Sovereign Hope (15 page)

“
What about the people from the Quarters? What powers do they
have?”

Aldan shook
his head. “None. Well, none that are very useful in a fight,
anyway. Some of them can communicate telepathically. Occasionally,
one will be able to conjure up a flame, but it would be about as
powerful as one you’d find on a candle. Their small abilities are
simply echoes of the Reaver’s blood infecting their ancestry. Just
like their longer life spans.

“
The Reavers see the people of the Quarters as their subjects,
to do with as they please. They believe they own the tiny fragments
of power that are scattered amongst the Four Quarters, just as they
believe they own the power inside of Daniel. You don’t know much
about our family,” Aldan said, “but let me tell you this: they have
no idea what Daniel is. They’d rather he were dead than have him
stand against them. And that leads us back to you, of course,
Farley.”

“
Huh?”
How can I have anything to do
with this?

“
Well, to the prophecy, anyway.” He closed his eyes and began
reciting, “‘
When the talisman and the fair
sovereign borne of the line are found in unity, she will possess
the power to destroy our great people forever.’”
He opened his eyes. “It’s from an old scroll of
prophecies that have been locked up in the Tower libraries for
centuries. I remember the seer who wrote them. He was a drunk.
Mostly accurate, though. The Reavers never thought a female child
was possible, but now that you’re on the scene, they’re doing their
best to hunt you down. They also want to prevent us from finding
this talisman. Not that we’ve any idea what it looks like, or if
the prophecies are even true. They’re just incredibly
superstitious.”

“
They think
I
am going to destroy them?” That just made no sense. Daniel
had said that I was a game changer, not someone supposed to kill
off their whole bloodline. No wonder they wanted me dead. “This is
so stupid.” I pushed my chair back and stood up, shaking my
head.

“
We think so, too. But it doesn’t change the fact that they
aim to hurt you. We want to keep you safe until the whole thing
blows over.”

This is impossible
, I thought. But
the fact that I was talking to some guy in an imagined house, in an
imagined forest, kept hitting me, and there was no way I was
dreaming. My understanding of the word impossible clearly needed
redefining. I tugged at my sleeve, thinking hard.

Something had
been preying on my mind amongst all the talk of souls and Reavers
and prophecies. Asking felt stupid, but at the same time it seemed
like a reasonable thing to wonder. I took a deep breath and went
for it.

“
If we know that we definitely have a soul, then does that
mean there’s a Heaven and a Hell?”

Aldan gave me
a laden look. “You can give them those names if you like. It’s not
quite as cut and dried as Heaven and Hell, though. There used to be
a day when something was black or it was white, but now…in this
day, everything’s more of a grey-ish color. Sure, we have really
dark grey and really light grey, but nothing seems to be solid
anymore. Personally, I think it makes for a much more interesting
existence. There’s no fun to be had in being all the way good.”

“
And is that how the prophecy came about? Did it get passed
down by someone in Heaven?” The word seemed reluctant to come out.
The idea just raised too many bigger questions.

“
The prophecy came from the Quorum. They’re a group of
high-ups from both sides. It’s their job to maintain a balance on
earth, so we’re working on an even playing field. Of course, that’s
a joke. Especially when one side wants to teach people and draw out
their inherent goodness to secure their souls, and the other side
is willing to just take them.”

“
Right,” I said. “And the Quorum, they’re going to help you
guys fight against the Reavers?”

Aldan barked out a laugh so bitter I could almost taste the
vitriol. “No such luck. They
influence
. They don’t get directly
involved in anything.”

“
Typical. Administrators
.
”

“
Exactly.”

“
So if the Reavers are on the dark grey side, who’s on the
light grey?”

Another
strange, curious look. “You tell me.”

I couldn’t
tell him. I couldn’t tell him anything. My head was hurting too
much. Conversations like this took mental preparation and I’d had
none. Aldan seemed to understand how close I was edging towards the
brink of a nervous collapse.

“
Maybe you can think on that,” he said.

Doing everything in my power
not
to think about that was probably
more likely. I was too scared to start trying to slot my new-found
friends into boxes they were unlikely to fit into—square pegs,
round holes and all that. “Okay. And while I’m figuring that out,
what? You want me to stay tucked away underground until they’ve
gotten tired of looking for me or I die of old age?” Both prospects
felt like the end of the world.

“
No. Just until we can figure out how we fix this whole
mess.”

“
Well, all I can say is you better do it fast. I’m not gonna
stick around down there rotting away when school’s supposed to
start in two weeks. My friend’s probably going out of her mind with
worry.”

This wasn’t the first time I’d thought about poor Tess. I
would have called, but cell phone reception in an underground
bunker just wasn’t something that happened. Tess would be freaking
out about me disappearing overnight, especially since the last time
she’d seen me was after Miller’s cryptic, “
They’ll be coming for you,”
comment.
Aldan furrowed his brow.

“
Yes, well…I wouldn’t worry about that too much right
now.”

His tone of
voice made my head snap up. “Is there something I should know?”

He squirmed in
his seat and unfolded his hands, then refolded them a second later.
“Daniel dealt with the situation.”

“
What do you mean
dealt
with
?” Suddenly I couldn’t
breathe.

Aldan’s eyes
widened. “Well of course not that! I asked Daniel to send a message
from your phone when you first got here. He told Tessa you needed
some time. He also called your school and informed them there was
every chance you wouldn’t be returning after the break. He told
them you weren’t coping very well with your mother’s
disappearance.”

I sat there,
unwilling to open my mouth. There was no guarantee what would come
out. A growing rage bubbled up inside my chest. How dare they just
interfere in my life! “You shouldn’t have done that,” I
growled.

“
I’m sorry that we acted without your consent, but please try
to understand what we’re dealing with here.”

