Chapter 22
Loud voices echoed in the distance. I straightened up, heart hammering with anticipation. Everyone had fallen silent, listening intently.
At least two dozen figures rose from the horizon as they climbed the hill in front of us. The bright sun eliminated any chance of making out their features.
Concerned mumbles erupted from the group as everyone crouched low. The figures didn’t seem to have spotted us yet, but that could change in the blink of an eye.
“Shh,” Daegal hissed, absentmindedly tightening his grasp on the chain in his hand that connected him to me.
The figures halted. They’d seen us.
“They’re mooncasters,” Jax said, straightening up. “It’s them.”
He was right. The tugging I’d felt before was more like a push now, ushering me toward this unfamiliar group of people in front of us.
“Over here!” Jax yelled, waving his arms in the air before Daegal’s hand shot out to silence him.
Everyone froze, watching the group speed toward us. They were barely 25 feet away when I saw her. Copper blonde hair flowed in the wind, and her tall frame rushed forward with the rest of them.
The scream had left my mouth before I could think about it. I yelled her name as loud as possible, attracting everyone’s attention, including hers.
“Lili!”
Her long legs stopped mid-stride, gaze flickering wide-eyed between the rebels around me. Then she saw me. Our gazes met, and her face split into a hysterical grin as she resumed her running faster than before.
She threw her arms around me as soon as I was within reach. I looped my bound hands around her neck, pulling her down with me until we both laid sprawled in the sand.
“Prue!” She sobbed uncontrollably. “What happened? Why are you in chains?” She asked through her tears of relief.
“How are you here?” I asked in turn because my reeling mind couldn’t come up with a single answer that could explain how my little sister was here, in the desert, with two dozen people I’d never seen before.
“Archie and I found a group of rebels in Erobred.” She exclaimed, sitting up straight and detangling herself from my arms to stare at me with eyes wide in excitement. “Prue, they were there, in the city, this whole time!”
“Archie is here too?” I asked, searching the crowd for the familiar red hair.
She nodded. “Along with about ten other mooncasters from the city and some other people.”
I spotted Archie just as he broke off from the group and sprinted towards us. He exclaimed my name and threw himself on the ground next to Lili.
“What happened?” He asked, hugging me tightly while my arms clumsily found their way over his neck as well.
“No, no,” I shook my head, unable to concentrate on my own tragedy when they were here, right in front of me. “You have to tell me how you got here first. This is incredible!”
My heart felt lighter than air as I stared at the two people that I’d missed the most since I left Erobred.
“Well, I told you that we found the rebels in the city,” Lili said, brushing over the mind-blowing fact that they did just that. “We’ve been working with them for over a month. They’re mostly mooncasters, but there are even a few Defenders in the group who don’t agree with how the Kingdom is ruled.
“They were planning on coming here after the Rebellion’s leader sent word to them, asking them to join her. We were lucky we found them before they left,” she said, taking a breath.
“In the letter, the leader told them how to find the base. No map, just in case the letter was intercepted. But a note on how the mooncasters could use a spell to find them. And it worked!”
I nodded, trying to comprehend all of this. Lili had also been corrected from dark to moon and from light to sun when addressing the casters.
“What in the hell is going on?” Jax asked, bewildered, looking between us and the approaching group. “Who are these people?”
Lili, Archie, and I all stood up quickly, brushing the sand from our clothes.
Lili’s face reddened as every pair of rebel-eyes landed on her.
My gaze found Daegal’s, and I couldn’t help myself.
I quirked an eyebrow at him and tilted my head to the side, watching the realization dawn on him. I told you so.
His eyes flickered from Lili to me. To the identical hair color and the unmistakably similar nose and lips. “Wow,” he said, stepping forward to look at us.
“This is my sister,” I said, gesturing to Lili with my hands. “And this is Archie. My oldest friend.”
It was incredible how silent one hundred people could be.
“I thought Kenric had her?” Daegal half-whispered to me, still eyeing me suspiciously like I’d somehow managed to set this up to trick him.
I turned to Lili with the same question. “The Defender who took me spoke to me through the crystal,” I told her, and her eyes widened.
“I’m so sorry, Prue. He almost caught me, and I barely got away. It was after we’d joined the rebels, and they helped me escape. I didn’t realize until after that I’d dropped it, and I couldn’t get it back because we left that same night.”
“Hello,” a tall, fit man stretched his hand out to Daegal. He’d apparently already gathered that he was this group’s leader. “We called out to you earlier. Is that why you’re out here? Did your mooncasters hear our signal?”
Daegal shook his head. “We’re on a mission. You must’ve passed a prison not too long ago.”
The man looked confused, looking at his comrades for confirmation. “Did we?”
“The prison is almost impossible to see until you’re almost right in front of it,” I cut in, but the look on their faces had me wishing I hadn’t. The man’s eyes fixed on my bound hands.
