The Legend of the Red Specter (The Adventures of the Red Specter Book 1)

by M. A. Wisniewski

  Joy dragged Hsiu Mei out of the cargo maze and into the railyard, frantically searching for any sign of the city guards. The street was on their left, and she veered towards it, slowing down long enough to pop the guard's whistle into her mouth and start blowing. It made a piercing high-pitched noise that echoed across the docks, possibly the most annoying sound Joy had ever heard. Good. She blew hard enough to hurt her own eardrums, and the guardsmen ran into view in the street a hundred yards away, summoned as if by magic. What luck! Something today was finally going her way. Karma was smiling on her finally.

  Joy slowed her pace to give poor Hsiu Mei a breather, down to a walk. Those thugs wouldn't dare try anything in full view of the City Guard. "Look," she said to Hsiu Mei, who was gasping and bent over double. "We're saved. Those are the officials who have been looking for you. We've done it. You'll be back with your aunt and uncle in no time."

  Hsiu Mei managed to straighten up to peer at the guardsmen hustling towards them. She stared at them a few seconds and then her eyes went wide in horror. "No," she gasped, and started to back away, back the way they came. "No," she repeated, though heaving lungfuls of air.

  "Hsiu Mei, what's wrong?" Joy said. "These aren't bad men. They're here to help--"

  "You work for them? How could you?" and the look of betrayal on her face was wrenching. "You said you'd be my big sister. I trusted you."

  "You can trust me. I just want to help you. What's wrong, I don't understand. Please, you have to believe me."

  "No, no," with a look of anguish, Hsiu Mei turned to run, but Joy grabbed her shirt. They struggled for a second, and Joy managed to push her up against a wall of shipping containers and pin her there. They were a few yards away from the maze entrance. Hsiu Mei sobbed and struggled, and Joy fought to make eye contact.

  "Hsiu Mei, talk to me. I need to know what's wrong. I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong. You're on your last legs. You can't run forever. You need to trust me. I'm not going to hurt you. You have to believe me."

  "Need some help there?" said Chief Gallach.

  "Um, yes. And I am so glad to see--"

  Hsiu Mei went rigid and pointed right at Brannock. "That man!" she cried. "That is the man who showed up three nights ago. That is the man who was going to buy me. Don't make me go with him. Please, I beg you."

  Chapter 33

  Dirty Copper

  Joy whirled around in shock. "What? Are you sure? Are you absolutely certain that's him?"

  Hsiu Mei glanced over at Brannock and looked away, shuddering. "I do not forget that stare."

  Joy looked over and had to concur. Brannock was creepy stare guy, all right, just like before. Only now it was directed at poor Hsiu Mei. Oh no. And that was when it clicked into place—little details that had felt wrong ever since she'd found Hsiu Mei in the shipping container. Hsiu Mei's distant uncle crossing a continent to look for her in Dodona—that was a stretch, wasn't it? And if Hsiu Mei and her sister had gone missing from home, why had the guards only mentioned Hsiu Mei and not Lin Lin? But that made perfect sense if the people searching didn't need to find the younger sister--because she'd never escaped.

  "What's she on about?" said Chief Gallach. "What's she saying? You need us to—"

  "No, it's fine," said Joy, grateful that the guardsmen couldn't understand Xiaish. That gave her some wiggle room. "She thinks you're scary. With your armor and weapons. Just give me a minute."

  MacInroy gave her a winning smile, which he then directed over to Hsiu Mei. "Scary, us? That’s just because you don’t know us. 'Cause if you did—"

  "—You'd know what a bunch of creepy, chickenshit cheats you're dealing with," said Yang, having finally caught up to them. He stood there with his squashed, bleeding nose, and his suit was covered with splinters and sawdust from the broken crate. He squared off against the guards, with Joy and and Hsiu Mei off to the side, a wall of cargo at their back, cut off from escape in either direction.

  "Words are hurtful, Yang," said Chief Gallach. “But I'll overlook that for now, seeing as you're clearly having a bad day. But this is City Guard business, so—"

  "Yeah? Well it's Triad business too. And the Triad doesn't stay in business letting punks walk away with merchandise they ain't paid for yet—ain't that right, Chen?"

