It was with a mixture of trepidation and excitement that Eunhyuk and Summer followed along after Soon Bok back the way they had come and to the study through the lounge area.  There were four men dressed in rough riding gear sprawled out on various seats and couches.  They looked tired and pensive and all of them glanced at Summer and Eunhyuk speculatively as they rounded the corner and nervously made their way past them.  Soon Bok explained over her shoulder. “They are the scouting party sent to retrieve your companions.”

                The pair had figured as much but they met the uncertain gazes more evenly now, searching for some sign.  By the mere fact that none of them had anything to say and the absence of their friends, they could conclude that things were not all well.  Nervously, Summer looked at Eunhyuk and he nodded slightly, reaching out with his good hand to touch her lightly across her back, supportive and encouraging.

                Soon Bok knocked on the door first and waited for permission to enter before she pushed the portal open and gestured for the pair following her to step inside.  They did so quickly and were somewhat surprised when she remained outside, closing the door behind them as she did so.

                Sang Kyu was speaking quietly with a striking young man behind the large desk in the back of the room.  On either side, the walls were lined with shelves of books, some tall enough to need a ladder to reach.  Smaller desks were spaced around the room, one of which still had papers scattered over the top.  It reminded them of some of the work they had to copy while in the monastery.

                After a brief pause in their conversation, Sang Kyu stood up, gesturing for the young man beside him to do so as well, and motioned for the pair at the door to come forward.  It appeared that they were the only two in here as Myung Hee was nowhere to be found and even the servants had been left out.  Everything they had seen so far only continued to make them more worried.

                Summer and Eunhyuk moved up close, scanning the faces of the two across from them carefully, worry knotting their insides up with tension.  “What…what did you find out?” Summer asked uncertainly, meeting her father’s gaze steadily.

                Her father gestured towards the scout next to him.  “Hangeng will be able to tell you more,” he deferred politely.

                Immediately, Hangeng found two pairs of eyes focusing on him intently.  The platinum haired figure was used to being the center of attention but he found their scrutiny discomfiting.  Distractedly, he cleared his throat and wiped his hands on the dark brown leather vest he wore, modest protection while on the road.  “We did not found your friends,” he started to explain, looking uncomfortable when his word usage seemed to surprise the pair.

                “Find,” Sang Kyu provided easily and Hangeng nodded in understanding.

                Summer and Eunhyuk exhaled heavily and regarded the pair.  Hangeng’s accent was distinctly odd and he seemed uncertain of what words to use but seeing that her father had called him to the study and not any of the others, there would have to be reason.  “Nothing?” Eunhyuk asked in disbelief.

                Hangeng laughed harshly as he scratched his head, more a reflex action as opposed to an itch.  “Signs we found.  Your tracks,” he nodded in acknowledgement, but then his expression darkened.  “A patrol erased much signs until we looked at the bank.  They left from Lornhaldt,” he elaborated, remembering how they had followed the tracks from the main road to where they had found where Summer and Eunhyuk had crawled out of the river.

                Fear washed over their expressions and Summer grabbed Eunhyuk’s arm tightly.  That was bad news indeed.  “Did you see anything else?” she demanded hurriedly, afraid of what they might hear next.

                The scout shook his head, dark brown eyes sympathetic.  “We followed but did not want to risk being saw.  They would see us and know who we are.”  He shrugged in mild apology but Sang Kyu seemed to think he had done the right thing.

                “And why would that be a problem?” Eunhyuk demanded, slightly offended at what he saw as cowardice.

                The two across from him favored him with an amused look.  “Would you have rather they seen scouts from Silverberg manor and wondered what they were doing down the same path they were searching?” Sang Kyu asked bluntly.

                It took a moment for the question to make sense but when it did, Eunhyuk felt himself deflate.  Likely, they would have come here to investigate, if nothing else…  “I see,” he sighed, feeling turmoil inside of him.

                “They were a horse patrol,” Hangeng stated, as if that was supposed to have some significance.

                “And what does that mean?” Summer snapped.  Every patrol that they had come across had tried to harm them in some way.  This one could be no different.

