He stepped forward, pulling a few pieces of paper from the back of the clipboard and placed them down on the bed.
I had seen the pictures so often in the years I spent in the fog of not knowing. They were the same ones of the battle in Svarov, of Prague being rebuilt, and that last one with Joclyn and Ryland walking along the bank of the Vltava River, Joclyn refusing to take the long golden ribbon from him.
My heart clenched at seeing it there, at seeing her hair flow free around her face and not bound in the braid. It was a pain of loss I finally understood, the same look clear on her face as she pleaded with my brother to take the sacred ribbon. I saw it in her, just as I felt it in myself now.
Even though I knew the risk, knew that the man beside me was watching me intently, I still grabbed the picture from the pile, warm tears rolling down my cheeks.
“Ahhh,” The man sighed, the tone of his voice sounding as though he had found a great treasure. “You know her then?”
The picture was wrinkled, worn around the edges, with a bit of both water and fire damage to the delicate print. They all were. I dropped the treasured picture of my wife and shifted to another one, the exact one Kaye had used to help identify Joclyn all those years before.
She and I, fighting side by side.
The pain of the other image was gone here, although I could barely see it thanks to the damage that the images had received.
“Is this the same girl?” I asked, careful to keep my voice casual.
“The same…” He obviously didn’t understand.
“The same girl in the image?” I asked, a thought slamming into me, making my heart rate monitor beat faster in my excitement. The man obviously didn’t notice. “Is she the same? I cannot see her here. Do you have the original.”
I looked right at him as I asked the question, watched his breath catch as he went back to the clipboard, shuffling through papers as he tried to locate something.
“You were shown these images before,” he finally said, his voice gaining that same hard line of lost patience. “You do not need an original. You know what you see.”
He glared at me, fingers tapping on the clipboard in either impatience or nerves, I wasn’t sure. The sound matched my heart rate as it too began to accelerate, thundering in exhilaration.
He knew nothing about me. The SSU had taken it all.
“Yes, it is the same girl,” I finally said, not looking a millimeter away as I handed the images back. “But I do not know who she is.”
He stared at me, the corners of his jaw tensing as his temper flared.
“Fine,” he said in a grumble so low that I wasn’t completely sure that was what he had said. “Then tell me about this.”
This picture was different. The image was clean, crisp, with no sign of damage.
It was clearly of me flying over the town at the border, moments away from escape.
I could see Kaye and the others below me, see their fear. I knew this moment, just seeing it pricked me with the memory of dozens of bullets ripping through my body.
This time I was the one to hesitate, although I did not look away. I refused to give this man all of my strength, I could still feel the twist of fear in my stomach that the memory of those years of torture had left me with.
“Whatever power was in me. Whatever power this man had,” I said as I tapped against my own image. “It was lost in that escape. I have told you before. It is gone….”
“No.” His snap was not in anger, but instead in a defiant command of refusal. He would not believe me, or rather he would not fail in bringing this power to his precious Republic.
I could only imagine the accolades that would be behind it.
“You spout lies so you can escape in the night,” he hissed in Russian, some of the papers in his hands slipping to the ground as he leaned closer to me. “You think I will believe you, but you are my prisoner and I know better. I will not believe you.”
The rest of the clipboard fell to the ground with a clang that made me jump, the action so abrupt that even if I had been paying attention I don’t think I could have moved fast enough to stop him from slicing the long blade over my arm.
I screamed as the flesh opened, as my own blood began to pour from me in a wave brighter and faster than I had ever seen.
I had never felt pain as strong as I did then. Never felt every moment of a cut, or an injury.
I had been hurt thousands of times. My bones had been broken, even injuries worse than this had ripped over me. Before, however, I always had my magic to soothe the pain, to heal me. Now, there was none of that. Now, there was no barrier between me and the pain.
I continued to scream as the sheets of the bed blossomed in red from the pool that was pouring over my skin. The Russian held my arm down as he stared at the massive gash, waiting in exhilaration for a forgotten magic to erupt in me. Nothing happened.
“It’s gone,” I panted through the agony, wishing beyond anything that it was here.
That the pain would leave.
“The magic is gone.” I barely got the words out before I fell back on the bed, unable to support my own weight through the lightheaded spin I was smothered by.
“No!” I heard his scream as my hand dropped, as his feet stomped, as the door slammed shut.
I heard it, but I could only look at the stained ceiling, at the old hospital light, and wish beyond anything that I could escape this place.
That I could Stutter and find myself in the safety of her arms.
But there was nothing but an old ceiling, a tight restraint, and the hard edge of a book against my lower back.
The book.
The woman with the kind face who promised to help me. Told me to write letters to them. To find help.
It was a long shot, and I wasn’t sure how I could make it work, how I could find Joclyn, but I had to try.
Just like Kaye, I had to trust her.
22
Joclyn
“Any update?” I asked as Ryland entered the room, Míra only steps behind him. The girl had a look on her face that was both smug and awed. Clearly she wasn’t going to be leaving Ryland’s side anytime soon.
