Chapter 13

“Lilly?” A soft voice said.
“Hm?” She grunted, fighting the harsh throbbing in her head.
“Lilly? Are you awake?” The voice said again, and she realized it was Foster.
“Tweak? My head hurts really bad.” She tried to open her eyes, but her left eye was very blurry.
“Yeah, they hit you in the head before they brought us here.”
She frowned. “Why’d they do that? Did they hit you?”
“No, I pretended to faint. Plus I think they were more worried about you waking up, not me.”
She rolled her eyes, but quickly flinched at the motion. “So much for running. Where the hell are we?”
A soft hand touched her shoulder, and she looked up to see Foster right beside her. “They locked us in this cage thing, and I think we’re in some sort of dungeon.”
She looked around and realized they very much did look as if they were trapped in a dungeon. They sat in a cage that looked as though it were meant to carry a large animal, with metal bars preventing escape. There was a fire burning in a small fireplace to one side, and strange metal objects scattered around the room that looked like torture devices.
“How medieval.” She said sarcastically. “Why didn’t they just kill us?”
Foster paused. “Well, they seem to think we know something. They also don’t seem to know we’re not alone. Jeez that bruise looks bad.”
He leaned down to take a closer look, gently pulling her hair away. She only looked at him, willing the blurriness in her left eye to go away. He frowned.
“I’m so sorry, Lilly, I shouldn’t have led us away from camp like that. Allister or Jack could have saved us.”
She shook her head. “Tweak, don’t talk like that. You couldn’t have known, we weren’t even that far away. I’m sure they’re looking for us now.”
“But they don’t know where we are.” He said, solemnly. “I mean, it can’t be too far away, it only took them an hour to take us here on horseback.
Liona shivered. “Kind of glad I wasn’t awake for that part.”
“I just…I’m sorry.”
Slowly, Liona sat up to face him. “Please don’t do this, not now.”
“Yeah, but if we die-”
“We’re not going to die.” Liona said forcefully, looking him in the eyes. “Dying is not an option, do you hear me?
He nodded slowly. “Yeah, okay.”
“Listen, what did you hear? Did they say anything interesting?”
Foster only shrugged. “Just that he was going to torture us until he found out what he wants to know. Oh, and they called him Bakanua.”
“Great.” Liona said, nodding. “At least we know what we’re up against.”
Foster made a face. “Sort of. Any ideas?”
Liona sighed, looking around. “I’m not sure. I think the best thing to do is to stall as much as we can until they find us.”
“What if they can’t find us?” Foster asked, looking worried.
Liona only shook her head. “With Jack on their side? There’s no way they won’t. I don’t know what they’ll do when they get here, but we’re all just going to have to improvise.”
Suddenly, they heard a creaking noise and the slim figure of Meave opened the heavy wood door and came into the room. Her dark face twisted into a smile as she saw the two prisoners awake.
“Good afternoon precious ones…or should I say good morning.”
Liona frowned, her hand inadvertently wandering up to the bruise on her head. “Yeah, thanks for that.”
Her face remaining the same, and Meave made her way up to the cage. “Darius will be here soon. He has a few questions to ask you.”
“I’m sure he does.” Liona said, looking closely at the woman who seemed to be Darius’s second hand. “What kind of questions?”
“Questions.” Meave replied, narrowing her eyes. “I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise.”
Liona paused, looking closely at Meave’s unusual Auburn eyes. “What are you?”
“What an interesting question.” Meave said, eyeing Liona. “You don’t believe I’m human?”
“I know you’re not human.” Liona replied, once again focusing on Meave’s eyes. “But I think you might have been once.”
Meave’s face hardened a little, but soon relaxed into her poker face. “You have twenty minutes. I would suggest you have your story straight by then. Bakanua will be able to tell if you are lying.”
“Don’t you mean Darius?” Liona said a little forcefully.
Meave only smiled. “Twenty minutes.”

