Instead of trees to my left, now there was just a solid wall of rock—I was at the foot of a cliff. I craned my neck upward and paused for a moment. I moved along the rocks and tried to approach the wall of the cliff, but found that I met an invisible barrier about three feet away. I’d been hoping to climb up it. No chance. I had no choice but to continue forward in the same direction.
About a mile up, the rocks gave way to more sand—and yet more trees. The trees were no thinner than before, but as I stopped to listen, I could hear distant talking. There were people not too far away. I felt that I was at a safe enough distance to begin calling out. I crossed the sand and walked as close to the woods as I could without hitting the barrier and began yelling at the top of my voice:
“Hermia Adrius! I need to speak to Hermia Adrius!”
I yelled for what seemed like five minutes straight until my voice felt hoarse. I looked up and down the shore, hoping that someone would come. But nobody did.
Either nobody heard me, or they were ignoring me. I doubted the former was true—if I could hear them, they should have been able to hear me screaming unless the barrier was soundproof. But I didn’t see any sense in that—it would only block them off from warnings of an attack.
It seemed that there was only one way to find out.
Time to try a different tactic, I think.
“The Sanctuary is under attack!” I screamed, in as panicked a tone as I could. “The black witches are here! You are all in terrible danger!”
That should get someone’s attention…
And sure enough it did. Only one minute after I stopped yelling, an elderly-looking warlock emerged through the trees behind the boundary. His eyes were wide with worry as he looked me over.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“I am Rose Novak, an acquaintance of Hermia Adrius, and she will be furious with you if you do not escort me inside the boundary and bring me to her this instant.”
“Novak, you say? How do I know you are who you say you are?”
I was about to suggest that he just go and fetch Hermia and bring her to visit me, but I didn’t like the idea of losing sight of him in case he disappeared and decided not to return. I wanted to be taken to that witch, and I wanted it now.
“Do I look like a black witch to you?” I asked, cocking my head to one side.
He shook his head.
“Then what are you afraid of? I’m just a girl. A human. I am no threat to you.”
When he still hesitated, I lost my patience. “Look, warlock, I saved the life of the sister of your Ageless. The least you can do is let me inside.”
He still appeared doubtful, but to my relief, he stepped forward, crossing the boundary and grabbing my hand before pulling me inside.
He was looking at me as though I was about to wield some magic on him, or perhaps transform into a black witch.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I am who I say I am.”
“I will take you as far as the Adriuses’ palace. But I will not bring you inside. You will wait outside the gates.”
“Okay,” I said.
He caught my arm and we vanished. We reappeared outside an ornate set of gates, beyond which was a magnificent palace made of pure white marble.
“Wait here,” he said, looking at me sternly before he disappeared from sight.
I did as requested, looking up and down the quiet road. There were two other warlocks standing guard outside the gate who were looking at me suspiciously. I slipped my hands into my pockets, avoiding their gaze.
I was surprised when Hermia appeared before me only minutes later. I was expecting to wait much longer.
“Hermia,” I said. “I need your help.”
She raised a brow. “What’s wrong?”
“Firstly, you may or may not be aware that Rhys Volkin is outside on one of your beaches trying to break into The Sanctuary. I’m not sure what spell you put up around this place, but it’s doing a good job.”
From the look on Hermia’s face, it seemed that she had not realized that Rhys was attacking.
“Secondly, I’m here with my family, Mona, Corrine and some others. We need you to let us inside. Right now. I don’t have time to explain everything—it’s an extremely long story, but if you don’t let them enter, you are going to regret it sorely.”
“Mona?” Her mouth hung open.
I realized that I was talking fast, and it was a lot to take in, but I felt impatient all the same.
“You remember what I did for you? I hope you have not forgotten already.”
Her eyes darkened. “Of course I have not forgotten. I will be forever in debt to you for what you did for me and my fellow witches that night.”
“Then just trust me on this and let my people inside. They are waiting on the beach, near one of the rock formations. And we need to go to the graveyard.”
“The graveyard?” she said, looking even more confused.
“Are you just going to stand here all day repeating my words? Please, hurry.”
Composing herself, she nodded. “Very well,” she said. “I trust that your people will do no harm to us. I will let them inside.”
I described where I’d left them as best as I could, and then I locked arms with Hermia so she could transport both of us there. We appeared on the beach, and sure enough it was the right one.
“They are all invisible,” I began, “but they should be waiting just over—”
“Rose!” My mother’s voice drifted across the beach—not from the direction of the rocks, to my surprise. It had come from the opposite direction. She no longer had an invisibility spell over her and I could see her racing toward us.