Heirs of War (23 page)

“Don’t,” Tate warned her in a low voice. He shook his head when she opened her mouth to argue, and he leaned close to whisper in her ear. “Anyone who knows Raemann doesn’t need your gift to know he’s lying, Rhaya. Be sensible. He has to say these things or he risks making things worse for the Cynewards.”

Rhaya knew he had a point, but she hated conceding to it. She hated just sitting back and
letting
everything change around her. She nodded her understanding and turned back to the proceedings.

Morissey's curiosity
was piqued at this development as well. "She knew you were not her true father and that you were concealing things from her, yet she did not challenge you at all?"

Raemann shook his head, his blond curls bouncing. "Not until the very end. With my understanding of the traditions and demands of the Duillaine, I did my best to instill a sense of duty and obedience in Ainnir Rhaya."

At his words, which were again blatant lies, he glanced quickly to Rhaya, and his message was clear. Raemann was telling her to behave and to obey them. The Cynewards were toeing the line between truth and fiction so as to keep the peace, but she had to do her part as well. She melted against her seat in defeat, knowing she would need to match Raemann's story completely both in words and demeanor if she wanted to keep him out of trouble. So when she was called forward, her single small act of rebellion was to tell the Cynewards they could be seated.

***

Zelene trailed in reluctantly behind a few stragglers, her already prominent amber eyes now bulging as she took notice of the many people already seated and lining the walls. Her portion of the supposed review, as people were calling the ordeal, was last with Ariana’s. Rhaya waved her young cousin over, having saved her a seat in anticipation of her appearance.

"What are you still doing here?" Zelene asked Rhaya in greeting as she took a seat next to her. "I thought yours was done and over with by now."

"Oh it was," Rhaya told her, "they're going in order of age. I've been here for all of them, though."

"Why?" Zelene couldn't imagine sitting through hours upon hours of people recounting their stories.
“I thought we only had to come for our parts. Why would you stay for the whole thing?”

Rhaya turned to face her younger cousin. "Why wouldn't I? It’s better than being locked in our rooms. Besides, this is the best way to get to know you guys, find out what you're like and what you've been up to since we were separated."

Zelene suddenly wished she had thought of that and found herself looking forward to Varrick's recounts of her still-missing twin's life. She had to admit—at least to herself if not anyone else—she was extremely curious about her twin sister. Though there were sometimes other children within the foster-care system, it was never the same as having a sibling of her own.

“It’s more than getting to know you guys, though,” Rhaya continued, stirring Zelene from her thoughts. “I mean, that’s why I wanted to stay at first. But Tate told me a bunch of stuff…I don’t think I realized how serious this was. I thought they were going to ask some questions to try to figure out how the Cahirans found us, and that would be it.”

“It’s not?” Zelene had been under the same impression. It made sense to get them all together to try to figure it out rather than questioning everyone individually.

Rhaya shook her head. “No. From everything I’ve seen, they’re trying to blame the Cynewards.”

“For what?” Zelene screeched, getting the attention of the people around them. She wanted to scream, but lowered her voice. “For us getting attacked? That’s ridiculous. Varrick saved my life.”

“They seem to think none of it would happen if the Cynewards had been more careful,” Rhaya whispered. “I don’t think it’s fair, either.”

Zelene turned to the platform where her brother and father were seated. “My father is behind this, isn’t he? I knew he was too nice.”

“Huh. At least you’ve met yours,” Rhaya retorted sardonically. “And no, he’s cool. It’s
my
father that’s the jerk. You should have seen Kenward put him in his place earlier. It was great.” She noticed Zelene craning her neck to look around the room. "So where's Prince Charming at?"

Zelene didn’t need to ask who Rhaya was talking about. She had made the mistake of dropping by to introduce Cedwen to her cousin, and Rhaya had made her dislike of him fairly evident. "I don't know where Cedwen is. He'll probably be here soon."

"Well, you might want to make room for him," her cousin advised her. "These things fill up fast. Apparently everyone in Anscombe wants to know what we've been up to the past eighteen years."

"Great, just how I wanted to spend my afternoon," Zelene said sarcastically
and scooted over, "telling a room full of strangers all about myself."

Rhaya waved her off. "Oh, they hardly ask you anything. They let your Cyneward answer for everything you've done or that's happened to you. They asked me a few things for clarification at the end, but they mostly let everyone else do the talking. Oh, they talk to Tate too since he was sent to spy on us and everything."

"Okay, I stand corrected," Zelene said as she waved Cedwen over. "I get to spend the whole afternoon listening to people talk about me."

"Sounds wonderful," Cedwen commented as he took a seat next to her and draped his arm across the back of her chair. "Did I miss anything so far?"

"No, they haven't started yet. With me, anyway. You missed Rhaya's though," Zelene offered.

"No, he didn't," Rhaya corrected as her gaze flitted around the room. "He's been here the whole time, too."

He shrugged. "Curiosity got the best of me."

“You know,” Rhaya drew out the word and pointed at the arm he draped behind Zelene, “you two seem awfully cozy. Is there something I should know?”

“Pfft…like you can’t just use your gift and answer that yourself,” Zelene retorted.

Rhaya was glaring at Cedwen. “Who says I’m not?”

Cedwen withdrew his arm. “Perhaps you could wait until after the review is over before you start my interrogation, Ainnir Rhaya.”

“Would you two knock it off?” Zelene rolled her eyes at the two of them. “Stop being so paranoid, Rhaya. Cedwen’s a friend. Last time I checked, he’s one of the two friends I’ve managed to make here. So--”

Zelene’s argument caught in her throat as she watched Kyle
walk
in. She hadn’t done a very good job of visiting over the past day or so, which is why she had no idea he had made so much progress in his recovery. He still used the walking stick as an aid, but just barely. And of course, he made it look more stylish than helpful, as if he wanted the cane in his hand as an accessory and not as an aid.