                Sang Kyu waved at the scout and had to remind himself that they had not been outside the monastery long.  “Typically, only the Imperial guard ride from Lornhaldt.  Smaller patrols might gain horses for longer circuits but the fact that you were trailed by such from the capitol…”  He let the words trail off.

                “You have two possibilities.  Enrhyll,” Hangeng immediately cringed at the word usage when Sang Kyu shot him a look, but pressed on, “wants you dead or he wants you caught alive.”

                Neither option was comforting but the latter was far more confusing than anything else.  Up to this point, his focus had been their demise, or so they had thought, if the constructs and the patrols their group had come across were any indication.  On more than one occasion, Enrhyll had come very close to succeeding in the former.  Why would he change his mind now?  Baffled by the possibility, both Summer and Eunhyuk frowned in thought and looked away, each trying to puzzle it out for themselves.

                Though neither option was good, Eunhyuk was the first to brighten at the prospect of the latter possibility.  At Summer’s confused and uncertain look, he explained, “If they’re captured, then at least that means they’re still alive.”

                Summer pressed her hands together and brought her fingers to rest against , thoughtful and hopeful and worried…  “And if they’re captured, then we know where they’ll be going next.”

                “Exactly!” Eunhyuk smiled.  If it was perhaps a bit forced, she didn’t comment on it and he didn’t enlighten her.

                Their thoughts were interrupted by Sang Kyu who cleared his throat firmly and drew their attention.  “So you still intend to go to the capitol.  Just the two of you?” he asked pointedly, his face free of emotion.  Hangeng at least seemed surprised and very confused.

                “Yes,” they answered in unison, quite serious.  “If that is where our friends will be taken, then that is where we will go,” Eunhyuk stated simply.  There was no question in his mind about that simple fact.  He was relatively certain that Kharin would be able to avoid capture, so long as she was conscious and not too badly injured, but the others…

                As his response brought nothing from her father, Summer looked at him blandly and firmed her gaze, “You can either help us in this or continue to pretend you have any control in what Enrhyll already thinks about our family.”  Both Hangeng and Eunhyuk had the grace to flinch as they cast nervous glances between the father and daughter.

                Now Sang Kyu frowned, a dour expression, but it did not seem to faze Summer in the least.  “And what would you know, daughter, about anything in our family?” he demanded, his voice like steel.

                Summer bristled at the question.  She knew next to nothing about the Silverbergs, save what she had been told and what was known of them in general and he knew that.  Her expression darkened and she clenched her hands into fists, “I know that you gave me up and sent me away.”  That hit home and his mask cracked just a bit as his eyes twitched slightly.  “And I know that of my whole family, I am the only one in it trying to do anything.  And you won’t help me!” she spat, her face flushed and body tense.

                “I will go now,” Hangeng pointed at the door nervously, uncomfortable with being in the vicinity of a family feud.  He departed before anyone could tell him otherwise and he did not miss Eunhyuk’s gaze follow him, somewhat lost as it appeared he would rather not be in the middle of one either.

                Sang Kyu’s jaw clenched tightly as he eyed his daughter sternly.  She was nothing like the children they had raised under their care, but he had not really expected her to be as such.  Summer was no longer the little girl they had raised for the first five years of her life.  The woman across from him now was a familiar stranger and he wasn’t sure how much he liked that idea.  Stiffly, he demanded, “And what would you have me do?”

                Some of the fire left her eyes at the question as she had to honestly think about the answer.  When nothing physical came to mind about what she would request or what he could do, she finally swallowed and glanced over at Eunhyuk, who shrugged as he didn’t know either.  Finally, she met her father’s gaze again, after a tense silence, and she stated simply, “Support us.  Believe in us.”  Her eyes dropped to her hands as she looked at her open palms uncertainly.  “We have enough against us already.  We don’t need your doubts too…”  When she heard no response, Summer looked back up again and she could not read the expression on her father’s face.  “Fine,” she murmured before stepping over to grab hold of Eunhyuk’s arm and started to pull him towards the door.

                Baffled by the lack of reaction, Eunhyuk looked back at Sang Kyu while Summer steadily ignored him.  She missed it, but the wind elementalist noticed the thoughtful look that crossed his face for just a second before he realized he was still under scrutiny.  The blonde scratched his head as he tried to understand what that might mean but when comprehension failed, he simply allowed himself to be pulled into the main room again.

