Stolen Hearts; Chapter Seventeen

Over the next four days Cala refused to join the others in their lessons, she didn’t see the point, the clock was ticking and it was getting closer to the day when the Black Nation would deploy its new troops every second.

Those new troops would storm the land and the first thing they would reach was this castle. It was irrational to believe that they would march past without a second thought; their orders would be to destroy every White Nation citizen above the age of sixteen in sight. The Black Nation doesn’t take prisoners and if citizens truly wanted to reform, they could have done it before the age of sixteen. This castle was full of sixteen and seventeen year olds without a days experience of war, this was their home. By the end of the week the castle only had eleven days left to be a school, by the end of the week Cala couldn’t help think that some of the castle’s occupants only had eleven days left to live.

So she sat on the swing underneath the willow tree with her eyes closed and thought. Thought of what she was going to do when the time came, thought of what she was doing with Simon, thought of what Hannah and Nicola were going to do when the time came and generally thought of what everyone was going to do when it came down to it.

Against her better judgment Cala had even agreed to teach Donny a couple of things. Although she was determined to make sure she never gave him anything he could use to hurt another soldier with so they focused on shields. So here she sat underneath the willow waiting patiently for Donny.

James had disappeared the night she had been lashed and was yet to return. It seemed the White Nation was no longer all that oblivious to the mounting forces behind enemy lines and James was one of their best defences. He’d be out destroying and blocking as many routes as he could before the Black Nation could mobilize.

Anything and everything to slow them when the time came but Cala couldn’t help think that come it would and she wouldn’t be able to let Xandu get his hands on much more resources for risk of him becoming stronger than even she. Then what would Mebenna do she wondered, how many soldiers would come out of the woodwork when push came to shove, soldiers who’d hidden their powers for fear of being picked off one by one by people in authority. She couldn’t help but revel in the thought that they were out there; she could feel more power in Mebenna everyday, growing and swelling, waiting to overflow in an almighty blood bath.

She’d drown them all. Reduce them all to nothing. All of them equally helpless, no one in power, not even her. Anarchy. Cala’s eyes grew cold as a new force of steely determination claimed her features and rippled through her body like nothing she had ever felt before. She smiled slowly thoroughly confident in her power.
*
By the end of the week Donny’s shield had improved by seventy percent and there was not much else Cala could or was prepared to offer so the teaching stopped and Donny was more than grateful for what he had received. Cala heard he had proceeded to teach his friends, which she was fine with but it had made her extremely glad she had only taught him about shields.

Once again she was back under the willow away from Hannah and Conner. She hadn’t seen Simon but she’d heard he’d returned, James was still absent and Cala didn’t think it likely he’d be back at all until the Black Nation started to march. Luke seemed to disappear more often too; he’d be missing for hours at a time without explanation.

Nicola had become fascinated with the girl whose room she slept in to calm her nightmares and hadn’t left her side for the past few weeks. Her name was Amelia Hett and she was only seven years old with eerily pale eyes and freckled skin. Her nightmares had become somewhat of a fable throughout the Dragon’s house as her screams could be heard throughout the castle on quiet nights even as Nicola worked her best to wake her.

Cala had been awake one of those quiet nights and heard her screams all too clearly. ‘Black, they’re black!" she would shriek over and over again until her voice had grown quiet and raspy from the strain, she didn’t wake though, Nicola let slip that not once had she been successful in waking the girl.

"Cala are you here?" Hannah called from the other side of the willow. Not wanting to talk at that moment in time Cala leapt silently up into the higher branches of the willow tree and hid in its shadows.

She watched has Hannah rounded the trunk corner and she wasn’t alone, Conner was by her side which was unusual in itself. Cala frowned as she watched them sit down beneath her together, her curiosity overwhelmed the feeling of awkwardness and she sat still to see Conner shrug.

"I guess she’s gone for another walk," he muttered. Hannah pecked him on the cheek.
"Good," she smiled. Cala’s jaw dropped open.
Hannah and Conner? She stifled a joyful laugh but realised she was now stuck in a tree and would be forced to listen to their soppy love dribble until they left.

