The Guardian (Callista Ryan Series) (46 page)

             
“What are you saying, Shay?” Serena asked. “Emeric hates the Sirens. Do you propose that he went to visit them?”

             
“I do, but wait to hear my reasons,” Shay said. “Emeric never disclosed what happened during his confinement on the island. And he became much more vocal in his hatred of the Sirens in the years which followed his return to the rainforest. What if that was an act, though? Think about this: he planned to send a handful of the greatest protectors to the island in order to attack them, to lower their numbers.”

             
“He wanted to kill them,” Serena said, as though Shay had just disproved her own argument. “The only thing that stopped him was the invention of my position.”

             
“The only thing that stopped him was the public knowledge that there was an alternate means of preventing battle,” Shay reasoned. “Which meant that if he did send in the protectors, and they all died, then he would be to blame for making a foolish decision which led to such a tragedy. People would turn against him, which would be counterproductive.”

             
“That theory only works if the protectors were sure to die, which they—“ Serena began, but Shay interrupted.

             
“Which they were.”

             
Serena stopped short at the confidence in Shay’s voice.

             
“Think about this, Serena. He would have sent in perhaps a dozen protectors. But the numbers of the Siren community had grown. And the terrain had become rougher and less conducive to foreign invasion. So our soldiers would have been outnumbered
and
at a territorial disadvantage,” Shay pointed out.

             
Serena shook her head. “He was going to send Raymond, Tasnia, and Yvette. Alex and Zeke would have gone.
I
would have gone. He would have sent our best warriors.”

             
“Exactly. And what would have become of our power as a people once our best warriors were wiped out?” Shay asked. “We would have been left vulnerable. If he truly wanted to win, he would have kept a small number of these people on reserve, and sent in a larger number of less talented fighters. He was weakening us.”

             
“I can’t believe it,” Serena said.

             
“Are you really so loyal?” Shay asked.

             
“No, but this is
Emeric
, Shay,” Serena replied. “He would not turn against us.”

             
“Accept for a moment that he might. Things begin to appear in a clearer light. Especially lately,” Shay said, glancing at Callie. “When he brought her here, he was intent upon killing her once I determined that she was not to grow wings. But then her Perception swayed him to spare her. He trained her, developed her ability, all for the sake—so
he
said—of infiltrating the Sirens’ minds. However, he never bothered to find out if she could even use her talent against the Sirens until he had taken stock of it. The day he
did
take her to the island, he made sure they discovered her, that they knew of her existence. She was no longer a secret weapon.”

             
“No,” Callie said, shaking her head. “He didn’t mean for that to happen. He got me out as soon as he heard my screams. He just wanted to know if I could have Perceived with them.”

             
“Perhaps,” Shay said. “But then why did he not have you attempt this upon the girl who became a Siren on the second day of your stay here?”

             
Callie paused, unable to reply.

             
“You had already Perceived once,” Shay reasoned. “He knew you could do it. And there was bountiful time between the point of day at which the girl changed and that night when Adeline retrieved her. Why not spare you the risk of going to the island?”

             
“Make your point, Shay,” Serena said.

             
“My point is that he has been acting strangely, and I believe it is because he is working with the Sirens,” Shay concluded.

             
Callie remembered something. “He didn’t seem to mind when Adeline discovered me that day on the forest floor. And then….He said something two nights ago. He said he knew I was going to die ever since he’d seen what had happened on the island.”

             
“You mean when they beat you to a pulp?” Serena asked nonchalantly.

             
“That’s what I thought he meant,” Callie agreed.

             
“Wait,” Shay said. “What else happened on the island?”
              “What do you mean?” Callie asked. “I went, I Perceived on one of them, I got beaten up, and then he took me away from there.”

             
“You Perceived,” Shay said. “Before that, he didn’t know if you could do it to a Siren. Maybe he meant that once he learned that you
could
—“

             
“But why would that matter?” Serena asked. “She can do it to Guardians, too.”

             
Shay’s eyes flitted back and forth across the room. Callie could practically hear her brain spinning, trying to fit the pieces together of a puzzle no one else could see. “There’s something there…” she said.

             
“Well,” Callie reasoned, “why would he care that I could do it to Sirens? He didn’t seem upset when he realized that I could do it with Guardians.”

             
“Yeah,” Serena snorted. “Except he was pissed when he learned
why
.”

             
Shay’s head snapped up. “That’s it,” she said.

             
Callie and Serena looked at her for answers.

             
“You can Perceive upon Guardians because you stopped evolving while still so unlike them. Your mind is not similar enough to a Guardian’s that you are barred from their memories, just as a Guardian’s mind is so different from a human’s that he may witness theirs. It is the dissimilarities which allow us to Perceive upon each other,” Shay said.

             
“So?” Serena asked.

             
“So…what if Emeric was hoping that Callie couldn’t Perceive upon a Siren? I mean, if she
were
a Siren, she wouldn’t be able to Perceive upon one. And then she would actually become a weapon for the Siren community,” Shay said, speaking so rapidly that Callie could barely keep up.

