Tentyrian Legacy (18 page)

Phoebe’s hands gripped the table in anger.
“You will be punished for this!” she said defiantly.

“Phoebe, my dear, have you taught your young
ones yet not to play with fire?” Stavros replied. Before Phoebe
could respond, Daria reached out her hand and squeezed Phoebe’s
tightly. She knew they didn’t want to provoke him. He held the
upper hand.

“By seeding doubt,” Stavros gloated, “I was
able to win over the men and women I needed to infiltrate the Guard
and take over the Sanctum, which I must say is amazing, Pello. At
least it is a nice pile of rocks. Lying low all of these months,
pretending to support the Luminaries, has been worth it, as this
all is mine now.”

Pello spat at Stavros, who rewarded him with
a punch to the face. But the Sagittarius Coven leader barely
registered the blow that left him with a bloody nose.

“Watch it, Pello. You may not have a spouse
or children you care about, but the others do,” sneered Stavros.
But to Pello, his Coven was his family, and he knew all too well
the danger. Stavros, Calix, Aglaia, and Asia appeared triumphant
while the rest of the Council looked murderous.

“You are pathetic, Stavros,” said Maximos.
“Whining because you weren’t loved best. Hathor never trusted you
because she knew of your insatiable lust for power. And sure
enough, it brought you here. We will kill you,” he vowed to the
traitors he once considered friends.

“There you go again. No, no one is going to
kill us. Do you want see the lions and cubs of your Coven again?”
Stavros taunted. Maximos’ jaw clenched. “I thought so. And because
of that you will all do exactly as I say. We will now go to the
feast, where you all will formally abdicate your power, giving it
to me, the new Primary Ruler. Calix and the Twins and I will make
up the new Council. Four is a much more reasonable number than
sixteen, yes? The rest of you are banished and may go back to your
Covens, which I will leave untouched if you co-operate. However, I
suggest you do so peacefully, for as an insurance policy, your
children will now be our wards—indefinitely.”

“You cannot do this!” said Zoe, panicked.
“The Aquarius and Pisces Covens will never agree to it, and neither
will the others.”

“Yes they will,” said Stavros. “They will
agree to it, if you agree to support me. If you don’t—the children
die.”

Evander put his arms around Zoe, who began to
sob. Daria couldn’t mind tap Stavros, Calix, Aglaia, or Asia, but
that didn’t mean she couldn’t hear what the others were thinking,
if they opened their minds to her and did it fast. As the sickening
admission of treachery continued, Daria tested the other Council
members’ minds—those who hadn’t betrayed the Zodiac. They were all
willing to fight, despite the cost. It was the reassurance Daria
needed.

“We will go now,” said Daria, “and get this
farce of an abdication over with.”

“Excellent,” replied Stavros, who called for
the guards that soon filled the room to escort them.

The Council walked solemnly down the Great
Hall’s steps, now littered with dead Tentyrian Guards—murdered by
their brothers who had given up loyalty for promises of power.

52 BC, August The Sanctum

Daria felt like a lamb being led to
slaughter, along with her people. Stavros’ quest for power created
the web of treachery her mother had been unable to understand. Now
that Daria understood it, there was no way that Stavros was going
to let any of them live. They were all just bugs caught in his
sticky thread. Stavros was not sane; the man she once knew was
gone. Now she only hoped he would burn in hell with Calix and the
Gemini twins.

When they arrived at the dining hall, it was
filled with song and dance. Guards lined the room. It was still
early, as the feast wasn’t to begin for another thirty minutes.
Plenty of libations were flowing, and those in attendance
celebrated unaware of what was about to happen. Daria looked around
furtively for her child. He must still be in the nursery with his
cousins, she thought. Or hopefully he was safely with Ammon in the
boat. However, there were no other children there at all. It wasn’t
a good sign.

Daria’s muscles were taut as she looked from
her husband to her sisters and the Zodiac members who remained
loyal. Their emotions were masked. Stavros paraded them to the
stage at the front of the room. Daria needed to act quickly to get
as much information as possible. The audience hushed, curious at
their early arrival. Alexander and Claudius knew instantly
something was wrong. The doors to the Great Hall slammed shut and
were bolted.

