Fracture (Chronicles of Discord, #1)

Fracture - Chapter 10

“I asked him to come.”

It was Leda who spoke, her voice gentle but not repentant. Astra didn’t seem to have heard, she was motionless, her hand clenching the door jamb until her knuckles stood out white. Ben was distracted momentarily: a proper door jamb, not the slide of a port.

The silence stretched on. Astra remained horribly pale and Leda half defiant and half anxious, her hands clutching at a tea towel. Why was this so important, what was he missing?

“Dad, have you seen who Leda has brought home?” Astra's voice was hollow, strangely detached, her eyes still wide and unseeing.

Uri Va Dic Toban’s disembodied voice floated through the door behind her an inflection of distraction in its timber.

“A young man: he’s helping her with breakfast.”

Astra’s eyes closed.

“You didn’t even tell him?”

Leda twisted the towel between her hands, flexing her fingers slowly.

“I wanted it to be too late,” she returned softly.

“Too late?” Astra sagged against the door frame. “You’re right it is too late, much too late.” She fixed her eyes on Ben and he watched her stiffen her shoulders and raise her chin.

“The young man helping Leda to make breakfast is called Ben, he is Senator Burton’s son,” her voice was clear and firm.

Ben turned to Leda confused by the sudden silence that fell over the house, what was going on?

Strange, he’d thought when he arrived this morning that Leda would immediately answer all his questions. But she had been unwilling to say anything, telling him that when the story was told, it would not be her alone that related it. She had taken him out into the garden to collect eggs for breakfast. He’d been unwilling to go at first, remembering Astra’s description of a Calvin’s Wonder but Leda had told him they only kept old breeds ‘as pets’. Something in the way she had phrased it had made him feel he was missing an undertone to her words.

Noticing his skittish reluctance she had made him explain and then laughed straight to his face. Apparently a Calvin’s Wonder did not differ anatomically from any other chicken: Astra had been feeding his paranoia.

Ben’s thoughts were brought back to the present by the scrape of chairs being pushed back from the table. A moment later Penn and Petta entered the room. Ben thought he could detect a raw edge of fear along with the excitement in Penn’s eyes. Petta looked numb, white and horribly scared.

Uri Va Dic Toban’s entrance into the room was accompanied by an unnerving stillness. Ben felt as though he had trespassed on something sacred, of having sunk deep in wickedness and dragged these people down with him.

Uri Va Dic Toban was a large man, solid but not fat, with eyebrows tending toward bushy and, at this moment, a heavy frown darkening his brow.

“Leda?”

Leda shook at his voice, her eyes downcast, unwilling to meet those of her father.

“They had to know.”

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Uri Va Dic Toban made a gesture that conveyed complete fury.

Leda stood her ground but she was almost as white as Astra now.

“Someone needs to tell them, someone has to have the courage to go against him.”

“And you thought that person should be you?” asked her father.

“It had to be someone,” responded Leda dully.

“You know... You know what he will do,” Uri lifted one hand to his head. “You may have started this fire but you are not the only one who’ll burn.”

For the first time Ben saw her flinch, saw anguish enter her face.

“And so we do nothing. Is that better?” Leda's voice was hoarse, bitter. “We sacrifice her for us? How are we better than them if we use her like that?”

Leda turned and braced her hands on either side of the sink.

“I couldn’t do it anymore, it made me sick.”

Uri Va Dic Toban seemed to lose some of his anger at these words and moved forwards, placing a hand on his daughters shoulder and forcing her to face him.

“Leda?”

“Don’t you hate it?” she demanded, “don’t you hate how they treat her, what they force her to do?” She swallowed desperately a husky note entering her voice. “Don’t you hate being the reason why she has to endure it?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore.”

It was Astra who spoke, her low voice loud in the quiet room. She was embracing Petta, her arms wrapped around the girl’s shoulders, pressing her back against her, giving the young girl comfort.

“It’s too late,” her eyes met Ben’s, “you called Leda last night didn’t you?”

Ben shifted uncomfortably as everyone’s eyes turned upon him and nodded.

“Then he already knows.”

Silence greeted her words and Ben could feel the crawl of anticipation on his skin: just who was ‘he’?

“What will he do to us?” Petta’s voice was anxious.

Astra squeezed her a little tighter.

“I’m not sure.”

“Will he take you away from us?” Petta asked insistently.

Astra closed her eyes leaning her head back against the door jamb.

“What will we do?” it was Petta again.

Uri Va Dic Toban ran a hand over his face wearily.

“We finish what I started sixteen years ago,” he answered. “Leda, put the kettle on, we’re going to need a drink.”

Ben suddenly found himself inspected carefully. Uri shook his head.

“You’d better not be the lightweight you look.”

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Thank you so much for reading chapter 10! I really hope you liked it! For those of you would would like to see what happens next, 'Fracture' is available on both Smashwords and Amazon for as an ebook for .99c (.77p). The links are bellow:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fracture-The-Chronicles-Discord-ebook/dp/B00BO1AMN4/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_3_Y6SY

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/291899

I really hope you liked the story so far, 'Fracture' is the first book in a planned trilogy and I am hoping to finish the next book this year. Thank you once again for reading and suppording! xxx

D.D. Chant.