Chapter 19
Zharina
My mind reeled as Gavin and I rejoined the others.
Despite the brave front he was putting up, I could feel how much all of this was messing with his head.
His protective instincts were screaming for him to March right back to the Basilica and get his grandfather out of there.
My own instincts were berating me for not having dragged the Divine right back to our ship.
I didn’t trust Gotia not to go completely insane on him.
That female was foul. The only reason she stood by stoically while Taseus verbally annihilated her was the fear of his psionic attacks.
Her flabbergasted reaction the first time he used it on his Chamberlain led me to believe he had never used his powers against any of them before.
I also believed she had been clueless about just how much he knew of her crimes.
That meant Gotia was now a cornered animal.
She couldn’t have committed all the crimes he laid at her feet on her own.
On top of fearing also getting exposed, her acolytes would fight to maintain the scheme that allowed them to enrich themselves and gain greater power and influence.
What did he know that we didn’t? He wouldn’t be this confident in his safety unless he had some plan already set in motion.
But he thought his entire court hated him…
Alone and isolated as he believed himself to be, how could he have secured any ally against the highly probable retaliation headed his way?
Even as all those questions fired off in my brain, I tried soothing my mate.
I wanted to mind-speak to him, tell him that all would be well.
However, as he didn’t have the ability to speak back, I refrained from it.
I didn’t know exactly what he needed from me.
And the last thing I wanted was to talk at him if he only wanted some peace and quiet to sort out his own feelings first.
As soon as we entered the Parliament building, my gaze zeroed in on my brother. Just one look at us sufficed for Vahl to know something was off.
“We’ll explain later…” I mind-spoke to him pre-emptively.
He gave me a subtle nod in acknowledgment.
“There you are!” Coron exclaimed with the excessive enthusiasm that seemed to be his main personality. “Please come and grab some refreshments.”
He waved at a lavish table in the greeting hall. It offered a wide variety of amuse-bouche, some of which actually were Veredian delicacies. Under different circumstances, I would have gladly indulged. However, my stomach was far too knotted with apprehension.
Gavin cast an inquisitive glance my way to see if I wanted anything. I smiled and shook my head.
“Thank you, Primus. But we do not require anything right now. Anyway, we have delayed this meeting enough. We’re ready to proceed if the others are,” Gavin replied.
“We’re ready,” Vahl concurred, the rest of our team nodding as well.
“Excellent! This way then. My assistant, Cicarus, has prepared the conference room for us,” Coron said in a cheerful manner.
Cicarus, a rather handsome male in his mid-thirties, with grayish-blue skin on the paler spectrum for Dantorians, white wings, and stunning, deep-blue eyes, smiled and gestured for us to follow. He swiftly took the lead. We all complied.
Only a few steps in, Gavin suddenly grabbed Vahl’s upper arm, stopping him. Simultaneously, he raised his right arm in front of me to prevent me from advancing further.
“No,” Gavin said forcefully, an intense expression on his face as he stared at the imposing set of double doors located on the south side of the room.
We all froze, tension sweeping within us as we stared at him.
“What’s the matter?” Coron asked, confused.
Gavin continued to stare silently at the doors for a few more seconds, his spine stiff, and his muscles bulging. Our Braxian companions immediately spread over a couple of steps as if setting up a defensive perimeter.
“Not in this room,” Gavin said at last.
Coron looked at him even more baffled. “What? It’s our standard meeting room for—”
“I said no,” Gavin said harshly, his eyes hardening as he stared at the Primus. “Please provide a different room.”
“What’s going on?” Vahl asked me through mind-speak.
He hadn’t included the rest of the group as they obviously wouldn’t know any more than he did. As I had been with Gavin in the Basilica, he likely assumed we’d gotten some sort of insight prompting my mate’s current reaction.
“Your guess is as good as mine. But I think things are about to turn ugly,” I replied.
This time, Cicarus stepped forward, looking offended.
“You haven’t even seen the room I have—”
“I don’t need to see it,” Gavin said, his tone growing slightly menacing. “I said not this room.”
“You do not command this delegation,” Cicarus hissed.
“My First Officer has spoken,” Vahl intervened, taking a step forward with a stern expression. “Please provide a different room as we will not enter that one.”
“This is outrageous and utterly offensive!” Cicarus exclaimed, glancing at Coron for support.
