Chapter 6

I had been thinking and I had been stressing. There had been a lul in activities for a few days. We would be moving again in a couple of days and people were starting to pack up their belongings. It meant we had more time on our hands. And apparently my mind had been filling that time with overthinking everything. Every horrible scenario had crossed my mind.

And I was fed up. I wanted answers. I didn't have any on the Witch hunters front. Still no word from the palace.

So I was starting closer to home. We had kept an eye on Mr Sage, but other than being rude, we couldn't find anything wrong with him.

"I am going to talk to Sydney." I declared to Dimitri. He knew I had been wound tight lately.

"And what exactly are you going to ask her?" He said as he flipped the page of his book, his eyes never leaving the page.

"I understand that asking her right off the bat if she knows if her father is abducting girls to use in a weird ritual isn't going to go over well, but she must know something."

"She wasn't surprised at what he did at the market. She must have noticed it too. So what if she is in on it?" Dimitri retorted.

I don't actually think Sydney would hurt anyone. And I knew Dimitri didn't think so either. The fact he was still reading while we had this discussion told me he was teaching me something, like he used to when he was my mentor.

"I don't think she is. But I should form my questions carefully."

He nodded. "Sydney is smart. She won't give anything away if she doesn't trust you."

I liked Sydney well enough, she seemed to feel a bit of pity for us. Because we had to leave everything behind. But she was always skittish around us. She would be polite, but never stayed longer than was necessary.

"Okay. so get her to trust me. Which is hard, she isn't as xenophobic as her father, but she is weary around us... Especially around us. I don't know why, we weren't the only new ones, and we seem to be the only ones she avoids."

A small smile worked itself on my face. I needed a way to talk to Sydney and slowly work my way towards her girl-napping father.

"I have been rather curious about why my dad has her on his payroll."

He chuckled. "That's my girl. Bringing Abe in will surely win her trust."

I rolled my eyes and walked away from my annoying lover while sticking my tongue out at him. I walked the small distance to Sydney's wagon. Hers was more at the center of the group.

She was sitting in the sun in front of her wagon. I sat beside her. She bristled a bit, but otherwise remained the same.

"So I never asked before. But what has the old man on you? Does he pay you? Did he cover up something for you?"

Sydney looked at me like I was crazy.

"What old man? What are you talking about?"

"Abe. He sent us here and you are his contact." Her face paled at the mention of Abe. Abe had that effect on people. But then she was confused again. Her fear was overwritten with her need to understand.

"Mr Mazur is hardly an old man."

"True, but he is my old man."

Sydney sprayed the sip she had taken from her water all over the front lawn of her wagon. Then she turned to me.

"Abe is your…father?" I just nodded. I got that a lot. In a way I was glad Abe and I had only officially met when I was already an adult.

"So what does he have on you? Abe wouldn't send his only daughter here if he didn't trust you."

Or think he could manipulate her enough for me to be safe.

Sydney saw me in a whole different light now. But I don't think it helped with her fear, or xenophobia or any of it.

"He.. uhm… I don't want to talk about it."

I sat back into the seat. I put my hands behind my neck. Now she knew my lineage, it was time I pulled an Abe.

"I will tell you a dirty little secret about Abe, he doesn't want anyone to know, if you tell me about your father."

She turned away from me and stared ahead admiring the tree. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Right. Of course not." I locked eyes with her. She flinched. "You know there are more ways to do this. I need to know my friends are safe. And I will have my answers. I prefer you give them to me of your own volition, but if not, I will show you exactly how much I am my fathers daughter."

She was shaking. Damn, maybe I had gone too far. It was good to know I had the skill, but Sydney was too sweet to do this to.

"Sydney, I don't mean it like that. There have been girls taken at the circus, and I have a feeling your father is involved. I need to know my charge… I mean my friends are safe."

Her face softened a fraction, then it became confused.

"What do you mean, girls have gone missing?"

So I told her about the magician's assistant and the red-haired girl. We told her how we believed it must be somebody at the circus because of the timeline.

She got up and crossed her arms. "And why do you think this has anything to do with my father?"

"Well, he cast a spell of sorts on that girl at the hanging. Dimitri and I can sort of sense that magic and it is the same kind of magic that was on the red haired girl's bracelet and on the bodice from the missing assistant."

She gave me a once over. She ran her hand over her face.

