Taken (Book Six) (Fated Saga Fantasy Series) (10 page)

“When will we strike?” asked Kanda.

“We are close to deciding, but I feel soon. Within days we should be ready.” His eyes searched the table, stopping on Colin and Catrina. “At last we meet,” he said to Colin. “Although, you probably don’t remember it, we did actually meet once before, shortly after you came to live with Arnon. You were just a small child.”

“Oh, um, nice to meet you again then, I guess. You’re right, I don’t remember at all.”

“You are very welcome here,” Nashua told them all. “Please make yourselves at home while you are here. In fact, I have taken the liberty of setting up accommodations for you. I believe you will find them quite acceptable.”

“Thank you,” said Colin.

Catrina curtsied, excited to venture out into this foreign world. Colin could not help but smile. Her happiness so easily transferred to him.

“Let us adjourn for now. Kanda and Arnon, take some time to get you and your young companions settled. We meet in the great hall for
a feast this evening.”

“I’ll show you where to go,” said Kay. “You’re set up right next to us.”

“Lovely,” replied Kanda.

“I don’t know as I’ve ever had the honor to stay in such a breathtaking place,” Kay added. “If I’d ever known what your home looked like before now, well
, I just don’t know how you ever left!”

They walked toward the edge
of the village, nearing a grove of trees. They grew so tall Colin had a hard time finding the tops. A light breeze kissed his skin, and he breathed in the warmth. He had forgotten what sunlight felt like.

This place was a good place. Everything about it was serene, peaceful,
and calm. This is the type of place he wanted to live in all the time. It allowed him to think, without chaos wrapping itself around his thoughts. He held Catrina’s hand but they did not speak. She took in their surroundings with keen curiosity.

Colin sighed. Not d
eeply. Not sadly. Just inquisitively. When the group stopped to chat with someone, Catrina took him aside.

“What is it?” she asked him.

“I’m not sure how to explain it,” he replied.

She waited patiently for him to try.

He leaned his back against a tree trunk, taking in the vast, colorful landscape.

“I
think it’s just that everyone belongs somewhere. Even if that place isn’t as amazing as this place, or run by good people, they all belong somewhere. I don’t.”

“Does this worry you?”

“No. Not worry. But I want to know where I came from. Who’s my mother? My father? Where do I belong?”

“We will just have to fin
d out,” she said. “Are you sure you are up to this battle, Colin?”

He looked down at his feet an
d back up again. “I have no idea. Right now at this moment, I’d say yes. There’s something about this place that’s very soothing.”

“I agree. It’s quite spectacular.”

“I guess I’m just realizing that there is so much about Arnon and Kanda, and the Jendayas for that matter, that I don’t know. And now this person, Amelia, has some crazy plan to return magic to the world and somehow I and or Meghan are a part of that plan.”

Catrina worried for a moment that Colin might panic and start to lose control again. But he took deep breaths and remained calm.

“This place is good for you,” she smiled. “It’s like there’s something in the air that just sends out good vibes.” She cocked her head for a moment, thinking. “I think you should just ask. Whatever it is you want to know. And if there’s still questions you need answered, once this battle is over, we’ll find those answers too.”

“
Just ask. I suppose that always works, huh.”

“So far everyone has been
very open and agreeable. Even considering...” she didn’t say it, but he knew she meant even after his little incident of blowing up Kanda’s house.

“Ask
, it is then. I’ll wait until we get settled. Sounds like we may be here for a few days. Everyone’s moving again,” he pointed out.

T
hey rejoined the group and shortly stopped next to two medium sized dome houses. Kay pointed to the one on the left, which was hers and Milo’s abode, and they stepped inside the one on the right expecting it to be much like the one they had been in earlier. But it was not. It was much larger inside. Much larger than the outside appeared to be.

“This is like the magic the Svoda used to make the inside of their wagons so much bigger than t
hey were,” said Colin, captivated.

At the far back wall was a stone fireplace, made from evenly cut stones. A long table lined up alongside it. On the right hand side of the room was an open door;
an inviting warm mist plumed through it. There were numerous spare bedrooms, the ceilings trimmed with flowering vines that crept from room to room, draping each room in magnificent color. Colin thought it was sort of like the house and its surroundings were one, each a part of the other.

“Colin,” called out Catrina.

“What is it?” he asked, leaving one of the bedrooms and hurrying to her side. She was standing at the door with the warming mist, her eyes wide.

“Wow,” he muttered.
He stepped inside. Everyone followed.

“It is amazing,” said Kay, sounding giddy. “I’ve seen a few of these now and each one is just a little different
, and equally as breathtaking.”

It wasn’t a real room,
in the sense that it did not have floors or a ceiling, at least that could be seen by the naked eye. A bird chirped nearby, its wings fluttering as it flew overhead. It landed on a large bobbing leaf that was growing out of a pool of water. A waterfall at the back of the pool splashed into the water, shooting mists towards them. Colin wanted to strip off all his clothes and jump in.

Troubles? Questions?

What troubles? What questions?

H
e wanted to stay here forever.

##

“They are nowhere to be found,” said Colton Fahlbush to Amelia Cobb. “The Milo and Kay Jendaya seem to have vanished.”

“What do you mean, vanished?” she asked.

“They are just... gone.”

