Secret Novel Chapter 6: Quiet Offerings (Patreon)

After the caravan’s escape from whatever was making the wooden groaning, the group all felt obviously tense. The mages never told Madeline what had been making its way over to them, nor did they tell her if it was still coming after them. She assumed not since after three hours of hard fast riding, the horses slowed down to their usual pace and they had never picked it back up since. Still, Madeline couldn’t help but wonder if the thing that was taller than the hedge was still after them since the elder always kept an obvious ear out for it whenever they stopped. Even so, the groaning sound never appeared again.

After that little incident, the gods had decided the Maze was in dire need of some rain, because it rained for nearly four days straight. When it first started to rain, Madeline had wondered if the mages would let her in the carriage with them to get out of the rain, but they didn’t. To be fair she did wonder if they even noticed it was raining from inside their carriage, and that was why they hadn’t stopped to let her in. Then it all became clear that they just, in fact, did not care after one of their stops, when the elder tied her back up to the cart. They left her out in the cold rain without a second thought. Madeline had thought the elder to be on the nicer side, but apparently he wasn’t nice enough to let her come in from the cold.

Madeline did have a thick cloak, of course. One wouldn’t dare travel without one. For a while she did manage to keep warm and dry. But the rain didn’t let up, and eventually the thick cloak did start to soak through and the chill of the rain hit her. Madeline was truly miserable for the next few days as it rained, and the slight ease she had felt with the elder mage was slowly wiped away every time he tied her back to the cart in the rain.

Thankfully after four days straight the rain finally gave way to sun and it warmed Madeline’s fully chilled form. How dearly she thanked the gods for the warmth of the sun as it slowly dried her and her clothes. It took nearly a full day for her clothes to dry, and it would take another two for her cloak to fully dry. Thankfully she had managed to keep her pack mostly dry through the whole endeavor, keeping the food and sweets she had inside safe.

Then the morning of the thirteenth day came. Just as the sun was rising the mages stopped the small caravan. The elder stepped out alone and came over to the still waking Madeline. Realizing he was coming over to her, the sleepy woman quickly sat up and looked back at the mage.

“You wear the sack from here till the end of the journey,” was all he said before walking back over to the carriage.

Madeline took a deep breath as her chest grew tight with anxiety. They were almost at the end of the journey. This was it. This would be the end… Taking a deep breath, Madeline picked up the sack and slipped it over her head, submerging herself in darkness again.

The day that followed was hard, emotionally speaking, for Madeline. Every second that past felt like a second closer to her death. It was a sickening feeling, but having thought ahead and saving the best food and sweets till now was a little heartwarming. The comforts and foods given to her by those she cared for and who cared for her in return brought the anxious woman peace, as well as a full belly, and there was even more food still left.

Somehow Madeline made it through that day and night without much panic, but the morning when she woke up was another story. Panic was running rampant at times, and at others complete numbness to everything. She could barely focus on anything; it was all just too much knowing that this was it. This was the day she died. The day Marcus has been looking forward to.

Midmorning came, and Madeline felt the caravan pull off the highway and into the actual Maze. Turn after turn in directions she was sure was sending them in just circles, then they stopped. She heard the mages get out and come over to her. One of them took her pack from her while the other helped her off the cart. Once down, the pair of mages bound her hands behind her and led the blindfolded Madeline through the paths of the Maze for what felt like an hour.

Slowly the sound of other voices and chatter made itself present as one of the mages grabbed her arm roughly, probably Marcus, and dragged her over to a random spot. Then with a kick to the back of her knee, Madeline fell down to her knees.

“He won’t tell us his true name,” Madeline heard the elder mage say, just as the sack was ripped off of her head. The sudden light from the sun blinded the poor woman as she quickly went to cover her eyes, but couldn’t as she was bound.

“His name is Edwin,” a voice said.