             
“And then when he learned that she
could
Perceive upon them….” Serena said.

             
Shay nodded. “Exactly.”

             
“Wait a second,” Callie said. “I’m lost.”

             
Shay turned to her. “He knew you were going to die ever since the day that he took you to the island,” she explained. “
He
was going to kill you. I would stake my career upon it. As soon as he learned that you were not a Siren, that you could actually hinder the chances of the Sirens’ ability to win the war, he knew that he couldn’t keep you around. But the trouble is, Alex was always with you. Well, either Alex, or I, or Serena or Zeke. You were never alone with him.”

             
“Actually,” Callie interrupted, about to point out the inaccuracy of that last statement. But she was cut short by slow, rhythmic clapping.

             
The three women turned to face the newcomer to the room. Emeric stood in the doorway, clapping theatrically, with what Callie could only describe as a satisfied smile upon his face. She caught her breath at the sight of him. He didn’t look like the cool, composed Emeric she’d known. His eyes were wild, ferocious. They glittered with ruthless danger.

             
“Brava,” he said. “Truly outstanding, even for you, Shay.” He took several slow steps into the room; no one moved.

             
“Emeric,” Serena said pleasantly. “We were just discussing you.”

             
“So I heard,” he replied, equally as cordial. He gestured to the door. “Those bridges that Alexander built actually come in handy.”

             
“How much did you hear?” Shay asked, regarding him as she might an insect beneath her microscope. But Callie saw a twitch of fear under one of her bruises.

             
“Just about all of it, I should think,” Emeric said, meeting her glare. “I happened to see Serena fly in with our visitor, and decided to see what the fuss was about. I must say, I become more and more impressed by your deductive abilities every day.”

             
“Is it true?” Callie asked, feeling her gut twist.

             
A flash of something resembling gravity passed over Emeric’s face, and for a moment that smug smile was lost. But then, without looking at Callie, he responded.

             
Still staring at Shay, he said, “Yes. It is all true. Though you missed certain parts.”

             
Serena inhaled sharply. Callie turned to her, surprised by her reaction. She saw the blood slowly drain from the beautiful woman’s face, the blue eyes widen in fear.

             
“And you will tell us,” Serena said.

             
Emeric shrugged nonchalantly. “If you like,” he said. He glanced at the clock in Shay’s kitchen. “I have another twenty minutes or so.”

             
“Twenty minutes until what?” Callie asked.

             
“You’re going to tell us,” Serena said again, this time more slowly, “because you intend to silence us once you are through.”

             
“Well, that, and because you have just come so
close
,” he said, sounding a little tortured. “There are so few details that you have neglected. It would be a shame to leave the story so near completion and not finish it.”

             
“Why do it?” Serena asked, shaking her head. “Why cross over to their side? It cannot be for want of power; you have plenty of that here.”

             
“Ha!” Emeric shouted. Callie jumped. “Power? Power to do what, might I ask? I thought that once I received my position as chief, I would have power, it is true. But what has come of it? I spend the centuries dictating orders to protectors so that petty humans may live to see another year, breaking down all the new plans they come up with to kill each other. My life is dedicated to the protection of a subject which seeks to destroy itself. Where is the power in that?”

             
“So what do the Sirens have to offer you?” Serena asked, lifting her chin. Callie shifted, unsure why Serena was speaking so much.

             
But then she saw Shay lift her hips a bit, and saw the serrated blade of a long knife perched beneath the sofa cushions.

             
“The Sirens are not so dedicated to the survival of humans. In fact, they discourage it,” Emeric said. “They understand the stupidity and the mendacity in preserving a species that should have been wiped out long ago. You see, we are not heroes for doing so, as we pretend to be. Rather we are mere deceivers, performing simple slights of hand which—
somehow—
drag the race through to see another decade. I had been struggling with my own discomfort in my role for generations before the Sirens took me to their island and revealed to me an alternate means of living, one which values pleasure and the relishing of being gods, rather than acting as simple servants for a people who know nothing of our existence.”

             
“But why?” Serena asked. “Milo taught you our way of life; why the sudden change of heart?”

             
Emeric smiled slowly. “Ah, Milo,” he said. “There was a man that people loved. They still do. Even Alexander, who is loyal to no being other than myself, still worships him. Tell me, Serena, just what was it about that particular man which everyone so easily adored? He claimed the position of leader without effort, and the people let him have it.”

             
“He was a teacher,” Shay said, cutting in. The couch cushion below her lowered as she spoke, hiding the face of the knife once more. “He was the first Guardian, and he ushered each of us through the changes we so hated, created for us a new life in this forest after we were forced to leave behind those we loved. He showed compassion,” she spat.

             
“So what was the plan?” Serena asked, walking around the couch to stand across from him, eagerly stealing his attention back to her. Callie realized that Shay hadn’t been supposed to interrupt like that. Emeric was supposed to be looking at Serena so that Shay could secretly pull out the knife, hide it in her hold until she had the opportunity to use it. “What, you get rid of the best protectors, have the Sirens attack us and wipe us out, and then you would go live on the island with them? Why not just leave?”