Halfblood Heritage

by Rheaume, Laura

  “What is it?” asked Smoke from behind them.

  “Nothing yet,” answered Scythe, “but we’re keeping our eyes peeled.”

  “What else is new?” scoffed Leandra. “Damn, I really hate this place.”

  Within a few minutes, they entered the section of the border patrol headquarters at the lowest level of the city’s great wall that contained the supply warehouses. They traveled through a wide passage and finally came to a stop at a medium-sized warehouse with multiple loading bays. Two large trucks were backed up to one of the raised platforms, both with their rear doors open. Some fifteen troops stood ready at the openings, weapons still holstered. A young girl, Mercy, stood with her head on the lap of a woman in a wheelchair. Scythe’s heart jumped in his chest at what looked like his mother in her later days: Lena sat unmoving in the chair, her head tipped to the side, eyes drooping.

  “Uncle Scythe!” yelled Mercy, lifting her head. When she straightened up, the Kin woman next to her laid a hand on her shoulder. Mercy looked up at her, explaining, “We’ll be going now, Ms. Kiera.”

  “Yes, dear, I know.” She addressed the group approaching them, “As you can see, we are pleased to return your friends to you. You have a list for me, I believe?”

  “Lena,” Smoke said anxiously. He quickly strode to the chair, kneeled next to Mercy and took Lena’s hand. His other hand reached up and lightly touched the woman’s cheek. Lena didn’t react; she stared forward with unfocused eyes. He urged louder, “Lena!” before turning to Kiera.

  The Kin woman gasped at his posture and ferocious glare, and then she backed up a step, her hands raised in front of her reflexively. The guards around her readied their weapons, and the room echoed with clicking and rustling. The Blades stood ready, hands loose.

  Scythe asked, his stomach roiling at the sight of his friend, “What is wrong with her?”

  The Kin's face paled and she stuttered, “As promised, they are not physically hurt. The woman suffered some mental anguish from...certain procedures...she was exposed to.” She stepped back again when Smoke stood, and she quickly added, “But we believe she will recover fully. It is temporary...similar to being in shock.” She looked past him to Scythe, “You have made an agreement, correct?”

  Scythe looked down at the data pad in his hand, and then back at Lena. “If she isn’t hurt, then we don’t have a problem, but, Kiera,” Scythe’s voice dropped dangerously, “she looks pretty hurt to me.” Inside of him, a fire stirred.

  “Don’t worry, Uncle Scythe,” Mercy said, stepping forward and reaching for him, “Auntie Lena is okay. She’s just resting for a bit.” When Scythe didn’t react, his eyes on Kiera and the soldiers around her, Mercy touched his hand. The moment she did, she gasped and yanked her hand back reflexively.

  Scythe noted distantly that Mercy’s heart began to beat faster, but his attention was on Kiera. A buzzing had started...

  Then Mercy took both of his hands and pulled on them urgently. She waited until he looked at her before saying, “I’m scared, Uncle Scythe. Hold me.”

  Scythe’s eyes widened when he noticed the green aura beginning to surround Mercy’s hands. The glow coalesced into thin, delicate ribbons, similar to but smaller than Ian’s. They began to wind around Scythe’s hands and move up his arms. Two things happened when they touched him. First, the buzzing faded and then stopped. At the same time, he connected to her mind. Through her ribbons, he could feel what she was hiding behind a calm face. Fear shivered beneath her skin, like prickly ice covering her whole body on the inside; the need to watch over her Auntie had kept it in check, but, now that others were there to do that for her, the terror, like a thick cloud, threatened to engulf her.

  Hold me.

  Without a second thought, Scythe bent down and pulled Mercy into his arms. The ribbons exploded in a frenzy of movement: they wrapped around his whole body and pulled tight. Unlike her father’s power, Mercy’s was not physical, at least, not yet; instead, it was her mind that embraced him.

  Thank you. I love you.

  Mercy’s face pressed against his neck as he stood up, and the smell of tears mixed with the smell of her.

  “We’re going now.”

