Secrets

by Shannon Pemrick

  I sighed. “In all honesty, a part of me wants to accept your compliment and the other part, well, doesn’t.”

  “Well you should listen to the part that wants to accept it, because I’m being completely honest with you.”

  I looked at him with a tiny smile and he smiled back. I held his gaze for a few moments, until I had to pry myself away. A strange feeling was stirring from that gaze and it didn’t feel right.

  We remained silent for a few more moments before Raikidan spoke. “How are you feeling now?”

  “I’m all right. I’ll be better once we get out of here.”

  “Well you can stop waiting.” We looked back to see Seda walking toward us. “Zane has the car ready. The others are heading down there now.”

  I nodded. “Thanks for letting us know.”

  “Sure. I have to admit, I’m surprised you didn’t attack him.”

  “We were in a room filled with soldiers, and I’m wearing a dress.” I shook my head. “I know better than to do something so stupid. I am surprised you didn’t attack him, however.”

  She grunted. “I already had my chance, and I blew it.”

  Raikidan looked at her in confusion. “What?”

  I chuckled. “Seda attacked Zarda once.”

  Raikidan’s eyes widened with surprise. “Why?”

  “Because I witnessed Zarda kill Lord Taric.” Seda sighed. “Lord Taric was a kind man. He was more than kind. He was the most caring man I had ever met. He cared about his people and about all of the experiments he made, but he had a special liking for psychics. He was fascinated with our abilities and tried to find ways for us to put them to their best possible use to benefit others. He liked us so much he kept a group of us in his company most of the time.

  “I was one of those psychics and I enjoyed my time with him, but it wasn’t meant to last forever. You see, Lord Taric wasn’t blind, nor was he stupid. He knew what Zarda was trying to do, but with his failing health, there wasn’t anything he could do. In the end, Lord Taric released every last psychic from service, in hopes Zarda wouldn’t be able to get a hold of our powers, since no soldier can be forced back into service once dismissed on honorable terms.

  “The day Taric let me go, I didn’t leave. I refused to leave him alone, and he didn’t argue. I spent most of my time with him unless he sent me on quick errands. The day Lord Taric died was one of those days. He had sent me to run down to the laboratories to collect some reports for him. I came back just as Zarda killed him. I had been so angry I dropped everything I had and attacked Zarda. But due to my training, I didn’t have the heart to kill him, even though he had taken our former Lord’s life. Instead, I called for help, even though I knew it was too late.

  “Zarda tried to blame me. He tried to convince everyone I had done it but no one believed him. They knew I couldn’t have done it, but without any other psychics to help prove either one of us right, Zarda was never charged with treason and got the power he had wanted for so long.”

  “You could have stopped all of this,” Raikidan stated. “You could have made it so all of this never happened. But you didn’t.”

  “Had I stopped him then, Laz and the others would never have existed,” Seda reminded him.

  Raikidan nodded in understanding, but I wasn’t so accommodating for her reasoning. “One life isn’t worth the thousands Zarda has taken.”

  Seda took a moment to find the words to speak, but she didn’t speak about the current topic. “We shouldn’t make the others wait any longer.”

  I didn’t allow Raikidan to go anywhere when she left. “Raikidan, can I ask you something?”

  “Sure.”

  “You now know who Zarda is. Does he look like the man who killed your mother?”

  Raikidan sighed and crossed his arms. “To be honest, I’m not sure. He feels familiar, but there’s something about him that isn’t the same as the man I met.”

  “You don’t believe I’m right, then.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t believe your theory right now. I just can’t be sure he’s the same man.”

  “Very well. We should get home. I don’t want to be here any longer than I need to be.”

  I was sure it had been Zarda. It could only be him. The time frame fit. No one else had a reason to ruin Lord Taric’s reputation. No one but his own son who could never live up to the man his father was.

  I dug my nails into his soft flesh until he bled and pulled away. I spun on my heels and headed for the door. “No one owns me, Zarda. That would be too big of an imperfection to ignore.”

  Chapter 45

  Everything was dark, and the thick fog clouded my good vision. I didn’t know where I was, or why I was here. I wandered around, but the fog remained just as thick as before. I whirled around when I sensed something behind me, but found nothing there.

  “Hello?” I waited a second before calling out again. “Hello? Is someone there?”

  I spun around when I sensed the presence behind me again, but again, there was nothing there. Feeling sure I wasn’t alone here, I ventured further into the fog until I stumbled across a shadowy figure. It was moving about like me, as if it was lost—and it looked like a man, but I couldn’t figure out much more than that.

  “Hello?” I called.

  The figure stopped moving and looked at me. It didn’t speak or run away, so I ventured closer. As I advanced, the fog between us became thinner, and I noticed this man was wearing some sort of uniform.

  “Who are you?” I asked him.

  Instead of replying or being as curious as me, he ran off.

  “Wait, don’t go!” But it was too late. He was gone, and I was alone in the darkness once more.

