One of the biggest advantages of being the Deans well mannered, well behaved daughter, was that no one ever questioned you. No one stopped her as she made her way from her room with a bag full of clothes, or when she picked her way through the kitchen stores taking anything she could fit in her bag. No one raised an eyebrow as she nodded her way past the stable staff, saddled up Searah's horse and walked him out towards the open Collegium gates. She threw a cloak around her shoulders, tied her hair tight back against her head, holding it back with long strip of green material, and rode out into the cobbled streets of Cassiden. She grinned madly as Cashew sped up and kicked his way through puddles, streaming past shops and houses, all bathed in the red glow of the early morning light.
She had a good idea of where she was going. There were only two roads that headed south out of the town and one of them led to nowhere other than farmland and open plane. As she clattered over the bridge that gulfed the more eastern of the two rivers the rain picked up again and it didn't take long before she was cold and soaked through. She cursed under the hood of her cloak, the rain and heavy winds that seemed to be trying to copy the power of the previous nights storm was going to make everything much harder.
As the city passed quickly behind her and the high Collegium towers started to disappear behind the cliff face, she slowed Cashew to a canter and started to cast around. The woods on this side of the lake would have made a perfect hiding place for any band of travellers but with any luck, she thought, the people she was looking for wouldn't know them well enough to have taken full advantage. After a few minutes searching along the muddy path she found what she was looking for.
Jumping down and pulling her cloak tight about her she picked her way across to a small sheltered patch of ground by the road, and bent down next to a pile of ash and logs. The ash was cold, she thought, picking her way through the remnants of the dead camp fire with a blackened finger.
'They must have left a good few hours ago,' she spoke to the air around her 'it's cold so it's not too fresh, but the wind and rain hasn't destroyed it yet, so it can't be too old.'
She looked around the clearing with a keen eye before following something on the ground back towards the path, jumped up onto Cashews back and kicked him back into a run.
The rain was hammering hard against her reddened cheeks by the time she felt what she had been expecting. For a brief second she found herself once again inside the medical ward of the Collegium, looking up at the angry face of her father. A second later and it was gone.
'He didn't seem happy' she grinned. Then again her mind jumped and she was back in the Collegium.
'Where in all the Territories are you?' burst Searah's voice inside her head.
'Do you mind?' Amea replied, for all the world unsure of why she had spoke the words aloud. 'I'm a bit busy at the moment and I really don't want to get thrown from my horse while I'm pottering around in your head' the vision disappeared, and Amea had to pull hard on Cashews reins to pull him back on course.
'Your horse?' Searah asked through the Coldstone.
'Well alright, your horse, but I'd still like to make it in once piece.'
'Where are you, your fathers furious.'
'Is he there now? Can I talk to him?'
Amea got a brief flash of her father, pacing up and down brandishing an angry finger in Kaytee's direction.
'He doesn't know I'm awake yet, and by the sound of things he's having a few problems getting to grips with what he's already seen, I don't think he could handle a chat with his wayward daughter who isn't even in the room.'
'Yeah, fair point,' Amea replied, still wondering why she was speaking out loud, 'a good tip with handling my father is only give him enough information to steer him in the right direction, let him do the thinking for himself. He's very smart,' she added, 'it isn't going to take him long to work everything out for himself anyway.'
'I'm getting that impression. Look, can you at least tell me why you've stolen my horse and ridden out into the wind and rain? The more I can tell your dad, the better.'
Amea, still pelting along the woodland path, ducked violently to avoid a branch that had been half blown down by the wind. 'I'm taking very good care of Cashew because I need him to follow the men that attacked the Pages last night.' there was a long pause. 'Searah, are you still listening? It's hard to tell when your just a voice in my head.'
'Give me something else I can actually tell your dad' Search said, the concern palpable in her voice.
'Look, trust me Searah I can do this, and if I do this then we'll be able to find out where they go, what they're up to.'
'You've spent your life locked away safely in St Greys, how can you know you can do this?'
'Look,' Amea said angrily, 'I haven't got time right now but if you use the stone again later I promise I'll explain, but until then just trust me.'
There was another long pause before Searah said 'if you get hurt then I'll get the blame.'
