Alnwick Chronicles

Five

Aerith

When I wake up, the first thing I see is Skyla's anxious face hovering over mine. She helps me sit up and asks, "How are you feeling?"

"Okay-ish. My head's throbbing though." My head is bandaged, but I don't recall getting injured.

"Do you want a painkiller?" She hands me a small white tablet in a plastic box. I swallow it without any water. Once I'm better, I look around. We seem to be in a sort of man-made cavern. "Where's Adalyn?"

"Exploring the place. Or at least trying to. Most areas are restricted. Oh, also, we're in Cold Hollow, a.k.a. 'Cold H'."

"Huh? What even happened? The last thing I remember is attacking blondie when she almost strangled Adalyn. How is he, by the way?"

"Alright. Way better than you. 'Blondie' knocked you out and you got hurt pretty bad."

"That would explain it."

Adalyn returns a little while later and along with Skyla, tells me what happened while I was unconscious.

The woman and two of her sidekicks brought us to this underground cavern through an opening in a secluded building close to the market. A doctor tended to my wounds and left painkillers and a spare bandage. Apparently this place is like an underground fortress. There are many tunnels and stairways leading to different chambers like the one we're in right now. No wonder my curious brother wanted to explore. But like Skyla said, most areas are guarded by sentries, so he couldn't.

We hear the sound of footsteps approaching and turn to see two men, who I'm guessing are the same ones who escorted us here.

"Chief wants to see you," says one of them. "All three of you."

Before we can reply, the other one adds "It's not a choice. "

A few seconds later, we're walking through a wide stone hallway on our way to meet 'the Chief'.

On the way, we pass by various corridors leading to different parts of the domain, just like Adalyn and Skyla described. We are led down one such corridor, which ends in a closed metal door. One of the men knocks in a particular pattern on it, and after a faint click from the inside, it swings open.

Our escorts stay outside as we enter and find ourselves in a chamber much like the one we were in earlier, except twice as big. There is a large wooden table on the centre of the floor, and 3 chairs on either side of it. Sitting on one of them, facing us, is a woman as old as our parents. She has short grey hair, and is wearing a brown leather jacket.

"Hello kids," she smiles. "Come and sit down." None of us return the smile as we take a chair each on the opposite side of the table from her. Just then, I notice a small radio near the foot of the lady's chair. This is surprising, as only the richest of the rich are able to afford radios. I could only recognise it because our Metropolan tutor had one.

"I know this must be unexpected for you," continues the woman, "but I promise you we mean no harm." She smiles again and extends a hand. "My name is Wren Solace, by the way. What are your names?"

I get the feeling she knows more about us than she's letting on, so I keep quiet. My brother, however, starts to play along. He shakes her outstretched hand and says, "I'm Adalyn, and this is my sister Aerith, and this is Skyla."

Good job bro. Give the random stranger who kidnapped us all the info she needs.

Just then, a door on the wall behind Wren opens and in steps our good old friend, blondie. She takes a seat beside Wren. "Sorry we got off on the wrong start earlier," she says, not looking sorry at all. "The name's Elvira Dawn."

"Okay, WHAT is happening?" Skyla, who has been eyeing the women suspiciously all this while, breaks her silence.

Elvira and Wren give each other a look. Elvira shakes her head so slightly that I almost miss it. "No, I'm just going to tell them," says Wren as if we're not right here.

She turns to us. "Now see, kids, I'm not going to beat around the bush because we both need information," she's not smiling anymore and is all business. "But you have to assure us that what we talk about in this room stays in this room."

What we learn next is that Cold Hollow is home to a secret organisation working under the radar of the Queen. They do all sorts of illegal stuff and have members all over the country.

Two of them, apparently, are our parents.

"Now it's your turn." Elvira leans back in her chair and folds her arms on her chest.

"Our turn for what?" I ask with a nervous edge to my voice. I hope she doesn't mean it's our turn to become spies or secret agents for this organisation, whatever it is.

"To share information. Whatever you know. Every. Single. Detail." Oh.

"Wait. You still haven't told us where our parents are," says Adalyn.

"We're... not entirely sure of their whereabouts as of now," Wren pronounces each word slowly. "But people have been deployed in search of them."

Suddenly, the radio on the floor buzzes with static. The ladies share another glance, and it feels like they're conversing through their eyes. Wren picks it up with a grim expression and holds it between her right and Elvira's left ear.

The static turns to words, but they're barely audible. I can only make out "....tack....had..lay.....inj......soldiers.....med......all....ful. Over." Even though those words mean absolutely nothing to me, my body tenses up. Maybe because of the dead-serious expressions on the ladies' faces.

Wren presses some buttons on the side of the device and in a few seconds, it goes silent. It must be a modified gadget, as I'm pretty sure radios don't have such kind of buttons.

"How much did you hear?" There's a slightly threatening tone in Wren's words that wasn't there before. She's gone stiff and her eyes have turned glassy. This can't be good.

"Nothing. Couldn't understand the words," Skyla says a little too quickly. Wren squints at her in suspicion.

"Chief, we can't afford to take risks," pipes in Elvira. "Plus, they still haven't told us anything." Wren nods. She gets up and bangs a fist on the table, and in a flash, the two men and Elvira have each of our hands pinned at our backs.

***

The next thing we know, we're locked in a cramped space with a single tiny window spilling in light from outside.

I plop down on the floor, rest my head on the wall and close my eyes. Today has been, by far, the weirdest day of my life. It would've felt like a dream if the throbbing in my head didn't keep bringing me back to reality.

"Hey, aren't we gonna talk about what just happened?" I open my eyes to see a very pale Skyla. "I know, I just..." I sigh.

"What didn't happen was us finding mom and dad," says Adalyn grimly.

"Yes, but..." Skyla looks at us both with an urgency in her eyes that makes me sit up. "The message. On the radio." Only she could have heard it properly, courtesy of her bat-like sense of hearing.

"What was it?" I ask.

Skyla looks between us again, before answering with a slight quiver in her voice. "It was about an attack. In Hadleigh." She looks straight into my eyes. "And these people were behind it."