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

by Jason Letts

  “Why don’t you come out here and tell me this yourself?” she shouted at the ramp, hands cupped around her mouth. Tris pulled rolled paper out of the tube and let it uncoil nearly to the ground. Sierra squinted, trying to make out what it was.

  “You’ve been looking for this, haven’t you? The Hockleys never had the schematics for the secret power grid. I did. And when the Wozniaks captured me I had no choice but to give it to them,” she explained.

  “This doesn’t look real,” Portia said.

  “That’s because it’s a copy. The Wozniaks already have control over the entire system, and if you don’t walk away they’ll leave the FarmFields in darkness forever. It’s time to unite under the Wozniaks and spare our people.”

  “No, this doesn’t look real,” Portia corrected Tris, pointing her finger at Sierra’s mother. “What made you think that you could bullshit me again for even an instant? Melody told me everything, and she’s probably back there laughing at you now for making a fool of yourself. Stop being a pawn pushing other people’s lies. It’s unbecoming,” Portia said.

  “It’s real,” Tris said, but even Sierra could see she was floundering and becoming nervous at the utter failure of her gambit. Velo Wozniak’s attempt to secure an easy way out of the battle couldn’t be attained through a surrogate’s bluff.

  “She may look bad, but you’re the real fool for sending her out here, Velo!” Portia shouted, taking a step closer to the ramp. “Are you unable to walk out and face your enemies yourself? I knew that the head of the Wozniak family could be a misguided prick, but I had no idea you were also such a bitch.”

  Footsteps on the ramp sounded immediately, followed by Velo Wozniak strutting in his silver suit. Angry, he was already pointing at Portia and running his mouth, though his words became garbled in the air. Arnold Keize, dressed for battle and with his sword at his side, trailed Velo closely.

  “Should we do it now?” Tommack asked. Tris and Portia were right out there, and both of them could be secured and carried away before Velo or any of the Illiam soldiers got close, but with all of them out in the open there was a chance that something even better would happen.

  “Let’s wait and see what happens. Between Keize, Velo, and Portia, one or more of them might not walk away from this,” she said. Of course her mother was in the mix as well and had nothing but a tube and a paper sheet to defend herself.

  “And you always have your little lapdog following you too. I hope Keize washes his hands after he wipes your ass,” Portia said, but she was fully aware that Keize carried a weapon he knew how to use. She backed up as Velo and Keize left the ramp.

  “You know perfectly well I have other people to do that,” Velo shot back. “You might find out what it’s like to have a friend if you stopped being such an icy wench. No matter how green your thumbs are you’ll never get any fruit out of those frozen ovaries.”

  “I know exactly what friendship means to you, waking up naked on cold cement to the smell of my own blood. And if you take another step forward I’m going to blast both of your balls off,” Portia said, suddenly producing one of the wired Lu guns from inside her jacket.

  As Tris’s eyes widened, Velo stopped immediately and put his hands up. Keize inched closer, his fingers grazing the handle of his blade.

  “I don’t think you’d be so confident if you knew what was waiting for you, my dear. Your memories will seem like fairy tales by the time me and all of my men are done with you,” Velo said.

  “I have had enough of your threats,” Portia said through her white teeth. She squeezed the trigger of the gun but nothing happened, and at almost the same moment a sudden loss of the floodlights left the entire area in darkness.

  “Now!” Sierra yelled to her crew, but she’d barely made it through the window and onto the sidewalk before an ear-splitting shriek ripped through the air. Razi and Tommack were around her, leaving her no option but to rush across the street. But she could already tell there were so many more footsteps ahead than there had been before. The Illiam army erupted into a roar as they surged forward.

  “Get behind the front lines,” Keize’s deep voice rang to Velo. Both of them must’ve cleared out quickly. All of a sudden Sierra felt an arm slap her chest and noticed Tommack break stride.

