HEART OF THE CHOSEN (CASTE BOOK 1)

Chapter 37

Egeria was sitting on an old armchair in a kind of antechamber, her long white hair pulled back over her chest. Watching her horrified, I wondered again that skin could be as wrinkled as hers. I refused to believe that she had once been the beautiful young woman Blake had described to me and who had made him and his brother Magnus succumb. Well, that was already several centuries old, but it was indisputable that the two brothers had aged better than her.

Not taking my eyes off her, I entered. I saw on my right a door slightly ajar. It suddenly occurred to me what Blake had explained about the old woman. Over time, her powers of clairvoyance had become so powerful that she had to isolate herself in the Pomona room so as not to go crazy, in the darkest and most isolated room of all the castle of Mortain. I thus assumed that it must be her apartments when she came to stay in Amsterdam. Behind her were two other doors that were much more secure. I knew immediately that what I was looking for was here.

“I was expecting you, Everliegh,” she declared in her nasal voice.

“Of course, you’re clairvoyant!” I say, not surprised.

“Indeed, and…”

“The question I ask myself, however,” I continued as if she had not opened her mouth, “is why a wreck such as you dares to venture alone knowing full well what awaits her.”

“Measure your words!” replied Egeria, her lids narrowing against the dreadful whiteness of her blind eyes.

“Would you give me moral lessons?!” I shouted challenging her.

“That’s not the question,” she replied, calmer, “I came of my own free will. I already know Magnus will fall tonight, but I had to come here to reveal some truths you should know.”

“Know what?! I don’t want to know anything about you, old goat! Because of your cursed predictions, I’ve been through hell. Because of you, my life is ruined, so don’t you dare tell me anything!”

“As you wish, but you won’t know what your destiny has in store for you.”

“Who told you that I want to know it? And what have you been telling Magnus all these years to keep yourself close to him? Did you tell him that tonight he was going to lose his empire and soon live in hell? Did you tell him?!”

“I hadn’t fixed the date, but Magnus knew that it would happen one day. That’s also why he gave you special treatment in London, he kept you close to him.”

“You call that special treatment!”

As I screamed in rage, I jerked her body up and she landed on the ground with the same brutality. Another fit of anger caused me to eject the chair, which smashed against a wall. I gasped and struggled to regain my composure.

“Magnus never intended to kill you, he only wanted to make you suffer the worst abuse because he knew full well that it would be the only time he would have the opportunity to do so… Through you, he took revenge for Eleonore’s betrayal, knowing that you weren’t her. If he had locked you up in Amsterdam, you would never have come out. I was the one who told him to keep you in London because I already knew you would escape. And it was me again who lowered my guard that night because I had seen everything. As I saw that Magnus’ own son would betray him for you, Everliegh.”

“Where’s Carmichael?” I summoned her, already tired of this conversation.

She stepped back and held out her arm to show me the door on the right. I stared at her with contempt while trying to understand her strange behaviour. She showed no resistance and was rather cooperative. The idea of a trap came to mind. After all, nothing told me that Carmichael was okay in that cell. And yet… I was sure he was there. My whole body felt him in this place, while a slight shiver crossed my skin and urged me to encounter the cause of this phenomenon. It was Carmichael, I was sure.

Egeria stepped back to the left and gave me free access to the cell. I took a few steps without taking my eyes off her. Could she be helping me for the sole purpose of staying alive? I seriously doubted it. The trap was the most consistent assumption.

“You have nothing to fear,” she said, guessing my confusion. “Are you afraid of an old blind woman?”

“I’ll pulverize you at the slightest blink of an eye, is that understood?!”

She nodded, but I felt that my insolence was costing her. I looked away at the door and raised my left arm palm out. Maintaining an invisible barrier between her and me, I squinted in concentration. The armoured door bent in the middle and slammed against a wall with a crashing sound. It was dark in the cell. Not a ray of light. If Carmichael was indeed there, then he must have spent the past two years in total darkness. A shiver ran through me as I imagined what it must have been like to endure such an ordeal. Suddenly, I lost my menacing expression. An immense sadness washed over me and I staggered forward. The invisible wall that separated me from Egeria having lost none of its solidity, I entered the cell.

