Heirs of War

by Mara Valderran

  "Is he a friend of yours?" Rhaya asked, knowing the answer.

  "It's complicated," Zelene answered as she stood.

  Rhaya held out her hand for Zelene to take, which the girl stared at in question. "Come on. There's someone I want you to meet."

  Zelene threw one more longing glance at Kyle, hoping for him to stir in his sleep or give some sign of being okay. He didn't move. His chest rose and fell, but he offered no other movement.

  "Is it another brownie?" Zelene asked as she followed her cousin back through the curtain.

  "No," Rhaya said as they walked down the aisle of beds. "I thought you might like to meet your sister now since she's awake." She frowned as they reached Isauria's bedside, where the girl in question still slept. "Well, she was."

  Isauria was lying on her back, her eyes closed but somehow still active. They darted around as if she was watching something, and she began to whimper, her chin quivering.

  "Sounds like she's having a bad dream," Zelene said. "Maybe we should wake her up?"

  Rhaya shook her head, her frown deepening. "Do you remember how Terrena said Isauria's gift was 'seeing'? Well, this is how she sees."

  "Sees what exactly?"

  "People. Us. I don't know," Rhaya admitted. "I'm not sure how her visions work exactly."

  "She can see what happens to us though?" Zelene asked, a little uncomfortable with the idea of her new older sister being able to spy on her from anywhere.

  "I think so," Rhaya said. "Maybe she's seeing what happened to you. When we got here last night, they were talking about your friend. I heard you were attacked pretty badly."

  Zelene blanched at this, turning even paler than normal at the memory. "Yeah," she said simply.

  The overly sympathetic empath started to hug her, but Zelene stepped back. "I'm fine. Sorry. I'm just not the hugging type."

  Rhaya's attention snapped back to Isauria as she stirred from her vision. "Izzy? Are you okay? What did you see?"

  Isauria blinked, her attention latching onto Zelene. "A girl. She looked like you. And they were hurting her."

  Zelene turned back to Rhaya. "She has to mean Ariana. Maybe she knows where she is."

  Rhaya quickly grabbed Zelene's arm and pulled her off to the side. "She doesn't know about what she can do."

  Zelene peered around her cousin to look at her sister, who was sitting up in the bed with her face in her hands. "What do you mean? She was just talking about what she saw."

  Rhaya nodded, her dark ponytail bobbing. "She remembers, but she doesn't know it's all real. She's been dreaming about Terrena for years, but she thinks she's just a character she came up with. She doesn't know Terrena is a real person. And she's not supposed to find out yet. She's seen some pretty terrible things from what Liam told me along the way, and they're hoping to break the news to her gently."

  Zelene's jaw dropped, her amber eyes popping as she looked at Rhaya in disbelief. "What the hell! Terrena's on the other side of the curtain. What are we supposed to do if she pops around for some more sisterly bonding time?"

  “I don’t know. I didn’t think about it until now.”

  “Yeah, well apparently no one else did either,” Zelene retorted, her distrust of the Duillaine deepening. “They don’t really seem to care all that much about what happens to us. Not from what I can see.”

  “Who? The Duillaine? They might not even know that Isauria’s been dreaming about Terrena all this time. Be fair. They haven’t seen us in seventeen years.” Rhaya gnawed at her lip. "We need to tell someone she's awake."

  "And get her out of here before she figures it out for herself," Zelene hissed back. "What about that Bianca chick? The nurse from last night?"

  Rhaya clapped her hands together with a pop. "Great idea! I'll wait here with Isauria and keep her distracted while you go next door and get her." Before the young girl could argue, she skipped back over to Isauria's bedside and gestured for Zelene to get a move on.

  ***

  "So, you had another dream?"

  Isauria nodded weakly at the question Rhaya asked. "What's going on? We were in the coffee shop, and then we were attacked...." She struggled to make sense of all the pieces of her memories. More often than not, she had found herself zoning out after they had reached the woods where they had camped, her mind constantly being pulled to the fictional world she had created in her mind. "And I kept seeing her."

