Chapter 14 – The New Members
As we sat in our bedroom that night, surrounded by comfort and luxury, I couldn’t take advantage of the soft sheets and things. Not yet.
“This is awesome!” Alye breathed as she snuggled underneath the blankets. No twinge of conscience there. “Aubrey joining is the best thing yet! He’s the perfect resource for intelligence and stuff!”
“But that’s what we have Redmond for!” Philipia protested. She winced as she accidentally jogged her arm (Aubrey had insisted she allow a maid person to bathe and re-bandage it).
“And we can trust Redmond!” I said hotly. “Aubrey is too close to Delroy. I mean, come on! He’s his SON! Sure, he may say he’s on our side, but maybe he’s just doing this for daddy dearest!”
Alye flushed. “Why are you two so stupid stubborn about this? Aubrey’s helped us before! But you take what he’s given us, and you chuck it in his face! Where would we be sleeping if not for him?” She flopped down onto her pillow and hid her face under the sheets.
I sighed, exasperated. “Compromise. We let Aubrey in, but we have to keep Redmond’s part in this a secret. Even if Aubrey’s really with us, it’s a simple precaution to keep Redmond from getting hurt for violating his jester code. Okay?”
Silence for several seconds. Then a grudging “okay” grumbled through the bedcovers. I flopped onto my bed and buried myself in the blankets. Our room was a decent temperature because of the fireplace in the corner, but the room still had a faint chill. Probably from lack of decent insulation or something. I closed my eyes and slipped into a troubled dream.
Next morning, we avoided talking about the argument the night before. Without any words, we went one by one to the bathroom across the hall to wash up and dress. There were probably other washrooms around, but we didn’t feel like opening random doors until we found one. I was last to go, since Philipia had gone first and Alye had stomped her way in afterward. When it was finally my turn, I strode in, locked the door, and turned my face to the polished metal that served as a mirror.
“Oh my GOD!” I shrieked as I noticed my reflection. As quickly as possible, I backed away, rubbed my eyes several times, and looked again.
See, normally, my eyes are a really dark brown, so dark in the center that you can barely see the pupils. That wasn’t what they were like now.
Instead, bright blue streaked across my irises, rings of cobalt joining the brown. The blue was the exact same shade as my magic. What the heck was going on?!
“Tanya! Are you okay?” Philipia’s worried voice called through the thick door.
I opened the door and asked, “Are my eyes blue?”
“What the heck?!”
“ARE MY EYES BLUE?!”
She stared, her own azure eyes widening in shock. Alye popped up behind her, curiosity on her face.
“Cool!” the midget exclaimed. “Now you’re like me! Multicolor eyes of doom!”
“But why?” I asked frantically. “What’s wrong with me?”
Stupid question. When in doubt, consult books, medieval or no.
I grabbed my Shapeshifters, Sorceresses, and All Other Kinds of Magics book from a pile that I’d set up in our bedroom and flipped to the Sorceresses section. Nothing. Not word one about eye color or physically changes. I hissed in annoyance and flipped back to the beginning, accidentally giving myself a paper cut. Today was not a good day.
“Wait, hold on, go forward,” Alye broke into my angsting. “I saw something about eyes.”
Obligingly, sucking my cut index finger, I turned the pages carefully, looking for what Alye had seen. Finally, I found it. I propped the book up and read with interest.
Magic not only can mutate the objects being manipulated, but also the user. Over a period of days, weeks, or even years in which the person first begins to use magic, they may undergo physical changes. These range from growing extra appendages (great, I thought) to superficial changes, such as eye color.
Indeed, the first sign that a person has magical abilities is their changing eye color. The shades may at first only be a part of the iris, but eventually, the entire eye will shift to the tint of their magic. For example, a person who initially had blue eyes but uses green magic will eventually alter to green eyes.
And then it continued on with the long and detailed descriptions that I won’t copy here because they were incredibly dull.
But my worry had faded somewhat. I wasn’t hallucinating and I hadn’t caught some deadly disease. It was just the magic changing me. Thankfully, the text said that only in really freaky accidents do magic-users grow extra arms or anything, so it was safe to assume that I wouldn’t need to buy three-armed sweaters or anything.
Back to the matter at hand. I finished washing up and we headed to the kitchen for the first time in a week for a change of pace. I was getting sick of the Candlebar Inn’s food; you can’t beat castle breakfast with hastily-prepared inn meals. No comparison. Then it was back to the library for studying while Philipia went to learn with Lunae, and then a meeting that night at the inn.
As we sat around the wooden table, waiting for the rest of our council to show up, I felt the tension in the air clench us in an iron grip. I rested my head in my hands and tried to think about how we were going to tell the others about Aubrey joining.
Redmond arrived first with a light step and plunked himself down on the table, giving a cheery greeting. Soon, Lunae, Adaline, Harmon, Violet, and Kymber walked in, seating themselves at their respective places. The moment was nigh.
First, Violet checked Philipia’s arrow wound. Much tsking as she looked over and carefully examined the injury; Philipia winced but gritted her teeth. “Looks better,” Violet finally announced. “It’ll probably leave a scar but I think it’ll heal alright.”
