Heart's Desire, Part 12

8.

In dread, Malachi obeyed his Master's orders to return home. He half-expected his Master to be waiting for them in the living room, ready to force the Hunt to wear the form of a Hound for the rest of eternity, but the others still sat in human form, waiting for their Master's orders.

As soon as Malachi's feet touched the stone floor, he shifted shape and fled into the kitchen, only wanting to be alone with his grief and sorrow on his last night in human form.

He could not see his Master allowing their freedom to remain in place. Not with Josiah gone so completely.

Malachi sat down at the kitchen table and buried his head in his hands. He didn't notice Nathaniel standing in the doorway until the other Hound spoke.

"What's wrong? What did you find?"

"Nothing," Malachi whispered, not glancing up. "Nothing at all. We weren't--permitted to finish our search."

"Perhaps our Master was afraid you, too, would be taken," Nathaniel said diplomatically. "I--"

Malachi raised his head. "He will not allow us our human forms, Nathaniel! Not after this!" He didn't realize how loud he had spoken until the others crowded in the doorway, uncharacteristically grim.

"Do you know this for fact?" Thomas demanded.

Malachi took a deep breath to quell the panic that raged through his body. "He thinks the Council stole Josiah away," he whispered, all-too-aware that their Master could open the bond at any second and punish him for speaking at all.

"Why?" Seth spoke first, his tone of voice disbelieving. "Why would they do such a thing?"

"Lucas knows Josiah is a Hound," Malachi whispered.

"I have never seen Lucas Lane act anything but honorably around our Master," Thomas said, his voice grave.

"But he is the only one who knows!" Malachi closed his eyes. "We are doomed."

"But--But won't our Master ask Lucas? If Lucas already knows Josiah is a Hound?" Zechariah's question was perfectly logical, of course. And in any other instance, Malachi could believe that their Master would do such a thing. But now--

"I wish he would," he said, and wondered how he had come to be the Hunt's spokesperson. "But I am afraid he will not. The Council's binding only holds us for ten more years, after all, and--"

"And if we anger them now--" Thomas spoke the words that Malachi did not want to speak. "I see."

"But what if the Council isn't involved?" Seth pressed. "What if Lucas has nothing to do with Josiah's disappearance?"

"He was a student at Darkbrook," Nathaniel said. "Won't they notice his absence?"

And that would be worse. Inquiries. "We're doomed," Malachi whispered. Should they all resume their Hound forms now and just get it over with?

He had possessed a luxury that the others had not for all these years. But Malachi doubted their Master would allow him his human form--even in secrecy. Unless they could prove the Council was not involved, perhaps, or that their secret that wasn't quite a secret had not been discovered.

Malachi closed his eyes as the damning thoughts raced through his mind. If he--If he dared to approach Lucas and ask for an honest answer about Josiah-- Would Lucas tell the truth?
Better yet, would his Master open the bond, read his thoughts, and kill him before he could make the attempt?

"You've thought of something," Seth said, almost begging his words to be true.

Malachi raised his head and opened his eyes. "Yes. I've thought of something, but I'll be killed if our Master finds out my intentions. That is why I can't tell you--I can't tell any of you what I intend to do."

"Don't risk your life for our sake," Thomas said. "I do not wish to see you dead, Malachi."

"Yes, but this is my fault," Malachi said, standing. His chair scraped across the stone floor. "I started this. Josiah wouldn't have been able to shift if it wasn't for me."

"Malachi, no." Of them all, Nathaniel was the only one who had figured out what Malachi intended. "I can't let you do this."

"You can't stop me, either," Malachi said. "Unless you tell our Master, and then I'll die for nothing."

"He will send us after you," Nathaniel whispered, blocking his way through the door. The others hovered behind him--Seth's face pinched and white, Thomas and Zechariah grim and silent. "And I do not wish to be forced to hunt you down, Malachi. Please don't do this!"

"What is it that you intend to do?" Seth asked. "I know you said you couldn't tell us, but if Nathaniel knows--"

Through the bond between them, Malachi felt Nathaniel share his knowledge with the others. "Damn you," he said helplessly. "Do you want to spend the rest of eternity in the form of a Hound?"

