Bonds That Break (The Havoc Chronicles Book 3) (34 page)

Chapter 20

The Last Berserker

I stiffened and immediately grabbed my varé. I pulled it out and held it at the ready position.

Nanti didn’t even try to defend himself. He held out his empty hands in a gesture that said he didn’t want to fight, but I didn't believe it.

"I'm not going to let you kill me," I said. "Killing me won't break the powers back up again."

Nanti looked me in the eyes. "Madison, I have no intention of killing you. Quite the contrary. If everything works out as I believe it will, I plan on being dead by morning."

That made me pause. I slowly lowered my varé. I didn't want to fight if I didn’t have to, but I also didn't want to walk into a trap and get myself killed.

"Please come with me while I have my last supper and pass on what I know before I die." He bowed his head and waited for my response.

It would be easy to kill him right now. I could tie him up with a snare and run him through with my varé. I would have all the powers and could repair all the bindings.

But what did he know? He didn't seem to be a threat, but he could just be an excellent actor. Was the risk worth the potential information he had for me?

"Madison!"

It was Amy, of course. She was supposed to stay in the car, but the end of the storm must have convinced her it was safe to come looking for me. This was going to complicate things. If Nanti was not on my side like he claimed, Amy could once again be a hostage.

Completely oblivious to the potential danger around her, Amy walked up to me and looked at Nanti with curiosity. "Is this one of the you-know-whats?"

I sighed. "Yes, he is a Berserker," I said. "Now please get back in the car."

Amy's expression turned to ice and she put her hands on her hips. It was never a good idea to order her around. If I hadn’t been so worried about her, I wouldn't have even tried it.

"If you think I'm going to leave you alone with someone who wants to kill you, then you have another thing coming," she said.

Nanti raised his head. "I have no desire to end Madison's life. On the contrary, I merely wish to pass on my information to her before I take my own life and give her the last of the Berserkers' powers."

"Please Amy," I said. "I don't know him, and I don't know if I can trust him completely." I pulled out my keys and took off the one for the Honda. "Take my car and go home. I'll feel much better knowing you're safe."

Amy shook her head. "I’m not going to leave you here with a stranger. How could you possibly think I would do that?"

She was right. Amy would never willingly leave me in this situation. But I needed her to leave. I couldn't have her around and be worried about her safety while I was talking with Nanti. I needed a way to convince her to leave.

It was time for desperate measures.

I hated doing this to her, but she wasn't giving me much of a choice. I had to protect her. I held out my hands and a blue mist enveloped Amy. Her eyes unfocused and she stared blankly ahead.

"You will take my keys and go home. You will remember our conversations, but you will not try to find me or follow me until I contact you again. You will know that I care about you and am doing this for your own good. And you won't be mad at me." I added that last part in hoping it might make some slight difference in how she reacted to this.

I clapped my hands together and Amy blinked, her eyes coming back into focus.

She looked at me and rolled her eyes. She held out her hand. "Fine. Give me the keys."

***

Nanti had a rental car, and drove us to a restaurant. It was a Brazilian Churrascaria I had eaten at once before with my Dad. He loved it because it was all you can eat meat – it was carnivore heaven. The waiters walked around with big skewers of wood-roasted meats and hacked off slices for you. They never stopped coming until you had eaten your own body weight or cried uncle and told them to stop.

"The nice thing about a last meal, is you don’t have to worry about how you will feel in the morning," Nanti said after finishing off yet
another
piece of roasted chicken wrapped in bacon. He had consumed a truly massive quantity of food. Even the waiters were impressed and made several comments. He took in a deep breath and smiled.

I couldn't help smiling back. There was something about this man that made me want to trust him. I had no logical basis for this feeling, but I felt the trust just the same.

"How did you find me?" I asked.

"Now that's a long story," Nanti said. "We don’t have time for it all, so I'll give you the semi-abridged version." He picked up the round disk on our table that was currently green side up and flipped it to red. It was a signal that told the waiters we – at least for now – don't want any more food.

"It was my turn to be the Berserker in hiding. You know we always have one of the seven in hiding so that no one can free Verenix by sacrificing us all at once. This time I went down to the Amazon jungle and stayed in a small village down there. Some of the Berserkers like to hole up in a hotel or rented mansion for their time, but I prefer being in a remote location and then having the freedom to be outside.

"Anyway, when my turn was up, I traveled to Rio and called to check in. I got no answer for any of the numbers I had, and I knew something was wrong. I took the first flight to Hawaii and went to the Manor House."

I shivered, remembering the slaughter that had taken place there. I could only imagine what Nanti had thought when he got there.

"I saw the remains and figured a Havoc or two must have attacked. But I also saw the graves and knew that at least one Berserker had survived to bury the dead."

He stopped and took a sip of his drink. The playfulness and joking from before seemed to have evaporated. He now appeared sad and resigned to his fate.

"It was Thuanar and Pravicus," I said. "I was the one who buried the dead."

Nanti nodded as if this confirmed his suspicions. "I am glad you were there to give them a proper ending," he said. "As for the Thuanar and Pravicus, neither of them were free when I went into hiding. It is amazing that Pravicus is free and yet you still live. Much has changed since I left."

"The bindings have become unstable," I said. "Pravicus' binding broke on its own and destroyed everything within a hundred miles. There is no more Nuremberg."

Nanti nodded solemnly. "I saw the destruction on the news. I figured it had to do with the binding."

"The same thing was happening here, which is why I just broke the binding on Osadyn."

"And Navitan and Margil?"

"Both are bound, for now. I just bound Margil not long ago in Hong Kong, but Navitan's binding in Paris is starting to become unstable."

"So you truly are the one," Nanti said.

