Haven (War of the Princes) (23 page)

           
“
Don’t
play trivial games with me!” Senior Commander shouted, slamming a hand down on the table of my belongings.

           
I jumped and struggled to appear unfazed by the outburst.

           
“I d-don’t know why I should tell you anything,” I stammered honestly.

           
“Little girl,”
Fallux
said as sweetly as his grizzly voice would allow. “You are our guest.”

           
“Is that what I am?” I scoffed.

           
“You are a Lodestone. It is evident by the color of your eyes. Your stay in the dungeons was a test and it will not be the last. I am a patient man and I always get what I want. You will tell me everything I wish to know, in a matter of time.”

           
“I hope you choose not to tell us voluntarily,” Commander Stakes said, speaking for the first time. I could barely make out a wicked smile that ripped across his face.

           
“Commander Stakes, be sure to document that the Lodestone has neither The Shift or The Soothe,” Senior Commander
Fallux
ordered.

           
“Sir,” Commander Stakes responded, bowing slightly.

           
“You seem uncomfortable below ground,”
Fallux
said, and his observation went unanswered by me. “Perhaps you’d prefer somewhere more lofty. The tower? Yes, I believe that will do for now. March, see that her keep is transferred to the conservatory tower.”

           
The lady Dragoon bowed briskly.

           
“Listen,” I said, gathering my courage. “I don’t know who you think I am, b-but I’m not your Lodestone. I’m not special, I’m just a girl. I’d like to leave.”

           
Commander Stakes chuckled slowly and the Senior Commander did what I least wanted. He walked around the table toward me. I could see the look of amusement on his metal-shredded face. I winced when he stood close enough to touch me.

           
He removed the glove of his right hand, revealing a twisted skeletal metal claw. Bits of his palm and the undersides of his fingers retained their flesh. He clasped my chin and forced me to look up at him like we had when we’d first met. I writhed inwardly in disgust at the contact. His skin was clammy and the metal cold where it touched my skin.

           
“Look at those beautiful silver eyes,” he said and I was helpless to avoid staring at the two crescent fangs on one side of his mouth. “So many secrets. We will discover your Abilities, just as we will discover your origin, Lodestone.”

           
He released me and I jerked away from his grip.

           
The cave wall said, “DON’T LET THEM IN.” In that moment I knew exactly whom the wall was referring to. Whatever they were after, whatever they wanted from me, it couldn’t be good. I had to protect my home. I could never let the Commanders find the way in.

           
“I don’t have Abilities,” I said, steering away from the subject of Haven.

           
“On the contrary,” he said pacing away and looking back at me. “You have several. We will discover them all.”

           
“One by one,” Commander Stakes agreed wickedly.

           
“But first,”
Fallux
said, turning on his heel. “Kindly accompany us to a meeting will you? Your attendance is required. We can’t be expected to keep you all to ourselves can we?”

           
“I say we can,” Stakes growled under his breath. I dared not meet his eyes. Even though his face was much less marred by metal, a wildly homicidal feeling radiated from him.

           
The Commanders brought me to another door just down the hall. It opened to a room filled with about thirty people seated in rows. Every single one of them turned to look at me, some of them craning their necks for a better view. To say I felt uncomfortable would have been an understatement. I was sent to sit in a lone chair upon a small circular dais to one side of the room, while the Commanders stood by. A row of six Dragoons walked in formation and took their places to one side, just beyond my dais. I spied Rune standing at attention among them.

           
When I saw him, I inhaled and considered that I may never breathe again. How did I feel? Conflicted. Everything about him and our interaction together from the beginning confused me. The siege of opposition that faced me clouded my thoughts of Rune. I was starving, thirsty, stressed, afraid, exhausted, and part of me was furious with him for standing by while all of this happened to me. But his face was the only familiar one and I was drawn to it. Each time I saw him blink or notice his chest move with breath, it reminded me that he was human. He didn’t choose his life. If he rebelled, his family would pay the consequences. I thought about all of these things in the span of a single moment. His blue eyes flicked to mine and away again, but only once.

           
The murmuring of the crowd was something I didn’t notice until it stopped. Senior Commander
Fallux’s
gloved hand needed only to rise a bit for everyone to close their mouths and pay attention.

           
“Greetings
gentle
men and ladies,” Senior Commander
Fallux
said. I understood the emphasis: he was politely reminding the group that he and his Dragoons had powerful Abilities and they did not.

           
“As we discussed,”
Fallux
went on. “I have brought forward the Lodestone for you to see.”

           
There was a loud crack at the entrance of the room as the doors swung back on their hinges and hit the wall. A young man with blonde hair and exquisitely tailored clothing strode purposefully through them. Even at a distance, I knew it was Dylan.

           
A pair of Dragoons moved to intercept him but he pushed past them.

           
“I am a Lord Axton. It is my duty and right to be here, now stand aside,” Dylan said to the soldiers as though they were impertinent servants. He walked haughtily onward and for once, the attention of the room was removed from me. “Apologies, Commanders and good folk, for my tardiness and intrusion. If you’d like to roast any fowl for this interruption, let it be my brother for skillfully withholding any knowledge of this meeting from me.”

