"Christopher Carrion!" Hannibal hissed "I knew it! Rose we need to go now!"
"Christopher Carrion?" Rose said a little confused at the reaction Hannibal was having.
Carrion looked at this young girl with almost wonder as she stood looking back and forth from him to the Tarrie Cat. How was she not running down the stairs with the creature in terror of him? Wasn't he still known as the Lord of Midnight? Prince of Night? Wasn't he one of the most feared people in the Abarat still? And this girl was simply just standing in front of him with no clue nor did she really even seem to care?
It was funny that he could still be surprised after all this time.
He had known that she was different the moment he had heard her footsteps up the stairs. Not loud or boasting, but calm, collected, like a trained assassin which he had originally thought she was. But then, when she had stepped into the light...
He had felt his breath catch in his throat. Her face, the face that had haunted him for nearly twenty years now, was staring at the darkness exactly where he had been standing. Granted this girl, whoever she was, of course was a likeness to the queen, but the blonde cream colored waves that surrounded her face and the dark brown eyes had proven that she was indeed not the Queen. But still, it had thrown Christopher completely off at first.
But now staring at her, he tried to study her features even more, but sadly it had been so long since he had seen Candy aside from the mural in the city, it was hard to tell if this girl truly looked like her, or if his imagination was playing tricks on him again like it had done many times before.
He shook himself back to the present as the girl and Tarrie cat were arguing on why exactly they should leave when he spotted a flash of gold in the light from the window.
"What is that?" he asked suddenly at the pendant hanging from the girls neck.
"This?" she said pointing down to it "It's my necklace. I've had it since I was born."
"May I see it?" Christopher asked holding out his palm.
"Don't give it to him!" Hannibal cried out "He's a sorcerer! He'll bewitch you and steal your soul!"
Rose simply stared at her friend before rolling her eyes "I doubt he can do that from just looking at my necklace. Besides" she said turned to him "I can't take it off. Never could, still can't. See?" she said demonstrating as she tried to remove the necklace that seemed to tighten around her head the moment she tried to slip it off.
"Enchanted" Christopher thought to himself "Only someone with strong magic could make a spell like that last for so long..."
But it was the flash of the stone that suddenly made Christopher's gut jump at the sight of it. The colors, the swirl and mix of them that sparkled and glimmered in the light, that stone could only be one thing...
"Where did you get that?" he said looking up at her.
"I told you" she said "I've had it since I was born."
"But who are your parents?" Christopher asked suddenly getting excited.
Rose backed away from Christopher only a smidge as her hand clasped around the stone.
"I don't know them" Rose said shaking her head "I'm an orphan. I was...or I still am looking for them."
"She's from the Hereafter Carrion!" Hannibal yowled at him "She's not yours to take!"
"The Hereafter.." Christopher said before hearing what seemed like a thousand sirens going off outside the building.
"What's that?!" Rose said as her hands flew up to her ears.
"The Council guards!" Hannibal said running towards Rose "They must have spotted Carrion."
"What?!" Rose said not hearing Hannibal clearly before Christopher walked towards the window and slightly moved the tattered cloth. Guards were filing in piles outside the door, but he knew there was no way that they were after him. No, they were after the girl.
He made a decision, probably a bad one, but he couldn't do anything about it right at the moment as he grabbed Rose's arm and moved her towards the window.
"You two are coming with me" he said as the noise of the sirens came down.
"What? Wait! I don't even know you!" Rose said trying to get out of his grasp.
Christopher sighed and pulled her deathly close to his face so that her eyes were looking right into his.
"You want answers about your parents? I have them. But you have to come with me right now" he said almost growling.
"Rose!" Hannibal hissed at Carrion's hold on her arm but Rose only stared into Christopher's eyes with steady determination.
"Fine" she said before grabbing Hannibal around the waist much to his disapproval before Christopher led her out the window on to the terrace of the building.
"Put me down Rose! I can run you know!" Hannibal yelled as he struggled in Rose's arms.
"I would suggest your friend use his feral spell to make our escape a little easier" Christopher said as they ran toward the edge of the building.