'Look,' Amea started, but Searah cut across her.
'So don't get yourself hurt, alright? I want you to keep in constant touch with me and if I tell you to stop, or turn back, or run you do it.'
'Alright,' Amea said excitedly, 'I will. Are you going to be ok dealing with my dad?'
'No,' Searah said dryly, 'but it doesn't look like I'll have much choice.'
It was a few hours later, when Amea had stopped under the cover of a small patch of trees for something to eat and drink, when Searah contacted her again. The light was starting to dim leaving a deep orange glow across the distant horizon, drawing long, distorted shadows across the cold hard ground. Amea had unpacked the blankets and bedding from her bags, and had pulled out water and grain for Cashew who was tied happily against one of the bigger trees.
'I'll give you this,' said Searah's voice suddenly from inside her head, making Amea jump and spill some soup on the ground, 'You're better prepared than I was when I went running out on a fools errand across the Territories.'
'They've turned east,' Amea said ignoring Searah's tone, 'so I think they're going to be skirting round the outside of the Raven Forest, which is a pain.'
'Why?' Searah asked.
'When they're out in the open they're much easier to track. I think I'm only a few hours behind them now, and from the tracks they're leaving they're not moving very fast. When they start running in and out of the trees things become more difficult, so I want to catch them up before they get that far.'
'I told you not to get too close.'
'I won't,' Amea said shortly, 'but I need to be closer than this or I'll loose them.'
'Where did you learn all this? I'd have no clue how fast someone was travelling just by looking at the tracks they'd left. I don't think I'd even be able to find the tracks.'
'It's easy really, you've just got to have an eye for detail. I've been doing it all my life really. I'm small, light, and I see things.'
'Clearly.'
'No, I mean it. Always there, never seen. That's what my dad told me once, and I kind of took it to heart. I'm always around Searah, at this dinner or that event, but no one ever paid the slightest attention to me, I was just part of the furniture really. For ages it really got me down, and I tried to get Dad to leave his job, move somewhere else or do something else, I was so unhappy. But he didn't, and learned to put up with it. Then, after a while I found that, while people might not be paying any attention to me, didn't mean I couldn't pay attention to them. So I started to listen, started to watch. I started sitting in at the back of lectures, finding out all about how people act and behave. I would spend time with the guys in the stable, or the smithies or Collegium farmers,'
'The Collegium has farmers?' Searah interrupted.
'I learned some of the practical stuff from them, and some of their boys taught me other stuff, picking locks, sneaking about in the dark, that sort of stuff.'
'Sneaking about in the dark with the farmers boys, your dad must have been so proud.'
'Ha,' Amea said sarcastically,' he doesn't know, and the farm boys were so befuddled to have the Deans daughter running round after them that they would do basically anything I needed them to. They still do sometimes, its useful to have contacts, something else I've learned from my dad.
'Speaking of your dad' Searah said.
'Yes, what did you tell him.'
'Everything, well nearly everything anyway. I told him about me, my mother, about Holy Chase and that we think she's trying to find me.'
'How did he take it?'
'He didn't really, he just listened, said thank you and left.'
'What did you say about me?'
'I told him you'd gone to follow the men who attacked Laria because you were fast and clever.'
'Oh, Searah that's a kind thing to...'
'It's what I needed to say,' Searah cut across her, 'I also told him that I had told you to do it.'
'Searah, you shouldn't!'
'Like I said,' Searah returned, defiantly, 'I was going to get it in the neck for this anyway, its about time I started to take some charge over things.'
'Its in your nature, to lead I mean. How can it not be with your abilities.'
'I don't have much of a choice.' there was a pause.
'Where are you?' Amea asked.
'I'm in my room, they let me out a few hours ago, I should be resting,' Searah said with an amused tone, 'but I needed to know a few things, I wasn't sure how much magic I'd used in the Pages last night, I needed to know you were alright, that sort of thing. So, I'm sat on my bed in my travelling cloak.'
'Why the cloak?'
'I'm running out of power, and I can't help but feel that I'm going to need as much as I can get, so I'm going back down to the cave.'
'Searah, is that a good idea?'
