Shield (Bridge & Sword: Awakenings #2): Bridge & Sword World

by JC Andrijeski

  Panic exploded in my chest. Something in me ripped open. I couldn’t see.

  My light flared around me. There was a folding sensation…

  …and then the weight on me was gone.

  I heard yells somewhere in the back of my mind. I heard excited voices as I scrambled to my feet.

  I couldn’t see. Light blinded me, and yet I felt drained of light, too, almost drunk without it. I tied up my pants, fingers fumbling with the knots, my nose still bleeding. I saw blurred faces as they backed away from me.

  Then I ran.

  I dodged through bodies to get out of the sparring circle, out of the crowd, then out of the courtyard. Once I broke free I sprinted as fast as I could, not into the compound where they might trap me again, but through the garden, jumping over benches and weaving to avoid trees, throwing myself down the hill at the garden’s edge and half sliding, half running down the steep, weeded bank.

  I heard someone call my name, but I only ran faster, until all I could hear was blood pumping in my ears and the sound of my feet through grass and gravel on the street below. I ran between buildings until I met another entrance to the trees, then I sprinted as hard as I could up the sloped dirt path leading into the forest.

  I ran and ran, until I couldn’t breathe, feeling air cut my throat as branches whipped past.

  When I finally stopped, I didn’t know where I was anymore.

  9

  CUSTOM

  BALIDOR HEARD A scream. It was a female’s scream.

  Hair rose on the back of his neck.

  He glanced at his two companions, Laren and Grent. Laren unholstered her sidearm, nodding to Grent as he did the same.

  Wordlessly, they took up a fan formation.

  Balidor followed them through the side entrance between buildings, his aleimi in hunting mode.

  When they reached the courtyard, Balidor stopped short. Laren and Grent halted, too.

  A crowd stood around the sparring ring in the corner of the weed-choked yard. Balidor recognized the Bridge’s two humans. They were standing too still; he could see more than one seer holding them in restraint.

  Staring between legs, he felt his chest clench.

  Taking in the totality of the scene, he remembered that morning, the flare the Bridge had sent out while she’d been with Dehgoies.

  He swore in Chinese, recognizing the seer astride her now, a youngster named Maygar who’d been acting as her bodyguard for about a year. Balidor had gotten a bad feeling about him from the beginning, even apart from his past, his ridiculous pretensions to revolutionary status and his Rook mother.

  He chambered a bullet, walking forward, cursing Dehgoies at each stride.

  What the hell had he been thinking, letting her come back here alone?

  He was about to shout out, to call a halt to whatever Maygar had put in motion, when he felt a pulse of what could only be terror, and realized it came from the Bridge. The intensity of it brought him to a halt. The same sharp inhale spread to others as it hit the crowd.

  A burst of light illuminated the Barrier space.

  Then the punk, Maygar, lifted off her.

  No––he flew off her.

  He jerked like a rag doll through the air. Soaring about thirty feet across the courtyard, he slammed into a set of stone benches, his back and neck connecting solidly. He didn’t make a sound apart from the thud of flesh.

  Once he fell to the dirt below, he didn’t move.

  There was an instant of dead silence.

  Then the Bridge was on her feet.

  Everyone backed away. She stared around as if half-blind, fumbling with her pants, pulling them up over her hips, wiping blood off her face… and her eyes were light, just light. It was the last glimpse Balidor got of her face before she bolted, running not for the street or for the compound buildings but through the garden.

  She was fleeing, he realized. Not just Maygar, but all of them.

  Hesitating only a heartbeat, Balidor broke into a run after her.

  He felt Laren and Grent do the same, only a little slower to react than he. They chased her through the garden, but she had more than a hundred paces on him, and leapt through the greenery as fast as a rabbit. When he saw her reach the edge of the plateau, he yelled her name, but she didn’t turn, or even slow down.

  Running at top speed as she approached the edge, she catapulted off the grassy border, windmilling her legs on tennis-shoed feet.

