Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
JACK
Jack and Abigail ran past the guards standing sentry at the back of the queen’s private garden.
“Stop! You there, halt!”
“In the name of the queen, stop!”
The shouts only made Jack and Abigail run harder into the twisting streets of New Hope.
The city of New Hope sprawled out in front of them with gigantic brick buildings and winding cobble streets. People filled the pavement, while horses and carriages lined the actual roads. The noise brought on by so many people in such a small area drowned out Jack’s own beating heart.
The two only allowed themselves a moment of respite when they were sure they had lost any sign of the soldiers chasing them.
Jack’s lungs burned. His mouth was dry, while the first trickles of sweat slipped down the back of his neck. Abigail stopped beside him, her hands on her knees, bent over. She was breathing hard.
“We have to come up with a plan to go back.” Abigail straightened, letting out a long, cleansing breath from her overexerted lungs. “We can’t leave Elizabeth in there.”
“We will.” Jack did his best to straighten his shaggy, brown hair and wipe the sweat from his face.
A few New Hope citizens were already taking too much interest in the pair for Jack’s liking.
“But we need a plan first. We need help. Our best chance of getting Elizabeth back isn’t going to be through brute force. Leah’s too strong.”
“Okay.” Abigail placed her hands on her hips. “Well, we have no money, no idea what happened to our friends, and no one else in the city we can turn to for help… so what do we do now?”
“They all can’t be bad, can they?” Jack shook his head, racking his brain for anyone he could think of who would be willing to help. “What about Private Pia, Sergeant Harrison, even Lieutenant Baker? Do you think they’ve all just fallen in line with the queen?”
“The queen,” Abigail repeated Jack’s words. “How could she have done this? How could we have been fooled for so long?”
“I don’t know.” Jack shaded his eyes from the morning sun. “But when I was traveling the Outland with my father, the best places to gather information were always the bars and taverns. I can’t imagine things are much different in New Hope.”
“It’s a plan.” Abigail nodded her agreement. “Not that we have money to buy anything while we’re there, and Leah will be looking for us.”
“Right.” Jack mentally kicked himself again for his lack of knowledge in the magical art when it came to anything outside of the simple fighting and hunting techniques his father had taught him. “Disguises and money first, then hopefully we can get that information we need.”
“You have no idea how to do either of those things, do you, Jack?” Abigail looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, well.” Jack cleared his throat, looking anywhere but into Abigail’s eyes. “I guess I’m kind of limited.”
“You’re in luck.” With a wave of her hand, Abigail motioned for Jack to follow her.
She started walking down the main street again, this time intermingling with the crowd.
“When my mother left us, I went through a bit of a rebellious spell in Burrow Den. I wasn’t the best daughter.
I found the rush that stealing brought, and well, I became addicted. ”
Jack furrowed his brow, trying to imagine the Abigail he knew stealing from the town folk in Burrow Den. The image wasn’t only comical, it was downright hilarious.
“What would you steal?” Jack laughed out loud. “Farmer Maggot’s watermelons?”
“Oh, nothing crazy.” Abigail brushed by a woman she passed on the street.
Her hand moved in and out of the large pocket in the woman’s coat so quickly and smoothly, Jack wouldn’t have seen the motion unless he was looking for it.
“A book here or a piece of jewelry there. It was a dark time in my life.”
“Did you just steal something from that woman?” Jack looked at Abigail’s hand that clutched a compact wallet. “I don’t know if we should be doing this, no matter how hard up for money we are.”
Abigail ignored Jack’s words. Instead, she ducked into a side street with less foot traffic. She did a double check to make sure they weren’t being followed. It didn’t seem like anyone was even looking in their direction.
“We don’t have the luxury of morals right now.” Abigail opened the small clutch. Inside was a wad of bills and a few gold coins. “She didn’t look like she was hurting for money, either.”
Jack felt an internal battle waging inside him at the moment. He understood what they were doing was very wrong, but at the same time he found himself justifying their actions.
“I feel like I don’t even know you right now.” Jack shook his head with a sigh. “But I guess we don’t have a whole lot of options.”
“Come on.” Abigail pointed across the street to a clothing store. “Clothes first, then food and information.”