"Hannibal go small again!" Rose yelled as Hannibal groaned and shrunk to his normal cat size. Rose caught his clothes in the air as she held onto her friend for dear life. The trio ran and jumped in the air to the roof of the next building, Carrion sprinting ahead while his eyes darted back and forth looking for any signs of the enemy while Rose just followed blindly, not knowing where this strange man would lead her, but the moment he had mentioned her parents, she would follow him to the ends of the earth if it meant answers.
"We have a big jump coming ahead take my hand!" Carrion yelled back at Rose as he held out his open palm to her. Rose took it without hesitation as they leaped off the building and landed hard on the next.
"How far are we going to have to run to lose them?" Rose said through a gasp, her body not used to running this far for this amount of time.
"We have to make it to the edge of the city, they won't follow us past the city limit" Carrion said still pulling Rose along with him. Her arm strained against his grasp as he yanked her sideways and forwards around several towers of the city skyline.
Carrion looked down to the city streets when they reached the edge of the building. The city was in a frenzy, guards ordering people out of the way while they flooded the area looking for the trio who was high above them. There would be no way to get down without being seen...
"I have an idea, but I think you will not agree to it if you know it" Carrion said turning to Rose who was glad to have a moment to catch her breath.
"Just get us out of here" she said nodding to him.
"We need to jump over this building and then cross over to that one with the high tower" he said pointing to the building that was stark white against the beige and red buildings surrounding it.
"Okay" Rose said before Carrion could grab her hand once more as she took off across the building and landed with a thud on the other side. Carrion's eyebrows shot up as Rose looked back at him with an expectant stare. He couldn't help feeling that he had seen that stare before numerous times from a very irritating young woman...
"Are you coming or just gunna wait until they find you up there?" Rose yelled as Hannibal yowled loudly to get his attention.
He swiftly jumped across the roof and landed on the next before grabbing Rose's wrist and moving her quickly along a slim arch that connected the buildings to the marketplace below. Suddenly they heard shouts as the people started pointing and yelling at the trio, alerting the guards to their presence.
"We need to move fast now" Carrion said as he dragged Rose across the arch so fast she almost thought her feet weren't touching the ground.
They made it to the white building as Carrion hoisted Rose up alongside him to the top of the tower. Rose looked down as the wind whipped around her hair, her hand shaking as she gripped herself against Carrion. She had always climbed things when she was younger, but never before had she been this high up. It left a new fear in her belly as she tried to steady herself by looking over at Carrion.
"What do we do now?" she asked against the wind.
"We wait for the signal" Carrion said as his eyes stared up. Rose suddenly realized how very blue they were, like frozen ice that pierced against the deep blue of the sky.
Her thoughts were shaken from her suddenly as a shadow passed over them so quickly she had to blink to make sure she had seen it.
"There it is, now hold on" Carrion said as he grabbed Rose around the waist and pressed her to him hard. The sensation by itself made Rose gasp, but the small smirk that had escaped Carrion's lips made her heart beat even faster.
Then like lighting Carrion flashed a sword in the air and snapped a cord that was tying the tower and a nearby building together. His hand caught the cord and Rose suddenly realized what they were about to do.
"Wait! Wait!" Rose said wrapping her arms around Carrion's neck in pure terror as he dove them off the tower and swinging into the air.
Rose probably screamed, but she only realized any sound had come from her mouth when it intensified at the great shadow that popped up from nowhere and swooped down upon them, enveloping them in darkness before careening them this way and that.
Rose squeezed her eyes shut and refused to let go of Carrion as she felt her body sway right and left before settling in a slow rhythm of up and down, much like how she felt as a child when they had taken the orphanage to the fair and she had ridden on the carousel.
"You can let go now if you would like" she heard Carrion's voice say calmly as Rose unscrewed her eyes to find herself being held in a scaly claw while her body sat stiff in Carrion's lap. She felt herself blush as she relaxed a bit and looked over at Carrion's face whose neck was still being clasped tightly by her arms.
"Oh I'm sorry!" she said releasing him from her grasp which seemed to make him smile.
"It's quite alright" he said still smirking as his hand lay gently against the beasts leg that was attached to the claw.
Rose looked up and saw a dark belly, with ebony scales that seem to glisten in the light as two rapid wings bellowed out against the air currents. It was only when she spotted the head of the beast that she knew exactly what she was looking at.
"You have a dragon!?" Rose exclaimed in excitement.
