The Prophecies (The Sentinel Series Book 2) (17 page)

I bit my lip and sat down as well. Quinn scurried to my side and I smiled to myself as I saw him watching Leon, beadily. I surreptitiously tapped my head to indicate that me and Leon were talking telepathically.

Leon looked at me. ‘You hungry? Here.’ He passed me a chocolate bar.

‘No I’m fine,’ I said, just as my stomach gurgled loudly to prove me a liar. Eli would probably slide right into this cell and slap me round the face, if I took something to eat from a stranger again.

Leon smiled. ‘Oh yes, I forgot, no food unless it’s checked by your Guardians first, here.’ He unwrapped it, broke a chunk off and swallowed it. ‘See.’ He passed it to me and after a moment’s hesitation I bit into it.

‘Thanks.’ I broke a small chunk off and let it drop on the floor near to Quinn.

Leon leaned back against the wall again. ‘
Eight years ago I had a prophecy that Nereus was going to kill Samuel. The prophecy was based at an assembly like we had this morning. You were in attendance, surrounded by your Guardians and Nereus suddenly stood up and burned Samuel to dust. I don’t know what was said before to provoke the attack, whether it was just or not, but it definitely had something to do with you. Normally we share all our prophecies together over dinner. But this was clearly not the kind of prophecy that could be shared, it would break the Oraculum. And both Nereus and Samuel are, were good friends of mine, we were all good friends, brothers almost. If I told Samuel of his impending demise, that would implicate Nereus and turn Samuel against him. If I told Nereus of his murderous deeds he would always be looking at Samuel wondering why he would ultimately end up murdering him. So I told no one. But the prophecies are always correct and there is nothing we can do to change them.’

I shook my head. ‘
But that’s not true, you had a prophecy of the end of the world and you created me to stop it, that’s you trying to change your prophecies.’

Leon looked at me. ‘
The prophecy was of you saving the world. We have all had prophecies of the end of the world, but in every single one of them, you were there fighting to save it.’

‘
Oh.’

He resumed his position with his head against the wall again, eyes closed. ‘
Anyway, we are given these prophecies so we can prepare for them. It didn’t feel right that I had seen this future and I was the only one that knew. The Oraculum do not have secrets from one another. So I told my most trusted friend, Sebastian. Sebastian told Samuel and Nathaniel of my prophecy and they both confronted Nereus about it. Of course Nereus knew nothing of this and knew no reason why he would ever turn against his friend, his brother in that way. Nereus believed that I had made up this prophecy to turn Samuel against him and he confronted me about why I had done this. The others were angry that I had kept a prophecy to myself. It was demanded that I shared all the details with the rest of the council, which I duly did. They were not best pleased that the source of the betrayal and murder was you. Cain then spoke up and said he too had had a prophecy that Nathaniel murdered Nereus whilst you were there. This resulted in a massive argument. There are those that believe that Cain and I have made these prophecies up, there are those that refuse to believe them, and those that do. But since that day we haven’t met as a council and no one knows who to trust. One thing we do know is that the breaking of the Oraculum, whenever that day will come, will be down to you.’

I exhaled deeply, trying to take it all in. ‘
This stems back to when I was nine years old, when I had no clue about my future, about my destiny. This animosity towards me isn’t about me going to the Reapers at all, it’s about me, somehow ripping the Oraculum apart.’

‘Well for the first time in eight years, we are now united in one opinion. That what you did when you went to the Reapers can never happen again, but we cannot decide on how to proceed, on how to stop it from happening. Some feel that the best course of action would be to keep you here until the end of the world comes. Some feel that it’s your compassion and knowledge of the world that will make you save it, that will make you fight for it so fiercely. Some believe that taking you away from your friends, family and Seth now would make you so angry and bitter and when the end of the world comes, there won’t be enough love in your heart to want to save it.’

‘
Have you ever tried to change the prophecies?’
I asked.

Leon smiled again. ‘
In the beginning, yes, but we soon learned we couldn’t do anything about them.’

