by CM Raymond
Karl looked around the table and snorted. “I damn well better say what all ye arses are thinking.”
Marcus grinned, prepared for what was coming. “What’s that?”
Shaking his head, the rearick said, “I wouldn’t trust you to fight off the remnant, even if they had a knife to me nuts. You’ve been with her.” Karl nodded to Julianne. “That’s just fine. And it’s hard to mindfuck a mindnut; I get it. But if you think we’re sending a group of our best into the dragon’s den with you leading the way, yer out of yer damned mind. You were working for them just a week ago. How do we know you aren’t still? You might go straight to Adrien and tell em our plans.”
Julianne, normally calm as a summer’s breeze, stood, pushing the chair out behind her. “Watch your words, rearick. Have you no sense of loyalty? No sense of trust? Your time with the other miners has made your heart harder than the gems you pull from the Heights.”
Shifting to respond, Karl instinctively reached for his hammer.
“I’ll go with him,” Parker said, drawing all eyes to him. “If Julianne and Ezekiel trust him, I trust him. You might know the Guard, Marcus, but I know the streets better than anyone. I can get you inside and where you need to go. But be sure I’ll keep my eyes on you the whole time.”
“Me, too,” Hadley added. “All three of my eyes.”
The room went silent again as Marcus looked at them.
“Fair enough, kid,” Marcus said with a grin, before turning to Karl. “I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. But we have the same purpose here—protecting the people of Arcadia. I’ve been fighting to do that my whole life.”
Karl stared for what felt like an eternity before breaking into a laugh. “Screw it. We could use the guns—and you might be an experienced fighter, but Parker here will skewer you with his spear and roast you over a fire if you betray us. I’ve seen him do it before. At least then we’ll solve our food crisis, too.”
Marcus smiled and raised his hands in mock surrender. “I’m willing to contribute to the cause, but I draw the line at being eaten. I’ll stay on the straight and narrow.”
Amelia cleared her throat, and with it, the tension in the room. “Not everyone is made for fists and swords. There are some nobles among us—most of them will have had training at the academy.” She glanced at Karl. “Before anyone mentions the possibility that they, too, are plants from the mighty Adrien, I’ll be the first to admit that they could be. Hell, any of the folks that have joined us could be spies or saboteurs, and we’d never know. But… we cannot waste resources, and most of the nobles that are here have been trained—at least to some extent—in the arts of physical magic. We need to use whatever they know for our cause.”
“Good point,” Hannah affirmed. “You want them?”
Amelia laughed. “Probably more than I want. But yes, I can take them. Like most nobles, those sons of bitches probably learned only enough to make it in the high-class world. It was the flaw of Adrien’s design from the beginning. He only taught those who had all they wanted. But now—now there is a reason for them to learn more. I’ll set up classes, learn where they’re at, and start the lessons back up.”
“Schools back in session, bitches!” Hannah said with a grin.
“That’s right.” Amelia smiled back. “And hopefully, we have some scholars in waiting here. Who knows what potential we have in the building, but even if I have a week or two, I can get them ramped up at least in the most basic defensive moves.”
“What about the others?” Hannah asked. “The non-nobles. Surely, Adrien’s restriction doesn’t apply here.”
Amelia looked like she was going to spit. “Absolutely not. But I don’t know if we have enough time to seek out and train those who’ve never tried to unlock their potential. But the Unlawfuls… I bet they’d know enough to learn how to fight. Anyone who’s been practicing undercover, in their basements and the back alleys of the Boulevard, you can send them my way. We’ll see how they do once they’ve got a real teacher to help them. Then, after this is all over, we’ll start looking for anyone else with untapped potential. But for now, they’d serve better in other non-magical ways.”
The group nodded their affirmation.
Ezekiel stood. “It’s settled then. Karl will lead the training of the able-bodied men and women. Teach them how to fight—as dirty as they can.”
“All I know is dirty,” Karl said with a sneer.
