“Gormer!” she shouted. Who else could it be?
The things were deceptively fast. They both were so close that Astrid had to jump out of the way to keep from being hit. One of them slid sideways to a stop with its wheels locked up. Astrid still was not sure what she was seeing. It was hard to get a good look at the strange mechanical things while she killed people who tried to make her dead.
With a hiss the back doors lowered and a bunch of ragged-looking people came out holding magitech rifles. They shot at enemy soldiers, who saw themselves suddenly outnumbered and retreated to regroup.
The arrival of the big machines had bought them ground.
“All Dregs!” Astrid shouted above the crowd, “Form up on me!”
Vinnie led the charge to form a line that momentarily stopped the fighting. Now the two armies faced each other, but one of them was split in two, with Astrid and a few hundred allies in the middle.
As the fighting paused, she was struck by how strange this battle had become.
“Hi, Astrid,” Gormer shouted. “They call these things Porcupines.”
His face was a bloody mess and he had no eyebrows. A crazed-looking man beside him with a short rifle in his hands spun in jerky circles looking for something to shoot.
“I’m not even going to ask,” Astrid said, shaking her head.
“Look out!” someone shouted.
Another loud hiss followed by a clang filled the air. The second Porcupine was filled with troops. The vehicle suddenly lived up to its name as rifle barrels poked out.
“Take cover!” Astrid yelled.
She need not have said that. The wind whipped her hair as a large round figure hurtled toward the enemy machine like a living cannonball.
Boom! Her scientist-mage left a Vinnie-sized dent in the thing and it toppled onto its side.
One of its doors popped open and a woman climbed out. She kept her rifle over her shoulder and climbed down by the devices on the undercarriage.
“You!” She pointed at Gormer. “You killed my father.”
Astrid stepped forward holding out both hands. “This battle is over. Lay down your weapon and surrender.”
Liesel gave a sinister smile and slowly unslung the rifle.
“Astrid, she’s not going to—” Gormer started to say.
Liesel quickly brought the rifle to her shoulder and fired. Astrid could not see; the blast seemed to encompass her completely. She happened to be looking directly at the rifle barrel. Time slowed. She felt a slight tug on her left shoulder, but she seemed to be intact.
Seemed to be.
She was conscious of people screaming her name. Some of the people around her dove for cover, while others stood rooted to the spot in shock. The woman with the rifle was a danger. It was time to stop her.
Astrid used her right hand to bring out her rope dart again. When she went to grab the other end of the line she felt her arm move, but it took hold of nothing. She looked to her left and saw an arm on the ground.
Hers.
“It doesn’t hurt,” she murmured out loud, possibly to convince herself. She couldn’t concentrate for all the wailing and screaming. “Quiet down,” she yelled. “I’m OK.” She wasn’t sure how much longer that might be true, since she had never lost a limb before.
But the woman was still moving. She tried to shoot again, but her rifle did not go off. She made some strange motions and a black stone fell from the rifle. Liesel reached into her pocket and brought out a glowing gem.
She’s reloading, Astrid thought. She remembered Vinnie demonstrating the rifle. I can’t let her do that.
Astrid started moving again. Her rope dart had fallen somewhere; she couldn’t see it. All she could see was her arm, so she grabbed it by the wrist. It still wore the sacred steel armor.
Liesel’s eyes and mouth went wide as Astrid closed the gap between them and brought the severed arm down across her head. Liesel fell and her rifle flew away. Just before Liesel hit the ground, Astrid kicked her so hard that she flew back against the Porcupine like a stuffed animal—and just as lifeless.
Astrid whirled back around and pushed through the silent crowd. No one, neither enemies nor allies, spoke a word.
“Enough!” Astrid shouted. She dropped her severed arm on the open ground between the two armies.
“This battle is over. Nobody has won. This whole thing was pointless, but I do know one thing.” She paused to stare down the opposing army. “If you continue to follow the people who stand for injustice you will be destroyed. If not by me, then by the very people who have fooled you into thinking that their way is right and good.”