"Hey what’s this?" Hannah’s forehead scrunched as she turned to stare at something on the trunk of the willow. Conner chuckled faintly and Cala was startled at how similar it was to Simon’s.
"Simon did it. It’s our initials," Conner explained smiling fondly at the letters which were out of Cala’s view.

Hannah frowned even more.
"But those aren’t your initials," she scowled. Conner traced his finger gently across the lines in her forehead which she instantly relaxed.

"You’re cute when you’re confused," he kissed her lightly on the cheek. Hannah immediately forgot all about the tree trunk and found herself wrapped in Conner’s arms. Cala looked to the skies to see rain clouds rolling in once again and smirked slightly.

Slowly she raised one hand skyward.
Pluvia.
There was a drip on the grass by Hannah’s foot, a splosh on Conner’s hand then a tip and a tap on the leaves above their heads. Hannah growled as another scowl spread across her features.

"Looks like it’s about to hurl," Conner glanced through the willows branches only to be rewarded with a rain drop smacking him in one eye. Hannah laughed as he rubbed it away and answered optimistically.
"Maybe it’ll pass," she said.

Cala pouted, My arse it will! And glared up at the sky, Fluo Pluvia!

In return the clouds obliged by thundering irritably but let loose a lake full of continuous rain and Hannah groaned below.
"You know it never used to rain so much until that stupid desert appeared in the South," she grumbled. Conner nodded his head in agreement and dashed across the lawn with Hannah at his side back towards the castle.

Cala watched them go and released her grip on the clouds above but they continued to pour as she hopped down from her branch to inspect the initials Hannah had spotted and Simon had written.

F.F, R.T, D.B, T.R

Cala did a double take, Hannah was right on one thing these weren’t the boys’ real initials. Her eyes zeroed in on the third pair and she scowled in confusion. D.B was the name of the pupil who bought the mare from the Rebel's She remembered. Her brow furrowed as she couldn’t make heads or tails of which initials matched which boy. It could be any one of them she realized groaning internally.

There were too many people dancing around the sidelines and Cala hissed and pursed her lips as she ran through the list.
Someone here was a pirate according to Ruffelm.
Someone here was a Rebel according to Jason.
Someone here was conspiring with the Black Nation according to her own eyes.

They could all be the same someone or they could all be different people. The idea of three rouge individuals who were strong enough to hide their thoughts from her within the castle was unnerving and Cala disliked it immensely.

Donny’s last name was Burro, D.B. Cala had thought he had been the one to own the mare but Donny had made it clear he was going to fight for the White Nation and Cala was sure she’d have seen any lies his hazel eyes could command without trouble.

Now though it could be James, it could be Simon, it could be Conner and it could even be Luke who was with the Rebel's - under a fake name. It was unlikely to be James, Cala knew he had already started to resist the White Nation in the past few months but even he wasn’t prepared to do the whole Rebel thing just yet. It was unlikely to be Simon as he had been genuinely surprised to hear the Rebels’ were going to join in the fighting officially. Conner and Luke were more unknown in nature to her but still she found it hard to picture them in Rebel uniform, it had to be one of them though.

That left the person sneaking around and talking to Black Nation soldiers, which in all honesty could be anyone Cala thought dejectedly. She slammed her fist against the tree in frustration.

"Oh," a small gasp escaped from behind her and Cala spun around a look of guilty embarrassment on her face to see who had crept up behind her. Her face blanked as she saw the two people stood a couple metres in front of her but her eyes sparked painfully.

Simon shifted uncomfortably as he unavoidably caught Cala’s stare. He had a limpet clinging to his waist in the form of Tory Carlson a sixteen year old girl in Hawks house. She had straight black hair and a coffee complexion, a waistline to match a post and a chest worth two women. Cala flinched inwardly as something twinged in her torso at the sight.

Simon held her solidly with his right arm and an umbrella in his left to deflect the rain pellets Cala herself had induced. His brown hair fell dustily across his brow and his cheeks burnt red against the rushing wind. Tory looked up adoringly at him, obviously proud to be so close to his body and then half scathingly back at Cala not sure whether to be scared of her or warn her to back off.

