Defy (16 page)

The water was freezing. Unlike the almost
luxurious bath she’d enjoyed the night before, this one had her
rushing through it as quickly as possible. By the time she hurried
out of the water to crouch naked next to the fire, her teeth were
chattering and her fingers and toes were numb.

She could have kissed her aunt and uncle’s
feet for teaching her how to build a fire as feeling slowly
returned to her extremities and she got dry enough to get
dressed.

Then she banked the fire and settled herself
nearby with her skirt as a pillow. Staring at the night sky and
bringing her thoughts into focus, she tried connecting with Tiege.
For some reason, she felt him at the edge of her awareness, but she
couldn’t actually exchange thoughts with him like she had the first
time.

She found it odd that she could somehow
connect with the dream male but not her twin brother. Who was he?
Had she somehow conjured him with her mind during this time of
insane stress and anxiety? If so, why was he seemingly so puzzled
about it all, too?

In any case, she decided that right then was
as good a time as any other to eat crow. So she closed her eyes and
thought of him…the male she now thought of as Sparky.

Ariana stood at the center of camp as the
Mercesti ate their latest meal. Watching them devour the food was
always a disgusting experience. Their manners were beyond
deplorable and the sounds they made turned her stomach.

She was only allowed food once every three
days, rather than once every other day as an Estilorian typically
needed. The one time she veered from this rule out of desperation
had resulted in her being beaten beside the campfire amid a great
deal of jeering and spectacle. Her left eye was still partially
swollen shut from that lesson.

So now, although her stomach pained her and
her mouth flooded with saliva as the scent of the shepherd’s pie
she had created filled her nostrils, she forced the hunger
back.

“Ariana,” she heard, and her body
instinctively tensed. Every time Eirik said her name, she flinched.
“Come here.”

Although she knew this couldn’t be good, as
he only ever called her to him if she had done something to
displease him, she found her legs cooperating with the command.
Evidently her body knew better than her mind what would happen if
she didn’t.

She crossed the camp to Eirik’s tent, where
he stood with the flap in his hand to allow her to pass. The
thought of going into the tent with him terrified her. And when she
spotted Deimos hovering in a corner of the tent, her fear
escalated. His red, manic eyes darted to her as she stood
indecisively in the entrance.

“Get in,” Eirik said. He gave her a strong
shove from behind, sending her sprawling.

She didn’t get up quickly enough to avoid a
kick from Eirik, but unlike his usual punishments, the blow seemed
to lack any genuine enthusiasm. Since she took most of the kick to
her upper arm, she was able to get up without much trouble.

“Yes, my lord?” she asked, just as she had
been trained. It felt blasphemous every time she said it.

“We should arrive at the sword’s location in
a day or two,” Eirik said, moving to sit in the luxurious padded
chair that she had created for him.

When he didn’t speak beyond that, she just
stared at him. Then, realizing he seemed to be waiting for a
response from her, she nodded. “That is…excellent news, my
lord.”

“Indeed it is.” His deadly gaze remained
focused on her face. “Once we have the sword, you will then lead me
to the scroll.”

Swallowing, she repeated, “Yes, my lord.”

His eyes flashed. “I thought, since we were
successful in our hunt today and we are getting so close to our
goal, that I would give you a little reminder of what you have in
store should you fail to find the scroll.”

Her heart, already at a steady trot, launched
right into a gallop. The last time he had done this, she had been
forced to watch a Mercesti soldier dismember another one who had
gotten into Eirik’s bad graces. Her nightmares would always be
haunted by those images.

“I need no such reminder, my lord,” she said,
her voice unavoidably tremulous.

Her gaze shifted to Deimos when he moved
closer to her. He remained in the same predatory crouch he always
assumed when she was near. His unnatural, gleaming eyes were just
visible through the fall of dark hair that covered most of his
pale, contorted face. She remembered how that hair had clung to his
face in bloody clumps as he slaughtered Tisha.

