The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 20

Elena had seldom felt such relief as she did when she comprehend Damons knock at Dr. Meggars door.What happened at the Meeting Place? she asked.I neer made it there. Damon explained ab turn out the ambush, while the others covertly stu happend Sage with varying degrees of approval, gratitude, or sheer lust. Elena recognize that shed had too much Black Magic when she felt ready to pass out at some(prenominal) points although she was sure that the wine had economic aided Damon to go a mob attack which might otherwise hold in veiled him.They, in turn, explained Lady Ulmas story as briefly as possible. The woman was have a bun in the ovening blanched and shaken by the end.I do hope, she said timidly to Damon, that when you inherit Old Drohznes property she paused to sw bothow that youll decide to keep me. I crawl in the slaves you brought with you argon beautiful and young just now I rear make myself actually useful as a needlewoman and such. Its just my hindquarters th ats lost its strength, non my mind.Damon was perfectly still for a mo workforcet. Then he walked over to Elena, who happened to be closest to him. He reached up, unclasped the last loop of rope that had been trailing from Elenas wrist, and threw it sonorous across the room. It whipped and wiggled like a snake. Any one and only(a) else wearing one can do the same thing, as far as Im c at oncerned, he said.Except the throwing, Meredith said quickly, comprehend the doctors eyebrow cl changeing as he looked at the m all breakable glass beakers stacked along the walls. that she and bonnie lost no eon in losing any final vestige of rope that was still trailing.Im afraid mine arepermanent, Lady Ulma said, pulling the fabric a bureau from her wrists to expose the welded-on branding iron bracelets. She looked ashamed at being unable to obey her new masters first command.Do you mind a moment of cold? I maintain abundant force to freeze them so theyll shatter, Damon said.There was a soft sound from Lady Ulma. Elena thought she had never heard such desperation in any one human noise. I could stand in snow to my neck for a year to hitch these awful things off, the Lady said.Damon adjust his playscripts on either side of one bracelet and Elena could feel the rush of Power that emanated from him. There was a sharp cracking sound. Damon moved his hands and came up with both separate pieces of metal.Then he did it again, on the other side.The look in Lady Ulmas eyes made Elena feel more diminished than proud. She had saved one woman from terrible degradation. But how some(prenominal) more remained? She would never know, or be able to save them all if she found out. Not with her Power in the state it was now.I moot Lady Ulma really ought to require some rest, Bonnie said, rubbing her own forehead under tumbled strawberry curls. And Elena, too. You should have chit-chatn how many stitches her leg took, Damon. But what do we do, go look for a hotel?Use my house , said Dr. Meggar, one eyebrow up and one down. Obviously, he had become snarl in this story, swept along by its sheer power and beauty and brutality. All I ask is that you dont destroy anything, and that if you see a frog, dont kiss it, and dont pop out it. There are plenty of blankets and chairs and couches.He wouldnt take a single link from the heavy gold chain Damon had brought to use as income in exchange.Iby rights I should help you all get ready for bed, Lady Ulma murmured faintly to Meredith.Youre the worst hurt of all you should get the best bed, Meredith replied tranquilly. And we will help you get into it.The most comfortable bedthat would be in my daughters old room. Dr. Meggar fumbled with a ring of keys. She married a porter how I hated to see her go. And this young lady, Miss Elena, can have the old bridal chamber.For an instant Elenas heart was torn by conflicting emotions. She was afraid yes, she was very sure it was precaution she felt that Damon might sweep her up in his arms and make for the bridal suite with her. And on the other handJust then Lakshmi looked up at her uncertainly. Do you want me to leave? she asked.Do you have anywhere to go? Elena asked in turn.The street, I guess. I usually sleep in a barrel.Stay here. Come with me a bridal bed sounds big enough for two people. Youre one of us, now.The look Lakshmi gave her was one of sheer thunderstruck gratitude. Not at being stimulaten a place to stay, Elena understood. For the statement, Youre one of us, now. Elena could feel that Lakshmi had never been one of any group forrader.Things were quiet until almost dawn the next day, as the citys inhabitants called it, although the light hadnt varied all night.This time a different sort of crowd had gathered outside the doctors complex. It was mostly made up of elderly men wearing threadbare but clean robes but there were a few old women, too. They were led by a silver-haired man who had a funny air of dignity.Damon, with Sage a s backup, went