"No, I have not," Annani admitted. "In fact, I have a feeling that he is immune. But just in case I am wrong, I want to come in at full power." She turned to Toven. "I do not know which of us is more powerful. Perhaps you should try as well."
Toven shook his head. "I would love to go in there with Mia and do what needs to be done, but I can't allow my protective instincts to jeopardize the mission. You've been visiting him regularly, and he's accustomed to your presence. You've never tried anything, so he has no reason to expect a mental attack from you, and his shields will not be up. It won't be the same with me. He knows who I am, and he will be on his guard the moment I step through the door."
"Do you think he remembers you?" Mia asked.
"I am his father's brother. Of course, he remembers his uncle."
The wordunclesettled over everyone in the vehicle. It was easy to forget in the midst of strategic planning and power calculations that the man they were going to see was family. Twisted, corrupted, monstrous, but family nonetheless. Navuh was Mortdh's son, and Mortdh had been Toven's half-brother. The bloodlines that connected them were the same bloodlines that gave them their power.
Which brought Annani to the thought that had been circling in her mind all day.
Toven might actually have a better chance than she did. He and Mortdh had inherited their compulsion ability through Ekin's line, even though Ekin himself had not been a compeller.
Ekin had been Ahn's half-brother. Both Ekin and Ahn had been sired by the Eternal King himself, the most powerful compeller on the planet of the gods.
They all carried some of the Eternal King in their blood. Annani through her father Ahn, Toven through his father Ekin, and Navuh through his father Mortdh and his grandfather Ekin. The power had branched and diluted across generations, expressingitself differently in different descendants, or not expressing itself at all.
"What are you thinking?" Kian asked.
"About bloodlines and power structures." She offered him a smile. "We all carry some of the Eternal King in us, but not all of his descendants are compellers. None of my children has the ability. Navuh, on the other hand, inherited a very potent compulsion ability through Mortdh. The fact that Navuh was immune to Mortdh's compulsion, however, probably means that he is immune to mine and Toven's as well. But we will not know until we put it to the test."
Kian nodded. "We know it's a long shot, but it's worth trying."
"We will at least know for sure if compelling information out of him is an option."
Reaching into his pocket, Kian produced two small cases of compulsion-filtering earpieces.
He handed one pair to Mia and the other to Toven. "Do you need me to remind you how these work?"
"I still remember." Mia opened the case.
Inside were the pale, flesh-colored earbuds that were nearly invisible once inserted.
"I am not going to be in the room with Navuh," Toven said. "I don't need them."
"Yes, you do." Kian's tone left no room for negotiation. "It's standard protocol that everyone in the clinic wears them as long as Navuh is there. He probably can't compel you even without the earpieces, but I'm not taking any chances. "
Toven was a seven-thousand-year-old god who was probably capable of resisting compulsion without technological assistance, but something in Kian's expression must have convinced him that this was not a battle worth fighting.
Anandur guided the SUV down the spiraling ramp of the parking garage beneath the high-rise that housed the keep, descending past the levels reserved for the building's human residents until they reached the lowest level that was accessible only to clan members. The concrete walls were bare, the lighting utilitarian, and the space mostly empty. It looked like every other underground parking garage in the city, which was precisely the point.
Anandur led them to a door markedMaintenance, Authorized Personnel Only,and held it open. Beyond it was a short corridor and at the end of it an elevator that bore no floor numbers on its control panel, just a single button and a biometric scanner.
Kian pressed his thumb to the scanner, and the doors opened.
They descended.
Annani used the brief ride to prepare herself mentally. She closed her eyes, steadied her breathing, and turned her focus inward. The power was there, as it always was, a reservoir of something she could not define running beneath the surface of her consciousness and responsive to her will. She could direct it, channel it, or dam it. In her youth, she could not always control its force, but she had learned to harness it over the millennia. She knew how to store it, how to stoke it, and how to deploy it, but she had never really tested the limits of that power.
Tonight, she was going to use all the force she could summon.
10
SYSSI
Arezoo and Ruvon exchanged a look, which lasted about three seconds, and then Arezoo's face broke into the first genuine, unguarded smile Syssi had seen from her since the postponement of the wedding.
"We love it," Arezoo said. "Thank you, Amanda."
