It would better for all of us if he were gone and you were our leader, Will.
Perhaps. But I will not force that outcome. This will work out for the best in the end, Elizabeth. It looks grim now, but it will get better. One thing I promise you, though, is that I will get you out of here. I don’t know how, but I will see that it’s done. First, though, I need to make sure that Eva gets away from here safely. I don’t think that’s Arthur’s intent.
Thank you, Will. But he could hear the disappointment in her thoughts. She wanted him to make things right, to use his ability to force the community to do the right thing. And yet he didn’t. The disappointment was powerful, more so because it came from her, and he began to wonder if his philosophy of using his power to persuade, rather than coerce, was wrong. He then thought of Arthur’s approach, using fear and jealousy and the threat of Maynard’s sword to persuade, and realized that Arthur’s way was a form of coercion. There was no greater example possible to show him that, no matter how bleak the situation seemed, that his approach was the right one.
Maynard smirked at Will as he shoved Will along, an expression reminiscent of the future Hunter called Aramis. “One day you’ll learn not to question authority, Will. Shut up, like the rest of them, and do as you’re told. One day, perhaps, you’ll learn to carry a quality blade so that you can defend yourself and those you seem to care about. How is it that you don’t carry a weapon, and how is it that you simply stand by and watch us batter your people, doing nothing but talking?”
“One day, Maynard, you’ll learn that the man to fear is the one who has weapons you can’t see,” Will said, his voice a whisper. Maynard blanched, undoubtedly remembering the mysterious heavy sword. “One day, Maynard, you’ll learn to read people better than you do. I’d have thought all that zirple would have done the trick, but apparently it’s not quite as powerful as Roland would have you believe. But I will tell you this: I will continue to be a thorn in your side, and Arthur’s, until I see your tyranny end.”
They’d reached his room, and Maynard threw him forcibly inside. “Then I suppose it’s best if you get used to this little prison cell, Will.” He motioned for one of his men to stand outside. “This man is under arrest for threats made against me and our leader, Arthur. See to it that he doesn’t leave this room. If he tries?” Maynard shot another smirk at Will. “You have a sword. He doesn’t. Make him regret that choice.”
The door slammed in Will’s face.
XX
Banishment
Will knew his first priority was to exit his room and go after Arthur and Maynard before they harmed Eva. In order to do so, he needed to ensure that the guard stayed out of his room. He closed the curtain to his room. “I have no interest in seeing you, hearing you, or…” He sniffed the air, loudly. “Smelling you.” The guard snorted, and turned his back to the room.
He considered going out the rear window immediately, but he heard noises back there, and saw Maynard arriving with Joseph the carpenter, armed with several wooden planks, nails, and a hammer. Will leaned out the window, and Maynard spotted him. “We’re well aware of this window, Will,” the man said, grinning. “But don’t think you’ll be trying to escape through it.”
The first plank slammed into place, and Will just pulled back in time to avoid having his nose broken. The men worked quickly, sealing up Will’s primary possibility of a more mundane exit, and then left. The only positive point was that if Maynard hadn’t left yet, neither had Arthur or Eva. He still had time.
But he needed to work and think quickly. He needed to be there to watch Arthur and Maynard escort Eva away, because he was fairly certain she wouldn’t otherwise leave the forest. Arthur wasn’t going to let her get away with attacking him and suffer a mere banishment as punishment. He was acting the part of a monarch, one who would see any insult, real or imagined, as an offense punishable by death. Maynard, and his sword, would carry out the punishment Arthur truly wanted, but one with which he knew the community would never agree. It was a punishment that none would ever learn about either, unless Will got there. None of them expected to ever see her again; both punishments had the same visible result to the villagers, but entirely different repercussions.
Will knew he could leave the community easily enough through teleportation, but if it were necessary for him to come back in through the gate, he’d need to explain in more mundane terms how he’d gotten out past the guard. He could probably make the man sleep, but didn’t like that idea. He’d need to show how he’d gotten away in a manner that would have escaped any reasonable guard’s notice… and something that any normal man could have accomplished.
