Evadere (19 page)

I thought about Atavia’s intentions and how I was glad that Lainey Tritt was the one that supposedly raised him instead of her. I was a little shocked that she permitted her baby prince to be around someone like Lainey and her living arrangements compared to this lavish castle.
 

Carlin’s face entered my mind. It had been a long time since I’d thought of her. Right before returning to Evadere with Emry, she had found herself a new job and a new man at the new job. She was living on the outskirts of Seneca and traveling to a nearby city to work. She seemed happy. I had been staying with her for awhile before finding my own place, a small apartment near Emry. I had barely even spent any time in the new apartment before all this happened.
 

Carlin had seemed very happy. I think the burden of letting me know the big secret that she was my biological mother had been lifted. She was like a new woman. It was great to see her actually smile and enjoy life. She had been packing for a cruise she was going on with her boyfriend the last time I had seen her. She’d be back from the cruise by now. I wondered if she was thinking about me, if she was worried where I was. I sighed and walked over the bed and plopped down.
 

Then I thought about my brother, Matthew. He was still living with Helene and John, my step-parents who had taken care of me in Carlin’s stead. I hadn’t had much contact with them after Emry was been released from prison. That also meant little contact with Matthew. I thought about him sitting in front of the TV and smiled. It seemed ages ago when I was in that house. What a boring life I had led before Emry Logan. Now look at me. I am on Evadere surrounded by contributors and Scaves. My boyfriend was soon to be king, and his powers were getting stronger. He had proved that with his little temper tantrum knocking the wall down.
 

Then there was Atavia, whom I was no match against. She had the same powers as Emry as soon as she married Calan. She had wanted Raleigh to have those kinds of powers, but her plan failed. Perhaps she had been angry with Raleigh and decided to kill her, with the strategy to pin the whole thing on me. I shuddered at the thought of seeing Raleigh’s bloody corpse beside me in bed and wrapped my arms around my knees.
 

I felt a homesick and a little lonely. I wasn’t sure what exactly I was homesick for, though. Certainly not Seneca, Ohio. I was sad as I wanted things between Emry and I to be how they were before. Evadere was supposed to be this special place, a paradise. Emry and I had planned to explore the land together. It was going to be wonderful. Instead this place had become a nightmare full of both contributors and Scaves alike trying to kill me. Now I was dealing with a queen that was out to get me as well. Atavia was more powerful than Mrs. Anderson. I feared for my life even more. Here she could keep her eye on me. She kept everyone in the palm of her hand, even the contributors, as she invited different ones daily to dine with her at the castle and show them a good time. She pretended to be friends with them in case she needed them for a war against the Scaves. Now she needed Emry to take her lead and do exactly as she was doing. This meant he needed to believe exactly what she believed. I supposed she figured that keeping him on Earth would mean he’d gain no real human values of his own since Earth was despised and looked down upon. But I knew better. Emry was his own person. He hadn’t detached himself emotionally as most people on Evadere had. That’s what he had gained as being raised as a human. I couldn’t let him forget that no matter how hard Atavia would try to convince him otherwise. She obviously had loved her husband. You could see the pain on her face whenever Calan was mentioned. I believed she loved Emry, too, but had bigger plans for him that overrode her motherly duty. She wanted to conform him to be the kind of king his father had been. I wondered if she had had control of Calan or what kind of person she had been around him. Now she seemed so hardened, so determined to get what she wanted out of Emry’s presence here. It made me fear for what was going to happen between the contributors and Scaves.
 

I thought of the Scave people and how their rugged lives had transformed them into scavenging beasts of the land. They had every right to be angry, but Karn was very much like Atavia as far as leadership goes. He was building up his own army as well. Though significantly smaller, his people were true survivors, their pain threshold high and their determination one that had been passed on throughout the years as they knew nothing except persecution.
 

Surely my life was in more danger than even I could imagine. They were merely tolerating my presence for the sake of Emry. I truly believed Atavia didn’t think I had even the slightest chance of making it back to him from the beach alive, but I did. Now I was in the middle of this big mess. My own helplessness began to drive me crazy the more I was left alone in this room to think freely with nothing else to occupy myself with.

The next day, I got up early, got dressed and decided I needed to get out of here and escape my own thoughts. I walked toward the outside garden where I had seen Emry knock over the wall.
 

There was a chill to the air as I walked around barefoot. The wall was still missing, but the mess Emry had made had been cleaned up.

I heard men hollering and clangs of metal striking metal. Feeling cold, I wrapped my arms around myself and made my way over to the edge of where the wall had been, and peered down.

Several of Atavia’s guards were standing in a circle. In the middle of that circle stood Emry. He was holding a long, metal weapon of some sort and was fighting several of the guards at one time. The guards wore heavy armor and helmets to protect themselves. They were about the same height as Emry but broader and overall larger men. Emry, on the other hand, was wearing loose white pants and was shirtless with nothing to protect him.
 

It took me a moment to process what was going on. This had to be part of Emry’s training. A tree stood a little distance from the area where the men were. Atavia, with a long black dress fluttering about in the chilled wind, stood by it.

I ducked down behind the edges of the bricks still intact near the bottom of the wall as I didn’t want Atavia to see me. My attention returned to Emry who was still sparring with the guards taking them on two by two. His weapon would collide with the guards’, and the whole process would begin again.
 

“Again,” Atavia commanded.

With that, Emry lifted his metal staff high in the air and attacked another man on his side. Another guard snuck up from behind him and knocked Emry to the ground. Emry grunted in frustration, lying there for a few moments.

