Taken (Book Six) (Fated Saga Fantasy Series) (9 page)

“Oh please
stop your incessant disapproval of my master,” Elisha raved. “If you so much as diss him one more time...”

“Enough!” said Ivan coolly. “We need to work together if we’re going to save Meghan... and Colby.”

“Right, but we are clearly not getting anywhere,” said Sebastien. “And I agree with Nona’s sentiments... if he hurts her...”

Elisha hissed. Ivan motioned for Sebastien to cool it, as like it or not they needed Elisha’s help. Sebastien frowned.

“Hey, what’s that?” Nona blurted, pointing with her head. It was a lump on the ground where Meghan and Colby had been standing a day earlier.

“I swear that was not there before,” said Sebastien, running over. “It’s her bag.”

“Maybe they came back!” Elisha chimed eagerly. She hunted the area for any sign of her master’s presence. Nona joined. But after a minute, they had found nothing new, save Meghan’s bag.

“Perhaps w
e somehow missed it from before?” Ivan suggested.

“I don’t see how, but if they didn’t come back
then...” Sebastien stopped, eyeing Meghan’s bag cautiously. “Did her bag just move?”

They watched her bag closely and jumped in unison as it did indeed move.
They stepped carefully toward it. Ivan daringly bent over and unzipped it. He jumped back a second time as something bounced out of her bag landing on the ground.

“It’s that book!” Ivan exclaimed, rel
ieved. His eyes met Sebastien’s and he lifted his eyebrows.

“It got them out of a lot of jams...”
Sebastien agreed, answering Ivan before he’d even asked.

Ivan leaned over and picked it up,
flipping it open. The book’s snide voice called out, “Hide! You idiots!” The voice continued shouting insults as the foursome looked at each other and then proceeded to heed the warning. They fled into the woods, finding cover. And not a moment too soon.

Back on the spot where Meghan’s bag still l
ay, the ground began to quiver. Dirt suddenly spurted into the air, the ground breaking apart.

“What is that?” Nona asked, her cattish voice small and petrified.

Two stone bodies pulled themselves out of the earth and hit the ground with a thunderous thud. They had no eyes but they turned their heads in thick turns as if they could see. The rotating teeth in their mouths didn’t stop turning; bits of dirt and root spitting out.

“Trackers,” the book informed them, in a low voice
.

Ivan and Sebastien exchanged a glance.
Was it possible for their situation to get any more desperate? Colby and Meghan were being tracked by... they didn’t even know what to call these things.

They were monstrous, hard-bodied hunters with teeth that looked they could reach out and cut through anything!

They kept silent and hidden. They had no clue how to fight a creature such as this.

When the Trackers were satisfied that what they were looking for was no longer there, they threaded their way back into the ground and vanished.

“It would appear
that those Trackers know where they’re going,” said Ivan tensely.

“And
we still don’t,” Sebastien said.

“I wonder who sent those things
?” Nona said.

“Never seen anything like those before,” Elish
a claimed. “Not his father’s. These belong to someone else.”

“You do not want to mess with those
creatures,” the book’s voice spoke, “and if you’d just ask me, I could help you track your friends.”

“Please,” begged Sebastien
, astounded. “We need any help we can get!”

“How can you help
?” asked Ivan.

“I hold the magi
c of the ancient Projectors. Colby is a Projector, like the boy, Colin. I can track Projector magic... but...”

“What?” asked everyone at the same moment.

“It will require time and patience.”

“We don’t hav
e a lot of time,” said Sebastien, worried this plan would be no better than what they had been doing.

“We’ll do it
,” insisted Ivan. “
What?
” he aimed as Sebastien. “Have you come up with any better ideas than walking in circles?”

Sebastien conceded.

“If you’re all decided then,” the book said. “Take hold and hold tight!”

They each touched the Magicante and instantly found
themselves transported to a small clearing, surrounded by granite walls on two sides of them and thick trees on the other two.

“So
when were they here?” asked Sebastien eagerly.

“They were not here
,” the book responded.

“Why did you bring us here then?” asked Elisha crossly.

“It’s a safe place to wait.”

“Wait for what?” asked
Ivan.

“For Colby to show
himself. Right now, his powers have he and Meghan cloaked. They cannot be found, even by the Trackers. He must have a moment of weakness, or choose to voluntarily return to this world for me to trace them. I will know the moment this happens.”

“So what do we do now?” asked Sebastien.
“That could take days, maybe even weeks!”

“In the case of
Jasper Thorndike,” said Elisha, “it took years.”

Ivan sank to the ground, exasperated.
“I believe what he’s trying to say is that this is the time and patience part.”

The book
closed itself and the rest plunked down helplessly near Ivan, just sitting and waiting.

Cha
pter 5

“We should go,” said Kanda Macawi, with a slight pause between her words. “It is time to return to my people.”

Colin’s display of losing c
ontrol had astonished her, and his Uncle Arnon. Nevertheless, it seemed that at least for now, they were still allowing him to join them on their journey.

Arnon followed Kanda out of her home.

Colin and Catrina followed Arnon and Kanda. He kept the protective cloak over them as they walked.

Once outsi
de, they headed toward the lake, the same lake in which Colin had had a run in with a moose. They hopped into Kanda’s canoe, wondering where exactly she was taking them. She and Arnon paddled to an inlet not too far away, where a trellis made out of bent tree limbs straddled the inlet. It was not deep enough for a boat or canoe. Regardless, Kanda aimed the canoe toward the inlet and paddled underneath the tree limb trellis. For a moment everything went dark and then just as fast, they paddled out into the light, continuing on a river that flowed slowly down a winding path.

