Chapter 25 – A Journey

My flight from Castle Cullen was a blur. Already exhausted after days of nursing, I was given no time to rest before we left. Sir Jasper lifted me easily onto a horse and Lady Alice nimbly mounted behind me, her thin arms around me to hold me steady.

"I know you are tired," she murmured into my ear. "But it will be quicker this way. It is simpler for Jasper and I to ride through the night…I won't let you fall."

Sir Jasper mounted his own horse easily, and then with no other farewell than a wave from my father, the three of us left the castle. The last thing I saw before I turned my face forward was Jacob, still digging graves by the light of the moon.

The horses moved fast, their long strides eating up the miles as we travelled through the night. I clung to the saddle horn, drifting off into sleep only to be jolted awake again as the horse changed pace or the ground became uneven. Despite my warm cloak the cold eventually seeped through to my bones, and I found my teeth chattering. I was never so happy as to see the morning sun breaking through the clouds.

Soon after we drew to a halt outside a tavern. No one came out to meet us, and I saw the uneasy look on Sir Jasper's face as he turned to Lady Alice.

"The pestilence has been here," he said quietly. "Can you not smell it?"

"We will be safe for the day," Lady Alice replied after a long pause. "We need to rest the horses in any case, and Bella needs food and sleep."

Sir Jasper raised his voice and shouted, and eventually a woman came out, eyeing us suspiciously.

"We need a room and a meal," Sir Jasper told her. "We've been travelling through the night and our horses need food and rest."

The woman named an outrageous price, but without hesitation Sir Jasper drew some coins from the purse on his belt and tossed them to her. A small boy came forward for the horses, but when the charger tossed his head the boy shrank back even as the woman scolded him.

"He's not used to the horses," she told us, a little defiantly. "His da and his older brother saw to the stables, but…" Her voice trailed away and I saw her eyes flick towards the churchyard on the hill, and I guessed that her husband and son had recently been buried there.

"The pestilence," Lady Alice said sympathetically. "It's a terrible thing. Jasper will help the boy, if you'll fetch Lady Bella some breakfast."

I was almost too tired to eat, but Lady Alice insisted and the pottage that was brought to me was surprisingly good. My meals back at the castle had become very irregular, and my belly felt satisfyingly full when I scraped up the last of the thick gravy.

"Sleep here," Lady Alice ordered, laying out my cloak on the floor by the fire. She added her own cloak and Sir Jasper's, which she folded over me as soon as I had laid down obediently. I was asleep within moments, too tired and confused to ask why I was sleeping on the floor when the room contained a large bed with a lumpy straw mattress.

I slept hard, and did not wake until close to sundown. When I sat up I found the fire burning low at my back, and Lady Alice and Sir Jasper standing at the window.

"You're awake!" Lady Alice chirped. "I will send down for some supper for you, and then we will be away."

Sir Jasper gave me a friendly smile and a bow as he went to the door. "I'll take the message, and see to the horses," he said.

I rose awkwardly to my feet, pushing my tangled hair away from my face. Blushing horribly I was forced to use the chamber pot, and then Lady Alice sat me down and combed out my hair with her slender fingers, braiding and pinning it neatly. It wasn't until the woman had arrived, bringing me bread and ale and meat and taking away the chamber pot that we spoke.

"I'm afraid it will take some time to get to London," Lady Alice said apologetically. "And we must hurry. The pestilence is everywhere, and you will be in danger until we have you home. We keep several cats, you see," she added irrelevantly.

I broke off a piece of bread, crumbling it into smaller pieces in my fingers. "What then?" I asked quietly. "I know you want me keep me safe, but…Lord Edward? He doesn't want me, my lady, that's why he went away." My mind shied away from remembering the agony and grief of that day.

"Oh my dear, sweet, silly little Bella!" Lady Alice exclaimed. "Of course he wants you! It's all just a great misunderstanding- and complete foolishness on his part! – and we will set it all to rights once we are in London and he comes home again."

I was not so sure, but she seemed so blithely confident of her own predictions. "And Sir Jasper bears me no grudge?" I ventured. "After all, it was my own clumsiness that caused things to go wrong…"

Lady Alice waved her hand dismissively. "He was never angry with you, Bella. He was angry with himself for what he considers his weakness, and bitter that he finds it so hard when the rest of us seem more capable of it." She shook her head. "But it's water under the bridge now. Eat some more supper, and we'll go."

