Rebellion: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (The Rise of Magic Book 3)

by CM Raymond

  She sighed. “Well, you can’t be worse than what I’m already working with. Welcome to the unit.”

  He nodded. “Thanks. So, what’s our job?”

  “Do what you’re fucking told. Half the time it’s sitting on our asses out at the gate. Every now and then we get to run off some remnant that wanders too close to the walls. But at the end of the day, our job is to walk around and collect a paycheck—which ain’t so bad.”

  Dirk jumped in. “We did get to make a trip to the Heights, weeks back. That was some pretty cool shit.”

  Julianne shot him a look as if to tell the idiot to keep his damned mouth shut. But it was too late.

  “That right?” Marcus asked. “Why the Heights?”

  “Like I said,” Julianne cut back in before Dirk could answer. “I just do what I’m told. The boss sent me there to check in on the mystics—make sure those damned loonies were behaving themselves.”

  “What’d you find?”

  Julianne laughed. “A bunch of drunks enjoying a pretty kickass view.”

  Marcus grinned. “Sounds like we’ll get to see another kickass view on this next run.”

  “Run?” Julianne asked.

  “Shit, yeah. I was supposed to tell you, we’re heading out tomorrow. They’re sending us on some crazy mission to the North to retrieve something for the eggheads in the Academy.”

  Julianne’s head spun. Why hasn’t Doyle told me about this earlier? The change in plans made her feel uncomfortable. She needed to get away to discuss it with Ezekiel. Unfortunately, that wasn’t always easy for Stellan to do.

  Dietrich chimed in. “Mission? Tomorrow? You know what that means?”

  Dirk started dancing, thrusting his pelvis in the air with stuttered gyrations. He sang, “Booty call. Booty call. Booty call.”

  Marcus raised an eyebrow like you’d do while scolding a child. “The hell?”

  “A little tradition,” Dietrich said. “Before a big mission, we take a night to focus our minds and bodies…”

  “At the whore house,” Dirk interjected.

  Oh, shit, Julianne thought. Her long day just turned into an even longer night.

  ****

  Parker wandered around the mansion, picking up every trinket and decoration for inspection before putting it back in place. For years, he had dreamed of “making it” so he could afford a place like this and live the life he was currently living.

  It had only been a few weeks, but he was already bored out his mind.

  What he wouldn’t do to be running cons on the streets with Hannah right now. Even fighting in the Pit was better than sitting on his ass.

  But he was laying low. They all knew the Governor wanted him. The fact that he escaped and was spreading the truth was bad for business. And now, the Prophet was on the hunt with his Disciples because of his scene in the marketplace.

  If he was pissing off dickwads like Jed and the Governor, Parker knew he must be doing something right. Nevertheless, he obeyed Ezekiel’s order to stay put. It would take bigger balls than Parker had to disobey the Founder.

  He could hear his mother humming in the kitchen as she prepared the big meal for the entire team. Parker had never seen her so happy, but he wasn’t sure if it was being reunited with her son or the sense of mission she felt by being a part of something bigger. Either way, her happiness brought him a bit of joy, even cooped up in the mansion as he was.

  Turning to inspect the great room one more time, he was stopped as a door slammed open upstairs. Parker hit the ground as a blur of dark green rushed over his head.

  “What the bloody hell, Sal?” he shouted at Hannah’s dragon.

  Sal landed with a thud and turned his head to Parker who was still flat on the deck. A forked tongue lashed in and out of his mouth, and Parker was certain that the creature smiled at him.

  “Yeah, we’re both prisoners. Two peas in a very small pod. And this pod just keeps getting smaller for you.” Parker laughed as Sal dropped to his belly and then shifted his weight to lean on one side of his scaly ass. Sal kept growing, and Parker was right. Sometime soon, the dragon would outgrow the mansion. But if things in Arcadia kept progressing as they seemed to be, remaining in the mansion wouldn’t be an option for any of them.

  War was coming—one way or another.

  Sal snapped to attention, his head cocked toward the door.

  “She’s home, isn’t she?” Parker asked. “You make a pretty good guard dog, you little son of a bitch.”

  Sal glanced over his shoulder—like he understood what Parker was saying. Parker thought for a moment that maybe mocking the dragon was not a smart idea.

  The door swung open, and Sal leaped in its direction. Hannah stood grinning ear to ear in her blonde hair. Gregory, her friend from the Academy, shrieked and fell back when he saw the dragon.

  “Damn it,” he said, “I’m never going to get used to that thing.”

  Hannah and Parker both laughed as she scratched the side of Sal’s head. She hit the magic spot, and the beast’s back leg kicked uncontrollably, bringing more laughter to the room. Even Gregory joined in this time.

  “Time for food, kids,” Eleanor said from the doorway to the kitchen.

  She held two serving plates piled high with meats, and cheese, and bread. All three of them rolled their eyes at Parker’s mom calling them kids. It was the plight of the young adult stuck between childhood and pure independence, but each of them felt as if they had aged in the past months—aged by the conflict and the weight of loss.

