Rebel Faerie

Chapter 7

Seven

I have no idea how much time has passed when I peel my eyelids apart and blink into the darkness. I give myself a few moments to recall what happened before I fell asleep. No, before I passed out. Before magic knocked me unconscious.

Before I became a prisoner.

I try to sit up, and that’s when I realize my arms are bound behind my back and that something—dark fabric of some sort—covers my face. I start to panic then. It’s too close—way too close—right up against my mouth, suffocating me—

The fabric is tugged upward, revealing an unfamiliar bearded man standing in front of me. He steps back, dropping the blue-black material—a pillowcase, judging by its shape—onto the floor. A hurried glance around me as I suck in a few deep breaths reveals a nondescript room. Fairly dark. No windows. Several plain chairs around an equally plain table, all pushed to one side of the room.

And five or six guardians.

Beside me, Calla jumps to her feet faster than should be possible for someone whose hands are tied together behind her back. “My magic may be blocked,” she says, “but that won’t stop me from fighting my way past all six of you.”

Blocked magic? My eyes dart across Calla’s body until they fall on the metal band clamped tightly around her right wrist. Is that was flashed out of the wall earlier? I don’t know if my Griffin Ability can remove it, but I’m sure I can help with the ropes. As Calla takes a few menacing steps toward the guardians, I tell both her ropes and mine to break apart.

“Thanks,” she says as her bonds drop to the floor. As she raises her fists, she adds. “Maybe you could try that with the—”

“Hey, there’s no need for violence,” the bearded man says. He holds one hand up as he takes a step back. “We’re trying to help you.”

Calla lets out a bitter laugh. “Is that so? Forgive me. I must be imagining the guardian markings I can see on every single one of you. Em?” Without looking away from the guardians, she shakes her right hand in my direction.

“That metal band is no longer attached to your wrist,” I say quickly, letting some of my power flood into my voice. Everyone stares as the metal band expands and slips off Calla’s hand. One or two guardians even flinch as it strikes the ground.

After another moment’s pause, the bearded man speaks again. “Yes, we’re guardians. That doesn’t mean we agree with the Guild’s policies regarding Griffin Gifted. We just want to set you free, that’s all.”

“Uh huh,” Calla says. “That’s why there are six of you all looking like you’re ready to attack the moment I move.”

“We’re ready to defend ourselves,” a redheaded woman says, “because we figured you wouldn’t trust us. And there’s a lot more than six of us, by the way.”

“That sounds like a threat, not help.”

The bearded man frowns at the redhead before turning back to us. “She didn’t mean that as a threat. She means there are plenty more guardians who don’t think it’s right the way the Guild handles Griffin Abilities. You don’t really believe every single guardian is against you, do you?”

“Kinda seems like it to me,” I say.

“Look, I don’t know exactly who you both are or what the Guild—whichever one you’ve had the misfortune of coming into contact with—has done to you,” he says, “but I promise we’re not all like that. Now there’s a door back there—” he gestures with his thumb over his shoulder “—and you’re welcome to leave through it. But we first need to tell you a few things so you don’t get yourselves into more trouble.”

Calla’s still standing with her fists up, ready to fight. If I had the first clue what I was doing in the fighting department, I would have assumed the same stance by now. “A whole bunch of guardians ready to help us?” she says. “Sounds too good to be true. And that door you just pointed out sounds like a convenient trap.”

“Why would we need to trap you?” the woman asks, throwing both hands up in exasperation. “You were already trapped inside a cell back at Noxsom. Every room in that corridor was a trap for you and the rest of your rebel friends. We could have left you there if we weren’t on your side. Or, if we’d known about the trap sooner, we could have done something about it. Instead, Harryd risked everything to get you both out. And he opened the staff elevator so your friends could get back up to ground level and escape. They would have been trapped otherwise when every level went into complete lockdown.”

“There was no elevator,” Calla says immediately.

“It was hidden, of course. The door can’t be accessed by anyone but a Noxsom guard.”

I watch Calla’s gaze dart toward the door before returning to the bearded man, Harryd. “If this isn’t some kind of trap,” she says, “then your fellow guards would have stopped you before you got out of Noxsom with us. You would have had to get us all the way back up to the entrance. No way could you have done that undetected.”

“Those of us who work there have other ways of getting in and out of the facility. We know where the faerie paths can be opened. But yes, someone will have seen me by now in one of the surveillance orbs.” He takes a deep breath. “I guess I’ll be going into hiding now like you guys. Either that or turn myself in.”

“We’ll make sure you and your family are well hidden,” someone else says.

I’m already shaking my head, still highly suspicious of these people. “So you gave up your job—your safety, your everything—just to get the two of us out of Noxsom?”

Harryd looks around at his fellow guardians. Then he laughs. It sounds the tiniest bit hysterical. “Yeah. It seems I did.” He scratches his ear. “It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. Hopefully my wife doesn’t kill me. But we’ve been talking about taking action for a long time, so it’s not as though I’ve never considered doing something like this before.”

Two or three guardians behind him nod. One says, “Nah, Lucilla will understand.”