* * * * *

Several minutes later, Liona paced back and forth in the metal cage that prevented their escape. Foster, being too tall to stand up in the structure, simply watched for a while in silence before curiosity got a hold on him.
“So, why’d you ask what she was?” He said, frowning to himself.
Liona shook her head. “I can’t put my finger on it. I think that she’s…well, possessed? I don’t know, Tweak. What if Darius’s story wasn’t completely false, what if he did meet gypsies and had one of his daemon friends take one or something.”
“Okay,” Foster said, nodding slowly. “But what does that mean? So what if Meave is a real human?”
Liona only shook her head. “I don’t really know. It just feels important somehow. You don’t have like a rosary on you or something, do you?”
Foster made a face. “Oh come on, I’m not that Catholic.”
“Yeah, sorry, I don’t even know if that would work.” Liona said, sighing. “There’s just something there. I looked at her, and her eyes were human. But his eyes, even the first time I looked at them, were not human at all.”
Foster looked up at her, narrowing his eyes in thought. “How do you even know that, Lilly?”
“I don’t know.” She whispered, sinking down to sit next to him.
He nodded, touching her shoulder lightly. “Lilly are you…you said you just have a feeling? I mean your name has been mentioned a lot since we’ve been here, you don’t think…”
“What?” She said, suddenly turning to return his gaze. “Tweak, I’m human. How could that even be possible?”
He shrugged. “At this point I’m willing to believe anything is possible. To think it all started with some stupid magic kit and a girls bathroom.”
“You ever think that maybe we just slipped and hit our head?” She said, turning away. “I’m sorry I brought you here, Foster.”
He shook his head, reaching out his hand to gently turn her head towards him. “Hey, don’t be like that. This may be crazy, but this was no one’s fault. You and me, okay? We’re going to make it out of here.”
“With those speeches you’re bound to win an award, boy.” A dark voice murmured only a few feet away. Both Liona and Foster jumped and Foster inadvertently clenched his fist.
“You fairytale people have got to stop doing that!”
Darius raised an eyebrow. “Pardon me if you were so involved you didn’t hear me open the door. If you two need a moment, I could always come back.”
Foster rolled his eyes “Do they all have a PhD in sarcasm?”
“Oh how clever, you’re not too bad yourself.” Darius said, smiling crookedly. “Unfortunately I am not here for word games. I need to know some information.”
Liona frowned. “What kind of information? We don’t know anything.”
“Ah, only a few days ago I would have believed that.” Darius said, walking calmly up to the cage. “That is, until I found out where you are from.”
“And where do you think we’re from?” Liona asked, feeling her stomach tighten as he came closer.
He looked at her, his eyes catching hers. “You think you’re the first of your kind to come here?”
Liona was caught off guard. “What did you say?”
“You heard me.” He said, grabbing the metal bars of the cage and narrowing his eyes at her. “You don’t think I know about your world? About cars and electricity, about airplanes and computers, all that technology that your people have developed without magic?”
Both Liona and Foster’s eyes widened in shock, and after several moments Liona managed to stammer, “H-how did you know that?”
His smile slowly faded. “When you occupy a human body, you have access to their memories, and to their knowledge. It took a few years to understand it, what he was, but I see now that it was worth it.”
Liona’s felt her heart skip a beat. “Darius was from our world?”
“Born just outside of London in 1978.” He said, still holding her gaze. “Of course his name wasn’t Darius, it was Jim. Jim Rickers, who always dreamed of living a fairytale, never concentrating on anything but his daydreams. Then one day when he was sixteen he discovered a magic kit hidden in his mailbox. Sound familiar, Liona?”
Liona could not find the breath to speak. She could only stare blankly at the man who was clearly Bakanua occupying the body of a man from her world. Questions burst in her mind, and she wanted to know everything. She wanted to know why he had been brought there, why he chose to change his name and seek the magic book that ended up creating the mess they were in. Most of all she wanted to know what it all had to do with her.