  Nevertheless, the three of them dove for their seats around the table. Before Eleanor could even set up the plates properly, they were digging in.

  “Shit, this is good,” Hannah said with her mouth stuffed with beef.

  “Language, Hannah!” Eleanor said.

  She flushed, if only a little. “Sorry. It’s just that after years in the Boulevard, I never thought I would eat like this.” She shoved half a roll into her mouth and washed it down with a gulp of ale. “And casting makes me so damn…” She glanced quickly at the older woman and back. “Uh, darn hungry.”

  Eleanor looked her up and down. “Well, you better hope magic burns calories, too, or else you’ll lose that figure of yours pretty quickly. Won’t be nineteen forever, darling.”

  Parker shrugged and mouthed the word “sorry” as his mother left the room. Hannah and Gregory simultaneously burst out laughing.

  “I spend all day spying on those noble wankers, and she thinks I’m worried about my waistline,” Hannah said. “I’m a magician, dammit. And a magician needs to eat!”

  A gruff voice from the edge of the room interrupted the hilarity. “What ya really need is some hand-to-hand combat training. That’ll give you a right appetite.”

  “Karl!” Hannah shouted. She jumped out of her seat to run over and gave the rearick a hug. Parker saw him blush under his beard.

  “Ah, nice to see you, too, lass,” Karl said. “But I’m serious. It’s about time I showed you a thing or two about real fighting. Your magic is nothing to sneeze at, but there’s nothing quite like knowing how to throw a proper punch when yer in the thick of it. And believe me, we’re going to be in the thick of it right soon.”

  Parker gave him a nod, and asked, “What did you find out?”

  Karl shrugged. “More of the same. I’ll save my full report for the meeting this evening. Now, if you’re done shoving your face full of cheese, why don’t you meet me outside, and we’ll get to that training.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Julianne walked behind the blunder twins—Dirk and Dietrich—who were already assaulting the newest member of their team with questions about his previous service. She kept an ear open, trying to gain some sort of perspective about who exactly this man was. Marcus’s arrival was unexpected, and the fact that Doyle told him about the mission first was a little more than disconcerting.

  Their conversation was pretty boring—mostly empty boasts about how much remnant ass he kicked—so Juli
anne shifted her focus from listening to the dipshit’s question to trying to get inside of Marcus’s mind. But just like when she had tried earlier, there was nothing there. Her face grew hot, and she felt sweat rise on her brow. Something wasn’t right here, and it scared the hell out of her.

  “Here we are, Captain,” Dirk shouted, as they walked up to a storefront on the edge of the market.

  The Dragon’s Lair was known as a “gentleman’s club,” but everyone knew that a gentleman was hard to find within its walls. Julianne had been to the establishment more than once, and it was one of the worst parts of her masquerade. While its front was a strip club, most of the Arcadians knew it was a place where a guy could go if he were feeling especially lonely—and had enough coin to pay for a private audience.

  “Let’s do this,” she shouted, with a shit eating grin—her best illusion yet.

  The four men pushed through the door and into the dark confines of the brothel. As they passed through a short, narrow corridor, they broke into the main room. It was dimly lit and filled with drunk men and half naked women—of all shapes and sizes. They fawned over their customers, working the crowd of Arcadians, rearick, and others who had journeyed to the city from throughout the Arcadian Valley.

  Julianne was sickened by the fact that many of the women were at least ten years her junior. She moved away from the crowd and found a dark table in the back corner. Marcus followed behind her, taking a seat across from his new Captain.

  “Why aren’t you out there picking out your sex toy like the rest of em?” Julianne asked motioning to the stage.

  Marcus grinned. “I’ve got nothing wrong with moistening my staff every now and again, but I prefer not to pay for sex. I still believe a man has to earn it.”

  “So, I have a gentleman on my team all of a sudden?” Julianne asked, unsure how exactly to broach the conversation.

  “Not so gentle,” Marcus said. “But a man nonetheless. It is possible to kick some evil, remnant ass one minute and still be able to treat these women as humans the next. Being tough doesn’t have to make you a complete asshat.”

  Julianne finished her ale and motioned for two more. “Have whatever qualms you want, kid. So, what were you doing out near the Madlands anyway?”

  “On assignment. Governor sent me and a group of six to protect an asset that was traveling out that direction. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure what the hell the purpose of the whole thing was. I go where they tell me—don’t ask many questions. Bitch of it was that we were given strict orders not to engage anyone—or anything—unless it was a direct threat to the asset.”

  Julianne nodded to the barmaid as she placed two fresh pints on the table. “I take it you didn’t follow that order.”

  “Nope. We were getting damn close to the edge of the Madlands, when we saw a small village—an oversized farm, really—being attacked by the remnant. I told the commander that we should engage. Save the damned souls from being devoured. He told me to hold to ignore them, let the poor folks take care of their own business. So, I did what I had to.”

  “Which was?”

  Marcus grinned. “I went and slaughtered the remnant—right after I told the Captain to go fuck himself with a rearick’s hammer.”

