The Fire Eye Refugee

by Samuel Gately

  Joah and Abi went together, which just left Amos, sitting across from Kay with a scowl. “Don’t look at me like that,” Kay said. “I had something to take care of.”

  “And you thought a second set of eyes wouldn’t be a good idea. You thought maybe I’d pester you with questions, even though I haven’t been this entire time we’ve been working together. Even after it became abundantly clear that you’ve been holding back.”

  “Look. I’m sorry. I would have brought you. It was a delicate situation. I was being summoned. I had to go. And then one thing led to another. I’ll tell you everything I can. In part because I think you’ll want to make a report back to Gillis later today. But wait until Abi and Joah get back. I’ve got a feeling we’re due for some good news. Not the best news, I still don’t know which way the vote will go, but at least good news.” She waved to the bartender again. “Here, have a drink. You earned it last night.”

  “As long as it isn’t more of that spiced liquor the Bosun gave us. I think I’ve lost the taste for it.”

  “I never had one.”

  Kay filled Amos in on last night’s events, then went back a little farther and filled in the holes from the previous couple days. They’d downed a few beers each by the time Joah returned, closely followed by Abi. Joah had seen Wrang troops arresting everyone in House Renlan. Abi reported the Red Canopy had been kicked off the refugee council and disbanded.

  “People were going crazy trying to distance themselves,” she said, flushed with excitement. “Everyone is betting wildly pro-refugee at this point.”

  Kay pushed her glass away. “I think this means the office is safe again. Which is good because I need a nap.”

  Amos left to report to Gillis. Abi headed back out to the bars to try and capitalize on the chaos of the second to last day of council hearings. That left Joah and Kay to trudge over to the office. With each step Kay grew more and more tired, the last few days catching up with her. She stumbled into her office, threw herself on the sofa, and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

  She woke to the sound of the doctor’s voice in her ear. “Awaken, my little wetblood. It is time for you to pay for your trespass. You never belonged in this garden.”

  Chapter 26. Events Set Right

  Kay had been sleeping flat on the sofa, facing inwards, so when she opened her eyes she could just see the doctor’s face hovering above her. A sharp point was pressing into her side. “Turn slowly,” he said. “If I give the word, my men will kill your young friend in the other room.”

  Kay raised her hands and rolled over. She looked up at the doctor, staring at her from behind his dark glasses. There was another man in the room, without the signature white straps but having that same look. Disciplined, young, big. Kay tried to prevent her eyes from straying towards her desk, where the belt with her baton rested.

  “Search her,” the doctor said to the other. “Wetbloods are crafty.”

  He lumbered over and roughly pawed over every inch of Kay. He found nothing because she had nothing. She was at the doctor’s mercy, and from the muffled yells coming from the other room, Joah was too.

  The doctor waved his man over to the door. “Check on the other one.” He turned back to Kay, holding a long knife in front of him. “You have caused a tremendous disruption to my plans. At first I was certain you were merely a pawn, moving at someone else’s bidding. It slowed my attempts to counter you. I kept looking for someone higher up the chain. Someone more worthy of my attention. It turns out that was my mistake. But no longer. Events will be set right. You have a few things to tell me. Then you will die.”

  Kay pulled herself into a sitting position. “What can I tell you that you don’t already know?”

  “Where’s Jung?”

  “Don’t know who that is.”

  “He was leading the group of Straps that came here looking for you.”

  “Oh, him. With the Wrang. Telling anyone who will listen everything he knows about you. I think they might want to talk with you.”

  The tinted glasses weren’t quite successful at hiding the doctor’s fury. He said in a tight voice, “The Wrang are not the Dynasty. There is still a chance the Dynasty make the right decision and keep the Farrow out. Leave the Gol pure. Even if I’m not allowed to be a part of the society I’ve dedicated my life to. Events will be set right.”

  And then it clicked in Kay’s head. She realized where she had heard that particular phrase before. “You know, I saw your sister the other day.” The slightest pause, then she pressed on. “So you set the Fire Creep to keep me away from your past?”

