The Chain Read online

  Sitting nearby, careful to keep their voices low in respect for the other sleepers, Alex and Jari fell into easy conversation. There was plenty to talk about, after all, but one thing in particular seemed to be on Jari’s mind.

  “So, what are we going to do next?”

  “We find Stillwater House and see if we can get some help finding a way out or overthrowing the Head and rescuing those we left behind,” replied Alex, hoping Jari didn’t hear the big ifs in his plan.

  Jari frowned. “Is there a Stillwater House?”

  “It says so in that note I found, and the Head did mention it once.” Alex grimaced, realizing the basis of his evidence was somewhat fragile.

  “What are these havens, anyway?”

  By now, the words were etched in Alex’s brain. “Of our havens, nine remained. Of those nine, we now have four. If you are magical, seek these places. Kingstone Keep. Falleaf House. Stillwater House. Spellshadow Manor,” he recited.

  “What the hell does that mean?” asked Jari, gawping at Alex in exasperation.

  Alex tried not to laugh at the confused expression on Jari’s face. “They’re schools or places of magical relevance.”

  “Meaning?”

  “They’re full of mages and magic.”

  “And?”

  “And mages might be able to help us,” said Alex. “Or if there aren’t any people willing to help us, I’m sure there will be something we can use at Stillwater.”

  Jari lapsed into a span of silence, mulling over Alex’s words.

  “I’m gonna get some sleep,” Alex muttered.

  He found the most comfortable-looking patch of grass he could and lay down in the shadow of hanging branches. He slept poorly, all the sounds and scents unfamiliar to him, keeping him on a high alert that woke him briefly every hour or less.

  When he awoke to the sun higher in the sky, the warmth of it pleasant on his tired face, he gave up on the hope of more sleep and rose to find that everyone else was awake too, except for Aamir, who twisted and turned on the grass in the throes of a fitful slumber. His skin was glistening with sweat, but the compress had been changed, the material of the new one matching the shirt Jari wore.

  Approaching the rest of the group, Alex could see that the night’s rest hadn’t removed the broken, exhausted look from their faces. They were still tired, hungry, and thirsty. He knew because it had been hours since they had last eaten or drunk anything, and his own stomach ached with emptiness, his throat dry.

  One pleasant surprise was seeing Natalie awake, though she didn’t look much better.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked as he sat down on the grass beside her.

  She smiled weakly. “I am much better.”

  Alex wasn’t convinced. “What did you do for us, back there?”

  “I moved the portal, as you asked,” she replied, her voice faint.

  Her words left a bitter taste in Alex’s mouth as he recalled that it was indeed him who had asked her to do that. Glancing at her, he sorely regretted it. She was pale and her fingers still trembled, though he could see she was trying to be brave.

  “How? What magic did you use?” he pressed, wanting to know what she had risked.

  “I told you, it was only big magic—it has taken a lot of my strength, but I will be fine. There is no harm done, I promise,” she said. Her dark brown eyes were earnest.

  “Is there anything we can do, to make you better?” he asked. He didn’t like to see his friend this way, so exhausted and shattered. It reminded him too much of the worrying time she had spent beneath the gripping, sapping curse of Derhin’s making.

  Natalie shook her head, wincing slightly. “I just need rest… though perhaps some water might help. I am quite thirsty,” she whispered, her voice choked up.

  Alex nodded. “I’ll go and hunt down some supplies for us,” he said, standing.

  Gazing around at the gathered group, Alex knew Natalie was too weak to be left alone with Aamir, who needed his compress changed frequently to keep his fever down, but he’d need some company collecting enough food and water for all of them.

  “Do you mind if I stay here?” asked Jari. “I’ve gotten into a rhythm of changing compresses!”

  “Okay. Ellabell, will you come with me?”

  She was standing by the tree line, staring out at the lake as it shimmered in the morning light. There was a slump in her shoulders that hadn’t been there before, making Alex’s brow furrow with concern. Waiting a few moments for her response, he was surprised when it didn’t come. It seemed the view had absorbed her entire focus.