“She’s my problem,” Daegal said, waving the unspoken question away with his hand. “The point is, we’re about to attack said prison. We want to break the mooncasters free.”
The strangers all looked shocked.
Daegal, Felix, and the strangers stepped away to discuss. Everyone was confused, stunned into continued silence.
“Prue, why are you in chains?” Lili almost shouted as the chain tightened with each stride Daegal took away from me. I dug in my heels, refusing to follow. He would not drag me away from her.
“Remember that mission I told you about?” I asked a captivated Lili and a nervous Archie. “It wasn’t all that noble, Lili. The chief warden ordered me to steal something from the Rebellion.” I nodded towards Daegal, who was now immersed in conversation. “He caught me.”
Lili looked crestfallen.
I explained everything to them, leaving nothing out. By the time I’d finished talking, my throat felt raw and dry. Now, it was my turn to get their side of the story.
“I still don’t understand how you found the rebels in the first place,” I insisted, longing to know every detail of their life since we’d been separated.
“After you were taken, we decided to take matters into our own hands,” Lili said fiercely, a spark of that constant determination of hers dancing in her eyes. “We looked for over a month before I spotted something. Prue, they’re using dad’s symbol.”
Lili hadn’t known our father like I had, as she was so young when he died. But I’d told her about the symbol through the bond after Hannan had told me. And about how dad had woven it into the bag I always carried.
“I thought they’d stopped using it,” I said, thinking back to the conversation with Hannan and Verena.
Lili shook her head. “They erase the symbol every time they’ve had a meeting to make sure it isn’t plastered all over the city.”
I nodded, but a furious thought crept into my mind. “Why didn’t you tell me what you were up to?” I shot an accusing stare at Archie. “We talked almost every night!”
They both had the decency to look a little shameful. “We knew you’d worry too much. Tell us to stop,” Archie explained, taking my hands. “But we had to get back to you.”
I suppressed the urge to cry. “You could’ve been killed.” I looked into Lili’s teary, blue eyes.
“You were about to be killed!” She yelled. “How do you expect me to sit idly by while you sacrifice everything for me? Don’t you understand? I can protect you like you protect me.”
“Okay, okay,” I said soothingly. I didn’t want to have this fight right now. I wanted to enjoy the moment and let the relief fill me up until all my other worries drowned in the sensation.
“Listen up!” Daegal called out, silencing everyone with a few words. “Tomorrow is the day. Felix has consulted the map, and we shouldn’t be more than a few hours’ trek away. The newcomers have graciously agreed to help us.”
The unfamiliar man stepped forward, waving a hand in the air. His light brown hair glimmered in the sunlight. The curse had colored his skin midnight-blue up to his elbows. “Hi. My name is Haze. I’m the leader of the city rebels. Let’s free some prisoners.”
He was charismatic, more so than Verena. I could already feel an oncoming fight if he insisted on keeping his title as leader.
“This is the updated plan,” Daegal said, and he launched into an explanation.
The camp had fallen quiet, only a few whispered voices audible around Lili, Archie, and me.
Lili laid fast asleep behind Archie on the thin bedroll they shared. Jax had offered his up for the night, as it was his turn to keep watch anyway.
Daegal rested with his back turned next to me, his deep breathing indicating he was sleeping as well. He was still refusing to uncuff me, so I had the cold chain draped across my waist again.
Archie leaned his head on his hand as he laid on his side, looking at me. We’d spent the last few hours catching up. They hadn’t sat by and done nothing like I’d asked them to. From the moment I’d been taken, they’d started plotting their escape from Erobred.
Archie told me he’d noticed Kenric more frequently, often with one or two Defenders at his side. That’s when he’d known they were being watched.
“Kenric often came to bully some free lobsters out of the harbormaster. I don’t doubt he did that to keep an eye on me, although I’m sure he enjoyed the free food,” Archie whispered, a sad smile playing on his lips.
“I think those lobsters were the only reason he didn’t kill me, too, that day you were caught. ”
My heart dropped. “I guess you heard about Annora?” I asked sadly.
He gave me a small nod that made his straight orange hair fall across his face. “Yeah. I wasn’t sure if you heard, and I didn’t think it was the type of news to tell you... you know, through your mind, with no one to comfort you.”
A tear fell from his lashes just as I felt my own eyes turn wet. “I saw it,” I whispered, choking on a sob to keep myself quiet.
His eyes snapped to mine, looking devastated and horrified. “What do you mean you saw it?”
“Kenric set it up, probably as a warning for what would happen to you and Lili if I defied him.”
He reached out with his free hand and wiped the tears from my cheek. “I’m so sorry, Prue. That must’ve been terrifying.”
I nodded. “Please don’t tell Lili. I don’t want to remind her of this. She seems so happy.”
Archie frowned at me slightly, eyes still glistening with unshed tears. “She’s probably the strongest out of all of us. Let her grow up.”