by O. J. Lowe
Innocence Lost.
The Spirit Callers Saga #4
By
OJ Lowe
Text copyright © 2018 OJ Lowe
All Rights Reserved
The events and characters depicted within this book are all works of fiction. Any similarity between any person living or dead is coincidental.
First Published 2018 as Innocence Lost.
Contents.
Contents.
Chapter One. The Wedding of Meredith Coppinger.
Chapter Two. Vazara is Burning.
Chapter Three. The Reformation.
Chapter Four. The Recruits.
Chapter Five. The Mission.
Chapter Six. Sore Points.
Chapter Seven. Back to the Battlefields.
Chapter Eight. Scorpions and Sand.
Chapter Nine. Doors Not Closed.
Chapter Ten. Process of Elimination.
Chapter Eleven. Rocastle’s Secret.
Chapter Twelve. Creating the Unstoppable.
Chapter Thirteen. Into the Green.
Chapter Fourteen. The Harshest Lesson.
Chapter Fifteen. Running Blind.
Chapter Sixteen. The Trove.
Chapter Seventeen. A Prelude to a Hunt.
Chapter Eighteen. The River Runs Deep.
Chapter Nineteen. Campfire Tales.
Chapter Twenty. Last Rites.
Chapter Twenty-One. Jungles and Dragons.
Chapter Twenty-Two. King of the Plants.
Chapter Twenty-Three. Cradle to the Grave.
Chapter Twenty-Four. Shock Above the Sands.
A Note from the Author.
Also, by the Author.
About the Author.
Chapter One. The Wedding of Meredith Coppinger.
“I understand, Agent Caldwell, that you do not wish to be a part of this raid. I really do. I understand that it doesn’t sit right with you that we are going to disturb your nieces wedding. I also understand that we have a chance to capture Coppinger here and now. We cannot turn that down. And although you might not be there, a familiar face might be good. It might help calm a tense situation. You have the interests of all parties at heart here. That makes you the perfect candidate to lead it.”
Edict from Brendan King to Agent Connor Caldwell, aka Collison Coppinger ahead of raid on the Dupree/Coppinger wedding celebration.
It should have been the happiest day of Meredith Coppinger’s life. The day that she married the love of her life, the moment they declared their feelings for each other in front of friends and family, an elaborate ceremony to show their dedication to one another and their desire to spend their life together. That had been the plan.
There should not have been uniformed men and women with blasters currently breaking up her reception, forcing their guests to the wall to be searched. One of those men should not have been her Uncle Collison, big and beefy with the Unisco vest covering his ample midsection, a recognisable figure amidst the chaos. He’d been the one to approach her with the warrant, had slapped it into her chest without even a hint of decorum. He was lucky she hadn’t tried to hit him with something. Lydia, her beloved, looked furious about the whole thing and had since stormed off, leaving just the two of them alone.
“My sincerest apologies,” he said. “We’re looking for your mother.”
“And you thought she’d be here?” Meredith couldn’t quite keep the contempt out of her voice.
“Her only daughter’s wedding? It is the sort of crazy thing she’d do.”
“My mother’s not crazy!”
“She’s responsible for the deaths of dozens of people. Minimum. She did it in front of the kingdoms for an ill-defined reason. She murdered Ronald Ritellia for Divines sake!”
“Nobody’s going to miss him.”
“Perhaps not, but there were plenty of people there who will be missed. People had families and your mother broke them up with what she did!”
“Hey, my mother wasn’t the one who broke this family up though!” Anger rushed into her voice. “You’re the one who left this family behind, Uncle Coll, didn’t want to be a part of it. Or is it Connor now? I’m sorry, that never made much sense to me.”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time.” Collison rubbed the back of his head ruefully. “You look pretty, by the way Meredith. I’m sorry it had to be like this.”
“You didn’t go out of your way to stop it though, did you Unc?”