"I'd rather--" Nathaniel began to speak, but Thomas cut him off.

"No. Let him go. It's a good plan. If the Council didn't take Josiah, then our Master has no reason to force us to stay as Hounds."

"You are assuming that he will listen to reason when he finds out what Malachi has done," Nathaniel said stiffly.

"There is that," Zechariah said softly, and faded away from the pack, as if he did not wish to be involved any longer.

Thomas soon followed his lead, leaving Seth behind with Nathaniel.

"Would he kill two of us?" Seth asked, quite seriously. "Because I will go with you if it might mean saving your life."

Almost as one, Thomas and Zechariah stared at Seth in shock. Nathaniel spluttered a curse and turned away; Malachi felt some knot of tension release inside his chest. He couldn't allow Seth to come, but at least he knew that one of the five--one of the four, without Josiah--supported him enough to join him in punishment.

And it was true, more than likely, that their Master would not murder them all. There was always a possibility, of course, but if they banded together--

If they worked together, Gabriel would see it as the ultimate betrayal. If Malachi went by himself, then at least their Master could pretend that the betrayal was Malachi's alone.

"I have to go alone," he said aloud. "If we band together and defy him--"

"It would not go over well," Nathaniel whispered. "Go. Go now, and hurry back. If he--If our Master discovers your absence, he will make us Hunt you, and I don't want to have to do that."

"Be careful," Seth said, and stepped back, his eyes wide.

How long would it take for their Master to feel the tension between the Hounds and wonder what was going on? How long would it take for Gabriel to notice Malachi was missing?
And then, a sobering thought: What would happen if the Council was involved in Josiah's disappearance? And Malachi endangered the others by exposing himself--and his ability to shift--to Lucas? Did he dare take that kind of chance?

Did he dare not?

Malachi wrenched his mind away from what could be and tried to concentrate on what he knew he had to do.

"Hurry back," Nathaniel said, as if he could guess what kind of thoughts were spinning through Malachi's mind.

Without speaking, Malachi nodded and hurried out of the kitchen, tensed for a shout from their Master or the opening of the bond.

When nothing happened by the time he reached the mouth of the cave that led into the human world, he thought, perhaps, that his desperate scheme might just succeed. Out of habit, he shifted into the form of a Hound as soon as he stepped away from the cave and raced away across the forest floor, running as if the very Hounds of Hell were snapping at his feet.


Next Update: June 1st

House St. Clair Home

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Heart's Desire, Part 11

(I skipped last week due to Mother's Day.)

7.

For almost two years now, Gabriel had allowed his Hunt their human forms. And as they flourished--and as he learned to trust them--he had relaxed his hold on their minds through the bond they shared. He did not leave them alone, but he trusted them enough not to hover over their every thought and watch their every action.

Perhaps this was why he didn't realize something had happened to Josiah until Malachi appeared in the library doorway, his face white.

"My lord, Josiah is gone."

Gabriel immediately opened the bond and felt--not quite nothing, but as close to nothing as he had sensed since the Council's binding. He rose from his chair before he realized he had moved, and centered his whole awareness on the absence of his youngest Hound.

It should not have been possible for anyone to smother the bond, but he could not push past the spell or whatever it was that hid Josiah from his sight. And even as he tried, something seared across his inner vision and severed any hope he had of finding his Hound again.

For a moment, all he could do was stand there, fearful of falling to his knees. He groped for the table and held on for dear life as he tried to comprehend what had just happened.

Josiah wasn't--he wasn't dead. No. Gabriel could still feel the others, and the bond would have crumbled under the strain of a death.

"My lord?" Malachi's voice brought him back to the library.

Gabriel opened his eyes. "Where are the others?" His voice came out harsher than he intended, because Malachi flinched back at his tone.

"They are all here, my lord." His voice shook. "What--What happened?"