The overwhelming smell attacked my lungs, so I was tempted to hold my breath. I needed a little time to make sure it was indeed Carmichael, so I took a deep breath that made me gag. The light coming from the anteroom gave me a glimpse of a scraped knee. The skin was so dirty that I could not determine if it was the pretty bronze complexion that coloured the Middle Lord’s skin. I picked up my flashlight and hesitated a moment before turning it on, afraid of what I was about to discover. Once decided, I aimed the object at the lying individual. The sight of that emaciated body made my blood run cold, and in shock, I took a step back. I swallowed my saliva and breathed again to contain my dread. I hadn’t yet raised the flashlight towards the stranger’s face. With darkness like this for so long, they might permanently go blind. So I bent down and put my hand on the skeletal body, and groped near the head. There, I felt something under my fingers, which wasn’t skin but something rather rough, thin and circular. One of Carmichael’s dreadlocks! My heart was beating faster and faster as I felt a bony face and felt with relief a very weak breath under the palm of my hand. He lived! I took off my fitted sweater and put it over his face. Shivering with cold, my shoulders bare under my little black tank top, I passed the flashlight over his entire body. He was lying on an old mattress with holes barely five centimetres thick. He wore ragged pants that must have been plain at one time. His hips were protruding and his waist was far too thin. I followed his rickety arm and discovered a hand behind his head covered by long dreadlocks, bleached by the dirt.

“Carmichael!” I whispered, realizing, amazed, that I had indeed found him.

I threw myself in front of him and my knees met the cold stone, but it was nothing compared to the icy touch of Carmichael’s skin. I shook him slightly, but he had no reaction. I had to get him out of this horrible place urgently. I heard noises not far behind me.

“Eve!” cried Thomas as he entered the antechamber.

“I’m here!”

He wanted to move forward, but took a step back, surprised when he saw Egeria and her absent gaze.

“Find a cover for Carmichael.”

“So he’s here?!” Thomas blurted, his eyes widening in amazement.

“Yes, and I’m asking you to get him out of this place.”

“All right,” he said after thinking too long, “but what are you going to do?”

“I have a score to settle with her. How’s it going up there?”

“You won’t do anything!” exclaimed Egeria, who still hadn’t moved. “You’re going to lock me up in Mortain like Magnus!”

“Is this really what you want?” I asked her in an icy tone before turning back to Thomas.

“We had to kill several guards,” he declared as if the old owl never showed up, and Jendayi died saving Prisca, we couldn’t do anything. A dozen prisoners were released. Three were already dead, the others are in a bad state. Salomon is probing their minds to find out if they will be loyal to us.”

“s**t…Jendayi,” I whispered. “Is anyone else hurt?”

“No, Chun fought like a tigress, it was incredible! And you, what are you going to do with her?”

“Why not leave her locked up here, without water or food, as they did for Carmichael.”

“As you wish, Eve but hurry, I can’t wait to get out of here.”

He took off in a gust of wind, Carmichael’s emaciated body propped on his shoulder. Egeria hadn’t moved an inch. She had placed her hands crossed in front of her and an almost imperceptible movement let me guess that the old woman was fretting with anguish. This didn’t fail to arouse my interest.

“So you want to go to Mortain with your master?” I said without waiting for an answer. “Only, before I take you there, tell me why you didn’t stay in London with him? Why did you come here?”

“Blake would have killed me on the spot, so I preferred to try my luck with you.”

“You thought I would be more lenient than Blake?!”

“You don’t know him as well as you think.”

“Shut up, old fool! Your coming here has nothing to do with Blake. You wanted to be here for a specific reason, and I believe it’s right behind this door.”

When my finger finally pointed to the place she had been subtly trying to protect since my arrival, her marble expression suddenly turned livid. She was unsettled for a moment then recovered, her face now showing a properly venomous look. I had hit the mark and could feel her angst rising a notch. I abruptly pushed Egeria’s body aside and wanted to pass in front of her. I advanced a few steps, and there, I had no time to react. Egeria broke, somehow, the mental barrier I had erected between us and threw herself on me, screaming like a real fury. With a gesture, she grabbed my head, putting her hands on my temples. I let out a terrible cry as a flood of successive images flooded my skull. Unable to make out its content, I could only feel the searing pain that split my head in two. A white-hot blade cut through both hemispheres of my brain. I couldn’t stop my screams as I struggled to gather some strength. I managed to open my eyes and met the blind, demented gaze of the priestess. This old bloodsucker took a terrible step to torture my brain and was already widening a triumphant smile. The pain was so unbearable that I almost gave up and let her roast my brain without resistance. But it was Egeria, I couldn’t let her win, so I made a final effort of concentration, staring intently at her. After a few seconds that seemed like an eternity, I finally managed to make her raise her arms against her will. Then I grabbed her arms and gripped them with my nails. I wanted to push her away but the pain in my head had become so intolerable that I already felt close to fainting.