  Chen didn't answer. Chen wasn't there. Everyone stared at Yang, who spun back towards the labyrinth of cargo, confused.

  "Chen? Hey, get out here. Hey, Lieutenant General Whatever—this ain't funny. Get your ass over here, you big coward! Hey—"

  "Looks like Chen's got more sense than you, Yang." said Chief Gallach. "It seems he can count. There's four of us and one of you, so why don't you just back off and—"

  "Fuck that! She ain't going no place," snarled Yang, and drew a long knife from a sheath hidden somewhere behind his back. It was practically a sword. Joy gulped and thanked Kovidh she'd had the sense to run when she did. The Guardsmen reacted instantly. They drew their batons and rapped them against their bucklers, making a horrible racket. The sound carried across the docks, and when the Guardsmen stopped, there was a faint echo as other groups of the City Guard in the area beat their shields in response. Reinforcements were on the way. Normally that would be good news, but now Joy wasn't sure. Maybe it was just Brannock. If he was the one bad apple, and she could expose him to the others...

  "Hey, Joy," said MacInroy. "C'mon and bring Hsiu Mei over to us. Tell her we're gonna take her to see her family."

  "How long would it take?" Joy asked. "Between the time she leaves here and the time she could see her parents?"

  "Oh, not long," he said, all earnest smiles. "They're staying in a hotel right near the guard station. We send a runner ahead, they could probably meet us there. Maybe fifteen, twenty minutes."

  Joy felt her stomach drop out of her. She hoped she managed to not let it show. She had to make sure. "You mean they're here in Dodona? You've spoken to them?"

  "Oh, yeah—they're great people," he said, with perfect sincerity. "And they're super worried about their only daughter, too. I know they'll be thrilled when they see her again. So c'mon and bring her over here, won't you?"

  "I'll tell her," said Joy, backing up so she could speak to Hsiu Mei without taking her eyes off either Yang or the guards.

  "What's going on?" Hsiu Mei said. "What's happening. I don't understand anything."

  "Hsiu Mei, I'm sorry," said Joy in Xiaish. "The men with the shields and armor are the city guards, but they're corrupt. I didn't know that when I spoke with you earlier. They lied to me, and I didn’t realize it.”

  But she should have. From the very moment she’d met the Guardsmen, their behavior had been strange and suspicious. Intimidating the press, the Chief out on a foot patrol, followed by every detail of Hsiu Mei’s story that didn’t fit—why hadn’t she seen it?

  Because she hadn’t wanted to. She’d wanted so bad to be rescued, for things to be easy. She’d wanted to have kind, just authorities to turn to, who’d step in and make everything right. She’d wanted it so bad that she’d ignored every sign that warned her it wasn’t so. And now they were screwed, and it was all her fault.

  "But what do we do now? What about my uncle?" Hsiu Mei wailed.

  "I'm going to get us out of this, Hsiu Mei. Just stay by me and wait for my signal. Big Sister is going to take care of you. Trust me. You are going to be okay."

  "What's going on?" said the Chief. "Why's she getting upset?"

  "It's 'cause your boy sucks at lying, and he just got caught," said Yang. "You pigs just got made, so how 'bout we drop the bullshit, huh?"

  The Chief gave MacInroy a sidelong glare, who replied with a sheepish, aw-shucks grin. "Whoops," he said.

  So casual. Like it was no big deal. They were treating people like property and acting like this was a playground argument about who’s turn it was on the swing.

  Joy felt her lips pull back from her teeth in a snarl. "You people are disgusting. All of you. It makes me sick. How you can look m
e right in the eyes and lie to me--"

  "I told you her family was missing her, and her new family does miss her," said the Chief. "Brannock's service to the Sleywie Anden has earned him a second wife, and you've done us the favor of finding her for us."

  "Second wife? She's barely fifteen, you sicko," Joy snarled. "When Central finds out about this, you're gonna—"

  "Central will not be finding out anything about this from you." The Chief said. "We will make sure of that."

  Joy felt a chill, like her blood had been replaced by ice water. He couldn't possibly...

  "Hey, Chief," said MacInroy. “Do we have to kill her? Because I still don't have a second, and I—"

  "You ain't taking nothing," roared Yang. “You don’t get what you ain’t paid for. You don’t do that to Benny the Shark.”