  “Ellabell?” he repeated, moving closer.

  She jumped as he gently touched her shoulder. “Alex! You scared me,” she gasped.

  “You were off somewhere else.” He smiled.

  “It’s so beautiful… I had forgotten there could be so much color in the world. The grass, the trees, the flowers.” Lifting her face to the sky, her eyes closing, he heard the soft intake of breath as she drank in the cool, crisp air. He wasn’t sure he had ever seen her look prettier. “Did you need me for something?” she asked, turning back to him.

  “I was going to go hunt for food and water—want to come with me?”

  “Sure, if you need someone.”

  “Cool, well, we’ll start with water I guess.” He gestured toward the gleaming shoreline with its eerie pebble beach. “Don’t suppose anyone knows any spells for buckets, do they?”

  With no readily imparted knowledge on bucket spells, Alex and Ellabell stepped out of the safety of the clearing and walked toward the lake. Racking his brain for inspiration, he had an idea that might work.

  Slowly, he held out his hands and began to feel the familiar ice-cold of his anti-magic beneath his fingertips, dancing in silver and black tendrils across his skin. Focusing intently, he let the anti-magic spill out into the air before him, forging it into a disc-shape, similar to a shield. Ellabell watched him with curiosity as he poured another layer of energy into the curved barrier, solidifying it as he had done with anti-magical weapons before. Reaching out, he grasped the firm object in his hand and turned it ninety degrees until it looked more like a giant bowl than a shield. He grinned, pleased with himself as he carried the newly made bowl to the water’s edge.

  As he approached, however, he began to have second thoughts, remembering what lay beneath. A shiver rippled up his spine. It had been decades since the last body had been placed in its watery grave here, but Alex wasn’t sure that meant it would be safe to drink. Had the years cleansed the lake of former sins? Looking closer, he noticed there was a strange quality to the water, the liquid darker than it should have been.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Ellabell.

  “I’m not sure if it’s drinkable,” he explained, feeling a wave of disgust as he scooped the bowl into the water and filled it.

  “Well, we don’t have many other options right now. Maybe just take a small sip to see,” encouraged Ellabell, licking her dry lips. The thought of even a small sip turned Alex’s stomach.

  Lifting the bowl, he watched the dark liquid slosh around the crackling, thrumming container. Cautiously, he cupped his hand and dipped it into the water, raising the contents to his mouth with trepidation. He drank it in one go, pushing down the rising sense of nausea as he felt the water run down the back of his throat. It tasted strange and metallic on his tongue, the trickling droplets prickling his mouth and throat like sour ice, at once bitter and freezing cold. He frowned, worried that it was poisoned—contaminated by the bodies submerged beneath it.

  “Is it okay?” Jari asked, appearing behind them.

  “I’m not sure,” Alex replied hoarsely.

  “Let me try,” insisted Jari, holding out his hands for the anti-magic bowl. The blond-haired boy winced as his fingers touched the edge of the thrumming shield, sharply pulling his hands away, as if it had burned him.

  “Can you make one?” asked Alex, forgetting the problems his anti-magic caused for his
magically endowed friends.

  “I can try.” Jari grinned as he spun the first strands of golden magic from beneath his hands, creating the shape of a shield, as Alex had done. Jari was one of the only group members who still had some strength remaining, and Alex was relieved to see a mostly solid bowl of gold beginning to take shape in Jari’s hands. It took a few tries, but, eventually, he got there, holding his vessel aloft.

  Carefully, Alex tipped the bowl of his shield toward Jari’s, making sure the edges didn’t touch and cause any unwanted explosions. The last thing they needed was to draw attention to themselves. He watched as the peculiar, dark blue liquid poured into the golden bowl, half-expecting it to react with the magical vessel. Instead, it seemed to grow paler, looking closer to normal water than it had in Alex’s bowl. Alex frowned, waiting anxiously as Jari lifted the shield-bowl to his lips and drank deep.

  Jari gulped the water down and gave a satisfied sigh. “Tastes great!”

