Halfblood Heritage

by Rheaume, Laura

  Scythe sat forward in his seat, “Prize and you are married?”

  “We’ve been married for two years. She just found out she’s pregnant with our first child.” Keyrin smiled proudly.

  “Congratulations, Keyrin, that’s awesome. Wow, that makes us cousins.”

  “Yeah, it makes us family, Scythe, but even if you weren’t Prize’s cousin, I’d still stand up for you because I believe something about the Blood of the Kin. It is more than just a physical trait, it’s a spiritual bond for the Kin. I believe it binds us together, all of us; it makes us strong and guides us to do the right thing when it matters most. It’s the reason we’ve been able to create all the magnificent things we’ve created, like this palace, like our whole civilization. You think something like this can come out of nothing? No way. Do you understand?”

  “Um, not really.”

  Keyrin laughed again, “Well, that’s okay. Until you see it for yourself, you’ll just have to trust me.”

  “I hear what you are saying, I just don’t know if I believe it like you do.”

  “Fair enough. That’s another thing I like about you, Scythe: you’re straightforward and honest. Most people just agree with me, but not you. So, I want to ask you to do me a favor.”

  Scythe leaned back in his chair again and waited for him to continue.

  “See? That’s exactly what I’m talking about. The correct thing for you to do there is say, ‘Yes, Keyrin, I’ll do anything for you since you saved my life today.’ But not Scythe, oh, no! Scythe waits to hear what it is before he makes promises. Okay, what I want you to do is keep being honest with me. When I ask you, I want the truth from you, or nothing at all. In return, I’m going to give it to you straight, too. Okay?” He waited until Scythe nodded before he grinned with satisfaction.

  Scythe wasn’t sure why Keyrin was even asking him for that promise. It didn’t occur to him to lie to the governor’s son. Why would he? He wasn’t so Human that he would lower himself to that. His parents had been very thorough in teaching Scythe the important tenets of the Kin, and he remembered them well. Keyrin probably thought that his time in Menelaus had corrupted his values. Scythe realized that he would have to prove to him that he had not lost his way.

  “Now, let’s talk about why you are really here: the missing Humans.”

  Scythe sat up and leaned toward the man, “The Kin have been kidnapping the Humans?”

  “You know we have.”

  We? That one word knocked him back in his seat. Scythe had suspected, but it was only a quiet whisper in the back of his head when he was alone. He had wondered how the Poinsea Kin, who controlled everything in the region, could be ignorant of the raids that plagued the bordertowns. He had wondered why they didn’t rein in their own people. However, like the rest of the border patrol, he thought it was a group of bandits, maybe selling off the Humans in the profitable underground slave trade. No one suspected the Kin from Poinsea themselves.

  Scythe stuttered, “You?...We...we thought it was a group of mercenaries, not...not…” How could it be his own people? “Why? Kidnapping their children is...”

  “Dishonorable? Despicable?”

  “Monstrous.”

  Keyrin nodded, “It is...all that. I’m sure you noticed that I didn’t want to talk about it at dinner. That’s because not everyone needs to know, or wants to know, what we’ll do to protect and avenge the Kin.”

  “Avenge?”

  “Yes, the Humans’ lives were taken, and their families were killed, in response to the capture and torture of Kin. Tomorrow, I’ll take you to see what the Humans have done to our brethren.”

  The capture and torture of Kin? What was he talking about?

  “The children’s lives were taken? Does that mean they’re dead?”

  “Their lives are over, Scythe. Nothing can change that now. However, our enemies have been floundering around, unable to stop us, for long enough that I believe we have made our point. The attacks have already stopped, since we reached our goal in the last operation. No more Humans will be abducted. We’ve had our revenge, and I think we’ve made them see...”