  The book flipped another page as I searched. My dream had been so strange. I wanted to know who that man was and what it all meant. I had read through shaman theories and dream symbols, but nothing had told me anything about the dream or had been relevant to what happened.

  My brow furrowed when the book stopped showing me what I wanted, and began searching for something else. I had never seen anything like it before. Never had I heard of a book changing topic when you hadn’t thought of something else to look for.

  Words flowed through my mind when the book finally found the information it was searching for, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was a treaty between the city of Dalatrend and the dragon clans. It sounded old, a few decades at least, and it was a long one. I had never heard such a long treaty. Why was it so long?

  My brow furrowed when the book read off some information that was strange, so I reread it. It spoke about how as long as dragons stayed away from this city and kept an extremely low profile, their existence would be kept secret, and they would stay safe. I put the book down. Did Raikidan know about this? No, he couldn’t. He wouldn’t have come here if he had known.

  I read the treaty some more, and pain formed in my chest. The treaty stated if a colored dragon was to be caught, the treaty would immediately break, and all dragon clans would be attacked. This was bad. Dragons weren’t creatures to be messed with. Human lore spoke about how hard it was to kill one, and having been around Raikidan for so long, and with Zaith’s clan for a short duration, I knew that to be true. So for them to be forced into a treaty like this, Zarda had to know a way to kill them.

  I thought about Raikidan’s mother and how she had been killed by humans. I was still convinced Zarda had something to do with it. My heart slowed. Maybe he does know how to kill dragons.

  I didn’t know the details of Raikidan’s mother’s death, I knew better than to ask, but I did wonder what type of form she had been in when she died. If she had been in a dragon form and Zarda had killed her, he would have had the leverage to convince the dragons to bend to his will. With the technology we have, it wouldn’t be hard to mass-p
roduce the weapons needed. This meant Raikidan and all of Zaith’s clan were putting the dragons in danger. All because of me…

  I put the book down and searched for the other book I owned. This had to end. I couldn’t risk a genocide for the sake of my own wants. Raikidan, Ebon, and Zaith’s clan needed to see this. I wrote three letters, one being more personal for Raikidan, and I also had three copies of the treaty made.

  I wrote a small note and left it on my bed before heading out of my room. It was now time to enlist some help.

  Raikidan,

  Meet me at our spot outside the city walls. It’s important.

  Eira

  I tracked Ryoko down and showed her the treaty. “I need your help with this. I need to get Raikidan out of here.”

  She hesitated. “I don’t know, Laz. It’s not like Zarda knows he’s here or anything. We’re pretty good at hiding.”

  I looked at her seriously. “He’s been seen in his dragon form in battle. Do you really think Zarda doesn’t know? It took a lot of planning for us to throw them off about me, and Zarda didn’t believe it. He knows Raikidan is here somewhere, and he’s just playing games.”

  “His sightings will be passed as mass hysteria or trauma from battle,” she insisted. “Everyone in this city thinks they’re all dead. Zarda was pretty convincing about that.”

  “Yeah, key word there is Zarda. He made those lies. He spread them. He’ll believe a group of soldiers if they all claimed to see a dragon in the city. He’ll play it off as trauma or hysteria, but he’ll secretly believe it.”

  “Laz, you’re overreacting,” she said.

  “Overreacting? Worrying about genocide is overreacting? Worrying about Raikidan’s safety is overreacting?”

  Ryoko sighed. “Seda, care to give me a hand here?”

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t have much input here,” she messaged us both from the safety of her room. “You both have valid points.”

  “Well who is right?” Ryoko asked.

  “I don’t know,” Seda admitted.

  “Can’t you just do your psychic thing and look into the future?” Ryoko questioned.

  Seda sighed. “It’s not that simple, Ryoko. I can’t just conjure up any future I want.”

  “Can you at least try?”

  Seda sighed again. “Give me a moment.”

  We waited a few minutes before Ryoko got impatient. “Well?”

  “His future is dark.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Yeah, that sounds really bad,” Ryoko said.

  “Oh, sorry,” Seda apologized. “We psychics use different terms with each other than with ordinary people, and for a moment I forgot you two were ordinary.”

  I grunted. “Ordinary, right.”

  “Ha ha, very funny, just tell us what’s going on,” Ryoko grumbled.

  Seda sighed. “It means his future is uncertain. His future depends on this choice.”

  “So what you’re saying, is neither of us is right or wrong,” Ryoko tried to clarify.

  “No, not necessarily,” Seda corrected. “One of you could be right and the other wrong, both could be right, or both could be wrong. His future and his future choices are just dependent on the outcome of this particular one.”

  “So will you know once we make a choice?” Ryoko asked.

  “I might be able to find out twenty-four hours after the choice is executed.”

  “Well I vote Raikidan stays,” Ryoko said.

  “And I vote you’re wrong,” I muttered.

  “Seda?” Ryoko asked.

