Hope and Red

by Jon Skovron

  Hope weakly lifted her head up from Red’s lap and saw a fresh troop of soldiers come boiling into the chamber from the stairs. They formed a ring around the three, rifles pointed inward at them.

  “Welcome to the Council of Biomancery,” said the voice. Hope followed the sound to the far side of the council chambers, where a line of men in hooded white robes stood motionless, their hands joined, their faces hidden.

  * * *

  Red held Hope tightly to his chest, his arms protectively around her, as soldiers pointed rifles at them. He had been too slow to save her hand. He would save the rest of her, whatever the cost.

  “There you are.” Brigga Lin glared at the biomancers on the far side of the room. She wiped the line of blood from her nose and slowly stood. “Don’t worry, Bleak Hope. I’ll finish this.”

  She raised her hands and began a series of fluid gestures so rapid, even Red’s eyes could barely follow them. Then she swept her arms out toward the line of biomancers.

  The air rippled around them, but nothing else happened.

  “Did you really think we would have let you live if you posed a true threat to us?” asked the one in the center in the same dusty voice they’d heard before, now with just a hint of amusement.

  Brigga Lin stepped back, all of her dark arrogance evaporated.

  “Let me live?”

  “Of course. Those poor souls we sent down there to feed you only knew that we wanted them to mention the female Vinchen within your hearing. We knew you wouldn’t be able to resist. That you would kill them, make your escape, and seek her out. That with you egging her on, the female Vinchen might grow bold enough to attack us directly. And Teltho Kan was certain that the red-eyed youth wouldn’t be able to let you attempt such a thing without him. It’s a shame Teltho Kan didn’t live long enough to see that he had been correct after all. This success would have finally brought him into the council.”

  “Well, you got me.” Still cradling Hope, Red reached down and pulled out a throwing knife. “But I reckon you’ll be sorry you did. You might be able to block magic, but let’s see you block steel.”

  “You cannot kill all of us.”

  “You’re going to kill us anyway, so I might as well take down as many as I can.”

  “On the contrary, we do not wish to kill you. And if you agree to surrender yourself to us peacefully, we will even set your Vinchen free.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “We are incapable of perjury.”

  Red looked at Brigga Lin.

  “Biomancers cannot lie,” she conceded. “Making untrue statements would weaken our power.”

  Red turned back to the biomancer council. “You’ll let Hope go free? No restrictions? No hunting her down later?”

  “If she leaves Stonepeak and never returns, and for as long as you cooperate with us, we will never harm her directly.”

  “Why?” asked Hope, her voice hoarse. She struggled to sit up, her stump tucked under her other arm. “What will you do to him?”

  “Train him. Help him realize his full potential,” said a different biomancer, his voice like dripping oil. “He will be an essential element in saving our empire.”

  “What’s so special about me?” asked Red.

  There was a pause.

  “Perhaps he will be more willing to comply if he knows the whole truth,” said the biomancer with a voice like oil.

  “Or he will become even more unwilling,” said another like rusty metal.

  “We shall see,” said the dusty voice. “Young man, you are the culmination of an experiment that has lasted almost twenty years. We developed a substance that caused feelings of confidence and sexual arousal in those who inhaled it. It was also highly addictive and, after repeated use, fatal. Its name was Coractulous spucaceas. But you would most likely know it as coral spice.”

  “Wait,” said Red. “You invented coral spice? The drug?”

  “It only behaved like a recreational drug. Its true purpose was to alter the unborn children of female users while they were still in the womb and vulnerable to such drastic changes.”

  “Alter?” asked Brigga Lin.

  “It would improve their reflexes and hand-eye coordination to performance levels well beyond a normal person. It would also mark these children with red eyes so we could readily identify them. But every one we found did not live longer than a month. We thought none had survived, so the experiment was considered a failure. Until Teltho Kan saw you.”

  “You’re saying that countless lives were ruined on the off chance someone like me might come along?” demanded Red.

  “We did not force people to take the drug. One of our number was most insistent on that point.”

