Legacy of the Mind (11 page)

‘You do like to ruffle feathers don’t you,’ Marcus said with mock disapproval, his eyes telling another story.

‘Me?’ Anita shot back flirtily.  ‘I think you’ll find you were leading.’

‘Well we’ll just have to agree to blame the band then, who for some reason selected a raunchy number for the first dance.’  He said it innocently, over-emphasising the shrugging of his shoulders and the perplexed look across his face.

Anita’s eyes flew open, ‘that was you?’ she accused, punching his arm not quite hard enough to cause any harm.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he protested, raising his arms in surrender, confirming that he knew exactly what she was talking about.  Luckily for Marcus, before Anita could launch a proper attack, a squeal invaded the air around them and Cleo bounded over to Anita and wrapped her arms around her.

‘You.  Looked.  A-MAZING,’ she sang.  ‘You should have seen everyone watching you.  I cannot believe you just did that.  But the way your dress kicked out…definitely a great choice, and he isn’t a half bad dancer either,’ she gushed nodding her head in Marcus’ direction and squeezing his arm.

‘Thanks,’ replied Marcus, rolling his eyes and telling himself to be patient during the lengthy debrief of the night so far that he knew he was about to have to listen to.

Alexander had finally managed to ditch his date.  She had proven a great deal more clingy than he had expected, so it had taken a bit of work, but luckily Cleo seemed to have done the same thing to Henry, so Alexander had left her with him.  He made his way into the library, where thankfully no one else had ventured and helped himself to a shimmering crystal glass full of Austin’s brandy.  He sat down heavily in a chair by the open doors onto the balcony and contemplated the night’s events so far.

Firstly there was the conversation he had overheard two of Austin’s security guards having just before the procession.  They had been talking about Austin’s hit list and it was clear from what he had overheard that Anita was at the top of it.  Austin was always scouring for powerful people, to either recruit or get rid of, but this search seemed to be more frenzied than ever before.  Alexander assumed it must have something to do with the bloodline; was Anita the girl Christiana had wanted to find?  Austin obviously knew more about why Christiana had wanted to come to Empire than Alexander did, but Alexander couldn’t think of a way to subtly tap Austin for information.  His trip to the Archives had left him with nothing to work with, meaning he had had to put his investigation on hold until he could come up with another place to look.

Then there was his conversation at dinner with Helena.  She had pretty much tried to recruit him into the Institution, a bold move under any circumstances, but downright dangerous under Austin’s roof and right under his nose.  Austin hated the Institution and would no doubt hate them even more at the moment, with the controversy around the prophecy.  And then there was Anita.  Her energy was extraordinary, like nothing he had ever felt before.  It had such a strong mix of Body and Spirit that he found it difficult to imagine that she could be a Body Descendant, not that there was any guarantee that was who Christiana was looking for.  He recalled the tingle he had felt when they had touched, something he had never personally felt before; it was extremely rare.  He had heard others talk about a tingling sensation, or a jolt, but had never known anyone that had experienced them and no one was entirely sure what caused them.

Anita fascinated him, and although he was trying to keep it firmly hidden, he found himself drawn to her.  She was totally reckless.  The way she had won the Chase, exposing her reader abilities to everyone and the way she had danced round the floor earlier were incredible, but would only serve to enrage Austin and she was already in an extremely dangerous position.  Alexander was relying on Marcus to keep Anita out of harm’s way, but with stunts like this evening, that would be increasingly difficult.  Austin hadn’t even tried to hide his fury.

Alexander’s thoughts were interrupted by voices on the balcony moving towards the library.  ‘I’m looking for Alexander, have you seen him?’ came a winy female voice that Alexander recognised as his date’s.  In one swift movement, Alexander got up from the worn leather chair and made his way silently to the library’s side door.  He ducked through it, just as the voices reached the window, and headed for the stairs.  Only Descendants and a handful of the senior Councillors would dare to go upstairs in Austin’s castle without permission, so he should be safe up there he reasoned.  Alexander took the steps two at a time and turned left when he reached the top.  He headed out onto a large internal balcony that wrapped its way around the four sides of a courtyard below.  The courtyard would have been his first choice, but it would have been more difficult to get to without being seen.

