Chapter 80: Chapter 80

Alone in my suite, my thoughts raced. I was trying to bring order to the historical revelations of my lineage, but it was still difficult for me to understand the extent of it. On reflection, I said to myself, the only statement worth dwelling on was about my mother, who was burned at the stake as a witch. Her body not having been reduced to ashes, she had resuscitated, after she had carried off in her death all the inhabitants of her village. And according to Blake’s revelations, whose words I remembered, she was also Carmichael’s ancestor. I had the urge to communicate mentally with her, but a part of me refused. There were still a lot of pieces missing from the puzzle for me to trust. After all, she had abandoned me, as well as my brother, and without warning, I found her one spring evening, seated at a table surrounded by my worst enemies, and I learned, at the same time, that they were my ancestors and that I had a grandmother still alive! I had been told, when I was little, that I no longer had a family on my mother’s side, and at that very moment, I wished that was true. Come to think of it, my whole life has been a lie, so why should that still surprise me?! I had so many questions too, it was no wonder that hours passed before I managed to fall asleep.

The next day, the sun was high in the sky when Sarah brought me my breakfast, after which she proceeded to prepare me. She again chooses a dress and sandals made of leather straps. She put make-up on me without saying a word and combed my hair.

“How long have you served Althea and Priam?”

She didn’t know whether to answer me, and her embarrassment could be read on her face.

“It’s been less than a year,” she answered unexpectedly.

“Are you a caste?”

“My mother has powers, but I don’t.”

A silence ensued. This young woman seemed good-natured, but fear was perpetually read in each of her features.

“You put your heart into your work,” I said to her, refusing to push her into a corner with too many personal questions. “Am I expected somewhere?”

“You will sit alongside the king and queen in the Nave of Statues.”

“The Nave of Statues?”

“This is the throne room. A huge room whose nave is lined with Greek statues representing the gods of Olympus.”

“You speak too much!”

I thought I saw a slight smile in Sarah’s features. The young woman seemed to me more and more friendly.

“And what generally happens in the Nave of Statues?”

The maid flinched, as terror filled her eyes.

“Your reaction means nothing to me that’s worthwhile, but, rest assured, few things surprise me now,” I said, putting a hand on hers.

“You misread my reactions, Madame,” she said, withdrawing her hand. “The Nave of Statues is the place where the king and queen receive the grievances of the most eminent caste lords.”

“Really? I didn’t see them being so open to requests from others.”

She fell silent and took a step back, as if she had committed the worst crime of the century. I stood up and turned in her direction.

“You have to go there now,” she said, agitated.

“Good.”

I followed her to the door, and before I walked through it, Sarah spun around and grabbed my hands. She came closer to my ear and whispered:

“The Nave of Statues is also the place where they render justice.”

Then she rushed into the gallery which led to a monumental stone staircase. Once we both arrived on the threshold, she indicated to me with her hand the door that I had to take, then sent me a smile, and slipped away. I watched her disappear, then took a few steps forward. A guard stood right outside the door. Visibly intrigued by the growing attraction he felt for me, he greeted me with an awkward nod and opened the door. When I entered, a hubbub reached me as I walked down a white marble aisle, leading straight behind the two thrones overlooking the nave. And I could see that the Nave of Statues was aptly named. Stone sculptures, at least ten metres high, formed a corridor towards a huge entrance, from which came hundreds of people, each taking their place facing the thrones where Priam and Althea were already seated, brothers at their side and their sister a little further. Other, smaller statues surrounded the sovereigns. Seven statues. I was speechless when I recognized the features of Althea, Priam and their siblings, while the last represented Egeria, at the time when she was at her best. The ceiling was soaring and, like the rest of the room, must have been hundreds of years old. I remembered that the Six had met their first death, while Egeria was away, a very long time ago. A volcanic eruption had carried them all away and frozen them in their age for eternity. Only the seer, who had never met the Grim Reaper in three thousand years, had slowly aged. The madness of the Six had only grown after this, and compelled Egeria, who didn’t share their fatal plans, to poison them all. The only smart act I had to give her credit for.

I looked down the first steps leading to the thrones, Connor and Magnus standing side by side. When I came forward and finally each of the people who came for the occasion could notice my presence, a silence settled in the huge room. I broaden a smile of satisfaction. I don’t know why, but at that moment, I realised that this introduction could change the course of events and that I had to make an impression.

“Sit on that seat at the bottom of the stairs,” Althea ordered.

My gaze went to the right, an empty chair was installed next to those of my mother and my brother, who were both watching me, looking worried. And they were right to be. I had no idea what the Five wanted from me, but I was determined to take advantage of every opportunity presented to me to put my plan into action. And this plan, which consisted of six steps, I had put together before I surrendered.