  “I’ve got her,” Tommack said, heaving as they continued to push across the street. There was no telling if they’d make it into the side alley in time. It was strange, but despite all of the guns there wasn’t a single pop of gunfire.

  “Mom!” Sierra said, barely able to discern the body slung over Tommack’s shoulder. She offered no response, which was enough to send Sierra into hysterics. Running and sobbing at the same time weren’t easy to do, and she barely noticed that they’d made it into the alley. They hadn’t used any of the gas bombs, which was good because the light might’ve revealed their presence.

  “Keep going. Around this way. Behind there,” Tommack said, taking charge after the panic prevented Sierra from thinking straight. The group continued on a few blocks before settling in some unknown location. Sierra gasped for breath, trying to make out where they were. But the sheer darkness made it impossible to make out anything more than the vaguest shapes.

  “Mom, please say something. I’m so sorry I let you go,” Sierra said, collapsing onto her knees. A faint light nearby caught Sierra’s attention; Razi smartly tied a rag around the end of her blade to fashion an impromptu torch. When she looked back, she discovered the body was not that of her mother’s at all.

  “I’m covered in blood,” Tommack noted with surprise.

  “Portia!” Sierra said as she took full stock of the woman lying against the exterior of a building before her. The Illiam matriarch’s mouth hung open and her eyes were wide. Blood followed a long gash running diagonally down her torso. It was the work of Arnold Keize, who hadn’t missed his chance to take advantage of the confusion. Portia pushed away the gun in her hand.

  “A shitty, shitty deal,” she muttered, looking at once beautiful as she always did but also tragic in a way that Sierra thought she could never feel considering all this woman had done.

  “What was the deal?” Sierra asked.

  “Kill them both without a word. They’d make great fertilizer,” Portia said. Her eyes lost focus and she was unresponsive when Sierra nudged her shoulder.

  Pulling her hand away, Sierra realized she had gone to After. The woman turned out to be a tortured soul, her drive for power linked to the atrocities she faced. One strike in the dark had done her in, and now there were thousands of people risking their lives for a corpse back on the boulevard. Sierra faced that direction and considered that her mother was still back there, caught in the middle of all of it.

  “I thought you said you had her,” Sierra snapped at Tommack. Frustration crept into her voice that Tris had slipped through their fingers.

  “I thought I did,” Tommack said. “We can’t go back in there looking for her.”

  It was a bloodbath, but the oddness of a complete lack of gunfire or any movement from the Leveler only made the situation more puzzling. The farmers with their swords and scythes might even have the advantage, but it didn’t matter what the dangers were. Trissandra Bracken would not face them alone.

  Pulling Legacy from its sheath, Sierra stared through the darkness at the fighting that raged down the street.

  “If there is any chance whatsoever that she’s still in there, I am not going to leave her. Whether you want to come with me is your choice, but mine will always be to protect my family.”

  Razi’s torch continued to cast a soft glow over the area. From their muted faces, Sierra had no idea what the others were thinking, but it didn’t matter. Even with a fresh reminder of death so close at hand, Sierra wouldn’t shy away from her responsibility to lead and protect her family. She set off for the heart of the fighting alone.

  “Sierra, wait!”

  The thick bass voice rattled Sierra and forced her to stop. It was more than fa
miliar; it was family. When she turned back, what she discovered was a pair of figures approaching the torch from the other side. The light brought detail to their faces, allowing Sierra to see her brother Taylor in Guard uniform, supporting her mother. The last time she’d seen Taylor was back in Madora a lifetime ago.

  “I don’t believe it,” she said, breaking into a run at the sight of them.

  “Whoa, careful with that thing,” Taylor said. Sierra returned Legacy to its sheath before wrapping them both in a relieved hug.

  “How did you get here?” Sierra wondered. It seemed miraculous that they were standing there in front of her. Tris had a beaming smile on her face.

  “I was hiding in the underbelly of the crusher when Tris went out. Then when the opportunity arose I managed to take advantage of the confusion and get her away from the street,” he said.