outside the doctors complex and spoke to them.Elena was dressed but still upstairs in the quiet bridal suite.Dear Diary,Oh, God, I need help Oh, Stefan I need you. I need you to forgive me. I need you to keep me sane. Too much time around Damon and Im alone emotional, ready to kill him or toor to I dont know. I dont know Were like flint and tinder together God Were like gasoline and a flamethrower Please hear me and help me and save mefrom myself. Every time he regular(a) says my nameElena.The voice behind Elena made her jump. She slammed the diary shut and saturnine around.Yes, Damon?How are you feeling?Oh, great. Fine. charge my leg is b I mean, Im fine all over. How are you feeling?Imwell enough, he said, and he smiled and it was a real smile, not a snarl twisted into something else at the last second, or an attempt to manipulate. It was just a smile, if a rather worried and sad one.Elena someways didnt notice the sadness until she remembered it later. She simply suddenly felt that she weighed nothing that if she lost grip on herself she could be miles high in advance anyone could stop her miles outdoor(a), whitethornbe compensate as far as this insane places moons.She managed a shaky smile of her own at him. Thats good.I came to talk to you, he said, butfirst In other moment, somehow, Elena was in his arms.Damon we cant keep on She tried to pull away gently. We really cant keep doing this, you know.But Damon didnt let go of her. There was something in the way he held her that half terrified her, and half made her want to cry with joy. She forced back the tears.Its all right, Damon said softly. Go ahead and cry. Weve got a role on our hands.Something in his voice frightened Elena. Not in the half-joyful way shed been fearful a minute ago, but entirely frightened.Its because hes afraid, she thought suddenly in applaudment. She had seen Damon angry, wistful, cold, mocking, seductive even subdued, ashamed but she had never se en him afraid of anything. She could hardly get her mind around the concept. Damonfrightenedfor her.Its because of what I did yesterday, isnt it? she asked. Are they going to kill me? She was surprised at how calmly she said it. She felt nothing except a vague distress and the desire to make Damon not afraid anymore.No He held her at arms length, staring. At least not without killing me and Sage and all the people in this house, too, if I know them. He stopped, seeming out of breath which was impossible, Elena reminded herself. Hes playing for time, she thought.But thats what they want to do, she said. She didnt know why she was so certain. Maybe she was picking up something telepathically.They havemade threats, Damon said slowly. Its not the nerve of Old Drohzne really I guess there are murders around here all the time and winner takes all. But apparently overnight news of what you did has been spreading. Slaves in nearby estates are refusing to obey their masters. This entire q uarter of the slums is in turmoil and theyre afraid of what will happen if other sectors hear about it. Something has to be done as soon as possible or the whole Dark Dimension may just explode like a bomb.Even as Damon spoke, Elena could hear the echoes of what hed been told by the assembly who had come to Dr. Meggars door. They had been afraid, too.Maybe this could be the start of something important, Elena thought, her mind soaring away from her own small problems. Even oddment wouldnt be too high a price to pay to free these wretched people from their demonic masters.But thats not what will happen Damon said, and Elena realized that she must be projecting her thoughts. There was genuine anguish in Damons voice. If we had planned things, if there were attracters who could stay here and oversee a variety if we could even discern leaders strong enough to do it then there might be a chance. Instead, all the slaves are being punished, everywhere that the word has spread. They re being tortured and killed on mere suspicion of sympathy with you. Their masters are making examples all over the city. And its only going to get worse.Elenas heart, which had been soaring on a dream of actually making a difference, came crashing down to the ground and she stared, horrified, into Damons black eyes. But weve got to stop that. Even if I have to die Damon pulled her back in close to him. You and Bonnie and Meredith. His voice sounded hoarse. Plenty of people saw the three of you together. Plenty of people now see all three of you as the troublemakers.Elenas heart went cold. Maybe the worst thing was that she could see from a slave economys point of view that if one incident of such audacity went unpunished and word of it spreadthe tale would grow in the say.We became famous overnight. Well be legends tomorrow, she murmured, watching, in her mind, a domino toppling into another which hit another until a long string had fallen down spelling the word Heroine.But she didnt want to be a heroine. She had just come here to get Stefan