  “You haven’t made them see anything, because they don’t even know why you’ve done it...” Scythe interrupted, his voice rising until it filled the room. He didn't want to believe what he was hearing. How could something like this happen? How could the Kin act so…

  Keyrin’s eyes flared, and he jumped up and began pacing, “Of course they do! The ones who did it, the mutilation, the torture, they know.” When Scythe opened his mouth to disagree, he spoke over him, “Maybe the fools on the front line don’t know, my men don’t always know my reasons or objectives either, but you can bet that the Humans in the city who held and experimented on our brothers and sisters for years know exactly why those kids are missing.”

  “Experimented?” Scythe suddenly remembered being asked about experiments by the Human intelligence officers on the day he had met Ian and Lena. Why would he have asked about experiments? Was it because they were involved in the same thing themselves? If they were--if the man with glasses was involved--then...what did that say about the Youngs?

  Scythe put his hand down on the table, hoping it could steady him. Was the room tipping, or was he the one that was losing his balance? He tried to slow down his breathing and focus on something else. He needed something solid to hold on to. He stared across the room at the governor’s confident son.

  Keyrin sighed, stopped pacing and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands, “It’s bad. I won’t show you tonight. Tomorrow is soon enough for you to learn what Humans are capable of.” He turned to the door. “This area houses the work residence of the Blades. They stay here when they can’t return to their homes and families for the night. Smoke and Rend will stay right across the hall for now. If you need to go anywhere, get one of them to escort you. I’ve placed a couple more of my Blades around too, in case any of the geezers gets a bright idea about purifying the Blood.”

  “Keyrin, before you go...you told me you wanted me to be honest with you...”

  Keyrin leaned his back on the door, crossing his arms, “That’s right.”

  Scythe shifted uncomfortably in his seat, “These Blades, they’re your own personal military group, right?”

  He nodded, “Yes. I hand picked them. They’re some of the best soldiers we have. I call on them for the most important missions, things I need to have done right, with no mistakes.”

  Amazed, Scythe asked, “You think I could be good enough for that?”

  “I’m sure of it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t bother.”

  “Well, thanks for that vote of confidence, but...”

  Keyrin raised his eyebrow, “But?”

  Scythe remembered his words to Lena on the first day they had met: “...listen, I won’t do anything or help anyone do anything that harms the Kin. I won’t sit by and watch, either. You need to understand that right up front.” He was surprised to find that he felt the same about Humans, despite their many faults, as he did about the Kin: protective.

  Scythe spoke quickly, because he was nervous about how Keyrin would react to what he had to say. “I’m not the kind of person you can rely on to do...what you did with the children. I couldn’t ever kill helpless children, no matter what I see tomorrow, I just couldn’t. I’d definitely defend Poinsea against invaders, but I’m sure I wouldn’t feel right about attacking a bordertown. Do you think I could sit by and watch others do the same? The Humans are idiots, but they’re not monsters...”

  “I see. You lack the stomach to make the hard choices for the good of the Kin. Fortunately for you, others like myself are poised and more than ready to do it.” When Scythe didn’t reply, he added, “What do you think? I’ve got a team of murderers that I send out to rape and pillage? Well, that’s not what they do at all. The Blades were formed to defend the Kin, and that’s what they do. They were not the ones who were involved in the raids on the Humans, standard soldiers were good enough for
that. The Blades protect people. They’re bodyguards, search and rescue operatives, and the enforcers I send out to deal with criminals. I won’t be asking you to do anything that compromises your beliefs, Scythe. As for your affection for the Humans, I’m confident you’ll feel differently tomorrow, so I’m not worried about that.” He turned to go, “Think about it and we’ll talk in the morning.”

  After he left, Scythe sat for a while, reviewing the information he’s just heard. He pictured himself telling Lena that the Kin had kidnapped the children in response to having their own people taken by Humans. He pictured her horror, but, in the next minute, he asked himself, Could Lena know about the Kin being held? How could she be involved in bordertown security and not know about Kin being imprisoned by Humans? Would she have told me if she knew?

