Knowing the gig was up, Jarod removed his hood and stretched to his full height. “I don’t want trouble, just step aside and let me leave.”
By now a good size crowd had gathered and Jarod braced for the worst. With his entire body tensed in anticipation, he watched as a large bearded man dressed in fighting gear moved to stand at the front of the group. “We can’t do that.”
Not one to be so easily deterred, Jarod glared down at the brave warrior. “I may not have fought back last time, but today is a new day. Now I will ask you one more time to step aside or I can assure you I won’t hesitate to snap the neck of any man here who tries to stop me from leaving.” A virtually unperceivable twitch of his eye signaled Jarod he had gotten into the leader’s head. Needing to take advantage of his moment of doubt, Jarod stepped forward, and was about to test this motley crew’s dedication to their job, when out of nowhere a small hand encircled his wrist. “Jarod?”
With a heavy sigh, Jarod turned around and was met by the grinning faces of Citera and Dirik. “It is you,” Citera exclaimed, then before he could process what was happening, she threw her arms around his waist. Several gasps could be heard emanating from within the growing crowd while Jarod, shocked by the unexpected contact, glanced questioningly at Dirik. Looking like he was trying his best not to laugh at Jarod’s expense, Dirik merely grinned and shrugged. Not sure what else to do, he awkwardly placed a hand on her back. “Hi, Citera.”
Pulling back, the smile on her face made his own hardened expression automatically soften. “I am so glad to see you. I heard you were here, but my dad wouldn’t let me come into the medical tent until he was sure you were all right… you know, just in case.”
“You must be feeling better if you are up and moving,” Dirik added. Then with a perplexed look added, “Where are you going anyway?”
“I am leaving. I only came to bring Maya, now I must go.”
“Go where?”
“I will figure that out once I am out of here.” he answered gruffly, wondering why everyone had suddenly taken such an interest in his whereabouts. Turning back to the wall of men blocking his path, Jarod moved forward.
“You can’t leave.” The large man repeated, stiffening his stance. Behind him the other men tightened their formation. “Once you come to Oasis, there is only one way you leave.”
Jarod smirked, “Give it your best shot.”
“No, no, no!” Citera swiftly moved in between the two men, keeping them at arm’s length. “There won’t be any need for that you guys.” Then looking up to Jarod she added, “Besides, you really can’t leave, we need your help.”
“I’m sorry Citera, but I don’t have time for this. I need to go before…”
“Jarod!” The ear-piercing scream came at him from every direction as it echoed through the forest.
Descending from the trail leading to the medical tent, Maya appeared running as fast as she could with Jaron following close behind. Jarod dropped his head, knowing he was too late.
Turning his back on the barricade, Jarod prepared himself to face the young girl who he was so desperately trying to protect. Moving swiftly, Maya pushed her way through the crowd to stand in front of him. “Where are you going?” she asked, even though the pain in her pale gray eyes told him she already knew.
“I have done my job, you are safe.” He replied gruffly. “Now it’s time for me to leave.”
“Then I am coming too.”
“Like hell!” he yelled, startling several people in their audience. “I didn’t bring you all this way just to let you put yourself at risk again.”
Maya narrowed her eyes, the pain from only moments ago no longer evident. “Try and stop me.”
“All right, everyone relax.” Jaron coaxed, rushing between the feuding pair. “Jarod, you’re not going anywhere until the two of us have had a chance to talk.” then glancing to Maya he added, “Actually, I need to speak with both of you.”
Jarod’s focus automatically fell upon the massive black and blue mark encircling Jaron’s neck. With his resolve to leave only strengthened by the guilt of having nearly killed his own brother, Jarod locked his expression into an emotionless facade. “No, what I need to do is get out of here. You, on the other hand, need to keep her here and get your friends to Back Off!” He snapped over his shoulder at the dedicated team still blocking his way out. A few of them shrunk back slightly in response, but not a one broke formation.
Narrowing his gaze, Jaron crossed his arms over his chest, “And where exactly is it you think you are going to go?”