The next commotion was the sound of former enemies dropping their weapons. Astrid stood tall for a moment, pretending she was all right.
“Hanif, Mika!” Astrid shouted.
The first lieutenants appeared. “Astrid, you—”
Astrid shushed her. “See to the surrender. On your honor, show no malice. Hanif, see to the wounded.” Hanif followed her when she walked away. “Not me,” she scolded. “The wounded.” Hanif walked away confused and trembling.
Astrid allowed herself to stagger when she was out of sight behind the toppled Porcupine. It was a good enough place to take it all in. Vinnie hurried to her side as she leaned against the wreck.
“Astrid?” he asked. She saw he was in just as much shock as she was.
“Hey, Vinnie?” she asked.
“Yes?” he replied.
“Can you give me a hand?” Astrid cackled hysterically, then bent over and puked.
Vinnie caught her as she fell, and the rest was a blur.
“Stretcher!” Vinnie shouted. “Get her out of here! Hurry!”
The panic and anguish in his voice were painful. Firm hands lifted her onto a stretcher and bore her back to where the battle had started.
“Moxy?” Astrid smiled at the delicate face of her Pixie friend. It was smudged with blood and soot.
“I’m here,” Moxy replied.
“Oh, good,” Astrid said as she faded in and out. “Where is my arm?” Some time had passed, she knew, because she was in a wagon now.
“We thought you’d ask for it,” Vinnie said.
“Give it here,” she demanded. Astrid knew she was delirious, but she didn’t care about being rude. She promised herself that she’d apologize later. “Hurry up.”
Vinnie laid the arm across her chest and she hugged it close with her right arm and sighed. “Hello, arm.”
“What!” Vinnie yelped as Astrid’s eyes turned electric blue.
Arcs of blue energy crackled across Astrid’s skin and lashed out at the people in the wagon.
“That tickles!” Moxy exclaimed as the jagged tongues of energy made contact.
“Look!” Gormer exclaimed. Astrid could not see what he was pointing at.
The stump that was her left arm itched terribly and another crackling noise accompanied a sharp pain. She let go of her dead arm in fear and pain as it flew from her grasp. It landed beside her, and its severed ends aligned.
She looked away when she felt her left arm again; it was made of fire. When she looked back, she saw raw muscle and veins forming where the formerly severed flesh met.
In two more blinks the arm was attached again, but she couldn’t move it. She let her dead arm rest beside her like a sleeping child.
“Huh,” she said. “That was weird.”
The world faded to black.
EPILOGUE
The Assembly
Astrid stood under a cloudless blue sky with her face to the bright spring sun and let warmth spread across her skin. The early morning was still cool, so the warmth stood in contrast to the chilly breeze that threaded through her fingers. She breathed deep, then stretched her arms above her head.
Her left arm still felt very strange, and it was much weaker than the right. She knew the magic was still healing the arm because fatigue had stalked her for the past few days.
When she touched things, lit
tle blue arcs of magical energy would crackle from the fingers of her left hand. Magic might be infinite, but her body was not. Channeling so much energy took its toll. It seemed she was drawing from the Well without conscious thought.
The Master Knights hadn’t told her about anything like this happening, and it made her wonder about magic. Maybe Vinnie was right; maybe magic wasn’t what she had thought it was.
She was so lost in thought that she forgot about the ten-foot-tall person behind her until he started singing a beautiful wordless tune. Charlie was using an enormous broom to tidy up the courtyard. The handle alone was nearly as tall as Astrid. Charlie had made it himself from a sapling pine and some straw he had found in his wanderings.
Charlie came and went as he pleased, but he pretty much owned the inner courtyard. The space had once been reserved for executions and political rallies, but the unspoken agreement now was that the place belonged to him since he paved the area with the stones from the demolished gallows.
That was, until today.
