We follow the road and the guards through a narrow path lined with trees. It doesn't go very far, though. We eventually emerge through the woods onto a street lined with busy shops and businesses. People scurried about their daily lives and paid no mind to us. At the end of the road stands a large building marked "City Hall" above the stone pillars.
Every couple of blocks, the road branches off to little neighborhoods that I get a peek of through some trees behind the buildings on the main street.
We suddenly stop at the base of the street, and a tall old man approaches us. "Hello, my name is Leonard Vain, the sheriff of Winslow Wood. So you are refugees of Bayfell?"
Mr. Bentley nods. "Do you know of it?"
Leonard Vain sighs. "Unfortunately. They've attacked us a few times, but we've had to compromise and give them some of our supplies. They come back once a year to get a hefty stock of it. That's how we avoid war, but it takes a toll on us around winter when we need the medicine we had to give to them."
Mr. Bentley crosses his arms. "We managed to escape, and we have been heading into the Rocky Mountains."
"Well, you're here, friends." Vain opens his arms to present the city to us, and I look around in reply. It's chilly here, but not as terrible as Bayfell had been.
I glance beyond the trees and see mountains rising higher in the distance. We must be in a valley, because snow is covering the mountaintops far away.
None of us know what to say to the sheriff. Do we ask for food? Shelter? Medicine?
Fortunately, he answers everything in one sentence. "You all are welcome to live here as long as you'd like. I'll take you to Alice. She's our mayor, and she can get you guys settled into a house or two if you'd like. We have plenty of room here." His face saddens. "Our population is starting to dwindle. We had a deadly illness pass through last winter—highly contagious. But we're slowly recovering."
"Bayfell is dying, too," Mr. Bentley says quietly. "But we had a lot of people to begin with. I still don't know entirely what was going on."
Vain nods. "Almost every government is struggling, but what else can we do? There's hardly any unity anywhere. We're stuck in one place with nowhere to expand. I guess we could expand into the mountains, but it isn't safe outside these walls. There are bad people out there. I'm surprised you guys made it here unscathed."
I clutch Alec's hand hard, and his arm slides around my waist protectively.
We reach the City Hall at the end of the street, and Vain opens the door for all of us to enter. The entrance hall is quiet, our footsteps echoing eerily off the marble flooring and walls. The sheriff leads us up the large staircase in the entryway. At the top is a large window that overlooks a beautiful garden. On the right and left are doors that are both closed. Vain takes us into the door on the right.
A middle-aged woman sits at a desk writing in a notebook. Her long auburn hair is tied up in a messy knot on her head, and her cheekbones are hollow with stress. She glances up at the sound of our clan entering her office.
"Vain, what is this?" she asks worriedly. Does she think we're here to hurt her?
"These guys are refugees from Bayfell. They were passing through... and our city was in their way," he says with a light chuckle.
The woman's gaze softens and she sits back in her chair. "All right. Are you folks looking to stay here? We welcome anyone running from that dreadful place."
"We aren't sure," Mr. Bentley says for us all. "We were just on our way through to find a place to live, but this place is very nice and civilized... and one of our women are pregnant and we aren't exactly sure how to handle that..."
"Pregnant?" the woman says, standing.
"Yes—you know the Bayfell law. All newlyweds must be with child within three years of marriage. Well these two—" Mr. Bentley gestures at Riah and Chance. "Got that done pretty quickly."
Riah and Chance both turn red very quickly and shrink back into our cluster of a group.
Alice smiles. "We have a very wonderful hospital here. All of you are welcome here for as long as you'd like—even forever if you wish. You can find a job just about anywhere. All we ask is that you pay rent once you have a steady income."
"Sounds reasonable," Mr. Bentley says, patting Alec on the shoulder.
"Wonderful!" Alice opens up a laptop on her desk and starts clicking away. "Now, I need to know how many houses you will need and your names. We'll need more information soon, but let's just start with this."
Mr. Bentley looks over all of us, mentally grouping us together in his head. "Uh... I think we'll need four. Yeah, four. Of course, four."
"Oh, wow. Okay," she says, her eyebrows rising.
