“You just fed me an hour ago.”
“You look so tired.”
“I am, but I’m alive thanks to you.”
She smiled hesitantly.
“My brother and I have been talking, we feel certain this was a direct attack against you.”
“I was getting a little too close to the truth, wasn’t I?”
“We think so. The poison is a slow acting poison. It might have been given to you hours before, or even days before. Do you have any idea who could have slipped it to you?”
He shook his head. “Too many to count. How long was I out?”
“Just over a day. A lot has happened.”
“The infants?” he assumed.
“That, and some…”
He waited for her to continue.
“We took a sample of their blood and tested it. They are from the Shogharne bloodline. It does not narrow down a mother or father… but they are definitely offspring of the Grosvenor. It also appears they are twins. They have a tight bond for little ones so new to the world.”
“How can you tell?”
“We have someone in our tribe that can sense emotions,” explained Kanda. “They sensed that the infants were afraid and lonely, and were comforting each other like siblings would. If we separate them, they cry, almost nonstop. We put them back together, they are quiet and content. Astonishing really… they’re so young. And rather adorable. Everyone is madly in love with them already.”
He chuckled. “What will become of them?”
She didn’t answer right away.
“What is it?” asked Arnon.
“Are you feeling well enough to join a meeting? I think you’ll want to be present for this one.”
“Now you’ve got me very curious.” He lopped his legs over the side of the bed. She helped him dress and walk down the hall. He stopped when he saw Amelia Cobb standing next to Nashua. She nodded an apprehensive hello.
“What are you doing here?” His tone was accusatory.
“Not what you think.”
“Let’s all sit,” suggested Nashua. “And talk.”
They each took a seat. Nashua nodded to Amelia to go first.
“I’m sorry. I know what you must all think of me. And although this began as one specific endeavor, it has now turned into something more. First,” she turned to Arnon. “I did not kill…” he raised his hands for her to stop.
“I know you didn’t kill anyone. I got my proof last night right before I was… poisoned. I’m not thrilled with you right now, but I know you’re not a murderer.”
Amelia bowed her head for a moment saying a silent word of thanks.
“Let us try to put our differences aside then,” she said after a moment.
Arnon agreed. He’d hear her out.
“Second, you should know… your sister, Nina, is with me. And her family.”
“What? I just saw her…” he wanted to say days ago, but realized it had been weeks. He let out a disgruntled sigh. Too busy to notice his own sister had sided with Amelia…
“You’ve been busy, Arnon. But look on the bright side; she’s better off with me anyway.”
“So you say,” Arnon said with a frown.
“Let me explain why. Before PanSofia died, she came to me. She explained she could not trust anyone close to Juliska and confided in me in regards to a vision she’d had.”
Arnon listened with a cautious but open mind.
“She told me that Juliska had been corrupted by Jurekai Fazendiin. That we were on the cusp of a prophecy coming to pass. That we needed to get off the island, no matter what it took, and find and protect the children of this prophecy.”
Arnon sucked in and leaned back.
“We believe the children you tracked, Arnon, are two of the children that will fulfill this prophecy,” said Nashua.
Arnon turned to Amelia. “You truly believe your sister is sided with the Grosvenor?”
She lowered her head for a moment before answering him.
“Yes. I do. I may not have gotten along with Juliska, but I never wished her any harm. Certainly not being taken prisoner while on that quest. It may be that none of this is truly her fault, or she doesn’t even know it’s happening. She could be under a spell for all I know. But PanSofia made me swear to help protect these children. She claimed the future of magic, and the world, depended on it.”
“So how do we do that?” asked Arnon. He looked around the table. “Nothing personal to anyone here, this is just fact, but we all have different beliefs, and are bound to have different ideas of how to accomplish this.” He shot a stern gaze at Amelia. “How do we protect them, without interfering with fate? Without getting them stuck in the middle of this mess?”
“There is no offense taken in your comment,” said Kanda. “It is true. We could sit and argue all day about the correct way to raise them.”
“And who’s to say they aren’t supposed to be in the middle of this mess?” Amelia argued.
Arnon cleared his throat. His point had just been proven.
And as irritated as he was with Amelia and the way she’d gone about things, he was grateful his sister was not on the island. He didn’t know what was coming, but he was certain it would not be good.
“Look, we have some time,” said Nashua. “They are young.”
“And yet already showing abilities as newborns…” Arnon reminded.
“How old do you think they need to be before outside influences could affect their future?” asked Amelia.
“A year old,” guessed Kanda. “I don’t have much experience with infants though.”
“No, I think that’s about right,” said Arnon. He had an idea brewing. One he could not believe he was about to suggest.
“You have a thought.” Kanda smiled, recognizing the look on his face.
“I do. A neutral idea. When they are a year old, they should be taken into the non-magical world, away from the world of magic. Away from any influences. To live as normal a life as possible, until fate intervenes.”
