by Talis Jones
Three things were clear. There was a prophecy of some sort claiming that a pair of twins would enter Oneiroi and rend it apart if the Whispers could not stop the trouble twin from turning dark. The twins would cleave the land apart with kingdoms formed under their might. Finally, despite what loyal reservations Medusa might have spouted, Abel and the Council viewed her as the prime suspect for one of the prophesied twins. The villainous one. Briefly she wondered why Medusa hadn't tried to siphon out her secrets and whether Abel had been right that she was afraid of what she'd find. The thought nettled her nerves even further.
Cassandra met the murderous gaze of her own reflection in the window and could have sworn flames cackled within them. With these suspicions, baseless though they were, chained around her neck she would never gain a voice on Council. Surely not even Abel could stop her from taking a turn but it would be pointless when she did. She'd already known that the Council would be too small for her ambitions, apparently there was no further use tiptoeing around the truth.
Well, she told herself, if it is a villain they've cast me as then I shall take my power and become the greatest villain they could never dream of. I think it time I create myself a kingdom. One thing was for sure, she cared little for which side she stood on. Only that wherever she stood, none stood above her.
The storm passed within the hour and as Cassandra brushed her hair a knock came at her door. “Come in,” she called having a fair idea of who it was.
Sure enough Medusa slipped inside closely followed by Kenshin. “I thought we were going to visit town today,” Medusa asked casually.
Cassandra spared her a glance before returning to her hair. “Your meeting seemed to be running long so I assumed you'd be too tired for an adventure,” she smiled kindly.
Medusa's answering smile was strained. “It’s just as well,” she shrugged. “That storm would've ruined our trip and I've got work to do. I have to find someone to do repairs, the Council room was soaked from the rain. Must be a leak somewhere.”
“So everything worked out then,” Cassandra claimed brightly setting aside her brush. “How about we try again tomorrow?”
“Yeah, sure...”
Medusa seemed to be lost choosing her next words when Cassandra interrupted her impatiently. “Out with it, Medusa.”
“I was just thinking,” she began slowly. “You haven't seen more than a speck of Oneiroi. You've been stuck here in this citadel and that really isn't fair or much fun. So Kenshin and I were thinking that perhaps we'd take a trip. A real trip.”
Cassandra tipped her head in that innocent way people liked. “What did you have in mind?”
Medusa's words came far more easily now, encouraged by the eagerness in Cassandra's expression. “The circus in Ailill. Oh Cassandra, you'll love it! We promise! Much more fun than walking around Mordréda.”
“Are you trying to kick me out of the castle, Medusa?” Cassandra teased over the simmering anger in her blood.
“Of course not!” she denied. “I'm tired of these endless meetings and just want to have some fun with my friends. Am I not allowed that?”
Cassandra gave another teasing chuckle but she knew that if she possessed Medusa's gift that her declarations would prove only true in part, crumbling before they could even leave her lips. “This was your idea too, Kenshin?” she asked curiously.
He stepped forward and grasped her hand. “I think it would be good for you, you've seemed so tired lately. And this is what friends do, isn't it? Take silly trips and have fun?”
“Of course it is,” Cassandra laughed despite having no idea what friends normally did as she'd never had any. “I'd love to go!”
Medusa beamed. “Fantastic! We'll set off at the end of the week. See you at dinner!” she cried enthusiastically as she practically bounced out of her room.
Kenshin made to follow but Cassandra gripped his hand bidding him to wait. “Am I allowed to air my suspicions about this trip?” she teased although an irritated glint flashed in her eyes.
“Suspicions?” he frowned.
“Yes, Kenshin,” she repeated, her smile turning cold, “suspicions.”
Kenshin looked down into her eyes. “I only want what is best for you.”
“Yes I know and Medusa will always jump at any chance for fun.” Her eyes narrowed slightly. “But I can't help wondering if the timing for all this is too coincidental. That perhaps Medusa is trying to keep Abel and I from ripping each other's throats out and that you are trying to keep me from forming a political coup.”