  She vanished beyond the bank.

  By the time he, Grent and Laren reached the edge of the same piece of lawn, she was disappearing into an alley between two apartment buildings, still running all out.

  Cursing, indecisive, Balidor tried to decide what to do.

  If he went after her now, she’d be sure to think he’d rape her too.

  According to traditional law, he even had the right. Any marriage not consummated within six lunar cycles could be consummated by force through right of second claim. That is, providing that the female in question had been witnessed asking for sex and being refused by the husband.

  It was an old, backwards law.

  Balidor couldn’t even remember the last time he’d heard of it being invoked, other than in jest. Severe separation pain was like a drug for unattached seers. Anyone nearby couldn’t help but be affected. The elders made the rule during a period where those types of conflicts had been endemic to the political situation––meaning, a couple of thousand years ago.

  In other words, for Maygar to pull that shit now was like a human evoking Biblical law as an excuse to stone someone to death.

  He’d chosen his witnesses carefully––even Yerin, who was a carrier of the law to his core. Yerin would go along with it simply because it was still technically legal on the books.

  “Barbarism,” Balidor muttered.

  Laren laid a hand on his shoulder.

  He patted her fingers, feeling through the simple contact that the incident had shocked her, too. She was angry, both for personal reasons and on the Bridge’s behalf. Like Balidor, she also worried they now had a serious problem on their hands. Given the number of people involved, the Bridge may never trust any of them again.

  And then there was Dehgoies.

  Everyone knew the story with Dehgoies and the Bridge.

  Dehgoies’ only crime lay in not explaining the facts of life to his wife at an earlier date, before her ignorance caused a near-aneurism in every unattached male in hearing distance.

  He’d done everything technically right afterwards. He removed her from the construct, offered apologies all around and accepted full blame. He’d even gone so far as to make it publicly known that he had every intention of dealing with the situation formally… and at the earliest possible opportunity.

  He only erred in judgment, perhaps, by leaving her alone.

  So in addition to being a pig for trying it––and he was a pig, there was no doubt about that––Maygar was an unmitigated fool.

  If he wanted a wife that badly he could have gone to Europe or America, where most of the females lived. Mate poaching was a rare crime in the seer world for the simple reason that someone usually died.

  It was one instance where a seer killing another seer would generally be overlooked.

  Especially where coercion was involved.

  Maygar would pay for his stupidity, Balidor thought grimly, and likely before the end of the day, assuming the Bridge hadn’t killed him already.

  He looked from Laren to Grent and sighed.

  Nodding assent to Grent’s unspoken question, he motioned them back towards the compound and the main street above.

  They now had the unhappy job of finding Dehgoies and explaining to him what had happened.

  That was assuming he hadn’t already felt his wife’s terror and was on his way up there to rip someone’s head off with his bare hands.

  I KEPT WALKING.

  I didn’t have a destination in mind. I wasn’t thinking at all yet really, but remained heavily sh
ielded, walking in what I hoped was the opposite direction of Seertown. I wasn’t ready to use the Barrier, not when I didn’t know who might be looking for me.

  I didn’t call Revik.

  Someone would tell him.

  Hell, he probably knew, by now.

  I sealed my light tight instead, giving myself the space to think. Reaching the top of a tree-lined ridge, I paused to catch my breath in the thin air. I was sweating. I didn’t miss my coat yet, but I knew I would if I didn’t find shelter by sunset.

  Or earlier, if the weather changed, as it often did up here.

  At the thought, I wiped my face, and realized there was still dried blood on it from when Maygar hit me with his light. I wiped it off as best I could.

  For the first time, I felt my throat close.

  I stood there for a moment, sniffling like a kid in the cold air, rubbing my face with my hand. Mostly, I think I was in disbelief.

  I didn’t know what to do. I had nowhere to go.

  I should probably just call Revik, get it over with.

