by H. R. Moore
‘I see. Well I’m afraid I can’t do that. I’m yet to finish questioning her and it’s important we conduct a thorough investigation into what happened. I’m intrigued as to why she tried to steal one of my memories, for example.’
‘What could Anita possibly want with one of your memories?’ Alexander laughed, although the laughter never reached his eyes.
‘I don’t know Alexander. That is what I intend to find out.’
‘And when you’ve found that out? Will you release her into my custody then?’
‘That all depends on what I find,’ he said threateningly. ‘I might decide its best to lock her up for a couple of years instead.’
‘Well let’s all hope that is not the case,’ Alexander said, turning to leave. ‘I can’t imagine Marcus would like that very much.’
Alexander left the castle with mixed emotions. He’d never expected Austin to hand Anita over, and now at least he was unlikely to kill her, however the spiteful look Austin had had on his face was not something to be taken lightly. Anita was in for a rough ride.
*****
Amber stood over Anita, whose hands and feet were cuffed together and tightly attached to the uncomfortable wooded chair on which she sat. They’d given her no food or anything to drink since they’d tied her up and after twelve hours of sitting in the same position, her muscles were cramping and her mouth was dry.
‘You’re quite the trouble maker Anita,’ Amber said slowly, threateningly, circling the chair like a shark would its prey. Amber was looking forward to drawing this out, so she took her time as she walked, her high heels clipping menacingly on the slabs of stone with each step. ‘And let’s not forget that you’re quite the manipulator from what we’ve seen so far. It would seem you’ve caught the attention of not only Marcus, but Alexander as well, if our reports from Kingdom are anything to go by. How do you think Marcus will feel when he sees pictures of you and Alexander holding hands in such a public location?’
Anita didn’t say anything. What could she say? Deny she was manipulative? Justify the photos? Anita knew Amber would say anything to try and elicit a reaction. Amber’s powers of manipulation surpassed anything Anita could display, but the important thing now was to stay calm. And even if Marcus saw the photos, she was pretty sure holding hands was a minor offence in comparison to what Amber and Austin were doing to her now. She was sure such innocent pictures wouldn’t change his mind about her; he’d said he loved her, so it would take more than that to turn him against her.
‘Not answering are we?’ Amber said pausing directly behind Anita and bending over to whisper ominously in her ear, ‘don’t worry, I wouldn’t want you to, not yet anyway. That would be too easy. So, tell me Anita, why were you trying to steal one of Austin’s memories?’ Anita kept silent, looking obstinately forwards as Amber circled round into her peripheral vision. Out of nowhere Amber raised her hand and swiped it as hard as she could across Anita’s face, making a slapping noise that seemed to reverberate coldly around the hollow room. Anita’s head whipped to one side, her face immediately throbbing from the impact. ‘I can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted to do that for,’ Amber purred, continuing to circle, ‘and I’m sure you’ll be pleased to hear it was everything I’d hoped it would be.’
‘So, let’s try a different question. What do you hope to achieve through your relationship with Marcus? Was it just about getting access to the vault, or do you have something else planned? Maybe you’re working with someone else, a group of academics? The Institution maybe?’ Anita kept looking forwards, so didn’t see that Amber had picked up a whip from the back of the room and was advancing darkly towards her. ‘I’ll give you one more chance to say something,’ she said, ‘and if you do, I promise to go easy on you. It will ruin my fun, but I like to reward good behaviour.’
Anita said nothing. She knew there was nothing she could say that would really help her. Amber paused for a couple more seconds before raising the whip high into the air and cracking it down onto Anita’s unsuspecting legs. It too made a sickening noise on impact that bounced around the empty, grey, windowless room and Anita let out an involuntary gasp of pain as Amber struck again, this time on her stomach, then a third time across her upper arms. Apart from her cries of pain, Anita uttered not a single sound, nor did she start to sob. She felt empty, detached from her skin that was now singing from the impact of the whip. She felt like she was floating above her tied up form, neither connected to what was happening, nor fully detached, her energy the lowest it had ever been, feeling powerless, like there was nothing she could do to influence her fate.
