The Serenader

Chapter 7

Atlas' POV
"Lady Juliette!" My father yelled across the table. "Do I detect a hint of treason on your tongue?"

The table was silent, including Juliette, a tall woman with grey-blonde hair and green eyes. Nobody knew what to say; we were all lost in the conversation or quiet out of caution.

"All I'm saying is," Lady Juliette Sommers started, her voice calmer than before. "We need to think this through. If Ionia has the power to cut my land in half, I have to wonder... What power do any of us have?"

Her words may have appealed to the other six regions, but I knew it was all untrue. My mother didn't split Lydia in two just on a whim. There were multiple factors that went into it, the most prominent being that Lydia could not operate alone. It needed Mixolydia, it needed the stability of a partner region. Evidently, Lady Juliette did not understand that. My father had been right - there were problems in his kingdom that needed resolving.

Across the table, Lord Clarke paled. He was a soft spoken man, but he could be assertive when needed. He was a good and trusted governor of Mixolydia, and I guessed this type of talk about how his region was created out of pure tyranny was not a comfortable subject.

"We needed Mixolydia," I heard myself say, that being the first thing I had added to the entire meeting. "All the issues with Lydia that caused us to split it in two, aren't they resolved now?"

"My son is right," my father said, but that steely edge to his voice told me I had spoken when I shouldn't have. I didn't see a problem with what I had said, but clearly I was here to observe, not to contribute. "We have no reason to revoke a successful solution," he continued.

Murmurs broke out around the table. Revoke Mixolydia? They seemed to say. Is that an option?

There were maybe twenty people in the room. There were the Lords and Ladies, of course, some trusted advisors, and a few people of my age - heirs, I guessed. I scoured the crowd, seeing a lot of general unease in the vicinity. The more I noticed about them, the more nervous I became, until my hands were trembling and I found it hard to swallow. Something wasn't right. In the back of my mind I felt a dull longing to be back on the seas again, living a life that actually made sense to me. Here at the castle, I wasn't sure about much of anything.

I looked over at Blythe, wondering if she felt how I did. Her breaths were shallow, her shoulders rising and falling rapidly. But unlike my shaking hands, which I hid in my lap, you would never know she was scared just by looking at her. I only could tell because I knew her so well. She felt just as I did, clearly, but she was hiding it.

This whole situation was extremely amiss. There was no doubt in my mind that it had something to do with Illusion; it was messing with my feelings and my head. But who was it? Was this an attack, or an accident? Could it be pinpointed? I couldn't quite think straight. It was like something had made me afraid but I had no idea what it was. This mystery... this uncertainty, it was the reason I left home in the first place. I was sick of spending my life putting the pieces together when Illusionists could already see the whole picture.

Next to me, Blythe stirred. We made eye contact, and by now her gaze was filled with that same type of fear that weighed me down. I wanted desperately to talk to her, to figure this out, but the exchange was still happening around the rest of the table. Without any warning, Blythe stood up in the middle of the meeting, whispered, "Pardon me," and rushed out of the room.

Suddenly, the conversation stopped. I exchanged a wild glance with my father and rushed after her. Leaving the meeting was exactly what I had wanted to do, but I knew it would have been unthinkable to actually go through with it, had Blythe not acted. The doors were only locked from the outside due to emergency circumstances, but it went unspoken that you only left when given permission.

"Wait!" I yelled, chasing after my sister. "Blythe!"

I glanced behind me. Nobody else from the meeting had followed us. The doors were still closed and I assumed the meeting was still going.

I don't know how, I don't know why, but when I caught up to Blythe, Cal was there. I allowed myself a moment of relief; that stress, that fear, was completely gone. Now it was replaced with anger and confusion.

"Somebody," I said breathlessly, "better explain what the hell is going on right now."

That seemed to draw them back in. Blythe picked a dust-bunny off of Cal's shoulder, and I could almost see the wheels turning in her head.

"It was you," she said with a laugh, but her laugh was hollow and cynical and fake in every way. "I left the meeting, infuriated our father, and for what? So you could spy on us from the tunnels? Maybe father kept you out for a reason, did you ever think of that?"

Cal recoiled from her words.

"Hold on," I cautioned, still feeling uninformed. "Something else was going on in there... I don't see how it could all have been Cal."

"It wasn't me," Cal protested, her voice small. "The fear... it wasn't me. That's why I went under there, to see what was going on. I fought it, okay? I pushed back, to try and stop whoever was doing it. Or at least, I tried." She looked at the ground.

"But... you're the only one who has that type of power," Blythe said to Cal, glancing at me.

"That's how I was able to feel it, to fight it," Cal answered. For the first time I noticed she looked exhausted - on the brink of collapsing, almost. There were dark circles under her eyes and she spoke laboriously, like she desperately needed to sleep.

"What do you mean?" I asked, suddenly a bit worried for her. "What kind of power? Illusion? But... no, you all have that."

Cal sighed. "I'd rather not talk about it."

I looked to Blythe, hoping she might have some answers, but she gently shook her head. A heavy silence followed, until Blythe's eyes lit up with an idea.

"Juliette," she said.

"What?" Cal and I asked in unison.

"It was right after she spoke that the fear set in," Blythe continued. "After she addressed everyone with that speech full of lies. I thought she was just angry, but maybe-"

"You're right," I interrupted. "She-"

It was Cal's turn to interrupt me. "She rules Lydia... there's Illusion there, right?"

"Yes," I said, thinking of Echo, my Second in Command.

"And Lydia's been unhappy since last time," Blythe said. "With Mixolydia."

It was as if everything was suddenly put into perspective.

"This is a serious accusation," I cautioned. "I mean, we don't even have any real proof. But if we're right..."

"We could all be in danger," Blythe answered.