by Tenaya Jayne
"Yes."
"We killed a bunch today, twenty five, give or take, and all had slave marks… They're just drones following orders."
Syrus looked down, running a hand through his hair. "This changes things, damn it. Now we can't just kill them all. They're victims, too. Copernicus is clever."
"We'll figure this out, together. And we'll get Forest back."
****
Copernicus sat on the floor next to Forest and watched her. Her unconscious breathing was labored as her body fought to heal from her beating. He smoothed the hair off her face. Her complexion was pallid and clammy. He could see the veins in her eyelids. He debated moving her to his bed. No, she was a prisoner. Her discomfort was part of the process.
The blood on her face bothered him. He got up and left, only to return a few moments later with a bowl of clean water and a soft rag. Copernicus bathed her face gently. She moaned in pain but didn't wake. He crawled on top of her, covering her with his body, but not letting one inch of himself press down on her. He looked at her under him and surrendered to his emotions. Love, as he had never felt before, and then hate in equal measures.
"I hate you. What makes you so damn special? Why does Father love you and not me? Why do I love you? Why?!"
Forest didn't even flinch against his yelling. Her face remained smooth, her eyes closed. He leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. For a moment, he pretended she kissed him back, and he sucked on her lips. He was never giving her up, no matter what deal he made with Rahaxeris. Forest was his.
His vampire side came out, and he was seized with the urge to bite her. To take a drink and see what he could learn about what lay inside her through the taste of her blood. His teeth ached as he inhaled at the vein in her neck. He buried his face against her softness. His fangs sank through the lovely membrane of her skin, hot blood flowing into his mouth. He rolled the liquid life around his tongue. Well, now, what's this I taste? How can she have vampire in her blood?
A knock at the door jarred him back to reality, and he pulled his mouth back from her neck and wiped the back of his hand over his lips.
"Father? I'm back. Are you in there?"
Copernicus opened the door and stepped out of the cell. "Let's go out on the deck. I need some fresh air."
The sunset moved through the sky and reflected off the surface of the water. Copernicus rested his elbows on the ship's railing and took a deep breath, clearing his mind of Forest.
"So…how did our strike go?"
Shreve scowled out at the water. "Everything went according to plan, or as close as can be hoped for. We lost quite a few in the hit on the Onyx castle. The Fair was completely annihilated. We, umm…lost all of the ogres and Devonte at the Mountain. No idea what happened there as no one was left to tell the tale… Our time is running out, Father. All the masters have gone to Halussis and are joining forces with Zeren. One of our believers told me he saw Syrus from a distance, and that he…"
Copernicus turned his full attention onto Shreve. "He what?"
"He said Syrus looks like a god. Like some kind of lightning god of vengeance with a lightning bolt encased in a huge black sword."
Copernicus raised his eyebrows. "Interesting. Don't go out of your way, but if you get the chance to see him yourself, I'd like a detailed account of that. What else did you learn?"
"Nothing. A lot of innocent life was lost today. Powerful forces will be coming down on us very soon, so I hope you're ready with the next step, or we're all dead."
"Don't be weak, boy. Phase two is ready to go." He pulled a wax-sealed letter out of his shirt and handed it to Shreve. "Deliver this to Rahaxeris."
Shreve sighed. "I guess if I don't come back you'll know he killed me. Do you have a plan B?"
Copernicus laughed and handed Shreve Forest's portal ring. "I don't need one. He will come with you willingly."
"If you're so sure"—Shreve thrust the letter back—"take it to him yourself."
Copernicus' eyes narrowed. "Do I need to punish you? Why are you insubordinate? If I go to the Rune-dy, I will never make it out alive… Have some compassion, Shreve. I was born in that place. The next time I set foot there, it will be to burn it to ashes… No. The time is not right for me. For the plan to work, it has to be you."
"Fine, but I expect a reward for this."
Copernicus raised one eyebrow and smirked. "A reward? What reward do you want?"
"I want time alone with Forest."
"Time alone to do what exactly?"
"That's my business, and no questions will be part of the reward."
