the hospital. She probably doesn’t know that this hospital exists.”

I shook my head, unable to understand what he was telling me. “Of course she is. Why would Seraphia lie to us?”

“She didn’t lie to us. She’s been found out. Luca must have got to her, and if he found her, it means he found the printing press. It also means he found the talk stone. A quick note to you about the one thing you’d leave the capital for, playing on your heart strings, and he had us both where he wants us. I should have realized it was too easy to get out of the capital.”

I was completely lost. “What do you mean?”

Luca knows you are still in town because he’ll have had no reports of you leaving when you escaped from his house. He wants you, but he also wants me and the rest of the Magi. I don’t know how he found out about Seraphia, but as you saw before, those papering the capital with the Charm Chronicle have hardly been discrete. It probably didn’t take much to find out where it was coming from. Once Seraphia was captured along with all the others at her parent’s house in Thalia, a note was sent to you to flush you out.”

“But they still don’t have me,” I replied, still baffled. “Those two men following us went in a completely different direction.”

Cynder sighed. “They will get you. They are too busy capturing everyone at the holiday village first including...”

“Including Elise,” I finished for him. I closed my eyes. We’d led Luca right to everyone. I thought back to the message I’d gotten that morning. It had said a hospital a kilometer north of the hiding place. This was the closest hospital to the holiday villages. It wasn’t quite two kilometers, but it was close enough. Cynder was right. It was too easy to get out of town. The horse left there for anyone to take should have been enough to alert us, but I was so desperate to get to Elise that I didn’t stop to think about it. We must have been followed all the way down here. The two people following us would have messaged Luca. Within hours, the place would be crawling with guards. The others would be found before dawn.

“We need to warn them!” I said.

“We can’t. If they’ve not found them already, they will soon. Luca wants you the most, but he’s gambled that he’ll still get you if he gets the others first. If you’ve proved you’d cross the kingdom for your sister once, he knows you’ll do it again. Even if we do get there before Luca’s men, how are we going to get all those people out without being seen? Roadblocks will be being put up all around here as we speak. They’ll all be kept alive. Luca will be counting on you to go rescue them. We really only have one option right now.”

I asked the question even though I already knew the answer. “And that is?”

“We need to get out of here before it’s too late.”

I looked at Cynder, completely soaked with the rain. He was right. The only problem was where could we go?