  “And I’ve told you, we have paid,” said the Chief. “So we will be taking the property we’ve paid for, this one today, and if Benny keeps holding out on the rest, we’re gonna—“

  “Try something stupid? And maybe suicidal? Sounds fun. I’d like to see that,” said a new voice, a ragged alto, as an armored figure emerged from between two railcars, followed by two men dressed in suits similar to Yang’s.

  The interloper crossed the rail yard in long strides, appearing at Yang’s flank in seconds, without seeming to expend much effort. The armor she wore was strange, consisting of multiple small steel plates sewn together in overlapping segments with thick cords, kind of like a lobster’s tail. The helmet she wore had a similar design, and had a short crest on the forehead of a beetle with huge horn mandibles stretching to the sky. A wide, garish piece of cloth hid a great deal of the armor’s design from view. It was somewhere between a cape and a tabard, tucked into the belt on the right hip to wrap around the left shoulder and secured to her back somehow. This mantle was mostly black, except for some pattern Joy couldn’t make out due to the wrinkling of the fabric, and because the outline of the pattern was in an eye-bleeding hot pink. The interloper had an odd-looking pole arm, a slim, slightly curved sword blade fixed on the end of a staff, which she casually rested on her shoulder. She fixed the guardsmen with a huge grin, utterly devoid of warmth, that caused the numerous scars criss-crossing her face to stretch and warp. The city guard tensed, brought their guard up, and Joy couldn’t blame them.

  Joy was reminded, growing up, in her school, there’d been a group of nasty little boys, the type whose idea of a good time was tying firecrackers to the tails of stray cats and setting them off. Her parents told her to stay away from them, and she did, as those nasty little boys turned into dangerous and unstable young men.

  Because you knew, deep down, that those cats had just been practice. You could see it their eyes, and Joy could see it in this woman’s eyes, that to her, all of them were nothing more than stray cats, and she had a full supply of fireworks.

  Chapter 34

  Enter Shiori

  Chief Gallach narrowed his eyes at the newcomer. “So… you’re the one everyone’s been talking about. What was it again? Ah Nei Wei?“

  The woman actually looked shocked for a second or two, then began to laugh, a harsh, braying sound that carried across the docks.

  “Was that funny?” said the Chief. “Do I have the wrong person, then?

  “Nah, that’s me,” she replied. “But hearing you guys call me that is hilarious. ‘Ah Nei Wei,’” she repeated, mimicking Chief Gallach’s accent, and broke out in more guffaws.”

  “Well—what should I call you, then, if not that? Who are you, really?” asked the Chief, maintaining his calm, even as his troops bristled at the woman’s tone.

  The woman straightened up and grinned. “Who am I, you ask?” She said, like the Chief had offered her present, and it wasn’t even her birthday. Yang blew out an aggrieved sigh.

  “Well, I’ve been told to keep that on the down low, but if you’re asking me, then I guess I’ve got no choice but to tell you, yes?”

  She swung her pole arm with a flourish that made the Guardsmen flinch, while Yang and the other Triad men stepped back to give her space.

  “My name is a dangerous name; dangerous to hear and even more dangerous to say. Numerous are my titles, each one feared and outlawed coast to coast: the Butcher of Brentonsville, the Hemlock Witch, the Terror of Yaolun, Last of the Caliburn, Inheritor of the legacy of Keelia Rosewing—”

  As she spoke, the woman punctuated her statements with flourishes of her spear and her cape, allowing Joy to get a good view of the banner draped over her back; a stylized icon of a rose with petals that were barbed like thorns, hot pink on a pitch-black field. That was the Rosedeath banner, the insignia of the secret Albion forces whose weapon was poison and whose reputation was atrocity. And this woman was wearing it as a cape. She was proud of it.

  “I’ve killed men, women, and children, too many to count, so best mind your manners when talking to me—Shiori Rosewing!”

  Shiori finished her introduction with a final sweep of her spear and struck a martial pose, while baring her teeth at the city guard, before returning to rest.

  The whole display might have looked ridiculous on another person, but Shiori Rosewing—the real article, the actual person, holy crap—she carried herself with a presence that said she could back it all up. Joy felt Hsiu Mei tense up and cower behind her at the sight of the woman. The City Guard were all on edge. Even her Triad allies seemed wary around her.