Ryland shook his head no. “The final team got back from scouring Mongolia just a few minutes ago. Nothing. My guess is the place is cloaked.”
“Or it’s so small you can’t see it with the naked eye,” Wyn added.
“Or it’s underground,” Thom said, leaning back in his chair.
“Or he’s not there,” I whispered, biting my lower lip. That one was the most probable given what I had seen in my sight. Nastya torturing Ilyan, Ivory making machines, explosions, the tip of a needle smothered in clouds, prayer flags strung through a forest. It was the prayer flags I had seen the most, lines and lines of them weaved through a forest as though they were leading me to something.
I closed my eyes, exhaling sharply as I ran back through the sight, the same words as before buzzing in my head.
“In the high mountains. Far from the plains. In the islands, against the land. Find them marching. Defeat the fire. Take the source. Repair the land.” The words rumbled in my head, but I kept them there. The more I tried to figure it out, the less it made sense. That was usual for sight, but this time it was even more frustrating.
In the mountains, but an island against the land…
“Japan.” I shook my head again. “Maybe we were right originally and he’s in Japan. It fits better with the mountains and the island being close to the land. Besides, we know the Kyō are there.”
I was mostly talking to myself. I was sure everyone else would think I was talking gibberish, but thankfully none of them looked at me like I had lost it. They were probably all too used to me doing that at this point. Well, all but Míra, but I wasn’t even sure she was aware of the world around her. She was still looking all twitterpated from where she leaned against the wall, staring at the back of Ryland’s head.
The room we were in was the one we always used for meetings, the
stone was still rough and pockmarked from the war, but the wooden table was large enough for all of us. Wyn had even tried to make it a circle at one point.
For now, Wyn, Thom, Ryland, and I all sat in a weird array of whatever chairs we had been able to scavenge, the table between us. Normally, the rough wood surface was stacked with maps or reports or whatever else we needed. Today it was bare. Something which Rinax had already pointed out twice from where he perched on the high back of Ryland’s chair.
“I thought your sight said Mongolia?” Wyn asked after a minute, her holey hand flat against the table.
“Technically, my sight didn’t say anything.” I shrugged, letting my finger run over the surface of the table. “But the terrain looked like Mongolia. I haven’t been to Japan enough to know, so I guess it could be the same.”
“To be honest, I don’t think we could get everyone to agree to start the fight in the middle of nowhere Mongolia, anyway.” Thom’s chair scraped against the ground as he stood, going over to the only other piece of furniture in the room, the cabinet with all the maps.
“All of the Chosen’s lives are in danger,” Thom continued as he began to thumb through the stacks of paper, pulling out one and then another. “Now that the SSU has fallen, the caves of Imdalind are the only safe place to be. And you all know as well as I do that we won’t be able to bring all the Chosen here. Some won’t make it, more will be created. Hell, we don’t even know where they all are. The Kyō will get them.”
“So the SSU is defeated then?” Míra asked, pushing herself off the wall as she stepped toward the table. She shrunk back against the wall the second I looked up at her.
This was the first time she had been allowed in this room, and she clearly wasn’t going to miss out on this chance.
“Well, seeing as you beheaded their leader, yes, I would say they have fallen,” I said, the girl grinning even as Wyn looked like she was about to heave over the side of the table.
“Looks like I trained you well,” Wyn said confidently, even if she did look a little green. The compliment, however, sent Míra beaming more.
“Yeah, let’s just not make a habit of it, kay?” Ryland was clearly trying to hide a smile, his eyes all bright and moonstruck as he looked at her.
“Anyway,” Thom barked, slamming the maps he had retrieved from the cabinet onto the table. “The last of the colonies got here about an hour before you all got back. They are ready for war, and they are ready for it now.”
Thom unfurled the map of Japan first, his finger already pressed into the center, just off from Tokyo.
“The Kyō are here, The Tokyo Sky Tree, not that they hid it,” Thom tapped the map a few times before sitting back down again. “It was only a few hours after they conducted their not-so-hostile takeovers that they declared it the new capital. That’s where our people want to go. And I don’t think there’s any way to stop them.”
Thom shook his head, dreads swinging as he sat back in his chair and looked right at me.
“We had to stop two groups from leaving while you guys were gone. If we want to go together, and have a chance of catching them off guard, we need to go soon.” Wyn gave Thom a look before turning back to me. That same look of regret everyone had given me over the last few hours catching me in my chest again.
“What are the chances of Ilyan being in Tokyo?” Ryland asked, his hand halfway to the map when Rinax landed in the center of it, his little face pulled into a scowl as he stared Ryland down. I would have laughed, but before I could even inhale that frightening face was turned toward me.
How could something that was essentially a giant blue glitter fairy be so terrifying?
“What is it Rinax?” I tried to keep my voice level, but the guy was freaking me out.
“You two, have got to look at the bigger picture.” His high pitched voice was near a snarl as he continued to look between us. “You have a world who is now capturing the Chosen and you are moaning about your husband! I left three years ago and you were pouting about your husband. I come back, and you are still pouting about your husband. It’s pathetic! You need to focus on saving your people and not spend years crying about someone that you’ve already been told you’ll get back.”
