Bonds That Break (The Havoc Chronicles Book 3) (8 page)

Rhys also gave me a smile, but it looked forced – as if something were wrong. I wanted to pre-zerk to heighten my senses and have him whisper what he wanted to tell me – a little trick we had started using over the past couple of months – but pre-zerking in a room full of Berserkers would be about as subtle as smashing the podium with a sledgehammer. They would all feel it, and without the visual cue of someone actually glowing, the entire meeting would have to come to a standstill while I explained what I had done.

Instead I gave him a questioning look, and he pointed to his head, indicating that he just had a headache. Which seemed to be happening to him much more frequently than it used to. I worried about him. Was it possible for a Berserker to get a brain tumor or something like that?

“Madison has given us much to think about,” said Nakai. “A Berserker and a Binder who takes on new powers as other Berserkers pass on? We are truly living in remarkable times.” She shook her head in disbelief. “I never would have thought to see such things in my lifetime. Unprecedented changes are happening, and it is up to us to respond to those changes. I will now open the floor to discussion of these new revelations.” 

Immediately Jacinda stood up and addressed the group. “I don’t know about all you, but listening to Madison brought up a lot more questions than it gave answers. For example, does this power transfer only happen with the Berserkers and Binders of the five or does this impact the seven as well? Plus if she is getting all these powers why is the seal for Thuanar weakening?”

I felt everyone’s expectant eyes on me, so I stood up once again. I approached the microphone, trying to think of how I could tell them that I really had no idea what the answer was.

My discomfort must have really shown in my face because Rhys stood up before I got to the podium. He angled himself to face as many of the pods as possible.

“The truth is we don’t know much more than what Madison has already told you,” he said. “Anything else would be pure speculation. Until one of the Binders or Berserkers of the seven passes on, there is no way to know if Madison will take those abilities or not. As for why Thuanar’s seal is breaking, we can only make guesses at this point.”

While Rhys spoke, my dad caught my eye and motioned for me to come back to our pod. Now that I had finished, I gratefully took him up on his suggestion and walked down from the platform. In hindsight, going up there at all was probably unnecessary, as everyone seemed to be able to hear when someone spoke from a pod. Hey, it was my first time speaking in a secret underground lair to a group of people with superpowers. I should get some slack for not knowing exactly how everything was supposed to work.

While I walked down, Rhys continued speaking. “We can only assume that some unknown factor or power has either diluted or tainted the current binding. We have no way of knowing for sure what that might be.”

“What about the other Havocs she is the Binder for?” asked Onaona. “Do we know if those bindings are stable?”

“As far as we know,” said Rhys. “There doesn’t seem to be any problems with the binding for Osadyn that she and I did back in May. I’m assuming that there haven’t been any problems with the binding for Pravicus that she originally inherited or we would have had word by now.” He looked over at Nakai for confirmation and she nodded in agreement.

“As for Margil, I want to point out that Madison did the first ever solo-binding.” He glanced over and gave me a quick wink before continuing. “At the time of the binding the seal looked to be strong and intact, but then again, so did Thuanar’s when we went there last spring. Given recent events, it would be prudent to send a watcher there to observe.”

“But that still doesn’t tell us why the binding is weakening on just Thuanar,” said Yvette.

“We do have one theory,” said Rhys. “Scottie, do you want to explain?”

Dad rose to his feet, looking like he had done this a hundred times before. Which, given how long he had been a Berserker, was probably pretty close to the truth.

“Like Rhys just said, we have no way of knowing anything for sure. At this point everything is pure speculation, but we do have some guesses. When Madison first became a Berserker, it was more-or-less in the normal way. She was attached to no other Havocs at that point. That binding was passed on as has been done hundreds of times throughout history. When Eric and Kara died, Madison received that ability from them, but Margil was already free. There was no binding to corrupt. Same with Osadyn – already free. But when Aata and Christine were killed, the binding was not broken, so it gave Madison the power over Thuanar and his binding.

“We think that since Madison was the Binder and Berserker for multiple Havocs, the existing binding somehow corrupted when it was passed onto her.”

