The Rogue World Of Dostira

Door Seventeen

Maps covered the table that Nora and Audrey sat at, they showed the geography of the school and its surroundings. Nora moved the map around so Dostira would be placed in the centre of the table and stared at it for a moment while tapping her pencil against it.

"So when exactly did you find the pendant?" She asked, still looking at the map in front of her.

Audrey paused for a second, "It was a month and two to three weeks ago, on Monday at the Luna Lavinrac".

Nora stood up out of her seat and quickly reached across the table to grab a thick brown leather book, she flicked through the pages until she stopped at one and muttered to herself while reading.

"Okay, if the history of The Battle of Cudleston Moor is accurate then that means..." she began, as she placed the book down and looked back at map below her.

With her pencil she drew a large circle on the map with the school in the middle, "Whoever controlled the pendant must have been within this vicinity to the school."

"Okay, but what if the pendant belonged to Ms Tarvins?" Audrey asked.

"It couldn't have been. I saw her almost every day for classes and, although I definitely think she had something to do with this, I don't think the pendant belonged to her. I saw hers around her neck, every day, and it looked real" Nora said, glancing at Audrey every now and then.

"But if we're wrong..." Audrey began until a voice cut her off.

"If we're wrong, then at least we tried" Bella said, and as they turned around they saw her walking besides Kane who was limping but appeared somewhat himself again.

"You look better" Nora said, her lips curled up into a large grin.

"Look it, don't feel it" Kane snapped back, but he had a smile on his face.

"Okay, but there's a lot of places within this circle" Audrey replied.

"Then that's where we start," Bella began, "we look at all the places Charlie could or would go and choose which one is the most likely".

Nora nodded agreeing with her as Kane slowly staggered towards them, "Let me see".

As he rested his hands on the table, he looked at the large circle Nora had drawn on the map. There were over fifteen places Charlie could have gone and where whoever owned pendant could hide, he exhaled deeply as he struggled to figure out where to even begin.

"Charlie's a caeli prodigy though," Audrey said, "doesn't that mean he can just fly to wherever he needs to go? He could already be with whoever owned the pendant or worse!".

Bella sighed, "Yea that's a fair point actually".

There was a minute or two of silence before Kane spoke, "No".

He didn't want to talk about what had happened between him and Charlie but he had to if they were going to find him, and so he took a deep breath before continuing, "After what I did to his wings, there's no way he would be able to fly anywhere. He's probably struggling to walk as it is".

Audrey felt her throat tighten, her heart beat quickening and her chest begin to ache as she glared at Kane, "What did you do to his wings?" She asked.

Kane lowered his head, staring at the floor as the memory taunted him. Remembering what he had done to Charlie only worsened the pounding pain he felt throughout his body as he winced thinking about it. He could remember it all too well, the way they attacked each other so viciously, the twisting of Charlie's wings while he screamed, the burning of the trees, the clawing at his skin until it burned from his touch, and the falling.