Breaking Bard (Guardians of Terath Book 3)

by Zen DiPietro

  “Say more,” she demanded.

  “Oh, Kassimeigh.” Eryl raised his hands in a gesture that indicated either defeat or frustration. Arc couldn’t tell which. “You were always the perfect shiv. Obedient, devoted, idealistic. You dedicated yourself to the order at such a young age that our teachings practically became your DNA. We took for granted that those characteristics would always be at your core. We didn’t realize that you’d take the lesson to the extreme. Become defiant instead of merely more of an individual. It’s ironic.”

  She continued to stare at him.

  “Either we’ll regret it, or it will turn out better than we’d hoped. The shiv histories will describe us as brilliant or as idiotic. Time will tell.” A rueful smile ghosted across his mouth.

  Her forehead wrinkled. “You took a risk in trying to change me for your purpose. Now you and the others are worried because you can’t take back what you did. You can’t control me and you can’t remove me. That must make you awfully nervous.”

  Her eyes searched his face for his reaction.

  “Yes.”

  Arc couldn’t see his face, but Eryl’s voice rang with honesty.

  Kass’ shoulders eased and her arms dropped to her sides. “Good. That might just be penance enough.”

  She stared at him for a few more long moments, but her expression had lost its hard edge. She turned on her heel and walked past him, toward Arc.

  “Your anger is beneath you. When will you forgive?” Eryl called.

  She stopped and half turned. “I’m not angry. I’m disappointed. In all of you, but you especially. You betted on the idea that I’d always be a biddable pawn, and you lost. I had faith in your infallibility, but it turned out you didn’t deserve it. I’d say we’re even.”

  She slipped her arm around Arc’s waist. He put his around her shoulders and they walked out, leaving Eryl behind them.

  Arc pushed away from the screen and smeared his hands over his face. He’d been looking at columns of data for hours and was going blind from it. At least he felt as if blindness were imminent.

  Izzy’s head lifted and turned so she could look at him. She sent him a sympathetic smile. She rose, walked to Kass, and murmured in her ear. Kass nodded.

  “Anyone need a break?” Izzy asked the room in general. “I sure do.”

  Sighs of relief filled the room. “I’ll go get some refreshments from the kitchen,” Izzy announced.

  “I’ll help.” Bryan stood quickly and joined Izzy. Together, they walked out the door.

  “Me too.” Posey, Ina’s assistant, joined the other two, clearly glad for the chance to stretch her legs. She and Flyn had arrived after the others had started working, but they’d efficiently joined right in.

  Bryan, Arc knew, was probably Kass’ best shiv friend. He and Izzy apparently already knew each other from her visit to the keep the previous year.

  Arc indulged in a long stretch, easing his lower back muscles and his arms. He could use a long session on an archery range, but he knew that wouldn’t be happening for a while.

  Kassimeigh had seemed satisfied after her showdown with Eryl. And if Kass was happy, then Arc was happy. Though actually no one was happy at that precise moment. Arc studied his aunt and Luc, Kassimeigh, and the remaining shivs. Sitting at a desk for an entire day, gradually accumulating possibly relevant bits of information, was no one’s idea of fun. There were no “aha” moments, no big epiphanies. Just a steady stream of data that might or might not be part of a puzzle that they needed to sort. It was maddening.

  While they refreshed themselves with snacks and drinks, they updated one another on their findings. All too soon, they got back to work. After three more hours they recessed for dinner. They joined the shivs in the grand dining hall, which Arc found both impressive and enjoyable. He liked that all of the shivs within the keep took the time to have dinner together. He appreciated the obvious camaraderie among them and the feeling of tradition that gripped him. It seemed almost as much of a ritual as it did a meal.

  Like Kass, nearly all of the other shivs wore lighter-colored shokas inside the keep, rather than the black of a justice. Arc found it fascinating what a difference the color change made. A black shoka always inspired a certain grim seriousness, while the lighter colors provoked a lighter mood as well. Two or three hundred shivs dressed in black might be downright terrifying to some, but dressed as they were, they projected only an air of peace and tranquility. Arc had grown accustomed to the raucous mealtimes at the fortress mess hall, making his current surroundings all the more remarkable.

