(A/N I was SO CLOSE naming this chapter "Escape The Crazy Tour-Guide" but... I didn't. Hoep you still like it, though!

Chapter 28: Escape

Marcia stared at her brother in shock. "Yeah, I kinda do." she said.

"What about me getting you there tomorrow?"

"That would be nice, but-"

"I'll just put you down somewhere, so that you'll find... wherever you live." Rodrian replied. Marcia thought it was very nice of him, but in a way it was... suspicious. Very sucpicious. Why would he hit and be rude to her in one moment, the next just be nice to her? It didn't make any sense to her.

"Really?" she raised her eyebrows, "No catch? Nothing?"

"What do you take me for?" he asked. A rebel. "C'mon, let me show you around the camp. You didn't see very much earlier, did you?"

"Well-"

"There's so much I think you'd like," Rodrian said, "The librarey, the Meeting Room..."

"It's a camp and you have a librarey here?" Marcia wondered.

"Well, this is more of a base." Rodrian replied.

"Ah."

"But come on now!" Rodrian grabbed her arm and dragged her up to her feet. Once again, Marcia found herself on the muddy field. Rodrian took her back to the house in the house, this time a little less violent. This time, the hall was a little more crowded than before. Rebels- mainly men- stood in tiny groups and talked, very loudly. When they saw Marcia, they snickered and it made Marcia feel rather uneasy. But Rodrian didn't seem to care a bit. He led her through a door, then stopped. "This is the Meeting Room." he said. The "Meeting Room" was a bit more impressive than the rest of the "camp" that Marcia previousley had seen. The walls were draped with red fabrics. In the senter of the room, there was a round table clothed with a big map. The map was, Marcia could see without any problems, a map over the Eastern Snowplains. There were some candles placed her and there over the map, but the most of the light came from the lamp placed by the door, and the fireplace, which also spread a cozy warmth all over the room. "Like it?" Rodrian asked. Marcia nodded slowly, and Rodrian dragged her of again. Marcia found herself in a corridor, with lots of door. Rodrian leant against one. "This," he said, "Is the prison, combined with the torturechamber."

Marcia's hear skipped a beat. He was not going to make her go in there, was he? No, not Rodrian. No way. He smiled at her.

"But I suspect you don't want to have a look, do you?" he continude, and Marcia felt like sighing with relief.

"No thank you." she replied.

"Sad for you, because you'll still have to spend some time in there." said Rodrian, and Marcia gasped. "Just kidding, Mar."

"It's not funny." she snapped. Rodrian roled his eyes- since when had he started doing that?- and said, "However, let's keep going."

He took a step, but then a loud shriek was heard from the prison. A chill ran down her spine. That was one of the most horrable shrieks she had ever heard. Rodrian seemed to have thought something very familiar, and swore loudly to himself. "Wait a sec." he hissed at Marcia, went inside the room and slammed it shut. Marcia felt very uneasy being left alone there. She had heard horrable stories about rebels, and what they did to people.

After a while, Rodrian returned. He looked furious. He muttered something to himself, while he shuffed Marcia through the corridor. "To the librarey." he said, and opend a door at the end of the corridor. He pushed her inside. It was darke in there, but Rodrian lit a lamp. The rebels libararey was not as impressive as the Pyramid Librarey at the top of the Wizard Tower, but it was a rather impressive collection of books and scrolls. Marcia felt rather delighted, until she realized that many of the books were Darke books. Alther had always warned her about the Darke, and about what it could do to people. And she had always, even before she was Alther's apprentice, she had been slightly frightened of the Darke. It was something about it. It was so... horrable. Weird, upside-down...
"Don't you like them?" Rodrian asked, when Marcia quickly shut a book and put it back into it's shelf.

"They're most about Darke, Rodrian." she answered.

"So?" his rage seemed to be over.

"I've always disliked Darke, Rod," Marcia said, "I thought you did that too."

"It's rather useful at some points." Rodrian replied.

"While torturing people." Marcia snorted.

"Yes." Marcia would have believed he had joked if he hadn't hit her just a few hours ago, and if he hadn't looked so serious while. "Mar, I could have tortured you, but I didn't-"

"So?"

"Marcia, what I'm asking you to do might change my life."

"Yeah, it might kill your brother."

"No." Rodrian sighed, "Marcia, please, I could become the rebels leader. If I find the heiress, and hand her over, I most certainly will become one of the leaders."

"I've told you, Rod, I'm not going to tell you-"

"Please, Marcia, please."

Marcia sighed. "Rodrian, I just want to go home. Now."

"I can't get you home, now." Rodrian said "Not today. Tomorrow."

"Why?"

"There's a feast today." Rodrian replied, "I can't miss it. Besides, it maybe would be good for you to attend. Maybe you would see us rebels for what we are, not what everyone thinks we are."

"Fine."

"Great!" Rodrian smiled at her. "Tour's over."

Cashmére was worried. She cared for Marcia very much. Milo had just told them about Marcia, about that Rodrian- Marcia's and Joseph's oldest brother- had taken her with him. Therefore, she was worried. She knew what rebels did to people. It was sick. But, even though she tried, she couldn't be angry at Milo. He had had no say in Rodrian taking Marcia with him, but still. She just hoped Marcia was alright.

