Chapter 62Of Charm and Chase

I wasn't quite sure what to do now. Either Deirdre had a dream of the past or they had been moved. But, the cage was still there. And clean. It made me wonder how long ago it had been 'cleaned'. Another thought, even though I knew I was probably taking things too far, was that the Master who saw me in that room didn't look at all worried. But it was not important, for now.

There were two things I thought were more important now; safely get out of Rockwall and read the letters so we could decide on an action.

Both with Deirdre, obviously.

The castle wasn't empty, but people were mostly still on their breakfast. There was only a single stable boy present, hiding a loaf of bread behind him when I got closer. Deirdre smiled, standing almost next to him. She nodded at me when I got close and poked the guy. He looked at her and almost ran into the stables, realizing why I was there.

It was cute, in a way.

"More trouble." Deirdre sounded serious.

"What?"

"I'll say more later, we have to hurry."

The stable boy returned with the horses, they looked alright, though definitely not as happy as the day before. That was understandable of course. I suppose they felt our agitation as well. But they listened well. The city was quiet and allowed us to leave easily. It wasn't without trouble though, we were spotted by Light and Dark students on the way. I could only hope they weren't looking for us.

Deirdre led us, in a gallop, out of the city and into the woods with no delays. She slowed down to a canter when the city was out of sight behind us and only then wanted to speak. Though she started with a question.

"Did you find them?"

I shook my head, riding next to her. "No, just an empty, cleaned cage and a wing."

"Nothing else?"

"Someone got in, I didn't have time to properly look."

She nodded. "The students of Light know about the agitation of the Dark. We left quite a trail there now and, if we're unlucky, they will start looking for us."

"Did he say anything else?"

She blushed a little. "Eh yes."

"What?"

"He said I looked like I was glowing..."

Now that we had slowed down a little, with the forest blocking out most of the sun, I looked at her and realized he was right. She was glowing, there was an aura of warmth around her that wasn't exactly visible, but it tantalized the eyes quite subtly. It was almost as if the Charm that was given to her had surged quite a bit for some reason.

"Your charm..."

She looked at me oddly, then smiled. "Oh, I see what you mean... That explains the way he kept staring at me, as did most of the students walking past."

"What did you do?"

"Eh..." she hesitated. "I don't think I did anything..." She looked at me and blinked. "Taran, you're glowing as well."

Suddenly something jumped from the trees on the back Deirdre's horse. The horse stumbled for just a short moment before getting back to it's canter again. It was a nymph, Eavan... At least I thought it was her. Though she looked somewhat different, she had the same feeling as the last time I saw her. It felt so long ago. We were still almost a day's travel away from Stonesthrow.

"Eavan?"

The nymph nodded. "Yes. You're both in quite a hurry. It wasn't easy getting here." She spoke nonchalantly, sitting casually behind Deirdre.

Who turned her head a little. "Why are you here?"

"You need to get off the path. We need to talk and there are some following you."

Deirdre nodded but added another question. "Did you do this?" waving with her hand over her face.

Eavan giggled. "Yes. Like it?"