Vitrian Secrets by Dele Andersen (book club reads txt) 📕

Bathe raised his eyebrows sheepishly. He’d gotten Alexis' attention, and his plans to get Wanda out of the fortress were on track. “And what are you proposing?”

“I will mention your suggestion to a few elders and get Wanda to come over.”

Alexis was playing politics; Bathe knew Alexis was going to involve the elders close to him and not those who would object to his ideas.

“And how do you intend to get Wanda to this meeting?”

Alexis smiled. “I have my ways, old friend; leave that to me. I want you, on the other hand, to support whatever views Wanda has. You and Petter are the only ones she's close to here, so I don't want you suggesting or saying things to her that might make her not trust you.”

Bathe responded with a smile. He preferred Alexis' suggestion over what he’d had in mind before.

“But promise me, Bathe.” Alexis looked severe behind his disfigured face. “You will protect Wanda with everything you have. I will not forgive myself if anything happens to her. Losing Marcus was a painful occurrence to all of us. I want her back here safely.”

“Oh, don't worry about that,” Bathe said. “I am bringing her back, and with the Healing Méndez.”

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Chapter 8

The information Petter shared with Wanda distressed her. Deep pain drilled inside her increased her hatred for the rebels. She looked at Petter and noticed Petter’s expression change when he saw her eyes. She knew he could sense her pain.

“I think Ventress will heal Jason,” he said.  

“Ventress . . . that's the person my mum went to see?”

“Yes. She's the head of the medical unit,” Petter said. “A creepy woman, I must say, with the way she talks and moves.”

“So the rebels are trying to use Jason to get to me?” she said.

“Yes, they are, and they would . . .” He stopped walking and held her by the arm.

“What is it?” Wanda looked up at Petter. She felt like falling into his arms and weeping. She now understood what other students at school meant when they said they wanted to be in the arms of their boyfriends when they felt distressed or despair. She felt like weeping in someone's arms right now. Now that she was much older, she could understand what her mum must have suffered, having no one to cry to and no one to comfort her when her father died.

“The delay when the demon attacked you guys on the road allowed the poison to spread deep into Jason's body,” Petter said. “I think that’s why it's taking some time to heal him.”

“Then we have to get the Healing Méndez,” Wanda said. Her voice was firm and direct like she had her mind made. “I need to find the rebel and get—”

“No, no!” Petter shouted. “This isn't one of those bad girl stories, where you sneak out of the house against your mum's wishes to meet up with friends at a party.”

Wanda fell silent. But Petter still looked anxious.

“Jason will be fine; Ventress is very good at what she does. She has healed people with injuries and poisonous bites far worse than Jason's.”

Wanda looked away as thoughts of her little brother took over her mind. Anger boiled in her toward the rebel for what they did to Jason. She wondered why the rebels could be so cruel to poison a young teenage boy. She pondered on what must have happened when Alfred took Jason and how actually did the demon poison him? Abruptly, she felt Petter shake her arm, making her turn back to him.

“Yes, the Vitrian need to get the Healing Méndez back, but I don’t want you thinking it is your task.” Petter said. “With it, Ventress can heal Jason, just like she healed Alexis' face.”

Mentioning Alexis' face distracted Wanda from thoughts about Jason's situation. She had seen the huge deformity on Alexis' face when he came in, and it had disappeared by the time she left the hospital room.

“How did she heal the scar? I . . . I saw it.” Wanda was unsure about what she had seen or not seen.

“Yes, you did see it,” Petter said. “Ventress has a unique gift; she has the power to heal poisonous bites and unusual lacerations caused by demons.”

“So is he healed? Is that why it disappeared?”

“Yes, Alexis is healed,” Petter said. “Though the scar is still there. They don’t disappear. We all have scars from our battles with demons.”

Wanda stared at him as he spoke, still confused.

“Wait,” he said and pulled his sleeve up. She saw a thin line on his right arm. “I got this in a battle a few months ago.”

Wanda gaped at the extended cut and the stitches across it.

“With Ventress' unique gifts,” Petter said, “the demon scratches can’t be seen unless I want you to see them, even with your ability to see demons.”

“Alexis allowed me to see the scar.” Wanda put the puzzle together. “He wanted to verify that I can see things . . . demons.”

“Yes,” Petter smiled. “He told me he was going to do it when we spoke outside the hospital room before he stepped inside to meet with you.”

“How did Alexis get such a deep scar?” Wanda’s face puckered, remembering the bizarre look of the skin.

“A demon,” Petter said and started walking again. “A powerful and unusual demon, one no one had ever seen before. Even Alexis is silent about it. He said it’s better not to scare people or get them worried. He got the scar a long time ago, about . . .”