“Good evening, or I should say good morning
everyone!” Stavros addressed the room a bit too enthusiastically.
Confusion and unease was evident as the crowd wondered why Stavros
was addressing them and not Daria or her sisters. “You are likely
wondering why this feast is proceeding differently. I’ll get right
to it. After much deliberation, many of our Council members have
expressed the desire to pursue other endeavors. These past few
months have been difficult for us all, and they feel it would be
better to step aside and have a smaller Council preside. The
Luminaries no longer want the burden that was passed down to them
from Hathor. They have decided to live amongst the Covens and turn
the Primary Rule over to me. Zoe, Evander, and Pello wish to pass
on the Aquarius, Pisces, and Sagittarius torch to their Gemini
neighbors, Aglaia and Asia. Calix of Taurus will now rule Capricorn
and Libra, while Sebastian and Sophia will step aside. And I will
also lead the Leo and Cancer Covens.”

Angry protests emerged from the crowd. It was
obvious to all this was a coup. You couldn’t just tell people that
after nearly a century and a half of leadership, things were
changing. Stavros pulled Daria toward him with a smile and hissed
in her ear, “Pacify them now, my dear, or Darrius dies.”

Daria stepped forward and said, “My people,
I’m here now to tell you that the Council of the Zodiac as it was
is no more.” She paused, letting the reality sink in. “There is a
dark one now in its stead.” Stavros gave her a warning glance, but
before he could stop the words from coming out of her mouth, she
said, “I implore you to reject this and fight for Tentyris!” Daria
was willing to gamble that Darrius, Ammon, and the rest of the
children made it out safely. As for the people of all the other
Covens being burned alive, she knew it was done.

She found one guard, out of the dozen she
quickly tried to read in the few minutes she had, who heard a rumor
that all of the Covens were being “removed” tonight. If it was
true, Stavros not only was eliminating his own people, but he was
planning on killing everyone in the room.

Chaos erupted, and fangs came out. Stavros
barked orders at the guards now under his command as they moved on
the crowd with swords drawn, ready to cut them down. Tentyrians and
humans alike grabbed anything they could use for a weapon: knives,
plates, chair legs. The hall erupted in hand-to-hand combat. With
superior strength and skills, the Tentyrians of the crowd
positioned the weaker humans behind them as they fought like feral
animals. The turncoat guards out-numbered them four to one. Snarls,
the crunch of bone, and screams of pain replaced the joyous music
that had filled the room earlier. The weapons did little. The
Tentyrian punches and kicks—powerful enough to break a human
body—created the real destruction.

On the stage, the Council was fighting with a
different caliber of power. Pello was literally ripping stone from
the walls and hurling it at the guards. Aglaia and Asia threw
fireballs at the Luminaries, who shifted in and out to avoid the
flames and pursuing guards. Maximos and Aristos went for Stavros,
who saw them coming and shifted out of reach.

With his mind, Stavros heaved a long table in
their direction. It crashed into the wall behind them as Maximos
and Aristos disappeared into the air and reappeared behind Stavros.
Aristos threw a dagger the guards hadn’t confiscated from his boot
toward Stavros’ back, only to have it repel and come straight back
at him. Shifting away, Aristos narrowly missed the blade. Maximos
went in for the attack next. Stavros and Maximos circled around and
ran at each other full force. The impact as they collided would
have taken down a pyramid. Maximos managed to get the better angle
and put Stavros in a hold, trying to get his hands around his
neck.

“Where are the children?” Maximos
demanded.

“Dead,” Stavros replied as he ripped a chunk
of flesh from Maximos, exposing the bone of his forearm. Maximos
lost his grip, and Stavros shifted away.

A series of explosions shook the building
moments later. The fight continued. Calypso slipped into her
invisible form and, using her knife, stabbed Calix in the ribs. He
sunk down to his knees in surprise and staggered to pull himself up
in search of the assailant.

“That’s for my mother, you bastard,” he heard
Calypso say behind him. Calypso next threw herself at Calix to get
her hands in position to decapitate him. But she wasn’t strong
enough. He threw her onto the floor, spun, and cut off her head
without a second thought. Alexander saw what was left of his wife
appear on the floor as her invisibility faded away. His sudden
shock left him vulnerable to the guard who delivered his own
similar fate just seconds later.

