The Phoenix Mandate (The Light Thief Book 2), page 5
Tamisra shook her head and grinned. “You shouldn’t worry so much, pet.”
Gareth cocked an eyebrow at this term of endearment. “I thought I told you to remain outside until she’s ready, Roland.”
“Trust me, I’m ready,” Tamisra said. “I hate being stuck in bed, but the distraction is very welcome.”
“You and Aniya will be up and at it in no time.” Roland looked up at Gareth. “Right, Doc?”
Gareth looked doubtful.
“They told you about Aniya?” Tamisra asked, trying again to not focus on the incredible, insatiable urge to scratch at her hands. “Have you seen her yet?”
“Yeah, Gareth said I could see her while I was waiting for you to wake up. She doesn’t look good.”
Tamisra sighed. “And while we’re on bad news, I don’t have anything to report on you-know-who.”
“Report?” Gareth frowned.
Roland froze.
“Yeah . . .” Tamisra drifted off as Roland shook his head slightly. “No?”
Gareth folded his arms. “Report about what and who?”
“Nothing,” Tamisra said quickly, forcing a smile. “Just battle things. You know, wars. Guns.”
Roland turned around slowly to face Gareth. “Please don’t tell Nicholas. He’s stressed out about this enough as it is.”
“You asked her to spy on Kendall, didn’t you?”
“Not so much spy as keep an eye on,” Roland said.
Gareth sighed and shook his head. “I won’t say anything, but you need to focus on the enemy you know you have rather than the one you’re still not sure about.”
“Speak for yourself, Grandpa,” Tamisra said with a scoff. “The guy was a Lightbringer. We have reason enough to be cautious about him, especially now that he’s made his home in the place my father fought to build and protect.”
Roland nodded. “And if Kendall’s the one who tortured us, it would have been to bait Salvador into a fight that eventually got him killed. If he’s the reason Salvador is dead, then you and Tamisra have more reason than I would to hate—”
“Roland,” Gareth said sharply. “A word?”
Roland stared at the doctor for a moment but finally stood up and followed him out of the room.
After several minutes, Roland came back inside and closed the door, but Gareth was not with him.
“Where did the doc go?”
Roland didn’t answer.
“What’s going on, Roland?” Tamisra growled. “I know, I know. We can’t trust Kendall. You keep saying that. But what are you not telling me? What happened beneath the Citadel?”
Again, no answer.
“Why are you so set on turning Kendall into a criminal? If he did everything you’re saying he did, you’re right. It’d mean that he got my father killed. But they were on the same side, Roland.”
“I’m beginning to think Kendall doesn’t take sides. Only his own. Just him and this Director guy.”
Tamisra frowned. “Director?”
“Kendall’s boss. That’s all I know about him. Apparently, he wants Aniya for something.”
“Who told you that?”
Roland paused. “The Chancellor.”
Tamisra laughed. “The same Chancellor we were fighting to overthrow? I understand not wanting to trust Kendall, but taking the word of a dictator?”
“It all makes sense,” Roland said. He paced back and forth. “We wouldn’t have been able to destroy the reactor if the Silvers weren’t preoccupied with your father’s army. And your father would never have fought if you hadn’t been taken. You know that better than I do.”
Tamisra nodded. “Sure, but I think it’s a stretch to think that Kendall kidnapped and tortured us just so his plan would work.”
“I don’t know anymore. I don’t know what to think.”
“What are you going to do?” Tamisra asked.
Roland sighed. “I don’t know that either. It’s not like I can just ask Kendall if he tortured us. Just stay clear of him for now. As for me . . .”
Tamisra frowned as Roland buried his head in his hands. “What is it?”
It was a long time before Roland spoke again.
“I’m sorry for not telling you as much as I should,” he finally said softly. “You’ve done nothing to make me think I can’t trust you. But between Kendall, the Chancellor, even your father . . .”
Tamisra placed a numb, bandaged hand on Roland’s arm. “What is it, Roland?”
“Nothing I’m about to do is going to make sense if you don’t know the reason for it all.” Roland took a deep breath. “It’s time I told you what happened in the Hub.”
8
Roland walked out of the clinic, leaving Refuge by way of one of the many tunnels branching off of the main cavern.
He had told Tamisra all of it, what happened to Aniya and everything the Chancellor said. But he didn’t tell her about this. She probably would have tried to stop him.
He could hardly believe he was doing it himself. Just weeks ago, he would have laughed at the thought of it.
Whatever it takes to save Aniya.
Roland marched on, repeating this mantra to himself over and over again. If anyone ever found out, it would be his only defense. Surely they could see that. If no one else, Nicholas would understand eventually.
That is, if he could be trusted.
It was a long path down the tunnel, and Roland was thankful for the map he had copied from the war room. The random offshoots from this tunnel provided dozens of options, and he would have gotten lost for sure without directions.
He finally made his way to another cavern, this one much smaller but much louder. A giant machine took up most of the space in the cavern, emitting an annoying hum that drowned out any other noise.
Roland stepped over a thick wire that ran from the machine and into the walls, and he approached an access panel on the side of the machine.
