Red Jack

by Alex Linwood

  Deyelna allowed the silence to hang, heightening the anticipation. Portia looked around the crowd. She spied Merwin, whom she knew considered himself neutral. Even he avoided her eye contact, letting his dreads block his eyes from her. Portia checked for sympathetic faces and found none—those in the crowd who did not avoid eye contact stared at her and Mark with naked anticipation. This was a trial, but Mark and Portia did not have a single defender.

  “So, you’ve returned,” Deyelna said, “your mission accomplished. At least that’s what you reported to Peter.” The last part of her statement dripped with sarcasm. When Portia and Mark didn’t respond, Deyelna then looked to Peter. “Isn’t that right, Peter?” Peter nodded. Deyelna turned to face Portia once again. “And what mission might that be, Portia?” Deyelna asked as she slowly rose from her throne, as she ran her thumb over her fingers in the direction of the watching Black Cats, who murmured in response. Portia knew Deyelna was using her charm spell on the gang. It would not matter what they said in response to Deyelna: no one there would believe her. They were all under Deyelna’s control.

  “Look at these two,” Deyelna continued. “They are so blatant. So brazen. They walk right in the door of our home, as if they were not out busy betraying us all.” The crowd muttered.

  “That’s not true!” Mark said. Portia grabbed his arm to stop him, but he shook her off. “We heard it, you’re the one betraying us! We heard the Serpents discussing—”

  “Liar!” Deyelna said, pointing at Mark. Deyelna turned to the crowd. “What do we do with liars? And traitors?” The crowd roared in response.

  “I’m not a liar!” Mark said. The crowd jeered at him.

  Portia saw Deyelna rubbing the fingers on both hands in the direction of the crowd. Everywhere Deyelna pointed, the volume of the crowd increased. She was feeding their anger and paranoia. She had complete control of them.

  Mark stepped towards Deyelna, trying to get her attention. Portia grabbed Mark and pulled him close before Deyelna noticed. She whispered loudly in his ear. “Stop! They won’t listen. Use your magic on my signal. Full strength. Full! ” Portia pulled back when Deyelna turned to face them again.

  Deyelna walked closer, circling Portia and Mark, while her gang jeered on. Portia tried one last time to make eye contact with anyone in the crowd, but there was not a single friendly face. Deyelna stopped in front of her, blocking her view. She stepped in so close to Portia that Portia could feel the heat off Deyelna’s body and see the redness in her eyes.

  “Are you taking one last look at the people you were betraying?” Deyelna asked. “Does it make you feel like a strong person? Well you’re not; you’re weak. And I don’t tolerate weakness in my gang. Or cowards.” Deyelna turned once again to the crowd. “Do I?” she asked them. They yelled no in unison. Portia felt ill as she heard cries of “get them” and “kill them” from the crowd. She had thought some of these orphans were her friends. Even though she knew it was Deyelna’s magic, it still felt like a betrayal.

  While Deyelna’s back was to her, Portia looked to Mark and gave him the nod to use his magic. He nodded back. Portia screwed her eyes shut as tightly as she could just as the room erupted into a blinding light. Portia heard howls of pain from the Black Cat members in the room as the light hit them, searing their retinas. She grabbed Mark and made a dash for the exit. She ran into someone on the way, shoving them down. She realized it was Peter when she heard his grunt as he landed on the floor. Good. That should at least slow him down a bit.

  Portia and Mark ran from the room. “Flash your light whenever someone gets too close,” Portia yelled, pulling Mark towards the front door.

  “I’ll try,” Mark said. Portia knew it exhausted Mark to use magic. They had limited time to get away. Mark tried to turn them towards their room. “We should get our stuff,” he said.

  “No. It’s too dangerous. We need to get out of here, quickly.” Portia said. Mark turned to face behind them and used his light once again to stop the few Black Cats who had recovered and were coming after them. Portia saw the light flash down the front hall, and it hurt even when she wasn’t directly looking at it. She dragged Mark backwards towards the front door as he kept flashing their pursuers. She squinted to avoid as much of the light herself as possible. She felt Mark get slower as they went, his energy draining. They had to get away—and quickly.

