Ember (33 page)

Though I took in a study of each, my gaze was
quickly drawn to the one at the head of the table. His dark hands
were strumming on the stone-top. Following up them were dark,
muscular, silver-veined, arms. Whatever he was wearing was an
afterthought to his face, broad and structured, dark, but redder
than the other Meoden. His eyes were different too, deep maroon
instead of silver.

I couldn't take my eyes off of him.

“I've been informed it was you and Cornelius,
Thoran,” Demian continued. His tone was so commanding, so powerful.
I blinked my eyes clear. He held the type of surety that could
convince some of practically anything . . . and a pushover like me
into
everything
.

“No doubt you have,” said Thoran. I was
grateful to move my gaze to the familiar man. “What is it that you
would like to discuss?”

A corner of my mouth tilted slightly. Demian
may have been intimidating . . . but it didn't keep Thoran from
retaining his usual, self-assured, attitude.

My eyes turned to Demian with a bit more
security. His red glare was hard on Thoran, but he didn't get the
chance to answer.

“What would he like to discuss?” rasped the
crowned Meoden. “You slaughtered an entire encampment!”

The younger men from the order seemed to
shift slightly. Thoran looked to Demian.

“We broke no laws. It was out well beyond the
borders.”

“Beyond the borders, you say? . . .”

My skin began to quiver at the voice. It
sounded disturbingly familiar. I scanned the faces at the table,
but none were speaking. Then, something in the shadows.

“It's
our
dimension, it's
all . .
our .
.
borders.
” He said the last words slowly as he
slithered in to sit in the empty seat between Demian and the other
Meoden.

My throat, which I thought could constrict no
further, dropped to the pit of my stomach. My hand moved forward,
palm down, as if I could claw away, but I was frozen. I don't know
how I had born the sight of this creature once before, but now it
seemed too much to take.

Sylvanus, in his full sickening splendor.

“Come, Demian, can you imagine if we were
attacking settlements in their dimension?” he whispered, leaning
towards the larger Meoden. Then he shifted his eyes to Thoran and a
cruel smirk grew. “They would throw such a
fit.
”

My chest began to rise up and down beneath
me, the cramped space feeling suddenly hot.

“Sylvanus,” reputed Demian, raising his hand,
“I would not add to the list of headaches you've caused me
recently.” His eyes shifted back to Thoran. “Still, he has a point.
What have you to say?”

The grim-faced man raised his chin a
fraction. “I say, the next time you see a battalion of armed
soldiers in our lands, go ahead and attack. We took down a camp of
militia. As it stands, rot like him go into our homes and prey on
the vulnerable.” His intensity was sobering. Demian looked down,
casually, continuing to strum. “What is the military advantage of
that?”

Sylvanus, who was leaning back, mocking
boredom at Thoran's reply, straightened up loosely, eyebrows
raised. “I have appetites, Thoran. A group of middle-aged
do-gooders are hardly my idea of a good meal.” pansy

My skin shivered. I don't know why, but as
soon as he said it I looked over to Jaden. His eyes hit mine in the
same second. They were intense and searching, too much to bear with
everything else. I looked back down.

Disgust covered the face of every man below,
though Thoran still sat solidly. Demian himself appeared
irritated.

Sylvanus simply resumed his backwards lean,
smiling pleasantly.

They went on for a long time talking about
this. I listened

For the first time in a while Boran
straightened forward and spoke. “To me, this seems the same as the
land issue, we're not getting anywhere by talking about it. No one
broke any direct laws. Let’s move on.”

Demian stared for a moment, then complied.
“The group was of little consequence—” Sylvanus looked less smug at
the words “—I have nothing else to bring forward.”

My spirits lifted. Sure, I had wanted to come
to the meeting, and part of me was truly glad to have seen the
political interactions . . . but being around Sylvanus, hidden or
not, wasn’t really worth the knowledge gained.

I peeked at Jaden. He was still looking down,
so I did the same.

“Of course, we have one more subject to go
over,” said Thoran. His tone was controlled, but with the slightest
hint of a sigh, as if he didn’t really want to discuss whatever was
coming.

Demian nodded. “I assumed you would.”

