Magic Unchained (Hand Of Justice Book 4)

by Jace Mitchell

“He didn’t believe he could,” Riley explained, understanding fully now. “He thought I was better than him and he expected to lose, so he did. He needed to believe it was possible to beat me before he could.”

  “That is your problem, too. You don’t actually believe you can beat Rendal.” Linda dropped her hand and the water crashed back down, creating a minor splash.

  Gentle waves rolled beneath Linda, but she stood atop them as if she belonged.

  “I’ve seen inside your mind now, Riley. In a swordfight, you believe you can beat anyone in this world—your friend William, or any other warrior who might show up. Truthfully, with magic, you think you can best most people too. Not me. Not Rendal. But Worth and Alexandra? You believe you’ve grown past them, and so you have.”

  Linda looked down at her feet.

  “I’m walking on water. Would you like to do it?”

  “I can’t,” Riley answered.

  Linda grinned, her teeth white in her wrinkled and tanned face. “And so you won’t. Do you see how ridiculous it is? I, a ninety-two-year-old woman, can do something a young lady like yourself can’t? It’s all in your head, Riley. Every bit of it. Why don’t you try to come out here with me?”

  Riley looked down at her feet. Water rolled over them, waves crashing onto the shore and then receding back into the ocean.

  “If I could do it, I’d be doing it right now.”

  She tried. She focused on coalescing the water under her feet. She knew she could leap out there, and perhaps hold herself in the air for a time, but that wasn’t the same.

  “And that’s why your city will fall. Because you don’t believe. Because you think he is stronger than you. Because you think yourself not his equal. When I was in your mind, I saw that Rendal told you he would destroy everything you love. He will. Perhaps he even is right now, and you won’t stop him unless you learn to believe in yourself.”

  Chapter Seven

  It’d been a bitch to get that damn necklace off. Lucie thought she’d hated Rendal before, but taking that damned thing off her neck had intensified her feelings by a factor of ten at the minimum.

  Finally, Lucie had laid her head on a fucking chopping block, and Erin had grabbed a hand axe.

  “What if it like explodes or something?” Brighten asked.

  “Boy, shut your mouth right now if you know what’s good for you,” Lucie snapped.

  She didn’t want to hear anything like that, although such thoughts were going through her mind.

  “I hope your aim is as good here as it was when you punched that guard in the nuts,” she told Erin, and she meant it. If Erin missed, Lucie would open her eyes and be staring at the Father and the Mother.

  “The power of positive thinking, Lucie,” Erin answered. “You’re going to be fine. We’ll take yours off, and then Brighten’s next.”

  Brighten simply swallowed, the click in his throat loud enough for Lucie to hear.

  The hand axe had come down, and Lucie felt the board beneath her shake as it slammed into it. She’d kept her eyes closed, refusing to open them.

  “Am I alive?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Erin said.

  She’d turned to Brighten then. “Your turn.”

  “No, no. I’m okay. I don’t need to use magic. I like the necklace. I think it looks good on me. I want to keep it.”

  Lucie had opened her eyes, chuckling at Brighten.

  There was nothing to chuckle about now, though.

  A few days had passed since the escape, the four of them laying low ever since. Lucie had innumerable connections in the kingdom, so hiding wasn’t a problem. They couldn’t hide forever, however. Lucie agreed with Erin. When Riley returned, she would need help to turn this madness around.

  It’d taken a few days to understand where the Honor Guard was being held; the kingdom had multiple prisons, and the Honor Guard was being kept in a private location.

  Lucie and Erin needed them first, before anyone else. With Verith gone, Eisen—the head guard in the Honor Guard—was their best bet. Hell, the entire Honor Guard was what they really needed.

  They had to break the group free.

  Now, a trail of men lay behind Lucie, all of them unconscious. Perhaps she’d killed a few; she couldn’t be sure. She didn’t really care either. These men were monsters in the guise of humans.