  They burst out of the front door and ran down the street towards the butcher shop. Portia pulled Mark behind the racks in front that normally held barrels of preserved meat during the day as a few Black Cats ran past, not seeing them hiding there. Portia guessed they were still seeing stars from Mark’s magic, and their vision wasn’t as good as it normally was. As soon as the pursuers ran past, Portia and Mark came out again and continued down the street. Portia decided the safest thing to do was to get out of the city. Deyelna had the Serpents in on her plan. Who knew who else was involved? They had to escape.

  “We have to get out of a city gate,” Portia yelled to Mark as they ran. He nodded back, breathing raggedly. He was having a hard time keeping up after using so much of his magic. “Stick together,” Portia said.

  She knew Mark had never been out of the city, and she didn’t want him to run into worse trouble out there without her. She’d heard stories of the wandering thieves who roamed outside the city walls. Their ruthlessness was often the subject of market gossip. She hoped the tales were exaggerations but feared they were not. Mark didn’t bother responding to her last instructions—he was struggling to breathe as they ran.

  Portia and Mark turned the corner and nearly ran into a roving band of Serpent orphans. Portia recognized the tall Serpent leader from the warehouse. Worse yet, he recognized her. He yelled and pointed. The Serpents ran towards Mark and Portia.

  Mark and Portia veered to the right to escape the chasing gang. Portia led. She turned and saw hands reaching out for Mark, who was trailing behind her. He was too tired to use his magic ability to blind their pursuers. She stopped running to allow Mark to pass, then kicked the first pursuer in the chest, pushing him into the rest of the Serpents and knocking them all over. She ran after Mark, swiftly catching up to him. They ran on, trying to reach the west gate, which was the closest city gate to the Black Cat den. Portia considered running through the Lynx Smithing district but decided the safest way was to try to skirt along the boundaries of the Smithing and Warehouse districts. She hoped all the Serpents were in the Black Cat territory looking for her and Mark.

  Unfortunately, not all the Black Cats were in the Black Cat territory. She recognized two orphans from their den ahead of her. She tugged on Mark’s sleeve to get his attention, but he was too tired to look up. The Black Cats spied them before Portia could pull Mark into a hiding spot. They rushed at Mark and Portia. In a panic, Portia pushed Mark down a narrow alley she knew only he could pass through, while running in the opposite direction. The two Black Cats looked between Portia and Mark and then both followed Mark into the alley. Portia knew the Black Cats were too large to pass through the narrow opening at the end of the alleyway—they were older, nearly enforcer age. She just hoped Mark had enough energy to get there before they caught him. She knew he would run towards a city gate. She’d have to meet him there.

  Portia was desperate to not run into any more pursuers. She was getting tired and feared she’d make mistakes. The pain in her side was so great she had to stop running. She would not be able to run the entire way to the city gate.

  She decided to go south, around the far side of the Serpent Warehouse district, to reach the west gate. It would take longer. Perhaps she could get there by walking instead of running and hiding the entire way. The sun should be up by the time she got there, and she hoped she could blend into the crowds once there.

  Portia ran along the rooftops of the Warehouse district as she passed through it on her way to the far side. Luckily, she didn’t run into a single Serpent.

  Reaching the west gate, she noticed with a curse that it was
closed and locked. The guards were there, making sure no one defied the will of the city planners by opening this gate before sunrise. She looked to the sky in the east—it was pink. Sunrise would happen soon. At least she knew Mark had not already passed through this way. She decided to ask the guards if they’d seen him anyhow. There were three other gates he could have gone to, and she would be hard-pressed to reach them all quickly. She didn’t want the Serpents or Black Cats—or the bandits outside the city—to get to Mark while she was searching for him.