  But I wasn’t ready to face him yet, either. I didn’t want to explain how it happened, or think about why I’d ignored all the red flags around Maygar’s weird behavior. I didn’t want to deal with Revik’s anger, or his sympathy, or his grief. I just wanted a quiet place to regroup.

  A different voice rose in my mind.

  You could come with me, Bridge, it said.

  I turned so fast my foot slipped on the edge of the cliff. I lost and regained my balance, but the close-call brought my heart pounding to my throat.

  I’ll leave you be, the voice added.

  I thrust my hands out in front of me, ready to fight.

  …Just an offer, Bridge, the voice sent, softer. No harm meant.

  “Get away from me!” I nearly shouted. “I mean it! Get back!”

  Thinking it must be someone from the Guard, sent by Vash or Yerin or Balidor, I reached reflexively for my sidearm. But I’d left for breakfast that morning without it.

  Of course I had––Revik had been with me.

  What a complete and utter idiot I was.

  “I’ll do to you what I did to him,” I said, my voice an open threat. “Come near me, and I’ll throw you off the damned mountain! I swear I will!”

  “Shh,” they said aloud. “Won’t hurt you, Bridge. Promise.”

  The physical voice sounded different than what I’d heard in my head. It was deeper, rougher. It also spoke a kind of seer patois I’d only heard from the much older generation. I heard a hitch, like labored breaths. Or maybe laughter.

  “Won’t bite our precious leader,” it said. “Or rape you, neither!”

  My heart pounded at her words, but my fear was gradually being replaced by confusion. The voice didn’t sound like it belonged to anyone I knew.

  It sounded old. It also sounded female.

  “Aye. I’m old,” the voice acknowledged. “Female, too.”

  “Who are you?” I said.

  “Don’t worry. You’re safe enough with me. Tough seer like you…”

  For some reason, I wanted to laugh.

  My mind went into overdrive, reminding me of seers who pretended to be friendly or harmless, only to turn on me. Hell, it could be one of Terian’s. He’d done the same thing on that cruise ship, waited for me and Revik to be separated before he sent his people after both of us. He could have paid Maygar to jump me.

  Now here I was, in the woods. Half beat-up and weepy, just waiting to be picked up by one of his goons.

  The old woman clicked audibly.

  No grand conspiracies, Bridge. Just ordinary stupidity. He’s his father’s boy. Passionate. Not too bright, though.

  “Maygar? Are you talking about Maygar?” Hearing her assent through the Barrier, I said, “Who’s his father?”

  “Knew him as a boy. Knew lots of seers as boys. Girls, too.” I heard that wheezing laughter again. Not you though, Bridge. Not you. Been a long time since you and I shared a meal together.

  Emotion clouded my mind, forcing me to wipe my eyes again.

  I lowered my hands. “Just leave me alone, all right?”

  “Pahhh. You are loved. More than you know.”

  Her words angered me for some reason.

  “Great,” I said. “I’ll keep that in mind.” Biting my lip, I added in a more diplomatic voice, “Look, if you don’t mind, I’d really just like some time to myself. I don’t mean to be rude, but I…”

  I trailed as the old woman pushed her way through thick-branched trees.

  When she hit the sunlight in full view, I found my words drying up entirely.

  She really hadn’t been kidding about her age. Before me stood the oldest-looking seer I’d ever seen.

  Fine wrinkles accented the features of her oval face––so fine they reminded me of a baby turtle I’d once held in my palm, each wrinkle of its neck as thin as a thread. A dark brown in color, her skin didn’t look like an old human’s really. Instead, the near-perfection of the lines gave it a smooth, almost alien quality.

  She managed to make Vash look young, though, despite her hair being as black as a raven’s. Her pale eyes shone up at me, strangely familiar.

  The woman smiled, and her near-perfect teeth surprised me. White and straight, they resembled the teeth of a twenty year-old human. She continued walking towards me until I raised my hands a second time.

  “No,” I cautioned. “Stay there. Please. Don’t get too close.”

  She halted obediently. Do you know me?

