Powers of the Six (27 page)

Nolan joined him, and they sat in silence.

“I must admit,” Emery said, breaking the stillness, “I’m surprised someone has finally won her over.”

Won her over?
Nolan straightened.

“She is a beautiful and wonderful girl.” Emery released a long sigh. “One of the most caring minds I’ve ever seen—and I’ve sensed a lot of minds.”

Emery kept rambling about Megan. About when they met. About how pretty her hair was—which Nolan agreed. After a while, a revelation came to Nolan.
Crows! Does Emery like Megan?

“Emery, if I’m getting in the way—”

“With what?” Emery’s brows rose. “Megan and I? You do realize I’m old enough to be her father.”

“Yeah, I know, but—”

He laughed. “Don’t worry. Any chance between us is nonexistent. I wouldn’t inflict my burdens on her.” His eyes dropped to the floor. “Or any other woman, for that matter.”

What in Brim’s light was he talking about? Certainly he had a lot of responsibilities, but not enough to keep him from having a wife.

Emery studied Nolan. “I can sense your confusion, friend. I should explain. It’s just … well, everyone has different ways to deal with hardships. Some turn to depression. Others withdraw, as I have. And some direct their pain to violence, such as your brother.”

“Kael?” Nolan’s stomach tightened. “What does Kael have to do with this?”

He met Nolan’s eyes. “I’ve wanted to speak to you on this subject for some time now.”

Nolan stared at Emery, confused.

“If you give me a moment to explain.” Emery inhaled and released it slowly. “I’m sure you’re aware of the king’s ability to control emotions.”

Nolan paused before answering. “Like how you controlled me in the tower?”

“Oh, no,” Emery said. “I can only push feelings that are already there. King Alcandor is much more powerful. He can alter someone’s wishes completely, such as change your desire from Megan to Hakan.”

Nolan laughed, but he stopped when he saw Emery’s serious expression.

“Very early in my service, I was chosen. My power of Empathy is strong, and Alcandor could sense it immediately. Alcandor favors those with Empathy above all other Shay users. He claims they are the most…” He scowled. “They are the most talented of lovers.”

Blood left Nolan’s face.

Emery looked Nolan in the eye. “King Alcandor would call me regularly to his bed chamber.”

“You mean …” Nolan paused. “He would … force you?”

“He never forced me,” Emery said. “As I said, he has the talent to bend one’s will. Unfortunately, he favored me more than any of the others. Day after day, he summoned me, and I would pleasure him, as he commanded me to.

“Only after I’d left his presence did my true will return.” He lowered his face and drew undefined shapes in the dirt on the floor.

Nolan turned, unable to look at him as mental pictures flooded his mind. He took deep breaths, trying to calm the knot twisting his insides.

“You have no idea what it’s like to be so out of control,” Emery continued. “And then, when the forced emotions fade, memories remain. You recall everything but can change nothing. To this day, I can’t dislodge those images from my mind. So you see, I’m damaged. I will never subject a woman to my past. I will never marry.”

Nolan’s throat went dry. Emery had served in the Rol’dan for how long? He did a quick calculation, and his stomach turned. Emery had been under Alcandor for nearly seventeen years—as long as Nolan had been alive! The king held special powers, but he hadn’t expected this. Did the king do this to all his Rol’dan?

Nolan sucked in a breath and his body tensed.
Kael
.

“Your brother was well into the king’s ways when I left Faylinn,” Emery said. “The king chose him early, like me. His Shay is very strong. Those with the most powerful Shays attract Alcandor the most. After I escaped the Rol’dan, the king probably focused more attention on him. He’d been made general, after all.”

Nolan swallowed hard, remembering how violently Kael had beaten Emery. Did Kael blame Emery for his current situation? How much of his brother’s anger was fueled by the king’s abuse? The insults. The violence. It explained more than Nolan wished it did, especially how much Kael had changed. He’d been so angry at Kael for all his arrogance and self-righteous indignation. But now, he realized Kael was just another victim of the king. His frustration and disgust for his brother washed away in a rush.
Poor Kael
.

“Does the king only desire men?” Nolan asked, his voice shaking.

“No. It’s the power to control. Whether man or woman, it makes little difference to him. Alec would be a prime target as well,” Emery continued. “Bringing the boy along saved him from a far worse fate than becoming a Rol’dan. And from the strength of your power, determination, and leadership, you chose the right path to hide your Shay. The king would’ve favored you … very much.”

Me? Favored me?
His stomach lurched. Then the rest of what Emery had said came to focus.
Strength? Determination? Leadership?
He snorted. Emery didn’t know what he was talking about.

Emery studied Nolan, sorrow embedded in his brown eyes. “There are qualities in you. Not many have been able to resist my influence. And you convinced not just one, but three people to leave the Rol’dan.”

“I only spoke with Alec. I had nothing to do with the others.”

“Yet when Alec mentioned you, they followed,” Emery said.

Nolan shook his head. “I didn’t do anything.”

Emery put a hand on Nolan’s shoulder. “Many times, the most humble people make the greatest leaders of all.”

They remained in silence as the sunlight faded completely. Emery reclined on the floor and pulled the blanket to his chin. After several minutes, Emery’s chest rose and fell with his steady breathing. Nolan, however, couldn’t sleep.

He drifted off, and horrific images of Kael forced into submission clouded his dreams. Then, without warning, Kael would transform into Emery. Then Alec. Then Megan. Then himself.

Nolan gasped and sat up. Morning. A jolt shot through his shoulder, probably from slinging and sleeping on the hard floor.

The new sun peered through the top of the temple, casting colorful Shay lights on the floor. The circle, which held the blue Accuracy light, flickered softly with each passing cloud.

