The doors to the prisons opened to stone steps leading down into holding cells lit up by torches hanging on the walls. I wasn’t a stranger to nasty smells, but this blew all of my previous experiences out the water. Chamber pots lay festering outside rusty iron bars holding prisoners who appeared not to have washed in weeks. Dirt clogged the holes of their threadbare clothes, and most of them sat with their backs to the wall, too tired and starved to do anything except stare off into the distance.

  As we were marched further into the prison, some of the faces became familiar, the participants I’d gone with in the direction of the town.

  “Rolene,” I gasped, seeing her lean against the bars I was led past, “Did they hurt you?”

  “No. Not yet at least.”

  “Good. Everything’s going to be fine, it’s all under control.”

  “I don’t see a way out.” Where her voice had once been crackling fire, it had now been reduced to dying embers. “Do you?”

  I slumped my shoulders and allowed the guard to escort me to the cell next to hers.

  Elian got shoved into the one opposite to mine.

  “Where are the others?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “Some are here, some got away.”

  I puffed out a breath of relief. A few of us had made it. That had to count for something.

  Elian scanned the room while biting his lip.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, “Apart from the obvious.”

  “Niva’s not here.”

  “This prison’s pretty big, she might be in another room.”

  He settled.

  “Yes, maybe you’re right.”

  He huffed and sat down, fiddling with his shirtsleeves.

  “One thing’s for sure,” I said, “We need to find a way out of here.”

  Rolene scoffed.

  “If there was, we would’ve found it by now.”

  “Don’t be so sure.” I stretched out my arm as if to hold back her scepticism. “I have a plan.”

  I stepped a few paces back and then charged straight for the bars.

  The impact sent pain shooting through my skull but promising specks of flaky orange rust rained down from the ancient metal.

  Rolene crossed her arms.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were –”

  I knocked into them with a second thud, this time putting my shoulders into it. They budged ever so slightly.

  “–you.”

  “Why not?” I asked, rubbing my shoulder which was slightly jolted from the impact.

  Obscured by the length of holding cells, one of the guards started shouting. “Help! Help! This woman has been taken by female hysteria. She’s running into the bars!”

  Judging by the clobbering of his boots, I assumed he was running off to get reinforcements.

  “That’s why,” Rolene said drily.

  “Yeah, I see that now.”

  Several guards came rushing in, barging into the cell and held me down while a grey-haired man wrote something down on a piece of parchment. Elian jumped up.

  “Get your hands off of her!”

  “We will conduct the interrogation early,” stated the grey-haired man, “Name please.”

  “Is this necessary?”

  “Isvis Necessary,” he echoed, completely believing it was a valid name choice, “Let the record state you have been brought in today to be interrogated for the crime of witchcraft. Bring in the first witness.”

  A young woman I’d never seen in my life before walked into the room, white cap over blonde hair and round innocent eyes.

  She took one look at me before convulsing on the floor. The investigator shook his head.

  “Hmm telling, very telling,” he said in all seriousness, jotting notes down like he was all important notes for posterity.

  “What’s telling?” I challenged him, “That she’s having a seizure? Get her some help, dammit!”

  “Mrs Necessary this will go a lot easier if you mind your language and cooperate.” For the record, I was hardly being uncooperative trying to get this girl some medical attention. “I will have it noted that the first witness did, in fact, fall victim to the witch’s spell and end up in mysterious convulsions. Second witness please.”

  The girl was scooped up and moved out of the room, still convulsing.

  “You idiots are going to kill her,” I called after the guards, but the only reaction was the investigator tutting as he wrote some more.

  “No,” I protested, “Don’t put that in, I just meant she obviously needs urgent medical attention.”

  He ignored me and a second lady walked in. This one I did recognise. The woman who grassed us up to the witch-finder.

  She was fully clothed up to the neck in brown and white, with thin lips pressed into a line and dark pits for eyes. There was no emotion in those eyes, no warmth. Not even hatred either, just… emptiness.

  “Isabella,” chirped the investigator, a small slash of joy cutting into his dull, grey demeanour. “Thank you for joining us today. Can you attest that this is indeed the same woman you saw consorting with the Devil earlier?”

  “I certainly can,” she said in a smug tone that made me want to punch her in the face.

  What the hell was wrong with people? I never expected investigations of any sort to be fair but I’d never seen one so farcical! This was getting ridiculous.

  “That’s a lie,” I corrected her, “You lot can’t really be this stupid, can you?”

  “Ayla,” Elian started, “It might not be wise to insult the interrogators.”

  “Why not?” I sneered, “They decided their verdict the moment they laid eyes on us. Nothing we say is going to change their minds.”

  “Let justice take its course.”

  I scoffed. What justice?

  He looked right into my eyes from across the cell.

