Blood Legacy: Heir to the Throne (20 page)

He lowered his head, unable to meet her eyes.

“I had assistance.”

The chill down her spine increased, spreading out to her extremities. Her hands actually felt numb from the cold.

“From whom?” she asked quietly.

Aeron just stared at her across the expanse, a mixture of shame, resignation, and hopelessness on his features. Ryan felt that he was desperately trying to communicate something to her, something she was about to learn for herself.

A stabbing pain shot through her head, creating such a violent visual disturbance she thought for a moment she was going to pass out. Nausea swept upward through her system as her knees buckled. Kusunoki reached out to her, grasping her about the waist else she would have fallen to the ground. The room spun about, tilting madly, and the pain increased until Ryan thought for certain every blood vessel in her head was going to burst.

Kusunoki was at a loss. He could not see or sense anything that was harming Ryan, but she was obviously in great pain. She could barely stand, and in fact required his support. Just as suddenly as the attack began, it seemed to end. Ryan clung to him for a moment, uncertain if the pain would come again. As she slowly stood upright once more, her attention was not on Kusunoki, but rather on something she was reaching out to, something she was trying to grasp. And as she succeeded, the realization on her face mirrored that of Aeron’s: utter hopelessness.

Slowly, Ryan stood upright to her full height. She squared her shoulders as one wholly resigned to fate. Without looking at Kusunoki, she slowly turned around. He turned to see what she was looking at.

There was a woman standing in the doorway. An extraordinary woman. A terrifying woman.

Extremely tall, she was perfectly proportioned, a goddess with long dark hair, flawless skin, and dark green eyes. In age she appeared somewhere physically between Marilyn and Abigail and was undeniably beautiful. But there was something not quite right about her. Perhaps it was the perfection of her walk as she began gliding towards them, seamless and lacking any of the character of a normal stride. Perhaps it was the high, sharp cheekbones, ideal in structure but threatening to cut through the flawless skin of that perfect face. Perhaps it was the faultless lips that seemed an unnatural shade of red, a color deviant from nature. Perhaps it was the reptilian coldness of her eyes, eyes that were locked onto Ryan as if no one else in the room was present.

Perhaps it was because, although Kusunoki could not sense her, he knew instinctively that the woman was an Old One, ancient, in fact, far older and more powerful than anyone else in the room.

In the stands, Abigail stood, her hands on the railing in front of her. She could not feel the woman either, but was filled with horror at her presence.

Ryan simply stood there as the woman approached. The woman was so tall Ryan had to look up when she stopped in front of her.

“Rhiannon Alexander,” the woman said, her voice melodic but possessing a strange inflection, one that Ryan could not identify even with all her travels. There seemed to be a minor sibilance as she pronounced the “x” in “Alexander,” the slightest hiss as the consonant was imperceptibly lengthened.

“I have longed to meet you,” the woman said, her eyes still locked on Ryan.

The enunciation was again strange, as if this language were an uncomfortable fit, although Ryan could not place or even identify an accent. It really did not matter, and Ryan did not respond other than to maintain the woman’s gaze.

“You know who I am,” the woman stated.

“No,” Ryan said, then reluctantly, “and yes.” The woman seemed satisfied with the answer. “Then you know enough.”

She turned to the men who had accompanied her into the courtyard, men everyone seemed to have missed entirely, so mesmerized by the woman were they.

“Then you will come with me now.”

Ryan glanced at the men. They were strange as well, but she did not have time to ponder that at the moment.

“Yes,” she said, “I will.”

Kusunoki took a step toward her and Ryan turned to him. Her voice was forceful in his head.

Do not follow me, she commanded silently.

Without another word, silent or spoken, Ryan turned and fell into step beside the woman who guided her across the courtyard and through the doorway. The woman did not touch her, but the exit was as forced as if Ryan had been bound, gagged, and dragged out by a rope about her throat.

CHAPTER 19

KUSUNOKI SHOVED AERON BACKWARD against the wall so hard that his body was momentarily embedded in the rock. Kusunoki was on him immediately, his arm across Aeron’s throat, pinning him in his own imprint.

“What have you done!” Kusunoki demanded, his fury spilling out in his words.

Aeron, under normal circumstances, was stronger than Kusunoki but the samurai was so angry right now his strength was tremendous. Aeron was able to wedge his hand between Kusunoki’s forearm and his own throat just enough to allow speech.

“I did not do this,” Aeron insisted angrily.

Abigail entered the inner council chambers, and her wrath was even greater than Kusunoki’s.

“And what is it,” she said with icy fury, “that you have not done?”

Aeron pried Kusunoki’s forearm away a little more. His words were strained from the force on his larynx. “I did not know she would come for Ryan.”

Ala came up behind Kusunoki, gently placing her hand on his shoulder. She was angry, too, but this would not help.

Kusunoki sensed the wisdom of her silent words and released Aeron. He took several steps back because the urge to attack Aeron again was almost uncontrollable. Aeron rubbed his throat as Abigail eyed him, her own fury unabated.

“And who, exactly, is ‘she’?”

Aeron closed his eyes for a moment, rubbing his forehead. “Her name is Madelyn,” he said finally, “and I know almost nothing about her.”

“Well,” Abigail said coldly, settling into the chair at the head of the table, “why don’t you begin with what you do know?”

Aeron slumped heavily into his own chair, and the others took their seats about the table. The two adjacent to Aeron remained empty because no one wanted to be near him right now.

