Then I challenged, “Not even us.” I knew it made no sense since our magic could kill in but an instant to if we had enough stored in our reservoir. But that was something that came from us, that made it personal, not like these impersonal tools. Nobody rose to my challenge, and while Celeste examined a black box with a few buttons and dials on it, I picked up the wicked looking knife beside the gun and pulled it from its canvas looking leg sheath.
I was so curious about it because it was the first blade I had seen on the Avalonians. It was such a foreign concept to me for a warrior not to have a blade or bow. Maybe they relied solely upon their guns? But what if your enemy reached you and you couldn't use your gun in close combat? Or if you ran out of the lead pellets?
It tasted of high carbon steel but it had not been folded and wouldn't be able to keep the honed edge as long as a proper dagger, and it had no decoration or etchings on it except a makers mark stamped at the base of the blade. Nonetheless, the plain but deadly looking knife felt finely balanced. I shrugged and slid it back in its sheath and offered it to the others to look at.
Dru and Elaine joined us. I had to smile when Dru crouched and lashed the knife to Elaineia's leg as he told her, “I will instruct you how to use your blades.” Her eyes gleamed with eager anticipation.
Then while Celeste opened a packet marked Field Rations and sniffed at the contents and took a nibble from the corner of what looked like a grain and honey bar like our own ration packs held. She made a familiar sour face, and I grinned internally. Looks like it tastes about the same as ours too.
I picked up a folded leather square and opened it and hesitated. There was a clear window which was not glass, but a pliable material, and behind it was one of the lifelike paintings of the man who was sitting in the chair before us. I looked at the picture and him and the list of information about him printed beside it. It must have served as his papers.
Some of the Lower Ten Techromancers and scholars have been researching these uncannily realistic paintings in all the tomes of the Before Times in the Penny Library. They believe that the pictures are not painted at all, but produced using chemical and mechanical means. They are experimenting with something they found called photography.
We always balk at how lackadaisical the Great Wizards had been with natural resources since they are in such short supply now. They wasted so much with chemicals and nonrenewable resources. Were they that bountiful that they needed not worry about exhausting them, or about recycling and repurposing everything as we did?
So here was an example of one of those photography things here. I said, “Corporal Dan Ronald McGuire. He has three names... His 'date of birth' makes no sense, nothing abut Three Sister's conjunction, and this part I think maybe the year doesn't follow standard Post Impact numbering. O negative blood type.” I pulled the card from behind the window and looked at both sides then passed it around as I went through the rest.
Some papers with numbers on them, likely currency similar to penny vouchers, and I paused at another photography. This one was well worn at the corners and had a picture of the man, a woman and two children around six or seven. They all wore strange clothing, and they looked quite happy. The man had a family. My gut tightened, and I felt a little sick to my stomach for what was to come.
I set the folded leather, which seemed to serve as his coin purse, down and exhaled loudly. No longer curious about the other items on the table. Corrine picked it up and continued going through the contents.
Celeste looked at the items on the table, and the man in the chair then grabbed another chair and placed it in front of him with its back to him. Then she sat down, straddling the chair to face him, her arms crossed on the back as she studied him.
I whispered a plea, “He has a family.”
She nodded, and I saw the conflict and self-loathing in her eyes as she responded hoarsely, “So did the hundreds of men and women they killed.” War was such a nasty thing, making men go against their morals for what they perceived as the greater good.
But us Knights shouldered that burden for the people of our realms so they would never know the horrors of war. And this man was a Knight of Avalon, and he knew the consequences as well as we did.
Then she reached a hand out and lightly slapped the man's face. “Wakey wakey, corporal. Time to answer some questions.”
He pulled his head back after another pat and then sat bolt upright as he came out of it. His eyes bleary and confused as he started looking around frantically. He started to lunge out of the chair and with a hollow sounding thud, Celeste just slammed her head forward and headbutted the man back into the chair.