“Eve!” yelled Thomas who was coming back.

A rush of adrenaline flooded my veins the very moment I heard his voice. As I gathered my last resources, an icy shiver ran through my spine. I finally felt the pain ease and discovered Egeria’s face crumbling visibly. A victorious grin appeared on my lips before I passed out.

“Eve! Eve!”

It was Thomas’ voice. I opened my eyes and stared at him in astonishment. Lying on the hard floor of the antechamber, I tried to get up, but no sooner had I raised my head than everything came back to me at breakneck speed.

“WHERE IS SHE?” I yelled bluntly.

“Eve… you killed her.”

“Oh!” I found only to say, as a terrible migraine compressed my skull. “How did I kill her? I don’t remember anything!”

“I don’t know, but it was scary! You held her arms and took over. Then you closed your eyes, and then, you atomized her, there’s no other word! She’s gone to dust and you passed out.”

“It’s strange, I don’t remember.”

“You may have done it unconsciously to defend yourself. Maybe your powers don’t need to be commanded when you’re under attack. You had blocked any access that could lead to you, I couldn’t help you.”

“Yes, but Egeria managed to reach me.”

“Yeah, it’s strange… In any case, it won’t happen again.”

Indeed, Egeria was not going to be able to harm anyone anymore. But it was, all the same, a shame to know that I had made her pass from life to death without even having wanted to. It was clear that I wasn’t going to shed a single tear for this crazy old woman, but this reckless killing disturbed me a little.

Having finally regained my senses, I didn’t forget the thing that had pushed the old witch to throw herself on me. I took my flashlight and pointed it at the gaping mouth of the secret room. This time it wasn’t a tiny cell the size of Carmichael’s, but a large, dark room. I waved my hand to the side and felt a switch under my fingers. I pressed it, and there, a huge noise tore the terrible silence that reigned. Thomas stood behind me and looked up at the ceiling like I had just done. We could still hear a few creaks above our heads. It seemed that by tripping the switch, I had also tripped a mechanism. The neon lights were starting to come on in spurts. I looked down and discovered, terrified, six mummified bodies in old shrouds and each laid out on a mortuary table. A kind of tube came to connect them to each other at neck height. I stifled another retching as I inhaled the awful smell that filled the room. A heavy silence had returned. This morgue had probably remained closed for many years.

“What is this?” asked Thomas, whose transparent eyes widened in amazement.

“I don’t know at all,” I replied. “But one thing is certain, Egeria wanted to keep them for herself.”

“Are you going to leave them here?”

“Considering their condition, they won’t go far. I’ll have Blake take care of it when he gets back.”

“Why not Prisca?”

“I only trust Blake.”

We had closed the door and climbed back to the surface, leaving our macabre discovery behind us. In the bar, Salomon was probing the mind of the last prisoner. Prisca was standing, staring. The Van Durens were chatting over a glass of single malt whiskey as if nothing had happened.

“So, it’s almost over?” Marcus asked impatiently.

“Yes, it’s good,” assured Salomon turning to Prisca. “We’ll take them with us.”

“Okay, get them out the back and put them in the truck with Chun. We’re going to fly to Hong Kong. You go back to Mortain.”

Salomon nodded and asked the Van Durens to help bring the frail prisoner to her transport. There were only Prisca, Thomas and me left.

“What about Carmichael?” I say looking for him.

“He’s coming with me,” Prisca answered again.

“Nope!” I blurted out without thinking.

“Eve, thank you for your concern for my brother, but the care he needs is far from your skills and I know my brother well enough to know that he wouldn’t want you to see him in this state.”

“It’s too late and I know exactly what he needs! I helped Blake get well when we were in London.”

“Carmichael’s condition is worse,” she said lowering her eyes, “I’ll do what I can to save his mind.”

This time, I made no comment. It hadn’t occurred to me that Carmichael couldn’t go back to who he was. So I put my hand on Prisca’s shoulder, who looked up, we understood each other. She turned to join her brother and the other escaped castes.

“By the way, Prisca!” I called out to her before she left. “We beat them in London too.”

“But the attack hasn’t taken place yet?”

I gave her a knowing look, which she immediately caught.

“She’s dead?”

“Yes.”

She stared at me for a moment without expression and then disappeared through the rear entrance to the bar.

“How are you, Eve?” Thomas asked.

“Doing better.”

And this time, I meant it.