Emery had already woken and stood under the orange light of Perception. His shoulders were slumped, his eyes closed, and his face contorted into an expression of agony.

“Emery?”

His eyes fluttered open. “Ah, you’re awake. I’d ask how you slept, but your restless night already told me; I felt torment coming from your dreams.” He furrowed his brows. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Nolan said. “I’m glad you told me. Though I don’t know what to think of the Rol’dan anymore.”

“It does change one’s opinion of them, even if slightly. And it makes it much more difficult to consider destroying them,” Emery said. “That’s why we need to defeat the king before others fall into the same trap. The Rol’dan make you forget who you are. Being one of them inflames everything depraved about yourself you didn’t know existed.”

“And the stones might help, somehow?”

Emery sighed. “I don’t know. However, the happiness of our village is as stake without them. And if we can restore our full abilities, we might have a better chance to defeat him … somehow.”

Defeat the king and
…
A spark of hope flared in Nolan.
Perhaps we can save Kael after all.

Emery stretched and walked toward the entrance with slow, dragging steps. “I need to return. Garrick is probably fuming.” He hesitated. “Are you coming? Or perhaps you might like a few minutes alone?”

“A moment would be great.”

“If you don’t make it back in time for us to leave—”

“I will,” Nolan interrupted, feeling a little embarrassed. “I promised Megan—”

“Ah, yes,” Emery said, smiling. “Then I’ll see you shortly.”

After Emery left, Nolan paced, his thoughts lingering on Kael and Emery’s dark past. Then he remembered Megan and the fact Emery said she liked him.

Nolan’s daydreaming ended abruptly when he considered the stones. What if they were calling—not only to the village—but to the Rol’dan as well? The things could be their salvation and ruin at the same time.
What if they lead the Rol’dan here
?
His chest tightened. No wonder Emery was pushing himself in the light. They needed to find the stones first!

Nolan stepped into the light of Accuracy, letting the blue lines flicker across his skin. He didn’t
need
it anymore—not since he first stepped into it—but he liked it anyway. His Shay swelled, and he savored the pulsing power.

Reluctantly, Nolan left the light. He needed to return before Emery and Megan departed. He flung his pack over his shoulder, walked past the light of Perception, and paused.

Curious, he held his hand into it; the orange symbol illuminated his palm. Wiggling his fingers, his Shay spoke to this foreign beam. It felt different than Accuracy. Not bad, just different. A comfortable, warm sensation. Like an old friend.

The ancient text had said each light was a part of Brim. Were they bound to each other? Yes, of course. Why else would Emery’s stone call louder when he stepped into the light of these?

Nolan glanced around. Finding himself alone, he stepped into the orange light. It tugged inside him. He waited, letting the unfamiliar glow of Perception pulse deep within. Just when he was about to step out of the glow, the tips of his fingers twitched, and his heartbeat quickened. Tingling spread through his palms.

Nolan clenched his fists, tremors overtaking his arms. He threw back his head and screamed as the light of Perception exploded inside him. Lights and sensations drifted into nothingness, and the temple dimmed before his eyes.

Chapter Twenty-Two

NOLAN STEPPED INTO a sea of white mist. It curled around his legs and filled his vision. Mind racing, he pushed aside one thick cloud only to have another take its place. It covered reality in a formless shroud.

He walked faster, unable to see his feet, as he searched the infernal fog. With each step, his heart jolted: Would the next step be off a cliff? Would another step equal death? Yet he pressed on, searching. The fog closed in.

Finally, in the distance, he saw a shape. With breathless excitement, Nolan ran toward it and stopped abruptly. A man towered out of the whiteness, as tall as a living monument, standing like Brim himself.

Nolan closed his eyes and pressed the heels of his hands into his sockets. When he opened them, the man was still there.

Nearly twice Nolan’s size, the man’s muscled arms crossed over a massive, plate-covered chest. His armor glistened pure gold and shimmered with hidden light. The bracers strapped to his thick arms, and the intricately decorated greaves on his legs, appeared to be gold as well. He looked down at Nolan. Tight, brown curls hung down his face, framing his square jaw. But the most unnerving feature of the man was his eyes: Where normal eye sockets should’ve been, white light shone.

Nolan swallowed. “Are you …?”

“Brim?” His voice rumbled. “No.”

“What are you?” Nolan asked in a breathless whisper.

He blinked slowly, studying Nolan with his light-filled eyes. “I would ask the same of you.”

Nolan jerked back. “Me? I’m only a human.”

“Are you?” One side of the warrior’s mouth turned up.

Despair filled Nolan. “Crows! Did I … die?”

The warrior chuckled. “You are not dead.”

Both relief and confusion flooded him. If he hadn’t died, what happened? And if this wasn’t Brim, then who—or what—was he?

Nolan gasped as realization hit him. Alec had described him: a warrior glowing with light. And Jared had given him a name. “You’re a Guardian!”

The smile left the warrior’s face. “No. Not anymore.”

The mist circled, surrounding them in a white tunnel. Steadily, it increased in speed, so much so it appeared solid and whole.

“What’s happening?” Nolan asked.

“Our time is up.”

“Time? What time?”

“You must return.”

The tunnel increased its speed like a tornado as it darkened from white to gray.

“Please. Who are you? Do you have a name?”

The warrior took a step back into the swirling tunnel. “I am Greer.”

He disappeared, and with him his light, leaving Nolan in darkness. Then faint voices pierced through it. They were familiar somehow, and grew louder and clearer.

“Any change?”

“No.”

“You can’t do anything?”

“I’ve tried,” a woman’s voice said. “There’s nothing physically wrong with him.”

Nolan gasped, filling his lungs with air. The overpowering smell of bacon surrounded him. His eyes flew open, but everything was unfocused. He closed them quickly as the blurry images swam.