Ada Rue and the Banished by Kereen Getten

Author:Kereen Getten
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Under the dim light inside the basement they call the Hideaway, Mr Bell grabs a hard-backed wooden chair and places it in the middle of us all. He sits with his hands clasped together on his knees, his feet tilted on to his toes, and tells us the story of the Banished.

“Long ago,” Mr Bell says, “way before I was born, when casting magic was against the law and practising it meant death, a group of witches, fleeing from persecution, went on a journey to find safety for themselves and for their future families. They called themselves the Banished. They found Littleton. It was deserted after three consecutive fires and no one had lived there since. People believed it was a cursed town, but the Banished felt drawn there, safe in the knowledge that it was miles away from any other life.Fearful of being found, and wanting to live a normal life, they set a magical wall around the town to stop any intruders getting in, and there they lived happily for many years. They built homes, had families and lived a peaceful life, until they were betrayed. One of their very own, Mocasa, a young man who resented being locked away from the rest of the world, escaped into the night to the nearest town. He persuaded his two best friends, Amron and Kane, to go with him. When they reached the town, Mocasa was tricked by a woman he fell in love with. On learning about Littleton, she persuaded Mocasa to take her there, hungry to have the magic for herself. We do not know if he realised, but the woman planned to take an army with her.

The army hid in the countryside until Mocasa lowered the magical walls, and then they stormed the town. Realising they were surrounded, the leaders cast a spell on all of their children, taking away the magical powers that had plagued their own lives. The leaders perished on that dreadful day but their children, who were no longer magical, were spared. Little did the leaders know that when they took the magical powers away from their children, they did not take them from their children’s children.

So we, the children of the Banished, were taken to the city. We were put into children’s homes at first, then adopted out to new families, never thinking we would ever see days like these again. When we realised the magical powers had gone to our children, one by one we returned to Littleton, in the hope that it would protect us once again. Only this time, we didn’t have the magic to protect our children. It was our children we had to rely on to protect us.

The Banished didn’t want to keep the magic for themselves, but we were afraid that history would repeat itself. We are not on any maps, and although many have heard the story of the magical town, we cannot be found except by invitation. Specific instructions are given to those we invite, descendants of the Banished who may not have known about us.

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