Fae (18 page)

"Of course."

“I mean quiet.”

“Okay.”

“No blowing everything
up.”

I smiled.

“And if you don’t mind,”
he said, a knowing smile to match mine ticking at the corner of his
mouth, “I would appreciate it if you stayed near me. I have a lot
more battle experience. And I've seen people like Lastrini before.
They don't give up."

The snap at the neck of my
cloak shut with a sharp crack beneath my fingers. “As long as I’m
the one to pull Meir from his room. It’s something I need to do. I
hope you understand that."

He nodded, his warrior’s
face turning hard like stone. "I do."

We walked side by side
down the glowing, bioluminescent hallways from his room to the main
room with the blue sky, my floor length dress and cloak billowing
in waves behind me. Resolve hardened my steps as battle
approached.

We were back in the large
room with the aqua sky and moving determinedly toward the
rainforest room. Hundreds of Auri stood at attention amongst the
trees and vines, all their wings exposed, waiting for our arrival.
Each one wore a green cloak like mine and Cailen's. Each one
protected from anything the Soltakians might prematurely throw at
us.

"Are you sure you're ready
to do this?" Worry lines creased the space between Cailen's
eyes.

"Absolutely.
” At the point of
battle, no fear worked to cripple me. I grew focused, eager. This
was the Destructor part of me. The part that tasted the forthcoming
death and thrived on it.

We stood at the head of
the formation, along with Olorun and two other Auri I’d never met,
but who appeared to be high ranking.

“
Your troops are ready,
Your Majesty,” Olorun said with a slight bow.

“
Commanders Olorun, Zuruk,
and Finor will be taking their squads to predetermined locations
around Soltak,” Cailen explained, “starting at Co’ladesh, and
moving onwards to Fa’ladesh, Bri’ladesh, and finally
Eo’ladesh.”

He paused, seemingly waiting for my
approval. I nodded.

“
You and I, along with my
troops, will cover The Block.”

“
We get Meir
first.”

“
Of course. We’ll
transport right outside his room, as I believe you stipulated you
must be the one to go in and get him.”

Again, he waited for my
approval. Getting it, he continued. “Then we’ll transport him back
here and move on to the rest of The Block.”

“
There’s a guard outside
his door,” I said. “I didn’t happen to look at his weapon when I
visited Meir, but we should assume that it is charged and ready to
fire the moment we arrive. Also, the Information Viewing Rooms have
some sort of device. I don’t know what it is, but it gets into your
head and tells you what to do. It’s why the civilians never leave.
They’re brainwashed to stay.”

Cailen’s gaze cut to
Olorun.

“
We detected an energy
signature that did indicate something like what you are describing,
Your Majesty,” Olorun replied. “A virus is in place right now to
temporarily disrupt information coming from their control room. It
should shut down the Information Viewing Rooms long enough for you
to get everyone out.”

“
Then let’s go,” Cailen
said. A shiver ran up my spine at both his voice dripping venom and
the dark resolve rolling off him in waves.

With a nod from Cailen,
the jungle room shivered as hundreds of wings moved and folded the
air around us. Before long, the green and brown room morphed into
the silver walls of the corridor just outside Meir's
room.

The guard stood outside
his door, as expected, his weapon already trained on us. A gust of
wind punched him in the chest and blew him down the corridor.
Cailen’s work: pristine and effective.

I waved my hand in front
of the screen. The door slid open without the slightest pause.
Obviously, Lastrini had underestimated my resolve and my ability to
rescue my friend.

Just as I stepped into the
room, dozens of weapons came up and pointed at my heart, humming
and ready to fire.

We stared at each other in
silence, an infinitesimal amount of time passing in just mere
moments. I opened my mouth to speak, to come to a truce, to let
them know we were there to help, but before I could get one
syllable out, they started firing. I sighed. Surely they must have
learned from the last time they'd tried to stop me with their
weapons. The energy crackled over my cloak, harmless.

"Run!" I heard Cailen scream behind
me.

Instead, I took a step
forward, my hands up in a peaceful gesture when a monstrous man
with exposed and rippling muscles came forward as well. The weapon
in his hands was different from anything I'd ever seen. A
Mosandarian. With his weapon already aimed at me, he fired and I
smiled, waiting for the usual tingle along my skin. The blast from
the weapon hit my cloak and fizzled like usual, but I felt almost
instantly that this type of energy wasn't something my cloak had
been designed to repel.

The force rippled through
me and shook me bone-deep. Pain spiked its way, slowly, up my
spine. The energy traveled vertebrae by vertebrae and when it hit
my skull, that's when I screamed.

I clutched my head as the
energy tried to crush it to pieces. A high-pitched wail echoed in
my skull. Something burst in my ears and warm liquid ran out and
down my chin, my neck. With my skeleton bursting at the seams, I
remembered the warning on Cailen’s device.

My eyes bulged under the
pressure as the sound waves searched for a place to escape. Pain
swelled to a fever pitch before something else burst, and then
there was nothing. I fell to the floor and everything went
dark.

***

My first thought was pain.
And cold.

I opened my eyes
to...nothing. The darkness was complete. Even more complete than
the darkness on
Sho'ful,
if that were possible.
I
blinked my lids once, twice. Nothing.

Sharp pain ripped through
my wrists and a heavy agony pulsed through my arms. When I tried to
move them, I realized they'd been chained above my head with
something sharp cutting into my wrists. My muscles felt dull, my
wings numb.

The chains. Right then I
knew they were the same ones Lastrini had tried to put on me in the
Secret Place. Which meant I wasn't going anywhere.

