Chapter 48 #2
“I will not cower,” Terena seethed, her heart beating a painful tattoo within her breast. “I am a god in full now. He can try to hit me again, but this time I swear by the Fates he will regret it. Sonah’s up there and I will not have her at his mercy.”
Terena strode back through the dungeons as Cassandra continued to beg her to stop. She and Migela trailed after her and Terena took the winding steps up to the first floor of the palace.
As soon as they neared the great hall, Terena’s steps faltered, taking in the crowd of warriors standing there.
Hermes’s men.
They hadn’t yet noticed her and she curled her lip as she watched them celebrating by tearing up the palace.
“Ren!”
Terena spun around. Was her mind playing tricks on her? That was Sonah’s voice. Right?
“Ren!”
Terena took off running, following the echoes of Sonah’s shouts, stopping in front of the throne room. Her eyes widened when she spied Sonah.
Cursing, Terena took a few steps forward, hands clenched at her sides.
Sonah spotted her and made to run to her when Hermes pulled her back roughly.
A man nearby shouted, trying to get to her but froze in place mid-stride.
Hermes dropped the hand he’d held up toward the man and turned to Terena, a playful grin on his lips.
Hermes cupped a hand to his mouth and called out, “Look who I found!”
Sonah swallowed as she caught the stricken look on Terena’s face. She didn’t come any closer, standing near the doors to the throne room and looked back at them. Migela, the assassin she’d met at Lethe, stood outside the threshold, uncertain, her hand on the hilt of her dagger.
Hermes draped an arm over Sonah’s shoulders, the heavy appendage making her dip a little as she scowled up at the god.
“Come, Terena. Your sister awaits.”
Still, Terena did not move. Sonah made to remove Hermes’s arm, but it was like trying to move a boulder.
“If it’s me you want,” Terena called out, “I’ll come. But only if you let Sonah go.”
“Where is the tracker?”
Terena’s eyes narrowed. “Who?”
Hermes leaned forward. “Don’t be coy. She was with you in Ravos. Bring her here.”
“Vassori’s gone,” Ren said in a loud voice.
“What?”
Ren shrugged, her eyes shifting to Sonah.
Giving her a small smile, her sister turned her attention back to Hermes.
“You’re surprised? She betrayed me. And she also has the Amulet of Ka?ra.
How did she know where to find it, I wonder?
Perhaps you told her? Was that your plan all along? Why you wanted me to find her?”
“I was ready to forgive you for your insolence back at Ravos,” Hermes snarled. “But I cannot forgive incompetence. I wanted you to find her because she asked for you!” He stepped off the dais, hands balled at his sides.
“Well, now she’s gone and so is the amulet.”
Hermes looked like he might faint. Sonah edged away from him.
“Vassori has the amulet?”
“Aye,” Terena said, her gaze shifting to Sonah. “And someone who can wield it. The real Sonah Yahn.”
“Impossible,” Hermes said, his face slack.
“And yet,” Ren scoffed, spreading her arms as she sneered. “Cassandra has seen it.”
Hermes’s head snapped up at that, looking beyond Ren, searching the room. “Bring the seer forward. Now!”
Sonah’s gaze caught on the blonde woman struggling against her captors as they brought her toward the dais. Ren lunged for them, grabbing hold of the woman’s hand before they were torn apart by more of the god’s soldiers.
The woman was thrown to the ground, her sharp cries loud in the cavernous room. Rydon shouted and sprang forward, as did Ren. Both were stopped before they could reach her.
The woman raised terrified eyes to Hermes when he stepped forward to loom over her.
“Hello, Cassandra,” Hermes murmured, his silken voice soft. “What a surprise to find you here.”
The woman averted her gaze.
“You’ve seen the amulet?”
The woman nodded. “Aye.”
“And the woman who has it? Is what my niece says true?”
“It is.”
Hermes threw back his head and laughed.
Startled, Sonah looked over at Ren, who frowned at the god’s mirth.
“Well. We’ll deal with that shortly. For now…” Hermes gestured to some of his men.
Sonah turned, curious, her eyes widening when they brought in Leander.
Sonah’s movements became frantic. What had he done to Leander? She turned to Rydon, who stood beside Daris at the bottom of the dais. “Rydon! Help me!”
Rydon’s face was pained as he lifted sad eyes to Sonah. Daris looked downright murderous.
“Let me go,” Sonah said, tugging at the god’s arm.