Hearing that questioned asked yet again, Jarod slung his arms wide. “Why the hell does everyone keep asking me that?” Jarod leaned forward, getting right in his brother’s face. “Where I go and what I do is no one’s concern, all that matters is that I am not staying here. I. Don’t. Belong. Here.”
“You do belong with me.” Maya’s soft voice drew his attention away from Jaron. Smiling sweetly, she moved between them and took his hand into hers. “And since you say I belong here, then I guess that means you do too.”
Gritting his teeth, he grabbed a handful of his hair with his free hand, flinching when he grazed the bump. With all the eyes and ears of Oasis on him, watching him, even with Maya’s energy flowing through him, Jarod could feel his anger nearing that dangerous point. Desperate to put some space between himself and them, he jerked his hand free of Maya’s and moved away. “Just let me go, please.” he asked, his voice trembling with the effort needed to maintain control, “I am hanging on by a thread. I need to go before I do something we all regret.”
With a forlorn expression, Jaron cautiously stepped forward. “Jarod… I’m sorry.”
“Jaron I don’t need you to apologize, I just need you to let me leave so…”
“No” Jaron snapped, closing the distance Jarod had just created. “I won’t let you leave… not again.” Jarod’s brow knitted in a mixture of confusion and anger as his brother continued to explain. “I never should have let you go that day, and I have had to live with the guilt of that decision every day for the last fifty years.” Jaron hesitated, remembering there were many eyes and ears watching this drama play out, chose his words carefully. “But damn it Jarod, you were so frustratingly bull headed and always felt like you had something to prove.” Jaron looked up at the massive man before him and chuckled, shaking his head. “You begged me relentlessly for days until I finally just gave in. Besides, it was only supposed to be a scouting job, an in and out mission lasting a few days at the most…” Jaron turned his head to hide the flood of emotions welling up inside. “I’m sorry I lied to you about what you were. All I ever wanted to do was to protect you,” sighing Jaron faced Jarod, no longer trying to hide the pain he was feeling inside, “but in the end, I failed you and K both.”
“I never blamed you for my capture, Jaron. I knew the risk I was taking when we left and I also knew there was nothing you could have done to get me out of there.” Taking a deep breath Jarod locked his gaze with Jaron, “I just need to know why? Even after I was captured and turned…” he paused, gesturing to his monstrous frame with disgust, “into this. Why did you continue to keep the truth from me?” Dropping his stoic mask, Jarod allowed a glimmer of his own pain to come through. “Do you have any idea how many nights I laid awake begging the stars for a death that would never come? At least if I had known I…”
“Wait,” Maya interrupted, “What do you mean a death that would never come?”
Jarod hesitated, unsure if he was ready to confess the secret he had been keeping from her for the last few weeks. Jaron, noticing his brother’s reluctance, decided to speak in his stead. “Jarod isn’t just a Full-blood, Maya. He is descended directly from K’s blood-line, like me.”
Furrowing her brow Maya looked up at Jarod, “Yes, I know. My mother told me that back in Vicaris. But what does that have to do with this?”
If he was surprised by her knowledge of their blood bond to K or her source of that inform
ation, Jaron hid it well. “It means that, like the Shadows and myself, there is only one person in Vanteria who can end Jarod’s life,” he answered calmly.
“K?”
“Yes.”
Maya’s expression spanned a wide range of emotions as she tried to overcome the shock of what she was being told. “Are you telling me he suffered all those years in that place for nothing? That he could have fought them instead of allowing himself to be subjected to all that abuse?”
“No, no, no.” Jaron responded quickly, “if he had fought back, then they would have entombed him, like they did to K. I just couldn’t let that happen, I didn’t want to lose them both.”
“So, you decided to let him suffer instead?!” she screeched. Surging forward, she slapped Jaron hard enough to leave a mark. “You let him be manipulated and tortured over and over again for fifty years rather than telling him the truth and letting him decide what he wanted for himself.” Summoning all her strength Maya shoved Jaron hard in the chest and sent him crashing into the nearby benches. Instantly she was on top of him. With a fistful of his shirt in both hands, Maya straddled his chest. “Do you have any idea what they put us through? What they forced us to do? Do you?”
