Children of Fate

The plan was suicide, plain and simple. Ana stared down at the bottle of amber liquid Monsieur Frisk had given her. The Frenchman was some sort of loony, of that she could be sure...Imagine, expecting three eleven-year-old girls to do what he had explained...It was unthinkable!

'But,' Ana thought apprehensively, shoving the bottle into her dress pocket, 'it's the only way.'

She kept repeating that to herself mentally as she hurried down the dark staircase that led to the more lowly servants' quarters. She needed to find AC, or the plan would never work. Luckily it didn't take much luck. As was usual with AC he appeared when Ana was least expecting him. He stepped right out in front of Ana as she rushed down the hall, and Ana clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle the cry of surprise that she emitted. AC's head snapped up, and his eyes, puffy and red from crying, lost a bit of their depressed look.

"Nan," he murmured softly. "I'm glad to see you."

"As am I," Ana assured him. Relief filled her gut, and she put on the most pitying smile on her face that she could muster. "Poor Marie..."

"Damn right," AC muttered, and he looked mutinous. "Morons serve the Duchess, Nan, morons! Stupid idiots...Marie did everything for them, and do any of them mourn? Do any of them care that she died? She could have survived, Nan, if someone had helped me care for her...But they were all too afraid for their own stinking lives!"

Ana patted her friend's arm. "I would have helped," she lied. Anything to get him to show her...

"Of course," AC said. He was back to muttering, and his tone was both surly and lugubrious. "And they didn't even give her a proper viewing place! They just threw her in a small cavity down that passageway." AC pointed in the direction he had come from.

"They'll bury her in a tomb, won't they? The Duchess liked Marie fair enough, and she'll put her in that servant's tomb by the coast, right?" Ana tried not to sound too curious.

"All I know is that she'll be buried out by the coast...Don't know where, though, but what you said sounds right." AC looked forlorn. "I'll miss her." He sounded near tears, and Ana was sure that the moment she left he would cry again.

"You'll be fine on your own, though, won't you?" Ana asked. She was wasting valuable time, her mission here was complete, but she owed it to AC to comfort him a bit more.

"I doubt it," AC muttered. "Not many down here like me. The younger children make fun of me, the few my age avoid me...And the teens and men? Don't get me started. I'm just one big joke in these parts!"

"Surely you aren't that awful," Ana said, somewhat taken aback. AC was as pleasant and friendly as they came. He could be annoying at times, but certainly not that annoying.

"Oh," AC mumbled, "it's not my personality so much as my...my sanity." He seemed embarrassed now that she was asking questions.

"You don't seem mad to me."

AC snorted sardonically. "Oh, that's only because you don't know," he told her.

"Know what?"

AC gave Ana a long, pensive look. "I can...sense...things." His answer was vague, and when Ana looked only more confused AC explained more in depth. "Sometimes I can sense if a person's bad or good or if they've killed or not...I can tell when people are telling the truth or lying...Things like that. It comes in fazes, when someone's feeling something particularly strong, and it's an honest fact, but no one but Marie ever believed me." AC looked at Ana again, and this time there was a sort of bashfulness in his gaze. "Still think I'm not a loon?"

But Ana barely heard him. Her mind was racing, connecting things, filling in what had once been large, empty holes. Last night, in her past-dream, there had been four children: herself, Liza, Rey, and little Adrian.

Adrian Chevalier to be exact.

She had never been told what had happened to Adrian, but it was just a good as guess as any to imagine that he'd been thrown in Blackenvire. And it would make sense that he could "sense" things. After all, hadn't Adrian's father and mother been able to transform into Kneazles? It would be very possible that some of the kneazle attributes transferred to their son.

"AC...Does that stand for anything?" Ana wondered aloud.

"Course it does," AC said impatiently. "But what about my question? Do you think I'm mad?"

"Adrian Chevalier, right?"

"Yes, that's right, but do you think-Wait!" Adrian Chevalier frowned suspiciously. "How would you know? Did Marie tell you?"

Ana shook her head. "No. She didn't. I just...guessed." Ana was thinking fast...How could she explain to Adrian exactly how she knew? Thankfully, Adrian guessed for her.

"I knew it! You're somebody I knew...Or at least somebody from my past! You were so familiar...And I couldn't explain it!" Adrian's eyes were glowing, and suddenly they didn't look so red or puffy.

Ana had to bring him along now. He was her godbrother, for magic's sake! She fingered the bottle in her pocket. There wasn't a lot--only enough for three girls and a bit for Sugar--and having Adrian along would mean less of a guarantee, but someone she'd make it work. Turning to Adrian she said, and in a serious voice, so that he would know that she wasn't joking, "Come with me. My friends and I are going to escape here tonight, and I want you to come along."