Kenshin's tongue turned to ash and his mouth opened and shut uselessly until with a firm pleading shake of his head he said, “We only want what is best for you. Porfabór.”
“I know,” she agreed. “But who are you to decide that for me?” Kenshin only dropped his gaze still struggling for words. “Go, Kenshin,” she nudged him gently.
“Will you not come with me?”
“I will see you later,” she challenged lightly.
His jaw tightened as he recalled what day it was but did not argue. With a nod in farewell he left her and in his absence Cassandra twirled the end of her plait as she thought. And thought. And found that she did not care for she'd chosen her path and not even death had stood in her way.
Chapter 11
The west tower was not often used but Kenshin dragged off the sheets from an ancient table and chairs so that they could sit and Cassandra lit the waiting candles with a flick of her magic. They'd all come. Tiago, Alexei, Kenshin, and Suyin sat with Cassandra in their first official political stance against the Council.
“I'm being whisked away at the week's end,” Cassandra announced. “It seems Abel resents my presence here.”
“Where?” Alexei demanded.
“Medusa will be escorting me to Ailill. To see the circus, she says.”
Alexei snorted but Tiago got a dreamy look in his eye. “I've always wanted to go to Circ de Apa.”
“We'll enjoy what Ailill has to offer of course but I remain curious to know how other Whispers feel about their Councils. Just because this trip is not of my choosing does not mean I will not make good use of it,” she proclaimed. “Kenshin has already agreed to go with me and now I'm inviting you all to make this move by my side.”
“I'm in,” Suyin volunteered at once.
Cassandra gave her an assessing glance. “Will you not be missed?”
Suyin's face scrunched. “Nyet, I will not. I do not linger with my siblings now so they will feel no difference in my absence.”
“I will go,” Alexei nodded solemnly.
Tiago turned to his friend. “Will you be missed?”
“You know I won’t,” he growled.
“By whom?” Cassandra frowned not recalling any other close acquaintances besides Tiago.
“Anya, my sister.”
Cassandra's brow furrowed further in puzzlement. She couldn't place a face to the name nor recall even the mention of a sister.
“You wouldn't have met her,” Tiago explained. “They had a fight years back about him being overprotective and always stalking around lurking in her shadow so she left Quidel. Something like that,” he waved dismissively.
“We do not talk,” Alexei answered, his eyes downcast in shame.
Cassandra appraised the towering boy across from her anew. “You're a natural-born bodyguard, aren't you?” she queried.
Once more he seemed to feel her appreciation for his talents like a soft current of electricity raising the hairs on his arms. “I failed her once, but I will not fail you,” he vowed.
She smiled. “And Tiago? What about you?”
“Oh I thought my answer was obvious. I'm in,” he grinned mischievously.
“Then at week's end we journey to the southern end of the Island and spread our campaign for change, for a future full of new possibilities for Oneiroi.” She looked at each of them in turn. “The Whispers have ruled this place in the way of tradition for long before we were ever born and I doub
t they will take kindly to our opinions, but I feel I cannot be quite so afraid when I am surrounded by such a group as you.”
Suyin let slip a harsh staccato laugh. “I survived a royal assassination, I think I can handle a few grumpy stuffed shirts.”
Cassandra merely blinked at Suyin's casual mention of her death. A gruesome one at that.
Tiago snorted. “Well, seeing as you're here I'd hardly call that survived.”
Suyin bared her teeth. “I am here, aren't I? That nothus turned to dust when his lifeline came to a close but mine endured. I didn't die, I simply started a new chapter.”
Cassandra willed them to drop it but of course that would be asking for too much from them. “I mean you did technically die...” Tiago muttered under his breath.
The words had hardly slipped out his mouth when Suyin's fist blackened his eye. Alexei and Kenshin stepped in at once to pull them apart.
