The Bandit (Fall of the Swords Book 2)

by Scott Michael Decker

  'The Lady Fleeting Snow has arrived, Lord,' the servant sent.

  'Thank you, Sage.' Having instructed the servant to inform him of any new arrivals, Probing Gaze didn't begrudge the interruption. Stretching and standing, he began to traverse the meadow. Looking around the verdant valley, he smiled, at peace with himself.

  Up the slopes of valley were thick woods of fir and scrub oak. The valley floor was mostly wild grasses, manzanita scattered about. Along the south edge of valley was a stream, the quiet gurgle audible behind him. Across the valley, halfway up the steep slope, was the Bastion residence. From a quarter mile away, only a few straight horizontal lines implied that some force other than nature had been at work, so cleverly and skillfully had Guarding Bear designed and landscaped the mansion. Probing Gaze guessed the camouflage had been aesthetic rather than strategic, the purity of valley almost unmarred.

  Ahead in the grass was a rabbit. He stopped to watch it. Standing on its hind legs, it watched him. He began to make a circuit around it. As he moved, he noticed that the rabbit didn't. It was a statuette, carved from colored, veined stone that lent it the appearance of reality. I should have expected something similar, Probing Gaze thought, Guarding Bear's statues and statuettes renown for realism.

  While he walked across the meadow toward the mansion, the servant appeared again on the balcony. 'The Lords Searching Sight and Gentle Soul have arrived, Lord Gaze,' the servant sent. He then looked back over his shoulder. 'Others are arriving as well, Lord.'

  Probing Gaze acknowledged. Scanning the opposite ridge, he sensed two others approaching the mansion, both psychological Wizards by signature.

  The cabal assembles, he thought, smiling.

  Entering the mansion, he found the servant. “Sage, 'invite' all the guests to a conference in the refectory in one hour.”

  “Yes, Lord,” Sage said.

  “Which way to the rooms allotted Fleeting Snow?” Probing Gaze asked. Sage pointed the way.

  Approaching open door, Probing Gaze saw her at the window on the far side of room. He knocked, and she turned.

  “Infinite be with you, Lady Snow,” he said, bowing.

  “And with you, Lord?”

  “Gaze, Probing Gaze.” He thought about giving his rank, and decided rank was unnecessary for this undertaking.

  “The nursemaid,” she said with a smile, gesturing him to enter.

  “Indeed, Lady,” he replied, shutting the door behind him. “The Lord General Bear said that you know plenty about the fortress. 'Encyclopedic' was the word he used. He didn't say you'd be beautiful.”

  “Why did you close the door?” Fleeting Snow asked sharply.

  “Privacy, Lady Snow. I have special instructions for … Oh, uh, forgive me,” he said, turning red. “I only intended to insure others don't overhear. I, uh, guess, uh, I meant not to imply—”

  “Not to worry, Lord Gaze,” she interrupted. “Those instructions?”

  “Eh? Oh, of course, uh, I just didn't think, Lady. I don't know why. It never occurred to me.”

  Fleeting Snow looked amused. “Lord Gaze, please believe me, you haven't offended me. Your, uh, innocence, if I may call it such, is charming. Please, sit down.”

  “Thank you, Lady.” Probing Gaze did as she bade him, taking an overstuffed chair.

  “The misunderstanding was more my fault than yours, Lord Gaze. I was reminiscing how my mate and I used to stay in these rooms.”

  “Eh? Your mate?” Scowling Tiger? he wondered.

  “Brazen Bear is the only mate I've ever had, Lord. The other man, well, to me he was never my mate.”

  “I see.” Probing Gaze felt uncomfortable, as if her disclosure demanded he reciprocate. “Forgive me, Lady, I must ask you to address me by rank. My nursemaiding duties will be much easier if you do.” That should create some distance, he thought.

  “If you insist, Lord … Captain,” she replied, learning his rank from his signature. “Am I to be, uh, nursemaided as well?”

  “I hope not, Lady, since you're old enough to be my mother.”

  “Why, thank you, Lord Captain,” she said brightly, as if accepting a compliment.