“Can’t. Kingdoms come first.” The level of arrogance in his voice was astonishing, the very idea that he’d picked Unisco over his own damn family made her want to puke over her radiant new wedding dress. “Your mother is the most wanted woman in the kingdoms right now. The sooner she’s locked up, the better. Things can go back to normal when that happens.”
“You didn’t rush to get her locked up though, did you? How long were you enjoying her hospitality before you turned on her?”
“Oh, you have spoken to her then?” His voice was savage, he gripped the back of the chair, his knuckles going white. “It’s not what you think, Meredith. You weren’t there. You know nothing, niece!”
“I know more than you think! And don’t call me niece! You lost that right long ago.”
“Meredith…” He was struggling now, she could tell, her words had hurt him, but she could see the hurt was genuine, the regret held no fakery in it. “It’s not like that at all. It’s never been like that.”
Her mother wasn’t there. Not now. Though earlier in the day, she had made her presence felt, Meredith had been placing her veil over her face and there she’d been, stood towards the back of the room with Domis at her side. She’d long since gotten used to seeing him wherever her mother went. Small woman. Large shadow.
She turned, not quite able to hide her grin. Their relationship had never been terribly close. In truth, she’d gotten the impression that her mother didn’t like her too much. If she looked closely, she could see the disappointment on her pointed features sometimes. It wasn’t her fault that Claudia Coppinger had wanted an heir to take over the company rather than fulfil her own dreams and live her own life. Shouldn’t she have been proud of her daughter regardless, rather than constantly make her feel like she was failing to live up to expectations? Meredith wondered if she was being hopelessly naïve, although if to want a mother’s love was naïve, she didn’t know what to think.
She’d come though, strode into the room like she owned it, took her daughter up into her arms and hugged her tight. Domis did his best not to acknowledge it, stayed staring impassively into space. He never showed much emotion where she was concerned. She got the feeling he didn’t like her yet had too much respect for her mother to do much about it. Good. The help should know their place. She often felt like her mother let Domis have free reign and that wasn’t right. It wasn’t even like he made the place look pretty. Granted, he was good in a fight. There’d been an attempt on her mother’s life some years earlier, the memories of what Domis had done to the assassin had never faded from memory. She hadn’t let it.
She’d never actually seen a human being broken in two before and it was the sort of memory that stuck with you. The sort of thought that lingered deep in the recesses of the mind, threatened to spill out when least you expected it. Every time she saw him, she saw him with the assassin’s neck in one hand, legs in the other. His weapon had dropped, he couldn’t have fought back if he’d wanted to. Her mother certainly wasn’t in any danger. In any sort of sense, there was no need for what had happened next. She could remember the look of concentration on Domis’ face as his muscles tensed and the assassin’s body went taut. Then the screams started, choked out through Domis’ grasp but recognisable as sounds of pure terror. He hadn’t let up; the sounds hadn’t abat
ed. Her mother hadn’t even moved to stop him. Why would she though? Her mother didn’t care. It had been a long time since she’d given anything close to resembling a fuck about anything that wasn’t the company.
Every time she thought back to that memory, she wished she’d closed her eyes. It wouldn’t have cut out the sound though. Wouldn’t have silenced the sounds of a spinal cord being torn to pieces, tendons and ligaments snapping, joints splintered to pieces. She wished she’d stayed home that day. Too many regrets. There hadn’t been many more trips out for a while after that, not while her mother had been engaged in a business war with Matthew Prince.
Meredith thought that’d surprise her mother if she knew her daughter knew that name. She’d always underestimated her. Never given her the credit. Maybe she thought her slow and stupid. A terrible view to have about your own offspring. Just because she wouldn’t didn’t mean that she couldn’t. Maybe she was being naïve again but there was more to life than flogging some monolithic company that was too big to fail. She didn’t want that to be her life. Never had. Never would.
Maybe with an attitude like this, it was a touch hypocritical for her to show up on what should be the happiest day of her life like nothing had ever gone wrong between them. Then again, what more could she expect? Expect nothing in this life, Meredith dear, and you’ll never be disappointed. Life won’t give you anything except a kicking when you’re down and it’s all about how you react. What sort of thing was that to say to a seven-year-old? Not one of her best memories and that was quite a competition to be found victorious in.
