Deliverance

by Samantha Schinder

  “Prowess gift?” Deliverance asked, her throat gravelly.

  “Yes. Physically gifted. Athletic. Here, I will show you,” Niles said, and sprang backward with impossible speed, flipping once and landing in a graceful crouch. When he looked up, his eyes, which used to be a soft, light brown, glowed magic green.

  “That’s…amazing,” Deliverance breathed, then winced as she grabbed her ribs.

  “Yes, I’m afraid you took off on quite a tear after your powers were remedied. We will get Doctor Pennington in here to look at you as soon as I determine it is safe. You cannot run into her like you did those padded walls, after all, right?” Niles said, smiling broadly. The green faded away from his eyes, returning them to his warm brown. Deliverance nodded.

  It was hard to concentrate above the pain that was starting to make itself known all over her body. Blood dripped from her face and down her arms, but she willed herself to pay attention to the task at hand.

  Niles was an excellent instructor—direct, clear, and calming. Deliverance followed him through a few basic drills before he was satisfied she was in control enough to not endanger anyone.

  “Great!” he said enthusiastically. Deliverance slid down to the floor along the back wall of the gymnasium. “I will go get Dr. Pennington now.”

  As soon as he said the word, Jack, Eleanor, and Addie all flew into the room.

  “Careful now,” Niles warned. And the three attempted to slow their steps. Jack reached her first and gathered her up in his arms.

  “Owww,” she complained hazily, then noticed she was bloodying his shirt. She started to say something but forgot what it was she was about to say. He stared back at her, his eyes intense with worry. “Shhh. Let the good doctor work, love.”

  “She’s got a concussion, three broken ribs, one of which is attempting to puncture her lung but has not yet, and a sinus hemorrhage,” Addie announced after laying her hands over Deliverance’s form, wresting on the floor, propped up against Jack. Eleanor remained quiet, sitting by closely, watching. “Hang in there.”

  Deliverance began to feel numb. “I can’t feel my feet,” she said.

  “I’m sedating you. This would be terribly painful otherwise,” Addie said.

  Deliverance looked down and realized Addie had stuck a needle into the vein in her elbow and plucked it back out again. She felt a prickly tingling as Addie began her healing work, but could hang on to consciousness no longer.

  CHAPTER 26

  Deliverance

  She must not have dozed for long. When she came to, she was still in Jack’s arms in the same place.

  “Hey, easy there,” Jack said, smiling at her. “Addie said you would not be out long.”

  Deliverance glanced down at her body. Besides the stains upon her clothing, she could not tell she had ever been injured. Testing, she poked her ribs. No pain.

  “Did I do okay?” she asked, fearful of his answer.

  “Love, you did beautifully. The science geeks in that room were expected you to bounce around the room like a ping pong ball for weeks.” Jack laughed.

  “I’m glad I did not. That was terribly disorienting,” Deliverance said, sitting up.

  “I bet. It looked painful.”

  “That too… Jack, how did you know this might be my magic gift?” she asked.

  “Just a hunch, love. Just a hunch. Come on. Let’s get you out of here,” Jack said as he helped her to her feet. She sprang up lightly, but was careful not to let the magic go wild and fling her to the ceiling again.

  As they were about to leave the room, Jack paused and turned, looking thoughtfully around the room. Then with a flash of green, he threw a giant fireball at one of the padded walls. It sizzled into the mats, melting it into a stinking black smudge.

  The intercom crackled on and Lord Asher’s voice rang out, “What did you have to go and do that for!?”

  Jack shrugged nonchalantly and answered, “You said the walls were flame retardant. I wanted to see if you were right.” A string of expletives followed over the loudspeaker until someone with a cooler head disconnected the sound.

  Inside the conference room, the team was abuzz.

  “That was amazing!”

  “Great work!”

  Lord Asher ventured up to Deliverance, flashing blinding light in her eyes.

  “Hey! Stop that!” she cried, rubbing her eyes.

  “Just wanted to test your neural reflexes,” he said sheepishly. “All that’s left to do is have Eleanor retest you for any sign of magical malady, and we should have all the documentation we need to make a case with the Senate—”

  Just then the doors to the conference room crashed open, and heavily armed men in uniforms poured in.

  “EVERYONE PUT YOUR HANDS UP AND STEP AWAY FROM THE GIRL!” one of the men, yielding a semiautomatic weapon shouted.

  Everyone in the room looked panicked…except Dr. Phillips.

  “Her. She’s the one,” Dr. Phillips called out, pointing at Deliverance.

  “What on earth?” Lord Asher bellowed.

  Jack positioned himself in front of Deliverance, heat already radiating off him in stifling waves. Deliverance’s heart lept in her throat as she calculated their odds and realized they were far outnumbered, even with Jack’s barely controlled fire seething beneath his skin. Her skin tingled as she came to the conclusion that even if they tried to fight their way out, it would be too much risk to Eleanor, not to mention Addie, Lord Asher and the rest.