The following days passed in much the same way, with hours of riding through the night and days of rest in taverns and inns along the way. Lady Alice remained obdurate that I sleep only on makeshift beds on the floor, no matter how inviting the tavern beds seemed to my tired and aching body. Some days, if the weather remained overcast and dreary and there was an option, we would swap horses and continue our journey. On those days I could only doze on horseback, with either Lady Alice or Sir Jasper's arms keeping me securely anchored.

Everywhere we went there was evidence of the pestilence. My vampire companions could smell it, and we avoided the towns and villages hardest hit, and did not stop at taverns where there were people ill.

"We must stop here Alice," Sir Jasper said one midday, guiding his horse alongside hers. "The horses cannot go on, and Lady Bella is exhausted."

Slumped in his arms I couldn't even bring myself to nod. We had been riding for a night and a day already, and I was so tired from the hours on horseback that my vision blurred and my body ached as if I had been beaten.

Lady Alice clicked her tongue impatiently, but when she looked at my face she sighed in surrender. "You're right. We are just getting so close to home!"

The inn was large, and there were two men who came out immediately to take the horses, and a plump innkeeper who eagerly took the coins Sir Jasper offered and led us up to her best room. Too exhausted to take any of it in, I simply closed my eyes and sank to the floor in front of the fire, falling asleep even as Sir Jasper draped his cloak over me.

"Oh, the fool! Of all the complete and utter idiocy!"

The shout disturbed me and, disoriented, I blinked awake and sat up. Outside night had fallen and the room was lit only by the fire at my back, but I could see clearly enough to see Sir Jasper lounging back on the windowsill and Lady Alice pacing the floor and wringing her hands.

"I cannot believe he is doing this!" she raged. "After all we've been through to get her and keep her safe! I know she didn't mean it, but I could kill Rosalie!"

"Alice, what is it?" Sir Jasper sounded as confused as I felt. "What is it you're talking of?"

"I've just seen…" Lady Alice saw I was awake and broke off, crouching beside me and peering intently at me. "Well, you're still not sick with the pestilence," she said with a sigh, rising to her feet and holding out a hand to take me with her. "At least that's something, I suppose."

Her hand clutching mine was trembling. "What is it?" I asked, frightened. Up close, Lady Alice looked distraught.

"I've seen Edward…oh, he is behaving like an absolute lunatic!" For a moment she stood motionless, staring ahead of her, before she fell back into a chair with a thump. She looked at Sir Jasper, and her face was the picture of despair as she said quietly, "He's going to the Volturi."

I saw the horror on Sir Jasper's face, but although I knew I had heard the word I could not recall when, or what it meant. "Please my lady," I blurted out. "Please…what has happened to my lord?"

Lady Alice drew in a deep breath. "I've had a vision. Edward came home – to the London house – and Rosalie told him that Jasper and I had gone to Castle Cullen, because you were dying of the pestilence. He thinks you are dead."

I gaped at her. "But…"

"But you're not, obviously." Lady Alice waved away the thought. "In fairness to Rosalie, she does believe what she told him. My vision of you dying was very definite and perhaps I didn't make it clear enough that there may have been a way to save you." She shook her head. "Of course, it's too late for recriminations now! But Edward believes her."

"What is he going to do?" I whispered, terrified. The tension in her voice informed me clearly that this was no simple misunderstanding that could be made right easily.

"He doesn't want to live if you do not," Lady Alice said quietly. "He's going to the Volturi, to ask them to end it for him. He wants the final death."

I made an incoherent noise of terror, and in a second Lady Alice had me in her arms, anxiously patting my back and trying to reassure me even as her own elfin face was drawn with fear.

"Hush Bella, hush. We'll do something, I swear we will think of a plan!"

I trembled in her embrace. "I don't understand! He is the one who left me! What is he doing?"

Sir Jasper stepped forward. "The Volturi could be considered the overlords of the vampire world. We have few rules, but the Volturi create and uphold what laws there are."

His steady voice calmed me a little, and I thought perhaps he was using his gift on me. I didn't mind. The situation was desperate, and I wanted that immobilising terror gone so that I might think about what was to be done.

"They punish those who transgress too severely," Sir Jasper went on. "And so they have experience with enforcing the final death." His lip twitched wryly. "It is not so easy for our kind to die. It is possible of course, we are only conditionally immortal after all, but even when you seek it the final death is not so simple to manage. Vampires have many abilities, but suicide is not one of them and so Edward has gone to the Volturi, to ask for their help in ending his life."

I whimpered, and Lady Alice jumped to her feet and began pacing again. "It puts us all in danger!" she said tightly. "Does he not remember what Aro can do? If Edward goes to him then all our secrets are his!"

