Leaving Ary behind on the island, Xellie, Mattos and Tane rowed their boat back to Hafenstad. Secretly, Xellie and Mattos made a plan to pass by the town square at regular intervals, just so they were within a visual distance of each other. Tane wasn’t to know this in case he had some way to pass the information to Ashmeviti.
So, as far as Tane was concerned, the plan was to meet back at the docks at sundown.
Pairing her blackened hair up with a hooded dark green cloak, Xellie spared little thought for the tall and narrow architecture of the town as she fought against her thoughts to stay alert.
Her conversation with Tane had disturbed her greatly. Combining his information with Raye’s edgy behaviour seemed to add up. Against everything she wanted to believe in, she was finding herself very curious about what Ashmeviti would have to say to her if anything at all.
How can I even find the portal in this town?
Street by street, she walked briskly through Hafenstad, throwing an inconspicuous glance at any door or window she passed by.
Nobody seemed to pay any attention to her, much to her relief. Despite this, Xellie still checked regularly to see if she was being followed or watched.
There were lots of people walking through the streets. The traders were busy flogging their wares in the town centre. She kept walking, away from the bay area into the depths of the town, through narrow streets and parks.
This particular park was devoid of people and wildlife.
A wooden swing rocked back and forth, a roundabout slowly coming to a standstill... Yet there were no children.
Following the grassy path through the trees and bushes, Xellie came across an area of scorched earth and burned trees.
She looked around to see if anyone else was watching before inspecting the area. The damage was localised to a small range, indicating that it was probably the work of magic. She took a deep breath, trying to make sure that she stayed calm. It was the first indicator she had seen that anything was amiss in the town, apart from just taking Tane’s word for it.
Something glinting half buried in the scorched earth caught her eye. Crouching down to inspect it and brush the mud away, a feeling of dread came over her.
It was Raye’s raven-feathered headband, smeared with blood.
She picked up the hairband, turning it over in her hands thoughtfully as she glanced around the park. If Raye was in trouble, things could be about to turn bad very quickly. A sense of urgency started to overcome her.
The two long black feathers were stuck together with still wet blood. Xellie wiped it against her cloak, her eyes opened wide as the magnitude of what she had just found dawned on her.
Running back out of the park and out into the street, there was nowhere to go.
This is a terrible time to panic
Who am I kidding? This is the correct time to panic!
Darting her violet eyes left and right, Xellie tried to figure out what the best route to take was. She looked down at the hairpiece in her hand, remembering what had happened before when she tried it on.
“Here goes nothing.” She muttered, clipping it into her hair and pulling the hood back up to hide it.
“YOU CAN’T DO THIS!” Raye’s voice screamed out immediately, followed by silence.
As soon as Raye’s screams sounded through the hairpiece, the town grew darker. Almost dreading what she’d see when she looked up, she looked up to see the jagged and pulsating green energy lines of a forcefield in the sky above.
“No way!” She gasped, running along the street so she could see further.
The whole town was covered by the dome-shaped forcefield.
Staring out at the horizon, seeing the forcefield meet the floor, she clenched her fists, trying to slow her breathing. She was trapped here.
A curl of black smoke on the ground caught her attention, pulsating with an energy that sent wisps up in the air.
The black smoke wound its way through the cobbles like water, continuing to flow down the street past her.
This must lead to one of Ashmeviti’s portals! She reached to her waist to check that the dagger from Myla was still there. Perhaps she could use this to sever the portal from its other dimension and close it.
Double checking her hood was hiding the hairpiece, she began to follow the trail, walking at a brisk pace.
In a more densely populated part of town, Xellie noticed that the citizens were rushing in a panicked way toward the town square. Picking her way through the overgrown graveyard, she followed the trail which ended at the gates of a churchyard.
She slipped inside the church and looked around.
There was nothing inside, but something just didn’t feel right.
On a whim, she scouted around the outside of the church and found the entrance to the crypt. She threw open the crypt doors and stared down into the darkness.
A faint orange glow hovered at the bottom of the stairs, shrouded in black mist, which was starting to creep out of the crypt and around her feet.
A wave of nausea overcame her. She covered her hand with her mouth and stepped away from the door in shock at her body’s reaction to the evil energies spilling out from underneath the church.
Feeling lightheaded and weak in the knees, she stumbled away, running to the back of the church, leaning against the wall gasping for breath.
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That portal needs to be closed, now!
She knew she needed to find someone who could close the portal, she couldn’t get close to it herself.
Tane may have been able to, but that kind of thing had never been his speciality. Mattos simply didn’t use that kind of magic. Grau was the only person strong enough that she knew of. Maybe Raye could do it, but Raye was... In trouble.
“What do I do... what do I do?” She muttered to herself, pressing her hand against her hood to push against the hairband.
Her head filled with the chatter of people, voices overlapping. Almost indecipherable.
“Raye?” she whispered into the air, wincing at the cacophony of sounds in her head. “Raye, if you can hear me please answer.”
The voices quickly faded away and were replaced by one lone voice. Raye.
“You need to get out of here.” Raye’s voice had a quiver in it. “It’s not safe for... You’ll never find her!”
“Raye! Where are you! Raye!” Xellie exclaimed, covering her mouth quickly, realising she might be seen shouting into the air.
There was no response from Raye.
Xellie glanced up at the sky. The forcefield was still in full effect.
