The Far Side

by Wylie, Gina Marie

  “Melek, if you don’t spar as if I was a true sparring opponent, you will be sorry -- and you will have to do it again. Do it right the first time. If you think of me as an old man, you won’t grow old yourself.”

  Melek tried to convey “contest” and “practice” to Ezra. Ezra looked at the man heading down to the column, then at Collum, not Melek. He grinned and waved for Melek to proceed.

  Back in the market in Arvala, Melek had been humiliated. He’d seen the knife in the young man’s hand; he’d seen the broad back of Trenzos, the very rich merchant. Trenzos wasn’t a noble -- but his wife was and his children were. He’d moved to intercept the man who he thought was intent on killing Trenzos.

  But, before he intercepted the boy, the boy had cut Trenzos’ purse away and had turned to flee. He’d run into Melek then. The boy had lunged with his dagger at Melek’s gut -- Melek had his sword out and ready... what was he supposed to do when a cutpurse attacked him? He’d slid the blade through the boy’s belly, hating himself as he did. He’d had no choice!

  Trenzos, furious at the theft, had been stunned at how quickly the Market Guards had reacted. He’d even given Melek a copper as a reward. That had been two seconds before one of the other guards had said the fatal words: “Isn’t that Councilman Melchior’s son?”

  Now Melek was humiliated once again, only this time in what he’d thought was his area of expertise. He’d lunged for Collum in a simple grapple and tried to take him down, where he could use his youth and strength to overpower the older man.

  He’d flown through the air and sprayed dust when he landed. He’d tried one more time for honor’s sake, but it had turned out no better. Collum had planted a foot in his belly, and Melek had turned a full summersault in the air, before crashing, bruised and shorn of breath, to the ground.

  Collum had helped him up and gestured at Ezra. Ezra had laughed and said the word “Practice?” to Collum.

  There was not a single one of those in the scout detachment that could follow what happened next. Blows, faster than the eye could follow, one after another. They danced, they moved and twisted. More and more blows. Twice Collum had jerked, and after the second time, his nose was bleeding.

  Melek was surprised when finally Collum stepped back and stood looking at Ezra, without moving. Ezra bowed to Collum, who shook his head and stepped forward and clasped Ezra’s arm in the old salute. Then they hugged and slapped each other’s backs.

  Melek stood still, having seen a battle between men who, either one of them, could have killed him without breaking a sweat. It was one thing to believe that Ezra had weapons that could kill him without Melek being able to stop him -- it was something else to realize that Ezra didn’t need a weapon. And neither did Collum.

  Melek looked at the two girls, and Andie promptly did some blows and kicks, ending up looking a lot like Ezra had, during the “sparring.”

  Melek moved close to Collum. “Are you okay, Sachem?”

  “I do not know who his fighting master is, but I wish I’d studied at his feet! I have spent most of my life perfecting this sort of fighting -- and to be bested by someone so much younger! It is humbling, Melek! Humbling.”

  “Humbling, Sachem, is knowing Ezra doesn’t need his thunder rod to kill.”

  Collum chuckled. “Dumi will be here soon. You needn’t talk to him about this or me. And Melek, weapons are tools we use to kill our enemies. Any tool, Melek, any tool is dangerous in capable hands. Let this be a lesson you retain for the rest of your life!”

  A dozen men came up the slope, Captain Dumi at the head. “Report, Melek!”

  “There is party of the ancient enemies about a hundred miles south, Captain! They number about seventy-five. Captain, they once numbered eighty with twenty slaves. Now there are only nineteen slaves, Captain! The Chain Breakers have begun to fulfill their blood oath!”

  Startled at news of the ancient enemies, Captain Dumi commanded three of the runners to return to the column with instructions to be alert.

  “And the other strangers? Are they from the East?”

  “No, Captain. They are from much further away.” As Ezra had done it, and it was dark enough already for stars to be visible, Melek gestured at the points of light in the sky. “They are from another star, Captain.”

  “Stars are but pinpoints of light! How can they be from one of them?”