He sat down on his cot, then rolled onto his back, staring up at his ceiling, hoping for inspiration.
The ceiling?
Will stood on the cot and reached up. Yes, he could definitely touch the ceiling in this fashion, for at its lowest point the ceiling was only about five feet off the ground. The peak of the roof faced the community, which meant that the lowest part of the roof was shielded from the viewpoint of any villagers.
He sat back down on the cot, and focused his senses on the grounds outside the village walls, looking for something specific. He finally found a stack of branches, and he teleported them into his room, and used his nanos to shape and weave them into a reasonable facsimile of a panel, one large enough to cover an opening that he could fit through. He then pulled the sample hinges and springs he’d been given from the spot under his cot where they’d been stored, and attached them to the panel. Will then floated the panel up to the ceiling. He attached the other half of the hinge to one of the cross beams supporting the roof, and used nanos to cut a hole the size of the panel into the roof. Finally, he attached the spring to the panel and roof cross-beam on the outer side, so the spring would hold the panel shut. The panel would open by pushing it up from below. He quickly cut a small notch in the panel that he’d be able to grab from the roof.
He did all of this without leaving his bed and in a matter of minutes; the nanos had enabled him to create a door in his ceiling that he could, if needed, use to pull himself out of his room and sneak back in.
After recalling his nanos, Will tested the approach to ensure he could perform the movement if challenged. He stood on the bed, pushed the panel open, grasped the sides of the opening, and pulled himself up and out onto the roof without too much strain.
Once on the roof, out of sight of everyone in the village, he jumped, using his Energy to float down to the ground on the outside of the wall. He closed his eyes, and his senses found Eva, tracking the harp-like sound of her Energy. They were still in the forest, though a good distance away from the village. Eva was walking, while Arthur rode next to her on his favorite horse. Maynard, armed as always with his sword, trailed behind. Arthur was talking to her, though Will couldn’t hear them. It mattered not. Focusing on the spot, he teleported into the trees above the trio, out of sight. Once certain that he’d not been spotted, he floated down to the ground once more, careful to remain silent.
He’d been practicing his invisibility skills now for the past three years, initially in his room at night, and later, as the zirple began to have an effect, in the cave during his private morning training sessions. Flooding his body with Energy, he focused on making each cell transparent, letting the light waves hitting his body pass through rather than bounce off. He glanced down at his arm, and could see nothing. Mission accomplished.
He still found it unnerving trying to walk in such a state. Even though he didn’t need to look at his feet or arms to walk, he was accustomed to seeing them in his peripheral vision during daylight hours. He felt momentarily out of balance as his mind worked to adapt to this new reality, but after a few moments he was able to walk at a brisk pace and catch up to the trio leaving the village..
He had to remind himself that he was invisible, not inaudible or weightless. On more than one occasion, he snapped a branch or twig underfoot, and Maynard would swirl around, looking
for the source of the noise. If the situation weren’t so serious, Will would have enjoyed spooking the man in this fashion.
Arthur was questioning Eva with fervor. “I know that some of your team members have been developing abilities for some time, Eva.” Will was shocked. The three of them – Will, along with Elizabeth and Eva – had all been quite careful to hide their development. “I just don’t know for certain who has developed them. You? Aldus? Matilda? Tell me!”
Eva simply shrugged. “I don’t live in your neighborhood anymore, Arthur. You have no power over me here, any more than you did before. Stop wasting your breath.”
Arthur leaned lower in the saddle. “I could make things uncomfortable for you, Eva.”
Now she laughed. “I’m leaving, Arthur. What could you possibly do to me that would hurt? It’s a bit late to threaten me with torture now.”
“Who said you would be the one tortured, Eva?” The man’s smile was cold and calculating, and his eyes lit up as understanding reached Eva’s face.
