Back to the Old Kingdom

Chapter 2

Author's note: Hope you all like it so far! There's some language in this chapter so please don't be offended. –crazybeagle

"Wait..." I said. "Why are you here, really? Haven't you already heard what's happened?" Of course she would have heard word from Uncle or my parents by now, word of the "official" story.

Anna snorted. "Do you think I believed that rubbish for one minute? Do you know what Uncle's been telling people?"

"Do I want to know?"

Anna shook her head, then glanced behind her at the door. "Can anyone hear us?"

I shrugged, then winced. It hurt to shrug. "I doubt it. This is an asylum, so naturally the walls and doors are nice and thick."

She nodded, but she dropped her voice. "Apparently, your crew dug up some live detonators at Forwin Mill, detonators that the military had no record of."

Of course. I had expected something like that. "And?"

"And they went off, and most of the workers and some of the army who was patrolling nearby got blown up, and you, my friend, ended up with 'extensive physical and psychological damage', as Uncle puts it."

I rolled my eyes. "Fantastic."

"So back to my original question, Nick. What the hell happened to you?"

"Why do you want to know?" I asked her. "Even if you suspected that Uncle's been lying, is the truth really so important to you that you would travel 200 miles from home, disguise yourself, and sneak into a high-security institution, just to ask me?"

I was genuinely confused. Anna and I had always been on good terms, but we weren't very close, as our families were decidedly unfriendly toward one another. Anna was seventeen and was the adopted daughter of my father's youngest brother and his wife. This meant that, according to the legal documents at least, Anna was the niece of the Chief Minister, a Sayre through and through. But according to Uncle Edward, and of course to Father and Mother, Anna, her parents, and her two older brothers were the black sheep of the Sayre family. They lived several miles north of Bain, and, to the chagrin of Uncle and the rest of the Sayres, Uncle Evan and Aunt Mae were schoolteachers with no political ambition whatsoever. Worse than that, in Uncle's mind, though he'd never say as much, was the fact that Aunt Mae, being a northerner, bore a Charter mark, as did her three children. But the worst transgression that they had committed in the rest of the family's eyes, though none would admit it outright, was adopting Anna. Anna's existence was hardly acknowledged at all by the rest of the Sayres, but I had heard one of my aunts several years ago at a dinner party, after she had had a bit too much brandy, giggling and explaining to my mother that Anna was the "bastard brat of a Perimeter guard". Whether this was true or not, it had never bothered me, and, as I had found during the few visits that her family had made to our estates or to Uncle's home in Corvere, I was quite fond of Anna and her brothers, though I didn't know them well. And her parents' lack of political aspirations hadn't particularly bothered me either, because I myself had always wanted to be a scientist and was bored to tears by politics. Even so, I had no idea why Anna should be here now.

She sighed. "Well honestly, Nick, aside from Mum and Dad and Ryan and Michael, you're the only Sayre I give a damn about. And if you repeat that to my brothers, I will personally kill you."

To my great embarrassment, I felt my cheeks flush, and I promptly looked down. "Uh…thanks," I mumbled, and fished for a change of subject. "But that still doesn't explain…"

"And," she continued, "You are also the last person I know who ought to tamper with Charter Magic," she stared pointedly at my forehead, "or Free Magic."

"How did you know about that?" I asked. "Any of it?"

"Everyone with a Charter Mark in the northern half of Ancelsteirre knows it, Nick. Whatever caused that explosion at the mill that day sent out this…sickening…shock wave of pure Free Magic that everyone, including me, for miles around could feel, followed by this horrible voice that sounded like it was saying, 'Free!'"

I shuddered involuntarily and nodded. I remembered that all too well.

"And also," she added, "we may be really far from the Wall, but I can definitely sense Free Magic inside of you. I almost turned around and walked right back out of here when I first saw you, until I felt Charter Magic also. You have some explaining to do."

"Okay," I said slowly, "but I seriously doubt you'll believe everything-"

"Try me," she said flatly.

"But if I tell you," I added, looking her in the eye, "and for argument's sake let's say you do believe me, what will you do next? Are you just going to leave me here? Or are you going to somehow convince them that I'm not insane? Because if you attempt that, I assure you that you'll end up stuck here, too."

Anna closed her eyes and exhaled slowly through her nose. Then she looked at me with an expression of quickly-diminishing patience. "You'd better tell me what happened, or I'm not helping you escape."

I blinked. "What?"

"Yeah. That's why I'm here."

"To help me escape?"

"Uh-huh."

I didn't really know what to say to her. "Uhm…how do you intend to do that?"

"I don't know yet," she admitted. "So why don't you tell me tell me what happened, and then we'll figure something out. You know, collaboratively."

"You're joking."

"Nope," she said cheerfully.

While I was greatly surprised that she, or anyone else on this side of the Wall, for that matter, would care enough to even consider helping me escape, she would get in federal trouble for trying it, and I wouldn't allow that.

"Anna," I said firmly. It was difficult to tell her off with any sort of authority when I was the one in bed. "I'm not going to let you get arrested because of me. I'm staying here."

She smiled devilishly. "Oh, I'm not supposed to take no for an answer."

"What do you mean?"

"Okay, I'm going out on a limb here, but by the look of you, you've had all of that 'logical scientific explanation' nonsense beaten out of you, so I'm just going to tell you this and assume that you won't think I'm crazy." She waited for me to say something, and when I didn't, she continued. "Alright, right after I heard about…you, I had a dream."

"About what?"

"About a dog."

Well, she had my attention.

"Only…it wasn't a dog…I mean, it was sort of dog. It looked like a dog, like a big brown-and-black Great Dane or Rottweiler or something. Except…and here's why I think it was more than a dream…this thing was just radiating Charter Magic, and it was sort of like…well, I don't know how much of this you'd understand, but it was like it was made out of the Charter itself, and it felt really ancient and powerful."

She definitely had my attention.

Anna looked a little uncomfortable. "…And it…well, she, at least, I think it was a she, sort of talked. To me." She looked at me uncertainly, as if expecting doubt or ridicule. She relaxed a little when she saw that I was listening.

"Go on," I prompted. "What did she say?"

"She said that she knew I wanted to go after you, and that it was in my nature to do such things. She told me I'd better hurry up and do it, because you weren't enjoying your, ah, stay in Corvere. And then she prattled on for awhile about destiny, and about how I'd find mine if I helped you get to where you needed to be. And she said something about a prince that she thinks I ought to meet. Do you know any princes?" She giggled, and then shrugged. "Well anyway, that was that. I stole Ryan's passport and took the train, and now I'm here."

Well, there wasn't any other way that Anna would know about the Dog or about Sam unless she was telling the truth.

"And, this dog told me to give you a message." Anna smiled when she saw my eyes widen. "She says that the Disreputable Dog sends her love, although she isn't pleased with you for not going back with your friends. She says you're tampering with fate." She laughed at my expression, which was probably a guilty one, and then continued. "She says you'd better cooperate with me, or she'll be even more upset with you. And I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want something that powerful upset with me, Nick."

Silence followed her words, and then, abruptly, a bark. Out of nowhere. We both jumped. Suddenly I felt a sharp jolt of heat that I was sure came from my Charter Mark. By the look of it, the same happened to Anna. Even after it faded, I still felt a warm buzz emanating from my forehead. More silence followed, broken only by heavy breathing on both our parts.

"Well," I said eventually. "I suppose this changes things."