Chapter 9:

Sydney, Dimitri and I were standing at the door of Keiths wagon. He didn't seem to be home. No one had seen him since he got back last night. I had no idea how long the cloaking spell functioned, so maybe he was still walking around, even if no one recognized him.

His wagon wasn't at the centre like the other gypsies in Mr Sage's clan. Sydney had said that Keith had wanted privacy. Sydney had said the word with such distaste that I can only wonder what he did with that privacy. Although now we saw his 'privacy' in an even more nefarious light.

We knocked for good measure, but there was no response. The door was locked, but even if Keith wasn't here, we might find clues in his wagon.

I had many skills, I knew how to pick a lock. And that wasn't standard Guardian training. This one was courtesy of my father. But I didn't carry a pickpocket's kit with me everywhere I went.

"I can pick the lock, but I need something thin and sharp or maybe…"

Cloenk.

"Or we can just break the lock." I said indifferently as I looked at the piece of the door Dimitri held. The door knob was broken off, the lock loose. The door opened with a small creek. Dimitri stepped in first. I had often joked that if I went first the enemy would have a smaller target to hit, but he never let me. Even if we were both Guardians and risked our lives on a daily basis, he would protect me where he could.

That cold feeling creeped up at me again. Luckily I knew the difference between a lingering spell and a spell directed at me. There was something in this wagon that still had the magic. I couldn't see past Dimitri, he was blocking my view from everything but the sitting area right in front of me. He moved further back, but stopped a few steps in.

"Rose." He motioned for me to look beyond him.

There in the corner in the dark was the auburn haired girl. Except, she wasn't auburn haired anymore. She wasn't much of anything anymore.

I was afraid to approach. She felt so cold, the magic thick around her. Her eyes were open, but she wasn't seeing me. I didn't even know if she was alive. When I moved closer I did see the small rise and fall of her chest indicating she was breathing but if that equaled life I didn't know. Her once beautifully red hair was now a stark white. Her skin was clear of all freckles and spots the sun had put there. Her eyes were a nondescript grey.

He had stolen who she was, all so he could blend in. She didn't seem to have many things that would define her as an individual left. And I didn't see the magical assistant anywhere, so I could only assume she had had nothing left to give him and had 'expired' in our previous location, or maybe the one before.

"Can you heal her?" Sydney had moved beside me. I don't think she had ever stood this close to me, our sides were touching in the cramped space of this cabin. The cruelty that was written all over this girl was a powerful uniter. We couldn't be that different if we were both appalled by this.

"No, we can place some of her life force back if Keith still has it in him, but it will only be the last bit he took. He had her for weeks, siphoning off her different aspects of her to conceal himself. Most of it is lost."

"So if we find him fast, maybe we can give her some back, even if it is a little?"

She nodded, but didn't think we could get him on that short notice. She walked towards the girl and started to take vital signs with expert efficiency. All the while the girl didn't show any signs of responding, any signs of life.

I left Sydney to it and exited the wagon with Dimitri. "We will have to go over the wagon to see if there is anything that could hint to Lissa's whereabouts, or Keiths."

I nodded at Dimitri and I knew the sooner we could do it the better, but it didn't seem right to disturb the wagon with the girl inside. It seemed sacrilegious. The place felt like a tomb. How many girls had died in there? We may have saved one, but how many hadn't we saved?

It was about half an hour before Sydney had taken the girl to rest with one of the older gypsy women and we could enter the wagon again. Sydney joined us and she shivered as she entered the wagon. She was feeling it too.

We started to look in cabinets and under the couch and bed. Another advantage of a wagon is that there weren't many hiding places. It was after about ten minutes when Dimitri held up a small pocket, when he opened it up it contained gems. All different colors, all exceptionally beautiful and all priceless.

"Money!." Sydney practically shouted. "He betrayed his own people for money?"

One of my instructors at school had once said humans were beyond greedy. You could always trust a human to want more money, more wealth. Thinking of our own royal Moroi, I didn't think we were that different. But I doubt a moroi would have betrayed another Moroi to Witch hunters. I refuse to believe such evil lived outside of Strigoi.

"We need to find him, fast. For the girls sake, for Lissa's sake and for the sake of your clan." This clan had been spared so far from the Witch hunters because they still thought Keith was valuable and his 'undercover' position here gave him and his clan safety. But it won't be long before he is discovered.

