Chapter 47
I stood outside her door, which was only a short distance down the hallway from my new room. Put my hand on the steel made to look like wooden panels and tried to sense whether she was awake on the other side. I could see her heat signature and the slow beating of her heart; rhythms that told me she was sleeping although I wasn’t sure if the physiology of an Elassai was the same as an Oldlander. There were differences – the catlike irises, their greater height and strength and most notably, the pale lavender eyes that I saw every time I looked in a mirror. I was sure there must’ve been internal changes too and I knew that they were crosses. I was one of those so I knew both of our kind were viable.
Of course, I was now one-of-a-kind – what was called a blood drinker and like no other human alive. I wasn’t even sure if I qualified as alive anymore.
I sighed and it was a mere flutter of a breath as I walked away from her door. I didn't look back nor did I knock on it. I left her to her sleep and her dreams; I could only hope they were about me.
By the time I went back to my own room, it was nearly moonrise and I was wide-awake. I wasn’t surprised to see Laioli waiting for me. I didn’t tell him why I was awake but he asked if I wanted a sleeping aid and I told him no, that I wanted to remain alert in case we were attacked by my enemies.
“I can assure you, Sir Tobias,” he said firmly. “That no man may approach the city without express knowledge of it by the Computer Security System. If you wish to spend your sleeping hours awake, I can show you the inner workings of the system.”
So I spent the dark of the night learning things that only the ancients knew and both of us were amazed at the speed I soaked up the information that was worlds away from my own. I understood the mechanism of the force shield that surrounded Panaculeum and thought of a way to adapt it to the magic of the Elassai. I could now control the Border Wall, either strengthen it to make it impenetrable or lower it completely.
Next, he answered my questions on how I could raise an army and we set about doing just that so that when morning came and Arianell woke, I had been up all night. She said I looked like it, too. Over a breakfast of French pancakes, fresh fruit and cream for her, a bloody steak for me, we discussed our options. I knew I would not be able to hide in the city while the war raged on around us just as I knew Blackfin would not stop once he laid waste to Reyjdask. He would take her technology and advance on Elassai to bring the entire Newlands under his thumb. I knew he planned to murder his father and take over the throne. This puzzled me as he was the Emperor’s heir and the throne would come to him anyway. Was he so greedy for power that he could not wait to wrest the throne by murdering his father?
Arianell told me that Blackfin had joined forces with Connacher and waged a secret alliance against the Faet, Averon’s throne warriors. Picking away at the Lyr’s personal guards by poison and treachery and blaming it on me, driving a wedge between them and the Newlanders who had no sympathy or loyalty to people who they felt had turned their backs on the parent country of Ehrenberg.
“Good,” I said. “That will make them flock to my side – freedom from old and new, a land governed by one central state.”
“And what state would that be, Tobias?” She asked quietly. “You?”
I laughed as if she had said something extremely amusing. “Hell no, Arianell. I wouldn’t be President for anything.”
“President?”
“It’s called a democracy,” I explained. “Elected president by the people, a Congress and the Senate. Government for the people and by the people. Although from what I’ve read, it had its problems, too. But, it was the freest hierarchy men had ever invented.”
“Who will you elect?”
“Not me. I don’t want the job,” I repeated. “I’m sure we can find someone who will be perfect for it. Someone from the ice city, maybe.”
“Do you think Blackfin left anyone alive?”
“I’m sure he has. Too many of the people are scientists and even the wizard isn’t stupid enough to waste all that knowledge.”
“You’ll go back and rescue them, Toby?”
“After we build our army, Arian. I’m going to send you out to recruit all you can. I’ll head south and you go east.”
“Leave the city?” I nodded and explained the force shield to her, how she could use it and her magic to make her invulnerable. We left right after breakfast and after we had provisioned ourselves with all the technology that the city had to offer.