"Come on," Simon muttered sorrowfully and steered Tory away down to the Lake, she looked back over his shoulder to watch as Cala started to walk, then jog, then run, then crack she was gone, consumed by static. Simon didn’t look back as the whiplash of sound smacked him around the ears.

"She’s odd," Tory offered.
Simon ignored her.
I shouldn’t have done that. He thought.
*
Dodger leapt down from the ten foot high mountain edge to land in the shallow water bellow. It had been much simpler than he had ever thought it possible to find the location of the Vita Ereptor and now here he was yards away from the biggest payday he’d ever receive.

The breeze was chilled this close to the shore and Dodger looked around cautiously, it wasn’t often that he traveled through the western mountains and the mountain lions on the higher ground could be the least of his worries.

He was out in the open in the middle of the rivers mouth with mountains behind him, sea ahead and shrubbery quite a few yards away both left and right before they too met with more mountains. The river bed was pale and the water itself took on a fantasy turquoise making it hard to see below its surface.

Dodger crouched down in the shallow water, none of which made its way through his jumpsuit. He slid off one of his black leather gloves using his teeth while his other hand steadied his crouched balance. All the while his eyes darted around looking for anything and everything.

He dipped his hand beneath the water and pressed it against the bed, keeping his eyes open Dodger proceeded to probe the ground around him within a yard radius with his mind using his hand as a conductor.

He smiled happily behind his black visor helmet and took five strong strides to his left then two forward towards the sea and stopped abruptly. He leaned down to pick up a smooth pebble and chucked it in front of himself. It travelled less than a metre before colliding with nothingness revealing a shield that shimmered in the morning light before settling invisibly again.

Dodger pulled his katana sword from behind his back and took off both of his gloves. Swiftly he sliced the tips off the glove fingers, returned his sword and donned his gloves again. The skin of his fingertips could feel the world around himself now and Dodger felt more prepared as he took a stride towards the field.

Contaud.
The shield flickered and faltered but remained.
"Contaud!" Dodger’s techno voice barked, the shield dropped with a resounding whip cracking.

"Strong energy," he muttered as he shook off the mental strain and proceeded to probe the area now exposed. A foot from where he stood there was a drop three metres deep and one meter wide, its edges were smooth and at the bottom there sat hunkered down and chained to the floor a square slab of slate.

Dodger paused for a second for he couldn’t sense the presence of the Vita Ereptor and pulled out a small scroll from one of his pouches. Upon opening it he once again saw the painted picture of a lady wearing a silver necklace with a ruby claw hanging on its end no bigger than Dodger’s thumb.

He sneered slightly and rolled his eyes, Lord Black probably didn’t even have a clue how to use the damned thing. He placed the scroll securely back in his pocket, it hadn’t been out of his sight since he’d been given it. Dodger braced himself for any hidden traps and bent down beside the hole, he tried to lift the stone slab with energy but nothing happened.

"More hidden shields," Dodger sighed. There was nothing he could do about that, if he couldn’t feel or see the shield or know what it was protecting from specifically he couldn’t grasp it. The first one had been easy, it protected against everything with no other specification. Simple, but it had been uncommonly strong.

He drew a deep breath and dove into the hole beneath the waters surface. Immediately his bare fingertips started to burn ferociously, inside his helmet Dodger yelled angrily.
Acid. He hissed to himself.

His body screamed at him to surface again but he had to push on and as he strained himself downwards the pain seeped up through the gaps in his gloves smothering his hands and stopping just above his wrists where his war suit protected him.

Gritting his teeth Dodger made his way down and grasped at the necklace, his fingers felt nothing but the view through his visor showed his success. He swiftly pulled his feet down and pushed of the floor aiming to break through the acid and then waters surface quickly before his suit was destroyed.

His helmet gave an almighty crunch as it hit an invisible barrier and Dodger swore and cried out as he found himself trapped by yet another shield.