* * *
Sydel listened to the whispers infused in the walls: the wonder, the paranoia, the anguish. This underground palace crackled with ghosts. And try as she might, she could not block out the old voices.
“Sydel.” Huma’s smooth voice floated through the space. “May I come in?”
The florescent light made her hair brilliant and white, but it also cast shadows across her face, deepening the lines around her eyes. When the door closed with a click, the woman’s hand trailed down its frame.
“I feel it too, you know,” Huma murmured. “All the energy of the NINE, still here, still vibrant. This place is incredible. If you only removed yourself from isolation, we could uncover so much.”
Sydel shifted into the corner of the cell, and turned her back to the woman.
The hem of Huma’s robe brushed across the floor, closer and closer. When finally settled next to Sydel, tiny pops echoed through the space: her creaking joints. The older woman sighed, long and low. At the edge of Sydel’s peripheral vision, she could see Huma rubbing her bony hands together, again and again.
Why is she nervous? Sydel wondered bitterly.
“I think it’s time you knew what’s to come, Sydel,” Huma finally said. She leaned into Sydel’s line of vision; Huma’s eyes were red at the edges, even as her emerald irises were bright. “Do you know when my abilities were activated?”
“I don’t care.” Sydel enunciated each word.
“I wasn’t born with the gift,” Huma said, ignoring Sydel’s dismissal. “Not like you. I was a mother, a wife, a seamstress, just an ordinary citizen. Then, one night, I heard voices. I thought I was going mad. I could hear screams and shouts, but I was alone, no one near for miles. After an hour, it ended. I set it aside, and chalked it up to fatigue or dreams.
“But the next day, the world was inside my head: the thoughts and emotions of those around me, my husband, my family,” Huma continued. “From that night on, I sought to develop my gifts to the peak of their abilities. I transformed that night, and I wanted more. And I went from fearing evolution to embracing it wholly.”
Sydel lifted her head from her knees, wary but listening, as Huma went on. “For twenty-five years, I have been mastering my skills as an Eko, and then, remarkably, as a Nadi: reading, researching, traveling, experimenting, and at the same time, always wondering if there might be others like me.”
“Some weeks ago, I received a meeting request from Keller Sava and his cousins: a command, more than anything else. He heard of my wandering efforts. I was terrified what they might want from me. But I was blessed, Sydel, for I learned of the existence of the circle of NINE, and their emergence exactly twenty-five years ago.”
Huma’s eyes grew wide. “Do you see? These people triggered my gift. They brought me to life. And they are the ones that I belong with, the only ones worthy to teach me.”
“Are they?” Sydel said flatly. “You seem to get along with these syndicate men. How does one relate to the other?”
“Oh, foolish men and their lust for revenge,” Huma scoffed under her breath. “They think they will right a great injustice? If the NINE are as powerful as rumored, it will be a mercifully short event.”
“But the Savas are very powerful people, Sydel,” she added, “with unlimited funds and access to the world. So by aligning with them, I gained their trust, their financial backing, and the means to finally conduct a proper search for others like us.”
The volume of Huma’s voice dropped even more. “Yes, it’s true that my students have been diverting the family’s attention with the notion of infusing Nadi into their weapons cache. But I’m sure you know as well as I do: the further the Nadi is from its original source, the less potent. Those weapons will be useless when they are taken on the road.”
Sydel didn’t know that, and she cursed Yann for leaving her so ignorant. “So you are sending those men and women upstairs to death.”
“Their chosen path in life is killing, Sydel,” Huma corrected. “Their own deaths, while unfortunate, are not unexpected. Why do you think the Savas recruited them? They won’t be missed if something goes wrong.”
Suddenly Huma clasped Sydel’s hand, her fingers hot and strong. “There isn’t much time,” the woman whispered. “Very soon, one of the Savas will demand that you send out a distress call to the NINE. They know you can send telepathic messages far and wide, and they will force you to claim that you are an ancestor… ”
“Ancestor!” Sydel gasped.
But Huma kept whispering. “…and prod the NINE out of hiding. If you concede to their threats, they will take the first NINE to arrive and torture her, draw out the location of the others before they slowly dissect her flesh and desecrate it. Then the mercenaries will hunt down the rest of the NINE. And Cohen will be forced into service on pain of death. But you can stop this, Sydel. Together, we can - ”
Cohen, Sydel thought suddenly. Cohen should be here, if only to keep me from falling under her spell. I am already so tempted to believe…
Sydel yanked her hand away. “You lie. You twist words. I refuse to believe you.”
“I understand,” Huma said. She bowed her head, opening her palms to the ceiling. “Search my mind, Sydel. Verify that every word is true. I’ve already summoned Cohen Byrne as witness.”
“I don’t do that sort of thing,” Sydel snapped.
“It’s quite simple. Use the edge of your thumbnail to create an opening, and - ”
“I know how to do it,” Sydel interrupted. “But it’s a crime against - ”
The door to the cell burst open, making both women jump. It was Cohen, outfitted in black body armor, his hair freshly shorn, imposing as he loomed in the threshold.
“Cohen,” Huma greeted him.
Cohen’s face darkened in response. He leaned over to catch Sydel’s eye. “Are you okay?”
“Huma has offered up her mind for me,” Sydel said, still indignant. “To verify she tells the truth. She says she is on the side of good.”
Cohen’s features changed to a guarded, but sly expression. Sydel knew what he was thinking.
Now is our chance.
Maybe he was right. It would be easy. Cohen was stronger than the two women combined. He could restrain Huma, and Sydel could incapacitate her.
Or even more than that. She could paralyze the woman. Kill her. Control her. Sydel didn’t know why she was so certain of her capacity to do such a thing. But she could do it.
It would be easy.