Prologue

...

Where is She?

...

"Above the plains, up on the hill, there stood a castle bold.
A gleaming palace made of white, a pillar to behold.
The horsemen lived in service to the castle and the crown-"

"Mother."

The voice was sharp, a knife splitting the air. I stopped singing my song and looked up from my coloring. I had been adding girls to a picture I had drawn. It was a picture of a pretty white castle, like the one I had given Cammie earlier that day. My home- what was supposed to be my home. It was supposed to be my escape; instead, it was nothing but a prison.

I blinked, focusing on the figure standing in the doorway of my room. My sweet, little Zach was standing stiff, his posture unwavering. He looked funny, like his father. His voice was strange too, mechanical.

"I'm going to ask you a question, and you're going to answer me," he said. He looked like little Cammie who had visited me a little while ago; the same stare, the same cold expression. Maybe it should have bothered me that my Zachy was looking at me like that, but it didn't. My Zachy wanted to ask me a question. What did he want to know? I smiled as I looked at my little boy, little assassin.

He crouched down, and I didn't have to look up from my spot on the floor anymore. His eyes were strange, hard and soft at the same time. "Where is she?"

My hair fell into my face as I tilted my head. Where was she? I giggled, he should know that. He helped her get there. Zachy's eyes narrowed a little bit. "Answer me." He looked so much like Townsend when he was mad.

I laughed. "You look so much like your father."

My Zachy sighed and stared at something down the hall outside my room. When he turned back to me his eyes were sad, a frown etching its way onto her face."Is she alive?"

He thought she was dead? Why would he think she was dead? The Circle had found her when she was running. The Circle would take care of her. The Circle was family. She wouldn't leave the Circle, she knew better than that. They knew too much. She was too smart to be hurt or dead. I smiled. "She was a lot like you, she knew a lot, too."

"They got her."

I shook my head, pouting slightly. Why was Zachy so somber? "They didn't get her; she was safe in the Circle last I saw her."

That didn't seem to cheer my little boy up. Maybe he needed a song. I smiled as I thought of his favorite song. I rocked back slightly, singing. "Above the plains, up on the hill, there stood a castle bold. A gleaming palace made of white, a pillar to behold."

"Stop."

"The horsemen lived in service to the castle and the crown,"

"Be quiet!"

"But the knights rose up and killed the kings,"

"Goodbye, Mother."

"And it all burned down."

.oOo.