The Song of Eloh Saga (50 page)

“You were captured,” she said. “Alia’s gifted army swooped in during the funeral procession. They meant to steal your body and thwart the resistance, but one of her gifted detected your life force almost immediately. They whisked you away and set a watch upon you. I volunteered. I wanted to be here for you Reychel, just like when we were kids.”

My mind swam. Her words were all lies, they had to be. She’d admitted she hated me, that she wanted to destroy me. I glanced back at her blue eyes and then her fingers on my arm. “Take them off. Prove to me that you mean it.”

“I can’t,” she said. Tears streamed down her face. She grasped her wrist with her other hand, her delicate fingers encircling and tightening. She tugged, but her fingers rested on my arm, unmoving. Sweat dripped down her face and her cheeks turned bright red. The effort revealed itself in the muscles of her free arm.

“I don’t understand,” I said. “Who did this to you?”

Her eyes drooped and her arm went slack. “I can’t say. Just whatever you do, pretend like you don’t have your memory or they might kill you.”

“What?” I licked my lips, the wetness of my tongue drenching the broken valleys of my chapped lips. I didn’t attempt to sit up yet. My head still spun and my stomach felt empty.

“It’s—” Her voice faltered and her free hand flew up to her throat. She gagged and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Ivy slid off her chair and still her fingers remained on my arm. I wanted to get up and help her, but I felt calm, too calm. Her soothing left me uninterested.

The door flew open and Ivy’s fingers slid off of my arm and onto the floor with the rest of her. A tall woman, imposing in both height and weight, strode across the room toward me. Panic returned, now that I was free from the effects of Ivy’s gift. I scooted backward and my head hit a hard backboard. I pulled my legs up, wrapping my arms around them.

The strength I’d lost while dead was replaced by pure adrenaline. My heart raced; my throat constricted. She stopped at the side of my bed, glancing down to the floor at Ivy. “Get out,” she hissed.

Ivy’s only response was a moan.

“Get out now!”

A scratching noise along the floor grated at my ears as Ivy scraped and pulled herself toward the door.

“Faster!” the woman screamed at Ivy. She lifted her palm, pointed it at Ivy, and closed her eyes. Ivy’s body floated up off the floor, drifting toward the open door. A wail fell from her mouth. The woman flicked her hand and Ivy’s body was flung through the doorway and onto the floor outside my room. The woman flicked her hand back, and the door slammed, muffling Ivy’s screams.

The woman turned to me with a feral smile. Her teeth glinted in the candlelight, like fangs of the tiger’s head Krissin kept hung up in the great hall. Pointed. Dangerous. Evil. My back scraped against the headboard as I inched even further away.

“You’re awake, Reychel. Finally. We’ve been waiting for weeks.”

Weeks? Johna had said the potion would only take a few days before I’d wake up. It wasn’t possible for me to have been asleep for weeks. She had to be lying.

“I’m sure you feel terrible. Your legs are weak.”

I wanted to flex my calves, but found I could move them only very little. If it truly had been weeks, the muscles would have atrophied. No wonder I wasn’t tied down and left alone with Ivy. I couldn’t have overpowered her if I’d wanted to. I refused to meet her gaze, afraid my eyes would give me away. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of knowing that she was right.

“How many weeks?” My voice creaked, even though I’d tried to hold it steady. I needed water, badly.

“Nearly sixteen.”

I gasped. The reaction was totally involuntary. Sixteen weeks. Four months since I’d drank the tea, leading to my death. Krissin and Nemison’s war could be over by now. If the enemy had me, did that mean they’d won? My heart ached. If everything had been in vain, then I’d left my life behind for no reason. I’d given up everything for this plan. Everything. Was it all for nothing?

“What are you going to do with me now that I’m awake?” I didn’t expect an answer, at least not a truthful one. She eyed me, her dark eyes searching my face. The severe bun on the top of her head looked as if she’d pulled even the skin on her face to stretch her hair tightly up. It only added to the austerity of her black gown, covering her from neck to toe.

The cinnamon smell of the wax candle wafted through the room, crawling inside my nose. I resisted the urge to scratch my nose, knowing that the next movement wouldn’t be mine. It would be hers. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of any kind of weakness.

Her grin returned and she bared her teeth at me. I didn’t flinch, didn’t react.