"I don't know," Gabriel said with a deepening sense of alarm. "I don't know." Did he dare send the others out to search for Josiah? What if-- He shook his head to clear it. "Were you speaking to Josiah when he vanished?"

Malachi flushed. "No. Not--Not exactly. But he was near the waterfall, and then he was gone. Just--Just gone."

"You kept tabs on him?" Gabriel asked, forcing any shred of blame from his voice.

"I--I--Yes." Malachi stared at his feet. "I kept tabs on him, my lord. And he was not aware of it."

"And did you sense anything at all before he vanished? Anything?" The trail--if there was a trail--would grow cold before long. Without waiting for Malachi's reply, Gabriel tried again to find his missing Hound through the bond.

Nothing. Not even a hint of his presence, this time.

"I didn't keep that close of tabs on him," Malachi said, almost defensively. "I didn't intrude on his thoughts. I just saw he was on his way here and I--I left him alone. If I had--" Guilt charged his words.

"No. This is not your fault." Gabriel tried again to push past the barrier to what lay behind it. This time, at least, he felt something--something alien and strange, but something nonetheless. But the backlash almost brought him to his knees.

"Who would have done such a thing?" Malachi whispered.

"I don't know, but I intend to find out," Gabriel said. "I want you to take two of the others and search the banks of the river along the waterfall where you felt him last."

"Perhaps he fell in the river," Malachi said, glancing up at Gabriel to see if this could possibly be true.

Gabriel hesitated before replying. "He would have shouted for help through the bond," he said. "I am sure of that. And I felt nothing. I feel nothing. There is some barrier blocking him from me. And that would take a wizard's--" He stopped as the thought that had been lurking in the back of his mind suddenly bloomed.

It would take a wizard--a powerful wizard--to keep him from his Hound. And the only wizard who knew Josiah was a Hound--

At first, he dismissed it as ludicrous, but it would not go away. But why--Why would Lucas do such a thing?

By the look on Malachi's face, he was not far behind Gabriel's line of thinking. "My lord--No. Josiah would never condone such a thing!"

"I'm not saying that he did," Gabriel said, and felt a strange sense of dislocation shroud his thoughts. Lucas was the only one who knew the Hunt's dearest secret. Had his years of careful plotting finally paid off? Had he been after the Hounds all along?

It had been so long since he had been truly furious that he almost didn't recognize it for what it was. Malachi had not forgotten, however, and Gabriel remembered the fear in his gaze far too well.

"Take two of the others and go," he said, and could not help the harshness in his tone of voice.
Malachi fell to his knees. "My lord--"

"Go."

Gabriel's first inclination was to confront Lucas--to demand the return of his Hound. But he did not want to act rashly. The Council did, after all, hold him bound. And he did not want to anger them with only a handful of years left of his sentence to serve.

But this--they had gone far enough. Surely he had some recourse for retaliation.

"My lord--" Malachi still knelt in the doorway, his gaze on the floor. Trembling, as if he expected to be killed. "My lord, I--I can't see the Council attempting such a thing."

Gabriel almost lashed out at him, but he caught himself at the last second. "Go now," he said, struggling to hold his temper in check. "Go. Now." He backed his words with power, driving his Hound away.

When the door swung shut behind him, it sounded like a death knell, far too final for Gabriel's liking.

What was he supposed to do? Sit and wait for word? Gabriel had little patience for waiting, especially where the Council was concerned. And Josiah was his. How dare they--

He stopped that thought before it could continue. He had no proof, of course. And he could not directly confront the Council without risking their wrath.

The spectre of Magdalen briefly crossed his mind, but in truth, he knew what she wanted. And it did not make sense at all that she might kidnap Josiah and hold him for until the Counci's binding was over and done with. She was not that patient. And he had seen no sign of her since the Hunt was bound.

He couldn't even venture out to search for Josiah himself, just in case someone put two and two together and figured out what the Hunt had been hiding for almost a hundred years.

With a curse, he slammed his fist into the nearest wall. He wanted the wall to be whoever had stolen his Hound, but it was a poor substitute for the real thing.

