Tempest watched with wide eyes as Kyran-she still remembered the child who had a weird crush on her when he was but a child- escorted her mother into the dungeons.
She quickly intensified the cloak she had put on around her and Ketura. They had come here to rescue Margo, but it turned out that they had been divinely led here, for this moment. If they had come a minute later or before, they wouldn’t have known that the Queen was in captivity.
But how? How had her mother become present here? What about the community? What about her children?
Tempest felt her heart rate spike, a deadly action in the midst of witches and wizards.
“Tempest, be calm. You will give us away at this rate. At this rate, we might not be able to rescue Margo or your mother. We won’t be able to find out either what is going on back at the community, what is going on with your children. At this rate, Leonarya would find out that you are still alive. At this rate, our efforts all these months will be in vain.”
Tempest knew that her friend was right, but she couldn’t resist making the dig. “If you were a mother, you would have understood. You aren’t, so don’t patronize me.”
There was a small silence during which Tempest cussed herself for doing bad when knowing it was bad. She opened her mouth to apologize, but Ketura was already speaking.
“I left all that to tend to your comatose self. I left all that to nurse you back to health. If that’s all I get as a thank you, then maybe you are better off on your own.”
Tempest half expected Ketura to slip away from the cloak but the latter remained.
“I will wait until after Margo and the Queen are rescued.”
Tempest kept her silence, not because she didn’t want to plead for her friend to stay but because Kyran had paused in his steps and was looking in their direction. It was then that Tempest noticed that her mother wasn’t bound. Her hands were actually free. Why wasn’t she fighting? What did Leonarya have over her?
She knew that Ketura had the same questions in her mind, but decidedly kept mute, because their little quarrel hadn’t been so subtle after all. Kyran must have been contented with the peace and quiet for he continued on his journey.
Tempest and Ketura followed behind, ignoring the chasm that was being created between them. They watched and followed in silence as Kyran passed a couple of cells before stopping at the last one on the floor. They watched as he opened the door, and gently pushed Zipfarah inside as if he felt for her predicament, before locking the door on its hinges, without going inside.
They watched as he heaved out in tiredness, leaning against the door, as if collecting his thoughts. They watched as he hit his leg against the door as if venting on it, and then turned around and walked away, toward the direction from whence he had come. They made sure to make a path for him to cross, made sure to hide their presence in all absolution, so that he wouldn’t perceive them.
And when they were sure that he wasn’t in the confines of the dungeons, that no guard was in the confines of the dungeons, they came out from the cloak, bundling it up to a small heap. Ketura tucked it under her armpits.
“I’m sorry Ketura, so sorry. I hadn’t meant what I said. I was being selfish as mothers sometimes are. I didn’t mean to undermine your sacrifice. Please, forgive me.”
Ketura shrugged her shoulders. She had already forgiven her friend who had been her teacher at one time.
“Let’s just get our people and get out of here. Are you revealing yourself?”
Tempest shook her head, ignoring the pangs in her heart knowing that Ketura hadn’t said anything to her apology. “I will take your face. We go at the same time. If possible, we knock them out. We don’t want their energies leaking out. Let’s be back here, in a minute.”
Ketura nodded, and headed to the door where Zipfarah was kept. It was best the original copy went for the queen who might be able to detect Tempest even in another’s face. Tempest then was saddled with locating Margo in the multitude of cells. But she had been preparing for this for more than a week.
***
“Ketura…”
Ketura nodded her head at Zipfarah’s statement, shaking her head when a look of hurt flashed through Zipfarah’s eyes. Her queen thought that she was working for Leonarya. The gods forbid.
“I’m not working for her. I’m the rescue party.” She muttered as she got to the queen that hadn’t shrank even whilst thinking that she was a traitor.
Before Zipfarah could say anything, she was knocked out by magic, her last though being how Ketura had being here, alive, and working alone.
***
“Ketura?? What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here…Leonarya…”
“Shuuu…. old friend. You talk a lot.” Tempest(now as Ketura) muttered, keeping the tears at bay, tears that were threatening to spill when she saw the sorry state of her cousin, saw the chains that held her hands to the walls, saw the discolored welts on her skin.
“But…” Margo tried to warn again, but her words were cut off when Tempest knocked her out with magic.
“We will talk as soon as we get out of here.” Tempest promised, as she broke the chains of captivity with magic.
***
“Did you give my mother anything when you threw her in prison? Did you speak to her?” Leonarya asked with a scowl, when she suddenly felt the weakening, and then the complete disappearance of the restraining magic she had unleashed on Zipfarah.
“No. Not at all.” Kyran answered. He had just stepped into the court from the prison house.
Leonarya furrowed her eyebrows, getting up to her feet. She had been indulging herself in a plate of fruits served a few minutes ago. She kept the plate on a nearby tall stool, and swiftly left the courthouse, Kyran hot in pursuit.
When she was just at the entryway of the prison house, her breath runing ragged from running, she felt the escape. And she came to an abrupt halt.
The intentional tear in the magic surrounding her community told her that her mother had escaped, and that her rescuer had made the tear to taunt her.
Leonarya screamed.