  Lucie was winded, and her mind was growing tired as well. She’d thought about sending Erin to do this job, but in the end, the woman didn’t know the kingdom well enough, and she couldn’t cast magic. If something went wrong, Lucie would have a better chance of escaping without being captured.

  The Honor Guard was being kept in a below-ground dungeon, and Lucie had nearly reached their prison.

  About one hundred yards in front of her, she saw three guards standing outside the door. Lucie could sense another six inside it.

  Nine in total.

  “I’m too old for this,” Lucie whispered.

  She was leaning against a wall, trying to catch her breath and let her mind rest some.

  There wasn’t tons of time. The bodies behind her, dead or alive, would be found soon.

  “Okay, here we go,” she told herself. “Nine more and you’re free.”

  Lucie stood up from the wall and took a short left into the next hallway.

  The three soldiers sat at the end.

  “Who the hell’s that?” one of them called.

  Lucie’s eyes turned red.

  “Ya can’t be down here, ya old bitch!” one of them screamed. “Now get on before we break yer skull!”

  “I got a hard head, ya louts. Let’s see ya try.”

  Lucie started down the hallway, her footfalls echoing off the brick tunnel around her.

  The three guards stood. One of them banged on the metal door behind them. “Hey, we got trouble out here!”

  “Sonofabitch,” Lucie whispered. She’d hoped she could finish these three off before the six inside knew what was happening.

  The door opened, and a man stepped out. “Trouble?”

  “Down there,” the man said.

  Lucie was fifty yards away.

  “That old broad? You bang on the door because of her?” the man from inside asked.

  “Hey, I’m just letting you know what’s going on, jackass,” the man who had knocked answered. “We’ll handle it.”

  Another one of the guards stepped forward. “Stop right there. I’m not playing with your ass.”

  “Play with this, then,” Lucie called back.

  She stuck her hand into her pocket and pulled out the last of the pebbles. She’d used far too many earlier and would be all out after this handful. She wanted to kick herself for not picking the rest up.

  Lucie launched them underhand into the air, although gravity didn’t take over like it should have. The rocks flew forward, blitzing through the air like bullets. The man who’d just screamed at her stopped and stared, his mouth wide open.

  The pebbles whacked him in the face.

  He fell to the ground, screaming, blood pouring from his skin.

  The other two turned and stared at him, not seeing the rocks.

  Lucie kept walking forward. She brought up her other hand and made a dividing motion in the air with both.

  The rocks split into two groups, and one went left, the other right. The two men didn’t have a chance to even raise their swords.

  More screams filled the tunnel.

  “What the fuck is going on?” the man from behind the door asked, opening it farther.

  “Wrong move, dumbass,” Lucie told him.

  The pebbles fell to the ground as the man stepped through the door. Another five were rushing behind him. The guys on the ground were still rolling around, holding their faces and bleeding. Lucie kicked the one on the left hard.

  The man at the door unsheathed a sword. “I ain’t killed a woman before, but I always wanted to.”

  “Today’s your lucky day, then.” Lucie grinned.

  She st
arted tapping the fingers of her left hand in the air, and the guard’s belt buckle unlatched. Lucie made a pulling motion, and it ripped free from his trousers. He stared down, unable to comprehend what was happening.

  The belt flew into the air and wrapped itself around his neck, tightening as the other guards reached the doorway. The man dropped his sword and started tugging at the belt. His face was turning a bright red.

  “Help,” he croaked.

  Five more guards filled the outer room.

  “LET HIM GO!” one shouted, staring at the first man.

  “Sure thing,” Lucie responded.

  She moved her hand to the left and the guard flew through the air, slamming into the wall head-first. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and Lucie relaxed the belt on his neck.

  Five left.

  “Y’all want to run off before you end up like the rest?” she asked.

  “I-I know you,” one said. “You run that damn restaurant, doncha?”

  “Wait a second. You are from New Perth, and you joined up with these jackasses?”

  “Woman, I joined the winning side. Too bad you didn’t.” The man pulled a large knife from his belt.