  “So you knocked out the lights? I have to say I’m impressed, although it was quite a shock to be suddenly lifted off my feet and carried away. But somehow I knew it was what had to happen,” Tris said.

  “But I didn’t do anything to the lights,” Taylor said.

  Sierra was getting choked up at the reunion, but they were still so close to danger and so far from understanding what was going on. With Razi leading the way, they started down the empty streets for the Spiral.

  “If you didn’t take out the lights, then what happened?” Sierra asked.

  “I have no idea.” Taylor shrugged his shoulders.

  “It couldn’t have been an accident. First we saw that Portia’s gun didn’t work, then the lights went off, and neither of them are working to this moment. Something is going on here. It’s like there’s a conspiracy to wipe out all of the advantages of each side.”

  Turning a corner, they came to Triton Kniviscent square and the foot of the Spiral. The place was a sprawling disaster of broken, mangled vehicles and rubble everywhere. Only the statue of Triton remained standing.

  “What happened here?” Sierra gasped. “This must’ve been the fighting we heard when we approached the city.”

  “The Wozniaks crushed the Guard, which had little chance against such bulky machinery. The Leveler rolled right over them, scattering any fleeing survivors. The Guard had attempted to inflate their numbers by pressing ordinary citizens into service, but it didn’t pan out by the time they needed to fight.”

  Sierra marveled at the wide open space littered with bodies and other debris. Huge tracks from the Leveler had torn apart the back of the lawn. Although Sierra was anxious to move on, Tommack stepped onto the square’s grassy middle and ran his hand over the ground.

  “There’s a great convergence at hand, and we’re far from done,” he said grimly.

  “Come on, let’s take up positions on the Spiral. Now that Taylor’s with us we might stand a fighting chance,” Sierra said, rubbing her eyes for a moment only to be jolted back at the call of her name.

  “Sirra!” Razi called, drawing their attention to more shadowy figures crossing the square from the north. Though the clouds above were thinning out and allowing more moonlight to filter through, it was still difficult to discern the dozen or so people making their approach.

  “It could be the Guard…‌or some of the Wozniaks,” Taylor whispered. The others behind Sierra drew their weapons, but the last thing she thought they needed was to waste their efforts on such a small band.

  “Stop where you are and state your allegiance,” Sierra called, her hand on Legacy’s handle. The sword would see blood before the night was over, of that much she was sure. The group ahead did stop, and for a moment Sierra wondered if they were preparing to charge. The possibility that they had functioning firearms also crossed her mind, but what struck her ears was even more alarming.

  “Bracken!”

  Sierra looked at Taylor and Tris, all of them dumbstruck by the pronouncement. It almost seemed like a joke. Who wandering war-torn Toine would shout into the open that they were allied with the Brackens?

  “What?” Sierra asked, sure she misheard.

  “Damn it to After, Sierra. It’s your brother, Randall. Let’s cut the interrogation and get out of here.”

  Sierra’s mouth dropped open. She’d known Randall was in Toine, but to see him right there and perfectly intact was overwhelming. When the groups met, she saw that her old boss Ralph was with them as well. He looked old and tired compared to when he was a fixture of Ristle’s legal scene, but he had found a way to survive.

  “The Wozniaks and the Illiams,” Sierra said, glancing over her shoulder.

  “I know,” Randall said, stopping her. “We were hiding underground until everything seemed silent above, but I guess that wasn’t the last of it. We’d better take cover quickly.”

  “Whoever comes out of that fight victorious is going to move on the Spiral. That’s where we’ll have to make our last stand. At least you brought some friends with you,” she said, noticing the haggard group that arrived with Randall and the noxious smell of what seemed to be some cleaning chemicals.

  Leaving the square lawn and ascending the ramp at the base of the Spiral, they shared the surreal feeling of having all surviving members of the family together again.