“Parker and Marcus will take Hadley and a small crew to infiltrate the city walls.” He glanced at the three young men sitting at the other end of the table. “Be careful. Arcadia has never been on this kind of high alert. Trust no one. Take no unnecessary risks.”
“Me? Take risk? Never,” Parker said with a wink. “And I think I know just the volunteers for this sort of thing.”
Ezekiel turned toward Amelia. “You will take the nobles and anyone we can find with an aptitude for the arts. Nothing tricky. Take the simplest forms and make them so damn good at them that you yourself would be tentative to fight them.”
“And me?” Julianne asked.
“Your job is subtle, but maybe most important.”
She raised a brow.
“Move among the people,” he said. “And use your arts to raise moral. Right now, discouragement is their only food, despair their drink. Use the art of the mystics. Make them strong and brave. Help them to remember their love for Arcadia. Remind them that it is all worth living for—all worth dying for. Eleanor, you can help here as well. Do what you can with the rations, and find some folks to try their hand at hunting or laying traps.”
Maddie raised her hand tentatively. “What about me?”
Ezekiel smiled. “You’re going to be our envoy. Head to the nearest farms and villages. I can’t imagine anyone with half a heart denying your requests for aid. But Hannah, you should go with. For protection, in case you run across anyone who lacks even that.”
Turning to the young engineer, he said, “Gregory, you’re coming with me.”
The boy’s eyes widened as he turned to look at the older man. “No shit?”
There was a snort from down the table. “I don’t deal in shit, son. We’re going to see if we can wrestle up some new allies,” Ezekiel said, his eyes glimmering. “The people I have in mind would be the ones to help you with your defenses.”
He scanned the table and saw the way the lines in their faces had deepened even after only a few months of knowing most of them. “Take care out there, every one of you. All of your gifts are key to the work that lies ahead. Arcadia won’t be liberated without each of you. And may the Matriarch and Patriarch guide your steps.”
They all stood, inspired as if Julianne had tweaked each of their brains. Ezekiel had helped them remember why they were there and what they were fighting for.
As they all moved toward the door, Ezekiel reached out a hand and grabbed Hannah’s shoulder.
“You,” Ezekiel said, “stay behind. We need to talk.”
CHAPTER THREE
The room grew quiet as the rest of the team shuffled out. Hannah took her seat and waited for Ezekiel’s attention. Finally, they were alone.
“We never came here,” Hannah said, her eyes scanning the place.
“There are a lot of places in the tower we didn’t go. Most of them weren’t needed. But now—now, we need more room.” Ezekiel laughed and shook his head. “Funny how it happens. Didn’t imagine we’d be back here—not like this.”
“It seems like it was a lifetime ago that you first brought me here, Zeke. It was like I was a different person then.”
His eyes sparkled again in the light coming in from the windows. “Hannah, you were. You have come so far. Grown so much. And given everything. The girl I watched heal her brother in the marketplace—and transform a common newt—is no longer. Sure, there are traces of her deep inside of you. But you are like a mighty oak now. Then, you were just a sapling, spreading its first few rings. And now, look at you.”
; Ezekiel pulled out his chair and sat. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he asked, “But how are you doing now?”
She nodded. “Good. Well, as good as can be expected. I wish that Adrien’s head was rotting on a spike at the city gate, but a girl can only ask for so much.” She tried to smile, but she couldn’t push it through her words.
The man that killed her family and destroyed the Boulevard was still out there, and she was thirsty for blood.
“I know,” Ezekiel said. “That time will come. And when it does, you will be ready. But now, there is something more important. I’m taking Gregory, and we will go for a while. I don’t know how long, but I think I can find some people to help us. When I am away, you will have to make this place your own. It is time for you to lead them.”
Her response was emphatic, and quick. “Me? Hell no.”
He grinned. “Hell yes. You have been made for this, and it is time for you to embrace your calling—to accept the challenge.”
“But Amelia… Karl… Julianne... They are real leaders. Not me.”
