Chapter 8
When she found me out, I had no idea of what to say. The thought she might push me away from her was unbearable but already taken into account. She needed to know if she was going to fight them. I sat down quietly in the chair of her living room as she stood in front of me looking for the world as if she was going into battle, which in her case she was. I wouldn't be able to tell her everything and even if I was able to I wouldn't lie to her. She was my queen.
"Who are you?" she asked me bluntly taking the first step.
"I don't remember. My memories of my name are completely gone," I answered just as blunt. A frown cut her mouth downwards while I sat forward to stare at my hands.
"You don't remember? Everything you told me about your past was a lie?" she stared at me hurt playing across her features. A grimace stepped up to my mouth and I shook my head.
"I don't remember my name not the events I've been through although sometimes I wish I didn't," I sighed pushing a hand through my hair. "The only name I've always had is Castor. Anything other than that is a complete mystery. Aliases have come and gone but the one you call me now has always stuck.
"That doesn't explain the Poison Five," Kyle snorted taking a seat in one of the overly large armchairs.
"Or why you're the King of the Poison Five," Nil brought up perching on the edge of the couch to look from one of us to the other.
"Shelia's been showing us your dreams lately," the young boy answered the unspoken question by tapping his forehead. "She's not lying to you. I've had a couple of spirits following this guy around and all he's been doing is watching you. That's suspicious on its own."
"She's my queen!" I protested but the two boys shook their heads.
"Queen? Are you so certain? What about the Med Five? You thought we didn't know about that?" Nil raised an eyebrow but when I glanced at Mina she was thoroughly confused.
"Med Five? Castor, what's going on?" her bewilderment colored her voice as she frowned at me. I waved my hand to keep them quiet.
"Can I think a moment about where to start?" I silenced them.
"Where you left off," she suggested helpfully. Deciding it was a good place to start, I nodded.
"I kept running around on the streets after my abuser died. The boy who took me in was no better than a common street beggar and we both knew it. However I was able to use my powers to help make his life better. I knew when to snatch food and how to get away. I knew where the safest place to go would be out of the rain or snow. I was able to get clothes from a bakery woman after making her baked goods better. I helped him and he helped me by keeping me protected from the other kids. The ones who could hurt me but it was all gone within the briefest moment. I don't experience headaches like Cards do. All I feel is a stabbing pain in my gut but I didn't think anything of it until my friend touched me and died a moment later falling on the ground while spitting and seizing. I didn't know what to do. I ran as far away as I could from his body so no one would suspect me. I went so far as to go to the next town that was five days away.
"My life changed after that constantly living in fear I was going to be taken to prison for killing my friend. A man came up to me during one of my worse days and asked me, 'would you like to be rid of your fear?' I didn't know what to say so I said the one answer I could say, 'yes.' He took me away to a place I didn't know the location of. Children like me, poisonous to the human population were stowed away there. They made us touch each other to see who would react, who would die. Every time someone touched me they would fall to the ground and die. Finally, there were only five of us left. One by one, they sent in adults to see if they could kill us. When all of them died, they took us into a room, a small one with space only for about twenty people to cram in there. Ten of us faced each other, five adults and five children. We stared at each other so long none of us were able to say just how much time we spent. As the silence grew thicker, a girl I had never spoken to took a step forward and brushed her hand against her partner. Gasping the woman fell to the ground and screamed out words I've blocked from my memory. All I can remember is her face as it turned purple and shriveled up. I knew my victims didn't die that way. I didn't want anyone else to die such a horrible death. That's why I reached out and gently touched my partner and the three others that were still standing. The others just looked at me not understanding why I had taken mercy on their partners or even if I was able to do that. When the man I had met earlier glided into the room, we stopped breathing.