1. Exploit all the weaknesses that I had the opportunity to discover.

2. Show the castes supporting the Five that another alternative was possible.

3. Know the place and its security vulnerabilities.

4. Assess the forces involved.

5. Find my mother and rescue her.

6. Find my brother and make him listen to reason, assuming he has reason.

Thus and in this place, the Five offered me the possibility of carrying out step number 2. I raised my face high so that each caste present could identify me in the future, and while I descended the first steps of the stairs, I deployed my tentacles of attraction. And while I usually tried desperately to control my gift, here, I made it explode. It radiated from my body in sonic pulsations, which, over the seconds, amplified and spread throughout the huge room. The effect was striking, and soon got the better of me. The heat of the reactions seeped into my whole being, my cheeks burned under its intensity, a moist sweat ran across my skin. The bodies got carried away and advanced, in spite of themselves, in my direction. I realised that my power had grown since my death. Only a few natural scents had been useful to me in New York, and even in Paris. Using it in this way was a first, and I realised that I could go even further. But that was without counting on Priam, who stood up screaming at everyone to sit down. They ignored him. The bodies of the crowd almost undulated, unheeding of their sovereign, and I noticed that even the women were having difficulty containing themselves. The guests, whose emotions were on fire, began to touch each other, to undress, and went much further than I had previously imagined. I smiled when I experienced this phenomenon and found myself thinking that, if Carmichael had been present, the affair would have ended in an orgy. It was then that Althea got up. The huge doors at the end of the nave slammed shut, braziers at either end of the steps ignited, and she levitated my brother to me.

“Do what you have to do, Ethan.”

My brother stared at her, taken aback, but her harshness left him frozen with a fear that I had never read on his face. He turned sad eyes to me and put his hand on my shoulder. The effect was immediate. My power waned and everyone finally came to their senses. Rage invaded my eyes and I threw my brother about ten metres away, then turned in the direction of Althea who raised a hand. Immobilised, short of breath, I had to admit that she had thought of everything. And then I understood.

“Ethan, the last time your powers could dampen mine, I was alive. You could communicate in thought before I died, and you can again. She killed you, didn’t she?”

“That’s the first thing she did when I arrived,” he said as he got up from his fall.

Tears welled up in my eyes and immediately overflowed. My brother had known death. My hatred could never have been so great. Althea smirked, knowing I had finally figured out what it all meant. She wanted to prove that she cared about me. She had taken over my mother, and now my brother.

She had killed my brother without any guarantee that he would return. It must have taken him weeks to wake up from his first death, and all the while I was locked in the suite. A time she had used to show the caste world that I wasn’t more powerful than her. I wanted to exterminate her, I wanted her to break, to turn to dust or a puddle of blood. I didn’t care, as long as she died, but I stood there, unable to move, as her smile grew wider. But finally, I realised that it wasn’t useless that she immobilised me. This time allowed me to take the necessary step back to calm down and reflect. Don’t get distracted, don’t play her game, I told myself, as the castes in the room came to their senses. My mother put a hand over mine, and in that moment I realised that I had failed. I hadn’t impressed anyone, I had just managed to show that Althea had me and that she had all the cards in her hand to control me. I had fallen into the trap like an idiot.

“Dobrev,” called Priam, “come to us.”

A man in his fifties, accompanied by two younger ones, came down the stairs and bent his knee. He spoke French with a strong Slavic accent.

“Speak, Dobrev,” Althea invited in a kind voice.

“Majesty, it appears that since you annexed the castle in which we live, a few men of yours have been attacking the women of the village who border our home. The inhabitants revolted and appealed to the authorities. In a short time, the castle will be reduced to ashes if they don’t cease their actions.”

“And what are you asking?” Priam asked haughtily.

“I demand that you bring back your guards.”

“And leave the castle unprotected?!” protested the usurper. “There’s no question of that.”

“If I sent our men there,” Althea said, “it was to prevent her people from seizing it.”

She pointed at me with her index finger without even looking at me.

“And if I’m not mistaken,” she continued, “you shouldn’t care what happens to it. It’s thousands of miles away, and your home is here now. Need I remind you of your loyalty oath?”

“No, your Majesty.”

“You can now dispose, Dobrev. Bring me Sarah!”

I dreaded the turn of events when I saw my maid being dragged in by two Queen’s Guards. Terrified with fear, she looked in all directions, waiting for help that would never come.

“This maid betrayed us,” Priam said, rising from his throne.

“No, I assure you not, Majesty,” implored the young woman.

“She transmitted information to Everliegh, the usurper…”

“That’s wrong!” I cried. “She didn’t tell me anything.”

“…and thus made herself guilty of treason,” continued Priam, who ignored me.

With a wave of her hand and without my having time to stop her, Althea sent the fire from a brazier on the young woman, who ignited in an instant. The screams that followed tore through the atmosphere of terror that filled the Nave of Statues, and the smell of burning flesh crept in everywhere as the poor woman lay dying.

I got up.

“Everliegh, no!” implored my mother.

Yet I reached for Sarah, levitated her body still in flames, her screams ringing in my ears. I felt Althea try to immobilise me again, but this time, I had anticipated her by erecting my protective barrier and it was solid as a rock. I was frozen with hatred at this moment. I shed a tear for the poor servant and, in thought, broke her neck. Her cries ceased and she fell to the ground gently, for I refused to allow her body to suffer further abuse. Another scream pulled me out of my trance when I saw a woman running towards Sarah’s body, her eyes streaming with tears. I realised it was her mother. She paused, because the flames hadn’t died down. Using my powers, I made them disappear and the mother, crying out in pain, was able to kneel beside the lifeless body of her daughter. Dead silence ran through the huge room. I sat back in my seat, looking away from Althea. My eyes then fell on the audience, and I was surprised to find that the crowd was watching me. But I felt no hatred, rather caution.