This was his favourite part of Austin’s castle.  The courtyard was exposed to the night sky, however the balcony was covered, with pillars all the way around holding up the roof.  The pillars had climbing plants crawling all over them, with wispy braches covered in flowers falling down onto the stone benches below.  This was the creation of Marcus’ mother Amelia, and in Alexander’s opinion was the perfect demonstration of why Austin and Amelia now lived separate lives.  Whereas Austin was transactional and controlling, Amelia was kind with far-reaching openness, just like the plants she grew.  Alexander walked round to the far side of the balcony and lay down on one of the stone benches, placing the brandy glass that he had luckily had the foresight to pick up during his escape on the floor.  Hopefully nobody would find him up here.  He found it wearing being around other people for too long, what with all the energy waves bouncing around.  It was a relief to be on his own, where he could think without the interruption of the energy of others.

He had been lying there for only a few minutes, listening to the silence, with the occasional muffled screech from downstairs, when he heard the courtyard door below creek open and what sounded like two sets of cautious footsteps make their way though.  Alexander easily picked up their energy, one anxious and the other angry.

‘What is it?’ questioned a fierce voice that Alexander recognised as Alistair’s.  ‘I thought we agreed never to talk about this again.’

The anxious person didn’t immediately reply, pacing around the courtyard to make sure there was no one else there.  They couldn’t see Alexander from the courtyard and as there didn’t appear to be anyone else present, the second person replied.  ‘That was before Austin went on his most recent vendetta.’  Alexander was surprised to hear Peter’s thin voice and his interest was immediately piqued.  What could shy, pathetic Peter possibly be wrapped up in?

‘What is that supposed to mean?’ asked Alistair edgily, surprise clear in his voice.

‘It means that Austin has put together a hit list of powerful girls of between about twenty three and twenty seven years of age.  He is trying to track her down to finish off the prophecy for good.’  Alexander could not believe his ears.  What could Peter possibly know about what Austin was looking for?  Had Christiana told him?  But at least it confirmed their being here did have something to do with the prophecy and therefore the bloodline.

‘But how does he know?’ Alistair spat.

‘Well he obviously knew she got away, but he always assumed that she would never resurface.  When Christiana told him why she wanted to come to Empire, Austin went crazy.  He ordered Amber to double her ‘researchers’ and gave her until we leave Empire to track the missing girl down.’

‘And?’ said Alistair.  ‘He doesn’t know?’  The concern in his voice palpable.

‘No.  Not for sure, but she is at the top of his hit list.  Just her winning the Chase would have been enough to keep her there, but her reader stunt has wound him into frenzy, and he wasn’t exactly hiding his feelings about their display earlier.  She is signing her own death warrant.  You’ve got to do something.’

Alexander could not believe his ears.  How did Alistair and Peter know anything about this?  And more importantly, why was it Alistair’s responsibility to do something about it?

‘And what exactly do you suggest I do?’

‘Take her into the Wild Lands and keep her there.’

Alistair laughed.  ‘Aside from the obvious difficulty of kidnapping someone as adept as Anita, how do you suggest I keep here there?  Lock her up?  Stay there and supervise her myself?’

‘Persuade her to go with you.  Say you are going on a trip to record the energy or something.’

‘That would never fool her, or my son.  And even if it did work, there is the obvious problem that Marcus seems totally besotted with her.  You think he would just let her go?  Never forget that he is Austin’s son, regardless of how much of Amelia he has in him.  He will turn out to be just as ruthless and just as possessive.  You can see that just in the way he looks at her.’

‘Well you have got to do something, otherwise she is going to wind up dead.’

Alistair turned angry, ‘we should never have got involved in the first place and anything we do now to try and save her will be the final nail in her coffin, exposing us along with her.  Listen to me very carefully Peter.  Do nothing.  Absolutely nothing, you hear me?  Do not so much as mention her name to anyone.  Do not try and contact anyone who knows about this.  And never, I repeat, never talk to me about this ever again, unless you want to wind up dead as well.’  A silent chill filled the courtyard as the enormity of the words sunk in.  Alistair turned sharply and left, furious.  Peter, now beside himself with worry, hung around for a few minutes pacing up and down, getting his emotions under control before following him out.  Alexander lay there in shock; he couldn’t quite believe what he had just heard.  Anita was a Descendant?  That was the only thing they could have meant, unless there was some other way to fulfil the prophecy, and everyone knew there was only one way; the Descendants had to send back the relic.  Either way, Anita was in serious trouble.