Copernicus turned his face away from Shreve, his complexion coloring red in anger, and his jaw clenching. "I won't say yes or no right now. Bring me Rahaxeris, and I'll consider it."
Shreve rolled the ring around in his hand and opened a portal, resigned to playing messenger boy. He shifted into the form of an elf before stepping into it. He'd listened to Copernicus rant about Rahaxeris his whole life, but he had never actually seen him. Shreve was sure the high priest wouldn't live up to the hype. But the moment was pivotal for him. He was about to set eyes on the creator. Copernicus' most loved, worshiped, talked about, and hated entity. Rahaxeris was everything to Copernicus. Shreve hoped Rahaxeris would come as predicted. He wasn't ready to die just yet. And delivering the Rune-dy meant Shreve had done something Copernicus couldn't.
The portal dumped him on a side street in Kyhael, behind a building, where luckily, no one had seen his arrival. He straightened and looked around. A terrible weight fell into his stomach, and the letter in his hand burned his skin. He breathed heavily. This wasn’t the first time he’d felt like this. It was like being sick. Like his spirit hated his flesh and no longer fit properly inside the confines of his body. In the last few days, every time he looked at the dead, or heard screams of pain, or the tears of the grieving, he felt like this.
He was sorry. Guilty. But what did he do about it? Nothing. He perpetuated the misery.
Shreve shook himself, trying to dislodge the sensation and make it go away. He had a job to do. He wanted to please his father. He looked at the letter in his hand and scowled. Both he and Copernicus had daddy issues. The guilt slunk into the background, but it didn’t go away as he headed toward the center of Kyhael.
****
Copernicus tried to focus on what lay ahead of him. Not just for the rest of his journey to the throne, but for the rest of the day. Today was more important than anything else. Rahaxeris would come. He would finally see his father again. He would finally get the answers he needed.
And he would begin the process of slowly pulling the razor-edged thread of revenge around and around Rahaxeris until it wound around his neck and cut off his head.
But his swirling thoughts continued to be eclipsed by his curiosity of what he'd tasted in Forest's blood. It might be important that he know before Rahaxeris came. He didn't want to be the one missing a crucial piece of knowledge that could tip the scales in any way other than the direction he wanted them to tip. The fact that her blood was sweet, and his throat burned with the desire for more had nothing to do with it. Nothing whatsoever.
He knelt back down beside her, burning with the desire to bite her again. Why would she have vampire in her blood? Was everything he'd learned about her wrong, and she was a splice, and not just a hybrid? He pulled her top lip up to look at her teeth. No, she was no vampire. But her mate was… Could it be?
The idea in his head made him giddy. Like a surprise present. Was she pregnant?
He grabbed her arm and shook her. No response. He pulled her shirt up to just under her breasts and looked at her stomach. She was covered in bruises and wounds from her beating, but not one blow had obviously landed lower than her ribs. He laid his palm against her flesh, just under her navel. An electric shock shot into his hand, and he jumped, pulling back. Red currents snaked over Forest's skin where he'd touched her. He poked at the marks with his index finger and received a stronger sting than before.
The electric, protective barrier was only on her stomach.
He laughed and sat back, amused and amazed. Oh, she was pregnant all right. Pregnant by a vampire mage, who now was rumored to look like a god of lightning. The odd, gentle part of him felt soft and warm toward the unborn child. They were his kin. Family. But that was quickly replaced by wrath. His hate for Forest reared up and choked him. So jealous of the measure of happiness she'd been able to have. She had love, home, position, the affection of their father, and now she had a child of her own.
Well, she had too much. It wasn't good for her to have so much. She was spoiled.
He looked at her stomach closely, his eyes sliding out of focus. A child of three races. Not so different from himself. He'd brought many things with him when he'd come back to Regia. Magical objects he might need to progress his plans. He never would have thought what he would need the most would be in the bowels of the Rune-dy. Well, he'd get what he needed, and he knew who would give it to him.
