III

Behind Sealed Doors

The next morning, Sai seemed to have disappeared. His horse and belongings were all gone and he left no trace of where he went, only the few words he had left in each of their minds. It was the only thing Sembri had been able to read of Sai's mind, and she knew he had done so on purpose.

"Sembri and Toren, I am deeply sorry I had to leave you so quickly, but something has come up that needs my immediate attention. I will be back with you as soon as I am able. Until then, take great care and don't stay in one place or travel in one direction for very long. Confuse your enemy. And take extreme caution; tell no one of who you are or where you are from. The enemy has many spies. Toren, I am sorry to break my promise, but this is the only way I have to tell you, Sembri will have to hear a little about you. Before you speak about anything important, go to a room with no one else, preferably one in an inn or bar, and seal it with a spell. It might be able to be penetrated, but only with very strong magic, and if it is, you will know it. Again, take care, and I will see you soon."

Sembri was starting to cry. Sai, the person she considered family above all others, was now gone. First her father left, then her mother was murdered, and now she felt as if she would never see Sai again. She began feeling the tears fall freely from her face and buried her head in her hands.

Toren's face had gone red; not from anger, but anxiety. He knew Sembri would ask about him, she was too curious not to. But when he turned to her and saw her crying, he realized that right now, all she cared about was the last of her family leaving her. Sai had told her about her mother after he had told him about Curt. He woke her up and led her away, just as he had done for him. When she came back to camp, she fell into his arms. Toren had needed the comfort just as much as she had. They slept together, holding each other as tightly as they could, needing to know someone was there. Today she held to him just as tightly. He stroked her long hair as she cried into his shoulder. They sank to the ground and he rocked her silently as he waited for her to finish. He knew how hard this was on her, God knows she'd been through enough. He kissed the top of her head, hoping they could get out of this alive. If nothing else, he could make sure she could be happy afterwards and not hunted by a demon. She didn't cry long, but once she was finished, she seemed to be steeled against whatever faced her. He admired her will to move on.

They loaded anything they had onto their horses and set off at a fair pace. They went through three towns, each of which seemed to pay them no attention, before it started growing dark. There was a town not too far ahead, so they decided to stay at an inn there for the night. It was a crowded place, seeing as how this town was so far away from a bigger city, but the people were not crude, just the locals in for the late hours of the bar. They were, however, giving Sembri a few lewd stared. Toren tucked his arm in hers and together they walked up to the person who ran the place. When Toren asked for one room, Sembri nearly lost it, then she remembered they were supposed to be newlyweds. She gripped his arm tighter and moved closer to him to add the effect that they wanted to be left alone. They succeeded in getting a room the farthest to the back of the inn, and right near an escape hatch, just in case they needed it.

As she set her stuff down on the bed, Toren held a finger to his mouth, indicating for her to be silent. He brought his hands in front of him and they started glowing bright gold. The light got brighter and started sparkling, the thin cords of magic interweaving with each other and swirling around his fingertips. Then it shot out at the door. It gleamed brightly and a bubble formed itself over the entire frame, still sparkling gold. It had also been done to the one window in the room; apparently it worked for any amount of openings at once.

"Now, no one will be able to hear us without me knowing it. That shield will remain there as long as I want it to. We can go in and out as we please, and no one will see the shields. It won't disappear. However, I think it might be safer to just stay in here until we need to leave."

Sembri simply nodded her head. She understood that Toren didn't want to talk about what he just did, or he would have explained it already, and she wasn't going to pry into things he didn't want her to know about him. She smiled and opened up the part of her pack that had the food in it and pulled out half a loaf of bread, some dried meat, and a few berries.

"Care for some food? You look starving, and I know I am!" He smiled with her and joined her in their dinner. "So, where are we headed next?"

"The next town we will need to visit is located far north. It's called Corinth, the city of one thousand lights. It's supposed to be extremely beautiful at night when it's all lit up. Anyways, I've got a friend of mine there gathering information that we'll need. We need to check up on him in order to move on."