  “Trust me. Please, Ayla, can you do that?”

  His pleading eyes made crumbs of my resolve.

  “If I have to.”

  He breathed a sigh of relief. “We’ll get out of here. I promise.”

  “Well, if we’re all going to die at least we’ll do it together,” piped up Rolene.

  “That’s not a comforting thought,” I told her.

  A quiet cough interrupted our conversation.

  “Now if you’re quite finished, I’d like to finish my testimony,” said the woman, sickly sweetness dripping in her voice.

  I coughed in turn.

  “Of lies.”

  And coughed again.

  Everyone stared at me.

  “Sorry, tickle in my throat, please continue.”

  She faced the interrogator.

  “I saw her dressed in peculiar clothing muttering insane nonsense about travelling in time, and I came to the conclusion that she must’ve been possessed by the Devil.”

  “That is compelling,” he said.

  “And this was further proved by the fact that the accused has a witch’s mark.”

  “Really?” asked the interrogator, glancing up from his notes. “Where?”

  She pointed to a freckle on my wrist.

  “Good God woman! I see why Matthew made you his number two, I never would have spotted it.”

  Thank goodness she couldn’t see further up my shirt-sleeve. I wonder what she would have made of the institution tattoo.

  “Then,” Isabella continued and I was amazed she wasn’t done already, “When we spotted her, she climbed up old Mrs Norbitt’s house. A sane girl would never do such a thing.”

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Quite right, quite right. I think we’ve got all we need to take this to trial, I shall be back for the interrogation of Mr Necessary next.”

  The interrogator sauntered out the room, leaving Isabella, who looked on me with a changed expression. She was– The lady was actually smiling!

  “You know we didn’t do anything wrong,” I spat, “You know I’m not a witch. And I’ve never cursed anyone. Why are you doing this?”

  “Oh I know dear, it’s gotten out of hand these past years, it’s probably all a bit of nonsense really but…” She leaned in close so our faces were inches apart, with only the bars between us. “It’s better you than me.”

  She shuffled out of the room without so much as a backwards glance at the wreckage she’d made.

  “I’m not waiting here until they come back. Does anyone see a way out?” I asked, though I didn’t hold out much hope.

  “Asking twice isn’t going to get a different answer.” Rolene rolled her eyes. “We’re dead. Might as well accept it now. No one’s coming to save us.”

  A boom blasted the far wall to pieces, and a man and woman stepped into the room.

  “We’ve come to save you,” the woman declared, probably a couple of years older than me with dark mahogany hair that fell in curls just above her chin and a stocky build.

  We all stood there for a moment in silence.

  “That’s not usually the reception we get. Should we try that again?” asked the man.

  “Come off it, we’ve got a job to do,” the woman retorted.

  “I’m just saying, we risked a lot to get here, the least they could do is applaud us for our efforts.”

  Elian gave a slow sarcastic clap.

  “See, it’s not that hard. Thanks mate.” The man, the opposite of his counterpart in all but age with messy blonde hair, blue eyes and a square jaw, bumped his fist through the bars.

  “We’re wasting time,” urged the woman.

  The man pouted. “You’re no fun.”

  “My gun would disagree.”

  She cocked her pistol and shot a hole straight into the lock on Elian’s cell. Then mine, then Rolene’s and all the other participants that got captured.

  “Who are these people?” I asked, but part of me already knew the answer. Because I’d seen the woman’s face before.

  Elian walked out of his cell and went up to her. A golden lioness pin glinted off her green uniform jacket.

  “The Lion Legion,” Elian beamed as he shook her hand.

  “And I know who you are Mr Endavell-Alvidrez,” she said, “You’re a long way from home.”

  “You didn’t make it easy for me.”

  “That’s the thing about top secret rebel organisations, you want to make them hard to track down,” said the man, also shaking Elian’s hand, “The name’s Briar and this is Dani.”

  “Daniella,” she corrected, “The last person who called me Dani had the unfortunate punishment of being my partner.”

  Briar grinned shamelessly.

  “I regret nothing.”

  “Either way it’s an honour to meet you both,” said Elian.

  “Can someone please tell me what’s going on?” I asked.

  He turned to me.

  “Once I’d talked to Niva about her mother she told me she had contacts in the Lion Legion, and we came up with a plan to get Ramya out and shake up the institutions. I just had to meet them first.”

  It should have been shocking but somehow it made perfect sense.

  Elian should have been his father’s closest ally, but the look of a revolutionary suited him better.

  He had been given a choice, I realised, between keeping his comfortable life living like a prince and a life spent on a knife’s edge, working against his own flesh and blood in the name of what was right, and in that moment it was hard not to fall a little bit in love with him. In a non-romantic way, of course. And as for Niva, it definitely explained the depth of her knowledge surrounding the Lion Legion.