Jaron turned his head, unwilling to fight back against the small girl venting her fury on him. Realizing their leader had no intentions of defending himself, several men moved to intervene.
“Don’t you dare lay a hand on her,” Jarod growled, blocking their path.
After taking a moment to consider him, the men wisely stepped back into the crowd. Confident no one else would try to intervene, Jarod turned his attention back to Maya and his brother. Reaching between them, Jarod snaked his arm around her waist and lifted Maya easily off his brother.
“Put me down!” she shouted, tears welling in her eyes as she struggled against his hold.
Holding her squirming body tightly against his chest, Jarod pressed his lips softly to her ear. “Shhh, let it go Maya. It’s okay.”
“No! It’s definitely not okay!” Twisting in his grip, Maya wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned her head into his chest. “You were beaten, whipped, and tortured for fifty years, all the while keeping him and this place secret from the Shadows.” Glancing over her shoulder, Maya scowled at the onlooking crowd, “And for what? So that he could betray you and they could beat you unconscious?” Sliding from his grasp to stand on her own two feet, Maya grabbed his hand and raised her head proudly. “Let’s go Jarod, you were right, you don’t belong here, because you are better than the whole ungrateful lot of them.”
“You’re right.” A voice called from somewhere in the back. “He deserves to be recognized for all he has done for many of us here.” Searching the crowd, Jarod spotted an older Terrian couple pushing their way to the front.
Moments later Janil and Gabriel were standing hand and hand before him. “My lord.” The pair recited in unison as they bowed slightly at the waist.
Jarod moved quickly trying to stop them, “No, don’t…” he began, only to have Janil smile softly and raise a hand to cut him off. “We bow to you because we want to and because you have earned it Jarod. Like so many others here, we owe you our lives. In the very least allow us to thank you properly.” Then, before Jarod could even summon his voice for an argument, Janil turned her back to him and faced the others watching with disapproving glares, “I know how you all feel. Everyone here has heard tales of the atrocities committed by this man; the tales of destruction, threats, and murders that kept us awake at night and left us living in fear for decades. But I am here to tell you that while some of these stories are true, I know for a fact that just as many more are exaggerated lies.” Pausing, Janil glanced back over her shoulder at Jarod and Maya. “I know this because my husband and I were both his victims; arrested, hauled to the Tower, and executed.” A hum of chatter grew around them as the citizens of Oasis processed what Janil was telling them. Patiently she waited for the talking to die down, then once again raised her voice for all to hear. “And we are not the only ones. During his years of service, Jarod, the man you all have come to know as the Enforcer, has saved hundreds of lives. And to prove what I am saying is true, I call forth all of those present who were either rescued, or had a family member rescued by this man, to please step forward and make yourselves known.”
Silence filled the air while Jarod rolled his eyes, confident no one would be willing to admit such a thing. However, to his surprise, a single quiet voice broke through the silence. “He saved me.”
The crowd parted as a Full-blood woman timidly stepped forward and peered up at Jarod with a misty gaze. “I have waited for forty-five years to say this to you.” Sobbing she dropped into a low bow and allowed the tears to flow freely down her cheeks. “Thank you so much. If you hadn’t done what you did for me I would be either enslaved or dead, but instead I am here, living a life I never could have imagined possible.”
