by L. Fergus
“What kind of disturbance? Why does he need me?”
“It’s over bread, Commander. The general said you would know how to deal with the locals.”
Kita grunted not missing the insult.
“The great daughter of the Shadow Master can’t handle the rabble?” Cowboy chided.
“They are not rabble,” Kita snarled. “I’m sure the cause of the trouble is a merchant or noble.” She looked at the lieutenant. “Tell General Forrester I’m on my way.”
The lieutenant saluted and left.
“Snowy, keep practicing what I showed you.”
“I can’t come with you?” Snowy’s whiskers drooped.
“Not this time. I don’t know what to expect and I want you where it’s safe.”
Snowy’s ears went flat and her whiskers drooped. Kita hated to do it, but it appeared the message had gotten through.
“Don’t worry, Kita. I’ll guide her,” said Zidin.
Kita tried to give Snowy a kiss. Snowy stuck up her nose. With a sigh, Kita opened her wings and took off for the city.
The city of Leedings had been the prize of Kita’s latest military endeavor. She tricked the garrison commander and the mayor with some well-timed pyrotechnics and smoke pots into believing she had a superweapon she wasn't afraid to use that could devastate the city allowing her to capture it without a fight. It was a prize worth having. The city provided her allies in the civil war a port and a major revenue source. Leedings was also home to one of her closest allies, the Shadow Master Glen, the leader of the Shadow Guild and her adoptive father.
Circling slowly, she watched the city below as it woke. Traffic on the main avenues was building. A large crowd on a side street caught her attention. That must be the disturbance. She rolled over, turned invisible, and glided down to take a closer look.
A mob of people were yelling and pushing against a line of constables with heavy batons. Their attention was on a bakery. Kita landed in an alley a few doors down. Keeping her wings invisible, she walked out of the alley into the crowd.
“What’s going on?” Kita yelled at a bystander.
“The constables have closed the bakery. They say there are thieves inside. I say, what thieves steal bread other than constables? I bet they closed it down so they could clean it out for themselves. They did it three days ago at the butcher's shop four blocks over. If there are thieves inside, I bet they’re just trying to get what’s theirs.”
Kita thanked the woman, picked up a stone, and gave it to her. The woman promptly threw it and struck a constable in the helmet. The woman’s got good aim.
Kita pushed her way to the front looking for who was in charge. She sidestepped a constable’s baton and stepped into the constables’ perimeter. She decided the man with the feather in his helmet was the man she was looking for.
“Are you in charge?” Kita asked the man.
“Who the blazes are you and how did a blind person get past my line?”
“I’m Legion Commander Logine, Supreme Commander of the Yorq Liberation Army,” said Kita, ignoring his remark on the black bandana over her eyes. It wasn’t like she couldn’t see. She had photoreceptors in her skin and a computer in her head to create a panoramic view for her. She kept the bandana on for everyone else. Most people didn’t like looking at her empty eye sockets. She’d lost them dueling a fire shaper and they’d never generated.
“Yeah, and I’m the King of Yorq,” the constable retorted. “I’ve heard what he looks like. He’s a big giant of a man with wings.”
“It always changes to he. Like a girl can’t be special.” Kita made her wings visible and stretched them to their full wingspan. “Now, who are you?”
The constable saluted hesitantly. “I’m Constable Sergeant Ingram. We’re securing the area and waiting for reinforcements so we can storm the building.”
“Why are you storming the building?”
“To root out some swine that barricaded themselves inside. My men just happened to be coming up to the store when they heard the shouting inside. The swine slammed the door in their faces and locked the place up tight. Now I’m waiting for the brute squad.”
Kita accepted his explanation as plausible. The windows were full of empty display shelves obscuring the view inside. She went to the door at the front of the store. It was sealed shut and no one responded when she knocked.
Pressing her ear to the door, Kita listened using her nanites, miniature machines in her ears allowed her to pick up very faint sounds in a much broader frequency. She could hear the breathing of five adults, three males and two females from the difference in pitch and cadence of breath. She frowned. She could hear the muffled whimpering of a pair of children and the fussing of a baby. Kita returned to the sergeant and reported what she heard.
“So what?” Ingram snarled. “It just means they’re teaching them young. Better to get them now while it’s easy. We'll let them rot the rest of their miserable lives away. Ah, here come the brutes now.”
The brute squad was indeed a brute force. The twelve-man squad consisted of men a foot taller than, and twice as wide, as Kita. They carried an array of large shields and odd weapons. Kita could only guess at their use. One man had a battering ram strapped to his back. A second carried a bandoleer of different bombs and grenades.
Ingram filled them in on the situation. The assault team lined up next to the door. The brute with the bandoleer pulled a pair of grenades and started to ignite the fuses.
“What’s he doing?” Kita asked Ingram.
“They’re going to use some kind of bang and flash bomb to disable the swine inside. They make a nice noise and mess.” Ingram grinned.