He punched a code into a keypad, pressed a button, flipped a switch, and waited for the machine to wind down.
Roland took a deep breath and pulled the device from his pocket. It was different from any radio he had ever seen, but the concept couldn’t have been that much different. He placed it in his ear, then pressed a button on the device.
“This is Roland. Do you copy?” He looked back toward Refuge. “It’s time.”
9
Aniya sat back in her home in Holendast.
For whatever reason, the ethereal purgatory she’d found herself in had most recently manifested itself as her childhood home. Sometimes, the scenery would change to Nicholas’s roof, the locale of many late-night talks and the beginning of a dozen shenanigans. Sometimes, she found herself back inside the tank, deep below the Hub.
On rare occasions, she would catch glimpses of the real world. She’d seen Nicholas a few times, Roland once, both of them looking down at her with concerned expressions. A few times, she could make out speech from the world beyond the veil of the void, though it was always short-lived, and somehow it always sounded like gibberish.
But now, like most of the time she’d spent so far in this strange place, she was alone, sitting in silence in her blood-soaked home.
The room was exactly as she had left it, down to the tiniest detail. Her father lay on the ground, his throat slit open. Aniya’s mother was next to him, a single shot through her head.
Even the flames Aniya had ignited just before her departure were still burning, a perpetual fire that consumed nothing.
If the fire gave off any heat, it didn’t matter. Aniya felt nothing. Her body was completely numb, her senses dull.
She couldn’t even hear the crackling of the flames. Every sound seemed to dissipate into the surrounding void. Aniya was grateful for this. The voices could have returned by now, but even if they did, she never would have known. She had already tried talking, but her voice had been muffled to the point where she heard nothing, only feeling the vibration in her chest.
She remembered how her home had smelled. The flames had started to burn away her parents’ bodies, giving off a horrible stench. But Aniya smelled nothing now, and she was thankful for this as well.
And so she sat.
The only indication of the passage of time was her occasional blink into consciousness, just long enough to see someone different standing by her bed, checking her vitals or trying to talk to her. For all Aniya knew, she could have been in the void for weeks.
Her home began to twist around her, and as Aniya saw the floor drop out from beneath her, she instinctively reached out for something to grab. But there was nothing to grab, and all she could do was watch as her home morphed into the shape of Nicholas’s roof.
As soon as this new location settled around her, a relieved smile spread across her face. It was a comforting sight, especially after being back in her burning home.
Growing up, whenever she felt the urge to run away from the heavy expectations placed on her by her family and the Lightbringers, she would retreat here. No matter how upset Aniya was, she could always count on the peace that this location provided.
The mere sight of it was enough to settle her heart, but there wasn’t anything special about the roof, even though she had said the opposite to Nicholas multiple times over the years. His smiling face would be the rock that grounded her. He was her landing place, her shelter.
On some level, Aniya knew that she had always loved him. She didn’t know why she had rejected him when he verbally expressed his obvious feelings. Maybe because she was afraid of things changing. Maybe she thought they’d be better off friends. Maybe it was too much to handle when there were too many other people to keep happy.
This last reason made most sense to her. After all, now that there were no parents to offer their well-meaning advice, now that there were no obligations for either of them, and now that they were out of the Lightbringers’ grasp, all the extra noise seemed to be gone. She could think clearly now. And the more she thought about it, the more she knew it.
She loved him.
And all she wanted was to finally tell him. But the last few weeks had been hectic, what with preparing for war against the Chancellor and his remaining Silvers. Nicholas had always been in meetings of some kind, and Aniya had spent most of her time in clinics, being evaluated and re-evaluated in the aftermath of the incident beneath the Citadel.
As if her void were granting her a wish, Nicholas appeared in front of her, standing on the same roof where they had met hundreds of times.
She greeted him, ignoring the fact that her speech remained completely unintelligible.
He seemed to understand her, and he smiled back, talking back in his own muffled voice.
Aniya reached for him, longing for his embrace, but her feet were rooted to the ground, keeping Nicholas just out of arm’s reach.
Then, Nicholas’s smile faded. His mouth popped open, his eyes went dark, and his feet hovered above the ground.
They were back in the tank.
Aniya floated in the water, a tube attached to her mouth, watching helplessly as Nicholas’s lifeless body drifted away from her.
The tube disappeared, and she now floated freely, but as she reached out to Nicholas, he disappeared.
She resigned to simply let herself drift aimlessly in the water, not bothering to fight for air. Even if she were drowning, she couldn’t feel anything.
“Aniya.”
The oppressing silence was gone, and one of the voices was back.
It was the warm one, the masculine one. The one that brought an unnatural peace to Aniya. The Stranger.
It was the only clear speech Aniya had heard since falling into the void. It had called out to her every now and then as she sat in her mental prison. It was the only thing that seemed real, and it always brought her to her feet, desperate to find its source.
But as she took a step to search for the voice, Aniya realized she was still in the tank. She fought to change the scene again, picturing Nicholas’s roof and trying to leap there by will, but she remained trapped within the glass enclosure.
