by CM Raymond
Parker stepped into the grass and immediately began to circle the rearick. Parker pretended to step right, then quickly dodged left. But Karl stood still, arms crossing his massive chest. He looked like he wasn’t even paying attention to the boy.
Parker decided to make his move. Without warning he leaped into the air, arms raised above him, then he dropped into a roll, hoping the quick change in movement would throw the rearick off balance. Parker came out of his roll swinging, but Karl’s massive fist was waiting for him.
The boy from the Boulevard dropped like a sack of flower, stars dancing before his eyes.
Gregory went wide eyed, but Hannah was beside herself with laughter. “Parker the Pitiable,” she chanted—his title from his five minutes of fame in the Pit.
Karl reached down and clasped Parker’s hand, pulling the young man to his feet. Parker tilted his head back and pinched his bleeding nose while the rearick slammed a hand across his back “Not bad, kid. You got speed, and that’s an asset. But real fighting is more than just fancy tricks. I’ll set you straight. Don’t ever let em get close to you. No offense, but yer body wasn’t designed to take a beating. If your opponent can get close, if they can grapple you, you’re screwed six times to Sunday.”
“Ways,” Gregory interjected.
The rearick spun. “Aye?”
“It’s ‘six ways till Sunday,’ not times.”
Karl broke out in his full-bellied laugh. “Maybe, kid. They’ll get you six times in all kinds of ways. You better believe that. Now, it’s yer turn.”
Gregory held up his hands as his face went pale. “No, not me. I’ve never…”
“Aye, but you will. Yer one of us now. Better take all that screwing from me first.” Karl smiled through his beard. “Now, get over here.”
The rearick was strong, but he wasn’t cruel. He knew a little tough love was just what these kids needed—if they were going to survive this. Luckily, Karl was as good a teacher as he was a fighter.
The three young Arcadians spent the next two hours learning basic hand-to-hand moves—how to stand to get force behind your punch, how to escape certain hand holds, how to best block an incoming attack. Hannah and Parker warmed to the lesson, while Gregory looked like he was going to pass out. He sat in the grass, breathing heavily.
Parker and Hannah joined him. They, too, were sweaty and winded from exercise.
“You weren’t kidding,” Hannah said to the rearick, who remained standing. “That was one hell of a workout.”
Karl smiled. “Just you wait until we get started with the weapons. That will put some meat on yer arms.”
But the weapons training would have to wait. Eleanor’s voice rose over the clamor. “What is going on out here? You’re all sweaty and rolling around in the dirt like a bunch of mating remnant. Come inside and get cleaned up. The rest of them are almost here.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Ezekiel sat at the head of the long, dining room table. All were accounted for, save Julianne. He had tried to reach out to her through psychic magic to no avail—which meant she was either occupied or incapacitated. Part of him started to worry, but he knew the mystic was strong. She could handle a few Arcadian Guardsmen if she needed to.
He asked Eleanor and Maddie to excuse themselves—hoping that they’d be able to maintain some plausible deniability if his rebellion went south.
“I was going to wait for Julianne, but it seems she’s—”
“Here I am,” the woman broke in as she entered the mansion through the back door. She looked like herself, wearing a simple robe with her thick hair cascading down around her shoulders. A nearly audible sigh came from the group. Having her in their midst looking like Stellan, the massive Arcadian Guard, was unsettling, to say the least.
Ezekiel sighed, but for a different reason. “I’m glad you’re… here. Now, we all know that Adrien’s tyranny must come to an end—and I believe that the people at this table have the skills necessary to do it. But it’s no use flying in like a lycanthrope in heat. We need to be strategic, form a plan.”
“I’ve got a plan, Zeke,” Hannah said. “You teleport us into Adrien’s tower, Karl here smashes his door in with his hammer, and then I throw him out of the window. Piece of cake.”
As she said this the table jolted, meaning the dragon was walking around underneath of it. “Or on second thought,” Hannah said. “We feed him to Sal. Who’s with me?”
Parker let out a loud huzzah, and Karl and Julianne both laughed. But Amelia and Ezekiel both looked at each other, a worried expression on their faces.
“While I admire your enthusiasm, Hannah,” Ezekiel said, “I’m sure that Adrien has developed a defense for precisely that. And while I also agree that at the rate your pet is growing, he could soon do the job, that’s exactly the kind of half-cocked thinking that could get us all killed. We’re not some remnant horde—we need more than the bones of a plan. We need the flesh and guts, too. But that requires good intel. So, what do we know?”
Silence fell over the room. Each person looked at the others to go first. Finally, Parker jumped in. He told the crew about the success he and Hannah had in the marketplace, offering Parker up as an alternative prophetic voice for the people to follow. They all laughed when he mimicked the Prophet’s face, and they applauded when he told them how Hannah had teleported in, grabbed him and jumped back out.
“The question is,” Karl asked sipping on his second ale, “where’d the lass grab ya?”