She shook her head at him as I winced inside, headbutting hurt both people involved. The forehead is the hardest bone in the human body, it was something drilled into us squires, that if our hands were bound, we still had weapons.
The man moaned and grabbed his head. Then looked at my smiling wife who had her arms crossed over the back of the chair again. Then she smirked at him as he looked around more cautiously this time. His eyes landing on his gun on the table.
“So Corporal... That sounds too impersonal, mind if I call you Dan Ronald McGuire instead? Or do you prefer one of the names?” She showed her teeth in her smile, and all I could see was an apex predator sitting in front of someone who didn't yet realize that they were the prey.
The man stiffened and got a defiant look on his face and said in an oddly accented English with a cadence that was off to me, “Dan Ronald McGuire, Corporal of the Avalon Expeditionary Enforcers. Seven five three x-ray zebra bravo.”
My Lady exhaled and grabbed his chin to turn his face back to her when he looked at his gun again. “Let's try this again. What are your patrol schedules and when are you supposed to check in with your base camp?”
He sneered and recited again, “Dan Ronald McGuire, Corporal of the Avalon Expeditionary Enforcers. Seven five three x-ray zebra bravo.” Then he added, his dialect archaic, “Torture me all you like, I'll tell you nothing, bitch.” When he turned toward Dru, I could see hate in his eyes. “When Commander Stein wipes this village off the face of the Earth, I'll take great delight in watching this savage get dismembered for attacking us.”
Dru reached out and slapped the man's forehead. “Be civil, man, or my Sora may not.”
He turned back to Celeste, clearly ready to spout defiance and insult but he froze at the hard, emotionless look on her face. I swallowed as the very air seemed to still around us. The Harbinger of Wexbury was sitting with us now.
She said in a frosty tone, “Nobody will torture you, we are not the 'savages' you may be. But you must realize that your life is already forfeit here, for attacking innocent people and enslaving these lands. Where we come from these are both war crimes. Whether you tell us what we ask or not, you will die this night. I promise it will be swift and painless, and I will take no joy in it. But it is up to you whether or not you die with a clean conscience.”
I have never seen the blood drain from a man's face so quickly. He saw the truth in her words, his bright blue eyes widening. Then his face hardened in defiance. He had made his decision, and it was the wrong one in my eyes. Did he really not see that what they were doing here to the Cristea was wrong?
He said in a shaky voice in that odd accent, “Commander Stein is going to mow down this sorry excuse for a village you have here. You may have surprised me, but your stupid swords will do no good against the tanks at base camp.”
Celeste nodded and said, “Good, you are already giving us information we can use. Commander Stein leads your group of mercenaries. Those tank things are at your base camp, not around here.”
The man blanched, snapped his mouth shut, then if possible got even paler.
My girl looked over to Corrine. “How far to their base camp?”
The Mother of the Cristea looked toward the doors and said, “Ninety miles if you travel over Domed Mountain, a hundred and twenty if you go around on the main road. It is just outs
ide of our other village by the mines...” She paused then smiled as she shared the village name. “Lupei.”
I smiled at this. There were twelve other bands they could have named the village, but they had chosen ours so very long ago. I frowned inwardly, the rovers of the fourteenth band had no name, as they were loners who traveled through the villages and keeps of the Altii, to learn about our culture and to discretely keep an eye on us. They really needed a name other than Rovers.
My father, Nicholas was one such Rover but made the delightful mistake of falling in love with a woman of Wexbury and settled down. That woman was my mother. It is said that in her youth she was a beauty beyond compare, she is still quite stunning, and he was enamored upon his first glimpse of her. I wish I had known my father.
I remember when this discussion came up in the Great Library, I had wondered what a beauty mother must have been for first the Duke, and then father to have been so captivated by her. Emily spirited me away into the vaults in the back of the library, and to the rows of court paintings, all slid into a rack along one wall. They stretched the entire length of the vault, there were hundreds, with hundreds more in scattered stacks in need of organizing. Each slot in the rack was neatly labeled with the date and subjects.
