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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