  “But I can’t shake how strange it was that both the Leveler and the guns stopped working at roughly the same time,” Taylor said. As they climbed higher, they could look over the railing and see glimpses of the ongoing commotion on the southern end of town.

  “The Leveler contains electronic systems provided by the Lus. Velo Wozniak could’ve never put something like that together by himself,” Tris said, remembering what Keize had told her. Now the great Leveler looked about as useful as a giant paperweight.

  “They were responsible for the weapons provided also,” Sierra noted. “They are definitely playing both sides, but the question is why.”

  The assertion got Randall’s attention. His face slackened and he leaned against the railing for a moment before continuing on.

  “What is it?” Taylor asked.

  “They have been playing all sides. The last time I heard from her she wanted me to hand over our property in the ClawLands where the old towers and factory are. I couldn’t figure out why they wanted that,” Randall said.

  “Probably because the Lus caught me snooping around on the wire from an old relay shed and didn’t want anyone else to have access that could potentially lead to information about what they were doing,” Sierra added.

  “But there was something else too. She gave me a phone she could use to keep track of me, but the last time she called it struck me how the signal and her voice were unusually clear. It was almost like she wasn’t halfway around the globe,” Randall said.

  They’d stopped about three-quarters of the way up the Spiral at a spot that gave them a perfect view of the square, the western end of the city, and the land beyond. In the distance there was an unusual glimmer of light, as if the stars in the clear sky were falling through the narrow center of an hourglass and spreading out on Iyne. Taylor’s mouth dropped open at the countless little lights slowly inching toward them.

  “The Lus set up the Cumerian premier families so they could pull the plug later when they made their own claim to control the country,” he said.

  Sierra found it hard to breath. She put both hands on the railing and gaped openly at countless lights sweeping in from the distance. Whether they were lanterns or lights, she couldn’t say, but it meant that a force larger than any she had ever seen were staking claim to a country they already had technological domination over.

  An ajar door behind them creaked open, nearly startling Sierra enough to make her jump over the edge.

  “So you’ve finally figured it out,” called a sly voice from the dark room behind them. Sierra couldn’t see a thing inside or grasp any clue who might’ve been comfortable occupying a space so void of light.

  “Qi Ptock,” Randall said, his voice nearly a growl.

  A thin man with a goatee materialized in the doorway, gr
inning and wreathed in shadow. Sierra had never been face to face with this man before, but she was well aware of the role he played in tripping up Randall and dispelling the Grand Council.

  “The entire time you were harping about Aggart being behind the takeover, I was laughing myself silly. Are they blind? Can’t they see who is spinning this spider’s web? Chancellor Aggart never had the foresight to weave a plot like this. He was a blunt instrument, needing only a prize to be dangled in front of him to burst into action. The thought never crossed his mind that he was purposely destabilizing the country so that the Lu Dynasty could cement more direct influence,” he said.

  His confidence was revolting. Sierra needed time to figure out what to do. The longer they waited around, the more time they gave the Lu army to take up root in the city.

  “I knew there was something between you when Angela told me to nominate you as grand justice,” Randall said.

  “And yet you did nothing. Or to put it more precisely, there was nothing you could do. And it was a great ploy. Who would’ve suspected that the Lus had already landed and were making their way across the country if they were tacitly supporting a new government?”

  To Sierra’s surprise, a man with a bristly white beard who was taller than any of them spoke up.

  “The Cumerian nation will never submit to being occupied by a foreign power,” he said in a thick, scratchy voice. A smarmy grin emerged on Qi Ptock’s tan face.

  “If that’s what you think then you have sorely misjudged the situation. Look down there where the two greatest powers of Cumeria are hacking each other to pieces. The Guard never had the numbers to be a real player and is now virtually non-existent. And if you’ve thrown in with the Brackens, you’ve cast your lot with a noisy mouse when sauruses abound. The Lus have been the silent rulers of Cumeria since the Wire Wars, and they have only now come to take their rightful place,” Ptock said.