The Iron Butterfly (Iron Butterfly 1)

“If you would have asked I would have agreed to it without you having to do it covertly. I’m telling the truth and I’m sorry if what happened to me and the others is an inconvenience to you!” I was starting to get worked up, losing the little control I had on my emotions.

“We know. You see, this is not the first time rumors of a rogue group have surfaced. We have not located them because they seem to be constantly on the move. They have hidden their identities from us and even though we have searched, we’ve only found this.” Lorna stepped forth with a piece of cloth.

Unraveling the cloth she showed me a design sewn into the scrap. It was the familiar design, the Septori’s design; two slashes in a circle. “This was found in the mouth of a dog belonging to a shepherd, it seemed one of them tried to steal his sheep.”

“That’s them. That’s the mark of the Septori, each one of them have that permanently branded somewhere on their body. If this isn’t the first you’ve heard of them, then why haven’t they been caught?” I was astounded and angry. Maybe if this Council had done their job, I could have been saved, Cammie would never have died.

“Because we don’t know where they are!” Pax Baton interrupted. “Granted, a few stolen items, wagons missing and a lot of speculation was not proof enough to start a war on a rogue group. The Queen ordered them watched, but no one could ever find them. It’s like they disappeared into thin air.” His large hands flew as he spoke enunciating each syllable.

“Or across the border,” Breah added.

“You could have prevented this! If you had looked into the missing items, lives could have been saved!” I yelled.

“Calm down, child,” Kambel spoke up. “We will find them. But we also have another concern.”

“What could that possibly be? What could be more important than catching them?” I asked indignantly.

“What they obviously were trying to do to you?” Kambel intoned.

“You see, what was done is against the law and this is very troublesome to us because what was attempted is the stuff of legends and myth. Theories that have never been fully documented or proven, only speculated. And most of the High Council have always been against this kind of experimentation.”

“But I don’t understand. What didn’t work? What happened to me?” I felt tears of frustration start to sting the back of my eyes as I held them in.

Kambel actually seemed to get excited and sprang from his chair, walking quickly around the room speaking as if to himself. “It’s just a guess, but it sounds as if Raven, the, uh, leader of the Septori, has gotten hold of one or more of the Horden journals that we believed were lost for all eternity.”

“The Horden Journals?” Pax asked.

“They are the mad rantings and experiments of a half-crazed human.” Kambel looked around at the confused expression on Pax's and Breah's face. Rolling his eyes at the ceiling, he quickly filled us in as he stroked his beard in thought. “A human known as Lord Horden had lost his only son in a terrible accident and went crazy with grief. He tried to force a young Denai to bring him back to life but the Denai couldn’t. Lord Horden infuriated began conducting secret experiments in trying to bring the dead to life. He documented everything until he ranted that he had found ways to become more powerful than the strongest Denai. Of course, his lab was investigated and they found the remains of his first attempts. Lord Horden was immediately imprisoned for his heinous crimes against humanity, but his notes on his experiments and findings were never discovered. Even after many trials, and bribes, he refused to tell anyone where they were hidden and he was eventually executed.” Kambel slowed down to catch his breath before intoning slowly, “There wasn't any proof that he succeeded, but there wasn't any proof he didn't.”

Silence filled the room, no one stirred or moved. My mouth dropped open as I sat frozen in my chair afraid to move lest I bring myself to their attention. I was happy when Kambel spoke again breaking the awkward silence.

“So they forbade any further testing and experiments. They burned down his lab in hopes of destroying his hidden journals.”

My mouth went dry and I swallowed nervously, as I watched closely the reactions of the Adepts.

“It sounds like someone found the Horden Journals and is trying to duplicate Lord Horden's experiments. I’m just not sure to what end though?” he continued.

“But that’s against the law!” Pax shouted, his heavy hand pounding the table with a closed fist. “To do any kind of experiments is inhumane, especially to a child.”

There it was again, the statement that I was a child.

“The people of Calandry wouldn’t stand for it,” Pax growled.

A nervous swallow escaped Kambel. “Yes, it is against the law here, but she was found in the river which borders Sinnendor and Calandry.” His mind was spinning with excitement. “What if she was over the border of Sinnendor?”

“But the people of Sinnedor hate Denai since the war. The country is anti-Denai,” Breah spoke, the worry in her voice making her sound younger than her years.

“Exactly, so it would be the perfect place to do these kinds of tests. Sinnendor might even be in league with them,” Kambel stated.

“But that would be implicating that King Tieren knows that this was going on,” Adept Lorna said, leaning into the table. “It could cause a war. No! We have to keep that idea to ourselves. We must look at all aspects and directions before we accuse a neighboring country. Especially when we have a strenuous treaty as it is. But at least we know that it was unsuccessful? Right, Thalia?”

It took me a moment to register that I was being addressed. “Believe me; I’m still the same person,” I answered with hesitancy. When really I wasn’t sure if that was true. I looked around the room at the worried faces of the Adepts and I suddenly felt tired and old.

“But why can’t I remember anything from before?” I asked dejectedly. I was getting answers but so far none of them were encouraging. Slumping down in the chair I started to pick at the table.

“I tried to look farther back into your memories when I was testing for the truth,” Lorna answered. “I really did, but there is nothing there. You have no emotional memories before your capture. They are gone.”

“But how can that be, Lorna?” Breah pondered aloud. “You’re the strongest when it comes to reading minds.”

“I can’t read what isn’t there. There is the space where they existed but nothing more. Like an attic that once was full of dusty boxes, and then when you remove them, the boxes are gone but the outline of the boxes is still there marked in the dust. It’s as if they’ve been erased,” Lorna mused.

“Erased! How can someone just erase away my memories, and why would they need to? We obviously weren’t going to make it out of there alive?” I was clenching my fingers in anger and felt my knuckles pop.

“Obviously it was to hide the identity of your abductors, which leads us to believe it may very well be someone you knew.”

This new information froze me to the bone, I never considered the possibility that it may have been someone I knew that helped kidnap me, but the longer I pondered it the more sense it made. I looked up to catch the last half of what Lorna was saying.