  He passed the bowl to Ellabell. “It’s delicious!” She smiled, nodding eagerly in agreement before taking another sip.

  Alex took another sip of the remaining water in his bowl, but the liquid tasted just as bitter as before, and was almost unbearably cold in his mouth. Confused, he waited on the shoreline as Ellabell forged a bowl of her own under Jari’s instruction and the pair of them filled their containers to the brim.

  Jari took his dish straight over to Aamir, kneeling as he held his friend’s limp head in the crook of his arm and trickled the cool water into Aamir’s mouth. The liquid seemed to stir Aamir from his fitful sleep for a moment, his lips parting just enough to slake his thirst. Meanwhile, Ellabell passed her bowl to Natalie, who guzzled the water eagerly.

  “That water is so good!” exclaimed Natalie with a hint of a smile. “Do you mind?” she asked Ellabell, gesturing toward the rest of the water in the bowl.

  “Go ahead, there’s plenty more where that came from,” Ellabell joked.

  Alex was pleased the water had seemed to perk Natalie up, though he sorely wished he could quench his own thirst. The water had done something to ease the dryness of his throat and the arid texture of his tongue, but it was not quite the satisfaction he had hoped for. There was a lingering thirst that the lake water did not seem able to appease.

  “Let’s see if there’s anything to eat around here,” said Alex, suddenly eager to be away from the lake. He turned toward Ellabell. “You coming?”

  Ellabell nodded, her golden bowl evaporating into a fine mist.

  “See if you can find any pizza!” Jari shouted after them as they disappeared into the shadows of the dense forest.

  The spongy undergrowth was thick underfoot, snagging at their shoes and pants as they walked, the two of them trying and failing to navigate the gnarled roots that twisted up suddenly from the ground. Across a tangled thicket of bracken, Ellabell stumbled, but Alex was there to catch her. She blushed, peering at him curiously from behind her spectacles as he propped her upright again. Smiling, he removed his hands, careful not to let them linger too long on her arms.

  The air around them was heavy with the rich, earthy scent of damp soil and fresh vegetation that, for Alex, brought back childhood memories of damp hikes in the countryside. It was true what Ellabell had said—he had forgotten too, how colorful and textured the world could be. In the forest, life blossomed all around, filling every sense. Although he didn’t know what this world was, or where it was, he had to admit it was beautifully crafted.

  “How are you feeling about everything?” asked Alex, a little out of the blue, as they wandered along in a companionable silence, listening to the soft murmur of the wind in the treetops.

  She shrugged. “I’m not sure yet.”

  “Why did you want to come with us?” he asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.

  “I told you,” she muttered, not looking him in the eye.

  Sensing her unwillingness to talk, Alex didn’t say anything else as they continued on through the trees, though there were a great many questions running through his mind. He remembered her saying she didn’t want to leave him, as they had stood at the corner of the corridor, not knowing what dangers lay ahead, but he wasn’t sure what she had meant by that. He realized there had been a tiny glimmer of hope on his part that a mutual affection existed between them—and now, alone, he wanted her to enlighten him on why she hadn’t wanted to leave, but Ellabell didn’t seem keen to share. Alex frowned, confused by her. Perhaps it wasn’t the right time, or maybe he had read into something that simply wasn’t there.

  The sunlight dappled the forest floor, lighting the way.

  “What are they?” asked Ellabell suddenly, pointing toward a cluster of large bushes that bunched up from a dim clearing in the woodland to their right.

  Alex moved across the twisting undergrowth toward the plants. On closer inspection, he saw that among the waxy green leaves and spiny branches, the bushes were full to bursting with plump, shiny, blackberry-like berries. Tentatively, he plucked one from its barb and squished it beneath his fingers, letting the dark, burgundy juice run across his skin. Dropping the berry to the forest floor, he plucked another and popped it on the end of his tongue. He let it sit there for a while, hoping that if it were poisonous he would sense it before he swallowed the berry.

  Slightly more confident that the fruit was edible, he chewed it, tasting immediately the sugary sweetness of the berry as it danced on his taste-buds. It was delicious, and there were bushes and bushes full of them. Not an ideal diet, but enough to start with.