  Portia did not recognize the guards. They were not ones she had befriended or accidentally dropped coins for in the past. She checked her appearance quickly. She hid the gang symbol by tucking her collar deep inside her shirt.

  Looking around the street, Portia searched for a prop she could use. She needed a reason to be there, otherwise they would suspect she was an orphan. The orphans were tolerated by the city elite, for now, mostly because it was too difficult to decide what to do with them all. But they were not favored. If the orphans had not decided to stick together in gangs, they would not survive long in the city of Valencia. It would be much better to show up with a basket as a farmer’s daughter who had come to the market to sell produce than as an orphan. But Portia only saw a broken bucket with a hole in the bottom discarded in the street. It would have to do. She grabbed it and hoped it was dark enough that the guard wouldn’t notice its uselessness. She would have to be polite and meek as she imagined a farmer’s daughter would be, instead of giving off the surly toughness most gang members tried to project for their own survival.

  Approaching the nearest guard, she noticed he was exhausted and yawning, with a heavy chin growth. These must still be the night guards. This was a stroke in her favor—they had not changed shifts yet.

  “Pardon me, sir,” she said to the guard, trying to get his attention. “Have you seen my brother? He’s about fifteen hands high.”

  The guard gave her a particular look. “Is your brother a horse?” he asked with a smirk.

  Portia realized she had said things incorrectly. Apparently only orphans described their own heights that way. “No, of course not… Sir. Well, he sort of does eat like one.” Her face turned red.

  The guard noticed her embarrassment and softened a little. He chuckled. “Ay, I have a boy. You’re not wrong—they do eat like horses. What does he look like, besides being fifteen hands high?”

  “He’s blond, thin. Eleven years old…”

  “No, haven’t seen anyone like that this night. It’s not safe for kids at night here. You shouldn’t be out early yourself. Where are your parents?” The guard looked at her more closely, waking up a bit, alertness coming into his eyes.

  “Oh, they’re coming. They should be coming along soon,” Portia said, waving in the general direction of the city behind her while backing up. “Thank you so much for your help.” She turned and stepped away quickly before the guard could ask any more questions.

  So, Mark had not been to the west gate. That was not a good sign since it was the closest one. She hoped he’d only been deflected by pursuers and decided to try another gate. Or maybe he had stopped somewhere safe for rest. They had not slept all night, and she knew he was exhausted from using his magic for their escape. She refused to think about what would have happened to him if the Black Cats or Serpents had caught him.

  The next closest gate he might have gone to was the north gate. Her stomach hurt at the thought of going there. The north gate was much closer to Serpent territory. The last thing she wanted to do was to go back that way, but she couldn’t leave Mark behind. She squared her shoulders and turned towards the warehouse district and her goal of the gate behind it.

  She left the west gate area just as the sun was rising. She could hear the new guards arriving and changing over as she walked away. The gate creaked as they cranked it open. She wanted more than anything to be outside the gate and away from the city, but she was torn—Mark was still inside somewhere.

  It was growing late enough in the morning that the merchants were up and about, loading their wagons and starting the day’s business. It was easier for her to be inconspicuous now, but it would also be easier for the Serpents to hide from her as she passed through their territory. She would just have to be more vigilant. She found a wagon that was going north and tagged along behind it.

  The wagon passed about halfway through the Warehouse district before it turned off towards the east, leaving her vulnerable. Portia watched it drive away, uncertain. She could either follow it east, which would take her away from where she wanted to go, or she could strike off alone through the streets. Portia finally decided it was more important to get to Mark quickly. Cautiously she walked north between warehouses looking for Serpents as well as another ladder to the rooftops where she could run faster, away from so many spying eyes.

  She spied a metal ladder at the end of the block she was on and walked towards it. Before she could reach it, she heard a yell from behind and turned to see two Serpent orphans running towards her. She sprinted down the street to the ladder, dodging between merchants on the street. The adults swore as she bounced off them. One particularly irate man grabbed her by her upper arm, and she had to kick him in the shin to get him to release his grip. He howled in rage as she slipped away.