  “Sorry we had to go about it in such a roundabout way. Unfortunately, we need to meet at different points in time to plan our attacks,” explained Daniella. “It helps us avoid detection.”

  “I’m just glad we’re finally meeting. Where’s Niva?” asked Elian.

  At this, Daniella’s face fell.

  “I’m afraid it wasn’t possible to save her,” she said regretfully.

  “Why not?”

  “We were too late. I’m sorry. She was executed yesterday.”

  I searched her face for the sign of a lie, sure I’d find one, but she managed to maintain the mask of pain and sympathy.

  “But that’s impossible, I’ve seen all the history records, no more people killed as witches after Mary Trembles and Susanna Edwards. Not in Saxanglain anyway.”

  “We wipe every record of our existence from history.”

  Even I almost believed her, and I’d seen Niva last night after her escape.

  Elian excused himself and calmly walked out through the blown bit of wall. I wondered if anyone else had caught the small tremor in his voice, the way his hands shook.

  I gave Daniella my best glare.

  “You’re a very good liar,” I said and rushed after Elian.

  I found him on the floor with his back leaning against a twisted oak tree, staring into space. I sat next to him, and that brought him back enough that he could speak.

  “We need to get going,” he suggested, “Go join the others, I’ll be there in a sec.”

  I hugged him, pretty much the only comfort I was capable of giving.

  “We can make time.”

  I hadn’t expected it to be so hard to conceal the secret, but now I saw Elian grieving I wanted to grab him and tell him the truth.

  But Niva made me promise and I’d already seen the consequences of telling people secrets at the wrong time.

  “The alarm will be raised by now,” he said, staring at a single blade of grass on a patch of dirt by the tree.

  “I’m sure your new friends can fend off a few post-medieval guards.”

  I placed a hand on his shoulder, a final glance at his bowed head, and ran back across the field to join our new friends, only to find them running in my direction being chased by the interrogator.

  “How did he get a flamethrower?” shrieked Briar, while Daniella fired shots into the building with Rolene at her side.

  “I’ve got this one,” Daniella shouted, “Get the other two and meet back at the base.”

  “Copy that, captain!”

  He caught sight of me running closer and closer until we met halfway.

  “Perfect. Where’s the Chancellor’s son?”

  “He lost his best friend, he needs a minute.”

  “Sorry but we really don’t have that. Lead me to him, you can all mourn and escape at the same time.”

  “I know Niva’s not dead, she told me herself not to tell him.”

  “And who do you think made that call?”

  He looked back to Daniella who was engaged in a fist fight with the interrogator, punching his face to a bloody pulp before giving Briar a smile.

  “I really know how to pick them,” he sighed with a matching smile.

  I was just about to show them where Elian was when more guards came running out of the hole in the wall, this time with pistols

  “Keep running,” Daniella shouted, firing a few more shots out of her gun. I counted five guards left conscious.

  “We can take them,” Rolene yelled, but as soon as she did a couple of the remaining guards caught up to her and started dragging her back to the prison.

  “Run now, that’s an order!” Daniella barked at the rest of us, lowering her pistol as she approached us. I planted my feet.

  “Give me the gun. I’m not losing any more friends.”

  “You won’t,” she said, meeting my eyes with such fire that I believed her, and with that unspoken promise, Briar grabbed my hand and dragged me to the shelter of the trees.

  Rolene was left behind. For the moment. But I’d come back for her.

  I started running back where I’d come from, to find Elian getting to his feet as he saw us.

  “What –”

  “No time to explain, we’re getting out of here. Now.”

  Elian nodded with determination, and although he stood straight with his head held high, the red rims around his eyes showed he’d been crying.

  Then, Briar and Daniella slapped the face of their watches, causing them to emit a blue glow similar to Niva’s machine, and grabbed hold of each of us. We vanished like ghosts.

  While the machine made your stomach lurch, the watches felt more like disappearing in a puff of smoke, light and heady. As we landed back on solid ground, I was pleasantly surprised to find there were no after-effects.

  I went to Elian, popping back into existence a few feet away, while Daniella relayed the details to a man wearing similar uniform to her.

  We couldn’t have been far. The air had the same staleness to it and the trees were of similar breed and colour, if slightly wilder and more overgrown. A sizeable tent lay nearby, where a dozen or so men and women wearing similar watches were passing water and food to the Relegates they must’ve freed from the prisons.

  “We’ve got to go back for one,” I heard her say.

  “Well I don’t know about you, but my afternoon’s always free if it involves pissing off the Chancellor.” Briar interjected and Elian scowled.

  “That’s my father you’re talking about.”

  “I meant what I said.”

  “I know, I’m agreeing with you.”

  “She’ll get a trial, won’t she? Wouldn’t that be a good time for a rescue?” I asked Daniella.

