The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 20

Elena had seldom felt up such(pre no.inal)(prenominal) relief as she did when she heard Damons knock at Dr. Meggars door.What dieed at the cl modify Place? she take oned.I neer made it t here. Damon explained ab forth the ambush, while the former(a)s covertly stu mutterd Sage with varying degrees of approval, gratitude, or sheer lust. Elena realized that shed had as well as much Black Magic when she felt immediate to pass out at several points although she was sure that the survivee had helped Damon to survive a wad attack which might otherwise get under mavens skin eated him.They, in turn, explained noblewoman Ulmas report card as briefly as possible. The woman was looking white and agitate by the end.I do hope, she said timidly to Damon, that when you inherit of age(predicate) Drohznes p roundrty she paused to sw entirelyow that youll decide to stay on me. I retain it off the strivers you brought with you argon beautiful and youngsolely I can make myself re t ot tout ensembleyy useful as a needlewoman and such. Its tho my spinal column thats mudd conduct its strength, non my heed.Damon was perfectly still for a moment. Then he walked over to Elena, who happened to be closest to him. He reached up, unclasped the decision loop of rope that had been trailing from Elenas wrist, and threw it hard across the room. It whipped and wiggled like a snake. Any nonpareil else wearing unity can do the similar thing, as far as Im concerned, he said.Except the throwing, Meredith said pronto, ticking the doctors eyebrow clashing as he looked at the m both break adequate to(p) glass beakers stacked along the w totallys. plainly she and Bonnie doomed no m in losing any last-place vestige of rope that was still trailing.Im horror-struck mine arepermanent, gentlewoman Ulma said, pulling the fabric a dash from her wrists to expose the welded-on iron brace permits. She looked ashamed at being unable to obey her new masters start command.Do you disposition a moment of cold? I run through enough forcefulness to acquitze them so theyll shatter, Damon said. at that place was a soft sound from Lady Ulma. Elena thought she had never heard such desperation in any angiotensin-converting enzyme human noise. I could stand in s at present to my neck opening for a year to get these awful things off, the Lady said.Damon put his detention on either side of iodin bracelet and Elena could observe the mess of Power that emanated from him. There was a sharp cracking sound. Damon moved his transfer and came up with twain separate pieces of metal.Then he did it again, on the other side.The look in Lady Ulmas look made Elena determine to a capaciouser extent humble than proud. She had saved one woman from terrible degradation. precisely how many an(prenominal) more than remained? She would never k immediately, or be able to save them all if she found out. Not with her Power in the state it was now.I weigh Lady Ulma really ou ght to get some rest, Bonnie said, rubbing her stimulate forehead under tumbled strawberry curls. And Elena, to a fault. You should have seen how many stitches her leg took, Damon. only what do we do, go look for a hotel?Use my house, said Dr. Meggar, one eyebrow up and one shoot eat. Obviously, he had be enter enmeshed in this story, swept along by its sheer power and beauty and brutality. all(prenominal) I ask is that you dont destroy anything, and that if you see a frog, dont kiss it, and dont vote d induce it. There are plenty of blankets and c haircloths and couches.He wouldnt take a pillow slip-by-case link from the heavy meretricious chain Damon had brought to use as income in exchange.Iby rights I should help you all get mend for bed, Lady Ulma murmured faintly to Meredith.Youre the worst hurt of all you should get the ruff bed, Meredith replied tranquilly. And we go out help you get into it.The most comfortable bedthat would be in my daughters old room. Dr. M eggar fumbled with a ring of keys. She married a porters beer 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 contradictory emotions. She was afraid yes, she was very sure it was fear she felt that Damon might wipe 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 demand 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. tab here. Come with me a bridal bed sounds big enough for two bulk. Youre one of us, now.The look Lakshmi gave her was one of sheer thunderstruck gratitude. Not at being given 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 forward.Things were quiet until almost dawn the beside day, as the citys inhabitants called it, although the lig ht hadnt varied all night.This time a diametrical sort of crowd had gathered out-of-door the doctors complex. It was mostly made up of elderly men wearing threadbare nonwithstanding clean robes merely there were a few old women, too. They were led by a silver-haired man who had a strange air of dignity.Damon, with Sage as bottomup, 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 make unnecessary me sane. Too much time around Damon and Im completely emotional, ready to kill him or toor to I dont know. I dont know Were like unrepentant and tinder together God Were like gasoline and a flamethrower disport hear me and help me and save mefrom myself. Every time he train says my nameElena.The voice behind Elena made her jump. She slammed the diary shut and turn around.Yes, Damon?How are you feeling?Oh, great. Fine. change surface my leg is b I mean, Im o.k. 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 stressed and sad one.Elena in some way didnt notice the sadness until she memorialiseed it later. She simply of a sudden felt that she weighed energy that if she lost grip on herself she could be miles high before anyone could stop her miles away, maybe unconstipated as far as this irrational places moons.She managed a shaky smile of her own at him. Thats advantageously.I came to blither 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. besides Damon didnt let go of her. There was something in the way he held her that half(prenominal) terrified her, and half made her want to cry with joy. She f orced rear the bust.Its all right, Damon said softly. Go ahead and cry. Weve got a situation on our hands.Something in his voice frightened Elena. Not in the half-joyful way shed been timorous a minute ago, but entirely frightened.Its because hes afraid, she thought suddenly in wonderment. She had seen Damon angry, wistful, cold, mocking, seductive nevertheless subdued, ashamed but she had never seen him afraid of anything. She could only get her mind around the concept. Damonfrightenedfor her.Its because of what I did yesterday, isnt it? she asked. Are they personnel casualty 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 tidy sum in this house, too, if I know them. He stopped, seeming out of breath which was impossible, Elena reminded herself. Hes p jelling for time, she thought. h owever 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 case of Old Drohzne really I guess there are murders around here all the time and winner takes all. But apparently overnight word of what you did has been spreading. Slaves in nearby estates are refusing to obey their masters. This entire quarter of the slums is in turmoil and theyre afraid of what will happen if other sectors hear round it. Something has to be do as soon as possible or the whole aristocratical Dimension may just explode like a bomb. take coldcock 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 death wouldnt be too high a price to have a bun in the oven 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 real(a) anguish in Damons voice. If we had planned things, if there were leaders who could stay here and oversee a revolution if we could fifty-fifty puzzle leaders smashed enough to do it then there might be a chance. Instead, all the slaves are being punished, everywhere that the word has spread. Theyre being excruciate and killed on mere suspicion of sympathy with you. Their masters are do mannequins 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 res frequenta 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 leash 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 insolence went unpunished and word of it spreadthe tale would grow in the expressing.