  Scythe didn’t think that she was the kind of person who would be involved with something like that, but he wasn’t certain. If he could ask her straight out, he would know for sure, because he knew all her tells. How would he feel if he found out that she and Ian knew about it the whole time? Scythe’s stomach twisted and his head pounded at the thought of his only Human friends betraying him in that way. He got up, moved his new clothes to the dresser, swept the other things off the bed, and collapsed on top of a surprisingly comfortable mattress.

  His mind whirled, growing foggy after the exhausting day. He tried to picture himself as one of the Blades, something he had wanted when he was a child. Smoke and Rend used to come over to his house after their long days of training and show him what they had learned; it was like a miracle for a halfblood whose only friends were members of the family. He had become like their own private trainee and had worked tirelessly at every task. Eventually, he became good enough to earn some of their respect. There was nothing he wanted more in those days than to follow their lead.

  Scythe turned onto his side, pulling the thin pillow close and easing his warm face into its cool softness. Following their lead now meant fighting for the Kin: the same Kin who were taking and killing innocents for revenge. It seemed to Scythe to be more of a Human thing to do, not something he ever imagined the Kin would resort to. He knew that they hated Humans, thinking of them more akin to animals than people, but he hadn’t guessed that their hatred was that strong. During his time hunting for clues with Lena, he had not wanted to believe that his father’s race could be capable of designing such nightmares. Now, with the truth confirmed by Keyrin himself, Scythe wondered uneasily if he really knew the Kin at all.

  A short time later, his long day caught up with him and he drifted into a fitful sleep.

  Chapter 7

  “You need a lot of work, Scythe,” Rend said, reaching his hand out to give Scythe a lift up.

  “I know. I told you that Humans don’t train their children...” He took the hand, allowing himself to get pulled up before taking a defensive stance again, relaxed fists lightly curled in front of his face.

  “You are not a child, you’re thirteen. Besides, you were already training at eight.” Rend circled him, testing Scythe’s reactions with light jabs and an occasional kick to the head and chest.

  Scythe, too tired after ten minutes of constant sparring to take the offensive, focused on maintaining a viable defense. He tried to remember everything that his old friends had taught him in the two years they had trained him; he kept his center low, eyes soft focused on Rend, whose greater size afforded him a strong advantage both in distance and power. He tried to utilize his own strengths: speed and maneuverability in tight spaces. Unfortunately, he was still grossly outmatched: he was way out of shape and hadn’t practiced in three years. He was also taking an increasing number of hits as his mind weakened from exhaustion. Rend wasn’t helping him out by talking to him, either. In fact, it messed with his concentration. He made an effort once again to stay in the moment and worry about the next hit.

  His friend found the whole thing extremely amusing, and he wasn’t the only one.

  “Yeah, but in the city, you are a child until like seventeen or eighteen. That’s just the way it is,” Scythe explained. After the long run first thing in the morning and a half hour of calisthenics, he felt like he was made of lead; his movements were way too slow to avoid the majority of the strikes coming at him. A dull ache had already spread through his entire body, dotted with a few areas of sharp pain where he had been hit solidly or slammed down hard onto the floor.

  “Well, you could have done stuff on your own, at least kept up your strength and flexibility. That doesn’t take a lot.” He dove low, grabbing Scythe’s legs and taking his balance easily, and dropped him flat on his back. Smoothly continuing the motion, Rend followed him down, landing on top of Scythe’s chest and knocking the wind out of him.

  For an instant, Scythe was frozen by both the pain of the throw and the panic of not being able to draw air into his lungs; then, sucking in a ragged breath, he began to cough uncontrollably, turning onto his side after tapping out of the pin Rend had locked on him. As soon as he could, which wasn’t very soon, he picked himself up and took his stance again.

  “Trust me, right now I’m wishing I had,” he managed to choke out, rotating to keep Rend in his sight.

  “I bet,” laughed Smoke from the edge of the Pit, the sunken area in the Blade’s main training room set aside for sparring. It was small, only a foot deep and a little over fifteen feet in diameter, but easily big enough for Scythe and Rend to face each other for close quarter fighting. Around the circle, just outside the point where the edges of the circle gradually sloped down into the Pit, a large portion of the Blades watched the match in groups of two or three. All were studying Scythe’s movements and evaluating his skills. While Smoke’s wry comment got a few smiles, none of the soldiers revealed more than critical and unimpressed assessment.