Adrian looked only mildly surprised. "I would have thought so," he muttered. "You've had this restless feeling about you ever since I can remember." Then he looked flattered. "And you'll take me with you?"

Ana nodded. "There will be a good deal of danger, and I have an agenda to follow, but you're destined for something more than being a servant boy." She paused and let her words sink in. "We're all destined for something more."

Adrian nodded dutifully. "I will follow you to the ends of the Earth, Nan. Count me in."

Ana took his hand then, causing him to grin, and the two set off up the stairs. Neither of them said a thing as they stole quietly back to Ana's rooms. It was heavily prohibited that anyone be out of their rooms without an escort, due to the outbreak of the Rooken Virus. Ana shuddered to think at what could happen if they were to run into a guard, or worse, a Death Eater...

"You're trembling, Nan. Are you afraid?"

Ana looked down at her hand, which was, indeed, shaking. Then she looked at her friend, the likes of which was smiling at her reassuringly. "Not anymore," she whispered. They reached her door then, and before Ana could reach out and turn the knob it was thrown open. Ana barely had time to blink before she had been dragged inside by Liza. The young black girl looked furious, more so then Ana had ever seen her, but, as was always with Liza, her voice was merely cool and crisp when she spoke.

"You had us all worried sick. You've gone for an hour, Ana! Anyone could have come by and deduced that you were gone." Liza paused for a breath, and Ana was sure she would have continued had not she seen Adrian. With a high pitched shriek--Liza was dressed only in a thin nightdress--she dove behind Amber-Lyn, who had come out from the kitchen to investigate the noise. "Ana!" Liza yelled. "What in the devil is that boy doing here?"

Adrian backed towards the door. "Ana, if they don't want me here then I'll leave..."

Ana frowned. "No, Adrian, I insist you stay." She turned to Liza. "You don't know who he is, do you?" she asked. "I had forgotten that you didn't hear the whole story."

Liza's eyebrows shot up. "Hmm? What's he got to do with your mum's past?"

Ana shook her head. "I can't explain, but Sugar'll be able to. Go and get her."

"But he might see her!" Amber-Lyn protested. Now even she was looking confused.

"That's the point! Please! Just go get her!" Ana's tone must have been desperate because Liza turned on her heel and dashed into the kitchen. Within seconds she reappeared, Sugar perched on her shoulder. Adrian gasped when he saw Sugar, and he rubbed his eyes a few times, but Sugar understood instantly who was standing before her.

"Oh, my." That was all the tiny sprite could think to say. She took a deep breath, gathered herself, and then faced Ana. "You know who he is, I assume?"

"Adrian Chevalier Audric, to be sure," Ana replied.

Sugar nodded. "And you know who you are as well?" she asked Adrian.

Adrian shrugged. "I know that my name's Adrian Chevalier--Marie was told that by her last mistress, a noblewoman who lived here before the Duchess--but the Audric part in new."

Sugar slid down Liza's arm so that she was balancing on the girl's crossed right forearm. "Ana, how did you find him?"

Ana began explaining how she and Adrian had met earlier that evening. "And then he said he could sense things, Sugar! As in he's able to sense a basic goodness and badness in people. After that something just clicked. He went by the letters A and C. It dawned on me that the letters could be initials."

"So this is the enigmatic AC we've been hearing about for these past months?" Amber-Lyn asked. It was only the second time she had spoken, and she still seemed uneasy around Adrian. Ana imagined that the feeling was mutual.

"Nan told you about me? She never mentioned any of you." His eyes lingered on Sugar, and a characteristic grin spread over his pale face. "Especially not you, Tinkerbell."

Sugar's eyes widened. She obviously considered herself insulted beyond belief, having been addressed to by her blonde arch nemesis's name. "You've got your mother's cheek, Adrian," she said in a curt, controlled voice.

Adrian's wiseacre attitude disappeared all but instantly at the mention of his mother. "My mum?" he asked. "She was cheeky?"

Sugar's tight, prim glare evaporated. She even allowed herself a small smile. "Your mum was a real smart arse, all right. Always had a smile, always had a quip. She was beautiful too. She had a good amount of veela blood-"

"Sugar," Ana snapped suddenly, catching sight of the clock that resided over the doorway, "I'm sure his mother was a wonderful woman, but could we continue this sometime else? We don't have much time."

"Much time for what?" Liza asked.

"Much time to escape." Ana ignored Amber-Lyn's breathy gasp, and she held up her hand to stop Sugar's questions. "I made--well, really, Monsieur Frisk made it--a plan that will get us to the coast by sunup." Again she had to make a motion to stop Sugar from asking questions. "It's extremely dangerous, and, to be honest, it's over the hill crazy."

Sugar, of course, felt need to interrupt her with a quote right then. "The greater the risk, the sweeter the fruit. Pierre Cornielle said that."