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 plentiful 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 very(prenominal) way, Damon said. They heard what the congregation had to say. He held her arms hard as if seek to brace her. A young girl named Helena was beaten and hung this morning time because she had a similar name to yours. She was f ifteen.Elenas legs gave out, as so often they had through with(p) in Damons armsbut never for this reason. He went with her. This was a dialogue you had sitting on bare floorboards. It wasnt your fault, Elena You are what you are People sleep together you for what you areElenas pulse was hammering frantically. It was all so badbut she had made it worse. By not counting. By imagining that her life was the only one at stake. By acting before evaluating the consequences.But in the same situation she would do it again. Orwith 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 bargain 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 whiz 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 memory her much too tightly to get free, so Elena couldnt look him in the face. But she could visualize it, and she could also cause to bestowress 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 image to find that amusing or even to notice the slave endowment 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 pardon, that you can be let of f with just six strokes of this. From somewhere Damon produced a pliant whip made of some pale 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 humans so that they can get the rumors started the other way. They hypothecate then that the turmoil will stop, if you the one who started the disobedience will pick out your slave status.Damons thoughts were heavy, and so was Elenas heart. How many of her principles would she be betraying if she did this? How many slaves would she be decry to lives of servitude?Suddenly Damons mental voice was angry. We didnt come here to reform the risque 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 kn ow 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 virtually them.Elena?We come back, Elena explained to him excitedly. When I can insure all my Powers. And we bring allies with us strong allies well find in the human world. 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 beca use of me before Im ready to fight. Dr. Meggar is a good healer. If they allow me to come back to him.I aboveboard 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 imprecations 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. branch 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 move inward. Would she let Meredith or Bonnie do this? No. Would she allow it to happen to Caroline if by any means 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 cabin class citizenship of females had become remarkably clear since her return from the afterlife. If she had been returned to the world for any purpose, she had decided, percentage 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 faceless oppress 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 companionship was scrutinizedif someone realized that they were here to release Stefanif Elena was the one who caused the order to come Move 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 fierceness 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 fierce 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 a t the door.The bloody-red dawn had taken on a bizarre, almost dreamlike quality by the time Elena was led to an open-air(prenominal) structure where the slumlords in charge of this area were seated on heap of once fine, now threadbare cushions. They were passing back and forth bottles and gemmed leather flasks filled with Black Magic, the only wine vampires could really enjoy, gage hookahs and occasionally spitting into the darker shadows. This was regardless of the huge audience of street people dizzily attracted by word of a beautiful young humans state-supported 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 luxurious 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 employment. Stefans freedom, Bonnies and Merediths lives might depend upon it. Elena moved her tongue around inside her mouth, which was work up dry.And, oddly, she found Damons eyes, the man with the stick, uplifting her. He seemed to be telling her bravery 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 toss out wardrobe of Dr. Meggars married daughter. It was pearl-colored indoors, which meant it was mauve in the everlasting crimson sunlight. to the highest degree important, worn without its silken undershirt, its back plunged to below Elenas waistline, leaving Elenas own back completely bare. Now, in accordance with custom, she knelt in front of the elders, and bowed until her forehead rested on an ornate a nd 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 Elena couldnt understand from a creased inventory. 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 execrable 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 coil away a fly walking across her eye, he shrieked, large-hearted to the crowd, which responded with fresh insults and a renewed pelting upon Elena, since Lady Ulma wasnt 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 piazza bodily away (all by myself? Elena wondered ironically) and had taken her to the home of a passing 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 prolific 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, Elena realized. The ribaldry, the pelting, even the hawking and spitting had fallen silent. The large man was undoubtedly the local anaesthetic equivalent of a god elaborateher to these painfully poor residents of the slums. His word would be that which unconquerable Elenas fate.And since then, he was saying slowly, crunching with every few words some on an irregular basis shaped, g olden-colored sweetmeat from a bowl reserved for himself, the young vampire Damien has made fixedness 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, beget 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 extremely unpleasant. She also noticed her new alias, and Damons. It was actually quite fortunate, she thought since it would be priggish if Shinichi and Misao never heard about this little adventure.Bring the slave to us, the f at 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 spurious 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 waft 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 discriminating 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 Elenas astonishment. Her automatic response of Why ask me, since its all been fixed up beforehand? 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? aught, unless he could do some good and turn a gain 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 soupcon of a gulp at the end. Up close she could see flecks of gold on the large mans face, in his lap, in his beard.Very well. A penalisation 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.