Elder

by Raine Thomas

  The position of class commander involved direct support of the elder. It was a position for an unfailingly trustworthy and dedicated being, a description that applied to each of her cousins. Additionally, commanders had to make significant decisions in the elder’s absence, which required sound judgment and reasoning ability. Outside of her recent misjudgment concerning Quincy’s feelings for her, Sophia was the most balanced decision-maker Clara Kate knew. She had the ability to weigh all of the factors in a situation before forming a conclusion, a valuable trait that would make her an excellent commander.

  The second commander supported both the elder and the commander. The position often entailed real-world training of the younger class members, such as when Zachariah led the group of young Gloresti to the mainland fifty years earlier. Beings in this role were valued for input gathered through regular interaction with their class and others, since elders often traveled from Central and commanders were usually left in control at their class homelands. She decided that Tate and Tiege would be co-second commanders. They had both learned a great deal in their recent adventures and would certainly learn more in time. They would then use that experience to train future Kynzesti.

  As for her first lieutenant, Clara Kate chose her brother, Joshua. Like most lieutenants, he would work largely within the homeland to train their class. He had inherited their mother’s fighting skills and their father’s patience, a combination that would make him invaluable in this role.

  With that decided and her cousins notably excited about their new roles and titles, Clara Kate was left with little to dwell on besides Ini-herit.

  Placing a hand on her still-flat stomach, she thought again about the baby. She hadn’t ever dreamed of being a mother at such a young age. She hadn’t even thought she would fall in love until she was older and had more experience in relationships. But the feelings she had for Ini-herit developed so naturally on the human plane that she hadn’t even questioned them. It was like the two of them had been made for each other. Although she knew that most people didn’t meet someone and decide within a few months that they were meant to be life-long mates, she also knew that it hadn’t taken half that time for her to fall hopelessly in love.

  Her parents had a relationship like that. Maybe because she had their love as a model, she understood how significant it was when she found it. She couldn’t explain it. It just…was.

  That didn’t excuse her poor judgment in seducing Harry. She had really let her hormones get the best of her. It had been a decision far outside of her character. But that had really been the point, hadn’t it?

  Now she had to pay the price. She supposed she would take some solace out of the fact that she wouldn’t be the first elder with a child. Of course, that thought made her think of her dad.

  Wincing as she thought of the disappointment she was bound to produce when she told her parents that she was pregnant, she once again rolled over and tried a different position to get more comfortable. Unfortunately, it didn’t help. She couldn’t escape the mental image of telling her parents that they were going to be grandparents. She had so screwed up.

  Before that even happened, though, she had to tell Ini-herit. She couldn’t decide what image was worse: the one with her parents going apoplectic or the one where Ini-herit didn’t react at all.

  Maybe one of her abilities as an elder was to reverse time.

  Issuing a frustrated sigh, she flopped onto her back and pulled the pillow over her head. Then, because the pillow was there and she felt like doing it, she screamed into the muffling fabric as loud as she could.

  The uncontrolled action helped. Finally, the constant barrage of thoughts and images stopped flooding her mind. A hazy fatigue settled over her. Her grainy eyes grew heavy.

  Allowing the pillow to fall to the floor, she slept.

  Outside Clara Kate’s door, Metis waited. She was rather proud of herself for managing to follow this group from the ballroom to the offices of the Lekwuesti elder and then on to the rooms being used by the Kynzesti. It had required focusing her energy on Ariana’s thoughts, as those were the ones she could most easily access.

  Once she found the corridor leading to the rooms she needed, she listened at the doors with her ears as well as her mind to reason out which room belonged to Clara Kate. Because she identified the thought signatures and voices of Ariana, Zachariah and the Corgloresti named Quincy, and because she knew they were paired with the other Kynzesti, she soon deduced that Clara Kate was in one of the first two rooms. It didn’t take long for her to pick up a feminine sigh from the second room. She confirmed her assumption when she heard a male clear his throat in the first room. That would be archigos Ini-herit.

  With that determined, Metis had to backtrack and explore the building so that she knew how to escape with Clara Kate. She would have to abduct the Kynzesti while everyone else slept. That meant she had to navigate this unfamiliar territory without being seen. It also meant she required some supplies.

  After more than two hours of walking hallways and accessing transportation tubes that used some kind of mystifying energy to move a being from one location to another, she finally had her plan mapped out. She spent another hour finding supplies, holding onto a few and stashing the rest along her anticipated route. Then she returned to Clara Kate’s room, barely avoiding detection by a Waresti male patrolling the hallways. When he had finished his surveillance of the corridor she needed and then moved on, she moved silently to Clara Kate’s door.

  She had already determined that she couldn’t infiltrate the minds of the elders when they were at their fullest strength. But she had learned during her recent time with archigos Malukali that if an elder was debilitated, her mind was more malleable. Using this knowledge, Metis stood outside Clara Kate’s door and waited until the Kynzesti elder fell asleep.

  Fortunately, it happened before the Waresti returned. Her mind suddenly connected with Clara Kate’s. She knew from the unusual tenor of the Kynzesti’s thoughts that she had accessed her subconscious.