“But can she fix it?” asked Dagmar.

Rhys shrugged. “That’s the big question, isn’t it? I personally think she can based on seeing her bind Osadyn and Margil. If she could bind them, it seems reasonable to think that she could rebind Thuanar. But we can’t know for sure until we try.”

“And that is what we have come here to discuss,” said Nakai.

“What’s left to discuss?” asked Julie from her seat next to Shing. “Sending her to re-bind Thuanar is the inevitable next step, isn’t it?”

Nakai looked distinctly disgruntled at Julie’s comment. “We need to get all the facts out and weigh our options–”

“I agree with Julie,” said Jacinda. “This isn’t the time to talk this issue to death. For all we know that binding could break at any time. We need bold and decisive action. Now.”

Several Berserkers and Binders began voicing their agreement at once.

“Now hold on,” said Nakai. She raised her voice to be heard above the others. “We can’t just circumvent procedures that have served us for centuries.”

“Why not?” asked Yul, a mischievous gleam in his eye.

“Let’s put it to a vote,” said Miguel. A chorus of shouted agreement followed his suggestion.

Nakai looked around the room taking in the overwhelming support for an immediate vote. She sighed. “Very well,” she said. “Despite my strong objection to such hasty measures, we will vote. Everyone take out your electronic voting devices.”

“No way,” said Jacinda. “I never did trust those things. Besides, I don’t think we should over-complicate it. Let’s do this old school.” She stood up and looked around the room. “Hands up,” she said. “Who thinks we should send Madison back to Mexico and have her attempt to rebind Thuanar?”

It was unanimous on the Berserker side. They all agreed. As for the Binders, Onaona, Julie, and Jacinda all raised their hands immediately. After a moment Kamiko and Dagmar also joined in. Nakai and Sunee exchanged resigned looks and raised their hands. Yvette and Dagmar were the last to agree, clearly only doing so because they felt pressured to, making the vote unanimous.

It looked like I was headed back to Mexico.

Chapter 5

The Calm Before The Storm

After the vote was complete, all that was left was determining who would accompany me on the trip.

Which was not as easy as it sounds.

I was beginning to understand the Berserkers’ frustration with the Binder Council. The vote to send me to Mexico was apparently unprecedented in both its speed and its unanimity. Quick, decisive action was almost unheard of from the Binder Council, and they more than made up for it with a painfully long debate about who should go with me.

I made it pretty clear upfront that Rhys, Shing, and my dad were not optional. If they didn’t go, I wasn’t going. End of story. After that, I sat back and let them argue over who else should go with me. As long as they didn’t decide to send plastic girl with me, I was pretty much fine with whoever they chose.

After several hours of heated back and forth debate, Miguel and Josiah were chosen to accompany us along with Onaona. I already knew Josiah and he seemed a decent enough guy. Miguel was actually from Mexico so having him there would be helpful, and Onaona seemed very sweet.

I must admit that I felt a great sense of relief when the massive door had opened and we left the council room. I felt even more relief when I went outside and felt fresh air blowing on me. I hadn’t realized how oppressive it had felt being under all that rock until I was able to get out of it.

The next flight to Puebla went through LA and didn’t leave until tomorrow morning, so we were going to spend the night here. Shing went off on his own, and Dad was still jet-lagged and went to take a nap. Which meant I had the rest of the afternoon to hang out with Rhys. Sweet!

Since this was my first time in Hawaii, I was tempted to go out to see the sites, but for some reason I felt vaguely uneasy and anxious. It was probably from sitting so long. I needed to move – to
do
something productive.

“Is there any place we can train here?” I asked Rhys. “Preferably not underground, I'm starting to feel like a Morlock.”

Rhys laughed. “Just be sure to warn me if you start craving human flesh,” he said. “As for training, the main exercise room is in the Manor House basement which, like most basements, is kind of underground.” He gave me a sympathetic look.

I sighed. Of course it was in the basement.

Rhys held up finger and smiled. “However, there’s a smaller outbuilding that I like to use for weapons training that should be perfect.”