“You have no idea what you are talking about!” I snapped, jumping to my feet as I leaned over the table to stare down the little monster. “You left days after my husband, my mate, vanished! You come back days after we figure out where he is. Don’t think that your disappearance and bad timing are a worthy sample of everything else that’s been happening here. We’ve been saving the Chosen. We’ve been capturing your people even though they want to rip our faces off, just like you threw a fit about all those years ago. Don’t come back and pretend to be some vigilante ready to save our asses. You left to go find your family. I didn’t see you trying to help us save the world. Now that it’s time for me to find my family, you don’t get a say.”
I was ragey, and I knew it. I had been since I watched Míra cut off the head of the one person that would know where Ilyan was. The one person who had actually seen him. It boiled over the edge when Ivory spouted out all she had done to him. Rinax was just getting the full brunt of it.
To be honest, though, he kinda deserved it. More so seeing as he just scowled at me with that pug nose of his. Arrogant glitter monster.
“I can do both, Rinax. I can save my mate and I can save the world. If I can do it in one shot, I will. Don’t think for a second that I have forgotten what I am and what my role is.” I was sure my eyes had gone black with how everyone was staring at me as I sat back down.
Well, everyone but Wyn who was grinning and giving me a silent applause from where she sat behind Rinax. It was probably good he didn’t see her and her overexaggerated applause, he was just as pissed as I was.
“Now, who is ready to kick some ass, save the world, and find our king?” I was well aware I was in full queen mode. I didn’t need the matching smug grins from Thom and Ryland to tell me that. Hell, even Míra was looking at me like she was about to bow down and sing my praises.
“We have about five thousand Chosen who are trained enough I feel comfortable sending them in to fight. There are three hundred Skȓítek who can lead them,” Thom said, tapping on the map and letting pin pricks of color appear there as he organized the army.
“Don’t forget one Drak,” I added, tapping the map to contribute my own mark.
“This Vilỳ is out,” Rinax said, still snarling. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Of course after his little speech he would bail on us.
“So is this Trpaslík.” Wyn’s voice was so quiet that I almost didn’t even recognize it was her. She sat, looking a bit grumpy at her announcement, even as Thom smiled and grabbed her hand.
Everything about that was just melting me, and not just because I knew why. I nodded in understanding and removed a few dots from the board all while doing my best not to smile too big.
Being a stoic, powerful Queen was hard sometimes.
“What?” Ryland asked, practically jumping up in confusion. “Since when do you say no to going in and burning things to the ground?”
“Since I went ahead and decided to grow a demon in my uterus, Ryland,” Wyn prodded him in a mock voice. Well, I hadn’t expected her to announce it that way.
Neither had Thom considering he dropped his head in his hands.
“What?” Ryland asked in confusion. He was either really slow or needed to go back to eighth grade biology.
Míra however was squealing and bouncing around behind him. Even Rinax looked excited. I had never seen him smile before, like really smile. It was creepy as hell. His face was all distorted, the sharp points of his teeth visible as his eyes seemed to gleam. He looked like he was about to eat the baby, not celebrate it.
“This was really not how I wanted to tell my brother, Wyn,” Thom moaned from behind his hands. “We talked about this.”
“Yes, and I didn’t think it would be so hard to say no to going in
to battle. It just kinda slipped out.”
“Some slip,” I giggled, at least I could tell everyone now. I was so excited for them and keeping it a secret for even as little time as I had was nearly impossible.
“Can someone please help a guy out?” Ryland asked. Kay, maybe he was that stupid.
“I’m knocked up, Ry.” Somehow that made more sense to Ryland.
His eyes got wide, a smile spreading over his face as he danced around the table and gathered both of them up in his arms.
I was halfway around the table to join in the hug dance when the door opened, and one of the guards that I knew had been assigned to the survivors from the SSU attack slipped in. My magic sparked, every warning alarm going off as I turned to him.
“Kirl?” I asked, everything going on high alert as the squealing, giggling mosh pit silenced, even though they didn’t let go over each other.
“I’m so sorry to bother you, it’s just that…” He glanced around the room before opening the door further, revealing a haggard old woman I had never seen before. Her nurse’s uniform was torn and stained, her brown and grey streaked hair had mostly pulled free from a bun that was covered in dirt. She looked scared, something that faded away as she looked up to me.
“She claims to know Ilyan.”
“What do you mean she know--” I began.
“I know you!” Míra cut me off, rushing from where she stood against the back wall of the room to face the old woman. She looked up at Míra’s call, recognition lighting her features. “You’re Katenka! This is the nurse from the hospital in Kiev!”
“I was also the nurse to your husband for three years,” she said with a nod to Míra before she looked right back at me. “He’s been looking for you.”
23
Joclyn
The world felt numb.
Everything felt numb. I sat between Ryland and Wyn, their hands wrapped around my own as I listened to everything Katenka had to say. Listened to what had happened the last three years this woman and her daughter, Kaye, had cared for my husband.
Flare of Villainy: The Imdalind Series, Book 10 Page 16