Madeline felt her heart leap and her chest tighten at the voice. Blinking the sun away Madeline’s eyes landed on a sight she never expected to see again. Flora. Her sister. Her sister was here! Her sister was alive!

“Flora! Flo-” Madeline called out to her sister before a boot met her back, shoving her face down into the dirt.

“Offerings will not speak unless spoken to,” a new mage spat down at her.

Coughing some dirt from her mouth, as she laid on the floor, Madeline finally noticed that she was not the only non-mage here. In a line next to her knelt four other bound offerings as well as another who stood proudly at the end. His hands loosely tied in the front with what appeared to be a silken ribbon, which matched his silk shirt perfectly. A noble.

Then something that should have caught Madeline’s attention sooner finally caught up. Flora had called her Edwin. Flora used masculine pronouns for her. Confusion washed over the poor girl as she struggled to get back to her knees. Why would Flora do that? They were sisters! Flora helped her pick her name!

“Flora, what is goi-” The mage that had spat at her, backhanded Madeline across the face with enough force to send her falling over again.

“Silence your offering,” the mage said to Marcus.

Madeline lay on the ground dazed and confused. But she could see Flora, her sister, and Flora wasn’t even looking at her. Her same green eyes were cast elsewhere without a care for her beaten sister. She was chatting with another mage. Wait… Flora was a mage. She was wearing robes like them. She even has the embedded crystals…

Before Madeline could keep going down that rabbit hole, Marcus’ hand wrapped around her neck. Panic washed over the girl as the noble mage above her said a few strange words. Quickly she pulled away from his hand, and was surprisingly not stopped by him.

‘Get off of me!’ Madeline shouted at the mage, in a sudden burst of courage, but there was a problem. She did not make any sound. ‘What?’ Still no sound.

“This one seems to know you, Flora. Is there going to be a problem here?” The mage in front of Madeline asked looking over at her sister.

‘She’s my sister!’ Madeline tried to scream from the ground.

“No,” Flora said, turning to look over at her sister. Their shared green eyes met. Madeline’s pleading while Flora’s were disinterested. Flora broke her sister's gaze and looked over at the other mage. “He is nothing but a freak who thinks himself a woman. He isn’t my offering. I have no care for him.”

Madeline felt her heart shatter at her sister’s words. ‘You’re my sister!’ Madeline screamed silently, pleading to her sister’s deaf ears. ‘You helped me find myself!’ If she was making any sound Madeline might have noticed she was sobbing, but even the sobs were silent. ‘You helped me find my name!’

Why was Flora doing this to her? Calling her a name that wasn’t hers. Calling her a man. Calling her a freak, just like Marcus had. Madeline’s mind was running wild as the sudden joy she had felt knowing her sister was alive, was destroyed by her words. How could she be doing this to her own flesh and blood, to her own sister! They were family!

In her silent sobs Madeline realized the mages did this to her. The mages changed her. The mages took her sister five years ago, and they turned her into one of their own. Madeline continued to sob silently, still feeling the urge to call out to her older sister like a scared child, but no sound was ever made and her sister never looked at her again.

“Finally the time is upon us,” the mage standing in front of the offerings said to the group of mages looking at them. “You…,” he says pointing at a group of six younger mages. Flora and Marcus were in said six. “...have studied hard, and have been rewarded with the chance to rise above the novice rank.” Madeline could see the elder mage that had brought her here sneer at the back of Marcus’ head. He definitely didn’t think Marcus was worthy of this chance. The speaker mage turned back to the offerings. “Two of the offerings are pure and worthy of ascension into our esteemed order.” He pointed at the noble man at the end of the line and to the girl kneeling next to Madeline. “Rise and join the novice that brought you here.” Only one of them had to rise as the noble was already standing up, unlike every other offering. Once the girl stood up the two walked over to the novice mages that brought them. Madeline also noted that the noble walked with an obviously bad limp. Maybe that was why he was standing.