'Probably not, but I think I've got a better hang on it than last time. I think the trick will be to slow the water down, rather than try and stop it all together. Don't worry,' she added, 'I'm not taking the stone with me, so no chance you'll have to bear the brunt if anything goes wrong.'
'Not very comforting. Promise you'll take someone with you?'
'I'll take two people with me, if that'll make you feel better.'
'It will.'
'I still want you to take care, I might have a bit of a dangerous pastime but that doesn't mean you have to.'
'I'll be careful, I promise. Cashew needs a rest so I'm going to hunker down here for a while.'
'Stay safe' Searah said, not quite hiding the note of concern in her voice.
The next few days were slow and painful. Slowly Amea managed to creep closer and closer to the band of travellers in front of her. It didn't take her long to realise that the people she was following weren't much older than she was, and that they seemed to be in no hurry to get back to wherever it was they were headed.
It was about two weeks after she had left St. Greys that the band of travellers had turned from the path that ran alongside the forest and had disappeared down into its leafy depths.
'Good,' she thought to herself, 'I can finally get a bit closer without being seen.'
Over the next few days she crept even closer, each night tying Cashew up to a strong looking tree and moving forward on foot to see if she could find them in the dark. It wasn't long until she spotted the flicking orange light of a fire up ahead and, with an excited relief, started forward.
'Amea!' Searah barked in her head. 'Think about what you're doing.'
Amea stopped dead in her tracks, cracking a branch underfoot. 'Searah!' she hissed. 'That's not helpful. How long have you been watching.'
'Weeks' Searah said curtly.
'You know what I mean.'
'I've been keeping a closer eye on you ever since you entered the forest.'
'Did my dad ask you to do that? Amea asked, not quite hiding the sulk in her voice.
'He still doesn't know, not really. I've told him I know your safe, he didn't really question how I knew, and I don't really want too many people knowing what this Coldstone is capable of.'
Amea clutched the stone in her pocket a little tighter, and slouched down into the roots of a tree, the flickering of the nearby firelight casting eerie shadows on the world around her. She shivered.
'How are you doing?' Searah asked.
'I'm fine,' Amea sniffed, 'just cold. and,' she checked herself.
'Lonely?'
'Yeah, a bit' she admitted, deciding it was pointless trying to keep anything from Searah.
'There might actually be something I can do about that, hang on.'
'Do? what can you do other than appear randomly in my head and scare the life out of me?'
Just then, a figure loomed out of the darkness in front of her, hidden as a shadow in front of the firelight. Amea hasn't heard a thing, the figure had been completely silent and she had been concentrating on her conversation. She leapt upwards in a startled panic, casting wildly around in her cloak pockets for something to throw.
'This' said the figure in front of her, and as they stepped to the side, still not making a sound, Amea finally saw who it was.
'Searah!'
'Hi' Searah grinned in front of her.
'But. But. How?' Amea stammered.
'I'm not actually here you idiot, I'm still in your head.'
'What? Really?'
'For a smart girl who's always on about how observant she is, you're not really paying attention are you?'
Amea looked a bit closer and did indeed notice that something wasn't exactly right. Despite the cold and damp of the forest around them, Searah was only wearing a light looking shirt and simple trousers, her hair was down and dry and 'Searah, you don't have any spirits!'
'Really?' Searah said, looking around. 'Hang on.' the image of Searah in front of Amea closed its eyes and, as if from nowhere, seven balls of silver-gold light appeared around her, drifting aimlessly, looking for all the world like real spirits, yet somehow without the same sense of light and life. 'Is that better?'
'Better? Amea said quietly shrinking back down onto the tree roots. 'I didn't know you could do that.'
'Like I said, its something I've been working on. Only works if everyone is holding the stone, but its still pretty nifty.'
'Its better than nifty' Amea said in wonder, then with a rising excitement again 'can you go and see if the people ahead are the ones we're looking for?'
'No, sorry,' Searah said, sitting down next to her, her whole body seeming to flicker unnaturally as she moved, 'firstly, I can only see what you see, I'm not actually here, just showing you a picture of myself in your head,'
'And the second?'