  Smoke continued, “Right now, you are a mess, but I’m not worried. I know what you’ve got inside, Scythe. You’ll be pushing us soon.”

  “Not in this life,” corrected a man behind him, casually sitting on one of the tables with his arms crossed. When Smoke turned to him, he added, “He is a lightweight. Look at him, his balance is off, he might as well be rock for all he can move, and he’s already spent. Shit, it’s only eight thirty in the morning! I give him a week before he quits. Or dies.” Most of the others chuckled and nodded in agreement.

  Smoke nodded as well, but then said shortly, “Good, that’s a bet then, Creed. How about five days and fifty?”

  Startled, the man looked back at the pair sparring before nodding, “That’s a lot. For that, make it two weeks. You’re feeling very confident if you’re willing to give up five rec days. Whatever, it’s your loss, Smoke. Who else is in?”

  “I’m in for the fifty, but not the five days,” said another Blade.

  “Man, you need to grow a pair.”

  Smoke took out a paper and wrote down the bets. By the time he had finished, he was wearing a contented smile that had some of the Blades already regretting their decision. After he completed the last notation, he checked the time and turned to Rend, “Okay, you about done?”

  “No, but I think our protégé here is,” he said, helping up Scythe again.

  Scythe, too beat to argue, focused on standing upright and ignoring the throbbing pains throughout his body. He took the cloth that Rend handed him, toweling off as much of the sweat as he could. Then he gratefully nodded at the offered water, taking it as well but sipping it instead of chugging it like he wanted to.

  “Okay, I think another short run…with a pack,” said Smoke. Somehow, it gratified Scythe to hear low, sympathetic chuckles from the other men. “Then the steambath, so he can walk tomorrow. Keyrin wants to see him at eleven thirty anyway, so we’ve got to wrap it up.”

  “Bring him in here, Smoke, before you go. Let me see your little charge,” called a tall woman standing at the door to the second training room. “If you men are done lounging, your assignments are posted.” She returned to the other room while the Blades moved ove
r to a bank of terminals along the wall and checked the data displayed there. Reforming quickly into new groups, they collected equipment from a set of lockers on the other side of the Pit and filed out of the room, carrying away the sounds of their easy talk.

  His mind still a little hazy, Scythe followed Rend and Smoke into the second training room. The woman who had called them was probably around forty, which made her late middle-aged for the Kin, who rarely lived past their sixties. She was now waiting for them behind a desk, holding herself somehow both straight and relaxed at the same time. Despite her age, she was very fit, more toned than any woman Scythe had ever seen. Her uniform was clean, and her hair was cut short, hugging her handsome face. She waved them into the chairs across the table from her, “Have a seat.”

  The three of them sat, Smoke speaking first, “Leandra, this is Scythe, our student from long ago.”

  She nodded at him, “I am one of the officers in charge of assigning the Blades their duties, so you’ll be reporting to me and taking orders from me if you find a place here. Our instructions come from Keyrin, mainly, and occasionally from his father the governor. There are three other Blades greater than I am, but you won’t be interacting with them as a trainee. In fact, you should make a point of staying out of their way.” Leandra appraised him, clearly unimpressed with his lack of conditioning. She gave her attention to the other two young men, “So? What has he got?”

  Rend said confidently, “Scythe, what did you sense?”

  Scythe, realizing with a start that this was another test of what he remembered from his earlier training, closed his eyes and let his body relax. It took just a few seconds for him to ease into his centered state, one of the few things he had continued to do during his time with the Humans. They didn’t discourage daily meditation they way they did the intense physical training he had tried to do when he first arrived in the city. His body still hurt, but, breathing slow and steadily, he slipped away from it. He opened his eyes, looking straight ahead without focusing on any particular spot. “What do you want to know?”