Chapter 12 Dark Dream
DARK DREAM
Caemorn flipped the ruby soul gem containing one of the Roan Tithe slices between his fingers. A slice of a slice. Legion shifted in their cell, regarding him silently. Caemorn did not look up.
Shaela was huddled in a cell opposite the monstrous Weryn Vampire.
She was sitting on the ground, back against the wall, with her arms wrapped around her knees.
She could not teleport out of this prison.
Daemon would not allow it. In this palace, their king was supreme.
Soon, as Daemon gained strength, there would be no place where his will would not reach.
I am king, Daemon always said, but how many people really understood what that meant?
Few.
The humans most certainly didn’t. For if they had a clue what Daemon could become, not just in the Ever Dark, but on Earth…
well, the humans would be acting against them more quickly.
But they weren’t. Not yet. And when they did act, it would be pointless.
The Sect, too, seemed aware on some level that their cause against Daemon was a lost one, but they still tried to deny the futility of it.
“Are you Kaly?” Legion asked.
“Yes,” Caemorn answered without looking up.
They shuffled over to the cell’s bars, but did not touch them.
The bars were enhanced. Even brushing against them would burn a Vampire’s flesh and, if a Vampire held on long enough, liquify their bones.
They drained strength and will, too. Not even the strongest Vampire could break them or even bend them.
So though Legion had the strength of whatever monster they were, it wouldn’t do them any good.
“You don’t seem like them,” Legion muttered, but whether that was a compliment or not was unclear. Maybe it was just an observation.
“That’s because you’ve never met me before,” Caemorn said.
He felt, more than saw, one of Legion’s pointed ears prick up at this.
“I know you well,” Legion insisted. “We have been together since the War.”
“You do not know me at all,” Caemorn contradicted. His eyes lifted from the gem to Legion then. “Tonight is the first time we have ever met.”
Legion’s ears twitched some more. “You want to separate yourself from them? From the other slices? By pretending you are different? Someone else?”
He did. Or he had.
But Caemorn had learned that lying to oneself was foolish. Yet he knew now that Roan was not him. Not anymore.
As he touched the soul that shriveled away from him in the soul gem, it became more and more clear to him that this was someone else.
It may have started with him, but it was as if Roan was his offspring rather than a piece of himself.
The other slices, though they had been awful in a myriad of ways and had done things that shamed him, were recognizable as him.
But not this one. So he was not simply denying the connection between himself and Roan because of Balthazar.
“We have never met before now,” Caemorn repeated.
“Why did you tell the others to leave?” Legion asked, referring to Balthazar, Christian, Fiona, Demos and Sana.
Now that was clever of Legion to notice.
They observed closely and their animal cunning was not something to be underestimated.
He continued to flip the ruby soul gem between the fingers of his right and then left hands.
He did not answer. He was not exactly sure why.
He needed this moment to collect himself, to know what was best to do, and he found it very peaceful inside of Daemon’s palace even if he was in the dungeon.
He paused in his flipping of the soul gem to let it rest in the palm of his hand.
It glowed reluctantly at him. He was still impressed by the fact that Elgar had been able to force Roan to imprison himself.
Roan was a slice, yes. Roan was a slice of a slice, yes.
But it was still an incredibly difficult feat to pull off.
One he hadn’t thought possible. Earlier, Balthazar had been skipping between being proud of Elgar and wanting to chastise his fledgling for taking such a huge risk in entering the Sect members’ minds at all.
“They hadn’t been checked for structures!” Balthazar’s arms had flown up and down before he’d tenderly touched Elgar’s shoulders before sending them flying upwards again like a startled flock of birds. He always became more physically effusive when he was emotionally upset.
“It was a risk,” Elgar agreed, staring down at the skull that had been placed in his hands as soon as he had returned. “But it was necessary.”
“Was it? Was it really?” Balthazar sounded as if he didn’t believe that at all.
“He saved us,” Demos said.
Ryder had already left them to find Grayson.
He had named Demos the representative of the Weryn Vampires in his stead.
Whatever emotions Ryder felt towards Legion were obviously trumped by those he felt for Ashyr.
Putting Demos in charge had been a good choice.
The Weryn Vampire was even-keeled and thoughtful.
He was like an anchor in a storm, which was helping as Balthazar rode the waves of a very stormy sea.