“You can’t use those with kids inside!”
“What difference does it make? We kill them now or they die later in the slums.”
“Wait!” Kita yelled, trying to get the attention of the brute with the grenades. He ignored her and tossed the grenades toward the windows. Kita’s augmentations let her move faster than the bombs. She blocked both grenades with an outstretched wing. She landed a few feet from the unexploded grenades. She rolled on top of them and plugged her ears.
It felt like two red-hot fists hit her in the chest and gut. She rolled over to inspect the damage. Burnt flesh and imbedded shell fragments covered the unprotected areas of her chest. Her stomach was a bloody mess. Which will heal faster, my armor or my guts? A set of legs came and stood next to her. Ingram stared down at her.
“Foolish girl, see what your soft-heartedness has gotten you? Don’t worry, your friends inside will be joining you soon enough.” Ingram laughed and turned his attention back to the assault. “This time, use four. I want to make a big mess in honor of the dying Commander.”
“Ingram.” When he turned, Kita kicked out with both feet connecting with his jaw and nose. She flipped to her feet and met the bandoleer brute’s eyes. “You throw those and I will shove them down your throat. The rest of you get away from there. I’m taking charge of this scene since Sergeant Ingram has been taken ill with a bad case of brain damage.”
The brute squad backed away from the building.
Kita sank to one knee in pain. “Legionnaires and guildsmen, I need you.”
Sixteen people appeared out of the shadows. As much as Kita hated to admit it, she never traveled alone. An eight-man detail from the Legion followed her everywhere. When in the city, a second group from the Shadow Guild also followed. They were good at keeping their distance and only came out when called or the situation warranted it. The groups surrounded her.
The leader of the Legion detail knelt next to Kita. A small hooded figure from the Shadow Guild joined the legionnaire.
“Are you all right, Commander?” said the legionnaire.
Kita's laugh betrayed her pain. “You’ve seen me walk away with far worse, Sergeant. I’ll be fine. If you have a rations bar on you that would be helpful. Something is wrong here. A family with children doesn’t barricade themselves in a bakery over br
ead. Once I eat, I’ll infiltrate the building and see what the real story is. Tina, I want the Shadow Guild to take point on securing the area. I know it goes against everything you’re taught, but I want you to be the face of security in this city. Call in the bruisers if you want to. I know how much we girls don’t like showing our pretty faces.” Kita smiled at the hooded Shadow Guildsmen.
Tina left to instruct the shadow guildsmen.
The sergeant handed Kita a rations bar.
“Round up the constables and keep them penned up over there,” Kita said around mouthfuls.
The sergeant saluted and gave orders to the other legionnaires. Kita finished her ration bar and looked over her armor. It had finished repairing itself. The blast wound on her chest was getting close to being healed. Her stomach was still a bloody mess, just not as big a mess. With a heavy sigh, she turned the cloth on her stomach from invisible to black to hide the damage. It wouldn’t do any good to make the folks inside lose their breakfast. I just hope my breasts heal by the time I get back. Otherwise, Snowy is going to be pissed at me.
Kita notified the sergeant that she was heading in.
Kita entered the bakery through an upstairs window. From the décor, she deduced the baker lived alone. Clothing, food, and trash littered the room. She picked her way through the mess to the rickety staircase.
The bakery was in the same condition as upstairs. Empty flour sacks, moldy pans, and insects were everywhere. Trying not to step in anything disgusting was tricky.
Past the bakery was the store. A simple table that normally held the day’s goods was now against the door. Empty breadbaskets littered the floor. Against the back wall, a pair of women huddled together with a small boy and girl. One woman cuddled an infant in her arms. Two men wearing laborers' clothes each wielded pans from the bakery and kept watch at the door. A third man, wearing a greasy apron, sat tied up and unconscious in the corner.
Kita tiptoed into the room to check on the baker. She didn’t make it very far when the baby started to wail. The mother tried to soothe the child, but it continued to cry.
“Here, this will help,” Kita said, turning her invisibility off. The baby went quiet as the adults became upset. One woman screamed and clutched the children closer. The two men turned and faced her; pans raised.
Kita, still crouching, turned to face them, opening her wings and hands to them. “Easy, easy. I’m here to help you. I’m with the Legion.”
One of the men lowered his pan a bit. “The Legion, but how did you know? It was only a threat.”
“Why don’t you tell me what happened?”
“We’re refugees. Our farm was burned during a battle and we’ve come to Leedings to find work. We’ve been waiting for the bakery to open since before dawn. The baker let us in and we picked out what we could afford. Before we could pay, a band of constables stormed in and grabbed the bakery's bread. After the constables left, the baker raised his prices tenfold. I threatened the baker we'd report him to the Legion. That’s when the baker ran to the back and returned with a strange crossbow-like weapon. He fired, but missed.” The man pointed to a burn mark in the doorframe. “We tackled him and knocked him unconscious. The constables were outside before we could get away.”
