MONTH ONE
ALKADEEN
I’D WALKED WITH August through so many fields on our tour. The first one was full of grapes. He even picked some and handed them to me. I shoved them into my mouth as if I hadn’t eaten for weeks, and they were delicious. By the way he talked about the fields I could tell they took pride in their lands.
We passed fruit trees too. There were orange and pear trees, as well as all sorts of berry bushes I didn’t even know grew this time of year.
As we walked, the sun had started to come up. I had never seen a sunrise like the one before me. It was a soft, purplish pink mixed with a blood red sun. It took my breath away.
I turned around to look at August, but something different was reflected on his face. It wasn’t awe, or the highlight of another day, something was wrong. His expression was almost heartbreaking, it was an expression that told me sunrises on the farms didn’t mean a new day. It meant something bad that was instilled by fear.
What was this place?
Still, it lit up plenty of the farm and fields, and the scene before me was amazing. There were acres and acres of fields with farmhouses in the distance and more barns. There was no delineation between farms, which fields belonged to whom or any sign of fences. It was just one huge field with rows and rows of crops planted and rows and rows of trees and bushes. It didn’t make sense. “You are all working these lands together?”
August just looked at me funny, as if there was any other way of working a farm.
“Sorry, that’s not what I meant.”
“I know what you meant. They took all the deeds away, and merged all the farms together. So now we are only working for the Council and that is it.”
“The Council.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement made in utter shock. The Council was behind this. But how? How could Caleb or Helmut not know about this? This wasn’t right. It wasn’t the way I wanted the people of Paegeia to be treated. I should’ve never granted that Sonic project, just because I wanted to see my mom for real, I should’ve visited the farms and found out more. Maybe one of the projects had been for this. Then again why wasn’t this boy yelling at me or fighting with me about the Sonic Project?
“Are you okay?”
I nodded. “I’m fine, I’m just not feeling so well.”
“Maybe it’s all the fruit. Come, I’m sure the folks are awake.”
August led me back in the direction of the barn. My heart was now heavy and bouncing with fear, and my gut, well it felt like I’d eaten bad fruit; but I knew the fruit wasn’t bad, it was, in fact delicious.
“As you must know, we don’t have a lot of women your age on the farm, so just to warn you, if some of my brothers end up staring, just ignore them.”
I stopped. What the hell did he mean? I didn’t know anything.
August stopped too, turned around and returned to me. “Are you sure you are okay? You are acting kind of strange.”
“I’m fine,” I lied. I should stop feeling dumbfounded every time he revealed something to me. I could give everything away if I didn’t stop.
I took a deep breath, pushing the last bit of information into the back of my mind, and strode up the road again.
August was right behind me then right next to me. He chuckled.
“What?” I asked him.
“One of my brothers actually stared at you for an entire day. My mother and two sisters are some of the few women here. There are about three at the farmhouse below and a couple more just below them. So seeing a beautiful girl, well you could say his eyes sparkled.”
I wanted to ask him why there weren’t plenty of young females here, but he might just ask me what was wrong and I didn’t want to give anything away, or worse, be handed over to a higher power.
“How old is he?” I asked another question.
“About twenty-five.”
I chortled as I’d thought this brother might have been a young boy of five.
I could see the sadness still in his eyes. “Two of my sisters were taken on his birthday. It was a sad day.”
“How many sisters did you have?”
“We were quite a big family, well if you count my two eldest brothers’ wives, fifteen.”
“You had fifteen sisters!”
He laughed. “Okay not that big. No, we were a total of fifteen. I had four sisters and three have been taken. One of my sisters and another we picked up, like you, are still with us. They look extremely tomboyish, as it was the only way to make the Council lose interest in them. My other three sisters, and two sisters-in-law, well we never heard from or saw them again.”
Why didn’t I know about this? Where were they taking them? All those women. I felt like a crappy princess again. I was useless at this. I should’ve known. “I’m so sorry.”
“They will take you too, Elle, if they discover you are here.”
I stopped and stared at him again.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure my father has some sort of a plan.” He grabbed my wrist and pulled me further down the road toward a mansion.