  “Captain, the sun is a giant ball of fire. Still, like a fire blazing at hand, a fire appears much smaller further away. They say the stars are very far away, indeed!”

  “And you believe them?” Captain Dumi demanded.

  “Captain, four of the ancient enemies caught us in camp. We had no warning of their coming, they were there and we weren’t ready. Private Collum killed their leader, and then Ezra, of the strangers, killed the other three. Captain,” Melek paused and clapped his hands together softly.

  “That fast, Captain. In the time it takes me to clap once, he killed three of them. He has also killed three dralka.”

  “And you’ve killed how many, Melek?”

  “More than three, Captain. But the last one he killed was a half mile away.”

  Captain Dumi looked at him. “You weren’t deluded, Sergeant?”

  “No, Captain.”

  “Introduce me to these strangers,” the captain commanded.

  Melek turned to Ezra and motioned him and the two young women forward.

  “Captain, they don’t speak our tongue, so we have only a few words in common. Ezra is a guard in the employ of Lady Kris’ father. Captain, she must be a least a princess of her realm. With her is Lady Andie. I think Lady Andie is Lady Kris’ tutor. Captain, Lady Andie has shown us a new weapon, and moreover, she knows how to make a ship sail against the wind.”

  “Flatly impossible,” Captain Dumi told him. “She is lying.”

  “Captain, their guard, Ezra, killed a dralka at a hundred yards with a thunder rod, his weapon. Another at three hundred yards and another at nearly three times that. Single shots, Captain. Three hits, no misses. And when he killed the enemy, they never had a chance to draw a breath, much less fire.”

  Melek paused and decided to tell the captain worse news. “Captain, the Tengri carry thunder rods like Ezra, but they aren’t as good as his weapon is. We have captured five of their weapons and brought them along.”

  “You are trying to tell me something, Melek.”

  “Captain, you must not let your ideas of what can be or should be blind you to what is.”

  Captain Dumi looked unsure. That was when Collum coughed. Only one man from the column was still with Captain Dumi.

  “Captain, we’ve met before. Two years ago you were presented to my brother in Korli in the south of the West Finger. I stood at his left hand.”

  Captain Dumi met Collum’s eyes. “I was presented to the King.”

  “And I am the King’s brother, Pallas, now Collum, Sachem of the Chain Breakers.

  Captain Dumi’s eyebrows shot up, then headed into orbit. “Lord Sachem! I had no idea you were here!”

  “Captain, before you is one Chaba, formerly a slave of the Tengri, her chains broken. For the first time in twelve hundred years we have one whose chains have been broken. Standing a few feet away is Lady Kris, who broke those chains, personally. Soon, I will make her a Chain Breaker. Whatever you are thinking, think about those facts.”

  The captain’s throat worked. “She broke the woman’s chains?”

  “Killed the bastard who owned those chains dead with one shot, Captain. I tried to find all the pieces of his brains, but there were too many! Captain, do not let Lady Kris or Lady Andie shoot at you. And if Lord Ezra shoots at you, your worries are over!”

  “I hear, Sachem! I don’t understand, but I hear!”

  Collum laughed low. “Captain, here stands before you a woman, rescued from slavery. Before you also stands the woman who freed her, killing the bastard who enslaved her. What’s not to understand?”

  Melek spoke up. “Captain
, did Destu and Landrew tell you that we found where Rangar hid?”

  “Only Landrew survived, and he only survived a short time, delirious with bizarre tales of what had happened in the south. The storm killed Corporal Destu, and the lightning stroke that did so reduced Landrew to a simpleton.”

  “We found the hideout for Rangar, sir, as well as everything else. The hideout was once a dralka rookery, Captain. We took shelter there during the storm that destroyed the outpost.”

  “And Lieutenant Menim?”

  Melek pulled himself erect. “Captain, he ran. One morning we awoke and he was gone. We tried to find him, but we have no idea where he had gone.”

  “Could he have been captured by the Tengri?”

  Melek had never contemplated that. “It is possible, Captain. They were south of the outpost, and that is the direction Lieutenant Menim went.”

  Captain Dumi turned to Collum. “Sachem, clearly there is something you wish from me.”