Carrion looked over at her in surprise once again, knowing that most people of the Abarat feared dragons, the legends of them never really dying since one had disposed of the beloved Princess Boa thanks to himself, but from what Christopher Carrion had learned, they were mostly solitaire creatures much like himself, but this one that they were now riding had bonded with him in such a way that one might even call the dragon a pet of some sort.
"What's his name?" Rose said now totally interested in the dragon and not the fact that they were dangling in it's claws high up in the air over the vast sea of the Izabella.
"Longwei" Christopher answered amused that Rose was now staring admirably at something that most would fear.
"He's beautiful!" Rose said happily, her mind so thrilled at seeing something she had only read about in books of far away places that couldn't really exist in real life. But then again, she was in a far away place that shouldn't exist in real life, so really, what did she know? She was just amazed to be riding a actual dragon!
Carrion watched this girl, her hair flying back as her wide eyes stared up in wonder at Longwei and he felt something stir inside himself. Could she really be who he thought she was? But the eyes, those brown eyes were all he needed to confirm that she couldn't be who he thought. No, those eyes that he was supposed to seek were not like any other...
"So where are we going?" Hannibal finally said as he emerged from the backpack Rose still had strapped to her back.
"Orlando's Cap" Carrion said as his tone became stoic towards the Tarrie Cat.
"Orlando's Cap!? What about the crazies?" Hannibal exclaimed.
"Crazies?" Rose asked confused.
"Orlando's Cap is full of crazy people that run a muck all over the island! Not even the Hag wants to touch that island" Hannibal said in a very know it all tone.
"Being mentally ill doesn't make them bad people" Carrion said disgruntled "And the fact that the Council and the Hag won't touch the island makes it the perfect place to stay low for a while."
Hannibal humphed knowing that the sorcerer was right as he settled back into Rose's backpack, grumbling to himself that this was not part of his mission.
As they came towards the island, Longwei began descending down towards the ocean, his claw skimming waves that reached out to touch them as water splashed across Rose's face making her sputter but smile.
The island sat at 2:00 pm, which made the sun seem much brighter then on Qualm Hah. It was a smaller island too, with only a few buildings surround a very large one on top of a hill. But as they dawned closer with Longwei slowing the beat of his wings, Rose realized that strange sculptures scattered all over the edge of the island.
"Wow" Rose breathed out as the dragon descended down on the beach of Orlando's Cap, her legs shaky as they stumbled on the soft beige sand.
Rose realized her eyes were burning now from the salt of the sea that had splashed in her face as her eyes rubbed hard against them. Suddenly her contacts, the ones she had worn almost her entire life, popped out in her hands.
"Well I guess I don't need these anymore" Rose said more to herself.
"What was that?" Carrion said turning to her as he was checking Longwei up and down.
"Oh these things" Rose said showing him her contacts "I guess the salt irritated them and they fell out. I don't need them anyway, I can see fine."
Her words though fell on deaf ears as she looked at Carrion who had frozen on the spot when his eyes found hers.
"No..." he breathed "No it can't be..."
Rose's hands went to her face instinctively, her face forming a blush when she realized that he was staring at her unusual eyes. Maybe it had been a mistake to take them out? She figured this world with all of it's fantastic things would hardly think that eyes like hers were any different than anyone elses, but maybe she had been wrong...
"I'm sorry" she said almost hiding them "I didn't know they would freak you out. Maybe I can get the contacts back in..."
Suddenly her wrist was caught in Christopher's hand, his movements so quick she barely had time to register before he was inches away from her.
"What's wrong?" Rose said embarrassed at being this close to a man she barely knew.
"Your eyes" he said.
"I know" she said looking away from him "But I can't do anything about them except cover them up."
Christopher stared at this girl, this girl who he knew now exactly who she was and where she had come from. All his suspicions, all his unusual feelings towards her were now confirmed as he stared at the one and only daughter of the Queen of Day. Her eyes, those that hosted every color of the Abarat, swirled as they looked up at him once again, the shades of bright green and yellow melting with concern and fear. She was here, at long last, the girl with the eyes of the Abarat...
"Christopher?" her voice sounded out against his thoughts as she stared up at him.
"You.." he said finally "You are her."
"Who?" Rose said clutching her necklace out of habit.
"The Princess" he breathed.