He cleared his throat. “Merrit's purpose had been to give me something symbolic of my authority.
Instead I had other rings made for the rest of the Ankh. I liked the idea of unity and kinship. Yes, we fought side by side with Neith, but they could never understand the exhaustion of immortality, the weight of forever on your shoulders. My brothers and sisters could. So I had the rings made as a promise to them. A promise of loyalty and friendship. A promise that they would never be alone in this endless life.”
More tears threatened to spill down Eden's cheeks at his words. How lucky the Ankh were to be blessed with a Princeps who was still capable of such feeling and compassion after all these centuries. How lucky she was.
“This is yours now.” Cyrus lifted her right hand from her lap and slid the ring onto her index finger. It fit perfectly. He gave her a small, sad smile. “It was your mother's.” Well that did it. Not able to fight it, tears spilled over her blinking lids as she felt the cool silver against her skin. That silver had pressed against her mother's skin. She ached in every part of her body, a deep and raw feeling, like someone had pummelled her with a meat hammer. She wished with every cell in her body that she'd had the chance to know her.
“What was she like? How did you meet?”
At first she was afraid Cyrus wasn't going to answer. Eden wouldn't have blamed him; she'd already seen how the memories of her mother hurt him. But perhaps he could also see the desperation in her eyes, the need to understand where she really came from. Placing the styrofoam cup of coffee down on the bench, Cyrus leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment. “It was 1346. I had met Merrit twice, once when she was fifteen when I met with her mother, a Scottish Ankh warrior only a few centuries older than Merrit. And again a few hundred years or so later when England invaded Scotland in the late 13th century. Battles enticed the soul eaters. They like war. It is easy for them to take the souls of dying men and women on the battlefield. That is why we have several Ankh in combat areas all over the world. Anyway, Merrit and I did not cross paths again until a few decades later when her mother was killed. In many ways Merrit was still so young. You see it with Noah. He is seventy but sometimes you forget he is not just a teenager. Merrit was very similar and she had never been alone so I had no intention of leaving her out in the cold. She came to me and I welcomed her into my home.” He snorted. “She was really very annoying and brash with her forthright bluntness and unladylike behaviour.”
Eden grinned, thoroughly tickled at the thought of her young mother getting on Cyrus' ancient nerves.
He sighed. “I had been sleep-walking for so long. The trials of eternity, Eden. You start to lose connection. You become desensitized to people and their motivations: love, power, jealousy, greed, hate, anger. It all begins to lose meaning. I did my job. I hunted those who preyed on humans, I ran The Circle, I oversaw the Neith. But there was no joy in my life. Until your mother. I was living in France at the time because of the conflict. The House of Valois fighting the House of Plantagenet for the French throne-”
“Wait, Valois?” Eden's eyes widened at the possible implication.
Cyrus smiled. “No, no relation,” he assured her. “Noah's father has no links to French royalty. The House of Valois was founded a few centuries after Alain's birth by Charles IV of France. We have no time for a history lesson and it is all quite complicated but it's suffice to say Charles Valois had a claim to the French throne as did the Plantagenets, the rulers of England who had roots in France and in the royal line. A very complex and very long war broke out. You may have heard of it… The Hundred Years War?”
Eden screwed up her face. “Yeah but I'm not going to lie, history has never been my strong suit.” He frowned. “I hope I am not boring you then.”
“No, God, no,” she rushed to assure him. “It's totally interesting when you're talking to someone who's actually been there.”
He seemed to consider that. “I suppose it might be. Now where was I?”
“You were in France when my mom came to you.”
“Yes. I was in France because I knew the conflict would attract soul eaters. Merrit's mother died so she got on a boat and found me. I welcomed her into my home and in return she aggravated the hell out of me and turned my world upside down.”
“How?” Eden snuggled back into the hard bench, that romantic side of her she'd thought she'd hidden so well (clearly not from Noah who knew about her addiction to paranormal romance books) desperate to hear her mother's love story.
“People rarely challenged me, because of who I was, how old I was. Even humans who did not know the significance of my position treated me deferentially. As it was they were wary of me because of my colouring, whispering ‘Saracen' behind my back. But even the knights dared not approach me. Even women of common origin gave me wide berth as did Ladies who were taught to be docile and obedient. They were raised with impeccable manners and were shy and unassuming for the most part.”
“Except for Joan of Arc,” Eden interrupted. “I kind of listened in class when we got around to the stuff about her.”
Cyrus smiled. “That does not surprise me. Joan of Arc was present later in The Hundred Years War. Your mother was fascinated by the tales of her and sought her out.”
“Wait, my mom met Joan of freakin' Arc?”
He nodded. “Yes. I believe Merrit admired her obvious intelligence and bravery but was somewhat unsettled by her fervour. She was even more intimidating than Merrit and that is saying something. Your mother could cow a person with one simple look.”