                Hangeng was standing there with the rest of his scouts and, not entirely unsurprising, Amber was standing nearby, chatting with him.  Summer scowled at the exchange as she noticed her sister was flirting most shamelessly with Hangeng and he was responding in turn, to the general amusement of his men.  Amber noticed them first and her expression turned to one of unexpected surprise, though she had to know that they had been in the study the whole time.  “Oh.  Hello, Summer,” she nodded, acknowledging her sister politely.  “Eunhyuk,” she added to the elementalist, to both of their surprise.

                Thrown by the sudden change in her behavior, some of the irritation faded and Summer responded, “Amber.”

                “Hangeng was being gracious enough to explain to me the mission that he was just on,” she explained happily, to the scout’s chagrin.  “I’m sorry to hear about your friends,” she offered sympathetically, a statement the other two were hard pressed to believe.

                “You shouldn’t be,” Eunhyuk stated from behind Summer as he stepped up beside her.  “We’re going to go find them.”

                Amber started to laugh at the jest before she realized he was completely serious.  A glance at Hangeng showed that he had known the statement was true the whole time.  Quickly, she tried to mask her social misstep with concern, “But you’re still injured.”  She gestured primarily at Eunhyuk but she knew that Summer wasn’t entirely healed either.

                Wordlessly, Eunhyuk raised his left hand up and summoned a compact ball of wind into it.  Unlike most of his summonings, this one took on a very wispy form so that they could all see the barest outlines of the shifting winds gathered in his palm.  Summer waited until all eyes had turned to him before she reached out and quenched the power easily before she eyed her sister again.  “And still more than capable of traveling.”

                “So it would seem,” Hangeng chuckled and nodded once with a glance at his men.  “Come on, men.  We must saw to the horses,” he stated with a wave as he started to head out.  He didn’t miss Amber’s pretty pout as he left, nor the amusement of his men, which told him he had said something off again, but they knew what he meant.  That was enough for him.

                When they had left out the front door, Amber rounded on the pair again and frowned, back to being her haughty, spoiled self.  “Why do you just keep stirring up trouble?” she demanded of her sister with a practiced glare.

                Summer snorted, much more comfortable with this side of her sister than the false polite one she had just seen.  “Because no one else here is.”  She crossed her arms aggressively in front of her and raised a brow at her sister.

                Amber frowned and grumbled, “Ugh.  You are so barbaric.  You’ve upset mother and father and now you’ve scared off Hangeng,” she pouted now, actually sad to have seen him leave.  Since Enrhyll had risen to power, she had not been back to court and her exposure to the company she was used to keeping had been much reduced.

                Eunhyuk recalled something her other sister had said about Amber at court and he took a small step forward.  “All we want to do is get to the capitol which you should want too, so you can go back to the palace courts,” he explained.

                She perked right up at that statement.  “Really?” she started before she reeled herself back and tried to pretend to being vaguely interested.

                “Really,” Summer nodded, unfolding her arms.

                Briefly, her sister looked between the two as if weighing their words and then she finally nodded to herself and raised a hand up, index finger extended, “You will never get there on foot or even through the gates looking like that.”  She didn’t sneer, but it was close.

                With an effort, Summer kept hold of her tongue and Eunhyuk only looked down at his garb in confusion.  He didn’t see anything wrong with it.  “Why not?” he asked for them both.

                Amber sighed and shook her head, her expression one of pleading patience.  “Never mind,” she waved and sighed before she turned her back on them and gazed at the door as she thought out loud.  “I have an idea but they’re late…” she murmured under her breath.

                “Who?” Summer asked immediately.

                “My music and dance instructors,” Amber explained as she twirled around again, a dreamy look in her eyes.

                “Huh?” Eunhyuk turned his head to the side in confusion.  Like Summer, he had no idea why they would be in the least bit helpful.

                She regarded them with a look of utter disbelief and disappointment.  “Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of the traveling minstrels Henry and Zhou Mi?” she asked in exasperation.  “Now they can get into the capitol with no trouble,” she grinned, already back to daydreaming about them again.