He did not like this sense of helplessness.

There was a Hound outside the door now, hesitant and wary--Nathaniel. When Gabriel opened the door, he stepped back, raising his arms automatically to protect his face from any blow.

"My lord, what happened?" He spoke quickly, as if he expected Gabriel to punish him for asking such a simple question. "Malachi took Seth and Zechariah with him, but he wouldn't tell us what happened."

"Where is Josiah?" Thomas stepped up behind Nathaniel, his gaze intense.

He did not share Nathaniel's fear of punishment. Perhaps he knew that Gabriel had no intention of punishing his Hounds for this.

"Josiah is gone," Gabriel said. There was no reason not to tell them the truth. "I sent Malachi to attempt to find his trail, but I fear he will not be successful."

"Gone?" Nathaniel repeated, shock--and something else, something as if he had expected something like this--in his gaze.

"Do you know something about this?" Gabriel asked. Had Nathaniel kept tabs on Josiah too? Had he seen something?

"No! I--I--" Nathaniel closed his eyes, tensing for a blow that would not come.

"You thought something like this would happen?" Gabriel guessed. He kept his voice soft. "He did not vanish of his own free will. Whoever has stolen him is blocking the bond."

Malachi and the others had reached the river now. It did not take them long to find Josiah's trail, but the trail abruptly ended near the bank of the river, and no amount of searching found it again.

He is gone, my lord. Malachi's thoughts ran raw with grief and worry.

Keep looking, Gabriel instructed, knowing they would not find any sign of his missing Hound. On a whim--just in case--he had them draw closer to Lucas' house in their search, taking pains not to be seen.

"What would you have us do, my lord?" Nathaniel had straightened up now, and some of the wariness had left his gaze.

If he told his Hounds that he did not know, what would they do? Was the Hunt under attack, or had the target just been Josiah all along? "Stay here." He could think of nothing more to tell them. If the Hunt was under attack, then Malachi and the others would have to return soon as well.

And then he would have to wait and see if the Council--if Lucas--admitted Josiah's absence, and whether or not he had any recourse for any hope of a response.

He closed the door before either Nathaniel or Thomas could respond, and leaned against it. After a moment's hesitation, he ordered Malachi home, ignoring his protests. If he did not obey, Gabriel would force him to return.

His fury had fled, leaving a sickening nausea behind. Where was Josiah?

Just two years ago, he had contemplated retreating; forcing his Hounds to abandon their human forms and living out the rest of his sentence without seeing their human faces again. He had decided against that path, believing he had made the right decision when Josiah--and the others--blossomed under the little freedoms he had allowed them.

He had lost Emle, after all. He did not want to lose his Hounds as well.

Had he made the wrong decision, then? Was it now too late for retreat? His heart ached to make such a drastic decision, but Josiah's disappearance warranted drastic measures.

He would have to ensure Malachi would not be able to shift shape. He had been the instigator of this entire allowance, after all, and he would be the first to protest.

Gabriel did not want to make such a decision, but what choice did he have? How long would it take for Josiah's captors to discover that he was a Hound if they did not already know?

Josiah's disappearance had left him with no choice. Perhaps he had made a mistake. He shouldn't have allowed them their human forms in the first place--and this would not have happened.

At least he could console himself of that.


Next update: May 25th

House St. Clair Home

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Heart's Desire, Part 10

6.

Josiah's room was empty.

Althea stood in the doorway and stared at it for a moment, trying to figure out what could have happened. She'd looked up his room on the student listings, which should have been up-to-date, and there hadn't been any mention of the chosen four moving out of Darkbrook for their studies.
But Josiah's room was empty. Almost as if he had sensed her approach, and fled before she could take his place.

Had someone seen her in the forest?

She doubted Magdalen would have been so lax in her wards. Had he run away? She could only hope.

Disappointed, she closed the door and stood in the hallway for a moment, only half-listening to the chatter of students down the hall. They were talking about the chosen ones, of course.

She melted into the shadows before they could see her and held her breath as they passed.

