Eluria's Enforcer (The Argadian Heart Trilogy Book 1) (5 page)

Eluria bit her lip, turned her gaze from his,
unable to meet his searching look. “Your mother is alive, as is your sister. I
don’t know about your brother. Alekos has disappeared. There’s been no real
word of him for many years. Just rumors. We think he may have been terminated,
but have been unable to confirm it.”

She paused, taking a deep breath to steady
her. “Your mother is in seclusion on Ednos. Gavrielle sought peace
after…after…” She stopped speaking, trying to find the words to continue.
“Kierra…Kierra is near your mother.”

“And my father?” The question she feared most
dropped between them.

“Taeryl. Taeryl was terminated, Devon.”

Painful silence echoed all around them.
Finality. Eluria saw his jaw harden, and his eyes fill with pain.

They were silent for long moments as she
waited for Devon to absorb the knowledge of his shattered family.

“All these years I had no memory of them. If
I’d actually met any of them during that time, I wouldn’t have known them.”

She nodded. There was a time when he’d passed
her several years ago. There’d been no hint of recognition in his eyes. She’d
wanted to touch him, to force him to remember her. Instead, she’d hurried away
before desire won over commonsense. The blank, unemotional look in his ebony
eyes haunted her for months afterwards.

Now she watched a myriad of emotions flitter
across his face. He looked at her, his blue eyes blazed through her. “When?
How?”

She squared her shoulders, prepared to accept
the full brunt of his anger. “Because of me, Devon. All of it, because of me.
You. Alekos. Kierra. Taeryl. The terrible fate that has touched your lives is
my fault. I have brought your family to this terrible end.”

Devon tried to absorb what Eluria was telling
him. Feelings of love and hate threaded through him. It wasn’t the same as the
Killing Frenzy—that was a different kind of single-minded aggression
manufactured by Nanus modification. These two emotions were real and were
melded together with a sense of impotence—a feeling he’d never experienced
before.

His hands balled into fists as he tried to
grasp the realization that his father was terminated, his mother and sister
exiled, and his brother—Alekos, the younger, could very well be terminated as
well. Only the Tribunal had the power to force exile and command termination.

 Memories of a happy, secure Before in the
heart of his family flared and was reduced to cold ash in an instant. Duty. All
the years that had passed with no memory, no feeling, no purpose other than
duty to the Tribunal flashed through him.

And somehow Eluria was involved? In his
memories of her, he found it hard to believe she could have done anything to
harm his family. But she’d become a twilighter. It didn’t mesh with his memory
of her. Why had she done it?

He lifted his gaze and studied her as she
faced him, poised like a young, wild kyrle awaiting termination, with no way of
escape. Twelve years had passed since he’d sought to court her. She had
changed.

Eluria had been a good friend to Kierra, his
sister. That was how he’d first met her. She’d accompanied Kierra home after a
dance celebration and Kierra introduced them. He’d recognized in the brief
innocent glow of her radiance, the bonding that would come to their future. Her
soul blazed out at him through her beautiful violet looking-glass eyes. The
plans he’d made for the future from that moment had been with the view of union
and balance with Eluria Zydon. But somehow their lines to the future had been
altered.

He’d lived and breathed his responsibility to
the Tribunal for twelve years. How did he reconcile what she was telling him
now with his duty to contain…and destroy? Always in allegiance to a government
made up of people who didn’t merit loyalty. He knew his family wouldn’t have
deserved persecution by the Tribunal. Devon remembered his father as a good man
of wisdom, unlikely to become affiliated with a rebellion without sufficient
cause. Pain shot through him at the knowledge of his loss.

With his memories no longer splintered, he
knew she spoke true. Like pieces of broken mirror restored, full knowledge
brought him not hate for Eluria, but self-loathing for what he’d become.

Eluria was no longer the young Maigin who
honored him with her devotion. But nor was he the same naïve youth who’d
envisioned a future with her as his balance. Twelve years of bloodshed covered
his hands. A manufactured being created for the sole purpose of termination.
Pure and decisive destruction. And he’d been very good at it. The best. How to
come to terms with that knowledge? With the understanding he’d served a
government that nurtured a force of killers, a tool used to subjugate and
maintain control?

So new to him, his hidden memories were now
at the forefront in his mind. All he’d felt and wanted Before were as though it
had all happened yesterday—fresh and urgent. His desire for Eluria a living
thing, winding around and through his body.