"That's what people keep telling me," I said. "What do you know about it?"

Nanti nodded thoughtfully. "More than most, I would venture to say, but far from everything." He picked up his glass and started swirling the ice. "I have seen you before Madison. It was a long, long time ago, but I will never forget it."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I had a vision of you over four hundred years ago. There were five of us there. Me, Shing, Davu, and two other Berserkers who died long before you were born. We had gone on a trip across the globe to check on the various seals. We were in Egypt verifying that Pravicus was still bound there when we all had the sudden urge to touch the seal. Almost in unison we each reached out on our own without discussing with the others and touched the seal that bound Pravicus."

"What happened?"

"We saw you," said Nanti. "I could see your face as clearly as I see you now. We saw you 'zerk and we were all in awe that there could be a woman Berserker. In the vision we saw you take on other powers and saw that it was your destiny to consolidate all the powers in you so that you could send Verenix back to his home."

I remembered my vision of Shing and how when he first saw me, he knew that my existence meant they would all soon die. He had been there. He knew. 

"That day the five of us made a vow that we would do everything we could to help you if we were still alive when the time came – even if it meant that we had to die so that you could have our powers."

"But why?" I asked. "Why are you willing to sacrifice yourself? Not all the Berserkers and Binders felt the same. Josiah, Arthur, Sunee, and Nakai were all trying to kill me. They thought that if they could stop the powers from consolidating in me that they wouldn't have to die."

"Because I know that won't work," Nanti said. "In the vision we were given to understand that what we saw was not an if, but a when. The original binding of Verenix was a temporary solution and wouldn't last forever."

"Did you see the original binding?" I asked.

Nanti shook his head. "We did not. Some things we saw, some we heard, and some we just sort of came away from the vision collectively knowing. We didn't see the original binding, but once the vision was over we all realized that we somehow knew Verenix's binding was temporary."

I hesitated. Should I tell him about my vision? He seemed to be telling me the truth about his. Maybe he might have some insight into mine.

"I've had a vision, too," I said. "Several of them." I told him about the five people I had been having visions about, the dragon, the stones, the cave, and what I thought was Verenix's binding. When I got to the part about the man with one eye turning into Osadyn, Nanti shook his head.

"At this point I believe that anything is possible," he said. "It's possible that the Havocs were once people, but I'm afraid I have no help for you as to who they could be." He hesitated a moment and then spoke again. "But I do have something I think I am supposed to give you."

He stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out a small oblong shaped stone. It shone with an inverse glow that sucked in the light around it.

The Sarolt stone.

I couldn't believe it. I hadn't seen it since Sunee and Nakai had come here to test me.

"Where did you find it?" I asked.

"It was in the ruins of the Manor House."

Something about this felt too good to be true. It made me suspicious. "And you just happened to find it there in all that wreckage?"

"I dug through to the vaults where the Binder Council keeps all their valuables. I somehow knew it would be there. It's now yours."

I picked up the stone, and watched how it sucked in the light. Was this one of the six stones I had seen in my vision? It sure looked like it. But why was this one left out? What was its purpose? It bothered me to realize that I might never know.

"Well, Madison," said Nanti. "I believe that I have told you everything I came to say. It has been a pleasure to meet you, but now I must go and fulfill my part in all of this."

He stood up and dropped a thick stack of hundred dollar bills on the table and shrugged. "Why not? It's not like I need them anymore."

He started to walk away and then stopped and turned around. "By the way, Madison, if you make it through all this alive, you may want to go back and explore those vaults. They are on the first floor in the northwest corner of the Manor house. I believe there are some papers and documents that tell you where all the various Berserker assets are invested along with codes, passwords, and account numbers. As the last living Berserker they all belong to you."

And with that he turned around and walked out of the restaurant. 

Chapter 21

Voicemail From The Dead

I left the restaurant shortly after Nanti. I almost made it out the door before one of the waiters ran after me.

"Miss, you forgot your money!" He held the stack of hundreds in his hands. Wow, who knew such honesty still existed in this world?

"It's not my money," I said. "It's a tip from the guy I was here with. Enjoy."

I was halfway down the block when I heard the whoop from the waiters as he told the others the news. I smiled at the sound. Who could blame them, it wasn't very often someone left a tip measured in the thousands of dollars.

I walked around until I found a free taxi and went back to the hotel. I packed my bags and checked out. The Berserkers and Binders who wanted to kill me were all dead. I could go home now and not fear.

***

When I walked in the door, my Mom ran up to me and gave me a huge hug.

"Oh, Madison, I've missed you so much!"

I hugged her back, grateful to be home. I had missed her and Dad both. I looked around the house. It felt strange to me. No, it felt like a stranger to me. It was like the house was someone I used to know, but hadn't seen in years. Everything looked the same, but it somehow felt different.

I guessed that meant I was the one who had changed.

Fortunately, before he died, Shing had told my Mom where he had moved Dad. She had gone to see him and had talked with him for more than a half hour before he got tired and had to go back to sleep. He was definitely making improvement.

I took all my bags upstairs and dumped them on the floor. I flopped onto my bed and stared at the ceiling. I felt uncomfortable and apprehensive.

Up until now I had been so busy that I had put off dealing with Rhys' death. But now there was no danger, no life threatening situations. Yes, I would have to break Navitan's seal, but that could hopefully wait until tomorrow to be dealt with.

I pulled out my phone and looked at the new voicemail. On that message were the last words Rhys had ever spoken to me. What would they be? A warning? A good bye? A declaration of his love?

The thought of listening to the message made me feel sick inside. Once I heard these last words, there would be no more. What if they fell short of what I hoped for? What if they told me something I didn't want to hear?