Previously in The Light: DG ran away central city but Cain found her and brought her back because of a mystery illness called the 'Turning Malady.' After returning to the Palace DG and Cain finally have to talk about a kiss they shared before DG ran away. But before two long they along with Glitch are hot on the trail of the people responsible for the malady. Unfortunately DG was captured by them thrown in a box and shackled with magic proof shackles. Cain is not dealing with this too well.

Chapter Nineteen: The Edge of the Clear Lands

There was a crack and a wooden ripping noise as the truck went over a bump.

Despite the noise for a second DG thought nothing had happened but then with a little gentle pressure the lid of the wooden box open at the lower two corners letting in dazzlingly bright light and blessedly cool fresh air. DG collapsed against the floor of the box. Her legs went to jelly instantly and started to shake as well as ache traumatically. As well as that her broken ribs screamed and the air in the box seemed utterly used and stagnant after the brief moment of fresh air. Despite all of this DG felt a brief moment of contentment. She might just get out of here after all...

Her legs had just about recovered by the time DG noticed that the truck was beginning to slow down. They changed direction, the box she was inside sliding slightly in the back of the truck. After a moment it rumbled across something that sounded remarkably like gravel. Outside it was beginning to get dark. DG knew that because she had checked by raising the tiniest corner of her wooden prison every hour or so. The rest of the time she had spent dozing or trying to stretch out her muscles. She had one chance. One. And she could not afford to blow it.

The plan- if you could call it that was born out of desperation and limited resources. It wasn't quite worthy of Wyatt Cain she reasoned but it was good enough for her. She wasn't Cain after all. DG bit her lip- hard and very deliberately because it was a distraction from where that train of thought went. Just thinking about the general made her feel shaky and her throat ache alarmingly, so she was trying hard not to do it very much. But in fact thinking about anyone- Glitch, Raw, her parents... Az. They were all making her throat tighten and eyes sting. Even if her plan worked then she was still going to be all alone in a part of the OZ she probably had little to no idea about and most significantly she was still going to be shackled.

Her reverie was broken by the sound of the engine cutting out. They had stopped. After a few moments a hand slammed down on the lid of her box-jail:

'All right in there yer majesty?' it was one of the brothers with a particularly unpleasant mocking tone in his voice.

DG made a point of reacting loudly- she yelled then kicked against the box and swore at him. All the time working hard not to alert him to the fact the several fat iron nails he or his brother had hammered deep into the wood of the box's lid were in fact now simply there for show. It seemed to work for the magician wandered away chuckling to himself. So now DG thought to herself, I just have to wait.

###

Glitch thought Cain's mood had improved a little. Or at the very least it had not gotten any worse. He wasn't forcing a gallop out of their tired horses anymore... But the group was moving at a very fast canter however. They stopped at each village checking if two men and a young woman had passed through. At the last place they'd checked they were told a truck had passed by a few hours before but no one had seen the driver. It wasn't taking them long to get their answers so each stop was only a matter of moments. This was because most people had heard of Cain and if they hadn't then one look at his face told them all they need to know. This was not a man to mess around.

'I don't think that's them.' It was Day, the young man reaching a position at the head of the party between Cain and Glitch. They were riding out along the only track in the area that would allow a truck to be driven along it. The road was a branch off of the Brick Route, heading almost arrow straight south through the Brush Lands, Clear Lands and into the Reed Lands. It was called, surprisingly, the Reed Route. The group were getting close to the edge of the Clear Lands now the last hamlet they had stopped at had been called Drovers Landing referring to the fact that drovers of livestock would usually land there before beginning to turn their flocks around and head back into the centre of the OZ. It was the edge of the safe lands.

'Why not?' Glitch asked the soldier thankful for a reason to take his mind off of the Reed Lands and what they contained.

'Because they wouldn't use a truck. Trucks are slow. Much quicker to keep moving by horse surely?' there was a layer of sweat on Lyle Day's face and a smudge of dirt under his chin. He looked exhausted and Glitch was impressed he had the energy or the guts to stand up to Cain.

'Have you ever tried riding with a pissed off princess struggling away in front of you in the saddle?' Cain asked with a steely edge in his voice.