  From behind the armed thugs, a man without a uniform stepped forward. Ned Turner, the despicable senator from the night of the ball. Deliverance’s dread coupled with fury, a beast in her skin. She had to struggle to maintain control of her new magic gift, concentrating on not flying at the reprehensible man’s throat.

  “Well well well. Little troublemakers making more trouble. Imagine that,” he taunted as he walked around to stand by Dr. Phillips.

  “How could you?” Jack hissed at Dr. Phillips.

  She shrugged noncommittally. “I got tired of watching her father bumble around as head of the department. Waste of good tenure. Senator Turner here offered me a promotion I could not refuse.” “Senator? He’s a senator!?” Deliverance hissed at Jack.

  “Yes, unfortunately,” Jack replied, not taking his eyes off his adversaries.

  “A senator…with the majority. I hate to brag but that seems to be a problem for you, doesn’t it, Jack?” Ned said with a sly smirk as he walked around the room. “All of this, it’s very good. But it will not do you a lick of good. By the time we put this to a vote, I will have all of Parliament convinced to level your little island hovel.”

  Dr. Phillips, apparently having had enough of the display, simply turned and left the room.

  “You thought it was a good idea to bring that little back stabber onto the team!?” Jack cursed at Lord Asher.

  Lord Asher, for his part, simply shrugged. “She was good at research.”

  “You’re impossible.”

  “Are you two quite finished?” Ned broke in. “Deliverance Asher. You are hereby arrested on the accounts of violating
the restricted zone of Nar, of trespassing, of endangering the lives of civilians, civil disobedience, and felony assault on a member of Parliament.”

  Two armed men came forward to take Deliverance into custody, but Jack barred their way and with a hand to each of their chests, dropped them, sizzling and screaming. Another came at Deliverance from behind, but she easily avoided his grasp by twisting to the side.

  “Enough!” she shouted. Jack was snarling like a caged animal, ready to burn down the whole facility. “Jack, please. It’s all right. I’ll go with them.” Her voice firm, though small she felt. There was no use in fighting. It would be futile at this point, but they still had a chance on the Senate floor. And she could not watch Jack consume the whole room in flames for her sake.

  “What? Don’t be silly,” Jack replied, panting and his voice cracking.

  “Get the data to the Senate floor. Get them to vote with you. I believe in you,” Deliverance said, placing a hand on his chest. It had a dowsing effect, as all the fight seemed to leave him.

  “Please. Don’t. We can find another way,” Jack pleaded with her.

  Stevens, this time, stepped forward. He pulled a trench coat around Deliverance and said, “We will see you soon, Miss. Sir, she is right. Let’s solve this on the field of battle otherwise known as the Senate floor.”

  Deliverance stepped away from Jack. As the armed guard came upon her though, she held up her hand. “Do not presume to touch me or I will break every bone in your bodies. I said I would go with you. I do so willingly.” She threw one last glance over her shoulder, catching the horrified looks on Eleanor and Addie’s faces, and the tormented one on Jack’s as she left the building with the unsavory men.

  CHAPTER 27

  Deliverance

  The gaol in Arcanton was not unlike the gaol on Nar. It was cleaner, but the bars were the same. A cage. Deliverance always hated to see a caged animal. Now she was one.

  At first she was restless…then she was bored. Time passed tediously slow, although she had no real idea of how long she had been here in this windowless cell. They had deposited her here quickly, and without ceremony, leaving her to her own devices. She pulled Stevens’ coat closer around her. It seemed like the past few weeks had all been a futile effort to avoid this—imprisonment. She wondered if Effie and Cat felt the walls of the mines closing in on them the way she felt the dour block walls of this cell pressing against her aura. Were they even still alive or had cold already taken them in their sleep, or sickness already ravaged them with deadly fever?

  “Oppressive, isn’t it?” A snake-like voice awoke her from her reverie. Ned Turner stood outside the door to her cell, smoking a cigar and leaning on the wall just out of arm’s reach.

  “What do you want?” Deliverance sniffed.

  “Hmm…what do I want? I want to replace Jack in the Senate with someone who will vote my way. I want to keep your nasty little disease from spreading.” Ned blew smoke her way. Deliverance turned her nose up in disgust.

  “I see,” Deliverance said. “You are so frightened of being impotent that you would isolate an entire population of people away from the world and from life saving technology. It makes me wonder how else you are impotent, to be so entirely insecure?”

  “Isolate?” He laughed. “No. I would bomb the entire place off the map. Make it a smoking cinder. Kind of like the one your boyfriend burned in the wall back there at the research facility. I had Dr. Phillips erase all your data, by the way. It will not be going to any Senate hearing any time soon.”