  Lucie hated him worse than the rest. He’d betrayed his people and his kingdom to join up with psychopaths. She’d done her best not to kill many of these men, but she just didn’t give a damn anymore.

  Fire erupted from both hands, long streamers of flame. They wrapped around the man’s legs and spread upward, setting him ablaze. His screams drowned out any other noise.

  Four left.

  “I don’t have time for this shit,” Lucie mumbled.

  She raised her hands, and all the dropped blades on the floor rose into the air. She sent them flying forward, doing her best to only maim. Rendal might kill indiscriminately, but Lucie wouldn’t.

  The blades plunged into the remaining four men’s legs and they collapsed just like the rest, their weapons clattering to the cobblestone floor.

  Lucie looked around her. Eight men lay hurting, and one was smoldering—the traitor.

  “Too damned old,” she said and walked through the open door.

  She saw what she needed quickly enough. Two cages, the Honor Guard split up in them.

  Or what was left of it.

  Quite a few of them must have died.

  Eisen stood at the edge of his cage, his hands on the bars, peering out to see what was happening. “Father and Mother in the sky, is that Lucie?”

  “Aye, it is. Decided to break you boys out,” she quipped as she walked forward. She reached the middle of the room, a cage on either side. “Unless you’d rather stay in here? I hear the Rendal chap is a pretty good host.”

  “I’d rather drag my nuts through glass,” one of the others said. Only a second passed before he added, “Sorry, ma’am. I’ve been in here too long. I shouldn’t speak like that in front of a lady.”

  Eisen looked at him. “You’ve never been to Lucie’s restaurant, have you, Charlie? This woman says things that’ll make you blush until you turn purple.” He looked back at her and nodded to the guards behind her. “They got the keys. Let’s get the hell outta here.”

  “Twelve of you,” Erin mused. “Not bad.”

  “There were more,” Eisen said, “but we lost some of our brothers.”

  The group was on the edge of town at Mac’s Lodge. Lucie had brought them all there after the escape, and Mac had been glad to help. The lodge was empty anyway. No one was traveling in or out of New Perth right now.

  Rendal might come looking sooner or later, but for now, it would work.

  The twelve men of the Honor Guard and Erin’s group sat in the Lodge’s lobby. A bar and a piano were against the wall, but both were silent.

  “What’s the plan?” Eisen asked. “Why are we here? Lucie risked a lot to break us out.”

  Erin trusted the man; trusted all of them, actually. Lucie had explained what the Honor Guard meant in New Perth. These people were just below the Right Hands, and their duty was to protect the Prefect at all costs. That was why some had died despite Goland peaceably giving over the kingdom.

  “Riley is returning,” Erin said. “She and William are coming back, and they’re bringing Worth and some others with them. We need to be ready when they get here.”

  “She’s alive?” Eisen asked.

  “She is.”

  Brighten spoke up. “We don’t know that for sure.”

  Erin turned to him. “What I do know for sure is that if you speak like that again, I’m gonna put you over my knee and spank you until you sing me Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. You understand?”

  She looked back at Eisen.

  “He’s scared of his own shadow. We’re workin’ on it. The reason Mason is back is that Riley bested Rendal. However, he somehow…I don’t know exactly. Infected her or something. They’re working on fixing that, and once they’re finished, she’s coming back.”

  Eisen nodded. “I know Riley well. She’ll be back. What can we do?”

  “I’m new here,” Erin explained. “I don’t know anyone or anything. I’m lucky to be alive, and lucky Lucie has helped me stay that way—”

  “Hell.” Lucie scoffed. “That’s a damned lie. The woman singlehandedly broke us out of prison, and now she might save the kingdom. I ain’t got nothin’ to do with any of that. Just showed her a few alleys to turn down.”

  Erin rolled her eyes. “She won’t take the credit she’s due. Anyways, I don’t know this place. It’s not my home, but I do know that Riley is going to need help when she gets back. The kingdom will need to be ready to revolt when she faces Rendal. That’s where we come in.”

  Eisen nodded, understanding now. “We’re going to prepare the people.”