“Your own daughter, Arthur?” Eva’s voice was one of despair, and Will noted with a sickening sensation the look of triumph that flitted across the faces of her captors. “Not even you could be so cruel, could you? You’ve already tortured her enough her entire life. Did you ever tell her you love her? Or was she just a slave, a piece of property in the form of your own flesh and blood, that you introduced into a community of people who fled their own bondage?”
“She wasn’t a slave, Eva. Payment was made for her services. And your affection for her has been obvious, which is my concern at the moment. If you don’t talk before you leave this forest, then Elizabeth will suffer as a result.”
“She was never a person to you, was she?” Eva’s eyes were no longer angry, but full of pity. “How empty a life without love must be.”
Arthur snorted. “My life is far from empty. I need names, Eva, not moral commentary. If you love her as you imply, then you won’t allow your inaction to cause her harm. Speak!”
Eva rolled her eyes, but said nothing.
The head nod was subtle, but Will caught it. He saw it happen in slow motion: the sword moving silently from the sheath on Maynard’s back; Arthur’s sudden halt of his horse; Eva’s movement stopping as well, as she looked up at Arthur with a questioning look on her face, puzzled as to why they were stopping; the look of horror on her face as Maynard’s blade pierced her back below her rib cage and exited out on the other side; the look of triumph on Arthur’s face as Eva’s eyes began to cloud, matched by Maynard’s face as he pulled the bloodied blade from her body.
Will dropped the invisibility and ran, screaming, toward the men. “How could you? How could you do this?” As he ran, he dispatched his healing nanos to Eva and sent a bombardment of Energy to her, praying it would be enough.
Arthur and Maynard looked stunned at Will’s appearance. “How did you get out?” Arthur hissed, anger replacing the shock on his face.
“Same way I got in originally. I climbed.” And before they knew what he was doing, Will had seized the sword from Maynard and hurled it back toward camp and buried an Energy-backed fist into the man’s abdomen, then pulled Arthur from the horse and threw him bodily through the air. “Leave! Both of you! Go slinking back to the village on your bellies and brag about your deeds. There’s no desire for such a sentence in our community. You’ve lost them now, Arthur.”
And for the first time since he’d known the man, Arthur did as he was told. He made to mount the horse, but Will slapped the animal on its haunches, and the horse bounded away. Will’s eyes burned with anger. “Walk.”
As he moved away, Arthur twisted around. “What are you going to do?”
“Give her a proper burial. Leave.”
Maynard stopped to pick up his sword. Will sent his nanos at the man, using them to form a glove around Maynard’s hand, binding the sword to him. A thin coating of nanos surrounded the blade, outside the thick coating of blood still present there. Maynard would not be able to clean the blood from the sword, nor would he be able to remove it from his grasp, until Will decided to allow it. With luck, that would occur after Maynard’s next trip to the latrine… and after his possession of the blade showed his guilt.
Once he was certain the the two men were gone, Will dropped to his knees and held Eva, flooding her with Energy, amplifying the healing work the nanos were performing. Stay with me, Eva. It’s not your time to go just yet.
I’m… so… tired… hurt… so… bad.
“Stay with me, Eva,” Will said. He kept the avalanche of Energy up, then glanced around him. The trees. The trees were buzzing with excessive Energy, left in a heightened state by the frequent interactions he and Elizabeth had with the living things of the forest. He sent secondary Energy streams to the trees, with what amounted to a plea: help me help her. Please.
The response was powerful: the influx of Energy poured into Eva’s body, and the oxygen levels in that clearing rose dramatically. Will felt it, but it was obvious that the greater oxygen was doing wonders for Eva. Her complexion deepened from the ghost-white pallor she showed only moments earlier, and her breathing stabilized.
I’m going to make it, Will. You’ve saved me.
Will choked up, and curled his arms under Eva, holding her tight. When her eyes opened a few moments later, the light in them was strong, and she looked at him with admiration.
“I… don’t know… how… you did… that… but… thank you.” It was still a strain to speak, but she did manage a faint smile.
He smiled back. “You’re welcome. I need to get you someplace safe, and I think I know just the spot. Ready to experienced something a bit strange?”
Her laughter was weak, and she winced. “I should be… dead, and now… I’m… alive. What… could be… stranger… than that?”
With his Energy stores replenished, and with his thanks sent to the trees, Will teleported them into the cave he and Elizabeth used for Energy training.
Eva’s eyes were wide with shock when Will set up Energy lights in the cave. “Elizabeth and I have come here to work on her Energy skills. I don’t think anyone will find it from the outside, so it should be a safe place for you to stay until you fully recover. I have to finish a few things and then go back to the village to deal with Arthur and Maynard.” His face fell. “That will include dealing with a young woman who will be devastated to learn of your death.”
Eva looked at him. “You aren’t going to tell her the truth?”
Will shook his head. “Not right away. She has to act in an expected manner, at least for now. And that will be best accomplished if what she hears about you remains true in her mind.”
“She’s going to hate you for this,” Eva said. She looked at him with compassionate sadness, a means of telling him that she didn’t disagree with his decision.
Will sighed. “I know. Right now, I need to keep her safe physically until she decides she’s ready to leave, and I don’t think that will happen if Arthur and others mention your death and she looks anything less than devastated. Arthur thinks she’s staying because he’s forbidden her to leave, but as soon as she’s ready? We’ll be gone.”
“You need to get going, Will. Take care of her. She knows that you care about her, and as much as your decision on telling her my actual status might sting in the short-term, in the long run she’ll understand it was for the best.”
“Thanks, Eva.” Will rose and teleported back to the spot he’d left earlier, wondering why it was that her statement about withholding information from someone he cared about for their own protection seemed so poignant.
He found a section of soft dirt, and using his hands — with an assist from his nanos — he dug a hole a few feet deep. He picked up a stone, tossed it in, and pushed the dirt back in. He found two sticks and used some vines to fashion a simple cross, which he pushed into the freshly dug dirt next to what he’d tell everyone was Eva’s grave. He stood, noted the blood staining his clothing and hands with a
degree of grim satisfaction, and headed back to the community.
XXI
Fallout
Will entered the opened gate to the community, not certain what he’d see. Would it be business as usual? Would Arthur and Maynard be trying to spin what had happened after they’d left with Eva? Would they be trying to pretend nothing had happened? Would they be attempting to convince the community that Eva was dead and that Will was responsible?
Arthur was standing in front of the crowd, and from the looks on their faces, he’d at least told them that Eva was dead. “The criminal Will has been ordered to bury the dead woman, the woman that he murdered in cold blood. It is for us to decide his more permanent punishment.”
“You are perhaps discussing the murder of the Trader Eva using the sword that Maynard never allows another person to touch?” Will asked.
The crowd turned to him, and the looks were, to his comfort, confused. Were they looking at a murderer, or a wrongly-accused man?
“Will, there are two witnesses to your atrocity,” Arthur said, trying to sound bored, attempting to use the tone to convince the crowd of his truthfulness. “And those two witnesses have informed everyone that you took Maynard’s sword, stabbed Eva, and handed the sword back.”
Will laughed. “That’s interesting. So you expect these intelligent people to believe that one unarmed man took a sword away from our greatest warrior while you stood by and did nothing, stabbed a woman, and then handed the sword back?”
“We were caught by surprise.”
“In the forest? Where leaves and twigs announce every step? How could you claim to be surprised?”
“Do not ask me to explain the actions of a criminal, or how he manages to conceal himself until he is able to spring into action. You have blood on your hands, Will. What greater evidence is needed?”
Will arched an eyebrow. “There’s blood on the sword in Maynard’s hand. Should that not condemn him, rather than me?”
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