Chapter Five

Five months before capture…

“You haven’t heard from him?”

“No. No one has.”

“Since when?”

“He hasn’t been seen or heard from since he came here and talked to you. You’re the last one who anyone can find who saw or spoke to him.”

Aegeus’ hands shot back through his hair and he let out a growl of frustration and worry. It had been a month since Martin’s strange appearance in his home and now he knew that when he walked out of the house that night, he simply disappeared.

“Do you know what he gave you?” Athan asked. “What was in the package?”

“I didn’t even look at it,” Aegeus admitted. “I just hid it.”

“Don’t you think that you should know what’s there?”

“He didn’t say that he wanted me to look at it. He just told me that I needed to hide it and keep it safe until I could give it back to him.”

“What’s inside that package could be important. We need to know what it is. Especially if something has happened to Martin.”

“You’re right,” Aegeus said.

They were starting back toward his house when a young member of the Order rushed up to him.

“There will be a raid tonight.”

There was a time when the raids by the Panel were what Aegeus dreaded more than anything. There was nothing that made his stomach sink more. Now they were the furthest thing from his mind as he felt the crack of the Valdician’s weapon across his cheekbone and his body slumped toward the ground. Another of the creatures grabbed him and yanked him to his feet again. Aegeus’ mind was spinning from the assault that he was suffering and he didn’t have time to react again before the creature that had hit him pulled the dark hood down over his face and they began to drag him toward the doorway to his cell.

As they pulled him along, Aegeus found his mind automatically recounting the steps and the turns. He was remembering. He could predict the next move. He knew where they were taking him. He felt a slight boost of hope within him, but it didn’t last long. They dragged him out of the building and stopped him, aggressively turning him around and yanking the hood from his head.

Aegeus could smell the acrid air rushing into his lungs before his eyes focused on what was happening in front of him. What he had thought was the rich glow of sunset in the distance was actually flames shooting into the sky as the building burned. Aegeus gasped and pulled toward the building, trying to get to it, but the Valdicians pulled him back. He could hear screams echoing through the night, stabbing through the low sound of the crackling flames. Horror coiled in his belly and he let out his own roar.

“What are you doing?” he shouted. “What are you doing?”

They wouldn’t respond and he fought against their grip, trying to free himself so that he could get back to the building. Maybe he could save one. Just one. But the Valdicians were strong and two of them were more than capable of controlling him, especially in his tired, hungry, and weakened state.

“Why are you doing this?” he demanded, but they didn’t reply.

He felt the hood snap down over his head again and they started to pull him again. This path was new. They hadn’t gone in this direction before and he had no frame of reference. It left him feeling vulnerable and even more out of control than had become his daily existence. He didn’t know where they were going, or what they were doing. He wondered if the time had come, if this was going to be the night that they finally killed him.

At the same moment, he knew that that wouldn’t make sense. If they intended to kill him, they would have left him in the building with whoever and whatever was still inside. They had a plan for him. There was something else that they were going to do to him. He refused to be afraid, to think that he would be better off if he was one of the ones they left behind in the burning building. He knew that his fear is exactly what they wanted and he wouldn’t give it to them. They had already taken his body, but he wouldn’t allow them to have his mind or his spirit.

Aegeus turned his attention back to memorizing the path that they were taking, trying to remember the steps so he could remain, at least on the surface, in control. Finally, he felt himself tossed to the floor. The hood was yanked from his head and he looked up at the cloaked Valdicians who hovered over him. They reached for chains, the same types of chains that were his constant companions, but Aegeus drew himself back as far as he could, wanting them to look into his eyes for as long as he could force them to.

“I know who you are,” he growled at them. “I know who you have always been. You will never have the power that you are after. The countless years that have passed should be enough to tell you that.”

Four months before capture…

Aegeus stood his ground, refusing to show even the faintest glimmer of fear. He kept his feet planted firmly beneath him, his eyes focused unwaveringly in front of him. His hands were clasped behind his back and he willed them to remain relaxed, knowing that the men in front of him would be looking for any sign that he might be tense or afraid.

“Aegeus,” the man sitting in the center of the long, elevated table in front of him said, “you have been brought before the Panel because of intelligence that we have secured that indicates you might have knowledge of behaviors injurious to the Order.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Vetrin,” he responded. “What has this intelligence told you?”

It had been several years since they commanded him to execute Casimir and in that time, they had continued to trust him. Until the moment he found out that he was being called up before them, Aegeus had no indication that the Panel felt any suspicion about him. Now he felt as though he were completely in the dark. When Casimir was tried, they had an idea about what the Panel knew about his involvement in the rebellion. It made it easier for him to feel prepared and to field the questions and accusations thrown at him by the Panel. Aegeus, though, had no idea what they could know or think that they knew.