"My father cast a spell on the girl to make her go unconscious by taking a bit of lifeforce. It was a mercy. She allowed it, because she knew her death would be painless. She was one of us too."

"One of us?"

I think Sydney was in too deep. She wanted to know who was taking the girls. I could tell she was thinking of her own little sister. Hell, she could be one of those girls. So could I technically. Although she didn't know I had every means of defending myself.

"A gipsy. We can use magic. My father is a powerful sage. Hence the name. But he wouldn't take those girls. There are laws in our magic... Unlike yours."

The last part was muttered under her breath. But I heard nonetheless.

"What do you mean unlike ours? I don't have any magic." No, I didn't. But Christian and Lissa did.

Sydney caught her own slip up and I looked at her wide eyed. She knew who we were, what we were.

"You know about us?" I finally realized why she and her family were looking at us differently and staying away from us. They knew what we were. That didn't explain really why they were afraid.

Sydney didn't have to respond. It was written all over her face. But obviously she didn't know the whole truth, because she was afraid.

"So what do you have against us?" I was getting a little annoyed. We were running from Witch hunters who already believed we were evil. I couldn't deal with another group targeting us too.

"Other than that you are vampires, evil creatures of the night, you drink from people and you use unnatural magic to control people's thoughts? Nothing."

She said as if those were the most obvious facts in the world.

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"I don't drink blood, they only take a little, they don't kill anyone. Usually we have people who have consented to donate, but that is a little harder here. We have rules too about using compulsion. And Christian is so bad at it, he needs Lissa to do it for him. We fled the Witch hunters because they think Moroi are evil… you aren't in league with them are you?"

She scoffed. "No, of course not. We are as vulnerable as you are. Our magic isn't exactly on their safe to use list either. Hence the hanging, remember."

Right. If they were in league with the Witch hunters, they wouldn't hang one of their own.

"How do I know, one of your friends hadn't taken a bite out of these girls and disposed of them." Sydney accused. At least her being annoyed was better than her being afraid.

I almost laughed at the thought of sweet gentle Lissa doing anything to hurt another girl.

"When we figured out girls were being taken, Dimitri and I wanted to leave. Our first priority was to protect Christian and Lissa. But Lissa was adamant we needed to stay and stop whoever was doing this."

Sydney seemed to mull that over.

"And you came up with my father?"

I threw up my hands. "He was suspicious. And the feeling of the spell was similar."

She snorted. "I think gipsy magic just gives you the heebie jeebies as Dhampirs. You are unnatural so natural magic feels like it goes against your nature."

I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Watch who you are calling unnatural."

Sydney had called us by name. And she knew about Moroi in general. How? We kept to ourselves. How did an entire clan of gipsies know about us?

"How do you know so much about this? About us?"

Sydney was debating how much to tell me, but I think right now we needed all the cards on the table.

"We have known about Dhampirs and Moroi for a while. Generations really. It was a clan who dabbled in a bit of Alchemy, they were looking for gold but met your people. The magic Moroi possesses feels cold to us. I imagine the reverse is also true."

I was amazed. There were entire clans that knew about us. But I think we had some re-education to do, if those clans have made us out to be the boogeyman.

"But if you aren't taking the girls and my father isn't taking the girls. Who is?"

"That is the million Leu question." I replied.

"No, there is another question that we need to answer." Sydney said as I saw the wheels in her head turning. My own head was hurting from trying to follow her train of thought. When I didn't offer her a retort, she gave me the answer.

"Why? Why take these girls?"

She was right. There was the obvious answer to why girls were always taken. But it didn't seem to fit the cold feel of magic.

"We know there were trace amounts of gipsy magic on the items belonging to the girls. So are there any spells that require virgin sacrifices?" I asked only half jokingly.

"Some, but none that I know by heart, but I will look into it."

Where I had been joking Sydney obviously was not. "And you call us evil." I snipped.

Sydney crossed her arms over her chest. She was getting defensive.

"You produce an evil monster that lives forever and kills people. I know most of you don't turn willingly, but Moroi are still the source of Strigoi. And humans pay the price for your war with them."

I guess I couldn't argue that point. Moroi who kill when they feed turn into Strigoi and Strigoi can turn other people into one of them. We mostly try to protect our Moroi instead of actively hunting Strigoi down. But the downside is, that Strigoi find other prey to feed from. And she is right. Humans pay the price.