She clenched her fists and began beating on the tank, knowing the voice lay waiting on the other side, within reach if she could just escape the water. With each blow to the glass, sparks flew from her hands, shocking the water and zapping her body. It was the first sensation she had felt so far, and Aniya almost reveled in the pain. If nothing else, the minor jolts just urged her to beat harder, and so she did, beating against the tank with all her might.
Finally, the glass broke with a mighty explosion, sending shards flying away in slow motion, careening into the distance and disappearing in the black.
But Aniya was still in the water.
The liquid maintained its form, held up by nothing.
Aniya tried to swim out of the strange pool, but could not breach the outer wall. It remained a firm, jelly-like substance, bouncing and bubbling every time she touched it. She swam up, but the top of the water held the same rigidity, imprisoning her just as efficiently as the glass had.
“Aniya.”
She began choking. Not on the water that threatened to invade her lungs, but on her own tearless sobs that came with every failed attempt of escape.
Then the water went still.
It remained a physically impossible prison, but the ripples ceased all at once as a deafening silence fell over Aniya’s mind.
From out of the darkness walked a being shrouded in yellow light, nearly blinding Aniya as it appeared from nothing. The Stranger.
“Aniya.”
She should have been afraid, but Aniya found herself in a deep calm as she watched the pillar of light approach her.
But the Stranger’s light suddenly began to diminish as the Shadow appeared from behind it, quickly advancing and threatening to overtake the light.
She tried to shout and warn the Stranger bathed in light that the Shadow was coming. But the water flooded her lungs and silenced her.
“Aniya,” the Shadow said with its dark, feminine voice that sent chills down Aniya’s spine.
The blazing, yellow figure seemed to turn and stare at the approaching Shadow. All went still for a moment as the two beings remained at a kind of impasse.
Suddenly, the Stranger spun around, reaching out a fiery finger and touching the water that trapped Aniya.
Instantly, the wall of water collapsed and drained out into the void below. Aniya was free from the water, but she was somehow still floating in mid-air.
She looked around, and the cavern under the Hub was gone. There was only a black nothingness that surrounded herself and the two phantoms.
“Aniya.”
The Stranger spoke again, this time tenderly, with what seemed like sorrow.
Her breath stopped. That voice was hauntingly familiar. Why couldn’t she place it?
Aniya looked up and saw the Stranger and the Shadow standing in front of her, each of them extending a hand to her. She glanced between the two when both suddenly vanished, leaving her alone in the void.
“No!” she cried out as she looked around. “Come back!”
“My dear Annelise, I am here at your service.”
Aniya froze.
A new voice had invaded her mind, echoing in the void with a sickeningly sweet tone.
This speech was not distorted like the two voices that continued to haunt her. It was clear and rich, and Aniya instantly knew the identity of the speaker.
What’s worse is that Aniya heard the voice twice. Once in her mind, and once with her ears.
It was the Chancellor.
And he was in Refuge.
10
Roland jogged down the stairs, almost missing the last step. With an extra leap to keep his balance, he stepped into the war room in the basement of the Refuge tower.
Six men looked back up at him, each of them sitting at the large stone table.
“You’re late,” Kendall said, his eyes narrowed. “I thought Nicholas told you we were starting soon.”
“I’m not sure why he’s here at all,” Malcolm scoffed. He was sitting between Corrin and Lieutenant Haskill. “I didn’t realize we were inviting kids to help plan a war.”
Corrin shot a stern glance at his son. “You’re not that much older than he is, Malcolm. I suggest you don’t raise questions of age. Besides, Roland has earned his spot at this table.”
“Doesn’t mean he can be late,” Malcolm muttered.
Roland looked back at Kendall as he finished catching his breath. “Sorry. I was just checking on Aniya. She doesn’t look great.”
Malcolm laughed. “Doesn’t look great? She’s glowing, Roland.”
Across the table from Kendall, Gareth looked down at his lap. “I’ve done all I can, but I’m afraid her condition is beyond me.”
“So getting your doctor friend was a waste of time,” Malcolm said. “I knew it.”
“It wasn’t a complete waste,” Nicholas said from the other side of the table as Roland sat next to him. “We know where the Chancellor is now.”
Kendall nodded. “Indeed. It was a fruitful mission, even if it didn’t give us the exact fruit we wanted.”
“So what now?” Roland asked.
“Now,” Kendall said, “we talk about the fact that you lied to me.”
His tone was flat, unsurprised, as if he were stating a simple fact.
“The description Corrin gave me of Aniya’s actions in Ravelta were incredible, unbelievable. Yet they explained much more to me than the story I got out of you after I had you pulled out from underneath the Citadel.” He eyed Roland as if waiting for a response.
Roland glanced at Nicholas, but his friend was staring at the table, a bead of sweat sliding down his cheek.
“It is, of course, possible that you didn’t have words to explain what happened. Would you like to try again, Roland?” After a few seconds, Kendall sighed. “I had hoped we would come to trust each other, Roland. Thankfully, I don’t need your cooperation to help Aniya. Someone who obviously loves her more has already volunteered the information I need.”