  A dozen thin ribbons made of light caused his skin to tingle, each one with a single message: Safe now. Safe now. He suddenly wanted more than anything to make sure that she wasn’t wrong about that.

  “That is acceptable. I only need your list.” Kiera eyed the datapad in his hand, and Scythe looked down at it again, gripping it tightly: a list of all the people he cared about.

  “I think...I think I’ll hold on to this for a while.”

  “It will be difficult for the organization to know who to avoid without it.”

  “No, it won’t,” Scythe argued. “Your people know all about me, or so I’ve been told.”

  She smiled, “True enough. I will communicate your change to my superiors. If there is an issue, I’m sure they’ll contact you.”

  “I’m sure they will.” Scythe turned, nodding to his friends, but hesitating at the sight of Smoke’s stony posture.

  “Scythe,” Smoke demanded in Kin, his voice angry and cold. “I am not satisfied with the arrangement.” He turned to Kiera, “I will know what was done to her and by whom.”

  “The agreement has been made...”

  “I made no agreement,” Smoke interrupted.

  “You are not involved here, Blade,” Kiera said, dismissing him.

  “You are mistaken. This woman is my wife, and under Kin Law, I am entitled satisfaction.”

  The woman’s mouth dropped open, and the rest of the blood left her cheeks. Around her, every Kin reacted strongly to Smoke’s words, including the ones in their group. Eventually, she was able to blurt, “We...We have no information that supports that claim.”

  “Scythe is my witness. This woman gave me her favor the night before she disappeared.”

  He turned to Scythe, who nodded solemnly, “I was there. She affirmed his lineage and named him the bearer of her favor.”

  “Regardless, she is Human. Humans have no protection under Kin law,” the woman’s desperation was spread across her face.

  “The right to satisfaction is mine, regardless of the race of my spouse.” Smoke’s impatience with the woman’s ploy was obvious. “If you will not supply me with the information that we both know you possess, then I will name you Ro Aran and bring the force of my challenge upon your head, Kiera.” He eyed the other Kin standing around, “And upon anyone else who aides you in blocking my right.”

  “That’s ridiculous! I didn’t do anything to her! I just delivered them here,” her words flew in a panic.

  “You interfere with my satisfaction. That makes you Ro Aran.”

  “No!” the woman yelled, “I won’t...”

  Leandra stepped forward, raising her hand to stop the woman’s ranting.

  “As Smoke’s sister in the Blades, and as a servant of Poinsea, I will stand as witness to his plea for satisfaction. You are given three days to provide the requested information: what was done to her and by whom. With that, we will determine what measures must be taken to achieve his satisfaction. If you fail to assist, the Blades will see to it that he is satisfied.” She turned away from the woman, nodding to the group. Everyone followed her lead and walked toward the exit, Smoke taking control of Lena’s chair.

  “I will communicate your plea, that is all,” the woman said to their backs, her heart pounding. When no one responded, she shouted after them, “I did nothing to her, Blade!”

  At the door, the group turned back the way they came, meeting up with Faith’s escort within minutes.

  “Mercy!” the young girl’s mother exclaimed, running up and hugging her daughter and Scythe both.

  “Mommy, I missed you!” Mercy said, reaching out and pulling on Faith’s head. Her other arm still clung to Scythe’s neck. “Willie!” She touched the top of Will’s head, just peeking out of the carrier that Faith had strapped to her che
st. The young baby, sound asleep and wrapped up tightly, didn’t even stir.

  Faith rubbed her cheek against her daughter’s hair and kissed it fondly, and then hugged them both again, whispering, “Thank you, thank you.” Stepping back, she finally noticed the wheelchair. “What happened to Lena?” she asked, appalled. One hand lingered on her daughter as she knelt down and gently tilted up Lena’s chin. “Scythe?”

  “We don’t know,” Scythe explained. “It is some kind of reaction to whatever they did to her.”

  “Oh my god, she looks like...” She rocked back on her heels and stared in horror up at Scythe. She couldn’t bring herself to say that her husband’s sister looked exactly like Scythe’s mother. Her gaze moved to Smoke, and she stood and immediately went to lay a hand on his arm to comfort him.

