He grabbed it and ripped it right out of her, and immediately she felt a change in herself. The manacle around her throat disappeared and her spirit lightened. However, just as she was feeling her freedom, he started ordering her around. He tied his words to his power and made them into directives that she would be forced to obey.
Hold on to your life. Focus on regenerating your power, and put up your shield. Now!
She found the power for it somehow. She had to, because of his command. However, she had so little to work with that she could barely keep a grip on what was left of her life, and her shield was thin and weak. The young ones who sat back and took very little were easily blocked, some even let go on their own, but the shield didn’t remove the lines to the children who had dug in deeply.
Even so, with the draw on her power lessened, she slowly began to return to herself; after a while, she began to notice what had been going on while she was away. The bonds that she had made to the children were being cut one by one. The children who had held themselves back had already been separated from her. The others, the feral ones, were proving more difficult. Edillian, her father and someone else she didn’t know were wresting them away one at a time.
Fight, Mercy. Shake them off you right now, Scythe ordered.
Wait, she objected, remembering other things as well. She fought his compulsion. One...I can at least save one…
No! The intensity in that one word stung, and she flinched away from it.
He slid himself between her and a young girl named Yelesi who had earlier called her Momma and laughed when Mercy showed her the antics of her brother. The girl growled at him, and tried to get around him. When she failed, she made a try for his power, but he swatted her away, knocking her outside the shield. Then she faded from Mercy’s perceptions.
Scythe...She was feeling stronger, now that less than ten children held on to her. I...wanted to help them. Let me...let me at least…
No.
Scythe, I can’t. If I don’t do this, one of them will die...one that could live.
These children are not your burden to bear. They were struck ill long before you were born, and even if they had lived then, they would have passed on by now. We will save the ones we can, but the rest...will die. And, none of that will be your fault.
Please. She used what little she had recouped to shape an image. She showed him what she had done at Chromatic Technologies, and she showed him how much it had made her suffer. She let him feel her guilt. This...this is something I don’t think I can live with. I have killed…
No.
I have killed, Scythe, and now I want to heal. Please. She begged him shamelessly, opening herself to him fully so that he could see for himself how much she believed she needed to pay for what she had done.
You want to save one?
Yes.
Then, you can save the one that needs you to live.
She hesitated. What did he mean? None of them needed her to live...except him. That’s not what I meant.
I know. She could tell that her response enraged him. The answer is no, Mercy. You will not give up your life to save another, when so many need you to live. Even if I were the only one, and there was no one else to care, I still wouldn’t let you because I am enough of a reason. My life is valuable too, isn’t it?
Of course.
Mercy, think. I have given you my heart. What will happen to it if you die?
This time it was he who crafted the image, one that resembled a hollow man standing in a bed of ashes. He knew what could happen when the heart was torn out. Everything else burned. What would a man with abilities like mine and a charred soul do? What if that man also had a dangerous virus that was only held in check by his heart and a strong soul? What would that man become?
Even though she had felt some of it earlier when they battled Edillian, even though she had known for years that he fought it and had heard stories from her dad and Smoke about the rage, she still wasn’t ready for what peeked out at them when he opened it, just a crack...
Hostile. Powerful. Hungry. Hungry for a fight. Hungry for blood.
It reached for them and Mercy quailed, grasping for the strength to throw up another shield even as Scythe locked it away.
She could see that it wasn’t an idle thought designed to sway her; it was the naked truth he lived with, a sinister threat that kept him always, always vigilant. Then he let her feel his resolve: he would never let himself turn into something like that; he had been carrying the weapon on him for years that would prevent it.
Immediately, she rejected what he was telling her. No! Before she had a chance to think about it, a thin, nearly transparent ribbon flew out of her, followed their connection to him and wrapped itself around his body.
Yes, he responded firmly, but her reaction had pleased him and his next words were softer. I am very upset with you, because I have given you something important, and you have been careless with it. You are definitely going to reap some terrible consequences when this is over.
Scythe, they’re special to me...
His voice cut through the last of her resistance like a sword. They are not your responsibility, my Mercy. I am. Your family is. Our children are.
She didn’t have an answer for that. She couldn’t even...think straight...Their children?
Think, Mercy. You jeopardize our sons and our daughters. Don’t...don’t take them from me. And, my love, don’t take their mother from me. We need her, too.
His child. For the first time, she considered it. She imagined him holding a child. Her child.
She felt him watching the image, and she felt his need to see it become real. Then he used his ability to make a small change. Mercy saw herself emerge from the space next to him. She saw how she and their child moved, or grew, until they sat in the very center of his world.
He...he took her breath away. She nodded and focused on rebuilding her strength.
He sighed in relief.
You don’t have to die to save a life, Mercy. Living saves lives, too.
Chapter 48
Scythe stood in front of the column, staring downward at a point beyond it.
Ready? Ian asked, sliding his cords beneath the heavy structure.
