by J. J. Green
Carina’s gaze inched across the building and its surroundings. The fortress stood in a high valley, and a single, narrow, winding road led up to it. The main access to the place seemed to be by air. Most of the roof space was taken up by a shuttle landing pad. She glanced at the sky. They would need to be careful they weren’t spotted from overhead when a shuttle arrived or left.
One vessel stood on the pad, and it could hold another three. The craft was black and carried no identifying insignia. It had arrived that morning, judging from its clean, snow-free exterior. Snow had fallen during the night, and the shuttle had melted a neat circle around it when it landed. Tiny footsteps of three or four passengers led to a closed door that had to be the stairway entrance.
Guard boxes stood at two corners of the roof, and the guards would no doubt be watching the airspace as well as checking arrivals. Solid stone, windowless walls made up the rest of the place. The only above-ground entrance to the stronghold other than the roof was a double door that fronted the road. Though Carina didn’t discount the possibility of a drainage tunnel that opened into a stream somewhere farther down the mountain.
Carina touched Bryce’s shoulder, gesturing that they move down from the ridge. They went to a group of boulders. On one side of the massive stones, snow had piled into a drift. On the other side, only a light dusting covered the ground. They crouched in the sheltered spot.
“My mouth’s frozen,” Bryce complained, spitting out the remains of the snow.
“That’s the idea,” Carina replied. “So we need to stick around for a few days and watch what happens. We’ll do it in shifts. We can’t stay up here the whole time or we’ll freeze to death. We’ll make a camp a little farther down the mountain and take it in turns to watch for a few hours.”
“I’d forgotten how cold it is up here,” Bryce said. “And snow seemed a lot more fun when I was a kid. I was thinking, maybe we should just, you know, make up something to tell them. We can hang around somewhere warmer for a while, then I’ll go back to my contact and give him a story.”
“Are you crazy? If the Dirksens figure out you gave them false intel, your life won’t be worth living. Anyway, I would never do that. We’re being paid to do a job, so let’s do it, okay?” Carina had seen fellow mercs die due to bad intel. She wasn’t going to be the source of it herself.
They climbed one hundred meters or so down the mountain until they reached a shallow cave they’d passed on their way up. It wouldn’t provide much protection from wind or snow, but it was better than nothing. The best thing about it was that it wasn’t visible from the track—Bryce had discovered it on a quick trip to answer a call of nature. Carina expected that Sherrerr guards would frequently patrol the area around the fortress, looking for people who were doing exactly what they were doing.
They had a cover story if they were picked up, but Carina didn’t have much faith in it. They had to avoid detection while they scoped the place out. If they could only remain there for the next two or three days, they could return to Bryce’s Dirksen contact and pick up the reward. Then Carina would have to find a way to get to the capital that didn’t involve leaving via the spaceport. She had no doubt that the town was still hot for her after her escapade with the Sherrerr men and the ungrateful splicer.
When they had secreted their bags at the back of the cave, Carina said, “I’ll take the first shift. You stay here and rest. Use both blankets to keep warm, and eat your ration if you like. I’ll be back in a few hours.”
Bryce protested that he should watch the fortress while Carina rested, but she argued successfully that she’d done reconn many times before and knew what to look for. She left Bryce wrapped in both their blankets.
Before returning to the ridge, Carina stopped at an unusually shaped boulder. It looked like the head of a plains beast, a long-snouted animal that had lived in the wild lands on her home planet. She took out the pouch that contained her remaining gems and the elixir ingredients. If she were captured, the jewels would contradict their cover story. She put the pouch down next to the boulder and covered it with stones.
Soon, she was near the ridge and taking great care to move quietly and look around corners before proceeding. The way was clear of Sherrerr guards, however, and soon she had stuffed her mouth with snow and was peering down at the fortress once more.
It felt a little strange to be doing reconn without the benefit of the devices she used to have as a merc. Having no scanning, recording, or special vision instruments made her feel not very useful. She could see the advantage of carrying no technical equipment of course. It meant they wouldn’t have any items to incriminate them if they were caught. It wouldn’t be immediately clear that the Dirksens were planning an attack. The downside was that the true reason for their presence in that place was held only within their minds, and the Sherrerrs might stop at nothing to retrieve the information.
Carina gave a shiver, partly at the thought of interrogation and partly due to the cold that had begun to encroach into her bones. The fortress looked the same as before, except that the shuttle had departed, leaving a bare patch of melted snow.
She wondered what it was the Sherrerrs held within their fortress that warranted such efforts for its secrecy and protection. It had to be something of great importance. The place looked newly built of manufactured stone. They would have had to haul the massive blocks and everything else required to build the fortress all the way up the mountain.
Were the Sherrerrs building a new weapon? That might make sense. It was difficult to keep activities like that under wraps. If they built the weapons at this highly defended location the Dirksens would find it hard to blow up the construction site. If that was what the Sherrerrs were doing, it didn’t bode well for the citizens of that galactic sector. It meant that war was coming.