  “I know. I want to get someplace secure and check to see if I can help her.” Scythe was also wondering if maybe Harmony could do something. They continued along the hallway, and when he noticed that Faith’s eyes were riveted again on her daughter, he murmured, “Mercy, go to your momma.”

  “In a minute,” Mercy said, closing her eyes and laying her head on his shoulder.

  Scythe felt the ribbons of her power becoming heavy, sinking into his skin and moving through his body. “What are you doing, honey?” he whispered.

  “I’m making a safe place,” she answered. The lines of her power met in his chest, gathering in upon themselves until they were a tiny but dense ball.

  “Mercy, you are safe now,” he assured her.

  She shook her head, frowning. The ball became heavier and heavier, until the pressure of it started to hurt. Scythe was about to tell her to stop, when suddenly it vanished, disintegrating into a million tiny pieces. “Okay, I can go to mommy now.”

  Scythe felt a little queazy when she pulled away from him and found a place on her mother’s hip. He rubbed his chest absently, but could not sense any lingering bits of her power. “Mercy, did they do anything to you when you were with Lena?” he asked her.

  “No, I only played by myself a lot in a little room. It was lonely, except when I got to see Auntie Lena.”

  “Were you scared, sweetie?” asked Faith.

  “Yes, but I knew that Uncle Scythe was coming, so I wasn’t so, so scared.”

  Faith glanced over at Scythe, suddenly alert. “How did you know that?” her mother asked.

  “I just knew, momma, like you do.” The little girl yawned sleepily and laid her head on her mother’s shoulder, her hand reaching around to hug baby Will.

  “You did?” Faith asked, now frowning. “Did you tell anyone?”

  “Only Auntie Lena, but she told me not to tell...” she yawned again, closing her eyes. Within a moment, she had fallen asleep.

  “It seems hard to believe that her powers may have manifested so early,” Faith commented. “Of course, it may just be her imagination...”

  “I’m pretty sure it’s not,” Scythe assured her.

  “They aren’t supposed to show up until she hits puberty, twelve or thirteen at the earliest.”

  Scythe shrugged, “I don’t know anything at all about that. The Kin don’t have powers like Humans.”

  “It’s weird, but, when I was a little girl, it was still unusual for anyone to have powers. My family always kept it a secret, so maybe others had them, but no one knew. No one talked about it. It seems like there are a lot more people with them now, or more who are willing to admit to it. Maybe it is just more acceptable than it used to be...”

  “What about Ian’s family?”

  “I didn’t even know he had any gifts until after I had known him a while. He and Lena were the same as my family, very cautious about talking about it.” At the mention of Ian, Faith fell silent, unconsciously hugging her daughter tighter.

  Within the half hour, they found themselves in Ian’s room, a small medical examination room next to and serving the training facilities of the border patrol. Ian had gained consciousness the night before for a brief time, to everyone.'s relief He was weak and had some trouble speaking, due to the damage done to his face, but appeared to be clear headed. He tired quickly, however, and spent most of the day asleep.

  As Smoke wheeled the chair into the room, Scythe turned to talk to Grant.

  “I’ve sent for Harmony, but we’re not sure where she is,” said Grant. The border patrol officer had never asked for an explanation from Scythe about why he wanted Harmony present. However, he seemed to recognize that she was important somehow and was content to remain ignorant of the reason, for which Scythe was grateful.

  “Thanks, Grant. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find out something.”

  “I’m going to arrange tonight’s stay. I’ll be close if you need me.”

  “Alright.” Scythe looked at Leandra, who anticipated his request.

  “We will keep watch here,” she said, and then added, “We’ll have two on the door and the third will rest across the way.” She pointed to the empty training room across the hall.

  “Thanks,” Scythe said to the Blades with a respectful nod and closed the door. He glanced over to see Mercy and Faith fawning over a newly conscious Ian.

  “Ian, how are you feeling?”

