Hold Me Down (The Badlands Series) Book 2

Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Recovery

Emlyn and the group begin working on clearing the rubble. The townspeople joined them beginning to help clear the disaster that had been made. Emlyn approached one of them cautiously hoping they knew something that could help.

"Uh hi, I'm Emlyn Lovet, I was wondering if you could help me possibly?" She asked nicely and casually and the young girl smiled at her.

"Sure I can do my best, how can I help?" Her hair looked like snow, pure white and glinted in the sun. Her eyes were a bright icy blue it almost looked like her iris was in the shape of a snowflake.

"I'm looking for a way to defeat Camilla, I'm not sure how to go about it? Is there a spell or an artifact?" Emlyn asked and the girl thought briefly before a thought crossed her mind.

"You should talk to her Harriet she's sorta a witch but not like the ones you are thinking of. She doesn't have warts or green skin," she chuckled and pointed to a small cottage towards the far end of the village, "that's her cottage."

Emlyn took Stella with her and the two stood outside the cottage. It was rather beautiful covered in greenery and all sorts of beautiful flowers and plants. There was a small fountain trickling with crystal clear water that sparkled in the sunlight.

"Well here goes nothing." They approached and knocked on the door casually and waited a few minutes before a figure cracked open the door.

"Can I help you?" Her voice sounded old but soft. Emlyn thought to herself thinking the voice reminded her of Horrace, wise, soft, and sweet.

"Yes, I'm Emlyn Lovet I'm looking for a way to take down Camilla a girl suggested I should talk to you?" Emlyn said more in the form of a question and Harriet took a step back welcoming them in.

"I have an answer for you, I knew you would come," she smiled to herself and pointed for them to sit at her table. "I may die telling you this, but I've lived a long happy life and that's fine with me."

Emlyn looked at her in wonder and worry. Harriet reminded her a lot of Horrace. They even looked similar, white hair, soft dull blue eyes. That look and feel of wiseness and knowing of everything.

She was worried however about Harriet's willingness to die over giving them information, "Are you sure? I don't want you to die for helping me." Emlyn said softly.

"Nonsense, I've paid my debt to society. I've lived a long life, you know I turned 600 years old a few days ago. On September 8th I became 600 years old. I'm good I'll tell you anything you want to know." She said and pulled out a book and opened it in front of Emlyn.

"Well alright as long as your sure..." Emlyn was now more stuck on the fact Harriet and Horrace had the same birthday and were pretty much the same person except different genders.

"Yes, now this is the send them off spell. It requires several very specific items and you have to put them all together and it will create a portal. You just have to get Camilla through the portal and it will send her to another realm. This will prevent her from attacking this place anymore." Harriet explained and Emlyn nodded as she read over it.

"I should be able to figure it out I'm sure it can't be to difficult." She said and Harriet nodded.

"The hardest part will be collecting all the items you need. Unfortunly the spell is in an odd code that I don't understand. You'll have to decipher it in order to collect the items you need." She replied and Emlyn nodded as she inspected it carefully.

Emlyn inspected it and scratched her head, "This looks like Morse code... I can't read Morse code."

"What's Morse code?" Stella and Harriet asked together and Emlyn looked confused for a second realizing it was a real world thing.

"Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations. It's used in America to send secret messages usually during war." Emlyn explained and they both nodded.

"There has to be a way to decipher it, you should talk to Horrace. He might have some answers." Harriet suggested and Emlyn nodded but then looked at her.

"You know Horrace?" She asked and Harriet gave a look like she shouldn't have said something.

"Well he is king... Everyone knows him right?" She said and Emlyn didn't quite believe her but didn't push it.

"Right, I guess we should head back and talk to Horrace it's all we have right now." Emlyn replied as she looked at Stella who nodded in response.

"Right let's go, there's no time to waste." She stood up and walked to the door waiting for Emlyn.

Emlyn watched Harriet pour a glass of wine as she headed towards the door. "You like wine?" She asked her as her suspicion grew about Harriet and Horrace being oddly similar.

"Yes, red wine is my power enhancer. It helps me see things more clearly." Harriet responded and Emlyn nodded, she knew now something was suspicious here and she had a lot of questions for Horrace.