“So now you see.” Bakanua said, the humor in his eyes fading entirely. “He didn’t know either, why he was chosen. Why it was him that was taken from his world and thrown into ours, but you see now that there may have been some similarities between you two. You see now that he did not know nearly as much as you do.”
“You don’t need information, do you?” She whispered.
He only looked at her, his dark eyes meeting her green ones in a chilling pause before he spoke. “If you must know, I do intent to keep you for awhile before I kill you. I feel as though you may be of some use to me. As for the boy, I’m not entirely sure that I need to keep him.”
“No!” Liona said, trying to keep herself under control. “Let him go, he has nothing to do with this, he didn’t mean to follow me.”
His smile returned, and he shrugged casually. “Oh, Lilly. That’s what he calls you isn’t it? I’m afraid that your boyfriend here would be a little too desperate to avenge you. It’s hard to avenge someone if you’re dead.”
He cackled suddenly, and Liona backed up, feeling waves of fear pulse through her veins. “Killing us isn’t going to stop anything, we’re just humans from another universe. Why do we mean anything to you? We didn’t do anything!”
Letting go of the cage, he backed up slowly. “If only it was that simple. Meave?”
“Yes, master.” Meave said, suddenly appearing from a dark corner of the room.
“Let’s take these love birds out into the open. I think Liona here might enjoy the show.”

* * * * *

Two guards that Liona recognized from the castle forcefully led Liona and Foster outside of the dungeon and into the open forest. Liona realized that the structure had been built underground and that she could see the castle from where she stood only a few miles away. She wondered if it was used to torture prisoners in secret, but was quickly torn from her thoughts as she saw a large wooden pole with brush surrounding it in a neat little circle.
“Why are you doing this?” She demanded, feeling waves of nausea flood over her as she realized what Bakanua planned to do. “Please, take me, not him!”
Bakanua walked calmly next to Meave just in front of the two, and at her request he cackled once more.
“How brave, attempting to sacrifice yourself. I’ll give you credit, Liona, you’re putting up much more of a fight than your lover is.” He turned around and motioned for the guards to stop. Turning towards Meave he said firmly, “Burn him, and make her watch. If she tries to look away, hold her eyes open. I must get back to the castle, but I will be back at sunset to have another modest chat with our unique little human.”
With that he gave Liona one last crooked smile before whistling for a nearby horse. Liona struggled to keep her composure as the evil creature rode away and Meave turned to address the guards.
“Tie him to the pole.”
“No!” Liona screamed. “Dammit, Tweak, don’t let them take you!”
He looked over at her as the guard holding him began pushing him towards the pole. “I don’t exactly have a choice, Lilly.”
She shook her head, turning desperately towards the dark haired woman. “Meave, please, stop this.”
“I have my orders.” Meave said coldly. “Now please be quiet.”
“You’re human.” Liona said, her eyes frantic. “I know somewhere in there you’re human. Please, look at me Meave.”
The dark haired woman paused, slowly looking over at her. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know you’re not dead.” She said, frantically searching her brain for ways to distract Meave as she tried to ignore the guard tying Foster to the large pole in her peripheral vision. “I know you’re trapped in there somewhere. This isn’t you Meave, this isn’t who you are. Listen to me, don’t let it take over you like this, you can fight it.”
“Be quiet.” Meave growled.
Liona tried to walk towards her, but the guard held on tight.
“Come here, come to me.” She begged. “Let me help you, just come here.”
The dark haired woman suddenly cringed in pain, and Liona’s eyes widened as she saw a flash of blue eyes replace the auburn ones. Meave regained her composure quickly, however, and glared coldly at Liona.
“It is a trick. You’re a clever witch, but you won’t get me. Burn him.”
Liona could only watch in horror as the guard who had tied Foster to the pole leaned down to light the edge of the bundle of firewood that would slowly burn Foster to death. She felt her heart lurch and she once again struggled to get free of the guard. He was much bigger than she was, however, and tears streamed down her face as the fire caught and began to light the circle.