Scythe nodded. His jaw was set and his mouth was a thin line. Ian was gratified to see that he had been able to bring his wrath under control. His thoughts had been like hot coals just moments before, and, even though Ian was sick with relief with the message that Mercy was almost within their reach, he couldn’t help being wary of the man’s temper. After all, he had seen what Scythe was capable of when he lost control and it was well worth harboring a healthy fear of.
Ian decided, as he had done many times before, to trust him. He concentrated briefly and lifted the column. The moment he had enough clearance, Scythe slid underneath, grabbed a hold of Mercy’s body and continued forward, leaving the small alcove on the opposite side before Ian had even raised the barrier to the height of his shoulders. He swept past Jaelyn without sparing her a glance. He increased his speed, arriving at and passing through the door within a dozen seconds.
They had already decided to move Mercy away from the laboratory in order to make it easier to throw off the last of the children. Morgan thought that a moderate amount of distance might even do the job for them, and the child that appeared in front of Ian as soon as he raised the column high enough to see the tank within had agreed.
No. Not a child, despite his appearance.
Edillian, Morgan had called him. He was one of Jaelyn’s children, and Scythe was the sacrificial lamb that would have revived him. Instead, Jaelyn herself had done it. One of Ian’s ribbons had already run over her, and he knew instantly that she was dead. Ian made sure to keep his power away from the boy. He had already proven that he was not harmless, even though he looked nearly dead himself.
Pale skin, still covered in patches of the gelatin he had been floating in, stretched over a body that looked about sixteen years old. He
was extremely thin, the small muscles and bones standing out in most places, and he was missing most of his hair. His chest rose and fell steadily, though, and he was making an attempt to pull himself up on the small pedestal he was draped over. Morgan stepped up to him, carefully sidestepping Jaelyn’s body, and detached the wires and tubes that were connected to him.
Morgan asked Ian, “How long can you hold that up?”
Ian shrugged, “Another ten minutes.”
“Okay, I’ll be done by then.”
“Where are you going to put him?”
“In one of the recovery rooms.”
The same type of room where his wife lay next to another body just like this one. Ian took a deep breath and held it for a moment. Faith. The air exploded from his chest.
Morgan glanced at him and Ian turned his head and stared vacantly down one of the long aisles between the columns. He locked his wife up in a little space inside of himself and closed the door gently. If he wasn’t careful, he wouldn’t be in a position to function, and people needed him right now. His daughter needed him, and Will...and so did the rest of his family. He could keep it together for a while.
Morgan finished fiddling around with the panel at the base of the tank and picked up Edillian. When he was safely out of the way, Ian lowered the barrier to the ground. Later, they would need to tend to Jaelyn’s body and give her the rites of her people. For now, they had the living to tend to. He followed after Morgan.
They were whispering quietly together, and Ian tried to catch a few of the strange sounding words. They must have been using their own language...a language Ian knew he had grown up with, but couldn’t remember. He didn’t recognize one word.
The things that he had recently learned about his life were so astoundingly unexpected and bizarre that he could hardly make sense of it; it had all melded into a huge blur. His parents hadn’t disappeared, he had...or rather, he and Lena had. They had been given false, Human memories of growing up in a bordertown, of a disaster that had never occurred, of a childhood that had never happened. His real childhood had been spent here, a place he had no recollection of.
He wasn’t...they weren’t even Human. At least, he was only half Human. Half human and half...he didn’t know what. They had engineered his body to be as Human as possible, just as they had done to all the children, even his father, who looked perfectly Human to Ian. Morgan had explained that it was necessary for their survival to be able to blend in with Humans. The Kin were harder to fool because of their keen senses, especially the sense of smell, so they had been disregarded as the preferred race despite the obvious benefits of belonging to that group.
Because of that, Ian looked Human instead of Kin. It blew his mind that he could have just as easily looked Kin and been raised as Kin.
The woman entombed beneath the stone column had looked perfectly normal to Ian during the week he had spent with her. Even the Kin that traveled with them hadn’t noticed anything unusual. Morgan had said that Jaelyn would have had to keep her influence over every one of them constantly for the whole trip in order to keep them fooled. In addition, she had been actively manipulating himself, Lena and Mercy; apparently, he and Lena were more difficult to control because of their heritage. And Mercy...Mercy had been tampered with the most.
Ian remembered sitting with Jaelyn and Mercy on the last leg of their trip. He had suspected something even then. The woman’s sway over him had been weakening, because she had spent most of her energy.
Morgan said that their long trip and Jaelyn’s miscalculation of how hard it would be to keep everyone subdued were the only reasons that they were still alive. He was sure that if Jaelyn had not been as depleted as she was, they would not have been able to defend themselves against her, even with his help. She was just that powerful. That made Ian wonder if each of the children around him would be as strong as she was once they were restored to their full health. It was a terrifying thought, since they had their hands full restraining them now, and the children were barely holding onto life. What would they be like in a month? In a year? Would Morgan be able to control them at all?
