Chapter 57
FIFTY-SEVEN
LEAH
“You knew the attack on the armory was going to take place, and you did nothing?”
“Well, it wasn’t an attack so much as they were trying to steal weapons for their little insurrection.
” Leah gave a long sigh and shrugged. “I knew they were coming; I even let them in. It was a final test for Elizabeth. I wanted to know that, even on her own, she would still stand by our side, and she did. It also served to unravel Jack Walker. He suspects his father is alive now. He’ll be emotional.
He won’t be thinking straight during the next confrontation.
He’ll make a mistake, and he’ll join us for the sake of his father, or die. ”
“You’re taking risks, dear sister.” Queen Eckert sat on her throne, drumming her fingers on the massive chair where she sat. “And you’re not telling me everything. You know I trust you, but next time you have knowledge on an attack on the palace, do share.”
“I understand.” Leah knew when to placate her older sister. “I apologize.”
“Oh, don’t be playing that card,” her sister scolded. “I’m not angry. We’re just on the cusp of something great. The entire Outland united under one banner. When we accomplish that, we can push past the borders of our world and explore beyond.”
Leah nodded along with her sister’s words. From the very beginning they had planned on ruling the Outland, but for very different reasons. Her sister wanted to create unity; Leah just wanted to rule.
“How have the cities been taking to their new way of life?” Leah hid the haste in her voice.
She needed to get back to work. Commander Steel and Elizabeth were solid, but there was a certain wolf-human hybrid that needed to be attended to.
“Term, Burrow Den, Azra? Have you reached them with the mage locomotive yet?”
“Term and all of the other outlying cities have been linked to New Hope via our locomotive. We’ve been shipping vampire soldiers recently turned by Commander Steel to those locations to bolster our defenses.
The citizens in the cities will have to get used to a new form of government.
We’ll levy our taxes on them, and our soldiers will see that they pay. ”
The queen paused. Her eyes went from clear and unwavering to worried and doubtful in a moment.
“What is it?” Leah asked, sensing something was bothering her sister. “Burrow Den, Azra?”
“Burrow Den is of no consequence.” The queen snapped back to their current conversation. “They’re too small and secluded. The track to that small town has just been finished. No, it’s Azra that worries me.”
“Because she’s there?” Leah guessed. The goings-on at Term had been fully reported. It seemed all of their enemies outside of New Hope had decided to flee to Azra. “Leave her to me.”
“You have a plan?” Queen Eckert looked at her sister with a raised eyebrow. “The latest reports say that they’re all there. She, as well as Sloan, is more than likely hiding among them.”
“I am more than she can handle.” Leah straightened her back at the thought of the fight she always knew must come.
“I can sense her. She’s powerful, but no match for me.
She never was. As far as the ex-captain, let Commander Steel and his new breed of vampires accompany the construction of the mage engine to Azra. ”
“Your vampire soldiers couldn’t defeat Sloan before. What makes you think they have a chance now?”
Leah paused, choosing her words carefully. In truth, she was wondering herself if her latest breed of vampire soldiers would be effective. The last group was such a disappointment.
“Point taken, sister.” Leah bowed. In a swirl of her black cloak, she began heading from the throne room. “Perhaps Commander Steel is better suited to deal with the New Order here in New Hope. Marcus and his kind should accompany the mage engine to Azra.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Queen Eckert’s voice followed Leah as she let herself out of the room.
Leah’s footsteps moved as quickly as her thoughts. Her body maneuvered through the palace and down to the dungeon level where she performed her experiments, her mind replaying the plan in her head over and over again.
Marcus, for whatever reason, had been resurrected without his magical ability, yet with his memory. It had been foggy at first, but soon he was fighting to be free, demanding to see his son.
He had to be restrained. Leah was lucky he had no idea what he was yet. If he had transformed into the beast as Aareth had, he would have been much harder to maintain. But Leah had ordered him locked up and restrained. How long they would be able to contain him was another matter altogether.