Ana pretended that she had not heard. This plan may be risky, but it'll get us out. It's our only chance." She gave her friends a grim look before producing the bottle of amber liquid that she had stowed in her dress. Uncorking the cap she took a good swig of the fluid and made a horrible face. "Oh, gross," she muttered, handing to bottle off to Amber-Lyn. "Tastes like cabbage and seaweed."

Amber-Lyn looked at her cousin and then at the bottle. "And we have to drink this because...?"

"Because it's the antidote for the Rooken Virus. Monsieur Frisk nabbed it from an incoming crate of fifteen bottles for the Death Eaters and all the other important people in Blackenvire. It was supposed to be a holdover until the heavier duty stuff arrived two days from now. It would build up their immunities enough so that they wouldn't get sick until the real antidote--the stuff that was administrated by a needle--arrived. We'll be dealing in close quarters with the virus, and it's mandatory that we all take about a mouthful of it, or we might get sick."

Amber-Lyn looked only more skeptical, but she still managed to say, "Bottoms up," and down a bit. Then Liza took a sip, and then Adrian, and lastly Sugar gulped down the few amber drops left.

It was Liza who made the first choking noise. "My god, Ana! What goes into this antidote?" the young girl asked, gasping and clutching her neck.

Ana looked surprised. "Why?"

"Because, I feel so...Strange!" Amber-Lyn groaned.

"Good," Ana. "Monsieur Frisk said to expect this."

"If it's just side effects then I won't sweat it," Adrian quipped. "But why would we need the antidote in the first place?"

Ana, who had been fidgeting off and on ever since she had mentioned the plan, froze. Amber-Lyn froze too. "What, Ana? What the hell do you have up your sleeve?"

Ana took a deep breath. Suddenly she seemed clammy. "Just come with me," she said softly, and no one missed her nervous tone. "I'll explain it all when we get there."

***

"Unbelievable!" The group five had been standing in front of Marie Connelly's casket--somewhere in the course of the past forty minutes, Adrian had said, they had placed her in the wooden box--for the past three minutes, and only Liza seemed to understand what exactly was happening. Since they had arrived in the tiny cavity Liza had rotated from glaring at Ana and staring fearfully at the casket. "You're mad!"

Ana tried her best to soothe her nervous best friend. "It's the only way, Liza! Think of Rey, and think of freedom! Isn't it all worth a little risk?"

Liza looked at the rest of their assemblage. "I will if everyone else is game," she muttered. She looked very sure that no one else would "be game".

"What's going on?" Amber-Lyn sounded disgruntled. "What do you two know that we don't?"

Ana chanced a glance at the casket, then down at her feet. "Weareleavinginthecasket." Her words were meshed together and totally unintelligible.

"What's going on, Lowell?" Now even Sugar seemed upset.

"We're leaving via the casket," Ana hissed, and the reactions to her statement varied. Liza looked smug, Amber-Lyn looked horrified, Sugar cursed, and only Adrian seemed "game".

"It's what Marie would have wanted," he said aloud.

"But a casket! How will we all fit in there?" Amber-Lyn was panicking. "I hate tight, small spaces, and I hate being crammed up with other people."

Sugar wasn't much better. "Merlin almighty! This man told you to escape Blackenvire by means of a casket?"

Ana nodded. "He's made arrangements. He's almost certain that the caskets will be taken to be placed in a Servant's Tomb that the Duchess erected about seven years ago. We lie low for an hour, and then we run for the coast. Even if people notice our absence, they won't know where to begin looking."

"Where would we keep her body?" Sugar asked. "Can't leave her lying about, now can we?"

"Well, we don't have anywhere to put it," Ana admitted, "but you have a little magic, don't you?"

Sugar looked skeptical. "I have magic enough to do certain things. It's strange, really. I can make things materialize well enough, but I can't make them disappear." She held up a tiny finger when Amber-Lyn opened her mouth. "However, I can put illusions on things. While I won't be able to make Marie's body disappear I will be able to make her seem...gone."

"That means people will discover her soon than later," Amber-Lyn protested.

"For our sakes let's hope it's later," Ana retorted, and she moved to pry the top of the casket open. She stepped back a bit when she saw Marie's body, but she overcame her sudden wave apprehension. She motioned for Adrian and Liza to help her pull Marie out of the casket, and they all but dropped the heavy woman in the farthest corner. Leaving Sugar to work her magic Ana began to make estimates. "We're lucky that she's a big woman. They got a pretty big casket. It'll be a tight fit, to be sure, but we'll all make it."

"We're lucky that we're all skinny," Liza commented. She was the first into the wooden box, and Adrian followed her soon after. Amber-Lyn followed her reluctantly, and, after grabbing Sugar and the lid of the casket, Ana herself climbed in. The fit was cramped and stuffy. It was a cheap, plain wooden box, as Monsieur Frisk had anticipated, so there were wooden holes on the sides of the casket, and it was easy enough to breathe.