Cassandra remained seated, her hands neatly folded in front of her resting on the table. “Perhaps I spoke too soon,” she sighed before releasing an amused quirk of her mouth. Apologies were murmured and she gestured for everyone to resume their seat. “Perhaps in an effort to bind trust between us we ought to share something honest about who we are.”
“Like what?” Kenshin asked curiously seeming drawn to the idea of learning any of her secrets.
Cassandra thought a moment. “How we died. For what could be more telling than the moment one life ended and another began.”
The room turned melancholy as they each recalled their fateful meeting with Titus but Suyin seemed unphased.
“Well you already know my story,” she shrugged. “My greedy scheming cousin wanted the throne so he killed my parents and all of their heirs. Only us lucky triplets were young enough for Titus to collect.” Despite her cavalier account of her murder something haunted lay deep in her eyes, a mark Cassandra was sure every Whisper hid.
Tiago groaned. “Mine is so dull compared to yours!”
“Spill it,” Suyin demanded.
“I worked at a seaside hotel and was accused of stealing by one of the guests. He hit me so hard I fell and unfortunately I was standing by the open balcony. Fell two stories, low enough to live so Titus could claim me but not so low that my body would ever walk away.” He shuddered. “I still loathe heights.”
“I apologize for choosing the tower then,” Cassandra offered gently.
“Nyet, so long as I can't see the distance I'm alright,” he assured her. “Just don't ask me to jump on any rooftops.”
“You can't die again,” Suyin argued. “You're a Whisper now.”
“Still,” Tiago murmured and his voice was so small that even Suyin let it go.
“Anya was a singer, a rising star. I saw bad men attack her by the stage entrance in the alley and managed to injure most of them before chasing them all off...but not before I got a knife plunged into my gut. Titus found us then and saved us. The Island must have found something worthy in us for when we reached these shores we were declared Whispers and I felt it. I felt the rush of soothing power that filled me then but I didn't deserve it. I had failed.”
Cassandra watched Alexei where he fidgeted in his seat and it was so unlike him that she reached out and held his hand. “But you tried,” she reminded him and her firm words seemed to gather him back together.
Kenshin forced his eyes away from their clasped hands and softly cleared his throat. “My father wanted me to train in the tradition of the samurai, to become a warrior, but one day a wealthy traveler offered to sponsor me to attend a fancy school. My mother and I convinced my father to let me go, academics would surely pay more than that of a humble soldier and my family badly needed the money... When I returned home I found my mother dead and our house devastated. Rogues had attacked with only my father and his broken leg to stand against them. He made me kneel down and demanded I end my life with honor but I couldn't do it. I couldn't force my hand to move the blade and so he ended it for me. He wrapped his hand around my own and pushed.
“He'd meant to finish the rite with the roll of my head but a stranger stopped him. Titus shook a bag of coins and asked my father to repair the wheel on his wagon. I was breaths from death as it was but it was enough to strike a deal and claim passage.”
Now it was Kenshin's turn for Cassandra to grip his hand and he held on tightly with both of his own. Silence lay thick in the air, growing saturated with sorrow with each tale they shared.
When the minutes had stretched Suyin asked with uncharacteristic hesitancy, “Will you share your story, Cassandra?”
It was with that question, not demand, that she knew they were not equals. That with this small band of Whispers at least, she'd managed to take a step above. Even so she decided they ought to know who she was as well. Only them. Another secret to bind their trust in her.
“I will share as you have shared,” she nodded, “but never dare breathe a word of it beyond this room, this moment. Although you have not asked it of me, I will honor this promise for your stories as well.”
They nodded their vow and Kenshin squeezed her hand no doubt anticipating something tragic and wishing to comfort her.
“Our house was set on fire by a soldier mad with sickness. He'd locked us in. I tried to save my father but he begged me to save my brother instead, the brother he always loved best, and so I did but I will never forgive either of them for that choice. Whether sickness had set in or the smoke had scorched my lungs or both I found myself dying upon the forest floor with nothing but that useless brother that cowered while our home had been taken hostage. When Titus came and offered me passage I took it. And when he offered to take my brother as well, despite his health, I chose to leave him behind.”
