“You know what to do,” nodded Garnha. “Any volunteers to oversee the procedure?” she glanced at each Council member. “Come on, someone’s got to do it. I believe it was a member of the Earth Tribe who did it last time.”
“It’s Fire’s turn,” someone else agreed.
It was quite obvious nobody wanted to watch whatever Alvira was going to do to Regan. This made me, not curious exactly, just more eager to know what nearly befell me. Actually, I remembered abruptly, whatever she was going to do had already been done to me. As a child I’d received the Ultimate Curse by my mother’s hand; in the vague hope I wouldn’t Change without my gift. Whatever was going to happen had already happened to me. I needed to know what being curse entailed.
“I’ll go.” I volunteered.
Jayson stared at me in shocked horror, whispering. “No, Ruby, don’t. You don’t want to know what she’ll do to him, never mind see it happen.”
But it was too late, I’d already volunteered.
“Fine.” Acheron smiled at me vindictively. “Follow Alvira.”
I carefully stood up and trailed after Alvira; who was being followed by the two guards dragging Regan’s motionless body. Once the shackles snaring his wrists had been unlocked his skin went even whiter, displaying wiry bluish veins that coiled around his forehead. His whole body had gone limp, like the life had suddenly been sucked out of him.
We were led downstairs into a large square room. There wasn’t much inside. Various bottles filled the shelved walls. There was a desk with drawers. The most obvious thing that struck me was the long cushioned table in the centre of the room; like one used in a surgical theatre. Only the operating tables I’d seen before didn’t have handcuffs attached to each corner.
Regan, now seeing where he was, screamed shrilly and started struggling; but the guards restrained him tighter, lifting him onto the gurney. They pinned him down forcefully onto his stomach. He thrashed about desperately as they shoved his hands and feet into the cuffs, clamping them shut and locking them inescapably. Regan still had a little bit of leeway to move. Then I saw the thick leather straps attached to the padded table. Standing in the corner, feeling sicker by the minute, I watched as the straps were pulled around his thighs and shoulders until he couldn’t move at all.
The guards left quickly but the screaming never settled down until Alvira went to the far wall and brought down a bottle. Absently opening it and pouring a little of the liquid onto a cloth, she walked back over to Regan and held it to his face. Instantly his wails subsided as he slipped unconscious. Then she stepped awkwardly over to me, offering me the cloth.
“He’ll probably wake up,” she said. She didn’t look directly at me, her voice lacked even the tiniest amount of emotion. “If he does, hold this over his face. It’s Tekari Root oil.” The same stuff Adrian had me practice defending my mind against.
I shivered at her closeness, but I took the cloth. Unfortunately this meant I had to stand beside Regan and couldn’t hide in the corner. I stared silently as she picked up a scalpel from a metal tray on the desk. Also on the tray was an array of surgical equipment, nasty-looking shiny metal devices such as clamps and strange plier-type tools. She mechanically took a knife from inside her fur coat and used it to cut off Regan’s shirt. She put it back into a belt at her waist after taking her coat off.
Lifting the scalpel, I watched as she touched it to the skin of the back of Regan’s neck. She then delicately sliced a deep incision that ran all the way to the base of his spine. My eyes widened as she ran the blade over the flesh again until bone was visible and blood started spilling over Regan’s sides in thick streaming lines. It ran off the table, dripping on the floor. The sickening stench wafted to my nostrils, making me want to retch. I swallowed rising bile disgustedly, trying to breathe through my mouth.
Calmly Alvira walked over to the desk, retrieving a syringe filled with a yellow murky liquid. After injecting it into Regan’s back eventually the bleeding slowed, then stopped all together.
I felt myself swaying, feeling nausea washing over me like seasickness as Alvira wiped away the blood with more white cloth. I saw the cloth stain a deep gruesome red and wanted to leave. This wasn’t what I was prepared for, but I couldn’t move. I was frozen.