She had run her hand along the racks and stopped a few years before my birth then just stepped back. She had a look of mischief and oddly, apprehension, as I reached for one of the royal court of Wexbury Keep, of the people listed, one was Countess Margret of Wexbury.
I pulled it out to see people in older style finery all sitting in seats around Duke Fredrick's throne-like chair. The artist had done a marvelous job capturing the scene. And I blinked at a person who looked just vaguely like me, only beautiful, regal, and much taller... sitting next to a smiling Lucia who looked to have just reached majority. Both mother and Lucia were rare beauties even then.
I had pointed at mother and whispered in awe, “Mother was so beautiful... and young.”
If I didn't know Emily so well, I would have thought I saw a flash of anger in her eyes before she shook her head sadly and quipped, “As are you, Laney. You could be your mother's twin.” She was being nice, I knew I would never be pretty, especially with my scarred body and face. Vanity put no food on the table.
As I slid the painting back, I caught sight of a short blonde woman standing in the far background by a door, with a familiar smile. It was Emily's smile. And if I didn't know this painting was almost thirty years old, I would have thought it her. Was it her mother? I had thought she wasn't from Wexbury and was a traveling noble scholar. Maybe her mother was too. Emily had looked uncomfortable about my scrutiny of the woman in the painting as I looked between it and her, so I didn't ask.
I let the memory drop, then turned my attention back to the man in the chair as he kept glancing at his gun on the table while Celeste asked, “Numbers? How fast are these tank weapons? How fast can they arrive here in Aratreya?”
Angelus spoke up when the man remained silent, “They have five of those mechanized beasts. They are faster than the swiftest mustang. They can cover the distance of over a day in but three hours. And the smaller conveyances can do it in almost half that.” Then he smiled. “But you have killed one, so they have but one left inside the Ringed Range, though we know not its patrol schedule, they keep it random so we can find no pattern in order to slip out of New Home. Then there is the one that prowls beyond the Gateway, in the Ribbon of Life.”
This got me to sit up straight, there was enemy out along the river? By our own base camp? I fought the spike of fear for Misty, Jace, and Ingr. Though I knew intellectually that they were protected by an entire Squad of Sparo's finest, three Techno-Knights in their ranks. They could handle a three-man patrol like the one we had dispatched.
Celeste's smile widened then she smirked at the Avalonian, “So, five of these tanks, two patrol conveyances. And forty men? No thirty-six now?”
The man exhaled in distress. He had looked almost panicked when he heard we had taken out a patrol conveyance. He wasn't used to not being the most dangerous one to take the field.
She prompted, “So two-man checkpoints on all roads...” She looked to Corrine. “How many roads into Lupei?”
The woman supplied, “Two.”
My red-headed strategist hmmed. “So four there four left here, and three in the patrol. Twenty-five to man those tanks, guard their base and run the slaving operations.” She lowered her head to meet the eyes of the man at his level. “Have we missed anything?”
He responded with a curse older than time itself, “Fuck you.” But he looked even more nervous.
Elaine moved to Celeste's side with a smirk on her face as she said, “Their large transport is being filled. Three men with two other men on small two-wheeled contraptions that belch that caustic black smoke. They are more maneuverable, like a horse, and seem quicker than their other mechanical beasts. They guard the transport.”
My wife nodded in appreciation. “We're back up to forty. I like those odds.”
The man finally looked relieved and laughed out loud as he chuckled. “This raggedy bunch of savages against our military? It'll be a massacre.”
She nodded to him and said with a touch of regret in her voice, “Yes it will be, with the two full squads of armed and armored knights in our party. I've half a mind to send you out to gather your Commander for a parlay to bid his surrender before that can occur.”
The man dove at the table and grabbed his weapons belt, he hit the floor hard, rolling as he drew his gun then froze when he saw the crushed metal of it. I sighed and just reached out before the man hurt himself. With the barest thought, the gun yanked from his hand and into mine. I handed it to Celeste in resignation.