Something that sounded like the crunch of a foot on loose stone sounded behind her. Had Bryce come up to speak to her? It seemed unlikely. Carina couldn’t think of anything he might have to tell her that couldn’t wait until she returned to him. She eased down from her position overlooking the fortress. If someone was coming up the path, she needed somewhere to hide, but the only place was a low protrusion of the mountainside.
It was safer than meeting a guard face to face out in the open. She slid down behind the protrusion, cursing the very obvious trail she’d made in the snow. She searched her mind for a Cast that would return the snow to an untouched state. Obscure would do it. Her canister of elixir was inside her shirt.
Another soft crunch of a foot on stones.
Carina sipped the elixir. It was warm from the heat of her body. As she screwed on the lid and returned it to the safety of her shirt, she closed her eyes to write the character. But she had only completed four strokes before another crunch sounded, very close by. She had no time left. She opened her eyes just as a man in armor appeared around a rock.
There was no point in hiding. The minute he turned around he would see her. Carina leapt up and flew at him from behind. His armor and helmet protected him, while she wore nothing but a heavy coat and hat. Her only hope lay in taking his weapon. Before he even hit the ground, her hand was around the grip and she was pulling the gun from the holster.
She was the first on her feet. She aimed at the guard and was about to shoot when another sound came from behind. Her last thoughts were, Damn. There are two of them.
Chapter Twelve
Carina came to inside an interrogation room. She was sitting down and her hands were tied behind the back of the chair. Her ankles were tied to the chair legs. Two burly men stood over her and from the looks on their faces, she wasn’t in for a warm welcome to the Sherrerr fortress.
Before she even had time to speak, one slapped her, snapping her head to one side. Then the other struck—a full-on punch to her jaw. She saw stars. “Pleased to...” She spat blood. “Meet you too.”
This drew a chuckle from the corner of the room. A figure who had been standing in shadow stepped forward.
She wore a gray uniform and appeared to be a superior officer, judging by the blazes on her collar.
“They said you were the tough one,” the woman said. “Your companion whimpered and gave himself up immediately.”
Carina’s heart sank. Bryce wasn’t built for what was about to happen to them. She just hoped he would be able to stick to their story nevertheless.
The woman turned to the men. “Soften her up. I’ll be back in a while.”
They grinned and nodded, one rubbing his knuckles on the palm of his other hand.
Carina had been beaten up enough times during the years she’d spent alone after Nai Nai died that she didn’t fear what the men were about to do. Though she couldn’t Cast without taking a sip of elixir, she’d learned the mental discipline of shutting off signals from her nerve endings. Still, she also knew she wouldn’t be able to shut out the pain forever. She just hoped they wouldn’t break any bones.
What seemed like a long time later but was probably only half an hour or so, the female officer returned. Carina’s eyes were nearly swollen shut and, with her hands tied, she could only try to blink the blood away. So the woman looked blurry, but from the sound of her voice, Carina could tell she was the same person.
“Not too pretty now,” she said. “Quite like your friend, I have to say. The boys are having a wonderful time with him.”
Carina winced.
The officer drew up a chair and turned its back to Carina. She straddled it and leaned her arms on the back. “So, my dear, now that we have the pleasantries out of the way, I’m ready to hear your story.”
Speaking through puffy, bloody lips wasn’t easy, but Carina tried her best to sound genuine as she explained that she and Bryce were friends who had hiked into the mountains with the intention of working for the Sherrerrs. Lies were most effective when they were nearly the truth, so that was the only deceit Carina uttered. Everything else she told the officer was true: that she was an ex-merc whose band had dissolved and she’d left the ship. She’d met Bryce, who’d told her he’d heard of the Sherrerr stronghold and suggested that they went there to sign up. He needed the money because of his disease. She needed the money to live, and she was already a handy fighter. They’d been trying to find the stronghold but Carina had gone ahead while Bryce rested off the track.
The officer studied Carina’s face in silence as she listened to her story. When Carina reached the end she said, “It all makes sense, except for one fact. If you were so intent on joining us, why did you attack the guard who found you? Why not give yourself up?”
Carina swallowed. It was a good point. “I wanted to show you how well I could fight. I wouldn’t have shot him. I planned on making him show me the way here. I thought, if I defeated one of your guards, you’d be impressed.”
“Ha,” the officer exclaimed. “If they didn’t patrol in pairs, you might have succeeded too.”
Carina managed a half smile. “I might have.”
The woman stood up. “You’re certainly a resilient young thing, and you know how to take down a man. Maybe you are an ex-merc looking for a job as you claim. If you can make it through Basic in your current state, you can have one. We’re in need of new recruits so I’ll take a chance. Don’t doubt that you’ll be watched closely. One suspicious move and you’re dead. Even if the story you just told me isn’t quite the truth, things are happening that’ll soon show you the benefit of working for the Sherrerrs.”
She went to the door. “Put her in a cell overnight. No food or water. We’ll see what she’s made of tomorrow.”
Though the officer hadn’t given them permission, the men allowed their fists and boots to become more acquainted with Carina before they finally untied her and dragged her to a cell. When they closed and locked the door, she lay on the bare, cold stone floor. The first thing she did was to feel for her elixir canister, but of course it had been taken.