  “No,” I said. “I’ve never seen you before.”

  Even so, I hesitated. A lot of the mountain seers didn’t get down to Seertown much, but this woman clearly knew who I was.

  “Do you live around here?” I made a respectful gesture. “I could come see you another time, perhaps. Today, you’ve caught me on a bad day.”

  “But you’ll be needing shelter, won’t you?” she said.

  I blinked at the woman’s pale, almost colorless eyes, fighting with the familiarity in them. She knew I’d been running from an attempted rape, knew who I was, offered me shelter, and asked if I knew her. Should I know her?

  She studied me right back with those light-filled eyes.

  “Biological, that’s right,” she said. “His mother’s sister.” She chuckled in that deep voice. “So he can’t get rid of me. Though he’s tried hard enough.”

  “Who?” I lowered my hands. “Who tried to get rid of you?” I was beginning to think she might be a bit senile. “A friend of yours?”

  Your husband, the old seer sent. I’m your aunt. By marriage.

  For an instant I doubted her.

  Then I refocused on her face, understanding at once why I’d recognized her eyes. They were Revik’s eyes, only more slanted at the corners.

  I still couldn’t quite believe it. I’d been sure he didn’t have any biological family left. His adoptive family was related to him distantly in some way, but this woman looked like a bona fide relative.

  “That’s right,” she said, nodding. “His mother’s sister. Like I said.”

  Conscious suddenly of how I must look, I bowed stiffly.

  Meeting family was a big deal among seers.

  At one point, I’d even been taught the proper way to greet senior family members, but my mind was a complete blank. I bowed again, my hands at mid-chest. I figured that was less likely to cause offense, at least.

  “Apologies, aunt. As I said––”

  “I caught you on a bad day, yes.” She smiled, but I saw seriousness in her face. A very bad day. For others, as well.

  Her eyes brightened as she glanced over the cliff. Her stare carried a distance that made me strangely nostalgic.

  “Got something to show you, Bridge,” she said. “This isn’t about your mate, or what happened back there. This is about you, and your new problem.” Her pale eyes met mine. “You’ll come with me? I’ll call off the dogs.”

  I glanced over my shoulder, seeking what hel
d her gaze.

  A gold-feathered eagle drifted up and down in the currents just behind the edge of the cliff where I stood.

  I looked back towards her.

  “Yeah,” I said, trying a bit of the patois. “Sure. Just us girls. Sounds good.”

  At my stiff accent, the old woman laughed, and I smiled.

  10

  CONSEQUENCES

  JON HEARD THE commotion before he realized what it meant.

  Revik was back.

  He glanced at Cass, who had paled a little under her tan.

  Then, wordlessly, both of them got up.

  They’d been staying out of the way since the incident with Allie, although they’d talked quietly between them about what they should do.

  They’d even wondered whether they should go looking for her, in the hopes she might want to talk to them more than any of the seers. Jon didn’t particularly want to see any of those seers, either––not the ones who turned him and Cass into wax dolls, then just stood there gawking while Maygar tried to rape Allie.

  Unfortunately, despite the paralysis, Jon could remember all of it, including seeing his sister on the ground, screaming, while a seer three times her size shoved his hand down her pants.

  Without really talking about it, Cass and he had been waiting for Revik to return. No doubt lived in either of their minds about what his reaction would be… or how long it would take him to act on it.

  Balidor had been polite to them both, and apologetic as he explained that they were having some difficulty locating Revik. Somehow he’d managed to get himself clear over to some obscure corner of the settlement.

  Jon knew full well that Revik would take it badly.

  Cass and he hadn’t talked much while they waited, but he knew Cass was nervous, too. They’d both seen a lot of different sides to Revik in that cave in Russia, but none so scary as when Terian convinced him that he’d taken Allie captive and was hurting her. Terian managed to string him along with that fiction for about a month before Revik felt enough off Allie to realize he was lying. Well, that coupled with the fact that Terian was never able to produce a physical body.