No one had sympathized, of course. There had been some question of Josiah's eligibility, since he wasn't in the right year for advanced studies, but no one had come right out and said that she had been short-shifted.

No one would dare question the Council's decision.

Althea heard something thump in the empty room behind her. She turned and saw a light shining along the bottom of the door--lamplight that had not been there a moment before.
After a short hesitation, she knocked.

Josiah opened the door and blinked at her, clearly surprised.

A pile of boxes teetered behind him, neatly packed and sealed.

"Are you leaving?" Althea asked before she could stop herself.

Josiah glanced back at the boxes. "I thought I might have to," he said, and some sort of strange emotion passed across his face. "But no. I'm not leaving." He hesitated. It was very obvious he didn't recognize her at all. "Do we have class together?"

"No," Althea said a shade too quickly. "I--I wanted to congratulate you, that's all. So congratulations." She had to clench her jaw to force out the words.

Josiah stared at her, puzzled, as if he had sensed some of her anger. "Thank you," he said. "I was surprised. I didn't submit my name at all. I'm not sure who did."

That was almost worse. Althea shrugged and shoved her hand into the pocket of her jeans. The heartblood stone soothed her fury, but it did not change what had happened. "Someone seems to think you were a good candidate."

She had tried to think up a plan to get him out of the school and into the forest, but her mind had stubbornly remained blank.

She shrugged again, before her silence became too telling. "Anyway, I just wanted to congratulate you. Good luck."

"Thank you," Josiah said.

He was still standing at the doorway when she walked away.


It took her another day--and some very careful questions to discern that Josiah Hunt had no family, a mysterious sponsor, and that he had already started studying a year ahead of her before he was chosen for the position.

The elf's power was the only thing that consoled her. With it, she cast an invisibility spell that allowed her to follow Josiah around to his classes the next day--not that he attended any at all. He spent the entire day in the library, poring through increasingly obscure texts for some spell Althea couldn't even read.

She slipped away to the attic--aka the junk room--where discarded furniture and forgotten bits and pieces were stored and found a length of thin iron chain that would suit her purposes quite well, if she ever figured out a way to get Josiah out into the forest. When she found him again--after a heart stopping half-hour of searching--he was with Lucas Lane.

Althea didn't trust the elf's power to hold up under a Council member's scrutiny, so she stayed back around the corner and strained to hear a piece of their conversation. Nothing she heard made any sense at all.

By the time Lucas left, the sun had set, and Josiah hurried back to his room. Althea just barely managed to slip inside the door before it closed behind him.

But instead of sitting down at his desk to study, Josiah dumped an armful of books on his desk and pulled a thin length of colorless rope out of a drawer. He opened the window, peered down to the ground, then tossed the rope out the window without tying the other end to anything.
It solidified, somehow, and stretched out, forming a strange sort of slide down to the ground.

Josiah didn't hesitate. He had obviously done this many times before. With one last glance around the room, he pushed himself up onto the window, and then dropped out of sight.

Althea ran to the window and glanced down to see him sliding to the ground on what looked like a bed of air. When he reached the ground, he touched the end of his rope and it fell slack again, coiling on the ground in a pile of a not-quite-seen reflection of the moonlight.

For the first time, Althea wondered if she had chosen the wrong person on the list. Josiah obviously had quite a bit more power than she had anticipated.

But the iron would prevent him from fighting back, and the heartblood stone would hide his presence from anyone else.

With her eyes wide open, Althea used the elf's power to help her float gently to the ground, still invisible. Her feet touched the grass just as Josiah vanished into the trees.

With her newfound power, it wasn't difficult to follow him through the forest, but she had to remember to stay invisible and deaden her footfalls. She did not want him to suspect anything, or have enough time for defense.

She moved ahead of him as he neared the river and its spectacular waterfall, then dropped her spells--save for the wards, of course--and sat on a broad stone ledge overlooking the rushing water.

What if her attempt on his life did not work? She had still not decided whether or not to kill him. Why did this have to be so difficult a task to accomplish? Why couldn't he just disappear on his own?