She blew out a breath and stood up from her desk, pacing the room, not believing what she was hearing. “Any messages left behind?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“The Jendayas have been with me since the beginning. Since before the beginning, before we were banished.” She spoke as if trying to understand her own words.
“How long have they been gone?”

“P
erhaps a few days, maybe a week. A window had blown open, we assume during that storm that blew through a night ago; it was still not closed this morning, which is what prompted someone to check in on them. We have searched the grounds, questioned neighbors... they are gone.”

“How? How could they do this
to us? To me?” she asked no one. “And now, when we’ve worked so hard and come so far.” Her tone was that of complete disbelief.

“I think the bigger quest
ion is what do we do, right now? As you say, we are nearing the end, and this is a blow that might be hard for some...” Amelia raised her hand, stopping him.

She needed a moment to think. Other realizations were hitting her. Things making sense, falling into place.
This must be the reason she had lost contact with Sebastien; he had not contacted her in weeks. This must be why. Somehow, his parents must have planned this and taken her connection to the twins with them!

She had worried his relationship with the twins might be corrupted but with his parents in line... and just what was going on at the
Svoda island anyway?

She hadn’t heard from her other informant, Ivan, either, and for a much longer time than Sebastien. Why was that? What was happening to make these people no longer want to work for her? Had someone corrupted them all? Or were there more sinister things going
on, keeping them from doing so? She let out a disappointed sigh and turned to Colton.

“I should have known
,” she told him, her eyes filling with fury. “I should have guessed!”

“What?” he asked.

“Our connection to the twins, Sebastien, the Jendaya’s son, I haven’t heard from him either. I stupidly assumed it was because he could not, not that he did not want, to communicate.”

He lifted hi
s eyebrows. This was as big a blow as Kay and Milo defecting.

“His parents were sti
ll here,” Amelia continued explaining. “I spoke with Kay and Milo not too long ago. I’ve been busy, but I always make time for my friends. Kay even joined me for coffee a couple weeks ago. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. If she was thinking of leaving then, she hid it well. I had no reason to think that Sebastien might have abandoned his post.”

“There is no chance he’s still out there, working, just unable to
contact you?” Colton asked.

“The timing is...”

Colton nodded in agreement.

Amelia
picked up her head, her frown defiant.

“You’re right about people’s reactions,
Colton. This will be a blow.” She paced for another minute, rubbing her hands together, shaking her head. She stopped, spinning around, a feverish look in her eyes.

“Call an emergency meeting,” she ordered
Colton. “In thirty minutes time I wish to address everyone. I fear, my dear Colton, that things might have to move along a little faster than we had originally intended.”

A gleam hung in his eye. “I’ll call it right away,” he nodded
, and departed with haste.

“And I need to have another little chat with my new young friend,” she mumbled. She left her offic
e, flew down a flight of stairs ignoring the announcement ringing through the air for the emergency meeting, ignoring the stares and greetings of her followers.

“I’ve come too far and
worked too hard,” she breathed out. “Nothing will stop me. Nothing will stop me from returning magic. We might not be as ready as I wanted, but it will just have to do. First, I need to take Juliska Blackwell out of power. Then, I need to destroy the Grosvenor, once and for all! Then, I will forge a new world. A better world!”

She strode toward the small prison at the far side of the village.

“Open the gate,” she demanded of the guard. She stepped through unannounced, catching the two prisoners off guard. It was clear which prisoner she wanted to speak to, as her frightening gaze bore into Jae, making his hands shake and his cup fall to the ground. She didn’t even bother speaking to him in private.

“I’ve no time for games, Mr. Mochrie.
I must know if you have considered my offer.”

Jae
breathed out nervously. “Um, yes... I have.”

“And?”

“No. I can’t, I mean I won’t, help you,” he tried to sound confident. “I won’t do anything that might put my friends or family in more danger.”

“Even if it means saving them from a tyrant like Juliska Blackwell?
Do you think your family is safe with her? Do you think your friends, Meghan and Colin Jacoby are safe with her?” she asked him impatiently.

“How do you know Meg...” he stopped, pretending he didn’t care. But why did Amelia Cobb know Meghan and Colin?

“I’m sorry,” he tried to speak with conviction. “I can’t do what you want.”

She took in a deep breath as if annoyed by what she had to do next. “Fine,” she spat. “So here’s the deal... I lied. When we talked before. Yes,
oh yes
, there is a way to sever the bond between you and Juliska. And definitely yes, if she finds out you’re still alive she will kill you... or worse, force you back into servitude, but...” she stopped as if toying with continuing.

Jae tried to not look interested or eager but he could not help but want to know what she was about to say.

“What would you say if I told you there was indeed a cure?”

“Wh-what?” Jae stuttered.

“There’s a cure?” asked Curtis. “My God! You
have
gone insane. Just give it to the boy!”

Am
elia raised her arm warning Curtis to choose his words carefully.

“He’
s just a boy,” Curtis added quietly, before heeding her order.

Jae didn’t know what to think. A cure... was it really possible? Was she lying just to get whatever she wanted out of him?

“What exactly is it that you want from me?” he asked her timidly.

She smiled. “Just a little help,” she insisted innocently. “You tell me everything you know about the current security on the island, everything you know about what’s happened over the last
few years and... and I will need a little
personal assistance
from you.” The way she said personal assistance made Jae cringe.

“What else could I do for you other than tell you...” he pa
used, realizing what she meant. “No. That is not going to happen,” he replied darkly. “I already told you I won’t do that!”