Nashua shifted in his chair, thinking hard on it. He glanced at Kanda and Amelia.
It seemed they were all in agreement. This would be a fair solution, while at the same time allowing the children to grow up without the influences of the magical world to sway them.
“Who would we find that would be willing to do such a thing?” Amelia asked. “It would be a solitary life.”
Arnon sighed. “I volunteer my own services. I’ll take them and raise them as my own.” He paused for a minute. “Although, I’m not sure how to raise two magical infants. That could prove complicated. Well, infants of any kind really.”
“I can help you with the magic part,” assured Amelia. Her tone indicated she agreed with his intentions. “I can come up with a potion that will bind their powers, until fate intervenes. I just need a little of their blood and some time.”
Kanda reached over and touched his hand lovingly. “You know we’ll all help, the best we can, without interfering.”
They looked at each other with a mix of emotions.
Was this the right move?
Was this the best way to hide such special children, right out in the open?
And how would the Grosvenor retaliate when they discovered their children missing?
CHAPTER 29
It was early morning, just before dawn.
Juliska was going out of her mind and decided to leave the island just for a few minutes. She had to see Colin. If all went right, later that night she’d bring him home. But she just could not wait.
Being Banon came with the privilege of being able to pop off the island at her leisure.
She didn’t need to ask Fazendiin, or go to the fortress… she popped onto the mainland, just in the edge of the woods. She stepped out in the early morning light only to stagger, stumble and fall to her knees. Her heart sticking mid beat.
A smoldering fire…
Ashes…
Complete devastation…
The orphanage and the buildings surrounding it, gone, like they never existed.
The place looked abandoned.
The roadway was closed off with long strips of yellow tape and blockades, but there was no one nearby.
Where were all the children?
“Where is my son…”
She climbed to her feet and staggered to the devastation.
“Hey! You can’t be in there!” a voice shouted.
Her head flicked upward. The man approached her, a guard of some kind.
“Where are the children? What happened here?” she begged him.
“Hold up a second… can’t you see the signs to stay out. Ashes are still hot, you can get burned.”
“Where are the children?” she asked again.
He looked at her like she was giving him grief.
She stepped right up to his face, matching his height.
“Where. Are. The. Children?” Her tone warned him she would not ask again, and the consequences for his refusal to answer would be severe.
He stepped back a little. “Okay. Okay. Just doing my job ya know! Investigators are coming back soon.”
She waited, a predatory look in her eye.
“Those that survived…” -Juliska’s breath caught- “were taken to the local hospital to get checked out. Most have been sent to a temporary shelter until they find a new home for them all. Terrible thing… tragic…” he nodded at the pile of ashes.
She fell backwards. Not all the children had made it out alive.
Surely, Colin had survived.
He was immortal… except there was a chance he was not.
“How many died?” she sputtered in a coarse whisper.
“Um, three. A boy and two infants.”
The world started to spin. She felt it sway underneath her feet.
“Do you know how many infants were in the orphanage?”
“Hey, you okay?”
“Answer my question.”
“There were only two. The rest were all kids.”
Juliska staggered backwards, blotches of inky darkness blotting out her vision.
Air… there wasn’t enough air.
This can’t be happening.
She’d brought Colin here to protect him. Now he was…
This can’t be happening.
If he was immortal, he might come back to life.
She didn’t know what to do. Where would they take a child they believed dead?
She turned and walked away, the guard calling after her. She didn’t hear him.
She needed help.
Once in the woods she used Pajak and in a moment was transported to the estate of Jurekai Fazendiin.
He looked somber.
She fell forward. He grabbed her and got her inside the house.
“My son… my son…” she muttered it the entire way.
“I know,” he returned gently. He placed her in a chair and dragged the seat across closer, so their knees were almost touching.
She stared into his eyes. No tears would form. No anger or focus… just shock.
“Juliska…” he whispered. “I’m so sorry. I was about to come find you when I got your call for help.”
“My son…”
“I know.”
What did he know? She tried to speak but nothing came out.
“He’s gone, Juliska. I’m so sorry. He didn’t make it.”
“No. No.” She shook her head. “No.”
He grabbed her hands. “Juliska, he didn’t die in the fire.”
“Wh…what?” She didn’t understand what he was saying. “Colin… I just… I just want my son.” She started to get up, fighting his attempts to subdue her. “I need to go find him. He’s out there.”
“Juliska… look at me.”
She did, but she barely saw him.
“I was too late. I went to check on him, and the fire had already done its damage. Juliska… it was set intentionally. I traced the magic.”
She listened, unable to respond.
“They were covering their tracks, hiding the fact they had taken your son.”
“What… who…” she could not say more. There was no strength in her to say more.
“Amelia… her followers…”
Juliska sobbed, shaking her head. “No. No… that’s not possible…” She shook her head again. “Amelia. I banished her. Just yesterday.”
