think about her. She shouldn’t have left you like that.”
“The messenger,” she began with a quiver in her voice, “he told us what happened. He heard it from someone who was there. One of them finally found one of the secret tunnels into the castle. They let everyone else in. The Welgos went in and destroyed whatever they could. They killed my mom trying to flee.”
“You don’t have to tell me this.” Ackerley breathed.
“Thrindle didn’t want me to hear it but I told him not to stop. They found my dad in the throne room.” Her eyes grew wide and she barred her teeth. “Guess what he was doing? He was sitting on the throne. He could have escaped. There are secret passages in the walls that would have gotten him out of there, but he didn’t go.” Cerise wiped her eyes and clenched her fists. “He died for that stupid throne instead of escaping. All he could think about was that stupid title. He died for that dead country. He didn’t once think of me. It would have been so easy for him to escape and come here, at any point in the last couple years. I waited. I always hoped they’d come through that door and tell me they’d given up being king and queen to be with me, but they didn’t! They didn’t care about me as long as they had that stupid throne.”
She banged her hands on the ground a few times and yelled into the quiet room. And then she stopped. For a minute she just sat there on the floor and stared into the semi-darkness. Very slowly she stood up and took a deep breath. “I just needed someone to know. I needed someone to tell. You’re all I have now, Ackerley.” She closed her eyes and nodded gently. “Thank you for trying to talk to me and wanting to be with me. Without you, I’d. . .well I don’t know.” She looked around sadly. “I’m moving up to the third floor tomorrow. I’m leaving all this behind.”
“Are they forcing you to?”
“No, I want to. This is far too much room for me. It always has been. You should stay here tonight, there’s plenty of rooms. You can invite Jarn as well. In fact, invite everyone. Let’s fill every room down here—just because.”
They ended up not inviting anyone. Cerise slept in her favorite room and Ackerley tried all the beds until he found the best one there was. It was by far the softest most perfect thing he’d ever slept on, not that there was much competition.
18.
Cerise settled into her new life over the next few days. Despite willingly giving up her giant residence, Yinnib insisted that she was still a dignitary and gave her her own room on the third floor. It proved to be useful as Ackerley, and occasionally new friends she made, could have a place to talk without the chance of being overheard by anyone. She found classes to be delightful and excelled the most in transcribing. The old man in charge of transcribing was so overjoyed with her ability that he refused to let Ackerley and a few of the others anywhere near the old manuscripts.
“We have a true genius on our hands.” He said excitedly midway through the task. “Some of you,” he looked directly at Ackerley, “can go read or something.”
History with Ms. Henred had grown awfully boring since she’d finished the history of Chell. With Cerise there she decided to go back and start the history lessons all over again. Most people didn’t find this at all exciting, as apparently she had started over several times before Ackerley had gotten there. Cerise found it fascinating and couldn’t wait to find out as much as she could.
Cerise appeared happier than ever with her new life, but occasionally when alone or lost in thought she’d shrink down and look very sad. She’d usually catch herself after a bit and find the smile again. Sometimes Ackerley could tell that the smile was fake, but much of the time it looked genuine.
Jarn hadn’t given up his obsession with Ayya. He tried to corner her multiple times that week only to be reprimanded by one of her parents, who always seemed to be lurking around. They’d tell him to hurry off to his lessons or not to dawdle in the halls. He didn’t know what group she was in and wondered if she was in one at all.
That changed one night when Ackerley and Jarn were wandering the castle together. They found Ayya staring out one of the windows on the third floor by herself. Jarn put on his best friendly face and went right up to her.
“Yo, Ayya, what’s going on?”
Ayya nervously looked down. “Nothing.”
Jarn, fearing that her parents were going to spring out of nowhere at any moment, got straight to the point. “Where are you from? We saw you coming in late one night.”
Ayya backed away looking terrified.
“It’s alright. We just want to know how things are out there.”
She stopped, looked up, and said quickly. “It’s bad. Our farm got destroyed. They all did.” She turned and ran away.
“That explains about the food.” Ackerley said.
