Part 56 (1/2)
”They joined him in droves Soon his spies were everywhere You found the and able to do his bidding It was the perfect otten At which point he set about to do what he did
”Lenoir held the opinion any jurisdiction an organization ical poould denude the limits to which you could take it The Three should be abolished, and if no one else would do it, he would What started out as guerrilla warfare, eventually gained a following Erasmus of Ravensealthe soon-to-be Head of that Houseconvened a secret council, The Fraternity of Secrets, in which all influential witches and wizards willing and able, were suo over ould be done about the upstart, known simply as Lenoir No one had ever seen his face; if you did, you were dead He was like a bad ruthen, suddenly, released! He was on a crusade for his own glorification Ideas didn'tnized a way to justify the atrocities which were already begun but were soon to rage across the century! He was going to redefine Magic!
”War was couided Abstract,” said Manon ”But at the top they knew exactly what it was about: control Who would have it, and ould not
”Lenoir was going to wrest ical control from the Families And he did That was the purpose of the Last War”
”But how?” I said
”The answer is The Fifth of Fourth, a rogue faction of ic, which broke froan as The Fifth of Fourth, Halsey It was Lenoir's House Quite literally, a fifth, or portion, of the other Houses, creating a new, fourth House In point of fact, The Master House!
”After his defeat, we refitted it to a new purposefunny how o hand in hand Covens and the Covens, Lenoir and the Lenoir The Fifth of Fourth beca, The Master House, there in Prague ”As for the Watchersor Watchtowers,” said Manon, ”they were unparalleled in their skill and craftBronas the East; Rayven the West; and Marek, as a vampire, the South
”YesRayven was one of theut had clenched
”As for the North? It was Lenoir He offered the other Watchers power; only Rayven accepted It cost him his soul”
”The others were destroyed,” said Asher ”Rayven corruptedBronwen murderedand Marek forsaken We don't knohat happened to him”
”The line of the Watchers was ended It's interesting,” said Manon, ”when he bent Rayven, Lenoir took the mother lode of Rayven's power into himselfrather than share it with his ally Rayven is powerful but nothing of what he wasfor he had been a Watchtower”
”It took an act of betrayal to destroy them,” said Laurinaitis ”It's because of Rayven that shape shi+fters are now called turncoats Even the Grigori hate him, and revile his name”
I kept Marek toto someone else
If what she told me were true, Lenoir was the necromancer who had tried to kill me Lennox didn't know! No one did! Marek should have told me! He was one of my Four Protectorsmy protettori The Lenoir wanted him dead He was a murderer But from how it sounded, it didn't sound like Marek could die
”They guard uard the Chosen One”
Dear Diary, why had Mercaccio Lenoir wanted to destroy Rhea Silva? Was it so that he could take her power?
So was up I couldn't explain it, except to say I knew things, things I had to keep secret This Marek revelation threw me for a loop I thanked Manon, but uneasily Just as I carefully extricatedmyself, Did Lennox knoho Marek was? He couldn't possibly Marek gave no hint
It was like Marek was hiding from s and wouldn't say
That was exactly his gaame of riddles and lies! Yet why did I trust him so much? Lennox may have drunk blood cups but Marek did not He was a vaertips The she-witch is MINE
Why did Rayven want me so badly? And Marek? Why did he? Was it because I was her? Perhaps they were attracted to the Chosen One
She and the vaue
Find the other one and kill him
Do not let IT survive
The Dark Order shall rise again my old friend
Selwyn I needed to find hi Even if he doesn't think he does, I can draw it out of hi repressed memories?
It surfaced, like a question ned us Codex And if I had theirs, whose codex had Vittoria received? Was she being whispered to, even now, in a voice frolassfuls of Ti increasingly out of reach Where was Rayven now and as he doing? Had he returned to Prague, to his master?
I knew I should feel some kind of fear, when I heard the name Lenoir; but instead, there was only the desire to meet him, if I could
Unbidden, came the voice of the necromancer who had claimed the life of my parents A crazy idea had come into my head If necromancy existed, maybe I could learn it Would it be possible to speak with Kinsey and Maximilian Rookmaaker? Talk directly with Risky, instead of all this pussyfooting around? Necro with the dead But then another voice intruded: Don't you think if they could speak to you, they would, Halsey?
Yes, I thought I needed to speak with Ballard
So had happened to hi defeat, had cast his ic spell, to end my life
It had hit Ballard instead of rante!”
I traced my name in fire, there in the air The rook was the castle on the chessboard
Rook- more permanent than a scar had been done to Ballard, I didn't knohat I would do
I had seen hi an ar before a collection of soldiers, getting ready to go into co old wound like he had been cut
It eird Had I seen hiination had cooked up to pain e things?
The age-old question, really Was I to be the master of my own destiny? Or was Rayven? Or the symbols? Or Lenoir? Or Marek? Or any of the people who had an affect onwhat's to co able to prevent it, when it does
She and the vaifts I had Lenoir had thes before they happened How else did he knohat I was about to do?
I got the sense of sitting across a giant chessboard frorand master Lenoir had made his turn Now, it was e the future and I could not? That I would somehow just put up with it?
Lenoir , but the question noas, how to hone it? I fetched out iment, and then inked it out, irritated
I hadThe entire Grigori and everyone else could come after me I had Ballard and Selwyn, Lennox and Marek; I had ather to me all of the important people in my life: Lia and Gaven, St Martley's
If they would