'No Sir.'

'A truck is gonna be easier than that. Take my word for it.'

For a moment it looked like Day was going to say something else but he instead swallowed and responded with a simple 'Yes Sir.' Then he let himself drop back towards the rear of the party again. The Advisor let the silence between himself and the General continue for a while. He tried to imagine what was going through Cain's mind: he knew that DG and Cain were involved now. He'd known they were falling in love with one another since before the witches defeat... but something had shifted between them since Cain had been shot. Loosing another person Cain loved was not option.

And not just for the Tin Man himself although every line in his face, tensed muscle and gritted tooth spoke volumes to that effect. But for Glitch too. Cain was a friend, a true friend. The months after the eclipse had cemented something that had begun in the battles they had shared, despite the bickering and joking there was true respect there. Cain had been the one to sit with Glitch during his 're-braining' and to listen to every horrible memory that had brought back. And he had been the one to talk him down from precipices of depression that had caused. Ambrose was not going to let more hurt happen to his friend. All of that was simply alongside the fact that he loved DG and no one was going to steal her.

'Where do you think they're headed?' Glitch asked after the silence began to grate on him.

'They said at the village... At Drovers Landing. They said there was an abandoned farm on the edge of the Reed Lands. Called Pipers Calling or something...'

'That'll be because they used to believe that gypsies were half fae or fairy and used pipes to call people away from their homes in the middle of the night...'

'Can we keep the mythology and joking around to after we've found the princess?' Cain asked stretching his shoulders slightly. 'Why has it taken us so long to catch up with them? Why would they arc like this towards the reeds no go straight?' The Tin Man asked in a low voice.

'You're worried about the gypsies?' Glitch asked and had to raise his voice to be heard. The company had reached the top of a hill and their mounts had begun the downward journey. The wind was ferocious and stole the already strained words from the advisor's mouth. As he waited for a reply he looked out at the vista before him. Even though it had fallen dark a little while before the moons were full and the stars incredibly bright and the Advisor could see for miles. The clear lands spread below for maybe two miles. They were usually golden in the sun but now they were silver in night. Then came the reed lands brown and flat going on and on until the merest slash of glittering green/blue Glitch knew to be the sea and then the horizon. If he hadn't have been so worried Glitch would have been awed by the view.

'Yes I am worried about the gypsies...' Cain paused and pointed towards a grey building huddling into the golden grass a little way from the beginning of the reeds. It had to be Pipers Calling. 'There have been rumours that they are not happy with the queen being back. They feel... let down.' The derision in Cain's voice was clear.

'We all suffered under the witches reign. Even them.'

'It was a long decade...' Cain said sounding tired.

'That's because it was more than a decade...' Glitch offered jovially but he didn't need to see Cain's face to follow the comment with: 'I know. I know. Joking comes after we find DG.'

###

DG had done it. The thought kept rebounding in her mind over and over again.

I've done it! I'm out! I'm free!

Admittedly she thought stumbling as she rushed through the corn filled field it hadn't been elegant. Waiting until you hope your captors are asleep then shoving your way out of the box and running like heck was not the most ingenious plan ever but it had, somehow, miraculously worked. The two magicians had heard the box break there was no way around that and she had heard them yelling as she hit the ground. But she didn't hear them following her and she was running quickly. As quickly as she possibly could after over a day in a wooden prison with no food or water: what she wouldn't do for a drink...

'No! Keep focused!' The Princess hissed to herself. She had to keep moving to have even a hope of getting away. But the something happened that made her pause despite her urgency. Something so completely unreal she couldn't believe what she saw in the moon light.

DG had reached the Reed Lands. Or more accurately she had reached the place where the Clear Lands met the Reed Lands. In a perfectly straight line. It was ruler straight and stayed that way as far as she could see in either direction. No gap between them or overlap at all just one type of land and then immediately and empathically the other.

'Only in the OZ.' She breathed croaking slightly. Behind her there was the faintest sound of voices on the wind. Shaking her head to shift her focus DG ploughed on and into the Reeds.

A moment later her desire for water was fulfilled.