"Hang on. Keith doesn't know we know. Right?"

I looked at Sydney. She was thinking about my words, a smile started to form at the edge of her lips as a plan formed in her head. "No, and he can't refuse a direct order from my dad. He is probably hiding somewhere waiting for the spell to wear off. But maybe he will come when my father asks."

"But how do we get the message to him when he is laying low until the spell wears off?"

Again the smile. She looked around the wagon and picked up a piece of paper and a charcoal pencil. She started to write a small message on the paper. I couldn't make out the words, but something told me it wasn't English she was writing.

She then held up the paper and cast a little spell. Strange and soft words left her lips and the paper turned to ash in her hands. The winds seemed to pick up the ash and blow it into a certain direction as if the wind was sentient. My eyes widened as I felt the magic. It was still cold, but somehow not as cold as the magic Keith had used. Maybe that was because of the amount of magic needed, but I doubted it. Sydney's magic just wasn't as sinister as Keith's.

"You can send him a message like that?... Then, can you send Lissa a message too?"

She shook her head. "Sorry, only works with gypsies. The recipient needs to undo the burning."

My shoulders slumped a little, I wanted her to know we were coming and that she needed to hold on a little longer.

"What did you send him?"

She shrugged. "That dad wants to talk to him. That should be more than enough."

As it turns out it was enough. We were reluctantly at the back of Mr Sage's wagon. It was a lot bigger than ours, so Dimitri and I weren't that cramped. Any people coming into the wagon wouldn't be able to see us from the windows or directly from the entrance. They would have to round the corner and look directly at the back to see us. We kinda blended in the seat at the back.

So when Keith stepped into the wagon an hour later, he didn't see us. He was wearing a knit cap, in summer, probably to hide his still auburn hair. That must have been the last piece of the cloaking spell, because he looked otherwise the same as he always had, including one bad eye.

Mr Sage closed the door when Keith was inside, locking the door without letting Keith now. He had his back turned to us and sat down in a small chair in the 'kitchen' area.

"Mr Sage? You wanted to see me?"

Mr Sage didn't say anything for a long time and just stared at him. This made Keith very nervous but I think that was his intention. The look on Mr Sage's face was not kind. But then again that was his normal face, so it wasn't saying much. Keith started to fidget.

"I have always regarded you as my protogé. You upheld our values, and I thought you an inspiration to my own daughters."

The words were right, but the tone suggested Mr Sage wasn't finished. But again he was silent for several moments, the pause deliberate to make the boy squirm. I was beginning to like Mr Sage.

"When Carly came to me with that story of how you forced yourself on her, I stood by you. I believed you."

Okay, now I was beginning to understand why Sydney wasn't a big fan of Keith. Although Mr Sage lost some points there as well, who believes anyone over their own daughter, certainly when it came to stuff like that.

"Mr Sage -" Keith was cut off when Mr Sage lifted his hand in order to silence him.

Mr Sage suddenly looked tired, so very tired. He had the weight of his clan on his shoulder and in the midst of being hunted he had misjudged one of his own. I still didn't know how someone could sell out their own people and others for money. But the more I was hearing about Keith, the more I realised there was no point in thinking of a why. Keith was just a bad person. And bad people did bad things.

"How much did they pay you?"

This confused Keith for a second. "What? Who?" he almost sounded generally confused. But Mr Sage would have none of that. He stood up in a blind rage and knocked his chair over as he did.

"How much did they pay you to betray your people?!, how much is the life of a gypsy worth?!"

The veins in his neck and forehead were popping out. Mr Sage wasn't particularly tall, but he seemed gigantic compared to Keith now, who was ducking in on himself as if hiding would somehow keep Mr Sage from tearing him apart.

Mr Sage pulled the hat off of him. And when he touched his hair I could see the auburn color leave Keith's hair and be drawn into Mr Sage's hand. When Keith's hair had returned to its original color Mr Sage took a jar and somehow transferred the auburn color to it. I hoped he could give it back to the girl. It would make her look more alive and hopefully feel more alive too.

After he had done that, he cast another spell. This one seemed more elaborate. He was using a lot of words, even if I couldn't make out any of them. But it must have been a powerful spell because that coldness seeped into my bones. It still didn't feel as cold as Keith magic had been when he had directly attacked me, but it wasn't far off. Mr Sage was doing something to him.