“Great,” the shapeshifter replied as Violet rewrapped the bandages. “It’s kinda hard to do anything when you have a hole in your arm.”
“No duh,” Alye retorted, in a sharp temper tonight.
“No fighting for now, okay?” I cut in before another argument could erupt. “People, we need to tell you all something.” Pause as I tried to collect my words together and make a compelling case, but it didn’t work so I decided to go for bluntness. “Aubrey wants to join the Rebellion.”
Cue panic.
“WHAT?!”
“He’ll just give us away!”
“How did he find out?!”
Et cetera.
I glanced over at Redmond. His usually-twinkling blue eyes were wide and tense with fear, while his fingers clutched the edge of the wooden table. After all, he had broken the jester code of conduct, and though I didn’t know what the punishment was for that, I doubted it involved being sent to your room without dessert.
Alye raised her hands and motioned for silence. “Look, I don’t know why you all are going crazy over this. Aubrey’s a great firsthand intelligence-gatherer, and he’s helped us before. Besides, he’s the one the soldiers report to, and since he hasn’t told his dad yet, I think we can assume he’s not going to tell him at all.”
“Alye, he blackmailed us; it’s as simple as that,” Philipia cut in impatiently. “He told us that if we didn’t tell him what was going on, he’d reveal us to his dad. I’m sorry, but I can’t bring myself to trust someone who enters the organization via blackmail.”
I kneaded my temples. “We don’t have much choice. The most we can do is keep Redmond and Kymber out of the room if he ever joins a meeting. We’re stuck, but if he’s offering his help, we might as well take advantage of it.” I nodded at Redmond, “At least as long as it corresponds with whatever Redmond can dig up.”
He gave a jerky nod.
“Okay then,” Philipia said calmly (sorta), “we have to let Aubrey in on this, but we’ll restrict his access or something. Anyone have any other ideas?”
Everyone just shook their heads. Redmond pulled some papers out of his pocket. “I have some more plans and things we can look over.” On to Rebellion business. Just like usual.
Surprisingly, when we caught a hold of Aubrey that night, he told us he had no plans to attend our official meetings. “It would be far too risky for me to leave the castle at regular intervals,” he informed us. “It will attract attention, which is the last thing you want.”
We were relieved beyond measure, needless to say.
So essentially, things were pretty normal. With additional info from Aubrey (with Redmond backing up his information independently), we ran several raids against the soldiers’ barracks, mostly for supplies, but sometimes just for demoralizing them. During one particularly hysterical mission, we gathered up buckets of dye or paint or whatever the medieval equivalent was and covered the entire right wall of the barracks in bright blue sparkles while Kymber staged a breakout of the horses to distract the soldiers. We actually succeeded in stealing some of the equines for ourselves, something that very much excited Philipia.
But after several weeks, something came up that caused enormous amounts of worry.
It was an icy, freezing cold night. Winter had suddenly decided to make an early visit and the village of Glovebern was covered in ice and frozen rain. No snow as of yet, but it was coming. We were bundled in plenty of blankets in the little back room, but the cold kept seeping in through the walls like poison.
Kymber broke the news to us. “My father has been getting some rather…unusual orders.”
“Like what?” I asked, trying to keep my teeth from chattering.
She looked really concerned. “Well, he’s getting requests from one of Lord Delroy’s spokesmen to forge a large number of swords. And last week, he was ordered to make several more shields. Today, he got yet another demand, this one for spears. Something’s wrong.”
“I agree,” Redmond said seriously. “I’ve been hearing whispers from the soldiers. Delroy’s getting very annoyed with the Rebellion. I think he’s trying to build up a larger army or something.”
“That’s right,” Elspeth spoke up. “My brother was ordered to go to the barracks yesterday, and he hasn’t come back. We got a message from him telling us he was alright, but that’s all.”
“So basically Delroy’s amassing an army to destroy us because we’re getting to be a pain?” Alye said skeptically. “Kinda drastic considering what we’ve done, you know?”
“I disagree,” Lunae replied. “We’ve stolen many supplies and irritated his forces to no end. I can imagine he’s getting tired of us.”
“Okay, fine, but this is really just a bunch of little independent things that don’t really add up,” Alye protested. “What’s he going to do, storm the whole village and burn down the place? That’ll put a cinch in his food supply.”
“In that case,” I broke in before an argument of some kind erupted, “we need to check this out. We’ll need to…”
“Verify it with Aubrey!” Alye interrupted, excited.
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, we’ll do that.”
We walked back to the castle, huddling together to try and provide communal warmth. The freezing rain soaked us through and chilled us to the marrow. The sky was inky black, with deepest gray clouds blotting out any light from the stars. It was the epitome of a dark and stormy night.
Approaching the castle doors at a run, we slipped inside and stood for a moment, shivering in the draughty castle air. But before we could search for our rooms, the high, infinitely-cultured voice of Aubrey shattered that idea.
“If you have need of warmth, you may come in here,” he drawled from one of the myriad doorways. We shuffled over, into the cozy room, and crowded around the fireplace, the steam rising from our sleet-soaked clothing. When we were no longer dripping, we sat down in ridiculously comfortable chairs, while Aubrey perched in the largest one. Appropriate.