  Not wanting Clara Kate to awaken and reinstate the thought barrier, Metis carefully implanted thoughts in the Kynzesti’s mind. This was going to be the most difficult part of her plan. She had to convince Clara Kate to leave her room on her own two feet. After that, the Kynzesti was all hers.

  Chapter 24

  “Clara Kate, we must hurry.”

  Blinking to try and clear the fog from her brain, Clara Kate sat up in bed and looked to the door leading out to the hallway. Ini-herit stood there watching her. She didn’t understand why he hadn’t come through the adjoining door.

  “I was out in the hallway conversing with Zachariah,” he said, making her think she had spoken out loud. “There is no time to waste. Come with me.”

  Although she still didn’t understand what was going on, she reacted to the apparent importance of what he conveyed. Climbing out of bed, she walked to the door. She moved much slower than usual. It felt as though it took her an eternity to cross the room. Once she did, she realized that the door was closed.

  “What…?” She shook her head in confusion. Where had Ini-herit gone?

  “Join me in the hallway, Clara Kate.”

  Ini-herit spoke from outside her door. He must have pulled the door closed, though for what reason, she couldn’t fathom. When she grasped the handle, she realized it was locked. Why had he turned the lock when he closed it?

  “Hurry.”

  How could he not have any sense of urgency in his tone even now? she asked herself, turning the lock with an irritated frown. It took her three tries to accomplish it. Her hand didn’t seem to want to cooperate any more than her legs did. Finally, the door opened.

  Ini-herit stood in the hallway. His expression didn’t change when she emerged, but why would it? He did reach for her arm and began pulling her down the hallway, an action that surprised her.

  “Where are we going?” she asked. The words felt thick as they left her mouth. They were barely audible. />
  “We must get you to safety.”

  Ini-herit’s lips hadn’t moved, she realized then. Had he been speaking to her through her thoughts this entire time? How was that possible?

  Once again, she shook her head. It felt like someone had wrapped her brain in gauze and packed it back inside her skull. Her vision blurred in and out of focus. For a moment, it almost looked like Ini-herit lost a foot of height, but she guessed it had been a trick of her eye since he was his old self once she blinked.

  “Why aren’t we getting the others to safety, too?” she thought to ask. She started to turn to look behind her, but the path they were on tilted with the movement. “Whoa.”

  Grabbing her arm in a painful grip to stabilize her, Ini-herit said, “The others have already been brought to safety. You were the most difficult to rouse.”

  They had? Her cousins wouldn’t leave her behind. Something must be terribly wrong for them to have done so. Her gaze moved along the passages as they walked. Every shadow now seemed ominous and threatening.

  “What’s wrong, Harry? Why—?”

  “No more talking.”

  She blinked again. That hadn’t been a tone Ini-herit had ever used before. He sounded impatient.

  “Talking puts us in danger of discovery,” he said in a low voice, once again reading her thoughts. “I do not want you to come to harm.”

  An unexpected feeling of hope stirred in her chest as they entered a transport tube. Ini-herit was concerned for her safety and didn’t want her to come to harm. Could that mean that he was beginning to remember emotions?

  No. He was probably concerned for her because she was now a fellow elder and the elders all looked out for each other.

  “My intentions toward you are more than just that of an elder,” he said.

  Her breath caught. Did he really mean that? Then another thought right on top of that one: this wasn’t right. He shouldn’t be able to read her thoughts.

  Her head throbbed like someone stuck it with a hot poker. She gasped and brought her hand up in an attempt to ward the feeling off. What in the world?

  “Very well,” Ini-herit said. “We will do this the hard way.”

  Something’s wrong.

  Malukali’s thought brought Ini-herit out of a dream-filled sleep. The images in the dream had been dark and violent, making her interruption welcome.

  A Lekwuesti named Dara came to me a short while ago, Malukali explained. She said that Jocelyn, a talented Orculesti, was brought to Central earlier today after experiencing some trauma on the mainland. Dara intended to wait until morning to ask me to meet with Jocelyn and assess her mental condition, but when she went to check on Jocelyn after the ball, she was gone from her room.

  Ini-herit got to his feet. He sensed that what Malukali was about to impart was important. Clara Kate needed to be kept informed.

  He knocked on her door even as Malukali continued, When I tried to connect with Jocelyn’s thoughts, I picked up an unusual thought pattern. I think Metis has gotten into Central.

  The news had Ini-herit reaching for Clara Kate’s door handle. Propriety had no place in the face of something so urgent. As he pushed the door open, he cast a ball of light and looked over at her bed. Finding it empty, he strode over to the bathroom. The room was dark until the ball of light bounced in behind him.

  Realizing Clara Kate wasn’t there, he hurried to the door that adjoined her room to Quincy’s. Once again, he ignored manners and simply opened the door.

  Quincy sat up in bed, squinting as the ball of light followed Ini-herit into the room. As sleep left Quincy’s gaze, he looked to the open door between his room and Sophia’s. The expression on his face told Ini-herit that he had alarmed him.

  Can you identify where Metis is? Uriel asked. The thought was directed to Malukali, though he sent it out to all of the elders.

