Free Quest for the Secret Keeper by Victoria Laurie Page B

never feel anything else formed inside him.
    The planes were moving off now as sirens continued their mournful wail, but Ian paid the departing planes no attention. “Ian!” he heard Carl gasp as his friend approached and sank down beside him. But Ian couldn’t even acknowledge him. He was focused on Theo, willing her to move.
    To his utter amazement, a moment later she did. First her head lifted, and she looked about; then, pushing up onto her knees, she looked behind her. Ian’s shoulders sagged with relief and he reached forward to gather her close. “Thank heavens,” he whispered hoarsely.
    In the next instant Theo was sobbing so hard he thought she’d pass out. Ian hugged her fiercely and patted her back. “There, there,” he whispered, unable to get his injured voice to a higher volume. “You’re safe, Theo. Everything’s all right.”
    “No!” she wailed, lifting her tearstained and dirty face to his. “Everything’s
not
all right!”
    At first Ian misunderstood and pulled her slightly away to look her over carefully. “Are you hurt?”
    Theo shook her head vigorously. “No,” she said, pushing her face back into his shirt. “It’s not me. It’s Madam Scargill!”
    Ian was thoroughly confused, and he made an attempt to lift her chin with his fingers and wipe at the mud and tears on Theo’s face, as if that could clear up his confusion too. And then something flickered behind his sister, and he knew.
    “Gaw,” said Carl, who’d moved up next to him and obviously hadn’t understood what Theo had said. “I hope no one was in there.”
    Just a hundred meters away, a small section of Delphi Keep was on fire, and Ian knew it to be the headmistresses’ study. The bombs had miraculously missed the keep overall, save for that one section, which was now completely engulfed in flames.
    Men with buckets, shovels, and wet sheets darted about, doing their best to extinguish the flames, but none of it would be in time, and Ian closed his eyes to think about the poor woman who’d helped raise him since he was one day old.
    As long as he’d known her, Madam Scargill had been sharp and curt and had avoided showing him much kindness, but overall she’d been a good woman, and she’d always had the children’s best interests at heart.
    “Theo,” Ian whispered. “Are you sure?”
    Theo closed her eyes and wept and wept, managing a tiny nod. “I … I … had a vision of her in her study just … just as the bombs fell, and … I tried to get there in time!” she wailed. “But … but I couldn’t! Oh, Ian, I couldn’t warn her to get out in time!”
    Ian hugged the poor girl to him again and met Carl’s curious gaze. “Madam Scargill,” he mouthed.
    Carl gasped and got to his feet immediately, dashing off to help the men fight the flames.
    Ian would have joined him, but he didn’t think his legs could support him just yet. Soon after that, footstepsapproached, and Ian turned his head to see Argos, his eyes large and wary, as he made his way over to Ian and Theo.
    “Is she well?” he asked, squatting down and placing a gentle hand on the top of Theo’s head.
    Ian nodded.
    “And you?”
    “Fine, thank you, sir.”
    Argos sighed and sat down next to them. “Your patriarch has gone to his home,” he said.
    Ian looked over his shoulder and saw Castle Dover alight with flames. His stomach contracted at the thought of the many people who could at that moment be trapped within its walls, injured or dead, and he decided he had to help. Looking earnestly at Argos, he asked, “Would you watch over Theo?”
    “You are off to lend aid?”
    Ian nodded again.
    Argos held open his arms. “Give her to me. I will protect her with my life.”
    The soldier’s pledge filled Ian with a renewed sense of warmth for the man. He didn’t know much about Argos, but what he knew he liked immensely.
    “You’ll need to take her back to the portal tunnel,” Ian told him, carefully handing Theo over.