  “As much as I like Raikidan, I’m going to side with Laz,” Seda said. “I don’t want any harm coming to an entire species because of our selfish choices.”

  Ryoko scowled and I waited for her to create some sort of argument, but to my surprise she didn’t. She just sighed in defeat. “All right, fine. We’ll do it your way. Let’s get this plan you have cooked up in your head on the road.”

  She wasn’t going to be happy with this decision, but it wasn’t like I wanted this outcome either. I need to do what’s right in this situation.

  Raikidan,

  I’m sorry it had to be this way. I wish it didn’t…

  I stood in the shade of a tree and waited for him to arrive. He’d be here, but it was all a matter of when.

  Thanks for offering your help. I’ll never forget what you’ve done for us… for me. Maybe someday we’ll meet again, during a better time.

  My ears perked when something rustled the bushes. Raikidan pushed his way through the underbrush and made his way over to me, a smile plastered on his face. It saddened me to see how completely unaware he was of what was about to happen.

  “So what’s this all about, Eira? Why did you have me come here and not just wait to tell me back at the house?” His brow furrowed with concern. “Eira, what’s wrong? You look so upset.”

  I tried to take slow, steady steps as I walked toward him, but the situation had a tight hold on me and I ended up running to him. I threw my arms around his neck and buried my face in him. “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry?” He grunted but it came out as a partial chuckle. “Sorry about what?”

  I pulled away from him and looked him in the eye. “Goodbye.”

  “Wh—”

  I caught him as he fell. I looked at his unconscious form before looking up at Ryoko. She handed me a small envelope and then took Raikidan from me. I took great interest in it, but didn’t peer inside. If it was important, she’d tell me.

  I stood up once she had him securely on her back and pulled out a portal. Thinking of one place in particular, I opened the portal and led Ryoko through.

  You can’t come back, Raikidan. I can’t allow you to put you and your kind in harm’s way for our cause. I’ve already sent a message to Zaith’s clan, letting them know the alliance is over, and I sent a message to your brother to relocate to another city. None of you can come back here…

  We came out of the portal and stood beside a slow running stream, the lack of rain this summer being the culprit for its state. Even though it was a different time of the year, I still recognized this place, that day still so fresh in my mind. As I looked around, I couldn’t keep those memories at bay.

  “Is this where we’re leaving him?” Ryoko asked.

  I nodded. “Not in the open, but this is the place.”

  “What’s so special about this place?”

  My chest tightened. “This… is where we first met.”

  “Laz…”

  I motioned her to follow. “There’s a cave up stream. We’ll leave him there.”

  “Okay.”

  She followed until we came to the cave Raikidan had slept in that same night. I climbed the rocks that were not as wet as they would have been, had more water been flowing from the falls. I looked back to make sure Ryoko was doing okay, and then disappeared into the cave.

  I helped her lay Raikidan down and then knelt down. Ryoko bent over and slipped the envelope I had handed back to her under Raikidan’s hand.

  “I’ll give you a moment,” she whispered.

  I nodded and remained quiet until she left. I look down at Raikidan and then ran my fingers through his hair. “I hope you can forgive me for this someday. It’s honestly for the best. For you… and… for me. No matter how much I try to lie to myself—try to hide from the truth—it continues to surface and stare me in the face. I care for you too much. This distance between us will be for the best. You’ll be happier. And me…”

  I sighed and stood up. Stalling didn’t do me any good. Spinning on my heels, I headed for the cave entrance. Prolonging this goodbye stopped nothing anyway. I’d get over all this quickly, and Raikidan would be better off
. It’s how things needed to be.

  When I reached the bottom of the rock face, Ryoko greeted me with a sad attempt of a smile. I took out a portal and opened it in front of us instead of responding. But, before I entered, I couldn’t stop myself from looking back up at the cave one last time—hoping he’d wake up and stop me from making this choice. The cave remained still and I knew I needed to continue on with my mission.

  Goodbye, my friend.

  Entering the portal, I felt like I was being torn apart from the inside out. Goodbye…

  I jolted awake and looked around the cell. It was dark and everyone was asleep, for now. I rested my head against the wall and stared up at the stone ceiling—those memories buzzing in my head… and in my heart.

  A soldier came by the cell, but he only looked in briefly to make sure we were all accounted for before moving on. More would soon come, and they’d take us away again to see if we’d crack. I could only wait. Wait for the inevitable cycle of them wasting their time and then crawling back into this corner only to remember more. Fate was funny like that.

  Thank you for taking the time to read this book. If you liked Secrets, please let me know with a written review. While this series is on going, there are others waiting to be written. Unless I know this series is wanted I’ll prioritize another book or series before returning to Eira’s adventure. How will this most recent choice effect her—effect the rebellion? What is this voice she’s hearing?

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  Continue reading for a snippet of the next installment:

  EXPOSED

  EXPERIMENTAL HEART | BOOK FOUR

  Glossary

  Characters

  Dalatrend