“I can't believe my mother met Joan of Arc. I did not wake up this morning expecting that little revelation.”
Cyrus smiled softly. “There are many stories. And I will tell you them. In time.” Still reeling, Eden took a moment to come back to Cyrus and when she did she frowned. “You didn't finish. You were saying women were different back then…?”
“Ah yes. I had not been around another female warrior in a long time. The Circle met rarely back then because travelling was not as easy. Valeria had left to live with Darius over a century before Merrit's arrival. I was used to strong-willed women but even Valeria was reluctant to question me.
Merrit questioned everything. She said I had lost myself and she was determined to find me.” His eyes grew soft. “And she did. We trained together, we hunted; she pulled me back into society for a while so I could remember what it was to be human. Her quick and honest tongue did land us in a few scuffles but I found myself inexplicably addicted to her company. It was a day or so after the Battle of Poitier, we had been hunting together for ten years, and we were hunting a soul eater who was preying on the dying soldiers. The soul eater found Merrit and I barely got to her in time to save her. I knew then.”
“Knew what?” Eden asked in a hushed voice.
“That I loved her. That I could not live without her.”
“What did she say?”
Cyrus burst out into laughter as he remembered. “She said… ‘Well it took you long enough, Cyrus of Persepolis.'”
Eden smiled. “She was already in love with you.”
“I was a fool to have not seen it.”
A sweet silence fell over them, and together they sat staring as the flow of traffic grew busier, and more people descended out onto the streets, hurrying to their work. Eden's eyes caught on a couple as they came out of their apartment and kissed before turning to walk off in opposite directions. Her eyes followed the woman, who turned a couple of times to look back at the guy. “I'm sorry,” she whispered without looking at Cyrus. “I'm sorry you lost her.” He was quiet a moment before he replied softly, “I am sorry you never got to know her.” Chapter Eleven
Standing Ground… Underground
“By now I would imagine you realise that the only way to kill a soul eater is by decapitation,” Cyrus said as they walked back toward the Douglas home.
Subconsciously, Eden guessed she had known that because of what she'd witnessed in her parents
– well - her father's home when the soul eaters had been decapitated. An image of Stellan's death flashed across her eyes before she could stop it and she winced, shuddering at the sick, morose feeling that stole over her. “Yeah, I got that part.”
“Good. Well, it is not as easy as it may sound-”
Eden grunted. “Uh what sounds easy about decapitation?”
“Oh. Right. I keep forgetting you are more seventeen year old American teen than ancient warrior.”
“Yeah well just give me a few days.” She grinned cockily trying to shake off the pall cast by Stellan's memory.
Cyrus didn't smile back. “This is serious, Eden. Your training here will be pivotal. I cannot send you out to hunt if I am not absolutely confident in your abilities.” She felt her defences rise. After all, hadn't she already fought off Neith by herself? She had done pretty OK in the past, and now that she didn't have the hunger messing with her she was able to concentrate fully on all the skills she would need to acquire to hunt down monsters.
“Fighting Neith is not the same as fighting soul eaters. Soul eaters are stronger than Neith; that is why Neith train twice as hard as we do.”
Perturbed by his intuition Eden glowered at him. “What, have you been taking lessons from Noah on mind reading or something?”
“No.” Cyrus smiled now. “But I am coming to understand you, and what I do not know, Noah has told me. He knows you very well, Eden.”
The thought of her ex-best friend sent her heart into palpitations. To forgive or not to forgive, that is the question. “You know it's really clear whose side you're on.”
“I am not a teenager, Eden, I do not take sides. I would just like to remind you that Noah was under orders and he disliked lying to you. He does care about you.”
“You think I should forgive him?”
“Enough to let him prepare you. He is excellent at what he does, Eden. He will make you an excellent hunting partner if you can allow yourself to trust him.”
“I trust you.”
“Then trust me when I say you can trust Noah.”
Cyrus came to a stop outside McLeish's home and Eden slowed to a halt beside him. She found herself staring at the ground in concentration, chewing on her lip as she thought over what Cyrus was suggesting. Noah had hurt her. In fact she was pretty sure Noah may have broken her heart. There was no way you could just shrug off that kind of hurt like it had never happened. But she also knew in that rational part of her brain she now owned that Noah hadn't meant to hurt her. He was just doing his job and, from what she had witnessed so far, the Ankh were kind of big on duty… even to the point of being arrogant elitists. Was it possible to come to some kind of halfway point concerning the first guy who had ever crushed her?
“OK.” Eden nodded, lifting her head to meet Cyrus' dark gaze. “I'm not quite ready to be friends with him but I will… I will trust him. I can do that.”
The Princeps face softened. “I am glad. Inside this training centre are some Neith aware of what you are. We need to be careful. We need to be together in this.”