The Silver Siren (Iron Butterfly 3)

I watched as Fenri started to breathe again. Odin ran forward and pulled him out of the circle of onlookers, out of range. Syrani stared at the empty spot that Fenri had just vacated, her eyes glassy and filled with tears. When she turned those blue eyes on my cousin, they became filled with hate.

“Siobhan, you don’t have to hurt anyone. Especially Fenri. We’re your family.” I held my hands up to her, showing her that I didn’t have a weapon. I watched my cousin for signs of change, but that thread of power controlling her was back, and thicker than before. Bearen came forward and started to kneel in front of his niece. “Stay back,” I warned my father. I tried to think of a way to immobilize her without hurting her.

Siobhan started to laugh, a loud cackling that chilled me to the bone. It continued to echo forth out of her frail body. My cousin was eerily close to breaking.

A large rock came out of nowhere and wacked Siobhan on the back of the head. She fell face first into the dirt, unconscious. At first I was worried that the rock had killed her, but I saw that it had crumpled into many tiny pieces upon impact. It was a soft blow, not a deathblow. Meant to incapacitate.

I looked over my shoulder accusingly at Syrani who stood next to me. She shrugged her shoulders. Syrani kneeled on the ground and began to run her hands back and forth along the cool earth, as if she were communicating with it. I could see a slight glow as she sent little pulses of power through the ground and waited.

Seconds later, she jumped up from the ground and looked to Bearen. “The girl was right. They’re coming.”

Chapter 29

“Who’s coming?” Bearen growled out. “Sinnendor’s Elite?”

Syrani shook her head and looked at me, her eyes filled with uncertainty. I didn’t wait for her to answer. I reached out like Syrani had but—where she used the earth to search—I went high. I pushed my senses out toward the thread of power connected to Siobhan and followed it back. It took a few minutes of scanning, searching, even traveling at impossible speeds and it was dizzying. The farther away I searched, the blurrier the vision became.

I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. There were many blurred and shadow beings. Horses, hundreds of horses, weapons, swords—and they were on the move. It was easy to doubt what I was seeing, and I could understand Syrani’s hesitancy in speaking out. It was a very large army and they were traveling in the night. I felt like I was zooming in and out of focus as I tried to find the anchor, the person controlling my cousin.

Using my sight to search was taxing and it left me vulnerable to my surroundings. I was barely aware of people making plans around me. I knew that Syrani was watching me intently, waiting for me to see what she had seen.

There! I saw a thread of purple like the one used to control Gloria at Skyfell. I followed it to a rider who sat silently off to the side of the army, focusing on a spot in the distance. He was probably doing his best to reach Siobhan’s consciousness, but since she was incapacitated, she couldn’t hear his commands.

The rider was clearly frustrated, pulling on the reigns of his horse, trying to keep him in check, as the horse wanted to follow the hundreds of others moving in a throng.

I was slightly confused by what I saw through my sparse sight. More threads of shadow moved around the camp. I blinked in surprise when I saw Narn scurry passed the man on the horse. So he had lied and safely made it back to his brethren. I realized what my moment of pity cost me. One more soldier in the Septori army. I should have executed him on the spot. But I couldn’t worry about him now. I needed to keep searching.

I continued to scan and, most of soldiers were humans, with quite a few bright beacons of light symbolizing Denai. I had just about decided to stop my search when another horseman came by and spoke to the power-focused Denai.

“So what? You lost track of one. We’ve hundreds more to see us through. Focus on them and we will soon see victory.”

The hooded rider shook his head. “I can’t believe that one got so far away before I realized it. She stopped just inside the border of Calandry. Perhaps I can keep her there. We can get her before we cross over. She’s so much like her cousin. Not someone we can afford to lose. Without her, I can’t make more of the serum for our Denai.”

“The Raven won’t be angry. Not when your results these last few weeks have been impeccable. Surely, there is room for a little error,” the other rider spoke.

“Impeccable? I failed time and time again. Raven wanted another like her, and I gave provided her—even sped up the process. But now I’ve lost her, even tethered like the others. There’s something about these Sirens that doesn’t like to be tamed. Blast! Why did it have to be that one to wander off?”

“It won’t matter. There won’t be any more Sirens soon. Come, we must catch up with the others. Either bring the girl back or release her.”

“If she is harming our mission, I need to cut her off, but I can’t reach her,” he said through clenched teeth. “I had her. I found her. She was among a large group of people, and I used her to attack them, but now? She’s too far, I just get muddied pictures.”

My heart began to thud loudly in my chest. My head pounded and spots marred my vision. The distance was too far, and the Denai and I were both struggling with the sight. If I found it this hard to see, he was finding it just as hard to control from this distance. But it gave me answers. They hadn’t meant for Siobhan to escape. It sounded like they were moving, preparing to attack. Their pawn had just wandered off.

“Cirrus, come. It’s time,” the other rider reached out and touched the man’s shoulder. Part of his hood slid down and I was greeted by the long bleach blond hair of Adept Cirrus. A soft wail escaped with the revelation. It was a deep, deep betrayal. But how deep exactly? Was the whole Adept Council involved?

Cirrus growled. “As soon as I can reach her again, I’ll destroy her.”

I backpedaled, pulling my conscious back to me as fast as I could. But not before I heard Cirrus reply. “Jay, remember not to use my name in public. It’s Albatross.”

I snapped back into my body and I was cold, freezing. I groaned inwardly and I felt my neck pop. My head still pounding, I felt like I had been hit numerous times. Something wet dripped from my nose. I reached up and pulled my hand away. Blood smeared across the back of my hand.

Syrani came over and handed me a small handkerchief. “You were scanning too long. Your conscious is not used the toll it takes on the mind and body. You were able to see longer than I could.” Her voice dropped off and her eyes flickered to the ground and back up to me. I knew she wondered what I saw.

“I saw enough,” I answered.

I used the small white cloth to wipe at my nose and I studied her expression. I could tell from the uncomfortable look on her face that she had recognized him as well. After all, Syrani was Adept Cirrus’s niece.

“I didn’t know, I’m still in shock. I’m still…I don’t know. But you have to trust me, I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay, we’ve both been betrayed by family.”

“What do we do?” Syrani whispered. Her posture dropped and she looked over to my father who was organizing the men, getting everyone on horses, and moving out.

He was furious. I could tell by the way he carried his shoulders. “What did you see exactly?” I asked.