Chapter Four
Reports of the strike were pouring into the Rune-dy. The usual cold composure of the priests was only slightly ruffled around the edges. Camber kept coming in and out, interrupting them with new developments, mostly in the form of scrolls. The stiff rules and formality was disturbed as Camber was forced to bring a few people that had no right to be there into the Rune-dy's headquarters. But they were admitted to share their eyewitness accounts of what they had experienced in the strike.
Rahaxeris tried to find his footing as the others looked to him to lead. He desperately wanted to shout at the other priests to have their own think tank without him for a while, so he could check on Forest.
As he read the reports, he began glancing up often at Menjel. Menjel read the reports after he did but held his feelings—if he had any—in better control than Rahaxeris was able. They were not on the same page. As far as Rahaxeris could tell, Menjel wasn't bothered in the slightest by what Copernicus had done.
Why didn't he care? Copernicus was more his creation than Rahaxeris'. Splicing all the races together in one was Menjel's idea during the course of the experiment. The same experiment that found Rahaxeris in love with Liasia and resulted in Forest being born.
The memory of Copernicus' creation rushed on him with shame. He wasn't going to use his own blood, never had that crossed his mind. But Menjel was angry at him about Forest at the time. He'd been looking through his scope at the petri-dish filled with everything Copernicus was going to be, when Menjel came up beside him, grabbed his hand, and pricked his finger. The drop of blood fell into the dish. Cursing Menjel, Rahaxeris grabbed the dish, about to dash it to the floor when Menjel restrained his hand.
"No. Leave it. You've been so keen to throw your DNA into the work before. Let's see what it does this time."
Rahaxeris obeyed. Menjel was the high priest.
He watched Copernicus grow in a tube, never expecting him to survive, hoping he wouldn't. Rahaxeris had breathed a sigh of relief when Copernicus began to deteriorate; the races were not gelling together. He’d expected Copernicus to die quickly, but again, Menjel stepped in. Being the superior scientist and much more ruthless, Menjel had nursed Copernicus along with Malachi Serum; a brutal chemical compound that worked as an adjuvant, effectively binding the races together and poisoning Copernicus at the same time.
Copernicus grew up fast, excessively violent, and totally insane. Menjel wanted him as a weapon, but he was too volatile, often crashing into fits of tears and deep depressions. One second he was a skilled killer, the next he wanted to cuddle the target. He killed ruthlessly but then fell into heartbreaking remorse for the life he'd taken.
As far as his body was concerned, he was a success. All the races together inside one person, but his psyche was broken, weak, and shaky. Rahaxeris had wanted to kill him to put him out of his misery, but Menjel refused his requests.
Copernicus grew to adulthood faster than anyone could have anticipated. He was dangerous. Uncontrollable. He escaped from the Rune-dy and ran amuck across Regia, leaving behind a trail of blood and a notorious name. Rahaxeris was only half as powerful then and doubted his own ability to take Copernicus down. In a moment of naked desperation, he had sought the assistance of a wizard. Take care of it were the only instructions Rahaxeris gave Maxcarion, and that became a deep regret of his as well.
Maxcarion hadn’t killed Copernicus. Instead, he sent him off world and wouldn't tell Rahaxeris where. Rahaxeris would have pursued the matter, but again, Menjel blocked him. To his shame, he didn't buck Menjel because he felt like his hands were tied because of his attempts to climb the ladder to high priest, to change things…for his baby girl.
Rahaxeris refocused his eyes on the report in front of him, reading about how nothing was left of the Fair. His mind twisted around trying to figure out what Copernicus' main goal was in the whole strike. Why would the Fair be hit harder than anywhere else? Cold dread filled him.
The other priests had been talking around the table; he hadn't been listening to them. Their chatter was background noise, alerting him only when they all fell silent at once. Rahaxeris looked up. They were all staring at him. Camber was back, a stranger at his side.
Rahaxeris' chair legs scraped the floor loudly as he got up. He moved to the stranger, snatched the letter from his hands, and unfolded it. A lock of bronze hair fell from the parchment into his hand. The shade of bronze was familiar, too familiar. He read the few words of the letter, then pierced the stranger with his eyes, his heart icing over.
Menjel came up behind him and grabbed the letter, reading it himself. He gave Rahaxeris an odd, flat look. "Go. I'll handle everything else."
