Chapter 26: Another Casualty
Kelria's dreams were not pleasant. She saw Khyana sitting at a desk in a room she didn't recognise, surrounded by paperwork. People filed in and out, talking to Khyana when they arrived then leaving quickly, Khyana taking notes all the while. Every once in a while, Khyana would look around and rub the back of her neck, the motion she always made when she felt someone was watching her, and this made Kelria wonder if what she was seeing was actually happening.
As Kelria watched, James and Sirius entered, looking furious, and had an argument in front of Khyana's desk, which she appeared to solve and sent them on their way. As they were leaving, a person in a cloak came in and approached Khyana's desk. She looked up and smiled, and the hood was thrown off to reveal a man Kelria didn't recognise but Khyana obviously did. Khyana's facial expression changed to one of concern, and she picked up her own cloak and followed the man out the door, pausing only to write a hasty note and lock the door. Kelria was left looking at an empty room, and a scream from outside the dream door woke her up quickly.
"Khyana!"
Kelria was still on the dungeon floor, sweating. She sat up, feeling very stiff and uncomfortable.
The man who had come on was obviously known to Khyana, but then why had she screamed? Had he been a traitor, too, like Cam and Laura? Had he tricked her? There were too many questions to which Kelria didn't have answers. She didn't like that.
A wave of nausea swept over her as she remembered something else. She had been separated from Remus, and there was a reason. Bellatrix had said "You're first" when she come for her, which meant that the Death Eaters had something in store for both Kelria and Remus…whatever it was, they wanted her to be done first. She wondered if it was some form of torture and they figured they'd need more time to break her before moving on to Remus. Or was it that they thought she would be the easiest to break and so were doing her first to get it over with…
She set her jaw. Whatever the case, she would prove more difficult than they could ever guess. She had been trained as an auror and also as an Order member. She could stand torture, and she would not break.
She gave a small snort of laughter. She would surprise the Death Eaters. They wouldn't break her, no matter how hard they tried. She'd made up her mind, and once Kelria Song makes up her mind, it's hard to change it.
She sighed. Her mind was made up, but the lump of fear sitting in the pit of her stomach had not lessened, and she didn't think it would ever lessen. She was here to be tortured, and when she wouldn't give them the information they wanted, the Death Eaters would likely kill her. It was not a pleasant thought, but it could not be changed, either. She couldn't give up her friends and everything she had worked so hard for. The Death Eaters would just have to be disappointed.
The door of her dungeon opened slowly, and a head appeared around it, grinning evilly.
"Good morning, Miss Song. Lord Voldemort will see you now."
Remus had no dreams to plague his sleep, but he almost wished he had. If he'd had dreams to wonder about, he would not have to wonder what was happening to his fiancée. He wasn't sure how long it had been since she had been taken; he didn't have a watch. He was almost glad he didn't know, however. If he had known, he probably would have worried even more.
He stood and began pacing again, thinking. There was a search effort going on to find them, and if they were lucky, maybe Khyana had had a dream and could point them in the semi-right direction.
He sighed. The likelihood of them being rescued was 0. They would have to get very lucky indeed for Khyana to have a dream, and he didn't like depending on luck.
He wondered one more time what was happening to Kelria. If only someone would come to him, he could ask them what was happening to his fiancée, even if they wouldn't answer him. They might laugh at him, but he had to ask, had to know. He wouldn't even mind seeing Lord Voldemort himself if he could tell him what was happening to Kelria…
He shook himself. What was he thinking? Lord Voldemort wouldn't tell him what was happening to Kelria! Lord Voldemort would kill him! And that was unacceptable. He could not die, he couldn't. He couldn't do that to Kelria, leave her alone. If she died here and he left alive, he would never forgive himself, and he knew that if it were reversed, she would never forgive herself.
Remus resumed his meditative position and sat back to just think. He needed a plan. As far as he knew, he was alone in a large castle guarded by many Death Eaters--likely not all of them, but he didn't know--and Kelria was also with him. There was a search effort out to find them, but they likely wouldn't, so he was on his own. He had no way to communicate with anyone from the Order or Kelria's auror squad, and he had no wand.
He gave a cry of frustration and kicked the wall, which only resulted in a sore toe and loud swearing.
Khyana was getting bored. People came in, gave their reports, and left again. She checked in with Sirius every hour, and he seemed to be growing more impatient as time went on. He had joined the search when she had become the organiser, but it didn't seem to be going very well, and that irritated him.
She looked down at the paper she had on the desk in front of her and noticed that she had begun to doodle. She blushed as she noted that there were hearts all over the paper, and the initials SB+KM were in every one.
The door opened and she quickly put the paper on her lap, upside down.
"Hey, Frank. How's it going?"
Frank gave an impatient sigh. "Not good."
"What are you lot doing?"
"We're trying to use some tracking thing James and Dumbledore have put together…but it's not working so well. Sirius is getting annoying. Can we send him back here?"
Khyana thought about the paper she had in her lap and shook her head. "Nope. I don't want to deal with him."