Jarod’s mouth opened to protest when yet another voice rose from the crowd. “And all of us,” Said a Terrian couple stepping up from behind Jarod, followed closely by a group of about 8 others. “We were running an underground orphanage for Full-blood children in Yuri when we received news that the inspectors and Black guard had found out about us and were heading our way. There wasn’t enough time to run, not that it would have been possible with so many of our children weakened to the point they could hardly stand. Instead, we did the only thing we could do, we stayed up the entire night praying to the stars for a miracle.” Smiling the woman locked her gaze on Jarod, “and let me say we were more than surprised when they answered us by sending the Enforcer. You appeared on our door step that night with Jaron and a few of the other men, offering to bring us all to Oasis. Together you worked through the night planning, scouting, and loading supplies and kids into carts. And once everything was settled, we all rode to safety, while you remained behind to burn the building to the ground and cover our tracks.” The lady hesitated, the smile fading from her face, “It wasn’t until later that we learned you had been nailed to that cursed atonement table for almost two weeks as punishment for setting the fire that supposedly killed all the kids inside.”
Jarod looked at the nervous faces of the now grown children and shook his head. “They were going to use them to test experimental formulas. To see if it was possible to create a formula that would keep Full-bloods alive but make them as weak as Terrians. They had already killed so many…”
The lady smiled once more, then together with her husband and the others dropped into a low bow. “And for that we will be forever in your debt.”
After that, many more people stepped forward as Jarod and Maya stood side-by-side, overwhelmed by what was happening. One by one, person after person continued to acknowledge, for the first time ever, that they had been saved by the man everyone outside of Oasis believed had killed them. When the voices finally stopped, nearly a third of the people in the Core had come forward. And for the first time ever in Jarod’s life, men and women, many with a child at their side, all looked upon him with smiles of gratitude, instead of scowls of fear and hatred.
Grinning, Janil spread her arms wide, “People of Oasis, look around you. See all your friends and neighbors who live amongst you only because this man risked his life to save them.” Lowering her arms, Janil continued, “He alone has shouldered the burden of keeping this place and its secrets safe from the Shadows for over fifty years, and suffered terribly as a result. So in the name of the stars, I now ask you to please accept him openly into our fold, welcome him into the sanctuary he has spent much of his life protecting. Because the time has arrived for him to at last find the peace that we have thus far denied him.”
“And what of all the people that he did kill?” a lone voice called deep within the crowd, “Are we expected to just forget about them?”
Jarod’s head dropped as his brother stepped beside him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “We are not asking you to forget them.” Jaron bega
n. Stepping around Jarod he continued to address the others. “But if a man is killed by a sword, do you blame the sword, or the man who wielded it?” Hushed whispering and furrowed brows swept through the crowd as Jaron raised his voice to be heard above the chatter. “Despite common belief, Jarod didn’t choose to become the Enforcer. The Shadows captured him, tortured him into submission, then spent years molding him into their perfect weapon. It could have happened to any man here, but it didn’t, and despite all their best efforts to turn him completely to their side, the Shadows failed. During the fifty years he served them, Jarod secretly smuggled hundreds of people out of that Tower.” Glancing over his should back at Jarod, he sighed, “But as much as it pained us both, we couldn’t save them all.”
With a deep breath, Jaron stepped forward again. “So, if despite knowing all he has done to help so many of your friends and neighbors, if anyone here still feels they have no choice but to seek vengeance against this man for those lives that were unfortunately lost during his time in their service, then come forward and I will offer up myself for you to do so.” Jarod’s head whipped around as he moved to protest, but Jaron held up a hand signaling to stop. “I do this is because I am just as at fault as he is for their deaths. For years I lied to Jarod, leading him to believe that his only option for survival was to do everything the Shadows asked him to do. It was also me that asked him to stay and continue serving as the Enforcer, knowing he was my best chance of eventually finding K. Therefore, if anyone should be held to blame for the lives lost during his time of service, besides the Shadows, it is me. So I repeat, if any amongst you feel you should be compensated for your loss, then step forward now.”
A few hushed whispers circulated the crowd, but after only a few minutes, silence descended.
“No one?” Jaron questioned loudly, yet still not one person stepped forward. “I assure you there will be no retribution for whatever actions you decide to take.” But still only silence answered him. He gave the crowd a few more moments to answer, but when no one did, Jaron spoke up yet again, “Then let this be the end of it. From this day forward Jarod is one of us and will be treated as such.”
Forsaken (The Shadow Chronicles Book 3) Page 8