In Chains, C. Noble [recommended ebook reader txt] 📗

Part I


Darcey Carter rolled over in her bed, ignoring her persistent alarm clock’s fervent beeping. The sun shone brightly through her white drapes and onto her face, warming her features. Her dark hair fell twisted onto her pillow as she dragged the patchwork quilts further up over her head. Failing to fall back asleep, she pushed herself up off her bed and yanked the still beeping alarm clock’s cord grumpily out of the wall. She yawned and stretched before pulling her hair into a curly pony tail and wandering aimlessly into the bathroom.
“Darcey! Come downstairs, breakfast is waiting. You don’t want to be late for school again, do you?” her mother shrieked. Darcey groaned. Of all her duties, school was by far the worst. She was very smart, but she really didn’t care enough to do anything. Her mother thought that this was the result of peer pressure, and so banned almost every one of her friends to come over except two, Mary Ann Price and William Foster. Mary Ann and Will had been her best friends since she was in diapers, and because they both maintained a ninety average, were allowed to associate with her.
“Darcey, get downstairs fast. Mom’s freaking out that you’ll be late,” her little sister Lana whispered. With perfect straight blonde hair and blue eyes, Lana was the picture of her mother and father, who had similar characteristics. Darcey, on the other hand, had dark brown curly hair and deep green eyes. She looked like nobody else in her family. The black sheep, Darcey was always pushed to the back of family photos. When she was a baby, her parents had a little blonde wig for her and made her wear blue sunglasses. She had a naturally darker skin tone, as though she spent all of her time at the beach, even though she spent much of her time indoors. Despite this effort to lighten her skin to match them, her parents could not make their eldest child look like them any more than they could make her sprout wings. Afraid of her differences, this was one of the reasons that she was not allowed to have many friends in.
“Darcey Thessilia Love Carter, you get downstairs this instant! You have been causing this family trouble for the last sixteen years, and I will not tolerate it anymore! If you make Lana and Drake late for school…” Darcey rolled her eyes and jumped down the creaking staircase. Louise, Darcey’s mother, was really the worst of her two parents. Her father, Dalton, was a little more tolerant of her, but still favored Lana and Drake. Her younger sister, Lana, was only twelve, but she really loved Darcey. Drake, on the other hand, was five and thought he was superior to them both.
It was nearly July. Soon Darcey would be out of school, and free to go with Will and Mary Ann to Will’s lodge in British Columbia. Dalton and Louise never refused, always glad to get Darcey out of the house.
Darcey gulped down breakfast and ran out the door, where Will was waiting. They walked together towards Mary Ann’s house in silence. Where Will’s thoughts were, Darcey was not at liberty to determine. Her own were split between her love of being with him and Mary Ann and her extreme dislike of being at home. Only a week of school more, and she could leave for Will’s lakeside vacation home.
“So like, when school’s out, are you going up to the lodge?” Darcey asked tentatively.
“Uh, yeah. I guess, I’m pretty sure we are,” Will replied nervously, then quickly added, “Mary Ann is invited to come…and of course, you are too.”
Darcey blushed and gratefully accepted. Will’s older brother, Dante, had been a rather occupying force of Darcey’s dreams as of late. She was very excited to have the opportunity to spend the summer with him. Will, seeming to discern her thoughts, irately muttered, “Dante’s latest girlfriend lives up there, he’ll probably be spending most of his time at her place.”
Darcey turned a bright shade of crimson. Was her adoration of Dante that obvious that even Will, who spent most of his time wandering the woods, could figure it out? If that, what she thought was her most carefully guarded secret, was so easily discerned, what else about her was obvious? She had a deep desire to ask, but she chose not to indulge it. They were almost at Mary Ann’s, anyway. Darcey would ask later, maybe on the plane.
The three best friends, reunited at the Price’s front door, turned on their heels and headed back to school. Mary Ann was in a talkative mood, discussing her parents, Stan and Deborah.
“Well, I just mean, I don’t look anything like my folks. Dad and Mom both have red hair and green eyes, and I’ve got black hair and grey eyes. I just don’t look like anyone else in my family, either. It’s a little sad, really. But Darcey,” Mary Ann pointed to her friend, who was off in space, “you know how I feel. You don’t look anything like your family either.”
“Yeah, Mary Ann, I guess…” Darcey trailed off. Will’s words troubled her. Dante was known as a player, but if he already had a girlfriend for the summer, what was the point of her going to the lodge? Other than to hang out with her friends and Will’s parents, Dan and Marie, there wasn’t one.
“…but as I was saying, Will must be really glad. He looks just like Dante, and his dad. Will, do you know how lucky you are? You fit in. You don’t get pushed to the back in family portraits, or yelled at, or anything. Your folks appreciate you.”