Thankfully it was not long before the guards came to bring the casket to the tomb. They weren't to gentle with the casket, but Ana was simply glad that no one checked to see that it was really Marie inside. Ana and her friends made great efforts not to squeal when they bounced together, and everything went as planned. They felt themselves being placed in some sort of cart, and Ana suspected that they weren't the only ones there. With an unpleasant bump that caused Ana's head to knock into Adrian's teeth.

No one said a word as the cart traveled down the bumpy road. There were more potholes than Ana remembered, and by the time she could smell the ocean air she had hit her head against Adrian's teeth nine more times. She wasn't the only one to give a sigh of relief when the cart pulled to a stop. Everyone remained silent and still, and soon the voices of the men who had brought them to the tomb were right beside them.

"How come we've got to put locks on these coffins, Gritz?" the first man asked.

"Because," Gritz replied, "the Duchess doesn't want any investigations. If we drop the caskets into the ocean without locking the lids shut eventually muggles are going to start finding the bodies." Those few words were enough to wreak panic throughout the wooden box.

"Ocean? We're getting dropped into an ocean?" Amber-Lyn was beginning to panic, and her breaths were coming short and rapidly. "My god! You said were being left in a tomb!"

"I didn't know!" Ana hissed. "The tomb must be filled!"

But Amber-Lyn was past listening. "My god, I'm going to die! We're all going to die!" She began to make small, spasmodic thrashing movements, hitting her three companions in the process.

"Get a hold on yourself, Wood!" Sugar hissed from Ana's apron pocket. "Things will be ten million times worse if we're discovered now by the guards!"

"But Sugar!" Liza said, and her tone was surprisingly whiney. "We're going to drown like packed rats!"

There was an uncomfortable feeling, and Ana's stomach dropped. She realized that the men had, during their small argument, put a lock on their casket and were now carrying them to the ocean. She presumed that they were on a cliff, and that there would be a long drop.

"Maybe we'll be able to charm the lock open. Could you do that Sugar?" Adrian seemed to be a voice of reason.

"Maybe...But they'll be watching the waters below to make sure that nothing went wrong and that there are no floating bodies." Sugar sounded doubtful. "But we have no choice."

"Oi, Gritz! Aren't we supposed to tie rocks around these caskets?"

"Oh, damn it! Everything's just going to the dogs, isn't it? Shit! Could anything go more wrong?" Sugar's strings of profanities caused a shocked silence to befall the casket.

And then all hell broke loose!

Amber-Lyn snapped and began screaming in pure, claustrophobic terror. The small spasmodic movements were now giant, lunging thrashes. The footsteps that had been carrying them all to their doom stopped. And then there was a cruel, snorting laugh.

"Well, Bo! If we don't have a couple of runaways hidden in this here!"

Bo snorted and chortled in response. "You know what we do with runaways, tots?" he asked. Ana suspected that he was deriving great pleasure from frightening them. "We don't turn them into anybody. Oh no! We just shuck them in the drink and watch them drown!"

The man called Gritz began howling with psychotic laughter. "Hope you kiddies can swim!" he crowed. The box began swinging back and forth, and it was obvious that they were gain momentum to heave them off the cliff. Amber-Lyn's shrieks had intensified, and, just as the two dark minions drew back the casket to hurl over the cliff, Ana took a deep breath.

"I have something I need to say," she said meekly, and it was a wonder that Sugar was able to hear her over Amber-Lyn's screams.

"What is it, Ana?" Sugar never got her answer, though, because at that moment the two men let go of the casket and everyone went flying off the cliff.

This time everyone screamed.

***

Steven "Bo" Limon and Carlos Gritz looked over the cliff and at the ocean below. Bo had lit his wand, and the beam of light was shining down into the churning waters.

"Can you see anything?" Gritz asked. He pulled his scraggly pumpkin orange hair into a ponytail and frowned.

"No," Bo said, and he frowned also. "Can't imagine how anyone would survive that though. Those locks are damn hard to break, let me tell you!"

Gritz shivered ominously. "I don't know, Bo. I've got a funny feeling about this." He began to fidget sporadically. "There was something familiar about that screaming girl. I've heard her voice before."

Bo snorted. "Come on, mate! You're just being paranoid! For Merlin's sake, let's get these last few boxes loaded up and we'll shove off. The Duchess said we could stay at one of those nice hotels in Mardentine. I bet she sent a few...lady friends over."

Gritz shrugged, if for no other reason than to assure himself, and stood up to his full height. "Whatever you say, Bo. Whatever you say. You're right. Those kids are long dead."