The Fourth Ceremony: The Sacrifice Trilogy (15 page)

              "I've been screwing up. I've almost lost her. I, uhh, I wonder if I'm getting too close to think clearly." Camden sat across from Marston with the weight of his confession bearing on him.

              "She is a charming girl, isn't she
?”
Marston smiled knowingly
,“
she will find her way into your heart without you knowing or giving consent. That's just who she is. I don't believe you can get too close to think clearly. Caring about someone, being invested in someone as a person, what better way is there to ensure that you do everything in your power to see her to safety?" Camden shook his head, unable to decide where he stood on the subject. "Let's do something easier," Marston changed the subject, "what happened tonight and where do we need to start looking?"

              Camden spent the next fifteen minutes giving Marston the play by play of the evening. He spared no detail, his mentor would know too well if he was leaving something out and Camden knew that Marston would find clues in things Camden missed.

              "You did well noting their injuries and ensuring the leader needed medical help. I'm going to put in a quick call to the two major medical units in this district, but I don't think he would have gone there. I want you to call the border and see if anyone matching their description has tried to leave tonight. They should note anyone trying to leave the Capital at this hour so I don't believe that will yield any results either. After we tie up those ends, we will begin our true search. We will find them, Cam, rest assured."

              The two men rose to complete their respective tasks. As expected, neither of them got anywhere on their calls.

              "Alright, let's get started. It's late and they will be hiding." Marston was ever the commander.

              Camden fell easily in step beside his mentor as they walked through the streets of the district. Camden took Marston back to where the attack occurred and they began by following the direction that the smaller two men took when they fled.

              "It seems that they were headed towards the slums at War Hill. That would be the perfect place for thugs like these to come from. We'll start there." Camden nodded his agreement and they began towards the slums. "Now, there are a few folk healers on the outskirts of the slums who cater to the poorer of the township along with those of the slums. There is one who will talk to me. I like to use her myself."

              "You don't go to a physician?" Camden was surprised.

              "No, no, physicians are know-it-alls and are always trying to shove medication down my throat. Healers are more likely to help your body heal itself, not just rush in and heal it themselves."

              "I guess you learn something new every day," Camden observed. Marston threw him a sly grin.

              "Now, you let me talk to O
l’
Edna. She doesn't like strangers." Camden nodded as they approached the old storefront. Camden was excited when he saw light from the back room, if O
l’
Edna was awake at this hour, she must be working on someone. The two men pushed through the front door and were greeted by a young boy, no older than eight, who manned the counter.

              "What you two want for?" The boy was dirty and poorly dressed for the chill that was in the evening air.

              "We're here to see O
l’
Edna," Marston said gruffly.

              "She be busying herself with a boy right now. You'd best be waiting in that chair." The boy retorted.

              Camden felt a flush rise in his cheeks. What if O
l’
Edna was with one of their guys right now? He resisted the urge to rush into the back room and sat himself down beside Marston.

              After Camden and Marston had sat down, the young boy walked to the back room, presumably to warn O
l’
Edna of their arrival.

              "We should follow him," Camden said quietly, "what if one of them is back there now?"

              "O
l’
Edna will tell us. She's a good woman and she won't put up with us barging into her medical room. Catch more flies with honey, Cam."

              Camden's leg was shaking with his pent up anxiety when O
l’
Edna finally entered the room.

              "Good Mars, what ails you so late at night as to trek out here to me?" O
l’
Edna spoke sweetly as she stepped into Mars' proffered arms for an embrace. "And what you doing bringing strangers up into my rooms, good Mars? If I didn't like you so much I'd throw you on your ear, I would."

              "Dear Edna, this here is my nephew, Camden, and we are here for some very private advice and help from you." Camden flinched ever so slightly at the family title. They did not often refer to each other as family. It was a risk to the mission and pained them both to think about the person that gave them that familial connection.

              "Ahh, well, alright. I'll be trusting you this one time, good Mars. Come on back here to my room and we'll see what we can set you up with." O
l’
Edna turned on her heel and guided them back into the room that the light shone from. She directed Camden to sit on an examination table while Marston took a chair by the table and Edna sat noisily on a creaking stool across from them. The room was old, but clean, and well lit by a series of mismatched lamps.

              "I'm sorry, I'm not actually ill Ms. Edna, I just-" Camden began, but O
l’
Edna cut him off.

              "Don't you go be calling me Missus. I be O
l’
Edna or straight Edna. Or you could be a precious one like your good uncle and call me a sweet name. That be it young man, clear?"

              "Umm, yes. Yes Edna, ma'am, I apologize," Camden was startled. Then, Mars and O
l’
Edna both began to laugh in unison. Camden allowed a tight smile to pass across his face and he turned to Marston to talk to the woman.

              "Dear Edna, you know that I am a former guard of the beloved Sacrifice?" Edna nodded her assent and Marston continued, "Well just this night, the Sacrifice was attacked by three men. Camden here just did make it to her side in time. The men meant to kill her. Well, during the attack Camden injured two of the three men and we hoped that they came to you or one of your colleagues for healing."

              "And you expect that I am going to tell you who they are." Edna's matter of fact statement made Camden uneasy. She may not be as fond of Marston as they had thought.