  “Clara Kate is not in her room,” Ini-herit said to Quincy. “We must see if she went to someone else’s room for the night.”

  Not so far, Malukali replied. I’m trying, but whatever she does to assume a new form makes her mind blend with that of the being she kills. Rather like with the Kynzesti, my abilities aren’t properly attuned to her.

  “What’s going on?” Sophia asked, walking over from her room. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and glanced at Quincy as he got out of his bed. Her eyes widened in concern as she received the thought he projected. “Where would she go?”

  Ini-herit walked past her to the door leading to Tiege’s room and said, “Malukali has discovered an unusual thought signature that she believes belongs to Metis. She is here.”

  “At Central?” Quincy asked. He and Sophia followed Ini-herit. “Holy light!”

  Clara Kate is not in her room, Ini-herit broadcasted. When he walked into Tiege’s room and saw only the male sleeping in his bed, he continued on to Ariana’s door and left the explanations to Quincy and Sophia. I am checking in the rooms of her family in case she moved for some reason. If she is not in one of these rooms, we can assume Metis succeeded in abducting her.

  A series of projected emotions rushed through him as the others processed this. He might have been imagining it, but the feelings seemed more intense than usual. It was almost as though the fear and worry they conveyed belonged to him.

  We will ensure all platforms are secured, Uriel replied. The Waresti patrolling the hallways near your rooms didn’t see anything unusual, but we’ll investigate.

  By the time Ini-herit walked through Ariana’s door, Zachariah stood in the doorway on the other side of the room. The Mercesti was fully clothed and held his tomahawk. He appeared to know something was wrong.

  Coming to a stop in the middle of the room, Ini-herit closed his eyes. It was surprisingly difficult to send out the thought.

  Clara Kate is gone.

  The responses ranged from Uriel’s immediate focus on locking down Central to Gabriel’s well-founded fear for his daughter. When Ini-herit again opened his eyes, he spotted Clara Kate’s family standing around him. They exchanged looks as Quincy explained what was happening.

  “We have to find her,” Sophia said. Her cousins nodded. “Follow me.”

  With a flash of light, she shifted into a bloodhound. Then she took off at a run, leaving her clothing behind. Quincy grabbed the garments off the floor and followed her through the adjoining doors as Tate ran to get her blessed nunchucks. Ini-herit jogged after Sophia, watching Tiege grab his blessed kamas and toss a sheathed dagger to Ariana.

  Once they were in Clara Kate’s room, Sophia approached the pillow on the ground and spent a few seconds breathing in her cousin’s scent. Then she let out a sharp bark and headed for the door. Zachariah opened it for her. They spilled out into the hallway in pursuit.

  Ini-herit sent out a stream of thoughts to keep the other elders informed of their progress. As they darted down another hallway, he spotted Alexius and a team of Waresti racing through an adjoining corridor. Ini-herit might not have particularly cared for the sight of Clara Kate on the second commander’s arm earlier, but he was glad to see the other male searching for her now.

  It didn’t matter who found Clara Kate. All that mattered was saving her life.

  Chapter 25

  Metis had hoped that her mental abilities would allow her to lead the Kynzesti to the exit platform that she had found without any issues. When she succeeded in implanting her own thoughts into Clara Kate’s mind through her dreams, she believed she would get her wish. Unfortunately, while the female Orculesti, Jocelyn, had clearly been powerful, Metis hadn’t been able to maintain her control over the Kynzesti.

  It was a good thing she had secured a leaded bud vase during her travels through the Estilorian main base. Knocking Clara Kate unconscious became her only option. She waited as long as she dared so that she was close to one of the places where she left supplies.

  Leaving the female where she fell, Metis hurried to the small nook she had used for storage. Propped against the wall was a lightweigh
t plank with two lavender energy rails on the bottom and a thin rope at one end. She discovered it outside the main hall where the Waresti had brought her earlier and used it to transport her supplies.

  Now, she lifted it and ran back to Clara Kate. It didn’t take her long to haul the female’s limp form onto the plank. The rails allowed her to move silently across any surface, so she didn’t worry about being too cautious as she tugged the plank by the rope and continued along the route she had established. She had to stop twice to avoid stepping into sight of Waresti patrols. The second time, she was nearly seen and had to use her mental abilities to turn the guard’s attention.

  Outside of that incident, she focused on keeping her thoughts contained, knowing that there was a possibility the Orculesti elder might seek her out. One of the Waresti who had escorted her to Central might mention Jocelyn to the elder, or someone could check on the Kynzesti female and find her missing. Any number of things could lead to her discovery. She would do what she could to minimize that risk.

  Sweat dripped from her temples by the time she succeeded in hauling Clara Kate to the room housing the platform she intended to use. As it had been when she first found it, the room was empty and the platform unattended.

  She stopped next to a large crate filled with a couple of other items she found during her earlier explorations. Bringing the plank alongside the crate, she reached in and pulled out a long length of milky-colored rope. Then she used the rope to strap Clara Kate’s body to the plank, working quickly in the darkness. In the event the Kynzesti woke up, she wouldn’t be able to fly or use her elemental ability. A rag worked well enough as a gag.