  Deliverance felt the blood rush to her head. All the data…all the work they had done to meticulously document her transformation and the healing process—it was all for naught!? She fell back, sitting on the bench seat with a thud. How could all their data just be gone, wiped away like fog from a windowpane?

  “What are you doing here, then?” Deliverance asked in a resigned, gravelly tone, still processing the blow. Ned Turner stood up and scuffed his cigarette out on the gummy floor, fixing his stare on her.

  For a moment he didn’t speak, simply staring at her with a level gaze. “I find myself in an odd position,” he began finally. “On the one hand I am more powerful, more privileged, and more connected than Jack Quentin could ever hope to be. And on the other…” He paused for a second, swallowing what looked like distaste in his gullet. “Well, on the other hand, this Jack Quentin fellow, the man who did everything backwards, who thwarts authority, who scoffs at society, who spits in the face of law and order, he always seems to get everything handed to him on a silver platter. Popularity, favor, a blind eye to his transgressions with that idiot privateer Finley…women.” With this last word, his grey eyes zeroed in on her green ones.

  A flash of dread spun its way through her veins as she saw the keys produced in Ned Turner’s hands. Surely the guards would not give him the keys to her cell?

  The spider web of dread became a thicket when the tall man reached for the doors and slid a key into the lock, clicking with terrible certainty as it undid itself for him.

  “Ah, I see,” Deliverance stammered, trying to stall Ned Turner’s advance into the cell. “You’re jealous of Jack…you covet his reputation.”

  He snorted. “Jealous? No. I would liken it more to annoyance than anything else. He’s like an annoying pest that the public refuses to stop feeding.” He paused for just a moment at this, and Deliverance had the wild thought that perhaps he only meant to talk with her without the hindrance of the bars in between their view. Ned Turner was not an ugly man, not remarkable but with squarish features that could have been pleasant were the man not so dreadfully full of venom. It dripped off his soul like Spanish moss.

  “But I do admit,” Ned Turner began again, sidling closer to Deliverance, who stood and inched backward until her back bumped against the concrete wall, “I rather like taking what is his.”

  Her delusions of simple talk vanished as the sinister man reached for her with those toxic fingers of his, capable of sapping the consciousness from a being in seconds. What he would do to her, once he had stolen her awareness, she didn’t need Effie to explain. It was clear in his licentious stare what he planned to take from Jack. Scrambling backward, Deliverance looked for something, anything to help her. She could not simply use her new gift to evade his grasp—the quarters were too tight and she would end up just careening around until she bumped into him and he touched her anyway. Think, girl! She screamed silently to herself, eyes wildly roving for a solution.

  That was when she felt it. The lump in the pocket of Stevens’ jacket, the jacket that still smelled of his mint tobacco and cinnamon candies.

  Without hesitation, Deliverance pulled Stevens’ taser from her pocket and dropped Ned where he stood, twitching and pissing his trousers.

  ***

  Apparently, one could be charged with felony assault on TWO accounts. Who knew? Deliverance thought ruefully. The clunky uniformed guards carted Ned Turner off swearing, while Deliverance waved goodbye. Apparently the guards Ned Turner had paid off to let him have his way with Deliverance had left their shift. The fresh shift did not look too pleased about lugging the wobbling senator who smelled of urine from the cellblock, but they did it expediently, leaving Deliverance alone, yet again.

  The hours beg
an to crawl by, yet again.

  “If your face gets stuck in with that dejected look, I shan’t be able to remedy it.” A voice broke through Deliverance’s stare into empty space.

  “Addie!” she cried, springing to her feet.

  “Hello, darling.” Addie greeted her, and another fuzzy head poked out from behind her.

  “And me too!” Eleanor exclaimed.

  “Come along. We have a Senate session to attend,” Addie said as a buzzer sounded in the cell and the door lock clicked open.

  “Addie, how on earth did you manage it?” Deliverance said, finding the cell door to be indeed unlocked.

  “Oh, it was brilliant! You should have seen her!” gushed Eleanor. “Addie strode right into the police station and demanded that nasty Ned Turner drop all the charges. When he laughed at her, she began naming names, one right after another of women he’d been fresh with or worse. By the time she was done stringing him up, he was begging HER not to bring charges against HIM. What with #MeToo Revival and all that, he was keen to avoid a scandal.”

  “What’s a hashtag? Is that like hash browns?” Deliverance asked. She rather liked hash browns in their salty tastiness but saw little relevant connection here.

  Eleanor giggled and replied, “No, silly. Not even close to like that.”

  “Here are some different garments. It would probably be best to show up looking more like a lady and less like a war casualty,” Addie remarked, handing her a bundle.

  After Deliverance returned from changing in the restroom, she thanked Addie heartily.

  “Don’t be silly. It was what needed to be done. Now we all have parts to play in this upcoming Senate hearing, so let’s make haste to the gallery where we will watch until called upon to do our parts.” Addie took Deliverance’s arm in hers and linked her other with Eleanor’s.