Facing Fortune (Guardians of Terath Book 2)

by Zen DiPietro

  Kassimeigh let the wind stream over her cheeks and through her hair as she sailed through the air. She wished they had time to wait for reinforcements, but the sooner they got to the terrorist cell, the more effectively they could contain it. Right now, the terrorists were all bundled up in one tidy package, and she and Arc had the element of surprise.

  They flew a circuit over Habith to survey it before landing. The small mining town suffered from disuse. Anything of value had gone with its former occupants. It was always the same with these little mines. When they stopped yielding enough resources to make the effort worthwhile, the people moved on.

  Kassimeigh and Arc detected no signs of life. The action lay hidden below the surface, according to the mercenary. Kassimeigh probed the area for any mana signatures but found nothing. Clearly, there were no other manahi in the vicinity. She did detect a variant of ambient mana belowground that indicated active use of power cells. All of it emanated from one general area. The use of power cells inside the mine backed up the mercenary’s story.

  She landed the kite a short distance from the mine entrance, beneath a scraggly copse of trees. She frowned up at them, and the branches overhead shivered as though catching a chill. A smattering of leaves shook free and flipped end over end on their way to the ground, finally landing to cover the kite in a camouflaging layer.

  “Nice trick,” Arc murmured. “Sense anything?”

  “No manahi. But there are power cells below.”

  “Why cover the kite, then?”

  She shrugged. “Overabundance of caution, probably.

  “Aha. Well, I didn’t notice any surveillance but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any. They could already know we’re here.” He swung his bow from his shoulder in a practiced motion that she recognized and admired. He drew an arrow and nocked it with equal precision.

  “You sure you can do that with your arm?”

  “No problem. Feels great.”

  “Liar. But okay. You’ve got my back.”

  The moderate abundance of natural mana provided more than enough raw material for her. She stared at the entrance to the mine and the rock on each side stretched, reaching across the expanse. The two sides met in the center and melded, preventing any escape.

  The terrorists would have enough air for a few hours, which might possibly be long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Or it might not. The mine was probably pretty small. No, waiting was too chancy. If there were innocents underground, she couldn’t risk letting them suffocate. And even if they were all guilty, they still had the right to plead their case prior to execution.

  She mentally mapped out the location of the power cells belowground. When she was confident she understood their placement, she tightened her grip on the mana pulsing within her. Carefully, she used her mana like a massive cleaver, carving into the ground and scooping out everything that lay between her and the terrorists.

  With great precision, she lifted away the tons of soil and dumped them aside. Trees broke like toothpicks under the shearing force of the dirt and rock heaped upon them.

  Satisfied, Kassimeigh stepped to the edge of the new crater and looked down. Two stories down, she saw people staring upward in shock.

  She took a moment to study the faces. She didn’t see the hundred that the blade at the farmhouse had described. She saw only sixty or so. A poor showing, really. All of the havoc they’d wreaked, and there was only this little pocket of people to show for it? It took so few people to unleash so much harm.

  She stared down at one face after the next, wondering who had orchestrated what part in killing three troops and kidnapping Arc. Anyone who had participated in the bombing had already forfeited his or her life. Any justice on Terath would sentence them to execution for the murder of the three dead Guard members. Her only question was whether anyone among them hadn’t known what they’d gotten mixed up into.

  So she’d ask the question.

  She positioned herself to shout down at them. “Hey, assholes! I was on that monorail you bombed. You killed three of my troops. And recognize that guy?”

  She pointed at Arc, who gave a genial wave with his good hand. “He’s the one you abducted. Bad move.”

  An arrow flew up toward them. Annoyed, Kassimeigh caught it in a cushion of mana and plucked it out of the air with her fingers. She examined it for a moment, then tossed it aside. It wasn’t even poisoned or serrated. What a completely lame attempt to kill her.

  “That kind of nonsense is not in your best interest. Did you really not notice me moving tons of dirt and rock from over your heads?” She waited, but no one moved or said anything.

  “Fine. I’ll come down, then.”

  She stepped over the edge and let herself plummet feet-first down two stories’ worth of height. She buffered her fall so that she landed easily on her feet. A flurry of arrows flew at her but she reversed each one and sent it right back to its owner, the pointy way. When that did not dissuade them, she formed a hard barrier around herself and let the arrows plink off its surface. About a fourth of the group now lay motionless on the packed dirt floor of the large cavern. Instant justice was so tidy. Now she needed to handle the messy part.

  “Enough,” she commanded, suddenly irritated by the waste of time. She wanted to be done with all this. She raised her hands and the remaining terrorists jerked as if hit by a bolt of lightning. They stiffened and fell. That was better.

  She dropped the barrier around her and stepped forward, walking among the immobilized people and their panicked, darting eyes. “The question now is, who has been running this terrorist cell? Who planned the bombing? Who carried it out? Anyone involved is a murderer. Who planned the abduction of Arc Wilding? The ones who carried it out have already paid for it. But anyone else involved deserves my very personal attention.”

  Kassimeigh let silence lay over the bodies like a blanket. She stopped and pointed to a man. “You. Who’s been calling the shots here?”

  She released the man’s joints, and he opened his mouth experimentally. He sat up and his eyes shot to the right. He lifted a shaking finger toward a blond man. “Him. That’s Tim. He arranged everything.”

  The man snapped back to lying stiffly on the floor even as Kassimeigh’s attention shifted to Tim. “Is that so, Tim?

  The man remained lying on the ground after she released the mana grip. He said nothing. Kassimeigh nudged him with the toe of her boot. “I can make you talk,” she warned. “I promise you won’t like it.”

  “Yes,” snarled the man. “These are my people. We want to live by our own rules, make our own choices.”

  “If you wanted to peacefully do your own thing, you always had that right. If you wanted to be a lawmaker, you should have joined the Council.”

  Tim sat up, scowling at her. “The Council was next. We want control of that, too.”

  “For what purpose?” Kassimeigh crossed her arms.

  “Redistribution of power.”

  “What power?”

  “Exactly. Right now we have none. We want to change that.”

  Kassimeigh sighed. Was that what this was all about? A malcontent looking for totalitarianism? Or maybe just the creation of some class system, where the violent abuse the gentle. She’d never understand how people could have all the essentials of life and every opportunity to find happiness, yet wish only for the ability to dominate. It was so small. So useless. Yet so motivating to such a small, useless person. It made her doubt humanity.

  “Because of the mana bugs? Are you really afraid of them?”

  “Some people were.” He shrugged. “They presented a good opportunity to recruit.”

  “Are there any recruits that aren’t here now?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?” he sneered, then turned his head, refusing to speak.

  “Yes. I would.” She gave him a jolt of energy. Not enough to injure him, but the sharp bite of electricity made him yelp. She felt a frisson of bloodlust, a thought to do more, to make him suffe
r for what he’d done, and almost done, to Arc. But she was better than that. She was a justice. It didn’t matter that the shiv elders had tossed her out. In her core, she’d always be a justice. She knew that now. In spite of the blood boiling in her veins, she would only do what was just.

  “No,” he spat. “All my people are here, except the ones supposed to be grabbing the magistrate’s nephew. I lost all the others.” A small smirk twisted his lips. “But that doesn’t mean there aren’t more. I just don’t know about them.”

  “You lost your followers because of the town hall meeting, and the fact that they realized you were spreading lies in order to manipulate them,” she finished for him. His tactic had been effective. Fear was always a powerful motivator. Fortunately, the Council had managed to stay ahead of it.

  She gestured and all of the terrorists sat up in unison. “I’ve freed you all. Tell me. Is there anyone here who did not realize what they’d gotten into? Anyone who did not know that this group was planning to bomb the monorail and abduct Arc?” She scanned the people hopefully. “I will listen to any claims and promise you fair treatment.”

  A long minute stretched by, while she hoped for a claim of innocence. She didn’t want all of them to be guilty. If some of them had been deluded into joining this group with false pretenses, perhaps they could go home to their families.

  “The only reason not to speak for yourself is if you know there’s incontrovertible proof of your guilt.” In which case, no one would plead their innocence. Doing so would exact not only their execution, but also a lengthy punishment beforehand, and the agony of waiting for the execution to be carried out.

  Philosophers had debated for almost a century on what was worse – physical torture or the knowledge that one’s own death approached, slowly, surely, and inexorably. Almost all agreed that awaiting execution was the worse of the two, and it was the bedrock of the law that executions be enforced as quickly as possible. Delay was an inhumane cruelty.

  Silence. All guilty, then. She let out a long breath. She walked to the cavern’s back wall and kicked over a wide, splintered board so that it lay flat. Stepping onto it, she tried to think of some parting statement, but nothing she could say would make any difference to these people. Though they did not deserve any consolation, she wished it all could have happened some other way. She just shook her head.

  She boosted the board. It served as an incredibly poor substitute for her kite. She really should have thought ahead. This was not a good means for getting back up to the surface. She had to apply a tremendous amount of mana to support herself safely while elevating straight up. It took a great deal of care to simultaneously avoid falling, refrain from crushing her organs, and keep the board from shattering. But she managed. Once she made it back to the top, she kicked the board back into the crater. She filed that particular use of mana into the “only if there’s no other option” category.

  Arc still held his bow at the ready. “What now?”

  Waiting for others to come and deal with this mess would swallow time and resources, delay the medical attention that Arc needed, and cruelly leave these people waiting for the execution they knew was coming. By law, executions must be carried out swiftly. Though they’d had no official adjudication, the people below all knew their lives were forfeit.

  She did have Ina’s blanket authority to do whatever she deemed necessary, but that was nothing like having the incontrovertible authority of a justice. She also had to consider what effect her action might have on Ina.

  After she’d become a manahi, she’d returned to the keep to ask their authorization to continue her mission in Apex. Elder Whitmore had told her that at some point, every shiv must trust herself to make a decision she has no right to make. Although she was no longer a shiv, she decided that today was her day.

  “Now we leave. We’re done here.”

  He walked alongside her as they returned to the kite. She summoned a breeze to clear it off, then sat. Arc hesitated only a moment, then shouldered his bow and sat beside her. The kite lifted up to the cruising altitude that Kassimeigh liked.

  “What if they escape before a justice arrives?”

  Kassimeigh’s eyes locked with Arc’s and she wondered if he’d ever witnessed the kind of adjudication that ended in an execution. Such cases were rare, but every justice-in-training was required to handle an execution before he or she earned the title. Of course, Arc knew, as every Terathian knew, that all justices were executioners. She just didn’t know if he’d ever experienced that truth firsthand.

  “I’m the only justice they’re getting.”

  Anger streaked up her spine and this time, she didn’t deny it. She let herself feel wrath for the murders of the troops and the threat to Arc’s life. She let herself feel ire for the loss of the lives below, knowing that each one of them had forfeited their lives instead of doing something useful with them. All of it was nothing but a colossal, tragic waste.

  Even as she turned the kite away, she gathered a crushingly massive force of mana and focused it behind her. The crater thundered with an explosion that caused bits of rock and dirt to smack against the protective shield she’d wrapped around the kite. She smelled smoke and dust, but she only looked forward, toward home.

  During the brief flight to the fortress, Arc used his hand comm to alert Will of their impending arrival. Kassimeigh had said little to him on the flight back, and it concerned him. Was she troubled that he might be upset about her destruction of the terrorist cell? He had no qualms about it. They were a cancer to society and had marked themselves for death.

  Or maybe she was concerned about acting as a justice without having the true authority of one. He had no idea how the shiv order would view her actions, and that did concern him.

