Chapter 83: Chapter 83

The next day, I had breakfast in my suite. The old servant, whose name I didn’t know, laid it out on the terrace, and while I was eating, she made my bed, added a few logs to the open fire, and tidied my room. Then she left, without having said a word the whole time. A few minutes after she left, I went to open the door, which I was surprised to find unlocked. I didn’t know how long I had been free to leave my suite. A second gallery formed a square overlooking a large paved room. There were three more, and each gallery led to endless corridors. It might have been easy to run away if you ignored the fact that I was on an island, and that I still had no idea of the extent of the powers of the hundred guards in charge of watching over me. Moreover, I suspected Althea of being in constant contact with them and if I fled, they would warn her in a second, and I had no doubt that she could catch up with me quickly. I climbed to the last gallery and discovered a closed passage with no guard posted in front. I decided to turn back and go down the stairs. I arrived at a large paved room. Guards stood outside each door, in their white uniforms. We couldn’t miss them and that was the goal: to be visible and thus discourage the most daring. But to my great surprise, they let me pass into the Nave of Statues, totally empty at that moment. I turned back and went into the dining room. Nobody. In the living room, too. I asked a guard where the living or undead were in the temple, but he refused to answer. My caustic tone, no doubt. Then I thought of Sarah and her fear of talking to me. By saying nothing, the guards weren’t taking any risks. So I did something I wasn’t very proud of by letting my pheromones invade every bit of the guard’s flesh. First, he blushed, then he became agitated, and finally, his feverish eyes guaranteed me the success of my approach. After an unhealthy game of seduction, I have to admit, I learned that the Five and their guests were outside, on the terrace of the temple. I went there.

I passed a huge arched exit. The light outside burned my retinas, and it took me a few seconds before my eyes adjusted to the daylight. I was at the top of a huge stone staircase that descended to the sea, as if the steps plunged even lower, into the seabed. I heard voices, shouts and activity in the distance. To my right, a path seemed to lead to the outskirts of the building. It took me a few more minutes, and some more steps, before I reached the terrace. Althea was taken aback for a moment when she noticed my arrival. Seated around a small round table, she faced two people who were unknown to me. A man and a woman. He, in his sixties, looked up and stared at me, puzzled. The young woman, barely an adult, didn’t move an eyelash, and put her glass on the table as if I didn’t exist.

“Go get us another chair,” Althea ordered her butler, who immediately complied.

“Hello,” I greeted them.

The man nodded. The woman remained silent. The butler brought the chair over and asked me to sit down.

“Won’t you introduce me?” I asked Althea.

She observed me, and I couldn’t read in her expression what seemed to keep her from introducing me to these two people. But, as if I challenged her, she wasted no time in revealing the identity of her guests.

“I present to you Marc de Courcy. He’s French.”

“It’s an honour to meet you,” he said, holding out his hand.

I shook it, somewhat surprised by his playful tone. He seemed to know me, yet he was a total stranger.

“Uh… me too,” I said, a bit embarrassed without really knowing why.

“And this is Cassandra,” she said with a hint of pride in her voice, “my new friend, aren’t you, Cassandra?”

The young woman kept her blue eyes fixed on her glass of iced tea. I noticed the shiver that ran through her when Althea mentioned this new friendship. She ran a hand through her neck-length chestnut hair, and when her face finally met mine, I saw how beautiful and terribly scared this woman was.

“Hello,” I said, holding out my hand.

When she squeezed my hand, she suddenly felt a shock in her chest. Her eyes narrowed as if in pain, then opened them again, letting a plaintive sound escape her mouth.

“A precog,” I said, surprised.

“She’s not called Cassandra for nothing,” said Althea, with a perverse smile on the corners of her lips. “What did you see?”

Cassandra looked from Althea to me. Panic was in her eyes, but I had a feeling she didn’t want to reveal the content of her vision.

“Speak!” Althea ordered.

“She… she’s incredibly powerful,” Cassandra stammered in a clear voice, “I felt her power.”

“Is she as powerful as me?”

“No.”

“Then shut up! Just tell me the future, because I don’t care how you feel.”

“Well!” I exclaimed to Althea. “At least you know how to treat your friends!”

Marc de Courcy stifled a laugh. I liked this man more and more.

“I’m Everliegh Burberry,” I say, this time towards Cassandre, “and I already know a few precogs. That’s a rare gift you have there.”

“I would rather say a curse,” muttered the young woman.

“It’s funny, I say the exact same thing about my gift of attraction. I don’t know which is best. See the future or be a sex magnet for all the castes.”

Suddenly, something called out to me. My face turned sharply towards Marc de Courcy.

“But… you’re human!” I exclaimed, bewildered.

“Indeed,” he said, nodding his head.

It was my turn to observe him, looking puzzled. This man had no feelings for me. He remained insensitive to my magnetic power, and nothing emanated from his person. So the question immediately arose to me: what was a human doing here?! My gaze fell on Althea. She had a stone face.

“I’m a historian,” said the man, “and I have studied your origins extensively, Madame, the origins of your entire brotherhood.”

“I admit it,” I said, “I’m amazed to see my grandmother’s openness.”

Althea jumped, as if calling her grandmother was an insult. It seemed so ridiculous to me that I giggled.

“Be careful,” she said, getting up, “my patience has its limits.”

She got up and left, not without giving Cassandra a last look, telling her, I was sure, to shut up about her visions.

“Your grandmother has a temper,” said Marc, smiling.

“What are you doing in her service?”

“I give her information.”

“What information could she need from a human?”

“Historical information.”

“You seem to know a lot about the castes.”

“Indeed, and Althea pays me handsomely for my services.”

“I’m surprised to know that she’s so fond of history.”

“Oh no, no history. She asks me to find some castes; Cassandra, for example. I also carry out investigations into the past of some of them.”

“Well!” I said, impressed. “So you’re a very useful human in her eyes. I better understand your presence here. It’s a shame your job is to supply slaves to a so-called psychotic queen.”

“Do you suggest that I have a choice?”

“It’s true,” said Cassandre, “he has no choice.”

“And do you?” I asked her.

“No… no, I don’t have a choice, either.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“She wants to use me to destroy you and all your people.”

“For your safety, you know you shouldn’t tell me your visions. But if you insist, I will gladly listen to them.”

“Only one is worthy of interest, in the end.”

“Oh, which one?” I asked, intrigued.

“You’re going to kill me.”

Shocked, I remained speechless. Cassandre fixed her enigmatic gaze on mine, then stood up. She shook my hand. My bewildered eyes followed her as she walked away. Marc de Courcy left me too and I stayed there, on this terrace, thinking back to the young woman, to her young age and to her last sentence. I knew I couldn’t kill someone in cold blood. Had I already killed so many castes that killing others had become all the same to me? No. Cassandra wasn’t like Althea and Priam, she was afraid. She didn’t want to be here, but she had to. I killed my enemies, and even then, I was forced to. I recognized that the way to go about it was not always clean. Thinking back on it, the deaths of Naomi, Blake, or even those of Egeria and Elinor, Althea’s sisters, were clearly repugnant. But necessity had pushed me to it. However, at this very moment, only one question tormented my mind: among the castes present in this city of Eos, how many were really willing to be here?