It was beautiful and needed a bit of TLC, but it was made of the same rock the Leafs’ manor.
It had the most beautiful wooden oak door and a small driveway in front of the entrance which had a huge porch.
Beautiful round bushes were growing alongside the house, with a gorgeous garden featuring all sorts of flowers right in front of the driveway. It was extremely homey.
We walked up the steps to the porch, and he opened the front door, and led me into a huge lounge.
It was full of fluffy couches, with a very old TV and a fireplace with plenty of lanterns lining the windowsills.
Noises came from in front of us, like people talking all at the same time.
“What do you mean they aren’t in the barn?” a man with a deep voice asked.
“I was just there, Tom. August is not there, and neither is the girl.”
“Her name is Elle, like the letter,” August yelled from the hallway that was leading us toward the buzzing noise; we entered the kitchen.
A table with at least five grown men all lifted their heads at August and me.
Another was doing the dishes and an older woman was frozen in place holding a huge bowl of scrambled eggs.
“Elle, this is the family; family, Elle.”
“Hello,” I croaked as they all stared at me. I knew why they were staring, and I stared at the floor.
“For heaven’s sake, eat your food.” The one who stood by the basin washing dishes smacked one of the men sitting in the head. I’d only just realized that she was female and not male. It must have been one of August’s sisters, and I totally got what he meant by changing her appearance so that the Council lost interest in her. The guy she smacked rubbed his head and scowled at her.
“It’s not like you haven’t seen a girl before, Steve.”
“Well, I haven’t seen a girl like her before.”
The older woman with the bowl of eggs unfroze.
“Nice to see you are finally awake, Elle. You must be starving.” She slapped one of the men on his arm, and he got up holding his plate.
“No, thank you. August sort of fed me from your crops.”
They all froze and gawked at August.
“What?” August said. “It’s not like they will know. Besides it’s still our land.” He sounded angry.
“Okay, fine. Just, you need to be careful. If any of them saw you.”
“Mom, they are not here.”
“No. If they were, Elle wouldn’t be here.” She put the bowl down on the counter and came over to me putting both her hands softly on my shoulders.
“Sorry for the barn. We weren’t really sure what to make of all of this.”
“It’s okay,” I said. And wondered again why none of these people knew who I was. They didn’t even mention that I resembled the princess, nothing.
“I’ll get a bath ready for you.” She smiled. “Daisy, help me with getting some water on the fire.”
Fire? Didn’t they have boilers?
“Come, we have set up one of the guest rooms for you,” the older woman said and gestured for me to follow her.
We walked down a long marble hall. Plenty of pictures of more women and happy families lined the walls.
I couldn’t help but look at them as I passed. The number one question on my mind was still where was I. Why were all of August’s sisters taken, and why did they need them? A part of me knew that answer but somehow I knew it wasn’t the case as I was sure we would’ve known. One of us would’ve known, but then again why would the other two women have completely changed their appearance if that wasn’t the reason? It felt as if I wasn’t inside Paegeia anymore and I knew answers to these questions would raise more, ones I couldn’t answer as I was too chicken shit to be caught by the same Council responsible for this. If they knew I knew, they would surely find away to keep me silent, probably killing me. I wasn’t ready to die, yet.
She led me upstairs, on steps that creaked. Her shoes were old, and patched up with a different kind of fabric here and there.
Her clothes resembled August’s, also patched up.
It just raised more questions and more concerns. If this was what freedom was like wherever I was, I didn’t want to know what other parts were like.
“My name is Gertrude, my father was the one that found you. He’s a lot like August. They have a fighting spirit, but I’m afraid that it’s only going to get them killed one of these days.”
Killed? She spoke as if fighting spirit were the wrong spirit.
“So when he found you, he couldn’t leave you.”
“Then I should thank him.”
“Where are you from, Elle?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said softly. “I just can’t go back, ever.”
She glanced at me with concern then tears slowly welled up in her eyes. She sniffed and wiped at the tears. “Sorry, silly. An old woman like me crying.”
“No, it’s not. August told me that they took three of your daughters.”
“It was a long time ago.” She sighed again.