  “Exactly. All these bastards who have the city under their thumbs are going to be in for a hell of a shock when we’re finished.”

  “When do we get started?” Eisen asked.

  “No time like the present.”

  “Agreed.”

  Erin looked at Brighten, and the boy’s eyes widened. “Would you do me a favor, Eisen?”

  “What’s that?”

  “You mind carting Brighten around with you? We’re going to toughen this boy up or die tryin’.”

  Eisen looked the kid over, a smirk coming over his face. “Yeah, we’ll take him. By the time we’re finished, he’ll be able to eat nails.”

  Brighten swallowed. “Most days I wish I’d never met any of you.”

  Erin grinned. “Oh, that’s not true. You looooooovvee us.”

  “I’d like you to tell them what you told me earlier, Harold. Please, the former Prefect will definitely want to hear this.”

  Rendal sat at Goland Ire’s old desk. Goland stood in front of it, his son by his side. Harold was behind the two of them.

  Rendal had been shocked to hear the news. He just couldn’t believe it.

  “First, a small group of prisoners broke out three days ago. That group you came here with, Mason,” Harold explained. “Next, an older woman who used magic broke out the Honor Guard.”

  Harold fell silent, and Rendal let it sit for a few moments. He, of course, knew who the woman was: Lucie. He’d thought she didn’t have it in her anymore, but the Honor Guard and her little group of wannabe heroes had escaped.

  “You two hear that? We’ve had multiple breakouts over the past few days.”

  “I’m sorry,” Goland replied. “I’m a bit hard of hearing, actually. What was that?”

  Rendal knew the bastard was toying with him. “You’re going to be hard of pissing if you don’t quit.”

  Goland grinned but said nothing else.

  “If I had to guess, this little group of sixteen people thinks they might start some kind of revolution. Which, truth be told, is fine with me. I’d quell it in hours if they actually did anything. So far, they’re hiding. What has me bothered is that this is happening at all.”

  “Well, Rendal, we’re both very sorry you’re bot
hered,” Goland responded.

  “I’m sure you are, and that’s why you’re here. I know how sorry you must be, and I also know you’ll want to help me.”

  “Oh, of course,” Goland said. “Whatever you need, we’ll do. I mean, would you like us to go door to door and kill the citizenry so that there’s no chance they can ever rise up against an unwanted, uninvited, and uncrowned ruler? My son and I would be happy to.”

  Rendal looked past them at Harold. “If I murder him now, will it help things?”

  “I think it may harm your plans, your Grace.”

  Rendal nodded. “You’re lucky Harold is here to keep me in line; otherwise I’d snap you like a twig right now, Goland. No, you’re not here to go door to door and murder, but you are going to tell these damn fools that any attempt at an uprising will result in the total destruction of the city.”

  “I’ve given you enough, Rendal. I’ve given you a kingdom. It’s your job to rule it, not mine. If you can’t keep the citizens from hating you, that’s on you.”

  “You’re not getting it, are you? I’m not asking you; I’m telling you. We’ve already posted signage. Tonight, you and your pretty son here are going to stand in Kingdom Square and announce it.”

  “Do you think you can rule through fear?” Goland asked. “Is that your plan? To sit atop your throne and threaten to kill anyone beneath you? How long do you think that kind of leadership will be tolerated?”

  Rendal grinned. “As long as I want it to be. Don’t you see? Everything I’ve asked for has come true. This will too, and you are going to help. Be ready at six this evening, Goland. You’ll tell them that riots and uprisings will be met with force, then I’ll speak, then we can all go home, okay?”

  Goland sighed. “Yes, Your Grace.”

  “Atta boy. You’re a smart man. Keep it up, and you might actually die of old age. Harold, you can take them away now.”

  Harold led the two men from the room, leaving Rendal by himself. He stood from the chair and went to the window behind him, staring out at the kingdom. He liked looking down from this vantage point. He could see so far, and while New Perth didn’t have the sheer grandiosity of Sidnie, it was his now. All his.