"Corinth. I have heard of that city. It's supposedly very well known for strange people coming and going from the castle there. Who is the ruler?"

He scratched his head in apology. "That you will have to figure out on your own. I can't tell you. Sorry. It's one of the things that might make you change your mind." "And I like you too much for you to leave now," he thought.

Sembri blushed at the last part. She still hadn't told him she could read his thoughts. She felt bad about it, but sometimes, he wouldn't tell her things that she wanted to know. She was able to figure some of them out by listening to him when be became silent. She smiled at him.

"I wouldn't leave. You've been the best friend to be that I've ever had, and I couldn't leave you out here all by yourself, now could I?" She giggled. He looked so cute when he was thinking about her. An impish grin crossed his face. He laughed with her and they continued their meal talking about their past.

"My mother was a very kind woman. She helped anyone that needed it, and she wasn't afraid of anyone. She held her own. My father left about six months ago when he found out there was going to be another mouth to feed. He didn't leave for good, he went to his father to ask for money, but he never came home. Something must have happened to him while he was gone. So that left my mom and me. It's been hard, but we've made it fine by ourselves. I guess now it's just me."

"You're doing great, though! Really, you are. And with me here with you, you're not alone."

"Thanks, Toren. That helps. So how about you? Where are you originally from? Or is that something else you can't tell me?"

"Well, um, it's not so much something I can't tell you as it is something I'd rather not have you know. It's not that I don't trust you, it's just, I don't want you to leave because of it."

"I wouldn't leave. However, if it makes you feel better not to tell me, then I'll understand. You can tell me when your ready. Is there anything you want to talk about though? Anything you want to get off your mind?"

"Actually, there is one thing. The night your mother died. Well, that night, the messenger I sent with the letter for your mom, he died, too. He was the one who found her. I thought you might want to know that you aren't alone in that either. Curt was more like a brother to me that a friend. We grew up together, so losing him was horrible for me. We're in this together, and we'll get revenge for them, I promise."

She nodded and they sat in silence contemplating the promise they had just made. They knew it was no simple matter, but they both, wholeheartedly, wanted revenge.

"There are still some things that confuse me though. You seem to know a lot more about Sai than you let on. I think I've figured it out on my own, but will you tell me what it is?"

"You seem to ask a lot of questions that I can't answer. I made a promise to Sai that I wouldn't tell you. However, I never told him that if you guessed it that I'd disagree with you."

"Ha! You also have a way of worming around rules you don't want to listen to. Sai means much to me, I will not make you break your promise. I won't make any presumptions as of now. I'll ask him myself when I see him."

"Thank you, Sem. I wouldn't want him mad at me." He looked up at the ceiling, searching for a way to say what he wanted. He glanced in her direction and saw her watching him. He smiled at her and tousled her hair. "Well, let's get some sleep. If you want, I'll sleep in the chair by the door. That way you could have the bed to yourself."

"Nonsense! It's a big bed, and I trust you. We have a long way to travel tomorrow, and we both need as much rest as we can get. It's no different than sleeping on the ground together. Now come on, let's get some rest."

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Two scarcely perceptible sparkles of light occupied the bush beside the entrance to the small inn. Those eyes had been there for hours, watching. They had no idea what was planned out for them. Try as he might, the spy couldn't hold in his delight over the situation. He abandoned his post for the next hour to go inside to enjoy a few drinks.

However, one too many drinks doesn't sit well with a person consumed with a blood lust. After disposing of the innkeeper and the few remaining people downstairs, he seized the railings of the stairs, headed for the room he knew to be occupied by the couple he had been stalking for days.

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Nearly one hundred miles away, Sai's screams echoed through an isolated dungeon. Only one person heard his cry; the one person that no one wanted to deal with, the one person that they were trying to save Kenai from.

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