Ian paused when he felt a child brush up against him from nearby. The shield that he was keeping up at all times was tested by the power, first tentatively and then with a greater amount of pressure. He pushed it back forcefully, and the child retreated. Ian frowned worriedly. The boy’s power had been stamped with a strong impression that stayed with Ian after he moved on: hungry.
He stopped in the doorway to the room where Morgan was setting up the equipment for Edillian, who was already wrapped in a warm blanket.
“They’re reaching, still.”
“I know. I’m holding them as well as I can. Edillian is helping, too. Do what you can.”
“Beyond pushing them back?”
“For now, that’s all we can do.”
Ian nodded even though his father couldn’t see it...His father...he shook his head at the ridiculousness of calling Morgan that. He moved on to the next room, where Smoke sat between his wife and the young...no, not so young...Nivia. The girl had not awoken, but Ian could see that her coloring already looked better than it had just a short time earlier. He wondered how fast they healed…
Ian felt another tendril of power come at him from behind. Hungry. He prepared to deflect it, but it wasn’t coming for him. It swerved past and flew at Nivia. Smoke was in the middle of its path, but it went right by him; it actually skimmed his side on the way to her. Without warning, the band of energy disappeared from Ian’s mind, cut off by either Morgan or Edillian somewhere closer to the source.
Smoke didn’t have what they hungered for. None of the Kin did. Most Humans would be equally unappealing to them, too. Power was what they needed to live.
Well, not just live. They were alive already, weren’t they? Alive, but weak and slowly failing. They needed the power to stay alive. They were on a slow, tragic march and would continue down that road until they could replace a key part of themselves that had been damaged.
Was power so integral to a gifted person’s life that they couldn’t survive without it? Ian thought it was, but, since so many people functioned without it, he wasn’t sure. His ability was so much a part of him that he couldn’t imagine living without it. He wondered if it would be possible for someone to give away their power without giving away their life. If that were the case, they might be able to find some people who felt their powers were a burden and would willingly separate from them. That would be one way to end this catastrophe without further loss of life.
Ian felt another shimmer of energy enter the room. Within seconds it was gone, as was the one that came hard on its heels.
Maybe we should move Nivia, Ian suggested, using a ribbon to connect to Morgan.
I can protect her for now, but, yes, we will need to move her and many of the others as well.
The others? Why?
Some of those who hunger have already turned on their brothers and sisters. They will take what they can, although it won’t satisfy them for long. Even if they succeed in killing one and taking their ahhiel, the power at their core, they will still perish.
Why?
Morgan shrugged mentally and then responded, For some reason, it doesn’t complete them. Maybe it is because their ahhiels are damaged already. The only thing Jaelyn found that works without fail, after over a hundred years of experimenting, is the ahhiel of a strongly powered Human.
He became distracted by something, and his thoughts went absent in their link. Ian went around to the other side of Faith’s bed, took up her cold hand, and rubbed it absently. After a moment, Morgan returned. Their distance is limited, thankfully. As long as they do not strengthen, and they shouldn’t if they are not nourished, the rest of your family should be safe where they are.
He seemed tired, so Ian asked, How long can you hold them off like this?
Several more hours at least, but eventually we will need to rest. You, Scythe and Lena, if she is capable,
will have to assist when that happens. Together, we can hold them until the inevitable happens.
The inevitable was their starvation. Not from nutrients, because they were fed automatically in the tanks. They would begin to feed on their own power, if they couldn’t get it from another source. They would consume themselves out of mindless hunger until they died. Ian could feel the way the tragedy struck heavy blows to Morgan’s spirit.
And Mercy?
She should stay away for now, perhaps indefinitely.
Ian was relieved; he agreed fully that it was too dangerous for Mercy to be around the patients. In addition, Ian knew that it would also be very painful, perhaps impossible, for her to be the one to obstruct the children as they fought for their lives.
When it was clear to them that Mercy was attempting to feed all of the children with her own ahhiel, Morgan had revealed to Ian, Scythe and Smoke what had happened years ago. Jaelyn became convinced that a certain number of the children’s deaths were imminent. Rather than wait for it, and “let their lives go to waste,” she had offered the weak children to their stronger brothers and sisters, in the hopes that their ahhiels would revive the ones that had a chance of living. Naturally, such a terrible crime had not been even attempted before; it was strictly forbidden in their moral scriptures. However, Jaelyn was brokenhearted by the numbers they had lost and was able to convince herself that it needed to be tried.
At first, it seemed to work. She tested it on five children. All five grew stronger immediately. So, five more were sacrificed. Even as the second batch improved, the first five started to change, to become aggressive. They started to hunger. At that time, the number of Kin with power was still next to nothing, and the amount of Humans with any power was extremely low. They didn’t have any power to offer the crazed ones, and didn’t dare use any more of their even more precious children. All of them perished.
Halfblood Legacy Page 59