  Probing Gaze felt awkward without knowing why, not having meant to compliment her. He sighed, knowing he was socially inept. “The Lord General has volunteered to besiege the Tiger Fortress, as I'm sure you're aware. The group that the Lord General has assembled here will be the primary attack force. These six Wizards will disable the fortress shields and put the occupants to sleep.”

  “Disable the shields? Only an Emperor can do that.”

  “The Lord Eagle can too,” he told her.

  “The Lord Hand, he put to sleep all those malefactors in Nest, didn't he?” Fleeting Snow said, awe in her voice. “Infinite help the bandits.”

  “Infinite help us, Lady,” Probing Gaze replied. “Anyway, the Lords Eagle and Hand stipulated that they not kill anyone, and—”

  She laughed with abandon, interrupting him. “Oh, how quaint!”

  He chuckled, not quite understanding, amused only because she was. “As you might have guessed, I'll have to coddle those two, Lady. I'll take the Lords Eagle and Hand within striking distance of the fortress for only as long as we need them. The moment they're done I'll withdraw them. The other four Wizards, who aren't under any such restriction, will stay behind to do the most damage. They'll poison the water and food supplies, et cetera. They'll be the ones your information will help the most. The Lord General Bear will send Imperial warriors in simultaneously, with orders to put to death anyone they find. They'll find a lot of sleeping bandits. I expect the two, uh, young ones to express some reluctance when they find out the extent of the attack. Since I'm not what you'd call diplomatic, perhaps you can help me with them for the week we'll be here.”

  “I'd be happy to help, Lord. Don't worry about your lack of diplomacy. You're probably very good at other things.”

  Smiling, he nodded. “I'm good at killing bandits, Lady.”

  Fleeting Snow smiled back. “You see?”

  “Well, that's mostly due to my sword.” Probing Gaze patted the sheath.

  “What about your sword, Lord?” she inquired.

  “It's four inches longer than most.”

  “I did notice that you're proportionally larger than most men.” She tried not to grin—and failed. “Perhaps you could show me your skill later, Lord?”

  “Well, none of these Wizards is much with a sword, Lady. No one else around to fence with, either, eh?”

  “I've had some practice with swords,” Fleeting Snow said.

  “Oh, I couldn't, Lady. I'd be afraid I'd hurt you.”

  “I guess you wouldn't want to become known as a lady killer, eh?”

  “I sure wouldn't,” Probing Gaze said.

  “With a physique like yours, Lord, it surprises me you're not already infamous.”

  “Eh? What are you talking about?” He scratched his head, feeling inept again.

  Laughing with abandon again, Fleeting Snow shook her head. “Not important, Lord. Did you want anything else?”

  “Well, no, Lady, except that I've asked everyone to a conference in the refectory in forty-five minutes. I'll see you there.” Standing, Probing Gaze bowed.

  She nodded to acknowledge. “Infinite be with you, Lord Gaze.”

  “And with you, Lady Snow.” He stepped past her chair toward the door, entered the corridor, and glanced back a last time.

  Her back to him, Fleeting Snow had her knees to her chest and her arms around her legs. Her whole body convulsed with what looked like laughter.

  Odd, Probing Gaze thought, striding away and wondering what was so funny.

  Chapter 19

  The most secret of all secret societies in the four Empires, the Broken Arrows organized itself in quartets, cells of four members each. Their system of command was both lateral and hierarchical. Each member had contact with only three cells. Each cell member led one cell and was a follower in two other cells. No t
wo members of the same cell were co-members of another cell. No single member knew more than nine fellow members. Of these nine, two were superiors, three were subordinates, and four were equals. Encoded into each member's psychic signature was a special frequency combination known only to that person's contact-cell members. Does this arrangement confuse you? It did Imperial counter-insurgency forces.—Secret Societies Before the Fall, by Spreading Rumor.

  * * *

  Her name was Breaking Arrow. She was the leader of the Broken Arrow resistance movement. She was the most daring neurobiology experiment ever undertaken.