“Elgar took charge,” Sana pointed out. “He had a plan and it was a good one.”
Balthazar pinched the top of his nose. “Of course, he had a plan. Of course, he took charge. But I wonder if he had to do quite all that he did. Or was he trying to prove to me that he doesn’t need to be taken care of?”
Elgar shrugged. “It was both.”
“Well, I hate to inform you of this, Elgar, but your strength doesn’t stop me from needing to fuss over and take care of you!
” Balthazar’s hands were resting on his hips now.
“So you may be big and bad, but you will always be my fledgling. No matter what! So that means I want to keep you safe above all things.”
Elgar smiled at the skull and whispered, “Thank you, Master.”
“We give to others what we want ourselves,” Fiona chuckled at Balthazar.
“Roan’s attention was not something to be desired. It was certainly nothing that ever made me feel safe.” Balthazar shuddered.
Fiona looked alarmed. Her eyes flickered from Balthazar to Caemorn.
“No, I meant…” She clearly thought better of bringing up his relationship with Caemorn.
She likely feared that seeing Roan again had inspired all sorts of bad thoughts and she likely was right.
“I don’t know what I meant. Just not what you were thinking. ”
Caemorn understood that Balthazar was rocked by there being more Roan slices out there.
The fact that they had not reformed around him told Caemorn that they were indeed very different from him.
Unrecognizable actually. Which was good.
But he was also responsible for creating them and having them enter Balthazar’s life in the first place, which was bad.
“Roan is–was or is?--god, I don’t even know!
To think I only killed one of him. That there are more!
In some ways, that makes me glad, because killing him once wasn’t enough.
And because there are many of him, people who want revenge on him whether for themselves or for others get their shots in too.
Maybe we should all have enemies that can slice and dice themselves!
Highly useful to scratch that revenge itch! ” Balthazar let out a sharp laugh.
“How many do you think there are?” Demos asked, his expression darkening.
Balthazar’s gaze flicked to Legion and then Shaela. “They don’t know. But considering the amount of power it took to bring the Harrows back, Caemorn, I’m imagining that he cannot have made a ton of them.”
“He did have access to Nightvallen and the Kaly Palace,” Caemorn reminded him. “I will have to do an inventory of soul gems to see how many are missing.”
“Good grief! Could there be dozens out there or something?” Balthazar had paled.
“No, Roan would be far more insane if there were,” Caemorn assured him.
But he would have thought that three slices–one had been killed by Balthazar and one killed by Elgar while there was at least another out there–to be impossible.
Maybe Roan had melded his soul with the people he’d overtaken.
Almost like gene splicing. That would have made their souls more stable, but also account for the differences between himself and these Roans.
That raised a whole host of possibilities that he wasn’t sure he wanted to contemplate with Balthazar in this state.
“Considering the company he keeps, I’m not sure he isn’t crazy,” Sana said with a grimace. “You two didn’t hear what he said to Legion. The joy he took in having them mutilate themselves.” She shuddered and Fiona patted her back. “Roan wasn’t normal.”
“I said more insane,” Caemorn corrected quietly. “I am certain he is quite unhinged, but not shattered and unable to act or plan. That is the difference.”
“He was shattering at the end,” Demos said. “The stress and anger… he forgot himself.”
“Yes, he was lost, which made him easier to catch and control,” Elgar said.
“Don’t downplay your accomplishment here, Elgar!
Shattering or not, wasn’t what Elgar did impressive, Caemorn?
Fiona, you must admit, he controlled Shaela and stopped her from teleporting plus kept Legion from tearing them all about and made Roan gem himself!
” Balthazar was smiling now though he still looked quite peaky.
“I wonder if you’re aware that bragging about Elgar–however earned it is, I might add–will likely not encourage him to act more safely in the future,” Fiona pointed out mildly as she was making sure that Sana was fine.
“Well! Yes, but… it was impressive!” Balthazar was irrepressible as always.
“It was,” Fiona agreed. She gently placed a hand on Elgar’s arm. “Thank you for keeping Sana and everyone safe, Elgar.”
Elgar blushed. He ducked his head even lower. “You are most welcome, Wyvern. But my actions were not enough. Roan used the Necrolyte and we have lost Forsworn.”