I looked down. I wanted to defend my people, but she was right. Although it didn't make us evil, it did make us neglant and inconsiderate.

"I know I can't kill every one of those monsters. But I can help those girls. So let's focus on that. Can you look into what spells use young women?"

Sydney sat back down and nodded.

"My father really has nothing to do with it. I need you to believe me. I know he is rude and judgemental but he believes in the purity of our magic. He won't tarnish it."

I did believe her. My entire view of Mr Sage was based on the fact he didn't like us, therefore he must be evil. But now that I know the truth I don't think he would harm girls. He had two daughters himself, didn't he?

"I believe you. His behavior makes sense if he knows about us. But are there any other people here that might think the power of a spell is more important than the rules of magic?"

Something flashed in her eyes, but Sydney stayed silent. I suppose she might have a subject. She wasn't willing to share it with me, but that's alright. They could handle it internally if they wanted. I just wanted those girls safe. I didn't really care who did it.

"I'll look into it and get back to you. But... since I shared everything about my father with you. I do believe you owe me an embarrassing story about Abe."

There was a twinkle in her eye that I liked. I sat down and animatedly started telling the story.

"Well, before he was Zmey, long long ago…."

I got back to the campsite and gestured for everyone to come inside. I told them what I had learned from Sydney and that gypsies knew about us.

"That is just not fair." Lissa sulked. "We don't hurt people. They have no right to judge us."

I looked over to Dimitri and I saw his head was running a mile a minute. It was a security breach for sure.

"I know we don't mean harm, Liss, but you have to admit, humans are being targeted by Strigoi and that is kind of our fault. We have even seen humans helping Strigoi in order to be turned. We try to stay separate from humans as much as possible, but our world is literally bleeding into theirs."

Lissa mulled that over for a moment. Yes, we had interactions in the human world to recruit feeders. But the process was meticulous. There was a very strict screening process. The world was getting smaller and I wondered how long we could stay under the radar as a people. The Witch hunters had an inkling and now gypsies knew us for what we really were.

"But it sounded like Sydney saw us as evil. That is just wrong."

Sydney had called us 'evil creatures of the night' even though I don't think she thought we were evil. But I do think she thinks we are dangerous. And that could also be a problem.

"Any word from Court?" I turned to Dimitri. He was in charge of communications with Court.

We had pigeons trained to fly back to Court and would use them to communicate with Court and let them know where we were. Thank God we didn't move every day. That would have been a nightmare. Dimitri had sent a new letter a few days ago to inform them of the hanging.

"Nothing specific." He said as he shook his head. "More forces had arrived and they rounded up a few cells, but the main Witch hunters are still eluding them. I suppose they will be coming here and investigating at some point. I think the movement is too widespread. They need to find the ringleader. If you cut off the head of the snake, hopefully the movement will dissipate."

That must be one sick bastard, if he could control so many to do so many violent acts in the name of purification.

"Doesn't the church condone this? Isn't the pope the ringleader?"

It really made no sense. Most Moroi were actually orthodox catholics. We had been good to the church and the church good to us.

"No. There is definitely a religious aspect, but it feels more like a cult than an actual religion." Dimitri leaned forward on his arms. A clear sign he was pensive. "I would assume if it was the Vatican church they would advertise it. But they don't. And that is what strikes me as odd."

Really? That was what struck him as odd? Not the people being hanged?

"We don't know who is running it. It seems almost anonymous, usually you want a high profile person to attract people to your cause."

He picked up a pamphlet of our own circus to make his point. There was the main act. Our famous acrobats and David our ringleader. There were a few loose acts on there as well, but his name and that of the acrobots was written in bold letters at the top. You knew what to expect when you came to our circus.

"Maybe there isn't one person in charge. Maybe they have several and are connecting in name only?" Lissa asked Dimitri.

He mulled that over, but I could tell he didn't agree.

"They are too organized for that. They have one voice that instructs them."

I saw Dimitri's point, but that would be very difficult.

"But it would be hard for one person to keep so many people in line with his or her ideas? Certainly over the distances they have been operating."

Dimitri nodded, his eyes grew darker with every continued thought about the Witch hunters. Where they had started out as a small group of fanatics, they were now known far and wide.

"There are only two things that can inspire such loyalty. Awe or fear."

But that wasn't entirely true. "Or Both." I said, not knowing how close to the truth I had gotten.