  "Terrena?" Rhaya asked, her voice barely above a whisper, her attention drifting to the curtained area behind them.

  "No, this new girl. Ariana." Isauria’s thoughtful frown snapped up to Rhaya's with concern. "Like the other girl said. Her name is Zelene, isn't it?" She blinked as she turned her head away, not giving Rhaya the chance to answer. "I saw her too. Where are we? Am I still dreaming?"

  Before Isauria could launch into another set of questions, Zelene came back into the room. Alone. "I'll be right back," she assured Isauria before rushing over to her other cousin.

  Isauria’s confusion deepened as she listened to their whispered conversation, her mind still reeling from everything she had seen while she slept.

  "Where's Bianca?" Rhaya hissed.

  "She isn't there. They said she's in a meeting with the bigwigs. The Duillaine Banair, I think?”

  Isauria choked at the mention of the ruling body from her dreams. Was she dreaming now? Maybe her subconscious mind had inserted her into the fictional world she had so often fantasized about. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to will herself awake as the Zelene continued.

  “It doesn't matter—they said none of them will be available for a while when I asked if they could send for them." Zelene ran a hand over her dark auburn hair in frustration. "I think I can get us back down to the main entrance to the castle, or whatever this place is. My father sort of gave me a mini tour. Maybe we can find him, and he can help us."

  Rhaya sighed, conceding to Zelene’s point. "It's better than leaving her here to figure everything out on her own." She eased back over to Isauria. "Izzy, can you walk?"

  Isauria mumbled a “yes” and allowed Rhaya to help her stand. The three girls made their way down the hall and across the first walkway, Zelene leading the way back to the main building she and Varrick had come through. Isauria was constantly asking questions, but the only response she received from Zelene and Rhaya were their constant exchanges of weary looks. They did their best to assure her they would try to find someone to help them. Fear tickled the edge of her mind as they traveled down corridors hauntingly familiar to her. She felt as though she were trapped in a constant state of deja-vous, her feet turning to lead as she realized she might not want the answers to all the questions she had.

  Isauria slowed to a stop, her attention focused on a painting at the edge of the hallway before the crosswalk began. A man and a woman looked down at them from the canvas, both smiling genially as they held two baby girls. The man had his arm around a young boy, and the woman was hugging a shy looking toddler girl to her. Isauria's attention focused on the girl.

  Zelene came to a halt with her sister, staring at the portrait. "He’s my father," she said as she pointed to the man. "That must be me and Ariana when we were babies. This must be like a family portrait or something."

  "That's me," Isauria said in a choked whisper, her gaze drifting up to the woman her tiny painted hands were holding onto. "I know her," she breathed, her chest rising and falling quickly. "Her name is Nandalia. And she's hugging...me. How is that possible?" She turned back to the two girls with her, her face a mix with horror and confusion.

  "We have to tell her. Look at her," Zelene gestured to the girl in question as Rhaya shook her head emphatically. "She's going to figure everything out on her own."

  Isauria looked back and forth between the painting and the girl shouting at Rhaya in her defense. Realization washed over her as she remembered the girl's words. They were staring at a family portrait. A family portrait Isauria was in. With Nandalia, the woman she had watched die rather t
han help the Cahirans find her daughters. Plural.

  "Oh god...She's my mother, isn't she?" she clutched a hand to her chest as she shifted her attention from the portrait back to the girl she now realized was her sister. "It was all real...everything I saw...."

  "I'm so sorry, Izzy," Rhaya said with no small amount of sympathy.

  Isauria couldn't help but replay Nandalia's last moments over in her mind, like a movie that wouldn't stop. She could hear the screams of her mother, see the pain and suffering she had endured. Then it was suddenly as if someone were changing the stations in her head. Flashing to the young girl being forced to turn over the corpse of her mother. Flashing to Terrena being impaled by the debris from an exploding tree. Flashing to the argument Rhaya had with Raemann. Flashing to Ariana being tended to by Alec. Flashing to Zelene slipping on the blood in her kitchen and seeing her foster mother lying dead. Flashing to the man stalking Rhaya at school. Flashing to the moment Nandalia was killed. Flashing to the Ariana’s capture. Flashing to Dean attacking Zelene and Kyle in their hotel room.