The Primus looked at a complete loss as to how to respond. One glance at our body language made it clear we wouldn’t budge.
“May I ask the source of your discomfort? My assistant went through great pains to prepare this room,” Coron said carefully. “So he’s naturally hurt that you would not even just have a look.”
“We mean no offence, Primus,” I said in a reasonable tone. “My mate is an Augur, as stated by your very own Divine but moments ago. If Gavin says we must not go in that room, then we don’t.”
“The question is, what exactly have you set up in that room?” Gavin suddenly asked in a dangerously low voice, his eyes narrowing at Cicarus.
“Just what would be expected for a meeting, obviously!” Cicarus replied in a self-evident manner.
“Is that so?” Gavin insisted, his voice dripping with suspicion and a hint of threat. “Who’s in there?”
“No one, clearly! We would be, had you not stopped us from entering!” Cicarus retorted with a hefty dose of self-righteous indignation.
A quick peek at the scanner on my bracer didn’t detect anyone in the room beyond.
But that didn’t mean anything. For security reasons, official meeting rooms and gathering halls were often designed specifically to prevent this type of scanning.
It made it harder for potential assassins to target high-ranking political figures or dignitaries.
“Then I’m sure you won’t mind if I go check first. And you won’t object to me obliterating anyone I may find inside since there shouldn’t be anybody, correct?” Gavin asked before pulling out his sword.
Scandalized gasps resounded around the room as he detached the inconspicuous handle from his belt. The nanites immediately deployed, looking almost like an oil slick dripping as it shaped one of the strongest blades in the known world.
“Mr. Aldriss!” Coron exclaimed, horrified.
“Psychic shields up!” Vahl ordered everyone through mind-speak. “Do not pull out your weapons yet but be ready to do so. Reyes, tell Kamala we might need backup.”
“There’s no need for any of this! I am sorry you feel so strongly about our conference room. But we can certainly hold the meeting somewhere else,” the Primus said, visibly baffled and distraught by the situation.
“Coron is clueless,” I said telepathically to our group. “But Cicarus has bad intentions. Maybe we should all insist on going in.”
“But Primus—?!” Cicarus tried to argue.
“No, Cicarus,” Coron interrupted sternly, showing the spine I was beginning to wonder if he possessed. “This meeting is too important.”
“You’re a traitor…” Gavin whispered, his eyes going slightly out of focus before locking on Cicarus.
“Mr. Aldriss!” Coron exclaimed.
“We’re surrounded,” Gavin continued as he glanced at invisible enemies around us. “An attack is imminent.”
“What?! Mr. Aldriss, you’re among allies here!” Coron said, his voice laced with a mix of panic and uncertainty.
“Your assistant is a traitor,” Gavin growled, taking a menacing step towards him.
“He can’t possibly…”
Coron’s words died on his tongue when he glanced at Cicarus, who was staring at Gavin with an evil grin and slowly backing away. Then everything happened all at once.
Just as Cicarus was lifting his right hand and opening his mouth to speak a word of power, Gavin grabbed a sphere from his belt and threw it on the floor in front of Coron.
Vahl waved his hand backward, and his kinetic powers yanked all of us back a few meters.
Dhaxius flicked his wrist, and a wall of ice appeared before us.
A series of darts stabbed into the ice wall, releasing a dark substance into the frozen crystals.
It was no doubt some lethal poison. I didn’t see what fired the darts, but I suspected Cicarus had launched them when he raised his right hand.
However, the moment he finished saying what turned out to be a vocal command, it felt as if a dome settled over me, muting every sound and snuffing the air out.
That wasn’t the case at all but the manifestation of a psychic disruptor kicking in.
This time, it didn’t fully silence my powers, but they were caught in a chokehold.
I couldn’t say for sure if this was the same technology our attackers used on Talabor as we didn’t have psychic shields back there.
But that these disruptors still managed to dampen our powers to this extent proved they were much stronger than what the Guldans previously used against us.
As one, we activated our armor, which deployed over us the same way Gavin’s sword had extruded.
“Braxians, protect the Primus and dignitaries!” Vahl shouted.
They were screaming and shouting in panic as more of the darts had crashed against the energy wall in front of them. Had Gavin not thrown the shield sphere at their feet when he did, many of them would either be dead, or writhing on the floor in agony.