Now, he issued awful noises, moving in a way
that had her averting her eyes. Her throat went dry with fright. As
she wondered what she would do to protect herself, a noise outside
the tent had her jumping and looking to the tent opening. The flap
was thrown aside and several Mercesti entered.

They pulled a female behind them. She was a
Mercesti female that Ariana didn’t recognize. She could only assume
the female had been caught somewhere during their travels that day
and likely rendered unconscious to keep her quiet.

Now, however, the female fought for her
release. A gag had been tied in her mouth. Her rather ragged gown
was torn at the shoulder and carried a number of blood stains. When
the female spotted Deimos in the corner, her eyes wheeled crazily
in her head.

“I understand, my lord,” Ariana said quickly
as her entire body trembled. She looked at Eirik and clutched her
shaking hands together. “I don’t require any demonstrations. I
assure you, my every effort will be put toward finding the
scroll.”

He stared at her. Deimos’ noises and
movements grew in urgency. “Very well then,” Eirik said, and Ariana
felt faint with relief. “We will merely kill her for entertainment
purposes.”

Ariana shouted a protest even as the males
holding the thrashing female thrust her at Deimos. The henchman
attacked his victim with the speed of a viper. Even through her
gag, the female’s agonized scream filled the tent as her throat was
rent.

In spite of her towering fear and revulsion,
Ariana felt herself surging forward. She couldn’t allow another
being to be harmed in such hideous, violent ways. But the Mercesti
who had dragged the female into the tent now grabbed Ariana and
held her back. Although she twisted and kicked, she was unable to
gain her release or escape the horrors in front of her.

From his chair, Eirik watched it all without
a flicker of reaction on his face. Only when the atrocity was over
and Deimos curled into a content ball on the ground did he
speak.

“If you fail me, Ariana, this will be your
fate.”

“What is the Elder Scroll?”

Caleb asked the question. He sat with Skye at
a meeting table in Gabriel’s home, alongside their siblings, the
elders and most of the class commanders. Knorbis had just announced
what he believed the rogue Mercesti sought on the mainland.

“The Elder Scroll is an artifact that has
been in existence since before the creation of this plane,” Jabari
responded.

Knorbis explained, “When we lived on the
human plane millennia ago, many humans worshipped Estilorians as
gods and goddesses. Our judgment during this period was what you
could call ‘colored.’ Having been put into positions of great
importance, we discussed what would happen should an elder ever be
killed. Back then, this seemed a crucial matter. Humans had come to
rely on us for many things. Losing an elder would have been
detrimental to our way of life. There were things that could only
be accomplished with the power of all the elders.”

Caleb nodded. Even now, the elders generated
the most power when they worked together.

“We decided that we should take precautions
in an effort to preserve that way of life,” Knorbis continued. “We
knew age alone was not enough to promote an Estilorian to elder
status. This remains true even today. The original nine class
elders evolved into our roles due to our innate connection with
each other as well as our individual abilities. It was a natural
process that we can’t really explain.”

When he paused, Malukali spoke. “We learned
once Grolkinei killed Volarius that a being doesn’t become an elder
by default. Grolkinei was old and powerful, yes…but he was not a
true elder. Even if his ways had not been so misguided, he would
not have been able to join his abilities with ours. Similarly,
although Kanika assumed leadership of the Mercesti after
Grolkinei’s death and is many centuries in age, she isn’t a class
elder.”

“But before the creation of this plane,”
Gabriel said, drawing Caleb’s attention, “we were thinking only of
what needed to be done to keep civilization progressing as it was.
We decided that, should something happen and an elder died, we had
to find a way to pass on that lost elder’s power to a new elder to
ensure the balance of power was maintained. We never anticipated
humans growing discontent and bitter and warring against us.”

“I blame myself for not foreseeing what
happened,” Knorbis said. “At the time, I found myself immersed in
the everyday. Society was rapidly advancing, pulling our attention
to the events occurring right then. I should have spent more time
looking ahead.”

Malukali reached over and covered his hand
with hers. The two elders were married, though they hadn’t ever
exchanged the powerful vows required of an avowed pairing. Because
they both already shared thoughts and were the most highly
mentally-attuned elders, there wasn’t a need to exchange the vows.
Indeed, such an act could prove detrimental to them.