Ezekiel stood and took up his staff from the floor. “They have experience, that is true. But they don’t have what you have.”
“And what is that?”
“The people.” The corner of his mouth curled as he tucked his robe into his belt. “They might not all know it, but they are here because of you. They’ve followed you. All their lives they’ve been waiting for a savior. What they don’t realize yet, is that you are the one who has been sent. You will help them free themselves from their bondage.”
Hannah smirked. “Not sure if I’m comfortable with you talking about bondage, Zeke—or the Queen Bitch for that matter. But I will do what I can. Making this bunch of asshats into an army is a tall order. I’ll start by making sure they don’t tear each other’s heads off.”
Ezekiel reached out and gripped her arm. His eyes burned with the passion of decades of strife. “Now is not a time for screwing around, Hannah. I need to know that you are up for the task at hand. If our mission in Arcadia taught you nothing, I pray it has taught you the severity of our cause.”
Hannah swallowed hard and nodded. “I know better than most how severe our cause is.”
“Good,” Ezekiel said. “The odds are against us. But, if we do every thing right, we might just be able to tilt the scales in our favor. Understand?”
Hannah only nodded.
“Good.” Ezekiel turned, his robes spinning around him, and left Hannah sitting alone in the room.
****
Parker placed his arms around Hadley and Marcus’s necks as they finished walking down the tower’s long stairway. “Gents, if we’re going to pull off this heist, then we’d better do it soon.”
“Soon?” Marcus asked with a grin, keeping pace with the Arcadian. “We should have done it six days ago when the Capitol was still tripping over their own dicks. I have no idea what Adrien is doing right now, but you can bet your sweet ass that the Capitol Guard is on double time getting ready for just about anything from us. Magicians are quirky, but the military is predictable. They have the shit we need on lockdown. Mark my words.”
Mulling Marcus’ words over in his mind, Parker continued to walk in silence. His life was one that had relied upon human nature. By nature, most humans didn’t notice shit—unless they were trained to. His marks in the market square and even the Disciples were humans in their most true sense. Beings ready and even willing to be deceived.
But the Guard was something totally different.
A group that had their humanity trained out of them. Parker wasn’t going in to pickpocket some gold from the pants of an unsuspecting tourist. He was preparing to go up against a trained fighting force on high alert for the Witch Bitch and her crew.
“Well,” Parker finally said, “I’ve always loved a good challenge. If they have it on lockdown, then we just need to unlock it. Piece of cake.”
Marcus laughed. “I don’t doubt it for a second, Parker the Pitiable.” He paused in the corridor, and Hadley and Parker stopped with him. “But we need to make a choice.” Crouching to the stone floor, he started to draw imaginary boxes on the ground. “There are several different weapons stashes that I know of.” He pointed at two imaginary spots. “These are smaller stores, but I guarantee they won’t be as well guarded.” He drew a bigger box far off to the side of the others. “This one is the mother load. It’ll be packed with some badass guards. At least, it was the last time I was there.”
Nodding, Parker said, “Well, then the choice is made. If that one has the best shit, that’s the one we hit.”
Hadley grinned. “I knew you were going to say that.”
“Well, you are a mind reader, right?” Marcus responded.
“True. And you’ll be happy to have my mystic abilities once we’re inside the wall. My magic can give us a bit of cover and maybe some intel. But it can’t carry weapons. We’re gonna need more hands.”
“No problem.” Parker grinned. “A dangerous mission into enemy territory... I know just the folks. They’re some of the bravest people I’ve ever met.”
“Good,” Marcus said. “There’s nothing like fighting with good men at your back.”
Parker laughed, and it echoed down the hallway. “Who said anything about men?”
****
Hannah and Amelia paced around the exterior of the tower. People had made their way outside by late morning and were trying to find some use for their idle hands. Hannah was concerned. She knew they had to give the people a purpose—and fast. But patience was still a virtue.
I’m screwed without Ezekiel here, she thought.
