by Viola Grace
Needing help to free her creation, Rain turns to an agricultural specialist who has more than furrows on his mind.
After centuries of waiting, Rain has an opportunity to retrieve a creation that she designed and it means far more than a simple machine should. Her memories are wound around the weather machine and it has been used to destroy the natural order of Jarko.
When she completes her introduction to the local mayor, he ends up leaving office suddenly and his replacement is first a member of the Citadel before he is acting mayor. He is more than willing to help her with the weather machine. Of course, being from the Citadel, there will be a price, but Rain has learned that there always is when it is for something she really wants.
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Rain of Tears
Copyright © 2013 Viola Grace
ISBN: 978-1-77111-547-6
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Rain of Tears
Tales of the Citadel Twenty-two
By
Viola Grace
Chapter One
The dust puffed up with every step Reyan took. She shook her head at the arid landscape. They had really let this place go to hell since she was last here.
Three hundred years ago, the inhabitants had begged for her help when their weather-control machine had stalled out. The rest of the world of Jarko suffered because the people of this small corner of the continent liked to screw with nature. Reyan considered it her personal mission to keep the weather patterns even so that everyone got a chance at a harvest.
The people of Nekahar were jerks, there was no doubt about it, but the predictable weather brought settlers by the hundreds.
Reyan stopped and drank some water, hitched the bottle back onto her belt and walked into the city.
The guards at the gate stopped her. “Halt, we are on water rations. If you need food or water, you will have to pay.”
She grinned. “I accept your conditions, now let me pass.”
They could only see the lower half of her face. The marks that the Ichadran scientists had designed her with were an experiment and were also worn by her younger sister, the Destroyer. Her forehead was dotted with a very feminine pattern and her cheeks were streaked with silvery tears. Combine it with her pale blue eyes with their dark blue rings and her pale lavender hair, there was only one person she could be, the Rain.
There were three worlds in this system and Jarko was where she was able to do her best because of their screwy weather system.
The guards let her in after telling her that free food and water would be available in the central arena as a method of calling the rain.
As she passed through the city, she noted the signs of poverty, the abuse of authority and the degradation of society that always came with the drought. Those who couldn’t run, rotted.
She would do what she could, but unless they let nature take its course, they were doomed to repeat the cycle.
“As you know, we have fallen on hard times. Our efforts to repair the weather unit have failed and help is still months away. All we can do is beg the rain to return and hope that it will stay with us until the harvest is in. One good season is all we need, so rain, if you are listening, come to us!”
Reyan milled with the other travellers who had arrived in the city. She asked the man next to her, “Do you know how often they do this?”
“They started last year when the machine first malfunctioned. When did you get in?”
“This afternoon. Why?”
“They have a special treat for newcomers, but you can only claim it once.” He moved away from her, and she could see him radiating fear.
Cocking her head, she noted the guards who had seen her in were pointing her out to arena staff.
This was what she had been waiting for. The horror that had been whispered through the nearby areas, spread by those who had run, told of brutality in an effort to bring the rain.
When the arena guards came up to her, she cocked her head politely. “What can I do for you?”
“You are the latest person to enter Nekahar city. We would give you a personal gift in thanks for your presence here.” They spoke politely but gripped her upper arms as they steered her to the stage where a mournful song was playing in an effort to call down tears from the sky.
“Hey, what?” They strapped her to a board, tilted her upside down until her head was in an empty tank.
They started to fill the tank, telling the crowd about the necessity of calling rain with death and water.
Reyan watched impassively as the water crept over her eyes, nose and mouth. She had no need to breathe constantly. It was one of the perks of being designed to survive.
She remained upside down for five minutes, making an effort to go limp in her bonds. When they tilted her upright again, she looked the announcer in the face and spewed a long stream of water at him. Reyan snapped the cuffs easily and stepped down. She pulled her hood back and glared at those around her. “You have been killing? For this rotted city?”
She shook her head. “Take me to your controllers, mayors or whatever you have this time around. Touch one more traveller and I will bring clouds, I will bring wind and there will be lightning through this city until everyone runs.”
The announcer looked confused, but she quickly gathered a cloud and brought a crack of lightning down in the arena, causing an explosion of the wall and sending dozens scurrying for their lives.
“Now, please. I am running out of patience, and I have offered you a lot already.”
She started to raise the wind. Dirt kicked up in the arena and the guards who had led her to be killed now bowed and offered to show her where she could meet their leaders.