I shook my head angrily. ‘
But these prophecies, sharing these prophecies will be the thing that ultimately brings them about. If Nereus has an argument with Samuel whilst I’m there, he will think about killing him only because it has been seen in a prophecy, if he didn’t know about the prophecy then he probably wouldn’t even think about killing him.’

‘It messes with your head doesn’t it? Is it knowing about the prophecy that makes you do it, or would you have done it anyway? Since I saw the prophecy of Nereus killing Samuel, it’s made me think, made us all think, which side we would be on when the fight breaks out. Nathaniel would obviously be on the side of Samuel, if he kills Nereus to avenge Samuel’s death so Nathaniel and Samuel are now very close because of this prophecy.’

I looked up at Leon. ‘
Which side would you be on then?’

He looked at me incredulously. ‘
I’m on your side Eve, I don’t know what Nereus or Samuel will stand for or against, but I do know this, I know that I am on the side that fights for you.’

I smiled, sadly, as I reached through the bars to take his hand. Before the end, there would be so much death. Leon took my hand and squeezed it.

‘
And where do you stand on today’s issue
?’ I smiled, hopefully.

Leon smiled as he pushed my hand back through the bars and stood up. ‘
You’ll need these in a few days’ time.’

I felt something cold in my hand and I opened them to see two gold wedding rings. I looked back up at Leon but he was already halfway back up the corridor and disappearing into the gloom. I stared back at the rings in my hand. One was bigger than the other, but apart from that they were identical. The rings were twisted to look like braided gold rope. There was writing on the inside, but it didn’t make sense, like some of the words were missing. I held my palm up to the light to try to make sense of it, and as I did the rings clanked together to make one thick ring, as if they were magnetically attracted. The words now made sense as they were written across both rings, and only made sense when the rings were together. In the finest writing were the words
‘A tangible representation of our bond’
and my heart leapt with recognition.

I remembered back at the ruins, on my first day of training. I had visualized the bond that me and Seth had as a thick golden rope between us, as a tangible representation of our friendship, and pulled on it, forging a connection so strong I had inadvertently downloaded all of his memories and feelings. It was that moment when I had realised Seth’s true feelings for me, how deep they had ran. It was also that moment when I started to realise that the feelings I held for him were something much more than just friendship. Just how close had the Oraculum been watching me, if they knew about the thick golden rope? They could have projected into the ruins and watched every day of my training and I would have been none the wiser. I sighed as I carefully put the rings into my pocket.

Leon’s spot on the floor had barely grown cold, when I heard the gate opening. Quinn scurried to my side again, ready to shift at the first sign of trouble. Though I didn’t think this cell was big enough to hold a grizzly bear.

Two shadows loomed from the darkness. They were very similar in size, but both of them towered over me. If I was made to be so perfect you would have thought they would have made me a bit taller.

‘I’m Nereus,’ said the one with a long silk curtain of dark hair, his skin a beautiful shade of chocolate brown, which matched his eyes exactly.

‘I’m Helez,’ smiled the other one, slightly thinner than Nereus, his skin a warm conker brown but eyes of a dazzling turquoise.

‘So,’ Nereus smiled. ‘I presume you’ve heard, I’m going to die for you.’ He said it so casually, like he was offering to cook for me. And there was no hiding with talking in my head, like Leon had done, he just came out and said it. Though I understood why Leon felt the need to be covert with his thoughts, it was his prophecy after all that had caused this tension between the Oraculum.

‘So I hear,’ I said quietly. ‘Why do you think it is that you kill Samuel?’

Nereus shrugged carelessly, he obviously had come to terms with his betrayal now. ‘I can only presume it has to do with loyalty to you, with protecting you. Cain says I die so you can live. Well if I’m going to die, then I can think of no better way for it to happen.’ He grinned at me. Out the corner of my eye, I could see Quinn relax a bit.

I shook my head. ‘Have you met Seth? You two have a lot in common.’

Nereus laughed loudly. ‘I would like to meet him. Maybe I should come down to Fort Naga one day; his name has been bandied about a lot lately. I’d like to see how that little experiment turned out. It seems you two are to wed, I like that, I like that a lot.’

I frowned slightly. ‘Little experiment?’