Sylvanus' hands clapped flat onto the table,
his first act in a while. “Oh, goody! Is this the part where we get
to talk about me?”

Demian raised a hand to him.

Thoran's face hardened. “His behavior is in
complete
violation of the treaties. He's been in contact
with dozens of humans. Our scouts have spotted him in the towns at
least twice . . .” It seemed like Thoran was going to say more, but
he stopped short.

Demian flicked a small pebble off of the
tabletop. “Come now, Thoran, he's done all these things before . .
. these are hardly the main issues.”

I had a hince then, and for the first time I
saw emotion on Thoran's face.

“Or should I say,
issue?
”

I bit my lip down hard.

“Taking a girl from a town that close to our
borders is inexcusable,” said Thoran.

As soon as he spoke the words Jaden’s eyes
shot to me. He hadn't known, before now, that it was Sylvanus who
first found me. Whatever his feelings were, I couldn't handle them
here. . . .

I didn't look over. I put all my focus into
ignoring him as Thoran continued.

“In any other case this would mean immediate
dismissal from the council,” continued Thoran. “I demand the same
for him.”

Demian was beginning to look bothered again.
“He'll be punished appropriately, I assure you.”

Sylvanus chuckled.

Thoran leaned forward. “He has gone too far
this time. More must be done!”

His voice was severe. I worried over Demian's
reaction. The creature looked upset.

Sylvanus smirked happily again and leaned
forward. “My
dear Thoran
, you seem to be getting all worked
up over nothing. After all, the girl came of her own free
will.”

My body started to shake.

“If you and the fat one hadn't come along and
spoiled everything, well . . . who's to say she wouldn't have
enjoyed what I had planned?”

Thoran's face went cold, everyone’s did.

My suck-it-up plan was failing fast.

I tried to tighten my fist, but instead it
fell flat in drained defeat.

Then, suddenly a hand wrapped over mine,
squeezing protectively. My breath sucked in, but I didn't look up,
too afraid that I would meet his eyes again and lose all strength
of will.

Below the men were silent. It was like the
room below had been sapped of life.

“Besides,” started Sylvanus again, throwing a
hand in the air, “I would have brought her back once I was finished
with her . . . that's more than I can say for your boys.”

My eyes tightened, spilling tears. Jaden
pulled my hand firmly, drawing my attention. I looked over
unwillingly.

“Let's go,” he mouthed, then he tossed his
head towards the tunnel.

I blinked my eyes shut again, then obeyed
without a word.

~ ~ ~

AS SOON AS we reached the rock wall, he
grabbed my arm and swung me around to face him.

“What happened with you and Sylvanus?” His
eyes were fierce and there was no shred of tenderness in his
voice.

My body shivered. “I—”

“Why didn’t you tell me?! I wouldn’t have— .
. .” His face became pained and he looked away.

A moment later the harsh gaze was back on me,
his grip tightening on my wrist.

“This is exactly why you shouldn’t be coming
to places like this.”

I dropped my head.

“If you had just listened to me in the first
place, none of that would have happened. I said I didn’t want you
coming here, and I was right. Next time—”

That was it. I lost it. I put my hands up to
my face, bursting into tears.

Jaden stopped talking and released my
shoulders, it didn’t help much now that I’d started. I squeezed my
eyes tightly and turned towards the wall.

After a few seconds of trying to calm myself
down, Jaden’s voice came gently beside me. “Eve, I didn’t mean to—”
he cut out suddenly, then grabbed the underside of my wrist,
squeezing violently.

Something was wrong.

I tilted my head up a fraction and he
tightened his grip once more.

“Don’t speak.”

My eyes narrowed and I turned the rest of the
way around. What I saw made me bring my free hand up to stifle a
scream.

Ten feet ahead of us, Sylvanus stood.

The sobbing in my chest was stilled
instantly, replaced with a dead cold. His eyes were on us, those
piercingly silver eyes, first grazing over me. His look was
perusing, controlled. The smallest corner of his mouth pinched with
pleasure. Then his gaze shifted to Jaden and all contentment
fell.

My body shivered and I rocked back a step.
Jaden’s fingers slid further down my palm, his face looked
unbothered as Sylvanus reached us.

