The Silver Siren (16 page)

The air left my lungs and I couldn’t
catch my breath. My hands shook and I leaned on my knees and
lifting my gaze with utter hope. A weight lifted off of my
shoulders as I stared into her beautiful blue eyes. I would do
anything to just have two the same color again.

“
Yes,” I sighed. Even to
me the words were barely audible, but she leaned forward as if to
catch them.

Then she smiled softly and leaned back
in her chair. “So now that we know that we have her cooperation,
let’s work on fixing this.”

Kambel spoke up in nervousness, “My
Queen, I don’t think I could unless I actually had Lord Horden’s
journals. I think these experiments are a direct link to his
findings. If only I had the original journals. I could—”

“
Well you don’t,” Lorna
interrupted. “So use that brain of yours and find a way around
it.”

Cirrus stood. “I’ll help you, Kambel.”
Kambel visibly brightened and the two began to talk
quietly.

The great entryway doors crashed open.
“She’s escaped!”

I whirled around in my chair to see
who had burst through the double doors of the Adept Hall. One of
the captains of the guard. The reddish-blond hair could only belong
to my friend Garit.

Garit’s face was ashen; his hands were
clenched in fists displaying his anger at the situation that he now
faced. But he stood tall and straight, his chest only slightly
heaving from his haste to warn the others.

Pax stood up. “Who did?”

“
The female prisoner they
brought to the castle. She’s gone.”

My stomach dropped. Mona had been our
only chance to find out where Tenya, Joss’s sister was. Now we
would never find her—unless we found every Septori member and used
the truth serum on them. I couldn’t help but sink dejectedly into
the chair and feel the weight of the news press into my heart. Who
would be the one to tell Joss?

Queen Lilyana stood up and raised her
voice angrily, “What are you doing then? Send out a search
party.”

“
Commander Merryl has
already done so,” Garit answered back.

Queen Lilyana turned and looked at
Lorna. “Because the prisoner is a Denai, I would like the adepts’
help in the search. I have heard rumors of the Septori being
spotted in the southern provinces. I want you to search south as
well.”

Adept Lorna walked over to stand by
Queen Lilyana. Lorna was a good foot taller than the young queen.
“Of course, Your Majesty. I’ll personally look into
this.”

She nodded her thanks and turned to
me. “I am very sorry for all that you’ve been through. I can only
hope that this will all be over with soon.”

Garit shifted his weight
uncomfortably. “My Queen, we need to take you back to the palace
quickly. We don’t know how she escaped or if there are others
helping her. You are not safe here.”

He turned on his heel and left,
ushering the queen out before him. I felt oddly offended that he
hadn’t even acknowledged me. He must have seen me. When the doors
closed with a click, the atmosphere in the room
exploded.

“
Lorna, we are not the
bloodhounds for the queen’s army,” Breah huffed out. “They can’t
expect us to help track down people whenever they ask. The prisoner
is a Denai for goodness sake—one of us. Next thing you know, Queen
Lilyana will change her mind about the Citadel and want us to track
down all of the Denai in Calandry.”

Lorna spun around and
pointed her finger at Breah. “It is
exactly
because the prisoner is a
Denai that we will help. We will not endanger the weaker because
one of our kind chose to use their gifts for evil. If this Denai
kills any humans, the responsibility falls on us. All of us as, a
race. We can’t afford for another genocide on our kind. Our race is
already too weak—and growing weaker with each
generation.”

Breah’s eyes went wide in shock and
then squinted as she pointed heatedly at me. “She’s not growing
weaker. In fact it seems like she is the only one that is growing
stronger…and she’s not even one of us. Maybe the Raven is the only
true Denai among us. Maybe he is the one that is in the right. Have
you thought about that? If he did this to a mere human, what do you
think he could do for the Denai?”

Lorna gasped, Kambel dropped the book
he was holding, and Pax stiffened. Cirrus’s eyes bored into Breah’s
with intensity. Breah took a step back, her skirt swishing against
her legs and she looked at each of her fellow adepts in
turn.

“
Don’t tell me none of you
have thought about it. I know you have, because I have. I only want
what’s best for us. Best for the Denai race,” her voice quivered
and her eyes were glassy with unshed tears. “She is not our
future.” Her finger pointed at me. “That girl is not the savior of
the Denai race. She is only the product of a greater Master Plan.
We should simply consider that we might be wrong about the Septori.
Maybe they are right.”

Lorna swallowed slowly and raised her
hand in an attempt to calm Breah down. “Breah, this cult has
kidnapped, tortured, and killed Denai children.”

Breah shook her head. “No, we don’t
know that. We don’t know for certain. All we have is her word on
that. She could be lying. Did you actually see the Denai killed—did
you see their bodies?” I stopped breathing as her words rang
through my head. Had I seen any bodies? No. But I’d heard Scar Lip
and the others talk about how no one else survived.

“
No, they’re dead. I heard
the Septori say that some of them weren’t strong enough for the
treatments.”

Breah kept shaking her head at me.
“Liar! You aren’t a Denai. How can a mere girl without any gifts be
strong enough for the treatments but not a powerful Denai? It
doesn’t make sense.”

“
No, it doesn’t. It
probably never will. But I can tell you that I’m not just a girl
without any gifts. I’m a Valdyrstal, a steel wolf. I have the blood
of the Sinnendor Kings running in my veins, I was raised to rule
our clan, and I’ve fought in a
Kragh
Aru
tournament. I am who I am, and I am
who I will become—which is…I don’t know what. A monster, a powerful
Denai, or something else, But I am no mere girl.”

I stood to leave but I looked over my
shoulder at the room that had now been divided. Kambel, Pax, and
Lorna on one side of the room. Breah on the other and Cirrus who
sat squarely in the middle, obviously not taking sides.