‘We made him, right here in the castle, because it was prophesized that you would fall in love with a man that was half human, half Deus, so we set about trying to make one. It wasn’t easy let me tell you, the human and Deus DNA doesn’t mix very well, but we managed it somehow. We created him and then sent him out to you to fall in love with. And it worked, brilliant!’

‘He was sent to protect me,’ I said, quietly and defiantly. I didn’t like the sound of this little experiment.

‘No, that was just something he was told, to protect you no matter what. As if we would send a boy to do the job that hundreds of Guardians were already doing. But he did it, he fulfilled his duty, and then he fulfilled his destiny by making you fall in love with him.’

I swallowed, nervously, a lump forming in my throat. ‘Making me fall in love with him?’

‘Well we knew you would fall in love with him, it had been foreseen. We figured he would grow to love you, like a friend, or at the least for the prestige of going out with The Sentinel. We didn’t foresee that he would fall in love with you as well. Those human emotions are quite handy little things aren’t they, love is very powerful.’

‘You created him for me to love?’

‘Yes, of course.’ Nereus beamed, proudly

Helez stepped up to the bars. ‘Eve, have you ever killed anyone?’

This completely threw me. I had never really thought of myself as a killer before, but I had and on more than one occasion. ‘Erm yes, the two Putarians that were trying to knock us out of the sky in their planes on the way out to the fort, and erm the Reapers, maybe twenty of them, I didn’t really stop to count them as I burnt them to the ground.’

‘But that was with your powers, have you ever killed anyone with your bare hands, or a weapon,’

‘No, never. I don’t know if I could, the other deaths were in self-defence, to protect me, my friends or the innocent. I don’t think I could kill someone in cold blood.’

‘Do you think you could kill someone in revenge…?’

‘Helez where are you going with this?’ asked Nereus, in confusion.

Helez stepped back from the bars.

Nereus stared at him, his eyes going suddenly wider. ‘You had a prophecy didn’t you, about Eve? Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Helez mumbled, clearly regretting his line of questioning.

‘Yes it does.’ Nereus was incredulous. ‘We share all our prophecies with each other, if we start keeping them a secret from each other now, then we’ll end up as bad as the rest of them.’

‘It doesn’t matter, it happens long after your death,’ Helez muttered, looking at his feet.

‘Tell me,’ Nereus insisted.

‘Yes tell me,’ I said.

Helez sighed and Nereus stepped back in alarm. ‘Oh.’

‘Exactly,’ muttered Helez. ‘I was just wondering why it would happen, what would cause it to happen.’

‘What is it?’ I asked.

‘When did you have this prophecy,’ asked Nereus. They were both ignoring me now.

‘This morning, when she stood before us in the assembly.’

‘And how do you know that it happens after my death?’

‘Because I had the scars on my hands and arms, the scars I get when I try to stop your death. They were old and faded.’

Nereus pulled a face. ‘That changes things.’

Helez was defiant. ‘No it doesn’t. It doesn’t change anything. At some point after your death, I clearly have a change of heart and that’s my comeuppance for it. It doesn’t change what you have to do and why you have to do it. She must be protected at all costs.’

Nereus shook his head. ‘What if Samuel is right, what if….’

Helez held Nereus’s shoulder. ‘No, my brother, don’t doubt what you know to be right in your heart, you have seen the prophecy of the end of the world as clearly as I have. She must be protected, she must reach the end of the world.’

Nereus nodded solemnly. ‘We should go and discuss these events with Cain.’

Helez nodded too and they turned and walked back up the corridor, without another look at me.

I sat back down on the bed. Were all these visits going to leave me feeling this confused? Quinn hopped up on the bed, nudging me with his soft, whiskery nose. I picked him up and held him up to my face. He looked at me quizzically.

‘No Quinn I have no idea what that was about either.’

Many hours had passed as I lay in the dark cell, the power still surging through me. Many hours that gave me time to think about Seth and what Nereus had actually meant by the Seth experiment. Many hours wondering if what he felt for me was real, or part of some big plan.

The metal gate opening pulled me from my bed again, but even before the shadow appeared from the gloom I knew it would be Cain, and I was right. He came to stand in front of the bars.