Morindessa enjoyed walking along the scenic pathway. From the moment that Riah had taken her through the inner city, she had determined that she would live in Shalilayo. There were a few servants in the street below, as well as a few nobles transported on divans borne by slaves. In the daylight, the inner city was always bustling with activity. Nighttime was reserved primarily for scheming and parties. Around midnight, there would be a short burst of traffic as many of the revelers were transported back to their miniature palaces, but the rest of the night usually remained quiet. Nighttime was Morindessa’s element. She had spent most of her life sleeping in the morning, and organizing the evening’s work throughout the afternoon.
The palace was lit up like a piece of Prenium, glowing from hundreds of lanterns and torches. There was quite a bit of activity, more than likely resulting from the arrival of Thistledown’s party. The palace gates were kept closed, requiring proof of identity before the royal guard would admit anyone. Morindessa moved up to the sturdy wooden gates, and once again began changing their resonance until they resembled a liquid substance, held in place by the force of her yar alone. She pushed herself against the wood, and it opened around her as she squeezed through the now malleable substance.
“Did you see that?” one of the royal guards asked his fellow in astonishment.
“See what?”
“The gate just split open, and then closed!” the first guard exclaimed.
There was a laugh from behind the two guards. “It sounds like someone has been visiting the botanical shops.”
“I didn’t imagine it!” the first guard insisted angrily.
“Did you want us to go wake up Sergeant Grinther?” the second guard inquired in an amused tone. “I am sure he will be fascinated by your story.”
The first guard grumbled for a moment before settling down. Morindessa smiled. The citizens of Shalilayo were not accustomed to what they called ‘the arcane arts’. If they had been more aware of their yar, they would have sensed what their eyes could not see.
“What are you doing here?” a voice asked quietly, right next to her ear.
Morindessa’s heart skipped a beat before she realized that it was Thistledown. How does the little man move around without using his yar? Morindessa wondered in irritation.
“I need to have a little talk with Sentina,” Morindessa replied, trying to hide her previous surprise. “She has Ferrich on her hit list.”
“Hmmm.” Thistledown was quite for a moment. “You weren’t planning on doing anything permanent to her, were you?”
“Not really,” Morindessa replied with a smile. “I thought that we would just have a little chat where I could explain some ground rules for moving forward.”
“Is Ferrich all right?” Thistledown inquired.
“Yes,” Morindessa answered with another smile. “He has Riah and Lochnar watching over him. I don’t think he is in any immediate danger.”
“Good,” Thistledown murmured. “I have the children set up in some rooms inside the palace. We are going to make the announcement in the morning, when more of the nobles arrive.”
Morindessa nodded, forgetting that he could not see her. Then again, maybe he could see her. Who knew what Terrance and Thistledown were capable of?
“I’ll see you in the morning then,” Thistledown said by way of farewell. “Let me know if you have any trouble with Sentina.”
“She won’t be any trouble,” Morindessa replied confidently. “We’ve met before. Her older brother hired someone to kill her when she was still a child. I was on a job that night, and I did not like the idea of someone killing a child. You might say that Sentina owes me one.”
Morindessa moved up the stairs to the palace and walked through the broad opening. The security in the palace was tighter than Morindessa had ever seen it before. There seemed to be a guard on every corner. Morindessa slipped past all of them silently and began making her way up the round staircase that led to Sentina’s quarters at the top of the tower. Guards were stationed at regular intervals along the spiraling staircase. Sentina was certainly not taking any chances. Morindessa felt a familiar resonance ahead of her with her yar. It was a former pupil of sorts. Denrik sought out Morindessa after learning about her reputation. She had only acceded to teaching him a few techniques when she found him hanging over a palace wall; he was hiding from several royal guards. He had run out of strength and would have fallen had Morindessa not pulled him up. For some reason, he had never been able to feel his yar. Lochnar had told her the majority of humans could not use their yar.
Denrik was standing behind a statue that stood in an alcove. His eyes were searching the open space on the stairs, as if he were expecting someone. Morindessa had no doubt Denrik was Sentina’s main contact for hiring assassins. He was an opportunist and latching on to a powerful noble was his way. Morindessa decided to wait for Sentina to appear. A little more information on what the two of them had arranged might prove to be useful. Morindessa took up the place across the stairs from Denrik, watching him silently as he continued searching the empty stairs below them. He was definitely nervous about something.
A half an hour later, Sentina appeared, making her way up the stairs with an escort of four guards. She had grown up with the same broad-featured face that she had as a child. No one would ever accuse her of being beautiful, but she was not ugly. Her soft, brown eyes were her best feature. She wore a blue silk dress, with a large red ruby dangling between her breasts. One of the guards nearly tripped over Morindessa’s foot as he passed by. The small procession stopped at the entrance to Sentina’s chambers and two of the guards went inside. After several moments, they both returned.
“It’s clear, my lady,” one of the guards reported.