  A small welcoming committee had gathered in front of the fortress. Kassimeigh seemed glad to see their friends and the Guard, which reassured Arc.

  “Good to have you back, man.” Will grasped Arc’s good shoulder.

  “Thanks, Will.”

  Azure strode toward them, carrying a metal case and a brown satchel. She exuded authority and purpose, cutting past Will and precluding further conversation. Arc had seen Azure in doctor mode before, when she’d repaired Justin’s foot. Just as before, the subtle changes it effected in her intrigued him.

  Azure’s features were a bit too angular and plain for her to be considered pretty. But when she gave herself over to her calling as a doctor, her self-assurance and unflappable calm transformed her into an arrestingly appealing woman.

  When the doctor reached for him first, Arc took a step back to evade her touch. “Kassimeigh first.”

  “I’m just a little tired,” Kassimeigh protested. “Your arm is far worse.”

  “Her first,” he repeated firmly, in a voice that brooked no argument. She might be able to move mountains, but she was the woman he loved and he wasn’t about to step in front of her in line for medical treatment. She’d mentioned a bombing, and he had no idea if she’d been hurt, or if she’d suffered any injuries on her way to free him.

  Azure took Kassimeigh’s hands in hers and breathed deeply and evenly. Her eyes unfocused from the physical world around her while she honed in on what was happening inside Kassimeigh. “There’s not much I can do for you medically. You just need rest. But I can give you a little boost of mana to ease your fatigue.”

  Azure released Kassimeigh’s hands so she could gently place one palm against the back of Kassimeigh’s neck and the other on her forehead. After a moment of intense focus, she relaxed and stepped back.

  Kassimeigh’s shoulders lifted slightly. “Thanks, Azure. That helps. Could you please see to Arc now? His arm was badly broken and there might be some soft tissue damage. I gave it as much of a patch as I could, for the short term.”

  “I’ll give you my standard lecture about practicing mana medicine without training, later.” She squinted at Kassimeigh. “Please sit,” Azure instructed Arc, who was happy to comply now that K
assimeigh looked less exhausted. Azure seated herself next to him. Practically on him, really. Her bent leg pressed next to his own and she leaned in against him. The doctor practiced a very physical art, it seemed.

  Azure pressed both hands against Arc’s chest, concentrated, shifted one to his neck, concentrated, and then shifted both to his arm. One hand curved around his shoulder while the other grasped his elbow.

  “Good grief, Arc. Your shoulder was dislocated and your humerus was broken all the way through. Plus you still have tendon tears.” Her hand tracked slowly up Arc’s arm and circumnavigated his shoulder.

  “I made some people mad. But Kassimeigh took good care of me.”

  “She did a clean job of fusing the bone back together in the right places. But it’s not fully healed, and these tendon tears have to be awfully painful.”

  “They’re not my favorite,” Arc admitted. “I’d be obliged if you could fix that up for me.”

  Azure didn’t answer for a couple of long minutes. She kept her hands on him and stared at his arm as if she could actually see into it. Finally, she gave him a small nod. “Okay. I’ll block your nerve receptors and shield you from most of the pain. This will take a few minutes. I need you to stay completely still.”

  She splayed her fingers out over his arm and focused intently. Arc felt some tingling, and a small ache now and again, but overall, the process was easy for him. Clearly, it was much more arduous for Azure. Her cheeks flushed as though she’d gone for a hard run. Finally, her hands relaxed and fell away.

  “There.” She gave him a satisfied smile. “All better.”

  Arc tested out the arm, rolling his shoulder and flexing the muscles this way and that. “Perfect. Thank you.”

  “You may have some minor soreness afterward, just as a result of fiddling with those tissues. You should take it easy for a few days.”

  “I will. Thank you.” He clasped her hand and gave it a squeeze. “For both of us.”

  “Of course.” Azure smiled. “I’m only happy I could help.” She rocked back onto her heels and prepared to stand.