back. And while she could have faced giving her life to stop slaves from being tortured and killed, she would herself kill anyone who tried to lay a hand on Bonnie or Meredith.They feel the same way, Damon said. They heard what the congregation had to say. He held her arms hard as if learning to brace her. A young girl named capital of Montana was beaten and hung this morning because she had a similar name to yours. She was fifteen.Elenas legs gave out, as so often they had done in Damons armsbut never for this reason. He went with her. This was a conversation you had sitting on bare floorboards. It wasnt your fault, Elena You are what you are People love you for what you areElenas pulse was hammering frantically. It was all so badbut she had made it worse. By not thinking. By imagining that her life was the only one at stake. By acting before evaluating the consequences.But in the same slur she would do it again. O rwith shame, she thought, I would do something like it. If I knew that I would put everyone I loved in danger I would have begged Damon to heap with that slave-owner worm. Buy her for some outrageous priceif we had the money. If he would have listenedIf another stroke of the whip hadnt killed Lady Ulma Suddenly her brain went hard and cold.That is the past.This is the present.Deal with it.What can we do? She tried to pull free and shake Damon she was that frantic. There must be something we can do now They cant kill Bonnie and Meredith and Stefan will die if we dont find himDamon just held her more tightly. He was keeping his mind shielded from hers, Elena realized. This could either be good or bad. It might be that there was a solution he was reluctant to put to her. Or it could mean that the death of all three of the rebel slaves was the only thing the city leaders would accept.Damon. He was holding her much too tightly to get free, so Elena couldnt look him in the face. But she could visualize it, and she could also try to savoir-faire him squarely, mind to mind.Damon, if theres anything even any way we can save Bonnie and Meredith you have to tell me. You have to. I order you toNeither of them were in a mood to find that amusing or even to notice the slave giving orders to the master. But at last Elena heard Damons telepathic voice.They say that if I take you back to Young Drohzne now and you apologize, that you can be let off with just six strokes of this. From somewhere Damon produced a pliant cane made of some tired of(p) wood. Ash, probably, Elena thought, surprised at how calm she was. Its the one substance equally effective on everyone even on vampires even on Old Ones, which they undoubtedly have around here.But it has to be in public so that they can get the rumors started the other way. They think then that the turmoil will stop, if you the one who started the disobedience will admit your slave status.Damons thoughts were heavy, and so w as Elenas heart. How many of her principles would she be betraying if she did this? How many slaves would she be condemning to lives of servitude?Suddenly Damons mental voice was angry. We didnt come here to crystalise the Dark Dimension, he reminded her, in tones that made Elena wince away. Damon shook her slightly. We came to get Stefan, remember? Needless to say, well never have a chance to do that if we try to play Spartacus. If we start a war that we know we cant win. Even the Guardians cant win it.A light went on in Elenas mind.Of course, she said. Why didnt I think of it before?Think of what before? Damon said desperately.We dont fight the war now. I havent even mastered my basic Powers, much less my Wings Powers. And this way they wont even wonder about them.Elena?We come back, Elena explained to him excitedly. When I can control all my Powers. And we bring allies with us strong allies well find in the human homo. It may take years and years but someday we come back and finish what we started.Damon was staring at her as if shed gone mad, but that didnt matter. Elena could feel Power coursing through her. This was one promise, she thought, that she would keep if it killed her.Damon swallowed. Can we talk about about the present now? he asked.It was as if he had hit a bulls-eye.The present. Now.Yes. Yes, of course. Elena looked at the ash cane contemptuously. Of course, Ill do it, Damon. I dont want anyone else hurt because of me before Im ready to fight. Dr. Meggar is a good healer. If they allow me to come back to him.I honestly dont know, Damon said, holding her gaze. But I do know one thing. You wont feel a single blow, I promise you that, he said quickly and earnestly, his dark eyes very big. Ill take care of that itll all be channeled away. And you wont even see a trace of a mark by morning. But, he finished much more slowly, youll have to kneel to apologize to me, your owner, and to that filthy, scrofulous, abominable old Damons imprecation s carried him away for a moment so that he lapsed into Italian.To who?To the leader of the slums, and possibly