The Lost Voice

by V. St. Clair

  The Lost Voice

  Origins of Elaria: Book 2

  V. St. Clair

  1

  Jessamine Elaria

  It was distinctly awkward sitting in a house in downtown Silveria, chatting casually with the woman who had led the resistance against her father’s government over the last decade. To add insult to injury, the woman she spent so many years trying to track down just happened to be the mother of the man she loved.

  Maxton, the first Gifted to escape captivity from the Augenspire in the last century, sat in total silence while Jessamine told her story to Hera, soaking up every word without interruption. She couldn’t tell if he was afraid to interject or just being polite, but Jessamine’s brain felt too sluggish to appreciate the difference right now. The others had gone to bed sometime during the early hours of the morning, but she stubbornly insisted on sitting near the basement door, waiting for Topher to return. Now she was exhausted.

  “Did Major Fox say anything to you before he died?” Hera asked calmly over tea, every bit as unreadable as her son.

  Well, at least now I know where Topher gets it from, Jessamine thought wearily, wondering what time it was and whether the alarms had been raised to recall Topher and Lorna back to the Augenspire. Surely by now people know something is wrong.

  “No, he was too busy trying to murder me,” she replied flatly, struggling to control her temper. In a single night she learned that Topher heard magical voices in his head, and not only was his mother Hera the resistance leader, she was harboring both the escaped prisoner and the psychic they had been after for months now. To top it all off, Jessamine had to reveal her Gift to Topher after a member of her own Provo tried to assassinate her, forcing her to flee her home. It was too much for one day. “Forgive my inability to wring vital details from my assailants before I’m forced to kill them.”

  “Hmm,” Hera pursed her lips in displeasure, either at the lack of information or Jessamine’s sarcasm. A stray curl of hair escaped its clasp to dangle in front of her face but she ignored it. “Well, unless Topher learns otherwise, we will have to assume Ana was correct about Major Fox striking out at your family over your recent integration efforts.”

  “How did you escape from the Augenspire?” Jessamine turned to Max now, desperate to avoid dwelling on the fate of her father and sister and everyone else in the Augenspire until Topher returned with news.

  Surprised at being addressed directly, Max said, “Fox let me out, though I’m sure he told you all a different story after we kicked his ass.” He snorted in dry amusement when Jessamine looked indignant.

  “He let you out?”

  “I decided he was going to kill me sooner or later anyway, so when he came in looking high, I took my chances and convinced him I could bring him to Hera. I told him I lied through the Veritan during his interrogations before.”

  “And he believed you?”

  “He seemed pretty paranoid about the possibility of the Gifted having a way around Veritan, and he wasn’t exactly in his right mind to begin with. He was pretty off-balance ever since Topher visited me earlier in the day.” Max dared a brief look at Hera, but she remained silent and expressionless.

  “He wanted me to bring him to Hera’s hideout so he’d get the credit for bringing her in, but he needed my Gift to make a door out of the Augenspire, so he was forced to let me out of my cell first. We popped up in the wrong place—it sometimes happens with my Gift—and stumbled upon Ana, who I hadn’t met until that night.”

  “There were only two of you?” Jessamine asked.

  “Yeah, why? Did Fox say there were more?”

  Jessamine’s lips twisted into a scowl. “He added four more masked Gifted who were lying in wait to attack him and deprive him of his Talents and ion-sword during his retelling.”

  So Topher was right about the story being made up to prevent Fox from looking bad. Their conversation in her private sitting room felt like a long time ago.

  A new thought struck her then, and Jessamine raised her eyebrows in surprise and said, “You got lucky when you transported out of the Augenspire. What were the odds of encountering a fellow Gifted who was willing to help you at random?”

  Max shrugged. “I sometimes think the places I end up are not accidents, whether or not I mean to take myself there.” He paused for a moment, as if to let the profound statement sink in. “Anyway, the two of us fought our way free of Fox and I made another door out of there, which brought us to Hera.”

  “I should have known he was planning something,” Jessamine hopped to her feet and began pacing the room. “He was always out for glory, never content with his role, even as a Provo-Major. Never as competent as some of the others, which I’m sure he blamed on anyone other than himself.”

  How could I have been so blind?

  “Everything seems obvious in hindsight,” Max tried to assure her. “There was probably no way you could have known—”

  “It is my job to know,” Jessamine interjected sharply, whirling to face him and softening as she caught the uncomfortable look on his face.

  She sighed and returned to the couch, trying to sit upright and look in control of herself even though she just wanted to collapse into a heap on the floor and cry.

  “So, Ana is the psychic?” she wanted confirmation on this point before meeting her again. It could be very dangerous for Jessamine to be in a room with someone who could pull thoughts out of her head at will. She didn’t like the idea of Ana meeting up with Topher as many times as she had with such a Gift. What had she gotten from his mind without him even knowing it?

  “She’s not psychic, but she can sometimes see into people’s minds. I’ll let her explain it to you,” Max began, running a hand through his black braids and looking tired.

  After a long moment of silence, Jessamine finally couldn’t take it anymore and turned to Hera, blurting out the real question she’d been wondering since her arrival.