Maybe it was because of those memories he
couldn’t see the hard, calculating nature of a true twilighter about Eluria. He
sensed innocence and removal in her manner, though she tried to mask it. All
wasn’t as she’d have him believe, and he was determined to know truth. The
Maigin he’d known wouldn’t have betrayed people she loved.

“Remove the lenses.”

Her gaze widened at the request, and she
shifted and tensed. “Seeing the color of my eyes will tell you nothing new. I’m
deserving of your hatred. I accept it.”

Was it her knowledge of an Enforcer’s duty
that made her appear to accept the inevitability of termination for her
betrayal without argument, without attempting to justify her actions? Her
manner was not one of a guilty, vengeful Female. Nor of a seductress out for
self-gain.

Even as an Enforcer, unlike the others, he
always weighed the evidence presented fairly before acting. It had been easier
without the weight of emotion to blur his judgment. But even with the
impediment of emotions, he couldn’t believe his instinct would be led far
astray.

“Remove the lenses willingly, or I’ll do it
for you. I will see the colors of my professed enemy.”

She flinched at his words, yet still she
hesitated.

“Now!” he commanded and took a threatening
step toward her. She was hiding something, and he was going to find out what it
was, one way or the other.

Finally, she removed the lenses, but refused
to meet his gaze. Devon strode towards her, and with a firm, yet gentle grip,
cupped her chin and forced her head up.

Eluria lifted her gaze unwillingly to his.
Her lids lowered.

“Open them,” he commanded her in a low tone.

She released a long, shuddering sigh. Finally,
her gaze rose to meet Devon’s. He studied her closely, seeking the soul he’d
once known as well as his own. Devon inhaled sharply at what his intense
examination revealed.

Pain and desperation pulled at him. There was
no dark betrayal evidenced in the reflection of her heart and soul. What shone
back to him through the ruby-shadowed eyes of a twilighter, an unpure female,
was a tinge of silver gray with traces of pink, the color of a soul scarred,
damaged, but not evil. He saw guilt, determination, and strength. Fear, and a
painful need so deep he winced in response to its wail.

The desire to soothe what he saw, to somehow
make it right throbbed within his own body. Emotions and memories threaded
through him—visions of Eluria and him as they’d been. Innocence lost long ago,
for both of them. What he knew now, looking at her, was his desire for her
hadn’t changed. Devon lifted his other hand and stroked the side of her face,
wanting to find some way to assuage her suffering. Where did he start?

Eluria broke away from him and fell back
against the unyielding barrier of the stone wall. “No more.” Her cry was
drenched with pain. “Isn’t it enough that I’ve told you of my guilt? Must you
tear all my shame from what’s left of my soul?”

He refrained from following her, although
strong instinct pulled him to comfort her. He needed answers to why she felt
such guilt and had destroyed her own life in her attempts to right the wrongs
done to his family.

Opening her hand, she made a frantic move
towards replacing the lenses.

“Stop. The lenses are unnecessary. The only
purpose they ever served was to hide you from yourself. From what you didn’t
want to see. They had nothing to do with what you wanted or didn’t want me to
know.”

The lenses dropped to the ground as she
collapsed against the walls of the cave, defeated. “What do you want from me?”
she whispered. “You are healed. It is as it should be. We’ll return to Ednos
and you’ll be reunited with Gavrielle and Kierra. You’ll find your place, and
be restored.”

“And what of you, Eluria? Where is your
place?” Devon moved a step closer to her. “What part have you played in all of
this? You’ll give me your truth. All of it. You owe it.”

Her gaze fell away. “Yes. I’ll tell you my
part in this madness. It’s because of me you were made an Enforcer. It’s
because you were made an Enforcer that Taeryl eventually joined the Freelion
rebels and led them to many victories. Taeryl was betrayed from within. I was
too late with my warning. He had no time to escape.”

She paused. She didn’t say it, but he knew it
would have been an Enforcer responsible for eliminating his father. Anger
flowed freely through his veins at the fresh, unwelcome knowledge.

Devon sensed she found it difficult to
continue. He wanted to give her time, but after twelve blinded years, he
couldn’t wait. Besides, dragging it out would only prolong her pain in the
telling.

“Go on,” he coaxed her in a low tone meant to
encourage her story without judgment.

