Chasing Shadows (Saving Galerance, Book 1) (11 page)

Norabel tried to quickly bite down on her tongue to stop
from laughing.

“Yes,” Hunter told the villager, still chuckling. “Only I
can’t tell you what it is.”

For the next few minutes, Hunter waved through villager
after villager as they excitedly passed through his station, eager to get to
the waiting festival beyond. Norabel thought she might be stuck there for an
hour, squished in between the warm cedar walls, when Hunter suddenly turned and
looked down at her.

“You okay down there?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said with a smile. She started to raise a fruit
skewer up to him, saying, “I was wondering if…oh!” She gave a small
exclamation, realizing that she couldn’t extend herself too far because Hunter
was stepping on her dress.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” he said, quickly moving his foot.

“That’s alright.” She tried to start over again, saying, “I
was wondering if you’d like to share a fruit skewer with me.”

A smile spread on his face as he stared down at her, and she
felt somehow lighter for it.

“What—now?” he asked, amused. He looked around to make sure
no one else was coming.

“Well, if you have nothing better to do,” she joked, giving
him a shrug of her shoulders. “Because I figured I might sit around here for a
bit longer. It
is
pretty comfy down here.”

“Really?” he asked, raising his eyebrows in laughter.

“Oh yeah,” she assured him. She lowered one of the skewers so
that the top fruit was just below her lips, and popped it in her mouth. “See?”
she said around the berry, holding up his skewer for him to take.

Hunter lowered his hand and grabbed the bottom of the wooden
skewer so that half of his hand was covering hers. Instead of accepting it right
away, he kept his hand on hers, staring down at her. Norabel cocked her head
and stared back, wondering if he was challenging her to a staring contest.
After a few seconds, she felt her face starting to heat under his gaze, and
looked away.

“Norabel,” Hunter said, saying her name in such a way that
it caused her to suppress a shiver. She looked back up to him, and he
continued. “I’ve never met someone as kind as you.”

He finally took the skewer from her, but then reached for
her hand with his other, pulling her up to her feet. Due to the small space,
Norabel found herself standing very close to him. So close, in fact, that she didn’t
have the courage to look up in his face, for it was so near to her own.

“You,” he whispered out, his breath tickling the skin on her
face.

Norabel stopped breathing, wondering what he was going to
say.

“You should probably go now.”

Her eyes lifted to his at that, and she felt a heavy wave of
disappointment fall over her.

“I don’t want you to get in trouble,” he said, taking a step
back from her. “In case someone sees you.”

She nodded and looked down to her boots. “Yeah. That’s
probably best.”

She stepped past him and towards the wall she had originally
jumped over, when he called her back.

“Wait,” he said, reaching out for her arm. “Don’t you know it’s
illegal to cross the wall without my permission?”

Norabel paused in confusion, wondering what he meant. He then
stepped up beside her and bent down, sliding his arm under the bend of her
knees. Her legs curled, somehow knowing how to respond better than her brain
did, and her hands reached up to wrap around his neck as if on instinct as
well. She didn’t know where to look as Hunter carried her in his arms and
walked her over to the wall.

When his shoes were right at the base of the fence, he began
to lower her down so that her feet gently touched the ground. Spinning back to
him, she found that they were standing on opposite sides of the wall.

“Thank you,” she told him, not sure what else to say. She
looked down at her hands and was surprised to see the fruit skewer still there.
Had she really still held onto it when she linked her arms around his neck!

“It was no trouble,” he responded softly. He looked down to
the wall between them, and then back to her face, saying, “Goodbye Norabel.”

As he left to return to his station, she realized that there
was something about the way he said goodbye that made her feel so acutely sad. Hunter
had always been so happy. In fact, he always seemed to be smiling more than
anyone else she met. Yet, after all that time, she finally glimpsed at his
sadness. Now she wondered if it had been hidden underneath this whole time.

Pointing her feet away from the wall, she spun back around
and let the fruit skewer fall to her side. Up ahead, she spotted a little girl
that she knew, and ended up giving the berries to her. She didn’t feel much
like eating fruit anymore.