  “Why are you leading a movement against the government your son is working for?”

  Hera scowled and looked away, clearly hoping this subject wouldn’t come up until much later, if at all.

  “The government has been corrupt for many years—ever since the Great War ended and your family consolidated their power by turning the Gifted into second-class citizens. Your father allowed the unwarranted killings, dreaming up his grand scheme to have the Gifted crammed onto an island to die before finally seeing good sense and changing his plans.”

  In truth, it was Jessamine becoming Gifted that made her father realize he needed to change his world view. He had to make the world a better place for her people if she had any chance of ascending to power someday. Jessamine had feared being cast aside as heir to the Viceroyalty when her Gift was discovered, but fortunately her father’s love for her had caused him to revise his own position instead of disowning her. She felt no need to explain the reason for her father’s sudden change of heart to a woman who had obviously made the opposite choice with her own son.

  The animosity this thought evoked from her caught her off-guard. She tried to avoid judging people without fully understanding their situation, but the look on Topher’s face when they burst into the kitchen and he realized his mother’s betrayal made her livid.

  “You have no idea what drives my father’s decisions, or the toll some of them take on him. I doubt you’ve even met him.”

  Hera raised an eyebrow and said, “You are hardly an impartial judge of his character. It is natural for you to look past your father’s shortcomings and to defend him.”

  “I apparently know a lot more about my father’s character than your son knows about yours,” Jessamine retorted, nettled.

  “I am not the ruler of a planet,” Hera replied simply, though s
he looked stung by the barb.

  Jessamine forced those feelings away and focused on what mattered. She needed to gather as much information as possible while Hera and Maxton were still caught off-guard by her appearance, so she and her father could effectively alter their plans when she returned home.

  “You aren’t Gifted, and neither is Topher—nor was your husband. I don’t understand why you started this fight against my family and our government, of all people who might have the motive to do so.”

  Hera scowled at her and said, “I didn’t start the fight. My old friend and mentor, Ash did. Perhaps you heard about his rebellion.”

  Jessamine’s mouth opened in shock. She did know about Ash’s rebellion, of course, but she also knew who had ultimately ended it…

  “Ash brought his forces to Halstead to recruit more fighters for his cause,” Hera continued flatly, seeing the recognition in Jessamine’s face. “It was a strategic city to hold, and the people there were sympathetic to his cause and supported his vision of a less-intrusive government. If he’d had time to put down roots in Halstead, it would have drawn out your military for years trying to reclaim the city, and he could have achieved some key victories and forced a policy change.”

  Hera’s voice had become sharper and louder as she spoke, though she stopped to comport herself now before continuing more calmly, eyes still avoiding Jessamine’s.

  “He tried to persuade me to join the movement, but I was convinced it wasn’t my fight, as I wasn’t Gifted and my own son had joined the military like his father before him. Ash begged me to come to Halstead with him to help recruit, arguing that it wasn’t about being Gifted; it was about doing the right thing and fighting to bring back equality and decency to Elaria.”

  There was pain in her voice when she said, “I was supposed to be there that night.” It was a whisper, but in the silence of the room they both heard her clearly. “I changed my mind at the last minute and didn’t go to Halstead as planned. You probably know what happened next.”

  It seemed cruel to make her continue, so Jessamine did it for her.

  “The Halstead Conflict,” she supplied.

  “That is the name your father gave the event after it was over, so the history books would gloss over the true horror of it. Do not insult me by pushing his agenda on me, Vicerina. Call it what it really was,” Hera said in disgust, dismissively brushing the stray lock of hair from her face.

  Jessamine was well-aware of how people outside the government commonly referenced the event.

  “The Halstead Massacre,” she amended.

  “Yes,” Hera looked viciously satisfied to hear her say it out loud. “There was no fight in Halstead. Your military showed up in the dead of night and slaughtered people in their homes, dropping gas bombs in clustered areas, and annihilating both Ash’s group and thousands of innocent bystanders in a single evening.”

  It certainly wasn’t a highlight of Father’s reign, she acknowledged privately.

  “This isn’t something we generally advertise, but the commander in charge of the Halstead operation deviated from plan and was ultimately killed for it afterwards,” Jessamine explained.

  Military historians praised them for striking such a decisive blow to the lynch-pin of the resistance and preventing a much longer conflict that would have resulted in more fatalities on both sides, but the top circles in the Augenspire knew it was a hideous blunder.

  “Imagine my surprise,” Hera went on dryly, apparently not believing or caring about what Jessamine just said, “when my own son got promoted to Ground Commander at the age of fifteen abruptly afterwards.”

  Jessamine felt compelled to interject, because despite being fourteen at the time of the Halstead Conflict, she was quite familiar with Topher’s role in it.

  “Topher wasn’t at Halstead,” she explained. “It’s true he recognized its strategic importance and identified it to his superior officer as the key to ending the rebellion, but his squad wasn’t even on the mission when it went out.”