to Old Drohznes brother, Young Drohzne, as well.Okay. Tell them Ill apologize to as many Drohznes as they want.Tell them quick, in case we lose our chance.Elena could see the look he gave her, but her mind was turned inward. Would she let Meredith or Bonnie do this? No. Would she allow it to happen to Caroline if by any office she could stop it? Again, no. No, no, no. Elenas feelings about brutality toward girls and women had always been exceedingly strong. Her feelings about the worldwide second-class citizenship of females had become unusually clear since her return from the afterlife. If she had been returned to the world for any purpose, she had decided, helping to free girls and women from the slavery that many of them could not even see, was part of it.But this wasnt just about a vicious slaveholder and anonymous oppressed women and men. It was about Lady Ulma, and keeping her and her baby safeand it was about Stefan. If she gave in, she would be just an impudent slave who caused a small ruckus in the road, but was firmly put back into her place by authorities.Otherwise, if their party was scrutinizedif someone realized that they were here to release Stefanif Elena was the one who caused the order to come come upon him into stricter security get rid of that silly kitsune-key thing.Her mind was ablaze with images of ways that Stefan could be punished, could be taken away, could be lost if this incident in the slums took on undue proportions.No. She would not abandon Stefan now to fight a war that could not be won. But she wouldnt forget, either.Ill come back for all of you, she promised. And then the story will have a different ending.She realized that Damon still hadnt left. He was watching her with eyes as keen as a falcons. They sent me to bring you, he said quietly. They never thought of a no for an answer. Elena could briefly feel the f ierce rage of his fury at them and she took his hand and squeezed it.Im coming back with you in the future, for the slaves, he said. You know that, dont you?Of course, said Elena, and her quick kiss became a longer kiss. She hadnt really absorbed what Damon had said about channeling away the pain. She felt she was due just one kiss for what she was about to endure, and then Damon stroked her hair and time meant nothing until Meredith knocked at the door.The bloody-red dawn had taken on a bizarre, almost dreamlike quality by the time Elena was led to an open-air structure where the slumlords in charge of this area were seated on piles of once fine, now threadbare cushions. They were passing back and forth bottles and jeweled leather flasks filled with Black Magic, the only wine vampires could really enjoy, smoking hookahs and occasionally spittle into the darker shadows. This was regardless of the huge audience of street people dizzily attracted by word of a beautiful young humans p ublic punishment.Elena had been rehearsed in her lines. She was marched, gagged, hands manacled, before the hawking and spitting authorities. Young Drohzne was sitting in somewhat uncomfortable glory on a golden couch, and Damon was standing between him and the authorities, looking tense. Elena had never been so tempted to improvise a part since her junior play, when she had thrown a flowerpot at Petruchio and brought down the house in the last scene of The Taming of the Shrew.But this was deadly serious trading. Stefans freedom, Bonnies and Merediths lives might depend upon it. Elena moved her tongue around inside her mouth, which was bone dry.And, oddly, she found Damons eyes, the man with the stick, uplifting her. He seemed to be telling her courage and indifference without using telepathy at all. Elena wondered if he himself had ever been in a similar situation.She was kicked by one of her escorts and remembered where she was. Shed been loaned an appropriate costume from the c ast away wardrobe of Dr. Meggars married daughter. It was pearl-colored indoors, which meant it was mauve in the everlasting crimson sunlight. Most important, worn without its silken undershirt, its back plunged to below Elenas waistline, leaving Elenas own back all bare. Now, in accordance with custom, she knelt in front of the elders, and bowed until her forehead rested on an ornate and very dirty carpet at the feet of the elders, but several steps lower. One of them spat on her.There was excited, appreciative chattering, and ribaldry, and thrown missiles, mostly in the form of garbage. Fruit was too precious here to think of wasting. Dried excrement, however, was not, and Elena found the first tears coming to her eyes as she realized what she was being pelted with.Courage and indifference, she told herself, not even daring to sneak a look up at Damon.Presently, when the crowd was felt to have had its due playtime, one of the hookah-smoking civic elders stood up. He read words El ena couldnt understand from a creased scroll. It seemed to go on forever. Elena, on her knees, with her forehead against the dusty carpet, felt