Chapter 711: Plans Of The Brotherhood
Mom broke the conclave for a half hour to have a pavilion erected for the Brotherhood. I held my seat, eyes locked on the gaping hole where Belaisle and his people would soon emerge and struggled to keep my cool over Eva Southway's betrayal.
She reached for me with her sorcery before I could decide whether Piers would still be interested in me if I murdered his mother.
We'd lost anyway, she sent. And I, for one, would prefer to have Liander Belaisle in reaching distance.
Except he's coming here with a plan, I shot back at her, hating she was right. And previous experience tells me whatever he has up his ugly designer sleeves will make your little attempt to corner him look like a sixty-year old pageant queen on crack.
She laughed softly in my head. I've had doubts about my son's interest in you, she sent. And now I understand what he sees, what I missed. She paused. I have absolute faith you will prevail, Sydlynn Hayle. The rest of us are simply at your service.
I glared at her even as she tipped her head to me and went back to speaking to Felix.
Hrumph.
Mom was just settling into her seat again when the black pit pulsed and Liander walked out, a small group of Brotherhood at his back. I recognized the bully from the lab immediately and, to my shock, another familiar face.
Rupe was with him. Once my friend, the Goth known as Blood, tied to Mia when she was Pain, Rupe had been manipulated by Ameline, and, thanks to Belaisle, uncovered his own sorcery.
And joined the wrong side.
The tall, well-dressed young man waved at me with a grin, and Mia's defection suddenly made all the more sense. Her Pain to his Blood. She'd always thought he was her other half. Was broken when his parents moved and they were parted.
I guess she never did get over him. And now, thanks to Belaisle's conniving, she had to think trading sides meant having Rupe back, too. Though he had to have promised her magic.
A double header Mia would have never been able to resist.
I flashed my teeth, leaning forward until Sass hissed at me, and waved back to the traitor who used to be my friend, hoping somehow, in her broken little mind, Mia would wake and see who she'd chosen to trust. Putting all of my fury for her into my glare at him.
Rupe had the good sense to break eye contact.
The hole closed, Belaisle's three Brotherhood members in keeping with the number permitted. He'd thought of everything, hadn't he? He gestured for his people to precede him as he smiled, the picture of benevolence. Too bad his soul was a gaping hole of nothing.
"If I may," he said, addressing Mom. "My absence yesterday denied me the opportunity to speak on the behalf of my people."
I could tell Mom wanted to squash him like a bug, but her grace was legendary. "Proceed," she said.
Liander stood in the middle of the vast empty pavilion center, as calm and comfortable as a master magician casting an illusion over an audience. "I could tell you about the last century of my people's development," he said, "but the Brotherhood instead prefers to look to the future and our plans for it."
This should be good. I felt Sassafras's body shake as he growled silently, hyper-focused on the sorcerer.
We all were, down to the last of us. Even me.
"Which is part of the reason I wished to join conclave," Belaisle went on. "The future. And our desire to change the way magic is perceived by normals."
Say what?
"Too long have those with power hidden behind shields and false lives, pretending to be who we are not." Holy. Crap. No way Tallah's visit was from the Steam Union, or any kind of coincidence. Now I knew Belaisle was behind it all along. "Even as normals destroy this plane with their greed and industry." Oh, and Coterie Industries wasn't involved? He was such a charlatan. "It is time all magic races work together to enforce our protections and guidance of this plane." He turned to Meira. "Of all planes."
While the other magic races simply scowled, I thought one or two of the gathered witches might dissolve into puddles of panic. A roar of terror raced around the circle of watchers, witches actually clutching each other in fright.
If Belaisle wanted to empty the place, he was doing a good job of it. Way to make friends, loser.
Mom's power took firm hold of the space and shut everyone down.
Just in time for my sister to make a wisecrack.
"Perhaps if you'd come to us before attacking the Enforcer stronghold," Meira said in her best deadpan politician's voice, "there would have been a chance to hold such a conversation."
As if. But the jab hit home.
I hope he bled from it.
"Not so," Belaisle said. "But I'm glad you brought it up, Your Highness."
The scrabbling need to escape the idea of exposing themselves had faded to a soft skim of anxiety so sharp the sides of the tent were in jeopardy. Still, the Asian Council Leader seemed poised as she rose to speak.
"What was your purpose?" Sumiko's face settled into cold composure, soft Japanese accent appearing over her perfect English. "Such an attack goes against the very laws we strive to uphold." While she'd agreed to allow him entry, it appeared she didn't trust him either.
At least not everyone lost their damned minds.
"You may not be aware," he said, "but the stronghold, as you call it, does not, and never did, belong to the North American Enforcer order."
Knew that. Now everyone did. Couldn't keep a lid on this, either, turned out. Liander had all the answers to the unspoken questions weighing on conclave tied up in a pretty bow he handed to the gathering in his silken voice.
"I doubt your Enforcers know who the real creators of the empty plane are," he said. Maji, jerktard. So there. "Nor did they desire to find out." He turned to Mom who shook her head.
"It has long been a question on our minds," she said.