Hermes laughed. To Terena he said, “You know I won’t do that, dear niece. Why don’t you stop whatever foolishness this is, so we can all enjoy our victory.”
“Let her go!” Terena screamed.
Sonah gawked at her sister when the room shook.
“Daris!”
The commander pulled his gaze away from Ren and frowned at Sonah.
“Please, help me!”
Daris spared a glance for Hermes before he said, “I’m sorry, Sonah.”
“Rydon! Please—”
“Don’t waste your breath, child,” Hermes said. “I hold the mercenary as long as I hold you. And the commander… well, let’s just say his life is now bound to me.”
“What?” Sonah gasped, her head swinging from left to right. Both men looked angry, but beneath, she saw the frustration that ate at them. The way Rydon would not look over at her, the high color in his face as he continued to look anywhere but at her.
And Daris. His face was thunderous, ready to unleash a storm. He looked to be in so much pain, Sonah felt a momentary sympathy for him.
Then she got angry.
“You two are the most useless warriors a lady could ever have the misfortune of surrounding herself with!” she grumbled.
Turning back to Terena, who paced near the center of the room, she yelled, “Don’t do it, Ren! I’ll find a way to get free and then we’ll make him sorry! He can’t hurt us!”
Hermes chuckled and leaned close to her ear. “You won’t get free, little niece. And you’re mistaken, because I can hurt you, remember? I can hurt your pet wolf, here. So do not test me.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Sonah seethed.
Hermes smiled cruelly. “You want to play? I warn you; I’m too strong and you’re not strong enough.”
Sonah snapped around and snarled at him. “We both know that’s not true. Or did you forget our conversation outside the city?”
Hermes’s sneer faltered and he snatched hold of her arm.
“Let her fucking go!” Daris yelled.
Sonah turned her head to see him struggling against whatever hold Hermes had him under. He almost broke through the invisible bonds, the veins in his neck straining, muscles bulging, and she gasped at his raw power.
“Oh not you too, Commander,” Hermes chuckled, although she noted the uncertainty in his expression. Hermes had zero problems holding onto Sonah as she struggled against his grip. “Terena, look, even your lover is moved to speak up at last! Rydon!”
Before Sonah knew what he was about, she yelped when Hermes dropped his arm and shoved her toward Rydon.
She stumbled into him, glaring daggers at Hermes as Rydon wrapped her in his arms and moved her away.
Leander was still frozen in place, his face and neck red with exertion as he tried to break free of Hermes’s control.
Rydon tried to calm her when she struggled to get to Terena, crying in frustration. Terena stood still with her hands balled at her sides, her face scarlet and her lips thinned to the point they disappeared.
“Now,” Hermes said, stepping down from the dais in a leisurely fashion as he made his way to Daris’s side.
Sonah balked when Hermes grabbed Daris and hauled him bodily in front of him, steadying the Liodari commander with a chokehold on his breastplate.
Daris struggled, his face identical to her sister’s in color and temperament.
“Perhaps I’ll take your lover’s other eye?” Hermes mused, a dagger in his hands faster than Sonah could blink. Renewing her screaming and yelling, she switched the focus of her cries to Hermes, begging him to release Daris.
Daris stood there, his eyes downcast as Hermes held the tip of his blade to Daris’s left eye. “Maybe I’ll just slit his throat. What say you, niece? Despite your pretty request, I’ve yet to make him immortal. Shame…” He turned back to Terena, an innocent smile on his face.
Sonah blanched and her head snapped around to her sister. Terena rushed forward, hand outstretched and her face stricken with terror.
“Stop!” she screamed, her chest rising and falling rapidly with her breaths. Her wild eyes shifted between Hermes and Daris.
“I won’t hurt Sonah,” Hermes said conversationally, then clicked his tongue. “But I have no issue with killing your lover. I’m curious how far you’d let me go before—”
“I’ll come with you!” Terena shouted. Her voice cracked and Sonah’s heart broke to see the pain on her face. Tears flowed freely as she looked at the god with hate in her eyes. “You filthy piece of shit, I will come with you!” She yelled out that last part so fiercely, Daris’s face lifted at last.
“Don’t you fucking do it!” Daris shouted, his voice desperate. He fought against Hermes’s hold. “He won’t hurt me! Don’t you fucking do it, Ren!”
