Revel (33 page)
A thick metal ring had been pushed through my lips, clamping them together.
P
ain and fear screamed inside me with no voice.
I twisted against the restraints on my wrists but could barely lift the heavy links of chain that lay in a heap beside me. The faint luminescence from the glow stone was fading; darkness was closing again. I was going to lose my mind.
Eyes wide, I searched for the source of the voice.
Help me
. I tried to form the words but couldn’t. A muffled moan was all that emerged from my cracked, swollen lips. Tears ran down my face, stinging the broken skin.
“No, don’t try to speak. It will only tear your flesh. The iron ring is a crude measure, but effective. And most necessary, given your abilities.”
I spotted a small rectangular hole in the thick stone wall. The voice was coming from there. I kicked my feet against
the stone floor and pulled against the chains frantically, trying to communicate in any way I could.
“Please don’t struggle so.” The softly modulated voice spoke again, this time with a touch of impatience. “I asked Jax to bring you here. So we could speak.”
Jax? The words stunned me into immobility.
“Now that I can see the ring is sufficient to silence you, I’ll come in and speak with you, if I may.”
A grinding noise preceded the movement of the stone wall beside me. I sat up and Xarras entered, bringing a square of light cast from some source outside the cell. Xarras, short and soft-looking, with a balding head and a mild face. He was dressed in the same plain silvery-gray tunic as before.
“Hello, my dear,” he said, looking at me intently. He had a hint of a smile on his face as he surveyed me, as though he were visiting some exotic animal in a cage.
I hardly had the strength or will to lift my head. The pain throbbing in my lips was nothing compared to the torture of hearing Xarras’s words. And knowing what they meant.
Jax had done this? Had he lied to me all along? Was his desire for control of the clan so strong that he would imprison me, torture me? Maybe kill me? Kephalos had told me to expect betrayal.
I just never imagined it would be Jax.
“I think if you will listen to my proposal, everything will become clear to you and we can be done with this”—Xarras paused and waved a chubby hand at my face—“this
unpleasantness. My son Jax thinks he can be ruler of this island someday. On occasion I’ve led him to believe that I support this notion. I do not.”
Xarras stepped over the chain on the floor carefully. “He does not have the will or the cruelty required.” He stepped closer and looked into my eyes with deadly calm. “I, on the other hand, have both.”
It was unnerving, the way his soft features remained impassive, mild even. He might have been telling me about some unfortunate problem with my dental coverage. And yet I saw the frightening intensity, cold, hard and pitiless, that burned in his eyes. Snake eyes.
How could Jax ever describe this man as weak?
Only something evil could hide behind a façade like this so well. He was a psychopath.
Xarras went on talking in his soft, reasonable way.
“Jax thought my plan was only to hide you to ensure your safety. He really doesn’t understand how dangerous you are. I’m afraid he wouldn’t approve of the method I’ve used to subdue you.” Xarras lifted a dismissive hand. “Weakness. There you are.”
So Jax didn’t know what his father had done. The relief flooded through me, bringing a fresh batch of tears streaming over my cheeks.
“I’ve sent him to lead the battle against the Icers,” said Xarras. “He may in fact be dead already. That would expedite matters.”
A hot flame of anger shot through me, warming the chill in my bones. For a brief moment it even obscured the torment of the iron that pierced my flesh. If only I could open my mouth,
this
man would be dead.
But the thick ring would be impossible to rip through, and even if I could do it, the pain would most likely make me lose consciousness. It was already excruciating; the only way to bear it was to try to concentrate on something else. I focused on Xarras’s voice.
“I’ve been waiting for you for many years, my dear,” he said meditatively. “And Kephalos assured me that your return was foretold. Not that he ever knew the use I planned to make of you. Ever since I learned that a siren had been conceived in these waters, I knew that you would be the key. You see, I mean to be leader of the Aitros and bring about the return of our power.”
Xarras removed the cuffs from my ankles but left the ones on my wrists. With a hand on my arm, he helped me to my feet. I hated the fact that I stumbled against him and required support as he led me out of the small stone prison cell and down the narrow passageway.
“It took me years to memorize these passages. I may actually be the only living thing that knows this maze,” said Xarras. “There are benefits to being dismissed from people’s minds.” He glanced at me. “Be sure to stay close, won’t you?”
As if I had any choice. He gripped me tightly by the elbow.
Besides, I didn’t think I could have even made it back to the cell without support.
“You’ve been out of the water for some time, haven’t you?” Xarras murmured. “It’s weakened you.”
I tried to keep track of the directions we took, but after endless turns and switchbacks, I got so mixed up it was all I could do to lift my feet and take the next step.
After what seemed like an eternity, Xarras came to a wall. To me, it looked like every other wall in this endless warren of tunnels. But there must have been some subtle marks that only he knew.
“It’s behind here,” he said, nodding to the wall. “This is it.” He pressed his palms together. “Finally. This is the Archelon, my dear. You will open this wall.”
There was a sound behind us and I turned.
Jax stood a few yards away. He held a sword in one hand. He was staring at me, and his face took on a look of wild fury.
“By the gods, Father,” he whispered. “What have you done?”
A momentary look of anger distorted Xarras’s smooth, chubby face. “I
told
you she needed to be silenced, Jax. She needs to be controlled. And we need her to open the Archelon. That’s the only way we’ll win.”
“Win what?” demanded Jax. “What is worth such a cost?”