The table laughed, and Parker and Hannah blushed, refusing to look at each other.
Hannah piped up. “He was good. The people really listened. It’s been obvious that the common folk are hungry for something to believe in. That’s why so many of them have been eating out of old Jedidiah’s hand for so long. But yesterday, we showed them a glimmer of hope. If you’re starving and there’s only one thing to eat, you’re going to eat it. But Parker has given them something else. If we can keep this up, the people might follow.”
“Old Dirty Dick is Adrien’s puppet,” Parker added. “Taking a shot at him is also a shot at the Academy. Who knows, they just might take up arms. It’s their city at stake, after all.”
Karl snorted, this time with no sense of humor whatsoever. “Scheisse! We need soldiers, not cannon fodder. A mob is no good against an army. If you did manage to convince them to fight—it would be a slaughter.”
Hannah jumped to her feet, nearly knocking the chair over behind her. “You underestimate my people, rearick.” A vein stood out on her forehead. “I know they might not look it, but the Boulevard is strong. We have more to offer than you can imagine. And they’re being slaughtered out there already. The least we could do is give them a chance to fight for their lives.”
Karl grinned through his beard and raised his hands. “Aye, lass. I hear you. If they were all as tough and as strong willed as you, I’d march against the Guard, Adrien, and even the giants from the Frozen North. I’d take an ounce of yer spunk any day—but I have no desire to see innocent people get hurt—not under my command anyway. And they would get hurt—that’s a fact.”
The rearick dropped his hands flat on the table and proceeded to tell the group about his conversation with Garrett at Sully’s. The room became grave when he told them the rumor about how Arcadia was going to soon slow the supply of amphoralds from the Heights.
Everyone at the table knew what this meant, but he nevertheless pushed the point home. “If it’s true, the weapon is all but done, and its power source is nearly in place. Time to take our thumbs out of our asses and strike—before it’s too late. Even if it’s just the seven of us, I like our chances better when we’re not being blasted from the damned sky.”
Gregory spoke, his voice little louder than a whisper. “Maybe it doesn’t have to be just the seven of us. The other rearick, would they help us?”
Karl narrowed his eyes at the boy and stroked his beard. The engineer’s son was no fighter, but he was earnest, and Karl couldn’t h
elp but respect him for it. “The rearick are a funny bunch, lad. Hard working and loyal to a fault. But over the past decade, Arcadia has made many of my kind rich. We’re not the people we once were, scrabbling whatever life we could out of the rocks. We’ve become accustomed to a life of luxury. And it’s hard to bite the hand that feeds you—let alone to rip it off and shove it up the master’s ass.” He paused, staring off at an invisible dot on the far wall. “Ashamed to say it, but I just don’t know.”
“But your master is a maniac,” Hannah said, passion in her voice. “It’s only a matter of time before the hand that feeds you becomes the fist that beats you.”
“Aye, you don’t have to convince me. I saw what they did to young Parker there. But the rearick ain’t likely to see it that way. Even if Adrien is crazy, he’s all the way in Arcadia. What kind of threat could he be to them way up in the Heights?”
Tension grew thick in the room. Julianne stepped into it. “They shouldn’t be so sure of that. Most soldiers haven’t been let in on the airship secret yet. Hell, most of the commanding officers don’t really know what’s going on either. But we’ve been training nonstop, and recruiting new foot soldiers, too. And some of the maneuvers we’ve been practicing, I’d swear they had the Heights in mind. Tight, double-file formations. Perfect for assaulting rearick holed up in caves. And not to mention their magitech rifles. That would give them range that the rearick couldn't match.”
“Julianne,” Ezekiel said, “do you think you could work your way up the chain? Find out something that we don’t know yet?”
She shrugged. “People are so tight lipped—it’s as if Adrien’s paranoia has filtered down throughout the whole Guard. I’ll try my best, but unfortunately, I’ll be too far away from Arcadia to get close enough.”
Everyone looked at her confused. “What do you mean?” Hannah asked. “Where would you be going?”
Julianne shook her head. “It’s why I was late tonight. Stellan’s unit—my unit now—we’ve been given an assignment, last minute. Doyle is sending me and my men up North, to retrieve some sort of ancient ruin. It doesn’t make sense—unless…”
“What is it?” Ezekiel asked. Talk of Adrien wanting something in the North made him uneasy.
“Unless they’re suspicious of me,” she said, “And they want to get me away from the city for a while. The whole mission could be bullshit, some sort of fool’s errand.”
“You’re not wrong about Adrien’s paranoia,” Amelia said. “He reacts harshly to even the slightest whiff of danger. Have you given him any cause to doubt you?”
“I don’t know. It’s been difficult,” Julianne responded. “I’ve managed to keep focused, keep my illusion up all the time. But Stellan died before I had the chance to peer into his mind—which means that I’m flying blind for the most part. Illusion magic is powerful, but it’s also brittle. One mistake, and the whole spell could snap. Luckily, the men I work with are idiots, but a new recruit was assigned to me today. He asked plenty of questions. Seemed more interested and more intelligent than the others. As we talked, I tried to get into his head. But there was nothing there.”