At nine o’clock, the main attraction of the summer festival
was set to start. Most of Breccan travelled to the inner sector of the village
in order to see it. The Pax hired dancers to perform on a stage they had set up
in the village square. The square itself was located just in front of the
stronghold, and the red and black colors of the Pax flag waved in a circle
around the whole affair like sentinels keeping watch.

The reason that people came to see this performance was not
so much that they enjoyed dancing, but because of what the dancers were given.
In the back of their dresses, there was a pouch filled with Snapper. However,
unlike normal Snapper that was just used for practical purposes, this Snapper
had been colored. As the dancers moved, they would send sparks of colored fire
cascading through the air, each dancer holding a different hue so that the
stage would be alight in a rainbow of color.

As Norabel waited in the crowd, she was almost sad that she
and her team were planning on crashing the show. After the dance started, the
plan was for Ashlin to come on stage, carting a known leacher up with her. Then
she would list off to the villagers every act of greed he had committed against
them.

She was apprehensive about their plan, but her involvement
in the whole thing was actually quite small. They were planning on setting each
of the Pax flags on fire before Ashlin came on. Logan had doused them lightly
in a catching agent the night before, and had run a small line down the wooden
flag pole. All Norabel had to do was use a little Snapper to ignite it, sending
the fire soaring upwards until it caught the flag on fire. It sounded simple
enough, yet her nerves were frayed just at the thought of it.

Taking a glance behind her, she tried to make out her shadow
in the torchlight and bustling crowd.
Are you there?
she silently asked
her Guardian Albatross. She shook her head at her foolishness.
Of course you
are.
She gripped her hands behind her back, imagining that her guardian was
holding onto her hand.
Maybe you could stay a little closer…just for
tonight?

Something bumped into her back, and for a small, fleeting moment,
she thought it might have been a sign from her guardian. But, turning around,
she saw that it was only a man moving through the crowd.
That wasn’t you, by
any chance?
She gulped and felt her stomach churn.
Grandpa did say you
had a sense of humor.

It was still a little before nine when she spotted Logan
weaving his way through the crowd to where she was standing by her assigned
flag.

“You okay?” he whispered to her, standing close so no one
could overhear them.

“I’ve been better,” she admitted, feeling a cold hard pit
twisting and spreading at the bottom of her stomach.

“Me too,” he admitted. “I’m a little concerned about the
lack of Pax presence here. Usually the village square is infested with the
pox.”

Her mind went back to what she had overheard when she was
hiding inside of Hunter’s checkpoint. She hadn’t meant to eaves-drop, but she
had heard what his uncle had said all the same.

“I think they’re concentrating their presence at the village
perimeters,” she whispered.

Logan looked down at her in surprise. “How’d you know that?”

Suddenly she felt guilty for having told him; almost as if
she had been using Hunter for information.

Upon seeing her reaction, a knowing look crossed Logan’s
features. “Let me guess. A Pax official told you. The same one that told you
about there being no transfers in Breccan for the past two years.”

Norabel’s shoulders drooped in defeat. “You won’t tell
Mason, will you?”

He shook his head. “No. I won’t tell him.”

She twisted her fingers together in apprehension, causing
her skin to turn pink in the process. To her side, she could smell the catching
agent that Logan had dripped down the pole. It was musky and bitter, and she
was sure the people around her could smell it too.

“You don’t think we’ll get…” she started to ask.

“No,” he replied quickly. “I’m sure everything will work out
fine.”

“To be honest, I’m not quite sure what we’re getting
ourselves into.”

Logan let out a nervous laugh and ran a hand down his hair.
“Yeah. The things we do for my brother, right?”

Norabel gave him a sad smile. “You should get back to your
post.”

He put his hand on her shoulder and gave her an encouraging
shake. “Good luck.”

She nodded. “You too.” He took a step away from her, and she
called out, “Hey. I’ll see you on the other side.”

