60
Laney woke up to screaming. She shot upright and immediately worried that the palace was under attack. Before she could even get out of bed, Jim slammed open her door.
“Laney, let’s go. There’s a fire,” he yelled, grabbing her.
The smoke was billowing up in the hallways as they ran, and Jim knocked on every door they passed and yelled for people to wake up. Laney also started knocking on doors on her side, and together they woke up their entire branch of the palace.
Laney hoped it was enough, but she could hardly see from the smoke. They ran down one of the narrow stone stairwells just in time for yellow flames crawling along the ceiling to greet them from behind. Jim and Laney ducked out of the building before becoming engulfed.
Once outside in the cool night air, Laney started to gather people into a large group so they could keep track of everyone. She couldn’t see any sign of Preda or Will anywhere. Once he was sure Laney would be fine, Jim left her to join the efforts at the barracks and carry water buckets into the palace.
At one point Laney saw Tamron carry two people out of Hakkan on his shoulders. Soot covered his face, and half his clothes had been singed off. He laid the Vakans down at Laney’s feet to take care of, and then turned to run back inside. She wondered who could have done this. The security on the outside was airtight.
Suddenly the ground beneath Laney’s feet started to shake. She heard a faint yelling coming from the edge of the grounds toward the ocean, and turned just in time to see Will running toward her and waving his arms. She couldn’t make out what he was saying until it was too late.
Vaka had three moons, and all shone brightly that night. They lit up the wall of water behind Will well enough that Laney could see the whitecaps on top of the wave. It was bigger than the entire city’s diameter and taller than the watchtowers on the perimeter. At its peak the wave blocked out an entire moon’s light.
Laney stood and watched in horror as it moved inexorably forward. It was going to demolish them.
61
This feeling felt familiar. Preda had become so angry that she had directed all the force of her rage into the very ground beneath her. On Earth it had been a partially active volcano. In this case it was an entire ocean.
Everything grew quiet, including the screams from the fire behind her. Then suddenly the ground shook as if she had released a drill underneath the water. The resultant shift underneath caused a massive wave to form in front of them.
She felt Will leave her and run toward Hakkan. It didn’t matter. No one could outrun this wall of water. Preda was unafraid, though. She felt she had control of it. She stood with her arms up. She was alone in front of the tsunami, and since she had no other way to channel her power, she yelled at it.
Deep down Preda realized then that it wasn’t her voice. It was her. Her voice was simply the trigger on a loaded gun. She was a weapon that had been brought home, and now her home was under attack.
That fire had been set as surely as she had summoned this wave. Hakkan was her parents’ home. The Heart Stone held the only people she had ever truly known and cared for. It held her future. She concentrated on this feeling of white-hot anger as she yelled at the wall of ocean in front of her. It stopped its forward advance. She held the ocean suspended in front of her.
Preda considered her next move carefully. She had never imagined doing anything like this—even in her wildest dreams. She carefully swung her arms up and back so the water formed a thin arc above her head and flowed toward the burning Heart Stone. She didn’t let it crash. She slowed its momentum and caught it just before releasing it on top of the palace.
The rest of the arc above her head was also released, and it temporarily flooded the area below. Preda was able to grab a nearby branch and did not get swept away in the current back out to the ocean.
62
Laney and Will watched in horror as the wave suddenly transformed into an arc over their heads before it was released on top of them like a monsoon. It flooded the corridors of the Heart Stone, but the water reached only as high as Laney’s waist as it gently moved back to the ocean.
In its wake it left some people coughing up water on the ground next to flopping, oddly shaped fish. Laney quickly took a head count and found they had lost no one in the wave. The fire, however, was a different story. A soaking Tamron carried out two bodies that had been badly burned shortly after the wave receded. One of them was a soldier.
Tamron stood over him and fell to his knees. Laney ran over to them. She feared it was Jim. She felt her fingers and toes go numb as she approached. The man was the same size and build as her friend. Tears came unbidden to her eyes, and she feared to look.
As she came closer to the burned remains, a sudden, fierce embrace caught her. The arms around her belonged to Jim. Racking sobs overcame Laney, and she nearly took Jim down with her. He tightened his hold on her and held her up until she calmed.
They finally made their way over to Tamron. Tamron spoke without looking away from the remains next to him. “He was a Landi soldier. I didn’t tell him this morning how far he had come since I had last seen him. He didn’t know how proud I was.”
Laney knelt down next to Tamron. “You are not as hard to read as you think. He knew.”
Tamron looked at her as though he was seeing Laney for the first time. “Where’s Will?” he asked suddenly.
Laney said, “He’s fine. He was just with me.”
Tamron looked around. “He went to find her. She stopped the fire.”
There was no need to say whom he was talking about. They had all seen what Preda had done with the ocean. No Vozia had ever done anything close to that. Generations ago there had been one who could calm the ocean during a storm, but that was nothing like Preda could accomplish. Tamron got up and left them in search of Preda and his son.
Jim helped Laney to stand, and they set about finding and helping the injured. Al was among the survivors, and Laney found him waving off the assistance of some well-meaning soldiers.
“I don’t need your help, young one. Go find someone who does!” he yelled, waving his one arm in the air.
He looked as if he had sustained some burns on his legs but would be all right. Laney thought maybe nothing could kill the old Kait.
Soon Laney saw Will and his father walking back toward Hakkan. Will was carrying an unconscious Preda in his arms. Tamron was carrying a very wet black cat in his arms.
She ran to them, and they both said in unison, “They’re fine.”
“The cat was in a tree,” Tamron added. “I had to get it.”
