The War Begins

Chapter 24 - A New Pack Member

The next morning, Caine was surprised to hear a knock on his door slightly before dawn. With a groan, he heaved himself out of bed and made his way over to peek through a small hole he had made with magic. Ash stood on the other side. Sighing, Caine let him in.

"I need to talk to you," Ash looked paler than usual. Caine motioned for him to go on while rubbing his eyes to clear them of sleep. "Unfortunately, I have somewhere to be soon so I need you to walk with me."

With a grunt Caine walked over to his pack and began throwing on a set of the comfortable court clothes that were now allowed due to the war. Ash simply paced in the doorway and when Caine was dressed, practically shoved him out the door and dragged him down the hall forcing Caine fully awake.

"What is wrong, Ash? Something happened; you're not usually like this."

"No, I am not usually paranoid, but I tend to get that way when someone messes around with my life." Ash took a deep breath and forced himself to walk slower. "You know that I have two rooms here, correct?" Caine nodded his head. It had always intrigued him. "The why doesn't matter at the moment. Yesterday after dinner, I went to my room in the lower east corridor because I generally find those apartments more comfortable. However, when I opened the door there was a strange smell in my room. I, naturally, went to investigate and you will never guess what I found."

"A body?" Caine joked. Whatever it was, Ash was being awfully serious.

"This is no time for jokes!" Ash snarled. "I found a woman showering in my bathroom! Luckily, she was facing away from me so she didn't see me and a wall was hiding everything below her waist from sight, but still! I always lock my rooms and somehow, she just wandered in and decided to shower!" Caine didn't really see why Ash was freaking out, but the fact that someone could get into his locked room was not something Caine relished hearing.

"What did you do?"

"I left before she saw me and ran up to my rooms up in the magician's hall. I have been up all night trying to figure out what to do. When I got back to my suite, all of my things from the apartments downstairs had been moved up. I didn't give that order. Who did?" Ash finally stopped walking and gripped onto Caine's arm. "Someone got into my rooms twice and no one noticed. I had spells in place to let me know when someone snuck in and I didn't feel a thing."

"I have a feeling I might know who it is, and you're not going to like it. You did return to your room after dinner, right?"

Ash nodded.

"That did happen to be after the disturbance on the edge of the forest that Greylin said was Aleda coming back, correct?"

Ash began to understand where he was going.

"I don't like your train of thought."

"Neither do I, but do you know anyone else who could get through your safety precautions twice and not leave a trace of magic behind? That does seem to be her specialty."

Ash looked dark as Caine kept speaking. Caine was about to say more when Ash froze by an open doorway; they were near where his second apartment used to be.

"What are you all doing here?" Ash's voice was harsh as he stared in at the group of people. Caine noticed that he had seen the group before. It was the magicians that had not been sorted the previous day.

"We were told to gather here," A nervous voice called out. "Didn't you hear it?" Caine could almost hear Ash's teeth smashing together.

"No," was his curt reply.

"Ah, there you are Ashlake. I was wondering when you would show up!" The honey sweet voice drifted down the hallway and Caine looked over to see Aleda smiling as she came towards them.