Scythe had been fighting the cold all day...for several days, actually. It soaked into his skin, drawn like a magnet to something inside of him that had been growing stronger, feeding upon the recent events of his life. No, if he wanted to be honest and not hide from it like a Human, he’d been fighting the cold for years. Tonight, shivering under his covers, he was tired of the fight. Inside him, something that loved the fight waited for its turn.
He pressed each breath through his teeth, ignored the sound of the satisfied chuckle inside of his head, and thought about what family he had: little brothers and sisters in a nursery ward not far from there, a whole Human family a vid call away, more than a dozen brothers in arms...I am not alone.
This time, though, he didn’t say it out loud. If no one heard him, did he fall? Did he exist at all?
Chapter 31
“Thank you for getting back to us so quickly, Scythe. I am sorry about this.”
“What’s going on, Faith?” Scythe asked, relieved to see that the woman’s distress seemed to be caused by a typical family problem and not something critical. When he had gotten the message about an unscheduled transmission from the city, he had panicked a little and rushed to the com center. Since it was plain that they were all right, he worked on calming his nerves. He gripped his knee under the table, putting pressure on his leg so that it wouldn’t jump around like it wanted to.
“It’s Mercy, she’s been having these nightmares, well, on and off for a while, but Ian and I thought they were, you know, related to the incident, so we just didn’t...But she was making herself ill, literally sick...well, you’ll see...She keeps saying that she wants to see you. At first, we thought she was just missing you...”
“Faith, it’s okay, slow down. Mercy is having nightmares...”
“Sorry. Sorry, Scythe.” Faith pushed her hand on her brow, squeezing her temples. “I haven’t been sleeping either, what with Will being so young still, and all the rest of it. Anyway, she just wants to talk to you. She’s been, well, hysterical about a dream that she had about you and we tried to tell her you were all right, you know, console her, but she insisted that she had to see you to be sure. Anyway, would you hold on for a minute, and I’ll get Ian?”
“Sure, Faith. Go get her.” Scythe sat back in his chair when Faith got up and moved out of the screen. He tried not to read too much into what he’d already heard. After all, kids had bad dreams all the time; even he still had a hard time sleeping sometimes. It was to be expected that a girl who experienced what she had would have nightmares.
“There you go, honey, there he is.” Ian sat down at the chair, holding a disturbingly frail looking Mercy in his arms. One hand limply clutching his shirt, Mercy lifted her head up off her father’s chest and looked into the screen.
Scythe straightened up and leaned forward again at the sight of the worrisome rings under her puffy eyes and the obvious distress on her face. “Mercy, honey,” he used the calmest voice he could manage. “What’s the matter? Did you have a nightmare?”
“Uncle Scythe,” Mercy began and then started crying. “I need to see you, right now.” She turned toward the screen and reached out to him.
“I’m right here, honey,” Scythe put his hand on the screen, trying to clamp down on the jolt in his chest and the rising distress he was feeling.
“No!” Mercy screamed suddenly, balling her hands into fists and pinching her eyes shut. “No! I need to see you, right now!” She arched her back and Ian scrambled to hold on to her squirming body.
“Mercy!” Ian shouted in alarm and pulled her into a tighter embrace. Faith, from the side of the chair, reached over to smooth her daughter’s hair and make soothing noises. Mercy’s screams progressed into howling sobs.
Scythe yelled, “Mercy! Look, I’m right here! Mercy! Ian, what is going on?”
“I don’t know, she’s never done this before, Scythe, never. Mercy, calm down, honey. You are scaring mommy and daddy and Uncle Scythe, too.”
“I. Need. To...”
“He is right there. Look.” Faith motioned at the camera, her hand shaking.
“No, mommy! You are not listening!” She turned to the camera, pleading, “Uncle Scythe, I saw it again. I saw the bad things!” She grabbed her hair and turned to her father, “Daddy, you have to let me see him!”
Scythe, finally making the correct connections, said, “Mercy, do you want me to come there, to Menelaus?”
“Yes!” she exclaimed in exasperation, “Come here right now!”
“Honey, Uncle Scythe just got back to his home. He can’t come here every time you have a bad dream...” Ian explained patiently.
Mercy hit him on the chest and continued into the screen, “The bad things are coming, Uncle Scythe! I need to make a safe place so come here right now! Right now!”
“I don’t know if I can do that, Mercy,” Scythe tried to console her, despite his own panic.
“Scythe, what is she talking about?” Ian demanded when Mercy started crying again.
“I don’t think we should talk about it right now, Ian,” Scythe said, knowing that their transmissions were likely to be monitored. It was imperative that no one suspect Mercy of having any gifts at her young age.
Ian nodded, “Can you meet us?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure, but I don’t think it is safe for you to be out of the city anyway. I can try to see what I can do,” he added, his eyes on Mercy, who was now weeping quietly in exhaustion.
“Daddy,” she whispered, “don’t you care about Scythe?”
“Of course I do, honey, like he was my own little brother.”
“Daddy, I have to see him.”
“We are going to try, honey, we really are.” He looked over at Scythe, “Do you know what these bad things are?”
“I can't say right now.”