  “Yes, Shiori Rosewing,” said Chief Gallach. “So those rumors are true after all. Very well. I am Chief Gallach, and these are—

  “—A bunch of pigs making a racket in Triad territory. Yeah, I can see that.” She turned to the two men trailing her. “You two—go back and round up every available body you can get. When pigs start squealing, more will come swarming. I’ve got these four.”

  “Yes, Ah Nei Wei,” barked the two Triad men who’d come with her, and ran off in different directions.

  “Shiori Rosewing,” said Chief Gallach. “You were a Caliburn knight—supposedly a champion of the virtues of old Albion Empire. I believe respect and honor were among those virtues. There’s no call for flinging insults.”

  “Oh, pig’s an insult?” she said, “I thought it was a fun nickname. And you’re lucky I’m being generous enough to start with insults. Let’s talk about what you’ve done to Yang. That wasn’t smart. How you plan to make amends for that, hmm?”

  The guards all looked over at Yang, and the blood pouring out of his nose. “We didn’t do that,” said MacInroy. “We never touched ‘im. He was like that when we got here.”

  “Oh, please,” said Shiori. “You think I’m stupid? What happened, Yang? They trying to throw their weight around?”

  “Uh…” Yang hesitated in his reply. “Uh, yeah. That’s what happened. Got me by surprise.”

  “Oh, you big, stupid, sexist liar,” said Joy. “Is getting beaten up by a girl that embarrassing? You’re pathetic.”

  All eyes turned to her. Whoops. Did she really want their attention on her? Or maybe… You know what? Fuck it. She was angry and tired and fed up and sick of their shit. All of it.

  The Guardsmen looked between her and Yang and started smirking. Even Shiori looked amused.

  “Yaaannngg,” she said. “Who broke your nose? And roughed you up? Was it the guards? Or was it the little girl over there? Fess up now—you know how much your Aneuwei hates it when you lie her.”

  Joy noted that Shiori’s Triad nickname sounded different when she said it, but Yang’s reaction was more remarkable. He squirmed under her gaze like a guilty toddler.

  “She… She just got a cheap shot in, that’s all!“ he finally blurted out.

  The city guard started laughing at that, and Shiori just shook her head.

  “Hey, fuck you guys!” Yang said. “You didn’t see it! She’s like a little wolverine. Bitch is psycho.”

  “Oh pul-lease,” said Joy. “You big bully thugs are all the same—You think you can do whatever you like, and that’
s good and normal, but when a woman does it back, she’s a psycho bitch, and you turn into whiny little toddlers. Why can’t you just suck it up and take your ass-kicking like a man for once?”

  Yang snarled as the Guardsmen guffawed, but Shiori held him back.

  “Okay, I don’t know who the fuck you are,” she said to Joy, “But I like you already. Sure hope I don’t have to kill you.”

  The off-hand way Shiori tossed that out put a chill on Joy’s rage. Shiori wasn’t talking figuratively. Joy had to play smart to get out of this. She had to think of something.

  “She’s dead,” said Yang. “Me and Chen caught her snooping around. She found the runaway and one of the munitions crates, and then she went running straight to the Guard. I think they sent her to do their dirty work for them.”

  “I’m a reporter,” said Joy. “And I’m not working for the Guard. And I’m not interested in any of your business. I’m freelancing for a tabloid, and all I was looking for was—”

  “Hear that?” said the Chief, talking over her. “Not working for us, and of course she’s not. Why would we hire someone to investigate our own merchandise? That doesn’t make sense.”

  What? Their own merchandise? So the Triad wasn’t stockpiling weapons—they were selling that to the City Guard. Why in the Great Wheel did a local police force need that kind of firepower? Were they actually plotting a coup?

  “Oh, it doesn’t?” said Shiori. “Well, if she’s not one of yours, then you won’t mind if we take both of them back for a nice, long chat? Problem solved, and you can put your little sticks away and clear out of our territory.”

  “You get the reporter,” said the Chief. “The other one is ours. We paid for her.”

  “Aww, but Chief, I wanted the—” MacInroy’s whine was cut short by an elbow to the chest from his superior.