“Still, it can’t be easy.”
She just scrunched up her nose and walked the last two steps that led into a carpeted hallway. There were plenty of doors and she opened the third.
It was a beautiful bedroom, with a huge bed and an old bathtub, which was still empty. Gertrude went to the closet and took out one of the few dresses that hung inside.
It made me think of Cinderella’s dress before she moved to the palace to be with her Prince Charming. It was worn too, patched up here and there.
“I’ll get that washed for you. Sorry that this isn’t more like what you are used to.” She eyed my jeans that resemble none of their clothes, as well as my new sneakers. “You need to fit in, otherwise I’m afraid we won’t be able to help you.”
“It’s perfect.” I gave her a warm smile.
“I still would love to know what was so bad about this place you ran from. From what you are wearing, it couldn’t have been that bad.”
“It was.” I spoke fast and hoped that she wouldn’t ask what it was I had done.
A knock on the door came to my rescue, and the girl who had smacked the guy behind his head, and another, both carrying huge pots of steaming water, entered. They poured it in the old bath and left.
Two more pots came, carried by two of the guys. I found the one looking at me as he walked past, Steve, I think was his name, but as our eyes met he turned away immediately.
“Please don’t fear them, they won’t harm a soul. They just haven’t seen a real girl in a long time.”
“A real girl, your two daughters aren’t real girls?”
Her eyes were soft. “Not what I meant. They had to change their appearance, cut off their beautiful long hair so that the Council doesn’t pay any attention to them. I was referring to the way you look. Your beauty is what puts them under this spell.”
It was my turn to giggle. “Thanks for the compliment.”
A few more containers of water came and didn’t stop until the bath was filled with enough water to take a bath. Gertrude moved a divider that blocked the bath from the bedroom and gave me privacy to undress myself.
“The best route of action is to let you start working the land as soon as Marcus has spoken to the rest of the farmers. He is not here right now, and will be back shortly. We just hope that all of them agree, otherwise, I’m afraid that when the Council comes next month you will go with them.”
I swallowed hard and prayed that the rest of the farmers would agree to keep me. I felt like a stray puppy.
“Okay, I understand.”
“He’s really good when it comes to persuading people.”
I gave a small laugh. What else could I do, cry? It was so not going to help my situation at all.
I climbed into the bath. It felt so good.
“Is the water warm enough?”
“It’s perfect, thank you,” I said.
“Okay, I’m just going to get you a towel and some soap.”
“Thank you.”
I heard the door opening and closing again. There were so many things going on here that I didn’t understand, and I didn’t know how to begin to understand them. Not asking questions was the hardest part. Just then Blake crept into my mind. I hadn’t thought about him at all. Why did the idiot have to kiss me?
I pushed the memory of the blood pouring out of his nose and ears to the back of my mind. I couldn’t think about that. He was dead, and he wasn’t going to come back. Still, I had to know if my abilities still worked.
I closed my eyes and thought about my pink flame, just like he’d trained me that first time on the mountains. When I saw it, and felt it, I opened my eyes; but, nothing. There wasn’t even a spark.
I buried my hand under the water. If the pink flame wasn’t working, none of the others would either.
Still I tried. I tried to move the divider with my gift of telekinesis. I stared at the damn divider so hard it almost gave me a headache but still, it didn’t move. It is never going to move ever again. The sooner you make peace with that, the better.
The door opened again and Gertrude entered. Or I assumed it was her, hoped it was, and not one of her peeping boys.
“May I?” she asked.
“Sure.” I sat up straight hiding my breasts with my arms.
She walked in and her eyes immediately caught my mark. She froze as she stared at it.
I examined my mark, sure that it had caught on fire or something by the way she stared.
“You were born with the mark?”
I nodded.
She closed her eyes and sighed. There wasn’t any sign of a smile or admiration at how dark it was. When she opened them, she didn’t even ask and went into work. She squirted some soap onto the sponge and started washing my back with hard strokes. Worry laced the features of her face.
“You’ve hidden it this long, I’m sure you know how.” She spoke more to herself than to me.
So the mark of the Dragonians wasn’t a good thing here.
