Hound’s solution was that those that followed Hikmat and wanted to repent would do so by taking the place of an Avalian slave. Elan promised nothing would be taken from the Cendians unless they forced his hand and he already said there was a plan for the slaves. Hound gave him the answer. Isolde thought Tati should have said something.
The Cendian that wanted to repent would work off their debt by taking duties off a slave. The slave would be freed and given money to start a life. They weren’t enslaving the Cendians who followed Hikmat either. They would be paid wages for their work, unlike the slave whose place they took, but for some of them, it wouldn’t be what they were used to.
Isolde was surprised when no one fought or was thinking how they would make Elan pay for that sentence. They took the sentence with grace and promised to work off their debts until Elan said otherwise. None of them were lying either. She thought the rest of the trials were going to go like this. Even the ones who intended to go down with Hikmat changed their minds after Boomer broadcasted his speech and death. They’d only heard from one group that intended to burn with him, but she expected the rest to follow.
Then, Harja had to happen. He was already unconscious and Elan listed his crimes and his conspirators. She was hoping she didn’t have to watch Karta and Atikah torture him. She didn’t know who did it at first, but Harja erupted in flame. It wasn’t a slow burn either. It looked like someone had doused him in liquor and set him on fire. She only knew about that because one of her mother’s advisors still smoked these awful hand-rolled cigars instead of inhaling vaporized nicotine if they had that habit.
She hated these dinners and she didn’t think much of that particular advisor. He bought his way into the council and usually brought his favorite courtesan and made his wife stay home. They both got drunk and loud. At that particular dinner, his mistress spilled her cocktail on his shirtsleeve right when a piece of ash broke off his cigar and his shirt went up in flames. Isolde never laughed at their jokes, but she laughed then. Fjola had her beaten, but it was totally worth it.
Harja went up in flames just as fast as that awful advisor’s shirtsleeve, but no one was dumping soup on him or swatting at him with napkins. Everyone just stood there solemnly and watched the flames flicker on the platform. Harja was only the second person Isolde had ever seen burned, but the smell was horrid. Elan explained to her it wasn’t normally done on the platform like that and they put them up on a pyre so the flame would keep going. No one in the sixteen knew when they used their flame to burn someone, it just kept burning until the person was a pile of ash and bone.
Everyone left when the stench got really bad with Hikmat, but she was starting to get nauseated and no one was moving. She had to pretend like she knew exactly what was going on and this was something she had always seen. She finally reached out to someone she could talk to, but it was Elan’s voice she wanted to hear in her head. She didn’t look behind her when she spoke to Ace. He answered back in her head that Harja’s conspirators were being brought out to burn with him.
Before she knew it, there were even more bodies on the platform with her. The platform was large and they weren’t anywhere near her, but she could feel their hate and disgust towards her from where she was standing. Even the high born seemed like they were coming around and no longer looked down their noses at her, but these men looked at Isolde like they would have killed her themselves if they could. It wasn’t past the notice of anyone in the military. Hound moved right next to her with his finger brushing his trigger.
Men that were between Elan’s size and Hound’s crowded around the shackled men. The condemned men were alternating between glaring at Isolde and Elan like this was all their fault and that they hadn’t done a single thing to deserve being up on that platform. Elan didn’t even get a chance to address them or tell them to speak their truths. The crowd noticed their looks, even from way in the back.
It starting with booing then they started screaming insults. If this was Avala, they would have brought fruit and thrown it like they did when they didn’t like a performance. It wasn’t long before someone started chanting to burn them. She couldn’t tell if it came from the high born or low, but it wasn’t long before the entire crowd joined in.
The armed men shoved their prisoners onto a heap on the platform and stepped back. She hadn’t said how much this bothered her, not even to Elan. They hadn’t talked about it other than him promising they wouldn’t burn people on Ragnis Crystal. She’d seen two men burn. Elan burned Hikmat and he must have done Harja too because she couldn’t hear anyone else admitting to it in their thoughts. She wasn’t sure she could watch that many men burn and not have her face betray her. She hoped Elan could make it quick for all of them like he had done for Hikmat and Harja.
Hound. Big, gentle Hound stepped between her and the men on the floor as soon as she felt the rush of heat. She hoped no one called to burn him next for putting his huge arm around her because she needed it. Elan must have noticed Hound’s arm around her and her face buried in his chest. They weren’t touching, but she could feel his jealousy from where she was standing.
“Thank you,” she whispered to Hound.
Isolde and Elan mostly avoided being overly affectionate in public, but she thought people might accept it today. She let Hound go and went to wrap her arms around his waist.
“It didn’t mean anything,” she said. “Watching that isn’t pleasant.”
“It’s over now,” he said, stroking her hair.
He didn’t let go of her and pulled his mic down to adjust the volume. “Your queen is gentle and things like this are not pleasant, for any of us. Would any of you be opposed to skipping our question time so I can be with Isolde?”
Before she knew it, Elan scooped her up and carried her out of there himself. He was halfway down the hall when she told him he could put her down. He didn’t answer. His arms just pulled her tighter to his chest. He could be just as stubborn as she was sometimes, so she didn’t protest. She could hear his heartbeat and this time, it was racing.
