Arden (Mages of the Flame #1) FIRST DRAFT

Part 15: Chester

The cold iron-barred door shut with a clang. Bronwyn sat on the wooden bed and stared blankly through the bars at the candle clock on the shelf opposite her cell.

What had just happened? The Mages had accused her, her!, of working with a rebellion she knew nothing about! Yes, she knew she garnered little respect as a Mage in her work in the eastern province, but there was nothing she would call hostility. Apart from that incident in Oakfield on the way here, but that was down to Hendrick's personal ambition, wasn't it? It wasn't because Hendrick was secretly a rebel sympathiser and a monarchist, was it?

Bronwyn shook her head in despair and buried her face in her hands. What was going on? What was she supposed to think? And how could she prove she was still with the Mages. They did the right thing for the country and the people. She knew that. She believed that. So why was she the one sitting here?

Bronwyn felt a long way from home, and a long way from anyone she could call a friend. But then there was Ovette. She hadn't been hostile or demeaning. In fact she shown Bronwyn the same treatment Bronwyn would have showed someone else in her position. Firm, fair, holding to the law, and not invoking any punishments until some guilt had been established.

This cell, distressing though it was, was still part of her orderly passage through the process of the law. As long as she had trust in the Mages, and people like Ovette to act justly, she would get out of here eventually and be able to go back to the east. After all her message had been delivered to Sallus by now, so there was no reason to stay any longer than necessary. Bronwyn took a deep breath and lifted her head from her hands and stared through the cell bars again.

Well, apart from those.

With nothing to do but wait, Bronwyn swung her legs up on to the wooden bed and lay down and closed her eyes.

Less than a minute later voices from the guard room made her open them again. She heard what sounded like challenges and questions and answers, but she couldn't make out the words. Then she heard the door separating the guard room to her cell corridor squeak open, and the shuffling footsteps of a Mage approaching.

Bronwyn sat up. Maybe the Mages had spoken to Sallus and they were coming to free her! Her heart leapt when she saw the white robe of a Mage of the Wind swish into view, and then it fell again when the figure in front of her turned out to be a young man carrying books piled onto blankets.

"Umm, Bronwyn?" said the man.

"That's me," said Bronwyn.

"Ovette sent me to take care of you. She asked me to bring you these blankets to make sure you were not uncomfortable during your stay."

"And books too?"

"Those are from me." He fumbled with a key in the lock that he couldn't see because of the pile he was holding then had trouble getting the key out again. "Umm, would you mind?"

Bronwyn swung her legs to the floor and stood up. She pulled the cell door open and took the key from the lock while the man dumped his pile on the bed then quickly grabbed it to stop it toppling over.

Bronwyn looked at the open door and the corridor beyond and sighed inwardly. She gave back the key. "And you are?"

The man, not much more than a boy really, thought Bronwyn now she could get a better look at him, kept one hand on the books and blanket pile and turned round. "I am Chester of the Wind, a Guardian of the Peace. Ovette has appointed me to be your counsel."

"My counsel?"

"Umm, you sound surprised."

"I am!"