Marcus endured a few more minutes of Cleo’s overexcited squealing before cutting past her, placing his hand firmly on Anita’s waist and drawing her away.  ‘If you will excuse us Cleo, there is something I promised to show Anita.’

Cleo raised an eyebrow at Anita, her embarrassment causing her face to flush a soft shade of red, as she was guided back inside, past the bar and up the stairs.  ‘You promised to show me something?’ Anita scorned.  ‘Was that the best you could come up with?’

‘Does that girl ever get tired of talking?’  He ignored her come back, still reeling from their conversation with Cleo, if you could call it that.

‘Not that I’ve ever witnessed,’ Anita smiled.

‘And anyway, there is something I want to show you.’

‘Oh?’ Anita looked at him warily.

‘This way,’ he said when they reached the top of the imposing staircase, his hand refusing to leave her waist as he opened a vast door and ushered Anita through in front of him.  They were in a large sitting room, with floor to ceiling windows and light curtains that wafted softly in the breeze, seeming to invite them out onto the balcony beyond.  The balcony was directly above the one they had been standing on outside the bar.  Anita looked at Marcus, her eyebrows raised expectantly.  ‘This is my suite,’ he said by way of explanation.  ‘I wanted you to have a good view.’

‘Of what?’ she asked exasperated.

He led her out onto the balcony just as the night sky lit up with an explosion of twinkling lights.  ‘Of that,’ he smiled.

Anita walked open-mouthed to the stone railing and leant against it as the next release of energy hit the sky.  It was beautiful.  Anita had never seen anything like it, and not only could she see the smoky, shimmering lights, she could feel them as well.  It was extraordinary, a series of small bursts that felt like popping candy on her skin.

Marcus couldn’t take his eyes off her; a light seemed to be radiating from her as she watched the display.  He walked up behind her, placing his hands either side of her waist.  ‘I thought you’d like it,’ he murmured as he bent his lips to the base of her neck and gently brushed them against her delicate skin.  The movement sent delicious shivers of energy down Anita’s spine, all the way to her toes, then back up to rest where Marcus’ fingers lay on her waist.  Could he feel that too?  Not that she currently cared; she was too preoccupied with the display in front of her to bring it up.  Marcus slipped his hands around Anita’s waist and pulled her back towards him.  She didn’t fight him, leaning her head back against his shoulder, resting her hands on his arms.  They watched the rest of the display in silence, Anita’s skin greedily drinking in this new sensory excitement.

It ended and Marcus drew her back inside, her skin still tingling, both from the now phantom energy bursts and the continued contact between Marcus’ skin and hers.  ‘We had better go back downstairs,’ he said softly, ‘unless we want to give the gossip mill something else to talk about.’

Anita smiled in agreement, hiding her disappointment.  ‘I suppose you have a point.  I’m just going to use your bathroom and I’ll join you down there.  I’m assuming you have a bathroom up here?’

‘Through the bedroom,’ he said, pointing to the right.  ‘You might want to wait a while before coming to find me.  I’m going to go and find dad to apologise.  It’s definitely better to do it when the castle is full of people and hopefully he’ll be full of Ginger Champagne or something stronger by now.’ 

Anita laughed, ‘good luck,’ she said, heading for the bedroom.  Marcus watched her go before making his way back downstairs.

To her surprise, Marcus’ bedroom had windows on both sides.  One side looking out onto the balcony they had just been standing on and the other leading to who knew where.  Other than that, the bedroom was pretty much exactly what Anita had expected.  There was an enormous four poster bed, covered with the most comfortable looking duvet and pillows Anita had ever seen.  The bed had been turned down and there was a sprig of lavender on the pillow.  Of course, thought Anita, they have people to turn down their beds!  The rest of the room was relatively simple.  There was a large wooden chest at the end of the bed, a simple mahogany dressing table in front of the balcony window, and a round table with a chess board inlaid, with beautiful, simple, gold and silver chess pieces on top.  The pieces had been left in the middle of a game and Anita found herself wondering who Marcus brought in here to play with him.