"'You have all passed but you,' he turned to look at me when he said it. 'You are the leader of this group. Poisons need control and you are merciful to your victims controlling the effects to only death. A king should be merciful to his subjects but cruel to his enemies. And that, Castor, is how you are." The name Castor rang into my soul and settled there. He looked at me as he said it. I know him now, only as the Gardener. If he wants something then you give it to him. He hates something then you destroy it. The Poison Five were made for his personal use. The Med Five are our counterparts. We destroy and they fix. If all of us ever used our powers together we would destroy the world we live in but create a new one at the same time at the cost of our lives. I'm the king only by chance. My tattoo was engraved on me with the blood of a Castor seed. I was sent here to find out more about the Cards if not everything. Nil knows our history. I show up every couple of hundred of years pretending to be some other Royal they haven't found yet. I always leave a copy of what I discovered about us and about the Cards. Nil, I'm guessing has read all of it. He knows how to destroy me just as I know how to fully destroy him. The Gardener can destroy all of us. We are nothing without him. He's our master. We do as we're told but then you came along...I don't know what to do," I finished awkwardly. They all glanced at each other. Mina hadn't moved from her spot but she wasn't looking at me either as I watched her for her reaction.
She was the key factor in everything. If she forced me to leave it was likely that the Gardener would have the Royals destroyed.
"Shelia was right," the words came out of her mouth in a whisper as she fell to the floor. I was by her side within a second holding her up carefully. She hadn't fainted but her eyes were glazed over as she thought about what I had just told her.
"Keep him," Nil advised getting up and brushing off his pants before turning out and walking out the door.
"I agree. It'll be best to keep him around in case the 'Gardener' gets a whiff of what's going on. I still have some questions about the Ten," Kyle agreed changing into his older form. Mina didn't seem to notice. She was still considering what to do. Carefully laying her on the couch, I turned to him with raised eyebrows.
"How powerful are they?" His blue eyes drilled into mine with the mild fury of one who'd been lied to. I couldn't blame him.
"Powerful enough to easily take over the Cards," I resigned to the interrogation.
"Why haven't they taken over?"
"The Gardener believes that it would be better to study them about their culture and development before anything happens."
"You've done this for years. Why hasn't he made his decision?"
"I don't know. I'm just a pawn," I shrugged but a firm hand pulled on my shirt tail. Turning around, I eased Mina up as she took in Kyle appearance. She didn't say anything so he continued.
"How can we kill you?" The question hung in the air stirring up a storm that no one wanted to answer. Mina tugged at my shirt again like a small child. She was lost in this one more than the others were. She couldn't handle everything along with this. She was if anything more of a plant than I would ever be. A delicate thing that with one misplaced step could send her to her spiraling down into a pit of confusion I couldn't get her out of. She once again proved me wrong.
"We'll leave that question for another day," she voiced standing up. "What I want to know is why you're grown up." Kyle's eyes widened as he remembered how old he was supposed to look and he turned sheepish.
"Ah...well...you see...I can change my appearance. I'm still the young boy you know but sometimes looking like a grown-up isn't a bad thing. It makes it easier for people to explain what they're talking about when an adult doesn't understand," he pulled out of his ass and I hid a grin.
"Uh huh," she rolled her eyes disgustedly but reached over to hug him. "Stay in whatever form you want to but it'll be a pain in the ass if you stay in this one. I know about fifteen girls out there who are waiting for you to get older. You don't want to go outside looking like that." Her cheerful nature was back smiling and laughing as before. Kyle took her orders to heart and changed back into his younger self before leaving us alone.
"You aren't a pawn," she said stiffly her back to me. Confused, I put a gloved hand on her shoulder to turn her around. Tears rolled in and out of the creases of her saddened face making her older than she was. Reaching out, I held her close astonished by her loyalty to me. I had lied and deceived her from day one but she accepted who I was as easily as a duck slides water off its back. Her hands laid on the tattoo she had given me so easily, so trustingly.
"My Queen, I will forever be a pawn to you," I grinned pulling her face up to mine. "There's one spot where I've never been poisonous."
"Where?" her curiosity mounting as her tears dried.
"Guess," I whispered my smile widening.
"I don't want to guess," she rebelled frowning at me.
"So you don't want to know?"
"I do!"
"Then guess!"
"But I already know," she smiled and reached up to pull my face down to hers. I would never understand how she knew but she did and that's all that matters to me.
Author's note: So they're back!!! YAYS!