When he emerged from the trees behind her, she pretended to hear him for the first time and turned around in her seat, feigning surprise. "Oh. It's you."

Josiah stopped and stared at her. "Were you expecting someone else?" he asked, his tone of voice suggesting that she might just be meeting her boyfriend, perhaps, or that she had no place in the forest after dark.

Althea sighed. "No. I wasn't expecting anyone at all. Did you follow me from Darkbrook?"

"No." He denied it quickly enough, but hesitated to explain. "I--I'm on an errand of my own."

"Oh." Pretending to lose interest, Althea turned to face the water again. As she had hoped, Josiah did not continue on his way, but came closer.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm as good as anyone could be after having her life's work swept out from under her feet," Althea said, surprising herself. She had not intended to tell him the truth. "I--I'll be fine, I guess. I just have to decide what to do."

Without waiting for her permission, Josiah sat on the edge of the stone ledge. "Does this have something to do with the Council's decision?"

Althea laughed. "It has everything to do with the Council's decision. Not that I wish to challenge it--I'm sure you're much more talented than me--but I've spent my whole life working towards a position on the Council."

She watched him out of the corner of her eye. He sat stiffly, uncomfortable and embarrassed, but not on guard. So far so good.

He hesitated before replying. "I think--I know why I was chosen," he finally said. "And I'm sorry if I caused you pain. If I could help in any way--"

"Actually, there is something you can do for me," Althea said, turning to face him. "Can you hold this for a moment?"

Automatically, Josiah held out his hand. Althea dropped the heartblood stone into his palm, and his fingers reflexively closed over it.

He frowned. "Where did you get this?"

"From an elf," Althea said, and pulled the length of chain out of her pocket. "I'm sorry, Josiah. I really didn't want this to happen. Shadow take you, give me your light."

He stiffened, his mouth opening as if to protest her spell. Before he could defend himself, she flung the length of chain over his head and twisted it tight around his throat. Then she grabbed the hand that held the heartblood stone and felt the first wash of power flow through their bond.

When he screamed, she slapped her other hand over his mouth, forming a gag from his own power. He struggled against her, clawing at her weakly, but she held him close, staring out at the water as his body convulsed in the throes of the spell.

She had never dared to dream of such power.

"I thought you intended to keep him alive?" Magdalen's presence behind her was not entirely unexpected, but Althea scowled at the interruption.

She turned, pushing Josiah's limp body away and breaking the connection. "I was, but I have no place to keep him and no way to work the spell from a distance." He still clutched the heartblood stone in one hand, but his fingers were blackened and burned, as if someone had tried very hard to find him. Was he truly as alone as she had thought?

"That's why you need this," Magdalen said, and held out a simple drop pendant formed from a heartblood stone. It hung on a thin silver chain, both beautiful and deadly. "With this, you can keep your spell active indefinitely." She glanced down at Josiah's body. "He is not yet dead."

"You interrupted me," Althea said, accepting the pendant. She clasped it around her next and let the heartblood stone fall to rest between her breasts. "What do I have to do?"

"Simply speak the spell again, but not right now," Magdalen said, adding the last when she opened her mouth to say it. "You would kill him, and you don't want that to happen, do you?"

Althea bit her lip, still undecided. "He has a lot of power left," she said. "I wouldn't want to waste it." But how could she live with herself, knowing that Josiah was still alive? Wouldn't it be better just to kill him? She said that aloud, half-expecting Magdalen to tell her what to do.

"Do you want to have to kill someone else in six months' time?" Magdalen asked. "Think about it. How long would it take for the Council to discover your crimes if you had to take someone else twice a year?" She shrugged. "The decision is yours, of course, but this way, there is only one victim, and one person is a lot easier to hide than hundreds over a lifetime."

She noticed Josiah's burned fingers for the first time. "What is this?"

"You said anyone searching for him would not find him if I gave him that stone," Althea said. "But I think someone was trying to find him."

"That quickly?" Magdalen's eyes narrowed as she searched the dark forest for any sign of pursuit. "If he has protection like this, then we must leave this place. Immediately."

