Finding Sage (The Rogue Book 1) (13 page)

22.

              In the following days, Salah continued to visit Alice in her secluded corner. At first, Alice had sat in silence as he tried to no avail to get her to talk to him.  She still could not understand why he wanted to talk to her so much.  After a few days, however, he stopped trying to get her to talk to him, and would just sit and talk to her. 

As much as Alice hated to admit it, she rather enjoyed the company, so she happily let him talk.  It gave her a much needed distraction from her self-pity and was much less awkward than sitting in silence while Salah asked her question after question.  It was during one of these times that Salah told her that he feels the emotions of everyone around him whether he wishes to or not.  At first Alice thought that meant that Salah had come to her to alleviate his own pain that had been caused by her self-torment.  As she continued to listen to him, however, she became increasingly convinced that his angle was not so selfish or shallow.  Eventually, she gained enough courage to cautiously respond to him.

“I’m sorry Ishmael died.”

Salah showed no sign of surprise, but pleasantly nodded and thanked her.  Alice exhaled slowly, relieved that she finally said it.  She had felt guilty ever since the day she lashed out at Salah unnecessarily for interrupting her self-absorbed pity party.  As difficult as it still was for her to make it through each day, she knew the burden on her heart was not as heavy as it once was.  She reluctantly admitted to herself that Salah was the biggest contributing factor to her recovery, even though she had been uncooperative with him. 

After a few minutes, Salah realized that Alice would rather be left alone, so he said goodbye and left.  She stared at the ground, contemplating what she believed was the brewing of an unlikely friendship between herself and Salah.  She was slowly beginning to trust him, although she hated herself for trusting someone so easily after she had so recently experienced Rodge’s heartbreaking betrayal. 

In the midst of her thoughts, Alice looked to her left and saw the red-headed girl sitting against the wall, looking frantically for something or someone.  Despite her nearly incessant melancholy, she was compassionate towards the child and felt compelled to help her.  She stood up and walked to her, looking for indications of the child’s distress.

“Hi there.”

The child looked at Alice with panic-stricken eyes, which seemed exacerbated by Alice’s presence.  Alice thought she was going to scream, but the girl made no noise, and simply looked at Alice, petrified.

“Don’t worry,” Alice assured her.  “I’m not going to hurt you.  Are you looking for someone?”

The child nodded her head.  She appeared comforted but still looked afraid.

“What’s your name?”

“Lilly,” she said quietly, almost at a whisper.

“My name is Alice.  Are you looking for your dad?”

Lilly nodded silently. 

“Let’s go look for him.”

              “No need,” said a voice behind them. 

              Alice and Lilly looked behind them and saw Silas looking at Alice with suspicion.  Alice backed away from Lilly slowly, careful to avoid offending Silas further.

              “I was just—”

              “I would appreciate it if you would stay away from my daughter, Alice.”

              Alice was taken aback for a moment.  She did not realize he knew her name.  Was he listening to the entire conversation?  If so, why did he wait until then to interrupt?  If he wasn’t listening to the entire conversation, how could he know her name? 

              She shrugged off her questions and proceeded to apologize.

              “I—I’m sorry.”

              She walked away briskly and wiped her tears with her sleeve.  Lilly watched her as she left and glared at Silas angrily.

              “She was trying to help me,” said Lilly.

              “Fat chance,” Silas said cynically.

“Why are you so cold?” Lilly asked.

“Lilly, you can’t forget anything,” Silas said.  “How in the world do you overlook the fact that she tried to kill me?”

              “She thought you were someone you aren’t!” she insisted.

              This caused Silas to stop for a moment.

              “How do you know that?”

              “She thought Eli was dead,” Lilly said.  “If she thought Eli was dead, and she was hunting you, then doesn’t that mean that she thought you killed him?”

              Silas admitted to himself that her memory was sharp, and her logic irrefutable, but that didn’t stop him from losing his temper.

              “I don’t care!  I don’t trust her and I don’t want you to speak to her, do you understand me?!”

              Lilly did not answer affirmatively or negatively, but sat against the wall with her arms crossed.  Silas dismissed this as his daughter being childish, but was again reminded of the fact that Lilly had not forgotten the things that transpired in London.  In fact, she seemed to remember them with crystal clarity.  He admired the child’s forgiveness but also feared for her safety.  He looked in Alice’s direction with resentment, that she had even dared talk to Lilly after having hunted them for so long.  Somewhere in his head, a voice responded by asking,
Then why did you save her?
  To Silas’ confusion, he had no choice but to answer by saying,
I don’t know.

The next day, Eli summoned the whole group together for a special meeting.  They all stood around the table, still stained a pale red from Ishmael’s blood.  Tariq occasionally cringed and turned his head to the side while Salah stood at Tariq’s side and appeared fidgety and on edge, like he was paranoid about something.  Alice stood by herself in the shadows, as far away from everyone else as she could be while still taking part, as Eli wished her to.  Across from Tariq and Salah stood Silas and Lilly.  Lilly was not hiding behind Silas as she often had been but stood a couple feet to his side.  Eli stood at the end of the table and took a slow look at everyone before starting. 

“Alright, so here’s the thing guys.  You all heard of Sage, right?”

At the mention of the mysterious rebel’s name, everyone leaned in a little bit, hanging onto Eli’s every word as though they were crumbs to a starving child. 

“You wanna know who he is.  I’m here to tell ya.”

Silas took the dramatic pause as an indication that Eli was enjoying the attention immensely.  As the pause grew to two, then five, then ten seconds, he began to seriously doubt Eli’s mental state.  After a painfully long silence, Tariq spoke.

“Well?”