'And second,' Searah grinned, 'I'm still not very good at this. It takes a lot of concentration to do this and I'm trying to avoid moving too much, I haven't exactly got the hang of moving yet.'
'well,' Amea sighed, 'it will at least make talking to you a little less weird.'
'Well, shall we?' Searah asked, offering her flickering hand out in the direction of the firelight.'
'Shall we what?'
'Go and see who you've been following all this time.'
'Oh, right. I suppose we should. Are you coming?
'As long as you don't mind. The more I practice this the better, just remember I'm not actually here. Don't start talking to me, it might be a bit of a give away that there's someone watching.
'Good point. Right.'
Amea picked herself up, brushed herself down and crept forward slowly. The forest floor was damp and covered with the mush of decomposing leaves which masked the sound of her footsteps, picking her way round the trees and undergrowth. As she got closer the trees started to thin out, so she got down on to all fours, with Searah still walking slowly along side her. She was suddenly grateful to have her here, even it was just an illusion. With Searah by her side she felt stronger, and felt less like a girl alone in the forest, creeping up on the people that had attacked her friends.
'Stop here' Searah whispered as they crawled up behind a sharp thicket of brambles at the edge of the clearing. 'You should be able to see them from here, just try to not make too much noise.'
Amea peered through the sharp branches that were pulling at the hems of her cloak until she could make out the figures in front of her. There were eight of them, no nine she thought to herself, all huddled around the fire, the heat of which she could feel even from her cold, painful hiding place. Next to the fire was a large pile of clothes and she thought she could hear the horses huffing into the night on the other side of the clearing. The fire cracked and hissed as one of the men, a tall man with an untidy, unkempt beard poked at it with a large branch.
'How much longer we gunna have to do this?' grumbled the man poking the fire. A general, exasperated groan went up around the fire from the others.
'How may times do we have to tell you Jaynus,' said a gruff sounding man with his back to Amea 'we're almost bloody-well there. for the Gods sake, you've asked the same damned question every night for a week.'
'You know as much as we do,' said a woman's voice, 'we all came this way before, so work it out for yourself.'
'I'm just bored' said Jaynus sulkily.
'If you're bored,' said a low, angry voice from the other side of the clearing, 'you can look after him all night. I think he'll probably need feeding tonight as well.'
'But its not my turn!' Jaynus complained.
'Well shut your ugly face then, and stop asking annoying questions. We've got about three days until we get back to base, at which point the Belfarian will shower us with praise, love etc. etc. now shut up.'
'You're no kidding,' said an excited looking woman near the fire, 'the little magic girl, that group'a people, the collegium connection; if that ain't the jackpot then I ain't a slut's daughter.'
'Shit' Searah muttered under her breath, startling Amea and making her jump.
'D'ya hear that?' asked Jaynus.
'Rabbit?' said the excited woman.
'I could go a bit of rabbit' Jaynus replied
'Great idea,' said the gruff voice from out of site, 'one tiny rabbit, ten hungry people, its not worth the effort to catch and cook for the half a mouthful you'd get.'
'Ten people?' Searah said, 'I thought there were only. Oh no.'
The heap on the ground that Amea had thought was a pile of clothes started to move. It shifted up onto its knees and from out of the pile of muddy, damp and mouldy rags came the sound of clinking chains and a wild crop of greying ginger hair.
The terror in Searah's voice sent new shivers down Amea's back. 'Oh Gods, they've got Teraous.'
'Who's Teraous?'
'One of the Twelve,' Searah whispered, her image flickering so wildly Amea could see right through her, 'he saved my life once when I was a baby.'
'He saved your life?'
'I don't really remember it,' Searah said distractedly, as one of the men around the fire kicked Teraous hard in the small of the back and he fell back down to the ground, 'but luckily, someone else did.'
By the time Amea tuned her attention back to the view in front of her, the man with the gruff voice was talking again.
'By the time we get back most of the army will have made the journey back from Holy Chase, so it'll only be a few days before we're turned around and sent back to get the rest of them.'
'Not just us this time though' said Jaynus with a wide grin, the fire reflecting in his wide, dark eyes.
'Amea' Searah said slowly. 'Go home. Go home now, I don't need to see any more.'