  The doctor was stone-faced, but she had seen that one hit his system. “I have no sister. Who is the Fire Creep?”

  “Yes, you do. Maggie. Fire Creep is what we call the Winden agent.”

  “Why the Fire Creep?”

  “The robes, the fire juggling, all that?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m beginning to regret coming here. At least I’ll put one more wetblood into the ground before I’m forced out of my home.”

  There was a miscommunication in there somewhere. Something Kay didn’t want to lose sight of. But she pressed on, flushed with her revelation. “But this isn’t your home. You’re not from here. You’re from Edgen. I’ve met your sister Maggie. And I know your name is Olim. And maybe most interesting, I know that when I take that knife away from you and bury it in your neck, I’ll be spilling wetblood. Your father was a Gol farmer named Eustus but your mother was a Farrow named Carrie. Carrie’s a pretty Farrow name. Where’s your uncle?” It was the uncle who had clued Kay in on the doctor’s identity. Margaret had pointed out that he always said Events will be set right. She’d heard the doctor say that no fewer than three times, once in his speech and twice just now.

  “I was eventually forced to kill him. He brought little of value to our relationship. Beyond liberating me from the sins of my parents.”

  “And how exactly are you liberated? You’re a killer.”

  “I have paid for the sin I represent a hundred times over.”

  “What does that mean? You think killing mixed-bloods is some sort of mission? Your calling? They’re your people.”

  “Never!” He took a step towards her, hand holding the knife shaking in anger. “I have risen above my birth.”

  “Tell that to the Straps outside. They should be told, don’t you think? Their champion has wet in his blood.”

  The doctor looked to the door, unable to hide his nervousness behind the dark glasses. “I think it is time for you to die. You don’t understand where I have come from, where I have gone.”

  “I know you went to the Winden. I don’t think anybody ever really comes back from that. What were you doing with them? Emptying chamberpots? Nightfall rituals, nooses and bucket drownings? Smearing blood on your naked body and worshipping Lazurli?”

  “Don’t say that name!” He was trembling, either in anger or fear. “If you’d seen a fraction of what I had…”

  “Would I still come back hellbent on bringing death to as many people as I could?”

  “You would come back more determined than ever to protect your people from the filth that exists outside these walls.”

  “But I thought we already decided these aren’t your people. I am. We’re wetblood chums.” Kay gave him a dark smile and looked down and to the side. “I’m still wondering though—”

  She never had a chance to ask him about the Winden agent, how it could be that he didn’t know the Fire Creep, because there was a banging on the outer door of the office. “Open up in the name of the Dynasty!”

  The only reason Kay had been able to survive the past few days was by thriving amidst distraction. She’d cut her bindings while Reagan had his back turned. She’d escaped the Fire Creep when the Home Guard arrived. Now the Dynasty was here and the person who left this room alive would be the one who moved fastest.

  When the doctor’s head swung towards the door she planted her feet be
neath her and leapt right into him, forcing him to stumble back. He regained his feet and gave her a shove, pushing her off to clear the knife. Kay went with his push, throwing herself further into the office. Near where her baton rested on the desk. She heard him coming towards her from behind. She grabbed the whole belt, two heavy jars and the baton all looped together, and swung it as a clumsy weapon. It tangled with the arm holding the knife. The doctor cursed and wrestled with the belt for a moment, trying to shake it off his knifehand. That gave Kay a second to climb up onto her desk. The doctor got the knife free and brought it forward, only to get a solid face full of Kay’s boot. The dark glasses broke with a snap. He froze, stunned, which gave Kay the time she needed to line up a proper kick. She channeled all her frustration, all her anger into it. When she connected squarely, it felt like she nearly took his head off.

