Halfblood Journey

by Rheaume, Laura

  “Since our families share the burden of service to the Kin, I will inform you that the halfblood has not been located. So, there is less need to concern yourself, for now, with that allegation.”

  “He eludes the infamous Scere?” He was not surprised at all.

  “Yes, but when he is found, there may be some difficulty with the charges. In fact, he may disappear altogether.”

  That got her one raised eyebrow.

  She nodded, “And if that were to happen, naturally, the charges related to you regarding him would similarly disappear.”

  “They are interested in recruiting him?”

  “The Eler, yes. They are always interested in people with special talents.”

  “It is interesting, as an academic note,” he said, putting on his favorite mask, bored with a hint of irritation. “I assume we are done here?”

  We are now.

  Chapter 29

  Scythe stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel, clamping his jaw shut and sucking in air with a barely audible hiss as he carefully patted his back and legs. Looking over his shoulder at the mirror, he peered at the gashes and blotchy bruises that spread over his skin like spots on a jaguar; several were cinched closed with stitches but the majority, some three dozen, were small and shallow. They constantly stung and itched under the thin, flexible tape that covered them; it was worse when he moved, so, even though he had lain on the most comfortable bed imaginable, he had hardly slept at all. He did his best to spread the salve that the doctor had given him on each of the wounds. Then he rebandaged the worst ones and slowly got dressed.

  He had already begun outlining in his mind the huge report he would be required to turn in that afternoon. There would be days of debriefing for his involvement with the attempt on the King's life, which meant that it would be difficult for him to accomplish the other task he had planned to spend his time on: searching for Cord.

  He shook his head in frustration. There was no getting around those responsibilities, just as it had been impossible for him to avoid the meeting the King insisted he attend the night before. Scythe had grown more agitated every minute that he was not out looking for Mercy and Ian but was forced to suppress his rising panic; as the hours passed, he had drawn on all his training to keep from getting up and walking out, despite the presence of the high ranking company. To make matters worse, the amount of tension in the meeting that bothered everyone else was enough to wrack his nerves and keep him busily distracting his aggressive side.

  Soshia, the representative of the Scere L’Hedeler who had recruited him years ago, and her counterpart, an Eler leader named Forge, had been summoned to meet with the King, Scythe, Temper and two of the King’s ministers to determine what had to be done to counteract the night's events. That particular group of people rarely met with one another. The Scere made a habit of avoiding the King’s notice; it was how they kept their autonomy, and how the King kept the Human related political intrigue to a minimum. As long as the Humans were not “within sight” of the King, they could not be influenced, interfered with, or administered by the larger Kin government, something that all parties at the meeting desired. The Human population had already dwindled down to eight cities. Everyone was intent on reducing as much as possible any further threat to Humanity.

  However, the events of the night worked against that objective. As they discussed what actions they would take to calm the Kin people and quickly and decisively deal with the problems the night had brought them, it was made startlingly clear that an unidentified faction was working to force the King to acknowledge Humans with the intent of upsetting their coveted, secure position.

  Officially, a Human or a halfblood could never meet with the King, and certainly no Human would be permitted close enough to launch an attack on him. An attempt against the King by Humans would foster even greater hatred, fear and distrust of the minority race, as well as undermine faith in the government and its ability to protect the King. Therefore, it was determined that the assassination attempt on the King and his okin would be kept secret; it was as if it had never occurred. Further, Scythe and Temper did not meet with the King, and were not at the palace that night.

  Scythe was opposed to the lie, but it was made clear to him that he was expected to maintain the pretense indefinitely. Temper had implied that such things were commonplace in those circles, which made Scythe grateful that he was not welcome in them.

  The steward's assassination attempt was another situation that required suppression of the truth. His mind hadn't lasted very long after he started to convulse from the poison, but it was enough to reveal a memory that had been tampered with. If he closed his eyes, Scythe could still picture the sight of the man’s precious wife, begging him to hold her one last time, and then whispering in his ear her dying wish: revenge upon the one who had ordered her death. Kill the King, my love.

  A quick messenger revealed that his wife had indeed died, probably within the last few days; she was still in her bed, surrounded by the dozens of flowers that her husband had piled up around her. Scythe did not offer what he knew was the cause of the man’s “delirium,” and neither did Temper; he suspected that she would reveal Cord’s abilities to her cousin in private later. They allowed the others to conclude that the man had gone mad when his wife had died, and his imagination had invented the need for revenge against the King. The decision about how to best respond to the steward's actions was made quickly and easily: just as Scythe had never been to the palace, the lifelong servant of the King had never brought him a favorite dish laced with poison.

