I won’t deny that it was one of my concerns, but I also knew if she could have broken through the barriers she’d have come into the walls already. The stone was impenetrable. “Maybe not.” I tried to remain tough. I walked over towards Rane and threw my arms around her in a hug. My breath tickled her ear. “Find Adelaide and protect her at all costs. Okay?” I couldn’t chance Isaura coming after her. She may have wanted me now, but I didn’t want to risk Adelaide being her next target. If I didn’t survive, Adelaide would.
Rane didn’t speak. With wide eyes she took off in the opposite direction descending the tower as fast as possible.
“What are you doing, Olivia?” Cate asked with trepidation.
“You can’t.” Henry stared at me, concern pleading in his eyes. “You can’t let her take you.”
I scoffed under my breath. “You think she can?” I was tough but I wasn’t fearless. I walked towards the window embedded in stone. I was careful not to be spotted, concerned if she did know exactly where I was it might not take much for her to attack. I hid as best as I could, peering through the opening and finding her outside. She looked harmless. If it had been anyone else I’d have thought she was lost. Perhaps I should have been grateful she hadn’t come in disguise.
Henry watched for a moment before pulling me away from the window. “You’ll get yourself killed if you’re not careful.”
“What do you suggest we do?” I questioned. “We have a madwoman outside and she wants me dead. Come to think of it, as soon as she finds out you’re like me, she’ll want you dead, too,” I reminded him bluntly. “Same with Cate.” I glanced at her.
“I’ll fight alongside of you,” Cate offered. “You don’t have to do this alone.”
“I need you here, Cate. Someone has to protect these people.”
Henry sighed. “Fine, fine, but you staying here isn’t doing anyone any good,” he reminded me. Abruptly he grabbed my arm, dragging me away from the window and the highest point of the castle. Together we slowly descended the tower.
“Where are we going?” I was going to slap him if he suggested someplace safe.
Henry kept walking but glanced at me quickly. “How do you think she found you?”
I shook my head. I hadn’t considered it. “The Mindonsiphan,” I answered slowly. “You think it has some sort of tracking ability?”
“It runs in our blood. It’s possible we’re linked together,” he said. “Anyway there are more of us in Spade with Mindonsiphan than anywhere else, right?”
Joshua was in Torv with Elsa and Aidan but Adelaide, Cate, Henry and I were in Spade. “Yeah, you’re right,” I agreed. “You think it’s possible she can find us because we’re all connected?”
“It’s how I knew where you were when Isaura arrived.” Henry stared at me. I felt another quake and gripped the stone wall. I stopped walking, just trying to keep my feet upright.
“Is that so?” I was more than slightly surprised. When I had needed it to guide me to find Joshua when he’d been taken by Craynor it hadn’t been so easy. Maybe I hadn’t known how it worked. Knowing how to use Mindonsiphan was a tricky business.
Henry shrugged. “Or maybe I just knew where you’d be.”
“How?” I asked him. What was he implying? He didn’t answer. He gripped my arm and led me further from the tower and back into the main city center. “Where are we going?” I demanded.
“You’re leaving, right now,” he stated. “The longer you stay in Spade the more danger you pose to my people.”
I didn’t want to argue or fight with him. He was right. As much as I denied wanting to leave it was my responsibility. I would not be the cause of hundreds of innocents dying, including Adelaide. “Take care of her for me,” I whispered thinking of the young girl I’d rescued just a short time ago.
“You’ll be back.” He smiled, though I suspected he was reassuring himself.
I didn’t answer. “Protect her.” It wasn’t a question but a request. He led me down through the tunnels, an all too familiar place I’d traveled once before. “Henry?”
“Follow the underground system. It’ll take you to Torv in two days’ time, if you always head south, and don’t stop. About thirty clicks south there’s a storage facility with bottled water and rationed food to get you the rest of the way. We’ve always planned for war. I just never thought it would happen like this,” he admitted.
I leaned towards Henry, resting my forehead against his. “I can’t do this.”
“Yes, you can.” He pulled back. “Joshua would want you to do the same thing,” he reminded me. “You need to go now.”
“No.” I pulled back slightly. “You should go. You, Adelaide, Rane, Cate and anyone else of importance. I’ll stay. I’ll fight. I’m who Isaura wants.” I stared at him. “I’m not a coward, Henry.”
He sighed, pulling me into his arms. “I never implied as much. Running doesn’t make you a coward. It makes you human. Having the will to survive is what we all have. I just, I want you alive, Olivia. Even if it means you’re on the run.”
“I’ve been on the run.” I stared at him, growing upset. I was frustrated with the world, with what it had become. I’d been on the run for over a year, trying to make a new system, trying to fix the damage that had been created. Most of it had worked out in our favor, but Isaura had been born from it and I couldn’t take the chance she’d destroy everything we’d fought for. “My friends in Shadow died because of Isaura. I won’t let her hurt anyone else,” I said. “You go. I’m staying here to fight.”
“Let me help you,” he pleaded with me. “Let me stand with you, at your side.”
“No.” My voice was sharp and intent. “You and Cate protect Adelaide. I need to know she will survive, no matter what happens with Isaura,” I acknowledged. “You and Cate can teach her and help guide her through this.” She needed people who understood what she was going through.
Henry accepted what I wanted. He didn’t argue. There was nothing he could say to convince me otherwise. Cate didn’t try to stop me. She knew the damage Isaura had caused once and how easily she could do the same thing to Spade. I turned and walked back up the steps towards the bright light of the outside world. Though still within Spade’s walls, soon I’d face Isaura, whether I was ready to or not.
CHAPTER 14
There was never any other choice. Life had been that way all along. I was born. I didn’t have the choice to be born, it just happened. Again I didn’t have the choice who I would marry. The government had demanded I marry Joshua. Although I eventually had been given the choice, it wasn’t without consequences and costs. Friends had died and I would always carry the burden with me.
Isaura stood outside Spade’s stone walls. “Where are you going?” A guard shouted at me as I motioned for him to open the gate. I wasn’t dressed for battle. I was wearing a gown, the same one I’d put on that morning with a mix of red and blue, the waistline cinched in white and fanned out. It reminded me of a book I’d read in the library about a fallen country, and it had inspired me to be so much more than I felt capable.
“I’m going outside. Open the gate.” The guard frowned, unsure he should do as I said.
“Is that wise?”
“Probably not,” I muttered. “She wants me.” I wanted him to know by lowering the bridge between Spade and the Gravelands, Isaura wouldn’t attack Spade. Two guards stood at their posts, lowering the entranceway. Without hesitation I stepped outside. I would not fear Isaura. She was nothing more than I was, a byproduct of men dabbling in science.
“Olivia. Olivia.” Isaura smiled. I didn’t turn around. The gate closed behind me as I stepped forward towards her. She looked harmless but she had something planned. I just wasn’t sure what it was yet.