                Summer and Eunhyuk were already ignoring her.  Henry and Zhou Mi were heading here?  They looked at each other and couldn’t help but start laughing to Amber’s relative alarm and confusion.  “We know them,” Eunhyuk assured her after they took a moment to recover.

                At the admission, she seemed a little put out by their answer and finally shrugged.  “Well then.  They’re scheduled to arrive any day now.  Their regular circuit brings them here a few times a year.  Father convinced them to keep coming back to give us lessons.  Really, they’re more for Sage and Autumn, the poor dears,” she laughed delicately behind her hand.

                It seemed she was about to launch into further detail but was curtailed by the appearance of Myung Hee and Autumn.  Mi Cha was following along behind them quietly but she did glance over at the door of the study curiously.  While she didn’t know what had transpired in the study, Myung Hee was aware the patrol had returned without the other elementalists and that Sang Kyu was still in the study.  Instead of bombarding them with questions she knew would be answered in time, she smiled politely at the three.  “There you are.  Would you be so kind as to join me for the afternoon meal?” she asked, gesturing at the dining hall door.

                Having forgotten about the time of day in the excitement, the duo realized with a start that they were quite hungry, despite the tension that still sat heavily in their stomachs.  “Thank you, mother,” Summer bowed slightly, a response that still made her mother’s mouth quirk up at the inappropriate gesture.  Eunhyuk’s bow was completely acceptable, however.

                The afternoon meal was a somewhat subdued event but at least the general small talk of Myung Hee with Autumn helped to alleviate the tension in the air.  It was hard to remain knotted with worry when they spoke of such mundane things as the latest fashions, which they acknowledged were already out of date by the time they heard about them, and the latest gossip from court, which they had obviously been over before.  Not entirely unsurprising, Amber excused herself early, almost bumping into Sage on his way in, a shrewd look on her face.