  “What is wrong with Lena?” the man asked without pretense, trying to pull himself up into a sitting position on his bed. His face was hard, like his voice, and he couldn’t take his eyes off his sister’s body. “What did they do to her?”

  “I’m not exactly sure, but from what I learned from the people we interrogated, they experimented on her.”

  “What kind of experiments?”

  “I don’t know,” he said in frustration. Scythe grabbed a chair from against the wall and walked over to where Smoke was kneeling again by Lena. He sat across from her. “Okay, here goes,” he said, tilting up her chin and looking into her eyes.

  With almost no resistance from Lena, Scythe easily fell into her mind. At first, he was disoriented, because her memories did not appear to him right away like they normally did. All around him was a pale emptiness in which dark, bulbous clouds floated aimlessly. When one of the clouds passed through him, he detected faint ghosts of visions inside of it and realized that it was a weaker form of memory sphere. He tried to hold it in his mind, to focus on it, but it slipped by him.

  He said, “Lena...Lena, it’s Scythe.” He felt around, noticing more of the cloud formations and looking for one that he could connect to. Whenever he reached out to one, though, his 'body' went right through it, and all he could feel was the hint of the memory it held inside.

  “Smoke, talk to her. Let’s see if she can hear you.”

  “Lena,” Smoke said immediately, his tone tinged with desperation. “Lena, I need you to...be with me now. I’ve come a long way so that we could have our talk. Remember?”

  Scythe caught sight of one extremely large formation, but it was far from the front of the mind. Always, when he searched people’s minds, he instinctively stayed just inside the door. There, the memories that he wanted would float forward, motivated by his suggestions. The majority of the spheres usually remained farther away, in a heavy place that made him instinctively nervous.

  He focused on the large bubble, the only tangible thing he could see in her mind, but it stayed away from him. Scythe pulled away and looked at his friend.

  Smoke continued, “You said that you had some things to tell me. Well, I’m here now, and you need to...” Smoke leaned forward, his palm cupping her face. He spoke close to her ear, “You need to tell me again how I have won your favor, my Heart. Lena,” his voice cracked, “I...”

  “You don’t have to worry, Smoke,” Mercy’s voice carried across the room. “She’s just resting. She didn’t like what was happening to her and so she went the other way, but just for a while. She’ll come back, because she loves us.”

  “Mercy, can you make Lena come back now?” asked Faith.

  “No, I don’t know how to do that.”

  Scythe explained, �
�I see something, but it’s far and I don’t really know what it is. The rest is gray, and I can’t see any memories like I could with the others.” He looked over at Ian and Faith, “Do you think we should just wait, like Mercy says, or should I try to...I don’t know, wake her?”

  “Brother,” Smoke said urgently, “I want you to try. If it doesn’t work, we can wait later.”

  Scythe nodded, “Okay.”

  Ian's and Faith's unsure looks reflected his own feelings, but he turned back to Lena anyway. He stepped easily into the gray twilight. He spotted his target quickly and ‘leaned’ forward, surging past the faint echoes of memories.

  He felt the pressure almost immediately after he passed the stage where conscious memories hovered in the mind; in this deeper sea, the clouds moved slowly, if at all, but, distances and directions were not as they appeared. When he moved ahead toward a recognizable sphere, he would find himself in the next instant transported to a point unrelated to where he had just been. When he ‘looked’ around, he found his goal in a totally new direction, either above or below him. When he tried for it again, it would disappear. Soon, he was completely lost and beginning to feel disoriented by floating in the heavy syrup. He couldn't get his bearings.

  What is this place? he thought anxiously.

  Before giving in to panic, however, he calmed himself, taking a breath and closing his 'eyes.' He pictured the large mass that he had seen in the distance and willed himself there.

  Suddenly, a thick goo covered him, sticking to him when he turned his mind to look around. He could only make out the closest gray forms and when he tried to get close to them, he found that he could hardly move. The muck that surrounded him was both stuck to him and somehow pushing him away at the same time, and he was using a lot of energy concentrating on just maintaining his position.