Rage and Rebellion (Histories of Havenhearth)

8.5 Wynemere

"You're not?" asked Floren, standing still, just looking at her.
"I can't just leave Bernebe,"
'You know what's going to happen to those who stay?" Her aunt screeched out.
"I have an inkling,"
"Then you're brave or stupid."
"You're coming," Floren said simply. "Because if you don't, then none of the others do,"
"No, it's fine, you all go, and get the capitaine to join you, she can have my place."
"She," said Wynemere, absent-mindedly, a little confused about why this girl was refusing a rescue.
"It's not your choice, Cerys, and i have to leave,"
"You'd leave without her?" Yarazhenya inquired, incredulous. Floren just shrugged his shoulders.
"But why do I have to come?"
"I can't answer that for you, you'll have to ask the chancellor."
"The chancellor?"
"Yes, they're her terms, not mine." At that moment, Bernebe entered the room- the door had not been locked after Floren. "The spirits, Bernebe!" Yarazhenya gasped. He looked from one of them to the next, then lowered his head. Floren scoffed. "I can't take him, you know."
"Take me where?"
"Oh spirits," Cerys said, flopping back on her bed.
"Bernebe," Floren addressed him directly.
"Cheshirering," Bernebe muttered in return, keeping his gaze lowered. "I trust you are well?"
"Thank you, yes, and yourself?" It was an odd conversation given the circumstances.
"Thank you." Bernebe finally looked up with a worried expression on his face. "I'm satisfied. And I just want to say-" he swallowed, "I think you are the better choice for her,"
"Oh Bernebe!" Cerys pleaded, "don't worry about that now!"
"Cerys, it's fine. I don't deserve you, I just came here to thank you. You showed me what I could be, what I will try for. If...-"
"No stop, don't say it," she knew he was going to say, if he survived.
"I'm glad Floren is here. He is the better man you see... I know I can't come," he added, after a moment. The five of them stood in silence. "But I think I'll be ok. I just wanted to see you all."
"I'm so sorry," Cerys said.
"Its ok Cerys. I can manage. But I need your help. I have a letter. It's for my parents. Could you send it for me when you get to Tainland?" Bernebe asked her, with wide hopeful eyes. Wynemere looked at Yarazhenya, both of them suspicious. "Of course I will," Cerys tucked it into her bosom. "You're brave, I'm proud to know you." Bernebe gave a small smile, but Wynemere felt there was a slyness to it. Cerys touched his cheek, holding her hand there a moment. It was Bernebe who pulled away.
"I'm afraid we have to go," Floren said. The Wheatstones had left their room, moving over to the doorway of Cerys', two of the kids holding their mother's hands. The two sisters were there too.
"Will you come?" Floren asked Cerys.
"How can I be part of a deal made with the chancellor?"
"excuse me," Wynemere interrupted, long having grown impatient of the situation, "if I understand correctly, you are being offered the choice to save not only your life, and mine, but that family's, and your aunt's, and you are debating it? I am not one to call in the spirits often, but it seems your require their help badly if the choice is not obvious to you." Cerys slumped even further, breathing heavily.
"But how can I leave Bernebe?"
"Um, down the hall, down the stairs, into the night, I would guess," Wynemere said, without a hint of joking in her voice. Floren nodded at her.
"Come on, you silly girl, let's get going," she spat out, fed up. "Tell us what to do please," she said to Floren. One after another, they followed Floren not the way they had come in, but down a different stairwell and into the courtyard of the facility, their feet hitting mushy ground. Rain clouds continued to cover the moon. Floren gestured to them to follow him, and they did so, across the courtyard into the shadow of a wall. There, they waited while he worked a contraption, and with a squeak and a creak, part of the wall seemed to slide back. When there was a crack just wide enough for a body to slip through, Floren started herding them all through it. Wynemere went first, into a strange space between the metal slate, and then out into a dark section on the other side of a wall, shielded by a hay bail. They all followed her out, crouching down in the shadows. Floren was the last one though. This time, a horse and cart was waiting for them. When they had all clambered aboard, and were ordered to lie flat. Once again they were covered in blankets, and then something heavier, the hay, judging from the smell and weight of it, and slowly, they moved off. Wynemere was certain however, that they were not heading towards the river, but away from it.

The fugitives huddled under the hay, thinking of the similar journey they had experienced only hours before. None of them knew what was happening. When they reached what Wynemere figured were the gates to the town, they stopped, and their seemed to be an inspection. A similar exchange from before, when they were all in the raft, seemed to take place. The gates creaked open, and on they rattled the sound of the cart's wheels and horses hooves no longer clicking against the cobblestones of the streets. They were on their way into the countryside, she was certain of it. They also picked up the pace, bumping along against each other along the dirt path.

Only when they seemed to be a ways out left the town walls did Wynemere relax a little bit. The hay weighed down on them- they were uncomfortable, but so far they seemed safe.
They had escaped the city, but just as much uncertainty lay ahead. They had been freed from the Birds of Paradise, but the countryside she suspected was around them could be just as perilous. What escape could there be when the whole area was raging with rebellion? Where might they find protection?
Wynemere was not sure of how far they had travelled, but they stopped at last, and heard whoever was driving them give a command. Those that spoke better Cassioni than Wynemere began to push the heavy hay off of them, scratching at their faces, stretching up their arms after they did. A figure holding a candle stood nearby, emitting the only light. They seemed to be in a small courtyard of what appeared to be a small farmhouse. A moment later, Wynemere's guess was confirmed- the two girls squealed with joy bounding over to the figure with the candle, throwing their arms around him. They were at home, Wynemere realised. The rest of them were here to rest out the rest of the night, and Cerys and the family went inside after them. Wynemere picked straw out of their hair and clothes, thinking how dishevelled they must look. She noticed another figure waiting for them, just outside of the courtyard. She would not have except that Floren went over to speak, she caught a couple words of Cassioni, and then she  followed the others inside. A faint loom of light was starting to come into the sky: the dawn was approaching, though full daylight, especially in such weather conditions would not be for some hours yet.