Laney almost collapsed in relief and laughed. If someone had told her a year earlier that the leader of the Kait would be climbing a tree to rescue a drenched cat, she would have called that person insane. Will laid Preda down next to the injured Vakans on the ground.
Tamron asked Laney and Jim for an assessment of the survivors and casualties. Overall they had located twenty bodies. All had died in the fire. There were an additional sixty-four injured.
There was only person unaccounted for—Ukra. They had not finished their search yet, but it appeared as though the Ceren servant had vanished.
63
Preda stood in front of the white scar in the middle of the Heart Stone. It was at least 200 yards in diameter. Blackened, scorched stone now surrounded the white ground. The fire had not touched the scar. She turned to Will and accepted his help walking back over pieces of soaked ruins.
Will was watching her carefully, as if she was glass that might yet shatter in front of him. Preda was not scared for herself, though. She was only terrified of what she was now sure she was capable of doing.
That morning she had stood at the edge of the water and tried with all her might to make the water move. Even using her voice as she had done before, nothing had happened. Preda shook her head and thought about how
little control she actually had over her ability.
Will and his father had tried to persuade her not to come today, but Preda had argued that the Vakans needed to see she was still alive and strong. The coronation that was to take place, however, was now a memorial service for the men and women who had died in the fire.
Preda had remained unconscious for almost twelve hours—seven hours in Vakan time. The Vakan day and night were longer, each almost nineteen Earth hours long. They marked the time only by the sunrise, midday, and the sunset. No smaller increments appeared necessary. It would take Preda some time to adjust to that.
When she awoke that morning, Will had been sleeping in the chair next to her bed. She had looked down and seen her hand resting in his. As soon as she tried to sit up, he was awake. She sighed. It was as if he had his own Preda-based internal alarm clock.
They were no longer staying in Hakkan but in living quarters in a nearby apartment building. They would be there until repairs could fix the Hakkan’s fire, smoke, and water damage. Al had apologized for the lack of luxury, but Preda felt more comfortable where they were staying now than in her rooms in the Heart Stone. Living like royalty was another thing that would take some time getting used to.
When Preda walked out of the front of Hakkan, a crowd had gathered. The people were gathering to see her and hear her speak. Preda would not disappoint. The occasion was much more somber than the day before, and she did not have to silence them before speaking this time.
Preda found she needed no microphone to be heard across the square. She first looked to Will and felt him eagerly accept some of the burden, and then her legs felt stronger beneath her. Foxy, Al, Laney, and Jim were on the steps in front of her.
“Someone tried to silence me last night. In doing so, they tried to silence you.” She swept her arm out over the crowd. “They did not succeed. Today we mourn for those who have been lost, but we are not afraid. I am not afraid. Make no mistake, Vakans. I am your voice.”
The responding roar was deafeningly loud. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw Ukra hidden in the crowd, but the girl disappeared before she could be sure. Preda walked with her back straight and her head held high while the crowd parted before her. She could feel the wind coming off the ocean behind the red stone of Hakkan strong at her back. Without looking she knew her guardian was also behind her.
EPILOGUE
Ukra looked down in disappointment at the sniveling form before her. Macera was on her hands and knees and begging for mercy. The Vank woman is just like her son, Ukra thought. Both were spineless in the end. Macera had run like a whipped dog back to her life of luxury and intrigue as soon as they had landed back on Vaka.
“I swear, Great One,” Macera continued to plead, “I had to stay out of sight in order to continue to do your work. They have been watching me too closely. I could not get away last night to help with the fire.”
Ukra did not hesitate. She kicked Macera’s face in and broke her nose in an instant. Blood ran down in rivulets and covered the woman’s mouth and chin. Macera spluttered but did not stop groveling at Ukra’s feet. Blood was staining the floor in front of her and getting dangerously close to Ukra’s shoes.
It was not enough. Macera was useful, but she needed to be taught a lesson she would not soon forget. Ukra’s hand made a twisting motion, which caused the other woman to scream and writhe in pain on the floor.
Macera’s mind was so weak and susceptible. It was almost too easy. She was like a pathetic Earth human. When she was unable to scream anymore, Ukra kicked her hard in the ribs. She spit in Macera’s hair, and in her mind she said, You will listen the next time you are summoned to act. Do not forget whom you work for.
Ukra could not get the scent of Macera’s blood out of her nose, and she held a cloth over her face even as she walked out of the Vank house. Her guards had advised her to stay clear of the crowd gathering outside Hakkan, but she couldn’t resist getting one last glimpse of the hideous Vozia before retreating.
Ukra’s insides recoiled at the sound of Preda’s voice. She had been so close to ending the Vozia line. Standing over her bed in her bedroom just after setting the fire, she had been prepared to sacrifice herself for the greater good. The girl had woken up at the last second, though, and Ukra had been forced to retreat before Preda used her voice against her.
Ukra listened in disgust to Preda’s impassioned speech and then decided she had heard enough. She retreated though the crowd until she was out of sight amid the winding buildings. After making sure no one would see her, Ukra pulled a hidden lever under an abandoned cable car, and the ground underneath gave way.
She and her retinue slipped under the city and climbed down a ladder built into one of the support beams. Below was a submersible ship waiting to take her back to her home. Ukra had learned invaluable information about the enemy while on the Feria. She had gained intimate knowledge of Preda’s strengths and many vulnerabilities. Now her people, the faithful Soundless, were waiting anxiously for Ukra’s return.
Preda's Voice (Guardians of Vaka Book 1) Page 24