The questioning and torture went on for hours, Austin joining Amber for the later stages to see if Anita would break, he was pretty sure she would. By the end, Amber was furious that she’d managed to extract not a single word from Anita, indeed the only signs she was still alive were the whimpers of pain she now uttered at every new injury inflicted. Anita’s body was covered with wounds, the whip had cut her flesh, she had several broken ribs, a black eye was starting to form, but still she wouldn’t talk.
‘I think you’re losing your magic touch Amber,’ Austin taunted. ‘I wouldn’t have thought this one would be a hard nut to crack.’
Austin’s ridicule drove Amber over the edge; she rained a number of blows down on Anita, with such ferocity that by the time she’d finished, Anita had been knocked unconscious. ‘Stupid bitch,’ spat Amber, regaining her composure, turning towards Austin and smoothing down her pencil skirt, ‘can’t we just kill her?’ she pouted.
Anita stirred, however kept her head down, listening to Amber and Austin talk. ‘Alas no,’ replied Austin sternly, holding Amber’s chin and kissing her dangerously on the lips. ‘Marcus being in love with her complicates matters somewhat, as you well know. And it would seem Alexander has somehow got wind of the fact we have her. He requested that we release Anita into his custody, as she is a pupil of his. Killing her, I am afraid, is off the cards.’
‘By the Gods, she gets around a bit. We should’ve tried to recruit her when we had the chance; manipulation skills like hers are really quite rare, especially for someone with such profound Body abilities. We missed a trick there Austin.’
‘Indeed, but that doesn’t solve the problem of what we should do with her, given that killing her isn’t an option.’
‘Say she confessed to stealing on behalf of some group or other and lock her up for a few years. Marcus and Alexander will soon move on.’
‘A nice idea, but I’m not sure that’s going to fly. Marcus has never been truly interested in any other girl and I can’t recall Alexander ever having a girlfriend for very long. I don’t think this is just going to blow over as we might like. Locking her up seems pretty likely to lead, if anything, to more profound problems.’
‘Then what? Let her go?’
‘Maybe. But I think we should get Marcus to question her first.’ Amber and Austin turned and left the room, closing the heavy grey door behind them, Anita hearing the key turn in the lock and the bolt clunk home. No escape through there, she thought and no escape anywhere else either. There were no windows and only tiny ventilation holes in the wall to let air in. Even if she could get out of her cuffs, there was no way to escape.
*****
Austin climbed the stairs, photos in hand, and knocked lightly on Marcus’ door. The door swung open and Marcus looked at Austin with disgust. ‘What you do want?’ he spat.
‘I want to talk to you about Anita and then I’d like you to question her for us.’
Marcus laughed coldly, ‘and why do you think I’d do anything to help you after the way you’ve treated both of us. You’ve hauled Anita off like some common criminal whilst totally ignoring both my wishes and my judgment. I’ve been trained just like any other Descendant to identify deception and deceit and I can assure you Anita showed no signs of either.’
Austin handed Marcus the pictures of Alexander and Anita holding hands in Kingdom. ‘No deception or deceit at
all?’ he asked triumphantly.
Marcus took a long look at the photos before casting them aside, ‘what exactly are you trying to show me? All I see is Alexander dragging Anita through the streets of Kingdom, during a visit that happened several months ago, before we were properly seeing each other. Alexander and Anita are friends; she had lessons with him in the Spirit disciplines. What do you expect me to do,’ he smirked, ‘fly into a jealous rage because Anita is holding another man’s hand? Show me pictures of them kissing and then maybe I would react differently, but this means nothing at all.’ Inwardly Marcus was jealous, very jealous, but that could be worked out later. First he needed to concentrate on getting Anita free. ‘But I’ll question her for you, so we can clear this whole thing up and let her go.’ Marcus pushed past his perturbed father and made his way to the basement, Austin following him, trying to keep up whilst maintaining a dignified pace.