“Nothing?” Parker asked. “That’s a good thing, right?”
Ezekiel shook his head. “It means the man has been trained to protect himself against the mystic arts. Not something you find in every Guardsman in Arcadia.”
Nodding, Julianne said, “It could be true. But I don’t want to overreact. I was worn out. Takes a lot to keep up the image. Maybe I just couldn’t get in, but I’m pretty sure he was sent to keep an eye on me. And with this trip, he’ll have plenty of opportunities to do so.”
“Be careful,” Ezekiel said. “Your safety trumps whatever intel you’d find. If things get dicey, use your powers to get out of there.” Everyone around the room nodded in agreement.
Ezekiel thought for a second, then he turned to Gregory. “Son, you’re the closest thing we have to an insider… for now. What do you have to say about all of this?”
Gregory’s hands shook on the table. Just sitting with the Founder was intimidating, being questioned by him nearly made him soil himself. Finally, he said, “I suck at magic. I suck even more at fighting. And no one has ever confused me with a rebel before. But I do know this, if the Guard are using magitech weapons, we need to get some of our own. They may be crude compared to what you and Hannah can do, sir, but it could turn the people from the Boulevard into a force to be reckoned with.”
“Aye,” Karl said. “It would certainly be better than sending them in with torches and pitchforks.”
Gregory paused, trying to read the faces in the room. Hannah gave him a little nod, encouraging him on. “But even if we could equip an army, the real problem right now is the airship. Karl is right. If the orders for amphoralds are slowing, my father is nearly done. I still don’t understand how the technology would work, but I do know that once that thing gets airborne, it’s too late. We’ve lost.” He nodded at Ezekiel. “Even one as strong as the Founder would have a hard time taking on Adrien when he has the ultimate high ground.”
“So, then we destroy it,” Hannah said. “While it’s still grounded.”
Parker said, “That place is too well guarded for us to just storm the gates and burn it down. And I bet they’ve doubled their defenses since I escaped. Plus, there are men—our men—inside.”
Gregory nodded. “You’re right about not being able to just waltz in and take them down. But maybe there is a way. A small team could probably sneak in and disable it, if they knew what they were doing. If I could see my father’s technical drawings again, I might be able to figure it out. But he keeps all of his drawings locked up tight in his home office. I can’t even access them there—not without it being obvious.”
Hannah reached over and squeezed his arm. “There’s a way, and you’ll find it. We’ll keep thinking about it, OK?”
“And you, Hannah?” Ezekiel asked. “Any luck finding students who we might be able to convince to join the movement?”
Hannah shrugged. “I’ve found plenty that I’m going to look for on the battlefield, that’s for sure.”
Ezekiel rolled his eyes. “You’re supposed to be finding allies, not enemies.”
“I know,” she said. “But it hasn’t been easy. They’ve all been raised in privilege their whole lives. It’s made them all douche nuggets—no offense Gregory. Most of them have no idea what conditions are like down in the Boulevard, and most of them wouldn’t care. They’ve bought Adrien’s story, hook, line, and sinker. And, why wouldn’t they? It’s a story in which they play a leading role. As long as no one upsets the boat, they think they’ll get their happily ever after.”
Ezekiel opened his mouth to respond, but Amelia cut him off. “She’s not wrong. Most of the faculty are the same. I wouldn’t expect much help from their quarter. I’m afraid to say it, but we might not be able to pull this off. Adrien has done his work well. He’s no idiot. His paranoia has left him well guarded.” Her eyes cut to Gregory’s. Clearly uneasy with the Dean’s presence at the rebels’ table, his eyes dropped to his lap. “And there’s another thing. Adrien wants me to send him another student by the end of the month. I still haven’t heard back from the last one. I can’t in good conscience assign another student to their doom, even if they are a bunch of ‘douche nuggets’.” Amelia winked at Hannah, drawing a smile from the girl.
Everyone fell quiet. They were all thinking the same thing. While they might be effective at guerilla-style attacks on the Capitol, the chance of winning a war was slim to none. There were just so few of them, and Adrien and the Governor were so strong.
Hannah stood. All eyes turned toward her. “We can’t just give up. Don’t even think about it. Adrien is a butcher. We all know that he isn’t going to stop with Arcadia. If he’s building what we think he is, all of Irth is in danger. It doesn’t matter the risk or how long the shot, we’ve gotta take it. We need to take this bastard down—whatever the cost.”
Ez
ekiel smiled as pride in his student welled up inside of him. Hannah had come so far in a short amount of time. She had lived under the hand of oppression all of her life—but unlike so many, it hadn’t broken her. The pressure hardened her, like a diamond formed within the earth. He knew that she wouldn’t stop until either she or Adrien were dead—and Ezekiel would die with her if he must.