Eluria glanced up at him uncertainly. “Your
mother and brother escaped. Kierra was caught in the streets on her way to
returning home. She was forced into service.”A look of horror passed over her
face at the memory. “Three years she spent in service,” Eluria whispered,
“before I was able to locate her and get her to Ednos. The life of a twilighter
is not an easy one, but for Kierra…” Again, she looked away. “Her spirit has
been wounded forever by her forced service. I doubt she’ll ever be able to
achieve balance. Sometimes she goes far away in her mind. It’s gotten worse
since Alekos disappeared. But she’s always returned with the help of Gavrielle
close by to anchor her. Your return may help to steady her even more.”

“What of Alekos?”

She took a deep breath as though trying to
gain strength to continue. “Alekos was filled with anger and frustration at the
termination of your father. He became harder to control as he grew older. When he
knew what had happened to Kierra, saw the state she was in, his rage became
uncontrollable. He went away, became a Soul-Ravager, one of the worst. A rebel
without heart—almost as bad as an Enforcer. He’s remained elusive. Rumors of
his termination come to us often, but there’s been no solid evidence to support
it. We’ve not actually seen him for five years, only heard word of his deeds.”

Devon knew of the Soul-Ravager, had heard of
his bloody exploits, never realizing it was Alekos. Memories of his little
brother filled his mind. Alekos had hero-worshipped Devon, followed him
everywhere, hung on to his every story. But it had all happened in Before. All
that had been was now gone forever.

Devon felt an urgency to see his mother. His
sister. Needed to connect with them after all this time. He had a feeling
connection with his brother would be difficult to achieve. “None of this
explains your involvement. Or why any of this should have happened because I
was selected to become an Enforcer. You haven’t given full truth yet. I want
the rest.” He would know the whole of it.

*          *          *

Eluria pulled away from the wall and strode
past Devon. “What more do you need?” she cried in frustration. Wasn’t it
enough? “Now that you’re recovered we need to leave.”

She couldn’t take any more of the memory…the
pain it released. Her impotence at the knowledge she was too late to save
Kierra from degradation.

Kind, gentle Kierra…only a shadow remained.
And she never spoke of her time in service. A twilighter companioned to the
elite was treated well. But a female in service was used and traded over and
over again. She shuddered at the memory of the condition Kierra was in when she
finally tracked her down.

Eluria was desperate to be released from the
memories, but Devon’s firm grip on her arm as she tried to move past him was
like an iron claw. “What is your part in all this?”

She tried to wrest her arm from him, but finding
it useless, sagged in defeat, and remained still. “All right. I’ll tell you the
rest.” She took a deep breath before continuing. How did she tell her part in
the destruction of his visions?

“My father discovered our hopes for union.”

“And?”

Eluria laughed humorlessly. “Commander
Clorial Zydon likes his power. He was apparently in negotiations with Tribunal
Leader Odon for my union with his son. When he overheard me talking with
Kierra…” She trailed off, deep in memory of the conversation she’d overheard
her father having with Leader Odon. “…he apparently felt his plans were
threatened.” Although it had occurred twelve years ago, the moment she’d
discovered his treachery was branded into her memory.

“Odon, it’s all been taken care of.” Clorial
handed Leader Odon a glass of sparkling Dalanian Ale.

“Your daughter does not suspect?”

Eluria held her breath, waiting to hear her
father’s response. Something inside her cringed.

Clorial laughed. “Why should she? The youth
was of the age all Enforcers are inducted. None of the families ever have prior
knowledge. All was accomplished in proper order.” He raised his glass. “To the
union of our children. A long and fruitful contract.”

To Eluria, standing just outside the door to
her father’s office, the laughter and clinking of glasses was a death knell.

“When my father left his office, I snuck
inside and accessed his terminal. I found the list of youths who were seized
the day you were taken. Your name was not in proper sequence according to your
Ceremony of Becoming. It was at the bottom. The list was revised the day before
your Ceremony. You were never supposed to be seized,” she finished raggedly.

She remembered what had come next. She’d been
so distraught, realizing what had happened. How different things might have
been if she’d thought more carefully about how to proceed before acting upon
her emotions.

“What happened next?” Devon’s deep voice
pulled her from the Before.

“I went to your father. I shouldn’t have done
that. He wouldn’t have turned to the rebel cause if I hadn’t gone to him. He’d
be alive today. Kierra wouldn’t be scarred—”