Marcus burst into the basement, snapping, ‘where is she,’ at Amber. Amber looked to Austin, who was coming down the stairs behind Marcus, nodding his approval.
‘Right this way,’ said Amber sardonically, leading the way down the corridor and unlocking the cell that held Anita inside. ‘Just knock when you want to come out,’ she said, standing aside and motioning Marcus through the door. Marcus saw Anita’s slumped form and rushed past Amber, hearing the door shut and lock behind him as he sank to his knees in front of her and lifted her head with his hands.
‘By the Gods, what have they done to you?’
She looked at him through her swollen eyes and smiled weakly, ‘they beat me up.’
Marcus was relieved to hear they hadn’t managed to rip every shred of her apart and marvelled that she still had any semblance of a sense of humour. ‘I’m so sorry Anita, this is all my fault. I should never have left you alone in the vault.’
‘Don’t say that Marcus. I should learn that curiosity can get a cat killed.’
‘What were you even doing anyway?’ he asked softly.
‘The cylinders caught my eye as they’re exquisitely made. All the energy recording equipment we have at the Observatory is made of brass and needs to be very precise, so crazy as it sounds, I appreciate beautiful brass work!’ She laughed, but immediately stopped, the pain in her chest confirming that all of her ribs had not survived the beating intact. ‘I’ve never seen such fine cylinders, so I wanted to examine one close up. I was about to pick one of them up when Amber, Austin and the cronies burst in, saw me reaching for the shelf and assumed I was about to steal something. The rest you know.’
‘I’m so sorry Anita,’ he repeated, not knowing what else to say. ‘I’ll get you out of here, I promise. You haven’t done anything wrong, so they can’t keep you here.’
‘I’m sure they’ll find a way if they want to,’ she said in a low, cynical voice. ‘They’ve kept me for this long and have beaten me up for no reason.’
‘I’ll find a way,’ he whispered, placing a gentle kiss on her cracked and swollen lips. ‘I have to go now, but I promise I’ll be back before too long and I will get you out. I love you,’ he said meaningfully, before placing a protective kiss on her forehead.
‘I love you too,’ she said in a voice so small it was barely even a whisper.
CHAPTER 15
Marcus left the castle without stopping to talk to his father. Much as he hated him normally, it was time to work with Alexander. He did after all have power as a ruling Descendant that Marcus did not, and he possessed a fairness that his father seemed to think unnecessary. He made his way to the Spirit Temple and rapped on the stone covering Alexander’s chambers, not having to wait for very long for a response. ‘Marcus? What are you doing here?’ said Alexander as the stone slid aside.
Marcus stood silently for a moment, not quite believing he was about to say what he was. ‘I’m here because I need your help to free Anita. I saw you arriving at the castle earlier, so listened in to some of your conversation with dad. I know you want to free Anita too and I can’t do it on my own. You have power as a ruling Descendant that I don’t and the only way we’ll get her back is if we force dad’s hand.’
‘Marcus, I went to the castle earlier to try and make sure they keep her alive. You know that your dad and Amber would kill her if they thought they could get away with it?’
‘I, uh,’ Marcus wasn’t sure what to say. He’d had his eyes opened when he’d seen the state of Anita, so he supposed there was no reason to assume what Alexander was saying was incorrect, but he couldn’t believe his father would murder someone without reason to. ‘All I know is that Anita is a total state. Amber didn’t show her any kindness when she was interrogating her, and she seems to have a couple of broken ribs along with wounds everywhere else.’
‘That bitch,’ Alexander blazed. ‘What are they accusing her of?’
‘They think she was trying to steal a brass cylinder of dad’s. It contains some memory or other. Anita’s story is that she wanted to take a closer look at the brass work; she said she appreciates it because of her work at the Observatory. I’m not sure dad will buy that though.’