“Hagger and Delvin, your test to graduate novicedom is to bring these offerings through the first stages of magehood.” The speaker now looked back at the four kneeling on the ground. “The impure,” He said, gesturing to all of them. “The heathen,” he pointed to the one at the other end of Madeline. Madeline couldn’t help but look over. Nothing about the scared young man screamed heathen to her. “The molten eyed,” he said, pointing to the girl next in line. Madeline saw that her eyes were a golden color. How was that impure? “The cripple,” he pointed at the boy barely old enough to be called a man next to Madeline.

‘Oh so the noble can have a limp but the commoner can’t?!’ Madeline silently screamed at the speaker, no longer afraid to ‘speak’ her mind considering no one could hear it.

“And the perverse.” He pointed his finger at Madeline.

Pain, sorrow, fear, anger, hatred, all flashed through Madeline at his definition of her. Though she had faced hardships from other townsfolk when coming out as being of switched hearts, no one had called her perverse. A freak, strange, confused, sure, but perverse? Never. Hot tears rolled down her face as she stared back at the mage. She was not perverse. She was not a freak!

“You four have your charges,” the speaker said to the group of novices. “Bring them back by midnight to prove that you are able to safely and accurately navigate the Maze by yourself. You are free to use any spells which you have learned as you see fit. If you are unable to return with your charge you fail the test, and must wait till you are deemed fit again to retake it. Also,” the speaker gave a glance over the offerings, and waved his hands, causing all their binding to fall away. “The charges need not return to us in the same state they left,” he said with an amused chuckle.

Finally the speaker turned back to fully face the offerings. “If you are able to avoid our pupils till midnight, you are then free to try and find your way back home. Though be warned, the Maze is not always as kind as we are. But please, do make this a challenge for our students.”

The four offerings all share glances at one another, not quite sure what to do.

“Go!” the speaker screamed.

Instantly the girl with golden eyes jumped to her feet and bolted for one of the many openings behind them. The ‘heathen’ was quick to follow the girl's lead, but ran down another path. Madeline watched as the boy next to her struggled to get to his feet, but her eyes then wandered away back over to the mages. Off to the far left, slightly behind the gathered mages, she could see six packs, including hers, lined up against the hedge. If she has any hope of getting back home, she’ll need her pack and the food within it.

Being the only one to differ from the rest, Madeline bolted up and ran the opposite direction over to her pack. Three strides in, a bolt of lightning suddenly zapped right in front of her eyes, singeing some of her hairs. The crackling of the lightning was so loud that it deafened her for a second, as she came to a complete stand still, too afraid to move after seeing a true force of nature narrowly miss her by mere inches.

“Leave him be. We did not say that they were not allowed to take packs with them.” The speaker said, slightly amused. “Though it has been a while since I’ve seen an offering who realized their packs were right there.” His laugh at the end is dry and crackly.

Madeline, with her heart in her throat, slowly and shakily turned to see where the lightning had come from. What she saw made her stomach drop out from under her.

Flora stood looking at her, hand outstretched with tiny bolts of lightning crackling between her fingers.

Flora… Flora was the one who almost killed her. Her own sister. What was worse, was that there seemed to be no care in her sister’s eyes. She didn’t care if she killed Madeline or not.

The urge to flee finally overcame the sense of shock and fear. Somehow Madeline turned herself away from her sister’s dead gaze, and back to her pack. Quickly she went for it and huffed it over her shoulder. Turning back to the exits from this meeting square, Madeline saw that the boy with the limp was only now making his way through an exit. He had no hope of escaping these mages. She knew he wouldn’t make it alone.

Alone…

Madeline silently swore as she quickly reached back down and hauled a second pack over her shoulder, before running over to the boy. Cursing her good natured will, she thought that it’ll probably get them both killed. They wouldn’t die alone though.

The boy jumped when Madeline came up beside him, but as Madeline offered him a helping arm the look of pure thanks and relief on his face made it all worth it. Even if she died helping him, she’d be doing some good with her last actions on this world.