The Cumerian Unraveling Trilogy (Scars of Ambition, Vendetta Clause, Cycles of Power)

by Jason Letts

  “Here, let me give you a hand. I’m coming with you,” he said. She glanced back at him and was taken aback by the way he was looking at her in the moonlight.

  “And why would you do that?” she asked. Tommack chewed his lip and broke eye contact.

  “You told me before that I could either be with you or against you. I hardly knew you back then, but I get the feeling I’m starting to now. I thought you were crazy for searching for the dragons, but you knew what you were doing. And now it turns out you’re involved in so much more heavy stuff and you’re tackling it with the same confidence and determination. I said I’d rather be against you before, but I’m changing my answer. I want to be with you, and we should see this through together,” he said.

  His straight face left no room for doubt in Sierra, but she had to find out if he was being truthful anyway.

  “Isn’t the only reason you’re interested in me because you think I’m attractive? You don’t even understand. This isn’t even really my face,” she said.

  “What are you talking about?” Tommack asked.

  “The first one got burned off when I was firing a gun at someone with a bomb in a gas vent, creating a fireball right in front of me,” she sighed. It startled her when Tommack started to laugh.

  “That’s incredible! I’m not going to lie that you’ve got the kind of looks that could make a hungry dog pass up raw meat, but if stories like that are any indication, you know how to get your hands dirty. What guy wouldn’t find that irresistible? Now let’s get a move on here,” he said.

  When Tommack gave her a leg up onto the dragon, he made the final push by putting his hand on her rear end.

  “Hey!” she said, though the way she was feeling made it difficult to be too upset about it. It’d been quite a while since she had actually fallen for someone, but even if Tommack were a little rough around the edges and hadn’t been truthful at the start, she had a feeling this would be one impulse that would be too hard to deny. It wasn’t bad having someone at her side.

  “Sirra!” Razi called, getting her attention. Sierra looked over to discover the raiders had already climbed onto their dragon. It looked like they weren’t ready to call it a night either. Going after the entire envoy like this was going to be a big risk, but Sierra found her mind unwavering and her heart true.

  “All right, Nemi. Let’s take off!” she called. This time Nemi released a reliable crow, and the dragons lurched onto their hind legs and leapt into the air. The gasp of the crowd seemed to carry them up, where they flew over the great city of Madora in search of their targets.

  Sierra knew little more than what had been in the original plan and what her father had said. Velo Wozniak and Portia Illiam had arrived and were meeting somewhere toward the south end of town, where her father had run to.

  As they flew around, scanning the buildings and the paths bathed in moonlight, they spotted the steam ships by the long dock. One was tied up while the other cruised about a ways off from the harbor. Sierra’s heart leapt when she saw the shiny metal on the ships.

  “These dragons are born from metal. They live it and breathe it. I’d even go so far as to guess that learning to cool themselves off is how they crack their iron eggs to enter the world. Those ships would be nothing for them to sink, and then those murderous bastards would never escape.”

  In Sierra’s mind, she was back fighting for her life around the Bracken towers. It startled her how quickly the rage returned and lodged itself in her thinking, especially when a month walking through the wastes was about as far away from that as she could get.

  But before they could do more than take an exploratory pass at the ships, which had both mounted guns and cannons, she found the half-finished palace and saw a large procession exiting the gates. The light from windows and the moon gave away little more than that there were a number of people walking toward the port.

  “Are they leaving already? But why?” Sierra asked, trying to imagine what had happened after her father returned with her news. Had her mother said they’d changed their mind about the deal and all of the visitors simply accepted it and decided to leave? That didn’t seem likely. But either way, they’d be easier targets out on the streets.

  “You ready for this?” Tommack asked over her shoulder.

  “I feel like I’m ready to burst,” she said into the wind.

  They waited until the procession entered the open area around the docks, where there was more light and the dragons would have more room once they landed. With their leaders around, the ships would be unlikely to fire, and then it would be just a short leap for the dragons to handle the ships once everyone was wiped out.

