‘Let’s check the house,’ I said, getting to my feet instantly.
Jack and I entered what remained of my home together. I walked to the kitchen and began to raid the cupboards. There was nothing.
‘I think the house has been raided since they were taken,’ I called out to Jack as he searched the sitting room.
‘It looks as though it’s been turned upside down,’ Jack replied.
I checked the drawers and found that all of the cutlery, pots and pans had been taken.
‘I think kids have been lighting fires in here,’ Jack noted the scorch marks on the floor as he entered the dining room.
I scowled at him.
‘What? Oh, right. Fire-Mages.’
There was nothing of any use to be salvaged from the house. When I entered my parent’s room I discovered where most of the damage had taken place. It was a shell. The walls were black and the windows had been blown out as if an explosion had taken place. I counted the floorboards from the door and fell to my knees. With my fingertips I slid the correct floorboard out of its slot and felt around inside the hole. Success. My hand closed around a small leather pouch. My mother always had a small amount of money hidden. Once I had retrieved it I went back to Jack who was snooping through my old bedroom.
‘Stop that.’ I frowned at him as he looked under the bed.
‘I’m just checking… for clues.’ He shrugged.
‘I found my mother’s hidden stash.’ I held up the pouch and jingled it. ‘There should be enough for a couple of meals.’
Jack put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently.
‘We can devise a travel plan this afternoon and rest tonight.’ I heaved a sigh. ‘Tomorrow we will buy food and other supplies. We will leave as early as we can in the morning.’
‘I’ll get Hawthorne, shall I?’ Jack offered. ‘I’m sure he would like being inside.’
Jack lumbered from the house and I watched his tall, lanky frame walk into the garden and to the edge of the forest. Sitting down on my old bed, I allowed myself to take in everything that had just happened. My family was gone. The house was destroyed. They were in Concord City. I did not want to think about what they were going through at this moment. What did they do to people who harboured Humans? What did they do to educated Humans? Not only that, but what would I do when I reached The Realm? How could I prove that Helena is of a Mage heritage? I didn’t have all of the answers, but I was sure that I needed to try and find them.
Chapter Two
The Men in Red Cloaks
Hawthorne could tell something was wrong. He followed me around the house, knocking everything over due to his size. He looked at me sadly and pressed his nose against me as though this might cheer me up. I patted him in a kind of daze, thinking about where I must go and what I must do.
As darkness fell, Jack and I sat on the floor in the bare sitting room, eating vegetables that I had salvaged from the overgrown patch in the garden. Potatoes, carrots and beans were chopped and put into a small pot that we had found under the dining table.
Jack tried a slice of carrot. He pulled a face.
Over dinner we discussed our plans to get to Concord City. We managed to find a map of the country from what remained of my fathers possessions.
‘Okay … so we are in Mortlock, which is here,’ Jack pointed to the middle of the map, ‘and we are going to Concord City.’ He pointed at the bottom of the map.
Jack consulted the map’s key to find the distance and then counted on his fingers for a moment. ‘Which is approximately one-hundred-and—ten miles away.’
‘A hundred and ten miles?’ I gasped. ‘How long will that take if we are walking most of the way?’
Jack pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking hard. ‘Let’s assume we maintain an average pace of three miles an hour, right?’
‘Right?’ I agreed.
‘-And we manage to walk five hours each day.’
‘Sure.’ I nodded.
‘Then it should take us … about a week,’ Jack grimaced.
‘A week?’ I repeated, aghast. What kind of state would my family be in within the week?
‘Don’t worry,’ said Jack, guessing what I was thinking. ‘They will be fine. Besides, it’s the only plan we have.’
After eating our pitiful meal we washed ourselves in the basin. I offered Jack my bed, which he gallantly refused, saying he would take the couch. After telling him that I would sleep in Helena’s room, he changed his mind rather quickly and proceeded to my bedroom.
As I lay in Helena’s bed, I tried to inhale her scent from the pillow. It was no use. The smell of her had left weeks ago, like she had.