When All Hope is Lost (Book 2)

A New Shade of Amber

"Nix!!" Kylo shouted. We had searched for ages, but we hadn't heard his screams in several minutes, and I was afraid something had happened.

"Let's split up," Iris said. "We'll find him faster. Let's go in pairs. Fae and I can go left and you guys can go right. We'll meet up by the castle in about 30 minutes. Shout if you find Nix." Kylo, Jerry, and Decoy agreed, and me and Iris searched on by ourselves. Suddenly, I heard a quiet noise, it sounded like someone was crying. I told Iris and we crept toward the noise. We soon came to a clearing, and on a rock in the clearing sat a small girl. She was sobbing quietly. My fear for Nix returned along with curiosity and concern for the girl. I looked at Iris. She shrugged. I stepped into the clearing. The girl did not seem to notice me.

"Hi," I said. She looked up. She had big amber eyes, and silky brown hair. Her face was covered in tears. "I'm sorry, we didn't mean to startle you. Are you okay?" The girl slowly shook her head. She slid off the rock, picked up a stick, and started writing in the dirt. Once she was done she stood up, and pointed the stick at her message. It said,

Bad people take me and my friends. I ran away. Who are you?

She pointed in the direction of the castle. "I'm so sorry. I was taken by bad people too. Are your friends okay?" The girl shook her head and started crying again. Iris knelt next to the girl.

"We're going to help you, okay? I'm Iris, and this is my friend Fae. What's your name?" The girl picked up the stick again. When she was done, it read:

Zuna.

"Your Zyanyan." I said, staring into her luminous amber eyes. Zuna nodded. "Why did the bad people take you?" I asked. Zuna shuddered and shook her head vigorously. She didn't seem to want to talk about her time in the Fallen Stars base.

"What do we do?" Iris whispered to me. "We can't just leave her here, but I don't know how to take care of a six year old girl, who seems to be mute. Or too traumatized to talk at the moment."

"We should take her with us to meet the others, and then we can decide what to do." I replied.

"Zuna?" I said. The girl, who had been drawing in the dirt around her name, looked up. "Would you come with us to meet some new friends?" Zuna's amber eyes were fearful, but she nodded. She stood up and ran to me. She put her small hand in my much larger one. I was startled, but I didn't let go. We walked toward the castle. Halfway through the walk, Zuna seemed to realize they were going toward the place where she had been taken, and she started tugging my hand away from the castle. I looked at her. She shook her head fiercely. She wouldn't be going back to the castle.

"Go to the others, and tell them we found a girl." I told Iris. She hesitated.

"But Nix! What if whatever happened to him will happen to you?"

"I'll be fine. You'll be back in a couple minutes." I replied. Iris nodded, and ran off toward the castle. Zuna tilted her head at me curiously. She wrote something on the ground with another stick.

Sad? Worried? Scared?

"Yes, my friend is missing. I'm worried that the bad people who took you also took him." Zuna hugged me.

It's okay. We will find him.

I smiled at Zuna's attempt to comfort me. As a kid you never fully understood the darkness in the world. It was something that I wished I could go back to, because I, like Zuna, had begun seeing the darkness way too early. Iris returned soon with Jerry, Kylo, and Decoy following. They looked worried.

"No sign of Nix?" I asked them. Decoy shook her head. She saw Zuna who was still holding my hand, and smiled.

"Picked up a little one, have you?" Zuna waved at Decoy.

"Yes, we found her alone in the woods. The Fallen Stars captured her. She won't say why. She said her name is Zuna." Decoy smiled.

"Such a pretty name, for such a pretty girl." Zuna smiled back at Decoy shyly.

"She's Zyanyan?" Kylo said suspiciously.

"Yes," I said, "she's just a girl, Kylo, she doesn't know anything about the war between Asterin and Zyanya, she couldn't have anything to do with it." Zuna tilted her head at Kylo. She began to write in the dirt again with her stick.

What is wrong?

She looked questioningly at Kylo. He looked away. Not answering her.

"We need to find Nix." He said. "We're wasting time." He marched off into the woods again. I exchanged a worried glance with Iris.

"He's just worried, and stressed. We need to give him some time." Decoy said.

Just then, we heard another scream. It was Kylo. I sprinted toward the sound. I finally reached the spot. There stood Kylo, a knife held to his throat by a masked man. Three others stood nearby surrounding Nix, who was tied up and gagged, but unharmed. The first masked man advanced toward me. I drew my knife, which Kylo had gifted to me during our journey. I cut the man's arm and then knocked him out with a well aimed elbow to the head. The next man advanced, and I soon knocked him out with the handle of the knife. The soldier holding Kylo let him go, and charged me at the same moment as the last man. They managed to corner me against a tree. I was sure that Nix, Kylo, and I were done for, when a large object hit the men in the head in quick succession, and they fell to the ground. There stood Kylo, a tree branch in his hand. Zuna, Jerry, Iris, and Decoy soon joined.

Friend?

Zuna asked when she spotted Nix.

"Yes," I said smiling. We untied Nix.

"I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I didn't mean any of it. Fae's right, this castle is affecting everything around it. We need to get out of here." He noticed Zuna. "Who's the girl?"

"Long story. Let's get out of here, and then we can tell each other stories. Something is familiar about those outfits, and not in a good way," I said, indicating the four men lying on the ground.

"Should we tie them up, so they can't find us again?" Nix asked.

"Probably a good idea." Kylo said. We worked together using the rope that they had tied Nix with, and a few vines from trees nearby.

I smiled. I spent most of the hike trying to remember what was so familiar about those men. Suddenly, almost halfway through the journey I remembered. I stopped dead in shock when I realized it, and Zuna, who was following close behind me almost ran into me. Those men had been wearing the attire of Pyro's goons. I couldn't believe I had forgotten. It felt like decades since the last time they had chased me. It was when I had first met Ezra. Apparently, they had extended their domain to reach out of Aurielee.

"What is it, Fae?" Kylo asked when he saw that I had stopped.

"The people who attacked us, I know them. They are part of an organization that hunts followers of Adonai. I've somehow managed to evade capture for years, but they were always just a small branch in the city. They have never tracked outside of it limits to hunt us before."

"How many enemies do you have?" Nix asked.

"I think that's all of them." I said. Nix smirked at me. "What?!" I said. "It's not my fault that so many people hate me."

"I'm pretty sure it is." Nix said hotly. I glared at him.

"Well, at least we know why they were after us." Decoy said. "Do you think they will keep following us, Fae?"

"I don't know. Like I said, they didn't used to leave Aurielee. If that has changed so could any of their other tactics."

"We'll keep a lookout. No one goes anywhere without someone else." Jerry said, giving Kylo and I a stern look. It was clear he meant no praying alone anymore. We walked on. Soon, I recognized the path to the cave.

"We're almost there." I said. We walked for a little longer until finally we arrived at the cave.