The Fae Locket

Chapter Fifteen

"It's poison!" Rose said, "I read in one of my books about the glitter". Easton got behind the bar and crouched down, looking at the wall in horror, the liquid had burnt several holes in the wall. Lux had sobered up considerably since and she stared at the carafe of liquid, "but it doesn't smell bad?" she said, having a quick sniff of the bottle.

Easton nudged her leg as he got up, "Don't sniff it you idiot!" he told her crossly, "This will be those Toft soldiers. They must have done it when they murdered father! If we'd held a toast in our father's honour, we'd all be dead! They'd have taken us all out in one swoop and that wall suggests it would have been a very painful death". Rose looked over at the wall and she pictured the three of them writhing around in pain and she thought that would have been the Toft's ideal scenario. "When did you read about poison?" Easton asked Rose, interrupting her thoughts about their deaths.

"Literally I only read it the other day, it was a small section in the 'defence against the defenceless' book. A paragraph spoke about it, recommending poison for a silent kill and described the warning signs for poisoned beverages and food. I laughed initially at it, as I thought it was a bit out of place within the fighting magic about force fields and electrical pulses. Interestingly, the poisoned liquids are made using the electrical pulses around the container which I guess, is why it was in that section. The liquid, once it is had the electrical pulse, then takes a green shimmer effect to it. The book advised to place it into a coloured liquid to hide the shimmer but thankfully, the mercenaries didn't bother" Rose explained, feeling quite geeky at remembering such a chunk of text in detail but she loved learning about magic and all it had to offer. She was rewarded for her knowledge when Lux came around to her side of the bar and threw her arms around Rose. thanking her repeatedly for noticing the shimmer and thus saving her life.

As Rose rested her head on Lux's shoulder, she could see out of the large window behind Lux something zooms past, Curious, Rose walked over to the window to see what had flown past, looking down she couldn't see anything. Confused, she thought she must have been seeing things until a black and white bird swooped past quickly in one direction and then again in another. The bird was making a menacing call before it descended downwards and landed at the foot of the tree.

"I think you two need to look at this, do you see who I see?" Rose asked, gesturing for Lux and Easton to come over to the window quickly.

Looking down at the ground, the group peered down to the ground below they watched a red-haired woman get off the back of the magpie. Each of them looked at one another, they knew instantly who it was... Mara. Looking thoughtful, Easton said aloud "I wonder how she's managed to dodge the army guarding the Holt? We best go to the attic room and hope that she doesn't manage to pass the security below" Easton said. He lifted his wand to teleport them all upstairs but before he could do so, the room walls had a transparent blue sparkle around them, "Crap!" he shouted, shaking his wand in frustration. Rose looked over at the sparkling walls and back at Easton, unsure about what was wrong. "That's a magic vacuum, it prevents us from doing magic inside it. We'll have to walk to the attic!" Easton explained to Rose.

This made Rose feel panicked and nervous, Easton seemed to pick up on her feelings as he held her hand and gave it a quick squeeze. Lux seemed confident that everything would be okay - despite the situation, Rose thought that was thanks to the alcohol. They walked along the corridor; the wooden floor squeaked under their feet. Downstairs, a woman screamed, Rose jumped and cuddled into Easton's chest. "Was that Meredith?" Rose said with a gulp.

He stroked her back, "It might be, but we have to get upstairs as quick as we can. The attic is an emergency meeting location. The guards will defuse the situation and come and find us when the coast is clear. We'll be fine, I'm sure" comforted Easton. Rose didn't feel like everything was going to be fine, she could now hear the guards shouting in the distance and the clashes of metal for what she imagined were the guards' sword fighting each other. Easton picked up the pace, pulling Rose by the hand up a flight of stairs and then another. Lux tailed behind, quietly singing a ditty and holding onto the bannister a little too tightly.