I gaped in horror as Alvira used the scalpel to cut the incision horizontally in several places so that it almost looked like barbed wire. She then heaved up the flaps of flesh and clamped them back with strong metal clamps; so that Regan’s whole spine was clearly visible. I gagged slightly, but forced myself to keep looking. I used to watch surgery programs on TV and was never squeamish; but this was definitely different. I felt really sick.
Then the situation worsened dramatically.
Regan’s eyes shot open the same moment his mouth did and he screamed in agony. The piercing noise making me jump and drop the cloth onto the blood-stained floor. Frantically trying to pick it up as the fabric absorbed the blood, I held it to Regan’s screaming mouth. Almost immediately unconsciousness devoured him, and I was left shaking; traumatised. I needed to get out, but now Alvira had disregarded the scalpel and was touching the open wound with her bare fingers; specifically touching the first vertebrae of his spinal column at the base of his skull.
I gaped in fascinated revulsion as her fingers began to glow with a faint white light, forming strange shapes, almost like she was pinching the air above the vertebrae. After a moment, as a white gassy substance began drifting up from the bone, I understood. It was his Lurah.
I knew the Lurah was the energy that sparked whatever gift it is you have. It was located in your spine but when stimulated it travels into the rest of the body to be unleashed. It is also what makes you Change. Without it, you’d just be human. It was what had been taken from me, then given back on the night of my death. I never had a massive scar like that though.
Obviously not all of my Lurah had been taken.
I watched, unable to move even a fraction as she continued to pull the Lurah from his body, seemingly wrapping it around her hand in a floating nearly-translucent string –almost like a strip of spider’s web. But then it began solidifying in the air, turning into a thick band of anaemic skin.
I couldn’t stand much more, I had to leave.
“I have to go,” I stuttered, feeling entirely revolted.
Regan awoke again and the screaming started up. I was so shaken up that I screamed too. I cringed away, away from the withering, dissected body which was beginning to bleed again, and knew I was almost certainly going to throw up. I rushed from the room, my hand on my mouth, hearing the excruciated wails behind me. As soon as I left the room I was sick.
Someone was there immediately; calling for help. I didn’t know who she was, but she sat me down and waited with me as my stomach settled.
I couldn’t go back in there. It was too much. I knew Regan deserved to rot in prison for murder and destroying a family, but this was just so brutal.
How could my mother let that happen to me? And want it to happen?
When I finally managed, a good ten minutes later, to go back inside the room I saw that the Lurah was being put into a large glass container; it slopped inside like fat and wobbled. Wordlessly Alvira put the container down and moved back to Regan’s body. I watched as she unclamped the flaps of flesh and pulled them back so that his spine was covered.
She then proceeded to stitch the wound. I wasn’t stupid, I knew a massive gaping wound like that wouldn’t stay shut for long; without additional help. Apathetically Alvira called for a healer, who came in.
The healer was an old man with a white beard and glassy eyes. Immediately he placed his hands over the stitched wound and helped the healing along until he was certain it wouldn’t spontaneously split.
With that Alvira washed her hands in a nearby sink and awkwardly stumbled out of the room. Soundlessly we walked back to the Council. I straightened my face with a tremendous effort and sat down beside Jayson. I didn’t look at him. I didn’t
hear Alvira confirm it was done and then leave.
I watched unseeingly as each person came in for their trial; not speaking until Cecilia asked me to follow her once the hearings had finished.
“I understand that what you just experienced wasn’t pleasant, but you did volunteer and you need to get over it,” she said harshly. “That’s one of our worst punishments, saved only for the worst.”
“I was cursed,” I muttered. “Someone must have done that to me.”
To my surprise the Elder shook her head and was weirdly compassionate. “No. I knew your mother. She would have paid a lot of money to have you cursed properly. With chants and stones. She wouldn’t have butchered you like that.”
I remembered then that it was Garnha who had cursed me. Chants and stones. Yes, she had needed a stone to reverse the curse; the one that had previously hung on my mother’s chain. I had always wondered why Garnha, of all people, had cursed me. Perhaps it was because, if paid enough, she was the best to do it without actually damaging a body. I only had a little scar after all. Alvira was the cheap, brutal option. I felt slightly better.