Yet as she watched, she realized something was wrong. The fire caught, but didn’t take anything more than the outside edges of the circle, coming nowhere close to the pole where Foster was hanging. It only burned a few inches high in a steady circle around the pole. The guard who lit the fire frowned in confusion, and Meave also began to walk over to investigate.
“Why is it not burning?” She demanded, walking over to the weak circle of fire. “Fix it.”
The guard nodded, leaning over to look at the inside of the circle as if to see if the wood inside was somehow damaged. Without warning the fire flared up several feet high, and the guard screamed as it consumed his head. Liona cringed and looked away, quickly catching sight of Jack and Allister standing off to one side.
“You might want to untie him, burning him is going to be no good with my little friend here around.” Allister said, walking slowly up to Meave. “You see we have quite an attachment to these two. I’m afraid you’ve made this personal.”
Meave narrowed her eyes. “Don’t be so cocky, cat creature, I could call for Bakanua in a second.”
Allister smiled. “Go ahead.”
Meave’s face twisted into a frown, and out of nowhere she turned to attack him. Allister was ready, and instantly dodged her attack, knocking her to the ground. Suddenly Liona felt the guard let go of her, and she quickly turned around to see Adara holding a large stick in her hand and an unconscious guard on the ground.
“Y-you found us.” She stammered, realizing her friends had orchestrated a sneak attack. The guard whose head had been torched lay unconscious on the ground, and while Liona had been distracted, Allister had knocked Meave out cold.
Allister nodded, smiling at her. “You didn’t think we would leave, did you? Jack, get Foster down from that ridiculous pole. So old fashioned.”
In the blink of an eye the rope snapped and Foster fell into the stack of sticks below him. He grunted, trying to get his hands free of the ropes. “Took you people long enough.”
Liona’s jaw dropped. “You knew? That’s why you weren’t freaking out?”
He looked over at her, his eyes guilty. “I saw Jack when we came outside. Sorry, Lilly, I couldn’t exactly say anything without giving them away.”
Liona almost bit her lip in frustration. “I thought you were going to die!”
“No one is dying.” Allister said, “Except for Meave here.”
Liona frowned, looking down at the black haired woman. “Why?”
Allister shrugged. “She’s Bakanua’s second hand, Liona, we can’t let her live.”
“But she’s human.” Liona said, suddenly feeling panicked. “If we kill her we’re no better than them.”
“Lilly,” Kali said, walking over to her. “What else are we supposed to do? If we let her go she’s just going to try to kill us later.”
Liona frowned, still looking down at the woman. “Give me a minute, okay? Maybe there’s a way to kill the thing inside of her without killing her.”
Allister looked concerned. “Only powerful sorcerers can do that, Liona. If we trained Jack a bit he could, but it would take time. We don’t have that time. We’ll let the guards go, that’s all we can do.”
Liona ignored them, and carefully bent over the unconscious woman. She didn’t know what she was doing, but she knew she had to try. Ever since she had realized that Meave was human, she couldn’t just let her die. She looked at Meave’s dark face, and without thinking softly ran her hand along the side of her jaw. Without warning she saw a raindrop fall on Meave’s cheek, but quickly realized that it was her own tear. She was so upset she was crying? Embarrassed, Liona wiped her eyes and stroked the woman’s hair one more time before standing up.
Suddenly the woman’s eyes shot open and the group standing around her jumped back. Allister went to lunge forward with the stick he had in his hand, but Liona stopped him. She was not moving, she only stared blankly at the sky, and within moments she began glowing a bright white color that was almost blinding. Slowly, a dark shape floated from her body raising towards the sky. It stayed in the shape of Meave’s body until it was directly six feet above her, where it burst into a million different dark specs and disappeared into the air around them. The woman’s eyes closed and her body became limp again. The group stood in silence for several moments before anyone was able to speak.
“So…who wants to explain that one?” Foster said, looking back over at Liona.
