“What’s it say? Does it say if Alexander and Adaline are coming?” Chadian asks as he drops the rock and walks over to Paylon. I start to feel a bit uneasy with his statement. Are we coming? Is this supposed to be a trap? They’re expecting us?
“Not in those exact words,” Paylon says as Chadian takes a seat next to him. “It looks like the diary is written in some sort of code. It just has random letters all down the pages.”
Paylon hands the journal to Chadian. I see him look at it for a second and then hand it back. My mother must have it set so only certain people can read the journal. I lean back against a tree and wait for Alexander to get his plan started, hoping we truly aren’t walking into a trap. Through the forest night sounds, I listen as Chadian and Paylon try to decipher what two letters here and two dashes there could mean. I’m thankful that my mother was so clever.
Listening in on their hushed voices reminds me of when I was little and I could hear my mother and father out in the main part of the house talking one night. A night I had lost in my previous memory, but it returns to me suddenly. It was late at night when I was supposed to be asleep, and I had woken to hear their muffled voices through the wooden beams of the walls.
“You shouldn’t eavesdrop,” Cooper had said in the dark of our room. I glanced over to the far corner against the window and made out his caramel eyes with the moonlight.
“I can’t hear them anyway,” I had lied. I had heard them. They were talking about how they were going to take us to Libertas one day.
This was before my father had been caught transporting a family the night he had fled with Cooper. Before this crazy plan ever existed. It was simple then, my father would keep working for the current ruler of Libertas to bring them more gifted from Dather, and when my brothers and I were old enough to survive the journey we’d join them. Because of my father’s services, we’d be set for life. He wouldn’t have to be away from her or us anymore. We could grow up and live together safely and never have to worry. How nice that would have been.
Back then little me didn’t understand what he could mean, and I had thought he was talking about us taking a trip to see the ocean. I had been begging my mother and father to take me to the island’s edge. Hardly anyone ever gets to leave Garth unless they are sending or collecting goods and supplies from the neighboring islands. I remember having a girl in my class that got to go to the edge of the island with her father because he worked for the King. She talked about how blue the water was. Of course, my mother and father had always told me no, that they couldn’t take me outside of the safe ten foot radius of woods I was allowed to play in.
But that night I had really thought I had heard my father say we’d get to go to the edge of the island, and I would get to see the blue water. I remember waking up the next morning shaking with excitement but trying my hardest to hold it in so I could act surprised when they told us about the trip. My father left with Cooper three days later and my memories were wiped. I never got to see the blue water. Not yet, I remind myself. We’re going there now. My mother, father, and Titus may not be there with me like I had envisioned in my head, but I will see the island’s edge. I will see just how blue the water is.
Chapter 15
I’m not sure how much time has passed when I hear a tree crash to the forest floor. My eyelids had fallen shut, but they jolt open at the sound of the destruction. Alexander. Toby has risen from Zavy’s lap, flipping his head in confusion.
I look at Paylon and see that he has dropped my mother’s journal to the ground and jumped to his feet, drawing his sword. He turns his back to me so he’s facing the direction the sound came from.
“It’s got to be them,” I hear Codian say.
“I’m not waiting around here anymore for them to show up,” Paylon growls. “I’m going out there and getting them myself.” Paylon starts to walk toward the other end of the clearing and turns to Zavy and says, “Guess you weren’t good enough bait. Shows how little they care about you. They were just going to leave you. Chadian, come with me.”
Chadian stands and walks to his brother. “You can keep this piece of junk to protect you.” I watch as he drops my sword at Codian’s feet and draws a much more deadly looking blade from the supply bag on the horse. Paylon mounts the horse and Chadian follows on foot. Paylon takes two of the Hounds with him, leaving three still chained here with Codian. I watch as they sink deeper into the woods, waiting as long as I dare before moving.
I hold my breath, anticipating my next move. Alexander’s plan is working. Now it’s two against one. The Hounds aren’t here for fighting so they won’t get in our way. We have the odds in our favor now. Get the necklace to Zavy and Toby and get out, I repeat in my head, and I pull off the necklace off. Once I feel like Paylon and Chadian have walked a good distance from us, I