“You remember now what we do to traitors, don’t you, Dobrev?” Priam shouted at the caste lord, clearly determined to end this silence.

“Please forgive me, your Majesty,” said Dobrev, withdrawing with horrified eyes, “I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“Anyone else want to speak today?” inquired Althea, who ignored him, and whose polite tone no longer deceived anyone.

A new silence weighed on the assembly. But a woman advanced in the middle of the room and reached the throne. Her gaze turned to me for a moment, and her eyes told me she wasn’t one of my biggest fans. Guards dragged Sarah’s body and grabbed her mother to lead her out. A few servants came to try to erase the traces of her daughter. Impossible, since I was already noticing evidence of earlier tortures on the floor.

“Her Majesty is magnanimous to her subjects, I know that…,” the woman dropped to her knees. “…also, I must tell you that Prisca Burton Race’s army took over our territory with the help of native Americans, who I thought were under the control of her brother, Connor.”

All faces turned to Connor, who was soon squirming in his chair. Althea glared at him for a moment, then turned back to the woman.

“What’s your name?” she inquired.

“Diane.”

“Diane, I’m glad you gave me this information. We will send a delegation of our best fighters to take back your lands. However, you know this is your home now.”

“I know it, my Queen.”

“But you’re right, we can’t let traitors and usurpers take what’s ours. I hope, however, that you’ll not complain like Dobrev once my guards have cleaned up and taken possession of the premises.”

The woman began to experience her error. Dobrev had, however, been clear about what the queen’s troops were accomplishing in the villages they occupied. The possibility of them committing rapes and murders on the inhabitants of her lands hadn’t occurred to this idiot?!

I then realised that the castes who had come to the island of Eos had committed more than their loyalty to this affair. The Five were asking them to live on the island, leaving their lands, their homes, their castles behind, with no hope of returning except after defeating us, and yet I doubted that the promises of the false goddess are very strong. I looked around the assembly and felt all the doubt that assailed them in this climate of fear. This information was useful to me. Very useful.

The session was over. It took about fifteen minutes before the Nave of Statues was finally emptied of its occupants, with the exception of my mother, my brother, Magnus, Connor, the Five and, of course, me.

“How come native Americans join your brother while you’re here?” Althea inquired of Connor, in a tone that would make you green with dread.

“I’m not there to make them listen to reason. And Everliegh’s arrival in New York has been talked about.”

I found myself smiling, satisfied.

“Tearing off the head of one of your sisters has left some of our fellows dumbfounded with admiration, I suppose,” I said, my insolence at its peak.

“You’ll have to redeem yourself,” declared the queen, who ignored my intervention while her brothers and sister waited only for her permission to rip my guts out.

“I will do as you order, my Queen,” said the traitor.

“Come and see me.”

Connor went to meet her. She stood up and whispered words in his ear. Priam, nearby, sneered, while giving me a stern look. Connor nodded and took a step back. He bowed and joined his father at the bottom of the stairs.

“Fine, we’re done,” Althea said in a clear voice, “I’ll make sure to find you a new maid, Everliegh. I hope you’ll think twice before trying to get her to talk.”

“Sarah hadn’t told me anything.”

“She told you what was going on here, I read it in her. I read all of them here.”

“And in what way is speaking punishable by death? I would have found out a few minutes later what was going on in this room, right?”

“If I hadn’t done anything, she would have assumed she could tell you more, and I can’t tolerate that from a human.”

“She was the daughter of a caste!”

“She had no powers,” she said, “so she was human.”

Althea met my eyes feverish with anger and descended the steps in my direction. She stood a few centimetres from my face, and her hand came to caress my cheek.

“I know everything that’s going on here, remember that, my child, and if you decide to use your power of attraction again, I’ll burn everyone in this room, you hear me?”

She turned and went to join Priam, who was heading towards the exit.

“I don’t believe a word of it!” I shouted.

The blood left my mother’s face. My brother grabbed my arm in reflex, and the shocked look of Connor and Magnus showed that my insolence was perhaps going too far. I wasn’t impressed though.

“Burn all this little world if you like,” I continued laughing, “it will make fewer opponents for my army.”

Althea whirled around, while her husband-brother gave me one of his most contemptuous looks.

“You have decidedly misunderstood,” said Priam. “You are now part of our army.”

“We’ll see each other at dinner,” Althea said scathingly, after a thoughtful silence.

Moments later, alone in my suite, I was considering how to find out more about the Five, how to win this war, and how I was going to get information at the next dinner party. Sarah’s ordeal was still very present in my head, and it seemed to me that the smell of burnt flesh had impregnated my nostrils for eternity. I had to stop this, I had to put an end to this cruelty, to the terror that Priam and Althea inspired. This thought obsessed me, and never left me.