“Aha,” Shayla said. “Let me take us closer.”
She brought us closer to the village, which was filled with mostly cottages. The largest building was a castle, bordering a mini-town square with frozen fountains.
“This is the nearest settlement to Clyderly that I’m aware of,” Shayla said, striding forward toward the old castle. “And this”—she pointed to the castle—“was once a hotel.”
“Once a hotel?” I asked.
“Mm-hm. Just as this was once a pretty little tourist resort.”
When I gazed more closely at the buildings surrounding the square, all of them appeared to be deserted. Dilapidated, in fact—windows smashed in, doors broken open.
“What is this place?” I whispered.
“Ogres have traveled through these parts,” Shayla said darkly. “The inhabitants upped and left, a long time ago now.”
My stomach tensed. “Why do we need to stay here at all, then? Can’t we just go to Clyderly and then be done with it? We could find some proper hotel somewhere else that’s safe, if we really have to stay another night in this country.”
“Don’t worry, Grace,” Shayla said. “I’ll make it safe for us. I’ll cast a protective charm. And I’ll also make it warm. We may not need to stay the night here at all—which would be preferable—but we might as well leave our stuff here, and it might come in handy to have a base nearby… We never know what could happen.”
The wooden door to the old castle had been ripped open, and an icy breeze ran through the dark lobby as we entered. Shayla strode to the empty reception desk and bent down behind it, rummaging and withdrawing a key. Then she vanished us upstairs to what appeared to be the highest floor in the castle, judging from the view outside. She stopped outside Room 109. The lock still worked fine and none of the rooms here appeared to have been broken into—at least, not on this floor.
The door creaked eerily as she pushed it open, and we emerged into what was actually more like an apartment than a hotel room or even a suite. There were two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchenette. I imagined this place would have looked quite regal back in the day. The furniture looked antique and ornamental. Silk carpets swathed the wooden floors. The curtains draping the windows were heavy and thick. The two bedrooms were double, though neither of them had twin beds… I guessed one of us could sleep on the sofa, which looked pretty comfy.
Shayla used her magic to give the place a quick dusting, and she invoked roaring fires in the hearths of the bedrooms and living room. I pushed Josh next to the fire in the living room so that both of us could warm up.
After casting her protective charm, Shayla took my suitcase from me and planted it down in one of the bedrooms, along with her backpack.
“Right,” she said, drawing in a breath. “I suggest we don’t hang around here too long. If both of you are ready, let’s go.”
She vanished Josh and me back into the cold. This time, it truly was to the middle of nowhere. Not a single building was in sight. Not the slightest signs of civilization—not even any roads that I could make out.
I looked to Shayla, clasping my coat closer around me.
“Hm,” she murmured. “Yeah, this isn’t right. It’s been a long time since I last came here. Much longer than London. It might take me a little while to figure this out…”
She made us vanish and then appear again some miles away, still in the middle of nowhere. She continued transporting us in this way, each time assuring us that she felt that we were getting closer. Finally, as night was approaching, I was on the verge of suggesting that we give up for the day and return to warm ourselves in the castle when we spotted it. The glow of buildings in the distance. Brown, oblong buildings with tinted glass. Perched among the lower foothills.
“Yes,” Josh said suddenly. “This is it. This is… Clyderly.”
Shayla moved us closer, right up to the electric fence that lined the sprawling compound. I spotted several hunters roaming around near the buildings, armed with guns and wearing black.
Josh’s eyes bulged so much that I began to worry about him. I placed a hand on his shoulder. “What is it?” I asked. “Are you remembering?”
His lips parted, his breathing starting to come hard and fast. “My God. These buildings. Yes. Yes!” he exclaimed, nodding vigorously.
“Yes, what?” Shayla demanded.
“Take me around this fence,” Josh breathed, his breath forming plumes of mist in the icy air. “I want to see more of this place.”
Shayla made us invisible first, then made all three of us hover in the air—including Josh’s chair.
As we gained a bird’s eye view of the compound, Josh’s breathing only became more erratic, more uneven.
What are you remembering, Josh? I hoped that it was nothing too traumatic, though given the state we’d found him in and everything I knew of the IBSI, I would be naive to expect it would be anything but.
By the time Shayla finished giving us an aerial tour of the base, she drifted us down to the ground, about half a mile away and on a different mountain peak than where we first arrived—granting us a different angle of the compound from the ground. Here, she removed the invisibility spell.
“What do you remember?” I urged Josh.
He shut his eyes tight and gripped his head in his hands.
I exchanged glances with Shayla. Although curiosity was burning me alive, it was best not to push him. It was best to let him come out with whatever he was thinking naturally. So the witch and I waited patiently, staring at him even as he retreated further into himself.