  After dinner, Kassimeigh and the other shivs excused themselves to the investigation room. Luc, Arc, and Izzy shared a look of commiseration that Aunt Ina pretended not to notice. They followed the shivs and continued on until bedtime.

  And so on for the next three days. Reviewing data, tracking down details, compiling information into a single database, and stopping only for food and the basic human necessities. The third day, Izzy remained in her room with a headache. Too much time at the comm screen had left her with a migraine. A doctor had been called to the keep, and Arc hoped her suffering would soon be relieved.

  Luc and Aunt Ina wore all the earmarks of exhaustion, and Arc felt no better. Posey and Flyn looked like they needed a long vacation. The shivs remained impassive, as though they felt nothing, but Arc knew better. Kass felt everything the rest of them did. She simply had so much discipline that she willed the discomfort and boredom away from herself. As did the other shivs. He knew she also nursed sore ribs and bruises where Eryl had slammed her down on the battle frame, as she’d called it. She didn’t complain about it, but he hoped he’d be able to convince her to take advantage of the doctor’s visit. He’d prepared a very logical argument.

  “I think I have something,” the young shiv named Ash announced, pushing back from his screen.

  Over the past few days, Arc had found Ash to be remarkably quick-witted and intuitive, while maintaining the laser-sharp focus typical of a shiv. Arc thought it odd for someone so young to be so intense. He guessed Ash to be twenty at the oldest. But then, Kass was only a handful of years older than that herself. Maybe he should rethink his position on age when it came to shivs.

  “What is it?” Ina asked, as they all gathered around Ash’s screen.

  “We’ve entered in all of the movement patterns of the various magistrates, officials, people who might have an interest in gaining power. Special events, spikes in popular opinion, all of that. I’ve been running regression analyses focusing on Marten Stratos and each person we’ve identified. I found a pattern.”

  Arc leaned forward, searching the screen. Had Ash found what they were looking for? He wished he could make more sense of the graphs and calculations.

  “See? Here.” Ash touched the screen and isolated three graph lines of different colors, then pressed an icon to compile them into one graph. The lines shared nearly the same curving slope.

  Ina pushed closer, causing the others to back up to give her room. “Sorenson, Olith, and Burroughs.” Her mouth drew into a tight line. “They’re all aggressively campaigning, in all the same places. With Stratos guiding them.”

  “Yes.”

  “What does it mean?” Kass watched Ina, who didn’t take her eyes off the screen.

  “I’m not sure,” admitted Ina. “Except that this pattern is too precise to be coincidental. Any other time I’d say they were pushing a particular agenda, but there’s no polarizing decision coming up. Given the connection to Stratos, and Stratos’ connection to sparkle, I suspect there’s something more.”

  “Do we have enough to adjudicate Stratos yet?” Izzy asked.

  They all turned back to look at Kass, who stood at the rear of the group.

  “Legally, yes, of course. But it’s too soon to reveal ourselves. We need to have the right questions to ask. The right threats to make.” Kassimeigh remained silent for a moment. Then she pinned Ash with a look. “You have more analysis to do, yes?
”

  “Yes.” His eyes were serious, but shone with vigor.

  “Keep at it then. Posey, Flyn, Ina, and I will rejoin you in the morning, when you have more for us to work on. For now, we can rest. And everyone else, you’re off the hook.”

  Arc felt conflicted about his dismissal. On one hand, he’d be glad not to look at any more comm screens for a few days. On the other, he wanted to help. Regardless, he doubted he’d be helpful with any number crunching. He decided to take a lesson from Kass and simply accept what was.

  At least she had Bryan to walk her to the monorail station. The night before, Izzy had debated between staying at the keep and returning to the fortress. She’d decided that since she wasn’t doing anything useful at the keep, she should return to her duties at the fortress. She had a personal matter to attend to, as well.