“She had help. A defector… Arnon Jacoby.”
The world crashed around her. Like she was falling into a dark pit with no bottom.
She’d messed up.
Her son was dead because she’d messed up.
It all fell into place. Arnon disappeared to help Amelia.
While she was home worrying this exact nightmare would happen, and trying to do the right thing, they were stealing her reason for living. She hadn’t wanted to hurt anyone else. She’d trusted she could fix it. Make it right.
This stabbed into her, twisting her heart. Squeezing it tighter and tighter.
Jurekai let go of her. She was understanding now. Perfectly.
She sank into the chair.
Deflated.
Hollow.
Shattered.
Fazendiin continued gently. “Amelia and her followers took your son. She discovered he was special… and they were afraid of him. Afraid of Colin’s power. So they…”
“Don’t say it,” she begged him.
“They tested him…”
“He was just a baby. They couldn’t. They wouldn’t.”
“They feared Colin’s power.”
“But, he should have lived.” She looked at him pleading to understand why he hadn’t survived.
“I… it was a fifty-fifty chance he was immortal,” Fazendiin gave her a look filled with remorse. “He was not…”
Tears… they finally formed.
“Amelia has reached out to the Tunkapog. She is seeking an alliance, against you.”
“Why?” She threw her hands up to stop him… it did not matter.
Her reason for existing was gone.
Murdered at the hands of a sister who had betrayed her, twice.
And she’d sent Amelia away. Allowed her to freely leave the island.
And now Arnon had betrayed her too… even the Tunkapog were against her.
They were all responsible.
She rocked back and forth in her chair.
Fire in her belly.
Fire where she’d grown her baby.
Too much.
Too much.
Too much.
A fury of emotion was building she could not contain.
Fiery pulses erupted against her skin.
“Juliska?” Fazendiin called out uneasily.
She looked up, her gaze intent and deadly.
“They. Killed. My. Son.”
Her breaths were coarse and thick.
“They. Killed. My. Son.”
She accepted Fazendiin’s explanation of events without question.
Everyone was conspiring against her.
Everyone.
Even the Svoda who claimed to be loyal to her. Arnon was one of them.
These Svoda were no different from the Svoda from old. Nothing had changed.
They were arrogant. And delusional, believing they were better than anyone else.
The Svoda were not her family. They lived a lie.
One that came in a safe, pretty little package.
She saw them for what they were, quite clearly.
She could trust no one.
Trusting someone had been the biggest mistake she’d ever made.
She gritted her teeth.
Hot smoke came out of her mouth.
In a snap, Fazendiin moved them both. Their chairs were suddenly outside in a field at the back of his estate. He left quite suddenly, leaving her alone.
A torrent of fury exploded out of her.
Flames spewing in all directions, burning anything within reach.
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She let out an incensed cry that released everything she’d been holding in.
Every fear. Every bit of anger and hatred. The losses. The betrayals.
Everything she’d done to protect her son, and the agony that in the end she had failed.
When it ended, she collapsed.
Broken.
Emptied.
And reborn…
They would pay. They would all pay.
They would suffer and pay dearly for their betrayal.
Most especially, Amelia, for all she’d stolen from her.
The others, Arnon and Kanda and Nashua… she’d not forget them either.
But she’d bide her time. Play their game. Let them think they were ahead. And at just the right moment, she’s strike them all down. They’d each know her pain. Intimately.
Juliska strode inside the house, determined to talk Fazendiin into a new plan. It went against everything he believed in, and against the way he preferred to live his life, but she would not take no for an answer.
He met her in the front hall.
“Is Tanzea loyal to me?” She got right to the point.
“She is. And devastated by this terrible act, as am I. I thought the Svoda had changed. Learned from old mistakes. I’m sorry that I was wrong. I wish I could right all of this for you.”
“You can. The Svoda want a leader? They’ve got one. A Queen. And I will make them love me. And I will make them so afraid. They will rue the day they ever heard my name.”
Fazendiin looked down at his conquest. Gratified.
A few strings pulled in just the right way… it was perfection.
And Juliska Blackwell belonged to him at last.
“I only have one request,” she told him. “Amelia Cobb dies by my hands.”
“Agreed. She’s yours to kill as you see fit.”
“There’s only one way. With my hands wrapped around her neck watching the life leave her eyes.”
Fazendiin had his Queen.
And his three immortal children.
Now, he just had to wait.
Juliska Blackwell sat in Tanzea’s basement.
She’d asked the master potion maker for a very special potion.
“It’s almost ready, My Queen,” the woman told her.
Juliska nodded and waited eagerly.
She needed a bath.
A long one, to get off the stench of Svoda. It was all over her.
Their fake smiles. Putrid greetings. Gracious exaltations over her handling of the Amelia problem… it made her sick.
The Ghost, The Dragon, and The Lost King (Fated Chronicles Book 4) Page 32
