Imperial (Insight #8)(37)

“So what are they, like, clones?” I supposed that was the right word I was searching for. This was all new to me. Before I left, every being was precious; it was almost like these men were designed to be soldiers, yet they were poor versions of them because it only took one swift blow to end them.

“That is a nicer word than what I was using,” Rasp said, glaring at the wall, waiting for me to give him an order.

“Which was?”

“Assholes.”

That made me smirk, in turn taking the edge off those protective emotions that were seizing my soul.

“What? I’m G-rated compared to your rush,” Rasp stated, only letting half a smile break through his warrior composure.

No doubt there. Vade was poetic around me, but not so much in his closed circle. I believe the term is ‘cusses like a sailor.’

“I can kill a thousand of these beings and no one would know?” I clarified.

I could not get over these men. They were like savage animals. If they did manage to get their grip on Silas or the two with him, they didn’t really fight; they just breathed in. They were starved beings, the walking dead of all creation.

“He is fighting that many now?” Rasp questioned, not wanting me to push the limits of my hidden return.

“No, maybe a hundred or so.”

“I can do that for you.”

“I know you can, but that is not the point.” I analyzed Silas as he fought. Silas was so graceful, without any clear emotion; only duty. Not surprisingly, he was pristine. No filth fell upon him; only a few marks were on his clothes. No sweat or blood. He had been truly risen, and his human form was more than amplified now, taking away physical pain, the need for sleep or food, along with almost every human need that could be thought of.

“This is what we are going to do,” I announced. “I’ll freeze the scene, stand inside a barricade of energy with him, alone, while Rasp cloaks us.”

“You should not be alone with him on your first meeting,” Rasp’s tone offered little room for compromise.

“Right. I’ll stand with you,” Mazing added.

“No,” I ordered. “He deserves to see me as one, as all the others before. I will not let him feel invaded.”

“Then what? Bring him home? What about the two Witnesses with him? Will they fight us?” Mazing said, clearly disagreeing with me. She wouldn’t feel that way if she could see him, sense him. Silas was mine. He would not attempt to hurt me.

“They should be wiped,” Rasp all but demanded.

Sovereigns and Firsts could not only stop time—as long as good intent was in place—but they could also wipe the memory of themselves from whomever they spoke to. Rasp didn’t trust Witnesses, but I had seen too many of them in the Veil. They brought no harm unless it was called for; it was their sacred oath. Usually, they were too focused on those in their care even to notice you. Eventually, I would have to take the memory of Silas from those with him, but in this spring I could see how he was leading them, how in some way he was teaching them. I wouldn’t do that just yet.

“We will see where this conversation takes us. Like everyone else, he deserves time to mull over this revelation. Maybe even more time considering that I’m about to tell him that the enemy he fights is in his soul.”

“No, it is not,” Mazing said with a growl. “He fights evil and poor kings.”

Rasp nodded once to agree. “And we have no time. He has already made more than one advance against our line and left the threat in the air that he will attack again.”

“I will take any motive he has to attack away the second he hears my reasoning why he cannot,” I blatantly stated.

“Silas is not like any other you or any sovereign has been called to. He was born rogue. Might as well be a wild animal,” Rasp warned.

“He is not either of those. He’s been abandoned, and now I will bring him home. Now he is found.”

“Tread carefully, sovereign. I will be but a breath away whilst you speak with him,” Rasp stated in that deep, powerful whisper of his. There was a reason why Vade trusted Rasp to watch over me: Rasp was downright deadly when the need arose. Creator help whoever crossed him or attempted to hurt the ones under his watch.

Rasp knew better than to kill Silas, that it would in turn be a blow to not only me, but in some way Vade, but that didn’t mean Rasp wouldn’t take Silas to the brink of death.

Which was exactly what would not win me any favors in this situation. Not happening. No, we were going to be nice and smooth with this. Get right to the truth in a sensible, adult manner.

My attention turned back to the image of my Fated Escort which was reflecting in the streams before me.

Silas’ eyes were like warm honey, the scent of my line and the color mine became when I was in bliss, yet he was nowhere near bliss. I could see wrath in them. I could see it ripple off his being. He was mine. No doubt there.

“Time to come home,” I whispered to him as I reached my palm for the spring. Majestically, it opened the essence of its power and pulled the three of us within it.

For a split second, I heard the roaring sound of war, but that ended. Now I was alone, staring at one of my Fated. Rasp and Mazing were feet away, but they were cloaked just outside of the energy sphere I’d placed around Silas and me and could not hear or observe this long overdue reunion.