“Jaden,” the slick-haired creature hummed
pleasantly. “It’s been a while. I was wondering why you weren’t at
the meeting . . . we missed you.” He kept his eyes on Jaden.

“Sorry to disappoint you.”

Sylvanus waved a hand. “No matter . . . ,”
then an unpleasant smile spread, “I can see you had much more
interesting things to do.” His eyes moved down to Jaden’s hand.

My breath caught and I pulled my arm away
immediately, hugging it around my body instead.

Jaden glanced over to me for a moment, I
couldn’t meet his gaze, but when he looked back to Sylvanus his
face was drawn. “Why don’t you beat it, Sylvanus.”

The creature frowned. “That’s not a very
polite thing to say . . . Besides, there’s not really much you can
do about it if I don’t, is there?”

I assumed he meant the no-violence policy.
Ikovos had told me a bit about this before. Fighting here meant big
trouble.

Jaden took in a slow breath.

“Anyways,” Sylvanus leaned his weight over to
one leg, examining his fingernails casually, “don’t you want to
hear how the meeting went?”

The question reminded me of Sylvanus’ final
statements at the stone table. My body started to tremble again, I
felt like falling over.

“I’ll find out later,” said Jaden.

Sylvanus cocked his head. “I don’t know, we
covered some pretty sticky subjects,” his eyes drifted to me, “one
in particular,” then back to Jaden. “Would you like to hear about
it?”

“I don’t think so.”

Sylvanus frowned playfully. “Why not? . . . I
think you might enjoy it.”

Jaden’s jaw tightened. “Some other time.”

Sylvanus pursed his lips. “Mmm, good idea.
Might be a little . . . awkward with the present company.” His eyes
moved over to me, then and he leaned closer. “You know, Evelyn,
when I heard that you were staying with these boys, I pictured you
and Jaden here hitting it off.”

I slid back against the rock.

With a knowing smirk he glanced over to Jaden
“If you ever need some . . . let’s see, how do I put this? . . .
Educated
tips, just let me know.”

Sylvanus smug grin started to expand just as
my legs threatened to give out.

Neither got the chance.

As soon as Sylvanus’s eyes moved to me,
Jaden’s fist went slamming into the creature’s face, knocking him
back with enough force to land him on the ground.

I brought a hand up to my mouth and looked to
Jaden. His eyes were hard on Sylvanus, body shaking with anger.

Sylvanus was already beginning to get up,
beads of silver-ish blood dripping from his lip.

“You’ll pay for that, boy.”

Faster than my eyes could follow, he was up
and crashing into Jaden. The unhindered boy started in just as
viciously.

I moved back a couple steps as Sylvanus
dodged another punch from Jaden, grabbing onto his arm and twisting
it around instead. Jaden hit with the other hand then and they both
fell onto the ground.

My heart was beating so fast it hurt. It
increased even more when I saw that they were rolling closer to the
edge ahead.

“Stop it!” I yelled, moving closer. Neither
did. Sylvanus was on top of Jaden now. I wanted to do something to
help, but my body was shaking fiercely, I could barely tell what
was going on.

They started to roll again. I screamed as
they neared the edge, but they stopped short. This time Jaden was
on top. He punched down on Sylvanus with his right fist, then
raised his left to do the same.

Just then figures came around both sides,
pulling the two bodies apart. They were so locked in combat, it
took them a while to even notice.

When things had settled Sylvanus stood
surrounded by a small group of Meoden.

Jaden was on the opposite side with the other
men from the order. Thoran stood slightly in front of him.

“This is an outrage, Thoran! That boy
attacked me without warning!” shouted Sylvanus. He was huffing
considerably and his skin was coated with sweat and dirt. It was
the same with Jaden. My breath held at the anger in the boy’s
eyes.

Thoran looked at me then. His face was stern.
I wanted to move closer to them, but I was frozen.

“Jaden, is this true?” asked Thoran.

Jaden eyes finally turned to the man,
settling. “Yes. But he —”

Thoran raised a hand. The entire group of men
behind him seemed to be a holding their breaths. “Take Evelyn and
go back to the lodge.” His tone was placid. Jaden looked hard back
at Sylvanus, then moved off immediately.