Jarko turned but the stuffed idiots at the top remained the same. She followed the men to their mayor.
“Rain, you have come at last.”
The mayor of Nekahar was a gusher. He offered her a glass of water, and she deliberately picked her canteen off her belt and drank.
“Your little show in the arena would have killed me, as it has so many others.”
He winced. “Ah, that. Well, the populace needs to see that we are trying everything.”
“Why not hire a repair crew from one of the passing ships?” Reyan looked at the opulent surroundings.
“We have nothing to offer them. There is no bank left, no city coffers.”
Reyan looked over his clothing and noted that it was not frayed but neat and new. No stains, no tears and no marks of the endless dust that had worn its way into the clothing of almost everyone in the city. “I see. What do you expect me to do?”
He blinked at her as if she was an idiot. “Bring the rain.”
Her laugh was derisive. “If I bring the rain in the cur
rent state, the soil will wash away. All of the ditches have filled in with dust, the farms are empty and I doubt that you have any seeds left. What good would it do?”
He stiffened. “We have seeds. We have carefully tended our seed stocks, and we still have enough left to plant enough crops to feed half the current city.”
She paced and sat on the edge of his desk, flicking a button on her leather coat. “So, you have withheld planting stock on the off chance that murdering travellers would get my attention. What happened to the money?”
“We don’t need to get into that.”
“Oh, we do. Your clothing is pristine, none of the marks of prolonged exposure to dust are visible. Your office is opulent, and the water tanks hidden in the walls are completely full. Where has the money gone, Mayor Tethnib?”
“None of your business. Help us! Bring the rain!”
She picked up a paperweight and wondered how long it would take for him to hear his own voice echoing across the city through the loudspeaker system. “Why the sacrifices?”
He snorted. “To be honest, the first ones we drowned were researchers from other cities that told us the weather system should never be repaired. How could they say that when their own crops were fine?”
“I went to them to keep the balance. Your city has been messing with the natural order of things, and unless your people impeach you or dismiss you and bring someone practical to the table, I will not help to restore balance.”
He blinked and cocked his head at a sound from outside. “What is that?”
She smiled, “The roar of a crowd. I believe that you have a few minutes to clear out. I would pack carefully.”
He didn’t understand what she was saying until the doors burst open and he was hauled bodily down to the streets below. Death by trampling was an ancient death and a messy way to go, but the people of Nekahar seemed to bring it back with gusto.
Chapter Two
Reyan played with the ornate crystal paperweight until there was a knock at the door.
“Come in.”
A man came in, his dirty rags gave off a rather appalling scent, but his shoulders were straight and there was the gleam of intelligence in his eyes. Surprise took over his features. “You are the Rain?”
“I am. You are the new mayor?”
“Unrik Hobbs. Mayor elect or mayor by acclimation. I am not quite sure how it worked. I just know that they came to get me and told me I was the new mayor and I had to negotiate with you.”
“He had you imprisoned?”
“Me and anyone else who tried to get the people out of this city and out to the countryside where nature still ruled.”
She cocked her head and got off the mayor’s desk. “Then, take your seat and prepare to learn. This city is going to go in the direction I have tried to steer it for over three hundred years.”
He blinked and gingerly sat at the desk.
Reyan reached into her pack and unrolled the plan that she had carried with her for the last six months.
“What is this?” Unrik pointed at the large, round object drawn outside the city gates, larger than the city by half again.
“That is the new farm centre. It will be domed, sealed off from outside weather patterns and your weather machines can do what they like to run crops year round.”
He looked, nodded and dug in the desk for a pen and a straight edge. He started to measure it out and section it, making notations for crops.
“The dome can house four farming families with the equipment that is needed to run the farms. It is twenty-five kilometres across.” She kept playing with the paperweight, enjoying the glitter of light in the polished glass.
He sat back and dropped the pen. Depression cascaded over his expression. “We can’t do it. We have neither the money nor the materials to get this dome in place.”
She nodded. “Can you find four families to man the farms?”
He shrugged. “Easily. There were four families chained up next to me.”
“Good. I will make the other call. The Sector Guard will be dropping the dome in two days.”
He ran his hands through his grubby hair. “You don’t understand. What will we pay them with?”
She smiled brightly at him. “Me.”
Reyan was tired of constant, fussy maintenance, and she wanted a change of scenery. The Sector Guard had tracked her down, and once she reset the weather on Jarko, she would leave the people to live or die on their own and trot off to a Citadel to learn of other worlds that could use her particular touch.