“Why Reychel, dear Prophet, now that you’ve come back to the living we’re going to kill you.” She turned her back to me, striding over to the window. She grabbed the curtains and whipped them to the side. The room flooded with bright sunlight.

I threw my arm across my face. It was too bright.

“You can watch all the clouds you like now. They won’t do a thing for you. There will be no clues on how to escape. They won’t tell you how your friends have fared or if the war still continues. They won’t give you any comfort at all. Your gift is now void.”

Void? I couldn’t control the damn thing well enough to matter anyway. I didn’t care if my gift was blocked here. I’d never used it in the past to much avail anyway. I was better, stronger, without my gift. Even though I could feel it now, I wasn’t so sure that my gift would ever save me. I only needed to contact Mark through our bond and he’d find me somehow.

Her smile only grew, her eyes narrowed even more. A chuckle escaped her mouth. “You don’t understand, do you?”

I stared her down. She could play all the games she wanted, but I had a secret only a select few knew. She couldn’t take my bond with Mark away from me.

“Reychel, you have been severed.”

I closed my eyes and concentrated on my bond with Mark. I ran through my mind, poking every corner, familiar and new to me. None of them pulsed with the trail of Mark.
Can you hear me?
I screamed in my mind. It echoed in every corner. He had to hear me.

I waited for his response.

The only sound was that woman leaving my room and laughing as she shut the door behind her.

Chapter Ten

Mark. I closed my eyes and slowed my breath to an even rate. I wouldn’t let her claims get in the way of what I needed to do. They couldn’t have severed me. My gift wasn’t gone. It couldn’t be. Wouldn’t I feel different? Empty? Instead I had a feeling of fullness spreading throughout my body. I felt powerful, magical even. Was this how everyone else felt and I’d just been missing it all these years?

I tried to remember the first time I’d felt Mark’s presence in my mind. I relaxed into the headboard, instead of rigidly pushing myself into it out of fear. I probed my mind, looking for any sign of Mark. Maybe he knew what was happening. Maybe he just wasn’t in a place where we could be connected.

With my eyes still closed, I focused on his face, recreating it in my mind. His dark hair flopping over his left eye, the stubble on his chin that scratched me when we kissed. He was still real in my mind and my hands ached to touch him, to feel him close to me. I wanted, needed, to feel the things I felt our wedding night. His touch on my bare skin, even just the thought of it sent shivers down my spine.

But he wasn’t here. Not in the room, not in my mind. Every passing second of silence forced me to wonder what exactly was blocking us. I knew my gift was still in there. I didn’t know how I knew, I just did. If I lost my arm, I’d know it. I felt the same way about my gift.

I couldn’t ignore the fact that my connection to Mark was gone.

This was beyond cruel. Beyond anything I’d ever experienced. Even Ivy’s manipulations hadn’t been this serious. These people kidnapped my dead body, supposedly severed me from my gift, and held me captive only to promise another death - this one real.

Tears were for the weak and I’d gone through too much to let myself fall to pieces. Every single time I’d been in trouble, I’d been bailed out by someone else. First Tania, then Mark, Ella, Nemison, Krissin, and even Eloh. No more. It was time for me to make my own plan and stand up to them. I’d gone along with everyone else’s plans for too long. Still, I was in trouble and so were my people.

I’d never roll over for anyone again.

I curled my fingers into a ball and closed my eyes. I couldn’t reach Mark and even if I could, I had nothing to tell him. I had no clue where I was, other than the chill in the air. The Northern Kingdom was huge. He could search for months and not find me. No, it would be too late. I had only myself to rely on.

The door creaked open and Ivy walked in, her eyes downcast. She’d always walked proudly, even when she was upset. This posture was so uncharacteristic. They’d done something to her here. I couldn’t believe Kandek would have employed the type of torture it would take to make Ivy act so submissive.

“Why are you back?” I didn’t hide the contempt in my tone. Ivy had destroyed any friendship we’d had when she plotted to have me captured by my father. I owed her absolutely nothing.

“I’ve been ordered to make sure you’re soothed at all times.” Her voice sounded weak, exhausted. Her eyelids drooped as she sank into the chair next to me. I waited to feel something, anything, but I didn’t. Ivy, the old Ivy who had been my childhood best friend, was dead to me. This woman in front of me was nothing other than another one of my captors.