“No, you’re not,” Amelia answered the thoughts inside of Hannah’s head.
“Son of a bitch! I thought you were a physical user.”
Amelia laughed. “When I was young, I picked up on magic fast. Faster than most of the kids around me. It just kept coming and coming. As far as we know, I was the youngest to be taken into the Academy as a student. Adrien himself was in my enrollment exam. Said I showed great potential.”
“He wanted to control you,” Hannah replied.
Amelia nodded. “It was a pretty terrible existence, at least I thought so back then. Three years younger than any of the other assholes in the academy… can’t say I really fit in.”
“I know the feeling. That’s how you became Dean so young?”
“Sure.” Amelia grinned. “I guess so. But it was likely Adrien holding power over me. If you bathe people in accolades and promotions, they’ll follow you forever. At least, that’s what men like him think. Anyway, my biggest ability is learning—and learning fast. That’s a gift I never gave up on. Plus, Julianne is one hell of a teacher. She’s been showing me the basics, and if you have the gift, the basics aren’t that hard. But you know that, don’t you?”
Sure do, Hannah said in Amelia’s head.
The Dean laughed. “You’re a freak of nature, aren’t you?”
“Who the hell are you calling freak?” Hannah said with a faint smile.
“No, really. I mean, there is something that Ezekiel saw. Something different than anyone else. It was potential he hadn’t seen before. He has something in mind for you.”
“Like ripping Adrien’s asshole out through his throat? Yeah, I think he does.”
Amelia stopped and looked deep into Hannah’s eyes. “No. Something else. Something bigger. Don’t be fooled. If saving Arcadia was Ezekiel’s end game, he would have taken a path of less resistance. Something big is happening here. I don’t know what it is, but that wily old man has a long game, and you’re a key part of it.”
Hannah grew silent and wondered what the hell Amelia was talking about. For a second, she thought about asking, but decided to wait. The Dean was much like Ezekiel, not prone to speak until the moment was right.
They walked side-by-side until they approached a group of Arcadians huddled in a mass outside of the large doors of the tower. The women paused and watched the group do not muc
h of anything at all.
“So,” Hannah finally asked. “Your job is to find folks who can do magic. How the hell do you do that? Do we just ask for a show of hands?”
“That might work, actually. But at the school, we could usually sense if someone had potential way before they did anything. It was something in their eyes.”
She looked over the crowd of common folk then back to Hannah “One thing we know is that magic is inside everyone. Whatever causes it runs through everyone’s blood. I keep asking Ezekiel how this is, and he promises to tell me, just not yet. But it’s there, and I trust him. This threw me off center at first. I spent my life learning that magic was to be restricted—only for the best of us. When I was young, I was glad to hear it. The restriction made me stand out from everyone else.”
Hannah’s stomach churned as she remembered the day, not so long before, when the Hunters cornered her in the alleyway in the Market. “But you don’t think that anymore.”
“Hard to now.” Amelia shrugged. “I’ve seen too much. Learned too much from Ezekiel.”
Hannah nodded toward the masses. “So, how do we know?”
“What? Who has magic?”
“Yeah. I guess,” Hannah replied.
“You still don’t get it, do you?”
Hannah stared back without an answer.
“They all do. We all do. Our job isn’t to find out which ones have it… That would be foolish—like asking which fish can swim. Our job is to find the ones able to use it, the ones ready to explode in power and possibility. Like Ezekiel did with you!”
Hannah shook her head a little. “Ezekiel has told me about this before, but it doesn’t make sense. If they all have it, why don’t we have a million Unlawfuls walking around and blowing shit up? They should have been kicking noble ass years ago.”
“Why didn’t you use it?” Amelia asked with a grin. “Magic was in you all along, dying to emerge. But the story you’d heard since your birth was that it wasn’t. It was for the few. The nobles. If we told our kids from birth that they couldn’t walk, what do you think would happen? Or to put it a better way, if we told them from day one that they could fly, what do you think they’d be capable of?”