  As the doctor crumpled to the floor, Kay jumped down next to him. There were shouts and the sounds of fighting from the front office. She needed to get out there and help Joah, if he needed it, but she wasn’t going to leave an enemy behind her without making sure he was disabled. She picked up the knife and stabbed him in the neck, not too deep. His golden flesh, proper Gol coloring, parted and thick blood poured out, pooling on the floor of her office. The doctor let out a scream before the blood ran over his face, choking him. Kay tilted her head and studied the wound a moment. She’d managed to miss any major arteries. He’d stay alive for a little longer.

  She turned to the door only to see it open. A group of uniformed Wrang guards entered, swords drawn. They slowed when they saw her standing still in the center of the room over the doctor’s body.

  “Thank the Dynasty you’re here,” she said in a sarcastic voice. She lowered but didn’t drop the bloody knife.

  One of them stepped forward, a Captain based on his uniform. “That’s Doctor Milo?” When Kay nodded, he asked, “Does he have the child?”

  “What child?”

  The Captain looked around the room, expression dark, as though a child could be hiding in the corners. “Enos Melor was taken this morning. Yamar sent us for you.” He gestured to the doctor. “We weren’t expecting to find him. He wasn’t at the Renlan House with the other Red Canopy. So we assumed he was the ringleader of the kidnapping.”

  The commotion from the exterior room hadn’t entirely died as the guards struggled to subdue the Straps. The Captain sent more guards back out there with a gesture, then took a few steps towards Doctor Milo. Kay looked past them and saw an apparently uninjured Joah helping them subdue the large youths. There was just a single guard left standing by the door.

  “Could we close the door please?” Kay asked the Captain. He looked at her curiously, but waved the guard out of the room. When the door was closed he turned back to her. “Yamar needs you. Now. We don’t have time to waste.”

  Kay looked at the doctor, still writhing on the floor, bleeding all over her office. “This will only take a minute. You know he was working with the Winden, right? Were you under instructions to bring him in alive?” The Captain wasn’t saying anything. “I mean he’s pretty much already dead. If time is of the essence, maybe better if we didn’t waste it pretending otherwise.” She got an impatient nod. “He broke in here and I killed him. If anyone cares, that’s all they need to know, right?”

  When the Captain stayed silent, she walked past him and opened the door. She leaned out and said, “Joah, could you come in here a minute?”

  Joah walked in the room, blood in his hair. He looked at Kay, relief in his eyes, then shifted his gaze over to the doctor.

  “Joah, you’ll have to make this quick. The Dynasty needs us.” She bent down and retrieved her baton from the floor. She held out the bloody knife in one hand, the baton in the other. “Your choice. There’s a little left for you.”

  Joah looked at the baton, then up at her. He reached out slowly and took it. “You never let anyone use this.”

  “I’ll make an exception, just this once.”

  He gave her an appreciative smile, then turned to the doctor. Kay watched the darkness creep up over his face. “I’ve been looking for you for quite a while,” he said softly, walking to the still form on the ground. “Long years. Tell me there’s a little left in there.”

  He rolled the doctor over, the ugly, blood-covered mess making both Kay and the Captain take a step back. Joah didn’t. He knelt next to the doctor, gently took off his broken glasses. He folded them and put them in his pocket. “She was fifteen. And afraid. Terrified. I told her she’d be safe. And she should have been. She wasn’t a threat to anyone.”

  Joah raised the baton and brought it down hard, cracking the doctor’s skull. The doctor gave a strangled cry that was choked off when Joah hit him again. And again. The doctor falling to pieces under the assault. Joah sped up, pounding on his face like it was a nail and he held a hammer.

  As the onslaught continued, Kay looked at the Captain, prepared to offer some sort of justification for the violence. Maybe tell him how the doctor had killed Joah’s lover. She saw the Captain didn’t care. He wasn’t even watching. He had his eyes on the door, eager to wrap this business up. All about the Dynasty, no cares for the drama of lower dwellers. That was fine with Kay. She hadn’t needed any help to bring down the doctor. Sure, this hunt had taken a little longer than usual. But then, finding men wasn’t her specialty. Finding children was. And it sounded like she was needed.

  “Joah, let’s go.”

