ABSOLUTION

Chapter four

Chapter Four

VENOMOUS HEART

“As if it weren’t harsh enough for you to want to kill me, now you’re keeping me locked up right here where I can hear you all talk about me like I am not even present.”

“That is our intention, yes.” The chief’s deep baritone voice swells through the air from the other side of the dank room.

I have all my abilities, heightened sense of sight, sound and instinct, but it seems that the combination of the Cursed poison that infected me on planet Noxia when we escaped, as well as the enchanted metal pegged into the soft flesh of my heart has left me powerless. Stripped and deprived. For all intents and purposes, destitute and forlorn.

“Well, since you can’t feel pain, I thought it a fitting punishment you listen while we plot against your kind. To feel the justice of judgement.”

“My kind? You dare judge me? What you fail to see is that you are no better than my kind. You are just as greedy and dangerous as any of us. Your race fell, whereas the pathetic humans thrived.”

Instead of invoking a response, the room falls silent. The shuffle of tired feet on wooden floors resonates throughout the room. As he enters, he brings a line of onlookers who follow close behind. I see his hand go out to stop someone from helping him, just as his knees buckle from beneath him.

Minoans, always so proud.

As he raises his head, his turquoise eyes pierce mine.

“Tatos,” I gasp, hardly recognizing him. He doesn’t say much, just keeps his sorrow-filled stare on mine, and then bends over to bow.

“Your Highness.” When he stands again, he has a smile spread across his face.

“You did this to me, you set us up. You were waiting for our return. Was this the plan all along?”

“At your service.”

Even though he is grinning, he doesn’t exude smugness. He never liked me much from the beginning. I admire that about him, he saw through my tricks from the start.

“Why?”

He ignores me while stroking his dreadlocks, which reach down to his waist―like a warlock would his beard when in deep contemplation. They hang thick and golden on his robust chest. At the tips, he wears small feathers in an array of blues, and when he turns I study the blemishes on his usually perfect tanned skin. I can also see a rash forming from the chafing of his leather straps and bands strung up his forearms. As Tatos turns fully to exit, the glow from a wall lamp bathes him in light, and I can see huge red scabs where his sheath and belt buckle knot together. The marks on his back and across his shoulders are black disfigured circles, and the veins around them bleed out like dark, venomous roots.

“What happened to you?” I shout.

He seems to hesitate before taking the next step, and then exits through the doorway without replying.

The chief clears his throat before he speaks again. “That is what it means to be a Minoan―to be bred for victory. One is prepared to die for the cause.”

“What do you mean? What did that to him?”

“It’s the siren magic, from back when you all escaped Poseidon after the cyborgs destroyed Vista and its human inhabitants. Standing before your kind did this to him. And, may I add, he did it willingly, just to figure out a way to destroy you.”

From the corner of my eye, I can see Troy making his way through the crowd. He holds his arms close to his body, seeming so out of place amongst his father’s people.