  “Ouch,” Julianne said with a grin. “So, am I going to have problems with you?”

  “Dunno,” Marcus said. “Not if you turn out to be a halfway decent human being.”

  Julianne held up her glass. “To a filthy shit quart of fucking decency.”

  “Hear, hear!” Marcus laughed, tapping his glass on the Captain’s. “What about you? How’d you get to Captain without selling your soul to the Capitol?”

  Julianne concentrated and tried to get inside the Guard’s head. He had a block up, and a pretty strong one, which was in itself suspicious. “Just hard work, I guess.”

  “Come on. Lots of guys working their asses off out there. How’d you do it?” Marcus asked. “Let me in on your dirty little secret. What’s your story?”

  Julianne sighed as Marcus’s probing was interrupted by Dirk. She never thought she’d be happy to see the halfwit. He slapped her on the back as he grabbed a seat.

  “This is a damn good tradition, boss. Remember the last time we were here? Right before we went to see the freak shows in the Heights.”

  Julianne bit her lip and nodded.

  “Speaking of the last visit, there’s your girl now!” Dirk shouted over the noise, nodding at a dancer on the far end of the room. She was trying to catch Julianne’s eye.

  Julianne sighed. The things I do for this city.

  “Yeah. Looks like she wants a replay. You boys will have to excuse me.” Julianne glanced at Marcus. “I might be decent, but I ain’t no gentleman.”

  She looked back over in the direction of the woman and saw she had grabbed a bottle and two glasses. Giving them a little wave in the air, the dancer nodded toward the backroom. Julianne knew she had to keep up appearances in front of the men, so she swaggered onward like Stellan would.

  Weaving through the crowd, she caught up with the woman. She grabbed Julianne by the hand, and they stepped through a door into a hallway with a row of doors on either side. If Julianne was uncertain what went on behind the closed doors, she didn’t wonder for long. The sounds of conjugal visits all mixed together into a symphony of grunts and groans, punctuated by a female shout or two. Apparently, the ladies here were all great actresses.

  The woman pushed through one of the doors, and Julianne followed.

  Setting the two glasses down and pouring the ale, the woman said, “I’m glad you came back to me, Stellan. I was worried I’d scared you away last time.” She gave a wink and a sultry smile. “After the workout I gave you.”

  Julianne accepted her glass and drank from the ale. One thing she still hadn’t gotten used to was low-grade alcohol that the lowlanders consumed. Arcadian alcohol was another thing that she wouldn’t miss once she made it home.

  The woman started to undress, and Julianne raised a hand. “Not yet. Want to take this slow. Lay on the bed for me.”

  Raising her eyebrows, the woman complied. “You don’t pay by the day, soldier.”

  Julianne laughed, it came out gruff, like Stellan’s laughter would. “Yeah, yeah. Going on a mission tomorrow. Don’t need to worry about coin. I just want to sit for a second—enjoy the view.”

  “Ooh, big man going on a big mission! What’ll it be this time?” The prostitute flipped onto her stomach and held her head up in her palms.

  “You know enough to know I can’t say.”

  The woman laughed. “Come on. You’re talking to ol’ Sapphire here. Half my job is keeping secrets.”

  “And the other half?” Julianne asked.

  “Making them.”

  Julianne grinned. The woman was smart, and she wondered exactly why she would be involved in this kind of work. Sapphire—although that couldn’t have been her real name—was likely from the Boulevard, trying to get out the only way she knew how. That’s the way things worked in Arcadia. And her sass was probably an illusion, not much unlike the mystic’s own.

  “All right, I’ll give you a hint. The Governor and Chancellor are sending me off to find something. Something very important. If I don’t bring it back, it might cost my job—maybe more.”

  The woman scrunched her nose like a schoolgirl. “That sucks. But that’s the way of the Capitol, isn’t it? Always trying to take more than they give.” She sat up cross-legged on the bed.

  Julianne stared at the woman, wondering why the hell she would say that. An experienced companion like Sapphire should know not to speak this way to a Capitol Guard.

  The woman continued. “Maybe when I make enough, I’ll run away from this awful place. But then, I’d need a big strong man to go with me, to take care of me. Any interest in turning the tables? Are you for hire, Stellan?”

  Julianne didn’t know this woman’s deal, but she certainly wasn’t going to play her game. “No, ma’am, m
y allegiance is to the Capitol, and I go where they tell me.”

  The woman laughed. “Well, I guess that’s why you keep coming back to see me.” With a swift move, she pulled her shirt off, showing off a body that many Arcadians knew was worth the cost. “Because for an hour, my allegiance is all yours. You get to tell me where to go.”

  A knot turned in Julianne’s stomach. It sickened her to see this poor young girl selling not only her body, but also her will. The Dragon’s Lair was officially on the list of institutions that she hoped to take down.

  With a straight face, Julianne said, “Turn around. On all fours.”

  The prostitute raised her eyebrows and cooed, “Yes, sir.”