Sentina nodded and moved inside. Two of the guards stationed themselves outside of her chambers. The remaining two moved back down the stairs. Several moments passed before Denrik quietly moved out from behind the statue. He walked up to where the guards stood in front of Sentina’s door and made a curious salute. The two guards stepped aside and opened the door.
“A visitor, my lady,” one of the guards announced.
“Send him in,” Sentina’s voice called from inside.
Morindessa moved to follow Denrik before the door closed. Sentina sat at her mirror, brushing her long chestnut hair. Morindessa noticed that her hand was trembling slightly.
“What has happened?” Sentina asked coolly, masking her nervousness.
“Our assassin learned who his target was with before he attempted to kill him,” Denrik informed her in a frustrated voice. “He hired three common mercenaries to rush in after Ferrich instead. Needless to say, Morindessa killed them in less time than it would take you to squash a bug.”
“Does she know that we sent them?” Sentina asked. She set her brush down, trying to hide the trembling.
“It wouldn’t take very much reasoning to guess who was trying to kill Ferrich,” Denrik admitted. “Especially now that Captain Kerns has rescinded the order to have Ferrich brought back dead or alive."
“What should I do?” Sentina whispered. “I don’t have anywhere to go.”
“It wouldn’t matter if you did,” Denrik commented. “Morindessa would find you. I don’t foresee my own life lasting much longer either.”
As Denrik finished his sentence, Morindessa released a knot of air that she had set behind his ear. There was a small detonation and Denrik fell to the floor in a heap. Morindessa reached out with her yar and began changing the doors’ structure, until it looked like another piece of the wall. Furious pounding from outside gave evidence of the guard’s efforts to enter the room. Sentina was staring at where her door had been, her chest heaving with deep breaths. She looked around the room like a trapped rat and looked for her persecutor.
“We need to discuss a few things, Sentina,” Morindessa told the frightened princess, standing several paces in front of her. Sentina stared at the air in front of her where Morindessa’s
voice was emanating from.
“Morindessa?” Sentina’s voice was barely a frightened whisper.
“Yes. Morindessa,” the dark-haired assassin confirmed in a deadly quiet voice. “We need to discuss your next order to Denrik. I think that it would be wise to cease any further efforts to murder your brother. The only reason you are still alive is that he insisted that I let you live.”
“But he killed our father,” Sentina whispered. “Why would he spare me?”
“Your father died several years ago,” Morindessa told her. “Your father’s body was possessed by another spirit. The man you thought was your father was not even killed by anyone that you know; but that is all beside the point. Ferrich wants you to live because he wants nothing to do with ruling the Southern Realms, and he doesn’t want to start a war between the nobles with another succession.”
Sentina began weeping softly. Morindessa was uncertain if it was in relief or something else. “I didn’t want to kill him,” Sentina confessed after a moment. “I was just afraid he would try to kill me. I didn’t think that he would, but after news of my father’s death, I just didn’t know.”
“I am going to bring Ferrich back here to the palace tonight,” Morindessa told her coolly. “I would imagine you can explain things to him better than you could to me. We will see you in the morning.”
“Wait a minute!” Sentina cried out. “There is still another assassin after Ferrich. You didn’t leave him alone did you?”
“He is in much more capable hands than my own right now,” Morindessa assured her. Just the same, Morindessa decided not to take any extra time returning.
Moving over to the balcony, Morindessa changed the wall back into a door and the guards crashed through the door with their weapons drawn. Morindessa slipped over the balcony rail, using her yar to hold her against the side of the tower as she slid straight down. As she neared the ground, she increased the pressure of her yar against the wall, bringing her plummet to a graceful stop.
She moved quickly back through the streets, half-jogging back to the Silver Swan. As she neared the inn, she could feel Ferrich’s resonance burning brightly from her room, as well as Riah’s and Jesha’s. She felt a wave of relief wash over her. She had not doubted that Riah and Lochnar could keep Ferrich safe, but there was always room for accidents.
The common room was completely empty now; the front desk had a small bell for late arrivals to ring. She turned at the front desk and walked quickly up the stairs to her bedroom. Riah opened the door before she arrived, smiling out at her. Morindessa moved into the room to find Ferrich sitting in one of the armchairs with a relieved expression on his face.
“How did it go?” Riah asked her.
“She said she would behave herself now,” Morindessa informed them. “I told her we would stay the remainder of the night in the palace, and then talk with her tomorrow.” Morindessa suddenly noticed Lochnar was in the room as well, sitting in the armchair at the far corner. “Was there any trouble here? Sentina said there was still one more assassin on the loose.”
“There was one,” Riah said calmly. “He tried to get close to Ferrich. He said he had a message from you. Father appeared out of nowhere behind him and gave him an extra orifice. His body is a couple of streets over.”