She curled on her side, resting her battered head on her arm. The officer hadn’t said what they would do if she didn’t make it through Basic, but Carina guessed she hadn’t needed to. The fortress was in an empty, lonely area of the mountains. No one would notice the body of a young woman thrown from a high place.
Now that her beating was over, the resulting pain was overcoming her mental barrier. She wasn’t sure which place hurt the most, but she didn’t think the men had done her any lasting damage. If she had her elixir, she could heal herself overnight, though that would make her captors suspicious. Without her elixir, she would probably heal in a couple of weeks. Only she didn’t have a couple of weeks.
Carina closed her eyes and tried to shut out her pain, hunger, and thirst. She needed to sleep if she was to survive the next day.
Chapter Thirteen
All she needed was a firestone, Faye reasoned as she wandered the garden. That was all. One insignificant rock, useless for anything but striking sparks. Then she could Cast Locate to find Carina, and Send to her to warn her to leave Ithiya. She wasn’t sure that Locate would work. She’d been separated from her daughter so long, it would be hard to make the connection. If she had something of Carina’s it wouldn’t be a problem, but she had nothing. It couldn’t be helped. She would have to try.
Faye had already scraped minute filings from an iron banister, gathered splinters of wood, and a pinch of dirt. She’d hidden each of the ingredients in a separate place—if Stefan came across them together he would know exactly what she was up to and would punish her severely. As time had gone on, she’d been persuaded that her efforts to create elixir were hopeless.
Until now. The sight of Carina still hanging around after returning Darius to her had sparked an inner rebellion that wouldn’t rest. Faye had to get a message to her by some method. Any method. Stefan had six of her children under his control. He would not have a seventh.
Her husband was locked in his study, probably speaking with his Sherrerr relations via comm. The children were at their lessons. Faye had an hour or more to herself. She’d told her maid, Olivia, that she was tired and would take a nap. After the woman had left, she’d sneaked out and down the back staircase, hopefully unobserved. The servants all spied on her and reported to Stefan.
In a section of the garden that was obscured from the house by tall shrubs, Faye bent down and turned over the stones in the soil, examining them. Next she looked at the low wall that held the flower bed. It was made from larger stones, cleverly stacked so they stayed put without mortar. Small gaps had been filled by pebbles, wedged into place. Nothing. Faye sighed and stood up. She went farther from the house, her pulse quickening. She wondered if her maid had checked on her and found she was missing.
There were no rules that said she couldn’t do exactly as she pleased within her home. No rules except the unspoken ones.
Water was so easy to procure, she could leave it to last. But she had to have fire or all her efforts were worthless. Faye fought down the rising tide of hopelessness that threatened to overwhelm her. In the early days, she had searched endlessly for something with which she could make fire. The times that Stefan had caught her and guessed what she was doing, he had beaten her so badly she was in pain for weeks.
It was around the time that he’d threatened to beat the children instead of her that she’d finally been persuaded to entirely cease her efforts. She couldn’t bear to be the cause of her children’s pain. The cage was sealed shut and in all the following years, she had never dared to try to prise it open. It was also around then that Stefan had begun to cultivate a veneer of decency and respectability that was an ironic counterpoint to the reality of his nature and evil exploitation of his family.
Over the years, Stefan had used Parthenia, Oriana, and Ferne to give Sherrers the edge in business deals. He had taken them to the capital and made them Enthrall competitors in meetings so they agreed to unfavorable terms or perform other Casts that confused or wrong-footed adversaries.
Perhaps Faye couldn’t prevent Stefan from treating her children as tools, but she
could save Carina, with a firestone. When the flame she would create was applied to the other elixir ingredients for the correct duration, it would prime the mixture.
Though she’d never created a fire in that way before, she knew it could be done. Before she and poor Kris had been captured by the Sherrerrs, they’d lived with Kris’ mother, who used to be a geologist. She knew every stone in the wildlands that surrounded their town, and she’d spent many evenings showing them examples and explaining their origins and properties. At the time, Faye had found the explanations boring, but she did vividly remember the night the old woman had demonstrated making fire with a firestone. She’d said it was a skill every mage should have.
Little had she known how right the old woman had been. Faye hoped she was still alive, but she doubted it. She’d already been old when Kris and she had been captured, and Carina had gone outsystem and become a mercenary. She’d loved her Nai Nai so much, she would never have willingly left her.
Carina. She had to Send to Carina.
Faye squatted down next to another flower bed and began to examine the stones. Again, she found nothing. She clenched her hands into fists. Firestones were commonplace, though few knew their special property. The gardeners had been digging the beds recently. Perhaps she could find a firestone that had been overlooked. Then she saw it. She knew immediately what it was. An edge of the stone so precious to her protruded from the dirt.
“Faye,” Stefan said quietly.
She shot to her feet. He was only meters away. How had he crept up so close without her noticing? Caught unawares, Faye was too flustered to put on her mask. She felt the heat of her face flushing crimson.
Her husband’s face was hard, yet somewhere behind his eyes, Faye could also see the glee of an evil child who has been given an opportunity to freely act out their deepest desires.