“Okay, Faith and I are going to see what we can find out here. We’ll get back to you, okay?”
“Alright. Mercy,” Scythe said gently, “I’m going to be very careful until I see you again, okay? Don’t worry about me. I am going to be just fine here.” It was a good thing it was a video, because even they might have been able to detect the lie that slipped out because his hold was loosening. They would have certainly heard the thumping of his heel on the floor.
Mercy just shook her head, covering her eyes with her hands and beginning to cry again. This time in defeat, she murmured, “Daddy. Daddy.”
Chapter 32
Scythe closed the large doors behind him, his eyes taking in the small study, now well lit by various light globes; instead of sitting in a comfortable chair by the fire, the Governor of Poinsea was seated at his desk behind a mound of paperwork. Scythe stood alone, according to Talto’s orders and despite his son’s insistence on attending.
“Well, now, here’s an interesting visitor to break up an otherwise monotonous morning. Have a seat, Scythe, son of Scythe.” The man tapped on his console, which shut off the humming of the computer, and pushed aside a pile so that he could see him better. “Ah, I see that you have matured since I saw you last.” The man shook his graying head, “Too bad.”
“My Lord?”
“Well, you needed experience badly, and I can see that you have gotten it. However, now I’ll have to deal with your nonsense.” He waved his hand in the air, “Don’t worry about it. It can’t be helped.”
Scythe didn’t know what the man was talking about, so he waited.
The governor sighed, “What, my boy, do you need?”
“My Lord, I am concerned about my Human friends’ safety in the city. As my permit has been revoked, I would like to petition a favor from the ruling council on behalf of its selected Human representatives. I would like a Kin guard to be set up to ensure their safety in the city, and I would like at least one Blade to be among them.”
The governor sat back in his chair, commenting, “That is a mouthful. Did you take all night to work that out?”
“No, My Lord.”
“Hmm, well, let me s
ee. I think I can take care of that. We’ve got the Humans by the throat right now, so, while it is not a typical request, and while it is bound to anger more than a few people, I don’t see why we can’t do that.”
“Both were kidnapped recently and Ian was critically injured,” Scythe added.
“Yes, I have been debriefed by your superiors,” the man interrupted patiently. “The operation there caused me a little bit of trouble, but nothing I can’t handle.” He waved the problem away. “Well, we can’t have the only Humans we’ve agreed to negotiate with disappearing again, so I’ll see that it gets done. I assume you want the Blade to be yourself?” The governor took out a piece of paper and started to write.
“No, My Lord, although, I would like to be assigned to that duty on occasion, if I may, and I would like to be part of the initial orientation. I am requesting that the permanent position be assigned to the Blade Smoke. Lena is his wife.”
“You know,” the man’s pen paused over the paper, “if I didn’t know it were impossible, I’d think you were trying to remake Poinsea in the image of your own family.”
“No, My Lord.”
“No, My Lord,” the man mocked lightheartedly, “and yet, I see halfblood babies and my citizens marrying Humans. What is next?” When Scythe didn’t answer, he finished his paper and set it aside. He leaned back. “I remember when your father came to me about your mother. It was ridiculous of course, but he had already gotten her favor so it was a matter of losing a trusted ambassador or accepting their marriage. So I permitted it, but I thought they were foolish for trying to live like any couple and it was a catastrophe when your mother became pregnant. Scythe's credibility was ruined, naturally, which is fundamental in diplomacy, but worse than that was their blatant irresponsibility. Who would bring forth a child into a life of rejection and suffering? Your parents were, ultimately, unforgivably selfish. As for your friend Smoke, and even my nephew and the families of those children in the infirmary, they have an impossible road to travel. The resentment in our world was fierce when you were born, but it is real hatred now. I don’t know how your friend, or any of them, will make it work, I really don’t.” He looked at Scythe expectantly.
“I don’t either, My Lord, but...I hope they can. I’d like to give them the chance.”
“You hope they can,” he repeated bluntly, and then sighed. His eyes dropped minutely, and Scythe realized he had missed something the governor was trying to tell him. “Well, I guess we will see, won’t we? Is that all?” he asked, pulling an envelope from a pile next to him and frowning at the heavy seal.
“My Lord...” Scythe paused, unsure.
Looking up from the envelope in front of him, Talto raised his eyebrows, “You have my attention.”
“I want to protect the people that I care about, but I don’t know how.”
He gave Scythe a thoughtful, appraising stare.
Into the silence, Scythe asked impulsively, “My Lord Governor, can you guide me?”
The man’s chair creaked as he sat back, and his eyes closed momentarily. “Ah, now you are really becoming a burden, son of Scythe. I’ve been struggling to protect my settlement for nearly my entire life and each time I think I’ve got a hold on a sure way to do that, it slips like water through my fingers and I have to start all over.” His eyes opened under furrowed brows, and he peered at Scythe, deliberating. After a moment, he seemed to make up his mind. “What exactly do you think we do here in Poinsea, Scythe?”
“Do?” asked Scythe.
“Do. What do we do here?”
“I don’t understand. Poinsea is a settlement...”