           
“That will be enough, Dylan,” Brendon said from his seat in the front row. How could I have not noticed him sooner? He was dressed a bit more casually than Dylan and was seated in the center of a row of ornately robed elders. There was a set to his strong jaw and low brow that convinced me of his quiet anger.

           
“Thank you, my dear brother. If not for your little challenges, I might yawn my way through life,” Dylan said picking his way through the rows of seats in search of an empty one. The room’s dead silence told me that he was making quite a spectacle.

           
I looked carefully at the Commanders, not knowing how they would respond to Dylan’s very vocal commotion. There was no change in expression that I could see. They looked as patient as an adult tolerating a child. Lord Brendon on the other hand, was positively smoldering.

           
Dylan took a seat in the center of the group. When he realized I was looking at him, he winked at me, but there was no cheer in his face.

           
If Dylan wasn’t invited to this meeting, then it meant that Brendon believed that he wasn’t acting in the interest of the war. Whose side was he on: mine, his own, or Brendon’s? The latter wasn’t likely. Nothing was clear, but I felt like he really was trying to help me. The one thing I knew for certain was that he’d pissed off some important people by barging in the way he did.

           
“If I might resume,” Commander
Fallux
said, tilting his silver-torn face toward me. “After hundreds of years of seeking, we’ve found a Lodestone. As such, it is a Royal issue, not a Common one.”

           
“Senior Commander,” said an elderly robed man sitting near Lord Brendon. He rose to his feet, folding his hands within the billowing sleeves of his burgundy robe. “The record texts refer to the Lodestone as a rare ore to be mined from the mountains. This is a girl. How could what you’re suggesting be possible?”

           
Dylan nodded once in the crowd. It was the question he had demanded when the Dragoons had detained me.

           
My heart skipped three beats. If I was the Lodestone and they had texts saying Lodestones were mined from the mountains, that meant they really were trying to find a way into Haven Valley. For all these years they were searching for a way in to get a hold of us. But why?

           
“It would be impossible,”
Fallux
said, pausing for effect. “If you were assuming a literal interpretation like simpletons. Don’t be offended, Advisor Horace, I know that you are wise enough to remember what Dale
Brinyard
said about understanding tomes and archives: It is the words between words that we must seek to understand. This case is no different. The rock is actually a vessel. The richness of the ore is Ability. Power is power.”

           
The old man furrowed his brows and sat down.

           
My blood felt frozen in my veins. They were talking about me like I was a statue. I wanted to speak up and tell them that I wasn’t, but instinct within me insisted I keep my silence.

           
“Senior Commander,” Dylan said, standing up with perfect posture. “Even if the texts had double meanings, Katelyn doesn’t have Abilities.”

           
“Have you ever been lied to, boy?”
Fallux
returned.

           
“N-no, it’s true. I don’t have Abilities,” I stammered and clamped my jaw shut to stop myself from blurting out too much information. They didn’t all need to know that I’d never heard of Abilities until Dylan explained them to me. The less they knew about me the better.

           
Lord Brendon stood. “I’m afraid I agree with my brother’s line of thinking in this, Commanders. Is there any proof that she has Abilities?”

           
I could see the anger flash across
Fallux’s
features when he was forced to admit, “None as of yet. I am certain that they will be discovered, however.”

           
“And if they are not?” Brendon demanded, squaring his broad shoulders as he faced the Senior Commander directly. He was a brave man. I could see it in the way he confronted
Fallux
.
 

           
“Then she will be promptly released into your care,”
Fallux
promised. I wasn’t reassured. There was something that he was holding back. The way he spoke, I got the impression that I would never be returned to Breakwater Keep.

           
I saw Dylan slowly slide back into his chair. He was looking at me, his lips pressed to a line in frustration. As long as I was in the custody of the commanders, he held no sway in what happened to me.

           
Brendon remained standing, his bold posture unaltered. “Chances are ten to one in my favor that she is not an ancient Lodestone, but a Northern spy. Security measures must be taken.”

           
“Dare you talk of security within the walls of an Installment Fortress?” Stakes erupted.

           
Lord Brendon sighed and gritted his teeth. “Not just physical security, Commander. We must consider all that she is learning while she stays here and we must discover what she knows of the war. My interests rest solely on the safety of the people of Breakwater. A fleet of Prince
Varion’s
ships was sighted a day north of
Rocksbreach
. We cannot take any chances. She cannot be allowed to escape under any circumstances, even if we think her the most innocent of all lambs.”

           
“Your concerns are noted,”
Fallux
said dismissively. Lord Brendon didn’t look like a man who enjoyed being dismissed. When he slowly lowered into his seat, his eyes were replete with loathing.

           
I couldn’t blame Lord Brendon for being suspicious of me. I only wished there was some way I could convince him that I wasn’t his enemy.

           
“If I’m not mistaken, protocol states that any person devoid of sufficient Ability is constituted a citizen. Since Katelyn has no proven Ability, she should remain under our care,” Dylan said hopping up to his feet again.

           
“That would be the correct protocol, unless we were to declare a Penalty, and then, as you know, no one would be safe from our reach,” Senior Commander
Fallux
answered severely. From the way the room hushed and Dylan’s face went still, I figured Penalty was what happened when all of the children were stolen away to the Installment, never to be seen again. Dylan’s confidence visibly wavered.