Her eyes were hard and cold as glass. “To those whom are loyal and useful to me, I will protect you, but dare cross me even once and you will be abandoned without a second thought.” She met their carefully calm faces. “I am not cruel. I simply refuse to pander to those who would rather I crawl.”
No question had been asked nor any demand made and yet they each nodded their heads and murmured that they understood her terms clearly. She had a very sharp line and her side of it was as slim as a beam, but better to bow on one's belly for balance than to risk stumbling across that fateful line she'd carved.
Suddenly she smiled and although it was warm it did not meet her eyes. “To the week's end and the journey it brings,” she toasted.
“To the week's end,” they chorused and purpose flooded their veins.
Chapter 12
“You'll be missed,” a voice called causing Cassandra to halt in surprise.
She turned smoothly and raised a delicate brow with disinterest. “Will I?” Abel could scarcely contain his glee from his eyes and although Cassandra had no desire to waste time on his goading she couldn't seem to keep her mouth shut around him.
A smirk tilted his mouth. “Perhaps not, if you have to ask.”
He brushed past but before he could go far she snapped, “I do not go alone, Abel.” He paused and looked back over his shoulder. “I am not alone, I am not friendless, I am not unloved. Mark my words, Abel, I will not be forgotten and some day I shall return.”
“Perhaps.”
Cassandra frowned at his disappearing form but shook his disdain from her thoughts instead focusing on the journey ahead. Exiting the great oak doors in an elegant stride she descended the steps with her chin more level than her temper as she approached the saddled mare awaiting her. Alexei held the reins as she seated herself and without a single glance back she kicked her horse forwards.
Cassandra and Medusa took the lead while Kenshin hung back to Cassandra's right and the others in her coterie guarded their rear. Well, perhaps guard was too strong a word as amazingly the Whispers did manage to wield peace in the land of shadows. For now. With time all things ebb and flow. Cassandra's mind was vivid with plans, spinning ideas into goals, when a sudden cry snapped her eyes skyward. Circling above their tra
veling group was a large, inky black raven and an albino falcon that could only be described as majestic. Narrowing her eyes at the curious pair she dismissed their sight.
Until they perched in the trees where they made camp.
Until they followed, swooping in and out of shadow each mile towards Ailill.
Until she woke that final morning with the raven standing not two feet away, its head cocked and its eyes looking sharply into hers as if it could read every thought.
Medusa woke with a mighty yawn and when Cassandra turned back to the bird it was gone but the chill of its sentience refused to leave her bones. If she didn't know better she'd chalk it up to nature's natural strangeness, but this was Oneiroi and she did know better. She was being watched. Cassandra did not wonder why so much as by whom.
“Circ de Apa is just 'round the bend,” Medusa announced brightly by way of rousing the sleeping forms around the cold fire.
Combing her fingers through her hair and weaving it into a braid Cassandra asked, “And what shall we do when we arrive?” For that was something neither Medusa nor Kenshin had properly explained.
“Check in at the Whisper's citadel and claim rooms, of course,” she replied rustling through their cookware with unnecessary cacophony.
“Oy, will you shut it??” Tiago groaned, his palms pressed tightly over his ears.
“Bon Bihana to you too,” Medusa answered sweetly giving the pan an extra clank as she passed his bedroll.
Cassandra packed her things with silent efficiency and Alexei loaded it into the wagon before seating himself down heavily upon a log beside Tiago where he rubbed his eyes and wolfed down the helpings Medusa passed him. Noticing Suyin still remained tucked tight in her blankets Cassandra made her way over and crouched down by the sleeping girl's gentle face. Brushing the backs of her fingers along her cheek she murmured, “Wake up, Suyin.”