  With the assassination attempt dealt with, they moved on to the more difficult topic of the terrorist attack on the city. Temper reported that, earlier in the day, just before she and Scythe visited the palace, they had shared their suspicions within the Scere that an Intelligence officer named Ward was connected to the terrorists. They provided what evidence they had that implicated him as someone who was in a position to alter records and manipulate information. Then, they presented the record of Cord, a halfblood, who was identified as having the same father as Ward, although the Intelligence officer had no brother in his file. Bordertown records showed that Cord was born in Yawning Valley years after his half brother Ward’s mother had died. The child was not recognized by Kelreig, the father named on his birth certificate, and it was possible that the minister did not even know about the boy until he left his home at eighteen, when he took a trip to the Capital. It was then that he apparently met his father and brother and became active in the conspiracy. They believed that Cord and Ward had been working together to coordinate and then obscure the movements of the terrorists for over a year, keeping them out of the reach of both Kin and Human forces.

  Temper and Scythe were convinced that, while Cord and Ward were key players in the conspiracy, they were still just tools of someone else. While presenting their suspicions of who was behind the scenes manipulating them and the terrorists, Scythe brought out his evidence of the possible manipulation of the Huran executive: the letter they had uncovered that was written to him from the father of the two men: the Minister of Agriculture, Kelreig, a man who had lobbied the idea of eliminating the restrictions on the use of Human labor in the farming industry.

  Because Humans were not under normal governmental jurisdiction, he could not gain access to them through political maneuvering. Only the Scere was permitted to make decisions about Human issues, and the Scere was not subject to normal procedures. Scythe and Temper insisted that, to further his goals of exposing the Humans to the traditional legal process, he had enlisted the help of the head of a large agribusiness: the Nathan Corporation.

  The top Nathan Corp executives who resided in the city were summoned to the meeting with the King to verify their claim. Using his ability, Scythe quickly found that two of the seven interviewed had had direct contact with both Kelreig and the heads of the terrorist movement. A Scere unit was immediately dispatched to follow up. They expected to have the l
eaders in custody within the week.

  The inconsistencies that Scythe had encountered when he reviewed the information about the terrorist case and found that too many things didn't add up were explained one by one. The true objectives of those behind the terrorist movement finally became clear.

  Things had gone sour when greed began to taint the Nathan executives. In a series of attacks that appeared to target the Kin in the borderlands, the Nathan directives hit a large number of their business rivals’ resources and facilities. The attack on the warehouse where Mercy was trapped was one such target. It had been scheduled to reopen in six months by one of Nathan Corporation’s biggest competitors. Huran was another major rival of Nathan Corp. Three of the terrorist actions were hidden attacks on individuals that were key contributors to their competitors’ successes. Nathan Corp had started out scheming to influence policies on Human regulation, but their goals quickly degenerated to economic terrorism.

  They hypothesized that Kelreig permitted Nathan’s actions, because it still met his initial goal of lowering Human popularity rates, raising fear and distrust, and opening the way for Human redistribution.

  To soften the blow of the attack on the city, the King decided to allow that it was the result of a Human terrorist organization, but that it was small, and had been easily put down by the city’s superior defense forces. In addition, he ordered that it be publicized that the heart of the rebels had been destroyed, and that the uprisings in the borderlands would soon end.

  The truth was that many of the terrorist leaders were not directly involved in the attack, preferring to keep to their time proven tactic of self preservation; most remained unaccounted for, although their capture had become one of the top priorities for not only the Scere, but also Kin Intelligence. Scythe doubted that they would be able to keep hidden for much longer, and, once one was found, Soshia told Scythe that the Scere would be contacting him for his services. Finding the others once they had their hands on a few key members wouldn’t be much of a problem for Scythe.

  Soshia had similar intentions for some other key conspirators, but she didn’t say who. Scythe knew instinctively that she was talking about interrogating Kin illegally, something that put him on edge, because, while it would be politically dangerous to them, it would be lethal for Scythe if they were caught.

  The King had used his discretionary powers to arrest Ward and Nathan Corp’s top executives. Kelreig had also been detained, but further evidence had to be found or there would be serious repercussions for accusing him. Because Kelreig was a head member of one of the Twelve Families, he could not be officially charged unless the evidence was clearly irrefutable, so he was being held for questioning only, a procedure that had a strict time limit. The Scere had moved quickly on Temper’s advice and petitioned Ward’s data storage device with the rest of his computer before he had a chance to tamper with it. So, with Aorin’s team working on it, Scythe was confident that they would shortly find enough to link Kelreig to both the terrorists and Nathan Corp.

  What remained...and it thankfully wasn’t his responsibility, although because Humans were involved, the Scere would be instrumental...was to locate the terrorists that were directly involved in the attacks but had so far escaped capture by the city police. That included Cord, who Scythe was particularly interested in seeing soon after he was brought in. He wanted the man found rapidly, because, as long as he was unaccounted for, the second vision that Mercy had shown him continued to be a possibility. As added insurance, Scythe planned to be out hunting him with whatever minutes he had free. He had completely lost the thrill of the challenge that he had felt in Juniper. With the threat of the vision ahead of them, all he wanted was to catch him quickly and take care of him.