Eli blinked repeatedly, as though waking out of a trance.

“Right.  So.  You guys know about the Salem Witch Trials right?”

Everyone stared at him, expressionless.

“Apparently not.  Alright, let’s just say there have been a lot of efforts by governments throughout the past several hundred years to rid the world of rogues, often disguised as something else.  When the U.N. first took control, there was a young politician in the senate.  He was a huge U.N. advocate.  He was actually rumored to be the one who suggested that the U.N. end the war by absorbing the world into one government.”

Eli stopped again and looked at everyone, gauging their reactions.  Silas, fearful that he would become distracted again, impatiently motioned for him to continue.

“Long story short, he got put in charge of controlling rogues, was disgusted, and started helping them escape underneath the government’s nose.  He also started writing anti-U.N. stuff and sneaking it into the newspapers.  He eventually got caught, but he escaped.  This man’s name was Jackson Knight.”

The name “Jackson Knight” echoed through Silas’ head and he remembered what the Prime Minister said to him:
The Knight family has played a very special part in our history.  They have always interfered.  And they have always died. 
He looked down at Lilly and saw from the look in her eyes that she remembered the Prime Minister’s words as well, even though she did not look up to meet his gaze.  Eli continued.

              “He didn’t escape on his own, though.  He was broken out by a guy named Sage.  Knight revered him so much that he started using his name in his writings.  Sage himself is very mysterious.  He is in many ways the father of rogues.  For years upon years he has done just what he did with Jackson Knight, sweeping in to save them when they’ve made a mess of things for themselves.  I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him myself only once, and it was the most incredible experience of my life.  He communicates with his followers often, and he usually contacted me through letters, or other more . . . cryptic ways.  So here’s the thing.  He’s larger than life.  He’s incredibly powerful.  He always knows what’s coming.  And he’s the only chance we have at ending this wretched cycle of persecution.”

              The whole room fell silent for several seconds.  Silas feared the silence would never end until Tariq broke the silence.

              “Let’s go find him then.”

              “We can’t,” Eli replied.

              “Why not?” demanded Tariq.

              “I don’t know where he is.  He disappeared six months ago, and a lot of people are saying he’s dead.”

              Tariq scowled as his hope of vengeance was crushed beyond recognition.  Since his brother’s death he had become increasingly withdrawn, even from Salah.  In his brooding, he had hoped to be able to avenge his brother’s death with a blow to the U.N.  Even in his fury, however, he knew he could not do it alone.  He had hoped that this Sage figure could help him, but now he saw that he would have to pursue another route.  No matter what obstacle might show its ugly face, he was determined to destroy the U.N. by whatever means necessary. 

              Disappointment swelled up inside of Alice.  She had all but forgotten Sage in the midst of her abundant sorrow, but upon remembering him had still hoped that he could offer her a better life.

              Silas was tempted to wallow in the misery of this disappointment, but he realized something that might yet give them an advantage.

              “If that’s the case, why doesn’t the U.N. know he’s dead?” he asked.

              Eli’s eyes lit up when Silas asked this question.

              “Aha, now you’re cookin’ bro.  Ya see, it don’t matter what happened to him, the U.N. didn’t do it.  They haven’t touched him.  He’s an old dude and mighta just fallen over dead one morning.  Natural causes, you might say.  So we’ve kept his disappearance a secret.  So they spend all of their time looking for a dead man and we can use their distraction as an advantage.”

              “But Sage was your leader, right?” asked Salah.  “If he’s gone, then doesn’t that leave whatever resistance you have going on without a leader?”

              “Yes,” Eli admitted.  “In many ways we are the first generation.  Our resistance has been scattered, so it’s just us now.  But that doesn’t make us helpless.”

              “What are you suggesting?” asked Silas.

              “That we strike back,” said Eli

“That sounds suspiciously like terrorism,” said Salah.

              “You mean it sounds suspiciously like action.”

              Salah turned to Tariq and stared at him with incredulity. 

              “Will you pick a side?!  First you want to find Sage, then you want to run the first sign we get of him.  Then you meet this guy and say he’s an untrustworthy old hobo, and now you want to run off on some suicidal crusade with him?  What’s your deal?!”

“Think about it, Salah,” Tariq insisted.  “They killed Ishmael.  They’re after you.  How long do you think you or any of us will last if we don’t do something about it?”

              “What makes you think us attacking them is going to encourage them to stop hunting us?” Salah retorted.

              “What makes you think doing nothing will protect us?  I will not be a sitting duck,” he replied angrily. 

“Both of you, shut it!” Silas shouted.

To his surprise, they did. 

Silas closed his eyes and released a deep breath.

“What are you doing?” asked Tariq.

“Thinking,” Silas said, “You should try it sometime.”

“What did you say to me?!”

“Will you pipe down, Genghis Khan?” said Eli.  “Let the man think! What are we, cavemen?”

Silas let his mind reach out to grasp the minds of everyone, hoping it would help him know how to approach the situation.  Eli was determined and completely sincere, but after a brief investigation he concluded that he could not be reasoned with.  Tariq was filled with thoughts of revenge and hatred; his emotional state made him impossible to reach right now.  Salah had shown where he stood on the issue. 

As he reached Alice’s mind, he sensed something that caused him to stop in confusion.  He expected her to be filled with revenge and hatred like Tariq, but instead he found her mind to be in a state of tenderness.  She was filled with regret and sorrow and there was not a hint of aggression in her.  She didn’t want war and she didn’t want blood spilt.  As he searched deeper into her mind, looking for her feelings associated with her friend Rodge’s betrayal, he found that she did not seek revenge against him.  The discovery baffled him.  Eli interrupted his train of thought by speaking again.