  She clutched her ears with both hands, not realizing the screams she was hearing were her own as she begged some unseen force to stop the pain. The world around her spun out of control as it collided with the one she saw in her mind. She sank to her knees, gasping and sobbing as every horrifying moment she had ever dreamt replayed over and over in her mind. The images were coming so fast she could barely make sense of them.

  "What's happening to her?" She heard Zelene ask in a panic as her companions knelt beside her.

  She barely made out Rhaya’s shouts to get help as her body convulsed, and her dark dreams swallowed her whole.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Darkness. Isauria opened and closed her eyes, but her surroundings remained the same. Always the darkness. Every now and then she would get a glimpse of a face, but then she would hear the whispers again. Two voices, their urgent tones fed directly into her ears as though they were resting on each shoulder.

  “She’s so pale,” the male voice practically sobbed. “And so cold. Bianca…what is happening to her?”

  Isauria jumped, feeling a hand clasp hers. She tried to pull away, but the invisible force insisted on clutching her hand. She turned as a female voice chimed into the conversation from her other side, and searched for the source but found only darkness.

  “It appears no one explained Isauria's gift to her,” the woman—Bianca, Isauria presumed—responded with annoyance. “Or to me, for that matter. She discovered her ability on her own and went into convulsions. I believe her power overwhelmed her and that she is being inundated by visions as we speak.”

  “What visions?” Isauria asked into the darkness. “Please, I can’t see anything. I think,” she added with a sob, “I might be blind.”

  Bianca went on as though she hadn’t heard Isauria, but her voice drifted as if she was circling her. “You mentioned upon the girls’ arrival that they had been on Dhara. From the little I know of the place, the connection to the elements is very weak. It would stand to reason that the girls’ natural gifts would be diminished as well as their ability to wield the elements in any sense. I believe this was the case with Isauria as well. Because she was born of this world, she has the connection in her, but it was weakened by the world she lived in. And thus, so was her gift.”

  Isauria blinked into the darkness again, struggling to understand the woman’s words. She was talking about her, but in a way that made no sense at all. What was a Dhara? And what kind of connection to the elements could she possibly have? Was it possible she was inserting herself into her dreamworld?

  “Please,” she begged the shadow voices, “please, what’s happening to me?”

  “Why wasn't she overtaken when she first arrived in Estridia then?” the male voice asked.

  "My best guess? Because she knew nothing about her ability. She still cut herself off from her connections with her denial. The moment she realized there was more to her visions than just dreams, her powers all came rushing to her. She will not wake up. Her power continues to hold her like this, locked in her own mind. I fear since she knows so little of her ability and this world, she might remain this way, unable to make sense of what is going on around her."

  Isauria froze, her heart pounding in her chest. She remembered. The painting. The painting with four young children and two parents bursting with pride. The painting of her as a small child at her mother’s side.

  Nandalia.

  She cupped her hand over her mouth. Her sob of mourning quickly turned to a gasp as once more the face appeared in front of her. It was a girl, maybe a few years younger than her, with dark hair and lavender eyes. “Who are you?” she breathed as she drew closer to the flickering image. The girl was facing someone, her hands defiantly on her hips as she argued. Isauria could almost make out the words and stepped toward the ghostly girl.

  She reached her hand out to touch her, but two hands clamped down on her shoulders and threw her backwards.

  "Isauria, you listen to me,” the man plead with her, though she still couldn’t see him. “I am your father, and I am telling you that you must wake up. Isauria! Please," he sobbed as she felt him lower his head onto her arm. "I just got you back. Please...."

  Bianca must have pulled him away, because Isauria felt the pressure on her arms ease as the woman spoke. “There is…something I might try, but it is at incredible risk. I have already sent for Solanna to discuss the matter. Perhaps we should let Isauria rest and adjourn elsewhere to discuss it?”