  She enjoyed Bryan’s company, as well as his willingness to carry her bag for her. He was a great guy, and in another situation, she could see getting involved with him. She departed with a friendly hug and a promise to keep in touch.

  After she secured her bag in a compartment, she sank gratefully into a comfortable monorail seat. Just the right amount of sprawl would discourage anyone from sitting next to her, since the car wasn’t even half-full. Plenty of room for her to monopolize two seats next to the window without being rude.

  She mentally praised the efficiency of the transit system when only a minute or two later, all of the doors swished closed and she felt the faint sensation of the docking clamps releasing. Somewhere ahead, in the nose of the monorail, the conductor was doing whatever conductors did to activate the magnets. The car surged forward and quickly accelerated.

  Izzy sighed with relief and slouched farther into her seat. The work at the keep had been an unexpected ordeal. Her previous visit there had been entirely lovely and relaxing. This time, she’d endured so much tension, anxiety, and other feelings that each day had become a trial. Kass’ emotions had been another degree of difficulty on top of that.

  She knew that Kass had needed to reach the emotional peak that she had. It had certainly taken her long enough to get to that point. Most people would have felt it immediately after their ordeal, but Kass was more of a slow-simmering type, and unaccustomed to dealing with so much emotion. Izzy sensed that Kass’ resentment now would give way to other, more productive feelings. Izzy looked forward to finding time to talk to Kass about it.

  Izzy then turned her thoughts to the current issue of sparkle and the motivation behind distributing it. She got nowhere. They’d followed this nebulous trail that Ina seemed so sure of, but Izzy had her doubts. She trusted Ina, of course, and if Ina was certain sparkle was related to a movement to gain power by some person or special interest group, then it must be true. But Izzy wasn’t convinced of that based on the evidence alone. She could only hope the efforts still going on at the keep would break it all open.

  An hour of travel seemed like only minutes, and Izzy felt the sudden deceleration and glide-stop of the monorail. She collected her bag and slipped out the door as soon as it whooshed open.

  She had to traverse the entire terminal to get to the very last platform. Unlike the others, this one had a security system. She touched her hand to the panel, which emitted a soft beep. The door opened. She stepped through and let it close behind her before touching a second panel, which allowed her onto the actual platform.

  She regretted the need for so much security for the Guard’s monorail, but she appreciated the sense of safety that came with it.

  The monorail sat waiting, which was convenient. She installed herself in the same row and seats as she had in the first monorail. She could almost imagine she hadn’t switched cars.

  She lolled back into her seat and closed her eyes. The past couple years of her life had been particularly dramatic. She was tired. Not just in this moment, but in general. She supposed she needed a vacation to re-energize her.

  Her eyes opened and she jolted upright. She’d fallen asleep. The monorail wasn’t moving. The stop must have woken her up. She pulled her fingers through her hair, which must look a fright after rubbing around on the seat back. She tried to tease out the tiny knots before she stood and slung her bag over her shoulder.

  At least no one had seen her sleeping. She’d been the only one in the car. She stood in front of the door, waiting.

  As soon as it began to whoosh open, she lifted her foot to take a step, but found Will directly in front of her. She tried to abort the step but failed, stumbling into his chest.

  “Whoa.” He caught her and lifted her easily, reversing their positions and setting her on her feet. Now his back was to the monorail, with the door standing open behind him.

  “Will. Are you going somewhere?”

  “No. I talked to Kass and she said you’d be on the rail. I wanted to meet you.”

  “Oh.” This was not normal.

  He’d set her on her feet, but his arms were still around her waist. “Izzy, I’m sorry we haven’t been getting along lately. It’s just that‌—‌”

  To hell with it. Izzy wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his head down for the most terrifying, electrifying kiss of her life.

  She felt shock reverberate down his body and burst through his mind even as his arms tightened around her and he returned her kiss, with a lot of interest. The man simply couldn’t stand to be outdone.