“Mother,” she said as they broke apart from each other. Meredith Coppinger could count on the fingers of her left hand the number of times she’d called her mum ‘mother’ in her entire life. It felt like as good a time as any. She saw her mum raise an eyebrow in bemusement. She hadn’t expected it. Amazingly, the smart comment hadn’t come her way. Mum always thought she was cleverer than everyone else in the room. It was probably that sort of thinking that had led to her becoming the most wanted woman in the five kingdoms.
“Meredith.” She could feel the eyes examining her, taking in every inch of her from her diamond-encrusted shoes, to her wedding dress, to the crystal bands that bound up her hair. All of this had been paid for before the troubles had started, thankfully. They couldn’t take it away from her. Not now. “You look very nice.”
She couldn’t even fake the emotion. Couldn’t do that for her own daughter on her wedding day. If she hadn’t spent all that time on her makeup, she might have shed a tear. As it was, she closed it all away. Stared at her with cool detachment. Mum could do it. Meredith could as well. They weren’t so different after all, as much as neither of them would ever want to admit it. Same DNA. Same basic molecular level. Older. Younger. Both stubborn as the hells.
“Thank you,” she said. “I didn’t think you’d come.”
“Oh Merry.” She hadn’t called her that for years, she realised with a jolt of surprise. Not since she was a little girl. The moment she’d reached her tenth birthday, it had stopped. A lot of the affection had ceased then. Probably about the time when she’d realised her daughter wasn’t ever going to be what she wanted her to be. “I wouldn’t have missed this.”
“Even though you don’t like Lydia?”
“I’ve never said that I don’t like Lydia.”
You’ve never needed to, Meredith thought. It’s been plain to see on your face. The look of disgust whenever she’s close to me. You think I don’t see it, but I do. I see more than you give me credit for, mum. You only see what you want to see, and you always have. It’s been your failing for as long as I can remember.
Instead she smiled. “I didn’t think you’d come though. Because of… Well, stuff.”
There it was, that curl of the mouth, a flicker of dismay that she’d come to recognise more than a smile. A smile would be just too nice of a gesture.
“Oh that,” she said, waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about that. It’s all in order.”
“Mum, you murdered a bunch of people. We saw you on the viewing screen!”
“Yes,” she said. “And what’s your point?”
What’s your point? She wanted to scream, bit her tongue to keep it from crawling out. Not on what should be the happiest day of her life. Her mum wasn’t going to ruin it. She wouldn’t ruin it. She’d call Unisco herself first, get them out here to throw her in jail. Maybe they’d toss away the key. She deserved to rot away where the sun didn’t shine.
It wasn’t worth disturbing the wedding. Domis would almost certainly defend her to the death. Probably theirs. She didn’t want another unsettling memory to add to the collection where her mother was concerned. Better just for her to leave as soon as possible. That’d satisfy everyone. Nobody needed die. Nobody needed disturb the proceedings. Things would be calm, it’d be a happy day and life would go on.
If I need to explain to you what my point is, you’re not going to get it so why should I bother? The words were on her lips, she let them die away. She wouldn’t waste her breath on the subject.
“Aren’t you worried about what’s going to happen if they find out you’re here?” That was about as diplomatic as she could be. “You could be arrested, or killed…”
“Yes, yes, I’m aware and that’d ruin your day so no doubt you wouldn’t want that to happen.” Mean, callous humour filled her voice, never mind that it was true, she wondered if it had been that obvious what she’d been thinking. Mum always had been able to read her too well. She didn’t like it, she’d tried to develop a better face for hiding it. Apparently, those efforts had been well wasted. Maybe Unisco would kill her and remove one massive problem from her life. She could live quite nicely off the credits left behind, well enough to forget the legacy of hate that would be left behind. “We might never see each other again after today, Meredith.”