  A psychological Wizard tampered with her development even before her conception. One of sixty million spermatozoa, half of her swam upward in her mother's vagina toward the other half, an ovum drifting from the ovary toward the fallopian tube. Carefully, the Wizard analyzed the genetic combinations of sperm and ovum, selecting the most compatible combination. Joining them, he helped the resulting embryo attach to the endometrium.

  During the first week of brain development, the ectoderm transformed into the neural plate. Neurons began to proliferate. Accelerating the cell division, the Wizard cultivated a third more neurons than her brain would've produced on its own. Then, during the migration stage, the Wizard guided neurons toward their genetically predetermined positions, creating distinct divisions within each lobe of the brain. Within these divisions, the Wizard insured that parallel circuits developed during circuit formation. When the in-utero development of her brain neared completion, the Wizard stopped the normal, programmed cell death. Forcing millions of unattached neurons to live essentially without function, the Wizard amplified some synapse refinement and inhibited some. By dividing each lobe of the brain further, he gradually created schizophrenia, a word that literally translated from the ancient language as “split brain.” One third of her neurons functioned with full physiological independence from the other two thirds.

  Breaking Arrow suffered side-effects from the increased size of her brain. The skull was simply too small for it. Despite the extra room inside all skulls in the ventricular cavities, the Wizard couldn't keep her choroid plexus from producing the same amount of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Hence, she suffered from hydrocephaly, commonly called “water on the brain.” The increased pressure resulted in periodic migraine headaches. During her young years, the Wizard drained the excess fluid. Now, she maintained her own CSF levels. Since her CSF never exerted constant pressure on her skull, Breaking Arrow didn't have an enlarged cranium, a symptom common to sufferers of hydrocephaly. With her talents, the side-effects of the experiment were relatively minor.

  The Wizard monitored and altered her brain once or twice a week. Her emerging talents eventually stopped him from changing it further. Fortunately, those same talents equipped her to manipulate it herself. By that time, Breaking Arrow was seven years old, the age at which human brains lost their infantile plasticity. The functions of the individual lobes became set. Now, at seventeen, the experiment looked highly successful. Psychologically, she was a split personality.

  Operating on a third of her thirteen billion neurons, the subordinate personality talked to excess and had a dearth of intelligence. This personality also had one subconscious talent that served two functions—to protect her and to dispose others favorably toward her. She was unaware of her unique brain or of her other personality.

  A full-fledged psychological Wizard, Breaking Arrow was the dominant personality. She had the same protective/persuasive talent—except that it was conscious. At whim, she could repress the subordinate personality and take over the body. More often, she chose to control her subordinate personality with simple subconscious compulsions. Her secondary talents were strong enough to have earned her the title of Wizard. She was everything her father had hoped.

  The one set of talents Breaking Arrow lacked, and wished she had, was the time sights. If she could have viewed past, present and future, she'd have been the ultimate instrument her father had wanted to create. With the talents she did have, her father had achieved his goal.

  * * *

  When Brazen Bear died, his daughter was only a year old, and her brother, Flaming Wolf, seven. Neither was old enough to command the most secret society in all four Empires. The Broken Arrows almost broke apart because of their internal divisions. None of them really knew who controlled the resistance movement. After Flaming Wolf passed his manhood ritual, he gathered the pieces and forged them again into a whole.

  The resistance movement was their father's bequest. When Guarding Bear and Brazen Bear won their rebellion, they needed a covert organization to carry out any activities forbidden by law. Handling covert operations from the beginning, Brazen Bear had contacted the Broken Arrows before the Caven Hills rebels wiped out the Eastern Battalion. At that time, the Broken Arrows was a small, secretive group. The Emperor Smoking Arrow had smoked out and executed most of its members years before. With much invective and little incentive, but without real connections or power, they were little help during the insurrection. Under Brazen Bear's patronage, however, the Broken Arrows became the resistance movement of old. In the process they ceded much of their autonomy to the younger Bear, until eventually they elected him their leader. They were incognizant of the real reason they elected him.