  Unfortunately, it had given the Serpents time to catch up to her before she reached the ladder. One of them had a long wooden club that was embedded with metal bits. He swung the club at her shoulder. It made impact. Pain seared down Portia’s arm and along her neck. She bit back a scream, concentrating on running from the Serpents. The Serpent with the club ran after her, winding up for another blow. His companion wisely stayed clear of the swinging weapon.

  Portia thought about Mark’s blinding flashes. She wished with all her heart that Mark was there to blind these two. She didn’t think she was fast enough to get away. And there didn’t appear to be any Lynx orphans around to save her this time.

  Suddenly, behind her, a flash erupted. The Serpents yelled, as did merchants and citizens who were out in the street. They had also been caught in the light blast. Men and women on the street were bent over, hands on their eyes. Luckily, Portia had been facing away from it and could still see.

  She squinted in case another blast was coming and ran to the ladder. She gripped it in her sweating hands then raced up it as fast as she could to the rooftop. Once she was safely on top of the building, she ran across the roof to the far edge of the building. There was a ten-foot gap between the buildings. Portia looked at the gap. It was frighteningly large. But she had no choice unless she wanted to get caught and forced back to face Deyelna. Portia ran back for a running start and then tore across the roof towards the gap. She jumped with all her strength.

  She landed with a thump on her belly on the edge of the roof. Scrabbling with her hands, she got a hold of the brick facade, then pulled herself up on to the roof. Her stomach hurt terribly where she had hit the bricks. She breathed in tentatively, relieved when she didn’t feel any broken ribs.

  Checking the roof she had just come from, she didn’t see anyone following her. They might not have even seen her climb up to it if they were still blinded by the intense light. She breathed a small sigh of relief.

  Where had the blast come from? Mark was the only one she knew of who could do that. Was he around? She scanned all the rooftops but didn’t see anybody. Carefully peering over the edge of the building, she couldn’t see Mark anywhere in the crowd. Surely if he was there and had helped her he would have made himself known to her.

  Could she have had anything to do with the light flash? She had been thinking about Mark’s magic when it happened. A feeling tickled along her spine. She had done several types of magic before, always under duress it seemed, and she had been puzzled how she could do more than one. That was not something she had heard about from any of the other orphans: people, if they could do magic at all, could only do one kind. She had not mentioned her abilities to anyone
in the Black Cats for fear Deyelna would find out about it. She did not need Deyelna to have one more reason to hate her—being immune to the Black Cats leader’s magic was bad enough.

  Portia looked one more time for Mark. He was not anywhere to be seen. Pulling herself back from the edge of the building, she picked her way along the rooftops towards the north gate. The sun was quickly ascending the sky, and the gate would be packed with merchants coming in and going out, mixing with the farmers bringing their wares to market. The north gate was the busiest gate in the entire city. It would be difficult at best to find Mark there.

  When she got to the north gate, it was worse than she feared. The gate itself was packed with people coming and going—the courtyard in front of the gate was full of wagons, carts, horses, people, baskets, and all manner of goods for that day’s market. Some men were so tall that they obscured her view and she had a difficult time even seeing across the courtyard. She looked for a rooftop to get a better view, but there were no nearby buildings. Part of the city’s defense was to keep structures away from the walls surrounding the city. This prevented aggressors from throwing fire over the walls and reaching a building. These were lessons city planners had learned over millennia of fighting—at least that is what Portia had heard from the elder orphans. She didn’t understand who they had been fighting since there had been peace for as long as she could remember.

  She sighed, giving up on the idea of a view from above. She decided to approach the guards again at this gate. Even though they were probably new guards for the day—all the guards for the night usually retired with the sunrise—they still might have seen Mark. Perhaps she would get lucky and find a guard that she knew. She needed an ally in this quest.