“Awww! I am moved! Sincerely, the love between you two, I mean…” Hermes pounded his chest as he tilted his head. “I feel it. Right here. Terena—do you see what you’ve inspired? It’s almost enough to make me let you all go, but… alas, I don’t think I will.”
“You coward,” Terena said, her voice shaking with rage and fear. Her eyes sparked red as she glared at the god. “Let him go.”
“You see,” Hermes said with feigned sincerity, belying the anger in his glare. “I would, but I can’t. He bound himself to me.”
“What? Why? He’s my—”
“He was,” Hermes tutted, his expression contrite. A wicked smile transformed his face and Sonah shuddered as she watched the interaction. “He’s mine now.”
Terena’s nose scrunched. Daris’s face blanked, but Sonah saw his body shaking against whatever hold Hermes had over him.
“What? That makes no sense. You don’t need a guardian.”
Hermes stood there with a self-satisfied smile on his face.
Terena’s eyes shot to Daris, standing like a stone sentinel at the god’s side. Rage rolled off him in waves as he looked away from her. Terena shuddered.
“Daris,” she called out, her voice little more than a whisper. She’d moved closer, standing near the center of the room.
Daris’s body shifted infinitesimally, straining against something they could not see.
“What did you do?” Terena’s voice broke.
“I’m waiting,” Hermes said in a tone devoid of feeling.
Terena’s eyes snapped to him, mouth open.
“Why?”
Hermes watched her in silence. Sonah swore for a moment that disappeared in a blink, regret and panic passed over his features before they hardened.
“I learned it from your commander,” Hermes replied as if sharing a fun fact. “He took your sister, and here you are, back in his arms. Well, almost. I wanted you back. So I took your lover.”
The bastard had the audacity to hold out his arms, tilting his head as he smirked at Terena.
“Now, you’re back in my arms.”
“You sneaky shit,” she said softly but in the tense silence that followed, they all heard. Sonah closed her eyes.
The insult transformed Hermes from playful god into wrath personified.
Sonah called out to Hermes but her words were cut off with Rydon’s hand over her mouth. He bent close to whisper in her ear and she shivered.
“You will pull his attention away and Terena will have you to worry about as well. We will help her, I promise you, but keep still for now.”
Hermes bent closer to Daris, speaking to him in hushed tones and Rydon pulled his hand away at last.
The soldiers around them shifted, and Sonah flinched when Rydon’s grip tightened. The soft hiss of several swords leaving their scabbards filled the room. Hermes moved away from Daris to retake his seat on the Heylisian throne.
Daris did not move.
Sonah bucked against Rydon, frantic as the men approached Ren.
“Hush,” he said. “If you keep quiet, he won’t put those on you as well.”
Two men behind them grabbed hold of Daris as another soldier moved toward Terena with manacles that glowed faintly, a sickly yellow color that smelled, if the look on Terena’s face was anything to go by.
Daris struggled against the men who held him in place as he screamed at Hermes, obscenities she’d never heard him utter before.
Terena lost all color and dropped to the ground when the manacles were in place.
One soldier bent and lifted her over his shoulder, the heavy metal chains thudding and dragging on the ground as they left.
“Stay close to me, Sonah,” Rydon whispered. “The first chance I get, I’ll get those fucking shackles off her and get you two away.”
Sonah panted, her struggles against Rydon exhausting her and she slumped against him, grateful for the strength of his arms and the quiet words he whispered to her.
She knew Rydon was only doing what Hermes, as his liege lord or whatever, told him to.
She also knew that as her eudaemon, he would not let her come to harm.
But she was still frustrated they were so helpless against Hermes.
Daris surged forward, intent on getting to Terena but Hermes did something with his hand and Daris froze again in the same manner as Leander. Her eyes shot to the shifter who remained standing in the exact spot he’d been in since Terena arrived.
“Ren!” Daris shouted and Hermes whipped his head around, surprised. “Ren! I’ll get you out! I love you, Ren! Hold on! Hold—”
Hermes backhanded Daris. The commander fell to the ground and Sonah cried out. He was so still, she feared Hermes had killed him.
The god moved back to the throne and sat, a gold staff as tall as Melanos forming in his hand, two snakes winding around as wings emerged at the top.
“Please don’t let him do this,” Sonah begged Rydon, her throat clogging with emotion. “Please, Rydon.”
“There’s nothing we can do right now, Sonah,” Rydon said gruffly, his grip easing as he glared at Hermes. “The time will come when we fight back. But not now.”