“In the end,” Zayna said, “we joined our
powers to create a scroll. The scroll, when used under the right
circumstances, would allow an Estilorian to assume the power of an
elder.”

Caleb blinked at that. Amber, Olivia and Skye
gave Gabriel incredulous looks.

Having the grace to look sheepish, he shifted
his gaze between them and said, “Hearing it now, we know it sounds
crazy. But we weren’t complete idiots.”

“We crafted the scroll very carefully,”
Sebastian explained. “There had to be extremely specific
circumstances in place for it to work.”

“To our thinking, it was imperative that
anyone who assumed the new elder role be compatible with the rest
of us to ensure the continuance of our joined power,” Jabari said.
“Thus, there had to be a coming together of elements specific to
each of our classes in order for the scroll to work. In my class’s
case, wisdom for the Elphresti. There must also be loyalty for the
Gloresti, strength for the Waresti, creativity for the Scultresti,
caring for others for the Lekwuesti, faith for the Corgloresti,
internal centeredness for the Orculesti, intuition for the Wymzesti
and, in the case of Volarius, strategizing and innovation for the
Mercesti.”

Gabriel said, “Knorbis applied his foresight
to this task. He ultimately had nine visions, all of which became
part of unlocking the scroll’s power.”

The Wymzesti elder nodded. “Crafting the
scroll took decades, but we had nothing but time.”

“We created the scroll in secret,” Uriel
said. “Should anyone outside of the elders know of its existence,
each one of us would be at risk. The temptation of that kind of
power laid at anyone’s feet could turn any being murderous.”

“The scroll was kept safe, and no one outside
of the nine original elders was made aware of its existence,”
Jabari explained. “But once we created this plane and Grolkinei
killed Volarius, we faced a difficult decision.”

“We hadn’t anticipated an elder being struck
down by one of our own out of hatred and rage,” Malukali said. “Our
original agreement had been to use the scroll to promote the elder
who would assume Volarius’ role. But in this case, the Mercesti
class quickly changed into something dark and evil after their
elder was killed.”

Knorbis added, “Upon learning that the only
way a being could now become a Mercesti was by modeling Grolkinei’s
murderous behavior, the idea of giving a Mercesti the power of an
elder was summarily dismissed. Although we knew that our combined
power would be forever diminished, we all saw this as an acceptable
compromise.”

“We no longer had to consider what needed to
be done to maintain our way of life,” Zayna pointed out, “because
that way of life no longer existed. And, since we lost touch with
human emotions after creating this plane, the decision was much
easier to make…more logical.”

Gabriel said, “We decided then that the risk
of keeping the scroll, possibly to have it discovered in the
future, was too great. So we took action to destroy it.”

“Unfortunately,” Jabari said, “the only way
we could completely destroy it would have been with the combined
powers of all nine elders, and Volarius was dead. So we had to
improvise.”

“We broke the scroll into three parts,”
Knorbis explained. “That was the most we could manage without
Volarius. We didn’t want the pieces kept within the boundaries of
the home base, where there was too high a likelihood they could be
discovered. So Gabriel, Uriel and Ini-herit each took one part of
the scroll and hid it somewhere on the mainland. Upon their return,
Malukali and I suppressed their memories of the scroll’s hiding
places so that none of us would ever be tempted to reassemble it
and use it. The danger to all Estilorians was just too great.”

Caleb processed this. He looked over when
Amber said, “It sounds like it’s well hidden, then. How would some
random Mercesti know about it?”

Malukali answered her. “When you are
surrounded by beings with mental abilities, nothing is ever truly a
secret.”

Caleb understood. The Wymzesti and the
Orculesti classes could read thoughts. Although Knorbis and
Malukali were capable of guarding their thoughts, there was no
saying one of the other elders’ minds hadn’t been scanned and the
knowledge of the scroll identified. And if that being then
converted to Mercesti, they might have possibly retained that
knowledge.