I gritted my teeth and
tried to move my wrists again. Pain like razors shot down my arms
to my shoulder blades. Whatever had my wrists wasn't about to let
go. I took a deep breath and tried again. I screamed and nearly
passed out from the agony.

I didn't try to move them
again. Instead, I went back to blinking my eyes. The darkness
didn't lessen, despite the fact my eyes had been open for a few
minutes and should have adjusted to even the littlest amount of
light, if there was any.

So with no arms or eyes at
my disposal, I took stock of what I did have. I was sitting on the
floor, but there was nothing against my back. The air was cold and
my skin exposed. I had underclothes on, but that was it. No dress,
no cloak.

Huh. Even the Mamood had
given me more than this. I pushed that thought aside. The Mamood
were the evil ones. If I gave up on that fact, I'd have to give up
on a host of others and I wasn't ready to do that yet.

So I took a deep breath.
Wherever I was, it had the same clean, dry smell of The Block. I'd
been all over the place--at least the areas I'd been allowed--but I
didn't remember them having a section capable of getting this dark.
Even with the lights off, the walls had a faint glow to them, like
they'd been clinging to the just the memory of the light. Not this
room. This rivaled
Sho'ful
.

I could almost believe I
was blind.

Hours went by—at least,
what I guessed were hours—as I waited for their next move. They
wouldn't leave me like this, I was fairly confident of that. They
were the good guys in this war. And good guys didn't torture
people. That's what the Mamood did.

Of course, with my arms
slung up and my body half naked and the icy chill of the pitch
black room and the dull burn of pain throbbing through my weary
muscles and, and, and...

Okay, this dangerously
resembled torture.

"That's because it
is,"
Malik's voice taunted.

Shut up.
I was way too tired to start arguing with him. It
took all the strength I had left to convince myself I still wanted
to help the Soltakians, without his interference.

"Don't be mad at
me."
Even though he didn't say it, I could
almost hear what he was thinking: I'm not doing this to
you.

Shut up
, I said again.

"And here I thought my
little method of betrayal was bad."
He
just refused to shut up. Who knew a voice in my head could be so
frustrating?
"Did they even thank you for
destroying Kalhandthar?"

No, they hadn't. Not
once.

"Poor, poor Ella."
His voice dripped with fake sympathy. If I could
have slapped a figment of my imagination, I would have.

"I'm not your imagination.
I'm real."

I hate you.

"Why? I'm here, like a
true friend, keeping you company."
He
paused and said brightly,
"I wonder where
Cailen is. Couldn't he just transport in here and save
you?"

Probably. In fact,
where
was
Cailen?
My heart dropped into my stomach. They had him, too. Why hadn't I
thought about him before? Had they caught all of us? Could they
contain hundreds of Auri? I needed to get out and save them. They
weren't used to imprisonment. Not like me. It could drive them
mad.

Malik started
laughing.
"Ella, Ella, Ella. So noble you
are,"
he said between his snide little
chuckles.
"You're asking all the wrong
questions and coming up with all the wrong conclusions."

What do you
mean?

"Think about it. Did you
hear two shots go off?"

Well, no. Now that he
mentioned it, I distinctly remembered only one shot from the
Mosandarian weapon. And there had been the two of us.

He laughed again.
"And if Cailen hadn't been shot, why didn't he
grab you and leave?"

Maybe something else
happened. Maybe a few of the Soltakians grabbed him.

Malik made a noise of
disgust.
"Don't be so stupid. You know
it's not that easy."

I pushed at him with my
imaginary arms. This time, he didn't leave.

"Would you like to hear my
theory?"

Go ahead,
I said, too tired to fight.

"I think he knew you would
be ambushed. And I think he knew you would be the target. You were
the one Lastrini had attacked in the first place, after
all."
He paused to let that sink
in.
"He let you believe hundreds of Auri
would be going with you, but where are they now?"

They’re saving the
civilians. Obviously.

"Perhaps. But couldn’t
Cailen spare one Auri to come and get you out of these
chains?"

I closed my eyes, even
though it was already dark.
Yes.

Malik let out one smug,
little humph.

So what? He wanted me to
be caught?

"Yes."

That's ridiculous. He's
bonded to me. If I died, he'd die too.

"Hmm."

What?

"I just can't help
thinking about that lovely woman in the lab we visited yesterday.
The woman Cailen seemed to know well, to be so comfortable with.
You remember her, don't you?"

A chill passed through my
veins.

"What was her name
again?"
And as if he just
remembered—though we both knew this was the direction he'd been
taking the conversation all along—he said,
"Oh, that's right. Anna."

Chapter Five

Anna

I loop the chain around my
neck and let the locket drop. It's too big for me. Definitely made
for a grownup. But still, it's gorgeous with its death stone
casting prisms on the leaves and the ground. I feel like, after
everything I'd gone through so far—Cailen telling me about Anna and
Galen meeting with the scary Watergatherer—this is my consolation
prize.

But since I'm still lost
in the wild section of the royal gardens, I can't be too excited.
Yet. I decide that the best option is to go in the absolute
opposite direction I'd been going. If walking this way had been
taking me deeper into the wilderness, a 180 degree turn would get
me back home.

It takes hours and the sun
is high above my head before I even start to see something
promising. The poisonous vines have thinned out and the fruit trees
begin to look more manicured. I wonder why no one's come looking
for me. They must have noticed I've gone missing by now. And yet, I
can't hear any signs of a search. Not Daddy's prized hounds. Not
even my own hound, Lolabelle.