Her youngest sister was now with the Citadel, and Destroyer’s note had made her smile. They enjoyed a strange relationship, Rain was designed first, but had been created second. Her aim had been nature manipulation instead of destruction. Even Elemental had been found and was now in a Citadel where she was dispatched with her partner.
If the Citadel was good enough for her sisters, it was good enough for her.
She looked out the window and called the rain. The ground would need a start with extra humidity before the dome dropped.
“You do realise that the city will now be exposed to the standard weather patterns of this area? You will always have enough food and water, but you need to alter your clothing for the wind storms that were endemic to this area before the city was built.”
“I understand.” Mayor Hobbs brushed at his clothing.
She chuckled. “There is a shower behind you to the left. I had a chance to explore earlier. If you want to change clothing, there is another panel on your right. He was tubbier and shorter than you, but they will do in a pinch. Would you like me to see if one of your voters can find you something?”
He opened the panel with the previous mayor’s clothing. “Please. It looks like a peacock barfed in here.”
She chuckled at the image and headed out the door while he headed for the shower and started scrubbing.
The guards on the outer door surprised her. “Your new mayor needs clothing that fits.”
One of them nodded and trotted away. The remaining guard stared at her. “You are really causing the rain right now?”
She shrugged. “Everyone has their talents. That is one of mine.”
“You have others?”
She grinned. “I have a wicked poker face.” She winked and returned to the mayor’s office.
Hobbs left the bathroom wearing only a towel. He stopped short when he saw her. “Rain, you are still here.”
“One of your guards is going to do some shopping for you.” She whistled and sat on the couch. “So, when were you going to tell me that you are a Citadel rep?”
He jolted. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You are not from Jarko. The sun hasn’t beaten your skin. The latent mineral content in the food and water hasn’t whitened your nails. So, why are you here?”
Unrik paused, a smile slowly crossed his features. “You are very good. Your sisters didn’t spend much time with living beings, so no one knew how savvy you would be.”
She snorted. “Not a flattering assessment but fairly accurate. I was the only one designed for interaction with the public.” Reyan laughed. “I have people skills, though I rarely use them.”
He nodded. “Why did you wait so long to come here?”
Reyan arched her brow and began to pace. “This city has been the pain in my ass since they started with the weather machine. I have been travelling the rest of Jarko, mitigating the disaster that they created. By altering the weather patterns, they have alternately sent the rest of the world into drought or flooding. I have spent the last three hundred years pacing the land and fixing the weather as I go. I can’t keep up, so I have encouraged other continents to gather their settlements in areas that are easy to maintain until we can settle this damned city.”
“You feel very strongly about this.”
“Not only has this weather machine killed folk here, under the guise of summoning me, but it has caused starvation and disease across the rest o
f the world. I find that hard to forgive, but killing all the folk here just seemed a little extreme somehow.”
“So, you just got here from…”
“The northern continent. It takes me a while to walk since this city has ceased to produce or import any tech that would benefit the rest of Jarko. With the wild weather, there has been uncontrolled corrosion and destruction of the tech. This city used to be a hub of importation.” She stood next to the window and looked out over the neglected buildings through the light haze of the rain.
“Who contacted you?”
“Oh. A year ago, a shuttle landed and messengers brought a representative to me. It was a woman with a crystal around her neck. I think her name was Soul Keeper. She gave me a tiny com unit and an offer. They would provide whatever I needed to stabilize Jarko and I would offer myself to the Citadel.”
Mayor Hobb looked at her with wide eyes. “Did she know who you are?”
Reyan shrugged. “I doubt it. Few off Jarko know who or what I am. Did you know before you arrived?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “No. I learned of you just before I was arrested. I knew about the Destroyer, but I didn’t think there was another Ichadran here.”
Reyan could taste the dust in the rain as it watered the land at long last. “Why are you here?”
“I am an agricultural specialist. I was supposed to be helping the locals build a hydroponic system that would sustain the population. Well, until the former mayor tossed me in prison. I must thank you for your timely appearance, by the way. They were about to dose me and drown me in the square.”
A knock on the door distracted them both.
Reyan walked over and opened the heavy wood door, taking the bodysuit with a smile. The guard was soaked and grinning from ear to ear. He winked and bowed low as he resumed his post at the mayor’s door.
Smiling, she closed the door and ended up face to chest with Unrik. It was a very distracting chest. “Oh. Uh, hello. Here is your clothing.”