  Sierra’s stomach jumped when the dragon dove toward the ground and released a horrifying roar that must’ve been audible all the way in Cumeria. The people below got bigger and bigger as their perspective changed, and then when the dragon swiftly beat its wings to land the gust knocked most of them over.

  Somewhere in the glow of lanterns and moonlight reflected off the water, Sierra caught a glimpse of her father in shackles among the departing visitors.

  “No!” she shouted, her heart rending. Even after she’d told him it wasn’t necessary and he’d accepted it, they still had him and were preparing to make him board their ship. As if the giant dragons settling on the port’s stone walkway weren’t enough of a giveaway, her father must’ve discovered she was among them.

  “It was too late!” he shouted to her. Barely a second passed until more voices echoed through the area.

  “It’s too late for all of you. Open fire!” Velo Wozniak ordered his soldiers, who got back to their feet and took aim. The dragon’s response to the threat of gunfire was predictable for Sierra by now, but she still didn’t react fast enough.

  “Oww, hot! Hot, hot, hot!” she yelped, jumping off its back onto the ground as the dragon’s hide grew blacker and warmer. If she’d taken any longer her thighs would’ve been torched.

  The sound of gunfire crackled through the air while Sierra and Tommack hid on the other side of the unperturbed dragon. One swing of its tail knocked away an entire line of the soldiers, sending them and their weapons scattered all over the docks.

  Sierra and Tommack came around in time to see a group of them, including Portia Illiam, making a run at the ramp leading onto the ship. The other dragon with the raiders on its back swooped over the steam ship’s deck and settled right in front of the ramp, perfectly blocking their path. Another soldier raised the barrel of a gun at the fierce-looking lizard with its huge head and protruding teeth, only to be impaled on those teeth a moment later after it took a swift bite.

  It looked for all the world like the dragons had their foes blocked off and cornered, except that Sierra’s father was still trapped in the middle of it. If the dragons began their attack, there wasn’t much chance he’d be spared.

  “We’ve got to get him out of there!” Sierra told Nemi, who was perched on her shoulder. The stunned soldiers wouldn’t stay that way for long, and the sounds of commotion on the ship started to filter through to them. There wasn’t going to be a better chance to take advantage of the disarray than now.

  Sierra raced around the dragon’s hind end, hurdling over its tail on her way to the dozens of people scattered along the port. Tommack was right on her heels, and Razi and her raiders got to the ground in time to accompany their charge. In front of Sierra, one of the soldiers on the ground meekly raised his weapon, but Sierra kicked it away and Nemi tore out his neck as they continued on.

  “Dad!”

  “Sierra!”

  A ways in front of Sierra, her father rolled onto his stomach and got to his knees. He had about a yard of open space, and Sierra sprinted forward, hoping she’d be able to spirit him away into the alleys before anyone noticed. But she was so preoccupied with focusing on Lowell that she didn’t see someone careening toward her from the side. One of the soldiers knocked her against the hard ground, but Tommack caught him and punched his face
before he could do more damage to her. A melee quickly developed as the soldiers gave up their guns in close quarters for knives and fists. Lowell took one of them down by kicking out the back of his knee, but otherwise he was caught in the middle of it.

  The dragons used their long necks and tails to fend off anyone who came near them. Razi and Maglum lifted Hinkalo and used him as a human ramrod before drawing their weapons and engaging the enemy individually. And Sierra kept her eyes on her father, who was essentially helpless with his hands tied behind his back. She’d nearly reached him when Portia Illiam stepped in the way with a slim white pistol in her hand.

  “Your family is so predictable. Whenever there’s some shit going on, you’re at the center of it,” she said.

  Behind Portia, Velo Wozniak appeared next to Lowell and clubbed him with a soldier’s baton. Grimacing, Lowell staggered to the side and dropped, blood visible on his lower lip and chin. Portia’s gun left Sierra with no choice but to stop, but it seemed her adversary didn’t even notice Tommack, who rushed around to take on Velo himself.