“So you agree?” I enquired. “That Alvira butchers people?”
She was silent momentarily, then shrugged. “It’s a punishment.”
We had arrived at another room on a lower floor, and the High Elder stopped before it. “I thought you might want to talk with Lynk’s supplier. Blaze informed me yesterday that you knew him. Feel free to ask him anything; we have already interrogated him and know who he is.”
“Lynk sent him after me,” I stated coldly. “For years I thought he was my friend. I felt so guilty when I left him behind.” I swallowed uncomfortably, “And he turned out to be a spy for Lynk? How am I supposed to feel? Lynk was dictating my life before I even know he existed.”
“I’m not sure if I buy that,” she said bitterly; to my surprise.
I glanced up at her lined face uncertainty, “What do you mean?”
“I’m starting to wonder how you could possibly be innocent in all of this.” She stated. “It seems highly unlikely that you didn’t know of Lynk and his plans. Or that your friends were clueless as well; especially when you consider how the Earth Elder turned on us; and how his sons knew exactly how to find you and when. One might assume you were all in on it.”
I glared at her suspicious eyes. “Briseis betrayed us all.” I said calmly, “That’s how they found me. It was Briseis who was Lynk’s agent.”
She seemed to think about it for a moment, finally concluding; “I don’t trust you Ruby,” she stated. “I’ll be keeping a watchful eye on you.”
“Go ahead,” I said angrily. “I have nothing to hide.”
We exchanged glares for a moment before she said, “If you’d like to see the prisoner you know where he is. He will be interrogated further but you are welcome to question him; bearing in mind we’ll be listening of course.”
“I have nothing to say to him.” I said, though I knew I did. I just didn’t want to face it yet. Or do anything she told me to.
She shrugged, “Suit yourself. And by the way, did you book a date for your ceremony?” She wondered with a smirk, recoiling into that underlying vicious snake she really was. “Because if not-“
Before she could finish off her sentence, I interrupted her, “Yes, it’s in three days’ time actually.” I smiled sweetly.
Her expression hardened. With clenched teeth she replied, “Wonderful. I’ll expect an invite of course.”
“It’s at the Fire Palace,” I said, hoping that was Jason’s plan. “By all means, pop by. I’m sure I’ll be happy to have guests when the Palace is officially mine; which it will be by then.”
Her eyelids narrowed even further before she made a disinterested face. “Yes, I’ll get the deeds over to you as soon as possible. Good luck with the debt.”
She had me there. I smiled again anyway, trying not to let her get one up on me. “Thanks, but you don’t need to worry. I have some plans,” I lied.
She tilted her head slightly, but I wouldn’t give her anything.
Coming to my rescue in the nick of time, Jayson rounded the corner and asked if I was ready to leave. I walked over to him, plastering on a bright, fake smile and grabbing his hand. I excused myself and steered us away from the High Elder; whose suspicious glare bore into my back as we left.
When we were finally outside in fresh air, heading home, Jayson commented, “Well that was frosty, especially considering she is the High Elder of Fire.”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered.
“No you tell me about it,” he said seriously. “I need to know everything, and what happened yesterday too.”
“I will,” I promised. “As soon as we get back; I don’t want people overhearing.”
He nodded in agreement and we walked quickly back to the Tribe House. However as soon as we arrived at the front of the building I noticed that the double doors that lead into Kieran’s and Adrian’s garden were open; and I could see Chara and Ebony inside. Curious, I looked closer and Nik spotted me. He then rushed out into the garden to come closer.
“Have you seen Kieran?” He wondered, lines appearing on his forehead.
“No,” I replied, puzzled. “Why?”
“He’s been missing since yesterday afternoon,” Nik said anxiously.
Suddenly I couldn’t breathe.
Chapter Twenty Six
“What do you mean he’s missing?” I demanded as soon as I entered Adrian’s apartment; Jayson reluctantly following behind me.