              "Yes, I do. I need you to. The Sacrifice needs you to. And Camden here, he wouldn't feel settled if they weren't found and brought to proper justice."

              "Well, good Mars, I don't much care for the justice of the Minister. It ain't right and it ain't proper neither," Edna stood and began to look through cabinets. Camden felt frustration surge through him.

              "Ms. Edna, I mean, O
l’
Edna, please hear me when I say this. I understand your disdain for the Minister's justice. I would generally agree with you, but this is different. Alessa was hurt, almost killed, and these men enjoyed themselves at her peril. If you, as a woman of medicine and healing, had seen Alessa in the state I found her in, you would bring your own swift justice down on these men. They intended to rape and drown her. Now I am determined to find these men. They will meet my justice first and then will go on to the Minister's. I will not rest until they are found. You can make that an easier process on me and my uncle if you choose." Camden stood as he finished his speech, prepared to leave the healing woman's shop.

              "Now you just hold yourself. Describe these boys and their injuries. I'll help if I can, but I don't know about how much I'll be promising you." Edna sat on her stool as Camden described the thugs that had attacked Alessa and what injuries they sustained.

              "Well, now I have not been working on anyone with a smashed up hand. That would be work of a true physician, but I did see a boy run down the street with his nose got blood pouring out of it. I shouted out to him to come in to my shop and I be taking care of him, but he ran past and shot into Marlene's shop."

              "Where is Marlene's shop?" Camden was almost out of the room and only looked over his shoulder for an answer.

              "Marlene ain't goi
n’
to help you boy. She only works on the slum's people. Best let me walk down there and find what I can. I be coming back and tell you what's what."

              "I'd really like to go with you, ma'am," Camden couldn't sit and wait an undetermined amount of time while the three men delved farther into hiding. O
l’
Edna walked over to the door and grabbed a threadbare coat.

              "That would be too bad, young sir, you sit there and be nice with your uncle. I be coming back directly." And Camden watched as she waddled down the street.

              Camden paced around the shop. Marston simply watched him until Camden finally plopped himself down beside Marston.

              "She is helping us, Cam," Marston's voice was calm, "we just have to be patient."

              "Every minute we wait they get farther away," Camden said with irritation.

              "But we'd be hunting blind without this wait." That shut Camden up. Of course Marston was right. Camden simply wasn't the type to sit idly while someone else took care of things.

              Minutes felt like hours sitting in the dark, cramped shop. Finally, O
l’
Edna returned. In her wake was a young man, plainly a young teenager. Upon closer look, Camden recognized the smallest of the assailants, the one who got away unharmed. Camden sprung up from his seat and had the boy by the throat in an instant.

              "Whoa there young sir, you stop that this instant if you wanting me to keep helping along your cause," Edna stamped her foot to punctuate her demand. Camden released the boy's throat, but kept a hand wrapped firmly around the boy's arm.

              "That's some better. Toby, be explaining yourself to these two good men, and don't be leaving anything out of your story." Edna's voice was stern with the boy. Before he began to speak, Toby coughed and cleared his throat, to Camden's satisfaction.

              "The other two, the bigger guys, they are being my cousins. I didn't want to hurt the girl, rightly so after we saw she was the Sacrifice, but they wouldn't stop and if I were running they would be hurting me so I stayed. I be so sorry, I didn't want to hurt the girl, I didn't want to, I swear." Toby was breathing heavy and tears were forming in his eyes. Camden knew from what he saw of the attack that Toby was being honest, but it still didn't help that he was involved, whether he wanted to be or not. Camden released his arm with a shove that nearly toppled the boy over.

              "You are going to help us find these cousins of yours. You will take us to them and you won't cause any trouble. Then I might let you get off without any permanent damage, you understand?" Camden spoke quietly, menacingly.  He ignored everyone else in the room. At that moment he only had eyes for this boy who was going to lead him to the true aggressor of Alessa's attack.

              "I, I mean, I, yes, I will take you," the boy said weakly. Camden gripped his arm again and propelled him towards the door.

              "My nephew seems to have a one track mind. I do thank you kindly Dear Edna for all of your help," Marston embraced O
l’
Edna once more.

"I be understanding that one track mind Good Mars, I do much. That be the one track of one in love, it certainly be." Edna winked at Camden before he could turn away from her.

Camden was disoriented by her statement. He wasn't in love with Alessa. He cared about her, that was sure, but love was not an option for Camden. He had a job, a calling, a purpose. He would fulfill this mission and go on to the next. There was no room for someone back home. He couldn't be weakened by a threat to anyone but himself. He pushed the thought from his mind. O
l’
Edna didn't know that he was Alessa's guard nor did she know about his mission. That is why she clearly mistook his duty for love. That was all. He followed the boy out onto the street and deep into the slums.

              Toby led them up to a stone house barely bigger than the meeting room that Camden met Khi and Alec in every morning.

              "This be where they live. They be brothers, Steven and Micah, and they live here together," Toby seemed nervous and fidgety. Camden knew that both he and Marston would have to convince the other two to come in, that they would not have the conscience that Toby had.

              "Listen Toby," Camden started, "you are going to stay right here. You aren't going to run away and you aren't going to make a peep to warn them that we are here. So far, your cooperation is going to get you some leniency. Don't screw it up, understand?"