  “No,” Isauria called after them, knowing they were retreating further into the blackness around her. “Don’t leave me alone here.”

  Her pleas were answered with silence. She stumbled through the nothingness when the girl appeared again in her peripheral.

  "I'm supposed to sit back and be useless until they decide to kill me?"

  Isauria spun to her left at the sound of the voice, finding the young girl only a few yards away from her now. She slowly closed the distance between them, her head tilted in question as she approached the girl. “Hello? Can you see me?”

  The girl obviously didn’t as she continued to argue with her unseen counterpart. "Because you heard what Sheridan said. They are going to kill me, Alec. It's just a matter of when. I can't just hang out and wait for that to happen. And I didn't take you for the kind of person who would just let it happen either."

  Isauria reached a hesitant hand forward, wiggling her fingers and giving little thought as to what the hell she was doing. Her next consideration came with a shrug: Why not? With that, she rested her hand on the girl’s shoulder. Her eyes widened as the room around her came to life. She was in a dungeon, that much was obvious. And there was a young man grabbing the girl by the arm before dragging her out of earshot of the guards.

  “I don’t plan to, Ariana,” he hissed at her.

  Isauria turned her attention back to the girl. “Ariana,” she repeated, wondering why the name sounded so familiar to her. Before she had a chance to ponder this thought, she heard another voice right behind her.

  “You can’t just lock us in here, Dad,” Rhaya protested.

  Isauria whipped around, scared for her friend. Rhaya was shaking and in tears. Isauria reached out to comfort her, laying a hand on her shoulder. The room around her friend opened up, like a painting filling up a canvas. A man was standing in front of Rhaya, and Isauria recognized him as Raemann. He placed his hands on Rhaya’s shoulders.

  “Rhaya, please. These are orders from the Duillaine.”

  “Then why aren’t they here?” she huffed. “Where’s my mother? Does she even care that I’m here?”

  Raemann shook his head sadly. “They weren’t expecting us to return so soon, and certainly not in this state.”

  “What does that mean?” Isauria asked. Thankfully, Rhaya echoed her question.

  “It means they expected us to protect you. To keep you safe from attacks. And now we return with Terrena nearly killed,
Ariana captured, and Isauria overtaken by her natural gifts.”

  “But that isn’t your fault,” Rhaya answered in a worried tone. “How can they blame you?”

  “I know you don’t understand, but I’m not sure I have the time to tell you. All I am permitted to say to you is that you are to stay in your room until the Duillaine say otherwise.”

  Rhaya took a step back from him. “What do you mean you’re only ‘permitted’ to tell me that?”

  Raemann wrung his hands together, hesitant to explain. “Things can’t be like they were back on Dhara, Rhaya. I’m your Cyneward, not your father. I can’t act like it anymore.”

  She shook her head fervently. “No. No, you are my Dad. I don’t care what anyone says. That doesn’t have to change just because my birth father is here somewhere.”

  "Yes, it does. Things must change between us, Rhaya," he said. "Cynewards are different. We are raised to be warriors, not fathers. You have your own father here, and your own mother. They need you to be their daughter, not mine. I'm not leaving. Just keeping to the shadows, that's all," he assured her with a wink.

  Rhaya wasn’t comforted. “But you said we can’t really talk anymore. I talk to you about everything. You can’t just leave me all alone here.”

  “I’m not. I swear, I will never be far. Even when you cannot see me, I will be there. I will always protect you.”

  “Because you’re sworn to?”

  “No.” He placed a hand on her cheek to wipe away her confused tears. “Because I love you, Rhaya. And I always will. Do not ever doubt that, no matter what is said of my kind or how I am forced to act.”

  Rhaya threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. “I love you, Dad.”

  Isauria felt heavy with worry over Liam. Much like Rhaya, she believed Liam would always be her father. She didn’t want things to change between them when she woke up. She tucked her concerns away for another day as another person came into view.