Kita nodded. It made more sense than the story of simple thieves. The only troubling part was the light pistol. “Where’s the weapon he had?”
One of the men pointed to it lying on the ground. They seemed too scared to touch it. Very smart of them. Kita engaged the safety and tucked it in her belt.
Next, she went to see the unconscious baker. He was older and rather round. She grabbed his upper right sleeve and tore it open. Sure enough, branded into his skin was the mark of the Legion. Now how did you get here? I’m sure you have an interesting tale to tell.
Kita stood up and turned to the refugees. “Ok, I’m going to get you out of here and turn you over to the local Shadow Master. He’ll take care of you.”
“The Shadow Guild? But they’re evil men who use people like us as slaves or worse,” one of the women protested, her eyes wide.
“Don’t worry. My Dad is harmless as long as you stay on his good side,” said Kita with a smile. “He takes care of people who are down on their luck. He’ll make sure you have a place to stay, plenty to eat, find you a job, and make sure you’re protected. It’ll all be on the level. The rules are simple: you never saw anything or say anything about the guild, and you mention anything out of the ordinary to your neighbor. Other than that, you can live your life as you see fit. Of course, you don’t have to. You can walk out of here free and clear and try and make it on your own.”
A little boy rustled in his mother's skirt. The fear of Kita displayed in his wide brown eyes easing as he sensed the adults relax. “He’s your dad?”
Kita knelt next to him. “Yes.”
‘Did he give you those?” The little girl pointed to Kita's wings.
Kita shook her head. “Those were a gift from a god.”
“You’re an angel,” the girl squealed. “Mommy, our guardian angel is here.”
“What happened to your eyes?” said the boy.
“I lost them to my own arrogance. I’m not a guardian angel, but a fallen angel. But like a guardian angel, I do help and protect the innocent.”
“Aren’t fallen angels evil?” said the girl.
“Honey, don’t upset her, please.” The girl’s mother pulled the children away.
“It’s ok,” said Kita. “We are, but we use our evil to fight other evil. We don’t use it to hurt people like you. We try and help people like you.”
“Why?” said the boy.
“To make up for the evil we do.”
“Come, children, enough questions,” said the mother pulling them away from Kita.
Kita reached in her wing and plucked out two feathers. “Here, these are for you.” Kita handed each child a feather. “If you ever need help, take this feather to any shadow guildsmen or legionnaire. They’ll help you or bring you to me if they can.”
Both children clutched the feathers with wide eyes. Kita stood and turned to the adults.
“Yes or no? I’m going to unbar that door and take you out. Where you go is up to you. Either way, the constables won’t bother you.”
The men looked at each other and then to the women. They communicated with each other without saying a word.
“We’ll go to your Shadow Guild. You promise they won’t harm us?” He did a poor job of keeping the fear from his voice.
“I promise. If I thought my Dad was a bad man, I wouldn’t take you to him.”
Kita removed the table from the door. She opened it and stepped out. A pair of legionnaires greeted her. Kita waved the family out. She shepherded them to a quiet spot and called for the sergeant and Tina.
“Tina, these people are to go to Dad. Tell him they need to be set up for life. They’re refugees from the fighting and now from the constables. As payment, he now owns another bakery, but it needs to be cleaned. The back is disgusting.”
Tina nodded and whistled. Two bruisers trotted over. In a hushed voice, she gave them instructions. The big men’s demeanor changed as if by a switch. With big smiles and warm voices, they invited the family to follow them.
“Tina, one last thing. Those feathers the children have are my personal markers. Tell Dad if they present a feather to any member of the Shadow Guild, they’re to help them. I’ll pay him back later if need be.”
Tina nodded.
“Sergeant, we have an interesting mystery on our hands. Inside you will find one baker bound and gagged with the mark of the Legion on his arm.”
“A deserter, Commander? That’s rare.”
“What’s even rarer is he had this.” Kita showed him the light pistol.
“Blazing suns! How did he get that out of the tubes?”
The Legion made their home in the extinct lava tubes that crisscrossed under The Mass, and getting a weapon like the light pistol out of a Legion ar
mory would be a trick.
“I don’t know, but we need to figure it out. I want that bakery taken apart, brick-by-brick, if need be. Take the baker back to headquarters. Get more intel people down here if you need them.”
The sergeant saluted and went back to direct his people.
“Kita,” said Tina. She spoke in a whisper, but her voice was happy.
“Yeah?”
“We have people with bread chits and a bakery with no bread. I suggest we allow our bakeries to take the bread chits.”
“Sounds like a great idea. Jeffrey won’t like it, but that’s his problem. Even if he doesn’t pay Dad back for the chits, it’s goodwill for the guild. Let the people know.”
Tina disappeared into the crowd. Kita smiled. Tina was a smart girl, but that was expected. Brains ran in the family.