“Please don’t be tiresome, Jax,” said Xarras. “Win this battle against the Icers. And thereby win control of the clan.”
“How?” Jax demanded.
Xarras sighed. “Do you remember anything from the
readings I gave you? From Sun Tzu’s
The Art of War
? This was the only way to tip the balance. The Aitros will never accept new leadership unless a crisis demands it.”
Disbelief twisted Jax’s features. “It was you, wasn’t it? You destroyed the reef.
You
brought the Icers here.”
“Yes, I created the war—once I knew I had the weapon needed to win it.” He glanced at me.
“Delia.” Jax looked into my eyes. “Don’t be afraid. He’s not going to hurt you. I’ll take you home.”
The strength and calm of Jax’s voice had such an effect on me that for an insane moment I thought everything was going to be okay.
His father snorted. “It’s a bit late to play the gallant, Jax. Don’t pretend that you didn’t want to use her.”
“Not like this,” Jax argued. “I was fool enough to listen to your lies. Encouraging me all these years. Making me think that you would support me. I wanted to lead this clan, to bring it out of darkness.” Jax looked at me. “With Delia beside me.”
“I’m afraid I won’t allow that. Not then. Not now.”
“So it’s true,” said Jax in a quiet voice. “All this time I’ve tried to put aside my suspicions. Tried not to believe it. It was you who told the clan I was a traitor.” He glanced down at the scars on his chest with a frown. Almost as if he needed physical proof, a reminder of his father’s betrayal.
“Of course it was,” said Xarras gently. “And I was quite surprised by your tenacity in the trenches. You do surprise me sometimes. But really, I don’t have time for this, Jax.”
“No time?” Jax pointed his sword toward the roof of the
cave. “You have no idea what’s going on up there. Many Aitros have died today. You’ve murdered your own people.”
Xarras shook his head. He looked to the wall beside him and laid a reverent hand on it. I could see them now, faint but visible, the Greek symbols I’d seen throughout the island. “Those are not my people. Poseidon, Zeus, Hades, Triton—
these
are the ones that I would align myself with.” Xarras’s mouth pressed into a grim, cruel line. “All of our ancient powers will be renewed once the Archelon is opened. The Aitros will be true gods once more.”
“Father.” Jax shook his head wonderingly. “You’re insane. This is finished. Delia, come to me.” He held out one hand to me. With the other he raised his sword against his father.
Xarras bent his head, snapped his hand forward and somehow, with the lightning speed of a bullet, threw a small dart at Jax. A trickle of blood ran down Jax’s throat.
“You should know I would never fight you that way,” said Xarras with a contemptuous glance at the sword.
Jax touched his hand to the tiny projectile at his throat and then stared at the smear on his fingers. He staggered and fell to his knees.
“A paralytic agent,” commented Xarras as he watched Jax slump to the floor. “Concentrated from the venom of the Rudolpho sea urchin. The urchin injects the poison into its prey, rending it immobile as the creature feeds on its flesh. Power cannot be shared. That is the final lesson I have to teach you, Jax.”
Jax lay there motionless, seemingly unconscious.
“Now,” said Xarras, turning to me. I let out a moan of agony as he began to loosen some kind of a clamp that held the ring tight on my lips. “You will serve me, Siren.”
He pulled the ring from my lips gently, but still the pain made me cry out.
I staggered back from him and went to kneel by Jax, touching his still form. I shook him gently but there was no response.
“Dead?” I whispered through bloody, swollen lips.
“No, not yet, I think,” said Xarras, standing over me. “It’s a common misconception that the Aitros are difficult to kill. You just have to know how. His breathing seems to have diminished, though. It won’t be long.”
The man’s calm comments about killing his own son were the most malevolent thing I’d ever heard. I tried to speak.
“What was that?” Xarras asked.
“Monster,” I said, spitting the word through my own blood.
“Come now.” Xarras hauled me to my feet. “It will be easy to open. Childishly easy. You only have to use your voice. I overheard what Kephalos told you. Yes, yes,” he said impatiently, “I was there in the tunnel. Well hidden from my son’s search.”
He dragged me to the Archelon. “Here before you, Siren, is the treasure of Trespass Island. The power of Poseidon lies within. You yourself are the living key to this door.”
I raised my eyes to Xarras. “I could kill you now,” I rasped.
Xarras smiled gently. “Open the Archelon and I will tell you where to find the antidote for the poison. You can save Jax. If you hurry.”
I looked back at Jax. His eyes were closed and I saw no movement of his chest or gills. His skin was a horrible bluish color.
“Stand back.” I stared at the wall of symbols to focus my thoughts. But the pain in my mouth was torture. And Jax was lying on the floor. What would happen if Xarras got control of Poseidon’s power?
I didn’t know. And I couldn’t worry about that right now. Everything else shrank beside the fact that Jax was going to die.
Open it, Delia. Concentrate
.
“Open.”
At first nothing happened. Then the symbols shifted in the stone. Faster now.
Concentrate
.
“Open.”
Dust sifted down from the ceiling.
“Open!”
I screamed, unleashing my voice. But my voice didn’t even sound human anymore. It wasn’t my voice. It was some kind of archaic scream that echoed through me from an ancient past. I was only the transmitter.
The Archelon began to open.
W
ith a thunderous crack the walls parted. Xarras came forward, pushed me aside and stood in front of the Archelon, eager for its gift.