  The one thing that reassured him was that, with Ian and Mercy at Heron’s home, the chances of it happening were greatly diminished. All he had to do was keep them there until the man was caught.

  Scythe left his room and met Ian in the atrium, where Heron and his younger sister were setting up some refreshments on a small table. When Mercy didn’t join them, her father went to go check on her, and returned to report that she was still sleeping and would eat later. They ate the fruit and pastries and drank iced tea while Heron’s sister asked Ian as many questions as she could think of about Humans.

  “What do Humans do for fun?”

  “How is that fun?”

  “Tell me a Human story.”

  “Why do Humans stare all the time?”

  “Why did the Humans attack our city?”

  “Is it hard to work all day in the fields?”

  Obviously embarrassed by her overzealous behavior and the naive question, Heron interjected, “Han-na, not everyone works the fields. Humans do a variety of jobs…”

  “I know that.”

  “...besides, Ian is from Menelaus, a Human city.”

  “I know that. What is your city like?” She asked, her eyes wide with curiosity and excitement. He had barely answered when she jumped in with, “Say something in Human.”

  “That sounds lovely. Say my name in Human.”

  “Are you the inovokin?”

  “What’s that?” Ian asked.

  Heron explained, “It’s the head of the family.”

  “I guess you could say that, except...”

  “You don’t seem like an inovokin.”

  “Well, we kind share the responsibility…”

  “That’s impossible. You can’t have two inovokin. I don’t think you’re the one, then…”

  “Han-na!”

  “Well, it’s true. Do you have a daughter like me?”

  “Mercy is my only daughter.”

  “So you have mostly sons, then?”

  “I have one son, yes.”

  “Only one? And one daughter? That’s so small! Did your wife die? That happened to a cousin of ours, but he remarried. How many people are in your family?”

  “Well, besides Mercy, Scythe and myself, I do have a wife. Her name is Faith and my son’s name is Will. There is also my sister Lena, her husband Smoke, their kids…”

  “There are humans that use Kin names?”

  “No, Smoke is Kin.”

  She stared at him as if he had said, “Smoke is really a minotaur and they live in a labyrinth and eat children for lunch.” For once, she didn’t have anything to say. She looked over at Heron, waiting for him to explain.

  Heron said patiently, “Ian’s family is very unusual. They do not follow our ways.”

  “But…”

  Ian said, “It is very uncommon for a Kin to marry a Human.”

  “But...they have children?”

  “Their children are like Scythe, halfbloods.”

  “That’s terrible!” she reacted without thinking, her expression one of disgusted amazement. Then, realizing her mistake, her eyes shot over to Scythe and she gasped as if she could suck the words back in to her mouth.

  Scythe returned her look calmly. He was used to such reactions, so he wasn’t offended. He had felt the same way when he was told that Lena and Smoke had decided to have kids. He had been firmly against it. It had even caused an argument that was never resolved, since it had happened on Scythe’s last visit years ago.

  Her brother was less forgiving. “Han-na!” Heron scolded.

  “No, it’s okay…” Ian said.

  “But...didn’t you tell your sister...you said you were the inovokin...how could…”

  “That is just their way, Han-na. Don’t pry.” When she opened her mouth to ask another question he said more severely, “You are embarrassing us. The discussion is over.”

  While she sat still with her mouth clamped shut, Heron said formally, “I apologize for my sister’s poor manners. I hope that…”

  Ian interrupted, reaching over to put his hand on Cersset’s knee to reassure her, “We aren’t offended at all. It is something we are used to. Please don’t make a fuss.”

  “I thank you for your understanding. My sister i
s still learning our ways.” He stood and started gathering their dishes, nodding to his sister to help him. “I’ll introduce you to the rest of my family tonight at dinner,” Heron said before excusing himself and dragging along his subdued sister.

  Ian commented, “Well, that was an adventure in itself.” He leaned back in his chair and asked, “How is your back?”

  “Pretty sore still, but mending, thanks.”

  “This place is amazing, Scythe. I feel like I’m in a palace. Have you ever been in such an elegant home?”

  “Just once.”

  “How did you manage to get us invited here?”

  “I just asked him, but not because he was so well off. Honestly, I didn’t know Heron lived like this. I didn’t even know that he was a member of a Family. I just knew that he came from a good family. A good family means that they take hospitality seriously. So, if you and Mercy are guests here, you are under their protection legally. No one can just come here and say you have to go with them; they have to have legal warrants, and this family will make sure they are valid.”

  Ian nodded. “It doesn’t hurt that they have their own security, either.”

  “No, it doesn’t. That was a benefit I didn’t expect. I don’t think anything will happen, but I like to be sure we’ve done as much as we can, especially with Temper’s report going in immediately. I don’t know how the Scere is going to react, so this is the best place for you both, outside of your city. I’m hoping that we’ll be back there before the King signs that resolution, even though there is no guarantee that Menelaus will be any safer after that.”