“What do you know of the Denynso?”

Aegeus narrowed his eyes at Vetrin.

“The clan from the other side of Uoria? I only know them as much as our official interactions.”

“No,” Vetrin said. “Not them. The missing clan. Do you have any knowledge of them?”

Aegeus shook his head. The line of questions struck him as odd. Though the entirety of the Order had been trying to understand the disappearance since well before Aegeus was even born, it hadn’t been something that he had been actively involved in throughout his tenure within the group.

“I don’t know anything about it,” he said.

“We have heard that there was more development in the situation and that you might know something about it.”

“No,” Aegeus said. “I haven’t heard anything new.”

Vetrin looked at him for a few long moments and then nodded, leaning back slightly in his chair.

“Alright,” he said. “Thank you for coming in to speak with us. You will come to us if you hear anything about this matter that might be meaningful?”

“Of course,” Aegeus said.

Vetrin nodded.

“Thank you,” he said again. “You may go.”

Aegeus turned away from the Panel and left the room as calmly as he could, not wanting to show any eagerness to get out of the room. Within the hierarchy, his position made it so it wasn’t out of the realm of expectation that he might be called in just to speak with the Panel about situations as they unfolded. It had happened before. But that had completely left his mind when he approached the elders that day. Now he wanted to get away from them without showing any sign that he thought this meaning was anything more than the ones that they had had before. If he stayed calm and in control, he might be able to lessen any suspicion that could be building within them.

Once out of the meeting room for the Panel he increased his pace, moving through the corridors of the Order lair as quickly as he could until he was able to climb out of the access hatch nearest Athan’s home. He ran toward the house, bursting in without knocking. His friend turned to him from the kitchen.

“I think that the Panel knows something.”

“What did they say?”

“They asked about the Denynso clan that disappeared. They didn’t make any indication that they think I’m involved and they didn’t mention you or anyone else, but there was something strange about it.”

“We need to go talk to Declan and Astaria,” Athan said.

Aegeus nodded his agreement and they headed out of the house, making their way toward the home of Casimir’s son and daughter-in-law as quickly as they could without appearing suspicious. When they arrived, the couple ushered them through the house and into a back room concealed behind a bookshelf. Astaria scooped up Icelyn as they went, bringing her along with them so that she could set the child in a corner with toys, keeping her distracted and out of the way while also protecting her during the meeting.

When Aegeus was finished telling them what had happened with the Panel he looked back and forth between them, waiting for their reaction, for them to tell him what they thought that they should do. Finally, Declan spoke.

“We can’t let this derail us in our plans,” he said with determination. “We have our timeline in place. We already know what we are to do and when. We can’t rush it. If we do, it could ruin all of the work that we’ve already done.”

“Declan’s right,” Athan said. “These timed elements are laid out this way for a reason and we have to stay true to them if we are to be sure that they will work out the way that we want them to.”

Aegeus nodded.

“We will just have to be more vigilant,” he said. “We have to pay closer attention and notice any other signs that they might know something. Until we do, our plan remains just as we have it.”

Three months before capture…

“Are you alright?”

Aegeus looked across the blanket spread in the grass at his wife. Ellora was staring at him with concern in her eyes and he shook his head, trying to give her a casual, carefree smile.

“Nothing, love,” he said. “I’m fine.”

“You haven’t eaten anything,” she said. “You look like you’re so far away from me.”

“I’m right here,” Aegeus said, reaching toward her and taking her hand. “I’m right here.”

“You don’t seem like it. You haven’t seemed like it in weeks. What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” he said again, hoping to dissuade her.

“I know that’s not the truth,” Ellora said. “I can tell that there’s something distracting you. Something’s on your mind that you’re not telling me.”

He wanted so much to tell her. He wished that he could tell her everything and lean on her the way that he was able to lean on her with all the other battles that he had fought, but it wasn’t an option. She couldn’t know what was ahead. Even the slightest hint to the other side could be disastrous to them. Aegeus knew that many people had died just because the Panel suspected their involvement in rebellious activities or with who they believed knew about the rebellion. He just had to keep it from her for a short time further. Soon it would all be over. Soon they would call the corrupt into battle and his plan will unfold. They will defeat the corrupt members of the Order and sever the connection between the Valdicians and Uoria, ensuring that Vyker and his kind were able to control their quest for power throughout the Universe. Together they would guard existence, for his family and throughout the generations to come.