The Rosewood Prophecy

Chapter 26

                                                                 Indigo

"Hey where's Katherine?" Aaron asked me as the last of the fighters and curious people finally wandered off. Jeez. So many people wanted to see the cloak of Augustus or the silver dagger. Let me tell you: being famous is not easy. I felt sympathetic towards Katherine, whose swordsmanship was so good she probably dealt with this so much more than us. Before, I sort of wanted to be in the spotlight. Just once or twice, you know? But all this attention was killing me; those people certainly don't even give you space to breathe! I'm done with being famous.

"Oh, um, I don't know," I looked around. "Maybe she's with Ashley and the others?"

"Hey Aaron!" Lucian and Jason ran up to us, staggering and giddy. Ashley and Rachel chased them from behind, yelling something. Lucian almost crashed into Aaron headfirst, not stopping himself in time. Aaron held his friend out at arm's length, examining Lucian.

"Why are you so disoriented?" Aaron asked, puzzled. He sniffed at the air around Lucian and jerked back. "You two haven't been drinking, have you?!" Aaron yelled. Lucian and Jason leaned against each other, giggly.

"You know you're underage! You're not supposed to be drinking!" Ashley stormed up to Jason and slapped him on his arm. Jason waved her concern away.

"It's—fine—Ash," he said, head lolling. His voice was slurred. "It—wasn't—even—wine."

"Oh stop lying to us!" Rachel exclaimed. "We saw you—in fact, a good thirty people saw you two—chugging down bottle after bottle of wine! Jeez! We turn our backs for two seconds and you two get into a drinking contest?!"

"Woah, woah, woah!" I got between the four before a fight could break out. "Lucian, Jason, you two were in a drinking contest?!"

"Yeah," Jason, who was slightly more sober, said. He tried to stand up straight, but collapsed against Lucian. "They didn't give us real wine though; don't worry Indigo. It was—just—cider—"

"Yeah right!" Ashley had lugged over a big bucket of ice water and dumped it over the heads of the two boys. They snapped awake, shaking their heads like dogs.

"What was that for?!" Lucian snapped.

"That's what you get for being drunk!" Ashley yelled right back.

"Katherine wasn't with you guys?" Aaron asked, pushing Lucian and Ashley apart. They huffed and glared at each other.

"No, Katherine wasn't with us," Rachel answered. "We thought she was with you guys."

"No, she left long before we were finished," I replied. "So we thought she went with you four."

"So no one has seen Katherine?" Aaron asked worriedly, looking around. "Hey, have you seen a girl with long brown hair tied in a ponytail, carrying two swords?" he asked a passerby.

"No, sorry," the guy said, before continuing on his way. Aaron turned back to us, worry etched on his features.

"We need to find Katherine. Knowing her, she wouldn't just run off without telling us. Something must've happened to her!"

"Alright. Let's split up then." I took charge. "Ashley, Jason, Lucian, you three check that half of the area. Rachel, Aaron, and I will check on this side. We'll meet back here in half an hour. If anyone's got a lead, send a firework up in the air." I pointed at a nearby booth that was selling fireworks. "Red for danger, green for we found Katherine. Got it?"

Everyone nodded and we set off. Aaron charged ahead, pushing through the crowd. "Kath?" he called out, almost frantically. "Katherine?" Rachel and I followed suit, looking right and left and calling Katherine's name. We asked potential, friendly looking people that seemed likely to have seen Katherine: