Storms Over Open Fields (Life of Riley Book 2)

by G. Howell

  “No, we couldn’t.”

  “Couldn’t? Why? God damn it! I’m trying to understand your way of doing things. I really am, but things like this make no sense to me!”

  She hung her head for just a second, the fur on the bridge of her muzzle wrinkling momentarily as she clenched her eyes shut and then looked at me again. “I can’t tell you.”

  It was my turn to stare. “You can’t tell me why you can’t tell me.”

  An ear flicked back as she parsed that. “A.”

  I felt a ruined muscle in my torn cheek twitch. “So, I suppose asking why wouldn’t be the best question, would it.”

  She cocked her head, stared again, then snorted. “No, probably not.”

  “Then this is just a fancy way of getting rid of me? Making it look like a trial? His lordship wants to be rid of me, so he just throws a mock trial to make it look... correct.”

  She actually looked shocked.

  “Mikah, understand, this isn’t usual, nothing about this situation is,” she said, her lips twitching over sharp teeth. “But whatever is happening, it’s not a personal vendetta. Red tie you, this is the Mediator Guild. You are not being persecuted - you are being judged. And if you are worthy, you will be found so. Your honesty and cooperation will have a bearing on that.”

  I hid behind the wine again, regarding her with some disbelief over the edge of the goblet. Talk about ego... did she really believe the guild was that infallible? “Really? This always works? You deal with criminals, all those cheats and liars and every decision you make is the right one?”

  Escheri waved a ‘no’. “Common criminals... that’s magistrate, governments law business. The Guild, in its official capacity, deals with other matters. The serious matters. The instances that could cause disruptions for more than just individuals.”

  “And you’re always right?” I asked again

  “Our history is a long one,” she replied, as if that answered everything.

  “And we all know who writes the history books, don’t we,” I muttered.

  “Huhn?” amber eyes blinked at me and I shook my head:

  “Nothing. Thinking aloud.”

  “You find something odd about our ways?”

  Another loaded question. “Escheri,” I said, “in the past couple of years I’ve seen things that are odder than I’d ever imagined. Your Guild is only one.”

  “Your kind really doesn’t have anything like it?”

  “We have law enforcement,” I said.

  “From what you’ve told me, that’s merely a trade. A momentary employment; something an [itinerant] worker may undertake depending upon circumstance,” she replied, watching me. “That is...odd. Such a [cavalier] attitude to something that is so vital to a society. I don’t think I would trust anyone like that.”

  “And you’ve been entirely honest with me,” I retorted.

  “Ah,” she cocked her head again, “that is a point. If you feel that way, perhaps there is something you should know.”

  “What?”

  “That wine,” she nodded her chin.

  “What about it?” I looked down at the dregs in the goblet and the penny dropped, along with my heart. “Oh, you didn’t...”

  “Sorry,” she said calmly.

  ------v------

  My guards assisted me back to the hall. They had to: everything felt remote. Numb. That included my legs. When I tried to walk myself I found the walls wouldn’t stay where they were supposed to. I should have felt angry. Hell, I should have felt furious, but in truth I wasn’t feeling very much at all. My feet still hurt, but it didn’t seem to matter.

  “Don’t look like that,” Escheri’d told me when what she’d said had sunk in. “It’s just something to calm you down. You need it. Really, you need it.”

  I’d been annoyed, putting it mildly. I’d been scared and furious. I’d started shouting at her while she and guards just watched me in a frustratingly calm manner. At least, I remember I’d started shouting and then somehow I’d found I was slumped in a corner and a hand was shaking my shoulder and an out-of-focus voice was saying, “It’s time, Mikah.”

  They’d helped me, holding my arms to steady me while the hallways reeled around me. Somehow, I once again found myself crossing an echoing stage while shadowy figures circled around. That hit close to a place deep inside, a place where old nightmares hid. When they let me fold down onto that cushion I closed my eyes and shuddered while the talking started. I heard it, but it was if I were under anesthetic: I heard it and felt like I could respond, but I simply didn’t want to.

  Something seized my shoulder and shook me, rattling my teeth, “Hai, can you understand?” a hairy face was growling at me. Escheri was kneeling down in front of me. Her hands were on my shoulders and she was staring intently at me.

  I blinked, looked past her at other faces staring. “What?” I mumbled.

  “How many fingers?’

  Again I blinked, “Four.”

  Escheri patted my shoulder and carefully stood, backing away before turning to address the audience who’d witnessed all this. “Pardons, Ma’am,” she said. “Medications can have unpredictable results on him but he is [something].”

  “It was necessary? He is supposed to be non-violent.”

  “Yes ma’am, violence on his side wasn’t a concern. But he is anxious enough that we may have more of those outbursts and perhaps influence the Tribunal’s decision. This was just to calm him. He is rational.”

  “Very well,” the spokesperson’s growl echoed through the forum, the sibilants raising sounds like distant surf from the farthest walls. “All present at this time, note that we reconvene this Tribunal, witnessing this challenge of Lord Heschier ah Richtkah’s judgement by constable ah Ehrasai of Lying Scales.”

  “This tribunal is convened and [promise/oath/something?] to uphold the good of the many and the Guild. These members have been chosen and so swear that that they hold no favor or preference for either party. We meet to bear witness to the grievances of all, to hear their claims and to make a decision that will benefit the people we are sworn to protect and the guild itself. We will make this decision without preference of [something], and that decision will be held as word and law. We are ready to proceed?”

  Sounds of assent.

  “Very good. Ah Ehrasai, we will now hear your deposition.”

  Ah Ehrasai. Shyia. That’s who they were talking about. I should be listening to this, a part of me knew, but the rest of me was just... numb.

  “Ma’am, I respect his Lordship’s position, but this course must not continue. This visitor is an unprecedented opportunity. Nothing like this has ever happened before. It is impossible to believe that it could happen again.

  “The reasons cited for the removal of this outsider sound valid, but they are mere supposition. Facts have been misinterpreted or misrepresented. Not through malice or [incompetence?], but as a result of that lack of information that his Lordship so lamented. I was either present at the unfolding of many of these early events or had the opportunity to speak firsthand with those who were, and the evidence I collected [something] many of those [something] theories.

  “In late autumn the Guild hall in Lying Scales heard of an appeal for assistance from a small outlaying town of Westwater to the local government requesting assistance. They had been troubled by some sort of unknown animal. There were claims it had killed a farmer and had been further troubling the community. It was not deemed to be a Guild matter and was left to the local guard.

  “In winter we heard further news of this creature, this time in the form of a direct appeal to the Guild. The creature had been apprehended, the missive claimed, however it also stated that the thing was not a Rris, nor did it seem to be a dumb animal and the mayor was requesting Guild assistance fo
r a trial. This request was quite unusual and the information supplied was meager, but Westwater had to date been a quiet settlement, without a history of fraudulent claims. So I was dispatched to Westwater to assess and assist if required.

  “What I found when I arrived was not what I’d expected. I was told that the creature had been apprehended, being grievously wounded in the process. I was introduced to the winter teacher hired by the community for the season. She was the one who’d injured it, then captured it and finally was the one who defending it and sheltering it at her own hearth. This I did find unusual.

  “The creature was like nothing I’d seen or heard of before. Despite the cautions, seeing it for the first time was somewhat of a shock. Even more so to find that it could actually speak. Granted, it’s capability was very limited – like a cub learning to speak – but the fact it could carry on a conversation was startling. As was the fact it was unrestrained and loose inside the teacher’s dwelling. It was seriously injured, and while she was the one who’d caused the injury, it didn’t seem to harbor any ill-will toward her. It had chances enough to harm her, but it didn’t.

  “At the time I was unable to determine just what it was or where it came from. Its grasp on speech was still extremely rudimentary. It could tell us its name and a few simple words, but it was incapable of telling us much more. Stranger still were the devices it carried with it. Its clothing was utterly outlandish. There were materials that were lighter and with a finer weave than anything I’d ever seen; devices that produced light without oil or fire; things that made noise or lit up in peculiar ways. And there was that picture box. That started more questions.

  “That was a problem. Its inability to speak meant it could not communicate very well. There was also the problem that it was not Rris: It didn’t react as a person should. In many ways our training and skills are useless when it comes to dealing with him simply because none of the normal telltales were applicable. It has no tail; Its ears aren’t mobile; it didn’t move or react in the same way. That’s not to say the giveaways aren’t there. They’re present, but they are very different. It becomes a matter of relearning those signals, and that takes time and continual exposure, which I didn’t have.

  “The charges against this stranger were serious: murder and theft. Initially, they’d been laid by a farmer who claimed her partner was ruthlessly killed by it. She’d been a [proponent] of the hunting of the thing when it’d been found to be lurking in the vicinity. Her description of the creature was accurate, but there were too many inconsistencies. Even superficial inspection produced too many more questions. And she seemed to be very perturbed of the fact that it could speak. It didn’t come as a great surprise to find its account of events differed substantially from hers.

  “A trial was held, as demanded by the townsfolk. The results of that weren’t entirely decisive. While the creature’s tale was consistent and fit the facts, the accuser played on the facts he wasn’t a Rris and was of dubious civility and integrity. I could not read him like a Rris; Drugs that usually worked on Rris were quite ineffective and, in fact, had detrimental effects, meaning his word could not be used. Verdict was inconclusive: he was found innocent of the murder charges. However, while the accuser’s story had several glaring inconsistencies, there was also no direct evidence against her. It was decided that the outsider would be removed to Lying Scales and the matter further investigated there.”

  A distant part of me knew this was important, but things still seemed to drift in and out of focus and the urgency came and went with it. I managed to catch myself nodding off, before I fell on my face, starting awake again with a gasp. I saw Rris heads turn and that voice paused for a breath before resuming:

  “Before that could be done there was an attempt on his life by a group of armed individuals. He sustained serious injuries protecting a group of cubs who would have been caught up in the attempt. During that time he killed two of the Rris who attacked them, but from what I saw his efforts were more through desperation and sheer size than any particular skill. During that fight he suffered grievous injuries: bites, claw and sword cuts. Serious infection was a real risk. The local physician used medication he said the creature had supplied and it proved astoundingly effective.”

  There was nothing there I didn’t know. I listened through the drug-induced haze as he continued, regaling the crowd with events I’d lived through: how he’d taken me to the town of Lying Scales where the local Guild Master had taken one look at what his subordinate had dredged up and thrown the issue further up the line, sending me on to Shattered Water with Shyia along as chaperone. He told of our long, slow trip from Lying Scales, across the winter countryside. I clutched at the cushion and tried to keep breathing steadily as the room spun nauseatingly.

  “What I found interesting,” he was saying, “was that he could understand everything around him. Even when we entered the capital, he was never completely at a loss. I’ve seen country (somethings) who’ve never seen a town before who couldn’t stop gawking at every small detail. Not him. He was never overwhelmed by the streets and buildings. It was the people that unsettled him and made him stare, but not the buildings. He knew cities. He understood everything he saw, no matter how advanced we would believe it was, he’d seen it before. That made his tale about cities of his own kind more believable.”

  “Initially his appearance didn’t have much of an impact, in either the Guild or the Palace. There was curiosity about my report, but little more. Not until what he carried with him become known. Then attitudes changed most abruptly. Very soon Hirht himself was demanding to see the visitor and after that a continual procession of scholars and specialists were studying him.

  “The palace was most careful to keep him close. While the Guild dispatched reports to the hall in Endless Circle and waited for responses from distant individuals who had no idea what was really happening, the government of Shattered Water was busy reaping a bountiful harvest. They had the creature confer with their craftsmen and artificers and found that its knowledge, if not its skill, outstripped their own. Using that knowledge they changed and improved existing machines; they built new ones; gained new understandings and ideas in everything from medicine to agriculture and architecture. Of course neighboring countries witnessed these changes and they clamored for this knowledge. The problem was that this resource was limited and it had frailties of its own.”

  The voice stopped and there was a silence. A very pointed silence. It was enough to jolt me awake again, snapping my drooping head upright with a sharp intake of breath to find the Rris all staring at me. The Tribunal members eyed me for a bit longer before the chair told Shyia, “Please, continue.”

  “Ma’am,” Shyia acknowledged. For a split second I think I saw his gaze flicker past me before returning. “Ma’am, one of the things that made this creature so very difficult to read and to predict was that he doesn’t act or think in that same way we do. There are things he does that would simply not be considered…normal by a Rris. I was aware of this. I’d had experience with it, but I hadn’t been able to convey this concern to Shattered Water.

  “Some time after delivering the outsider to Shattered Water - after the government had had some dealing with him and realized what was in their possession - I found that I was being increasingly distanced from his handling. It was not overt, but it was there, a gradual separating of us. And with that, there came a steadily increasing demand on his time and services from more and more guilds and governments. He was treated as…a commodity, and I could see it was having a detrimental effect on him. That was worrying. I made my concerns known; I related what he’d done in the past while under duress but received no concrete response. It didn’t take much to see that the government was trying to [something] their grip on the outsider without openly rejecting Guild involvement.

  “A matter of months later I received Guild orders that I was to return to Lying Scales - an
order that had been initiated at the request of the Palace. I lodged a protest with the Guild; and again my protests were forwarded to Endless Circle. Shortly thereafter I departed Shattered Water and returned to Lying Scales. However, I did take the precaution of requesting some contacts I’d cultivated to keep me appraised of happenings back in the capitol. Which is why I was informed that a while after my departure, the outsider attempted to kill himself, as I’d warned them he might do.

  “It was about that time that the Guild finally started to stir. Queries for elaboration on the happenings at Westwater arrived from both the halls at Shattered Water and Endless Circle. A few at first, then more and more. The Guild was starting to pay attention, but it was too slow.

  “It transpired that I hadn’t been alone with my concerns. A doctor had also submitted similar concerns to the Palace after an incident when she’d encountered the outsider. She’d spoken with him for only a short time, yet in that brief period she’d realized he didn’t think normally and might do something unpredictable. That observation seems to have been ignored at first, but it would seem that after the attempt at self-death it was taken to high levels and acted upon. Almost immediately following his attempt on his own life she was brought in by the Palace as an advisor.”

  Maithris, I realized. He was talking about Mai.

  “The position changed. Her assistance came with demands for autonomy as well as finance. These were agreed to, with penalties for failure. She insisted on tending to him herself and it was found that the outsider fixated upon her. She had speculated that he required companionship and the isolation was what he found difficult, so she herself offered it and in turn had a chance to study him. That speculation turned out to be accurate, and he became extremely attached to her, to the point they engaged in sexual relations.”

  Through the fog I knew I wanted to feel… angry, embarrassed, shocked… something, but the spark just flared and died in the fog I felt I was wrapped in. Where was he going with this?