  “Indeed so, Captain. You will tell your soldiers about Chaba, whose chains were broken. You will tell them of Kris, who broke those chains, of Ezra who protects her, and of Andie who taught her.”

  Dumi wasn’t a dummy. “Leaving out the reaction of General Flaner or his puppy?”

  “Broken chains, Captain, broken chains. If they have a problem with that... well... we all swore oaths did we not?”

  “We did, Sachem! And yet, you have to know how many think they would ever have to carry out those oaths.”

  “Tell that to my brother, Captain! Tell him that soldiers of the King can pick and choose which of their oaths they will keep!”

  Captain Dumi swallowed. Well, that was clear enough.

  He opted for what he thought was a safe course. “We have food, plenty of it, with the column, Sachem. I imagine a little food wouldn’t be unwelcome?”

  Collum slapped his thigh. “Field rations? Thank you very much, but I’ll wager that Sergeant Melek’s men will prefer Lady Kris’ version!”

  * * *

  Once again Oliver Boyle hugged his wife. This time, at least, he didn’t have to fake the problems with his hand. “Are you okay, Helen?”

  “You know me, Ollie. I’m okay so long as I have my work. They made a big mistake taking me away from my work. What’s going on with Kris?”

  “They say she and Andie are bringing the next great plague to Earth. They don’t want to mount a rescue mission.”

  “That’s lunacy! I consulted with NASA twice on isolation protocols! What don’t those dim bulbs understand? Worst case, quarantine for a month, then monthly checkups for the rest of the explorer’s life -- more often if they have a sniffle. An autopsy if they die of anything at all. It isn’t rocket science!”

  She pointed a finger at him. “Linda Walsh? Some of her friends from Caltech came for her and I haven’t seen her since.”

  “She’s in a private hospital, Helen. She was badly beaten -- God only knows how many times.”

  “Seven,” Helen said with assurance. “I was there, I counted. I want some balls, Ollie!”

  “I hope you mean literally,” he told his wife. “Kurt and the others of his ilk -- they are looking for blood. Art Foster is dead.”

  “Give me Kurt’s phone number. I have some other names for him.”

  Oliver raised his eyebrows. “It wouldn’t be good if you talked about it on a phone call.”

  “Fuck that! I know what that girl went through! I want the bastards to know who is doing this to them!” She tapped her chest. “It’s very simple. Helen Boyle is making a list and checking it a heck of lot more than twice. Make my list and I guarantee you, no doctor in the United States will treat you for so much as hang nail! Try to get in the way of me getting my daughter back and you’re toast! And if Otto Schulz dies before his daughter is back, they are going to wish death was instantaneous and painless!”

  “Otto is still alive?” Oliver asked, surprised. “I thought he wasn’t going to live a week.”

  “The human body is subject to all sorts of things,” his wife told him. “More than once someone has commanded their disease, ‘This far and no further!’ As practitioners of the medical art, we laugh, but it works all too often. He’s alive, and while he’s not chasing his nurses around his bed, he’s no longer in immediate danger.”

  “Art Foster is dead, as I said. Kit -- I have him locked up in nearly two hundred law suits. Shorty, I’m sorry to say, has been intimidated. He’s not about to re-create one of Andie’s devices. Lin Xiu -- they said he was killed while trying to escape. That leaves Linda Walsh... and about a million home hobbyists.”

  “Linda is going to be recovering for a while, Oliver. They really hurt her. I swear, I told her, that if she can’t do this, we’d find a way without her. She was -- adamant -- that she could, as soon as she can walk again. Ollie -- they broke both her legs.”

  He cursed luridly. “Jack says that Andie’s F-bomb has reset public opinion. Andie assumed one of two things would happen -- someone would try to steal her design or someone would try to suppress the design. Her sending the design to the WGA was inspired. I talked to the WGA president, and he’s vowed that he’s not going to let the government invalidate their registration system even once, even if it wasn’t for a script. Ideas, he says, are ideas and that intellectual property is intellectual property.

  “More and more, Helen, people are turning against the government.”