Chapter 30
Lendel stood on a small patch of cloud and looked down at a large city far below him. He knew that there was something odd about sitting on a cloud in the sky, but he could not recall what. In the large city below were strange flying objects, some of which carried people. Bright green gardens peppered the entire city, giving one the idea the city had grown out of the ground. The buildings within the city certainly looked like no other buildings Lendel had ever seen. Many of the buildings resembled large, knotted tree stumps with doors shaped like knotholes on the sides. Green foliage covered other buildings. This succeeded in completely hiding the fact that they were buildings at all, except for the steady stream of people moving in and out. A medium-sized lake in the center of the city was laced with walkways that crisscrossed over the top of it. Small streams emerged from the lake to trickle down throughout the city, like a heart feeding the rest of the organism with lifeblood.
There was a relaxed, almost reverent, quality about the city. The citizens walked through the streets with none of the urgency that filled most cities. There were no shops for clothing, food or any other items Lendel could see from his lofty perch in the sky. Throughout the tranquil city, he could see people talking in small groups, their faces filled with varying degrees of interest.
Lendel could also sense other beings with his yar, hundreds of them scattered throughout the city. It took him a moment to realize they were Gorinthians.
“Salem, the City of Peace,” a voice behind Lendel clarified.
Lendel turned around to face the voice. A man garbed in a white robe sat behind him on a cloud of his own. The man's clean-shaven face was untouched by the years. His eyes were light brown, bordering on orange. He was gazing down at the city with a fond look in his strange eyes.
“Who are you?” Lendel asked, not really knowing why he asked. He did not feel any real curiosity. The question just seemed like a way to start a conversation.
“I am known by many names,” the man replied with a smile. “What do you think of the City of Peace?”
“Why are there Gorinthians all over?” Lendel asked with a small frown. Something about Gorinthians seemed wrong, though he could not remember what.
“They are there to protect the people from themselves,” the white-robed man said with another flash of teeth. “When a person tries to rape or murder another person, one of the Guardians will possess their body for a short time. When the person has calmed down, the Guardian releases the person. That way, there are no jails, no capital punishment and no crime. We have simply taken away the option to commit crimes.”
“Guardians?” Lendel asked, creasing his forehead in puzzlement. “I thought they were called Gorinthians.”
“That is what they are now.” Orange-brown eyes twinkled at him as if at a joke. “Once, they were known as Guardians and protectors of the people. That was before an evil man with no regard for a human’s right to peace and harmony did something terrible. He changed the Guardians so that when they possessed a human’s body, they expelled the current Spirit prematurely. After that, the Guardians had no purpose, no reason to live. That is when they began their war on humans, fighting for their right to a purpose.”
Lendel shook his head dazedly. What the man said sounded right, but Lendel felt like something was missing. It was as if his head had been stuffed in wool. Thinking took almost too much energy. He slapped his arm several times, hoping a little pain might induce more lucid thought.
“This was the only city of its kind,” the white-robed man continued, seemingly unaware of Lendel’s struggle. “The founders of this city wanted to prove to the world that men could live in harmony, while still remaining free. You see, when a person breaks a law in another city, they are punished for it. That does not fix the wrong they committed. As often as not, the person learns a few more bad habits from others like himself. Many of the people that commit crimes for their first time are good people who are just slightly out of harmony with society. By taking the choice away from these men to murder an innocent, we not only save the would-be-victim, we also save the would-be-criminal.”
“But these people have no freedom,” Lendel insisted. “They have lost their right to a choice.”
“Not true,” the man smiled widely. “They have every right to decide what they want to wear, what they want to study, where they want to live. They have the same choices any citizen has who obeys the law. They also have the right to choose to murder or rape someone. They just lack the ability.”
“If it was so perfect, why didn’t more people support it?” Lendel was not sure if he was asking the right questions. He felt like he was being force-fed everything he said.
“Indeed why?
” The other man stared down at the beautiful city with a sad smile on his face. “Politics is a weapon for the powerful to make the many feel like they are in control. When other cities saw how prosperous Salem had become, they grew jealous. This jealousy made it easy for other men to convince these cities that The City of Peace posed a threat to their own freedom. The rulers of the great cities of the world united against Salem, killing every man, woman, and child who would not renounce their belief in the City of Peace. These citizens were killed because they said they would rather die than live in the barbaric world of the past.”
Lendel mulled the information over, trying to find the reason his mind kept shouting out that this was wrong. “I think there is something wrong with the idea of taking away any of a person’s freedom, even the ability to choose wrong.”
The other man shook his head with a sigh. “You are just not getting it, are you? You are trying to protect the right of a person to rape and murder. If your sister was a victim of a rapist's disgusting appetites, would you still believe in that person's inherent right to choose to rape? Or murder? I understand your desire to protect a person’s right to happiness and well-being, but restricting a person’s right to heinous acts of aggression is not an infringement on those rights. It is a protection of those rights.”
Lendel nodded slowly. It did seem to make sense. He had never really thought about it in that light. Why should he protect a person’s right to rape or murder? “Why are you telling me all of this?” Lendel had no idea where that question came from.
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