“
You, on the other hand,
dear Breah, are nothing more than a
mere
Denai.” I opened the door and
closed it, but not before I heard an angry shriek in
return.

I couldn’t help but smile.

Chapter 16

I
had never felt more helpless than I did the next morning. I
wandered the halls and peeked my head into the classrooms, my heart
saddening at so many empty seats. No one had come out and stated
it, but I knew deep down that these missing students hadn’t gotten
anxious and gone home. The empty seats signified how many had been
kidnapped in the middle of the night.

Like I had been.

A sour taste filled my
mouth and I bit back the bile that wanted to rise to the
surface.
I’m stronger than this. I’m
stronger than all of them
. But I needed to
do something useful until the adepts had news. Pax, Lorna, and
Breah had all left that morning with a couple of the journeyman
students. Hopefully, the next time I saw them they would know
something.

Joss had fallen back into the routine
of attending classes and studying. Kael had disappeared, and Hemi
and Fanny were out in the city, quite taken with each
other.

I didn’t want to attend classes like
Joss, but I felt useless standing around. In my wanderings, I made
my way back to the kitchen. I entered and tried to stay out of the
way of the servers and kitchen staff. Having worked here, I knew
how crazy it could get. I found myself pitching in, washing dishes.
It was busy work and I let my mind wander.

I had probably been washing dishes for
a few candle marks when strong hands wrapped around my waist and
lifted me into the air.

“
You’re back!” Donn yelled
out happily. “I’ve missed you.”

I grunted from the strength of Donn’s
awkward hug, but I put up with it until I was set gently back down
on the ground. “Look at you. You’re skin and bones! Here, I bet
you’re hungry. Come eat, come eat.” I was pulled into the side
kitchen and Donn started to make me a plate full of eggs, sausage,
and bread.

I hadn’t realized how hungry I was
until my mouth started to water. Eating back there felt like old
times, so I stayed and chatted with him until lunchtime. Happily, I
grabbed a tray and started out to the tables to serve the students.
I couldn’t help but think back to how embarrassed I’d been to be a
servant in the kitchen.

Now I couldn’t care less. When I put
the tray down and unloaded the roasted chicken, I noticed how quiet
the room was. Students were eating, but it was obvious from the
mood of the room and from the table on the dais with five empty
chairs where everyone’s thoughts were. Two more students had been
found to be missing just that morning, and even more guards and
teachers patrolled the halls and city.

A few hushed whispers and panicked
looks flickered between the younger ones, but then an older Denai
would lean over and give them a pat on the back to relax
them.

On my second trip out of the kitchen,
I carried a jug of cider to pour at each table. I was about to hand
a cup to a young Denai boy when someone knocked the cup out of my
hand.

“
Don’t touch or eat
anything the freak serves you. She’ll turn her evil eye on you and
you will disappear like the others.” Syrani spouted loudly. My hand
still stung from where her hand slapped the drink out of my
grip.

I watched as the Denai boy looked at
Syrani and then looked back up at me. It was then that he noticed
my eyes. He shrunk back from me in fear and began to
shake.

“
How dare you spew lies
and instill fear into them!” I turned on her angrily. “I have
nothing to do with those missing children, and you should know
better.”

Syrani smiled wickedly. “I think you
know more about the missing students than you are letting
on.”

I was taken aback. Was she bluffing,
or did she actually know what happened to me? Syrani must’ve
noticed my hesitation.

“
I thought so.” She leaned
in close to me and whispered. “I’ve heard things about you. None of
them good. Everything I’ve heard proves you to be nothing more than
a freak. You should leave now! And not just the room. Leave the
city and don’t come back.”

I felt everyone’s eyes on me. “I have
nothing to do with their disappearances. I wasn’t even here when
they happened. So lay blame where the blame lies, and that’s not on
me—but on whoever took them.”

“
So you too believe they
were taken. No one else has said anything about kidnapping.” The
room erupted with the sound of Denai talking, yelling, and a few
crying.

My whole body wanted to melt into a
puddle on the floor and disappear. I had caused this.

“
Who’s next? Am I next to
be kidnapped? Are you a spy sent here to lure us out into the
night?” She pointed to the young Denai boy I had tried to serve.
“Is he going to disappear next? When will the madness
stop?”

“
It’s not like that. The
Adept Council will find them. They will save them.” But my words
fell on deaf ears. No one could hear me over their own fear. The
room had turned into a terrified mob.

It was time to tell the truth, no more
lies. I stood on a table and whistled loudly. It took a few moments
for the room to quiet down, but I had everyone’s
attention.

My hands shook with nervousness, and I
tried to hide them in my skirt. “Do you want to know the
truth?”

Heads nodded, and I glared at Syrani,
daring her to interrupt. “Then, I will tell you the truth, even
though it could put me in danger.” I sighed and prayed for wisdom
before I spoke. “Yes, there is a possibility that they were
kidnapped by the Septori. The Septori wear red robes and are
branded with a circle and slash mark somewhere on their body. They
follow the directions of their leader, known only as the Raven. I
know, because I was once taken in the middle of the night by these
men, from my own homeland. I was imprisoned with
others.”

“
What happened next?” The
young boy who’d been so afraid of me moments before asked. A
movement by the door caught my eye, and I saw Joss enter quietly to
stand by the back wall.

I looked at him and smiled. “Well
obviously, I escaped. The people who kidnapped me are still looking
for me. I know for a fact they are not done with their plan,
because more and more Denai are disappearing, and none are
reappearing.” I looked at Joss pleadingly.

He nodded his head once and gave me
permission.

“
Joss’s own sister Tenya
was kidnapped. These people infiltrated his home, used mind
control, and manipulated his family. And they were a family of
strong Denai. I believe this same group—the Septori—are behind the
missing students here.”