“He left for his Garatourii Trial yesterday at dawn and was supposed to return before midday,” Chara explained, her eyes wide with anxiety. “But no one’s seen him. Me and Nik forfeited our place in the Trials so we could look for him today, as everyone has assumed he’s dead, but we couldn’t find him.”
“What was his task?” Jayson wondered.
Chara looked over at him, shaking her head. “It wasn’t that bad. He should have been fine. His was supposed to retrieve a rare flower that blooms within the centre of a particular type of underwater plant called Forkarna. But the weed is a flesh eater and will-“
“Kill its victims by dragging them down into the water until they drown?” I finished for her. She looked at me in frightened surprise.
“How do you know that?” She asked, wide eyed.
I sat down in a nearby chair, making sure none of Adrian’s flatmates were around before admitting; “I had this…vision, I guess. It was like I was in Kieran’s head while he was in the water. He was being dragged down.”
Chara’s face had turned white, which was quite impressive for an Earthbird with such a dark cinnamon complexion. “I don’t know what this means. We’re going to have to search for him again if he doesn’t return soon.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Adrian said calmly. “Kieran’s stronger than any of us.”
It wasn’t true, I knew this. In many ways Kieran was extremely weak, with his insomnia and addiction problems caused by his inability to cope with life. However physically, yes he was probably the strongest. He could run, fight and heal better than anyone I had ever met. He would be okay. He would have to be okay.
“How did your trip with Blaze go Ruby?” Nik wondered, trying to change the subject to something hopefully less miserable. Unfortunately he picked a bad topic.
“Oh wonderful,” I said sarcastically, and after seeing the hurt look on Nik’s face I lightened my tone; trying not to release my frustration on him. “Well for a start it turns out that one of my best friends from England is Lynk’s supplier, and has probably been sending information about me to Lynk for years. I imagine his family were part of it as well. I bet they weren’t even his family.”
Chara drew a breath, “So they’ve captured him then?”
I nodded, “Yeah, he’s in the Tower under interrogation. Or torture. Not that I really care. The High Elder said I can speak to him; but I reckon she’s just trying to set up a trap so she can accuse
me of consorting with him or something.” I glanced at all of them in turn, “And she’s suspicious of you as well. She thinks you’re all part of Lynk’s plan because of your Father,” I looked specifically to Adrian.
“Then she’s a moron,” Adrian stated darkly.
“I don’t disagree,” I told him.
“Anything else?” Chara worried.
“Erm,” I thought, “Apparently half breeds have been trying to break into the Fire Palace every night for the past week. You know; my home in two days’ time.” I frowned, then sighed. “That’s pretty much it I think.”
“I can’t believe that,” Chara said. “As if Lynk knew all along where you were.”
“He must have,” Nik agreed ponderingly. “Though if he did, why didn’t he just bring you back when you were a child?”
“Well I wondered that,” I replied. “But then I thought it might be so that I was strong enough to Change. You know, once I was older. I had a sibling who died because they couldn’t control their gift, didn’t I?”
Chara nodded, seemingly analysing a wooden bowl on the table in front of her, though I know she didn’t really notice it. She was just consumed by her thoughts. After a moment she looked up, “I think you’re right. It explains why Briseis came with us when she did too; so that she could eventually lead us to you.”
“What Lynk didn’t plan on though,” Adrian spoke up. “Was that his enemies would also gain a benefit from his… transactions abroad.”
“What do you mean?” asked Nik bewilderedly.
“Blaze and his team have a massive underground hoard of human technology,” Adrian explained bluntly. “Apparently they’ve been intercepting deliveries for months. Some have even learnt English and can drive and use bombs.”
“Really?” Nik wondered, astonished. “That’s worrying. Though I guess it’s not that surprising. Generally as a species we are very fast learners, especially with languages. And once you know a human language it isn’t exactly hard to use the internet and learn how to do stuff. Does the Council know about it?”
Risen (The Firebird Trilogy Book 2) Page 31