  “A lot more of the Illiam empire will have fallen than that stupid statue by the time we’re done with you!” Sierra spat at her, hoping to keep her talking. Given enough time, Tommack could take out Velo and come back for her, or Nemi would return to help her. Sierra watched as Tommack took a shot on the shoulder from the baton, grabbed Velo by his silver suit jacket, and pushed him back toward to the dragon by the ship. Sierra would’ve loved nothing more than to see the kingpin of steel consumed by a creature that could melt the stuff.

  “This was a clever trick to get us over here, but your insipid mother threw it away. After talking herself in circles and then offering the big gas bag to us, it was too obvious that something fishy was going on.”

  “Too bad you’ll never see the end of it,” Sierra said.

  In the distance, Tommack and Velo wrestled beside the massive dragon blocking the ramp to the ship. Sierra momentarily worried the dragon would chomp down on them both, but it seemed more preoccupied with things being thrown at it from the ship’s deck. Bodies crossed her line of sight, making it difficult to see, but it looked like Velo punched Tommack in the chest, and when Tommack attempted to retaliate, something slipped out from under his jacket.

  The glass jar half-full of liquid immediately became Tommack’s focus of attention, which he fumbled against his knees. When he finally caught a hold of it, Velo grabbed him by the forearms and slammed him against the side of the dragon. The glass shattered, spilling the alcohol inside all over the side of the dragon and the ground.

  Velo looked at his hands, smelled them, and somehow his words made it to Sierra’s ears.

  “Hydrogen peroxide.”

  The dragon, suddenly convulsing in spastic motions, released a furious, blood-curdling screech. A massive sore developed on its side that ate through flesh until the bones of its ribcage were visible. It twisted, knocking Velo and Tommack down. It flapped its wings twice but fell flat against the stone pathway, wheezing.

  The commotion had a profound effect on the other dragon, which must have sensed the danger and didn’t hesitate to make an escape. Sierra heard it roar once it was safely in the air. Nemi was nowhere to be found, probably flying away with it.

  It wasn’t until the colossal dragon had died from its wounds that Sierra discovered Portia was no longer standing right there in front of her. A number of soldiers were dragging her and Sierra’s father along the cleared pathway to the ship. Razi and her raiders had moved closer to the safety of the alleys, leaving no one to block their path but Tommack, who appeared in a daze and was sitting cross-legged. They picked up Velo and left Tommack where he was.

  “Dad!” Sierra screamed as he was carried up the ramp and onto the ship. When the sailors were all on board, they let the ramp drop straight into the sea, and the sounds of the ship’s furnace coming to life echoed in her ears. From up on the deck, Portia showed her miserable face, which at the moment seemed all too pleased.

  “If you want this dump and your made-up titles here, you can have them,” Portia hollered. “Say goodbye to Daddy, little Sierra. We’re going to have a lot of fun with him.”

  Sierra couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. The ship slowly started to drift away once puffs of smoke started spewing from its stacks. She took another look at the giant, beautiful creature lying dead along the port and then glanced at the sorry excuse for a man seated by the edge. Bodies were all over.

  Unconsciously walking to the man who had said he wanted to be with her, she found herself collapsing onto him in something between a tackle and a fall.

  “You ruined everything!” she cried, beating her fists against his chest.

  CHAPTER 12

  The Lus had arranged everything for Randall through their partnership with the Megga Media Corporation, but that didn’t mean the accommodations were nice or the traveling was smooth. The two journalists conducting the surreptitious operation out of a van that was little more than a motorized wagon knew all too well the ridiculousness of what Randall pursued. He was launching a campaign that didn’t exist for an election that wouldn’t happen in a country he didn’t belong to.

