They stared down at a vast field dotted with workers tending the crops. Aella had never seen anything like it."Once we get past these fields, there"s a ring of trees around the training fields," said Alfred, scanning the area.
"It will be night soon, so if we"re going to do this, we need to move now," said Aella, reminding them all that she had other commitments.
"We"ve been riding hard, the horses won"t last much longer," said Josephine.
Alfred looked back at the sweating horses. They were trembling from exertion, and their heads were hanging down. They looked terrible.
"Maybe we should just let them go," he said, glancing at Josephine, who nodded and touched each horse gently, to heal it, before removing its equipment.
"I"ll teleport each of you to the trees there, in the distance," Aella said, pointing ahead.
"I"ll meet you there. If these people don"t know we"ve pa.s.sed, we"ll have an easier time getting to the Father without raising any alarms."
With a nod, Alfred disappeared, and Aella grabbed Curt to take him first, while Josephine finished with the horses. Teleporting with people was getting easier, the more she did it, now that the magic of the cloak was a part of her. She didn"t have to pick him up, only touch him, as she stepped forward into the cl.u.s.tered bushes by the trees. Hunching down, they glanced around to make sure no one had seen them, then she returned to fetch Josephine.
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"I want to know what you"re doing!" demanded a man who was standing by the discarded saddles and reigns. He held a hoe, and didn"t see Aella behind him.
"I"m on a mission by the Father," Josephine said coldly, glaring at him as if to dare question the Church.
His whole demeanor changed, and he stepped back with a quick bow. "Forgive me! I did not know."
"If you say anything about this, the Father will know who spoke of it," she growled, narrowing her eyes. The poor man was almost shaking in his boots as he apologized again and all but ran away.
"Ready?" asked Aella, impressed despite herself. It was sad that the Church had all of its people terrified of it, when it was supposed to be the one who protected and cared for them.
"Yes," Josephine said with a shake of her head. Aella teleported them quickly to join Curt, and Alfred stepped out beside them.
"I looked ahead, and we"ve arrived at a bad time. All of the children they are moving are a.s.sembled in the fields, getting their a.s.signments."
"Really? Can I see?" asked Aella, pushing through the bushes, with Alfred beside her to guide her.
"Each group of kids are separated based on the hero they are related to. We don"t have an Earth group, because it was believed they all fled a long time ago. Felix was the only hopeful, which is going to royally tick the church off that he"s missing," said Josephine.
Aella looked over the kids that were aged between 10 and 13. There were a lot, and they all looked like mindless soldiers. A lump formed in her throat. She recognized that look. She had fought against demon kids who shared that look. They had been trained to fight, and to follow orders. Everything that might have been individual to that specific kid was beaten out of them. She couldn"t tell if it was too late for these kids yet, but it didn"t look good.
"They initiated a new training program when your mother disappeared," said Alfred softly. "None of the kids were allowed to have free time away from guards. When they returned to their parents, or designated living quarters, the guards would go with them. I"m not sure how Rose managed to sneak Felix away from his guards, because he was special to the Church. These guys don"t know what it is to be away from their guards."
"They look like little soldiers," said Aella, wondering if they were savable. It would be interesting to take them from the church.
"They don"t get any time to play, to know how to be little kids," said Curt. "Though, I don"t know about you Aella, but we didn"t get that either."
"But we weren"t treated like these guys have been," said Josephine. "The best thing for them would be if they were taken somewhere far away from this Church, and this war."
"We don"t have time, or a place, to take them all away. It would take Aella a long time to jump each kid, and I"m pretty sure the Church isn"t going to just stand by and let that happen. If we try to do anything, other than get to Father Steven, we"ll probably never find your daughter," said Alfred.
With a heavy sigh, she nodded, and turned to Aella. "That tower, with the big red windows, is Father Steven"s personal tower. Is that too far for you to jump to?"
Aella studied it for a moment. She couldn"t see the top of the tower, to be able to get a clear picture in her head to teleport. Looking up into the trees over her head, she started climbing, hoping to get high enough. There were plenty of rooftops she could see, but not the tower.
With the sun starting to sink, and the grounds laid out before her crawling with people, Aella weighed her options. If she could jump to the tower itself, maybe an outer ledge, she could climb the stonework to the top. With that being her best option, she gave the heroes below her a thumbs up, and began teleporting. First, was to a rooftop not far from where she was at in the tree. There was a better vantage point here, to see the kids below as they were called out from their groups and escorted by guards to wagons.
Shaking her head to stay focused, she turned to the next rooftop. It was a building much closer to the tower, but the roof was angled, and would give her away to anyone looking in that direction. She thought about it for a moment, glancing at the tower she was trying to get to. There was a ledge, that she could barely see, that she might be able to jump to. The rock of the tower was much smoother than she had thought it would be, but there was no other choice. She would definitely be seen if she tried to jump to the roof of the next building.
Thinking about that ledge, it took longer for a clear image to enter her head. She still couldn"t see what was around the edge, but the bit she could see, was enough. Stepping onto the ledge, she quickly glanced over at the area she hadn"t been able to see from the rooftop. There was an older man, wearing dark red robes, sitting with his back to her, smoking a pipe. Beside him, a small table held a platter with cookies, and she could hear noises inside the gla.s.s doors that led to a room.
Stepping carefully, so as not to make a noise, she moved outside the line of sight, of anyone who might step onto the balcony. Taking a slow breath, to bring her heart rate down after the startling encounter, she looked up at the rock she needed to climb. This would be easier than she had thought, because she could step on the air when there wasn"t a wide enough crack. Scaling the tower, she quickly reached the top and made sure there were no guards stationed up there. As the last of the light faded from the sky, she teleported back to the trees with the others.
"You made that look too easy," complained Curt with a shake of his head.
"Everything is difficult, if you haven"t done it enough," she said, turning to Alfred.
A few minutes later, they all crouched on the tower roof.
"So much easier with that ability of yours," breathed Alfred, heading towards the door. Josephine nodded in agreement, and Aella smiled at them. The cloak was strangely pleased, and the feeling was foreign, Aella accepted it, and followed, bring up the rear. They knew the way far better than she did.
Pausing as Alfred opened the door and disappeared inside, they waited for him to return with an all clear. The guards who had been stationed on the next floor were dead, laying in a pile by the next set of stairs. Holding up a hand, Aella smiled at the others and grabbed the two men. They weighed a lot, but she closed her eyes and thought of them as nothing more than meat, and teleported away. If they left their bodies to be discovered later, it could cause them trouble.
"What is this?" asked Frank, rearing his head at the two bodies she dropped. The sound of water was pleasing to her ears as Aella glanced around the secret meeting hall under the palace.
"I bring you snacks. Please remove all of their belongings before you eat them."
"What"s this?" asked Louie, popping out of another hole near Frank.
"Our king has brought us snacks!" marveled Frank with tears in his slitted snake eyes.
"No way," responded Louie, going in close to inspect the two bodies. "These are really for us?"
"Just remove all of their things, before you eat them," she repeated, giving them a smile. "And I may bring you more gifts, if you like?"
"Oh!" they both trilled, wrapping around themselves as if unable to contain their joy. "You are the best king we have ever had the pleasure of serving! None has ever brought us gifts!"
Returning to the others, who were waiting impatiently, she nodded that they could continue. Ignoring the looks of curiousness, she followed the others down the stairs to the next floor. She didn"t have to explain herself to anyone.