“Ryan was right,” Aeron began, “my recovery was significantly aided. Madelyn was there when I woke up.”

“And where were you when you awakened?” Abigail pressed.

Frustration was evident in Aeron’s voice. “I don’t know.” He shook his head. “I awakened in some type of fortress, and when I left. I was restrained so I could not see or hear anything.”

This brought a chill to Kusunoki. If they were capable of so completely restricting Aeron…

“Did you take her blood?” Ala asked.

“No,” Aeron said, “I mean, I must have before I awakened, it’s the only thing I can think of that would have allowed me to recover so quickly. But I did not Share with her.” He looked at Abigail. “I don’t believe she wanted my blood.”

Aeron’s remorse was apparent, for under normal circumstances he would never have admitted such an inadequacy. Abigail, however, was unyielding.

“It’s pretty obvious who she wanted,” she replied, her tone scathing.

Abigail turned to Marilyn. “I have never heard of this woman, nor do I have any Memories of her. How is it possible that an Old One exists that none of us know?”

Marilyn simply shook her head. She could not get Ryan’s hopeless expression out of her mind.

Ala leaned forward. “I have heard rumors of Ones before us, dating back to the time of the Egyptians, but there has never been any proof.”

Kusunoki’s temper finally cooled enough for him to rejoin the conversation. “I, too, have heard stories.” He replayed the previous scene in his mind. “Strange that I could not get any reading from her, no sense of her presence. I could not with any accuracy guess her age.” He looked to Ala, his expression grim. “But I think you have to go back farther than the Egyptians.”

Ala nodded her agreement. She turned back to Aeron. “The men with her, our Kind as well?”

Aeron nodded. “Yes.”

“How many are there?” Kusunoki asked quietly.

“Dozens,” Aeron said, his expression also grim, “and each one stronger than me.”

Kusunoki felt despondency settling upon him.

“How long were you with them?” Abigail asked Aeron.

“A day, maybe two. But that was all. They did not seem to have any purpose in keeping me, and communication was almost non-existent.”

“You say ‘almost’,’ Abigail noted.

Aeron closed his eyes.

“Aeron,” Abigail prompted, not gently.

Aeron reopened his eyes. “Madelyn came to me when I awakened. She said she had felt a tremendous force pass through her, and she wanted to know if I knew what it was.”

“And what did you tell her?” Abigail asked, knowing the answer.

“From what she described,” Aeron said resigned to his culpability, “I knew it had to be Ryan.”

Kusunoki slammed his fist down on the table, and Ala reached over to place her hand on his arm.

“When was this?” Ala asked.

“A few days ago,” Aeron replied.

Ala and Abigail exchanged glances. The coronation, when the girl had revealed her full power.

“I did not know Madelyn would come for the girl,” Aeron insisted, “she seemed completely uninterested in us.”

“Apparently she was uninterested in you,” Kusunoki said derisively.

Aeron ignored the taunt. “I did not know she would come until Ryan asked me the question in the courtyard. Then I realized that was exactly what Madelyn was going to do, but by then it was too late.”

Abigail was still furious at Aeron, but she did not sense any trickery in him or any attempt to mislead. He seemed as shocked as the rest of them, if not more so because he had a better grasp of what Ryan was now up against.

The group settled into somber silence, broken finally by Ala’s solemn words.

“I could not get a good impression of what Ryan was feeling, so quickly did she shut down,” Ala said, “but I do know this, the girl was terrified.”

Kusunoki’s reply was brusque. He did not want to believe it. “I have never known Ryan to even be afraid.”

“That very well may be,” Ala replied slowly, “but she was not afraid for herself.”

All eyes turned toward the ebony-skinned woman.

“Ryan’s fear,” Ala said pointedly, “was for us.”

CHAPTER 20

RYAN FELT AS IF SHE WERE LAYING on a slab of rock. Her eyes covered, she could not verify this fact, but that was certainly what it felt like.

As soon as she and her captors had reached the surface above the Grand Council chambers, she had been bound and blind-folded. She had tested the strength of her restraints as surreptitiously as possible, but they did not yield. They seemed to be made of some strange metal that was both flexible and incredibly strong. The manacles almost seemed to shape themselves to her wrists so closely did they fit.

She had been placed into some type of motor vehicle, a limousine perhaps, and she carefully marked the time that they were underway, alertly recording sounds and smells to orient herself. They stopped on what was obviously an airfield or runway of some type, and she was pulled from the vehicle, pushed forward to walk on her own although she was still blind-folded. Perhaps her captors wished to make her look foolish or helpless, but Ryan utilized a technique she had learned from Kusunoki. She changed her gait slightly, shifting her weight so that her heel struck the ground sharply. She listened carefully to the sound, using a subtle form of echo-location as she moved forward. When she reached the stairs, she mounted them effortlessly, even dipping her head as she entered the doorway of the aircraft. She was led, not gently, to a seat, where her feet were further restrained.

Ryan sat silently, noting the movements and sounds around her. She could not identify the type of plane, although it was some sort of extremely advanced jet. That classification was important because it would give her the ability to calculate the distance she traveled based upon the sound of the engine, her sense of the altitude, and the potential air speed of the plane.

Or at least it would have had someone not placed a needle beneath her skin, injecting her with a drug that astonishingly had an immediate affect. Ryan felt herself begin to slide toward blackness and had a sudden despairing thought. Although she could not feel the woman’s presence, she knew Madelyn had been right next to her, watching her futile efforts with some amusement the entire time.