I punched him on the shoulder, but I couldn’t stop my smile.

We changed clothes and met at the main entrance of the house. Rhys led me along a stone path that wound through a grove of thick trees before opening into a clearing.

A small building that looked like a traditional Japanese dojo sat in the middle of the clearing, a strange relic of another land in the middle of Hawaii. The building was situated on a wooden platform with a couple of steps leading up to the door. The pointed roof stuck out wider than the base of the building, shielding a wooden walkway that ran completely around the building. The walls appeared to be made entirely of wood and glass, with dozens of tiny frosted panes of glass.

The door to the building slid open to reveal a single large room with sunlight filtering in through the walls and large triangular windows on either side of the high, peaked roof.

The floor was made of light-colored wooden planks placed in such a way that the grain of the wood formed a pattern of squares on the floor. The walls were lined with practice swords, padded suits, helmets, and various targets to practice on.

I loved it immediately.

“Will this work?” asked Rhys.

I beamed at him. “This is amazing,” I said, turning in a circle so I could take it all in. “It’s so beautiful.”

“I’m glad you like it,” said Rhys. He took my hand and joined me in gazing around the room. “I saw one like this when I was in Japan and convinced the Council to build it.” He gave my hand a squeeze.

I let go of Rhys’ hand and wrapped my arms around him. For a moment we simply stood there, enjoying the feeling of being in each other’s arms and relishing the rare moment of privacy. I turned my head toward him and stood on my tiptoes. Rhys got the hint and bent down to kiss me. All the stress and tension seemed to melt out of me as I felt his lips on mine. There hadn’t been nearly enough of this lately.

That was going to have to change.

A scuffling sound outside the dojo made us both jump apart. I pre-zerked, and with my enhanced hearing could clearly tell someone was coming this way. We each quickly grabbed a practice sword, and I felt my face redden as I tried to pretend that I was warming up.

When the door opened a moment later, Rhys and I were on opposite sides of the room working our way through a complex warm-up routine that took a lot of concentration and doing our best to not look like we had been interrupted while kissing.

Sigh.

Onaona walked through the door and looked genuinely surprised to see us. She was dressed for training with her hair pulled back and carried a workout bag over her shoulder.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “I had no idea anyone else was here. I can come back later.”

As much as I wanted to have some time alone with Rhys, I wasn’t going to kick her out. Besides, the moment had passed and we were actually training now, so it didn’t really make a difference if she wanted to be here. It actually made our being here less suspicious.

“There’s plenty of room,” I said. “You don’t have to leave.”

Onaona hesitated, looking between me and Rhys. “Are you sure?” she asked. “I don’t want to interrupt your training.”

“It’s not a problem,” Rhys said. He angled his head so that Onaona couldn’t see and gave me a wink. “We were just about to start a sparring session. We only need this small section here.”

Finally, Onaona smiled. “Thanks,” she said. “You know, I think this is the first time I've seen anyone else besides me use this building. Most of the others use the gym in the Manor House, but there is something about this place that speaks to me.”

Onaona threw down a mat and began moving through a series of yoga poses. She was incredibly flexible and held each pose with precision. I kept one eye watching her as I finished my warm up, but had to stop once Rhys and I started sparring.

At first we took it easy – no ‘zerking. We practiced each move slowly and deliberately focusing on making the move perfectly, rather than on speed or force. As we continued, we gradually sped up, moving faster and faster – striking, blocking and counter-striking.

As the pace increased, the sound of our wooden practice swords made a rhythmic clacking that almost had a beat to it. We were moving in sync taking turns attacking and defending.

Once we had reached the limits of our own physical abilities, we ‘zerked and the speed jumped to a completely different gear. We moved so quickly that the clacking of our practice swords was almost a continual hum.

And then something strange happened. I started winning. Don’t get me wrong, I was good. Very good, in fact. But Rhys had always been on a different level from everyone else. There would be times when I might catch him off guard with a surprise move, but in general Rhys was always in control of the fight.