  But all the journalists wanted was a good story to report for their network, and they were more than eager to escort Randall around and record him. At the moment he was in a damp cave seated on a stool in front of a large copy of Cumeria’s jade and fuchsia flag. The spotlight situated by the camera was blinding, surely enough to incinerate his retinas by the time he finished recording his first video.

  “We’re almost ready,” said Dodson, a middle-aged man with beady eyes, a bandana holding back longish, graying black hair, and a belt adorned with at least six notepads. He was adjusting the cables on the video camera for the satellite uplink.

  “Can you tell me more about the fighting that’s going on in Cumeria after the fall of the ClawLands?” Randall asked, trying to keep everything straight in his head. His memorized remarks weren’t a problem, but even being away from the country for a month made him feel like he was completely out of touch. Of course, that was the month after Chancellor Aggart had taken control, Bracken’s energy empire went down, and the country’s economy imploded.

  “It’s simple,” Dodson said, glancing up from the cables running along the slick rock in the cave. “The infighting between premier families and the destruction of your power plants set off a chain reaction around the country, where various communities were suddenly cut off from basic necessities for living. Food, clean water, steel, medical supplies, banking, energy—all of these things were used by their controlling powers as leverage to demand obedience from groups of people. Many of the smaller towns and less powerful families resisted, opting to steal and pillage what they needed, of course leading to violence. Chancellor Aggart then used the Vendetta Clause as justification for sending in the Cumerian Guard to beat them down with impunity.”

  Randall leaned back and covered his mouth. The Vendetta Clause was one of the nation’s founding principles and was written into nearly every law. It read, “This law is null and void if the transgression mirrors an identical act against the offender.” The clause amounted to a legal pass for individuals to exact revenge for wrongs committed against them, but for the chancellor to lean on it in order to pick winners in a civil war among families and townships was monstrous.

  “And how am I supposed to get these people to listen to what I have to say?” Randall wondered aloud, trying to breathe easy and gain the calm confidence needed to be persuasive on camera.

  “Getting people to listen won’t be hard. From video and print all the way down to town criers and newshounds, we’ll get the word out for you. Making them agree with you will be something else entirely. Some of these folks want to get back to the way things were, sure, but many are quite comfortable with how things are now, especially those making a profit on the killings by selling scouting services, homemade weapons, or thievery. The old ranks of investors, mergers, an
d buyouts have given way to the new economy of perpetual war. But when you boil it down, you’re really only trying to get the attention of one man anyway.”

  “Chancellor Aggart.” Randall nodded, picturing the grizzled mug and burly shoulders of a man who looked more like a back-alley brawler than a politician. Randall got elected to the Grand Council where good looks and a silver tongue were essential tools of the trade, but Aggart was a vestige of older days long before the wire wars when leaders were picked based on who survived a particular battle. He’d been elected to one of the council’s coastal seats after transforming his fleet of battle-tested pirate ships into a global shipping operation. This was the man that Randall needed to defeat with a video clip shot inside a cave.

  “OK, we’re good to go. Do you want me to count it down for you?” Dodson said while his partner kneeled nearby to watch.

  “Just let me know when we’re on.”

  Randall only had time enough to take a deep breath before he got the nod from Dodson that they’d begun to film. Looking straight into the camera’s black lens, he tried to imagine seeing Aggart’s face there and enjoying how pissed off he’d become after hearing these remarks.

  “To every Cumerian from the Boiling Sea to the Still Sea, I come before you today to draw your attention to the truth staring us in the face. The Cumeria we know and love is gone. The dearth of resources, the fighting that rages across the land, and the questions we face about what will happen tomorrow are all symptoms of a deeper problem. Now more than ever, we face a failure of leadership.

  “Chancellor Aggart has turned his back on the values that Cumeria was founded on and led the country astray in a reckless bid to keep power. Dissolving the Grand Council might not seem like it’s had much of an effect, but the consequences have been all too real. Dead brothers and sisters, starving children, and punishment from a Cumerian Guard that was assembled to serve us.