Marcia was quite alright, yet uneasy as she waited for Rodrian to come and meet her in the librarey. The rebels librarey. She sat on the floor, with a book at her lap. The uneasy feeling that a rebel could burst into the room at any moment made her feel very uneasy. The whole rebel camp, Rodrian... all that made her uneasy. Anxious. Nor was it to any use to use magyk. She could use magyk, but A, the rebels had these staffs that they could protect themselves with, and B, Marcia wasn't that good in duelling just yet. She could merely transfix a dog for quite a while, a human for a few seconds. But not an entire army with rebels who could swat her spells of like flies. Or, well, it needed some skill, she had understood, but these were trained. If she could get one of these staffs and learn how to use it... wait. Rodrian had promised to get her back by tomorrow. Not that she trusted him, there was probably some kind of catch... She just hadn't figured out what yet. Marcia sighed and was about to shut the book when something dropped down on her lap. A tiny little... Marcia didn't know what. It seemed to be some kind of necklace. The berlock was a tiny circle of some kind of wood on it. Then there was an inscription, which Marcia could not read. She could make out an R, but that was it. Marcia fingered at it, and but it on. She didn't know why.

After twenty more minutes, Marcia couldn't stand waiting for Rodrian anymore. Marcia rose up and, even though it did feel slightly stupid and risky, she decided to start looking for him. She suppoused that he was sleeping somewhere, intoxicated. A sigh escaped her lips. Rodrian really embarassed her. And he puzzled her, too. What had made him act like this, be like this? She knew that neither Joseph or Maximilian would do anything like this. Marcia left the room. To her big relief, there was no one in the corridor. But there was somebody arguing in the torturechamber. The closer Marcia went, the more convinced she was that it was Rodrian who argued with somebody. A woman. Not Runa, this person had no northern accent. She talked the same language as Marcia, fluent, without any accen from any other place than the Castle. Marcia was curious about what Rodrian argued about, and with who. But she couldn't hear what they said, only the voices. Marcia leant her ear against the wall, listening really carefully. "You choose her over me!" she heard Rodrian yell, angrily.

"I do not." the other voice said angrily, yet calmly. Marcia gasped. Her mother. What was she suppoused to do? Her only real option was to hit Rodrian with a spell, take her mother and run for it. But she didn't know in what condition her mother was. And Marcia could not transport perfectly yet, she had just started with that... oh, she felt disabled. Suddenly, a cold feeling washed over Marcia. Rodrian wouldn't hit their mother, would he? Would he really sink that low? Marcia tried to come up with any old prank-spell that would confuse Rodrian. At last, she came up with one. She was about to open the door and rush into the room, when she realized that Rodrian maybe wasn't alone... But she had no choice. She had to take the chance. Marcia rushed into the room, and cast the spell. Before it was done, she could see Rodrian's shocked face, then he looked angry. Furious. But the room was soon filled with thick, darke-green fog and Rodrian coughed. "Shouldn't have taught me that!" Marcia yelled, and grabbed hold of her mother's arm. "Mum, run!"

"Marcia?" Trassimma sounded surprised, "What happend to your eye?"

"No time to explain!" Marcia said, "Time to go!"

The fog would last for at least five minutes, and Rodrian's eyes would hurt for quite a while. But, it was his own fault. Marcia and Trassimma got out of there as fast as possible, which wasn't that fast since Trassimma infact was quite old. Marcia guided them to some kind of back-door, hoping that it would lead somewhere. It did. Marcia couldn't believe how lucky she was. "Sledges!" she exclamied. She suppoused that Rodrian wouldn't exactley love to get her home after what she had done, so she figured that she would have to get home on her own. By horse was not an option. She couldn't ride a horse. But she could ride a sledge. These were, unfortunately, driven by dogs. Marcia blocked the door with some "rubbish" she found (she had no idea about what it was, so she called it rubbish) and attempted to control her fear for dogs, while she put them infront of the sledge. Trassimma was quite silent all the time. Marcia couldn't see any clear signs that somebody had hit her, but she didn't quite know.
"Mum, get on." she said, when she was done. "Quick!"

"I don't know." Trassimma replied. Marcia stared at her mother.

"You don't know?" she wondered, "They'll hurt you!"

"I think Rodrian needs me." her mother said.

"He has his bloody rebels," Marcia snapped, "He doesn't care about you anymore."

"Don't talk like that."

"Mum, there's not the time-"

"Okay, okay." Trassimma sighed, "I'll get on." Marcia could finally take a sigh with relied. She had almost started feeling desperate. She got up on the sledge, she too, and they went of.

It was cold being outside without a cloak. Marcia wished she hadn't forgot her own back at the rebels camp, but she could stand it. The thing she was most worried about was her mother. Her mother wore the same dress as she had done at the wedding, and that dress was rather thin. At least there were some furs where Trassimma sat... Otherwise, Marcia had a hard time to navigate, too. She didn't know exactley where to go, but she thought that she could see a city somewhere near the horizon. A few times she thought she could see rebels, but all the times it was just her imagination playing pranks on her.

Three hours later, they finally reached the port of Capriolium. Marcia just dumped the sledge and the dogs, but she did take a fur which she put around Trassima's shoulders. Trassimma smiled feebly at Marcia. "Thank you." she said. Marcia didn't return the smile. Her mother was paler than before.

"Let's go back to the boat." Marcia just replied, and so they did. Trassimma seemed to have problem walking. 'It hurts, but it is not that bad', she said. Marcia didn't know what to think. Usually, her mother used to dramatize pain and all that kind of things, but now... she just keept it down, waved it of. Maybe she should be worried.

They arrived at Milo's boat half an hour later, about in the middle of the night. Both were exhausted. The first to meet them was Cashmére, who cried out and hugged Marcia. "Marcia, your eye!" she said, "What happend?"

Marcia sighed. "I... will explain to you tomorrow, Cashmére, but right now... I think that both my mother and I need to get some sleep."