  “We can work with a trial,” she considered, “I’ll get eyes and ears inside the walls of the prison. I need to know when she’s being moved.”

  “Might be a bit tough to get inside the wall since, you know, we’ve blown it to bits,” Briar reminded her. “They’ll have increased their numbers.”

  “Frey and I will manage. Ayla and Elian can assist you in planning the logistics.”

  “You’re going with Frey?” scoffed Briar.

  “Don’t get jealous.”

  “Me? Never.”

  They shared a smirk.

  “We’ll be alright captain,” said Elian, causing Daniella to raise an eyebrow.

  “You’re answering to me as captain?”

  “You were training with Maddox not long ago, if I remember correctly, serving in my father’s army. I know you don’t fight for him anymore but when someone’s earned their rank, I use it.”

  Daniella eyed him suspiciously, taking slow steps toward him like an animal stalking its prey, testing for weaknesses.

  “So you don’t think, as the Chancellor’s heir, you outrank me and I should be answering to you?”

  “When I made correspondence with the Lion Legion I thought I made my intentions of stopping the cycle of power quite clear.”

  “Are they still your intentions?” she asked.

  “Now so more than ever.” He clenched his fist then unclenched it. “I lost my best friend to people who use their power to make others feel small. My father’s like those people. And he must be stopped.”

  “Then Elian Endavell-Alvidrez, from now on you are no longer heir to the Chancellor, you are a brother to the Lion Legion. You will prove your loyalty beyond all doubt and in return we offer you our services. And you, Ayla Pickering, a girl with a reputation like yours creates great expectation. Don’t disappoint and we will call you sister.”

  “I’ve got a reputation?” I blurted out.

  “When a doctor spreads word of an insane Relegate, we listen.”

  “Ah. That reputation.”

  The stories were greatly exaggerated of course, but when you’re seen as the lowest of the low, they won’t put anything beyond you. Scream about injustice a couple of times and suddenly you’re the crazy one.

  “Brother, sister, whatever. You’re both mad for joining this.” Briar grinned.

  Daniella brought her feet together in a soldier’s stance.

  “We’ll rendezvous here in half an hour. Briar will tell you your codenames.”

  I propped my head up, watching for a certain someone’s reaction as I remembered what he’d told me about his childhood dreams of being a spy.

  “Won’t the interrogator be coming for us?” asked Elian, though the light in his eyes shone a little bit brighter at the prospect of being part of a secret mission.

  “No one will disturb you for quite some time I assure you.”

  Images of Daniella pummelling the prison guards flashed in my mind.

  She packed two rucksacks, giving one to a young man with black cropped hair and dark brown eyes, presumably Frey, and there was a moment where he and Briar made eye contact in a stand off before Daniella caught sight of them and rolled her eyes, causing Briar to smirk.

  “Good luck you two.” He turned away back to us and his team as the pair set off.

  “Right, can someone get out the plans for the local castle?”

  “A castle?” I asked.

  “Don’t get your hopes up, it’s a small one, all the witch trials in this town happen there.”

  One of the Lion Legion members brought up the plans, along with a torch to help read it in the dwindling daylight.

  “How did you get those?” Asked Elian.

  “Come on, you know we don’t go into anything blind. We’ve got floor plans for the Estate too.”

  Elian’s eyes widened, but he said nothing.

  “I did try and warn you, you’re both mad for joining us.”

  “Probably.” I forced a laugh. “But you saved our lives so you’re clearly doing something right.”

  He placed the plans on a nearby tree stump, using it as a makeshift table.

  “The main entrances are here, and here.” He pointed at the paper which was nowhere near as old as a thousand years, but the writing was obviously from this era.

  “How many documents does the Lion Legion have copies of?” asked Elian.

  “Many. If we go somewhere new in time we usually send scouts first and they copy the plans of the buildings we want to use.”

  I picked my head up.

  “Use for what?”

  “Meetings, assassinations, theft, what can I say, we’re a busy bunch.”

  “What are the meetings for?”

  Briar gestured at the hubbub of activity around us.

  “All this doesn’t happen overnight, does it? It takes serious planning, training. Occasionally we leave small traces. Hence all the alien conspiracy theories out there.” He looked at both of our blank faces. “Anyway, we don’t have to worry about ruining any timeline, because most of the time it’s physically impossible to change the past.”

  “Whatever is going to happen will happen,” murmured Elian. I caught his eyes in a scowl. “Something she used to say,” he explained and I put a hand on his shoulder. Briar looked between us and smiled to himself.

  “Niva and her rules. That’s the only real one, you know. She made up the rest for herself. Right.” He pointed to Elian, “You, Dad’s Army, ever done a rescue mission?”

  Elian scowled at the nickname.