“
Need to use your bodyguards?” I hissed at the woman ahead of me. “Don’t you have the courage to fight me outright?”
She stopped and her head swiveled halfway towards us. Her face was barely visible, limited by the angle, but I saw the scowl she wore. She scoffed then. It was the only reaction I got from her.
I was led through the same door the woman had entered the courtyard from and down a flight of stairs, through several hallways, and finally down a second flight of stairs. There were no windows at this level, the passageways lit only by flickering candles, so I knew we were underground.
We stopped at a wooden door, the woman’s hand on the door knob as she prepared to open it.
“
We do not tolerate misbehavior at assembly, Maggie. This is your only warning.” The woman said this plainly as if she couldn’t care less whether I caused a disturbance or not. She was focused on a mission. In fact, they all seemed to be.
Then I recognized the word she’d mentioned: assembly.
“
Eran and I were kidnapped in order to be at the assembly?” I was in shock. “Why didn’t you just ask us?”
“
You aren’t here to vote,” she snapped, scornfully. “You’re the defendant.”
That message sunk in as she opened the door revealing something I had least expected.
An underground circular chamber had been dug below the fortress with steps and seats running the entire circumference of the room from ceiling to floor. Candled chandeliers hung above, casting an eerie light on the hundreds of Alterums mingling loudly below. A thunderous hum of unintelligible noise nearly shook the walls, immediately quieting as the woman led me to the center of the room.
Collectively, those in attendance took their seats, preparing to watch the proceedings to come. While the men released me, the stern woman took a seat at the edge of the stage I now stood on.
A man of twenty stood almost immediately and stepped to the center, though he kept his distance from me.
“
Maggie, you may retract your wings. There is no need for them here.”
I wasn’t so certain and when I kept them extended, he shrugged and turned towards the audience.
“
We have been in discussion for nearly twenty four hours. As time has passed, we can be assured that our enemies are amassing. In an effort to come to a decision quickly, Ms. Barrett has suggested we hear directly from the one who has caused the trouble we are in discussions over.” He motioned towards the woman who had brought me to the chamber.
I felt my anger flare again and my eyes become slits as I evaluated the woman. She sat proudly defending her decision to take Eran and me as prisoners. Worse, those around her patted her shoulders, supporting her efforts.
“
Maggie,” said the young man, prompting me.
I stood silent, searching the crowd for Eran, Ezra, Rufus, Felix, anyone who might be in support of me. What I saw instead were frowns, scowls, hatred from my own kind. They were of all ages, all ethnicities, and both genders. Their dress was just as diverse with a smattering of business suits, jeans and sweatshirts, sarongs, Rasta beads and dreadlocks, ushankas, Native American shawls. Every walk of life was represented. The one unifying commonality was that they were all Alterums.
Fernando Vega had been correct. My hunting had drawn attention to myself. Thinking back to his other warning instantly made my wings snap straighter in reaction. He’d mentioned a rumor to deliver me to the Fallen Ones, to sacrifice me for the safety of the rest.
“
Maggie,” said the young man again, standing briefly to urge me to speak and then taking his seat again beside Ms. Barrett.
“
It may help Maggie to hear why she has been brought to the assembly,” suggested an older woman whose hair was graying and whose eyes held the sense of mature experience.
Ms. Barrett stood then and entered the stage, glaring briefly at the older woman who’d just spoken as if Ms. Barrett had been directly criticized. Loudly and firmly, she recounted, “She is here before us to defend herself. Alterums are dying at an alarming rate by the hands of Fallen Ones directly because of her actions. Her killings have caused our enemies to unite and attack our kind. We are in danger because of her.”
She strolled back to her seat where a book, even from this distance, was easily recognizable to me.
She picked up the Fallen One dossiers, the one the Beedinwigg’s had spent generations compiling, and held it up for the chamber to see.
“
What I have in my hand is information on every Fallen One ever to have existed. It is Maggie’s information source, her way of finding her enemies and destroying them. Its very existence is a danger to us all, an undeniable threat when in the hands of someone like Maggie.” As she reeled off her speech, she spun around theatrically until she was again facing Maggie. “And that is why it is better off that we destroy it before it destroys us.”
She lifted herself into the air then, swooping up with her arm holding the book high over her head, her legs bent out behind her. When she reached a chandelier above, she did something that spurred equal amounts of panic and rage in me.
She placed my book in the flames.
Thoughtlessly, I soared towards her, thinking of only one objective: retrieve the book.
My body had never moved so fast and yet, despite my incomparable efforts, I didn’t reached it, her guards catching me well ahead of time and dragging me back to the earth.
My voice reverberated off the walls, something I didn’t consciously identify as coming from me. I released only one word, thick with horror in watching the only thing that gave us an advantage over our enemies become entirely consumed in flames.
“
Nooooooooooooooooo!”
Ms. Barrett spun towards me. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
When I didn’t respond, my chest feeling as if it had caved in from the loss of such a valuable resource, she stepped forward to within inches of me. “Nothing?” she beseeched, and it was clear she was almost content with my silence. Again, she addressed the audience. “Maggie has no defense, proven by her refusal to speak up. Yet she has endangered each one of us, provoking our enemies and sparking a war. There is only one solution to this problem. They have told us they will retreat if we give them what they desire, what they have always desired. Give them their nemesis…” Immediately the crowd began to murmur, steadily growing in volume until Ms. Barrett concluded her message in which the chamber erupted in commotion. “Give them Maggie!”
Then it all became clear to me. Ms. Barrett hadn’t kidnapped me to attend the assembly. Her mission was to hand me to the Fallen Ones.
In the midst of the din, I drew in a breath filling my lungs to their depths. All that was flowing through me, in words and emotion, was suddenly released; and when I screamed my message it resounded off the walls, catching the crowd by surprise. “WHAT HAVE I DONE?”