“We don’t have any industry to speak of, no agricultural or other natural resources, no tourism...we’ll never replace the families that were killed or left after the last Human raid...haven’t you ever wondered how even a small community like our own can sustain itself within these immense walls without anything of note to barter with?”
“I guess I never really thought about it...” Scythe’s mind rove over the settlement, past the broken buildings left to waste away and the canyons which were used mostly for... “Military?”
The governor nodded, “In great part yes, we provide a military base, but that’s not all. We are the watchdog, one of eight watchdog cities...”
“Eight...” Scythe’s mind jumped to make the connection. “Watchdog for the...Humans? The Human cities?”
“We have made our living as the ‘handlers’ of the Humans, both in Menelaus as well as in the bordertowns around it. For over five hundred years, the Kin have been managing the Human population aggressively, keeping them in check. Our city takes care of what the rest of the Kin doesn’t want to bother with, won’t sully their hands with. Because of our efforts, the majority of our brethren don’t have to spend a second...for some of them, they don’t spend a second in their entire lives...concerning themselves with the Human threat.”
“Human threat?” protested Scythe.
“That’s right.” He raised his hand to forestall the young man’s interruption. “It doesn’t matter what you think, and, trust me, your education, Human and Kin, is sorely abridged. Everyone’s is...by design. The bottom line is that Poinsea is the first and last contact for Humans in this region. That is our only purpose here, and the only reason we haven’t been annexed by our rather predatory neighbors. Our status as watchdog gives us a certain prized autonomy and status within the Kin dominion, but it is a precarious position for such a small settlement.”
“Keyrin told me something about that...”
“Well, he’s been working for it since he first could hold a pen to sign an order. The point I’m trying to make here, Scythe, is that Poinsea was built and has been maintained by my family to administer the Human center.”
Scythe could only stare while he thought about that in the quiet moment that followed. “Humans...tolerate this?”
“The Human power base has been slowly pared down over time, along with the population. Of course, there has been some variation in the numbers...sometimes birth rates will spike and the cities will spill out into the surrounding areas, but never past their appointed place, never beyond what the Kin consider reasonable. Most recently, however, populations have dropped drastically and several events have forced the elimination or redistribution of Humans to the remaining cities.”
“What kinds of events?” Scythe wondered.
“Skirmishes, overpopulation, an occasional hint of uprising...” The governor waved away the topic. “What is important for our conversation is that a settlement like Poinsea relies on its Human counterpart for survival. Without it, we wouldn’t last a month before we became a scrap of meat for a pack of wolves to fight over. So I, my family, Poinsea’s council, all work to ensure that our little charge doesn’t cause a nuisance, doesn’t draw attention to itself. Any attention from the Kin is inevitably negative, and therefore troublesome for us.”
“So something like the raid from three years ago...”
“The raid.” He rolled his eyes, “That cover up was one of my masterpieces. I had to pull out all the stops to keep the attack from causing serious repercussions. It nearly fell to pieces on me three different times, but in the end I was able to see it done. A blatant attack on Kin holdings? The loss of lives? That is exactly the type of thing that our enemies can use to bring down the full power of the Kin on the Humans.”
“Our enemies? Do you mean Kin enemies?” Scythe’s mind was barely able to grasp the full meaning of the governor’s words.
“Enemies, ours and the Humans’. They are the same, in this case. Any one of the adjoining states is ready to take advantage of weakness, and the protection of Humans is our greatest. So, there are constant threats to the Humans by our neighbors. Then, of course, there are those among the Kin who despise the Humans for their very existence, and for their violent history; these forces actively work to eliminate them, and others just want...”
“Is that the Scere L’Eler?”
&
nbsp; “The Scere L’Eler? Is that what you were after, making paperwork for me in the city? No. Well, to be honest, they might have their hands in any given scheme, but, for the most part, no, that group doesn’t want to see the end of the Humans.” The governor sighed, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “The Scere is a topic for another time, and, I think, not for me to discuss.”
“Because it is dangerous?” Scythe prompted.
“Not for me, but most certainly for you.” He waved the topic away, suddenly impatient. “How do you protect your family? You can’t. The Humans are on the extinction list, it is only a matter of time. As for halfbloods, that remains to be seen, but I doubt it will go smoothly for them, given that they are not really Kin.”
Scythe stared at him, appalled at his sudden blatant manner.
The man acknowledged Scythe’s reaction, but continued speaking in the same manner. Scythe realized that he was taking the time to teach him something significant, so he set his own thoughts aside and listened.
“The most any of us can do is provide time, for them, and for Poinsea’s independence. That’s all we’re doing here, pushing for time. Another fifty years, maybe one hundred. Then again, maybe it will come sooner.”
Scythe pleaded, “It can’t be...it’s not right.”
“No, it’s not, but I don’t have time for can’t be or shouldn’t be. I have to deal with what is.
“Doesn’t anyone care?” Scythe couldn’t comprehend how the Kin, who so valued family, could so easily condone the extinction of millions of people.
“A few care, a few have an economic interest in caring, and a few have political interest in caring. These are our sometime allies. The Scere is the greatest among them.”
“The Scere L’Eler is not an ally to Humans...” Scythe felt the anger rise in him, “They are monsters. They kidnapped...”
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