  Guarding Bear's wild talent of conversion focused primarily on protection, secondarily on persuasion. Brazen Bear's talent was similar, but the inverse of his brother's. Nearly everyone the younger Bear met regarded him as handsome and charismatic, too congenial and virtuous to be a true leader. In reality, he was the antithesis of virtue. He plotted and connived more than the rest. No one ever regarded his activities as subversive because of his persuasive talent. The women worshipped him. The men abided their mates' lust for the young man as passing fancies. Liking and trusting Brazen Bear, the men often confided secrets they wouldn't tell even their mates.

  Such was the strength of his talent.

  The distribution of duty between the two brothers worked well. More frequently the target of assassins, Guarding Bear was the better figurehead, his protection talent stronger. Of the hundreds sent to help him onward, not one assassin had even nicked him with a knife. Having a facade for his treasonous behavior, Brazen Bear was the better henchman, his persuasion talent stronger. Before Scowling Tiger produced evidence that Brazen Bear was a Broken Arrow associate, everyone he knew laughed off as ludicrous all signs that he dealt in stealth and poison. Those who saw through Brazen Bear's facade knew he did Guarding Bear's covert work. No one knew he led the Broken Arrows.

  No one but Rustling Pine.

  A distant cousin of the Brothers Bear, Rustling Pine was a native of Burrow. Only fourteen years old when she first fornicated with Brazen Bear, she was too ignorant to keep from getting pregnant. During that first year, Brazen Bear provided for his family as well as he could, his means meager. A year later, the Caven Hills rebelled. Afterward he kept her in comfort, his wealth growing as his influence increased. He refused to mate her, wanting to remain available for political alliance—and for the pleasures of whatever wench might fancy him.

  Knowing her fortunes depended on his, Rustling Pine suffered this indignity tolerantly. She loved him deeply and, like most women, worshipped him. Just before she conceived again five years later, he conceived the idea to have the fetus altered and manipulated. Not without morals, Rustling Pine initially objected to the alterations. When he told her his ambitions, she easily put her morals aside. If the experiment worked, she might become the most influential woman in the Eastern Empire. In her ambition, she forgot that her daughter might be as ambitious as she—and eminently more capable of realizing those ambitions.

  During her illicit affair with Brazen Bear, Rustling Pine mated Scratching Wolf. Guarding Bear arranged the mateship to cement a pact with the Prefect Prowling Wolf. The Prefect's third son, Scratching Wolf, was a warrior of good lineage, good swordsmanship and bad skin. During their tumultuous, eight-year mateship, Rustling Pine
never bore him a child. She did, however, maintain the pretense that he'd fathered her children, although they both knew otherwise.

  A good man, Scratching Wolf was a good father to her children. He didn't object to her illicit relationship with the unidentified man, even though he knew the children were the other man's issue. For both Rustling Pine and Scratching Wolf, the mateship was one of convenience.

  Between Brazen Bear's death and Flaming Wolf's maturity, Rustling Pine did what she could to keep the Broken Arrows together. Most of the resistance movement members knew her ambitions lacked the backing of determination. They dismissed her as simply bothersome.

  The years between the dissolution of her mateship to Scratching Wolf and her son's maturity were difficult for her. Despite the wealth Brazen Bear had amassed before his death, she had no access to it afterward. The younger Bear had warned her never to inform Guarding Bear of hers or the children's existence, arranging safeguards to insure she'd lose her life if she did. Brazen Bear had set aside a small bequest for the children's education, including talent instruction and psychological treatment for the daughter. He'd provided nothing for the mother. In penury with two small children, she suffered silently. Dreaming her ambitious dreams, Rustling Pine could only curse her lack of means and lack of conviction to fulfill them.

  When Flaming Wolf reached maturity, circumstances changed. Brazen Bear's secret bequest included control of the Broken Arrows, if they'd have either child. At first, the resistance movement welcomed Flaming Wolf. Assuming control of the Broken Arrows, he gained access to their coffers. He wasn't averse to doling out a little to his mother. Although charismatic like his father, Flaming Wolf had less of the protective talent. He also had the misfortune to look exactly like his father, Brazen Bear. If anyone discovered that Flaming Wolf was the son of a Traitor, his head would come off his shoulders instantly. Keeping a low profile and being charismatic was a balance Flaming Wolf found difficult. At times, he became so obsessed with hiding his identity that his leadership was inadequate.