Zelene
waved awkwardly as their eyes met, but quickly dropped her hand as his face turned hard and cold at the sight of her. She supposed he was mad at her for not coming by, but she would make it up to him tonight. She had managed to get her hands on one of the uniforms of the Tainted and planned to use it tonight to go see him.

Varrick entered the room, and Zelene’s attention switched to him. He turned his head in Kyle's direction, then back to
hers. He looked at Zelene disapprovingly, which caused her to shrink under his eye, and then he took a seat next to the other Cynewards.

"What's the matter with your Cyneward?" Cedwen asked. "He seems quite...angry."

"He's beating himself up pretty bad over what happened with Ariana," Zelene lied, not wanting to get into her conflicting history with Kyle and knowing it was at least partially true. Varrick had been unable to forgive himself for her twin getting captured. "He's probably not looking forward to talking about it what happened."

Rhaya
looked at her doubtfully. "That's not what’s going on, but I'll ask you about that later," she said as Devland called the room to order.

"We will now reconvene from our short break, and we shall be discussing what happened with Ainnir Zelene until her arrival here," Devland announced. "We shall be hearing from those who were part of her life first, then we shall hear from her Cyneward and lastly we shall call upon her for any additional questions we have. To begin, we ask
the treior Tate from the house of Adelphi rise and recount his knowledge of the Ainnir Zelene while in Dhara. If you would please announce your name and your role for the counsel once more," he directed to Tate.

Tate stood up from his seat, a few chairs away from Varrick, and clasped his hands behind his back. "I am Tate, the treior sent to monitor the progression of any powers in the Ainnirs Zelene, Ariana, Rhaya, and Isauria."

"You were tasked with inserting yourself in each of their lives," Arland said. "How did you do so in Ainnir Zelene's life?"

Tate
directed an annoyed sneer to Zelene. "I was unable to befriend Ainnir Zelene as I did Ainnir Ariana."

"Why is that?" Nolan asked.

"She, well, Zelene didn't like me," Tate said with a bitter laugh. "My integration into her life was ill-timed. When I approached her, she made it quite clear she wanted nothing to do with me," he explained to the crowd.

Her father gave Zelene an exasperated look. "And why was my daughter so hostile toward you? Did you give her cause?"

"No, sir," Tate's face turned serious again. "Some of the boys at school were giving her a hard time. I believe she thought I was one of them. She was clearly very distrustful of guys, so I thought it would be best for me to observe her from a distance rather than push the issue. I did, however, befriend her ex-boyfriend Kyle Logan, who still appeared to keep an eye on her as well even though he had distanced himself from her at that time."

"More like watch his friends torture me," Zelene muttered to herself, remembering the 'troubles' she was having with the boys always flocking around Kyle after he
had become a soccer superstar and told everyone she was the charity case he kept between his sheets.

"From your
distant
view," her father said with clear disapproval, "were you able to see any potential powers rising in Ainnir Zelene? Was she experiencing anything odd?"

"Why don't they just ask me that?" Zelene hissed to Rhaya.

Rhaya pressed a finger to her lips to silence her. “They gave him a hard time for blowing his cover with me, but he's fine."

Zelene turned her attention back to Tate as he described the things he observed in her. He appeared to know more about her history than she was comfortable with him sharing in front of all these people she didn't know. He talked about her relationship with the foster families she had been with, touching on the ones who had moved away shortly after his arrival and then describing the abuse she endured at the hands of Nora and Danny when she had been placed with them.

Tate struggled to describe the legal system to the counsel, to explain why Varrick had been unable to intervene, but Leone did not even attempt to understand his reasoning. Unfortunately, Devland and Morissey seemed to agree as all three seemed to hone in on the topic of the physical abuse she had endured while her Cyneward did nothing but watched.

Zelene straightened, noticing the sympathetic looks people were now giving her. Cedwen tried to take her hand, but she snatched it away from him, not wanting the pity and contemplating how much of a stir she would cause if she left. The topic drifted to her social relations, though this too took a turn for the worse when Tate described the downfall of her relationship with Kyle.

"Yes, I have been apprised of the situation with this boy," Arland said, clearly quite angry and disapproving of whatever situation there was with Kyle.

Her lips parted as she replay
ed the comment in her mind even as Tate confirmed he had been made aware of the circumstances with Kyle as well. What situation? She risked a glance to Kyle, but his hardened face was shifted away from hers.

"I concluded
that the trauma she experienced in both her social and home life had delayed the onset of any powers developing even though she was at the age to where her gifts should start to manifest," Tate said in closure. "I believe as she continues to accept this world as her own and with the help of her friends, she will come to her power as the others have."

Cedwen gave her an encouraging smile
which she tried to return, but she suspected she had come up short with the way his turned into a frown of worry. She turned away from him, looking around insecurely at people's reactions to her delayed gifts. She noticed Kyle's glare directed at Cedwen just before he was called up.

Kyle stood before the raised platform, but made no move to mount it in his condition. He opted to lean on his cane directly in front of the council members.

Her father's light eyes darkened considerably as Kyle stood. "So, you are the one who Tate spoke of. The one who tortured my daughter."

Nolan cleared his throat. "Father, perhaps I should lead the questions since you feel so strongly about this particular issue." He turned back to Kyle with surprising compassion. "Why don't you start with telling us how you met the Ainnir Zelene?"

Kyle cleared his throat before beginning, the corner of his mouth lifting as he recounted their first meeting. "We were about nine or ten. We were both in the foster care system—"