  Hera waved a dismissive hand at this and said, “He orchestrated the execution of good people who didn’t deserve to die, whether he was there or not. He knew what would happen when he pointed his commanders at Halstead, or else he’s an absolute fool—and I did not raise an idiot. Are you going to tell me Corithans was an accident as well?”

  Jessamine could tell this was a battle she wouldn’t win. There were too many bad feelings between Hera and her son for Jessamine to sort it out with logic.

  “It seems like you should speak to your son about your concerns, since I am unable to answer for him.”

  Hera stood up abruptly and said, “I’ll get more tea for everyone,” and left the room, her posture stiff and unnatural. Jessamine didn’t begrudge her the excuse to be alone.

  She turned to Maxton now, the only one left in the living room with her, and found him staring at her in quiet contemplation.

  “That’s some heavy stuff,” he admitted quietly. “I knew Hera got involved in the rebellion after the fall of Ash’s group at Halstead, but I didn’t realize her own son had forced her hand. Kind of explains why they don’t talk much, or why she doesn’t have any pictures of him hanging around the house.”

  Jessamine frowned as she realized he was right. Looking around the living room, she never would have known Hera had a son if Topher hadn’t told her. Interestingly, there were no pictures of her late husband either.

  Perhaps she hates them both now?

  “Well, I doubt she’ll care what I think, but Topher is a good man who serves my family loyally. He’s not greedy or ambitious, and he doesn’t enjoy holding his status over others, unlike some of his peers. He’s certainly not a murderer—though he does follow orders, which sometimes involves killing. I don’t necessarily approve of the way the military went about ending the rebellion at Halstead, but the fact remains that Ash’s group was fighting against the lawful government. They could have resisted peacefully and tried to work through legislation, but instead they used guerilla tactics and killed any government employee they could lay hands on.”

  “I agree that Ash’s approach was flawed, but legislation would never have worked, because your father would have refused to hear it,” Hera spoke from the threshold, leaning against the doorway with a cup of tea in her hands. “Ash was fighting because it was the only way he could get your father’s attention. The Gifted aren’t in a good position to organize and resist, thanks to the level of scrutiny you have them under, and it is the job of every citizen to help the oppressed. Once your father got bored tormenting the Gifted, who’s to say the rest of us wouldn’t be next? Don’t tell me you have a hard time understanding why someone would take up the mantle to fight a grave injustice in the world, just because they weren’t on the chopping block yet.”

  “No, I know all about championing causes that seem impossible.” Jessamine sighed. Someday the world would know she was Gifted, but for now she was barely comfortable with the knowledge that Topher knew, and she trusted him more than anyone in the world.

  “Still,” she continued, rubbing her eyes to keep herself awake. “Why let your son join the military if you felt so strongly against it? Why let him become a Provo-Major, of all things?”

  Hera looked at her like she was an idiot and said, “Let him? Have you been listening at all? Do you honestly think anyone can stop that boy from doing anything he wants to do?” She waved a hand in disgust. “He hero-worshipped his father for being a common foot-soldier, for being a cog in such a grandiose machine. Never mind that his father got blown to pieces in a small conflict off the west coast when he was still a child—Topher was in love with the cause, and of being a part of something bigger and more important than himself. And though I was never exactly wild about my husband’s career choice, I didn’t come by my hatred of the military until after the tragedy at Halstead.”

  “I wonder where Topher gets his grandiose ideas from,” Max grumbled beneath his breath, earning a glare from Hera
. “What? I’m just saying, you two are an awfully driven family, whether you mean to be or not.”

  “Well, give my father credit, he has a keen eye for talent,” Jessamine chuckled darkly. “Topher never struck me as ambitious,” she added thoughtfully in response to Maxton’s point. “He just wants to do the best he can, but keeps getting promoted because the people around him realize how talented he is.”

  Hera inclined her head in grudging agreement at this.

  “For someone who isn’t trying to get promoted, he sure managed to get bumped up to one of the highest posts on the planet pretty damn fast,” Max said admiringly. “Hell, you tell me he’s a favorite of your entire family, and one of the most influential Majors in an already-elite group at twenty-four. The only way he could be any more powerful would be to marry you or your sister and become a Viceregal.”

  You have no idea how much I would love for him to marry into the Viceroyalty…

  “Would it be alright if I went to bed?” Jessamine changed the subject. “When Topher returns I’ll need to be prepared to discuss business.”

  In truth, she wasn’t sure she would be able to sleep at all while waiting for news, despite her exhaustion, but she needed to try. It would be nice to be alone with her thoughts once more, confusing and unpleasant though they were.

  “Of course,” Hera relented, expression softening at last. Whatever bad feelings she had against the Viceroy, it seemed she could still sympathize with Jessamine’s concern for her family. “Right this way.”

  “Thank you,” Jessamine said wearily as Hera led her down the hall and up a short flight of stairs to the second floor. A light layer of dust coated parts of the hallway and there were no signs of personality anywhere, like a relic of a past long forgotten. The dusty bulbs gave the space a muted quality, and Jessamine wasn’t sure if she was imagining the musty smell or not.

  “It doesn’t look like you use the guest bedroom a lot,” she remarked as they passed a bathroom and came to the last door at the end of the hall.