Banebringer by Carol A. Park

Author:Carol A. Park [Park, Carol A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781732149106
Publisher: Shattered Soul Books
Published: 2018-05-01T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Strange Powers

Vaughn turned to Yaotel, speechless. “How did you…?”

“Know her?”

“We’ve…met.” He restrained a shudder, remembering the powers she had wielded during that encounter.

Yaotel nodded. “Drem told me he thought he recognized you.”

“Drem?”

“He was in Ri Talesin’s manor in disguise as a guard, trying to find her.”

Vaughn blinked. “I see.”

“Tell me about your encounter with her,” Yaotel said, without explaining further.

Vaughn grimaced. “She exhibited powers unlike any I’ve seen or heard of before. Extraordinary strength and endurance. Some sort of…life-sucking or at least face withering power. And…she could, uh…call bugs.”

Yaotel had remained impassive throughout his speech, until the last. “Call bugs?”

Vaughn nodded. “It was creepy.”

Yaotel rubbed his chin. “Interesting.”

Vaughn looked back at the woman, only to find her staring directly back at him.

Burning skies. Creepy is right. “She pulled a saferoom door off its hinges when I met her. I don’t think a few bars and a locked door are going to keep her contained.”

“This is one of our bloodbane observation rooms,” Yaotel said—which meant it was heavily reinforced. “We’re also keeping her dosed with a sedative. It seems to be preventing her from displaying too much aggressive behavior.” Yaotel moved away from the window and gestured for Vaughn to follow him farther down the hallway.

Vaughn cast a dubious look back, still not convinced about the strength of her prison.

“Now, as fascinating as all of this is, it doesn’t even touch on the real issue.”

“Which would be?”

“They tried to Sedate her, and it didn’t work.”

Vaughn stopped, shocked, and turned to face Yaotel. “What? How…?”

“How do we know, or how did it not work?”

Vaughn opened his mouth to respond, but Yaotel waved him off. “I’ll answer both. We know because Drem was tracking her prior to her capture. We heard some rumors of a Gifted with…strange powers…as you put it. She wasn’t a menace yet, but was causing quite a panic. Out of season locusts descending on fields. Mice overrunning a granary. Someone tried, foolishly, to put an arrow in her back, and it didn’t even faze her. Sources say she just pulled it out, looked at it, and tossed it aside.” He stopped in front of another door. “I sent Drem out to try and bring her in. Gifted like her don’t do our cause any good.”

“And your scientists were fascinated by the prospect of studying an unheard of profile.”

He shrugged. “That too. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones interested. She had at least three Hunters on her back, and one of them got to her before us.” He opened the door, and Vaughn went in ahead of him.

They stepped into one of the research rooms. Two of the researchers were huddled over a beaker of steaming aether—the only way they knew to keep it from solidifying, aside from trapping it in an airtight vessel, was to keep it at body temperature or higher. A device Vaughn had never seen before sat on the table next to the flame.

Vaughn recognized both of the researchers, but one in particular drew his attention as the researchers turned.

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