We had discussed that Mr Sage would neutralize Keith so we could interrogate him without worrying about his magic. Dimitri and I were bad-ass fighters but we had no idea about gypsy skills and magic. So I was grateful for the help.

After a few moments, Mr Sage was done and Keith slumped to the floor. Mr Sage directed his eyes towards us.

"He is all yours, he won't be able to access his magic for a while."

And with that he left us alone with Keith. He took the jar with him so I hoped he would return it to the girl. Keith then turned around to see who Mr Sage had been talking to and his eyes widened. Part in fear and part in disgust.

Dimitri and I got up and walked towards Keith. His eyes widened and he backed up. Good. he must feel that Mr Sage took his powers even temporarily. And he recognized us as Guardians, lethal trained warriors that could take on undead monsters and survive. He was right to be afraid.

"Where is she?" My voice didn't sound very human. I might as well have been one of those evil creatures of the night he believed we were. But I didn't care. I needed him to be afraid. He should be afraid, because I wouldn't stop until he told me where Lissa was.

But he shook his head. Not the answer I was looking for.

"Where is she?" I reiterated the question. I didn't shout or demand, I simply and very calmly asked him. This seemed to freak him out more.

"I … I don't know. I swear."

I looked him over. I didn't know if I believed him, but we would get back to that. "What do you know?"

So he began explaining what he did know. I think he really didn't know where they held Lissa exactly because he was a waterfall of information otherwise. He told us about accomplices and how he had kept this clan safe by betraying others. He actually believed himself a hero to his people, although the gems we found would suggest he got something more out of it as well.

I couldn't remember every detail he said but I knew Dimitri would. If I knew him, he was already overlaying the information Keith gave us with his knowledge of this city and where they could possibly be.

"Have you ever seen the leader of the Witch hunters?" I asked as Keith's verbal diarrhea seemed to end. But he shook his head.

"I have seen a higher up, but I have never seen the leader. They revere him as a God almost, or like a pope, a spiritual leader that the Vatican church lacks."

"Any name, anything?" he shook his head again. I was beginning to hate that. One more of those head shakes and I would shake his head myself!

I threw up my hands. Keith was useless. A waste of space. We walked out of the wagon and Mr Sage was on his way back without the vial of lifeforce, so I assumed he had given it back to the girl.

"Got what you needed?" He asked.

I shook my head, but Dimitri had a different perspective. "He gave us what he knew and we have a place to start looking. We will have to do some recon, maybe I can talk to one of your scouts about what they have seen in the city?"

Then Christian came running at us. He was a little winded. Mr Sage recoiled. I think he had gotten used to us. We looked human and I think for a moment he had seen us as people and not Dhampirs, but Christian would always be a vampire in his eyes. The fangs, even when hidden, and the pale skin would never fool Mr Sage into believing Christiand was anything other than a vampire.

But right now, I could give a rats ass about how Mr Sage felt about Christian.

"I saw her. Lissa. She came to me."

Christian gave us the rundown of the very short conversation he had had with Lissa. Lissa was still very bad at dream walking and had only managed a very small message. She was apparently in a warehouse-like building. I thought that strage. I would have thought they kept her in or near a church.

Lissa had given him a description of what she could see, even if it wasn't much. With the information we got from Keith and hopefully information that the scouts could provide we could find her. I know we could. Right now at least Lissa was alive.

"They are waiting for the leader to show. Apparently he wanted Lissa alive. But we don't have much time."

It was why she probably wasn't hanged yet. And if the leader showed, we could take down this whole operation in one go. We could get Lissa back and go home.

I turned to Dimitri. "Any garrisons of guardians nearby?" We could use some backup. Most regiments of Guardians were deploit around the Moroi seat of power but in pursuit of the Witch hunters they were more scattered now. All of us were eager to get rid of this threat and have our Queen save and sound back in her Palace. And if the leader was on its way to Lissa other Guardians who had been tracking him could be nearby too.

But the fact the leader wanted to see Lissa let me know he knew exactly who he had as his captive. But right now that bought us time, so I wasn't complaining.

"I'll check. But it would take a while for the message to reach them if they are. And longer for them to arrive. We can't wait for them."

I nodded. Knowing it would just be the two of us. But we were awesome fighters even among our own kind and Dimitri and I could take on an army of humans if we had to.

And I think we had to, to be able to save Lissa. But I would do anything for her.