The crowd reduced to a murmur and then fell still entirely.
“
What have I done?” I repeated, stepping towards Ms. Barrett, who instantly retreated. “I have killed our enemies. You’ve heard the stories…You’ve known the Alterums…You know the crimes our enemies have committed…You know what they will continue to do. I didn’t start this war. Our enemies have been at war with us long before I made any effort to eradicate them.”
“
So you admit it?” Ms. Barrett demanded with her eyes widening.
“
Admit what?” I retorted. “That I wish to defend myself – and all of you – because you refuse to do it yourselves?”
Spinning around, I spoke to the chamber. “I have visited this dimension over the last five hundred years and what I have witnessed of Fallen Ones is nothing less than murder, thievery, crimes too atrocious to recount. In the midst of it, I focused solely on delivering messages to those on the other side, some of them…some of them coming from those who had been attacked by the Fallen Ones.” I stopped and stared in to the eyes of those so intently focused on me, speaking passed the lump that had grown thick in my throat. “For that I am ashamed. Delivering messages is no longer good enough for me. I am not content to stand idly by as the lives of innocent Alterums, innocent humans are consumed by our enemies.” I turned then and marched across the stage to Ms. Barrett. Standing directly in front of her, seething with rage, I noted and enjoyed how she leaned back, away from me.
In the brief moment of my pause, I heard a voice speak up. It was proud and unyielding and it came from the older woman who had confronted Ms. Barrett earlier.
“
And so the hunted became the hunter.”
I responded so resolute it was without question. “Yes.”
Ms. Barrett’s eyes snapped open and then just as quickly narrowed to slits. Clearly, she didn’t anticipate such an honest and unshakeable affirmation. Opening her mouth, she began to speak, but I didn’t give her the chance.
“
Ms. Barrett is correct. Our enemies have united and that will be their strength. They will come at you with force, likely in waves of attack, as has been their strategy in the past. You can no longer hide or turn a blind eye. None of you are safe. Do not let Ms. Barrett’s actions or the actions of this chamber divide us. That will be our weakness.” I swung around, throwing my arms out to the chamber, imploring them to action. “Are you prepared to fight them alone? Can you protect yourselves and those you love alone? There is only one way to defeat them. Come together…not in assembly but in force. Come together and defend yourselves.”
As the chamber exploded with voices, Ms. Barrett’s shoulders dropped and rolled forward. By instinct and by witnessing the signs of an attack, my wings snapped outward, spanning across the stage.
A second later, I was on my back, my wings being crushed beneath me. Writhing, I fought the two bodyguards Ms. Barrett had brought as they bore down. Then, just as quickly as I was on the ground I was lifted up.
Ms. Barrett stood in front of me now. The smirk on her face told me that her deception had worked. She’d never had any intention of releasing her wings. She knew there was little hope in winning in a physical battle against me, so she’d used her manipulation to get what she wanted, tricking me in to thinking she would attack so that I could be restrained and no longer incite the crowd towards my way of thinking.
“
I told you,” she said snidely. “We do not tolerate misbehavior.”
With a quick gesture from Ms. Barrett, I was taken from the chamber. Her bodyguards led me down a flight of stairs to a hall directly beneath the stage. There, what I saw made my chest crush inward.
Barred cells made of fused stone lined both sides of the room. Inside each one was someone I knew and loved.
The moment he saw us, Eran sprang to his feet, wings extended, seething through the bars that kept him imprisoned.
“
Release her,” he demanded, his chest rising and falling rapidly in anger.
They ignored him, dragging me towards a cage at the end of the row. I was taken passed Ezra, Felix, Rufus, Ms. Beedinwigg, Mr. Hamilton, Alfred, and even Magnus, who had assisted us in our battle against the Elsics only a few short months ago. Ms. Barrett had found and captured everyone who could have been any help to Eran and me.
One of her bodyguards opened the door and I was shoved inside while the lock was secured.
Beside me was Ms. Beedinwigg, who was already at the bars separating us.
“
Are you hurt?” she asked.
“
No, are you? Are any of you?” I stepped forward, my hands coming around the cold stone bars.
She breathed a sigh of relief before answering. “Not yet.” She went on to add something that caused the breath to catch in my throat. “Although I’m not certain about Eran’s army.”
“
What about his army?” I asked, tensely.
“
We’ve been told they are in the cells below us.”
I felt my face fall in reaction to this news. “Then there’s no one…no one coming for us…” I deduced.
Ms. Beedinwigg couldn’t muster the words to answer me, instead choosing to slowly nod her head in confirmation.
Knowing no better time to break the news, I revealed, “The book of dossiers is gone. Ms. Barrett…” I swallowed back my body’s refusal to speak the words and went on. “Ms. Barrett burnt it.”
Absolute dread swept across her face as she collapsed against her cage.
I fell back too, allowing my hand to slide along the bars; giving myself time to digest all that had happened, to contemplate a way out. The bars, while cylindrical, were rutted, which briefly commanded my attention. “Stone cells?”
She lifted her eyes, which now reflected a depth of sadness I’d never expected to see in this woman and then she rolled them weakly. My assertive, inspired mentor was slowly giving up. “Stone cells to counter Eran’s ability to operate metal objects,” she explained. “They thought of everything.”
I remembered back to all the times he’d turned the lock to my French doors without having to touch them, always having considered it a blessing.
Anger coursed through me then. “Why are you here? What cause do they have to hold you?” I demanded.
Then I knew without having to be told. Ms. Barrett was the cause. She’d deceived them just as she’d done with me in the chamber. This was the case for all of them, with the exception of Eran. He had been taken captive because of me.