  “There must always be an element of choice,” said the oily voice.

  “So my whole life, the reason I’ve always been so clever with my hands and good with my aim? That was the coral spice.”

  “Correct.”

  “And Teltho Kan,” said Hope. “He intensified it.”

  “Yes. The subject’s full ability lay dormant until unlocked by a biomancer.”

  “Why do you need him?” Hope struggled to her knees. “What is he saving the empire from?”

  “That we will not tell you. Suffice it to say, it is a threat greater than even our power alone can face.”

  “So if I agree to help you,” asked Red, “you’ll let Hope go free?”

  “Yes.”

  “What about Brigga Lin?”

  There was a pause.

  “She should be disciplined for her heresy.”

  “You mean tortured to death, right?”

  Another pause.

  “Yes.”

  Red’s face set. “Then I want you to let her go along with Hope.”

  “Why? What is she to you?”

  Red turned to Brigga Lin. She stared back, looking baffled. Perhaps even shocked. Red didn’t blame her. After all, it was partly her fault they were in this mess. But that wasn’t the most important thing right now. That was in the past and couldn’t be changed. But something else could be changed.

  “You fix her,” he said quietly to Brigga Lin. “You help her. From now on. You have to be there for her when I can’t be. Keen?”

  “I…” She looked at him with something close to awe. “Yes. I will. I swear it on the truth of the universal God that I will serve her until my last breath.”

  “Good,” said Red.

  “Red, no, please don’t do this.” Hope struggled to her feet, her face pinched and wan. She swayed and Red caught her. “Please don’t leave your fate in their hands.”

  “Listen, old pot,” he said quietly, forcing a smile as he held her in his arms. “This is all crystal. We either both die today. Or we both live apart.”

  “Red…” Her face twisted up. “I wish I had—”

  “Hey, just for a little while.” He didn’t know what she’d been about to say, but he could barely hold on to this brave face as it was. One more thing might tip him over.

  He gently handed Hope to Brigga Lin. “Her ship is called the Lady’s Gambit. Get her to our people. And fix her up.”

  Brigga Lin drew herself up to her full height and nodded curtly. “I will.”

  Red turned back to the biomancer council. The biomancer in the center raised his hand, and the soldiers shifted to either side, leaving the doorway to the stairs open.

  Hope drew herself up and shook off Brigga Lin’s support. She gave Red one last look, then turned and walked slowly down the steps. Brigga Lin followed closely behind, her hands outstretched, ready to catch Hope if she stumbled. And it was that last sight that gave Red some tiny bit of comfort that they would be all right.

  He watched until they were completely out of sight. Then he turned back to the line of hooded old men. “Alright you creepy gafs. I’m yours.”

  31

  It was a long walk back to the Lady’s Gambit. The sun was already in the sky by the time they arrived. Hope had insisted on leavin
g the palace without help, but now she leaned heavily on Brigga Lin, a sheen of sweat on her forehead.

  It seemed the crew had been up all night waiting, because the moment she was in view, they jumped off the ship and rushed down the dock toward her, talking over each other.

  “Where’s Red?” asked Sadie.

  “Where’s your pissing hand?” asked Nettles.

  “I-I can fix her,” stammered Brigga Lin, looking oddly intimidated by the cluster of concerned people around them. “Red made me promise to fix her.”

  “Where in piss’ell is Red?” Sadie said again.

  “They took him, Sadie,” said Hope, her voice weak. “They took our Red.”

  Sadie’s face went pale, and her mouth set. “That stupid, stupid boy.”

  “I didn’t want…him…to come…” Another wave of dizziness swept over Hope, and the ground rushed up. But she heard a clank of metal, and two strong hands caught her. She looked into Filler’s big, open face.

  “I’ve got you, Captain,” he said.

  “Filler…” Her voice broke. Her fingers moved lightly across his hairy cheek. “He saved us. He traded himself.”