Once she had freshened up in the bathroom, which was also exactly what she had expected, complete with spectacular roll top bath, Anita headed back into the bedroom.  She couldn’t resist seeing what was on the other side of the mystery windows, so walked over to have a look.  As she approached what she could now see were in fact doors, she felt powerful energy coming from the other side.  Peeking through the curtains, Anita found Alexander’s familiar, delectable form lying on a stone bench on a balcony and without hesitation, she opened the door and stepped through.  Alexander had felt her energy before she had opened the door and sat up as she appeared.

‘Anita,’ Alexander blurted, both his tone and his body language communicating his surprise.  He obviously thought Marcus was about to emerge, she thought to herself.

‘Hi,’ she said hesitantly, for once managing to keep her energy under control.  Probably something to do with her curiosity at why he was out here, not to mention all the alcohol she had consumed.  ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked quietly.

‘Getting away from everyone downstairs,’ he answered truthfully. ‘Sometimes all the energy waves get a bit much.’

‘I know that feeling,’ she smiled back warmly.  ‘Where’s your date?’ she asked conversationally, relishing the opportunity to fish for more information about this mysterious man.  ‘What was she called again?’

‘Patricia,’ Alexander’s face cracked into a clandestine smile.  ‘She’s probably got a search party out looking for me by now.  Excruciatingly boring and wildly stuck up,’ he exclaimed.  ‘I only agreed to come with her as a favour to her father and now I can’t get rid of her!’

‘I see,’ she said raising her eyebrows, surprised by this sudden rush of information.

‘Anyway, what are you doing up here?  I’m surprised Marcus let you out of his sight after your show earlier.’  Alexander was as brisk as he could manage, but he too was interested in finding out more about his unexpected companion, the girl who was supposedly the rightful Body Descendant.

Alexander’s up front appraisal took her by surprise.  It was one thing to think things like that, but quite another to just come out with them.  She paused, taking the time to carefully sit down next to him, just far enough away to mean there was no actual skin contact, but close enough for them both to be agonisingly aware of their proximity on the cold stone bench, before she replied.  ‘He’s gone to find Austin to apologise for our dance,’ she said honestly.  ‘Judging by the way Austin was glaring at us, I can’t image it’s going to go especially well.’

‘No, I wouldn’t have thought so.’  Alexander said slowly, studying her quizzically.  ‘Austin is a dangerous man to cross you know, and you’ve done it several times now.’

Anita smirked offhandedly, ‘why does it matter?  You will all go back to Kingdom in a couple of days and Austin will forget he ever knew I existed,’ as will the rest of you, she finished dejectedly in her mind.

‘Is that really how you think this will play out?’ he asked, clearly shocked at her brazen response.

‘Yes,’ she said firmly.

Alexander propelled himself to his feet and turned to face Anita.  ‘Anita, Austin doesn’t just forget about people like you.  You’re powerful.  Very powerful, and as I’ve told you before, you’d be a valuable asset for someone like him.  Austin isn’t the only one who is interested in you, especially after your display at the Chase and after tonight’s performance, you’ll take some forgetting.  Austin will view what you did as public humiliation.  Not only did you have the audacity to turn up here tonight with his son, you proceeded to make a spectacle of the first dance.  People will be talking about that for years and Austin will take a very long time to forget you, that’s if he ever forgets you.’  Alexander’s tone had turned and the mood between them had shifted from open and light-hearted to separated and a little fierce.

‘So what?’  He was lecturing her and she didn’t like it.  ‘Even if he doesn’t forget me, what’s he going to do?  And what do you mean I could be a valuable asset?  And who else is interested in me?  I have no idea what your riddles mean,’ she said crossly, mainly at herself, because she hated it when she couldn’t quite keep up.