When Petter took a while to finish, Wanda prompted, “How long ago?”

“I can't remember, actually. Almost ten years ago now—I think.”

“That's a long time ago.”

“Yes. I don't think anyone has seen any unusual demons, nor had such a scar, since then. Bathe told the elders about the demon he saw—the one that attacked you guys yesterday; he said it was different also.”

“Do you think it was the same demon Alexis fought?” The image of the grayish-white creature came back to her memory.

“No,” Petter said casually, almost smiling. “Alexis explained how brutal the demon that gave him the scar was when he fought it. I don't think it was anything as simple as what Bathe said you guys encountered yesterday.”

“Simple . . .” Wanda wondered what was simple about the creature that roared so loud and tore off the roof of the Audi with ease. “Maybe Alexis killed the demon,” she said.

“I would think so, Alexis is a great fighter.” Petter turned to her. “Well, enough of all this,” he said, slipping his hand into hers. He took two steps farther up a hill. “Let me show you the entire fortress quickly before we get to your house.”

Wanda followed him and allowed him to help her up the side of the hill they were climbing. When Wanda turned around, she became awestricken at the view of the fortress. The fortress was in a valley by the side of a mountain. The view of the mountains, the valley, and the entire surroundings was priceless; it was one of those places one could only dream of or imagine in one’s mind.

There were so many houses at the fortress, possibly over a hundred. One after the other, the houses and roads showed that the entire fortress was a planned community like an estate she had heard existed in some other countries. It had an uneven fence that ran around it. Situated at the edge of the mountain were houses at a higher level than others, and the roads linking the streets were not perfectly straight.

“Where are we?” She didn't turn to Petter. She knew he was staring, perhaps smiling at how astonished she looked.

“Trollveggen,” he answered.

Wanda turned to look at the train and tourists some miles away.

“This fortress started as a camping site over two centuries ago. The few Vitrians in the city would come over here; some pulled their campers here in the summer, and together, they spent the summer here as Vitrians. Little by little, people started building proper houses until it became a massive community.”

“The tourists?” Wanda focused on the campers and tourists some distance away.

“They can't see the fortress,” he said.

“People don't know this place exists . . . the government?”

“No, the power around the fortress is supernatural. No one can see it except Vitrians.” He waited a few seconds to allow her to view the surroundings like she had just found a piece of new jewelry and had to admire it, over and over again.

“The major streets in the fortress that you need to know are the four big ones.” Petter pointed, using his finger to describe the crooked roads. “The main roads are designed to run from North to South and from East to West. Although you can see the main roads are not straight, they have a crossing at the center over there. The massive two-story building at the center is called 'the House'; it's the council of elders' hall, where the elders meet to discuss each issue.”

Wanda looked at him and turned back to the tall white building in the middle of the fortress. It looked beautiful with a modern-day clear glass design so anyone sitting inside and working could enjoy the lovely summer sun outside.

“Alexis has an office there?”

“Yes, he does, at the top level. People go there to discuss things with him. You can always go there if you need to talk to him.”

“It's going to take ages to understand and navigate the streets . . . and the houses, they all look alike,” Wanda said, staring at the maze-like design.

“Nah!” Petter shrugged. “All you need to remember are the four main streets, which intersect at the House.” He pointed to the streets again. “The one from the hospital is called the Healing road. The one to the east is the Praying Road, then the Golden Road, and the Vitrian Road. Those names, except the street called Vitrian, represent the three Méndezes that form the original Greek Méndez.”

As if he had completed a task, Petter suddenly jumped down and stretched his hand out again to help Wanda down. “Go to Alexis if you need anything,” he said with a distant smile that made his words feel insincere. He said them like he'd been told to.

She looked into his eyes. Where had this sudden care and assistance come from? They had been close, but he had never initiated interactions, even when they had to do group work together.

“No, thanks,” Wanda said, waving away his hand. She bent down and leapt, landing smoothly on her feet a few steps from Petter. “Where to next?”

“Your house,” he muttered and paused for a moment. “I don't mean to seem overprotective.”

It was like Petter could see Wanda's thoughts displayed in the air in front of him as he focused his attention straight ahead into the horizon.

“I want you to be okay.”

“I am okay, Petter,” she answered. “So stop acting like I am your responsibility . . . stop acting like my paid bodyguard and just take me home.”

“This way, then. We're going to cross Praying Road toward the houses by Vitrian Road.” Petter went quiet.

Wanda felt stupid. Petter was only trying to be a bit nicer than usual to