  “Then we’ll just have to steal him back, won’t we, Captain?” He carried her onto the ship and back to the captain’s quarters. Every other step was a clank, and Hope realized he was wearing the metal brace that he and Alash had constructed. He laid her down on the bunk.

  “How can you possibly fix her?” Alash asked Brigga Lin.

  “I am—I was a biomancer.”

  The group erupted in angry shouts.

  “But now”—Hope cut in, her voice hard as she mustered enough strength to sit up on her own— “Now, she’s one of us. Keen?”

  They all fell silent.

  Then Missing Finn said, “You heard the captain. That’s how it is now.”

  Hope put her hand on Finn’s shoulder. “Thank you, Mr. Finn.”

  “So how are you going to fix her?” Alash asked.

  “I just need a limb to replace it,” she said. “Perhaps an animal limb…”

  “No! No beast parts!” snapped Hope, thinking of Ranking, of the owl people, of those soldiers who had been transformed. She wanted nothing to do with that. She pointed at Filler’s metal knee brace and turned to Alash. “You make me something.”

  His eyes widened and then his face grew serious. “Right away, Captain. I should have thought of it myself.”

  “Think of it now,” she said.

  * * *

  Over the next few days, Hope slipped in and out of consciousness. Brigga Lin came in frequently to push foul-smelling potions on her, saying it would help restore her after the blood loss. Filler and Alash would come in now and then to take measurements or discuss some element of the prosthesis design with her.

  Once she was feeling well enough, she told Sadie and Nettles every detail of how Red had saved her not once, but twice in a single night.

  “So you’re sure they won’t kill him or torture him?” asked Sadie.

  Hope shook her head. “They spoke as if he was one of the most important people in the empire.”

  “But you know what those biomancers are capable of,” said Nettles. “They’ll do something to him, true as trouble.”

  Hope did know, but it was abundantly clear she could not defeat the biomancer council.

  After they left, she lay in her bunk, the yellow light of the fading sun spilling through the porthole. She’d always avoided staying in the captain’s quarters before, and now she knew why. Sitting here in this small, neat room reminded her of loss. Carmichael, of course. But that in turn made her think of Hurlo, and her parents. And now Red. She could still see him in that last moment, giving her a grin as if she didn’t know him well enough by now to see it was forced. A pain welled up inside that she’d never felt before. She missed him already, and it hurt more than any loss before it.

  Filler’s words came back to her: We’ll just have to steal him back, won’t we? And he was right. This was one person the biomancers had taken that she could still take back. She just needed to figure out how.

  A short time later, Brigga Lin came in with another of her unpleasant tonics. This one made Hope drowsy, and soon she drifted to sleep. In her dreams, she and Red were back outside the palace walls. He was looking at her with that sweet, agonized expression and he said, We have a choice. We can be whatever we like.

  When she woke, she knew what she must do.

  * * *

  The next day, Alash and Filler gathered everyone in Hope’s cabin and proudly presented the prosthesis. They had converted the leather arm sheath from the pole mechanism and installed a hinge above that where her wrist had been. Then they fixed a clamp at the end of the hinge, big enough to hold her sword.

  “Now we get to the complicated bit,” said Alash. “The hinge has full rotation, as you requested.” He demonstrated by rolling the clamp around. “And it can also lock into place when necessary, also as you requested.”

  “Sounds good so far.” Hope watched Filler carefully slide the sheath over her stump and strap it in place.

  “Here’s the part you won’t like,” said Alash. “We can use the same catch-and-release system that Filler and I designed for his knee, but you’ll have to operate it with your other hand.”

  Hope shook her head. “I’ll need the other hand. Find a different way.”

  “There is no other way.” Alash’s face flushed with frustration.

  “Perhaps I can help?” asked Brigga Lin.

  “No beast parts,” said Hope.

  “No,” agreed Brigga Lin. She held out her hand to Filler, who wordlessly handed Hope’s sheathed arm to her. She pointed to the metal wires. “Let me make sure I understand this mechanism correctly. It appears that if there was adjustable flex tension along this line, that would lock the hinge when and where necessary, at any point in the rotation?”