“How goes the Rebellion?” he asked. I glanced at the door. Locked and bolted again, just like when he’d first trapped us.
“Fine of course!” Alye replied cheerily. “And Aubrey, we need to ask you something.”
He gave a bow from his chair. “I am yours to command.”
“Great. So, is your dad building an army?”
Did she have to be so bloody brazen?
Aubrey blinked several times. “I beg your pardon?”
His wannabe girlfriend looked confused. “Um, yeah? He’s been making a bunch of orders for weapons and stuff. So isn’t he up to something?”
The medieval guy watched her closely, apparently trying to figure out what to say. “I…am not fully aware of any such efforts.” He paused. “But I have…been hearing things. My father is growing angry at the Rebellion. It would not surprise me if he is doing such a thing. However,” and he gave a graceful gesture, “it would be best to ask him. Or, putting it differently, search his private study.”
“And how are we going to get there?” Philipia inquired, an incredulous look creeping onto her face.
Aubrey gave her a condescending smile. “You are the Rebellion. I’m sure you’ll find out a way. However, I do have a plan of the castle. I could possibly loan it to you. Two of you, go onto your rooms, but one of you can remain behind so I can give the map to you without having to go to your rooms, which is not exactly a very proper thing to do.”
Okaay. Medieval laws of chivalry or something. Alye leaped at the chance. “I’ll stay! You guys go on. I’ll be there soon!”
Philipia and I exchanged worried glances but rose from our chairs. Aubrey strode to the door and bowed us out. He left the door slightly open and we hurried down the hall.
“I don’t like this,” I said bluntly as we passed the dining room.
“I don’t either, but it’s the best we can do. We have to know what Delroy’s planning,” Philipia pointed out.
“It’s not just that. Why couldn’t he just give it to all three of us?”
“I don’t…I don’t know.”
I stopped, worried thoughts crowding into my head. “I’m going back. I don’t know what he’s up to, but I don’t like the thought of Alye alone with him.” I turned around and fast-walked back down the hallway, trying to remember the turns we’d taken. Philipia trotted along next to me, looking for the right door.
“There, down that way!” she pointed, and we nearly ran, worry pulsing in our minds. Yep, there was the door, still slightly ajar. We opened it swiftly.
Oh. My. God.
No way. Not happening. Brain malfunction. ERROR!! ERROR!!!
The room had darkened, the fire extinguished. Every shade and curtain was pulled, with only a few faint candles in the corner. And in the center of the room, Alye and Aubrey.
Kissing like they were at a high school dance.
I stared, dazed. Confused. Beside me, I heard a faint thump as Philipia outright fainted, sprawling on the floor. And then the shock faded, replaced by fury. I nudged Philipia with my shoe and her eye opened slowly. She lifted her head, saw what had knocked her out, and then shapeshifted, transforming into a bald eagle. With a screech, she rose into the air, and I marched into the room, pointing my magic staff in front of me. A snarl escaped my lips and as the kissing couple broke apart, I shoved my staff right in his face.
Exactly one centimeter from his nose.
He leaned backward, going cross-eyed, while Philipia soared towards his head. But before I could blast him then and there, Alye pushed him aside.
“WHAT THE FREAK IS YOUR PROBLEM?!” she shouted, hands gripping the handles of her swords.
“What the freak were you doing?!” I demanded, anger pouring from my voice in a flood. I pointed the staff at Aubrey again, who backed away very quickly, rage now creeping into his unnaturally blue eyes. But Alye got in the way again, while Philipia landed next to me and returned to her human self so she could give them both a royal chewing-out.
“Have you completely lost your MIND?” the shapeshifter roared, almost sounding like when she’d become a lion and scared off those creepy soldiers months ago.
“What do you care?” Alye spat. “I have a right to start something with him, and if you don’t like it, that’s YOUR problem, and you DON’T have the right to charge in here and try to murder him!”
“We WEREN’T going to murder him; we wanted him AWAY from you!” I yelled back. Aubrey stepped forward, making the calm-down gesture.
“Before blood is spilt, we have the right to give an explanation. Alye and I have grown fond of each other, and I was not aware that you are her parents. Therefore, you cannot control her relationships.” He reached his hand for hers, but a withering look from me and Philipia practically disintegrated his arm muscles, so he simply turned to one of the bookshelves, where a sheaf of parchment was lying. He rummaged through it, finally drawing out a plan. It was a map of the castle interior, with Lord Delroy’s study clearly labeled.
“I believe you needed this,” he said softly, an undercurrent of ice beneath the courtesy. Philipia took it, said a very quick thank you, and then grabbed Alye’s hair band, then her arm.
“Come on,” she snapped, and we marched up the hallway, Alye squirming her way out of Philipia’s grip. But she followed us back to our bedroom without any screaming.
Of course, that changed as soon as we got inside.
I won’t record what was said, since I doubt it’s appropriate to read, but suffice it to say, some very nasty things were uttered and we ended the night by burying ourselves under the covers.
Meanwhile, outside, I heard the first gusts of harsh wind. The pattering of raindrops soon turned to the lashings of snow and sleet.
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