“I wonder. . . about our farm.” Jarn said quietly. “I guess it’s gone.”
Ackerley patted his friend’s shoulder. “But you didn't have any relatives there, right?”
“Sure I did—cousins, grandparents, all sorts. I—they’re . . .”
Ackerley was overwhelmed by recent events. It felt weird having already gone through what his friends were currently feeling. A small part of him knew that they had it better since they had friends to go through it with. But that didn’t much help them. He figured all of Chell was going through it.
Jarn went to bed early that night. Ackerley was too spooked to sleep yet. All he could think about were Welgos and invasions. He never felt that way at home, and there wasn’t a giant wall there. Or perhaps he did get scared of a sudden raid and just forgot. He lived all those days without giving much thought to his inner emotions. Now, with friends and the hope of getting out of the war he let those feelings come. That made all this talk of death a lot scarier.
He sauntered around the castle for a long time trying to shake that feeling. More nobles were around than usual. They all looked sad or scared as well. No one spoke to each other, they all just meandered around. Somewhere near the large dining room an all too familiar voice called out to him.
“Oh, young Morzha.” Yinnib called sadly.
Ackerley turned and waited expectantly.
“Such sad tidings all around.” Yinnib sighed. “Things will be changing I’m afraid. Don’t fret, however. You and all your friends will be perfectly safe here.”
“Uh-huh.” Ackerley said, wanting to get away.
“There’s a good bit to learn from all this.” Yinnib continued. “Stories will be told with misty eyes one day. You’ll be a real leader when you’re older, I’m certain of it.”
“O.k.”
Yinnib’s voice suddenly deepened. “You’re used to nothing, kid. Not all of us are.”
“It’s hard.” Ackerley said.
Yinnib looked at him with sad eyes. “We’ve been selfish here. We can’t any longer. I’ll tell you more later.” He rubbed Ackerley’s head. “Get to sleep, young Morzha, we’ll speak again.”
Yinnib left Ackerley standing there feeling utterly confused.
Yinnib was barely out of sight when footsteps came quickly to the scene. Ackerley hid behind the table even though no one was in view. An angry Craith could be heard.
“You can’t tell me that the rumors are true, Yin.”
“I’m sorry to say that they are.” Yinnib defended bravely. “You knew changes would happen if things got bad enough.”
“But this?” Craith spat. “Did you forget why we’re even here?”
Ackerley started slowly around the table trying to get a view of what was going on.
“To keep the children of Chell safe during the war.” Yinnib answered.
“No—don’t give me that! We both signed up for this to train the next class of nobles. To teach them in the ways of Chell. It’s only been going downhill since then. And now I’m hearing that you’re letting commoners in. I don’t think you realize what you’re doing.”
Yinnib sh
ushed Craith. “I’m here to protect all of Chell, not just nobles.”
Ackerley came around the end of the table. Two figures came into view in the hall. He could see Craith standing threateningly over Yinnib, who stood his ground.
“They aren’t Chells.” Craith breathed. “Those commoners don’t know a thing. They live in the kingdom provided by the nobles and don’t even know its history. That boy you and Chellion let in didn’t even know what the Great Spirit was. They’re all like that.”
“And now look where Ackerley is.” Yinnib said. He had completely lost the airy way he talked and sounded deep and severe. “He’s a right fine young man and can be a very honorable noble one day.”
“If this stands then I’m leaving. And I’m not the only one.”
“Where will you go? You know this is the only place that can keep you safe.”
Craith backed away. “We’ll go home. No one can invade the manor region. That’s why they haven’t yet. It’s protected by the Great Spirit. Why do you think only commoner towns have been destroyed?”
“And all of our sacred sites.” Yinnib reminded him.
Craith ignored this. “Promise me you won’t let those people in here.”
“I will not promise that.” Yinnib insisted. “If you want to go out there and die then you’d better leave now. I won’t have any naysayers in this castle.”
“What would Chellion say to that?” Craith sneered.
Yinnib stepped towards Craith, showing that he would not be