"Yeah, see, that's the problem. Neither does anyone else. And we thought since he's your fiancé…"
Khyana raised an eyebrow. "That he may be, but he's in your Order."
Frank gave her an uncomfortable look. "What's that got to do with anything?"
Khyana gave a small laugh. "That's what this is about, isn't it? That's why I'm stuck here while the rest of you are out looking."
Frank didn't deny it, and Khyana nodded. "I thought so."
Frank sighed again. "We need something for Sirius to do," he said, changing the subject. Khyana took his comment in stride.
"What was Kelria doing when she disappeared?"
Frank looked uncomfortable, and Khyana nodded.
"Sorry, I forgot you can't tell me. Anyway, have Sirius go look around there, see what he can dig up."
"Good idea. That'll get him out of the way. Talk to you later, Khyana."
"Later, Frank."
Frank left the house, and Khyana rubbed the back of her neck. For a while now she'd had the idea that someone was watching her. It was not a pleasant feeling.
She returned to the paperwork in front of her and changed Sirius' status from with James to looking around where Kel was tonight.
A few minutes later, the door burst open once again and Sirius burst in, followed closely by James, both looking furious.
"Hello, gentlemen, what can I do for you?" she asked, ignoring their facial expressions.
"Sirius won't go and do what I asked him to," James stated furiously, and Khyana had a distinct feeling of being the mother of two whiny boys.
"I want to stay and look for Kel and Moony!" Sirius countered.
"You would be helping-"
"I don't want to go over there-"
"-if you'd go look-"
"-it's depressing!"
"ENOUGH!"
Both men turned and looked at Khyana, who glared at them furiously.
"Sirius, you're annoying the people looking. Go do what James and Frank told you to do, you'll be more help that way. And James, stop whining at me!"
Both men stared at her, then left, looking surly and annoyed. As they were leaving, Lightfingers entered, wearing his long cloak and looking at James and Sirius, giving them a wide berth.
"Hey, Lightfingers, how's it going?"
Lightfingers stared at her, then motioned for her to follow him. "I have something I need to show you."
Khyana was confused. "Why don't you find someone else? I'm supposed to stay here." The hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end.
Lightfingers scowled. "No one here trusts me. I need you to come, it's very important."
Khyana nodded, then leaned over to write a quick note.
Sirius,
I've gone with Lightfingers to investigate something. Don't freak, I might not be in the Order anymore, but I'm still a good auror. Talk to you when I get back.
I love you.
Khyana.
She gathered her cloak and threw it over her shoulders, knowing it was fairly chilly out for July, and followed Lightfingers out of the house.
She remembered reaching the porch, and the last thing she saw was Lightfingers' surprised face before she screamed, blacked out and knew no more.
Sirius was furious. He'd been delegated to searching for clues around the site of Kelria's mission and he was not happy. Searching for clues had always been left up to the aurors, who had been trained to do it. He had never had the patience for it.
He sighed and decided he better get started. The faster he started, the faster he could be done.
He wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do to start, but he figured he couldn't go wrong if he just started walking around, looking.
So that's what he did. And that's how James found him two hours later, when he came by to check up on him, looking grim.
"Find anything?"
Sirius jumped about a foot in the air.
"Merlin, James, you scared me! I didn't hear you show up."
"I apparated. There was a pop."
Sirius shook his head. "I guess I missed it. No, I haven't found anything. Whoever it was knew what they were doing."
James nodded. "We had assumed that. Unfortunately, that's not good news for us."
"No, it's not," Sirius agreed.
There was another pop as Frank apparated beside James, looking even more grim than James.
"Hey, Frank, I thought you were staying back at the site…"
"I just went to check in with Khyana. She's not there."
"What?!"
Frank nodded at Sirius' exclamation. "No one's seen her for two hours. We were all so engrossed in our work, we forgot to send someone to check in with her."
Sirius' face was sheet white, and the three of them apparated together back to the house.
"Is there any clue as to where she could have gone?" Sirius asked, looking around.
"We haven't found anything," Frank replied.
Sirius walked over to the desk and gave a cry as he discovered Khyana's note. James and Frank hurried to his side.
"She went with Lightfingers…I still don't know if I trust that man," Frank said thoughtfully.
Sirius looked at James, who still looked grim.
"We're going into full search mode with Khyana. She might have been with Lightfingers for a bit, but that was two hours ago, and no one's heard anything from her since. I do remember seeing Lightfingers coming in when we were leaving, Sirius, so she's been gone the same length of time we have. I don't imagine that she would have left us in the dark this length of time if she could contact us. She may be impulsive and sometimes brash, but she's not stupid; she knows we'll want to know where she is. Add her to the list of those missing, Frank."
Frank nodded grimly and disapparated. Sirius looked very worried.
James turned to his friend and put his hand on his shoulder. "We'll find her, Sirius. You just have to believe that."
Sirius thought it ironic that those were the very words he himself had said to his girlfriend hours previously.
A/N: There you go. I'm going away for two weeks on Friday and I prolly won't have time to write another one before I go, so this is what you get. Enjoy!