But Will was just as much in space as Darcey was. Mary Ann, who was still chatting away to open air, was oblivious to the lack of interest shown by her two best friends. They walked to school in the same fashion, looking much like two dogs following their master.
The morning passed unceremoniously. Darcey was forced to listen to her math teacher riddle on and on about Pythagorean’s Theorem or some other scientific bore. Her French class was slightly better; she had an aptitude for it. Luckily, Will and Mary Ann were in all her classes. They had been ever since kindergarten.
While Will left for lunch with Dante and his friends and Mary Ann’s mother picked her up, Darcey had to walk home. She needed to make lunch for Lana and Drake, even though her mother worked from home. As she walked into the kitchen, her mother came screaming around the corner.
“I just got a call from your principal. Did you know that you’re failing world studies? Failing! You of all people! It’s shameful, and if only…never mind. As punishment for this atrocity, you are not to go with the Fosters to their cabin. You are staying right here in Ontario, where you belong! You shouldn’t be skittering off to all corners of the country! You will take a summer school course, and you will pass with at least a ninety. Now, make Lana and Drake lunch and get out, I don’t want to talk to you again today.”
Darcey shrugged angrily and finished feeding her siblings before walking back out the front door to school. Will was, as usual, waiting for her. They walked, as usual, in silence until they reached Mary Ann’s house, where their silence was broken by a non-stop stream of informative blabber. As usual.
By the time they arrived back at school, Mary Ann had finished discussing all the pros and cons of her lunch, and started in to the countries of the world. She was particularly interested in the activities of a small island nation called Dijoubwe. She was in the process of listing all of their exports when the second bell rang.
World studies – the class Darcey was failing – had started. Their teacher, Mr. Munro, was taking suggestions on what to discuss that day. Mary Ann, as usual, raised her hand and eagerly replied, “Dijoubwe.”
“Ah, Dijoubwe. The paradise nation. Well chosen, Miss Price. Located just north of the equator and far west of Hawaii, Dijoubwe is a very diverse place. Although small, this island has world famous rain forests and architecture, particularly in the royal palace. The royal family that lives there has ruled it for centuries. The Martinaques have led their country very well. There has not being a single island uprising in more than four hundred years. Of course, they depend a great deal on their trusted advisors, the Palmas and the Dosciers.
“Strangely enough, there was a small disturbance on the island about fifteen years ago, give or take a few. There was the threat of a hostile takeover by an island about 100 kilometers to the east called Obweji. The royal family had only one child, which they sent to an unknown land to be raised in safety. The Palma family sent their youngest child to the same area, while the Dosciers left entirely. They relocated their entire family to watch over the two babies. They changed their names and came up with remarkably accurate false stories.
“King Martinaque argued that the Dosciers would not be safe watching over the two infants, but when presented with several very good points, allowed it. The children do not know that they are of noble blood, not even both of the Doscier boys, who were very young at the time. Naturally, the Dosciers, under a false identity, and the host families, know that they hold in their hands the future of a great civilization. The children’s names have not been changed, but that does not help us much. Only their true families and host families know, and nobody knows who they are. It is suspected that the children are somewhere in England, or else Switzerland. There have been many searches, but they have yielded very little fruit.
“There was another operative put on the case to oversee the upbringing of all three children, and he was meant to watch them from afar. His identity is unknown, and is suspected to be simply the figments of adventurous imaginations.”
Mr. Munro stopped talking, taking in the silent awe of the class. This fairy tale-like story was probably much beyond their comprehension, and Munro suspected that he had said too much. Reverting back to his original teaching plan, he instructed the class to turn to the appropriate page in their textbooks and assigned them work.
Darcey stared down at her page as Will and Mary Ann walked over and plopped their books on top of her desk. Mary Ann talked in turns, occasionally to Darcey and Will, but mostly to Dean Rivers, who was seated next to her. This left Darcey to ask Will if she was really that transparent. This question answered in the negative.
“You’re not at all easy to understand, Darcey. You say one thing and act another. Sometimes I think that you’re a little…shallow.” At the shocked look on her face, Will quickly continued, “I mean, you only like Dante because he’s tall, dark, and handsome, right? Well, all the ditsy girls he’d dated before only like him because of his looks too. Nobody really seems to care that he’s a physics major, and that he has seventeen trophies for academic achievement. They only care that he’s the captain of the soccer team and can shoot an arrow accurately five hundred yards away.” …and nobody notices that he’s a chronic idiot with a tendency to bully and insult anyone he could, Will muttered under his breath.
Darcey smiled a little. Far from making her feel bad,