“How about hydrated? Are you supposed to keep me alive?” I pointed to the jug of water by the window. “Can you fetch me a cup of water?”

Ivy sighed. “Have you even tried walking? You can do it, you know. I’m not your servant Reychel.”

I looked down at my legs, dangling over the edge of the bed, and flexed my calf muscles. To my surprise they moved up and down, feeling just as fit as ever. I looked at Ivy and she shook her head.

“Zuri’s gift makes you believe anything she says when you look her in the eyes. Your legs are just fine.”

I nodded, trying not to look too upset. Zuri had also told me I was severed. She’d been lying. I knew it. I just didn’t know why she wanted me to believe that when it wasn’t true. I slid off the bed and walked, on unsteady legs, to the jug of water.

Grabbing the wooden handle, I poured the water into a cup and took a tentative sip. “How did they feed and keep me hydrated while I was...” I traced my fingers over the cup’s handle “...dead?”

I hated using that word.

“They fed you and gave you water to drink. It was grueling for the servants. Zuri wouldn’t allow you to die so they spent hours every day coaxing your inert body to swallow. You haven’t eaten a lot of solid food until recently. It was very strange, Reychel. As if your body cooperated, but your eyes remained closed. I’ve never seen anything like it. There was also another gifted person in here healing you every day, so you should be okay.”

I filled the cup again and carried it over to the bed. I was tired and my body felt weak, particularly my stomach. It spun round and round as a bout of nausea spread through my chest. I sat down and took another sip of water, concentrating on a small speck of dirt on the floor. Over the course of a few seconds, the nausea abated.

“Oh good, you’re not going to throw up again,” Ivy said. “You threw up a lot for a few weeks. Zuri thought you might be dying for real. But here you are.”

“Don’t sound so thrilled,” I said. I tested my legs again and stood up. Steady this time. I didn’t feel a drop of nausea. It was odd, though. Usually when the nausea came on, it was related to an oncoming vision or one of the headaches that came after. My stomach fluttered as I gingerly stepped back to the bed.

“Reychel, I never wanted you dead. Despite what you may believe about me, I’m not nearly as evil as the people who are holding us here.”

“Us?”

“Yes, us. I’m not free to leave either. They took me from Kandek’s dungeon and brought me here to soothe you. None of them have my ability and they were afraid if you woke up angry, you might destroy them. With my gift I was able to ensure your cooperation. But it’s not like I can leave now.”

Ivy ran her hand over her head, just as bald as when we were children. Growing up, the two of us had shaved our heads daily, as a sign of our status as slaves. But when we’d escaped my father’s castle, we’d both had an opportunity to grow hair. I’d forgotten about Ivy’s new blonde hair, until I noticed it was gone.

“They’re keeping you as a slave?”

She nodded, her eyes downcast. I didn’t buy it for one minute. She’d fooled me before. Our entire childhood friendship had been a lie. It would take more than a shaved head and claims of slavery for me to ever believe anything she ever said.

“That alone should make you trust me, Reychel. You know what it’s like to be a slave and then taste the sweet fruit of freedom. Maybe I took it too far last year. I eroded any trust we ever had between us. All because of a boy’s affections.”

So few people knew how close Mark and I had become. Even less knew we had been bonded. I wouldn’t be the one to share it with her. My hand went directly to my finger, searching for the ring Mark had given me, but it was gone too. Somehow they took away our bond and our ring, but it didn’t change my feelings for him. They were just as intense as ever.

“None of that matters now,” Ivy continued. “We both have lost so much. It seems all we have left is each other, especially since your father is dead too.”

“Kandek is dead?” My heart dropped into my stomach. “When?”

“When Alia took the castle. He tried to fight her, but her gift was stronger than his steel.”

I glanced around the room again and strained my neck toward the window. “Where are we? Am I home?”

Ivy nodded. “Yes, this is the castle we grew up in. Alia took it for her stronghold.”

I couldn’t believe all of this happened while I’d been out. I wish I knew why Johna’s concoction kept me under for so long. Maybe if I’d come back sooner, I could have done something, or helped somehow. Anger coursed through my veins, screaming at me to hit Ivy, or worse, but I held it back. I didn’t want her to know my feelings. She would never be allowed to have the upper hand with me ever again.