“Again,” Atavia said in the same strict tone. “Get up, Emry.”

He scrambled to his feet and stretched out his arms and shoulders before the guards surrounded him again. I found myself biting on my fingernails, nervous just watching all of this even if it wasn’t a real battle. Atavia was making him into a soldier, one man against many. I wondered how many days Emry had been practicing this.

He swung his staff back and let out another yell as he charged the man in front of him. The weapons made a loud noise as they connected fiercely, Emry obviously releasing his frustrations. I saw Atavia raise her arm in the air gesturing something to someone.
 

Just then two guards came up to Emry from behind and grabbed his arms, his weapon falling to the ground. Now he was defenseless. His anger exploded as he viciously thrashed his body about trying to get the men off him, but it was no use. They were stronger than him.

Then Emry cried out and all of the guards including those who had been standing back just observing the battle flew up into the air a good height and came crashing back down on the ground, their armor making a loud thud as they landed. Emry still stood in the middle of them, his chest heaving up and down as he made attempts to calm his labored breathing. He had used his powers to defeat them all. I stood there bewildered at what had just happened, at what Emry had just made happen. I know it was considered normal here, but it was still freakish to my measly human mind.

Atavia clapped as she proceeded to leave the side of the tree and go stand near her son. She put her hand on his shaky shoulder and whispered something to him. He was now slouched over, drained from what had just occurred.

A high-pitched scream came from within the castle. I turned and sprinted toward the noise. My footsteps slowed as I reached the hallway where a small crowd had already gathered outside a room. I tried to see who was inside, but there were too many blocking my field of vision.

Emry, Atavia and the guards made it there seconds after me.
 

“Move aside,” Atavia yelled out. “Go on, get … get I said.”
 

They moved out of the way so that the queen and her crew could get through and into the room. Emry peered at me out of the corner of his eye. I snuck in behind him so I could get into the room too.

In the corner of the room kneeled a girl, still squealing as loud as she could, her face buried in her hands. Across the room behind a large desk the feet of someone lying behind the massive piece of furniture stuck out.
 

“That’s enough of that,” Atavia scolded the maidservant who instantly silenced herself at the voice of the queen. “What is going on …?”

We moved together in a small group over to the pair of feet that belonged to the stout body of Jillianne. She was dead, her glazed over eyes staring toward the ceiling as a small pool of blood pillowed behind her head, the handle of a knife protruding from her gashed neck.
 

“Jillianne!” Atavia cried out, bending down and touching her head that lifelessly fell to the side, a trickle of blood exiting from her tipped mouth. Atavia now cried out in disgust as she jumped back in alarm. Her eyes were alit with fury as she stood up straight now. She clenched her jaw together very much in the same way that Emry did when he was upset. She looked back to the maidservant still huddled in the corner. “You,” she shouted, pointing to the girl. “What happened? Tell me what you saw.”

The girl began to tremble as she bit her lip trying too hard not to start screaming again in fear of what the queen might do if she was unable to get a hold of herself.
 

“I … I …” the maidservant stuttered.

Atavia raised her eyebrows, her emotions becoming more and more composed by the second. “Get up and speak!”

The poor girl kept shaking all over as she made an attempt to get to her feet but failed miserably as she fell against the wall. No one was helping her, so I walked over and gave her a hug.

“It’s ok,” I whispered to her. “No one’s going to hurt you. Did you find Jillianne like this?”

She nodded.

“Okay,” I whispered. “Just get up and tell the queen what happened. That’s all she wants from you.”

I offered the maidservant my hand, which she accepted, and pulled her to her feet. Then I stood by her side as she faced Atavia who was now glaring at me.

“I’m waiting,” she told the maidservant. “And I’m not a very patient person.”

“I … just came in here to clean, your majesty. And Ms. Jillianne …” The maidservant’s eyes floated back over toward the corpse, causing her to crumble emotionally again.
 

Atavia’s shoe clicked on the hard floor.

“Ms. Jillianne was just like that already. She was dead,” the girl managed to say.

Atavia’s hands went to her face momentarily. Then she looked up, her face seemingly aged in her distress. “Get out,” she snapped. “Everyone out. Get out of my castle.”

The crowd scrambled to get away from Atavia’s anger and Jillianne’s spilled blood. I could only imagine what the contributors were saying about the death of Raleigh at the castle and now another one.
 

“Guards, get this mess cleaned up,” Atavia commanded.
 

I glanced up at Emry who was standing near Ben, both of them in disbelief and unsure of what to say to the queen, probably afraid she was about to go off. I turned to leave. I wanted no part of her temper.

“Where do you think
you’re
going?” she yelled.

I was thrown against the wall, my arms pinned behind my back by some unknown force. I couldn’t move. My spine hurt from the force of hitting the wall. I glared at Atavia. She had used her powers on me. It was both extraordinary and infuriating at the same time.
 

Emry took two steps toward me, then stopped. “Mother …”

“I don’t even want to hear your opinion, Emry, which by the way, is so completely tainted. Humans are known for their bloodshed,” Atavia scolded him. “Your judgment is impaired when it comes to anything dealing with this girl.”

He ran his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath. “Let her down.”

“She murdered Jillianne!” she cried out.

“What?” I shouted. “You think I did this? I wasn’t anywhere near here. I was outside watching Emry train with your guards.”

“Do you have witnesses?” she asked, her tone on the verge of mockery.

I glared at her again and tried to move. It was a worthless attempt. My arms were beginning to ache from being squished between the wall and my body.
 

“Why would she want to kill Jillianne?” Emry questioned.