I clenched my
jaw. “And what about Tess? What if they know she’s my best friend?
I don’t even know if she’s safe.”

“
They probably do know you’re friends, you’re right. She’s
been safe this far, though. We have reason to believe they won’t
hurt her.”

“
Reason to believe
?” What reason
could possibly be protecting Tess? Aldan just stared at me, stony
faced. “You could at least tell me you’ll check on her every few
days,” I said.

“
We already do. That’s a given. And if you want to talk more
tomorrow about
anything,
Farley, then I’m obviously not going anywhere,
but for now I’m sure you’ve got enough to think about.”

It was true.
There was so much bouncing around inside my head I couldn’t
concentrate on any one thing. The thought of Daniel being that old
was almost more than I could handle, let alone how much he’d
suffered during his life. It certainly didn’t earn him a hall pass,
but I suddenly understood why he was so surly all the time. I gave
Aldan an unhappy look, but said, “And all I need to do is touch you
on the hand?”

“
Right here.” He gestured, pressing his finger firmly down
onto the heel of his palm clearly for me to see. “I’m sure you’ll
be careful. You’ve had first-hand experience of what’ll happen if
you’re not.”

I glanced at
his throat, the thick, ridged scar that I had tried to touch,
rising and falling as he spoke. The thought of someone trying to
slice his head off made me shudder. I looked away before he could
notice the reaction.

The kitchen
didn’t seem quite as warm as it had before. I shivered and pulled
my jacket tight, turning as the screen door complained stiffly. It
clattered shut again as Daniel entered the room. His hair curled
slightly at the nape of his neck, mussed like some dark angelic
halo. He didn’t quite meet my eye as I looked at him, unable to
shake the feeling that I knew him so much better than before.

“
It’s time we left,” he said.

“
Right on cue there, Daniel. I’ll see you in the morning? We
have things to discuss.” Aldan turned and placed both his hands on
my shoulders. “And you’re under a lot of pressure at the moment.
But really, you have nothing to worry about. No one’s asking you to
do anything. All you have to do is be patient whilst we work out
the best plan of action. It’ll all be over soon, okay?”

His words were reassuring, but something told me it wouldn’t
be that simple. At some point I
would
be asked to do something, and
it would probably cost me a lot more than they were letting
on.

Coming out of
Aldan’s mind was about as uncomfortable as going in. Daniel trudged
silently back into the opening, and I followed a few paces behind,
heading towards the shadowy tree line, which stood like the ominous
silhouette of some battle-ready army in the fading light. Before
we’d made it halfway I began to feel like I was slipping. A strange
sense of vertigo washed over me, and I scrambled mentally, as if
trying to get off the roller coaster just before it plunged down
the huge drop. My stomach lurched as the forest twisted and fell
away, and then I was regurgitated unpleasantly back into my
body.

Agatha sat in the lone chair by the bed, reading with the
blanket thrown across her legs. She looked up lazily, yawning as
she registered that we’d
rejoined
her in the
room.

I blinked,
trying to focus my eyes. They felt gritty and burned like I’d been
crying for hours, and my body ached from standing for so long.
Discovering my arm strapped up in the sling once more made me
groan.

“
So? How did it go?” Agatha asked, lowering the book in her
lap.

“
Aldan told me what I wanted to know. I think.” I couldn’t
help but feel as though there were some seriously big pieces of the
puzzle that he was holding out on, but maybe he was right. There
was only so much I could handle in one go.

Daniel seemed
sad. His gruff, impenetrable exterior slipped a little as he walked
out and pulled the door closed without saying a word.

“
You hungry, kiddo?” Agatha asked in her motherly, fussing
voice, ignoring Daniel’s exit.

“
I kinda just want to go to bed,” I told her, wishing I could
teleport directly there. That way I could skip out on physically
going through the pain of moving stiff joint after stiff
joint.

“
Yeah, the whole experience wipes you out the first few times.
You get used it, though.”

I didn’t
really plan on getting used to it. I couldn’t muster any further
conversation, so excused myself and made my way out into the black
corridor, running my hand along the wall in the dark so I could
follow the route back to my room. As soon as the door closed, I
threw myself down on the bed and slipped the silk sheets over me.
It didn’t matter that I was fully dressed. As soon as my head hit
the pillow I fell into a fitful sleep, troubled by undefined,
chilling images that jumped at random into my head.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Candid, Frank, and Compliant

Faceless
attackers chased me through a dark and winding maze. I spun left
and then right in an attempt to escape, but each time I turned a
corner I would run straight into another assailant, its featureless
face menacing and sinister as it gripped my arms with steel
fingers. I would wake up at this point each time and then slip back
under into restless sleep, starting at the beginning of the maze
all over again. But this time… this time was different.

Every part of
my consciousness was alert. It was the same maze. I was still being
chased, but this time I could feel my heart trying to thump its way
out of my chest. I could smell the fresh, crisp aroma of winter on
the night air, and the terror that ripped through my body was all
too real.

The men were
coming. The only way to escape them was to escape the maze. The
walls were much taller than I was, and I had no hope of seeing a
route to safety over the top of them. Instead, I began to take the
left hand turn every time I was presented with a crossroads. That
was a guaranteed way of finding the path out, but only if they
didn’t catch me first.

I ran so hard my legs felt like they would collapse out from
underneath me. The thick, rough hedges snagged and caught at my
skin. Head down, I staggered forwards, blindly keeping to the left
and praying they wouldn’t be waiting around the next corner. Turn
after turn left me dizzy and disorientated, but when I spun around
another looming corner I found myself trapped. I couldn’t turn
left. I couldn’t turn
anywhere
. I had reached the large,
open centre of the maze.