Logan tipped a hand to his head in salute before walking
away and disappearing into the crowd.

Norabel felt colder when he had gone. The thought suddenly
occurred to her that they were about to commit treason there that night. Of
course, they had been doing that each time they stole back a Pax basket, but
somehow this seemed different. This was treason inside the village, right in
front of the Pax stronghold. And that thought left a coldness in her that she
could not shake off.

When the bells in the stronghold chimed, signaling nine
o’clock, she dug her fingers into her palm to make sure that she was ready and
alert. The crowd of villagers cheered as five girls dressed in silk took the
stage at the far end of the square. There was a wooden back drop behind them,
and on it a large Pax flag had been pinned, as if to remind the people that it
was Amias that made this show possible. On the stage, the girls stood still,
waiting for the music to start. To the side, hidden in the shadows, a man
placed a wooden lute to his lips and started to play a song. When the first of
the notes reached their ears, the girls sprang into life, gracefully leaping
about the stage while showers of shimmering light danced around them.

The people standing around Norabel jittered in excitement
and awe. There was a little girl standing nearby who couldn’t take her wide
eyes off the stage. The dance was such a spectacle of wonder in the eyes of a
little girl. Even Norabel remembered being captivated by it the first time she
saw it…and every time since.

The dancers swirled and twirled around for a few more mesmerizing
moments, when all at once the happy and wondrous attitude drained from the
stage. A loud sizzling noise ignited the air, and the large Pax flag on stage
erupted in bright red fire. The sight sent such a shiver through Norabel that
she almost forgot that it had been her signal.

Quickly digging her hand into her coin pouch, she took out a
pinch of Snapper that was inside. Her fingers were so numbed with cold
apprehension that they almost lost their grip. Trying to hide her hand from the
view of those around her, she snapped her fingers and cast the spark at the
wooden flag pole standing next to her. The sizzling rang out through the night
air again, not just on her flag pole, but on all four of the posts around the
square. A moment later, the flags caught fire and waved like angry beasts in
the wind.

Screams of terror shook the crowd. The music had ceased, and
the dancers fled from the stage, a few stray embers of colored light following
after them like the tail of a falling star. Mothers hugged their children to
their chests, and everywhere eyes darted around, waiting for the next attack to
fall.

Then, from the stage, a hooded figure appeared, seeming to
have come from nowhere. It was a dark shape against a raging red fire. There
were shouts of alarm, and people pointed up to it, drawing everyone’s attention
back to the stage.

Even though Norabel knew it was only Ashlin underneath, the
sight was still a frightening one. She reminded herself that this was all for a
good cause. To help take down the Pax. The thing responsible for killing her
grandfather, burning her home, and separating her family. The sight before her
should fill her with a sense of empowerment, yet she couldn’t keep the fear
from rising up in the pit of her stomach.

Amidst the panicked shouts and frightened outcries of the
villagers, a voice rose above it all. “People of Galerance!” Ashlin bellowed
out. Her voice was like a dagger in the night, commanding and straight. At once,
the commotion of the crowd died down to a hush. No one dared speak over the
voice coming from the hooded specter on stage.

“People of Breccan,” she continued. “You do not have to be
afraid anymore. The way out is coming. And we are only the beginning. We are a
sign of the changing tides. The Pax has oppressed us all for far too long! It
has murdered our parents, slaughtered our sons and daughters and bled our
friends dry. Well their days are numbered!”

She raised her arm and pointed to the burning flag behind
her.

“And it doesn’t matter how many men they throw at us! We are
not afraid!
I
am not afraid.”

With this last affirmation, she swiped the hood from off her
head, revealing her face for the whole village to see. There were gasps and
murmurs of surprise and astonishment all around Norabel. No one could believe
that she would expose her identity like that, knowing full well what the Pax
could do.

Ashlin gave the crowd a few moments to study her face before
taking a step forward. “My name is Ashlin,” she announced firmly. “And I am not
afraid of the Pax.”

