by N. P. Martin
"Why are you allowed to have all that stuff?" I asked him.
"I worked out a deal of sorts with my captors," he said before sipping on his wine. "I give them information and in return they give me things like this wine."
"What kind of information?"
"Whatever they need to know. I’m just a fountain of knowledge, lucky for them."
"And you."
"Yes, I can’t deny it’s made things easier."
"Ever the deal maker, aren’t you?"
He sneered slightly as he looked at me. "What is it you want from me, Corvin? When they told me you were coming I was surprised to say the least."
"Why?"
"Honestly, I didn’t think you’d have the balls to face me after what you did."
"After what I did?" I shook my head at him in disbelief. "You have some balls for even saying that. You got too big for your damn boots, Iolas, and that’s all there is to it."
A smile unexpectedly crossed his face. "You’re still young. Someday you will understand."
"Understand what exactly?"
"That life is about how much power you have and nothing else. Power is all that matters, and what you do to get it."
"Like murdering innocent people?"
"Don’t be naive, Corvin. None of us are innocent. Even your dear mother wasn’t innocent."
I glared at him as I struggled to contain my anger. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
"I mean she had her secrets like the rest of us. She did things as well."
"What things?"
"Things for the Order she belonged to."
"The Order Of The Serpent?"
He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "So you know about them then."
"Not as much as some it seems."
"Is that why you are here, to ask me about that bunch of do-gooders?"
"No, actually. I’m here to ask about a different group, though maybe we could talk about the Order when we’re done."
Iolas smiled as he got up and put his wine glass on top of the small table before walking over to the screen with his hands behind his back, still intimidating despite being locked up like an animal. "Let’s get one thing straight," he said. "You can’t just come here and expect to pump me for information without giving anything in return. If you want access to what I know, you must do something for me as well."
"Okay," I said as I rolled my eyes. "What is you want, bearing in mind that I have no influence at all in this place. I don’t even know where we are. They kept me locked in the back of a van on the way here, and then put a hood over my head coming in, so I doubt I can get you things if that’s what you want."
"Don’t worry." He stepped close to the screen, his blue eyes gazing down at me. "I just want you to deliver a message to someone."
"A message to who?"
"To whom."
"Whatever. A message to whom?"
"My niece."
"Amelia?"
"Yes."
I snorted slightly. "I doubt she would want to hear it."
"Tell her anyway."
"Fine. What’s the message?"
He looked away for a second. "Tell her I’m not sorry for what I did, and that I did it to protect her. That’s all."
"Are you talking about killing her parents?"
"Yes."
I smiled slightly as I shook my head. "That’s exactly why I’m here, you know?"
"You came to ask about Amelia’s parents?"
"In a way. More about the cult they were involved in."
"Involved in? More like started."
"They started the cult?"
"How do you even know about the cult?"
"Amelia found out about it. Now she has me investigating it."
"I see." A serious look came over Iolas’ face as he walked away from the screen and began to pace the room.
"What is it?" I asked him as I stood up.
He stopped in the middle of the room to look at me. "It isn’t a good idea going after those people, if that’s what you and Amelia are planning on doing."
"Why?"
"Because they are highly dangerous, that’s why."
I nodded. "I already know that. They tried to kill me not too long ago in Kilkenny. A guy called Jared O’Hare. You know of him?"
Iolas nodded. "I know the little shit. You say he tried to kill you?"
"His bodyguard Peterson ambushed me on the street, knocked me out and filled me full of drugs. Then they tossed me into the Nore River to drown. Luckily someone saved me."
"Who saved you?"
"Just a guy. It doesn’t matter who."
Iolas walked back to the screen. "You know, Corvin, if we are going to do this little back and forth I expect you to be truthful. Who saved you?"
"A guy whose brother was taken and killed by the cult. He saw me being taken and he followed to help."
"Thank you," he said, walking away again.
"What do you know about these people, Iolas? We need your help in taking them down."
"Did Amelia take over the business?"
"What? What does that—"
"Did she or didn’t she?"
"Yes, she took it over, along with your office."
Iolas smiled, seeming almost proud as he turned away to pour himself more wine. "I knew she would."
"Are we going to talk about the cult or not? You can discuss business with Amelia when she comes here herself."
He spun around, seeming surprised. "She’s coming to see me? When?"
I shrugged. "I don’t know. I just know she plans to at some point."
Smiling to himself again, he took his glass of wine and went and sat back down in his prison issue leather armchair that was probably bought from Ikea. "Okay," he said, settling in, seeming happier after I’d told him that Amelia planned on visiting him. "I’ll tell you what I know about the cult now. Maybe when I’m done, you will see why I want my niece to back off from them."
"I can’t see that happening," I said. "But go on."