Good! Here’s hoping. She set her face into a look she hoped came across sorrowful. She doubted it’d fool her for an instant, but she had to try and look sad, if nothing else. She owed that to herself.
Sometimes she wondered why she bothered making the effort. Part of her remembered the credits due to her on her mum’s death. That was part of the reason. The other reason, she figured, was she didn’t want to wind up like her. Cold. Emotionless. Cut off from those that she should love. A contrasting view, one that might have caused anyone to look at her with horror, but they’d never spent any amount of time with Claudia Coppinger and played her games. The one good thing all those deaths on Carcaradis Island would accomplish was telling the kingdoms that her mother was a bad woman, that she’d always been bad and now that evil had come to light. Vindication was the sweetest drug of them all. There’d been times, she’d wondered if it wasn’t her mother, it was her. Was she the bad one? A disappointment of a daughter? The words themselves had never been uttered, but the expression on mum’s face told no lies.
“I hope that isn’t the case,” she said. Voice neutral. Face neutral. Display absolutely no hint of emotion that will betray you. Domis still loomed. It wouldn’t take a lot to imagine him grabbing her up by the throat, squeezing and squeezing until her bones crumbled into dust. That’d dampen the day. She could be flippant about it, she didn’t feel that it was a true danger. Not now, not ever. Her mother might be capable of many things, but would she harm her own daughter? She found she didn’t want to know the answer. Ignorance covered a lot of sins and they were right when they said it was bliss.
Mum’s lips curled into a smirk. “Liar,” she said. Meredith didn’t blink. Let her think that she knew that. She was wrong in this instance. She very much did hope that she saw her mum again. Maybe when she went to trial. She’d be the first to volunteer a character statement against her. As her daughter, she felt her voice would ring the loudest in a courtroom.
“You’re wrong,” she said quietly. “Couldn’t be more wrong.”
As recent conversations between them went, this was one of the more c
ivil ones, she found. How upsetting would that revelation be to someone who hadn’t grown up with the relationship the two of them had shared?
“I’ll let you believe that, but you’re only fooling yourself, Meredith.” She drew herself up to her full height, eye-level with Meredith. A poisonous smile replaced the smirk. There was nothing in the eyes that she recognised, no love or affection, just bitter contempt. “I always had so high hopes for you and here we are.”
“I’d have thought you’d have been happy for me,” she said. “I’m making my own path.
“On my credits. That’s going now,” her mother said. “Your inheritance, it took a bit of a hit when the Senate seized Reims. This wedding…” She threw out a dismissive hand. “It’s the last thing you ever get from me. Sorry, sweetheart but this is the way it must be now. When I die, you get nothing.”
The apology sounded hollow, triumphantly pleased in the echo of the dressing room, dangerous satisfaction in the words. It might have been the roar of blood in her ears, ripping through her veins like a mag-rail.
“I wouldn’t say that,” she said eventually. “I wouldn’t say I get nothing. I’ll definitely get something I always wanted when you die.”
For the first time in ages, her mother looked curious by something she’d said. “And what’s that, daughter mine?”
“I’ll be free of you.”
The look on her face was priceless, Claudia Coppinger wasn’t a woman ever accustomed to looking like she’d been slapped. Some sights were worth waiting for. Hearing her shocked into silence was perhaps the greatest achievement of her life. Domis tensed up, a man ready to fight if ordered to. That single sight told her that maybe she’d overreached, taken it too far. She’d not known that was possible. Under normal circumstances, her mother had a composure of iron. Then again, these circumstances weren’t normal. Not even close. Things had changed too much in recent days.
“You’re an ungrateful little bitch!” There was the venom in her voice, the sort only reserved for special occasions. She’d heard it when her mother had forced her to work off her debts in the past, forced her to work fourteen-hour days in whatever pissing little jobs she could find at her company, anything to break her spirit, get her used to the monotonousness of a crappy life she’d never asked for and had never wanted. She’d wanted freedom, not a glorious prison cell. “After all I’ve done for you, after all I’ve turned a blind eye to… Hells, after all I’ve given you, this is how you repay me!”