Alexander took a frustrated step away from her, running his hands through his dishevelled hair.  How could she be so blind?  ‘Did you see the woman downstairs with ginger hair?’ he snapped, turning round with a sharp purpose that Anita found distractingly attractive.  ‘The one that always seems to be hanging around not too far from Austin?’  Anita nodded dumbly, now she thought about it there did always seem to be a woman fitting that description hanging around.  ‘That’s Amber and she’s head of Austin’s private security and research team.’

‘His what?!  What does Austin research?’ Anita laughed emptily, still unable to connect the dots.

Alexander threw Anita a menacing look, wiping the smile from her lips.  ‘He researches people like you Anita, powerful people who he wants to either use or get rid of.’

The words landed and Anita went pale, ‘what do you mean ‘get rid of’?’ she asked quietly, the wind snatched from her sails.

‘I mean kill Anita,’ Alexander rounded on her to bang the point home, only just managing to resist shaking her, wanting to physically knock the naivety out of her.

Anita looked up at him confused, ‘kill?’ The word hung in the air like a threat.  ‘And Marcus?  Does he want to use me or kill me too?!’

‘No,’ he said quickly, almost reassuringly, a shadow flashing behind his eyes that Anita had neither the ability nor the inclination to process in the current circumstances.  ‘Marcus doesn’t know the full extent of Austin’s activities.  Either that or he ignores them.  Your best bet is to stay as close to Marcus as you possibly can.  Austin won’t risk losing Marcus, not in the current climate anyway.’

‘Won’t risk losing him?’ she asked as she would have if he had just told her that aliens had landed in Empire, a mix of disbelief and misunderstanding.

Alexander couldn’t quite believe he had to spell this out for her.  ‘If Marcus falls in love with you, which he seems well on his way to doing by the way, and he finds out that Austin is a threat to you, there is a risk that Marcus will choose you over Austin, which could drive a split through the Mind line.  Austin can’t afford for that to happen in the current climate.  He needs all the supporters he can get at the moment and he’d rapidly loose supporters if there were another internal rift in his family.  He suffered too many defectors when he and Amelia separated, Austin won’t risk what might happen if he were to lose Marcus too.’  He said the words quickly, as though this were the most obvious thing in the world, something one just had to quickly recap to clarify.

‘What do you mean defectors?’ she demanded, he was making her feel obtuse and she was nothing of the sort.

‘You really know nothing do you?’

‘It would appear not,’ Anita sparked, standing up too, turning her back on Alexander and walking over to lean against the railing, now pretty pissed off.

Alexander softened a little; he supposed it wasn’t entirely her fault that she was so oblivious to what made the world go round.  He took a deep breath.  ‘The Descendants rule by right, that much is true.  But that doesn’t mean we don’t have politics.  We’re not the only influential players.  The Academics and the Councillors are both formidable groups in their own right.  They have powerful individuals, those with significant energy, and they know secrets about various Descendants; secrets we wouldn’t want to get out.  Amelia was a senior Mind academic when she and Austin married, which brought Austin some significant supporters; those supporters defected when they split.  Marcus didn’t bring supporters with him when he was born obviously, but another rift may cause Austin to lose more support, something that he would clearly like to avoid.’

‘But what if Austin lost all his supporters?  What difference would it make?’

‘Worst case scenario?  It could lead to a total loss of confidence in the current system, especially if it coincided with a large drop in energy.  Ring any bells?  Ultimately, it could lead to an uprising and the Descendants being overthrown.’

Anita gave him an amazed look, was he mad?  ‘But that would never happen.  It would mean we’d never have a chance to be free of the Gods.’

‘The prophecy may already be broken and some may think it’s better to take eternity with the Gods than a lifetime with the Descendants.  The balance is fragile, far more fragile than most people realise.  Austin on the other hand is only too aware of its fragility, so the safest place for you is next to Marcus.’

‘And if I don’t want to be next to Marcus?’ she challenged fiercely, spinning round to look at him.

‘You do,’ he replied simply.  ‘I can read your energy remember?’

‘Don’t worry, I remember,’ she said searching his eyes intensely, looking for some indication that he reacted the same way to her as she normally did to him, before dramatically changing the subject, ‘how do you hide your energy?’