"It all started with my rotten brother…"
Chapter 16
Faelyn Tasar was born ten years after Iolas was. Iolas also had an older sister, but she apparently died from some unknown disease that only affects elves, and which is extremely rare. The disease causes an elf to waste away to nothing for no apparent reason, and Iolas had to watch his sister die slowly over a period of months, knowing there was nothing anyone could do about it. "She was so beautiful," he said as he sat in his armchair still holding his wine glass. "Her name was Tialha and she was the brightest light I have ever come across. Amelia reminds me of her in a way…"
Faelyn was born a few years after the sister died. Iolas said he was so happy to have another sibling, even though no one could replace the sister he had lost. But after a few years, it quickly became clear that Faelyn wasn’t right. "My mother was the first to notice the darkness in him," Iolas said. "She could sense it in him, like a malignant tumor. She even took him to various healers to see if whatever was inside him could be taken out or exorcised, but despite everything they threw at him, Faelyn remained as he was." Iolas stared at me a moment. "Some people are just born rotten, Corvin, and that’s all there is to it."
"Like you, you mean?" I said, an almost knee-jerk response that appeared to anger Iolas for a second.
"You think I’m rotten? I’m not. I just do what has to be done, and I take no pleasure in having to do it."
"It didn’t seem that way when you tortured and killed that junky a while ago. You remember him? You seemed to enjoy hitting him."
Iolas sighed slightly. "I’m not saying I don’t have a sadistic streak, or that I sometimes revel in violence and hurting other people. We all do to some extent." He stared at me then. "I can tell you’ve had some experiences since we last met. You have blood on your hands, Corvin."
"Maybe I do," I said looking away for a moment. "But I didn’t enjoy dipping my hands into it."
"Didn’t you? I’m sure that�
�s not true. I’m sure somewhere deep down a part of you enjoyed it, revelled in it even. It gave you power, and power can be addictive, Corvin."
"I have no interest in power."
"Oh really? You are a different man to what you were when we last met, Corvin. You’re on a higher path now, and despite your troubles, I can see you are enjoying it on some level. You want to grow and become stronger in yourself so you can have greater power over others."
"If I do anything at all, I do it for the greater good," I said, not sure if even believed that anymore.
"The greater good," Iolas balked. "Usually when people say that, it means their actions are good for them first, others second, if at all."
"You’re obviously speaking from experience there."
"Of course I am. Wisdom will come to you as well, Corvin, eventually."
"Was it out of wisdom that you killed me ma?"
"Yes, actually."
I shook my head in disgust. "Let’s just get back to talking about your brother, before I get up and walk out of here."
"Very well," Iolas said as he crossed his legs. "But let me just say before we do, that if you were in my shoes, your actions would have been no different."
"I highly doubt that. Moving on."
"Fine, where were we?"
As Faelyn got older, he apparently began to exhibit some strange and disturbing behavior. As a kid, he could often be found sitting in the cellar of the house in complete darkness for hours on end. When he was asked what he was doing, he would reply that he was talking to the beings who lived in the darkness, whom he said were his friends and that they taught him things.
"What kind of things?" I asked.
"The main thing was how to get inside people’s heads," Iolas said. "No one really believed he was in communication with any being or other, not at first anyway. We all thought it was just another symptom of his bizarre and often schizophrenic behavior. But after a while, it became clear that he was able to control those around him, to some extent anyway. Sometimes he would play with other children and he would make them hurt each other, or get them to hurt others. He would do it to me sometimes too, if I happened to annoy him for whatever reason. He would just stare at you with his dark, empty eyes, and the next thing you know, you were cutting yourself with a knife, or banging your head repeatedly against a wall."
Faelyn spent most of his days alone, even when he was supposed to be home schooled. If anyone tried to force him to do something, he would simply climb inside their head and persuade them otherwise. So even though he was just a kid, he did exactly what he wanted, when he wanted. Eventually, Iolas’ parents, and Iolas himself, learned to leave Faelyn to his own devices for the most part.
"His behavior did improve somewhat as he got older," Iolas said. "More normal, you might say. However, this was just him gaining more control over himself, and becoming more discrete about things. He was still the same person, he just hid it better, and because of this, he was able to do fairly well in our society, eventually becoming a brilliant accountant. He was something of a rockstar in elven society as a matter of fact. Since we value business so highly, anyone who excels in it is also valued highly. Faelyn’s skill with numbers made him highly sought after in the end."
"And what about his darker side?" I asked. "Did he still mind-rape people?"
"That’s a harsh expression, but a fitting one nonetheless. Yes, he still did that, though as I said, he was more discreet about it, though not so discrete that I didn’t eventually find out that he was taking humans off the street and killing them."
"What? He became a serial killer?"
Iolas nodded. "Yes, if you want to put it like that. His sadistic streak never left him, unfortunately. Neither did his deeply unhealthy fascination with the occult. He used many of these humans in death magic rituals."
"You knew this was going on? Did anyone else?"
"Just me. I kept it from our parents."
I shook my head. "So you did nothing to stop him?"
"There was nothing I could do. After I found out, Faelyn made it clear that if I said anything, he would make me suffer in ways I couldn’t imagine, and I believed him."
"You were scared of him."
