Roman dragged me down the street, and Eleven trotted behind us obediently.
"And you thought I'd let you off the hook," Roman muttered rhetorically.
"Obviously not." I rolled my eyes.
I love sarcasm.
"Well, too bad. Because you're going to help us find that chest your stupid mother hid. Come along." He pulled me inside the hotel, jerking unnecessarily on my wrist.
I frowned. "What chest?"
Roman said nothing, merely pulled me silently out a door on the other side of the lobby that let out on the next street over. A black carriage waited with six horses shaking their heads impatiently.
Shit.
Well so much for escaping.
The carriage door opened and Roman shoved me forward. I climbed up and he followed, sitting next to his father on one side as I sat across from them.
"So good to see you again, Moon," Julian said, smiling. "I'm glad you could make it."
No kidding.
"Now, we're going to Dolville. So sit back, it'll be a while." He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. Roman did the same, except he left his eyes half open and watched me through the narrowed emerald slits. I turned my head and ignored him, watching the countryside roll by. We passed by some fields of livestock and some crops, but mostly the land was unsettled and wild. I watched the grassy hills roll by and I must have eventually fallen asleep because I woke sometime around dawn. I watched as we left the forest we were now in. We passed through a few quiet villages and then the last village we came to had crowded streets and the carriage slowed to avoid running over the masses of peasants. There was shouting and hollering as we moved through the streets. I watched them through the small window as people crowded around the stalls, trying to bargain prices as low as they could. As we approached the center of town I stared at the beautiful cathedral towering over us, awestruck. When I looked down, however, I was horrified. In the village square there was an all-too-familiar platform with an executioner standing there waiting as the people screamed and threw rocks and food at the soon-to-be-dead criminals. There was one young man who was actually quite handsome, his ice blue eyes piercing my gray ones as he caught my gaze. His head jerked up, as if in recognition, when he looked into my eyes. I counted five people in front of him. They slowly shuffled forward in their shackles as the first was led slowly to the noose. The man suddenly jerked his head around and locked gazes with another man on the other side of the square. The second man threw a small knife, and it halted in mid air beside the first man.
Magic.
I watched as the man sawed away at his bonds before running to our carriage, which was now picking up speed, and he carefully, quietly, jumped onto the back and I could see him no more. The second man followed and I turned my gaze back to the drops of rain streaming down the window. A voice spoke behind me.
"You saw the hanging, Moon?" I turned to see Julian stirring. I nodded.
Unfortunately.
"Things happen. Unfortunately disobeying the laws is one of them," he said. "But execution is what we have chosen to do. So be it."
So be it my ass. They haven't done anything to deserve death. Punishment, maybe, but not death.
"We should be there in a few hours. You should rest." He turned away again and closed his eyes.