Regardless of what Raye had just said, there was no way out of the town. Sure, Xellie could stay hidden from hostile forces, however, just had been the fate of Alpinheim, the forcefield could stay up for weeks, if not months or years.
She concluded she had to save Raye. Meeting up with Tane would give her location away instantly, so for now she was on her own. It was a long shot, but perhaps she could find some discrete method to help Raye.
Peeking around the corner of the church and into the town square, Xellie could see a crowd gathering. Everyone was spilling out into the streets and abandoning their houses and shops to join this crowd.
Keeping her eyes cast downward so as not to make eye contact with anyone, Xellie carefully picked her way through the crowd to a row of shops lining the square. There were flats accessed by a balcony on the storefront, so she ran up the stairs and stood with her back to the wall, overlooking the crowd over one shoulder.
In the middle of the town square, was a man, whom Xellie recognized as the old man from the Devil’s library.
He stood next to a tall, rounded cage, shaped much like a birdcage. Inside the cage, standing with her back to the man and her nose in the air, was Raye. Her usually smooth red hair was frazzled and messy, and her armour missing.
Her dignity was barely covered by her very short, shoulderless, torn and tattered dress. Bloodied stumps where her swan wings usually lay stuck out from her back.
Xellie gasped and made sure she was hidden behind the wall again. Who was this man? And how was he able to do such a thing to Raye?
Feeling herself starting to hyperventilate, Xellie took some deep breaths and tried to calm herself. Hesitantly she glanced around the wall and down onto the crowd again. The man was speaking, but she couldn’t quite make out what he was saying.
Raising a hand to touch the hairband on her head gingerly, Xellie whispered in Raye’s direction.
“Can you hear me? What do I do?”
“You need to...” Raye let out a loud gasp as if she was in pain.
Xellie looked around the wall again. The man held a sword in his hand, impaled through Raye’s abdomen. He twisted it viciously. Although Raye didn’t seem to be reacting, Xellie felt herself flinching.
“Do you see this monster?” The man’s voice sounded through the hairband as he addressed the crowd of people. “She just does not die! Her manipulative magic controls the will of men, leading them to their deaths. She and her kind must be stopped.”
He pulled the sword free and pointed at the sky.
“There is another of her kind hiding among the good people of this town. With their magic, these monsters can disguise themselves as any female! They may even be standing next to you. Find her and this town will be freed.”
“Vella isn’t even here.” Raye spat at the man.
He walked up to the cage and leaned in as close as he could to reply to Raye.
“Well it’s a good thing I’m not here for that little bitch, isn’t it?” he replied, giving a little chuckle. “I certainly wouldn’t mind if she was though.”
“You said you would...”
“I said nothing of the sort.” He waved at Raye dismissively. “All I asked you to do was prove how far you’d be willing to go to protect the brat.”
“Don’t do anything idiotic. Stay safe.” Raye told her through the headband.
“Find her!” The man barked at the crowd. “If you don’t, nobody will ever leave this city again!”
Xellie looked on in horror as the crowd began to turn on each other, pulling girls and women away from their families. The hairband relayed to her everything that Raye could hear.
“Get off her!”
“She’s not one of them! She’s my daughter!”
“We don’t know that! She could be anyone!”
“Leave her alone! What are you doing?!”
“Stop!”
The arguing in the crowd of people grew more and more intense, the voices growing louder and angrier. Xellie closed her eyes tightly and grabbed hold of the hairband, ready to rip it from her head to blot out the screams.
“No, I need to stay in contact with Raye.” She told herself, tensing her body up in response to the ruckus in her head. “This needs to stop... please stop.”
The fighting in the crowd continued to escalate, weapons were drawn. In addition to the chaos between the townsfolk, Raye’s panicked thinking began to flood into Xellie’s mind.
“I hope she ran. The power she wields will make him undefeatable if he gets his hands on her. This is terrible. Where are...”
There had to be a way to escape through the forcefield. If there wasn’t, surely Raye’s partner would come and help free her. That could take time, but...
A chilling scream interrupted her thinking.
She couldn’t sit here and wait for someone or something to save her. Too many people would die.
Looking out over the railings, Xellie spotted a young girl being held by the arms of a burly rough looking man. She screamed and struggled against her captor, kicking her legs to no avail.
Another man, presumably the girl’s father, swung his fist and landed a punch in the other man’s face. Freed from her predicament, the girl ran away from the crowd, tripping over her feet as she did so.
Another member of the crowd grabbed the girl, holding her against his body by her neck, lifting her clean off the floor.
Xellie knew what she had to do. Pulling up her hood, she walked down the stairs and gently pushed her way through the crowd until she was standing at the front.
“Hey!” she yelled at the man from the Devil’s Library. “Hey, you!”
“Hmm?” The man walked over to her, his tall body towering over her, looking down in curiosity.
“I’m right here!” Xellie exclaimed, flipping her hood back. “Let these people go.”
“Do you know who I am?” he asked, his face twisting into a smug grin.
“Yes.” she replied, looking him straight in the eye. “Nice human disguise, Ashmeviti.”
“Are you afraid?”
“No.” Xellie told him curtly, glad her cloak was hiding the fact that she was trembling slightly beneath it.
“I can sense your fear. You don’t need to hide it from me,” He replied, sounding almost sympathetic. “You grossly overestimate what I want from you. Let’s just talk.”