Roses and Thorns

Chapter 23~Runaways

There was a loud knock on the door. Adrastos stood up from the couch where he had been sitting and pulled out his dagger. He slowly walked to the door, the dagger in his hand. He opened the door a crack and suddenly let out a relieved sigh.

"Delroy." he opened the door, and let him in "Bonum est te videre."

"Tu quoque."

Ivelle stood up couriously and walked up to them.

"Delroy." she smiled.

"Ivelle." he gave her a court nod, then turned to Adrastos "I got your message."

"Message?" said Ivelle looking from one to the other.

"I sent him one." said Adrastos briefly and led Delroy to the livingroom. "They found us."

"I know I saw the man outside. You don't have to worry about him anymore." he gave a dark smile.

"What do you mean?" asked Ivelle and the two exchanged a quick look. "Oh, please, tell me he's not dead." she asked but all hope abandoned her as she saw the eyes of Delroy. It was filled with shame, doubt, anger and grief. "Oh gosh." she breathed.

"I know a place for you." he changed the subject quickly "And I think I know who The Sisters are."

Despite the sudden bad feeling about the dead man, a beam of hope appeared in Ivelle's heart as Delroy said these words.

"Good." said Adrastos "First we have to move." Delroy nodded and stood up.

"Pack your things." they turned to Ivelle, who reluctantly but obeyed them.

An hour later they were standing in front of a small, cozy house, in the suburb of a city.

"Where are we again?" asked Ivelle.

"Bordeaux, France." answered Adrastos with a sigh.

"Why here?"

"Because that's the only safe place I know." answered Delroy slightly annoyed.

They stepped into the house. Despite its small size, it was quite spacious. Delroy turned on the lights and let the others in, then closed the door.

"The bathroom and two guestrooms are upstairs." he started explaining "I'll sleep in the bedroom there." he pointed at a door opening from the right side of the livingroom "And the kitchen is there. " he pointed at the other side of the livingroom. Ivelle and Adrastos nodded and took their stuff upstairs. After they had finished unpacking their things - those few crucial things they brought with them- they went downstairs and settled themselves around the small coffeetable in the livingroom.

"So what do you know about The Sisters?" asked Adrastos resting his elbows on his knees.

"Not much, but apparently more than you two." he gave them a challenging grin, which quickly disappeared from his face when Adrastos throw him a dark look. He quickly reached into his bag and took out a huge book. He gave it to Adrastos who examined its cover.

"Greek gods and goddesses." he translated the title then looked at Delroy and raised an eyebrow "I'm listening."

"Open where I marked it." he said rolling his eyes.

" 'The Secret Keepers of Arcanum (also called the Brothers and Sisters or the Guardians of the Gods) live in Athenaeum. '" Adrastos started translating the text "Their task is to keep the gods and goddesses of the greeks away from the mortals, and not to let them harm any of them again.'" he looked up at Delroy "Where did you find this?"

"In Baradhyl's library." he shrugged "He doesn't know I've taken it."

"So you stole it..." commented Ivelle earning hostile looks from both men.

"If you put it this way, yes." said Delroy once again rolling his eyes "But just for the matter of fact, I did it to protect ourselves. If somehow Merikh finds him, he won't know what are we doing, or where are we going."

"And anyway it's high time you put your damn morals aside." said Adrastos matter-of-factly, concentrating on the book "All's fair in love and war, as they say. And it's war, whether you realise it or not." this time Ivelle rolled her eyes. What a cliché, she thought.

"At least I have morals." she blurted out before she could stop herself. She started to be fed up with being treated as a naive child.

Adrastos looked into her eyes so suddenly she even forgot to breath. His gaze was threatening and angry.

"Unlike you, we have no limits to get what we want." he said and Delroy started nodding agreeingly. Adrastos then looked back down at the book, and Ivelle let out the breath she was holding.

"Go to hell." she murmured to herself so none of the men could hear it.

"Been there, done that, devil didn't like me and sent me back." said Adrastos still looking at the book. And another cliché, thought Ivelle.

"And don't forget Ivelle," started Delroy "elves have better hearing than humans. Or half-bloods for the matter of fact." she opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by Adrastos.

"Do you think it's true?" he looked up at Delroy "I mean, I heard the stories of the locked-up-gods, but I thought they were just myths."

"Wait the greek gods are actually exist?"

"Well...not in the way you think." started Delroy "They were the most powerful sorcerers and sorceresses of their time. The undevelopped humans thought them gods, and started worshipping them. But as you know, not every god and goddess was good. Just think about Nephelae, the goddess of hospitality, or Ares. According to the stories, after the elves and other sorcerers saw how they took advantage of the humans, they locked up all of them, in a hidden place called Arcanum."

"They assigned 10 sorcerer and 10 sorceress to guard Arcanum, so the 'gods' won't be able to harm the humans." said Adrastos "At least, that's what the stories say."

"According to the book, they lived by strict rules." Finished Delroy.

"So all we have to do is find this Athenaeum." said Ivelle.

"And the date and time." Added Adrastos.

"Can't we meet them in our time?" asked Ivelle.

"Unfortunatelly, no." sighed Adrastos concentrating on the book again and slightly frowning. "As far as I know, my dearest father hunted down all of them, in order to find Arcanum."

"But I guess he failed." both Adrastos and Delroy nodded silently. There was a long pause of dead silence.

"Well at least we won't get bored." said Delroy, breaking the silence with a new found cheerfulness "Where should we begin?"

"Books." said Adrastos raising the huge book.