                In a tumbled blur of thoughts and emotions, the rest of the day passed by quickly for Summer and Eunhyuk.  They were surprised indeed when later in the day, after the evening meal, another interesting affair where Sang Kyu was still absent, Hangeng rushed inside from the front door, a large grin on his face.  Summer and Eunhyuk had taken residence in the lounge area and Myung Hee, Sage and Autumn had joined them to keep them company, the youngest doing so reluctantly.  Hangeng’s hair had been plastered back as if he’d ridden hard for at least a decent time, but he was exuberant.  “Henry and Zhou Mi have come!”

~~~~~~

                The rest of the day that they rode and the next day as well, were bleak and rushed.  Eleanara and Kyuhyun remained bound and blindfolded and the only good thing was that they were kept together, largely as a warning to keep the fire elementalist under control.  For meals, they suffered the embarrassing indignity of being fed by hand, a fact they wanted to argue against more but were too hungry to care by that point.  During the first day they had not been fed in the afternoon, though water had been parceled out as necessary.

                Kwan continued to keep Eleanara with him at all times and Tae Hyun was in charge of keeping Kyuhyun nearby so the two usually rode abreast of each other while the other four horses clumped behind nervously.  They weren’t entirely positive the fire elementalist was subdued as he had seemed as much before and had still managed to nearly destroy them.  The possibility of finding the other elementalists was nearly forgotten as they made a mad rush to the capitol, desperate to keep anything else from happening.

                While Eleanara became even more quiet and withdrawn from the ordeal, Kyuhyun at least maintained some of his spark.  The morning of the second day, after an uncomfortable night of sleeping on the floor, he remained irritable.  When being fed, he was feeling particularly morbid and caustic from his captivity and subsequent lack of visibility.  Unsure of who was feeding him, he growled, “If you had just left us alone, none of this would have happened and your friends would still be alive.”

It was an entirely true statement but his listener was not in a patient mood.  “Shut your mouth,” the man stated severely before Kyuhyun felt a fist connect with his jaw hard.

                Unprepared for the attack, the fire elementalist was knocked over from where he knelt on the ground and hit the packed earth heavily, feeling his shoulder jar where it absorbed the majority of the impact.  He grimaced in pain and curled in on himself, almost regretting the words.  Vaguely, he heard Eleanara, “Leave him alone!” as her clothes rustled when she awkwardly pushed herself to her feet.

               “He-Sung!” Kwan snapped at the offending patrolman as he set the bowl of food aside and pushed Eleanara gently but firmly back down to the ground.  “Stand down,” the captain commanded, at which point He-Sung grumbled and slowly walked off, the armor clanking lightly as he did so.  Kwan walked over and reached down to grab the front of Kyuhyun’s shirt in one hand before hauling him upright.  “Keep quiet,” he instructed forcefully, his words terse and clipped.

                “Why?” Kyuhyun grumbled, shifting uncomfortably on his knees.

                “Because I can’t protect you from them all the time,” he explained quietly, actually concerned for his life.  With the latest development, he was partially concerned one of his men would want revenge for what they considered murder.  His task had been to bring them back alive and while some foul treatment he expected, he had to keep an even tighter leash on all of them than he preferred.

                “And why should you care at all?” the young man retorted, teeth bared in a grimace.

                “That is no concern of yours.”  Before he could retort or ask another question, Kwan stuffed a spoonful of food into his mouth, forcing him to chew or choke.  Kyuhyun chose the former but it was obvious he didn’t like it.

                The rest of the morning meal was spent with them finishing up and packing the much reduced supplies up.  The two pack horses had been incinerated with everything else so they only had a few of their usual amenities which made for a short preparation time.  Kwan had actually had to take one of the tents from his men and share it with the two elementalists, a prospect that had made him nervous but he trusted no one else to do so.

                 Not long after being fed, they were hefted to the back of a horse again, a position they were beginning to loathe as it had made walking difficult for Kyuhyun when Eleanara was not given the chance to come in contact with him.  Even she could only alleviate the worst of it since soreness was not something she could banish entirely and her steps were a bit shorter than usual too.

                As far as they could tell, the rest of the day was spent in hard riding.  Their pace did not change much, remaining a constant but smooth canter or when Kwan felt the need, a harder more jarring gallop that sent the wind rushing past them.  They paused some time later and were given water and a very brief chance to stretch their legs before the pair was hauled back onto the horses and off they went again.

                Alarmingly, the next time they slowed down, they could both feel a shift in the air around them.  The attitude of the men had changed and there was a certain tension in them that made the elementalists nervous.  Other sounds started to reach their ears as it sounded as if there were other people on the road.  Voices floated by, indistinct and murmuring, but none of them were the familiar intonations of the patrolmen they had been traveling with.

                Kwan leaned closer to Eleanara’s ear and spoke quietly, “We are almost there.  The gates of Lornhaldt are ahead,” he told her, an announcement that sent chills up her spine and her stomach dropping like a stone.  Her already pale complexion whitened further and Kwan looped an arm in front of her to steady her, a sensation she did not care for.  Kwan nudged the horse into a fast walk and called ahead, “Make way for the Imperial guard!”

                Kyuhyun heard the announcement with a sense of dread.  The only reason Kwan would be saying that now was because they had arrived…  Carefully, he tried to filter out the sounds that came to him and among the indistinct mass of voices, he could hear questions and exclamations.  More faint but rising above the general commotion of sound was the voices of those selling their wares as they called out specific goods and prices.  “Oh no…” he breathed, feeling a shadow fall over him that had nothing to do with the rising walls of the city and the gates.

                As they had originally intended, they had made it to the capitol city of Lornhaldt, but the two were alone and held captive.  Neither knew if anyone other than Kharin and Leeteuk had survived and now they would meet Enrhyll by themselves.  They were not ready for that encounter…

(a/n: So I got a bit sidetracked with the one-shots I was working on but hurrah!  Things are steadily moving forward and I am seriously looking forward to the next chapter!  I am curious to know what you are thinking so far and would love to hear from you if you have any thoughts or concerns or anything of that nature.  Know that any response I get brings me happiness and you all make my day in continuing to follow me.  Thank you as always to my readers, silent and otherwise, and especially to those whose responses just make me grin.  <3  I will be getting the next update up as soon as possible but I hope this works for now.  Enjoy!  And have a fabulous day!  ^_^ )