"The empty plane is ours," he said. "Created by the Brotherhood almost four millennia ago. It is, in fact, our home. Was lost to us when the maji attacked during the time of the Egyptian Pharaohs."
Liar. At least, if Eva was to be believed. Could I believe her? Mom.
We have no way of knowing if Eva's information is right. She sounded a little desperate. It could be true, Syd.
Hell no.
"I'm hearing lots of air come out of your mouth." Yeah. Pot. Kettle. Wasn't shutting me up, though. "But I'm not seeing any proof, Belaisle."
He looked up at me with the most condescending tsk I've ever had the fury to be targeted with. Turned to Mom. "You need to teach your little maji patience, Council Leader."
Splutter. Choke.
Grrr.
"The North American council discovered it, quite by accident, I understand." Liander waited, eyebrows raised, for Mom to respond.
"Three hundred years ago," she said. "A mirror shard was uncovered in an abandoned coven house."
"Not a coven house," he said. "But a Brotherhood historic site."
Mom didn't comment. From the feeling around me, the way resistance faded at his words, she didn't have to.
We'd lost the popular vote. If not the stronghold itself forever.
"Your Enforcers repurposed our home," he said. "Something we only discovered recently." Okay, now I knew he was lying. Belaisle must have known about the Enforcer's occupation ages ago. Why else would he have tricked the order into taking the machine back to the lab? "When we found out our ancestral plane was occupied, we reacted with anger." Regret, so false and overdone, pulled at his face. I wanted to smack it away, tear him open, show the gathering what I saw.
Felt.
The emptiness in his heart matching the nothing of his sorcery.
"We managed to acquire the means to return, only to be confronted with an attack." The memory of Demetrius's experience surged inside me, reminding me how much of a sociopath Liander really was. "And, sadly, we answered with force." He shrugged. "The Enforcers refused to be evicted, leaving us no choice but to answer fire with fire."
Is that what he called it.
"You murdered innocent elders," Mom said, voice steady, calm as though discussing the weather. "And young trainees just learning the Enforcer craft. You call their presence an attack, Liander?"
Maybe it was the cynic in me that thought the stares and whispers from the gathered witches were a little too excited, too titillated by the reveal. Like this whole mess was here for their entertainment. Not something to be taken seriously.
I opened my power to show them what Demetrius showed me. We'd see then what they thought of today's program.
A pair of sharp nails dug into my arm in a tight pinch, shattering my furious intent. I turned, scowling, locking gazes with a pair of faded blue eyes.
Don't do anything stupid. Gram's mind was thin, distant, but there, with me. Won't get us anywhere. He's telling the truth about most of it. Varity squeezed in beside her and nodded. Enough truth the rest of it won't matter in the end. The bastard is a master of lies, but in this instance, he's right. The stronghold was never ours. And the loss... casualties of our little war.
What are you doing here? I wanted to hug Gram even as I stared at the pair in shock. How did you get in?
Gram snorted while Varity rolled her eyes at me.
Just try and keep us out, Varity sent.
We felt the stronghold fall. Gram's eyes narrowed, lips a slash of anger. Couldn't just sulk in my room and not try to do anything.
So what about the stronghold? I sent. There are other ways in. My excitement started to bubble. There has to be a way to take it back.
Gram shrugged her thin shoulders under the borrowed black robe she wore. Now that he has them convinced, she gestured at the gathering, an attack to take it back will be seen as an affront on another magic race.
I'd had my hands tied before. But this was ridiculous.
I have my doubts the Brotherhood were the creators of the plane, Gram sent, reaffirming Eva's thin information. I think it's more likely the maji were the masters of it at one point. Knew it. But I don't have proof.
Bummer.
There was one way to find out. "How do we know you created the plane?" I pushed against his power as he turned to me with a smile.
A knowing smile, the bastard.
"Perhaps you should ask your friends," he said. "The real maji."
Oh no, he did not. And yet, he might as well have punched me in the gut. Belaisle knew where I was heading with this.
And he already had an answer.
I called Iepa anyway, not expecting a response. Felt her sadness as she responded.
She never responded.
Unless it was to stab me in the damned back.
Why did I bother?
She appeared next to Belaisle, a wavering, soft form hovering over the ground. Her power radiated outward, touching the far walls of the pavilion, leaving absolutely no doubt who-and what-she was. Forget the gasps, this conclave had enough of them today already. I glared at my maji guide/slayer of hope as she bowed her head to me.
"The empty plane was once the home of the sorcerers," she said as her iridescent power floated around her. She didn't say they created it, though, did she? "All sorcerers." Her eyes drifted to Eva Southway. "Before the break."
So they were one big, happy family once, were they?
I almost pushed her about the real creators of the plane until I snagged on the loophole she'd made.
Did she just give me a way to access the stronghold through the Steam Union?
Iepa didn't stay, flashing out again even as the conclave broke into excited chatter. I locked gazes with Eva who only held mine a moment before looking away.
What was churning behind her gaze? And would it work to our advantage?
Anger burned a hole through me as I threw some parting words after Iepa.
So nice to see you, I sent with as much venom as I could muster. My day wouldn't be complete without you stabbing me in the back.
She didn't answer.
Exactly as I expected.
***