Isolde thought he was angry with Hound, but Hound raced ahead and opened the door to Elan’s chambers and shut it behind them. They were alone and he carried her straight to the bed after sending word for food. She thought he was angry with her for letting Hound touch her, but he gently placed her on the bed and went to get his oils.
She groaned when his oiled fingers started to massage her shoulders “I thought you were mad at me?”
“No, Isolde. It was just a gut reaction seeing another man touch you for the first time. It should have been me that shielded you from that sight. I should have been concentrating on you instead of the crowd.”
“No, you were doing the right thing. You should have been focusing on the crowd because they can’t know about us yet. If they rioted, we would have been exposed. Where did you learn massage?”
“You like it?” he asked, his thumbs rubbing into her shoulder blades. She was starting to feel like a puddle of water. “It was just something I decided to do because I thought you would like it.”
“I love it. Am I slipping, Elan? Today wouldn’t have happened if I asked to see Harja right away.”
“How could you have known? We don’t know everything and neither of us is a god. You said the raid was too easy. Things have to get hard sometimes.”
“What if this is just the start? Elan, watching those people burn bothers me. It’s hard to watch, no matter how quickly it’s over.”
“I can’t change that law just yet. We will on Ragnis Crystal, but it’s too soon here. People are just starting to accept us, but I don’t think they will accept that.”
Elan’s COMM started buzzing that they were being asked to eat dinner in the main hall with everyone. Neither of them recognized the voice. It was a young voice, but not one she’d heard before. The male voice didn’t leave a name, but it said food was waiting in the main hall. Her stomach turned in on itself and she was definitely h
ungry. She was getting hungry more often lately and Elan loved feeding her Cendian food.
She didn’t want to stop the massage she was getting, but she slipped her boots back on and she and Elan left his chambers. Everyone involved in their plot was in the hall waiting, but everyone looked confused. Their thoughts were jumbled. Everyone had expected to eat alone and no one knew who called them together. She put her hand on Elan’s chest. Sartika and Galih were there.
“Who called this lunch? No one seems to know,” she demanded.
Before anyone could answer, the food came. It was mostly slaves that brought it in, but there were a few Cendians since Elan passed his sentence. Isolde remembered the young voice on the COMM and immediately zeroed in on the young Cendian with the wild eyes. He was wearing a strange cap and his thoughts were muffled. Something wasn’t right. Elan was the only one she flat out couldn’t hear and it was almost like this boy was too far away to pick up.
She didn’t know if he was special or a foe, so she just watched everyone serve the food. She spoke to everyone in their heads to not eat it just yet. Something was wrong. The people that served them all took their place against the wall in case something was needed, but the Cendian boy in the strange hat was antsy and his eyes were darting around the room. He never looked directly at her, but he was eyeing Elan and the other sixteen. He wasn’t scared. It looked like he knew all of their secrets and expected one of them to act, but he somehow wasn’t afraid.
“Elan, the boy in the hat. He’s up to something.”
“You. Come here,” Elan said, pointing at the boy. “Why are you wearing that on your head and why are you here serving food? You’re too young to have been in the temple with the others to get this job.”
The boy was shifty and no matter how hard Isolde tried, she couldn’t hear his thoughts. “My father was at the temple and he sent me to work instead of him.”
“Elan, I can’t hear him, but I know he’s lying. Make him take the cap off.”
Elan asked and the boy’s red eyes got even wilder. One hand went for his cap and the other was sneaking towards the chest pocket of his jacket. He still hadn’t said his name, but she knew who he was now. Hikmat’s relative. The young boy who was part mad, part genius that they kept locked up. She couldn’t see his face in Hikmat’s head because he talked to him through a slat in the door and this boy’s mother was the only person who knew his face.
Elan told her Cendian guns were too big to strap to your thigh, but Avalian guns weren’t and no one knew what kind of weapon this boy was working on. They needed him alive because if she couldn’t get inside his head, maybe Dasimah could. They needed to find out why she couldn’t hear him. She thought she knew why she couldn’t hear Elan, but this boy wasn’t one of the sixteen and he wasn’t her mate.
She had to stop him before he got to his weapon, but he was too far away to tackle. There wasn’t enough time to warn Elan. Everyone in the room knew her secret except the slaves and the Cendians who followed The Children and found themselves with new jobs. She risked everything and flung an ice dagger at the hand reaching for his coat pocket.
It was just in time. His hand had already closed around it and his weapon went scattering across the floor as he flew back from the impact. His cap flew off too and his hair was streaked with different colors. It was Cendian white at the tips, but it wasn’t coming in Avalian black either. It was turning a color red she had only seen on Avala that came from dye. She knew they didn’t have hair dye here and the red was stronger at the roots like it was coming in that way naturally.
He was thin as a reed and his skin was a deeper shade of bronze than the other Cendians. He was fast and hardly reacted to the puncture wound in his shoulder. He managed to escape Elan and every single slave and Cendian grasping for him. Ace and the others managed to grab their weapons, but the bullets only shattered the wood of the door as he flew out of it. They ran after him with their guns raised and screaming into their COMMs for backup.