This morning it would be used to forge and celebrate a new peace. This was the perfect place to do that. It was as if Charlie had known that many days ago.
In the spot where the gallows foundation had stood was a raised wooden platform. In about an hour, Astrid would climb up the fifteen feet to the top of that monumental rostrum and make her address. The short bloody civil war had ended, and now it was time to put the conflict behind them. At least, that was Astrid’s deepest hope.
The leaders of the rebellion were dead. Morgon and Hagan had fallen to the Dregs. They had tried to escape, but the new army of the protectorate had organized itself in the heat of the moment to stop them.
Astrid had heard this in a report from her field commanders the day after that final decisive battle. It was this display of effective and overwhelming force that had caused the remaining lieutenants to surrender without condition.
They even said as much in their formal contract of surrender. In that document they agreed that Astrid was indeed the stronger, so she had earned the right to rule—but that kind of thinking was what Astrid planned to destroy today.
She did not often wish for luck, but she did then. She hoped she might find the right words to convince friends and enemies alike that there was a better way.
“Gods damn it!” a gravely and agitated voice called from one of the courtyard entrances. “I’m awake! Stop putting that damn music in my head!”
Darnell marched up to Charlie and stood there fists to hips.
“So what…I overslept. You gonna toss me in jail?” Darnell shouted.
Charlie grinned to expose his large rounded teeth and the gaps between them. There was a pause as Astrid followed the one-sided conversation with no small amount of shock. Before this, Gormer had been the only person who could effectively communicate with Charlie.
“I know I promised,” Darnell replied to something Astrid could not hear. The old man seemed to deflate a bit. “No, I didn’t drink last night. Wish I could. The drink that little devil woman gives me makes me puke just smelling liquor.”
Astrid took the next pause as an opportunity to interrupt the conversation. “Good morning, Darnell. You’re looking well.”
“Ha!” The old man cackled. “I didn’t take you for a liar. I got a mirror in that fancy place you put me in. I look like shit because I feel like shit.”
“I stand corrected,” Astrid replied with a smirk. “You look better than you did the other day.”
Darnell just growled some curses Astrid could not quite make out, then grabbed a dustpan and began following Charlie. They finished sweeping, then went off to some other task just as Moxy, Tarkon, Vinnie, and Gormer entered the courtyard from the main doors.
They were to stand beside Astrid, along with Hanif and Mika, during the address. Seeing them let her know the time was close at hand.
“You look nervous,” Gormer told her as he stepped closer to put his hand on her shoulder. Her reply was an arched eyebrow. “No, I’m not reading you right now.” Gormer laughed. “It’s written on your face. I know you well enough.”
Astrid broke into a deep warm smile and placed her hand on his. “I’m so glad you know me that well. I’m counting on you all today, more than ever. This is big. This, more than anything else we’ve done so far, needs to go right. Everything depends on the peace we make here today. We have to set the protectorate on the right path.”
They didn’t have to say anything. The determined looks in their eyes told Astrid everything she needed to know. It became much easier to breathe.
The wind shifted and Moxy flinched, then lifted her nose in the air and sniffed.
“What’s wrong?” Tarkon asked.
Moxy looked around, eyes bright and alert. “I smelled him again,” Moxy said in a low voice that was almost a growl.
“Who?” Astrid asked, alarmed.
“Her cousin,” Tarkon answered for his wife, who was now running around in circles sniffing at the shifting wind.
“Explain,” Astrid ordered, shaking her head. She wasn’t sure if that had been a joke.
Tarkon scratched his head, not knowing how to answer, so Vinnie helped. “Her sense of smell—she can detect her own kind, right down to the family line. She came across his scent on our way to the caves the first time.”
“Why doesn’t he reveal himself?” Astrid wondered.
“He’s scared,” Moxy said. “I can smell fear on him, along with something else.”
“But if he’s scared of us, why is he here?” Tarkon asked. Then he added, “You said he wasn’t scared the first time you detected him.”