as if she were smothering.At last the scroll was put away and Young Drohzne leaped up and described in a high, almost hysterical voice, and flamboyant language, the story of a slave who attacked her own master (Damon, Elena noted mentally) to tear herself free of his supervision, and then attacked the head of his family (Old Drohzne, Elena thought) and his unforesightful means of living, his cart, and his hopeless, impudent, slothful slave, and how all this had resulted in the death of his brother. To Elenas ears, at first, he seemed to be blaming Lady Ulma for the entire incident because she had fallen under her load.You all know the kind of slave I mean she wouldnt bother to wave away a fly walking across her eye, he shrieked, appealing to the crowd, which responded with fresh insults and a renewed pelting upon Elena, since Lady Ulma was nt there to punish.At last, Young Drohzne finished recounting how this bold-faced hussy (Elena) who, wearing trousers like a man, had caught up his brothers own neer-do-well slave (Ulma) and had carried away this valuable property bodily away (all by myself? Elena wondered ironically) and had taken her to the home of a highly suspicious healer (Dr. Meggar), who now refused to give her, the original slave, back.I knew when I heard this that I would never see my brother or his slave again, he cried, in the shrieking wail that he had somehow been able to maintain throughout the entire narrative.If the slave was so lazy, you should have been glad, a joker in the crowd called out.Nevertheless, said a very fill out man whose voice reminded Elena irresistibly of Alfred Hitchcocks the lugubrious delivery and the same pauses before important words, which served to make the mood more grim and entire business even more serious than anyone had heretofore thought. This was a man with power, El ena realized. The ribaldry, the pelting, even the hawking and spitting had fallen silent. The large man was undoubtedly the local alike of a godfather to these painfully poor residents of the slums. His word would be that which determined Elenas fate.And since then, he was saying slowly, crunching with every few words some irregularly shaped, golden-colored sweetmeat from a public treasury reserved for himself, the young vampire Damien has made reparation and most generously, too for all the property damage. Here there was a long pause as he stared at Young Drohzne. Therefore, his slave, Aliana, who started all this mischief will not be seized and put up for public auction, but will make her humble obeisance and surrender, here, and of her own will, receive the punishment she knows is her due.Elena found herself dazed. She didnt know whether it was from all the smoke that had floated down to her level before curling away, but the words put up for public auction had sent a shock through her that almost led her to black out. She had had no idea that that could happen and the pictures it brought to mind were passing unpleasant. She also noticed her new alias, and Damons. It was actually quite fortunate, she thought since it would be nice if Shinichi and Misao never heard about this little adventure.Bring the slave to us, the fat man concluded, and sat back down on a great pile of cushions.Elena was lifted off her feet and roughly marched upward until she could see the mans gilded sandals, and remarkably clean feet, as she kept her eyes down in the manner of an obedient slave.Have you heard these proceedings? The Godfather-type was still munching on his delicacies and a streamer of breeze brought a heavenly smell to Elenas nose, and suddenly all the saliva she could ask for flooded to her dry lips.Yes, sir, she said, not knowing what title to give him.You address me as Your Excellence. And do you have anything to add in your defense? the man asked, to Elena s astonishment. Her automatic response of Why ask me, since its all been fixed up advance(prenominal)? was stilled on her lips. This man was somehow more than any of the others she had met in the Dark Dimension in fact, in her entire life. He listened to people. He would listen to me if I told him all about Stefan, Elena thought suddenly. But then, she thought, regaining her normal level-headedness, what could he do about it? zilch, unless he could do some good and turn a profit out of it or gain some power, or take down an enemy.Still, he might make for an ally when she returned to level this place and freed the slaves.No, Your Excellence. Nothing to add, she said.And you are willing to prostrate yourself and beg my forgiveness and that of Master Drohzne?This was Elenas first scripted line. Yes, she said, and she managed to get through her prefabricated apology clearly and with just the hint of a gulp at the end. Up close she could see flecks of gold on the large mans face, i n his lap, in his beard.Very well. A penalty of ten ash rod strokes is laid upon this slave as an example to other mischief-makers. The punishment will be delivered by my nephew Clewd.