"I put up wards," Althea said, puzzled by her insistence. "Surely--"

"Child, you've not enough experience to argue with me. We must leave. Now."

Between one second and the next, the river, waterfall, and the surrounding stone and forest vanished. Althea fell backwards onto a polished floor.

Magdalen moved quickly, pulling curtains shut across impossibly high windows and closing the only door. Althea sat up, dazed, and saw that Josiah lay in a heap nearby, his burned hand empty. The heartblood stone lay a few feet away, sparkling in the light of a single lamp.

"The stone!" She lunged for it and pressed it into his hand, forcing his fingers to close.

"There is a dampening spell that surrounds this entire castle," Magdalen said, unconcerned. "I don't think anyone could find him here."

Althea untied her shoe and pulled out the shoelace. Once she had tied his hand firmly closed around the heartblood stone, she let his hand fall to the floor and stood up. "But I need it for my spell." She stared around at the room, awed by her surroundings. "Is this your house?"

The marble walls and floor glittered in the light of candles when Magdalen waved her arm to light them. "No, child. This is a palace. But not mine as of yet."

Althea could well believe that this was a palace. She tried not to act as if she had never seen such opulence, but it was hard not to stare.

"These are my rooms," Magdalen said. "My suite, if you wish. And I live alone, so no one will hear or know a thing."

"But you can't just leave him lying here," Althea protested. "Someone will see him!"

Magdalen crossed the room to where an ornate mirror hung on the wall. She pressed something in the gilded frame and the glass slid away, exposing a dark space beyond. "We can keep him in here."

She held out her hand and a sickly light responded, illuminating a tiny, windowless room. The seeping stone walls seemed more in line with a dungeon and not a palace, and puddles of brackish water had worn depressions in the stone floor.

A pair of rusty iron shackles hung on the far wall, just high enough for sitting to be uncomfortable. The wall was stained red behind them in streaks of terrible color.

Althea shivered. For a moment, she did not want to consider abandoning Josiah to such a place, but then she remembered what she would gain if he were never found.

"Bring him," Magdalen commanded, as if she sensed Althea's indecision. "Drag him if you wish. He's not awake to protest."

Althea grabbed one of Josiah's feet and pulled him across the slick marble floor. His head bounced on the frame of the mirror when she pulled him inside, but she paid no mind to that. She didn't need him functioning, after all. She just needed his power. His talent. Damn him.
The chains fit snugly around both wrists. "How long--How long can he live like this?"

"A human would die in a year or two," Magdalen said. "But this one isn't human. He'll live."

That explained the strange flavor of his talent, Althea thought. Aloud, she said, "But you will feed him, won't you?"

"I'll take good care of him for you," Magdalen said. "Don't worry." She smiled. "Enjoy your new power, my dear."

Althea's wet shoes left no marks on the marble floors. Not a single footprint led from the mirror to show anyone that it was anything other than a mirror. When Magdalen pushed the button to close it, Althea could almost convince herself that the room beyond the mirror did not exist.

"You should return now, I think," Magdalen said. "Don't go back through the forest. If you can, go directly to your room and stay there until the hue and cry grows too loud for you to ignore."

"I created a portal before," Althea said. "I can create another one. Can I do it from here?"

"But of course," Magdalen said, and indicated an empty wall across the room. "Call me when you're ready to learn real magic, my dear. You've done so well so far."

"Thank you," Althea said, blushing at the praise.

"Conserve your power," Magdalen said. "Don't use the spell for a month, at the least."

Althea nodded, intent on creating the portal to her room. It was more difficult than she expected to get past the protections of the elvish castle, but when her room appeared beyond the portal's face, she stepped through, then turned to face Magdalen.

There was a black Hound beside her now, the very same black Hound she had seen in the forest. She could not look away from the malevolence in its gaze.

"Will I be able to return here?"

"No," Magdalen said, and waved her hand to dismiss the portal. "And you won't need to. I will keep him safe. And no one will ever find him."



Next Update: May 11th



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