“Oh my,” whispered Catr
ina wondrously.

It took Colin a few moments to take it all in; they were no longer in the campground in
Cobbscott, Maine. “It’s like we’ve gone back in time,” he muttered in disbelief.

Arnon caught Kanda’s bright smile
and said, “Good to be home?”

She no
dded. “It gets more beautiful every day I’m gone.”

“This place is...” Catrina started to say, but could not find a word to describe the landscape. In their world, winter was nearing and the landscape was empty and dreary. But here it was lush and green, with vast, hilly fields spreading as far as the eye could see.

“We have been living here, as our ancestors lived, for hundreds of years,” Kanda explained. “We did live in your world, but when the early settlers arrived, trouble started. Over the years, we were forced out of our homelands and many of my people lost their lives. If not by war then to illnesses brought by the settlers; illnesses we did not know how to heal, even with magic. This is how we met the Svoda. You see, they were relocating to their island and needed help. We gladly did so, showing them how to live off the land. In return, they helped us cure the illnesses brought by those early settlers and also, helped us create this haven.”

“The S
voda helped create this place?” asked Colin.

“Yes.
Things were different once. The Svoda were one, living in peace, not torn as they are today. They saved us from complete annihilation. We were sure to end up on a reservation; eventually losing our way of life as so many like us tragically succumbed to. The Svoda helped us create this haven and we have lived here in peace ever since.”

“I had no idea,” said Catrina. “In any song I have ever heard, I never once heard a story about this.”

“It was stricken from all history, as if we never existed. We were left alone to live peacefully. Not that we haven’t come out into your world here and there.”

“But,” injected Arnon, “this is why the
Tunkapog must now enter into battle. The magical world is breaking apart. If we do not take swift action, it might never recover.”

“
We do not rejoice in this action, of going to battle, but we have no choice,” said Kanda. “Not only is our way of life in jeopardy, but the entire world’s, magical and non magical. If Amelia succeeds with her intentions, and Juliska Blackwell is allowed to keep power, and the Grosvenor are not once and for all stopped... no one’s way of life will be safe. We owe the Svoda, they saved us when we needed it the most. And I fear their way of life is now equally in jeopardy.”

They pulled the canoe over to a small alcove and jumped out. They stepped over the embankment and were even more surprised to see a
bustling village not far in the distance. As they got closer, Colin and Catrina could see that most of the buildings were dome shaped, and built out of a mixture of bark, grass and wooden poles. They had been built in various sizes, some meant to be lived in, and some meant as businesses, and one in the middle of the village that had to be a meeting hall as it was long enough to fit hundreds of people or more, inside.

Figures approached them.

“Is that?” said Colin, pointing and speechless.

Milo
and Kay Jendaya stopped in front of them, greeting Arnon and Kanda.

“Colin,” said
Milo. “This is a surprise!”

“Mr. Jendaya,” said Colin, not believing his eyes.

“We have much to catch up on,” added Kay in her soft voice.

“I’m so glad you are both here, an
d safe,” Kanda told the Jendayas.

“It is not easy, but I kn
ow it was the right thing to do,” said Milo. “And we were so pleased to find our friend, Amos Durmuddy hiding out here too. Such a relief to know he’s okay and not caught by Amelia.”

Colin shook his head. There was so much he did not know.

“Is Sebastien here?” he suddenly blurted.

The
Jendaya’s sighed, pain etching their faces. Milo shook his head.

“But yo
u guys all know about magic?” Colin confirmed. “Wow! I guess we do have a ton to catch up on.”

They had not had the time to discuss
it yet, but his uncle had mentioned he was from the banished group of Svoda. All he knew of this group was that they were led by Amelia Cobb. Were the Jendayas a part of this group as well?

They walked
into the heart of the village.

While walking, Arnon bent over and whispered into Colin’s ear.

“For now, your secret should remain so. We feel it’s best to reveal this only if needed.”

Colin nodded that he understood.

He heard Kay speaking to Kanda up ahead.

“The
battle plans are nearly completed. Nashua has a full battle plan with back up battle plans, should things not go as expected.”

“I assumed
my brother would be prepared,” said Kanda.

“As I am,” a deep voice answered. “Sister.” He outstretched his arms in greeting.
He wore a suit of white fur. Oddly, the suit almost seemed to seep into his skin in some places.

After saying their hellos and making small talk, the Tunkapog man named
Nashua asked them all to enter one of the dome shaped buildings. Inside was a wooden table at which they all took seats.

He wasted no time beginning. “The battle should go swift
ly and smoothly. Using the information provided to us from Kay, Milo and Amos, we should be able to take Amelia by surprise, escaping with minimal casualties on either side.”

“
And once we have captured Amelia?” asked Arnon.

“We bring her back here where she is out of rea
ch and find out what she’s done and just how she plans on returning magic to the world, and what steps she has already taken. Hopefully, it is not too late to stop it.”

“And what if things go... badly?” asked
Milo.

“You mean in the off chance that she dies?
Or a war breaks out?”

Milo
nodded.

“These are contingencies
we are still mulling over. It is frankly, not an option. She must live. As per battle, we are prepared to fight, if we must.”