“Have you ascended yet?”
I nodded and she closed her eyes again.
“What is your ability?”
I huffed. “It doesn’t matter, my dragon is dead.”
“What?”
“He’s dead, which means I don’t have a carrier anymore. No more ability.”
She just stared at me. “No, that can’t be right, unless.” She gasped softly. “You were part of a dent?”
I nodded.
She sat on the floor with her arms still hanging over the bathtub. “How did you guys keep it a secret this long?”
That question triggered a really good lie, one that would let them keep me here. If this was what they called freedom then whatever was out there was worse.
“We didn’t. They discovered what we were, killed my dragon,” which was the biggest lie, as I was sure Blake would’ve done the killing rather than being killed, “and me.”
“What?”
“They thought they killed me. He somehow sacrificed himself.” Crappy lie, Elena. “I don’t want to talk about it, please.” I managed to cry. I wanted to cry, knowing I’d killed a kick-ass dragon, the best, out there with a stupid kiss.
“Shhhh, losing something like your dragon can’t be easy for a dent.”
I shook my head.
She sighed. “August was born with the mark too. You have a lot in common.”
I peeked at her and wiped away my tear.
“He was?”
“It’s not as dark as yours, though.” She sighed. “But dark enough for him to ascend around his seventeenth birthday. He can manipulate chlorine. Still, we don’t push him to experiment with it.”
“His dragon is a chlorine breather.”
“Whoever they were, I’m sure they don’t exist anymore.”
What? There are still plenty of Green-Vapors out there.
“Wait, can he persuade people too?”
“We don’t encourage him, please Elle. I’m sure he is secretly practicing but if they catch him, they will kill him.” She was begging me with her eyes.
“I understand, but you must have known what it is he can do, if that is his ability and he uses it on others.”
“Elle.” She got up and paced around in front of my tub. “I know what Persuaders can do, I’ve seen it with my own eyes a very, very long time ago; but if he does and it doesn’t work, they will kill him.”
I got what she was saying. He didn’t know how to do that; I didn’t know how to do it either. I never experimented with that part of my abilities and I couldn’t help him either. I nodded. “I understand. I won’t encourage him either.”
She stopped pacing and stared at me. “Thank you,” she eventually said.
“Let me guess, your father was born with the mark too?”
The corner of her lips curved slightly, and she nodded as she kneeled in front of my bath again. “He’s a healer. That was why he couldn’t leave you that night. He is the only one that can heal the humans here, without him…” She didn’t finish. She didn’t have to finish that sentence. It was clear what it was she wanted to say. She sniffed and took a huge breath. “You all have such fighting spirit, but I’m afraid it’s the one thing that is going to get you killed.”
“Don’t say that. If we know how to pretend in front of the Council, then they can’t harm us.”
She stared at me.
“It’s still a fighting spirit to me, one that refuses to die. Don’t try to kill his spirit just because you are scared. We are scared too.” I was becoming more scared by the minute. Not knowing where I was, and why all these people reacted so differently to the mark, it was all a big riddle to me.
“If you do, then you are the one that is going to kill him, not the Council.”
She had tears in her eyes but a soft smile appeared on her lips. She sniffed hard. “I haven’t heard words like that come out of a mouth in a long time.”
“What, words of encouragement?”
She nodded. “Words that make sense, even though they shouldn’t. You remind me so much‒
“Yeah, I get that a lot.”
I didn’t want to hear those words anymore. My father was alive and I couldn’t do anything about it, even if I wanted to.
She pushed herself up from the bath. “I’m sorry about earlier with the sponge. I’m sure you can wash yourself, I was just worried for your sake.”
“I’m not,” I lied. I was worried, about what the Council would do if they ever found me, now, more than ever. But if I could find out who was behind this and I had the power to stop it, even if it meant that I was going to die in the end, I would do it. I needed to find out who was ruling this part of the Council, and my gut told me it was Philip. From the very beginning I’d thought he had a dark and sadistic side to him, but never in a million years had I thought it was this dark.
Gertrude glanced at me with soft, confused eyes, and left me to my thoughts.