‘So how do you suggest we go about freeing her if they won’t believe her story?’
‘I think we need to use your power as a Descendant to threaten dad. The one thing he cares about more than anything is his reputation. If you threaten to embarrass him publically, for example at a Council meeting, then he may opt to let her go instead.’
‘And what do you suggest I use to embarrass him?’
‘Luckily, I’ve been spending a lot of time researching my family history recently, and there’s a lot that I’ve cross referenced with other sources to get the real story, including what happened that caused mum and dad to separate, for example.’
Alexander perked up, this sounded as though it might actually have legs. ‘Go on.’
‘It turns out that dad was having an affair.’
‘With who?’
‘I’ll only tell you that on a need to know basis. It should be enough just to threaten him.’
‘Ok, I’m in. How do you want to play it?’
‘I’ll go back to the castle and tell dad I think Anita is innocent and explain the misunderstanding. When he says that he thinks I’m naïve and don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll tell him that you’re willing to blackmail him over the affair if he doesn’t let her go. Hopefully that should be enough, especially given that keeping her locked up indefinitely presents a serious problem when it comes to me. If not, then we have to go through with it and we keep digging up embarrassments until he is willing to set her free.’
‘You would do that to your own father?’
‘If he keeps Anita locked up, yes. I love her and she hasn’t done anything wrong. It’s my fault that she was in the vault in the first place; I’ve got to get her out. Anyway, dad will recover, he always does.’
Marcus went back to the castle, stood outside Austin’s office, took a deep breath and knocked sharply before entering, without waiting for an answer. He entered to see Amber and Austin sitting on a sofa drinking whiskey and laughing about something in a way that made Marcus feel cold.
‘Marcus,’ said Austin, surprised that his son, who usually waited obediently at the door after knocking, had waltzed straight in. ‘Join us for a drink,’ he said, covering his surprise.
‘No thank you. I have something I want to talk to you about privately,’ Marcus said looking Austin straight in the eye.
‘That sounds ominous,’ said Amber contemptuously, getting up to leave. She walked past Marcus, then turned and shot Austin a knowing look before reaching the door. If Marcus had been ten minutes later, who knew what he would have walked in on. It would be a good idea to lock the door from now on, she thought, although how Marcus could be so blind as to not see what was going on between them anyway, she had no idea.
‘Dad, please let Anita go. She’s done nothing wrong, she was looking at the brass work on those cylinders, nothing more. You yourself must know how rare it
is to find such well-crafted cylinders and she has an interest in brass work as everything at the Observatory is made in equally well-crafted brass. If you want to punish anyone, then punish me. I was the one that took her to the vault and then left her alone. If I hadn’t, this would never have happened.’
‘And why did you leave her alone?’ Austin asked, realising he was yet to find this out.
‘Because we bumped into Cleo at the Archives and she was snooping around, which isn’t exactly unheard of for her. I went out to ask for some privacy and walked her to the stairs. She went back upstairs to where she’d been working and I started to walk back to the vault. I stopped to look at an artefact on the way and that’s when you burst onto the floor.’ His story wasn’t entirely accurate, however he didn’t want to get Cleo into trouble too, so it was probably best to downplay that she’d wanted to show him something. Marcus was sure it was all innocent, but Austin would be unlikely to see it that way.
‘And you think it’s a coincidence that Cleo happened to be at the archive when you took Anita there?’
‘Yes. Cleo is at the Archives almost every day and has been since before you showed me the vault. I would’ve been surprised had she not been there. Anyway, it was an impromptu visit by Anita and I, and Anita couldn’t have got a message to Cleo to meet her there without me knowing.’
Austin had to admit this part of the story checked out, especially given that her spending so much time at the Archives had been what prompted Austin to introduce Marcus to the vault in the first place. ‘So you want me to simply let her go? You know I can’t do that. She’s a manipulative person Marcus, why can’t you see she’s using you for some reason and we have to find out why?’