Harryd smiles, then adds, “We still don’t know if we have the numbers to make a stand against the Guild’s current leadership. We were trying to figure out if it might be possible to free the other rebels without revealing ourselves, but we hadn’t made a concrete plan yet before the Head Councilor herself arrived at Noxsom earlier today and took the other rebels away. I’ve been working there for years, and nothing like that’s happened before. She just showed up—no prior notification whatsoever—spoke to the warden, and then took the rebels. And after that, all the news reports kept saying the rebels were still at Noxsom. By the time I figured out the Councilor was setting a trap for you, it was too late to do anything about it. And then the two of you appeared in that cell after the spark stunned you, and at that point, it seemed like rescuing you was the only thing I could do, seeing as how we failed to get the other rebels out.”

Calla doesn’t move. “You’re very convincing,” she says. “I wish I could believe you.”

The redhead turns away from us. “Just stun them and dump them out in the forest somewhere. We’ve done what we can for them. They’re on their own now anyway, whether they trust us or not.”

Magic ignites around Calla’s fingertips. “Em, get ready to—”

“Whoa, hey!” Harryd raises his hands again. “Nobody’s stunning anyone. Let’s all just step back and let the two ladies leave the room.”

“So you can stun us while our backs are turned?” I ask.

Harryd shows us his empty palms. “Look, no magic.”

“And yet,” Calla says, “I still don’t believe you.”

The redhead groans. “Is this what Perry meant when he spoke about the major challenges involved in helping the Griffin Gifted?”

Harryd sighs. Calla tilts her head ever so slightly. “Wait, who did you just mention?”

A small frown creases Harryd’s brow. “Perry. You know him?”

This could also be a trick, I want to say to her. Maybe they suspect Perry. They want us to confirm his involvement with the Griffin rebels.

Instead of giving him away, Calla asks, “Perry who?”

“I don’t know,” Harryd answers. “He only used his first name. He’s the one who wrote the original letter that’s been circulating in secret, passed along by those of us who don’t agree with the Guild’s policies. It talks about all the things so many of us have been thinking but have been too afraid to put into action. Forming a united front. Going public with our beliefs and concerns. Challenging the Guild’s policies and calling for new leadership. But it all depends on how many are willing to take the risk and stand up for what we know is right. This guy—Perry—has been gathering names. Well, numbers really, since none of us have added our full names to the letter. He just wants to know if we have enough people to make a difference.”

The expression on Calla’s face tells me she knows nothing about this letter. But a recent memory nudges the edge of my mind. A memory of Perry saying something about actively searching for other guardians who disagree with the Guild. It was a comment he made in passing, probably sandwiched in between the news about which prison Vi and Ryn landed up in and the memo he received about eight more Griffin rebels being captured.

“Sorry,” Calla says to Harryd. “I don’t think I know this Perry you’re talking about.”

Which is what I was hoping she would say. If these guardians do have a letter from Perry, it doesn’t prove they’re on our side. They could very easily have confiscated the letter from someone. Or they could be lying about it.

“Well, hopefully you will one day,” Harryd says. “Now, if you’d like to leave—”

“Wait,” someone else says. “You need to warn them about the tracking, remember? And your suspicions about where they took the other guy. Blackhallow.”

Dash, I whisper silently.

“I’m not listening to any more of your lies,” Calla says, and I know she’s right even though I long to hear more about Dash. She raises both hands, magic crackling dangerously around her fingers. I swallow, open my mouth, get ready to use my Griffin Ability—

“Hey, hey, wait,” Harryd says. “The Guild’s tracking you now!” I pause with my mouth open, wondering if perhaps we should listen to him for just a little bit longer on the off chance that he’s telling the truth. “You can’t go back to wherever you’ve been hiding,” he continues. “They’ll find you there. They’ll find you anywhere.”

Calla pauses with her hands still raised and ready to attack. “Em,” she says without looking back at me. “I hope you’re ready to say something in case things are about to turn south.”

Irritated mutters reach my ears as I answer, “I am.”

“Then tell me, Harryd,” Calla continues, “why we should be so worried about this tracking spell when no one has ever been able to track us before.”

“It’s the newest kind of enchantment,” Harryd explains hastily. “I thought it was still in the experimentation phase, but the Head Councilor ordered it to be put in the funnels in all the Griffin rebels’ cells when she arrived. You breathed it in as soon as you went in that room. It’s slower than some other tracking or summoning spells, but it’s far more accurate than anything else we’ve ever used. But it only works as long as you remain in one place. As soon as you travel any considerable distance, they have to restart their location spell.”

“Let’s say you’re telling the truth,” Calla says. “How long do we have until we’re found?”

“The longest it’s taken the Guild to locate someone is twenty-three and a half hours.”

“And the quickest?”

“Sixteen hours.”

She hesitates, then nods. “And how long until it wears off?”

“The fastest they’ve seen is three weeks. In some cases, it’s lasted up to two months.”

“Right. And what information do you have about Dash Blackhallow?”

“I overheard part of a conversation in which both Dashiell Blackhallow and Reinhold were mentioned. The two could be unrelated, but if not, that could be where they’re holding him.”

“Reinhold?”

“An off-site research station. I’ve heard the name only a few times over the past few years. I don’t even know where it is.”

“I see. Em? I think it’s time for—”

“Every guardian in the room will become motionless for the next ten minutes.” My words reverberate around the room. The guardians have only a second to direct their fearful glances my way before they become frozen to the spot. I launch myself toward the door after Calla, and together we run.