"Aro is the leader. There are three of them, but everyone knows that Aro is the power behind it all," Sir Jasper explained to me. "He is uniquely gifted, and has only to touch your skin to know all your thoughts. All your thoughts, all that you have ever thought and felt are his to examine, whether you remember them or not."

He gently took Lady Alice's resistant body into his arms, and after a moment she sighed and relaxed into him. "Come now Alice, we must set emotions aside and decide what can be done. There must be something."

"Of course." Lady Alice fell into contemplation, her eyes glassy and unfocussed. It was almost eerie to see her in thrall to her visions, and I had to remind myself that such a gift was not Satan at work, not in Lady Alice.

Finally she stirred, seeming to come back to herself, and an expression of resolve settled over her face.

"It may be well," she said quietly. "I have a plan, and although I can make no promises I believe it is possible that we can save Edward."

Sir Jasper leaned forward, watching her intently. "We'll be in time then? If we go to Volterra?"

Lady Alice hesitated. "It is possible."

"What is it, Alice?" Sir Jasper's eyes narrowed.

"They will turn down Edward's request," she said distantly. "Aro will hold his hand, and once he sees what Edward is capable of he will not agree to see him destroyed."

"But that's good, isn't it?" I broke in anxiously. "If they won't help him, then we'll be able to reach him and once he knows I'm not dead…" My voice trailed away.

Lady Alice smiled softly. "It is good Bella, because it gives us more time. When they turn him down Edward will be angry, but he won't act immediately. He'll go away and think about it…but he is determined, and if they won't help him by request then he will force their hand."

"Force them?"

"Jasper told you that there were few vampire laws. But one of the main ones, one of the few that really matter, is that we must keep our existence a secret. We must never allow humans to see our true nature."

I gazed at her helplessly. "But Lord Edward told me about you…"

She nodded. "Yes, and normally that would be enough for them to take action against him. But Aro wants Edward and his mind reading for the Volturi, and he's not going to act unless Edward gives him no other choice."

"So Edward is planning something," Sir Jasper said slowly.

"Midday, in the city square," Lady Alice nodded. "It is their feast day, and all the citizens will have come from miles around, and Edward is going to go out into the crowd and…let them see him."

I felt a brief rush of relief. "So no one will die? That doesn't sound so bad…"

"It will be enough," Lady Alice said flatly. "The Volturi will not know that Edward would never kill, and they will not take the risk that he might expose them all. They will take him down before he ever reaches the square."

"Then we must go to him," I said roughly. "Now, so that I might see him and stop him."

"Yes," Lady Alice agreed. "You and I must go to Volterra."

Sir Jasper's brows lowered fiercely. "You're not going without me."

"We must. It's the only way," Lady Alice said resolutely, adding a little desperately, "It doesn't work if you're there Jasper! If you come it all ends in disaster."

"I don't like it," Sir Jasper growled.

For a moment Lady Alice's resolve cracked, and fear flashed across her face. "I don't like it either!" she said, with a poor attempt at a laugh. "Please Jasper, please believe that I would change this plan if I could! Remember that, please!" She clutched his hands and gazed up at him imploringly, and Sir Jasper dropped his shoulders and lifted her hands to kiss her knuckles.

"I'll do whatever it is you need me to," he said with resignation. "I don't like you being away from me, but if that is the way it has to be…"

"I'm sorry, but it is." Lady Alice jumped to her feet and tossed me a cloak, hastily bundling our few possessions together. "Bella and I must go to Volterra at once, there's not a moment to lose. You must go to London Jasper. Carlisle and Esme will be back by now, so you can explain to them what is happening. Go to Castle Cullen - with the pestilence so virulent they need Carlisle there anyway - and I will come and find you there afterwards." She swooped over to Sir Jasper and dropped a kiss on his lips before whirling back to me and wrapping my cloak around my shoulders. "We must go Bella!"

Dizzy at the speed at which things were happening, I followed her downstairs. Before I knew it she and Sir Jasper had saddled the horses and I was lifted into the saddle, Lady Alice's slight body behind me and her arms around me as she gathered up the reins.

"Godspeed my Alice," Sir Jasper said fervently, looking up at us and gripping Lady Alice's hand until the last moment.

"I love you," she whispered, "I love you Jasper!" And then with a kick to the horse's flanks and a clatter of hooves on stone we were off, the horse stretching out to gallop as Lady Alice and I set our sights on Volterra.