She explained as the man's eyes widened at me, “Did we not mention that Laney here had made an upgrade to your gun? Now it is well suited to crack open walnuts.”
He just lay there, and I could see the realization of his utter defeat crushing down upon him like a landslide. He wouldn't look anywhere but at me, as I ghosted to Celeste's side. I crouched in front of him and rasped out, “Please, ease the weight of the chains you bear on your conscience. Is there anything you can share with us to save lives on both sides? You have a family, think of them. Don't let this conflict spill over onto all of Avalon and them. What is the patrol schedule of the conveyance? When are you supposed to check in and how?”
The man shook his head, and he started crying silently. I looked around in distress, most of our group had looked away to give the man his dignity. He said, “It is a random patrol, there is no schedule. We check in every three hours on the radio. I had just checked in when this barbarian attacked us in the dark of night like a coward.”
I reached out and wiped the cheek of the broken man with one of my scarves.
Then I backed up when one of Celeste's hands rested on my shoulder. I closed my eyes and nodded in understanding as I stood. It was time.
The man's eyes shot up to hers at the sound of her steel singing as she drew her blade smoothly from its scabbard. I saw the utter surrender in him as he stood slowly and inhaled deeply, steeling himself for what was to come. Nobody wanted this.
I heard myself talking before I knew what I was going to say, my hand on the flat of Celeste's blade, “Wait.” I locked eyes with the man, taking the measure of his soul, and the weight of the link it would add on Celeste's chain of sin. I tore my eyes from him and asked her, “Can we not show mercy and compassion? He has a wife and children, we saw as much in that photography he carries. We can bring him back with us to face life in the dungeons for his war crimes.”
Celeste placed her free hand on mine, then guided me behind her. She moved her blade to his chin and raised his eyes to hers using the flat of the blade. Then she said in a voice almost as hoarse as mine, “In another life, I would have done this duty without a thought. But Laney has reminded me what it is to be human, to have compassion. She has saved me from myself, and now she has s
aved you. Reflect upon that all the remaining days of your life.”
Then she turned on a heel strode two steps past me, her back to me as she sheathed her blade smoothly. She said to nobody in particular, “Get him secured and out of my sight.”
Angelus and Dru went into motion, grabbing the man and dragging him toward the back passageway in the direction of the stables. I just stared at Celeste's back to me, wondering if she was mad at my weakness. But then she opened her hand at her side wide. I quickly moved forward and took it. She held on tight like I were her lifeline as relief flowed through me like a warm drug.
Elaine moved to her other side and dared look into her conflicted face, then just laid a reassuring hand on her arm. “As much as I hate the Avalonians, it was the right thing to do.”
I laid my head on Celeste's arm when she replied, “Of course it was if Laney advocated it.”
I exhaled deeply. How I loved my wife so.
She looked around. “Tomorrow there is much planning to be done when the squads arrive, but for now, we all need to sleep. I have first watch.”
Without a word, we both sat in the chairs, our eyes on the door as the others dispersed. Elaineia giving me a sad but encouraging look.
Chapter 15 – Breaking Fast
I awoke the next morning to Celeste gently shaking me and calling my name, “Laney, wake up sleepy head, we've dragons to slay.”
A little groggy, I looked around, in the familiar surroundings of a Gypsy wagon. Was I back home again? I wiped my eyes and shook my head, pushing away the last of the sleep along with the warm blankets I was nestled in. Ah, Journey's End, it wasn't really a wagon anymore. We were in Elaine's room where she led us when she took the second shift on lookout with Dru.
Smiling at my Lady, I marveled at the way her red hair curled ever so slightly to make a river of fire which flowed over her shoulders like ribbons of silk.
She slipped her cloak back on – we had slept in our leathers just in case the alarm was sounded. I took just a moment to marvel at the gentle look she gave, which reserved just for me, the one that made me feel that I was the only person in the world.
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