Aristos came after Calix, but he managed to
shift out of reach to recover himself. Aristos saw Maximos, bloody
arm and all, approaching Daria and Narcissa to provide support as
they fought back to back. Four guards surrounded them. The sisters
shifted away and then returned, catching two of them by surprise as
they ripped their heads off. Maximos took out the other two.
Aristos kept his eye on Daria, but with Maximos now positioning
himself near the two Luminaries, Aristos convinced himself she
would be all right. He needed to get to the children. Aristos
quickly subdued one of the Tentyrian Guards he had trained with his
own hands.

“Tell me where you put the children and I’ll
spare your life,” he demanded.

“We were instructed to separate the children
. . . for their own celebration. Check . . . solarium,” the guard
managed to choke out from Aristos’ death grip. “The Luminary
children . . . in nursery.” With that, Aristos ended the man’s
life.

Leaving the fight, Aristos shifted to the
solarium. It had been a domed glass structure filled with exotic
plants and flowers—Narcissa’s pride and joy. Now there was nothing
left, just flames and shattered glass. He then went to the nursery.
It was the same mind-numbing scene. Char and fire greeted him.
Where the closet had once stood, the rock wall door behind it was
closed and, to the unsuspecting eye, looked like a blackened wall.
Just as he moved to open it and check the passage, a
four-foot-thick metal beam from above fell on him, knocking him
unconscious.

Back in the dining hall, Phoebe was shooting
shocks of energy at the guards who were successfully backing her
into a corner. When she thought she brought down a couple, only
more pressed in. She could shift away, but like her comrades, she
wanted to eliminate the enemy. Seeing her plight, Damian threw
himself in front of her and, using his energy, pushed the onslaught
of guards into the wall behind them. They were dead on impact.

“Shift away from here,” Damian yelled to
Phoebe. Before she registered the command, Damian’s head was
separated from his body by Calix, who’d emerged suddenly behind
him.

Sophia, Sebastian, and Evander teamed up. Not
having any telekinetic abilities to leverage like many of the
others, they were at a disadvantage. Evander didn’t want to leave
Zoe, but she assured him she could take care of herself and do more
good by putting out the fires. Aristos had shifted to them earlier
to explain he was getting the children. In the meantime, the trio
focused on shifting out many of the humans who didn’t stand a
chance. Sebastian was doing his best to protect Sophia, taking on
many of the blows that were meant for her. But his wounds couldn’t
heal fast enough relative to the blood he was losing.

“Sophia and Evander, you must leave. We are
not going to win this fight. Look around. I’ve done the math,” said
Sebastian. There were at least forty guards in the fray and only a
handful of Tentyrians still fighting.

“No, we can’t give up!” Sophia cried. It was
then she noticed how badly hurt Sebastian was. “Evander, you must
help him. Sebastian is dying.”

“I can’t heal him here,” said Evander. “Daria
showed me where the infirmary is. I say we take what injured we can
there. We need to find Pello and Zoe and convince the Luminaries to
get out of here too. This place is an inferno.”

Meanwhile, Phoebe found Claudius through the
smoke battling Selene, who was about to lose. Selene soon gave up
and threw herself at Claudius’ feet, begging for mercy.

“Don’t give it to her. She is a conniving
bitch,” advised Phoebe with blood spatters on her face. But as
Claudius lifted his sword, his entire body lifted off the ground.
He then slammed into the rock ceiling first, followed by the floor.
It was Stavros. Phoebe instinctively went after Claudius, leaving
Stavros to rescue his prized weapon and disappear with her.

Maximos, Daria, and Narcissa formed a
triangle to protect their backs while they fought on. Constantly
shifting in and out to avoid the fireballs while trying to take the
guards out, they were quickly becoming exhausted, especially
Narcissa. Using any Tentyrian power— whether it was telekinesis or
shifting—sapped one’s energy. Not to mention they were already
using every ounce of their physical strength in addition to the
mental exertion.

“Cissy, you need to leave. You are going to
get yourself killed,” yelled Maximos.