  She watched as his mask slid right back on. He dropped the expression of rage and was suddenly back to the flippant Joah who had walked beside her so long. He cheerfully wiped the baton on one of the only parts of the doctor’s cloak not stained with blood. “Right behind you,” he said, handing her the baton back. Kay threw her belt on as the Captain led them out of the office.

  None looked back at the limp form on the office floor, the remains of the man who had led the Red Canopy in one life, aided the Winden in their war against the Farrow in another. Had hunted Celest’s children. And long before that, had watched his parents swing from a noose in a barn near the border while his uncle marched around shouting old military slogans. At last he lay still.

  Chapter 27. The Third Man

  Horses again. This time thundering across the city, all traffic pushed aside by the caravan’s advance team. Kay gritted her teeth against the noise, the jouncing, the stress. Whatever feeling of accomplishment she’d felt back in the office was fleeing, being jarred out of her by the relentless hoofbeats. The Captain was in the carriage with them, all business and no warmth.

  Joah stared out the window. It was hard to tell what he was thinking. He hadn’t looked at Kay or anyone since they’d begun moving. Joah never sat still for long. Usually he would move around or play with his watch. Now he was doing neither. She wondered if she’d just lost her best finder, if he’d just been working with her because he was confident that her path would cross with the doctor again. She was realizing how little she knew him. How little of him he’d shown her since she found him on that fire-eaten floor years before.

  Meanwhile she had more pressing things to ponder. Someone had gotten to the Dynasty child? Red Canopy was meant to be swept under the rug, nothing to worry about anymore. Was it them? Could it have been someone else? Also, why had the doctor not recognized the Fire Creep? The connection between them had been established. How did it work otherwise? Who was the Creep playing for? How did this swing the vote? Would there be a vote?

  They pulled up at the Palace, the Captain hopping out and impatiently holding the door for Kay and Joah. He led them into the building, across the entry hall, and up the same stairs she’d taken the night before. Yamar was waiting in the Dynasty apartments, conversing with one of the men Kay had seen at her offices earlier.

  “Why were you with the doctor?” he asked, turning to her.

  All the eyes in the room on her. Guards behind her. It felt like when Alban had her outside the walls. “That’s an interesting way to desc
ribe it. Maybe you want to ask, how is it you were able to kill the doctor we’d been searching for? And help you capture the remnants of the Red Canopy. And also thank you.”

  “Red Canopy is yesterday’s problem. If they don’t have Enos, I need to know who does.”

  “That’s the Dynasty child? When was he taken?”

  “A few hours before midday. Whoever took him left a trail of dead guards. Any ideas?”

  Kay looked around the room, made a gesture towards the balcony. Yamar nodded and they walked out, leaving the others behind. She took in the view from the dizzying height. She spoke in a quieter tone, feeling a light wind on her face. “You’re positive it wasn’t Red Canopy?”

  Yamar looked exhausted. Tense with worry. “There’s not much left of them. Most are in cells. And none of the ones we hold seemed to be part of the inner circle. Even the Renlans had no idea what the Straps were up to. I get the feeling they viewed Red Canopy as a social outlet. Once they let the doctor in, things got out of their comfort zone quick. I really thought Enos would turn up with Doctor Milo. He wasn’t with the others. We had men looking for him all over the city.”

  “If you didn’t come to my place looking for Milo, why’d you send for me?”

  He gave her a flat look. “It’s a missing child, Kay. I need a fetch. I need him found. Now.”

  “Why’d you set me on Maggie Jordene?”

  “I heard rumors about our friend the doctor. I was checking up on them. I’ve been looking into him for some time.”

  “You seemed to lose interest once I found her.”

  “You found something better, proof that he was involved in the murder of House Coulet. After that, what do I care where he’s from?” Yamar’s eyes were relentlessly scanning the ground far below them, as though it hid some clue to the Dynasty child’s whereabouts. “I wonder now, if I hadn’t spent so much time chasing the doctor around...there was a different threat out there the whole time.”