From the eastern side of the square, Norabel could hear
someone shouting. Trying to lift her head above the people around her, she
could just make out the stout and commanding outline of Chief Auberon. Terror
shot through her body, and she was afraid that he might try to shoot Ashlin
down.

However, instead of racing through the crowd and charging up
on the stage to stop what was happening, he turned to those around him,
shouting, “Quick! Help me go for water!”

Norabel was greatly surprised to see him actually leave the
square. She thought he would be furious. In fact, she thought there would be a
number of Pax officials trying to get on stage to stop her, but the square
seemed almost devoid of any Pax presence. Aside from Auberon, there was no
other official in sight.

Back on the stage, Ashlin announced, “I have a message for
Guardian Amias and his Pax!”

Norabel gasped as she noticed a figure up on the stage’s
roof. Others around her did the same. She wanted to cry out and warn Ashlin,
but she knew she couldn’t without giving away her involvement.

Ashlin, seemingly unaware of what was going on above her,
continued to speak her message, saying, “You have provoked the beast!” She
paused, looking out among the faces of the crowd, before finishing, “And the
beast has answered!”

At that moment, something dropped down onto the stage from
above. People screamed and shrieked in terror, and for a moment Norabel thought
that it was a Pax official come to take Ashlin down. But, as the scene was
illuminated from the fire on the stage, she realized what it was that had
dropped down from the roof.

A Pax Official hung down from a rope, his feet eerily hovering
just a few inches from the stage floor. The rope was wrapped around his middle,
binding his arms to his sides. His mouth was gagged with a cloth, but he was
not struggling to speak or get free of his bonds. In fact, it was hard to tell
if the man was still alive. His face was swollen, bruised, and bloody, and his
head hung limply to his side. Around his neck, a sign had been hung, bearing
only one word:
Leacher
.

With the sudden appearance of the hanging leacher on stage,
Ashlin seemed to disappear into thin air. At her absence, pandemonium broke out
in the crowd. People hurried to get away from the village square, but they were
shoving and pushing in all directions, each person needing to get to a different
sector of the village, that Norabel found it was hard to even stand up.

As she struggled to keep her footing in the sea of writhing,
frightened people, she couldn’t keep her arms from shaking at the spectacle of
it all. What she had seen on stage—that had not been the plan. They didn’t tell
her that they were going to beat a man nearly half to death! Yet, ignorant or
not, she had still been a part of it, and she would have to live with that.

A few yards up ahead in the crowd, she heard a familiar
voice shouting for people to stop. She tried hopping up in order to see, and
realized that it was Aleta who was screaming. She was hunched over in the
crowd, and didn’t seem to be able to stand up, for people were shoving and
pushing and trampling all around her. Her arms were shielding her face, but she
was still getting battered around.

“Aleta!” Norabel yelled out.

She tried to squeeze through the crowd towards her. It was
hard work, but since she was so thin, she was able to slip through small
openings easier than most people. Suffocation weighed in around her as she
plunged into the thick of the crowd, but several harrowing moments later, she
finally reached her friend.

“Aleta!” she called out, reaching down and pulling her to
her feet.

“Oh, Norabel!” she exclaimed when she realized who it was.
She quickly wrapped her arms around her in gratitude, and Norabel could feel
her quivering in her arms.

“This is madness,” Aleta whispered into her ear, not willing
to let go of her and risk standing on her own.

“I know,” Norabel agreed, rubbing her shoulder. “But we’ll
find a way out. Don’t worry.”

While still hugging Aleta to her, she noticed that, a little
ways away from her, a young girl was also getting trampled to the ground.
Norabel recognized the girl as Willow, a thirteen-year old that worked as one
of Malachy’s Whispers.

“Hey! Stop!” Norabel yelled out, hoping irrationally to calm
the crowd so that they would realize what they were doing, but her feeble cries
were lost amongst the roaring panic.

“Aleta,” Norabel said, pulling away from her so that she
could look her in the eye. “Hold onto my waist. Whatever you do, don’t let go.”