  Her bag slid off her shoulder and hung awkwardly from her elbow. She flung that arm out just long enough to let the bag fall to the platform, then wrapped it back around Will and gave every bit of her attention to the giddy bliss rolling through her.

  Finally, they pulled back enough to breathe, but remained entwined.

  “What was that?” he asked softly, grinning.

  “Don’t blame me. You started it, with your coming to meet me here.”

  His eyes lit with the familiar teasing she’d missed these past couple weeks. “Yeah?” He ran a hand down her spine, and she felt the trail of fire at the same time she sensed his amazement at being able to touch her.

  “That’s right,” she answered tartly, “and if you aren’t careful with that hand, anyone showing up here from the fortress might end up seeing a lot more than they bargained for.”

  He laughed, and she felt the delicious vibration of it against her chest. His hand stilled and came to rest at her waist again, but he didn’t offer to let go.

  “I’m not going anywhere.” She answered his unspoken feelings. “This is for real.”

  “Good.” He dropped a kiss near her temple, which shouldn’t be a turn-on at all, but was. “What took you so long?”

  She lowered her eyes, not wanting him to see her chagrin. But that wasn’t fair, so she met his gaze squarely. “I thought you were in love with Kassimeigh.”

  He snorted at her. “I figured that out. Dummy. How could you be so off base with all of your empathic hoopla?”

  “It is not a hoopla. It’s a gift.” She sniffed, pretending to be offended.

  He laughed and gave her a tiny shake. “Okay, I’ll rephrase. How were you so off base, given your amazing super-special awesome gift?”

  “That’s better.” She reached up and twined her fingers into the shiny black hair curling over his collar. Her teasing mood faded, and she saw his smile slide away, too, replaced by an intensity that gave her a tickling feeling in her stomach.

  “No one’s ever felt that way about me. I never even wanted anyone to feel that way about me. Maybe I didn’t want to recognize it.”

  “And now?”

  “I’ve changed my mind.”

  He pulled her in for another long kiss, and she forgot to worry about whether or not anyone else arrived for the monorail.

  Arc hadn’t minded a couple of days of relative leisure. He’d inquired from time to time whether he could help with anything, but Kass and Aunt Ina thought they were on the trail of something, and just needed to figure out what it meant. Translation: his services weren’t needed. Luc had r
eturned to Capital, where he felt he would be more productive.

  Arc was okay with a couple of days of not being particularly useful. Will had given him some leave time, and he welcomed the chance to rest. It had been months since he’d taken any vacation from his duties at the fortress. The keep offered the ideal location for some peaceful relaxation and he found it fascinating to live, however briefly, under the roof that had seen Kass turn into a shiv. He felt like he’d gained a new understanding of her.

  Of course it took little time for Aunt Ina and Kass to determine a plan of action. He’d had no doubt that they would, once Ash found the clue they’d been searching for.

  He liked Kassimeigh’s room. The cream-colored walls and green quilt on the bed were simple and understated, just as he’d expect. The hand-carved chair facing the window was a nice touch, and he could imagine her spending years’ worth of hours sitting and looking out onto the gardens. Pondering wisdom or something.

  He hoped he’d get the chance to stay here again, but this particular visit had come to an end. He finished folding the clothes he’d put through the cycler and packed them into his bag.

  Kassimeigh appeared at the door just as he stepped through it. “Oh, you’re ready. Good. I’ll just grab my things.”

  She slipped around him, grabbed her backpack from the bed and put it on. She’d already changed into a black shoka.

  “Did Luc and Ina get on their way?” she asked as she closed the door behind them.

  “Yes. I saw them off at the monorail. She didn’t give me a clue about the plan, though. Said you’d fill me in.”

  She flipped a curl out of her face. “Don’t worry,” she assured him, leading the way down the hallway toward the keep’s back entrance. “You’ll like it.”

  Arc grimaced. “It occurs to me that whenever you tell someone that, they most definitely do not like it. Should I have brought my bow?”

  She paused, considering. “Probably not.”