Leah had laced his chains and his cell door with magic. If this was enough to contain the beast living inside Marcus, it was yet to be seen.
Leah walked down a long corridor in the underbelly of the palace. At the end of the hall was a thick metal door. Commander Steel sat on a wooden chair. His collar was unbuttoned, a goblet of blood in his right hand, a near-empty pitcher of the same crimson liquid in his left.
“There she is.” Commander Steel waved to Leah with the hand holding the goblet. Blood sloshed from the rim of his cup and fell to the stone floor. “I tried talking to our Lazarus in there, but he seems more of the silent, brooding type.”
“I think he may change his tune once he understands what’s at stake.
” Leah reached the steel door. There was a sliding metal viewer eye level with Leah.
She reached for the handle. The sound of metal scraping on metal filled the room.
“Go and get your people, commander. I’ll explain the situation to our guest.”
“I’m on it.” Commander Steel drained his goblet, then he stood and left the corridor the same way Leah had come.
Leah heard the Commander’s feet echo down the hall behind her.
She peered into the small cell where Marcus was imprisoned.
He was in the same seat she had left him.
His cell was made up of a single stool, and he was chained to the floor by both his ankles and wrists.
Thick steel chains made his arms hang down close to the floor.
As far as Marcus himself, he looked as healthy as ever. The pigmentation of his skin was brown and weathered from his life as a sorcerer in the Outland. His brown hair was streaked with grey and white, a testament to his age.
Leah knew he had heard her conversation with Commander Steel and still he didn’t look up. His head was pointed down, his shoulder-length hair veiling his expression.
Leah shut the door’s viewer. She disabled the spell holding the door shut and opened it.
Still, Marcus refused to look up.
“Marcus Walker,” Leah began again. They had already tried reasoning with him, to no avail. Leah was willing to give it one more try before blood was spilt. “You must understand?—”
“The last thing I remembered was the Burrow Den beast tearing me apart,” Marcus interrupted.
He finally looked up. Through a curtain of hair, brown eyes peered at her so intensely, Leah took a step back.
“I know I died. I know I should have stayed dead. Magic always has a price. I can only imagine what you had to do to raise me back to life. What I don’t understand is how you took away my magic. ”
Leah licked dry lips. Anger filled her for allowing herself to become so distraught from a simple look. She was used to being the one filling the other with dread, not the other way around. She was the leader, and she would show Marcus who he was talking to.
“You were bitten by the beast.” Leah took a step forward, meeting Marcus’ gaze with a look of ferocity of her own.
“When I brought you back, your magic was not resurrected with you. But you are something else now. You have an animal raging inside of you. We only ask that you share this gift so we can harness it. We’re not the villains in this story.
If you would just help us to understand… ”
Leah’s voice trailed off.
Marcus was laughing. “I don’t know who you think you’re talking to.
I can see your lies like I can see the hair in front of my face.
Save your stories for someone naive enough to believe them.
I’m not helping you, or that blood-gulping thing who was guarding me.
Whatever I am now is mine to deal with on my own.
I can guess why you want it. You’re looking for pawns you can use as weapons. Well, you can go somewhere else.”
Leah could hear three pairs of footsteps traveling back down the hall, and her anger was subdued by the events the next few minutes would herald.
“Not even for your son?” Leah grinned. “Surely, for Jack, you would do whatever we asked. All we need from you is a single bite. We’ve learned through Commander Steel’s experimentation that, a bite is the best way to transfer the power from a creature of your standing to a human.”
“You don’t have my son, or else you would have used him against me by now.
” Marcus craned his neck to look past Leah at the approaching sound.
When he confirmed it was not his son, he let out a long breath and shook his head.
“Whatever you think I am, you’re wrong. I’m not a creature, or an animal, or whatever you think I’ve been turned into since the Burrow Den beast bit me. Sorry to disappoint.”
“Oh, you haven’t disappointed me yet.” Leah stepped to the side so Commander Steel and two human soldiers wearing the queen’s uniform of black-and-grey could join her. “We’re just getting started.”