“I doubt he’s scared of us,” Moxie replied. “But he’s gone now. That, or he’s hiding.” Moxy paused, then added, “He doesn’t mean any harm.”
“It’s very strange,” Vinnie replied, but they didn’t have time to wonder about it.
The lieutenants were here—all of them, former enemies and allies alike. They came across the courtyard in two different groups, with Mika and her allies in the lead.
“They look grim,” Gormer said when they got closer. “Should I—”
“Yes,” Astrid said. “We need to know. Do it now and maybe they won’t notice.”
Gormer’s eyes turned white and he turned away from the approaching groups so they wouldn’t notice him working magic.
“They’re sad,” Gormer said, “and a bit angry. I can’t tell who’s thinking or feeling what, but I don’t sense any treachery. Everyone has lost someone close.” His eyes returned to normal. “I think they all want it to end as much as we do.”
“How are you reading all of them at once?” Vinnie asked.
“I’m not sure,” Gormer said. “When I fought that Reacher a few months ago I kind of…took on his ability to feel emotion more than thought. I can see emotions and thoughts sometimes, but things really changed for me the day Astrid was to be hanged. I was in the crowd.” He paused for effect. “I mean in the crowd. For a few moments, it felt like the crowd had a single mind and I shared in it.”
“I can’t imagine that,” Tarkon remarked.
Gormer shook his head and smiled. “Tell me about it! I was there and doing it and I can barely imagine it.”
Mika and Hanif reached the Core Dregs first. Mika was not smiling. They exchanged solemn greetings and introductions all around as the others followed.
Astrid caught Gormer’s eyes for a moment. She didn’t need his mental magic to feel their sadness.
“The audience will be here in just a few minutes,” Astrid began. “I know this is difficult for everyone. For we who lead this land, our work is just beginning.”
“That’s our burden,” one of the former enemies said sorrowfully. She met Astrid’s eyes with a look of deep concern. “I feel safe speaking for everyone when I say we accept that with honor.” She paused, then added, “I think those without honor either died in the battle or escaped soon after.”
Everyone gave their assent to that st
atement with quiet words.
Astrid continued, “I’ve arranged a feast for everyone after the ceremony.”
Mika was concerned. “Is this the right time for celebration?”
“Yes,” Astrid answered firmly. “It’s time to celebrate peace—and those who died to bring us to it. We’re going to work it out right here and now.”
“To that end,” a deep voice interjected, “I’ve brought a ton of my best cheese. I mean that literally.” Jiri’s arrival through a side entrance behind the rostrum had escaped everyone’s notice.
“It will take more than cheese to fix things,” Hanif fired back.
“But not much more,” someone in the crowd of lieutenants remarked. Astrid couldn’t see who.
Hanif snorted laughter and extended his hand to Jiri. “I suppose I can’t argue with that.” They shook hands as Hanif explained, “You and I have been rivals. I hope you’ll forgive me as I struggle to accept this new reality.”
“I’ll also ask for your patience,” Jiri responded.
Everyone mingled for a while as the audience began to flow into the assembly space. They only climbed the platform when the crowd filled the entire courtyard.
Astrid stood there for a moment in awe at so many thousands of people remaining calm and silent. Only hushed words washed back and forth, sounding like a calm sea reaching for the beach.
When she used the Well to project her voice to the farthest reaches of the courtyard, all eyes turned to her.
“We are here today to make peace. We are here to mourn. We are here to declare, once and for all, that the only force worthy to rule these lands is the force of justice.”
“That justice was fully described by your ancestors decades before the Madness. Everything I have done in my time in these noble lands has been to see it restored.”
She paused to let the words sink in as the crowd stirred.
“We gather here today to work together to fully realize the wisdom of the Charter that established these protectorates, which have lasted for so many years. I pledge to you that I will give all to see that these lands find peace again. And with that, I give you First Lieutenant Mika.”
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