She looked back at the people she had exposed herself to because she needed to know if they were going to tell everyone. The slaves were all on their knees looking at her in awe, but the Cendians didn’t even notice what she had done. They didn’t know who he was, they just kept talking about how he barely reacted to the bullet that struck him. Good. They thought it was a bullet. For some strange reason, their minds went to bullets, even though none of the guns had been sitting on the table.
The Avalians knew better and were looking at her with hope. It wasn’t just that she had somehow become queen and things were looking up for the slaves. They saw she had ice. She spoke to all of them in their heads individually.
“Have hope. Changes are coming. It is paramount this stays secret for now.”
They all mostly answered back the same. They would keep her secret and follow her anywhere.
Chapter 39
Elan had tried to soothe Isolde about Harja, but now he was having his own doubts about being able to rule. They all knew there was a sixteen-year-old who could make sense of Avalian tech and no one searched for him. They all just assumed he would be at the temple with the rest of them, even though Isolde and Dasimah warned them only adults would be there. Sixteen was old enough to hold a job and leave home depending on where you lived, but it wasn’t considered old enough to wed or join the military. Elan and Isolde weren’t allowed to meet until they were eighteen.
They were still in the hall arguing. Isolde warned everyone not to eat the food and once the room was cleared, she went around sniffing plates. Elan hadn’t been trained in poisons, but apparently, Isolde had. She told him how much she loved Cendian food, but she was complaining about the different spices tonight. She asked if the potato dish normally had almonds in it. It didn’t and she gave them a dire look.
“There’s cyanide in the potatoes. I can smell it over the curry and the spices in the meat next to it. If I can smell it over all of that, there’s enough in there to be fatal for all of us. I don’t think he wanted us to see that weapon or be a suspect just yet.”
“But what’s his end game?” Elan said, pacing. “If he’s sixteen, no one is going to put him on the throne and if anyone sees his hair coming in like that, they’ll probably just burn him.”
“I can’t hear him. Something is going on with him like what happened with us, but he’s two years younger than us, so I don’t know what. We need to contact our bond animals and find out who he is and why they haven’t felt the need to warn us about him so far.”
“Tati, this is not the time for secrets.”
“You’ve met your foe, gentle king, and there are others like him on both planets. I’m sure you’ve guessed by now you’ve come by your gifts by means not human and you have a purpose. Another god, a minor god, does Someone does not want the alliance. You know him as Alghira and Isolde knows him as Öfund. That is not his real name. They want you to die off and destroy yourselves. They do not have the power to do what was done to the sixteen of you on both planets.
“There was an eclipse and another sixteen women fell pregnant. The boy you saw was named Halah. The others like him are very intelligent, wild, and a little mad. But unlike you, none of them are trained and they did not have guidance as they grew. I’m afraid it was your bond that awakened their gifts. A strong, cosmic event was needed, so they were tied to you and Isolde. They are being trained and prepared now. Their gifts are not like yours. Those that did this are not strong enough to give them that. They were only strong enough to make them immune to some of you. That is why Isolde couldn’t hear him. She will not be able to hear any of them.”
Elan was angry. Tati should have said something about this way before now. “Why are the gods talking to Halah and not us? If they want this alliance so badly, why create us, but not help us?”
“How do you know they aren’t talking to you and helping you? If saving both planets were so easy, don’t you think it would have been done by now? You needed to prove y
ou were worth saving. They could have killed the swarms and cleaned the water and you still would have destroyed yourselves at the rates you were going. If they cleaned Avala’s water, their focus would have been on attacking Cendis. If they killed the swarms on Cendis, eventually all of you would be like Hikmat and Harja and you would have civil war. You were not just created to lead your people to Ragnis Crystal. You were created to be their champion and prove you are worth saving. There is only so much help you can be given, gentle king.”
Tati stopped answering so he looked back around the room. Everyone appeared to have been given the same speech he was. Most everyone was trying to figure out what their bond animals meant by created. They weren’t upset about all the tests and the fate of two planets resting in their hands. Isolde was pacing and furious.
“We’re just supposed to leave them for now?” she exploded, running her fingers through her hair. “Halah knows how to make weapons you haven’t seen here and he and fifteen others are immune to me. We need to warn Fjola because my people aren’t safe either.”
Ace and the others finally came back in. They looked defeated and collapsed onto their pillows. The new food Elan had sent in after the poisoned food was taken away was cold, but they all dug in and ate with no complaint.
“That kid is fast. We tracked the blood trail into the woods, but lost it at a stream. He’s lost a good bit of blood, but he was moving like he felt no pain.”
“It wouldn’t shock me if he didn’t!” Isolde snapped. “I hate surprises. Soelva or Tati should have mentioned there was another set of sixteen created to destroy us!”
“Wait, there’s more of you? This kid isn’t alone?”
“No, and we have no idea who the other fifteen are. I have a feeling if our bond animals were going to tell us their names, they would have!”
“Let’s talk about what we do know,” Hound said, trying to calm Isolde down. “Do we know his name and is the weapon Avalian?”
Child of Fire, Child of Ice-A Sci-fi Romance Series Page 30