"Of course I was scared of him," Iolas said, suddenly getting up and going to fill his wine glass again. "If you’d known him, you would’ve been scared of him to."
"So what about Amelia’s mother?" I said. "Where does she come in to all this?"
Iolas sat back down and sipped his wine before answering. "Faelyn met Shaerra in America, while they were both at a business conference. I was there too, and I actually approached Shaerra before Faelyn did, though not in the way that you probably think. In case you haven’t worked it out yet, my tastes lie the other way."
"You’re gay?"
"Don’t sound so surprised. Elves can be gay too, you know."
"I’m not saying they can’t be, it’s just…"
"You assumed I was into females, as most straight men like to assume about other men."
I shook my head. "Not that it matters. So why did you approach Shaerra?"
"Because she was beautiful and very charismatic. I wanted to see what kind of person she was, that’s all."
"And what was she like?"
"As charming and vivacious as I expected her to be, but also…she unnerved me."
"Why?"
"I sensed something in her, a darkness not unlike that in Faelyn, though not quite as potent. Her charm covered most of it, but if you knew what to look for, it was there."
"So let me guess," I said. "Faelyn approached her after that and the two of them got on like a house on fire."
Iolas nodded. "Precisely. They were married within a month."
"A month?"
"Yes. As they saw it, they were meant for each other, so they saw no point in hanging around." He sipped on his wine. "And as it turned out, they really were meant for each other."
"In what way?"
"They shared the same interest in the occult for a start, and an addiction to death magic."
"What did they use it for, the death magic I mean?"
"To gain greater power," he said. "Over others, over themselves, and over the world at large."
Jesus, I thought, hardly able to believe that these people were Amelia’s parents.
"How do such people end up having a kid?" I asked him.
"By accident, though Shaerra decided to keep the child in the end, even though she had little feeling for it. I think to her, being pregnant was just some kind of experiment, or some new experience to try. Faelyn and Shaerra were always looking for new experiences."
When Amelia came along, Iolas said that neither Faelyn or Shaerra took much interest in her. By then, Shaerra had had enough of the whole experience of being pregnant and she just wanted her life and her body to be back to normal again. So when Amelia was born, a nanny was employed to look after her.
"They didn’t love her at all?" I asked.
"They did," Iola said. "They just loved their own lives more, traveling the world in search of ever darker experiences. In fact, it was on a trip to Egypt that they came across a very old and very rare book that gave details on how to summon Apep, and when they got back home, they did precisely that."
I shook my head as I wondered something. "You say all this like it was common knowledge at the time. How did you know what they were up to?"
"They told me, of course," he said. "They talked about the things they did like it was all normal and a great deal of harmless fun. They didn’t try to hide what they did, expect from Amelia. It was obvious Amelia had little to no darkness in her soul, so they left her alone and let her do her own thing, seeing no point in trying to persuade her otherwise."
"Lucky for her."
"Yes, but she was also ignored much of the time, which isn’t good for a child."
"So why did they end up starting the cult?"
"Because Apep told them to apparently." Iolas shook his head
. "It was sheer madness of them conversing with a being like Apep. I told them at the time, but they wouldn’t listen. And the more they worshipped Apep, the darker their souls became. Eventually, they started to do things in the house while Amelia was there."
"Like hold masses in that temple, you mean?"
"Yes, and much else besides, things I can’t even begin to describe. Dark, twisted acts of depravity and murder." He shook his head. "It was becoming too much."
I nodded as I finally understood his eventual decision to kill them both. "So you decided to put an end to it, an end to them."
"Yes," he said, his piercing blue eyes on me. "You’re damn right I did. Whatever you think of me, Corvin, you should know that I care for Amelia, and I always have. I did what I did to protect her, to save her from her awful parents."
"I’m glad you did," I said.
Not that Iolas ever needed my approval, but he looked grateful when I said it. "I’m glad you understand. You see, Corvin, we aren’t so different after all. We just do what has to be done at the end of the day."
"It must’ve been hard, killing your own brother. How did you do it?"
"I simply invited them both around for dinner one night, and poisoned their food." He looked away for a moment, seemingly lost in his own memories, perhaps feeling shame despite how justified his actions were. "It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, sitting at that table as I watched my brother die. As bad as he was, I still loved him."
When Iolas looked back at me, I noticed the wetness in his eyes, and for the first time ever, I actually felt for him right then. "I’m sorry you had to do it."
"I’m not," he said as he wiped away his tears.
"You know what I mean."
He nodded. "Yes. As I said, Corvin, I appreciate your understanding."
"That doesn’t mean I forgive you for killing me ma. I’ll never forgive you for that."
"I don’t expect you to," he said after gulping a large amount of wine. "Someday you will be forced to do something that you know you will never be forgiven for, but you will still do it, because you have to."
I shook my head, not understanding. "I don’t believe you had to kill her, Iolas. There’s always a choice."
"Not always. Sometimes our hand is forced. Haven’t you discovered that yet?"