  She sighed. “There was a time I supported the government, no matter what it did. Then came all those wars that I didn’t like and now this... Oliver, we’ve lost our way as a nation.”

  “Yes, Helen,” he told her.

  “We will get Kris back,” Helen said positively. “Or I will pull down all their houses!”

  * * *

  Three days later, Oliver got in to see Linda Walsh. It was possible that Fort Knox was guarded with more zeal, but Caltech had surrounded her with things you simply didn’t want to think about.

  She looked up at him. “I’m getting better, sir.”

  “I know. You’re our last, best hope, Linda.”

  “They’ve intimidated everyone, haven’t they?”

  “Yes -- they have either intimidated or killed them. Except for you.”

  “Mr. Boyle, I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone else. I love Andie. I know, that’s like cradle robbing. But she and I... I can’t begin to describe it. We’re perfect for each other.”

  “Linda, first of all, that’s personal. Who you like, love, or hate is your business. What I’m interested in is getting Kris and Andie back.”

  “Both or just the one?”

  “Linda, I swear, my daughter means the world to me, and yes, I want her back. That isn’t to say that I wouldn’t do whatever I have to do to get Andie back, and Ezra as well.”

  “What if we can only get one back?”

  “Linda, I’m not going to fence, I’m not going to bullshit you. I like Andie, I respect Ezra, but Kris is my daughter. Your job is to bring them all back in such a way that no such choice is necessary. Fuck up and you can find the decision going against you.”

  She smiled slightly. “I just like it said honestly and openly, Mr. Boyle. I’m going to do all I can do save Andie. Kris is, as near as I can tell, nearly inseparable, from her. I’ll save both if I can -- and the guy as well. And I’m sure that I can.”

  “Kit has backers who are throwing up injunctions. One of the reasons your friends moved you here was so the process servers can’t find you, or reach you if they do.”

  She sniffed. “Kit was clueless from the beginning. I’m not surprised. Fuck injunctions. The only way they’ll stop me from getting Andie back is to kill me.”

  Oliver nodded. “Then, Linda, I’m going to let you meet two very special people. If you can’t stomach what they plan, send me a message. In the meantime, though, I’m pretty sure you’re going to want to hear what they say.

  “Linda Walsh, meet Kurt Sandusky and Jake Lawson.”

>   The two men came in, and Oliver was pleased that they knew how to shake the hand of someone whose fingers were broken.

  He turned his back on what was going to be said. There was no doubt in his mind that Art Foster was dead because Jacob Lawson wanted him dead. The shots that came wherever Kit Richards was, so far as Oliver had heard, shots that came every day, without interruption, were something Kurt or Jake were responsible for as well, letting Kit know he would never know a safe day for the rest of his life -- sort of like what Ezra, Kris and Andie were experiencing.

  Chapter 15 :: Meeting on a Hillside

  When Melek and his men arrived at the column there were a lot of questions directed at his men and at him. He’d deliberately not told the others of his party what to say.

  It is true, he learned at once, that there is nothing that travels faster in an army than rumors. All four of the strangers came under intense scrutiny. Collum was phlegmatic about it, Ezra, Kris, and Andie were used to it, and Chaba to a lesser extent, was as well.

  Captain Dumi didn’t know what to do about the talk or, for that matter, what he should do next. Sergeant Melek’s report wasn’t something like he’d ever heard before.

  “I have but eighty men, Sachem,” the captain told Collum.

  “True, and supplies would be a problem if we went all the way south.”

  Captain Dumi nodded. “I assumed that some or all of your supplies might have been damaged, and we have enough for nine men to stay four months at the observation post. Except, now there is no observation post, and the Tengri are prowling the area. While I’d like to think we could take half again our numbers without casualties, I don’t think that’s likely -- not if they have those thunder rods.”

  “No, Captain, it’s not likely at all. They know we’re here, they know a party of us escaped north. They have to know we’ll be back and they will be looking for us. They have thunder rods and those are very dangerous. Ezra’s thunder rod is certainly dangerous, although theirs aren’t as good as his. At least they are going to think their party bled us a little, but I don’t think that’s much of a help.”