"It will be Melody and Carson Bentley in one house—and a small one is just fine. No need for large houses for any of us except the Evans."
"And you're Mr. Bentley, I assume?" she says, glancing up from her computer.
"Yes, sorry. Carson Bentley. And this is my son Alec, and his wife Isabella. Or, sort of wife. Bayfell technically divorced them by force, but we still say they're married."
"Excuse me?" Alice says, confused. "What do you mean 'by force'?"
Mr. Bentley suddenly looks uncomfortable explaining everything because he still isn't sure what happened. Alec and I never really got a chance to fill everyone in on my horrible adventure in the prince's palace, and nor do I want to fill everyone in. But I might as well now.
I step forward. "The prince of Bayfell decided that he wanted me to be his wife, after Alec had already claimed me."
"Ah, the Claiming. Something we have heard about unfortunately a lot. Continue," she says.
"So the prince took me away from Alec and divorced us somehow, and then Alec helped me escape the palace. Chance's grandmother had a giant tunnel in their basement leading outside the walls, and so that's how we got here."
Alice nods, attempting to follow as best as she can. She is a very patient woman, I can tell. Under her tired eyes, I can see a happy, youthful lady who feels empathy for us.
"Well," she says slowly, "if you two really love each other, we can hold a proper wedding here for the two of you."
Alec and I look at each other with wide eyes. "Really?" I say, grinning.
She returns the smile to me, a stranger to whom she just offered the world to. "Why not? Winslow Wood needs some excitement around here anyway. Until then, you two can live in one of our apartments in the hills. Oh, and the pregnant couple as well. We'll give you one with two rooms. How does that sound?"
Riah and Chance smile, relieved now that their son or daughter will have a place to live and grow up now.
"And then the other four?" Alice asks.
"Clara and Peter Evans," Mr. Evans says. "And our daughter Sarah and niece Clarissa."
"All right! I have you guys all set up. Vain, can you take the older Evans and Bentleys to their houses on Upton Street? The keys should be under the mats."
Vain nods and beckons to Chance's and Alec's families to follow.
Alice bends down and picks up a purse from under the desk and then walks around to the other side towards us. "I will personally take you to the apartments. They are in a nice little complex called Victory Hills. It was newly renovated last summer, so a lot of our younger couples live there."
We exit her office and the four of us follow the woman down the stairs and outside the building.
"What age do people have to get married here?" I ask.
Alice laughs. "There's no required age here, dear. We just suggest that he or she is sixteen or over. Because of the population problem, we allow high schoolers to wed young in hopes that we can get things kicking again. Of course, there is the divorce factor... where these kids get married young and want a divorce a week or year later. But that's their fault for marrying the wrong person in the first place. We just need more people at this point."
I'm not sure how to feel about that. I can't tell if this woman really cares about her people or the well-being of her people. Then again, she has a point, and it's starting to make more sense. Bayfell forced us into eternal marriage, meaning no divorces allowed. At least she lets people have more than one chance to get the whole marriage thing right.
I hope Alec and I got it right...
And I hope he still wants to marry me.
Now that he knows marriage isn't required here, will he still want to keep me? Or will he just forget about me completely and leave me out on the streets like the orphan I am?
I glance at Alec's face, and see nothing but interest in his eyes as he gazes around at the beautiful city we walk through.
"Now, you kids have finished school already, yes?" she asks us.
"Yes, ma'am," Chance says. "Bayfell crams a lot of information into us in the last couple years of school. The Claiming was kind of like a graduation."
"All right, then I'm not going to make you guys go to our high school. I have a feeling the other kids would give you strange looks anyway... for being outsiders, that is."
She's right. We would be cast out even farther if we had to go back to school. I guess I just want to use this place to start over on the right foot—not the out-casted foot.
After walking down a couple blocks and along a bike trail for about ten minutes, we arrive in the parking lot shared by many wide buildings with little balconies facing towards us. There are about five or six buildings total, some might be hidden by others. A stone path branches off from the parking lot and through two of the buildings. It leads to a courtyard that is enclosed by the apartments, the center holding a large pond with a fountain spurting up from the center.
I really like this place.
"Welcome to Victory Hills," Alice says. "Your new home for who-knows-how-long."