She shook her head. “Don’t look at me.”
“You did it, though.” Kali said, also looking over at her. “It had to be you.”
Liona shook her head. “I didn’t do anything, I just touched her. Is she even cured?”
Allister walked over to Meave and shook her lightly. The woman groaned and slowly opened her eyes. They were a bright blue color, like the ones Liona had seen a flash of before the guard tried to set the fire.
“Why does my head hurt?” She asked softly, a much different tone to her voice than Liona had ever heard.
Allister frowned down at her. “Who are you?”
“My name is Meave Prudorak. Where has the camp gone? Is my father here?”
Liona shook her head. “You’re a gypsy, aren’t you?”
The woman’s eyes widened a bit. “Have I been captured? Are you taking me to prison?”
Allister shook his head. “Don’t worry, Meave, you’re safe with us. What is the last thing you remember?”
She thought for a moment. “I left camp to gather roots. That’s all I can remember.”
“In what year was this?” Allister asked, still looking closely at the woman.
She frowned. “What an odd question. It’s eighteen ninety-three.”
Allister looked up at the group standing around the woman. “She was taken three years ago.”
“By what?” Foster asked.
“My kind calls them Takers, they’re daemons who are essentially blank slates. They can be manipulated in any way by a dark creature who has enough power, and as far as I know they’re the only daemons who are able to possess a human.”
The woman’s eyes widened and she sat up. “A Taker? Our people haven’t seen those for centuries.”
“So if daemons don’t possess people except for these things is Bakanua a Taker?” Liona asked. “Darius is dead, but he’s a human. He was from our world.”
Kali’s jaw dropped. “What? We’re not the only ones?”
Liona shook her head. “When he captured us he told us about Darius. He was just like us, from London, I guess. He knows now, he knows everything about our world because he said he gained all of Darius’s memory or something.”
“This is a strange turn of events.” Allister said, looking away. “It just doesn’t make sense, Bakanua should not be able to occupy a human, especially a dead one, not even Takers can do that. I have never heard of it.”
Foster shook his head. “Look, we need to start piecing this together if it’s going to do us any good. What do we know?”
“Five years ago the Darius I knew left suddenly because he thought he knew where to find the magic.” Adara said, shrugging. “All he said to my father was that it was somewhere in the Kismet desert That’s all I know.”
Liona nodded. “I’m not sure how much later, but the ancient one showed me Darius opening some sort of portal or something and then being killed by Bakanua. That must have been when he occupied his body somehow.”
“And when we were trapped in that dungeon thing, Baka-whatever said that it took him a while to understand Darius. I think he was overwhelmed by the memories Darius had, it would probably freak you guys out a lot to go to our world with the technology we have.”
“After that he must have stumbled upon a gypsy camp and found Meave.” Allister said, narrowing his eyes in thought. “He wanted a mate, I think, so he created Meave to be his second hand.”
“But what did he do for three years?” Kali said. “He took Meave three years ago, why did it take him so long to attack Mondel?”
“Takes a while to build an army.” Jack said, startling the group. “Maybe he’s one step ahead of us.”
Allister nodded slowly. “Meave, do you remember anything at all? Try very hard, did Bakanua ever speak of what he was planning?”
The dark haired woman looked away for a moment, deep in thought. “I just don’t know. If the folklore is right, I won’t be able to access any memories from the time I was taken. If you ask me though, I don’t think Bakanua has much of an army yet. My people never forgot about the times before James, and it took the King nearly seven years to gain full support of the dark ones. Bakanua may be their creator, but he also trusted James. It will be a long time before they will all rally around him once more.”
“She is right.” Allister said. “Even spending three years trying he couldn’t have gained enough support to start the war quite yet. We still have time.”
“To do what?” Foster asked, sighing. “He knows about us now, he’ll be trying to track us.”
“Then we’ll just have to be careful.” Allister said, looking up at them. “We need to find the book of spells.”