  “Are they good?” asked Ellabell.

  “Really good.” He plucked a handful for her.

  She tasted the first one, and her whole face lit up. “Delicious! Everything here is delicious!” She stuffed the handful into her mouth. Licking her fingers clean, she held them up to Alex with a delighted chuckle rippling in the back of her throat. He could see where the deep red juice of the berries had stained her skin, and couldn’t help but laugh too; it made him happy to see her smiling again.

  A tension had been broken between them, and before long, Ellabell seemed to feel easier again in his company. She hummed as she stretched out the fabric of her jacket, the arms tied around her waist for maximum fruit volume, and picked as many berries as she could. Alex couldn’t place the song, but it was oddly familiar. A high, sweet tune that Alex enjoyed listening to, getting lost in the rhythm and cadence of it as he worked.

  “Who is Elias?” asked Ellabell suddenly, taking Alex by surprise—and confusion. Where had the question come from?

  “What?”

  “Who is Elias?” she repeated, peering at him around one of the large bushes. Her mouth was now as stained by the sweet red fruit as her hands, the trickling streaks of dried juice giving her a slightly sinister quality.

  “Elias is Elias,” replied Alex warily, giving a shrug.

  “You’re going to have to do better than that,” she warned. “Who is he? How do you know him?”

  “It’s… It’s a long story.”

  “We have time,” she insisted, her voice catching slightly in her throat. Alex frowned; the mere mention of him seemed to set Ellabell on edge.

  “Elias is my shadowy advisor, I guess,” he began, not knowing how to describe the shadow-man. “He appeared to me on the first day at Spellshadow, while I was waiting to be enrolled. He was a cat, and then, later on, he was a man—he sort of changes shape as he pleases, and though he can look human when he wants, I’m not exactly sure how human he is.” He looked at Ellabell to see if she was following. There was confusion on her face, but curiosity too.

  “Then what is he?” she asked. It was the very question Alex would love to have known the answer to, and his ignorance was not for lack of trying.

  Alex shrugged. “I don’t know. I only know that he changes shape and is made up of shadows and is very good at stealing things.”

  “Stealing things?”

  “Yeah, he steals things and gives—well, gave
them to me, back at the manor… I don’t suppose he’ll be doing that anymore,” said Alex with a hint of regret. He wasn’t sure where Elias was, after his last battle with the Head, or if he had even made it out alive—could Elias even be killed? Alex didn’t know. The only thing he was sure of was that he had expected Elias to show up in the office with his sharp wit and silver tongue, claiming victory over the Head, but he had not and had not appeared since.

  “Can I tell you something?” Ellabell whispered.

  Alex frowned. “What?”

  “I know I told you I fell into a bookcase… and I know you didn’t believe me,” she said, her voice trembling slightly.

  “I believed you,” he lied.

  She raised her eyebrow at him, flashing a wry smile. “You didn’t believe me. I know you didn’t.”

  “Is that not what happened?” asked Alex as an understanding passed between them. She was ready to tell him what had really gone on in that room—the piercing sound of her scream still haunted him, the knowledge he hadn’t gotten there in time. He felt a flutter of anxiety in the pit of his stomach, as if bad news were coming. Of course, he had known she was lying when she told him she had fallen into a bookcase, and even when she sidestepped his question of her being attacked, but he had never expected her to tell him the full truth.

  She shook her head. “You were right, when you asked if somebody attacked me in the Head’s library… Somebody did attack me, and I think that somebody was Elias,” she admitted quietly.

  “What?” Alex breathed, hardly able to believe it. “I can’t imagine him doing that.”

  “I didn’t see my attacker properly, but I am fairly sure it was your shadowy advisor.” Ellabell looked at him earnestly, and he could see the honesty written there on her open face. As much as he wanted to defend Elias’s honor, something held his tongue—a niggling feeling in the back of his mind that Elias was capable of doing what Ellabell said he had done. But Elias did everything for a reason.