It was the wrong thing to do. He knew it clearly. Copernicus had Forest. She might already be dead. The thought made his spirit cry out. No, she couldn't be dead. Surely if she were dead, he'd know, because Syrus would know. He couldn't see Syrus sitting still in his grief, no, not an anger ball like Syrus. If Forest was already dead, Regia as a whole would know it.
Going to Copernicus was the wrong thing to do. But what choice did he have? The weight of being a parent, the instinct that existed without logic, and the concrete fact that he would trade his life for hers without looking back, moved him to nod his head.
"Don’t follow," Rahaxeris ordered the other priests.
The silent stranger smiled, flashing Forest's ring on his finger, and opened a portal, taking Rahaxeris with him.
The priests looked apprehensively at Menjel and all began demanding what was going on.
"Calm down. Copernicus has kidnapped Forest and is trying to ransom her. In case any of you are unaware, our high priest, powerful as he may be, is terribly weak when it comes to his child. I don't think we can expect him to return. So, now, again, as it has been before, I am now high priest."
"You can't just do that," Cassian piped up. "It goes against our regulations. Rahaxeris usually leaves you in charge when he is gone, but you can't just take over without due process."
Menjel curled his lip at Cassian. "You're right." His voice was colder than usual. "That's all I meant. I'm in charge for now. Until Rahaxeris comes back." He turned his attention to Camber. "Have anything else to deliver?"
"No, sir."
"Then get out."
"Yes, sir." Camber left quickly.
Camber was gone only a few moments before he was back, another stranger hanging behind him. "An urgent message for you, sir," he said to Menjel.
Menjel strode up to the messenger. He held no message. His face was shadowed in a hood.
"I come from Copernicus. I must speak to Menjel in private."
The priests watched in shock as Menjel admitted the man and led him out of their main room.
"Something stinks here," Hezeron said quietly.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
****
Rahaxeris landed on his feet and straightened up, squinting. The sunlight bounced off the surface of the rose-colored water and into his eyes. The deck of the
ship rocked under his feet. He wondered where Copernicus could have found this vessel. Travel or trade on the water had not been a common Regian practice for hundreds of years. His choice to hide on the water was a shrewd move. Rahaxeris had to give him that. He glared at the man next to him.
"Who are you?" he demanded of the messenger.
The man shifted out of the elf façade. Rahaxeris inhaled sharply as his memories jolted.
"Copernicus."
The man laughed lightly and shook his head. "No. I'm not. Spitting image, I know. My name is Shreve."
Rahaxeris examined him closely. "What are you?"
Shreve didn't get the chance to answer. The door in the deck floor opened, and the real Copernicus emerged. He came up behind Shreve, leaned down, and whispered something in his ear. Shreve gave Copernicus a pained look but left and went down the stairs into the belly of the ship, leaving Rahaxeris and Copernicus alone. The next second, another portal opened on the deck, and a hooded figure came through it. His face was shadowed, and he carried a glass vial of some cloudy grey liquid.
"Is that it?" Copernicus asked him.
The hooded figure nodded and went below deck, and they were alone again.
For a moment, they just stared at one another. Copernicus' face flushed, and his hands shook.
"It's been so long, Father."
"Don't call me that."
Copernicus looked as though he might cry. "Why? You are my father."
"In a way, I suppose. Where is Forest?"
Copernicus smiled. "Not yet. You'll see her soon. She's here. Our family is all together. You, me, Shreve, Forest, and the baby."
"Baby?" A cold wave of terror washed over Rahaxeris.
"Oh, you didn't know? Forest is pregnant. Congratulations, Grandpa."
Rahaxeris tried to appear unaffected by this news. He hoped, with his whole being, it was a lie.
"Have you hurt her?"
"Yes, I must say that I have. In fact, I think I may have gone too far. She won't wake." Copernicus' emotional side came out, and he wiped at a tear in the corner of his eye. "I'm a little too passionate about my sister. There's no knowing what I might do to her. I love her…and I hate her… almost more than I hate you."