  “Yeah,” said Filler. “But how would you set that tension without using the other hand?”

  “By fusing it to her tendons. Then she would control it with the same reflex she would normally use to rotate her wrist. A comparable motion.”

  “Combining man and machine?” whispered Alash, looking at once shocked and fascinated.

  “Do it,” said Hope.

  “The procedure will be intensely painful,” said Brigga Lin. “Perhaps we should wait until you’ve had more time to regain your health.”

  “Do it now.”

  She looked at Filler. He looked back at her helplessly. “You heard the captain.”

  “Fine,” said Brigga Lin, crisp and businesslike. “Give her a strip of leather to bite so she doesn’t break her teeth or chew out her tongue.”

  Filler pulled off his belt, folded it in half, and held it out to Hope. She bit down on it, then nodded to Brigga Lin.

  The pain was twice that of cutting off her own hand. It burrowed in deep beneath her flesh and coiled up until it felt like metal wires were being inserted into every muscle in her arm. She screamed through the belt until her voice was hoarse. But she didn’t pass out. She refused to pass out. She would see this through as she had seen every terrible thing. The fact that she was the one suffering made no difference. She would never look away.

  Finally, Brigga Lin stepped back, dabbing at her nose, which had started to bleed again. They let Hope catch her breath. Nettles forced her to drink some water. Then Alash and Filler completed the mechanical portion. And it was done.

  Hope rose slowly from the bunk, steadying herself on the edge with her regular hand. She lifted up her new hand and gazed at it with satisfaction. “I need room.”

  She walked slowly toward the doorway. Filler offered to help, but she shook her head and continued on her own. Once she was out on the quarter deck, she said quietly, “My sword.”

  They had all followed cautiously behind her. Nettles handed her the sword, then stepped back with the others.

  Hope fastened the hilt to her clamp. She twisted her arm, and t
he Song of Sorrows cut through the night sky. It still sang, but the tone was different now. Darker, yes, but smoother as well. She snapped it one way, then the other, in a smooth figure eight movement that made one long, mournful hum. Then she twisted her wrist, and the sword locked into place, pointing upward. It felt more a part of her than ever before. She smiled and held the blade up close to her face. In its reflection, she saw her crew standing behind her.

  She lowered her blade and turned to them.

  “I dedicated my life to avenging those who were already dead.” She shook her head. “It makes so little sense to me now.”

  They looked at each other, not grasping where she was headed with this. She didn’t blame them.

  “I will get Red back,” she continued. “I cannot beat the Council of Biomancery head-on. Not yet. So I will attack their extremities. I will hack them apart, bit by bit, one biomancer or imperial ship at a time. If I must, I will tear this empire down until there is nothing left standing except Red, free. I will be a dark wind of chaos that wipes it all away so that something better can take its place.”

  “Hope…,” said Sadie.

  “There is no Hope. Not anymore. From now on, they will know me as Dire Bane.”

  She looked at each of them in turn. Sadie, Missing Finn, Filler, Nettles, Alash, and Brigga Lin. “Are you with me?”

  It was Nettles who dropped to one knee first. “Dire Bane, champion of the people and scourge of the empire, I’m with you.”

  Filler quickly followed, his metal knee squeaking as he knelt. “I’m with you.”

  “I abhor violence,” said Alash as he knelt, “but if it saves my cousin, I’m with you.”

  “I was hoping for a quiet retirement,” said Sadie. “But I reckon I’d get bored of that fast anyway. I’m with you. I ain’t going to kneel, though. I wouldn’t be able to get back up.”

  “If Sadie’s with you, then so am I,” said Missing Finn. “Besides, I’ve gotten a little sotted with this ship. And if it’s pirating we’re to be doing, she’ll need to be refitted with cannons.”

  Hope turned to Brigga Lin, the newest member of the crew.

  “Red made you swear to help me. And you have. This course we plan to follow will be hard. If you want to leave now, I will consider your oath fulfilled.”